Three at a Time(less)

by Richard New, Designer

10th January 2023

Moonfall

"Two months ago a Federation starship monitored an explosion on the Klingon moon Praxis. We believe it was caused by over-mining and insufficient safety precautions. The moon's decimation means a deadly pollution of their ozone. They will have depleted their supply of oxygen in approximately fifty Earth years."

--Spock, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

First of all, what a beautiful capture. I can say that about pretty much every card in this set, but it's just worth starting off with that.

Also, you finally get to know for sure why we updated all four(-ish) copies of Qo'noS last month. The remnants of Praxis on the Klingon headquarters remains a touching reminder, but now you can go to the accident site itself and lend a hand. The skill combinations of Physics/Diplomacy and Physics/Honor are both very rare (only appearing on one other mission each), but the Federation often has those skills readily available while Ferengi and Romulans might just have to be selective with Honor. I imagine there's some Rule of Acquisition about chaos being good for business, but in honesty, the Ferengi were chosen here as a balance issue that made at least a modicum of sense.

Planet Pooper?

"They say there's no devil, Jim, but there is. Right out of hell, I saw it."

"Matt, where's your crew?"

"On the third planet."

"There is no third planet."

"Don't you think I know that? There was, but not anymore. They called me. They begged me for help, four hundred of them. I couldn't. I couldn't."

--Matt Decker and James T. Kirk, Star Trek, "The Doomsday Machine"

The team that remastered the Original Series chose "The Doomsday Machine" as the first episode to be aired due to the larger than average number of space-based special effects shots. That of the of the Planet Killer firing still gives me goosebumps, so I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to have it stare me in the face all game.

As a space mission, the combination of Engineer/Geology leans a little rarer, but not unique. In this case, my head canon has an easy job explaining the Borg icon. If they took on Species 8472 as a galaxy-invading alien species, I could see them protecting the galaxy's their resources by taking out the Planet Killer. A simple Allocation Drone and some readily-available Engineer can easily lead to victory of your hive over this monster.

As for the Federation, their engineers are known for turning "rocks into replicators," so the Geology should be pretty easy to come by too, right? Including each of the main Fed factions' Chief Engineers (usually with 2 Engineer built in), there are some solid personnel, like Shelley or a large number of TOS geologists, that can stack to get the job done. And if all else fails, Sullin has all the skills and a hefty head start on the Cunning.

Laugh Riot

"Jessel. She can be frightfully trying at times, but she does make me laugh."

--Data, Star Trek: The Next Generation, "All Good Things..."

As Lucas mentioned in his article introducing Timeless to you last Friday, five of the six personnel in this expansion are from affiliations that haven't seen an AP template yet. Today, we look at the sixth. While the Federation has plenty of experience in this area, the TNG icon had yet to show up on an AP card, until now. It was of interest to let everyone in on the fun, but at the same time, we know that not all decks can profit simply because of an available affiliation. Luckily, certain deck types are already covered; Khan decks have Persis and Hologram decks have Mona Luvsitt. With that in mind, we also looked for opportunities to kill two birds with one stone, such as selecting a Future-icon Federation personnel to let Relativity in on the action as well.

Jessel might not be wearing a catsuit like Seven of Nine or T'Pol (our first two APs), but her more humble visage opens up some of the Chef fun to both of these groups (more so to TNG, with Joseph Sisko and William T. Riker lending a hand) and her Medical skill is on the rare side for Relativity. Plus, I'm sure she wouldn't mind solving Kavis Alpha for you, if you asked nicely. And if you think that's the end of Jessel's limitless possibilities... well, probably, actually. She's a simple 1-cost personnel. But if you're in need of any of her skills, Integrity and Cunning of 6 puts her in contention of a deck slot in my book.

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