Siskoid's Rolodex.............Blaze of Glory (5)



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

#1097-Parthok, Personnel, Romulan, BoG
"Technical advisor to Senator Vreenak. Trained by Tal Shiar. In 2374, counseled the senator during his mission to Deep Space 9."
-ENGINEER, MEDICAL, Leadership, Tal Shiar, Computer Skill; Staff icon
-INTEGRITY: 7, CUNNING: 8, STRENGTH: 6

PICTURE: Great perspective, ending in an almost normal-sized Romulan icon in the back of the airlock. The Romulan looks appropriately paranoid and distrusting. Great colors too. There is some blurring due to either movement or a zoom-in, but that doesn't detract too much from a 3.5.

LORE: Usually, the character's post/assignment/rank is true to the show, with some details invented to keep things interesting. Here, it's the opposite. Yes, he counseled Vreenak on that outing, but nowhere did I get the sense he was a "technical advisor". Of course, Vreenak did need somebody to test the data rod, and a "technical adviser" could be the one to do so. Decipher simply assigned the task to a guy that just seemed like a security guard to us. I also wonder what "trained by the Tal Shiar" means. Is it the same as being IN the Tal Shiar, or is he akin to Tarzan and the apes? Hazy in spots, so I won't go above 3.

TREK SENSE: We can only speculate on most of his abilities. If we're to believe the lore, then he must be an Engineer. That he's in the Tal Shiar is a little more solid, since Vreenak himself is Tal Shiar x2. His aides might very well be from that organization as well. From the episode, we can at least infer the Computer Skill, which, as mentioned under Lore, would be required to examine Garak's data rod (yes, the faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake). What's left isn't very convincing though. Leadership, while not impossible given the latitude the Tal Shiar enjoys, isn't proven. This guy was as much a lapdog as any other extra hanging around with the Senator. And Medical... Well, that's just ludicrous. Again, are we supposed to see a connection with the Tal Shiar and Medical-based torture? Seems a stretch, especially for someone who's also an Engineer. Loyalty for the Empire aside, I'm not sure such high Integrity is really called for in a Romulan unless he showed amazing honor. I'll buy it but I won't like it. Same for the Strength, which is paltry compared to the Romulan norm. Cunning's fine. A lot of liberties were taken here, and half of them don't work - a 2.

STOCKABILITY: Didn't get a line, but could still be considered a Romulan "main" with his 4 excellent skills. First, there's a nice dual-classification in ENGINEER/MEDICAL, the two most requested skills in the entire game. The Romulans are kind of low on MEDICAL to boot, so finding it on a multi-skilled personnel is great. Leadership is a rather good skill in its own right, but in his case, also allows him to initiate battle. Tal Shiar can be used for a variety of things, from staffing the Advanced D'deridex, to initiating battle against other Romulans with Defensive Measures, reporting for free at the Continuing Committee, downloading evil cards to captives in those Holding Cells, spying through Plans of the Tal Shiar, and solving quite a few missions. As for the Computer Skill, it's another one of those always-useful abilities, found on a great number of dilemmas and missions. And though the STRENGTH is a little lacking, he's quite Firestorm-proof and can hold his own in CUNNING. A great support personnel (not in the game-term sense though) for your Romulan mission solving decks, or just for extra speed thanks to his superlative Tal Shiar. Talkin' about a 3.9.

TOTAL: 12.4 (62%) When they take liberties, it's often to boost the card's usefulness at the expense of its Trek Sense.

#1108-Phased Polaron Beam, Tactic, BoG
ATTACK: 1, DEFENSE: 2
-ATTACK bonus +2 if you have a Dominion ship firing. Hit = [flip][flip]. Direct hit = [flip][flip][flip][flip].
*Casualties: randomly kills one personnel (on a Nor, one personnel at site of opponent's choice).
RANGE -1, WEAPONS -2, SHIELDS -1, HULL -30%

PICTURE: An excellent Tactic pic, especially having two ships instead of one, which demonstrates Dominion tactics pretty well. The brilliant shafts of light, slightly reminiscent of the Borg cutting beam, fire in the same direction we read, which is relevant here because Decipher went and flipped footage that has, I think, always been used the other way around. Good too that the two fighters are not at the same angle, avoiding the look of a cut-and-paste job. A cool 3.9.

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

TREK SENSE: This is the standard Dominion Tactic (with the "Casualties" damage marker) and works pretty much like the others of its ilk. The bonuses are 1/2 with an extra +2 if the right affiliation is using it, that's standard. But there's still no fixing the fact that other affiliations can use it alright (without the bonus +2), but none of them actually use Polaron Beams. Even some Dominion ships probably don't use this type of weaponry, the Breen Warships chief among them. It's the damage marker section that makes the most sense, since people are expected to die (by hull breach or exploding panel) in a ship-to-ship battle. You can choose the site at a Nor because those facilities are big enough to actually target specific sections. Even if that wasn't the case, we have to admit that personnel would be located at these sites rather than "on a ship, somewhere". Dominion ships apparently target Weapons more agressively (-2) which makes sense when you consider that they can beam through your Shields in any event, and they have generally fast ships that can catch up to yours. Since fighters are a little easier to destroy (on the show at least), they would target Weapons first. It also goes with their kamikaze mentality of rushing down your throat (guns) head first. Well done, though Tactics' central conceit is not adressed. A 3.3.

STOCKABILITY: The Dominion has a number of Tactics it may use, including Attack Wing (variable bonus, more specific casualty, more focused ship list), Breen Disruptor Burst (different ship list, greater damage), Breen Energy-Dampening Weapon (disabling effect), Target Engines (specific damage) and Target Weapons (likewise). Polaron Beam, then, is the generalist of the lot, killing off one personnel at random from an entire crew when a damage marker, and giving a bonus to any and all Dominion ships involved in your fight. The high DEFENSE bonus will make already impregnable ships even tougher, and the ATTACK bonus of +3 isn't bad either. Padding your Battle-Bridge side-deck with these won't do any harm, that's for sure, though you can have some of the others at a lesser concentration to give you some healthy options. A 3.7.

TOTAL: 14.53 (72.67%) A good shot.

#1119-Phaser Array Power Cell, Interrupt, 5 points, BoG
"In times of war, it is not unusual for a crew to adopt rituals recognizing its accomplishments in battle. In 2374, the crew of the U.S.S. Defiant ceremonially displayed used phaser cells."
-Once per turn, plays to score points if your ship survived a battle in which it and an opponent's card both fired WEAPONS.

PICTURE: Sisko holding a power cell suffers from the cell being too bright against a very dark background. It's basically a prop shot for something that should have been emotional. They should have showed faces along with the cell. After all, the card isn't about the object itself. A dull 1.5.

LORE: Well told, with a generic enough first sentence to include more than just the Feds. I don't think the date is too important here, since the ritual was acted out more than once. It's a 3.5.

TREK SENSE: Now, if you see points as "meaningful accomplishments", then emptying a Power Cell could well be worth 5 points (as much as a Medal). The way to empty those cells doesn't quite work however. You are considered to have emptied a ship's Power Cell if that ship survived a battle in which it fired its weapons (and the opposing ship too). The way I understood it, it took at least a week of constant fighting to empty these things out, or else Sisko and Jadzia would have been doing their little ritual on average twice a day. Yes, I agree that firing in a ship-to-ship battle probably entails multiple shots, manuevers, etc. that are conceptually acted out, but a single battle (which may go on for a number of turns) would not empty your cells. The concept for bonus points is ok, but they cheat a great deal on the details. A 2.6.

