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. And back to Vulcan for a quick resurrection. This is the first of four cards pulled from this section...
PICTURE: A great fx shot for the time, the bird-of-prey looks awesome in Vulcan's golden light, and the spotlights add a lot of drama. A dynamic 4.4.
LORE: The title has that Klingon flavor (mmmm, blood), but we do get a translation. The rest of the lore talks about design differences between B'rel and K'Vort-class ships, which muddles the point a bit. A 3.1.
TREK SENSE: There are plenty of landing cards, but nothing before this that would have allowed the HMS Bounty (or Klaa's bird-of-prey) to land as they did in the films. Here it is. Using part of their Range, B'rel-class birds (smaller than K'Vorts) can land and take off. Furthermore, they can report landed on planets with a matching affiliation icon. I don't mind the reporting feature, a fine alternative to reporting docked at a facility, but the locations are suspect. I mean, most locations with a matching icon are missions you must go to, not places where you actually are. In fact, one's homeworld isn't a viable place to build your B'rel. It's the very same problem I have with Outposts. Finally, "land the ship" sounds like a Captain's Order to me. No objection at all. As innate ship abilities, I might have wanted this to be seedable, but that identification means it practically is. Let's call it a 4.
STOCKABILITY: Though some cards have made inroads into affecting landed ships, it's still a viable way to protect both ship and personnel from unwanted attacks. The Klingons, having no shuttles or ships with no staffing icons, have been limited to the Cha'Joh for their landing needs, which is scarcely worth stocking 2 cards (Launch Portal/Engage Shuttle Operations). Duj Saq is more up their alley: HMS Bounty, IKC Chontay, IKC Kla'Diyus (fires cloaked)... they can all not only land, but also report directly to a planet with a Klingon affiliation icon. Duj Saq is easy to bring into play with Ready Room Door, so you need not wait. These ships are bigger and stronger than any Hidden Fighter, but of course, we're not talking about a download here. Bypassing a facility also means you can report the ship to another quadrant if that's where you want to use it. Crew Reassignment'll get your CF Klingons aboard. Note that the Feds and Ferengi also have access to B'rel-class ships. For Feds, it's just the Bounty, and probably not enough to stock this card, but the Ferengi's is universal. Imagine that fleet of yours getting reinforcements right from the planet below (just beam crew aboard as soon as it reports). The Klingons could do well with this, so a 3.8.
TOTAL: 15.3 (76.5%) And here I thought we didn't need another landing card.
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