To see the cards themselves, check out this Card list for the Blaze of Glory expansion set.

PICTURE: Gray uniform, gray background, it really makes his pink head stick out in the most horrible way. Everything light-colored looks garish and out of place, including those round lights to the right. The VR headset is interesting, but not that much. A lame average pic at 2.7.

LORE: Hehehe. I love it when famous last words like "his suspicious were justified" are included. It's a cute understatement. The rest is pretty standard backstory, and not all that episode-specific, I'm afraid. I almost had to look him up in the fan literature to find he's from "One Little Ship". Thanks to the last line, a 3.5.

TREK SENSE: Most Vorta are VIP/Command personnel, no problems there. It's their function in Dominion society. Many have Diplomacy too, their primary function. Treachery too, it's their nature. The rest is what's interesting. Medical is the most iffy, possibly asking us to believe that handling the Ketracel-White is enough to warrant it (but then, all Vorta would have it), or maybe it's because he's overseeing the new Jem'Hadar sub-race of Alphas. That might be better. Similarly, Stellar Cartography has a justification, but isn't all that solid. Gelnon's plans to attack dilithium rich planets in the episode may be at the root of the skill, supposing those planets are far away and he had to find his way there. The special download of two pieces of equipment common to all Vortas makes sense here, and would have made sense on any number of Vorta. Either one or the other sounds a bit like he can't carry both when clearly he can and must have, but that's not so bad - it's more a question of game mechanics. The Integrity is your common Dominion Treachery 4. Cunning is the usual high. And Strength? Well, it's a little high for a Vorta, but he seemed more heavy-set than most. How 'bout a 3.6 here? It's stretching, but I respect it.

STOCKABILITY: While the VIP/Diplomacy/Treachery combo is extremely common here, you'll love the MEDICAL, a skill that's altogether too rare in the Dominion (still more than half a dozen prospects, but we're talking MEDICAL here). There are slightly more Stellar Cartographers, but they're all Jem'Hadar, and I know some people like to play with as few Ketracel-users as possible. But even that's not so difficult with Gelnon, because he'll suspend play to download Ketracel-White at the right minute, reducing the risk of berzerk Jem'Hadar considerably. If you don't want to use the download for Ketracel, you can always get the recently-released VR Headset, turning him into a matching commander for any Dominion ship with an extra +1 to WEAPONS and SHIELDS (so +3/+4/+4 plaqued and logged). Too bad he can't do both in a single game. Pretty usual on attributes, but that STRENGTH is less of a liability than it could have been. Not too bad on skills and some cool downloads makes this guy a 3.8.

TOTAL: 13.6 (68%) A good score for someone who score so low under Picture.

PICTURE: This close-up shot really highlights just how big the Romulan warbirds are. The pose is also one of a ship lying in wait, and since Romulan Ambush is an integral element of this card, that's quite relevant. I hadn't even realized there were windows on the lower connecting bar between the front and back sections until now, nor that the bird actually had a face (see the eye?). A cool as beans 3.8.

LORE: Now, I don't know where they found the name, but it sounds Romulan enough with its Roman terminal. It also sounds like the words "gore" and "Axis", both of which have evil conotations. Too bad I can't match it to anything specific. As for the lore, there's matching commander status conferred to an important character, and for once, that character actually did command the ship (I'm referring to so-called matching commanders like Fleet Admiral Shanti and Saltek). The rest firmly places the ship in its episode, "The Mind's Eye". I think a 3.6 is warranted.

TREK SENSE: Three little things differentiate it from the regular D'deridex (four if you count the matching commander). One is the Holodeck, which housed the "kill O'Brien" simulation Geordi experienced. Might make you wonder why all D'deridexes aren't so equipped. It's even cool how this ship is probably the only one we've seen use all its equipment on the same show (Romulan ship, I mean). Second is the special download for Romulan Ambush, and since that card shows this very ship on it, it makes perfect sense for it to have it. Last is its attribute numbers: one less Weapons, one more Shields. Seems fairly arbitrary from what we've seen. Otherwise, it's the same ol' D'deridex-class ship. Better than the original, though the attribute change remains mysterious - a 3.8.

STOCKABILITY: Well, it's not a bad bird, with its very even stats at a good 8 (10-11-11 Plaqued and Logged with Sela aboard), and its full spread of special equipment. Sela is even an easy matching commander to get, since beside Ready Room Door, you can also report her for free at the Office of the Proconsul. The Holodeck is of particular note because all the other Holodeck-enabled Romulan ships are AU (well, the one other). The Goraxus simplifies your using the O'Brien hologram. What's more, though it's not a very efficient card, Romulan Ambush (downloaded by this ship) gets you a captive to Brainwash WITH that hologram. In combination with more capture-related cards, this can get fun, but you still have to get that captive. Like I said, Romulan Ambush isn't a very efficient card, but with smaller ships now a greater part of the environment, it actually has a chance. Or use a lot of Target Shields tactics to bring those SHIELDS down artificially! Even better. A very solid ship, especially if you can make it all work smoothly. A 3.8.

TOTAL: 15 (75%) This one goes out to Sela.

PICTURE: I think this is a fairly attractive spatial phenomenon, rich blues and stark whites, especially the way those beams seem to come out of a sphere in the dust cloud. At the same time, it's still just another dust cloud, no matter how cool it is. I guess that plain space background has its cost in boredom. A 3.6.

LORE: They've made it very universal what with "sometimes" and "wide range of problems", so much so you can't really tie it to a specific episode (though the title would place it in "Yesterday's Enterprise"). That's good in a sense (it makes it possible at any location), but bad in another (difficult to gauge Trek Sense). It's a good attempt, relatively free of techno-babble, but is too generic to really keep us interested. A 3.

TREK SENSE: The generic Gravimetric Distortion has the simple effect of damaging a starship. After all, it's a gravity distortion, and those have been shown to be pretty destructive to ships (think of the gravity waves in "Hero Worship" for example). 4 Engineers can keep the ship from flying apart at the seams. Sure, no problem with that when ship damage is on the line. 2 Astrophysics can probably recognize the phenomenon before it's too late and avoid the damage that way. A totally different solution, but it works. One personnel with double Navigation can avoid it totally, or ride the gravimetric waves probably. It's a good alternative to the less sensical idea of using two lesser pilots (2 Navigation as opposed to Navigation x2) to do the same. You can't really drive a car with 2 people's hands on the wheel. Guinan may seem like an odd choice, but I suppose she's there for the same reasons the Astrophysicists are: to use her space/time awareness to avoid the problem. This is stretching it a bit more, but stems from her role in "Yesterday's Enterprise", no doubt. Ehh. I'm not entirely convinced she could somehow sense the distortion (gravimetric here, not temporal), and she certainly can't replace any Engineers in fixing the ship. Another small point: Cosmic String Fragment is an example of a specific (non-generic) gravimetric distortion, and it's way easier to avoid (though it has very similar requirements). Should it be? Should the dilemma described in the most generic terms be the more powerful one? This is closer to what CSF should have been, while Gravimetric Distortion should have been the more common, and easier, dilemma. A 3.6.

