Chula: the Way Home (#3, C)
Planet/Space Dilemma
Icons: Trouble with Tribbles
Near the end of their chula experience, three Deep Space 9 senior staff members were enticed to follow an image of Julian Bashir.  He claimed to have found the way home.
To get past, three personnel present (random selection) are chosen.  Opponent may relocate one to Quark's Bar or your facility if the other two have combined INTEGRITY<15.

Today's card is The Drink's fellow Tribble cousin, the latest in a long series of Chula dilemmas.  How will this affect the Chula reputation -- which already ranges from the mighty The Lights and The Chandra to the rather lacking The Abyss -- is yet to be seen.  How does this card stack up?

First, what is the possible effect?  Out of three randomly selected personnel, you choose one to be temporarily removed from the mission attempt.  This gives you better odds than, say, an Armus or Frame of Mind, as you have three times the chance of getting the personnel you want.  And this removal is not death, and thus cannot be stopped by Genetronic Replicator or Extraordinary Methods.  (Hey, you can stop laughing -- there were two Extraordinarys in my last deck that probably saved me at least one game!)

Note however that this cannot truly be called a "fate worse than death" dilemma, as most of the time the fate is *not* worse than death.  The personnel is not removed from play, but rather relocated either to Quark's Bar or your facility.  ("Your" facility being one belonging to the person encountering the dilemma.)  While "worse than death" in that it cannot be prevented by cards that prevent death, it is not worse than death in the fact that the personnel will often be rejoining their crewmates in a turn or two.

Relocating to Quark's Bar opens up few interesting possibilities.  If your opponent isn't using DS9/Terok Nor, he may have trouble getting his personnel back... but only if he doesn't have a V.I.P. or non-aligned ship that can dock there (or a ship that's not too big for the docking site).  Of course, the option always exists to seed Deep Space Nine with *only* Quark's Bar and perhaps a Promenade Shops, such as in the Morn, I Never Knew You Were Such a Violent Recluse deck which involves running Morn and two others into a self-seeded Chula: the Abyss onto a DS9 without docking sites to prevent your opponent from opposing you at Quark's Bar (to stop your extra draw) while using his GPL download to grab a rifle to kill anyone who still gets on board (such as with Devidian Door).  A few The Ways Home may be in order in such a deck, as the dilemma becomes a pumped-up planet/space Armus with greater control: Morn can kill the personnel on his turn, and still get the extra draw.

// Editor's Note: although why your opponent would choose to relocate Morn to the bar, instead of one of the other two personnel, is beyond me

Of course, it is possible to get around it.  As with The Drink, it's impossible to plan for, unless all but two personnel are INTEGRITY 8 (and those two INTEGRITY 7), or the odd situation where all are nines except for one or two sevens or eights.  Remember, you can choose the personnel, so if you pull two sevens and an eights, the obvious choice is to grab the eight, even if the sevens might be more valuable -- otherwise, nothing will happen at all.  Of course, if the eight is going to be virtually useless, such as Ajur after using her once-per-game skill, and the next dilemma will punish your opponent for a large away team, such as with The Higher... the Fewer, go ahead and deliberately pick a personnel such that everybody will remain (or simply elect not to relocate anybody -- the card says "may relocate," so it's not mandatory.)

Obviously, the Federation will have the easiest time with the INTEGRITY requirements.  Klingons and Bajorans will have decent chances, but most other affiliations will lose somebody most of the time.  Don't go grabbing those Kukalaka's just yet, though.

Just as with The Drink, The Way Home's lack of focus makes it of lesser value as a filter.  Heck, the most it could *possibly* do is remove one personnel (or stop two if you attempt with a two-person away team).  And although the odds of nailing the right personnel are better, most of the time a deck can absorb the temporary loss of one personnel.  That's the whole point behind redundancy, after all, and the reason players often attempt missions with important skills and classifications in greater multiples than would usually be demanded.  Furthermore, unless you're trying to trap personnel on DS9, in most cases you'll have the personnel back in a matter of turns.  Note that, if you're encountering the dilemma, your opponent chooses which of your facilities to relocate the personnel to -- this is a potential (although slight) drawback of playing with several facilities.  Of course, if your only facility is an outpost, and you encounter The Way Home at this mission, well, it didn't do very much. ;-)

The final verdict: Much like The Drink, I probably won't use it (unless doing the Morn, I Never Knew trick) simply because *at most* it'll get rid of one personnel with semi-random selection, and there's not much control over who's selected.  Blended or Shot in the Back is much easier to set up dilemma combos with, as you know what will be filtered out of the Away Team.   It's all up to luck here -- even if you set up a combo to try to take advantage of removing, say, MEDICAL, there's no guarantee that any of the three selected personnel will have it.  Geez.  If you really want to get rid of one personnel (your choice), I'd rather use Chula: Crossroads, which is almost (if not more) reliable and will always take out at least one personnel.  Yeah, it doesn't relocate, but that's only a minor part of this dilemma.  The most important part with filters is what it sets the ensuing personnel up for.  (For example, Shot in the Back + Berserk Changeling works very well against Soong-type Android decks, who will tend to get most of their SECURITY from androids)

Unfortunately, neither Chula in Tribbles was really a worthy addition to the clan.  Their lack of focus is what really hurts them.  Although they're decent anti-redshirt dilemmas, they don't even come close to Chula: the Lights in this respect.  And in terms of filtering ability, I like the control of Chula: Crossroads or the greater stopping potential of Chula: the Chandra.  Too bad.

Next, the card too small for "OR": Executive Authorization

Steve "Sergei Rachmaninoff" Boyles

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