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! Wave Zero: USS Reliant

The Last of my wave zero reviews covers the almost (but not quite) dual faction release of the USS Reliant. The point of these reviews is to see both how good the cards are in a vacuum, but also how changes in the game since their release have changed their effectiveness.



Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is my favourite Star Trek film for a number of reasons: A set chewing performance from Ricardo Montalban as Khan for one, but also it was everything a Star Trek movie should be, character driven, with an internal theme (of revenge) and with twists that you don't see coming. Kirk, Spock and McCoy are at their finest here, in a film that both stands alone and starts a 3 film arc.

Ships: USS Reliant/Generic Miranda Class.

The Reliant itself comes with a 2/2/3/3 slash line, a 180 front arc and a 90 rear arc. The dial is also pretty impressive, with the only red manoeuvre being a 2 reverse. It has the standard 4 greens, but a 2 and a 3 white hard turn. With it's arcs and dial, it is a ship that is difficult to avoid. It has 2 crew and 1 weapon slot. The named ability is an attack boost of +1 at range 1 in addition to the normal +1, meaning it fires with 4 dice when in close. This ship has improved as time has gone on simply because of upgrades such as Type 8 phasers and Upgraded Phasers, as well as cross-faction weapons like Disruptor Pulse. At only 20 SP, it is a ship well worth checking out. The Generic loses the named ability. a shield and a crew slot, but works well as a torpedo boat, with timed torpedoes now a thing, it's better at that job than it was when first released.

Generic: C+ Named: B

Captains:



Given the precedent set by the Robinson, I wonder if this had been released today would it have been a dual faction ship (Independent/Federation) or maybe even the named would be Independent and the Generic Federation. The reason that I say this is because it contains both Independent and Federation captains. Khan Singh is a CS 8 captain who allows you to use a BS token to convert BS results to crits rather than just normal hits. This is great for doing loads of damage and if Khan is on a ship with BS I see no reason he shouldn't take it every turn. He also makes it so that no other upgrade deployed to the ship has to take a faction penalty, so in penalty pure environments he helps to get great combos onto some ships. My one slight regret for this card is that he doesn't nullify the faction penalty on himself, so that in penalty and faction pure environments, he cannot be deployed to the USS Reliant he comes on. I would advise all Faction Pure venues to make an exception for Khan on the Reliant, or do as our venue does and allow Independent captains to be fielded to any ship, regardless of faction. Unfortunately, Khan's ability only works with the spending of a BS token so can't be combined with Mr Spock or Drex/N'garen for the same effect. He does work with a token granted from Admiral Mendak though.

Grade: B

The other captain in this pack is Clark Terrell. A good choice for swarm fleets, Terrell suffers from CS 2 and no ET slot. Not entirely useless though, and can be fun when combined with Donatra, Admiral Hayes and Gowron in a mixed swarm build.

Grade: C-

Crew:
Again, there is a split between Independent and Federation here. Joachim is the first Independent offering, for 4SP he allows you to draw 2 crit cards every time you inflict a crit to the opponent's hull. You don't inflict crits very often though, so his utility is limited...OR IS IT? Joachim has great synergy with Khan 8, since Khan vastly increases your chance of a critical hit. Not all Crits were created equal, so doubling up on crit cards could be an interesting ability...

Grade: B-

The Second independent offering is "Follower of Khan" a generic 1 point crew card. A teleporting ganker, this is useful discard fodder, a la Parem, Bochra or Klag, but otherwise isn't worth much,

Grade: D-

On the Federation side of the upgrade side, we have first commander Kyle. Kyle is a shield healing card that requires you to perform a green manoeuvre and reduce your attack dice by 2. That's a lot of conditions for a repair card and at 2 SP he is expensive for what he does when compared to other repair cards, most notable Glinn Daro, who for one point more doesn't reduce attack, isn't limited to shields and doesn't require a green manoeuvre. Even in faction, there is Montgomery Scott, who provides additional flexibility and Charles Tucker III who has greater flexibility and less of a restriction.

Grade: D-

The star crew card of this pack is Pavel Chekov, who allows you to remove an APT when performing a white manoeuvre. This card is gold when used on a ship like the Voyager, which requires APTs to fire in 360 and any non-tinyprise with either first officer or Jayneway, where you get APTs to double up on actions. This card has improved over time where the number of cards requiring APT removal has increased, and remains a staple in most Voyager builds.

