To see the cards themselves, check out this Card list for the Fractured Time set.

#2169-B'tanay, Ship, Bajoran, Cost: 7, unique, BC /FT/

-Ornathia Class [2 Command, 2 Staff] When you play this ship, remove all the cards in your discard pile from the game; AU icon

"Ever since the Bajorans overthrew the Cardassian Empire, they've been getting more and more aggressive."

-RANGE: 9, WEAPONS: 9, SHIELDS: 9

PICTURE: A total invention, but a very pretty one. The triple-nacelle look pays hommage to the Future Enterprise's, and Bajor revolving below is nothing short of awsome. The ship might look toothy enough for its attributes, but it also looks a bit small for them (size of the windows gives something away). Still a beautiful creation, it gets a very high 4.6.

LORE: The ship's name comes from the Voyager episode "Repression", where it is said to mean "time of awakening" and is used by the fanatic Teero and his hynotized minions. The class, meanwhile, is named after a resistance cell, which is perfect for a ship from a universe where the Bajoran Resistance seems to have turned the tide in their favor sooner and more effectively. Our universe's Bajorans name their ships after mountain ranges and forests. In this one, they're much more aggressive. Quote does the job of mentioning all that too. A strong, researched 4.

TREK SENSE: AU cards in 1E have been split into 3 - historical past, possible future, and alternate present. The B'tanay is from an alternate present briefly encountered by Worf in "Parallels". There, the Bajorans have become a much more militarily-minded power in the quadrant, which shows well in this ship. Basically, it gives these Bajorans a ship more in line with the Federation's or Romulans'. All attributes are a point higher than their defeated foes, the Cardassians. Indeed, it has the same attibutes as the Soterus (is a similar tight, quick warship) and the staffing corresponds to the Enterprise-E (the 2 Command icons means it has sensitive, advanced weapons technology aboard). Cost is right too. The special ability may go a bit far, but is thematically intriguing. Since in this reality, the Bajorans are "winners", their discard pile never happened! The cards aren't restored to the game, hand or deck however, so it's more like history is erased, not redrawn. That's a mistake, and doesn't address the fact that the important crew, other ships, etc. will be from another universe entirely. That last blow hurts, but the score only goes down to 3.3.

1E TREK SENSE: Roughly equivalent to Bajoran Warship, this ship is NOT the one Worf and the others met. Proof is in the pudding: the ship is guarding Bajor! So it really doesn't need to be a unique version of the Warship. That logic helps it out of a tight spot, since it doesn't look the same, and doesn't have the same class name. The ship is still in trouble with the rather hefty staffing requirements that don't match those of like-powered ships in the 1E environment. Compared to the Bajoran Warship of the same universe (we presume), it's a bit slower (still around the planet, so could be a shorter-range vessel), but is more Shielded. Fair enough. No Cloak or Holodeck, but again, not the same class. Kind of strange, sure, but it works. The special ability gets the same comments. Score here is a bit less: a 3.

STOCKABILITY: The Bajorans are not meant to have big, powerful ships, so playing one comes with a cost. 7 counters, which is as much as any ship will cost, and the loss of the discard pile accumulated to that point. For the Bajorans, that takes out an important resource, as many of their abilities are keyed to the discard pile, boosting personnel, exchanging from the pile, grabbing extra skills, taking cards back into hand, triggering downloads, lowering costs, and more. Without a discard pile, your Bajorans have less going for them. A powerful ship can be useful in battle, of course, but the Bajorans are better equipped for combat than they are for engagements. They can only use universal battle permission slips in that area, and have none of their own. Still, the B'tanay is much better defender than other Bajoran ships, coming at only 1 more staffing icon than the next largest Assault Vessel, and the speed is great. Command icons are tougher to get into play than Staff icons, of course. If you can get this out real early, you might not lose anything, but later in the game, it would create a handicap. Use with care. A 3.5.

1E STOCKABILITY: A second AU ship for the Bajorans helps justify whatever Doorway you're using for them, but the B'tanay is clearly inferior to the universal (Spacedoorable) Bajoran Warship, with its higher RANGE, matching commander (Rinnak Pire), Crew Reassignment possibilities and special equipment... for less staffing! Seeing as the special ability is actually a disadvantage (albeit less so than for 2E), I wouldn't recommend it at all. You don't have the Warship? You might be interested. As such, a 1.5.

TOTAL: 15.4 (77%) Off to a great start, but dipped a little by the end.

1E TOTAL: 13.1 (65.5%) But not outclassed by the former model.

#2183-Benjamin Sisko - Outlaw, Personnel, Non-Aligned, Cost: 3, unique, BC /FT/

-Human; Acquisition, Anthropology, Biology, Leadership, Navigation; Command icon; AU icon

-Order: Choose one: each Honor personnel present is Cunning +1; or each Treachery personnel is Cunning +1. This effect lasts until this order is executed again.

"You' re looking in the wrong corner for a hero, ma'am. I've made the best of a bad life for my crew. That's my contribution."

-INTEGRITY: 5, CUNNING: 5, STRENGTH: 6

PICTURE: We almost get a good look at Kira's milk bath, but not quite. Ah well, better luck elsewhere. That piece of background merely comes off as busy and distracting. Much better is the foreground, with Sisko's golden duds matching well the Non-Aligned template. Not a bad expression either, and something of a strange perspective appropriate to AU cards. A 3.4.

LORE: The subtitle is a little dull, but the quote explains very well his motivation and attitude. You know, that could almost be said of OUR Sisko as well. A good 3.6.

TREK SENSE: I don't have a problem with treating Mirror universe personnel as simply AU (AU now meaning a "present parallel world"), but I find it very odd that AU versions of personnel would have the same title and thus, couldn't co-exist. I imagine a card will allow this in the future, but right now, you can't have this Sisko and the real Sisko in play together. In this case, they never were together in the same universe, but Kira was quite present with her "opposite", so the concept currently lacks the proper depth. Sisko here is Non-Aligned, not even truly working for the Alliance (not in his heart) or Rebellion (they don't yet exist). His command of a mercenary ship gets him Leadership and his staffing icon, but not Officer. Not sure that's an appropriate stance for a captain. Navigation is a good shipboard skill, and Acquisition is no doubt useful to mercs (and is in the spirit of his dealings with the Intendent). Biology seems to be what the Mirror universe uses for torture and other unpleasant things. Could also be used to please the Intendent in a pinch ;-). I could say the same about Anthropology, which would certainly help him manipulate his overlords, members of different species and cultures. Missing is Treachery. I know it would have interacted with his special ability, but he's quite the turncoat. Then again, you might believe he's inherently an Honorable man for betraying the Intendent and forming the Rebellion. While he has neither skill, he can inspire those that have them to greatness. Ok, I'm exaggerating, but I like that he can switch sides very easily, lending his Cunning bonus (his tactical mind and planning skills at work) to either the villains or the heroes. A well done special ability. The average Integrity doesn't quite capture his two sides, but putting the attribute in the middle is a fair solution. He's not as smart as our Sisko, not having had the benefit of a Starfleet education, but still enough to get the average. And he's as strong as his counterpart. Finally, we have Cost, which takes into account, I think, the fact that Terrans are only very rarely allowed to have so much autonomy. A rebel at heart, he's not ever going to be easy to get ahold of. I'm not too keen on his skill list, and there's a problem with the card's title, but the rest stands up well enough for a 3.1.

1E TREK SENSE: You can add a number of other problems with the card's concept. For starters, it doesn't have a Mirror Quadrant icon, meaning that he can report to the Alpha Quadrant, but not his home universe. Secondly, he's got the wrong title, being a version of the Benjamin Sisko persona, when he should be one of Mr. Sisko's. Persona-switching here sort of uses a Transporter Mix-Up approach, but reporting issues just can't be truly resolved, with to many icons missing. In addition, we have a personnel card with no classification at all, and much lower than normal attributes. Drives the score down to a 2.

STOCKABILITY: This Sisko could be of interest to Klingon Honor decks, or Romulan/Cardassian Treachery strategies, boosting Cunning for those missions that require high totals of the attribute. A good ability, and a long enough skill list to perhaps warrant the semi-high Cost. Most of the skills are pretty common, but all are useful, with Anthropology being a bit rarer, depending on the affiliation. Acquisition is the real rarity here, being mostly found on Non-Aligned personnel. The AU icon offers a few tricks, like Quantum Incursions and Temporal Test Subject, resource management cards. The Bajorans and DS9 Feds might have a hard time justifying the use of this Sisko over the others, but for other affiliations, they would get a solid personnel that would help with Cunning missions. That's not exactly encouragement to use him with the Klingons, so he might play with the bad guys more often. I'm gonna say 3.5.

