Villagers With Torches
by Sean O'Reilly (jono1701@prodigy.net)

If you aren't playing fair, Referee Q will blow his whistle, call time out, and place your personnel on a bonfire until they're well done.

This card is the ultimate anti-red shirting card. If you attempt a planet mission with one or two personnel - you can't say I didn't warn you! Since Villagers With Torches has a Referee icon, your opponent will be able to suspend play with Q the Referee to download it to the table and then reveal it to kill your personnel.

Within a Voyager-only environment this card becomes very powerful. Without having Thermal Deflectors and with just a single card to nullify it, you can seed the event face-down since it's a hidden agenda. Then, reveal it to wreck havoc on an opponent's one- or two-personnel Away Team that's attempting a mission.

Combos:

Villagers With Torches + Rishon Uxbridge: Protect the event from nullification by Kevin Uxbridge.

Villagers With Torches + Issue Secret Orders: Infiltrate your opponent's small crew to force them to attempt a planet mission and die before they see any dilemmas.

Villagers With Torches
by Joeri Hoste (joerihoste@hotmail.com)

Ooooh! That puts an end to redshirting real quick. That's gotta sting! Beef up all those nasty dilemma combos of yours with a card that doesn't necessarily require one of those precious seed slots.

As long as you have Q The Referee revealed on table, you can just go ahead and download Villagers With Torches, revealing it as a valid response to your opponent sending fewer than three personnel down to the surface for reconnaissance. Beware of Kevin Uxbridge or Quinn who might foil your plans.

Now that Villagers With Torches requires basic numbers you might want to go for skill-based walls instead of the attribute-based wall dilemmas you've been using to keep your opponents at bay. Focus on a particular field of expertise while your Battle Bridge Side Deck supported armada swarms out to hunt down those very same experts. Use dilemmas such as Spatial Rift and Berserk Changeling that kill and function as a wall at once. Just watch your opponent squirm.

Opponent's planet missions may very well require fewer dilemmas to counter their strategy effectively, which will only make it harder on them to reach the minimum of four cards for their Ajur/Boratus Shuffle and will leave you more room in your seed deck to protect the Senior Staff Meeting-susceptible space missions. Back that up with The Big Picture and you're set.

Combos:

Villagers With Torches + Thine Own Self: Should I kill'em or just make them go AWOL?

Villagers With Torches + Implication + Odo's Cousin: Just one of many, give it your best shot and oh, don't look now but there's my Kazon Warship!

Villagers With Torches + Atmospheric Ionization + your walls: Up for a long wait?