For posting deck designs for feedback from other players and members of the community.
 
By Praetor
 - Alpha Quadrant
 -  
#540801
Hello,

I originally joined these boards to sort of catch up with 1E, but have since become enamored with 2E. As such, I am a bit behind the curve.

1. Is it better to build your draw deck to complete 2/3 or so missions instead of all 4 of them? What I mean is, in 1E I would make sure I would have at least 3 of each skill for all of my missions, that way if my opponent put some tough dilemmas under my big point missions, I would have an alternate route to victory. From my initial experiences with 2E, my opponent does not know which missions I will attempt necessarily, so can I just focus on solving two/three of my missions and focus my skillset towards just those instead of all four?

2. I have all of the original 2E starter decks except for Klingon and Borg, and they seem to have very similar events and interrupts: Darsay Archive, Render Assistance, Cry Havoc, etc. Are there any of these that can be removed for upgrades, or are all of these useful?

Thanks in advance!
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Second Edition Design Manager
By The Guardian (Richard New)
 - Second Edition Design Manager
 -  
2E North American Continental Quarter-Finalist 2023
#540810
Welcome.
Praetor wrote: Tue Jan 26, 2021 2:56 pm1. Is it better to build your draw deck to complete 2/3 or so missions instead of all 4 of them? What I mean is, in 1E I would make sure I would have at least 3 of each skill for all of my missions, that way if my opponent put some tough dilemmas under my big point missions, I would have an alternate route to victory. From my initial experiences with 2E, my opponent does not know which missions I will attempt necessarily, so can I just focus on solving two/three of my missions and focus my skillset towards just those instead of all four?
Most players go into a game knowing exactly which missions they will attempt and in exactly what order. There are a couple of reasons you might want to have a backup mission in 2E, but they will hardly ever come up. For instance, there are cards that play on missions that could dissuade you from attempting, but most aren't that savage or there are ways to play around them. You could face a Chula dilemma pile, I suppose, and decide to avoid the mission that starts getting the Chula hate, but I doubt the turns lost on the first mission would be picked up by packing up shop and going elsewhere. So, yeah. Most people just force through mission attempts as planned.

That leaves the last mission slot open for thing like "meta" missions like Alpha 5 Approach, Transport Crash Survivor or Metron Arena, Resolve Standing Conflict or several others that can help specific decks without ever having to attempt.
Praetor wrote: Tue Jan 26, 2021 2:56 pm2. I have all of the original 2E starter decks except for Klingon and Borg, and they seem to have very similar events and interrupts: Darsay Archive, Render Assistance, Cry Havoc, etc. Are there any of these that can be removed for upgrades, or are all of these useful?
There are definite upgrades or they can be ditched. When used as a basis for a draft tournament, most experienced players will tell you to ditch those cards. At the time, I'm sure the battle cards were meant to give players a feel for every aspect of the game, but it doesn't normally feel right for the Feds to pick a fight just to kill an opponent's personnel and were not enough for Klingons to do what they do best anyway. Newer starters have a few more tricks to whet the appetite for affiliations that do battle well and leave it out of the ones that don't. D'Arsay Archive is a simple cycling card that could still be used in a modern deck, but was mainly used as a way to quickly cycle to get a ship in starter decks. There are other ways around the problem now, like Christening.
 
By Praetor
 - Alpha Quadrant
 -  
#540895
Thanks, that’s helpful.

It seems that since battling is not as useful and is more difficult to initiate then this would put a premium on ships that have high range and are easy to staff over those with higher weapons and shields. Am I right on this?

So, If I have the choice between Scimitar, Soterus, and D’deridex for a group of ships to put in my deck, or just three D’deridex, It seems that I would be better off running three D’deridex then right?
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Second Edition Design Manager
By The Guardian (Richard New)
 - Second Edition Design Manager
 -  
2E North American Continental Quarter-Finalist 2023
#540985
Praetor wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 10:49 pmThanks, that’s helpful.
I'm glad.
Praetor wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 10:49 pmIt seems that since battling is not as useful and is more difficult to initiate then this would put a premium on ships that have high range and are easy to staff over those with higher weapons and shields. Am I right on this?
Range does tend to be the #1 attribute on a ship in consideration. There are some dilemmas that might target lower attributes and you can always be attacked by an opponent that is running a battle deck, but that's a solid assessment. When players do run a battle deck, they have to take the Shields of popular ships into account and have ways to surpass them. A good ship base stat is good there, but there are multiple battle cards that boost Weapons.
Praetor wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 10:49 pmSo, If I have the choice between Scimitar, Soterus, and D’deridex for a group of ships to put in my deck, or just three D’deridex, It seems that I would be better off running three D’deridex then right?
The guys are right about these answers. You essentially get the main thrust of the issue, which is that a unique ship's ability better be worth the extra cost or you'll probably want to go with generic options. In addition, non-unique ships are easier to stock in multiple as they can still be played after drawing the second copy. Why have two ships? As mentioned above, the threshold of 8 Range is important as most headquarters have a span of 2 and most planets have a span of 2, so when you get stopped at a planet mission, the next turn you can play new personnel, move back to the headquarters to pick them up, and move back to the planet to attempt again on the same turn, as opposed to waiting an extra turn for another attempt. If you don't have the 8 Range, a second ship can do the same job: go back home, switch ships, go back out and attempt. For space (which tend to have spans of 3), a Range of 10 is a useful threshold. If you go with Brian's suggestion of the D'deridex Advanced, for instance, a couple of Rasuls are a great addition. But again, a second ship works just as well. There are lots of options.
 
By Praetor
 - Alpha Quadrant
 -  
#540996
eberlems wrote:well Range 7 doesn't allow you to fly from missions with span 2 to hq and back without help.
Could using Reman Mines help with this? And/Or maybe Engage Cloak?
Armus wrote:If you're playing a basic Romulan deck, it's hard to do better than the D'Deridex Advanced. Just run Mopak x3 and have him be your wheel man.

Selveth is also hella good and has been since the beginning.
Thanks to both of you for your suggestions, but right now I only have access to physical cards (will look into virtual when I have access to a printer. As such I have:

Scimitar
Haekona x2
Soterus
D’deridex x3

If you had to pick three for a typical Romulan deck, which would you choose?

Thanks again Guardian, the range threshold tips of 8 and 10 is good stuff!
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By GooeyChewie (Nathan Miracle)
 - Gamma Quadrant
 -  
Continuing Committee Member - Retired
Architect
#541008
Praetor wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 7:45 pm Could using Reman Mines help with this? And/Or maybe Engage Cloak?
The Reman Mines can help, but it also locks you into using Remans and Supervise Dilithium Mine. While I do enjoy playing such decks with Romulan Scout Vessel as my primary mode of transportation, it won't work for all [Rom] decks.

Engage Cloak really doesn't help with movement at all. When you move onto it you can't move off until your next turn, and when you do you expend all your Range. The vast majority of the time, you could have just waited until the next turn and moved normally. Engage Cloak is meant to combo with particular cards which name it directly, such as the Valdore, but it never really panned out as a viable strategy.
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