Dad's Gaming Addiction

I’m a Trekkie.  Or a Trekker.  I really don’t know what the difference is.  I’ve watched the shows / movies and read the books for the last forty or so years.  The video games came and went as older games refused to work on newer systems.  There’s GOG for some of it, thank goodness…”Armada” was amazing but I wouldn’t mind strolling down “A Final Unity’s” lane one more time.  Then there are the board games.  Oh, we had that crappy “Star Trek” trivia game, don’t get me wrong, but the more modern games like “Star Trek: The Next Generation Deck Building Game” run rings around stuff from the 80’s / 90’s.  Though, seeing fake Gowron (same actor, different character) capture the ship in the VHS game is worth another play.  EXPERIENCE BIJ!!!!  I digress, I’m here to talk about “Star Trek: Captain’s Chair” and you sorry lot get to read reference after reference even if it’s not funny or warranted.  It’s a complex deck-building game for one or two players and after about five plays I’m ready to give my impressions of it.  Will Picard see five lights, or will my love be forever wondering in star-flight?  Those aren’t units of measure, don’t bother trying.  Shaka, when the walls fell.

1-2 Players, Ages 14+, Average Play Time 1-2+ Hours

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Normally I’d list components and setup here, but I’m not going to in order to reserve my oh-so-fun tendonitis for the review.  If you want to see components, go check out my unboxing video.  If you want to see rules, go check out my gameplay videos.  I overview them for about ten minutes on the cadet mode video and list rule differences in the others due to their unique modes.  You’ll find said videos at the end of the article.

I’ve never played “Imperium”, let’s just get that out of the way.  After becoming disabled in my late thirties I have been trending toward easier to moderate weight games.  I’m also stubborn about what themes that interest me.  So why did I pick up “Star Trek: Captain’s Chair” if it has nearly a 4/5 complexity on BGG?  Because “Star Trek” is so, as Tilly would put it, “really cool”.  If it’s Star Wars or Star Trek (there’s room for both, get out of your bubble), I’ll probably look into buying it or requesting a press copy.  I did not buy the latest “Star Realms” Star Trek reskin…it looked too lazy and didn’t seem to do anything new, nor do I intend to by the Clone Wars reskin of the “Star Wars Deck Building Game” for the same reason.  I draw the line at lazy and obvious cash grabs.  For me, the line must be drawn here.  This far no farther.  And I…WILL MAKE THEM PAY FOR WHAT THEY’VE…sorry.

“Star Trek: Captain’s Chair” includes six Captains…three of which are Federation.  Let’s talk about that.  I’m gonna get flak for this, but some of the choices here are baffling.  Picard, Sisko, Burnham, Shran (Andorian), Koloth (Klingon), and Sela (Romulan).  There’s barely any NX-01 era representation, so Shran would have been better in an expansion targeting said Era.  Gowron and Martok were both pivotal to the Next Gen / DS9 era for various reasons and would have been better suited to lead the Klingons.  “My Dear” Captain Koloth first appeared on  “The Trouble with Tribbles” back in the Kirk era.  Yes, I’m well aware the Dahar Master was featured on DS9 a few times, but on what I dub to be “B-plot episodes”.  Koloth could have been in a TOS expansion, as Kirk and crew are not featured here either.  Sela makes sense, though Tomolak would have made a good choice too.  It seems odd that half the Captains are Federation…I would have liked more variety.  Cardassians, Ferengi, Dominion…something!

On that same note, let’s talk about the Borg, nature’s way of saying screw you.  I guess there’s nothing natural about them, whether you believe David Mack’s origin story in the book series “Destiny”, or William Shatner’s worse interpretation in his series of books.  A few cards in “ST:CC” have “Borg” tags, but nothing I’ve seen makes me believe that these few are viable on their own.  No, friends.  The Borg are coming.  Maybe Lore too, as a “synthetic” leader…synthetics also only having a few tags in the game.  Locutus and the Borg Queen would be nice too.  What I’m getting at is that I find it hard to believe that the developers of this game (who I’ve read time and again that they know their “Star Trek”) didn’t make these leader choices by accident.  They opened the door for expansions, a lot of them.  That means money.  We all know Wiz Kids likes their expansions.  Three Federation Captains and a less important of the TNG era Klingon Captain was a design choice to encourage us to buy more expansions in the future.  Hate me for this opinion all you like, but the 22nd Rule of Acquisition clearly states, “A wise man can hear profit in the wind.”

