Caveat Emptor: A Buyer's guide to Romulans

Last time I wrote a buyer's guide to Klingons it seems to me that it is a good idea to do the same for the other factions. Romulans also benefit from the inclusion of one of their ships in the starter set, and I as with the Klingons they benefit from a good captain in the starter set in the form of skill 7 Toreth. The Khazara has a nice named ability but the generic D'Deridex isn't great, and the D'Deridex as a ship in general needs serious work. The other problem that Romulans have is that a number of expansions are good for only one card, and you end up having to buy multiples of them in order to be competitive. So what I'll try to do here is to highlight the expansion packs that are good because they contain multiple cards that can be useful for a variety of reasons, packs like the Prateus and the Apnex have one great card, a few semi-useful cards and then the ship themselves aren't great - but if you are attempting to be competitive at a fleet pure venue, you may need multiples of ships lower down this list.

The first place I'd go after the starter set for Romulans is the Valdore. The ship itself is good, although not game breakingly awesome the way it used to be, and  it comes with Donatra, who is a good second captain to go with Toreth. Tactical officer is another good card that really boosts attack dice efficiency.

The recent Haakona expansion is another one worth looking at early on. Taris and Mendak are both good captains (Mendak particularly) and the Romulan Security Officers is a good crew option, as is Romulan Helmsman. Even the weapons upgrades, Disruptor Beams and Disruptor Pulse, are worth having and help to make the D'Deridex ships better (not amazing mind you). The only less useful cards are Romulan Sub-Lieutenant and "Make them see us!".

One of the expansions that you only buy for 1 or 2 cards is the Scimitar expansion. The Scimitar itself is so good that it's almost worth buying 2 just so you have the option of running double scimitars. Outside of the ship itself, the only one really worth having is full stop. Shinzon is nice from the perspective of high CS, but I just don't rate his ability with regards to Elite Talents, since he effectively costs 10 SP.

The next choice may be somewhat controversial since as a ship it is very much a finesse piece: the Drone Ship. Most of the upgrades in the pack are specific to the drone ship itself, and the captains themselves have to be other of the two from the pack. Having said that, the ship's ability itself is pretty good and the stat line isn't bad either. I encourage people to buy this ship just to see what it can do, since it is fun to fly.

The RIS Apnex is another ship that requires some finesse to play, but is well worth investing in. The generic ship is the ultimate support ship platform, at only 12 points and with minimal effort can become a good minelayer too. Mirok is a good mid/low level captain, and the crew upgrade, Varel, is one of the key pieces for an attack cancellation build. Well worth the investment for one, and possibly multiples since the generic tech upgrade Interphase generator is the key card in making cloaked fleets work.

Depending on how good you feel they are, and I'm currently* of the opinion that they aren't as great as some people seem to think, you seemingly need to get the Praetus just for cloaked mines. In fact, if you like cloaked mines get at least 2, if not 6 or 8 or 10. Captain Valdore is useful, although suffers from low CS.

The Gal'Gathong is a fun ship, especially since the advent of Time Token Torps, since the named ability is great when combined with the action economy that Time Torps offer. Romulan Commander is a good but not great captain whilst romulan officer and Decoy aren't all that useful. Centurion is a little overcosted, but can become brilliant in cross faction play, especially since it provides captain protection against the likes of Gul Madred and Tantalus Field.

The Vrax is a good ship, and I own two myself mainly for the torpedoes and bridge officer, but outside of this there is little need for it, except maybe as a second ship to pair with the Valdore, although the Scimitar fills that role well. 

I'm skipping over the Pi for now since it has only just been released and I don't know how good it is, as I don't yet own one and haven't tested its mettle in battle, but suspect it might just sit here.

The Vo is a nice platform for a support ship but expensive in that role and there is literally nothing else in that pack that I have ever used competitively. Avoid unless you are being a completionist.

Finally, one of the worst expansions in the game is the Talveth. I have used the named ship on one occasion (3 tech slots) but apart from that the only card worth using is Admiral Jarok, whose ability is a nice one. So many of the tech and talent upgrades on this ship are limited or expensive, so don't feel you must have one. Could easily swap places  on this list with the Vo.

Again, I'm not going to list prize or blind booster ships, but the Vorta Vor and Belak are worth getting, as are the Aj'rmr and Avatar of Tomed, but not worth chasing for big bucks.

So my final order of purchasing Romulans would be:

1. Valdore

2. Haakona

3. Scimitar

4. Prototype 01 drone ship

5. Apnex

6. Praetus

7. Gal'gathong 

8. Vrax

9. Vo

10. Talveth

Again, just my opinion and other people may have different ideas, but were someone to ask me what to buy next for Romulans, this would be my list.

