Justin was playing his Relativity build but with a new dilemma pile. I thought that pile worked amazingly. After about 6 attempts, I had earned one dilemma under the mission for each. It was an absolute beating. To work around Range and make sure to attempt while restocking the crew each turn, I ended up crop dusting my three missions. But luckily, I was doing well against Justin. I was likewise getting about 1 dilemma under the mission (average), though he had so far only attempted his space mission.

I had a lot of cheater cards in hand, but each time I was just short an attribute or just short a skill to make the cheat worthwhile. But finally it all fell place, around the time that I had a second ship and could do two missions in one turn. Then, suddenly the cheater cards could get me through. I believe I solved the planet by attrition, just having enough dilemmas under it. But with Chula: The Game x 2 on the mission, I had to attempt with too many people as just a single cost 1 dilemma could do a lot of damage. But it finally came down to that, with a The Games stopping two and me unstopping one of those to have more get through. This paid off since the follow up was an overcosted Polywater.

About the turn after I solved my first mission, Justin finally got through space. That was looking bad for him as his crew had gotten up to 12 people, but he did finally get through, after I only managed to stop 7 of those. He then went to planet and I knew that his planet missions are even easier for him (not the same turn, since 5 people cannot staff the Relativity). Plus, he could double attempt each turn with 5-6 man crews. Still, I held him out long enough.

I solved Assimilate Resistance, and grabbed an OT Kirk, but I forgot to use him at the next mission and he went back to Justin's discard pile after hitting Secret Identity. Still, I got an extra dilemma under. It was Locutus taking a Bridge Officer's Test that got me through Assimilate Resistance.

So, after shutting Justin out at his planet mission for one more turn, I was at space with two crews. The idea being that the first crew could get enough Ds under as to ensure that the second attempt would not face many dilemmas and the cheaters could help them through, but I actually got the chance to solve with the first after Adapt nuked a dilemma I had already encountered. I do think that having two The Games on the planet mission helped get me through this final space, as it never earned a Game.

Michael was playing a Bajoran deck that only needed 4-5 people to solve each mission. So, I needed a miracle to get through this. Luckily, today was a miracle kind of day.

I attempted early, with a crew of just 6 on my Sphere. This was a bad call against Michael, as he knew he only needed to get rid of one and he drew an Inequitable Exchange. But the decision he made here likely decided the game, he grabbed The Borg Queen over Locutus.

Michael attempted with 4 and that also worked well for me, as I drew the game and could use dilemmas that did not go under (non-Chulas) to stop him with none-under and the game on. This worked well to hold Mike at the mission for a few turns as I could stop him with just a one stop/bouncer if I drew it or with only one dilemma under if I got a Chula. Eventually he got through, once I had two Ds under, as that greatly reduced what I could draw.

In the mean time, I restocked at home and went to Assimilate Resistance. This time, Mike threw an Intimidation, which stopped everyone, so I bridge Officer Tested it to get the solve on the first attempt. No single choice death could lock out the mission skills, and I took Ranjen Koral as a drone.

On my next turn, I went to planet, and again I was able to cheat through and solve on one go. Mike told me later that this was the luckiest part as his deck uses Uninvited to grab dilemmas at planet and hold you there almost indefinitely.

After solving his first mission, Mike flew to a planet and attempted but I held him out with one under again. So it was off to my third mission and again I was able to get lucky with what Mike drew for dilemmas because what he threw could be cheated through. I seem to recall a Secret ID here to eliminate Locutus (finally) and bring in a Cunning Drone to help me get through the mission.