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Major Rakal's Romulan Review #111: Emblem of the Alliance (12/27/2000) |
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Aefvadh! The mirror universe contained groups of people who were not all the same affiliation - each group had its own agenda - but who worked together (more or less) under a treaty-like agreement. The two major factions, the Terran Empire (and Terran Rebellion) and the Klingon/Cardassian Alliance, are allied in Star Trek CCG under their respective "emblems" in lieu of treaties. While similar, the emblem cards are not identical. Let's look at how the more interesting one works, the... Emblem Of The Alliance
As soon as you seed or play the Emblem, you can download The Art of Diplomacy. Getting the Emblem into play fast doesn't even require a seed slot if you're using Mirror Bajor, since that mission (Disrupt Alliance) lets you download an Emblem card when you seed it. Next comes the key "treaty" aspect of the Emblem. All your cards with a [KCA] icon, whether they're Bajoran, Klingon, Cardassian, Ferengi, or Non-Aligned by affiliation, can "mix". That means the same as "mix and cooperate" - in a word, these cards are now all compatible. They can all report to a Cardassian Alliance Nor, or to your Klingon Empire Outpost, or Mirror Deep Space 9 / Terok Nor if it's Cardassian; and they can all mix aboard your ships, attempt missions in a single Away Team, etc. Like a treaty, it doesn't change their affiliation. That is, [KCA] Klingons still don't "match" the Mirror Bajor homeworld (only Mirror Bajorans match it), [KCA] Bajorans can't fly the Klingon Regency 1 ship alone, and [KCA] Ferengi can't attempt Search for Rebels (which has [Klg][Car][Baj] icons) alone. What about the four Alpha Quadrant Ferengi listed? Well, they can mix and work with your [KCA] folks, but the one thing they can't do is report to [MQ] facilities. Just because they are compatible doesn't mean they are native to that quadrant, any more than Alpha Jem'Hadar can report to the Gamma Quadrant just because they are compatible with a Primary Supply Depot. The other part of that sentence applies to the same cards ([KCA] cards and the four Ferengi) but is a separate and additional function. If that mixed bag of affiliations had to abide by normal affiliation attack restrictions, you'd be rather hampered in being able to attack: a well-mixed group would be unable to attack other Bajorans, Cardassians, or Ferengi. That doesn't seem to fit too well with the aggressive nature of the Alliance, so the Emblem takes away their affiliation-based attack restrictions. Your cards that can mix via the Emblem can now attack any affilation - as long as they aren't mixed with any non-[KCA] cards. For example, even though Ferengi can't normally attack other Ferengi, having Grand Nagus Zek aboard your Regency 1 doesn't prevent Regency 1 from attacking your opponent's Ferengi ship. And the Nagus could himself attack your opponent's Brunt singlehandedly (though perhaps he would be wiser to take Maihar'du along). But if Ishka joins them, now the Nagus and Maihar'du can no longer beat up on Brunt, because Ishka still has normal Ferengi attack restrictions, and you must abide by all attack restrictions that apply to the entire Away Team. The last sentence (yes, I know I'm skipping something - I'll come back to it in a minute) lets you process ore on a [MQ] Nor for two cards a turn without fretting about getting your Ore Processing Unit blown up by Reactor Overload. All you have to do is keep two ENGINEERs at the OPU instead of one. Going back to what I skipped, we find the most interesting piece of this Emblem. Unlike the Alpha Quadrant, the Mirror Quadrant has no headquarters for anyone except the Terrans (not to mention almost no homeworlds for them to play on). So the Alliance has to do without all the free reports that Alpha Bajorans, Klingons, Cardassians, and Ferengi can get from their headquarters. But the Emblem of the Alliance goes quite a way towards making up for that lack. All you have to do is have in play a [KCA] leader (someone with OFFICER or Leadership, as usual), and report [KCA] personnel who name that leader, or are named by that leader, in their lore. Once each turn, one of those people reports for free. You don't have to report them where that leader is present, either. You can report them to another facility, to a facility in the Alpha Quadrant (with Crossover in play), or anyplace else that's legal. So who qualifies for this little ploy? Well, there are ten [KCA] leaders, but three of them don't name and aren't named by any other [KCA] personnel. May not sound promising, but your key leader is The Intendant. She doesn't name anyone in her lore, but nine personnel (five unique and four universal) name The Intendant in their lore, often as a "romantic involvement". Those she allows to report for free include more [KCA] leaders who in turn can allow five others to report for free. So you'll find that a large proportion of your [KCA] personnel can report for free once you get The Intendant in play. Look on my website for a complete list of who names who and allows free reporting. The Major's Combos:
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