I'm not Picard 

Caveat Emptor: A Buyer's Guide to the Mirror Universe

If someone was to ask me to choose them a faction, whose expansions were readily available, to play competitively in a fleet pure environment, I'd advise them to go for Mirror Universe.

The first part of this is that the mirror universe were not a faction at the beginning of the game and that means most of their expansions are still available in stores, unlike some of the older factions where key pieces have become hard to find and the second reason is that even the worst expansions are still worth getting. For that second reason this list is a hard one because you can easily swap parts around and buy them in pretty much any order!

That being said, I'd start with the ISS Enterprise, the first ever mirror universe ship. The ship itself is okay, with a nice named ability allowing you to up your offence when you already have a ship target locked. Thrown into the package is Mr Spock, that rarified thing an action economy captain, who pairs well with mirror Sulu, allowing you to get a TL essentially for free, which in turn synergises well with the Ship's named ability. Another Easter egg in the ISS Enterprise expansion is Tantalus Field, a means of discarding enemy captains and crew for a disable, but at the hefty cost of 6 SP. That cost is mitigated somewhat by Marlena Moreau who reduces elite talent costs by one and boosts CS for an action. I find I rarely take Marlena because of the action requirement and because sulu is just better, but when combined with the tech Agony Booth, you can potentially use her once a game as a free action. It's a good expansion pack because so many things work together, but you'll mainly buy it for Spock and Sulu. 

The second expansion I'd go for is the ISS Defiant. An improvement on the USS defiant in terms of stats (swap a red die for a shield) and named ability, the ISS Defiant comes with Rebellion and Mirror Bashir, a combo that could potentially drop an opponent's attack power by 4 and give you a free return attack into the bargain. Strafing Run is another way to get a free attack and because the defiant only has 3 hull it can combo with Worf in faction pure play and Improved Deflector Screens in Unlimited play. Captain O'Brien (Smiley) gives you a good action (repair) and adds a tech slot, Whilst mirror Sisko gives you a good combo platform for building a ship with one mega attack. Jennifer Sisko messes with your opponent's fleet right from the get-go and Mirror Jadzia gives you some survivability for a relatively cheap cost (2 sp). There is little in this expansion that can't be used for something, and as I said at the start, this is as good a place to start with mirror as the ISS Enterprise.

Every good fleet needs a battleship and Mirror Universe's battleship is the Regent's Flagship. The flagship has a mighty 7 hull and a dial to match but the named ability compensates for this somewhat and allows you to run the ship as a linebreaker, firing twice into the heart of an enemy fleet. There is a good synergy here with multi-targeting phaser banks from the defiant expansion too. Mirror admiral Worf can really help to boost the fleet's damage potential and Brunt is one of the better 1 point crew cards in the game. The generic ship is also well combined with a cloaking device.

The other three retail expansions for Mirror Universe are all at about the same level as each other; much as the three retail mirror expansions above are at more or less the same level. Any or all of the ships could be swapped within that paradigm, so don't worry about an order except to say that you should have the three above before you get the three below.

The Krenim Weapon ship, the Kyana Prime, is a bit of an oddball expansion. It has moderately high PWV (4) and good survivability (6/4). The action bar of TL,BS and Scan is lacking evade, although the named ship's ability makes up for that somewhat. What's most odd about this ship is that it has one of the more confusing manoeuvre dials currently in the game: No 4 or higher straight manoeuvre but 6 greens and a white 2 hard turn make this thing slow but surprisingly manoeuvrable. Where this expansion really shines is that you get access to the Weapon upgrade "Chroniton Torpedoes". Chroniton Torpedoes suffer the same problems as most torpedoes in that they are action intensive and lack quality, but the advantage with these is that they completely bypass shields. That's huge, and with the right combination of stuff can be deadly too. Annorax is the highest CS captain available at CS8, and his ability is okay (but linked to the timeship). In most factions the ability to add a tech slot would be great, but MU seems overburdened with that type of upgrade. Not to be dismissed lightly though. All of the Tech upgrades are expensive here and expansion limited so they may be fairly easy to overlook, although spatial distortion is a fun card to have.

The first true "support" size ship of the MU fleet is the ISS Avenger. Weighing in at only 16 points, the named ability is among the better named abilities, allowing you to fire 2 extra red dice if you have an APT by the ship. This ship was dubbed the "Anger Cannon" by Tucker Cobey on State of the Federation and the synergies in this pack mean that you'll often be firing with those extra 2 dice. With Mirror Captain Spock, as well as Admiral Black giving you an APT for an action, this ship can be brutal in the right hands. The expansion also comes with some useful generic crew and Enhanced Hull Plating that will, surprise, surprise, give you an APT too.

