Fritz Meissner (Fritzinger) Tournament Report - 2E - The Neutral Zone Regional 2016-06-19 - 10:00 AM New Players Do Exist and Phase 2 made Recruiting them Easier Introduction Not a single opponent from last year's regional made it to this one. Just after I got back from my world tour two new players joined us for the first time, and I thought I'd never have problems getting sanctioned numbers again! Little did I know that of the old group 2 would emigrate to the US, 2 would stop being available on game day and 1 would inform me that he was indefinitely unavailable for trek. With the theoretical maximum turnout being 3 I knew I had to do some emergency demos and in the last 2 weeks I managed to twist the arms of two friends, Markus and Nick who graciously stepped up and almost/beat me with the solid speed decks I gave them. Round 1 Markus Glatz ML (+5) Markus had only had one quick demo (a week ago) before playing this game, and not with this deck. We moved pretty slowly, at the end of the game I had one mission and Markus was attempting his first with a million weenies. I used attrition to bring the attributes down but forgot about the Common interrupt. Like a pro Markus interrupt cheats his only mission and it puts him on 40 points to my 35. Round 2 Robin Caddie FW (+100) Robin was trying new starfleet but with a twist of extra draws from Sherman's planet. A gomtuu on the enterprise was crucial for me to prevent him from getting to and from home each turn, and adopted authority is just so good against the all round goody two shoes. Early stops with only 1 under (great use of Intimidation against Cardies!) slowed me down at first but Central Command was enough to get me my three missions. Round 3 Nick Gorven MW (-35) Nick's phase 2 TNG had taken him to the top of the standings, stomping all over his opponents with early Rigel draws and then ALC. He blew through Rigel before I had even played a ship when I misplayed an ingenious jury rig and he had no transporters. This made life stressful but I managed to hold him at Investigate Alien probe for the rest of the game thanks to his own TCS plus The Clown and Insurrection. I Ensnared Mot and the bouncing pile did its magic to make sure I always had 3 or 4 to spend. Even after two turns of triple attempts it still only had 4 dilemmas under. On my side a central command overcame a 100 attribute Outmatched, then with two missions solved at time I had the chance for the FW. I was stopped but still 35 points ahead and the win gave me my head to head tiebreaker after Nick and I finished on even VPs. Closing Thoughts So I won despite an early setback. Markus got some decent ratings points off me and a nice "At least He Didn't Beat Me" achievement to go :).