You're Indestructible...GOLD

Ten years? Seriously? A decade of Attack Wing?

Two starter sets, 30 waves of individual ships, prize events, faction packs, a total rehacking of the points system... and that's just the scant surface moments I can recall from those times.

Now to commemorate the event we have These are the Voyages. Fortunately not a pack that focuses on the final episode of Enterprise but instead one that honours the legendary starship name.

Containing five golden models, this new pack includes the NX, Constitution refit, Excelsior, Galaxy and Sovereign Classes plus 115 new and updated options to outfit them.

Each of the classes can either be fielded as the Enterprise in its different registry guises or an alternative ship from including the NX-02 Columbia, USS Excelsior, USS Atlas or USS Galaxy. It also marks the first retail appearance of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A.

Some of the ships, such as the Enterprise-D have seen modifications to their existing cards and a significant number are now superseded by the contents of These are the Voyages.

As ship models go, there are no real surprises since these are repaints of the existing craft from older waves. My Constitution refit though does have horribly wonky nacelles which will require a bit of work to straighten out. That and the saucer is bent. 

Captain options are extensive with all possibilities including Styles, Harriman and Jellico included, each with their own neat twists to add. Crew options are exhaustive too with every canonical crew represented in almost every single way and that includes Porthos.

The pack also continues the new updates of Lower Decks, First Officer and Night Shift although the latter of those three only appears on a couple of cards.

That 115 card stack is something that might never make its way into your main card haul though because nestled into the bottom of the box is a brand new campaign that pits Enterprises of all generations against thew Q Continuum and some equally obnoxious foes. Taking it in turns to select a ship, captain and upgrades, players take on the Crystalline Entity, the Borg Queen's ship or the hard-as-nails Doomsday Machine in a battle for survival and bragging rights.

There are some "obvious" choices to go for such as the E or the D but the A, B, refit and NX-01 aren't without their advantages since a smaller ship score allows for more upgrades and a thoroughly packed out starship. 

These Are the Voyages is a very unique set though and one that players/collectors may not want to directly add into their big box of cards. The Q scenario actually turns this more into a set to have available for  one off game occasionally “stealing” cards from it to supplement an existing fleet.  It also shows that there is still life in the game after a decade. New features abound, there is still some expansive thinking as to how to keep the game alive and with Into the Unknown requiring a re-mortgage or the sale of a kidney you can understand why players are choosing to remain firmly in the Attack Wing stable.

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Set a Course...For Home: Lost in the Delta Quadrant

With the arrival of the Delta Quadrant's Adversaries there had to be a pack designed to take them on.

Lost in the Delta Quadrant provides just those ingredients. New versions of USS Voyager, USS Equinox, Delta Flyer  and a brand new Raven. The latter is the first time this ship has been available in the main catalogue believe it or not!

What we didn't mention in the review for Adversaries... was that a lot of the cards included with both of these expansions do effectively retire a chunk of older Attack Wing content. The costs of cards have dropped, the new features make these a lot more appealing to select and being in a set means there's some form of theme running through the options.

Unusually here there are two Voyager card options as well as USS Nova and the Delta Flyer II but let's not get bogged down in the names because there's a lot packed into this set that needs unpicking.

Aside from the cost changes which make Voyager an extremely appealing ship choice, the range of captains is certainly an eye opener with most of them also having the ability to double up as crew. Chakotay - in much the same way as with Turanj in the Adversaries... pack can be flipped to take command if the captain is lost. Big bonus there which keeps your ship with some form of command skill if things do go a bit pear shaped.

But the biggest newcomers here are the Lower Decks and Night Shift cards in terms of crew and the revamping of craft with a hull value of two or less becoming Auxiliary Ships. These ships can only be part of a fleet if there is at least one ship in the party that has a hull value of four or more.

But yes, Lower Decks and Night Shift. The former means that two cards bearing that text can take up a single Crew slot on your ship roster as long as they are from the same faction. With Night Shift, the text on the card listed under that heading is in play when your opponent has the Initiative Token. There are six of the Lower Decks cards in this pack offering the chance to disable opponent upgrades, take Time Tokens when another upgrade would be hit and even providing Free Actions. Night Shift seems to be limited to two cards in the form of Harry Kim as a Captain and the Elite Action, Coffee, Black.

Personal thoughts on both of these new abilities is that it does provide the Federation faction with even more advantages with no hint that these new inclusions will be available for other factions in the future.  It also seems these new features have really split the fanbase for the game with several notes that it's changed the dynamics completely. I guess sometimes you do need to stir things up and hey, it's not as if you HAVE to use these new packs or their additional spins. My thoughts would be to run this and the Adversaries pack as a campaign combo using the Delta Quadrant missions included. Then the new rules are kept enclosed to these ships. IF Wizkids do produce some more sets and further the Lower Decks and Night Shift rules into those then all the better.

