Admiral? Admiral!

They weren't in the game to start with, but Admirals are becoming an increasingly important part of people's builds. Most factions have them, and since they are limited to one per fleet, choosing your admiral has become an important part of list building. Trouble is that there are good, bad and downright useless admirals in the game, so how do we go about choosing them?

Federation

As with most things, federation have access to a variety of them. They also have a pretty good mix of good, bad and downright useless captains:

Admiral Kirk (+2)

Kirk was (I think) the first Admiral to be released (at the same time as Admiral Dukat) and his fleet action is somewhat useful, allowing you to disable an enemy upgrade at range 1. Kirk also provides an elite talent slot. Having said all of this I don’t find myself using him all that much, the ability is useful and the CS bonus nice, but there are better options available in faction, like our next guy…

Admiral Forrest (+1)

Forrest was in the final round at worlds, and that’s because his feet action is brilliant. Allowing additional movement is good at the best of times, but Forrest’s ability allows you to perform a white 1 straight, turn or bank, even if those manoeuvres aren’t on your dial. This is especially useful for the Federation, whose bigger ships tend to have downright awful dials, even Voyager, which is supposed to be a nimble ship, has a pretty dreadful dial. Forrest gets around that and gives you a way to mitigate even the worst dials. The CS bonus is nice, but you run Forrest for the Fleet Action.

Admiral Dougherty (+1)

At 3 Sp, Dougherty costs the same as Forrest, offers the same CS bonus, but at the cost of having one of the worst Fleet Actions going (not the worst, oh no, more on that later). At the cost of an action and a disable, you can use Dougherty’s fleet action to roll an additional Defence dice each time you defend. That’s like 0.375 of an evade! Unless you are coming under really heavy fire from a lot of weak ships (and even then…) you are better off taking an evade action that using Dougherty. It’s no surprise to me to see him never played – but he isn’t the worst Federation admiral..

Admiral Pressman (-1)

…because Eric Pressman is! For one point fewer than Dougherty (and Forrest) you get -1 to your captain skill (that’s right, -1) and the ability to disable/discard tech upgrades for extra attack dice – but only for your primary weapon. The diable version of the action gets you a 50/50 chance of doing extra damage and the discard gets you an extra 75% chance. You may as well Target lock or Battle Stations as your action, since that will improve each dice you already roll by 25%, won’t cost you a disable/discard and you won’t feel quite so hollow inside into the bargain. Some people have said that Pressman’s -1 CS makes for some interesting shenanigans with captain skill, but I just don’t see it. 

For Federation, Forrest is the stand out choice, and the Admiral who most often sees plsy in my builds.

Klingons

Klingons had to wait a while to get an Admiral and to this day they don’t really have any admirals of  the same calibre of Forrest. 

Admiral Gorkon (+1)

An odd ability that is essentially the same as an evade token, but will sometimes be better and sometimes worse. Gorkon’s real strength is in adding command skill to Martok 8, who will be able to give his extra free action onto virtuallly any other ship. The only situation in which this is a valid tactic, in feet pure pay, is when Martok is in the same fleet as young Kor from the Ning’Tao expansion, otherwise Gorkon is an expensive evade action.

Admiral Martok (+1)

True dice quality has not been as immediately available to Klingons as it is to some other races – With one exception, none of their ships has an innate BS action and upgrades like Drex, Aexander and N’Garen have been the staple alternatives. Martok’s Fleet Action gives you +1 Attack Dice at the cost of a Defense dice and an Action. Also into the bargain you get a conversion from a Hit into a critical hit. As with Pressman, you’d be better off just taking a Target Lock action or Drex to achieve more or less the same effect without suffering the cost, both of having one fewer defence dice and not being able to take Martok 8. Opportunity cost is often the biggest consideration for admirals.

So as far as Klingons go, there isn’t really an Admiral I’d choose to take. 

Romulans

Early on in the game (Certainly before the Scimitar and Haakona) Romulans really strugged from a lack of captains (they still don’t really have an out and out Tier 1 captain) but both of their admirals now see some use.

Admiral Hiren (+1)

Hiren’s fleet action is nothing special and similar to Pressman’s action. The two reedeming factors for Hiren are his low cost (1 SP) and CS boost. There are many occasions where I have a point to spare and boosting a captain’s skill by 1 for a point isn’t a bad use for that point. Taking Hiren does stop you from taking the alternative though, and he is pretty badass.

