Suden Käpälä (SudenKapala) Tournament Report - 1E - Online Event 2022-02-04 - 12:00 AM Duel Sykes, Or Dual Saaviks, Or Second Saavik To The Right-Lease Event, Or Triple Orbital Cadets Taking Her Out? (2v11) Introduction This-here report has been a W.I.P. for ages! It wasn't long enough. (Ghi! Ghi!) I said, 'Check back later for the full story'. But, edit, 22.07.29: finally finished! I've been out of the game for some time. But as stated when I 'left' on my 'sabbatical', "I'll be bëck". I know I can't quit this game forever. I had a great time during winter '20 through spring '21, working towards both Organized and online (Lackey) play. But like Durin's folk, I delved a bit too deep; and I needed a vacation. I really lack the computational speed, operational memory, and situational awareness needed to play this game at the level (most/some of?) y'all do. The only thing I don't lack, I'm sure, is raw intelligence. I.e., my IQ is high enough (let alone my comminicational skills -- they're, let's say, overly well-developed). But without ample clock/bus speed, and enough RAM, and with a very fragmented file system on my "hard disk" to 'boot', it's almost impossible to play this game. :( And I love it so much! :x Anyway, those are some caveats / ecxcuses that I'm writing (22.02.12) even before playing my very first game of '22. It's actually something that I discussed with Seppel (on Skype) and then wrote in more detail to Armus (in a PM), when thinking about my performance during games. It brings me stress that I have to read cards (and y'all -- often -- don't!), and (re-)learn, as I go. Every time. And alas, it won't stop, anytime soon. Most of you, however, have been very patient and more than willing to help me out. Thank you! Anyway. Meanwhile, we've come to the end of the tourney. I had fun with the FED Duel deck that Brian 'Armus' Sykes made for the other SSTTR RE (Release Event); he let me borrow it. Please find much more about my relationship with the deck, interspersed throughout(?) the following AARs and possibly in the deck / strategy notes. And now, a bit randomly (but it technically side-steps further into 'about-the-deck-I-used-territory'): for a few words more about 'my dilemma side of things'. (Which I spent considerable time on, since Sykes suggested that I throw out all his original dilemmas, plus 'Let Me Help'. It was energy well-spent, since it lands me a new Achievement; and it really gave my games a lot of thematically-added-value. I have harvested various of the "Property Problems" Ach's, but never before was I able to have the dilemma pile actually align with the draw deck content. So I might've ended up in the past, say, with a Clown-driven VOY Squire Dual-Icon-only Dilemma set, in, say, a Starfleet deck. I've been proud of such combinations because they got me a lot of Achievements for one tourney and they were fun; but also a bit schizofrenic. With the 2 new Dilemma additions of the latest expansion, however, I was just able to finally cobble together a TMP-themed dilemma pile... for a RE of said expansion! So that came together nicely.) Today (22.03.06), I wrote here (https://www.trekcc.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=573236#p573236): "I finally got around to using only TMP dilemmas, for "Film Problems". Oly one had a non-TMP A.I., I think -- Linguistic Legerdemain -- because I played with the Scotty and Uhura image so often already; the rest were TMP. I think they worked out rather better than I had feared." And also, here (https://www.trekcc.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=573231#p573231): "I very often use non-meta dilemmas; and my combos are always... well, peculiar, if not very powerful. (As you were able to see for yourself today, Jebus. :mrgreen: ) What makes that part of playing this game not un-fun, for me (even though it doesn't make me win often), is seeing my opponent being surprised by my weird dilemma choices. And I like to think they appreciate the change of pace, too. They hesitate seeing dilemma X, thinking there will be Y or Z below it... only to find, later, that it was dilemma A after all. As an actual, direct deterrent, however, some of my dilemmas are not worth a lot. It's the unknown, the unexpectedness of my choices, which most hampers my opponents." For the rest of my deck-nerdism-rants... read on, or click towards my deck list and perhaps find some more notes there. Round 1 Sebastian Kirstein ML (-35) 22.02.13, game 259, Medium Loss (Seppel won), 70-35. I probably started. The Caretaker ran a Chancellor-fuelled Klingon All-Star gang. I got to see a few nice ships in action -- Chang, Kronos One, Kla'Diyus; and the Bounty (which I didn't draw into, myself). Some parts of Guest's deck mirrored my own (HQ:XO, Civil War tent, and Guess Who's Coming -- the counterpart of The Un-Dis-Co-untry). But he also had distinct