The
Dominion expansion, 130 card expansion (40 common, 40 uncommon,
50 rare) sold in 9-card booster packs (5 common, 3 uncommon, 1 rare) +
4 white-bordered preview cards (not factored into averages)
Average Picture Score: 3.26
Average Lore Score: 3.25
Average Trek Sense Score: 3.4
Average Stockability Score: 3.74
(No 5's in any category)
PRODUCT CONCEPT: Using an expansion as a launching pad for an affiliation isn't anything new, and it seems to work fairly well. The Dominion has needs after all, beyond the obvious personnel, facilities, equipment and ships. They need their own missions and objectives, in particular to flesh out the Gamma Quadrant. They need various verbs for various Dominion strategies, especially for shape-shifting and infiltration. Of the 130 cards in the set, 37 are Dominion-affiliation, and a further 36 or so verbs are centered on Dominion concepts, including all interrupts and half a dozen dilemmas. Some of the rest have a relationship to the Dominion in some way, like the Advanced ships that tried to destroy its homeworld, personnel that were impersonated by the changelings, or ships that fought the Jem'Hadar (like the USS Odyssey and IKC Rotarran). A few more concepts are at least pulled from the Gamma Quadrant, like the Chula dilemmas that premiere here, and Croden's Key. A lot more than half the expansion is devoted to the Dominion and related concepts then, but at the same time, there are things here for every other affiliation too, often as a way to use Dominion-oriented cards (like the NA shape-shifters). A strongly followed concept yields a 4 here.
PACKAGING/LOOK: The booster pack has the Dominion fleet hiding in a nebula (from "In Purgatory's Shadow") at the top, with Arak'Taral front and center, with Weyoun and the Founder Leader to each side. These are head shots directly pulled from the cards, and that will also show up on the booster box. The net effect is fairly gaudy, with the bright blue Jem'Hadar and the nebula full of pinks and purples. The box itself uses Arak'Taral as the pop-up cut-put, again against the ships in the nebula. Just as gaudy, but has more scale. Personnel seen around the side of the box are grouped with their own species, with Founder Leader, universal Founder, and the changeling on Shape-Shift sharing one side; the Vorta represented by Weyoun and Kilana; and the Jem'Hadar getting a little more space with 4 of their own. What's off about them is the blue highlight they've created on each of their faces (there's also a little of that on the top of the Founder Leader's head). Trying to match them to Arak'Taral's color scheme, or simply meant to be a reflection from the nebula? (Not that there's any blue in it.) It tends to place the Jemmies into their new environment more seemlessly, I guess, but the Vorta don't get the treatment, so it just doesn't all match. The box comes with a 2-color rules supplement (with card list), that second color being the purple you'd usually see on the Dominion ships' nacelles. There's a nice, if low-res, pic of the Dominion fleet in a battle at the top, with a Warship that comes off as better looking than the card itself. The cards themselves were of the same excellent quality we'd had since First Contact. That said, it's a lot about the colors for me, and The Dominion packaging just came off as too flashy. A 3.1.
DISTRIBUTION: The expansion follows the FC formula of 40/40/50, and while not as easy to collect as FC, the sorting wasn't bad either. Some of the rares are black border reprints of preview cards from the First Anthology, namely Garak and Orb of Prophecy and Change, so they may look familiar. The real chasers here though are 4 white-border preview cards (so some previews out, some new ones in): Captain Kirk, Seven of Nine, Admiral Riker and Worf Son of Mogh. One of these wouldn't come out in black-border form 'til All Good Things! This distribution strategy had been successful since the USS Defiant in DS9, a card that was soon black-bordered in this very set. No rarity problems, chasers that were worth it... A cool 4.