If new players are coming to the game with just a starter set and these packs then it's an even better deal to keep the game alive but that's just my own thoughts right now.

Some of the other cards in here are well worth a punt too. Seven of Nine allows use of the singular Borg upgrade buried in the set. The XO, pilot and CMO from Caretaker are all discards (well played once again, Wizkids). You can upgrade your ships defences with Ablative Armour, add weapons in the form of Transphasic or Gravametric Torpedoes. Changing speed can be made through Variable Geometry Pylons.  The Nova Class can benefit from Rechargeable Shield Emitters and even the Delta Flyer can pop some added Photonic Missiles.

The Raven does seem under represented here with nothing "anti-Borg" or able to slip past the odd Cube. Perhaps a missed opportunity not to double-side Magnus Hansen as a Borg drone? Nor are there any references to the creatures the Equinox used to speed up their voyage home. Erin Hansen interestingly can only be equipped to the Raven - which I also feel should apply to her husband!

Another point is that the symbol for the Luna Class turns up AGAIN on the Bio-Neural Circuitry card... surely this has to be a sign that the Titan is on the way? Otherwise, frankly what's the point.

Adversaries of the Delta Quadrant: Attack Wing Launches into 2024

Three new expansions line up for March and we'll be looking at each one in turn, starting with a new Independent pack that takes fans back to the adventures of one USS Voyager.

Cleverly utilising four already existing Attack Wing models, Wizkids have certainly packed out this release to the max with a storming 52 playable cards, six ship options and a campaign book (make sure you check under the box tray!).

The ship options comprise of the Alpha Hunter and Relic Stalker for the Hirogen, the Fina Prime and Honatta Prime for the Vidiians, the Antares Shadow Numiri patrol ship and the Nasari Nerada. 

The Hirogen, Vidiian and Numiri ships are pretty evenly matched in terms of their basic stats although the Antares Shadow does suffer from not having the Scan ability.  Previously seen in the game as the Bajoran troopship, it's features here in the Delta Quadrant make it significantly more playable especially with the chance to pick off weaker targets with added firepower. The Nasari ship... well, that's a Romulan Science Vessel backwards - just as it was in the show!

But each has its own twists. The Alpha Hunter can Sensor Echo after every move, the Relic Stalker can gain a Battlestations if it's in range of an enemy ship after moving. For once it feels as though the adversaries might have a better and more productive run with some genuinely effective Actions.

Even the significantly lower scored Nerada can kick back if it gets up close to an opponent. 

As for captains, the pack takes its lead from right across the spectrum of Voyager's journey. Alongside those expected faces of the Hirogen and Vidiians are Iden from Flesh and Blood, Dala from Live fast and Prosper and the Vaadwaur Gaul from Dragon's Teeth. Iden, the Bajoran hologram, is the highest priced here at a full 10 points for a skill of 10 although his cost reduces if you equip other "?" upgrades to his ship. The downside is that he's only really effective against other Independent ships or ones with "?" upgrades onboard. A personal favourite in here has to be the new version of Karr that sees the Hirogen built to pick off weaker captains as well as being able to re-roll dice on attacks. 

But where I really feel this pack excels is in its choice of subject matter and then into the abilities. Choosing to dive into the holographic crew from Flesh and Blood was a bold move but with the chance to use them as either Crew OR Tech upgrades it opens up the dynamics of your ships. Just playing about with these cards I initially thought of using the Relic Stalker but then contemplated switching it out for the Antares Shadow. Why? Because by using the hologram crew upgrades Iden became cheaper to attach as a captain.

But dig even further into the cards and there are some new and intriguing features plugged in to add a new layer to Attack Wing. Faux Janeway aka Dala utilises a new Reputation Permanent Effect which (if I read the rather convoluted phrasing correctly) makes any game effects hit it as though it's on the enemy fleet ie the ones who gave it the token. I'll have to play around with this a bit more to totally understand it in play.

Kurros also has one of these nifty new abilities. He can place a Bounty Permanent Effect on an opponent allowing the theft of a unique Crew upgrade. For the rest of the game attacks at the BPE ship gain an additional damage point if a blank or Battle Stations is rolled. 

These two new inclusions do turn up the heat a bit with more peril for players encountering them and maybe even a faster ways to a defeat. Interestingly enough, this pack looks more to causing operational restrictions on an opponent than physical points damage. Check out the Vidiians for one as they are all about disabling Crew while the Tech cards tend to lean more towards repair and consolidation of your fleet. It's certainly a different dynamic to play with instead of just a continuous pummelling of weapons fire. 

