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#18-Abandon Ship!, Dilemma, space, Premium
"Krinim attacks repeatedly damaged the U.S.S. Voyager. Failing life support led Captain Kathryn Janeway to order the evacuation of all personnel except senior staff."
-If ship damaged or RANGE reduced, personnel not needed for staffing are placed with dilemma atop mission. Rescue (opponent may capture) personnel with different ship here.

PICTURE: A fun image, all the more impressive because the card came out very soon after the "Year of Hell" episode. Even though it's dark, there are a lot of details visible: numbered trap doors, pock marks on the hull (lower left-hand corner), and other damage. It's lovely but not very dramatic for a card with a "!" in the title (as the evacuation in First Contact was). A 4.4.

LORE: The problem here is that while the situation pictured on the card is explained, the lore makes no real effort to describe the dilemma itself. Words to the effect that such a thing could happen to any ship - going from the specific to the general - would have much improved the text. Off track, but gives justification for the game text... a 2.5.

TREK SENSE: While it makes some Trek sense to have the bridge crew stay on the ship while the rest are on conceptual escape pods, it does lead to strange occurences. For example, do shuttles carry escape pods? But all things considered, its a good representation of what happened to Voyager. A 3.5.

SEEDABILITY: To actually hit, the ship must be damaged, or its Range needs to be reduced. The problem with that is that most ship-damaging dilemmas are pretty easy to pass. But with the right combo, Abandon Ship can work quite well. Birth of "Junior" hits more often than not, "Pup" most of the time, or you could stock Baryon Buildups aplenty. Large crews will get crushed, and Runabouts' (and other staffless ships') crews disappear entirely. Not the strongest Sealed Deck dilemma: a 3.8.

TOTAL: 14.2 (71%) A relatively good dilemma cut down by its off center lore. Too bad.

PICTURE: Creepy and effective, this is one of the most striking images in TNG's early seasons (Frakes actually immersed himself in the goo for the shot!). Very, very good. A 4.

LORE: Well thought-out, it not only relates the situation, but also redescribes Armus and explains the game text's remedy. An excellent 4.4.

TREK SENSE: A smart diplomat (tailored to Picard here) can convince Armus to give up his captive without killing him, just like in the show. Why Armus chooses the strongest away team member is not known or explained. Why he sticks around (get it?) as long as no one sees him eat a redshirt isn't either. A 3 after all.

SEEDABILITY: It's particularly effective before a dilemma requiring Strength (like El-Adrel Creature, Nausicaans, Malfunctioning Door and the like) at the very least as a filter, if not a killer. It's good against redshirting strategies, and in the right combo, will eat weak little mission specialists alive. The remedy is more common for Feds and less for the rest, but still not that hard to find. Risky, but good. A 4.

TOTAL: 15.4 (77%) A cool picture starts off a cool card. Wasn't the Sealed Deck great?

PICTURE: Hot! This is a great view of the Tama, and well-designed. We see the underside of the ship in close-up. Not surprising then that they ask us a bit lower what options we would like put in! This puts us in the garage looking up at the ship's underbelly during installation. Brilliant, a 5.

LORE: There are currently six modes of lore in the game. Normal, Klingon (Qapla'!), Borg, Dixon Hill, Bynar and Tamarian. And Tamarian is my favorite. I don't always understand it, but it's always beautiful. This one's not bad either. While the mention of Picard and Dathon seems precipitous (what, they've got their own legend already?), the last line is great. It speaks of forging knives. The card itself let's you choose your own special equipment... So, which "knife" do you want to use today? Not the best Tamarian lore, but close - a 4.7.

TREK SENSE: The universal Darmok class is fairly conceptual. Its main feature, the choice of special equipment upon reporting is the main fiction. We have no way of knowing if the Children of Tama have acces to Tractor Beam (but everyone else does) or Holodecks (they might reenact their myths with them) in addition to the Particle Scattering Device. Thing is, we can pretty much justify the inclusion of any of these tools, but if each is possible, why can't all three be in the one ship at the same time? It's not like a Holodeck takes that much room. Aside from that, the attributes and staffing are fine. All in all, I give the Darmok a 3.1.

STOCKABILITY: The Romulans and Klingons have always had holographic personnel, but little in the way of a Holodeck to make them work. The AU ships have them, but they are notoriously hard to staff. Before the Darmok, the slow-moving Husnock ship was the only ship that could do the job. You might also be looking for a second (and since it's universal, a third, fourth and fifth) ship to block your opponent through Particle Scattering Fields. If you're taking the Tractor Beam option, I've got to wonder why you didn't use one of your affiliation's own ships. The stats are good, and its versatility is very useful in the Sealed Deck environment, but in every day use, there are other options. Coolness factor still keeps it at 3.6.

TOTAL: 16.4 (82%) Hits the top five (as of Rolodex #73 anyway)!

PICTURE: It's a nice conceptual planet with one main continent on the underside and plenty of cloud cover, but looks too much like it's been painted for a score higher than 3.2.

LORE: Goes well with the game text, but like most Mission lore, it's pretty basic. A 3.

TREK SENSE: Requirements first. Diplomacy is a natural and high Integrity is needed to show your intentions are good. Then you need either a Leader or a VIP, either of which has the authority to make contact and enforce aggreements made here. Cool. The rewards. 25 points + a Non-Aligned personnel download at this location. This is great. A rapport is created and an exchange program established that allows a personnel from the Independent Planet to join the crew (perhaps in exchange for some nameless Ensign). This can lead to strange occurences though, depending on the identity of the "Independent Planet". If you download Zon for example, then the planet must be Nausica. But say you download Jenice Manheim. She's from Earth! An aligned world! So it doesn't always work. The biggest problem is with the affiliations that can attempt it. I have no problem seeing the Federation do this, of course. The Bajorans, while a generally "ethical" affiliation, aren't really explorers. They seem more concerned with their home system and its surroundings. The Non-Aligneds... aye, there's the rub. I'm ready to believe the NAs attempting the mission are working FOR the Independent Planet and are establishing relations with outsiders. The lore allows for that. But then, is the reward (the download) plausible? Possibly. If the NA comes from the outsider culture. And like all universal missions, why can't it be seeded in another Quadrant? Pretty much passes the test with a score of 4.5.

SEEDABILITY: One of the few spots where you can seed a Husnock Outpost, it's necessary to a Non-Aligned deck. Low points, but easy requirements and the download ain't bad either. Though it's universal, I wouldn't really seed more than one, but it could make a good stepping stone to a diplomacy deck, downloading another diplomat upon completing, allowing you to go after the bigger missions. All depends on your strategy: 3.3.

TOTAL: 14 (70%) A nice little card. I'm very fond of universal missions for some reason.

PICTURE: Nice. The nebula-like object looks like a mossy ravine from which a Calamarain might come out. Or maybe it's meant to look like a rift in space. Either way, it almost seems like the game text was inspired by the picture. Good show! A 4.5.

LORE: Very general. It allows for the encounter of all the phenomena mentioned in the game text (and more). Since it's universal, and more than one can exist on the spaceline, it better be general, but maybe it's almost... too general. A 3.

