After desperately trying to avoid the game for since it came out a week or so ago Richard Cook came round and gave showed me the new game from Wizkids... A Star Trek version of my beloved X-Wing Start Wars game. They managed to licence the 'Flight Path' mechanics from Fantasy Flight Games and fit it into the Star Trek universe.
Now Star Wars is my true gaming love, Star Trek I had never gamed at all in any form and really my frame of reference for Star Trek came from 'The Original Series' or TOS as us nerds call it and a couple of the films, which I have to admit I was no great fan off mainly due to the fact it wasn't 'real Star Trek'. For a start there wasn't my dad admonishing the world that Kirk was about to, "Dip his bread," again, much to the chagrin of my mother (a reference I did not 'get' until I was an awful lot older). I was also convinced it was just going to be the same game but wouldn't be right as the ships were capital ships not fighters. But I was willing to give it a go.
Now Star Wars is my true gaming love, Star Trek I had never gamed at all in any form and really my frame of reference for Star Trek came from 'The Original Series' or TOS as us nerds call it and a couple of the films, which I have to admit I was no great fan off mainly due to the fact it wasn't 'real Star Trek'. For a start there wasn't my dad admonishing the world that Kirk was about to, "Dip his bread," again, much to the chagrin of my mother (a reference I did not 'get' until I was an awful lot older). I was also convinced it was just going to be the same game but wouldn't be right as the ships were capital ships not fighters. But I was willing to give it a go.
You certainly get a lot in the box. So an hour later I had a game under my belt. I was also left slightly gutted. Why? Well, because I hate to have to report that is is probably a 'better' game mechanics wise. It has more depth than X-Wing and (this real hurts me to say) feels more like Star Trek than X-Wing feels like Star Wars.
The mechanics are basically the same but its the little things like being able to 'disable' weapon and ability cards when used and then pay an action to get them back instead of having to discard them which make all the difference. Also the interplay of the cards has more depth to them, possibly because you tend to use more cards per ship. A-Wing relies more on the interplay of the crew you pick rather than the 'upgrades' - although weapons are handy. The ships are on the whole less manoeuvrable, obviously as they are supposed to be big ships, but many can 'reverse' which adds a dimension to the movement. The scenarios are good and its here the 'feel' comes in - beaming down crew onto the planet token felt good. I must admit I have stayed with the TOS ships so far - mainly so I can have Kirk, Spock etc but also because then I can take tribbles - yep everyones favourite troublesome over cute ball of cotton wool make an appearance, enhancing your dice rolls, obviously as everyone is feeling good, until they start taking over and become a distraction (one adds a tribble token every turn) at which point its time to beam them onto an unshielded ship (especially good if you can find a Klingon to do it to). Cloaking, getting more thrust, warp core damage - its all there. AND yes its better!
The mechanics are basically the same but its the little things like being able to 'disable' weapon and ability cards when used and then pay an action to get them back instead of having to discard them which make all the difference. Also the interplay of the cards has more depth to them, possibly because you tend to use more cards per ship. A-Wing relies more on the interplay of the crew you pick rather than the 'upgrades' - although weapons are handy. The ships are on the whole less manoeuvrable, obviously as they are supposed to be big ships, but many can 'reverse' which adds a dimension to the movement. The scenarios are good and its here the 'feel' comes in - beaming down crew onto the planet token felt good. I must admit I have stayed with the TOS ships so far - mainly so I can have Kirk, Spock etc but also because then I can take tribbles - yep everyones favourite troublesome over cute ball of cotton wool make an appearance, enhancing your dice rolls, obviously as everyone is feeling good, until they start taking over and become a distraction (one adds a tribble token every turn) at which point its time to beam them onto an unshielded ship (especially good if you can find a Klingon to do it to). Cloaking, getting more thrust, warp core damage - its all there. AND yes its better!
The only saving grace as I am feeling that I am cheating on X-Wing is that the models appear not to be anywhere near as good as the X-Wing models. This gave me quite a bit of satisfaction until today - why today? I hear you ask. Well it was today I decided that I couldn't make them worse by trying to repaint them with a bit of a wash and drybrush (which is something which is very likely to happen if one tries it with the X-Wing ships.
ARgggggghhhhhhhh....
ARgggggghhhhhhhh....
Even after a quick wash and a base dry brush (before more dry brush and detailing) the ships look a lot lot better, in fact the models are as good, its the pre-paint which is crap. DAMN... Am I going to have to admit this game is better all round?