Completing the Xindi: Attack Wing Wave 29

Wizkids continue to refresh older releases and add in another Xindi ship with the 29th batch of expansions for their Attack Wing game. 

First up is the USS Excelsior. One of those release that eBay sellers have been mining at ridiculous prices for a couple of years now it's finally back in the hands of gamers and at a significantly more realistic price. It's one of the packs I've wanted to add since I first opened up the Starter Pack because it's such an iconic craft if nothing else.

I missed out on the Enterprise-B recently due to crazy demand for it and this more than makes up for the disappointment. 

Starting with the model the biggest difference to the original is the new shiny silver paint job that covers the whole ship. It does make the craft more distinctive and is a big departure from the matt finishes of earlier ships. Notably the USS Venture, the USS Enterprise (original configuration), the Nebula Class and the Sabre Class have all made appearances in silver and it allows the hull detailing to shine through a lot more easily. 

Now I might be wrong here but for some reason the Excelsior saucer is slightly eliptical and I'm 100% convinced that it's supposed to be round. On the model here there does seems to be a slight lengthening front to back and while it's noticable I don't think it will interfere with your game play. Most of the remaining ship detail is OK given the small scale that Wizkids has to work with but the rear shuttlebay area does look huge and nowhere near the slim hull hugging fit that we saw on the screen. It may just be easier to mould this way but it does look oddly oversized. 

Even given the couple of model challenges this is still one of those "must have" starships and the re-release in Wave 29 means that a lot more players will be able to enjoy captaining the experimental Excelsior. She's not too badly equipped either for a 23rd Century craft sporting a three attack, one defence, five hull and four shield stats out of the box. This provides a cost of 26 points for the starship leaving lots of room for handy upgrades.

As with all Federation ships the standard Target Lock, Battle Stations, Evade and Scan Actions are available but you can boost the scope of the ship's abilities with three Crew slots as well as singular Weapon and Tech options. If you are using the named USS Excelsior you can also take advantage of it's unique action that allows a free Scan action if you're not within range one of an enemy vessel.

Choosing the generic Excelsior Class as usual loses you a Shield point and a Crew upgrade slot for 24 points. I was hoping that there might be a bit more speed in the experimental vessel but she tops out at a four with the hard right and left turns at speed two and three incurring the Auxiliary Power Token. The one surprise here is the ability to reverse at speed two which is a cheeky little move to save your bacon.

Captaining the Excelsior out of the wrapper there are two obvious choices. Your higher skilled one (six) is Hikaru Sulu with a cost of four points. He'll let you disable a Crew upgrade to remove an enemy Target Lock which is something I find I'm constantly battling. Sulu is neither a disable or a discard so this is one that can be used and used and used again during your mission. As an alternative commander in the set we have Styles who oversaw the Excelsior's test runs. With a skill of three and a cost of two points he's a cheaper option and will allow you to add a second Tech slot to your upgrades bar. Nice touch as this keeps in with the experimental stage of the ship's life during The Search for Spock.

Keeping with the Federation faction trend, the Excelsior comes loaded with Crew options. Dmitri Valtane costs three points and lets you re-roll two attack dice if you have a Scan token next to your ship. Certainly one to equip on the Excelsior with the ship's unique action involving a freebie Scan that will allow you to use more options in the initial phase of the round. Secondly there's Lojur, seen as the helmsman of the ship in Star Trek VI this guy can be disabled to avoid disabling your Weapon upgrade. Perhaps a bit redundant in the days of Time Tokens but a good call if you're stuck with the older Photon Torpedoes cards which do require disabling to work. Two points is ok to spend if you have the latter but otherwise he's utterly redundant.

Finally we have Janice Rand. Making one more appearance in Star Trek, the former Enterprise yeoman allows the captain to perform his Elite Action as a free Action. For a two point discard this is a cheap price to pay to be able to use and can be combo'd in with the ship's Unique Action and  Valtane for a super round.

Positron Beam carries the only photo directly related to the Excelsior or of the Excelsior with a shot from Deep Space Nine's Tears of the Prophets. Another inexpensive discard, this feature lets players drop an Auxiliary Power Token onto an enemy craft at range one. Crucially again there's no specific that this can be the only card used in a round so the Excelsior certainly packs a wallop when it comes to being able to use multiple cards in one turn.

The other Tech option in the pack is Transwarp Drive. Promoted heavily in Star Trek III, the experimental drive system pushes a four or a five manoeuvre into a six when revealed during the Activation Phase.  At a price of three points this is a steal to give you a boost of speed without incurring any penalty. Great concept and a nice tweak although I think it should be given limited use as with the quantum slipstream drive. 

Photon Torpedoes come as standard here with the original disable feature and rounding out the set is the Elite Action, Feint. Targeting a ship at range two or three it is forced roll two less defence dice. Two ways I can see this going - either handy to knock out larger opponents or to give you an easy shot at a weaker opponent. Either way it's used is going to place you in a better position.

Your mission to accept with the Excelsior is Operation Retrieve named after the plan devised to rescue Kirk and McCoy from Rura Penthe in The Undiscovered Country. Federation ships start out at one end of the gameplay area opposite Rura Penthe while the Klingon ships start on the west and east sides. Kirk and McCoy are represented by a mission token which can be beamed aboard with your shields down as an Action.

The Federation player wins by retrieving the officers and escaping while the Klingons must prevent the escape or destroy the starship attempting the rescue. These earlier missions were definitely a lot more intricate than some of the later options and had more variations to be played out. This one and the one for the bioship are great examples of quick-fire scenarios to play out which are great for testing your abilities and also learning the game.