The adversaries do play to their character traits in that sense  so the Hirogen do still cater for pure assault while there are more "intelligent" ways to battle and demoralise your enemy. Take away their upgrades, reduce them to a shell and then move in for the final kill or in some respects, let them do it to themselves!

Also in the box players will find the new Delta Quadrant Campaign. Duplicated in the Lost in the Delta Quadrant set, this new series of missions offers a host of scenarios to recreate Voyager's journey home. Ok, you could do this with any ship and any auxiliary craft but let's be honest, most players are going to want to follow it with Voyager and the Delta Flyer. Having the chance to complete each mission and reset does mean you're not trying to keep track of progress too much (well played Wizkids for the series nods in the booklet). It also makes players want to try as the Delta Master since this pack is a lot of fun with new things to try and a campaign that caters for both sides almost equally.

Would I consider playing out a Delta Quadrant fleet? After this pack, the answer is a resounding YES.

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Seconds Out: Alliance: Dominion War Campaign Part II

Tired of replaying the original Alliance missions over and over again?

In that time honoured tradition the wait is finally over as Alliance 2 has broken cover and brought the Klingon Empire into the Dominion War.

For anyone just dropping on here for the first time, Alliance is a sort of Attack Wing version 2.0. Utilising the same movement and combat systems as that Wizkids tabletop game, this version pits players against a common foe through co-operative play.

Featuring familiar Attack Wing ships, the initial box saw the Akira and Excelsior Classes under player command across four linked missions. These could either be played singularly or as part of a campaign in which players could gradually upgrade their ships and skills.

Alliance 2 continues in the same manner however this is very firmly an expansion to the original rather than a whole new pack so having either the Attack Wing Starter Set OR the original Alliance box is essential as the core pieces such as dice, damage cards and movement templates are not included.

The first Alliance introduced the AI feature onto the Jem'Hadar fighters, three of which were in that pack. This sequel now adds the Cardassian Galor Class to the Dominion ranks and the hefty Jem'Hadar Battle Cruiser for good measure.

Wizkids seem to have learnt quite a bit from that first box as well as their lengthy history with Attack Wing itself. Inside the box there are lots of new bits to enhance the Alliance experience and actually add to the original set.

For example, there are additional cards and manoeuvre dials so that the Jem'Hadar ships from box one can be played in Attack Wing as well as generic Dominion captains. There are also some card markers which can be pulled into use if you require the fighters in this expansion but don't have any or enough available (say if you only have the Attack Wing starter pack). This makes Alliance 2 super easy to get into as long as you have those core gaming elements.

As recognition to anyone who did get that first box and wants to continue using their Federation captains, there are a series of new upgrades for those craft in here too. That's a brilliant pay off for those that have intentionally played it all through ready for Alliance 2 to continue the story.

For those wanting a new challenge or are more of a Klingon persuasion, Wizkids has packed in two player ships here in the form of the Vor'Cha Cruiser and a Bird of Prey. Both are ratified with the new points scores introduced over the faction packs, offering more scope on upgrades.

Not to coin a rather cliched phrase but (sigh) this pack is the best of both worlds. It doesn't rely on just having Alliance 1 plus it actually realises some of the pitfalls of that first box and works to rectify them. Add in another four missions to the overall Dominion War campaign and you have a very well rounded pack.

But of course the cards are one of the biggest draws here. Alliance 2 adds in four for Federation captains; Co-ordinated Assault to transfer an Evade, Battle Station or Scan token to another ship at close range, Battle Plan adds a Battle Stations token to your ship if another allied craft is in close range. Extend Shields provides a friendly ship with a shield fix and Engineering Officer allows for an Action to be conducted even if there is an auxiliary power token in play. 

On top of those new upgrades, there are 24 cards to start building that Klingon Fleet. That's six Crew, five(1) new Elite Actions for the captains, five for Weapons and seven Tech. The Crew options do tend to revolve around the utilisation of either the Target Lock or Battle Stations tokens to bolster attack or defence with only Helmsman providing a spin on movement. 

In the Elite Actions Reckless Assault offers repeat usage for head on combat alone. Evasive Maneuvers awards an Evade for use of an Evade while Strafing Run is reliant on overlapping bases to inflict more undefended damage.

Glory to the Empire! acts as an alternative Target Lock to reroll attack or defence. Fight with Honor teases better odds in taking on equal sized or bigger opponents. Eye for an Eye is a real diamond in the pack with the chance to inflict critical damage if you yourself suffer likewise with no chance to defend it.

The Weapon upgrades offer a series of ways to target multiple enemies, improve rolled results and in the case of Converging Fire, allow other friendly Negh'Var or Vor'Cha Class ships the use of the host ship's Target Lock. 