Admiral Mendak (+2)

Mendak’s fleet action is downright nasty – especially in a fleet that otherwise struggles to get access to BS. The fact that the action can be used to place the BS token on another ship makes him even better. Add into the mix the high CS bonus, and Mendak is 4 SP well spent.

It depends how many points I have to spend and whether or not Mendak is being used as a captain, but 9 times out of 1 Mendak commands my Romulan fleets.

Dominion

Admiral Gul Dukat (+1)

Of all the Fleet Actions that increase the number of attack dice rolled, Dukat’s is the best because it doesn’t come with an associated cost. Unfortunatley, the fleet action is not great and Dukat’s biggest draw back is that he stops you from taking Dukat 7, the best Captain the Dominion have to offer.

Admiral Gul Madred (+2)

Madred is downright awesome. I’ve spoken about his synergy with Lemec on the Reklar before, but even without that bonus, Madred can be the scourge of any build that relies upon a captain for a brilliant combo (Like my Archer combo that just plain stopped working thanks to Madred!) Add to that the +2 CS bonus and Madred sits in the same group as Mendak.

I’ve never taken Admiral Dukat ever, and I doubt I ever will. Madred features in most of my Dominion fleets thought.

Borg

The Borg faction doesn’t have many named unique captains, and only the one admiral. I rarely take her, but her ability is somewhat useful.

Admiral Borg Queen (+2)

In my opinion, the key to a good admiral is the ability for a ship other than the one taking the fleet action to benefit from the fleet action. The Borg Queen’s fleet action does just that, and makes building a support ship a little easier. The CS boost is not to be sniffed at, but the real downside is that you can’t take either of the other 2 Borg Queens if you take her. I have run her with Locutus in the past to have a Borg ship with a really high Captain skill, but it isn’t worth it in most situations.

More often than not, the collective does not require an Admiral.

Mirror Universe

For some reason, the Mirror Universe is overrun with admirals. When Admiral Riker is released on the Pasteur expansion they will have access to as many as the Federation. Like the federation they have a pretty mixed bag though.

Admiral Worf (+0)

Worf follows in the mould of Mendak and the Borg Queen where the ship taking the action is not the one to benefit from it. In ST:AW the most scarce resource is the ability to attack. There are very few abilities in the game that allow someone to attack more than once, and when that additional attack takes place in the activation phase, rather than in combat, it is even better (since most defensive bonuses don’t function in the activation phase) Worf does just that. There isn’t much in the way of opportunity cost either, since crew Worf is rarey seen in MU fleets.

Admiral Black (+1)

The first of two admirals that came with the same expansion, Black is a neat little card that allows a ship to sensor echo. Extra movement is king at the moment in STAW and Black allows you to do that, not to be sniffed at!

Admiral Gardner (+0)

Similar to Hiren and Martok, Gardner’s fleet action gives bonus attack dice at the cost of both -1 defence die every time you defend and the inability to take any free actions, giving you any kind of quality on that boosted attack. He doesn’t even give you any CS bonus. Avoid.

Worf is perhaps not as in vogue as he once was, but he still has intra-faction synergy with the ISS Defiant and ISS Avenger, so he’s the candidate for admiral from amongst these 3, if one is to be taken.

Bajorans

Just one here….

Admiral Jaro (+1)

In a similar mould to Hiren, Jaro costs jus the 1 SP and gives you a bonus to your CS, in addition, he also gives an Elite Talent slot, and whilst I don’t think his fleet action is all that good, for the two reasons above, he’ll see play in most of the Bajoran fleets that I run.

Vulcans

Again, flying solo, it’s V’las

Admiral V’las

A similar flleet action to Kirk’s, although only targeting crew upgrades and working out to range 2, V’las is cheap enough to make the bonus CS and ET worhtwhile. I have literally never run a Vulcan Fleet without him!

So there are some choices there and Admirals do have a part to play in fleet building, but they aren’t always a must take addition. I’d rank them as follows-

Top Tier-

Worf, Mendak, Borg Queen – All able to use their fleet action to aid other ships in the fleet, perfect on support ships.

High Tier-

Madred, Kirk, Forrest, Black – provide interesting abilities to the ship that uses their action

Mid Tier-

Jaro, V’las,  Hiren, Gorkon – Mainly for the CS bonus

Low Tier-

Dougherty, Pressman, Martok, Dukat, Gardner – Less than useless.

Any comments and feedback either here or on FB welcome as always,

I’m Still not Picard,

D