Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is my favourite Star Trek film for a number of reasons: A set chewing performance from Ricardo Montalban as Khan for one, but also it was everything a Star Trek movie should be, character driven, with an internal theme (of revenge) and with twists that you don't see coming. Kirk, Spock and McCoy are at their finest here, in a film that both stands alone and starts a 3 film arc.
Ships: USS Reliant/Generic Miranda Class.
The Reliant itself comes with a 2/2/3/3 slash line, a 180 front arc and a 90 rear arc. The dial is also pretty impressive, with the only red manoeuvre being a 2 reverse. It has the standard 4 greens, but a 2 and a 3 white hard turn. With it's arcs and dial, it is a ship that is difficult to avoid. It has 2 crew and 1 weapon slot. The named ability is an attack boost of +1 at range 1 in addition to the normal +1, meaning it fires with 4 dice when in close. This ship has improved as time has gone on simply because of upgrades such as Type 8 phasers and Upgraded Phasers, as well as cross-faction weapons like Disruptor Pulse. At only 20 SP, it is a ship well worth checking out. The Generic loses the named ability. a shield and a crew slot, but works well as a torpedo boat, with timed torpedoes now a thing, it's better at that job than it was when first released.
Generic: C+ Named: B
Captains:
Given the precedent set by the Robinson, I wonder if this had been released today would it have been a dual faction ship (Independent/Federation) or maybe even the named would be Independent and the Generic Federation. The reason that I say this is because it contains both Independent and Federation captains. Khan Singh is a CS 8 captain who allows you to use a BS token to convert BS results to crits rather than just normal hits. This is great for doing loads of damage and if Khan is on a ship with BS I see no reason he shouldn't take it every turn. He also makes it so that no other upgrade deployed to the ship has to take a faction penalty, so in penalty pure environments he helps to get great combos onto some ships. My one slight regret for this card is that he doesn't nullify the faction penalty on himself, so that in penalty and faction pure environments, he cannot be deployed to the USS Reliant he comes on. I would advise all Faction Pure venues to make an exception for Khan on the Reliant, or do as our venue does and allow Independent captains to be fielded to any ship, regardless of faction. Unfortunately, Khan's ability only works with the spending of a BS token so can't be combined with Mr Spock or Drex/N'garen for the same effect. He does work with a token granted from Admiral Mendak though.
Grade: B
The other captain in this pack is Clark Terrell. A good choice for swarm fleets, Terrell suffers from CS 2 and no ET slot. Not entirely useless though, and can be fun when combined with Donatra, Admiral Hayes and Gowron in a mixed swarm build.
Grade: C-
Crew:
Again, there is a split between Independent and Federation here. Joachim is the first Independent offering, for 4SP he allows you to draw 2 crit cards every time you inflict a crit to the opponent's hull. You don't inflict crits very often though, so his utility is limited...OR IS IT? Joachim has great synergy with Khan 8, since Khan vastly increases your chance of a critical hit. Not all Crits were created equal, so doubling up on crit cards could be an interesting ability...
Grade: B-
The Second independent offering is "Follower of Khan" a generic 1 point crew card. A teleporting ganker, this is useful discard fodder, a la Parem, Bochra or Klag, but otherwise isn't worth much,
Grade: D-
On the Federation side of the upgrade side, we have first commander Kyle. Kyle is a shield healing card that requires you to perform a green manoeuvre and reduce your attack dice by 2. That's a lot of conditions for a repair card and at 2 SP he is expensive for what he does when compared to other repair cards, most notable Glinn Daro, who for one point more doesn't reduce attack, isn't limited to shields and doesn't require a green manoeuvre. Even in faction, there is Montgomery Scott, who provides additional flexibility and Charles Tucker III who has greater flexibility and less of a restriction.
Grade: D-
The star crew card of this pack is Pavel Chekov, who allows you to remove an APT when performing a white manoeuvre. This card is gold when used on a ship like the Voyager, which requires APTs to fire in 360 and any non-tinyprise with either first officer or Jayneway, where you get APTs to double up on actions. This card has improved over time where the number of cards requiring APT removal has increased, and remains a staple in most Voyager builds.
Grade: B
No tech, so onto Weapons:
3 SP, 4A photons without time tokens? Pass.
Grade: F
Elite Talents:
I stab at Thee is perhaps the best (although Tasha Yar runs it close) card for making an opponent think twice about destroying your ship. ISAT gives you 3 attack dice at every enemy ship in range 1, which they then don't get to roll defence again. It's nice and when coupled with cheat death becomes somewhat fun, but it lacks the scary factor it once had and could result in 0 hits. I still like it though.
Grade: C
Superior Intellect suffers from being an Action/Discard that requires teleporting, but has potential as a combo-breaker for stealing. The fact that it can steal any upgrade makes it better than Crosis, but the fact you need to drop enemy shields first makes it worse. I'd still take it, but only as an additional fun aspect of a build, rather than the key to a build.
Grade: B-
So all in all a pretty fun expansion with some interesting cards, I'd happily buy a second and third, where I able to find them!
Some ideas for a Miranda Torpedo Swarm:
Miranda Class [U.S.S. Reliant] (18)
Mr. Spock [U.S.S. Enterprise (Refit)] (4)Photon Torpedoes [Starter] (5)Total (27)
Miranda Class [U.S.S. Reliant] (18)Jean-Luc Picard [Starter] (6)Photon Torpedoes [Starter] (5)Total (29)
Miranda Class [U.S.S. Reliant] (18)Federation [U.S.S. Prometheus] (0)Rapid Reload [U.S.S. Thunderchild] (2)Photon Torpedoes [[U.S.S. Thunderchild] (5)Photon Torpedoes [U.S.S. Thunderchild] (5)Arsenal [U.S.S. Phoenix] (4)Total (34)
Fleet total: 90
So Spock take TL and re-enables torpedoes, Picard takes TL and Re-enables torpedoes, the third ship takes TL then uses time token torps and arsenal to ensure that they work every turn. Rapid Reload is there as a contingency.
The second list is a souped up Reliant:
U.S.S. Reliant [U.S.S. Reliant] (20)
Mr. Spock [U.S.S. Enterprise (Refit)] (4)
Adm Maxwell Forrest [Enterprise NX-01] (3)
The Needs of the Many... [U.S.S. Enterprise (Refit)] (4)
Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
B'Elanna Torres [U.S.S. Voyager] (4)
Immersion Shielding [Delta Flyer] (3)
Unimatrix Shielding [Delta Flyer] (5)
Upgraded Phasers [U.S.S. Lakota] (3)
Type 8 Phaser Array [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Total (50)
Fleet total: 50
With Type 8 phasers and Upgraded Phasers the base attack value is 4, 6 at range 1. Spock means free TL and then ship action can be BS. The three shield upgrades add an extra 4 shields and if those shields go, discard TNOTM and B'elanna for 3 shields back. The extra movement provided by Forrest allows for range 1 as soon as possible, and will help to keep enemy ships in that arc of fire.
Comments are, as always, appreciated!
I'm Not Picard!
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