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All Around The Spaceline (Or, The Myth Of Ships)
by Jason St. Pierre If you were to ask any number of players what their favourite ships were, you would probably receive a surprisingly narrow range of answers, probably mostly centred around the U.S.S. Defiant and the U.S.S. Enterprise-E with some of the large Klingon cruisers thrown in. But are they really the best ships to use in your deck? They may be cool, but are they really the best ships for your purposes? The answer, to me at least, is "not necessarily." Sometimes the larger ships are the way to go but there are times when the small or mid-sized ships are better. What you use should depend on what ships suit the purposes of your deck and the affiliation or affiliations you're playing. There are few ships that are simply "useless" (with apologies to Mot) and even fewer ships that I feel should be in every deck. Hopefully, this article will be able to give my opinions on which ships work well in which situations for each affiliation. The Klingons probably have the best overall choice of ships in the game - in my opinion only the Federation and Bajorans have a comparable selection. Almost all of their ships have matching commanders (the I.K.C. T'Ong, the I.K.C. Fek'lhr, the I.K.C. Qu'Vat, and the I.K.C. Vorn are their only unique ships that don't) and they have ships at just about every size. You can find a Klingon ship for just about every purpose imaginable. The most obvious purpose for the Klingons is battle, and here they outclass just about everyone else in space. Their main strength here lies in the K'Vort class ships and the Cha'Joh for armada decks. Most of them have matching commanders, and while some of the commanders, like Voktak and Kavok, aren't necessarily great personnel, it's hard to argue with the likes of Martok, Kang, and Worf Son Of Mogh. The size of the K'Vorts is what makes them amazing. They are easily staffed with one personnel (which admittedly makes them very vulnerable to Q-Nets and damage from tactics, especially the Borg Cutting Beam), giving you lots of WEAPONS for a surprisingly low card commitment. The larger ships, the Vor'Chas, Voodieh's, and the I.K.C. Negh'Var, have their advantages here. Their higher base attributes make them ideal for a Kurlan Naiskos strategy. Staffing can be tricky though, particularly for the two AU ships; if you can't get the right personnel out, you lose Alternate Universe Door or Space/Time Portal, or you run afoul of your opponent's damage markers. For missions, the Klingon fleet holds up well. The smaller K'Vorts and the Cha'Joh are perfect ways to be up and running quickly. Since they can be downloaded to a Nor, you can easily get a ship and possibly staff it with its matching commander on every turn. Equally importantly, their low staffing makes them ideal for redshirting in space and as emergency ferries. It's also worth mentioning the I.K.C. T'Ong here. Although it's slower than dirt and probably won't hold up well in battle, it makes a great way to get access to remote parts of the spaceline - particularly the Gamma Quadrant. It also works well in tandem with a Klingon ENGINEER to build an outpost if needed. Really the only thing the Klingons lack is a wide selection of no-staffing shuttles. The Cha'Joh is unfortunately unique, forcing them to turn to Flaxian Scout Vessels or Zibalian Transports should the need arise (Yridian Shuttles simply aren't worth it, IMHO). However, with the larger cruisers making great flagships and the Birds Of Prey combining most of the advantages of shuttles and mid-sized ships, it's hard to argue with the choices they offer. The Romulans are almost the total opposite with their selection of ships. They have some very good low-staffing ships, but much of their fleet's power lies in the Warbirds. With eight different choices - seven of which have matching commanders - they have the widest array of large ships in the game. Of the seven with matching commanders, only the Khazara's commander, Toreth, would be hard pressed to find her way into a large number of decks. Their relative safety makes them ideal for carrying large crews to missions and during attempts - all of them with SHIELDS of 9 and Captain's Log benefits will likely survive a Borg Ship. However, this brings up the first ship that I honestly can't recommend using under any circumstances, the D'Deridex Advanced. On the upside, it's a pretty big universal ship, making it a prime choice for Spacedoor. The downside is that for it to be worthwhile you need Tal Shiar aboard - and there aren't many of them. If you can't get them out of your deck or they get killed, you're