Grissom; This is Enterprise Calling: Attack Wing Card Expansion Wave 1

Short-lived in The Search for Spock, the USS Grissom was the first Oberth Class ship to grace the screen.

There is already one expansion including an Oberth Class in the shape of the USS Pegasus but gamers were left wondering where the classic Grissom was. It's also become somewhat scarce since its release meaning it's taken a bit of time to track this card expansion down.

The main difference with this slimmed down offering is the lack of the ship itself, no mission cards and relying on the player already having the piece. Nor is there a Maneuver Dial or any of the stand pieces. In fact with this one, even the push-out card tokens only stretch to one Captain, two reminders and the ship base plate.

Costing 14 points, the Grissom is one of those ships best supporting your main craft with an attack of two, defence of three, Hull of two and two Shields. A well-placed attack from anything sizeable could take it down in a shot or two but it still has a sting in the tail.

With two Tech and two Crew slots, Grissom comes ready with the Evade, Target Lock and Scan but no Battle Stations. That does however suit the more support-based role you would ideally play this ship in. Also fitting in with its short screen life is the Unique Action.

When Grissom is destroyed it forces the attacking ship to discard an upgrade and if none is available, to incur an Auxiliary Power Token. Either way, there's your sting which does make this both an easy target and a poisoned chalice.

The generic version loses the Action, a Crew slot and a Shield point to cost 12 points. 

There's only one Captain included and it's Grissom's own, J T Esteban and for a skill of three and a cost of only two points he's equally as generous as his own ship. Bizarrely it all seems to come into its own when the ship is totalled with Esteban able to move two Crew upgrades over to another friendly ship when his vessel is destroyed.

These can be moved even if they go over the benefitting vessel's limits. Esteban is one of the few Captains that can't field a choice of any Elite Actions. He's restricted to The Captain's Discretion which is, of course, in this expansion.

For three of the Crew included, this pack makes sense but for some inexplicable reason there's a four point William T Riker (first season TNG appearance). He does up the Captain Skill by three (Esteban becomes a six for example) and he also ensures that should the captain be incapacitated then the Skill remains at a five. But this one has multiple uses so I'd really consider how to use him best as Riker also allows you to turn a Communications Failure or Injured Captain card from Critical to Normal Damage, thereby ignoring its effects. Three uses for four points? Go on then.

David Marcus comes in at a cost of three points and also has a couple of abilities to utilise. Should another Crew upgrade be discarded then you can throw this one off the ship instead giving two uses for those more valuable options. He also adds an Evade to a defence roll but does have to be discarded himself after that.

Federation Helmsman - using the image of the Comms officer from Grissom - lets you perform a second manoeuvre as an Action but it must be a white straight, bank or sharp turn wth a speed of one. At least it'll give you an additional distance boost if you're wanting to get out of trouble but it will incur one of those pesky Auxilary Power Tokens.

Finally, the super cheap one point Saavik is a situational card as I call them, only working when the planets all align and it's a Tuesday. In this case IF the ship she's assigned to is within range of the Planet Token (1-2) then she allows you to convert one blank defence roll into an Evade. Probably one to use in specific games for that defensive advantage but not a card you'll be looking to use regularly!

On the Tech front we have three new cards; Comm Station (4), Close-Range Scan (3) and Genesis Effect (2). Comm Station adds another Crew slot to your ship for one thing and then offers an in game advantage too. At range 1-2 this ability allows you to utilise the Captain Skill of a friendly, close-by ship during the Activation Phase which will likely give you a later move but an earlier Action/Attack. 

Close-Range Scan lets you add an extra Scan token if you've performed a Scan(!) and have to also disable a Shield to benefit. The "biggie" here should therefore be Genesis Effect and to some degree it is but I was perhaps expecting something more explosive.

Active at range 1-3, this again depends on being in close proximity to a planet.. Before the game starts you stick a Crew upgrade costing five points or less under this card and then during the End Phase you can disable Shields then place two Time Tokens onto the Crew card. It's then equipped to the ship no matter the restrictions. I would recommend picking something that would change the game at a later stage and preferably an ability that will impact the wider fleet.

Last up is the Elite Action, Captain's Discretion (4). It's a straight forward opportunity for a Free Action but you can only utilise a Crew card - which with the Federation faction should be fairly easy given the amount there are available in the whole game. Potentially this is one to swing into play alongside that Genesis Effect card and play them both as a combo late in the day. 

This is a nice little, cheaper expansion to provide some more options for the game with an existing piece. The shame is that these aren't more unique than ones we've had before. Having Grissom is pretty cool if you want to try and stay movie pure and field some classic events. Some of the Crew choices do offer multiple play options especially the out-of-place and out-of-time Riker who's the best of the bunch.

Most likely a completionist set and Federation purists!

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

Like our page on Facebook 

Follow us on Twitter

Find us on Tumblr