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.

Painting: Myrmourn Banshees and Glaivewraith Stalker

I've finished my Nighthaunt!

These are nice models, especially the Banshees, but they are a pain to paint when all glued together due to some very fiddly angles. However, I got them and their scenic bases done, and so now here is the whole warband of 18 models.

Wide formation

Tighter formation to avoid the corners

I don't know what to paint next...

Painting: Grimghast Reapers and Spirit Host

 This is the first batch (of two) of the bigger models for my Warcry warband.

Painting: Chainrasps

These guys are super-quick to do, but I have been distracted by Total War: Warhammer 2 and Stardew Valley so they took a while to get done.

So in terms of models for this warband I've now done 10 out of 19, although all the others are bigger and more complex than these guys.

Painting: Chainrasp

Just a quick one, but I'm very proud as I painted this guy in one short painting session, which is nothing like me.

My wife was very shocked that I'd finished him whilst she'd been sitting painting next to me!

I'll go easier on the Hexwraith Flame (the green) next time, but otherwise I'm very happy with how he looks given the fast painting time. A lot of the time was waiting for things to dry, so these guys will really shine with batch painting. It's just a shame I only have three painting handles ;¬)

Adventures in Contrast: Warcry Chaotic Beasts

I painted my first Warhammer model in 1998. Since then, I have painted over 300 models, covering:

• Over a dozen Blood Angels (when I was starting)
  
• A full 4th Edition T'au Empire army
• A full 4th Edition Space Marine army of my own Chapter
• A handful of random Space Marines from different Chapters over the years
  
• Four Deathwatch Marines
  
• An Ork warband for Combat Patrol
• Three Dark Eldar
• An Orlock gang
• Three Ratskins
  
• Two Saurus Warriors
  
• Random Imperial Guardsmen in different colour schemes
• Two Regimental Advisors
  
• A squad of Tempestus Scions with a Commisar
• Some random Tyranids
  
• A squad of Genestealer Cult Neophytes
• A Goblin Blood Bowl team
• An Orc Blood Bowl team
• One Craftworld Eldar
• Círdan the Shipwright
  
• A Moonclan Grot warband for Warcry
• A Stormcast Eternal warband for Warcry
• Four trees
  

Notice anything? I have never painted a single Chaos model, even though they exist in every. single. one. of GW's settings. I guess I have always been more of a xenos player, but this is crazy. The closest I've ever come is my Space Marine chapter, who use the odd bit of Chaos Marine wargear as they're short of supplies.

So Warcry has given me the chance to finally paint some very naughty boys, and here they are:

Natural

Flash

Yes, my photo-taking set-up is still rubbish.

In order of painting, we have:

• Nurgle Fury, who was done entirely using classic paint
• Khorne Fury, who was mostly Contrast other than the wing membranes
• Dark brown Fury to test out Wyldwood Contrast as skin
  
• Tzeentch Raptoryx, using classic paints
• Slaanesh Raptoryx, which is classic other than on the feathers and the bone / claws
• Fleshy Raptoryx, who is almost entirely Contrast and was a real experiencing in shading up rather than the classic approach
  

They were a lot of fun to do, and I loved the chance to paint similar models in very different schemes.

I aten't ded!

I haven't died, I've just been distracted by many other things since I last posted, which has meant I've not done much in the way of painting.

First, I got distracted by Stellaris, where I met a new friend whom I dubbed 'Bubbles'.

Bubbles!

I then discovered that the Star Trek Attack Wing game isn't a terrible rip-off of X-Wing, but in fact licenced the same engine and has multiple copies of Worf. So I bought into that and ended up playing it with my wife in person, and online through Tabletop Simulator with friends.

Pew pew pew!

Yes, those are Kazon ships. No, I do love my stupid, rubbish children.

My proudest moment on TTS was winning with Bajorans against a Species 8472 ship and a Romulan Valdore class.

Bajorans are bad but fun

Then my PC broke, so I had to buy a new one. Which meant I could finally go from playing Total War Warhammer on the lowest possible settings - and still play it like a slideshow - to playing Total War Warhammer 2 on the max settings.

