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Hey there guys I finally had an OP, for Year of Hell. I have been playing Romulans a lot lately, so I was feeling like trying something different. I thought I would give Cardassians a try, so I went with:

28 Galor Class (Borg/Dom)
05 Gul Dukat
05 Independent Fleet Captain (crew*)
00 Unneccesary Blood Shed
01 Boheeka
01 Breen Aid

26 Reklar
03 Gul Mecet
05 Gul Madred
02 Glinn Daro

24 First Wave Attack Fighters

20 Hideki Class Fighters
120 total


My first round was against a guy that usually plays Feds, but today he said he wanted to try Romulans. His fleet looked very similar to one I used against him back during Peak Performance. From what I remember he had:
Praetus
Donatra
Cloaked Mines

Scimitar
Salatrel
Counter Attack
Interphase Gen
Interphase Gen
Romulan Helmsman

Valdor
Toreth
Fleet Captain
Invasion Plans
Mendak
Cloaked Mines
Advanced Cloak


For this game it appears that we are fighting over an abandoned Dyson Sphere.



Turn 1
I don’t think he anticipated that I would have moved up so far, I love the 5 ahead on the Galor. Salatrel & Toreth picked some shields off of Dukat. Dukat one shots Donatra and deals 2 damage to Toreth. The Hidekies are out of range, but overall not a bad turn.



Turn 2
I decided I had enough of Salatrel shooting first, so Madred got rid of her.


Dukat hit the Scimitar for 3 and for some reason he decided not to use his IG. Toreth destroys Dukat and Mecet forces Salatrel to use an IG. The 1st Wave Fighters takes out the other IG, the generic Hidekies deal another damage to the Scimitar.



Turn 3
The Scimitar ended up out of arc. Mecet forces Toreth to bump leaving her uncloaked looking down the barrel of a Galor and 2 sets of fighters. Toreth takes some shields off Mecet and gives him a Warp Core Breach. So between my three ships at close range Toreth goes down in smoking wreckage.


Turn 4
Mecet moves off, but takes another damage from the mines. Each fighter loose a token to the mines.
The Scimitar is in range to shoot, but my Opponent doesn’t want to take a 2nd Aux or decloak, so no shooting.



Turn 5
Mecet moves off and has Glinn Daro repair the Warp Core Breach. The fighters catch the Scimitar and finish it off.



First win, on to round 2.


Round 2 was against a Fed list. From what I recall he had:
Thunderchild
Flagship (he didn’t know it was retired and we all let it slide)
Picard
Dorsal Phaser

Prometheus
Ransom
Paris
Data
Dorsal Phaser

Fighters



Turn 1
Our journey to strange new worlds has brought us to a strange greenish nebula. Looks like the feds swing out to the side and the Cardassians head right for them at full speed.



Turn 2
The feds seem to be continuing to swing wide. The Cardassians turn in and catch the Prometheus. I decided I didn’t want to deal with a Prometheus throwing 4 defense dice, so Gul Madred made him see 5 lights.



Without Ransom the Prometheus went down quickly to Dukat and the fighters. Mecet took a token off of the Fed fighters.



Turn 3
The Fed Fighters come about on and Picard tries to stay out of the Hidekies range.



Picard knocks off one Hideki token. The two Galors and one squad of Hidekies take out the Fed fighters. My front squad of Hidekies takes some shields off of Picard.



Turn 4
Picard takes another token off of my generic fighters. Combined fire from my ships takes Picard down to 1 hull. One a side note the Thunderchild saved against all of Mecet’s attacks and used the ship ability to take out a shield.



Turn 5
Picard picks off another fighter token. Even without actions (bump) Dukat finishes off Picard.




A second victory 2-0 and that was good enough for a win overall. At this venue if there are 4 people or less the TO only has us play 2 games. I have to say that I really like Dukat with Boheeka and Breen Aid, most of the time he was hitting with all 5 attacks. Gul Madred was worth it, taking out Salatrel and Ransom were very helpful. It was fun to get some OP games in. I had to miss Q2 & Q3 at this venue because of family commitments and my other venue had to postpone their Q3 until the end of this month. I still have no clue as what to play for Q3, but Cardassians could be a possibility. Sorry for the dark pics, maybe auto adjusted was not the way to go.

