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By StuartL
 - Alpha Quadrant
 -  
#568581
Hello all,

I am in the process of building casual decks to play with/against a friend, (who is new to the game, I played back in the Decipher days), we are primarily looking for a less competitive, more story driven game. Also I want to avoid any NPE's or 'gotcha' moments as my friend doesn't know the cards that well. I want to keep his interest in the game up until he takes the plunge and starts building his own decks.

With the exception of playing a non-alpha faction (e.g. Dominion), what is the benefit of playing missions and time locations outside of the standard alpha quadrant spaceline?
E.g. A Romulan deck with Gamma Quadrant missions, or a Federation deck with Montana Missile Complex.
Is there any downside to including such things, beyond an extra level of complexity?
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By Armus (Brian Sykes)
 - The Center of the Galaxy
 -  
Regent
Community Contributor
#568590
StuartL wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 2:43 am Hello all,

I am in the process of building casual decks to play with/against a friend, (who is new to the game, I played back in the Decipher days), we are primarily looking for a less competitive, more story driven game. Also I want to avoid any NPE's or 'gotcha' moments as my friend doesn't know the cards that well. I want to keep his interest in the game up until he takes the plunge and starts building his own decks.

With the exception of playing a non-alpha faction (e.g. Dominion), what is the benefit of playing missions and time locations outside of the standard alpha quadrant spaceline?
E.g. A Romulan deck with Gamma Quadrant missions, or a Federation deck with Montana Missile Complex.
Is there any downside to including such things, beyond an extra level of complexity?
If you like story mode, then Protect Historic Encounter and Launch the Phoenix makes for a great deck without it being too broken.
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By Takket
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#568609
StuartL wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 2:43 am Hello all,

I am in the process of building casual decks to play with/against a friend, (who is new to the game, I played back in the Decipher days), we are primarily looking for a less competitive, more story driven game. Also I want to avoid any NPE's or 'gotcha' moments as my friend doesn't know the cards that well. I want to keep his interest in the game up until he takes the plunge and starts building his own decks.

With the exception of playing a non-alpha faction (e.g. Dominion), what is the benefit of playing missions and time locations outside of the standard alpha quadrant spaceline?
E.g. A Romulan deck with Gamma Quadrant missions, or a Federation deck with Montana Missile Complex.
Is there any downside to including such things, beyond an extra level of complexity?
I could have swore there used to be a "returning to the game" link on the site that had some simple decks you could print out to teach returning or new players, but i can't seem to find it. Does anyone know where this is?

Anyway to answer your question, time locations (usually by providing you a free play) provide you with advantages especially for "era" decks like [22] , [OS] and [CF] . Couple them with Protect the Timeline for another free play.

Same with other quadrants... some cards incentivize you for visiting them. Like Cross-Quadrant Expansion and Combined Strike. Not that there aren't plenty of cards that provide draws and free plays just in the alpha quadrant too. CC has provided us with a wealthy of mechanics over the years for every deck type.

If you are teaching someone I'd stick to two simple alpha affiliations maybe with just one Headquarters for a free play to help get the feel for how that works. Most high end decks draw/play about three personnel a turn plus various other mechanics to play ships, objectives, etc and can get quite complex.
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By SudenKapala (Suden Käpälä)
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#568613
Takket wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 1:46 pm
StuartL wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 2:43 am Hello all,
I could have swore there used to be a "returning to the game" link on the site that had some simple decks you could print out to teach returning or new players, but i can't seem to find it. Does anyone know where this is?
Here. I once looked for it as well (for what possibly was only a minute, but felt like hours). So, somehow it's obscure... but it's also the blatantly visible green bar below the huge graphic! :mrgreen: Somehow, it's a mysteriously cloaked location.

But the whole FAQ section is there. It's a great place. Indeed, it has deck links.
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By Takket
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#568614
SudenKapala wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 2:54 pm
Takket wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 1:46 pm
StuartL wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 2:43 am Hello all,
I could have swore there used to be a "returning to the game" link on the site that had some simple decks you could print out to teach returning or new players, but i can't seem to find it. Does anyone know where this is?
Here. I once looked for it as well (for what possibly was only a minute, but felt like hours). So, somehow it's obscure... but it's also the blatantly visible green bar below the huge graphic! :mrgreen: Somehow, it's a mysteriously cloaked location.

But the whole FAQ section is there. It's a great place. Indeed, it has deck links.
ah, the image is the link, which explains why when I Cntl-F'ed and searched for "new" and "return" nothing showed up LOL
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By SudenKapala (Suden Käpälä)
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#568629
Takket wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 3:24 pm
SudenKapala wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 2:54 pm
Takket wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 1:46 pm
I could have swore there used to be a "returning to the game" link on the site that had some simple decks you could print out to teach returning or new players, but i can't seem to find it. Does anyone know where this is?
Here. I once looked for it as well (for what possibly was only a minute, but felt like hours). So, somehow it's obscure... but it's also the blatantly visible green bar below the huge graphic! :mrgreen: Somehow, it's a mysteriously cloaked location.

But the whole FAQ section is there. It's a great place. Indeed, it has deck links.
ah, the image is the link, which explains why when I Cntl-F'ed and searched for "new" and "return" nothing showed up LOL
Calling @jadziadax8 to the beige courtesy phone. Can we make the FAQ to be found more easily for... ah... newcomers? Not for, say, me or other dinosaurs here. Of course not. We can find it! :shifty: ( :mrgreen: )

Who can/should think about this?

