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. 

R.I.S. Vo- Reader Idea and Klingon Attack Build with Romulan Flavour

Possibly really great with the RIS Vo

Paulsk wrote:

"RIS Vo (16) with Ferengi EM Pulse (4+1) for 21. It can evade every turn while alternating using and enabling the EM Pulse and never breaking cloak, while also using a level 1 captain to move first and try to force enemy ships to bump it. Worth it?

(and hopefully in the future a non-exclusive debuff upgrade of similar power is released, hopefully for the Romulans themselves)"

I've been known to overlook good strategies before. This ship would get 7 defense dice AND get an evade every single turn that it wasn't bumping into things. The movement dial is also crazy. What's not to like? The Vo should be looked at as a support ship, and this list will use it as such.

The list is going to have to be able to exploit the EM Pulse. I don't think that means we have to add in another ship for redundancy, as I think two of these things is probably overkill. We still want to be able to win the game. We're going to need the remaining 79 points to be attack focused.

This could actually be a good time for a list with 3 Mirandas. One of them should be the Reliant, so we'd be at about 56 points. That means that we've spent 72 points on ship points, which is a bit light. Depending on which upgrades you want to take, you may want to consider bumping one of these ships up to a Defiant. I'm going to throw in the Defiant, for a bit of variety, and because I think it'll be able to survive a bit longer than the Mirandas, which are going to shoot their torpedoes and then die- they may not last very long to begin with.

I want to throw Sisko into the list, but he's going to pilot the Reliant. Put Sulu on the Defiant, and make it really hard to kill. This list isn't going to one shot anything, but the Vo should be handing out enough aux tokens that it really shouldn't matter, since cloaks are going to be down. The Mirandas and the Defiant are maneuverable enough that you should be able to get behind something pronto.

As you'll see, we have points left over for the Reliant, so you might as well go ahead. I'm going to put Terell on the Defiant, since we need the Mirandas to have a bit more staying power.

Secondary weapons are worthwhile here, because the Vo should vault ahead and make sure that one ship is target-lockable. If you can get Target locks up, then it's time to go to town.

The Defiant may actually not be that great in this list. You may want to substitute it out and instead use another Miranda with Donatra to boost the effectiveness of the other ships. I've taken Sisko to boost defense capabilities, but you may rather have Picard leading a small strikeforce- and his extra actions open up other possibilities that having three 1 skill captains may lack. Plus, he gets to shoot first, so you should be able to soften up some targets for the photon torpedoes.I'm going to forego Picard in this list, because everyone uses Picard! If you really wanted, you could swap out Sisko and put Picard on the Reliant... that may be a very good idea.

We have 4 points left over. How would you use them? Here's the list, take a look and let me know where you think we could improve it, and advise of any changes that you might make. It'll need playtesting, but it is a step in the right direction for the -at present- disliked Vo.

RIS Vo (21)

Ferengi EM Pulse

Miranda 18 (21)

Mini Photons
 

Reliant 20 (26)

Sisko
Mini Photons

Defiant 24 (28)

Terell

Sulu

96 points.

Of course, that list is fine if you're looking to get some use out of your Mirandas, Defiants and Photon Torpedoes. But what if we thought a bit more aggressive. Something... bigger.

Yes folks, it's a modified Klingon Attack Build. Here's what I'm thinking. Two Vorchas, 26 points a pop. That leaves us with enough points for a Ch'Tang. Here are the stats, because I've never reviewed it here.

 I.K.S. ChTang (B’Rel-Class)/ B’Rel-Class Klingon Starship (Dominion War Month 2 LE)
Front Firing Arc: 90° Rear Firing Arc: 90°
A: 4
E: 1
H: 3
S: 3 (2)
If you initiate and attack while cloaked, you may choose any number of your attack dice and re-roll them once.
Actions: Evade, Target Lock, Cloak, Sensor Echo
Upgrades: Tech, Weapon, Weapon, Crew
Points: 22 (20)

This thing is fantastic. I really like it, and think that it's too bad that this wasn't the ship that came out instead of the Koraga in Wave 2. That aside, if we throw this thing in, we'll have 5 points left over. What could we possibly do with 5 points in this list?

Donatra. Donatra will fly in the Ch'Tang and buff the crap out of the Vor'Chas. Here's what that list looks like:

RIS Vo (21)

Ferengi EM Pulse

Vorcha 26

Vorcha 26

I.K.S. Ch'Tang 27
Donatra

So, the rich keep getting richer, and there's a new way to play your Klingon Attack Build that's maybe a bit more effective, maybe not. let me know if you like it, hate it, or think it needs work.