Playing The Borg

Last time I talked about one of the greatest advantages a Borg player has -- downloading. I did leave out the grand-daddy of downloading, however. So this time out, I bring you: Mot's Advice on the Borg #3: Retask Retask is an Event that plays to replace a Borg Ship dilemma with a universal Borg Cube and seven of your drones. It's a favored method of many Borg players for jump-starting into action.

First of all, you have to have a Borg Ship dilemma in play on the spaceline. If you're goint to wait for your opponent to place it there, then you may as well staff a Cube and move it into the Alpha Quadrant by conventional means. For greatest speed, you must go out and trigger it.

Most people seed Establish Gateway as an objective, and report a Borg Scout Vessel on the end of the spaceline as soon as possible. They use that Scout Vessel to begin scouting a location, triggering the Borg Ship dilemma. They lose the Scout in the ensuing battle, but on their next turn, they can play Retask to take command with the Cube and be off and running. With the right card draws and deck building, this could happen as early as turn two of the game. Not bad, huh?

MOT'S ADVICE: I don't find Retask to be worth the time or the risk. In fact, I'd almost classify it worthy of examination in my other review series! :-)

(Actually, the rest of this comes under the heading of "Mot's Advice," so prepare yourself.) ;-)

Using conventional means, I can have a Borg Cube staffed and into the Alpha Quadrant by the fourth turn of a game.

Here's the order of play: Turn one, play Activate Subcommands. Download a Transwarp Drone among the others. Turn two, play a Borg Cube. In place of the card draw, download a Gateway using the Transwarp Drone (if one isn't already in hand). Turn three, another Activate Subcommands. Turn four, report a Borg personnel normally. That makes seven drones. Use the Gateway to slip into the Alpha Quadrant and get to work.

So, unless you can play the Retask strategy successfully in turn two or three, you didn't really save yourself any time. In order to do this, you're going to have to have both a Retask and a Borg Scout Vessel in your hand somehow. Now, while it is reasonable to think you could load a draw deck with enough Scout Vessels to guarantee one in the opening draw, the same cannot be said of Retask, being a rare card. Odds are very high you'll have to use Q's Tent to get a hold of your Retask.

It is my opinion that unless you are in some sort of emergency situation, if you Tent for anything other than the Borg Queen using your first Tent, you made a bad choice. With unlimited deck sizes, Wrong Door has become more popular than ever -- and it was a good card before. I have played games where I've been kept out of my Tent all game not by Revolving Doors (which would be easily dealt with), but by Wrong Doors. So whenever you are able to get a Q's Tent off successfully, you'd better be sure you're getting the right thing.

I believe the Queen will help you more than any seven drones ever could. She can download more drones for you, great for staffing ships, or expendable scouts. She can download A Change of Plans, to keep an objective (the right objective) on the table at all times. And she can switch out her skills, the easiest, card-free way the Borg can get around dilemmas like Shaka When the Walls Fell, Cardassian Trap, or Maglock.

Well then, what about Retask as a means of getting a second Cube in play?

I can only offer my experiences, gathered in several dozen Borg games: I've only needed a second Cube once.

The biggest problem with running two Cubes is you need 14 Borg personnel to do it. That is a lot of Borg. So many, in fact, that by the time you've depleted your draw deck of that many cards, probing can be very difficult. I mentioned in my last article how downloading too much can hurt your probing. Downloading 8 cards all at once is a dramatic illustration of this problem.

What about using Retask as a Q's Tent card, to stop an opponent also playing Borg? This, I agree, has merit. Being an Event, Retask must play before orders are executed (according to the sequence of turns), and so a player triggering a Borg Ship dilemma has to wait a turn before Retasking. If you swoop in and Retask it yourself, your opponent will be in a very hard place. But I'd caution you to do this only in the early turns of the game. Any point after that, and you've probably already reported plenty of Borg personnel. To report any more through Retask will likely deplete you too much.

Above all, the greatest risk in the Retask strategy is Kevin Uxbridge. Retask is an Event with no special immunities, and thus vulnerable to being nullified. And rest assured if your opponent has a way to nullify your Retask, they will. You can seed The Line Must Be Drawn Here. For that matter, you could seed a half dozen of them. Odds are your opponent will be willing to take that point loss. I heard someone say at a tournament that they would suffer a point loss of any amount to nullify a Borg Retask. I have to say that unless I'm also playing Borg, I'd do the same.

So there it is, my take on Retask. I did say in the first article of this series that there are other ways to play Borg, and one of my first pieces of advice was to ignore my advice if you found something else that worked for you. :-) I have seen one player get a Retask to work admirably, on the second turn of the game, just as advertised. But when I play Borg, I don't use it.

So what do I do to get my Borg personnel out quickly? Well, that's a subject for...

Last installment, I talked about Retask and revealed (to some people's surprise) that I don't use it. But neither do I rely on reporting Borg slowly each turn until I can finally get a ship into the Alpha Quadrant. Here is my fourth "Mot's Advice on the Borg" - Reporting Personnel Quickly.

When I wrote about downloading, I talked about the value of Awaken and Activate Subcommands in Borg decks. They allow you to report extra personnel each turn beyond what you are normally restricted to. More importantly, the Borg you report through these cards can be selected from your draw deck, not left to the random chance of a card draw.

Of course, the favored way to report tons of cards has always been Red Alert. For the sake of game balance, Red Alert was dealt a series of pretty severe blows in the First Contact expansion. There are now no less than 3 new ways to damage somebody's abusive Red Alert strategy: Deactivation, Ready Room Door (to protect a Yellow Alert), and Mirror Image. (All this, on top of plain old Kevin Uxbridge.)

MOT'S ADVICE: Forget about Red Alert. It's hard enough to make one float in the face of all this. If you do get one to work for you, odds are it will benefit your opponent more than you if they use a Mirror Image to report cards off your Red Alert. A non-Borg player has built their deck with multiple overlapping personnel. Borg players do not stock as many personnel in multiple. If you are left to playing all the personnel in your hand (through Red Alert), odds are you won't do as well as you will through downloading. Definitely, you won't do as well as your non-Borg opponent. Also remember there are many non-personnel cards in most Borg decks: Adapts, Transwarp Network Gateways, A Change of Plans, Awakens, Activate Subcommands... you won't have as many personnel in hand to play as your opponent, either. In the end, Red Alert isn't the way to go.

But then there's the number one best way to rocket Borg personnel into play: the Borg Queen. In my Retask article, I suggested that to use the first Q's Tent of a game for any reason other than getting a Borg Queen was a big mistake. Now, I'm going to explain that a little better.

The Borg Queen has the ability to download a personnel in place of a card draw. Every turn, at the end of your turn, you have the opportunity to have a very "lucky card draw." You can search your deck for a drone -- any drone -- and put it straight into play. Wow! I mean, imagine if Jean-Luc Picard could download any one member of the Enterprise bridge crew every turn!

But it doesn't stop there. There are, after all, ways to draw more than one card per turn, mainly Kivas Fajo -- Collector, and The Traveller:Transcendence. Kivas Fajo allows you to draw three cards, and this in turn can translate to downloading three drones if you've got a Queen in play. Of course, this is not much different than using Activate Subcommands, but consider The Traveller. At the end of every turn, you can download two drones. This, on top of your card play, makes for three personnel per turn. You'll have a Cube staffed in no time.

MOT'S ADVICE: Kivas Fajo -- Collector and The Traveller: Transcendence took some hits at the hands of Mirror Image. There's a good chance when you play these cards that your opponent will be benefiting from them as well. When playing Borg, you should not allow this to concern you. You will always have the better end of the deal. When you play a Kivas that your opponent Mirror Images, they will draw the top three cards of their deck -- whatever they happen to be. You will download the three drones of your choice. Where they draw two cards to end a turn, you download two drones of your choice. Besides, if your opponent is still Mirror Imaging your Traveller when you reach the point where you no longer wish to download drones, simply Mercy Kill your own Event. (Mercy Kill will also get you out from under a Persistence of Memory played on your Traveller.) So have no fear, use these cards when playing Borg. Just beware an opponent who also playing Borg!

I've talked a lot about Mirror Image. I've mentioned three of the four cards named in the game text. Better take a look at the last one. Masaka Transformations... a Borg player's dream. Let's say on turn one, I report a Borg Cube. Turn two, I Tent for and report a Borg Queen. (By this point, I have six cards in hand.) On turn three, I play Masaka Transformations. I discard the remaining five cards in my hand, but instead of redrawing five from my deck, I use the Queen for five downloads. When I draw still another card to end my turn, and instead download another drone, that makes seven Borg personnel and a Cube in just three turns. How's that for Borg speed?

How about a way to double the number of Borg you have in play? Seed Ooby Dooby at a space location you intend to scout, then load up a Cube full of Borg. Just before initiating scouting, switch your Queen's skill to Youth (and be sure she's present with an Interlink Drone), then in place of each card draw you'd get from the Ooby Dooby, download a new Borg. (A very effective way to play very large Borg decks!)

One final thing on reporting Borg personnel quickly. In this series to this point, I've talked a lot about getting Cubes staffed and into play. Similarly, the emphasis of many players out there seems to be on the Cubes. The Cube is not the end-all, be-all of a Borg deck. Most Klingon players will tell you that the little K'Vorts are far more valuable than the big Vor'cha class ships. It can be this way with the Borg, too. You can scout and probe just as easily from Spheres and Scout Vessels as from Cubes, and those smaller ships are far easier to get out and running. The big anti-redshirt card of First Contact, Lack of Preparation, is of little or no consequence to the Borg. They take no point loss for hitting it unprepared, and it's actually quite easy to overcome for a wall dilemma. Even if they can't overcome it with three subcommand icons, they can Adapt to it with Negate Obstruction. There's no reason a Borg redshirt strategy fueled by swarms of little ships couldn't be made to work. And with all those Navigation icons in your deck, space objectives would be a natural.

So now you know how to get personnel out quickly. Who should you be using?

So far, I've talked a lot about personnel. How they are important to probing, how you can use fewer duplicates of personnel in a deck with downloading, and how to get personnel out quickly. But I haven't given you ideas on which personnel to use.

Choosing Personnel (Communications)

The Borg currently have 20 different personnel: 6 of each subcommand, plus Locutus and the Queen. Some drones are more valuable than others. Some work great in certain strategies, and do very little in others. Above all, you should stock the drones that best match your choice of objectives (or vice versa). I've decided to go through them all blow by blow, Borg by Borg. It would have made for an extremely long installment in this series, so I've broken it up into three parts, by subcommands. This time out, focus on Communications.

Bio-Med Drone (Eleven of Nineteen): Great drone. Great, great drone. Has both Biology and MEDICAL, and an incredible special ability -- he can reabsorb Borg just killed back into your draw deck. (Beware, this ability works best in space or battle-based strategies. It won't help you much in saving lone scouts off on planets.) Most importantly, the Bio-Med has MEDICAL as its last listed skill. Tsiolkovsky Infection can be a powerful anti-Borg dilemma. Your only way out is to abandon ship or to have three Bio-Med Drones. Skill sharing, the Queen, and the Guard Drone won't help you here.

