[Borg King]

Was it really all that important to go there? What happened in the episode was Yarnek's mission, not Kirk's.

True, but I think I'm also looking at it in terms of Star Trek as a whole. It was the final episode to feature the entire principle cast (Uhura isn't in the last two episodes "All Our Yesterdays" and "Turnabout Intruder"); it introduced several important characters to the Star Trek mythos (Surak, Kahless and to a lesser extent Colonel Green); it features the final onscreen death in The Original Series (

Colonel Green

); the final appearances of Klingons and Vulcans (excluding Spock) in The Original Series; and it features one of the central themes of Star Trek. pitting good vs evil, while also showing it's not always that simple. In many ways this is the Series Finale, even though there were two more episodes broadcast afterwards.

So to me while it may not be as important as some missions, it is significant. Plus, it allows for higher requirements which I feel would better fit the events of the episode than say a lower point mission with a couple of skills.

All the Best,

Mattgomery Scott.

I've never really thought about it that deeply but... Wow, yes, those are really good arguments!

These are all great points but I keep going back to the "in universe" perspective of viewing this mission.

In the episode, the Enterprise was conducting a survey mission because of some unusual reading that usually indicate a civilization present, but couldn't find anything to confirm that. The were all set to move onto the next mission before Abraham showed up. To me that places this mission as a low priority to the Federation and the crew.

Secondly, without being able to detect any settlements, infrastructure, signs of civilization, etc, as well as the planet being uninhabitable naturally, I don't think the Borg would even be interested in assimilating the planet; nothing to gain.

I think this is a "hard pass" for at least two affiliations as the mission only gained value when the inhabitants decided to involve everyone present. This should be invoked through other cards; like a Yanick personnel, or a Savage Curtain Incident and/or through Obelisk to make it more important than it appears.

To me it's like Sherman's Plant (Agricultural Assessment); kind of important due to outside factors (two affiliations looking for an in) but really a basic mission that becomes imortant due to how it works with other cards to amp it up!

So I voted for 30 points.

[MidnightLich]

I will probably not be able to post the next steps until this afternoon (Pacific time) FYI.

[commdecker]

But 40 points is the only way to make it stealable in OTF, which is a really fun (and I think, core) mechanic in 1E that OTF broke.

I think it's really un-fun to have my mission stolen. I guess this will be another 40-point mission I never use.

[MidnightLich]

Excalbia will be a 40 point mission!

-crp