The Captain is Dead - Tips & Strategies

Among the white “No Department” roles in TCID is the unassuming Ensign. The Ensign does not appear very useful, having no inherent skill discounts and a maximum hand size of 4. Once the ship is under attack and the systems are going down, however, this role really shows its value.

The Ensign can transfer skill cards to or from other crew members as a free action. If Communications are down, he is an important means of moving critical skills from one crew member to another — thus his wildly reduced hand size. It is best not to have the Ensign use the Cargo Bay or the Computer to dig for more skills unless you are truly desperate; it is easier to use him as a go-between.

Additionally, he can spend one action to move up to four squares, double the normal movement range of the crew. It is important to note that this movement is unaffected by anomalies, so even Increased Gravity won’t slow the Ensign down. If the Transporter is down, the Ensign’s job becomes that much more critical.

Don’t underestimate the value of a good Ensign — after all, even Wesley was able to save the Enterprise.

…or in this case, the Cargo Hold. The Cargo Hold contains five Tools cards at the start of the game, and one discarded Skill card for each player, added at the start of the game.

The Tools are two-shot useful bonuses, and can be passed between crew members in the same room. Not all are equally useful — there are two weapons cards available which help in taking down multiple invaders, but those may be redundant if the Soldier is among your crew.

The Skills stored in the Cargo Bay may not have seemed useful when the game began, but may be more necessary as the game goes on. The Internal Sensors and the Cargo Bay are the only sources of known Skills available in every game; make sure to take advantage of that if possible.

After playing several times, the alert deck can seem repetitive. The same alerts come each time. Here’s what we have tried:

Mod 1 –
When setting up the game, shuffle the yellow, orange and red alerts separately, as per the rules. Before you stack them together, randomly remove 2 (or 3) alerts from each stack and place them back in the box. Now, you don’t know for sure which alerts are coming at you. Be sure to reduce the difficulty level of the Jump Core accordingly as you now have 6-9 less turns to repair it.

Mod 2 –
During setup, pull two random red alert cards. Place one red alert card in the yellow section, and one in the orange section. This intensifies things quickly and shows you alert cards you rarely see. Be sure to reduce the difficulty level of the Jump Core as needed.