My colon sank and my kidneys were operating above safety tolerances. I had just seen the first of a succession of evil that would continue through a series of cards: Enhanced First Contact has arrived. Knowing that such evil was fast approaching, covering the sky like a swarm of locusts, I proceeded to make preparation about the evil and ways that the forces of individuality might be able to contend with such cards. I looked at the cards, crumpled up the printouts (and recycling them of course ;-) and basically went into a mental void over the prospect. Then, with a force of an epiphany the size of cheese consumption in Wisconsin, I emerged with satisfaction: Enhanced First Contact shall not do as much to me as it should for the cost of those cards and how much boasting that Borg players have been doing. So, like a scout doing reconnaissance on the coming war, I returned with my findings:
First, we shall start with the Counterparts: Every affiliation with the exception of the Dominion has a counterpart with varying degrees of success. They are Bariel, Dukat, Tomalak and Gowron of Borg and each are effective for their uses but they are certainly vulnerable as well. Let's take them down in order of Borg effectiveness and see their weaknesses.
Bariel of Borg is by far the weakest of the counterparts (which means we want to see him more and more often ;-) The stats aren't all that spectacular that haven't been on any Borg drone). His effectiveness is mostly good for against Bajorans (for obvious reasons) and Cardassians (they like DS9 and they like Alter Records which is the Bajoran homeworld as well, added bonus)
Dukat of Borg is next, only up there because his overall skills and stats are better than Bariel (Officer is much better than VIP for the Borg in most of the game) Besides the Airlock possibility from him, his Strength of 12 is buff and hard to deal with. His works well against Bajoran Orb decks (Orb Negotiations being a popular mission for such decks) Cardassians and Tal Shiar/Obsidian Order decks.
Tomalak of Borg is 2nd, not on the basis of his skills (three skills
aren't much to be proud of in comparison with the others) but his ability
to allow the Borg ships to cloak, even after he's dead. This skill
makes hunting Borg ships that much harder to do since you have to wait
for them to uncloak.
But Gowron of Borg wins this battle of the EFC counterparts on
the sheer basis of the ability to attack at will independent of the objective
in play which certainly isn't an exciting prospect to think about.
With a minimum of 24 Weapons, a Borg cube take out all but the most protected
of ships. Add a Multiplexor Drone to target other ships and Bajoran/Klingon
armadas are in serious trouble for this. But, like all beings, they
aren't perfect and weaknesses have been found to these counterparts.
As for how to mess with them, I have several suggestions that'll work: #1: Try the following combination: Scout Encounter/Extradition. It's hard to use their skills if they're captured. You can capture Bariel and Locutus in this manner if they're at the planet. Then, with your captive, brainwash him with the Event that you've kept in your Tent for such an occasion ;-) #2: Fighting Words. While not as effective with drones as much, it can certainly stall things up for 3 turns as the counterparts loses their classifications for 3 turns until it's either taken care of by Oof or by a rundown of the countdown. #3: Brain Drain, no skills, makes things harder to pass that way. Say you Brain Drain the Interlink Drone, stall yet again… Also works in conjunction with Dal'Rok as Dukat and Bariel, without their Cunning, have the lowest stats and vulnerable to it (Orb Fragment helps in this regard for this to work or if passing over a planet, a Loss of Orbital Stability hits the spot ;-) Also, it stops Gowron from attacking you this turn, which is all you need if you're gonna blow up the Cube with your own Armada or gets rid of the one person with the nessesary classification for their Kurlan Naiskos;-) Speaking of blowing things up, it's likely that your opponent has thought about the increased likelihood of blowing your ships, facility and anything else out of the water with Gowron's little skill and has probably thought about seeding a Cryosattelite to get both Gowron and the Kurlan in one fell swoop. However, trying to not be as obvious about it, he's seeded it under one of your space missions along with most likely a Radioactive Garbage Scow or some dilemma that is irrelevant to them. So, what you do for such an occasion is have only two space missions: Paxan Wormhole (it's not likely that they'll assimilate an android so it's relatively safe) and an easy mission that can be done rather quickly, preferably with AMS personnel (Repair Mission is a good example, others include Lonka Pulsar, Secret Salvage, Alien Probe etc..) Then you download, via Spacedoor, a Scout Vessel and pass the mission, giving you not only a start of points but a Kurlan and a counterpart which can then be either Brainwashed or whatever you wish with him…) Brain Drain is just about the best card against the Borg if you use it right (on the Interlink drone for example) As far as making sure that you can get a certain cloaked Borg ship, if they're over a planet, there's always a "useless" card that can be used: La Forge Maneuver or if you're going the armada approach, the even more supposed "useless" card: Tachyon Detection Grid. As far as Dukat's ability to Airlock people off the Cube, have Mr. Dukat meet Mr. Lore and see who's going out the Airlock ;-) All you need is to get him aboard a ship via Devidian Door and go to work ;-) Lastly, you can always have Spot go onboard and mess around with her handy 9 turn stalling technique.
