Romance on the Trading Post

by Maggie Geppert, Executive Officer

18th June 2019

One of the themes of Star Trek is alien observation of humanity via our romantic interactions, and those interactions are represented in the latest expansion, The Cage, in several forms.  The Let Me Help was spoiled in the introductory article, and it has some very interesting interactions with several dilemmas in the set.

Threshold Is a Bad Episode

But it makes a good dilemma!  Even without Let Me Help, you must send off one male and one female to the farthest planet to get past Primal Urges.  When you throw Let Me Help into the mix you have to send two males and two females off!

This dilemma marks the first time that the Continuing Committee has made a dilemma that require ANIMAL.  It joins an elite cadre of ANIMAL dilemmas which includes Vole Infestation, Palukoo and Do You Smell Something Burning?  Nullification with 2 ANIMAL (or 3 with Let Me Help) is tricky, since folks don't seem that inclined to pack Osmotic Eels or Porthos in their decks. Maybe that will change if this dilemma gets popular.

This One Really Doesn't Roll Off the Keyboard

Koon-ut-la-if-fee is another fun way to filter out a male personnel, especially a Vulcan one, making it an excellent choice if your metagame is full of Vulcans right now.  This card makes you choose to relocate someone (they get married) or battle the strongest personnel present.  I'm not sure how well this dilemma fits in with Let Me Help, though.  That card makes you pick two random vulcans or choose two personnel.  They will still only fight one other personnel, since the second part of the wall doesn't specify a number.  I guess that's what makes it a dilemma.

The Payoff

So, what can you get for sending all these personnel off on romantic trists?  How about card draws?  The Cage brings us a new version of Qol, who appears to be a soft conversion of the formerly banned Lascivious Lackey. Whenever your opponent reveals one of your gender-related dilemmas, you get to draw a card.  Sweet!

There are now enough gender-related dilemmas that you can seed eighteen of them for Let Me Help.  You can get even crazier with romance if you want.  Imagine seeding a Holodeck Door and Holoprogram: Cafe des Artistes on your  Ferengi Trading Post.  Grab Sergey and Helena with Assign Support Personnel (yes, I know, get that Fed Outpost seeded as well) and Worf and Jadzia with Defend Homeworld. Play Quark (Emissary) to download Natima Lang.  If you don't mind crossing property logo boundaries, you can get fun and creative with your romantic couples.

And the Last Question

There is one more gender-related dilemma which was spoiled on social media a couple of days ago.  Entertaining Display will allow you to download two (or three) females and to solve the mission, you must have more Anthropology than females present.  I spent a lot of time giggling as I was thinking about who I would download with this dilemma.  I finally settled on having Lal, Seven of Nine (League Promo) and Tasha Yar-Alternate (with her Starfleet Type II Phaser) come out to play - a beautiful and deadly combo.  Tell me who you would choose over on the forum!

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