In this game -- I think Kris would agree -- both players played like lobotomized cows.
The spaceline was a bit weird for Kris, who had Romulus at one end of the spaceline and his outposts (both hovering ominously next to Earth) at the other. My start went smoothly, as Kris never allows points from Parallax Arguers, so I got my events out and had a competent force online by Turn 4. Nothing marvelous, but it hit my benchmarks. Meanwhile, Kris had parked a Romulan warbird (Haakona? I don't recall) two missions away. It had been drawing cards with Let's See What's Out There on turns 2 and 3, but on turn 4 he decided to head back to his outpost, pick up some dudes, and head down the spaceline to start attempting stuff. He forgot to cloak the warbird. This was a really grave mistake; he attributes it to the fact that he was focused on stealing Earth from me. (A bit more on this at the end.)
Anyway, there's a Romulan warbird parked 8 RANGE from Earth and I have the NX-01, Captain's Log, Condition Red, 15-some dudes, and Jonathan Archer aboard. I did what seemed obvious: I flew over there and blew up his warbird, along with nearly everyone he'd played so far (there was a scout ship down the spaceline carrying some dignitary from Romulus). As soon as he saw me coming, Kris knew he had lost his ship and thus the game, but damned if he was going to give up.
Feeling relaxed for the first time ever in a game against Kris (my first mistake!), next turn I flew over to my Neutral Outpost at Evade Borg Vessel and attempted. A smart The Arsenal / Gomtuu Shock Wave combo caught me off-sides -- partly because I had dropped off Archer at Earth to probe for Visit Cochrane Memorial (second mistake). At this point, just in case of mischief, I should have suspended play and used Daniel Leonard's download (still available) to grab the I.S.S. Enterprise and leave it at the Neutral Outpost (third mistake). But I can't overstate how unworried I was at this point. I had modest damage, but the Enterprise's attributes were all still well over 20, and Construct Starship was on the table, ready to give me a Spacedock next turn.
But Kris, at this point, saw a desperate opportunity. He played a new warbird, and managed to get its matching commander aboard. Captain's Log came out (and was protected) with a Ready Room Door. The scout ship from down the spaceline whooshed in and decloaked -- at which point I realized it had 7 WEAPONS, not 4 as I believed before. Kris was going to take a shot at the Enterprise... and, with 60% HULL damage already on her, I wasn't entirely certain I'd survive.
When all was said and done, I didn't. Kris's two-ship armada was enhanced enough by attribute bonuses and Maximum Firepower to score a hit. Two damage markers later, I was at 120% damage.
At this point, I made the defining mistake of the tournament: panicked by the surprise battle, I forgot that I had The Needs Of The Many sitting in my hand. I failed to play it, though it would have saved my ship. I discarded everyone. Kris drew to end his turn, which definitively ended the "just" response window. Then I looked in my hand and realized what I had just thrown away. I am not so pathetic to ask for a takeback at a regional, especially against Kris, but I confess I did throw my hand to the table and shout "AAAGH!" in an aggrieved way. Had ENTERPRISE survived that battle, there can be little doubt the game -- and the rest of the tournament -- would have played out differently. But a deck that gives you the cards you need when you need them is useless if you're too scatterbrained to notice them. Good job, deck.
Now *I* had lost the game, and Kris had a two-turn head start rebuilding. I played Regenerate with Parallax Arguers, but I'm afraid the rest of the game was, as Kris likes to say, academic. I sat there digging for a ship as fast as I could while he went attempting. He found the I Hate You combo that is super-weak against TNG Romulans (and which I had long ago decided to prevent him from ever seeing with my big scary guns) and pushed through two other combos in short order using standard A-team/B-team. FW 100-0.
I do want to call attention to what I thought was the smartest thing about this game: Kris was determined to steal Espionage Mission from me, and dedicated some effort to doing this. He was very smart about it: the combo was rebuilt on the fly when he saw Earth, and he seeded (if I recall correctly) Edo Probe / Love Scow / Chula: The Game. The first is scary for anyone who doesn't know the underlying combo, and the other two are dilemmas that Starfleet is *especially* weak to (while Romulans have no trouble). Starfleet alone, in fact, has no way to pass Chula: The Game -- no Greed in the entire affiliation. In fact, *nobody* with a [22] icon has Greed -- not even the frickin' Ferengi! Consider this my periodic request for the CC to please fill some skill gaps in Starfleet, especially if they want us (as they seem to) to be able to play Starfleet either on its own or with the [22] Klingons, without help from the Orions. (The [22] Klingons have plenty of other problems, though, that make them non-viable even when they can fill skill gaps -- please help them, too.) Anyway, where was I going with this? Oh, right: Kris's Earth dilemma combo, which again was built on-the-fly (a skill I much admire), was absolutely perfect for stealing: it was very likely to bog me down for four or five turns, but he could walk through all three with no problem. Well-built, Kris. But getting the warbird with Selok aboard early on meant he never got to enjoy the fruits of his labor. |