1E STOCKABILITY: Thanks to persona-switching, you could very well use this Sisko along with The Emissary or the standard Benjamin Sisko, and in most cases, he'll work as matching commander of all the same ships, and can report aboard them using Ready Room Door (note the Navigation for the Type 18 Shuttlepod). That means you can actually use him to fly the Mirror Defiant, reporting him to the right quadrant after all (still need an AU doorway of some kind though). He can also report to Professor Sisko's side. And you don't have to give up on Mr. Sisko either. Good skill list despite the lack of any classification, but attributes are pretty lame if left unboosted. His own boost to Treachery or Honor personnel isn't as strong in 1E because attribute totals aren't nearly as important, and a +1 boost is relatively low. A switch for Jodmos might help the Klingons though. Acquisition does allow for some Ferengi-like tricks, many of which can be run out of a Mirrored Quark's Bar. Note that the two AU-related cards mentioned under 2E Stockability are also backwards-compatible, and further, as another Ben Sisko, he can solve Investigate Coup, and use Crossover and the Dominion Treaty. The many possibilities inherent to being a Sisko allow the card to rise to 3.7.

TOTAL: 13.6 (68%) He's a Siskoid, after all.

1E TOTAL: 12.7 (63.5%) But I'm objective.

#2197-Borath - Subconscious Projection, Personnel, Dominion, Cost: 4, unique /FT/

-Vorta; Diplomacy, Leadership, Medical, Programming, Treachery; Command icon; AU icon

-Founder; Order: Stop your Jem'Hadar present to reveal the top card of your deck and an opponent's deck. If they are the same card type, draw yours and discard the opponent's.

"I realize you have no reason to trust the Dominion."

-INTEGRITY: 4, CUNNING: 6, STRENGTH: 4

PICTURE: Definitely not the best shot of Borath, who looks here like his nose is pressed against a pane of glass. The rest of the pic is rather dark though not necessarily uninteresting. Still, only 2.5.

LORE: The lore is self-evident, and the subtitle, I dunno... Is "Subconscious" really the best word for this? I'm underwhelmed. An average 3 then.

TREK SENSE: AU concepts have always caused some measure of trouble when they did not feature concepts either from the past, future or an alternate reality. In those cases, at least, there was a reality at work. When the cards feature dreams or, as in this case, virtual realities, you have to wonder how such cards can come out and interact with actual missions, ships, etc. Borath, for example, was painted as a Founder in his little VR world, but would his Projection have the same weight in the "real" world? This Borath is a mix of what he presented in the virtual reality and what he truly is (since he's presumably interacting directly). His Founder persona thus has Diplomacy, Leadership and a Command icon, while his true self brings Medical, Programming and Treachery (everything he needed to create the VR and put victims into it). He also brings the same attributes he has in the real world, with the loyal but treacherous Integrity, the above average intellect, and the healthy but subpar Strength of a Vorta. The special ability is complex and fairly mechanical, but it tries to follow the VR storyline. In this scenario, the Dominion calls a truce (stop your Jem'Hadar, though stopping only one may just mean you've detained all other personnel for VR conditioning, which doesn't seem like enough either) in order to learn a little more about the opposition. In the interest of diplomacy, you also show them what you have planned (the top card of your deck). If you're planning something similar (a card type is pretty vague for this, but that's all we have), then you win and they lose. The Dominion is manipulative enough that the opponent has just played into their hands. I guess. It remains thematic and conceptual, and doesn't really cover anything that could happen in the real world. The Cost is higher than for the real Borath, but he's a Founder here, and besides, you need to expend more energy to set up the VR. Since both Boraths use the same mind, it's not so bad that you can have only one in play and not the other despite the AU icon, but onscreen evidence on this remains unclear. Reads something like a 1E hologram in a sense, but an interesting effort. Gets 2.4.

STOCKABILITY: To be worth it, this Borath has to be different enough from Psychological Researcher, and good enough, that you'd use him over the original depending on your strategy, especially with the extra Cost. Well, you lose Exobiology and Intelligence (not so rare in the Dominion), and gain the rather common Diplomacy and Leadership, but is also the only Dominion personnel with an AU icon, which allows you to do a couple tricks with AU cards (Quantum Incursions, for example). That, and he's a Vorta Founder, which may be a help. With The Founder Is Wise, he can lend his many skills to another Vorta, for example, and he can replace Founder Councilor. The skills remaining are very good, especially the Medical. It's the special ability that will make or break the card, of course. The other Borath can, once per turn, look at an opponent's card in hand and stand to draw a card if it's a personnel. This guy has a different reveal'n'draw ability, but it's a little more involved. First, you need to stop a Jem'Hadar present, and further, you need to show your opponent the top card of your deck. That's something of a cost. In exchange, you see the top card of your opponent's deck too, and if it matches your own card's type, you draw, and opponent discards. A little more of a penalty for your opponent, and there are thankfully few card types in 2E, but the intelligence value of showing the card is actually more for your opponent who gets to see a card you'll have in hand. And what about Bajorans, for example, who thrive on cards in their discard pile? Are you doing them a favor? Over time, you might really put a dent in an opponent's deck and get quite a few card draws, so long as you're willing to stop a Jem'Hadar. Intelligence-wise, the original is still the better deal, so here, doesn't rise above 3.5.

TOTAL: 11.4 (57%) When the original went over 75%.

#2211-Cardassian Protectorate, Event, Cost: 2, unique /FT/

-Decay: 3. (When there are three cards on this event, destroy it.) To play this event, you must command three [Car] personnel. Plays in your core. When you spend 1 counter to draw a card, instead examine the top three cards of your deck, place one of them on this event, and take the other two into hand.

"...the Bajoran people still refuse to appreciate how lucky they were to have me as their liberator."

PICTURE: The picture has depth, mood and irony. A good composition, and an unusual shot of DS9 for those used to the present day. A fine 3.7.

LORE: Beautifully ironic given the picture and history of Dukat. Not only is he a delusional megalomaniac here, but even the word "Protectorate" is perverted. Yeah, I'm sure those two guards are "protecting" the Bajorans below. A fine piece of pic/lore matching at 4.1.

TREK SENSE: The Decay mechanic is just that, a mechanic, and yet, they do make it work inside Trek Sense. A card with Decay on it is meant to have a deteriorating quality, and that's true of the Cardassians' hold on Bajor. Cardassian Protectorate is made truly Cardassian by requiring you to have a Cardassians in play, sure enough. It simulates their aggressive exploitation of other worlds (one world at a time, it's unique), getting more resource draws than normal, but also having to spend some of those resources at keeping the Protectorate protected. That's the card that goes on this event, a resource wasted on a losing battle (and anyway, the planet becomes worthless soon enough if you need another explanation for the Decay). Eventually, the Protectorate falls apart and the Cardassians pull out, having taken their losses (all cards on the event are destroyed too), but making a profit overall. Great stuff, perfectly suited to the Cardassians' resource crisis theme. As for the Cost, it seems a bit easy to set up a Protectorate at two counters, but we have to remember that it's not too tightly held. Still, it seems to fly in the face of what large-scale exploitation should cost. A 4.4.

STOCKABILITY: Cardassians are pretty wasteful with their cards, so the tend to stock more cards, and probably have more doubles to get rid of to pay for effects, etc. The Protectorate can act as a good card drawing engine, giving you 2 cards per counter spent, so long as you get rid of a third card drawn (your choice which one, thankfully). You can do it all in one turn, spending 3 and drawing 9 cards, keeping 6. Or you can do it once every turn, or whenever. No limit to the number of Protectorates you might play in all during a game, though only one at a time. At 2 counters, it's a very reasonable card draw booster. Note that the Pillage of Bajor does the same thing ONCE at a Cost of 1. So this is a bargain, and a 4.

TOTAL: 16.2 (81%) Decay isn't such a bad word, is it?

#2224-Collapse Anti-Time Anomaly, Mission, space, Alpha Quadrant, unique /FT/

-Astrometrics, Engineer, Leadership, Physics, and Cunning>36

-Region: Neutral Zone; When you attempt this mission, if there are no dilemmas overcome beneath it, you may download a Q card.

*Devron system: "The only way to stop this thing is to repair the rupture at the focal point where time and anti-time are converging."

-Any affiliation may attempt this mission; 35 points; Span: 3

PICTURE: A beautiful action shot, which remains a rarity on mission cards. Even the Enterprise is there. Although... I have to point out that the ship is creating the anomaly here, not collapsing it, but they thought they WERE collapsing it, so this is a failed mission attempt. A fairly pretty 3.7.

LORE: Slight temporal technobabble, but at least it's a quote, which is always more satisfying than straight 1E-style lore. A 3.1.

