Well as we know there are many new Attack Wing ships coming, this seems to be a strength that is going to drive this line, with the introduction of new factions ; Borg, Kazon, Bajoran Mirror Universe, Tholian, Gorn, Maquis and Vulcan. How will they figure into the line? Are the Vulcans going to be a Fed ships or their own Faction all together.

Will these new Factions be worth while besides the Borg I think the Bajoran are the only ones who are getting more than one ship. The Bajoran ships are the LE for month 6 and in Wave 5. I do wonder if the Val Jean, the Maquis ship, will double as an Independent and a Bajoran.


Would you consider the fact that some of these are just single ship releases game changing? Will people dive more into alternate ships? Are you infact looking forward to some of the smaller releases besides the Borg? I myself can't wait for the Bajoran but I do wonder where these will fit.

And last question, do you think that some of these may get more pieces? I know they do have a great deal more to do for the Mirror Universe and that there is a second Kazon ship made but for the rest are they just a flash in the pan? (ok I lied 2 questions)

According to the Wave 5 and Wave 7 solicits, the Vulcans will be their own faction. Enterprise NX-01 will be Federation though.

I have mixed feelings about the tiny factions. I'm glad that they're using more aliens ships from the shows. But I like playing faction pure, which will be hard to do with factions that only have one or two ships.

Agreed, particularly on the races that may only be available as prize support. Hard to build a Gorn or Tholian fleet with one ship that will probably be $75 each on ebay.

I wonder, since they're not listed in the rule book, if these new factions will be lumped in to Independent for initiative purposes.

Well, we've already witnessed this issue with the Ferengi. However, with some patience and a little luck, there's no reason a player cannot secure the ships in multiples. I've been able to get 6 Ferengi Mauraders (3 for me and three for a friend) via trades and what-not.

While it is hard to build fleets out of them, I do like the fact that these ships will hopefully play perfectly in scenerio play. Imagine replacing the Reliant with the Gorn ship in the Mutara Nebula scenario.

This may also loosen the "Faction-Pure" camp a little (of which, I am firmly engrained). Bajorans may not be a huge faction with many choices but teaming them with Fed ships would not concern me one bit. As such, we may begin to see some Mixed-Fleets/Fluff-Pure configurations come out in the future that will be some middle ground that will bring players together from both sides and usher in a glorious, new era for STAW!!!

Agreed.

I think as other small factions (say, 1-3 different releases) are released some of the areas who are more strict about 'faction pure' Fleets will start to move towards faction pure ships (ala UNITED FORCE).

I do understand the PoV of some of the faction pure venues, and as Teri has explained, for her area, their's is at part because of their players coming from a Wargaming background.

But I think not being able to run a DS9 strikeforce of the Defiant and a couple of Klingon ships is a mistake, IMO, those type of mixed fleets are some of the more memorable Trek to me.

Or how can you really be the honor-less Duras without consorting with the Romulans!
But as long as it works for that individual player group, what ever is played is cool.

Our ships are Faction pure, but our Fleets don't have to be. (Ex: Kirk on the Enterprise can team with The Romulan Commander on a D'Deridex.)

Also: I MUST HAVE THE GORN.

Yeah, fleet pure seems like taking it too far to me. And not remotely source accurate, especially given the first OP event. Also, what if all you have is the starter? You show up with your mixed fleet to try out the game and they send you home?

I am a new player, but I will say I like faction pure. However I am not completely against non pure (fleet or faction) given the tv shows. However I would probably have to work out some scenario for it. I worry more about power creep. If a fleet of Bajoran ships can somehow go toe to toe with the Borg than I will really be disappointed.

I love to see more diversity in ships, but it seems like if the race only has one or two models of ship, it's not enough to extrapolate a fleet. I guess with the Borg or Species 8472, but its implied that they prefer one or two models of ship, but a lot of the others just feel incomplete.

The rulebook listed several of the factions on page 18 as Fed, Klingons, Romulans, Dominion, Borg, Species 8472, Kazon, Bajoran, Ferengi, Independent, Mirror in order of initiative order. Obviously, we're getting some more, though it was interesting that they had these guys planned out when they first started the game.

When I was younger, I used to play the Star Trek CCG, and they divided it up as Feds, Klingons, Romulans, and Independents. I kind of liked that setup, because it meant if you wanted to make faction pure ships, you could, but at the very least it was easier to make an Independent fleet out of the one or two ships each race ended up getting in the shows. Now, they eventually expanded it to include Bajorans, Cardassians, Borg, etc, as their own factions, but it seemed like it worked better when several of them were independent. For example, the Ferengis only had one kind of large ship on screen during the 24th century, they never seemed to fight in fleets, and they rarely seemed to take sides in a war, preferring to do raiding or trade missions. The fact that they could be paid off seemed to support the Independent label as opposed to giving them their own faction.
Mirror Universe also doesn't feel like it should be a faction, simply because its too broad and I don't see the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance working with the Terrans.

I don't know. When the Federation is slated to get at least 10-20 ships before too much longer, having a faction with just one or two ships total seems like its not enough support. Honestly, I feel like that's why the Federation has gotten more moderately powered expansions, because in the end they'll have more expansions to make their faction powerful. Overall though it'll be interesting to see what expansions we end up getting. Ideally, I'd like Independent stuff to be easier to use cross-faction, so the others have some additional support when making their teams, though we'll just have to see what they end up doing.