New Rules: Playing the Borg

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New Rules: Playing the Borg

Because Decipher has combined most of its rules and corrections into its glossary, the rules for playing First Contact Borg are not available from Decipher at one place. I have, however, collected the main information, such as scouting or probing or assimilating, onto this page. Players interested in a pure First Contact Borg deck would have to follow these rules. Rules for the Borg changed a lot with their release in Voyager, but there are many who prefer the TNG era of the Borg. In any case, if you'd like to know, read on. After all, even if "Resistance if futile," the Borg have to know what they are doing! :)
~Sunakk

The following is directly from Decipher's glossary.

Borg - The Borg, introduced in the Star Trek: First Contact expansion in 1997, represent the first playable affiliation added to the game since its premiere in 1994. And they are, to use Q's words, not like anything you've over seen...

Missions are irrelevant. Unlike other affiliations, Borg never attempt missions. Instead, they use Objective cards to scout locations. Card elements which represent the location, rather than the mission, still apply; these include span numbers, planet and space icons, and italicized game text such as Quash Conspiracy's "No ship-to-ship beaming at this location."
Bonus points are irrelevant. A Borg player scores point, both positive and negative, only from (Borg use) cards and cards which specify that they affect Borg. When you or your Borg are confronted with any other card which is point-related, you still play out the card but ignore the points. (If that card presents a choice, you must choose an option which is not point-related, if possible.)
Gender is irrelevant. Borg personnel are not affected by gender-related game text on non-Borg cards (ex: Love Interests, Matriarchal Society, Alien Groupie).
Cooperation is irrelevant. Borg don't mis or cooperatie with affiliationed, Neutral, or Non-Aligned cards. Players using (Borg) affiliation cards may not include any non-Borg personnel, ships, outposts, or stations in their game deck or any side decks. If a player has Borg and non-Borg cards present together (The Naked Truth, Frame of Mind, etc.), normal house arrest rules apply. (A card bearing the "Borg Use Only" icon in its title bar can be stocked in your deck and used only when playing the Borg affiliation.)

The Collective and Hive - All of your Borg affiliation cards in play make up your Borg collective. All of your Borg affilaition cards at one spaceline location (or time location), whether in space, on a planet, aboard a ships or facility, etc., make up a Borg hive. Some cards may affect your entire collective; others may affect all your Borg in one hive. In a Borg vs. Borg game, each player has a collective, and both may have hives at the same location.

Borg Personnel - Most Borg Personnel cards represent drones. A dron'es lore lists its "Identification" (which identifies it as a particular type of drone), a description of its "Task" and its "Biological Distinctiveness" (species of origin; however, the species of Borg drones ir irrelevant to the Borg). Borg drones list no gender; gender is irrelevant to the Borg. The Borg Queen and Locutus of Borg are not drones.

Borg personnel have no classifications, though several of the personnel types appear as skills. Needed skills, including personnel types, which do not appear on Borg Personnel cards may be obtained by assimilation of opposing personnel or by using the Borg Queen's selectible skill. Regular skills (including the Borg Queen's selected skill) may be shared throughout a Borg hive using the Interlink Drone's skill. Your Borg may also share CUNNING using the Unity Drone's skill. [See Borg Drone page.]

Borg special skills provide many functions supplied by Equipment cards for other affiliations (ex: STRENGTH enhancement for personnel, RANGE and SHIELDS enhancement for ships). They may also use equipment cards, subject to certain limitations.

Each Borg drone has an icon identifying which subcommand it is assinged to within the Borg collective. Subcommand icons are used primarily to staff Borg ships, but also have other uses indicated by cards.

Borg Affiliation Ships - Borg ship SHIELDS do not block transporter beams (except during ship battle). Thus, your opponent may normally use his own transporters to beam his personnel and equipment to and from your Borg ship (or outpost) at the same location. You may use your Borg ship transporters to beam aboard your opponent's non-Borg ship or facility through its SHIELDS if you have a Transport Drone (Two of Eleven) aboard your ship (and if your current objective or another card or rule allows it). Locutus of Borg and the Borg Queen [and other counterparts] each have all three subcommand icons; however, they may each meet only one ship staffing requirement at a time.

