[Faithful Reader]

It's Wednesday! We're more than halfway through the week. Since we are over the hump, let's look at a question!

Last Week: What Personnel am I thinking of?

The next major set for Second Edition will more than likely involve removing the Earth icon from personnel with The Original Series icon. It shouldn't be a surprise that The Original Series icon appears on at least a few cards in the set, in doing so, putting us close to a milestone.

Ever since Return to Grace waaaay back in 2014, almost every affiliation/faction has been the focus of at least part of a set, as recently as the Klingons in Shattered Mirror.

Almost.

The Ferengi have yet to get such a focus. Oh, they've gotten stuff in the past decade sure, but nothing really focusing on them. So this week, let us know what you would expect to see in such a product. I am looking more for broad strokes, not card specific ideas. What is a good thing to focus on for the affiliation? What is a good thing not to spend resources on?

[nobthehobbit]

Will removing the icon from personnel also involve removing it from ships (I.K.S. Qel'Poh, H.M.S. Bounty, Starship Excelsior, Deserved Captaincy, U.S.S. Enterprise-A, Olive Branch and U.S.S. Enterprise-B, Ill-Prepared Successor) and removing similar text ("While you command a personnel, you may play this ship at your Earth.") from U.S.S. Enterprise, Earth's Savior and U.S.S. Reliant, Searching for Lifeless Planets? The icon, at least on James T. Kirk, Original Thinker, Spock, Trainee Instructor and Saavik, Protégée, and the text on the aforementioned Enterprise, was originally there so that those cards could be played ordinarily (rather than just through means like Secret Identity or The Caretaker's "Guests") since Earth, Lush and Beautiful Home would not be released for four months after the release of Genesis.

[Faithful Reader]

Sigh.

That was the least important part of the post, but the goal is to remove the TOS from Earth. or Earth from TOS depending on your point of view. I assure everyone that these concerns are being addressed.

Now, let's talk Ferengi!

Sigh.

[abargar7510]

The highest level deck involves banking resources for a huge payoff later, typically counter gain. As such, it's particularly vulnerable to Code of the Ushaan.

Ferengi Battle, while an extremely intriguing concept, is hamstrung by the fact that in 2E's current state, midrange decks have competitive disadvantages.

So in a Ferengi-centered expansion, I would:

1) Look for ways to exempt the Ferengi from counter-gain hate that generally serves as an offset to other affiliations where that strategy is particularly powerful (either through better combined access to strong strategies, or through lower cost-to-benefit ratio, or both).

2) More broadly, look for ways to make mid-range decks stronger by weakening the strategies that in general outpace them by offering better benefits at less cost (I've summarized those strategies elsewhere).

[WeyounsLastClone]

I know the cards beneath Ferenginar work like the payment system etc, but I'd be interested to see if there could be an interesting implementation of latinum as some kind of equipment or event, that you'd have slips, strips, and bars of latinum.

Maybe a Ferengi player could have some sort of Latinum counter, and could use it as an additional resource, or a measure for success/prestige.

And maybe some way to have some bribery cards. Although difficult to make it fun and worthwhile in a 2player setting I guess.

[jadziadax8]

I know the cards beneath Ferenginar work like the payment system etc, but I'd be interested to see if there could be an interesting implementation of latinum as some kind of equipment or event, that you'd have slips, strips, and bars of latinum.

Maybe a Ferengi player could have some sort of Latinum counter, and could use it as an additional resource, or a measure for success/prestige.

And maybe some way to have some bribery cards. Although difficult to make it fun and worthwhile in a 2player setting I guess.

Latinum Storage sort of does this, since it rewards you for having lots of Rules out.

However, the problem with Ferengi (besides their laughably low attributes) is that many of their cards give you "win more" bonuses. For instance , I can't count how many times I really needed at least one +2 bonus on Taar, Bristling Daimon and couldn't get anything because I was behind.

[TyKajada]

.

Ferengi do have some interesting deck types. Let's look at some of them and check what I'd like to see for them.

There is of course the classic RoA141 manipulation for counters with Par Lenor and Ishka shenanigans to get the right card in the right place. The issue here as mentioned before is the vulnerability to Ushan. However, I do agree that Ushan has a place in this game, so I wouldn't necessarily go and make immune to it. So maybe the effect of gaining counters could partially be converted to playing cards at cheaper cost instead. Also, Seven of Nine has a great ability that works fantastic together with Ishka. While there is a way to get her into a deck with Lambda Oros, getting such orders on a card (RoA#1 ?) would be nice.


