Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) Tournament Report - 1E - North American Continental 2024-07-26 - 02:00 PM NACC Turtles Introduction So, I wasn't sure what to play for this tournament since I knew who was going to be there. After talking it out loud, I decided to go with moderate turtle powers - three homeworlds and stratagema. I thought that there'd be at least one Borg player so that I should try to avoid them. The plan was to simply do the homeworlds and then try to one-shot the remaining planet for the win, using Dabo to get the remaining points assuming some good probes were to happen. In case anyone was wondering about the Examine Singularity - That was just in case someone was running Black Holes, allowing me to close one. Round 1 Earned Bye EB (+100) Bye Round 2 Jared Hoffman MW (+17) Borg to start off my day. We duplicated my open planet which wasn't good so I put the Mila combo with In the Pale Moonlight over there since assimilation Borg can't pass that dilemma typically without Adapt. I manage to get through all three homeworlds and, with time running out, I do multiple teams to solve the remaining planet but what I forget at the time is that Overseer Odo doesn't count as a Founder so the team that I left behind can't pass the dilemma. Jared knows what's there but hadn't encountered the dilemma the previous turn so he can't get to it before I can solve and since it's the last turn, he does what Borg do and assimilates all the Bajorans, taking all of my Diplomacy in the procecss. What I didn't remember until after scooping up is that I still had two Treachery on a non-Bajoran (Sarah Shaw + Professor Sisko and Guron) along with some guns that I could've solved the mission. This will come back to haunt me. Round 3 Kris Sonsteby MW (+22) Borg again, same duped mission. This time, Kris attempts the planet but can't the same Mila combo (he doesn't seed anything under in an attempt to stockpile on my space missions.) Thankfully, I have two ships in the AQ at this point so, even with one ship Tractor Locked, the other ship made it over there for the solve. He comes over, removing the tractor lock, beams over to one of my ships and attempts to/completes the Assimilate Counterpart of Bareil Antos but doesn't get anyone else which shocked both of us. I booked it back to the formerly Tractor Locked ship, fly that back to Bajor and started working on my homeworlds. I managed to make it through one or two of the homeworlds but was ahead on points at the end. Round 4 James Heaney MW (+57) Borg again, this time with a 250+ card deck but otherwise does the same thing - assimilate my people. He's the only one who attempted to attack me at a homeworld (Mirror Bajor) which I downloaded Strategema and had to inform him that Commander Leeta and Nizari did not appreciate them attacking their homeworld. I lost 18 points to a Higher the Fewer but I managed to solve the three homeworlds and got 12 of those points back with Dabo. I reminded him that I hadn't gotten a full win yet as I hadn't solve a space mission or gotten to 140 points when time was called. This game, he assimilated his MQ mission although I accidentally seeded the Mila combo backwards but In the Pale Moonlight did what it was meant to do. I could've done the weird thing and used Art of Diplomacy to kill Mila to prevent her from being assimilated but decided against it. Round 5 Maggie Geppert MW (+29) Not Borg, yea! She's playing a Hero of the Empire deck with multiple Barry Waddles I assumed at the time. I managed to clear Bajor in two turns, using Tuvok's special download but didn't have the skills to solve the mission (would've cleared the mission if a Tribble hadn't stopped Commander Leeta's Youth). I managed to solve MQ Terran Homeworld but lost a ship to God (multiple 8 Integrity people don't help when they're Distracted by Thoughts From Home) Due to really bad Handshake draws, both of the native MQ ships were in the discard pile so when it was getting close to time, I could only mega-team the space mission to hit Arsenal, Mind Probes and V'ger. At this point, I have 15 people hitting the mind probes and if she picks one of at least 9 people, I pass V'ger as there are multiple Anthropology, Computer Skill and/or Diplomacy people in that group with Deputy Quark having all three skills for V'ger and can get through the dilemma and possibly win that turn or, at least solve next turn. She picks Tuvok and I don't have the Vulcan Mindmeld anymore. This was the only time I attempted space in the tournament. Only one other person makes it through and V'ger takes them out. Maggie lost most of her people when she hit the Mila combo without Stone Knives a few turns earlier but didn't have Engineers to pass Spatial Rift and Persistent Individuality. Before the end of the game, I managed to get all of the skills into play and, if I had one more turn, I would've been able to get a ship into the MQ and solve the mission for the win but wasn't meant to be. Closing Thoughts I didn't lose any games but didn't get any full wins so I don't get the title. I didn't expect over four hours straight of dealing with Borg assimilation but at least I chose the right deck for the tournament.