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Today I'm going to look at the Breen Captains and Crew, mainly because I want to wrap this up by Friday and try to write some kind of overview on Saturday, before starting in on my reviews of Wave 1 next week. Now that I've reviewed most of the expansions, I'll be able to discuss a bit more strategy in these articles without having to constantly refer to cards that I may not have reviewed yet, or introduced. Most of you will already understand how every card works at this point, but the exercise is more for the beginner- giving them a way to easily get into the game by having a ton of articles that they can readily access.
Okay, so let's discuss the Breen. These yahoos violate one of those
important rules about Star Trek- you should always be able to see the
alien's face since, you know, you're going to want to name some of them
and give them some personality. I really think that this was a very ill
conceived race from the very beginning. I'm rewatching DS9 right now, so
maybe I'll come around on them, but overall, I don't like that they're
fairly indistinguishable from one another.
Let's look at Toth Gar, the Breen Pike!
Toth Gor (Dominion/Gor Portas Expansion) 
Captain Skill: 6
All your [WEAPON] Upgrades cost -1 Squadron Point.
Cost: 4
Elite Talent Upgrades: 0
Captain Skill: 6
All your [WEAPON] Upgrades cost -1 Squadron Point.
Cost: 4
Elite Talent Upgrades: 0
Remember
the rule of acquisition in yesterday's post? Yeah. Even if you violated
that rule, AND YOU SHOULDN'T, you're going to save 3 points. Toth Gor,
with his captain skill 6 will cost you one point. He/it/she? does
nothing else. You're going to be able to equip your 5 point photon
torpedoes for 2 points, if you brought two other 5 point weapon
upgrades! This is inconceivably terrible. Toth makes Pike look good. You
could equip Red Shirt, Sulu and Uhura on a Pike Enterprise D, and
essentially get Sulu for free. Those three upgrades could actually all
be usable on one turn. With the Weapon discount, you typically only get
one attack (although some recent cards break this rule) and you'll be
left with two upgrades that aren't really doing much except taking up
space.
No. Toth Gor and the Gor Portas really lend
themselves to a strategy that is terrible. Until secondary weapons get
better, leave this at home.
Sar is not bad. Here are the stats:
Sar (Dominion/Gor Portas Expansion)
Captain Skill: 2
When defending, your ship rolls 1 extra defense die.
Cost: 1
Elite Talent Upgrades: 0
Captain Skill: 2
When defending, your ship rolls 1 extra defense die.
Cost: 1
Elite Talent Upgrades: 0
One
point, for 1 extra defense dice. Normally an extra agility costs two
points. This card is already netting you an extra point. You don't have to
activate it, and if you throw Sar on one of those Romulan ships with the
cloak and the 2/3 agility, you're looking at 7/8 defense dice. Not bad
at all. If you're running a ship that you would otherwise not put a
named captain on, I'd probably always run Sar. At two points, Sar is a
bit less good, but there are very few ways to get +1 agility, so it's
actually still not that bad. Sar with Cloak is a great combo AND you
could still find a place for Sulu to bring you up to 9/10 defense dice
and it wouldn't cost you that many points.
Overall, Sar is a really decent captain that I'd consider adding to almost any list that includes an unnamed captain.
Breen Aide is the only crew card that came with this expansion, and it is also not that bad.
Breen Aide (Dominion/Gor Portas Expansion)
If your ship has a [SCAN] Token beside it when you attack, you may convert 1 blank result into [DAMAGE] result.
Cost: 2
Breen Aide (Dominion/Gor Portas Expansion)
If your ship has a [SCAN] Token beside it when you attack, you may convert 1 blank result into [DAMAGE] result.
Cost: 2
Breen Aide is not a bad
card to throw on a Galor. You'll already be scanning if you use
Antiproton Scan, so I can see Breen Aide giving you some extra use. It
doesn't cost much, and you get an almost guaranteed damage result. It's
actually quite good. You can't stack it with too many other scan effects
since there are some FAQ restrictions on multiple activation from one
token, but again, if you keep your Galor cheap, Breen Aide is actually
not a bad upgrade. The Federation has cheaper scan options now over and
above Spock, so I'd probably take a pass on cross factioning into the
Federation, but for a Galor Dominion build, Breen Aide is a decent
upgrade.
Tomorrow, the remaining upgrades.
Thot Gor's bad, but if you're staying in-faction what are your other options for Dominion? Dukat's a no-brainer, but there's only one other captain with skill higher than 5, and that's Weyoun, whose text works only with Glin Telle and a couple of seriously pricey Jem'Hadar. If you're trying to shoot sort-of-early I'd rather pay a net of 3 points for Thot Gor on a ship with a weapon upgrade (ED or Dorsals, probably) than 4 for Weyoun. Cross-faction, Thot Gor's as pointless as it gets, at least till we see better/cheaper weapon upgrades or some crazy Borg cube that could actually use a bunch of weapons at once.
