Siskoid's Rolodex Extra......
The Dominion Overview


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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.

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