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#80-Botanical Research, Dominion/Federation/Klingon, planet, universal, Premium
Unexplored planet: Gather plant life for medical research from planet with highly ionized atmosphere.
-SCIENCE + MEDICAL + CUNNING>35
-Span: 2; 30 points; Atmospheric Ionization may seed here.

PICTURE: Not sure what to make of it. Is that small yellow sphere a moon (in which case, it seems pretty weak visually) or the planet's star? If it's the latter, and I'm pretty sure it is, a problem arises. How can the planet be illuminated from our perspective and its light source still be in the background? Binary star system? Mmm, could be. The ambiguity marrs an otherwise nicely concocted M-class planet. Oh, and the typo on the reverse game text makes it lose points too (it's part of "design"). A 2.7.

LORE: I wonder how many variations of "unexplored planet" Decipher can come up with for universal missions. The Starter Deck II also has an anonymous "border planet" and an "uncharted planet". Nice of the designers never to use the same designation twice. The rest of the lore is fine, I guess. A 3.5.

TREK SENSE: First, a Trek Sense rant about universal missions. Why can't they be seeded in other quadrants? Sometimes, like with Colony Preparations perhaps, it makes a little sense. But usually, it doesn't. Here, especially so. Not only could botanical surveys realisticly be conducted in other quadrants, but this card makes me ask the question: Are there that many plant-filled unexplored planets with highly-ionized atmospheres? That's very particular. I don't get the affiliation icons either. Feds, sure. Keiko's done enough of these to warrant a mission. But Klingons? The Dominion? They don't seem like flower lovers to me. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned when it comes to thinking about alien warrior races. (Ok, ok, the Dominion could be trying to find Ketracel White ingredients.) The mission requirements are fair: SCIENCE is obviously required, MEDICAL is there to identify medicinal plants, and CUNNING is an old standby for scientific missions. Finally, I do like the idea of being able to seed Atmospheric Ionization here since the lore mentions it. Possible Trek Sense problem: if you don't seed one or play it here, it makes the lore a liar. Maybe some planets aren't so ionized after all. A lot of weeds in this garden - a 1.6

SEEDABILITY: 30 points is a lot for a universal mission. Add easy mission requirements and a short span and you have a mission you could actually seed 6 times. The Atmospheric Ionization seed is nice since it adds some luster to this binder-trapped card from Premiere. You can use it to protect your missions from espionnage (or simple theft). Of course, you'll have to include another little seen card - Pattern Enhancers - to counter it, but then you don't need as many personnel to go through your missions. You have the room. A viable deck can be made out of this one: a 4.

TOTAL: 11.8 (59%) A marvel of design over Trek Sense. I have a feeling other late generation missions will show similar forthought to game balance.

PICTURE: What a likeable invention! Based on Ferengi architecture, the Post shows the same Arabian Nights quality seen on the Ferenginar matte painting.The wire mesh around the central core is nicely detailed, and the bay entrances are low arcs like those of Ferengi house doors. The ship gives scale, but looks to big to fully dock with the station. Doesn't look like it fits inside the outpost. Don't know if it's supposed to, of course. Still a nice piece of CGI wizardry at 4.4.

LORE: A good explanation of how the game text gets put in action. Makes it sound like this is a mall, which I guess it is! And part gas station too. A fair 3.5.

TREK SENSE: Though it's basically like other outposts (seed or build with ENGINEER), the differences are vast. A universal  D'Kora may also seed here, already docked at the facility (hey, it's in the picture). The Shields are much lower (24) since this is used for trading and not warfare/defense. The big thing though, is that any affiliation's cards can report here (and mix!) except the Borg who aren't very good merchants. It makes the Trading Post like a Nor in miniature, to which cards from both sides of the table can report. They mix, ostensibly to trade goods, though the personnel involved may not be merchants at all. Ferengi allow passage to most everyone, and don't care if their own enemies come calling, as long as there might be profit in it. A wonderful little facility with the usual problems - 4.1.

SEEDABILITY: Very cool. Pre-Rules of Acquisition, it gets seeded to the few Ferengi missions available, since building it requires pretty much Jake and Nog. No ship to seed there with it, but the reporting ability works well. In Sealed Deck play (with Starter II), you'll need it to make use of the disparate personnel you get, and in normal play, it may act as a one-stop Outpost for your personnel in search of a Treaty. Of course, the danger is that your opponent can report personnel there too, so bring lots of disruptors to defend yourself. An Airlock here can do a lot of damage as well. And if your opponent isn't in the mood, that SHIELDS 24 is easily overcome. Post-RoA, it's another matter entirely. There are two universal D'Kora class ships to choose from, and an entire affiliation probably with the usual number of ENGINEERs to build it later. Starry Night works when acquired at the same location. It helps you manage your Latinum and cards. It's one of the prerequisites for hosing your opponent with the 211th Rule. And Establish Trading Route downloads it, with necessary hand weapons no less. An alternate base for the newest affiliation which has some nice abilities, balanced with dangers. Some, I probably don't even know about yet. A 3.9.

TOTAL: 15.9 (79.5%) Touchy doing it in the midst of Rules of Acquisition's spoiler phase, but I gotta follow my schedule.

PICTURE: A cute ringed planet, which makes it seem all the more "geological" (those rings are tiny rocks). While I understand those white spots to be either snow-capped mountains or some sort of mineral deposits, they've always looked to me as if somebody had damaged the card, revealing the white cardboard underneath the print. Even the firery volcanic activity (see it?) doesn't completely redeem it. A 3.2.

LORE: So this one's an UNCHARTED planet, ok. Are they running out of generic names for generic planets yet? Good lore in any case, about the same as most missions. A 3.1.

TREK SENSE: A generic, universal mission, attemptable by the guys who have free access to Federation space, so we know what "edges" the lore referred to. (So I won't berate the creators again with my idea that some universals shouldn't be quadrant-specific.) The Bajorans and Feds are primarily interested in the scientific aspect of the mission, while the NAs and Ferengi will want the mineral wealth. It obviously takes Geology to complete this survey, and an extra SCIENCE which is very appropriate. Computer Skill is a little odd. What purpose does it serve? Recording? I don't see it on the similar Botanical Research. And silicon chips aren't in use anymore. The points are low, maybe because it's fairly unimportant in the grand scheme of things, a little too low compared to similar missions. You can add 10 points by REALLY exploring/exploiting the planet to its fullest. Bring at least 3 Geologists or Greedy entrepreneurs and the mission is worth a more healthy 30 points. A nice innovation. Lastly, let me question the Span a bit. 2 isn't too far for the edge of explored space when most other spaceline locations are squarely IN explored space. The defects bring this one down to an even 3.

SEEDABILITY: Well, universal missions are always good to have on hand in case of mission duplication, but they're often good otherwise, fairly easy and, due to possible multiplicity, good for skill redundancy. Geological Survey is at least not "Any Away Team...", and will prove a good spot for Husnock or Ferengi outposts. Non-Aligned decks might use this one in conjunction with SCIENCE/Geologist Vekor and multiple Dr. Fareks. The Ferengi certainly aren't lacking in the necessary skills - their own SCIENCE/Geologist is Nava - and will find it easy to get their 3 Greed or 3 Geology there. The Bajorans have their Weld Ram and the right skills too. The Feds have T'Lor and Juliana Tainer who can solve this one all alone, unless you want to do it with a couple of mission specialists, potentially boosting each Geo Survey to 40 points. None of these affiliations will have any problems bringing in either of the 3 skills required to boost the points, so it's practically a 30 point mission - considering it a SCIENCE + Computer Skill + (Geology x3 OR Geology + Greed x3) - that you can solve more easily for fewer points. Heck, Mortal Q's Geology x10 is all you need to meet the triple Geology requirements. And it's a good partner for Planet. Scores a 3.7.

TOTAL: 13 (65%) Universal missions... cool, but oh, so average.

PICTURE: While they could have shown that green beam hit any number of people on the bridge, I'm glad they chose Ro. She's not on a lot of cards, and she played an important part in that episode. Of course, aside from that choice, the card's pretty plain. The special effect isn't too good, and the pose only average. Ends up at 3.4.

LORE: A good explanation of the Satarran weapon, and the game text is well explained. Decipher went a bit far in putting the word "affiliation" in there, but on the whole, it's acceptable, even a little daring. A 3.4 as well.