TREK SENSE: We know that the Devron system was in the Neutral Zone, so the mission is well placed. There was a race to get there, so a 3 seems a short Span, but not incredibly so. Anti-Time will destroy the entire universe, so indeed, any affiliation may try to stop it (even the Borg). How? Well, the controlling attribute is Cunning, cuz this is a complex phenomenon to even figure out. Astrometrics and Physics help you understand the anomaly and anti-time, and Engineer is required to configure the dish or warp bubble to collapse the thing. The concerted effort and motivation when faced with a desperate situation may be the reason for Leadership here, but I'll go another way. Q is the real cause of this problem, as he tests a Leader's mettle. So you need the Leadership for the Devron system to even get on the radar. Q shows up in the game text, quite appropriately, as a download, though he'll usually bug your opponent more than the mission solvers. Points could be higher since this saves the universe, but since it's an artificial condition caused by Q, maybe 35 is enough. This fabricated jeopardy is further supported by the fact that the universe does not end if this mission goes unsolved. Chicken/egg theory: There is no mission until you attempt it. A strong 4.

SEEDABILITY: As a straight mission, this isn't a great card. 35 points is good, but by no means great, and those Cunning requirements are pretty high. Better have mutants or androids unless you want to attempt with tons of personnel. Going the other way can be interesting however. The Q card download is the key. As long as you don't overcome dilemmas here, you can download cards as many times as you want. The Trial Never Ended, for example, costs 0, so dumping 3 on the table, even if you don't use them can be useful for effects that require you to have events in play (Rusot's extra skills, keeping Data/Loyal Brother unstopped, Seskal's unstoppability, Desperate Sacrifice, Escaping Detection, and so much more. Getting a lot of downloads does keep a ship stopped here, and you really have to evacuate all but one personnel to avoid this becoming a full blown mission attempt. Worf/Security Detail Leader is a good one because he can make sure the dilemma he will face isn't overcome. You have a choice of 5 Q cards for now, including The Trial Never Ended and Ohhhh! Nothing Happened! that affect your opponent's dilemmas. Anyone with other Neutral Zone missions have extra Range-saving incentive to use it too, and the Borg can replace Leadership with Science and squeeze an extra 5 points from this one with Expand the Collective. A couple tricks, but not incredibly viable as a mission per se. A 3.4.

TOTAL: 14.2 (71%) Anti-Time has always been hard to represent.

#2237-Daniels - Temporal Enforcer, Personnel, Non-Aligned, Cost: 3, unique /FT/

-Alien/Human; Anthropology, Archaeology, Engineer, Intelligence, Physics, Security; Staff icon; Future icon

-When this personnel is killed, shuffle him into his owner's deck.

"You're thinking of time travel like we're in some H.G. Wells novel. We're not. It's far more complicated. There's no way for you to understand."

-INTEGRITY: 6, CUNNING: 6, STRENGTH: 6

PICTURE: The harsh bleached lighting gives this card an otherwordly look, which is good, though it doesn't LOOK necessarily good. Certainly unique. What I do like a lot is the history library behind him, perfect for a time traveler. The image quality keeps it at a relatively high 3.5.

LORE: Well I guess that's why some of those time travel episodes defy logic! Seriously, it's a good quote, and I like the H.G. Wells reference backed by that library background. A 3.7.

TREK SENSE: I've seen the Enterprise episodes usually once each, so I'm not really clear on the Alien component of Daniels' species. I remember that he wasn't quite human, but then, was he human at all? We don't know what kind of hybrids might exist far in the future, I guess. Or he might be an Alien in biologically Human form. I'm also not quite sure about his affiliation. I thought he was somewhat related to the future Starfleet of the USS Relativity timeline, but maybe he's not. Who can keep that temporal cold war stuff straight anyway? So far removed from today's events, I suppose Non-Aligned will do. He's in the service of history, not a particular affiliation's success, I suppose. Skills are fair enough. History shows up as a mix of Anthropology and Archaeology, the former certainly allowing him to infiltrate Enterprise's crew seamlessly. No Infiltrator keyword? Not here (wait for a Daniels in Starfleet threads), but Intelligence makes up for it. And that relates to his Security too. And for all the time travel, we have Engineer and Physics. A Staff icon completes his disguise. The special ability represents the idea that we saw him killed on Enterprise, and yet he was back alive in the season finale. Our three-dimensional thinking again, because things ARE more complicated than that. You have him survive in some form and send him back to the future (the draw deck) to be encountered/reported again. Well done, though I can't wait for more time travel stuff to allow to do ALL the tricks he was up to on the show. A personnel card can only capture a small element of all that. Attributes have him at above average in every way, and that's fair enough. His understanding of things we could never wrap our minds around might have raised his Cunning, no? Cost is appropriate for a middle temporal agent. Hard to get at, but not a major cog in the temporal machine, certainly. All things considered, this does a good, if necessarily incomplete, job. And so: a 4.

STOCKABILITY: In a sense, this is an immortal personnel card, and one with a large load of skills. Intelligence is a pretty rare one (he would gain from Torture!), and Engineer/Security can be found on many dilemmas, like many former classifications. Anthropology and Archaeology are great for retrieving Artifacts, and generally good planet skills. Physics takes care of the space part of your mission solving. No flaw in the attributes. Doesn't take much more to complete Expose Changeling Influence, for example, or Political Intrigue. And while he can be killed, he always shuffles into the deck to be drawn again eventually (or downloaded for 5 points via The Edge of Forever). So he's never too far, and will work with any non-Borg affiliation. He might be less interesting for the Bajorans who would LIKE him in their discard pile, but discarding him without killing him would work. He can share his attributes through Fitting In, and with Tampering With Time, can be stopped to get a look at an opponent's dilemma pile. Nice perks. Here's another one: With Temporal Test Subject, you can discard him to save another AU/Past/Future personnel from the discard pile. Other tricks will no doubt appear with other AU cards. Too bad he's not fully Human, but that's a small detail. A cool 4.2.

TOTAL: 15.4 (77%) Enterprise cards will be interesting to see develop.

#2248-Dukat - Prefect of Bajor, Personnel, Cardassian, Cost: 3, unique /FT/

-Cardassian; Diplomacy, Exobiology, Leadership, Officer, 2 Treachery; Command icon; Past icon

-Gul; When this personnel or a [Car] personnel present is about to be stopped by a dilemma, you may discard a non-[Car] personnel from hand to prevent that. You may do this only once each turn.

"I assure you that we are capable of great kindness."

-INTEGRITY: 2, CUNNING: 6, STRENGTH: 6

PICTURE: This is possibly the least interesting image of Dukat, and that's saying a lot since we currently have 6. The lighting's a bit soft and the headshot doesn't do much for me. It's redeeming feature is that he's got a more benign expression here than on others, and it suits this version where he's completely delusional about his own beneficence. So I do give it a passing grade: 3.

LORE: Dukat is such a smarmy character, and it shows here. The "we" is almost a royal "we" and is totally ironic given the special ability and skills. Thumbs up. A 4.

TREK SENSE: A Dukat from the past, from when he was Prefect of Bajor and things were going relatively well. The job requires Diplomacy since he holds a lot of VIP functions and is quite the smooth-talker besides. Gul, Leadership, Officer and the Command icon are obvious. And Exobiology gives him an appreciation for the Bajoran form, you might say. Useful in torture, executions, etc. of an alien people, I should imagine. A silver-tongued devil, yes, but don't buy into his lies. He IS a devil, after all, and has the double-Treachery and very low Integrity to prove it. This tyrant is as bad as they come. The special ability taps into that idea. When he or his men are about to be stopped by some problem, he can kill some non-Cardassian (thematically a Bajoran) to get things back on track. Thematically, he's using intimidation, or perhaps killing someone who's part of the dilemma somehow. It remains thematic because the dilemma may not really be related in any way, and the discarded personnel need not be under Dukat's power. Still interesting. Cunning and Strength are at Sisko's level, as they've always been. Quite acceptable. All Cardassian Dukats cost 3, perhaps a bit low for the ruler of a planet. Basically works fine at 3.7.

STOCKABILITY: It's a case of the dueling Dukats, since the Cardassians have access to four different ones! They all have similar skill lists and attributes, so it usually comes down to special ability, and perhaps icons. Liberator is the Terok Nor Dukat, so in those decks, he's the only choice, but in a Cardassia Prime deck, you're not so limited. So what do you like better? Liberator has a discard ability that can annoy opponents; Military Adviser commands a ship and cycles cards from hand (a minor ability); True Cardassian commands a different ship and makes it unstopped after an engagement; and Prefect? He can unstop one Cardassian stopped by a dilemma. If using the Prakesh or the Naprem, I think their respective commander should be used. If not, Prefect's ability is good, but not incredible. You do have to discard a specific personnel type from hand to unstop your Cardassian, and that means stocking and keeping non-Cardassians. NAs will do the trick, but it's not like discard "a card", it's too specific to be used at any time. Note that the skill list is good, with Exobiology being very interesting here, while the rest is the usual Dukat fare, including the double-Treachery, which is great for a number of dilemmas, including Inside Collaborators. The Past icon is of use, though you can get it on other Cardies. It'll check on a dilemma pile's bottom (Tampering with Time), can be rescued (or rescue another AU personnel) with Test Subject, downloads via The Edge of Forever, and share skills with Fitting In. These little tricks don't quite save the Prefect the beating he gets from his clones, with which he shares many more tricks, from Comfort Women to easily solving Kressari Rendezvous. So he's useful, but you're still more likely to use another Dukat in his stead. Still 3.5.

