To see the cards themselves, check out this Card list for the Alternate Universe expansion set.

PICTURE: Pretty grisly for a game card (though I think Voyager may test some of those limits), and relatively colorless. I mean, the guy looks like a Borg with that skin tone. Death isn't a pretty thing, so it's all pretty appropriate. What isn't though, is that easter egg (the minuscule Dan Burns patch). It's a simple signature from one of the designers, but it's so discreet as to be boring. Sorry Dan! ;-) Won't really affect picture score though... A 2.9

LORE: Looks good, and even works within the new personnel battle rules even if published before they came out. A little clue as to where the pic came from might have been nice though, especially since there's room for an extra line of text. A 3.3.

TREK SENSE: Note that I will be using the revised game text throughout this article. As the lore suggests, even the stun setting has its dangers (stun the heart muscle for example, and you might cause a cardiac arrest). Both phasers and disruptors are the kinds of weapons that do this kind of damage, excluding melee-type weapons. That's fine. And it kills stunned personnel (as if they were mortally wounded, but even quicker, I'm not sure why). Simple. That two personnel are killed is kinda questionable. I mean, why two? The lore makes it sound like a mistake, and they don't normally come in pairs (I mean, on the show). Maybe one per hand weapon present? I would have found that more satisfying. A simple and effective card, but I'm a nitpicker at heart. 3.8 here.

STOCKABILITY: It won't really change the outcome of a battle (who wins, who loses), because stunned personnel's STRENGTH aren't calculated in the final tally, but it WILL make the death toll mount at an incredible rate. It basically turns two stun results into two mortally wounded results from which a personnel may not be "saved" by Hypospray. It's like a double dose of Bat'leth. All you need to do is stun opposing personnel, which is a common enough result (and easier to attain since you already have hand weapons there), and I could mention Hypospray again. The weaker affiliations (in terms of STRENGTH) don't often mortally wound, they mostly stun, so they'll find a use for this interrupt. And note that you can play as many as you want in one battle, so you aren't really limited to the two dead personnel. A good enough battle support card, though those armed Jem'Hadar may not stun easily. A 3.5.

TOTAL: 13.5 (67.5%) I'm not sure how it would have fared un-errataed.

PICTURE: While the composition isn't all bad, the purplish pink colors are a kind of ulgy. Especially against a sickly green background. The trees in the back make for a different decor than most cards, but their tops being cut by the frame, THAT's bad composition. A slightly less than average effort at 2.9.

LORE: The story as it happened, but the term "mediators" isn't exactly placed in context. Syntax is a little unimaginative too. I dunno. The double effect on the Feds is explained, so that's cool. Pretty average, really. A 3.2.

TREK SENSE: Follows the events of the episode pretty well, at least, on the surface. One personnel makes a (fatal) mistake in the Punishment Zone and is put to death. Random selection? Yep, the whole justice system on Rubicon III looked pretty random to me. Of course, you then have a dilemma. If you beam up the personnel (there's really nothing the natives can do), you break the Prime Directive, so you ethically deserve the -10 points. Wait, isn't it just -5? Well, no. The Prime Directive only applies to the Feds, so the -5 penalty for non-Federation personnel is a problem. Romulans wouldn't think twice about rescuing their personnel (then probably training their ship's weapons on the planet), so the penalty is non-sense. For non-Feds, something suggesting the Edo Vessel's attack on their ship would have been better. After all, beaming requires a ship or facility to beam to. Damage that and you have some measure of Trek Sense. As is, the dilemma only makes sense for one of the affiliations. A 3.5.

SEEDABILITY: A random death or point loss, but a sure hit. Either your opponent loses a personnel, or filters out that personnel and takes the -5 point loss. The Feds, with all their juicy personnel, might take a -10! Are you sure you want to save Captain Kirk? It'll cost ya! Use this at enough missions, and your opponent could incur a significant point loss. Lead in with Armus or some other sure-thing killer, and your opponent might get sweaty about letting another man die out there. The only thing keeping this dilemma from being a real powerhouse is that, with Genetronic Replicator in play, a well-prepared Away Team can get around the penalty. Choose a personnel to die, then save its life. What Prime Directive? Still, fairly efficient at 3.8.

TOTAL: 13.4 (67%) The Rolodex: the one true daily punishment zone.

PICTURE: Providence or real genius lies behing this seemingly normal yellow-brown planet. Check the shadow pattern and compare with the Non-Aligned icon. Look familiar? As the first NA mission, it makes a lot of sense to match the two, and it's not a bad rendition of a planet either. An insightful 4.1.

LORE: Kinda telegraphic in its syntax, it nonetheless tries hard by using words such as "nefarious" and "squalid". A 3.3, I guess.

TREK SENSE: Not enough (in a sense). First, there's the question of this being a Non-Aligned mission. In the show, the rendezvous was made between the Federation and a nefarious Ferengi (at this point, Non-Aligned) merchant. These are aligned, or even if the Ferengi isn't, you'll notice HE's the nefarious agent mentioned in the lore. Amarie may be the key: she arranged the meeting, so this could be the pre-rendezvous rendezvous. Treachery/Greed as an Amarie substitute, while probably in line with someone who makes these meetings possible (underworld contacts/easy to pay off), almost seems like they mean the nefarious merchants (yep, that's both Treachery and Greed). In that optic, it works. But placing aligned personnel here in stasis doesn't. Aren't we arranging the meeting for them? (When solved, they are free of course.) Maybe they scare away the contact if they participate in the mission itself, but a requirement like "no aligned personnel" and special game text that places in stasis: two very different things. Indeed, what gives Qualor II this power? Riker and Worf talked to Amarie on Qualor II without becoming frozen statues. If they simply get stalled by the people here, then "stopped" (making it possible to beam them back up, like in the episode) makes more sense. Span and points are pretty regular, though 30 points seems a bit much for such a "link-in-the-chain" mission. Cannot give more than a 2.3, but it tries hard.

SEEDABILITY: As a straight mission, it's 30 points with one personnel (Amarie), or 35 with two if using Dr.Farek and Assign Mission Specialists. Pretty regular stuff, all in all. At least both Farek and Amarie (depending on your strategy) can be downloaded through AMS. Of course, it has the distinction of requiring only Non-Aligned personnel to attempt. As such, it cannot be stolen by affiliated personnel, or assimilated by Borg (always aligned). It's also a good setting stage for rare but possible NA decks, and Husnock Outpost can be seeded here, no problem. That's as a straight missions. As a spaceline event of sorts, you can use its game text for ill effects, by relocating opponent's affiliated personnel to Qualor II and placing them in stasis. If no one ever solves the mission, personnel in stasis here are trapped forever. So how do you get them there? Wrong Door on Iconian Gateway, Hippocratic Oath on a neighboring planet, Mysterious Orb, Magic Carpet Ride OCD, being lucky enough to have Qualor on the end of the spaceline when the Love Interests hit, even Where's Guinan? (but only on the one Fed El-Aurian). Nothing fool-proof, but once they are in stasis, they can't be used, and can't even be rescued (beamed up) unless the mission is solved. Fair Play's always nice here. And if your opponent gets close to solving the mission, maybe you could have a Dead in Bed in hand... AGAINST these tactics, a Memory Wipe would allow you to attempt with just about anyone (if you're packing). The cool features make this a 3.7.

