Jean-Lucoid's Rolodex #2485

by Lucas Thompson, Ambassador

2nd December 2014

PICTURE: Henry's well-framed here, and his posture (looking up and towards the future) matches well with his subtitle and ability. The background's boring, but considering there aren't a whole lot of source options for him, the whole is worth a 4.

LORE: Informative, written more in the style of first edition lore than the more commonly seen second edition quotations. I'm sure it was a necessity for a character that didn't have much screen time, but I like to see first edition-type lore on the card that is meant to be the missing card from Genesis. A nostalgic 4.2.

TREK SENSE: Plenty of engineer suits a starship designer, with physics and science to back it up. An integrity of 6 matches with the honor in the skill list, while the cunning and strength look pretty standard for a book-smart human. Henry Archer has one of those abstract abilities that tends to plague second edition cards in this category, but I find somewhat fits with his subtitle. He's a Trailblazing Engineer, and in second edition the discard pile is conceptually the past, right? So, moving forward, blazing a trail if you will, he puts old designs behind him and looks to the future (the draw deck). Okay, it's a bit of a stretch, still leaves us with a 3.5.

STOCKABILITY: Ever since the errata to Nathan Samuels, Starfleet has been limited to A Sight for Sore Eyes/At What Cost? as a source of significant counter advantage. That engine still works, but only before you solve a mission, and the At What Cost?s are useful in the late game only if you've solved your space mission first - ie, you got a good jumpstart over your opponent. It encourages using a slim deck, which works for me, but many players prefer to be able to build large decks too. That's where Henry comes in - he's a solid, steady source of counter advantage that doesn't require a specific combo, and he helps you cycle through your larger deck. Though his ability only affects ships, Starfleet ships tend to have powerful abilities that encourage you to stock the uniques in multiple, which gives you Henry fodder. His skills are generally useful, though fairly redundant for Starfleet personnel; however, his superior ability means he's more likely to bump other Starfleet engineers from the deck than be bumped himself. Honor and Engineer are liabilities, though Starfleet tends to be Honor-light, and Coolant Leak was going to stop your Starfleet crew anyways. Though you won't really put this personnel in a Mirror Starfleet deck (you don't want to get more cards in your hands during the order phase), I'd say that he's very worthy of consideration in any other Starfleet deck. An inspiring 4.5.

TOTAL: 16.2 (81%) A suitable score for a trailblazer.

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