elements, of course; Bluegills and Study Divergents among them. Mostly TMP, I think; but there were quite some other eras represented, as well (like the Blood Oath Old Men's Club and Jadzia, which tried to get through their Good Day To Live). I Overhauled my Systems for all of my 25 points (and Reuniting Legends, scored +10); I cleared Arbitrate Negotiations but before I could solve, Klingon bloodlust happened. With his Bluegills and 2 sets of Bat'leths, his Klingon Krew went to town on my unsuspecting Away Team. Only two were left standing! (Of the, what, 13!?) Mariposa was too far away, and I didn't have Cadet Preston to go for the Flight Range at Titan; so I launched a desparate attempt to Repair the Argus telescope. Trycianide Poisoning deterred me. Eventually, out of spite -- Head To Head -- I had Jadzia killed, because Seppel butchered so many of my team (including Saavik); I was ahead 35-30 at that point. Seppel's fleet Secured their Repatriated Citizen, after first Exploring a Black Cluster. Kle'eg, of all... ehr, people... managed to score those pesky 5 AMS points. I encountered Seppel's Buried Alive (instead of having my own encountered by him!), which was fun -- seeing Saavik from the other side of the table. And speaking of her (again), all three versions of her saw play. (I hadn't yet removed the 2EBC proxy from my deck -- my bad. But I had labelled it with a note before the game, and I had told Seppel; so while a bit confusing, it was clear that it was supposed to be Protegee Cadet Saavik.) I drew into both copies of the brand new Robin Second Star version, so I had something nice to look at in my hand. I really, really like the photo used.) Also Captain Spock came in very handy! Armus' original deck had boasted the other persona version; with the many skills. I chose the "Needs of the Many" one, solely because it references Saavik in lore! And then threw in the Interrupt, just because. I got to use it when "God" tried to pilfer my Grissom. (Or Excelsior, I'm not sure.) But also Slater saw play. And Rand got a lot of work done! Grissom got damaged, and it may be the first time that I got Damage Counters thrown against my boat. Really nice decks, both; and a great game with a fun opponent. Round 2 Niall Matthew TT (0) 22.02.27, g260, TT 0-15 (but those were 15 bonus pts of Niall's). So, today we finally got the result in for round 2. (There were some comms blackout mishaps during which I actually feared, for a moment there, that The Sexecutioner had been swiped off his lil' island by Eunice or her predecessor -- D-what's-his-eye? -- but he was actually able to launch a Spoonhead offensive my way, unhindered.) In a drawn-out but fun game, we came to a True Tie, 0-0. Luckily, it was much more engaging (and educational for me) than what it might sound like! :thumbsup: Thanks for playing. (It's always fun facing The Thrusting. :P ) Niall started, so I got to bring out my Defend Homeworld QREF card -- only to draw into Toddman the first turn, AGAIN! I had expected maximum shenanigans from Niall (I wonder why?), especially given the feeling I got from the event thread. Turns out, however, that he just had a fun labour-capturing solver -- and we ended up both just attempting and solving. Cap Spock got arrested on his first mission out! And got dumped in a Labour Camp. Which, in this vicinity, means all sorts of nasty politics and knee-capping Unions. Power To The Factory Workers! Well, after going Head To Head, Investigator Odo and Ocett sorely paid a Yol Yichu'ish price for "investigating" Saavik's mentor. And with the loss of Odo's Honour, Nialls forces were not able to Resist the Occupying Forces on Vanden Prime. And, somehow, the rest of my Motion Pictures-only dilemmas did seem to slow own the Cardies enough for them not to win. But David Marcus was killed by that lovely M-113 Creature -- and that took the heart out of Second Star Saavik, whom he left behind. She sacrificed herself, not seeing a reason to live... twice. I didn't draw into the other set of Dual Saaviks -- ranked, Cadet -- but I had started to clear away dilemmas (and would've succeeded, if the clock hadn't run out) from under Titan, anyway. Cadets Preston and Foster were already 'present' at Saturn's moon, and Saavik was actually second-next to be drawn. So I was actually making quite some headway to Practicing those Orbital Maneuvers. Slater, Bob, Styles and Janice visited the Cochrane Memorial (and Peter was about to). I was stuck on Clan People (which I often used in local games!), and for some reason it took me 2 turns to bring out 4 personnel with 8 INTEGRITY... only to find out I needed >38 CUNNING, not INT! StQQ-pid! (See what I did there!?) If I had remembered that better (and I could'a, should'a, would'a...), I'd have actually scored 40 pts for Earth in what was my final turn! And then I'd have been able to Practice at