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

PICTURE: The console shot isn't very interesting (too much glare and a red top bar that looks silly), but that's not its only problem. Taken from "Starship Down", this graphic shows the Defiant's improvised ecolocation system. Now, I understand that the situation that brought this system about was a problem with the sensors (i.e. Scanner Interference), but the pic shows the solution, not the problem. Sorta. It's not like this looks like anything other than a circle in the middle of a screen anyway. Generous with my 0.7.

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

TREK SENSE: Scanner Interference represents all manner of problems with a ship's (or facility's) sensors, and it's something the creators often throw in our heroes' path to increase suspense. They never know there'll be a problem until they're on top of a location, usually, so the Hidden Agenda icon fits, though the icon's subtext is one of conscious design whereas Interference is usually natural. No biggie though. Bigger is that the card doesn't play on a location, but on the table, affecting all spacelines. How can we account for so much Interference? The Interference also seems to be in interstellar space more than at specific locations, because a ship scanning at a location can do so, given the appropriate Computer Skill manning the scanners. In essence, the card fixes Scan and Full Planet Scan by forcing ships to be present at a scanned location. That's good, but the fix is just as broad as those cards, so reads wrong. There IS Interference at the location too, of course, which is why you're allowed to seed another card there, something the sensors apparently missed. That makes sense within the storyline. This gets rid of the Interference though, as either the offensive dilemma was the cause of it, or the incident merely represents Interference SOMEwhere, only just revealed as being THIS location. Sometimes, the Interference may be found to be caused by some specific phenomenon we already have a card for. That's when you may switch it for the 3 named events. I'll buy it. I was gonna find fault with the fact that beaming wasn't affected by Scanner Interference since it so often is on the show, but here we have the reason: Some kinds of Interference cause problems, others don't, but this card indeed covers them all. As for the Referee icon, it's always always always mechanical, but I give it a pass if it really does counter cheese. Here, it counters decks heavy on Scan cards, used by players who only go through your carefully prepared dilemma combos if they have everything they need to pass them or mitigate their damage. Pass! And the whole card gets a pass too, mostly thanks to its fix-it approach and a fairly complete idea of what sensors are for: a 3.7.

STOCKABILITY: A card like this, I think, is necessary after Premiere's snafu surrounding Scans. They really should always have been playable only where you have a ship present. What makes the card dangerous though, is its Hidden Agenda, as you'll see. Now, a player (and this works on both, so you have to abide by the rules too) must have a ship with 2 Computer Skill aboard at any location he or she wishes to scan. You, yourself, can use Scans at the beginning of the game, and only need flip the Agenda when your opponent uses one. I'm guessing that first Scan won't be played with a ship and 2 Computer Skill present, so bam! It's nullified. Then, if your opponent wants to pursue this scanning business, he has to go to the location with the appropriate personnel. Computer Skill's very common, but it's still a ride. It gets worse. Once the location HAS been scanned, you're allowed to seed an extra dilemma there (one already discarded or something new from Q's Tent, whatever). And you know what your opponent is playing by this time, so if you have a few choices, that's great. If your opponent isn't using Scans, which is entirely possible given this incident's annoying existence, you can exchange it with beaming hazards. I don't expect too many people to grab a Particle Scattering Field since it requires a Tamarian ship present, but the other two can be a hassle, especially Distortion Field. Again, a flip from Hidden Agenda status can send the appropriate event to a planet with personnel on it, trapping them there. You don't even need to seed it to have it close. No, seed Panel Overload instead: It downloads Scanner Interference AND kills a precious Computer Skill personnel the moment your opponent plays a Scan card (plus has other effects). Q the Ref is even better, I guess: It downloads Panel Overload, which then downloads Interference, and then can recycle that card if need be. It's not unbalanced, since Scans still do work, but it makes the whole thing more realistic and more difficult (which it should be for the rewards involved). A strong 4.7.

TOTAL: 12.13 (60.65%) A cheese-buster that isn't much to look at.

PICTURE: Pretty boring, huh? The simple geometric shapes aren't helped by the gray tinct pervading everything. A dreary place to spend the night. I think I'd like it better if the door was parallel to the card's frame, and that table's really in the way. A 1.9.

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

TREK SENSE: I like the idea of a Brig being included in certain cards, as it's a fine way to add Trek Sense to capturing without needing to add Sites to ships. Nors already have Sites, so the Brig would indeed be included in a Site. A Nor has many Cells, so universal fits, though I wonder if the card wouldn't have worked better as a Security Holding Area, a unique Site which would have included as many Cells as you need (i.e. the Brig). Looking at a map of Deep Space 9 in my reference manuals, I see that there is such an area on each side of the Security Office, so that wouldn't be perfect either, but still. Another problem with the universal Cell is its placement. Shouldn't they be adjacent to the Security Office and/or one another, a bit like Ops and the Commander's Office are adjacent? As is it, walking along the Promenade, you might go from Quark's to a Cell to the Infirmiry to another Cell, etc. Are they peppered all over the Promenade like this? Its functions are pretty cool though: You can more naturally do stuff to your captives here. It's the perfect place to conduct Interrogations, Brainwashing and Torture, so all of these may be downloaded here. And who has the skill to Interrogate/Brainwash/Torture? Well, people with "intelligence skills" are of course well-suited to the task (it's part of their training), but a ruthless (Treachery) Security personnel would also be able to. No Klingon Intelligence? The only real hic with the effect is that The Resistance isn't as Treacherous as all those others, and might've been limited to Interrogation, no? Problems with the very nature of the card keep it at 2.5.

SEEDABILITY: Adding a Brig to your deck helps your capturing strategies in a number of ways. First, it allows you to leave captives unattended (without escort) and second, it affords you downloads of nasty capture-related cards to play on them. If you're also using a Nor, then by all means, use the Cells (you only need one, so multiples simply extend walking distances, or keep some rescue attempts under control by not releasing all captives simultaneously). It's definitely a good place to dump intruders that you've caught (perhaps with the fast-access Security Office) in the act of commandeering Ops (stock Captured!). It lacks the mobility of Holding Cell Door, but offers the downloads right on the card, no Doorway to play to get them. You can download Interrogation, Brainwash or Torture EACH turn, so capture-heavy decks will likely enjoy that feature, and all you need is an intelligence personnel present: The Cardassians have plenty of Obsidian Order, the Bajorans lots of Resistance personnel, but you won't see the Tal Shiar or Section 31 here without a Treaty, except Luther Sloan perhaps, who can report even to the Fed Mirror Terok Nor, or any Nor really. You must control the station, the interrogator need not match its affiliation. Barring that, a SECURITY/Treachery personnel will do. There are currently close to 60 such personnel, of all affiliations and quadrants. Well, no Vidiians, but plenty of DQ Non-Aligneds (that's IF they ever control a Nor). A cool 3.7.

TOTAL: 10.8 (54%) Various design elements keep it far from its sister card's score.

PICTURE: Charisma exudes from this Romulan, with his charming smile and confidential pose. There's not too much in the background, but that helps bring out the color in his costume. A good 3.6.

LORE: Romulans no doubt all have to commit to military service at some point, so it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that a Senator is also a military strategist. His reaction to Sisko's plans is interestingly explained, though perhaps we get a little too much on that, and not enough on the character himself. A fair 3.3.