NEW ICONS, CARD TYPES & MECHANICS: The biggest addition is of course the Dominion affiliation, right off the bat given a lot of flavor, including a couple of icons and concepts unique to them. Infiltration wouldn't stay the Dominion's sole perview, but the Ketracel-White icon obviously would. Other than the stuff in the service of the Dominion, there are a couple of small rules changes, mostly cosmetic, such as how to seed facilities and making seed cards "unique per mission". Not enough for a review of their own. The Referee icon made its first appearance, but would serve no purpose for a while yet. I'll still review it below. As for the Gamma Quadrant icon, it makes its first appearance on personnel, ships and facilities, but the concept still first appears on Deep Space 9 missions. I'll reserve my thoughts for then. And as for Invasive Transporters, check out the Invasive Beam-In review for the low-down on it.
Dominion
affiliation
Graphics: The golden brown border at first disappointed me.
Maybe I was expecting some kind of cool "link" effect, like the one found
on the expansion icon. Expecting too much from 1E, I think. The golden
brown border is a step in that direction, also matching a number of uniforms,
mostly Vorta (and some Jem'Hadar depending on the light). The icon follows
a very different color scheme, and I've always found it odd. I mean, what
is it? There's a reverse Gamma letter in greenish yellow (or perhaps a
stylized "d" for Dominion), acting like the trajectory of that small cranberry
star. Next to the star, a minus sign, or perhaps an "annexing" dash. Not
at all design-friendly, I of course don't blame Decipher here, but it will
cost them. The template gets a competent, but somewhat dull, 3.
Trek Sense: Attack restrictions are normal, and I have no qualms
about that, not really. The only mechanic unique to the Dominion and not
covered by a specific icon (like infiltration and white deprivation) is
Jem'Hadar Suicide, a mechanic that has since been rescinded. This rule
stated that if a changeling (i.e. Odo or a Founder) dies on their watch,
either because of their aggressive actions or because they failed to defend
the personnel, they will commit suicide. That's all Jem'Hadar, both players'.
An excellent storytelling point. That, along with the various themes given
each important race (infiltration for Founders, battling for Jem'Hadar
and Diplomacy/Treachery for Vorta), makes this a very well-conceived affiliation.
Many of the distinctions are handicaps, so I'd call this above and beyond
the call. A 4.
Usefulness: The Dominion started out with some complications,
but various cards in The Dominion and later have helped homogenize them.
For example, they had to start out in the Gamma Quadrant, but Ultimatum
and later various Alpha Quadrant personnel and ships made this less of
a hardship. Jem'Hadar Suicide was rescinded, and annoying dependence on
Ketracel-White became a card that HAD to be in play rather than always
being a monkey on your back. The Dominion is very strong in strategies
that don't normally get you points, such as battling, infiltration and
shape-shifting, though 2E does offer backward-compatible possibilities
for the former. It does mean they are adept at stalling an opponent's progress,
so they ARE better going for a slow win. You do tend to stock more verb
cards in your deck that may detract from getting the personnel and ships
you need to attempt missions of your own. That said, there are plenty of
short-cuts too, the affiliation can be played without any White-addicted
Jem'Hadar at all, or no infiltration, or even no real Gamma Quadant presence.
So it's a fairly modular and adaptable affiliation with lots of nasty tricks
if you care to use them, from infiltration to invasive transporters and
more. Always hard to score an affiliation, but how about a 3.5? [Average
total: 3.5.]
Expansion icon
Graphics: The Great Link in a small box. Perfect, since it's
the power behind the affiliation, practically mythical for most Dominion
citizens. Some might complain that expansion icons are hard to make out,
but this one's pretty clear even if it's amorphous. A 3.3.
Usefulness: The basic score for these is 1, which means it's
helpful for collecting purposes, and more fun than a simple written indicia.
[Average total: 2.15.]
Infiltration
icon/Infiltrators
Graphics: Instead of putting affiliation icons in a circle,
it puts them in a diamond. The distinction is clear enough, and in a few
cases, the shape actually marries itself well to some of the more triangular
affiliation icons, like the Romulans and Klingons. Otherwise, not much
to be gleaned from this choice, though you might say angles are harsher
(and thus more evil) than circles, and that the diamond shape represents
a situation that's askew, just as a diamond is a square askew. Reading
to much into things again? Well, the italic bold lore on the person being
immitated keeps the askew theme going. A 2.9.
