[Armus]

Greetings all!

The Return to Talos IV (RTT4) rolls on, and it's time to preview next month's event!

Starting in July, we will be playing Enhanced Premiere Pack (EPP) Warp Speed.

Premiere-ing (*rimshot*) at DecipherCon 2000, the EPP Warp Speed format was Decipher's first attempt to make a more streamlined game (and, let's be honest, move some overstocked product). Decks were smaller, spacelines were smaller and more organized, and there was a 30 minute time limit, which means for this event we will have 45 Minute Rounds.

With only 3 missions, and only needing to solve a space and planet mission, the Warp Speed format was meant to be played quickly. The EPP Packs are ideally suited to facilitate quick play.

Each player will receive 4 packs of Premiere, and 1 EPP "Pack" Featuring a Built in Outpost/Dual Character Combination:

The Trois/Investigate Sighting II
Data and Picard/Explore Typhon Expanse II
Sons of Mogh/Secret Salvage II
Beverly and Will/Explore Black Cluster II
Data and Geordi/Test Mission II
Jean-Luc and Beverly/Investigate Anomaly II

Additionally, as part of the EPP Pack, each player will receive an Enhanced Premiere "Wormhole" planet mission and two random Enhanced Premiere Combo Dilemmas. Mad props to our local Lackey computer nerd Markus Eberlein (Eberlems) for configuring the EPP Packs to work correctly in Lackey.

For the warp speed format, the following rules apply:

Decks are limited to a maximum of 10 seed cards and a minimum of 20 draw deck cards.

One seed card may be a personnel, ship, or equipment card, and seeds at the player's outpost.

To build the space line, the player going first seeds their outpost mission. The opponent then seeds on mission next to that mission. The first player seeds their second mission on the open side of their opponent's first mission. The second player seeds their second mission on the open side of their opponent's second mission. The first player seeds their third mission on the open side of their opponent's second mission. The second player then seeds their outpost mission on the open end of their opponent's third mission. At the end of the mission phase, the outposts should be on opposite ends from each other. While the outpost missions are fixed, the other missions seed in choice order - no random selections!

Dilemmas are seeded batch style under opponent's missions. All self seeds are seeded so that they are encountered after all opponent's dilemmas have been cleared.

If you choose to seed a second outpost, You must still have a matching icon on your side of the mission where you seed said outpost.

Each player receives two normal card plays on their turn.

At the end of each player's turn, they draw sufficient cards "even up" to 7 cards in hand.

Once per game, when a player's draw deck is empty, they may shuffle their discard pile into their draw deck.

Players may only attempt their own missions - never opponent's missions - regardless of card effects (i.e., pulling an espionage card won't let you go mission stealing).

All of a given player's cards are compatible with each other, and may report to their outpost, but other affiliation-based rules (e.g., staffing ships, initiating battle) still apply

And finally, the most important rule: Have Fun!

I know ther's a lot here, but really it's a very straightforward, fun to play format. If you've never tried it before I would highly encourage it.

The show kicks off on July 3rd. Get pre-registered today!

[Armus]

Giving this a bump because we are now less than one week away from kickoff!

We already have 8 players registered, which is awesome! But does anyone else want to join in and make this gig a 4-rounder?

And in case you haven't heard, this event is now Subspace Series prize-eligible, which means you can get the swag even if you aren't up to to the 5 round Marathon that is the (now online) US Nationals!

It's not too late to get in on this action. Get pre-registered today!

[Neelix]

Hi Armus, I've pulled the trigger and registered for this event - not only is it my first ever online tournament, my first ever online 1E event AND my first ever warp speed event in this format, LOL!

My first question is, the maximum of 10 seed cards includes dilemmas? So I can seed 1 personnel and 9 dilemmas? Sounds as if the game truly will go at warp speed! (Although, with only 3 missions per player perhaps not?)

[Armus]

Hi Armus, I've pulled the trigger and registered for this event - not only is it my first ever online tournament, my first ever online 1E event AND my first ever warp speed event in this format, LOL!

My first question is, the maximum of 10 seed cards includes dilemmas? So I can seed 1 personnel and 9 dilemmas? Sounds as if the game truly will go at warp speed! (Although, with only 3 missions per player perhaps not?)

Hey Scott! Glad to see you taking the plunge!

The good news is this is a relatively simple (for 1e) format so the Lackey mechanics shouldn't be too bad.

To answer your question, yes. 10 seeds TOTAL. That usually (but not always - it depends on pulls) translates into 9 Dilemmas + 1 seeded ship, or maybe a key personnel with needed mission skills. But since you only have to cover 3 missions it's still a fairly "normal" amount of dilemmas that you'll face throughout the game.

And yes these games are designed to go quick. The in-person version of this format has 30 minute rounds, so the online rounds are only 45 minutes.

I'm glad to see you aboard! It looks like we've got 12 so far, which is a really good number!

That also means we're going to be adding a 4th round - so even more fun!