But I don't have any pictures of that, so here's another picture of Bubbles!

I was so proud :¬)

Warcry Battle Report 4: Sacrosanct Chamber vs. Jack's Pack

After losing not once but twice, my proud Sacrosanct Chamber warband had somehow made it to their first convergence. Let's see how they did.

The scenario

Let's look at the scenario and cards...

A very open battlefield

This is rather open, which means we'll both be able to make full use of shooting (with Jack, eek!). Note that the mission rules mean the objective has to be on the little platforms in the top left or bottom right.

Gleam for the Gleam God! Shine for the shine throne!

Rather than a twist like last time that is functionally pointless, this one is actually pointless.

Even before playing this I'd heard bad things about The Ritual. It is heavily RNG-dependent, as if you roll completely average over 4 battle rounds you will get a score of 14, which means all it takes is -2 from your opponent to lose you the game. Oof!

That said, I'd lucked out. The deployment is absolutely perfect for this mission. It meant I deployed around the objective, whilst my wife had to deploy pretty much as far away as possible and come towards my slow-moving beatsticks. I was quietly confident.

The objective is on the platform underneath Chanda, my female Castigator

The game

Round 1 began with me winning priority and paying for a Quad. I opened fire with Chanda who was stood on the objective, firing at Fee the Snotling in the hope of removing a body and a potential source of Wait actions. I wasn't rolling well, and only managed 6 damage.

Jack opened fire on my other Castigator who was in cover, using Rampage for three goes, but luckily didn't take him out (I think it was 8 damage in the end). In response that Castigator shot at and killed Terry the Termagant, and then put two wounds onto Bjork da Orc (using Rampage).

Over the next few activations my wife's models moved forward, whilst my three melee warriors made a line in front of the objective.

Maggie the Termagant proved herself, firing at my Castigator in cover and getting a crit and a miss. She has a Destiny Level, so re-rolled the miss and got another crit!

Dead-eye Maggie

The last action of the round was Ratatouille spotting a gap in my line that, upon checking, was EXACTLY the width of his base. So he scampered on through and got within 3" of the objective.

As a fan of sneaking, I applaud Ratatouille

That meant there was a -1 applied to the ritual die roll, and so the 5 became a 4.

I rolled a 5 for the ritual on round 1

Round 2 is when the lines fully connected, and I failed to do much damage. My Sequitor Rampaged  into Bjork da Orc and Szczepan, but failed to kill Szczepan even with three swings.

Not quite a wiff, but definitely not a success

Jack, on the other hand, absolutely nailed his shooting. Using the Triple to double his shots he rolled exactly the 20 in one attack action that he needed to kill my Castigator who was stood on the objective, before she'd had a chance to shoot.

Szczepan swung once and danced away, and my leader wiped out Ratatouille, leaving the board looking like this at the end of the round:

She's lost 2, I've lost 1

Rolling a 2 with no enemies near the objective, I now had 6 of the 13 points needed to win.

Only a 2 this time

Round 3 was a bloodbath. After my warriors had been a bit pillow-fisted in the previous two rounds, they now remembered that they're meant to be elite warriors. Yes I lost my other Castigator, but I took out four models with my three non-leader models (the female Evocator counting for two due to a Rampage).

Not much left by the end of round 3

The highlight, though, was Dollop the Snotling deciding his best play was to pin two of my models in place by running in between them.

Dollop the Brave

I forgot to take a photo of the roll this round, so here's an artist's impression of what it would have looked like:

I rolled a 3, so I'm at 9/13

The final round involved some more killing. My Evocator killed Dollop and then moved to pin Willard in place, who was then finished off by my Sequitor.

Jack failed to do anything so Fee, not wanting to be shown up by his brother Dollop, took a chance and ran in to try and hinder the ritual.

Fee the Also-Brave

With only two wounds left, my leader easily put an end to that!

How the board looked at the end of round 4

So with everyone dead on her team other than Jack, it was time to roll to see if I completed the ritual. I needed a 4+ and rolled a...

