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 

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. 

A Blast from the Past! The Conclusion

So, after 9 posts and countless hours spent writing about Wave zero and the starter set, my blast from the past series is complete. In this post I will conclude that series by writing about how the factions stood after Wave Zero, and how things have improved since then.



The first point to make is that Dominion started off behind the curve of everyone else. The Kraxon and Gor Portas are okay ships, and certainly the Kraxon has improved as time has gone on, but as it stood after wave zero, the dominion were a ship down on everyone else and didn't have access to anything that really gave them an edge over the other factions. It wouldn't take long for them to catch up, certainly by wave 2 they were at least on par with the other factions, but as it stood after wave zero they were a little undergunned.



As for Romulans, the Apnex and Valdore were good wave zero releases, but the starter didn't have all that much to offer and the D'Deridex remains a ship that is somewhat underpowered in the game. I long for a time when the Romulan faction get access to a Type 8 Phasers type upgrade that allows the Warbird to get the same kind of firepower as its Valdore equivalent, because with 3 crew slots and a tech slot the Khazara is a good base to build combos onto. As it was though, the D'Deridex is still the Romulan ship that sees the least play for me. The Valdore and Scimitar (especially the scimitar) are just out and out better.



The Federation didn't start out as the all conquering powerhouse that they would later become, and suffered to start with from low PWV, bad manoeuvrability, or both. Picard 9 is a piece still used in almost all top tier fed builds, but outside of that from the starter, little remains in the best builds. The Enterprise (tinyprise) gave us some great crew who would be seen in build after build, but even now the sun seems to have set on Mr Spock, Hikaru Sulu and Montgomery Scott. Good pieces at the time though, and the Federation seemed healthy as the game began.



Klingons were the big winners from the starter and Wave zero, and had been set up as the attacking faction. High PWV, good captains, Drex - the Klingons had all they needed at the start and were the Faction to beat in competitive play right out of the gates. Things got even better for them with the release of the Ch'Tang as a prize ship after Dominion War OP2, and it wasn't until the downfall of cloak with the release of the Koranak that the crown started to slip from the klingons. I'd even go as far to say that the Klingons are, of the bigger factions, the one I see the least in OP play today.



All this leads me to the one big change; Cloaking. I can vividly remember the discussions on BGG about how cloak was overpowered and broken at the start of the game. The argument went something along the lines of this "+4 defence dice is just too many, how can anyone score a hit against cloakers? " well, as we found out when the Koranak was released, 5 dice with quality is enough to burn through cloaking and those 4 extra green dice come with a significant downside. With Federation ships now able to run 6-9 defence dice with quality and still have the use of their shields, it seems the age of "cloak is broken" is long over.

So there you have it, Wave Zero then and now, a testament to how the game changes and how some things, Picard 9 and Martok, will always be the best.

Many thanks for reading, if you did read it all, and even if you didn't, comments would be most appreciated.

I remain, resolutely, Not Picard.

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!

A Blast from the Past! Wave Zero: IRW Valdore

The next in my series of retrospective reviews goes back to the Star Trek: Nemesis to take a look at the IRW Valdore. The point of these reviews is both to give readers an idea of how effective the old expansions were, but also to see how the effectiveness of certain upgrades changes as time goes on...



Nemesis is not my favourite film, by any stretch of the imagination. The first time I saw it, I was so disappointed that I gave up on Star Trek for years. It wasn't until the original motion picture series came out on Blu Ray that my interest was piqued again. One thing that Nemesis did give us, though, was the Valdore. The Valdore was the first Romulan Battleship to appear in Trek Canon since the D'Deridex. Overshadowed somewhat by the Reman Warbird Scimitar on the same film, let us see what the Valdore has to offer to STAW...