SEEDABILITY: Well, though it doesn't necessarily replace Cosmic String Fragment (CSF was never very dangerous and was more of a self-seed-for-points card), it certainly does a better job of creating a threat for a ship. Ship damagers have long been very easy to pass, and with the Battle Bridge side-deck, they've become more interesting (Tactics can make damage kill personnel), so you want them to work. Well, Gravimetric Distortion isn't very hard to pass, but it's harder than most. 4 ENGINEER will be easy for the Feds and a lot of affiliations, but the classification is slightly rarer for the newer affiliations, especially the Bajorans, Cardassians and Ferengi who all have only between 6 and 8 ENGINEERs each. 2 Astrophysics will be common in science decks, but that's still a relatively rare skill. Either way, those requirements are going to require a good pool of personnel. Weed out as many personnel as you can with filter dilemmas prior to hitting Grav Distortion, and your opponent might be stuck using one of the one-personnel alternatives, and those aren't easy. Navigation x2 on one personnel? That's only Kira Nerys, Razka Karn, Dukat of Borg, Danar, Dukat, Amat'igan, Gibson, Hawk, Jadzia Dax, Maihar'du, Martok, T'Kar, Selveth, Kasidy Yates, Nick Locarno and his cousin Thomas Paris. As you can see, some affiliations are definitely going to be in trouble if they hope to pass the dilemma this way (though Locarno, Kasidy and Paris are good and useful Non-Aligneds). Guinan is a totally off-chance solution, working for only one affiliation, and being from the expensive Fajo Collection to boot. Obviously, the dilemma suffers from presenting too many ways to pass it. You can't effectively weed out the personnel required to do the job using a dilemma combo. That keeps this otherwise good effort at 3.4.

TOTAL: 13.6 (68%) A light score for a supposedly heavy card.

PICTURE: Great unity of color on this version of Madred, with the lights reflecting coldly on his armor. His expression is more bitter than on his other card, and more appropriate to the lore. A good 3.6.

LORE: Since the title already makes him a Gul, no need to rehash this here, and the phrase used instead ("ruthless...") is much better that a guttural one-syllable word. I love the way they explain the entire episode, and how it spirals into Picard's perception of him as a man to be pitied. Very well written. A 4.1.

TREK SENSE: In many ways, Gul Madred fixes the earlier Madred card. For one thing, this time, he's really a Cardassian, and really is in the Obsidian Order. (Of course, there is some controversy as to whether he really is in the Order giebn that the Order didn't exist in the Trek universe yet, and that he said he was in the military. Decipher's flavor text may have gone too far.) He keeps the Security, but at only one level. With the related Obsidian Order skill, it aleviates the need for that second level. He still has a capture-related ability, this time a quite natural download of Torture (his attempt is pictured on that card), solid if not as interesting as his other persona's. Still, the shorter special skill gives the designers room for an actual skill list. Treachery is an obvious one here, and could even have been doubled. Archaeology is an interesting choice, but sound. It represents his knowledge of Cardassian history as shown in the episode. See? I can't even imagine why the original version had no Treachery, for example. Attribute-wise, they've given him one more point of Integrity, perhaps because he's now aligned, so loyal to a particular "crown". Or else the fact that Picard got to know how he became such a monster, that he was once a frightened and hungry child, makes him more "human". The other attributes make as much sense as they did back during Q-Continuum. With all the fixes, a 4.1.

STOCKABILITY: Now a full Cardassian, you can download Gul Madred to your Nor, not just report him at your Outpost or Central Command. He'll staff your ships, even those finicky Advanced Keldons. That Obsidian Order also allows for Espionage management through Plans, and downloads capture-related cards at the Brig. As far as skills go, he's got a double classification, which is always good. The SECURITY is even a good Cardassian mission solver. Treachery too. Archeaology is a more exotic skill, and much less useful to the Cardies (2 missions only), but they only have 5 Archaeologists, and you don't want your artifacts trapped behind The Charybdis. The Torture download works in the same vein as his other capture-related abilities (i.e. Obsidian Order/Brig, SECURITY/Captured, and his other persona's special skill), downloading an (extra) Torture to a personnel present. I say "extra" because he could already be doing so at the Brig. Switch him for your Madred persona to start boosting the bonus for as long as Torture is in play. The best of both worlds. The attributes share the same strengths and weaknesses as the other version, including lame STRENGTH and dangerously low INTEGRITY (which may still be useful). A more complete personnel than the original, but perhaps not as strong overall (for example, he loses the ability to solve Bioweapon Ruse by himself). A 4.

TOTAL: 15.8 (79%) Way better than the original.

PICTURE: That's a pretty harrowing picture of a man attending to body bags! The cool blue colors are very well matched and subtle, and are more corpse-like than anything else. Is that Bashir in uniform in the foreground? If so, it really detract very little from the pic. Good, if chilling, stuff. A 3.8.

LORE: While the story is well told, given the game text, I don't think this was really the way to go. Hazardous Duty should be larger than just that Klingon attack, and somehow, the lore should have reflected that. Not a bad effort, but slightly inappropriate at 2.9.

TREK SENSE: This dilemma is akin to Troi's having to order Geordi to his death to save the ship in her officer exam. First, you recognize that the mission represents Hazardous Duty, and your Officers order your personnel to do it anyway. They do, of course, but if anyone dies other than an Officer (who would seem to know the risks better than anyone else), the guilt turns out to be a point loss. Sensible, but some of the details are wrong. For example, why 2 Officers, other than the fact that a dilemma requiring only one Officer would be ludicrously easy to pass? One should do. Of course, Officers like Giusti and Gibson don't seem to have the authority to order people to their deaths. Also, all enlisted personnel know the risks, not just the Officers. Why the point loss for Engineers and Security? VIPs and Civilians, I understand - they didn't sign up for this - but anyone else is pretty much fair game, in my opinion. There's some merit to the premise, but the strange details make it a 3.3.

SEEDABILITY: The wall part isn't that tough to pass - 2 OFFICERs should be easy to scrounge up. You can tip chances in your favor by leading with Punishment Box or maybe Don't Call Me Ahab to get rid of an OFFICER beforehand, but generally, this one'll be easy to pass. The dilemma doesn't discard however, it stays on the mission, and that sword of Damocles hanging over the player's head sets up for a 5 point loss if any non-OFFICER personnel dies here. The challenge, of course, is that you know there are two OFFICERs already present, and if your opponent is more or less red-shirting with them, you're out of luck unless another wall requires more personnel. But given a normal Away Team or crew, you should follow up with a sure-shot killer. Armus is possibly the surest, but the random selection could pull an OFFICER. Unscientific Method targets a SCIENCE, so that may be the best way to go. Actually, as long as the mission remains unsolved, the point loss can be incurred, and it doesn't matter how the death occurs. Why not send down an assault party, or simply shoot at the ship (at a space mission) using a Tactic with casualties on it. Points are lost just the same. Basically though, a 5 point loss is just a small penalty, more easily gained through The Higher... the Fewer for example, especially for the amount of work required. The Borg will have a hard time getting the OFFICERs without the Queen or Counterparts, but not overly so. Then, the point loss will be irrelevant. A so-so wall with a cute little penalty... I give it a 3.5.

TOTAL: 13.5 (67.5%) Believe it or not, I have a lot of affection for this grisly little card.

PICTURE: A welcome change from Deep Space 9's holding cells (which wouldn't have been appropriate to the game text anyway), but a little boring probably because of the very symetrical composition and dark color palette. I'm just not sure why this one doesn't stick out in my mind more, because that palette is still pretty. Just a 3.2 as far as I'm concerned.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)

TREK SENSE: Instead of unwieldly ship Sites, we get... doors that open onto those sites. Well, a Brig anyway. And I think it's a good idea. That Brig can be at any non-Nor facility or ship, all of which could support a Brig (though the Terraforming Station doesn't look like it would, I'm sure it has at least a makeshift Brig, but it also means a shuttle or even the Phoenix could hold a Brig which is just wrong). That first Door establishes the Brig itself, another might represent your own personnel entering the Brig (opening the door) to Interrogate, Torture or Brainwash the captive(s). That you need to play more Doorways to gain access is a little odd (isn't it just a button?) because you don't need to if you play the event without going through the download first. Just like the Brig on a Nor's Holding Cell, the downloads can be occasioned by "intelligence" personnel who would be skilled in these kinds of procedures (though I would hope Resistance personnel wouldn't use Brainwash and Torture too often) or a Security personnel Treacherous enough to want to do these things. No problems here, though the inclusion of Security personnel to the list serves to lessen the uniqueness of intelligence skills. But where are Klingon Intelligence and FCA? (Ok, ok, FCA doesn't need to be included.) I like that opening the Door to go talk to the captive doesn't have to discard the Doorway. It can be replaced atop the draw deck, showing that there's really no limit to the number of visits you can make to the Brig. Finally, a Door can be used to re-open a closed Door, makes sense. Any card that creates a Brig is doing good by the game because it adds a lot of Trek Sense to the capturing rules. A 4.1 here.

