Thomas Schneider (thsch) |
Tournament Report - 2E - British National |
2013-11-17 - 11:00 AM |
Fighting the Curse |
Introduction |
I did not have the time to build and test a new deck before this tournament, so I decided to use my Romulans. While it surely has some bad match-ups, I was pretty confident I will at least have a fighting chance against every deck.
Disclaimer: I am writing this report two weeks after the tournaments and my notes are questionable at best, so if you have a different memory of our game, you are probably right... |
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Round 1 | | Steven Rich | FW (+100) |
Steven was playing his first 2E tournament with a borrowed Federation Integrity solver. I had a slow start and did not get enough personnel into play during the first turns. To make things worse, I did not score any points from Getting Under your Skin. And when I finally attempted my first mission Steven first stopped me with only two under and during the next turn send me to Where No One Has Gone Before. Danny our TD told me that from all the 2E players I was the one looking the most worried, and honestly I was... Steven has not done a single mistake so far, started attempting before I did and was playing a deck that could easily solve two missions in one turn. The good news was that I finally scored some bonus points and thus could solve my space mission with four personnel and Power Shift as soon as my ship was back. Meanwhile Steven was struggling at his first mission, mainly because my dilemma draws where really lucky. Next turn I attempted Assess Contamination and Steve made the first (and I think only) mistake playing dilemmas by forgetting about Neral and miscalculating the cost of Pitching In. I solved the mission and continued at Survey New World where I got stopped with four under and thus could complete it next turn with the help of Power Shift. |
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Round 2 | | Meinhard S. Rohr | FW (+100) |
Another 1E player with a borrowed deck. This time my start was so much better! Starting from round two I had Getting Under your Skin and Prejudice and Politics in play and scored a lot of points. I had nothing to use them for though, as I did not draw At What Cost or Far Seeing Eyes... I did draw a Power Shift so I started to attempt my space mission. I was very lucky and solved it at the first attempt even without the help of Power Shift since Stefan underestimated the attributes of my personnel and stopped one to less. Next turn his dilemmas let him down again and I could solve Assess Contamination with help from Navaar and Power Shift although half of my team got stopped by An Issue of Trust. The remaining personnel (together with a few I had waiting on my ship) continued to Survey New Worlds and Stefan's lack of dilemma luck reached its peak when the three personnel he selected for Temptation turned out to be Navaar (with Treachery), Data (who got Treachery from Navaar), and Setek (who could prevent the stop using his ability)... With nobody stopped my personnel solved the mission and the game was over. |
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Round 3 | | Unjustly Banned | FW (+55)View opponent's ReportView original Report |
James was playing Mirror Starfleet, a deck I know very well. An early P'Tol revealed a kill pile, so it looked like Donatra would have a busy day... James managed to destroy all my bonus point events very soon after a played them, so all I got was one At What Cost... I started attempting at Assess Contamination and to my surprise James did not play a single dilemma and I completed. With all my personnel (most important Donatra) unstopped, alive, and still in play I continued to Survey New World. Thanks to Donatra I ended up with six dilemmas under and acceptable losses and could auto-complete next turn. Meanwhile James did complete his space mission and started to attempt his planet mission. Secure Strategic Base + two copies of Standard Punishment on Watch Dog + the usual above average attributes on mirror Starfleet personnel means I had to take a gamble. I played a lone Whisper in the Dark, being pretty sure he was missing one very likely two skills. His team included D'Vela but his only event was Watch Dog, so I decided that even if he was missing only one skill getting rid of his Standard Punishments was a fair trade for letting him solve the mission. It turned out he was missing two skills, so three personnel died and the survivors could not solve. With James having only one ship in play and not enough personnel to solve his mission I was pretty sure I would have at least two more turns. I thus send a team of six to my space missions to get enough dilemmas under to solve it next turn. First dilemma was Tragic Turn, which I prevented with Donatra after the Consume. The second and last one was Final Adventure which James wanted to use to kill Spock who was not in the attempt. Neither was any other personnel costing four, and with not a single All Consuming Evil consumed during the attempt five personnel remained and solved the mission. |
At this stage, four of us are undefeated and I got paired with Thomas. Before we sat down, I feared the worst, as I'd used his Mirror Starfleet deck as the basis for mine and assumed he would know all the ins and outs of the deck. Once I had sat down and Thomas revealed his missions, things got worse. Thomas was playing his Romulan deck that utilized Donatra and Assess Contamination to stop his opponent from playing non-skill dilemmas. 28 of my 29 dilemmas didn't have a skill. In short: I was screwed.
The first card Thomas played was Ptol, and any surprise my dilemma pile might have had went out the window when he looked at my top four dilemmas. Over the next few turns, my draw deck was kind to me. Thomas only scored 5 points once from Getting Under Your Skin and/or Prejudice and Politics. Partly because I had the "wrong" card on top of my deck when he checked it, and partly because I managed to blow three of them up on the turn after they were played. I was reluctant to fuel the fire though, and since Thomas had played The Viceroy, I didn't want to play my own events and let him download what he needed. I didn't bother with A Sight for Sore Eyes or At What Cost? I did succumb and play a Watch dog, but that was it.
When it came to mission attempts, I made my first (and thankfully, only) huge mistake of the day in this game. Thomas attempted Assess contamination first, and knowing that two of my dilemmas would be overcome before any were faced I declined to play any. With hindsight, I should have played at least two to force Thomas to return Donatra to his hand. As it was, he completed the mission and moved to his next. There I had a similar problem, but did stop the attempt once. Thomas completed it the following turn, and then moved to his space mission with six personnel. Faced with the Donatra problem again, I played Tragic Turn and then Final Adventure, hoping Thomas would use Donatra on the first and I would kill someone with the second. As expected, Thomas used Donatra on Tragic Turn. Sadly, when it came to Final Adventure, I named 4 (aiming for Spock), but Thomas hadn't taken any 4 cost personnel and completed the mission anyway.