Ship: IRW Valdore/Valdore Class

At 30 SP the Valdore costs the same as the named D'Deridex from the starter set (Aside: I'm planning to do a review of the Starter Set at some point, bear with me), in fact it costs the same as any of the 645 Billion named D'Deridex ships currently in the game. There is, therefore, a meaningful comparison to be made between the Valdore and the other ever-present Romulan Warbird. The named Valdore has a slashline of 4/2/6/3, losing a shield and gaining an attack compared to the named D'Deridex. The Valdore also loses the red full astern manoeuvre of its predecessor in exchange for a red 3 come-about. That's a trade off I'll take willingly. Whilst the Valdore has red 3 hard turns, the D'Deridex has white 3 turns, but the D'Deridex has white 2 banks whilst the Valdore has green 2 banks, which is a huge deal. Having the option of 6 green manoeuvres with the ship's named ability is very useful, especially since the Valdore has that come about. Where the Valdore falls down a bit is that it doesn't have a tech slot. In fact, where it comes to slots in general, it's a little bit on the skinny side (2 weapon, 2 Crew). Romulan ships really need tech slots, so not having a tech slot is a big deal. There are a couple of ways in faction, and a couple of (soon to be retired) resources that get around this though, so it wasn't as big of a deal as it once was. If the Valdore had a single tech slot, I'd happily give this ship an 'A' grade, but as it doesn't and you have to build around this limitation, it'll be a little lower.

Named Grade: B+

Generic Grade: B-

Captains:



Donatra is a staple in most of my Romulan Builds, since she has an ability that you'll use almost every turn, doesn't take an action and offers something to all other ships in the fleet. Captain skill is middling, but not so low that it stops her being useful. With so many ways of improving CS, this is not the limitation it once was, and Donatra pairs up well with Mendak as a support ship pairing. 

Grade: B

Tomalak disappoints me on a number of levels. First, Tomalak was one of the most interesting antagonists on TNG and his CS deserves to be better than a lowly 3. In addition to that, his ability is not something you'll use every turn, essentially meaningless when using secondary weapons, and so much worse than most other captain's abilities. Captain slots are the rarest of all slots, so wasting one on Tomalak seems beyond stupid.

Grade: F

Crew:

A staple of most early Romulan builds, and something that still plays well today, is the Romulan version of the Tactical Officer. Target Lock provides you with 75% attack efficiency, TL and BS provides you with just under 94% efficiency. BS on its own gives 75%. Tactical Officer provides similar efficiency to both TL and BS together, but only at the cost of one action. That's fantastic for both dice efficiency and action economy. There are some drawbacks though: 1. It only works if you have a target lock and you are using that TL to re-roll attack dice. This means that if you are firing a secondary weapon, you don't get to re-roll twice (even plasma torpedoes) and if you are getting a re-roll from somewhere else, you don't get to do it twice. 2. You have to have a target lock to use it, so it can be pretty useless against a permacloak fleet.

Overall though, it's a fantastic card that is in almost every Romulan fleet I write. 

Grade: B+

Weapons:

Photon Torpedoes: YAWN.

Grade: F

Plasma Torpedoes are actually a better bet than Photon Torpedoes because they provide you with some efficiency when you attack with them and they work at range 1. They do stop you from using the Tac Officer, but they offer a boost to PWV for some ships (although not significant enough of a boost on this ship) they work well on the Gal'Gathong, but even then, the Time Token versions are better.

Grade: D-

Talent:

Many people have said that if there was an action on every action bar that allowed you to roll one extra red die, that it would still be worse than TL or BS. This card is an Action/Disable that allows you to roll an extra attack die. It's terrible and for 4 points criminal. I see no reason why you should ever take this talent.

Grade: F

In summary then, buy it for Tac Officer, Donatra and the Named ship itself, but it isn't the powerhouse it once was (I once declared this the best ship in the game). 

Again, I'm not picard.

A Blast From the Past! Wave Zero: RIS Apnex

Wizkids hates Romulans. There I said it. Not that I believe it. Certainly not anymore anyway, but there was a time when it was a oft-heard cry of those Romulan fans on either the BGG boards or facebook. There are some things that lead me to think that this may have been justified, but if the release schedule had been slightly different, with the Vo supplanted on the schedule with either the Scimitar or the Haakona, then it would seem somewhat over-the-top to suggest that Wizkids did genuinely 'hate' Romulans.

I suppose one of the reasons that people began to claim that Wizkids did infact "hate" Romulans, was the release in wave zero of a clear out and out support ship in a wave that mainly featured front-line combat ships. The Apnex is not going to win you games by damaging your opponent's fleet. If we are limited only to the upgrades in the Apnex expansion, it probably isn't going to win you games at all. What the Apnex expansion did give you was a number of interesting choices, and one of the cheapest spaceframes in the game, the cheapest for a long time.

