Matthew Zinno (commdecker) Tournament Report - 1E - Online Event 2015-06-15 - 12:00 AM Good Casting: Picardo Introduction My third time out with a hologram deck, this time going for the relatively new hologram deck achievement. Round 1 Sebastian Kirstein FW (+39) Seppel was playing Bajorans and Cardassians, with some Maquis splashed in. All of his missions were in regions (baj/car/badlands), which split up my missions effectively. Fortunately, one of my planet missions (where my OP can seed) is also in the badlands, so I was able to insert it next to two of my space missions, and focus on those three for the whole game. After using bricklayer for Weiss (2nd OFF), I was able to start on missions early, while Seppel was still amassing resources (and my Crell scared him from using his Duck Blind, adjacent to my OP). I stopped at the first Edo Probe (literally, thanks to his Mission Debriefing, which was probably taking the place of the recently banned ITZ), but pushed through the second one so that I could make some progress. Arsenal stopped me, and RGS on a later turn. That's when Seppel brought over his Bajoran Warship, and an Interceptor with a Plasma Relay, and damaged my Olarra (and I damaged the Interceptor). Ah, but I had a Revised Doctor in hand, with another in play, so I had access to my dialable Interrupts. I considered TWC, to tow the scow and hopefully solve, but instead I went for the Disruptor Overload, to kill the Plasma Relay and make his Warship vulnerable to a 1-shot from my two combined ships. He STP'd up -- which, he realized on the next turn, killed his deck, because he could no longer report his Warships. For the rest of the game, he limped around with his damaged Interceptor. He still managed to solve both homeworld missions -- getting lucky rolls on Quantum each time, and passing with Phy+2Nav on each one's first attempt. I solved that Scow mission and went back for my others; at the other space I "lost" a person to FF (after I happened to hit Incentive-based Economics with NO security) and waited out the countdown trying the planet mission. Sleeper Trap gave me a battle, in which he could not kill or be killed by my holograms. Next turn, I included meatbags AND burned Jemmie Strike Force, to kill both of him as well as score 10 points. A second team there exposed another scow, and I ended my turn with just a few minutes on the clock, hoping he couldn't solve a third mission on his final (1st player) turn. He couldn't, thanks to his ship situation, and I moved the scow to solve on my final turn. Final score, I had 95 mission points, +10 from JSF, +10 from Mission Accomplished, -10 from Edo, +20 from 62nd Rule = 125. He had 70 mission points, -20 from 62nd Rule, +5 from Taban (a voluntary kill at YGII), +6 from Dabo = 61. ITZ report: He had a turn with two mission solves and Taban, for 75 points. I had a turn with one mission solve, boosted by 62 and Mission Accomplished, plus JSF, for 55 points. (As for the lack of ITZ, I did have one turn with 55 points, and he had one with 75.) Round 2 Matthew Ting FL (-100) I suffered from draw engine failure this time around. In the whole game, I only drew one Holodoor, in my opening hand, which went to getting a Tx2 person (Kim). No Crell, no Cyrus, not even Temporal Shifting ... so not much draws. And I needed them, since my first mission attempt found a Spatial Rift, which very unluckily discarded Kim and Wodek'idan: my only Officers, and a Command star, leaving me with only one. So it took me a few turns for Farek to fly the Husnock Ship to re-staff the Olarra, then stranding the Husnock Ship instead. I tried my planet mission and found Dead End, and at another space mission (where my holograms proved impervious to KMS) I pushed through an Edo Probe to fail a Quantum -- neither of which was able to trigger Vic, who could have cured my drawing problems. Meanwhile, Ting's Illegitimate Klingons had a much easier time ... well, initially they suffered from Impure, and lost a ship (i.e. STP) to Ankari, but then solved a space mission for Cryo/Genesis, and a planet mission (with a MED combo) FTW. ITZ report: He was at 35 points, and solved his boosted mission for 70 points to win. Round 3 Damon Sommer FW (+60) KNomad (Damon) seeded three homeworlds and three nebulas ... okay, that's a Borg deck. I set up my outpost near Earth (i.e. away from the cube), and threw my other planet down at the other end. I had about the opposite shuffle from my last game: almost entirely holodoors. Sounds nice for dilemma and mission skills, but it means there was little in the way of Crell fodder or Cyrus items. Fortunately for me, Damon had seeded no Ref protection, and I could download a little more than usual (though holodoor self-limits to once each turn). I attempted a mission on turn 2, revealing a Dead End at the nearest space mission. Traveling out to the next space mission would bring me dangerously close to the cube, and I was sufficiently afraid of it simply deciding to come destroy my full-crew Olarra, that I instead turned around and attempted my planet. I pushed through an Edo Probe (even though I expected to lose the points; it was simply the case that my next alternative was two turns' flight away), failing a None Shall Pass. I was able to try again with another team on that turn, downloading Iden and boosting him with the second time I played it this tournament) to 2 Anth ... and this small second team then failed a Founder Secret. The Borg then reached Earth, and Seven scouted (alone ... old Skool Borg rules!), failing Hippo (a good anti-Borg dilemma). I toyed with sending over a team to kill her, and her objective-downloading implant, before I remembered that all my leaders are holograms, and they can't beam down to a random planet, only the one where I put the holoprojectors. Okay, back to my mission, where the Equidoc and his gun helped me past the Founder Secret, then losing 14 points to THTF. I solved, bringing me to 21 points (after Edo, and an item, etc.). Damon adapted past Hippo, and the rest of the Med combo fell to skill-sharing; scouting complete. Now that he had a current objective to worry about, I zipped past Earth towards my second space mission. At this point I had lots of holograms on and reporting to the Olarra, so I was dreading seeing a second copy of THTF. I solved it on the first attempt, passing Q (through an EMH download to put me over ... maybe the first time I've ever passed it (not that I've faced it often, mind you)), Kazon Bomb, and Fgi Infestation (plus a dupe Dead End), bringing me to 56. I would have loved to continue to another, but he had Mission Debriefing. Rather than finish AH, Damon started to Stop First Contact, though his first probe failed. I returned to my first space mission, and again solved in one attempt, passing some of the same dilemmas as at the previous mission. This brought me to 86 points, curse that earlier Edo+THTF. (And Damon knew not to give me any more points from the item.) So I needed to solve a 4th mission. Damon then finished SFC, which lost me several Fed cards, including Weiss, all my EMHs, and Zimmerman! My Future holograms were spared, though. He then flipped P9B and cleared Secret Salvage with an Empathic Queen. He would win on the next turn (40 so far, and SS doubled is 60) if the probe was good, and I was too far from my third-closest space mission. I needed an extra turn to get there. Fortunately, Secret Salvage was actually next to my outpost. And even with most of my people out on the Olarra doing missions, I still had a leader there: Cyrus. So I took a crew on the Darmok, with two (flesh) people for staffing and Cyrus for the leadership, and attacked his cube. They were destroyed immediately, but they prevented him probing there next turn. So I bought myself the time to get to my last mission, and faced a new combo: LOP (fine), Tense Neg (where he stopped Colyus, who had the most skills applicable to ...) Friendly Fire (still enough to pass), and Shaka (passed by President of Earth ... which is who he should have stopped with TenseNeg), all passed to solve FTW. ITZ report: he was Borg, so immune -- and he used Mission Debriefinng, so I wouldn't have run into ITZ anyway. Closing Thoughts I like playing holograms, even with G4 now in the game.