My third First Edition tournament and the first one with a deck build on my own. And by build on my own I of course mean, copying a deck from the Internet and ask its creator to explain me the details (thanks Ken!)... But at least I used my own cards. I decided to use copy a Terran Empire deck, because it looked like fun and gave me a "Play" achievement that I could not get from 2E.

Disclaimer: I am writing this report nearly two weeks after the tournaments and my notes are questionable at best, so if you have a different memory of our game, you are probably right...

I am flying to England and my first round opponent is a German... Luckily a German I never played before. Peter was playing Ferengi with Androids. I had some serious trouble passing a Ferengi Ingenuity(+Access Denied) since I could not draw enough Computer Skill personnel. In the end I had to use Fitting In together with Mindmeld to create a personnel with 3 Computer Skill to finally pass it... My first attempt in the Alpha Quadrant got stopped by some dilemma I do not remember and due to some bad luck (or very clever planning by Peter) my ship was hit by Peter's Nexus and I lost all my equipment, including the only copy of Multidimensional Transporter Device I had in play. The personnel I still had left in the Alpha Quadrant where not able to solve a mission and as I did not draw my second Multidimensional Transporter Device in the remaining two or so rounds I was not able to send reenforcement. Peter meanwhile solved his mission and send Tolian Soran to the Nexus to win the game.

Collected Screw Ups:
- Using Q the Referee to download Access Denied the turn after Peter attempted the mission the first time and passed Ferengi Ingenuity. At least I could make the Dejaren that stopped him slightly harder...
- Downloading Scorched Hand instead of In the Zone during Peter's last turn. It would not have stopped him from winning, but at least it have ruined his Full Win...

Another Ferengi deck, but this time with Scientific Diplomacy. I had some trouble getting personnel into play and when I finally had enough to make a first mission attempt Steven's dilemmas killed nearly everybody. Sadly "nearly everybody" included my second Bajoran Resistance guy, so I could not draw cards with Bajoran Resistance Cell. It took me forever to draw another one and Steve somehow managed to keep the number of cards in his hand very low so I could never use Handshake. Luckily he had some issues with my dilemmas and when his ship was hit by Cytherinas he decided to return it to hand. I managed to solve my two Mirror Quadrant missions but lost everybody on my first attempt at my Alpha quadrant space mission. At least the crew had removed all dilemmas from the mission and I had enough personnel left to solve it if I would get another ship (i.e. drawing my final copy of Hidden Fighter). That was the moment when I realized Handshake actually had a third function... That could have been really helpful earlier, but better late than never... I discarded my hand, got the last Hidden Fighter and could complete my final mission.

Collected Screw Ups:
- Trying everything to remove cards from my hand (including wasting a Hidden Fighter in the Mirror Quadrant) to be able to use the first function of Handshake instead of just reading the card till the end...

Niall had horrible luck with his draws and that was likely the only reason the game ended as close as it did. I lost points to The Higher the Fewer and Lack of Preparations at my Mirror Quadrant missions and had a Dead End under one of them, so I had to go to the Alpha Quadrant earlier than I intended and since I had no Hidden Fighter at that point of the game I had to attempt my Badland Planet mission, which is something I never intended to do... It worked out in the end and I got enough points to pass Dead End and solve my second Mirror Quadrant mission. Thanks to the early point loss I had to do a forth mission and as time was about to run out (and I drew only one Hidden Fighter and thus had only one ship in Alpha quadrant) I attempted with everybody at my space mission. I faced Chula: The Chandra first and while quite a number of personnel continued it stopped just the right personnel to prevent me from passing V'Ger. Niall meanwhile had his important personnel in play and solved his missions, but during his last turn (after time was called) I used Q the Referee to download Oof! (as Niall has prevented a Kivas Fajo earlier during the game) to leave him with 95 points and a Modified Win.

Collected Screw Ups:
- This time I downloaded Access Denied before the first attempt, but sadly to the wrong mission...

Another German, but again one I had not faced so far, so no complains... Stefan played Romulans and seeded two Time Locations, Storage Compartment Door, Hero of the Empire, and a lot other things I just forgot about. I cannot remember a Second Edition game where the table was as crowed as Stefan's side of the table before he drew his opening hand... The one thing I learned from this game is: Tribbles are annoying! My personnel were busier carrying Tribbles around than attempting missions. Stefan had some issues with my dilemmas. Two of his missions were blocked by Dead End and Medical Crisis and at his space mission he lost a ship to V'Ger. Meanwhile my personnel have trouble passing Hannonian Land Eels at both my Mirror mission. When I finally could solve the second one time was called and I decided to try to score as many points as I could before Stefan final turn. I send all my personnel into the Badlands and they manage to solve the mission. Stefan used In the Zone to deny me some of my points. Nevertheless I scored enough points to lead by more than 50, so I downloaded an In the Zone myself to make sure I get a Modified Win. It turned out that would not have been necessary as Stefan hit Cytherians during his first attempt in his turn and his ship (with nearly all his personnel) had to travel towards the Badlands and my missions, but better save than sorry...

Collected Screw Ups:
- Classic Type II Phaser only increases the Strength of TOS personnel, so my carefully planned Away Team failed Hannonian Land Eel... I really should make sure to read the whole card...

Great tournament! I did much better than I expected. I got a bunch of new achievements. I met some great people and only faced opponents I had not played so far. And most important of all, I had a lot of fun! What else can you expect?