STOCKABILITY: It's basically a Data's Medals for ship battles. 5 points for surviving a battle? Should be easy enough to achieve if you initiate your battles carefully. Not so useful for the reactive Federation who have heavy attack restrictions. If you want to keep those points out of your opponent's hands, don't fire WEAPONS if you know they won't work - some players will retalliate automatically even if they know their shuttle can't do a thing against that Breen Warship. Firing WEAPONS only encourages them to play Phaser Array Power Cell. If you're the aggressor in this scenario, you could trick your opponent into firing when they normally wouldn't with a simple "you gonna retalliate?". And as they jokingly inform you of their pitiful attribute number "does that graze your shield?", you can plop down your interrupt saying "no, but thanks for firing." It's a good addition to Council of Warriors and the like, but you really have to watch how many of your points are from bonus sources. It may come back to bite you on the warp nacelle. I'm thinking 3.3 here.

TOTAL: 10.9 (54.5%) Basically went to older designs for its ideas.

#1129-Phaser Banks, Tactic, BoG
ATTACK: 1, DEFENSE: 2
-ATTACK bonus +2 if you have a Federation ship firing. Hit = [flip][flip]. Direct hit = [flip][flip][flip][flip].
*Casualties: randomly kills one personnel (on a Nor, one personnel at site of opponent's choice).
RANGE -1, WEAPONS -2, SHIELDS -1, HULL -30%

PICTURE: A nice image of the Enterprise-E with gun blazing. It's from the film, so the special effects quality really stands up, though there is slight blurring on the ship. Odd angles, but realistic lighting. I give this one a 3.6.

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

TREK SENSE: This is your usual "primary weapon" card for the Federation affiliation. The standard tactic, if you will. As usual, it gives out a 1/2 Attack/Defense bonus, and an extra +2 to Attack for correctly affiliated ships. The basics work though the underlying problem of all such cards is, of course, not fixed. By that, I mean that though Phasers are of course standard Federation issue weapons, any affiliation can actually get the baseline 1/2 bonuses, even the ones we know to be using disruptors and other weapons. The damage marker part of the card is the standard "Casualties", which is one of the most sensical things to come down the pike in a while. Space battles do more than damage ships, they kill people too, whether it's from exploding panels or ruptured bulkheads. As for the exact damage done to the ship, Phasers are very much surgical tools, and specifically targeting Weapons falls easily within their perview as evidenced on many episodes. The Feds would also try to disable a ship's battling ability before going for engines or outright destruction (Shields). A 3.3, which is standard for this card type.

STOCKABILITY: The Federation isn't usually the aggressor, but that doesn't mean it doesn't get into scrapes. A Battle Bridge may seem like a luxury for the affiliation if it has no intention of fighting (a defensive backup really), but then again, there are some personnel that allow attacks, as does Emblem of the Empire. The Feds do have access to a number of Tactics that specifically boost their ships, though this is the only one that can be used by ANY of their ships. The bonuses aren't as high as Full Phaser Spread, Photon Torpedo, Quantum Torpedo or Pulse Phaser Cannons, and the casualty (for those that cause them) is more random, but you don't need a specific ship there, so don't have to tailor your deck around that aspect of battling if you don't want to. It's a perfectly fine damage marker, causing one death whether it's encountered as a result of a battle or a dilemma, and dishing out standard -30 Hull damage. Of course, if you're only using like-classed ships (Galaxies, Sovereigns, Defiants or Akiras), then those other Tactics may be the way to go, but you'll notice those ship classes are harder to staff and/or small in number. A perfectly alright 3.5.

TOTAL: 13.86 (69.33%) Can't complain about cards from that battle scene.

#1139-Photon Torpedo, Tactic, BoG
ATTACK: 2, DEFENSE: 2
-ATTACK bonus +1 if you have an Akira-class ship firing. Hit = [flip][flip]. Direct hit = [flip][flip][flip][flip].
*Tactical panel overload: randomly kills one SECURITY or Computer Skill personnel (on a Nor, one personnel in Security Office).
WEAPONS -1, SHIELDS -1, HULL -35%

PICTURE: The Akira-class looks kind of silly from this angle, and we don't get many details from the dark side of its hull, but the photorp effect is very nice, and I simply can't give a bad mark to anything from that space battle ;-). A dynamic 3.4.

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

TREK SENSE: As usual with Tactics, I see this card as two separate cards. One is "Photon Torpedo", the other is "Tactical Panel Overload". Let's look at each one in turn. The basic Tactic itself has the one flaw of all Tactics, namely that it is named after a piece of hardware which may or may not be installed on any given ship. Romulan ships, for example, use Plasma Torpedos, though they could still use this Tactic. 2/2 is +1 more Attack than Phaser Banks and -1 less than Full Phaser Spread, which sounds about right. They only break out the Torpedos in response to bigger threats, though phasers should still be useful in large battles (i.e. all guns blazing). A torpedo spread Tactic wouldn't be a bad idea for a future card, methinks. The extra bonus given to Akira-class ships is due to their having as many as 8 torpedo launchers (according to some sources), and could mean they can launch greater volleys. As for the damage marker, it's like Casualties in that it's quite normal for people to die during a ship-to-ship battle, but goes even deeper into causes and effects. The death here is caused by a specific thing, a panel overload, and happens at a very specific place, a tactical console. Obviously, the person that should be standing at such a console would be a Security personnel, though the console aspect allows a Computer Skill personnel to take the hit instead. That's not as fine-tuned as I would like it, but even with just Security in the works, specific personnel aren't always trained in BOTH Security and "Tactical", so there would have been that. Aboard a Nor, appropriate consoles would be in the Security Office. I like the distinction. I would also have appreciated a link to the card Tactical Console (nullifying it perhaps), but it was undoubtledly a question of space. The attribute diminutions are well, hem, attributed, with only the two tactical systems being affected (plus the Hull, of course). Is there a goodly link between the two halves of the card? Not much of one. Torpedos can play havok with tactical systems, of course, but no more than with other systems. A Torpedo in a nacelle, for example, can provide plenty of nastiness. All in all, while the damage marker is excellently played, the Tactic itself is at times questionable. I'll drop a 3.4 on here.

STOCKABILITY: While 2/2 is good for any affiliation to use, only the Feds can bring up the ATTACK bonus to 3 and only with Akiras. Well, there are only 2 such ships (the Jupiter and the Thunderchild), so I'm guessing anyone using this Tactic is settling for the 2/2 most of the time. In any case, I think the damage marker section is much more interesting, as it is one of those more specific casualty cards. SECURITY and Computer Skill are both common skills, so you'll usually find a target, and it makes a good damage marker to include for purposes of ship-damaging dilemmas. If you follow up with a Computer Skill- or SECURITY-requiring dilemma, the damage marker can help you make sure the crew doesn't get any further (especially when the follow-up requires multiples of these skills). Against a Nor, it's less useful, as it targets a particular Site, IF it even exists, but if it does, it will be used as a rallying point to counter any attacking away teams anywhere they may appear. So your ships can deal death from above, while your Away Team makes its way to Ops unmolested. Nors only have WEAPONS and SHIELDS to damage anyway ;-). A good one to stock for damage at 3.8.

TOTAL: 14.13 (70.65%) Just above Phaser Banks.

