Its (IRW) Terix Tuesday!!!

Evening Mancavers!

Tonight sees the deboxing of the Mirror Universe IRW Terix from Wizkids Star Trek Attack Wing.  The Terix is the prize for Month 3 of the Q-Continuum OP series of events.

The IRW Terix was a Romulan D’deridex-class warbird that was in service with the Romulan military in the late 24th century. Commanded by Commander Sirol (whose image is the Generic Captain of this vessel), the Terix discovered a hull fragment from the Starfleet test bed vessel, the USS Pegasus in the Devolin system in 2370 as seen in the TNG episode “The Pegasus”.  It was also used as Tomalak’s flagship during a face-off in the Romulan Neutral Zone in an alternate 2370 in the TNG series finale “All Good Things…“.

IRW Terix, Mirror Universe D’Deridex class Warbird

Stats – 3-2-6-4 – Actions – Evade, Target Lock, Cloak and Sensor Echo.

A wing of Warbirds.

IRW Terix Base Plate

D’Deridex Base Plate

D’deridex Maneuver Dial.

IRW Terix and D’Deridex Ship Cards and Maneuver Card.

Commander Tomalak (CS4) and Generic Mirror Universe Captain.

Elite Talent – Deception

Crew Upgrade – Taibak.

Tech Upgrade – Long Range Sensors.

Secondary Weapon – Additional Phaser Array.

Q-Continuum: All Good Things OP Resource – Ready Room

As a Romulan at heart I was a little disappointed to see this vessel designated solely for use in Mirror Universe fleets as it had been seen in the Prime Universe in “The Pegasus”.  I think there was plenty of screen time to justify this vessel being dual Mirror and Romulan affiliation with associated cards for both, including Commander Sirol.  As it stands it is the first Mirror Universe vessel to have a true Cloaking device as opposed to the technology to add one (Regents Warship, Defiant, etc).

The ship itself is the standard D’deridex class Warbird stuff with no real change to basic stats or dial.  The named versions ability is ok I guess, allowing you to take a Scan as a free Action after your ship has performed a Green Maneuver.  Looking at the dial this isn’t that great as it only has 4 but if you play in a non-Pure enviroment Reliant Checkov or Romulan Pilot may well be your friends here.  The ability triggers when a Green maneuver is performed….not revealed so Romulan Pilot will allow you to trigger that ability too and add a Scan token to boot, so you can reallt rack up some Scan tokens on this ship.  Its a nice ability and given the Action starved nature of playing Romulans (although this ship is Mirror Universe) then it grants a nice free action allowing you to re-enable Cloaks and Sensor Echo.

Captain wise this expansion finally sees an improved Tomalak.  The game has been crying out for a Tomalak representative of his position as Picards arch-nemesis in TNG.  Whilst not the Tomalak I personally hoped for he is an improvement….sadly not Romulan though.  Tomalak has great synergy with the named version of the vessel as he can grant a re-roll of all of your blank attack die if the ship has a Scan token beside it.  Very tasty!  Also unlike Valdore Tomalak he comes with an Elite Talent Slot.  Given that Commander Sirol was the named commanding officer of the prime universe IRW Terix in “The Pegasus” Im surprised not to see him here although his image does make in appearance in the form of the Generic Mirror Universe captain in this expansion.  Sorry Michael Mack, no Sirol love yet!

With the captains we have Elite Talents.  This pack contains just one Deception and its expensive at 5 points and a Discard but it allows you to place a Battlestations token beside your ship at the beginning of the Combat Phase.  If you are cloaked you may also place an Evade token beside you ship even if you already have one.  Thats nice!  It does mean that this ship performing a Green maneuver can in theory take a BS, Evade, Scan and another Action in a single turn.  If you throw in Romulan Pilots thats multiple Scan tokens too.  It has great synergy with other cards but is it too much to pay for that one turn of all out guns blazing attacking?

The only Crew upgrade featured in this prize pack is Taibak who wasn’t a Mirror Universe persona at all and featured in the TNG episode “The Minds Eye” where he abducted Cmdr.Geordi La Forge and controlled him via his VISOR.  He was never seen as a crew member of the IRW Terix in either episode it featured which just serves to prove that Wizkids have no idea about the background or universe they are producing a game for.  However as a Crew upgrade his ability is very thematic of what we saw him do in “The Minds Eye”.  As an Action, which is always a bad start on a Romulan card, he may target a crew upgrade on an enemy ship at R1-2 if it is not Cloaked and does not have any Shields.  If he does so, you may discard Taibak and steal that Crew Upgrade even if it exceeds his ships restrictions.  So costs 4 points, is an Action AND forces a card discard….pppfffttt….no thanks!

The Secondary Weapon is where this expansion comes into its own.  For a long long time the community in STAW has been saying the D’Deridex class Warbird is nowhere near strong enough in raw attacking power and should be at least a 4 Atk.  The Additional Phaser Array is the answer to that although just like every other upgrade in this pack its not actually Romulan at all and is Mirror Universe which still leaves Pure-Romulan players waiting for a D’deridex thats reflective of the TV shows.  The Additional Phaser Array allows a D’deridex class ship to gain +1 Atk dice when attacking an enemy vessel in your Fwd Firing Arc.  Yeah its ok given a) its limitations and b) the fact that it only affects 1 D’Deridex class vessel in game in the pure environment ignoring the Khazara, the Haakona, the Aj’Rmr and the Avatar of Tomed.

Lastly we get to the Tech upgrade Long Range Scanners.  Were this ship truly Romulan I’d have looked straight past this card as the Romulans have some awesome Tech upgrades and a lack of Tech Slots to equip them to….however this ship isn’t Romulan, its Mirror Universe.  Long Range Scanners allow your ship to take a Scan Action and place an Auxiliary Power Token (APT) beside your ship.  Ok nothing fancy or even attractive about that aside from granting a Scan to a ship that couldn’t normally do it.  However if you still have that Scan token beside your ship in the End Phase you may Discard this upgrade to keep that Scan token there for the next turn.  Ok, that’s better.  Given this ship and its upgrades reliance on Scan tokens I could see this being useful.  Im not sure its worth it on any other vessel as its an extra 3 points to equip it to a non D’deridex class vessel.  I also question whether paying 3 points for an Action, discarding an upgrade and taking an APT is a wise move.  Not sure I’ll use this but only time will tell.  It needs to be tested in combination with other cards.

So we’ve looked at all the cards included but what to do with them?  Well I built a Faction Pure Mirror Universe vessel using Wizkids Suggested Rules format out of the cards included in this pack (which wasn’t nearly enough or even correct).  Here goes:-

IRW Terix (30)

Tomalak (4)

Deception (5)

Taibak (4)

Additional Phaser Array (2)

Long Range Scanners (3)

Total (48)

Given that this pack only contains one Secondary Weapon and one Tech upgrade I cannot actually build a vessel that fills every slot on this ship.  I can’t even manage it in the Generic version either as this pack is one Secondary Weapon upgrade short.  I’m also surprised not to see a standard set of Plasma Torpedoes on this too.  Most other D’deridex class Warbirds have them.

Let me know what you think.  Have a go at building a ship using these upgrades yourself (although you’ll struggle to get away from what I’ve done as the options are massively limiting).  Post your comments or builds below and we can discuss them.

#LLAP