All Borg ships have a bonus point box. These bonus points are earned by your non-Borg opponent whenever he destroys your Borg ship in battle (and only in battle).

Borg-affiliation ships are not affected by Plasma Fire, Warp Core Breach, Isabella, Into The Breach, Hugh, or the second function of Anti-Matter Spread. (They are affected normally by the first function of Anti-Matter Spread, like any other ship.) These cards refer to the Borg Ship dilemma, not to any Borg affiliated ship.

The Delta Quadrant and Borg Outpost - All Borg cards (except Locutus of Borg [and other counterparts]) have a D icon and match the Delta Quadrant. Thus, they follow normal matching quadrant rules for seeding facilities and reporting cards. Because no missions existed yet for the Delta Quadrant at the release of First Contact, the following interim rules apply to using the Borg Outpost:

When playing Borg you may seed one Borg Outpost on your side of the table, away from the spaceline. This seeded outpost represents both an outpost and a location.
This outpost/location is conceptually in the Delta Quadrant and its location is completely unknown to your opponent. Thus, your opponent (even if also playing Borg) may not move to your outpost or target the outpost, the location itself, or any cards at the location in any way. For example, he many not play a Revolving Door to close a Transwarp Gateway played at the outpost, a Temporal Rift on a ship located at the outpost, or a Brain Drain on a personnel at the location.
You may move your own Borg ships to and from this outpost (location) using cards such as Transwarp Network Gateway, Transwarp Conduit, and Wormhole. You may not move your opponent's ships to this outpost/location (even if he is also playing Borg).
Just as other affiliations build outposts "at any location" with a matching affiliation icon, Borg build outposts "at any location" they've assimilated. Although you may build Borg outposts on the Alpha or Gamma quadrant spacelines in this manner, you may not report cards for duty at such outposts (because they do not match the quadrant). You may report your Borg to the Alpha or Gamma quadrant using the text of such cards as the Borg Cube, Queen's Borg Cube, Borg Scout Vessel, Retask, Scout Encounter and Undetected Beam-In.

Objectives - Unlike other affiliations, Borg never attempt missions. Instead, a Borg player uses Objective cards to accomplish different benefits, such as destroyed an enemy ship, assimilating it into the collective, or disrupting the timeline. (You must still seed exactly six missions. Card elements which represent the location, rather than the mission, still apply; these include span numbers, planet and space icons, and italicized game text such as Quash Conspiracy's "No ship-to-ship beaming at this location.")

When you play (or activate) a Borg Objective card, you must immediately target an appropriate location, ship, or personnel as specified by the objective. Objectives may target solved or unsolved mission loacations. The objective then allows your Borg present to scout the ship or location, initiate battle, abduct a target, etc.

Your Borg must complete scouting (if required) and meet any other listed requirements (such as having Borg present at the location) before you may probe to determine your current objective's outcome (and score its points, if any).

Your Borg may not form Away Teams (either on a planet or on an opponent's ship or facility) except when counter-attacking or when allowed by your current objective or another card (ex: Emergency Transporter Armbands, Near-Warp Transport, Iconian Gateway, Devidian Door).

Battle - Your Borg may not initiate battle except when counter-attacking or when allowed by your current objective (ex: Assimilate Counterpart, Eliminate Starship) or another card (ex: Condundrum, The Issue Is Patriotism). They may attack other Borg, subject to these restrictions.

Each of your ships, facilities, or Away Teams that wishes to initiate an attack must have a (Red icon) personnel (or a "leader") present, except when counter-attacking.

Your Borg may abduct and/or assimilate opposing personnel during personal combat using cards such as Assimilate Counterpart, the Talon Drone (Three of Nineteen) and Assimilation Tubules.

