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So, I have this coming up in three weeks time, and really don't know where to start with a build.

Firstly is there an FAQ for the event anywhere, as I can't see one on the Wizkids rules forum?

As to the build, the main question I have is, do I go for the sphere kill or not? This seems to totally dictate the build for me. I think I can make a build that would allow me to kill it on turn one, but I'm not sure if I should. Doing so would require the use of several discard upgrades and would then leave me facing a straight up fight against my opponent with a points disadvantage. Is the 25 points for killing the sphere worth it?

By the same logic, if I build on the assumption that the sphere is in play, how would that build play if my opponent goes and pops it on turn one?

I know some of you guys are a couple of events ahead state side, what did you use / see played to good effect?

For this one you have to be prepared for both contingencies. If it looks like your opponent is built for going after the sphere, you can't let them have 20 free points. If their playing to just duke it out then you might want to have some repair cards ready for the anomaly damage.

I would say if you want to go for it, be prepared to take it out turn one and get it over with. If you wait too long late in game when ships start taking damage the anomaly may finish you ship off, giving your opponent free points.

I'm thinking something like this;

Borg Starship (Borg Sphere) [38]
- Jean-Luc Picard 9 (Captain) [5]
- Haden (Admiral) [0]
- Tactical Station [5]
Ship Total: 48 SP

Assimilated Vessel 80279 [26]
- Borg Queen 8 (Captain) [6]
- Projected Stasis Field [5]
Ship Total: 37 SP

Resource: Officer Exchange Program [0]
- Borg Faction
- Federation Faction

Fleet Total: 85 SP

5 points to spare. I can't think of a way to get re-rolls for the sphere without going over the 50 point limit for the ship?

The store I play at has opened to bricks of the blind boosters, and will be using the leftovers from each for this one. Nobody has pulled a Bajoran ship yet so I have to take into account that I will either have one as my blind, be facing one or both! the lvl 10 supershot is a worry. I don't won't to hit the sphere with the statis field just to watch my opponent pop the sphere!

You could take the Borg version of Data on the Queen's ship. Disabling people’s captains can really put them in a spot . However that assimilated B’Rel is a little flimsy if your opponent can get in position for a shot when you use that Stasis field.





Here is a list I thought about using for TCW 3.

Officer Exchange Borg/Dominion


42 Queen Vessel
04 Gul Dukat
02 Boheeka
02 Breen Aid

38 Borg Sphere
02 Gul Mecet

90

You can get Mecet up to 8 attack dice and with a green 3 straight the sphere can easily clear an aux. Dukat gets BS and can convert 2 blanks into hits Plus if the plan goes wrong the two Borg ships are tanky enough to deal with the anomaly and they have regenerate if you get a nasty crit.

If you aren't afraid to run Federation, I'd suggest the Equinox and the Prometheus. those two can put out a lot of punishment, and they can take even more. And hope for the Bajoran. It is a great way to steal the Sphere kill from your opponent.

Corps is right. The Equinox can be a beast in this one.

I guess the Equinox's ability makes it great while the sphere is in play.
I ran two sphere build back before the borf nerf with great effect. This one tempts me to go for it again. Kinda thinking I should have at least one lvl 11 captain in the list as insurance against Bajoran lvl 10 super shots.

Alternatively you could load up on cheap upgrades and go right at the opponent. If you hit 5hem fast they won't have time to focus on the sphere. You can keep discarding cheap upgrades and they can take damage

Cloaked mines around the sphere is a dirty trick but could throw extra damage on top of the anomaly

So I'm thinking this;

Officr exchange borg / Klingon

Borg Starship (Borg Sphere) [38]
- Martok 8 (Captain) [4]
Ship Total: 42 SP

Borg Starship (Borg Sphere) [38]
- Kor 8 (Captain) [4]
- - Worf [2]
- N'Garen [4]
Ship Total: 48 SP

Whether I go for the objective kill turn one will come down to which blind I get. If I get the Bajoran then I might as well, as it won't last long with the scenario rules in play. Otherwise I might leave it and see what my opponent does. The spheres will hold up well even taking a point of damage each turn.

