Star Trek Deck Building Game: The Next Generation - Tips & Strategies

I recomend using both sets together when playing either the free for all or coop anti borg game. The only concern we had was having 2 copies of the bridge crew, though that allowed more than one player to obtain them. We did institute a rule forbidding a person from gaining two copies of the same person. (or made them trash one)

The most common “problem” mentioned about this game is the fact that the first player able to upgrade their flagship (through diplomacy) can quickly become a runaway leader (especially for 2-player games). The house rule that we implemented is:

– If a player with an upgraded flagship is defeated in battle, they revert to the initial basic flagship. They still keep the upgraded flagship (and its points value) under the basic flagship card in the flagship area (to separate it from the ships defeated in combat and prevent players from upgrading to a different ship by mistake later on) and can claim it back, at the beginning of their turn, once all players also upgraded their flagship.

As stated in many of the reviews, there is a little problem when one player gets to upgrade their Starting Starship to one found in the Space Deck before the other players. The first to successfully upgrade is far more capable of handling the demands of space exploration and combat. If they are the only one to have an upgraded star ship for several turns, the rest of the players might never catch up! Here is my suggestion:

Before the game begins, each player gets to look through the Space Deck for a Starship of their choice. That ship is set aside and waits to be bought slowly over time. Each round, the players can put one or more resource point onto the better starship. Whenever the accumulated resource points equal or exceeds the Starship’s Attack + Diplomacy, they can switch it out with their Starting Starship. This rule would only be used once per player per game, cannot be done during combat or on another player’s turn. This rule would allow everyone to have a better starship in a controlled manner, dependent on their own play style, not on a random card draw. (Optionally, if play balance is also a concern, you could further enforce the rule that only ships worth 25 VP are allowed to be purchased.)

One of my players of this game likes to put the cheapest cost cards on the top and the most expensive cards on the bottom. So if you can only afford a cheap card, you do not have to look at all the cards, only the row you can afford. And he claims to not have OCD! LOL

The Borg co-op scenario is easily played as a one player game. Just deal yourself out 2 or 3 starting decks and go from there. It is great practice!