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Tactics With Tactics by Alidar Jarok OK, most of us have built decks around particular ships (like a Borg Scout Vessel), personnel (like Amaros or Taitt), dilemmas (Hippocratic Oath or Q), missions (Patrol Neutral Zone), and especially interrupts and events. But can we do the same for tactics? Mais oui! Crimson Forcefield Remember, just because you're using a Battle Bridge Side Deck (BBSD) doesn't mean that you have to use a tactic - you can opt to use default damage if you wish (two damage markers for a hit, four for a direct hit). If you load up your BBSD with Crimson Forcefield, a standard hit will knock their RANGE down by four (they can't run), their WEAPONS by 4 (they can't fire back), their SHIELDS by 6 (they can't defend themselves), their Cloaking Device will be knocked offline (they can't hide), and their ship will be falling apart (-80% hull integrity). Essentially, the ship will be dead in space. However, with -6 to their SHIELDS, it's very likely that you can successfully play Outgunned on them. This will probably grant you a ton of card draws if you use Fajo's Gallery, plus you can use the ship as your own and Interrogate their personnel. Best of all, they can't use Regenerate or Process Ore to grab them back. Of course, Target Shields works just as well, with certain advantages and disadvantages. While it "drains" their baseline SHIELDS more slowly, it's faster if they use a SHIELD modifier of some sort. Plus, it always works, no matter how high their SHIELDS are. However, it's disadvantage is if your deck doesn't go according to plan - if you use just Target Shields, you'll never be able to inflict damage on your opponents' ships. The only real way to take them out would be with Outgunned, but if their ships travel in pairs, you're stuck. Evasive Maneuvers By far the best defensive tactic, this card alone will likely keep no-staffing ships from being picked off - they'll probably only suffer damage instead. Ships like the Bajoran Interceptor, Science Vessel, and Jem'Hadar Attack Ship will be able to survive Borg Ships without SHIELD modifications. The defense value should make it worth using, with the growing aggressiveness going on in the game now that Blaze of Glory has been released. If you don't intend to battle at all, not even as a backup option, then stock your BBSD full of these cards. Great examples will be Borg Scout Swarm decks, Runabout decks, some Bajoran Interceptor decks, etc. Basically, any deck that uses light-weight ships to quickly run out and solve missions. Maximum Firepower The -3 Defense value hurts this card a bit. However, you can now built a great Future Enterprise Borg Hunting deck. Throw a few of these in your BBSD with a number of Crimson Forcefields. Use Going To The Top to grab Admiral Riker on the first turn, and download the Future Enterprise. Get Tasha Yar - Alternate, Guinan, and any other AU and Command personnel on the ship. Get a Captain's Log in play, and a Tactical Console on your ship. Your Future Enterprise is now 13-19-15. Go and trip the Borg Ship. The key here is to draw a Maximum Firepower as a Tactic, but to make sure that you don't draw 2 of them for your 3 damage markers. The best way to accomplish this would be to stock a few Battle Bridge Doors in your deck to enable you to draw more tactics. With the tactic, the Future Enterprise is 13-25-12, and does three damage markers of damage. If you build your BBSD correctly, you'll be able to pick off the ship in one shot, while only being damaged. Note: it would be wise to bring an Exocomp to repair your ship, and John Doe to prevent a casualty in case your opponent also has a BBSD. This is probably the quickest one-shot way to kill a Borg Ship, even with a Kurlan Naiskos. And the advantage is that you don't need to solve a mission to earn the Naiskos, you don't have to protect it from nullification, and you don't have to re-earn it in case it's nullified - if your opponent takes out one of your modifiers, it's easily replaceable. The only real problem would be if your opponent plays a Shipwreck, so be careful - playing a Goddess of Empathy before tripping the Borg Ship would be a good idea. Quantum Torpedoes Even though Scanner Interference has errata, it's still very powerful. You can download a ton of anti-beaming cards to your opponent's planets, making them all but impossible to beam down to. So having shut down their planet options, why not take out their ability to solve space missions too? Toss in The Big Picture to (likely) force them to score 140 points, then send some of your small and powerful ships (like K'Vorts or Attack Ships) on suicide runs. With the +5 attack bonus, you'll likely damage their ship. While it will take a while to destroy it if you only use Quantum Torpedoes, you don't have to. With their planets shut down by Distortion Fields and their ships unable to attempt space missions (and it will take a while to get those damage markers off), your opponent will have a hard time scoring points. Throw in a number of counters to ward off Establish Landing Protocols, Kevins, and Spacedocks, and it's unlikely your opponent will score much more than zero points. Attack Wing Anti-MEDICAL decks are on the rise, and this only throws fuel on the fire. With DNA Clues, Hippocratic Oath (and Aid Fugitives), Barclay's Protomorphosis Disease, Empathic Echo and the like, you'll need all the MEDICAL you can get. Why not take their MEDICAL away from them before they even make it to their missions? Attack Wing gives at least +2 Attack and +2 Defense, which is on par with most other tactics. It also allows you to destroy a ship in 4 markers, plus reduces every ship attribute a bit. However, it also selectively kills the MEDICAL they need to get by your MEDICAL walls, delaying them even more. And even if you don't play a dedicated anti-MEDICAL deck, good MEDICAL personnel are hard to come by, plus it can help shut down their Genetronic Replicators. Target These Coordinates While it's easy for the Dominion to beam through SHIELDS, it's a lot harder for the other affiliations. Not any more, if you plan your BBSD carefully. If they have a ship under the influence of a Kurlan Naiskos, a well-timed Weak Spot or Shipwreck will allow you to get this damage marker on their ship. Then you can just beam your Klingons over, slice them up with your Bat'leths, and commandeer a Naisko'ed ship. Or, if you're playing the Cardassians, why not beam Elim and company over, flip over a Captured or two, and take their most valuable personnel? Picard Maneuver A lot of people looked forward to this tactic, and for good reason. This probably shouldn't be stocked alone in a BBSD, but it never hurts to have a few. There's a 50/50 chance that any ship will take no damage at all for the battle, no matter how outnumbered it is, if it has a matching commander aboard. While not reliable, it's good to have if you've ran out of options. Ironically, this may be the best defense for Borg decks, and a reason to get your Queen's Borg Cube out of your binder. If you should happen to run up against an armada, Picard Maneuver (two cubes at once - now that would be a sight!) might allow your "flying bounty" survive the battle. And you'll likely destroy their entire fleet in the process, or at least (depending on your BBSD contents) kill all the personnel on their ships. Target Engines The -25% hull integrity means that two attacks will take care of their ships. Even better, you can strand them using this card. Use a lot of high-span missions, stock a lot of Target Engines in your BBSD, along with a few cards with less than -25% hull integrity of your choice. Attack thier ships. With -4 RANGE from their base ability, any ship with a base RANGE of 8 or lower will be stranded. For bigger ships, it might take one more shot - in theory, it would be good to get three Target Engines and one of your other tactics as damage markers. Their ships will be stuck there, unable to go back to their outposts to be repaired. Play Revolving Doors on your opponents' Space/Time Portals, and they'll have a hard time getting where they want to go. Well, that's just an idea of the kinds of deck you can built by centering your BBSD on one or two specific tactics. There are probably a few more of them out there, too. Happy hunting! Alidar Jarok bwa@force.stwing.upenn.edu http://force.stwing.upenn.edu/~bwa/stccg/