Attack Wing: Cardassian Connections

The powerful Keldon Class was a late addition to Attack Wing, but added a great deal of weight to the Dominion fleet.

In fact the Dominion is fast becoming my go-to faction with a good range of ships from the fighters and attack ships right up to battleships. 

The Keldon Class Cardassian starship certainly sits more towards the latter category, acting as the most powerful vessel from the annexed race.

The model itself, as became of the later expansions, has a good level of detail and a fairly accurate, sandy paint scheme. The panel definition is quite impressive given the scale and there's some space for grey highlights although the blue window markings are a bit blobby.

Running a five for attack, one defence, four Shields and three Hull, it has the potential for greatness and could well act more as a capital ship than a cruiser. The Koronak can Action Evade, Target Lock, Scan and Battlestations with open slots for two Tech, Two Weapons and a Crew upgrade. 

Spending your Scan token, if in play, you can spend it and perform a three dice attack against two separate ships. Probably a feature I should have used more actively following a rather brutal defeat to the Romulans recently. The Koronak costs 26 points to put on your fleet while the generic Dominion Starship version drops a Weapon slot the Unique Action and a Hull point for 24 points.

Movement could be restrictive unfortunately but it's not when it comes to speed with a top of five. However, the bank turns are available at ranges two to four with hard rights and lefts at ranges two and three incurring that wonderful Auxiliary Power Token penalty.

Gul Dukat leads the command options for the Koronak expansion and costs five points. His skill of seven is average at best but he does offer a free Evade or Battlestations in addition to your Action on each round with no disable or discard in sight. Dukat can also field an Elite Action but the main ability here makes him essential for any Dominion fleet.

Gul Evek, one of the few characters to appear in The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, costs just two points and has a skill of four. He too is a solid option for your fleet, allowing you to re-roll all your blank results when defending. What you might want to do is pair this up with a card (or another ship) that rolls more than one die as the Koronak does.

Coming in for your lone Crew slot is a lone Crew offering but one that is super effective when lined up with Gul Dukat. Boheeka (two point cost) allows you to convert a blank result over to a Damage as long as you have the Battlestation token in play. It's a combo that I've seen mentioned on a few sites and one that doesn't involve discards or disabling. This pack could have done with at least another option for your Crew as this solo entry is disappointing from a numbers point of view.

Enhanced Weaponry is this pack’s version of Photon Torpedoes as its disabled to work and requires a Target Lock in place. Costing a cool five points, this one kicks in at ranges two and three with a roll of five attack dice. If it’s used on the Keldon Class itself then you can make this six which does make it a touch more exciting to use than standard torpedoes. 

Dorsal Weapons Array is slightly less powerful with a three dice attack in any direction although it’s not in continuous use as you find with the Enterprise-E’s dorsal phaser array. Three points will add this to your ship and it’s effective at any range which does mean those attack strafing runs can be fully utilised. 

The Koronak also comes with a couple of Tech cards. Tetryon Emissions is a big help especially on a ship with just a single defence due to counter your opponents. It does. It does as you would expect, need disabling  it adds three defence die to each encounter that round and costs three points to place in play. With this and the Cloak ability you might have a bit greater survival chance.

Cloak does cost four points itself but does offer the standard increased defence plus that Sensor Echo shuffle that can make a big ranging difference. The card itself is disabled so you’ll need to choose when to decloak and engage wisely because you then might not be in a good place just to use and Action to re-enable the ability. This one’s also very specific to the Keldon Class given that it will cost NINE points if you put it on any other ship.

Last up is Captured Intelligence, the Elite Action for the Koronak expansion. It’s one of those chances to correct an error or counter an unseen attack by throwing this card in to place an Evade token by your ship AND it allows you to add in a defence die for each time you come under attack that round. 

For three points it’s a great card that enhances tour evading ability but I would definitely stick it onto any ship with a single die for defence...pretty much like this one then!

Tying the Koronak into one of the Keldon Class' few appearances, the included mission is born from the Defiant episode of Deep Space Nine and sees a 120 point Dominion fleet take on an 80 point Federation team. The aim is for the Federation ships to scan the Cardassian base and "find out" whats going on while the Keldon fleet is there to stop them from getting the data away.

The Reklar Cardassian Galor physically takes up almost all of the Keldon class characteristics physically except for the rear unit added to the top of the Koronak.

The colour seems way off, coming in as a dark brown rather than a sandy desert colour that’s not exactly, but more like, the shade on the Koronak. The yellow and blue highlights are a bit gawdy against the brown and unfortunately the bridge module - ironically the same error I had on the Eaglemoss version - is set at a kinked angle. 

The stats make this ship as viable as the Keldon Class with four in attack, one defence, four Hull and four Shield. This makes it come in with exactly the same cost (26 points) as the Koronak but with a slightly more balanced card although you'll still need to work on building a solid defence. 

