Star Trek Away Missions - the Q Campaign

It’s time for the main event: Kirk vs. Picard. For this final game, both players get to add a Mortal Q to our away teams. Q has 1 Attack, 2 Defense, 3 Skill, 4 Movement, and every skill specialization. Coupled with his base skill of 3, he’ll get a minimum of 4 dice on any skill test, more if he has backup from another character.

Of course, there is a catch: a deck of 10 Mortal Q cards. One card must be drawn every time Q activates or uses a Bonus Action. The cards must be played immediately, and tend to have effects that introduce some chaos without being overly game-breaking. For this scenario we start with two Mortal Q cards already in play, both of them missions. “Q’s Redemption” keeps track of how many times Q acts as backup when another character makes a skill roll to score a mission. After that player’s Q helps out three times, he leaves play and the card scores 30 points. “Wanted!” gives the other player 20 points if they manage to take out your Q in an attack, but can be shuffled back into the deck (without scoring) if Q makes a Diplomacy test against an opponent’s character.

Each player’s Q acts as a normal character in all other respects.

For this game I’ll be playing a classic series A-list consisting of Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and Chekov. My opponent has Picard, Deanna Troi, LaForge, Dr. Crusher and everyone’s favorite know-it-all ensign, Wesley. My team’s skill ratings are mostly middle-of-the-road (all 2 except for Spock) but they have a pretty wide range of specializations, and with Q’s help I’ve soon got several missions done and am one mission away from scoring the “Q’s Redemption” mission for an extra 30 points.

Many of the classic series missions involve “beaming away.” The character doing the mission is removed from the board, then at the start of my next activation (after my opponent takes a turn) the beamed away character resolves their mission. It’s a little awkward going back to a previous character before activating the next one, and characters that are beamed away can’t use backup from another team member, so I’m having a hard time having Q help with one more mission so I can score “Q’s Redemption.”

The beam away missions are also fairly dangerous – if the character fails to complete the mission, they are eliminated. I do have some protection against that in the form of Dr. McCoy and two cards that allow me to prevent a character from being eliminated if Dr. McCoy is in the space they beamed away from, or any transporter space. So by keeping Kirk and McCoy together I can have Kirk beam away to solve missions while McCoy waits around in case he’s needed. As it happens, Kirk gets through several beam away missions without any problem, and by midway through round 2 I’m sitting on 105 points to my opponent’s 35.

Picard’s missions and card strategy seem to lean into forcing opposed rolls, which can make things easier or more difficult depending on who is opposing the roll. Early on my opponent seems to be at a distinct disadvantage, as I am able to oppose most of her rolls with Q, who rolls 5 dice on any skill test as long as he’s in a space with a friendly character. However, my opponent is also able to force many of my beam away missions to be opposed rolls, which makes for some tense moments as I usually need multiple successes with a single character rolling.

Here is where I get too clever for my own good. I decide that Dr. McCoy will be more useful in the transporter room – if he’s there, he can play his cards that save my characters from dying on failed beam away missions on any character, not just the one who beamed away from his location. So I give him two move actions to get him across the play area and most of the way to the transporter room, thinking I’ll get him the rest of the way there on the next turn. I then promptly forget all about that magnificent plan, and on my next turn I have Kirk beam away to attempt the “Mirror, Mirror” mission. My opponent plays “Third Party Arbitration,” a card that allows Picard to oppose Kirk’s Command skill roll. I could cancel the card by discarding two cards from my hand, but I only have two cards and one is a high-scoring mission, so I decide to brazen it out. Picard manages to block enough of my successes that I fail the mission, but that’s fine, McCoy can save Kirk from…oh wait, McCoy is still en route to the transporter room, so no help there. I discard my last card to reroll my failed skill dice, but to no avail. Kirk is dead, killed by Picard’s impressive Command skill roll.

I limp through the final round and manage to score a few more missions, but it’s clear my away team’s hearts aren’t in it. I don’t manage to score “Q’s Redemption,” and the final score at the end of round three is 195 to 185 in Picard’s favor.

Just for fun, we decide to roll a combat between Kirk and Picard – making them fight it out seems like something Q might do. Kirk completely misses with a Judo melee attack, and Picard calmly responds by stunning Kirk with his phaser. I guess that settles that…