[main navigation][star trek main navigation][Image] [side navigation] [side navigation] #2: Romulans Without Treachery and the Missions They Love From Kathy McCracken October 1996 What do you think of when you think of Romulans? Treachery! Firestorm fuel! Sure-fire victims of Q! Well, this deck should prove otherwise: 17 Romulan personnel (12 different characters), and no Treachery in sight. SEED DECK (22) DRAW DECK (38) Missions (6): Personnel (19) Covert Rescue Commander Tomalak Investigate Massacre Toreth Investigate Raid Alidar Jarok Investigate Anomaly Tebok Secret Salvage Bochra Study Lonka Pulsar Mirok N'Vek Outpost (1) D'Tan Takket x3 Romulan Outpost Tarus x2 Jaron x2 Doorway (1) Palteth x2 Maques Alternate Universe Dr. Reyga Doorway Ships (3) Artifacts (1) Devoras Betazoid Gift Box Haakona Khazara Dilemmas (13) Events (7) Shaka, When The Walls Fell Lower Decks x2 Zaldan The Traveler: Hologram Ruse Transcendence Firestorm Red Alert Thought Fire Kivas Fajo - Collector x Alien Parasites Res-Q Frame of Mind The Gatherers Interrupts (9) Birth of Junior Conundrum Senior Staff Meeting Edo Probe Security Sacrifice Barclay's Protomorph. Q2 x2 Disease Kevin Uxbridge Q Palor Toff - Alien Trader x2 Amanda Rogers x2 The Personnel: Personnel selection was easy. If they didn't have Treachery they made the first cut; a few whose skills were superfluous for the selected missions were then discarded. Multiples of four universal personnel give you the backup MEDICAL, SECURITY, ENGINEER, and SCIENCE you will need to overcome dilemmas, and they all benefit from Lower Decks (see Events). Although no Archaeology missions were included, D'Tan was kept for his all-important skill of providing all Romulans without Treachery (including himself!) with a +1 Integrity boost--enough to save most of his low-integrity (but non-Treacherous) friends from Firestorms or Thought Fires. Two non-aligned personnel were added--Maques for his Empathy (since my alter ego unfortunately does not qualify for this particular deck), and Dr. Reyga as a backup Astrophysics for the Lonka Pulsar mission. [Image] [Image] [Image] The Ships: With 8 command stars and 9 staff stars, you should have no trouble staffing a couple of D'Deridex class ships with their excellent stats. I included three unique ships, but the universal D'Deridexes are nearly as good. I left out the Decius because there is only one AU personnel in the deck. The Missions: The main feature of the missions, of course, is that none of them require Treachery. You should have little trouble meeting any of the requirements (even Investigate Massacre's Integrity>35); you have at least three of every skill required, except for Astrophysics where you have two. A number of other missions can be played with this deck. Study Stellar Collision, Explore Typhone Expanse, Sensitive Search, Study Plasma Streamer, FGC-47 Research, and Relief Mission are all easily done. Excavation, Iconia Investigation, and Investigate "Shattered Space" are all possible, but you'll have no redundancy built in for some of the skills (i.e., you'll have only one Archaeology and two Astrophysics), making it more of a gamble that you'll get the right personnel. The Dilemmas: The first 12 dilemmas are to be placed, in pairs as listed, under your opponent's missions. (If your opponent doesn't have four planet missions, you'll have to do some rearranging.) Conundrum, The Gatherers, Alien Parasites, Hologram Ruse, Firestorm, and Thought Fire all penalize decks with low integrity, and are all dilemmas your opponent may use against you if he expects you to be playing Romulans. Zaldan can be overcome with Treachery, which is pretty hard to come by in Fed decks, and not even too common for Klingons. Conundrum is preceded by Birth of "Junior" to make it likely that the ship will never catch yours before being destroyed. Frame of Mind lowers all of one personnel's stats, including Integrity, and so is useful as a setup for anything requiring high Integrity. The Q dilemma you can either seed under an opponent's mission (seed first so he will encounter it last), or put it under one of your own, seeded last, to dispose of all the dilemmas there. If you're careful in the placement of other dilemmas, you may also be able to attempt one or more of your opponent's missions if they are available to Romulans (no Espionage allowed in this deck, it just doesn't seem right for all the Integrity you'll be playing with). Defenses and Other Helpful Cards: Lower Decks is very helpful for enhancing the all the attributes, particularly Integrity, of the numerous universals. Although it's not cumulative, two are included to help ensure it will come up early. The Traveler, Red Alert, two Kivas Fajos, and Betazoid Gift Box will help you get all your important cards quickly. The Gift Box can go under any of the planet missions (probably at your outpost), with either Covert Rescue or Investigate Raid preferred over Investigate Massacre as neither has an Integrity requirement. Amanda Rogers, Q2, and Kevin Uxbridge are universally useful; in particular, be sure you have at least one Amanda in your hand in case your opponent tries to nullifies your Q dilemma with a Q2. The mix of classifications in your crew is good enough to support a Senior Staff Meeting to get rid of a space dilemma; and with Palor Toff or Res-Q you could bring it back for another mission. And finally, a Security Sacrifice seems noble enough to be in keeping with the theme. [back to the top][Decipher Inc.][go to the lobby] [Decipher Copyrights] text map