I scored 11 out of the 13 needed to win

My wife very graciously offered to count it as a win, because:

1. It was completely random and didn't reflect how the game played
2. Pity
3. She found out we'd have to play the same mission again next time, and again and again and again until I eventually won

I think it was #3 that clinched it.

Aftermath

For me:

• I gained 7 Glory
• My Sequitor gained a Destiny Level
• The female Castigator rolled a 66 for her injury, so gained a Destiny Level!
• I then gave her a Jar of Chamonic Glowflies, so she could count abilities as one level higher for a game
• Most importantly, my leader chose the only not-shit Greater Artefact from this quest:

He can literally throw the book at you

My wife was less lucky when it came to injuries:

• She gained 4 Glory
• Jadwiga got a temporary fractured arm
• Willard Strawbelly got another gut wound, but this time it was permanent :¬(
• Maggie lost her Destiny Level
• Ratatouille also got a temporary fractured arm
• Fee was rewarded for his bravery by dying, but was immediately rehired
• Dollop is now permanently blind in one eye, alongside his permanently fractured arm x-D

Thoughts

My Stormcast finally won a game (sort of)!

We agreed that we'd both had a fun game, but that was in spite of the mission. Asymmetric missions that create uphill battles are one thing, but a mission where both players can sit around and pick their noses for four rounds and the result is entirely dependent on 4D6 is something else.

Looking ahead my final convergence is playing this same mission but as the attacker. I am really looking forward to that :¬/

Warcry House Rules

Warcry is a fun game which is easy to learn, but like most games it needs some tweaks. Below are my house rules, which are designed to make the game more sensible rather than to change the balance.

I'll update these as and when they need it.

Campaign

• RossMM is the GM/Arbitrator/Commissioner for these campaigns, and he reserves the right to make changes, such as helping weaker warbands compete with more powerful ones
• When it comes to earning Glory after a battle, the underdog gets +1 Glory point per 100 points of difference in their warband limits
• Monsters are not allowed
• Mercenaries are not allowed
• If you fail a (non-final) convergence twice (or more!), then you can choose to count as completing it rather than play it again. If you do you don't get Glory for that battle, but you do get the other rewards
• Warbands have a "stash" that contains whatever currency they use: aether-gold, teef, souls, blood, skulls, bottles, whatever
• Any points that are not used in founding their starting gang are added to their stash
• Warbands can spend 1 Glory to add 100 points to their stash
• Models are no longer hired using Glory, but are instead hired using points from their stash
• Models don't really die, they just get so injured that they lose their stuff abd you have to pay to rehire them 
• The Fractured Arm injury affects all attacks, not just melee ones

In game

• Flying isn't measured horizontally; you measure diagonally along the shortest path they would take
• When falling, roll a dice for fall damage for each full 3" that is fallen
• Consumables which are used as an action are used as a bonus free action (otherwise they are mostly useless)

Warband rules

• The Gloomspite Gitz Quad is too powerful, so instead of adding the dice value to all hits, it instead just adds that value to the total damage for that attack action

Warcry Battle Report 3: Sacrosanct Chamber vs. Jack's Pack

Having played two games (here and here) my wife's warband were now onto their first convergence. They're following the Kharadron Overlords quest, and so the mission was as below:

I brought my Sacrosanct Chamber SCE, who were hoping to redeem themselves after their first game.

The scenario

I won the priority roll for deployment and so got to choose who started where as well as the location of two of the three objectives in the mission. Basically the set-up was as follows:

• There were two objectives which I placed in the top-right quarter, one to the east of the tower (on the floor, but we placed it on the roof so it was easier to measure from) and the other not far from the piece of rubble, and one that she placed towards the west
• To win she had to claim at least two of the objectives at the end of round 4
• I picked deployment so that two of her groups would start on the western edge
• My Hammer (just one Evocator) would appear on the western edge, and her closest reinforcements would appear on the southern edge
• The Twist card did nothing: it gave our leaders a bonus when fighting each other in melee, but that was never going to happen

Apt, but of no consequence

The game

I'm afraid I don't have a deployment shot, but here is how things were looking at the start of the second battle round:

Blood is spilled

My leader had made a beeline towards Jadwiga as her shooting is very scary, whilst my Castigator helped out. At the start of round 2 my Dagger reinforcements came in on the northern edge (the right in the picture above) to try to secure the middle objective, and hers came in from the western edge.