Ship:
RIS Apnex/Romulan Science Vessel

The slashline of 1/2/2/1 (2 shields for the named) is nothing to shout home about. What makes the generic Romulan Science Vessel (RSV) interesting, is that it is only 12 point and has access to both Cloak and Sensor Echo on its action bar. This essentially means that you have a ship with a slashline of 1/6/2/0, if you spend most of the game cloaked. The slots the named version has are 2 crew and a tech, which isn't that impressive, certainly the other named RSV has a much more useful collection of 3 tech slots. The named ability is interesting, as it allows you to inflict one damage on every ship within range 1 (including your own ship) at the cost of only being able to perform manoeuvres with a distance of 1 for the rest of the game. This makes the ship a good minelayer - once your mines are gone, you just run into the midst of the enemy line and inflict damage - but the minelayer in itself is not all that effective, since you only have 1 tech slot or pay considerably for additional slots. The generic retains the tech and loses a crew slot, so losing the named ability is not all that bad, all things considered.

Named Grade: C

Generic Grade: C+

Captain:
Most expansions have 2 potential captains in them, and the "Wizkids hates romulans" conspiracy theorists always cite the fact that the Apnex only came with one captain option as evidence. Having said that, Mirok is a pretty good captain, whose low CS is somewhat mitigated by his ability (if a friendly ship is within range 1, then repair 1 damage to either your hull or shields). With so many methods in faction of boosting CS (Admirals, security officers, resources) he has potential. He is also only 2 points, so a good space filler too.

Grade: C+

Crew:

There are, to my knowledge, only 2 pairs of crew in the game with identical abilities: N'Garen and Drex, and Parem and Bochra. Parem's ability is not that fantastic (remove an opposing crew member from a ship with no active shields that isn't cloaked, at the cost of an Action/Discard and dropping your own shields). What makes Parem somewhat worthwhile is his low cost (1 SP) and the combination of Parem and Taris from the Haakona expansion. Taris allows you to fire primary weapons in a 360 arc for the cost of a crew discard, so Bochra and Parem are the ideal fodder for this kind of build - if you haven't got the points for something more interesting to shove out of the air lock

Grade: C-

Varel is a card that formed the basis of many combinations over the years. Her ability, to cancel at attack at the cost of a discard, is un-matched in terms of crew. What lets Varel down is her costliness (10 SP on a non-science vessel) and comparison to other cards that do similar things - Conditional Surrender as an elite talent does much the same thing for significantly fewer points, and Interphase Generator does a similar thing for less. Within faction though, Varel is a great basis for an attack cancelling build, especially when paired with centurion from the Gal'Gathong expansion. On her own she doubles the survivability of a support ship like the Apnex, since one good attack will usually eat two hull and get through cloak. There's no doubting this is a good card, but in faction pure play she isn't game-breaking in the way that she is in a mixed faction dreadnought game.

Grade: B+

Tech:

Interphase generator is a Romulan Faction staple. for the low cost of 3 SP it acts like an attack canceller, and like Varel can increase the durability of support ships. I absolutely love this card, and it's a card that really makes cloaked fleets worthwhile, since it allows you to run cloaked ships with a degree of confidence that they won't die to the first quality attack. Even a ship with 7 hull, like the scimitar, can benefit from the IG, or multiple IGs. The fact that it is generic just makes it better and I see no reason not to run them on every cloaking ship in your fleet.

Grade: A+

Muon Feedback Wave is an annoying card to face, with the ability to limit the movement of other ships, it is almost the perfect card for a support ship like the Apnex. It's utility is limited by its range (1) and its cost (Action/Discard) but a well timed Muon token can really limit the ability of an opponent to escape a sticky situation or add those last needed damage to a ship.

Grade: B

Overall the pack actually has a lot to offer, and the Support ship Apnex is an interesting ship to fly that requires a bit of skill:

R.I.S. Apnex [R.I.S. Apnex] (14)
Mirok [R.I.S. Apnex] (2)
T'Rul [Deep Space 9] (4)
Varel [R.I.S. Apnex] (5)
Cloaked Mines [I.R.W. Praetus] (3)
Cloaked Mines [I.R.W. Praetus] (3)
Total (31)

Fleet total: 31

This version offers some good survivability, with Varel and T'Rul both helping to avoid being one shot. and the ability to cause some board control issues, with 2 sets of cloaked mines and the Apnex's named ability to cause damage to opponents. It can easily built without Varel for a cheaper option.

