[nobthehobbit]

But when did TNG Borg actually assimilate *anybody* as a drone?

Granted this was off screen but Riley Frazier was assimilated during the Battle of Wolf 359. One of Seven's alter egos was a mother assimilated by The Borg prior to Wolf 359 as well. I'm sure there have to be others. And we don't actually know what happened to the eighteen people that were taken in Q Who from the piece of the saucer section though if one wants to believe the relaunch books at least one was assimilated as well.

Yes, but those were all written after First Contact turned the Borg into "space zombie plague". Going only by what we saw in TNG, and particularly Q Who, the Borg don't assimilate people unless it helps them accomplish another goal.

[SudenKapala]

But when did TNG Borg actually assimilate *anybody* as a drone? Q Who (...)

What I want is a cycle of Q Who Borg cards that actually can't assimilate (or are so bad at it they effectively can't) (...)

This, and subsequent posts, raise very interesting points. I also have trouble with Trek's many reinventions of previously established aspects of the franchise -- not in the least the Borg, indeed! -- but the benefits of the show far outweigh those (among other) downsides for me.

What Wowbagger proposes here, actually sounds like a very nice idea... Borg Weirdness (as in: very different from normal affiliation play) Version 2.0.

The way it was described here, it acactually felt quite like both Borg and 1e.

[Slayer07]

But when did TNG Borg actually assimilate *anybody* as a drone? Q Who (...)

What I want is a cycle of Q Who Borg cards that actually can't assimilate (or are so bad at it they effectively can't) (...)

This, and subsequent posts, raise very interesting points. I also have trouble with Trek's many reinventions of previously established aspects of the franchise -- not in the least the Borg, indeed! -- but the benefits of the show far outweigh those (among other) downsides for me.

What Wowbagger proposes here, actually sounds like a very nice idea... Borg Weirdness (as in: very different from normal affiliation play) Version 2.0.

The way it was described here, it acactually felt quite like both Borg and 1e.

I can't speak about everything but as for in show 'established facts' about the Borg we should keep in mind that this was stated by Q, a being whose very words should not be taken at face value especially at that point in time in the franchise.

In real life I would conclude that the writers needed something to make the Borg a bit more of a threat and started with the assimilation (space zombie) bit. I also recall something about Patrick Stewart debating leaving the show after the third season, and so having him assimilated left the possibility of simply killing Locutus if it had come to that.

[Hoss-Drone]

But when did TNG Borg actually assimilate *anybody* as a drone?

Granted this was off screen but Riley Frazier was assimilated during the Battle of Wolf 359. One of Seven's alter egos was a mother assimilated by The Borg prior to Wolf 359 as well. I'm sure there have to be others. And we don't actually know what happened to the eighteen people that were taken in Q Who from the piece of the saucer section though if one wants to believe the relaunch books at least one was assimilated as well.

Yes, but those were all written after First Contact turned the Borg into "space zombie plague". Going only by what we saw in TNG, and particularly Q Who, the Borg don't assimilate people unless it helps them accomplish another goal.

You sure about that? From the beginning of the Borg being hinted at in rumors, the very colonies and installations the Borg destroyed did not leave any survivors behind. System J-25 had large chunks "scooped" out, but what about all the people who lived in rural areas?

I think the Borg assimilated people right from the beginning of tng, it just wasn't stated outright.

[AllenGould]

You sure about that? From the beginning of the Borg being hinted at in rumors, the very colonies and installations the Borg destroyed did not leave any survivors behind. System J-25 had large chunks "scooped" out, but what about all the people who lived in rural areas?

I think the Borg assimilated people right from the beginning of tng, it just wasn't stated outright.

I always read it as the Borg treated people as resources. They don't care about You per se, just that you're another ant in the hive. To add to what Hoss pointed out, not only are there no survivors, they didn't leave a pile of bodies either.

