I finally got my 2-Player games (:-) :-) :-) :-)... and yes, that took its time) and what could I do better than reviewing one of those beauties.
Also, this is maybe a card for a Major colleague of mine whose real self hasn't exactly drawn the best ratings of all time :-)
One usually does have enough OFFICERs, but there are quite a few things you could use a V.I.P. for. Probably the most obvious of these is Diplomatic Conference. As a 60-point mission, this is just powerful. And two alternate Trois (Commander and Major Rakal) can be the basis of a deck built around Diplomacy, Empathy and VIP. Add Maques or Ral and you have three out of your four covered. The last one can always be taken care of with a well-placed Devidian Door or IKC T'Ong, so that affiliation problem is solved.
Now you say, what do I need that Cmdr. Troi for when Lwaxana or Tam Elbrun can also do the trick?
The answer lies in the support skills. Diplomacy and Honor are really useful if you want to turn your Conference deck into a real two-mission deck. Try adding Wormhole Negotiations (all that Diplomacy) and some other honorable characters with useful classifications (Worf or Tasha-Alt., Rachel Garrett, Scotty) or special abilities (Dathon). Oh, now that we have some leaders, we could use them for Cultural Observation (add Bev Picard as well) and suddenly that Anthropology becomes real handy. And this Honor stuff combines well with Avert Disaster (Hey, Vekor has Geology and you won't tell me you don't have her in your deck). Enough 40-point and better stuff that you will find at least one close to your Outpost conveniently seeded @ Conference. Just add a point Dilemma or two (Sarjenka, conveniently seeded between your opponent's last encountered two seeds, also spoiling Sheliak/Q in the process)
Yeah, looks like the new Troi makes for a really good start in a conference deck (or maybe one of the other unusual mission decks). Far more viable than the original (who needs those 2 extra INTEGRITY) and also a good Major Rakal backup you can use in parallel with the original.
Oh, this leaves one question open. That Barash Icon. For the moment, it's safe to ignore it, but what happens later? Most probably this icon won't change the play value of the card too much. It will add an extra weakness or two, also an extra strength, much like the AU thingy, I presume. So let's just wait for what it does...
Wesley's rating: 7.5 Allen's rating: 8.9 Cole's rating: 7.6 Cpt. Stasis' rating: 6.0 Cpt. Targ's rating: 7.5 Data's rating: 7.0 Drew's rating: 5.8 EHCCGPP's rating: 7.5 Hal's rating: 5.9 Jack's rating: --- Locutus' rating: 8.0 Mot's rating: 8.0 Nanite's rating: 6.0 Nog's rating: 6.0 Picarde's rating: 6.0 Ranger's rating: --- Rothspar's rating: 7.0 Tebok's rating: 9.5 Tony's rating: 7.0 ---------------------- AVERAGE RATING: 7.1
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Wesley Crusher
Temporarily immortal STCCG Lord
"A couple of lightyears can't keep good friends apart"