Part 4 – Better Combos

OK, we have the Wall – Killer – Wall setup. How can those combos be better? Let's look at that leading wall. Its purpose is to stop redshirts. It keeps someone from sending a useless personnel to encounter the killer dilemmas. Is there a way to really punish someone who tries that?

There are a number of dilemmas, especially from recent sets, that act as both walls and killers. They require certain skills to pass, but can also remove personnel when encountered. For example, Chula: The Lights will always remove a personnel and then requires a number of personnel remaining. If the opponent redshirts, they lose a personnel and the dilemma goes back under the mission. Next time they attempt, they lose another personnel before they can cure the dilemma.

So we now have this pattern: Killer/Wall – Killer – Wall

What about the trailing wall? What's the best choice for that? Well, Killer/Walls usually have easier requirements than plain simple walls. It's best to use the cards with more difficult requirements here to keep the opponent from beating the mission.

The list:

This is a list of the more powerful dilemmas that can be used for simple combos. Note some of these "killers" don't actually kill, but are just as good at removing personnel for an extended time.

Killer/Wall

Plain Killer

Plain Wall

Alien Parasites	Ferengi Attack	Clan People
Armus Sticky Situation	Firestorm	Founder Secret
Crisis	Harvester Virus	Malfunctioning Door
New Essentialists	Shot in the Back	None Shall Pass
Punishment Box	Surprise Assault	Odo's Cousin
Seismic Quake	Under Fire	Primitive Culture

Assassin's Blade	Barclay's Proto. Disease	Chula: the Dice
Berserk Changeling	Common Thief	Chula: the Door
Chula: the Lights	Dal'rok	Dangerous Liaisons
Friendly Fire	Ferengi Ingenuity	Dead End
Hazardous Duty	Frame of Mind	In the Pale Moonlight
Hippocratic Oath	Make Us Go	Scientific Method
Lack of Preparation	No Loose Ends	Shaka
Unscientific Method	Yuta

Drumhead	Aphasia Device	Ancient Computer
Gravimetric Distortion	Borg Ship	Maglock
	Conundrum	Navigational Hazards
	Orion Syndicate Bomb
	Strict Dress Code
	Tarellian Plague Ship

There you go, one from each column gives you a simple yet effective dilemma combo. A benefit of this setup is that you can mix and match the dilemmas and seed them in different combos. That way, if you play the same opponent all the time, they won't know what to expect from just seeing the first card of a combo. That's very useful if you have a limited supply of dilemmas. Also, either-or dilemmas tend to be less powerful than planet- or space-only. If you mix and match, you can start with 2 planet-only and 2 either-or combos, and end up with at least one planet-only dilemma at each of the opponent's 4 planets.

Part 5 - The Borg Factor

When selecting dilemmas, watch out for dilemmas that are irrelevant to Borg. You don't want too many useless dilemmas taking up seed slots. On the other hand, look for dilemmas that Borg need to Adapt to, those are very powerful. Anything requiring Officer, Diplomacy, Leadership, Empathy, Treachery, or unusual stats (like In The Pale Moonlight, Clan People) will require either a Counterpart in play, the right skill on the Queen, or an Adapt. Putting a few of those dilemmas together can keep the Borg delayed a while. (Borg Drones also lack Honor, VIP, and Civilian, but there are no dilemmas to take advantage of that.)

On planets, leading killer/walls are great against Borg. Borg have to scout one drone at a time, unless they have a card like Emergency Transporter Armbands. The best they can do is lose a drone and hope to Adapt on the next turn. Then, if you counter the Adapt, the dilemma kills a drone on that attempt, too, and so on… By the time they get to the other dilemmas, there may not be many drones left to scout with.

In space, Borg are usually attempting with a LOT of drones. (Scout Swarms are certainly not as powerful as they used to be.) With the Interlink Drone, they have enough multiples of every skill to beat almost anything. So you should probably rearrange your combos to: Killer – Killer/Wall – Wall

That gives you 2 chances to kill the Interlink, then maybe the trailing wall will stick around a while. Because killer/walls usually have some requirements, putting the plain killer first can help them hit.

Part 6 – Backing Up Your Dilemmas

Dilemmas alone will not stop your opponent forever. You need to design the rest of your deck to support them. There are a few simple tricks that can make your dilemmas more effective.

• Q Flash and Beware of Q for the swapping ability. If it looks like the opponent can beat that leading wall in your combo, swap it out for a Q Flash. That lets you do some extra damage, where the wall itself would be discarded anyway. It's almost like seeding a free Fightin' Words under every mission, in addition to Penalty Box, Mandarin Bailiff, etc. Also, swapping a Q Flash is a good way to counter Scans, which can render your whole dilemma combo irrelevant.
• Battle Bridge Side Decks are a good way to back up dilemmas. For example, if your dilemmas require Medical, stack Attack Wing. Or stack Strafing Run to back up dilemmas the require Officer. Diplomacy usually goes along with Officers or Leadership, so Strafing Run will help with Diplomacy dilemmas, too. This works when you attack the opponent, or simply with dilemmas that damage ships.

Be able to beat your own dilemmas. Maybe you and your opponent will both seed the same mission, so you need to protect it with a dilemma or 2. Maybe you just want to steal a mission occasionally. Either way, you should be ready to pass a few of your own dilemmas.

Chris 'Rom' Brennan
Rom@wnohgb.com