Major Rakal's Romulan Review #57: Facilitating understanding of Facilities; Part 3: Who and What?

(08/23/1998)

Aefvadh! We've covered "How many?" and "Where?". Now that you have your allowable facilities at appropriate locations, what do you do with them? Well, reporting personnel (and ships) is arguably the most important reason for most facilities to exist. Which leads to two new questions: "Who can use a facility?" and "What cards can report there?", covered in part 3 of the series...

FACILITATING UNDERSTANDING OF FACILITIES, PART 3: WHO AND WHAT?

Who can make use of a facility's reporting and other capabilities? While most cards may be used only by the player who plays or seeds them, that's not always the case for facilities. Here are the rules for facility use:

• You may not make use of your opponent's outposts.
• All other facilities may be used by either player if they meet any requirements of the Facility card itself (and any relevant site cards).

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me A Match (Will You Settle For Being Compatible?)

To understand how to use facilities, we also need two definitions, for "matching" and "compatible." Straight from the DS9 rulebook glossary:

• Two cards are of MATCHING affiliation if their affiliation icons are the same.
• Two cards are of COMPATIBLE affiliation if their affiliation icons can work together.

What cards may "work together" (use, mix and cooperate)?

• Any cards of the same affiliation may work together.
• Borg do not work with cards of any other affiliation (or Neutral or Non-Aligned cards).
• Non-Aligned and Neutral cards may work with any affiliation (except Borg).
• Cards of two different affiliations may work together if they are cooperating under a treaty.

(Restriction boxes may override these rules; for example, Tallera "does not work with other [Fed] personnel" even when she is in Federation mode, and Galen "does not work with [Fed]" even though he is Non-Aligned.)

When a facility or site refers to a matching or compatible personnel or ship, it means the personnel or ship must match, or be compatible with, the facility card.

If a facility is commandeered, its affiliation icon may have changed (that is, it may not be what is printed on the card). For example, if I commandeer your Deep Space 9 / Terok Nor (Bajoran icon) with a Romulan Away Team, I flip the card to the Deep Space 9 / Terok Nor side (Cardassian icon), but its affiliation is now Romulan. Romulan cards now match the station; Romulan and Non-Aligned cards are compatible with the station; and neither Cardassian nor Bajoran cards are compatible or of matching affiliation.

Reporting Cards For Duty

To report cards to a facility, the card must be compatible with the facility (unless a site says otherwise), and both the card and facility must be in their matching quadrant. So you may not report Locutus of Borg to a Borg Outpost in the Delta Quadrant (because Locutus does not match the Delta Quadrant) or to a Borg Outpost in the Alpha Quadrant (because the outpost does not match the Alpha Quadrant). The rest of this discussion assumes matching quadrants.

Outposts and Headquarters
You may report any compatible personnel, ships, and equipment to your outpost or to any headquarters. Ships are reported docked at an outpost (a space facility) or "in orbit" of the planet where a headquarters is located. Personnel are reported directly to the facility and are considered "aboard" the outpost or "in" the headquarters.

Example: You have a Federation Outpost and a Husnock Outpost in play. I have a Chamber of Ministers in play. Without a treaty, you can report your Federation cards to your Federation Outpost or your Husnock Outpost; your Bajoran cards to your Husnock Outpost (as long as no Federation cards are there) or my Chamber of Ministers; and your Non-Aligned cards to any of the three facilities. If you now play a Treaty: Federation/Bajoran, you may report any of your cards to any of the facilities.

Stations
Cards may not be reported directly to a station, but may be reported to (placed on) appropriate site cards played on a Nor. Ships report docked at a docking site. Personnel report to a site and are considered to be "at" or "in" that interior location.

The Nor must have at least one docking site for any reporting (of personnel, ships, or equipment) to take place at any site on the station. (Cards may not report to a Colony or Terraforming Station, because those stations have no site cards.)

While either player may report cards to sites, simply being compatible with the station is not enough to allow a card to report there. Each site card states exactly what cards may report there. Reporting may be restricted by affiliation, classification, ship staffing requirements, or in other ways.

Example: You have Terok Nor with the following sites: Ops, Infirmary, Guest Quarters, and Docking Ports. You are playing Cardassian (no Non-Aligned); I am playing Romulan with Non Aligned. What cards may wereport to this Nor?

• Ops: You may report Dukat. I may report Kalita (OFFICER classification), but not Zon (OFFICER skill) or Tomalak (not compatible).
• Infirmary: You may report a Medical Kit or Ghoren (MEDICAL classification), but not Makbar (VIP classification, MEDICAL skill). I may report Altovar (Non-Aligned), but not Takket (because he is not compatible with the station). You may also use the text of Ops to replace your card play with a download of the Medical Kit or Ghoren (who matches the station) to the Infirmary. I cannot use the Ops text to download Altovar here, because he does not match the station's affiliation, but I could download a Medical Kit.
• Guest Quarters: VIPs may report regardless of affiliation. You may report Makbar (or download her with the Ops text). I may report Major Rakal or Sharat.
• Docking Ports: You may report any of your ships with fewer than three staffing icons (or download them with the Ops text). I may report a Miradorn Raider (two staffing icons, Non Aligned is compatible with Cardassian); I may report the T’Pau (one staffing icon) if I have a personnel with Computer Skill at the Docking Port site, unopposed (perhaps Sharat, who reported to Guest Quarters).

In Part 4, we'll look at other common facility questions, including how their SHIELDS work, and what other functions you can carry out there.