Lucas Thompson, Chris Morse, Steve C and I decided to have a road trip of a weekend and drive down to the Yorktown, VA Regional. It was the first time in a while Lucas had a long weekend, so we got in his van and drove down (and got into the hotel at 4am the day of).

I was playing a modified version of my TNG: Friendship is Magic deck, focusing on Cadets and a few stronger personnel. I removed some people (and skills) I wasn't using and altered my dilemma pile a bit. However, some of those alterations proved slightly more suicidal than initially I hoped.

That George was playing a TOS deck was the first thing I noticed. It appeared to be a weenie deck with cheap ships and personnel. I plopped down the Valiant with about 8 or so personnel at POM and attempted away. When the first dilemma was Prefix Codes, I realized the grave error I had made. George stopped my attempt, came over next turn and blew the Valiant and the 7 personnel on it away. I proceeded to draw through my deck in effort to get the Qel'poh out. I was making some progress, but I never fully recovered before George got the win.

Scott was playing Relativity, which I hadn't seen much of back in Boston. His crew was doing a really good job of keeping people alive and missions attempts going, between Revised Chakotay and Living Legend Kirk. I was able to get an Insurrection on his third mission. At a subsequent attempt, he planned to solve but forgot Insurrection was on it, and came up short. With my swarm of cadets and a few power-house personnel, I was able to catch up and get the win.

David was playing Dominion, which I hadn't seen in a while. But judging by his all strength missions, I was figuring it could be a battle deck. Already burned once by battle, I decided to play it safe. I used Christening for the Valiant, and waited until I had enough to keep it staffed and attempt at Avert Danger. Fortunately that can be somewhat quick for a Cadet deck. David was also playing higher cost Jem'Hadar as well as Breen directly to the Tykk. He came to an AQ mission, but Gomtuu stopped him there and he lost his hand to Dreamer. He was able to get an AQ planet mission, and then moved on to another. Fortunately my dilemmas were able to filter out his Treachery, preventing him from solving. I was able to complete my third mission for a full win before time.

I knew what Lucas was playing, and he knew what I was, as he helped me adjust my dilemma pile. I failed to draw either of my 2 ships or Christening for some time. Once I did, my cadets took a trip on WNOHGB at their first attempt of POM. Although I was able to He Wasn't Nice on Gav, it didn't matter much to him in the long run. He was able to Comfort Women his Guls and Legates to all +2 through the mission attempt, and solve Kressari with an obscenely few guys. After that Central Command enabled him to swim through the rest of my dilemma pile. Our game was over in 25 minutes, netting Lucas a full win.

I had overheard Brian as he was playing TOS card earlier that day, so I was expecting another battle deck. Sure enough, it was true. Once again I got the Valiant out, waited to be able to staff it and attempt at the same time. Meanwhile Brian started attempting missions while I was waiting around. His first mission I had a Dreamer and the Dream on him with some filter dilemmas. I was able to get Bashir out, but I failed to accurately count the integrity he needed and didn't choose Jadzia, who was attributes +1. He managed to solve with the bare minimum integrity and saved his 10-card hand. Next I paid full cost for Data, knowing that my waiting was costing me and needed his attributes and stats. Solving Avert Danger with Data for a bonus 5, I was finally on the board at 35 while Brian already had 65 from two missions.

I had only 4 cadets out and knew he'd only have to manage to stop 2 for me to fail POM. So I went to my backup space mission of Breach Barrier. Not wanting to separate my personnel and ferry them (having only 1 ship out), I decided to go all out and attempt with 12. Brian's first dilemma was Prefix Codes, which I happily burned 5 points on with Geordi to prevent and overcome, much to Brian's surprise and ultimate approval. During a Secret Identity, Brian realized I had no Archeology, so he ended the attempt with an Infinite Diversity calling for it. I failed the attempt, but had managed to bury a decent number of dilemmas under it. Next turn I attempted with about 17 or so. Geordi nullified another Prefix Codes, but Brian filtered out my command stars with a Code 47 and followed up with a Rogue Borg Ship, finally landing a damage marker on the valiant (shields -2).

Brian considered coming to try to blow me up, but decided it's be more prudent to complete his third mission. I was holding him up at Historical Research, but he was making headway attempt after attempt. I was finally able to solve Breach Barrier with just enough personnel to give him zero dilemmas, tying us at 65-65. I continued on to Restore Errant Moon, but my weenie away team was hit with a Timescape and Infinite Diversity, stopping them all. I took the Qel'Poh, a few cadets, and my heavy hitters to POM for a desperate attempt. But it finally gave him a chance to use the Outclassed that had been useless against the Valiant. Next turn Brian solved his 3rd mission for the full win, just as time was called.

It was an extremely close game at the end, but Brian played his better than I did. It was still a hell of a lot of fun.

It was a great time traveling to Yorktown for their Regional. We hadn't done any traveling from the Boston group and it was awesome to play new players, see a new meta, and introduce people to some new things from ours. A great big thanks to the VA guys for hosting us and throwing this shin-dig. They're all more than welcomed to the Boston regional.

My deck needs work, especially to fill the skill holes that Brian made use of. I am glad I stocked the Valiant though. With proper cadet staffing, it makes it difficult to damage without a Pre-fix code. And a maxed out 12 range allows for maximum ferrying. Geordi though was clutch, in his ability to prevent and overcome all damage dilemmas. When it gets right down to it, better to lose 5 points than to lose an entire ship and crew. The key is to get the points before you need them though. So perhaps the next version will account for that.