Basic
Training
(Star Trek CCG Basics)
Plans of
the
Tal Shiar
(Deck Construction)
Field Operations
(Playing the Game)
Romulan Intelligence Academy
Major Rakal's Guide to Star Trek CCG
Choosing an Affiliation
03/19/01
With eight full-fledged "traditional" affiliations, two more on the way, and the very non-traditional Borg, how do you choose an affiliation to play? It depends on your goals. Some players like to choose their favorite affiliation from the shows. Many want the best skills available for passing dilemmas and solving missions (or completing objectives) for a rapid win. For a sizeable number, the confrontations of battle are their method of choice for foiling an opponent. Others prefer subtle strategies involving espionage, hidden agendas, or taking captives. Still others want options for rapid deployment of personnel by downloading and other deck manipulations. All of these factors can enter into your choice of an affiliation.
Federation
Because the Star Trek shows focus on the Federation, this affiliation has always had the widest choice of personnel. The Enterprise bridge crews (from both the Enterprise-D and the classic series Starship Enterprise) and Deep Space Nine senior staff present the very best in personnel skills. For sheer dilemma-passing and mission-solving power, the Federation is the affiliation of choice. Heavy on OFFICER, MEDICAL and ENGINEER personnel types, with plenty of Diplomacy, Leadership, Computer Skill, Astrophysics, Exobiology, Empathy, and many other valuable skills, the Federation also has the highest average INTEGRITY of any affiliation, most of the available androids, and the most useful Alternate Universe personnel and holographic re-creations (as well as most of the holodeck-equipped ships). In addition, many players want to staff their ships with the popular and familiar bridge crew, and the ships of choice are often the Enterprise and the Defiant; with the release of the next expansion, U.S.S. Voyager is sure to join the roster.
With so much going for them, why doesn't everyone play Federation? They do have a few weak points. Their capital ships are not, on average, quite as powerful as those of some of the other affiliations, particularly in WEAPONS power, and almost none of them have cloaking devices.Their outposts are more vulnerable than most, with lower SHIELDS. They are not as strong in SCIENCE as many other affiliations. Also, their average STRENGTH makes them risky in personnel battle without a lot of hand weapons. And the Federation has a particular vulnerability to a Borg opponent, who can disrupt the timeline and place all Federation and human cards out-of-play.
But their biggest disadvantage, in the eyes of many players, is the fact that the Federation cannot normally initiate battle against anyone but the Borg. While you can get around this restriction with various cards, the effect is either short-lived or carries a compensating penalty such as the inability to use a Q's Tent. For the player who wants to battle, then, the Federation doesn't make the grade.
Klingon
The Klingons, on the other hand, are all that a battle-happy player could want. Their ships have plenty of firepower, with their small K'Vort ships requiring only one personnel to staff each one for an ideal armada. Virtually every ship has a cloaking device. Their personnel had the highest average STRENGTH until the Dominion appeared, and many battle-related cards benefit Klingons only. Most important for the player who wants to focus on battle, the Klingons are the polar opposite of the Federation in terms of battle restrictions: they can attack anyone, even a Klingon opponent (most affiliations are restricted from attacking opposing forces of their own affiliation). You can build a battle-oriented Klingon deck with the knowledge that no opponent will be safe from your attack.
These strengths, of course, are balanced by some weaknesses in the points-gathering aspect of the game, mission-solving. The Klingon affiliation is heavy on V.I.P.s and SCIENCE, fairly strong in CIVILIANs, weaker in OFFICER material and ENGINEERs. They have lots of Honor and Navigation, but don't try to find a Klingon Empath. While their INTEGRITY is good, their average CUNNING is fairly dismal. Overall, there are just fewer choices for any given skill, compared to the Federation, and fewer "dual-personnel-type" personnel for compact crews. You'll find yourself supplementing your crews with Non-Aligned personnel more than any Federation deck ever needs to do.
Romulan
The third of the original three affiliations falls somewhere between the other two. While their warbirds are the equals of the Klingon Vor'Chas (including their cloaking ability), with a matching commander for every unique D'deridex, and their personnel have virtually equal average STRENGTH, unlike the Klingons they may not attack others of their own affiliation, and have no special battle-related cards just for them. So a deck too heavily focused on battle may not do so well if you come up against Romulan opponents. On the other hand, the Romulans really shine at espionage. They have Espionage cards against most of the mission-solving affiliations, and Tal Shiar skill and related cards to implement espionage strategies. The many capturing-related cards from the Blaze of Glory expansion are also well-suited to Romulan use.
