Independence Week- GENKHAN!

Khan Noonien HAIR!!!

Day two of Khan!

So I figured I’d just go ahead and get another Khan out of the way. You probably don’t have access to Khan because like me you weren’t able to get to GenCon to get your GenKhan (See what I did there?). Okay, here he is:

 Khan Singh (Independent/*PROMO*) 
Captain Skill: 6
You do not pay a faction penalty when assigning Khan or any [ELITE TALENT] upgrade to your ship. If any Captain in play has a higher Skill Number than Khan, Khan's Skill Number equals that Captain's Skill Number.
Cost: 4
Elite Talent Upgrades: 1

GenKhan costs 4 pts to put on any ship in the game. That’s a two point savings over Regular Khan. GenKhan is also crying out for an off faction elite talent to be attached to him. It’s going to really depend on your build, but this Khan can be put on ships that don’t require Battlestations, so I’d look to a big klingon ship to throw him on.

With this Khan on a big klingon ship, I’d probably look towards Once More Unto the Breach, or even something like I stab at thee, which would be a nice threat deterrent. A Neg’Var is going to be a good choice for Khan, as would a Vor’Cha.

For his other special ability, you may want to consider running a high skill Captain such as Martok or Picard, to ensure that your Khan gets the most oomph out of his cards. Captain skill for Khan is a relative concept- he’s going to be moving and shooting last and first respectively, so you don’t have too much to worry about in the skill department.

My issue with GenKhan is twofold:

There isn’t a standout elite talent that I’m DYING to play with Khan. Martok won’t work with GenKhan, and you’ll only really have one action- and most of the elite talents require an action to activate.

Secondly, GenKhan is a promo card. This subject is going to rear its ugly head over and over again, but I am on the fence about whether this card should be allowed in tournament play. As I’ve stated before, I would encourage most tournament organizers to allow this card to be played in proxied form. I don’t think it’s an amazing captain, so you probably will see it played rarely, but there’s just no reason to have these kinds of one offs available only to those who are willing to pay a high price on Ebay for the card, or those lucky enough to get to GenCon to obtain one. This should be how all prize specific card upgrades are run- if you don’t have one, you can proxy it. You probably shouldn't allow proxied ships in your tournaments, since everything on the table should be played as is, but I’d be fine with allowing my opponent to play Defense Condition One at their leisure, even if they didn't win a Ch’Tang.

There’s not a lot to say about GenKhan- I don’t really recommend the purchase as I don’t see that he brings a lot to a list besides skill insurance, and I’d really rather pay some extra points for Captains that open up different action possibilities.

Independence Week- Khan Singh!

Smell the cheese!!!

Today we’re going to delve into the strange world of the independent faction, starting with Khan Singh. Khan Singh comes from the Reliant Expansion. Go watch the Wrath of Khan for a detailed look at why Khan Singh is a badass.

Khan Singh’s profile is as follows:

Khan Singh (Independent/USS Reliant Expansion) 
Captain Skill: 8
You may use any Upgrades without paying a faction penalty. During an attack, if you spend a [BATTLESTATIONS] Token, each of your [BATTLESTATIONS] results become a [CRITICAL] instead of a [DAMAGE].
Cost: 5
Elite Talent Upgrades: 1

First things first, don’t take Khan on a ship that can’t get access to a battlestations token. He won’t work on Klingon ships, but he’ll work great on Federation ships such as the Enterprise D, the TOS Enterprise and the Reliant.

Remember that you have to pay a faction penalty for putting Khan onto a factioned ship- Khan costs 6 points to put on any ship in the game currently.

Khan lets you change the battlestations action into a crit machine- you’ll probably be facing 0-2 battlestations results on dice per turn. You really want Khan on a Klingon ship but too bad really.

Are there any particularly good elite talents for Khan? Well, he’s going to pay the base cost for any of these things. He comes with Superior Intellect, which is as follows:

Superior Intellect (Independent/USS Reliant Expansion)
Action: Discard this card to target a ship at Range 1-2 that is not Cloaked and has no Active Shields. Steal 1 faceup Upgrade Card of your choice from that ship, even if the Upgrade exceeds your ship's restriction.
Cost: 5

Like I’ve said with other upgrades like this, either on this site or on the various forums, these kinds of upgrades are pretty weak and are generally overkill. Rare is the ship with no cloak and no active shields that is not prepared to die, but superior intellect actually lets you steal from a dying ship. You can’t steal Captains, but you can steal everything else. It’s a great way to hose a two ship build, but if you’re at the point where you’re using Superior Intellect- you’re probably winning.

I Stab at Thee is pretty interesting, and well costed. Combo it up with a ship with Suicide Attack, and you’ve got a great 11+ attack bomb. I wouldn’t want to pay the cost to throw away a ship like this, but if there were a way to get a battlestations token on a Suicide Attack ship… well… that may be something worth looking into- here’s looking at you- Gul Dukat.

So here’s my advice- leave Khan at home unless you’re running a Federation ship that you want to have a high skill captain and you’ve already taken Picard. If you’re looking to run a second big Federation ship, Khan’s your man. Otherwise, his main skill is going to be lost on most other ships. The Koranak is a big ship that looks really good for Khan. If you want to run Khan in a non-Federation list, the Koranak may be the ship for you.