A different type of support ship is the USS Pasteur. Its durability of 9 (5/4) make it an unlikely candidate for a support ship, but with only PWV and Agility 1, it comes in a neat 22SP package. The reason you buy this ship is not necessarily to do with its stats though, and is more to do with the upgrades that come with it. Admiral Riker and Beverly Crusher (Not Picard) are both serviceable captains, but the real fun comes with Alyssa Ogawa and the Elite Talents. Ogawa has such great synergy with Mirror Spock and Mirror Sulu and the two Talents, Starfleet Intelligence and Yellow Alert, give good non-action dice efficiency. Well worth picking up and although I've never come close to using the ship myself, I have fought against it on one occasion (it died).

By my reckoning that's all of the mirror universe retail expansions dealt with, so a customary stroll through the prize ships: The Assimilation Target Prime/Mirror Enterprise-D pack is great, both for the ship and Captain Riker, but desperately difficult to find at the moment. The Terix is what a D'Deridex should be, although unfortunately it isn't prime universe. As it is, it's a good ship but in a Romulan fleet it'd be a great ship. The Prakesh and Toh'Kaht are both good ships; the Prakesh in particular has a great ability, the Dorsal Weapons array at 2 points is well worth having multiples of, and I really wish that Tasha Yar had been with the ATP, since she'd make more sense on a Mirror Enterprise D than a Mirror cardassian ship.

All things considered then, my retail shopping list for Mirror Universe would be:

1. ISS Enterprise
2. ISS Defiant
3. Regent's Flagship
4. Kyana Prime
5. ISS Avenger
6. USS Pasteur

You can also do interesting things in faction, and you could quite easily split the faction into 3:

The Terran Empire/Human Resistance: ISS Defiant, ISS Enterprise, ISS Avenger
The Klingon-Cardassian Alliance: Regent's Flagship, Prakesh, Toh'Khat
Alternative Timelines: USS Enterprise-D, USS Pasteur, IRW Terix

So there you have it, a faction well worth investing in, that provides you with a lot of flexibility and should, fingers crossed, be readily available.

As always, comments and criticisms welcome....

I'm Not Picard!

Caveat Emptor: A buyer's guide to Dominion

The Dominion haven't got a lot of love lately. That coupled with the odd nature of the dominion's three factions in one means that they are sometimes a difficult faction to get into. In fact, many people see cardassians as a faction in their own right, and that makes creating a buyers list for Dominion even more difficult! 

The other factor against Dominion is that they don't have a ship in the starter setup you are basically starting off from nowhere when you begin a dominion collection. 

If I was starting from scratch the first thing I'd get would be the Koronak. Almost every card in this expansion is good and it contains some key pieces for fleet building in the Keldon class, Gul Dukat and Boheeka. Even the elite talent (captured intelligence) and the second captain (Gul Evek) see play. A very well done expansion and well worth the price.

Following this I'd go for another Cardassian ship in the Reklar. As with the Koranak, basically every card is good, and the Aft Weapons array is an upgrade to the Dorsal Weapons Array from the Koranak. The Reklar's named ability is great and makes up for one of the weaknesses that the Generic galor class has. Gul Madred is a high level competitive piece, who pairs well with Gul Lemec and Corak, although Corak isn't all that great. Third captain Gul Ocett isn't awful and the elite talents coded messages and standard attack formation come in useful sometimes.

My next step would be Fighters, and possibly two sets. Just with the generic fighters and one or two upgrades and the other two ships you already have, you can make a pretty competitive fleet straight off the bat -and you'd be Cardassian pure too!

The first non-Cardassian ship I'd add to my burgeoning dominion fleet would be the 2nd Division Battlecruiser expansion. The ship itself is pretty good, although the named ability isn't amazing. Two of the captains suffer from being lesser incarnations of their better selves: Weyoun 8 isn't as good as Weyoun 6 or 7 and Dukat 8 isn't anywhere near as good as Dukat 7. The Third captain, Keevan, has good potential for messing with your opponent, but suffers from low CS Where this expansion shines is with crew: Amat'igan is a good upgrade in his own right that also adds some protection for your other crew and Remata'klan offers some good attack and CS boosting ability, although he is a discard.