Countermeasure Drone (Fifteen of Seventeen): Another must have Drone. How many you use depends on whether or not you have the Queen and/or Locutus to get you past some Borg stoppers like Maglock, Cardassian Trap, and Shaka When the Walls Fell. If you don't have the big two, or aren't sure of getting them into play, you'll definitely be needing the Countermeasure Drone for the ability to download Adapt cards. (Don't forget about Adapt: Modulate Shields, either -- very important if your opponent wises up and battles you when you're weak.) The Countermeasure is also the only drone with Exobiology, a must to get out of the dreaded Coalescent Organism (which would wreak havoc on the Borg). And of course, ENGINEER as well, which gets you through a number of other wall dilemmas.

Cyber Drone (Five of Eleven): You'll probably need one, and only one, of this drone. His SCIENCE is valuable, though it can be found elsewhere. Cybernetics, for the moment, will only keep your Borg from being assimilated by another Borg player through the Borg Servo. Most importantly, the ability to prevent your Borg from being placed in stasis will get you out of DNA Metamorphosis and the Scout Encounter/Quantum Singularity Lifeforms double-whammy.

Interlink Drone (Nine of Eleven): You don't need me to tell you this is the most valuable of the drones. Skill sharing is how your Borg will overcome dilemmas like Ancient Computer, Birth of "Junior", and Frame of Mind when scouting space locations. It's how your scouts at planet locations will live to face more than one dilemma, overcoming Barclay's Protomorphosis Disease, Crystalline Entity, Phased Matter, and more. Always stock copies of the Interlink Drone.

Procurement Drone (One of Eleven): ENGINEER. Always good, but also available on other drones. Stealing equipment isn't bad, but the opportunity to do this is truly rare. Which leaves the ability to download Borg equipment. There's currently only one such card, the Assimilation Table. So, in a nutshell, if you are Assimilating Counterparts, you need at least one Procurement Drone in your deck. If you aren't, you probably don't need any at all.

Unity Drone (Two of Seventeen): The skill of Anthropology only helps out with two dilemmas: Primitive Culture and Worshiper. You won't have a CIVILIAN unless you assimilate one, so count on getting out of Primitive Culture some other way. As for Worshiper, it will only stop the scout that encounters it. You can immediately send down another and continue. Which leaves the Unity Drone's special skill, to share the entire Hive's CUNNING with a Communications Drone. This will help you in scouting planets. In space-based decks, or Counterpart strategies, the Unity Drone won't help you a bit.

One more word about Communications Drones in general. Remember that they are required for Adaptation, skill sharing (being the only lone scouts that can receive shared skills), and other special abilities on a number of Borg cards. They are extremely important. And if your deck is based around Assimilating Planets, you'll need extra, "expendable" Communications Drones to sacrifice in your scouting efforts.

Let's continue analysis of the Borg personnel by turning to the second subcommand.

Astrogation Drone (Eighteen of Nineteen): No "classification" skills here, which is a drawback - not much help in dealing with dilemmas. The RANGE enhancement to Borg ships can be quite nice, though, when faced with Cytherians, or when trying to move quickly to the location you've targeted with your next objective. It's near impossible to catch up with and eliminate the Pasteur or Future Enterprise without this drone. MOT'S ADVICE: Most Borg strategies work without this drone. If you're trying to get to your next location faster, use a Sphere. Move your Cube its full RANGE, launch the Sphere and move its full RANGE, then start scouting. Next turn, you can move the Sphere back, pick up the Cube, then move the Cube back and pick up scouting (or probing), where you left off.

Quantum Drone (Six of Eleven): Vital to a successful Borg deck. Three regular skills -- Physics, Navigation and SCIENCE. Navigation helps against a few dilemmas, and helps you use cards like Asteroid Sanctuary if things get really rough. The SCIENCE is a basic staple dilemma requirement. All this, plus the ability to download an Alternate Univere Door in place of a card draw. The AU Door will unblock your Gateways that your opponent has tried to block with a Revolving Door (or unblock any other Doorway, for that matter). It'll get you by Q-Nets if the Queen isn't handy. And it'll nullify Temporal Rifts if you should come up against a player favoring those (you'll have to download it before the Quantum Drone gets put in the Rift, of course).

Survey Drone (Sixteen of Nineteen): Archaeology and Geology aren't of much help with dilemmas. The main reason you'd use a Survey Drone is its ability to acquire artifacts. The Orb of Prophecy and Change can be so useful in rigging probe draws, you might consider stocking him for that reason.

MOT'S ADVICE: When playing Borg, your dilemmas need to be really tough. They must hold your opponent at bay if you encounter delays. So you don't have much free space for artifacts. Don't count too much on using the Survey Drone to steal artifacts from your opponent, either. It's easy enough to do at space locations, but is difficult at planets. The Survey Drone must be on the planet to acquire the artifact, but the Borg may not form Away Teams unless a card allows them to. You would have to stock a card like Emergency Transporter Armbands, or target a planet location with an Assimilate objective -- and planets without point boxes worth 35 or higher aren't legal targets. That leaves plenty of places your opponent can seed artifacts that you'll be hard-pressed to get to. If you want to use an artifact in your own deck, obviously you'll need the Survey Drone. But if you don't, you can probably ignore him.

Tachyon Drone (Ten of Nineteen): Navigation appears on other drones you'll be using, and Astrophysics won't help solve any dilemma that can't be solved with some other skill, anyway. The real value of the Tachyon Drone is its ability to force your opponent's ships to decloak. If you have a battle-oriented strategy, you'd better stock this drone in case your opponent is playing Klingon or Romulan (or the Future Enterprise).

Transport Drone (Two of Eleven): Transporter Skill, the put upon skill. I did a few "Useless" Reviews some time back, on Anti-Matter Pod, and the three planetary obstruction Events. In an unlimited deck size environment, you might start seeing these cards more, and might do well to have Transporter Skill in your hive. ENGINEER, of course, you'll need (but can get elsewhere). Really, this Drone's main ability is to beam through your opponent's SHIELDS. You'll need this if planning an Assimilate Counterpart strategy, or if you are planning to use Undetected Beam-Ins to report personnel to your opponent's ships or Borg Servo to acquire drones (in order to retrieve them later). If you are planning other tactics, the Transport Drone is not likely to help you.

Transwarp Drone (Two of Nineteen): Yet another drone with Navigation, so nothing extraordinary there. The Stellar Cartography is unique to this drone, but also not needed for anything other than mission attempts, so currently of no value to you. The ability to download a Transwarp Network Gateway or Transwarp Conduit, however, is very powerful indeed.

MOT'S ADVICE: I stock one Transwarp Network Gateway for every Establish Gateway objective in my deck, another for my outpost, and usually two more for transportation purposes or emergency building situations. This is not always enough to guarantee one will naturally come up in a card draw, depending on the size of the deck. So be sure to stock this drone so you can download one when you need it.

Navigation drones are important to have around, since you need at least two to staff a Borg Cube or Borg Sphere. Even the easy to staff Borg Scout Vessel requires a Navigation Borg. Swarm strategies will definitely need lots of Navigation to get all those ships staffed. These drones also facilitate your movement by allowing you to build Transwarp Network Gateways. If your strategy is space-intensive, you'll want these in your deck for the probing -- both Establish Gateway and Secret Salvage will succeed on a Navigation icon.

Here's the final installment of my anlysis of Borg personnel:

Assault Drone (Eight of Nineteen): Standard decks need MEDICAL, SCIENCE and SECURITY. So do The Borg, and the Assault Drone helps. Note the STRENGTH bonus. This is important to a strategy built around stunning and assimilating personnel (if you can't beat their STRENGTH, you can't stun). The Assault Drone is also one of the best to download with Undetected Beam-In. There should be at least one, if not two, in every Borg deck; you never know when an opponent will beam over to your ship to interfere with your plans.

Guard Drone (Four of Eleven): Having MEDICAL as a first-listed skill makes this Drone less desirable than the Bio-Med Drone. The SHIELDS bonus looks nice, but you could play a Nutational or Metaphasic Shields instead and have ENGINEERs and SCIENCE all throughout your hive providing +2 SHIELDS each. The Guard Drone's saving grace is Computer Skill. If Assimilating Starships is a part of your strategy, you may want him around.

MOT'S ADVICE: The Astrogation Drone is better still for assimilation. Its RANGE bonus insures you can catch the ship you want to assimilate. Sadly, the Guard Drone's abilities are duplicated too well on other cards.

Multiplexor Drone (Nine of Seventeen): A purely defensive card. When using the Eliminate Starship objective, you are only allowed to attack the one ship you've selected. Only if your opponent initiates a battle against you can you retaliate by attacking multiple ships. Being able to do that is a great thing, especially if you're gonna lose the ship -- take as many of them with you as you can. MOT'S ADVICE: Think of this card as you would think of Metaphasic Shields in a normal deck. I'm not implying it's "useless." (You know I would never do that!) But not every deck has a Metaphasic Shields. Not every Borg deck needs a Multiplexor. If you have room for it, use it. If not, you'll probably be okay, too.

Sabotage Drone (Six of Seventeen): This drone is perhaps the most highly specific of all Borg drones. The special ability to sabotage the RANGE or WEAPONS of a ship by 2 is a nuisance. It's no coincidence this drone also has Computer Skill. He makes the ideal scout to send over for the Assimilate Starship objective. His presence there is not only a threat of impending doom for that ship, but a pain in the neck until he succeeds. It's a big incentive for your opponent to attack the Drone, which lets you counterattack by beaming over a Borgish horde, or by destroying the ship. MOT'S ADVICE: Most players are too smart to fall for Sabotage alone, no matter how much of a pain it is. They know what's coming if they attack you. To really induce an opponent to attack you, you need the Assimilate Starship objective as well. If this is a focus of your deck, then the Sabotage drone is nice to have around. Otherwise, don't bother.

Tactical Drone (Thirteen of Nineteen): One of three Borg SECURITY drones. This one's special ability is to enhance the WEAPONS of your ship by 2. This is an ability you're only likely to ever need against another Borg opponent. MOT'S ADVICE: Anyone else who has SHIELDS so high they can withstand the assault of even an unenhanced Borg ship should be dealt with other ways. Shipwreck comes to mind. Your unenhanced ship will be more than a match for your non-Borg opponent's. And as for Borg opponents, Assimilate Starship is a much more devious approach. The Borg opponent has no way to attack your drone aboard their ship, scouting for the objective. They can only play Eliminate Starship to attack the ship itself. While you could benefit from Tactical Drones here, I find the attack from within more effective than the one from outside.