Second, We are Borg: For a point of reference, the card goes as follows:
Downloads 2 Defense Drones, discard event; OR Plays on table. Each turn, report one of your Borg-personnel cards for free or make an additional end of turn draw (Immune to Kevin Uxbridge)
First function: They get two 2 Defense drones (which for those that
might not be in the know) are those with red staff icons which has not
seen much action as of late since Borg Scout Swarm decks has been in vogue
as of late (especially considering how well they were used at the World
Championship's this year) While this can be used in multiple to a
varied level of effect for both functions, it's not necessary and you will
probably not see it that often. And, it's discarded. You'll
probably see this more often for decks that involve a lot of assimilation
of your personnel. Second function: Each turn, they may either
report a card for free or receive an extra card draw (Immune to Kevin Uxbridge)
The second function is more annoying however and can certainly help them
out. Once it's down, it's currently impossible to get rid of so the
best thing to do is stall. Only thing that’s good is that once down,
it’s also virtually impossible for the Borg to get rid of (thereby draining
their deck faster, limiting the opportunities for probing purposes…)
One thing about this card: I doubt that it will be part of the draw deck itself because it's much more useful as a quickly played card rather than something that they would risk getting later in their draw deck. The fact that it's not a good probe card for the most common objectives in use at present is the most likely reason. Then, it will probably be a part of a Q-Tent where you can stop it from seeing the light of day with Wrong Door's and Revolving Door's, not to mention Energy Vortex's that can slow down its play on the table and therefore slowing their expected usage of the card. You can't rely on a Computer Crash to be effective for this.
Third, there’s the two drones, one of which is really annoying, the other one isn't as much so if it doesn't apply to you but has the potential for some scary results if not careful. 11 of 17, the Complink Drone, can be seeded (maximum of one of them) at the Borg Outpost (which means you can't get him to kill him if he never leaves and his effect is instant) Computer Skill and Science (no big deal on either count) and nullifies all Computer Crashes in play. Let's back up for a second and say that with me: Nullifies all Computer Crashes in play! Gone are the days when you can stop a new objective from being downloaded or stopping Scout Encounter from being as effective. Now, the Borg can download at will. And, before you go into a round of Resistance is Futile on me, let me say that it’s not quite true. Sure, you can Brain Drain the drone so that the skill is gone for a turn but it won't work when you need it reliably to recommend. All you can do is let it happen and take advantage of it yourself. Bajoran Civil War, Spacedoor, Hidden Fighter, special downloads, Ready Room Door's and even AMS (you remember AMS, don't you ;-) can now be played unbidden if that drone is in play. You have the makings of an armada deck if you play your cards right ;-) While he will probably not see much action in anything but Cube decks since Scout Vessel decks tend to operate without an OP and using their own Computer Crashes, he will with Cube decks. Other than being a good probe card for most anything, that's all on that drone.
The next one is even more specialized than the previous one. 6 of 19, the Reassimilation drone, have only two skills and one special download. First of all, just before a Rogue Borg present initiates battle, may download a universal drone to replace (discard) one of them. Then, he gets Exobiology and his special download is Intruder Alert, which hasn't been created yet. But the first skill is certainly cause for worry. It's conceivable to have multiple of this drone and then play Rogue Borg Mercenaries on yourself to get drones, a scary thought, but it's unlikely that a deck will be made around such an idea. It does horrible things for your probing but it makes the technique of stalling a person with one RBM against the Borg obsolete. Now, you'd have to use multiple ones and Crosis and Lore for it to work out the best… Exobiology is nice but it's not the attraction for this Borg. You can always Brain Drain the drone first, then play the RBM squad which certainly is effective but more often than not, you'll avoid using the Rogue Borg Mercenaries on them unless you use many of them on them. It is however incompatible to use this drone with the current trend of Borg Scout Vessel decks since red-icon personnel interferes with probing.
Lastly, we have the Incidents. These cards I've saved for last since they're the most substantial difference that will occur with the Borg since their inception. It gives the Borg bonus points for the first time, made homeworld-intensive decks (especially Earth) much, much more powerful, make those that attempt their space missions think hard about that, the potential to win in two turns and take away cards from you. Almost gave myself a coronary just looking at them (especially the lens-bending image of Nightmare) but it was the prospect that this could be the planet's future of all Borg on it unless I did something about it so here I go.
