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: Saul Rubinek is always a hoot, and the pose here is too. He's clearly showcasing that collection of artifacts behind him. Composition's a little haphazard, but the color palette is varied, and the subject of the piece holds our interest. I'll give it 3.5.

LORE: Only two lines where three were possible, but they do fairly well with that space. We meet Kivas, and of course, there's mention of his involvement with Data. I wish they'd linked the lore more to the highly mechanical game text, but what's here gets a 3.

TREK SENSE: Like I said under Lore, this event's effect is very mechanical in nature. Card draws are not clearly represented by a Trek concept, see. They're meant to be resource production (playing from hand is actual commissioning). Basically, Kivas has little to do with that effect. It's meant to represent "collection" as a concept, i.e. that a player gets to collect three cards from their draw deck. Not much of a collection. Opening a booster pack, à la Add Distinctiveness, now that's collecting. If we were like Kivas, we'd download ultra-rare, foil or Fajo Collection cards (or Artifacts), not commons and uncommons. And allowing your opponent to "collect"... I don't know what that's about. Seems they just wanted a broad draw mechanic, and assigned it to Kivas, much as Palor Toff was made into a rescue interrupt, y'know? Can't go above 0.3. Yes, I know that's low.

STOCKABILITY: Kivas Fajo is a simple but eternal deck management workhorse. Drawing three cards fills your hand with useable goodness when all you've got is personnel, but no ship on the horizon, or looking for one of the many Q's Tents you stashed in there, etc. In combination with other deck manipulators, you can sometimes rig which three cards you'll get. Card attrition strategies like the Warp Bubble or Telepathic Alien Kidnappers may force you to Kivas yourself a little help. Played on your opponent, it may get his hand real big (it's your turn, so he can't play anything but an interrupt for now) for you to Scorch it. Watch out for Mirror Image (and, I guess, Persistence of Memory) which could help your opponent with a card YOU played. Its biggest flaw is that it costs a card play. For always being there at the start of your turn when you've run out of cards to play, he gets a 3.9.

TOTAL: 10.7 (53.5%) The Rolodex's 4th year ends with a classic, but not a high score.

PICTURE: Klag himself looks fine - stern expression, a shoulder belt not unlike Worf's, and some dark reds in the background to tie him into his affiliation. The dark shapes in the back do make him look kind of short though, don't they? Ends up at 3.3.

LORE: Almost the entirety of the lore is used to make him a universal personnel. How dull! And I'm not sure it was an appropriate decision (see below). Also, they may have gone a little comma-crazy. A 2.8.

TREK SENSE: Making him a universal "Klingon warrior" is very, very generic. Especially so since he was Second Officer (there's only one per ship, no?) and had a substantial role in "A Matter of Honor". A typical Klingon warrior COULD be Officer, I guess, but Security is more likely, and certainly, he wouldn't have a Command icon. Back to Klag specifically: He's a Navigation mission specialist? Funny, I don't remember him helming the ship (the actor DID play another Klingon that helmed the Cha'Joh in Generations). Hey, maybe he did, it's just all I remember him doing is trying to intimidate Riker. Losing a fight to Riker should have given him at least a point less in Strength, but no, they're on equal terms. Cunning is appropriately low for this closed-minded, though in his way loyal (middling Cunning), warrior. Not very satisfying at 2.2.

STOCKABILITY: There are three Navigation Klingon mission specialists, another of which is universal (B'iJik; the unique is Konmel). Klag does have a couple things over B'iJik, such as 2 INTEGRITY, 1 STRENGTH and a Command icon. The only loss is 1 point of CUNNING. Konmel's got better attributes, of course, but isn't universal (and still, a Staff icon), though his death holds K'nera's bonus points. Of course, Assign Mission Specialists can nab you two different specialists with the same skill if they are available (and they are). The Klingons have access to about a dozen missions that require Navigation, though few require it in double doses (there's Secret Salvage and Study Badlands, to name two). As for the rest, there's an incentive to use at least one Navigation specialist in your deck, such as the high-yield Pegasus Search and Warped Space. Klag, Konmel or B'iJik? Seems like Klag has the most going for him, including better attributes than Konmel when Lower Decks is in play. Hits 3.5.

TOTAL: 11.8 (59%) 1% less than Premiere's Riker! So Will COULD beat him after all.

PICTURE: A good close-up, even going so far as showing his collar pins, and those polygonal forms in the back use the Klingon color palette to good, if abstract, effect. A 3.5.

LORE: What more can you really ask of a background extra whose name had to be made up by Decipher? Universality isn't mentioned per se, but he seems very generic nonetheless. And it's funny to me that we're told he was guarding K'mpec when the man was assassinated. Funny, but not true: This was Duras' man onscreen! Of course he let K'mpec be assassinated! Also, I'm not certain we can call Security a "specific field", when classifications are supposed to be generalist ones. Takes a few hits that drop him to 1.4.

TREK SENSE: Security guard... guarded K'mpec who is one of the good guys... Yep, Security/Honor's a fine fit (this is all if we believe the lore rather than the picture). Attending a chancellor might very well force you to become a specialist in Klingon tradition, which is what an Honor mission specialist is. Allowing K'mpec to die on his watch, he receives an appropriately low Cunning score, and perhaps he was remiss in his duties too, which might account for the low Integrity (Honor personnel really should get at least a 7, no?). And then there's the Strength, which is good for a generic Klingon guard - they're meant to be tough, but we've seen our Federation heroes knock these guys out with one punch often enough. Kle'eg is a simple design, but one that basically works: 3.9.

