Mot's Useless Card Review #67: K'nera

With so much Klingon SECURITY out there (Governor Worf, Mogh, or the Mission Specialists Kle’eg and Gorath), poor K’nera hasn't left most players' binders in ages. Still there are some reasons to consider him. With both SECURITY and OFFICER, he'd go a long way toward helping a Kurlan Naiskos dcek, or using Senior Staff Meetings (the V.I.P./SECURITY pair won't help you as much there). Honor is, of course, a dime a dozen among the Klingons - but it is required on many of the Klingon missions. Transporter Skill is still a hard sell it seems, but it does help you out against Atmospheric Ionization, Distortion Fields, and Particle Scattering Fields.

Which leaves K'nera's most interesting skill: "Scores 5 points when Korris or Konmel killed in battle." This has some fascinating possibilities. Just how many times and how many ways can you get these guys killed?

You could start things off with Assign Mission Specialists. Both Korris and Konmel can be downloaded. With a Ready Room Door to do the downloading, you'll still have your card play for the turn. Play a K'Vort, and send them off to attempt a mission where you've seeded a Borg Ship dilemma. Scratch two Klingons, chalk up 10 points.

Use Mission Debriefings to chalk up more points. Stop your opponent on the surface of a planet after they've attempted or completed a mission. Most of the time, the Team that went after a mission is going to have better than the combined 16 STRENGTH of the 2 marked Klingons. Send them down for a foolhardy Away Team battle, and chalk up some more points. If your opponent's playing Borg, even better! You can beam aboard their ships to battle them, scoring points for yourself when they're killed, and stopping you opponent from scoring as you deny their ability to probe due to battle.

How about adding Kahlest to the mix? Now Korris has a STRENGTH of 10 while Konmel is stuck at 8. Now you can play Arbiter of Succession on the two of them to make one kill the other. You score 5 for the death with K'nera, and 10 more for the Arbiter card itself. Using multiple Klingon Painstiks, you could return the same Arbiter of Succession to your hand again and again. Keep reporting Konmels, scoring 5 points for each. Since Korris isn't ever going to die in this plan, you could drop a Data’s Medals on him for 5 more.

Go out attacking your opponent's ships at every corner. If you have just enough WEAPONS on your ship, they'll be faced with an odd conundrum: do they let you damage them without firing back? You'll either score points, or slow down your opponent in a big way - either one's a good thing. Throw in Klingon Death Yell, and suddenly the Honor-able Korris is serving double duty, scoring you 10 points each time he is killed in battle.

In short, with K'nera you can nickel and dime your opponent to victory. With Intermix Ratio out there, you may have to actually score 50 points' worth of missions - but then these tactics probably wouldn't have gotten you to 100 anyway.

How many times can Korris and Konmel give their lives for the glory of the Klingon Empire?