[Ensign Q]

wasnt guinans home planet assimilated as well?

i mean afterall, its not their main objective, but its one of their objectives. like in the game

[Borg King]

But when did TNG Borg actually assimilate *anybody* as a drone? Q Who: they are stated repeatedly not to care at all about biological life forms, and they apparently breed themselves. Best of Both Worlds: they change their minds (Shelby even hangs a lampshade on it) and assimilate Picard, and seem to have designs of some sort on Earth, but they frankly aren't good at the whole assimilation thing (can't even disconnect Picard upon his capture!). I, Borg: no assimilation. Descent: no actual Borg.

First Contact was the watershed that turned them into space zombie plague. Assimilation is essentially a one-off trick for TNG Borg, which they only did to make surrender easier for humans.

What I want is a cycle of Q Who Borg cards that actually can't assimilate (or are so bad at it they effectively can't). They are (as Q said) "The ultimate user. They aren't interested in your life-form. They want your technology. They've identified it as something they can consume." They absorb special equipment and maybe ships (but NOT personnel), they can download cards like Engage Cloak and Holodeck Door to allow them to use it, they stack up ships they destroy on an incident and can discard them to boost past dilemmas or give themselves skills (maybe replacing Adapt). Their disruptions in The Neutral Zone create tensions that download self-controlling Romulan ships / dilemmas that blame (and attack) opponents. It's a build where using the Queen or any Counterpart is strictly forbidden.

That would be beautiful.

Oh, well, maybe between blocks.

All great points here! After watching through all the TNG Borg episodes a little while back I was surprised at how little Borg we actually see on screen and how different they feel from the FC/VOY Borg; my nostalgia glasses must have been on 11!

They do adapt (but a lot of drones go down during every encounter before they figure out how to counter) and consume whatever they see as useful, but seem to be very selective about it. They also seem to value things over people as it's mostly colonies, ships and software we see them consume.

They don't seem to want to set up camp in the Alpha Quadrant as it takes quite a while from when we hear about "missing colonies and outposts" to when they actually encounter species that survive crossing paths with them, so it give the impression that they are just collecting samples for the Collective so they can figure out they're best way forward to assimilate the quadrant.

Remember too that the TNG episodes were initial encounters with this uniquely alien affiliation and they were a lot of learning curves and unknowns. I think it's safe to assume that they did assimilate people (what happened to all those colonists and those aboard the missing outposts?) as they have a lot of info before they even assimilate Picard, and after learning that they do consume species (like Guinan's) you can look back on past attacks and see a wider picture with the new information; but it definitely isn't a top priority to them. Maybe they get more hard info from computer cores than people?

I'd *love* to see a TNG Borg faction (and First Contact one at that) but they would have to operate a little differently and with such few episodes to draw from I'm not sure how workable that is; but it would be amazing!

More on topic: Objectives such as Assimilate Planet, Establish Gateway, Salvage Starship (targeting Wolf 359) and Assimilate Homeworld (bring your own Counterpart) are great places to start with playing ! They are basically just like attempting a mission; encounter dilemmas, clear them out then complete the mission with the right skills except that the Borg will scout, clear dilemmas and probe instead of meeting skill requirements. Pretty basic Borg stuff without having to be intrusive or go on the offensive (and a Cube's shields are pretty good defenses) and once you are comfortable with those you can try out other objectives that are a bit more involved, like Assimilate Species or Assimilate Counterpart, etc!

The Borg are an affiliation unto themselves; you're not going to get everything right away as there is just too much (which is good! Lot's of options to them!) so go with what's straight forward or appealing to you first and work on getting that down; then go for the more complex stuff. That's kinda 1E as a whole too!

I've made an Introductory 2-Player Game version Borg deck as a companion to the other I2PG decks that I can throw up on the site if you'd like to take a look at that? It's pretty basic Borg 101 that plays well with those decks and should help you get a feel for how they work! Let me know!

