Old vs. New : Rachel Garrett and the C

by James Cream, Staff Writer

18th February 2013

With the release of Matter of Time, Rachel Garrett makes her second appearance in Second Edition along with an Enterprise-C team. In this article we will examine the differences between the Old and New versions of Rachel and her ship, the U.S.S. Enterprise-C.

Rachel Garett made her first appearance in Second Edition back in 2006 with the release of the Captain’s Log set. Although that set was primarily focused on establishing the Voyager faction as a playable deck type, it also had a few cards for non-Voyager fans, this included Rachel and her ship. Since her appearance in the game Rachel Garrett has found a lot of work in decks, but rarely has she been seen captaining her own vessel. Rather, she has more often than not been seen taxiing other Federation personnel to and from missions on any ship that needs her.

The original Rachel Garrett had the Earth Icon , allowing her to be used in any either the deck or the deck. More often than not, she has been found work in the Cadet deck type as the students have little experience flying ships and often require personnel with [CMD] experience to attend to them. Per design, Rachel Garrett’s gametext was supposed to counterbalance her low cost. It states; ‘When this personnel is stopped by a dilemma, randomly return one of your personnel present to his or her owner's hand.’ Initially, this would seem to be quite the detriment, as the player will constantly have to replay and repay for their non-Rachel crew members, however this gametext rarely sees effect as she almost never joins mission attempts. Instead, Rachel Garrett simply flies whatever ship is ferrying the personnel to and from the mission or stays in orbit of the planet to maintain ship staffing for a few modern dilemmas.

In a pinch, Rachel can be sent on a mission attempt simply to increase numbers or bring a key skill (of which she has an impressive six), or in the event that a player actually wants to return a personnel to hand in order to replay them and reuse that personnel’s ‘when played’ ability. But it will always be the fate of the original Rachel Garrett to be the chauffeur to other deck types and never the key personnel in an Enterprise-C themed deck.

This is where the new version of Rachel Garrett comes in, her new persona has the same attributes and the much more reasonable cost of 3 (which, from my friend John tells me, seems to be an Enterprise-C theme), but there is also no detriment to sending Rachel on mission attempts. She has retained her straight five attributes and her claim to fame command star, but this version boasts only five skills. She retains Astrometrics, Diplomacy, Leadership, and Officer; while exchanging Navigation and Transporters for Physics. But really the key differences are the special gametext and the faction icon. Rather than working with anybody, this new version of Rachel Garrett is specifically a personnel, and her ability allows her to nullify an engagement by sacrificing her own life. However, this ability won’t work on just any ship, it can only protect ships from that vile Kruge. This means that the most likely place to see Rachel Garrett is on her own ship.

The new Enterprise-C is a real commuter. For just 5 cost, it gets the decent mileage of 8 range per turn and can be easily get as good as 11 range per turn if one were to commute with three of Rachel’s coworkers. With such a reasonable price and solid range, the Enterprise-C is perfect as the second ship for many decks, while Rachel Garrett protects it from being shot up, commuting to and from missions to restock personnel. But it gets better than that, the special gametext on the Enterprise-C allows or personnel to report directly to it. As such, one could report a personnel to the Enterprise-C at a mission, attempt that mission, return to Earth to restock or swap out personnel, and then fly out to another mission all in the same turn. What’s more the deck type that the new Enterprise-C works best in is an Enterprise-C and/or Battleship Enterprise-D deck build, which fits with the episode where Rachel and her ship were seen.

Comparing the new and old Enterprise-C ships, little has changed. They both cost 5, and both have a base Range of 8, Weapons of 7, and Shields of 8. Both have identical staffing requirements and the icon, as they just appeared from way back in the early 24^th century. But the old Enterprise-C cannot get the range boost from Fredericks nor the protection from battle imparted by the new Rachel Garrett, while its gametext dooms it to a very specific deck build; one which runs a good number of Klingon icon missions and doesn’t mind bonus points -> most likely a Quo’nos / Earth dual Headquarters deck.

What the new Rachel Garrett and Enterprise-C bring to the game is the opportunity to finally play an Enterprise-C themed deck while also adding to the pre-existing Battleship Enterprise-D deck. I am personally glad to see Rachel Garrett back where she belongs.