|
The Dominion's plan to bring the entire solid-populated galaxy into line with its sense of harmony and order does not depend entirely on violent subjugation of planets by Jem'Hadar shock troops. Stealth and subterfuge are also important parts of its repertoire. Infiltration techniques, introduced in the Dominion expansion, allow Star Trek CCG players with Dominion decks to exercise these techniques.
Infiltrators are identified by small diamond-shaped icons printed to the left of their lore, along with their staffing ability icons (if any). Each infiltration icon resembles the affiliation that infiltrator is skilled at infiltrating. For example, Lovok Founder has a <Rom> icon, indicating that he may infiltrate the Romulan affiliation.
As of the Dominion expansion, in which infiltration was introduced, all infiltrators were also "Founder lookalikes." Each Founder lookalike has the name of another personnel printed in boldface italics in its lore. The Founder lookalike is not an instance of the persona named; rather, the Founder is impersonating that character. Should the Founder lookalike ever be present with an instance of the persona named, the Founder Lookalike would immediately be exposed as an infiltrator.
Not all infilitrators are Founder Lookalikes. For example, the Cardassians, Romulans, and Klingons all have non-Founders that can infiltrate the Federation (Boone Impersonator, LaForge Impersonator, and Arne Darvin, respectively).
The easiest way to begin infiltrating is by reporting your infiltrator to your opponent's side of the table, wherever your opponent is allowed to report cards compatible with that affiliation, but this only works if your opponent is actually playing the affiliation corresponding to your infiltrator's infiltration icon. This implies that your [GQ] personnel with infiltration icons matching alpha quadrant affiliations can report in the alpha quadrant ... but to your opponent's approriate reporting location. Of course, your infiltrator may report only to reporting locations with which their infiltration icon is compatible. Your infiltrator may also report normally and infiltrate later in the game, if present with an opponent's crew or Away Team compatible with the infiltration icon. Moreover, if your infiltrator is a changeling, you can use The Walls Have Ears to report directly to an opponent's ship.
You need not rely on guesswork, however, to ensure that your opponent will be infiltratable. By seeding Memory Wipe (Premiere Starter Deck II), you enable your opponent's cards to mix and work together regardless of affiliation. In Premiere Starter Deck II vs. Premiere Starter Deck II play, this eliminates the need for treaties and ensures a relatively playable deck for your opponent. Your infiltration deck, however, benefits from this card all the more, by making all your infiltrators compatible with the opponent's cards no matter what affiliation they are playing. You may only report your infiltrators to your opponent's reporting locations if your opponent is actually playing the relevant affiliation. However, with Memory Wipe, any of your infiltrators can infiltrate by joining an opponent's crew or Away Team with which they are present (V.I.P. infiltrators can do this easily by docking at a Nor or using Open Diplomatic Relations; other Founders may use The Walls Have Ears or other methods).
Strategy Note: In Premiere Starter Deck II vs. Premiere Starter Deck II play, Memory Wipe is a required seed, and both players must agree not to nullify their Memory Wipes. No such agreement holds in constructed deck play, however. If your opponent uses Kevin Uxbridge to nullify your Memory Wipe, your infiltrator will either become exposed or be placed under house arrest. If infiltration is a major component of your deck strategy (and if it's not, you probably shouldn't be doing it at all), you'll want to protect yourself with Q2, Rishon Uxbridge, The Line Must Be Drawn Here, Oof!, or multiple Memory Wipes.
The Impersonate Captive objective gives you another method of using your Founders to infiltrate. Once you have captured an opposing personnel, your Founder present with that captive may morph to impersonate the captive. The Founder's classification, skills, staffing icon, infiltration icon, STRENGTH, and CUNNING change to match the captive's. The Founder retains its original INTEGRITY, has 1 Treachery, loses all Honor, and gains infiltration icon(s) for captive's affiliation(s).
Note: This section is reproduced verbatim from the Dominion rules supplement.
While your infiltrator is infiltrating, the following rules apply:
Your infiltrator stops infiltrating if he or she is "exposed," which can happen during either player's turn in one of three ways: (1) voluntarily; (2) by a card play such as Caught Red-Handed; or (3) by being present with any version of the persona he or she is impersonating. When "exposed," that personnel
If a case of incompatible affiliations arises involving an infiltrator, the infiltrator may choose whether to be exposed or placed under house arrest.
There are several support cards that allow you to benefit from infiltration.
Counterintelligence (interrupt) turns your infiltrator against the infiltrated crew or Away Team. When you play it on your infiltrator, the infiltrator subtracts from (rather than adding to or having no effect on) the classifications, skills, and attributes available to the infiltrated crew or Away Team. Using Counterintelligence does not expose your infiltrator.
Dial Martok for Murder allows your infiltrator to initiate a battle with +4 STRENGTH against up to two opposing personnel present of your choice. As an event, Dial Martok for Murder exhausts your normal card play. However, your infiltrator is not exposed by taking this action, making it a very nice assassination card.
Inside Operation allows your infiltrator to "sabotage" your opponent's ships that have just begun a battle, reducing the WEAPONS and SHIELDS of each opposing ship and facility in the battle by 3. Your infiltrator is exposed by this sabotage, however.
The Walls Have Ears, as noted above, allows you to report your changeling to an opponent's ship. Once you have an intruder there (whether a changeling or not), you may play The Walls Have Ears to receive 5 bonus points. Note that your opponent may not treat your infiltrator as an intruder, but you may.
If your intruder is a Founder, Install Autonomic Systems Parasite will allow you to take control of your opponent's ship. The card effectively disables the ship until your next turn. At that time, you gain control of the ship and may move it without regard to staffing requirements and/or battle your opponent's ships with it. Your opponent may, however, nullify it with Miles O'Brien, Odo, 3 ENGINEER, or 3 SECURITY (the latter two are not unusual for most tournament decks).
If your infiltrator is an OFFICER or a V.I.P. and has been aboard your opponent's ship since the beginning of your opponent's previous turn, you can use Issue Secret Orders (which may also be seeded as [HA]) to force your opponent to attempt a mission your opponent seeded. Using this card, however, exposes your infiltrator.
The game currently reflects the great difficulty that the alpha quadrant affiliations had in exposing Founder infiltrators. There is currently only one card, Caught Red-Handed, that allows you to expose and capture an opponent's infiltrator, if you have a shapeshifter of your own present with the infiltrator. Fortunately, the Dominion expansion introduced two non-aligned shapeshifters, Anya and Salia, so that all non-Borg affiliations have at least the potential of exposing infiltrators in this fashion. (Note that Caught Red-Handed works against any infiltrators, not just changeling infiltrators, should any non-changeling infiltrators be introduced.)
There is no way to escape exposure by Caught Red-Handed, as the card may not be nullified. Also, the use of Issue Secret Orders -- one of the main benefits to infiltration -- exposes your infiltrator. If your infiltrator is a changeling, you may wish to use Flight of the Intruder to escape capture if exposed, or Strike Three if your opponent prefers a personnel battle to capture.
The Star Trek Customizable Card Game is published by Decipher Inc. and is based on the Star Trek series and films produced by Paramount Pictures. All copyrights and trademarks remain the property of their respective holders. Neither Decipher nor Paramount has endorsed this web site. Christopher Heard a.k.a. Unimatrix Zero One is solely responsible for the contents of this site.