TOTAL: 14.2 (71%) Not perfect... PREfect. ;-)

#2260-Elim Garak - First Officer of Terok Nor, Personnel, Cardassian, Cost: 2, unique /FT/

-Cardassian; Biology, Officer, Programming, Security, 2 Treachery; Staff icon; AU icon

-When a personnel at this mission is about to be stopped by a dilemma, you may kill your captive to prevent that.

"If you need someone to beat him into submission for you, don't hesitate to call me."

-INTEGRITY: 2, CUNNING: 6, STRENGTH: 6

PICTURE: Is it me, or does this Garak look a little too reasonable to be from the Mirror Universe? If it wasn't for the military uniform and tip of an Alliance badge, I wouldn't have recognized him. That said, it's a clearer, sharper image than the one used in 1E for the same character, and the lighting is nice. But it informs less, so is a little disappointing in that sense. A 3.4.

LORE: No "Pursuuuuuuuue!!!"? Aw. The quote we get drips with brutality and speaks directly to his special ability. It's good stuff, though the subtitle is a little dull. A 3.4 again.

TREK SENSE: One problem I still have (and will continue to have until there's a rule fix about this) is that AU versions of characters have the same title as the characters from "our" universe. It basically means that you can't use both the Alpha Quadrant Garak and the Mirror Universe Garak in the same deck. Why not? Mirror personnel frequently met their other selves, so there's apparently no physical rule that prevents you from meeting your alternate self. Beyond that, I'll offer my slight disappointment that Alliance and/or Terran has not been turned into a keyword. Might have helped with future HQs, etc. Moving on to discussing how they've translated the former "Security Chief Garak" in terms of ability, he has to be an Officer, of course, though his being the Intendent's toady relegates him Staff icon status, not Command. Mmm, ok, though he did command a contingent of men, so how is he less deserving of the icon than, say, Beverly Crusher or Geordi LaForge? He was Security chief, and that's here, and totally untrustworthy, cruel, brutal, self-serving and Treacherous. x2? Yes, he did try to kill his own superior (speaks to his low Integrity as well). Biology would have been used in torture. Programming is always easy to justify in the 24th century, so it's ok (and kinda related to Security), but we didn't really see him do much with the skill, did we? The special ability kills a captive (he's not as subtle an interrogator as our Garak is, that's for sure) to prevent personnel from being stopped by a dilemma. We might imagine him killing someone dear to whoever the dilemma represents, or interrogating to death someone that gives information that prevents personnel from being stopped, etc. It's all very thematic as there's no usual link between in-game personnel and dilemmas. Fits his character, but isn't quite as sensical as I'd like. Cunning and Strength are the same as his Alpha Quadrant opposite's, but though biologically the same, it was expressly shown that he wasn't as smart as our Garak. I'd have dropped him at least a point there, if not two. The Cost shows a little more of his general incompetence. He's not very important in the Mirror Universe. Plagued with a few problems, he only manages a 2.2.

STOCKABILITY: There are three Elim Garaks to choose from - a skill horse (Agent), a survivor (Tailor) and this one for your capturing decks. It's one of the Cardassian themes after all! He can kill a captive to prevent personnel from being stopped by a dilemma, whether he's part of the attempt or not. Leave him on a ship, or exclude him from the crew, and simply kill captives to keep necessary personnel moving forward with the mission attempt. This is most useful toward the end of a game when 1) you've had time to collect captives and have probably already scored points from them or used them otherwise, and 2) when you're too close to a win to dawdle. Until that point, he still has lots to offer, including the popular 2 Treachery (not just for Inside Collaborators either). His skills were made for Evacuate Colony and Kressari Rendezvous, and are all useful besides. Don't forget the AU icon which has all sorts of uses, such as Quantum Incursions and Temporal Test Subject's effects. Gives the other Garaks a run for their latinum at 3.7.

TOTAL: 12.7 (63.5%) So is nothing to be done with the Mirror Universe as such?

#2272-Expand the Collective, Event, Cost: 2, unique /FT/

-To play this event, you must command three [Borg] personnel. Plays at your [AQ] mission worth 35 or fewer points. You may attempt and complete it using your [Borg] personnel with these requirements: [planet] - Anthropology, Biology, Security, Transporters, and Strength>32; [space] - Astrometrics, Engineer, Physics, Science, and Cunning>36. When you complete it, destroy this event to score 5 points.

PICTURE: What a nice change from the usual dark, steamy, greenish Borg images. And we don't often see arctic vistas in Star Trek either. So a nice color palette and matte painting, with the three drones framed in a good composition (plus, it's Hugh!). A nice 3.7.

LORE: None? Since Events are expected to have lore (all 2E cards are expected to have lore), I gotta give it a zero. Sorry. Can't they stretch the text box a little in cases like this?

TREK SENSE: Missions are all well and good, but the Borg will usually override other people's goals with simple annexation of territories to their Collective. The DQ is already theirs, so Expansion (as dictated by the title) is in the Alpha Quadrant. There is no evidence of Borg incursions into the Gamma Quadrant. Basically, this event makes gives a mission new requirements, and says the mission is worth more this way. This is debatable. Expanding the Collective is all well and good, but what about when you play this event on a mission already attemptable by the Borg? Let's look at specific examples: Plot Invasion could be worth 5 points more, since Expand is the next step after Plotting. The flip side of Evade Borg Ship? Again, Expand goes a bit further. We'll have to watch future missions, but for now, the specifics don't cause a problem. Any mission worth more than 35 points would be more important than simple Expansion. Ok, so do the requirements make sense? If at a planet mission, you'd need Security and Strength to subjugate the inhabitants, Transporters to beam down troops (or beam up resources), and the Anthropology/Biology combo to assimilate both people and culture. Fine, though some technological component would have been appreciated here. In space, the requirements sort of inspire Establish Gateway, though without any travel effect, I'm not sure that's what it is. Astrometrics maps the sector. Science and Physics could be further used to understand spatial phenomena here. Engineer could be used to adapt ships to that part of space. Cunning helps all these endeavors. Works without the gateway concept in play. All that's left to comment on is Cost, which seems fair, considering that this would be a standard Borg objective, yet also take a fair measure of resources. Not sure about all the details (especially as they'll evolve over the course of the next expansions), but the idea works fairly well. A 3.9.

STOCKABILITY: When an affiliations comes in later than Premiere, it's bound to have fewer missions. When we're talking about the Borg, well, they're a very different group, so have even fewer to start with. And that's especially true of the Alpha Quadrant where your opponents' personnel are most likely to live. If you want to assimilate then, battle them or otherwise cause them grief, you'll need to have stuff to do in the AQ. The 2 Borg missions there ARE supplemented by "any may attempt", but Expand the Collective might also be played on any ol' mission you throw in to change their requirements. That's a fair way to do it, and the requirements are no harder or easier than most missions the Borg might otherwise attempt. Of course, it doesn't matter if you could already attempt a mission or not, you can play Expand on it, whatever you choose could be worth as much as 40 points, but possibly with easier requirements! Any 35-point Alpha Quadrant mission can be thus converted, made easier and +5 points. Depends what you wanna do, but a good spaceline-building tool worth its 3.9.

TOTAL: 11.5 (57.5%) Did well for something without any lore.

#2284-Explicit Orders, Interrupt, BC /FT/

-When your [Dom] personnel is attempting a mission, discard a [Dom] personnel of a different species from hand to make him or her gain the discarded personnel's skills until the end of that mission attempt.

"You two, get out there and see that no one gets through that door!"

PICTURE: I liked the scene, well captured by the thumb Weyoun is giving his Jem'Hadar bodyguards, but the composition and colors are boring here. Ok, but a little dark and messy. A 2.8.

LORE: Not sure those orders are all that explicit, to tell you the truth. Goes with the image, but perhaps none of it really encapsulates the concept put forth by the game text. A 2.8 here too.

TREK SENSE: The idea is that if a personnel received Explicit Orders, that personnel would have tools not usually available to it during a mission. For example, I might not understand how a transporter works, but if I was told exactly which buttons to push, in what order, etc., I might be able to approximate Transporters for that exact mission. Beyond this sensible concept, however, the card gets into trouble. Discarding a personnel, for example, is an unjustified cost to playing it. Why does it leave play once it has given its orders? Ok, ok, we'll buy that as an Expert Bob/Commander Bob that gives orders, but doesn't go on the mission. Fine. The idea of making it a different species isn't a bad way to infer that the Dominion is made up of races specifically bred with certain skill packages. They need to network to pull off certain things. Still, you can up-end the usual hierarchy with this card, making Jem'Hadar gives orders to Founders. Even if I'd buy the Orders as counsel of some sort, I don't see the Founders really taking advice from a Jem'Hadar. And on the effect itself, the Orders should apply to the mission completion itself, but not to dilemmas. Your Orders can't possibly get you through every possible contingency, can they? Dilemmas come as a surprise in the game, and would force personnel to improvise. If the only reason I have a skill is because I was coached for a very specific use, I probably couldn't adapt my Orders to that dilemma. Still, I admire it for thematically linking to Dominion specificities, and the general concept is sound. Enough nitpicks to chip it down to 2.4.