TOTAL: 13.4 (67%) Middle of the road, but has interesting features that make it unique.

PICTURE: Can't exactly be impressed with the foggy special effects and obviously papier maché prop, but that's all there was to photograph of the Lifeforms. A 2.4, but I'm not blaming Decipher.

LORE: Lore makes it sound like such "nestings" are commonplace, but otherwise very competently done. There's no reason not to give this part a 3.

TREK SENSE: The AU icon is iffy, since the Lifeforms aren't extra-dimensional or from another time, but when dealing with singularities, it's anybody's game. The time warping effects are enough to warrant the icon. Then we hit genius country. The Lifeforms lodge in an engine and create a temporal stasis bubble only if that engine is Romulan. Only the Romulans use a quantum singularity as a power source, so only they can set it off. The bubble is big enough to "freeze" all ships here. Great stuff, BUT there is the problem on non-Romulan [Rom] ships! The T'Pau is Vulcan and the Cha'Joh is Klingon (heck, it can switch to and from a singularity power source, but that's impossible according to the show - once on, it's on). The cures aren't as sharp either. The Emergency Transporter Armbands were reprogramed in the show to allow personnel to avoid the temporal stasis, except simply playing the card on personnel it's happening to doesn't work: they're too frozen to reprogram the things. Plus, by themselves, they can't do much of anything here. If Computer Skill, ENGINEER or better yet, Physics had been included, that would have been better. The second possible cure, Timepod Ring, is a little hard to gauge on account of there not being a card with that title yet. If it has anything to do with the Timepod artifact, well, there's no evidence it can ignore the temporal stasis, but none that it couldn't either. The last cure, bringing over an Engineer, seems incomplete. How does that Engineer avoid being placed in stasis as well? In fact, why isn't the entire area quarantined, with arriving personnel also being affected? ('Cuz they aren't, you know.) Problems abound as you get to the last sentence, dropping an otherwise superlative idea to a 3.3.

SEEDABILITY: The problem used to be that, if you wanted the dilemma to hit, you needed a Romulan ship present. Either your opponent had to be playing Romulans (how could you know for sure?), or you had to fly your own Romulan ship to that location (conspicuous at best, and you also lost the ship and crew to stasis). Now however, we have Scout Encounter. Yep, lead in with that dilemma from First Contact, download a Romulan Scout Vessel (even without playing the Romulans) to that location from your Tent (so you don't ever draw it by mistake) - and it doesn't even have to be staffed - and voila, instant stasis. And that's not a nice place to be for a ship! Unfortunately, while a ship in stasis used to have no WEAPONS or SHIELDS, meaning it could be destroyed even by a shuttle's tiny WEAPONS, current rulings say this is no longer possible. It's still in stasis, with all special equipment and game text suspended though. If you think the Borg have it easier because of the Cyber Drone's ability to shield Borg personnel from stasis, think again: the ship is still in stasis. The Collective can't report an ENGINEER there with a Cube's game text (that text is in stasis), and the drones can't use the transporters to get off. They are effectively trapped aboard. The cures range from impossible (the nonexistent Timepod Ring) to the rarely found (the Armbands) to the easy to get (another ENGINEER). That's what limits this dilemma combo the most: just an ENGINEER? Easy thing in most cases, unless all other ships are in another quadrant or in the discard pile. That's why you should either attack all incoming ENGINEERs. If there's no incoming ENGINEER, there's still hope. As long as it's in stasis, it can't be Res-Qed, Palored or Regenerated. Still, a cool dilemma, but not one I'd use WITHOUT a good combo behind it. A 3.7 from me.

TOTAL: 12.4 (62%) Pretty specific.

PICTURE: Unlike most cards, the system represented by this card shows nothing close up. The star is far away, the brighter bigger dots seem to be planets, and the surrounding dark matter isn't much defined. There's something very classy about this mission. The depths and mysteries of space mesh well with a covert mission. An understated 3.8.

LORE: Eeech, while I really like the title (you don't hear the verb quash nearly often enough), very Romulo-centric too - only they would see a cultural movement as a "conspiracy" - "negating" an undergrpund operation sounds like game talk (like the word nullify) and doesn't work here at all. Drops to a 2.8.

TREK SENSE: This is the mission the real Major Rakal would have been doing in "Face of the Enemy" if she hadn't been replaced ;-). Tal Shiar of course do this kind of work, and to make sure you don't get all those honorable Romulans working for the underground getting in the way, low total Integrity is required. An interesting idea, not without merit. I also like the idea that to keep security at an absolute maximum, ship-to-ship beaming is strictly forbidden. You wouldn't want that Romulan proconsul in stasis to be beamed off to the Feds would you? As much as I like it, it doesn't make sense for non-Romulans (or even Romulans if no Tal Shiar is present). The area doesn't actually have anti-beaming properties, it's a matter of policy for the mission attempt. That's a problem. Nice try though. The points are high because I think the Romulan Senate has made the destruction of Spock's underground a priority. The Span looks okay, though with the amount of traveling time seen in the episode, they could have gone one higher. Some good ideas: a 3.2.

SEEDABILITY: Well, it can be solved with just one Tal Shiar personnel unless it has INTEGRITY greater than 21 which is extremely doubtful ;-). Still, it's easy to solve (barring any dilemmas). High points too. Since Tal Shiar decks are quite potable (using the personnel for Advanced ship staffing, Brainwash etc. downloads, and Plans espionage management), you're likely to have more than one of them in your personnel base. The fun thing here though, is figuring out how to exploit the no ship-to-ship beaming clause. As an obstacle, it's quite clear that it limits armadas-pooling-resources-to-attempt-missions, but here, there's only one skill and an attrribute MAXIMUM. Using the mission might stall Borg attempts to space-redshirt while going through dilemmas and probing. The clause is also a liability when facing some dilemmas that establish quarantines. You can't beam the cures aboard! User beware, though you might use those dilemmas on this self-seeded mission (opponent thinks they're artifacts) in order to lure a Romulan, mission thief or Borg opponent here, then trap his personnel aboard a dying ship (then swoop in and complete the mission). Similarly, Q self-seeded here is a sure stopper for your opponent (especially if following Lack of Preparation), and you automatically get to rearrange the spaceline. For yourself, it may be a sanctuary from Open Diplomatic Negociations and Invasive Transporters no matter what affiliation you're playing. Risky, but since you're not going to solve all 6 of your missions, you might want to include this one for the fringe benefits. A 3.5.

TOTAL: 13.3 (66.5%) A cooler card now that there's more than Major Rakal who can solve it.

PICTURE: Early 24th century hair styles not withstanding, Captain Garrett looks sufficiently in charge of her ship (more so than Janeway), primed for battle in her captain's chair. While a bit dark in the background, it's not much of a problem, though the horizontal bar hurts the composition slightly by leading the eye away from the subject matter. A noble 3.6.