TREK SENSE: The first function is way too wide to satisfy Trek Sense. Could the Satarrans really hit every single outpost and ship on your opponent's side of the table, and every personnel as they come into play? Extremely doubtful. And the effect isn't as focused as the second function's. A sense of affiliation lost, everyone may cooperate, but really, isn't anyone going to notice the difference styles of ships and uniforms? Like I said, too wide. The second function does better by shooting the memory wipe beam at a single ship (won't work on the Borg though... the collective has all the memories backed up to dump back into the drones). That ship, and its crew/Away Teams, becomes unaware of its affiliation, making everyone aboard Non-Aligned. Conceptually, there's no problem with playing this on a SHIP, since the computer files were also affected, but there is a problem in the same sense as Tsiolkovsky Infection - the ship not being quarantined makes it possible for personnel to disembark and get their memories back (personnel files at an outpost?) or get on and lose them (no explanation). Personnel don't lose any skills, but they do lose their ability to attempt their normal missions (they don't remember they should be on a Survey Mission, for example). It works. Some skills will cause anomalies, especially those that enhance other personnel. Like, if you're married to Grilka, but you don't know it, should you still enhance her, or be enhanced by her? Not a bad card, but hard to fit into Trek Sense with our current game mechanics. A 3.9.

STOCKABILITY: Obvioulsy, the first function will be useful (if not necessary) in sealed Starter II environments. It allows personnel to mix regardless of affiliations and treaties drawn. Since players MUST agree to play it in that kind of game, it affects you as well as your opponent. It can't even be nullified there. In regular play, which these reviews usually consider for scoring purposes, that function is less useful. Nothing forces your opponent to show any reciprocity by playing it, so you're actually helping your opponent, allowing him to mix his personnel even before his planned Treaty is out. It can be played to make your infiltrators slightly more flexible. I say slightly because current ruling state that your opponent must have played at least one card of the affiliation matching your infiltration icon regardless of who they may mix with, unless you report it at your Dominion (or Cardassian or whatever) outpost first. So your Martok Founder still can't infiltrate a Memory Wiped Federation unless already reported. If your opponent is playing a Treaty deck though, you might have more of a chance to place your infiltrator quickly, but you're also making it easier on your opponent, so it's not worth it. In any case, Intruder Alert nullifies it. But wait, that's not bad... allow your opponent to mix his affiliations, then nullify the event with Intruder Alert (or Mercy Kill) to create a house arrest situation. Could be interesting. The second function, however, is where it's really at. Make an opponent's ship Non-Aligned and bang, it may no longer attempt the real affiliation's missions. Your opponent will have to change ships. And more than one Memory Wipe would be real nasty there eh? Make any ship targetable by Neural Servo Device and take control of ANY of your opponent's ships. Your own ships can be Memory Wiped too, perhaps to supplement your Non-Aligned deck with useful multi-skilled personnel. Nothing's stopping you from playing it on your already NA ship to make its ENTIRE crew Non-Aligned. Or on an affiliated ship you'd like to use with your NAs, perhaps for its Cloaking Device or Invasive Beam-In. Your Klingons can theoretically Memory Wipe an Alpha Attack Ship and Invasively Beam-In to enemy ships for the rest of the game. It's just a matter of getting the ship into play. It's a way to combine cards of affiliations that don't have a Treaty, though in a limited way. I'd have to give this one a 3.7, especially for its disruptive uses on your opponent.

TOTAL: 14.4 (72%) Did I forget any rules? This one's a little complicated.

PICTURE: This invention works well symbolically - the geasous cloud looks like a rift, the rift between the warring affiliations. And those many planets might represent the various interests of the warring powers. The point of view might be a little odd though. Are all those planets so close together in orbit around a star? Or are we seeing moons around the same planet? Hard to say since the pic's a little busy, astronomically speaking. An original 3.8.

LORE: "Unclaimed sector of space" is a pretty good appelation for a universal mission. And the lore itself is deftly put. My only problem is with the term "flagship". "Starship" would have been more in keeping with the mission's requirements. There's only one flagship per affiliation, which doesn't gibe with a universal mission. An ok 3.3.

TREK SENSE: This one avoids the usual pitfall of universal missions - that they should be able to seed in any quadrant - by mentioning in its lore that it lies in the Alpha quadrant. The more warlike races are the ones that can attempt this one, but the attemptability icons do create a problem: they allow outposts of those affiliations to be seeded here. But the lore says this is an unclaimed sector! In my opinion, seeding an outpost lays claim to it. Military Excercises require Security personnel (personnel that could also have been known as Tactical), Leadership (to run efficiency drills, but also because you need Leadership to initiate battle), semi-high Cunning (getting those strategies in your head) and, of course, a big enough ship that it would have a crew to work with (with 2 or more staffing icons). Battle drills for smaller ships (like attack fighters) will just have to be handled by another card. Since the sector is remote, the Span is high, but not so high as to be too far from the front lines. The points are fair. What, no boost to Weapons and/or Shields à la Test Propulsion Systems? Awww. Does well for itself at 3.9. It might have gotten a higher score if it required more than one ship to be here (to play actual wargames) or something.

SEEDABILITY: SECURITY/Leadership? Easy enough to get, and on good personnel too. The CUNNING isn't too high either (though the Klingons have relatively lower smarts stats). The only snag is requiring a ship with more staffing icons than you might be willing to stock. Klingon armadas use K'Vorts, and some Dominion decks only use Fighters. The Cardassians and Romulans, however, have plenty of multi-staff icon ships. Easy requirements that get you 30 points. That's good for a universal mission, especially one that only requires one specific personnel (you usually have plenty to choose from with those two skills) and then, other personnel just to help with the CUNNING. Just be wary of mission theft, though it may not be an "Any crew" mission, it's got plenty of attemptability icons and your opponent has a fair chance of choosing one of those affiliations as his own. A good 3.5.

TOTAL: 14.5 (72.5%) Should attract have the affiliation because they use the ship anyway, the other half because they use the personnel anyway.

PICTURE: A painting if I ever saw one, but not one without interest. I think the wild and chaotic shapes of the continents speak of war and weapons, as do the dark oceans. It's also a good idea to make this an Earth-like planet because it must be a human colony of some kind. As high as a 3.6 here.

LORE: The region is well-indicated (though I wonder how much more lore we could fit on a card simply in the "DMZ Region"), and the universal location, "Border planet", well devised. Everything here is competent. A 3.2.

TREK SENSE: The Federation, the Cardassians and the Bajorans all have something to do with the Maquis, but the Klingons? The Ferengi??? Not so much. That's why I think this mission over-reaches a little. I understand the idea that these other affiliations may be interested in the weapons per se, to use or to sell, but do you really think the Maquis have something these affiliations couldn't replicate themselves? As a universal mission, there seem to be a number of weapon caches, on a number of border planets. I'm okay with that, though not especially enthusiastic. What's required is... not that great either. The Officer gives the orders, maybe sets this as a priority, but by that rationale, you'd need an Officer on almost every mission. Navigation? This skill usually describes how to pilot ships and navigate in space, though I suppose it could extend to navigating on the ground, trying to find the weapons. Bah, I'd rather have seen a Tricorder here. Treachery? Ok, I'm sorry, you've lost me. If it's supposed to mean you're unethically STEALING the weapons, then the lore, with its "illegal", doesn't support that interpretation, nor does the presence of the Federation. If it means you have to think like a criminal to outwit a criminal, that's not heavily supported by other missions. Smuggling, I might have believed, but Treachery is almost a state of mind. What saves the mission from the Wrath of Siskoid (Tm), is that the weapons cache actually exists, in the form of seeded hand weapons. These have the odd characteristic of not necessarily being Federation-type weapons, but belong to the affiliation that solves the mission (hey, maybe that's why it's an imperative - stolen weapons RECOVERY). Personally? I've never seen a Maquis with a Bat'leth (B'Elanna only started using one mid-way through Voyager, and only on the holodeck). The many problems drop this one to a 2.2.

SEEDABILITY: Here's where this mission shines. 30 points AND as many different hand weapons as you can seed? Good deal! The requirements aren't very hard either, though the Federation usually has to stretch a little to get the Treachery (maybe not as much with Mirror, Mirror coming out). In fact, a good bunch of OFFICERs have all the appropriate skills: Colonel Day (Bajoran), Dolak, Dukat, Toran (Cardassians), Ro Laren (Fed), Kras, Voktak (Klingons). Sorry Ferengi! Navigation is a common mission specialty, so that route can get you more points as well. Seeding hand weapons here is great fun, but you have to watch out for mission theft, especially with such an obvious prize underneath and the record number of attemptability icons. The best route to take then, is to seed hand weapons specific to your affiliation so that your opponent can't use your cache even if she solves the mission. I recommend all the ones that don't have "Non-Aligned use" on them: that often means something with only a +1 bonus, but it also includes the classic phaser, the Bat'leth and the Kar'Takin. Ideally, the more *different* hand weapons an affiliation can use, the better. You can really stack the deck. With the prospect of seeding a full DMZ region with some 4 Border planets, the only thing stopping you from amassing incredibly huge STRENGTH bonuses is your seed card limit. Still, a big DMZ means skill redundancy, in-region flying for Bajoran Interceptors, and all your missions side by side. If going for a personnel battle-themed deck (especially for Klingons and Bajorans), it makes sense to pick up as many weapons as possible while also scoring mission points. Building a Colony or Outpost there means you'll have extra protection against looters already onsite. A great space mission (with similar requirements) to join to this one is Kressari Rendezvous for the Cardies and Ferengi. Grab seeded weapons, then discard as many as 4 of them for 5 extra points each. A great combo. So whether you're looking to go on the offensive without waiting for hand weapons to come into your hand, or you're looking for some extra defense against players who would play smackdown, Search for Weapons is a good place to start off, and get some easy points on the side. A 3.9.