Let’s Riker Maneuver into something else…gameplay.  The fact that each Captain has their own deck AND a reserve deck AND a development deck OUTSIDE of a common market is really neat.  Cards are usually multi-functional with some actions requiring you to spend one of your three isolinear action chips (I love these) while others can be free-played.  One game, I was research-focused Lt. Junior Grade Picard, trying to score points by moving my cube up the science track to get a blue multiplier score.  I passed up getting planets in favor of acquiring blue multiplier scoring cards on the market.  Another game I was “Yesterday’s Enterprise” Picard, sticking it to the Klingons regularly and trying to mess up their plans.  Depending on the duty officer you put into play and the cards you acquire, your strategies WILL change game to game.  This makes each Captain and the game itself almost infinitely replayable.

While I enjoy the first 2/3’s of the game, I develop fatigue around the last few rounds and can’t remember to activate all the cards in my array.  Unlike a typical deck-builder, you’ll be putting some cards into play until removed voluntarily or involuntarily as well as controlling planets and other POIs.  My Sisko game against the Ensign Picard bot comes to mind, and due to my medical reasons I couldn’t finish the last round.  There was too much going on and I was getting incredibly tired and fatigued.  Granted, I was managing a camera and talking for nearly 3 hours to produce content.  Perhaps in a more relaxed setting I’d physically do better.  This game coldly reminded me of my limitations.  There’s a lot of text, a lot of combo opportunities, and eventually, a tableau filled with ships, planets, starbases, weapons, etc.  I hate to offer this kind of advice, but if you’re like me (older and/or disabled), don’t sweat the nitty gritty rules and play the best you can.  Fun over form…I firmly believe that all games are meant to be played that way anyway.

Aidalee had her fill with our two player game.  She’d play it again but was in no hurry as our session took four hours (includes teaching time).  You can see her impressions in the two player video below.  For the reasons listed above, I favored the Cadet mode.  It’s faster and there’s less to think about.  The bot mode, however, is implemented very well but I have to warn you, the rulebook for the bot mode is 18-20 pages or so on its own.  You’ll be stopping regularly to ask it how the bot handles X or Y.  You’ll need several play sessions to fully get used to it, but I have to give more kudos to the multiple difficulty settings available.  There’s even a campaign mode, which I sadly will probably never get to.

Even though the game tires me out, I’m usually left wanting more in both a good and bad way.  Part of me wants to play again to try out a different Captain and see what strategies they favor, while the other (having seen every card at this point) yearns for a “Doomsday Machine” or “Borg Cube” ship card.  I don’t know how to properly explain it, but I feel like I’m playing an incomplete game knowing there’s so much more room for the missing content.  That brings me back to the money / expansion thing…I just sincerely hope they’re affordable and not designed to have 1 major Captain and 4-5 barely visible ones just so we’ll buy more.  I can’t do the “Star Wars X-Wing” / “Star Trek Attack Wing” thing again and while I want it, can’t justify “Into the Unknown” unless I miraculously get a press copy.

I also want to see a co-op mode.  “Star Trek: The Next Generation Deck Building Game” has a Borg scenario where players team up against them.  I would love some kind of special market deck revolving around iconic Wolf 359 ships and other technologies / people involved with fighting the Borg (Shelby, etc).  I am experienced enough however to recognize how difficult it would be to balance a game like this, what with all the tags and cards already out there. If it can’t be done in “ST:CC”, then Wiz Kids…I want to see more “STTNG DBG” content please.  Hey, maybe they’ll see this review…though it’s more likely Tuvok will get back into baking.  I forgot about Voyager!  We need that too.  Blasted Star Trek, you make me want to “KHAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!”

My word count is getting to 1600 and I am reminding myself that this wasn’t a press copy, so I’ll end your suffering here (unless you decide to go watch “Catspaw”).  Robert Bloch wrote some great things but seriously, what the frak.  There I go, crossing the streams again.  (and yet again)

In a static warp shell, “Star Trek: Captain’s Chair” is a deep and complex deck builder with a strong emphasis on matter/anti-matter engine building.  It tires me the Gul Dukat out, but I enjoy and respect it more than the reverse.  There’s a lack of really good “Star Trek” games out there and this one has the potential to grow into something more grandiose than the Ferengi Tower of Commerce.  I just hope the developers / publishers leave us with gold-pressed latinum in our wallets when this game reaches its full potential.  This isn’t “Dominion” (the deck builder, not the shapeshifters), not even close.  It’s way, way more complex.  You’ll need to know that before buying this game.  While $50 is a lot for a deck-builder (maybe more at this point), you’ll get plenty of hours into this once you get passed the high learning curve.

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Final Verdict: 9/10 (Outstanding)

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