Luckily its Unique Action does just that. Place a Battlestations next to the ship and when defending you can roll an extra die. At least it's a bit more balance. As you'll spot, the Battlestations is missing from the Action Bar and there's still the usual Evade, Target Lock and Scan. Two Crew slots are open here plus one for Weapons and one for Tech. The generic version minuses off a Crew slot, the Battlestations Unique Action and one of those Hull points for 24 points. I actually would keep away from this one since it does eliminate that Battlestations option and that could be costly.

Able to achieve the same top speed of five as the Koronak, the Reklar is a little less maneuverable, dropping the banking turns at speed four and it retains the full and bank curves at speeds three and two with the sharper ones incurring the Auxiliary Power Token handicap.

Spun towards the classic The Next Generation two-parter, Chain of Command, the Reklar includes the two key Cardassian figures from the story in its command options. The seven-skilled Gul Madred can also be flipped as a Fleet Admiral and costs five points on either side. Having him able to deploy will be useful for those outlying attacks since he can target a ship within ranges one to three and if the Captain has a skill of six or less then both Madred and that card are out of play. If it's over or equal to 7 then the captain of the opposing ship rolls two Defence dice and if at least one Battlestations comes up then nothing gets discarded. It's a bit of a gamble as an Action either for the Fleet or on a single ship.

Four-skilled Gul Lemec had to deal with Edward Jellico and that cost sort of reflects his loss. Costing three points, Lemec likes to pick on the underdog as seems to be a trait here started with Madred. Any captains his ship takes on with a captain skilled less than his own is hit with an additional attack die making him fairly lethal on small opponents. It also offers up a thread of more underhand methods perhaps employed by the Cardassians and their Dominion masters.

Gul Ocett, taken from The Chase in season six of The Next Generation was the first female Cardassian we encountered in the franchise. She's carrying a skill of three here (unfair in my opinion since she was more effective than Lemec) and costs only two points. She's a ruthless card to have in play since critical Hull Damage will lead you to dig out Power Disruption or Minor Explosion from the Damage Deck rather than pick a card at random. Note as well she's continuously usable - no discard or disable which would make her a real asset.

With two Crew slots, the Reklar comes with two Crew to fill them. Glinn Tajor is a three pointer who takes the comfort out of a long range defence with any opponent fired on at range three not having the benefit of the extra defence die. It's a one time deal as he's a discard but might offer a nicely sneaky way to finish off an enemy ship.

Corak (two points) can be repeatedly called on as an Action and increases the Captain's skill by three until the end of the round. This will give you an early attack opportunity potentially against some bigger fish and not having to disable or discard means you can step in earlier more than once.

The Aft Weapons Array (four points) gives more chances to give fire from every angle. The full 180 arc already available is a big advantage but this provides a full 360 window. Offering four attack dice and an unusual chance to use this over the full three distances, the Array has to be disabled to be used and is limited only to ships with four Hull points or more. Given the gravity of the weapon's ability it does mean that the primary weapon value of the ship it's on will be four at a minimum. Firing all around is always a good advantage but having to re-enable this might kick some of the wind out but one shot could be all you need.

Subspace Carrier Wave punches out at range three only and rolls four attack dice. It's an Action and for each Damage or Critical Damage rolled you can disable the Captain or a Crew upgrade. It offers a chance for some disruption of plans rather than reducing a direct attack.

The Reklar's first of two Elite Actions, Coded Messages, unusually works on another ship in your fleet that's outside of ranges one to three and it can perform a move of speed three or lessas a freebie plus both ships gain a Battlestations token for the round which we know with both this and the Koronak pack are items to be prized and can be used very effectively by a Cardassian ship.

With Coded Messages costing five points, it's a big outlay for a one off use as I'm fond of noting and it's also sort of true when it comes to the Standard Attack Formation costing four points. This one's also a discard and very, very, very situational, relying on you keeping a very tight knit fleet as you'll need two other ships from your own battlegroup to be within range one. Also the ship that you're attacking will need to be in all three ships' forward firing arcs. Now, for a Cardassian ship that's not a big ask since they have 180 degree windows but it's a lot to ask just to get an additional two dice for a single attack. I'd suggest it's worth combo'ing this one in with a Target Lock for a super re-roll to ensure maximum damage.

The accompanying scenario takes us into the McAllister C-5 Nebula with a large portion of the standard 3x3 playing area acting as the nebula itself with the Federation starting along the southern edge of the board. Ships in the nebula also have the advantage of adding an extra three die when attacked, not being able to be Target Locked, only roll one die at range three in defence, can Sensor Echo and have to use two attack dice whenever there's an ability used that involves Scan - if the result includes a Battlestations then it's failed.

One more thing - each round, the ships in the nebula take one damage to the Hull and for each Damage card present that vessel rolls an attack die  and can suffer Critical Damage if the relevant symbol comes up. 

The core of this is for the Federation to place Anti-Matter Mines (so you'll need that card) ideally as they add an extra die in attack but ultimately it's a straight-forward fight to the end.

Follow all our other game reviews including multiple expansions for Attack Wing HERE

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