Matthew Zinno (commdecker) Tournament Report - 1E 2012-10-23 - 05:00 PM Block starfleet ... and it finished last Introduction My local group wanted another tournament, constructed this time. I offered them Block and the Talos/I format, and they chose block. I brought Starfleet for the achievement. Round 1 Matt Ludvino FL (-100) Matt played Federation. In fact, the first round was "Choose Your Champions" -- Fgi vs Fgi, Klg vs Klg, and Blue vs Blue. My early personnel just didn't match up well with his dilemmas: I couldn't pass Medical Crisis for a while, and I hit Dignitaries and Witnesses with no Admiral and little or no Leadership. Matt got through things quickly enough, including mega-teaming his third mission to pass all the dilemmas there and two I downloaded (Wind Dancer [Data] and ArmusRoulette[Spock]) to pass on the first attempt and win 100-0. Round 2 April Pinnick ML (-30) April played Ferengi, and self-seeded cards at two missions. I couldn't think what they would be. There's only one artifact in block and it isn't useful there, and I couldn't recall any bonus point dilemmas. Eventually, late in the game, she played Tolian Soran, which reminded me: the Nexus, which I had almost used myself. The other, I discovered during round 3, was The Whale Probe (with ipod sound effects!) as theft defense. Anyway, she redshirted early and found All Available Personnel, downloading one Skeleton Crew ... and another later when she brought enough to pass AAP. And on that attempt, a doubled Armus.SOE killed nurse Levin right before the Medical Crisis! Stuck there, she went on to a shared mission that she couldn't remember what she had seeded there (prompting a reminder of her rant against the no-note-taking rule), and triggered her own Dal'Rok and Dead End! At around this time, I set off Friendly Fire at -- but otherwise cleared -- Control Plague, and OOT-ed to the past to bring my Klingons forward next turn. After the countdown, I solved with AMS Danica for 40. I had gone first, and on my final turnI reached Amnesty Talks and cleared the dilemmas, but no longer had the requirements, since my double-Treachery Silik had been stopped by Tense Negotiations. Then on April's last turn, after the buzzer, she finished off Raid Ancient for 40, then moved over to Deliver Message (with a TMW'd Duras) and solved it on the first attempt, even with me downloading two extra dilemmas (Wind Dancer [Koral] and ArmusRoulette) to win 70-40. Round 3 Glenn B ML (-30)View opponent's ReportView original Report Glenn was playing Klingon. He doesn't have much experience, and had been hoping to tweak his deck between rounds before he was told he couldn't. His was not a battle deck, and he didn't report any ships until at least turn 3. So we both got off to a bit of a slow start. He solved Acquire Surplus Ships on his first attempt, with AMS points [40]. I went for FOS with a mixed team of Starfleet and NA (basically AMS and Orions), and got the Orions stopped by Difference Of Opinion (wouldn't hit most Starfleet decks), then Friendly Fire when I only had one SEC in play (McDermott). Later, he reported Gareb through a TMW and attempted Qonos, and solved for 30. I solved FOS by bringing Daniels, then with the timer looming, I sent everyone to something and found a Dead End, then to the end of the spaceline to try Amnesty Talks. But I brought too many, and lost three to Restricted Area, then exposed an RGS ... and hadn't drawn my only Tractor Beam (the klingon ship). I got it soon enough, and moved that away to solve, then tried Control Plague next door. My NAs hit Restricted Area again, then a Medical Crisis stopped me because I had left my solvers behind. At the buzzer, Glenn scored a third mission for a total of 105, but they were all planets so he wasn't done. He had gone first, so on my final turn I threw all my unstopped personnel at that Med Crisis. It came down to a random selection: my only MED were Danica and Antaak, and one would be stopped but the other (plus Laneth and the Tricorder) would pass the dilemma. If Danica had been stopped I would have solved and won, but Antaak was stopped leaving me not enough MEDICAL to solve. Game end, 105-70 ML. I got lucky with my initial draw and started with a handful of personnel that I could put into play. I also drew & played Surprise Party which helped a lot. My Dilemmas were very effective against Matt. At one point, he was facing Dead End, RGS (without a Tractor Beam) and Friendly Fire (which he couldn't solve). His deck also relied on a lot of NA personnel, so Diff Opinion was devastating to his plans. Closing Thoughts Last place. Such is playing Starfleet in block. Still, in the games I didn't really feel like the deck was misdesigned or misplayed or really doing that badly. There was no particular thing wrong. It was just a death of a hundred cuts. Higher-range ships would have helped a little, but wasn't the deciding factor. Easier access to the locations of my free reports would have helped a little, but wasn't the deciding factor. Better percentage of dilemma-busting skills ... same. Easier time travel ... I stocked plenty of OOT, though that caused a problem that I wasn't drawing enough other things ... more temporal agents would be helpful though. Still, we all had fun, and I get the countdown achievement. Some unexpected events overall: I never faced battle. I only hit one of the block dilemmas that I think of as particularly harsh to block-Starfleet: RGS; not Arsenal or Apollo.