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Elim Garak, First Officer of Terok Nor

by Michael van Breemen

While the premiere version of the Elim Garak persona gets all of the attention (the term "the cheater" is associated with him), the others serve their own unique niches and this version is no exception. Sporting only three of the five skills of his premiere version and two of his Call to Arms, he joins Madred as supplying all of the necessary skills to solve Evacuate Colony with his Officer, Security, and two Treachery; and his Biology and Programming aren't exactly bad things to have either, whether it be Tsiolkovsky Infection, Houdini Mines, or any of the other dozen plus dilemmas which require either skill. His niche, however, involves the use of captives. You can kill your captive if your personnel at this mission are about to be stopped by a dilemma. He doesn't even have to be in the attempt in order to use his text, just at the mission itself. This can have its own kind of nastiness.

Torture + Elim Garak, First Officer of Terok Nor: Not only do your Intelligence personnel gain all of the skills of the captive of your choice, you can then kill them to prevent a stop to one of your personnel.

Prison Compound + Labor Camp + Elim Garak, First Officer of Terok Nor: You've gotten ten points a turn with Labor Camp and a minimum of five points with each Prison Compound. Why not kill the captive when you have enough for that two-mission win to go through just a bit more easily?

While admittedly he's a niche use for capture-related decks, it's a niche that will help the capture deck out in terms of mission-solving once they're done with capturing.

September 3, 2004