Scott Baughman (Neelix) Tournament Report - 2E 2014-02-22 - 03:00 PM DS9 Blasters Introduction Our second event of the day at Your Local Game Store saw my oldest son Matthew compete in his first ever official Trek CC tournament for 2E! Round 1 Will Hawkins FL (-65) Will and I were playing almost exactly the same decks. I had intended to use my dilemmas to damage my opponent and then send over a couple DS9 ships and do some damage engagements to destroy the opponent's ships. This didn't exactly work out against Hawkins as I drew my three copies of Prefix Codes from my dilemma pile all on his second mission attempt and WAY before I was ready to go blasting. We ended up trading mission attempts and he got done faster than me as I forgot what Captain's Log actually did. Whoops! Round 2 Veronica TT (0) Veronica and Ross first learned to play 2E a few days ago but they love Star Trek and are eager to learn new games. I took my time teaching Veronica about more interactions in the game. She was a very apt pupil with this Klingon deck brought for her by Nathan. Once again, my dilemma pile let me down with weird draws and I was unable to keep Veronica from scoring an early mission. Then, she used Bah! to score some bonus points and we ended up with a True Tie! Really? This was the first time I've had a true tie in Trek in several years. But it wasn't about to be the last of the day... Round 3 Matthew Baughman TT (0)View opponent's ReportView original Report Well, this is it. The first official match between me and one of my sons in a Star Trek CCG tournament. Should I go easy on him and give him false happiness in winning? Would it be obvious to him and make me seem disingenuous? Or should I not take it easy on him at all and utterly crush him - and risk alienating him from the game that I love? In the end, I decided that I would not go easy on him because I respect him too much for that. I'd give it my best and see what he could do, putting my faith in him to reward me with his best effort and we'd both have fun. And reward me he did! Matthew played his personnel and ships decently, but his dilemma play was that of a champ! He stymied me at almost every turn on my early mission attempts. By the time he finally got enough personnel in play to feel safe to go attempt his missions, he had built a solid team of Kirk, Sulu and company to get past most of my dilemmas easily. I took an early lead 35 - 0 but Matthew did NOT give up and kept throwing dilemmas well. then he stormed back and tied up the game 70 to 70 with about 8 minutes left on the clock. I sent my DS9 crew to try and solve one more planet mission for the win. Thinking this was likely the final turn of the game, I attempted with 13 personnel giving Matthew 13 to spend and draw on dilemmas. All day he had been trying to throw as few dilemmas as possible but decided this time to essentially throw the book at me. And it stopped me cold. On his final turn, he attempted his third mission and was in a position to threaten to win, but I was able to whittle down his team and stop him with Greater Needs. Yet another True Tie! This was perhaps the best possible result for me and Matthew as we begin our journey through the game together - he didn't beat me, so there's no chance of him feeling it was a hollow victory. But he didn't lose so he won't feel like there's no reason for him to keep playing the game. Last round was dad vs son. We tied. I almost won. But it was a good game. Closing Thoughts This tournament will always hold a special place in my heart as it was my first match against my eldest. And the future looks bright!