Matthew Zinno (commdecker) |
Tournament Report - 1E - Online Event (Mission to Talos IV) |
2012-06-06 - 12:00 AM |
Talogen |
Introduction |
Ooh boy, we get to play Open! What abusive things do I want to play? And what will I need to be prepared to face? Note to self: need Borg Nanoprobes. I decided on a Hirogen deck with War Council for free plays, Ancestral Vision for draws, Fortress of Doom for downloads, and DQSS. The plan when I built it was to battle, board, and get people for Relics points ... but against the fishbowl, I did really well against dilemmas. In my three games, I never boarded and never did personnel battle, and I only once captured someone with Rituals, to score Lonzak points. And in each game, I solved three missions to win, and thereby won the tournament. |
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Round 1 | | Christopher Coyle | FW (+60) |
This was something of a mirror matchup, since we both played Hirogen with War Council and a seeded Olarra/FOD. And 3 duplicated missions in the middle of the spaceline. Due to the affiliation attack restrictions, we never battled, and apparently that gave the advantage to me ... I think his deck was made for battling, while mine was made for either that or solving. I got a decent team out and attempting on turn 1, losing a few people but clearing a few dilemmas. He did the same, hitting the first of several YGIIs, three of which over the course of the game targeted his Marika (the first one killed all triplets; later ones saw her Nanoprobed back). He actually cleared all the dilemmas on that first attempt (CommonTheif/YGII/SpatialRift), but lacked the skills to solve (Geo at Stop Bombardment). Second turn, I played Chakotay and started my Ancestral Vision draws. Soon I solved my first mission (Obtain Advanced Tech, 35 for Hogan) and was stopped by Mission Debriefing (designed to kill extras with the Volcanic Eruption there), but I played Distortion to unstop and escape. They proceeded to my next mission (Investigate Unknown Element) on the same turn, where YGII sent my Telek to the Next Emanation, and the rest proceeded to a Spatial Rift which didn't take anybody, but I couldn't pass having lost Telek. To prepare for later, I put a Rituals onto Chris' Telek. When I reattempted next turn, I was facing YGII/Rift, and I had the people who could pass Spatial Rift (even after losing one to YGII) but they wouldn't have the stats to solve (even after ... yeah). So I sent Ayala too, and the random selection for Spatial Rift got -- as a one in 10 chance -- Hogan and Ayala, exactly the two people who wouldn't survive it (the others were all sufficiently boosted by War Council or a Hir-Rifle). So I didn't pass Rift anyway. I moved on to a space mission (Reinit Warp), with my first ship clearing Medicine/SSW. I sacrificed a second ship to the Cloud, then a third solved (using Physics from Chris' Decaren via Rituals). Chris was at this point desperate for personnel, and started playing BTS and Handshakes to get to them. He got a large team togehter to pass Spatial Rift even with YGII/Distracted (countdown 4!), and solved Study Prot. Then I finally played my Borg Nanoprobes and nullified that YGII at InvUnk, and passed the Rift with Rituals back on his Telek again, solving for FW 100-40. Good thing I got AMS points once, because those three undiplicated missions only added up to 95.
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Round 2 | | Matt Kirk | FW (+100)View opponent's ReportView original Report |
I thought I was in trouble when Liberation (which would have my seeded Olarra) ended up at the far end of the spaceline away from my outpost. Matt was in even bigger trouble; his Nekrit outpost had to go near the Nekrit region, which was at the absolute end of the spaceline, even farther from *his* seeded Olarra than I was. The tenor of the game was therefore dominated by the commute by the dual Olarras. He went first, and got his about halfway before I took a Venatic Hunter and damaged it. He saw it would get destroyed (I guess he didn't see that he should make it Hirogen, preventing me from attacking with the Venatic), so beamed down his people to a planet mission and attempted -- losing three to YGII and Spatial Rift. After destroying his Olarra, I beamed down to capture his Arachnia for Lonzak points, leaving his two holograms stranded on the mission. Matt never recovered from that -- eventually he reported Hajur and several holograms, and a Tsunkatse Ship but it has no holodeck. I started solving missions, getting Obtain Advanced Technology and RWR for 35 each. Then I had Yeggie in hand, Icheb in play, and no Hidden Agendas on the other side of the table. So I played Yeggie through the TMW to my ship, downloaded Nanoprobes, and rather than start an untried mission, I stole his mission that he had started attempting. (I had downloaded Fair Play on his first turn, but never flipped it.) The Nanoprobes nullified my YGII, and I had the people to pass my Spatial Rift and to solve Ha'dara for another 30. FW 110-0, counting the doubled Lonzak points. |
Again we duplicated Liberation as expected, and I really screwed myself on the spaceline setup. I managed to put Assist Cooperative on the absolute wrong end of the spaceline, so that my Olarra would need to plow through cd's Hirogen space to get to my outpost. My second mistake was not blowing up cd's Olarra on my first turn, as I had Arachnia download to turn on Weiss, and could have easily destroyed the other Olarra. My final mistake was not remembering the attack restriction rules for HIrogen (I was thinking Hirogen could freely attack like Klingons). Had I remembered that crucial detail, my Olarra would have been recognized as a friendly and been safe from cd's Hirogen fleet that eventually destroyed me. |
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Round 3 | | Tosk | FW (+95) |
Tosk seeded the Think Tank Ship, so I was probably not going to be attacking and boarding. I got Chakotay out on the first turn for early drawing power, and thus the freedom to download ships. By turn 2 I had cleared a planet mission, losing my Nanoprobes to a thief and an Arachnia to Impressive Trophies. Next turn I solved that, and lost my only Navigation (not counting Chakotay, busy on the planet) to Alice at RWR. Tosk on his turn flew his TTS several missions (some being 2 span really helped his mobility) and picked up the two captives. In doing so he also came within striking distance of my outpost and Chakotay, so I was worried about him going and killing or somehow capturing Chuckles. He also cloaked -- good thing, since I had three ships within range and could have done something to him despite the 18 shields. On his next turn I think he almost attacked me, trying to coordinate his Arachnia versus mine, and Divert Power -- but in the end the numbers were off, and he didn't, and flew back towards his outpost where a Tsunkatse Ship now waited. I reported another Chakotay and re-attempted RWR, worried about SSW since it was set up wih Alice. No, they hit The Swarm and The Cloud. I moved a second ship there to attempt (Abanadon Ship fizzled, so cleared), and to help in case of battle next turn. I tried moving a third ship to solve, but Tosk reminded me it had already used its range. So on the next turn, he did indeed attack. He boosted the TTS' weapons with Divert Power, but by accident sacrified the range he needed to get there. Still, his TsS destroyed my damaged Venatic unscathed, thanks to Swarm and Arachnia. On my turn I solved RWR, and used the range restoration to get out of there. And on my next turn, I mega-teamed past Ankari (Honor = Arachnia, Telek, and Donik) and Displaced to solve a third mission, final 105; he had 5 from Lonzak with my captured Arachnia. |
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