1E TREK SENSE: No real differences, though perhaps there are more possible anomalies. More subservient species are represented, for example. A skill like Youth is also problematic - how do you pass it on? A slight drop to 2.3.

STOCKABILITY: Explicit Orders can gives your personnel a bunch of skills, possibly destroying your opponent's dilemma combo, and that's a good thing. Each Dominion species has its own niche, so you won't see Vorta Officers or Jem'Hadar with Treachery. That makes the Dominion a lot more likely to use mixed crews vulnerable to Racial Tension. Well, send in a pure crew, and give one personnel the skills from a member of another species. It's a cheap way to use a costly personnel's skills in a mission attempt without having to play them at all. Even if you get stopped before completing the mission, you might just save your key mission solvers from death by dilemmas. Have the Jem'Hadar beam down alone, with added skills from Explicit Orders, and the Vorta and Founders can always mop up the mission afterwards. Useful, and turns an affiliation disadvantage into an advantage, I give it 3.5.

1E STOCKABILITY: Read this same review, but replace Racial Tension with Hate Crime, and costly personnel with duplicate personnel (there's no reason to waste highly skilled personnel otherwise). Face it, since there's no cost associated with playing personnel, there's no disadvantage to playing a lot of skills upfront. So you'll usually have them when attempting a mission, and unless Lack of Prep is seeded, there's no need to have all your skills present to attempt, and so less need to protect key mission solvers with this tactic. A 3.

TOTAL: 11.5 (57.5%) Repeat those orders again?

1E TOTAL: 10.9 (54.5%) Cards that work well within 2E-established affiliation themes may get variable mileage in 1E.

#2296-Fitting In, Interrupt, BC /FT/

-When your personnel is facing a dilemma, choose one for him or her to gain until the end of that dilemma: an attribute from a [Future] personnel present; or a skill from a [Past] personnel present.

"Come on, Benjamin. Are you telling me you're not the tiniest bit interested in meeting one of the most famous men in Starfleet history?"

PICTURE: Dax in red mini-skirt? Yay! Even beyond its aesthetic qualities, it's a good fit for this concept, since Kirk looked straight at her and didn't notice she wasn't one of his crewmembers (and Kirk tends to notice the ladies). Even the Tribbles are trying to fit in. And production-wise, the creators had to fit new elements into old footage. Objectively, I do find the pic a bit busy, and Dax's hunched over position isn't the best posture for her. Leaves us at a still-superlative 3.9.

LORE: The line refers to her reasons for going to the bridge, but also gives Sisko an excuse to speak to Kirk directly. It does put Fitting In (as an objective) into jeopardy, however. A speech about non-contact from the beginning of the episode would probably have been more sound. Still not too bad, it manages an average 3.

TREK SENSE: Fitting In might have been better handled as a The Play's The Thing, since your personnel are infiltrating cards from another era. Instead, we have a personnel in danger (facing a dilemma) borrowing a skill or attribute from personnel from that other era. To fit in the Past, I suppose you would have to do things as they did them back then, but gaining a skill? As for gaining an attribute, that would make you stand out more than fit in as your Strength or whatever was doubled or more. Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way. Let's say that being with personnel from the Past shows off how much more a present personnel knows about said skill. Adjusting for local levels of expertise, that present character would have a greater skill level. Yes, but you can gain a skill you never had, and the game, for the moment at least, happens in the present. So any adjustment would be for the Past personnel to make, an adjustment down. Using this same rationale on Future personnel, these might use their knowledge of the present to give your personnel an advantage: inspire their Integrity, give them information to boost Cunning, or a tactical advantage to boost Strength. That works better, especially when you consider that the boost only lasts for the length of a dilemma. I have severe misgivings about this interrupt, and so only give it a 1.7.

1E TREK SENSE: Can't even go that high here, since you may borrow either a skill or attribute from any type of AU personnel, so rationales fall by the wayside in the midst of vaguer definitions of what is past, present and alternate present or dream, etc. A 1.5.

STOCKABILITY: Well, it's a way to boost skills or attributes, or actually double up on one of these, during a dilemma. Dilemma requires one more skill than your Past personnel has? Double that skill by sharing it with someone Fitting In. Whatever attribute is required of a dilemma, that Future personnel can act as two Future personnel in that regard, adding its attribute (whichever one) to another personnel. Pretty simple and fairly useful if you're using AU-type personnel from those eras. Past icon personnel with loads of skills (Darhe'el, Dukat/Prefect, Odo/Impartial, Telek R'Mor) are excellent in this context, as are Future personnel with high attributes (like K'mtar). The only problem is that there are so few of these to choose from at the moment. Multiple copies may be used to really prop up a mission attempt. Thankfully, they are easy to get at with The Edge of Forever, and have other tricks up their sleeves. A cute little 3.6.

1E STOCKABILITY: In 1E, though there are plenty of skill horses and attributes aren't as hard to come by, you have a lot more options when it comes to borrowing from AU personnel. All icons are equal here, so a single AU personnel can be used for its skills OR for its attributes. More efficient and flexible. And though skill choices are similar (more options for most affiliations, and a lot more NAs anyway), attributes tend to go much higher. Spock, Sarek and Data all have AU versions that go 10 and above, and the collection is full of 8s and 9s anyway. OS and CF decks get a mini-interlink out of it, in addition to the Classic Communicator, which some might use. I'd say 3.6 here too, especially with some of the heavy dilemmas now out.

TOTAL: 12.2 (61%) Fits in somewhere around the middle of the chart.

1E TOTAL: 12 (60%) A pass, but not without a little tribble.

#2308-Founder Agitator - Elusive Assassin, Personnel, Dominion, Cost: 2, unique /FT/

-Changeling; Physics, Science, Security, 2 Treachery; Staff icon

-Assassin, Founder, Infiltrator, Shape-shifter; Order: Return this personnel to his owner's hand to return one opponent's non-unique personnel present to his or her owner's hand for each headquarters mission that opponent commands.

"We must assume that it escaped unharmed."

-INTEGRITY: 2, CUNNING: 6, STRENGTH: 6

PICTURE: We never saw much of this guy, so pictures were limited. Still, it came out pretty well, and there's something inherently fun about a Changeling posing as a clay pot. It's starting to turn into protoplasm to show its true colors anyway. The rest of the elements are much poorer (colors are awful, composition is iffy), but like I said, it's not like the designers had too many options. A 3.1 mostly for originality.

LORE: Nice title and subtitle, and a short, but effective quote to explain the personnel's returning to hand in its special ability. Short, but strong at 3.4.

TREK SENSE: Wow, that's a lot of keywords, but they're all true. By blowing up a bomb during a diplomatic function, this Shape-Shifting Founder became an Assassin. An Infiltrator too, as I surmise it took more humanoid forms in addition to pottery before setting itself up on its pedestal. Security helped it pass inspections. Double-Treachery and extremely low Integrity allow it to commit mass murder. Physics has sometimes been linked to explosives, as here. Science? It's related to Physics, and is also a standard skill for Founders, though there's less to indicate our Agitator had access to it. As for the special ability, we have the Agitator somehow getting away (the show doesn't reveal how) to its owner's hand to blow itself up along with other personnel. Well, from there, it gets a little fuzzy. The explosion doesn't kill per se, it simply sends personnel back to THEIR owners' hands, and only non-uniques at that. Well, non-uniques can be considered killed in a sense, since replaying them does not equate with playing the SAME personnel, just a similar one. Doesn't explain why uniques make it out of there alive, of course. The body count is pretty low, though it rises if the target has more than one HQ. That's a thematic link to the diplomatic function, where more than one affiliation might be expected to mingle. Unfortunate that it doesn't target one personnel PER affiliation. Back on track with the attributes, I've come to terms with various Founders having different stats based on their current incarnation even if one of these can become another (as is the case with the Founder Councilor, for example). They simply adopt whatever attributes are required for the mission at hand, borrowing as needed (or leaving scruples behind) from the Great Link. For the Agitator's operation, above average Cunning and Strength are definitely indicated. Cost is pretty low, perhaps too low for a Founder. They ARE the leaders of a huge empire. The Staff icon is odd for the same reason. So this Founder couldn't give Jem'Hadar and Vorta orders? With its largely conceptual special ability, it doesn't go higher than 2.8 here.

