A Tangled Web: Tholia One Attack Wing Expansion Pack

Coming out of one of the best episodes of Star Trek's third season and, may I also say, one of the best classic episodes; is Tholia One.

Unnamed in the episode, only the race and the name of the first ship's captain, Loskene, are identified. Here with this pack, Wizkids have expanded the background to the secretive Tholians as well as drawing on key elements of the episode to make this quite a unique pack.

The blister-packed Tholia One is a striking replica of the craft from the remastered version of The Tholian Web. As with the (fairly) recent Eaglemoss edition, I'm still grumbling about the fact we don't have anything that provides a reproduction of the ship as seen in The original Original Series from the 60's.

However, what we do have is a very well presented starship utilising both translucent and standard opaque plastic parts to complete what is a very, very small ship - even smaller than the Maquis Raider but not quite as flimsy or microscopic as a shuttle or the Denorios solar sailor.

The colour palette is a mottled silver with fiery orange inserts representing the engines on the small, one man craft and even on this scale, the simplicity of the design and finish makes this one of the best in the game - and definitely head and shoulders above the recently reviewed Maquis Raider. The stats on the other hand don't match my level of excitement for this ship with Tholia One sporting two points for attack, defence, hull and shields. Good thing then that it's got exceptionally fancy footwork to... sorry what? Oh...right....erm...we;ll come to that in a second....

The named, unique vessel also has the advantage of being able to use the Energy Web as a free Action which does offer some mayhem on the board. Also Tholia One can add a further two Weapon upgrades as well as perform the Evade, Target Lock and Scan Actions. The generic ship loses one of those Weapon upgrades and one of the Shield points to reduce the cost from 16 to 14 points - not really worth it considering the power you ditch off. Loskene from The Tholian Web is the top captain option but with a skill of four and a cost of three points that's not saying a lot for him. 

Loskene can field the fabled Elite Action but he does offer more manoeuvrability to your fleet as long as its a ship outside of range three and has a lower captain skill than he does. That second part and potentially the first part are booth incredibly situational given the nature of combat in Attack Wing. Having a captain with a lower skill than a four would work in favour for moving but means your fleet may find itself outgunned very quickly.  If these conditions are met then Loskene provides the chance to perform an extra - and free -  one or two maneuver. 

The Tholian Pilot (cost of one and a skill of two) is an odd second choice in that his Action can only be utilised when on a Tholian ship making him only effective in one role on one craft.  Going green on your moves with this guy equipped allows one shield token repair as your Action which will aid in keeping this cannon fodder around a little longer.

Tholia One does come prepared to strike even if its basic levels are almost laughable. Out of the box we have three Weapon options with a cost of five, four snd three points individually. The three point Photon Torpedoes won’t be a shock and operate using the Disable feature since this is one of the earlier wave expansions before Time Tokens came in. It utilises the Target Lock and any blank results can be re-rolled. Usable at ranges one and two, Photon Torpedoes may have limited use due to the need to reactivate them rather than waiting for them to re-arm with Time Tokens. It also doubles the weapon effectiveness of a Tholian ship hitting an opponent with four attack dice instead of the standard two.

Tricobalt Warhead fills that range three gap missed by Photon Torpedoes and surprisingly offers a better hit ratio. Using six dice and operating at range three, this Weapon works the same as Photon Torpedoes with the card disabled and a Target Lock used. The Warhead is, given the range, a very powerful tool to have in your arsenal especially if coupled with Photons for closer range strikes.

Finally there's the iconic Energy Web and this is THE unique feature of the pack hands down. A five point cost is understandable given the importance of this weapon which can be reused throughout the game. By performing a forward ‘one’ maneuver you can then use your Action to place one of the included Energy Web threads onto the board behind your ship. So what is the benefit? Well, should one of your opponents cross the line during their turn then it acts as an obstacle and will cause damage to their ship. While its pretty cool to action in the game I would recommend having at least two of the Tholian ships in your fleet to properly instigate a network of these web threads in order to incapacitate your enemies.

Last up, unusually, are two Elite Actions. Given that this is a single person craft we are deprived of any Crew but also the Tech options. Tholian Assembly costs three points and acts on every Tholian ship within range three of your vessel. These can all then perform an additional ‘one’ forward. Of course this then means that they would ALL technically be able to place a web thread and fully utilise the key Weapon feature of the craft. Only a Tholian captain can field this one but it does lean to using the pack with a pure Tholian fleet mentality.

Tholian Punctuality (four points) does mean that even if you do choose to single ship the Tholians as part of an Independent fleet for example, it’s not going to be as outgunned as you might think. For a discard here you can add an extra attack die for one round bringing you up to a mighty three red cubes. One to have in the back pocket perhaps for an end of game move rather than blowing this one early on shield damage. 

The Tholian Web mission gets as close to the original episode as possible with a Federation ship attempting to retrieve a Starfleet captain from interphase utilising mission tokens to reflect attempts to get him or her back. To represent this, your Federation captain card is face down until successful - and you can only attempt a rescue at range one to the interphasic rift. The Tholian player has a hefty 50 points to use against the Federation player which has to include ships with a hull value of two or less - which would indicate at least two!

The Tholia One pack is, initially, a bit of a disappointment. The low starting abilities, the average to poor Captain skill and the minimal slots for upgrades do edge this craft more into a support role than a front line starship. I would feel the most effective way to use the Tholians would be as part of a swarm fleet that could all utilise the web feature in line with the Tholian Assembly Elite Action. The Energy Web is a neat draw to this pack but on a solo ship it’s near useless unless you’re very close. It can place obstacles across the board but with some planning these can be avoided.

As a fan of the Tholians it does pain me that this expansion isn't a more attractive offering. Running it as part of an Independent fleet it could be the annoying, buzzing fly BUT it would need to be paralleling something with at least twice its capabilities to make it worth while. 

What's been the best way you've found to use Tholia One?

Enjoyed this article? Why not like and share to spread the word!

Like our page on Facebook 

Follow us on Twitter

Find us on Tumblr