Jack and his reinforcements

By the end of round 2 I'd taken out Jadwiga and ran my leader out of sight of Jack, as he was already wounded. My reinforcements had moved forwards, with the Sequitor standing in the one possible position that meant he held both objectives. My reinforcement Castigator had run onto the platform to shoot at Jack, and using his Triple to boost his shooting did... zero damage! I was stupid and should have shot at Ratatouille as I'd have killed him, and getting into a firefight with Jack is a lost cause as he has more wounds and is a better shot. Which was proven when he returned fire and knocked 16(!) wounds off of my Castigator, leaving him with four :¬( Jack also used his consumable artefact to give them D3 extra wild dice next round.

Run away!

The start of round 3 saw our final set of reinforcements come on. I ummed and ahhed about where to place my Evocator. I had initially decided to deploy her in base contact with Ratatouille and Fee (in hindsight the correct decision), but instead got greedy and placed her so that she could take a run at Jack to try and hurt him and lock him down.

My wife's reinforcements came in on the southern edge, to threaten what had previously been the more secure of my two objectives. Apart from Willard, who hid in cover at the top of the statue head as he had only four wounds due to his cracked rib.

Everyone's arrived for the party

Key events this round:

• My Evocator managed to get to Jack in combat and do some damage, but not enough to stop him shooting and killing my Castigator sitting on top of the objective
• My remaining Castigator couldn't shoot at Maggie as my dumb leader was stood in front of her, so she instead fired at Bjork da Orc, doing damage but failing to kill him
• My leader ran to get onto the objective in the ruins
• Szczepan ran forward and hit under the bell tower

Such a brave grot

Round 4 is when things got very tactical. I was thinking that I might be able to win this, as I had some very resilient models that my wife couldn't kill, and a lot of her models were a long way away. But it would mean keeping her southern reinforcements away as well as those coming in from the left. And she still had more bodies than me...

This was by far the most tactical round we'd played out of the three games. There was almost no combat, with it being a mix of wait actions (so many wait actions!) and running around. I'd managed to kill her models on the southern flank with my remaining Castigator, securing that objective. But it meant I only had two models on the objective in the ruin, and no way to steal the one on the western side with both Terry and Ratatouille there.

My wife played very well, waiting out my activations with her larger number of models, and then rushing the objective when I had nothing else to activate. With the final activation of the game, Fee the Snotling ran forward and won the game for her, 2:1!

Fee and injured Willard run forward to secure the objective and win the game!

How the battlefield looked at the end of the game

Aftermath

My Castigator, the one model I lost this game? He died, so I had to spend Glory to hire a new one back. I then rolled for an artefact and got the one that heals injuries, which is useless for these guys (but my Grots would like it!) as no-one is injured. And after three games I'm still yet to gain a Destiny Level. Oh well!

For my wife Willard's cracked rib healed, Jadwiga died but was resurrected, and Dollop the Snotling now has a permanently fractured arm that means he is at -1 Strength (not that big a deal, TBH). Her random artefact was a Vial of Heartwood Sap, which is a consumable that means Jadwiga can heal a visible friendly model D6 wounds.

And most importantly: for winning her convergence my wife chose to give Jack an Aether-Gold Share. Once per game he can trigger this to give all friendlies within 6" +1 Attack. Ouch!

Thoughts

My wife is really good at this game!

This was a really close, fun game. I made some mistakes - trying to go for Jack when I'd have been better off trying to thin the herd - and my wife capitalised on that well. And of all the games to lose, the best ones are someone else's convergence.

The next time we play I think it's time for my Sacrosanct to try to win their convergence. Oh dear...