Second of the three from Wave 29 is the Species 8472 Bioship Alpha. I already have the Beta bioship from Wave 18 so I'm looking forward to pairing these two up against a worthy adversary...probably the Borg.

First thing's first. The model is a huge improvement and actually looks organic. Howe they've managed it I'm not sure but when you put it beside the Beta there is a distinct improvement. The final edging, the panelling - everything just seems to have come together here and produced one of Attack Wing's better ships. It looks really respectable and the paint job doesn't look rushed or heavy handed. 

The definition of the fin detail is precise and it's good to spot that different sections have been coloured differently. What does amaze me is the lining between the fins and the forward weapon where we have four colours all representing different pieces and all blocked out very carefully. Eaglemoss should take note.

As with the "B" ship, the Alpha craft is a point-sucking demon starting out of the dock with 38 points just for the hull. It's insane six for attack, two defence, five hull and six (six?!) shields make it a formidable opponent before you consider what to do with the remaining points available for upgrades. You can also add on a further three Tech options and two Weapon abilities. As for standard Actions there's Evade, Target Lock, Scan and Regenerate to keep you going. Bioship Alpha is capable of inflicting an Auxiliary power Token on its enemies should they be hit with at least three damage making any offensive move from this ship above the standard levels of lethality!

The regular version of the ship costs 36 points, removes one shield point and takes away a Weapon upgrade slot. Still stupidly overpowered though.

Movement options mean that while this isn't a fast ship she's good to try everything available and is exceptionally nimble with full left and right turn sets plus a come-about at speed three. Only the speed three sharp left and rights (plus the come-about) will incur an Auxiliary Power Token if used. No reverse here so once you're in the action be prepared to get stuck in. Not that I see that being a problem with such a high powered craft.

Captaining the ship is Bioship Alpha Pilot costing six point and offering a skill of seven plus an Elite Action option. Frankly the unique action he provides is a nightmare. Once all the other players have selected their manoeuvres you can then choose a ship at range one, take a look at its dial and then adjust yours accordingly. It does class as your Action for the round. I'd take that chance any day because this is going to mean you can target each ship specifically and pick enemies off one at a time. It also means your opponents might want to travel in pairs....

The generic version of the captain - Species 8472 - costs a single point, has no action option nor does he cost anything. 

Using the ultra-enemy's catchphrase, The Weak Will Perish is this pack's Elite Action at a cost of five points. Imagine coupling this with your ability to shadow an opponent with the Bioship Alpha Pilot and it's a brilliant if controversial combo. Discard the card and then disable your captain to re-roll any number of attack dice not once but twice. If used on anything apart from a Species 8472 it costs five more points but this could be a true opponent killer and certainly one to employ against the Borg.

As you'd expect from this beast of a pack, there are three additional Weapon choices varying in cost from expensive to ridiculous and then bats-arse. Costing just five points is Biological Attack. It's one of the more original ideas to be used on an upgrade requiring your ship base to be touching an enemy ship base at the end of the Activation. You also need to disable your captain card to drop one critical damage point on your enemy even with shields up. If that's not bad enough then it also allows the Species 8472 player to disable a Crew upgrade. Wowzers.

Shell out six points and Energy Blast becomes your next choice. Using five attack dice as standard it increases a Species 8472 ship's firepower up to seven but does require a Target Lock and has to be disabled to activate. Again another way to overload the firepower of this little ship and you don't have to get particularly close as it'll only operate over ranges two and three. 

Last but not least there's the ace in the pack with the Energy Focusing Ship card. Costing a brain-numbing ten points and again as with Energy Blast, operable at ranges two and three, it effectively pools nearby ships to slam home a massive attack. Your friendly ships at range one are unable to make a normal attack and each gets an additional two dice to attack with for that round. 

Your main ship does incur an Auxiliary Power Token but the benefits for that single round (it's a discard) could outweigh the ten point cost if used well. It will need you to have certain pieces in the right place to be most effective - maybe one to use once you have mastery of this ship and it's other abilities.

Bioship Alpha might be Crew-lite but there are more than enough Tech upgrades to go round. Extraordinary Immune Response (five point cost) actually offers something on the defensive angle. Nor is the usual lose a dice and gain an Evade. Instead this gives an additional extra defence die for every damage card you have. For me that's a totally new concept but one that does mean you become stronger for a round when you really need it and want to avoid "game over". Quantum Singularity for six points is one of those cards which helps reset your game.

By discarding the card, removing all your assigned tokens except any Auxiliary Power Tokens, you can put your ship back into play at the end of the round but not within range three of another craft. There are a fair few variants of this one around the game but they do all tend to be specific to that race. 

Then there's Bio-Electric Interference. Unsurprisingly it's a discard. In fact that's the big negative with this pack. There are some really juicy options but they are all single use so pick wisely and a lot of them are only available for this faction.

This once costs six points and targets all other ships within range three. All tokens except Auxiliary Power Tokens get binned off. If cloaking tech is deactivated then that ship can raise shields and in addition it means you avoid being target locked. This and the other two Tech upgrades are all faction specific meaning that you're going to need to be Species 8472 to reap the benefits of these powerful cards. However, as with the Borg these ship itself will dominate your points tally so pick carefully.

Your mission with Bioship Alpha is Scorpion. A two player game it's a single Federation ship (maximum 50 points) against a single Species 8472 ship (maximum 70 points). Four objective tokens are randomly placed by the players to represent debris while six mission tokens are placed on the Federation ship card. These represent the time it will take to prepare a Class Ten High Yield Torpedo and when three have been removed (one per round), then the weapon is prepped. The torpedo requires a target lock and uses ten dice but is a single use weapon so ready wisely. 

