Once More Unto the Breach

by James "RedDwarf" Hoskin, Staff Writer

8th April 2008

"I can see you, Kirk ... Can you see me?" - General Chang

Attempting a mission where your opponent has a staffed ship has never been a good idea. The threat of your personnel facing a Diplomatic Overture, subjected to a Secret Conspiracy, or just plain being killed by Duras (Son of a Traitor) has been around since the start of Second Edition. The Dominion in particular, are masters at this form of intimidation. They can Set Up a Founder Trap, kill Yak'Talon (Deadly Patroller) in front of you, and even score ten points from the Tenak'talar (Weyoun's Warship) when you fail a mission attempt. These cards, and more, have resulted in players trying to avoid attempting a mission where their opponent has a ship - if at all possible.

2007 World Championship winner Caleb Grace obviously spotted someone ignoring this piece of wisdom. Part of his prize for winning the world championships was to 'design-a-card,' and Once More Unto the Breach must be his attempt to reinforce the concept once and for all.

Once The Undiscovered Country releases, there will only be five groups (Bajoran, Borg, Ferengi, Terok Nor and Voyager) who do not have access to a Cloaking Device ship. Obviously, the Klingons and Romulans have the most, but one ship could be all that you need to play this dilemma in your pile. Blind Spot and Pursuit Course are two cards that allow you to "pursue" your opponent when he or she moves a ship from one misison to another. This means your Cloaking Device ship will be sitting ready to attack should you draw this dilemma.

If you are on offence, you will probably want to be using Klingons. They have several cheap-to-play, cheap-to-staff, non-unique Cloaking Device ships (such as the I.K.S. K'Vort) with which you can cover all of your opponents' space missions. They also have the I.K.S. Ning'tao. With just one engagement event in your core and only ten points (or Call to Arms in your core), this ship will give you the opportunity to destroy your opponent's ship before he or she has a chance to move away from the mission.

If you're on defence, then there are two interrupts that could help you when facing this dilemma: Evasive Maneuvers and Power to the Shields. Both increase the Shields on your ship by four, subject to you having either a Navigation or Engineer personnel (respectively) on board the ship.

"Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!" - General Chang

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