J (The Mad Vulcan) |
Tournament Report - 1E - Online Event |
2012-12-10 - 12:00 AM |
Finest Phone on the Block |
Introduction |
When it became necessary to build a deck for this tournament, I didn't feel that I had the time to properly build and playtest one. So instead, I decided to borrow someone else's and then modify it (worked last time).
Since it seemed unlikely that I should win this (or come anywhere near the top), given the time spent on the deck, number of players in the event, and number of high level players -> I decided to go for achievements. I chose to go with a Federation build, as I have not played them yet in Block (as they suck).
The trouble being, nobody else has really either. I looked at recent decks and found a few Block Fed decks listed, but those were most often sealed (they had no choice in the matter). Warpaw had one from way back in April which wasn't much help. As it is, I ended up spending a lot of time building this from scratch anyway.
Luckily, I caught a couple big mistakes just prior to the first game. Namely; I had The Foragers in the deck even though they can't work with Feds to bust Medical Crisis. |
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Round 1 | | William Hoskin | FW (+25) |
My first game was against Will Hoskins. I've only played him once before and that was also a fun game. We seem to be about on par skill wise so are games are close and that is far more fun than a blowout (either way).
Will noted that my missions spelled Ferengi which made me happy; I tried to make them seem like not Federation. He was apparently playing Romulan, and even had Romulus. Since there is no HQ: Secure Homeworld in block, I was tempted to not seed anything under it. But Andreas burnt me on that back in April by not seeding a TMW but playing one and using it to drop in a single Klingon for walk. So I just put an easy dilemma combo there.
Meanwhile, we shared two planet missions (we each had 2 space/ 4 planet, and therefore 2 and 2 unshared). So both got a combo which I felt that I might be able to bust better and The Nexus.
I seeded my outpost at Host Metaphasic Shields (of coarse) and wanted to attempt it first, but I couldn't draw into a second diplomat. Instead, I built up a big team and flew out to the closest unshared planet, which was The Last Outpost. I took two ships and lost one of them to God (The CoC Enterprise-D). that stopped me on my first attempt but I could go again next turn. The second attempt failed due to too little strength for the Founder Secret and then the third saw me fail Oh No! (losing 5 points) and not having the Medical for Medical Crisis. On my 4th attempt, I cleared the mission (playing more Med to the orbiting ship) but had not yet the Diplo to solve it as I had just played Beverly to the Outpost.
Meanwhile, Will made quick work of one of his Space missions. He failed the Armus: EF on the first go but came prepared on the second. Then he failed my The Arsenal: Divided due to low Integrity Romulans. That meant that I failed to set up Gomtuu Shock Wave -> so he solved the mission on his 3rd attempt.
Now having two diplomats in play, but not the range to get them together and return to the Last Outpost to solve it, I attempted Host Metaphasic Shield only to find a Dead End and be stopped.
Will was stopped by my Founder Secret on the first go, but got through no his second as he had tons of people in play. He then cleared the mission of dilemmas but triggered the Friendly Fire and had to wait two turn to solve.
Since the planet mission was two away from one end of the spaceline, I decided to dick with him a bit by triggering The Nexus. I sent one team to finally solve The Last Outpost (putting me on 30 from -5), and another to go to the nearest shared mission and trigger The Nexus. They succeeded in setting it off the Nexus, destroying Will's only ship in play (with nobody on board), triggering his Punishment Box, and then being stopped by my Dead End.
However, my master play to leave Will's people stranded on the planet failed as he Built an Outpost there and solved the mission and then built a ship at the outpost the subsequent turn (tricky wanker).
This put Will in a pretty good position. He had two completed missions (a planet and a space) and just needed one more. but he couldn't do Romulus (apparently) and The Nexus was blocking some of his other choices ATM. He would have to choose between going Space or going after one of the shared Planet missions to win.
I made a big play here. I flew Tolian Soren into the Nexus on board the Zalonian Vessel, leaving me with only one ship not in the discard pile but on 50 points. I then could attempt Host Metaphasic Shield Testing. I left ship staffing on the outpost so that I could go rescue my personnel if they failed to clear the mission, as The Nexus would land here and destroy my last ship at the end of Will's turn (though I could get them back with the only card in my hand or deck: Isomag). Eevryone else attempted the mission, and they totally burned through it (the Gomtuu was there) solving it with a Mission Specialist (Dr. C) for 45. this would have been game if I had a Science personnel in my discard pile for another 5 or so points off Scientific Diplomacy. But alas, Will had only killed one of my personnel all game and she was a non-scientist.
So I needed to go to one more mission, but was out of range.
Will went to his unshared space mission, as I had hoped. The first dilemma; Virus, shut him out. So I went for the Hail Mary. I had put all my personnel (yes, ALL) on board the Challenger and let it get eaten by The Nexus. Then I bounced everybody (except Dr. S) to my lowest point mission: Save Stranded Crew. I now had the Integrity for a God unless it was well set up, but as it was the huge crew completely ran the mission and solved FTW. |
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Round 2 | | Danny Nuttall | FL (-10) |
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Round 3 | | Jon Carter | FL (-45) |
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Round 4 | | Michael Van Breemen | FW (+65) |
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Round 5 | | Missed Game | MG (0) |
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