Equally as good is a unique chance to Target Lock two different opponents with the four point Targeting Array. Secondary Cloaking Coil provides a chance to do repairs and cloak in the same beat although as a discard it's a one off. Reinforced Hull also offers a surprising upgrade to any ships with a hull value of four and above. Nor do any of the Tech upgrades have any real deficits or negative impacts so they would be features I'd choose to get onto my ship first.

But let's get it set right, this is a superb pack that offers so much to all players who have at least the ability to play at a base level. The option now to play as either Federation or Klingon will be wildly popular and the inclusion of two new ship classes under AI control opens up options for this and for straight Attack Wing single player scenarios. The cards themselves are top drawer with Helmsman seeming to be super popular. Thinking to add in Attack Wing cards was a bonus that pays dividends too.

News is that with Part III the Romulans will allow you to mix and match anything so you’ll be flying a Federation ship tooled up with anything you can select from any of the three packs.

A great addition if a long time coming and it’s not over yet!

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Attack Wing: Secrets of the Tal’Shiar

To top the excellent Ships of the Line is going to be a hard act to follow but it looks like this new Romulan faction pack has just the cahoonas to do it.

Featuring four Romulan ships; a scout, a D’Deridex warbird, Valdore class warbird and the Scimitar, Secrets of the Tal’Shiar has gone exceptionally dark. Just out of the box, the biggest thing to notice is that the four models have all been "cloaked". Rather than polish them up with a new paint scheme such as Ships of the Line did in its nod to Online, these pieces have gone to the other extreme.

Translucent plastic, the ships retain their distinct features from previous expansions although this time their colouring is speckled with a "stars" effect to simulate the activation of their stealth technology. For the sake of repetition let's skip over analysis of the models as they are exactly the same as before. One further point - what the hell has happened to the quality of the stands and pegs? Ships are leaning all over the place and putting the clear poles together seems to have become a monstrous and rather frustrating task. The stand bases are fine but the pieces between the model and those elements can do one. They're equally as poor as the fittings from the Ships of the Line pack which saw the Sovereign Class nosediving.

As with the new expansions, the pack has taken account of the new points scoring for the fleet with a few points deducted from each vessel. For once the Scimitar is not too far out of reach to make a decent build but we'll come to that and some of its unique additions in a bit. 

Dropping a whopping four cost points, the Reman Warbird retains its six attack, two defence, seven hull and four shields but now utilises its unique feature to remain cloaked while attacking although it does acquire an Auxiliary Power Token,  The named version also slightly changes its upgrade bar to two Tech, two Crew and only a single Weapon upgrade where previously there were two Crew and one Weapon slot available.

With the Twilight's Wraith D'Deridex Warbird there is a two point adjustment down to a cost of 28 points and the IRW Belak by three to 27. One of the big wins in both this and the Ships of the Line pack is that there are more than one option for your included ships but here only in the case of the D'Deridex and Valdore Class Warbirds. In turn it allows players to tweak their formations out of the box for either a more offensive or defensive strategy. It can also provide balance to a fleet or adjust play so that captains can utilise more flexible tactics on the field.

In terms of the Captain options, Shinzon makes a welcome return with his ability rewritten and significantly shortened. Now a six point rather than an eight point cost, the Picard clone also wields space for two Elite Actions and the chance to use a free Action while cloaked which will counter the Auxiliary Power Token incurred if the Scimitar fires while cloaked. His flip side i also different should players opt to place him in the Admiral position as Shinzon can then remove Disable or Time Tokens as a Fleet Action. 

The additional four Captains (yes, another four!) of Donatra, Koval, Rekar and Lovok all tend to focus on more offensive abilities and I suppose this is in keeping with the more aggressive nature of the Tal'Shiar. One point here - shouldn't Lovok actually be dual faction Dominion?

The only reason I would question this is because amongst the Crew options B-4 is dual Romulan/Independent. Nicely plated with the Soong android as well since his ability also has the chance to directly affect an opponent ship if it's named Enterprise with an additional two Time Tokens on the Captain card as well as being able to alter the maneuver of the target ship.

As with the Captain choices, the Crew complement is packed out with Varak, the Reman Viceroy, Reman Helmsman, T'Rul and Nevala providing various additions to your ships of either two or three points. This might be the ability to equip a Cloaking Device, alter your own moves or increase Captain skill as well as providing some additional forms of defence considering how attacking a lot of this set is. Interestingly B-4 is a five point cost, marking him a significantly higher price tag than any of the other cards in the pack with the exception of Shinzon and a certain super weapon.

Over in the selection for Elite Actions there is that leaning towards more secretive aspects of the organisation with Covert Research working around the Scan feature and Outflank utilising the Cloak ability (two of this card are included which kind of emphasises its usefulness). I am impressed with the Fire Everything card here as provides a chance to turn an ineffective attack around.

