STAW: State of the Game
Interested in Star Trek Attack Wing? Get caught up on some current events!
Hey everyone! Raven Jax here again to get you up to speed on what’s going on with Star Trek Attack Wing. If you’re a new player – or just want to get caught up – here’s what’s happening right now with the game:
New Rules
The game isn’t getting an overhaul like 40K, but WizKids has said they’ll release an updated version of the rules soon that should clarify a couple topics of confusion among the player base. The current rules are available for free on WizKids’ website, so there’s a good bet the new rules will be free to download when released as well.
Wave Releases
Like X-Wing, the majority of STAW ships come in blister-packs of one ship model and lots of upgrade cards. For the next few waves at least, WizKids won’t be releasing new ships into stores. Instead, they’ll produce reprints of existing ships with updated paint schemes. It’s a good thing for new players, since some of the ships have been out of print since the game began in 2013.
Faction Packs
That doesn’t mean no new ships will be released, however. Veteran players are keeping their eyes out for Faction Packs. WizKids has said they’ll be releasing these soon to provide new ships and upgrades for the game. Rumors are swirling, but so far it looks like each pack will have four new ship cards, with associated captains and upgrades. Lots of players are hoping to get fresh ship cards for models that currently only have one or two to their name.
Unpainted Ships
And for miniature-painting fans out there, WizKids will be releasing a series of unpainted models for some of the most famous and popular ships in Star Trek.
Organized Play
WizKids releases a new organized play event – or OP – about once a month, but most people are expecting that soon to increase to one every two months. The OP’s are the “tournaments,” where you can go to your local game store and play to win prizes. They’re all based around an episode of the Star Trek TV show, or one of the movies, and WizKids supports the events with prizes for placement and participation. The most recent one was based on “Drive,” an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, and featured starship racing.
WizKids hasn’t announced a new OP yet. The rumor at the moment is that the company will put a temporary pause on OP’s, and won’t announce new ones for at least another two months.
Part of the reason is likely because there have been issues with getting the OP kits to stores in a timely manner, with some stores almost 6 months behind in running tournaments. So WizKids might be taking a slight pause for stores to get caught up on events before they start releasing more.
DS9 Runabout – maybe?
New Models
Of course one thing everyone’s got their eye on is new models for the game. WizKids recently announced the fourth Star Trek expansion to their Heroclix game. The very first STAW models were just repurposed from the first Heroclix expansion released in 2011. Since WizKids has used the same molds for both, many players are keeping their eyes on Heroclix to see what new model sculpts might be coming out and what we might get in STAW. Right now, there’s already been confirmation that a Klingon ship from JJ Abram’s reboot will be in Heroclix. WizKids has also hinted that Runabouts – primarily from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – will be coming to STAW as well.
Discovery
As has been reported on BOLS and other websites, the planned Star Trek: Discovery TV show appears to be in trouble after several repeated delays. Should the show make it to TV however, there’s a good chance that ships and characters from Discovery will eventually show up in STAW.
Controversies
Of course, if we’re talking current events, there’s going to be some controversies for any game. Here are the ones STAW is currently dealing with.
What did you do Ray?
ENTERPRISE E
Star Trek currently has a popular MMO game called Star Trek: Online. WizKids announced they would be doing a partnership with the game. Most players considered this to be good. WizKids announced they would put a code for a free Online ship into the reprint of the STAW Enterprise E expansion. Most players considered this to be good.
However, WizKids seriously underestimated the demand, especially from Online players who only wanted the code. The Enterprise E expansion was gone almost as soon as it hit shelves, and the scarcity quickly meant it was selling for nearly $75 online. (Normal retail is $15).
The Enterprise E was one of the reprints I mentioned earlier, meant to get the expansion into the hands of newer players. But the fact that buying the expansion and getting a code was easier than earning the Online ship in-game meant the video game players scooped them up.
WizKids said they’d do a second printing of the Enterprise E – which was gone almost as soon as the first and did nothing to drive down the price. Rumors abound that WizKids is either going to do a third printing of the Enterprise E, or just make sure they enlarge the print run the next time they stick an Online code in an expansion.
REVERSE COURSE
This one’s pretty new, but represents a lot of player anger about the game. The U.K. nationals of STAW were just held in early May, and many lists featured an upgrade card called “Reverse Course,” which lets you change your maneuver to go backwards.
Calling the card powerful isn’t quite right. It was powerful in certain situations. But it wasn’t really back-breaking and was easily adapted to by many veteran STAW players. Plus, it opened up a range of possibilities for ship-building and list-building that got a lot of people excited to try something new.
After the tournament, WizKids errata’d the card with an online ruling, saying you needed to discard it after one use.
The anger in the community currently isn’t so much about the card, but about WizKids’ handling of it, which many felt to be a nerf that went too far. The change means many of the lists people were looking forward to trying out won’t work.
~ That’s what the game looks like right now. Feel free to leave any questions or comments below.
