Kris Sonsteby (LORE) Tournament Report - 2E - Online Event 2012-11-05 - 12:00 AM Hey, Chavez... How Come They Ain't Killin' Us? Introduction Without a TNG victory in the achievement era, I again went to the well with Cadets for this online Traditional gig. While the Reg / Phoenix party trick worked like a charm, ultimately failure to account for Starfleet circa the Unicorn Games days cost me in my first of hopefully many matches with the Emperor of Germany. Round 1 Unjustly Banned FW (+65)View opponent's ReportView original Report Gorilla was engineering DS9, but had is cage rattled almost immediately as my classic Cadet build left him three attempts behind by his fifth turn. Despite banging my head against Moral Choice and Shocking Betrayal at every mission, Endangered and a few safe dilemma plays kept me in front from start to finish. FW 100-35. Kris was playing Cadets. On turn one, he drops six personnel, including three cadets. On turn two, he plays two more cadets and a ship and goes out to attempt. Oh dear. Fortunately, he has no cards in hand, so a Gorgan is enough to stop him (but I have no cheap cards in hand and have to discard a Worf.) Next turn, two more cadets hit the table, but a Moral Choice leaves Kris with 33 cunning remaining and his team is stopped. I'm supposed to be playing Tactical Disadvantages at Kris' space mission, but I haven't drawn a ship by this point. I did before his next attempt, but unbeknownst to me, Kris had two ships in hand. Moral Choice did stop three personnel, but Tactical didn't kill anyone. Fortunately, the Moral Choice had been enough to make the attempt fail anyway. On my turn, I was feeling the pressure, and decided to make an attempt myself (leaving me with no ships in hand.) I lost a weenie to Hard Time, Sisko to Back Room Dealings (where is my Medical Teams when I need it?), and then had a major brain fart when I faced Center of Attention. I only had two Security at the mission, and thought it best to place Ezri from hand on Security Drills to get the third Security to overcome the dilemma. I was ignoring the fact that I had no Treachery in the team to be killed by the dilemma AND that I wanted Shran to be stopped so I could retrieve a dilemma from Kris' mission AND that I couldn't complete the mission anyway AND that I wanted to play Ezri the next turn. On the next turn Kris flew home to pick up the 5 cost Kirk he'd played a turn earlier, and returned to Practice Orbital Maneuvers for another attempt. I played Outclassed followed by Tactical disadvantage hoping Kris was saving Kirk for the second dilemma. He did, and the first dilemma stopped him. On my turn, Shran was stopped so I got to retrieve a Moral Choice, and then I chose to stop all my personnel with Distraction before they were about to be hit with Gomtuu Shock Wave. At Kris' next attempt, I could only play one dilemma – Shocking Betrayal – and, unsurprisingly, that got Kirk'ed. I then stopped his double attempt at Avert Danger. The first with Chula the Chandra and then Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; and the second with Picking Up the Pieces. I think I'm about to complete my first mission on the next turn, but Kris burnt his Endangered to stop me with Agonizing Encounter (which stopped non-aligned Bashir and one other. I had Walk the Line in play by then, so if Kris had picked a Bajoran and a Federation personnel, I'd have let them "walk" through the dilemma.) The finishing move came on the following turn. Kris played Reginald Barclay and the Phoenix. He then used Reg to fly the ship to Practice Orbital Maneuvers and left me needing to complete four missions to win the game. In my heart, I knew it was over; but I played on hoping for a miracle. Once again, Kris made two attempts at Avert Danger. I tried playing Rogue Borg Ambush against the first team, but Erika Benteen waved her Intelligence in my face and my miracle goodbye. After completing the mission, Kris moved to Investigate Massacre and I just about stopped his attempt with Moral Choice and Temptation. I'd played Energize on the previous turn. I lost (4 cost) quark to it at the start of my turn, and then drew looking for an expensive personnel to play cheap. After four draws, the best I could do was (1 cost) Mills. {insert sad face here}. I finally completed Survey Star System on my turn, and flew home and then to Access Relay Station with 14 personnel. Leaving a few behind for Walk the Line, I sent eleven to attempt the mission. Kris pondered playing Rogue Borg Ambush, but decided to play it safe and threw four dilemmas at me. I figured the final one was going to be Rogue Borg, so I didn't try to unstop anyone with Walk the Line. I was right, and they were eventually stopped (oh, and Shran retrieved Moral Choice again.) On the final turn, Kris played Data and then formed a crew of nine to attempt his mission. With one overcome dilemma, I drew eight dilemmas and had brain fart number two by spending nine points worth of dilemmas. It didn't matter in the end as my combo was nowhere near effective, and Kris walked through the mission for the win. I think Kris would have beaten me even without my mistakes, but I like to think the game would have been a little closer had I played better. In the immortal words of someone: "I shall have my revenge." FL: 35-100 Round 2 Tjark Ott FW (+35) TNT was captaining a Euro-Borg creation, but was insufficiently prepared for an attempt at POM after completing his first turn. Blitzing through space early kept his copies of Tactical Disadvantage on the sidelines, and a late Phoenix arrival forced him into a Plan B mode that he couldn't quite get off the ground. FW 100-65. Round 3 Johannes Klarhauser FL (-60)View opponent's ReportView original Report The Kaiser was testing Starfleet, and caught my dilemma pile relatively flat footed with a star studded lineup early. Having ineffective filters against a fellow pro made the game an uphill battle, and a shortage of diplomats mid-game prevented me from making up any of the ground I had lost on the previous two turns. FL 100-40. We had never played each other before, so I was very much looking forward to this match. Kris ran good old Cadets and was out and attempting early. I found a ship in my opening hand and some good personnel and tried to get A Sight for Sore Eyes going, but Sloan didn't like it and sacrificed the Enterprise-J for it. On our first attempts, we traded Outclassed. I completed on my second attempt by sneaking Travis into my team with the Columbia when Kris took out T'pol with Caretaker's Guests. Flew home, picked up more guys, and got stopped at Retrieve Material with two under (Hard Time and two kills by Back Room Dealings and Rogue Borg Ambush). On Kris' next attempt, my Preventative Repercussions failed against Cadets and so my combo fell apart - he completed. At least I paid attention to his people and realized he didn't have the skills for either of his planet missions unstopped, so I put none under Investigate Massacre. On my turn, I played AWC? to get more guys, picked them up and cheated through Picking up the Pieces/Captain's Holiday with a Fitting In. Kris got some dilemmas under IM, and played Barclay, so I knew the Phoenix was coming. I threw guys at Survey New World, Kris had to put three under to stop me and denied me the mission for that turn. He then launched the Phoenix and got stopped again at IM by Moral Choice. Kris decided not to use his Endangered at SNW, so I completed it and went to Investigate Stalled Ship with a crew of 11. Kris played a combo ending in Gomtuu, but I had seven people left including two Diplomats and completed for the four-mission-win. Great game! FW-100-40. Round 4 Anastasia Kalashnikova FW (+70) AK-47 was schooling me on Mirror Starfleet, but simply couldn't keep pace with my clown car creation as I was once again attempting on turn 2. While some fortunate random selections on the ground kept him in it, ultimately Data and L-Wax plowed through both of my planets before he could really get going. FW 100-30. Closing Thoughts Having now completed three 2E online tournaments I can safely say that, regardless of time of year, the cyber meta is primarily driven by a kill or be killed mantra. With top-level players lurking around every corner, each build I trot out must be able to hang with the best / worst designs the World has to offer.