Kor's sphere is good projection against the Bajoran. with a scan from Martok and N'garen's battlestation as it's own action, and two reroll's from Kor, it's six dice attack should be able to one shot it at lvl 11.

I see 2 issues with your plan.

The first one is that Martok 8 can only pass a free action to a lower captain skill. Kor is already an 8 and with Worf he becomes 11.


The second, you may have to play test it but I'm not sure the Bajoran can get into range of the Sphere on tuen 1. It's top speed is a 3, you may need a 4 to get you there. Now I may be wrong, that's why I suggest you test it out because you don't want to get stuck on game day and find out it won't work. The sphere is a standard objective from the starter set placed in the middle of 5he table..

Very good point about Martok, I could put worf on his ship, but that would leave Kor with only 1 crew for the re-rolls. Back to the drawing board.

Pretty sure if you start at the front of your deployment zone, a three forward would get you in range of the sphere, might be at range two so It would give it the extra defence dice.
The main issue the Bajoran will have is to pull off it's attack at lvl 10 is an action, so it wouldn't have a scan and the sphere would get the extra 4 defensive dice.

Honestly, most of the shooting I have seen at the sphere takes at least 1 turn, which will allow the Bajoran to get a target lock, then the following round it can use the shoot first action to steal the kill. I did this in my second and third round.

So the event took place this weekend, and this is what I ended up running with;
Jem'Hadar Battle Cruiser
Kor
Glinn Daro
Amat'igan
Gorkon
Dorsal Weapons array

2nd Division Cruiser
Martok
Worf
Alexander

For the blind I got the Lakota.

First game was against a Fed build, using the enterprise E, Hathaway and high yield torpedoes. His blind was the Cardasian.
He went for the sphere kill turn one, but left it on 5 hull.
Turn two I saw my chance and used my two higher level captains to steal the kill off him. This had the downside of giving him a turn of shooting at me. He hammered Kor and I thought I'd made a big mistake in losing a 47 point ship for the 25 bonus points, but lady luck was on my side and his best effort left Kor on 1 hull! The Lakota shot up the Hathaway getting an impressive 5 out of 5 hits against it.
Next turn Martok finished off the Hathaway, and kor and the Lakota took down the cardasian blind. The ent E easily finished off Kor. A 7 dice attack, with a target lock for re-rolls, + a reroll from high yield is scarey to be on the wrong side of.
It took me a couple of turns to chase down and finish of the ent e but a good 155 point victory.

Game two was mirror universe. The regents flagship and (Edit, the borg soong ship. I couldn't for the life of me remember what his second ship was) His blind booster was the bioship.
He split his deployment, with the bioship on its own one side and the others coming round the sphere. Neither of us bothered with the sphere and were taking a point of damage each turn on all of our ships. Glinn Daro, being used as a free action from martok worked a treat for this.
I lined up against the bioship and hammered it turn two, but left it on 1 hull, his other two ships + the bioship shot back on kor. The other two were at range three and the extra defence dice made the difference and saved me any damage, the bioship then fluffed it's attack roll doing only one damage.
Next turn the bioship was popped by the event (it had already disabled it's captain turn two so had to take a point of damage, which finished it) and I turned to engaged him. His second ship went down to one turns shooting, but the regents ships put up a good fight against me three. The Lakota ended up running away to avoid going down, and the dominion cruisers did me proud in taking down the regent in two rounds of shooting. A 130 point win and I was feeling good going into the last game.

