Johannes Klarhauser (Kaiser) Tournament Report - 2E - Australian Continentals Side Event 2012-09-06 - 03:00 PM Crunched by a Crocodile Introduction This tournament was only announced after I had already left Germany, so I didn't have a deck for this format. However, Kieren, praised-be-his-name, offered to bring one for me. I sent him a link to one of Naetor's old V-designs and asked him to bring those cards for me, which he did, wonderful-human-being-that-he-is. I spiced the deck with some other cards (mainly good dilemmas) that had become printable in the meantime, and hoped for the best. Round 1 Craig Giblett FW (+100) I had a good opening hand and scored points early on, but it took a while until I had enough personnel in play to go out and attempt. I know the skill spread of the SF guys quite well, so I was able to play dilemmas efficiently. Once my guys got going, Karina and the Stooges did a great job keeping people going through dilemmas, even though the skill spread on my personnel was a bit off for my taste. Still, they got the job done. Round 2 Amber Van Breemen FW (+50) Amber played a very interesting Equinox build that used AU Sisko, Enterprise-J and assorted high-cunning non-aligneds to complete two 50-point missions. Even though her first two turns were slow, with an early Energize and Forcing Their Way (one of which I cancelled) she managed to churn out several quality guys each on her next turns, and between the Doctor, Rudolph Ransom and the Nucleogenic Interrupts, she had a lot of dilemma busting power in her crew. I had to play multiple dilemmas each time, so when she attempted for the third time with 11, I was only able to stop 3. Her remaining eight guys still had more than 50 Cunning, so she completed the mission and went on to her planet. There, I played a lone Inequitable Exchange, taking out Sisko. On my next turn, I used Tacking to get rid of Enterprise-J to bring her attribute total down another notch, and finally had a big hand with several events to unstop people left and right. I did two missions in one go, then was able to hold off the Treachery people for another turn with my dilemmas. Very close game. Round 3 Shane Brierley FW (+30) Shane played a speedy Terok Nor deck. We were both fast getting through our first mission, and I was lucky to get a Greater Needs to go at his planet mission, which bought me some time. I just had enough events in hand to keep six personnel unstopped at my last mission to get the win before Shane would have completed his planet (he had enough guys in play to make three attempts at a mission that already had three under). Closing Thoughts I used Karina and the Stooges a lot more aggressively in this tournament than I normally do. Usually, I keep my powder dry on the first attempt, expecting to be stopped anyway by a three-card dilemma combo. This time, I unstopped guys whenever I got the chance, and discarded events that I would have loved to play next turn, even though there were several other dilemmas waiting. The gamble payed off more often than not, and I think over the course of three games, I forced Polywater to be overcosted three times. This gave me confidence to use the same strategy with the Chakotay Twins in the main event.