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Hey there, hi there Dakka trekkers today I thought I would bring up the topic of captain insurance. We are starting to see more cards that are designed to mess with your captains, things like Gul Madred, Tantolas Field, Borg Data, Deanna Troi, and to a lesser extent Chang. Usually a lot of our strategy is built around our captains, be it Picard, Martok, Weyoun, Khan, etc. Having a captain disabled can be disruptive enough but now we have a few cards that actually discard them, is it time we start setting a few points aside for insurance

Some things that can help save your captain, Li Nalis amd Romulan Centurion. With both of these if you can disable them to prevent your captain or crew from being disabled OR discard them to prevent a discard. So handy in many cases. Li Nalis is a bargan for 2 points 3 out of faction. Centurion is on the expensive side at 4 in faction 5 out, however he is NOT unique so you could have one on each ship if you want.
(https://boardgamegeek.com/image/1967629/xanderf)

Another possibility is admirals. Now an admiral won't save your captain, but they might save your ship. Now you don't want every admiral taking over the ship, but there are a few that you wouldn't mind taking over the big chair. Admiral Kirk has a high skill and a nice ability, same for the Borg Queen. Mendak is only skill 6, but that is still better than 1 if your captain is ganked. Gorkon is the best choice, but until Klingons get another admiral, he is there best option in faction pure. Hiren is great for a cheap skill boost, but I wouldn't want him taking over my Scimitar in a key moment. Same goes for the rest of the admirals, especially the feds.

Another form of insurance are crew that can lend a hand to the big chair. Turanj from the Alpha Hunter can tske over if you skill drops below 4, and he gives you a 7. Riker from the Pagh is a good option, he can be used to boot your skill to 10. Pegasus Riker can hop in the big chair with a skill of 5. The 1st officer resource can be used to make any crew you want take over, but if IRRC thry are only skill 4.


So there are some options out there. Not everyone needs to build with captain ganking in mind. However if your build revolves around a particular captain or ship surviving, its time to think about insurance. Shields and cloak are no defense against Madred or Tantolis Field. This make become a more popular mechanic with players and designers, so keep an eye on you meta and if you have a few extra point buy some insurance. "Li Nali, please report to Captain Picards ready room"

If I remember correctly, you can only purchase one admiral per fleet, correct? e

 PlaguelordHobbyServices wrote:
If I remember correctly, you can only purchase one admiral per fleet, correct? e

That is correct, so you can only save one ship that way. I meant to point that out, but I was dealing with a 4 year old earlier

When you're paying a lot of points for a decent captain, I think the point must be to invest in captain protection.

Although for me, I'm warming to larger fleets and lots of mid tier captains with good tricks, rather than expensive one trick ponies.

I rarely build my fleet around captians, so even if someone steals one or kills one etc. the battleplan is the same. I agree with MeanGreenStompa, captians with skills 5-7 are stil better than trying to fit a couple of skill 8-9 in a fleet

I agree, I prefer to run my ships where they can run independent of each other. That is why I am not a big fan of running Donatra in my Romulan fleets. I use Martok in my Klingon fleets, but I usually look at him as a bonus rather than building around him. I do all too often see people build with the whole build revolving around the big Picard ship or the Donatra support vessel.

I prefer to have captain insurance in the form of a low skill ship, or mid captain skill ship, with an action that lets me disable/discard the opponents upgrade that would have hurt my captain.


this way, i get insurance, but can also disable other upgrades on the other guys ship if they dont bring anything to gank my captain.

 easysauce wrote:
I prefer to have captain insurance in the form of a low skill ship, or mid captain skill ship, with an action that lets me disable/discard the opponents upgrade that would have hurt my captain.


this way, i get insurance, but can also disable other upgrades on the other guys ship if they dont bring anything to gank my captain.

So you're using your SUPERIOR INTELLECT sorry I couldn't resist.

LOL good one baldrick!