STOCKABILITY: Founder Agitator's skills are nothing to sneer at, with double-Treachery having its usual uses against dilemmas, and Science, the purview of the non-unique Founder Councilor, is under-represented in the Dominion. Security isn't, but is also useful, and usually found more on Jem'Hadar. Physics rounds out the list. It's cheap, which is excellent since its special ability is based on its returning to hand. You can, of course, return it to hand with Assassination Plot to kill a personnel present, but on its own power, you can return it to return opposing personnel to hand. The ability is limited to non-uniques (many weenies are non-unique, so it's good against those decks), but you target one per HQ commanded by that opponent, affecting multi-HQ decks more than single-HQ strategies. As an Infiltrator, it can even report to opponents' crews to do its business (Anything or Anyone) in addition to other such tricks (Changeling Sabotage, Enemy in Your Midst, etc.). Plus the usual uses of Founders and Shape-Shifters. If Agitator can report back from where it just returned to hand, you can decimate a crew of non-uniques, whether you do this with AorA or by replacing in turn a group of Founder Councilors. Attributes aren't stellar, but the special ability can be part of a nasty opponent-disruption strategy. A 4.

TOTAL: 13.3 (66.5%) Still has a lot going for it.

#2320-Heightened Perception, Event, Cost: 4 /FT/

-Temporal; Plays in your core. When you choose dilemmas for your dilemma stack, you may place any you do not choose face down on this event. When an opponent has faced the last dilemma in your dilemma stack, you may examine your dilemmas here and place one on your dilemma stack. When a mission attempt ends, return each dilemma here to your dilemma pile.

PICTURE: Though this was a pretty moment in Insurrection, the pollen freeze-framing on a card doesn't really have the same effect. All cards have a freeze-framed image, you see! The pollen is kinda lost in the jumble of the background, but Picard's fixating on it, so we know it's there. Still pretty (Anij can blow on flowers all day and not get an objection from me), but the composition is left-heavy and the effect gets a little lost. A 3.2.

LORE: As per my policy, a 0. There was room for a short quote of some kind, even if they might've had to extend the gray box a little (there's room, I tell ya!), and they didn't. Leaves the card wanting, and the title's just stiff enough that it doesn't help.

TREK SENSE: The power to slow down time isn't given to everyone, so it's a Costly Event, but one that can be used again and again. Can a Ba'ku teach this to the member of another species? In any case, since it affects the dilemma stack and its player, not the person in a game, the whole thing's more than a little conceptual. Has to be. I'm just not sure that concept works. Bottom line, the card adds a dilemma to an exhausted dilemma stack. There is a way to slow down time so that dilemmas arrive on the stack one after the other, chosen one at a time. Conceptually, I suppose you, the player, use your Heightened Perception to spot another dilemma, which you would then use. In the film, the ability was used for the opposite: During the cave-in, it saved Anij. How can we now co-opt it to boost dilemmas? I'm not even sure it should be Temporal, not if we're only talking Perception. The concept would probably have been better served by something that had another dilemma lurking just around the corner, not this tranquil, pastoral scene. Yeah, sometimes you fail to see a danger ahead, so the idea makes sense. It's just built around the wrong thing. A 1.2 based on that.

STOCKABILITY: When you have this Event in play, that's where you temporarily place your unused dilemmas during an opponent's mission attempt. The usual way to use this is to play only one dilemma as the "stack" so that you can select dilemmas as you go along. No more blindly making combos. A very interesting ability. As long as you don't overextend your Cost limit, you're fine and can be a lot more strategic in your dilemma-playing tactics. The other advantage to this is that it doesn't waste dilemmas. Stacked dilemmas that weren't used when a crew is entirely stopped would normally be "overcome" and thus lost, and make the next mission attempt easier to boot. Being Temporal doesn't give you much yet, but there's always manipulating your opponent's dilemma pile with Ohhhh! Nothing Happened! An excellent dilemma-manipulation card at 4.4.

TOTAL: 8.8 (44%) Figure that some kind of average lore (a 3) would have placed it at 11.8.

#2332-James T. Kirk - Living Legend, Personnel, Federation, Cost: 4, unique /FT/

-Human; 2 Honor, Leadership; Command icon; Earth icon; Past icon

-While this personnel is facing a dilemma that has requirements you cannot meet, you may kill this personnel to prevent any further effects of that dilemma and overcome it.

"I take it the odds are against us and the situation is grim. ...Sounds like fun."

-INTEGRITY: 7, CUNNING: 6, STRENGTH: 5

PICTURE: The older, smiling Kirk has a lot of charm, and an almost painterly look - which goes fine with the idea of a man from the past, a legend. A quite good 3.5.

LORE: Again, very pleasant, with good humor mixed with a sense of duty. The subtitle qualifies since he's found alive in "our time", and squeezes irony out of the special ability. A very cool 4.

TREK SENSE: This version of Kirk has retired, so no Officer, even if his ability to Command is intact. He's retired to Earth, so that icon is fine (Earth of the Past), even if he's in the Nexus at present. The difficulty of access to that particular phenomenon means the Cost just isn't high enough. Sorry. As for the skills, rewatching TOS lately has made me acutely aware that Kirk has a lot more skills than what he's usually attributed. Anthropology is a recurring theme, for example (as a psychology substitute), but he's been shown useful in Security, Engineer, Intelligence, and other situations. That said, what does he actually use in Generations? Well, Engineer! But what does he use in the 24th century (focus getting narrower...)? Not much! You can't breed the Leadership out of him, but he lets Picard lead him, so there's a single instance of the skill. The reason he follows Picard is because of duty and Honor. He can't let all those people die, and even gives his life to save them. That turns up as 2 Honor, high Integrity (less than Picard because he at first fought him on the idea), and a special ability that's all about self-sacrifice. Kirk is a miracle worker of sorts, never admitting defeat. There are always... possibilities. He finds a way to overcome that impossible dilemma (maybe those hidden skills I was talking about), prevent its effects, but this time, he's done for and dies. Above average Cunning sounds right, and the Strength takes his age into account, but doesn't rob him of his uncanny vitality. There's a lot to like here, as a snapshot of a very specific time in his story. A 4.4.

STOCKABILITY: Not a lot of skills, but the special ability makes Kirk/Living Legend a personnel designed to die. You bring him along on mission attempts, and rather than get your butt whupped by a powerful dilemma, you overcome it. All it costs you is Kirk. At 4 counters, that may seem like a lot, but if it saves a lot of other personnel and/or time... And while everything goes smoothly, he'll provide some ok skills and solid attributes. With other AU personnel in hand, you can grab him back from the discard pile for another mission (he's forever in the Nexus, like Guinan). The Edge of Forever places him at your HQ for 0 counters, but 5 points off your score. Just some cards you could think of using in combination with Living Legend. Manages 4.1.

TOTAL: 16 (80%) Any Federation affiliation would be proud to serve along side him.

#2344-Kira Nerys - The Intendent, Personnel, Bajoran, Cost: 3, unique /FT/

-Bajoran; Exobiology, Intelligence, Leadership, Transporters, 2 Treachery; Command icon; AU icon

-Order: Remove a card in your discard pile from the game to download a copy of that card. You may do this only once each turn.

"I don't want your fear. I want your love."

-INTEGRITY: 2, CUNNING: 6, STRENGTH: 5

PICTURE: A good pose with the right attitude and that nice curve from the commander's office window. A complementary color palette. The soft focus filter is a bit heavy however. An always sexy 3.6.

LORE: The quote has character, the Intendent self-delusional as ever. A likeable 3.5.

TREK SENSE: I hope to one day see a card that somehow turns Mirror personnel into an affiliation/faction, but the lack of any kind of mention of the Alliance worries me. I suppose an HQ that allows [AU] Bajorans, Cardassians and Klingons to report could work... Not sure how many other "present" AU personnel from outside the Mirror universe would slip in the cracks. Having The Intendent work with the normal Bajorans is more jarring than anything else, since the Mirror Bajorans are so different in method than Klingons or Cardassians in the same situation. Another issue that has yet to be resolved in 2E is that of AU personae. We KNOW Kira met The Intendent on more than one occasion. So why can't they both exist in the same spacetime continuum here? You might say they wouldn't cooperate, and that has some merit. The Intelligence would help her infiltrate our Bajorans (but she's no infiltrator, note) and makes sense for a character that had her network of spies. Leadership and the Command icon are obvious. The double Treachery and low Integrity likewise, as she was something of a ruthless megalomaniac. Transporters is a nice addition, since she used the transport device to get herself to the Alpha Quadrant. Exobiology has the same rationale as all the Biology to be found on torturers everywhere. It helps inflict pain. Since she primarily tortures humans, which are alien to her, it's Exobiology. Her Strength and Cunning are ok, as is her Cost (a higher functionary that has a way of visiting our space). The special ability requires some thought. In effect, if you lost a resource, she gets it back for you. Except she doesn't. She destroys what's left of that resource to acquire an identical resource. Conceptually, it may be a way of saying: Forget what you know about Kira, THIS is Kira. If we look at the lore, the discard is fear, the download is love, but they are essentially the same in her worldview. I'm just not sure how to interpret it. That fuzzy ability, along with the realities that come with being AU personnel, keep her down though the rest works well. A 2.8.