As far as mission-solving goes, they are strongest in OFFICERs, SECURITY, and V.I.P.s, while weaker in MEDICAL and ENGINEER; Romulan CIVILIANs are almost non-existent. Romulans have plenty of Treachery, Archaeology, and Computer Skill, with a lot of other skills in shorter supply (although they do have their own Empath, Major Rakal). There are a few outstanding personnel (such as Senator Vreenak and Dr. Telek R'Mor) around which you can build a focused deck, but it's harder to put together a compact support crew than it is for the Federation. They have the highest average CUNNING of all affiliations, but their real Achilles heel is their INTEGRITY, which is the lowest average of all (though it has improved in recent expansions), making them especially vulnerable to Firestorms, Alien Parasites, and the Q dilemma.
Bajoran
The Bajorans have quite variable INTEGRITY (some very high, balanced by some quite low), lower average CUNNING, and higher average STRENGTH than the Federation. They are heavy on V.I.P.s and CIVILIANs, with some good OFFICER, SECURITY, and SCIENCE personnel, but little in the way of ENGINEER or MEDICAL. They include two of the DS9 senior staff (Odo and Kira Nerys) and one of the two non-Dominion changelings. While they have few ships, the universal Assault Vessel is better than a Klingon K'Vort by +1 WEAPONS (though it needs an extra staff star). Their mission selected is more limited than that of the original three affiliations (though several of them are in the Bajor Region, making it easy to seed missions in a group).
The two biggest advantages possessed by the Bajoran affiliation over the Federation are their lack of battle restrictions (they can attack anyone except other Bajorans) and their Bajoran-affiliation Nor, Deep Space 9. DS9 seeds during the dilemma phase, pre-empting any planned seeding of Terok Nor by a Cardassian opponent, and gives the Bajorans all the powerful capabilities of a Nor except for ore processing (but they can "conduct services" at the Bajoran Shrine instead). In addition, the Bajorans have several "Orb-icon" personnel who can acquire Orb artifacts before a mission is solved, and The Emissary who can download the Bajoran Wormhole for quick access to the Gamma Quadrant. All in all, their strengths and weaknesses complement the Federation well, making a treaty deck a worthwhile consideration.
Cardassian
The second DS9 affiliation is likewise complementary to the Romulans. With higher INTEGRITY and slightly lower CUNNING and STRENGTH, the Cardassians have some excellent ENGINEER, CIVILIAN, SECURITY, and other skills to fill in gaps in the Romulan skills pool. Their Obsidian Order personnel work like the Romulan Tal Shiar for easy espionage strategies, and the treaty between the two affiliations is a seedable hidden agenda. They also have several advantages for a capture-oriented deck. The Cardassian ships are not as powerful as the Romulan warbirds, and have no cloaking devices or holodecks. Like the Bajorans, the Cardassians have a relatively limited mission selection.
The Cardassians' biggest advantage is their Nors, both Terok Nor and a generic Nor that may be seeded or played in multiple. Besides Ops downloads and other site-specific advantages, the Cardassians are permitted to Process Ore for rapid recycling of deck resources. This alone can make them powerful allies for the Romulans, who otherwise can control a Nor only by commandeering, either Empok Nor or the opponent's Nor.
Dominion
This more recent affiliation is the most complex, with three distinct major species with their own specific areas of expertise: Founders, Vorta, and Jem'Hadar. The Founders have a lot of Leadership and Treachery and the ability to shapeshift and (in many cases) infiltrate the opponent; the Vorta are the Diplomats, mostly V.I.P.s, and the key to rationing of Ketracel-White; and the incredibly strong Jem'Hadar are the soldiers, all OFFICERs or SECURITY. Their ships are viciously powerful, and while they have no cloaking devices or holodecks, they all come with Invasive Transporters, allowing beaming through opponent's SHIELDS (with the Invasive Beam-In event). While they have relatively few missions specifically for their affiliation, they can use almost any non-Dominion planet mission, bypassing normal mission requirements by use of the powerful Subjugate Planet objective to solve the mission on their own terms.
