The rest of the stuff that came with the Defiant!

Klingon Sisko would be soooo much better than lvl 6 Sisko

Today we'll look at... The rest of the stuff that came with the Defiant!

First, we'll take a look at the cloaking device.

Cloaking Device (Federation/USS Defiant Expansion)
Instead of performing a normal Action, you may disable this card to perform a [Cloak] Action. While you have a [Cloak] token beside your ship you may perform a [Sensor Echo] Action even if this card is disabled. This Upgrade costs +5 Squadron Points for any other ship other than the USS Defiant.
Cost: 4

I've already been over some of the issues with the cloaking device in my first installment on the Defiant. First of all, I really don't like that you have to disable this card. You're already paying 4 points for something that essentially comes for free on ships that can naturally cloak. You could argue that you typically trade off Battlestations and Scan for Cloak and that Battlestations with Cloak is pretty good- and you'd be right on the money about why they thought this card needed to disable. The Defiant doesn't get THAT much better with the cloaking device on board, but I think it disables because it would have been one of the only ships that could get battlestations and cloak fairly easily (outside of Picard/Dukat shenanigans).

Do I think it's worth the 4 points? Sure. It's pretty much what I thought it should be. I don't get the +5 for putting it on another ship- I'd rather it just not be able to be put on another ship at all. That's a bit more flavourful than paying 9 points to equip it on an excelsior. By the way- don't pay 9 points to put it on another federation ship.

I actually don't think this upgrade goes that well with Picard, but it goes great next to a ship with lvl 8 Martok- mainly because Picard doesn't let you reenable as a free action- but Martok will!

Overall, the Cloaking Device makes the Defiant cost as much as the Enterprise. It's a completely different KIND of ship, but I think it makes the whole package cost a bit too much overall. I agonize over equipping the Cloaking Device every time I'm thinking of running the Defiant.

Let's move on:

 Quantum Torpedoes (Federation/USS Defiant Expansion)
A: 5
Range: 2-3
ATTACK: (Target Lock) Spend your target lock and disable this card to perform this attack. If the target ship is hit, add 1 [Hit] result to your total damage. You may fire this weapon from your forward or rear firing arcs.
Cost: 6

 Quantum Torpedoes are the big shiny that every Federation player was looking forward to busting the game wide open. They didn't do that. I have, however, seen them pop up more often than the standard Federation Torpedo. They cost one more point than Photon Torpedoes and you can get an extra hit IF you get a hit through. I'm torn on whether these are actually any better than the standard torpedoes. When they're combined with Battlestations, Quantum Torpedoes could be better, but the standard Torpedo is decent even if they aren't combined with battlestations. If you're running Picard or Sisko, I'd say you should be running Quantums (if you're running torpedoes!).

Obviously, this upgrade has the same issues that regular torpedoes do, namely that you're replacing 3-5 attacks with 5 attacks, and you need to burn a target lock. There are some new upgrades that make these torpedoes viable, but they make your torpedoes cost at least 7 points, and again, replace 3-5 attacks with 5 attacks. They're really only good on a ship with a rear firing arc, and I've actually found that a savvy opponent can get either out of the arc, or stay within 1 of the rear arc, thus messing up your fantastic plans of getting your torps off.

I'm still not sold on the Quantums, I'm not sold on the Photons, or pretty much any other kind of torpedo.

That's it for the Defiant. It's a neat little ship, but I think there were some design decisions that keep it back from being a meta definer. I really want to throw it in my competitive lists, but I often find myself looking elsewhere. 

Attack Patterns!

Words are unneeded!

Today I'll be looking at some other upgrades from the Defiant package. Specifically, I'm going to focus on the Elite Talent upgrades.

Elite Talents, as I've said before, need to be considered carefully. They need to mesh with how you want to run your ship. They can take a strategy and add to it. Generally, you want to make sure that your upgrades are always adding to your strategy, instead of simply adding utility. This is the difference between a ship Captained by Picard, with Sulu AND Scotty AND Tactical Officer, and one captained by Picard, with Spock, Sulu and Uhura. One build has no redundancy, and another build has a lot of utility, but at least 3 points of redundancy built in. I try to avoid stacking my ships with too many potential actions as I want to be able to utilize the full potential of every upgrade if possible. Sulu and Scotty is not a BAD idea, mind you, in fact, it may blow games wide open, but you're going to be left with some points that aren't doing anything for you, each and every turn. 

