Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello all!

I have been playing X-wing for a little while and I enjoy it a lot. I was looking into casually playing STAW with a friend that is also interested.

Would it be worth picking up the starter set since I already have the x-wing templates (I can easily get a 6 strait)?

I personally love the look of the bird of prey and I would likely get one of those even just for the model to paint and admire (my micromachine model broke years ago ...)

From what I've read the OP seems a little rough, but I don't really have any plans currently to do tournaments. Due to my love of the bird of prey I'd like to play Klingon but I don't know much about the gameplay and from what I've read they seem to be somewhat underpowered / limited? Where would be good to start ship wise with them?

I have looked at boardgamegeek and the wiki but its hard to determine what comes in each booster and what upgrades are good, what would you guys recommend?

I don't really plan on competitive play but I don't want a underpowered / limited force either, my friend would likely play Federation.

1 last thing! Some FLGS around me have STAW stuff but I'm not sure if anyone plays it I'm located in Southern Michigan.

Space DOck for Android is a great app for helping pick out expansions.

The starter set is a must for two major reasons: The damage cards and the Templates. While the Templates look identical, the Attack Wing templates are actually different when compared side by side with the X-Wing templates.

The starter is also the only way to get Vorchas for Klingons and Galaxy's for Federation at the moment, and they come with some essential cards for all three factions.

Thanks Corpsman, I will check out Space DOck.

What are some viable builds with Bird of Prey variants (I believe there are 3 boosters) I see some examples of swarms and such. Any suggested builds / lists to help me get some ideas?

I would also suggest focusing on a single faction for you and your friend, until get all thats avaliable for it. The game flys the same, but it is also a different in many aspects.

Check out some videos on YouTube by a guy named Steve Smith. He does some good OP videos and a run through of a lot of the missions that come with the ships. He does a good job of explaining what he is doing and what mistakes he made. Also he only plays Klingons so it can give you a good idea how some of the different ship perform.

Well, I play against Klingons a lot so maybe this will help.

1. Birds of prey come in 3 flavours K'vort, B'rel and "Changs Bird of prey"

2. K'vorts pack more hull with a little less fire power and shields then B'rels, since Klingons have sooo many ways on increasing their attack die the fire power thing is a little irrelevant and since your aiming to spend most of the game cloaked, the shields kinda are as well.

3. B'rels are klingon for "Glass Cannon" very good attack stat highly manoeuvrable, die to a strong breeze. Don't assume the higher shield rating is much use, as a freind of mine says klingon vessels have two states, cloaked and exploding.

4. Chang's Bird of prey is.... a trap. Most of its upgrades are unique to the bird of prey class, unfortunately B'rels and K'vort's are NOT bird of prey class. Its unique ability to remain cloaked while firing torpedoes is its biggest draw and the main part of the trap. The Torpedoes are WAY to action intensive to use and by the time you;ve paid for them, a way to re-enable/target lock with them the ships costs a fortune.

5. Secondary weapons are bemoaned by most Attack Wing players this goes doubly so for klingons, you have 24 point ships with 5 attack dice and very little in the way of action economy there is NO reason to take secondary weapons.

6. Get used to multiple Martok's and having to pick the best one for your build.

7. Everybody loves Vorcha's not saying swarms of K'vort/B'rels can;t work, but everybody loves Vorcha's.

As a side note you will suffer from not having the battle stations action on your bar, meaning you;ll have little in the way of conversions, Klingons mitigate this with crew like Drex and N'garen and captains like Worf.

Last but not least, don't know if this is the norm with X-Wing, but with attack wing its USUALLY better to go with a named version of the ship as wizkids only balance points to stat's not special abilities, this leaves some ships very powerful for their cost.

Other websites available for fleet construction:
http://comatoes.github.io/staw-utopia
http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

 easypeasylemonsquezy wrote:
Thanks Corpsman, I will check out Space DOck.

What are some viable builds with Bird of Prey variants (I believe there are 3 boosters) I see some examples of swarms and such. Any suggested builds / lists to help me get some ideas?

Sorry mised this the first time

As stated earlier buy at least one of each avaliable packs, each has a useful card or 2. If you and your friend are playing different factions each will need a starter anyway so trade him for your 2nd Vor'cha.