TOTAL: 13.8 (69%) Suffers in the Trek Sense department like many cards from "starter" products.

PICTURE: This originial artwork isn't bad, though it looks more like some ball of energy pulsating light (like a pulsar) than a comet's smoke train. I see the comet when I look for it, but that's not what my brain instinctively detects. You know what would have made me happier? The comet from the Deep Space 9 opening sequence. Sure, Trek Sense would have demanded the mission be a little different (probably universal), and I don't think Starter Deck II had anything but TNG cards, but that's a great, and as yet unused effect. This one's a 2.9.

LORE: The mission is invention even if the system exists (it was J'Ddan's last known location in "The Drumhead"), and it makes use of the presence of our own system's Oort cloud to infer similar constructs elsewhere. I'm not certain there are that many miltary applications to comet trails, but commercial ones are probable. There's good stuff here, though the title might misleed some into looking for a "cloud of comets". A 3.3.

TREK SENSE: If a choice of something military had been included somewhere in the requirements, I might have liked it more (say, Security), or even some kind of Acquisition/Greed-type skill, but it does about half-and-half for itself with what's there. Navigation would be required to follow the comet without impediment. Science is natural, of course. Physics seems appropriate though wouldn't Astrophysics fit better? After all, a comet is outer space phenomena which is more related to Astrophysics, whereas Physics would look at anti-matter engines, warp fields and time travel. Since those two skills have often been ill-defined on the cards, the problem may be slight. Computer Skill would be use to compute the data, or possibly use sensors, but I don't think it's that necessary. If it were, you'd see it on almost every Study mission and it just ain't there. No real problem with the Span or the points, which seem fine from what we know. And the affiliations which may attempt? Well the Romulans and Cardassians are the military people, and I guess the Ferengi and Non-Aligned are the commercial ones. Why them? Well, since J'Ddan was a traitor to the Romulans, it would make sense his last known whereabouts would be close to the Romulan border. The Cardassians, no evidence either way, and you gotta wonder why them rather than, say, the closer Klingons. They have better scientists, maybe that's it. On the flip side of that coin, the Ferengi are of course naturals, but the NAs, while having a number of profiteers, just aren't that focused as an "affiliation". Some are commercially-minded, others not at all. And with exploitative skill, you're not encouraged to use the right personnel. A small problem on which to end a review, but there it is. Totalling it up, there's probably more good than bad, so a 3.3.

SEEDABILITY: A Non-Aligned deck most definitely can be made viable. We have enough missions now, and Study Cometary Cloud isn't one of the worst. It's a place to hang your NA hat anyway (at the Husnock Outpost coat rack). The Cardassians and Romulans both have SCIENCE deck archetypes, and the Cardies just made it better (they had fewer missions than the Rommies before). The Ferengi certainly need all the missions they can get, but this isn't as suited to their skill redundancy. No personnel can solve it alone, but you can come real close. Galen and Jaheel are NAs that get you everything but the Physics, as would Romulan Lovok. Speaking of Romulans, the common Varel can do it with the help of any old Navigation personnel. Nothing close for the Cardassians, and nothing real close for the Ferengi (Mr. Rom is from another quadrant). Still, the possibilities are there. A good enough 3.4.

TOTAL: 12.9 (64.5%) Got to the end in good shape.

PICTURE: The small pulsar in the center of the image is well supplemented by various dusts and gases interestingly placed around it. I like it, plus it respects the fact that a neutron star would have had to go supernova at some point in its lifetime, creating nebulae in the process. A strong 3.5.

LORE: No universal mission has the same "location" named, and here it's "uncharted space" which fits it well. The mission objectives themselves are scientifically reasoned, so the invention here isn't farfetched. Solid mission lore, even if it has no clear Trek source. A 3.4.

TREK SENSE: The title is generic enough to be universal, as all pulsars may be so studied. All pulsars including those found in other quadrants, because I again find fault with the reasoning that universal missions are quadrant-specific. Sometimes they are, but not purely scientific ones like this. Since a star is involved, Astrophysics is a natural here, and I suppose Navigation would be useful in navigating the gravitic stresses around a neutron star. The mission implicitly requires data interpretation, and that's where the Computer Skill comes in. So that all works. The Feds, Klingons and Romulans all share common borders as was often shown in TNG, so they no doubt have common "uncharted space". A case could have been made to include other affiliations, but if the location makes the mission less universal (in a sense), I suppose that also helps fix the quadrant issue mentioned earlier. No problem with Span or points, especially for a generic universal. Well done if generally unimpressive at 3.6.

SEEDABILITY: Only one personnel can solve this mission alone (Wesley Crusher), but where low points are concerned, the best way to go is probably with mission specialists, especially when dealing with the three original affiliations. That's how you can turn a universal 25-pointer into a 40-pointer. Doable? The Feds can use Hobson/Barclay, Soren and Gibson. The Romulans have Palteth, Tomek and Gorrus (unfortunately OS/AU). As for the Klingons, they'll need a little Non-Aligned help from Narik, then add Torin and B'iJik, Klag or Konmel. Those aren't particularly difficult to come by, and you can use them again and again on multiple Study Pulsars. Slightly above average at 3.4.

TOTAL: 13.9 (69.5%) Some cards will be generic no matter what, but here, that was done with some thought.
 
 

#117-Add Distinctiveness, Incident, Borg use only, Hidden Agenda, X points, Premium
-Seeds or plays on table. X varies, where X=number of skill icons on personnel you've assimilated as drones. Also, if you are behind by 40 or more points, once per game you may open a sealed First Contact expansion pack. Play or place in hand any or all non-seed cards in that pack (non-Borg cards are assimilated or stolen, as appropriate), then place the others out-of-play.

PICTURE: Real creepy. I don't know who makes the best zombie - the drone with its pasty skin and skeleton's rib cage, or the zonked-out crewwoman being led to someplace she can add her distinctiveness at. The lights of the corridor and arm-to-shoulder composition create real movement in the image. A very good 4.1.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)

TREK SENSE: Great title by the way. So, what is "distinctiveness"? Well, as far as the game is concerned, "distinctiveness" is everything that makes a personnel different from another (and is relevant to the Borg). That would mean a personnel's skills. And since adding distinctiveness is one of the Borg's goals (and where there's a goal, there are points to be earned), it makes perfect sense to be giving out points for those additions to the collective. After all, Counterparts give the Borg 5 points per skill dot, why not the rest of assimilated society? The second function is less deserving. It's fun, don't get me wrong, but somewhat wrong-headed. The first component is that you are required to be at least 40 points behind your opponent. Why? Game balance, of course, but that doesn't translate into Trek Sense. Next, it entitles you to (once per game) open a sealed FC pack, retrieve the 9 cards within, placing all relevant cards into your hand, as they are, assimilated (for Federation and NA personnel and ships) or stolen (for non-Borg equipment). Conceptually, this would represent the Borg adding the distinctiveness of a stray vessel or landing party. Problems: Why couldn't your opponent use those resources if they "existed" in the universe before then? How do Borg personnel, ships et al. figure into this, especially if they have the Delta Quadrant icon? What about unique personnel already on the table? The feature is all "Add" and no "Add Distinctiveness". Whimsical, but hurts the Sense score. A 3.7.

STOCKABILITY: Just about the only bonus points the Borg can go after, so it's quite worth it. It's not a whole lot of points (a mission specialist will only be worth 1 point, for example), but it can, in the right circumstances, offset the low point values of Borg Objectives. Since most are worth 25 points, Borg will usually have to complete four. That's a lot compared to your opponent's two or three missions. Do it right: Assimilate Homeworld for 40, Assimilate Counterpart for (let's be reasonable) 25, and a regular Planet Assimilation for another 25. Now, you're only missing 10 points. Notice that you got the chance to battle your opponent's personnel to grab a Counterpart. Throw in a lot of Talon drones and even Assimilation Tubules, and those points are yours. If you play your cards right, you don't even have to grab that great a Counterpart. The second function isn't one I plan to see a lot of, but it's not a bad one. If you're 40 points behind (which may well happen if your opponent is playing a speed deck and you're stalled trying to staff your Cube in the Delta Quadrant), you can open a pack of First Contact and grab everything Borg in there, assimilating everything that isn't. Even better, you can play those cards right away! Given that there are very few seed cards in the FC expansion, you should easily be getting 5-9 usable cards in one swift move. What I really love about it, is that Add Distinctiveness doesn't discard after this function, meaning that personnel assimilated automatically will give you Bonus points, just like those you had to work for. Not necessary, but can be very useful... a 4.6.

