Thursday 23 January 2014

The Thong Song- Review of the Gal' Gath'thong

We're interrupting our regularly scheduled Koraga review to take a look at the new Romulan ship, the Gal Gath'thong (or, "Thong" for short).
It's an oldy, but a goody...

This ship is the first true torpedo boat. The fact that is has to be cloaked when shooting a torpedo is not really a downside, since this ship should always be cloaked anyway. Will this finally make torpedoes a viable option? Essentially, you'll be paying at least 24 points for a 5 attack ship- not too bad actually!. 

Aside- I don't want everything to be amazing in this game, since it would lead to the balance of the game shifting all of the time. I like that there are decent, middle of the road options that fill in some gaps, and cause you to think about making your lists. 

There's a 5 pt plasma torpedoes already in the game. You should take those instead of the ones that come with the expansion. Paying the two extra points for an extra attack is exactly how much you should spend for an extra attack!

Moving on, a topic that I'm sure will become quite controversial- Is Romulan Commander any good?

I think his name was technically Keras...

And the answer? We'll see. Romulan Commander is going to be great tech against lvl 9/8 heavy lists. This is where he is absolutely going to shine. If you're facing a low captain swarm-esque list? Not so much. But he gets two elite talents!!! I'm not particularly impressed. I expected that Kirk would probably be an anomaly, and he works sooo much better with Elite talents than the Commander. Without getting into it too in depth- Romulan Commander's power level is very swingy and very much depends on what your opponent has brought to the table. 

That's a pretty pointless helmet...
PIC OF OFFICER

Not great, although you can combo him with the Thong, torpedoes, and get 7 attacks, rerolling blanks. Not bad right? It costs you 28 points before captains, but combo this with Donatra and other shenanigans, and the Thong becomes a SERIOUS threat. 

The Thong's best use is going to be as the lead ship in a swarm- we'll see how good the movement dial is before we commit to this conclusion. 

Double Back could be great, but probably won't see a whole lot of play. Decoy takes a lot of resources to work. 
 Future turn? What does future turn even mean? This thing is much worse than Cloaked Mines. Apparently the Thong will come with minefield tokens! Hurrah!

That's it for now, I'll look at these cards more in depth in a few weeks.

3 comments:

  1. " Future turn? What does future turn even mean?"

    You're kidding, right? It means "not this turn, a later one" - which means that the corner case of a Suicide Attack move (which is the only thing I can think of that would cause a move at the end of the activation phase) that takes you into nuclear mine counter won't trigger the mines if they were laid that turn.

    "This thing is much worse than Cloaked Mines."

    Good. Cloaked mines are broken as written, and are due for a correction - which the recent FAQ change to Interphase Generator proves WizKids is willing to do.

    At three points and a weapon slot, this is an appropriate mine upgrade. It costs less than Antimatter and can't be placed directly on an enemy ship for an instant attack, but it can be placed in a much wider area, which makes it quite easy to dump it in an impossible-to-avoid position on one or more enemy ships.

    The choice to make it an action to use is an interesting design decision. Part of what breaks Cloaked mines is the free usage, and one of the bigger limits on Antimatter's utility is the way they eat your attack, which calls for hard choices and makes them harder to use on low-skill ships (the kind that show up in swarm fleets, generally). Nukes are easier to employ than Antimatter for that, since you won't get blown up by getting shot at range 1 before the token drops - but the sequencing also means a skill-1 swarm with multiple nukes can't lay an instant wall for high-skill captains to drive into. They'll always have a round to react and try to plot an avoidance course (or at least raise shields if cloaked), which is a fairer game mechanic than Antimatter.

    "Apparently the Thong will come with minefield tokens! Hurrah!"

    And it's a ship that lends itself to buying multiple copies, since it looks like a very good candidate for swarm tactics. Very handy, especially for those who grudgingly bought multiple Praetus packs.

    Surprised you had no comment on the Centurion. He's probably the most interesting card in the pack, as he opens up a way to get two uses out of other discard crew without having to use Weyoun as captain. He's a little expensive, but with the right crew he's probably worth it. There's several possible candidates in the Dominion range, and getting two uses out of your Romulan Pilot is worth six points any day of the week.

    He's also the only thing in the game right now that will block Chang's ability, which is a small plus but not a trivial one.

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  2. "Future Turn" is a phrase that doesn't show up on any other card, and is a bit clunky. Although I take your point about my hyperbole!

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  3. Update today will be later on in the day, post 6pm.

    I think the ship would be great in combo with the Praetus. The Centurion didn't excite me, as I've become sour to Weyoun's ability.

    I'd really like something to shake up the Meta. So far, even with the pace of the releases, things are a bit static. Hopefully the Borg are that thing.

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