STOCKABILITY: Why add a Brig to you deck? Well, if you're playing with capturing, it allows you to leave captives unattended (without an escort), as well as allow for the download of capture-related cards. Unlike the Nor version, you don't have to stick to the Promenade, you can play (even seed it) on an Outpost, HQ, Colony, whatever. You can also play it on a ship, for a mobile Brig, and seed it on a Husnock Ship at the Husnock Outpost, or a D'Kora at the Ferengi Trading Post. Sure eliminates the need to get it into hand before being able to get it out. Unlike the Nor version though, you need more copies in your draw deck to get the downloads. That's okay, since you don't have to discard the Door - you can place it atop the draw deck to be drawn again at the end of the turn, keeping it in hand until needed again. The three downloadable cards are all pretty useful, and the big reason behind capture decks. You'll of course need intelligence personnel to get the downloads, which handicaps the Federation somewhat (not a lot of either requirement), but the other affiliations should be fine, though half of them need to rely on Treachery/SECURITY. The last function of re-opening a closed Door is your failsafe against Revolving Door and Door-Net, which isn't a very good reason to stock the card, but since the strategies involved have you stocking copies anyway, you'll already have it in there. That's just a bonus, really. Another bonus is its use with Prisoner Escort which makes your opponent lose points when personnel get put in the Brig. And yet another is that it counts as a capture-related card for recycling purposes through Prepare the Prisoner. Highly dependent on your propensity to use capturing, but will be useful to those affiliations who either don't want to bother with Nors, or who would have to spend considerable resources on commandeering one. A 3.7.

TOTAL: 14.67 (73.33%) A brig-ht idea. (Oooh, somebody stop me!)

PICTURE: Hon'Tihl looks like a giant and noble statue in this extreme close-up, which in itself is interesting. The other interesting thing is that they went and edited out Sisko from the background, which would have made Hon'Tihl look zonked out (which he was). The only problem is his wounds seem to create graphic "garbage" in his face and hair (blue and purple sparkles). I'm not entirely certain he's the one who should have gotten this larger-than-life treatment. A 3.6.

LORE: Funny that his own card indicates Kee'Bhor to be the matching commander of the Toh'Kaht, but that ship makes *him* that commander. Anyway, the truly creepy thing here is that the lore makes it plain that this version of Hon'Tihl (not that I expect any more) is under the influence of the Saltah'na spheres, right now! A bold move worth 3.5.

TREK SENSE: As first officer on a ship, well, he certainly deserves the Officer and the Command icon. His mission being one of planetary surveys, the Science and Geology equally hold up. They also make more sense as (secondary) skills than as classifications (in Science's case) on a Klingon. The Treachery? Though probably not innate to the character, if influenced by the spheres as the lore indicates, Treachery would be in order. But if that's so, how could you keep real control over your personnel? Wouldn't he be under some kind of Saltah'na Clock magic spell? The Integrity isn't so low, but he may have been fighting the influence of the spheres somewhat, or his honorable Klingon mores may have colored his "performance" in the deadly shadowplay. Cunning's none too high, but within Klingon norms... plus, the Klingons didn't solve the Saltah'na problems like the DS9 crew did. Strength seems normal enough too. Competent, and especially well-matched to the actual mission he was sent on (Colony Preparations), but does a weird side-step when it comes to the Saltah'na issue. A 3.3.

STOCKABILITY: Planning to send the Klingons to the Gamma quadrant? Then, Hon'Tihl is your man (well, one of your men). First of all, he commands the one best GQ-going Klingon ship. It's a big unwieldly Vor'Cha, but gets a +1 to all attributes when in that quadrant. I'm talking about the already 8-8-8 IKC Toh'Kaht, of course, which becomes a 9-9-9 in the GQ, and an 11-12-12 with Plaque and Log. On Dominion turf, every little bit helps, including that Cloaking Device, and the Klingons are probably the best equipped to deal with Jem'Hadar smackdowns too. But besides being a good commander to a ship (to which he could report even cross-quadrant with Ready Room Door), he's also got the skills. Only three yes, but they're well suited to universal Klingon missions in the Gamma quadrant. The SCIENCE and Geology solve half of Colony Preparations, and SCIENCE fits Survey Star System. Among the non-universals, OFFICER/SCIENCE helps solve Access Relay Station, and Quest for the Sword requires SCIENCE/Treachery. He's also a great SCIENCE that won't be weeded out be the Unscientific Method combos. Better than he looks at 3.8.

TOTAL: 14.2 (71%) Certainly better than I expected.

PICTURE: Looks pretty cool actually, like many DS9 birds-of-prey (as opposed to many TNG shots), though it can't possibly be a specific shot of the Koraga which was never seen in the episode. I like it when you can see the blazing engine at the back of the K'Vort, and the feather detailing ain't bad either. The fact the ship was lost in the Badlands might have warranted a Badlands background (I know they rarely put the ship in context, but why not), but instead, I think the storyline is well served by having the ship move away from us. Good overall at 3.5.

LORE: The information is pretty basic since this ship's main claim to fame is that it was lost, and card lore never touches on stuff like that. This time, there is a mention made of a matching commander: Worf Son of Mogh. He's a good personnel, and his name is welcome here. A 3.3.

TREK SENSE: Welcome, but not. The matching commander may be great for Stockability, but isn't for Trek Sense. Any mention of "briefly" commanding a ship really goes outside the idea presented by Captain's Log. If the commander's tenure is too brief, how could he or she know the ship so well as to make it work better? Worf is a great warrior, which offsets this a bit, but if he can wring the juice out of the Koraga, he could probably do the same on any K'Vort-class ship. On to other things: We'll skip right over the basic K'Vort stuff like the standard special equipment (and if that ain't an oxymoron...) and staffing. The attributes differ from the regular K'Vort is two ways, namely -1 on Range and +2 on Weapons. Now, I understand the Weapons boost, after all, it's quite a bit later than the TNG model AND we're at war with the Dominion. The Range reduction may be more to balance matters than anything, and in fact, Range is where I perceive a real problem. Not just from the printed  attribute, but from the special game text that gives the Koraga and the Rotarran +1 to RANGE if they are both out on the table. Now, I can see the idea behind this move: Since they both patrol the same area, they help each other cover more terrain. Problem is, covering more territory isn't the same as getting from point A to point B faster. Comes close to working though. A 2.6.

STOCKABILITY: Worf Son of Mogh enhances the Bortas but good, but if you'd rather use the easier to staff K'Vorts (no doubt in you armada), he can also enhance his own ship with Defiant Dedication Plaque (optional) and Captain's Log (not), and that ship's the Koraga. Since it boosts the Rotarran, you probably wouldn't resist the temptation to also use that ship and ITS matching commander, General Martok. And Martok ALSO boosts ships. Think about it, with the right cards in play, two bird-of-prey each staffed by a single personnel (who might have gotten there via Ready Room Door) will get you as much as 25 WEAPONS! That's a pretty nifty 2-ship armada, one that doesn't require a huge (and sometimes slow) build-up. In that set-up, the Koraga becomes a 10-13-9 ship (kinda weak on SHIELDS, eh?) and the Rotarran 10-12-11 (tougher, but not quite as powerful). You otherwise share all the advantages of other K'Vorts, including a Tractor Beam, a Cloaking Device and minimal staffing. I'd say you can do a lot of damage with this ship, and it's not like the combo involved forces you to use useless personnel. Quite the contrary. Call it a 3.9.

TOTAL: 13.3 (66.5%) B'aH!

