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Battle Bridge Side Deck: A First Look by Mark Bloom To celebrate the start of Origins, Decipher gave those of us who couldn't make it a surprise... an article and a few cards from the upcoming expansion Blaze of Glory, with an emphasis on battle. The basics of the "Battle Bridge" side deck are easy. Fill it up with any number of "Tactic" cards, a new card type built to enhance battle. Then when you get into a ship battle, you draw 2 cards, and choose one to play on your ship, discarding the other. Your opponent does likewise, each keeping their cards hidden until the other's selection is made. You'll both then reveal your cards, which enhance WEAPONS and/or SHIELDS, applying those bonuses and completing the battle as normal. For an example, take a look at the game text of the revealed card Photon Torpedo. ATTACK 2; DEFENSE 2; ATTACK bonus +1 if you have an Akira-class ship firing. Hit = (flip) (flip). Direct Hit = (flip) (flip) (flip) (flip). After adding ATTACK (including bonuses, if applicable) to WEAPONS and DEFENSE (including bonuses, if applicable) to SHIELDS, you resolve the battle as under the premiere rules, until it comes time for damage. If your opponent's ship is "Hit," then follow the directions under "Hit," in this case, flip the top 2 battle cards from your Battle Bridge deck, following their directions. A "Direct Hit" would flip 4 cards. Assuming your Battle Bridge is built entirely of Photon Torpedoes, you'd flip 2 of them, following the instructions on the bottom of the card... Tactical Panel Overload: randomly kills one SECURITY or Computer Skill personnel (on a Nor, one person in Security Office). WEAPONS -1; SHIELDS -1; HULL -35% In this case, 2 of your opponent's SECURITY or Computer Skill personnel would die, and their ship would be WEAPONS -2 and SHIELDS -2, as well as having the new stat of Hull Integrity reduced by 70%. When a ship has no damage cards attached, it has 100% Hull Integrity. It ceases to exist when at 0% Hull Integrity. The article also states that damage from dilemmas will use the battle side deck to happen as well, defaulting to 2 damage cards, and it is widely assumed that an event or interrupt that causes damage would use this model as well. What happens if you forgo using the new side deck, or if you're not interested in buying any new cards? You can just use the same old rules. Battle really hasn't changed enough to cause problems with interaction. If your opponent doesn't seed a Battle Bridge side deck, you'll just take damage as per the Premiere rules. So how will the Battle Bridge side deck affect deck building? Watch for the peaceful races, such as the Federation, to use it with defensive based cards in place of,or along with, Metaphasic or Nutational shields. Watch for Klingon players to use it for offensive purposes, in place of, or along with Captains Log and Bynars Weapons Enhancement. The Romulans and Cardassians will use cards more balanced between offense and defense. Borg swarms will ignore it. Does the side deck really affect battling? Not that much if you're going to blow away the competition. It now seems to take 2-3 (with an occasional 4) hits to kill rather than the previous 2, but the various special effects can more than make up for if you're not in the mood to destroy. The Good: More realistic space battles. With over 20 battle cards included in the set, you can choose a variety to help you, or hurt your opponent, or both. More realistic damage. 20+ battle cards means 20+ different ways of dealing damage. With varying effects sure to range from casualties to equipment failures, you never know what will happen. Immune to cards that close doorways. Although not in the article, it has been revealed on Decipher's message boards that the Battle Bridge Door will be immune from cards that close doorways. This is good as that way you cannot gain an advantage over your opponent by playing Revolving Door. The Bad: Longer games. Decipher seems to be moving towards longer games. With more dilemmas running around, longer personnel battles (First Contact rules), and now longer space battles (more common than personnel battles), the game very well may end up taking more than an hour to complete. Players are virtually forced to buy more cards. Not a problem for many players, but people trying to play the game on a college student's budget, or off of their allowance may have problems getting enough of the battle cards to make a battle deck useful. Without a battle deck, even a well built armada will probably falter to the defensive battle-deck of a Federation deck. The Ugly: Combos. If you thought Hippocratic Oath/Yuta/Barclays Protomorphosis Disease style combos with Aid Fugitives were bad, just wait until you see what people have come up with already for battle deck combos. With the cards up for scarcely 15 minutes, people were already posting on Decipher's message boards how bad the combo was with photon torpedoes and Berserk Changeling. Throw in a few Common Thiefs and Disruptor Overloads and you're set. Mark 'Neral' Bloom blooms@truserve.com http://www.truserve.com/~blooms/