One of the most frequent types of post on both the Facebook Group and BGG Forum for ST:AW is the "What should I buy next?" post. It is understandable that a player who is new to the game may want to mine the minds of more veteran players for information on how to best and most economically expand their fleets, so I thought I'd try and write a series of entries to this blog with the intention of providing a guide for players on how to expand their collection.
Let us assume that all new players have at least the starter set: If you are playing Klingons or Federation it makes sense to; heck it makes sense for anyone to given the nature of the templates and damage deck.
In this example the player already has the Starter Set, with (for Klingons) playable cards in the form of Nu'Daq and the Vor'cha class. I'm not going to go into the ins and outs of the cards, but suffice to say that the other cards in the starter for Klingons aren't great in competitive play.
The next place than any Klingon player should go, if you can find one on the open market before they are re-released, is the Negh'Var. The ship itself is good, and both captains, Gowron and Martok 8 are playable, with Martok being the key to many Klingon builds. In addition, the Negh'var has two good crew cards in Drex (who in Klingon Pure is almost a necessity) and Klingon boarding Party (which is more of a finesse card, but well worth the effort if it goes off). The talent In'Cha is one of the better Klingon talents which are, on the whole, terrible.
Once you have the starter and Negh'Var, you'll need a third ship, and in those circumstances I'd suggest the Koraga as the next port of call. The ship is good, although not on the same level as either the Vor'Cha or Negh'Var, whilst Worf is a great captain (one of the few mid-CS captains with an ability that is worth taking; maybe worth the topic of another blog post in future). N'Garen has exactly the same ability as Drex, so is a necessity in fleet pure builds. Alexander is a good card that urges you to take damage to trigger his own ability - I see a good synergy here with Kor 6. The tech and talents aren't fantastic, but as a third ship it is definitely a good purchase.
After this my next choice would be the Rotarran, mainly for crew Worf and the two talents: Supreme Commander and Alert Status One. AS1 is good for getting battlestations onto a ship that doesn't have either Drex or N'Garen whilst Supreme Commander helps in situations where you choose not to take Martok 8 - although that is a very rare situation indeed! The ship is nothing to write home about and I've always found B'rels to be a bit too squishy without too much effort being put into them.
I'd then shell out for the Ning'Tao, since it gives you both of the Kors (a terrible Klingon tribute to an awful Irish Pop Band they are not) who have different utility in builds. Kor 8 allows for better dice efficiency without a Target Lock, so frees up an action for Drex or N'Garen, whilst Kor 6 gives you the "Shoot at me! Shoot at me!" ability that can be key to a good surgical strike. Kor 6 is perhaps not best to captain this ship though, as we'll find out below.
After the Ning'Tao my next purchase would be the Gr'Oth, mainly for one card: Projected Stasis Field. PSF ranks up with Martok 8 as one of the best cards that Klingons have available to them in fleet pure, so it's certainly worth taking, but requires some skill to use it at the right point, and not lost the ship it is on to concentrated fire before you get chance to. Koloth also comes in this pack and he is a cheap skill 7 (4SP) and doesn't have a bad named ability. The ship itself is unique amongst the Klingons in so much as it has BS on its own action bar, but with 3 hull and 2 shields, it isn't the most survivable of ships.
Chang's Bird of Prey gives you Chang 7, whose named ability synergises well with the Ning'Tao to make one of the most manoeuvrable ships in the game. The ship itself and other upgrades aren't much to write home about though, so I'm inclined to leave this ship until later.
The T'ong is one of the later releases, and I really like Tactical Officer from this pack, so I have 2 myself, but the other upgrades are situational and need building around. Cryogenic Status is nice in so much as it allows extra crew, but it is unique, expensive and limited.
The Somraw has one card that I use frequently in Bu'Kah, one of the better repair cards in the game, but outside of that many of its upgrades are limited to this ship alone. A lot of people cite this as the ideal ship for Kor 6, but its fragility worries me, and that's a very specific build to make, so I'd leave this one until later.
Lastly, we have Kronos One. One of the key ships from one of the best films, is a disappointing expansion. The only card that even gets consideration from me in list building is the Elite Talent Once More Into the Breach, Chang 6 and Gorkon aren't great as far as captains go, and neither Kerla nor Stex are amazing.
So if I was starting out with klingons, my shopping list would be:
1. Negh'Var
2. Koraga
3. Rotarran
4. Ning'Tao
5. Gr'Oth
6. Chang's Bird of Prey
7. T'Ong
8. Somraw
9. Kronos One
I'm not going to go into detail with Prize ships, but the Ch'Tang is great and the B'Moth and Buruk are both worth getting. The Korinar, Pagh and Korok's Bird of Prey are all okay, and nice to have, but not essential (although Korok's Bird of Prey becomes much better when combined with the Borg Upgrades and used as an assimilated bird of prey).
I hope that is of some use to you all, I'm not Picard.
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