To see the cards themselves, check out this Card list for the Premiere set.
Some of the cards have been corrected in the Beta Set.

PICTURE: The Troi figure has a classic position, and I suppose the golden light are meant to give her a kind of aura, but all it does is pollute the rest of the image with yellow, making the greens sickly and the details diffuse at best. It's also a less dramatic long shot, so only 2.6 here.

LORE: Well, though the second sentence at least tries to adress the card's relationship to its game text, it just doesn't follow the first sentence. Never was the holographic Troi used to help anticipate danger. In fact, I doubt the hologram has Empathy. And remember when I said the card tried to adress the game text? Well, it tries but never succeeds. A 1.8.

TREK SENSE: There's nothing this hologram can do to prevent the play of interrupt. Nothing. Even the conceptual idea presented in the lore of her powers anticipating danger doesn't translate as such, since anticipating is not preventing. Now, if we carry the concept to the spirit of empathy which exists between peoples (and players), there's some sort of rationale: Since you empathize with your opponent, you don't go doing anything to them that you wouldn't have liked done to yourself. Sure, but all interrupts are not offensive, some help you (and not just the two cards mentioned). The concept doesn't carry it very far... a 1 at most.

STOCKABILITY: Interrupts are a powerful card type when you think about it - though they don't usually have the long-lasting power of events or incidents, they can play at any time, in any number, and even during your opponent's turn. Goddess of Empathy is a kind of Computer Crash for these. If you need to get through a turn (actually, two of your turns and one of your opponent's) without molestation, Goddess could be a way to go, provided you don't need to play interrupts yourself. No Rogue Borg pings, no Temporal Rifts, no Transporter Phobia, no personnel battle aids, no Destroy Radioactive Garbage Scow (could be a way to get around that one), no Disruptor Overloads, Enevery Vortexes, etc. Against a Borg opponent, preventing an Adapt card could be a small but crucial delay too. Of course, whatever you have to do without interference, do it quickly, cuz that protection is coming off. It can still be Kevined, though your Kevin-quashing Q2 can't be Amandaed. The proliferation of other means of interference (incidents, doorways, hidden agendas, tribbles, to name but a few) also means this card is losing desireability. It currently stands at a 3.5 and is somewhat underrated.

TOTAL: 8.9 (44.5%) I'll go pray somewhere else.

PICTURE: Though a little fuzzy because of the thick atmosphere aboard Klingon ships, this pic's mostly a winner. The background seems warped to surround Gorath which is good composition (though the ceiling looks a little low), and I like those claws on his glove. A good 3.8.

LORE: The High Council mention is appreciated, and the last sentence is certainly good flavor text, but how does this relate to the character actually pictured? He's aboard a ship, not at the Great Hall! All skills and attributes could have been done on a character from a ship, no problem, so why the discrepency? Universality isn't acknowledged either though the first sentence is somewhat general. Would have been higher than 3 if it had been appropriate.

TREK SENSE: Well, a security personnel obviously deserves that classification, though his security chief status might have merited more than the classic Klingon Honor. That Honor makes him a mission specialist in the matter, which is odd but not impossible in Klingon culture. The Staff icon is believable. As for the attributes, an Honorable Klingon deserves more than a 6, Cunning 4 is way too low even if nothing was proven either way, and the Strength? Well, the Strength is just about the only sensible score. Not a lot of material to comment on, so mismanaged attributes really affect the score negatively: a 2.7.

STOCKABILITY: Not only do the Klingons have 6 Honor mission specialists, but Gorath has the exact same attributes, classification and staffing icon as Kle'eg! Gorath is actually better than this last personnel because he can report for free to The Great Hall thanks to his lore. That certainly gives you a little more flexibility when it comes to reporting your mission specialists, especially if you want to save on copies of AMS. And though Honor is a very common skill on Klingon missions (11 possibilities), and you might want one specialist per instance of Honor on a particular mission card, you'll rarely need all 6 (Wormhole Negotiations only requires 4). So if you're gonna pick and choose, how does Gorath rate against the others. We already know he outclasses his clone, Kle'eg. Well, his attributes are pitiful to tell you the truth. Batrell is just about as lame, with Korris a better, if unique, OFFICER. Vekma's MEDICAL makes her useful, and Kahless can do wonders with his Sword. SECURITY isn't as rare as it once was, but it's still useful, especially when reported to the homeworld for free in combination with Homefront. I'd have to say that Gorath is far from being the first choice in any deck, but he's not as bad as some. A 2.4.

TOTAL: 11.9 (59.5%) The redundancy of the card shows how messy Premiere was.

PICTURE: Those Dopterians, eh? Not the most handsome of species. But this card has other problems, such as a virtually absent background, an odd pose and terribly busy costume fabric. He looks smarmy enough, but that's far from getting him a good score. Only a 1.9.

LORE: There are a couple of odd choices in the early sentences. For example, the use of "race" in place of "species" would be unusual today (how 'bout just "Male Dopterian"?). Then there's the use of the actual words "non-aligned"! I don't mind the slip into game text vocabulary, but what exactly is an "agent" supposed to be in this context? I don't particularly like the way his role in Star Trek has been explained - a date, but no real details - but at least he's got a character trait. Not great, but not terrible. A 3.1.

TREK SENSE: The real backstory on this guy is that he was the Sisters' partner in an ore deal and was backstabbed (big suprise) by the two Klingon ladies. The ore connection is enough for both the Physics and Engineer, but wouldn't Geology have been more appropriate? Fuzzy. His opportunism becomes Greed in card-speak. That just leaves attributes, and they all seem fair. What we have here is a massive lack of imagination and so-so skill attribution. Lands him at 2.8.

