Feint and Valtane- Review!

Weird... very weird...

I'm Back!

Well, I'm going on Vacation next week, so I'm not back for long. Work has been insane. It doesn't help that I've started back into painting up a Warhammer army, so there's less time for Attack Wing than there used to be, but that doesn't mean that I can't drop an article a few times a week to review the sets. So without further ado, more excelsior!

Feint (Federation/USS Excelsior Expansion)
Action: Discard this Upgrade to target a ship at Range 2-3. If you attack that ship this round, it rolls 2 less defense dice.
Cost: 4

Feint isn't bad. It takes up an Elite Talent Slot, which I've always considered a very important slot, especially with things like Engage floating around. If you have access to an Elite Talent Slot, you should probably make use of it, but it tends to make your Captain cost 10+ points. If your build is looking for a lot of options (a two ship build looking for versatility in the ship), you should add in an Elite Talent. 

At any rate, what does Feint do? It causes a ship at range 2-3 to roll 2 less defense dice against an attack. You have to discard the upgrade, so it's a one time use thing. Range 2-3 is not bad, but you won't get the benefit of the +1 attack dice at range 1. In fact, your opponent will get the +1 defense dice at range 3, so there's a sweet spot of effectiveness on Feint, and it's range 2. For 4 points, and one time use, you really want to be at Range 2 when you take this action. That definitely limits its usefulness. 

This is a card that screams out for min-maxing. Generally, you don't want to take a 3 attack ship and use something like Feint. There isn't going to be enough oomph on the attack roll to make 4 points and a discard AND an action a very worthwhile investment. It can definitely be a "kill card", but it's a pretty expensive kill card. I don't think that Feint is going to attract a lot of heat though, so you can be pretty confident that if you put Feint on a decently sized vessel, that it won't jump up in the target priority. 

Overall, I think feint is probably best used on a tricked out Klingon ship with a lot of buffs, OR on a ship that has Quantum Torpedoes- but you're going to need a lot of planning to make something like this work. You'll need to probably have either Dukat or Picard on the ship so that you can Target lock in the same turn (or battlestations if you target locked the turn before). 

While the two aren't really comparable, I still think Engage is a much better card than this one, and is my number one Elite Talent. This doesn't really come close. 

Dimitri Valtane (Federation/USS Excelsior Expansion) 
If your ship has a [Sensor] Token beside it when you attack, you may re-roll up to 2 of your attack dice.
Cost: 3

Moving on, I'll also review Valtane today. This guy is like a mini-Spock, and is definitely the scan card that you want to cross faction (if your cross faction ship has scan) OR if you are already using Spock in the build OR if you're DYING for two points elsewhere. I think Spock is probably more bang for your buck, but I know that Valtane can be a beast when used on something like the Excelsior. That's the real kicker- the USS Excelsior was made for scanning exploits. If you're running the Excelsior without either Valtane or Spock, I think you're missing out a huge opportunity. 

Passive upgrades are, in theory, better than active upgrades. This is a passive upgrade that is very good, but you obviously need to have a ship that you intend to scan with almost every turn. The Enterprise D is a great scanning ship, as is the Excelsior. You're also going to want a very large arc, so that you can be shooting every turn. 

Both Spock and Valtane are fantastic offensive upgrades that turn your ship into a powerhouse in a way that usually gets under the radar. Most people see ships equipped with Torpedoes, and other offensive upgrades and think that they need to go asap- people tend to put scanning ships lower on the heat meter, and target them less. They think that 3-4 attacks aren't going to be that bad- but Scan is fantastic, and Spock and Valtane make those attacks VERY punishing. 

I'll try to post up something soon to finish the review!