U.S.S. Enterprise-D: Personal Flagship

Ok, so I’m still not analysing things, and since the rest of my life is fairly uneventful at the moment, I’m going to do another strategy article.



This card is the centrepiece of my Federation deck, and probably my favourite card in the game.

Since STCCG Second Edition was released, I was intrigued by the idea of the illusive ‘Two-mission win’. I almost got it right with a Borg deck, but that was entirely dependant on my opponent forgetting about Locutus: Voice of the Borg’s special ability: “While this personnel is facing a dilemma, if he uses his Diplomacy, Leadership, Officer or Treachery, score 10 points”. I got it right once or twice, but never in tournament play… never underestimate your opponent.

I gave it up as a bad idea and went back to my own Federation deck… a little slow, but reliable. That was until the Fractured Time expansion.

I liked the look of the ship, and decided to pull it in for pure coolness factor… plus the high Attributes give it increased resistance to Borg assimilation attempts and Klingon raids (an increasing problem in our tournament group). And since it gave me a bonus with Leadership and Honor, I decided to change from an Astrometrics, Physics, Science based Mission set to a Leadership, Honor Security one… then I found Signal for Rescue… a Federation planet mission requiring both Leadership AND Honor worth 45 points!

If I have the Enterprise-D in orbit as I complete the mission, that gets increased to 55 points… if I happen to have the U.S.S. Enterprise-E: Federation Envoy there as well, that’s an extra 5 points! All I need is 40 points from a space mission, and I’ve got my 2-mission win!

How do I do that? Military Exercises and Intercept Renegade are both 35-point space missions requiring Leadership… so my Enterprise-D gives me a bonus 5 points for either! That’s 100 points, baby! Count ‘em!

Since Leadership, Honor and Security are easy for a Federation crew to accumulate, it’s no worries! It’s just down to Dilemma dodging… but I have a few tricks up my sleeve for that.

The only trick to this deck is ensuring I get my Enterprises out quickly. To that end, I have 3 copies of each, plus multiple matching commanders, Would you Like a Trip to Romulus (and an Kathryn Janeway: Wry Admiral thrown in for insurance) as well as a Miles O’Brian: Smiley to make the ships cheaper when they arrive, and voila!

It’s not fool-proof, and the deck is still a little slow, but on my last tournament I pulled the 2-mission win twice! When it works, it works beautifully.