First on the agenda is Add Distinctiveness which is worded as follows:
Seeds or plays on table (it's a Hidden Agenda). X varies where X = number of skill icons on personnel you've assimilated as drones. Also, if you are behind by 40 points or more, once per game, you may open a sealed First Contact expansion pack. Play or place into hand any or all non-seed cards in that pack (non-Borg cards are assimilated or stolen as appropriate), then place the others out-of-play
Most commonly seen with Assimilate Counterpart decks, it's a nasty card as it gives your opponent an added incentive for abducting your personnel. (Of course, any card that messes with my personnel and/or allows the Borg to earn points is just evil but that's just me ;-) As far as the second function goes, there's nothing that you can do about it. This almost makes it impossible for the Borg to not score any points unless they either don't seed this card or they grabbed a bad First Contact pack. This can also be an easy way to spot a Borg deck: Find the person with an unopened set of FC packs on them ;-) Besides avoiding the Borg in general, this card won't have much effect in play (not a game-breaker) unless your opponent's focus is on this which then I say like a certain Monty Python film, "RUNAWAY!!!" ;-) (there's always that STP ;-)
Second, we have Service the Collective (yeah, I need some air in my tires and some gas now ;-) If only we were so lucky, but unfortunately the card says different:
Seeds or plays on table (it's a Hidden Agenda). Whenever your current objective targets either a homeworld OR your mission that has an affiliation icon matching your counterpart there, your Borg are not restricted from probing on same turn they complete scouting. Also, while a personnel that you've assimilated as a counterpart is on your ship, that ships Weapons and Shields are +4 against counterpart's former affiliation(s)
While the second one is just a rehash of the trend of ready-made counterparts started with Locutus, it's the first part that you should be worried about. In essence, it speeds up the Borg's ability to score points by not pausing between the completion of scouting and the probing for the completion of the objective. The benefits of this incident are obvious but there's a way around this if you don't want your opponent to do so on your missions. Besides the obvious ways of not having potential locations for scouting to be feasible (30 pt or less planet missions, Paxan Wormhole), self-seeding at the remaining space mission or have missions that can be completed by any affiliation. (While this leaves you open to other affiliations, this is a pure anti-Borg article and doesn't take other affiliations in mind.) It will then slow your opponent down by one turn, which sometimes is all you need. Or, there's the popular abduction technique with Scout Encounter/Extradition stated above or if it's feasible, Devidian Door Lore on the ship with the Counterpart and push him out the Airlock, whichever works for you. Just another reason why your opponent will rely more and more on their counterpart which makes them vulnerable.
Third, we have the Balancing Act of Enhanced First Contact, the card that eliminates a powerful strategy against the Borg, stealing their space missions by intentionally waiting until they cleared out the dilemmas. Then, while they were waiting to probe, we come in, pass the mission and pick up whatever was seeded there and get away with free, no risk points ;-) (The life of a pirate, a thief, a burglar if you will ;-) Now, it's not without risk (which someone wrote is their business but that's just some preview card guy ;-) The card reads as follows:
Seeds or plays on table (Hidden Agenda). Each of your Borg Spheres have Range +4. Also, whenever an opponent initiates an attempt on one of your space missions that you have scouted, you may report with crew to that location any number of Borg spheres (downloading spheres, personnel and equipment as desired): Each may initiate battle (regardless of your current objective) or move away.
If you attempt any mission of their scouted mission, be VERY careful because this is a nasty card if it's in play and works. The first part is not much, Range +4 is nice for them (to run away from us, of course ;-) but the second function is going to be less useful than the first part if you don't attempt their scouted space missions. Now, having said that, it will become less and less likely that they'll seed this card for two reasons. One, the main ships that the Borg will use are the Cubes and/or Scout Vessels, not the Spheres, (can't report with crew or report any crew to that ship, something the Borg find essential.) Two, figuring that the threat of such thievery is moot based on the sheer power of the card itself, won't seed it since no one would risk such an incursion. That's why it'll see use early on for use against those that either don't know about the EFC cards or has no Internet access but as people adapt, it will see less and less usage. As for countering such a card, if you can Brain Drain the Complink drone for one turn, that's your opportunity to attempt and earn those mission points by turning over a Computer Crash.
But if you want a simply scary prospect before you, if you want the one card that could simply scare the rebellious tendencies out of you, then it has to be this incident: Population 9 Billion-All Borg. Want to know why, just look at the card:
Plays or seeds on table (Hidden Agenda). If your opponent have completed Stop First Contact (or Build Interplexing Beacon), place incident on Earth; you may download a Borg outpost there. Your Borg cards may subsequently report on Earth or to that outpost; and your subsequently completed Borg objectives targeting missions in the Alpha Quadrant earns double points.
