Matthew Zinno (commdecker) Tournament Report - 1E - Online Event (Mission to Talos IV) 2023-04-07 - 12:00 AM Starry Night on Romulus Introduction Time to play TNG-only Talos! I built a deck around Mercenary Raiders, with some free Great Hall Klingons. Round 1 Thomas V FL (-77) Thomas and I largely interleaved our missions on the Alpha spaceline, but he had 2 DQ missions. I placed my outpost near the middle of the spaceline, near Qonos, but not at the Burial Site where I had planned. After a few turns, I dropped a Q-Net to isolate the OP he had been reporting to (and after my self-staffing Merc Ship had flown away, it started at the same spaceline end), but he just solved that mission for an Off-Zel and Wormholed to the DQ, where he could continue reporting to his Enterprise with Finest Crew. My dilemmas (apparently) slowed him down, but I lost most of my first crew to his SOG-boosted BPD (but used A Matter of Honor to recover Gov. Worf for the next-turn solve), and lost more later to a combo including Friendly Fire. And at both, THTF to lose me points – ending at 23 when he finished, just before I would have gotten my second solve. Round 2 Joseph Wisniewski FW (+35) We interleaved missions again, perhaps because I was trying to get Romulus close to my OP. Unfortunately, Qonos came out last, separated from other things by large-span missions. Joe had Legitimate Leader and Officer Exchange Program, so I dropped a Q-Net ASAP in case of armadas – which separated him not only from me, but from his space missions. We both poked at missions, and I used a lot of my counter cards – Kevin against an IPC I failed early; Amanda against a Brain Drain; and Thine Own Self against his first Bio that stopped for Triage. Eventually he had one mission solved, was working on a second, and I had two planet missions mostly cleared, and I went for a big turn. I spent my Transwarp Conduit to get Governor Worf (reported at HQ) into the action, and he and Kmpec passed Shaka to solve Romulus and get my artifacts. Then we solved Calder, using the Varon-T to pass Malfunctioning Door. Then I flew to a space mission I had poked, discarded the artifacts for Mercenary Raiders points (bringing me to 100, but I needed a space mission), and attempted … and everyone died to a boosted Barclay's. Still, in the final turns, Joe did solve his second planet, and got everyone past the Q-Net to a space mission, but had no SCIENCE to pass the Sci-Met combo. MW 100-65. Round 3 Paddy Tye FL (-65) I had a slow start, and Paddy's LL/OEP deck got started on DNA Program (at spaceline end, with his OP next door). I got my Q-Net and debated whether to cut those two missions off from everything else, or separate the two. I separated the two to obstruct his current efforts … which turned out to be the better call, because he never left those two locations. I solved Romulus for my artifacts, but in time, he solved DNA with Dukath x3 for 70 points, and then dealt with the space mission at his OP for a quick 2-mission win. Round 4 Mathew McCalpin FW (+100) Professor Scott conceded due to scheduling issues.