STOCKABILITY: One of the mysteries of Premiere is why they made two identical universal Klingon cards but for their names and lore. Universals! Like you couldn't use as many of either as you want! Kle'eg and Gorath did eventually split from one another when Gorath's lore allowed him to report for free to The Great Hall, and you could now want to download both of them with the same AMS. But with a half-dozen Klingon Honor missions specialists in the game, and no mission requiring more than 4 instances of Honor, Kle'eg's lack of perks hurts him a lot. The other specialists even have something over Gorath! Kahless has his Sword, Korris has better attributes, and Vekma is a MEDICAL. Only Batrell is as lame. SECURITY's not bad, but far from as rare as it used to be, and since you can get his clone for cheaper (a possible free report), I'm gonna have to pan Kle'eg. 1.5 is it.

TOTAL: 10.3 (51.5%) Another Premiere snafu.

PICTURE: A dramatic overhead shot, with all facets of the ritual visible, from the screaming Klingons, to the fallen one's eyes being kept open. You supply the sound. Fun enough that we can forgive the first season Worf ;-). A 4.3.

LORE: While the information is good, the syntax is all over the place. What's that semi-colon all about in the first sentence? And "killed warriors..." is hopelessly clumsy. And as to the period between the last two sentences, it could easily have been a comma. Sorry, that hurts the card, dropping it to 2.4.

TREK SENSE: What's fun here is that you, the player, have to yell to warn the dead. Just a little bit of role-playing flavor there. (Yes, yes, I know you don't really have to, but it's what I *prefer*.) Klingons all inately have this 5-point goal: "I must die with Honor". So if your Klingon with Honor dies, you can call that a victory of sorts. Score points. It's fun to do the Death Yell yourself, but really, it should be handled by other Klingons present, and those, sadly, aren't required. The last sentence sounds long enough for me to comment here, but it's just "Not cumulative" long-form. I'd say this is a nice Klingon cultural card, which hits 4.2.

STOCKABILITY: Honor decks are a natural for Klingons. I mean, they have plenty of missions requiring it, plenty of Honor mission specialists to take advantage of that fact, and more than one Honor-related support card. Klingon Death Yell is one of these, and it's a fun one. Klingons are always getting into fights, and some of them are likely to be killed. Same thing for some of those mission specialists, especially the universal (you could say "expendable") ones. Let them die, then play this interrupt to get 5 points as a consolation prize. I'd say the big problem here is that the card was printed mistakenly (in my opinion) as a rare. In a set as big as Premiere, you can't expect to have enough Death Yells to actually make its use profitable. This is one case where rarity is an issue in the Rolodex. My only copy is from the Tin Set, for Kahless' sake! In any case, 5 points isn't a game breaker, so there's little chance a player could destroy a shipload of Honorable Klingons and then drop a ton of Death Yells on the table. Getting them in hand AFTER reporting personnel is hard enough, but you also gotta consider how hoarse you're gonna be after all that yelling. Plus, Scorched Hand and Intermix Ratio should control some of it. It stands as a cute card that's easily stocked in a Klingon deck for a little bonus noogie. Can't do better than a 3 here.

TOTAL: 13.9 (69.5%) Nothing to shout about... or against.

PICTURE: The red background on this prop shot is Klingon-appropriate, but the thing about red lighting is that it turns out pretty muddy and/or over-exposed. Still, the Disruptor itself is fairly detailed and not totally lost in the image. I guess I can spring for a 2.5.

LORE: Eeech. How dull. They almost forget to make it Klingon what with the stuff about other races and being like phasers. This one's a very dull 1.5.

TREK SENSE: Like all hand weapons, it has some big Trek Sense problems, which I'll only discuss briefly since I've been talking about this since the Bajoran Phaser (Rolodex #180). One is the useability factor: If the Non-Aligneds can use it, and why shouldn't they given that using a Disruptor is as easy as pressing a trigger, why can't other non-Klingons use it? After all, they actually CAN, if an NA is there to show them how to do it. Is it really that hard? I wouldn't mind if they were Klingon ONLY, because then we could talk about an availability issue, but we can't go that way. Another problem is the number of hand weapons represented by the single card. Everyone uses the one card, so it looks like it represents more than one, but split up the group and you'll find it really doesn't. Then there's cumulativity: I know Klingons are excellent warriors, but that a single Klingon can fire more than 2 Disruptors at a time strains credibility. I have yet to hear a truly convincing argument about how the one Disruptor in the group, through cover fire and such, gives a tactical (Strength) advantage to the entire group, especially with pairing, non-tactical Strength-based dilemmas, etc. After a certain number of personnel, the tactical advantage of a single weapon ceases to matter that much. Most of the time, of course, there's no problem with the actual effect (boosting Strength), so it comes off like others of its ilk: a 2.

STOCKABILITY: Klingons have a whole lot of options when it comes to hand weapons, and it suits them since they make excellent (and indiscriminate) assault teams. Sure, their average STRENGTH is already high, but other affiliations are getting better armed, and Jem'Hadar, Hirogen, etc. are all pretty strong too (stronger than the soldiers of the Empire, even). So is the Klingon Disruptor viable among all those options? Being a disruptor, it shares most card combos with the more powerful Disruptor Rifle, and if you don't mind losing the Diplomacy, you might as well go with that one while you're at it. If you do mind, the plain Disruptor is still good. It too can cause Phaser Burns, destroy a Bajoran Shrine, turn you into a Sniper, protect from Denevan Neural Parasites, and overcome Security Precautions, Invasive Procedures and Zaldan. These are things that Bat'leths, Mek'leths, etc. cannot do. They're a little more interesting in battle, of course. About average, all things considered (a Klingon who could download it would help), so a 3.

TOTAL: 9 (45%) Ouch, it's the lowest hand weapon yet.

PICTURE: Seems like we just discussed this one, but it was its Mirror twin. Ok, here we go again then. That matte painting has always been excellent, and seen a lot of use over the years, but we must wonder why the smoggy atmosphere isn't green as per the planet's mission card (and the corner icon). Well, it's not supposed to be on Qo'noS! It's an Outpost, which can't be played on the homeworld, or on any planet for that matter. At best, it's in orbit. We didn't see any Klingon space facilities in TNG, so we can't get one of those here, which is really too bad. Since the card can't possibly show us an outpost as described by the game, can't go above 1.5 for this at best hazy pic.

