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Sometimes I find a game on BGG that sounds interesting but doesn”t quite do enough to make me push the “add to cart” button on CSI. Then, I”ll see a really good deal on it somewhere and I just dive in. This was the case with the Star Trek Deck Building Game: The Next Generation. This is a game I really want to like… and despite its blemishes, I DO like it so far. Let me try to explain why, and see if you might like it too.

Worf is denied a spot on the cover.

The Star Trek Deck Building Game from Bandai, one of the many deck building card games released in the wake of Dominion (the originator of the genre,) came out in 2011 to mixed reviews. Although the game has problems, it has some great sides to it as well. There are, so far, three versions of the game: The Next Generation, The Next Generation – the Next Phase, and the as yet unreleased Original Series. Each of these three sets can be played independently or can be combined to add more challenges and options to your Alpha Quadrant explorations. This review will focus on The Next Generation set as… it is the only one one I have.\r\n\r\nThe game has three play modes: a competitive game, a two-on-two team game based on the Klingon Civil War, and a co-op mode based on the Borg Invasion. So far, I”ve only played the Borg Invasion game. My research into the game indicated that this mode is the most balanced and fun right out of the box with no real modifications needed, and so far as I can tell, I agree.

Decisions, decisions…\r\n

The basic game play for all three modes is the same. Just like in Dominion, you”ll start the game with a bad deck of ten cards from which you”ll draw five each turn to play with. You”ll also start out with a crappy starship which will be your flagship. You”ll be able to upgrade both your deck and your flagship as the game progresses. On your turn you have a variety of actions to choose from. In any order on your turn you can: play cards from your hand (in game terms, this is called “moving cards to the bridge,”) spend the experience points (XP) on your character cards to buy more cards or repair your starship, perform a search which helps you find better cards to buy or deny good cards to your opponents, and explore the “Space Deck” to try and earn some sweet sweet victory points or even better, get a souped-up starship. If you don”t want to (or can”t) do any of these things, you can “trash” (permanently discard out of your deck) one card in an attempt to make your deck thinner and more agile – so at least something around here can be thinner and more agile.

The Starbase: You will never find a more
wretched hive of scum and villainy.

The new cards which will be entering your deck come from the “Starbase” – a 3×3 grid of cards drawn from the Starbase deck. These cards include major and minor characters from throughout the ST:tNG universe and feature Captain Picard”s shiny head, Gowron”s thyroid condition eyeballs, and Tasha Yar”s desire to be killed off and then come back as another character in all their glory! The images are actually a bit grainy and low-res, but they serve the game well enough. In addition to the character cards, the Starbase includes the other two types of cards: the ambiguously differentiated setups and maneuvers. These include things like shields, photon torpedoes, sensor scans, warp speed, etc, etc. Any time somebody buys one of the nine cards, a new one is drawn from the top of the deck to replace it.

I”ve got a bad feeling about this…

There are also three piles of the basic ubiquitous red, blue, and gold shirts which are found infesting every corner of any good Federation ship. These stacks of Ensigns, Lieutenants, and Commanders are one of the keys to getting more and better cards in your deck. These are the only cards that include a reusable XP value. Since XP is the currency you spend to buy more cards and to heal your starship, this trait naturally makes these cards valuable. These blank-faced officers can also give you small boosts in combat, but really they pretty much act like the coppers, silvers, and golds from Dominion.

An upgraded flagship in the Borg Invasion scenario.

So what”s the goal? Well, it depends on which scenario you are playing. In the competitive version, your goal is to get 400 Mission Points. You can get these points from the cards in the Space Deck – a stack of cards representing the strange alien life forms, enemy starships, and events of galactic importance which weekly plagued our heroes for seven seasons. Once per turn, you “explore” the deck by flipping over the top card of the Space Deck and doing whatever it says. If you can defeat the card, you”ll add it to your Points Area. Several of the cards in the Space Deck represent starships which you can try to defeat in either of two ways: blowing them out of the cold vacuum of space or using your golden tongue to “diplomacy” them into joining your side. The added benefit of the diplomacy method is that if you are successful, you can use the new (usually better) ship as your new flagship! This, unfortunately is one of the big complaints about the game. When you gain a new flagship, it increases your speed and diplomacy – thus making it even easier for you to get an even better flagship. This can quickly lead to a run-away leader problem wherein the first player to get an upgraded ship cruises their way to an insurmountable lead. Various fixes for this problem have been proposed on BGG, and I intend to try some when and if I get to play this game mode.\r\n\r\nIn the Klingon Civil War scenario, your objective is to get at least 200 Mission Points and to collect the special Ally Starships used specifically for this scenario. You and your teammate collect these together and you can only score this victory when the special Arbitrator card comes out of the Space Deck. Although I haven”t tried this mission yet, it does sound fun.

Borg Cards. These things are bad, Okay?

The final mode of play is the Borg Invasion. Like in the Klingon civil War, for this game a special Space Deck is created – in this case full of Borg Cubes and other horrible things. To win, you must, as a team, find and defeat the Locutus card from the Space Deck (evil Picard requires you to have a large attack and speed value counting only the bonuses from character cards.) This scenario also uses special Borg Cards which enter your deck and clog it up, simulating the slow but relentless assimilation of your crew. They have no value and do nothing except occasionally cause damage to your flagship and make Borg Cubes even more powerful. If any player draws a hand of five Borg Cards, they are completely assimilated and are eliminated from the game. If all of the players are assimilated or if the stack of Borg Cards runs out, all of the players lose. I can say that this mode of play is both challenging and a LOT of fun! Each player in this game mode will take on a special role in the battle against the Borg and whether your job is giving away character cards to other players, upgrading everyone”s flagship, or acting as the muscle to fight off Borg cubes, you will feel involved and have a good time doing it. Despite the problems with the game, the flavor and harrowing constant danger of the Borg really make this mode a blast.

My biggest complaint about the game so far has been (I sense a constant theme in my reviews…) the rulebook. It is poorly laid out with sloppy wording and just plain unclear directions. BUT, once you get past the rulebook, you”ll find that battling the Borg is fun, and I feel that even if I don”t play any mode other than the Borg Invasion, my money was well spent… Although admittedly, I picked it up for only $15 on clearance at Barnes & Noble. If you you see that kind of deal on The Star Trek Deck Building Game, GRAB IT. You won”t be disappointed.