ARTICLE: TORPEDO ATTACK
By Tim Ellington, Decipher Game Designer

The ship is rocked by the impact of another photon torpedo...

"Damage report."

"Shields failing,hull integrity down to 40 percent."

"There's a plasma leak in Engineering,captain. Sensors are off line!"
An explosion rips through a control panel,destroying a tactical station and sending the security officer manning the position sprawling across the bridge.

"Helm,hard to port. Prepare for another attack run.
Ready disruptors!"

"If we take another hit, she'll fall apart."

"Fire!"

Familiar? A typical space battle on a Star Trek television show. Now you can experience the same excitement and variety in the Star Trek Customizable Card Game. The Blaze of Glory expansion set introduces the Battle Bridge side deck, which gives ship battle a brand new feel and interjects many of the detailed battle elements you have come to expect from Star Trek. From photon torpedoes to warp core breaches, the side deck takes ship battle to a higher level. New battle strategies and damage outcomes, as well as more player interaction make the Battle Bridge side deck a wonderful addition to the Star Trek CCG universe.

The Battle Bridge side deck is composed entirely of new "Tactic" cards. There are over 20 different Tactic cards in Blaze of Glory, and your side deck can contain any number of Tactic cards. Tactic cards can add bonuses to your attack and/or defense total in battle, as well as inflicting various damage outcomes to opposing ships and facilities. In addition, if you're using the Battle Bridge side deck, dilemma-inflicted damage to an opponent's ships and facilities is also handed out via the Tactic cards. The new cards are not only versatile, but can be customized into your overall deck strategy.

For instance, you have built a deck with the new Klingons Kang, Koloth and Kor. Kang's bird-of-prey, the I.K.C. Lukara, has RANGE 7, WEAPONS 7, and SHIELDS 7. You want to attack the U.S.S. Bozeman (with stats of 5, 8, 7). In the past, you wouldn't attack because you already know you couldn't hit the Bozeman and you would take damage in the return fire. But with the new Tactic cards, there is a random element introduced by the attack and defense bonuses that make battle unpredictable, and much more realistic.

Here's an example. If you are using the Pulse Disruptor Tactic card, you get an Attack bonus of 1 (added to your attack total) and a Defense bonus of 2 (added to your defense total). And since you are using the Pulse Disruptor with a Klingon ship, you get an additional Attack bonus of 2, bringing your attack total against the Bozeman to 10 and your defense total to 9. Now you're ready to fight!

But you don't know what Tactic card your opponent may be playing! All Tactic cards have attack and defense bonuses. Some are heavily weighted toward attacking. Some are geared more for defense. Others have a balance between both effects. You'll want to build your deck with a variety of cards to benefit from the bonuses the different cards can provide, as well as having a variety of damage outcomes. Here's how the Battle Bridge side deck works, in a nutshell....

You construct your side deck by choosing which Tactic cards you want to put in it. You may have multiple copies of the same card, and there is no minimum or maximum side deck size. During the seed phase, you will seed one Battle Bridge Door on your side deck. It's now ready for action. When you or your opponent initiates a battle, and after the targets are selected for both the attack and return fire, draw two Tactic cards (or more, if allowed by another card). You then select which of the Tactic cards you want to use for that battle. Discard any others. This way, you always have a choice of how to execute your battle. The more variety in your side deck, the more options you will have. Once you and your opponent have decided which Tactic cards you will play, turn them over, add any attack and defense bonuses that are relevant, and see who is damaged, just like always. If one or both players score a hit, they get to place "damage markers" on the opposing ship as indicated on the Tactic cards played.

Each Tactic card uses symbols to show how many damage markers it delivers. In the case of the Pulse Disruptor, this is shown with two red flipping arrows. This means you flip over two damage markers from the top of your side deck. The damage results from those two cards (as indicated by white text at the bottom of the card and reductions to range, weapons,or shields) are the damage you have caused the opponent's ship this turn. Most damage markers also inflict hull damage to the opposing ship. When this happens, the hull integrity is reduced by the amount shown on the damage marker. Each ship starts with 100% hull integrity; if it ever is reduced to zero, the ship and all personnel and equipment aboard are destroyed.

So let's assume your Lukara scored a hit on my Bozeman. Since the Pulse Disruptor has two red flipping arrows, you draw two damage markers from your side deck. Let's say you drew Photon Torpedo and another Pulse Disruptor. They are placed on the U.S.S. Bozeman with the following results (discard the Tactic card you played at the start of the battle):

• Range is reduced by 3

• Weapons are reduced by 2

• Shields are reduced by 2

• Hull integrity is reduced by 65%

• One SECURITY or Computer Skill personnel on my ship is killed.

• One personnel on my ship is killed randomly
  

Note: the SECURITY or Computer Skill personnel is killed before the random casualty because you drew the Photon Torpedo damage marker first.

A lot more realistic than just having my range reduced to 5 and my cloaking device not working, huh? Of course, if I had been using a Battle Bridge side deck, who knows what might have happened? In this case, I wasn't, and I didn't even get to damage you. While the new side deck isn't mandatory (if your opponent has no side deck, you take damage as described in the existing battle rules), you can see how much more fun it can be to have ship versus ship battles, or even ship versus facility battles.

A bit more about the new side deck. You'll notice there was a Photon Torpedo card in the side deck used by the I.K.C. Lukara. Why? It doesn't give as much of an Attack bonus as the Pulse Disruptor when used by a Klingon ship, so why would you put it in the deck?

Two reasons. First, it causes 35% hull damage instead of 30%, and second, it targets SECURITY and Computer Skill personnel specifically, instead of a random personnel from the entire ship. If your goal is to simply blow up my ship, you want cards that give as much hull degradation as possible. And if you've also used dilemmas that require lots of SECURITY and Computer Skill, then attacking me can make it harder for me to complete missions even if you don't destroy me.

The Tactic cards in Blaze of Glory are designed to give a random assortment of attack and defense bonuses, as well as a variety of damage outcomes. But deck construction is important. Cards with the best damage outcomes may only reduce hull integrity by 15%, so you'll have to hit them more than twice to destroy them. Cards with the highest attack bonuses may have low defense bonuses, making your own ship vulnerable. The cards are designed to allow flexibility and thematic design. Some cards, like the Pulse Disruptor, give extra bonuses to Klingon ships. Others give bonuses to Romulan ships, or specific classes of ships, as shown on the Photon Torpedo card.

As mentioned earlier, if you are using the Battle Bridge side deck, you also use the side deck for damage caused by dilemmas. If I am damaged, for instance, by Null Space, I would suffer the default damage of two damage markers from your side deck. Imagine Null Space suddenly reducing my hull integrity by 50% or more, reducing my shields so that my ship is vulnerable to cards like Loss of Orbital Stability, and taking out my only science personnel with Barclay's Protomorphosis Disease coming up.

So get ready to battle for control of your favorite quadrant, and enjoy the exciting new Battle Bridge side deck. Space just a got a little more dangerous.

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