LORE: Booooooooooooring. They all say this, and nothing specifically about Klingon facilities. A deadly dull 1.5.

TREK SENSE: Oh, the usual. That Klingon Engineer better be just overseeing the final details of the outpost's construction, because it's hardly possible for him or her to build an entire base by themselves (and so quickly too). There are still issues concerning where they may be built. You can't have one in orbit around your homeworld, no, but somehow Wolf 359 in Federation space is fine! And Parliament, which is described as a neutral site, is too. Attemptability does not connote territory, something outposts ignore entirely. Shields are your regular Alpha Quadrant militarily-minded species, which works out fine, as does the basic reporting mechanism of outpost cards. Settles around 2.3.

STOCKABILITY: Outposts are pretty important if you're playing the matching affiliation. However, the Klingons do have a versatile HQ as well as a couple of Outposts built into missions. One has some free reporting, the other saves a seed card is is more easily rebuilt. I gotta say that perhaps the standard Outpost's time has come and gone. If you don't want to use the built-in Outposts, of course, there's still ample reason to use a standalone one. It's the only place you can play such cards as Spacedoor or Assign Mission Specialist's downloads, for example, and it can be played far from your HQ so that you have a couple of places to report cards to, or effect repairs on your battle-weary ships. Other options keep this one down at 3.

TOTAL: 8.3 (41.5%) Lower than the Feds' partly because I'm now reviewing AFTER the built-ins came out.

PICTURE: The model is distinctive, but doesn't it look a bit dainty for Klingons? Aside from that, the lettering is reasonably visible, which is good. What isn't is that the prop is small at the bottom of the image, with all the wasted space going to blurry panels and such. For not keeping the subject in sight, and being a boring prop shot besides, only gets a 2.2.

LORE: Same old, same old. Nothing particularly centering on Klingons, they've just plugged the word instead of Federation, Romulan, etc. No surprise that it's a 1.5.

TREK SENSE: The same stuff that hinders PADDs usually is all here, plus a little more. First there's the question our lone Klingon enabling a Cunning boost on all personnel present, even non-Klingons. He teaches them the language? But that's if the one Equipment card represents "one PADD each", and how could it when the PADD doesn't magically multiply when an Away Team splits up? That tack is still the one that best explains the boost, since we can imagine PADDs making it easier to coordinate efforts, everyone follow the same plan, recall information quickly, etc. So if it doesn't represent multiples, and it's just one PADD, how does it boost everyone? I'm thinking of larger groups here that couldn't possibly look over one personnel's shoulder. Ok, so throw in multiple PADD cards, and what do you get? Cumulative bonuses. I've said it before: I'm no smarter with two calculators than I am with one. More than that, and I positively guarantee I'm gonna be confused. Klingons are also less likely to share PADDs this way, even if they need it most. "Get that PADD out of my face!" Just an opinion, of course. 1.8 should about do it.

STOCKABILITY: I've never been enamored of affiliated PADDs, and I've never really met anyone who was. Of course, Klingons are pretty much at the back of the CUNNING scale, so the +2 boost is more useful to them than most. But how useful? In solving missions, I'm sorry, but I'd rather bring along a full-fledged extra Klingon than an Equipment card. It would provide extra CUNNING, plus skills and other attributes. For times when you need a specific personnel with higher than X CUNNING, the PADD will do more good (though not as much as a high CUNNING Klingon): They are most vulnerable to "Crimson Forcefield", having no OFFICERs with CUNNING 9+. Nothing a Soong-Type Android won't cure, of course, but you'd need it on the right ship at the right time. Well, the same could be said of the PADD. Probably simpler to let your Tactic card be nullified. You're fighting with an armada anyway, right? Some dilemmas might cause trouble without the CUNNING boost, like Armus-Sticky Situation, Trabe Grenade, Subspace Shockwave, Twisted and maybe a couple others. In most cases, cards require "any PADD", so in those cases, I'd opt for one of the PADDs that gives a classification. Those are more useful anyway. The Klingons are the most likely to need a PADD, and yet I still can't give out more than 1.8.

TOTAL: 7.3 (36.5%) The bottom tier of Equipment cards is all about PADDs.

PICTURE: Harsh without being gory, the composition isn't a bad one line-wise, but the skewed perspective makes it difficult to understand just what's going on unless you've seen the episode. Duras is a blurry spider, Worf is three feet tall, and the bat'leth could be part of the architecture. If you do know the episode (and I'm guessing most of us do), it's a pretty dramatic shot. So I'm on the fence at 3.2.

LORE: No fence here. Once you take out the words repeated from the title, you're left with very little. A boring 2.

TREK SENSE: I think Klingons could claim the Right of Vengeance for a death that occured a long time ago (or must you then declare a Blood Oath?), but the card only allows for on-the-spot revenge. The episode bears this out at least. Of course, battle is an honorable way to die, and indeed a way to live, so why do you need to take revenge on someone who's killed an ally in a personnel battle? Isn't that how the Klingon would have WANTED to die? Murder by non-battle ability (like Leck's), or through ship battle, that isn't as disturbing? Anyway, Vengeance is had by re-attacking, fair enough, and at double Strength. Shows the real fury the Klingons can exhibit. Of course, I don't really buy the premise, so only 2.7.

