So how are peoples fleet builds looking for the Month 2 event? As much as I dislike cross faction fleets, I wanted to try something different to overcome the main weakness in my month build. With no away team needed this month, the first thing to go was filler characters that were there only for the purpose of being beamed over to the station. The next thing I wanted to change was the Muon Wave. While it is a powerful weapon, it just did not fit in to the play style I was going for. I had other plans in store for my little science ship this month anyway.

Here is a look at the build I am currently play testing. It is still a work in progress and I already have a couple things that I want to adjust.

I.R.W. Valdore
- Donatra
- All Forward Disruptor Banks

Khazara
- Toreth
- All Forward Disruptor Banks
- Cloaked Mines

Romulan Science Vessel
- Sar
- Data
- Cloaked Mines

The plan is to use the Science ship to shield my others ships from the WOPs. When cloaked, and thanks to Sar, it gets 7 (or more) defense dice, and 2 evasion tokens (thanks to Data). With my other ships not having to worry about the OWPs, they can concentrate on taking out enemy ships. The Cloaked Mines will severely limit my opponents options after the first joust pass, making them decide between hitting the mines or turning into the OWPs to avoid them.

After the first couple playtests, I'm not so sure I care for the "All Forward Disruptor Banks". I originally was looking at the +1 attack die, but at the cost of an action it just isn't panning out to be as useful as I wanted. I completely forgot about the Elite Attack Die until someone used it against me, lol. That is most likely going to be added. I also toyed with the idea of using the Ferengi EM Pulse on the science ship, or possibly the Interphase Generator to give it even more survivability.

~editing to add that I just realized when I swapped out the Khazara for the second Valdore that the Valdore does not get a Tech slot to put the cloaked mines, so I switched it back.

Part of me is wondering how Mirok may fair as the captain of the science vessel.

Being able to continually regenerate Hull or shields may be better than the one extra defensive die.

I had thought of that, but honestly, if the ship isn't cloaked, its dead, so the shields are never goig to be up. With only two hull points, you will only ever have one hull damage for him to repair, or the ship is already dead. I also didn't plan on keeping it close enough to my other ships to really use his ability.

In the end, the one extra defense die for the same cost seemed like a better option. Also Sar's captain skill of 2 means I would be moving first with him a good % of the time, to use the ship as a blocker to screw up my opponents movement.

Oddly enough at my month 2, I was running the science vessel and it did just take one damage, then just one more to finish it off. I was only running it either Donatra. I did not have the option of cloaked mines as they are not out yet.

I did however run a Klingon ship with Picard, Klingon with Koloth and the science vessel. I used Advanced Weapon System with both ships and it was quite effective at keeping the enemy at bay. If I'd have it all to do over again, I'd ditch Donatra and the science vessel and upgrade my Klingon Ships.

I only had 23 points left for the last ship so it really limited what I could put in the slot. I prefered to run all romulan ships in the end, though a defiant might have been an interesting option.

The Cloaked Mines are crazy powerful for their points. They have some limitations that the Antimatter ones don't have (like not being able to place them within range 2 of an enemy, where the antimatter ones can be placed right on top of one) but they make up for it by not needing a rear firing arc and being able to be placed anywhere within range of your ship in any direction.

Hmmmm.

Looking things over, I'm extremely tempted now to try out that build but replace the third ship with the Praetus and toss on two Cloaked Mines and Mirok. If you happen to take the hull damage when you cloak, Mirok can repair it right away since you will likely still be close to a friendly ship that early in the game. Plus if you are planning on always being cloaked, the fact that you do not start off with any shields just makes the absence of shields a bonus as you've not sunk 4 points into shields you never intend to use. I'm still interested to see if the additional attack die and hull are worth the trade off of the red 3 come about.

I.R.W. Praetus 14
Mirok 2
(2) Cloaked Mines 6

With no crew slot, Data cannot come along for the ride but that build would be extremely scary with 3 Cloaked Mines running around the board. With the mines being a "free action", you can still take a normal Evasive Maneuver with the Praetus as your action with the ship to midigate the loss of Data. You could also still switch out Sar for Mirok as well if you really want the extra Agility die and have no intention of having the ship anywhere near the other two.

I am liking the cloaked mines....and I've loved the Antimatter Mines as well.

But I will say having played Backstabber (both on my team and seeing him against me) in X-wing that I would have to think long and hard about not including Captain Valdore on my Romulan builds for 3 points.

I love the antimatter mines, but they cost a bit more points (6 thanks tot he cross faction penalty) so the Cloaked Mines are a better alternative. I hadn't actually considered actually using the Praetus. I'm not a fan of TOS at all (in fact I really can't stand it) so it never even occurred to me to look at the ship all that much other than for the mines. Definitely worth a try in playtesting. Putting two mines on it though, along with the mines on the Khazara would mean buying a third Praetus, as well as finding another mine field template (not a big fan of the print and play stuff). Though just the thought of having three Cloaked Mines is enough to make it worth the trouble, lol.