#1150-Picard Maneuver, Tactic, BoG
ATTACK: 3, DEFENSE: 0
-If matching commander aboard your ship, it appears to be in two places at once and has a 50/50 chance to avoid all damage this battle. Hit = [flip][flip]. Direct hit = [flip][flip][flip][flip].
*EPS taps overloaded: Opponent may immediately download to this ship one Plasma Fire or Warp Core Breach (if possible).
RANGE -2, SHIELDS -2, HULL -20%

PICTURE: The highlighted rectangular area in the back is an odd sfx glitch where the background nebula is lighter at that spot. I don't dislike it, as it creates a kind of tunnel vision for the viewer, though that tunnel leads you to a relatively blurry ship. The effect is, however, dynamic overall, and showcases a little-seen vessel class. I'll go as high as 3.4.

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

TREK SENSE: As with most Tactics, I consider this 2 separate cards as far as Trek Sense goes - Picard Maneuver and EPS Taps Overloaded. First, the tactical section. The effect is described just like in the show which is great for Trek Sense. If the ship seems to be in 2 places at once, but is only in one, then your opponent has a 50% chance of attacking the wrong target. Taking advantage of the confusion it caused, your ship gets a +3 to Attack. But if your opponent attacks the right ship, the tactic had no Defensive advantage. Of course, Attack and Defense bonuses are applied to attribute totals, not particular ships. The effect, though, applies to specific ships - ships with their matching commander aboard. This reflects Picard's exclusivity of the tactic without limiting it to him specifically. See, once word gets out, other commanders may use it, but only if they know their craft intimately enough. If the card were just this part, it would earn a 5. But what about the damage marker section? It's interesting. Damage often causes Plasma Fire and Warp Core Breaches on the show, yet is not usually part and parcel of ship damage. Working it in as a damage download is great. Range and Shields are the only 2 affected attributes, but that's not entirely clear. I guess they are the most dependent on the warp core(?). Hull damage is a bit low for damage that would cause these other problems, though I'm no engineer, and might not know everything about the phenomenon. I can't give this a perfect score anyway, because there's the issue of marrying the two parts of the card. Are they related in any way thematically? One is a dangerous micro-warp, the other affects the warp core directly... yeah, there's a relationship. 4.8 enough for you?

STOCKABILITY: ATTACK +3 is a great bonus, and while DEFENSE is technically +0, there may be a 50% chance your ship can't be hit at all, Edo Vessel-like. All you need is your matching commander aboard ship, so this card is especially useful when using a lot of these, along with attendant Captain's Log and Defiant Dedication Plaque, enhancements which could become offline through a well-placed Target tactic. As a damage marker, it is less remarkable, though it makes a couple of blah events a little more useful. Plasma Fire and Warp Core Breach are 1) slow to play and 2) too easy to overcome. Even a small hit on a target vessel will yield 2 damage markers, so if you can remove offending SECURITY or ENGINEERs with other tactics (namely Photon Torpedo and Evasive Maneuvers), you might have a better chance of destroying the ship or damaging it further. Could work. The rest of the damage isn't too hot, with WEAPONS being unaffected, and HULL damage as low as -20%. The ECH makes the card more useful by being able to download it, so you can include fewer copies (its small damage makes it a drain on the side-deck otherwise) and still grab it when needed. Its highly defensive nature makes it a 3.5.

TOTAL: 15.6 (78%) Loved the Trek Sense on the card.

#1160-Plasma Torpedo, Tactic, BoG
ATTACK: 1, DEFENSE: 2
-ATTACK bonus +2 if you have a Romulan ship firing. Hit = [flip][flip]. Direct hit = [flip][flip][flip][flip].
*Casualties: randomly kills one personnel (on a Nor, one personnel at site of opponent's choice).
RANGE -1, WEAPONS -1, SHIELDS -2, HULL -30%

PICTURE: A fabrication that nonetheless looks fairly good, it starts with a flipped pic of the D'deridex Advanced with a superimposed torpedo effect. The close-up of the warbird's nose is impressive, but the torpedo effect is a far cry from the cool Federation photons and quantums. No more than a 3.

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

TREK SENSE: It's your usual basic affiliation Tactic, with half the card representing the title weapon, and the other being "Casualties". When dealing with the tactical part of the card, the usual problem pops up, namely that not all ships are equipped with Plasma Torpedos, yet they may be used by any affiliation (without the extra bonus). This is compounded by the fact that the basic Romulan weapon, by all accounts, should be the Disruptor. Plasma Torpedos? I don't remember much in the way of actual fx or dialogue on the subject. But the Pulse Disruptor was given to the Klingons, so that's that. Attack/Defense for these things has usually always been 1/2, and that's the same here, though if the Federation and Romulans are more or less evenly matched, you'd expect Torpedos to match Torpedos, not Phaser Banks. Ah well. The Casualties section is the saving grace of course, as ship battles SHOULD kill some of the crew at least some of the time, be it by exploding panel, hull breach or whatever. Though the damage marker isn't necessarily a result of the tactic, it's nice when there's a link between the two halves. In this case, we have to look at the attribute drops, and here there's a -2 to Shields (there's always a -2 SOMEwhere on the basic Tactics). Torpedos would indeed be hard on Shields since they would have an area (explosive) effect. Ok, that matches, but I'm not convinced of the top half of the card's ideas... A 2.9 from me.

STOCKABILITY: The Romulans haven't been showered with Tactics. This is the only one that specifically enhances their ships (though, of course, Maximum Firepower works on the Decius, Evasive Maneuvers on the scouts, etc.). It's pretty standard both as a Tactic and as a damager marker. Casualties are always good (for you) even when they're random, and the bigger drop to SHIELDS simply makes the ship even more vulnerable to attack if it wasn't destroyed in the first volley. Hitting SHIELDS is also good for capturing strategies like Romulan Ambush and Outgunned. Romulans can be used fairly aggressively - that's why I feel they should get more Tactics - and they'll stock a majority of this card in their Battle Bridge side-deck. Senator Letant can use his download of Attack Pattern Delta to dig out less common Tactics if the need arises. A 3.5.

TOTAL: 12.53 (62.65%) The basic Tactics are getting to be as tedious as Espionage cards.

#1170-Prepare the Prisoner, Objective, Hidden Agenda, BoG
-Seeds or plays on table. Captives you Brainwash are not required to relocate to an outpost. Opponent's Rescue Captives card affects only captives at one location where opponent has a crew or Away Team (rescued personnel relocate to that crew or Away Team). Each turn, you may draw one card by placing one capturing-related card from your hand beneath your draw deck or discard pile.

PICTURE: The pic's not just blurry, it's downright hazy. That, and I wish they could have somehow used O'Brien's ordeal in "Tribunal" as the source. Not that Geordi didn't suffer, but there seemed to be a lot more "preparation" in the Cardassian version. As is, well, it looks more like "Bring the Prisoner". The poses are somewhat strange on the Romulans, the background has too many unattractive colors (at least together) and the characters look digitally enhanced along the edges which looks fake (the Sharpen tool gone wrong or something). It's not as terrible as I make it sound, perhaps, but I'm still disappointed. A 1.8.

