Tournaments | trekcc

Jason Tang (PantsOfTheTalShiar)
Tournament Report - 1E - Andoria Regional
2014-06-01 - 12:00 PM
Cardassian Concealed-Carry
Introduction
I had a few ideas for decks for this tournament, but I kept coming back to my Cardassian Concealed Carry deck, which I had played in the online 1E learner's tournament this spring. The main appeal was that I was familiar with it, so I was beyond making stupid obvious mistakes. It also had some good defenses against battle and other shenanigans. Then for some reason I wanted to do the complete opposite with my dilemmas. I tried out a new dilemma strategy that centered around Interphasic Plasma Creatures. I was counting on people to not run either Kevin Uxbridge or hand weapons. But alas, they came armed. == This tournament was also a lesson about not supporting the CC financially. Since I can't use the advanced deck builder, the deck on the CC and the deck in Lackey were slightly out of sync, so when I printed out my deck I was missing a few cards. I also misplaced some of my Ref cards, though I had the most important ones.

Round 1	Bye	BY (0)
Being a silly pants, I was 20 min late, and since I was the odd one out they gave me a bye.


Round 2	James Heaney	FL (-44)View opponent's Report View original Report
James was playing his Fed/Kling EE multi-time location deck. He seeded non-missions during the mission phase in order to get his missions next to each other, and for some reason I thought it would be equally good for me to have all my missions next to each other. James seeded Homefront on Cardassia, which was a minor inconvenience, but not paralyzing because I still had all of my New Arrivals free plays. This is where one of my missing cards (Jerax) would have helped. == James' turns were as usual a flurry of plays and draws, and I downloaded from my draw deck every turn, so time was precious. I felt optimistic, because most of my combos relied on the attributes of individual personnel, so the sheer quantity of James' personnel was not relevant. == I made the first attempt, at Search For Survivors. Edo Probe/THTF/Ferengi Bug put me at -16. Then I thought the bug prevented me from passing while it was in play (it doesn't), so I moved on to Bioweapon Ruse, where I passed a Kelvan/"God" combo thanks to Lower Decks and For Cardassia! I had at least two hand weapons, so I considered jumping through The Guardian to attack some Klingons or some whales, but I decided that I would be slowing myself down more than I would slow down James. == Now for some reason I attempted more planet missions. Maybe I was too cautious about my one ship? I was at Find Hidden Base because that was on the way to James' missions, so I attempted it. I took two hand weapons with to pass Lack of Prep, which was silly, because I knew James was more likely to play The Gatherers. I thought I was in the clear because James had no hidden agendas, but I forgot that The Gatherers are doubled by The Vengeance Factor and not a Shade of Gray. I went back to Cardassia and DH'ed Bareil to get some guns back and had Bareil attempt Cardassia, but he got stopped with Ferengi Ingenuity, leaving me without a way to attempt it for a few turns. A select crew returned to Search for Survivors to solve. == By now James caught some IP Creatures, but then played Lightner, whose phaser rifle made everything moot. My dilemmas did little to slow him down, and he solved three missions (Agg Assess, Observe Stellar, Protect Historic with AMS bonus) for the win, without even needing the points from his whales.
Pants was back from Norway, and will be back all month, which is great. He was rocking a Cardie Central Command deck with New Arrivals and Assign Support Personnel. I thought I had him dead to rights with Homefront when I saw Central Command as his only report location, but I was pretty much wrong about that. It barely touched him, since he usually had an Arrivals report, a Support Peep download, and could put guls out on his regular card play. I think I played this game a bit dumb; seeing Pants roll out three personnel per turn, knowing how thin my dilemmas were, I should have been attempting right away, but I really wanted to solve Earth – which was way down at the end of my end of the spaceline, mostly out of my reach – and wasn’t getting the fact that, logistically, it was just not easy for me to get there. I also forgot to early-download Bareil, made some dumb choices in my deck cycling, and left Kathy Tonnell on Guardian for a turn because I just plum forgot to move her back to 2063 with the whales. Jason had no such silliness, and jumped out to solve stuff, which he did with aplomb because I had so few dilemmas. Edo Probe / Higher The Fewer hit pretty well, giving me a small 15 point advantage, and Jason mistakenly thought Ferengi Bug locked out the mission, so went to solve another mission instead. It was nice to be up 15 to -15, but it was foolish to let that lull me into a false sense of security. The next turn, he kicked the butt of my proud Kelvan / God combo because “For Cardassia” is awesome and tied it up. Ferengi Ingenuity bought me a couple turns at Cardassia itself because it caught Bareil (who was the attempter), but ugh. Now Jason’s got TWO missions with practically no dilemmas ‘neath ‘em. He might nab the 140 point win if I don’t hurry my butt up. So I hurried my butt up. Geordi eyeballed Historical Research. I accidentally saw the first TWO seeds – Edo Probe and In the Pale Moonlight. Felt terrible. But, for once, we were able to fix my rules violation: I beamed down a small team, triggered Edo Probe, abandoned the mission, then had Geordi do his eyes again the next turn, so I got to legally peek at In The Pale Moonlight. Yay. Meanwhile, the gang busted up Observe Stellar Whatnot. I don’t think the Phoenix was in the air at that point, but I took both mission specialists to make it 45 anyway. Sure, I took an Interphasic Plasma Creatures in the face, followed by Maglock, but Klingons were about, and so was Lightner’s big gun. We passed. Jason goes for Search For Weapons, apparently not planning on a space mission after all, but The Gatherers hits and steals his weapons. Yay! I just wanted to block Exec Authorization, but the hand weapons were actually on the mission requirements, so he’d need at least a couple card plays to make the mission attemptable again. I don’t think we ever got around to the Microvirus, which would have targeted Damar if it’d had the chance. So the game ended – again – on Historical Research, without me completing Earth as my deck plan called on me to do – again – and it was quick. Arne Darvin passed In The Pale Moonlight, and Lightner’s gun got us past Chula: The Game despite Interphasic Plasma Creatures. I was thinking Denevan was coming. Phew. Didn’t even need the mission specialist points, in the end. Hopefully Jason can make one more event before he flies back to Norway.