STOCKABILITY: Even in Premiere, he wasn't the only Non-Aligned ENGINEER, but just what made him a perfect choice for the Warp Pack? Not sure, since the Warp Pack missions don't really require his 2 skills (ENGINEER is always good, but then, so would have been MEDICAL). In the 2-player game, he was a little better since Physics figures on a few of THOSE missions. In the normal playing environment, he's at least a support personnel, reportable directly to a ship via Assign Support Personnel. As support personnel go, he's one of only two Non-Aligned ENGINEERs (Amaros is perhaps better), and considering that the Ferengi, Klingons and Romulans have none, that's something. Physics isn't as useful (certainly when it comes to dilemmas), but again, among support personnel, there's a deficiency: none for the Ferengi and Klingons. Again though, Amaros scoops him. So it boils down to Greed? Only 4 Greedy support personnel (Lisa Azar, Morag, Aramax and Gorta), and he's the only NA. That's not so great for the dilemmas currently available (he has no Treachery or high CUNNING for Chula: The Game), but it's a fine way to get a Greed personnel where needed to use a Rule of Acquisition. The 47th in particular will suit him, as he's not very well dressed. There's still some life in the old boy - a 3.4.

TOTAL: 11.2 (56%) Well, you didn't think I'd let him pass, did you? ;-)

PICTURE: Gowron not making his googly eyes on his own pic? How disappointing! Actually, he looks in control and intelligent so I do like the pic on some level. Being on the bridge of ship isn't so appropriate for a high council leader, but the chair is at least interesting with its small Klingon logo. What isn't interesting at all is the pinkish, rather than red, lighting. Bleh. Lacks a lot of atmosphere, so a disappointed 2.9 all the way.

LORE: Not making him a chancellor is a mistake in retrospect, but the High Council is at least mentioned (giving him reporting ability through The Great Hall). His father's name sounds a little Romulan to me, but its use adds a Klingon flavor. What I am tired of however, is the boring dates of the Klingon Civil War which can be found on most characters from "Redemption". A pretty dull 3.2.

TREK SENSE: If there ever was a VIP who also deserved Officer, he would have to be a Klingon. In Gowron' case, this would have been very appropriate since he's shown on a ship and isn't the final "Chancellor" card. The double Leadership is certainly warranted for a leader of an entire Empire. Diplomacy? Yes, he's shown himself to be able to negotiate more than once. And the Honor, well, let's just say he's been Honorable more times than he's been Treacherous. Unfortunately, the buck stops there, and for one of the original Klingon "mains", that lacks a lot of imagination. The Integrity may be a bit high seeing as even in TNG, he wasn't all that trustworthy. They painted him as devious in "Reunion" for example, and he wound up showing his true colors in DS9. That deviousness would make me put that extra point of Integrity into Cunning. Gowron was never a thug, but more of a slick politician. The Strength, I would agree with. A simple enough 3.7.

STOCKABILITY: Another DipHoLe? Yes, maybe one of the originals, and unfortunately not a Chancellor. What is Gowron good for then? Well, he still has three fairly useful (if common) skills, especially in a Klingon Honor deck. The double Leadership is great for passing some difficult dilemmas too. Did I mention all high attributes? Gowron has a few other tricks too. He can report for free at The Great Hall from where he'll certainly help Secure Homeworld. He's the matching commander of two ships, the Bortas (Plaque/Log to 11-12-10; add Worf Son of Mogh for a massive 14-15-13) and the giant Negh'Var (11-13-12, a little more defense on that one). Some flexibility there, but the Bortas is really a primo choice for the near-Chancellor. He's named on Investigate Disturbance as a requirement, but you'd still need Biology. On that one, little advantage since a few Klingons with Integrity would do just as well. Gowron's main use is as a ship booster right now, but he'll also play a part in skill redundancy. A 3.6 here.

TOTAL: 13.4 (67%) Not stellar, but I would expect more from a (no doubt Premium) Chancellor Gowron.

PICTURE: The lore is misleading here since the pic isn't of the Denver hitting a mine (in "Ethics"), but of the Promelian cruiser blowing up in "Booby Trap". As long as you're just gonna use any old explosion, I can think of a lot of better graphics, even from TNG, that would do. This one is pretty uninteresting all things considered, with its two-tone palette and blurry background asteroids. Not a good effort... Only 1.1.

LORE: A brief technical description followed by an appropriate example... Looks fine. The extra space wouldn't have been enough to mention said mine was a leftover from the Cardassian war, but that IS a detail I might have appreciated. 3.2 here.

TREK SENSE: Damages a ship? Yes, I'm quite sure that would have been the likely result of hitting a Mine. And the fact there are leftover mines floating around means this is an appropriate all-purpose dilemma. A combination of Science (to detect the Mine) and Navigation (to maneuver around it) allow you to pass undamaged. Very simple and very smooth. At first, I thought Navigation would have been a bit superfluous since it would be easy to steer away from a single detected Mine. Why it isn't a problem: Well, the Mines are Gravitic. That probably means they are attracted to the ship. So Navigation would come in handy evading the non-stationary explosive object. So everything works, but you don't get full points by being conservative. For lacking originality, the card only hits 3.9.

SEEDABILITY: SCIENCE and Navigation are not difficult skills to come up with during a mission attempt. I mean, you could always put luck on your side by getting rid of a SCIENCE with Unscientific Method first, but the dilemma won't always work. And though there was a time I'd have recommended you leave well enough alone - damaging a ship just wasn't worth it that much - but with the damage markers afforded by Tactics, damaging a ship becomes all the more profitable. Not only does it reduce ship attributes, it can also kill personnel! For that reason, it may be a little more desirable to try to make the dilemma hit. But the fact remains that Navigation is one of the most common skills out there, and SCIENCE is a classification (so more available). Some affiliations may be more prone to succumbing though, so you might risk it, but don't count on it too much. A generous 3.3.

TOTAL: 11.5 (57.5%) Premiere is gonna have a looowwwww average score.

PICTURE: I've always liked the Haakona, with its grand swooping posture even though the contrast on the image is a little off. Certainly the most dramatic regular D'deridex pic in the game at 3.8.

LORE: Taris is mentioned as matching commander, and the backstory is given, but there's not much here to keep us interested. A basic 3.4.

