Different Ways to Play 6: The Trick Build

Welcome back to my irregular multi-part series on playing STAW in different ways, today I deal with perhaps my preferred way of playing, certainly for the last few OPs, the Trick Build.



The Basics

The trick build is often based around an upgrade that robs your opponent of his ability to attack, and often his shields too, although this isn't always the case. For me at least, the trick build is about getting an advantage in the game very quickly so as to ensure that your opponent is a ship down before the game really gets under way. It's easiest for me to explain using a build that I used to win TCW 1 and TCW 2, so some explanation on that build first before I post it (and some explanation of our weird system of house rules too.)

House Rules: When I first started playing at my current venue, the only house rules in place were a general acceptance to not go over the top, which quickly disappeared (certainly my first game was a baptism of fire when a 100 point Borg Tactical Cube came flying across a planet across the board at me turn 1 and nuked one of my ships before I even got started) but as time on we've tried to refine more and more what it is that we want from the game, leading to our current set of house rules. We have a number of experienced players on board, so we made the decision relatively early on not to retire resources, since a new player could easily borrow those resources from us if needs be, we also don't enforce the 50/3 limit, so as to distinguish our own store from others. It's surprising how much fun you can have with only a 120 point dreadnought! As well as these two rules, the other ones of note are that ship purity is enforced, with the exception of independent cards, that can go anywhere, and for the Reinforcement booster missions, we made the decision to go to 160 points (120 plus blind) to mitigate the impact of having a poor blind.

My favourite trick build, is the following:

I.K.S. T'Ong [I.K.S. T'Ong] (24)
Koloth [I.K.S. Gr'oth] (4)
Klingon Boarding Party [I.K.S. Negh'var] (5)
Projected Stasis Field [I.K.S. Gr'oth] (5)
Total (38)

I.K.S. Maht-H'A [Starter] (28)
Martok [I.K.S. Negh'var] (5)
Fleet Captain: Klingon [Fleet Captain Resource] (5)
Lure [U.S.S. Dauntless] (1)
Tactical Officer [I.K.S. T'Ong] (2)
N'Garen [I.K.S. Koraga] (4)
Total (45)

Vor'cha Class [Starter] (26)
Kor [I.K.S. Ning'tao] (5)
Tactical Officer [I.K.S. T'Ong] (2)
Drex [I.K.S. Negh'var] (4)
Total (37)
Fleet total: 120

The idea here is that you use lure to make sure that the opponent's most expensive/hardest hitting ship is in range, then you use the two additional actions that CS 10 Martok gives out to trigger first Projected Stasis Field and then Klingon Boarding Party. With the opponent's shields down, all of their upgrades disabled and unable to shoot, the two Vor'Chas then open fire with Drex/N'Garen for BS conversions and tactical officer, if needed, for re-rolls. There are problems here, since KBP doesn't work on cloaked ships, so a Romulan ship with multiple Interphase Generators may prove a hard nut to crack. I used this build to great effect against a Federation Voyager evade build, reducing it to just 4 durability and then removing all of its agility upgrades. Lure was used to ensure that it was in place for the PSF/KBP hit and then the two Vor'Chas firing at 6 dice thanks to range with great quality easily got rid of it. 

The eponymous tricks in play here are: Lure, PSF, KBP, Klingon Fleet captain and Martok. You can achieve similar without the fleet captain, but you have to change Koloth for GenKhan to ensure simultaneous movement with Martok, and it isn't nearly as reliable in this case, but still do-able and it fits into 50/3 (although not fleet/ship purity). 

Tactics:

As with most of the builds I've been cooking up for this series, this fleet is scuttled by having key aspects of it removed, such as Martok, PSF or KBP. If anything, writing this series has really opened my eyes to how important it is to have things in your build that can scalpel out key aspects of an opponent's build. It should also be noted that the trick build isn't limited to PSF combos, but could also work with Kor 6, Mirror Bashir, Breen Energy Dissipator...basically any card that messes with your opponent's fleet, either in how they can fire, how they can move or what actions they can take. The new Ceti Eel Elite Talent from Wrath of Khan's Indy Reliant prize ship is a great example of a card that can mess with your opponent's plans, and that is essentially all that the Trick Build is about, find new and interesting ways of messing with your opponent.

It's been difficult to give a full and thorough account of this way to play simply because there are so many variants of it. Certainly it is something to consider when playing, as a canny opponent with a good grasp of what to do to mess up your plans can really ruin your day! So make sure to build your fleet with PSF, Madred and Lure in mind, since not planning to deal with trick may be your undoing!

NEXT TIME: Combined Arms Builds