LORE: Confers matching commander status (always helps a lore score), but otherwise pretty much tells us just the facts. I do like how history is subverted by the use of two anachronic dates. It really puts us in the AU mindset. A pretty good 3.6 here too.

TREK SENSE: I do agree that ship captains should have at least 5 skills (in your face, Ben Maxwell!), but it's all a matter of giving them the right ones. Rachel Garrett wasn't onscreen for long so it's hard to say if she got the right ones. Leadership is an obvious one. I think she certainly deserved Honor for wanting to go back to the past to meet her fate despite its being fatal, and I think the super-high Integrity can be justified the same way. Diplomacy is a captainly skill, even for a captain in wartime (maybe ESPECIALLY then). Engineer? Her ship needed a lot of repairs, she was overseeing them. Tenuous, but possible. Astrophysics? Might explain why she entered a temporal anomaly (an astrophysical phenomenon), but doesn't really. Even more tenuous. None of these can be contradicted, like I said, captains have had long distinguished carreers and should have a lot of skills, but they can't necessarily be supported either. Her Cunning is adequate without actually feeling right. Higher by a point perhaps? Can't really explain why. Strength is possibly too low. I know women are generally physically weaker than men, but a Starfleet captain during wartime? In her prime? I'm not so sure. She's at least as strong as Picard. Icons look good, that's a 3.6 folks.

STOCKABILITY: 3.6 again? Let's see... The Feds have a lot of multi-skill personnel, so is she a useful one? Worth the extra effort to arrange for AU personnel? Well, as far sa that goes, the Feds have enough AU cards to justifiy it. Her AU icon further allows her to report to AU ships via Crew Reassignment, which is great, and in particular to her own ship, the Enterprise-C which really needs a way to report personnel because it can enter play where personnel don't usually report. Of course, Ready Room Door would also allow her to report there (download there actually, if you're impatient). The ship does enter play damage which, with an opponent's Battle Bridge side-deck, is a little more dangerous than it used to be (htough it reports empty so no casualties), but she can plaque and log the ship to more acceptable levels. Full up, it's a 10-10-11. Skill-wise, the Honor isn't very useful to the Feds; ENGINEER is always great to have (she's dual-classification to boot); Leadership is good if a little redundant when it comes to battling; Diplomacy is a good standby but altogether too common in the blue team; and Astrophysics is the rarer skill, and does show up on a number of dilemmas now, but the Feds have a high degree of skill redundancy anyway. Her solving Restore Errant Moon alone is fine, but it's just one mission, and you might want to do that one with mission specialists for more points. Good stats, especially the INTEGRITY, but that STRENGTH ain't gonna pass Maglocks. Not a 3.6 then, but a close 3.5.

TOTAL: 14.3 (71.5%) Can't give a bad score to a captain of the Enterprise.

PICTURE: All the neo-kids are in the pic, looking into a Jeffries tube, possibly up to some mischief. Good stuff. The score can only go up when you consider the Easter Egg: "You must be this high to ride this ride". A fine joke and surprisingly legible. The only think I don't like is the color scheme which depends much too much on fushia to make its point. A cool 4.1.

LORE: The story told, but not without a large chunk of techno-babble. Almost reads like they're listing off the 4 characters so you know who's who despite the younger actors. I'm not saying that's bad - it's just too much like a public service announcement. Techno-babble keeps it at a slightly boring 3. Cool title though.

TREK SENSE: The big question is just how your personnel go through that molecular reversion field to be turned into kids. I mean, most space missions don't require beaming, so this dilemma wouldn't crop up. But let's say it does. Youth is obviously added to the card, but in place of an actual skill? I thought the lore said their minds remained intact? But let's say they don't. Why the first listed skill? Isn't that, in a sense, the skill that was first learned? Conceptually, you should lose your last learned skills, no? But let's say I'm wrong. How about the personnel who already have Youth. Do they turn into babies? Could they still use skills then? Let's say they can. Youth have a Strength of 2 apparently, but what, even Klingon children? Even Jem'Hadar youngsters? Sure, Alexander has a 2, but Jake and Nog both have a 4 and they seemed to be Captain Picard's rascally age. This one's not so bad, because the kids might be young enough to warrant this, and there is some support for the number. How about that cure? Transporter Skill might have been useful here, but we'll make do with a Medical combo (2 Med + 1 Biology). It makes as much sense as anything (it's a dna-related dilemma), but the real problem is all those questions I asked at the start. Unfortunately, most missions DON'T require beaming, minds SHOULD remain intact, etc. So that's just a 1.5 folks. I can't really even adress the unique personnel targeting legitimately, but the limit of four mimics the episode (however a transporter may hold more people than that, so the limit is artificial).

SEEDABILITY: More a nuisance than anything, Rascals'll find more use as part of a smart combo. By targeting 4 unique personnel present, it may drastically lower the STRENGTH total of a crew before they meet a STRENGTH-related dilemma. There aren't that many built for space though, but there IS Maglock, Chula: The Dice, Dal'Rok, maybe even Nagilum or (dare we hope?) Outpost Raid. That first skill being turned into Youth will kill some mission specialists (though more than a few are universal, so unaffected), but enough doubled skills or classifications to hurt the mission attempt. A Leadership requiring dilemma may be a good dilemma to put next, since that skill often appears first on OFFICERs and VIPs. You might self-seed to take advantage of Ooby Dooby's card draws, then cure with a lone Beverly or some such personnel. Or Scorch the Hand of your opponent by using the same trick. That may be the big problem though: that cure. It's real easy for many affiliations to get the necessary skills. There is one boon however, those super-MEDICALs are gonna get hosed by this dilemma and will lose one of the necessary skills. Still, with a couple of them together, you can still cure the dilemma easily. And there's no guarantee they would be part of the 4 selected personnel. That makes for a 3.5.

TOTAL: 12.1 (60.5%) You must score this high to get a passing grade.

PICTURE: Two blue stones going kissy-kissy isn't very dynamic, but I think the color scheme, at least, works. In particular, the deep red background and those golden flower motifs at the top. That's all very rich, and it suits an artifact. A 3.3.

LORE: The story gets told, and the lore even names names. There's also an explanation for the artifact's name and an attempt to explain the game text. A bit above average at 3.3.

TREK SENSE: Conceptually, it makes a certain measure of sense. The same way Ves Alkar put his negative emotions into another person, you can make another crew feel the effects of the same dilemmas yours is. But even in the conceptual arena, it's not a tight fit. You still feel the effects of the dilemma, wheras Alkar was free of the transferred negative emotions. In any case, the card has about zero real Trek Sense, since the Stones do nothing like what is described here. We're supposed to believe they can make a Borg Ship pop up light-years away, for example. Utter non-sense, and the conceptual basis for the card is weak. 0.4 here.