TREK SENSE: I wonder about the amount of "unexplored space" on a spaceline. I'm sure there's plenty, especially since one affiliation's marked territory is another's unexplored region. So that story pans out. That any crew may attempt it, of course adds to the idea. The span should probably be larger though. The special game text gives many possible pollution possibilities for this mission that again respects its universality. The "newly encountered phenomenon" can be three things: 1) Calamarain. In this case, the phenomenon can move around, so I'm not sure this is where everyone would go to gather data on it. Still, it's a possibility (looking for Calamarain home turf) and the energy creature does come from as-yet unexplored space. 2) Subspace War Rift. Here, I object. The lore on the SWR states that this phenomenon is caused by the passage of too many ships at warp in a single region. How unexplored IS this space anyway? 3) Tetryon Field. A good possibility. There's a 4) too. The phenomenon could be anything else, and doesn't have to be represented by another card. Those rolling gases pictured on the card for example. Then again, all the phenomena could be present, which would be a bit much, Trek-wise. The requirements are pretty straightforward. SCIENCE and either of the two skills that study outer space phenomena. With the game text going a bit overboard, the score finds itself around 3.8.

SEEDABILITY: All depends on your strategy. If you like pollution decks, this will give you a chance to play a couple of Events for free. That's the main problem with polluters: they are all Event cards that cost you your card play. Subspace Warp Rift is definitely superior to Tetryon Field here, and both shouldn't be played on the same location. Well positioned, you can also know where your Calamarain will start, since it removes that choice from your opponent. Play it when his ship is stopped at Explore Interstellar Matter (maybe because of a Rift or Field) for an immediate hit. But that's all annoyance really. The mission itself is very easy, requiring very few skills (SCIENCE and either of the possibilities will often be found on the same personnel). Only 25 points, but solve 4 and you're in. Its universality only really works like that, if there are plenty. You can easily pollute the spaceline while solving easy missions. I don't see this card getting much use as a replacement for duplicated missions though. Either you stocked cards to make use of it (like the pollutants) or you didn't. And if EIM wasn't part of your original spaceline, I don't think you have the Fields, Rifts and Calamarains in your deck. A rather strategy-specific and limited mission: 3.

TOTAL: 14.3 (71.5%) Most later-day missions are well designed, with an eye for design, balance and fun.

PICTURE: Very nice. We don't often get a shot of the Enterprise from this angle, and the warp nacelle intruding into the shot is spectacular. The colors are very crisp and the image nicely surreal. I don't think Q and Amanda are in scale, but that doesn't matter here. A very good 4.1.

LORE: Pretty straight talk from Q. Nothing particularly interesting other than the name of the card could maybe have been Hide and Q like the episode, but I'm somehow glad it isn't. Plain ol' 2.

TREK SENSE: More conceptual than anything. The dilemma function makes one crewmember "hide" every turn. Selecting a universal to "be next" stops the game as Q doesn't play with unimportant people. There's no Trek Sense reason why you should be able to seed it outside the Q-Continuum side-deck. The Event function, while a nice magic bullet, has no relationship to Hide and Seek. Those extra dilemmas were hidden and now they're found? One Q gives another the runaround? No reason for it to be a Hidden Agenda either. Justifying this one til the cows come home won't change the fact that it's worth a 1.

STOCKABILITY: The great thing is that it's so flexible. You can seed it as a Hidden Agenda or as a dilemma. It can go in the side-deck or not. In the Q-Continuum, you get to choose which effect you want it to have when it pops up. But what about those effects? As a dilemma, it's an annoying piece of filtering/stopping. It's a little out of control, but every little bit helps, especially as part of a larger Q-Flash. It's not very strong as a stand-alone dilemma though. The Event function is quite simply the magic bullet for the cheesy Q-Bypass strategy. If you suspect your opponent of using this on you (namely, that he will seed his own Q dilemma in order to pass it and automatically clear all dilemmas after it), the card may be a good idea. You can wait for it to come out of your Q-Continuum, or seed it face down and wait for it to happen. You'll be at the very least able to resed the just-discarded dilemmas. Usefulness all depends on how often the strategy comes up in your playing circle. Probably not very often in casual play between friends, but watch out at tournaments. A 3.4 all things considered. (Don't forget that the threat of Hide and Seek may be enough to deter someone from using Q-Bypass, but I wouldn't count on it too much.)

TOTAL: 10.5 (52.5%) Not a passing grade, but it's a strategy-specific card.

PICTURE: Two supposed enemies work together here in a rather dark, but interesting picture. I love the way bright spots of light play on the image, in Goran'agar's face, the tricorder and Julian's hands and neck. I also have to say Goran'agar IS the most handsome (okay, charismatic) Jem'Hadar we've ever seen, and he has an awsome presence here as well. Background's a little muddled though. Scores a 3.8.

LORE: Great title accompanied by fair lore. The story is well told, with the planet from Aid Fugitives mentioned to create more continuity. Unfortunately, it is very specific and doesn't allow for other "aliens" (as per the game text) to require similar treatment. A 3.

TREK SENSE: Whether the aliens raid a ship or an Away Team, the result is the same. They stonewall personnel until a doctor is surrendered to them (when it acts as a wall) or they abduct him or her despite the Away Team's efforts (when the dilemma actually hits). They always take the smartest doctor, of course. The doctor is brought to a planet and coerced into helping the aliens with their medical problem, whatever that may be. That doctor is stopped for 3 turns, or until he or she either escapes, find a cure or is released when nothing works. Great storytelling, but not without its problems. The title for one, leads us to believe that the doctor helps out because of some moral oath, but I'm pretty sure not all cultures (or MEDICAL personnel) follow such an oath. Think our two Lithians. This is fine though, as these Medical personnel might be coerced by force rather than morality. The only real problem is that you cannot rescue such a personnel. You can't even beam it out of the situation. Even with an assault team? Perhaps you don't know where he or she was taken... An excellent 4.8 that stands up to much scrutiny.

SEEDABILITY: A great dilemma. Whenever somebody talks about filtering out MEDICAL personnel, this is the card they are referring to. And since there are a lot of MEDICAL requirements on dilemmas, filtering the doctors out of a crew or Away Team (yes, it works on BOTH!) is a very good idea. It can act as a lead-in to some terrible dilemmas like Tarellian Plague Ship, for example. Of course, it doesn't kill the doc, it merely relocates him or her. With a little luck and creativity in spaceline design, you can make that pretty bad in itself. The "nearest planet" may well be very far away if the dilemma is met in a large space region. Or it could be Qualor II which will place an affiliated MEDICAL in stasis for good (never mind the countdown). Or seed Aid Fugitives in the Gamma Quadrant and relocate it to somewhere far away indeed. As the only planet in the Quadrant, with no Wormhole in sight, it can act as an effective trap. In any case, your opponent loses use of his MEDICAL for 3 turns, and that can be a lot. Have an Away Team ready to rub the lone guy out (STRENGTH is often low on MEDICAL) before he can be picked up. A great 4.6.

TOTAL: 16.2 (81%) Loved the Official Tournament Sealed Deck. Here's one good reason, but it's far from the last.

PICTURE: Totally made-up, it looks cool, but not very functional. Really, it looks like a mish-mash of ship frames (although they don't look like the Husnock Ship, you would have thought the design team would have used parts of that vessel - well, maybe they did, it's just hard to make out) and spikes. It kinda looks like it could come from the same culture, but not all that much. Compare the two Husnock cards and you'll see that the ship is darker and simpler in design. The outpost is quite gaudy and baroque. Cute detail, a tiny ship is docking to the upper right. Are we ever going to see it from closer? Perhaps a Husnock Scout Ship? Overall, a nice fearsome design that goes with the race's description. The odd "mistake" in design (that their is no metallic sheen on the lore and game text boxes) has been explained as meaning the stations were old and in disuse and had lost that polished shine. Why is it really a mistake? Well, if it had been part of design, the title and facility type boxes would have been white too. And besides, Husnock property isn't ancient, it's merely abandoned. A 3.9

LORE: Fun stuff. Decipher has extrapolated something from the events of "The Survivors" which makes sense and gives the game something cool. A good explanation for the outpost's existence without retreading the language of the Husnock Ship. Giving it a 4.