Deep in the Weapons selection we have standard Aft Disruptor Emitters (x2) which hits ships out of your firing arc and Disruptor Pulse which allows players to hit multiple targets within the firing arc of your ship. Both are blindingly good upgrades which do make me wonder what players will do with a large chunk of their older cards thanks to these more useful cards and not just because of the cost reductions. Flanking Attack is most effective on the Valdore Class as it provides two additional attack dice. More so if you're firing at a ship not in your forward arc since it reduces the opponent's defence by two dice which is a big reduction.

Of course there's also the Thalaron Weapon which has been somewhat neutered since its original appearance. That cost a ridiculous and game breaking ten points with a ten dice attack. This version is half the cost for a six dice attack that forces the opponent to remove a command or Crew upgrade off the bat and by cancelling a further Critical Damage if successful it can take another of those upgrades away too. Wisely it's a one off discard but still worth a punt for your Reman Warbird if you want to deliver an early crippling blow.

As for Tech, Secrets of the Tal'Shiar offers two Romulan Cloaking Device upgrades which does benefit craft outside of this expansion as well as the chance to use tighter turns instead of the Sensor Echo shift. Advanced Cloaking means you don't decloak this round but incur an Auxiliary Power Token while Improved Cloaking is even more substantial although purely useable with the Reman Warbird. Instead of flipping all shields to deactivated, only one needs to be turned red adding an incredible level of defence to one of the game's deadliest ships.

Romulan Ale offers a get out of jail free option by taking Disable tokens from Captain and Crew to be replaced with Time Tokens as well as placing three onto the card itself plus reducing the effectiveness of attacks at and from the chosen ship. 

A cost of one point is more than reasonable here although it is a card that will reduce your battle readiness in some respects although it will counter by not needing an Action to re-enable some upgrades.

Keeping in line with other packs from the last 12 months, Secrets... includes two Ambassador cards in the form of "It's a Fake!!!" Vreenak and the ill-fated Kimara Creetak. The Ambassador upgrade is something I've still not really tackled in gameplay although the negotiations piece is a nice twist where either acceptance means a "levelling" of the playing field or an increase in hostilities. For these cards there's the chance to increase offensive capability or disable upgrades for one or provide repairs or deduction of Time Tokens on the other. Either way there seems to be a decent advantage - it just depends how you want to play it!

Fortunately with this box you don't need to go hunting under the insert tray to find the missions as they are back on the standard cards. Crossing the Rubicon faces Donatra against the Scimitar. In the second, The Human from Remus, Shinzon boards a D'Deridex Class Warbird, specifically the Twilight's Wrath to defend a planet against the Dominion. This one does require additional ships and cards from other packs to play out but I suspect that's a clever tool to get players to invest in the other recent faction packs!

The Romulans are one of my preferred factions if not playing as the Federation and in this set there are lots of quality options to really utilise them to the best of their subversive abilities. All of these later expansion packs have truly delivered another level to the game. Secrets of the Tal'Shiar might be a pack where you use the cards and ignore the models but it's certainly worth using.

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Attack Wing: Ships of the Line

New year and new start for the gaming line here on Some Kind of Star Trek.

Rather than the standard "this card does this..." etc etc that I've come to produce, it's time to stir it up a bit and look at the latest faction packs with a bit of a different perspective.

Yes, there's still photos of all the cards and ships but for 2023 I want to try and think about these releases more in line with what they bring to the game and their impact on play. Undoubtedly there will be an element referring to the stats and some abilities but hopefully this will be a bit more subjective on content.

SO...!

Long awaited in the UK, the Federation Ships of the Line faction pack might initially be seen as a follow up to the 2022 To Boldly Go set and comprises of three completely different ships.

That set offered up Galaxy, Defiant and Miranda Classes while Ships of the Line includes Sovereign, Saber and Prometheus while both packs share the Akira Class.

But what makes this pack worth the wait and also worth forking out £40 plus? Well for one, it'll certainly appeal to computer gamers with its firm links to Star Trek Online and even includes a code for players to pick up some extra ships and packs. All four of the ship models have been given an Online makeover with some of the best detailing and paintwork that Wizkids has produced since the inception of Attack Wing. Impulse engines are clear, the metallic coat allows for all the surface markings to stand out and it doesn't look like these were hurriedly painted for once. Even the stand tubes are in the right place and at the right angle so I've not ended up with a ship that looks like it's making a suicide dive.

But even this is just a fraction of the faction(!) because this is one of the most stuffed packs to date. One noticeable upgrade is the use of double-sided ship cards meaning that each named vessel has a reverse side that shows as its generic version. In this way, Ships of the Line offers up two named Sovereign, Saber and Prometheus class ships and one Akira Class to choose from. The significance here is that each of the classes is represented by the Class name ship and this becomes more important as you dig into the bones of the set.

