What a Card: IKC Amar

Being a look back at cards from the Star Trek CCG, and what I thought of them back when they were fresh and new... in EPISODE order. We're done with TOS cards, so what's next? Well, how about cards pulled from the Star Trek movies? I've sort of divided them by scene, and in the case of The Motion Picture (all pics in the game are from the Director's Cut), it starts with the Klingon battle, in which the Klingons get disintegrated by V'ger. Klingon fans will be happy to hear that one scene gave us 5 cards, so alphabetically...

EXPANSION: The Motion Pictures

PICTURE: K't'inga Class cruisers are a little silly, looking for all the world like a bird with a scout leader's hat, and the Amar's details are a bit splotchy. Saving grace: The photon torpedo tube is preparing to fire. Then again, it looks like the end of a cigarette. Bottom line, I think it's a fairly good shot of this ship class (uncluttered by removing the other ships digitally). It's just that the class looks dinky to begin with. A 2.8.

LORE: "One of the first..." is a cute nod to the fact that it was the first K't'inga ever seen (as part of a three-ship formation). The unidentified intruder is V'ger, but the Klingons didn't know that, and the lore acknowledges this fact. Voyager's "Prophecy" revealed that Amar was a famous Klingon who had started a journey to the Delta Quadrant, which his progeny finished. (Interesting since V'ger started "life" as a different Voyager.) A very good 3.6.

TREK SENSE: They don't do much with it here, leaving most of the strategies to related cards, so this'll be a short review of Trek Sense. The Klingon cruiser of the Classic Films era, it has attributes that match ships of that time. Its Range is way higher than the universal K't'inga (by 2 whole points), and I suppose that's by virtue of quickly heading toward V'ger, leaving Klingon space in record time. 2 points may be too much, but it matches the HMS Bounty. Still, it's faster than the Starship Excelsior? As far as special equipment goes, no problems there. And the staffing? Special icon staffing does an ok job of getting personnel from the right era aboard, but it also make such ships staffable by non-military personnel. Thankfully, most Klingons ARE military personnel, and only Ambassador Kamarag has no standard staffing icon. So an ok effort, pushing the boundaries only on a couple of minor points: a 3.

STOCKABILITY: Some players might be disappointed that the ship doesn't offer a personnel download like the universal K't'inga, but they're overlooking the real advantage of the IKC Amar: its attributes. With a RANGE of 7, it's much faster than other CF ships. With its matching commander Krase aboard, the ship automatically gains 2 to its SHIELDS (a special skill that cover the entire armada if present), plus whatever bonuses your Plaque and Log are giving it. That's 9-9-11 with just those cards. Add Captain Kang and Ch'dak, and you've got 10-11-11. That's a nasty cloakable ship, and reportable for free at Camp Khitomer. No personnel download, but the CF staffing means Crew Reassignment allows them to report directly aboard. I'd say it's one of the better Klingon CF ships, and on par with many non-AU ships if you're going for a single ship strategy. A 3.5.

TOTAL: 12.9 (64.5%) Now what if we get it to the Delta Quadrant? Thematic bonus?

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