ReplyDeleteNot that Dominion captains of any kind get to shoot first against the kind of stuff that shows up in cross-faction tourneys anyway - even Dukat is barely ahead of Donatra, sadly.
Sar's much more nifty and generally useful if you want defense on a budget and don't mind the low skill. Like I said in yesterday's comments, having a low-skill captain in the fleet to go early and jam movement lanes is often a good thing, and a captain with a solid defensive ability is the best kind of low skill option. Terrell is arguably better still, but Sar isn't bad at all.
Given the "one upgrade card effect per token" on page 22 of the rulebook, I'm pretty sure Antiproton Scan and Breen Aid can't combo. The Breen's a nice alternative to Antiproton Scan (cheaper, and more versatile) but a Galor (or Breen, for that matter) gets about as much statistical benefit from just Target Locking for rerolls as it would from Scan + Breen Aide. The lock can be harder to apply though, so spending two points to make the scan better is worth considering against cloakers.
Thot Gor is a skill 6 captain that costs, net, 1 point on the Gor Portas with Energy Dissapators and Photon Torpedoes. That is not bad for a 6 skill captain. Yes, that's a very loaded ship, but it's a ship that can really screw with enemy ships. The EDs are pretty powerful when they hit. Their problem is Range 1 limitation.
ReplyDeleteNet 2 points with two weapons, not 1 - unless you were planning on doubling up on EDs or something, in which case Lojur would be cheaper by a net 1 point even cross-faction with Thot Gor. Lojur's better anyway, since he'll let you get a second back-to-back shot without an action with either weapon - more versatile and cheaper than having two of either weapon.
DeleteAt a minimum 41 points, I think you'll still struggle to make this build do enough work to pay for itself before it dies.
Also, EDs have many problems - that awful range is one of them, but it's compounded by high cost, narrow firing arc, and lousy base attack dice, which makes them quite weak against cloaks. They require significant buff/debuff support from other cards to be even vaguely reliable against many targets, which further increases their effective cost.
That said, yes, getting hit with an ED ought to be a virtually guaranteed ship kill, either in the same turn or next. Having to go straight 1 with no shields and probably a collision so no cloak or other action is as close to fatal as it gets.
They're an okay strategy, but I just think it's making the best of a bad situation.
ReplyDeleteAlso, just posted this up on BGG, looking for some feedback from you dominion players:
DeleteKoranak 26
Gul Dukat 5
Boheeka 2
Cloaking Device 4
Dorsal Weapons Array 3
Dominion Flagship 10
Jem'Hadar Attack Ship(20)
Suicide Attack 5
Jem'Hadar Attack Ship(20)
Suicide Attack 5
The ind flagship that boosts defense dice would also not be bad. Has anyone run such a fleet? Suicide Attacks can be huge whifs, but they could be amazing if they go off properly. Thoughts? should the Attack Ships just use dominion photons?
If you're really trying to get the most out of Suicide Attack, the Indie flagship that grants an extra maneuver to a nearby friendly ship would probably be a lot better choice - it's much easier to get in position for a ram when you can grant a free green or white maneuver almost every round. Same stat bumps on the card as the Dominion one (so no +Attack, sadly) but it gives a free Target Lock, which means you'll get (potentially) Battle Stations + Target Lock + Scan or Evade every single round for the Koranak, depending on whether you need offense or defense.
DeleteOTOH, you've got 50 points tied up in one ship with Agility 2, a disable-to-use cloak, and a total of 9 hits to kill - and only 4 while cloaked. That won't last long even when the cloak's up, and it'll melt in no time if they catch you without it unless you quick-kill enemy ships - which, admittedly, suicide attack is very, very good at.
I don't think it'll work well against an optimized tourney fleet, even if your opponents stay in-faction.
If you're willing to cross-faction yourself, something like this would probably be better:
Koranak 26
Picard 7
Sulu 4
Dorsal Weapons Array 3
Indie Flagship (Dominion flipside) 10
Jem'Hadar Attack Ship 20
Suicide Attack 5
Jem'Hadar Attack Ship 20
Suicide Attack 5
Similar play style, but spamming Sulu's action gives better overall durability than the cruddy disable-required cloak does (since your shields stay up) and Picard gives you first shot against almost anyone, which is meaningful when you're throwing 5 dice with free Target Lock and Battlestations.
You might also try:
Keldon 24
Dorsal Weapon Array 3
Kraxon 26
Gul Dukat 5
Sulu 4
Dorsal Weapon Array 3
Indie Flagship (Dominion flipside) 10
Jem'Hadar Attack Ship 20
Suicide Attack 5
I still don't think it's great, but flagship Kraxon will help keep the other ships alive a bit longer, it's still fairly hard to kill with Sulu running, the Dorsal Arrays will keep the Cardassian ships plinking away for a while even after they're inevitably outflanked, and the flagship's granted-move ability will help the Keldon come around much more quickly than usual as well as delivering the Jem'Hadar suicide strike.
I like the first build the best. I'm going to create a topic on this subject for tomorrow's article, and add your lists to the conversation.
ReplyDelete