SEEDABILITY: Well, are people still using Artifacts that aren't used as Equipment (via Starry Night)? ;-) The Stones can be used to punish an opponent for a particularly deadly dilemma combo by facing what he has put under your space mission himself, and you can Scan the missions beforehand to get an idea of which mission and which ship to target. But that seems risky and wasteful in a sense. The best way to use this dilemma, in my opinion, is as a weapon against your opponent. You select the dilemmas by seeding them yourself, then you face them with the necessary requirements aboard, which doesn't mean the target ship will have them. Against an armada, for example, place on one of the ships, then ace your self-seeded Borg Ship. You have Hugh, your opponent doesn't. End threat of armada. Against single ships, I'd go for crew killers, ship slowers and damagers, but avoid walls and filters (unless the later was part of a necessary combo). Note that ALL the space dilemmas encountered during your turn affect the ship, that means you can attempt more than one mission, with more than one ship! It also includes any Empok Nor dilemmas you'd face commandeering the station. As long as you made the effort to actually acquire the artifact, you might as well load the bases and go through a plethora of dilemmas, some pre-constructed weapons, some seeded by your opponent. A good reason to remember which personnel are on which ship - an underrated 3.8.

TOTAL: 10.8 (54%) Possibly the lowest Trek Sense score I've ever given other than Balancing Act's zero.

PICTURE: Well, that phaser looks pretty harmless from this angle. Far from giving the impression that we're being shot, it rather looks like she's using a flashlight or semaphore. It's good to see Tasha on another card (she got short shrift in the series after all), but the background is all too plain, and though she's rescuing captives in this shot, something with captives actually being busted out of a cell would have beem much more satisfying. Simply a 2.5.

LORE: A couple of things I fing jarring - putting the words "Away Team" with capital letters, which is a game conceit, okay in game text, but strange in lore; and the use of "on this occasion" referring to the picture. Few cards do this, and they're usually poorer for it. The whole Security Chief thing is fine, but isn't even followed through in the game text. A wasteful 2.2.

TREK SENSE: This is one card that overreaches a whole lot. Too much! All of a sudden, all captives, wherever they are, are busted loose AND returned to an outpost in Interrupt time, and without the need for Security personnel whatsoever. Prepare the Prisoner fixes it some, but that's neither here nor there. As a standalone, Rescue Captives does too much. If it played on only one location, I agree that the capture-related cards mentioned should be interrupted/nullified, all except maybe Brainwash which turns, after all, a personnel into a willing participant to your opponent's plans. Indeed, a Brainwashed personnel isn't much of a captive (not in its own mind), and "busting it loose" from wherever it is, does not deprogram it. I'm afraid I can't go over 2.1 here.

STOCKABILITY: The proliferation of capture-decks has made this card something of a magic bullet in some parts. That's not to say you should stock it de facto. Q's Tent, maybe. Against Cardassian and Romulan capture decks (even SECURITY-heavy Dominion ones), you might wish you did. Captives can cost you point spreads and, well, personnel! Make sure you seed an Outpost (captives don't return to Nors), of course, and when all your personnel are in the Brig, or Brigs, bust them out. An uber-counter, Rescue Captives kills all those nasty capture-related events, including Brainwashes. Easier than Kevin Uxbridge. Watch out for hosers, though. There's Tharket's nullifying ability, and Prepare the Prisoner will make multiple Brigs real hosers as well as protect Brainwashed personnel that have been separated from each other. If you yourself are playing a capture deck, it certainly doesn't prevent your opponent from doing so as well. Rescue Captives isn't a waste in those decks because Prepare the Prisoner will cycle it like any other capturing-related card in case your opponent isn't setting any traps. An easily used 3.7.

TOTAL: 10.5 (52.5%) Low grades (much like the episode the picture was pulled from).

PICTURE: A basically unimpressive prop shot-type photo, the Flute at least has a nice enough ornemented case. The shot highlights how simple the flute is though - just a tin flute with a tassel on it. Kinda silly really. The composition's not bad, but the colors are flat. A 2.9.

LORE: Using the term "artifact" here makes sense, since this thing really WAS an artifact (you can't say that of every Artifact card). The story from "The Inner Light" is mentioned in brief, but it's enough. A competent 3.3.

TREK SENSE: Well, very little. On the surface, you'd think the AU icon would at least be sensical, but though I admit the Flute existed in the far past, it was also recovered in the here and now, through no temporal manipulation. I mean, aren't all artifacts from the past by definition? That doesn't make them AU. So that's wrong. Then there's the effect. The Flute is somehow worth points for Music personnel. Okay, it's a musical instrument, I see the thematic link. But other than that, especially played as an event-like card (though not an event), we're supposed to believe its discovery is some kind of achievement for the Musical world. After all, where there are points, there has to be some kind of goal being accomplished. On some level, Picard did come back from his experience with a new instrument, and a lost music (at least one song), but can that benefit the Musical world to the tune of 5 points per Music personnel? I don't think so. It's a bit too extreme. I'm also displeased that the artifact can't be seeded under a space mission, at least Investigate Probe, since it WAS found in space. The Devil destroying it is cute in a sense, since that "character" destroys other instruments of fun, like the Wind Dancer, but really, isn't the devil the lord of the dance? The piper? About the only thing I don't have a problem with is the phrase "not duplicatable" since this artifact seemed exceedingly rare. Totals a 1.1 by my count. Eeech.

SEEDABILITY: Hey, any card that has a deck archetype named after it has to be pretty good, no? Fact is, the Ressikan Flute deck (or just Flute deck) can be a powerful one, rich in bonus points. In the current playing environment, you have to deal with a couple of counters to bonus point strategies (Intermix Ratio requires you to earn at least half your point from missions, and The Big Picture requires you to solve at least two of them), but they don't really destroy the Flute deck, just keep it sensible. (I'll mention specific Flute counters in a second.) The best way to approach this thing is to report lots of Music personnel, and simply "score" points that way. And reporting is way easier than solving missions, no? The Federation and maybe the Klingons are the best suited to do this, with more Music than the others (sometimes, drastically more). Putting 3 Music personnel with the Flute in a Cryosatellite will give you a 15-point headstart, but you should also make use of as many Music personnel as possible. If your opponent forgot to counter Red Alert, drop a pile of cheap universal Musicians on the table to finish the game in one fell swoop. Use Cybernetics to report free Musical androids. Assign Mission Specialists can nab you an Amarie. Free HQ plays might be an idea too, but would be limited to Admiral Riker, pretty much. A few Music personnel can be downloaded with Assign Support Personnel too. Tell you what though. If you can make it work, Defend Homeworld'll download you any number of leaders (plenty of which have Music) and SECURITY (like Obarakeh and Jenna D'Sora). Instant wins in many cases, especially later in the game. Specific counters are laughable. The Devil won't turn up very often, since it's pretty limited and rare. Tijuana Crass will even out the playing field, but has a few strikes against it - 1) not everyone uses a Q-Continuum and 2) those that do don't care much for this too-specific nuisance card. And Jenice Manheim, which limits Flute points to 20 is a pretty useless personnel, and can be killed by your Musicians if need be. Still packs a punch at 4.1.

TOTAL: 11.4 (57%) How high can a conceptual card go?