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

TREK SENSE: It's kind of hard to evaluate a card that has 3 distinct functions, even if they are all thematically linked to capturing. I.e., I wonder how much each would answer to the title. Let's try each one in turn. Ok, the first function takes its cue from the pic and the whole brainwashed Geordi episode. In that episode, Geordi was Brainwashed, but did not, as per that card, relocate to any Outpost. His returning to the Enterprise as a mole is covered by E-Band Emissions, but his staying aboard the Romulan ship to repeatedly shoot Chief O'Brien, I guess, is through this card. Still, the idea is more to keep the victim working on the ship where the Brig was located, so Preparing the Prisoner might mean here, that he is taught how to be part of a Romulan crew (or whatever). In any case, the net effect fixes the Trek Sense of Brainwash. The second function again plays with Brigs in that a Rescue Captives operation can only be carried out at one such holding center and by an actual Away Team, not each one at the same time by a conceptual rescue party. Again, Trek Sense gets fixed (in a major way) for another card, but this time, I'm unsure how "Preparing" the prisoner is relevant. In fact, it isn't. Finally, there's the whole capture-card cycling which is so mechanical, it has to be too conceptual to stand up to scrutiny, right? Well, it makes some measure of sense in that your personnel decide that now is not a good time to capture someone (or do something to a captive) and reshuffle their resources to do something else. It's like Madred being told to stop torturing Picard. Unlike Madred, you can always come back to it later (it can be put in the draw deck) or abandon the idea totally (the discard pile). Unfortunately, this has NOTHING to do with any kind of Prisoner. Capturing strategies definitely deserve a Hidden Agenda icon, so no problems there. High marks for fixing Trek Sense on a couple of cards, and making sense itself, but points off for not sticking to the title of the card. It's just a jumble of like-themed ideas really... a 3.5, but no more.

STOCKABILITY: An excellent addition to your capture decks, Prepare the Prisoner has 3 effects, all of them active simultaneously, and none of them causing the Objective to be discarded. In the first instance, it overrides Brainwash's relocation to outpost effect, allowing you to get Brainwashed captives out of whatever Brig you're using and out and about. They don't need to be picked up at the outpost, and your Cardassians can use their Nors without the need for an outpost. Second, where Rescue Captives used to spring free all captives on one side of the table, your opponent must now have an Away Team or crew at the location where they are being held, and if being held at different places (Brainwashed captives may be especially spread out), that could be quite a hassle, requiring per force a number of Rescue Captives cards. Certainly protects your interests. The last effect allows you to stock plenty of capture-related cards, without sacrificing the deck's playability. If capturing doesn't go well, or if your hand is full of, say, Interrogations, but you have no captives yet, you can turn those (for the moment) useless cards into card draws. The capture card can be sent to the discard pile, but can also be cycled back into your deck for later retrieval. Being all at the bottom, you could suddenly use a card to get them back, like Heinsenberg Compensators or Remodulation, but downloads would obviously change their position in the deck. The whole kit and kaboodle is seedable AND a Hidden Agenda, so you can surprise your opponenent when they try a Rescue, but it's mostly to keep them guessing during the seed phase. The important thing is that this card makes capturing much more viable by 1) saving you time on Brainwashing relocations, 2) protecting your investment from Rescues and 3) allowing you to stack the deck without handicapping you elsewhere. A neat 4.2.

TOTAL: 12.67 (63.33%) A bit of a mess, but redeemed by a number of elements.

#1180-Primary Energy Weapon, Tactic, BoG
ATTACK: 1, DEFENSE: 2
-ATTACK bonus +2 if you have a Borg ship firing. Hit = [flip][flip]. Direct hit = [flip][flip][flip][flip].
*Casualties: randomly kills one personnel (on a Nor, one personnel at site of opponent's choice).
RANGE -1, WEAPONS -2, SHIELDS -2, HULL -30%

PICTURE: Extremely stark lighting adversely affects this card, creating a blur of some kind, though the moment is a classic one. The fact that the borg weapon looks a lot like a tractor beam effect also takes away from the drama a bit, but the relative ship sizes do a lot to restore it. An interesting composition, but inferior image quality at 3.5. (Still good!)

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

TREK SENSE: Well, this is a basic affiliation Tactic/Casualties card, but thanks to its extremely generic name (ah, the Borg), it doesn't suffer as much from being useable by any affiliation as do most others. See, Spiral-Wave Disruptors are ony installed on Cardassian ships, so the Klingons being able to use the "Tactic" is nonsensical, but EVERYBODY has a "Primary Energy Weapon". It could stand for Phasers, Disruptors, etc. The card does show a Borg ship however, so there is a bonus for Borg users, as per similar cards. And if this one does better than its cousins in the Tactic area, it does just as well in the damage marker portion. Casualties are an expected by-product of ship battles as consoles explode and hulls breach, and this is well-handled by its random killing. At a Nor, the card imagines an attack on a specific part of the station (it's so huge, you could do this) and so you can choose the Site. As for the exact damage, I might have imagined the Borg causing -2 to each attribute, especially since the Breen version does this, and the weapon in the pic hits a warp nacelle. That's one element on an otherwise good card, so only down to 3.7.

STOCKABILITY: Borg Cutting Beam is all well and good if you're into assimilation strategies, but if that's all you stock in your Battle Bridge side-deck, you won't have very many options. Primary Energy Weapon is your basic Borg Tactic which actually does some attribute damage to opposing ships (Cutting Beam only affects SHIELDS). It's not as potent against HULL, but then, Borg Cubes often score direct hits anyway. If you don't score that direct hit, you do score a Casualty, which is always good. Of course, assimilation takes the same personnel away from your opponent, and gives you one to play with instead. So maybe Cutting Beam is the better of the two after all. Yeah, Primary Energy Weapon falls pretty flat for the Borg. More useful with the mid-sized ships like the Probe or Queen's Ship, I'll leave it at 3.4.

TOTAL: 14.13 (70.67%) About the same as others of its ilk.

#1190-Prisoner Escort, Interrupt, -5 points, BoG
"Captured by a Hunter, Tosk was led through the corridors of Deep Space 9 to show that he had been apprehended - the ultimate humiliation for a Tosk."
-Plays on a personnel you just captured. If you place captive in your Brig, its owner loses points (once per persona per game).

PICTURE: Great make-up and great costumes are highlighted in this walk down the Promenade. The pic isn't as sharp as some though, and the background tends to be a little distracting, especially the nonchalant Starfleet personnel, but the body language speaks volumes. As strong as a 3.4.

LORE: A great explanation of both the picture and the game text, though it doesn't go very far in explaining how the situation might translate to any other capture situation. 2.9 here.

TREK SENSE: So how DOES this relate to non-Tosk captures? Well enough actually, but it doesn't mesh that well with the title. See, the escort itself is accomplished without the help of cards, since it is a simple, built-in mechanic. Your personnel always "escort" captives at their location! What the card actually does is reward you (or really, penalize the captive's owner) for escorting that captive to a specific location - the Brig. Now that makes a certain measure of sense since being captured is bad, and not escaping until you get thrown in "jail" is even worse. The focus is more on the captive's reaction (a sense of failure) than the success of the capturer (which would have been represented by a positive point box). A simple card, perhaps shakily titled, and it gets to 4. Why not 5? Well, it has to be played at the point of capture, as if personnel could not be later ordered to escort captives to that location. There's also the matter of not meshing very well with pic and lore, a story in which the "escorting" penalizes the prisoner rather than the the "brigging". Yeah, a 4.