TOTAL: 16.53 (82.67%) Enhanced First Contact has some beautiful, well-designed and powerful cards to offer, especially the Incidents. Look for more high scores in that category.

PICTURE: First, a couple words about Borg design, since this is my first review of that affiliation. What can I say, it's great. Really distinctive with its metallic gray background and white-on-black lore. The best thing about Borg design though is the way Decipher made the subcommand icons. First, they correspond to the same three colors we are used to -blue, green and red - and on all drones, their icon matches the one 7 they have in their attributes. Plus, remember who gets which icon when they are assimilated. Command icon personnel get the Communication subcommand. Both those icons have 6 points, the subcommand icon as electricity. Staff icon personnel become Navigation drones, 4 points. No icon? Defense subcommand which just has a line passing though it. All wonderful. Now about Bareil. There was a fair amount of commotion when the prefabricated counterparts came out. Computer-manipulated images? We can't have that! Well, Decipher's been manipulating images since Premiere with its Easter Eggs, but also with such things as Impassable Door and, in the warp pack, Countermanda. So how well is Bareil manipulated? Fairly well. These counterparts strike us as slightly ridiculous don't they? But they are all built on Locutus' model, with a laser beam and no eye prosthetic. Bareil should probably have no hair, since Borg don't (maybe Locutus kept his), the laser is much too pink to be believable, and the body they gave him looks like it's missing an arm. He's just a bust. Plus I hate the gray background on these guys. They look pasted on, where a nice alcove would have strengthened the illusion. Borg design apart, the picture gets a 2.8, mostly for effort.

LORE: I won't keep you on lore as long as I did on picture (yow!) It's pretty straight out of Locutus' with the Federation replaced by the Bajorans, the parallel universe thrown in and the Persona bold-facing thrown out. All the elements are there, but these have never been interesting. The name of the personnel is kinda boring too. I'll remind you it wasn't Picard of Borg, it was Locutus. The Star Trek novels did this better when the made personnel from other affiliations into counterparts. The Romulan one from The Return was called Vox for example. So why no cool Bajoran-centered name? Pooh. A 2.8.

TREK SENSE: Well there's no instance of this character in Star Trek, but I'm ready to believe in the story that the parallel universe overrun by the Borg from "Parallels" housed all these guys. Nothing major here. It's Bareil (who I'll get to in its own good time) as if he had been assimilated, with the Strength boost (for cyber parts) and the little extra, first seen on Locutus, of boosting his ship's battling ability against his former affiliation. After all, he has the knowledge of his entire culture. Waitaminnit! Bareil? Vedek Bareil? Gardener Bareil? He has the technical and strategic information to undermine the Bajoran fleet? I don't think so, somehow. Drops to 3.

STOCKABILITY: He's been called the least useful pre-fab counterpart. Is he? Three icons, good stats and the ability to play Assimilate Homeworld right away, he shares with the others. And aside from Locutus, they all share the limitation brought by the AU icon. You'll have to spend an extra seed to be able to report them. Of course, you could spend that seed and play as many Counterparts as you wished, assimilating all those homeworlds you put on the spaceline one after the other, just so long as you reduced them to drones right after. Bareil's skills are some the Collective doesn't have handy: VIP, Diplomacy (double dose) and Honor in particular. Unfortunately, except for Diplomacy, they are not much good at passing dilemmas. And while both Cardassian and Bajoran players have a good chance of seeding Alter Records (Bajor), I wouldn't stock Bareil just in case. That would mean that you were playing him for his skill selection, which is inferior to the other pre-fabs. A 3.4.

TOTAL: 10 (50%) Yowch! Lots of effort went into these I know, and here I come and demolish the whole thing.

DESIGN: Since there's no picture on the overlay, let's talk design. These are fun, fun, fun! Sure, you can make believe that those Federation employees now in your service are assimilated Borg, but the overlays shows you. Too bad there's no way stick Borg Implants on top of that and really complete the illusion, eh? The see-though windows aren't made for everyone though as personnel with large game text boxes (like Admiral Riker) won't let all their skills show through, and those that have restrictions boxes simply won't be aligned correctly. I had some fun writing this review by testing the Com drone overlay on all the command personnel available to see which one would make the nicest drone, and the winner of the Miss Borg pageant is... Orta! Martok gets to be Miss Photogenic. ;-) The fact that a couple of command icon personnel could be Borg (or on their way to Borg) sends this one flying to a 4.

LORE: First the identification, Communication Drone. Makes sense, though I prefer to name my own assimilated drones, Sarek, for example is my Diplomcay Drone, Koral my Basketball Drone, etc. Not possible for the overlay of course ;-). The lore itself (or "Task") is a little cheap. This would have been the perfect place to give us some of the tasks performed by the entire subcommand - facilitate the hive's ability to share skills, adapt to hazards, etc. But I also understand the need for space with that big classification hanging at the top of the lore box. Kind of odd too that the personnel gets to keep its name and doesn't get a Borg designation. A plain Jane 2.5.

TREK SENSE: Here's a good place to discuss assimilation of command personnel. Command personnel become Communication drones, and that's pretty accurate of their function aboard their former ships. Command personnel give orders, coordinate efforts within or between departments and interface with other vessels. Communication is probably the biggest part of a captain's routine. I've never quite understood the overall drops in attributes upon assimilation though. Sure, Integrity and Cunning could be spread through the collective, bringing the new drone in line with the collective's thoughts, but what about Strength? Koral is really going to go from 10 to 5? Since Strength is also about battle savvy, and that's mental, I guess we could let it slide (but it seems like androids are getting the short end of the stick). A question: why is Integrity the favored attribute in the Communication subcommand? I understand the need for Integrity in interpersonal communication, but this is the Borg. They communicate with one another like my brain communicates with my fingers right now. A Borg mystery. The big mistake on the overlay itself though is the Delta Quadrant icon that shouldn't be there at all as all the personnel available for assimilation are from the Alpha or Gamma Quadrants. Drops the score to a 2.9.

USEFULNESS: Well, are you really going to not remember if that Alidar Jarok is brainwashed or assimilated? It's a nice visual aid, especially for a quick scan of staffing icons, but that's about it. Cool trick: put the sleeve over Hugh. He becomes a Drone called Interrupt (ID: Hugh) with the skill of "Nullifies attack by Borg Ship for this turn OR destroys" (the windows don't match up correctly). Destroys what? Well, I guess they mean that Borg Ship. Darn Premiere and it's ambiguous wording, eh?.;-) And Hugh IS a Communications drone. He has to be. So in an anything goes game, or against a rookie player (Siskoid in no way supports this idea, no more than he supports any of the cheese strategies the Rolodex may relate to the playership), he could be big. Not that big though since the 45 points from a destroyed Borg Ship don't count for the Borg. For fun mostly, a 2.5.

TOTAL: 11.9 (59.5%) Interested in seeing how the other overlays will compare.

DESIGN: I've done the Communication drone overlay before, and this one isn't all that different. Like the other one, it's huge fun. Why use your imagination when you can have a visual aid (you television addicted monkeys!)? ;-) Again, the see-through window won't align right with certain personnel, especially those with restriction boxes or larger than usual game text boxes. This is too bad because many of these make lucrative counterparts. Dual-affiliation personnel too will look like they are Borg/something else. The Counterpart overlay further has to align attribute numbers. I thought that personnel with Strength in the double digits would have trouble fitting the acetate, but no, those boxes align remarkably well. The +3 is a little clumsy, but necessary. Only someone like Kivas Fajo will have any trouble, but he isn't a great target because he's Non-Aligned. Too bad too they couldn't put "of Borg" in the title area, so that when you assimilate Damar, it says "Damar of Borg". Wouldn't fit the longer names of course. I'd run a pageant again, but I'm afraid the same guys would win as they were unique males as well as Command personnel. A 3.8.

LORE: They just took the standard counterpart formula and stripped it to the bone for this one, and of course, they had to to make it one size fits all. An average 3.

TREK SENSE: Why not discuss Counterpart assimilation as a whole? I've discussed who to target under Assimilate Counterpart, but never the changes that occur in a personnel once he is assimilated as a Counterpart. First, he trades any icons he has for the three subcommands. Counterparts, like the Queen, are very adaptable and can fulfill any required role on a Borg ship. He retains his species and gender, but only for use of Borg cards. Gender et al. are still irrelevant. The big change from regular assimilation is that he gets to keep his attributes. This makes more sense than run-of-the-mill assimilation to me (though the drones pretty much look like they've lost a great part of themselves) as the person is assimilated for who he is. Counterparts seem to retain a little more of what would be called their individuality to make better Borg "Kings". The adjustment to Strength is probably because of the mechanical implants. Like I said, makes more sense than other assimilations. The big mistake on all the overlays is that the Delta Quadrant appears on it, but all personnel available for assimilation are from the Alpha of Gamma Quadrants! A dive at the end to 3.6.