STOCKABILITY: Klingons are already good at personnel battle, but say you get caught with your pants down (there are stronger affiliations, and you don't always have enough personnel present together to withstand an attack) and lose a personnel. Following up with this card gets you another chance at the golden prize, and at double the STRENGTH too. Now, originally, this meant you had to lose the battle because that's the only way someone was going to die. Not anymore though. You need only to carry a Klingon weakling like Alexander (cuz, yes, there's a way to use this with the Federation) or more likely someone like Ba'el, attack and allow them to pair up with a stronger opposing personnel. They die, though you win the battle. Still some stragglers? Exercise your Right of Vengeance to re-attack based on the weakling's death on that very same turn. Win the battle again with even more deaths thanks to the STRENGTH hike. You can make sure a Klingon dies by splitting your Away Team unevenly with Prepare Assault Teams too. First Contact's revised personnel battle rules took this one from mostly defensive to also offensive, and it's a runaway 3.9.

TOTAL: 11.8 (59%) Come after me if you want.

PICTURE: The shadows are more than a little oppressive here, and Konmel's armor comes out fuschia. He's got good bearing and all, but not enough to get more than a 2.8.

LORE: Lots of alien names between Korris and the two ships. This is all prior to getting aboard the Enterprise, so why not tell us something that actually happened onscreen? There was room for it. Wasted space and dull prose make this a 1.8.

TREK SENSE: Officer/Navigation may well be possible, but Konmel seems quite incomplete. He commandeered a ship, which could have necessitated Computer Skill (and a handy download had the card been issued later). Some kind of Honor/Treachery thing might also have been indicated, though I'm not sure if his following Klingon traditions is worth the former, or if his basically being a criminal deserves the latter (more probable, he'd lost his Honor). Integrity may be off by the same argument. At least as a Lieutenant, the Staff icon would be correct. But as a Navigation mission specialist, well, it seems like he should have more skills. His Navigation wasn't even shown on the show. Cunning is ok, though I'd reserve 5s for the really stupid. Running from the Klingon Empire may be enough though. Strength's good. Left hungry, so he'll have to settle for 1.5.

STOCKABILITY: Well, he's a mission specialist with high INTEGRITY and STRENGTH (always good on an OFFICER), as easily downloaded as others. Navigation is an oft-required skill to boot. But wait, there are 3 Klingon Navigation specialists, all of them OFFICERs, so there better be Klingon missions that require at least Nav x3! Unfortunately, Secret Salvage's x2 is as good as it gets (though the one with the Klingon Outpost is a natural). Konmel has better overall attributes than the two universals though (Klag and B'iJik). Another thing that makes Konmel a better personnel than those two is his relationship with K'nera. If either he or Korris die in battle, and K'nera is in play, you score 5 points (for each). Those bonus points are easy to get at with a simple Arbiter of Succession, pitting one against the other (15 points). Or even more simply, by throwing a shuttle with Konmel aboard at a big starship and waiting for the retaliatory shot. The little tricks elevate the card to 3.5.

TOTAL: 9.6 (48%) One of a number of ill-designed Klingons in Premiere.

PICTURE: James Worthy of the L.A. Lakers makes a guest appearance here, and the perspective somewhat gives us a hint of his impressive size, but not enough. His shuttle is behind him, and a clue that it was of Klingon design (cuz it's just not clear from other sources) is the red lettering just over his head. Good expression, boring palette, fine composition. A 3.4, but no more.

LORE: Ugh. Terrible. They couldn't find better than to make him a "tall male"? And that "matching commander" mention for a shuttle doesn't do anything in the game, except confuse newbies that would have him captain ANY shuttle (especially since the Yridian kinda LOOKs like his Thoron-class craft). Even the mercenaries remain non-descript (they were Baran's gang). Room to spare too. No hommage to the basketball player underneath the rubber forehead, nothing. A severely disappointing 0.3.

TREK SENSE: A Klingon mercenary not part of the the Klingon Defense Force could well be a Civilian, and his piloting his shuttle gives him Navigation. But who is he Commanding with that staffing icon exactly? Himself? He's only nominally a "captain", you know. Because Baran's crew was after artifacts, it's believable that Koral traded in the same, and would have Archaeology. He does so as a criminal, so low Integrity is indicated. Unresponsive, but was he really stupid? 4 Cunning is really, really dumb, and I don't think it supports something like Archaeology. The very high Strength can be believed because of his sheer size however. So a mixed bag, mostly good, but with definite flaws. A 2.8.

STOCKABILITY: A lesser Nu'Daq? Well, Nu'Daq has both skills, plus a better classification and a third skill AND actual matching commander status, but Koral is a support personnel and has phenomenal STRENGTH. Unfortunately, that's not enough to include him. The Klingons don't have an immense amount of Archaeology, but they have enough elsewhere to take care of their Archaeology missions. Navigation, they have tons of however. The high STRENGTH is nice (in particular going into Brute Force), but he lacks the proper leadership skills to initiate a battle, and his other attributes are, to put it mildly, dreadful. This guy's still dumb with a Klingon PADD in hand! (Not that I'd ever use one.) With little need for him even to counter dilemmas, I can't go above 1.6.

TOTAL: 8.1 (40.5%) Not worthy of higher. (Sorry.)

PICTURE: I like how distinctive he is. The costume is unique to him, and interesting to look at. I really like those swirly columns behind him too, even if they look a bit pink, they give the impression of dried blood on Kahless' blade. And his regal posture befits a high cleric. A lot of presence and originality translates into a 3.8 here.

LORE: Position, location, time and plot function. Pardon the pun, but it's forgettable. Speaking of Kahless, putting his name in italics does nothing for me. A boring 2.9 that nonetheless has no errors.

TREK SENSE: Had he come out later, he might have had something like a download of Clone Machine or Kahless himself, but we'll have to make do with a standard skill list. As high cleric, I think VIP wouldn't have been too much to ask for, with Science finding its way into the skill box. Science and Biology both wind up getting used in the cloning of Kahless. Archaeology is also important here to authenticate Kahless' blood on the relevant bat'leth, and make out myth from history. That myth is still known to him as Anthropological knowledge. As for attributes, Integrity is a bit too high for someone who was ready to deceive an entire Empire with a fake messiah. His intentions were in the right place, but still. The Cunning, on the other hand, seems way too low. He managed to clone an important religious figure! If you're not going to give him multiple Science and/or Biology, at least give him appropriately high Cunning. As for Strength, I know he's Klingon, but he's older than the norm, and could easily have had lower. So a necessarily incomplete picture, with good skills, but atrociously designed attributes. Ends up around 2.4.

