Bring on the (Wo)men

by Ross Fertel, Second Edition Brand Manager

10th November 2017

We hope you're enjoying Borg Week. Yes, the sexless ones are at the forefront. No gender or individuality in the slightest. What better time to discuss the expansion dedicated to women, This Side of Paradise.

While frequently and tenderly remembered as the 'hot babe' expansion, This Side of Paradise focused on what made each affiliation great and injected some fun into them. You can look at any personnel and see how they fit well into that affiliation. Take Seven of Nine, Prodigal Daughter. She is Seven so she has the skills you would expect her to have. Five very technical skills as well as the rare-for-Borg Treachery. Her ability helps keep the order around. The Borg like fooling around with interrupts and when they go through, they are happy. When they get prevented, they are not happy. Prodigal Daughter helps keep them going through. If there is some tomfoolery afoot, she can stop that. Yes, she goes to your opponent's side of the table, but your interrupt goes through. The cost of four might be high, but you have use of her skills beforehand and there are few costs during your last mission attempt. Not bad considering you'll give up the redundant digging deep from Representative of the Hive, and the card drawing Part of the Greater Whole does that the misfit Borg do better. Not all that bad of a deal.

This truly is an expansion with something for everyone. Coming in fourth after several have expressed different themes and at the cusp of the formally official addition of terms to the mix, this was united mainly by theme. No one is left at the curb this time around with the Bajorans getting into the discard pile shenanigans, the Cardassians getting all sneaky, The Dominion getting rewarded for their prowess, TNG and Deep Space Nine getting some additional dilemma help, Voyager getting tomfoolery, The Original Series getting escape/delay mechanics, The Ferengi getting Ferenginar worship, the Klingons enhancing the recently released Delta Quadrant prowess, The Maquis joining the Romulans in their dilemma annoyance and Starfleet getting both a MACO to add to the squad and a solid personnel with mission solving and dilemma busting upside.

That isn't to say that the rest are not without their own merit either. The three dilemma cycle of Kor, Riker and McCoy are always a pleasure to have around. Lending a Hand leads to interesting possibilities, and Polywater Intoxication has become a staple of the Dilemma pile while The Captain's “Guest” has become very popular as keywords continue to be popular. The lone mission in the set, Track Survivors, offers opportunities to get ahead points wise while the lone ship helps your crew survive the attempt in the first place.

Last of the opening salvo of expansions, This Side of Paradise proved to offer something well for everyone adding key personnel to the mix. It led the way for future expansions to add to the ebb and flow of factions letting each have a moment in the forefront.

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