Titan the next (with my third Saavik out). So it somehow feels like a succesful game for me, with a nice deck!! (See the 'Closing Thoughts' section: this wasn't a great day for me [playing a game].) Niall's team also tried to red-shirt-Assist a Damaged Vessel, but it turns out that not the Maquis were responsible for the Damage, but some Whales who were out joyriding in their parents' Probe. (Ooh! That probe may have hampered me, wreaking havoc in Titan's Orbitals, during my next turn!) Anyway. I even got to use an Exec Orders draw to Tribunal my way into Scorching Niall's Hand... That got done to me by Seppel in the previous game (or did I already mention that?). Marcus actually got to see play this time (had him in hand last time, but didn't find free oportunity to play him; I chose the non-aligned version over Armus' original FED one) through an Event probe at the Coch Memorial; but I think I didn't realize that would cost me my free draw via Exec Orders. I did find a funny way to remember which Property Logos I still hadn't played; and which human Engineers had Visited Cochrane. (I stashed representative, non-game cards in unused categories -- Tactics & Tribbles -- and moved them to table when the resource was used up. That way, I even got to see my favourite photo of Janice; and the first-ever character I saw in a Trek film: J'onn (for Trek V: TFF); and 1e Kruge (Trek III), Georgie (IV: TVH) and Gracie (who were looking for their Probe -- and their kids!); and that nice image of V'ger (film I: TMP) and 2B Or Not 2B. The Caretaker's Array (for VOY; Excelsior, Cap Sulu et al) somehow got turned into The Juggler when tabling it, so that must've been a plugin mismatch...? (If so, it's the only one I've seen this game!) Anyway, naming those cards isn't technically interesting for an After Action Report, of course; but still. I might even have fun changing those non-game cards for a next game. (Using as many new cards as possible is sort of a personal ambition -- which is a good thing, because it would be a shame if my personal goal was actually, 'winning games'! And given the sheer bulk of cards available and my decreased gameplay, I've decided that this counts as 'playing', LOL! So I like to keep track of them, just a bit.) Oh! I forgot to mention: Niall scored his 15 points from his Valuable Prisoner Spock (Labouring at the Camp); and he drew extra cards (which burnt him a bit, eventually) by having said detainee Await his Trail! I always like such mechanics in Cardie decks. Fun to see! A bit said for Mentor Spock, though. Well, that's about all I remember from our game today. (And also: it's a quarter to zero-dark-thirty; so I gotta get some rack time.) It was nice playing a game with 'The Sexy' again! Thanks. Round 3 Paddy Tye FL (-100) 22.03.01, g261, 0-100. I started. For all the good that it did me! I forgot to immediately write up my AAR -- and later forgot it, period! (See the 'Closing Thoughts' section: this ALSO wasn't a great day for me [playing a game].) So now, after the last round, I have to go back to my saved ogs, screenshots and savegames, to see what I can still destill from the situation 'on the ground'... It won't be much... 22.07.29: So, 5 days after the game, I got to sit down to write a long, flawed & raw epistle (is that a word?) about this game; a draft which I never really finished/edited/streamlined. Not going to do so, anymore, either (since it's been another few months, in the meantime); but here's the beginning (with the highlights), at least. This was the first game in which I actually had to get out Todman the old-fashioned way, via Defend HW. And now I saw the downside of not drawing into him (coincidentally! Twice, in both previous games!): he then comes into play after I start Executing Orders, thus I can't use his play-engine-esque skill in the first turn! I almost (but not at all) cleared Mariposa; only that nasty augment, Malik, dared to Stand-Off in my way! And that stopped me cold -- Paddy combo there had made sure of that. So, the beautiful ringed planet of Mariposa yielded no Clone of Saavik to me, today (not any other of these games, sadly!). I did manage to clear Overhaul Systems, but lacked the 6 personnel and Engineers to solve it. The Padd ended up scoring 165 pts from only Space Missions (and Quite some Coincidences!) -- with his tele-presented Raptor drones. (Amazingly, he did have his Hand Scorched; but that didn't stop him. Much. At all.) I didn't particularly like the drone aspect in the episodes, from a technical / physics / physical / logical POV. (Although I am very fond of ENT; and I do love the overall episodes and the writers' choices that led to the drones!) However, I do like seeing them at work in 1eSTCCG. That part of the game was nice, at least. But I have to face it -- some players are just juggernaughts that waltz right through my every