Cards such as Rogue Borg Mercenaries, Crosis, Outpost Raid, and the Borg Ship dilemma are considered "rogue" and are not part of your collective. Thus, they affect your Borg cards normally.

Borg Cube and Queen's Borg Cube - These ships are intended to allow reporting of Borg personnel and Borg Use Only equipment aboard. Other equipment must be reported at a Borg Outpost, played with Devidian Door, etc.

Borg Outpost - The only way to play a Transwarp Network Gateway at the Delta Quadrant outpost is by using its special download icon, since the Borg Outpost is not a "spaceline" location (which is required for normal play of the Gateway).

Borg Queen - The skill that the Borg Queen selects must be a regular skill, and may be shared through the Interlink Drone like any other regular skill in the hive. The Borg Queen's enigma icon * indicates that she is neither universal nor unique, and thus is not affected by cards that specifically affect either universal or unique personnel. However, each player may have only one Borg Queen in play at any time.

Borg Servo - The personnel assimilated by this dilemma remains on the ship or planet where he was assimilated, until the Borg player can beam him to his Borg ship. Like all Borg, the newly assimilated drone must obey normal attack and movement requirements. Thus, he cannot normally attack unless attacked first or allowed by a current objective. If on a ship, he may be used by the Borg player to scout the ship for Assimilated Starship on his turn, if that is his current objective.

abduction - Cards such as Assimilate Counterpart and the Talon Drone (Three of Nineteen) allow your Borg to abduct a personnel during personal combat. When this happens, both combatants cease to participate in the battle and may immediately beam away (if possible), but are still "stopped."
The abducted personnel is considered to be escorted by your Borg present. On later turns you may move it around (like equipment). If the abducted personnel is ever unescorted, your opponent can rescue them with his own personnel present.
Abducted personnel are always disabled, and do not participate in battles. They are not considred captives and thus may not be rescued by the Rescue Captives card. An abducted personnel who becomes assimilated is no longer considered abducted.

assimilation - You may assimilate planets or your opponent's personnel and ships by using Objective and other cards that allow assimilation. Cards that allow you to assimilate personnel include Talon Drone, Assimilation Tubules, Assimilate Counterpart, and Borg Servo. (Your Borg Cards may not assimilate personnel you have captured unless a card or rule allows you to do so.) Assimilate Planet and Assimilate Homeworld allow you to assimilate planets (along with any facilities that may be located there). Assimilate Starship allows you to assimilate ships.

When personnel, ships, or planets are assimilated, they come under your control and undergo specific transformations.

Personnel assimilation - When you Borg assimilate an opposing personnel, it becomes a Borg drone under your control and it undergoes the following transformations:

Its affiliation changes to .
Its name is irrelevant to the Borg (ex: if you assimilated Wesley Crusher, he would not overcome the Zaldan dilemma). However, your opponent must still ovey the persona rule (ex: he may not report another copy of Wesley, or another version of his persona).
Its classification becomes a regular skill (the first-listed skill).
Its staffing ability changes to a subcommand icon, and, accordingly, its attributes adapt to service the Collective as follows:
Old Staffing ... New Icon ... INTEGRITY ... CUNNING ... STRENGTH
(Command) . . . . (Blue) . . . . . 7 . . . . . . 5 . . . . . 5
(Staff) . . . . . (Green). . . . . 5 . . . . . . 7 . . . . . 5
Neither Icon. . . (Red). . . . . . 5 . . . . . . 5 . . . . . 7
Its gender, species, lore, restriction box, and miscellaneous icons are immediately rendered irrelevant.

Borg do not assimilate (or target for assimilation) ANIMALs or holographic re-creations. Such personnel are excluded from any selections for abduction or assimilation.