Grade: B

No tech, so onto Weapons:

3 SP, 4A photons without time tokens? Pass.

Grade: F

Elite Talents:



I stab at Thee is perhaps the best (although Tasha Yar runs it close) card for making an opponent think twice about destroying your ship. ISAT gives you 3 attack dice at every enemy ship in range 1, which they then don't get to roll defence again. It's nice and when coupled with cheat death becomes somewhat fun, but it lacks the scary factor it once had and could result in 0 hits. I still like it though.

Grade: C

Superior Intellect suffers from being an Action/Discard that requires teleporting, but has potential as a combo-breaker for stealing. The fact that it can steal any upgrade makes it better than Crosis, but the fact you need to drop enemy shields first makes it worse. I'd still take it, but only as an additional fun aspect of a build, rather than the key to a build.

Grade: B-

So all in all a pretty fun expansion with some interesting cards, I'd happily buy a second and third, where I able to find them!


Some ideas for a Miranda Torpedo Swarm:

Miranda Class [U.S.S. Reliant] (18)
Mr. Spock [U.S.S. Enterprise (Refit)] (4)Photon Torpedoes [Starter] (5)Total (27)

Miranda Class [U.S.S. Reliant] (18)Jean-Luc Picard [Starter] (6)Photon Torpedoes [Starter] (5)Total (29)

Miranda Class [U.S.S. Reliant] (18)Federation [U.S.S. Prometheus] (0)Rapid Reload [U.S.S. Thunderchild] (2)Photon Torpedoes [[U.S.S. Thunderchild] (5)Photon Torpedoes [U.S.S. Thunderchild] (5)Arsenal [U.S.S. Phoenix] (4)Total (34)

Fleet total: 90


So Spock take TL and re-enables torpedoes, Picard takes TL and Re-enables torpedoes, the third ship takes TL then uses time token torps and arsenal to ensure that they work every turn. Rapid Reload is there as a contingency.

The second list is a souped up Reliant:

U.S.S. Reliant [U.S.S. Reliant] (20)
Mr. Spock [U.S.S. Enterprise (Refit)] (4)
Adm Maxwell Forrest [Enterprise NX-01] (3)
The Needs of the Many... [U.S.S. Enterprise (Refit)] (4)
Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
B'Elanna Torres [U.S.S. Voyager] (4)
Immersion Shielding [Delta Flyer] (3)
Unimatrix Shielding [Delta Flyer] (5)
Upgraded Phasers [U.S.S. Lakota] (3)
Type 8 Phaser Array [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Total (50)

Fleet total: 50

With Type 8 phasers and Upgraded Phasers the base attack value is 4, 6 at range 1. Spock means free TL and then ship action can be BS. The three shield upgrades add an extra 4 shields and if those shields go, discard TNOTM and B'elanna for 3 shields back. The extra movement provided by Forrest allows for range 1 as soon as possible, and will help to keep enemy ships in that arc of fire.

Comments are, as always, appreciated!

I'm Not Picard!

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: Gor Portas

The next in my series of retrospective reviews goes back to the Dominion War to take a look at the Gor Portas. 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...

It wasn't really until the season 7 DS9 episode "The Changing Face of Evil" that we really got an idea of what the Breen could do. At the second Battle of Chintoka, the Breen used their energy dampening weapons to devastating effect, destroying the federation alliance fleet and swinging the war in favour of the Dominion. It's a pretty impressive first outing, but does the Gor Portas match up to that billing?

Ship: Gor Portas/Breen Battle Crusier

The named ability of the Gor Portas is an interesting one, meaning you can fire torpedoes and then use your target lock for re-rolls. On a ship with low PWV (3) and no BS action, that's a nice ability to have. At 26 points, the Gor Portas comes in at the same points as the Kraxon, but loses 1 red dice in favour of one green dice, for a slashline of 3/2/4/4. This in itself is not a worthwhile trade off, but the manoeuvre dial is significantly improved when compared to the Galor class (white hard 2 turns and a red come about compared to red 2 and 3 turns and no come about). The slots available to the named Gor Portas are 1 crew and a mighty 4 weapons. That's right, 4. Not having any tech slots is a problem, as is only 1 crew slot (as an aside, I'd currently ranks slots: Crew>Tech>Weapon). I'd happily swap 2 of the weapon slots for one each of crew and tech and the Kraxon's 1 crew, 2 tech, 1 weapon seems like a better deal. The Kraxon also benefits from a 180 front arc, whereas the Gor Portas only has a 90. As you can probably already tell, I'm comparing this expansion heavily with the Cardassian expansion from the same wave, which seems to make sense to me since they come in at the same points cost at the same time. In terms of firing arc, slots and stats, the Kraxon wins, yet the Gor Portas is better in terms of dial and named ability. It's a close run contest, but I think overall that the Kraxon is better.

