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Major Rakal's Romulan Review #85: Assign Mission Specialists (10/24/1999) |
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Aefvadh! I'm going to take a brief break from Blaze of Glory reviews to review a card that's almost two years old. It's still very much in use for most affiliations, despite the eventual errata that removed its Captain's Order status... ASSIGN MISSION SPECIALISTS
Just what is a mission specialist? It's not something you will see designated in a personnel's lore (like species), or an icon (like the Maquis icon). The term is defined in the Glossary and depends on a personnel's skills. A mission specialist is a personnel who has only one skill of any kind, and that one skill has to be a regular skill (not a special skill). A regular skill is a one- or two-word skill of the kind you typically use for solving missions or passing dilemmas, such as Treachery, Archaeology or Tal Shiar x2. A special skill is either a special download icon skill ([SD] Prisoner Escort), or a skill that is expressed as a sentence or phrase, such as, "Once each turn, may download Brainwash here" or "Where present, Romulans without Treachery are INTEGRITY +1." So if a personnel has more than one skill (regardless of the kind of skill, and whether they are printed on the card or added with equipment etc.), he's not a mission specialist. For example, if you play Mot’s Advice on a mission specialist, he now has two skills and loses his MS status. If a personnel has any special skills at all (even if it's his only skill), he's not a mission specialist. Furthermore, you can't "create" a mission specialist. If a personnel has more than one skill to start with, and you take some of them away with a dilemma such as Tsiolkovsky Infection, he's still not a mission specialist. On the other hand, if you change a mission specialist's skill to a different skill, with Reflection Therapy or a dilemma, for example, he remains a mission specialist. And note that a so-called "double" or "triple" skill, such as Kahless' Honor x2, is still one skill. Let's look at a few examples of people who are and are not mission specialists. Mission Specialists
NOT Mission Specialists - and why
Now that we know what a mission specialist is, let's see what Assign Mission Specialists can do with them. AMS has two distinct effects: it allows downloads of mission specialist personnel, and it lets you score bonus points with them. Let's look at the download mechanics first, as there are separate considerations for seed phase and play phase downloads. Seeding AMS (seed phase): Because AMS has no hidden agenda icon, you must seed it face up. If you want to use the download (and you might as well if you're going to use a seed slot), you have to do it right away - there is no provision in the text for doing it later. That means you have to have an outpost in play, so seeding AMS is effectively restricted to the facility phase (although you could seed it during any phase if you want to forego the download). And only an outpost will do: stations and headquarters are not included. One important point to note is that this download is (1) to a "specific destination" (one of your outposts) and (2) allowed by a card other than a facility or site. That means you can download the specialists to your outpost in either quadrant, regardless of whether the personnel card or the outpost is native to the quadrant. Where do the downloaded mission specialists come from? Are they seed cards? No, it doesn't say you seed them, so they can't be seed cards. Like any download, they come from one of the four places you may download cards from: your draw deck, Q’s Tent, hand or Zalkonian Storage Capsule. Since you don't have a hand during the seed phase (and cannot have a ZSC in play at that time), they must come from your Tent or draw deck. There's no point in using valuable Tent slots for cards that you will download during the seed phase; put them in your draw deck. The most important benefit from using a seed slot for an AMS is the fact that the download cannot be Computer Crashed. Hidden agendas may not be activated during the seed phase, so there is no way for your opponent to prevent you from making this download. But because AMS is marked "Unique," and is not a hidden agenda itself, you cannot seed more than one of them, so your protection from Computer Crash is limited to that one. Playing AMS (play phase): The download is not an ongoing effect - AMS doesn't let you download more specialists each turn, just once, when the card is seeded or played. However, you can get another download on any turn during the game by playing another AMS (using your normal card play). The "Unique" designation means you have to discard the one on the table at the start of your turn (as allowed by its game text) before you may play another one. Because this is the play phase, you are now vulnerable to Computer Crash. When you initiate the download (choose your target cards), your opponent may now activate a Computer Crash, preventing the download. CC can't keep you from playing the AMS card - AMS does not require a download, so CC is not a valid response to playing AMS. So if you have discarded an AMS from the table at the start of your turn, you won't be left with no AMS in play just when you wanted to score bonus points. But CC is a valid response to the attempted download itself. The downloading opportunity is lost permanently, because it has to be done when the card is played or not at all. Just one other point about the two downloaded personnel: they have to be different personnel (you can't download two copies of R'Mal), and you must not already have copies of them in play (once you have a R'Mal in play, whether you downloaded him or played him normally, you can't download another copy with AMS unless the first one gets killed). Scoring points (and other benefits): Now, just why would you want all these single-skilled personnel, anyway? For one thing, you can get important skills (and the classifications, which come along for the ride) into play quickly and reliably. Download Takket and Mopak in the seed phase, and you have not only Biology and Exobiology on hand, but also MEDICAL and SECURITY, two key personnel types for passing dilemmas, and even a Command and Staff star for staffing your first ship. Use them as the core of your Away Team, or redshirt them. The other benefit is the "ongoing" text on the AMS card: if you use a mission specialist's skill (not his classification) to help solve a mission, you score 5 bonus points. It doesn't matter whether you downloaded the specialist with the AMS you have on the table now, or with a previous AMS that has since been discarded, or played him normally. As long as you have an AMS on the table, all your mission specialists who used their skills to solve the mission score points. Five points doesn't sound like much, but careful mission (and specialist) choices can add up in a hurry. The last combo below illustrates this well. On my website you will find a list of all mission specialists to date, arranged by affiliation. Their skills and classifications are listed for easy reference. The Major's Combos:
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