As with the Romulans, there are some expansions worth getting just for one card, and the 5th Wing Patrol ship is one of those expansions - although this may be a bit harsh on my part. The best card is Weyoun 6. Weyoun featured in the winning build at last year's world championships, and in cross faction play he really shines. Even in faction pure play, Weyoun allows cards like Remata'klan and Glinn Telle to become much better value for money (or value for SP as the case may be). Omet'Iklan and the two gankers that come with this pack are good but not great, and the various tech and weapons upgrades nothing to write home about.

The Dominion Battleship was the first ship in the game to feature a PWV of 6 but paid for that with a terrible manoeuvre dial. It is worth getting though, and with the aft weapons array from the Reklar expansion can do much to make up for its horrible dial. Upgrades wise the standouts are Shroud and Ixtana'rax, whilst captains Weyoun 7 and Gelnon are both useable. 

The Kraxon has a nice named ability, but none of the crew or captains really set the world on fire. The Galor class is a good platform to build on though. 

Thus far the only retail Breen Ship is the Gor Portas and whilst it has good health (4/4) and a good dial, its PWV of 3 is a let down. The upgrade slots confuse me as well, with a mighty 4 weapon slots but only 1 crew and no tech. This expansion is best for Breen Aide and the Breen Energy Dissipator, but the BED is best in ships other than this and you pay a premium for that. 

Last of all is the Dreadnought. I don't hate this ship, since a 180 arc and PWV 6 aren't to be sneezed at, but with no captain options it will struggle for efficiency in fleet pure. The Dreadnought is also a miles better expansion than the worst Romulan or Klingon expansions. 

As for prize ships, I'll do what I usually do here and cover them briefly: The Rav Laerst is better than the Gor Portas but still a Breen Battlecruiser, the Trager is great and comes with Gul Macet and Glinn Daro, both of whom I like, the Aldara and 3rd Wing have some nice cards with them, but aren't vital. Essentially there is nothing you need in the prize ships for a good dominion fleet.

So my dominion shopping list is:

1. Koranak

2. Reklar

3. Fighters

4. Fighters 

5. Battlecruiser

6. 5th Wing

7. Battleship

8. Kraxon

9. Gor Portas

10. Dreadnought 

Have I missed anything? Is my analysis hogwash? Let me know, I won't be offended, I'm not Picard!

Caveat Emptor: A Buyers guide to...Klingons.

One of the most frequent types of post on both the Facebook Group and BGG Forum for ST:AW is the "What should I buy next?" post. It is understandable that a player who is new to the game may want to mine the minds of more veteran players for information on how to best and most economically expand their fleets, so I thought I'd try and write a series of entries to this blog with the intention of providing a guide for players on how to expand their collection.

Let us assume that all new players have at least the starter set: If you are playing Klingons or Federation it makes sense to; heck it makes sense for anyone to given the nature of the templates and damage deck.

In this example the player already has the Starter Set, with (for Klingons) playable cards in the form of Nu'Daq and the Vor'cha class. I'm not going to go into the ins and outs of the cards, but suffice to say that the other cards in the starter for Klingons aren't great in competitive play.

The next place than any Klingon player should go, if you can find one on the open market before they are re-released, is the Negh'Var. The ship itself is good, and both captains, Gowron and Martok 8 are playable, with Martok being the key to many Klingon builds. In addition, the Negh'var has two good crew cards in Drex (who in Klingon Pure is almost a necessity) and Klingon boarding Party (which is more of a finesse card, but well worth the effort if it goes off). The talent In'Cha is one of the better Klingon talents which are, on the whole, terrible.

Once you have the starter and Negh'Var, you'll need a third ship, and in those circumstances I'd suggest the Koraga as the next port of call. The ship is good, although not on the same level as either the Vor'Cha or Negh'Var, whilst Worf is a great captain (one of the few mid-CS captains with an ability that is worth taking; maybe worth the topic of another blog post in future). N'Garen has exactly the same ability as Drex, so is a necessity in fleet pure builds. Alexander is a good card that urges you to take damage to trigger his own ability - I see a good synergy here with Kor 6. The tech and talents aren't fantastic, but as a third ship it is definitely a good purchase.

After this my next choice would be the Rotarran, mainly for crew Worf and the two talents: Supreme Commander and Alert Status One. AS1 is good for getting battlestations onto a ship that doesn't have either Drex or N'Garen whilst Supreme Commander helps in situations where you choose not to take Martok 8 - although that is a very rare situation indeed! The ship is nothing to write home about and I've always found B'rels to be a bit too squishy without too much effort being put into them.

