Star Trek Attack Wing Battle Report: Testing the AI

Having got into Star Trek Attack Wing last year, I excitedly bought the co-op conversion Star Trek Alliance when it came out recently. Before playing the campaign properly, I thought I'd try out the AI to get a handle on how it works.

For those who don't know, the AI ships choose their manoeuvres based on where your nearest ship is and a dice roll, meaning that you can never predict exactly where they'll go. They also break the rules a little, given they're not aware of obstacles like a human is and so can manoeuvre a little around them if they're about to crash.

Preparation

To start with I decided to play the first mission (in terms of deployment and enemy ships) without the normal objectives, which means two enemy ships start on the table, an elite one arrives on round 3, and then a final one on round 6.

This was my build, giving the Excelsior torpedoes as it has a rear arc, and dorsal phasers to the Akira as it has such a limited firing arc.

The battle

Round 1 and we all move straight ahead.

Round 2 and I head left to focus on one enemy, whilst the rightmost AI makes an odd choice by continuing to fly forwards. I was in its front arc so it was limited to straights, but it's not a move I'd make as a human.

Focus firing from my ships does exactly enough damage to take out the enemy before it can fire.

Round 3 and the elite comes on, with a 360º firing arc.

The elite randomly came on from the top left, right where I needed it to be, whilst the normal enemy banked rather than turned and so was still out of the fight.

After a lot of shots, the elite had lost all of its shields and one of its three hull. But my Excelsior had taken shield damage as well.

Round 4 and the elite manages to get in right behind the Excelsior, but that is still in its torpedo arc. The normal enemy finally lines up a shot!

The elite does further damage to the Excelsior's shields, but is destroyed by a volley of torpedoes in return.

The Akira is now out of range to shoot (it's 360º weapon is limited to range 2) but manages to evade the incoming damage.

Round 5 and the enemy again fails to land a hit, but only takes two shield damage.

Round 6 and the final reinforcement arrives, whilst the incumbent enemy makes another odd choice.

One damage is done to the starting enemy, and the Akira takes some shield damage.

Round 7 and the reinforcement is destroyed, again with exactly the amount of damage needed, somehow leaving the cowardly enemy from the start as the only opponent left.

Round 8 and it finally grows a pair and decides to joust with the Excelsior, taking one hull damage apiece.

Round 9, and the Akira barrels in and ends things.

My thoughts

The AI works pretty well, all things considered. I followed the logic to move it to avoid obstacles once or twice, but given I also flew onto them during the game that means it's just as cavalier / stupid as a human!

The issue with it is that it can't plan as a whole, hence why in rounds 2 and 3 the rightmost ship failed to turn right hard enough to pin my ships in from both sides. But as a way to play single player or co-op games it works very well, and it'd be easy to up the difficulty by adding extra ships, increasing their spawn frequency, or even including more elite versions.

I also think it's fair to say that I rolled luckier than average, taking out two ships with exactly the damage needed. Plus the elite that spawned never got to use its ability, as it was too good at keeping my ships in its front arc.