[Discovery suxs]

But when did TNG Borg actually assimilate *anybody* as a drone? Q Who: they are stated repeatedly not to care at all about biological life forms, and they apparently breed themselves. Best of Both Worlds: they change their minds (Shelby even hangs a lampshade on it) and assimilate Picard, and seem to have designs of some sort on Earth, but they frankly aren't good at the whole assimilation thing (can't even disconnect Picard upon his capture!). I, Borg: no assimilation. Descent: no actual Borg.

First Contact was the watershed that turned them into space zombie plague. Assimilation is essentially a one-off trick for TNG Borg, which they only did to make surrender easier for humans.

What I want is a cycle of Q Who Borg cards that actually can't assimilate (or are so bad at it they effectively can't). They are (as Q said) "The ultimate user. They aren't interested in your life-form. They want your technology. They've identified it as something they can consume." They absorb special equipment and maybe ships (but NOT personnel), they can download cards like Engage Cloak and Holodeck Door to allow them to use it, they stack up ships they destroy on an incident and can discard them to boost past dilemmas or give themselves skills (maybe replacing Adapt). Their disruptions in The Neutral Zone create tensions that download self-controlling Romulan ships / dilemmas that blame (and attack) opponents. It's a build where using the Queen or any Counterpart is strictly forbidden.

That would be beautiful.

Oh, well, maybe between blocks.

All great points here! After watching through all the TNG Borg episodes a little while back I was surprised at how little Borg we actually see on screen and how different they feel from the FC/VOY Borg; my nostalgia glasses must have been on 11!

They do adapt (but a lot of drones go down during every encounter before they figure out how to counter) and consume whatever they see as useful, but seem to be very selective about it. They also seem to value things over people as it's mostly colonies, ships and software we see them consume.

They don't seem to want to set up camp in the Alpha Quadrant as it takes quite a while from when we hear about "missing colonies and outposts" to when they actually encounter species that survive crossing paths with them, so it give the impression that they are just collecting samples for the Collective so they can figure out they're best way forward to assimilate the quadrant.

Remember too that the TNG episodes were initial encounters with this uniquely alien affiliation and they were a lot of learning curves and unknowns. I think it's safe to assume that they did assimilate people (what happened to all those colonists and those aboard the missing outposts?) as they have a lot of info before they even assimilate Picard, and after learning that they do consume species (like Guinan's) you can look back on past attacks and see a wider picture with the new information; but it definitely isn't a top priority to them. Maybe they get more hard info from computer cores than people?

I'd *love* to see a TNG Borg faction (and First Contact one at that) but they would have to operate a little differently and with such few episodes to draw from I'm not sure how workable that is; but it would be amazing!

More on topic: Objectives such as Assimilate Planet, Establish Gateway, Salvage Starship (targeting Wolf 359) and Assimilate Homeworld (bring your own Counterpart) are great places to start with playing ! They are basically just like attempting a mission; encounter dilemmas, clear them out then complete the mission with the right skills except that the Borg will scout, clear dilemmas and probe instead of meeting skill requirements. Pretty basic Borg stuff without having to be intrusive or go on the offensive (and a Cube's shields are pretty good defenses) and once you are comfortable with those you can try out other objectives that are a bit more involved, like Assimilate Species or Assimilate Counterpart, etc!

The Borg are an affiliation unto themselves; you're not going to get everything right away as there is just too much (which is good! Lot's of options to them!) so go with what's straight forward or appealing to you first and work on getting that down; then go for the more complex stuff. That's kinda 1E as a whole too!

I've made an Introductory 2-Player Game version Borg deck as a companion to the other I2PG decks that I can throw up on the site if you'd like to take a look at that? It's pretty basic Borg 101 that plays well with those decks and should help you get a feel for how they work! Let me know!

So could I just run establish gateway, assimate planet, and salvage starship on wolf 359 only? Assimate homeworld requires a counterpart. Which means I have to run assimate counterpart too. I honestly don't want to mess with my opponent at all. So if it is possible to win by doing just those 3 objectives. Of course Im assuming you can do them more than once of course.

Basically put establish gateway on my space mission in the seed phase. Complete it download assimate planet. Complete it download establish gateway. So can I win this way?