USEFULNESS: Of course, players aren't nitwits and can remember who their counterpart is by heart, but the counterpart overlay is actually a little more helpful than most. First, since only one counterpart can exist at a time, you'll always have enough overlays, even if you only bought one box of EFC. Second, the little +3 Strength is a good reminder of something you might otherwise forget while counting attribute numbers in haste. So again, mostly for fun, a 2.8.

TOTAL: 13.2 (66%) Up 6.5% from the Communication drone overlay.

DESIGN: Third overlay, so by now, you might know how it's done. There's no pic, so design is the issue and, like the others, this kind of half-card is great fun. Again, weaknesses include uneven matching up of windows when a personnel has a restriction box, large game text box or two affiliation icons, and the fact that no Borg implants can reasonably be added to the personnel's face. Always like to run a contest with these to see who would make the best defense drone from all the possible non-Command, non-Staff personnel. The winner: Berlingoff Rasmussen! I just laughed at his tiny cybernetic arm (finger?). Just imagine him looking at an assimilation drone here. Miss photogenic goes to Pallra who's got a shiny Seven of Nine look going. And the Exocomp was in the running until the swimsuit competition which drummed the little fellow out. Equals the Com drone overlay at 4.

LORE: Well, as I've said before, I'd much rather name my assimilated drones myself, rather than have them sport a generic name. For example, Vash becomes my Pillage Drone, and Anya my Nanny Drone. The "Task" is cheap, with Decipher missing the boat by not listing the usual tasks of the Defense subcommand. As is, we don't really know what the Borg does. As with the Communication drone, why does the personnel not get a Borg designation instead of keeping its real name? Like it's overlay sister: a 2.5.

TREK SENSE: Let's talk assimilation. When you assimilate someone with neither Command nor Staff, he or she becomes a Defense drone. Enterprise-E personnel too, which makes no sense (the icon strikes another blow at Trek Sense). It seems that the lack of staffing ability only makes you good for guard duty. Anybody can do it apparently, it requires no real skill. Sad for Worf, Tasha and other SECURITY personnel, but the other affiliations show that off too as there are almost no Security-related skills out there (Leadership and Honor?). The attribute changes are okay, though some Strength really shouldn't drop this low (the rest of the attributes are mental in nature and assimilation makes everyone equal). 7 is still a high Borg attribute number and STRENGTH is the preferred Defense drone attribute. Makes sense. And I still hate that Delta Quadrant icon on the overlay, when your assimilated personnel will all come from the Alpha or Gamma quadrants. Like Locutus, there should be no icon. A couple of problems keep this one at 3.5.

USEFULNESS: All depends on your ability to remember which personnel are assimilated to look like what. You can't keep the drones straight without the rulesheet handy? These are for you. It's too bad overlays come in a fairly expensive product. It keeps most of us from having enough overlays to really start assimilating people. Well, you can, but they won't all look as cool. Fun trick? Place the overlay over Crosis (who, I'm sure, used to be Defense subcommand) and reassimilate him into the Collective. This will give you a Borg called Interrupt, with the designation "Crosis". His one and only skill (cut-off by the see-through window): "Plays on Rogue Borg. Doubles their STRENGTH,". You can convince a newbie that your Crosis can double RBMs played at the same location. Not very useful, and entirely illegal. Probably won't even work. Oh, and not endorsed by Siskoid. ;-) Overlays are just fun, really. A 2.5.

TOTAL: 12.5 (62.5%) 0.6 better than the Communication drone overlay.

PICTURE: While all the imaginary counterparts have somewhat dinky pictures and bland backgrounds, I think Dukat looks pretty good. I'm even nominating him for best digitally created Borg. Perhaps it's the scales and already gray skin tone that meshes well with the Borg stuff. His expression holds some humor, the implants are well molded to his head (check where his left forehead ridge meets the black implant) and the eye shoots a laser straight on. Going as high as a 4 on this one.

LORE: The same boring old thing all the Counterparts since Locutus got, so not very interesting (I like the use of the word Union though). Add to that a lame name: if Picard was reborn as Locutus, why wasn't Dukat reborn as some cool Cardassian-inspired "voice" name? Can't go over 2.9.

TREK SENSE: Let us assume that in the alternate universe overrun by Borg, Cardassia was indeed assimilated, and Dukat was used as a counterpart. It's a reasonnable (and fun!) extrapolation. Now, I'll do Dukat in due course, and this is basically Dukat assimilated, implanted (for Strength) and with an ability similar to Locutus', that of adding military power against Cardassian ships. Like other counterparts, Dukat has all the information about his people's military abilities. While this failed to strike me as realistic for Bareil, it is very much so for Dukat. Not a bad 4.1.

STOCKABILITY: Obviously perfect if you want to assimilate Cardassia, and with Ore Processing decks making the Cardassians a fairly popular affiliation, you may get a chance to do some damage. You'll of course need an AU doorway or Space-Time Portal, but that may be worth it, especially if using other AU Counterparts (one after the other of course). He brings some good skills to the Collective, including OFFICER, Leadership, Diplomacy and Treachery which aren't available on any drones. Treachery in particular is unique and will allow your Dukat to toss intruders on your cube out the Airlock (that's some nice STRENGTH). Navigation and Computer Skill are also useful for dilemma passing and other things that may be thrown in your way (including a number of pollution cards that slow you down). The WEAPONS and SHIELDS boosts is just  a little bonus that'll at least counter a lucky Tactic draw by the Cardassian player. Add the usual perks of the counterparts like three subcommand icons, (great for probes, staffing and dilemma resolution alike) and you've got a winner. A strong 4.3.

TOTAL: 15.3 (76.5%) Our boy Dukat has done well for himself.

PICTURE: Well, this guy certainly looks like a zombie. The blue lighting and thin build really help to give this impression. The tilted angle is also spooky. A good scare at 3.9.

LORE: I like how the Computer Crash nullification bit is reffered to as ensuring data continuity, real clever that. Augment? Is that supposed to refer to yet another Computer Skill skill? In any case, not a bad effort. I give it a 3.8.

TREK SENSE: Well, a Complink drone works with Computers, so requires the Computer Skill, quite sensibly. Ensuring network data continuity also requires being able to stop any Computer Crash from interrupting that continuity. Of course, I doubt it can handle ALL Computer Crashes at once, even those of rival affiliations (why would it?). The SCIENCE is an expression of the drone's Computer ability falling into pure math, so I'll buy it. And the seeding ability is, well, nice for the Borg, but not entirely sensible. Maybe all outposts have a Complink drone lurking around because the central computer is there. Who knows? There are still a lot of mysteries about the Borg. Finally, we see that it's a Communications drone, and since it ties in all Borg property into the one network, it's at the right place. A couple of bugs keep it from going higher than the still high 4.3.

STOCKABILITY: A necessary addition to the Collective, 11 of 17 came about because of the release of Computer Crash. Because that card disrupts your ability to download cards, and because the Borg rely so much on downloading (everywhere from Objectives to Personnel), Computer Crash was a bit overpowered against the Borg affiliation. It shot down Retask like nobody's business and really limited your use of the Queen, Awaken and Activate Subcommands. Instead of an Event to save the day, we have a personnel which can kind of play like an event if you leave him at the untouchable Delta Quadrant outpost. It nullifies ALL Computer Crashes, so you can't be using them either, but your opponent might be getting a handful of useless cards is you seed Complink from the get-go and leave him in a secure area. Best used for insurance, he can still come along on scouting attempts, but his Computer Skill and SCIENCE are already found on 5 and 3 other personnel respectively. On all of them with Interlink present, so no big advantage in that capacity, though he's a quickly reported subcommand icon for your Cube, with skills required on many a dilemma. A very effective 4.5.

TOTAL: 16.3 (81.5%) Borg players everywhere are probably thanking Decipher for this one.

PICTURE: Okay, first, the greenish gray background has gotta go. Some Borg cube ramparts would have been way better on the CGI counterparts. As for the manipulated image of Gowron, it's okay. The facial hair remains for some reason, but the long locks are gone. The laser is point blank towards us (since Gowron is as confrontational as they get) and looks more real than many of the others. The leather suit looks more like something Micheal Jackson might have worn than any kind of Borg exoskeleton. At least the distinctive eyes were assimilated into the Collective. Is that bad CGI where the hair used to be on the head? Odd color, is all, and no ears. All in all, still a good effort at 3.4.