Grade: C+

Captains:
Sar is a simple and cheap captain whose ability you can make use of every turn. Whilst green dice have never been the be all and end all of STAW, having an extra one can be useful and at 1 point, he isn't too much of an investment for that.

Grade: C+

Thot Gor seems perfect for the Gor Portas, his -1 cost to weapons works best on a ship with 4 weapon slots! Trouble is that there are many cost reducers in the game, so he isn't worth giving up a captain slot for that cost reduction. His captain skill is middling and he has no ET slot, so 4 points seems a lot to pay for him when compared to other options in faction. I'm not a fan.

Grade: D+

Crew:

Breen aide is one of my favourite cards in the game, allowing a passive conversion of 1 blank to a hit when you have a scan token. The drawback of this card is that you have to scan in order to activate him, and there always seems to be a better action than scan. I'd advise that you TL one turn, then scan subsequently, which is especially easy given the Gor Portas' named ability. Still, at 2 points and generic, this is a mighty fine card.

Grade: B-

Weapons:

Unlike most torpedoes the Breen Photon Torpedo can't be so readily overlooked. On the Gor Portas, the problem of Torpedo quality is somewhat removed, and the range restrictions on this torpedo (1-3) are better than the range restrictions on most torpedoes (2-3). Coupled with Thot Gor and the 4 weapon slots that the Gor Portas has, the action economy issues are somewhat removed, although I really wish that there was a time token version of this particular torpedo, since that would make it even better. Fingers crossed that a third breen ship gets released with time token dominion range 1-3 torpedoes. This ship was clearly designed as a torpedo boat, and the synergies that exist between these torpedoes, the Gor Portas and Thot Gor is clear. It's a tremendous shame that even with all this considered, the torpedoes aren't the best choice available.

Grade: D-

The key card in this pack is the Energy Dissipator, and so it's worth quoting the card text in full:

"ATTACK: Disable this card to perform this attack, If this attack hits, the target suffers no damage, receives 1 energy dampening token, and you may immediately attack with another weapons. This upgrade costs +5 Squadron Points for any non-Breen Ship"

And as such it is worth working out what an Energy Dampening Token (EDT) does too:

"As soon as the ship receives the EDT, disable all of its remaining shields and remove its cloak token, if any. While the ship has the EDT, it cannot attack or raise its shields.

During the planning phase the owner does not assign a manoeuvre dial to this ship.

During the activation phase the owner moves the ship as if it were assigned a White Straight 1 manouevre, removes all EDTs from this ship it may now perform actions and attack as normal"

That's an absolute wall of text to get through before you work out how this thing works, so to summarise, if your 3 dice attack hits, you get another attack for free, and the target ship loses its shields, until the end of the NEXT TURN (since disabled shields go back up in the end phase). The catch is that you rely on this initial attack hitting. In the age of cloakers (that preceded the age of Borg that preceded the current game age that we are now in (the 3rd Age?)) this was a difficult hit to land. However, now that evade dice are generally lower, this is a potentially brilliant ability. On the Gor Portas itself, you can follow up the EDT with torpedoes against the opponent's hull and get quality with the Target Lock that doesn't need to be removed thanks to the ship's named ability. The thought and synergy that went into that combination is admirable - the points cost to achieve it? Not so great.

The energy dissapator is probably best used, despite the exorbitant cost of running it on anything other than a breen ship, on something with a much higher PWV than the Breen Battle Cruiser. On the Dominion Battleship, Dominion Battle Cruiser or the Cardassian Keldon class, this is a high quality weapon. On the Breen ship, it is just okay.

Grade: B-

So there you have it - a bit of a mixed bag overall. The only card from this pack that sees regular use for me is Breen Aide, followed by Sar and the ED. Together with the Kraxon and lack of ship in the starter, the Dominion were certainly playing behind the other factions to start with. I'd go as far as saying that it wasn't until wave 2 that they began to achieve some parity, and the prevalence of cloaking in the early metagame made this ship in particular weak. As for its place in the game now - the ED should be used more than it is, although I'm still waiting for the completitive scene to shake itself down following the Borg Nerf and the new anti-fighter tech, so I'm not sure what is the number 1 build at the moment (I think it might be Federation Shield Spam, but I'm not sure); Sar and Breen Aide are still useful, but overall this is not a pack that has grown in utility over time.

