Al Schaefer (ltkettch17) Tournament Report - 2E 2018-01-28 - 12:00 PM Excelsior: I hope I dont embarrass team green Introduction Excited about the new format, I went as green as I could get for today. Romulans, unfortunately, appear to be missing the tools to compete with TNG. I went with all 30 point missions, hoping to get through with enough cunning to get some surprise solves. Kassem and Tamarith would score the bonus points, and Mendak made more missions available to team green. Round 1 Casey Wickum FL (-65)View opponent's ReportView original Report Casey made use of all of the high cunning personnel available to TNG and Non-Aligned. He could solve two of his missions with just 4 personnel - no bonuses or tricks required. My dilemma pile was keyed more towards low cost personnel and Moral Choice wasn't enough help against his high cunning teams. Honestly, I didn't play my best in this game, there's several cards in his deck that could switch to team green. Common Ground, however, makes a difference to get a free Barclay in play - really, there's no reason for either of these cards to be in the pool. Starting off round one, it became clear that everyone was playing with Romulus as their HQ...I went against putting weight of command in, but maybe I should have. My general dilemma strategy was busted literally on the first turn when he dropped multiple people who could get past Bread and Circus and Unconventional Consideration pretty much by themselves. So I had to go for the unfavorable Wing-It strategy and hope for the best. It turned out well though when my team of Lore, Mr. Broccoli and Prof. Moriarty were able to pretty much just solve missions on their own. All in all the deck performed how I thought it would this game, though Data did not come out into play, had the game gone another round He would have come out for 1 cost thanks to Common Ground. Round 2 Maggie Geppert MW (+30) Maggie is playing a slightly less modified starter than myself. My rommies had a good start and good skill coverage. Data and Spock came out early. In Development really hammered Maggies first two attempts. Thought I had this in the bag, but Maggie’s dilemma pile really kicked into gear in the second half of the game and I ended up with the mod-win. Round 3 Eric Bieche TT (0) Remember that classic episode where Romulans battled Androids and the fate of the Klingon empire was decided in a one of the most famous scenes in all of Trek? Eric and I replayed that classic episode scene for scene in this game. I have no clue why Androids made it into the pool, but here we are. Worst start for me out of all 3 games. No Spock, Data, or Kassem and any Biology chump that hit the table was vaporized almost instantly. Eric's down costed dilemmas (due to the 40 point missions he was playing) really did a number on team green. I was lucky to earn the TT after time was called. Although, if it wasn't for a clutch draw of Dereliction of Duty, I would have earned bonus points to get the MW. Closing Thoughts Not sure why there’s so many 7+ cunning personnel available in the pool. Don’t really understand the need for the android side hustle - why not thiefs or gatherers? The focus on the story doesn’t appear to be reflected in the card pool. Why Sela Cunning Strategist instead of Mysterious Operative or Devious Schemer? Why not a Treachery Klingon and Honor Klingon bonus? I don’t really understand the stakes or the scoring, so what’s the motivation to play one affiliation over another? Almost every game went into overtime, but would have been finished in the normal time frame. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the idea of Excelsior and a storyline and everything that goes along with it. This just doesn't feel completely right, but I'm going to give it time. I certainly wasn't as familiar with my own deck as I would normally like. I made plenty of mistakes in my games that had nothing to do with the card pool. There's something about Chula The Precipice that makes me forget how to play dilemmas.