Maquis or Mafia?

Destroying an opponent's core event is nothing new, but how about taking every copy of that opponent's core event from his or her hand and/or deck – in addition to the one in the core – and placing them all in that opponent's discard pile? Sound appealing? Well, if you command two Maquis ships and can afford to spend five counters, you can do exactly that with Strafing Fire.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Many shrewd players are always on the lookout for cards that appear to be playable by only one faction, but are actually playable by many more than that. An example is the Maquis-themed Retaliation. That card, which requires you to command three Maquis-icon personnel to play it (not three Federation Maquis-icon personnel), can actually be played with any headquarters to which non-Aligned-icon personnel can report. Strafing Fire, however, requires a player to command two Maquis-icon ships for it to be played. As of the time of this article's posting, only one non-Aligned-icon ship also happens to have a Maquis icon: the unique Xhosa. As such, Strafing Fire is faction-specific; to get two Maquis-icon ships under your command, you'll need to command Athos IV, Maquis Base. -djl-

It's not as though you'll be lacking potential targets. I'm sure that you can come up with all kinds of events that you wouldn't want to see on an opponent's side of the table, such as Running a Tight Ship, Far-Seeing Eyes, At An Impasse, Getting Under Your Skin, Prejudice and Politics, Mission Accomplished, Unexpected Difficulties, Security Drills, Psychological Pressure, Tribunal Sentencing and Confessions in the Pale Moonlight, just to name a few. The key is to play Strafing Fire when an opponent has played exactly one of those target cards in his or her core. You see, if that opponent has two or more copies of the same event in core already, you only get to destroy one of them (in addition to the discard of those in his or her hand/deck). Also worth mentioning is that Strafing Fire does not play against non-core events such as At What Cost?, Deploy the Fleet, Distant Exploration or Warrior's Birthright.

All that aside, let's talk about the requirements to play this card. They're not bad, as it is not too tough to get two Maquis ships into play. Whether it's a Maquis ship downloaded by Cal Hudson, Attache to the Demilitarized Zone or a commander's use of How Would You Like a Trip to Romulus?, or just drawing into the ship, there are plenty of ways to meet Strafing Fire's requirements. You can even use Miles O'Brien, "Smiley" to make those ships less expensive to play. Then, while you're at it, why not take advantage of having multiple ships with cards such as Render Assistance or Amaros, or possibly better yet, Maquis Raid which can make your mission attempts easier by granting skills of your choice.

It all boils down to another form of harassment in the arsenal of the Maquis, which I never want directed at me if I can prevent it.