[princedetenebres]

This came up on the discord and I was curious what the consensus was on how the Andorians should be handled (if at all), as Spectre9 pointed out that the only ones in the game now are all , which to me suggests that a decision on how to represent non-mirror ones has been punted to a later date.

Which prompts a few questions...

Should the Andorians be their own affiliation?
Or should they just be non-aligned with some sort of linking incident?
Would you rather see them than the Xindi?
Was adding a new affiliation in the previous block regarded as a success?
In either case, what lessons could be drawn for making a potential future new affiliation?


I'm no fan of Enterprise, though I recognize that it wasn't as terrible by Season 4 as during the B&B era, but setting aside that dislike of the show, it does seem like they're a bit of a hole, and I'm wondering if they're better suited to full affiliation treatment than say, the Vidiians were. In spite of my dislike of Enterprise, to answer one of the above, I'd find them more palatable as a new (possibly final) affiliation than the Xindi, but admittedly that's undoubtedly influenced by that being a thread from a part of the show that I know little about.

But I'm genuinely curious what the community's thoughts are on how they could/should be integrated into the game in the future -- with the caveat that I imagine this would not be for quite some time in all likelihood, as they obviously don't fit into the currently announced future projects.

[Armus]

I would make pre- , Andorians , as I don't think there are THAT many of them.

[Spectre9]

There are also TOS Andorians but I haven't watched enough TOS to know how many there are.

These have also not been represented over the course of the current TOS sets.

Of course the question is "Is there enough to make a new bespoke affiliation?"

Or was it just intended to cover them all in their own set?

[Takket]

I would make pre- , Andorians , as I don't think there are THAT many of them.

I gave memory alpha a look........

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Un ... d_century)

they have photos of 6 "unnamed".

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Andorians

the named ones produce 9 more that are

that doesn't seem like enough material to make a whole affiliation...... seems the way to go

[Armus]

There are also TOS Andorians but I haven't watched enough TOS to know how many there are.

These have also not been represented over the course of the current TOS sets.

Of course the question is "Is there enough to make a new bespoke affiliation?"

Or was it just intended to cover them all in their own set?

I'd argue that -era Andorians should be just like their Vulcan counterparts. I wouldn't be opposed to them showing up as such in the future.

[Klauser]

I would make pre- , Andorians , as I don't think there are THAT many of them.

I gave memory alpha a look........

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Un ... d_century)

they have photos of 6 "unnamed".

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Andorians

the named ones produce 9 more that are

that doesn't seem like enough material to make a whole affiliation...... seems the way to go

As a fan of (some of) Enterprise, those numbers seemed small to me. I did a deeper dive into Memory Alpha this morning and came up with these numbers:

Ignoring any TOS/TAS or Discovery entries ..

I get 8 named personnel, 7 unnamed Kumari (Shran's ship) personnel, 5 miscellaneous unnamed personnel - that's 20. Counting the Aenar (Andorian northern race), I get 4 named and 3 unnamed personnel - that's 7 more . That gets you a total of 25 personnel (had to subtract one for a Andorian/Aenar child counted twice), and that's not counting any dual affiliation cards that could be done.

Compare that to the -races, Hirogen (28) personnel, Kazon (29) personnel and Vidiian (19) personnel. These numbers include dual affiliation personnel.

So I think Andorians could be done.

Some additional thoughts:

The 1E -era only has three distinct affiliations: Starfleet, Klingons and Vulcans. We get an effective 4th affiliation with Mirror Starfleet. The Romulans are a minor race with only 8 distinct personnel (10 if you count dual-affiliation).

For comparison:

- The -era has 5 major affiliations = Starfleet, Borg, Hirogen, Kazon and Vidiians. Klingons are a minor race with 11 (14 if you count dual-affiliation)

- The -era has 4 affiliations - Federation, Klingons, Romulans and Mirror Universe.

I think there ARE enough Andorian resources to do an additional affiliation.

I think the question is does the CC community have enough interest to warrant doing it.

[Klauser]

In fairness ...

I'm NOT a fan of Enterprise's whole third season Xindi arc, but I know there are some Trek fans who ARE, so ...

There are five distint Xindi races - Aquatics, Arboreals, Insectoids, Primates and Reptilians, and Memory Alpha lists at least 17 named personnel. Since much of Enterprise's third season involves the Xindi, there is very much likely there's more than enough unnamed personnel to flesh out another affiliation ...

... again, if there were enough interest.

