I may be late to the party, but today I finally had the time to write it down. I haven't played much since the release of TNZ, so many of my assessments are based on impressions rather than actual playing.
1) What was your initial impression of The Neutral Zone?
Since I’ve always been fond of Romulans (for unknown reasons), I was looking forward to a set focused on them and initially excited by nature. I specifically liked the revival of the Neutral Zone which has been a no-go-area far too long due to Wake of the Borg. And I liked that other affiliations were addressed as well although TNZ being part of the TOS block. What puzzled me right from the beginning was that the 23rd-related theme of The Cage isn’t really a thing here, and I would have expected more in this regard (for example
Sybo but no related mission).
2) What is your impression of the expansion now?
I still like it a lot, especially the design of dilemmas has improved significantly during the past years. Only Nelvana Trap is too restricted in my opinion; I would have limited it to D’deridex class ships instead of TNG. Speaking of restrictions, TOS Romulans feel too much tied to the Neutral Zone. I haven’t tried it yet, but I can’t make out (m)any reasons for them to go somewhere else. Alongside the (in my opinion sloppy) errata to
The Final Frontier they ended up too narrow considering deck building options.
That TNZ offers a lot to factions that aren’t TOS-related is also two-folded. I wish there would have been more dilemmas based on The Original Series, but I also understand that developing proper cards takes precedence over forcing scenes on poor cards.
Overall it's a good set, and its power-level feels quite healthy (unlike The Cage).
3) What are your top 3 most favorite cards?
I picked my favourites based on how intriguing I find them for game design.
Cloaked Maneuvers (and
Praxus)
I really love silver bullets and this is one of the most elegant approaches to designing them I’ve seen (including other games). Recycling such one-time effects should play a bigger part in the game. I am also very fond of the approach that every affiliation can use it, but only one or a few can capitalise it (which isn't a new thing, just wanted to mention it).
Strategic Sector
I think creating draw engines based on the setup are a good and interesting way. There’s already some issues going on about card draws being too unconditional, and this might offer a solution to implement more balanced card draw.
The Squire’s Rules
Everything which is great about this card has been said already numerous times, so I don’t repeat it here again.
4) What are your bottom 3 least favorite cards?
Community Leader
I understand it addresses a flaw, but I just keep wondering how many seed cards more do we need to make a Nor work? Wouldn’t it be better to allow mixing at sites by default? Or maybe I just don’t get the point of the card (highly probable)?
Shape-Shift: Fluidity
Again, maybe I don’t get the point why this card has been made. I don’t like the fact it makes Café des Artistes an even more central card to the game.
Shah’Razad
Having a support personnel for
Wormhole Navigation Schematic is awesome, but why
? I know, to kill two birds with one stone. But the bird called
Quantum Incursions is now extinct, so I don’t really get why there wasn’t another Jem’Hadar available as a carrier. I am not very familiar with Dominion but since they often need quite a lot seed slots, I’d assume they don’t like being forced to make room for even more seed cards.
5) Which card had your favorite image?
Breach Detection Grid
Totally subjective. Overall the chosen images/takes are great.
6) Which card had your least favorite image?
Primary Turbolift
Too close, but I am not sure there’d been a better take available.
7) Which card had your favorite creative treatment (title, subtitle, lore)?
Long Live The Empire
Very good motif that in combination with the title transports the semantics of Mirror Terrans nicely.
Which card had your least favorite creative treatment?
I... Have Had... Enough Of You!
Six… dots… really? I don’t think translating paralanguage into a flood of punctuation marks is a proper utilization for titles and not even an unambiguous method to depict vocalization. It makes it less readable and aesthetically unappealing, and besides that a nightmare to link here. Please don’t do it again.
9) Which card has surprised you as you've used it?
Unfortunately none so far, but I haven’t used all of them yet. However, I have the feeling that Primary Turbolift doesn’t get the credit it deserves.
10) Which card has disappointed you as you've use it?
Actually
The Squire’s Rules, but not because of the card itself, rather than the currently available dilemma compositions. Probably most players have learned by now, that there’s not much danger coming (except
Chula: The Game) and you best go attempting with big crews resp. away teams. In other words, I was surprised how easy it makes the game for the opponent as well.
11) What's the #1 thing that was done in The Neutral Zone you want to see again in future projects?
Refer to 3) for the answer.
12) What's the #1 thing that was done in The Neutral Zone that you do not want to see again in future projects?
There’s no card in the set which would make me say that. Except six dots.
Any fact becomes important when it's connected to another. -
Umberto Eco
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