TREK SENSE: It's just like a regular D'deridex except for the matching commander (verified) and an attribute change, so that's pretty much all we have to explore here. Compared to the baseline model, we have a ship with +1 Shields. That's it, that's all. Given that the ship was in shambles because of the Iconian computer virus, it's hard to gauge its actual strength, but if a point had to be added somewhere, I might have put it in Range instead ("responded to..."). It's all so arbitrary. 2.9 because of that choice. In a later expansion, this would have been a great ship to give a Neutral Zone bonus to, perhaps.

STOCKABILITY: The Romulan big ships can make a good big gun armada, but only at the cost of plenty of staffing. With many Romulans falling into the Support Personnel and Mission Specialist categories, it shouldn't be that hard to keep a steady supply of staffers on the ships though. And since each D'deridex has its matching commander downloadable through Ready Room Door, they can all be boosted to higher levels. For the Haakona, that means an optimal 10-12-11 with Plaque and Log (a little more with Velal around), and a fairly versatile commander. Not bad, but if you're only gonna use a few of the ships available, would the Haakona be immediately included? The answer is no. Other D'deridexes have more attribute changes from the universal model (which can be Spacedoored, so isn't a wash), while other ship classes usually have more interesting features (from Phase Cloaks to downloads). It'll fall on whether you want Taris or not basically, or perhaps on the fact that the WEAPONS have not been reduced to an 8 or a 7. Solid, but no fireworks. A 3.5.

TOTAL: 13.6 (68%) No surprises here.

PICTURE: The cool blues behind her make for an ok background, but there's little to recommend about this card. It's a headshot, and not one that reveals much of anything about the character. A straight 3.

LORE: I'm pretty sure another sentence could have been squeezed in there, but all we get is that she's genetically engineered (still waiting for those mutie cards) and some reasoning behind her inclusion in the Federation. Bah. No more than a 3 again.

TREK SENSE: A scientist with Science? Who'd have thought? ;-) The interesting thing here is that she comes from a society that genetically engineers you to be a specialist in something, so her mission specialist status is excellent. There's really nothing about a single Physics or her attributes that make her the irreplaceable cog she was supposed to be, but I haven't seen the cards for the rest of her colony to really see. The Physics isn't inappropriate to her work on diverting a stellar fragment, but Astrophysics might have been so too. The lack of a Staff icon seems reasonable since she was not a crewmember, but at the same time, she did seem to figure out how to use the equipment quickly enough. And while the colony is no doubt Non-Aligned (genetic engineering is illegal in the Federation), by requesting asylum aboard the Enterprise, she leaves her society and becomes a Fed. I'm not sure that's solid reasoning (consider the Manheims), but there you have it. As for attributes, the Cunning is reasonnably high, but could have been higher. The Integrity represents her leaving a carefully constructed society and knowing full well her absence may destroy it, yet she still works on the side of good. The Strength is way too low though. 2?!? That's for old men and sicklings. She seems hardier than that despite the intellectual profession. At least a 3 (for Strength), but a borderline 2.7 for Trek Sense.

STOCKABILITY: Physics shows up on 7 Federation missions, but never in multiple. That's why I don't quite get why we need 5 different Physics mission specialists for the Federation. Along with the fact that few dilemmas carry a Physics requirement, there's really little need to double up (or triple up) most of the time. So is Hannah better than the other three? Let's see... She's better than Mendon by virtue of having more CUNNING and being a female. Sir Isaac Newton has the extra difficulty of being a hologram, but his stats are way better, and a Holodeck is usually handy for space missions anyway. The fact that he's Physics x2 really doesn't figure into it much since, like I said, Fed missions only ask for Physics x1. Toby Russell has MEDICAL instead of SCIENCE which may actually be better. Dilemmas that weed out SCIENCE in order to weed out the Physics will be wasted on her, and MEDICAL is a stronger classification all around. Add an OFFICER and Russel can finish off Gravesworld, for example. Now if only there were a Federation Physics mission specilalist who's an ENGINEER! Wait it does! On Joseph Carey, who's in the Delta quadrant. So Hannah is fairly redundant with atrocious STRENGTH. You could use her, but there's no good reason why her and not someone else. A 2.

TOTAL: 10.7 (53.5%) They don't make mutants like they used to.

PICTURE: Interesting because this is the source of the Barash icon, it's a little more than that. It's got a cool enough color scheme with nice contrast and good atmosphere. Of course, it isn't really the Ruse, but the MEANS to the Ruse. So it fits somewhere in the middle at 3.4.

LORE: Eeech. Just one line? Why not have taken those flavor sentences in the game text and somehow have transferred them to this empty box? As is, the lore just doesn't talk about the dilemma, and that should be the whole point. I mean, why not mention Barash et al.? A very weak 0.7 which goes up to a still feeble 1.6 when I take the displaced lore in the game text box.

TREK SENSE: Ok, well, the game text tells us a lot more than the lore does in order to understand Trek Sense. It actually is a lot closer to the illusion perpetrated by the holo-Romulans in Barash's illusion than it is to Barash's illusion itself. In that illusion within an illusion, Riker was tempted to divulge secrets. I suppose that's why the Integrity is listed here. The Cunning is to realize that is IS an illusion so you can snap out of it. It probably covers more situations than linking it to Barash (though something with the icon would have been nice), from Future Imperfect to Inquisition, but it's a little stale. For example, if you do divulge secrets, then what happens? You're just stopped, but actual information is not revealed to your opponent. A fair 3.6 then, even though there's no way Riker could have passed this alone.

STOCKABILITY: As simple a wall as they come, it requires totals of at least 31 in both CUNNING and INTEGRITY. Some affiliations have more trouble in one than the other, which might help here, but in general, any Away Team of 6 or more personnel will pass it, while as few as 4 might (especially with equipment). Since walls generally go at the end of a combo (especially when they aren't forcing a skill or classification to be used), you could try weeding out as many personnel as possible to drain those totals, but you still probably won't stop anyone for more than an instant. Every personnel has attributes, and it shouldn't be too hard to get more personnel to fill the shoes of the dead. Following up with a large Away Team hoser like The Higher... the Fewer would be indicated. No redshirts here! Not the worst dilemma ever at 3.

