The Great Link

by Daniel Giddings, Staff Writer

23rd September 2019

Back in May (2019), after combing the 2E card database, I (semi-jokingly) pitched a 9-card boutique product made up of a list of “ships for Commanders with missing ships” (e.g. an Aurora for Rota Sevrin) and “corresponding commanders for iconic commanderless ships” (e.g. a Captain Smiley for the AU Defiant).

This was a long walk for a short punchline: “It could even have a Star Trek episode name: ‘The Great Link’.”

The first reply I got came from Sacrifice of Angels designer John Corbett that read “You can strike those two off after Gannicus [Sacrifice of Angel’s code name]”.

The two in question were the Kraxon (commanded by Dolak, Offended Neighbor) and the I.K.S. Chontay (commanded by Klaa, Dauntless Hunter), and they are the subjects of this article.

Man and machine – Power Xtreme

It’s always nice to see synergy between a ship and her commander (Suran and the Soterus being an early Decipher example of this, and Bateson and the Bozeman being a later CC offering), and these new ships don’t disappoint. 

Klaa and the I.K.S. Chontay

When you play Klaa, if you command a Maneuver event, you score 5 points. And while you command a Maneuver event, the Chontay gets attributes +1. Elegant, really. And handily, the Klingons have no problem sourcing such events; all they need is one of their Rash Captains to start some Target Practice and you could easily find yourself 5 points up and commanding a 3-cost 7/7/8.

Dolak and the Kraxon

When you begin an engagement involving the Kraxon, each opponent discards cards from the top of their deck equal to the cost of the ships at that mission. And if her commander, Dolak is there, and you win said engagement, the loser discards an additional three cards. So, you mill when you start an engagement, and mill more if you win? This sounds like the perfect Cardassian insult added to the injury of losing a personnel to the discard pile (against Battle Drills) or worse, to the brig (against a Provoked Attack). Kinda brutal.

Although I was disheartened to lose two cards from my pitch, I was equally heartened by how well these ships turned out – they’ve got classic synergy with their Commanders, K.I.S.S. mechanics, they’re not huge walls of text, and they promote the “Make Battle Great Again” theme that Sacrifice of Angels wanted to bring about.

I was even more heartened by John’s follow-up sentence: “But you'll be able to add one more...”

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