I had considered Valdore as a captain on one of the larger ships, and normally I would use him, but due to the layout of the map for this event you aren't going to spend a great deal of time not going head ot head with enemy ships, so your time outside of each others fire arcs is going to be rather limited. I might use him on the Valdore ship possibly to make use of its comeabout maneuver after the initial joust. Originally I was planning on using the Valdore ship as well as a second Valdore class ship just for the maneuverability and firepower, but that ship doesn't get the tech slot for the mines. Maybe if I go with the Praetus armed with two mines, I might stick with the 2 Valdore ships and just skip out on the third mine in favor of the added maneuverability.

Yeah, having to get a third Praetus is the issue with the build. We have a pretty loose play group in my area so I'm sure I could borrow one from someone if they are not running it.

If you stick with only two mines, you could switch out the 3rd mine from the Khazara with a Tactical Officer (and maybe also switch out for the generic Valdore?):

I.R.W. Valdore 30
- Donatra 4
- All Forward Disruptor Banks 4

Valdore Class 28
- Toreth 4
- All Forward Disruptor Banks 4
- Tactical Officer 3

I.R.W. Praetus 14
- Mirok (or Sar) 2
- (2) Cloaked Mines 6

That leaves you at 99 points.

I'm also wondering if Counter Attack is not the better Elite Skill in this scenerio. We had our Month 2 OP event this past weekend and it was pretty apparent that the "straight-on Joust" was the way most matches played out. Action to get +1 attack or action to possibly shoot twice? Such a catch 22.

Granted, if you switch those out, you could dump the Tactical Officer and have enough points for the Elite Attack die also.

Or forgo the Elite Skills all together, toss a Tactical Officer on the Valdore as well and there's your 5 points for the EAD.

Or just downgrade the Elite Skills and toss the Tactical Officer on the Valdore for a perfect 100 points.

Or downgrade the Elite skills and keep the Khazara and add Polarized Hull Plating.


Glad my event is over.



Side note: the Praetus is actually from Enterprise, not TOS. Even though it's even older than TOS in the ST timeline, I still like the look of the ship enough that I think it will fit in nicely with the other TNG era Romulan ships from a purely aesthetic standpoint.

Well had my second month 2, this one was more expensive for me as it was 15 for the expansion, 5 dollars for the event, and grabbed my Star Wars box instead of my Star Trek as I went out the door, so I bought a third Starter... Which since we started an hour late I could have gone home and come back in that time but whatever.

I came in second and was able to get a second Ch'Tang so I was happy with that.

My team was Kronos One w Nu'Dak, Picard on IKS Maht-Ha with Advanced Weapon System, and Enterprise D w Riker.

First game went okay, but some lucky rolls with my opponents Attacks led to Picard falling quickly and after that my attack dice couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. The OWP on the other hand was able to waste away on both sides.

Second game, I was able to one shot with the help of the OWP a Ferengi Ship carrying Terrel, and when I did a Crit Hit on the guys Kahn Ship, it was the ignore next attack turn face down, he then scooped.

Third game, Breen Battle Cruiser was loaded up, got hit with OWP and took out three shields, then Picard was within 1 range with a target lock and Scan token, rolled 6 hits after the TL, he didn't roll the evade, and the Battle Cruiser was wreckage. He said it was over after that.

The OWP were the MVP of both my matches that I "won".

Decided to change it up a little after some playtesting. While my original plan did work well with the beefed up science ship absorbing a lot of fire, it contributed little to the actual fight, pretty much leaving me with a 2 ship fleet. Against a couple of the other fleets that I know I will be facing (I'm looking at you, guy who runs the 5 Miranda's), that just isnt going to cut it.

I decided to drop the defensive screen ship in favor of some more firepower and a bit of support. In an effort to stay more true faction as well, I decided that it was time for a team up between the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order.

33
I.R.W. Valdore 30
- Valdore (Capt) 3

32
Valdore Class 28
- Donatra (Capt) 4

35
Kraxon 26
- Mirok (Capt) 3 (2+1)
- Breen Aide 2
- Cloaked Mines 4 (3+1)

100 pts total

I may swap Donatra and Valdore as Captains, but I haven't decided. As they are, it gives the IRW Valdore a possible 7 attack, but leaves the other ship with only a 4. Switching them would give me one 6 attack, and one 5.

The plan should be fairly obvious. Keep the ships in tight and the Romulan ships cloaked. The Kraxon can extend its shields to take any hits that may sneak through their cloaks. Mirok can repair the shields he loses each turn, while dropping the mines to limit my opponents movement should they survive the initial joust. I really like the way the mines work for this months mission. Forcing an opponent to chose between hitting the minefield or moving into range of the OWPs seems like such a good option. Add to that the fact that the Cloaked Mines do not effect friendly ships and its win/win.

I thought about putting Counter Attack on the Kraxon, but it wouldn't work with Mirok as captain. The only issue I see here is that my weakest ship is also my most expensive points wise, but I'm gambling on the fact that they will be concentrating fire on the Kraxon and in turn not shooting at my heavy hitters.

Do the OWP count as opposing ships?

We went with yes when placing the cloaked mines and it severely limited where you could place them.

According to the OP Rules for Month 2 and the game designer Andrew Parks, yes, they count as ships.

You'll find placing the cloaked mines a little tricky then.

Not with 2 of the OWP isn't much room...

We ran our Month 2 event this past Wednesday and cloaking was definitely the the key to victory. Only one player ran a non-cloaking ship (the Reliant) and it did fairly well, coming in 4th.