STOCKABILITY: He's certainly one for Historical Research, but he's still a 3-skill personnel, and those aren't that great. Investigate Alien Probe and Quest for the Sword may be better missions for him, actually. Anthropology, Biology and yes, SCIENCE, are all good skills, with Archaeology lagging behind from a near-total lack of dilemmas, but that's not really enough to recommend Koroth. How about the fact he can use Clone Machine despite his high INTEGRITY? Big deal, there are several Klingons with low INTEGRITY and either MEDICAL, Biology or Exobiology that can do it. Ahhh, but they're all either OS, CF or Mirror Quadrant. So for a strict Alpha Quadrant solution, it's either Koroth or Non-Aligned. And NAs have no honor ;-). Well, neither does Koroth, but you know what I mean. Overall, not a bad SCIENCE personnel, just not that important. A 3.1 to be generous.

TOTAL: 12.2 (61%) Is he still pope after all this?

PICTURE: Though an angry close-up makes for a great Klingon card, the purple background and slight fuzziness manage to hurt it. The grayish make-up looks more fake than usual too. Distinctive, but technically iffy at 3.2.

LORE: A lame retread of Konmel's lore, identical but for his partner's name. Worse, the text wasn't great in the first place. A couple ships are mentioned, but seeing as he was at the center of an episode, there was much more they could have done, especially with that empty line. No effort is made to explain the choice of skill either. A disappointing 1.5.

TREK SENSE: Honor as a mission specialty is already suspect - though it's come to mean an expert in Klingon traditions - but I'm not even sure Korris deserves the skill. He and Konmel were wanted criminals! Same goes for the high Integrity. At least, Officer and the Command icon are good. He was more properly billed "Captain Korris". No Leadership though, nor anything related to commandeering attempts, or even something about the Klingon Death Yell. Konmel was similarly flawed. Now, nothing in his exploits contradicts his low Cunning and high Strength, but overall, a lame attempt at the character. Only 1.3.

STOCKABILITY: Klingon Honor decks work very well, giving extra abilities for your Honorable Klingons as well as supplying many missions that require the skill in multiples. Mission specialists with Honor, then, boost the points of those missions considerably. Wormhole Negotiations can be brought up to 65 points, for example! Of course, there are 6 such Klingons, and you'll never need more than 4 at any given mission. That's in optimal conditions, of course, since you may well lose a specialist along the way and would need the back-up. In that group, Korris is certainly better than Batrell, and probably better than either of the redundant twins, Gorath and Kle'eg. Good attributes are one reason, but another is that you can allow him to die in battle to get K'nera's 5 points. May be a good combo with Arbiter of Succession at the end of a game. Throw in Klingon Death Yell, and you've just scored 20 points. Add to that cards like Honor Challenge, Qapla'! and Sword of Kahless, and you've got a good 3.8.

TOTAL: 9.8 (49%) Only marginally better than his partner.

PICTURE: You know how much I like purple, so you can imagine I'm happy with us seeing mostly the dark side of the planet. Seriously though, aside from light texturing, this is a very, very plain world, and really uninteresting. A 1.5.

LORE: Quite short and not all that clear. Are there warring factions on the planet itself? Krios was at war with Valt Minor, but are they on Krios in this case? And are the Klingons thus helping the Kriosians? Or is the objective taken from "The Mind's Eye" instead of "The Perfect Mate", and they're quashing a revolt, possibly against the Klingons themselves? The title of the card would support that, but then, the "warring factions" would include the Klingons themselves. Or one of them would at least be the Klingons' puppet government, and if so, why suppress it? The two episodes don't seem to really talk about the same planet, you see. So a confused 2.5.

TREK SENSE: Whoever they're suppressing, the Klingons are going to need Strength to do it. Then again, they might use Honor and Diplomacy to bring an armistice. So which is it? Klingon Diplomacy WOULD use strong-arm tactics, wouldn't it? It's a bit more convincing. So okay, I can see it. Fact remains that we still don't know who they are suppressing. Span may be a bit short as this was close enough to Federation space for Picard and crew to conduct diplomatic missions here ("The Perfect Mate") without a Klingon ever being spotted. The point is, it should be a little far from the Klingons so they can lose control of the population. Note that I'd endorse some kind of Federation mission here, but not a Suppression. No problem with points. A rather unfocused 2.7.

SEEDABILITY: Honor and Diplomacy are quite common in Klingons (they've got plenty of DipHoLes), and their best attribute is STRENGTH. So this seems a natural. It would certainly fit in an Honor deck, and there are mission specialists for both skills, setting this up as a 40-pointer. To boot, it's quick to get to with its very short span. There's better (missions worth more points, and easier missions without attribute requirements), but it's not bad. 3.5 here.

TOTAL: 10.2 (51%) A standard ho-hum design from Premiere.

PICTURE: Atrocious production values on a background nobody... What are its chances, do you think? Kromm's face is indistinct, the background is fuzzy rather than solid, and the console diagrams are pink instead of red. A terrible, terrible 0.5, and that's for the appropriateness of the pose and console.

LORE: All invention, as this Klingon was barely seen in "Redemption, Part 1". There's no acknowledgement of universality, and the first sentence is dull besides. What saves the lore is the second, which is pretty funny. Klingon eating contests? Why am I not surprised? Background characters WOULD have reputations like this. Brings the score back up to 3.6.

