Johannes Klarhauser (Kaiser) |
Tournament Report - 1E - Online Event |
2013-12-16 - 11:45 AM |
The Big Treaty Project, Episode 3: My Free Peoples side is solid, but the Shadow needs some work (Bajoran/Federation) |
Introduction |
Federation/Bajoran was next in my quest for earning a couple of Treaty achivements this year. I used Danny's/Ken's decks as starting point, but quickly got rid of the Son'a and Insurrection and added Earth and some of its free plays to get the number of Feds needed for the achievement. Dilemmas were all DS9 property logo, which meant missing out on some very much needed roadblocks. |
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Round 1 | | Bye | BY (0) |
Das Bye. |
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Round 2 | | Dan Hamman | FW (+30) |
Dan's setup was four missions in the Delta Quadrant, including one with a wormhole, and two in the Alpha Quadrant. I was hoping to keep him in the Delta Quadrant for a while, and seeded three-card combos enhanced with a Kobayashi each at three of his missions, and something, something, Dead End under fourth, with only two-card stacks under his alpha missions. The setup had my Earth and the Bajoran Region next to each other, with the DMZ separating my reporting locations from Dan's Amnesty Talks + AQ planet.
I had decent opening hand with a Resistance personnel and got my Resitance Cell/Espionage engine starting nicely. With Geordi > Ocular Implants out early, I was able to peek under the first seed card at Bajor, and saw an Unscientific Method. I couldn't find a SCIENCE for the first couple of turns (and I was hesitant to grab Telek R'mor from my Tent at that point), so I went to space first. I got through the Armus: Energy Field without problems, but was worried a bit when I realised Dr. McCoy was my only MEDICAL against the following MLI + Plague Ship. Spock got lucky, and the doctor nullified the Plague Ship. The final dilemma in the combo was The Cloud, which damaged and stopped my Enterprise, and I didn't have enough personnel in play to simply fly in and solve next turn.
Meanwhile, Dan's Vidiians walked through my KMS-enhanced Navigation-based space combo in one go (he happened to have a bodyguard Vidiian to take the hit from A Fast Ship Would be Nice) to score 40 points, then immediately went over to the Alpha Quadrant where I had left two missions with only two dilemmas each and no KMS. Luckily, those two mini-combos (Berserk Changeling > Chula: The Game, and something > Friendly Fire) stopped enough of his personnel long enough to clear out the dilemmas under two more of my missions.
Once The Cloud was gone and my space mission solved, Dr McCoy was a huge help at getting through the dilemma combos under Earth (Lack of Preparation > Sleeper Trap > Medical Crisis) and Bajor (Scientific Method > Kelvan Show of Force > Scientific Method). Dan would have won on his next turn, and I just barely had the skills in play to complete Bajor. |
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Round 3 | | Matthew Ting | FW (+28)View opponent's ReportView original Report |
Once again, I failed at recognizing a Borg deck in the seed phase and arranged my dilemmas expecting a Klingon deck; this also meant that I wasted my three copies of Kobayashi Maru Scenario and did not fake-seed them like dilemmas.
The spaceline had my Bajor between my Attack at Rare Phenomenon and Characterize Neutrino, then a five-span Space mission separating them from my two DMZ missions, then again one of Matthew's missions and finally my Earth, with Matthew's remaining four missions arranged in pairs on either end of the spaceline. This meant that my two homeworlds were separated by a total span of 16 between, with a stretch of three adjacent space missions where no Hidden Fighters could be launched, so moving safely from on HQ to the other was impossible.
Matt seeded his Borg Cube close to my Bajor Region, where he expected me to be likely to attempt. I played my personnel to Earth whenever possible, and made an early attempt at Investigate Maquis Activity while the Borg ship was still unstaffed. I cleared the dilemma combo Shore Leave (MLI + FLI, sending Admiral Janeway and Shakaar to the location of the Cube) > Talosian Cage (losing Admiral Riker) > Matriarchal Society down to the last one, but was left with no females close to the DMZ. Janeway and Shakaar used Hidden Fighter to grab the Delta Flyer, then flew towards Bajor, but didn't have enough range to get there.
On his turn, Matt was able to staff his Cube, then flew after my Delta Flyer and Established a Tractor Lock to keep my flyer from moving. Luckily, I had drawn into a Bajoran Freighter, played it together with Cook Sisko to the Klingon Restaurant and Rom to his brother's bar, flew next door, beamed over the guys aboard the flyer and docked again at DS9 to be safe for the moment.
Matt then set up the next pieces, and went over to the DMZ where he used Assimilate Species to steal some Humans; he killed one in the battle and grabbed the other two.
With the Cube at the other side of the spaceline, I played more personnel to Bajor, including Dr. McCoy, and sent them down to the planet to attempt. It turned out that the good doctor had arrived just in time to nullify the Borg Servo which would have stopped me otherwise. The other dilemmas were an Altonian Brain Teaser and a Dead End. On my next turn, McCoy nullfied another Borg Servo next door at Attack at Rare Phenomenon, then I lost seven points to The Higher...The Fewer, and saw the mission blocked by Garbage Scow.
