Major Rakal's Romulan Review #18: Tomek & K'Tesh

Aefvadh! Now that we've all recovered from my back-to-back dilemma reviews, I'd like to do a slightly different personnel review. It's not exclusively Romulan, but the cards are similar and easy to review together. Besides, this review is for a friend of mine, who hangs out on various BBSs, newsgroups, and chat rooms as either of the EEHPs (Emergency Engineering Holographic Programs), and actually plays with them, too (and beat me with them more than once, I fear). Hi, K'Tomek, here are both your alter egos...

TOMEK & K'TESH

These guys were somewhat frustrating in the premiere set. Both Romulans and Klingons were mighty short on ENGINEERS compared to the Feds, and one of each was a hologram, for crying out loud. And not a red or green holodeck in sight. Short of a Husnock Ship or a Treaty with Starfleet, the only way to play them was Holo-Projectors. And nothing so far makes them work on an outpost. With the advent of AU, things got a little better: each affiliation got an AU ship with a holodeck - and a hefty staffing requirement. Question is, are they worth it? One red dot in each skills box doesn't go very far. Can you get along without them?

First, the Romulans: five green missions (including a 40- and a 45-pointer) require Astrophysics. Investigate "Shattered Space" even needs Astro x2. The only other Romulan Astrophysicist is the unique Mirok, with mediocre stats (lousy Integrity) but both SCIENCE and ENGINEER to recommend him. He needs a backup (especially if you're going to try Shattered Space), but from the start Dr. Reyga has been a lot easier to use than a holo (and better than Mirok to boot), or Jo’Bril; with QC you can also choose from Timicin (if you can time it right before he dies), Data’s Body (if you can get the head), or Paul Manheim. If you want a universal ENGINEER, Palteth's Computer Skill is more generally useful. So not much real need for poor Tomek.

Now, the Klingons: four red missions require Stellar Cartography, all 35 points or less. Two can be done alternatively with CUNNING alone - but CUNNING > 50 is tough for the Klingons, with their average CUNNING of only 5.5. What are your other choices for Stellar Cartography? Dr. Reyga. That's it. Except for a little addition in QC called K’chiQ. You can only have one K'chiQ aboard your ship, and you have to make sure she doesn't get caught without her warrior, and she needs an AU door (which means she can be stowed on a Cryosatellite)...but she can deliver the Stellar Cartography. You'll have to decide which is more trouble, the care and feeding of K'chiQ, or keeping the Holo-Projectors operational.

So why might you want to use the EEHPs anyway? As redshirts, of course. Sure, holograms can get "killed" by dilemmas. But instead of going to your discard pile like normal personnel, they just deactivate back to the controlling ship, and pop up again, good as new, on your next turn. What's that, you say, Love Interests don't kill? Right, but try to send a holo to the far end of the spaceline and he "leaves the holodeck" so to speak...deactivated again. You don't have to go off and pick him up. And a few dilemmas they're outright immune to; if it affects DNA, holos (who don't have any) can just laugh at it. There are some wall dilemmas they can't get by, of course, notably Shaka. And you do have to watch out for ship-destroyers (about the only way to discard a holo). But you can send off one holo after another to encounter killers, and have them all come back to life next turn.

If you're going to try to use holos, the Romulans have an edge. First, the other green holo is the surprisingly useful Jera (MEDICAL: Biology, Youth); using here too makes generating holos more worthwhile. The Klingons only have Fek'lhr (VIP: Honor, Treachery, 6-1-15), dim-witted and of much more limited use (maybe handy for Brute Force). Second, the Romulan holodeck-equipped ship, the Decius, with staffing requirements of CSA (and you probably are using the good Major so there's your AU icon), is a lot easier to use than the I.K.C. Fek’lhr which requires one more AU icon.

The Major's Combos:

• K'Tesh or Tomek and the 2-Player Game Introductory Rules.

Oh, you wanted a card combo...

• Tomeks + Jeras + Decius + Study Lonka Pulsar lots of K'Tesh's + Holo-Projectors + planet missions.