I'd then shell out for the Ning'Tao, since it gives you both of the Kors (a terrible Klingon tribute to an awful Irish Pop Band they are not) who have different utility in builds. Kor 8 allows for better dice efficiency without a Target Lock, so frees up an action for Drex or N'Garen, whilst Kor 6 gives you the "Shoot at me! Shoot at me!" ability that can be key to a good surgical strike. Kor 6 is perhaps not best to captain this ship though, as we'll find out below.

After the Ning'Tao my next purchase would be the Gr'Oth, mainly for one card: Projected Stasis Field. PSF ranks up with Martok 8 as one of the best cards that Klingons have available to them in fleet pure, so it's certainly worth taking, but requires some skill to use it at the right point, and not lost the ship it is on to concentrated fire before you get chance to. Koloth also comes in this pack and he is a cheap skill 7 (4SP) and doesn't have a bad named ability.  The ship itself is unique amongst the Klingons in so much as it has BS on its own action bar, but with 3 hull and 2 shields, it isn't the most survivable of ships.

Chang's Bird of Prey gives you Chang 7, whose named ability synergises well with the Ning'Tao to make one of the most manoeuvrable ships in the game. The ship itself and other upgrades aren't much to write home about though, so I'm inclined to leave this ship until later.

The T'ong is one of the later releases, and I really like Tactical Officer from this pack, so I have 2 myself, but the other upgrades are situational and need building around. Cryogenic Status is nice in so much as it allows extra crew, but it is unique, expensive and limited.

The Somraw has one card that I use frequently in Bu'Kah, one of the better repair cards in the game, but outside of that many of its upgrades are limited to this ship alone. A lot of people cite this as the ideal ship for Kor 6, but its fragility worries me, and that's a very specific build to make, so I'd leave this one until later.

Lastly, we have Kronos One. One of the key ships from one of the best films, is a disappointing expansion. The only card that even gets consideration from me in list building is the Elite Talent Once More Into the Breach, Chang 6 and Gorkon aren't great as far as captains go, and neither Kerla nor Stex are amazing.

So if I was starting out with klingons, my shopping list would be:

1. Negh'Var
2. Koraga
3. Rotarran
4. Ning'Tao
5. Gr'Oth
6. Chang's Bird of Prey
7. T'Ong
8. Somraw
9. Kronos One

I'm not going to go into detail with Prize ships, but the Ch'Tang is great and the B'Moth and Buruk are both worth getting. The Korinar, Pagh and Korok's Bird of Prey are all okay, and nice to have, but not essential (although Korok's Bird of Prey becomes much better when combined with the Borg Upgrades and used as an assimilated bird of prey).

I hope that is of some use to you all, I'm not Picard.

STAW Resources

Just a short post to put all of the various online resources for ST:AW in one place:

Facebook:

Star Trek Attack Wing Community (https://www.facebook.com/groups/StarTrekAttackWingCommunity/)

Star Trek Attack Wing UK Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/512196418864565/

Star Trek Attack Wing - Faction Pure
https://www.facebook.com/groups/STAWFACTIONPURE/

Star Trek Attack Wing Rules Council
https://www.facebook.com/groups/StarTrekAttackWingRulesCouncil/

Fellowship of the Rules (STAW)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/998318636890923/

Warp Core Breach Podcast Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/warpcorebreachpodcast/

Red Maneuvers Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/redmaneuvers/

State of the Federation Facebook Group - on hiatus but old episodes still worth listening to.
https://www.facebook.com/stateofthefederation/

Podcasts:

Warp Core Breach - It is first on the list since I have my own segment in it!
http://warpcorebreachpodcast.libsyn.com/

Red Maneuvers - Check out the Fleet Friday blog posts they do too.
http://www.redmaneuvers.com/

State of the Federation - as said above, on hiatus, but still worth listening to.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/stateofthefederation

Battlestation - hasn't posted since September, but VERY good content for list building.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/battle-station/id1012841785?mt=2

Trek Talking
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/trektalking

Youtube:

State of the Federation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e-9QBWEtnI&list=PLBB6kudDWJbWQwWmvcr16UlUh7xYYCHS1

The Shipyard
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW3bzLxfBORMltlBTGPN6Ig

Wandering Inn Studios
https://www.youtube.com/user/WanderingInnStudios

The Dice Tower - Some early wave reviews, but worth following anyway for board games
https://www.youtube.com/user/thedicetower

Blogs:

http://stalphaquadrant.blogspot.co.uk/

http://thecaptainsyacht.blogspot.co.uk/ -very old and currently dormant, but still some good points

https://stawphilippines.wordpress.com/

https://federationshipyards.wordpress.com/

http://thegaragegamers.blogspot.co.uk/

http://thegaragegamers.blogspot.co.uk/

https://blainepardoe.wordpress.com/

I think that is everything, but if you think I've missed something, please add it in the comments!

