stressedoutatumc wrote: ↑Fri Jan 28, 2022 10:29 am
If its low, then I surmise its because the possibility of a toe-stub is enough now that there are enough cards in any one affiliations card base + NA's to accomplish the job. Back in the day, I played treaties because I didn't have enough good ___ or good ___ but I could combine to make it happen. That would be objective enough data to answer the question of treaty nullification. Personally, with the exception of the new 4-way, I don't think the risk of losing a treaty outweighs the benefits of mixing affiliations together. Like what is really 'gained' in a fed/romulan deck or a bajoran/cardassian deck?
I probably shouldn't have mentioned the Dogs of War release in the original post, as that derailed a bit. But this I think nails the underlying point I was trying to address:
1. Outside of limited card pool, such as OTSD, or DS9 only type decks, the affiliations are all pretty well good enough they don't need treaties. (Overall a good thing)
2. Given that, what benefit do treaties give, aside from Roleplay?
3. If there is not real gameplay benefit, aside from cosmetics, then the risk is not generally worth it.
4. If we think treaties are a good thing as a possible meta choice, then they either need more reward, or less risk.
5. Which I generally think every strategy should have counterplay, I am not currently convinced that (most) treaties have enough gameplay to count as an actual strategy, and I'm nervous about the arms race of strengthening them more.
So to 2 above, I would say the biggest benefit is multiple free engines. After all, a Rom/Car deck could have access to 3 headquarters, etc. That's not nothing, but given the already decent seed cost those decks have, I don't know that the treaty vulnerability is needed.
It also reminds be of all the downsides of Decipher's attempt at meta balance with Writ of Acquisition and other silver bullets.
If the cost of playing a strategy is "if opponent has card X, you lose the game", that means you probably aren't going to play the strategy, unless it's so good you automatically win without card X.