TREK SENSE: As a Senator, he would be a VIP with a Command icon, granted. As a military strategist, I can see where the Security and special download would come in. Attack Pattern Delta can be used to get more Tactical options during a battle, and that's what he would bring to the table. The other two skills leave me lukewarm however. Those are never shown in the show, and when you consider an important ability like Computer Skill x2, there really should be a reason for it. I can invent some, such as his running computer models of various strategies, mapping out a sector's strategic spots, that kind of thing, but that would be pure extrapolation on my part. He was an arrogant jerk, but allied with the good guys. 5 Integrity will stick. He's highly intelligent, but no more so than Sisko who actually hatched the attack plan. Strength is a bit low for a Romulan (they're stronger than humans) who looks to be in his prime. When inventions aren't well justified, at least by the lore, you can't get much higher than 2.4, even when there's good stuff there as well.

STOCKABILITY: You really won't have trouble getting this personnel out early. Either you download him with Defend Homeworld, or you do so with Quark's Isolinear Rods and report him for free to the Office of the Proconsul. Why would you want to though? It's not like he has a ton of skills, and his special download won't be useful on your first turn (would you really be ready to do space battle on turn 1?). Don't get me wrong, Computer Skill x2 is an excellent skill even without the doubling, and Letant can be on hand to help out with Access Denied, Scanner Interference, etc. The skill even HAS to be doubled when dealing with Ferengi Ingenuity. Stellar Cartography is excellent in a classic Romulan space deck. And the VIP/SECURITY combo can be used to good effect in capture decks (Open Diplomatic Negotiations/Captured). As for the special download, once the fighting begins, he can either use it make a Tactical Console boost a ship's WEAPONS by +6 or draw some extra Tactic cards when using an armada (in either case, suspending play to do so). Good stuff, but it's all for later in the game when you can use Going to the Top to nab him instead of the download engines. Which doesn't mean QIR/Office is out of the question, obviously, but I wouldn't waste my Defend Homeworld on him. As a side-note, attributes aren't too inspiring, but by this point, Letant is already a pretty cool 3.8.

TOTAL: 13.1 (65.5%) That's what happens when you give Sisko a hard time. (I'm kidding since Dukat is still the #1 Cardassian.)

PICTURE: You don't see the Sniper, but instead the scope, and that makes for an interesting, if stiff, image. The special effect focusing on Lenaris Holem is still pretty cool, so a 3.5.

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

TREK SENSE: I think Sniping (an assassination of sorts) should be an Objective, personally. Especially if your personnel are gonna be the agents of the action (an Incident supposes outside agents). And it is your own personnel doing the deed since the card uses your own phaser or disruptor. Now, on the choice of hand weapons, it's conceivable that a personnel could shoot a hand-held phaser from a hidden position with some accuracy, but the whole idea behind a Sniper is that he or she uses a Rifle. That isn't covered here. Speaking of being hidden, yes, this is perfect as a Hidden Agenda. Where the card does differ from an assassination per se, is that it shoots someone at the start of a personnel battle (you must initiate after all). In a way, it STARTS that personnel battle (as that first shot rings out). You may have more than one Sniper in that battle, but you don't need an extra hand weapon or even personnel for this. The one Sniper could conceivably shoot more than one target. That's certainly a little strange - when does it have the time to acquire a target once the first shot is heard and opponents react? The result of the shot is decided by probing, and there are 3 possible outcomes. If the target is hit, it is mortally wounded (fine). If the target receives a glancing blow, it is only stunned (fine). And on a bad result, the Sniper is spotted and loses the incident, i.e. its cover. Now that last one implies something the game doesn't live up to. Namely that the personnel who is acting as Sniper remains hidden until a bad result is probed for. But wait, nothing prevents the Sniper from also attacking normally during the battle! How can that be if its cover is unmolested? As for probe icons, that's always a conceptual game (where placing the probe card under the draw deck is pure mechanics - the idea is to have each card be only once the result per battle - and doesn't even have a conceptual basis), but one I like to play. It's fun when the icons at least have a thematic link to their result. For a hit we have Staff, representing personnel not trained enough to spot a Sniper; K-White, which represents Jem'Hadar, highly trained killers; the Equipment icon, linked to the hand weapon; and the Maquis icon, tied to a terrorist faction that uses Sniper tactics. Cool. A "Sniper spotted" result is also well served: The Feds are good guys that are against Sniping in general; the Ferengi have enhanced hearing to spot the Sniper; the Borg can do the same with their implants (at the same time, those three affiliations would have trouble running a Sniper strategy because they don't really do that sort of thing, where the Jemmies and Maquis do); and the Command icon represents personnel savvy enough to spot the Sniper. Note that it doesn't all work the same way - I can't give the same reasoning for affiliations as for staffing icons. The glancing blow is a bit less satisfying, with the Interrupt making the most sense (a break in concentration), and the card perhaps making too much out of glancing blow being an "alternative event" what with Doorway and AU. Objective? Eh, I give up. I think it was a good idea, with few real pratfalls. A 3.5 again.

STOCKABILITY: This Hidden Agenda can be a potent personnel battle aid in the right hands. If playing Borg, you probably shouldn't try - you'll have too many "Sniper spotted" icons to ever really succeed. Feds and Ferengi are dangerous, but not if they use a lot of Staff icon personnel (or ships staffed with them). But the Maquis (even the Fed ones, in fact, since the Maquis icon would come up first), the Dominion and any deck stacked with Staff personnel (perhaps a universals/Lower Decks thing) will succeed much of the time. You can play or seed any number of Snipers, which would allow you to use a single personnel with a single phaser or disruptor to down, theoretically, as many opposing personnel as there are Sniper cards in play, and all this before pairing up for actual battle. Even a glancing blow will take those personnel out of the coming battle. Note that you have to be the aggressor in all cases, because Sniper only works when you initiate battle. That means that any retaliatory strike on the next turn will not be protected by Sniper. That's why though a single personnel could do a lot of damage (and not be too great a loss if killed), having plenty of personnel around to finish off the opposing Away Team isn't a bad idea either. Snipers aren't discarded unless you get a spotted result, so this'll work for as long as it doesn't happen. Extra little bit for Bajorans: Furel downloads the card. You would have to deal with the cycling of your probe cards, but going into battle after having set your top draw cards in some way (Bynars Data Transfer, for example) could insure victory here. All depends on how many resources you want to dedicate to this first shot strategy, because to be effective, you might have to work at it. I'll say a 3.9.

TOTAL: 14.53 (72.67%) Fed or no Fed, Colonel West (if ever made) should have this as a special download too.

PICTURE: I've always found Cardassian ships to be ugly when seen front-on. The multi-leveled look and pinkish hues just never worked for me (and I'm a fan of their general architecture). The yellow beam at least hides some of that, but isn't very satisfying either. With a name like that, couldn't the show's creators give the effect a little curl or something? A plain jane 2.4.

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

TREK SENSE: It's your standard basic Tactic for an affiliation. As usual, the Tactic itself suffers from being affiliation-centric, but applicable to any ship for its basic Attack/Defense bonuses. It could be workable if it had a title unrelated to specific technology, but unfortunately, these things keep plugging, not a strategy, but a weapon that will usually not be aboard unaffiliated ships. All similar cards offer 1/2 bonuses, which is fine as the gut reaction Tactic. Where the first part of the card leaves something to be desired, the damage marker pretty much saves it. Those random Casualties work very well, in my opinion, and I heartily agree that they would be a normal result of a space battle (whether killed from a hull breach or an exploding console). The sole -2 to Range has no real explanation, though we've seen Cardassians in the hunter role often enough - AND they're well known backstabbers - that their tactics could involve hitting the backsides of ships where engines usually lie. A 3.2 should do.

