Chula: the Drink (#2, R)
Planet/Space Dilemma
Icons: Trouble with Tribbles
One chula puzzle places the players in a cocktail party filled with poison gas.  The antidote awaits the one who is clever (or foolish) enough to take a chance on a mysterious beverage.
To get past, four personnel present (random selection) must be "tested."  All four are "stopped" unless one has CUNNING<6 OR CUNNING>9.

Humorous Mexican food puns aside ("New, for a limited time only at participating Taco Time restaurants: Chalupa: the Drink, only 99 cents with any order of nachos..."), this dilemma is the latest one that's nearly impossible to Scan through.  True enough to the expansion's theme of limiting Scans, this one does so admirably.  It has the potential to filter four personnel, which is quite a significant amount, especially if you're preparing an crew/Away Team to just barely pass the dilemmas, a common tactic after Scanning.

Of course, it's not impossible to build a crew/Away Team that is guaranteed to pass it... but you're constrained to using only three personnel between six and nine CUNNING, which is the range that most personnel fall into. Some decks with specific personnel themes naturally are immune to this: the examples that come to mind are Borg decks and Android decks.  With the Borg, the *only* combination that will result in filtering is the selection of either four Navigation drones or three Navigation drones and a counterpart. (Non-Navigation drones have CUNNING 5; the Queen's got CUNNING 12).  Neither is likely. As for android decks, you'll have to select four non-Androids who are between six and nine... and the most commonly used non-Android in these decks -- Dr. Soong -- is smart enough to keep the personnel going if selected.

Aside from that though, random selections are impossible to rig.  An Alien Gambling Device may improve your chances, but there's still no guarantee. Unless you can pass all the other dilemmas at the mission with only three personnel between six and nine CUNNING, you just have to provide redundancy and hope for the best.

How often will it hit?  Pretty often, actually.  CUNNING 10 or higher, while by no means scarce, still isn't very common.  Soong-type Androids, Data, Bashir, Bashir Founder, Lore, either Spock, Ishka, Dr. Soong are played frequently, although the fact that these are of several different affiliations means there are probably just one or two personnel out of a crew of 12-13 that can pass it this way.  (Keevan, Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, Sarek, Ira Graves, Kivas Fajo, Lakanta, and The Traveler are also smart enough, but rarely used.)  As for lower CUNNING people, there's plenty of those; the Klingons will probably have the easiest time with K'chiQ and many mission specialists having low CUNNING, as will the Borg (as mentioned above).

So, we've got a decent filter.  Note that it's also an anti-redshirt dilemma, as four personnel are required to face the choice.  Less than that, and it simply goes back under the mission.  But what can we do with something that'll filter some personnel with average (6-9) CUNNING?  If you're lucky, you can eliminate some Yuta numbers, but personnel with CUNNING on the edges of the bell curve usually have odd Yuta numbers anyway.   There's not much that I can think of that will specifically take advantage of removing the middle CUNNING, especially since it doesn't necessarily filter *all* of the 6-9 CUNNING personnel.  As a result, it's probably better as a general-purpose filter.  Chula: the Chandra has the possibility of "stopping" more, but it's much more unpredictable and can range from stopping only a few personnel to stopping most of the crew/Away Team (if someone with really odd attributes is chosen, like Albert Einstein).  In terms of attributes, four personnel usually equates to a little more than 20 INTEGRITY, about 25 CUNNING, and about 20 STRENGTH.  (Depends on the affiliation and personnel selection, of course; these are just approximations.)  It'll make Q that much harder to pass, and if the crew/AT is just barely over Dal'Rok level this allows enough time for the DR to kill a couple personnel, hopefully bringing them below the 150 level.  (I don't know how many times opponents have passed Dal'Rok with total attributes something like 152!)  Conundrum is another possibility if you're trying to cheese with Defend Homeworld, but your opponent will probably still meet the 41 INTEGRITY if he's attempting with a sizeable crew.  But I think its fatal weakness is the combination of (a) it's not guaranteed to stop at least a few personnel, and (b) there's no focus to it.  OK, it will remove personnel of average CUNNING, but I don't believe there's any way to take advantage of this.  (Certainly not Chula: the Door, which requires odd attributes anyway).

The final verdict: It's too general for my tastes.  When filtering, I like more specific ones (like Blended or Shot in the Back) where it's easier to take advantage of what was removed.  And if I'm using a general filter, I like it to have the potential to "stop" a lot more personnel (Chula: the Chandra, Hide and Seek) *and* filter at least some personnel (i.e., there's no way around it, whereas Chula: the Drink can potentially stop nobody if the CUNNING isn't right) to compensate for the lack of control.  All that this card will do is make players attempt missions by megateaming even more than normal, able to absorb the temporary loss of a few pesonnel.

Next, "that other chula:" Chula: the Way Home

Steve "Sergei Rachmaninoff" Boyles