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Volcanic Eruption

    Volcanic Eruption

    Many planets suffer from geological instabilities. This can cause problems for unsuspecting - and unprepared - guests.

    Dilemma Dilemma - Planet dilemma Planet
    Place on planet if no facility is on planet. Now and start of every player's turn, randomly kills one of their personnel present. Nullified if Thermal Deflectors is in play.

    Characteristics: killer dilemma, place on planet.

    Card logging info: Logged by openCards team at May 1st, 2009.
     

    Volcanic Eruption

    This Card-Review article was written by Kathy McCracken and was published first on "Decipher's Website (decipher.com)" at Apr 5th, 2001.

    A geologically unstable planet can be a dangerous place. This dilemma will turn any planet without a surface facility into a geological minefield, killing one personnel immediately. The volcano continues to "erupt" at the start of every player's turn, and if any of that player's personnel are present, kills one of them.

    The initial kill is a reasonable enough effect on its own, as there are only a couple of ways around it and it won't "stop" the Away Team. But for best effect, precede it with any dilemma that quarantines or otherwise isolates the planet, in hopes of trapping the remaining Away Team members for another kill on their next turn. On the other hand, you'll want to avoid that planet like the plague yourself.

    While there are no conditions to overcome, there is one way to nullify it, with Thermal Deflectorsimage. Beware, if you're seeding this while expecting to use Thermal Deflectors yourself for protection from Villagers With Torchesimage and exploding Garbage Scows - any copy of Thermal Deflectors in play, yours or your opponent's, will nullify any copy of Volcanic Eruption.

    Because you'll have to seed this before you know where your opponent will place his planet facilities (space facilities such as outposts won't have any effect), you can't be sure that your plans won't be foiled. Of course, a homeworld is a poor bet, as few players will use their own homeworld without seeding a headquarters, but even non-homeworlds carry a small risk. Your opponent could build a Colonyimage at an unsolved planet mission with Gi'ralimage and Tokathimage. Or - who knows? - he might even seed a Terraforming Stationimage there!

    Combo:

    • Duonetic Field Generatorimage + Volcanic Eruption: If you can't get enough ENGINEERs there to shut down that generator, you can watch your trapped Away Team diminish by one each turn.