Round 3	Ian Parmenter	FL (-60)
Ian had Illegitimate Klingons, and I guessed totally wrong about where he'd put his outpost. Ian had Renovate Starbase, so I thought he'd want to seed his outpost farther away to make the downloaded facility more useful. But Ian had no intention of downloading a facility, so his outpost was right next door, while my IPC combos were halfway across the spaceline. It would have been wiser to split the IPC combos up to hedge my bets. Regardless, Ian had a disruptor, other attribute boosters, and the ability to download Duras, so it wouldn't have made much of a difference anyway. == I make a short trip to Find Hidden Base, and solve that. Then I get lazy and forget that Ian could battle me, so he takes out a Patrol ship and 4-5 crew that were working on Kressari Rendezvous. I also forget to use my Emergency Evacuation, which would have saved Quark, my second ENGINEER for moving the Scow at the Rendezvous. Ian has been overcoming my dilemmas pretty easily, and solves the three missions (Renovate, Warped, Salvage) he needs to win.


Round 4	Ben Johnson	FW (+70)
Ben was TNG Romulans. Again I'm wrong about which missions my opponent will attempt first, but this time it works out in my favor when Ben hits my only proven combo at Covert Installation -- Eel/Denevan/Secret -- and loses 7 personnel, though he eventually solves. I attempt Search for Survivors and solve after a couple of turns. Bareil and friends clear Cardassia down to a Dead End. I then turn to Kressari Rendezvous, where a Cardassian PADD from Mila gets me through Ferengi Infestation/THTF while losing only 6 points. (I think the first or third dilemma was Gomtuu SW, where Quark downloaded Natima Lang in the nick of time.) I solve and discard 3 hand weapons. == Meanwhile, Ben is having trouble passing my Probe/Bitter Medicine/Maglock combo, as he is unarmed, and lost 10 points to the Probe. I had drawn my HQ: Secure Homeworld, and Legate Damar had survived a close call with some Kelvans, so we solved Cardassia with a "For Cardassia!" to get me over 100 points.


Closing Thoughts
The games were all fun and competitive, but not much exciting happened. The game with James was tense because it was a race vs. both him and the clock, and it was satisfying to hit 7 of Ben's Romulans with Denevan, but otherwise nothing I did really affected my opponent. I needed more ships, better dilemmas, and a more available HQ: Secure Homeworld. IPC was only encountered once, and was offset by a phaser rifle. == Thanks to Justin for running the tourney, and the whole gang for a nice afternoon of Trek.