Enhanced First Contact Strategies

Add Distinctiveness
by Evan Lorentz

There are two rather.... well.... distinct things going on with this seedable Hidden Agenda. First, it provides the Borg with a means of scoring positive bonus points, a reward for doing something fairly desirable in its own right: assimilating your opponent's personnel. Now not only will your opponent no longer have those cards to work with, you will receive a point per skill dot on each. Time to pile on the Assault and Talon Drones!

Second, it provides a use for any "extra" First Contact boosters you may have (perhaps including those that come with Enhanced First Contact). If at any point you are trailing by at least 40 points, you get one chance to pop open a sealed First Contact booster pack and use any non-seed cards you find inside. Artifacts, dilemmas, and missions will be unusable, but that leaves you well over 100 other possibilities to increase your resources. And not only are non-Borg personnel and ship cards immediately assimilated, but you also get the same "point per skill dot" bonus for the personnel! You might just pick up a few mission specialists to throw away in scouting attempts.... or you may get a member of the bridge crew. (Be careful of uniqueness restrictions with Jean-Luc Picard and Locutus of Borg.) You might even get the Borg Queen herself!

Combos:

Add Distinctiveness + Assimilate Counterpart: The Assimilate Counterpart objective gives you permission to initiate battles, but abducting your target is optional. Instead, you may choose to hang around for another battle, and another, until your Talon Drones can take as many personnel as possible. Assault Drones and Lower Decks will help out here.

Add Distinctiveness + We Are The Borg: Quickly build up the Assault and Talon Drones you need to collect points from your opponent's personnel. (Either function of We Are The Borg can work well for this!)

Add Distinctiveness + a little luck: If you're already down 40 points, you have nothing to lose. In almost all cases, at least half of a sealed First Contact booster will be usable. It could be just what you need to turn the game around.

 

Bareil of Borg
by Evan Lorentz

Worf once visited a parallel universe where the Bajorans were the greatest threat to the Federation. Perhaps not far off from that reality comes Bareil of Borg, from a universe where the Bajoran was made a counterpart of the Borg. Like other counterparts, he has the valuable skill of Diplomacy to assist with Shaka When the Walls Fell, Strict Dress Code, and other dilemmas. He's a ready-made counterpart for the Bajorans, complete with all the benefits that normally provides.

Bareil's remaining skills are rather different than the typical counterpart, however. He has Anthropology, a skill formerly available only on the Unity Drone. His Biology supplements that on the Bio-Med Drone with a back-up not vulnerable to Fightin' Words. His SCIENCE is a skill you'll always want a true second source of in a hive, above and beyond skill sharing by an Interlink Drone. And it's all topped off with Honor and V.I.P.

Combo:

Bareil of Borg + Assimilate Homeworld: Both Bajoran and Cardassian players frequently use Alter Records, giving you a target for the highest-point Borg objective. (Or just throw it in your own deck.)

 

Dukat of Borg
by Evan Lorentz

From a parallel universe where Cardassia was the key to the Alpha Quadrant comes Dukat of Borg. Like Locutus of Borg, he comes with all three subcommand icons, is a matching counterpart (for use against the Cardassians), and has an attack/defense bonus against his former affiliation. His skill selection gives you the best points Locutus has to offer: the OFFICER, Diplomacy and Leadership not normally in your collective. You also pick up Treachery, a nice skill for your Interlink Drone to be sharing when you're up against that favorite Queen-killing dilemma, Unscientific Method.

Whether you've got the Cardassian homeworld in your deck or not, Dukat of Borg could prove valuable for more than his skills. Orb Negotiations is a popular mission for both Cardassian players using the Central Command and Bajoran players taking advantage of easy requirements... and your Assimilate Homeworld objective is worth more points than the mission itself!

Combo:

Dukat of Borg + Airlock: Tired of those female V.I.P.s Opening Diplomatic Relations on your ships? With a STRENGTH of 12 and all the right skills, Dukat is just the Borg you need to toss them out the Airlock.

 

Eleven of Seventeen
by Evan Lorentz

If Computer Crash has been setting back your Borg strategy, the Complink Drone (Eleven of Seventeen) is the answer to your problem. It may be seeded at your Borg Outpost, nullifying any and all Computer Crash cards the moment they are revealed. Cube-based decks, far more reliant on downloading than Scout Vessel strategies, have been restored to their pre-Deep Space Nine effectiveness. Retask can again become a central element of your strategy.

The Complink is worth far more than its special skills, however. The ability to seed any Borg personnel puts you that much closer to staffing a Borg Cube and leaving the Delta Quadrant. The fact that this Borg has two highly valuable skills makes it even more potent. SCIENCE is called for on a huge number of dilemmas; you shouldn't be scouting missions without it. Computer Skill is also called for on its share of dilemmas, and is required for the Assimilate Starship objective.