looking at a slow trip back to your facility for a replacement. Plus, the D'Deridex Advanced is the sole Warbird that lacks a matching commander. This means that its massive attributes will fall short of the other Warbirds with only Captain's Log and the appropriate personnel. The Romulans' smaller ships don't get the attention they deserve. The Scout Vessel and the Pi offer amazing RANGE for such small ships, the T'Pau and Science Vessels are very good general purpose ships (Senator Cretak can turn them into a fiendish armada), and the Romulan Shuttle's cloaking device gives it great protection. Finally, there's the Apnex. Like all small ships it's great for speed and redshirting, but its phasing cloak makes it almost indestructible and gives it a RANGE of 11 and it packs a great matching commander for solving Romulan space missions and support. Not bad for a ship with no staffing. While the Apnex is better for missions, the Cha'Joh is much better in combat. Captain's Log, the Defiant Dedication Plaque, and the Sisters Of Duras turn it into an 11/11/11 monster with only two cards committed to the ship - that's more efficient than any other ship in the game. The Federation, while they have a huge selection of ships, are plagued by uneven quality (there's almost no reason to use the Excelsior class ships or Type VI Shuttlecraft) and by the fact that their larger ships and ships that feature prominently in episodes and movies are perceived to be amongst the best cards in the game. Not that the Galaxy, Akira, Defiant, and Sovereign class ships are bad ships, but they all too easily overshadow the Nebula and Danube class ships and Runabouts. Besides the usual advantages, the various classes of Runabouts have their own individual perks. The U.S.S. Danube is the ideal ship for a Federation deck that relies on Nors. It reports for free to the most restrictive docking site available - as such you should be able to help defend your station by packing the Docking Pads with these little guys. The Runabouts proper and the U.S.S. Yangtzee Kiang boast slightly higher SHIELDS, making them preferable in other situations. Finally, the U.S.S. Rio Grande boasts a very good matching commander, Benjamin Sisko. These ships are at least worth considering. Similarly, the U.S.S. Nebula and the U.S.S. Sutherland stand as very solid ships. The Nebula has the higher attributes of the two, making it reasonably efficient. It offers all the perks of a Galaxy class ship with only slightly lower attributes and less staffing. The Sutherland makes up for its attributes with an amazing matching commander - Data. This is not to say, however, that the flashy ships aren't worth using. The U.S.S. Defiant and the U.S.S. Sao Paolo are insanely efficient ships for their staffing - and in that respect they justifiably overshadow the Nebulas. Really their only drawback is their lack of a Holodeck for those of us who actually plan on solving Tarchennan Study or for hologram fans. The Galaxy class ships are solid, if uninteresting cruisers. They have respectable attributes and only the U.S.S. Enterprise boasts a decent matching commander. The Akira ships, while flashier, fall into the same situation - only with worse matching commanders (I still won't use Shanthi). Until the Chain Reaction Pulsar shows up, the Jupiter offers less than the plain old U.S.S. Galaxy and Spacedoor. The Thunderchild's RANGE of 10 and bonus against Borg Ships are its saving graces. It makes it one of the best ships out there for solving missions. The Enterprise-E suffers from very specialised staffing. It's not that difficult to get going though - the First Contact personas of Deanna Troi and Beverly Crusher are worth using and I find with one more E-E personnel (I use Data) it's surprisingly easy to staff it. Apart from that, it's as good as a mission solver as the Thunderchild. The Future Enterprise suffers from the lack of quality Federation AU personnel (after Rachel Garret, Commander Troi, Beverly Picard, and Tasha Yar - Alternate there aren't many personnel worth using to staff it). Finally, the Pasteur is one of my favourite support ships. Besides making the Future Enterprise's staffing manageable, it packs an extra MEDICAL, a great support personnel for a matching commander, an insane RANGE of 13. You really only have two choices of ships to base a Borg deck around, Scouts and Cubes, and the differences between them are pretty obvious. Cubes are the ship of choice for battle, allow mobile reporting, and are almost indestructible. Scouts report quickly and efficiently with crew and don't require an outpost, but are very fragile. Really, the choice is yours. I prefer Cubes in planet