STOCKABILITY: With 2 Cardassian-specific Tactics, Cardassian Battle Bridge side-decks should probably rely on non-specific cards for variety (Attack Wing, Breen Energy-Dampening Weapon, Target Shields, etc. should fit in depending on what ships you use), but at least there's more than one. Strafing Run has a lot of ATTACK to offer, but lowers DEFENSE, and its damage marker does less damage than Spiral-Wave Disruptor. It affords you a more specific kill, which can be useful, but Spiral is a generalist that won't discriminate, and that may be better in some cases. The extra damage to RANGE is welcome since some Cardassian ship RANGEs are really nothing to write home about. I'm talking about the otherwise useful Stolen Attack Ship and Military Freighters. RANGE damage would help your ships catch up to targets for the killing blow. It's a good workhorse for the Cardassian Battle Bridge at 3.5.

TOTAL: 12.13 (60.65%) Like Galor class design, a lackluster affair.

PICTURE: I really like the bronzy colors in this prop shot, and the blocky composition complements the Phaser well. My only complaints are with the weapon itself, which tends to look too candy-covered for my taste, but a good effort nonetheless at 3.6.

LORE: The three sentences discuss different aspects of the Phaser while still being united in theme (least/low/smaller). In the first sentence, I like that Federation weapons are described as "defensive". I'm not exactly sure where the second comes from, since I never noticed a pattern to the weapons used by captains. I guess it refers to Picard, the eternal diplomat. Kirk was OS, Sisko was Type II, and Janeway was quite fond of the Type III. As for the third sentence, it helps explain some of the game text, which is always welcome. 3.3 should do here.

TREK SENSE: As a hand weapon, the Type I has the usual Equipment card problem that the one gadget can be used by an entire crew or Away Team. The amazing multiplying Phaser, if you will. Its cumulative nature also causes problems, such as when your Bolian is firing 4 of them at once. It does lack one problem the Types II and III have however: it cannot be used by non-Federation personnel. Not only were the basic hand weapon useable by anyone as long as a Non-Aligned was present (which meant Baran could equip his Romulan friends with Federation weapons), but the Feds are actually stingy on who they share weapons technology with. It just never made sense. The Type I does it better, requiring at least one Fed to be there. It's also small enough to conceal on your person which is represented in two ways. First, if it's hidden on your person, you could pull it out at any time, or as we say in the game, report it for free. At the start of a battle, you'd react by doing the same. It's all about when you actually expect trouble. The usual problems keep the card at 3.4.

STOCKABILITY: A +1 bonus isn't as good as a +2 or +3, of course, but the Type I offers a couple perks. One of these is that it reports for free, and in any number per turn. A Type II gives you +2 to STRENGTH, but costs a card play. You could conceivably drop 3 or 4 (or more, but I'm left wondering what kind of deck you've built) on your Away Team and get yourself more +'s for your buck (and still have your card play intact). You can also keep the Phasers in your hand and surprise your opponent who just attacked your poor defenseless Feds by reporting the guns mid-turn. +1 may not seem like a lot, but you get to multiply that by the number of personnel present. Even better if we're talking multiple Phasers. Aside from that, well, there's the fact that the Federation's STRENGTH isn't its highest attribute and so could use boosting, not just to defend against assault teams, but for dilemmas and missions too. Phasers are mentioned specifically on a number of cards like Denevan Neural Parasites, Sniper and Phaser Burns. And the more different weapons you have, the less chance the Borg will Adapt to them all. Since the Feds don't usually run assault strategies (though they may), a reactive hand weapon like this could be an appealing alternative despite the low bonus. A 3.5.

TOTAL: 13.8 (69%) It's not the size that matters.

PICTURE: I like images pulled from the opening credits. On the one hand, their production values are generally high, and on the other, they are immediately recognizable icons. Making them into cards gives them a storytelling dimension they lacked before. The Flare turns out a little blobish here, possibly because they had to wait for Voyager to be out of sight before pulling the image. The warm colors do shine though. How about a 3.5?

LORE: A scientific explanation of a Flare's dangers. Works well given that it was never really encountered on the series. A dry, but fair, 3.3.

TREK SENSE: I'm confused about something here. The lore makes a point of discussing electromagnetic radiation causing damage across a star system, which would indicate the dilemma was about such EM pulses more than the actual spout of super-heated plasma shown on the card. After all, how many ships make close enough flybys of stars? (From Star Trek, more than we might care to admit actually, but it's the lore that took another slant.) The star system reference seems necessary to justify the dilemma damaging all ships at the location, and so I have to ask just how many ARMADAS make flybys of stars like this. The number dwindles to near nothingness, doesn't it? And you're asking: Why couldn't the damage be caused by the EM pulse? Well, sure, EM damage would play havoc with ship systems, which can be corelated as damage, AND it would "stop" the ship. And high Shields, which can protect against the physical Flare, could surely be used to protect from the EM pulse as well. There are, in my opinion, 2 anomalies. One is that carried ships are not affected. They would be affected by a pulse unless the carrier had huge Shields, wouldn't they? Landed ships might be protected by a planet's atmosphere, and docked ships by the facility (either way, a physical Flare could not touch them). The other anomaly is the Navigation component in the requirements. It supposes a piloting maneuver using knowledge of stars and their behavior (Astrophysics). But it's still a piloting maneuver (as in the opening credits - ah, that kooky Tom Paris), and I don't think EM pulses can be avoided using Navigation. Or can they? I could be wrong given the realities of warp travel, I dunno. None of the problems are major when you consider the possibility of warping out of any eminent danger, I suppose. One further problem with the in-system damage: it apparently doesn't affect all ships in an one-system region (Sol, Bajoran, Cardassian). 3.4 should do.

SEEDABILITY: While damaging dilemmas aren't very capable usually, Stellar Flare has extra teeth because it affects all ships at a location. Opponent in the habit of protecting her interests with an armada? Or is she the type to redshirt with a shuttle? Either way, other ships in the vicinity aren't safe anymore. All those ships would also be stopped, which means they can't attempt the mission on this turn either, or even go romp elsewhere. To add injury to insult, a nicely stocked Battle Bridge side-deck should be able to get you even more bang for your buck in the form of casualties and whatnot. Of course, there are requirements that can save a ship, but probably not ALL ships. SHIELDS in the 12+ range are rare enough, even with the usual matching commander boosts, and no player can be expected to supply all his ships with both Astrophyics and 2 Navigation, not when they're expecting to use only one of their ships to actually solve missions. That lone Klingon on his bird-of-prey is due for a rocky ride. The dilemma does have limits: it can't affect ships that are docked, landed or carried, which is fair enough, and shouldn't be a big problem. With excellent chances of hitting, Stellar Flare racks up a 4.2. Just don't be at that location when it hits.

TOTAL: 14.4 (72%) Stellar!

PICTURE: The swooping stingray that is the Hideki-class Patrol Ship looks kinda cool, giving a lot of personality to an otherwise nondescript ship (I hardly ever notice them on the show). Of course, the slim profile leaves a lot of open space, which isn't too interesting, and a visible target might have presented the idea of Strafing better. Overall, a 3.4.

