Kirk Goes Away

With Christmas out of the way, your gaming fund is absolutely -

Hold that thought because for fans of Gale Force Nine's Away Missions, there's a new pair of expansions about to drop that will no doubt catch your attention.

For the first time stepping outside of The Next Generation's timeframe, Away Missions brings in The Original Series crew across two fabulous sets.

Assembled on the transporter pad for the first beam out are Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Chekov.

Now this could be classed as the more "run of the mill" Federation pack but there's a new feature on the cards that will certainly mix things up... and did in my first trial of the set.

The figures are great. I know there's a very mixed bag of opinions out there around their styling but I think it really works and given their size the detail is pretty damn fine even down to the correct rank braiding on the shirt cuffs and dials on the teeny phasers. Some of the paint jobs we've seen on the previous sets are just phenomenal and I wish I had half the talent on display. Look forward to seeing these in all their glory!

So to the pack; Kirk is an oddly average team leader on first glance but the chance to pick up some easy points on skills challenges thanks to that Command trait helps a lot. So too does his ability to re-roll an additional die in attack, skill and defence. Plus he integrates a lovely close combat attack adding two dice to his assault. At cover value not so good but once you can get him into tight situations Kirk comes into his own.

Spock is the go-to for skills challenges whether or not he has the trait since he rocks an impressive three dice out of the box. His nerve pinch is also a close quarters winner but will stun rather than kill. It's an advantage over his phaser, emphasising this pack as one that will need players to be prepared to get right up to their opponents for maximum effect.

McCoy's healing abilities are useful but rely on you again being close to another character (namely your own!) to regain some health. One note here is that McCoy is a big advantage in terms of the health regain over the Scotty pack which we'll come back to in that article.

Crouching Chekov adds the muscle to the pack needs players to ditch Support Cards in order to take advantage of the re-roll Kirk gets for being Kirk. It's actually pretty balanced as a quartet with each character providing a different weight to the away team and potentially leading players to customise their cards to play to the higher stats of each one. That said, the fact that you're shuffling before dealing out five Support/Mission cards doesn't guarantee you'll be getting the right mix off the bat so think about packing in some easy wins just in case your combinations don't come to pass.

All are able to make a move of four spaces to get around the board and that makes using turbolifts a lot easier in this gamer's opinion. They did come in useful to bounce around the boards and complete a few goals in round two.

Packed into the box to help boost the abilities of the team we have additional bonus point tokens as well as counters for the new Beam Away move and Mind Meld.

Taking your character out of play as part of a Mission Card direction, your character then only completes the directions on the card when you come to activate your following character. In the first run through I got to use this move twice and both failed spectacularly resulting in both Kirk and Spock being Neutralised during the second of the three rounds. Good luck to McCoy and Chekov for round three.

In the box players also receive a new deck of cards. What I think is a fantastic idea here is that for the initial few run throughs there is a set 20 Mission and 20 Support card deck pre-built before adding in another set to customise your loadouts. This stops any horrible surprises but also means players can get to grips with that new Beam Away dynamic that can get your characters out of a sticky situation. For example, I had Spock cornered by Lursa and used it to drag him out of danger in the hopes that his return would mean I could beam him back to the transporter pad. Needless to say it didn't in this case. 

Some cards will provide the usual skill tests at a certain terminal on the board while others play to whether or not opponents are neutralised. Some do allow for additional bonus too including searching for specific cards to help your team or even require others on our crew to complete skills tests for the points that round. Nicely there are a couple (Hortas take note) that combo up your points should you have other missions already scoring.

The theming of the deck is absolutely on spec too. Working in classic themes and episode titles, the Support and Mission decks offer a breadth of equipment, tactics and game changing interruption moves that will have you racking up points and hopefully keeping your opponent on their toes for the duration of those three critical rounds of play.

There are joyously several focusing on Kirk's legendary fighting skills to give the captain even more of an advantage as well as gains in medical equipment and phaser lethality. That last one's a big winner since Federation characters can only stun! Vulcan Nerve Pinch is another good one you hope pops up since it can incapacitate an opponent in one go - very useful for a cornered Vulcan. 

Mind Meld is also Spock specific with the chance to use an adjacent character's trait for a Skill test - so just make sure you know who you're next to when it matters because it might be to your advantage.

As said, Kirk and Spock are much more useful right up close leaving McCoy and Chekov to do some distance shooting although you will need to unify the team to get different challenges completed over the course of the two rounds.

I do like this set and it's already seen more action than Picard but that's only because I've not unboxed Scotty just yet. In fact both of these sets are currently a bit of an "anomaly" since there are no classic villain sets to counter them and for timeline purists dropping Kirk and co onto a 24th Century ship against the Borg (for example) could almost be seen as franchise sacrilege. We can only hope GFN have some suitable baddies lined up in the wings... am I hearing calls for a certain Khan? Kor? The Gorn? Now there's a pack...

