A Blast from the Past!: The Starter Set

For those of you who are paying attention, I've been writing a series of posts doing retrospective reviews of wave zero, both to show how good they were at the time, and how good they have become in the 2 year intervening period since their release. On the Facebook group this week Herethere has been discussion of the relative strength of the ships available in the Starter Set, which has inspired me to consider the starter set's cards in a new light. Seeing as all that was available for the first two months of release of the game was the Starter set, Wave Zero and the first 2 prize ships, it makes sense to do a review of the Starter Set too (and possibly the first two prize ships too).



The starter set itself has a distinctly TNG feel to it, featuring three stalwarts of the Next Generation: the Enterprise-D, the Romulan D'Deridex class Warbird and the Vor'Cha class Attack Cruiser. As with all my reviews I'm writing mainly from a Faction Pure viewpoint, although I do sometimes consider cross faction abilities and synergies too. Please don't damn me for missing on the best cross-faction combo, since I don't regularly play cross-faction, I'm not as clued up on it as I am with Faction pure.



So, to the review itself:

Ships:



Enterprise-D/Galaxy Class

For a long time the Galaxy Class was the workhorse of Federation fleets, since its 4 PWV was higher than any subsequent release for the faction up to the USS Voyager (for reference, that's the Tinyprise, Reliant, Defiant, Excelsior and Equinox). The other thing that made the Enterprise-D a staple was its named ability, to fire at 360 with -1 attack dice. Up to the release of the Enterprise-E, with its Dorsal Phaser Array (so that's another 4 waves, Voyager, Enterprise-refit and NX-01, as well as those rarest of things, the wave-with-no-fed-releases) there wasn't really any way to get 360 fire for Federation outside of the E-D's named ability and Voyager's named ability. It does also have a 90/90 arc natively, so is a good way of maintaining coverage, with a simple torpedo upgrade (yeah, I know) the E-D can fire 90 forward and 90 rear at range 3 together with the other 180 degrees (90 left and right) being covered at range 2. All of this goes to make up for the horrendous dial that the E-D has, with no white turns to speak of. Although it does have 5 green manoeuvres, that go well with the Federation Elite Talent from this pack. The generic loses the 360, but thanks to Dorsal Phaser Array, can now be used to much the same effect (except without losing the red die) for an additional 5 points (which means that you essentially pay a weapon slot, a shield and 3 points to avoid losing a single red die, that you get back at range 1 anyway). Slots wise the E-D has 3 crew (good) 2 weapons (meh) and no tech. With so many ways in the game now to get additional tech slots, namely systems upgrade, which can go in one of those superfluous weapons slots, it becomes 3 Crew, 1 Weapon, 1 Tech without much effort. The Generic Galaxy loses a weapon, which isn't so much of a big deal.

Grades: Named B-, Generic C

IKH Maht'h'a/Vor'cha Class



With a stat line of 5/1/5/3(2) the Maht'h'a has a lot going for it straight out of the gate. With a standard cloaker action bar, the Vor'cha doesn't suffer too much from having a low shield value, and it has a dial to die for: 6 green manoeuvres, white hard 2 turns as well as a come about and hard 3 turns in red, it is relatively nimble for a ship of its capabilities. The named ability is one that you will use frequently, but won't set the world on fire (enemy ships lose 1 die at range 1 when attacking this ship). For slots it has 2 crew, 1 tech and 1 weapon, which is serviceable - the generic loses a crew slot, which is a shame but not impossible to get around.

Grades: Named B-, Generic B-

IRW Khazara/D'Deridex Class



The Red-Headed Step Sister of the starter set is the Romulan Warbird. With a slashline of 3/2/6/4(3) the firepower is lower than on the other ships in the starter set. This is offset somewhat by the named ability (+1 red die when firing whilst cloaked). The Slots are pretty good too, with 3 crew, 1 tech and 1 weapon. Dial-wise, the D'Deridex is pretty good, with the standard 4 green, white 2 and 3 hard turns and a red 1 reverse. Coverage is pretty bad, and is another big let down for this ship, as it only has a 90 forward arc. With new weapons upgrades like Disruptor Pulse and Disruptor beams, the Khazara gets better, since the named ability works on all attacks whilst cloaked, rather than just one. The tech slot is also a good place for either Interphase Generator (from the RIS Apnex) or Advanced Cloaking (from the Vorta Vor) so the Khazara has improved over time. Still not as good as either of the other ships in the release (The generic loses a shield and a crew slot).

Grades: Named C, Generic C-

Captains:



Jean-Luc Picard 9 is the best single card in the game. He offers action efficiency, high CS and can put BS on a non BS ship if used cross-faction. During the Borg Supremacy, he was often found piloting Borg Spheres, but even in faction he is a fantastic way to double up on actions for fantastic attack dice efficiency. There isn't much to say here, Picard is the best. Make it so.

Grade: A+

William T Riker is the other Federation Captain here, and his CS is a little lower at 6, with an action that allows you to counter attack. It isn't an action you'll use every turn, and as a card it has gotten worse as time has gone on, simply because taking William D Riker (the D denoting the ship he comes with) stops you from taking William H Riker (Hathaway) William P Riker (Pegasus) and William H Riker (Hood) all of whom are better.

