Hints:

Each time you gain control of a neutral planet, you receive valuable control points, not to mention the possibility of being awarded Q points. Your first task then is to move into the Neutral Zone as quickly as possible, even if your spaceborne contingent includes a single ship and the Q character. Once your force enters the Neutral Zone, have the Q piece beam down to as many neutral planets as possible, then have him withdraw the moment the enemy fleet enters the Zone. Remember that the Q character cannot be attacked on a planet.

During fleet engagements, your best bet is to concentrate your efforts against a couple of enemy warships instead of attacking them all. When the enemy fleet has been whittled down, you can then turn your attention towards the destruction of the remaining warships.

Avoid spending all of your control points during the deployment phase. Instead, try to maintain a reserve of around two to four points, just in case an important playing piece comes up for sale during the auction phase.

Deploy your Unique people and ships as early as possible. If an item is marked as Unique, only one of them can be in play at any one time. If you both you and your opponent have Ambassador Sarek in your groups, but your opponent deploys him first, you won't be able to deploy your own Sarek unless your opponent's is removed from play.

Be careful when bidding on Unique pieces. If a unique piece comes up for auction, be careful to make sure another copy of the piece isn't already in play before you start bidding. If it is, you won't be able to use the auction piece even if you win it!

Wait to deploy items until just before you need them. Your opponent may have a way to remove items from ships (e.g. High Capacity Shield Grid) or people (e.g., Communicator). To reduce the chance of losing an item to a wily opponent, don't deploy it until you absolutely need it.

Don't forget, you can put any type of piece in your Auction Group. Most people put only Events in their Auction Groups, but you can put anything in there (except a Q, of course). Experiment with Auction Groups that contain ships, people, and items.

Romulan Warbird: a pivotal ship. Since it can Cloak, and avoid combat, you must come up with a way to deal with it that does not involve the Attack step. Certain events that remove a piece from the game (like Phased By Q) contain one solution. You could also use Destructive Q's ability to Smite, and do 6 damage to all ships in play. Warbirds only have 6 Shields...

You don't need to have people on a planet to control the planet. You control planets by having people with Influence on that planet. If two players have people on a planet, the player whose people have the highest combined Influence will get control of the planet. However, once you control a planet, it will remain under your control until the opposing player takes it away. So, for example, if Planet Delta in the Neutral Zone has no people on it, you can beam Ambassador Spock down to take control. The next turn you can beam Spock back up to his ship, and Planet Delta will remain under your control (even though it has no people on it) until your opponent beams down another person with an Influence value greater than zero.

Always check the special effects of the planets in the Neutral Zone. Whenever you beam a person down to a Neutral Zone planet, you learn about whatever special effects that planet has. You can see those effects by clicking on the planet and reading the information in the piece viewer on the left side of the screen. Some planets provide Influence boosts to your people, others cause damage each turn, and so on. An especially important effect is Victory Planet. If your Q is on a Victory Planet you get a Q Point each turn!

Get into the Neutral Zone early. If you let your opponent control the Neutral Zone, they'll end up having more Control Points, which means they'll be able to deploy more people and ships than you, plus they'll be able to win every auction. Don't concede the Neutral Zone or you'll be in big trouble!

A ship with two actions can beam and move in the same Move Phase, but not move and then beam. Using Isolinear Chip to give your ship two Actions will allow you to beam people up from a planet and move your ship to a new region in one Move Phase. This can be important in getting to the Neutral Zone more quickly or getting important people out of danger!

Remember that all ships in an attack group must have Attack Priority to gain the benefits of attacking first. Having ships with Attack Priority can give you a crucial edge in combat; it allows your ships to attack first regardless of who has the most Control But be sure that all your ships in an Attack Group have the Attack Priority benefit. If even one ship in the group doesn't have the Attack Priority benefit, NONE of the ships in the group will be allowed to use Attack Priority