Trek Sense: Infiltrators are well served by the rules, allowing
them to blend in quite well with their infiltrated crew, whether they report
directly to it, or join it later. They are considered to match their affiliation,
cannot be considered intruders by your opponent (you still may), and may
participate in any activity their crew does (missions, battles, etc.).
They don't have to, of course, since a lot of mischief can be made by an
infiltrator saying "I'm right behind you guys." Similarly, an infiltrator
may decide not to help staff a ship. He or she may also use a ship's transporters
to get themselves to another ship, facility or planet, whether to escape
or infiltrate another crew. The infiltrator does not execute orders on
your turn per se, though infiltration-related cards may tell us what he
or she is up to. An infiltrator stops infiltrating when he or she is exposed,
which can happen in one of three ways. Infiltrators can reveal themselves
voluntarily, they can be exposed by cards that say as much, and lastly,
they can be exposed by being face to face with the person whose identity
they've stolen. You've all seen Star Trek, they never shoot the real guy,
always the fake. Being exposed turns the infiltrator back to his or her
actual affiliation obviously, and makes him or her an intruder. I like
that infiltrators can choose to be exposed rather than going under house
arrest too. Also good is the fact the infiltrator can infiltrate again,
but only once he's been away from all the opponent's cards. If not, there's
always someone who knows he's not the real thing. Hey, an excellent showing
here at 4.6.
Usefulness: Infiltrators don't do much without attendent cards,
and what they can do amounts to a lot of opponent interference. That's
useful, but not always as productive as a good ol' speed deck. The Cardassians,
Feds, Klingons and Romulans have infiltrators, but it's the Dominion that
has the most, and since they are shape-shifters, they can use a greater
number of infiltration-related cards. Furthermore, the Dominion can use
Impersonate Captive to create more infiltrators. The rest of us must use
a combination of Brainwash and E-Band Emissions. See, you rarely know who
you're going to go up against in a game, so your infiltrator may have no
place to go except your own Away Teams. That's ok, since they're all fairly
good personnel, but I'm thinking about all those infiltration cards you
stocked that are now useless. The Feds remain the most easily infiltrated
affiliation, and also the best at speedy mission solving. All infiltrating
affiliations (mentioned above), even the Feds themselves, can infiltrated
them. The Dominion can also infiltrate the Romulans, Klingons and Bajorans.
In turn, the Feds can infiltrate the Dominion. Impersonate Captive and
E-Band Emissions then become valuable tools to infiltrate other affiliations
(except the Borg in the former's case). So what can they do really? Well,
specific infiltrators have their own abilities, but cards that help include
Issue Secret Orders, Homefront, Dial Martok for Murder, Counterintelligence,
Inside Operation and Treacherous Advice. Shape-shifters add Blood Screening.
The Klingon infiltration icon is also a requirement on Archanis Dispute,
various others help Dominion Espionage cards play for free, and an infiltratror
can commandeer an empty ship (just refuse to go down to a mission). The
Walls Have Ears can be played on them without exposing them, so those are
easy points that can keep on coming without putting the intruder in any
hot water. The danger of being exposed is there, of course, often from
playing one of the above-mentioned cards, though Caught Red-Handed remains
a dangerous one for Dominion infiltrators. Sometimes, you might even run
into the personnel you're immitating. Useful and flexible, depending on
what you want to do (lower ship stats, sabotage mission attempts, send
ships on wild goose chases, kill opposing personnel, etc.), but sometimes
a bit convoluted and card-heavy. A 3.4. [Average total: 3.63.]
Ketracel-White
icon/White deprivation
Graphics: Very simple and blocky, and yet, well thought out.
It's obviously the letter "K" for "Ketracel", but it also looks like an
hourglass, the image of something emptying into something else, of time
counting down. Not bad at all at 3.4.
Trek Sense: Since only Jem'Hadar would have this icon, they
might just have used the term Jem'Hadar where they used [KW] icon, with
a special skill for Goran'Agar. I must also mention White deprivation here,
even if the rule has since been superceded by the White Deprivation card.