STOCKABILITY: Running a capture deck? Why not profit point-wise from it as well? Sure, there are no bonus points to be had, but a drop in your opponent's points may be just as good in allowing you to reach 100 points first AND that 5-point increment isn't hosed by bonus point hosers like Intermix Ratio. You do need a Brig to make it work, but since it can be used to download Interrogation, Torture and the like (well, the cards that add a Brig can), a Brig won't be too far when using such strategies. With heavy capturing, point losses can be considerable, and nothing stops you from doing something else to the captive after that. Prisoner Escort is downloadable by a variety of shady characters, easily on hand at the moment of capture: Tharket for the Romulans, Oken'alak for the Dominion and Rinox for the Klingons/Alliance. The first two are big capture-users, and while the Klingons aren't necessarily so, the Alliance tie-in would allow your Mirror Cardassians to take advantage of it. A cute bonus in specific situations, I call it a 3.5.

TOTAL: 13.8 (69%) Now... where's that shroudable Tosk card?

#1200-Prisoner Exchange, Incident , Hidden Agenda, BoG
-Seeds or plays on table. During your turn, you may release a personnel you hold captive (relocate to owner's ship or facility at same location). Release any or all of your own personnel held captive at that location (relocate them to your ship or facility there), or instead download any one personnel there; then discard incident.

PICTURE: The figures are so small, there was bound to be some blurring, but you can still tell who's who. There were other "Prisoner Exchanges" in Star Trek, so the choice of this one may have been for clarity reasons, but it's a little static. The rich color palette doesn't really save it from its deserved 2.9.

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

TREK SENSE: While your willingness to exchange prisoners may not be advertised, I doubt this would fall under the heading of Hidden Agenda. I mean, you want your opponent to know the offer's on the table, right? (Similarly, the card's seedable nature is suspect since no one has captives at the start of the game, but see below.) The rest of the card works well enough though, if you forget for a minute that it actually COERCES your opponent into releasing your personnel, i.e. the deal is struck without mutual consent. Anyway, the way it works is that you release a prisoner (captive) at a location, transfering that captive to a ship or facility at the same location. In return, your opponent returns any or all captives at the same location, again to your ship or facility. Not exactly fair, though the "deal" might have been lop-sided based on personnel's worth to their respective affiliations (this won't always make sense). You can see how both sides have suddenly come to an agreement while all they're really doing is crossing Brigs or escorts in the night. It is also possible to download a "prior captive" from your draw deck, and this is where a seedable Prisoner Exchange would be possible. In effect, the game starts with an off-screen prisoner (actually in your draw deck), and some characters on the show HAVE first appeared as prisoners and gone on to make an impact on the series (Tora Ziyal to name but one). Not perfect in scope, but the mechanics of it are nigh flawless. A strong 4.1.

STOCKABILITY: A capture-related card that can be of use against another capture deck! You can funnel bad captures of your own into rescue attempts for your own captive personnel. All you need to do is cross paths with an opponent's Brig or escort to make the trade. With that Hidden Agenda icon, your opponent need not even know this will happen when you park outside her facility. Why would you want to lose a captive? Well, there are a lot of random captures to be had, and not all of them will be personnel that would be worth Brainwashing, Interrogating, Impersonating, etc. Or it might be better put to use rescuing a number of personnel from your opponent's Brig. Unlike Rescue Captives, it can't be Amandaed. Or if your opponent doesn't have any of your personnel, you can download one (any one) to the Exchange's location. So the card can also be used as an engine to turn captives into personnel downloads for you. It's even possible (with various seeded/played Prisoner Exchanges and Captureds) to capture a personnel on an opposing facility, release it for a download, capture it, release it, etc., each time increasing your Away Team. That's no doubt why Hostage Trade limits it to once per turn (oh, poo). Getting it into play can be even easier with the personnel that have it as a special download: Eli Hollander and Yelgren (so that could be twice per game for the Dominion). Though serving a rather pointed stategy, there's enough here for a 4.

TOTAL: 14.67 (73.33%) I keep confusing it with Hostage Trade though.

#1210-Pulse Disruptor, Tactic, BoG
ATTACK: 1, DEFENSE: 2
-ATTACK bonus +2 if you have a Klingon ship firing. Hit = [flip][flip]. Direct hit = [flip][flip][flip][flip].
*Casualties: randomly kills one personnel (on a Nor, one personnel at site of opponent's choice).
RANGE -2, WEAPONS -1, SHIELDS -1, HULL -30%

PICTURE: A Klingon weapon never looked so puny. What's odd here is that they chose a shot of the Alternate Universe Voodieh class to represent a current weapon, something only alleviated by the fact that the current Negh'Var class looks similar. The pulse of energy is clearly dwarfed by the massive head of the ship, and that's not a good thing for a Tactic card. Personally, I would have switched Romulan and Klingon Tactics since we've seen a lot more torpedoes shot from Klingon ships, and disruptors from warbirds, but that's me. A little disappointing at 2.4.

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

TREK SENSE: Well, it's your regular "affiliation Tactic"/Casualties combo again. The Klingon version is much like its brethren. The Tactical part suffers from being useable by any affiliation (again), and though I'm coming to terms with the fact that anyone could use a particular tactic, and Klingons ships (in this case) would be especially good at it, it's the fact that they named these cards after specific hardware that doesn't work for me. Federation ships might be able to fire off "pulse shots", but they do not have disruptors. The ol' 1/2 Attack/Defense bonus is standard, so nothing to say there. The damage marker part of this card does a good job, like others of its ilk, of showing how space battles can carry a heavy price in manpower. Exploding consoles, hull breaches and the like can all cause (rather random, yes) losses in personnel. At a Nor, your ship can target a specific part of the station (because these are so large), which would cause a death there. Very nicely done as usual. The attribute modifiers select Range as the greatest area of damage. As a Klingon tactic, I can understand why that would be. The warrior race doesn't want their opponent to run away, would rather they stay and fight. I'll buy it and give it 3.4.

STOCKABILITY: The damage marker is identical to Spiral-Wave Disruptor, but the Klingons are much more prone to ship battle tactics, having one of the best armadas in the game. Pulse Disruptor, then, is their baseline Tactic, affording their ships an extra +2 to Attack, but also making a very good damage marker. Armadas have no problem scoring direct hits, so the -120% to Hull afforded by 4 of these will take care of business, and if it's not a direct hit, then the lowered RANGE will make it easier for your armada to catch up to the fleeing vessel and finish it off (plus the 2 Casualties). Lone ships might have more trouble, given that WEAPONS and SHIELDS are less affected, and it's really too bad (and very strange) that then Klingons have no other Klingon-specific Tactics (until TMP anyway). You can use more generic Tactics in your Battle-Bridge side-deck, but the Klingon's already established supremacy in the sky, along with few interesting choices for their Battle-Bridge, makes using it a bit unappealing. Note that other affiliations might make use of Klignon Tactics because they have Klingon ships. Among these, the Romulans, Ferengi and Cardassians, but hey, since they all have their own baseline Tactics which pretty much do the same thing, that's not a big help. 3.4 here.

TOTAL: 12.27 (61.33%) Frankly underwhelming.

#1220-Pulse Phaser Cannons, Tactic, BoG
ATTACK: 4, DEFENSE: 1
-ATTACK bonus +1 if you have a Defiant-class ship firing. Hit = [flip][flip]. Direct hit = [flip][flip][flip][flip].
*Tractor beam off line.
WEAPONS -1, SHIELDS -1, HULL -20%

PICTURE: Excellent! This is probably the best image of the Defiant we have, and it's in a perfect battle pose with what some have called its gonzo phasers captured at a good moment in time. Flashy, dynamic and well composed for a strong 4.4.

