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After reading the reports coming out of the Wizkids Open tournaments, I think it is time for some standardized tournament rules. Seeing the lists that are coming out is just insane. I watched one match online that was literally two cubes playing chicken to see who would get Crosis off first. The level of attack cancellation is crazy. I have seen the mechanics for the Weyoun ship that can stop up to 3 attacks a turn. I have even heard that you can get that total up to 4 but I have not run through the steps yet.

There just doesn’t seem to be much point in playing a game when there can be an unkillable ship with no way to touch its upgrades (Wayoun/Verel/Koss/Dispersion Field). To me this just doesn’t seem like Trek, it is Magic with models instead of mana counters. I think fleet building is important and should be part of the game. However we have arrived at a point where there were 50 ships available to be used by the players and less than 10 of them are represented. That is sad. Now I am not among those that think the sky is falling and the game will fade out. However I have seen in my area and others have commented the same in others, that the current state of things has driven people away.

As crazy as it sounds, during the Dominion we actually saw more diverse fleets when there were fewer ships available. Many games have a basic rules set and additional rules for tournaments to ensure balanced play. Attack Wing should be no different. So I propose we start a discussion for a more balanced tournament setting.
Here are some of my initial thoughts.

-Borg are banned outright. I hate to ban an entire faction, but I place the Borg into the same category as the capital ships for X-Wing or Super Heavies in 40K. The Borg ships and upgrades are just not priced on the same level as other factions. For casual play or specialized scenarios they are fine, but just not priced right for tournament play

-Fleets should be one and only one faction. Almost everything people have a problem with is due to cross faction interaction. Now that there are over 50 ships available there is really no need to mix things together. Yes some factions such as Ferengi and Kazon are a little short, but they now each have 2 named ships are due for another in a few months. Bajoran are better than you think in faction pure. Independents have ships now with more on the way.

-Only one of each upgrade may be put on a ship. This is to limit things like multiple Shrouds or Verel and multiple Centurions. Personally I don’t have much of a problem with the Verel/Centurion thing because you pay 4 points a pop for the Centurion, but I know a lot of people don’t like it. This would also keep cloaked mines from getting out of control.

-You can only use 1 upgrade per turn to increase attack/defense dice. This is really to keep the dice pools from getting out of hand. So you can use Scotty, but not in the same turn as you use your Tactical Stations. You could use Paris but not the same turn you use Sulu. I specifically said “upgrades” only, because this would make cards like Admiral Doughrty and Admiral Dukat more useful. You can of course use Scotty and Paris in the same turn. Just one upgrade for each.

-Retire OP resources. To keep things fresh and moving it seems like a good idea to retire the resources after the series they were introduced. There is nothing to stop they from being re released, however it would be nice to see a break from the flagships.

Ban list (lots of games have them nothing new for AW to do it too)
-Anything with a Borg Symbol. Again I hate to do but their points are just not balanced with the other factions. I also have to take away that nice 4 attack Warbird from the Romulans, but no borg means no borg.

-Transphasic Torpeadoes. With other attack modifiers being limited it is silly to allow one faction a 10 die attack, even if it is at a high cost.

-Barrage of Fire. Same as transphasices.

-Volley of Torpedoes. Same as above.

-Dorsal Phaser Array. We need maneuvering back in the game. Proliferation of 360 attacks destroys half of the strategy of the game. Enterprise D had never worried me and Voyager w/o transphasics isn’t anything scary. Without the ability to keep stacking attack dice I don’t feel like these 2 ships would throw the game out of wack. During the Dominion War I never really saw the D devastate people.

-Dorsal Weapons Array. Same as above.

These are some spitball ideas. I am not saying anyone has to change how they play. However I don’t really think what we see coming out of the WK Open is really what anyone has in mind when the game was announced last year.
Thoughts?
Comments?

I'm with you on the first 3. I think more than that, you run afoul of simply overloading. I can see why you would want introduce some of the others also, but the first 3 cover the biggest abuses.

OR Wizkids could just stop providing prizes so folks wouldn't build lists people find annoying which makes other folks try to hamstring everyone else's game all in the name of fairness (and a belief that these fixes will give others a chance to win an OP event).

I'm not saying the game is perfect but banning whole factions and powerful cards all so that those of us who don't math hammer our fleets to perfection have a slightly better chance to not finish last at an OP event is not something I want to see.

What I think is funny is all the complaining about borg lol. In a faction pure environment, they are alot more fair to use than people realize, but people like the OP who got raped by weyoun/varel in a cube at some point are just going to drive new players away. All the borg ships are basically putting your chips in one basket, and smart list building csn easily overcome them, one huge factor I don't think anyone pays attention to is they have no defense dice. So whatever you can throw at the them hurts, even through ablative armors and a single feedback pulse, but go ahead and try to flame me, seems to me like you just need to play test more, and oh yea try to actually have fun with the game and stop crying so hard

I'm not sure about faction pure for the entire fleet. This may be a problem for newbies unless you actively help them out and let them borrow stuff; else it may be seen as too high of a cost to start. I'd go down one step to ship pure.