TREK SENSE: We don't know much about the Husnock, only what their ships looked like and that they were very violent and destructive. From that, their penchant for elevated shields and weapons was extrapolated. Makes sense then, that their outpost would have the highest Shields this side of the Borg Outpost. The Non-Aligned nature of the facility also jibes with the facts, the ships and bases being usable by any race. Seeding it at any NA location is more a funcion of gameplay than anything else. I would be surprised at finding the outpost at Qualor II or Dreon VII, but a third of all NA missions are universal no-names which could easily fit within the extinct Husnock "Empire", and I can easily see the Pakleds using the facility (Samaritan Snare). Other places might have fit the bill, but you gotta word it somehow (I would have gone with "Any universal location" myself). The rest has great storytelling. You can't build a Husnock Outpost later in the game because no Husnock Engineers are left. They are just there at the start of the game to be used by anyone who wants to. A Husnock Ship may seed there, apparently docked when the race blinked out of existence. Same logic here. The Shields can only extend 25% around ships, which is surprising given the race's high overall shields. Their technology can't be at fault. No, what's at fault here is that game balance is more important than Trek Sense. All in all, a 3.8.

SEEDABILITY: It has several advantages over other outposts. For one thing, you can seed as many as you want, provided you have enough NA locations. No problem there, simply use a number of universal NA missions, taking advantage of skill redundancy as well as a way to report directly to the mission, wherever it is. That's one strategy anyway. Second, it's Non-Aligned. That means you can conceivably report personnel from different affiliations there without need for a Treaty. They just can't co-exist, so make sure you evacuate your Klingons before bringing in your Romulans. Then, there's the seedable Husnock Ship. A ship already in play at the beginning of the game? No worries as to your fleet's location in the draw pile, no waiting, full service right away. Sure, the Husnock Ship isn't very fast (it's a lumbering hulk actually), but if you use multiple Outposts, that will give you extra range of sorts. And multiple outposts equals: the chance to seed a fleet. It IS hopped up on Weapons and Shields however, so not a bad ship at all. Plus, your holograms can work there. Finally, the Outpost's SHIELDS are way up there, which makes the facility safer than others. Disadvatages? You can't build it later, which isn't so bad since you can seed multiples. Simply take care of business in the seed phase. And it only extends half the Shield percentage other Outposts normally offer. That's a +10 instead of the usual +15 or +16. That might be a factor, but if you use Husnock Ships too, they already have great Shields which might mitigate matters. Cool combo: Open a Spacedoor on your Outposts and download extra Non-Aligned ships there. The entire kit comes in one bang-on product. A superior card at 4.5.

TOTAL: 16.2 (81%) This is what premiums are all about: giving us something cooooool.

PICTURE: Divided in the middle by shadow, this is a great choice for a pre-unified world. Even once order is imposed, the mission's points can be stolen by the other player, so the planet is constantly torn between two powers. The split in the middle also refers to that. A cool 3.8.

LORE: Not specific to any episode, the lore does a good job of exposing something all those Trek empires must do. A very good effort at 3.9.

TREK SENSE: Since the mission isn't location specific, it must be universal, and it works as such. Again, I find no reason why there couldn't be pre-unified worlds to be conquered in the Gamma quadrant. Universal missions really shouldn't be quadrant specific unless expressly stated on the card. (Petitioning for errata here.) The requirements are okay, with Diplomacy acting as the coercion aspect (think Weyoun's diplomatic style) together with Treachery, and Strength holding up the occupation end of things as well as acting as the sword the treacherous diplomat holds over the natives' heads. All the bad boys can attempt it since it's their style. The span is a little long, but maybe there aren't all that many worlds like this in well-traveled space. The points are expressive of something important, and expansion, especially for these empires, is. Now for the point-stealing: It took all those requirements to Impose Order, but only one unopposed Officer to switch the world over to the other side? I can see this happening in a way. The invaders leave the planet alone, confident of its loyalty (or fear). An officer from some other power trots over, explains things to the new unified government, and since they don't particularly like their invaders, they switch sides. The original side might send an Officer later to see what's going on, at which point, out of fear, they switch again, and so forth. Fun mechanic. The only problem is that the Officer should have had some other requirement. Think about it, is Giusti really able to steal those points? A pretty clean 4.3 otherwise.

SEEDABILITY: I know it's from the Sealed Deck product, and will be useful in such a format, but let's talk regular games here. Big points for little work, and universal to boot. None of those affiliations really has a shortage of Diplomats and Traitors, and all of them (except the uneven Cardassians) have common high STRENGTH. Since it's universal, you can have a number of them on the spaceline and, with the same basic personnel, you can solve more than one (try three). The Romulans and Klingons can even up the points a bit with Assign Mission Specialists. The cost? Your opponent can steal those points (not suspend them mind you, steal) with a simple OFFICER. The key is that the OFFICER must be unopposed, so always leave somebody behind, preferably a contingent of Jem'Hadar or something. But you need those soldiers to solve your next Impose Order! There are a few ways to make good use of the mission. One is to only have one and easily solve it at the end of the game to score your final points. If your opponent decides to steal the mission (not the points), you can always steal the points yourself, battling any one left on the planet. Another way, is to make your strategy about settling down. Impose Order, building facilities, Post Garrison and Drought Tree all fall into the theme of setting down roots. Could be fun to try, but I don't guarantee anything. Iffy, so only a 3.2.

TOTAL: 15.2 (76%) It's done good for itself.

PICTURE: Wholesale creation, I don't think this one ever made it to the television screen. The dark objects before the star are all interesting (and very nicely lighted), but I'm not sure what all of them are - escape pods are plain enough, the planet is cool with its rivers of lava (I'm assuming, although it could be fires of destruction), and those others things are probably ships (what kind?), or are they wreckage? In any case, the impression here is that SOMETHING happened, and we're off to check if the Borg really had a hand in it. A little junk-ridden, but pretty cool. A 4.5.

LORE: The generic place name is an interesting one, and the mission specifications are clear enough. I think it deserves at least the average 3.

TREK SENSE: First, the mission has the same problem as many of the universal missions, namely that it's quadrant-specific. The Borg could stage an incursion in the Gamma quadrant, and "known space" should include what we (or the Dominion) know of that part of the galaxy. Otherwise, it's a good effort. Any crew may attempt since the Borg are everybody's problem. It requires a Security expert (seems reasonable) and either 2 Officers (including one who's a leader) or Shelby. She's a perfect choice for a named personnel since her area of expertise has been shown to be the Borg. She's already a leader too, so she replaces two less skilled officers. They would be required because the mission is so sensitive to the security of the Federation or other Empire. The Span of 4 speaks of a place a little out of the way, and it IS the border after all. Now, there's different game text depending on the card's orientation (who seeded it), and I'm not sure what I think of this. Aside from game balance, how does Trek Sense work in this instance? Game text should be the same on both sides especially since it's an "Any crew" mission. Why would it affect personnel differently based on who seeded it, if espionnage is irrelevant? In any case, it gives this mission a lot more storyline to do it this way. On your side, the mission is worth more if the Borg are still here when you arrive. Checking out if there's a reason to be worried is worth 30 points, actually finding the Borg there (or, in the case of a Borg-only Objective, the sign of their passage) is way more dangerous and worth a good 45 (here, I don't see why the opposing player is stuck with a lame 30 no matter what). If the Borg played this one, they may Salvage Starships here. Just like Wolf 359, there's wreckage here already. It presupposes that some other ship in the Collective (or your own) has done some damage to an NPC ship. If playing against the Borg, note that they may report staffed ships here. Well, you're out looking for them, no? Nice possibilities all around, but some inconsistencies. A 3.8.

