Michael said it best when he said that he just drew horribly on dilemmas. That pretty much sums this game up. I went second, and could get the Historical Research grab, but I looked at my hand and saw that I had all the skills I needed for my first mission and so just went for someone with good integrity.

My deck is mostly weenies and I built up and attempted first, with 8 people on turn 3. I had 2X of every skill needed for the mission except Programming (which I had more of in my hand but was a counter short to throw it). But I ended up getting through on the first attempt, and that shifted what I chose to play on the next turn, since I was now planning for a different mission.

On my next turn, I played Daystrom with the upgrade, to help me work through Ds. Then I flew home, switched ships, and sat out anyone needed for the third mission but not the second. Again, I attempted with 8 and again I got through on the first attempt.

Mike would attempt his space mission three times in the game. On the first go, I gave him three under, but was certain of the stop. On the next, I through everything I drew that could play (two dilemmas, with a total cost of 3) and that got me a mission shut out just because he was short on the mission skills and I got lucky pulls. The third attempt solved, but Mike had to use the special text on the Reliant to boost the range, fly home, and fly back to get it. And that meant that he would do no more attempting that turn.

I had two more turns in the game before I won. On the first, I spent most of the time drawing into my deck to try and find a second Archaeologist. When I was down to three counters, I played an Evans and used the Earth text to draw 2, and sure enough: the next card was a 1 coster with Arch. So I would have the skills on my next turn. I decided to see what would happen if... and flew 8 out to Historical Research to attempt. Everyone I cared about stayed at Earth, as I hoped to have a few unfortunate deaths and maybe a D or two under. But I knew that Mike knew my personnel better than I, and that it would not likely go that way. He played no Ds and told me to solve if I could, and I could not.

So on my final turn, I played my one cost Archaeologist and triggered Earth for draws. Sure enough, I hit all the Arch, so I played as much as I could and built a diverse team with skill redundancy and they solved on the first (real) attempt.