PICTURE: Haven't we seen enough of this ship pose? I mean, is this very much different from the Pagh? The only thing this pic has over that one is the enhanced coloring - the red trim, for example. A plain 3.

LORE: Giving matching commander status to Kang is one of the good things the lore does. Otherwise, it's a pretty plain description of the ship's function in "Blood Oath". Missed opportunity: telling us the ship was named after Kahless' great Lady. A dull 3.1.

TREK SENSE: Yes, Kang WAS the commander of this ship, and, of course, it shares a K'Vort's staffing, equipment and basic attribute spread. Let's just look at the differences, and they are: -1 Range, +1 Weapons, +1 Shields. Why the Range drop? Maybe it's an older model that Kang's been using for a long time. Maybe, but getting somewhere is part of its lore, you'd think Range would have been favored. Weapons and Shields though, are a bit better than normal, probably due to the fact that Kang is a great warrior or something. All seems pretty arbitrary to me... and woefully uninspired. A 2.8.

STOCKABILITY: Just another K'Vort with a matching commander huh? Well, that's what it looks like at first. No special ability beyond the usual special equipment, and attributes that are good for a K'Vort, but by no means exceptional. Plaqued and Logged, it gets to 9-10-10 which is great, but how is it different from other commanded K'Vorts? It can be downlaoded via Blood Oath, that's how! But wait, doesn't the Ning'tao also download with Blood Oath, and doesn't that ship also have a Blood Oath-related matching commander AND 7-7-7 attributes? Yes, furthermore, it's got a SHIELDS boost against the Dominion. Superior, right? So why would you choose the Lukara over the Ning'tao as your Blood Oath ship? The answer is this: Kang, the Lukara's matching commander, can specifically download Blood Oath. So you can use Kang (and another Klingon with the right Nemesis icon) to download the incident, then download his ship, a chain of downloads that ends with his getting his very own ship in a matter of seconds. Got the Lukara first? Ready Room Door gets you Kang, then the Blood Oath can be used to get another Klingon, another ship, a weapon, what have you. I suppose this is why it didn't get any bells and whistles - card combos took care of that. Of course, it's part of a good matching commander armada (as the Klingons more and more vie to be the best for that deck archetype). Not overly attractive, it really depends on your strategy. A 3.6.

TOTAL: 12.5 (62.5%) There's a reason Decipher didn't bother giving it a card extra...

PICTURE: Without any other ships around to give it scale, the ship really isn't as impressive as it was on the show. That square-angle wing configuration looks pretty lame too, and those tip-lights make it look like it's coming in for a landing. Even the colors look off, like it was painted with phosphorescent paint. A 2.4.

LORE: Two matching commanders mentioned in the same lore? That's gotta be worth some points. The rest is pretty decent, though unsurprising, but I like the idea of a Klingon flagship. A 3.4.

TREK SENSE: In Q's alternate timeline, this ship class would be known as Voo'dieh, but in ours, it was named the Negh'Var. Since this isn't the future (not yet anyway), I won't really be comparing it to the Fek'lhr or Chang even if they do share a number of features. First off, let's mention the matching commanders. I don't know how long Gowron actually commanded it, but given the timeframes involved, it's a little hard to believe he would have done so long enough to know the ship like the back of his bat'leth. I'm a little incredulous. On to other matters: The ship is HUGE, so the 4 staffing requirements look fine. I could also believe the ship has a Holodeck, since the technology's common enough by now (though not as much as in the Delta quadrant apparently), even if it was never proven. Attributes are worthy of such a large ship, but my one caveat is that the big Weapons of 10 are actually past those of the future Voo'diehs. I guess Q wasn't aiming high enough. Of course, the Klingons are known for their re-use of hull configurations of different sizes, and the Negh'Var looks far bigger than the AU ships. Pretty straightforward, like most ships, so a decent 3.7.

STOCKABILITY: The highest attributes you'll find this side of an alternate universe, but at the cost of large staffing requirements. The future ships are actually superior here, since 1) having both of them out on the spaceline reduces their staffing and 2) AU personnel can report more easily to the ship thanks to Crew Reassignment. No such luck here. If you want this giant in your fleet (or as a quite capable mission solving base), I would recommend stocking Assign Support Personnel just to make sure you keep up the staffing even after dilemmas have knocked off a few Klingon warriors. Another break is that you can download two separate matching commanders to the ship, and both have a Command icon. Let's talk about those, since after all, Plaqued and Logged, you're looking at an 11-13-12 ship with either of them aboard. Gowron is a pretty ordinary personnel, other than he reports for free at The Great Hall, he doesn't bring much to the ship. Martok also reports for free at the HQ, but his WEAPONS +2 bonus to all ships present makes the Negh'Var 15 to WEAPONS (plus bonuses to the rest of the fleet). He's probably the one to go for, leaving Gowron to the Bortas (where, with Worf Son of Mogh, he can get a better 11-15-13 ship for only 3 staffing icons). Ooops, the Negh'Var is starting to pale! Well, there's always the Holodeck to run that K'Tesh mission specialist without an AU ship. Looks strong, but it's outdone by other ships with less staffing, and you can always put Martok on the Rotarran instead. More than a couple ships with huge staffing is too great a drain on a deck. Only a 3.2 from where I'm sitting.

TOTAL: 12.7 (63.5%) And the foil ain't any better... but I keep drawing it!

PICTURE: Like Fightin' Words, this card uses a very neat visual trick, that of placing the figure in a corner with all lines leading to it. It's a good choice though perhaps a bit limited colorwise. There are a lot of dark blues and grays here. Still, the composition is excellent. A 3.7.

LORE: These three lines of text very efficiently manage to simultaneously give all the usual lore details (species, family, story details) and justifying every single skill featured in the game text. I could have easily attacked a skill such as Engineer in the next section, but I won't thanks to this fine piece of work. A well-designed 4.

TREK SENSE: As a dignitary, I daresay he deserves both VIP and Diplomacy. The Engineer comes from his use of Cardassian technology to kidnap someone aboard a secure station (if we know Odo). The Treachery and special skill are, in fact, also all about this kidnapping. While the Treachery works, the capture-related skill is a little open-ended. I mean, he captured Dax for a very specific, personal reason. That he had the skill to capture someone is probably based on his obsession for this particular personnal matter, and wouldn't work on anyone. Of course, "may capture one Dax present" isn't much of a skill. At least there's a "once per game" clause, so you could always make up a story that his dad was killed by someone else (and in fact, he WAS - Dax had nothing to do with it) so Ilon could go looking for another killer. So the skill makes a bit more sense than I first had thought. Good. The dual affiliation matches that of the Klaestron Outpost which is a step up from Orren Ran, and is especially appropriate given his use of Cardassian knowledge. The Staff icon isn't a problem since he was never shown to be as high-up as most Command personnel. The Integrity shows a generally good man who succumbed to doing things in the wrong fashion. Cunning is believably high though I might have docked a point here for jumping to conclusions about Dax. The Strength belongs to a full-grown male, but a wishy-washy one. Acceptable. The only real flaw I see here is that they could have added Law to his slate, seeing as he played advocate for his case, but that's really minor. With that open-ended but sensical special skill, I have no choice but to give Tandro a high 4.3.

STOCKABILITY: You can easily put Ilon Tandro to various uses, and that will put him in an advantageous position. The best thing about him is no doubt the special skill. Once per game, he can capture anyone at his location without having to do battle. That means that you can easily send him over to an opposing ship via Open Diplomatic Relations (he's a VIP) and return with a captive, no fuss no muss (i.e. no rettaliation). The Feds really can't do much better as far as capturing specific personnel goes. And with Cardassians, he simply adds to an already workable strategy. Furthermore, the Feds can use him as a dual-aligned VIP to help solve the high point-yielding Diplomatic Conference. His Diplomacy easily fits in a Diplomacy deck, and the Treachery will get you through In the Pale Moonlight. With the Cardassians, he reports to Guest Quarters and can just walk to the Ore Processing Unit to process ore, and all his skills will prove useful for Cardie mission solving. But there's more! As a Klaestron ENGINEER, he can build the Klaestron Outpost, or rebuild it if it's been destroyed. Cardassian/Fed Treaty decks will find him a natural, and where the Federation already had an ENGINEER to build that particular outpost, the Cardassians now have one too, treaty or no. Sure, the attributes are lukewarm, but just the ODR/capture combo is worth the 4.2.

