Captain's log, stardate 99627.22;
Sleep: the thing I can't seem to do.
These are the late-night creations of one overly tired Mark.
His god knows how many weeks' mission: explore the limits of copyrights. To seek out and design new Armada and X-Wing stuff. To boldly go where no sane man has gone before!
I am a massive fan of Star Wars, it was my first sci-fi love.
But Trek, Trek is my true love (except for my wife and kid (sorry dear))!
So after first falling in love with X-Wing and then finding out about Star Trek Attack Wing, I was horribly disappointed.
Then I found Armada.
And I (and many other people) believe it is the perfect system for a Star Trek space battle game.
Fast forward a few years and now I create custom cards for both X-Wing and Armada, so it feels fitting for me to create what would be my dream game.
So before I get sidetracked again may I introduce:
Introduction:
2373: Disaster Looms.
Recent Borg attacks and the rising Dominion threat have the galactic powers of the Alpha and Beta quadrants scrambling to gather resources, research and territory to protect themselves from these new threats. Tensions are high and old alliances are fraying with small skirmishes breaking out on an almost daily basis. Although they have not yet led to an all-out war, governments are scrambling every ship possible, even those more suited to being in museums, to protect their interests.
Command your fleet, protect your people and say: “The line must be drawn here! No further!”
Rules:
The Star Trek Armada Miniatures Game uses the rules and components of the Star Wars Armada Miniatures Game and is compatible with the original game too. Because of this ships and points are all scaled to fit in with the original game.
All the rules used in both games are identical with the only difference being the addition of a few tokens and upgrade slots.
New Upgrade Slots:
As this was designed to be both a new version but also a sort of “expansion” to the original game, it was intended for the non-faction specific upgrades of both the Star Trek and Star Wars variants of this game to be used across both games.
However, this would cause some issues as some “generic” Star Trek tech should never get on to Star Wars ships. Luckily these are mostly the weapons, so I've countered this by creating three new upgrade slots for the Star Trek weapons so they can still use each other's generic upgrades without too many issues.
These upgrade slots are;
- Disruptor Cannons:
- Phasers:
- Ordnance Launchers:
The other reason to do this is that the two universes use very different types of weapons. This means the attack dice, although the same functionally, represent different weapons on the Star Trek ships:
Black Dice
These now represent the close range pulse weapons we see on ships like the Defiant and Klingon Bird of Prey. These are imprecise but deadly weapons that can cripple enemy ships at close range. The new Disruptor Cannons upgrade slot will work with these dice.
Blue Dice
These now represent the mid-range Phasers made famous by the Federation, however, they were in widespread use across the galaxy. These are less deadly but much more precise weapons and by the time of the 24th century, they were mainly built into Phaser Strips giving them almost 360 degrees coverage. The new Phaser upgrade slot will work with these dice.
Red Dice
These dice represent the much longer ranged Torpedoes used by most Star Trek species. These normally came in the Photon variety but others like Quantum and Plasma were also in use. As standard, it is assumed red dice are Photon Torpedoes, and upgrades will improve them or change them out for different types. The new Ordnance Launcher upgrade slot will work with these dice.
Style:
To suit the Star Trek ships, this “expansion” redesigns the ship, upgrade cards and defence tokens to match the Federation’s LCARS operating system seen on their 24th-century ships. These ship cards, upgrade cards and defence tokens still hold all the normal information on their Star Wars Armada counterparts, except they take some inspiration from the X-Wing 2.0 upgrades where the cards are designed to overlap.
The different colours of defence tokens are for aesthetics only!
Factions:
As this “expansion” adds large numbers of ships and crew, they are not just being placed into existing factions.
The new factions I’ve created include:
United Federation Of Planets:
The UFP’s more pacifist stance on warfare means their ships are less aggressive than most ships in Star Wars/Trek Armada. Because of this, the faction is built towards durability and flexibility. This is also reflected in their faction's Fleet Command, Preservation Over Extermination, an upgrade that lets the Federation still gain the victory points of an enemy ship as long as they have crippled it.
Klingon Empire:
These proud warriors are unlikely to back down from a flight and because of this both their ships and upgrades reflect it. They concentrate on devastating barrages, with front-heavy attacks that rival the Empire’s best Star Destroyers, while their upgrades concentrate on either modifying those attacks or giving them as many attacks as possible.
