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Rules of Assimilation? I Think Not
by Sparkles McMagic (a.k.a. The Ninja Scot) Welcome to a whole new expansion, full of bells and whistles and downright good old fun, right? Until the Borg show up and then they’re basically more fun than Bruno and Tiny showing you the finer points of tooth removal by fist. They keep adapting to your dilemmas, dilemmas you’ve taken so much time on to make it just right and then they just walk through, not caring about your Dead Ends, just assimilation. And just when you want to smack them upside their collective heads, they turn around and use those 24 weapons on you, making just a little less fun to be around. Plus, they like stealing your people, taking them to be their Queen’s counterpart which might sound good but trust me, it’s not... She has bad breath for one. Anyway you’re probably wondering when I’m going to shut up and get to what you wanted to read, ignoring my demented prose up above and already scrolling down for the nuggets of information that I’m seemingly going to place right into your lap. Well, (big exasperated, melodramatic sigh) I SUPPOSE I could do that, but only if you’re really nice and give me your first born child (or your Future Enterprise, whichever you’re more inclined to part with ;-) Artifacts - That’s what we find that we don’t call junk There’s nothing like having a free play for doing something you’re doing anyway if you’re playing Bajoran: Use Orb personnel. And that’s exactly what happens with the Orb of Wisdom, which can be conveniently picked up at the Cardassian homeworld and Characterize Neutrino Emissions along with all of your other Orb artifacts without completing the mission with a handy little objective called HQ: Return Orbs to Bajor. Just seed all those orb cards (Mysterious Orb, Orb Fragment, Orb of Prophecy and Change and Orb of Wisdom) at either one of those, preferably before you encounter any evil dilemmas, get stopped, mosey on back to Bajor and earn not only 10 points (Mysterious Orb can’t be returned) but to get to draw 9 cards on top of that AND you get to keep the cards for unbridled merriment ;-) Next is Phased Cloaking Device which in itself is a handy little thing as it helps you escape from a Borg ship just that much faster with the +4 in Range that you receive when you’re phased. And it’s seedable at Pegasus Search so if you really want it, you could just seed it there and no Cryosattelite is needed. Plus, while risky, if your opponent is playing Borg and for some odd reason use this mission, you could always seed it there as a "dilemma" and then laugh when not only do you steal the mission but that you get the artifact as well. And last is Starry Night, just a pretty work by the shocking (at least in the estimation of the Ferengi) artist Vincent Van Gogh. I mean come on, he cut off one of his LOBES! ;-) Anyway, not only is it pretty but it’s profitable too. After all, why get one Artifact when you can just trade it in at your local shop for not one, not three but two Artifacts that are played as Equipment cards. You could get anything from Croden’s Key and a Varon-T disrupter. You get two artifacts for the price of one, that’s double the profits for the same work, a deal any Ferengi could just eat up ;-) Dilemmas - They can be your friends The biggest problem with dilemmas and the Borg is the fact that they keep passing through dilemmas without effect or with minimal hindrance. The reason: They weren’t designed with the Borg in mind. Sure, something like Dal’Rok is all well and good but against a cube, practically worthless, same as Dead End really. The trick is, as I’ve said before (or at least I thought I did) is to use dilemmas that they have to adapt to or at least require them to have a counterpart to help pass them while at the same time being effective against non-Borg players.. In Rules of Acquisition, there’s nine dilemmas of varying degrees of effectiveness:
Chula: Crossroads: Has very little to no effect on the Borg. You can stop the drone but then the next drone will continue to the next dilemma without incident. Chula: The Door: Without discarding a doorway, the Borg are hard pressed to pass this dilemma without adapting. Yes, it is possible with a counterpart, a command or navigation icon drone and one STRENGTH enhancing drone but not as likely as one might think. And with an opponent’s choice dilemma like Yuta (1 with the modifier of +2 in STRENGTH), you can just pick that drone off. Dangerous Liaisons: Their best bet is to pass via 2 SIENCE and 2 SECURITY, neither of which is a problem for a Cube with an Interlink drone. Eliminate the Interlink drone, however, and you’re better off as you would be for most multiple skill dilemma walls. Ferengi Bug: A rather unique one that unless you know that it’s there, you won’t be able to bypass if you’re Borg. The reason is because there’s no reason for the Borg to really pick FCA as a skill which is the only way to pass this dilemma without incident. The problem is that it doesn’t really do anything to the drone itself. What it does is opens your opponent’s hand and places it face up on the table, like Alien Probe only less likely to be countered. You can use this to your advantage however, after all it’s nice to know what is in your opponent’s hand and you can adjust your strategy as need be. The choice is, of course, up to you. In the Pale Moonlight: Without assimilating a founder as your counterpart, there is no way to pass this dilemma without using an Adapt except by placing Vantika’s Neural Pathways in front which makes very little sense but to each their own. Orion Syndicate Bomb: Now this has potential for blowing up a Borg Cube. Sure, Borg do have Transporter Skill but use something like Fighting Words and they’re in a lot of hurt. Follow it up with another damage-inducing dilemma and goodbye Borg Cube ;-) Scientific Method: Same as previous dilemma walls requiring multiple skills: if they have the Interlink drone, they’ll pass by; if they don’t, they’ll adapt. Strange Bedfellows: Absolutely irrelevant as there are no genders in the collective, unless hit with the Queen and a Counterpart on the cube. What you get out of the dilemmas is time so that you can do what you need to win. My suggestion: Get rid of that pesky Interlink Drone and you’ll be better off. Events - More earth-shattering than moments Unless you’re going to play Ferengi, most likely you’re not going to get much uses out of the rest of this particular part of Rules of Acquisition so just skip ahead. If you decided to stay here with this section then we’ll continue. While most of them are rules which can be occasionally helpful to you, they do nothing to really gain anything except card advantages against the Borg with a one exceptions: 33rd Rule of Acquisition: You can score 5 points off of a scouted mission if you have your Greed personnel present and you compliment their score, if they say Thank you, you earn the points, if they don’t say thank you, you can draw four cards. Either way, it’s profitable. Incidents - When Objectives just don’t have the right ring Okay, so I’ve never gotten used to the idea of Incidents, go figure. Anyway they have some pretty nifty effects that’ll help against certain Borg decks. Bodyguards: Your favorite guy has just been targeted by Assimilate Counterpart and you’re not happy. The Cube is overhead and he’s ready to capture. That’s when you call out your secret weapon. If the person targeted is a CIVILIAN or VIP, they’re protected while the SECURITY takes care of them and they can’t be hurt. Not only that but you can structure how you want the battle to go if you have Leadership present. Much better having Roga Danar or Data in there, rolling with the punches, than Admiral McCoy. Bribery: What, the Borg take bribes? I think not ;-) But it does expand your mission selection.