Cleverly if it's fired at close range (one) then the Federation ship has to defend against it as well. This game is designed to last six rounds with the final three mission tokens being removed over subsequent turns. Either the Federation player wins and destroys the bioship or the Species 8472 player wins by destroying the Federation ship, escaping or by having the Federation ship blow itself up with the torpedo. Great concept, simple execution, brilliant mission to play out  and one that is time restricted so you won't get bored.

Last up and it's the jewel in the crown of Wave 29. The third and final Xindi regular scale ship, the Muratas. A Reptilian warship, the 22 point craft isn't quite as impressive as I had expected, leaving your fleet potentially reliant on Weapon Zero to hold the fort. Problem is that the Xindi fleet is p**s poor when it comes to defence. This and the Aquatic Cruiser, the Calindra only have one die for defence as does the bigger Weapon Zero. If you come up against anything that's post-Enterprise era you're screwed. I put those three Xindi ships up against a fleet of the Enterprise-E, Voyager and the Phoenix and Weapon Zero didn't even last one round. Yuk.

Anyway, to the Muratas; I digress.

Offering four in attack, that lone die for defence with four hull and two shield points (cringe) I find this one hard to like at first glance. She carries standard Actions of Evade, Target Lock, Scan and Battle Stations with slots open for two Weapon, one Tech and one Crew upgrade. If you do want that additional edge then you can disable an active shield and re-roll up to two of your Attack Dice. Used with a Target Lock you could have the chance to re-roll twice in a single go. For the unnamed variant you'll lose a shield point, the unique action and one of the Weapon slots reducing your ship cost to 20 points.

She's also less manoeuvrable than the larger Calindra with no reversing move although it's traded for that ever-useful 180 turn at speed three. Indeed as with most ships there are a full set of motions for ranges two and three while only banking at speed one is included and speed four is only a forward move.

The model of the ship is actually damn good and far less flimsy than the larger Eaglemoss variant from the Official Starships Collection. The purple and sandy-brown colour scheme is in full effect with the former highlighting sections of the pointed tails as well as some of the front-end features of the craft. It does look a little basic in form and the line work isn't all that clever but on the most part it all lines up and things that are supposed to be parallel are, well, parallel. The surface detail is a nice finishing piece here giving depth to the Muratas and is, as said, a tad bumpy in places. At least there is depth and texture to the craft and it's as near as you could wish for in something mass produced in this scale. After all it's really just there as a representation. I'm sure keen modellers will be more than able to add in more at their leisure.

Dolim is back again after a first appearance with Weapon Zero. He's still a Captain skill of eight and costs five points. What he does bring to the game is an action which could be a stroke of brilliance or a way to get annihilated right out of the gate. Dolim allows your Weapon upgrades to cost a point less too so you can properly max out the firepower on the Muratas. 

Captain option number two is Degra. Costing three points with a skill of four, he also provides more attack force for the Xindi. Joined with a secondary weapon, Degra he adds an attack die and two if it's used in conjunction with a Xindi upgrade. Both of these captain cards offer very unique advantages to the player and make the faction quite enticing. It also attempts to overlook the fact that you might be able to dish out a beating but you're unlikely to take much back.

Dolim can also field an Elite Action and he's lucky to get a one  in the warship box. Patience for the Dead furthers the "attack madness" that packs this expansion. It disregards the Captain skill and allows you to attack first that round. You do forgo the chance to defend against any attacks but if you're tempted to throw this into the ring I would suspect you know you're either on the way out or it's the last gasp of a dying ship to take something down with it. Suicide? Possibly, but with a bonus.

The Reptilian Analysis Team is a solo Crew upgrade. It allows you to add a Tech slot on, which could be advantageous if you're maxing out on Weapon upgrades with Dolim as captain. It acts as a "buffer" to be disabled rather than disabling the card in play. This upgrade also means that your main card can be reactivated in three turns as you can drop some Time Tokens on it rather than having to use an Action to flip the switch. An unusual one since Time Tokens have been fairly exclusive to the Photon Torpedoes upgrades to this point. Added bonus for the Xindi? Only two Time Tokens if you're staying faction pure. Good offering again here that makes this new faction a real stand out choice.

If you did want to slip four Weapon upgrades onto the Muratas with Dolim you'll have to dig them out of other packs because this ship only comes with two. Particle Beam Weapon costs the same as your Xindi ship's primary weapon value (four here) and adds an additional die to your attack (which would make a five dice attack with the Muratas). Fairly standard but as with Species 8472, there aren't a lot of cards here that you can move onto other non-Xindi ships.

Xindi Torpedoes still offers a four dice attack from a non-Xindi ship and a five dice attack if fired from a faction vessel. This card utilises the Time Token feature and is effective at ranges one to three. It reactivates after three rounds.

Closing out the pack we have two Tech cards both costing three points. Thermal Chamber is an Action card that removes all your disabled tokens from Crew upgrades and increases your Captain Skill by four points for the round. Nicely it's reusable and there's not even the need to re-enable the ability. Definitely a card to add to your ship if you have a low skill factor to begin with but the double bonus of removing disabled tokens has to make this a no-brain addition to your ship. Finally this is a card not just unique to the Xindi but to this class of vessel. Kind of makes the Muratas your go-to Xindi craft.

The final card in the pack is Sensor Encoders and you benefit from an re-roll of a defence dice for disabling this feature. A second option here is that the card can be discarded if a friendly ship is destroyed and the warship (and it is a card for use only with a Xindi-Reptilian craft) gains an addition defence dice for the remainder of the game!!!