TOTAL: 11.6 (58%) This could have been the key to the Barash icon, but it came too soon.

PICTURE: Before the recent errata, I didn't much care for this rendition of the concept. The hologram was so unformed as to look like someone being vaporized by a weapon, and the projector itself was occluded by branches. With the errata, well, it's completely out of place since the card no longer allows for holographic Away Teams. It had some ok colors, but falls in the hopeless category. Decipher just made this one a 0.8.

LORE: And so it goes with the lore, I'm afraid. Not only is it pretty barren (plenty of room for more), but it also makes mention of planet-based holographic technology which this card no longer represents. Note that I didn't care much for it before either. A 0.6.

TREK SENSE: According to the errataed text, this event is one of those cards which basically tells us the affiliation used just bought into some new technology and installed it (a bit too instantaneously) on all their ships (even if from a different affiliation or time period). Now, the Holodeck special equipment should be meant to also include smaller projectors such as those in Voyager's sickbay and engineering (before the mobile emitter). If you don't, you just can't accept that shuttles would have a Holodeck aboard. In any case, no cards actually allow you to use full-scale simulations, so a projector can easily handle single holographic characters. This makes more sense than the previous version of the card which required each ship to project holograms to the planet below(!) since the hologram's existence always remained tied to its ship. It is still immune to Kevin Uxbridge, and as a straight technology, Kevin really wouldn't care about it, nor can knowledge be destroyed that easily. So here, the card wins in the change. A 4.

STOCKABILITY: And here, it DOESN'T win in the change. I mean, we used to have a card that allowed holographic personnel to form Away Teams and attempt missions without even the supervision of flesh personnel, usually deactivating harmlessly if something happened to them. They could also go on the offensive against opposing personnel on ships, facilities or planets, and even bring the Tommygun with them. No longer. To do the same, you'll need a pile of Mobile Holo-Emitters (one per hologram used), and it still won't allow you to carry a Tommygun out of the Holodeck. Projectors now limits your holograms to your ship, so they can still attempt space missions and fend off intruders, but many affiliations have ships with Holodecks they can already use. In particular, only Federation, Klingon and Romulan personnel are holograms, and all of these have appropriate ships. Maybe the Klingons and Romulans don't have very many, but then again, they have few holograms. Even if using a Treaty (or the Collective or Sodality) to have a Holodeck-less affiliation work with those holograms, you could obviously use a Non-Aligned Holodeck or, well, the affiliation that you have a Treaty with's ships. For hologram-intensive decks where you expect to make jumps from ship to ship, but don't want to only use the big ones with Holodecks already included, ok. But there is currently little that this card really offers. A 1.

TOTAL: 6.4 (32%) Sad.

PICTURE: An early example of a composite image, and unlike some of those others, it works. The trophy is from "Parallels" and the rows of Klingons in the background from Worf's rite of ascension in "The Icarus Factor". That makes this bat'leth tournament fought with painstiks, which in silly, but it's not a given that those warriors are actually participants either. Has elegant lines, a kind of rosy red (like the supposed color of Klingon blood) palette, and a lot of charm for what is basically a prop shot. The differences in lighting between the two composites is the card's principal disadvantage. A 3.6.

LORE: An attempt to explain the pic/game text relationship isn't all that successful, but the lore nevertheless has some spark, especially before the symbolic stuff. A 3.4.

TREK SENSE: Forget the bat'leth championships, it's only a symbol for what really happens in true battle. And that is? Well, perhaps the card would have been better if called Call to Glory since this is what the card represents best. Klingons with Honor (truly honorable warriors) hear this call which leads them to 1) maximum fierceness (the ability to kill an opposing personnel outright) and 2) maximum honor (choosing a Treachery personnel every time). I suppose you could say that you only get glory by killing evil (worthy) enemies, but this would include some weaklings (like Ferengi), but it's always hard to plug every card into such a concept. For example, I'm not sure the Federation's Worf or Alexander would kill people so easily in combat (either because of Starfleet regulations or physical restrictions). It's also a little slanted toward "good" Klingons. Aren't "bad" Klingons also motivated by glory? I guess that's why it's called HONOR Challenge. All in all though, this is a good interpretation of Klingon culture and ideals. It brings me back to Worf snapping Weyoun's neck real easily during the Dominion war arc...  A 4.1.

STOCKABILITY: A killer interrupt that really kicks up dust in a Klingon personnel battle deck against the right opponent. The right opponent is any opponent with a sufficient enough amount of Treachery personnel. The Romulans are obvious targets (25 Treachery personnel and plenty of call for it on their missions), but so are plenty of others. The Dominion has more than 15 and all of them useful Founders and Vorta. The Cardassians? 20 Treachery personnel and deck archetypes similar to the Romulans.  The Bajorans only have about a dozen, and the Ferengi less than that, though such personnel as Brunt, Quark and Bareil are all included among them. The Federation used to be the affiliation most protected from Honor Challenge, but between the Terran Empire and the crew of the Equinox, they're up to Romulan levels. Thanks to the Mirror universe Alliance, so are the Klingons, though you probably won't encounter that kind of deck on a regular basis. The Kazon and Vidiians might not encounter Klingons often, but their vulnerability depends on the concentration of universals used. And any affiliation may make use of more than 30 Non-Aligned Treachery personnel. The Borg have little in the way of Treachery, but a Dukat or Weyoun of Borg (or any Treachery personnel you allowed to be assimilated) present with an Interlink Drone puts the entire Hive at risk! For your Klingons, this is a natural card to stock because almost 30 personnel have Honor, many of them universals and/or easy to report mission specialists, and that skill is THE redundant skill for Klingon missions. Away Teams can get rid of opposing personnel very easily, then go on to win the battle on top of that. Your opponent's Terran Empire deck may not recover, and their hand weapon bonuses won't matter as much. There may not be enough Klingons in other affiliations to warrant inclusion, though the Feds have a trio of Honorable Klingons that could work wonders. Add Treachery-requiring dilemmas to your deck for maximum effect. I see Treachery rise in usefulness, so the same happens to this card. A strong 4.