Now, if wizkids would give me some dominion range 1-3 5 dice photon torpedoes with time tokens, then I'd be a happy not Picard.

A Blast from the Past! Wave Zero: Kraxon

I don't know in canon if the Cardassians ever had a ship ownership abbreviation like USS or IKS, but the Cardassian offering for wave zero was just known as the Kraxon. Maybe CUS Kraxon (for Cardassian Union Ship) or CSS Kraxon (Cardassian StarShip) was too confusing since the ships never had that prefix on the show, regardless, by having name alone, the Kraxon established that Cardassian ships never had any Prefix.

In my last post I posited the theory that "Wizkids hates Romulans" then dismissed it wholesale. For a while, at the beginning of STAW's life, "Wizkids hated the Dominion" that is to say, that until Wave 2, the dominion lagged behind their opponents (mainly, it has to be said, because they didn't receive a ship in the starter).

The Kraxon expansion is not in itself a terrible expansion, it just wasn't as great as the USS Enterprise from wave 0 or the Maht'h'a and Enterprise-D from the starter.

Ships:
Kraxon/Cardassian Galor Class

The slashline of 4-1-4-4 for the named Kraxon is almost perfect. 4 attack is worthy of note whilst 8 durability is the sweet-spot for avoiding a single attack death (without some unlucky critical hits at least). Agility of only 1 may seem bad, and certainly the 2 points paid for this stat would be better placed in literally any of the other categories, but seeing as agility 1 is standard on most capital ships, it shouldn't be begrudged too much. The named ability of the Kraxon is useful, as it allows you to siphon damage off from other ships, but not as useful as it once was thanks to the "may" ruling. As for slots, the named has Tech/Tech/Weapon/Crew, which is nice thanks to the two tech slots. In faction pure play, though, you really would like some better tech choices to go in those two slots, and in most cases I'd swap a tech for a crew (as you get on the Reklar). The generic loses a tech slot. Another downside to the Kraxon is that it has an action bar of Scan, TL and Evade. No Battlestations action really makes the ship less effective.

Grade: B-

Captains:

Gul Ranor is the higher CS captain from this expansion, but apart from his middling CS of 5, he has little to offer when compared to Gul Danar, the other captain from this pack. The only use I see for him is if you need to guarantee a first turn attack on an opponent (kill a shuttle before it docks, for example) then he may work, but otherwise I wouldn't run him, simply because the cost of taking his action (action/apt) removes much of the utility of doing so.

Grade: D-

Gul Danar has a low CS (3) but his ability is one that you can conceivably use every turn, allowing you to re-roll a blank red dice. Since his ability is prefixed with "when attacking" it goes to follow that if you are able to attack more than once per round, you get to use the ability multiple times. This has synergy with one of the upgrades in the pack, so I actually prefer Danar to Ranor. Danar is pretty cheap too, so you can use him as a third captain in a 3 ship fleet.

Grade: C+

Crew:
Glinn Telle is the only crew option in this pack, and his action is good, reducing one ship's incoming fire by 2 dice for the round, but expensive in both economical (Action/Discard) and cost terms (3SP). I have used him in the past, but don't see him as a card of use all that often.

Grade: D

Tech:
Antiproton Scan is a card that I see having some mileage, and as I said on Warp Core Breach, is one of a number of cards in faction that enhance the scan action. It works best against cloaking fleets and since you can't TL a cloaked ship, you'll probably be taking scan anyway, so scan away and then make use of the extra red die to make up for having no quality.

Grade: B-

EM Pulse offers a modified version of Glinn Telle. You get to impose -1 red and -1 green die on an enemy ship for the cost of an action/disable. At 4SP it is better than Glinn Telle's 3SP discard, it's almost a shame you can't use both in the same turn for -3 red dice! It still has limited utility though.

Grade: D+

Weapons:
Forwards weapon grid allows you to divide your attack between 2 different ships in your forward firing arc, which is great if you are facing fighters and synergises well with Gul Ranor. At 5 SP it is quite expensive, but doesn't require either of your targeted ships to be target locked. It is a disable though.

