Despite the fact that there is no mention of Star Trek: Fleet Captains Dominion expansion on Wizkids website, it appears to be legit. (There is no mention of the Romulan expansion on the website, either, despite the fact that it has been out for over a year now.) I got to tell you, I'm really looking forward to this.
First of all- the Dominion. The base game comes with Federation and Klingon factions, and the Romulan expansion came out in late 2012. It makes sense to make the next faction available would be the Dominion, after all the four factions from Wizkids Star Trek: Attack Wing are the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, and the Dominion, and Wizkids often uses the same model sculpts for the games. Also, with the Dominion War such a big part of DS9, a story arc that essentially acted as a Trek metaphor for World War II in many ways, this faction seems rife with possibilities.
I must confess, however, to a little disappointment. I was really hoping for the Borg to appear in Fleet Captains, and hopefully that is coming in the future. While the Dominion, with its many different species and ships, proved a fun adversary in the TV show, it never matched the level of sheer menace and terror that the Borg seemed to inspire. One potential problem with bringing the Borg to the Fleet Captains universe, however, is the sameness of their ships- cubes and spheres (perhaps of different sizes?). There were some variations on Borg ships in some episodes, but my gut is telling me those basic shapes will make up the lions share of ships in any Borg Fleet Captains expansion. Come to think of it, that's probably going to create problems for Star Trek: Attack Wing as well.
There are other species that I would like to see added to Fleet Captains, and perhaps some of them even before the Dominion- The Mirror Universe, Ferengi, and Xindi. I'd even like to see factions like Bajoran, Vulcan (pre-Federation), and Andorian (pre-Federation), or even the Marquis.
Even more than factions, however, I was hoping that the next Fleet Captains expansion would bring more missions, types of actions, tons of new system tiles, and maybe some fun new (small) mechanical changes. Clarified rulebooks would really help this game as well- never doubt the value of a rulebook appendix.
Despite my ramblings, I'm really happy that Wizkids is not letting Fleet Captains die. Like most players out there, I was scared that with the success of Attack Wing, Wizkids had little interest in expanding the Fleet Captains universe. Given how little a splash the Romulan expansion made, I just assumed that Fleet Captains would go the way of the Dodo. I like Attack Wing a lot. It's a very fun Starship combat game that brings something really fun and original to the table. (Yes, I play Star Wars: X-Wing, too, and they are very different games despite their superficial similarities.)
But Attack Wing is just that- a Starship combat game, however steeped in Trek in is. Despite the new J.J. Abrams movies, (which I did enjoy), Star Trek is about more than just explosions and special effects. Though Fleet Captains has its share of combat, it takes a back seat to those other factors that made Trek great. Playing Fleet Captains just feels more like you're creating a Star Trek episode all your own. As the great Tom Vasel said, “It's Star Trek in a box.”
So, it is with great joy that I heard the news that Wizkids will continue to expand this great game. If you have not had a chance to play Star Trek: Fleet Captains, go out and try it at your local game store. My guess is, if you're a Star Trek fan, you'll go home with it.
You can read my review for Star Trek: Fleet Captains in the Deseret News review section.
-Cody
