Faction Identity – Klingons

     

I realise that I’ve written a lot about Klingons on this blog and as such this post probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

Klingons are a great fun faction to play as, and they do some things better than pretty much any other faction. When the game was first released, probably until wave 2/3 they were amongst the strongest of factions thanks to the then powerful cloaking action and the high PWV that their ships enjoyed.

“The Klingons were a humanoid warrior species that originated from the planet Qo'noS (pronounced Kronos), an M-class planet in the Beta Quadrant. One of the major powers of the galaxy, the Klingons were a proud, tradition-bound people who valued honor and combat. The aggressive Klingon culture had made them an interstellar military power to be respected and feared.”

Klingon ships

The starter set’s offering for Klingons was the Vor’cha class that remains amongst the best ships going thanks to its good balance of 5-1-5-2 as a cloaker. That means it doesn’t have too much ‘shield cost’ when cloaking and, since it has a good dial with 6 green manoeuvers, it’s a pretty nasty ship when attacking with its primary weapon. There were variations on the theme released with other early releases, like the Negh’var (5-1-6-2), K’Vort (4-1-5-2) and K’T’Inga (4-1-4-2) that do a similar thing for similar points costs, and the first playable swarm ship (D7: 3-1-3-1) before the more kooky ships like the Raptor and B’rel were released (Raptor: 3-1-3-1; B’Rel: 4-1-3-2) but the theme remained more or less the same: Great attacking power for their spaceframe coupled with low Hull+shields (only the Negh’var gives you the ideal 8 hit points). The first part of the faction Identity for the Klingons is here: They are glass cannons that hit like a truck but can’t take much in return.

Klingon Captains

Many of the Klingons’ captains provide some kind of attacking boost (Nu’Daq, Worf, Gowron, Kor 8, Martok 7 and Martok 9) with a few more general abilities (Kor 6, Chang 6 & 7). This pairs well with the high PWV on ships to allow a good deal of efficiency on those dice, although there is a danger of this becoming a “win more” ability rather than actually helping to resolve some of the weaknesses that Klingons have. Quite a lot of the captains help out other ships in the fleet (Gowron, Martok 8 & 9).

Klingon Crew

Drex, N’Garen and Alexander all help improve dice efficiency whilst other cards such as Klingon Boarding Party and Stealth team help to mess around with other ships’ ability to get what they want done. Again there are no cards that really aid in improving defence efficiency (Alexander at a pinch) so you rely upon cards like Bu’Kah and Konmel to repair any damage done. Tactical Officer helps to boost attack efficiency as well (but I really think that this is unnecessary given all of the other things available to the faction to boost attack power).

Klingon Tech

Projected Stasis Field really helps to make sure those great efficiency high PWV attacks hit hull rather than shields and do some damage whilst Tritium Intermix and Secondary Shield Emitters help to heal some damage back. There are a few odd ball choices here like Inverse Graviton Burst and Advanced Weapons System, but again, the tech helps to cause more damage rather than helping you to evade incoming fire. Given that PSF reduces your own attack strength, the Klingons do well at using that with one ship in order for the other ships in the fleet to then close in and do damage. I see another faction trait emerging…

Klingon Weapons

Amidst the bevvy of Photon Torpedoes, Klingons have some interesting weapons in concussive charges, barrage of fire and Ambush Attack. The trouble here is that whilst it’s nice to have these boosted attack rolls, the PWV is high enough and efficiency good enough that you are paying points not to use your primary weapons, and for Klingons that feels a little futile.

Admirals

Gorkon is great from the point of view that he adds one to your CS, but otherwise pass on him. Martok 7 is questionably useful but costs you using either Martok 8 or 9, both of which are much better.

Elite Talents

A lot of rubbish here, but Defense Condition One is worthy of a mention as it is an upgrade that boosts your whole fleet. In’cha and Once More unto the Breach are also somewhat useful, although OMutB is another card that boosts attack whilst reducing defence.

So to sum up, the Klingon Faction Identity is something like this:

1.      1. Great Attacking with lots of dice and good efficiency

2.      2.  Poor Defending with low (ish) hull and shields and limited ways to boost defence efficiency

3.     3.  Upgrades that help other ships in the fleet

4.      4. A fair number of abilities to heal damage you’ve already taken.

Much shorter than the last one, but I hope that gives you an idea of the flavour of Klingons!

Until next time, I’m not Picard.

D