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

TREK SENSE: The central conceit of Tactic cards is, of course, not adressed, being that Pulse Phaser Cannons are not installed on all ships. In fact, they're on very few ships, yet they can still be "used" by any ship from any affiliation. This dates to the choice of giving many Tactics titles taken from specific weaponry rather than maneuvers. But let's move on. The Defiant's gonzo phasers are powerful indeed, so the +4 to Attack is very appropriate. Only +1 to Defense? Well, they require kind of a head-on approach, which limits evasive maneuvers the ship could be doing while firing. The extra +1 bonus goes to the only ships we know that have this weapon, the Defiant class. The damage marker doesn't have much of a link to the Tactic, so I'll refer to it separately. The only real ties would be that head-on attacks favor hitting Weapons and Shields rather than the often rear-mounted engines. Still, it's more of a question of balance to have low damage with a powerful Attack bonus. Anyway, Tractor Beams are often off line as a result of an attack, so the existence of the damage marker makes sense. Since this is a non-essential system, it also makes sense that the rest of the damage be low. A glancing blow can disrupt tractor operations after all. Works well enough there. All in all, well done, despite Tactics' inherent problems. A 3.9.

STOCKABILITY: Even if only the Feds have Defiant-class ships (the Defiant, Sao Paulo and Mirror Defiant, possibly with the Valiant in the wings), a +4 Attack bonus is quite high, and would be welcome by other affiliations and ships of other classes. And Defiants? It's a +5 Attack bonus to add to their side, and those ships already supply some pretty good firepower. Not much Defense, of course, but for aggressive strategies, it kicks. It's not as powerful as the Quantum Torpedo, but the point in Defense and its potential use by more ships does give it its own niche. The danger of course, is that stocking many of these will result in getting low yield damage markers. Indeed, even a direct hit using 4 of these will not destroy a ship. No casualties either, and disabling a tractor beam isn't a very useful effect. In a very streamlined Battle-Bridge used for damaging dilemmas, you could disable a Tractor Beam before it was needed to tractor a Radioactive Garbage Scow, but that's all very involved for what it's worth. So using very few of these and combining them with stocked Battle-Bridge doorways and/or Attack Pattern Deltas is a good idea. Here, it's a 3.6.

TOTAL: 15.86 (79.33%) It's got a pulse!

#1230-Quantum Torpedo, Tactic, BoG
ATTACK: 5, DEFENSE: 0
-ATTACK bonus +1 if you have a Sovereign-class ship firing. Hit = [flip][flip]. Direct hit = [flip][flip][flip][flip].
*Sensors off line: crew cannot attempt space missions.
WEAPONS -2, SHIELDS -2, HULL -15%

PICTURE: A cool, massive close-up of the Torps being fired makes for one of the better Tactics. It's firing right down our throats, but that doesn't stop us from admiring various elements of the ship itself. Unique color palette, no starfield visible... yeah, definitely stands out. A 4.3.

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

TREK SENSE: This is really two cards. One is Quantum Torpedo, and the other is Sensors Off Line. For the Tactical part, we should know that Quantum Torpedos are an improvement on the ol' Photon Torpedo. Everybody has access to photons, so I'd imagine they could all eventually upgrade to the quantum variety. This is why it's easy to swallow that all affiliations can use this card, a point of contention with various other Tactics. Now, the Photon Torpedo yielded an Attack bonus of +2 and a similar Defense bonus. The Quantum Torpedo works very differently with its incredible +5 Attack bonus, and no Defense bonus at all. What does this mean? On the one hand, Quantum Torps seem to be very powerful and from their name, may well harness energies that could generate this kind of tactical advantage. On the other hand, do we need to fire them point blank or what? I'm trying to explain the +0 Defense bonus. Perhaps the explosions are so great as to force a ship to use evasive maneuvers even against its own attacks, making it difficult to juggle the presence of any fire in addition to it. The real explanation of course, is that this is part of game balance. Possibly because the Sovereign class was one of the first outfitted with Quantum Torpedos, they get an extra +1 to Attack, which is fine because its crews would have the most experience with them, even if we have seen them on other ships. And what about the damage marker aspect of the card? It's true that sometimes, sensors go off line as a result of an attack. In such a case, it becomes impossible to relate to the world outside the ship. This relates well to ships not being able to attempt missions, but it'd be great if they still encountered dilemmas and couldn't possibly overcome them. That's what usually happens on the show. Also, I wonder why you can still use Scan cards here. As for why you can still safely beam to a planet, we could reason that the kinds of sensors that are off line would be the ones that would allow you to complete such tasks as surveying nebulas, studying protostars, and the like. So you could still use transporters, participate in ship battles, etc. Sensor packages are located all over the ship, but not really on the warp nacelles, so the damage to Weapons and Shields, but not to Range, makes some sense. The low Hull damage may be due to the specificity of the damage. The attack only knocks out your sensors, so it can't be that severe. There need not be a relationship between the two halves of the card, but it's always better when there is. Here, you could say that Quantum Torpedos might more easily scramble sensors because of their quantum nature, than other weapons would. I think it's a fair link, but it's not like there's a down arrow to respect in case of a hit. All that to score this one a 3.8.

STOCKABILITY: +5 is a powerful Attack bonus even when there's no Defense bonus tied to it. It may be a good one to play when you already know the fate of your own ship in advance. If you're sure to win without the Defense bonus, then fine. If you're sure to lose, then go out in a Blaze of Glory (Tm). +5 is a great bonus for any affiliation, and indeed, there's only one way to bring it up to +6, and that's with the Enterprise-E, currently our only Sovereign. It's a good ship to use with it though and more than for just the bonus. Since its matching commander has an E-E icon, you can use Make It So (which he conveniently downloads) to grab this Tactic once per game and not have to discard the Incident. That's a +6 Attack bonus when you want it, bing bang pow. Stocking these in your Battle Bridge means they'll be used as damage markers eventually. In such a case, the damage is very low, well, not bad on the ship attributes, but lame on the Hull. You wouldn't just stock Quantum Torpedos because it'd take as many as 4 hits (or 2 direct hits) to destroy a ship with these. Still, all you need is one on the opposing ship to derail its mission attempt capabilities (which makes it fine for ship damaging dilemmas). With this kind of damage on a ship, it can no longer attempt space missions. Play The Big Picture, and your opponent has no choice but to solve a space mission or be doomed to reach 140 points instead of 100. Packs a lot of punch despite the balancing agents designed into it, it deserves a 4.1.

TOTAL: 16.27 (81.33%) On par with the Breen weapon.

#1240-R'Mal, Personnel, Romulan, universal, BoG
"Typical Romulan scientist. Led team of archaeologists on an unsuccessful mission to locate an Iconian gateway in Romulan territory."
-SCIENCE, Archaeology; Staff icon
-INTEGRITY: 7, CUNNING: 7, STRENGTH: 6

PICTURE: From the lore, this guy's from "Contagion", but I've never been able to spot him in it. Even the look of him could be CGI, so who wants to fess up to incarnating the mystery Romulan? A Decipher employee perhaps? Another actor made up by computer? Who? Is the name a clue? If it IS CGI, it's well made. If it isn't, it's a clear, balanced head shot. Giving it the benefit of the doubt, I'll call for a 3.5.

