Blood Oath: Attack Wing's Klingon Faction Pack

Packing in a Negh’Var, two K’T'Inga and a B’Rel Class, the latest Klingon faction pack delivers a weighty punch.

With slight updates paint jobs, the four ships provide a full balanced fleet with a stack of new cards to provide that one stop shop to kick off a while faction in one go. As with the Federation’s To Boldly Go was more centred around the exploits of DS9, this set also latches on to the space station spin-off. This time it’s all about Blood Oath, the second season instalment that saw the return of the 3 TOS Klingons Kor, Koloth and Kang united on a quest for vengeance.

We’ll get to them in a second but as usual let’s examine those four ships and the cards that bring them into play. The obvious gripe that could be levelled against the pack is that there’s no Vor’Cha cruiser and seeing as there’s a new Negh’Var class it’s a valid point. Did we need more D7/K’T'Inga’s? Probably not but that might change when we take a look at what they’re toting. If you're looking for reviews of the ship models, check out the full set of Attack Wing expansions I've discussed HERE.

The IKS Devwl takes its name from Star Trek Online and is the pack’s clear capital ship. A 28 point cost is validated with 5 attack, 1 defence, 6 Hull and 3 shield points. Standard Actions of Evade, Target Lock as well as Cloak and Sensor Echo are available on all four craft here with the Devwl providing further upgrade slots to maximise its abilities. 

Players can add up to 3 Crew, 1 Weapon and 1 Tech card here and you’d be foolish not to boost those defensive capabilities. Disabling one of those Crew upgrades when attacking and Cloaked will stop you from decloaking and also gain a Battlestation token for the remainder of the round. 

The generic version costs 24 points losing the Unique Action, a Hull point and 1 Crew slot but that’s fair for the price. The IKS K’Tanco and IKS T’Acog both cost 21 points as K’T’Inga Class ships but each has a slightly different spin. Both operate a 4 attack, 1 defence, 4 Hull and 3 shield basic but the K’Tanco allows for 2 Crew and 2 Weapon upgrades while the T’Acog has 2 Crew, 1 Weapon and 1 Tech. Both are also very good contenders in your fleet with the K’Tanco allowing a free 4 point or less Tech upgrade to be equipped even if it exceeds restrictions while the T’Acog can perform a Sensor Echo as a free action even while cloaked. If it is cloaked it can Echo using a 3 move template rather than just a 1 or 2. These are insane Actions to have on such ships and do tempt me into using the Klingons more often!

Two generic versions cost 16 points losing the Unique Actions plus a shield with one offering each upgrade slot while the other has 2 Weapon and and 1 Crew space. 

Finally there’s the IKS Kos’Kari; the Albino’s Bird of Prey. Unusually it’s dual faction with players able to use it either as a Klingon or Independent and with a 16 point cost it’s an attractive proposition. Only dropping a Hull point versus the K’T’Inga's, the B’Rel class stands firm with 4 Attack, 1 defence, 3 Hull and 3 Shields. This ship genuinely excites me as it’s designed to be taking on bigger vessels. Her Unique Action offers two possibilities. There’s either to steal an Evade, Battle Station or Scan from the target ship (Hull of 4 or more) and put it on your own OR when attacking a Klingon ship or a ship with a Klingon captain you can add a damage point to your roll. While it is a well balanced and priced scout class, the Unique Action targeting one particular faction does make it less attractive but only slightly since the reworking of the cost system. 

With the 4 ships you get five Captain cards; the Dahar Masters Kor, Koloth and Kang (TOS and DS9 versions) and The Albino. Aside from TOS Kang, all of the captains skill up to 7 and cost 4 points to equip. 

Kor can have the Dahar Master Elite Action equipped for free and draws fire from enemy ships. Taking on an Auxiliary Power Token, Kor’s ship then takes on all the red Target Locks from friendly craft. Koloth allows his ship to perform a speed of 2 as an extra manoeuvre if he’s within range 2 of an opposing ship. Kang targets a specific opposing captain and if an attack is launched on that individual then he can be discarded to add to extra Critical Damage results. Interesting that two of these captains are self-sacrificing. Then there's The Albino. Massively useful if you're up against Klingon foes because his attacking nature and ability to add a die to your roll. 

If that attack lands (and I'm guessing that means as a whole not just that one die), once per game he can also remove an opponent Crew upgrade from the target ship. Add into that a once-per-game ability to move last and you have quite a decent and reasonably priced Captain given specific circumstances.

The younger Kang sports a skill of 8 and a cost of 5 to represent his slightly more prime abilities. He forces an opponent to reroll their attack through spending his own Target Lock. I'd probably be wanting his older version in all honesty.

Five captains and appropriately 5 Crew to go with them. Yeto, a Klingon mercenary from Invasive Procedures, classes as both Klingon and Independent for 4 points. A hefty price to pay but when within range 2 of an unshielded enemy ship he can disable and/or steal a Crew upgrade. As a discard it's a good action to have available if there's a tasty upgrade to be had.

