top navigationmain navigation
Side Navigationside navigation

Major Rakal's Romulan Review #1
From Kathy McCracken, Major Rakal: kem5@cornell.edu

Aefvadh (be welcome) to the first of Major Rakal's Romulan Reviews. Part "card of the day," part "deck of the week," and part strategy guide, my reviews will cover individual cards, effective combos, deck ideas, mission selection, and general strategy, and will have a decidedly "green" slant--as in green-blooded and green-bordered.

Yes, this series will focus on the forgotten affiliation, our friends the Romulans. Using my own ranking system, which considers supply and demand of skills within each affiliation, I'll cover not only Romulan but also non-aligned personnel, examining their relative usefulness in augmenting decks of different affiliations and recommending "Best Bets" for Rommie decks. The same for ships.

But don't worry, there will be plenty of interest to the Klingons and Feds as well. For missions, I'll look at point/cost ratios, and how they vary between affiliations for multi-color ones. For dilemmas, artifacts, events, and interrupts, I'll compare the value of a card *to* each affiliation, and where appropriate, its value used *against* each affiliation.

For my first review, I've selected one of the new QC Romulans, IMO the Most Valuable Personnel in a green deck right now. No, it's *not* Sirol, though he's close. The honors go to...

TARIS

Rare Romulan personnel
Integrity 6, Cunning 8, Strength 7, Command star
OFFICER: Archaeology, MEDICAL, Music, Transporter Skill

"Female subcommander. Captain of the Warbird Haakona. Investigated the Federation incursion of the Neutral Zone in the vicinity of Iconia."

She's about 2/3 of a Jean-Luc Picard. And for the Romulans, that's saying a *lot.* She has OFFICER, Archaeology, and Music in common with the good Captain. Navigation is replaced by Transporter Skill, likely to prove quite valuable to nullify Anti-Matter Pods, even if you never need it against beaming interferences. No Honor, but no Treachery either, so she can get an Integrity boost from D'Tan from a comfortable 6 to a highly-respectable 7. No Diplomacy or Leadership, either; but both are common enough amongst other Romulans, and Leadership is largely redundant to an OFFICER anyway.

And these lacks are more than compensated for by her MEDICAL skill (second-listed, so immune to Tsiolkovsky Infection and Rascals). Finally, a Romulan doctor with other useful skills and decent stats! Until now we've had to get by with Takket (Exobiology, OK but that's all) and Vekor (slightly more useful with SCIENCE, Navigation, and almost useless Geology), the holographic Jera being virtually useless to the holodeck-deficient Romulans. Both are Firestorm and Thought Fire fuel without Lower Decks and D'Tan, as well as Hunter Gangs bait; Taris is immune to all three.

And while she helps run the Genetronic Replicator (which she could do alone with a Medical Kit) and get you by so many planet dilemmas, she also makes a new cornerstone of the popular Romulan Archaeology deck. With the new Plague Planet mission you can do a six-planet deck with Archaeology at every one.

But there's more. Romulans can now get a piece of the Ressikan Flute, which until now might as well have had a blue border. Add Galen (who also complements the Archaeology deck nicely) and maybe Amarie. Heck, Data's Body if you can get the head to go with it. Stir well. 10-20 points, *and* it keeps your Fed opponent from playing *his* Flute (not duplicatable).

Want more? A big boost toward getting past Matriarchal Society for the predominantly male Romulans. With the same stats (+1 Strength) as Ocett and duplicating her OFFICER + Archaeology, Taris will probably displace her from a lot of decks where she was almost a necessity to augment the one useful universal and 3 unique females.

And finally, one "skill" dictated not by Taris' card but by the Haakona's lore "Subcommander Taris' warbird," deemed close enough by Decipher to qualify her for Captain's Log benefits.

And this card has a *green* border??

The Major's Combos:

- Taris + Haakona + Captain's Log. 8-12-11

- The above + Major Rakal + Roga Danar + Ira Graves + Kurlan Naiskos. 24-36-33. Go get an outpost. Throw in Plasmadyne Relay + Bynars and anything bigger than a Scout Ship, and you can take out a Borg Ship.

- Taris + Toreth + Mirasta Yale. Just for the heck of it.
Jolan tru,

Major Rakal Tal Shiar




back to the topDecipher Inc.go to the lobby
Decipher Copyrights

text map