Homefront III - Coming September 7th

by Charlie Plaine, Chairman

31st August 2012

Though the tradition has been to release our Homefront reprint expansions at GenCon in August, this year we decided to do things a little differently! We're proud to announce that Homefront III, featuring thirty-six (36) new, converted and reprinted First Edition, will release on Friday, September 7, 2012!

Available for free at trekcc.org, Homefront III will become tournament legal in all formats one week later, on Friday, September 14, 2012. The expansion can be downloaded in a high resolution PDF from the First Edition expansion page.

Balancing Homefront
With the advent of block format play for First Edition, the focus, purpose and development of Homefront expansions has become more complex and thus more difficult. The original two expansions focused on providing necessary reprints to all First Edition players - and that's a goal we're still trying to maintain. But the needs of block are now a major priority for any of our Homefront series, and that has definitely shaped what we've included.

Consider the card Balancing Act, which claims the first slot in Homefront III (and the only dilemma slot). Given that we have All Available Personnel in block which references it, the inclusion of Balancing Act made sense. It's a bonus that it will curb the all-planet and all-space strategies.

We've also included a reprint to help block players deal with the rampant theft of their missions, new TNG personnel to use in every block starter, and a trio of equipment cards that might come in handy; you can even replicate two of them! Data's favorite talking tool has even changed type in the conversion!

In addition to providing cards that block needs immediately, we took the time to fill in a few cards that are useful, but will become more so as block moves forward. Though this does mean that a few already printable cards get a new version, it does give us the tools we need for future block. (Maquis Homeworld, I'm looking at you....) Oh, and we officially have put 22nd-Century San Francisco into block with their inclusion in Homefront III, and we took the time to update the game text of the time location to work properly with the rules.

Even though we've gone out of our way to include TNG block-playable and TNG block-useful cards (anywhere from twenty-three to twenty-seven, depending on how strict you are), Homefront III also offers a few tools and toys for non-block players. Do you remember the white bordered Borg Queen AI? Her black border AI version makes her appearance in this expansion, along with her favorite counterpart and a favorite interrupt. Office of the President players will enjoy their new universal admiral, and there's a new universal Senator for Office of the Proconsul players too - not to mention that 22nd-century players get a new augment to recruit.

My personal favorite of the non-block reprints is a Kazon essential - one that I personally have yet to own.

Oh, why Culluh? Well, he is a maje and helps kick off the Kazon play engine. But there's another very good reason he's been selected, and that will become apparent in another expansion or two...

No matter what format, what card pool, and what preference you have for playing First Edition, Homefront III will bring something new to the table - even if it's just an AI reprint of a staple card. On September 7th, the thirty-six (36) new cards to join the core block will be free to download here at trekcc.org in the form of Homefront III - and home will never be the same again!