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

TREK SENSE: As with other Tactics, I'll look at this as two cards. The first is Strafing Run, which is a strategy that has a ship fly along the length of its target in order to hit it more than once. A high Attack bonus is thus indicated, all the while making the ship more vulnerable to attack itself (the negative Defense). The extra Attack bonus for Hideki-class vessels (i.e. Patrol Ships) doesn't work for me however. Are Cardassian Patrol Ships actually better than, say, Jem'Hadar Attack Ships at strafing opposing ships? I don't see it. Yes, a smaller, more maneuverable ship would be better at this than a lumbering hulk (but only against bigger ships, one would think), but the Hideki specifically? No. Such strafing could indeed be used to take out a ship's bridge, and so the [down] icon works well here, and that leads us to the second "card" (i.e. the damage marker): Bridge damaged. If the bridge is damaged, we get a choice of casualty from the personnel usually there. Officers serve both as captains, as ops and as pilots, Leadership is more captainly, and Nav more pilotish. All of this is fine, though in reality, we know bridges to be populated by Security, Science and Engineers as well. A Nor's bridge is Ops, of course, and here, the problem disappears because it's an actual Site. Anyone there could be killed. As for damage to the ship's Hull and attributes, there isn't a lot of it. You've chosen to target the nerve center of the ship to take out its leaders, but it's nowhere near the engines and power source, and it covers such a concentrated area of the ship, that the Hull can't be damaged that much. Aside from the doubtful bonus, I'd say this was a very good design. 4.1. from me.

STOCKABILITY: An alternative to Spiral-Wave Disruptors for the Cardassians? Maybe, but you'd have to use at least one low-powered Patrol Ship to get the +1 bonus. I don't see why you really would. So for Cardassians, a possible extra, but this Tactic is pretty much as good for one affiliation as it is for the next. It's actually a little better if you have high SHIELDS to begin with, because then the -1 DEFENSE won't be as harmful. In exchange, you get +4 to ATTACK, which is a large bonus indeed. Tactics that have a [down] icon make damage more controllable since in essence, you choose the first damage marker yourself. That damage is pretty low on the attributes, and especially on the Hull. If other damage markers offer great damage (and probably Tactics you won't choose to play on battles), then the [down] arrows can take care of business. The damage marker also offers a more specific casualty than the standard Tactic, perhaps taking out your opponent's battle initiation capability, though I doubt it. Those are pretty common skills, but often found on big personnel. Picard, Janeway, Data and Captain Spock are all OFFICERs, for example. Specific casualties like this make the Tactic good for dilemma combos. A ship-damaging dilemma could be followed by an OFFICER, Leadership and/or Navigation-requiring dilemma, in multiples if possible (it's unfortunate that the best dilemmas for this aren't spaceworthy, such as Surprise Assault or Alien Abduction, but there's still Navigational Hazards and the like). So a good ATTACK bonus (if balanced) and a difficult to use casualty in combos. I'll say 3.7.

TOTAL: 14.93 (74.65%) Certainly better than worse.

PICTURE: A very, very cool weapon gets a cool picture. The lighting is nice and dramatic, the stand on which the Sword rests is as ornate as the weapon, and there's even the Sword's descendent (a bat'leth) on a throne in the background. The candles give a symetric composition without turning into a split mirror. And how often do you find your Artifact in an appropriate crypt? An excellent 4.

LORE: Though I could do without the last line ("no, MY Away Team just found the Sword"), the rest does a good job of presenting the mythical nature of the weapon. Nothing fancy, but the facts are there. A 3.

TREK SENSE: What the card does is effectively show us how powerful Kahless must've been in his heyday if the legends are to be believed. Stories tell of Kahless standing alone against hundreds of warriors and still coming out of battle victorious. Would Strength 18 and the inability to die in battle do it? Yes, I dare say it would. It does put a little too much power in the Sword and not enough in the man, but what are ya gonna do? And would the cloned Kahless have been able to beat Gowron if he'd had his Sword? One thing this hand weapon does better than most is give us a real reason for the overall attribute bonus. In the Sword's case, we know there is only one (non-duplicatable Artifact), but it's its inspirational value that gives Klingons Strength, Integrity and Cunning (a better tactical sense, I guess). This is made abundantly clear by the need for those Klingons to have Honor, at once the worthiness to be in the Sword's presence, and enough knowledge about the legends to hold it holy. What the card does not do very well, is show us the in-fighting caused by the weapon even in the hands of honorable warriors like Worf and Kor. Maybe have allowed Klingons with Honor to act as leaders in a battle? That would have solved the problem of the Kahless clone's lack of Leadership, for one thing. That being said, I'd say the card does a good job of showing us only half the story. A 3.9.

SEEDABILITY: For the Klingons, it's an excellent Artifact to acquire early and put into Kahless' hands. The Emperor himself won't be hard to grab on account of his mission specialist status, just make sure you get his Sword early too. With it, he becomes an unkillable juggernaut with 18 STRENGTH (13 INTEGRITY and 9 CUNNING too) that is simply invincible in personnel battle. All that's really missing is OFFICER or Leadership to allow him to go into battle alone. You'd just send him against any crew or Away Team and let him kill away. Even against a large group, he wouldn't die even if he lost the overall battle. Mot's Advice and Reflection Therapy can help, but are we going a bit far for a once per turn kill? Putting him in a larger team will work just as well anyway. The Klingons are already big on STRENGTH, and this gives your Honor deck a +3 before factoring in any other weapons. Pretty close to invincible. The boost to other attributes as well should take care of a lot of attribute requirements, so your Honorable Klingons (plenty to choose from) need not be afraid of Dal'Roks and the like. As a side bonus, using the Sword to solve Bat'leth Tournament (a universal mission no less) makes it worth 10 points more (or 35). If Kahless does his mission specialist thing, an extra 5 (or 40). For a universal mission with very basic requirements and no affiliation icon but Klingon! A clear 4.5.

TOTAL: 15.4 (77%) A big one to be sure.

PICTURE: A rather small and stiff figure in the frame, it's nonetheless impressive how well they could focus on a background character. She's underground, sure enough, and the people around her fit her special skill very well. An appropriate 3.6.

LORE: Obviously, they made sure to make her a member of the Romulan underground, but otherwise, it's pretty standard stuff. No surprises, with the only invention being her profession. No trouble gobbling up that one. A 3.

TREK SENSE: If she's a nurse, why not make her Medical classification? Are Medicals only the ones that are "in the service"? Some cards contradict this. She does look like a Civilian, but that's more of a fallback position in case no clear classification comes up. Ah well. As a nurse, she has some skill in Biology. And because the underground cause is just, she has Honor. Music is total invention, though it thematically relates to Spock. If the underground prays for re-unification between the Romulan and Vulcan people, then Vulcan music might be of interest to the organization. No proof either way. Her special skill tells us that through cooperation, people of a similar ideal are stronger and smarter. Yes, I agree. There is power in numbers. However, if the cause is just, wouldn't Integrity be affected too? A kind of "positive mob mentality" could take hold, no? This is minor since they gave Tamarith high Integrity to begin with, no doubt because she doesn't need the underground to be a good person, which is probably why she went into medicine. Fair enough. Her other attributes seem to fit her character as well. While not perfect, I think she works. A 3.6.

STOCKABILITY: They certainly made her to fill a certain niche in the Romulan affiliation. What are the Romulans low on? CIVILIANS, for one, and Honor too, as well as high INTEGRITY, oh and Music. Heck, I can't even say Biology is represented that well. But how useful are these? Biology, you don't have to sell me on, but the rest? CIVILIAN is important to Kurlan Naiskos and Colony, and can get such personnel protection from Bodyguards, yet only 5 Romulans have the classification (6 if you count Data and Picard as two personnel, less if you've long ago burned every copy of Stefan DeSeve you had.) She's one of only 3 Romulans with Music, which is usually good for Ressikan Flute and a dilemma here and there. Honor is much the same way: though the most common of all her skills, it's not that useful in a deck where Treachery is probably going to be your biggest asset. Still, you need to cover your bases because you never know what your opponent has in store for you, and Tamarith is just that kind of backup with all those uncommon skills. Attribute-wise, she does pretty well, especially if you have another underground member present (8-9-6). May I suggest D'Tan to raise her INTEGRITY even more, or Dr. Koramar who is another good skill horse CIVILIAN? I'd like more incentive to use the underground, but there you have it. I'll hand her a 3.3.