Talon Drone (Three of Nineteen): The final SECURITY drone, the Talon Drone can both assimilate any personnel you've stunned, and download an Assimilation Tubules once per game. You'll need STRENGTH enhancements for your Drones (in the form of Assault Drones or Lower Decks) to be sure you're stunning your opponent's personnel to do this. And remember, you can only have a personnel battle one of two ways: by your opponent picking the fight against you first, or by an Assimilate Counterpart objective.

MOT'S ADVICE: Remember that the Assimilate Counterpart objective does not give you leave to initiate personnel battles at will -- only against the Away Team containing your target, and only until you succeed in abducting that target. You could prolong this process if you are trying to assimilate your opponent's personnel, but usually you'll want to send a large enough group to succeed in this on the first try. That leaves Talon Drones as a means of retribution if your opponent beamed over to your ship to battle you, delaying your probing. Measure the value of that retribution according to your strategy. If your intended Objectives don't probe successfully off Defense icons, consider leaving out Talon Drones.

That takes care of the Defense subcommand drones. Of course, I've left out the two main Borg, the two with all three icons. So, a few words about the Borg Queen and Locutus of Borg.

Borg Queen: Like the card says, she is the Collective. Have one in your Tent, and at least another in your deck. For that matter, it would not be unreasonable to stock every copy of the Queen you own in your deck, as you'll make it more likely to get one by a natural card draw. Even though you can only play one at a time, she makes for easy probing later on. (Again, I'll say I believe a Borg deck can work without a Queen, but this is a topic for later.)

Locutus of Borg: Obviously a good card. OFFICER for Maglock, Leadership for Q, Diplomacy for Shaka, and a ready-made counterpart for assimilating the Federation homeworld. MOT'S ADVICE: Don't let the flash and glitz draw you in. Most Borg decks can get by without Locutus. I played Borg for weeks before my Fajo Collection arrived, and managed just fine. The Queen's skill changing ability will cover you in the cases I mentioned. There's no question that the matching Federation counterpart is Locutus of Borg's best feature. If you are doing a Homeworld-centered strategy, stock this card. If you have a copy of Locutus, go ahead and throw him in the deck or the Tent. But if Homeworlds aren't the big thrust of your deck, you don't need Locutus to win. Don't use a Tent thoughtlessly -- make sure he'll really help you more than some other card in your Tent at that moment.

And there you have it, an in depth look at all 20 Borg personnel. By now, you should have a good idea about who to choose for which strategy -- and there are definite, distinct Borg strategies. So which one should you try?

Objectives These are the source of points when playing the Borg, so you should choose them as you would choose missions when playing a normal deck. Either pick some objectives, and then the personnel with the probe icons to match, or pick personnel, then the objectives to match. Above all, focus your strategy. Just as the best non-Borg decks don't usually have six missions with wildly different requirements, the best Borg decks aren't out there trying to do all 9 Borg objectives. Here's a look at a few of the predominant tactics for the Borg:

Emphasis on Space Establish Gateway is your primary objective. Stock multiple copies of it. Space locations are easier for the Borg, but there is a trade-off for this -- after you have completed scouting a space location and scored your points, a non-Borg opponent can still come by and score points for completing the mission -- with no dilemmas remaining to oppose them. Most decks of this type stock an Eliminate or Assimilate Starship objective or two just to be sure this doesn't happen. (Communications and Navigation drones are most important to this strategy.)

Emphasis on Planets Assimilate Planet is your primary objective, so stock multiple copies of it. You should choose planet missions worth at least 35 points, since you can't always count on an opponent to play missions you can target for assimilation. If they do, you will usually want to grab their missions first before scouting your own. For one, you know what dilemmas you'll be facing at your opponent's missions (and you should pick at least a couple pairings of dilemmas designed for your Borg to easily overcome). Second, by assimilating those planets, you remove the options for scoring points your opponent had intended -- no one can complete a mission at a planet location that has been assimilated. Foremost, target any legal planet location where your opponent has foolishly seeded an outpost, so that you can assimilate that outpost and prevent your opponent from reporting cards for duty. (Communications and Defense drones are most important to this strategy.)

Emphasis on Attacking Stock copies of Eliminate Starship objective as prevention against your opponent's aggressive scoring. You do not score points just for doing this. You'll need to combine this tactic with another, and one of the best matches is a strategy-centered on Salvage Starship. You might use Hails or other cards to be sure you stop your opponent's ships at space locations. When you Eliminate them at space locations, you can then target those locations with Salvage Starship for 30 points (and enhancements coming from the ships salvaged). (Navigation and Defense drones would be most important to this strategy).

Assimilating Personnel Another strategy that is not entirely self-sufficient, your plan is to try and assimilate as many of your opponent's personnel as possible -- after all, they cannot win if they have no people to score with. There are only two common ways you can get involved in personnel battle with your opponent (where you'll have the opportunity to assimilate people with your Talon Drones). First, you can retaliate against attacks they initiate against you. The best way to induce your opponent to attack you is with an aggressive Assimilate Starship strategy. Second, you can use the Assimilate Counterpart objective. Beam over as many Assault and Talon Drones in your team as possible when striking for the counterpart, to take as many with you as possible. You can always use He Will Make An Excellent Drone to convert any counterparts you obtain back into drones so you can play Assimilate Counterpart again and attack your opponent again. (Defense drones, particularly the Talon and Assault, are most important to this strategy.)

Assimilating Starships This objective is usually only played as a means to an end -- getting your opponent to initiate a battle against you. Requiring a turn of scouting, Computer Skill, and a successful probe, it's less efficient than just Eliminating the Starship... although your opponent can't Regenerate, Res-Q, or Palor Toff a ship you assimilated, so there is a benefit. It's also powerful against a Borg opponent, who cannot attack your scout attempting to complete this objective. In any case, you score no points for this alone, and so need to pair this tactic with another that will score you points. (Communications and Defense drones are most important here, especially drones that have Computer Skill -- or extra Communications drones to share that ability.)

Assimilating Homeworlds Choose the three Homeworld missions for your deck, and go for points that way. Generally, you'll want to play Locutus of Borg first, and assimilate Earth, then convert Locutus to a drone so you can try an Assimilate Counterpart on your Klingon or Romulan opponent. If the counterpart you get from your opponent has at least 4 skill dots, this can give you the win off only 3 objectives (40 + 20 + 40). But if your opponent is playing Borg or Federation, the homeworld tactic is not self-sufficient. You'll only have one homeworld (Earth) to target, so look to get other points with Establish Gateways in space -- unless you want to risk Balancing Act by playing with other planets. (A good mix of drones is best here. Navigation and Communications drones will help most if you need to Establish a few Gateways to win, while Defense drones are best for the assault on the counterpart. But most importantly, you need Communications icons for the Homeworld objective -- nothing else will work.)

Time Travel You can plan to go back into the past to assimilate Earth, erasing all Federation and human personnel in play. Beware also that this will erase some of your Borg: the Astrogation Drone, Multiplexor Drone, Quantum Drone, and of course, Locutus of Borg. Try to avoid depending on any of these cards when time traveling, since you won't have them after you do. Much of what applies perparing for Assimilate Homeworld applies here, since you must scout Earth before traveling back to begin probing. The first time-travel objective, Stop First Contact, has a countdown icon of 3. Usually, you can get a successful probe in this amount of time if you've build your deck well (with probe rigging). But since only a Defense icon will work here, and because your opponent might land the Vulcans or commandeer the Phoenix on you, you should probably stock Build Interplexing Beacon as well as a backup plan.

MOT'S ADVICE: Time travel can be time consuming as a primary strategy. The two time travel objectives should probably be backup cards in your Tent. Normally, you'll just want to assimilate Earth in the present and be done with it. If, however, your opponent is Federation and has reported a large number of personnel, you may fall on your backup plan to erase history and stop him from running away with the game. Think of the time travelling cards just like the movie -- assimilating Earth in the past was not the Borg's primary plan, rather their fallback when their Cube was destroyed.

When choosing objectives, make sure you have enough to get to 140 points. You should cover for the possibility your opponent will play a Q's Planet. Since you cannot attempt that mission to restore the win conditions to 100, and you certainly can't count on your opponent to be merciful, you'd better be sure you can win if this happens.

Also, you'll probably want to stock at least one Eliminate Starships in every deck. By the time you get to the Alpha Quadrant in many games, your opponent will be up and running, or near to it. If you can catch them with this objective, you'll set them back enough to catch up.

Remember that many objectives allow you to download new objectives upon completion. This allows you to stock only as many objectives as you need in a deck, without worrying about the extras needed to guarantee them coming up in card draws. Just as you download personnel, and thus don't need to stock as many, you can stock few objectives. Don't forget about A Change of Plans.

This will help you get an objective if you just completed one that didn't let you download a replacement. More importantly, it is the only way the Borg can "shift on the fly." You might be happily scouting a planet, when suddenly your opponent takes off in a loaded ship to start completing missions. A Change of Plans would be nice to let you swap out for an Eliminate Starships. And of course, the Queen can download that interrupt.

Above all, if you can get by with only one type of objective, do. Building a deck around Establishing Gateways means all you need to probe for are Communications or Navigation icons. An eclectic mix means more varied probe requirements, which translates to a slower deck.

So now you've got your objectives. You'll be using them to target missions on the spaceline. What missions should you use?

One of the differences of the Borg affiliation that is most apparent is their treatment of missions. A Borg player's perspective needs to be very different indeed when it comes to selecting them.

Missions are irrelevant. As Borg, you will not be attempting them. To the Borg, missions are merely (in Q's words) "something they can consume." You must select them with your objectives in mind. By now, you've probably got a very clear idea what the strategy of your deck is going to be. Your mission selection will come directly from that.

Planets The main thing the Borg need to look for in a planet is a point box showing 35 points or more. (Undefined values such as the "X" on Reunion do not count.) Choose nothing you cannot target for assimilation. Be wary; your opponent may try to complete the mission before you arrive to assimilate it. While this will make your scouting efforts easier, it will also give your opponent at least 35 points. Try to pick missions with difficult requirements. (Diplomatic Conference would be a good example, though beware the Romulan Sisters/Major deck ready to take this away from you!) The harder a mission is to complete, the less likely your opponent can gather those skills in time. Once you have assimilated that planet, of course, the mission cannot be attempted.

Space Establish Gateway requires only a point box with a number (any number). Generally, you will want to choose the lowest numbers possible. Don't give your opponents more points that you have to. (Samaritan Snare is a good one.) Remember, though, after you have completed an objective at a space location, a non-Borg opponent may still complete the mission there, so don't make it easy for them. Difficult mission requirements should again be your rule of thumb. (Compromised Mission is a good example of this -- a Federation player isn't all that likely to have Treachery x2.)

