Yes, I Am Serious

Here's to the Next Generation."
- Archer, during a toast with Trip

Love or hate the source material, the last expansion in the 22nd century block was the best time to make a personnel card that has been asked about for a long time. Chef was unveiled via social media at the set's announcement without any explanation of his special skill. Today's revealed card is the companion that facilitates his deckbuild. These Are The Voyages is a new Warp Core card that enables the crew of the Enterprise to help out Riker and the Federation in the "modern" 24th century era. It can be played from hand, or more likely, downloaded in the seed phase with Continuing Mission.

These Are the Voyages plays on the Devlin System Asteroid Belt, which is the location name of Pegasus Search. Once in play, all your Starfleet personnel lose some of the things that identify them as denizens of the 22nd century: the AU icon and their Starfleet affiliation. (Note that this is for Prime universe Starfleet personnel only, no Mirror crossovers here.)

Instead, they become Federation-affiliation holograms. Those personnel that Riker leaned on for moral guidance - personnel with integrity of seven or more - can report for free directly to Chef. As holograms, when these former Starfleet personnel report to him they will be deactivated unless he's at a place they can function: a ship with a holodeck, a holosuite, or on a planet with holoprojectors.

Like other Warp Core cards, These Are The Voyages requires seeding a stealable high-point mission. But the benefits are tempting. The TNG Federation faction already boasts one of the most diverse personnel and mission selections in the game. Add to that the skill-dense personnel from Enterprise, and make them neigh-invulnerable holograms? That sounds like a good recipe for making a dilemma-busing crew that can quickly mow through any dilemmas the opponent seeds at space missions.

Use Pegasus Search as a seed phase feignt and solve three other missions, or power through whatever dilemmas are there and collect a free ship and artifact, and half the points needed for victory. Either way, you get a suite of twenty-two skill tanks that report for free to supplement your other free play engines.

 "So I guess we're through here."
"I guess we are. Computer, end program."
- William Riker and Deanna Troi

These Are The Voyages and Chef have been in the design file for over seven years. Chef has evolved since Thomas (Exon) V's original pitch for Project Lockhart (which became Straight and Steady). Chef's fetch of Holodeck Door was changed from a special download to a twice-per-game action but not at mission attempt-interrupting speed, and he lost his leadership and music to make more room for the reporting function. These Are The Voyages began as Holoprogram: NX-01, but the core mechanic was the same: Starfleet personnel become TNG Fed holograms. Design went through a few versions of benefits and penalties. Originally when it was a holoprogram, if Chef ever left play, all 22 personnel were discarded. That seemed a little harsh, and around that time we realized there were some bad interactions with Mirror Universe 1EC personnel, so the duo were shelved until after we had a chance to convert the lot of them.

The cards lived in the cut file for a few years, constantly threatening to make a return (their mere presence an annoyance to MidnightLich). Once The Terran Empire removed one of the main impediments, Design brought the cards back for testing in Project Courage (Broken Bow). The diligent testers showed that the card didn't work well as a Holoprogram - It was too difficult to reliably get it out turn one, a requirement for a play engine. The card was deemed a better fit for the final expansion in the block, so it was pushed yet again. Through further testing it changed form seeding or playing on a ship with a holodeck to gaining the Warp Core icon and playing on Pegasus Search. A small benefit was added to help balance the new mission seed cost, and the download of the ship was added.

 "...To boldly go where no man has gone before."
-Jonathan Archer

The corresponding deck is a speed solver that uses These Are the Voyages and Attention All Hands as a reporting engines. Most of the personnel report for free, and many of them net a card draw with Continuing Mission. There are 21 dilemma-type cards here, feel free to replace a few with seed staples you prefer. The Holodeck Doors will be the once per turn personnel download, so cards like Defend Homeworld and Assign Support Personnel are left behind. Starbase 247 at Pegasus Search with Strategic Base should some high-shielding protection, and instant repairs from Spacedock are available.

A single self-seeded dilemma and HQ: Defensive Measures may be enough to prevent Pegasus Search from being stolen, but otherwise solve two space missions while waiting to draw into Holoprojectors.

What do you think? Brush up on your Hologram rules and give this deck a spin. The personnel available as free reports will allow for incredible skill coverage or crazy deck streamlining. Have fun mashing up the properties!

by Dan Hamman, Offbeat Designer