Romulan Science Vessel [R.I.S. Apnex] (12)
Donatra [I.R.W. Valdore] (4)
Adm Mendak [I.R.W. Haakona] (4)
Varel [R.I.S. Apnex] (5)
Interphase Generator [R.I.S. Apnex] (3)
Total (28)

Fleet total: 28

This version offers greater survivability thanks to Varel and Interphase generator, with the added bonus of helping other ships in the fleet with Donatra's +1 red dice bonus and Mendak giving out BS tokens. As with the previous build version, Varel and IG are optional, the advantage of having them is that with Donatra you need to be close to the fighting and may, despite you best efforts with Sensor Echo, come under enemy fire. The 12 point space frame basically means you can build your third ship in a 50/3 meta up to however many point you have left, and still benefit from a worthwhile support ship. This is especially the case in cross-faction play, and was in one of the high placed builds at world's. 

So there you go, Wizkids hate Romulans so much they gave them access to one of the better support ships in the game, with two great cards (Varel and IG) as well as a number of useable cards (Mirok, Muon, Parem and the Apnex).

As always thoughts are most welcome, and I'm still not Picard.

AAR: Year of Hell

This weekend marked my usually monthly excursion to Wayland Games to play in their Attack Wing tournament. I had a lot of trouble working out exactly what to take, as I wasn't sure exactly how the scenario would play. Eventually I decided on this:

NB: We do not enforce either the 50 point maximum or the 3 ship minimum, and no resources are retired.

Ship 1:
Scimitar
Shinzon
Tactical Officer
Interphase Generator
Cloaked Mines
Thaleron Weapon

Ship 2
Reman Warbird
Donatra
Fleet Captain (Independent Dominion)
Attack Pattern Shinzon Theta
Mendak
Tactical Officer
Interphase Generator
Cloaked Mines
Advanced Cloaking

The idea was to barrel forward as quickly as possible, drop mines and then use the superior firepower of the two warbirds to take down any ship before the wave hit. To be honest, I just wanted to try something a little different from the Federation Evader-naughts that I usually build.

Round 1:

Rich, Dominion


Rich was running double battleships, with one featuring Khan, Q and Quinn, whilst the other (named) one featured Dukat, Boheeka and Breen Aide. This whole game hinged upon the use of the Thaleron Weapon during the first engagement round, which with TL, Tactical Officer and BS managed to strip Khan's ship of all its useful crew and take down its shields. Without Q's Ship action to turn around, the battleships became easy prey for the two Reman Warbirds. Revenge for last month, where Rich's Species fleet clipped the wings of my Bajoran fleet.

Result 120 Me-Rich 0

Round 2:
Dan, Borg

Dan and I go way back, and he has been experimenting for a while with the Borg, hoping to make them competitive in the new post-nerf meta. Dan was flying two Tac Cubes (one with Locutus and one with the Borg Queen for skill 9 and 8 respectively). Once again the Thaleron weapon did its business and I was able to remove skill 9 Locutus from the game before his higher initiative became an issue. From there it was a case of keeping cloak up and dropping mines to ensure the eventual demise of the Queen's cube.

Result 120 Me-Dan 0

Round 3: Alex, Borg/Romulans

Alex had lost his first game to Dan but won against Rich, I was pretty sure that barring a major cock up I'd come out of the event on top, but was hoping for the clean sweep.

Alex was running a cube and Prototype 01, the Drone ship being designed to survive the worst of the wave thanks to its ship ability and tech. This game was certainly the longest of the three, with the Thaleron Weapon having little effect thanks to Alex's low number of crew. I completely forgot to drop mines this game, so it ended up being a slug fest, with my Scimitar having to create temporal shields twice. Thankfully, I did eventually win, without losing a ship, and took out the event overall.

Result 160 Me-Alex 20

Another good OP event there, and whilst I was unsure about the scenario to start with, I found it enjoyable and challenging. Roll on Balance of Terror next month!

Still not Picard though...

