Away Once More

Away Missions has been a bit of a hit with me personally. 

Opening that core set and then trying out the Borg and Federation packs was one thing before twisting Dad’s arm to dip into the Romulan and Klingon expansions. 

They were a big success and the great thing is that they aren’t a one off. November will see the introduction of ten more characters spread across two new packs.

Opening up some Federation options is the Captain Picard set which also includes Beverly, Geordi, Deanna and Wesley. Produced in GFN's unique sculpted style, each of these characters also brings a unique action which might determine just who is on your team. There’s also nothing to limit the size of your party apart from the cramped quarters of the board so why not mix and match a four or five person team from the selection available across this and the core box? For example, Shelby provides more of an advantage against the Borg but against the Romulans or Klingons you might want to swap her out for La Forge or Picard.

In terms of the captain he does have the bonus plus that his specialisations have a "+2" feature doubling the amount of additional dice that can be used on skill tests that suit his abilities. So far this is the only character that has that feature and was hinted at in the core rule book.

Certainly the pack allows for a lot more breathing room and different ways to aim for that points victory. The box includes a ‘starter’ deck of Mission and Support cards as well as a further expansion on those once players are comfortable with the new setup and two new Core Missions. Those card sets are tweaked more to the five characters in the pack but through mix and match your team will be unique and aligned to maximise on those points. One thing that Attack Wing does that this doesn't and in some regards should is to stop factions fielding the same character. For example, should Federation players be allowed to play Picard if Locutus is in play? 

Ok, minor point but one of those challenges that other games avoid and thus remain as near to canon as gamingly possible. More on that in a sec.

The House of Duras set which brings into play the infamous sisters and oft forgotten Toral alongside two additional guards. As with the Captain Picard set, this Klingon crew pack in a series of unique features and cards to stretch their muscles as well as new Poisoned, Illicit Explosives and Intel tokens. The leaning of the Klingons is still more towards Honourable Combat but the House if Duras does include some slight nods towards their more duplicitous nature and Romulan associations. Indeed, one of the guards is actually unable to acquire Honour.

Again there's the chance to mix this pack up with the Gowron pack from Wave 1 although whether you'd want to place the Klingon Chancellor in the same team as his mortal enemies is another matter for players and fans to muse over. 

The original Klingon pack emphasised the more cutthroat aspects of the Empire and here

there seems to be more skullduggery at play. Indeed, the cards include features specific to the Duras sisters, additional attack abilities and also some that are reliant on the new Treachery skill which is present in four of the five Klingons here. If you read into the pack it's an interesting twist in that some of the goals will point this crew towards (re)gaining Honour versus the use of aforementioned Treachery.  It's also a nice mirror to the more "pure" Klingons of the Gowron set and linking parts of those two together could play out a rather mixed faction.

Over all, a cracking pair of additions for players and it just leaves you wanting to see more expansions, more twists to the dynamics of the characters. Personally I'm holding out for a DS9 pack. I would suggest it just being Sisko with the skills of "Badass" and "Prophet". What else would you need?

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