SEEDABILITY: In sealed deck play, there won't be much in the way of Borg cards here (so no 45 points), but it'll also be more useful. After all, you may have few mission choices, and the risk drops dramatically with the Collective not in play. There is a way to play this in normal games, of course. The requirements are easy, especially for the Federation using Shelby, but also for a number of affiliations. You can usually solve it with only two personnel as long as one of your OFFICERs if also SECURITY. Seed multiples for an easy 30 points over and over and over again. But the risk! First, it's emminently stealable. Then, if your opponent is playing Borg, he can report staffed Cubes here. Dangerous. Of course, you may want him to. His Borg cards being present means a 45 point mission. But how do you keep them there? The Borg Ship blows you away and moves on, drones and ships will probably avoid staying too long. If your opponent is dumb enough to put an Establish Gateway here, you may have him (the location permanently stays Borg-only icon). And therein lies the strategy of this card: seed all Investigate Incursions (or mostly, if you're really afraid of Balancing Act and the like) and make his own missions real difficult to scout. He Establishes Gateways at your missions, clearing their dilemmas and making the missions worth 45 points each. For every 25 points the Borg score, you score 45. Guess who wins at that pace? May be difficult to pull off though, and your opponent has to be Borg (AND using an Establish Gateway strategy). For the Borg themselves, it's not a bad mission to seed as, like Secret Salvage, you can play Salvage Starship here without having to destroy a ship. This in multiples with Wolf 359 could give you the possibility of the 30-point objective more than once and at a minimum of fuss. 3 missions and a few assimilated personnel under Add Distinctiveness to win? Could be. Probably one of the least likely OTSD missions to be used regularly, but still a 3.4.

TOTAL: 14.7 (73.5%) A nice-looking card, and a welcome change of pace from the same ol' mission standbys.

PICTURE: While I love the Pakleds as a race, this picture doesn't do them justice. The edges of the viewscreen, while indicative of this being a kind of "incoming message", cut down on the image itself, and may not have been necessary since the card's graphic design itself always puts the picture on some sort of viewscreen. What's left of the image is dreadfully dark. Still, the Pakleds look appropriately pathetic. I'll give this one a 2.9.

LORE: Some of the best dialogue ever written for Star Trek - I kid you not - transposed here for our pleasure. The "incoming message" idea is followed through with a quote from the Pakled captain. Deliciously funny. A 4.3.

TREK SENSE: First, I'm not sure this should be a space/planet dilemma. On the show, it was strictly space. Yes, a planet's population could kidnap an Engineer for some purpose, but would the dilemma still be called "Make Us Go"? Maybe the planet's population want spacefaring technology. It works on some level. The dilemma has the smartest Engineer (gee, why didn't Data go instead of Geordi?) beam over to the aliens' ship/facility/landed ship conceptually represented by a location "atop the mission". Then, they hold him there. After a turn passes, your personnel realize the Engineer's not coming back, and THEN need to cure the dilemma by out-smarting the Pakleds (or some other slow alien race, I suppose). You only need 25+ Cunning to outsmart these guys, but you need to do it now. If not, they kill your Engineer (or get the speed they need and disappear). Both cards go out-of-play which seems pretty harsh to me. Worse than discarding the cards. How can these silly aliens make someone totally disappear? Something else that doesn't fit the situation: helping aliens may be the Federation's bad habit, but what about the more agressive races? In the show, the Pakleds had apparently put their hands on a number of technologies, even Romulan, so maybe they can hornswaggle any affiliation, but seems to me the Borg (or Jem'Hadar) would rather assimilate or blow out of the sky the begging ship. Some nice things going on here, but doesn't pass an in-depth probing. An even 3.

SEEDABILITY: Decipher's card extras have some nice ideas here, highlighting that in a combo tragetting ENGINEERs, this one can be a killer. The idea is always to get the ship or Away Team to NOT be there next turn. The dilemma always has an immediate effect (unless you have no ENGINEER of course) and can only be cured later. They lose a smart ENGINEER (the high CUNNING ENGINEERs probably have some overall good stats and skills, maybe even a double ENGINEER) for the immediate mission attempt for one thing. Then, they hit dilemmas that require ENGINEERs and are in a worse shape for it. Add a Cytherians (or even a Conundrum) and the ship simply flies out of there, leaving the ENGINEER to not be picked up next turn and being placed out-of-play. Out-of play! Can't be rescued from the discard pile later! With a Birth of "Junior" already in place, the ship might not ever make it to the end of the spaceline. If you don't put this in a combo, it becomes something more of a filter since the CUNNING requirements are pretty easy to muster up. Kudos to the OTSD's design team for creating dilemmas that weren't too harsh in sealed deck format (where combos, especially nasty ones, are rare), but pack a lot of punch in regular play. A good 4.5. Hey, ENGINEER is probably the most powerful classification out there. Let's get those techies out of the way.

TOTAL: 14.7 (73.5%) I had a hard time adding up the points today. I wonder why?

PICTURE: Really looks like a space mission, don't it? Well, that thin atmosphere can be seen as that white glow around the asteroid. Looks real nice, with lots of cool details like the nebula or dust cloud in the background, as well as all those smaller rocks surrounding the main one. A very nice conceptual picture at an even 4.

LORE: Your basic mission lore is never very interesting, and this one's no different. Stays universal in content, that's about it. A 3.1.

TREK SENSE: Since these rocks must exist everywhere (except the Gamma quadrant apparently - change that rule people!!!!), it makes sense that it be universal. Similarly, anyone can and would attempt this, no problem. All you need is the Geologist and maybe a Scientist. And Cunning helps out too. It's basically a skill package that (aside from the Cunning, which isn't very high) could be carried by one personnel. These kinds of planetoids are never very far (Span 2), and the mission isn't worth many points, due to the relative unimportance of the planetoid and its easy requirements. The two cards that can be drawn are a problem however. Sure, it sounds good. You mine the asteroid and get resources in exchange. Problem 1: the mission is just a survey, not a mining operation. Yes, you could say the mining goes on after, but where are the necessary personnel (like an Engineer maybe)? Problem 2: the cards aren't necessarily going to be something physical, like ships or equipment. How do you draw a personnel from rock? Personnel are drawn there by the mining operation maybe? Not all personnel would be. Drawing something like Res-Q makes no sense either. Problem 3: Even if we only draw ships and equipment which could possibly be made from mineral, that's some high-speed production! Actually, this isn't such a problem, as the cards go to your hand, so "factory time" is still going on. Plus, the mineral might just help a ship already under construction get finished, that kind of thing. The problems outweigh the good stuff, for a total of 2.9.

SEEDABILITY: Universal missions are always cool alternatives to duplicated missions, and this one's not bad. It is emminently stealable, but if you're using multiples, you can easily stock a few Vekors, Weld Rams, Taitts, T'Lors, Navas or a Hon'Tihl to finish a few before your opponent can staff his ships. The extra card draws also give you extra speed for your deck, not to mention the short spans on this puppy. The Feds have a mission specialist to help make this a series of 30-pointers rather than 25s. Just watch out for thieves, Fair Play doesn't apply. A goodly 4.

