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Here is a list of all the resources in the game right now:
1. Elite Attack Die (retired)
2. Command Tokens (retired)
3. Reinforcement Sideboard (retired)
4. Flagships (retired)
5. Hideki Class Attack Fighters (retires in Aug)
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6. Federation Attack Fighters
7. Skilled Helmsman
8. Chief Engineer
9. Counter Attack Die
10. Fleet Captain
11. Officer Cards
12. Improved Shields
13. Advanced Targeting Systems
14. High Yield Photon Torps
15. Officer Exchange Program
16. Master Strategist Tokens
17. Evasive Action Template
18. Damage Control Team
Because Wizkids has little to no idea on how to cost these cards, they are 5-10 points (Officer Cards can be 3-12 points). The first five Resources are all "retired" under Wizkids Tournament Play- which is too bad as the Flagship was Da Bomb, but I think the Reinforcement Sideboard was probably the most powerful Resource in the game. Most of the venues I frequented just banned the card as soon as it came out.
In the current "meta" of the game, here are the top three resources IMHO:
1. Officer Cards: these are cheap crew upgrades that have to be attached to a crew member. The Officer Card itself does not take up a crew slot, and offer free mods to your ship- either double tokens, add upgrade slots, and dice conversions. Combined with some text abilities on crew cards, they can be very, very effective during the course of the game.
2. Master Strategist Tokens: An MST represents a BS, Evade, TL, or Scan token. Takes an action to assign one to your ship, but the token represents all 4 of those actions until you use it as one of those tokens. I.e., I have an MST on my ship. During my modify attack dice step, I have 2 blanks and 2 BS symbols on my dice. I can then choose to use the MST as a BS (and convert the BS attack dice to hits) or use it as a TL and reroll the dice. The MST does not target lock an enemy ship; it just allows rerolls of attack dice so you wouldn't be able to use the MST to fire a secondary weapon that requires a target lock. The great thing about the MST? If you don't use it, it goes back onto the MST Card. You have 6 of these tokens to use during a game. The downside is that it takes an action to assign an MST to a ship in your fleet. With some good action economy or Picard 9, this shouldn't be much of an issue.
3. Improved Shields: 4 shield tokens that I get to place on any ship during a ships' "perform actions" step; It does NOT require an action, AND up to two of these shields may be placed on a ship. The shields must take the first hits on a ship, and during the end phase, the shields go back onto the resource card for distribution later. Any Improved Shields that are damaged are removed from the game. So you get to pay 10 points for 8 points worth of shields... but you get to distribute them throughout your fleet.
Honorable Mentions:
Fleet Captains: With the Flagship cards retired, the Fleet Captain cards have taken it's place. They add to your captain's skill, offer a couple extra upgrade slots, and an extra ability to your ship. If you are running one big ship and a couple smaller ships, this is an ideal card.
Officer Exchange Program: Costs 0 resource points (Wizkids...) and allows you to ignore the out of faction penalty when assigning captains, admirals, and crew from a chosen faction to your ships. That's a poor way to write it. Before you build your fleet, choose two factions. Say, Federation and Klingon. Anytime I assign a Klingon Captain, Admiral, or crew to a Federation ship, I don't pay the faction penalty for it. AND the Captain/Admiral gets a discount -1 SP. If I assign a Federation Captain/Admiral or crew to a Klingon ship, I ignore the faction penalty. Basically, this is a zero point resource that "gives" you free points by ignoring faction penalties.
Some of the resources are actually very, very good but only affect one ship, or they are useful only in limited cases with the right ship/upgrades. I built the above list with fleet action economy in mind. Being able to shift cards and abilities around during a game is a powerful ability that can have a synergistic effect on your fleet. Having one ship with a bunch of powerful upgrades does you no good if it's out of the fight or has been disabled in some way. MST's and Improved Shields allow you to select a ship during a particular part of the battle that could be crucial to a game. The Officer Cards are static, but have very strong synergy in a fleet.
Officer Exchange is a great card unless you are playing ship pure or faction pure, in which case the resource is usually banned. :/ In a free for all meta, I weigh the cost of crew and Officer Exchange with MST's and Improved Shields (or even Fleet Captain) to determine which one I shoudl take (I usually don't take that many crew upgrades, so it usually loses out).
I do favor certain resources with certain ships or with scenarios in mind. For example, during Q Continuum 2 where your largest ship gets a huge Nerf Bat, I ran Picard 9 on an Enterprise-E with Sovereign Photons and the Resource High Yield Photon torps so I could attack with 7 attack dice and not require a target lock. Worked great! So just something for you to consider when running resources.
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2500 pts
1850 pts