Secret Salvage This specific mission may be targeted by the Salvage Starship objective, so you'll see it in a lot of Borg decks. You can also use Salvage Starship at any space location where a battle has taken place, so many Borg players not doing a homeworld-based strategies will favor space missions over planets (and use Hails or some such trick to force opponents to stop at space locations). You could also use copies of the universal Space mission. You get two locations for the price of one. They cannot be targeted by Establish Gateway, but work just fine for Salvage Starship.

Homeworlds The three homeworlds currently in the game are Earth (Espionage Mission), Qo'noS (Expose Covert Supply), and Romulus (Cloaked Mission). None of these planets may be targets of Assimilate Planet (as per the text on that card), so don't use them unless you are using a Homeworld strategy. With Locutus of Borg in your deck, it is possible to use only Espionage Mission and leave the other two homeworlds out. Most homeworld decks will feature all three though, since you don't know for sure what affiliation your opponent will play, and assimilating their homeworld is the best way to shut them down. (Enjoy homeworld decks while you can! With Balancing Act around, homeworld assimilation is gonna become a guessing game once new affiliations arrive on the scene.)

In general, you'll want to vary the affiliations on your missions, choosing a mix of Federation, Romulan, and Klingon missions. If your opponent begins stealing missions from you, there will be a limit to the number of places they can do this. (Although one reason you might choose not to do this is if you want to try to fool your opponent into believing you are not playing Borg throughout the dilemma segment of the seed phase.) It may also be wise to select missions that can normally be attempted by one affiliation only, avoiding missions that can be attempted by all three.

Also keep an eye on the span of your missions when selecting them. If you are using Scout Vessels and Spheres extensively in your deck, you will want to select missions with low spans, to make it easier for you to get around. Even when playing the Cubes, this may be a wise consideration. Only if you know you will have the Queen's Borg Cube or several Astrogation Drones might you consider opting for the higher span missions (in an effort to slow down your opponent's movement).

One very special mission will find its way into almost every Borg deck:

Tarchannen Study has everything I've talked about. Low span (2), rather difficult requirements (ENGINEER x 2 + IP Scanner + Holodeck), is Federation only, and has a 40-point box for the Assimilate Planet objective. Even better, it qualifies as a planet and a space location. Notice the wording on the objectives Establish Gateway and Assimilate Planet. While Establish Gateway specifies it must target a "location not yet scouted", Assimilate Planet is under no such restriction. In other words, you can target Tarchannen III first as a space location, then as a planet location, turning into a 50-point Borg mission. Note that it has been ruled that planet-only dilemmas (or artifacts that cannot play in space) that are encountered when scouting Tarchannen Study in space are placed back under the mission (not discarded as mis-seeds). You may probe for your space objective once all other seed cards have been cleared. If you later Assimilate Planet there, you will have to face those cards you ignored previously. Borg players should hope for more dual-icon missions in future expansion sets to help them along.

That wraps it up for missions. The seed part of your deck is not quite finished yet, though...

In previous articles I've covered all the major points of building a Borg deck. Time for the finishing touches. In this article, I'll focus on Borg Dilemma Strategy.

If your Borg deck gets a bad shuffle, or your opponent is playing a very fast strategy, your dilemmas may be all you have to hold the Alpha Quadrant until you can arrive on the scene and begin assimilating. While it's possible to get fully staffed Borg Cubes in play by turn two or three, there are also times this may take longer. Choosing the right dilemmas is very important if your opponent starts attempting missions before you can provide any direct opposition.

Many players favor dilemma combos where the first dilemma is designed to remove a key personnel. It's then followed by a second dilemma that will kill the rest of the Team (or most of them) for lack of the key skill. Examples of this are Yuta/Barclay's Protomorphosis Disease, Shot in the Back/The Sheliak/Q, REM Fatigue Hallucinations/Cytherians, and Strict Dress Code/Nagilum. These are all well and good, when they work. Sometimes a Team can survive even these nasty combos. And sometimes your opponent will "redshirt" their way around them.

"Wall" dilemmas (dilemmas which simply may not be passed until a certain condition is met) are thus very important to a Borg deck. Things like Alien Labyrinth, Ancient Computer, Dead End, Lack of Preparation, Maglock, Radioactive Garbage Scow, and Shaka When the Walls Fell all have conditions for overcoming them. It may take a few extra turns for your opponent to gather personnel to meet those conditions. Either way, it will force your opponent to gather a more sizable Team to face your dilemmas. All it takes is the few extra turns these wall dilemmas will buy you to get to the Alpha Quadrant and start Eliminating Starships.

You should also put some dilemmas in your deck that you can overcome easily yourself. Given the time and sacrifice often required to scout missions, it is probably a good idea to at least steal one of your opponent's. Because the Borg ignore dilemmas related to points and gender (among others), there are a number of good cards that will hurt your opponent, but have no effect on you.

The complete list of worry-free dilemmas for the Borg: Anaphasic Organism, Android Nightmares, Bendii Syndrome, Borg Servo (against a non-Borg opponent), Borg Ship (if encountered by your own Cube, this will only stop you; it won't even damage you), Chinese Finger Puzzle, Dead End (will stop you only the first time you encounter it), DNA Metamorphosis (if you have a Cyber Drone), Don't Call Me Ahab (so long as your Queen isn't an OFFICER), Edo Probe, Female's Love Interest, Firestorm, Male's Love Interest, Maman Picard, Matriarchal Society, Outpost Raid (you won't have an outpost anywhere you could encounter this dilemma), Parallel Romance, Quantum Singularity Lifeforms (so long as you don't seed a Scout Encounter in front of it), Rascals (if Locutus or another Counterpart isn't around), System-Wide Cascade Failure, and The Higher... The Fewer.

A whole lot more dilemmas are not at all dangerous if your Queen has the right skill at the right time, or you are otherwise prepared to encounter your own seed cards. Barclay's Protomorphosis Disease, Cardassian Trap, and Coalescent Organism are among the dilemmas easy to overcome with the right Borg.

So, for example, say you plan on stealing one of your opponent's planet missions. Seed a wall dilemma there, followed by say a Parallel Romance and a Borg Servo. Or at a space location, how about a Radioactive Garbage Scow? If you get there first, it's no problem. If your opponent should beat you there (or come to snatch the mission after you've cleared out the dilemmas), they will still have to tow the Scow. Just beware of going too extreme on stocking dilemmas the Borg can easily overcome -- you might just wind up playing a Borg opponent.

A few words on three very important dilemmas to the Borg:

Borg Servo. I'm not seeing Cybernetics much these days. Even those playing it in their decks won't always have it out in play, since it's not a very common skill. So you can usually count on this dilemma taking out an opponent's personnel -- best of all, they become yours to control.

Borg Ship. Still as tough as it ever was. Now you can Retask it, too. I did challenge the validity of a heavy Retask strategy in an earlier review. Nevertheless, in some decks, with certain players, it does work. Certainly, you have little to fear from using it.

Scout Encounter. The Borg and the Romulans are currently the only affiliations with Scout Vessels. This can be a great way to jump-start some extra cards into play. It's also one of the best ways the Borg can deal with the Patrol Neutral Zone deck. With Launch Portal in play, Borg Scout Vessels can land on planets. Land on a Neutral Zone planet, and the PNZ deck is shut down.

Of course, the other element of dilemma strategy is how you will deal with your opponent's dilemmas when scouting your own missions.

My look at dilemmas continues as I examine the other side of the equation -- how the Borg encounter them. First, a quick glance at the rules basics. There are three different scouting techniques for the Borg: planet, space, and ship.

To scout a planet, you beam down one (and only one) Borg to begin encountering dilemmas. That Borg continues until it is stopped, killed, or successful. If the Borg is stopped or killed, another may be sent down (on the same turn, if desired) to pick up the job. Scouting is complete when all dilemmas are gone.

To scout a space location, designate a ship present to do the scouting. All Borg on that ship encounter the dilemmas together (this is essentially how any other affiliation encounters dilemmas at a space location). Scouting is complete when all dilemmas are gone.

To scout a ship, you need the Transport Drone to beam through that ship's SHIELDS (unless it is another Borg ship). Send over one (and one only) Borg. If that Borg is somehow killed, you may send another over to replace it. Scouting is complete at the end of your turn if you have Borg aboard the target ship.

Now onto the more strategic aspects of scouting. There's not a lot to talk about with scouting ships, so I'll focus on scouting related to mission locations. There are two distinct approaches you can take to encountering dilemmas. You can try a red-shirt strategy. Since Lack of Preparation inflicts no point loss on the Borg, and Dixon Hill's Business Card can only target a "mug what ain't Swedish", Borg players have little to fear from sending drones out to the slaughter. You could also try to encounter dilemmas with the intent of overcoming them, not merely eliminating them.

The basic "food groups" needed to face dilemmas have not changed. If you are intent on overcoming dilemmas without suffering casualties, you should at least have MEDICAL, SCIENCE, and SECURITY present. Having ENGINEER along (especially at space locations) is also a good idea. Typically, these slots will be filled by the Bio-Med Drone, the Cyber (or Quantum) Drone, the Assault Drone, and a Countermeasure Drone. (Other Borg can provide these skills, but these are the most common and valuable ones.) Armed with just these four Drones, the Borg player can overcome most dilemmas. Add in the Interlink Drone, and you can overcome many more (and scout more effectively at planets). Essentially, a fully staffed Cube that includes the Drones listed above will be able to handle almost anything at a space location either by overcoming it, or downloading an Adapt: Negate Obstruction with the Countermeasure Drone.

When scouting planets, an Interlink is a necessity if you plan on overcoming many dilemmas. All your scouts will need to be Communications icon, to receive the skills shared by the Interlink Drone in your hive. This means stocking extra, expendable Communications Borg in your deck if you plan on scouting mostly planets. While you can scout planets with Navigation or Defense Borg, they will not advance very far without skills shared from the hive. If you have advance knowledge of the dilemmas (by Full Planet Scan, for example), you may be able to send down non-Communications Borg at the right time if you are running low.

There a lot of confusion about how the Borg deal with various dilemmas. Here are some examples to help explain.

A Borg player is scouting a space location with a fully staffed Borg Cube and encounters Theta-Radiation Poisoning. The dilemma is placed on the ship. A Countermeasure Drone and an Interlink Drone are present among the seven Drones on the ship. The Countermeasure's ENGINEER skill is thus shared to all Borg on the ship. With 7 ENGINEER present, the dilemma is cured.

A Borg player sends down a single scout to a planet location, and encounters Armus -- Skin of Evil. The drone is killed. On a later turn, if any Communications Borg encounters another copy of Armus, the Borg player may play an Adapt: Negate Obstruction to nullify that second Armus.

A Borg player sends down a Transwarp (Navigation) Drone to a planet location and encounters Barclay's Protomorphosis Disease. The Transwarp Drone doesn't have MEDICAL, SCIENCE, or SECURITY, and is killed. Had the Borg player sent down a Unity (Communications) Drone instead, that drone could have shared skills. If an Interlink Drone, MEDICAL, SCIENCE and SECURITY were in the hive, the Unity drone would have had those skills too, and survived.