TOTAL: 14 (70%) A pretty even score, for an even mission.

PICTURE: Looks like a lame CGI! Three ships pulled from who knows where, and pasted together on a card that might have shown actual diplomatic relations (maybe all three parties around a table on Deep Space 9?), but instead... this. (Actually from a DS9 battle scene.) What's worse, the ships are angled as if flying away from one another, and lose an incredible amount of detail at this size. Among the terrible detailing, we find the blue glow on the Excelsior-class ship's nacelle, the open disruptor bank on the D'deridex, and the belittling of a Vor'Cha to a puny thing that's really hard to make out at all. I would have given some points if the pyramidal configuration would have matched the same set's three-way Treaty, but it doesn't. The Feds and Roms have been switched. It's alllllll bad. I think a 0.5 is deserved.

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

TREK SENSE: Two functions. The first makes a lot of sense. If you open diplomatic relations, a treaty may well be the end result. This might have happened before the game starts (result: a seeded treaty) or you might (at a price of 2 resources, I mean, cards) RE-open them later and fix a Treaty that had gone bad (was discarded). This happened with the Klingons for example. The second function is a more initial relation-opening. For the first time, you get to board an opponent's ship. Obviously, a VIP must be part of the diplomatic envoy, but it may be accompanied by any number of Security guards, attending Officers and doctors, etc. The Objective creates a kind of mission for your opponent as well as yourself, since they cannot move their ship while dealing with the envoy. The Diplomatic Relations must follow their course. Of course, either side might be less than peaceful and fighting may break out between the delegation and the crew. In such a case, Diplomatic Relations are broken, and transporter rooms get locked down. Great stuff. Bugs do exist of course. One is that if both players are playing the same affiliation, it becomes ridiculous to Open Diplomatic Relations with, say, fellow Federation members (all in Starfleet, no less). The second is that once you've decimated the crew with your armed to the teeth "diplomats", they can't beam back to their ship again (unless commandeered, of course). The crew might have locked up the transporters at the first sign of trouble, but it should still be easy to lower the shields and beam back your people using your own transport system. I won't quibble with Borg VIPs opening relations, since Seven of Nine was an envoy of a sort. So, nitpicking aside, a good card at 4.3.

STOCKABILITY: The first function is certainly useful for Treaty decks, some of which are fairly popular (Federation/Bajoran, Klingon/Bajoran, Romulan/Cardassian). It gets that Treaty out right away, and even protects it from The Devil somewhat by letting you rescue it (once) from the discard pile. Of course, Fed/Baj is ALREADY seedable, as is Rom/Car reducing the utility of this here card. The second function is the most fun though. It "stops" a ship dead in its tracks while your VIP beams aboard. Maybe that's all you want to do. It may actually force your opponent to attack that VIP (if his personnel can), which may be all you need to drop Wartime Conditions on the table. On the other hand, you can also use it to attack the ship yourself with a kind of universal Invasive Beam-In. You can't come back to your ship after you've cleared this one though, so make it your chance to Commandeer Ship! No easier way to do it. While the Klingons are great personnel battlers for this (even the VIPs), but any affiliation can take advantage of the card. The Borg might even want to cause problems with assimilation or the Sabotage Drone as a precursor to some Borg objective. All you need is that Gowron of Borg fellow (or, if you must Bareil of Borg) to set things into motion. A minor use since the Transport Drone should do the trick in most cases. Other possibilities? Ilon Tandro's a VIP with a capture ability that requires no battling. Some guys get you points if killed, stretching that stopped ship thing for the longest time. And how about an easy way to report your infiltartors, eh? In any case, a 4.

TOTAL: 11.73 (58.67%) Picture REALLY shot these three ships down.

#479-Reflection Therapy, Objective, AU, Premium
-Plays on any personnel (except Suna) if you have Treachery>Honor present. Changes one regular skill to any other regular skill. Any player may cure with 3 Empathy present. OR Plays on and captures an opposing personnel affected by Frame of Mind. (If rescued, discard objective.) On a later turn, you may download Brainwash or Interrogation to replace (discard) this objective.

PICTURE: While "Frame of Mind" featured some great visual effects, this particular shot doesn't really do it justice. A large stove pipe shoots a tractor beam on a rumpled Riker with nary a background in sight. Simple composition that works to keep us on Riker, not much more, emphasizing the "brainwashing" over the projection of holographic images from one's mind. An even 3.

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

TREK SENSE: To start things off, the relevance of the AU icon is a little ambiguous. Yes, it's part of the Frame of Mind virtual reality, but it also seems to be a real Tilonian therapeutic technique. And the game text can't seem to decide if Reflection Therapy is something that happens only in the other world, or if it's what's being done to Riker from the *real* world. The confusion may arise from there being two separate game texts to choose from, each a very different way to interpret the concept. Let's look at each one. The first one seems to be the virtual reality function, or what Reflection Therapy is really for. It makes a personnel believe he's someone else, someone with a different skill. After all, Riker wasn't that changed by his experience, but maybe he only *believed* he could Navigate a ship when in reality, he was only an able Barber. 3 Empathy can cure this change - a telepath (and unless you're using Deanna, Commander Troi and Devinoni, you'll have one full telepath in there) can go in and fix things in the personnel's mind. Speaking of telepaths, skill-switching always has the problem that you can give a perfectly normal Klingon telepathic skills. Some "racial" skills really should be off-limits. The requirement is that you have more Treachery than Honor at the target personnel's location. Brainwashing people isn't very nice. Of course, sometimes you do it to your own personnel. I'm not sure I see a distinction between that and what was done to Kurn in DS9 by very Honorable people. The card isn't always duplicitous. Suna can't be affected? I know he's the one who usually does this to people, but does it make him immune? The second function is the "real world" option, methinks. It's backwards in capturing someone affected by Frame of Mind (the personnel should have been captured first, then Framed), but from there it follows the episode. The personnel is changed by FoM, and that vulnerable condition is used to Interrogate or Brainwash the person. This one makes a lot of sense - it was Suna's ultimate purpose. Some good, some bad, but a good try at 3.6.

STOCKABILITY: The universal skill-changer, it does have a number of prerequisites before it can be used. First, you need to be able to play AU cards (not too hard); second, you must have more Treachery than Honor where it is to be used. Now, it's not difficult unless you're running some kind of Honor deck, it's easy enough to play with the villains. All you need really, is one lone Treachery personnel. The difficulty if you want to change an opponent's personnel's skill is getting your Treachery there. Invasive Beam-Ins, visits to the same planet (where a wall just stopped an Away Team), a suddenly appearing Devidian Doored personnel, all are good ideas. Get rid of an important and rare skill (like Tal Shiar and the like), or a mission specilialist's only skill, with Barbering or Cantankerousness. Giving Honor to anyone with the Sisters of Duras will place the girls under house arrest, Treachery to anyone with Solkar will do the same to him. Exploit restriction boxes. A good target skill is anything in multiple (x2 or x3) because whatever skill you choose can only be given at the first level. Two birds with one stone! It can be cured with 3 Empathy, but that's not easy to dredge up. Sounds a bit difficult just to take away one skill. The real money lies in getting the skill YOU want for your own personnel. Maybe you just lost an important and rare skill yourself, maybe you hadn't thought of a certain dilemma when choosing your personnel. Or you've already completed the mission that required Cantankerousness and you'd rather have something more useful. Heck, you don't even have to sacrifice any skills on your personnel. Mot's Advice will give it a new and useless skill to transform. Reflection Therapy also works on skills given by equipment, so the Tricorder could be made to give Anthropology instead of SCIENCE (to one personnel). Don't get separated from your equipment though, since it'll discard the objective. In Sealed Deck play, this card may be the only way to complete the missions you've been handed out. The whole process is made easier if you have Suna who, once per game, can download the card to anywhere. The second function is good for capture decks (there are no bad ways to get captives when running such a strategy). Just seed Frame of Mind and you can even give the personnel some good skills, cuz it's captured anyway. On the next turn, you can download Interrogation (points, points, points) or Brainwash (put those shiny new skills to use) to the personnel. The personnel is rarely as useful as if he didn't have Frame of Mind on him (low attributes, etc.), but couldn't you cure him of the dilemma yourself? The various functions make this a very flexible card at 4.2.