Quark’s Isolinear Rods: While your Borg opponent will likely seed that annoying Complink drone, that doesn’t mean that it’ll always happen. So, when you need that Alas Poor Queen or some other kind of Borg torment, make sure that it’ll come down with this. The added bonus of downloading The Big Picture adds 40 points to win, add Q’s Planet and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a Borg player with 180 possible points. Writ of Accountability: You don’t like double turn Borg swarms, don’t like Anti-Time Anomalies, don’t like Black Holes devouring spacelines? Crush them with this and win the game, can’t go wrong with that. Missions - Where the REAL points of the game are earned Here are the missions that are immune to the Borg’s assimilation practices whether by invalid target (they aren’t worth enough points) or that can be protected by Access Denied: Collect Sample: (universal space) Science + Astrophysics + Transporter Skill + (Smuggling OR Treachery x2) (Rom, Car, Fer and Dom) (30 points, span 3) Gunrunning: (space) Greed x2 + Smuggling x2 + Anthropology + CUNNING>28 + (hand weapon OR Echo Papa 607) (Fer) (40 points, span 3) Market Research: (universal space) Greed x2 + Acquisition + Anthropology + Stellar Cartography + CUNNING>35 (Non and Fer) (30 points, span 5) Purchase Moon: (planet) Greed + Acquisition + Geology + Astrophysics + discard 1 to 4 Gold-Pressed Latinum (X = number discarded) Opponent's side: Greed + Acquisition + Geology + Astrophysics + discard 3 Gold-Pressed Latinum (Ferengi) (10x points on your side, 30 points for opponent’s side, span: 4) Objective - What do you mean you’re not Dominion or Borg? Just like the Rule cards, out of the three Objective cards, there’s only one that really can apply to the Borg. Establish Trade Route: On the surface, you just can’t help but ask: Okay, so you can change the requirements, so what? Well, if you line up missions that the Borg can’t do, for example 4 Construct Depots, you’re protected from assimilation and you don’t have to be worried about Borg thieves. Tactics - Stun then Blow Plasma Energy Burst has this rather odd effect. No matter the result, you get to take their weapons offline. You can do all sorts of things with this, anywhere from leaving them a sitting duck to an armada that doesn’t have as much to fear from a weaponless Cube to setting them up for Abandon Ship to whatever you decide to do, the point is to take those weapons offline so that you can do whatever you want in their weaponless state. A trick to try is to use Scout Encounter to download a sacrificial Scout so that you can take out their weapons for the fullest advantage. One side effect: It takes no hull damage off so that’s not too good but hey, that’s what you have other Tactics for ;-) THE POINT Yes I know that I didn’t cover each category of card types but to be honest, they aren’t really helpful against the Borg specifically. Yes, you can increase the speed you go through your draw deck for those special cards that you need to pass missions and all that fun stuff but you can’t throw latinum at a drone or use Rules against them that you can’t use against any other player. The point is that there’s cards in Rules of Acquisition that can be used against the Borg player for your benefit and their discomfort. And if that Borg player happens to give you grief, just look at them with a wry smile and say: Winning is irrelevant. The Ninja Scot has a "slight" disagreement with the Borg and has decided to point out their weaknesses to those that might not know for the benefit of the non-assimilated. If you have comments, negative or positive, I’m sure he’ll read them eventually if you send them to his e-mail address: theninjascot@yahoo.com. He might not reply but at least he’ll read them. After all, he has this Locust infestation problem and he works every day to get rid of them ;-) The Ninja Scot
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Center of Attention: While skill-wise it’s difficult for any Borg player without being on a Cube, with the proper set up, it could work. Something like this: Unscientific Method-Common Thief and then Center of Attention could be quite effective as the Queen would be inclined to change her skill to Treachery to avoid being selected by Unscientific Method but could easily succumb to Center of Attention if you take out the Interlink drone with Common Thief. However by itself, it won’t do much against anyone else without a wall but it is a suggestion.
Emergency Evacuation: There’s nothing worse than say a Kurlanized Borg Cube.....except one with Gowron of Borg and an itching for blowing your facility or ship out of the water and there’s not a thing you could do about it except now, they don’t have to die. Flip over this and download that Escape Pod or take the ship’s survivors to the planet you were orbiting. Much better to save their lives than the evil of dying by the hands of the Borg.