[Armus]

Ok, given that updated information...

I suppose it would be possible to make an affiliation around Andorians.

Though, TBH, I'd rather see other things first. We've spend a lot of the last few years building out - let's see what else is out there before circling back to it.

[BCSWowbagger]

Though, TBH, I'd rather see other things first. We've spend a lot of the last few years building out - let's see what else is out there before circling back to it.

This is why Cold Front punted on Shran, who was originally in our file. We figured there were three ways Andorians could go: , with a faction icon, or full-blown affiliation. We on Cold Front did not know which way would we best. We knew that figuring that out would require fleshing out a full cycle of Andorians and trying them out -- and we didn't have the resources for that just to set up a tease with Shran. And we didn't want to lock future design into one of those three paths based on what we did with Shran.

So we punted. Shran will hopefully arrive when the rest of the Andorians arrive, next time we visit the 22nd century, which won't be for a number of years.

(This is not the silliest affiliation I have heard discussed in the hallowed halls of Design, but ask Dan Hamman for that story.)

[jrch5618]

I would root for just or with a faction icon. We have enough affiliations - Xindi deserves one for they have a ton of material - the Andorians... no.

[boromirofborg]

I am mixed.


For flavor, I prefer their own affiliation. Evek, Bok, and the like are unfortunate relics.

From a gameplay point, I don't want an affiliation that doesn't have unique flavor.


Non-aligned seems wrong, as they would work with the Vulcans.


Even if the would get little to no updates, I'd prefer an affiliation that comes with one treaty like the old Kazon/Vidiian incidents

[Mr.Sloan]

I would make pre- , Andorians , as I don't think there are THAT many of them.

That gets you a total of 25 personnel
So I think Andorians could be done.

thanks for doing the work. Yes i also think they can be done.

I hope they will play unique and not just get draw/free play but also something interactive to do that gets them some bonus points (not to OP of course, there are also people loving low-interactive solver, that also is to be respected). What actions would fit to andorian culture?


I am confident the design will come up with a nice themed card like , , .

[SudenKapala]

I liked the Xindi season, as a whole, least of all the series, but it had its moments. So did the Xindi themselves. I'd love to see them as an affiliatuon more than I love them. Paradoxally.

Even more, I love the Andorians. Since ENT, I've always felt that their history and prominence in Trek demanded them to become an affiliation. So to speak.
But that gives us something to be patient for...?

(This is not the silliest affiliation I have heard discussed in the hallowed halls of Design, but ask Dan Hamman for that story.)

Paging Dan. Mr Hamman to the blue courtesy phone, please. Stat!

[SudenKapala]

Oh -- also, I feel that making Andorians a faction, or even full , would be "asymmetrical"(?) with and , given all their historical and plot-wise status.
That, then, forces me to bring up that other-- no, let's not make them* a separate force. Not nearly prominent and/or fun enough.

*: Tellarites.

[Smiley]

My thought in the matter is that Andorians do have more personnel on screen than say Vidiians but that does not automatically make it a good idea to make them their own affiliation.

Thematically It would probably be interesting as I would like to see what kind of colour they would get on their template (I'm thinking soft/ice blue).

But to make a new affiliations should spring out of the need for a new mechanic if any. So how would they play differently than all the others already in the game? Mull on this and get back to me when you have some ideas.

And finally the game becomes even more complicated and hard to teach and learn as we add more affiliations to it.
Many games that have a larger spectrum of cultural dividers such as the Colors of Magic or the Clans in Legend of the five rings tend to implode under their own weight as the more you add the less every affiliation can be supported with new cards and game mechanics in each set (something we are more than familiar too).

A to creating Andorians as a standalone affiliations would actually be a good idea if we ever decided to make a starter pack for 22nd. But as we already have Star fleet, Klingons and Vulcans we don't really need to. But if we did a follow up set to that the Xindi would probablt be the one to come as they have been teased since forever. That would put the Andorians at yet another disadvantage as it would be quite some time until a good slot would show up for it to fit. As you would need to focus a whole large set to them only so that they could be playable in more than one way out of the box. And for each set focused only on one affiliations, all the other have to wait for a card for them. =/

And in the Vidiians I think there is a reason the the madness of the affiliations of Voyager. They needed two more affiliations to accompany Fed in the first expansion to make it a functioning sealed. Borg would not do and I don't know why the might have skipped on Hirogen unless they already had an idea with doing them in conjunction with the Borg in the next set.