TOTAL: 14.4 (72%) I'll let you reflect on this...

PICTURE: The first flip card was très très cool when it came out, and still is today. Simple in design, the only difference between the two sides of the card is the open or closed door, on the old (old? I meant "classic") mushroom-configuration station. The blue planet behind the facility adds to the composition (following the station's curves) and color palette (staying in the blues but contrasting by its lightness). And those runway lights are kinda neat. Design alone pushes this card to a high score, but it's great overall at 4.7.

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

TREK SENSE: More than just a door, this card represents space, space to put your ships inside an outpost. That's why I think it was a good move to have to play the doorway in the seed phase (not that they had a choice without the normal card backing). You can't build an interior hangar on a whim during the game, the outpost must have one already. When the door is open, Shields are lowered. Excellent, since there's a gaping hole in the outpost wall! And opening the door has three main functions. 1) You can overhaul a ship. It must be empty to get dismantled and sent back to your hand. I say dismantled, but since you can play the ship again, it simply gets extensive repairs, maybe a refit while in the hangar. The fact that overhauling a ship somehow nullifies Static Warp Bubble hurts Spacedoor a little because of that Event's dubious Trek Sense, but it at least implies that the Warp Bubble was aboard a ship (unlike the totally absurd "on table") since it goes away like any other card played on your ship. 2) You can download Spacedock here. What else is that hangar, if not an interior spacedock? Redundant? Not entirely - it means you can install equipment allowing you to work faster and on different classes of ships. 3) You can download (launch) a universal ship from here. Only universals, because the named ships have a backstory that has them launched already. The universals are just getting started. Then the door is closed (just a mechanical application, and maybe door controls should be at will, but it's a minor point) and the Shields get back to normal (no more hole). You can't close this doorway with another card since it's already closed. The mirroring of Red Alert is explainable (though a little more strained) because outposts are often listening posts and information centers. If you know your opponent is on Red Alert, then something's brewing. The outpost that hears of it first goes on Red Alert too, trying to match and counter whatever the other side is planning to do. And this only lasts while the door is closed because opening it actually reduces Shields, which isn't a smart thing to do when a Red Alert is called. Re-opening the door is possible by discarding a card from hand. Cards in hand representing cards at your outpost but not "activated" (at least the personnel, equipment and ships), one leaving (even for the discard pile... say, early retirement) would require you to open the doors. A lot of thought went into this one, as looking at each step reveals. An effort worth 4.4.

SEEDABILITY: Worth it if only for the ship-downloading ability. I've been in too many games where all the ships found themselves at the bottom of the draw deck and all you could do was maybe attempt the planet mission at your outpost. No longer. Spacedoor brings you closer to an early start by allowing you to download a ship in the first turn. Only universals yes, but you'll note the Bajorans and Dominion have only that, and the Borg aren't far from it. Cheap K'Vort armadas are also based on universal ships. It's not entirely compatible with Captain's Log decks (except for the Bajorans), but even those can use an early ship. Add missions requiring universal ships (like the universal Test Propulsion Systems), and you've got yourself a deck theme. The other functions are mostly counters to abusive cards, and flavoring. For example, downloading a Spacedock helps Trek Sense and makes that little-seen card a little more useable, but could be useful if you're using a lot of Non-Aligned ships that can't be repaired at an aligned outpost, or repair aligned ships at a Husnock outpost, admittedly the least affected by the -8 to SHIELDS (outside of Borgdom). Overhauling a ship could be used to recycle a ship if you have more than one location you can report ships (2 outposts, a Nor, or through some other mechanic), or to get rid of dilemmas played on ships that just won't go away. It'll also nullify that annoying Static Warp Bubble affecting you. You can always report the ship next turn. Note that all this is in place of your card play, so it's not overpowerful, but it is useful. Once done, your SHIELDS get back to normal (might be a reason to suddenly overhaul a ship when you see enemy ships bearing down), you still get advantages. Namely, if your opponent is using Red Alert, you don't need to play it, you have it too. Your opponent might be quick to nullify your own Red Alert as soon as it hits the table, but is she ready to do the same to hers? And that overhauled ship can suddenly be re-reported along with a ton of other cards in a single turn. You can reactivate your former abilities by discarding a card at the end of your turn (maybe that useless overhauled shuttle?). A lot of little perks, but the main gist of the cards is getting a ship when you need one. A cool 4.4.

TOTAL: 18 (90%) A strong showing for this double-card. (Only 45% per side? What a jip!) ;-)

PICTURE: That's the quantum fissure from "Parallels right there, giving off some pretty nice color. The Enterprise's presence takes away from the doorway itself, but its basic lines do go with the card's composition movement, and also makes the Portal more than just a mission card look-alike. The card also makes mention of effects on ships, so... A 3.7.

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

TREK SENSE: Lots of stuff here, so basically, Decipher plays with both the Portal from "Parallels" specifically, and such Portals in general. It's like the one from "Parallels" in that it initially allowed Worf (only one personnel) to cross into an alternate universe (he was the alternate there), like some kind of Alternate Universe Door, which you can discard for - one basically replaces the other, like Doorway personae - to give you THAT "portal"'s options. The rest of the game text is also based on the doorway being closed, which also happened on the show. There, 1) it brought Worf back to the time before he was taken away (nullifying his being lost "in time"); 2) it positioned him in space somewhere before he it the fissure (acting as a Wormhole); 3) sending his shuttle (ship) through the Portal caused it to collapse (be discarded) and it went back in time so that the episode never happened (straining here, but this could mean "taken back to hand" to be reported again, since everyone reported AFTER the Portal was opened); and 4) the Portal allowed ships from other realities (AU ships) to report to the location of the Portal (all those Enterprises). That last one seems to be a non-discard use, but it could be said that once the AU ship crosses over, it MUST collapse the fissure or see all reality erased, like in the episode. Again, I'm straining. More generic Space-Time Portals could work much the same way, having both spatial (Wormhole) AND temporal (the Rift) facets to them. Thos two abilities in fact act as exits to other cards' entry points, being back a ship from "inside the Wormhole" or from a time travel trip. Some act as doorways to alternate universes, allowing AU people, ships and phenomena to cross over, or even entire staffed ships, though this is rare. Portals might even gobble up ships and create loops in history changing those ships' histories. But let's nitpick a little: For one thing, I don't mind a Portal acting as a Womhole, but it being the SECOND Wormhole (the exit) makes no sense. Unless that exit is also an entry from the other side, but we all know Wormholes aren't THAT stable in the game. Any time I see "once per game" on a card, it usually means it's there for balance, but does nothing for Trek Sense. Same here. And some functions just beg for this Portal to be present at a location, but it absurdly overarcs the entire spaceline(s). This even goes against the pic. While faults in logic could be found in almost every function, this kind of discussion, when it comes to parallel worlds, singularity physics, etc. is replete with problems of its own. There's no way to prove, or disprove, much of anything. I'm impressed by the effort here, and at how close the card sticks to "Parallels" in a sense. I'll go as high as a 4.1 for this very open-ended card (storytelling-wise).