The Muratas scenario is Damage and is time limited to just four rounds. Following events from the Enterprise third season, this tale sees a Federation ship (40 points) negotiating with the Xindi. This ship starts out next to the planet token which represents Azati Prime while the Xindi ships (70 points to play with) can set up anywhere else but not within range three of each other or the planet. The Xindi have four rounds to destroy the Federation ship before they are recalled while the Federation player has the same time to either last out the negotiations or eliminate one of the Xindi craft.

For a more recent scenario this one has a lot of promise and certainly more than some of the standard one on one player fights that have marred later waves. Along with Operation Retrieve and Scorpion from this wave it's a good set of games to play if you're stuck for a way to go. Has to be an upside to this set.

Honestly with this pack I don't know how you could resist playing as the Xindi since there are a ton of new and unique options to take advantage of. Everything screams of difference but there's still that issue of putting this ship and her brethren up against anything from the later eras of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine or Voyager. Good but sadly just not powerful enough to be a genuine threat. 

For me, Wave 29 is a godsend. I missed both of the original releases on their first run in the early waves and can now tick them off the list especially the Excelsior which was a must have from day one. I need to get more time now to get to grips with the finer points of the Xindi faction and to get hold of the Xindi Insectoid fighter.

Wave 30 is out shortly in the UK and will return us to three ships from days past. There's the Klingon Bird of Prey, IKS Koraga a K'Vort class ship destroyed in the Dominion War (Penumbra from Deep Space Nine), the IRW Valdore Warbird from Nemesis and one that you just have to have, the USS Reliant complete with Khan captain option. Cracking selection and certainly the latter two are very exciting to see back. Not too sure if I need another Bird of Prey but I'm sure it can't hurt.

Fan of the Xindi? Are there key cards you must play as that faction?

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Voyager Season Three: The Big Reveal

The conclusion of Basics proved that Voyager could capably complete a two-parter and make it work over two seasons.

The loss of Lan Suder was perhaps inevitable but even a few years later I still wonder how he would have affected the ship if he'd survived. I mean the guy is a one man killing machine taking down a whole engineering team of Kazon to save the ship. I do enjoy Voyager's two-parters and the third season packs in this one plus Future's End which is another top notch 90 minute effort.

Let's start properly with Basics though. The shipboard scenes are great with the cat and mouse game being played out by the Doctor and Suder against the Ogla led by Cullah and Seska. It successfully closes off two years of Kazon antics and these guys are never seen again in an original episode. Many hurrahs for sure across fandom but there were definitely worse enemies in this show than the "short Klingons". The crew's encounter with the natives on their new home feels like filler and you are clock-watching for when Voyager will show back up.

Future's End drops the crew onto 90's (at the time present-day) Earth and provides the Doctor with the mobile emitter but it does more than that, introducing Captain Braxton and confirming that Star Trek is in an alternate universe since Chronowerx is blatantly a social comment on Microsoft/Apple. Filled with action, gadgets and a baddie who still makes me uneasy, it's a worthy double-length story slap-bang in the middle of the year. Anyone else wonder about the Eugenics War???

The early stages of the year are somewhat less spectacular than Tom and Tuvok chasing a truck in a VW camper, Sacred Ground and False Profits are left overs from the previous season and aren't that bad to be honest. Sacred Ground brings out the Prime Directive and the whole non-interference topic once again and is pretty effective with Janeway taking a prime spot to save Kes' life. False Profits brings the two Ferengi from The Next Generation's The Price back as we discover them taking full - and not unexpected - advantage of a naive race. Back on first-run these two cheesed me off no end. Filler, average and nothing interesting but 20 years later they are both signs that Voyager was getting better. It's about characters, it's about exploring the rich background of the franchise and answering the "what if's". In fact False Profits is a decent Ferengi episode where Neelix is useful and contributes to some great scenes. There are far, far worse than these two eps - in this season as we will see - but first there's Flashback.

Cards on the table, it's not Trials and Tribble-ations. Nowhere near. George Takei (who wasn't in The Trouble with Tribbles) and the late Grace Lee Whitney are back to replicate their scenes from The Undiscovered Country plus some extra bits in a story that seems like it's taped together around the 1991 movie. Seeing Sulu and Rand in Star Trek again is a feast for fans but I just don't think either is totally comfortable here and the model work isn't up to scratch either. I know the Excelsior isn't the same model as in The Undiscovered Country and adds another nail into this substandard anniversary show. Going up against Deep Space Nine's seminal episode was a Kobayashi Maru if ever there was one but at least they tried.

Worst Case Scenario might not draw on history that far back but it does take a leaf out of the Voyager Origins casebook with one of the show's clever "What If" episodes along the same lines as Living Witness and the two-part Equinox, (there's another but I'm coming to that...) offering a view of the ship had the Maquis managed to take control. Only a holodeck program that goes wrong (again) but one possible option we never got to experience. Bringing back Seska (she's back again in season seven's Shattered) works very well and even more chilling is her after-death "revenge" on Tuvok by re-writing the scenario. A great story, it gets lost in an otherwise average year.

The only other episode this year to really draw on the past of the franchise is The Q and the Grey, returning everyone's favourite omnipotent being accompanied by the ever-watchable Suzie Plakson. Now I've loved Plakson as Selar, as K'Ehleyr and as Andorian Tarah in Enterprise. I even love her here as she's one of my favourite guest actresses but as a Q episode this is barrel-scraping, so much so that when we get to Q2 in season seven (yep, four Q-free years after this garbage) I think the producers were on the verge of ordering a new shiny reinforced barrel. A civil war and Q procreation are awful concepts not too far off the Warp Five speed limit controversy of The Next Generation's final year. Gladly it's not repeated, just heaped on top.