Grade: C

So in its totality this expansion doesn't bring anything fantastic to the table. The Kraxon's main utility is in using its ship ability to keep other, more important targets alive longer. My only build suggestion is the following:

Kraxon [Kraxon] (26)
Gul Ranor [Kraxon] (3)
Antiproton Scan [Kraxon] (4)
Forward Weapons Grid [Kraxon] (5)
Total (38)

Fleet total: 38

38 points is a lot to spend on what is essentially a support ship. Hang close to the rest of your fleet and bleed damage onto the Kraxon, when you face fighters you can use the forward weapons grid to knock a token or two off, and the Anti-proton scan gives you a use for the scan you'll be taking against cloakers. I'd almost suggest taking a scan action every turn, since you have Ranor for some quality anyway, then you are firing with 5 dice, a re-roll and a scan each turn against cloakers, 6 dice when using forward weapons grid. Not the most game breaking combination, but the best available from a pretty sub-par pack.


Thanks for reading, 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.

A Blast From the Past! Wave Zero: USS Enterprise

Star Trek Attack Wing is a game that is in almost constant shift. With each new wave the game re-invents itself. Whether or not you like the rapid release schedule that Wizkids has blessed/cursed us with, the game moves so quickly that it is often easy to forget old expansions in favour of new and shiny new releases.

So what I thought I would do, over a series of reviews of individual expansion, is go right back to the start and have a look at some old expansions to see what they still have to offer. Maybe some cards won't see much use, maybe some cards have been overlooked by the new releases and still have some uses even though they have been replaced (it's worth noting that some releases contain new and improved versions of old cards, but the advantage therein is that you can now take multiples of similar cards!).

To start with I thought I'd take a look at the ship that started it all, the USS Enterprise!

Ship:
USS Enterprise/Constitution class

The constitution class spaceframe has a slashline of 3/1/4/2 (3 shields on the named version) which means that it can be a pretty cheap fighter carrier craft. 3 attack isn't great but federation have couple of tricks for solving that particular problem: Type 8 Phasers and Upgraded Phasers. For just 5 points, the pillow-fisted USS Enterprise can become a 5 dice monster (well, not monster, but still, 5 dice is nice). What really makes the named Enterprise stand out is two fold: Its named ability, allowing actions to be taken regardless of the presence of an APT, and its available upgrade slots: an unmatched 4 crew, and 1 weapon. There are so many cards that synergise well with this ship it is untrue, but the two notable mentions are Kathryn Janeway, who allows you to double up on actions at the cost of an APT (so what!) and Enhanced Hull Plating, which allows you to take up to two Aux tokens to cancel hits. The 22 SP base cost and all of those available slots means that the USS Enterprise can be a great ship to build combos on, and makes it still a viable choice even in the modern metagame.

Grade: B-

Captains:
James T. Kirk is skill 9. I often choose captains entirely based on their CS, so having a skill 9 option (one of very few base CS9 cards in the game, in a club with Shinzon, Picard 9, Locutus, Borg Queen 9 and Martok 9) is in itself an advantage. His named ability is okay (having 2 elite talents face down for 3 SP each) but given that elite talents themselves aren't all that game breaking (with a few notable exceptions) and being limited to Fed talents only, makes it situational at best. Most frequently I've seen him deployed with double Cheat Death, which makes his ship more survivable, but isn't perhaps the best use of points.

Grade: B-

Christopher Pike is a card that I love, because of its combo building potential. When coupled with Indy fleet captain klingon, Pike allows you to take crew at -2 SP, which in the 50/3 meta can make things really interesting. That being said, with Fleet Captains about to go to the great resource retirement home in the sky, his utility is limited somewhat.

Grade: C

Crew:

Hikaru Sulu is still a staple in defence focused builds. He isn't action friendly, but having an extra 2 agility and getting a free BS conversion can significantly improve the survivability of a ship, especially when coupled with his near twin, Hood Riker. Still useful.

Grade: B-

Mr Spock now competes with Captain Spock for a place in most builds, but his ability, basically allowing you to take BS and Scan every turn, is nothing to be sniffed at. He synergises particularly well with the USS Enterprise since that scan action can be taken every turn regardless of the APT by the ship. I like to run Spock with Valtane on the Enterprise with Janeway in command. This gives you great dice quality (2 re-roll, BS conversions and 2 scan tokens) without having to worry about APTs.

Grade: B-

Montgomery Scott is a utility piece that can be used either to heal or create extra damage potential. When coupled with Type 8 and Upgraded Phasers, Scott can boost primary weapon attacks to 7 per turn, at the cost of some survivability. There are a lot of attack boosting card available now though, so he isn't perhaps as useful as he once was.

Grade: B-

Nyota Uhura offers a CTRL+Z action in that you can change your manoeuvre at the cost of a discard. A good helmsman should never need to use a card like this, and at 3 points she is expensive. I literally have never seen her used.