Romulan combined arms force

This fleet isn't quite like my other max alpha strike dice quality builds, it requires a little more finesse to use:

I.R.W. Khazara [Starter] (30)
Liviana Charvanek [I.R.W. Vorta Vor] (4)
Romulan Security Officer [I.R.W. Haakona] (1)
Romulan Security Officer [I.R.W. Haakona] (1)
Romulan Security Officer [I.R.W. Haakona] (1)
Interphase Generator [R.I.S. Apnex] (3)
Disruptor Pulse [I.R.W. Haakona] (5)
Total (45)

R.I.S. Vo [R.I.S. Vo] (16)
Donatra [I.R.W. Valdore] (4)
Adm Mendak [I.R.W. Haakona] (4)
Cloaked Mines [I.R.W. Praetus] (3)
Total (27)

Scimitar [Scimitar] (38)
Taris [I.R.W. Haakona] (4)
Target Weapon Systems (0/3) [Scimitar]
Fleet Captain: Independent (Klingon) [Fleet Captain Resource] (5)
Bochra [Starter] (0)
Parem [R.I.S. Apnex] (0)
Romulan Security Officer [I.R.W. Haakona] (1)
Total (48)

Fleet total: 120

The Khazara has good defensive survivability and a pretty high captain skill thanks to RSO, The scimitar hits hard too, with Bochra and Parem as discard bait. The Vo can drop mines, give out a BS token and take a free evade each turn. Takes some skill to fly, but I think it does a number of sneaky Romulan things quite well!

Faction Identity: The Romulans

There is a widely held opinion that wizkids hates Romulans – It is not a view to which I subscribe. For a long time the Romulans seemed like an underpowered faction that lacked the firepower of the Klingons or the options presented by the Federation. It’s very easy to forget that for a long time the Dominion were the ugly stepchild in the game – at least up until wave 2 (for those of you who have only come into the game recently, the first 4 or so waves were 4 ship releases every two months, rather than 3 ships every month, so up until wave 2 is actually longer than it might at first seem). I remember reading a blog a couple of years back where the author (I can’t find the blog at the moment, If I do I’ll credit it at the end) was talking about how to make Romulans competitive in the old non-3/50 environment, and he was quite happy running a single D’Deridex and a Valdore, arguing that this was sufficient to survive in the pre-Borg world. Anyway, enough dispelling misconceptions, Ladies and Gentlemen, I present for your enjoyment, the Romulans!

“The Romulans were a humanoid race from the planet Romulus. The Romulans were biological cousins of Vulcans, as they were descended from those who rejected Surak's reforms during the Time of Awakening. The Romulan Star Empire was the Romulan state and one of the major powers known in the galaxy.”

Romulan Ships

The standard Romulan ship is the D’deridex class Warbird, seen in ST:AW as the Khazara, Aj’Rmr, Haakona and Avatar of Tomed. At 3-2-6-4 with the cloaking action bar, it is a serviceable ship that from the very start of the game has suffered from having low firepower whilst still being costly (30 for the named, 28 for the Generic). That being said, the 4 Hull and 2 Evade on a cloaking ship is nice from the survivability point of view, and with some of the upgrades that Romulans have, it’s becoming more and more efficient at surviving incoming fire. The other early release that the Romulans had was the IRW Valdore, which for a time was one of the best ships in the game: 6 green manoeuvers on the dial with a come about, a great cloaking ship with 6 hull, 2 evade and only 2 shields on the generic, plus a PWV of 4, 5 on the named with its ship ‘perk’ of gaining +1 red dice on a turn in which you complete a green manoeuvre.

The 28-30 point ship has almost become the Romulan standard ship size, unlike most other factions that have the majority of their ships in the 24-28 point range. The only Romulan ship in that range is the Prototype 01, an odd 24 point ship with 3-3-3-3 and a Scan, Target Lock & Evade action bar. The prototype is not the kind of ship that you want to run straight at the enemy, and since it doesn’t have cloak, it isn’t as survivable as its bigger brothers. It is the perfect minelayer, and often finds itself in Romulan fleets in that role.

Below that in terms of points cost are the Birds of Prey, the Vorta Vor and Gal Gath’thong, both are 2-2-3-2 and come in at a mighty 18 points. The Gal Gath’ong makes a brilliant torpedo boat thanks to its ‘perk’ of being able to fire Plasma Torpedoes without a target lock, particularly with the new Plasma Torpedoes from the Vrax pack (listen to the Warpcore Breach Podcast to find out more!). Both of the Birds of Prey act as pretty good secondary antagonisers, but are a little too big to be support ships, thankfully the Romulans have good support ships in spades.

Both the Romulan Scout Vessel and the Romulan Science Vessel are cheap enough to become great support ships. At between 12 and 16 points, the generic/named versions of these two ships provide a really cheap base upon which to build a support ship. The generic science vessel offers the cheaper option, but for that you get no benefits outside of the 1-2-2-1 spaceframe, if you ever have a spare 4 points, I’d suggest the named RIS Vo Scout Vessel, that gives a free evade action in exchange for not firing (and IMHO, support ships are better off staying cloaked and not firing).