LORE: Same old, same old. All the counterparts have this formula (taken from Locutus) and a terrible name. Gowron of Borg? It wasn't Picard of Borg, was it? A Klingon "communicator" name would have been cool, but may not exist ;-). A total of 2.9 here.

TREK SENSE: If, indeed, in an alternate universe, the Borg overran the Alpha quadrant, they could indeed have assimilated the Klingon Empire (though I'm sure it wasn't easy). Fun extrapolation, like the others. So it's basically Gowron himself, with all his skills and attributes, plus a Strength boost from the Borg implants. Since he knows everything about his Empire's military and technological capabilities, he boosts a ship's Weapons and Shields against Klingon ship. Everything thus far mimics Locutus' abilities. Add to that the usual 3 subcommands available to a Counterpart (remember, Locutus had access to them all as Data discovered). Then, there's that unique ability to allow his hive to initiate battle. If the Borg indeed add the distinctiveness of a people to their Collective, then it goes to reason a little Klingon blood would make them more aggressive. I know it's for balance's sake, but that Gowron can only allow one battle initiation hurts Trek Sense a little. Still, an impressive 4.6.

STOCKABILITY: With Blaze of Glory's boost, the Klingons are becoming increasingly popular. That means assimilating their homeworld and getting bonuses against their ships has more chance of hurting an opposing player picked at random. Not only will Gowron of Borg allow this without the need for an Assimilate Counterpart objective, but he can even preemptively strike any opponent - not something that a naturally assimilated counterpart could ever do. And with Borg Cube WEAPONS being so high, you might as well go against facilities. Other tempting strategies for your one free attack (free, in that no Eliminate Starship is required) include going after armadas with a Multiplexor drone, or deliberately going after personnel with Borg Cutting Beam. As a dilemma passer, none of his regular skills are normally available to the Collective, though only Leadership and Diplomacy will really see any use. Excellent attributes too, especially the STRENGTH! 3 Subcommand icons is great for staffing and probing. His VIP can be used to Open Diplomatic Relations and then... attack! He's full of surprises, but you'll need an AU-reporting card to get him. A good 4.5.

TOTAL: 15.4 (77%) As if the Empire could ever really fall... ;-)

DESIGN: These half-cards are great fun, and though they don't have a picture, they do have a design ethic. Like the other three, it has some basic flaws in that 1) some pictures don't fit in the window due to restriction boxes and the like, and 2) (and I know there's no actual way to do this) there's no Borg implant overlay to add to the personnel's face. And like the other three, I've taken the liberty of running a pageant to see which Staff personnel looks the best as a Borg. While Mendon and Mordock both have implants after a fashion, and the Soong-Type Android is ALL implant, the prize goes to a Jem'Hadar. Have you noticed that they have similar body suits, and in the right light, the Ketracel feeding tube looks like wiring? The best-looking one is Duran'Adar whose background lighting darkens the suit enough to assimilate him nicely. I found there just weren't a whole lot of cool assimilations in this particular personnel subsection. 3.8 here.

LORE: Why not list some Navigation tasks here instead of this lame line? And while Navigation drone as an ID is appropriate, I still like naming my new assimilates myself. Thus, Bashir Founder can become the "Supernova Drone", and Wesley Crusher, "Genius Brat Drone" ;-). I really don't think the personnel should get to keep their names intact (at least put a "of Borg" at the end of them). The usual "fair without being satisfying" 2.5 I gave the other overlays.

TREK SENSE: While this half-card isn't necessary to assimilate personnel, it does represent it, so we'll talk about the Trek Sense behind assimilation. Staff icon personnel get drafted to the Navigation subcommand. This makes some measure of sense, since piloting a ship is a staff position. Of course, Staff personnel may come from security, sciences, engineering, not just the helm. Still, the Communication and Defense subcommands are well assigned, so Staff gets what's left. It just doesn't work as well. The Delta quadrant icon is still disturbing to me since all the personnel assimilated are going to be from the Alpha or Gamma quadrants, and aren't even likely to go back to the Delta during the game. That's just a mistake. As for the attribute assigned the magic 7, Navigation is here connected to Cunning. This is okay, I suppose. Computing trajectories, etc. may as well be Cunning-related. This one can't be worth more than 2.4.

USEFULNESS: Basically for players who can never remember what subcommands their assimilated drones belong to. Unfortunately, overlays aren't a dime a dozen. They come from an expensive product, and in limited supply. Multiple assimilation will have you run out FAST. Of course, that one overlay is still fun, and that's worth a few chuckles at least. For the other overlays, I gave a couple of silly ideas (using them with Crosis and Hugh). What can I offer for Nav Drone? How about creating a Navigation Drone called INCIDENT that has a Navigation-related special skill? Here's how: Place it over Access Denied (nice Borg picture, though there are two drones in it). The skill box now says: "each dilemma there by 1. Also, while in play, nullifies all Establish Gateway objectives targeting your missions." Make that rookie believe that first part is a typo, and you can nullify his Establish Gateways on your stuff (if he's playing Borg) or your own without using A Change of Plans. This would be CHEATING. Still, trying it might be worth a Parallax Arguers you can't argue with. ;-). A tongue-in-cheek 3.3.

TOTAL: 12 (60%) But would the real score actually be 30%?

PICTURE: One of the most shocking - and effective! - sequences in First Contact, the drill bit through the eye isn't as interesting here, even though it catches the scene at the moment the cornea bends. Too dark in that area, certainly, but the card just doesn't have the three-dimentionality of the film. Still, well chosen. A 3.4.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)

TREK SENSE: Well, it's pretty conceptual isn't it? Indeed, the idea of having a Nightmare (or of one of your personnel having one) really shouldn't have a drastic game effect. In reality, this card attempts to create a Nightmare for your opponent (who isn't technically in the game). The dream is still one about the Borg (I'm sure Sisko had similar - if totally different - Nightmares), since either a Borg player or a Borg Ship dilemma must be present. But after that, aside from the fact Plexing, a relaxation technique, can be used to calm down and nullify the Nightmare, there's really no Trek Sense here. Looking at cards, hiding them away, replacing them here or there, the nullification bit... it's all arbitrary game mechanics. Only a 1.7 I'm afraid.

STOCKABILITY: If playing Borg (or if just using a Borg Ship dilemma, but that's more risky), you can put the hurt on your opponent by taking away up to three cards each turn, without of course surpassing the number of cards in their hand. Take away or not, you get a peek at up to three cards, so you can make a better decision about what to take away. Powerful cards that could break you should be taken away as soon as possible of course, but even relatively inane standbys like ships are required to solve missions. It's a difficult game of never taking away so many that Nightmare is nullified, but enough that it hurts your opponent. A steady diet of Kivas Fajo: Collector and The Traveller: Transcendence will keep your opponent's hand full, but you still have to fear from a sudden unloading of many cards in one blow (take away Interrupts, Doorways and personnel who report for free in that case). A sudden nullification of your card should always be followed by a Scorched Hand, so that all those stolen cards can't be used for a while yet (or at all). And I wouldn't really worry about Plexing, but since you can't peek without storing away cards, you're bound to slip and let your opponent widdle down their hand to less than your stock. This is far from a favorite among the Enhanced FC selection, but it's not a bad card for hosing your opponent. Not so much a Nightmare I don't think, but a cute little peek-take away card with an intimidating title, and not as hosed as Telepathic Alien Kidnappers. A 3.6.

TOTAL: 11.6 (58%) Matching a cool pic with an effect may indeed have been a nightmare.

PICTURE: Wow, this is a fine piece of cgi. I can't really tell which Terran city was assimilated here, but it hardly matters. The colors are very Borg, the walkways too and those have walking figures (drones) on them. The atmosphere is polluted just as Data's scans indicated, and that spotlight on the dark building adds a nice flash of light that helps composition along. Lovingly detailed, this card gets away from the fact that Assimilate Homeworld stole its pic... almost too well. A 5, oh yes.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)

TREK SENSE: The Borg's hidden agenda here seems to be more than simply assimilating a homeworld. Since it's being done in the past (through Stop First Contact), the Borg might as well turn Earth into an outpost in the Alpha quadrant. What are the benefits of doing this? Well, it makes a Borg outpost appear (download) here, naturally. Your Borg cards can now report here because they have a foothold in our quadrant as much as in the Delta, in effect removing the DQ icon from the personnel and ships. That this can be done whether you download an outpost or not is a little disturbing. I think it would work better if you HAD to download the outpost. It also doubles any points scored from objectives completed in the Alpha quadrant, but why, I'm not sure. Seems to be no more than incentive to use Stop First Contact, so is not very good here. Hmm... nope, can't get my head around it. I'll bet when we get a Delta quadrant spaceline, they won't score double points there. That gets the card down to a 3.8.