Challenge: Living in 2015

Recently there has been a lot of discussion both on the Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/StarTrekAttackWingCommunity/) and the BGG Board (https://boardgamegeek.com/forums/thing/139771/star-trek-attack-wing) about how certain expansions (the Enterprise-E, Praetus, Negh'Var etc.) becoming difficult to find expansions. Someone also commented saying they have had a conversation with a Wizkids rep who suggested that old expansions like this would NOT be reprinted. Given that this is the case, newer players to ST:AW are having to make do without these expansions when fleet building. This gave me an idea for a challenge:

Using only the starter set, and the expansions, prize ships and reinforcement boosters from 2015, build a competitive fleet pure build to 120 points.

I've had a fiddle around with this, and the two fleets I have come up with are Federation and Romulan.

1. Federation:



U.S.S. Hathaway [U.S.S. Hathaway] (22)
William T. Riker [U.S.S. Hathaway] (4)
Worf [U.S.S. Hathaway] (5)
Type 8 Phaser Array [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Arsenal [U.S.S. Phoenix] (4)
Upgraded Phasers [U.S.S. Lakota] (3)
Total (40)

U.S.S. Prometheus [U.S.S. Prometheus] (30)
Jean-Luc Picard [Starter] (6)
Total (36)

Delta Flyer [Delta Flyer] (20)
Ronald Moore [U.S.S. Pegasus] (1)
Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Eric Motz [U.S.S. Pegasus] (2)
Immersion Shielding [Delta Flyer] (3)
Parametallic Hull Plating [Delta Flyer] (2)
Unimatrix Shielding [Delta Flyer] (5)
Arsenal [U.S.S. Phoenix] (4)
Type 8 Phaser Array [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Upgraded Phasers [U.S.S. Lakota] (3)
Total (44)

Fleet total: 120



The Prometheus is a ship that, on its own, is a pretty good ship. a Slashline of 5/1/4/5 is a good place to build from and it has an okay manoeuvre dial too. All I've done here is to put Picard on this ship from the starter to give it better action economy to make the most of the 5 PWV. At 36 points it is pretty cheap for what it can do, although suffers from poor coverage so will require a good pilot to make the most of it.

The Hathaway also benefits from good action economy, and its hull of 4 probably doesn't make the most of Hathaway Riker as captain. When it does benefit from Riker's ability, it will essentially be firing at 6 PWV with a front arc of 180. Hathaway Worf provides some survivability although the re-enabled needed to use him every turn makes it somewhat worse than it perhaps could be. If everything works as intended, it could have a 6 dice PWV attack with both TL and BS. It does lack some in Hull and Shields, but could easily be upgraded if needed with Systems Upgrade and Unimatrix Shielding - this build doesn't have the points for that though, since they are used up in the Delta Flyer.

The Flyer uses Moore to get access to BS and with the combination of Type 8 Phasers and Upgraded Phasers can have access to TL and BS for a turn at 5 PWV. Its low hull is made up for by having Parametallic Hull Plating, Unimatrix Shielding and a systems upgrade to finish out at a slashline of essentially 5/2/2/7. 

So three ships, all potentially with high quality on an attack, with some survivability and some survivability. All of the pieces needed for this build are relatively available, with the possible exception of needing two USS Hoods and Two USS Lakotas for the double Type 8 Phasers and Upgraded Phasers. The Build also doesn't really have any trouble dealing with either Fighters (2 sets of upgraded phasers) or Attack Cancellation (3 ships firing with 5 dice), but the Flier might struggle if faced with either Admiral Decker or Bioship Omega pilot. If this is the case, I'd suggest docking the Flier and transferring its tech over to the Prometheus. 

EDIT: I've gotten quite a lot of flack for running upgrades from two USS Hoods and two USS Lakotas, so I'm planning to re-do this list sans prize-ships. As it is though, using only releases from 2015, the above list stands.

All in all I think this is a pretty solid build, with a good amount of flexibility. 