PICTURE: I admire the tiny spacedock superimposed on a picture of the Red Planet, but if that's supposed to be the Utopia Planitia shipyards, Voyager did them better. One tiny spacedock doesn't amount to a yard! Nevertheless, it's a nice picture, what with the sun in the background. I'd say a 3.6 here.

LORE: First off, there are problems with the name of the place - most missions give the name of the planet, but this one gives a location on or around that planet. Odd. And because of the region rules instituted a few expansions after this card came out, there should be a Sector 001 on there. As for the non-bold text, it's discreet enough with its "famous officers" to allow the idea to sink in as you read the card further. The bugs are minor - a 3.

TREK SENSE: The card has the three Original Series survivors meeting in the 24th century, which is cool, but of course, it never actually happened on the show. If that's why this is included in the Alternate Universe expansion, it's fitting. But does it work? There are various problems that lead me to say no. First of all, there's the spot itself. Why Mars? The planet holds no special importance to the three characters, and somewhere like Vulcan (where IS Vulcan by the way) or even Corridan would have been more appropriate (these were included because they were mentioned on TNG and so would have respected Decipher's original deal with Paramount). Sure, Admiral McCoy saw the Enterprise off there, so he might be close by. I guess that explain that. Then, there's the fact the three characters might very well arrive on the same starship, making their Reunion not on the planet, but on that ship somewhere else on the spaceline. Ridiculous. The requirements, while cutely done, have problems too. Like the mention of Spock, the other two characters should also have been mentioned by name. Miracle Worker and Cantankerousness, while jokingly attached to the specific characters, can be reproduced with Reflection Therapy or Lal. Gee, won't Spock be surprised when a Therapied Simon Tarses shows up claiming to be the famous Miracle Worker! What's more, this has made it impossible for Decipher to give Miracle Worker (for example) to any other personnel, even other Scotties. There's also the way of scoring points here. If only one of the three shows up, he scores 15 points. Why? You can't even call that a partial Reunion. Why no points for two? At least, a couple of them get together on that occasion! The Span might even be a bit much for an in-region location so close to the Federation HQ. At least I have no objection to the Federation attemptability icon. So cool, yet so off-track - a 1.2.

SEEDABILITY: On the one hand, this mission is REALLY hard to steal. Your opponent would have to stock one of 3 very specific personnel (2 of which are Premiums), and that would only get them 15 points, barely worth the effort. With an X in the point box, the Borg can't go after this planet either. On the other hand, it's just as hard for you to complete (unless you want to settle for 15 points), because you need to draw those 3 personnel and not lose them to dilemmas. Great place to seed a Lack of Preparation, by the way. The Sector 001 region is pretty small for now (only this mission and Earth), but that means you could avoid some of the dangers of keeping the 3 personnel together by reporting them to the Headquarters (two of them report for free there) and simply jumping one mission to the side and solving. Could be a cool finishing move for 15-40 points too. It's not like the 3 personnel involved aren't any good, they're very good personnel, but the risks are high. A 2.8.

TOTAL: 10.6 (53%) A fun card, don't get me wrong.

PICTURE: I don't have a whole lot of respect for "we don't have the money for any effects or sets so let's just say the tone was surreal" episodes, and "The Royale"'s opening certainly smack of that. As a card though, it has some redeeming features such as a good coppery color palette and no background distractions. I also like the "R" on the door, which may stand for Revolving Door as much as for Royale (especially since the hotel isn't even mentioned in the lore). On the off side, the lighting's not very good, and the composition is at its dullest. A 3.5.

LORE: The lore here keeps the door and its origins mysterious, perhaps trying to hide the fact that there's very little relationship between the door in the show and the game text. It unfortunately doesn't do a very good job of justifying that game text though. The prose is okay (nothing great), but it's more noteworthy for what it doesn't do than what it does. A 2.7.

TREK SENSE: I'm afraid this puppy is totally conceptual, since the Revolving Door on the show wasn't used on any Doorway at all. It WAS a Doorway to the Royale environment, nothing else. That said, the conceptuals don't even work that well. While the targets are okay, and I especially like the inclusion of the Iconian Gateway as an extra "doorway" here, the effect doesn't follow. Even the lore says the door wasn't CLOSED, it was just ONE-WAY. You can still enter, just not get out. Simply put, there's no "Revolving" feature to the card. Or maybe you're counting the opening of doors by the nullification of another Revolving Door? That doesn't make any more sense, though I'll concede the crew got out through the Door again at the end of the episode, but not a different (copy of the) door, and not because of anything the door did. The conceptuals don't get this one too far at all - a 0.5.

STOCKABILITY: There's no generic way to nullify a Doorway card, but the Revolving Door comes close by more or less suspending a Doorway. Like most counters, it's only as useful as the stuff it counters, and it does that pretty well though it's limited in an important way. It's played at Event speeds, which means a standard card play and no way to counter a Doorway played for an interrupt-like function. Revolving Door has counters of its own, like Kevin Uxbridge and itself of course, but I wouldn't be too worried about Alternate Universe Door (which can specifically nullify it), or someone taking advantage of your Door to play Temporal Narcosis (hehehe). There's more of a chance of someone using a Doorway to re-open the same Doorway as listed on some of those cards (such as the Bajoran Wormhole), though more often than not, players will probably not have included a back-up. That said, just how much damage can you do with this? Big stuff: Closing access to Alternate Universe cards, and especially the special effects associated with Space-Time Portal (but won't do much against the newer, less alternate, affiliations); closing off Q's Tent and all the important cards contained within; closing access to the Gamma/Alpha quadrants, leaving yourself safe on one side of the anomaly; handicap the Borg by closing off a Transwarp Network Gateway close to your homeworld; and close Spacedoor without giving your opponent the benefit of a "closed Spacedoor"'s effects. Defensive Stuff: If the Q-Continuum or Tribble side-decks are proving to be a nuisance, shut them down; or protect yourself from an Airlock, Black Hole or Iconian Gateway's open door policy on all missions. There's also the idea of trapping ships in a Time Location by killing Temporal Vortex, or of "un-protecting" Captain's Orders under Ready Room Doors. Wrong Door can be used to move your Revolving Door away (not nullify it), but don't forget you can use that card yourself to switch the same R.D. to whichever Doorway is the most threatening, and at interrupt speeds to boot. Keeps your opponent on his toes. Of course, this review wouldn't be complete without the mention that you may want to stock this simply to protect yourself from opposing Revolving Doors, especially if you're going to be dependent on a side-deck or AU personnel for example. The Kevin/Amanda equivalent for Doorways, but a little more interesting (for example, it allows you to suspend your own Black Hole until exactly the right time, when you move it or nullify it). A 4.2 here.

TOTAL: 10.9 (54.5%) Pretty straightforward, but Trek Sense kills it.

PICTURE: A little dark, but an okay bust shot. Compostion has too many lines leading out of the picture. What can I say? It doesn't actually bring many words to mind. A 2.7.