Okay, so the first Elite talent that we're going to look at is Attack Patter Delta

Attack Pattern Delta (Federation/USS Defiant Expansion) 
Disable this card to re-roll your entire defense roll. You must re-roll all of the dice and keep the results of the second roll.
Cost: 3

Attack Pattern Delta is a hard ability to come by. If your ships can't cloak, don't bother. That's a pretty hard and fast rule- abide by the hard and fast rules friends- they will keep you from using Attack Pattern Delta on ships with 1-3 defense. The card has been generally put down as not very good, and I would agree with that assessment. You have to re-roll your entire defense roll. You can't keep the good stuff, like evade rolls or battlestations rolls. You'll be rolling defense dice on your Valdore and roll 2 evades and 4 blanks and Attack Pattern Delta is going to be a TOUGH CHOICE. If it was reroll x number of defense dice and keep y, it would be fantastic and worth every point. As it stands, it's one of those upgrades that kind of does what you want it to, but you'd really rather it do something else. It's not very good and really only usable in the situation where you roll all blanks. That situation is DREADED, so I can see some people adding this thing in for some insurance. There's no guarantee that you won't turn 1 evade result into 0 evade results. Most of the time, it's either going to be amazing or mediocre. I usually don't put too much faith into those kinds of upgrades. 

Moving on

Attack Pattern Omega (Federation/USS Defiant Expansion) 
If you damage and opponent's Hull with a [Critical], you may immediately discard this card to search the damage Deck for a 'Warp Core Breach' card instead of drawing a random Damage Card. Re-Shuffle the damage Deck when you are done.
Cost: 3

At first glance, this card is fantastic. You always want your opponent to get hit by a Warp Core Breach. It's sooo devastating to their plans. You have to actually land a crit, so you need some kind of manipulation to make sure it goes through. Toreth can give you some mileage on that front. The cost is about right for what it does- I wouldn't want this card costed any higher or lower. The discard is very good on a card like this and ensures that it isn't abusable. So, it's well designed, I'll give it that much. Other than that, we're talking about a one time use card that throws the biggest punch in the game. Expect that the captain using this bad boy will get hit hard and fast- no one wants to go up against Omega. I don't think it's amazing. If this card turned a blank into a crit, with no other effect, it would be better. You're already landing a critical, and criticals are pretty terrible to begin with. There are times when Warp Core Breach is actually pretty mediocre- in those times that the opponent just counts the ship dead from the moment it lands and still gets a few turns out of it. I generally leave it at home, but in certain builds, it could be very useful. 

Both upgrades are decent, but not great. I can only recommend Delta on a ship with cloak, and even then it's not very good. Omega is a lot of fun, but you may find it not giving you the oomph you desire. Generally, crits are pretty terrible to go up against, and Omega is a bit overkill. 

Tomorrow- Tech/Weapons!

Defiant Reviews- Captains

The episode sucked, but he did it!

Today, I'm going to look at the Captains that came with the Defiant, and maybe get into some crew, depending on how long the captains take. They obviously had to make the main Defiant Captain be Benjamin Sisko, but I would have preferred the secondary Captain to be Worf. I really don't think Kira is a more iconic captain of the Defiant that Worf is, but I now know that by the end of wave 2, Worf will have three cards to his name. It's a small issue, but I think Worf is more known for his role on the Defiant than as a Klingon Captain.

