I don't know in canon if the Cardassians ever had a ship ownership abbreviation like USS or IKS, but the Cardassian offering for wave zero was just known as the Kraxon. Maybe CUS Kraxon (for Cardassian Union Ship) or CSS Kraxon (Cardassian StarShip) was too confusing since the ships never had that prefix on the show, regardless, by having name alone, the Kraxon established that Cardassian ships never had any Prefix.
In my last post I posited the theory that "Wizkids hates Romulans" then dismissed it wholesale. For a while, at the beginning of STAW's life, "Wizkids hated the Dominion" that is to say, that until Wave 2, the dominion lagged behind their opponents (mainly, it has to be said, because they didn't receive a ship in the starter).
The Kraxon expansion is not in itself a terrible expansion, it just wasn't as great as the USS Enterprise from wave 0 or the Maht'h'a and Enterprise-D from the starter.
Ships:
Kraxon/Cardassian Galor Class
The slashline of 4-1-4-4 for the named Kraxon is almost perfect. 4 attack is worthy of note whilst 8 durability is the sweet-spot for avoiding a single attack death (without some unlucky critical hits at least). Agility of only 1 may seem bad, and certainly the 2 points paid for this stat would be better placed in literally any of the other categories, but seeing as agility 1 is standard on most capital ships, it shouldn't be begrudged too much. The named ability of the Kraxon is useful, as it allows you to siphon damage off from other ships, but not as useful as it once was thanks to the "may" ruling. As for slots, the named has Tech/Tech/Weapon/Crew, which is nice thanks to the two tech slots. In faction pure play, though, you really would like some better tech choices to go in those two slots, and in most cases I'd swap a tech for a crew (as you get on the Reklar). The generic loses a tech slot. Another downside to the Kraxon is that it has an action bar of Scan, TL and Evade. No Battlestations action really makes the ship less effective.
Grade: B-
Captains:
Gul Ranor is the higher CS captain from this expansion, but apart from his middling CS of 5, he has little to offer when compared to Gul Danar, the other captain from this pack. The only use I see for him is if you need to guarantee a first turn attack on an opponent (kill a shuttle before it docks, for example) then he may work, but otherwise I wouldn't run him, simply because the cost of taking his action (action/apt) removes much of the utility of doing so.
Grade: D-
Gul Danar has a low CS (3) but his ability is one that you can conceivably use every turn, allowing you to re-roll a blank red dice. Since his ability is prefixed with "when attacking" it goes to follow that if you are able to attack more than once per round, you get to use the ability multiple times. This has synergy with one of the upgrades in the pack, so I actually prefer Danar to Ranor. Danar is pretty cheap too, so you can use him as a third captain in a 3 ship fleet.
Grade: C+
Crew:
Glinn Telle is the only crew option in this pack, and his action is good, reducing one ship's incoming fire by 2 dice for the round, but expensive in both economical (Action/Discard) and cost terms (3SP). I have used him in the past, but don't see him as a card of use all that often.
Grade: D
Tech:
Antiproton Scan is a card that I see having some mileage, and as I said on Warp Core Breach, is one of a number of cards in faction that enhance the scan action. It works best against cloaking fleets and since you can't TL a cloaked ship, you'll probably be taking scan anyway, so scan away and then make use of the extra red die to make up for having no quality.
Grade: B-
EM Pulse offers a modified version of Glinn Telle. You get to impose -1 red and -1 green die on an enemy ship for the cost of an action/disable. At 4SP it is better than Glinn Telle's 3SP discard, it's almost a shame you can't use both in the same turn for -3 red dice! It still has limited utility though.
Grade: D+
Weapons:
Forwards weapon grid allows you to divide your attack between 2 different ships in your forward firing arc, which is great if you are facing fighters and synergises well with Gul Ranor. At 5 SP it is quite expensive, but doesn't require either of your targeted ships to be target locked. It is a disable though.
Grade: C
So in its totality this expansion doesn't bring anything fantastic to the table. The Kraxon's main utility is in using its ship ability to keep other, more important targets alive longer. My only build suggestion is the following:
Kraxon [Kraxon] (26)
Gul Ranor [Kraxon] (3)
Antiproton Scan [Kraxon] (4)
Forward Weapons Grid [Kraxon] (5)
Total (38)
Fleet total: 38
38 points is a lot to spend on what is essentially a support ship. Hang close to the rest of your fleet and bleed damage onto the Kraxon, when you face fighters you can use the forward weapons grid to knock a token or two off, and the Anti-proton scan gives you a use for the scan you'll be taking against cloakers. I'd almost suggest taking a scan action every turn, since you have Ranor for some quality anyway, then you are firing with 5 dice, a re-roll and a scan each turn against cloakers, 6 dice when using forward weapons grid. Not the most game breaking combination, but the best available from a pretty sub-par pack.
Thanks for reading, I'm not Picard.
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