In addition to drone assimilation, you may turn a male personnel into a counterpart by completing the Assimilate Counterpart objective. When this occurs, the counterpart undergoes the same transformations as a drone, with the following exceptions:

He retains his gender, species, and other lore information.
His staffing ability adapts to service the Collective by changing to all three subcommand icons (Blue, Green, & Red). His INTEGRITY and CUNNING remain the same, and his STRENGTH is +3.
His previous affilition remains relevant for your Assimilation Homeworld objective. If he is multi-affiliation, all of his affiliation icons may be used for this purpose.

Your Collective is limited to one counterpart (or personnel targeted as such) at a time. While any personnel is targeted to become a counterpart, that personnel may not be assimilated as a drone and is therefore excluded from all such selections. Dual-personnel cards may not be targeted for assimilation as a counterpart.

Your Borg may assimilate your opponent's Borg personnel. The normal rules for conversion of icons and adjustment of attributes do not apply if the assimilated personnel is already Borg.

A Borg retains its subcommand icon and attributes when assimilated by the opponent's Borg, and simply becomes a member of a different collective.
If the Borg Queen or Locutus of Borg is assimilated as a drone, it retains all three subcommand icons and the same attributes. Its gender, species, and lore become irrelevent.
If you assimilate your opponent's Locutus of Borg as a counterpart (with the Assimilate Counterpart objective), he retains all his subcommand icons and the same attributes, and simply becomes a member of your collective. You will score points from the objective for his skill dot icons.

Ship assimilation - When your Borg Assimilate an opposing ship, you take control of that ship and it undergoes the following transformations:

Its affiliation changes to .
Its name is irrelevant to the Borg, but your opponent must obey the persona rule.
Non-Borg staffing requirements adapt to service the Collective:
Old Requirement . . . . . . . . New Requirement
(Command) . . . . . . . . . . . . (Blue)
(Staff) . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Green)
Other icon . . . . . . . . . . . (Red)
Other requirements . . irrelevant
Its lore and any other icons are irrelevant.
If your Borg assimilate your opponent's Borg ship, it retains all its staffing icons but is now under your control.

Any shuttlecraft and other carried ships aboard are assimilated (but opposing personnel and equipment aboard are not).

Planet assimilation - When you assimilate a planet, it changes to Borg affiliation for purposes of building outposts there.

Any seeded artifacts are placed face up on the planet and may be later acquired by the Survey Drone, Sixteen of Nineteen, or by any non-Borg personnel present.
Any opposing personnel, equipment, and landed ships on that planet are assimilated. Any opposing facilities at that location, all personnel and equipment in or aboard a facility and all ships docked at a facility are also assimilated. Personnel aboard a docked ship are NOT assimilated. As part of the interim outpost rules, you may not report Borg cards for duty at an assimilated facility.

Other cards in play at that location are unaffected by the planet's assimilation.

Facility assimilation - There is currently no way to assimilate a facility except as a side effect of assimilating a planet (all facilities at the location are assimilated). Once assimilated, a facilities SHIELDS no longer prevent beaming (as with Borg ships).

hidden agenda - Cards with a hidden agenda icon represent secret objectives or other clandestine strategies. When you seed or play such a card, you announce it as a hidden agenda card and place it face down on the table without showing it to your opponent (this counts as your turn during that seed phase, or as your normal card play, as appropriate). While face down, its identity is concealed and thus it is immune to general-use cards (ex: Kevin Uxbridge).
You may activate a hidden agenda card by turning it face up at any time, even as a response to another action. (A seeded hidden agenda card may not be activated until after the play phase begins.) This immediately activates the card's game text. If there are any conditions specified by the card, you must meet them at this time (if you cannot, you must immediately turn the card face down again). Once activated, the card remains face up until removed from play.
You may not play a card as a hidden agenda card if it does not bear a hidden agenda icon. If you violate this rule, you forfeit the game.
If a card such as The Line Must Be Drawn Here or Mirror Image is activated in response to the play of one of the cards affected by it, it takes effect immediately in reference to that card play. For example, if you activate The Line Must Be Drawn Here in response to your opponent playing Kevin Uxbridge, he loses 5 points for playing that card.
A Hidden Agenda card may not automatically be seeded. Only those Hidden Agenda cards which say that they are seedable may be seeded.

probing - Probing is a feature of some Objective cards (and a few other cards) which uses card icons to determind a randomzied outcome. When a card requires or allows you to probe, you do so at the end of your turn (just before your card draw) by revealing and examining the top card of your draw deck, called the probe card. (If your draw deck is empty, you may not probe.)