A Borg player encounters a Maglock at a space location. Locutus of Borg is not present. The Borg player may overcome this dilemma one of two ways. At the beginning of next turn, the Queen's skill may be changed to OFFICER. With an Interlink Drone and two other Borg of STRENGTH greater than 5 present, Maglock would be overcome. Or the Borg player may wait until next turn, and encounter the Maglock again. They still do not have the required skills, but since they encountered Maglock on a previous turn, they may play an Adapt: Negate Obstruction to nullify it.

Finally, a Borg player sends down a single Communications drone to a planet mission and encounters a Lack of Preparation. The drone has only one subcommand icon, so cannot continue. The Borg player has three options for overcoming the dilemma. He can send down the Borg Queen or Locutus of Borg as a scout. They have all three icons, and can overcome the dilemma. He can wait until next turn, and play an Adapt: Negate Obstruction to nullify the Lack of Preparation. Or he can (after the Communications scout is stopped), send down a Navigation drone to scout. When the Navigation scout is stopped by the same dilemma, he can send down a Defense scout (to also be stopped). Next turn, the three Borg on the planet can join together to form one Away Team and scout together. All three icons are now present, so they overcome the dilemma.

Generally, it is better to try to overcome a dilemma than to use Adapt: Negate Obstruction to nullify it. You will have only a limited number of the Adapt cards in your deck, if you use them when you don't necessarily have to, you won't have them later for dilemmas you might need them for. Alien Parasites, for example, can be overcome almost no way other than Adapting to it. If you have to Adapt, remember the Countermeasure's ability to download that card for you. You can stock fewer copies of Adapt than you might expect, since you don't have to rely on drawing one normally when you need it. You can stock fewer still if you are certain of getting a Borg Queen into play, since her skill changing ability will help you out of most dilemmas that would normally require an Adapt.

There are a few good ways for Borg to "cheat" around the single-scouting technique required at planet locations. With Emergency Transporter Armbands, you can beam down multiple Borg as one Away Team to begin scouting together. Or you can deliberately seed wall dilemmas like Lack of Preparation to be encountered first in your scouting efforts. Use the wall to accumulate a number of Borg on the planet on one turn, then join them together to scout as a group on the next turn.

When red-shirting dilemmas as a primary strategy, you should designate one or two specific Drones as your expendable personnel, and stock multiple copies of them. For example, you might choose the Countermeasure Drone for red-shirting (since he can download Adapts, and he is a Communications icon drone). Stock lots of copies of him -- eight or more would not be unreasonable. Send these extras to the slaughter, not risking drones you deem more valuable -- drone you stocked fewer copies of. Another benefit to loading up on multiples of a particular "red-shirt" is that you can choose that red-shirt for its icon, to match your objectives. The Countermeasure Drone's Communications icon, for example, will succeed on any Borg objective. A Quantum Drone's Navigation icon would make him good red-shirt material for an Establish Gateway deck, and so on.

Now you know how to deal with the dilemmas your opponent will throw your way. But there are other ways to mess with a Borg strategy... and ways to deal with them.

Way back in the first installment of this series, I made the recommendation not to stock any copies of Kevin Uxbridge, Amanda Rogers, or Q2 in a Borg deck. (This remains a piece of "Mot's Advice.") Many were quick to point out that not stocking these cards would leave the Borg vulnerable to a number of nasty things.

Static Warp Bubble. I have actually found this to be rather ineffective against the Borg. Most typical Borg strategies are based around downloading necessary cards and putting them directly into play. You don't need to worry about keeping cards in hand. Also, many Borg players use Zalkonian Storage Capsule (along with Mercy Kill) to rig their probe draws. When faced with a Warp Bubble, a Borg player could begin storing their hand to protect it. Still not convinced? Stock Deactivation. It's even a Captain's Order, so a Ready Room Door can download it.

Telepathic Alien Kidnappers. Another "hand-shrinking" card, not too powerful in the face of an affiliation not too big on keeping cards in hand. For this, I recommend an Intruder Force Field in the Tent. You can reflect the TAK back on your opponent, and also deal with another very powerful anti-Borg strategy...

Rogue Borg Mercenaries. I'm sure you've seen Rogue Borg used singly to stop a ship for a turn (by battle). This hits the Borg doubly hard, since they cannot probe on a turn they've been battled. You'll definitely want to have access to an Intruder Force Field, so that if your opponent does want to Rogue Borg you to slow you down, they'll have to spend three cards to do it.

Baryon Buildup. I don't see many players using this, but I can't deny it's a powerful anti-Borg strategy. Returning to your outpost is time consuming and counterproductive. Playing a Regenerate, though, will not only repair your ship, it will discard any cards (like Baryon Buildup) that are reducing your RANGE. (The repair function of Regenerate will also help against cards like the Calamarain).

Temporal Rift. Use your Quantum Drone to help you out of these, by downloading an Alternate Universe Door. This will protect you against casual, delaying use of the Rift, but leave you open to Patrol Neutral Zone decks in the hands of smart opponents. For them, land a Scout Vessel (using Launch Portal) at a Neutral Zone planet. That'll really put a crimp in their plans!

Invasion. Sometimes, your opponent will beam over onto your ship with an arsenal of weaponry and a squad of their toughest personnel. There are three ways to deal with it: preventative, reactive, and vengeful. By preventative, I mean discourage your opponent from ever doing such a thing. Play with a lot of Assault and Talon Drones -- and make sure your opponent knows every time you are adding them. They'll think twice about personnel battle against Borg with STRENGTH in the teens. By reactive, I mean using cards to get you out of battles. Emergency Transporter Armbands is a great one, allowing you to escape onto your opponent's ship (and you may already be using this Interrupt to help you with scouting planets). By vengeful, I suggest that while you may or may not be able to do anything to stop the attack, you can teach them a lesson for doing it. With the opponent's Away Team on your ship, play Auto-Destruct Sequence to kill them all. A Three-Dimensional Thinking or Escape Pod will even save your crew when you eliminate your opponent's.

Alas, Poor Queen. People will use the invasion tactic above, or dilemmas like Yuta to target your Queen, allowing the use of this interrupt. Your best bet is to stock Assault Drones, again discouraging combat, and also tampering with the Queen's Yuta number in the process.

Q-Nets. If the Queen or Locutus of Borg isn't around to help you pass a Q-Net, use the Alternate Universe Door (downloaded by the Quantum Drone, if necessary), to allow your ship to pass through it.

Revolving Doors. If you find your Transwarp Network Gateway or other valuable Doorway closed, Alternate Universe Door can also deal with that problem.

Borg Hunting. Players may come after your little Scout Vessels and Spheres for the point bonuses, or even bring a Kurlan Naiskos or fleet up against your Cubes. Intermix Ratio can be a deterrent against the former, and Shipwreck and a Multiplexor Drone can foil the latter. If you are using smaller ships, you might try to keep a Cube handy to retaliate if they are attacked.

You'll notice that the same cards keep coming up here: Alternate Universe Door, Quantum Drone, Intruder Force Field... a surprisingly small number of cards will protect you against a wide range of anti-Borg tactics. These make great cards for your Q's Tent (although I do recommend you stock the AU Door in your deck itself, in case the Tent gets closed).

There are also a handful of cards that work quite well in supporting Borg strategy and holding back your opponent.

Last time, I talked about cards you can use to combat an opponent's anti-Borg strategy. This time, cards to promote your own. There are a lot of ideas below on cards to use to support your plans as a Borg player and keep your opponent at bay.

It's time once more for that all important reminder: as a Borg player, probing is your livelihood. If you cannot probe successfully, you cannot win. Probing on the first try will save you far more time than any other method of speeding up your Borg deck. So, while I recommend the cards below, I do not recommend using all of them. Do not clutter up your Borg deck with too many support cards without Borg subcommand icons. It's the surest way to sabotage yourself -- far more than you'll sabotage your opponent. That dispensed with, on with the show.

Anti-Time Anomaly. This is a great Borg support card. So much of a Borg deck is expendable already -- you'll be sacrificing drones in scouting planets, sacrificing Scout Vessels in space, and throwing cards and caution to the wind. So you might consider cleaning out your opponent of personnel every now and then. This is a great way for the Borg to counteract an opponent abusing Red Alert, or Assign Mission Specialists, or any other abusive "rapid report" strategy (especially the Q-bypassers). Wait for a turn or two for your opponent to get a somewhat large crew on the table, then play the Anomaly to wipe them all out and "reset the game." Of course, if you know you'll be playing an Anomaly, you can plan ahead and not be playing your own personnel until after the fact.

Destroy Radioactive Garbage Scow. Since the Borg completely ignore the Radioactive Garbage Scow dilemma (it affects mission attempts, not scouting), you may want to stock a few of these in your own deck. And as long as you're doing that, how about these interrupts to match? You can lower the value of the missions your opponent will try to steal once you've completed scouting. Or do something even nastier... more on that later...

Hail. Stalls your opponent long enough for you to get Eliminate Starship into play. Also lets you control where battles will take place -- very important if you want to be Salvaging Starships.

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a. You might try this interrupt in an aggressive Talon Drone or counterpart strategy. With a Youth-ful Borg Queen in your hive, you'll have a +4 bonus to your STRENGTH for each Borg on the attack.

Launch Portal. Combined with Engage Shuttle Operations, you can land your Scout Vessels on planet surfaces. This is the best way to shut down a Patrol Neutral Zone deck. There's nothing your opponent can do to stop a landed ship, and it will become a permanent opposition in the Neutral Zone if you land at Covert Installation or Iconia Investigation. Launch Portal also provides a little extra firepower to deal with ambitious attacks (or an escape route when your back's against the wall), by its ability to download a ship.

Lower Decks. It shouldn't take much convincing that this card, which gives a +2 bonus to all attributes of all of your drones, belongs in most any Borg deck. Ready Room Door protects it from nullification as well.

Mission Debriefing. This will stall a non-Borg opponent while not harming you in any way. Your opponent will have to stop after every mission attempt. The Borg, of course, do not attempt missions, so this card won't touch you. Best of all, this can be seeded if you like, so it won't tamper with your probe outcomes. Combine this with Eliminate Starship to destroy a ship when the Away Team is stopped from last turn on a planet surface, and you've really got your opponent in a bind. Even more cruel, since all your Cubes have Tractor Beams you could tow a Garbage Scow to a stopped Away Team and use the Destroy Radioactive Garbage Scow I mentioned earlier to kill them all off.