Combo:

Eleven of Seventeen + Borg Scout Vessel + Space-Time Portal: You can still make use of Computer Crash in your Borg decks. After you've downloaded enough to get rolling, report a Borg Scout Vessel, load the Complink Drone aboard it, and pull it back to your hand with Space-Time Portal. You can then reveal your Crashes without having them immediately nullified.

 

Gowron of Borg
by Evan Lorentz

In a parallel universe, the glorious Klingon Empire was threatened as never before when Gowron himself was assimilated as a counterpart by the Borg. When you use him in your deck, you get very impressive STRENGTH and four skills not available on any drone, including the all-important Diplomacy. You get a ready-made counterpart to use on the Klingon homeworld (Expose Covert Supply), and an attack/defense bonus to make even the battle-hungry Klingons think twice about coming your way.

Of course, if your opponent doesn't seek you out, you can always hunt them with Gowron's special skill. Once per game, Gowron of Borg allows his hive to initiate battle regardless of current objective. Now you can threaten your opponent into huddling near their facility without even using A Change of Plans and Eliminate Starship. Even while you're working to scout one objective, you can destroy one of your opponent's ships with your Cube, then return to scoring points with half your opponent's personnel properly dealt with.

Combo:

Borg Queen + Locutus of Borg + He Will Make An Excellent Drone + Gowron of Borg + Kurlan Naiskos: If you convert Locutus to a drone, select CIVILIAN for the Queen's skill, and add Gowron to a Cube staffed with MEDICAL, SCIENCE, SECURITY and ENGINEER drones, you'll have a working Kurlan Naiskos. And that ship gets one chance to initiate a battle. How about using WEAPONS of 72 to destroy one of your opponent's facilities?

Nightmare
by Evan Lorentz

Now you can use one of the most disturbing images from First Contact to make your opponent cringe. In a twist on typical resource deprivation cards, the goal here is to keep your opponent's hand full of cards -- but take their best ones away. The larger their hand, the longer it will take them to recover. Even if they do nullify the Nightmare, you choose one card they won't get back.

The key to using the card effectively is in choosing what to take away. While you could simply choose to store your opponent's high-powered cards, you may instead wish to focus on a specific card type. For example, your opponent will be hard-pressed to score points if you take away all their ships. They won't be able to pass your Hippocratic Oaths if you take away all their MEDICAL. There are literally as many possibilities as there are cards in the game.

Though primarily a Borg affiliation card, a non-Borg player may also use Nightmare if they have a Borg Ship dilemma on the spaceline at the moment they play it. But the Nightmare may linger long after the ship is gone...

Combos:

Nightmare + The Traveler: Transcendence (on your opponent): Every turn, your opponent will draw an extra card to match the one you must choose to store, preventing them from shrinking their hand enough to recover. You can potentially deprive them of half their deck!

Nightmare + Kivas Fajo: Collector (on your opponent): Similar to the above, but your opponent can't use Q's Tents or station downloads to try to get their hand size down.

Nightmare + Dixon Hill's Business Card: If you take away your opponent's universal personnel (and holograms), they won't be able to play anyone at all!

Nightmare + Scorched Hand: If your opponent does manage to nullify the Nightmare and retrieve their cards, you can Scorch them back to the draw deck so they still won't get to play them.

 

Population 9 Billion - All Borg
by Evan Lorentz

This, one of the new "incident" cards in Enhanced First Contact, makes time-traveling Borg as big a threat in the game as they were in the film. This seedable Hidden Agenda lays waiting until you complete Stop First Contact or Build Interplexing Beacon, then allows you to report all your Borg cards directly to Earth. Ships will no longer need to move from the Delta Quadrant through a Transwarp Network Gateway. More importantly, all subsequent Alpha Quadrant missions you target are worth double points. That puts you just one dual-icon mission away from victory! All this on top of the benefits timeline disruption has always provided: removal of all non-AU Federation and human personnel from the game.

Combo:

Population 9 Billion - All Borg + Salvage Starship: Now the Borg have what every other affiliation has -- the possibility of a two mission win.

Service the Collective
by Evan Lorentz

Ever since the Borg affiliation was first introduced, the enhancement players have requested more than any other was a way for the Borg to probe on the same turn they complete scouting. Well, here it is! With this seedable incident, you may probe for the all-important Assimilate Homeworld objective on the same turn you complete scouting... a very nasty surprise if you manage to completely clear out the dilemmas at a homeworld on the same turn you reported the counterpart!

What's more, your counterpart unlocks same-turn probing to all your missions with icons matching his former affiliation. You may try choosing missions with a wide variety of affiliation icons, ready to make use of whatever counterpart you obtain from your opponent, or simply choose one of the counterparts to base your deck around and choose corresponding missions.

As an added extra bonus, Service the Collective also gives the ability of "pre-made" counterparts to those you take from your opponent -- an attack/defense bonus against their former affiliation.

Combos:

Service the Collective + Fair Play: If your deck is primarily space-oriented, you can use Fair Play to lock your opponent out of solving your missions, but still choose a wide variety of affiliation icons for use with various counterparts.