STOCKABILITY: Stop First Contact being so difficult has made it one of the least worthwhile Borg objectives. It's so difficult, it has a back-up in Build Interplexing Beacon, which is likewise difficult to do. Enter Population 9 Billion - All Borg (great title). If you succeed at Stoping First Contact, you flip this card over and suddenly, your Borg can report to the Alpha quadrant. The ships don't have to go through the Gateway Network to get to the spaceline anymore. And smaller ships without personnel reporting ability don't have to go back to the Delta quadrant every time they need to increase their hive, nor do you have to waste Awakens and Activate Subcommands to do so. What's more - and indeed, what's better - all your objectives after this successful 40-point Assimilate Homeworld are double points in the Alpha quadrant! Just complete a Salvage Starship, and you have yourself a two-mission win (40+60=100). This incentive is welcome especially when you're not facing a Federation opponent. Stoping First Contact does a lot of damage to Federation history, but won't affect the other affiliations so much (or at all). This way, it can be worth it to assimilate a self-seeded Earth in the past. It's not any easier, but it's more rewarding. Giving this one a 4.2.

TOTAL: 17.33 (86.67%) Now that's what I call enhanced.

PICTURE: A new shot of Locutus is of course welcome, and the profile isn't bad. The background looks like something out of the Original Series (like a computer thinking), but it goes with the whole Borg color scheme. Since the card has to do with the role of counterparts, it's an appropriate pic, but not particularly exciting. A 3.4.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)

TREK SENSE: This card shows just how a counterpart "services the collective". As such, it's naturally Borg-use only, but the Hidden Agenda aspect isn't as solid. If a counterpart is supposed to speak to his former people, his presence among the Borg isn't a secret. The fact that he knows everything he used to know as an individual may be unknown to some, but a Hidden Agenda? Not for long. There are two ways the Borg can use a counterpart's knowledge against his former affiliation, so two functions here. The first tells us the Borg can use the counterpart's knowledge of mission locations with an affiliation icon matching his former affiliation to allow the collective to probe more quickly. That's not bad, but I don't see how some of those exploration missions are really "known". Just look at the missions: You'd expect a Federation member to know all about Betazed, but it's a Dominion counterpart that would actually be in the know. Turns out, many missions are like that. Scouting at any homeworld also benefits from this card, but here, it's whether you have a counterpart present or not. Rationale? Well, maybe assimilating homeworlds is such a strong imperative, your collective tries extra hard. Iffy, I know. The second function simply brings counterparts in line with the pre-fabricated ones by giving them the ability to boost a ship's Weapons and Shields when battling their former affiliation. This ability makes sense here as it did there, since counterparts indeed often have knowledge on their affiliation's vessels' capabilities. Well, Picard and Gowron do. Not so sure about Mot the Barber or Toq though. That's basically the shortcoming of this card: the effects don't discriminate enough creating all these anomalies. But a good structure at 3.6.

STOCKABILITY: One of the worse things about playing the Borg is the low speed, and nothing brings that speed as low as having to wait a turn after scouting to probe a mission. Heck, that's enough time for your opponent to swoop in and solve a dilemma-less mission! Service the Collective is a nice, seedable solution to that problem. Just finished scouting? Probe right away. You only have to pick missions that match your chosen counterpart or homeworlds (which are great for points anyway) to do it. Swooping in yourself isn't a bad idea, probing right away at dilemma-less missions. As a fringe benefit, any counterpart you assimilated yourself gets the usual +4/+4 to its ship against ships from its former affiliation. That means there's actually a use, when not using a homeworld assimilation strategy, to assimilating a Non-Aligned as a counterpart. Takes care of those NA ships... and your opponent thought his Husnock Ships were impervious to Borg Cube direct hits. There's no longer any stigma attached to your not buying the Fajo Collection or Enhanced FC... ooops! I guess you did to get this one! ;-) You can even have fun assimilating dual-aligned personnel and attacking all ships (cool against Treaty decks). I'd say the big thing here is the speed factor which helps the Borg tremedously. A 4.5.

TOTAL: 15.33 (76.67%) Heh, just got that it brings the self-made counterparts "up to speed".

PICTURE: The EFC drones are REALLY creepy, both looking for all the world like zombies. 6 of 19 has that blank stare, and an offset eye that looks popped out of its socket. The direction of the living eye is followed by lines in the background, which makes the composition dynamic, and the shadows and few splashes of color generally work well. Oh, and should that lozenge in the middle of his forehead be taken to mean that he's from the same humanoid species as the Talon drone? A superlative (and spooky) 4.3.

LORE: I like it. The special skill is summarized in a single phrase, and the term "rogue" for us becomes "defective" for the Collective. Also no problem with the ID name, makes sense. A 3.8.

TREK SENSE: Though the whole Collective/Rogue Borg split was always a little nebulous on Next Gen, the Rogues obviously never supplanted the Collective, and Voyager has shown a number of "rogue" Borg (including Seven) and efforts to reassimilate them. The Reassimilation drone makes sense then. Do its abilities? Well, while the lone Borg can do nothing against an entire rogue Borg Ship, it can turn one Rogue Borg Mercenary into a drone (downloaded to replace the discarded Rogue). Elegant and simple, and sidesteps the problem of assimilating a non-personnel card which would have no skills, attributes, etc. It does create a double-standard however: Why can the Collective simply reassimilate a Borg Ship by reinitiating contact with it (i.e. playing Retask on it), but lone drones must be personnally reassimilated? Intruder Alert also has an effect on RBMs, albeit an indirect one through Intruder Force Field. Its other effects have more to do with intruders (duh), which isn't really the venue of a RE-assimilation drone, but does go with the Defense icon. As for Exobiology's presence, it must be due to the assimilation of different species etc, though since he's assimilating Borg back into Borg, why not Cybernetics instead? Great central ability, though the tag-ons are a little more iffy. A 4.

STOCKABILITY: Not only are Defense drones generally useful, but this guy's got a lot more going for him that just protecting you from RBM pings. But since there IS that, let's talk about it a little. RBM pinging (playing a lone RBM to get slaughtered but stop a ship) is annoying to any player, but the Borg already have a speed deficiency (starting in another quadrant, large ships requiring lots of staffing, probing). 6 of 19 will turn those pings into useful drones, and you won't be stopped! Now that's a sweet deal. His presence might mean the pinging will stop though, so those drones may not be forthcoming, though someone could take advantage of the situation to deplete your deck of drones (all good probes). The Intruder Alert download really shouldn't be used for its ability to jack up the limit of RMBs required to attack, but against intruders, it's a lot more interesting. Borg ships are always being pestered by not-so-irrelevant individuals. With a Talon Drone present, you can even capture one or two-personnel Away Teams aboard your ship, so if you don't have one, how about pinging YOURSELF, turning that RBM into a Talon drone download, followed by the Intruder Alert download. Now everything's in place. Of course, RBMs make for bad probes themselves. And though I find none of this particularly necessary to a Borg deck, the Exobiology is. There are only two Borg personnel (not counting the Queen) with Exobiology: Countermeasure and this guy. And while Countermeasure is an excellent drone (where have I heard those words before?), a mix of personnel can't possibly hurt. You'll save on the Adapts when encountering those infernal Exobiology dilemmas, or even save some lives when you think of Harvester Virus (which can't be adapted to). Some cool abilities, but I admit he's close to being just a magic bullet - 3.6.

TOTAL: 15.7 (78.5%) Still too creepy for my decks ;-).

PICTURE: An excellent action shot, Cube exploding, Sphere being jettisoned, uniform color palette, great special effects... this is one hot card, though how much it matches the card's effect is debatable. A 4.5.

LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)

TREK SENSE: Without any lore, it's kind of difficult to figure out just what this card is supposed to represent, but its representing a Sphere-intensive strategy (just like in the game) is a safe enough bet. Would the Borg actually use that strategy in the "real world"? Well, they might in sectors relegated to secondary status (i.e. the spaceline as you know it), but they certainly wouldn't advertise it (justifying the Hidden Agenda icon). The Range boost can be explained in one of two ways: 1) conceptually, it's the rush we see in the pic; 2) following the strategy option, the Borg have adapted greater speed for their Spheres, making them "long-range" instead of "glorified escape pods". Spheres can pop up at the oddest times, as if lying in wait, at space locations you seeded (read as: originally targeted for scouting). Where these Spheres were actually hiding isn't clear since a Transwarp Gateway isn't also downloaded, but it could be a nebula cloud, or scan masking, or some other technology the Borg forgot to tell us they had. At a planet mission, I could see a Sphere hiding behind some astral body. But in space, everyone can see you spin. Why Spheres would then have the right to "protect their territory" is equally unknown. It's no more in their habit than it is for Cubes. Maybe opposing ships aren't such mosquitoes anymore, and Sphere actually defend themselves more aggressively. That could work. One last point which doesn't work that well: any number of Spheres can be downloaded when opponent attempts one of your missions. Not only does this lack of an upper limit worsen the problem mentioned earlier of where the Spheres come from, but it also means Spheres are moving around in packs. This pretty much goes against everything we've seen of the Borg (except in Borg space) up to now. Obviously designed to boost cards which weren't being used, not with storytelling in mind. A 2.