TOTAL: 13.5 (67.5%) At least they make an effort to find some Romulans for the game.

PICTURE: The bird-of-prey is getting hit roughly in the back engine, but that's so far away from our point of view... And having an extra Attack Ship doing nothing in the shot takes away even more focus. Not a bad action shot, but not the best I've seen for the concept. 2.9 from me.

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

TREK SENSE: This is what Tactics should be about, not weapon technology that more often than not isn't on your ship, but about actual space combat strategies. Targeting Engines (or any specific ship system) is a common one on the show, and is done fairly well in the damage marker section, but I have disagreements about the Tactic portion. First, I don't really agree with the Attack and Defense bonuses. Since engines are usually located at the rear of a ship, wouldn't attacking the ship in the back be a more defensible position for you? 3/2 might have been a bit better, or even 2/2. Secondly, I don't know what the Dominion is doing reaping extra benefits from this card. Sure, they're pictured, but so what? I really don't remember them especially using this strategy, no more than anyone else. The very specialized damage marker works however. The damage is to the Range (engines) only, though of course, it affects the Hull as well. The engines are usually such a big part of the ship, more than 25% of the Hull could have been damaged though. And of course, if the engines are damaged, good luck using those Range enhancements to push it along. Roughly half-and-half then, the score lands on 2.4.

STOCKABILITY: ATTACK and DEFENSE bonuses aren't very high, and the damage is light. Indeed, you'll usually hit ships harder without a Battle Bridge side-deck. But it's more than just the raw damage (or bonuses), it's also suspending RANGE enhancements. In a spaceline with long Spans, the RANGE damage plus suspension of any means to boost that RANGE back to health, makes ships especially vulnerable. Plenty of these in a side-deck when a ship gets damaged by a dilemma will make the Cytherians just after it pretty terrible, or use the gambit as a lead in to Abandon Ship! No RANGE enhancements means no boosts from Defiant Dedication Plaque, Test Propulsion Systems, Mine Dilithium, In the Zone, Sphere Encounter, Data's Head, Kurlan Naiskos, Phased Cloaking Device, Wall of Ships, Plasmadyne Relay, Astrogation Drone, Purification Drone, various Chekovs and Sulus, and others, FOR THAT ONE SHIP. That's big enough a list to make Target Engines potable, but you do have to hit all ships with it. Taking pot shots just to drain RANGE is another way to go about it. Side-bonus: it fits in a Dominion side-deck pretty well. They have more Tactics that boost them a little more than any other affiliation, except maybe the Federation, but usuable with more of their ships. Maybe not as strong as a card that causes wider damage, but where precision is needed, you know exactly what you'll do. A 3.5.

TOTAL: 11.73 (58.65%) Good thing it wasn't called "Proton Gun" or something, right? ;-)

PICTURE: I think most pics to come out of the First Contact battle turn out pretty well. It was just so cool! Here, shields are obviously targeted as the "bubble" sparkles with energy. The Borg "primary weapon" (whatever that is) is a little hard to see because it's behind the effect, but the Cube's size here is really impressive. A real wall of Borgness. Note the hulks of Federation ships adrift far in the background. A nicely detailed 4.3.

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

TREK SENSE: Target Shields shares Target Engines' fine qualities, and none of its problems. The Tactic (and it is a Tactic, not a disappointing weapon type) is basically to purposely drain an opposing ship's Shields. This is usually done to beam assault teams aboard and the like (on the show, at least) or make an opponent stand down from fear of an unprotected attack. Since you're gonna hit the Shields no matter what, you at least drain them even if you cause no other damage (which would have been frosting on the cake in any case), placing the card as a damage marker on the ship no matter what! That's inspired. That damage only drains Shields, not the Hull or anything. That's perfect. That it also disrupts Shield enhancements can be seen as either a disruption of some energy balance/wavelength in play (against Nutational/Metaphasic Shields, for example) or a planned feedback surge to whatever equipment makes it happen (as with the Plasmadyne Relay). Didn't mention the Attack and Defense bonuses, but I think they're good. Since Shields surround a ship, you can approach from any direction. That flexibility would give as good a bonus on Attack as it would on Defense. Not a perfect score because there's too great a chance to "get lucky" and pierce the Shield when you were looking to do a little less, but as high as 4.8.

STOCKABILITY: Ok, so this Tactic wasn't made to destroy ships because it causes no Hull damage, but at the same time, how many Tactics have an effect even if you don't hit? What it IS good for is bringing down a ship's SHIELDS so that you can use the many cards that work on ships with low SHIELDS, as well as making ships easier to hit on subsequent attacks. It's especially good at the latter since it'll take SHIELDS enhancements offline, again, even if you don't score a hit. That means you could send a paltry shuttle ahead to get destroyed in a battle where it takes out those enhancements with Target Shields, and then send in your main ship to score a real hit on the less protected ships (no enhancements and -2 to SHIELDS to boot). That would eliminate boosts from Captain's Log, Defense System Upgrade (on a facility), Metaphasic and Nutational Shields, Wall of Ships, Multivector Assault Mode, Plasmadyne Relay, VR Headset, Divert Power, In the Zone, Service the Collective, Data's Head, Kurlan Naiskos, Counterpart bonuses, Guard drones, Admiral Hayes, Krase, and other bonuses specific to ships at certain locations or against certain opponents. The shear number of available boosts should make sure the Tactic will be a prized one. People tend to protect their ships after all. And what about those cards that affect low-SHIELDS ships I was talking about? By reducing SHIELDS by -2 to as much as -8 (with a direct hit and a stacked Battle Bridge side-deck), you make a ship vulnberable to a number of things: your Auto-Destructing shuttle, Dropping In, Loss of Orbital Stability (yes, make its orbit decay and destroy it), Outgunned, Romulan Ambush, Hunting Group's commandeering effect, Crystalline Entity and Stellar Flare. Hirogen Hunt only requires a damage marker be on the ship you want to beam to, so Target Shields' automatic damage is great. Do you think your opponent has a Narrow Escape in hand to take advantage of the low SHIELDS? Somehow, I doubt it. Looking at this, I see a couple of ways to destroy a ship with just one hit (-4 SHIELDS minus enhancements), depending on the target and what else you have in hand. Decent bonuses too. I'm game for a 4.4.

TOTAL: 18 (90%) Best one yet, and maybe ever at this point.

PICTURE: Fairly grainy, but it's a nice change of pace from the usual starfield format. We've got a phaser beam, a photon torpedo and a quantum torpedo going into the hole, so we're covered. An exciting and colorful 4.

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

TREK SENSE: Instead of selecing a certain ship's system to attack, this card allows you to target all your firepower on a single point in the Shields. (Why the Shields? You'll see.) You do more damage if that happens to be the ship's Weak Spot, which doesn't just make sense because the two pictures are from the same scene. It would work regardless. The Attack and Defense bonuses are appropriate since the concentrated firepower would indeed give you an offensive advantage, while the strategy would give you little leeway in protecting your own flank. I'm generally unimpressed with the damage distribution, especially since Shields are mentioned in the special damage, but don't take much of a hit in the attribute department. The "Shields fluctuating" damage marker, though, is great. They did this in the show more than once: punch a hole through opponent's Shields to beam personnel through. Your window of opportunity is still pretty small, so a Transporter Skill personnel would be required to pull it off before the Shields fluctuated back into place. A lovely effect. I'd say this one was a winner at 4.4.

