Very similar to Assign Mission Specialists, The Trouble With Tribbles introduces 2 cards that let you “seed” personnel.  Unlike AMS, Defend Homeworld and Assign Support Personnel do not put the cards into play during the seed phase, but since they don’t require a card play for the download it’s just as good.  (In fact, it’s a little better if you’ve ever run up against a Captured / Prisoner Exchange deck.)

    Assign Support Personnel (ASP) is a little limited because you can only get matching personnel with 2 regular skills and no special skills.  But with 95 personnel to choose from, I’m sure there’s someone with a skill you need.
    Defend Homeworld (DHW) is a lot more flexible.  You can download any Security personnel anywhere they normally play, matching or not.  Since this can produce much better combos than ASP, I’ll be focusing mostly on this card.

    But wait, what about the other abilities on Defend Homeworld?  You can use the once per game ability to download an HQ card instead of a personnel.  Since most HQ cards already seed, or have REF icons and can be downloaded many times per game with Q the Referee, why waste DHW on them?  I think the anti-battle function speaks for itself, so let’s get on to DHW’s downloading Security ability.

    There’s 2 ways to approach the DHW download.  You can wait until you need something to beat a dilemma and get a wide variety of skills on that Security personnel.  Everything from Geology to Exobiology to Navigation to Engineering is available to most affiliations on someone with Security.  Garak (the Non-Aligned one) can pass In the Pale Moonlight, and he has a pretty good special ability.  The new Worf can beat Primitive Culture all by himself.  Odo beats Founder’s Secret.  Suna is a great choice for Reflection Therapy, not to mention extra Medical.
    The other idea is to “seed” a Security personnel with DHW.  Usually, I think that being patient is a better idea with an ability you can only use once per game.  However, you can enable some pretty powerful combinations with a 1st turn Security personnel.  Let’s look at the possibilities….

    Any affiliation could benefit from Security with Computer Skill to help commandeer Empok Nor.  Or download someone with skills to beat those Empok Nor dilemmas.  Combined with your mission specialists Empok could be yours very quickly, even despite the 2 new Empok dilemmas in TWT.
    DHW can report any non-aligned Security with computer skill to an opponent’s Nor first turn, causing a lot of annoyance when you commandeer it.  Lore, Roga Danar or Zef’No would work, but Garak or Tallera would be even better.
    Any Security with Transporter Skill can help get rid of annoying Tribbles.  Most affiliations have Transporter Skill support personnel, too.
    Security will help you overcome Homefront to be able to use your Headquarters again, especially if it’s 2 Security from the new Odo.  

    1st turn Lore would immediately double Crystalline Entities and Rogue Borg, or let you use Protection Racket with little trouble.  Being a Fajo card, most people probably own only one, and with DHW you won’t need to put such a vital card in your Q’s Tent.  Fajo’s Gallery gives you another draw, so not only can you “seed” Lore, you can get an 8 card starting hand too.
    1st turn Ajur or Boratus would be powerful, especially with an Archeology mission specialist or support personnel, or Grand Nagus Gint from the 1st Rule of Acquisition.
    Madred is always useful in a capturing deck.
    Tallera can staff the Vulcan Lander, which you can get with Spacedoor.  That’s an easy way for non-Federation personnel to get thru anti-beaming cards, or for anyone to land on a Neutral Zone planet.  Federation players have 3 Vulcan support personnel for the Lander.  On a similar note, Maques and Gem are support personnel who can staff Gomtuu.  Danderdag can make the Mondor go.  

    Dominion can now “seed” Deyos, immediately profiting off his card drawing ability, especially with a seeded Jem’Hadar Birthing Chamber. Instead of seeding an Ultimatum, seed DHW and download Talak'Talon.  He can download Ultimatum, so for the same 1 seed slot you have an Ultimatum AND a personnel.  Having a reliable way to download the Wormhole the turn you want to fly though it will prevent the opponent from annoying you with Revolving Door.
    Dominion has 4 Security / Engineers to choose from, making it easy to build a Remote Supply Depot with Ultimatum.  Temo'Zuma is an Engineer support personnel, allowing you to start with both him and Deyos, and still have a card play for a ship.
    Gurat'urak has a nice special ability, and Transporter Skill to run your Invasive Transporters.  You don’t need to stack quite so many personnel with that skill if you can download one when needed. In general, any ASP or DHW personnel you can play 1st turn makes the new Battleship easier to staff.  You could really surprise your opponent by completing staffing with Umat'Adan and then using his download of Wormhole Navigation Schematic to let you fly to the Alpha Quad and attack that turn.  Similarly, Lam is a Breen support personnel to make sure you get the most from your Breen Warship.