LORE: Straightforward and workmanlike, again, not much to impress or amaze. Even the romantic link is expressed in the same words we've read numerous times. And if there's ever a card that makes use of that text, we might have a little problem because he was actually involved with Tasha Yar-Alternate (which wouldn't make for clean lore, I know). A simple 3.

TREK SENSE: First officer? Definitely Officer/Leadership/Command icon. Helm? Definitely Navigation. Eeech, they didn't delve very deeply into this one. Because he helped fix the Enterprise-C, he might have gotten Engineer or something. Or Honor because he was ready to go back to the past where he was bound to die. But then he just starts sounding like Captain Garrett. The rest of the card makes sense, from the AU icon (he's from the past) to the attributes (very honorable despite the lack of the skill, smart and strong enough). Uninspired at best, but you can't fault what IS here. A 3.5.

STOCKABILITY: There are many ways to report Mr. Castillo, from Crew Reassignment to AU ships, to Assign Support Personnel, to, well, regular reporting, but would you really want to? I'm afraid they stuck this guy with two of the most common skills available and not the best classification. Sure, you can download him to a ship via ASP, perhaps to recover staffing of that big Future Enterprise, or to help out against some pollution card, but really, don't you have other personnel who can do this? I'll admit he's got very good attributes. The problem is that the Feds have a LOT of personnel available to them, and MANY AUs, so when it comes right down to it, they can do better than Ricky here. Not useless, like I said, his skills are okay even if they're common, but far from exciting. A 2.4.

TOTAL: 11.6 (58%) Real easy to target him for binder heaven.

PICTURE: The prettiest planet in the Alpha Quadrant doesn't look that nice from space, I must say. There's a hint of pink (fields of flowers) and very little cloud cover, but the shadows and messy colors do it a disservice. 2.9 from me.

LORE: Hardly a "mission" :-), but there's still an objective to be achieved. It doesn't explain everything in the game text, but it does a fairly good job of setting the right tone. A 3.4.

TREK SENSE: Well, it really doesn't take anything at all to just relax on the pleasure planet, but missions need requirements. I think "no Leadership" might have been a good one, seeing as Picard had some trouble relaxing because of the duties of command. I mean, do Civilians really need R&R more than Officers or other classifications? It just seems like they went for benign skills like Youth and Music (one is more likely to have fun, the other can be a form of recreation) and threw in a little romance (male/female) for good measure. That's okay in a sense - providing a panorama of activities available on Risa - but as stiff requirements, there should be ORs in there. You can't do everything! Nor are those the only activities available. 30 points seems a bit steep for essentially taking a break. And while Risa appears to be within the Federation, its citizens are Non-Aligned (Arandis), so is the planet (and mission) open to anyone else? DS9 has show us Ferengi and Bajorans also enjoying the place. I like the idea of a "non-mission", but the execution doesn't work within this section's admitedly strict parameters. A 1.2.

SEEDABILITY: The Federation doesn't have as many CIVILIANs as they would like, but the Non-Aligneds have so many, some crossover will help here. Not a bad mission, since it can be solved with just 2 personnel, for example: a male CIVILIAN with Youth (like Alexander) and a female CIVILIAN with Music (Amarie), but the inclusion of CIVILIANs for CIVILIANs' sake isn't all that cost effective (as in, they can't do much else). The Federation also has mission specialists for both skills here, potentially bringing the point value up to 40 points. Risa's value is actually in its peripheral uses. Jamaharon will relocate male personnel to Risa, so building an outpost here creates a failsafe "snap back" device against Male's Love Interest and other relocaters. (Non-Feds may just want to include the planet, set up an assault team there and whisk away male personnel with that same card.) To make sure you get your hands on Jamaharon, you can seed Arandis right on the planet and she'll download it for you. There are other advantages to doing this, including adding an NA attemptability icon to the planet if you want to use it in a non-Federation deck. She also provides some built-in requirements such as Youth, Music, CIVILIAN and female for quick solving. Ambassador Krajensky also reports here, possibly to build you an outpost if you lost your facility thanks to his ENGINEER. Thanks to those other cards, Risa Shore Leave actually becomes a good idea, even if you don't plan on solving it, and it's useable by more than just the Feds, who can still usually count on theft-protection when they do. A 3.8.

TOTAL: 11.3 (56.5%) Looks like the score was decided by the Essentialists. ;-)

PICTURE: Well, I appreciate the emerald green background and the extra frame created by the window (has just the right fuzziness to it), but the outfit has got to go. Standard TNG "drab", the almost flesh-tone under-tunic has her look like she's got a plunging neckline. No thank you. ;-) An okay 3.3.

LORE: Creates an excellent context for her effect on Kevin Uxbridge. I can't say I find any problems with it. A 3.2.

TREK SENSE: First off, I'm not sure I agree with the AU icon. She's unreal, but is a creation of a quite real (non-AU) entity, Kevin Uxbridge. You might say there's a precedent with equally unreal K'chiQ, but there is a difference. She's a personnel that works whether RiQer is present to create her or not. Rishon is not a personnel, and furthermore her effect being on Kevin (her creator) implies his presence anyway. As for the effect, it's as sensical as Kevin's. That is, what he would destroy in a fit of rage (or because of his sensitivity to injustice), she protects by calming him down, by defending whatever he's attacking, or by forbidding him the use of his powers because of her own sense of morality. To believe in her, you have to believe in Kevin's ability (or will) to destroy a particular event. For example, why would he unroot a Drought Tree? Are Renewal Scrolls really that repugnant a custom to him? More on that topic when I do Kevin's own card of course. That he can dispell Rishon herself is a proven fact seen on the show, and with her out of the way, he could change his mind and destroy that Event anyway, but he might not bother. Good overall concept: a 3.4.

STOCKABILITY: She protects an Event from nullification by Uxbridge (either the straight card or Convergence), and if your strategy depends heavily on one or more Events, she may be important to your deck. Problem is, you need a workable AU Door or Space-Time Portal to play her. Problem is, she only plays at Event speeds, and a quick player could Kevin your Event before she could hit the table. Problem is, she can't protect one-use Events like Regenerate. Problem is, she can't be downloaded and could sit in your draw deck for too long. Problem is, she's been replaced in a few cases by Ready Room Door and the like. Problem is, she can't protect an Event from a specific non-Kevin nullifier. And problem is, a counter hoser like The Line Must Be Drawn Here or a multi-purpose nullifier like Q2 is probably a better deterrent or card slot than she is. I would still recommend her when you need to protect a very important card to your strategy (say, Fajo's Gallery or Memory Wipe), probably as a Tent card. Right down the middle at 3.

TOTAL: 12.9 (64.5%) Down the middle all the way.

PICTURE: Two ships in space, and all I can do is nitpick them to death. I don't like the lighting on the warbird for one thing - the warp nacelles make the back of the ship light in color, but the front is much darker so that the little windows benefit from more contrast. This isn't wrong, but the difference may be just a little too large. The only white light on the hind section is somehow distorted so that it looks more like a fire than a running light. I've noted before that the warbird has a bird-like head, but from this angle, it looks more like a Stormtrooper helmet, and that unfortunately makes the beam coming out of its nose look like, well, like snot. The shuttle doesn't fare much better, a purplish gray trapezoid. Ugly. Of course, I actually think this pic is average, not terrible, but these are imperfections I found while looking at the card closely. A 2.7.

