Sulu and Styles

I'm Back! Well, it wasn't a long departure in any event. I'm finding it a bit hard to keep up my regular pace, but we'll see how it goes. I'll do a review of the Excelsior captains today. I think there's some interesting stuff here.

Hikaru Sulu (Federation/USS Excelsior Expansion) 

Captain Skill: 6
Action: Disable one of your [Crew] Upgrades to remove an opponents's [Target Lock] Token from your ship. Remove the corresponding token from the opponent's ship as well.
Cost: 4
Elite Talent Upgrades: 1

So, I think Sulu's captain skill is going to pretty much be a one-off use thing. Your ship is going to be pretty much on its last legs, and you're going to be looking for a way out of your predicament. This isn't the kind of action that you use every turn- and that's okay, IF the action provides a huge swing. Unfortunately, I don't really see this upgrade providing that swing. You already are going to have to disable an additional crew member to get anything out of Sulu's ability, and you have to burn your action. If another ship has the target lock and Quantums up, this is going to be the kind of action that is soooo clutch that it'll make you think you should bring Sulu in every game. To be honest, I think by the time you get around to asking yourself if its time to use Sulu's ability, your game is probably nearing its conclusion anyway. So, in sum- very clutch on the odd occasion, otherwise mostly useless.

There is also the fundamental issue of not being able to take Sulu pilot if you take Sulu Captain. Presumably, you've already evaluated whether you need Sulu Captain over, say, Sulu pilot, so this is probably a moot point. When compared to Sulu pilot, I don't think there's much of an argument in favour of Sulu captain, but maybe your local group is all torpedoes and no good sense. Who knows!

Okay, moving on- a man with........ Style?

Styles (Federation/USS Excelsior Expansion) 
Captain Skill: 3
Add 1 additional [Tech] icon to your ship's Upgrade Bar.
Cost: 2
Elite Talent Upgrades: 0

Fairly straightforward effect here. He adds a tech icon to your ship. Those tech upgrades are pretty awesome, so Styles is going to open up some pretty great options. Obviously the issue is whether you actually want to RUN Styles on a ship with any of those Tech upgrades, as he's a pretty crummy Captain, but if you find a particularly awesome federation/Tech combo and NEED to run it, Styles is your man. I'm Immediately thinking of the Ferengi EM Pulse, which would certainly combo well with Styles' lower skill. On a Reliant, it wouldn't be half bad!

So both of these guys have some merit, and Styles can be pretty good in a Reliant list or other low cost federation build. Pair him with another Reliant with Terell and you've got some TOS(Movie Era) goodness. When the Enterprise A comes out, it'll be a pretty thematic build with Sulu on the Excelsior, a reliant and an Enterprise A. 

At any rate, let me know what you think.