STOCKABILITY: +3 to ATTACK is good even if the spread-out damage is unimpressive (-20% to Hull, bleh). Of course, though this damage marker would be placed on the ship automatically on a successful hit, you'll get additional flips. One extra than normal on a hit if you played Weak Spot on that ship beforehand. That's minor in the grand scheme of things, but Weak Spot isn't a bad interrupt to use in battle (-4 to SHIELDS or suspension of a SHIELD enhancement). Not a bad one to use in tandem with this Tactic. Either way, the real strength of this card is that it allows you to simulate Invasive Beam-In during or after an attack. On a successful hit, your Transporter Skill personnel can send over an assault team to tear the crew apart. As long as the damage marker remains on the ship, you may disregard its SHIELDS for purposes of beaming. Infiltrators board the ship easily, intruders can attack and commandeer with impunity, etc. Now that even the Borg have their beaming SHIELDS back, this will be useful. The Dominion'll probably stick to Invasive Beam-In, but for the rest of us, this is a cool 4.

TOTAL: 16.53 (82.65%) Targeted and hit the top 3!

PICTURE: Always nice to see the Defiant in action, even if it's on the losing side, and the beams coming out of nowhere give the card a more generic, "anyone can use it" feel. Hey, one of the beams even hits the starboard gonzo phaser array. We're in business at 3.6.

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

TREK SENSE: Specifically targeting weapons arrays would give you a low Defense bonus because you might have to get in the way of those weapons, so I freely accept the 1. Attack bonus is pretty standard too. That the Dominion has a better bonus here, I don't really care for. Yes, those beams in the pic are theirs, but so what? When has it been demonstrated that Jem'Hadar had a preference for this Tactic? (Still waiting for kamikaze maneuvers myself.) In fact, the Feds most often do this to force a diplomatic resolution. In any case, the damage incured works fine. Weapons are targeted, so they get the damage. Weapons enhancements might be knocked offline too. And since a good-sized ship has many weapons arrays, Weapons aren't knocked offline altogether (though this often happens on the show), though they might be on a direct hit with a Battle Bridge full of Target Weapons. The Hull damage makes sense too. Pretty standard stuff, with some bothersome elements: a 3.4.

STOCKABILITY: Attacking sounds like fun, but being counter-attacked rarely is. With Target Weapons in your Battle Bridge side-deck, you can attack more than just the paltry shuttles and freighters with confidence. You see, a hit with 2 Target Weapons will ensure a -4 WEAPONS drop and the loss of any WEAPONS enhancement, allowing you to survive, perhaps unscathed, that counter-attack. What are those WEAPONS enhancements? To name a few: Bynars Weapon Enhancements, Captain's Log, Defense System Upgrades (on facilities with WEAPONS only), System 5 Disruptors, Tactical Console, Kurlan Naiskos, Wall of Ships, Multivector Assault Mode, VR Headset, Battle Bridge Door, Divert Power, Orbital Bombardment, Service the Collective, all the Counterparts, Data's Head, Tactical Drone, Dolak, Thot Gor, Lamat'Ukan, two Chekovs, Lt. Sulu, Admiral Hayes, Captain Kang, Martok, Senator Cretak, Joachim, and some ships' locational/affiliation bonuses. Oops, did I say I was just gonna name a few? Anyway, you can see that suspending WEAPONS enhancements will probably be useful against your opponent. The damage is otherwise unremarkable - though a direct hit using only these will destroy a ship - but while battling, better to drain battle attributes, A good mix of Target Weapons and Target Shields would do this, for example. If your don't battle, but use a Battle Bridge side-deck to work off ship-damaging dilemmas, don't bother with Target Weapons - you're better off using The Swarm, Isolinear Puzzle and the like. Basically a good card, I give it a hearty 3.7.

TOTAL: 14.27 (71.33%) In the middle, as far as Tactics go.

PICTURE: Tharket's angular face makes for a good pic, and his treacherous activities are represented thematically by the heavy shadows all around him. The expression is a little over the top, but that makes him distinctive. How about 3.4?

LORE: "Provided security services"? What is this? Makes him sound like some kind of caterer. I don't care much for that, or anything else here. Is he really an "associate" of Taibak, when the Romulans work within a military structure? It all amounts to a 1.5.

TREK SENSE: Ok, what they've created here is a Security specialist in prisoner management. This is, after all, one of the very few times (only times?) when a main character has been captured and did not manage to escape somehow (Geordi was released Brainwashed). All thanks to Tharket? Doubtful, but we'll forgive this leap for now. Being a Romulan, Treachery is fine on there, especially when you consider what they did to poor Geordi. His Medical is there to keep the prisoner alive while he undergoes whatever terrible technique the head interrogator/brainwasher/torturer has in mind. Since he escorted the prisoner to the cell and/or torture chamber, the special download suits him fine. As for the other special skill, it makes it impossible for captives in his charge to be rescued. Nobody was rescued in "The Mind's Eye" whether you ascribe that to Tharket or not, but it may be over-reaching to believe a personnel would be responsible for this when it was rather a combination of capturing Geordi while he was alone, replacing him with an infiltrator, and returning him without delay once they were done with him. Change the circumstances, and you've got the entire Enterprise looking for him. To balance this out, of course, he may only do this once per game, but still, I dare you to show me where he actually foils a rescue attempt. There was none. Ok, let's talk attributes: The low Integrity follows the same rationale as the Treachery, Cunning's fine for a Romulan with his duties (high, but not too high), and Strength... well, Strength could have been higher given his job and species, even with his slight build. They did a good job, but you have to take a couple things in stride. As much as 3.7.

STOCKABILITY: In a Romulan capture-deck, you'll want to use Tharket. Outside such decks, he may still be useful. Skillwise, you've got one of those rare, but oh-so-useful, SECURITY/MEDICAL combos. Not only are both classifications very useful, but they show up together on dilemmas fairly often. MEDICAL, to be sure, is one of the best classifications in the game (if not THE best). Treachery, meanwhile, plays on the redundancy of most Romulan missions. He'll fit right in. Now, if you're using capturing, he adds a couple tricks. One of these is his special download of Prisoner Escort, a card that costs your opponent 5 points when you take a captive to your Brig. If you've just captured a personnel and didn't have the interrupt in hand, you can just grab it from your deck. The second trick is protecting your captives from Rescue Captives once per game. Unless your opponent has more than one copy of that card ready, you might as well say it protects your captives, period. That card can be a real pain for capture decks, so protection beyond Prepare the Prisoner's isn't a bad idea. Of course, it means you have to keep Tharket at your Brig instead of taking him on missions. Maybe a compromise can be reached with the security guards' union, and he can be lent out while no delicate Interrogation (etc.) is being carried out. One last trick: he's a capture-related card for the cycling purposes of Prepare the Prisoner. Minor, since I would keep him around for his skills, but in a pinch... Ok, he's a good 4.

TOTAL: 12.6 (63%) Subpar lore keeps him in the bottom half.

PICTURE: Dark and creepy, I guess they wanted a gothic look to this card. Why? I can't really tell you, except that it accentuates The Albino's evil. The color scheme works well enough in any case, with everything silver and frosty. The creepiness also comes across through his cadaverous black eyes. The one blemish: That black splotch in the left foreground. Reduces the score to 3.7.

LORE: You know, I'd always though this guy was an evil Klingon, from the head ridges, beard, 1st season Worf hair style, and fighting moves, but no. Just a humanoid. (Paramount's reference material bears this out.) His evil schemes and normal operations are all given, and well-written. I'd say 3.2.