STOCKABILITY: Fitting in well with the Bajoran theme of using the discard pile, The Intendent allows you, once per turn, to place a card from the discard pile out of play to download a copy of that same card. It's the next best thing to rescuing that same card, no? You do have to worry about burning your available copies, but if you're willing to play by those rules, the ability refreshes every turn. She might be worth playing just for that, but she's got more. Skills like Intelligence and Transporters don't grow on trees, and 2 Treachery is big enough (Inside Collaborators and Damaged Reputation a just a couple of dilemmas worth mentioning here). Exobiology and Leadership certainly aren't useless either, if a little more common. The AU icon has its uses as well. I don't think she's overpriced, though of course, using her means you can't use any other Kira. The others might remain popular at DS9/Terok Nor, but since The Intendent can't start there, she might well turn up in pure Bajoran decks. Another Kira might be better at mission solving or boosting attributes, but The Intendent certainly cashes into Bajoran themes enough to succeed. A high 4.1.

TOTAL: 14 (70%) Seems like Fractured Time came out with her too soon, before the right infrastructures could be out into place.

#2356-Kira Taban - Husband and Father, Personnel, Bajoran, Cost: 2, unique, BC /FT/

-Bajoran; Biology, Honor, Medical, Physics; Staff icon; Past icon

-Bajoran Resistance; When you play this personnel, if you have a lower score than each of your opponents, score 5 points.

"I believe that even in the worst of times, we can still find moments of joy and kindness. If you can find that kindness, hold on to it."

-INTEGRITY: 6, CUNNING: 5, STRENGTH: 5

PICTURE: An unusual pic for Taban with a baby in his arms, I especially like the blue light behind the kid's head, a great patch of background for the warmer tones of the foreground. Very nice, and a 3.8.

LORE: An inspirational message that lets us believe Nerys' dad was a great man, and it's fatherly advice, appropriate to his subtitle. I say 3.5.

TREK SENSE: Kira Taban is in the Bajoran Resistance (of the Past, of course), and by all accounts an Honorable man. Kira looked up to him for good reason. His message of hope for his daughter is reflected many ways in his card: Above average Integrity, the Honor skill, and his special ability, a thematic device that makes you score points when your chips are down. It's a fun idea, but what goal was reached here that would be worth points? Maybe he reminds you that goals already reached (if any) were worth more than you think. Highly conceptual, but not without merit. Biology and Medical make him a caregiver in the community, but I'm not sure the skills are canon. I find even less evidence of Physics, though where you're in the Resistance, I guess you learn a lot of skills that might come in handy (Physics often equals demolitions). The Staff icon is another sign that he's got more skills than we know. Rest of the attributes are fine, and the score too, for a good, but not legendary rebel. I like him, but it's difficult to go higher than 3.

1E TREK SENSE: The usual. No classification (which should be Civilian), and low attributes (only Strength would fit). Otherwise, I stand by my earlier statements. A 2.5.

STOCKABILITY: Kira Taban is a decent Medical personnel with a variety of skills connected from near or far. The more interesting thing about him is his special ability, which is insurance against faster decks. If you find yourself behind, play Taban and score 5 points. Allow him to die later, perhaps after solving Treat Plague Ship (at the very least, he'll lend an extra Medical to Treyam), and if you're still behind (or just slip behind again), rescue him from the discard pile with Temporal Test Subject and play him again. A kind of failsafe round-the-corner strategy. The Past icon has a couple other tricks (like Fitting In's skill-sharing), and the Bajoran Resistance keyword too. He can gain a skill with Natural Instincts, destroy events with Deep Roots, and start some lucrative battles with Just Like Old Times and Militia Patrol. Interesting possibilities, though you might never have to use the ability. Could give you more license to spend points on other effects though. A 3.6.

1E STOCKABILITY: In 1E, it's much easier to get a personnel killed on purpose, and much easier to get him back from the discard pile. What isn't as easy to do is to do all this quickly while also advancing your other strategies. Res-Q takes a card play for example, and so does Taban. So getting those 5 extra points not only takes 2 turns, it takes 2 cards plays. Unless everything else hinges on Hidden Fighters and Chamber of Ministers personnel, you're not gonna be boosting your points over and over again with this one. A much easier way to score points is with Nanoprobe Resuscitation and a former Borg - 10 points in a single turn! Either way, it's good for that little extra when you need it. Good skills still, though attributes are middling. Those can be boosted with HQ: War Room anyway. The Bajorans have few AU personnel, so a new guy to help staff the Bajoran Warship is always appreciated. The loss of a potential CIVILIAN isn't disastrous, even if it would have afforded him free reporting through Prime Minister Shakaar and an attribute boost through Keeve Falor. With the Nanoprobes combo, he's a 3.6.

TOTAL: 13.9 (69.5%) I wonder if we'll get a more "Resistancy" Taban later on.

1E TOTAL: 13.4 (67%) Passable, but worthy.

#2368-Korath - Duplicitous Tinkerer, Personnel, Klingon, Cost: 4, unique /FT/

-Klingon; Diplomacy, Engineer, Leadership, Physics; Command icon; Future icon

-High Council Member; When you play a non-Hand Weapon equipment, you may destroy an event that has no cards on it.

"I've scanned your shuttle. You've made some... interesting modifications. Your shield generator is of particular interest."

-INTEGRITY: 4, CUNNING: 6, STRENGTH: 7

PICTURE: A really nice picture in pinkish tints, with glittering background elements that aren't unpleasant. Cool angle, turning Korath into a monument. The composition is a little haphazard, but the whole thing comes together well. A 3.7.

LORE: Kind of long-winded on the subtitle for a Klingon, and while the quote shows some interest in technology, it's more about Janeway and her shuttle than it is about Korath. I can't say I love it. A 2.7.

TREK SENSE: We don't know too much about Korath, but we do know that he was a High Council Member, so Leadership is appropriate, as is Diplomacy, since he had some deals going with Admiral Janeway. He managed to patch together some kind of time travel device, which is where Engineer and Physics, though for that kind of thing, you'd either expect more amount of skill or high Cunning (not that he was that intellectual). And though his Integrity is low (while remaining loyal to the Empire), he doesn't seem to be Duplicitous enough to rate Treachery. A bit odd. The special ability has him use Equipment other than Hand Weapons to destroy some Event. How exactly? For one thing, we have to assume the Equipment is either of his invention, or has just come to his attention (perhaps hard to believe for some of this stuff, like the ubiquitous PADDs, and why no interest in Hand Weapons?). He then uses that technology for his own purposes, which rather vaguely destroys an event. Thematically, since he couldn't catch Janeway, events that have cards played on them are immune. We might imagine an Ablative Armor event here with Janeway's vessel on it, or simply Engage Cloak. What's left? Oh yeah, icons and Strength read fine, and the Cost reflects bringing a High Council Member from the future into play. Unfortunately, the rest of the card isn't so well focused. A 2.1.

STOCKABILITY: A mix of Officer-like and Engineer skills, Korath is better used for the little extras he brings to the game. As a High Council Member, for example, he can be played in combination with K'Tal (to download an event) or with Guidance of the Council (to be downloaded or to download another Council Member, since he has Diplomacy). With his Future icon, he further has access to Tampering With Time, Temporal Test Subject, The Edge of Forever, The Play's The Thing and Fitting In. There are a couple of ways to bring him back from the dead in there (along with attribute-lending, dilemma-peeking and more), which should keep his special ability in play. That ability has you destroy an event each time you play a non-Hand Weapon Equipment card. Because of the Klingon propensity for battle, that would be too common an occurrence. As is, you're limited to skill-adders (Tricorders, Kits and PADDs) which may or may not be useful in your every day Honor deck, Alien Gambling Device (could be good to help decide some kills) and The Stone of Gol (definitely a boost to Assault strategies). The Stone is unique, and the Device is Costly, so their appeal is limited. Emergency Transport Unit has more incentives however, since it returns to hand to have its effect. Back in hand to be reported again? So each time you save a personnel's life, you're setting yourself up to destroy an event on top of that. For your run-of-the-mill cheapo equipment, you could see it as paying 1 counter to destroy an event, so that works too. A major effect, which should prove a thorn in your opponent's side (especially if relying on "number-of-dilemmas-in-play" effects), so the high Cost may well be warranted. And with the 2-pronged skill pool, excellent icons, and fair attributes, he makes himself useful otherwise as well. A good, off-theme 4.

TOTAL: 12.5 (62.5%) Good here, less so there, so he ends up on the average side of things.