TREK SENSE: A basic Klingon Engineer, I have no trouble with him being universal. A Klingon Engineer would have a Staff icon and a skill like Physics. Plain, simple, and also no trouble fitting in with the mission specialist concept. I don't see any reason for the low Integrity since he wasn't on the side of the Duras, but the Cunning is about right for a non-descript Klingon. Strength is high, another Klingon trait. A rather believable 3.8.

STOCKABILITY: During dilemmas, he'll be using ENGINEER and his attributes mostly, but when solving the mission, it's the Physics we're interested in since Assign Mission Specialists can get you a +5 points bonus. I'm not sure what missions to recommend though. See, most Klingon Physics missions often require just that skill, so you couldn't hope for better than 25 at Relief Mission (20 if using Relief Mission II), or 30 at A Good Place to Die. Test Propulsion Systems would be the better goal, I guess. He supplies the ENGINEER too, and a Navigation mission specialist can help him boost the points to 35 on this universal mission. The Klingons have relatively few ENGINEERs (and very few ENGINEER-classification personnel), and Kromm's the only universal non-AU Alpha Quadrant native. Note that with Lower Decks, his STRENGTH hits 10, making him an easy-to-report (AMS) assault team member. Funny how these lowly personnel can get relatively good scores these days: a 3.4.

TOTAL: 11.3 (56.5%) More than I would have expected, by Kromm!

PICTURE: The greenish hues and really strange perspective on the outside world work well with the high contrast "video" game, with Robin Lefler's expression adding to the disjointed reality. Her eyes draw you in (despite substantial blur), and then you realize the game is a subliminal constant, a bit like a pair of glasses you forget you have on despite visible frames. I like it enough for a 4.1.

LORE: Well done again. Don't be afraid of those big words, especially when they actually mean something (unlike technobabble). A 3.4.

TREK SENSE: The game is introduced aboard your ship, basically disabling the first person to play it, who then distributes more and more until everyone is addicted and unwilling to do anything but play the game. On the surface, that mechanic seems to work, but when you get under its skin, not as much. See, there's the mind control element that's missing. The game wasn't just making personnel inert, it was also pushing them to a certain destination, to surrender, etc. Not so here, so the dilemma is necessarily incomplete. And that cure! Androids aren't affected by the device, so one could zap the crew with a strobe light (as per the episode) to release the game's hold on them, and that's why the controlled crew in the show disabled Data as soon as possible (another example of the game doing more than disabling its users). Note that the android could still be disabled first by the game (the victim of an ensign Bob?). Alternately, a lot of non-disabled Cunning (well, not a huge lot) can realize what's going on and stop it, figuring out the strobe trick just like an android would. But that's not really true is it? There are a 1000+ personnel on the Enterprise-D, so when Riker brought the game aboard, wouldn't it have been the end of that? Even by the time most characters were under the influence, it only takes 4 or 5 to meet the Cunning requirement, and by that time, wouldn't that core of personnel realize something was wrong with the hundreds of others? Good thing Robin Lefler can specifically nullify the game, because she winds up doing so without 31+ Cunning. No link to Etana Jol either. The basic idea makes sense, but there's a lot that doesn't. A 1.6.

STOCKABILITY: My beef with this dilemma has always been that its requirements are too easy. 30 CUNNING? That's not usually a lot of personnel. And if they have an android (not uncommon considering how useful they are), then it just takes the one. Unless the dilemma takes out a sole android (and it's a random selection), and even then, the opponent will probably cure the dilemma even as he or she barrels into the next dilemma (cuz it's not a wall either). If only Seize Wesley could be used to suspend play, we might be in business, zapping a crew after the first disabling but before the cure takes effect. To add insult to injury, Robin Lefler further nullifies the dilemma. Against smaller crew, yes it'll have an effect, and time lost sending personnel over to the ship to restock the CUNNING (or flying back a facility) can be crucial, but with so many "report to ship" options, I wouldn't count on it. A case of a dilemma that didn't figure on the inflation of the rest of the STCCG environment. 2.5 for what's there.

TOTAL: 11.6 (58%) Just not thought through enough.

PICTURE: A bit too bright. The lights are over-exposed, and Kurak seems to float in a soft gray, intangible world. She's got some presence, at least, but even the lines of her costume don't do well by her. Not as bad as all that, but still. A 2.8.

LORE: Dry as a bone and barely informative, especially given the empty space in the box. "The metaphasic shield"? How about telling us who's, or even using the more accurate plural form? No, aside from her being "famed", there isn't much here that peeked my interest. Only 1.8.

TREK SENSE: Kurak is a Scientist, all right, and not being in the military, she's only a Staff-icon personnel. Warp field theory combines Physics and Astrophyics, though that last skill is more because Dr. Reyga's testing was to be in a sun's corona. Meanwhile, Computer Skill is used to make computer models of warp fields. As for Honor, I didn't find her especially honorable. She was guiltless of Jo'Bril's murder, but that doesn't make her honorable per se. Her attitude IS more in line with the 6 Integrity, but otherwise, it's not wrong, it just isn't that obvious. Cunning allows her to be a renowned scientist, but still not have a clue about Reyga's genius. Strength seems about right given species and profession. Despite my (few) misgivings, this is still a 3.8.

STOCKABILITY: Astrophysics, Physics and Computer Skill appear on a number of Klingon space missions, so Kurak will always have something to do, but she isn't really tailor-made for anything. Those skills (and let's not forget SCIENCE) are all useful against dilemmas too, and the Honor certainly fits a Klingon deck as far as skill redundancy and Klingon verbs go. Plus, the Klingons don't have that many multi-skill females. More than they used to, but still not that many. Heck, they don't even have that many SCIENCE personnel! So Kurak can still wring out a 3.3.

TOTAL: 11.7 (58.5%) You'll have to wait a while before the review of Kurak's new 2E self, I'm afraid.