TOTAL: 15.1 (75.5%) And this got the "Useless Card" treatment from Mot the Barber?

PICTURE: The greenery keeps this card from reaching beige overdose, but in this case, the colors make the Horga'hn a little more "archaeological", like an idol Indianna Jones would try to nab. The choice of the big Horga'hn over the smaller personnal statues also helps here. Relatively good composition too. A 3.6.

LORE: The lore is dead-on in giving us the mytho-cultural significance of the Horga'hn. Truly makes it sound like an artifact. A 3.6.

TREK SENSE: Unfortunatly, the Horga'hn isn't much of an artifact at all. On Risa, they seem to be a dime a dozen. Riker certainly didn't need to go digging for the one he offered Picard. Are they talking about some kind of "original Horga'hn"? They might have mentioned so in the lore. And the effect? So intertwined with game mechanics as to jeopardize even a conceptual kind of Trek Sense. From its relationship to other cards, the way I've been able to justify it is to say it represents a coming vacation on Risa (or some other pleasure planet). The promise of jamaharon-like activity makes your personnel work twice as fast to advance the date of their R&R. How this overrides everything from ship range to resource management, I don't really know. That's why it can't get beyond the conceptual. And with its mislabeling as an artifact, it can't get past 1.4 here.

SEEDABILITY: Wow, this used to be a game-breaker, but has largely been declawed in today's environment. In the old days, Horga'hn gave you double turns witout limit, and couldn't even be nullified (it's not an Event, it just plays on table). Double turns is an incredible advantage in the game. It's twice the reporting, twice the range, twice the mission solving, twice the card draws, twice everything. An artifact that was actually worth seeding and acquiring. Today? The fear of Writ limits the double turns to twice per game under penalty of losing that game. Writ doesn't even have to be in play at the time! While two double turns isn't bad, is it worth seeding/acquiring? Add to that the pre-Writ limits on the card - nullification from The Devil and Jamaharon; reversal by Persistence of Memory; trigger for Temporal Narcosis (yeah, right) - and the Seedability score drops from an easy 5 to a mere 3.4.

TOTAL: 12 (60%) Not as attractive as it once was.

PICTURE: It's not enough that shipboard TNG cards have to be a dull beige or gray, but the planetary ones do too? The pic may be correctly "placed" given the card's effect, but the cleaner interior shots from "I, Borg" would probably have yielded a more definitive image. The light on the right side is distracting enough that I think it would have been surgically removed by CGI if it had been made today. Note that it's still a fairly competent head shot, but it just doesn't go anywhere beyond adequate. A 3 then.

LORE: Not incredibly well written, is it? The lore reads like he returned to the Feds (or to the show), not necessarily the collective. And we've since learned that reports of the collective's collapse were greatly exaggerated, putting the card's Trek Sense in jeopardy just as much as the lore's veracity. A 2.2 only.

TREK SENSE: Trying to have it both ways? Sometimes, that works. Pre-First Contact, it could be said that Hugh stopped a Borg Ship's attack by disabling its hive with his infectious personality. Destroying all Rogue Borg Mercenaries was more due to his calming influence as "Lore's flipside". The RBMs weren't destroyed as in killed, but lost their motivation to attack personnel. Personally, I think it would have worked better the other around, with the Ship being destroyed and the Mercs being stopped. Post-FC however, we must now consider the Borg Ship dilemma a rogue ship. In this case, Hugh must be exerting the same influence he has on the RBMs, and that's where the lore collapses entirely. Hugh doesn't have ANY effect on the collective these days. His already shaky Trek Sense is thus subverted a great deal. Drops to a 2.4.

SEEDABILITY: As a completely reactive card, it won't get a very strong score here either. Saving yourself from a Borg Ship attack is a worthy goal, but you'd have to have the card in hand at the right time. Now, if using the Tactic Drone (Hugh before he was Hugh) or FC Jean-Luc Picard, Hugh is downloadable, suspending play even as the Borg Ship comes out of the mists. Yes, Sense the Borg will download it for anyone, but that's just another card you have to have in hand at the right time, and I don't consider using it without Picard efficient at all. For killing RBMs, it's good, but it won't do a thing against pinging and it's been outclassed by the recyclable Reactor Overload. So really, unless you're using a personnel that downloads him, leave Hugh out of it. It's a card slot to counter a couple cards that may not even be in your opponent's deck. 1.8 from me.

TOTAL: 9.4 (47%) Not exactly on the level of the mark he left on his hive.

PICTURE: A plain red and brown planet, it's just like it was on the show, and I'm afraid the graphics from back then just can't compete with some of today's artwork. A messy, ugly 1.8.

LORE: The "last strand"? This creates an odd situation where part of the mission has already been completed, but isn't part of the game. Uncover DNA Clues thankfully filled in some of the holes, but it's still an odd way to write up a supposedly stand-alone mission. The rest is fine, and the details on the planet's ecology are a good bonus. A 2.9 then.

TREK SENSE: As the biggest archaeological discovery of our time (just imagine it to be our time), I have no problems with the triple high points, and I'm fairly okay with the triple-Archaeology requirement. Only "fairly" here because the mystery isn't nearly as archaeological as it is biological, but it works okay nonetheless. The next two skills each take on part of the title, Computer Skill cuz it's a Program, Biology cuz it's DNA. Leadership is less obvious (after all, every mission should require a modicum of Leadership), but possibly required to coodinate all the personnel needed to provide those skills. It may also be linked to the Strength requirement, inferring that since everybody's after the Program, you'll meet resistance on the planet. I don't much like invisible menaces like this, but that's the only real way to justify it (the desert environment wasn't an issue on the show). I'm not too hot on the Span - the race to Vilmor II didn't make it appear to be that far away. The three affiliations allowed to attempt it show a lack of foresight obligatory to Premiere cards, especially since the Cardassians were among the various teams seen on the show (and were also bred from that common DNA matrix). Uncover DNA Clue actually fixes all this by adding the 3 other Alpha quadrant humanoid species that have an affiliation. I don't even mind the fix being on another card because it's as if those other affiliations jumped on the bandwagon from clues at another source (Ruah IV). The Bajorans and Ferengi weren't mentioned as our cousins in the episode, but the Bajorans are so close to us that I see absolutely no problem with it. The Ferengi aren't so different either, though the shape of their brains would have made them perfect candidates for the "different" species. Ah well. Generally well done, with a quick fix added later: a 4.1.