STOCKABILITY: In Sealed Deck play, obviously, it'll allow for playing the few AU cards you've pulled when you don't have an AU Doorway. But this card turns up in more than just Sealed Deck play, doesn't it? It's scorching hot! Most players using very few AU cards (or mostly seeds) will opt for this reporting mechanism over the Alternate Universe Door, because once you've reported what you had to, you can discard the Portal for one of its other functions. And if you're only using seeds and no AU cards in your draw deck, then please, choose Space-Time Portal. It'll allow for all your seeds (that's always one at a time), and you can start having Space-Time fun at any point during the game. So, no problem seeding your Frames of Mind and such, or your Cryosatellite (which may be a better way of getting to those very few AUs you're using). The one per turn limit might hamper Red Alerting AUs, but that's okay - any AUs in your hand could just be reported together on one AU ship (once per game only, so it's up to you to get those cards in hand). Watch out for It's Only a Game which will severely restrict you. That function can also be used in conjunction with the ability that preceeds it on the card: return your AU ship to hand when it gets cornered somewhere (perhaps by a field trip), then report it again (anywhere) with an AU crew. That could be a sweet way to get your beautiful Original Series crew into play together (well... once TwT is out). It's also a great way to get rid of cards infecting your ship. Baryon Buildups, infiltrators, intruders like invasive Jem'Hadar and Rogue Borg, quarantining dilemmas (Aphasia Device, Cytherians, etc.), assimilation... they all go back to owners' hands when they enter the Portal. Some can be played again of course, but you're free of them. When you gain control of an opponent's ship, it becomes your own, so why not zap it back to your opponent's hand before you lose control (don't do this with commandeered or assimilated ships, but maybe with those infected by Alien Parasites, or taken over by a Neural Servo Device?). Other functions are bonuses: the extra Wormhole is more help in Sealed Deck play, but could come in handy if your other Wormhole is at the bottom of your deck. Nullifying a Temporal Rift can also help since that's an annoying card. Of course, downloading an AU Door will kill the Rift and keep the Rift-killer in hand for future use. Indeed, though this isn't necessarily efficient deck-building, the Portal technically has all the abilities of an AU Door you'd want to download, such as punching through Q-Nets and nullifiying Subspace Schism and Revolving Door. But the main power of this card will always be take away ships and report AU ones, and done creatively (and since it can discard during your opponent's turn even...), this can be an important advantage. Much better that AU Door in execution, and you can play it during a game to enable reporting if you want, I give it a 4.5.

TOTAL: 16.4 (82%) A great card, that's a fun parallel for the old AU Door.

PICTURE: Dark and glaring, Suna's well represented personality-wise, but the picture is rather boring nonetheless, with a dark grey background that just eats up everything in sight except his rather ugly puss. A 2.9.

LORE: Usually the "typical" stuff comes before anything else. Here, he's both a military official AND a typical government interrogator. Why the redundancy? (Of course, I'm far from against mentioning typicality when the personnel is universal.) Not a bad last sentence, and enough adjectives to warrant a better score (though "treacherous" isn't exactly literary genius). A simple 3.

TREK SENSE: As an interrogator, he falls in the Security field, sure. The Medical is likewise warranted because he's tampering with brain functions (he might even have gotten Exobiology for his work on the human brain). The Treachery - obvious. Downloading Reflection Therapy is a natural special skill since he did use it on Riker in the virtual reality. And since that particular card is more about the "neurosomatic techniques"' effects that it is about the Reflection Therapy featured in the virtual world, it doesn't matter he was from the real world, and it wasn't. Of course, the way it's phrased, you can download the Therapy to anywhere, and that just doesn't work within Trek Sense. Likewise, the fact that he's universal yet downloads such a culturally-specific card hurts the score. Do all Non-Aligned government interrogators (which he represents) favor Reflection Therapy? All the attributes work, but the Command icon doesn't quite make it. There's just no real evidence he was THAT high up. Maybe I'm too critical? A 3.1.

STOCKABILITY: Reflection Therapy is a reasonably popular card, so downloading it (to any legal location - that's why it's not a special download) is good, and downloading it to Suna's location gives you the required Treachery. So your Suna can give you a skill you need, or capture yourself a Frame of Mind victim. Of course, that's only once per game no matter how many Sunas you have, so why make him universal? Well, he's not a bad dual-classification personnel! Universal SECURITY/MEDICAL? Not bad, especially with the growing need for SECURITY (MEDICAL has always been good), and it's a rare combo. Not too hot on the attributes - Lower Decks may be in order - but you may not want to hurt that INTEGRITY for In the Pale Moonlight. As a Tent card, it gives you a way to pass that dilemma, MEDICAL, SECURITY and any skill you want through Reflection Therapy. Very efficient. Not giving a score based on his use in Sealed Deck play (where I don't doubt he'll be in play), but in actual play, still a 3.7.

TOTAL: 12.7 (63.5%) Maybe he can come and brainwash me if he ain't happy.

PICTURE: This basically invented mission sports some rather nice artwork because it reminds of a river or other passage between the stars. As long as we're testing engines, we might has well travel! I find the odd blur of the smoke cloud slightly off however, like some kind of unnatural Photoshop pixilating effect. A still competent 3.3.

LORE: I suppose remote sectors are frequent, what with a third axis to work from in 3-dimensional space, so as a universal mission, the appelation works. The lore is otherwise pretty standard. No mistakes, but nothing flashy either. Another competent score at 3.1.

TREK SENSE: The first thing that disturbs me is that you can only attempt this exact mission once. Since the mission parameters are a question of a ship's drive components, NOT of the region in space, why couldn't you test your upgrades there in perpetuity? That mechanical snafu aside, the mission's not bad at all. Any crew may attempt as indeed all affiliations use ships and must sometimes upgrade. Too bad for our Gamma quadrant brethren, there are apparently no remote sectors to do this in outside the Alpha quadrant (still a fault I find in universal missions). You require an Engineer to install the components, Physics to monitor the changes in velocity and Navigation just to fly the around. Good stuff. You also require a ship, but then you always do when attempting a space mission. Here, the requirement is a universal ship. They are more easily tranformed into whatever you need I suppose, and may act as guinea pigs, but we've seen instances where unique ships have been used for this, most notably the Enterprise in "Where No One Has Gone Before". There's a special reward aside from the 25 points for solving this mission (making the 25 adequate), and that's getting +2 RANGE to all your ships. The upgrade never tests negatively I guess (hmf), because you're ready to implement the change instantaneously (double hmf) on all your ships, even those not belonging to your affiliation (tripe super-duper hmf). No going "hmf" at the Span, which should rightly be a long one, nor at the cumulative nature of the game text, since upgrades are constantly made. Cute, but no cigar, at 2.8.

SEEDABILITY: A good mission to seed in multiples if you're going for speed. One, it makes your ships faster (+2+4+6...) and your opponent's slower (long Spans). And two, using the same mission over and over again makes mission solving much simpler by narrowing the amount of personnel required. Geordi can do this one blindfolded on a Type VI Shuttle, and lots of other personnel have these ultra-common skills. The universal ship can even be had quickly through Spacedoor. What you have to watch out for is your opponent stealing the missions from you. Any crew may attempt and those skills are common to most affiliations. Fair Play would definitely be in order if it wasn't proscribed! If you seed and complete 4, your ships'll be +8 to RANGE evading any armada (if you're smart or cloaked), but that may not be enough to actually get to 100 points. Mission specialists? Sure, the Feds in particular have one for each of those skills. An excellent universal effort at 3.9, but dangerous.