PICTURE: Was there something so wrong about the Kulran Naiskos sitting on a glass table on the Enterprise that it had to be superimposed on a cave background from, if I'm not mistaken, "Captain's Holiday"? While I appreciate the idea of moving an artifact to a venue where it would more naturally be acquired, the pasting job here is pretty primitive. That, and it makes the Kurlan look gigantic! Throw in an ugly color palette, and you've got yourself a botched 0.9.

LORE: The concept behind the Kurlan is well explained, and sounds a little like a personal IDIC in a way, which is good Trek. I'm not sure "statues" should be plural here, so a small drop to just plain 3.

TREK SENSE: Wholly conceptual in the sense that the Artifact itself doesn't actually create an effect, because if that were true, the Enterprise-D would have been a powerhouse from "The Chase" to Generations each time there was a diplomat aboard. A ship under Kurlan Naiskos simply lives by the credo represented by the Artifact. Or does it? While the focus is on community, which ties in with the 7 classifications well enough, it's a community WITHIN oneself, not outside it. If the Artifact allowed one personnel to staff an entire ship, or something like that, it might have made conceptual sense, but not here. The actual conceptual conceits are that "statue within a statue within a statue" becomes a tripling effect. Ok, let's forget about the Kurlan Naiskos, and see if the effect makes sense regardless of its title, picture and lore. If you have all classifications on your ship (except Animal of course, nobody needs one aboard a ship except Captain Archer), its attributes are tripled. Since personnel cards represent the best a crew has to offer (as opposed to Ensign Bob and his kind), having all that expertise available COULD boost your ship's attributes, I agree. Except... Except that Civilian and VIP have nothing to do with running a ship. Except that tripling is way too much to justify. The card would be a wash if it didn't have somewhat sensical mechanics. See, I like that what's important about the Kurlan is its message, and so the acquired Artifact goes to hand while that message is deciphered, until someone on a ship somewhere is inspired by it. Small consolation, but it does keep the score at a steady 1.

SEEDABILITY: This was one of those super-powerful cards in Premiere that, like the Horga'hn, really deserved to be more difficult to get into play thanks to the Artifact card type. Who needs an aramada, after all, when you can just drop this "event" on a big ship, keep is staffed with all the classifications, and become the greatest military power in the Quadrant(s). Triple attributes? That would make a Dominion Battleship 27-27-27, or if you want to cram people into a small cabin, anYridian Shuttle 18-3-9. (Ok, that's not such a good example.) I wouldn't boost a ship with very low stats because then tripling wouldn't be as good. But don't forget to calculate your attribute bonuses before tripling. A Captain's Log technically gives +9 rather than +3 to WEAPONS and SHIELDS. Any +2 boost is a +6, etc. It's pretty easy to build a juggernaut this way. While its defensive and offensive properties in normal game play are obvious, there are times when the Artifact supports specific strategies. Borg-hunting is chief among them: When dealing with WEAPONS higher than 25 (usually the case), even Cubes won't last more than two hits. And with SHIELDS higher than 25, your own ship likely won't sustain damage itself. Note that this is just as good, if not better, against a self-seeded Borg Ship dilemma, since most of the time, you can't really guess your opponent will play Borg. Best ship to do this with is probably the Fesarius: 27-36-54 WITHOUT Captain's Log. With their powerful ships, I'm not sure why the Borg would acquire this thing, but a Borg Cube with 75 WEAPONS and SHIELDS would be cooooooooooool. Too bad the Collective can't use Parallax Arguers. I haven't really mentioned tripled RANGE, but it should be clear you can pretty much go anywhere with it. This card is one reason why multi-classification personnel are so prized as well. After all, as soon as you lose a personnel suring a mission, or when you beam some down to a planet, you risk losing your tripled status, so you want to have as much redundancy as possible, and as few personnel upkeeping the Kurlan Naiskos as possible. Players have been dreaming up perfect personnel combos since the game started, but triple-classification personnel like Lore and Tom Paris (mutually exclusive, those two) are often a part of them. Hint: Always have your CIVILIAN and VIP have an extra classification, since those two don't show up as "skills". Watch out for Kevin Uxbridge too. While it does have a couple checks and balances (including cards that use printed attributes), the card remains just this side of broken. A powerful 4.7.

TOTAL: 9.6 (48%) Must be why Picard didn't handle it with care at the end of Generations.

PICTURE: A standard bust shot, but it has a good background. The crossed weapons fit Kurn well, and they match his brown and silver color palette. He's a bit emotionless, but still a fair 3.4.

LORE: Eeech. A recurring character, and all he gets is some family business (yes, if he's the Son of Mogh, I expect he's a brother to Worf) and a seat on the High Council (at least, that's useful). So much more to tell, lots of space to do it in, a failure at 1.5.

TREK SENSE: Kurn's a squadron leader, so Officer and the Command icon would work here. No Leadership? Well, turning to his brother as often as he did might preclude it, and even seems to sink his Cunning, though I though his flyby of a star was a pretty cool strategy. Its a strategy that nets him Navigation, certainly. The Sons of Mogh are Honorable, and that's true of Kurn. Though pretty gruff and burly, Diplomacy would have helped him at the Council, and in fitting in with the Enterprise and DS9 crews (he technically served with 3 different affiliations thoughout his appearances). Computer Skill would have been useful in finally tracking down his brother, and in DS9's "Sons of Mogh" (which appeared later than this card), he used the skill to retrieve information off a Klingon cruiser's computers. A special skill or download would have been nice, but no such luck here. Attributes are ok, though again, I'd have liked to see more Cunning. Not a whole lot more, because he was pretty limited at times, but a good strategist nonetheless. If not more Cunning, at least a little Security or something. Integrity goes with his Honor, and is about the same as Worf's. He doesn't have as much Strength though, but it's not like we have lots of hand to hand combat scenes to dispute that. 8 is still impressive (top human Strength, in fact). No real errors, but perhaps some omissions. A 3.8.