TOTAL: 16.2 (81%) Gee, he wasn't that palatable on the show!

PICTURE: The changeling seen here is actually Founder Leader first coming out of the Link in "The Search" superimposed on your run-of-the-mill DS9 Holding Cell. The colors have been nicely matched to the background and all that, but I have to question the location chosen. I mean, sure, you're impersonating a captive, but would you be doing it from inside the cell? Almost looks like you captured a changeling here. That, and the fact that the cell used is of Cardassian, not Dominion, design (though they did work together for a time) is a little jarring. Still, a good piece of CGI at 3.4.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)

TREK SENSE: If the Founders can impersonate Kira and O'Brien, it stands to reason they could impersonate just about everybody, and finally a card allows it. Creating your own infiltrators is a great idea for a Dominion Objective, and I suppose it was just a matter of detailing the usual impersonator design logic so that it could apply to just anyone. A Founder (a non-Founder like Odo can't really imitate humanoid features remember?) morphs (shape-shifts) into the form of a captive personnel present. Now, we could ask, why a captive? Well, while they have been able to morph into reasonable facsimiles of people they didn't really have "on file" (i.e., captured for study), like O'Brien and Leyton, these have usually turned out to be more exposable than others. Even Kira Founder (the best of these) was "found out" by Odo in the end. But noone suspected Bashir Founder (not even us, we let him deliver Kira and O'Brien's baby!) or Martok Founder until it was too late. No wonder, they were captives of the Dominion at the time. You can't infiltrate the Borg because of their collective mind. Now, the Founder imitates all skills (except special ones, hey, there's gotta be an "error in replication" after all), staffing icons and infiltration icons, taking the place of its own. Makes sense, even going so far as to be able to play triple-agent with any extra infiltration icon. The Strength and, less believably, Cunning, of the captive are also made its own. Just like on the pre-fab infiltrators, Treachery has to remain, and the opposite skill, Honor, must be removed. These are much too geared on attitude to be faked I suppose. Then, add the infiltration icon(s) corresponding to the personnel's affiliation(s), and voila, instant impersonator. Morphing being what it is, you can morph back by just discarding the objective. Since you don't want your opponent to know about this little operation, it makes sense it would be a Hidden Agenda, though when you use it, your opponent obviously knows you did, but that's the only way the game could work ;-). I'd say the card makes sense of its concept, but also uses the same rationale as most pre-fabricated Founder infiltrators. The only real anomaly here is that using the universal Founder, you'd get an infiltrator with an Integrity of 5 instead of the usual 4. There are also anomalies in respect to the people impersonated - like a Foudner gaining a "skill" such as Mindmeld or Empathy - but these are no more disturbing than assigning odd skills to personnel via Reflection Therapy. And though there should be a way to expose these suckers if the captive escapes, it's a great effort at 4.6.

STOCKABILITY: You can stock all the infiltrators you want, but if your opponent plays Ferengi or Cardassians, you can't use any of those infiltrator support cards you brought along. Finally, you can, and it also gives a good reason to use capture-related cards (Prepare the Prisoner will even let you manage your cards better here). The idea is this: Capture personnel usually with a combination of Captured, Invasive Beam-In and some strong Jem'Hadar SECURITY, then, right then and there (the card doesn't mention any Brig) turn your Founder present into just the right infiltrator. It's as fast as the flip of a Hidden Agenda, and you can even get the Founder on the right ship or facility very easily this way. From there, well, you can use any number of infiltration cards, from Dial Martok to Inside Operation. One easy strategy is to use Counterintelligence to remove the infiltrator's skills from the crew or Away Team's total. Since they used the personnel, they probably needed those skills. Now, not only don't they count from that personnel, but an instance of each also disappears from their entire load of skills. There's also nothing to stop you from simply using the Founder for yourself, just like you would a Brainwashed personnel (and hey, just get another copy of those skills WITH Brainwash). The Dominion is a young affiliation yet, with a few holes to fill as far as skills go. "Taking over" an opponent's personnel this way also gets you a number of personnel who not only frequently can play the relevant Espionage card on your opponent's missions, but also often has the skills required to solve it. And there are perks to actually working to get your infiltrators: Using the universal Founder, for example, gives the infiltrator slightly better INTEGRITY (Firestorm-proof anyway). They also can't be exposed by the person they are posing as, even if that personnel escapes. They can have multiple infiltration icons too, either by posing as dual or triple-aligned personnel, or by posing as another infiltrator (like Boothe). They can even infiltrate the Non-Aligneds (that Ruk Founder can fight as well as any Jem'Hadar), so you'll never be left out in the cold even if your opponent is using different affiliations without a Treaty. Speaking of which, this is the kind of card that makes a Treaty with the Dominion an interesting prospect - use some Founders with your baseline affiliation, and get a little more bang for your capturing. Romulans and Cardassians take note! I haven't mentioned it, but this card also allows you to infiltrate your OWN affiliation if your opponent also uses the Dominion. Even discarding the card has its uses, as you can "at any time" basicaly shape-shift that Founder into another. So you can get that special download of Dial Martok you need or the MEDICAL from Bashir Founder (obviously, this won't suspend the game, so don't try it between dilemmas). A stellar 4.6.

TOTAL: 16.8 (84%) Competes with the most necessary of Borg Objectives.

PICTURE: The angle and lighting makes the tactical map quite impressive, and the dark figure of the Lovok Founder foreshadows the danger he represents. Can't really interpret the tactical data, but the screen is well designed, in a vaguely bird-like shape. Great color scheme too. A 3.8.

LORE: I'm not too keen on the title, since it's a little vague compared to the game text's rather pointed function, but I suppose they're saving "Sabotage" for a card that actually damages a ship ;-). As for the lore, it explains the game text adequately, but the two-sentence structure is a little stiff. In particular, the first sentence could have been turned into "To compromise..." and keep it at a single sentence with a better flow. How about a 3.2 here?

TREK SENSE: Your infiltrator becomes the "inside man" when using this card who leads the entire fleet astray, making sure it has a tactical DISadvantage in the coming battle. Sounds like a Hidden Agenda, but as an Interrupt, it doesn't have to be. The minuses to Weapons and Shields are a little plain to signify this occurence, but I guess they're adequate enough. You'd have to plant a lot of misinformation to actually lower even a facility's defenses though, so I can't believe a smart infiltrator couldn't cover its tracks enough not to be exposed. Likewise, they better keep the infiltrators at the higher levels, because lowly Staffer might be able to hurt a single ship (through sabotage or local misinformation), but not an entire fleet. Actually, it's too late. Though upper echelon characters like Martok, Leyton and Lovok do have that kind of power, and, to a lesser or more dramatic extent, so do the show's stars regardless of rank, guys like Raymond Boone and Jake really don't. These anomalies, plus the rather lackluster exploitation of the concept keeps the score at 3.3.

STOCKABILITY: A rather simple thing for your infiltrator to do, but carries a certain amount of risk. The -3 to ship's WEAPONS and SHIELDS basically removes any Captain's Log bonus it might have, and if it doesn't, it makes a ship pretty lame (average in the 5s for each attribute). Against a single ship, that's not terribly big, but against an armada, it can give your ships a fighting chance, as it's -3 on each ship (and even facility). Sounds defensive, but it sure can be used offensively too. Be in charge of your own destiny and attack a suddenly dangerously weak opponent on your own time. For a real surprise, don't go through the trouble of reporting your infiltrator to an outpost and hope you get to attack its ship. Rather, drop it aboard the right ship at the right time with The Walls Have Ears (for the Dominion anyway). Of course, you need the right infiltration icon in hand at the right time, so you won't always be able to pull this off. Since you don't want to lose your Founder to this strategy, you'll either want to have Flight of the Intruder handy, or else drop the inifiltrator on the toughest ship (or better yet, facility) at the location, i.e. the one most likely to survive the attack. What was it Kirk once said? "Risk is our business." Well, that may be so, but in this era of highly boosted ships, I'm not sure the risk pays off that well. That, and getting all the right situations together could be problematic. A 3.2.