Over the course of these faction packs Wizkids have made a series of alterations to their product. On the cards there are more specific directions given in a symbolic manner to represent how the cards can be used as well as a dramatic update to the way in which ships and upgrades are costed.

Back in The Day the USS Enterprise-E was priced up at 32 points but here the Sovereign and Mushashi are a more reasonable 29 points. Likewise the Saber, Prometheus and Akira have also been cut down to allow players a greater range of upgrades within the point boundaries played at events and suggested within the structure of the game.

Even if you just take the Sovereign, that's four points to use elsewhere with a ship that can still hit with a standard five attack dice.

Further into the pack there are a range of new Crew, Weapon and Tech upgrades to outfit your ship. For the Prometheus is a more reasonably priced Multi-Vector Assault mode that doesn't suck up all your points.

Captain options range in skill from seven for Sanders with Necheyev available as both Captain and Admiral alongside Strickler and Patterson.

As you dig into the pack, Strickler is the first card to really hint at the hidden potential here with his ability designed to work more effectively with the Federation Prototype feature. This is the big draw for the pack which includes four of that card. Able to be equipped only to a ship that has the same name as its class (USS Sovereign for Sovereign Class). That ship can then add an additional upgrade slot of its choice and can re-roll a blank or Battle Station result when defending. 

On top of that, the pack includes a series of upgrades that have one ability but then add an
additional feature should you have that Federation Prototype card in play. For instance both Harry Kim and Lasca allow your ship to repair a hull point as well as their base feature. Sisko removes Time or Disabled tokens but also adds a Battle Station token thanks to that Prototype feature. 

In the Weapons selection there’s a decent shuffle up too with Type 10 phasers now available but taking up two slots. It's a more realistic flavour since this powerful offensive weapon adds an attack die to your ship's firepower and allows two blank results to be rerolled. Dorsal Phasers also make a return providing a solid 360 degree firing arc that is also present with Dorsal Torpedo Pod although this can only be equipped on the Akira Class. 

A 3 cost for Quantum Torpedoes (but only if on certain classes) adds even more firepower to the party with reroll abilities included.  Wizkids also making a big change to the way in which the Prometheus Class activates Multi-Vector Assault Mode. Not only is the cost reduced to make it actually usable but it creates two further points from which to launch attacks wth four attack dice, simulating the splitting of the ship. 

In fact the Prometheus Class gets a damn good deal in this pack with both Ablative Hull Armour and Regenerative Shields only able to be used by them. 

Multi-Spectrum Shielding helps add some weight to your (surprise) Shields by a point and the EMH 1 will offer the chance to remove Time Tokens as an Action and return your ship to full active status in a blink.

The Federation Prototype card (of which there are four included) acts as a new Starship Construction feature. It makes utilising the class-named starship almost a no-brainer, adding either a Weapon, Tech or Crew slot to the vessel and allowing one blank or Battle Station result in defence to be rerolled every time. 

As said, this is a pack which really plays to the possibilities and options with the sense that you could build a fully operational fleet straight from this selection of cards alone and stand a decent chance of coming out on top.

But that's not all because also included with all the usual tokens (aside from even more shields thank goodness!!!!) is a mission booklet. Usually these are confined to a set of cards but with Ships of the Line, Wizkids have stepped up and created a mini-campaign. 

As a spot of genius at work, the campaign booklet even goes as far as to suggest Escort and Prototype combos of ships. The aim here is to develop the Prototype while you have another ship to protect it. Across the four missions laid out, players can upgrade their shiny new NX-registry starship as long as they can keep hold of it!

This is certainly a new spin for the game with a self-contained and exciting story to play through not too dissimilar to the way in which ships are developed in Alliance.

In conclusion, this is probably one of if not the best faction packs released for the game. Offering better costings, more varied upgrades and some stupidly powerful abilities, Ships of the Line really is playable from the box and lets players take command of a great ship and its more unique abilities without having to trade off too much in terms of defences or crew for example. I would definitely recommend this to Attack Wing players old or new and I can only hope that the Romulan pack is just as cracking when we open her up.

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Dominion Faction Pack: Cardassian Union

 

A break in the run of XL reviews to cover another of our popular topics - Attack Wing.

An eternity ago we discussed the excellent Starfleet, Vulcan and Klingon packs but were surprised that the Cardassian Union expansion was delayed in the UK. It's finally arrived on our shores and is sure to provide a new level of play to your existing Dominion faction.

Set up in the standard four ship faction box, the Cardassian Union set brings together various aspects of the DS9 storyline. Taking a piece from the Romulan/Cardassian alliance to destroy the Founders, another from Dukat's personal arc and a third that also encompasses TNG and Voyager, there's a lot going on just with the ships.

