Klingon librarians have explained the inner mysteries of the The Dream of the Fire, as expressed in the:
The I.K.C. K'Ratak's uses:
A Ship One Can Stand Tall In: I.K.C. K'Ratak is painfully slow and has feeble shields. However, it has good Weapons. This makes the I.K.C. K'Ratak an excellent ship for suprise attacks. Simply cloak the K'Ratak and move it towards the nearest Klingon or Romulan vessel (many vessels of these affiliations, even named ships, will have shielding of 7). When they pass near, decloak and wallop them! No other K'Vort offers the hitting power needed to damage a ship of the line all by itself.
An Excellent Two in a One-Two Punch: The problem with this "sneak attack" is that these ships tend to hit back, and the I.K.C. K'Ratak cannot take much damage. However, the K'Ratak's weakness can be made a relative strength for a Klingon armada deck. First, damage a ship with the main body of your armada, reducing its Range to 5. While the armada moves on to the next target, bring the K'Ratak (which now actually *outpaces* the damaged ship) to finish the job. By the time the first ship has been destroyed, your armada will have damaged another ship...
The Lynchpin of an Armada: I.K.C. K'Ratak's Range may limit the movement of an armada it is a part of, but its high Weapons mean that one actually needs fewer K'Vorts. For example, five K'Vorts are nomally needed to damage a Borg Ship. However, a mere four are needed if one of those vessels is the K'Vort. Hence, the I.K.C. K'Ratak can actually make armada decks more efficient.
However, the I.K.C. K'Ratak has serious limitations:
Range? What Range? Shields? What Shields?: I.K.C. K'Ratak's Range of 6 is quite low, as is its Shields of 6. These attributes make the I.K.C. K'Ratak completely inappropriate for mission-completion, and force one to go through an extensive setup process to take full advantage of its Weapons (see "An Excellent Two in a One-Two Punch" above).
On the Lesser Side of Frilled: I.K.C. K'Ratak has the cloaking device and tractor beam prerequisite to all Klingon vessels, but it lacks Captain's Log benefits (which would have been extraordinarily useful in raising the uninspired Shields).
Final Analysis: I.K.C. K'Ratak is an excellent example of a specialized vessel. It has superb Weapons for combat duties, but the unimpressive Range and Shielding make it unacceptable for use in any deck not entirely based around combat. If the deck is not based around battle, leave I.K.C. K'Ratak in the spacedock.
Next week: The Spacedock drops into a garbage dump to scan the Combat Vessel (with apologies to Dr. Telek R'Mor for the delay).
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Feel free to e-mail Phalanx
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