SEEDABILITY: 55 points is a HUGE mission award, and the sheer number of skills required shouldn't dissuade you from attempting it, but rather make you think about mission specialist bonuses. A three-way Treaty may actually be the best way to turn this into an 85-point mission and one-mission win (since you'll follow up with, for example, a Drought Tree or Particle Fountain and an Arbiter of Succession). That's the only way to get three distinct Archaeology specialists anyway (Dr. Royce, Dukath and R'Mal). Computer Skill can be handled by Barclay, Hobson, Palteth or even Narik. Biology is the perview of Ogawa, Mopak or Zetal. Leadership? That's Maxwell, Satie, Sirna or Tallus. With all the personnel present, the STRENGTH shouldn't be a problem, and I'm sure you'll have more than that simply to pass dilemmas and such. Looking at the mission specialist lists above, you can even see how each affiliation could reap a decent score even without a Treaty (usually around 75 points). Adding Uncover DNA Clues to the spaceline allows your Bajorans, Cardassians and Ferengi to attempt it, but they don't have the mission specialists for it, nor do they exactly have single personnel who can supply a large number of the skills to the attempt. Still, one mission does beget the other, and the two together do represent 85 points. With a few bonus points thrown in, that's a 2-mission win. In any case, not the most efficient spot for a Forced-Labor Camp since it would require STRENGTH above 110 to exploit. I'm glad for the Trek Sense fix afforded by Uncover DNA Clues, but I just don't think the three newer affiliations stand to gain from using Hunt. In a Federation or Romulan Archaeology deck, it does hold a place. Just make sure you have the personnel for it. A 3.9.

TOTAL: 12.7 (63.5%) Always been impressive.

PICTURE: Every time I look at the Husnock Ship, it's a little better than I remembered. This is probably due to the darkness of the card that hides many of its finer features such as the wings and bottom spike. It mostly looks like an aircraft carrier or other large military vessel, possibly a Civil War era steamship. Gray and dull for the most part. A strict 3.

LORE: Not so much about the ships as the Husnock themselves, but guess what? I still like it like this, with the last, ominous sentence. Of course, the "everywhere in the universe" is a little overtstated since the Husnock are no doubt confined to the galaxy (to the Alpha Quadrant, even), but that's my only real beef. A fun 3.8.

TREK SENSE: The Husnock were never seen, but we know their ships were tough. Kevin Uxbridge made one attack the Enterprise to prove it, but their eradication of all life of Kevin's planet could have been proof enough. For the Shields, we can even look at the large metal bulkheads and take our cue from there. I'm not so sure about the slowness of the ship though, that's a fiction, as is the Holodeck. Big ship equals big staffing requirements and a Tractor Beam to take in shuttles and such. As for its Non-Aligned nature, well, the Husnock are part of that stock, but they're gone. Decipher extrapolated from the situation that some people (no doubt mercenaries, Pakleds and the like) would take the ships as salvage and use them for their own ends. That logic works, but I don't much care for the two inventions singled out earlier. A 3.6.

STOCKABILITY: For a long time, the Husnock Ship offered the only Non-Aligned haven for holograms of any affiliation but Federation. Except those holograms weren't all that great. These days, the affiliations with holos have the appropriate Holodecks, so that point is somewhat moot. The ship offers big WEAPONS and even bigger SHIELDS (the ship can take a lot of damage before being destroyed), but the RANGE is pitiful, often moving by only one mission each turn. Add the high staffing requirements for a practically unuseable ship. The Husnock Outpost does make it more useful though. Since a Husnock Ship may seed at each one (and you can seed as many as 6, even 12 under the right conditions), you could seed a large if slow armada before the game even starts. Throwing in some Plasmadyne Relays may be recommended if you want to move around a little more. Still, the ship requires too much staffing to make a good armada prospect, but could be a tough mothership while you obtain smaller ships from Spacedoors or even Hidden Fighters. Not for casual use: a 3.5.

TOTAL: 13.9 (69.5%) Monstrous, but don't be scared.

PICTURE: I know Pulaski doesn't have a lot of fans, but this pic sure doesn't catch her on her best day! Aside from the subject matter, it's pretty plain. Whites, blacks, beiges... dull! If only they'd waited half a decade, they could have used Kirk and the gang from "The Deadly Years". It's really too bad we got stuck with an over-average image. 2.7 here.

LORE: Well, the disease itself wasn't really called "Hyper-Aging", but this is how it's written. It then follows up with a totally redundant phrase ("Causes rapid aging") since you would expect a malady called Hyper-Aging to cause that, yes. Not a complete sentence is sight and a line of space to spare to explain the quarantine or cure. A weak 1.5.

TREK SENSE: Well, the quarantine here is supported by the show, though there's no reason the dilemma couldn't have been spaceborne too. In fact, Pulaski was quarantined on a shuttle, not on the planet. The effect is supported too, with the Aging killing you after a while (when you grow older than your age limit), but still killing you. The cure is okay, taking both lots of Medical and some Science to come up with an answer. I would only add Transporter Skill, unfortunately unavailable when Premiere came out. As for the points, I only like them when passing the dilemma is like a small mission in itself. Here, no problem, since the episode was largely centered on solving this scientific/medical mystery. It's a very straightforward effort, well done on the whole, but there are a couple of important snags. A 2.4.

