Wesley's STCCG card of the day #256


Hi, folks,

those of you who created a 1-byte variable for the number when indexing their COTD's will be in trouble today. All others can continue with me at warp speed:

Internet expansion II

place 5, 39 points. Author:Cole

USS PASTEUR

Ship, Federation, Rare
Hope-class
Requires 1 Command (*) 2 AU
Range 13
Weapons 3
Shields 5
Tractor Beam, Sickbay*, AU Icon
Sickbay - Functions as MEDICAL if a MEDICAL personnel present.
"Alternate future Starfleet Medical starship. Commanded by Captain Beverly Picard."
This is about the 10th version of the Pasteur I've seen, but it's somewhat cool. The standard is of course the 13(or 14) range, 4 weapons, 4 shields variation that requires but 2 crew. That one is a strong card, but not really cool. This one around here has the extra twist of having the Sickbay installation.

First of all, with this particular ship you get the range of the Future Enterprise for two AU icons instead of three. It doesn't look much of a difference, but here we have a ship we can consistently get flying even without first doing a mission to get at the Cryosatellite.

Of course the price we pay is that this "Future Enterprise replacement" cannot sensibly attack. But aren't we talking about Federation ships here anyway? The real price is vulnerability. At Shields of 5, this ship can be damaged by any single K'Vort or whatever. And then the incredible range is gone and we are talking about shooting sitting ducks. So this ship is not at all worthwhile playing against a Klingon or Romulan with trigger-happy fingers, as it won't survive very long. After all, the only thing your "friend" needs to do is place a 7 or 8 range ship just over 8 span from your outpost. Regardless what you do, you are within his movement range once you move away from the outpost. And at just one staff for a K'Vort, he's not doing badly, dedicating two cards to slowing and maybe even stopping your entire game.

So we have one of these cards that penalize the opponent for playing Fed as your Fed friend will not be able to do what I just suggested. Unless he uses 3 cards and a non-aligned ship.

So you need two more cards to use the Pasteur effectively. Beverly Picard (who is quite useful anyway, but more so on this ship) and Captain's Log. Beverly gets MEDICAL x3 (Sickbay), and your Weapons and Shields are now 6/8, good enough to withstand an attack.

And the sickbay? A cute idea. If you have any MEDICAL, you get an extra one, no longer having to worry about MEDICAL x2 requirements on space missions and Dilemmas. On planets it helps you just nothing, except that you can beam up after contracting a Rem Fatigue Hallucinations and possibly get a third MEDICAL from the sickbay. In the right deck (all space missions!), this can give you an interesting edge.


Favorite combo(s):

- Pasteur + Captain's Log + Beverly Picard. Almost a Future Enterprise.


Ratings for : U.S.S. PASTEUR

Wesley's rating:                6.5
Cole's rating:                  8.0
Data's rating:                  7.0
Gowron's rating:                7.9
Hal's rating:                   8.9
Nouwa's rating:                 7.0
Q's rating:                     5.0 ("Duh. As if we're never [...]")
Ranger's rating:                8.5
Tania's rating:                 6.5
Tony's rating:                  8.5
Ray's rating:                   6.0
Nanite's rating:		8.5
Wa'QaH's rating:		4.0
----------------------          
AVERAGE RATING:                 7.2

Please direct all email concerning card of the day to: crusher@kiss.de

Visit the Web Pages!

http://www.worldonline.nl/~ldp/COTD.html
(for best indexing - all cards crosslinked)

http://wizlink.iserver.com/conner/stccg/COTD.html (great Graphics, plus the strategy webboard)

With all back issues from #1 up to today !


LLAP,

Wesley Crusher, the new STCCG Lord

"A couple of lightyears can't keep good friends apart"