Rogue Borg Mercenaries. This does rather fly in the face of my suggestion to keep your probing optimized. Nevertheless, a very effective Borg deck can be constructed by using the Rogues for support. Single Rogue Borg attacks on each of your opponent's turns will keep them in check until you can get to the Alpha Quadrant yourself. En masse attacks aided by a Crosis will finish off anyone trying a quick, "all-eggs-in-one-basket" approach (like Q bypass). For a particularly off the wall use for the Rogue Borg Mercenaries, report one of your Navigation or Communications drones to an otherwise empty Cube. Play three Rogue Borg on your own ship -- they'll defeat the STRENGTH 5 drone. Then grab a Lore Returns to take command with your Borg commandos. You can "staff" your Cube by playing only 5 cards instead of 7, and attack your opponent at will, with no objective, and keep scouting and probing with your regular Borg at the same time.

Shipwreck. A very powerful card. You can play it at the start of a battle, making a very nasty surprise for your opponent. It nullifies all ship attribute enhancements to all ships. Without enhancements, your Cubes can beat anything else, every time.

There are of course many other cards that are good for slowing your opponent down that are good even if you aren't playing Borg: Abandon Mission, Incoming Messages, Klim Dokachin, Telepathic Alien Kidnappers, and Temporal Rift, among others. But these ideas should get you started on ways to level the playing field between you and your non-Borg opponent.

Well, I've now written 13 articles covering everything I know about conventional Borg strategy. Perhaps a word or two is in order about other strategies.

BORG/ROGUE BORG ALLIANCE

I mentioned this briefly in the last article. Essentially, the idea is to use a large amount of Rogue Borg Mercenaries as your offense, slowing your opponent as you move through your objectives. Undetected Beam-Ins helps with this deck -- download the Rogues, not your own personnel. Crosis is great, and if your opponent is playing Lore, that's icing on the cake.

ADVANTAGES: You will really be able to stall your opponent with this. You can also combine with Lore Returns to take control of ships which you can use to attack without (or in spite of) a current objective.

DISADVANTAGES: Your probe ratio drops dramatically. You may find yourself probing for turns on end with Rogue Borg interrupts. Finding the balance between too many and not enough Rogue Borg is difficult, and requires some playtesting.

QUEEN-LESS BORG DECKS

While I've talked of the value of playing the Borg Queen a great deal, it is also more than possible to play without one. This will require more Awakens and Activate Subcommands to compensate for her missing downloading ability, and may take more Adapt: Negate Obstructions to deal with dilemmas (things like Maglock, Shaka When the Walls Fell, and others).

ADVANTAGES: The big advantage, you have nothing to fear from Alas, Poor Queen. Many players see red when they see you play a Borg Queen. They come after you relentlessly, bent on destroying your entire Collective by killing your Queen. Also, if you don't play with Queens, you don't play as though you are *dependent* on Queens. The drones are perfectly capable of scouting, adapting, and moving quickly without the Queen, but often players who use the Borg Queen will feel as though they have to get her into play before they can begin scouting and scoring. They'll wait around several turns until they do before proceeding. Delays like that can finish off a Borg deck.

DISADVANTAGES: There's no question, the Borg Queen is useful, and puts speed in your deck. You can also play smaller decks if you're sure to get a Queen out early.

BORG "SWARM" DECKS

Great Borg decks don't necessarily have to be based around staffing Cubes. Some decks don't even use them. The Scout Vessels, which have the ability to report with crew right to the Alpha Quadrant, are much faster to get out -- and in great numbers -- than the larger ships in the Borg fleet. You don't even need to use an outpost in such a strategy if you don't want to.

ADVANTAGES: This is very quick indeed. By deliberately seeding dilemmas your Borg can pass at a nearby mission of your opponent's, you can score points on the second turn of the game with a good draw. On turn one, report with crew and complete the scouting off a seeded objective. On turn two, a successful probe will score you points -- even earlier in the game than the average Assign Mission Specialists deck will manage to get on the board. Also, dilemmas like Cytherians will not set you far back. There are waves of expendable ships at your disposal.

DISADVANTAGES: With SHIELDS and WEAPONS of only 4, the Borg Scout Vessels ought to come with bullseyes painted on the hull. Any opponent with the means is liable to come after you looking to pick up 5-point bonuses. You'll need to plan ahead ways to discourage this. Intermix Ratio will help. You can also use one Cube, which you staff in the Delta Quadrant as you swarm the Alpha Quadrant -- if the big guns are called for later, then you can move in. Or you can simply alternate ends of the spaceline as you report and scout, to keep your opponent tied up. If all they're doing is chasing your ships and not attempting missions, they won't beat you.

There you have it, almost everything you wanted to know about the Borg but were afraid to ask. Almost. There seems to be one other bit of Borg strategy people want to know about, and they haven't been at all shy about asking me over the last month:

"Mot, could you show us one of your decks?"

This is a Swarm Deck (as I described in Review #14). I'd give you something a little more in line with the advice I've given throughout these articles, but this is the deck (no changes) that won me my first tournament using the Borg (accept no substitutes). I hope it will serve as a blueprint to help illustrate some of the things I've been talking about, and lead you to your own successful Borg designs.

I. Using the Deck

This entire deck is expendable. When playing, you should throw away yourBorg in scouting attempts with reckless abandon. There are only a couple oftypes of Borg in the deck, so you should always have what you need. There is no outpost, since it uses only Scout Vessels, and they may report with crew directly to the Alpha Quadrant.

To start the game, you should have a Borg Scout Vessel with a Quantum Drone (Six of Eleven) in hand. Report them to the end of the spaceline (downloading a Transwarp Network Gateway from your deck) and immediately reveal Establish Gateway. Target your opponent's mission closest to that end of the spaceline, where you have seeded the Scout Encounter/Radioactive Garbage Scow combo. The Scout Encounter can be passed with no difficulty (maybe a hiccup or two if your opponent is playing Borg or Romulan), and the Scow is meaningless to the Borg. You'll be off and probing by turn two. Even if your opponent wants to complete the mission later, they'll still have to tow the Scow.

Probing should be a snap. Out of the 49 cards in the draw deck, only 8 do not have the blue Communications icon or green Navigation icon. It's built in probe rigging -- no extra manipulation required. Consequently, you should stick with the Establish Gateway objectives exclusively. The Assimilate Planets are in there in case a Q's Planet forces you to drive to 140 points, but otherwise don't go for them unless it's a truly unique situation. Trying to probe for the blue icon alone (there are no red Defense icons in the draw deck) will take much longer.

There are tons of ships and Borg to spare, so accept that when you turn toyour own missions (and your opponent's dilemmas), you will lose cards. It doesn't matter. Use Adapts to get around everything that doesn't kill you (the Countermeasure Drone can download them). Just report relentlessly, clear out missions quickly, probe, and repeat. Move as quickly as you can, before your opponent can build up a fleet to spread out across the spaceline.

The remaining combos are designed to place a "wall" dilemma in front of a killer or set of killers, forcing your opponent to commit a fair number of people to a mission attempt, then letting you kill them all. Pay attention to what your opponent is reporting as the game progresses. This deck uses Yuta quite a bit and you'll want to be able to pick the right number at the right time. Each Yuta has a Shot in the Back or a Strict Dress Code in front of it. Since both dilemmas can cause a death by opponent's choice (and neither stops the crew or Away Team), you should be able to double check your math by going through your opponent's Team and looking for the right people to kill. For example, they hit Shot in the Back, find they have no android, so hand their Team over. You look through and find they have say only 2 SCIENCE present. Kill one now, noting the Yuta number for the other. Call that number next, and then the Barclay's will take care of them all.The other combos work very much the same way. The dilemmas are set up to cover four space locations and two planets (which I find to be the most common mix right now). Occasionally, the sets will have to be broken up to cover some other mix.

II. A few words about some of the other cards in the deck and Tent

Regenerate. They're there in case going once through your deck isn't enough. Regenerate your dead Borg and start again. Better safe than sorry.

Mission Debriefing. Slows down your opponent. The Ready Room Door in the Tent lets you download and protect it.

Alternate Universe Door. For Temporal Rifts and Q-Nets. Remember the Quantum Drone can download it.

Anti-Time Anomaly. To stop rapid report strategies, Q-bypass being high on the list. Tent for this and play it just after Benjamin Maxwell, Norah Satie, and Sirna Kolrami (or two of the three) have hit the table...

Retask. You aren't meant to get this card as part of the strategy. It's here in case that Borg Ship dilemma you seeded should come up at the right place and time, and also to really set back an opponent who is also playing Borg by distrupting *their* Retask strategy. The Assault Drone and Borg Cube in the Tent are there exclusively so that you can legally use the Retask.

Deactivation. Mostly for stopping Red Alert (but also for popping Static Warp Bubbles). When Tenting for this, I usually grab the Ready Room Door, and use that to download Deactivation. (Then you can use the Door again to download the Mission Debriefing.)

Engage Shuttle Operations and Launch Portal. There to stop Patrol Neutral Zone decks, since landing in the Neutral Zone is a form of permanent opposition. Iconia Investigation is one of this deck's missions, just in case the PNZ opponent wasn't so kind as to play a NZ planet.

Intermix Ratio. To discourage people from coming after your Scouts for the point bonuses. If they start to do this, alternate reporting on one side of the spaceline and the other. If your opponent zigzags back and forth chasing you, they'll never complete any missions, and this Event will keep them from scoring any points.

Intruder Force Field. Rogue Borg strategies can really hurt the Borg, since the battle prevents them from probing for a turn. The Force Field protects you from both this and the occasional Telepathic Alien Kidnapper (in case you hadn't notice, the draw deck is rather predicatable).

Ready Room Door. For downloading and protecting the Mission Debriefing from the deck. If you have a Tent to spare in hand, do this to remove that unsuccessful probe card from the deck.

The Traveler: Transcendence. Generally speaking, you'll Tent for this first. Let your opponent play Mirror Image if they want -- this swarm deck can play only if you have a steady stream of ships and crew coming into your hand, and The Traveller thus essentially doubles its speed. It should benefit you more than your opponent (which is also why there's a seeded Mirror Image, so you can ride on your opponent's Traveler long enough to get out one of your own if needed).

There you have it. With this deck, I scored 10 (+300) in a 5-round tournament, proving that the Borg are indeed a viable tournament affilation.

That basically brings this series to a close. I've shared everything I've learned about the Borg so far. Of course, they've only been around for a very, very short time, so there's still a great deal to learn and discover. Hopefully, these articles have given you a jumping off point for your own Borg decks so that someday soon, you can share with me the great tactics you've discovered for the game's newest affiliation.

- Mot the Barber

Star Trek CCG Official Tournament Sealed Deck contains 20 new cards, designed mainly for the original affiliations, but a shrewd player will soon realize the dramatic effect they can have on Borg decks. Here's a look at some of the possibilities... and dangers.