SEEDABILITY: Quarantine dilemmas can be powerful stuff (see Aphasia Device), but sticking this one with a Planet-only icon hurts it a bit. Yes, you can still follow it up with something that punishes personnel for sticking around such as Harvester Virus or Horta, but since everyone's gonna die anyway, that's not the most efficient use of your dilemmas. Or is it? One of the things going against Hyper-Aging is that it's fairly easy to cure. Players usually keep plenty of MEDICAL and SCIENCE around. Some of those other dilemmas can weed them out a little if they don't all arrive at the same time. Your opponent would have a few turns to come up with the necessary personnel and fly them there, so maybe Horta (for example) can kill them before a rescue party arrives. It's a gamble depending on how fast help can arrive. The 5 bonus points mean your opponent could profit from this, so that's another mark against it. And using it as a self-seed isn't very efficient because of the relatively high requirements and because of Writ's penalty for reaping bonus points from your own dilemmas. So a possibly strong dilemma, but dependent on its combo and/or your ability to slow down any incoming rescue. 3.4 then.

TOTAL: 10 (50%) Score's only middle-aged.

PICTURE: An early action shot of a ship (I applaud the idea), but it is marred by dinky graphics. The torpedo has an odd smoke trail and the space surrounding it is blacker than the background. What's more, it's very easy to make a Vor'Cha look ridiculously spindly, which is the case here. It's really not very imposing for the flagship of the Empire. A 2.3.

LORE: Pre-Captain's Log, the lore did a bad job of clearly naming Gowron as matching commander, though Reflections errata has since fined tuned it. The line about Worf is uninspired, and the the Klingon Civil War gets yet another "dating". I really don't care for that particular repetition. Gowron is matching commander regardless of which lore your particular copy has, so there's a boost there, but the card remains pretty ho-hum at 2.4.

TREK SENSE: I have no problem with the basic Vor'Cha configuration. Staffing and special equipment are all quite correct. The Bortas differs from the standard model's attributes by +1 Weapons. It was in battle during the war and did pretty well for itself, so that's fine. As the flagship, they might even have upped it closer to Enterprise-level stats with more Shields though. A basically unambitious product. Correct, but very dull at 3.5.

SEEDABILITY: Klingons do well with K'Vort armadas, but if you'd rather go the mothership route, this is a vessel that can be used both for mission solving and battle. It starts off with high attributes already, but adding Gowron and Captain's Log/Defiant Dedication Plaque brings them up to 11-12-10. Add Worf Son of Mogh, and they go up to 14-15-13. From there, you could always come up with other boosts (Bynars, Plasmadyne Relays, Tactical Console, Metaphasic/Nutational Shields, etc.). The sky's the limit. This one's actually in line to be a fair Borg hunter. Range is especially good (Gowron and Worf SOM without Dedication Plaque is still a 12). The main disadvantage is that to get all the boosts, you do need Gowron who isn't a spectacular personnel AND Worf Son of Mogh on top of that. Creating a powerhouse does have a card cost. Better Shields would also have been nice. Strong, but doesn't replace an armada made of smaller ships. I'll give it a 3.8.

TOTAL: 12 (60%) Part of the whole Gowron disappointment.

PICTURE: Suffering from a not-glossy-enough printing process, the Buruk is nonetheless a great shot. We're staring into the torpedo launcher after all. The red highlights complement the greens quite well. Just noticed it kinda looks like the head of a screaming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (by the colors, Raphael)... but that's just an observation which won't move the pic off its earned 4.1.

LORE: Lore boxes on ships are already smaller than on other cards, when I see an empty line in them, I'm disappointed. We get the ship's function here, but it's terribly boring. Eeech. A plain 2.

TREK SENSE: Just another K'Vort, so we basically have to look at what changes were made from the standard model. Turns out it's just a +1 boost to Shields. Since it transported an important person, I can accept that emphasis, and I don't see any reason to raise or lower the two others. Special equipment and staffing are fine as usual. And the strained matching commander isn't listed on this card, so doesn't affect the score. Let's call it a 3.1. A very boring 3.1.

STOCKABILITY: Just another K'Vort, right? Well yes, but the K'Vort's low SHIELDS have been raised a little which isn't a bad thing. Blaze of Glory eventually gave it a Ready Roomable matching commander in the form of Kavok (Plaque/Log bonuses can bring attributes up to 10-9-10), but reporting him via that Doorway isn't necessarily in your best interests when he can report to a Fed ship and commandeer it. That's the main reason to use Kavok, so using Ready Room Door would be a waste of resources (that's IF your opponent is playing Federation). Of course, unless he commandeers the USS Enterprise, you probably won't mind transferring him later, boosting the Buruk and your K'Vort armada with it. With an Engineering Kit, he can even download the Buruk using Construct Starship. This bird-of-prey doesn't really beat the newer K'Vorts (like the Rotarran), but it's not bad. A 3.5.

TOTAL: 12.7 (63.5%) Strong opening, relatively weak finish.

PICTURE: Though the colors are pretty one-tone, it's a good action shot of Kurn's bird-of-prey. I still would have preferred the shot of the Hegh'ta used for the K'Ratak though. Ah well. It's still a fine 3.5.

LORE: There really isn't a whole lot here, is there!? Man, if it weren't for Kurn's matching commander status, I'd call this a wash. Those darn "Klingon Civil War 2367-68" cards. Just too many of them. A 2, and that's only thanks to Kurn. (Fun note: Hegh seems to translate as "die" and ta as "accomplishment", more or less.)

TREK SENSE: Well, once you accept the K'Vort template (and I do), all that's left is to discuss the differences between the universal model and the unique one. In this case, it's a clean +1 boost to both "fighting" attributes, Weapons and Shields. Two boosts is fine by me since this WAS Kurn's ship, and he was a pretty hot tactician. We saw it in battle, so those attributes are appropriate places to put them. Well... that's pretty much it, isn't it? Boring cards can't go as high as more imaginative ones, but it still avoids any mistakes. A 4.