Providing a second side to your Dominion faction (if you're playing pure), the pack includes two Keldon Class ships, a Galor Class and Gul Dukat's Klingon Bird of Prey models along with 28 new cards and tokens.

The four ships are the standard versions of ships which already exist so we'll skip onto the upgrades. The highest costing ship is the Keldon Class Preloc at 24 points. Offering the same fie Attack, one Defence, four Hull and three Shields as the lower costing Orias, the Preloc increases the number of Attack die of Dominion faction ships within range one by one. The two Keldon Class ships both have options for two Tech, two Weapon and one Crew upgrade as well as Evade, Target Lock, Scan and Battle Stations.

Strange thing is, I would have actually put the Orias as the more expensive of the pair since it gets to field the Cloak and Sensor Echo Actions as well if there are only Romulan or Dominion upgrades attached to it. If a friendly ship within range one cloaks then the Orias itself can do likewise as a free Action. Honestly I'd go with the Orias due to that extra standard Action ability. I only tend to play faction pure so this would be a huge advantage.

The Orias and the Galor Class Vejar both come in at a 22 point cost. The latter loses an Attack die but gains a Shield. Again, the Orias seems a better choice since the Vejar only carries Evade, Target Lock and Scan as standard abilities and four upgrade slots; Tech, Weapon and two Crew. Its Unique Action allows friendly ships up to range two can perform a Free Action from its Action Bar. 

Finally there's Dukat's Bird-of-Prey for a cheaper 17 points. With a four Attack, one Defence, three Hull and three Shields, the captured Klingon ship fields the Cloak and Sensor Echo features as standard as well as Evade and Target Lock. Operating as a dual faction vessel both as the named and generic versions, the Bird-of-Prey gets to either receive a Battle Station, Evade or Battle Station during combat or can increase the Captain Skill by three for that round. 

The Bird-of-Prey is a cool addition to the set and something a bit more curveball. Two Keldon Class could have seen one substituted with some Hideki fighters. If you are looking to reduce costs then the Bird-of-Prey general version comes in at 13 points with a single Tech, Weapon and Crew upgrade. The two generic cards for the Keldon Class both cost 20 points with two Tech, one Crew and one Weapon slot while the Galor Class is 17 points with a single Tech, Weapon and Crew slot. Each of them also loses its Unique Action from the named card and one Shield point. 

As for the Captains, we have four in the set enabling you to field every ship straight out of the box... well almost as for some reason I was missing one base!

Top dog here is Gul Dukat. Oddly there's no benefit to placing him on his own named Bird-of-Prey but he still proves an eight Captain skill plus, rarely, two Elite Action slots. 

He does also provide an enhanced attack feature which more than justifies his five point price tag. While modifying attack dice, an Evade or Scan beside the ship can be spent to convert up to three Battle Stations into two damage each. Now, logically I'd stick Dukat straight onto the Preloc or Orias to max those dice every time and if not, have him on a ship which comes into range of one of those on every turn just to max the hit chances.

Enabran Tain can flip to either Fleet Admiral or Captain with a skill of eight. There are no penalities with him for attaching Romulan upgrades to his vessel and as a second ability, Tain lets you discard a Dominion Crew upgrade to attack with an additional attack die on your primary weapon. It does incur two Time Tokens but could up your fire power to six if you're staying with this pack.

The four point costing Gul Toran also has the Elite Action option and a Captain skill of six. Toran's action unusually gives a bit of added attack and defence for friendly ships within range two. As the Action for the round, he can select a faction and then all friendly ships engaging them will gain an attack and defence die that time round. I like this one because it's rare to get a good defensive option. Just remember it's there if you equip him - and I'd suggest to a support vessel.

Last up there's Gul Evek. While Tain and Toran are DS9 focuses, Evek actually appeared in TNG, DS9 and Voyager during the mid-90's aboard the Vejar - see it all links!

Skilled with a lowly four and costing a reasonable two points, Evek only operates his Action at range one but does take on all the Auxiliary Power Tokens that might be in play on those ships during the Combat Phase. While potentially incapacitating Evek's command, it may well open up other Action opportunities on more than one ship.

The four Crew for selection also give a broad pass across the DS9 Dominion story arc. The five point Tora Ziyal can act for either the Dominion or Bajoran faction. She targets an attacking ship during the compare results stage and if the enemy is within range one, she can cancel the attack completely and be discarded. Ziyal also allows her own vessel to then perform an attack on that same ship utilising one less dice than a primary weapon if possible. A good card to help live another day or stop that one huge attack that you know is likely to be coming.

Three point Korinas works a little harder out at ranges two and three. Disabled and incurring an Auxilary Power Token, she removes an in play Minefield token. Very subjective and a waste of points unless you know this is something that could be deployed. I'd probably leave this one aside.

