Major Rakal
Romulan & Federation Personnel Characteristics: "Continuing Mission"-related cards, affiliation, affiliation, Major, Intelligance - Tal Shiar, Betazoid species. Rule hint for this cardThis card has an erratum: Errata on lore text (missing race and name in bold face). Lore before errata: "Physically altered, Deanna Troi was coerced to completely assume the identity of a Tal Shiar major in the 2369 M'ret defection plot." Taken form Glossary - Version 1.9.5.This card has an clarification: This personnel retains her icon. Her attribute adjustments in Federation mode are a special skill. See Assign Support Personnel. Taken form Glossary - Version 1.9.5.Card logging info: Logged by openCards team at May 1st, 2009. | |
This Card-Review article was written by Evan Lorentz and was published first on "Decipher's Website (decipher.com)" at Feb 24th, 2000.
Over the years, Tal Shiar has become a central element of the Romulan affiliation. But there was a time when the only member of covert intelligence agency available was Major Rakal. And she can be just as useful today as she was then.
Romulan players find in the Major the skills needed to solve a number of popular missions including Secret Salvage, Wormhole Negotiations, and of course Quash Conspiracy. They also get an Alternate Universe icon good for Fissure Research, or a "report with crew" using Space-Time Portal - especially valuable given the relatively small number of Romulan AU personnel. Best of all, her Empathy gives the Romulans access to that important dilemma-busting skill without having to turn to Non-Aligned personnel or Reflection Therapy.
But Major Rakal is especially duplicitous even for a Tal Shiar personnel: she's dual-affiliation. Switch her to Federation mode and you get all the skills of the Premiere version of her persona Deanna Troi, plus the AU icon. Note that instead of Deanna's normal OFFICER, you'll find V.I.P. on the Major. It's perfect for going after the biggest of all planet missions, the 60-point Diplomatic Conference.
Combos:
- Major Rakal + Sisters of Duras + Diplomatic Conference: Add any Romulan and Non-Aligned V.I.P. and you've got all you need for Diplomatic Conference. You can get them all there easily in Romulan mode, then switch them all to their secondary affiliations to solve the mission. No treaties, no fuss.
- Major Rakal + Ilon Tandro + Diplomatic Conference: The same trick, made available to a Federation player.