If you see a match between an icon in the objective's probe list and an icon anywhere on your probe card, replace the probe cards on your draw deck and execute the appropriate outcome. (Thus, if the outcome allows you to download a card from your draw deck, the probe card will be shuffled into the deck before you take your end-of-the-turn card draw.) You must examine the icons in the probe list from top to bottom, and execute only the first appropriate outcome.
If there are no matching icons, but the word "Otherwise" appears at the end of the probe list, replace the probe card and execute that outcome.
If there are no icon matches and no "Otherwise" in the probe list, simply replace the probe card. This is defined as probing with no outcome.

Some probe outcomes "complete" the objective (e.g., the last outcome on Navigate Plasma Storms) - these outcomes tell you to discard the objective or relocate it as a marker. Other outcomes simply have an effect and allow the objective to remain in play (e.g., both of the outcomes on Promenade Shops). You may continue probing on successive turns until the objective is nullified, discarded or completed.

If two or more cards allow or require you to probe, announce all of them at once and reveal only one probe card (using it to resolve the probes in any order you wish). However, cards which instruct you to "immediately probe" are resolved individually, without waiting for the end of your turn.

scouting - Scouting normally begins with an Away Team consisting of a single scout. However, if you have mutliple unstopped Borg on a planet by any legal means, they may be used together to scout the planet if it is targeted by a current objective, even if you have not previously begun scouting with a single Borg. The same rule applies to scouting a ship, if you have one or more Borg aboard a ship from Undetected Beam-In, left over from a counter-attack, etc.

scouting locations - An Objective card may direct your Borg to scout a planet or space location. Scouting conceptually represents overcoming resistance (encountering dilemmas and Q-Flashes) and gathering data.
Borg encounter and resolve dilemmas and Q-Flashes in the same way that non-Borg do during mission attempts, subject to a few additional rules:

Bonus points are irrelevant. When your Borg are confronted with a dilemma or Q-icon card which is point-related (and does not specify that it affects Borg), play out the card but ignore the points. If that card presents a choice, you must choose an option which is not point-related, if possible.
Gender is irrelevant. Discard gender-related dilemmas such as Love Interests or Matriarchal Society.
Borg personnel have no classification. Any cards which specifically require or change classifications, such as Scottish Setter, do not affect Borg. However, a dilemma which specifies a personnel type, such as OFFICER, without specifying classification or skill, will affect the Borg normally.
Dilemma text such as "Abandon mission attempt..." or "Mission may not be attempted" does not affect Borg, because they do not attempt missions. Ignore such text, and discard the dilemma if it is wholly inapplicable. However, the text "Mission continues" should be taken to mean "Scouting continues" for Borg.

In general, dilemmas affect Borg normally. With the exceptions noted above, Borg must meet all conditions imposed by a dilemma in order to pass it, including requirements for skills that the Borg do no possess, such as Empathy. Such skills may be provided by assimilating a personnel with the required skill, or by selecting that skill for the Borg Queen at the beginning of a turn, and sharing the skill if necessary through the Interlink Drone. Such dilemmas may also be nullified (on a subsequent encounter) with Adapt: Negate Obstruction.

