What a Card: IKC K't'inga

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. Continuing with the Klingon battle at the top of TMP...

EXPANSION: The Motion Pictures

PICTURE: Looks like one of Krase's ships about to be eaten and digested by V'ger (the cloud has been removed from the image), and once again, we get a Klingon ship on the run, seen from the back. Sometimes that angle works, sometimes it doesn't. We don't see enough of the ship, and its little "eyes" are just weird. No more than a 2.

LORE: Tells us how the TOS D-7 Battle Cruiser (apparently already old at the time) became the CF K't'inga-class, with only a few alterations (equivalent of those of the TV and movie versions of the Enterprise). Not much there, but well written. A 3.2.

TREK SENSE:
The baseline version of this Classic Films ship class hold no real surprises. The icons are fine, and the staffing icon, while all too lonely (only one personnel for this large a ship?), makes sure we have the right kind of personnel aboard (with only Ambassador Kamarag not having a real staffing icon to support his presence here). The Cloaking Device and Tractor Beam are both proven facts. The special download notes that big ships have plenty of personnel aboard that need only step into the fold. Universal ship, universal personnel. Simple as that. Weapons and Shields are made to be more important on a Klingon ship than Range, so that's fine too, though Range may be a bit small when you consider that 2 such ships followed the IKC Amar to V'ger, and the Amar has a Range of 7! Let's just say that the attribute spread on K't'ingas is all over the map, and a problem. The few iffy details drop this standard design to 3.7.

STOCKABILITY: While the unique K't'ingas have better attributes than the universal model, it's still an fair ship for the CF Klingon faction. The download staffs it early and easily, and Crew Reassignment puts more people on it, but the lack of a matching commander keeps the attributes all too low. Some Klingons can help, as would Bynars, Plasmadyne Relay, etc., but why do this when stronger ships can be had for the same staffing? A fair ship, sure, but if I were to construct a CF armada, unless I was using Spacedoor to get it into play, I wouldn't include it. The unique ships are definitely better. 2.4 here.

TOTAL: 11.3 (56.5%) Yeah, little ship, run away.

Comments

LiamKav said…
Regarding the cloaking device, I think the original films imply that the K'tinga doesn't actually have one. We don't see one cloak in TMP, TWOK or TUC. And when discussing a cloaked ship in TUC everyone assumes that it's a Bird of Prey.

I think it's TNG's The Emmisary that first shows one cloaking, and then DS9 runs with it.