Ch'Targh (3 points) cloaks your ship and removes an Auxiliary Power Token in the End Phase. There's also no specific to say that you have to do both of these things so she could effectively be a "late" Free Action to play it safe. Kolana (2 points) cuts down your susceptibility to Time Tokens on Weapons. As a good Klingon ship usually has some Photon Torpedoes in stock, she reduces the number of tokens placed by one, If the ship is Cloaked then she negates 2 tokens.

The Klingon Gunner (2 points) adds a Damage result to your attack and is discarded and finally there's Kang's wife, Mara (2 points). Perfect for running alongside Kang since she can be discarded instead of the captain, she also adds a Scan ability to the ship she is assigned to. 

The Blood Oath pack does contact a couple of duplicates to allow for multiple ships to carry the same items. One of these is Concussive Charges. A 2 point Weapon, this one operates up to range 2 and can be fired fore or aft with the same number of dice as the ship's primary weapon. Players spend their Cloak token, raise shields and slap on 2 Time Tokens before targeting an opponent. If equipped to a K'T'Inga Class ship its effectiveness shoots up with an additional attack die in play plus the chance to remove tokens from beside the enemy dependent on how many Damage or Critical Damage results are left uncancelled.

Waylay can only be equipped to ships with a Hull of 3 or less and again costs 2 points. Only useable in the forward firing arc and up to range 2, it does have more than a few similarities to Concussive Charges. Hitting with the same number of dice as a primary weapon, Waylay receives 2 Time Tokens upon activation during Attack. If it's aboard a B'Rel Class then the defending ship also receives an Auxiliary Power Token as a bonus effect. Not enough? Then it keeps on giving as the ship on which this is placed then gets to perform a 1 bank left or right plus gets an Evade token in play. That's a ton of stuff to benefit from on one very cheap card.

There's a lone Tech upgrade too with Science Station. Adding a Tech slot to the ship, this 4 pointer works up to range 3 and only when Cloaked. Receiving 2 Time Tokens, this Free Action sees your ship gain a Scan token and if you have an enemy in the forward firing arc you can put a Target Lock into play. No specifics if this is an either/or card so I'd take it you can perform both if they apply. 

There are also 4 Elite Action cards here although three are duplicates of the Dahar Master. Linking perfectly with the set and the episode, Dahar Master can only be equipped to Kor, Koloth or Kang and increases the skill of the captain it is assigned to by 1. For each copy of this Elite Action in play, there is a further increase of 1 skill point. Added extra here in that it also allows your ship to Cloak or Target Lock as a freebie - and we all love a freebie. Definitely one to pull out whatever version of these captains you use - TOS, DS9 or even TAS!

Rounding out the regular expectation of cards is A Death Worthy of Sto-Vo-Kor. Not too highly priced - it's 4 points which is this pack's most expensive card(s). It comes with a certain amount of baggage as it's a discard that also takes a Crew card with it. It then causes the opposing ship (within range 2) to lose an upgrade and if that costs more than the Crew upgrade discarded from your own ship then you add an extra attack die for that round. Long winded but useful if you couple it with some of the other attacking cards in this pack. 

The big addition for the recent faction packs as a whole are the Ambassador cards. Kamarag (ambassador from The Voyage Home and The Undiscovered Country) forces two ships to attack each other if negotiations are accepted while if declined the enemy ship rolls 3 less dice to attack on its next attempt. Korrd (The FInal Frontier) steps in to force an enemy ship to plan its manoeuvres face up until it receives any form of damage while declining it means that you get to choose its next move as either a green or white manoeuvre and strictly within the playing field.

These Ambassadors are an interesting take especially since there seems, with the Klingons, to be no benefit to the enemy ship. At least with the Federation - and you would hope with the Vulcans - there's some form of reciprocation. Sadly the Klingons are all out for whatever they can get and with these two options saying "Yes" is probably just as bad as saying "No."!

Blood Oath, the included mission is a straight 2,3 or 4 player game with the Albino being hunted down by the Dahar Masters. With a fixed number of rounds it's a game of survival for the Independent player who can win if he's still standing at the end. Difficulty can be changed by altering the number of rounds. Then there's The Way of the Warrior which seems to be missing a whole lot of details about how to win the game. It appear to simulate the Klingon attack on Deep Space Nine from the fourth season feature premiere with the Federation holding off a Klingon pure offensive but tragically the cards seem to be missing half the info!

The Blood Oath pack is absolutely brimming with upgrades and ships to truly max out a new player while also fleshing out a few missing options that more seasoned Attack Wing veterans might have been missing (young Kang for instance). The changes in pricing also make a lot of these newer options a lot more palatable with the ability to use more of your available slots, fill out a ship completely and use everything you can to take a win. 

The models in this one aren't the best. The Negh'Var has wonky pods underneath and the paint jobs are a bit over-bling for me.  The K'T'Ingas also aren't totally straight suggesting the mould itself isn't aligned but at least the bridge and engines are now the right way round. That said, don't let the plastic put you off what is a quality faction pack with affordable options.

You can check out all our Attack Wing reviews over on the Gaming Section!

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