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Major Rakal's Romulan Review #104: Homefront (09/03/2000) |
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Aefvadh! Ever since Nors appeared in the Deep Space Nine expansion, my Romulans have envied the Bajorans and Cardassians their Ops dial-a-skill downloading. Empok Nor opens the use of Nors to all, but you have to first commandeer it, which just got measurably riskier with the number of Empok Nor dilemmas increasing from three to five, hope your opponent doesn't Computer Crash your site download, and then protect it from your opponent and keep your downloading sites unopposed. But now there's a card that can provide the Romulans (among others) with a rather similar downloading capability, hiding under the guise of protecting your ... Homefront
In many respects, the first function of this card works just like Ops. You get a download which replaces your normal card play, and you draw no cards for the rest of the turn. It requires a matching personnel (not just compatible), only it must match the homeworld's affiliation (that is, only a [Rom] SECURITY can download to Romulus) rather than a Nor's. And both players may make use of the card's text, if they are both using matching personnel. But there are some big differences. The most obvious difference is that while Ops will let you download personnel of any classification (if you have the appropriate site on your Nor), Homefront only lets you download SECURITY personnel. That sounds incredibly limited - as though your Nor had only a Security Office - but Homefront allows that SECURITY to be either a classification or a skill. And because SECURITY appears as a skill on a goodly number of personnel now, your options just expanded. Fifteen Romulans currently can download to Romulus (for Chief O’Brien, you'll either have to have Holo-projectors in play, or a ship with a holodeck in orbit that he can report aboard). If you think that's not many, consider the skills they can supply, mostly in multiples: ENGINEER, MEDICAL, OFFICER, SCIENCE, V.I.P., Anthropology, Archaeology, Biology, Computer Skill, Cybernetics, Diplomacy, Exobiology, Geology, Honor, Law, Leadership, Mindmeld, Music, Navigation, Physics, Stellar Cartography, Tal Shiar, Transporter Skill, Treachery, Youth, and more SECURITY than you can shake a stick at. With the exception of Astrophysics and Empathy, Romulans have little need for the missing skills. Not all affiliations can muster this variety of skills, though. Of course, Homefront doesn't allow downloads of ships or equipment. But if you seed a headquarters on your homeworld (and who doesn't?), those cards can report there normally. Or, seed an outpost with a Spacedoor at an adjacent mission for downloading ships; staff them with non-SECURITY personnel reported to the outpost (or downloaded with Assign Mission Specialists or Assign Support Personnel) and fly them to the homeworld. Homefront comes with a price; until you have four SECURITY on the planet, you can't attempt the mission or use the game text of any headquarters there. (You can still do normal reports to the headquarters, but you can't play cards for free.) But neither can your opponent, and if he is playing a different affiliation, he will have a harder time than you will coming up with four SECURITY so he can steal your mission, because you can download them right there and he can't. If you're playing Federation or Bajoran, you can cover your SECURITY requirements in no time, using George Primmin, Luther Sloan, or Odo, all double SECURITY. The second function of the card (which is totally separate from the first - you would need two copies, one on the homeworld and one on table, to use both functions) is largely a boon to the Dominion. If you want to use the Founder impersonators for their skills, you normally have to report them in the Gamma Quadrant, unless your opponent happens to be playing the appropriate affiliation to allow you to report them infiltrating directly to their facility. Now all you have to do is seed Earth, and Bashir, Krajensky, Leyton, and O’Brien Founders can report there for free. Or Bajor, for free Kira and Odo Founders. Instant Founders in the Alpha Quadrant, and you can always swap in one of the others with Shape-Shift. On my website you'll find a complete list of all SECURITY personnel downloadable to their matching homeworlds, plus all personnel with infiltration icons who can report for free on homeworlds. The Major's Combos:
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