Macrocosm attempts to do for Janeway what Starship Mine did for Picard and while it doesn't quite manage to turn her into the female Starfleet John MacClaine it's a valiant effort with a rare (at this time) CGI alien being that's a little bit terrifying and makes this episode a little bit of a guilty pleasure. It's pure action, moderate nonsense but very enjoyable as the captain suits up to kick some bacterial arse.

Season three seems to have a few episodes I either erased from my mind or never paid that much attention to in the '90's. There are two of those culprits later in the season, the first one being Fair Trade. Even the three line synopsis on the DVD gave me no clue as to which episode this was. Ten minutes in and I was none the wiser and even by the closing credits I was still wondering if I'd ever watched it in the first place. Now it's not a shocker, it;s probably one of the stronger Neelix episodes and it has something that actually shows that time - and space - have passed in that the Talaxian is starting to become "redundant". Great touch that I felt worked well for the development of the series and this maligned character. 

Neelix also has a prominent role in Tuvok and the Great Metal Elevator or Rise as it's titled here. A whodunnit in the classic confined space combined with one of sci-fi's biggest tropes. While Voyager was always seeking the concept angle it's heavily recycled here providing average season filler with little character exposition for the sake of some nice CGI.

Another one from the vault that my memory forgot is Coda. I remember there being a massive build up for this one which saw the return of the Vidiians and acted as a springboard for Jeri Taylor's Mosaic novel (which I managed to get hold of last year). Examining Janeway's character it's the strongest episode to focus on the character from the start of the show, opening up both her strengths and weaknesses in a so-so episode. 

Things don't tend to really kick into gear until the closing seconds of the Lets All Pon Farr episode, Blood Fever where the Borg finally turn up. We have to wait another ten episodes for them to actually prove a viable threat but even the hint of their presence in the show - something we had been waiting for since Caretaker - meant the remote possibility that this series was going to take it up a notch or three. On this note I was actually right but let's come to that in a moment.

To get to that season finale there's a ton of good and bad. The Borg-teasing Unity brings familiar Alpha Quadrant races back into the fold who want to be in a collective rather than have their total individuality. A good Chakotay story (yes, seriously) that places him in a very precarious role and at least the experience is something that the writers chose to reuse in the conclusion of Scorpion at the beginning of the following season.

Talking of underused characters, Ensign Kim is almost conspicuous in the third season after The Chute. That episode is one of my favourite stories of the year however and even knowing the twist on a rewatch didn't ruin it. There's a lot to like here and entrusting the bulk of the screen time to Wang and McNeill works really well. It is a lost situation for them as they try and survive as best they can and there are some very distinct religious and social overtones that are less than subtle throughout. Watch for the "Christ" moment if you know what I mean! 

Harry's other big story before he's attacked by Species 8472 in Scorpion is Favorite Son. Is Harry an alien? No; not a chance in hell and guess what - he isn't. Now if they had kept that in it would have been a moment of genius totally inspired and against all expectations but the fact that we just know there will be a reset and Ensign Kim is 100% human from the start takes all the emotional power from the tale. Voyager had a tendancy to do grandiose, dangle the carrot and then whip the rug out from under your feet on a few occasions - just check out the ending of Year of Hell if you want to see probably it's biggest offender or perhaps the final 30 seconds of Endgame.

The Doctor also gets a fair share of screen time to indulge in flippant wastes of ship resources especially in the torrid Real Life although his turn as something not far off Jack the Ripper in the earlier Darkling is almost inspired if a little predictable even before the "big" reveal not that far into the episode. Potentially that early epoch saves the episode from ruin and heavily relies on Robert Picardo - a trait that would continue with zest in the later years when coupled with Seven of Nine.

For me within that end of season batch there are a couple of stand out episodes. One is Before and After and the second is Distant Origins. I'll address the Kes time travel one first in that it might be standard temporal breakfast for Star Trek but it's a late blast of greatness from Lien given that her exit from the show would come so abruptly in the fourth season. It drops a few hints at what is to come from the Krenim in Year of Hell plus provides a glimpse of how Voyager might have evolved had the journey taken the lifetime it was suggested back in the first season. I think this is one of those stories we needed to see to tempt us with the future and the "could be" options just in the way that Parallels did very late for The Next Generation. One note though that the Krenim were originally supposed to have been the third season cliffhanger but Scorpion took that slot relegating Annorax and co to the following year.

To be fair it had been a pretty poor year for old Kes since her only other major starring role had been in the (equally good) Warlord chewing out cast and scenery in what should be a standard body-swap episode. This is fairly by numbers from start to finish but Jennifer Lien's swaggering performance does raise its profile but not enough that it's going to scar any top 20's.

As I said though, the end of the year also presented what I consider to be one of the show's classics; Distant Origin. Proving that Voyager could nail high concept once again, the episode is much more orientated to the perspective of the dinosaur-descended Professor Gegen and the Voth than it is the main cast. It's a good move allowing an unusual look at the human condition and contemplating just how we might be considered from another viewpoint. In fact our existence debunks their very idea of evolution. A good Chakotay episode again! Wow, they really screwed with this guy in the later years didn't they?

Season three does close with one of the show's biggest ever episodes that I would easily include in the same breath as Living Witness, Blink of an Eye, Timeless and Equinox - Scorpion. 

