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When the First Contact expansion introduced the Borg affiliation into the Star Trek Customizable Card Game, it also introduced a new method of movement: the transwarp network. This network is used by the Borg for movement, not least movement from their Delta Quadrant outpost to one of the standard spacelines. Construction and use of the transwarp network, however, can prove confusing, especially because the Transwarp Network Gateway card has two distinct but related uses. This course is designed to quickly and clearly explain the construction and use of the transwarp network, using Transwarp Network Gateway and related cards.
If you are playing Borg and you plan to report your Borg ships and personnel to the Borg Outpost, you will very likely want to use Transwarp Network Gateways to get your Borg to the spaceline from the outpost and, if necessary, to the outpost from the spaceline. (Your other, more difficult alternative is to use two Wormholes to move your Borg ships from and to your outpost.)
You are allowed to seed one Transwarp Network Gateway at one end of the spaceline. Note that a Transwarp Network Gateway is not a location of its own; it resides at an existing spaceline location. That location may be either a planet location or a space location.
Your Borg Outpost enables you to make a "special download" of a Transwarp Network Gateway. This means that once per game you may download a Transwarp Network Gateway to your Borg Outpost (which is considered a location). When you use a special download you must immediately put the downloaded card into play. This does not count as your regular card play for your turn, but you must obey all the conditions or prerequisites for playing the card. A Transwarp Network Gateway may only be played where a [Nav] Borg is present, so you must have such a Borg at your outpost before you may use the outpost's special download ability. Currently, this is the only way for you to construct a Transwarp Network Gateway at your Borg Outpost, since the Borg Outpost is not on the spaceline and Transwarp Network Gateways normally play on the spaceline.
Later in the game, if you have a Transwarp Network Gateway in your hand, you may play it at any spaceline location where you have a [Nav] Borg. This does not count as your normal card play. Playing a Transwarp Network Gateway in this fashion is irrelevant to the Establish Gateway objective (see below), but does create another point of access to the entire transwarp network.
Once you have a transwarp network (consisting of at least two Transwarp Network Gateways) in play, you are ready to begin moving your ships through the network. Please note that, once on the spaceline, your Borg ships may use normal ranged movement or transwarp network movement, at your discretion and subject to the requirements of transwarp movement.
If you have one or more Borg ships at the same location as a Transwarp Network Gateway, you may move any or all of those ships to one other location with a Transwarp Network Gateway by playing (from your hand to your discard pile) one Transwarp Network Gateway card or one Transwarp Conduit card. Playing either card in this fashion does not count as your regular card play (because one is a doorway and one is an interrupt). (You may also use Transwarp Conduit cards according to their card texts, but of course you may not get both uses out of the same card in a single card play.) Transwarp movement is never a "free ride"; you must always play a card as the "toll" for using transwarp movement. Transwarp movement does not expend any of your ships' RANGE, but you must of course be able to fully staff your ship before you may move it.
If you have in your hand a Borg Scout Vessel and a [Nav] Borg, you may report that ship with that Borg (plus any additional Borg you wish) to a Transwarp Network Gateway at any spaceline end. If the spaceline end you select does not have a Transwarp Network Gateway, you are required (by the text on the Borg Scout Vessel card) to download a Transwarp Network Gateway. If neither end of the spaceline has an open Transwarp Network Gateway and you are unable to download one, you may not report the Borg Scout Vessel in this fashion. Also, under these circumstances your opponent is entitled to look through your hand, draw deck, Q's Tent side deck (if any, unless closed), and Zalkonian Capsule card pile (if any) to verify that you had no Transwarp Network Gateways in any of these. If your opponent exercises this option and examines your draw deck, you must reshuffle it thereafter.
All of the foregoing considerations are irrelevant to completion of the Establish Gateway objective (although they may influence which mission you target with your objective). See the First Contact Rules Supplement and the text of Establish Gateway for details on that objective's targeting, scouting, and probing requirements. The relevant consideration here is that, upon completion of the objective, you must download to that location one Transwarp Network Gateway, if possible (even if there is already a Transwarp Network Gateway at that location). If you are unable to download a Transwarp Network Gateway upon successfully probing for completion of Establish Gateway, you still score 25 points for the objective. However, in this instance your opponent is entitled to look through your hand, draw deck, Q's Tent side deck (if any, unless closed), and Zalkonian Capsule card pile (if any) to verify that you had no Transwarp Network Gateways in any of these. If your opponent exercises this option and examines your draw deck, you must reshuffle it thereafter.
If you are going to use a transwarp network for moving your Borg around, it is imperative that you include a sufficient number of the appropriate cards.
At a minimum, you will need to include one to be seeded at (or downloaded to) one end of the spaceline, one to be downloaded to your Borg Outpost (if you are using the outpost), and one for each Establish Gateway objective you intend to pursue (unless you are willing for your opponent to examine your draw deck, Q's Tent side deck, and Zalkonian Capsule card pile). These Transwarp Network Gateways will be used to create the transwarp network.
In order to use the network to move around, you will also need to include a few Transwarp Network Gateways or Transwarp Conduits. If your only goal for this card is to get your Borg from the outpost to the spaceline, you will need only one of these. You may, however, wish to include additional Transwarp Network Gateways or Transwarp Conduits if you anticipate needing to return to your Borg Outpost from the Alpha Quadrant. Moreover, if you wish to move between Transwarp Network Gateways on the spaceline, you will need to stock additional Transwarp Network Gateways or Transwarp Conduits (or plan on retrieving them with Palor Toff or Res-Q, accepting all the risks attendant to that strategy). Consider using Transwarp Conduits instead of Transwarp Network Gateways for this "toll payment" purpose, since the Transwarp Conduits also have a useful function unrelated to the use of the transwarp network. Note too that the Transwarp Drone (Two of Nineteen) allows you to download either Transwarp Network Gateway or Transwarp Conduit (or any future doorway or interrupt with "Transwarp" in its name) in place of one card draw.
Although only a Borg player may place Transwarp Network Gateways on spaceline locations, any player may move around the spaceline using the transwarp network once it has been created. If you have one or more ships at the same location as a Transwarp Network Gateway, you may move any or all of those ships to one other location with a Transwarp Network Gateway by playing (from your hand to your discard pile) one Transwarp Conduit card. (You may not stock Transwarp Network Gateways in your deck at all if you are not playing Borg, because of the "Borg use only" icon that appears on that card.) Transwarp movement is never a "free ride"; you must always play a card as the "toll" for using transwarp movement.
Under no circumstances, however, may you use the transwarp network (or any other means) to move your ships to your opponent's Borg Outpost.
Since Transwarp Network Gateways are doorway cards, a gateway can be closed by Revolving Door. Using Revolving Door(s) to close your Borg Borg opponent's Transwarp Network Gateway(s) on the spaceline can be an effective strategy early in a game (you may not close the Transwarp Network Gateway at your opponent's Borg Outpost, because you are not allowed to affect that outpost in any way). Note, however, that the Quantum Drone (Six of Nineteen) allows your opponent to download an Alternate Universe Door (which can be played from the hand to nullify Revolving Door) in place of one card draw, besides the possibility that your opponent has stocked her or his own Revolving Doors or Wrong Doors.
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