Gul Damar (two points) although not a Captain himself is perfect to add to any ship since he ups the Captain skill by two. He also assists with a friendly ship at up to range two in that if they use a Weapon upgrade he can be disabled with two Time Tokens and up to three attack dice can be re-rolled. Very useful although the Weapon upgrades from this pack max out at three dice anyway. Last up is Gul Broca. The final puppet leader of the Cardassian Union during the Dominion War, his Action is another decent one worth considering. Two points for its use as well is very agreeable with him targetting all friendly ships within range two. All of those affected roll an additional attack die that round including the one Broca is equipped to.

As to those Weapon upgrades, the Cardassian Union has some interesting plays to use. Available only for Galor Class ships, Multiple Dorsal Arrays (three points) works at all angles of attack but only if your enemy is using Attack Squadrons (fighters). Disabled with two Time Tokens, it allows your vessel to perform a second attack against the same target. Now I like this because I also love fighters and understand how flipping annoying they can be. This does offer some protection and deterrent at the same time.

The Enhanced Resonance Field Grid is a bit of a sneaky attack for a cost of two points. When using the Primary Weapon and you have an uncancelled Damage result, the card is binned off and that Damage can be put straight onto the Hull rather than the Shields. I'm not sure if this will make much of a difference in the long run unless you use this multiple times to dodge the shields on your opponent. Plus you'll need to remain in range to make it work over several rounds.

Last up is Phase Disruptor Array which can be used on Galor or Keldon Class ships and will cost two points. Activated at ranges one and two, the card incurs three Time Tokens and you will need to spend an active Target Lock to re-roll any number of dice up to two times. Couple of BIG wins here. It's reusable and it's a multi-roll which is better than a standard Target Lock and is only actually costing one more Time Token (depending on if you're using that or Disable tokens). Ideal for close quarter combat, you will need to make sure that your attacking ship lines up with a target in the forward firing arc.

Tech upgrades in the faction pack range from four points down to one. Top price goes to Type-3 Galor Class which adds two points to the Shield value of your ship, making it more defensible than a Keldon Class. Legion Crew Module means you can add another two Crew slots to your ship for a cost of two points and Uridium Alloy (two points) can be disabled during the modifying of attack dice step to convert two Damage into Critical Damage.

Perhaps the most interesting of the four Tech cards though is Sensor Ghost. What looks like a lot of text for a two point price is another useful defence technique. Discarded, Sensor Ghost forces an attacking ship to roll one less attack die and if the attack doesn't destroy your ship then it can perform a "one" Sensor Echo move and get out of the way...hopefully.

Obsidian Order is the most expensive upgrade card in the pack at five points. Usable over all three range marks, it mirrors enemy ships. If they spend a Battle Station, Scan or Evade then you get to equip one. No disable or discard in play here either which means you can certainly use this to your advantage both on attack and defence. Another perfectly sneaky move from the Cardassians.

Interrogation for two points disables a Crew upgrade on an enemy ship at range one during the Planning Phase of the game and locks it out with three Time Tokens. Not a massive fan of this one as it need you to take a chance that your opponent will have something worth locking out for that period of time. Very risky but low cost so you could take a punt.

Third in the group of Elite Actions is Supreme Tribunal. One point is a good price if you need to fill up some points. It does incur a four Time Token penalty and the only result is that an enemy ship within range two receives an Auxiliary Power Token. Nice point filler to reuse if you have a gap.

The final upgrade card is Kanar which can be equipped on any ship without an upgrade slot. For one point it's a nice option to have as you perform your Action before moving with the penalty being twofold. First you have to reveal your manoeuvre face up and also take on two Time Tokens. However, very useful if you realise you're in an early tactical advantage before moving!

Two missions are also packed into the Cardassian Union box. The Simpler Times sees the Klingons chasing down Gul Dukat and his captured Bird-of-Prey on a straight forward seek and destroy. The Secret of the Orias Sector takes its lead from DS9's Defiant in that a Federation ship must escape from the Cardassians after completing scans of the sector. Its 60 points versus 40 points but more dicey for the Federation player who has a mission to finish before getting away.

This may well be my favourite faction pack to date. It's exciting, varied, sneaky, defensive and loaded with four ships that really do gel well as a force right out of the box. The upgrades here are exemplary and mixed in with the Jem'Hadar faction pack from a couple of years back, I can see this being one of the strongest armadas available.

The Keldon Class ships alone are worth the price and I'm looking forward to joining them up with the Dreadnought missile or even a Hideki fighter wing in combat. Definitely a must have pack that really could re-ignite a lot of passion for the game with its brilliant cards. Absolutely first class.

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

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