Returning the Borg to the small screen after their makeover for First Contact can't have been that easy and it's a finale that gets a lot right but isn't perfect. I still question the decision to give the Borg their own nemesis if you will but you can't fault the power of the pre-titles teaser nor the scope of Voyager's first Borg encounter proper.

Species 8472, Star Trek's first major CG baddie are a huge threat to just about everything and fortunately weren't overused by the show (although they still did a humanise-the-enemy ep which was unnecessary) and left Voyager to take on the Borg as its main threat. Scorpion showed the true opportunities that the series could explore - the real dangers of the Delta Quadrant and a storyline that could truly be ongoing. Of course we had no idea what the concluding part would bring - or who.

What was the highlight of season three? Do you think Voyager was right to bring back the Borg?

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Keeping it Fluid: Star Trek Attack Wing Wave 18

After the mixed bag of key races we received last month, September has introduced some really interesting dynamics to the Attack Wing mix.

I'll be honest, one of those evaded me until I sat down and read the cards properly but y'know what? This is a pretty neat trio and a lot better than I expected.

Box number one opens up to give us the USS Phoenix. A simple redress (physically) of the USS Sutherland OP prize from a while back which left me a bit grumbly because the flippin' sensor pod is wrong (OK, I'll stop going on about this now Instagram followers!). But hey, as I always say it's about the cards not the model...Honest.

The model itself is decent enough and is following the more recent trend to render Federation starships in silver rather than paint them up in a light blue wash. It works a lot better and the hull detail really does stand out. However, my saucer is out of kilter with the rest of the ship and sits at a slight angle to the right (check my video for a better look). The warp engines also seem to point in different directions to each other. Both of those issues do detract from the overall effect with clean painting, saucer detail of phaser strips and lifeboat hatches and a degree of "dirty" weathering. In comparison to the Enterprise-D model, the saucer is slightly larger and is a much better finish than the starter pack vessel.

Featured in the fourth season episode of The Next Generation, entitled The Wounded, the Phoenix was our first look at a new ship class since the Galaxy Class Enterprise in the pilot of the show. What we got was a mega kit-bash from the behind the scenes team that became a bit of a favourite over time. Here in Attack Wing her stats do place her firmly middle of the road. Only a couple less than the Enterprise-D and two more than the Defiant. Packing four dice in attack, one in defence, four hull and four shields at least you have something to work with if a little poor defensibly. The Phoenix can carry two additional crew and weapon upgrades and a single tech upgrade when maxed out. Her maneuverability, giving you virtually every turn in ranges one to three plus a four ahead, is complimented with the unique ship ability to change your maneuver after selecting it on the dial but before moving. However, it can only be for one at the same speed (ie a three turn to a three straight) and does incur the penalty of an auxiliary power token, Does mean you could get yourself out of trouble if you're running a high captain skill and can see what everyone else does before you do.

Captaining the Phoenix is Benjamin Maxwell. A commander with a skill of six and an SP of four. Aligning with his love of kicking enemy ass, Maxwell offers the chance to re-roll one of your dice when making an attack with your secondary weapon. (Admiral) Haden is your alternative named captain (the pack of course comes with Generic Captain too for zero cost and no ability) with this expansion and his upgrade is similar to the Flanking Attack we saw with the Vrax in Wave 17 in that you can hit a ship that doesn't have you in it's forward firing arc, gain one attack and lose one defence die that round. Certainly the benefit of sticking him as an admiral will be huge and I can see this ability getting a lot of use across the board.

The solus Elite Action here is Prefix Code. A true classic from The Wrath of Khan it allows the player to disable two shields on an enemy ship in range one to two. It does cost you an auxiliary power token but it could let you get through to those important hull points and get rid of your opponent a little bit sooner.

In the weapons cards this time there is the obligatory Photon Torpedoes this time using the time token feature to re-enable the secondary weapon and Quantum Torpedoes. The former will convert a Battle Stations result into a critical hit while the more expensive Quantum option will add a damage point on as long as you hit your opponent. Both roll with five attack dice and work at the two to three range. Pretty standard so far on the weapons but the two cards that spice things up here are the Arsenal and Aft Torpedo Launcher upgrades. With Arsenal you add two further weapon slots to the ship plus the card takes one of your time tokens when you are re-enabling meaning you can "reload" one full turn faster. Very nice, reusable and only four Squadron Points. The rear firing arc is missing from the Phoenix which makes the Aft Torpedo Launcher useful straight away BUT the big piece is that if you couple it with Photon Torpedoes you're only restriction to firing it is not within the forward firing arc. This upgrade will go in any of your slots on the ship and certainly adds a new flavour to the ship. Imagine coupling this with Haden's ability to target a ship that doesn't have you in its forward firing arc - you could potentially end up rolling six in attack.

Moving on to the tech here and there's just one addition to the game in the form of High Energy Sensor Sweep. Disabling an active shield on your ship allows you to perform a free Scan action and combining it with the high offensive capabilities of the Phoenix will make this a hard ship to take on since it'll help reduce the opposition's chances of deflecting your firepower.

Let's not forget our two crew possibilities with the Phoenix either with Terry and Elizabeth Lense. Neither actually served on the Phoenix nor was either even in The Wounded but hey, who cares... Lense costs just one point to remove a disabled token from one of your crew or tech upgrades (but not weapons which is odd considering the offensive capabilities being pushed here) and replace it with time tokens. She is a discard but not a great cost to do so. Terry on the other hand is a four point throwaway to disable two shields and repair one hull. While it might take off a critical damage action, I'm not sure if I'd rather have two shields instead and last a little longer.