Well played! Taking your own list against you by the rom player was not a bright move, I'd imagine you're well versed in what's necessary to kill it.

Going to show this to the wife, she's complaining about her cardassians not hitting hard enough...

I don't know if she can be persuaded over to pure cardie ships though, she has a love affair with the dominion cruiser and it's comeabout.

I am hearing alot of good things about pure Cardassians. They seem to be pretty awesome.

Its the fighter's mix with moderately priced ships.

Yeah Hidekies are what fill the gap to make Cardassians competitive. Without them once someone gets behind the Galors and Keldons they are toast. The maneuverability of the fighters helps cover their back.

Maneuverable fighters combined with 4+ dice and decent access to BS on a 180 arc helps a lot.


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 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
Well played! Taking your own list against you by the rom player was not a bright move, I'd imagine you're well versed in what's necessary to kill it.

Going to show this to the wife, she's complaining about her cardassians not hitting hard enough...

I don't know if she can be persuaded over to pure cardie ships though, she has a love affair with the dominion cruiser and it's comeabout.

Yeah I pretty much knew what that list could do. He had to both of those mines out to effect me and he didn't expect me to hit the gas on turn 1. He also used Donatra on the Praetus which I am not a big fan of. Romulans work better when they can maneuver, Donatra forces you to fly in close formation. There ars some ways to build around Donatra, but personally I don't think that is one of them. Counter Attack is also a waste in most cases and is really a bad fit on the Scimitar. Making him discard Salatrel shook him up some, he wasn't sure what to do after that.

I am finding that using Donatra as a phaser sponge works rather well, since she has been around for a while now an everyone knows her. Our local meta also has a passionate hatred for the Scimitar, so I like to put mendak on the Scimitar (or a generic reman), Donatra on something dodgy, and prototype 01 for its regen. It scares the crap out of some people.

It's interesting how people either love or hate the Scimitar. It's one of my favorites, it has firepower and durability. Some people over commit to staying cloaked, which puts them in a bad spot at times.

Its hated because they fly against it. All of our guys who play romulans have at least one. I have no idea how it happened, but I ended up with 8...

Well that makes sense. It is a force to be feared, in the right hands of course. The Scimitar was a big boost to Romulans. Within a few months we got the Avatar of Tomed, the Scimitar, and Haakona. Those three ships did a lot to make Romulans competitive, before that they were on the brink of being annihilated by the Borg.

So very true. The Borg have all but disappeared from our local meta. The Federation, Dominion, and Romulans seem to be the prevailing factions at this point. That said, the Assimilated vessels still seem to pop up every so often.

Then there's the one guy that doesn't seem to understand what faction pure means...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Back on the original topic: I would recommend playing something with high hull. The static warp shells for this cause a damage when generated, but can earn a lot of points on the side... granted you don't seem to need the help. lol

Nice Job! I won the last two Q OP's with a similar build but with Federation ships and fighters.

Just played year of hell myself two nights ago. Came in second with this:

Soong with Karr and Stalking Mode
Alpha Hunter with Khan and Lure
Fina Prime with Picard (skill 8) and Faked messages.
Using the exchange officer resource to get picard.

I wanted all level 8 captains so I could fly my ships in a pack and not worry about who was higher skill number for movement purposes.

First round I flew against a Mirror Mirror fleet. Round one I used lure right off the bat to make the guy fly his Prakesh nearly off the map. Next round I used faked message to make him fly it off the map. So for 10 points of cards I got like 40 points of ship off the board and never fired a shot at him. He had the Pasteur and ISS Enterprise. But I took each of his ships out one per round. He got one shot off at me and the game was over in three rounds. Never had to worry about the Time wave coming into play on that game.

Round two I played against three Borg Sphere's. Since I couldn't make him fly off the board I made him fly his Picard sphere deep into the time field so he would have to deal with that and I took on the other two spheres. Unfortunately I had a horrible first roll and got only 1 hit on 8 dice. The next round was better and I was able to kill a sphere. Eventually it came down to two on one...my Alpha hunter and Fina Prime to Picards Sphere that finally made it into the game. Fina prime died via the time wave effects. Last round I messed up. I used the target lock instead of the battlestations for Khan..I was only rolling 4 dice and the sphere had 5 hull left so I didn't think it mattered to much but I rolled all battle stations. My opponent looked and the crits he would have received and there was a double hit so I would have destroyed him and won the game but he lived and had just a 10 point lead on me. So I lost the second match.