In return for their infiltrators, formidable attack capabilities, and the relative freedom for choosing missions, the Dominion has a couple of substantial drawbacks. The first is the dependence of the Jem'Hadar on Ketracel-White. These equipment cards count down and are discarded, and if your Jem'Hadar run out they will go into a battle frenzy at the start of your turn and battle anyone in sight, turning on each other if there are no other targets. Thus, assuring a continuous supply (or establishing outposts which can "reset" the countdowns) is a key requirement of any strategy. The second disadvantage is that most Dominion personnel are native to the Gamma Quadrant and cannot be reported to the Alpha Quadrant without special cards that allow it. If you want to battle your opponent, you generally must report your cards in the Gamma Quadrant and then get them into the Alpha Quadrant via Wormholes or the Bajoran Wormhole. It's also more difficult to take advantage of Non-Aligned personnel, because they are all Alpha Quadrant natives. Recent additions of Alpha Jem'Hadar, Alpha Quadrant ships, and various methods for reporting outside the native quadrant have eased this disadvantage, but Vorta in particular remain difficult to report in the Alpha Quadrant.
Ferengi
The Ferengi, like the Bajorans, have more V.I.P.s and CIVILIANS than you can shake a Grand Nagus's Scepter at (and they can all report for free at the Ferengi Tower of Commerce), plus a fairly large contingent of OFFICERs. This leaves them somewhat less well-equipped in the SCIENCE, MEDICAL, ENGINEER, and SECURITY specialties. They have plenty of Greed, Treachery, and Acquisition, and many have important special downloads. They can even use Deep Space Nine or Terok Nor with Quark's Bar and Cargo Bay, for reporting and downloading capabilities regardless of the fact they don't match the Nor's affiliation, and for playing Dabo.
While they solve missions like the other non-Borg affiliations, those missions have a somewhat different flavor: instead of studying stellar phenomena or curing plagues, the Ferengi lean toward commerce and trade negotiations. Their limited selection of missions is augmented in two ways. Their Establish Trade Route objective lets them solve most space missions on suitably mercenary terms, while the Bribery incident replaces espionage by allowing them to pay latinum to add a Ferengi icon to most planet or space missions. Permeating the whole Ferengi culture are their Rules of Acquisition, a set of event cards that can "acquire" extra card draws, downloads, latinum, bonus points, and other benefits for those suitably equipped with Greed and Acquisition. While most of the Rules can be used by other affiliations, they're usually easier and more profitable for the Ferengi, especially if they have a Nagus around.
As expected, the Ferengi have a few drawbacks to offset their free plays and formidable downloading and card-drawing prowess. They have very few females (Ferengi don't allow their females to wear clothes or earn profits, so we didn't see much of them), though a couple of Bajoran/Ferengi-affiliation dabo girls help out in that area. More important, there are no Ferengi treaties, so the only group they can work with is Non-Aligned.
Non-Aligned
The Non-Aligned affiliation has many unique and useful skills. Besides serving as a welcome supplement to most of the affiliations (the Federation is the only one that doesn't really need them, and the Ferengi rely heaviliy on them), there are enough missions available that can be attempted either specifically by Non-Aligned or by "any crew or Away Team" to make a true Non-Aligned deck viable. They have a wide range of ships useful for battle or general transport, including the Husnock Ship (which is slow but can survive a Borg Ship attack) and a couple with matching commanders. They can choose from a Neutral Outpost or the Non-Aligned Husnock Outpost. (The handful of available Neutral cards work pretty much like Non-Aligned cards -- but the affiliations don't match, for situations where that is required.)
A strong advantage to a Non-Aligned deck is that, like the Klingons, they can attack anyone, and several of their personnel are ideal for personnel battle (Lore, Roga Danar, and Zon). One of the strongest disadvantages is the still limited selection of missions -- but that's scheduled to change in Voyager (though restricted to the Delta Quadrant).
Mirror Quadrant Quasi-Affiliations
For something a little different, you might try one of the Mirror Quadrant groups, the Terran Empire or the Klingon/Cardassian Alliance, which group familiar affiliations into quasi-affiliations using treaty-like "Emblem" incidents. In the Mirror Universe, the Federation (with some Ferengi and Non-Aligned allies) has loads of Treachery, and no attack restrictions if using their Emblem of the Empire. The Alliance has not only Klingons and Cardassians, but also Bajorans, Ferengi, and Non-Aligned cards, for another interesting mix. Either side can use Mirror Terok Nor, with the Emblem of the Empire allowing ore processing even under Federation control. Emblem cards even make ore processing immune to Reactor Overload, allowing two card draws per turn without risking destruction of your Ore Processing Unit. Mission selection in the Mirror Quadrant is tiny (only three missions, all planet), so they'll need to travel to the Alpha Quadrant via Bajoran Wormhole or Multi-Dimensional Transport Device for some serious mission-solving.