effort to get anything done; and/or: in some games / at some moments, everything conspires to make it a frustrating game. I can certainly shoulder the burden of defeat; but at least I'd like to have the feeling that I can do something. That feeling, that day, eluded me. Because of my brain not cooperating, and because Padd is just that kind of player. That's not on him. Nor on me, I feel -- I mean, I don't begrudge any player their win at my expense, let alone a very good player. It's on my sentiments of what the game should be to have it be fun for me. And... that just happens! So; a rather... interesting game. With drones. And without a shred of hope. LOL! Round 4 Brian S MW (+50) 22.03.06, g262, 50-0 MW, Suden started. In a rather limit-pressing (i.e. drawn-out), and extremely fun, game, I managed to drag out a Modified Win (50-0 pts) against Jebus. This was an epic duel, as well as a tough race. Well-played, Chancellor! Writing up this game report while listening first to Swallow The Sun's doom metal (out-stand-ing!), and next to Mozart's Requiem (Marinner X Academy of St Marten ITF 1986 -- brilliant!) actually, I feel now, does justice to the grand scope of our exploits on the 'line. (Well, it's my AAR; I can make it sound as dramatic as I want, alright?) I can only hope this report can do the game the same justice as my music collection can! For the game was also, truly, a Duel of Armus' Dual Duel decks! And that, to me, gave it yet another dimension. Brian 'Jebus' S. -- whom I had never yet played before (nice to make your acquaintaince!) -- had also borrowed a deck from That Other Brian S. (LOL?). For a moment (well, several, actually; ever after I saw the two Brians discussing the lending of a deck), I feared mission duplication. But! I had "modified" my deck to include -- at least one, or even two? -- different missions. So, I guess I had only an 8-mission spaceline to fear. Then, luckily, it turned out that Jebus had borrowed Brian's other -- Klingon -- Duel deck! Just as fully TMP-certified as mine. So that was a great match-up (again*). (*: The match with Seppel also felt, largely, thematically justified.) I started. (Brian told me about the "/cp" -- Choose Player -- function! Handy. And also -- note-to-self -- he explained his philosopy of generally using text Notes on facilities, ships and missions to relate them to their respective crews/A.T.s, because then it's easier to also use other Categories/Tabs -- like Tribbles or Dyson Sphere -- for crews.) After Brian saw Admiral Morrow Visit the Memorial, he quickly -- and definitively -- put a stop to that by having Brigadier Kerla play the tourist, and come to Earth to admire Mr Cochrane as well! Whatever jokes I made, whatever I said to or begged of Kerla, he wouldn't budge for the rest of the game. Trying to get rid of him with the game text of Secure HW, I ran headlong into Dead End. (Which hampered me right until the end of the game -- when I had just enough points; but I still couldn't score Earth for 40 add'l pts, due to Jebus flipping his Mission Debrief.) I also cleared out Overhaul Systems; but then Captain J.T. Esteban** on Grissom went to chat with Cytherians (+15 pts). (**: MVP / star player of the match.) Magistrate K'Rea died in shower of sparks when his gavel exploded during a Tactical Disadvantage (Dilemma encountered). Jebus also had Tom Paris mutated -- a LOT. I hardly recognized him from that Interrupt card image to begin with; but man, did he mutate and mutate and mutate (this was, at least twice, Powered by Kes). On their way back, Brian had an armada (well, 3 ships) converge on the pesky Oberth class. Shots were fired! Damage Markers were loosed upon me! This provided for some tense moments, and we needed to be maximizing our turns, plotting, planning and re-doing some things. My beautiful Grissom (I am very fond of my Oberths -- did I mention that?) and the E'prise-B were damaged beyond salvage. Eventually, I actually left Admiral Kirk and his crew on Babel to rot, while I had originally tried to plan for a rescue... but I just couldn't get there in time and/or out of reach of Jebus' big red Gunships... However. IKC Bounty to the rescue! She was one of the (many) additions / modifications I made to Armus' original deck, which didn't necessarily make it better (on the contrary!) -- but they made it my own, and I did end up profitting, peculiarly -- and joyously --, from quite some of those changes! So, with IKC Bounty not picking up Kirk's mission-capable AT, but instead the skeletton crews of the (scuttled) two other ships, we could get out of dodge with the BoP's cloaking device. And at top speed, return to Spacedock. I had wanted to bring Saavik out to wreak her Kobayashi vengeance upon whatever mission I thought Jebus might attempt in his last turn; but that didn't work out, because I had to tow away the Garbage Scow