Anyway, Sisko is the big Captain in this pack. Here are the stats:

Benjamin Sisko (Federation/USS Defiant Expansion) 
Captain Skill: 6
Once per round, you may re-roll any one of your attack or defense dice.
Cost: 4
Elite Talent Upgrades: 1

Siso gets to make one reroll, either attack or defence, per turn. Remember that you CAN'T REROLL A REROLL, so no waiting around to see whether your target lock is going to be any good. In fact, I'd say that Target Lock gets significantly worse when Sisko is around. Unless this has been FAQ'd, and my friends in the comments will let me know (or you know, I could do my own research!), Sisko doesn't jive with Target lock, but he goes well with battlestations. There's not much to him, and I wouldn't really use the Elite Talent slot for something like Engage. Counter Attack is a decent Elite Talent to throw on Sisko, or if you want to keep it faction pure, you could go with something like Attack Pattern Omega (which I will review later on this week). Personally, I would use the attack reroll only if I was not going to get shot that turn- I think the defense reroll is worth quite a bit more, but that's situational. There are very few ways to get a defense reroll in the game, and Sisko is a good captain for keeping your ship alive. 

Sisko + Sulu is a fantastic combo for keeping your Defiant, or even excelsior alive! 

That's not to say that you shouldn't ever take Target Lock- obviously there are going to be situations where Target Lock is a necessity, but just remember that you can't reroll a reroll. 

In my opinion, Sisko is a great defensive captain, and only an okay offensive captain. I would have preferred that he be skill 7. I don't really get the gripes that he should have been significantly higher than that, as I think Sisko was a decent enough captain that got his own ships blown up a few times- see Borg attack, first Jem Hadar attack. 

He's a good captain on a ship with a good amount of defense dice. I personally don't see him on the Enterprise D, as that requires a lot of work to keep it alive. 

I'll move on to Kira. Kira is a card that will either become very good at the end of the first round of expansion waves, when we find out whether the discard strategy is a very good one, or will continue to collect dust in the binder. 

STATS!

Kira Nerys (Bajoran/USS Defiant Expansion) 
Captain Skill: 3
If a [Crew] Upgrade on an enemy ship would cause your ship to discard or disable any of your Upgrades, roll 2 defense dice. If you roll at least 1 [Evade] result, ignore the effects of the enemy Upgrade. You do not pay a Faction penalty when assigning Kira Nerys to a Federation ship.
Cost: 2
Elite Talent Upgrades: 0

She costs 2 points on a Federation ship or a Bajoran ship, and 3 points on any other ship. I think she should have probably not paid a faction penalty on any ship- which would reflect her terrorist/freedom fighter role in the resistance. I don't see that these discard/disable abilities are prevalent enough to justify Kira's inclusion in any list. I would have preferred if she did something completely different. If you're finding that discard is a big meta consideration in your area, then I think Kira could get some mileage, but generally I think most people are leaving the Jem Hadar upgrades at home and instead just running decent lists!

Her captain skill, cost and elite talents are all to be expected. Nothing out of the ordinary here. I like that Bajoran is a faction, and I like that she can be cross factioned with the Federation. That this is specifically referenced on the cards shows me yet another argument in favour of allowing cross factioning in all tournaments- as Kira would otherwise be unplayable without this particular stipulation. I expect that the Vulcan faction recently teased will again open up this line of argument. To be fair, if you're running faction pure tournaments, I don't think Kira should be allowed in any event, as she's clearly way too powerful to allow cross faction. 

Is there anything else to say about Kira? I suppose she could work well on the Reinforcement Sideboard, but I'd probably just leave her on the Station. 

Defiant Crew Cards! Review!

Looks of Bafflement when shown their cards on the viewscreen...

We're moving forward with the Defiant review by looking at the Crew cards today. Some nice possibilities are opened up by these crew cards, but they require a bit of a shift in perspective in order for their total possibilities to open up. Let's talk about some of those issues.

Some people who play this game will always tell you that you should fire your weapons at every opportunity. I think that holds a lot truer in X-wing than it does in Attack Wing. There are times that I'd rather preserve a cloak, knowing that my opponent will try and target lock next turn to get off torpedoes, than fire my weapons (Especially on a lone Valdore). These are the kinds of situations that make Attack Wing significantly different than X-wing. The crew of the Defiant are generally for self preservation, rather than for pure firepower. They still do not approach Sulu levels of flexibility, but they certainly have their uses. 