See, when the Jem'Hadar are out of White, they go into a battle frenzy
and eventually die. This is done by making any Whiteless group of Jem'Hadar
initiate battle against ANY non-Jem'Hadar personnel present (except changelings
who are sacred to them), according to certain priorities (it is very much
like the Jem'Hadar to have priority targets). They'll first go against
opposing personnel and Rogue Borg, then your own non-Jem'Hadar personnel
(Goran'Agar counts as a non-Jem'Hadar for purposes of this discussion),
and finally each other, splitting into two assault teams. They're berzerk
and must mortally wound if possible, and no card can stop the battle from
occuring. Still being in the same group even if split up, hand weapons
and the like are still shared. Then after the battle is over, one of your
Jem'Hadar dies from white deprivation, making sure a lone, non-battling
Jemmie still suffers. This has gone the way of the dodo, but it was a well
paced out mechanic. We'll see if the White Deprivation card will do as
well, but it reads much the same. Here it gets a nostalgic 4.
Usefulness: The Ketracel-White icon is a liability more than
it is a help, even without the above rule, an opponent may play White Deprivation
and all of a sudden, you're at the mercy of your own personnel. It CAN
be used to save a Founder or keep Ketacel-White from counting down with
Jem'Hadar Sacrifice though at the cost of a Jemmie's life. Oh, and it shows
up as staffing for the monster Dominion Battleship. At least they found
a use for it. Enough for a 2. [Average total: 3.13.]
Referee icon
Graphics: Straight bars like those of a referee's shirt. Couldn't
be any simpler, but is also just about the dullest icon we have. It does
have another meaning attached to it - that of barring the use of certain
strategies. Inches it up to 2.8.
Trek Sense: Well, there is none. Conceptually, all Referee icon
cards are magic bullets designed to impede or completely halt abusive strategies
that have cropped up, and in that sense, they do act as a referee. But
who is this omnipotent referee that is actually putting a stop to all that?
The cards say it's Q, but 1) it's not his style to curb abuse, and 2) it
makes Q much too central to the game. When he gets involved, he gets more
involved than that. It might explain why all the personnel are rushing
to get to 100 "points", but all the conceptuals here won't get more than
a 0.7.
Usefulness: Ref-icon cards didn't really get a use before Q
the Referee, but that card made them explode on the scene. Since all of
them curb abuse in the game, Ref-Q does well in making them readily available
to players. Free plays and quick downloads that suspend play? Recycling
Ref cards? Excellent, and makes the meta-game much more serious. The few
that can be nullified (only ever the ones that didn't start out with the
icon but were given one by Ref-Q) still can't be affected by Anij, In for
a Trim or Changeling Sweep. Other tricks include being downloaded by Saavik.
On the off side, it's a bad probe result for Chula: Crossroads. Individually,
you'll find most Ref-icon cards to be very powerful indeed, so I'm too
worried about giving the icon a high 4.8. [Average total: 2.77.]
(Average score for new mechanics: 3.04)
OVERALL USEFULNESS: Obviously, if you're interested in playing the Dominion, this is where you should start. All the key personnel are here, more than in any other expansion, as well as important cards like the homeworld, outposts, equipment (including Ketracel-White and the Birthing Chamber), objectives (Establish Dominion Foothold, Post Garrison, Subjugate Planet and Ultimatum in particular) and various shape-shifting and infiltration cards, not to mention Invasive Beam-In. Chula dilemmas make their first appearance, and most of them can still be found in dilemma combos today. Other important cards include Engage Cloak, Empok Nor, Crew Reassignment, black-bordered USS Defiant, a number of Headquarters and the first Referee icon cards (Fair Play, for example). We also get a little more battle ability out of the Feds, more attribute boosters for the Bajorans, some great Tal Shiar material for the Romulans, Martok and the Rotarran for the Klingons, and a few token Cardassians. Stinkers? Not really very many. Croden's Key and the usual low-rank personnel, Espionage and Treaty cards, etc. that just aren't very interesting. Overall though, a very strong expansion set worth its 4, though non-Dominion players may not agree.
TOTAL: 18.14 (72.56%) I'd call everything between First Contact and Rules of Acquisition the golden age of 1E.