Allegiance: New Faces on the Enterprise

by James Hoskin, Staff Writer

7th December 2009

The Original Series team members found in Allegiance are somewhat different from the existing Original Series personnel and their movie-era counterparts. The former are typically low cost with an optional ability that upgrades their cost, while the latter are typically high cost and have standard abilities. What makes this new team, taken from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, different, is that they are high cost and have optional abilities that downgrade their cost.

In case you missed it, Charlie provided text spoilers of Hikaru Sulu and Leonard H. McCoy a couple of weeks ago. In an effort to better his article, these text spoilers below also include a brief description of the artwork too.

4 •Willard Decker (Executive Officer)
Human
•Anthropology •Diplomacy •Leadership •Officer •Programming •Science •Security
Commander: U.S.S. Enterprise. You may play this personnel at cost –1 to ignore his ability until the end of this turn. When you play this personnel, return your personnel who has a cost of 4 or more to his or her owner's hand.
"Captain, as your Exec, it's my duty to point out alternatives."
[Integrity 6] [Cunning 6] [Strength 6]

The first new face belongs to Willard Decker. Assuming the current artwork is final, it shows him in his grey crumpled uniform, sitting side-on at a station (presumably on the bridge), with his head turned to face the camera. The background shows three panels with yellow lights and some other (bridge?) stations. Oh, and he has a somewhat creepy grin on his face.

His ability is fairly self-explanatory. You can use it to return other Original Series personnel to hand, so that you can reuse their "when you play..." abilities. One thing to note is that, if you choose to play Willard Decker at cost –1, you only have to ignore his ability until the end of the turn. While this means you don't get to return any personnel to hand that turn, it does mean you can use his Commander: U.S.S. Enterprise keyword on subsequent turns.

4 •Ilia (Finest Navigator in Starfleet)
Deltan
•Honor •Navigation •Officer •Telepathy
You may play this personnel at cost –2 to ignore her ability. When you play this personnel, if you command a personnel who has a cost of 4 or more, for each headquarters mission your opponent commands, you may shuffle two cards from your discard pile into your deck.
"My oath of celibacy is on record ..."
[Integrity 7] [Cunning 5] [Strength 5]

The second new face belongs to Ilia. Assuming the current artwork is final, it shows her from the shoulders up, in uniform, facing the camera. The background is an unremarkable beige, with nothing to indicate where she is or what she is doing. The expression on her face could be described as listening intently, or maybe bemused. Oh, and her bald head really makes her eyebrows stand out and look thicker than they probably were – or is that just me?

Her ability lets you shuffle cards from your discard pile back into your deck. The more headquarters missions your opponent commands, the more you can shuffle in. Just remember that Caretaker's Array doesn't count as a headquarters mission, so there is no point trying to use Ilia's ability against a Voyager or Equinox deck.

That's it. Check back here on Wednesday for spoilers of two old faces on the Enterprise. Can you guess which two?

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-djl-