LORE: Basically tells the story, even going so far as telling that of Brainwash too. Bah... a 2.9.

TREK SENSE: If the Romulans ever get a better ship than the D'deridex series (say in the next movie, crosses fingers), there's gonna be trouble, but for now, this procedure would be a difficult one for a Romulan ship that WASN'T a D'deridex. Even the Battle Cruiser has less Shielding than what is allowed for the victim's ship. It does beg the question though: Couldn't another ship have the resources to pull this off, perhaps against smaller ships? In fact, this card shows lack of vision in making it a Romulan-only card by name and function. We know the Cardassians are into kidnapping, for example, and I'm sure they're not the only ones. Romulans aboard a large commandeered vessel also can't take advantage of this. Perhaps the "Ambush" part of the title infers a Cloaking Device? Maybe, but it doesn't require the ship to have just decloaked (and there are other ships with cloaks that could "Ambush"). Bringing other starships into the act might have required a fraction of one's Weapons instead of a straight Shield rating to be beaten, but here, it works for a D'deridex. Or does it? The card is so pointed in its strategy, you have to wonder why the Romulans don't want more than one prisoner if they could have as many as 5 or 10. The destruction of the ship makes sense if that ship's a shuttle, but wouldn't a Miranda offer a little more resistance (Shields of 5 or no), and cause more of an incident certainly? The basics from the episode are there (bird meets craft, bird wants captive from craft, bird takes captive and destroys craft), but it should have been much more. A 2.1.

STOCKABILITY: While originally a little weak to really be of use, it has since been rehabilitated somewhat. After all, it could only be used by the Romulans, only if they had a D'deridex present, and only against smaller ships (we were talking about the seldom-seen shuttles, runabouts, scouts and Mirandas at this point). Enter the improvements: 1) Smaller ships make a comeback. Well, not the Miranda, but the staffless ships get to board ships and land, which becomes a useful strategy for either extending a mothership's RANGE or providing planetary cover against pirates. The Hidden Fighter, Launch Portal and Scout Encounter downloads may have had something to do with the revival too, as might cargo runs' impact on transports. Add to that 1b) the proliferation of smaller ships, from the Bajoran Raider to the Apnex, to the D-7 and D-12 classes, runabouts with matching commanders and cloaking shuttles. 2) Romulan Ambush can be downloaded by the Goraxus, suspending play to do so, which at least makes the card more flexible. But improvement 3) is by far the best: Tactics. In an environment where players don't fear using ships with low SHIELDS because there are so many ways to bring them up (including +3 enhancements from matching commanders), comes the means to bring them down. A D'deridex isn't a pushover in battle, so it can wear down a ship's SHIELDS with damage markers, bringing most any ship to SHIELDS less than 6. Once you have them there, destroy the ship with the drop of an interrupt and capture one of the crew as a spoil of war. Obviously, the best Tactic to use with this strategy is Target Shields since it'll kill shield enhancements AND drop the SHIELDS by 2 per marker. You don't want casualties here anyway since it would only limit your choice of captive. This ranks the interrupt much higher than it would have been earlier despite its "your choice" of captive. A sneaky Romulan support card, especially now that there's more to do with it than the old "decloak by surprise and destroy a shuttle" trick. A 3.7.

TOTAL: 11.4 (57%) Well, there's no rehabilitating the WHOLE thing.

PICTURE: The composition is borrowed from a card-playing how-to video which is appropriate, but isn't helped by blurry hands and too dark shadows. There's an Easter Egg in this pic, but it's just the 253 on one of the chips, in reference to Decipher's street adress. I don't know about you, but that's the least interesting type of Easter Egg. Hardly helps, and the score winds up around 1.8. At least Data's cards do total 21.

LORE: Each Royale Casino dilemma has a different way of telling the story, but this one has got to be the worst. First, it's the most ordinarily told. Second, I still resist the term "surreal" applied to the Royale. Aside from the door, it was just pulp, nothing was surreal. Thirdly, repeating the hackneyed exchange between Tex and Data serves little purpose. This isn't a classic line by any stretch of the imagination, and doesn't seem to follow the first sentence much at all. A very poor 1.3.

TREK SENSE: Only marginally AU, the dilemma basically tries to conceptually have you play Blackjack with the STCCG cards. You're trying for the closest to 21 without going over, and the method is by counting up Cunning scores in your hand. Why Cunning instead of another attribute? I guess because Blackjack is a game of wits (well, it ain't a game of Integrity or Strength, that's for sure). The win or loss of money is translated by a win or loss of points (though the bet is never more or less than 5). Oh it works fine on that level, but it's so high in the stratosphere of conceptuals (i.e. it involves the players, not the personnel) that I don't even know what the Away Team is actually doing! They can't affect the win or loss in any fashion. Working only on that level, but well, it gets a 2.5.

SEEDABILITY: Risky whether you self-seed or try to get your opponent to face it since you can't hold on to 21 CUNNING in hand forever (personnel are way better in play), and with Writ limiting points scored via dilemmas, this one's bound to be a turkey right? Well, not entirely. For one thing, Writ still allows you to score up to 15 points, and this can be done very easily with Mickey D. without the need for checking CUNNING. But you have to think in terms of the fringe benefits of using this card, namely that both players have to show to their hands. When using the nasty Telepathic Alien Kidnappers, for example, that's the kind of information you want to have. A dilemma version of Life-Form Scan in a sense. That's little comfort though, as you have to show yours too, and you might be on the receiving end of the -5. The winner gets to change the point margin by 10 points, but is it really worth it? A risky 2.4.

TOTAL: 8 (40%) Not exactly breaking the bank.

PICTURE: The close-up of the watch looks really nice... no real blurring, everything's readable. But that's just it, it's just the picture of a watch. Data's hands make it a little more science-fictionny, but that's it. Good composition though... a 3.2.

LORE: Basically the storyline as it pertains to the pocketwatch, and though it may not be immediately apparent that it explains the game text, it does - a little - so i'll give it an adequate 3.1.

TREK SENSE: Aside from the fact that this thing really deserves its AU icon, the whole thing is pretty conceptual. Does the concept work? Where it does work is with the idea that it plays with game timing. You see the whole thing with the watch is a paradox: the watch is found in the 24th century, then given back to Clemens in the 19th where he leaves it to be found in the 24th. Umm... so where did the watch originally come from? It only exists in that time loop. While you think about that one, let's go on. The watch allows you to make an action from next turn happen now instead (an action that MUST happen). In the show, the watch travels back in time to its point of origin. The watch may be that action, but the action has no real "origin" in the past. It's awfully muddled, and can't get beyond that because well, the watch never had any such powers. The whole "turn back time" thing is worth a 1.9.