Bok and the Stargazer with Picard is a nice interference deck that can be strong. Ferengi battle received some cards with RoA45 and RoA34. Although I was skeptical about the direction of these cards when they were released, they do add fun strategies to . But there are strategies besides the Stargazer Picard combo that should be expanded. Battle in 2e is mostly only successful if the crew isn't stopped after battle to do other things, mainly missions. Luckily the Kreechta provides exactly that. I could imagine a Maneuver/Combat (Rule!) card that boosts attributes of personnel for a subsequent mission attempt.


Another Ferengi deck type is equipment manipulation from beneath Ferenginar. Namely Treasured Collectibles or Gaila. I think MvB likes to Ferengi this way, he might have a word to say about this. Personally I would expand on maybe equipment stealing and/or equipment in discard piles in addition to the equipment beneath Ferenginar.


Commodities is something Ferengi play with. So far the issue with Commodities was handling the back and forth trading these cards between players and/or retrieving them from discard piles. This has gotten some cards that help here like Aurulent or Remmler Array. Imho this could be expanded with even more utility abilities on personnel that cycle commodities.


In general these strategies could use more cards to enhance and improve the flow of these deck types, ideally without cluttering them into decks with 100 cards. I think this is where new HQs would come in handy. There are affiliations that for some reason have 3 HQs, Ferengi could certainly use one or even two more as well that support certain deck types or strategies. These have a benefit for a certain deck type at the cost of not being able to play .
Also I do like dilemmas that are deck type/affiliation centric as they add nice flavor to the game and can be useful for your strategy.
In general Ferengi need an attribute boost in form an equipment maybe (Teddybear/The Book of Rules). Or having to pay cards from hand/Ferenginar to boost attributes when needed.

Looking forward to seeing what the designers come up with and thanks for asking

[Armus]

.

Ferengi do have some interesting deck types. Let's look at some of them and check what I'd like to see for them.

There is of course the classic RoA141 manipulation for counters with Par Lenor and Ishka shenanigans to get the right card in the right place. The issue here as mentioned before is the vulnerability to Ushan. However, I do agree that Ushan has a place in this game, so I wouldn't necessarily go and make immune to it. So maybe the effect of gaining counters could partially be converted to playing cards at cheaper cost instead. Also, Seven of Nine has a great ability that works fantastic together with Ishka. While there is a way to get her into a deck with Lambda Oros, getting such orders on a card (RoA#1 ?) would be nice.


Bok and the Stargazer with Picard is a nice interference deck that can be strong. Ferengi battle received some cards with RoA45 and RoA34. Although I was skeptical about the direction of these cards when they were released, they do add fun strategies to . But there are strategies besides the Stargazer Picard combo that should be expanded. Battle in 2e is mostly only successful if the crew isn't stopped after battle to do other things, mainly missions. Luckily the Kreechta provides exactly that. I could imagine a Maneuver/Combat (Rule!) card that boosts attributes of personnel for a subsequent mission attempt.


Another Ferengi deck type is equipment manipulation from beneath Ferenginar. Namely Treasured Collectibles or Gaila. I think MvB likes to Ferengi this way, he might have a word to say about this. Personally I would expand on maybe equipment stealing and/or equipment in discard piles in addition to the equipment beneath Ferenginar.


Commodities is something Ferengi play with. So far the issue with Commodities was handling the back and forth trading these cards between players and/or retrieving them from discard piles. This has gotten some cards that help here like Aurulent or Remmler Array. Imho this could be expanded with even more utility abilities on personnel that cycle commodities.


In general these strategies could use more cards to enhance and improve the flow of these deck types, ideally without cluttering them into decks with 100 cards. I think this is where new HQs would come in handy. There are affiliations that for some reason have 3 HQs, Ferengi could certainly use one or even two more as well that support certain deck types or strategies. These have a benefit for a certain deck type at the cost of not being able to play .
Also I do like dilemmas that are deck type/affiliation centric as they add nice flavor to the game and can be useful for your strategy.
In general Ferengi need an attribute boost in form an equipment maybe (Teddybear/The Book of Rules). Or having to pay cards from hand/Ferenginar to boost attributes when needed.

Looking forward to seeing what the designers come up with and thanks for asking

Ferengi Commodities is better than advertised. Solving 35 point missions with 4 random idiots with insanely boosted cunning is not to be underestimated.