    Ferengi can “seed” Maihar’du, who’s useful by himself or just for the special download Scepter of the Grand Nagus.
    All 9 Ferengi Security personnel can complete a 6th Rule pair, if you really need those draws / downloads.
    Use DHW to report Leck to Quark’s Bar to kill an opponent’s Morn.  Or add him to a deck with a Neutral / Husnock Outpost, Spacedoor and Ferengi Shuttle (or just carry him on a Non-Aligned ship) to go chasing that opposing Borg Queen.
    Gaila can give 34th Rule of Acquisition decks an edge since he’s an Arms Dealer.  Or download Hidden Fighter, play the Latinum from the 1st Rule, and start a cargo run 1st turn.  Add Make It So for RRD for Defiant Plaque.
    There’s only one Ferengi support personnel, Prak, but the good news is that he has a staff icon.  With AMS, that lets you completely staff the Marauder you seeded at the Trading Post without even needing a card play, and you have an Officer to initiate battle.

    Romulans have Telak or Koval to help solve Espionage Mission or enable Plans of the Tal Shiar.
    Use Telak’s Cybernetics to kick-start a Soong Type Android deck. How about a quick Chief O’Brien to redshirt some space missions?  Similarly, ASP can download Jera.
    Senator Creetak or Velal will help a battle deck, especially when combined with QIR for 10 and 01.
    Romulans get a boost from ASP, making a number of old premier personnel useful again.  Perhaps best is Tomalak. He’s not the only matching commander support personnel, but he is the only one who commands a universal ship, letting you use Make It So 1st turn when combined with Spacedoor.

    Federation players can use DHW to get an Engineer for Visit Cochrane Memorial with Miles O’Brien (the Fajo version) or Michael Eddington.  There’s Eric Pressman or Graham Davis with ASP.  Combined with AMS and QIR for Muniz, that can be 5 turns of probes against It’s Only a Game before you need to find a different persona with Engineering.
    Additional Security personnel can help protect VCM decks by allowing easier use of Captured.  Lightner and Tasha Yar Alternate can also provide hand weapons.
    The downside is, DHW makes it easy for opponents to stop VCM decks.  Any NA Security (except those who don’t work with the Federation) can report to the Office of the President.  Or download Leyton Founder directly to Earth.  Or Luther Sloan, who can’t be attacked by Kirk, has 2 Security to count against Captured, and can report outside the HQ opposing the Memorial before anyone gets a chance to probe.
    Luther Sloan is just pure evil with DHW.  Downloading him with DHW is not a card play, so you can use your play for Commandeer Ship or Captured after he reports.  It’s also easy to stop Hologram decks now, since you can simply download Sloan to an opponent’s ship and have him erase the crew.

    Bajorans can get Riker Wil, making it even easier to attempt those Federation missions you want to use.
    First turn Shakar Edon gives you some extra strength to protect DS9 from invasion.
    Flipping DHW for the download can be done “at any time”, so even if your opponent goes first you can download Kira Nerys or Colonel Day directly to Ops, opposing anyone who would try to commandeer your DS9.

    Cardassians can use their 1st turn card play to get Process Ore, download any Cardassian Security personnel with DHW, and start processing on second turn.  Telle and Daro are Support Personnel who can Process Ore if you want to save DHW for later.
    There’s Elim, Enabran Tain, Entek, Gul Madred, or Korinas for Plans of the Obsidian Order decks.

    Klingons can get Kang 1st turn, immediately followed by Blood Oath.  Get any other Blood Oath personnel and there’s no need to worry about drawing those Bat'leths for the Bat'leth Tournaments.  Or, more directly, get Thopok to download a Bat’leth.
    Divok may not have Security, but he is a Support Personnel who is useful to counteract the effect of Tribbles on the Klingon nervous system.

    Borg can now have a fully staffed cube after just one Activate Subcommands.  Seeded Complink Drone + Activate for Seven of Nine, a Nav drone and one other + any drone with Security = 7 drones.
    Later in the game, DHW can get you an extra Assault, Tactical or Talon Drone when the opponent comes looking for a fight.

    There’s a large amount of double-classification Security that exist.  Combine those with Mission Specialists and Support Personnel and Senior Staff Meeting is suddenly VERY easy to use.  Not to mention getting the last classification for a Kurlan Naiskos.

    Chris 'Rom' Brennan Rom@wnohgb.com