Apnex Upgrades!!

 

Something about Muons!

Today I'll go over the Tech Upgrades in the RIS Apnex expansion, including the Muon Token and the Interphase Generator. One of these tech upgrades is very good, and the other is very middle of the road. 

The Muon Feedback Wave works as follows:

Muon Feedback Wave (Romulan/RIS Apnex Expansion)
Action: Discard this card to place a Muon Token beside a ship at Range 1. This upgrade may only be purchased for a Romulan Science Vessel
Cost: 4

The Muon Token explanation is found below:

Muon Token (for the Tech: Muon Feedback Wave from the Romulan/RIS Apnex Expansion)
A ship with a Muon Token assigned to it follows these special rules:
1. A Muon Token stays with a ship until it is removed.
2. During the Activation Phase, after the ship moves, the ship takes damage to its Hull equal to the number of its current Maneuver -1. The type of Maneuver does not matter, just the number.
3. After the ship performs a Green or White Maneuver, it can spend an action to remove the Muon Token.

A few things spring to the mind the first time you take a look at this thing. It's really too bad that this is a Discard ability. I understand that a Muon Token is a pretty terrible token to have beside your ship, but I'm of the opinion that it is a bit obvious when it's coming, and you should be able to avoid taking any damage from it. That being said, you'll be restricting what your opponent can do in the movement phase, which is never a bad thing. The fact that the Muon token sticks around makes it that much better. 

I've used Muon Tokens a few times, and once an opponent gets used to them, their usefulness plummets. You'll club some baby seals, but you won't get much long term use out of the things. I think these things need a revamp, as they aren't really seeing much play. I'd probably take out the discard, and put in that it requires a target, instead of just hitting all ships in an AOE. That would certainly increase the usefulness of the science vessel, and you probably still wouldn't see more than 1 taking up space in lists. 

I'm rarely interested in this upgrade, but have found it to be decent when I play draft. 

The below is something a bit better, and definitely raises some eyebrows:

Interphase Generator (Romulan/RIS Apnex Expansion)
When defending while you are Cloaked, you may discard this card after all the dice have been rolled to reduce the damage from a single attack to exactly 1 [DAMAGE].
Cost: 3

To be honest, I would never put this on a science vessel. I would prefer to equip this onto a Klingon ship. The only other Romulan ship that it would be worth equipping onto would be the Warbird, and I honestly don't see too many of them or have too much love for them right now. If they had a rear arc, I think they'd be pretty fantastic, but as it stands, the Warbird needs some love. On a Klingon ship, this thing is bonkers. If you can find room for three in a 3 ship Klingon list, I think it is a decent investment. On the science vessel, however, you want something offensive in your tech slot, and this just keeps the ship alive- which is great and all, but what's it going to do? Probably nothing. 

Captain Mirok is actually not bad. Mirok gives you a fairly rare ability for cheap- it can repair shields without having to deactivate attacks to do so. Here's the profile:

Mirok (Romulan/RIS Apnex) 
Captain Skill: 4
After you move, if at least one friendly ship is within Range 1 of your ship, repair 1 damage to your Hull or Shields.
Cost: 2
Elite Talent Upgrades: 0

A relatively cheap captain that works well if you're running some smaller ships. It also repairs hull points, which is also very rare. This card could work well in a swarm build with a Valdore at the centre, or on a Dominion ship such as to Kraxon, surrounded by Jem'Hadar attack ships. I would run this upgrade in lists with a large centre ship, and multiple small ships, to increase the chances that there will always be a ship within range 1 of yours. You want this ability to go off, so it'll need to be on a ship that can weather the initial attacks. Very good captain with a nice passive ability. 

Next week- The Dominion Wave 0 reviews. Following that, I'll start in on Wave 1, and by the end of January should be on to Wave 2, at which point we'll be looking ahead to Wave 3! I expect that by the time Wave 4 hits i'll be all caught up lol!