Tournaments | trekcc

Paddy Tye (KazonPADD)
Tournament Report - 1E - British National
2012-11-25 - 11:00 AM
My other D'Kora is a Porsche
Introduction
Well, going into Nationals the strongest cards out there seemed to be Ferengi Military Operations and Transport Inhibitor. I built my Planet Combos around this, with a fleet of D'Koras to battle and sweep up extra points. I figured the big challenges would be Borg and Ferengi vs Ferengi. For Ferengi vs Ferengi I thought the lack of FCA would prevent much fighting, so I'd hoped I could just switch to solver. How wrong I was...

Round 1	Peter H. Møller	FW (+100)
Peter is primarily a 2E player, but had built a very fast "Finest Crew in the Fleet" printable deck for use. He had even used Strategic Base to prevent me blowing up his outpost. However that didn't stop me from sitting at his outpost and blowing up his ships. Very mean of me, so I eventually played nice and headed off to solve some missions and get the win before time was called. With most of my people out, it didn't take long to bust through one planet and one space. 105-0.


Round 2	Danny Nuttall	FL (-15)View opponent's Report View original Report
Uh-oh. Ferengi vs Ferengi. 3 shared missions made for limited options on the spaceline. Danny instantly went to attack my Mercenary ship before I could get going, I managed to get it safe (just about) but was immediately on the back foot points wise. He then started attacking his uncontrolled Empok Nor (genius idea) to build up points and then stole my Raid Ancient Burial Site once he got to 50 points. I managed to get the killing blow on his Empok Nor for 5 points, however he then Reflection Therapied to create an FCA and come attack me. Spent most of my time re-grouping and trying to get through some dilemma combos to no avail. Another win to the UK's reigning champ! 5-120.
There's a reason why Paddy has done well for the last two nationals in a row - he's a really good 1e player and I knew this round would be key in determining who would go on to be the champion. Thankfully, for me, Paddy was also playing Ferengi. I say thankfully because I came 'tooled up' for the mirror match. I seeded Empok Nor as far away from the shared Resupply Marauder mission & Paddy's Raid Ancient Burial so that I'd have almost exclusive access to the points and draws. I also thought this might lure Paddy out from his outpost and give me a chance to flip HQ: DF, download Suna and surprise him with an FCA attack. Sure enough Paddy then seeded his second outpost and a Strategic Base close to his Merc Ship and established a strong presence on one side of the board. I, going first, attacked his floating Merc Ship for some points and added a few damage markers. My intention was to get 20 FMO points, solve a Market Research to make it 50 (which Paddy had only seeded 2 dilemmas under, leading me to believe it was his intention to steal) and then go to steal Raid Ancient Burial Site (Paddy had a self-seed there, whilst I had placed Ferengi Ambush, Medical Crisis and Dead End under there). Everything went to plan. EVERYTHING! On turn 4 I was at 50 points from 4 FMO hits and a solved Market Research. I’d also got both Levin’s into play to deal with my Medical Crisis and two non-aligned folks out to attempt Raid Ancient twice, should Paddy’s self-seed be Difference of Opinion. It turned out to be a Dead End, so I breezed through to get to 90 points on turn 6 and then flipped HQ: DM, downloaded Suna, used Reflection Therapy to gain FCA and attacked Paddy’s Kurdon (“I flip it, get wicked, and wild when I spot him“). The following turn I think I actually solved another mission for the FW. KEY PLAY: Clearly the theft of Raid Ancient Burial Site was central, but I really liked Paddy’s turn 1 download chain of QTR -> DHW -> Morta -> Prep Assault Teams -> Dom Perignon -> Kurdon -> Bok. Class!

Round 3	Niall Matthew	MW (+69)View opponent's Report View original Report
OMG. Games versus Niall when he plays Borg are usually a mindf*ck, and this was no exception. 12 Universal Space + my 6 missions = massive spaceline. Hence our new patented "S-bend curved spaceline". I avoided space missions anticipating Contingency Plan and didn't want to give him the option of scoring points. Began building up my fleet for protection at first opportunity and Transport Inhibited my own ships to prevent him assimilating Counterparts. Solved Raid Ancient Burial Site for 29 points (after some point losses from Niall's dilemmas). But it was forewarned that "They Will Be Coming" and indeed they did. However the Tactical Cube was lacking in a Multiplexor Drone. I was certain I'd never seen one played and was right! Niall had left it out of his deck. He got to my Trading Post to encounter 6 or 7 staffed ships (some with Captains and a Log) and realised his mistake. Although he got a direct hit back on one ship, only scored 75% Hull damage. Next turn he would be done for so he abandoned his Cube and boarded my Kurdon (having stolen it's Transport Inhibitor with his Tactic) to try and assimilate DaiMon Bok as a Counterpart. He managed to abduct him, but got no further. I blew up the Cube for 50 points, and then lost 10 just before time from a Lack of Preparation at another Planet mission for a (hard fought) Modified win. 69-0.
The 'S-Curved Spaceline' was fun on this one. Another Ferengi Deck. Very little happened for the first 3/4s of this game. I realised I hadn't stocked a Multiplexor against his armada of Marauders, which he was wisely keeping together So I was waiting for the right time to strike. so i moved in, he attacked me so i damaged his ship with a transport inhibitor, determined assault let me steal it. Realising my ship was doomed, I beamed over to the damaged ferengi ship via Assimilate Counterpart targeting Daimon Bok. I abducted him but then time was called. A suspensful game Paddy, very enjoyable.

Round 4	Stuart Motley	FW (+100)
Stuart is also a mostly 2E player, and was using a Romulan double HQ deck. Early on I took out his Schimitar and a Mission II outpost. Stuart tried a planet mission and got locked out by Ferengi Ambush and my DaiMon Taar capturing a personnel to download the Transport Inhibitor. I started red-shipping a space mission, hitting a Cytherians on the way. After clearing and solving a space I grabbed 3 weapons, took 4 universal high strength (+ Lower Decks enhanced) people to bust through Hanonian Land Eel and Denavan Neural Parasites, then beamed down a couple of Vekor's to overcome Matriarchal Society for a Planet and a Space solved and 95 points, just in time for my Cytherians to reach the far end of the spaceline (hadn't taken long due to a few low-span missions and starting mid-way) and pick up 15 bonus points for the win. 110-0.


Closing Thoughts
All in all, a lot of fun games. Came second overall (same as last year) so that felt good, as I didn't want to perform worse than last year! I felt bad about the power of Continuing Mission / Ferengi Military Operations / Transport Inhibitor lock-outs (especially versus the 2E players solver decks). But DQ seemed to be holding their own with Kazon and Hirogen performing well. A great day, but I'll need to put in some more thought next time to build something which will actually beat Danny!