Charlie Plaine (MidnightLich) Tournament Report - 1E - Local Event (Mission to Talos IV) 2020-05-01 - 12:00 AM Visiting Cochrane in the Golden Age Introduction I'd never played in this era, and I'd spent a month listening to James Heaney talk up his experience in the March version of this tournament. So I decided to give it a try, but I quickly became overwhelmed by deck building. Thus, I decided to steal a deck from Stephen P (Spectre9) and ran with it. I even managed to resist my desire to make changes, and left it as is. Round 1 Stephen P FL (-100) So naturally, I got paired against him! Stephen was playing Dominion according to his missions, so I seeded my dilemmas smartly. Unfortunately, Earth was the first mission out so it was right in the middle of the spaceline, and he brought Dominion Jem'Hadar and guns to make it impossible for me to safely use VCM. I also didn't get but two free reports the entire game, which slowed me down. I finally got the mission skills I needed to clear out one mission, but I was stupid and didn't get a backup ship first and my whole crew got hit with Cytherians - right into his fleet. It turns out I didn't need to fear ship battle, because he was using Invasive Beam-In to station murderous Jem'Hadar with weapons on my facilities and on my ships. I could have picked it up my ship with STP, but he pointed out that he could just post some Jem'Hadar on both my facilities, and I'd never be able to recover. I conceded to avoid an extra hour of misery. Round 2 Bye BY (0) I was paired with Niall Matthew (sexecutioner), but his internet was cut right before we were scheduled to play. Sure it was, Neill. You just refuse to meet me again on the field of battle, denying me my revenge! Round 3 Jason Robinette MW (+48) Jason was showing Ferengi or Cardassians, so I tried to seed away from him. I put Dead End and Edo under his Ferengnar and his Jerrado, hoping to block an artifact - and he did self-seed a card at Ferenginar. I was lucky to get some early free plays and early [EE] people, so I got draws from VCM. I built up a crew while Jason did Cargo Runs. He damaged my Future E, but luckily didn't destaff me. I was stopped by a Firestorm + Into the Pale Moonlight, but had Luther Sloan in my hand, so I passed it and solved Reported Activity for 35 the next turn. I flew the Future over to Repair Mission, and hit a Q Flash for 11 - leaving just an Ambassador Krajesinsky in play to hit a Cytherians. I was destaffed because Admiral Riker was in the Penalty Box. Jason waited out a Friendly Fire at Ferengnar, but hit my Dead End. Meanwhile, I cleared out Repair Mission (leaving just a Scow) but didn't have the ENGINEER and Tractor Beam to tow it. I worked on Earth, but trigger a Dal'Rok that made it difficult to stay there. I had two empty missions, just no way to get my personnel to them. Eventually, we ran out of time and I had to settle for a MW with two empty missions. Oh well! It was a fun game! Closing Thoughts James Heaney, my friend and colleague, I love you - but you oversold how much fun this format would be and how enlightened I would feel after. But I did have fun, so it wasn't a terrible experience! Thanks to Brian for running it.