SEEDABILITY: One of the most subtle of artifacts, it's a thinking man's card. Just WHAT can you do with this ability? Well, there's the card draw mentioned in the game text, but that's the card at its most simple. It's not really an EXTRA card draw, remember, since you won't get one next turn. Still, when you need a card now rather than later, or, if your deck is face up (Heisenberged), and you want to get to a better probe card for the start of next turn, it can be useful. It's also a good way to protect yourself when using Devidian Door, playing it on the same turn you reported the personnel before your opponent can get it out of your hand. Countdown icons can also be made to end more quickly, so it's a good aid to dilemmas and other hurtful cards that count down (Ketracel-White most of all). Computer Crash and Goddess of Empathy can be made to be discarded sooner. Plasma Fire can damage a ship before SECURITY comes aboard. Warp Core Breaches destroy that same ship before an ENGINEER does (or Isabella does it before Youth does). The Wake of the Borg also falls in this general category. More defensively, it'll protect you (to a point) from Vulcan Nerve Pinch, Breen Energy-Dampening Weapon, Plasma Energy Burst and Bribery. Nemesis icons appearing curtesy of Blood Oath appear faster. Players who don't want to wait for particular effects can get them NOW! But is it worth the trouble of acquiring an artifact? Not really, especially since it's not covered by Starry Night. Better than it looks, but still under-powered for this card type. A 2.4.

TOTAL: 10.6 (53%) Not a good score this time around.

PICTURE: Interesting. They could have gone for someone being killed as they threw themselves in front of another, but they chose the post-mortem image. Along with the lore, it's a nice hommage to the character of Tasha Yar and looks both nice (though a little static) and eerie (which is part and parcel of the AU card set's image bank). Unfortunately, Tasha didn't die in the fashion described by this card. Hers was an empty death. Ah well. Still a 3.7.

LORE: Generalizes maybe a bit too much, since we all know Security personnel who would do no such thing (Lore, for example), but it's no more a problem than how it impacts on Trek Sense. Speaking of which, the "as Tasha Yar did on many occasions" will cause problems in that area. A good description of Security personnel's duties, but not too sharp a focus on the card's effects. A 2.9.

TREK SENSE: If you buy the lore, it's possible to sacrifice yourself and survive. Well, the game text doesn't really allow it (though other cards might) so you've got a problem there. There's also the fact that all Security personnel are NOT this selfless. Lore? Sloan? Tain? Gaila? A Founder? Would they really take a disruptor blast for another personnel? Extremely doubtful as to be nearly impossible. That said, the effect is too simple to take any hits by itself. A Security personnel does its job and sacrifices itself for another (more important?) personnel. Very easy to see, and we HAVE seen it. Why only random selections though? Well, opponent's choice deaths are so specific, the "killer" probably planned it too well, and in the case of personnel battle, the Security probably had its hands full with its own match-up to intercede on the part of another personnel. (The end of round kill is covered however.) Your choice deaths already have you sacrificing someone of your choice, in a sense, and what would be the point? You could just choose the Security in the first place. Too wide for a great score, but such a simple effect, it's hard to impeach the basics. A 3.7.

STOCKABILITY: Ok, well, while I wouldn't use this on Worf Son of Mogh, there are lots of disposable SECURITY personnel that are just begging to save your Vorta, or Picard, or even your Worf Son of Mogh. We all have personnel we can't do without at a particular point in the game. The point is, you bring a universal SECURITY along (maybe even downloaded through AMS or, if lucky, in droves with Defend Homeworld) and save your more important personnel from random selection death when it occurs. Now, that's not complete protection, which is too bad, since opponent's choice and mortally wounded deaths aren't covered by the insurance policy, but it'll take care of end of battle deaths and those caused by most dilemmas and damage markers (as well as some other cards). Tell you what, in combination with Genetronic Replicator, the card is very useful to Away Teams: if your MEDICAL gets targeted, substitute the SECURITY then save that SECURITY with the MEDICAL/Replicator. For crews, try subbing for John Doe instead. Probably the hardest thing to make work with this card is having it in hand at the appropriate time. That's why the special downloads on a couple of personnel are appreciated. Amat'igan practically belongs to a race of SECURITY personnel, but you might not want to sacrifice HIM because of his pretty good skill list. Maihar'du is a similar matter, being mostly useful for his downloads. Once they're spent, the reason to keep him around is to provide SECURITY, some pretty good skills and high attributes (definitely good for the Ferengi). Well, you have to make a sacrifice somehow! ;-) Unfortunate that one of these absolutely can't work with other affiliations (no Ferengi Treaties), but really, neither of them are exactly universal panacea. Your best bet is to use cheap SECURITY and a number of Sacrifices, then recylce them by any means necessary. Can be used to good effect, but you can't just live your life in fear and load up on these. That's all you'll draw! A 3.8 again.

TOTAL: 14.1 (70.5%) Took a few hits, but still stands up.

PICTURE: This is no doubt the best part of the card. In cool AU style, Wesley getting shot in the eyes has something surreal (and to some, deserved), and the four attending hands help considerably. Works very well at 4.5.

LORE: Though the title is way too specific, the lore has rhythm and punch thanks to the "..." leading to the über-ensign's name. Original, if nothing else. A 3.4.

TREK SENSE: Well, seems concise enough. If Ktarian Game is already "aboard" a ship (that is, some personnel, but not all, are playing the game and being disabled), this interrupt has your controlled (normally disabled) personnel force all the other personnel aboard to play the game and be disabled too. Works up to a point, since I hardly see one personnel force the game on say, 10 others that quickly. I'd believe Ensign Bobs could do it on a large vessel, but aboard shuttles, the justification would fail as those are usually using real-staff. The last clause is the most problematic however. Since Wesley gets captured in the pic, it would seem sensible, even appropriate, to allow the card to capture Wesley (and Wes-haters are sure to love the idea), but is that really what is happening? There's really no difference between Wesley's corruption and, for example, Picard's. H should just be disabled and that's it. There's really no reason why he should then be transferable to an opponent's brig. Turns out this one's a 2.8.

STOCKABILITY: So... Decipher wanted to boost the strength of the too-easy-to-pass dilemma Ktarian Game? I was all for it. This is how Seize Wesley would have been good: As soon as Ktarian Game was encountered, a ship would have been considered "under the influence", even as the crew scrambled to come up with the required CUNNING to cure it. Bang! Immediate disablement, overlooking the fact that Ktarian Game has such easy requirements. To me the fact you had to cure it was indication enough that it had an effect and then had to be cured. How it DOES work: You may only play this card if the cure is not present (that is, it is really a "requirement"), so if the very easy CUNNING>30 is present, that's it, no Seize Wesley. So you're really no better off than before in making the dilemma stick, you just speed up the disabling process. Bah. If you do make it stick, probably by weeding out CUNNING personnel beforehand with big filters, then you can disable an entire crew, which really ain't bad. That's IF! The Wesley capture is just a cute side-effect, à la Wesley Gets the Point, and you really can't guess your opponent will use the personnel. I mean, he's a powerful space mission solver, so you'll see him in a few Federation decks, but you can't expect it outright. Not worth the cards spent trying to make this work: a 1.9.

TOTAL: 12.8 (64%) What an unexpected success!

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