DILEMMAS. The Sealed Deck product introduces a couple of nasty dilemmas to the game that go hard on "red shirting." Armus - Sticky Situation and Unscientific Method cannot be passed by a single Borg scout on a planet surface. You will need an Adapt: Negate Obstruction to get by these, or some way of sending down more than one scout. Make Us Go targets an individual Borg, and it's no trouble for the Borg to muster the 24 CUNNING to get that personnel back. Hippocratic Oath may help you more than hurt you, by moving a Borg drone over to another planet location you can begin to scout even before your ship arrives there. It may move the Queen, which could prove inconvenient, but at least it won't kill her. With Hide and Seek, the Borg make off very easy indeed. In almost all cases, this dilemma will stop only the first universal Borg selected before the dilemma is discarded. There is just one dilemma you really need to worry about, and that is....

UNSCIENTIFIC METHOD. I've already mentioned the planet dilemma side of this -- you'll need to Adapt or arrange for multiple scouts to pass it. The space side of it is potentially even more deadly, at least if you brought a Queen along. When an Interlink Drone is present (and when is one not?), the Queen is by default the most CUNNING SCIENCE present. If she dies, then one Alas, Poor Queen will send you packing. You have a few ways to deal with this. You can leave your Queen at home, using her from your outpost for downloading but ignoring her skill changing abilities. You can pop your own copy of Unscientific Method early in the game with a different ship so that you can Adapt to it later when the Queen is around. Or simply remember to reset your Queen's skill to Treachery or Greed unless otherwise called for -- and be very careful of changing it at a space mission if you don't know what other dilemmas might be waiting for you!

INVESTIGATE INCURSION. No doubt Investigate Incursion has drawn your attention. Let's look at the opponent's side first. While the ability to report any Borg ship with crew there is powerful indeed, remember that it appears only on that side of the card -- your opponent must be using this mission for you to gain this benefit. Your side of the card is much more interesting: Your Salvage Starship objective may target this location. This gives you a universal location for this 30 point objective without having to first pave the way with an Eliminate Starship. It also creates a solid three-objective win that doesn't rely on assimilating a six-skilled counterpart. Just pack your own Locutus of Borg and Assimilate Earth for 40 points, then complete two Salvage Starship objectives for 60 more. Just be aware, while Assimilate Homeworld probes on a Communications icon, Salvage Starship takes Navigation or Defense. You'll need plenty of cards with all three subcommand icons in your deck to pull off this variety of probing; reliance on drones alone won't do it.

SPACE/TIME PORTAL. This card does wonders for a Borg deck. One of the most difficult tactics for a Cube-oriented Borg deck to overcome is the "field trip to Montana" deck, where the player uses Wormholes to send their opponent's ships back to the Montana Missile Complex. The problem was, Wormholes in a Borg deck will drastically reduce the ratio of successful probes, and Temporal Vortex is an Alternate Universe card (a seeded AU Door often proving a waste of space to the Borg). Now the Space/Time Portal can be seeded, and discarded from the table to return a Montana-bound ship to your hand with everyone on it. It may take a bit of time to report the personnel again, but at least your probe ratio is no longer compromised by attempts to counter this strategy.

It has been pointed out that Space/Time Portal also throws a bit of a monkey wrench into a Borg deck -- specifically hindering the Assimilate Counterpart objective. A targeted personnel could vanish, along with the ship they are on, back to their opponent's hand, nullifying your objective. This may be true, but consider also that this is the "field trip" issue in reverse -- you've just made your opponent return a ship and crew to their hand, and now they'll have to report them all over again. This intimidation could buy you the time to complete an extra objective or two. (An Eliminate Starship might make just as good a threat.)

The remainder of the OTSD is largely uninteresting to the Borg -- a personnel, ship, event, and outpost you can't use, and objectives you don't really want to use, since you can only have one objective in play at a time. But there is one last card in the Sealed Deck product, and this one paves the way for an entirely new kind of Borg deck.

SPACEDOOR. This card allows you to download universal ships to a matching outpost. Which affiliation has the strongest universal ships? The Borg, of course! One of the main hindrances to building a Cube-oriented deck was the need to stock some 7 or more Cubes to insure getting one in the opening turns. While their subcommand icons help with probing late in the game, that fact remains that it's more ships than you honestly need.

Spacedoor changes all that. By placing one on your Borg outpost during the seed phase, you can have a Cube at your disposal on the very first turn. (It can even be the only Cube in your deck!) A few Activate Subcommands and Awakens, and it could be staffed and ready to go in just two turns. What's more, since the Spacedoor gives you a means to run very low on ships and very high on the personnel-downloading cards, you can use it in a frightening new Borg deck archetype: the Cube Swarm Deck. All you have to do is discard one card from hand at the end of a turn to flip the Spacedoor back over, and next turn you can go grab another Cube. You'll not likely get the half dozen ships on the spaceline you can in a Scout Swarm Deck, but really, three or even just two Borg Cubes constitutes a swarm. Having just one extra Cube will help you deal with issues like Cytherians, or travel time between spaceline locations after a successful probe. A Borg Queen/Ooby Dooby combo will make staffing any additional Cubes even easier.

In short, the Borg became much easier to play thanks to the OTSD. All this from just a few cards that have almost no storyline connection to the Borg. It just goes to show you, we won't have to wait until Voyager comes along to get some great cards for our Borg decks!

- Mot the Barber

Deep Space Nine. Exciting, new, and not one Borg card in the entire 276-card set. But don't think for a moment the Borg got shafted; upon closer examination, the Borg affiliation has actually "improved" with the addition of these new cards.

There's no better place to start than with a close look at the one card that has Borg fans everywhere concerned. Computer Crash is a Hidden Agenda with a powerful function: "Seeds or plays on table. No player may play a Q's Tent doorway, download any card or play any card that requires downloading. Discard event at end of your next turn." At first glance, this looks bad. Really bad. How about a closer look?

Computer Crash doesn't pack much of a punch if it isn't seeded. It's an event, so to play it during the game costs you your card play, and it will remain in effect for only one turn once revealed. You are basically giving up one turn to stall your opponent for one turn, so really you're not gaining anything. Your opponent may even come out ahead -- they get to play a card on their turn after you spent yours on Computer Crash.

So what about the seeding possibilities? Deep Space Nine's exciting new exemption of missions from the 30-card seed deck limit means six more slots for seeds. While it is possible a player would choose to fill those six slots with copies of Computer Crash, they would be cutting themselves off from many other good choices for seeds: The Line Must Be Drawn Here, Mission Debriefing, Beware of Q, a variety of useful DS9 objectives, an extra Space/Time Portal, a Treaty, or even simply a few more dilemmas. While a player with six seeded Computer Crashes would definitely be able to do some damage to certain kinds of decks, they wouldn't have much protection against other popular tactics, most notably Wormhole Field Trips and Q bypassers. That won't stop *some* players from seeding six or more Computer Crashes, but it is safe to assume most won't, no more than they would seed six Mirror Images. Focusing too much on one strategy will leave you vulnerable to others. Nevertheless, it is probably safe to assume most players *will* seed Computer Crash -- at least one or two. What would the impact of this be on a Borg deck? Let's look at the functions of Computer Crash one by one.

"No player may play a Q's Tent doorway." That can be a powerful thing, but it is by no means exclusively for use against the Borg. Sure, you've probably got a Borg Queen or some other valuable card in your Tent, but your opponent has cards *they* value in *their* Tent, too... and Computer Crash is indiscriminate. Even if revealed on your turn, it will last until the end of your opponent's. Neither one of you will be able to access your Tent. Also, note that Computer Crash does not *nullify* Q's Tents, it merely restricts their play. If revealed in response to the play of a doorway, the Hidden Agenda will merely force you to return the Q's Tent doorway to your hand. It'll still be there (barring the occasional Telepathic Alien Kidnappers or Scorched Hand) one turn later if you do want to use it, and your opponent isn't gaining any ground on you since they too are cut off from their Tent. Wrong Door is frankly a far tougher card on Tenting, and all affiliations (Borg included) have managed to live with that.

"No player may... download any card." That's a bit tougher, and definitely is beginning to look like it's picking on the Borg. In the big picture though, it's like firing a BB gun at a locomotive. Borg decks download virtually every turn... and that does not make them *vulnerable* to Computer Crash, it makes them *stronger* against it. Consider how often a non-Borg deck downloads (forget momentarily about Assign Mission Specialists and Ready Room Door; I'll address those later). Not much, is the answer. The occasional special download icon on a personnel, the one or two time (average) use of a Spacedoor. These are downloads that are usually time critical -- if you're closing your Spacedoor, it's because you don't have a ship yet. If you are using a special download icon, you're required to play the card immediately. Downloading is less time critical to the Borg. With my Borg Queen, I can download at the end of any turn I want. No matter if you play Computer Crash, I can get that drone next turn. I was probably planning to download again anyway. For another affiliation where downloading is less common, each download means more. For the Borg, every download is just as good as any other, with few exceptions. (Retask is an obvious one, but Retask already has abundant risks attached.) In just a few turns, a Borg player will make you reveal all your Computer Crashes. Then they'll be gone. Resistance is futile. You have bought yourself only two or three turns. (Isn't that enough against the average Borg deck? We'll see...)

"No player may... play any card that requires downloading." There are some cases where this hurts Borg, and many where it makes little difference. Cards like the Borg Queen and the drones with downloading capabilities do not *require* downloading, so there's nothing stopping you from playing them if you draw one. For other cards like Activate Subcommands and Awaken, Computer Crash again does not nullify them, it merely returns them to your hand. They'll still be there next turn after the event is gone. (This does hurt Retask a bit, but no more than Kevin Uxbridge will!) Again, only a stall on downloading has been obtained, one turn per Computer Crash.

It's actually the *other* affiliations that are hit hardest by that final function. The two most popular non-Borg downloads are Ready Room Door and Assign Mission Specialists. Ready Room Door requires downloading, and thus cannot be played with a Computer Crash in effect. Assign Mission Specialists does *not* require a download of any kind (it's optional), so if you think an opponent with seeded Computer Crashes is going to hurt a Borg deck, just wait until you see what they can do to the average Mission Specialist deck! All they need to do is wait until the AMS player has discarded their objective and played a new one. They can then reveal Computer Crash, which will not force the card back to the player's hand since the downloading is optional -- all it means is they've wasted their card play on an objective they voluntarily discarded at the beginning of their turn!

I can imagine what you're thinking. Even a one turn stall against the Borg can be a big deal. You may believe they are slow to build, even more so with downloading restricted. I ask you: slow compared to what? What is your opponent playing that is so much faster? Why, an Assign Mission Specialist deck! Now that there's a card that goes harder on Assign Mission Specialists than *any* other downloading card, it will be a less reliable strategy. Do you even remember what it's like to be stuck playing whatever personnel you happen to draw? ;-) It's slow going -- just as slow as a Borg deck stalled for three turns by delayed downloading. There's really nothing the Borg have to try and keep up with. Any deck that was outspeeding the Borg before was doing so only by heavy downloading of its own. Everybody gets hit equally by Computer Crash.

