Review: Star Trek Attack Wing – I.R.W. Praetus / Designer: Christopher Guild / Publisher: WizKid Games / Release Date: Out Now
In the world of Star Trek, the Federation is brave and highly adaptable, the Klingons are bold and strong, and the Romulans are cunning and sneaky. So it may come as little surprise to those who play the Star Trek Attack Wing game to learn that the latest Romulan expansion, the I.R.W. Praetus is a piece that requires intelligence and forethought in order to be effective. The entire Romulan fleet in Attack Wing are designed to be fast and sneaky, relying on subtle tactics that allow the player to herd their opponents into their line of fire as well as mine-fields.
I.R.W. Praetus is perhaps the most obvious example of this. When fully kitted out with its cloaking device and mines, it’s a little devil; popping in and around the battlefield, herding heavier (and more powerful) ships into carefully laid traps and generally causing utter delight for its commander, especially as one of the potential abilities of the model is the power to hit your opponent from an unexpected angle. Both the mine and nuclear missile options give it enough offensive capability to do some real damage. Like all models in this series, the rules allow you to play as a named or a generic ship; the named ship has a nifty variation on the cloaking rules, making it even stealthier, though this option is not without risks. Both versions of the ship are very fragile; without its hull plating or cloak most enemies will be able to blow it up early on in the game, but then if you’re simply shoving models onto the table in order to make up the numbers, then you’ve missed the point of a Romulan fleet.
The model itself is nice enough; purists will probably want to repaint the pre-painted plastic, but the actual ship design fits in nicely with other ships from the same fleet. The other components are of the good quality we’ve come to expect from WizKids, though some sets have been shipped with a missing mine counter (which can be downloaded and printed out). Overall, this is a nice little addition to a commander’s fleet, but not one for the impatient or unsubtle.