The final Romulan ship worth mentioning is the Scimitar. Popular on the first day of the ST:AW World Championships at Origins, the Scimitar is the big beast of the Romulan fleet at 6-2-7-4 with a ship ‘perk’ that works functionally the same as the Advanced Cloaking upgrade – you can choose to remain cloaked when firing if you take an Auxiliary Power Token (APT). The Scimitar revolutionised the Romulans in so far as it gave them a real heavy hitter to go alongside the survivable but pillow-fisted D’Deridex and Valdore. The Valdore is perhaps the most manoeuvrable non-borg 6 PWV ship, when compared to the Dominion Jem’Hadar Battleship it is a veritable ballerina!

Romulans in general have good Manoeuvre dials, although not as across the board manoeuvrable as the Klingons. The D’Deridex has all white manoeuvers except for a red reverse rather than the customary come about. It’s difficult to classify the Romulan fleet except to say that they have Big Ships, Very Big Ships and Small Ships, with nothing really in between, and that’s always been the weakness of Romulan Fleets.

Romulan Captains

Most factions have a stand out captain, mainly when they improve the action economy of a build. The Federation have Mr Spock and Picard 9, Dominion have Dukat 7, Klingons Martok 8, Borg Queen 8 and even Vulcans Soval and Bajorans Kira 5. All of these captains offer greater action economy in some way or other that really helps to build the combos that make a fleet worthwhile. Romulans lack a stand-out action efficiency captain of the type that other fleets enjoy. That isn’t to say that all of their captains are bad, since Toreth, Salatrel, Valdore, Liviana Charvanek, Mirok, and Letant all have something to offer, but what they offer is less immediately viable than say Picard 9. The other thing that Romulans struggle with is high Captain Skill (CS). Romulan Commander, Shinzon and Salatrel all help in this regard, but only really Shinzon makes the elite group of CS 9 captains. This means that Romulans have to struggle to get that really high captain skill that should be (IMHO) the most important factor when choosing captains. I like Liviana Charvanek since she works well with the Romulan Security Officer from the Haakona expansion – Each security officer offers a +1 bonus to CS, and can be disabled to grant a re-roll on defence. This pairs well with Charvanek since her ‘perk’ is to roll a defence dice when a crew is disabled in order to stop in from disabling. This is great as it will help keep her captain skill up, and avoid having to re-enable those crew, solving both the action economy and captain skill problem simultaneously!

Romulan Crew

A major identifying factor of Romulan Crew when compared with other factions is that they are usually non-unique. This means that multiple ships can have multiple copies of a similar upgrade, making them more flexible than the crew of other factions. Be it Tactical Officers, Helmsmen, Pilots, or security Officers, you can use them without fear of paying an opportunity cost elsewhere. That’s a fantastic trait to have as a faction and with the release of the new Bridge Officer, it makes things even better!

Of the un-named Crew, Varel is an old favourite that helps to cancel enemy attacks, which works even better with Centurion (another generic card) that can stop her from discarding.

Romulan Tech

The real strength of the Romulan faction lies in tech, particularly with Cloaked Mines and Interphase Generator. Cloaked Mines are potentially the best card in the game at the moment, and allow for great board control, whilst Interphase Generator helps big hulled Romulan ships to survive even longer. There are other upgrades, like advanced cloaking, that see some use, but more often than not these two tech upgrades will be the ones competing for space in the somewhat sparse Romulan Tech Slots.

Romulan Weapons

Lots of Torpedoes, and a few more interesting upgrades like Disruptor Beams and Disruptor pulse that help to improve the damage output of Romulans. As with most factions though, you’d rather have huge PWV than spend points on action sapping secondary weapons, that is at least until the new time-token Secondary Torpedoes came out with the Vrax pack, making Romulan Torpedoes all the more efficient!

So, what is the Romulan Faction identity?

1.      No Medium Ships

2.      Generic Crew

3.      Poor Action Economy

4.      Lots of Board Control and Attack Cancellation to frustrate the enemy

Romulans are the sneaky faction, the one that takes some finesse to play – or the fleet that runs double Scimitars and wrecks face!

Until Next Time,

I’m still not Picard.