[Armus]

Ok guys and gals (and others!) - Card pools have been distributed, here's your Round 1 Pairings:

Edwin Latrell (Latrell) vs. Bruce Parrish (Captain Parrish) KRIS SONSTEBY (LORE)

Jon Carter (pfti) vs. Matthew McCalpin (Professor Scott)

Joe Kallstrom (Commander Joe) vs. Brian S (JeBuS)

Maggie Geppert (JadziaDax8) vs. Austin Chandler (DarkSabre)

Jon Fry (First Maje) vs. Oliver Thust (Bashir Commander)

Scott Baughman (Neelix) vs. Jason Robinette (JasonRed3)

On Standby: Kris Sonsteby (LORE)

With 12 players this will be a 4 Round Tournament. While I always give 2 weeks for the first round to allow time for deckbuilding, I would strongly encourage everyone to try to get their games in early, as doing so will allow me to start the second round earlier than scheduled and give us a chance to finish in July instead of carrying over into August. That said, the schedule is the schedule, and if people need the full allotted time, they should feel free to use it.

Also, as a reminder, since this is warp speed, rounds are only 45 Minutes, not the usual 105 minutes that Constructed games get.

Good luck, everyone, and most importantly, have fun!

[LORE]

On Standby: Kris Sonsteby (LORE)

With 12 players this will be a 4 Round Tournament. While I always give 2 weeks for the first round to allow time for deckbuilding, I would strongly encourage everyone to try to get their games in early, as doing so will allow me to start the second round earlier than scheduled and give us a chance to finish in July instead of carrying over into August. That said, the schedule is the schedule, and if people need the full allotted time, they should feel free to use it.

Also, as a reminder, since this is warp speed, rounds are only 45 Minutes, not the usual 105 minutes that Constructed games get.

Good luck, everyone, and most importantly, have fun!

Looks like I got benched from Nationals overnight (but it is because of a new player, which = YAY!) Can my associates in Money, Inc. bribe anyone out there in Subspace to get in the ring for a match with the Old Pro? I'll make it worth your while!

[LORE]

To build the space line, the player going first seeds their outpost mission. The opponent then seeds on mission next to that mission. The first player seeds their second mission on the open side of their opponent's first mission. The second player seeds their second mission on the open side of their opponent's second mission. The first player seeds their third mission on the open side of their opponent's second mission. The second player then seeds their outpost mission on the open end of their opponent's third mission. At the end of the mission phase, the outposts should be on opposite ends from each other. While the outpost missions are fixed, the other missions seed in choice order - no random selections!

Point of clarification - there is no such thing as mission duplication, right? So, even if my opponent and I both seed the same mission, we each use our own copy as if it were unique. Correct?

[Armus]

To build the space line, the player going first seeds their outpost mission. The opponent then seeds on mission next to that mission. The first player seeds their second mission on the open side of their opponent's first mission. The second player seeds their second mission on the open side of their opponent's second mission. The first player seeds their third mission on the open side of their opponent's second mission. The second player then seeds their outpost mission on the open end of their opponent's third mission. At the end of the mission phase, the outposts should be on opposite ends from each other. While the outpost missions are fixed, the other missions seed in choice order - no random selections!

Point of clarification - there is no such thing as mission duplication, right? So, even if my opponent and I both seed the same mission, we each use our own copy as if it were unique. Correct?

Yes that is correct.

[jadziadax8]

Austin had the FW over Maggie by concession, however that works in the scoring.

[Armus]

Austin had the FW over Maggie by concession, however that works in the scoring.

Concession? In Warp Speed?

Interesting....

Now I gotta check the OPG.

[pfti]

I won 65-0 FW. The differential is reported normally. So I would say Austin, your differential is your two highest point missions?

[pfti]

I won 65-0 FW. The differential is reported normally. So I would say Austin, your differential is your two highest point missions?

Also weird that it means there is a tiebreak advantage to not playing your smallest missions

[Armus]

So I consulted the OPG, and the only thing it says is that a concession is scored as a Full Win with +100 differential. However, in the case of Warp Speed, that seems unfair since it's almost impossible to score 100 points.

Therefore, I'm making the decision to award Austin the Full Win with +60 differential. I got that number by asking him what missions he had in play and adding the value of the single mission (in this case, his mission) and the value of the higher of the two double missions (in this case, ).

That's the same result as if he had won with the most points possible given his mission set.

I will use this same process for the remainder of this event (though I hope there's no more concessions to deal with), and if anyone has an objection, please reach out to me privately.

We should also look at maybe formally codifying this in the OPG at some point, but I'll defer to Kris &co. on that point.

[Neelix]

I am victorious in my first ever 1E Lackey Tournament match! Huzzah! Thanks to Jason Robinette for a great game and helping me learn how to manipulate the software properly - I even learned some new Lackey commands that I'm sure I'll use over in 2E Lackey Land as well!

Baughman gets the FW 60-0

Do I get a special badge for winning a FIRST BLOOD match? LOL!

[LORE]

So I consulted the OPG, and the only thing it says is that a concession is scored as a Full Win with +100 differential. However, in the case of Warp Speed, that seems unfair since it's almost impossible to score 100 points.

Therefore, I'm making the decision to award Austin the Full Win with +60 differential. I got that number by asking him what missions he had in play and adding the value of the single mission (in this case, his mission) and the value of the higher of the two double missions (in this case, ).

That's the same result as if he had won with the most points possible given his mission set.

I will use this same process for the remainder of this event (though I hope there's no more concessions to deal with), and if anyone has an objection, please reach out to me privately.

We should also look at maybe formally codifying this in the OPG at some point, but I'll defer to Kris &co. on that point.

You ruled exactly the same way I would have.