Wizkids hates Romulans. There I said it. Not that I believe it. Certainly not anymore anyway, but there was a time when it was a oft-heard cry of those Romulan fans on either the BGG boards or facebook. There are some things that lead me to think that this may have been justified, but if the release schedule had been slightly different, with the Vo supplanted on the schedule with either the Scimitar or the Haakona, then it would seem somewhat over-the-top to suggest that Wizkids did genuinely 'hate' Romulans.
I suppose one of the reasons that people began to claim that Wizkids did infact "hate" Romulans, was the release in wave zero of a clear out and out support ship in a wave that mainly featured front-line combat ships. The Apnex is not going to win you games by damaging your opponent's fleet. If we are limited only to the upgrades in the Apnex expansion, it probably isn't going to win you games at all. What the Apnex expansion did give you was a number of interesting choices, and one of the cheapest spaceframes in the game, the cheapest for a long time.
Ship:
RIS Apnex/Romulan Science Vessel
The slashline of 1/2/2/1 (2 shields for the named) is nothing to shout home about. What makes the generic Romulan Science Vessel (RSV) interesting, is that it is only 12 point and has access to both Cloak and Sensor Echo on its action bar. This essentially means that you have a ship with a slashline of 1/6/2/0, if you spend most of the game cloaked. The slots the named version has are 2 crew and a tech, which isn't that impressive, certainly the other named RSV has a much more useful collection of 3 tech slots. The named ability is interesting, as it allows you to inflict one damage on every ship within range 1 (including your own ship) at the cost of only being able to perform manoeuvres with a distance of 1 for the rest of the game. This makes the ship a good minelayer - once your mines are gone, you just run into the midst of the enemy line and inflict damage - but the minelayer in itself is not all that effective, since you only have 1 tech slot or pay considerably for additional slots. The generic retains the tech and loses a crew slot, so losing the named ability is not all that bad, all things considered.
Named Grade: C
Generic Grade: C+
Captain:
Most expansions have 2 potential captains in them, and the "Wizkids hates romulans" conspiracy theorists always cite the fact that the Apnex only came with one captain option as evidence. Having said that, Mirok is a pretty good captain, whose low CS is somewhat mitigated by his ability (if a friendly ship is within range 1, then repair 1 damage to either your hull or shields). With so many methods in faction of boosting CS (Admirals, security officers, resources) he has potential. He is also only 2 points, so a good space filler too.
Grade: C+
Crew:
There are, to my knowledge, only 2 pairs of crew in the game with identical abilities: N'Garen and Drex, and Parem and Bochra. Parem's ability is not that fantastic (remove an opposing crew member from a ship with no active shields that isn't cloaked, at the cost of an Action/Discard and dropping your own shields). What makes Parem somewhat worthwhile is his low cost (1 SP) and the combination of Parem and Taris from the Haakona expansion. Taris allows you to fire primary weapons in a 360 arc for the cost of a crew discard, so Bochra and Parem are the ideal fodder for this kind of build - if you haven't got the points for something more interesting to shove out of the air lock
Grade: C-
Varel is a card that formed the basis of many combinations over the years. Her ability, to cancel at attack at the cost of a discard, is un-matched in terms of crew. What lets Varel down is her costliness (10 SP on a non-science vessel) and comparison to other cards that do similar things - Conditional Surrender as an elite talent does much the same thing for significantly fewer points, and Interphase Generator does a similar thing for less. Within faction though, Varel is a great basis for an attack cancelling build, especially when paired with centurion from the Gal'Gathong expansion. On her own she doubles the survivability of a support ship like the Apnex, since one good attack will usually eat two hull and get through cloak. There's no doubting this is a good card, but in faction pure play she isn't game-breaking in the way that she is in a mixed faction dreadnought game.
Grade: B+
Tech:
Interphase generator is a Romulan Faction staple. for the low cost of 3 SP it acts like an attack canceller, and like Varel can increase the durability of support ships. I absolutely love this card, and it's a card that really makes cloaked fleets worthwhile, since it allows you to run cloaked ships with a degree of confidence that they won't die to the first quality attack. Even a ship with 7 hull, like the scimitar, can benefit from the IG, or multiple IGs. The fact that it is generic just makes it better and I see no reason not to run them on every cloaking ship in your fleet.
Grade: A+
Muon Feedback Wave is an annoying card to face, with the ability to limit the movement of other ships, it is almost the perfect card for a support ship like the Apnex. It's utility is limited by its range (1) and its cost (Action/Discard) but a well timed Muon token can really limit the ability of an opponent to escape a sticky situation or add those last needed damage to a ship.
Grade: B
Overall the pack actually has a lot to offer, and the Support ship Apnex is an interesting ship to fly that requires a bit of skill:
R.I.S. Apnex [R.I.S. Apnex] (14)
Mirok [R.I.S. Apnex] (2)
T'Rul [Deep Space 9] (4)
Varel [R.I.S. Apnex] (5)
Cloaked Mines [I.R.W. Praetus] (3)
Cloaked Mines [I.R.W. Praetus] (3)
Total (31)
Fleet total: 31
This version offers some good survivability, with Varel and T'Rul both helping to avoid being one shot. and the ability to cause some board control issues, with 2 sets of cloaked mines and the Apnex's named ability to cause damage to opponents. It can easily built without Varel for a cheaper option.
Romulan Science Vessel [R.I.S. Apnex] (12)
Donatra [I.R.W. Valdore] (4)
Adm Mendak [I.R.W. Haakona] (4)
Varel [R.I.S. Apnex] (5)
Interphase Generator [R.I.S. Apnex] (3)
Total (28)
Fleet total: 28
This version offers greater survivability thanks to Varel and Interphase generator, with the added bonus of helping other ships in the fleet with Donatra's +1 red dice bonus and Mendak giving out BS tokens. As with the previous build version, Varel and IG are optional, the advantage of having them is that with Donatra you need to be close to the fighting and may, despite you best efforts with Sensor Echo, come under enemy fire. The 12 point space frame basically means you can build your third ship in a 50/3 meta up to however many point you have left, and still benefit from a worthwhile support ship. This is especially the case in cross-faction play, and was in one of the high placed builds at world's.
So there you go, Wizkids hate Romulans so much they gave them access to one of the better support ships in the game, with two great cards (Varel and IG) as well as a number of useable cards (Mirok, Muon, Parem and the Apnex).
As always thoughts are most welcome, and I'm still not Picard.
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