Grade: C-



The Klingon Captain is the infamous fat klingon, Nu'Daq. Nu'Daq is only skill 5, but his ability is great on the Maht'h'a, as it allows one BS result to be converted to a hit. Based on probabilities (which are somewhat dodgy here) you should only roll 1 or 2 BS results per 5 dice attack from the Maht'h'a and since he doesn't cost an action, you can still take a TL for almost as good dice efficiency as you would get with TL and BS.

Grade: B-



Toreth is the Romulan captain in this pack, and she has a nice ability, converting a normal hit into a critical hit, and a good CS of 4. She doesn't blow me away, but she has good utility for 4 SP.

Grade: B

Crew:

Data was an early game staple, who could significantly improve the survivability of a boat like the E-D. Essentially Data transferred power from the weapons to the engines to allow for more evasion and as a thematic card, Data is brilliant. In terms of his ability in the game, it was good for all of a week, before the Tinyprise came into the game and gave us Sulu. Then, with the rise of Mag Charges, Data got better again, since Evade tokens work against MGCs and evade dice don't. I still think Data is useful, but has to be built around, and is somewhat situational.

Grade: B-

Worf is another card that was good until a better version came along. He allows you to re-roll all of the dice from your attack, a good ability although you have to re-roll all of your dice. I like this as a rubber dice ability, you have a terrible roll, and then you disable Worf to re-roll. It isn't an action, and since you won't need this ability every turn, you can re-enable the card whenever, rather than having to use phlox/Crusher or ERiker/Doctor to re-enable him every turn. He'll also come in handy when you need to guarantee a kill shot. Having said all of this, Chekov is better, if slightly different.

Grade: C-

Geordi is the weakest of the Federation crew upgrades in this pack as he is action sapping and doesn't prove 4 points worth. In addition to that, his other versions from the Big E and Hathaway are better.

Grade: D

Miles O'Brien is an Action/Discard  ganker, who only disables, but can be used on any upgrade. At 2 points he is somewhat interesting, and works against cloaked ships and ships with shields - he also has range 3. I think this is a good combo breaker, and having talked to David Montgomery about the subject, Combo Breaking is something that people need to fall back in love with as the Meta stands at the moment.

Grade: C+

The first Klingon crewman is Klag, an Action/Discard Teleporting Ganker that only works on crew. He's only a point, but with all the restrictions on him, I'll pass.

Grade: F

Konmel is a repair card that has some utility. He only works on shields (and thus requires you to be uncloaked) but there are no other restrictions. You don't have to be out of firing arc, you don't have to perform a green manoeuvre or be in range 1 of a friendly ship. As an action, heal a shield. Job Done.

Grade: C

Romulans have a card, Bochra, that does exactly the same as Klag. Read above to find out what I think.

Grade: F

The second Romulan crew upgrade in the pack is often overlooked. At 2SP and an Action (and disabled shield) for a single extra red die, N'Vek's ability doesn't seem that great, but since there is no expectation of firing with primary weapons, he has some utility as a secondary weapon boosting card if you can find a way of getting around his action cost. In cross faction play, certainly, you could potentially use ERiker/Phlox/Crusher to get the action for free each round, on a Borg Ship with Mag Charges, captained by Gul Macet or Lemec, with a fleet that included Donatra and Admiral Hayes, you could potentially get 7 dice Mag Charges...but that's a lot of points to spend for it. Overall, I think N'Vek has untapped potential, but as it stands right now, he needs too much investment to make him work.

Grade: D-

Tech:

No Federation tech in the starter, since the E-D doesn't have a tech slot, so first, the Klingons, who have two tech choices. The first is Tractor Beam, which I reviewed in the Negh'Var expansion review, so won't go into again here, the second is Advanced Weapon System, essentially allowing you to remain cloaked indefinitely, but at the cost of an action every round. For 5 points it is very expensive and action intensive. At the begginning of the game, when cloak was king, it was a worthwhile upgrade. Now, where PWVs are high enough to burn through cloak easily, I'd give it a miss.

Grade: D

The Romulan Tech offering is Artificial Quantum Singularity, which is okay, but expensive at 3 points. Problem is, scan as an action is so rare, that you'll rarely get much use out of this upgrade. As time has gone on, the competition for Tech Slots has gotten more and more fierce for Romulans especially. and if you take AQS over Interphase Generator or Advanced Cloaking, let alone Cloaked Mines, then you are doing something wrong!

Grade: D

Weapons:

I don't like non-tine token photon torpedoes, even if they do get a +1 when firing from a Vor'Cha class ship. So both the Federation and Klingon versions of Photons in this set will get a pass from me.

Grades: Klingons F/Federation F

Plasma torpedoes suffer from the same action economy problems as Photon Torpedoes, but the advantage here is that they don't lose out on the dice efficiency. Trouble is, I like the timed versions so much better, so I'll be passing on these too.

Grade: D-

Elite Talents:

The only elite talent in this pack is Engage, which has tremendous synergy with both Picard and the Enterprise D. It is an action, but that isn't as much of a problem with Picard, and it also requires a ship with a good set of green maneouvres, which the E-D has. This card is less effective than it was on first release because it is perhaps not as useful as Admiral Forrest's fleet action, but if you want to use your admiral slot for someone else, then Engage is a fairly good alternative.

Grade: C+

So there you have it, the final (or first) piece of the ST;AW puzzle, the starter set. I plan to do another blog post in the near future wrapping up my "Blast from the Past!" series, but for now, there you have it.

All comments welcome,

I'm not Picard!