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. Did someone mention Algeron?
PICTURE: One of the first, super-boring Treaty cards. No image pull, just a play on the icons. The blue and green feel very weak here, in their low-contrast pastels. No Treaty gets much more than 0.1, I'm afraid.
LORE: Talking about PAST Treaties dings the concept a little bit, but there's good historical information, accurate in the face of what the game text is about to do. It's a 3.
TREK SENSE: During the Dominion War, the Romulans DID ally (uneasily, but still) with the Federation. In fact, as early as the lending of a Clocking Device to the Defiant in DS9's third season. In the TNG environment proposed by this card, as per the lore, this isn't a Treaty of COOPERATION, but simply a cessation of hostilities. The Treaty of Algeron has nothing to DO with cooperation, and in fact, more or less forbids it. It set up a Cold War. But in the abstract, and given DS9's events - and even then, there was very little "mixing" - sure. It's an unconvincing 2, though.
STOCKABILITY: While useful for players with limited collections or Sealed Deck situations, the overall usefulness of a Treaty depends on the exact combination of assets. Are Feds and Romulans all that compatible? No, not really. Their ships are similar aside from cloaking, which Feds might want to exploit to hide from attacks, but there are other ways to get your hands on a cloak. In terms of skills, the Feds are skill horses and don't really need the help. It's not like their missions require a whole lot of Treachery, which is what Romulans are best at. Face it, of the three original affiliations, the Romulans are the most limited, and they haven't been catered to on the same level as the others. Add to this the fact that Treaties are useless unless seeded (so you need Open Diplomatic Relations) and that there's a three-way Fed/Kli/Rom Treaty that does everything THIS does PLUS allow the Federation to battle anyone AND can be seeded in its own right, and you're left with nothing. I mean, even if you agree to only use Premiere cards, you'd still do better with the Fed/Klingon Treaty. At least the Klingons don't have as much of an INTEGRITY drain. If it's the Romulans you want to bolster, then sure, the Feds have lots of skills and strong attributes, but they'll prevent you from battling. Again, I think the Klingons might be a better fit for an alliance. Having been undermined by the Official Tournament Sealed Deck cards, I don't think I can go above 1.5 and that's only because the tri-Treaty forbids side-decks.
TOTAL: 6.6 (33%) Treaties traditionally don't do well in the Rolodex.
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