The Borg
This affiliation doesn't work like any of the others. They don't complete missions -- they earn points by completing objectives that target mission locations. They don't get much in the way of bonus points -- unless they are specifically intended for Borg use (or state that they affect Borg), bonus point cards are "irrelevant." There are strong restrictions on what they can do -- they can't just beam Away Teams to a planet or enemy ship, or start a battle, but must have an objective that allows them to do so.
The Borg have many advantages and disadvantages. Many drones, and the Borg Queen, have powerful downloading skills, with the Borg Queen's ability to download a drone in place of a card draw the most important. Their cube ships have an incredible 24 WEAPONS and 24 SHIELDS, but they require seven personnel to staff them and can be reported only in the Delta Quadrant, requiring Transwarp Network Gateways to move them to another quadrant. Once in play, they can act as a roving outpost, with personnel allowed to report aboard. Fortunately for the other affiliations, they also require an objective to allow them to attack your ships. The small Borg Scout Vessels can be reported with crew to a Transwarp Network Gateway at a spaceline end, making it easy to bring personnel to another quadrant for scouting missions, but the low WEAPONS and SHIELDS of 4 each make them fairly unsuitable for battle strategies, and once in play, no other personnel may report aboard.
The Borg can ignore mission requirements entirely, because they complete their objectives by achieving a successful probe. They still have to face dilemmas, and while they can ignore some because they apply only to mission attempts, or affect males or females (irrelevant to the Borg), on a planet they may send only one scout at a time, making many dilemmas into guaranteed killers. On the other hand, they can "adapt" to dilemmas they have encountered before with an interrupt card, a capability not available to any other affiliation. They can even complete objectives at missions already solved by the opponent, thus having no dilemmas to face. But the main objectives are worth only 25 points each, so they will generally not get as many points as the opponent gets for the mission. The Borg may use alternative tactics of depleting your personnel through assimilation, or preventing you from reporting personnel to an outpost by assimilating your homeworld. Again, suitable objectives are required to allow assimilation to occur, but the effects on the opponent can be worthwhile. Their most devastating strategy against a Federation opponent is to Stop First Contact, disrupting the timeline and placing all humans and all Federation-affiliation cards out of play.
One not-so-obvious constraint on the Borg is their heavy reliance on successful probes for scoring points from completed objectives. Since Borg probes always require subcommand icons, any card in the draw deck with no subcommand icon on it is a potential bad probe which can delay your scoring. This limits the number of non-Borg cards that you can stock, including such staples as Amanda Rogers and Kevin Uxbridge, and if you deplete your deck of certain subcommand icons by downloading too many drones or objectives, you risk being unable to complete your objective at all.
Making the Choice
If your strategy is straightforward fast mission-solving, you should be happy with the Federation despite their battle restrictions, and if you are looking for a hologram or android strategy, they are your best choice. Similar results (except for androids and holograms) can be achievedwith Bajorans, with some extra effort, by careful personnel and mission selection, with the added advantages of a Nor and the ability to attack most opponents. An alliance between the Federation and the Bajorans can give you the best of both worlds.
On the other hand, if you want a strong battle strategy, take a close look at the Klingons and the Dominion. The Dominion has a decided edge in ship power and physical STRENGTH, but the Klingons can attack literally anyone, don't rely on Ketracel-White, and are native to the quadrant where most of their opponents will be found. Other possibilities for no-attack-restriction battle strategies include a deck that is all, or mostly, Non-Aligned, with Husnock Ships, the Tama, and Combat Vessels; or a Mirror Quadrant deck.
For a more balanced strategy, try the Romulans or Cardassians, or a treaty deck with both. You can build a deck with both a strong mission-solving capability plus the ability to deal considerable damage in battle if the opponent's affiliation allows it. Add the Cardassian Nors and their strengths in espionage and capture for a formidable strategy.
For something a little different, try the Ferengi. You may enjoy earning latinum and trading it in for equipment, or all the extra downloads and card draws provided by the various Rules of Acquisition.
For something completely different, try the Borg. They require more careful planning and a focused strategy, but may be, for you, a welcome change from the mission-solving orientation of the other affiliations. For the biggest challenge, try to Stop First Contact and disrupt the timeline.
Or you can go at your choice from the opposite direction: just choose the affiliation that you enjoy the most, and plan your strategy around their strengths and weaknesses. All have enough strengths to make them worthy of consideration, and figuring out how to compensate for the weaknesses is all part of the enjoyment of deck-building.