based decks though, simply because they strike me as a more stable platform from which to scout. I would also avoid the unique Cubes unless you have a way to reliably get them into play. Otherwise, Spacedoor for the universal model. However, Borg Spheres are useful in their own right. They're not ships to base a deck around like Cubes and Scout Vessels, but I don't believe they were ever intended to be a deck's focus. Instead, they make amazing support ships. Beam down scouts from them - that way you can protect the mother ship from Alien Parasites and other nasties. Scout from them while leaving your Queen and Interlink Drone aboard the Cube in relative safety for fear of Unscientific Method. They're directly reportable to Cubes and can be downloaded with Launch Portal to boot. Plus, there's one of my favourite Borg ships - the Queen's Borg Sphere. Not only does it do everything universal Spheres do, it has a matching commander in the Borg Queen - making Ready Room Door another option to get your Queen in play quickly and regardless of location. Should you need to take refuge in the Sphere for a while for whatever reason, she can use Captain's Log to turn it into a tank and the Defiant Dedication Plaque to give it respectable RANGE. I'm constantly amazed by the widespread belief that the Bajorans don't have any good ships and that they need a unique ship. In my opinion, only the Klingons have a better selection of ships. First up are the amazing Bajoran Interceptors. Besides being reportable to the Docking Pads, rather than the wide-open Docking Ports, they are downloaded almost absurdly easily with Hidden Fighter - a rarity amongst ships with matching commanders and the only one from a battle-hungry affiliation. Throw in Rinnak Pire and Ops, or, better yet, Bajoran Civil War and you can have an absurdly powerful armada up and running in no time. Add in Defiant Dedication Plaque or seed lots of regional missions to help overcome its RANGE issues. Or, if the RANGE bothers you too badly, use the Assault Vessel. It's reasonably efficient - somewhere between a K'Vort and an U.S.S. Nebula, but has a much higher RANGE for long travel. The other two Bajoran ships are underrated as well. The Bajoran Freighter is above all a freighter, making it ideal for cargo running between Deep Space Nine's Docking Ports and an outpost elsewhere in the Bajor Region. Add in Rinnak Pire and the Defiant Dedication Plaque to crank its RANGE and Kasidy Yates to enhance your runs, and the seemingly harmless little Freighter becomes a card drawing machine. The Bajoran Scout Vessel is a better missions ship though. It's a good, expendable craft with higher RANGE should you want to venture out of the region (otherwise, just use the Interceptor) and a smaller crew requirement in case you don't want to commit as many personnel as you would with an Assault Vessel. Finally, the U.S.S. Yangtzee Kiang is worth mentioning again. This time, in that I don't recommend it. Yes, it has an amazing matching commander, but Rinnak is more easily downloadable to an Interceptor and Kira can just as easily be downloaded with Ops. In addition, it will put your Bajoran terrorists under Federation attack restrictions - which is generally a bad thing for battle decks. About the only thing the Bajorans can get out of it is a replacement for their Bajoran Scout Vessel with higher WEAPONS and SHIELDS. The Cardassians are one of my favourite affiliations in terms of ships, because they're one of the few affiliations that make it very tempting to use smaller ships. In my opinion, the Keldon class ships simply aren't worth using because of one big drawback - they can't report to Nors. The Cardassians, in my opinion, rely on Nors for most of their support - not being able to report ships to them cuts down on access. The Keldon Advanced has an additional problem thanks to the scarcity of Obsidian Order personnel - there's even fewer of them than there are Tal Shiar - making it a ship to leave home. Galors, on the other hand, have several benefits. First off, all of them have worthwhile matching commanders one of which, Dolak, gives a nice WEAPONS bonus. They can report to Nors, and are reasonably efficient. Again not quite a K'Vort, but not a bad deal. They strike a good balance between size and speed, better than any other affiliation in my opinion since they're less vulnerable to casualties from tactics than K'Vorts. The other Cardassian ships are better in some regards as well. Military Freighters, while not quite as good in battle, have the advantage of being able to cargo run and report for free to your Nors. Plus, once again, their low staffing requirement makes them ideal