Paddy Tye (KazonPADD) Tournament Report - 1E 2014-05-24 - 03:30 PM Escape with Victory (Points) Introduction Warp Speed! Sealed! Love it! We decided to mix the tournament up a bit and while we each got our sealed Voyager Starter, make the boosters be dished out draft style! I went hunting for Diplomacy, SECURITY, decent women and the "downloader" ships from TOS (Battle Cruiser and ISS Constitution). I managed to get loads of personnel with Double Classifications (Kurros, Captain Dax, Luaren, Gaila, Morta, Subcommander Tal, Thaden, Telari) which gave me quite a skill dense crew. I made sure to stock plenty of skills like Stellar Cartography, Astrophysics and Transporter Skill for use against space dilemmas. Round 1 Bye BY (0) Time to buy some lunch... Round 2 Niall Matthew FW (+35) Ah, Niall. I needed vengeance after he'd just assimilated my Bajor in the last tournament. First turn I wiped out his two personnel attempting his first mission thanks to Villagers with Torches! He'd stacked my space mission with dilemmas and I got hit with a Gravimetric Distortion. But even damaged, my Interceptor still had sufficient range to get to my nearest planet, so I got started there whilst waiting to get out a second Astrophysics. Meanwhile, Niall had gotten through a planet and was now working on space. He'd flown out and ended up short on skills for the dilemma, meaning a return trip to base was needed. Knowing he skill had a scow to face and was using full range to get there and back, this gave me the time to draw the skills I needed and get past his final dilemmas. I more turn though, and Niall would have had me. Round 3 Steven Rich FW (+35) This one turned into a real battle! I'd solved a space, Steve had solved a planet. My planet was blocked by a Matriarchal Society (Where are my women???) while he was struggling to move a Scow away AND have the skills to solve. I moved over with 3 ships and was 1 Weapons shy of a Direct Hit, just leaving him on Range 5, but still able to pull the Scow away. I drew Captain Dax and Luaren, but still had to get them there. Through a combination of dragging Scows back and forth, and Steve being limited by only 2 ENGINEERs out (one having the crucial Navigation skill he needed to solve his last mission) and having one ship down to RANGE 5, I ended up with Double Parked Scows on his mission, and the women arriving back at my planet to help me get through Matriarchal Society and solve! Closing Thoughts Both matches were "one turn in it" affairs. Warp Speed so often comes down to the flip of a coin to go first. As luck would have it, I won the toss against Niall and Steve! The side effect of playing Warp Speed with random other boosters (like Mirror Mirror or Rule of Acquisition) is that you end up with a rainbow of personnel, so the normally simple process of staffing/moving a ship and attempting missions (especially without Kazon Collective or Vidiian Sodality in play) is a lot tricker than you would expect!