Romulan Star Empire:
The secretive and xenophobic Romulans are masters of espionage and keeping their own people in line with fear. Because of this, Romulan upgrades are designed to either give you inside knowledge of your enemies movements or make your crew, teams or even admirals disappear to motivate the rest of your fleet to perform better, thanks to the work of the Tal Shiar’s best agents.
New Tokens:
Although this “expansion” does not change any of the existing Star Wars Armada rules, it does add a few new tokens to the game;
- Cloak Defence Token:
At the beginning of the Status Phase, ships may spend this defence token to gain a Cloaked token.
- Cloaked Tokens:
Ships with 1 or more Cloaked tokens cannot perform attacks and are treated as having no shields in their hull zones.
When a ship with 1 or more Cloaked tokens becomes the target of an attack, the attacker must roll a blue attack die. If an accuracy icon is rolled, the defender chooses and removes half of the attack dice rounded down otherwise the attacker cannot roll attack dice during this attack.
At the beginning of the Status Phase, ships must discard their Cloaked tokens (they can then spend a Cloak defence token to gain a new Cloaked token).
New Rules:
Although this “expansion” does not change any of the existing Star Wars Armada rules, it does add some new rules;
Removing Defence Token/Effects
If an upgrade has this symbol, it removes a matching defence token or effect like the ability to ready the upgrade.
Wide Base Ships:
This icon on a ship card indicates that a ship’s front hull zone is the top hull zone on the ship card. This means it uses a specialized base that is the same size as one of the three other ship bases but is rotated 90 degrees so the ship flies sideways.
Example:
Rotation Moves:
When a ship has this icon in its speed chart it means a player can use their that ship’s movement phase to rotate that ship instead of moving.
The arrow indicates the direction a ship can rotate (clockwise or anti-clockwise) and the speed collum the arrow is in indicates the number of times it must rotate.
For example, while a ship with this speed chart is at speed 1, it can use its movement to either execute a normal manouvre with a yaw of 2 or rotate its ship base 90 degrees once either clockwise or anti-clockwise.
Rotating:
When a ship rotates a player must mark off the front corner it’s rotating from (front right corner for clockwise and front left corner for anti-clockwise), then rotate the ship and place it touching the other front corner.
If a ship can not be placed while rotating, treat it like normal movement, rotate the ship 1 speed less until it can be placed.
What Ships Will Be Released:
I plan to begin to release the ships of wave 1 from tomorrow starting with the Galaxy-Class and alternating between the factions every two-three days.
United Federation of Planets:
Galaxy-Class Ship Pack:
This pack includes the printable images for 2 ship cards, 2 base plates and 9 upgrade cards:
Galaxy-Class Explorer (Medium Ship)
Galaxy X-Class Dreadnaught (Medium Ship)
USS Enterprise D (Title)
USS Yamato (Title)
Jean Luc Picard (Commander)
William Riker (Officer)
Data (Officer)
Deanna Troi (Officer)
Worf (Weapons Team)
Geordi La Forge (Support Team)
Preservation Over Extermination (Fleet Command)
Intrepid-Class Ship Pack:
This pack includes the printable images for 2 ship cards, 2 base plates, 8 upgrade cards and 2 squadron cards:
Intrepid-Class Long Range Explorer (Small Ship)
Intrepid-Class Defensive Cruiser (Small Ship)
USS Voyager (Title)
USS Bellerophon (Title)
Catherine Janeway (Commander)
Chakotay (Officer)
Seven of Nine (Officer)
Tuvok (Weapons Team)
B'elanna Torres (Support Team)
The Doctor (Support Team)
