Nobody Expects the Klingon Inquisition!

by Paddy Tye, Broken Bow Designer (whose chief weapon is surprise)

22nd March 2017

Surely I don't need to remind the Magistrate, the judicial charter of Koloth states an advocate is entitled to challenge the charges at any point during the tribunal. To my knowledge, that charter has not been cast aside. From the time of Kahless, our courts have stood as a forum where justice is dispensed with honor.

Klingons in the 22nd and 23rd centuries weren’t quite the honorable warriors we know them as today. After 11 seasons of Worf worrying about duty and honor, we forget about the Klingon’s less noble past as the biggest bullies in the known galaxy. We saw this behaviour throughout Enterprise, from deuterium protection rackets (Marauders), to threatening less developed space-going vessels (Unexpected), as well as annexing alien species and suppressing acts of rebellion (Judgment). And that doesn’t even cover building a giant space wall to keep the Romulans out.

In designing the 22nd century Klingons, we didn’t just want to build this around Treachery. For one, it had been done before (Illegitimate Leader of the Empire decks) and also not all the Klingons we saw in the 22nd century fitted with that stereotype – Klaang, Kolos, Bu’kaH, Antaak, etc. Instead we focused on capturing mechanics – a theme more commonly associated with Cardassian or Romulan decks, but historically these had been more complex strategies and not always complementary to solving missions (necessary to win the game), nor have they been particularly easy for newer or less experienced players to use.

Today’s trio of cards build upon the Gulag cards from yesterday, which already can provide your 22nd century Klingons with card draws, boosted mission points and improved RANGE.

Hall of Magistrates represents a new Time Location, better suited to non-Augment 22nd century Klingons. While you can use both Time Locations (Hall of Magistrates and Augment Research Facility), the low quantity of available Augment personnel should make this less attractive – and given the additional costs to move between locations (ie seeding UFP: One Small Step or using additional Time Travel cards and RANGE) playtesting showed us that an intermittent third free report (assuming you are using Protect the Timeline) is of marginal benefit – broadly equivalent to using a Headquarters, Attention All Hands, and Legitimate/Illegitimate Leader of the Empire in a TNG deck.

Looking beyond the 22nd century, Klingons already have lots of stackable ways to play. As such, adding Hall of Magistrates made a “Headquarters + 3 Time Locations” deck (using Sherman’s Peak, Camp Khitomer, and Hall of Magistrates) appear to be a legitimate threat to the power curve – hence the free play on Hall of Magistrates being limited to having just the one era of Time Location.

The most interesting part of the gametext though, is allowing a download of a 22nd century Klingon Law personnel (in place of your normal card play). Advocate Kolos, with his special download of Klingon Imperial Court appears to be the primary choice for this download. However, as more cards are revealed, you may discover other Law personnel who assist with the Internment of captives.

Klingon Imperial Court itself gives several useful bonuses. A Brig for example – useful in many capture-based strategies. Being able to easily move personnel (and captives) between your main reporting location and Rura Penthe will reduce the overhead that normally comes with having to get people to specific locations to achieve bonuses. Similarly, being able to move personnel reported at the Time Location directly to your ship will put them on par with Starfleet decks using The Warp Five Programme. Finally, there is an incentive of 15 additional points for committing to a capture strategy and having three captives on Rura Penthe.

Hopefully, the combination of Search and Seize, a card draw, Law personnel downloads, easy movement of personnel, points, better RANGE and all the existing capture mechanics will be enough to tempt players to abandon their honorable strategies and adopt some 22nd century Klingon brutality in their decks!

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