Achiever vs. Achiever

by Rogue Shindler, Achievement Master

17th August 2012

As congoers gird their decks for battle in the North American Continental Championships at GenCon, the rest of the world can gird their achievement decks to earn some new gold this weekend! The new release today introduces some exciting new facets to the achievement system, as well as adding to the stable of new deck archetypes. New dilemma and Tribbles achievements are available, too, and as always, we've made some adjustments to the existing system in keeping with the original spirit of achievements.

PLAYER VS. PLAYER

The biggest addition to the Achievements system this time is our new PvP section. Players will earn achievements by going head to head (or face to face, or toe to toe) with a variety of different players, as well as squaring off against the same player multiple times. There is also a cycle for how many different players you defeat, and a special award for defeating the same player ten times. This section will continue to expand with each new release, but we are excited to introduce this new facet to achievements look forward to your feedback.

UNEASY ALLIANCES

On the Deck Design side of things, fans of the Strange Bedfellows cycle of achievements will be pleased to hear that we've introduced a new cycle of 2E HQ combos. The group achievement is entitled "Uneasy Alliances" and as the name suggests, includes a number of affiliation pairs that loathe the thought of each other, but are forced to work together at some point toward a common goal. This includes such classic rivalries as Klingon/Romulan and Bajoran/Cardassian, warring factions DS9/Dominion and DS9:E/Terok Nor, and bitter business partners Maquis/Ferengi. As with Strange Bedfellows, earning all five play or win versions of these achievements also earns you the titular cycle achievement.

As mentioned through various sources, the default requirements for these combo achievements have been edited to be more in line with the spirit of the achievements and mirror somewhat the 1E Treaty achievements. In addition to the named HQs, players are also required to have 10 personnel and/or ships of each affiliation in order to qualify. This will be in place for the Uneasy Alliances and other similar cycles moving forward. While the intention was to make this retroactive for Strange Bedfellows as well, it was felt too many achievements would be lost by players genuinely trying to incorporate facets of each side into their decks. As such, the threshold for the SB cycle was set at 7 personnel and/or ships from each side. This change will take effect immediately and retroactively effect all achievements in this cycle.

COUNTDOWN: DECAY

Another new addition with the release of Troy is the Premiere of Countdown and Decay achievements. The achievements are only available for a limited time, so you will want to act on them quickly! After a predetermined period of time, the window for earning these achievements will expire. Some will be replaced by updated versions of themselves with a new deadline, others will disappear forever, so be sure to get these while you still can!

So Countdown or Decay? What's the difference? Well, we wanted a term both 1E and 2E players could related to. So you could say they have the same function, but Countdown applies to 1E achievements and Decay applies to 2E achievements. For those that work on both, use your term of choice! The important part is that they will expire so work quickly!

DENY THYSELF

A theme already dabbled with in Tribbles, this set also introduces a cycle of denial themes achievements that reward players for shying away from some cards that seem to show up in almost every deck. No Crutches scores you points for eschewing some frequently-relied-on cards like At What Cost, These Are The Voyages, and Julian Bashir, Rebel Captain, while Overused Problems rewards you for avoiding dilemmas like An Issue of Trust, Hard Time, and WNOHGB.

On the missions side, How About a New Mission, Admiral? encourages you to skip frequent quests like Eliminate Sphere Network, Survey New World, and Historical Research. There is even an achievement had rewards you for skipping out some of the most overpowered cards like OT Kirk, Kruge, and the Chakotays (and this one you can even earn extra points for playing five times!).

You'll note that all of these achievements are followed by a Roman numeral 'I' and also have the Decay icon. This is because these achievements will expire at the next achievement release and will be either replaced or renewed based on the changing meta of the game. This also means you'll be able to earn them  again with each release.

PICK ONE TO SAVE TWO

First Edition gets some dilemma love in this release, starting with themed achievements for playing a minimum number of Chula dilemmas in your deck, or instead trying our a certain number of The Clown dilemmas at once. Of course, with the integration of property logos into the deck builder, we are now able to introduce a few logo-themed dilemma feats, including achievements for playing all TNG dilemmas and or using all dilemmas that originates from a motion picture. Can you pack enough dilemmas to elicit a Chula explosion?

DECK TITLE

Naturally, we have some new deck design achievements to try out, including playing with engineered life forms, staffing icons, and personnel cost. You can try your hand at playing with all all planets or challenge yourself by trying a non-TNG deck while playing in Block.

To top it all off, we've also added a quartet of new titles to the mix for those looking to earn top honors. As with many of the others, they are reserved for those who have hit the peak of a particular family of achievements. Three are PVP related, while one is associated with a deck design achievement.

THE PROFESSOR AND MARIANNE

Those tribbles, they won't stop breeding, and neither will their achievements. This time, they are looking for you to try to rig your deck, but are also looking to get you into the denial action.

Of course, new cloaked achievements have snuck there way into the release, along with a few more hint achievements to nudge you towards some hiding places. Look for some new and and diverse methods of getting hints for cloaked achievements in the coming year! Everyone's following @TrekCC on Twitter, right...?

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