A Blast From the Past! Wave Zero: USS Enterprise

Star Trek Attack Wing is a game that is in almost constant shift. With each new wave the game re-invents itself. Whether or not you like the rapid release schedule that Wizkids has blessed/cursed us with, the game moves so quickly that it is often easy to forget old expansions in favour of new and shiny new releases.

So what I thought I would do, over a series of reviews of individual expansion, is go right back to the start and have a look at some old expansions to see what they still have to offer. Maybe some cards won't see much use, maybe some cards have been overlooked by the new releases and still have some uses even though they have been replaced (it's worth noting that some releases contain new and improved versions of old cards, but the advantage therein is that you can now take multiples of similar cards!).

To start with I thought I'd take a look at the ship that started it all, the USS Enterprise!

Ship:
USS Enterprise/Constitution class

The constitution class spaceframe has a slashline of 3/1/4/2 (3 shields on the named version) which means that it can be a pretty cheap fighter carrier craft. 3 attack isn't great but federation have couple of tricks for solving that particular problem: Type 8 Phasers and Upgraded Phasers. For just 5 points, the pillow-fisted USS Enterprise can become a 5 dice monster (well, not monster, but still, 5 dice is nice). What really makes the named Enterprise stand out is two fold: Its named ability, allowing actions to be taken regardless of the presence of an APT, and its available upgrade slots: an unmatched 4 crew, and 1 weapon. There are so many cards that synergise well with this ship it is untrue, but the two notable mentions are Kathryn Janeway, who allows you to double up on actions at the cost of an APT (so what!) and Enhanced Hull Plating, which allows you to take up to two Aux tokens to cancel hits. The 22 SP base cost and all of those available slots means that the USS Enterprise can be a great ship to build combos on, and makes it still a viable choice even in the modern metagame.

Grade: B-

Captains:
James T. Kirk is skill 9. I often choose captains entirely based on their CS, so having a skill 9 option (one of very few base CS9 cards in the game, in a club with Shinzon, Picard 9, Locutus, Borg Queen 9 and Martok 9) is in itself an advantage. His named ability is okay (having 2 elite talents face down for 3 SP each) but given that elite talents themselves aren't all that game breaking (with a few notable exceptions) and being limited to Fed talents only, makes it situational at best. Most frequently I've seen him deployed with double Cheat Death, which makes his ship more survivable, but isn't perhaps the best use of points.

Grade: B-

Christopher Pike is a card that I love, because of its combo building potential. When coupled with Indy fleet captain klingon, Pike allows you to take crew at -2 SP, which in the 50/3 meta can make things really interesting. That being said, with Fleet Captains about to go to the great resource retirement home in the sky, his utility is limited somewhat.

Grade: C

Crew:

Hikaru Sulu is still a staple in defence focused builds. He isn't action friendly, but having an extra 2 agility and getting a free BS conversion can significantly improve the survivability of a ship, especially when coupled with his near twin, Hood Riker. Still useful.

Grade: B-

Mr Spock now competes with Captain Spock for a place in most builds, but his ability, basically allowing you to take BS and Scan every turn, is nothing to be sniffed at. He synergises particularly well with the USS Enterprise since that scan action can be taken every turn regardless of the APT by the ship. I like to run Spock with Valtane on the Enterprise with Janeway in command. This gives you great dice quality (2 re-roll, BS conversions and 2 scan tokens) without having to worry about APTs.

Grade: B-

Montgomery Scott is a utility piece that can be used either to heal or create extra damage potential. When coupled with Type 8 and Upgraded Phasers, Scott can boost primary weapon attacks to 7 per turn, at the cost of some survivability. There are a lot of attack boosting card available now though, so he isn't perhaps as useful as he once was.

Grade: B-

Nyota Uhura offers a CTRL+Z action in that you can change your manoeuvre at the cost of a discard. A good helmsman should never need to use a card like this, and at 3 points she is expensive. I literally have never seen her used.

Grade: D-

Leonard McCoy is another discard, this time to allow you to take a crew action for free. Useful in some circumstances, McCoy suffers from being expensive, but still has some utility. Honestly, there are now much better options for extra actions, namely in the shape of William 'E' Riker, but since Riker is so in demand, McCoy can be a reasonable substitute if you are desperate.

