-Review and photos by Scott Rubin
The last few months have seen a new evolution and shot in the arm for Star Trek Attack Wing by WizKids Games, starting with the release of Card Packs and an updated rulebook (available for free download on wizkids.com/attackwing). Last week and this week we’ve been showing off some Attack Wing previews, and today we’re going to take a look at the first in a brand new line of expansions for the game. Previously outside of the starter ships were sold in single packs, but now new and current players can pick up an entire “fleet in a box” with the new Faction Packs! Coming TOMORROW to a comic book or game store near you is the first wave of Faction Packs featuring the Dominion and Romulans, and we’ll be going through their contents here today.
One thing that is not new about these Faction Packs is the packaging. From the beginning WizKids nailed the Star Trek feel with blue star field backgrounds, familiar Trek fonts and logos, the iconic Enterprise-D logo, and more. These new Faction Packs resemble the first Starter Set with a flat square box packed with goodies like four ships visible through a window slot. Each pack’s faction is clearly delineated by text as well as symbol.
The back of each box has a description of the relevant faction and its history along with a list of the pack’s contents and an upsell for the upcoming Federation vs. Klingon Starter Set.
Inside each box you’ll find a tray containing the four ships (in the recent “repaint” metallic versions), a stack of cards, a small bag with the base parts and dial centers, and two cardboard sheets containing all of the tokens the fleet needs. There are four unique captains (one of which doubles as an Admiral for the Dominion) for both, named and generic versions for all four ships, and lots of fun upgrades. The punch-out sheets have the ship tiles, captain icons, maneuver dials, shield tokens, and unique tokens that match captains or upgrades with special abilities for ease in tracking what’s happening in the game. As always all of the game materials look great from the colorful tokens to the sturdy cards featuring screenshots from the shows and films. Notably, just like the single-ship expansions these packs come with Mission cards, giving you even more fun ways to expand your Attack Wing game experience.
The Dominion Faction Pack brings you not one but two inexpensive Jem’Hadar Attack Ships (2nd and 6th Wing Patrol Ships) and the massively powerful Jem’Hadar 3rd Division Battle Cruiser and 2nd Division Battleship ranging from an economical 13 points for the generic Attack Ship all the way up to a weighty 35 points for the named Battleship that can repair one Hull or Shield at the end of every turn it performs a green maneuver! As usual, the named ships cost a few more points than their generic counterparts and bring a special ability as well as an additional Shield.
The Dominion ships themselves look great, taking already highly detailed sculpts and adding cool metallic paints in shades of purples, greens, and blues. The new color scheme is basically a straight upgrade to the previous one and it really shows off all of the detail on the minis. All of the Jem’Hadar craft look deadly, from the fast and predatory (not to mention suicidal) Attack Ships to the hulking Battleship and Battle Cruiser that can dominate battles with their sheer size.
The four Dominion captains bring three Vorta clones (Deyos, Yelgrun, and Kilana), and the introduction of the Founders to Attack Wing with the skill 9 Female Changeling who can give her ship a bonus action in exchange for temporarily lowering her skill. Upgrades range from two Elite Talents (including the incredible Spread Despair and Demoralization that can hinder all enemy ships within range), two Tech (a new Suicide Attack and Secondary Matter System that makes all 2 Bank and 3 Forward maneuvers green), five Crew featuring a Jem’Hadar Elder that can retain Battle Stations tokens, and five Weapons like the Phased Polaron Beam that ignores shields and the 8 attack dice Photon Torpedoes. The new aggressive Dominion missions are the awesomely-named Destroy the Intruders and Destroy the Capital Ship.
If you’re looking for a more stealthy faction, consider the secretive but no less deadly Romulans. Their Faction Pack has four different vessels with two major capital ships and two small craft, the D’Deridex and Valdore and Scout and Science Vessel classes respectively. Half of their “named” versions are literally that, with Jarok’s Scout Vessel and Mirok’s Science Vessel joining the I.R.W. Suran and P.W.B. Tomal. As with the Jem’Hadar vessels described above, the Romulan ships gain a shield and a special ability when upgrading from the generic to the named versions, though they also cost more. Here the range goes from the diminutive Romulan Science Vessel for only 6 points to the 29 point heavyweight Tomal with its ability to disable shields on a target vessel when it attacks while cloaked.
The Romulan ship miniatures are a uniform dark metallic green with lighter highlights, capturing the sweeping lines and predatory shapes of the craft. Even within this small sample size of vessel classes there’s a big variety in ship designs, notably the “hollow” D’Deridex and the raptor-like Valdore, though you can see avian inspirations in them all. And while at first glance they may seem similar, look closely and you’ll notice that the Science Vessel and the Scout Vessel are quite distinct.
Unsurprisingly, both small vessels come with their respective named captains, Alidar Jarok who can force an enemy ship to perform an action of his choosing and Mirok who can Scan (potentially for free). They’re joined by a generically named Romulan Captain who can voluntarily de-cloak her ship to lower an attacking enemy’s attack dice and Tomalak who returns to the game with an 8 skill and an affinity for Tech upgrades. Speaking of upgrades, outfit your Romulan ships with two Elite Talents (Strike from the Shadows to re-cloak once immediately after attacking and Tal Shiar to look at enemy’s maneuver), some familiar faces among the five Crew (returning Bochra and Parem plus a Romulan Medical Team removing disabled tokens from allied Crew, Tal Shiar Sub-Commander, and a Romulan Spy who can cloak all nearby allies at the start of the game), four Tech upgrades (everyone’s favorite Interphase Generator, Reinforced Shields, an Auxiliary Power Core that absorbs Auxiliary Power tokens, and the Quantum Stasis Module that knocks out an enemy captain or Crew), and three Weapons (Disruptor Beams, Additional Weapons Array, and Forward Disruptor Banks). The Romulan missions are Attack on the Founders’ Homeworld and Rights of the Neutral Zone.
All Attack Wing expansions are useful for both new players and current ones (offering you ships that can fly and fight right out of the box or materials you can mix and match with other expansions), but these Faction Packs really offer a new experience in the game. For only $30 MSRP, you can get a full fleet in a box for the same price as two single-pack expansions! And again, everything here is fully compatible with existing Attack Wing ships, captains, upgrades, and more, though everything in the Faction Packs is of course updated to the latest rules, wordings, and symbols. You may also have noticed that point costs seem to have been adjusted, so there may be more balance in the newer content. These Packs are highly recommended for Attack Wing Dominion and Romulan players, or those interested in getting into the game and playing those factions. Best of all, these Faction Packs hit stores tomorrow so you don’t have to wait long to get your hands on them!
Review and photos by Scott Rubin
Review samples courtesy of WizKids Games
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