back from Stockholm and ready for some new reviews...
Cool thing #1: An artifact that can be seeded at a space location.
Cool thing #2: You can seed personnel cards now - saves you the red alert...
Trouble: That thingy eats into your Dilemma management.
Details ? Sure.
Up to now, space locations were at best second rate missions because you had no way of putting an artifact there. Yes, some points, okay, but nothing that really helped you. Now you can put the satellite here and store not only a regular artifact but also three characters in it and thus gain a sudden power boost especially as you don't even need to play the three personnel you get from your hand - they just wind up on your ship without any further delay.
So far this is just great. Bad thing IMHO: It takes away four of your seed cards, meaning that after deducting 6 missions and one outpost, you have only 19 Dilemmas/Artifacts instead of 23 available (three personnel and the Satellite itself go off the list).
It won't help a Federation bridge crew deck much. Most of them have excellent personnel cards and the only thing you need to wait for before just go screaming through missions is making sure you have one each of SCIENCE, MEDICAL and SECURITY. So after this, you're probably going to just blast away and get your 100 points (possibly aided by a Betazoid Gift Box, which offers you more flexibility as you get to choose the cards you really need). Although Fed players could put a Ressikan Flute, a Jack Crusher and Ian Andrew Troi in it and walk away with 10+x extra points.
Other affiliations have more to gain here, as their skill complement is less good. So try it with your Romulan deck and put Rakal, Cmdr Tomalak and Rasmussen (or Rakal, Ajur & Boratus) in it, plus a gift box or a Horga'Hn and watch the fun begin. If you have a good number of non-aligned crew, just beam them somewhere together with Rakal and sneak in - your opponent will never see it coming before it's too late.
Of course there is another valid use: If you need more than 30 cards in your draw deck but care for speed, put three less needed support crew into the satellite and play with an effective draw deck of 33 although you really only have 30 cards in it.
And last there is the bluff effect: If you both play the same affiliation, put a not-so fully filled satellite (artifact + only 1 or 2 crew) under one of his missions and then put your outpost there (if you are second to seed it, otherwise put it next door). Missions with low requirements work best here. Most opponents will think you just played a bunch of Dilemmas (especially since you did not play five cards but only four) and seek their luck somewhere else. Rush in and get the stuff plus a very easy bunchapoints.
- Cryosatellite + Rakal + Rommie deck with many non-aligneds: Those Feddies never even get to see what just hit them...
Wesley's rating: 8.5 Cole's rating: 6.5 Conner's rating: 6.0 Heather's rating: 9.9 Jason's rating: --- Matt's rating: 8.0 Movar's rating: 9.0 Serge's rating: 8.0 Tony's rating: 7.0 John's rating: 8.5 Hal's rating: 8.9 Lore's rating: 8.6 Ray's rating: 8.0 ---------------------- AVERAGE RATING: 8.1
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http://www.worldonline.nl/~ldp/COTD.html
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http://www.wolfenet.com/~conner/COTD.html (great graphics, and also the Strategy Forum)
With all back issues from #1 up to today !
Wesley Crusher, the new STCCG Lord
"A couple of lightyears can't keep good friends apart"