I like the interrupts, events and other stuff. I just have no desire to mess with my opponent at all.

[AllenGould]

So could I just run establish gateway, assimate planet, and salvage starship on wolf 359 only? Assimate homeworld requires a counterpart. Which means I have to run assimate counterpart too. I honestly don't want to mess with my opponent at all. So if it is possible to win by doing just those 3 objectives.

If you're planning on Assimilate Homeworld, it's *far* simpler to just stock the homeworld and the counterpart yourself - especially if you're not planning on doing a lot of personnel assimilation otherwise. And while each counterpart gives you different skills (helpful to free up the Queen), I have to recommend Gowron of Borg and the Klingon homeworld, because his special skills does a marvelous job of making the opponent think twice about messing with you.

[Enabran]

Basically put establish gateway on my space mission in the seed phase. Complete it download assimate planet. Complete it download establish gateway. So can I win this way?

Yes, but it will take many turns.
You can only have 1 Current objective in play.
You must complete scouting in one turn and probe at the end of your next turn (Except when you have the matching counterpart at your mission and Service the Collective on table; and even than you need 3 turns)
You need 20 Bonus Points.

[sexecutioner]

https://www.trekcc.org/1e/decklists/ind ... ckID=10039

Here's one from 5 years ago. Needs a bit of tweaking to get up to date with the current OTF format, but there's not much change needed to it.

This was designed as a purely defensive deck, as I played this deck at the height of Kazon popularity. The muscle was there (Battle Bridge, Ablative, Multiplexor) but the aim of the deck was to just blast through 2 Objectives for the win.

The fastest way to win with Borg is using either two of the below Objective combos.

Harness Particle 010 / Assimilate Homeworld

Stop First Contact (+ Population 9 Billion) / Establish Gateway (+ Resistance is Futile)

I learned to play Borg by observing my Opponent playing Borg (Niall “sexecutioner” Matthew). That’s probably the best way.

Considering the amount of times you had to put up with my Borg decks, you'd better damn well had learned something

[SudenKapala]

[...]Objectives such as [...], Salvage Starship (targeting Wolf 359) [...]

Why not (also) target the salvage operation mission? That's what I do. (But I'm not being very competitive with my deck, admittedy.) Investigate Incursion also works, but poses more risk to self, I think.

I've made an Introductory 2-Player Game version Borg deck as a companion to the other I2PG decks that I can throw up on the site if you'd like to take a look at that?

I did want to look at it, and I think I have. Aren't they already all linked to, in/through the sticky Player Resources topic?

Wait, that deck was made by HoodieDM. Have you made another!? Then please react to that decks topic, and have it included there and/or elsewhere!

!

[Latok]

[...]Objectives such as [...], Salvage Starship (targeting Wolf 359) [...]

Why not (also) target the salvage operation mission? That's what I do. (But I'm not being very competitive with my deck, admittedy.) Investigate Incursion also works, but poses more risk to self, I think.

Because They Will Be Coming is generally the best way to play Borg now and that prevents you from seeding non-AQ missions.

[Discovery suxs]

[...]Objectives such as [...], Salvage Starship (targeting Wolf 359) [...]

Why not (also) target the salvage operation mission? That's what I do. (But I'm not being very competitive with my deck, admittedy.) Investigate Incursion also works, but poses more risk to self, I think.

Because They Will Be Coming is generally the best way to play Borg now and that prevents you from seeding non-AQ missions.

Pass I rather seed delta myself to get more than 1 free plays.

[Latok]

Why not (also) target the salvage operation mission? That's what I do. (But I'm not being very competitive with my deck, admittedy.) Investigate Incursion also works, but poses more risk to self, I think.

Because They Will Be Coming is generally the best way to play Borg now and that prevents you from seeding non-AQ missions.

Pass I rather seed delta myself to get more than 1 free plays.

You don't actually need more than one free play because you can download any drone reliably, that's effectively a second free play and then your card play, three a turn is plenty. It's fine to play worse decks though.