So now that (I hope) I've laid to rest the myth of the DS9 card that's "tougher on Borg than anyone else", it's time to move on to cards that definitely hit *other* affiliations harder. One card type stands out in particular...

The dilemmas of the Deep Space Nine expansion have earned a lot of attention, and for good reason. Unusual requirements, lots of random killers that are difficult to guard against, and many possibilities for tough combos both in the stand-alone environment and the game universe at large. But how will they manage against the affiliation that screams through dilemmas like Inge Eiger in a Jeffries Tube? Grab your binder or spoiler sheet as I take you one by one through all 37 DS9 dilemmas.

Most of these are examined assuming a staffed Borg Cube is present. Scout swarms remain a viable strategy; from that perspective, DS9 for the most part only adds more to the wealth of killers that swarm decks were planning to shrug off or Adapt to anyway. I also overlook interrupts your opponent might use to toughen things up (Brain Drains, Barclay Transporter Phobia, etc.), since those can equally ruin the plans of any affiliation.

Altonian Brain Teaser. This dilemma's effect on bonus points is irrelevant to the Borg. It'll stop the most CUNNING personnel present (usually the Queen), which is actually a blessing in disguise... she won't be around for nastiness like Unscientific Method or Hippocratic Oath, yet she'll still be present to share her skill through an Interlink Drone. You might even self-seed Brain Teaser's for a bonus like that!

Angry Mob. No more devastating than any planet killer that has come before. Scouts are expendable. On the off chance your scout isn't receiving SECURITY from the hive, he'll pass through untouched. Or you could use Emergency Transporter Armbands or a landed Scout Vessel (via Launch Portal) to easily muster the 50 STRENGTH.

Aphasia Device. A Bio-Med Drone has the skills you need for this otherwise challenging dilemma. If 2 Bio-Med Drones and an Interlink Drone are present (quite common on a well-staffed Cube), you are absolutely impervious to it. If they get the Interlink Drone on their immediate random selection, the 2 Bio-Meds cure it; if they nab one of the Bio-Meds, the Interlink shares the skill from the other.

Arms Deal. A one-turn stopper, unless you've assimilated the right personnel or your Queen's in an unusual mood. But no tougher than pre-existing stopper dilemmas.

Assassin's Blade. In space, CUNNING>36 is a given for a Cube. At a planet you'll need a way to scout in multiple, or an Adapt to pass this dilemma that won't go away until it is overcome.

Brief Romance. Gender is irrelevant.

Clan People. A tough wall dilemma that all affiliations (save some Bajoran decks) will struggle with, the Borg might try Lower Decks, or simply Adapt as with any other walls.

Common Thief. With just 2 Assault Drones, all but your Communications Borg will be immune. You can get the critical MEDICAL, SCIENCE and SECURITY from other subcommands, so don't worry about safely absorbing a hit from this dilemma, and Adapting to any more you encounter later. (You're completely invulnerable to it with a Lower Decks and just one Assault Drone.)

Dal'Rok.  Each of your drones has combined stats of 17. The often played Assault Drone can take that to 19. Thus it takes only 8 drones to nullify this dilemma. That's just one more drone that you needed to staff your ship anyway. Again, Lower Decks is a potent ally for the Borg, taking to 7 the drones needed to nullify Dal'Rok.

DNA Clues. You can deal with this a couple of ways. You'll definitely have Exobiology from the Countermeasure Drone, so feel free to stop to make things easier on yourself. At a planet location, you can immediately send a new scout to continue anyway. Of course, with the Interlink's skill sharing, you might forge ahead regardless (just beware of Tarellian Plague Ship or Hippocratic Oath).

Duonetic Field Generator. This one's a bit tricky. If you don't have a way to send down larger groups of scouts, your opponent will need to help you out by placing a wall dilemma after this one. Otherwise, once scouting is complete, you won't be allowed to send down enough ENGINEERs to nullify the Field. Of course, the Queen can solve it easily by becoming a Miracle Worker.

Extradition. A mixed blessing. Your Queen could always take Law or Treachery so you can use this for yourself, but your Queen is also likely to be the target if your opponent is using it. This dilemma is going to make everyone consider stocking Rescue Captives. You might want to find room for it in your Q's Tent.

Flaxian Assassin. Another straight-forward scout killer you can adapt to later, multiple scouts can easily overcome it. On the other hand, several of the most popular Borg have only one or two skill icons! The Assault, Interlink, Multiplexor, Tactical, Talon and Unity Drones and yes, the Queen herself are all exempt! Send down two of these Borg to be stopped on the dilemma one turn, then overcome it the next. Or inflict some damage on your opponent by enlisting your Queen in the Tal Shiar.

Framed by Murder. Only Locutus of Borg can be targeted by this "unique only" dilemma. Even then, if the Queen is present to share Biology from the hive, you'll nullify it anyway.

Garak Has Some Issues. Exobiology is on Countermeasure Drone, and even if that's the Borg selected, it'll be stopped and present to share its skill to the hive, which will quickly "work out the issues."

Garanian Bolites. Virtually no effect whatsoever. Assuming your Borg aren't CUNNING enough to avoid it (although depending on the random selection or a Lower Decks, they might be), they're merely stopped. At a planet, another scout will show up to continue the job. In space, the stopped Borg continue to share their skills to the hive through the Interlink Drone.

Harvester Virus. Either you'll have more than one scout on the planet (in which case you can nullify the Virus with skills your hive will easily have), or a single scout (who was expendable anyway) will be lost at the end of the turn.

Hate Crime. Hatred is irrelevant.

Isolinear Puzzle. If you haven't got 2 ENGINEER, this dilemma is the least of your worries.

Kidnappers. Gender is irrelevant.

Lethean Telepathic Attack. A one-drone killer, and drones are expendable. The big guns, the Queen and Locutus, will both merely be disabled for a short time. Of course, under some circumstances, the Queen will be feeling Empathic, and can help you escape.

Lockbox. The Queen is rarely feeling Greedy, so this planet dilemma will probably end up stopping a scout. Send another. It's not as though you were going to get points on this dilemma anyway.

Misguided Activist. Unless your Queen is a V.I.P. (and I can't think of too many reasons you'd want her to be), or you've assimilated one, you're immune. You have no command-icons, and no V.I.P.s.

No Loose Ends. It might be a simple scout killer. Locutus will pretty much guarantee otherwise, though (and the Queen can take OFFICER as well). Of course, it's all irrelevant with any Defense Borg present.

None Shall Pass. How nice of your opponent to play this dilemma that lets you scout en masse without using Emergency Transporter Armbands or Launch Portal! Just send Borg until you can meet one of the many requirements next turn. With the Queen around, any one of the four is possible!

Odo's "Cousin". The Borg do have Geology (on the Survey Drone), so you can potentially get through this wall without Adaptation. It's basically just like any other wall.

Punishment Box. This has a strange interaction with the Borg not unlike Dead End. It will stop the scout first encountering it every time; they'll either have OFFICER and thus be "placed in the box" as per the "now" game text, or they won't have OFFICER and be stopped. After that though, OFFICERs are only trapped in the box at the beginning of a mission attempt. You are scouting missions, not attempting them, and thus it is irrelevant.

"Pup". This dilemma that will be a real problem for everyone else will be all but irrelevant to the Borg. Computer Skill is available on the Astrogation, Guard and Sabotage drones, and one Interlink Drone will share it enough to nullify "Pup."

Seismic Quake. You'll need a Survey Drone or Queen to get by this without Adapting. Even if those two are around, you'll still have to wait one turn to overcome it unless you can scout with more than one Borg. A single Borg will be stopped or killed, leaving no Geology present to continue (until next turn, when multiple drones present become unstopped again). This is almost as tough a time as the Borg have with dilemmas this set, which isn't very!

Skullduggery. Unless your Queen has taken an unusual skill, this will kill a Borg, random selection. Use a Bio-Med to reabsorb it if you can; if not, the loss of one Borg won't likely hurt (unless it's a lucky draw of the Queen or Locutus).

"Subspace Seaweed." 3 Navigation (a skill shared from Locutus, or the Astrogation, Quantum, Tachyon, or Transwarp Drones) is not that difficult for the Borg. If you miss the chance to overcome it, a Regenerate on your Cube will nullify this and any other cards reducing your attributes.

The Three Vipers. ENGINEER and 2 Navigation is nothing to worry about. You might be stopped, however. Locutus is your only shot at OFFICER, and the Tachyon Drone your only at Astrophysics (the Queen can't be both at once). The Borg are stopped on occasion when scouting in space -- this is one stopper they won't have to Adapt to on the following turn.

Trauma. Your crucial Borg Queen and Interlink Drones will probably never be affected by this card; they simply don't have enough skill icons. Locutus is of course the likely target to be disabled for 3 turns, but regardless of who is selected, this dilemma will never kill anyone. Your Borg will never complete a mission, never mind before the countdown expires.

Untrustworthy Associate. Your opponent has the freedom to beam to your ship anytime they want anyway. What difference does this card make? (Not that you won't have CUNNING>40 or 4 SECURITY).

Vantika's Neural Pathways. A rough one for most affiliations; at least it's only random selection, and you can always Adapt to any after the first. The drone will still make an effective scout, receiving skills from the rest of the hive, or if you ever have cause to use Space/Time Portal to return a ship to your hand, that will "cure" this dilemma.

Vendetta. You probably won't have Law, but that simply means you'll be unable to use thetargeted personnel as a scout. They'll still contribute skills to the hive; you'll just have to handle them with care, as you would your Queen or Locutus.

Vole Infestation. Basically, you're looking for a Guard Drone to overcome this. Should you not have one when you encounter it, Regenerate will purge the Voles later on in the game.

Q-Icon Dilemmas. Of the four Q-icon dilemmas in the set, only one affects the Borg. I Tried To Warn You, Rhetorical Question and Risky Business all state point blank that they won't. (I Tried To Warn You will actually have an affect on a Borg player using all space or all planet, but that's not a likely arrangement!) That leaves Fightin' Words, which will of course be tough on all affiliations. The Borg do have personnel who will still have the critical MEDICAL, SCIENCE and SECURITY after Fightin' Words takes effect, and they're the three that are most commonly used for those skills: the Bio-Med, Quantum, and Assault Drones. The Interlink Drone and Queen are untouched as well, so all in all you get out fairly clean. You can always play Assimilate Counterpart or Oof! to nullify Fightin' Words, or wait out the countdown icon.

There you have it, a look at the worst DS9 has to offer. The Borg emerge virtually unscathed. They have one or two more scout killers and stoppers to worry about, but for the most part the Borg can glide through these dilemmas simply by using cards they were already using: the Assault and Interlink Drones, the Borg Queen, Lower Decks and maybe one or two more Adapt: Negate Obstructions than they had before. Meanwhile, non-Borg affiliations are sent reeling by obscure requirements in amazing quantities.

Already, the Borg have gained ground on the other affiliations. But I promised improvements, and indeed there are some.