TREK SENSE: The Albino commands a group of bandits, but not a ship per se. That makes him a Civilian criminal, rather than an Officer, but still a Command personnel with Leadership. Banditry is about stealing money and goods from people, so Greed fits the profile. Treachery does too, but I would have thought that killing kids (I got the impression that the virus killed them before they could become warriors) in such a premeditated manner (again, my impression was that he singled them out to hurt Kor, Kang and Koloth specifically) would have been worth Treachery x2! At least the Integrity's as low as it gets without becoming "No Integrity". That act put the Klingons Three in a vendetta kind of mood (a gold star to anyone who recognizes that last reference), which becomes the Nemesis icon. The Albino would gladly kill them all, if only to protect himself at this point. To engineer the virus, The Albino needed Medical, high Cunning, and lots of Exobiology (Exo because the victims were not of his own species). Note that I'm still miffed about his not being a Klingon, but I should take that one up with Paramount. Strength's good for a guy who could hold his own against someone like Kang. Objectively, I've gotta say this card works pretty well. A 4.1.

STOCKABILITY: A Non-Aligned personnel with a lot of useful skills, The Albino will fit into a number of decks. The Greed certainly makes him viable in Ferengi decks. The Treachery will work well with Cardassians and Romulans. The rest is great with just about anyone: MEDICAL is still one of the best, if not THE best classification, Leadership allows him to initiate battles despite his CIVILIAN status, and Exobiology is a great dilemma buster... at x2, it's even better. A good number of dilemmas require, or are nullified by, 2 Exobiology. Good CUNNING and STRENGTH too. As for the Nemesis icon, it's dangerous for both you and your opponent. While 4 personnel can kill him by ending their turn at his location, he can do the same to them, discarding the whole lot of 'em. The fact that he can kill more than one extremely good Klingon personnel without lifting a trigger finger balances out the dangers to his own person. He can get help thanks to Blood Oath. There's a good chance these guys will show up in a red deck, after all. Of course, that means The Albino probably isn't the best NA to mix in with your Klingons ;-). A likeable 3.8.

TOTAL: 14.8 (74%) Blaze of Glory didn't have a lot of NA support.

PICTURE: Though a bit on the stiff side composition-wise, it's a good looking pic, with a neat effect and nice colors. Of course, one has to wonder where New Zealand has gone! Either the fx guys forgot about it, or it will be destroyed in the future. Maybe too many people went to see the Lord of the Rings sets, or something, and the islands sank under their weight. Doesn't really affect the score, it's just a curiosity, and maybe it's just the angle that does it. Besides, it was rebuilt in time for Tom Paris to spend some penal time on ;-). Stands at 3.5.

LORE: Though it tries to justify the game text with its ship/planet thing, it doesn't quite get there. Otherwise, it's fine. A 3.

TREK SENSE: Well, this is entirely conceptual, isn't it? We'll forget the pic and lore since they would be more relevant to dual-icon missions, or something like Crisis. The idea is that to win, you really need to solve or scout both a space and a planet mission. If not, you don't really get the "full experience" of what it means to command a starship, and it takes more energy expended to get the same experience (i.e. points). This is referred to as The Big Picture: Don't just look at the one mission you're doing now, think of what else you could be doing later. Whenever we deal with points and objective restrictions, we're solidly in the world of game mechanics, and they don't translate well to Trek Sense, though you can understand the above justification. The Ref icon is likewise a mechanical artifact. It limits abusive strategies, but of course, nothing would in the real world. And indeed, focusing on a single mission type can be disenheartening to a player who's worked long and hard on his dilemma combos. Because I can paint some kind of Big Picture that accomodates the card's philosophy, I think I can give it a 1.5, but no more.

STOCKABILITY: As a magic bullet, it's a companion piece to Balancing Act. That dilemma penalized players for seeding less than 2 missions of each type (space and planet), so that you couldn't invalidate your opponent's dilemma selections of the missing type and force him or her to spread all remaining dilemmas a little thin. Of course, a player still had to hit Balancing Act for it to have an effect. And even with a legal 2/4 proportion, a player could still avoid one of the mission types entirely. It's in fact possible to build your deck around one type of mission, increasing skill redundancy, and bypassing certain dangers inherent to either type. The pre-Voyager Borg, for example, might not enjoy the one-at-a-time aspect of scouting planets, so they'd focus all their attention on space missions. Feds might only go on planet missions where their big MEDICALs can protect them from harm using a Genetronic Replicator. That sort of thing. The Big Picture takes some of that safety away by making sure a player solves/scouts both mission types. If they don't, they must get to 40 points, which means at least another mission (either lift the point increase with that off-type mission, or get to 140 by completing what may well be all four on-type missions). The Big Picture can't be nullified, and it's easy to get into play downloading it through Q the Referee or Quark's Isolinear Rods. A good time is as a player is completing his final same-type mission. But of course, you could use this offensively instead of defensively. One way is to make the off-type missions unsolvable by loading them with dilemmas, or by constantly attacking Away Teams or ships there. Another, much nastier, way is to destroy the locations outright with a Supernova or Black Hole. A tricky business, but not impossible. A player might not have a choice but to try for 140 points. Q's Planet might make that an impossible 180 (and it doesn't have a point box so can't lift the 40 point penalty). An impressive 4.5.

TOTAL: 12.5 (62.5%) Indeed, its ethic was made an integral part of 2E.

PICTURE: Some blur occasioned by movement (the background lines agree with it, so it looks fine), but regardless, the image does its job. It's fearsome, and not as hokey as the same scene in the episode. A B-movie 3.4.

LORE: Workman-like. I've never thought much of the title, so its reappearance in the lore leaves me equally cold. The rest is very specific to the episode and doesn't really help with other situations. A 3 should do.

TREK SENSE: The card basically represents a "form" a shape-shifter might take. It's a combat form, whether Anya's monster or Laas' sword-arm, and adds +6 to the shifter's Strength. Any infiltrator who takes such a form is naturally exposed ("Hey, was Kira always this hairy?"). For some reason the shifter cannot keep this form for long, perhaps because of the energy expended, or maybe because it just isn't practical outside of combat. It's got a countdown. Of course, if you morph into another form, this one goes away. My main question with this interrupt isn't about the speed of the morph (suspends play), which shows it to be reactive just like in the show. No, it's about the suitability of this form for shifters other than allasomorphs. We've seen such a chameloid form, so it's fine for Martia. Changelings are another matter, though I've shown that Laas might count, but he's not really part of the "culture". Odo's also outside, but I can only really call the Berzerk Changeling a "Guardian", and he wasn't in control then. Would Founders actually use this tactic? What makes me say "yes" (as in, "there are always extenuating circumstances") is the tentacle form on Strike Three, though that form has a card already. After that discussion, I'd have to call the interrupt enough of a success for a 3.9.

STOCKABILITY: Not a bad shape-shift card, it gives your shifter an excellent STRENGTH boost for 2 turns, with which to fight personnel battles, encounter dillemas or solve missions. Shifters already have pretty good STRENGTH scores, so the extra +6 should put them in a position to at least stun their adversary, possibly mortally wound them. Throw in Strike Three to stun 3 personnel at the start of the battle to make sure you win the overall battle. Better yet, spring a surprise on your opponent by turning an inocuous Tricorder into a shifter with In the Bag, then Strike Three, then play The Guardian. It's fun to use many shape-shifting cards, isn't it? But watch out, they're not downloadable by applicable personnel, so it's rarely all pat and simple. The Guardian is the equivalent of 2 Disruptor Rifles that only work on a single personnel and only for 2 turns. When I put it that way, it doesn't look so good for anything but surprising your opponent, or turning infiltrators into killing machines. That last one's not bad. Oh, and Odo can't use hand weapons, so he'll need something like this. A 3.5.