#2380-Medical Teams, Event, Cost: 1 /FT/

-Decay: 3. (When there are three cards on this event, destroy it.) Plays in your core. When your [DS9] personnel is about to be killed by a dilemma, you may place him or her on this event instead. When this event is destroyed, you may place each personnel here at your headquarters mission.

"Captain, try not to move. You took a bad blow."

PICTURE: I don't find this shot taken on the Defiant's bridge unpleasant, but as far as "teams" go, there's only one medic present. The frame is crowded, but with other officers. Background's real busy too. So I guess while I enjoy the scene and Sisko's repose, it doesn't do much for the title except remind one of the phrase "medical teams to the bridge". A 3.1 for that.

LORE: Segues nicely into the idea of stopping a personnel while it gets medical attention, but nothing spectacular or witty. A 3.2.

TREK SENSE: While this Decay card doesn't really seem to have a deteriorating quality, what counts down here is recovery time. But that doesn't work very effectively within the mechanic. See, that recovery isn't keyed to time, but to how busy the sickbay is. I guess you could say you release personnel faster if the place is crowded, but we're talking about people who almost met with death here. Is this why it's DS9-only? If that affiliation has a theme, I'd say it was being constantly caught between a rock and a hard place, you so you have personnel leaving sickbay really before they should. Unfortunately, that has no effect on their health, though it does send off to the HQ (fine if you're convalescing in DS9's infirmary, not so much if you have to fly back to Earth or wherever). No Medical personnel needed anywhere, since the Medical Teams apparently take care of things instead. No saving you from a battle, perhaps because you're too much under fire for those Teams to treat you effectively. Cost is ok, seeing as the medics are always on call, and weeniesque to boot. With a title like that, it seems like it should be useful to any Fed or even any affiliation, despite my DS9 explanation above. The card play a little fast and loose overall, so I can't possibly go above 2.6.

STOCKABILITY: Your personnel gets killed during a mission attempt, happens all the time. With Medical Teams, DS9 personnel are still removed from the action, but they may return to the HQ at 0 Cost once you've lost 3 personnel in total. There's a risk of it taking some time, but you can always send a redshirt down to take a the third hit, if need be. Outside DS9 decks, there's less of a call to use Medical Teams. For one thing, you'd have fewer personnel, and might trap the ones with the icon for longer periods. The Bajorans, who have the highest concentration, use their discard pile way too much to lose personnel to Medical Teams. A nice counter-saver for fast and dirty decks, but otherwise limited. Manages 3.6.

TOTAL: 12.5 (62.5%) Odd that it wasn't more of a Fed card.

#2392-Miles O'Brien - "Smiley", Personnel, Non-Aligned, Cost: 4, unique /FT/

-Human; Engineer, Leadership, Physics, Transporters; Command icon; AU icon

-When you play a ship at this mission, if you have played no other ships this turn, it is cost -1 for each of your Engineer personnel at this mission.

"Oh, well. Nothing like a little on-the-job training to get the adrenaline pumping."

-INTEGRITY: 5, CUNNING: 6, STRENGTH: 6

PICTURE: Too weird for its own good, Smiley in blue just looks uncharacteristically creepy. There's Mirror Universe screwy, and then there's this. Can't fault it for being ordinary, but it just doesn't work. I guess they wanted him to smile... A 2.2.

LORE: Fine and good, and somewhat relating to the special ability. A 3.2 should do.

TREK SENSE: One big problem about these AU cards is that there's no reason this Miles O'Brien couldn't coexist and even cooperate with "our" Miles O'Brien. But by having the same title, they are made mutually exclusive. Hopefully they will come out with a card that fixes this. It is also dull that the Terran Empire/Rebellion or even Mirror Universe isn't featured in any way, either as an icon or a keyword. After all, Smiley WAS aligned with something, something with enough personnel to warrant some kind of mention. At least, that's my opinion. Now, at this point, O'Brien is a "Captain" and the Rebellion has gained control of Terok Nor, and hopes to hold on to it with a copy of the Defiant. That's the basis for the special ability, with ships playing for fewer resources for each Engineer you give the task to. This helps explain the seeming impossibility of the Rebellion building an exact duplicate of the Defiant in so short a time, with nothing but blueprints as a guide. Real "miracle worker" type stuff. Ok, but having many Engineers can bring the Cost down to 0, which surely, shouldn't be. At least, there's a cap of only one cheap ship per turn... As for skills, Smiley's an Engineer of course, but not a double Engineer like in the Alpha Quadrant, since he didn't get the same formal education. Leadership and the (self-proclaimed) Command icon help him order his engineering crew around. Physics and Transporters make him able to transport to our universe to kidnap Sisko. Attributes have him as less moral than our O'Brien, but still a good guy. He's got the same Cunning, fair enough, but is a bit stronger. Tough living and all that. If he Costs more than the real O'Brien, it's probably because he has to be imported from another universe. So we're looking at a very good, all things considered, 3.5.

STOCKABILITY: Smiley will play with any affiliation, including the Feds who, I know, have 3 other O'Briens to choose from (1 TNG and 2 DS9). And for average attributes and only 4 skills (albeit all useful), he may seem pretty Costly at 4 counters, even when you throw in the AU icon. He's worth it in a strong Engineer deck however, because of his special ability. Playing a ship will usually drain you of counters for an entire turn, but not if it plays for only a couple of counters (or, dare we say it, none). When you play a ship for a low Cost, you can staff it on that same turn, or even play a Maneuver card and attack on that same turn. It's a cheap way to build a small armada, and it can be used again and again to bring ships into the world (even Federation ships). At What Cost? could add to strategy, as could any Cost reduction card (like Party Atmosphere and Captain on the Bridge). Not really a skill horse, but if you're gonna depend on quick ships, and have enough Engineer missions to warrant using a lot of them, Smiley's the man (above any other Miles). A strong 4.4.

TOTAL: 13.3 (66.5%) Just not the good-looking guy we know and love.

#2404-Noble Cause, Event, Cost: 0, BC /FT/

-Decay: 2. (When there are two cards on this event, destroy it.) To play this event, you must command three [Kli] personnel. Plays in your core. When you destroy an Assault or Maneuver event you own, you may place it on this event. When this event is destroyed, you may take each card here into your hand.

"Kahless would rather die than live under Molor's tyranny."

PICTURE: A bit busy, but the colors aren't stressful, and the choreography is well used to recreate a scene between legendary Klingon warriors (a nice idea for Fractured Time). There's a sense of height and of being outside that adds scope to the image. A cool 3.9.

LORE: Short and simple, but has a sense of history, and definitely gives a context for the more vanilla (and misleading) title. I'd say 3.2.

TREK SENSE: When I say the title is misleading, it's because the card is a lot more about respecting your history, than it is about fighting a cause, Noble or otherwise. See, the way this works, your Klingons keep telling the tales of the great battles (Assaults and Maneuvers), so they don't forget the great strategies of the past. In effect, Noble Cause recycles battle cards so that your Klingons can fight again. A very simple idea, though it perhaps doesn't go far enough into memory (after all, it invokes Kahless). And yet, yesterday's battle may well have been inspired by Kahless' great victories, and tomorrow's may emulate yesterday's and thus whatever legendary battle that was. No Cost because this is second nature to the Klingons, entrenched in their culture. A very strong 4.5.

1E TREK SENSE: It mostly stands, though it's less interesting as a 1E card because all Assaults and Maneuvers are not 1E-compatible. I guess some songs AREN'T sung. Also, there's now a cost associated with the card: your card play. Down to 4.1.

STOCKABILITY: The Klingons have a lot of battle cards, more than anyone else, so they can load their decks with them. There's a lot of variety, but sometimes you'd like to focus more on a certain reward (say scoring points, or high casualty counts). So play your battle cards (perhaps after downloading them via Coordinated Attack to make sure you have the ones you like), fight your 2 battles, then get the cards back from that 0-Cost Noble Cause and start all over again. You save counters as you go since you don't need to actually draw these cards, and you can really decimate the enemy in a couple of turns or rack up the points. No waiting. Throw in some cumulative Party Atmospheres and those Assaults and Maneuvers may play very quickly indeed. A nice little 4.1.

1E STOCKABILITY: Here, the Klingons don't have access to all the same battle cards, nor are they needed to initiate battle, or even to produce casualties (not with a Battle Bridge side deck), but they do add to the rewards of such battles, so why not? Most ARE 1E-compatible, so you don't lose too many options. The Event isn't free though, but it still manages to make two cards bypass the discard pile and return to your hand. The combos aren't so clear-cut, and you can keep fighting every turn regardless of cards on the table, but it can still help keep you fighting for the right reasons... a Noble Cause. (There, found a way to justify the title, now where's my check?) A 3.3.

TOTAL: 15.7 (78.5%) That's a rather honorable score.

1E TOTAL: 14.5 (72.5%) Still nothing for Khaless to be ashamed of.

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