Third match was against Klingons and newbie that didn't stand much of a chance. He was smart enough to stay away from the edge so I couldn't send one of his ships off it but I did send his biggest ship, the neg'vhar off into the time wave and just picked off his other two ships pretty easy. By the time his Neg'vhar made it back around it was three against one and he was already pretty beaten up by the time effects.

Winning the prize ship this month got me that Sloan card. I am thinking of using it and taking off the Stalking Mode. I'll be able to send two ships off the board or at least out of the way while I pick off the other one.

-Genzod

Glad to see you around again. Also great to see someone using Fina Prime

 Mr. S Baldrick wrote:
-Genzod

Glad to see you around again. Also great to see someone using Fina Prime

Thanks Mr. Baldrick! Yeah I just picked it up last month so this was the first chance I had to use it. I really wanted to use the Kreman Time ship in my build but I couldn't make the points work. But I did use the Prime's named ability several times through out the rounds knocking off shields and with the skill 8 picard even though I was only tossing 3 dice I could get at least one crit with him plus an extra defense die. It wasn't a bad little ship.

I had my opponents KNEELING before me.

Thanks Mr. Baldrick for your report.

What was your experience with the defence of your fleet? Because the two Galor Class ships have got only one defence die.
Could you compensate this with the skill Level 7 of your captains? Shooting first?

How did you survive the fire from the Scimitar and the Valdore?

Or do you had more evade actions?


Thanks.

Greetings.
Daniel

The Galors do lack defense. When the Reklar takes it's ship action it gets an extra defense. If I run the list again I would drop Glin Daro for Omit'Iklan and get it up to 3 defense. The Romulan player was seemed intimidated by Dukat so he focused on him. The first turn he didn't roll very well but took some shields off. One of the nice things about the assimilated Galor is that it has 4 shields and 5 attacks. Going for Dukat first was a good call he was amazing with Boheeka and Breen Aid. I got lucky that his shooting was so bad.


After turn 1 Gul Madred kept the Scimitar from shooting first. A gimmick like Gul Madred helps to get rid of those pesky captains. The fighters are nice for keeping people off the backs of the Galors. It is easy for people to get behind them so the maneuverable fighters help.

You meen drop Glin Daro for Tetryon Emissions with the +3 defense dice or?

I would drop Glin Daro for Omit'Ikan. He is a Jem H'Dar guy that came with the Battle Cruiser. He gives +1 defense die. If the Reklar takes its ship ability as an action it gets a BS and +1 defense. So ability +1, Jem H'Dar guy +1 and 1 agility gives it 3 with a BS.

Your thinking of Amatlagan. Omet Lklan Lets you convert a blank to a hit with your primary weapon

Ok, i understand :-)

Everything I have seen and heard has regarding the dominion boils down to the Cardassian ships being the best ships for the faction.

It is only the Hidekies that make the Cardassians solid, being cheap, durable, and maneuverable. On their own the Galors and Keldons move like bricks, so if you can get behind them they are toast. Unless you use Dukat or the Reklar Galors lack BS for accurate firepower. On the other hand Keldons have 5 attacks and BS, but they are glass cannons with only a total of 6 hit points, One good shot and they are done.

Breen and Jem H'Dar attack ships are both in the same boat of being too short on fight power . I have been experimenting with giving the Breen Type * Phasers, but no BS really hurts them. These two ships could really use some type of weapon upgrade.


IMO, the battle cruiser is the best Dominion ship . With 5 attacks, 6 Hull, and 4 shields on the generic it is pretty tough. All that with the fact that it comes with BS. It has a good dial and I find the 4 come about better than the 3 in a lot of cases. The cruisers durability and firepower put it on par with the big boys.


Sadly the battleship just doesn't cut it For scenario play and faction pure it can fill a role, but in mixed faction OPs it is out classed most of the time.

I need to see some good Domion players in action. The guy who runs them in my smaller group isn't the greatest player, so the four games I've seen the Dominion in action have not ended well... So I was under the impression that the Domion was a mildly weak faction. Not Klingon-level, but not on par with the Feds or Romulans.