And, @StuartL, do you have what you need? Can you come play with us? :)
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Executive Officer
By jadziadax8 (Maggie Geppert)
 - Executive Officer
 -  
2E North American Continental Semi-Finalist 2023
ibbles  Trek Masters Tribbles Champion 2023
2E Deep Space 9 Regional Champion 2023
#568632
SudenKapala wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 6:34 pm
Takket wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 3:24 pm
SudenKapala wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 2:54 pm

Here. I once looked for it as well (for what possibly was only a minute, but felt like hours). So, somehow it's obscure... but it's also the blatantly visible green bar below the huge graphic! :mrgreen: Somehow, it's a mysteriously cloaked location.

But the whole FAQ section is there. It's a great place. Indeed, it has deck links.
ah, the image is the link, which explains why when I Cntl-F'ed and searched for "new" and "return" nothing showed up LOL
Calling @jadziadax8 to the beige courtesy phone. Can we make the FAQ to be found more easily for... ah... newcomers? Not for, say, me or other dinosaurs here. Of course not. We can find it! :shifty: ( :mrgreen: )

Who can/should think about this?

And, @StuartL, do you have what you need? Can you come play with us? :)
I'm sure it's on the list for the website redesign, whenever that happens.
 
By StuartL
 - Alpha Quadrant
 -  
#568642
Thanks for the quick responses everyone.

I have downloaded and played a couple of games with the Coming of Age starters, which my friend enjoyed. I then added in some more cards from the PAQ era, plus some of the TNG block virtual expansions, and those seemed to work well. Now I am looking at adding either cards from my First Contact set or from the DS9 sets and I'm trying to figure out whether or not to bother with the added layers of non-Alpha/non-TNG era missions and locations. It seems that while they can definitely add flavour to a game, they can also make it more difficult for an opponent to react to them if they don't have appropriate cards. As I am building both sides though, I think I can make sure that both players get to do something. [NemR] [NemL] :D .
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By SudenKapala (Suden Käpälä)
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#568731
StuartL wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 10:45 pmI have downloaded and played a couple of games with the Coming of Age starters, which my friend enjoyed.
Great to see you use the CoA decks; I like them a lot.
How many did you find (and where)? Did you also know about the latest two -- [NA] and [Car] ones?

(I think those are not linked to in the FAQ? Or did I miss a link to, e.g., the sticky starter decks topic? @jadziadax8 )
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By Armus (Brian Sykes)
 - The Center of the Galaxy
 -  
Regent
Community Contributor
#568742
jadziadax8 wrote: Sat Jan 01, 2022 5:55 pm I didn’t know about a NA or Car starter.
I don't know about the regular starters, but I have Squire Starter versions of both.

Feel free to bogart those (or any of the others) if you need quick, easy and fun Trek! :cheersL:
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By SudenKapala (Suden Käpälä)
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#568743
Armus wrote: Sat Jan 01, 2022 7:12 pm
jadziadax8 wrote: Sat Jan 01, 2022 5:55 pm I didn’t know about a NA or Car starter.
I don't know about the regular starters, but I have Squire Starter versions of both.

Feel free to bogart those (or any of the others) if you need quick, easy and fun Trek! :cheersL:
Well. I did do my utmost best to advertize them (e.g. in this post and the next), after Sir Dan and Kazon Paddy put in the effort to create them for this event.

The tourney got hit by a Lackey server outage (got moved and people had to leave), but fun was had; and contrary to popular belief, we do still have those two extra decks.
It's a shame if they don't see more play.
 
By StuartL
 - Alpha Quadrant
 -  
#568745
SudenKapala wrote: Sat Jan 01, 2022 4:27 pm
StuartL wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 10:45 pmI have downloaded and played a couple of games with the Coming of Age starters, which my friend enjoyed.
Great to see you use the CoA decks; I like them a lot.
How many did you find (and where)? Did you also know about the latest two -- [NA] and [Car] ones?
I found the starter decks on the main page for all of the expansions. We managed to get games in with the Federation, Klingon, Romulan and Ferengi decks. I didn't see the NA and Cardassian decks, though I still haven't looked through all of the Virtual packs yet.

As an intro to the game they worked well. With a simple explanation of the rules and some help with the first couple of turns, we managed to get through the first few games with no major problems.

If I may make a small suggestion, making the starter sets (and maybe a beginners ruleset) more prominent on the front page of the site would be really helpful for people like me coming back to the game.


Anyway, my friend has asked me to build him a DS9 themed deck so I'm off to browse the relevant virtual packs to see what I can stick together for him, and maybe a Cardassian deck for myself.
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By SudenKapala (Suden Käpälä)
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#568751
Thanks for the info, @StuartL. I didn't think about the expansion set / card list pages; 'set-connected' decks are indeed published there. But only those; and there are more starter-level decks around!

I recommend also instead looking at the whole of this thread.
All the decks released with expansion sets should be there -- and many more!
If I may make a small suggestion, making the starter sets (and maybe a beginners ruleset) more prominent on the front page of the site would be really helpful for people like me coming back to the game.
I agree with you there. So, a redesign of the site is pending for a while now, and the FAQ could be more easy to be found; lets mention @eberlems to remind him. (It's prolly on his list already -- sorry if so!)
And I really can't find the above-linked topic in the FAQ, so I'll make a note in the relevant topic.

Thanks for reporting back, and let us know how everything goes! (Don't hesitate to ask questions in the Gameplay/1E forum, should you develop them!)
Question for noob

Awesome. Thanks everyone for all the help!

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