LORE: Would it have been that hard to say "a team" rather than just "team"? Syntax isn't as clean as it could be, I'm afraid, and though universality is acknowledged, there is confusion as to whether Iconia is in "Romulan territory" or not. The Neutral Zone is just that: Neutral. Or is R'Mal from a different expedition, not the one in "Contagion", but one that might have followed or preceded it? Hard to say, leaving the score at 2.4.

TREK SENSE: Your typical Romulan archaeologist, there's not much to justify since even his appearance could be invention. I have no problem seeing him as an Archaeology specialist, have the Staff icon or even any of his attributes. The Integrity might seem high for a Romulan, but a pure scientist wouldn't necessarily be as underhanded as a field operative. The design is sound, even if stuck on a nobody. A 3.3.

STOCKABILITY: Because Romulan Archaeology decks have always been viable, you certainly won't catch me complaining about an Archaeology mission specialist. R'Mal can be AMSed early in the game and help solve a pretty good number of missions, raising their points all the while. Add to that some very good attributes for a universal, and you've got a simple personnel that is still very useful. 3.5 here.

TOTAL: 12.7 (63.5%) Quick to run through.

#1250-Riker Wil, Personnel, Bajoran, BoG
"In 2370, the human William T. Riker accompanied Ro Laren on a clandestine mission to investigate the Maquis. He posed as a Bajoran freedom fighter."
-SECURITY, Navigation, Treachery, Diplomacy, Music; While a your Federation missions, adds Bajoran; Maquis icon; Staff icon
-INTEGRITY: 5, CUNNING: 8, STRENGTH: 8

PICTURE: Though the contrast level seems to be a bit up on this pic of William Riker, it's a fun one, showing the Bajoran earring alright, and devoid of any distracting elements. A good enough 3.4.

LORE: First off, the Bajoranizing of Riker's name is inspired. Love it! The lore itself is more commonplace, but is fairly well written. Title alone takes it up to 3.4.

TREK SENSE: Oh, I'm gonna have trouble with this. By all accounts, personnel like this should be infiltrators, but since infiltrators have been defined as wanting to do harm to the infiltrated affiliation, the good Will Riker can't really apply. Then why give him Treachery and relatively low Integrity? Well, I think the rub is that he's not really infiltrating the Bajorans, but the Maquis. He would compromise Maquis interests, see, but there's no "micro-affiliation infiltration" in the game (not yet anyway). There's always some question as to how a personnel posing as another actually gains their abilities, and the Maquis icon is part of that. Then again, as a Bajoran freedom fighter, he should have Resistance, except of course, it could never actually work for him as it's more of a network of contacts than it is a "skill". Fair enough. He drops from Command to Staff because he's a nobody in the Bajoran structure. Since he's on a covert mission and posing as a soldier besides, he's Security. Navigation, he used in the episode to fly around with Ro; Diplomacy was of use in convincing the Maquis he was legit. Why they kept Music, I don't really know. Yes, Riker plays the trombone, but that has nothing to do with his Bajoran cover. An odd choice, perhaps chosen for being such a short word. As far as attributes go, he's got more Strength than either his Premiere or First Contact selves, no doubt because he's a "fighter", perhaps also able to cut loose a bit more since he's not "Starfleet". He got had by Ro which would have been reason enough to keep him at Premiere's 7 Cunning, but they went the FC route with the 8. Oh, and the special skill? He basically allows Bajoran his Away Teams and crews to attempt Federation missions. It's an interesting concept: Since he's really a Federation Officer, he can get clearance to attempt missions for his Bajoran friends, never blowing his cover in the process. Of course, I will remind you again that he was infiltrating the MAQUIS, not the Bajorans, so it's all a little muddled. Though a fun character concept, these alternate-affiliation personnel are a Trek Sense headache. Only 2.9 (which is still pretty good, considering).

STOCKABILITY: For Bajoran mission solving, he expands your options greatly. Face it, as a younger affiliation, the Bajorans don't have the mission base that the original 3 do. But add the possibility of seeding any Federation mission as well, and you've got the whole universe in your hand. They've got the most missions by far! He has to be present, but he does bring some skills to the table. Navigation and Diplomacy show plenty of wear on Federation missions, for example, and Music does show up occasionally (and makes a Bajoran Ressikan Flute deck viable). Treachery and SECURITY (which works well with your Bajoran War Room) may be more useful on Bajoran missions, so that he can boost your home team advantage as well. Of course, the Fed missions shared with less scrupulous affiliations sometimes have alternate requirements which take well to Treachery (just think of Cargo Rendezvous as one example). The Bajorans aren't so Treachery-minded in any case, and it's quite possible to run through a Diplomacy-laden spaceline with your Bareils and Opakas. The point is: Riker Wil fits in with many decks. Throw in a few Maquis personnel, and you could boost his attributes further, or have him staff the Liberty in the Delta Quadrant. Yee-haw! Being a version of the William T. Riker persona will have more use in Bajoran/Fed Treaty decks, which don't use Riker Wil's abilities to their maximum, but it could nonethless get you more skills at the drop of a hat. Oh, and he can pass Q-Type Android for the Bajorans. A very nice 4.1.

TOTAL: 13.8 (69%) He WILL make a nice addition to your collection.

#1260-Ro Laren, Personnel, Bajoran, BoG
"Former Starfleet officer. Defected to the Maquis in 2370. Used a low-intensity particle beam to expose a Federation attack force hiding in a nebula."
-CIVILIAN, SECURITY, Navigation, Astrophysics; Your other [Maquis] personnel here are each CUNNING +2; Maquis icon; Staff icon
-INTEGRITY: 6, CUNNING: 8, STRENGTH: 6

PICTURE: Mee-ow. Well, I've never made a secret of the fact that Ro Laren is very much my type, and this is the best pic of her we have. The colors mesh well with the silky affiliation color, she's in very sharp focus, her pose and expression are confident, even cocky, and the beige background isn't as oppressive as on many other cards. Bias aside, still a clear 3.9.

LORE: Bah. Sure, the point in time is well situated, but the bulk of the lore goes for a very specific maneuver instead of a wealth of information available on Ro at this time. She'd just completed special training, bonded with a Maquis leader, etc. That last sentence explains a single standard skill instead of inspiring a special one. Won't go over 2.7 on this one.

TREK SENSE: We catch Ro Laren just after she leaves Starfleet for the Maquis, so while her Security training is still quite fresh in her mind, she's but a Civilian. She reverts to Bajoran, since [Fed] is more a sign of service, whereas other affiliations usually go by species. Spending time at the helm for so long, I wouldn't see her without the trademark Navigation, but she also piloted a shuttle in the pictured episode ("Preemptive Strike"). Astrophysics can be explained by her use of the strategy described in the lore. Special skill? Her knowing a bunch of Starfleet secrets means she can teach them to fellow Maquis, making them more Cunning. But shouldn't this be only against a Federation opponent? Of course, since dilemmas are usually unrelated to players' affiliations, and the prime use for the attribute, there would be no real way to make this work. Icons check out, of course. As for her own attributes, while she does betray Starfleet, it's for a "greater moral cause", so Integrity 6 passes the test. She's rather Cunning, yes, but I would have given her greater Strength, seeing as she'd just been extensively trained in the Security field, and had just become a freedom fighter. Mostly works, but there are places she could have been better served. A 3.5.