At my own missions, I'd taken a couple of attempts to get through my space mission, and then ran into a lonely Whisper in the Dark at my first planet mission. With not enough events in play, I couldn't use D'vela to gain the skills I needed, and lost three personnel. That set me back long enough that even if my dilemma gamble had worked at Thomas' third mission, I don't think I could have won the game before his next turn anyway.
FL: 45-100 |
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Round 4 | | Johannes Klarhauser | FL (-100)View opponent's ReportView original Report |
The final! Johannes and I where the only unbeaten players left and whoever was going to win this game would become the UK Champion for Second Edition. Calling this game weird would be the greatest understatement of my trek playing career... Johannes spend his first turn drawing cards (and later discarding most of them) as he did not get any events. I had events but not the ones I need (like Bonus point engines). Neither did I get Donatra or Navaar. I assume if somebody would have asked us before the game to describe the worst possible draws our decks could offer he would have ended up with a pretty accurate description of this game... The one difference was that Johannes' dilemmas worked very well and send me on Where No One Has Gone Before, while mine let me down completely. Drawing Weyoun and the only other four cost personnel for Moral Choice gave away the first mission, stopping just the right personnel to leave him with exactly the amount of Cunning necessary to pass Sylvia the second. When Johannes started to attempt his last mission I still was at zero points. The mission required Anthropology and I played Accelerated Aging. I knew that the only personnel with Acquisition was Neelix and I was pretty sure that he did not have Anthropology. Well, it turned out I was wrong and Johannes won the game. |
So two Germans faced off in the game for the title. Thomas and I shared a hotel room, and had already talked about the decks we were using, but of course I didn't know all the details, most importantly the dilemma pile structure and his selection of non-aligned (which can make a big difference when playing dilemmas). In the current meta, I would rank his deck above mine, because it usually is more reliable and answers to a wider variety of dilemmas. However, this was no ordinary game...
In fact, it must have been one of the more bizarre games that Thomas and I have played over the years. He went first and dropped some people, but no events yet. I looked at my opening hand in disbelief - Finding Our Way and six personnel. The personnel/non-personnel ratio in my deck is about 4:6, because I rely on lots of events to support my dilemma and mission-solving strategy, also I can't play personnel on my first turn, so need to spend those counters on events to not let them go to waste. So I drew cards...and drew more cards...On turn 1, I spent six counters on drawing cards, and drew into four more personnel, 1 interrupt and 1 event (40% of the cards in the deck are events...). In the end, my first turn saw me play Unexpected Difficulties (the only core event I played all game, compared to about 15 in the previous game against stuart) and Finding Our Way, then discard lots of good personnel at the end of my turn. This was horrible.
Now, Thomas didn't have the best start either. He played many personnel, Power Shift, a ship, dirty Dukat, but no GUYS or P+P or Hiren, so his engine wasn't running well either. He did, however, play the Viceroy on turn two or three, so I decided not to play any events until I had several equipment and grav-traps in hand to counter any point engine cards Thomas tried to dl with the Viceroy. So for me it was pretty much draw two cards, play two personnel for a few turns. With no Enterprise-J out, I attempted Caretaker's Array first, which I almost never do. Thomas gave me Moral Choice and something else, I think, and did me a huge favour by randomly selecting Weyoun, Janeway and some other person. Weyoun stepped in for Janeway, but I completed with the five guys I had left.
Thomas attempted in space with 9. He had Neral in play, a 10-Cunning Dukat, but no Navaar or Donatra, and most importantly, no bonus points for Power Shift or Picard that could be brought in with Secret ID. After some thinking, I gave him Secret ID (taking out Neral; Thomas correctly assumed the next dilemma would be Issue of Trust, so brought in Data instead of Donatra), Issue of Trust (stopping four), and Where No One Has Gone Before, which hit.
On my turn, I drew cards and played one guy, flew to my planet and attempted. Thomas gave me a filter (Pitching In?) and Hard Time (hit Chakotay), I believe, which was enough to stop me. His next turn was spent drawing cards and playing events (he finally got his GUYS, but couldn't score points from it that turn), but he couldn't attempt.
I then reattempted Reestablish Neural Cooperative (I now had two equipment in play and drawn into two Grav-Traps in hand to counter At What Cost). Thomas gave me a filter (?), I prevented one of the stops with Revised Chakotay, then got by a Sylvia with the Cunning. I flew on to IAD, but Intimidation into Gomtuu damaged my ship and stopped the attempt.
Thomas still couldn't find an At What Cost?, but played Donatra and now had a dangerous crew. He attempted space with two under. I used Uninvited to grav Secret Identity, the played SI (taking out Karina), Oracle's Punishment (Thomas used Donatra on it, I killed Data), and Slightly Overbooked, which stopped enough of the mission skills. Six under now. .
I played the Delta Flyer to pick up people from my planet and have a Range 10 ship in play which could overcome Outclassed, if not this turn, then at least on the next. I reattempted IAD, Thomas gambled and gave me Hard Time, I think, and Acclerated Aging, hoping Neelix didn't have Anthropology. He does, though, and that was enough to complete the third mission for the FW, 100-0. It easily possible that Thomas would have walked through at least two, if not three on his missions on the next turn. You need a lucky break to beat such a good Romulan deck, and this time I caught several. |
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Closing Thoughts |
Great weekend! Thanks to Danny for running it. I am looking very much forward to be back next year! |
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