| Kris and I were paired randomly for the very first game. As Justin said when he handed us the cards, “Well, let’s get this match out of the way.” It was an uncharacteristically quiet game on both sides of the spaceline. We both had a lot of moving parts to track, we both wanted to win the first round of regionals, and we were both concentrating very hard, because takebacks aren’t a thing at this level of play.
Kris was not running the TNG Romulan / What Does God Need With A Starship? hacker deck I’d expected (and teched against), but a fairly straightforward TNG Federation solver deck, a variation on a deck he played – to some success – in the Rousseauian state-of-nature that is an online tournament. This presented an early dilemma: my deck plan called for me to solve Protect Historic Encounter early, then move on to other missions having Launched The Phoenix. But Kris also seeded Earth, effectively locking the mission out simply because nobody wants to deal with shared dilemmas. (We also shared Test Mission II.) I then decided to seal the deal by deploying Homefront, shutting down Office of the President for much of the game. Kris had (correctly, in my opinion) removed Scientific Diplomacy from this particular build, but, reduced to two play engines, he struggled to get personnel out while ambassadors choked his hand.
Meanwhile, lucky early draws allowed me to Launch the Phoenix early, so I hopped straight to attempting my amped-up Fed-icon missions. Geordi’s Ocular Implants revealed only a The Arsenal: Separated at Observe Stellar Rebirth so, not knowing what that could forebode, I sent in a redshirt team of 7 personnel on the I.K.C. Gr’oth. They bit right into a tasty Ankari Spirits and that was that. Fortunately, Captain Koloth was unharmed, so I used Picard’s Make It So to unstop them. We then beamed over reinforcements from the Enterprise-E (docked at the outpost) and, hurray, Ankari Spirits cured. Geordi’s eyes then told us of a Cytherians beneath; we transferred everyone off the Gr’oth but Daval (required for staffing) and he ship-shirted into it. It just occurred to me now – the second time writing this report – that this was illegal because of Q’s Tent Civil War, though I’m sure we could have scared up three other unneeded personnel to join Daval on his doomed quest. The Enterprise-E then tried to undock and solve the mission, since the dilemmas were all gone, but Docking Procedures bought Kris an extra turn. Eventually, I was able to solve for 45 points (+5 Launch the Phoenix and +5 mission specialists).
Kris was doing alright on his side of the spaceline, though his play engines were still frazzled. He raised the four needed SECURITY to turn on Homefront, and as soon as I solved Observe Stellar, the Edo Probe that had been sitting on his outpost mission went away. He hit The Higher The Fewer with a big group, though (-10), and got stopped by a Ferengi Bug at the bottom. He was more successful a bit down the spaceline, where he was able to pass The Vengeance Factor + The Gatherers (with 75 Integrity! So close!), but got hit by a Microvirus because his SECURITY was mostly on Earth. The Executive Authorization at the bottom of the combo was easy, though, so I knew I didn’t have much time to solve a second mission and win. (45+15 whales + 10 Phoenix = 70). As I recall, I attempted Historical Research. The first dilemma there was Dead End, which had already stopped an earlier attempt, and I passed the other two or three dilemmas underneath – Ferengi Infestation, Unscientific Method, and possibly an Edo Probe somewhere in there, but I don’t remember clearly.
And that was the game. Full win, 30-point differential if I recall correctly. That Kris was able to keep it that close without his favorite toolset (explosions) and down a play engine is impressive. I was able to contain my glee long enough that he was out of sight ordering food before I did my little victory dance. I still have much to learn from Kris, though. Until next time!
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