TOTAL: 13.1 (65.5%) Might as well use this forum to say I object to the new "no exchanging duplicate missions with universals" rule, and don't really see the point of it.

PICTURE: What picture? Yes, I AM going to come down hard on Treaty pics, seeing as they're just simple graphics, cheats if you will. Something showing personnel or ships of different affiliations would have been much more interesting, and I wish Decipher had gone a different route, if not from the outset, then from DS9 on, even if it violated the design ethics set forth in the first set. I would normally start with a 1 and move up or down based on the color schemes or something. In this case, it's up simply because the affiliation icons were well placed in the three-section scheme. The Romulan bird has a triangle behind it which mirrors the green triangle in the pic, and the points on the Klingon symbol also follow the right lines. A 1.6 then.

LORE: Pretty straight, but it makes a number of interesting points which explain decisions made known in the game text. In particular, I like the mention of the Dominion threat which explains why the affiliations can battle. I also like the word "uncharacteristic", hehe. Good stuff. A 3.6.

TREK SENSE: Obviously, it allies the Federation, the Klingons and the Romulans. Since this was done against the Dominion, I wonder why the Bajorans weren't included (I know why - there aren't any Bajorans in Sealed Deck play - but that's beside the point), though maybe the non-agression pact they signed with them could be the reason, depends on the time frame. Like all Treaties, it's a little broad in the idea of mixing and cooperating, since we've rarely seen ships staffed by "the other guys" in any episode, but they've mixed on facilities like Deep Space 9, so there's a precedent for it. Because this Treaty was born of war, the affiliations can battle regardless of the Federation's usual restriction against it. It was War after all, with a capital "W". This is also how I can accept the "no-mission-stealing" clause on here: since it's a wartime Treaty, the objective isn't so much mission theft (which is more of a cold war kind of thing). Stretching it? Yes, slightly, but I think it works. What doesn't though is the "no-side-decks" clause. In a sense, these clauses represent just that: clauses in the Treaty that give something to the enemy in exchange for something else. But the enemy here is your opponent, not the Romulans, Klingons or Feds involved in the Treaty. (Also makes me wonder how these things can't affect your opponent's affiliations, but that seems to be a problem with the basics of the game.) Back to "no side-decks": there's no non-conceptual reason for it, and since it IS wartime, really none when it comes to the Battle Bridge side-deck. Gee, this one fell apart rather quickly. A 1.9.

STOCKABILITY: Outside of Sealed Deck (which doesn't concern me much), the main reason for using the tri-Treaty is to allow the Feds and their big ships to battle. There are other ways, but they are usually tied to specific personnel (like Kirk or Leyton), or require your opponent to attack you (as with Wartime Conditions and plain, simple retaliation). This way, you can be sure your Feds can attack, and you don't really have to use Klingons or Romulans at all (though there's no real reason not to). Running a Federation armada would, of course, have its price: no Battle Bridge side-deck which would be nice to have in a battle-based strategy, and no Q's Tent, and who doesn't use Q's Tent!? It can be done though, and if that's really what you wanna do, go ahead. Less blood-thirsty players might also consider using this as a straight Treaty, saving you the couple of card slots you would need to have all three relevant Treaties in play. More than that if you take out the usual Q's Tents you would usually use. Highly-skilled Federation personnel can be included in Romulan or Klingon decks to patch some of their skill or classification holes, or you can use the Treaty to tighten up a matching commander deck with smaller ships (the warbirds are a little unwieldly), or gets all the mission specialists together in one macro-affiliation (probably the best use for it), or it could just be an easy way to get all the Klingons together, no matter what affiliation they belong to. In Sealed Deck play, sometimes necessary (though not being able to attempt opponent's missions can put you at a severe disadvantage). In the so-called real world, a 3.2.

TOTAL: 10.3 (51.5%) Despite everything I said here, I'm still hoping for a Bajoran/Cardassian/Klingon tri-Treaty in Mirror, Mirror.

PICTURE: A rare wide shot, the mix of colors is a nice TNG sampler, but I have to ask - what's in the other room? The fuzzy fushia haze beyond the door has the look of CGI, but I can't understand what they would be trying to hide. In fact, the floor looks strange, not as spic-and-span as you'd imagine a Federation starship floor. Granted, it's not something I've actually looked at a heck of a lot when watching the show, but look at how white the medical apparatus in the background is compared to the supposedly antiseptic flooring. Anyway, that's all decor, I'm not forgetting the figures. I should say it's telling that Reyga's dead in the image since there's no way to avoid this dilemma's effects. Crusher and Worf as investigators no doubt represent the attempt to pass the wall part of this card. Not excellent, but certainly competent. A 3.6.

LORE: I really like the title, especially since it came out before Scientific Method. It turned on its head a section of every single science course I ever took in school. (Indeed, I was so sick of it, I lampooned it in a now-famous article in the school paper... okay, maybe not so famous... but funny!) It's much better in my opinion than "Suspicions", which must have seemed like an appropriate alternate. The lore itself might have mentioned Reyga by name, but maybe not doing so makes it more generic a dilemma. The title alone brings this one up to a 3.6.

TREK SENSE: Two dilemmas in one. First, an assassin kills a Scientist, then the crew can't go on until the assassin is caught and brought to justice. Problem is, no one saw who did it, so it's actually a mystery (requiring Cunning). On the show, only Beverly actually believed it was murder, so the crew wasn't actually stonewalled, but the dilemma doesn't just represent this exact circumstance. So the wall works, how about the killer? Well, if events unfold like in "Suspicions", the assassin is a scientist himself that kills another (Science) more brilliant than he is (highest Cunning) due to jealousy or to steal his or her invention. I'm at a loss as to why the target Scientist can't have Greed or Treachery though. If the intent is to say that the Greedy and/or Treacherous Scientist present is the killer and thus, can't be killed, then why isn't such a personnel (if present) affected (caught) when the wall is torn down (possibly thanks to its own Cunning)? If Dr. Reyga had been Greedy, there's no reason why he couldn't have been killed for his ideas. None. The designers simply tried to go too far in giving the card Trek Sense, and left a gaping hole in it. I think there's a lot of good here, but such errors keep it at 3.2, which is still good.

SEEDABILITY: This is still one of the best things to come out of the Sealed Deck product (and that's saying a lot). It's two dilemmas in one! (Um, I seem to have already said that.) It's the perfect lead into any SCIENCE-requiring dilemma (especially its SCIENCE-intensive partner, Scientific Method). Heck, it's not bad against SCIENCE-related skill requirements (like Astrophysics or Stellar Cartography) and CUNNING-requiring dilemmas either. There are a little over 20 SCIENCE personnel with either Greed or Treachery (mostly Treachery), but if any of the rest are present, one of them is killed for sure, and the most CUNNING at that. If there's more than one SCIENCE present, that could mean an android, a Dax, a Founder, a Vulcan (especially a Spock)... Some of these are pretty strong cards! And with a high CUNNING personnel out of the way, more limited Away Teams or crews might have trouble passing the admittedly easy to pierce wall part of the dilemma. Dilemmas that get specific classifications out of the way are great combo building tools: a 4.3.

TOTAL: 14.7 (73.5%) Scores aren't an exact science, but that's what it comes to.

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