The Beam Away function is one to use wisely but it's not the only new twist that's introduced in these expansions. Scotty's set has some interesting new bits I can't wait to try and I think the Chief Engineer himself might be a real dark horse of a character as the Mission Commander. But we'll come to that one next...

The Captain Kirk Federation Expansion pack is now available from your Away Missions stockist!

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Away Once More

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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On a Mission: Gale Force Nine Beams You Aboard

Gale Force Nine’s last entry into the Star Trek market was the incredibly in-depth, long playing Ascendancy where anything above a two player game potentially means booking a week off work to see it through.

The arrival of Away Missions (due out in the UK in August) counters that intensity perfectly with a game that can be over and done in 90 minutes while still fulfilling that desire for some proper Star Trek tabletopping.

The premise behind the game sees away teams from one of the available factions dropped onto either a Borg Cube or the USS Ahwahnee (one of the ships lost at Wolf 359) with a main mission objective and several secondary objectives to complete. 

Time is limited with both sides having to play their actions out across just three rounds. Does it work? Absolutely and with that restriction you become a lot more honed in on exactly what you need to do and the strengths of one faction over another.

The core box contains the Federation and Borg parties. Initial concerns that the 4 vs 6 squads might be a little biased is quickly removed when you understand that bonus actions have been built into the mechanics to ensure that play is fair. Each miniature comes with an accompanying stats board referencing their personal traits and attack, defence and skill levels.

With a set of interchangeable double-sided boards there are a variety of layout combinations that can be achieved. Each board contains different stations (Command, Sciences, Operations, Medical) within sections of the ship or cube that players will need to interact with to complete challenges while also avoiding or engaging the opposition.

Let’s look at how each round works. Using the core box Federation set of Riker, Shelby, Data

and Worf, each character can conduct two actions per round aiming to complete tasks and build up the most points. These two Actions don't need to be a "Move plus something" and you can mix and match to suit your tactics.

The Borg start with two drones and add a further two characters to the board at the beginning of each subsequent round, rebuilding their forces and overrunning the ship. Ultimately there's the chance to have five drones and Locutus in play by the conclusion. That's no including any members of the opposition away team you might have managed to assimilate! Due to their hive mind nature the Borg can also transfer their actions to another drone which comes in useful when you’re needing to grab some final points  in the last throws of round three.

As part of each round you replenish your Support and Mission cards which will help gain points. Players keep these in their hand until they need to be played and the decks from which they are drawn (a set 20 cards) can be customised from the sets included in the core box. 

Support cards will add in benefits such as the phaser rifle or transporter pattern enhancers while Mission cards will provide side quests to boost your points total such as performing a skill test at a certain console. This in turn will depend on the abilities of your characters as to who is best suited for what (and is detailed on their stats card). That will then determine your path through the rooms of the ship or cube.

The model sculpts are nice but they are begging to be painted up and I can see a lot of players wanting to do that. Each does represent their respective onscreen persona very well adding in phaser, tricorders and a customary bat'leth for Worf - ideal since his hand-to-hand combat gains you an additional damage point.

Talking of that, facing off against six Borg can seem a little daunting however with the way the stats are built, three rounds is more than enough to dispatch at least one or two as combat is done on a comparison of scores from highest to lowest. This means that while you might stop the drones from completely taking over.

One thing that I really like about Away Missions though is the quick start guide. The rulebook itself (already available for download from the Gale Force Nine site) covers every eventuality but can be a bit of an overload on first glance. The quick start guide takes you through the basics of the game and in the box there are even a starter Support and Mission card decks comprising of 20 cards to ease you into the action. Once you've got the game down you can rip open the larger packs and start customising your 20 card deck depending on the board and opponents. What works against the Borg might not be the best option against the Romulans for example.

A large Borg force might be enticing but to be able to control any of the areas of the ship you do need to have assimilated members of your opposition since the drones themselves have no set skills until they, well assimilate them. This will mean that your starting tactic for round one might be to add to your workforce while Starfleet's could be to avoid the Borg completely and repair the ship asap.

The Klingons favour full on combat while the Romulans are all about their intel. The Federation is a bit of a mix although they will only stun opponents unless they're the Borg.

Once you get past the first few games and make a few mistakes (I had the Borg being able to do anything until I realised why assimilation was so key!) and how you can play the game more tactically dependent on your faction, this is a fantastic experience. The downside is that you can't get all four factions out at once unless you have two core box sets. That initially sounds a bit grim but given the number of spaces on the four boards you'd be falling over each other from the first move.

Away Missions is a great and thoughtful game for Trek fans and I can't recommend it enough. There has been a bit of bad commentary over the figures but you need to look beyond and actually play the game rather than worrying about representational pieces of plastic (if they bother you that much). I genuinely hope this gets super popular as I would definitely be interested in a Dominion pack or a Cardassian pack. Maybe there's scope for more boards and a DS9 setting and crew? Mix and match options to pick your best away team? Kirk and Spock on the original Enterprise?

The possibilities are right there for the taking and it would be great to see a fair few of them come to fruition.

Away Missions launches August 12th and is available to pre-order NOW.

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