Grade: D+

Weapons:

Photon Torpedoes - Nothing to see here, move along.

Grade: F

Elite Talents:

Cheat Death is the obvious stand out here, 5 points (or 3 under Kirk) is a hefty price to pay for a discard, but if it keeps your ship alive at the key point of the game, it's a cost worth paying. I like taking Cheat Death as my free ET with Fleet Captains, when I have no better option, but with Fleet Captains facing retirement, it isn't that fantastic an option anymore.

Grade: B-

Corbomite Maneuver is fun, and often a great alternative to a second cheat death to hide under Kirk, but it is situational, and it costs you the ability to attack. I have used it to blunt the effectiveness of an alpha strike, but it is highly situational

Grade: C

Cochrane Deceleration Maneuver is good for playing the turn after Corbomite Maneuver to turn around and target that Klingon fleet that just flew past you, synergises well with the Enterprise since the APT doesn't rob you of an action, but is so situational and expensive (5SP and discard) that it will rarely see play.

Grade: D+

I have two builds that I like to run with the USS Enterprise, the first is a little janky:

U.S.S. Enterprise [U.S.S. Enterprise] (22)
Christopher Pike [U.S.S. Enterprise] (4)
Fleet Captain: Independent (Klingon) [Fleet Captain Resource] (5)
Cheat Death [U.S.S. Enterprise] (0)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Enhanced Hull Plating [Enterprise NX-01] (4)
Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Total (49)

Fleet total: 49

This is a very annoying ship to deal with since it just doesn't die easily. Unfortunately it doesn't have much life left since Fleet Captains disappear soon (I'm annoyed about that, can you tell?)

The Second is more traditional:

U.S.S. Enterprise [U.S.S. Enterprise] (22)
Kathryn Janeway [U.S.S. Voyager] (5)
B'Elanna Torres [U.S.S. Voyager] (4)
Dmitri Valtane [U.S.S. Excelsior] (3)
Mr. Spock [U.S.S. Enterprise] (5)
Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Enhanced Hull Plating [Enterprise NX-01] (4)
Upgraded Phasers [U.S.S. Lakota] (3)
Type 8 Phaser Array [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Total (50)

Fleet total: 50

You'll need a lot of APT tokens for this one, but it has some survivability for a ship that pumps out 5 attack dice a turn on a 180 arc, with pretty good quality too - BS Conversions and Re-rolls on two dice, with the scan tokens to drop an opponents defence. I know you can do more than this with officer cards, but not using a resource makes this version future proof.

Having done these builds, it did give me an idea for a full 120 build:

U.S.S. Enterprise [U.S.S. Enterprise] (22)
Kathryn Janeway [U.S.S. Voyager] (5)
B'Elanna Torres [U.S.S. Voyager] (3)
Dmitri Valtane [U.S.S. Excelsior] (2)
Mr. Spock [U.S.S. Enterprise] (4)
Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Enhanced Hull Plating [Enterprise NX-01] (4)
Upgraded Phasers [U.S.S. Lakota] (3)
Type 8 Phaser Array [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Total (47)

U.S.S. Intrepid [U.S.S. Intrepid] (22)
Christopher Pike [U.S.S. Enterprise] (4)
Adm Matt Decker [U.S.S. Intrepid] (1)
Fleet Captain: Independent (Klingon) [Fleet Captain Resource] (5)
Cheat Death [U.S.S. Enterprise] (0)
Eric Motz [U.S.S. Pegasus] (0)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Enhanced Hull Plating [Enterprise NX-01] (4)
Type 8 Phaser Array [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Upgraded Phasers [U.S.S. Lakota] (3)
Total (49)

Fighter Squadron 6 [Fighter Squadron 6] (24)
Total (24)

Fleet total: 120

So in summation, there are still some interesting things to be done with this particular wave zero expansion, I'd be interested to hear other people's ideas about how to build the USS Enterprise almost 21 waves later...


...and I'm still not Picard (or GenKhan)