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| DAY THREE! |
Hello again friends and welcome back to part three of my look at the Galor Class expansion kit. If you haven't guessed it yet, I'm not a huge fan of this expansion. I think it gets some things right, but is overall a miss on the designer's part. It's not BAD, it's just that there's such a thing as elegance in design, and this expansion doesn't really hit that bar. In comparison, I think the Neg'Var expansion set is so well designed, that it approaches the pinnacle of what a good expansion can be. Additionally, the TOS Enterprise has so many useful parts that it doesn't really matter that the ship isn't that good, you're still going to get good value out of the expansion. The Galor- not so much.
The first tech upgrade I want to look at is Antiproton Scan
Antiproton Scan (Dominion/Kraxon Expansion)
If a [SCAN] Token is beside your ship, add +1 attack die when firing against a ship that has no Active Shields.
Cost: 4
I don't understand why there has to be a stipulation that the opposing ship have no active shields. I still think that at 4pts, it wouldn't be that swingy. It would probably be best if it had the stipulation that it could only be equipped on a Galor class ship. I think that would actually make this a very decent upgrade. It's not that it's a bad upgrade, it's a bit too expensive, but I can see the use against cloaked ships. If your meta sees a lot of cloaked ships, this is a great upgrade for you.
It's really more of a hosing card. If you've played Magic The Gathering, you've probably encountered cards that affect one type of land, or one colour in particular. Protection from Red is amazing if the entire field is playing red. That's what I think Antiproton Scan is like. It's a great card to put on the Sideboard card and swap in just in case the opponent is running a clone fleet.
The second Tech card is EM pulse:
EM Pulse (Dominion/Kraxon Expansion)
Action: Disable this card to target a ship at Range 1-2. The targeted ship rolls 1 less attack die and 1 less defense die this round.
Cost: 4
This is where I think they should have brought the Ferengi Pulse into regular rotation. I really don't like this EM Pulse. It's a much worse scan, with the added bonus of causing the affected ship to roll 1 less attack dice. The disable is a bit overkill as well. I don't think this would be particularly busted if it didn't have the disable. Disable+Action had better be good- because I could just scan every turn and save 4 points to equip an Anti Proton Scan. I think the Anti Proton Scan is a much better upgrade for the points, even though I don't necessarily throw my full support behind it.
If you're at range 1, there's also the chance that you're just negating the +1 attack range 1 bonus. Meh.
Sure, this stuff has situations where it will be good, but it's not going to swing the game. If you find that these cards are really good, try out a list without them in it, and see if the game really is much different.
Finally, the Forward Weapon's Grid:
Forward Weapons Grid (Dominion/Kraxon Expansion)
A: 5
Range: 1-3
Attack: Disable this card to perform this attack. You must divide the attack between 2 different ships in your forward firing arc. You may divide your attack dice however your like, but you must roll at least 1 attack die against each ship.
Cost: 5
This weapon actually isn't that bad! It is a pretty terrible card on a Kraxon, since it only nets you +1 attack, and really only at Range 2 and 3, but it is pretty great on the Reliant, or the Praetus. For the most part, you're hoping to net 4 attacks on one target, and 1 on another target, because weight of dice is always so much better. The fact that you don't need a target lock really makes this thing shine. Try to throw it on ships with a 180 arc, with 2 attacks- The Miranda is probably your ship of choice for this bad boy.
Tomorrow- The Gor Portas!
" I think it gets some things right, but is overall a miss on the designer's part. It's not BAD, it's just that there's such a thing as elegance in design, and this expansion doesn't really hit that bar. In comparison, I think the Neg'Var expansion set is so well designed, that it approaches the pinnacle of what a good expansion can be. Additionally, the TOS Enterprise has so many useful parts that it doesn't really matter that the ship isn't that good, you're still going to get good value out of the expansion. The Galor- not so much."
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly. Five of the best crew upgrades in the game are in the Enterprise pack. Two of the best captains and one very good ship sit in the Negh'Var. The Galor pack has, ummm - the Kraxon? And you might get some mileage out of Forward Weapons Grid, but it's no Cloaked Mines. Beyond that it's mediocre dross.
Antiproton Scan (and the various other Scan enhancers aside from Spock and maybe Geordi) are all kind of iffy for their cost. If you could trigger multiple cards off the same Scan token they'd be a lot better (eg Antiproton Scan + Breen Aide), but sadly that's not the case. The card's clearly intended to hose cloaked fleets and provide some finishing punch against targets whose shields have been beaten down, but you get almost the same offensive boost just by Target Locking instead of Scanning, or spend an extra point and slap on Drex for pseudo-Battlestations. Not worth the cost, even on the Excelsior - unless Spock is busy on another ship already.
If Dominion EM Pulse worked like the Ferengi version, Galors would be selling like Praetus packs do, and for a similar reason. No such luck, though. The costs involved make the card fairly useless, although at least the debuffs stack until used. I've had situations where only one ship could fire on a target, and hitting it with two EMPs beforehand from the stuff that was out of arc actually dropped its Agility enough to give me a kill when I shot. Too corner-case to play with regularly, though.
Forward Weapons Grid is best on the 2-Attack ships, and it also works pretty well on a loaded Breen. You can use FWG as a follow-up shot after an Energy Dissipator, which allows for some potential to ED a ship, then throw one die at it and a four die shot on something more threatening, assuming your limited arc allows it. The card's badly handicapped by the requirement that you have two targets in arc, though - late game it's very common to be unable to fire FWGs at all, even with the wide arcs on a Cardassian hull. It's not a bad card, but it isn't really thrilling either.