Star Trek Alliance Campaign Pt1

21st December 2024

Barry

10 mins

For quite some time we’ve run a couple of campaigns of Star Trek Alliance: Dominion War, and over the weekend we approached the end of Part 2. For the uninitiated, Alliance is a cooperative campaign using the foundations of Star Trek Attack Wing by Wizkids and is developed by Josh Derksen of Lynnvander Studios who created Heroes of the Aturi Cluster.

Set in the later seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the game takes players through the various battles of the show working together against wings of “AI” ships to complete objectives and more importantly survive.

Neither of those tasks come easily, at times finding yourself completely outnumbered, losing one player generally results in losing XP, the mission or perhaps even the campaign. Limited to the upgrades provided in the boxes, you won’t find the gross power creep that unfortunately defined much of Attack Wing’s competitive scene.

I like my custom printed Warbird…

For this campaign I’ve made a point of playing as the Romulans from the outset – a difficult proposition that is actually not suggested as they have some very poor choices for starting ships. All my points went into trying to get to a Warbird, and then try to make that seem remotely as good as my Federation and Klingon companions. We all have our strengths, and mine is mostly getting around and flanking – though my attack output could generally be described as utter crap and the Federation and Klingons definitely have been carrying.

A Time to Stand

You guys can enjoy that.

Today that changes – because the mission terrain includes a pulsar which complicates shooting around them without taking a scan action. Fun fact…Klingons don’t have that action, so they can’t really do much heavy lifting here. I can absolutely do that action and use it to remove enemy tokens which in this case will manipulate the enemy target selection.

A proper mess…

This mission seems simple enough, destroy at least one enemy ship per player and then retreat to our board edge in rounds 10, 11 or 12. So as we so often do, we started as a block. This is almost always a mistake as we have varying initiatives and dials – and once you get into the mix with the enemy it can become an absolute nightmare to untangle.

Noting this I decided to go around the long way to try and flank the enemy. Of course, the enemy spawns right in front of me and so the Federation comes to the rescue while I try to get around only to find myself face checking a battleship resulting in losing my shields.

So close…

In turn we did manage to destroy it.

Also I’m now behind the enemy and it’s time to get to work – and now I start doing some heavy lifting this time. Perhaps going a bit mad with power or perhaps it was the chance for more experience points I try to keep the fight going and kill more enemies. The dice rolls don’t quite come off overall for the team and so I finally agree to escape to the board edge only to find that I came up frustratingly short end of turn 12.

So I’m destroyed and don’t get the bonus experience.

Behind The Lines

Aren’t Klingons meant to lead the fight?

I’ve re-jigged my build so I can shoot something outside of my primary arc – though only within range 1 so I still need to get in close. I’ve also increased my Captain Skill (initiative) to match the rest of the team.

For this mission we decide to split up, with the Klingons following me as we go hunting the objective which is a space station in the far corner of the map. A couple of Dominion fighters pop out to meet us though we’re able to easily avoid them and target the station, stripping all the shields. Ando in his Bird of Prey, having hung back to cover us is cornered by three more fighters. He gets tangled up with them and actually coming out kind of lucky that they can’t attack him with any real effect.

You got this buddy!

Meanwhile, the Federation had bit off more that they could chew and needed to run so it’s up to TheSean and I to clean the mess up. Alex has lost all his shields (but don’t worry, he always gets them back) and they’re attempting to claim the moral highground of softening the enemy up (questionable) and taking out the station (needing one hit so…questionable).

Looking back to Ando it looks like he’s completely cooked, now having three Cardassian ships chasing after him and the Dominion fighters. He really does know how to pick them yet somehow manages to avoid getting destroyed.

This is fine says the Federation.

Between TheSean and I we manage to clear out most of the enemy, and there’s a Dominon Battleship there tempting us with extra XP if we can destroy it. We debate the merits of slow rolling or trying to run for the board edge to escape like the rest of the team.

The slow roll would have been better.

I tried to shield TheSean’s ship from taking extra hits but fell a bit short and he’s destroyed. Outgunned and unable to score those extra points, I decided to make a run for the border. Being able to effectively do two moves ensures I’m out of reach and escape this time without any issues.

Debrief

Okay sometimes I get a good roll…

It’s always a good idea to keep track of the round counter clearly. Sometimes the best laid plans are undone by the games’ “AI” which throws itself into the fray without any concerns – and bumping really undermines players abilities writ-large. We’re also getting to the point in our campaign where the volume of enemy ships can overwhelm someone unfortunate enough to be in range.

And despite being in the latest release the Romulans really struggle to match either the Federation’s utility and survivability or the Klingon’s damage output. They exist stuck somewhere in between and so I’m hoping to find that upgrade that makes it sing before I’m left too far behind.

If you are looking for a nice little co-operative game I do recommend having a look at Alliance as it provides everything you need in the box for two players and it scales really well for up six players.