Attack Wing & Armada

 “Size matters not.”

— Yoda

My son and I have been playing some Star Trek: Attack Wing scenarios recently, part of his exploration of the wide-ranging Star Trek franchise. In our past gaming endeavors we’ve indulged in Star Wars gaming, too (yet another franchise we love), including the X-wing Miniatures Game and Star Wars: Armada. Over the years we’ve managed to acquire fleets for those games to play engagements that catered to our interests as fans. While X-wing deals with fighter squadrons, Attack Wing and Armada feature massive capital ships. Although based on the foundations of the “FligthPath” system used in X-wing (and licensed for Attack Wing), the capital ships games play very differently from each other. While Attack Wing sticks closer to X-wing, Armada makes many adaptations to accommodate the larger ships, becoming a different game with similarities to its forebear. They’re both enjoyable games with solid systems for commanding capital ships in their respective fictional universes. After playing each for a while — and more recently enjoying our exploits with Attack Wing — I find, in the long term, I like Attack Wing more.

Exploring Star Trek Again

 “It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.”

— Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Kirk and Khan pass nearby, trading shots,
in a Star Trek: Attack Wing game.

We’re a fandom family. Even so, our enthusiasm has limits; like most fans, we have our favorite films, books, and television/streaming shows. It’s not comprehensive. Even within a genre we can’t watch and read everything, nor must we like one thing because we happen to enjoy another, similar thing. Some past media fades as our interests change (and sometimes as the media changes). But overall we enjoy immersing ourselves in fantastic fictional universes that cater to our tastes. Star Trek remains perhaps one of the oldest fandoms among science fiction aficionados. And yet I suppose I’d characterize my activities regarding Star Trek over the years as “dabbling.” But now my teenage son’s getting interested in it after seeing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on the big screen (after a viewing of the classic Trek episode “Space Seed” that introduces Khan). So we as a family are exploring it (again, for some of us) and we’re enjoying some father-son Star Trek gaming, too.