TOTAL: 13.5 (67.5%) A lesser light in the infiltrator arsenal.

PICTURE: The Jem'Hadar pictured are intruders, not responding to intrusion (I think anyway), but it's hard to tell given the ambiguity of background (i.e., it's not immediately identifiable). The picture's real dull to tell you the truth, with the Jem'Hadar skin tones being an odd pinkish beige and everything else either that same bleh color or gray. Particularly forgettable at 1.8.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)

TREK SENSE: So, someone trips the Intruder Alert and one or more of the card's effects result. It's an odd choice for a Hidden Agenda since there's really no secret that security measures are usually in place on ships and facilities, but the designers needed for it to be 1) played as a standard card play (it's an Incident) and 2) be triggered as an alarm mid-turn. Works mechanically, though maybe the words we use to describe those mechanics aren't really relevant. Nullifying the seeded function of Memory Wipe makes whoever plays the role of McDougall (in "Conundrum") be discovered before he infiltrates the ship, though the Memory Wipe itself is external to the ship, so it doesn't quite work. That just seems to be a side-effect anyway, since the true functions (two of them) cause the card to be discarded (once the Alert is dealt with). In one case, it blows the whistle on intruders at your Ops, no doubt trying to commandeer your station. Only one- or two-man Away Teams are covered since anything bigger isn't an intrusion, it's a full-blown invasion. Responding to the Alert, your Security Ensign Bobs get the drop on the intruders and capture them. Good work. For the Borg, it's more a matter of assimilating any intruders on your ship or facility. You need a Talon Drone there to do this (no Bob Drones for the Collective, no sir), but you only get one intruder even if there are a dozen present. That's less interesting, but events from the show have usually shown intruders escaping from such situations. Perhaps having the function cumulative by Talon? The second separate function is automated rather than personnel-requiring: the ship turns on the security Intruder Force Fields and traps intruders as well as Rogue Borg and Telepathic Alien Kidnappers. That extension is quite natural and fixes the earlier card's Trek Sense some. The upgraded security systems this card represents also prevent Intruder Force Field from nullification. How Kevin can be kept at bay given his godlike powers, I don't know though. I'd have to say this card is mostly good, with only a few plotholes, but that first function about Memory Wipe probably hurts it more than anything (being too conceptual). A 3.4.

STOCKABILITY: This is what I would call a defensive card, and yet it didn't rate a Referee icon at the time. Q the Referee gives it one, but using the card hinges on your fearing various strategies from your opponent. The first of these is the odd cheese ball that is seeding Memory Wipe in non-sealed deck play to then get any and all infiltrators aboard opponent's ships regardless of infiltration icons. Is this so widespread and so dangerous that you need a specific counter to it? Well, infiltration can cause headaches, but this is, as I said earlier, simply a side-effect to the card which doesn't discard it. If it helps you, all the better. For Nor-users, the Incident will protect you from commandeer attempts AND give you one or two captives to take into your Brig. Cardassians certainly won't be sorry about that. And Bajorans will also appreciate that an unscrupulous Obsidian Order personnel can't just report to Garak's then commandeer your station right from under your nose so easily. This function is probably the best of the lot and may be worth including just for that. The Ferengi are threats to station security too. The Borg can download the card via the Reassimilation Drone, so don't even have to waste a seed slot for an incident that gives them one assimilation from a group of intruders. Since they have no anti-beaming shields, the Borg are often at risk from battle-ready Away Teams looking to destroy them from within, but a single assimilation isn't much to speak of. You also need a Talon drone present, which puts even more pressure on you to achieve the effect. This isn't so hot, though between it and the Talons' usual load of assimilations, they may add up. The last function is for those that are afraid of intruders to an undue extent I think. Downloading Intruder Force Field isn't a bad thing per se, though the incident can't be flipped over in response to a Rogue Borg attack, so you would have had to download it before that happened. Intruders are a different matter, and this card will stop changelings from using The Walls Have Ears then doing unspeakable things to your ship (like Installing Autonomic Systems Parasites), but is that what you're really afraid or from intruders? The ones I dislike at the Jem'Hadar Away Teams (or other smackdown personnel), and those usually come in groups of more than three (and not covered by Intruder Force Field). Protecting the event from nullification isn't bad, but it also means you can't Regenerate the card into your deck for re-use (especially for the capture or assimilation functions). Protecting your Nor, yes. The rest? Not particularly, as it's all reactive on your part and not proactive. A 3.3.

TOTAL: 11.33 (56.67%) The exclamation mark may have been overdoing it.

PICTURE: Ixtana'Rax doesn't look particularly old, in fact, he looks a little silly, which is my basic impression of all Jem'Hadar with those ridge mohawks. That's not helped by the golden highlights on all his spines, which are jarring on his basically purplish skin color. Not a bad portrait, and he's appropriately disgruntled, but the make-up, and even costume (compare that bright "buckle" on his shoulder to the rest of the dark image), are a little distracting. An average 3.

LORE: Much better than your usual Jem'Hadar fare, let me tell you. You got the cool "honored elder" thing, something intersting for once about his rank, and even some flavorful text on his opinion of the new Dominion order (in the Alpha quadrant). A good 3.5.

TREK SENSE: As a Gamma quadrant Jem'Hadar Second, I'd guess all those icons are correct, as is the Officer classification. Leadership is likewise warranted as he had a lot of things to communicate to the troops (though hampered by that darn Alpha First). Navigation and Stellar Cartography are both pretty standard skills for a Jemmie serving aboard a ship, and make as much sense here as anything. Unfortunately, they replace something a lot more appropriate for an honored elder, namely: Honor!!! Talk about dropping the ball! At least his fervor about Gamma rights actually boosts other Gamma Jem'Hadar present, reminding them they are still useful despite the arrival of the Alphas. That's not a bad special skill given the circumstances. Attributes are a mixed bag. Though Integrity and Strength are fairly awarded, I don't see how he warrants Cunning equal to that of Spock! Sure, he's wiley and has got a lot of experience (well... for a short-lived Jem'Hadar anyway), but I'm not sure the fields open to Jem'Hadar really allow for a full intellectual development, nor are Jem'Hadar exactly what you'd call "devious", which is what accounts for Keevan's, Elim's or Kivas Fajo's similarly-rated smarts. A lot of good, but some deep potholes: a 3.2.

STOCKABILITY: Far from being the only Leadership, Navigation or Stellar Cartography personnel in the Dominion, Ixtana'Rax will nonetheless get some mileage out of them. The first two are regularly required, and the last, while less so, is still useful. I wouldn't go saying, as Decipher's card extra does, that Navigation and Stellar Cartography are useful for "most Dominion space missions", as they represent only a small part of about 5 missions, most of which can be attempted by any crew, but they do both appear prominently on Study Badlands, for example. OFFICER and Leadership aren't really any more frequent, but with his bonuses to STRENGTH for companion Jem'Hadar, he'll bring you closer to the pricey Betazed Invasion. The attributes are all very high and should help with dilemma resolution, battle, etc. That last ability is marginal in a sense - Jem'Hadar already have high attributes across the board, and +1 to each won't really make that much of a difference - but when considering mission or dilemma totals, they might. Certainly, any extra boosts to STRENGTH will be welcome in personnel battle decks, and while the ability doesn't cover the Alphas, that's not a very big problem. Alphas don't have the market cornered on reporting to the Alpha quadrant anyway: there's still the Birthing Chamber-Young Jem'Hadar-univeral Gamma chain. Of course, Ixtana'Rax can't report that way, but once you cross him over (an already crossed Dominion Battleship should help), you can start boosting the younger universals right away. Like I said, a bit marginal. He's at least solid at 3.7.