2. Romulans



I.R.W. Haakona [I.R.W. Haakona] (30)
Taris [I.R.W. Haakona] (4)
Adm Mendak [I.R.W. Haakona] (4)
Romulan Security Officer [I.R.W. Haakona] (2)
Romulan Security Officer [I.R.W. Haakona] (2)
Romulan Security Officer [I.R.W. Haakona] (2)
Total (44)

I.R.W. Vrax [I.R.W. Vrax] (30)
Suran [I.R.W. Vrax] (4)
Tal Shiar [I.R.W. Belak] (5)
Romulan Helmsman [I.R.W. Haakona] (2)
Romulan Security Officer [I.R.W. Haakona] (2)
Total (43)

Prototype 01 [Prototype 01] (24)Gareb [Prototype 01] (0 overridden to 1)
Alidar Jarok [R.I.S. Talvath] (4 overridden to 0)
Counter Attack [Starter] (3)
Disruptor Beams [I.R.W. Haakona] (5)Total (33)

Fleet total: 120



Taris' Haakona starts the game of at CS 10 and PWV 5, as the game goes on you can use the RSOs to re-roll defence dice, then discard them with Taris' ability to fire in 360. Mendak's fleet action can be used to give these attacks quality, and the Ship's action can provide TL.

The Named Vrax is chosen solely for its extra shield (as I don't rate the named ability) with Suran providing some quality for the Vrax's attacks. Tal Shiar can be discarded for the BS token (more than the dial 'peeking' ability and the Helmsman and RSO help manoeivrebilty and survivability respectively. It's starting CS is 7, nothing to be laughed at and Suran's action can help to add dice quality even when TL isn't available. 

The Prototype has some teeth thanks to disruptor pulse and counter attack, but can also be used as a support ship to take Mendak's fleet action when needed. 

I do quite like this build, but I don't think it is as effective as the Federation one. You'll need the Reinforcement booster Belak and a couple of Haakona's to make this build, but neither of those pieces seem to be that difficult to come across. Some may also balk at having to purchase the Talveth for just the one card, in which case you could swap out Jarok for Toreth without having to change anything else. 


So, there are my two submissions, I'd love to see someone have a go at Klingons and Mirror Universe using their releases from this year. It seems Borg and Dominion would struggle to make anything given only this year's releases, but if anyone does come up with anything else, I'd be delighted to see it!


Happy New Year everyone, I'm Not Picard. 

Declare your independence!

The Independent faction is perhaps the most difficult faction to pin down in term of theme or ability, since it is a hodge-podge and mismatch of different ships from different on screen factions and eras. As such there are a variety of ways of dealing with independent faction cards in the game. In many cases, people just deal with Independent as they do with any other faction: In faction pure they are a faction on their own and then they are used as another faction to mix from in mixed faction play. In other situations, you could do as the guys on Red Maneuvers do (http://www.redmaneuvers.com/) and play penalty pure but allow independent cards to be played cross faction (still having to pay the 1 SP faction penalty). Whichever way you play it, the Independents have a lot to offer (although maybe not in terms of ships).



With this in mind, I decided that I'd take a look at the Val Jean Expansion. There are lots of bits and pieces in this expansion that give you options that you don't get elsewhere, so it's well worth looking at in a little more detail.


Ships:

Val Jean/Generic Maquis Raider

The slashline is nothing to write home about at all at 2/3/3/3(2) but you do have the small advantage of a 90 forward and 90 rear arc, which makes things a little better for using secondary weapons. I must say, that whilst I usually hold secondary weapons in contempt, the Val Jean is a pretty good platform for them, it doesn't lose a lot in terms of PWV to fire its secondary weapons and it also has the front and rear arcs to make the most of them. It also has a pretty good dial, standard 4 green and a 3 red come about - but everything else is white, including both a 2 and 3 hard turn. This thing manoeuvres well. The Generic then, is okay, but nothing special.

The named ability is great: You can disable up to 3 upgrades to add Evade results to your roll when defending. Given the unreliability of green dice, the guaranteed nature of these green results is well worth it. It does occur to me, though, that if you are getting fired at with this ship, you aren't making the most of all of its abilities.

With the standard 'Federation' action bar of BS/TL/EM and Scan, this is a decent ship, if not anything that will blow you away

Named: D+ Generic: D

Captains:



Chakotay's independent version is (for some reason) a higher CS than his Federation version (CS6). I really like this card for two main reasons. 1) with the retirement of Flagships, Fleet Captains and Officer Cards, there are few ways to add slots to a ship's upgrade bar. Chakotay gives you the option of adding either a crew or weapons slot to your upgrade bar. The weapon isn't the most interesting thing to add, but an extra crew slot would be useful on ever so many ships. If you play mixed faction, then Chakotay is a relatively cheap way of getting an extra slot. 2) Chakotay's ability is actually brilliant. As an action you can perform a second manoeuvre from your dial with a number of 3 or less, for the cost of an APT (with a second APT being added if the manoeuvre is red). This ability is absolutely golden as far as getting out of arc, out of range and keeping you ship alive. Keep in mind that you don't have to run Chakotay on the Val Jean, so why not shove him on a Borg ship, and relive the hey-day of pre-nerf Borg!