for redshirting purposes. The Groumall has all those perks plus a nice special download of System 5 Disruptors and a matching commander, letting it hold up in a fight and enjoy all the perks of the other freighters - making it a very flexible ship. Finally, there's the Naprem. As a K'Vort, it's insanely efficient to begin with. Throw in its excellent matching commander and the Cardassians have one of the better combat ships in the game. However, the Cardassians do have one ship that I don't think is quite as good, the Cardassian Shuttle. Unless you want to avoid the Docking Ports or use Hidden Fighter, it doesn't really offer anything you can't find on a Military Freighter. Like the Keldons, it is best left in dry-dock. The Ferengi are a bit different from other affiliations when it comes to ship selection. In part, because needing a freighter or transport for cargo runs is unnecessary but also because they really lack the capacity to quickly form an armada compared to the other affiliations. Their best armada ship, the B'rel, has its drawbacks in that respect. Its attributes are lower than the K'Vorts and Interceptors and they lack matching commanders to boost them significantly. Unlike Romulan Science Vessels and Interceptors they can't be downloaded by Hidden Fighter and unlike Military Freighters, they can't report for free to a Nor. The Ferengi Shuttle, on the other hand, isn't really strong enough to stand up in battle and is a good solid no-staffing ship along the lines of a Flaxian Scout Vessel, but pretty uninteresting. Then there's Quark's Treasure. It has decent attributes for a ship of its size and two amazing matching commanders, Gaila and Quark, both of whom are incredible personnel in just about every Ferengi deck. That it can be downloaded by Hidden Fighter (which Gaila himself downloads) is just icing on the cake. After that, there are the D'Koras. I'm partial to the D'Kora Transport myself since with Spacedoor and Assign Mission Specialists it can be up and running on turn one, but also because it can report for free to the Docking Ports. However, the Marauders are much better in combat, and really the only option, in my opinion, for a Ferengi battle deck. The Krayton and Kreechta offer little beyond the universal besides matching commanders; however the universal can be downloaded with Spacedoor. Really, the choice comes down to how quickly you want to be up and running and how much you want to rely on Nors. The Dominion has a lack of variety similar to the Bajorans with only four ships total, but make up for it with quality. The Jem'Hadar Warship has the highest base attributes for any universal ship of its size. Unlike other large ships, however, I highly recommend using this one. I find that the Dominion will stay in the Gamma Quadrant for a few turns until they can get a few Vorta (notably Deyos and Boreth) or Founders into play. By the time they leave, they should easily be able to staff a Warship. Jem'Hadar Attack Ships and Alpha Attack Ships are both about equal and which you use, if any, depends on whether or not you want to invade the Alpha Quadrant or Subjugate the Gamma Quadrant. Karemman Vessels have a higher RANGE than Attack Ships, making them probably the best redshirting ships in the Dominion fleet, but without Spacedoor are difficult to get into the Alpha Quadrant. It's worth mentioning, finally, that I don't really consider armadas viable for the Dominion, simply because of the need for absurd amount of Ketracel-White or several very specific rares. Attack Ships also suffer from low RANGE; however they have a very good way around that - Engage Shuttle Operations: Dominion. Load your Attack Ships onto a Warship during the pursuit. When it comes time to battle unload, with Launch Portal if necessary, and fire. Make sure you don't get caught without the White though. The Attack Ships pack a lot of punch, but can be very difficult to manage. Then again, Invasive Beam-In is a much more viable (and fun) tactic for Dominion battle decks, in my opinion. So basically the trick is to choose whichever ships suit your purposes best. Larger ships are inherently stronger with fewer enhancements, but smaller ships force you to commit fewer resources to staffing them, making them better redshirts, and tend to give you more total attributes per personnel. Given the choice, I personally prefer mid-sized ships like Galors, Xepolite Freighters, and Assault Vessels and smaller ships such as Bajoran Interceptors and K'Vorts to larger cruisers. However, whatever you use ultimately depends on your style of play. Only rarely are there ships that aren't useful in some deck or another. Jason "Taibak" St. Pierre |