Let's see: They assimilate Earth and complete either Stop First Contact or Build Interplexing Beacon, after that, picking up their seeded Kurlan Naiskos, play He Will Make an Excellent Drone on Locutus, play Gowron of Borg, flip over Salvage Starship once they’ve blown up your ship or goes over to Secret Salvage and voila, 100 pts. AH!!! I don't know about you but that's a scary thought (note to self: Locate people with Fajo collections and if they seed Espionage Mission, be prepared…) It's not impossible to stop but a scary prospect nonetheless. Now, you have several options: One, you could blow up the planet with Tox Uthat/Supernova (especially nice once they've started scouting so you can steal the mission) or in another manner, play an Anti-Time Anomaly. If you can stall them long enough, more often than not, they'll be taken out for a while if not for the rest of game. Two, you can target Locutus and eliminate him as a counterpart from the equation. Best ways include: Scout Encounter/Extradition or Devidian Door Lore onboard and proceed to push him out the Airlock ;-) Three, you can take the ship out by a strong enough force (A Kurlanized ship, Captain's Logged ships etc.) Four, eliminate the possibility of getting this far by eliminating the possibility of either Stop First Contact or Build Interplexing Beacon. If that's not a reason to not have Zefram Cochrane in your Tent, I don't know what is. As for Build Interplexing Beacon, you can finally get a use out of the First Contact Worf (besides a Captain for the Defiant that is) for he can download the interrupt Assimilate This! (how appropriate for this, don't you think ;-) which will take out that nasty beacon. So, while this incident has the potential for being mean, nasty and make you stomach increase its bile content, it's not entirely impossible to stop.
Then, there's the one card that can be used by those not of the Borg persuasion but we can't use it against them, that's fair, NOT! ;-) Getting past this, it's not a bad card (even if we can't use it against the Borg) but it's better for the Borg. It goes a little something like this:
Plays on Non-Borg opponent if you have a Borg-icon or Borg Ship dilemma in play. Each turn, peek at one to three cards in opponent's hand (random selection) and store at least one of them underneath this incident. Nullified only by Plexing or when stored cards exceeds cards in opponent's hand. (When nullified, choose one stored card to place beneath opponent's draw deck, returns others to opponent's hand)
Like a more permanent, souped-up version of Telepathic Alien Kidnappers, this card can be seriously detrimental if your opponent is lucky in their random selection. Therefore, you must have Plexing and multiples of it just in case. The Borg will certainly take advantage of this card (playing cards that'll increase your card draw, like Kivas Fajo-Collector and Traveler: Transcendence) but they’ll have to balance this effect with not messing with their probing ratio. One note, a very viable idea of a Borg include using a Thought Fire themed deck along with this, just keep that in mind. A card that will be a part of practically all Borg decks because they'll never have a problem having a Borg-icon card in play (the Complink drone comes to mind…) and will make an occasional appearance in non-Borg decks (such as mine) but it won't work as well since it does go away eventually. So, while there's an actual card in Enhanced First Contact that we can use, it's not as effective (certainly not a reason to buy it). That's what borrowing is for ;-)
Well, let's summarize: Counterparts will be more common, the ready-made ones, at the very least. So, capture them or kill them. Other ideas include using another "useless" card: Receptacle Stones so that dilemmas can effect the Borg as well can help eliminate key personnel. The two drones will be common, the Complink more so, the Reassimilation drone will more likely be used in Borg cube decks. The event We are the Borg will see play in most every game, there's no reason why it wouldn't. Incidents are certainly more specialized in particular usage purposes, whether it's for better assimilation of Earth or messing you up. Brain Drain is, in my humble opinion, the most handy card to use against the Borg but others certainly exist out there. There's very little you can do with these cards but adapt appropriately and reduce their effectiveness. Sure, there's a set that's almost entirely Borg, that's no excuse to resist them and triumph. We have to fight back. Now, let's fight back the forces of Borg and strike a blow for free thought!!!! ;-)
The Ninja Scot does not like the Borg affiliation, ever since he came across them in First Contact. He has no dislike for Enhanced First Contact as a product, he just won't buy it because he can't use any of the cards since he's never going to play Borg. The views stated here are not to be taken as a statement against Borg players for he has no qualms with them, just the affiliation. If you have any comments to this article, please reply to the following address: theninjascot@yahoo.com This has been The Ninja Scot, good day to you.
***Disappears in a Q-Flash of Darkness…***™
The Ninja Scot
Tournament Director for the land of ash where all the ore has gone
;-)