Grade: B+

Calvin Hudson also adds a slot to the upgrade bar, but gives you greater flexibility than Chakotay in that he allows you to add a tech slot too. Hudson also allows you to reduce the cost of upgrades deployed to his ship, if it's an independent ship. Back in the days of flagships, this was a fantastic ability to have, since any ship could become an independent flagship, but is less good now...although still worthwhile and useful.

Grade: B-


Elite Talents:

Be creative is a re-usable Disobey Orders - it allows you to convert an evade/scan/BS token to an Evade/Scan/BS token 'at any time' (which is a bit of a misnomer since as WORF stands at the moment, 'at any time' means between phases. I really hate this definition) with the definition of 'at any time' being as it is at the moment, I'd pass on this upgrade at the moment.

Grade: C-

Evasive Pattern Omega is an ability I really like, since it allows you to sensor echo if you end the phase in the forward firing arc of an opponent's ship, and you don't also have that ship in your firing arc. Okay, it's a disable, but the benefits that this has in terms of manoeuvrability shouldn't be underestimated. When coupled with Chakotay and his extra move, this is a brilliant ability.

Grade: B


Crew:



I'll start with Tuvok, since he fits in with the manoeuvrability theme of the expansion. For a disable, Tuvok allows you to perform an additional 1 manoeuvre (straight, bank or turn). With all the Manoeuvring on offer, you could potentially move, move again, sensor echo, attack and then move again all in the same turn. I love that kind of flexibility!

Grade: B

B'Elanna Torres goes some way to aiding the low PWV of the Val Jean, in that she allows you to, when attacking at range 3, add 1 attack dice at the cost of a disable, What's nice is that if you add that upgrade to a ship with hull 3 or less, you can disable Torres to add 2 extra dice. If it wasn't a disable it would be golden, but still has some utility in so much as you could easily deploy B'Elanna to a Scout Cube with mag charges and disable for an extra 2 attacks! - but only in cross faction play.

Grade: C

Kenneth Dalby is a pretty standard repair card with some flexibility. Action/Disable for 1 hull or shield repaired and action/discard for 2 hull or shields repaired. It isn't bad as repair cards go, but it'd be better if he wasn't a disable or alternatively wasn't an action.

Grade: C



Seska was a card that caused a lot of moaning prior to its release, since the preview on StarTrek.Com suggested that she would be attack cancelling. Thankfully, she isn't a copy of Varel, but for 5 points she allows you, for an Action/Discard AND disabling another upgrade, to target an enemy ship at range 1-3 and then stop it from attacking you. There are so many moving parts here, and the chances of being in the firing arc of more than one ship are so high, that I might even suggest that this is too expensive a card to waste Weyoun or Sopek on in cross faction play.

Grade: D

Weapons:

Photon Torpedoes do what you'd expect 5 point photons to do. If they were timed, they might be worth taking on this ship, as it is. Pass.

Grade: F

Ramming attack is one of the more efficient ramming/suicide ships in the game. Basically, there is a lot of text on this card, but you ram something, your ship blows up, and the target ship takes 6 dice worth of damage at -3 defence dice. This card has applications, don't get me wrong, but it is so costly (you blow up) that I can't see taking it all that often.

Grade: D

So there you have the Val Jean. I really like the Maquis faction, and this and the Gavroche together add plenty of Maquis themed cards to your arsenal. As for fleet builds, I have two to suggest:

1.
Maquis Raider [Val Jean] (20)
Chakotay [Val Jean] (4)Evasive Pattern Omega [Val Jean] (3)Tuvok [Val Jean] (3)Total (30)

Not the hardest of hitters, but with so much manoeuvrability, you can kill your enemy with a thousand cuts! 

2.
Val Jean [Val Jean] (22)
Calvin Hudson [Val Jean] (3)
Sakonna [Gavroche] (1)
Kenneth Dalby [Val Jean] (1)
Improved Deflector Screens [Gornarus] (3)
Plasma Torpedoes [Tholia One (Retail)] (0)
Plasma Torpedoes [Tholia One (Retail)] (0)
Plasma Torpedoes [Tholia One (Retail)] (0)
Total (30)


With so many upgrades at reduced cost, the Val Jean has lots of scope to make the most of its ability to disable a card to add to the evade results. Also, by having 3 Plasma Torpedoes, you could potentially do some damage. 

So, there you have it, the Val Jean, full of decent upgrades and useful crew.


I'm Not Picard.