Neela's Bajoran Review #3: Ba(H)jorans!
 

The release of Deep Space Nine this past summer served a dual purpose in the ever expanding world of Star Trek: The Customizable Card Game. First, as a stand alone set, enticing potential new players to get in on the ground floor. Although it worked with an already existing library of cards, Deep Space 9 could be played, competitively, without the addition of past cards. Secondly, and to most people more importantly, it served as a massive expansion set, giving existing players access to two new affiliations to choose from, as well as cards to add to their old favorites. This included several Federation affiliation personnel and ships, as well as five new Romulans and six additional members of the Klingon Empire, and a couple of ships to fly them around in. As is the nature of the game, in order to bring a ship or personnel card into the game (in most cases) a compatible outpost or facility is required. Klingon, Romulan, and Federation outposts were available from the get go in the initial release back in 1994, and to include these cards again in the new Deep Space 9 expansion would have only served to aggravate players who already are well stocked with multiple copies of all three. In order for new players to use their Klingon, Federation and Romulan cards, treaties were included. The Cardassians are able to algin themselves with the Feds and the Rommies, while the Bajorans signed alliances with the Federation and the Klingon Empire. The benefits any affiliation gains from being able to align with the Federation is obvious. The Federation has the most personnel, the widest distribution of skills, and best distribution of resources, and with their natural tendencies toward espionage and treachery, players fond of Romulans will find the seedable, hidden agenda treaty with Cardassia Prime a place in their decks. So that leaves the loveable (??) Klingons, and their forced treaty with the Bajoran Provisional Government. What benefits would a player gain from including the Treaty: Bajoran/Klingon card in their deck?

    The first answer should be fairly obvious. The Bajorans, despite being considered as one of the games ‘good-guys', have strong battle related tendencies: Neela's special phaser download, Bajoran Civil War, Shakkar's strength bonus to all Bajorans with him, Kira's Strength bonus against Cardassian affiliation, as well as being the affiliation with the most ways to benefit from H.Q.: War Room, and having the potential for the most matching ship/commander pairs (as well as being the ONLY affiliation currently able to download a matching ship and commander using Scout Encounter). So, keeping this in mind, if a Bajoran battle strategy is what a player is going for, perhaps an alliance with the Federation is in that case a bad thing, unless you know for sure that your opponent is playing Borg. In fact, if a Bajoran Battle deck is the archetype a player is going for, an alliance with the Klingon Empire is just what the Senior Medical Officer ordered. True, I stated above that the Bajoran player has an immense potential arsenal with the Universal Rinnak Pire able to perform Matching Commander duties on any Universal Bajoran Ship, and that coupled with the fact that most Bajoran ships have no staff requirements is a powerful combination (If anyone cares, the Bajoran Interceptor is my ship of choice), HOWEVER, even boosted, the most powerful Bajoran (Interceptor at 7(11)-10-9) vessel still falls short of what the Empire could offer in the I.K.C. Chang (12-12-12) with Governor Worf aboard, or the little Cha'Joh (11-11-11) with the Sisters of Duras leading the attack. All of which are V.I.P.'s, so chase your opponent down and use Open Diplomatic Relations to beam Kira, Odo, Shakkar, and Neela over to ‘talk' to it's crew before beaming back and letting their klingon allies polish them off. Speaking of the Cha'Joh, use of that ship also allows the Bajoran player to utilize the nasty Scout Encounter/ Quantum Singularity Lifeform combo and still be able to use the ship later on. Simply report the Cha'Joh as a Romulan vessel,(with a couple Non Alligned aboard for good measure) let it put your opponent in stasis, move in the aforementioned Neela, Kira, Odo, Shakkar, combo (Neela being a ENGINEER nulifies the Q.S.L.) , Download the Sisters using Ready Room Door, and Open Diplomatic Realtions on their rear ends! After all's said and done, change the Cha'Joh back to a Klingon ship and carry on about your business. If battle isn't your style, but you're still partial to Klingons over the Federation, there are still interesting uses for the red bordered cards. Diplomatic Conference become a possiblity without having characters become useless after it's completion. A Bajoran/Klingon combination could be solved using The Emissary (switching him to Fed mode for the completion of the mission), Kai Opaka (or any other Bajoran representative) a Klingon V.I.P (Chancellor Gowron would seem like a natural once he becomes available seeing as how he allows the treaty to play "For Free") along with any Non-Alligned V.I.P. gives you the mission, and no personnel that has to just sit there afterwards. Throwing in the Sisters of Duras gives you a back-up should your Klingon rep or Emissary be lost, since they can function as either Romulan or Klingon. As it stands now, the Bajorans are a new affiliation, without expansions to bolster them like the first three do, and even the Borg have Enhanced First Contact coming to their aid. There are skills that might be needed for your Bajoran strategy that just are not abundant in their personnel (transporter skill comes to mind, needed for 2 missions, among other uses, and only available from Anara). The addition of the Klingons could help add these skills to your roster, and don't exclude using Lore, Galen, Tallera, or Nick Loranco should they be needed as well. In closing, I fully agree that the benefits from allying your Bajorans with your Klingons may not be as abundant as if they signed up with the Federation, but they are there, and just as powerful. I'm sure the examples I've given don't even scratch the surface of what's possible, so I leave the rest up to you. Have fun!

The Misguided Activist