Finally alongside the standard Additional Rules cards the mission this time is The Wounded and sees the Phoenix taking out a series of Cardassian outposts before the Enterprise shows up (eight turns to do it) while avoiding obliteration from the Dominion floozies. 

So to the second ship and while you might think that the Phoenix is offensive, the Bioship Beta is very offensive. Attack Wing players tend to grump a lot about the Borg and their super-abilities which make them nigh-on invincible however Species 8472 are perhaps another matter entirely. This second retail version of the vessel from Scorpion slams a huge six for attack, two for defence with five hull and six shields. It might not pack a rear or 360 degree firing arc but it's an absolute beast topping out at 38 points just for the ship itself.

You also have the benefit of Regenerate amongst your standard actions which allows the player to top up your hull points one per round. She also carries three tech slots and two weapon slots and the unique ability to cancel one damage result during combat at the cost of receiving an auxiliary power token. Once again this shows how difficult it may well be to take this vessel out of the game given its properties.

The Bioship tops out at four but gives you every maneuver forward at two and three but there's no tight right and left at speed one plus there's an all important 180 turn at three. As to the generic bioship, you'll lose a weapon slot and a shield to reduce the cost to 36.

Species 8472 bring a generic zero point costing captain option to the table as always but their main pilot carries a skill of eight and lets you re-roll one of your blank results during combat. Fortunately there's no need to disable the card to use this ability and should the Bioship this pilot is on be destroyed (bear with me here) you can jump ship and put him onto another craft in your fleet. This is very similar (if not identical) to the ability carried by the Borg Queen.

The Species 8472 Elite Action in the expansion this time is Telepathy and allows you to change your maneuver before you move. It's a hefty cost of four points for a one shot discard and with the power of the ship anyway it might not be necessary. You can use your points more effectively elsewhere.

We have two weapon upgrades to discuss this time and it's good that neither involves the word "torpedo". The less horrific Biological Weapon does bear a pic of Harry Kim gungified and also reduces your attack role from six to five but if it hits you not only score the usual damage but you get to discard a crew upgrade for each Battle Stations result you roll (max of two). It does cost six points to tack onto your ship. I do like it but nowhere near as much as the stupidly powerful eight dice attack of Energy Blast which only has the spending of a target lock as it's sole condition. A one hit wonder it's a heavy priced discard at eight points but hey, if you're up against it this is going to make a big difference and really nails home the fact that you want to be taking these guys into battle if you know you're facing off against Borg.

In line with the significant three tech slots, Bioship Beta's expansion packs in four options;  Electrodynamic Fluid gives you the option for multiple use either to be disabled and allow a sensor echo side-slip action or be discarded and perform a second maneuver with a top speed of three. Nice to have the options and goes with the flexibility of the ship to go wherever it wants. Costing an equal five points is Biological Technology and activating this provides the chance to gain more attack or defence dice by spending mission tokens that you place on the card once per round. Basically it's a weapons recharge allowing you the occasional extra bit of "umph" to make a crucial attack. Imagine using this in conjunction with Energy Blast....

Both of those upgrades cost a steady five points while Fluidic Space and Biogenic Field cost six. Very similar to features we've seen on the Krenim Timeship and the USS Dauntless, Fluidic Space allows you to remove your ship from the playing field and place it back anywhere in the game outside of ranges one and two of any other ship. One note here is that it doesn't say to remove any tokens you might have attached to the ship as it does on other ships that can perform a similar move. It is of course a discard given the huge benefit it could bring.

The Biogenic Field on the other hand is something you can keep using as it provides an additional defence dice to the ship and three if it's the Borg taking pot-shots.If you are attacked by an enemy upgrade it even provides the chance to defend and roll a Battle Stations result to counter it. Again you get to use three dice against the overpowered cyborgs.

I have to say that the mission with the Bioship is superb. Placing a one-on-one scenario with Species 8472 already without shields and suffering one hull damage is a really good twist to the usual format and means the enemy player stands something of a chance at winning. It also offers an unusual away team opportunity I've not seen thought out in this way allowing you to win the game off-ship. Good thinking outside the box Wizkids, I hope we see more of these in the future.

So to the final ship of Wave 18 and most likely the smallest playing piece to be released to date (I suspect the Delta Flyer will be marginally bigger); Quark's Treasure. It's an utter curve ball of a ship and I wouldn't be throwing it straight into combat before completely understanding some facts about this minute expansion.

Two points is the standard across attack, defence, hull and shields here with just two crew and a single tech upgrade meaning you're not going to be putting this Ferengi shuttle on the frontline of your offensive anytime soon. The generic shuttle option will drop a shield point and a crew slot for 14 points.

Costing 16 points the shuttle will bookend two more powerful ships and only has the Scan and Evade options in it's actions bar. However, there's no penalties for any crew or tech upgrades you place onboard which makes up for something. In fact the unique action box for Quark's Treasure has a second feature letting you ignore the auxiliary power token requirements on both the Docking and Launching actions included with the ship. Unsurprisingly she's not a fast mover with a full range of maneuvers at speeds one and two but only a forward step at three. I wouldn't think you'll be letting her stray too far from the main fleet - if at all.

For such a teeny tiny ship you get a silly three choices for captain (plus Generic Ferengi zero pointer) with Brunt your strongest candidate for the top job with a Captain Skill of four. Instead of allowing you to change your attack results during combat, Brunt makes the opposing ship re-roll one of its attack dice. Plus Brunt will allow you to use the Grand Nagus Elite Action even though he doesn't have the Elite Action emblem on his card. For reference the Grand Nagus card is a brilliant fleet action allowing all Ferengi ships in range one to three to immediately perform an additional green maneuver. If ever there was a typically Ferengi action in the game apart from nicking stuff, being slimy has to be a close second.  

