Wesley's STCCG card of the day #274

Hi, folks,

it's always interesting to try a new card type. Like this:

COLONY

Station, uncommon (?) QC.
Shields 22.
Build on any planet mission you completed. At the start of each turn, any unopposed away team here scores 1 point for each personnel (2 for each CIVILIAN).
"Communities are commonly founded on uninhabited planets. Many are not charted by the Federation."

Let's build a deck around this card: 4 Amarie, 4 Colony, 20 Soong-Type Android. Plus Red Alert and a few card-drawing tools of your choice. And you should have Qualor II Rendezvous in your mission selection. Play: Use a few Soong-Type Androids to overcome the Dilemmas. Then, play Amarie, solve the mission and build a Colony. Play lots of CIVILIAN Soong-type Androids. Watch your point total grow to scary heights. (If you want to be really sure, add a few Diplomats to avoid Shaka). Okay, this one was degenerate. But good. And it illustrates how you use the Colony card.

Get yourself a large away team, of any affiliation. Add a few capable CIVILIANS to make sure you'll actually get good points. Then, solve a few missions. Maybe up to a total of about 70 points (less if you have a really large team). Play Colony on wherever you just are and wait two turns (assuming you have around 15 points worth of personnel). Your opponent will find that pressure is rising badly when you don't even have to take a risk to be sure to win in two turns. So far for the idea. Now is it worth it?

Let's again assume you have a 15 points away team on a planet. If you can solve another 30 point mission with this team in two turns or less, you should do the mission. The probability that you have the right skills is obviously high. But you might run into masty Dilemmas (Love Interests hitting the wrong character) or Temporal Rifts. So if you want to play it safe, just found a Colony and wait. Although this can be fatal if you have an opponent who is only waiting for a crucial crewmember to start a 100-point turn. Ack. We're doing 360 degree loops here and still no recommendation in sight. Seems like a difficult decision which doesn't become easier if you make the team smaller. The reward from Colony is less with a smaller team but so is the chance of successfully attempting a mission.

A few guidelines might however apply:

If you need four turns or more with a Colony, solve more missions. A wait that long is not reliable unless your opponent has nothing on table.
If you manage to stall your opponent by blowing up an outpost, don't risk anything. Wait.
If your opponent is not playing Fed, remember that your Colony could be attacked.
Same goes if you suspect any hidden Borg Ships.
If you have a fast ship, you can even combine both strategies. Found a Colony at your outpost location. Score some points. Play the ship and board it. Do a near mission. Return, beam back down. At the start of your next turn, again score points and then do a mission to the other side. Come back, get more Colony points. Combines the best of both strategies and gives a good use to the insane RANGE of a Future Enterprise. In this particular case you might even want to upgrade the Future E with a Plasmadyne relay, giving you an effective 7.5 RANGE instead of 6.5 (You have to return!)

So this might become a strategy. Even a valid one. But I don't really like it even though it is a neat concept. Because it leads to passive, defensive gameplay that gives the other player very little chance to interact.

Oh, BTW: The Colony is not an Outpost. So no reporting of personnel here.

Favorite combo(s):

- Colony + Risa or Qualor II. Guaranteed CIVILIAN bonus points.

Ratings for : COLONY

Wesley's rating:                5.0 (-2.0 for gameplay impact)
Allen's rating:                 9.0
Cole's rating:                  7.5
Data's rating:                  8.0
Drew's rating:                  ---
Gowron's rating:                ---
Hal's rating:                   7.5
Jack's rating:                  9.1
Lakanta's rating:               8.0
Nanite's rating:                9.0
Nouwa's rating:                 5.0
Picarde's rating:               7.0
Q's rating:                     7.0
Ranger's rating:                ---
Ray's rating:                   7.3
Tania's rating:                 ---
Tony's rating:                  7.5
Wa'Qah's rating:                ---
----------------------          
AVERAGE RATING:                 7.5

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Wesley Crusher, the new STCCG Lord

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