STOCKABILITY: K'Vort-class ships are the workhorses of any competent Klingon armada (a popular strategy) because of their low staffing. While the universal model can be Spacedoored, the unique ones usually have matching commanders which may make them downloadable with Construct Starship (in this case, if an Engineering Kit is involved) or at least allow you to download their matching commander to them via Ready Room Door. The commander here is Kurn, a not-too-bad OFFICER who'll turn this ship into a (Plaqued'n'Logged) 10-10-10 ship. That's always good. When compared with other K'Vorts, it actually turns out the Hegh'ta has one of the best balanced attribute trios. There's a boost in two areas, and the RANGE hasn't been taken away from. A 3.5.

TOTAL: 13 (65%) You can't really go on and on about a simple ship.

PICTURE: The red is rather dark and hard to see on this model, or "publicity", shot, and there are few unmuddled details. The bird's wingspan is respected, but the ship looks like it has a pronounced (read: ugly) hump on its back. It's not really bad, but is a little boring. Too bad because close inspection shows there IS a lot of detail to these miniatures, we just can't see them here. 3.1, I think.

LORE: The relationship to the B'rel (they used the same model, but at a different relative size) would be more interesting if we'd had a Klingon B'rel ship to really compare it to (the Ferengi version just wouldn't serve in the same fleet). There's a line of blank space which could have given us some other tidbit (maybe that they've been in use since the Movie-era days, or something technical). It's such a waste when that space isn't used. Another boring 3.

TREK SENSE: I usually gloss over most of the details when it comes to K'Vort-class ships, but I've been waiting for the standard factory knockoff before saying my peace. So here it is. The K'Vort has a minimal crew, represented by a single Staff icon. Does this mean they could be commanded by junior staff? There's always something odd about ships well outside the range of shuttles that do not require a Command icon. I suppose it means that a crew would be allowed to fly it without a commander. I buy it, but it does make me raise an eyebrow. The ship has a Cloak, that's well documented, as is the Tractor Beam. The attributes are a little surprising however, with Weapons and Shields pretty low compared to Range. And here I thought the Klingons were principally interested in battle. In the show, a single bird-of-prey represented a threat to the safety of the Enterprise, but it took two or three to make Picard think they were outgunned. In DS9, however, a K'Vort is clearly able to destroy a Jem'Hadar Attack Ship, and the two seem fairly equivalent. In the game, this has translated as more and more powerful unique K'Vorts with the DS9 property logo, ships that are farther and farther from the baseline attributes. Most of this stuff could be justified, so I'll call it an average 3.

STOCKABILITY: The K'Vort-class ships are at the center of the powerful Klingon armada strategy. They are incredibly easy to staff, so you could have one K'Vort per personnel in play. But why use the universal model with its lower WEAPONS and especially SHIELDS (their attack is cumulative, but they defend alone) when you could use a unique one with a matching commander? Well, the universal can be Spacedoored, so you'll have one to start the game with and then can discard less useful cards from your hand (hopefully to be recycled later) to flip the Spacedoor open once again and download another ship, and another, and another. Meanwhile, use alternate card plays to report personnel that can fly the things. Bam. But those SHIELDS... Unless you boosted them somehow (and doing so usually takes away from the speed of such a deck), you'd be pretty sure to have a ship damaged once per battle, and with Tactics, there's a good chance a resulting casualty would kill the entire crew. The sacrifice is very Klingon, so do see those ships and their staff as expendable. Of course, also watch out for Obelisk of Masaka which would force you to double up on staff. This was such a powerful strategy, they've created counters for it, but the balancing effect doesn't kill it. The universal version is well balanced all things considered, and those fast universal downloadable cloakable fleets are worth 4.5.

TOTAL: 13.6 (68%) Actually giving high marks to a universal ship from Premiere.

PICTURE: What's that in the sky? Yep, another bird-of-prey. The Pagh features a full-body view of the class, not far from the Lukara (but of course, preceding it). To me, a much cleaner shot than the one used for the universal K'Vort and the best one to show people who want to know which ships are which. Not very dramatic though. A 3.5.

LORE: The name of the ship is now absurdly identified with the Bajorans (same spelling and everything, though the wraiths use the alternate "pah"), but we shouldn't be surprised that some words sound the same in various languages. It happens here on Earth too. For example, most English speakers would be shocked by what the word "seal" (the animal) sounds like in French. Of course, that's not saying the ship was well named by the Star Trek creators. According to the Klingon dictionary, "pagh" means "nothing" or "zero". How would you like to be serving aboard THAT vessel? As for the lore, it starts off by misidentifying the ship as a cruiser instead of a bird-of-prey, though a matching commander is always beneficial. The bit about Riker was the crux of an entire episode and is not forgotten. Not quite average when you factor in everything. A 2.7.

TREK SENSE: This ship was featured so much in an episode, it really deserved some kind of interesting special skill (something having to do with Riker, for example). That it doesn't speaks of Premiere's limitations. It's pretty much a standard K'Vort with an extra point of Weapons. No real problem with that, insofar as it was a threat to the bigger USS Enterprise. It seemed to be as speedy as other ships of its class, and since its hull fell victim to a Microbiotic Colony, there's no need to up the Shields either. A boring old 3.5 (can't really argue with anything).

STOCKABILITY: With the same exact stats as the IKC Vorn, you have to wonder why we got this ship as is. All it has over its twin is a matching commander (which doesn't bode well for the Vorn, let me tell ya). And the matching commander has dubious value in your deck. On the one hand, he's easily reportable as a support personnel, and both his skills are useful, but then again, he doesn't have anything you can't get elsewhere. Except the matching commander status, of course (Klingon Riker where art thou?). He can make this ship a 10-10-9 with Plaque and Log, but is still overshadowed by the more recent birds on the market, with their generally higher attributes and big, powerful matching commanders. And universal K'Vorts still have an advantage in armada strategies, so if you're going to include a few Logable ships in the mix, I'm not sure the Pagh will be your first choice, or even your second or fifth. Its SHIELDS are still pretty low. Around a 3.3 for this rustbucket.

TOTAL: 13 (65%) A Klingon Riker would no doubt have the appropriate special skill to put this one on the map. Hint, hint!!!

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