LE Prize ships and Blinds (on ebay)
Cha'Tang Op Prize is pretty much gone doubtful you'll be able to get one. **great ship and other cards, maybe Rotarran will make Barrage of Fire avaliable outside of this pack. Crossing my fingers for all those you never got that card**
Korok's BOP should be grabable **nice to have but ehh**
Korinar is highily avaliable right now **I love the ship ability**
Pagh should be able to find one. ** I love this captian**
B'Moth Blind ship should be grabable **nice to have but ehh**


danp164 already gave most of this info and did a great job, I'll hash it with a tad bit of more information.

As someone else stated Vor'cha's seem to be the go to ships, high attack they have one of each upgrade slot so highly customizable. there is no 100% goto list for Klingons.

Kargen, Worf, Martok Skill 5, Kor (both), Koloth all tend to be the goto captians. Projected Statis Field from IKS Gr'oth is a great card. As for other tech all of it is fairly Meh. Secondary Weapons, are a sore spot with me, as a Klingon player I really feel Klingons get the shaft here. Other than Barrage of Fire, I can't think of a good weapon. Outside of the Federation, Klingons have 2 of the best crew in the game and both avaliable in regular blister packs, Drex and Na'Garen. there are others that are very good as well.

As for swarms a true 6 ship B'rel fleet ends up being a fleet of 3 ship at the end of the first combat, a 5 ship B'rel tend to be a bit better if you use some high skill captians, but I never seen anyone run one that was successful, without resorting to cross faction, and they are mostly using Romulan Cloaked Mines. Klingon mines aren't that great.

danp164 wrote:

2. K'vorts pack more hull with a little less fire power and shields then B'rels, since Klingons have sooo many ways on increasing their attack die the fire power thing is a little irrelevant and since your aiming to spend most of the game cloaked, the shields kinda are as well.

This is absolutely untrue K"Vorts and B'Rels have the same Attacks and Shields. They both have 4 Attacks, the named ships have 3 shields and the generics have 2. The difference is that K'Vorts have 5 hull to the B'Rels 3. On the K'vort 3 turns are red and they are white on the B'Rel.[

danp164 wrote:

4. Chang's Bird of prey is.... a trap. Most of its upgrades are unique to the bird of prey class, unfortunately B'rels and K'vort's are NOT bird of prey class. Its unique ability to remain cloaked while firing torpedoes is its biggest draw and the main part of the trap. The Torpedoes are WAY to action intensive to use and by the time you;ve paid for them, a way to re-enable/target lock with them the ships costs a fortune.

5. Secondary weapons are bemoaned by most Attack Wing players this goes doubly so for klingons, you have 24 point ships with 5 attack dice and very little in the way of action economy there is NO reason to take secondary weapons.

This will really depend on how you and your friend want to play. If you are playing high stakes OPs yes torpedoes can be cumbersome, but they have a place in STAW and can be fun and thematic, especially in friendly casual play. Klingons have several ways of making torpedoes more effective.

1) Skill 8 Martok gives another ship a free action

2) Klingon Fleet Captain allows a ship to use a crew as a free action

3) Worf rerolls blanks when attacksing

4)Skill 8 Kor gets an attack reroll for each non-disabled crew on his ship

5) Time Token torpedoes help Klingons a lot, because unless you are using Chang"s BoP you are only useing them to fire backwards and not every turn.

6) Kargan gets a free Target Lock when he uses a crews action

7) Any faction can use High Yield Photon Torpedoes

There are lots of time where it is better to fire a torpedo out of the rear arch and avoid taking and Aux for a come about (stess for you x-wing players). B'Rels, K'Vorts, BoP, and K'Tingas have rear arcs. Torps can also give some added teeth to a little D7.

A lot comes down to how you and your friends want to play. If you guys min max a lot of things are difficult to use, not just torpedoes. If you guys play x-wing style, mostly leaving stuff on the ships they come with, you'll have a blast and have a use for everything. There is a world of difference between casual and tournament play in this game.

Another thing I want to add as a piggy back off of Mr. Baldrick: play casual for a while before doing OP tournaments. Casual play is MUCH more about fun and less about winning, and it really lets the game truly shine in my opinion.

If you are really competitive and you want to eventually get into the OP games, read up on the scenarios before hand, as some of them can totally nerf certain builds while others scream for certain builds.