Myles O'Brien is a tad overpriced for the situation, but his ability is quite good. Here he is:

Miles O'Brian (Federation/USS Defiant Expansion)
Action: Disable this card to repair up to 2 Shield Tokens. You cannot attack this round.
Cost: 5

It's a very simple card and fairly well designed. He belongs on a ship that has 4+ shields. I could see him making quite a splash on an excelsior or the Defiant, or even the Enterprise D. Part of why I think he hasn't seen a lot of play is that the Federation doesn't really have shield manipulation as a viable strategy. Scotty's shield manipulation is not REALLY shield manipulation. It's simply a matter of getting hit on the shields, and then repairing shields. If you're able to repair 3+ shields in a game, you will have got your mileage out of Miles O'Brian. That being said, while I've said above that shooting every turn is not a hard and fast rule, there aren't going to be many turns where you don't want to shoot. If you're running away from your opponent on a Federation Ship, you're probably using some kind of Engage build to get away, and Miles O'Brian starts becoming very cost prohibitive in such a list. 

If shield manipulation becomes a viable federation strategy, Miles O'Brian will vault up the usability ratings. As it stands, I can never find a free action/points that I wouldn't rather just spend on something else. 

Oh, and he disables. Which he really doesn't need to do. He already comes with a huge drawback- he still wouldn't make it into many lists if he didn't disable. 

Moving on, Jadzia Dax!

Jadzia Dax (Federation/USS Defiant Expansion)
Action: Disable this card to perform an additional "2" Maneuver this round (forward or bank). You cannot attack this round.
Cost: 4

I'm getting a tad worried that the designers aren't opening up enough space with these cards. Jadzia Dax didn't need to take up an action. She could have simply been disable because- get this- SHE WILL NEED TO BE REENABLED WITH AN ACTION ANYWAY. To use Jadzia twice, you need to spend three actions, and for two turns won't be able to attack. That's a HUGE resource cost to get what is essentially an Engage off. Furthermore, you can't use Engage if you use Jadzia. She's less useful on the Enterprise than an upgrade that costs 1 less. Is Engage undercosted? I think Jadzia's answer is yes. 

I started out this article by saying that these cards were situational. I think Miles is a much better card than Jadzia Dax. I would be very surprised to ever see Jadzia Dax make a list and be the deciding factor. She's a resource hog. Don't bother with her. 

If you're looking for a Worf write up, I've already done one earlier in the Blog history. I don't think my opinion has changed much. In fact, I've soured a bit more on Defiant Worf. I don't think it fits his theme at all and that Defiant Worf is the card that Jadzia Dax should have been. The Defiant Worf ability is very science officer-esque. If you're going to release multiple versions of the same named officer, then the abilities should either be reasonably similar with some small differences that make a person agonize over which one is better for their list, or be so good in tandem that they could not possibly be allowed to exist in the same list. I don't see that happening with either O'Brien or Worf. 

It's too bad, because this was probably one of the only opportunities that we're going to get to see some of these players become cards. Ah well. On to the Elite Talents!

Wave 1 Reviews- The Defiant

Your Defiant, most of the time! IT'S TOO FRAGILE!

The Defiant is one tough little ship. We're just going to jump right into the ship and take a look under the hood.

U.S.S. Defiant (Defiant Class)/ Federation Starship (Defiant Class)
Front Firing Arc: 90° Rear Firing Arc: 90°
A: 3
E: 2
H: 3
S: 4 (3)
When defending, convert all of your opponents [Critical] results into [Hit] results.
Actions: Evasive Maneuvers, Target Lock, Scan, Battle Stations
Upgrades: Tech, Weapons, Weapons, Crew, Crew
Points: 24 (22)

The Defiant has a pretty even stat distribution. I'm torn on whether this is a flavourful depiction of the ship from the show. On the one hand, it packs a decent enough punch and I don't think it should have been stronger, on the other hand, I think the ship has 1-2 too many shields. I would have preferred for the Defiant class to come in under 20pts. As it stands, the ship is about 4 points cheaper than the Enterprise D, which I think is too close. This thing is supposed to be a light battleship, not a few steps away from a massive flagship. So, I think it's a bit too point heavy for what it is supposed to be. I understand that it's an overpowered ship etc., I just think it could have done without the 4th shield.