Service the Collective + Mission Debriefing + Assimilate Planet: If your opponent just completed a planet mission with a point box showing at least 35 points, reveal Mission Debriefing to stop them. Swoop in with your matching counterpart and probe on the very next turn for a chance to assimilate all those personnel into your Collective!

Six of Nineteen
by Evan Lorentz

The Reassimilation Drone (Six of Nineteen) is the newest answer to those opponents who endlessly delay your probing with single Rogue Borg Mercenaries. Now you can take those Rogues and convert them into more resources for yourself by downloading a universal drone to replace one before they initiate battle. As a bonus, you get a new source of Exobiology (previously available only on the Countermeasure Drone) and a special download of Intruder Alert.

Combo:

Reassimilation Drone + Space-Time Portal + Scorched Hand: If your opponent's persistent Rogue Borg-ing is threatening to make you download all your good probe cards, load some of those extra Borg personnel onto a ship and pull it back to your hand. You can then Scorch the good probes back into your deck if it's running low, or simply download them from your hand again as needed.

Sphere Encounter
by Evan Lorentz

Sick of having your opponent collect free points from your space missions after you've scouted away all the dilemmas? Never again. Sphere Encounter, perhaps the nastiest Hidden Agenda in the Borg arsenal, will protect your missions from thieves with the ultimate Borg download. If they try it, you may download any spheres, personnel and equipment in your entire deck (or hand, Q's Tent and Zalkonian Storage Capsule). Any and all of them. Just be sure you leave enough good cards to probe with!

Of course, you could play this card hundreds of times and never have any opponent try foolishly to steal your missions. Fortunately, the card has another use not related to your opponent's actions. While in play, all of your Borg spheres have RANGE +4. That brings them up to speed with Borg Cubes. Now Borg players have a third option for a ship around which to base a viable deck.

Combos:

Sphere Encounter + Tactical Drones + Guard Drones: Two or three of these drones as part of the download, and you'll really be able to stick it to your opponent.

Sphere Encounter + Samaritan Snare: Pity the Federation player forced to attempt your Samaritan Snare. A Hail interrupt might help make it happen.

 

Tomalak of Borg
by Evan Lorentz

In one of an infinite number of parallel universes, Tomalak was assimilated by the Borg. Now you can cross him over into our universe and use him in your deck. While he may not have as many regular skills as some of the other counterparts do, he has the ones that count: OFFICER, Diplomacy, and Leadership, all three of which are unavailable on any Borg drone, but called for by many dilemmas. Add to that his status as a counterpart against the Romulans, and you're ready to go after Romulus itself.

And then there is Tomalak of Borg's other special skill, which is truly special. The moment he enters play, all your ships gain Cloaking Devices for the rest of the game! It may not seem like the Borg's style, but it's a nice safety net to have... your opponent will have a hard time beaming aboard your ships to attack your personnel and stop your probing if they can't find them half the time.

Combos:

Tomalak of Borg + Engage Cloak + Eliminate Starship: The "enforcer" Cube strategy to use A Change of Plans to Eliminate any Starship that strays too far from its facility just got a whole lot meaner.

Tomalak of Borg + Borg Scout Vessel: The main weakness of a strategy based on the Borg Scout Vessel has always been their low SHIELDS and WEAPONS. But now all you have to do is throw down Tomalak of Borg as early as possible. Even if he dies later, your Scout Vessels can still hide from players hunting 5 point bounties using their brand new Cloaking Devices.

 

We Are The Borg
by Evan Lorentz

From the moment this image first appeared in an advertisement for the First Contact expansion, players were eagerly awaiting the arrival of We Are The Borg. Unfortunately, First Contact did not deliver, but Enhanced First Contact does -- and in a big way. The card's first function is a great supplement to existing downloading cards. It downloads Defense drones without the restrictions Awaken has, but does not cost your card draw as Activate Subcommands does.

However, it is We Are The Borg's second function that will excite Borg players everywhere. If you play this card on the table, every turn you get to play a free Borg affiliation card or draw an extra card at the end of your turn. It just became twice as easy to staff a Borg Cube. And don't forget that extra end-of-turn card draw can be converted into a download. You can use the special skills of various drones.... or even that of the Borg Queen herself. Imagine the power, downloading two cards each turn and playing a third. Or playing two cards while drawing one. Or simply using it as a Borg version of The Traveler: Transcendence (complete with an icon which will probe successfully for many of your objectives). There are even more possible combinations, and it's all immune to Kevin Uxbridge!

Resistance is futile.

Combos:

We Are The Borg + Seven of Nine: The ultimate flexibility for manipulating your resources.

We Are The Borg + The Traveler: Transcendence: Now you've got the equivalent of a free Kivas Fajo - Collector every single turn!

We Are The Borg + Mercy Kill: There is a risk to using We Are The Borg... if the game goes on too long it can threaten to exhaust your deck through forced card draws. Mercy Kill will slow you down in time to leave some successful probes in your draw deck.