[Danny]

2 Venoxis
Reman
•Engineer •Exobiology •Leadership •Telepathy
When you play this personnel, each opponent draws a card, then discards a random non-ship card from hand.
Mostly typical of Reman soldiers employed as bodyguards for Romulan VIPs…aside from his telepathic aptitude.
Integrity 4 Cunning 6 Strength 7
66 V 35

Pros:

• Above average Cunning and Strength.
• First non-unique Telepathy for the Romulans.
• Contributes to the subtheme of manipulating the opponent's hand.

Cons:

• Nothing really beyond a niggle with the lore (below)...

Thoughts:

With above average Cunning and Strength and a combination of useful and exotic skills for Romulans, there's no reason not to play him.

I know the lore doesn't contribute to the game text at all (and vice versa), but if I read that a personnel's a former soldier and a current bodyguard, part of me expects them to have Security. But like I said, minor niggle.

[Triumph]

Counterpoint: The boat sailed a long time ago on "soldiers" or former "soldiers" without Security. It's an established thing going back to 2E Premiere.

With Treyam and Kulan, plus Deceitful Soldier, Soldier of the Empire, Soldier of the Underground, Professional Soldier, and Maquis Soldier, there's precedent for personnel called "soldier" in their subtitle to not have the skill. If we include lore, there's also Gantt and Noret'ikar and Tozara'Kesh, whose lore implicitly includes them as soldiers, and First Minister of Bajor, who actually calls himself a former soldier.

[Danny]

That's a good point, and I'll concede it to those who didn't choose a life of soldiering (the Bajoran Resistance or the Maquis) or those who've given it up for a peaceful life of politics, but counter counterpoint: both personnel with 'bodyguard' in their 'subtitle' and 'lore' has Security... bar one.

[Triumph]

Oh, that is an interesting point. I'll try to keep it in mind.

All things considered, I'm coming to the conclusion that while calling Venoxis a soldier was fine, it would have been better to go with something like "aide" or "adjutant" rather than "bodyguard."

[Danny]

Same. Like I said, minor niggle