This is the first in what will hopefully be a regular series to help beginners with the Borg.  For this month, I will be rating the Counterparts from worst to best with my reasoning.  If you are used to playing Borg, most of this will come as common sense.  Here we go…

#6.  Bareil of Borg – It was really close for last place but I feel Bareil is slightly worse.  If he was a matching counterpart for Mirror Bajor he would be so much more useful.  At first glance Bareil looks pretty good.  He has VIP, Anthropology, Biology, Honor, Science, and Diplomacy x2.  Unfortunately, the Collective already has most of those skills from drones.  The only useful thing that Bareil adds to your hive is the Diplomacy x2.  This will help you pass things like Shaka, When the Walls Fell without changing the Queen’s skill.  Honor and VIP are not that useful to the Collective.  He does, however, offer a good selection of missions for Service the Collective.

#5.  Gowron of Borg – In my original draft of this article, I had Gowron as last but then I thought about it for a while.  Gowron offers VIP, Leadership x2, Diplomacy, Honor, and the attack ability.  The Leadership x2 is why I changed him to 5th instead of 6th.  Friendly Fire can be a real pain for Borg.  Diplomacy is also helpful as I mentioned in my review of Bareil.  His battle ability is highly underestimated.  I agree with most other players that if you are going to make a Borg battle deck, you should use Assimilate Counterpart or Eliminate Starship.  What most people don’t see is the surprise factor.  No one expects a Cube that is just scouting missions to attack.  Use a Cytherians or something like that and as your opponent flies by, open fire.  You don’t have to build your deck around it to utilize it.  Gowron offers a fair selection of missions for Service the Collective but there is an added bonus.  All the missions look Klingon and hardly anyone will expect it to be a Borg deck with all those Klingon missions.

#4.  Tomalak of Borg – Officer, Diplomacy, Leadership, and the ability to cloak.  Pretty nice, too bad he doesn’t have Treachery or Greed.  Officer is very helpful to the Collective to pass things like Maglock and Hazardous Duty.  He also has Diplomacy and Leadership.  The addition of the Cloaking Device is nice but over estimated in my opinion.  It definitely has a use in Scout decks but in a Cube deck it won’t help much at all.  It might help you avoid a couple battles but if your opponent built his deck specifically to battle, he will probably be able to force you to decloak anyways.  The mission selection is fair, about equal to the Gowron’s.

#3.  Weyoun of Borg – Now we’re into the top three.  Even though Weyoun does not have Officer, he has many other great skills for the Borg.  VIP, Diplomacy x2, Leadership, Treachery, Law, and Biology are his six skills.  VIP doesn’t help much and you can get Biology from several drones.  He has the important Diplomacy and Leadership, which aren’t otherwise available to the Collective.  He also has Law which will help you pass Drumhead and Extradition.  Treachery is almost a necessity for the Collective.  If you have an Interlink drone and the skill of Science on your ship (and who doesn’t?), everyone is susceptible to Unscientific Method.  The Queen is the most Cunning so she will be chosen to die if you don’t have Treachery or Greed.  Weyoun has that Treachery and it will also help you pass Q Gets the Point (which cannot be adapted to).  Mission selection is good but not the best.  The Dominion Homeworld is in the Gamma Quadrant and there are no other missions with a Dominion icon that you can scout there.  He does allow you to Service the Collective at Construct Supply Depot so you won’t have to worry about your opponent stealing your missions.  You will lose the element of surprise, though.

#2.   Locutus of Borg – Hard to get but very useful.  Locutus gives us Officer, Diplomacy x2, Leadership, Honor, Navigation, Archaeology, and Music.  Music and Honor don’t really help much and other drones can provide Navigation and Archaeology.  He does have that ever important Officer, Diplomacy x2 and Leadership.  Just be sure to give the Queen Treachery or Greed.  Locutus also has a pretty good mission selection.  With all the OS Federation decks around now, you can easily fool your opponent into thinking you are not Borg.  There is one other thing he has that no other Counterpart does.  He allows you to Stop First Contact.  This isn’t much in itself but when you combine it with Population 9 Billion – All Borg, you are looking at a 2 Objective win.  It does take work to Stop First Contact, though, and you need more than one Locutus to do it reliably.  His lack of Treachery or Greed and the fact that he is really hard to get are the main reason he didn’t come in first.

#1.  Dukat of Borg – Where do I begin?  First of all, his mission selection is great.  He can Service the Collective in both the Gamma and Alpha Quadrants and score 100 points in either.  His skills are also impressive.  Officer, Leadership x2, Navigation x2, Treachery, Diplomacy, and Computer Skill.  The Computer Skill is common enough in the Collective as is Navigation although Navigation x2 on one person does pass Gravimetric Distortions.  Officer, Leadership x2, Treachery and Diplomacy on one person is great for the Borg.  No need to worry about Shaka, Friendly Fire*, Maglock, Hazardous Duty, Unscientific Method, or Q Gets the Point with this guy around.  He doesn’t work for Stop First Contact but most people can’t get a hold of enough Locutusses (Locuti?) to make it work anyway.  Make sure you give the Queen Greed and you will also be safe from Chula: The Game, which will otherwise stop you till the end of your next turn.

Well I hope some of this helped.  I know much of it may seem like common sense to most experienced players but often times choosing a Counterpart isn’t as thought out as it could be.  I don’t know what I have planned for next issue but I should be able to come up with something good.

~Kor <sclicque@mcla.mass.edu>
 
 
 
 

Footnote: *Friendly Fire also requires Security but you should already have that in your Hive.