STOCKABILITY: In Premiere, Kurn was one of the top Klingon personnel because they had so few cards with more than 3 skills. Clocking in at 4, Kurn was gangbusters! Sadly, that isn't true anymore. Oh, all his skills are useful, but they're also all quite common. That helps with missions' skill redundancy (especially Honor for Klingons, as well as having other uses for the skill), but not as much with dilemmas, which are more likely to surprise you. A few cards along the way have tried to bring him back, and in fact, he's not a total loss. The Great Hall allows him to report for free, and he can Log and Plaque de IKC Hegh'ta  to 10-10-10 levels. Not bad for a bird-of-prey he can fly himself. Throw in Make It So and Ready Room Door for more tricks with that commander/ship combo. Persona replacement rules also allow for a few possibilities, but they're not great. If you have a Worf present, you can combine the brothers as the dual-personnel card Sons of Mogh. It's good if you want to face opponents and dilemmas with combined attributes and skills, but I think each of them is better as a separate card, especially Worf (or in this case, probably Worf Son of Mogh, the true Klingon version). Another possibility, this time from 2E, is Kurn - Bajoran Security Officer. A very different skill list (important to make persona replacement useful) and a special skill that borders on assassination, but you'll need a Bajoran/Klingon Treaty to use him. The two affiliations work best with assault strategies, so the Bajoran Kurn can kill opponents, return to hand, then return for free at The Great Hall as a Klingon, or to his ship with Ready Room Door. Where does Kurn stand today? At about 3.7.

TOTAL: 12.4 (62%) If only they'd done more with the lore.

PICTURE: A good close-up, backlit à la DS9 even. I've always liked L'Kor's forehead, which I find very distinctive. All the holes in it add to his age, certainly. A good 3.3.

LORE: A few facts. I'm not particularly attached to "Klingon warrior" since this is more what he used to be than what he is today. No notes on personality either. Bah. 2.5 should do.

TREK SENSE: L'Kor is a Civilian by virtue of no longer being "in the service", an old man who is Leader of a makeshift penal colony. He further gets Music, because he could sing some Klingon songs. Really, the only thing left from his days as a warrior is a Command icon, but I'm wondering if a staffing icon actually applies anymore. The Klingons might rule that he has less Integrity than this because he allowed himself to be captured alive (long-term). Looks about right from where this human's standing though. The complacency exhibited by never escaping, etc., that's at the source of his low Cunning, I suppose. Strength's a mite high however. He's an old man who's given up the fight. For a couple of objections and an unfocused design, a 2.6.

STOCKABILITY: L'Kor's best bet is to score points at your Klingon Colony. Colony Preparations is a Klingon mission uniquely suited to this purpose, being in the more protected Gamma Quadrant. It downloads the facility, and then you can Assign Support Personnel like L'Kor, Ba'el and Koral straight to the attending ship, cross-quadant as it were. These 3 personnel help out Gi'ral score points at, well, any Colony. It doesn't have to be at Colony Prep, since she can build a Colony at any unsolved planet mission. She needs Tokath, of course, but he's a Support Personnel too, so all you need is a Treaty Find the most protected spot on the game map, build your facility and keep your CIVILIANS warm and cozy there. Ba'el gets 4 points each turn, L'Kor only 2, but you get round-the-corner quickly enough. If an opposing Away Team shows up, he's got the Leadership to lead an attack against it, but by then they may already have dropped their Tribbles. I wouldn't recommend him as a mission solver at all, since Leadership is common, and Music and CIVILIAN near useless. Ok attributes, but that wouldn't get him in my deck. A bite's been taken out of Colony decks, but they can still be viable. The limited focus makes him a 2.

TOTAL: 10.4 (52%) Even his name sounds like a lamer version of a great Klingon warrior.

PICTURE: It's no secret I really like Susan Gibney in this role, and her incredulous, impatient expression doesn't disappoint. It's just close enough to her pose on the holographic Dr. Leah Brahms card, but totally its own thing too. Nice Saturn-like broach too. So what if the outfit's purple? A 3.6.

LORE: Too short, even if the information there is accurate. There was lots more to tell, and a whole line was left blank. Won't go above 2.4.

TREK SENSE: That one of the prime designers of the Enterprise-D would have doubled Engineer is fine, but that's ALL she gets? I don't mean they should have tripled it, since Geordi could still teach her a few tricks, but she probably should have something else to help her out. Physics, perhaps, or even Computer Skill. It's not a huge flaw, as a ship designer would essentially be an Engineering mission specialist. At least she has high Cunning. A Staff icon is also important, because she helped the ship get rid of "Junior". Her Integrity is a point above her holographic counterpart. Sure, the holo was something of a harlot, but Brahms was still pretty adversarial in the flesh. I don't necessarily think loyalty to her husband, or whatever, is enough to make her an 8. Strength's a point up from the holo version, and she was certainly fiercer. She wouldn't have combat experience though, so a 3 is fine. Overall, I just think she could have been much more. A 2.9 will have to do.

STOCKABILITY: The Federation has a lot of excellent ENGINEERs, indeed double-ENGINEERs, and a lot of ENGINEER-related missions too. Not to mention how many dilemmas and other cards also require the classification. As a mission specialist specializing in ENGINEER, Leah Brahms is the perfect personnel to call up in Fed decks that exploit it. Assign Mission Specialists can download her, and her holographic twin too, for those space missions that require more than one ENGINEER (Explore Dyson Sphere, for example). If you want to make the trip, there are even more ENGINEER missions in the Delta Quadrant. Good attributes too, though the STRENGTH is paltry. Heck, she's there for the +5 points, not to engage in personnel battle. Of course, aside from the mission solving, a double-ENGINEER is always good to have around, whether efficiently making use of Particle Fountain (more points!), or helping pass many, many dilemmas. A 3.8.

TOTAL: 12.7 (63.5%) The hologram did better (15.8), but that was before rules on holograms and the cumulativity of universal personnel came into play killing much of her Stockability.

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