TOTAL: 13.4 (67%) Superior or inferior to the Alphas? We'll have to wait and see.

PICTURE: It's normal that a Klingon Dax would be rougher around the edges than a Federation one, but her uniform looks a little oversized to me. That's a fun graphic behind her - a bird-of-prey's shields or warp field - but again, a little off, being very garish with that kind of foreground. Distinctive enough to keep its head above water at 3.2.

LORE: First off, I like that they managed to make her a "Trill with symbiont" without using that kind of formula. The rest is simply her role in "Blood Oath" which pretty much represents the entirety of her character here. I'm a little disappointed that they didn't find a Klingon name for her, like Jadzia Daughter of... , or Dax Godfather of Dax, or something ;-), but I won't hold it against her. A simple 3.3.

TREK SENSE: Jadzia Dax was definitely a Klingon in this episode, though she would serve on Klingon ships again later, so this is probably the best point in time to make into a card. Versions of main personae are often compared to the original, and that's gonna happen here too, but first, I'll say that the blood oath nemesis icon is among the most believable in the game. They swore to it, and The Albino knows that and WOULD have them killed if they came near him. Dax is no different. Her blood oath related ability is likewise appreciated, since she did bring out the best in each elder Klingon as they relived their youth through hers. Giving the icon instead of the names is good shorthand. I'm not quibbling with her lack of a Federation icon (in addition to the Klingon) since she was defying Starfleet orders on this mission, and more or less resigned her commission for a short time (as only the main characters may do). Though she remains a Science officer, most of her scientific skills are gone (as in, weren't used on the mission). She'll add Engineer though, and really deserves it for her thoughts on dampening fields and the like during the episode. Anthropology, she'll keep, but I get the feeling it's more because of her knowledge of the Klingon culture than any kind of scientific training. Honor is clearly Klingon and works within the Blood Oath framework. Diplomacy probably results in her convincing Kang to bring her along, though once embarked, I don't see what use it would have. Other possibilities would include Physics and maybe Transporter Skill. The Command icon remains despite the shift in position, but that's because of her pull with the old Da'har masters, and by virtue of Curzon's old standing. I'm of two minds on the Integrity: on the one hand, her betrayal of her Starfleet vows should bring her down, not up; on the other, there's the fact that, as a Klingon, she would be evaluated by the Klingons, and would therefore score more highly for the same reasons. Strength naturally goes up with the affiliation change. A good treatment, very episode-specific (though that's no different than the one-off characters), but like any treatment of Dax, incomplete. Under the circumstances however, I'll have to praise her highly: a 4.6 that truly holds up.

STOCKABILITY: The Klingons are certainly going to appreciate a new ENGINEER, especially one who is also SCIENCE, and a non-holographic, non-TOS, non-Mirror female to boot. The Diplomacy and Honor fit well into mission solving decks, and the Anthropology is not only good for dilemma solving, but to go through The Guardian of Forever as well. Great attributes too. Now, that's how good she is is your normal deck. In a Blood Oath deck, you can even download her and toss her in with her partners in crime. Sure, each one has a Nemesis icon against The Albino or anyone the Oath will give it to (warning: that's as dangerous as it could be helpful), but brute STRENGTH could just be the way to go if you want to off someone (or many someones). Think of it: All 4 Klingons have 8 STRENGTH +2 from Jadzia (except herself) +2 from Kor (except himself). That makes for a total of 44 for only 4 personnel. Averages out ar 11 apiece, and then Koloth downloads a Bat'leth, and it's 52 total (13 average). Real killers, these guys. With a Treaty, you could give yourself access to other versions of the persona, from the Bajoran Vedek Dax, to the Federation Jadzia and Lt. Dax. In strict mission solving decks, they all make competent solvers, but I doubt we'd see this very often. Just mentioning options... And she's a great one for the Klingons. 4.3 here.

TOTAL: 15.4 (77%) She's one hot card (yes, I AM talking about the game text).

PICTURE: Everything seems awash in the color of blood on this card, which is appropriate. Yes, even the browns seem to have the color of dried blood. It's a litte too saturated with it, in my opinion, as it comes off as over-pink, but it's got a lavish quality which suits this Klingon elder. A 3.5.

LORE: The other elders either didn't mention or just glossed over the blood oath thing, but with Kang, it has to take center stage. It's his son who was killed by the Albino. That really cuts into anything else unfortunately, though the events from "Day of the Dove" are at least mentioned in passing. Hey, if Kirk is in your lore, you know you did something right ;-). A 3.3.

TREK SENSE: Unlike his two friends, it was never said he had become some kind of diplomat so the Officer/Leadership/Command icon combo suits him. He still had a ship too. The Honor almost goes without saying, and the Security is because he's a warrior and because he studied the Albino's security measures. Physics is an all-around good skill for running Cloaking Devices, but this one's less justified than the others. Since he was the one to call the Blood Oath, he definitely deserves the special download and the nemesis icon. As for the attributes, the Integrity is a good high not only because of the Honor, but because he was able to call a truce with Kirk way back when. Any Klingon that has lasted this long has to be Cunning enough, but he wasn't terribly wiley, so 7 again suits him fine. And that's a warrior's Strength. Very competently done, though no real surprises. A 3.9.

STOCKABILITY: Just looking at his skill mix, the OFFICER is well supplemented by SECURITY (funny how the Klingons didn't really have good SECURITY until recently). The Honor and Leadership certainly help with skill redundancy in your Klingon decks, and Physics, while less useful in dilemma-solving, shows up often enough on Klingon missions. Good attributes across the board also make him valuable. But it's in Blood Oath decks where Kang will be most interesting. Not only is he a possible requirement for A Good Day to Live, but he can start off the chain of downloads afforded by Blood Oath by downloading it early. Sure, you'll still need another Klingon with the right nemesis icon, but from there, you can get the others, some weapons for them or a ship. Among the possible ships, you'll find Kang's own vessel, the Lukara, which can be Plaqued and Logged to 9-10-10 which ain't bad for one staffing icon. The rest of the Blood Oath gang all have some kind of attribute-boosting ability (by themselves or through downloaded cards) so Kang also makes a fine personnel battler. And to start off that chain of downloads I was talking about? How about a first turn download of Kang with HQ: Defend Homeworld? A good 4.1.

TOTAL: 14.8 (74%) I'd be very interested to see TOS and Movie (from "Flashback") versions.

PICTURE: Prop shots are always kind of dull, especially when the picture doesn't bring out details that are hard to see on television. I'm afraid that's the case here. Something as dynamic as a melee weapon should have a dynamic pic (look at the Bat'leth for example). Not only is it just sitting there, but it's obviously on Deep Space 9. The Jem'Hadar may have held the station for a while, but I never really saw them use Kar'Takins there. Even the composition fails, being too bottom-heavy. A very lame 1.

LORE: The first sentence contains an assumption that's carried though in the game - that Dominion allies make use of the weapon. Well, I'm not sure about THAT. The second sentence reads more true, since not only is the card's function just like that of the Bat'leth, but the idea on the SHOW was to make a Jem'Hadar equivalent. And then there's a wasted line. Not bad, but not the best. A 3.3.