STOCKABILITY: The Bajorans' Ro Laren is a CIVILIAN that can be boosted just as well as the rest by Keeve Falor, but still has a good classification to help her out, i.e. SECURITY. So using Defend Homeworld, you could conceivably download her on the first turn. But would you want to? Frankly, probably not. She's got useful enough skills and good attributes to be sure (great for dilemmas at any rate), but her special skill will remain unremarkable until we get a true blue Maquis mechanic. For now, she's still useable with the Maquis we do have, reporting easily to the Liberty and boosting all Maquis crew aboard. Maquis OFFICERs could then possibly be immune to "Crimson Forcefield", and dilemmas more easily passed, missions more easily solved, etc. In a not-uncommon Bajoran/Fed Treaty, you can switch her around with the original version, which gives you a different skill list, but not an excellent one. The option does exist if you want it though. Maquis decks would do well to use her, but there isn't quite a need for Maquis decks yet. 3.6 for now.

TOTAL: 13.7 (68.5%) I'd like my crush to be more solidly warranted.

#1271-Romulan Disruptor Rifle, Equipment, BoG
"Enhanced energy rifle used throughout the Romulan Star Empire. Generates an elevated level of residual anti-protons which are detectable for several hours after firing."
-Romulan and Non-Aligned use only. Each of your personnel present is STRENGTH +3, but loses 1 Diplomacy unless aboard your ship. (Cumulative.)

PICTURE: One of those prop shots provided by Paramount for Decipher's use, the dark shades inhabiting it make it too dull for words. That table looks kind of interesting, but I can't figure out what it is or where the picture was taken. Good, clear focus though. Should be worth a 1.7.

LORE: Some interesting technical aspects of the gun are discussed, but other than that, just your usual hand weapon lore. I guess a 3.1.

TREK SENSE: It's the same old thing, isn't it? While Rifles are a little better than plain ol' Disruptors in that their aggressive look takes away some Diplomacy (but not on a ship since you could more easily hide it there, at least from your viewscreen camera), they're still mystifying hand weapons. As usual, the one gun is used by everybody present somehow, multiplying its bonus factor by the number of personnel present. If you have more Rifles than personnel, they can still be used by hopefully ambidextrous personnel (some with their teeth, I'm sure, once you're up to 3 Rifles per personnel). For some reason, while Romulans and NAs know how to press the trigger, no one else can figure it out. You've heard it all before, because I've said it all before. The standard 3 for the fun Diplomacy relationship.

STOCKABILITY: Romulans have a good deal of Diplomacy to lose by using these Rifles, but their decks aren't usually built around that skill, quite the contrary. So it may not be such a handicap. The Romulans aren't too bad in personnel battle already with their relatively high STRENGTHs, so a +3 (cumulative) added to them can't hurt either. In capture strategies, it can help you stun even the biggest Hirogen to dump Captured on him. The STRENGTH boost could also help at more than half a dozen Romulan missions requiring the attribute, many that fit readily into an Archaeology deck. 3.9 should cover it.

TOTAL: 11.7 (58.5%) I'm just surprised this was DS9 instead of TNG, where it first appeared.

#1282-Romulan Shuttle, Ship, Romulan, universal, BoG
"Romulan shuttlecraft. Favored by the Tal Shiar. Senator Vreenak commanded one on his diplomatic mission to Deep Space 9."
-Shuttlecraft[] Cloaking Device
-RANGE: 7, WEAPONS: 3, SHIELDS: 3

PICTURE: Decipher had to relocate this ship from Deep Space 9's docking bay to an outer space setting, and I think without losing any information. One thing about that though: Is that amber section in the front window some kind of reflection of the docking bay or is it actually the inside of the shuttle? Regardless, here's a pretty detailed model that was inspired from the warbird design, so a pretty cool 3.7.

LORE: Pretty standard stuff, but with the mention of matching commander (and a good personnel to boot). The idea that the shuttle is "favored by the Tal Shiar" is invention based on Vreenak's identity, but may account for our never seeing one before. Could have been the cloaking device though... A bit flippant if you ask me. About 3.2.

TREK SENSE: Shuttles are pretty easy to design. They're usually a dime a dozen, so they make them universal. They're made for transporting passengers, so Range is always the better attribute, and their size precludes any high Weapons or Shields. The attributes seem to be in about the same range of attributes as its pre-Voyager contemporaries. And we had visual confirmation of the Cloaking Device, so that's no invention. The only point of contention would be the matching commander. Shuttles aren't really "commanded" in my opinion, they are piloted. And Vreenak probably didn't pilot the thing himself, I'm pretty sure. Though he may have commanded the pilot, that's not the same as what affords commanders Captain's Log privileges (i.e. knowing the ship and crew inside and out). That, plus the unsurprising design, keeps the card at 3.2.

STOCKABILITY: Though the Romulans could turn Scout Vessels into shuttles that could be taken into their warbirds, it was at the cost of an extra card, Launch Portal. Enter an actual Shuttle, which can actually outdo most Scouts in the right circumstances. One of these is having the matching commander aboard. Senator Vreenak's a fine skill horse, so it shouldn't be to difficult to include him. With Plaque and Log, he'll turn that small shuttle into a 9-6-6 lander, with as much RANGE as a Scout, but with better battle attributes. Another thing a Scout doesn't usually have is a Cloaking Device, and these small-shielded ships really need one. It doesn't matter if a bird-of-prey or Borg Cube is gunning for you, you can always hide out in the shuttle. It's in fact not a bad place to secret a personnel targeted by Assimilate Counterpart without putting your stronger warbirds out of action. A good little 3.7.

TOTAL: 13.8 (69%) That's good for support craft.

#1293-Sarita Carson, Personnel, Federation, universal, BoG
"Ensign Carson is one of the many talented navigators serving Starfleet. Former member of Nova Squadron. Assigned to bridge duty aboard USS Defiant."
-SECURITY, Navigation, SCIENCE; Staff icon
-INTEGRITY: 6, CUNNING: 7, STRENGTH: 5

PICTURE: Strangely over-exposed, it's a high-contrast picture with solid color work. She's got dark lips, dark eyes and a dark red uniform that all work well. Background's ok. Deserves a 3.3.

LORE: "One of the many" is an interesting way to put universality in there. It's fun to hear about Nova Squadron again, though this is of course invention. The rest is merely posting, but that's your usual context. Some good elements worth 3.5.

TREK SENSE: A typical (universal) navigator, she of course gets Navigation. The rest however, is terrible. How can she possibly be Security? Not only are navigators usually Officers, but she's even wearing the red command uniform! Science is just as unexplained, though it isn't impossible (Science could have helped in the "Starship Down" predicament). Youth would have been more probable, especially with her Academy days mentioned. Even the Navigation could be perceived as flawed: she was in the elite cadet flying team, so why not boost her to Nav x2? Did membership to that exclusive club drive down her Integrity? She wasn't in Locarno's group or anything. I'll buy the Cunning and Strength though. Classifications are pretty basic elements, so getting those wrong is a major booboo. A 1 here.

STOCKABILITY: Carson's a good support personnel for the Feds, especially with those 2 classifications of hers. Both SCIENCE and SECURITY are excellent advantages to have when passing dilemmas, and there are only a couple of universals that have SCIENCE/Navigation or SECURITY/Navigation. So even if Navigation is a pretty common skill (but in demand), you won't find it often on personnel with these classifications. Not many missions require her exact skill pool though. Dual-classifications gets her a 3.4.

TOTAL: 11.2 (56%) A Trek Sense anomaly.

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