Tom Paris (Squadron)
Delta Flyer Squadron (Squadron)
Defiant-Class Ship Pack:
This pack includes the printable images for 2 ship cards, 2 base plates, 8 upgrade cards and 2 squadron cards:
Defiant-Class Escort Vessel (Small Ship)
Defiant-Class Warship (Small Ship)
USS Defiant (Title)
USS Valliant (Title)
Benjamin Sisko (Command)
Kira Nerys (Officer)
Jadzia Dax (Officer)
Nog (Weapons Team)
Miles O’Brien (Support Team)
Julian Bashir (Support Team)
Michael Eddington (Squadron)
Peregrine Attack Squadron (Squadron)
Klingon Empire:
Neg’Var-Class Ship Pack:
This pack includes the printable images for 2 ship cards, 2 base plates and 9 upgrade cards:
Neg’Var-Class Flagship (Large Ship)
Neg’Var-Class Warship (Large Ship)
IKS Neg’Var (Title)
IKS Kang (Title)
Gowron (Command)
Kor (Officer)
Koloth (Officer)
Kang (Weapons Team)
Klingon Surgeon (Support Team)
Klingon Warriors (Boarding Team)
A Good Day To Die! (Fleet Command)
Vor’Cha-Class Ship Pack:
This pack includes the printable images for 2 ship cards, 2 base plates, 8 upgrade cards and 2 squadron cards:
Vor’Cha-Class Assault Cruiser (Medium Ship)
Vor’Cha-Class Attack Cruiser (Medium Ship)
IKS Bortas (Title)
IKS Maht-H'a (Title)
K'Mpec (Command)
Duras (Officer)
Grilka (Officer)
Nu'Daq (Support Team)
Kurak (Support Team)
Klingon Engineers (Support Team)
Dahar Masters (Squadron)
Toron-Class Squadron (Squadron)
B'rel-Class Bird Of Prey:
This pack includes the printable images for 2 ship cards, 2 base plates, 8 upgrade cards and 2 squadron cards:
B'rel-Class Bird Of Prey Scout (Small Ship)
B'rel-Class Bird Of Prey Strike Craft (Small Ship)
IKS Rotarran (Title)
Chang's Bird Of Prey (Title)
Martok (Command)
Lursa (Officer)
B'Etor (Officer)
Chang (Officer)
Alexander Rozhenko (Weapons Team)
Klingon Gunners (Weapons Team)
Koral (Squadron)
Kivar-Class Squadron (Squadron)
Romulan Star Empire:
D’Deridex-Class Ship Pack:
This pack includes the printable images for 2 ship cards, 2 base plates and 9 upgrade cards:
D’Deridex-Class Tal Shiar Command Ship (Large Ship)
D’Deridex-Class Warbird (Large Ship)
IRW Khazara (Title)
IRW Haakona (Title)
Sela (Command)
N’Vek (Officer)
Selok (Officer)
Mendak (Weapons Team)
Singularity Engineers (Support Team)
Tal Shiar Hijackers (Boarding Team)
Under The Tal Shiar’s Watchful Eye! (Fleet Command)
Valdore-Class Ship Pack:
This pack includes the printable images for 2 ship cards, 2 base plates, 8 upgrade cards and 2 squadron cards:
Valdore-Class Assault Warbird (Large Ship)
Valdore-Class Torpedo Warbird (Large Ship)
IRW Valdore (Title)
IRW Aethra (Title)
Donatra (Command)
Koval (Officer)
Toreth (Officer)
Tal Shiar Agent (Officer)
Suran (Weapons Team)
T'rul (Support Team)
Vreenak (Squadron)
Kestrel-Class Squadron (Squadron)
Lanora-Class Ship Pack:
This pack includes the printable images for 2 ship cards, 2 base plates, 8 upgrade cards and 2 squadron cards:
Lanora-Class Attack Ships (Small Ship)
Lanora-Class Patrol Ships (Small Ship)
IRW Pi (Title)
IRW Vo (Title)
Kimara Cretak (Command)
Tomalak (Officer)
Centurion (Officer)
Patahk (Weapons Team)
Telek R'Mor (Support Team)
Mirok (Support Team)
Alidar Jarok (Squadron)
Lanora-Class Scout (Squadron)
What's Next?
Wave 2 will contain six ships split into two new factions, the Cardassian Union and Dominion, bringing us up to five factions each with three ships. I have the ideas for ten waves so far and hope to release a new wave once every one or two months just to spread them out (I’ve already got waves two, three and most of four made).
I hope you all enjoyed this look into Star Trek Armada and will see you tomorrow with the first of hopefully many Star Trek Armada ships!
Thank you all for reading.
Watcher Leader out.
Computer end log.
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