Playing The Borg #11:
Scouting

by Evan Lorentz (evanl@earthlink.net)

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.

NEXT TIME: Anti-Borg Tactics and How to Counter Them