STOCKABILITY: Problem 1 - When the Borg scout a space mission, they don't solve it, only remove its dilemmas. So what's stopping an unscrupulous opponent from attempting and solving that mission with no opposition? Fair Play could do the trick, but not in certain situations. Besides, there's a much cooler way to protect your missions: Sphere Encounter (I bet you knew I was going to say that). With this card in play, any move on that scouted space mission can result in a swarm of Borg Spheres, all of them with the ability to attack! Since they report with crew, the Borg player can essentially lay out his entire deck right there (fight that compulsion if you want to keep good probes in your deck), but will do just as well getting attribute boosts from Tactical and Guard drones to help in that attack. Depending on the size of your swarm, you're opponent may have to contend with multiple ships firing too. As good as dead? Perhaps. It all depends on the number of Spheres and drones you stocked for the download. They make okay probes, so that's not too much of a problem, but if you're using both Spheres and Cubes and/or Scouts, you don't want to keep drawing Spheres before the download (potential download). If you're only using Spheres, then you'll want to fix their principal problem (the low RANGE) from the very beginning, which kills the Hidden Agenda. No Hidden Agenda, no player dumb enough to actually attempt one of your space missions in the face of the incident. You might be lucky enough to catch a Federation opponent by stopping him at your Samaritan Snare (no choice but to attempt), but that's as far as you'll get there. Another trap is to seed a space Artifact, but not acquire it hoping your opponent will try to steal it. So it's a very powerful card IF it hits, which it may not. I'd say there's a balance here, one which limits the card somewhat. Basically, it's HQ: Defend Homeworld's second function for the Borg (also suspending battle restrictions), but you're either stocking useless Spheres just in case, or eventually using them at the cost of its better abilities. Spacedoor a Cube to your outpost at the very least. Thank you and good night. A 4.2.

TOTAL: 14.27 (71.33%) A big part of the Borg meta-game.

PICTURE: There's some great CGI with these counterparts, but a couple things do mar the image. One of them is the background which is just a dull matte, and the other is the laser beam which is too pink. Otherwise, they did a very good job here of putting new make-up on Tomalak. Some the the tubing is a little too sharply focused (more obvious CGI lacking the proper perspective blurring), and we should be suprised he got to keep so much body hair... Effort and coolness factors go a long way though, so a 3.4 from me here.

LORE: Boooooring. Sure, it makes mention of a parallel universe to explain the card away, and just copies the rest from Locutus, but in that spirit, I really think the pre-fab counterparts should have had a "communicator" name reminiscent of their culture. "Vox" works great for the Romulans (as evidenced in a famous Star Trek novel). Too bad. The same old 2.9 then.

TREK SENSE: I'm perfectly comfortable extrapolating that in the universe overrun by the Borg in "Parallels", the Collective indeed did assimilate the Star Empire. Tomalak IS the Picard of the Empire, so he makes as good a choice as any. Once assimilated as a countertop (I mean, counterPART), he gets all three subcommand icons, all his skills (Officer, Diplomacy, Leadership), the ability to boost Weapons and Shields against the Romulans (since he holds all the relevant strategic information à la Locutus) and keeps his attributes +3 Strength to represent cybernetic limbs. But Tomalak brings something else to the Collective. Once in play, the Borg instantly assimilate cloaking technology which they do not lose even if Tomalak is killed. Now, that's great since information really shouldn't be lost like that, BUT I'm quite surprised that Tomalak knows so much about Cloaking Devices. I don't see any Engineer or Physics on his card anywhere. As such, I don't think Tomalak was the right person to assimilate for this information. And how come assimilating the real Tomalak the old-fashioned way (or better yet, an actual Cloak Engineer) doesn't reproduce this effect? Nice enough despite my misgivings, so a 4.

STOCKABILITY: The Romulans have always had their fans, and I'm sure we'll keep seeing Romulan decks for a long while still despite their getting fewer cards per expansion than the other original three. And with their two HQs, the Borg can count on assimilating their homeworld if they do show up. Not that you can't seed the homeworld yourself, of course, but if the Romulans are in play, the damage will be more severe. Tomalak of Borg makes the entire enterprise much quicker by skipping Assimilate Counterpart altogether. If the Romulans ARE in play, well, you get a bonus when fighting them, which isn't that hot considering that Borg WEAPONS and SHIELDS are already high (though the effect will be felt on a Sphere or Scout though you probably wouldn't strand your important counterpart on such a small ship. That, and Romulan ships will most likely cloak when they see a Cube approaching (use Tachyon Drone!). Even without Romulan opponents, Tomalak brings elements usually absent from the Collective. They have no natural OFFICERs, Leadership or Diplomacy. With Interlink Drone, they can now have plenty. Of course, Dukat of Borg has all this and more, but it's worth putting Tomalak into play even if he's immediately killed or turned into a drone since as soon as he enters play, your Borg ships have a Cloaking Device (yes, for the rest of the game no matter what). While large Borg ships don't really need to hide, Borg-hunting armada decks may become a problem. Smaller ships DO need the protection, and seeing as your ships are worth points to your opponent, a Cloak isn't a bad idea. It's a much more efficient way to do it than Salvage Starship. For one thing, you can plan for it! No more stocking Engage Cloak just in case. Now, you know you can use it. And as that Borg Cube comes out of the mist, perhaps now armed with a Gowron of Borg, your opponent can only silently curse your name. Best way to grab the counterparts is still a Cryosatellite, so choose Tomalak first, demote him once you've recycled the others into your deck and get that Gowron, Locutus or whatever you need. Of course, there's the usual advantages afforded by Three-Dimensional Thinking and Service the Collective as well as passing Executive Authorization. A strong 4.5.

TOTAL: 14.8 (74%) Despite high usefulness, clocks in second-to-last among counterparts.

PICTURE: Excellent! The creepy Borg-coming-out-of-the-fog scene stands out as one of the powerful images from the movie, and we were all holding our collective breath for whatever card would get this pic. In fact, it was part of a magazine ad (for FC!) way before it ever came out, building anticipation. Rich blacks, cool red beams and a hommage to plenty of zombie movies... This one's a 4.9.

LORE: Glad to see the Borg mantra made it to a lore box near us! This is such a Star Trek classic that is just had to be done. Its link to the game text is a little tenuous, but it's still worth a 4.

TREK SENSE: This card doesn't so much represent anything in particular, does it? I mean, they always ARE the Borg, so why should this be an event? Does it represent their universal "hail"? A determination to push ahead and assimilate everything in sight? Maybe. Thus, the Borg can use that push in two ways. One is to activate two Defense drones (the best assimilators, but also the ones that would try to prove to intruders that resistance is futile). The other is more long-range (plays on table). The Borg are on the offensive to the degree that either one of their cards reports (is activated) for free each turn (a real swarm of ships and/or personnel), or they get an extra card draw at the end of the turn (the production of resources not yet put into play). Both these effects make sense. My only real objection at this point is that the card is immune to Kevin Uxbridge. "Kevin is irrelevant. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." I just don't buy that. This is exactly the kind of thing Kevin would interfere with. Still, good work once again from the design team. A 3.9.

STOCKABILITY: Now, the Borg already have personnel-downloading cards, so is the first function really that great? Well, Awaken is an Interrupt, but can only get you Defense drones if you're in personnel battle. Activate Subcommands is more similar, but if it's Defense drones you want, We Are the Borg is more focused. In any case, the real power of this card lies in its play-on-table function. It can't be nullified by Kevin, and it's quite flexible, giving you the choice each turn of either reporting a Borg card for free or drawing an extra card. The first of these choices will certainly be useful in staffing your ships (or re-staffing after mortal scouting attempts) or swarming the spaceline with them. The Borg's initial slowness in starting a game is pretty much countered with this card. The second choice is good too (if not better). It's a kind of Traveller: Transcendence if your will, but better. You can alternate it with the first choice to get the cards that report for free into your hand, then playing them, always keeping a steady supply. You can also use your various Borg personnel's special skills to convert these card draws into downloads: The Borg Queen can turn them into drones or A Change of Plans, Countermeasure Drone into Adapts; Procurement Drone into Borg Equipment and Transwarp Drone into transwarp cards (oh yeah, and Assimilation Table into an Implant). The Borg are snails no longer! While multiple copies would be useful to get Defense drone downloads to go out Taloning personnel (and are not a problem when it comes to probing), just the one on table will give you a real advantage. A very real 4.6.

TOTAL: 17.4 (87%) A new high score for Events.

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