Game three was crunch time. A win would win me the event, and the grand prize. A loss would probably see me come third on point both on the day and overall.
My opponent is "that Guy" the one that always has the most over the top builds. He was running a romulan drone, and the equinox. His equinox build was a work of art. It had system upgrades, and unimatrix shielding, and was using it's shield ability to regain 6 points of shielding each turn. But at the same time had photon torpedoes (timed) and arsenal / rapid reload meaning it could throw out a 5 dice attack each turn. Pichard gave him the extra action he needed for target locks. Both ships also had a tech upgrade (I think from the gorn ship?) that meant if trying to target lock him he could roll two defense dice, and if he got an evade the lock failed. Not to mention a way of cancelling a hit or crit against the drone as well as it's repair ability.
His blind was the ferengi.

I knew he could out last me so I went for the sphere kill turn one, but I couldn't do enough damage to it. Turn two he made a mistake. He has moved up very slowly, doing banked curves one way then the other trying to keep me guessing what his plan was. This left his fleet just outside of shooting range for turn two, giving me a free shot to finish off the sphere.
Turn three we face off against each other in a line at range 1, I let loss with everything I had. Martok and Kor took out the Ferengi, and the Lakota stripped the shields off the drone (I always seemed to roll well with the Lakota on the day)
In return he left Kor on just 3 hull points.
The next turn the dominion ships both flipped while his ships and the Lakota circled round each other. He almost got the drone out of my firing arcs but kor was able to bring it down. The equinox could only shot the Lakota, so couldn't finish kor off.
The rest of the game saw me chasing down the equinox, and god damn could that thing take a beating. About turn six a thought I had it done, only to see him use cheat death, and then get six points of shield back!
I had to be carful not to lose kor or the Lakota, both of which could have died to one torpedoe shot, but without any re-rolls his attacks were only putting out 2-3 hits, which I either evaded or repaired.
Another 155 point win in the end.

Overall a return to form for me, an event win (3 out of 4 this year) and a grand prize.

The build worked better than I had hoped. I never used the dorsal array, but otherwise not sure what changes I would make. The Lakota as my blind did a solid job, even if it couldn't keep up with the dominion cruisers, either in terms of damage output or manovering.

Congratulations, last game really sounded tough. Glad you took 'tfg' down!

Great job I have always been a big fan of the Jem H'Dar battle cruiser. It's a tough ship and having BS makes it near perfect. It kinda makes me think it's what the Neg'Var should have been. Khan is one of my favorite captains for them, but now you have me thinking about Kor

 Mr. S Baldrick wrote:
Great job I have always been a big fan of the Jem H'Dar battle cruiser. It's a tough ship and having BS makes it near perfect. It kinda makes me think it's what the Neg'Var should have been. Khan is one of my favorite captains for them, but now you have me thinking about Kor

Me too, I just wish (and my Missus really wishes) they'd fix the Battleship to be worthwhile as well.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

Me too, I just wish (and my Missus really wishes) they'd fix the Battleship to be worthwhile as well.

Hey MeanGreenstopma,

I think for the Missus Battleship wows tell her to load that sucker up with a few Aft Weapons Arrays from the Reklar to cover her back while that thing is turning.

Also if you guys don't mind dipping out of faction take a look at Power Grid that came with the Vulcan Tal'Kir for 2pts (3 out of Faction) you can disable the card instead of taking an Aux. The Tal'kir was a blind booster from Resistance is Futile, but you can still find them floating around and if you are into making cards yourself you can find the image online. There is a retail Vulcan ship, the D'Kyr, that comes with a similar card called Auxiliary Control Room. 3 pts (4 out of faction) you disable it to remove an Aux.

I don't always like playing mixed faction, but I think for things that seem like generic tech and weapons that every race would have access to, it's no big deal. Thinks like Photons, Type 8 Phasers, Power grid, Those all seem like things most races would have on their own.

I really don't know why I don't use the Battlecruisers more often, they truly are a great all round ship, high attack, plenty of health and a mid-range dial. The battlestations make a hugh difference.

Kor with crew Worf is fast becoming my go to captain. Lvl 11 and if you have 2-3 crew coupled with a battlestation your dice quality is top notch.

And I have to say, since the battlecruiser came out, I've never taken a battleship, even in a friendly game.