Quark, on the other hand to Brunt, does carry the emblem but only has a skill of three. He's also a bit of a sacrificial lamb, as he stops a ship at ranges one or two from attacking you at the cost of tossing all your upgrades overboard and means you can't attack or, in fact do anything apart from move.

Zek is your third captain who can also double up as an admiral for your Ferengi fleet. Skilled at two, Zek is a bit of a feeble card, only letting you disable an upgrade on a ship at range one at the cost of disabling one of your own upgrades. Potentially it's one that might be of more use as the admiral action than a captain given that trouble could be elsewhere. 

Rom and Nog make up the Ferengi contingent for the expansion with Odo as a random Independent crewmember. I would have liked him to have been dual faction with the Bajorans especially with his ability to copy a crew upgrade from another ship at range one to three even down to whether it has to be disabled or discarded. It's a clever twist and in keeping with the character. Rom too keeps with his screen persona allowing you to repair up to two shield tokens as an action. Joy of joys too because there's no need to keep re-enabling this card or discard after a single use. Have to say this does make Quark's Treasure a much more playable ship since there are a lot of upgrades here to keep it hanging around in the game. Nog is also pretty useful even if it is a discard to force an opponent to roll two less die in attack. Only a cost of three points though and again another way to ensure the survival of the ship.

Inversion Wave is the first of two tech upgrades on offer. While it's not quite as forgiving as Fluidic Space, it does allow a total free move to any point within a radius of three at the cost of any active tokens and you do receive an auxiliary power token and have to discard on use. Certainly all the quirky upgrades with the shuttle make her a very unique playing piece. How appealing these choices will be to players more accustomed to Romulans or Klingons I'm not certain but at the least it's keeping Attack Wing fresh after 18 waves of expansions.

Cargo Hold only costs a point and adds two crew (and/or?) tech upgrades to the shuttle. I say and/or simply because it doesn't specify if they can be mixed or it has to be two of each only. For one point this is a good choice to add on since it will give you an additional four points to spend on extras. As with Cryogenic Stasis on the IKS T'ong last month though it, again, doesn't identify if it's a combined total of four points or four points for each upgrade. Being as it's a shuttle I would tend to lean towards the former.

Now you might have noticed that we've not mentioned the second Elite Action entitled Smugglers up to now so here it is. Somewhat wordy in its description, the card costs the same as Grand Nagus at five points and lets you steal a tech or weapon upgrade from a ship within a maximum range of three. However, the big twist is that it also plays into the use of the shuttle rules which are part of this pack.

As I said at the beginning of the piece, there's some new bits in this month's selection and the shuttle rules are the biggest thing by a mile. As with the new Borg rules, shuttles can only attack at range two and can be active or inactive. They also can't be equipped with a weapon upgrade costing more than three points if allowed and can only be included in a fleet where there is a ship with a hull value higher than four.

In reference to being "inactive", this is when the shuttle is docked with another craft. Yes, that's correct you can dock 'em. When docked they are removed from the board with all the upgrades and captain card placed under the docking ship's card and that ship in turn receiving an auxiliary power token. To dock the shuttle has to overlap the docking ship on it's move rather than the other way around otherwise it receives damage. Being docked also means you can swap upgrades between the two ships as an action during the game.

When launched each craft receives another auxiliary power token and the shuttle is placed within range one of the docking ship during the planning phase. It can then move about as normal. What isn't specified is whether the shuttle can only dock with the "Capital Ship" recognised by it's hull being greater than four. As I noted, the Smugglers card does include reference to the docking action as you can use the shuttle to steal upgrades however it can't use them and has to exchange them with the docking ship which can use them. 

How this new feature will play out and what use it will be should be fun to discover. I think you could use the shuttle to dive out and perform scavenging missions while your other ships tackle the battle side of the game and distract from your plundering actions. Can't wait to try it.

The final mission of Wave 18, called Smugglers, recreates the Little Green Men episode from Deep Space Nine as Quark, with Rom, attempts to deliver Nog to Starfleet Academy on Earth but also has a sideline to transfer some kemocite to a docking ship. Playing to the episode there's also a possibility of sabotage going on aboard the Quark's Treasure which affects the maneuvering of the ship and utilises Rom to cancel the effect. Ultimately the goal of the Ferengi player is to deliver both Nog and the kemocite while evading a patrolling Federation starship. Yet another nicely thought out scenario to complete the wave. Double points to WizKids.

OK so overall I think Wave 18 has to be one of my favourites to date. Each ship is distinct, each ship has some really great features and there's nothing anywhere near as precisely situational as we saw with Wave 17's trio. Here we have two extremely offensive ships with the Phoenix and the Bioship, both playing to very aggressive tendencies which will probably satisfy my thirst for obliteration and going out in a blaze of glory. Quark's Treasure is much more subtle and a playing piece that I think will take a while for players to master and understand how to use effectively. 

Perhaps she's something more useful in bigger games with four or more ships in your fleet where different plays might allow her a bit more running freedom. As I said I think she'll be good for quick runs out to steal upgrades but will need to have some serious protection which I believe you might be able to get from the recent Kreechta Marauder to divert fire - if not I'd perhaps look at the Ning'Tao for some of Kor's more suicidal actions that would benefit the shuttle.

Have you invested in Wave 18? What are the key pieces here and have you got any tips to use them well? Let me know!

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