TREK SENSE: Like most hand weapons, it has the same general problems (how many swords are there to a card; how does just one boost everyone; if more than one, why can't one hand weapon be split up; and do cumulatives mean you're fighting with more than one sword at the same time?). And though I like that Vorta and Founders have been excluded from using the thing, I'm not sure I agree that Breen do. Dosi, ok, they're at least from the Gamma quadrant and seem physical enough. Why would the Breen have adopted the weapon when they clearly made use of their own ships, etc. on the show? I don't recall the Breen ever holding one of these. Maybe someone does. In any case, as was the case with the Bat'leth, the idea of mortally wounding personnel with this... "axe" makes sense, since there is no stun setting on a blade. The idea that only one personnel per Equipment card may be wounded brings us back to the question of how many Kar'Takins there are, and with the Strength boost going to everyone, it seems like Decipher wants the best of both worlds. Unlike the Bat'leth, which is a weapon difficult for untrained outsiders to use, the Kar'Takins seems much easier to wield, and in fact, Sisko and crew were able to just grab 'em and use 'em effectively when forced to do so. That's something that contradicts the species restriction on it. There's some appreciable stuff here (mostly the main function), but many of the details feel wrong. Stops at 3.

STOCKABILITY: Disruptors still have their uses (being specifically named as requirements for example, or being useable by Vorta, Karemma and Founders), but Kar'Takins have the same STRENGTH boost PLUS a nifty stun-to-mortally wounded ability. And with Jem'Hadar, that's a big deal. Their STRENGTH is so high (especially with a +2 boost) that they'll AT LEAST stun most opponents. So those they don't kill, they can kill anyway. Inglatu (Dosi) and the Breen have similar STRENGTHs, and will fit in well with this weapon. It unfortunately lacks the usefulness of the Bat'leth for other affiliations (none of those species are anything but Dominion), but for the GQ gang, it's a big boost to an already powerful strategy. A killer 3.9.

TOTAL: 11.2 (56%) Unrelated to the categories above, but interesting nonetheless, is that the Star Trek people placed Kar'Takins in Kira's flashback of her father's death ("Ties of Blood and Water"). They were used by the Resistance apparently, years before the Wormhole was ever discovered. Stolen from the New Bajor colony like the "Dominion" PADD? If so, why can't the Bajorans use it? Just an odd prop snafu.

PICTURE: Silly? No, that's not it... Goofy? No... I know! Over the top! Yeah, this Gowron look-alike is really hamming it up in the Enterprise captain's chair. It's a fun image though that beige background is still terrible and it dwarfs Kavok, making him look puny. A compromise then at 3.4.

LORE: The first two sentences are the story of the VCR game "A Klingon Challenge", well told all in all. The last is pure invention, but adds an extra matching commander status to the personnel. That gives him two: the commandeered USS Enterprise (though he can command it under Treaty too) and the IKC Buruk (that one's a little... forced). That's gotta be worth some points, and we find this score leveling off at 3.7.

TREK SENSE: I've never seen the VCR game, so I may be in the dark when it comes to a couple of elements, but I think I can manage with the help of a few friends. I dont' have trouble with his being an Officer or a Command icon personel. The "captained" in the lore admits as much. His special download of Commandeer Ship and the attendent Computer Skill certainly make sense from what went on in the game. Treachery is likewise indicated though the lore has an Honorable aspect to it ("die in glorious battle"). Treachery's fine for someone who was ready to start a war regardless of their government's wishes. I can't explain the Physics though. It may well be a skill an Officer would have picked up, but nothing I've been told about the character supports it (or really disputes it). Reporting to any empty Federation ship is a bit much however. How does he do this? I realize that the VCR game may be a little vague about this (the ship is docked at a Starbase however), but in the CCG, I would expect him to beam there somehow. What's his secret? (How about good old-fashioned Transporter Skill?) Why can't he do this to board other vessels? If it's because his motivation lies in specifically starting a war between the Klingons and Feds, then why no such imperative once he's commandeered the ship? And the ship isn't empty in the VCR game - the players actually represent up to 6 engineers also on the ship during the takeover. The skill goes wide. The dual matching commander status is likewise objectionable. If matching commander status represents a person's deep knowledge of a ship's capabilities (as Captain's Log would seem to indicate), then captain a ship once would not be enough to get that status. He hijacked the Enterprise once (outside continuity) and captained the Buruk, again, only once. Attributes look fine however - the Integrity is low enough, but still has that "for the glory of the Empire" motivation; Cunning is average to go with his unlikely-to-succeed plan; and Strength is that of a true warrior. Quite a few problems bring this guy down to a 1.7.

STOCKABILITY: Kavok has a lot of little things to offer the Klingon player. As a mission solver, his skills are all featured on a large number of missions, though only rarely together (Compromised Mission, Cargo Rendezvous, to name a couple). He's not excellent at passing dilemmas, though he has little to fear from Maglocks. His Computer Skill is perfect for his special download which, in fact, requires it, but you'll find the Computer Skill/Treachery/high STRENGTH combo excellent for throwing people out an Airlock. Not only can he commandeer a vessel quite effectively, but when facing the Federation, he does it even more effectively. When your opponent leaves a ship, he can report directly to it. If left unattended at a facility for example, but you should increase your chances by seeding nice tough wall dilemmas and Mission Debriefing. If mega-Away Teams are your opponent's cheese-of-the-day (and Fed decks are particularly tuned to this kind of deck), you can teach her a lesson by stealing her ship from under her nose. Should have left someone on board! Though he can only download the objective once, return Kavok to hand via Space-Time Portal (from some other ship) to commandeer another ship with another copy of Commandeer Ship. How many ships did your opponent stock anyway? Got Kavok in your opening hand? Report him to that Spacedoored ship. You can see the possibilities. Well, they'll only work on a Fed player, but there are plenty of those. Being a matching commander of the Federation ship USS Enterprise may make that commandeered ship (Plaqued/Logged) 11-11-12, (and staffed by just him) but you'd have to be pretty lucky to get such a result. It's probably more reasonable to use the USS Enterprise with a Fed/Kli Treaty, though you'd have to obey battle restrictions on that ship. If just using Kavok as a "normal" Klingon, better to sit him down in the Buruk, making that ship a 10-11-10, not bad for a bird-of-prey. Oh, and he's good in personnel battle, though the Klingon Honor cards won't work on him. Just enough for a 3.8.

TOTAL: 12.6 (63%) VCR-related cards huh? Well, I'm not against it. Are we gonna get stuff from Star Trek: The Experience?

PICTURE: The thing about ships is, you usually see them as facing toward you. Now, the Keldon is actually showing its back, but you have to know the ship design to recognize that. After all, doesn't the middle of the tail end look like the front of a Vor'Cha? Add a slight blur, too-heavy shadows and a less than imposing size, and you get a 2.6.

LORE: Your basic ship lore isn't usually that interesting, and the Keldon follows in that tradition. The last sentence seems a little robotic to me. Score... is... 2.9.

TREK SENSE: Bigger and tougher than the Galor class, the Keldons naturally have greater staffing. In fact, I suppose they are the Galaxy class ships of the Cardassian Union. Their stats fall somewhere between the Galor and the Keldon Advanced, but not by much (Weapons and Shields each +1 compared to Galor). Do I have anything to say against these? No. But could they have been more intersting? Sure. How about giving them Holodecks or something? Not shown in the show, but the big ships usually have them. Anyway... no problems, but nothing (really nothing) original. A 3.5.

STOCKABILITY: All an extra staff icon buys you is WEAPONS and SHIELDS +1? That's not a very good deal. The Galor also has a matching commander to boost those stats. The universal Keldon doesn't. And 8-8-8 isn't that high when compared to similarly staffed ships. Heck, the Alliance Galor has the same stats with much better features. The unique Alpha quadrant Galors come close (usually with a 7 somewhere in the attributes) AND have matching commanders to bring it all over the top. I just don't see how this bigger-not-better universal ship is really that necessary. Not requiring Obsidian Order personnel to keep up the stats like its Advanced cousin is very small recompense. The fact it can't even report to a Nor is a shame. Like many ships, it's a good transport for personnel and can hold its own in battle, but its being surpassed in some way by many other Cardassian ships brings it down to a 2.

TOTAL: 11 (55%) Sometimes, a technological advance turns out to be a lemon.

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