I recently asked a question on the ST:AW Facebook group in order to try and discern what the best single card in the game was, my choice was Picard 9. Picard 9 provides high CS, and great action economy all in the same 6 point package. The trouble is, once you get past Picard 9, in fleet pure play at least, you have to choose a second captain.
...and the truth is, the second best federation captain after Picard 9, is Picard 8. I love Picard 8, and probably make more use of him than Picard 9. Picard 8 is one of the most thematic cards in the game, and I often start muttering "call me Ishmael..." under my breath as I write his name down on my fleet roster. I really wish that Picard 8 WAS Picard 9, and that Kirk 9 had Picard 9's ability. As it is, both Kirk's have mediocre abilities, whilst all three Picards have top tier abilities.
Anyway, I digress, the whole point of this post was to discuss where to go next once you have a Picard as a captain on one of your three ships, and I suggest that your next port of call be "Picard-lite"; Mr Spock. Spock is CS6 rather than 9 and doesn't have access to the all-important BS action for free (which is why I'd rate Spock behind Dukat 7) but he allows you to do the same sort of thing as Picard, and with a few Upgrades (Pegasus Riker, Disobey Orders, HESS) he can do the same thing as Picard.
But what if you want to be different to Picard rather than a pale imitation of him? After Picards and Spock, the next captain I'd go for would be Sisko 6, from the defiant expansion. The single re-roll might not seem much, but being as it can be used on defence as well as offence, it's a pretty neat trick to have in your back pocket.
Following up swiftly behind Sisko, with an inexplicable CS of 8 (because Sisko never lost his entire ship to a race of people who thought that water was a rare commodity, did he?) is Kathryn Janeway. Janeway's ability to double up on actions goes really well with both the Enterprise (TOS) and Crew Spock and Valtane. She makes for some pretty nice combos, and can really help out with those hard to kill cloaked ships.
Next up is Jonathan Archer: Archer's named ability lends itself towards a ship with lots of crew that disable, and it isn't out of the question for Archer's ship to be swinging 8 dice a turn with BS and re-rolls at CS 9.
My last choice for top 5 federation captains who aren't picard is probably a little more controversial, as I'd go for Robert DeSoto. DeSoto lends himself to defensive builds, as he has a re-roll for each crew on the ship, up to 3. Not gamebreaking, and his low CS lets him down somewhat, but he's a reasonable choice for the 5th best captain in the fleet.
So that's what I'd do if you too are not Picard.
TOP FEDERATION CAPTAINS (that aren't Picard):
1. Spock
2. Sisko
3. Janeway
4. Archer
5. DeSoto
As always, ideas are appreciated, thanks for reading!
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