If you look at Best of Both World's when the Enterprise is attacking the Cube to rescue Locutus he seems to be directing the battle not just being passive. I don't figure that they would have some kind of generic nothing Captain or they would all be lvl 1. Locutus and possibly Hugh would be something to give them a bit more that just plain vanilla but if you want to argue they are all drone then their is no reason to give any upgrades on any Borg ship at all and each one would come stock and that would be it. I mean reason alone if you want to go by the basic ideas from the tv shows they have all the same resources and abilities but that would be boring.

That makes me thing why Hugh, 7, Locutus and other unique members might make each group a bit more customize-able. If you take away one part of the formula why not take away all?

I just think that's a lot of text you're having to fit on the cards, and a lot of exceptions to various core rules of the game. It could work, sure, but from a practical standpoint I'm guessing they're going to stick with what they've got.

But if they do it the way you're suggesting, and can do it easily and succinctly without five pages of FAQ, I'm all for it.

I guess some easy things they could do is give the Borg generic captain whatever skill, say 6 or 5 or whatever, but still have it cost zero points with a restriction to Borg-factioned vessels. Then have Locutus and others as crew cards. The "Captain" would really just represent the internal communications network of the hive mind, which can be interfered with (thus justifying Captain disable effects).

They will likely give them named captains called 2 of 4, or 6 of 12, etc.

Hopefully, the Borg captains will likely be just like other factions.

I remember the Borg faction being so convoluted in the STCCG that I never even attempted to play them. I do not want the same thing to occur in STAW.

Besides, Lore should be a Captain in the Soong expansion. Having him as a Crew upgrade makes little sense since we was obstensively the leader of the Borg splinter group. Hugh could also then be considered for a Captain slot, IMHO.

There will likely be unique captains with Borg designations that can captain each ship. Time will tell if we actually see any type of faction restriction, though.

April, right?

For release, yes........previews should happen in March.

I'm also in the camp that thinks the Borg will have a captain.......that's how the Borg would take over other ships (until we have assimilated versions, of course ) and the game mechanics (upgrade cards, scenarios, critical cards) require a captain...........you could change them to be different............but I don't think it would be worth the effort to do it for gameplay or theme reasons.

And it doesn't always have to be a 'named' captain it could just be 'group of 9' with a captain skill of x.

D'oh. Forgot about the previews.

So we should have an idea of how the Borg will be represented when the Sphere preview goes up. Let's hope it's not the last one.

Ah HA!

You would only forget about the previews because you already have the info! I knew it!

Okay, I guess I could see the argument for making Locutus a captain. Probably not how I'd do it, but after discussion I wouldn't object either. I think even if they went this route, he'd be an exception and the basic Borg ships shouldn't need to be assigned a Captain.

Why are you assuming their Captain skill would be 1 if they are "generic"? Do you think that is how Borg ships without special characters like the queen or Lore operate? They always expose their strategy and strike last?

I actually think a basic Borg Cube would be a 5 or 6 captain skill. That many minds working in unison are going to be able to out-strategize most "lesser" captains. It takes a Picard or Janeway (or Kirk!) backed by a top crew to out-perform something like that.

I'm not sure why 7 of 9 would be anything special for the Borg. Before she was rescued, she was just a drone. She should be a Federation crew upgrade, not any kind of Borg upgrade.


I agree about Lore and the Queen. They actually direct the Borg ships. On most Borg ships though, everything is run by the hive mind. I'm not saying there shouldn't be SOME unique captains, just that most Borg ships should REQUIRE a captain, unlike other factions.

I'm not sure about Hugh. When he was introduced back to The Collective, it pretty much destroyed his ship, which was them cut off from the rest of The Collective to keep individuality from spreading to other ships. This is what allowed Lore to take it over. Hugh later became a leader, but did he actually command a ship? I'm not sure how I'd design Hugh.

I'm hoping they think a little outside the box with the Borg. They don't normally have captains, to the extent that when an individual leader emerges, it's notable. I'd hate to think the designers felt constrained to give them Captains other than a couple notable exceptions (Lore, the Queen, and I guess Locutus) just because that's how the other factions are.

I could totally see a Borg boarding party with an effect similar to the tribbles, replicating each round with increasing (negative) effects. Oh man that's creepy.

i feel like the way to go with borg ships is to have their generic captains default to a higher skill level. or a mechanic like the fighter resource for their captain skill, to show it is a collection of individuals not just one. and to include some of the unique situations

it is important to balance creativity with practicality here, there a lot of awesome ways to represent what they do with simple variations of the core mechanics

Yeah, after more consideration, this is the way I lean too. I have been assimilated! I'd hope that the generic captain would have a picture of multiple Borg (and maybe be named "The Collective", instead of "Borg" to align with other factions), to leave the impression that it's not one guy, it's the Collective that is the Borg default "leader".

There may not be precedent in AW, but there are plenty of generic pilots in X-Wing with a higher pilot skill than 1. I think it can work.

What about other upgrades? Obviously they should have a "Borg Boarding Party", but what else?

Weapons - there isn't a lot of variation here...all Borg ships of a certain class have the same weapons, afaik. I guess assimilated ships might get torpedoes...?

Tech - what kind of upgrades would be warranted? As with weapons, all Borg ships in a class are pretty generic. Maybe "Adapted Weapons" and "Adapted Shields", which would somehow represent that the ship has already been adapted to the weapons and defenses of the fleet itms facing?

Crew - anything appropriate other than The boarding party? Maybe Hugh (I really don't think he'd be a good Captain upgrade)?

Elite Talents - the Borg aren't big on tactics...they pretty much just overpower and assimilate. The exceptions would be the unique captains (Lore, Queen, Locutus), but that could be built into their Captain cards.

What I'd like to see are Borg ships that are powerful, can adapt to enemy weapons and defenses after they've been exposed to them, and can rebuild themselves. I wouldn't really want to see a "named Cube" that is better than other Cubes. The Borg Cubes and Sphere should be the first AW expansions that don't penalize the customer for buying multiples, IMO.

They should have a tractor beam that drains shields, right? Maybe something like the Negh'var's special ability combined with the Klingon tractor beam? As an action, so they can still attack later. Tech upgrade.

Adaptive shields (tech upgrade) are super important and will be tricky. Bonus agility after each attack seems like not enough. Maybe they automatically regenerate a shield after all damage is dealt?

Hull regeneration could be handled with a non-unique drone crew upgrade.

They could borrow the assimilation token idea from Tactics to handle adaptive weapons. When you hit an opposing ship with primary weapons, mark it. All primary attacks after that ignore shields. Victim ship can be given an action to remove the token (re-modulate shields).

Fun stuff.

I really like the assimilation token idea for adaptive weapons. Very cool!

Should Adaptive Shields be a tech upgrade? Technically all Borg ships should have them, shouldn't they? Should you be able to purchase a Borg Cube without Adaptive Shields?

The current precedent is that all this stuff would be upgrades. Photon torpedoes and navigational deflectors are pretty standard equipment for Alpha Quad races, but you still have to buy them as upgrades.