Moving on, what the hell is with the dial on this thing? How does the Valdore have a better maneuver dial than this thing? I get that the come about is pretty unique on Federation Ships, but this is a missed opportunity to really translate the ship of the show to the game. It should have had a few more green maneuvers.

The special ability on this thing will ensure that you never take a crit, except in some very odd circumstances. It's very comforting to know that if you throw the Cloaking Device on this ship that you aren't going to take a crit and have it kill your ship right away. The problem is that it only has 3 hull points, and that really isn't enough to weather a storm, especially if the opponent can somehow get rid of your cloaking token or battlestations token. 3 Hull points is too few. I know that I'm kind of sucking and blowing here, but it goes towards how this is a ship that's pulling at a few too many threads, and not really hitting the mark. Just because it can avoid crits doesn't mean that it won't take three hits on the hull when cloaked. This leads me to think that the Cloaking Device on this thing may not be THAT great an upgrade, but I'll get around to a larger discussion about the cloaking device shortly.

Finally, the double weapon slot is pointless, but the double crew is useful, as you'll need a few crew if you want to make it a defense machine. The Cloaking Device is always an interesting decision on the Defiant. I've used it a few times, and didn't particularly like it, but I was also trying to force Picard onto the ship with the cloaking device and I actually don't think that it's a good match. If you're running the cloaking device, one way to run the ship would be to run it side by side with a Martok Ch'Tang, and put Sisko on the Defiant. Who says you can't run a fleet that's mixed and still full of flavour? If you go that route, you should probably still take Sulu to get an extra defense bonus, and take Quantum Torpedoes, because you can keep the Defiant cloaked until it's ready to unleash the Torpedoes. There are plenty of circumstances in which Martok is better than Picard- especially where you really need a re-enable action instead of one of the big four. 

Tomorrow I'll take a look at some of the other upgrades that come with the Defiant. RAMMING SPEED!!!

Sunday Extras- My Repaints

The Repainted Enterprise D!

Ahoy all, today I'm going to describe my various repaints on some Attack Wing ships. First of all, these are the paints I use.

The paints!

I use citadel paints mostly, but I also like the game colour line. I mostly paint in acrylic, because that's what's easiest. I don't have pics in progress of my painting, since I did most of the repaints before I thought of starting the blog, but here's the process generally.

1. Wash the whole thing in Nuln Oil. Just use an old brush and wash the whole thing. Some people stop here, but I think Federation ships should be a bit brighter, so we move onto the next step.

2. You can then paint each panel using Russ Grey. Don't try to paint in between the raised window bits, just paint around them. This is more of an optional step, but will add some depth to the panels.

3. Paint over each panel in Space Wolves Grey (or the new equivalent that I don't know off the top of my head).

At the end of this three step process, you'll have deep dark grooves and well noted raised windows.

Let's break and look at another picture.

A bit too bright! Go to Warp!

So, after the above, I used my gel pens to paint in blue into the nacelles- I don't think these need a lot of shading to begin with, since these are generally glowing.

Following that, I use the fine point black pen to trace out the larger red area you see in the pictures. I thought that the original area was particularly small, so I just mapped out a larger area.

Once you've done that, paint in the new "bussard" area in red.

After the red dries, paint the more forward portion of it in Wild Rider red.

After that dries, you can pain the most forward portion Fire Dragon orange.

At that point, you'll have nacelles that look a lot like those in the pictures.

Time for another picture!

WINDOWS!

Finally, you can paint on the windows. I just use the pen to mark off rectangular windows on the panels. Do a random pattern so your eye isn't drawn to any one area.

That's how I've done my repaints. Now take a look at the rest!

It's tiny, but looks good repainted!

The Enterprise up above is completed with the same process as above, but there aren't any windows on the Enterprise A, so I left it clean.

How about the Defiant?

Wrong base!

I added in a dark grey onto some of the panels on the defiant.

Finally, this is the storage container that I keep all the bits for the game in. I keep the ships in the original container for now, but am going to be moving them to their own container shortly.

$4.00 at the Dollar store!

I'll finish off this article with another look at my Enterprise D. Next week, I'll take a look at the Klingon ships in Wave 0.

To Boldly Go...