Of course, Matt Transwarp Conduited over to assimilate more people (Bajorans this time), and drained me of mission skills (I realized in my first game against Dan that Treachery was a huge problem and made completing Bajor very tough without HQ: Secure Homeworld). By now, I had drawn into two more females, but had to use card plays to report them (Vedeks Kira and Dax) to Earth in order finally get through the Matriarchal Society and complete IMA for 40 points using Kirk. However, the problem was that none of my three ships in the Bajor Region had a Tractor Beam, so I had to waste another card play to STP-bounce my Enterprise to hand and deploy it Bajor.
In the meantime, Matt's Borg had assimilated more people and Established Gateway for 52 points total, but on my next turn I finally had the Enterprise and enough skills in play to tow away the Scow at Characterize Neutrino and solve that mission to be on 68, then Masaka'd away my hand hoping to find the Treachery and Computer Skill guys to complete Bajor.
As my people were stopped by Mission Debriefing, Matt flew over and assimilated even more, bringing up his score to 72 and also moving the scow over Bajor again. Before he ended his turn, I special downloaded Dig to get Admiral Janeway, who was killed in battle, back into hand.
Luckily, I had drawn through most of deck now and despite Matt assimilating so many people, I had now enough skills in play to tow away the scow, fly back and solve Bajor using the requirements on HQ: Secure Homeworld that I had finally found, to get to 103 points.
Incredibly entertaining game!
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Kaiser had 2 homeworlds, so I knew this was going to be a cat and mouse game. A Matriarchal Society combo slows him down for a bit looking for 2 women, while I'm building up forces. Get some opportunistic assimilating happening, but Kaiser is throwing out plenty more personnel. He finally gets his 2 women, and manages to start clearing out his next 2 missions. Dr McCoy really saves him by nullifying Borg Servo at 2 missions (grrr....), and he manages to clear his last 2 missions. At this point my only hope was that he couldn't move a Radioactive Garbage Scow, but he remembers to STP the Enterprise on the far end of the spaceline to report next turn and move the Scow. I knew there were only 2 turns left in this game, and I manage to Establish Gateway once. I stall him for a turn longer by dropping Access Denied on a mission (he didn't have enough Computer Skill in play, forcing him to go home for a turn). I assimilate a bit more, hoping to get rid of skills he needs, but he manages to draw what he needed to solve his last mission for the win. 47 points of assimilation was pretty impressive though! In hindsight, I would have been in a more comfortable position had I not played Establish Tractor Lock too early, meaning it was still in discard pile right when I really needed it to stop the Enterprise from towing the Scow. A well played game by Kaiser, where a mistake could have been very costly. |
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Round 4 | | Danny Nuttall | FL (-54) |
Danny played his modified Worlds deck. I'm not sure whether the new cards make it strictly better, but it certainly gives you more choices and makes it harder for the opponent to guess what tools are in there, and also for to decide what to cut in order to leave the deck to a manageable size (at least that was the feeling I had when building my deck). The setup was familiar to me now, but I once more I blundered placing dilemmas and only gave Danny two at a non-duplicated space mission.
I had a slow start, with no KFC, or Renewal Scroll, or Quark to dl Scroll, and several of the cards I'd usually want to download in my early draws. I was missing several key skills early, e.g. I don't remember seeing an Anthropology personnel, Biology was also in short supply. Danny attempted first at Jeraddo, got through the Founder Secret thanks to Odo, then triggered the FF to complete soon after despite the KMS there.
An Edo Probe stopped my first try at IMA, when I then attempted the space mission in the same region, I got through the initial wall, but lost a ship with six or seven guys aboard to V'Ger. Thinking those losses would cost me the game anyway, I sent in all my remaining guys on another ship, and by sheer luck had the cards to beat Maglock and complete the mission.
Danny maneuvered his various ships and personnel around a bit, then sent a crew to the mission that was farthest away from his outposts, but I had forgotten to put a KMS there so he completed that mission after stopping to Navigational Hazards for a turn. He also had his Leeta out by now and it was only a matter of a few turns until Danny would eventually get to 100 even without a third mission.
Best I could do is keep attempting, but even though I cleared Captain's Holiday and I Hate You, I was 1 attribute point short of having enough guys left to both drag a Garbage Scow away and solve the mission.
Danny had cleared the Dead Ended and KMS'd Insurrection by now, and solved for the comfortable win. |
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Closing Thoughts |
With Bajor hard to do because of the relative lack of skills, and HQ: Secure Homeworld stocked in my deck and not seeded, I seriously limited my options of where I could attempt AND solve. Still, given the achievement-based dilemmas I used, going 2-1 (with the one loss being to Mr. Nuttall) is something I can live with :) |
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