Admittedly, one engagement was 10 Attack Ships vs 6 Fighters, 2 Constitutions and an Excelsior, but still...

Attack ships can be fun in certain scenarios. I have played the Kobayashi Maru with the Defiant vs Attack Ships before and that is a lot of fun. Like a lot of ships they just don't hold up well to mixed play or tournament play.

I think in the near future that this is going to change. WK is slowly bringing out weapon upgrades that make a lot of ships more playable. For now a the best ones are Federation but MU did get an upgrade for the D'Deridex. We can only hope that one of those comes out for Romulans.

I am hoping that the Robinson comes with a Dominion version of Type 8 Phasers. It would be great for the game because it would be a retail version, as opposed to the Hood one. It would also be nice for the Attack Ship and Breen to have that type of upgrade in faction.


Automatically Appended Next Post:




With the Upgraded Phasers from the Lakota and Type 8 Phasers I am looking forward to running the Reliant with 4 attacks and 6 at Range 1

OMG that would be so Fun! I really like the reliant for small fun games. its a very thematic ship, and it just feels right to fly with t, either it surviving the whole thing or even it dying just fits.

 Corpsman913 wrote:
OMG that would be so Fun! I really like the reliant for small fun games. its a very thematic ship, and it just feels right to fly with t, either it surviving the whole thing or even it dying just fits.

I love how these new up grades are opening up lots of possibilities for older ships. The only down side it the bulk of them are federation.

Very true.

Side note: I have Year of Hell tonight, and I was wondering if I should post the battle reports here or in a new thread?

Doesn't bother me if you do, as long as you snap some pics

SOOOO... That sucked. Mostly because I came unprepared for the sheer viciousness of the wave.

I brought:

IRW Haakona
Capt Mirok
Romulan Helmsman

Prototype 01
Gareb (Skill 5, SP 0)
Cloaked Mines x2

Romulan Drone Ship
Cloaked Mines x2

Romulan Drone Ship
Cloaked Mines x2

The fleet was an idea I had been playing around with for a while, and I figured this would be a decent time to try it out... Poor planning on my part.

My first opponent ran a pair of Borg Spheres with Prototype 01, Gareb with skill 9 and 3SP cost, with x2 cloaked mines.

I took pics this whole game, but as we never actually exchanged fire, it kinda of seemed a waste. the first turn we both advanced slowly, him moving at a 1 straight and me moving at a 2 straight. the following round I deployed all six of my cloaked mines and he deployed both of his. This turned the middle of the boad into a no man's land, so it was all about outlasting each other and the wave. My opponent generated 3 bubbles, so I gained 15 points, and the wave very nearly destroyed his Prototype 01. meanwhile, the wave played havoc on my fleet, destroying the ships every other turn roughly. our final round saw my last two drone ships disintegrate as the wave buffeted their battered hulls.

The second (and last) round was a lot better. My opponent was running a Mirror Universe/Romulan fleet. His ships were the ISS Avenger with Beverly Crusher, IRW Talveth (MU D'dedrix), and the Scimitar with Salveth (spelling?). There were ALOT of upgrades involved, including enhanced disruptor banks and Impulse Drive. After our first round, I deployed all of my Mines, then lost my Prototype to the combined fire of all three of his ships. After that, he charged through my mines taking damage from three of them and then taking fire from my other two probes. The Haakona never fired a shot, but my Drones finished off the scimitar and began moving back towards his fleet when time was called. when the game ended, his ISS Avenger had just been destroyed by the wave and I walked away carrying a Belleriphone. We had 7 ships for 8 players because this time around the shop ordered an extra kit.

Interesting build.

WOW nice job, using drones to take down a Scimitar . Was she cloaked? How many turns did it take to chip away at it?

6 mines, devious like a Romulan

It took at least 4 rounds of combat, and the Scimitar ran straight through the mines... twice. My Haakona was out maneuvered for most of the fight, as I opted to avoid the punishing fire from the Scimitar to firing return shots at a higher skilled captain.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Given literally any other scenario, I think it would have gone better. There was another player there who forgot what the scenario for Year of Hell actually was and ran a Brel Swarm. I would have loved to play him, but alas, it was not so.