"I'm returning Earth to its rightful owners."

by Greg Dillon, Staff Writer

24th May 2019

A Less Perfect Union releases today! Before you help Terra Prime lay claim to the stars or have fun with the trove of new characters at your disposal though I’d like to look at our new faction a little closer. To help do that I’ve put together a deck that aims to capitalise on all of the weapons in Terra Prime’s arsenal.

First is the dilemma pile which is emboldened by Star-crossed and Remarkable Regeneration reducing the Consume cost of your dilemmas. It’s different to a normal Tragic Turn pile that would generally use All-Consuming Evil because you are trying not to consume dilemmas, so instead of killing large numbers of people while swamping the mission in overcome dilemmas you want to be more efficient with your dilemma plays. There are a lot of good Consume: 1 dilemmas that become even better with just a single Star-crossed out so you can stack them right after it even at the first mission attempt, assuming the opponent hasn’t pre-countered it with a staffed ship in the Sector 001 region. Then after you have Consumes reduced by two or more another new dilemma Unsavory Customers and Tragic Turn can kick in full force to really slow down your opponent and you're safe to pull out the big guns The Clown: Guillotine and No Kill I.

Now looking at the draw deck and completing your own missions you have some fearmongering in Humanity’s Worst Enemy to motivate your personnel, John Frederick Paxton sacrificing his followers to help against skill dilemmas and a Voice of Reason knowing when it's best to blow up your own ships and giving dilemma specific attribute bumps. Then after your first mission is completed you can kick it up a notch with some propaganda in Terra Prime Forever to avoid random selections.

The human Dissidents don’t just talk a big game though they’re willing to lay down their lives for the cause, like Mercer for your events or Homicidal Expedient and Daniel Greaves to counter your opponents machinations. Unfortunately keeping the events on the table isn’t quite enough in this deck because the opponent encroaching on your territory will weaken your revolution and counter all of the benefits you’ve pulled together. How do we defend our solar system then? Is there a better way then a magic gun? Maybe because you could use a savage visionary, Zefram Cochrane. Again once you’ve completed your first mission you can kick it up a notch and will no longer have to defend your territory one personnel at a time, you’ll have access to a giant laser cannon on Mars to start zapping spaceships that come to close. Earth is a further deterrent for your opponent and can free up Zefram Cochrane and your Assassin, Daniel Greaves, to help with completing the missions. Paul Mayweather can get you up to 10 extra points along with the Kuiper Belt's extra 5 you should be able to score enough even against the Phoenix or Fonder's Homeworld, Contingent Refuge.

The deck has a number of damage events in it to fuel Mars and Lily Sloane but you won’t actually be playing them so Optimism can help keep them in the deck and out of your hand. Also NX-Prototype serves as a tertiary use for them to download important personnel, like Susan Khouri who can keep Humanity’s Worst Enemy rolling while also activating Emanuel Stevens ability. Lily Sloane can even trigger the NX-prototype's download mid attempt and possibly fuel your Modular Transport's ability. Finally since you are killing your own personnel for a few reasons in this deck Rebuilding the Fleet can be activated by Lily or Zefram to replenish your forces.

I’m very interested to see how Terra Prime will influence in game decisions, will people bother visiting Sector 001? Will people counter their tech in a different way? Though the most interesting facet of Terra Prime’s introduction to me is the interplay between them and the other Sector 001 locals, not those ones, these ones. Early in the game leaving a person and a ship at home will be relatively easy for those HQs to switch off the Terra Prime boosts but once the Terra Prime player has a completed mission, especially if it's Earth, the tides will turn and leaving any resources in the sector will be costly. Mirror matches are going to be particularly interesting as it will also be very hard to counter the cards calling for non-humans, will dual-HQ ironically be the best Terra Prime strategy?

I can't wait to see Terra Prime builds from players around the world and I'd like to thank the Designers, Rules, Creative, Art, Proofreading and Programming teams, this set would not have been possible without their efforts. A Less Perfect Union is available for free download today, and will be legal for play in most formats in one week, on Friday, May 31st.

Discuss this article in this thread.

This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:

• Starfleet Player
• Sticky Situation
• Unbroken I
• We Fear Change
• How About a New Mission, Admiral? I
• Battle Drills
• Terra Prime
• A Less Perfect Union Release

Decklist

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Dilemma Deck Total Dilemmas 42 Space 5 (12%) Cost 2 2 Cost 3 3 Planet 6 (14%) Cost 0 1 Cost 2 3 Cost 3 1 Cost 4 1 Dual 31 (74%) Cost 0 8 Cost 1 2 Cost 2 3 Cost 3 15 Cost 4 2 Cost 5 1 Total Dilemma Deck cost 92

Draw Deck Total Draw Deck 65 Equipment 2 (3%) Cost 1 1 Cost 2 1 Event 24 (37%) Cost 0 8 Cost 1 3 Cost 2 3 Cost 3 4 Cost 4 3 Cost 5 3 Interrupt 3 (5%) Personnel 30 (46%) Cost 1 8 Cost 2 12 Cost 3 5 Cost 4 3 Cost 6 2 Ship 6 (9%) Cost 2 3 Cost 3 3 Total Draw Deck cost 137

Skills Count Skill # Missions # Personnel 1x 2x 3x Total Acquisition 1 4 4 Anthropology 1 6 2 8 Archaeology 0 0 Astrometrics 1 6 6 Biology 0 3 3 Diplomacy 0 0 Engineer 3 8 2 10 Exobiology 0 7 7 Geology 2 8 8 Honor 0 1 1 Intelligence 0 1 1 Law 1 0 Leadership 1 7 2 9 Medical 0 10 10 Navigation 1 8 2 10 Officer 0 1 1 Physics 1 8 8 Programming 1 9 9 Science 0 4 4 Security 0 5 5 Telepathy 0 0 Transporters 0 1 1 Treachery 2 7 2 9 Icons Count Icon # Personnel % Personnel Staffing Icons Command Star 6 20.00 % Staff Star 15 50.00 % Faction Icons Maquis 4 13.33 % Temporal Icons Alternate Universe 6 20.00 % Past 20 66.67 % Keyword Count Keyword # Cards Assassin 2 Commander: E.C.S. Horizon 1 Commander: Phoenix 1 Commander: Xhosa 1 Consume: 1 10 Consume: 2 8 Consume: 3 2 Decay: 2 3 Dissident 17 Genetically Enhanced 2 Hand Weapon 1 Infiltrator 2 Maneuver 8 Paranoia 5 Persistent 1 Pursuit 2 Region: Sector 001 4 Ritual 1 Smuggler 1 Species 8472 3 Thief 1