Being a look back at cards from the Star Trek CCG, and what I thought of them back when they were fresh and new... in EPISODE order. And now the mission from "The Neutral Zone"...
PICTURE: A good-looking planet, nice and veiny, but I wish they'd tried putting a pockmark that could be the "uprooted outpost" from the episode. Not really visible at this altitude, I know, but the suggestion of such a hole would have been fun. Still a 3.1.
LORE: To go with the game text, the key word here is "initiate" the investigation, which makes the title a tiny bit misleading. I might have liked an admittance that the damage was identical to what the Borg did in "The Best of Both Worlds", but that wish shouldn't affect the score. Really an average 3.
TREK SENSE: Clearly, the mission is more about encountering the "other side" (Federation/Romulans) at a sensitive location bordering the Neutral Zone (and I will mention that other missions have been included in that region for less), than about investigating the destroyed outpost itself. The only real addition to the investigation itself would be the Cunning, because the rest is all about Diplomacy. The Integrity requirement is in that mold, proving to your enemy that you're not spying and not responsible for the massacre. The focus on parlay does contradict the planet icon on this mission, since all the Diplomacy took place ship-to-ship. Now, while both the Roms and the Feds suffered from such a massacre, Tarod IX is a Federation planet. The Romulans could (and did) investigate the Federation presence here, coincidentally close to the massacre, but the Romulan icon is still stretching it. Because we know the massacre remained a mystery for a long time, I'm not sure 35 points is a fitting reward, though the importance of such a mission, which could have been one of mercy, after all, cannot be denied. I'll buy it. I won't buy the 3 Span though, simply because they went and called this outpost "distant". And maybe you shouldn't be able to seed an Outpost here? A card that manages to get a lot of it wrong, so only 1.4.
SEEDABILITY: The Romulans and Federation have plenty of Diplomats (especially the Feds), and shouldn't have trouble coming up with the attribute requirements. The Feds really are better suited to solve the mission because their INTEGRITY is their strength, but CUNNING isn't their weakness, while the Romulans can be a little INTEGRITY-deficient at times (all hinges on your choice of personnel). The Feds can also use Riva to boost the points to 40, while the Romulans don't have anyone like that. Overall though, there's nothing special about this card that would warrant inclusion above any other. 35 points is pretty standard, and it doesn't have a lot of skills to boost it with specialists, nor can it be solved by a one-personnel Away Team. Still potable, but passé, at 2.5.
TOTAL: 10 (50%) Pretty neutral about it.
Comments