Grade: D-

Leonard McCoy is another discard, this time to allow you to take a crew action for free. Useful in some circumstances, McCoy suffers from being expensive, but still has some utility. Honestly, there are now much better options for extra actions, namely in the shape of William 'E' Riker, but since Riker is so in demand, McCoy can be a reasonable substitute if you are desperate.

Grade: D+

Weapons:

Photon Torpedoes - Nothing to see here, move along.

Grade: F

Elite Talents:

Cheat Death is the obvious stand out here, 5 points (or 3 under Kirk) is a hefty price to pay for a discard, but if it keeps your ship alive at the key point of the game, it's a cost worth paying. I like taking Cheat Death as my free ET with Fleet Captains, when I have no better option, but with Fleet Captains facing retirement, it isn't that fantastic an option anymore.

Grade: B-

Corbomite Maneuver is fun, and often a great alternative to a second cheat death to hide under Kirk, but it is situational, and it costs you the ability to attack. I have used it to blunt the effectiveness of an alpha strike, but it is highly situational

Grade: C

Cochrane Deceleration Maneuver is good for playing the turn after Corbomite Maneuver to turn around and target that Klingon fleet that just flew past you, synergises well with the Enterprise since the APT doesn't rob you of an action, but is so situational and expensive (5SP and discard) that it will rarely see play.

Grade: D+

I have two builds that I like to run with the USS Enterprise, the first is a little janky:

U.S.S. Enterprise [U.S.S. Enterprise] (22)
Christopher Pike [U.S.S. Enterprise] (4)
Fleet Captain: Independent (Klingon) [Fleet Captain Resource] (5)
Cheat Death [U.S.S. Enterprise] (0)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Enhanced Hull Plating [Enterprise NX-01] (4)
Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Total (49)

Fleet total: 49

This is a very annoying ship to deal with since it just doesn't die easily. Unfortunately it doesn't have much life left since Fleet Captains disappear soon (I'm annoyed about that, can you tell?)

The Second is more traditional:

U.S.S. Enterprise [U.S.S. Enterprise] (22)
Kathryn Janeway [U.S.S. Voyager] (5)
B'Elanna Torres [U.S.S. Voyager] (4)
Dmitri Valtane [U.S.S. Excelsior] (3)
Mr. Spock [U.S.S. Enterprise] (5)
Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Enhanced Hull Plating [Enterprise NX-01] (4)
Upgraded Phasers [U.S.S. Lakota] (3)
Type 8 Phaser Array [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Total (50)

Fleet total: 50

You'll need a lot of APT tokens for this one, but it has some survivability for a ship that pumps out 5 attack dice a turn on a 180 arc, with pretty good quality too - BS Conversions and Re-rolls on two dice, with the scan tokens to drop an opponents defence. I know you can do more than this with officer cards, but not using a resource makes this version future proof.

Having done these builds, it did give me an idea for a full 120 build:

U.S.S. Enterprise [U.S.S. Enterprise] (22)
Kathryn Janeway [U.S.S. Voyager] (5)
B'Elanna Torres [U.S.S. Voyager] (3)
Dmitri Valtane [U.S.S. Excelsior] (2)
Mr. Spock [U.S.S. Enterprise] (4)
Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Enhanced Hull Plating [Enterprise NX-01] (4)
Upgraded Phasers [U.S.S. Lakota] (3)
Type 8 Phaser Array [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Total (47)

U.S.S. Intrepid [U.S.S. Intrepid] (22)
Christopher Pike [U.S.S. Enterprise] (4)
Adm Matt Decker [U.S.S. Intrepid] (1)
Fleet Captain: Independent (Klingon) [Fleet Captain Resource] (5)
Cheat Death [U.S.S. Enterprise] (0)
Eric Motz [U.S.S. Pegasus] (0)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Redshirt [Red Shirt Crew] (2)
Systems Upgrade [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Enhanced Hull Plating [Enterprise NX-01] (4)
Type 8 Phaser Array [U.S.S. Hood] (2)
Upgraded Phasers [U.S.S. Lakota] (3)
Total (49)

Fighter Squadron 6 [Fighter Squadron 6] (24)
Total (24)

Fleet total: 120

So in summation, there are still some interesting things to be done with this particular wave zero expansion, I'd be interested to hear other people's ideas about how to build the USS Enterprise almost 21 waves later...


...and I'm still not Picard (or GenKhan)