Just For Top Brass

by Paddy Tye, Fleet Admiral

13th December 2021

Earth is the heart of the Federation, particularly in the Classic Film era. Earth was under threat from V'Ger, the launch point for Captain Spock's trainee crew, and the home base the Starship Enterprise returned to after the battle with Khan (and where the ship left from for its final voyage). It was under threat from The Whale Probe, and where the U.S.S. Enterprise-A departed from before encountering Sybok or being an olive branch to the Klingons.

Today, we showcase three new cards for a classic film Federation deck, which centers on Earth.

The obvious starting point for such a deck would be the Office of the President, but that didn't really feature as much during the classic films. Whereas Spacedock was a bright, shining, memorable feature of those films. From the first time I saw the Starship Enterprise enter the giant structure, I was impressed by it, and we get to celebrate it on two cards here! One is the facility itself, and the other is a mission where the facility can seed (although that isn't the only location it can exist), both with impressive images!

We settled on the name "Earth Spacedock" to avoid any confusion with the Premiere card Spacedock. It's an outpost that seeds close to your headquarters and is a location where you can use Reunite Legends. [By comparison, the Klingons can just use a standard outpost, which works great if want to set up some free draws on Rura Penthe using Prisoner Martia and Operate Dilithium Gulag.]

But the most interesting feature of Earth Spacedock is the free report. Similar to Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, it won't work with Camp Khitomer (although using Camp Khitomer, Protect the Timeline, and Office of the President is still a valid strategy). But while all your personnel are from the Classic Film era, you can report one such personnel for free. Unfortunately this had to be a slightly less flexible option than we made for the Klingons, as the Federation had more options available to combine at Earth.

So between Office of the President and Earth Spacedock, you can get yourself two free reports in Sector 001. But are those alone reliable enough? While we've added to the number of Admirals and even a President with this set, it still wasn't reliable enough drawing into the right personnel. For the Klingons, we gave them a way to download them to hand to ensure a continuous flow of High Council personnel. For the Federation we took a different approach and made a way to broaden the scope of personnel who could report for free, thanks to Bill Toddman.

Downloadable by Defend Homeworld, so you can expand those free reports from Turn 2, this Admiral invited a "broader than usual" selection of Starfleet Officers along to a key briefing about the explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis. So from Commander Uhura to Captain Styles and even Carol Marcus, it's now much easier to ensure a smoother flow of free plays!

So there you have it, all the basic components you need to start building a Classic Film era Federation deck, based around Sector 001! Who says these old folks are only good for the retirement home?

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