Scouting Planets - Begin scouting a planet by beaming down a single scout (any Borg personnel) to encounter dilemmas and Q-Flashes. (If an artifact is encountered, move it to the back of the stack as usual.) If that scout is unable to continue, you may beam down another scout to pick up where the last one left off, and so on. On your next turn, you may beam down another scout, and so on. As a result of being "stopped," scouts may accumulated on the planet (on your next turn, they may resume scouting separately or together, assist a newly arriving scout, etc.). Like other personnel, Borg already on a planet may form or split up Away Teams and may beam separately or together.

If your opponent attacks your scout(s) during his turn, you may counter-attack during your next turn with any number of Borg. Those Borg are free to remain on the planet and continue scouting on your next turn.

Scouting Space Locations - Begin scouting a space location by selecting one of your Borg crews to encounter dilemmas and Q-Flashes there. If that crew is unable to continue, you may select another crew to pick up where they left off.

Scouting Dual-Icon Locations - A dual-icon mission may be targeted by an objective either as a space location or as a planet, or even as both by successive objectives (space first, then planet). The Borg do not need both a crew and an Away Team to scout a dual-icon mission. Scouting porceeds as usual for the type of location that is targeted, using a crew on a ship to scout the space location (encountering only space and space/planet dilemmas, and Q-Flashes), or beaming down single scouts to scout the planet (encountering only planet and space/planet dilemmas, and Q-Flashes). Move inapplicable dilemmas to the back of the see stack.

Like mission attempts, a scouting attempt is one action that may not be interrupted (except by playing Doorway or Interrupt cards between dilemmas), and may not be aborted unless the entire Away Team or crew is "stopped" or removed from the location.

Scouting a planet or space location is complete at the end of your turn if you have scouted it at least once, and no dilemmas or Q-Flashes remain to be encountered. Your Borg must complete scouting before you may probe to determine your current objective's outcome. Also, you may not probe

on the same turn in which your Borg completed scouting; or
if your Borg participated in any battles at that location during your current turn or during your opponent's previous turn. (That is, your opponent may delay completion of your current objective by battling your Borg.)

When Borg are scouting a location, any artifacts encountered there are "moved to the back" normally. The Borg must complete an ojbective targeting that location before the Survey Drone can acquire the artifact(s). (Picard's Artificial Heart is acquired by its owner upon completion of scouting.) (At a dual-icon mission, space-permissible artifacts may be acquired upon completion of a space objective. Any planet artifacts may be acquired only after completion of Assimilate Planet.)

When an objective calls for scouting a mission location, you must scout even if there are no dilemmas remaining when you began (because none were seeded, or your opponent cleared them during a mission attempt.) In other words, you must bring one scout to a planet mission, or bring a ship and crew to a space mission, and announce that you are scouting that location. At the end of that turn, scouting is complete.

When an objective requires you to target a space mission "if not yet scouted," it must be a mission which neither you nor your Borg opponent has completed scouting. The absence of dilemmas for other reasons (such as a non-Borg opponent attempting the mission) does not mean the mission has been scouted. If your opponent completes scouting a mission after you have targeted it, it does not discard your objective.

scouting ships - An Objective card may direct your Borg to scout a ship. As with scouting a location, scouting a ship conceptually represents overcoming resistance and gathering data.

Begin scouting an enemy ship by beaming over a single scout. If that scout is somehow "stopped," killed, disabled, lost, etc. before the end of your turn, you may beam over a replacement. On your next turn you may beam over another scout, and so on. Note that you will need the Transport Drone, Two of Eleven, to beam through your opponent's SHIELDS (unless your opponent is also playing Borg).

If your opponent attacks your scout(s) during his turn, you may counter-attack during your next turn with any number of Borg. Those Borg are free to remain on the enemy ship and continue scouting on your next turn.

Scouting an enemy ship is complete at the end of your turn if you have Borg aboard that ship. As when scouting a location, your Borg must complete scouting before you may probe, no earlier than your next turn, to determine your current objective's outcome. You may not probe if your Borg participated in any battles at the location of the targeted ship during your current turn or during your opponent's previous tern.