TOTAL: 13.8 (69%) A guarded opinion.

PICTURE: Those holes in the ground are pretty creepy, aren't they? Whether you know it's the Borg or it's an anonymous scooping up from "The Neutral Zone". I like the pipes or warped metal work around the edges, it's a cool detail. The peach colors place us on an alien world, which is always nice, though that greenish shadow is an odd shade. It's kinda square - is it supposed to be a Borg ship leaving the scene? If so, was it added digitally? Interesting in any case, and a 3.8. Not bad for a simple matte painting.

LORE: They mention the facility from "The Best of Both Worlds" AND relate it to the ones from "The Neutral Zone", which is well referenced. Covering all bases makes this a 3.3.

TREK SENSE: You get in the way of a Borg assimilation operation, you're gonna get yourself hurt. Now, I don't mind the idea of different kinds of Borg, so this one fits easily in the behind-the-scenes Collective also represented by the Borg Ship dilemma. So I don't mind if there is no Borg affiliation in play, because in any case, the card does not respond to any of the player's Collective's moves. Even if you are playing Borg, there are other Hives out there doing this kind of thing, and the only anomaly would be if a Borg ship or personnel got destroyed at the site of a non-Borg player's Colony (and that's if you played the card and left your Borg stuff there). It is odd that the Borg cannot do this kind of thing as an affiliation though. It's not quite Assimilate Planet, because the planet is left behind. And there's no Eliminate/Assimilate/Salvage Facility among their objectives. Given the strategy's existence, I'm not convinced that Colonies and the Neutral Zone are the only places for it. Sure, New Providence was a Colony, and the Borg took some facilities on either side of the Neutral Zone in the similarly titled episode, but what's to stop them from scooping up an outpost in the DMZ, for example? It isn't just how they handle planetary facilities (like a Colony) either, because there might be an actual (orbital) outpost at an NZ mission. In fact, in the Neutral Zone, you don't even have to play it at a planet mission. The effect is to destroy anything at the target location, though you do have some warning. That's why the card is called "The Wake of..." - you're standing right in the Borg's way, and you know they're coming. So leave already! Of course, none of the targets mentioned in the lore ever got such a luxury - another anomaly. The card cannot be nullified, but I don't see why not (Trek Sensically, I mean). If Kevin Uxbridge had power over interrupts, surely he would, since the Borg are basically doing what the Husnock did. Is Amanda Rogers that different? She's got a heart of gold and would protect those innocents. As for the Referee icon, it's a conceptual artifact that's acceptable if it really does counter cheese. Does it here? It's supposed to curb Colony decks which try to be as insular as possible, racking up loads of CIVILIAN-derived points while never interacting with your cards. And I guess it can help counter PNZ decks which rely on Neutral Zone missions to make their missions be worth mucho points. Of course, it could be used to get opposing ships out of the way when both players are using PNZ... Let's just say it's a pretty harsh way to deal with Colonies, which really aren't that broken, are they? The thing falls apart before inspection, so no more than a 2.

STOCKABILITY: Somewhat offensive for a Referee icon card, it nonetheless hinges on your opponent playing either Neutral Zone missions or Colonies. So you'll be glad to be able to leave it in your deck or Q's Tent and pull it out at a moment's notice using Q the Referee according to your opponent's choices. If she does use the indicated cards, you can cause a lot of damage, especially on facilities, which aren't easy to move. Keeping personnel and ships stranded can be as simple as Mission Debriefing and timing everything right. Keeping a ship far from a Colony full of CIVILIANs may make evacuation impossible, but watch out for Hidden Fighter, y'know? Letting a player rack up some points before ambushing his facility and personnel to jack up the head count could be an option, though perhaps a dangerous one. In the Neutral Zone, you could destroy a player's Outpost, perhaps even a waiting ship before staffing has been achieved early in the game, or some waiting personnel before a ship is reported. It's possible, if unlikely given the ways to report/download ships and personnel on turn one or the seed phase. For a player to seed his outpost in the Neutral Zone, he'd almost have to be running PNZ and might deserve the wrath of the Borg. If both players are running Patrol Neutral Zone-based decks, then you have an opportunity to make opposing missions dangerous to native ships, but it's so easy to move a ship, you better have something else up your sleeve to clear the sector. Remains a good facility killer in some situations, but that's about it. hard to use truly offensively. At least it can't be nullified. A 3.5.

TOTAL: 12.6 (63%) No Sheliak.

PICTURE: I don't think the card templates have big enough pictures to do a scene like this justice. Sure, it's Madred's torture chamber, and I don't dislike its colors or architecture, but the Torture aspect is lost with nudie Picard so small and dark in the frame. Maybe they wanted to avoid anything too graphic, I don't know. As is, I think it's been pulled from an appropriate moment, but its impact is lost in the translation to tiny card image. Wish I could go above 3.2.

LORE: The story and not much more. My usual average 3, indicating no problems, but nothing especially cool either.

TREK SENSE: Necessarily incomplete as an Event card (limited to 3 lines of text), "breaking" a captive doesn't give you any information (a look at hidden cards) or strategic advantages (like bonuses to Weapons or Espionage ability), only a point loss to the personnel's owner when it is finally killed. While the Countdown lasts, it is being Tortured. When it expires, the personnel is seemingly "broken", represented by the point penalty. That captive has just ruined your plans, you have to change them (conceptually speaking of course), and since points are linked to goals in the game, that setback costs points. I get it, I get it. The captive is then useless to the captor and is put to death. Two things strike me as particularly wrong-headed in all this. First, I can't believe it takes the same time to "break" all personnel. Some would break on the first turn, others might not break at all. Ever. The card makes no distinction. If a personnel is killed because it doesn't break, then I'm at a loss to explain the point loss. I might believe a personnel could break early, and only be killed later. That works, as the captors take the time to verify the information, etc. The second problem has to do with the Federation (as well as any other good-natured captors, depending on who what personnel you play, and what personnel are actually captured). Would Feds really Torture their captives? And even if it happened, would they execute the captive later? Strictly villainous, especially if Section 31 is nowhere to be seen. Still, the existence of that organization does alleviate the problem somewhat. Of course, none of this takes away the fact that you don't concretely profit from breaking a captive. Won't go for more than 2.3.

STOCKABILITY: The third card from the big capture-related card trio, this one doesn't score you points like Interrogation does, but it does lower your opponent's points, which is almost the same. -7 is a little harder to come back from than the usual -5 penalty, and that can even be made -8 to -10 with the Non-Aligned version of Madred, an extra -1 for each turn he is present at your Outpost. Your opponent also pays with the life of the captive, cleaning up your Brig for its next captives. That cycles the personnel back into play (well, though the discard pile), but that's better than releasing it via Interrogation or waiting for Rescue Captives to be played. Madred's other version can download Torture easily, then switch to the NA version. Captain Bashir also has the card as a special download. And barring either of these personnel, you can download it to a Brig using various Intelligence types or SECURITY/Treachery personnel. A viable capture card that doesn't give any control to the captive's owner (like Interrogation does), and especially good for lamer personnel you don't care to Brainwash. Of course, the point loss won't work against the Borg. The 3-turn countdown might be seen as a disadvantage, no one likes waiting, though if that's a real issue, maybe Samuel Clemens' Pocketwatch could shorten that wait. In any case, a good 3.8.

TOTAL: 12.3 (61.5%) From such a great episode too.

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