that those polluting Kossacks left at my Spacedock. Then I could finally score 25 pts from the Overhaul -- gaining another 15 by Reuniting quite some Legends -- and end my part of the game. I had actually already seen my Whale Probe hamper the opponent several times; and I want to see as many different parts (unique cards) in play, from my deck, as possible. So I consciously put that Probe on what I assumed (correctly) would be the far end of the spaceline! But in his -- and THE -- last turn, Brian made a run for points at at least 3 missions (perhaps he even considered/we discussed 4). So, he ended up bringing out a whopping 14 personnel on the Kronos... which might have at least helped him even the score a bit... if not for that big bucket of whale-noise... ehr... whale-song... So. That left us with only my points. Closing Thoughts This gig had high points, and some low ones. (To be up-front: this had nothing to do with any of the opponents; nor with Armus' or my own parts of the deck. It was just circumstantial.) I'm not sure -- don't remember -- whether all other tourneys I played had low points; at least some of them did, maybe it's natural. Ultimately, the highs prevail; since overall, I enjoy OP tremendously. Even aside from the self-conscious stress, and time-consuming nature, and the occasional scheduling and Lackey server SNAFUs. No Lackey FUBARs this time; and getting together to play was also not SNAFU. Since 3 of my 4 opponents were in Europe, and Jebus (from across the pond) and I (on the Jovian moon, Europa) were able to work our way (a Doodle-fumble on my browser's end notwithstanding) into a game-time appointment fairly quickly (at least 'quickly' when seen relative to my personal experience with cross-Time-Zone scheduling), I felt a refreshing lack of trouble, scheduling-wise. (That was a very long and majorly convoluted sentence, but I think I got it to function correctly!?) I probably said it elsewhere (due to 'pending results' situation, I can't access my already-saved AARs right now, to check); but Sykes' deck really appealed to me from the get-go; it had almost everything I wanted from this deck/gig. And the rest, I could easily add with a minimum of effort and 'temporal' (time) investment. Story-and-noun-wise, it was as fun as I expected. I got to see multiple Saaviks (didn't get to Clone her, though; and although I got to encounter it under my own mission, I didn't get to see my own copy of her Buried Alive photo). I got to fly all the nice TMP-era ships. I got to do a lot of Cap's Log (incl. Divert Power!) shenanigans in the Jebus match-up (to raise my defenses). Yep -- fun! So: I can honestly say that I loved Sykes' deck, and I loved what I did with it; it was a team effort. (I guess I had feared beforehand, that I wouldn't get the feeling that I "deserved" playing this deck -- sadly, I could never just copy a deck and play a tourney with it. At minimum, I have to really twist an existing deck to my own needs. Outside of starter/fixed deck scenarios, that is; I mean, I couldn't just copy a deck for a constructed gig. I wish I could have fun that way -- like Jebus did; I would be able to save time and show up in a few more tourneys, then. Buy anyway. In the end, I could "have" Sykes' "cake", as well as "eat" my Saaviks. Hmm. That sounds really bad, doesn't it? Well, I'm a non-native speaker. I can say such things innocently -- I can only speak this language in a literal manner. I have no idea of what hidden meanings it can imply, nor any grasp of its subtleties.) In the end, my 19 TMP Dilemmas weren't great, of course. But they were fun; and, I guess, surprising (because far from META) -- and I certainly earned that Achievement creating fun stacks with them. (Kudos to my being able to squeeze in Buried Alive!) I had a lot of challenges maximizing the free plays combined with the card draws from Executive Orders, though. That needs being worked on, for me. The token cards helped me a lot, though. The middle two games, my head wasn't really in it. (And we all know how it goes, even when my head IS fully in it.) The 3rd game -- against Paddy -- I felt I had so little resistance to offer, that I really wondered if OP/tourneys were still fun for me. But that was just in the moment -- we all get trampled sometimes, I guess. And the game before that, with Niall, was a bit peculiar of a different nature -- I was IRL distracted and especially tired. But the game with Jebus made up for that, and made me measure the middle two games at their relative value. And it was great seeing and learning from two of the Cross-Channel-Island Masters (and chatting with them)! So. I'm very glad I participated, after a long absence. My future attendence will probably be erratic (at times, if not immediately); but SudenKäpälä Will Return. (Enter Bond and/or Terminator quote here.) Expect me when you see me!