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by James Hoskin
My preparation for this tournament started like most of my other tournaments – still
building the deck at midnight the night before we were due to play. I can't complain too
much about this though as the ensuing lack of sleep seems to help me focus on the games.
Getting home after the tournament tends to be slightly more dangerous though :)
After maybe 6 hours sleep, I'm up and getting ready to drive to Mark's. We decided I
would drive to his house and then he would drive us to the venue. I notice as I start the
engine that I'm getting low on petrol – I might be able to make it to Mark's without
running out but I don't want to risk it so I pull into a petrol station to fill up. I
start the pump and it's all going as it should so I look at the pump to check the price.
I look back 2 seconds later and there is this strange smell of petrol and a stream of
petrol arcing out of the tank onto the forecourt... this is not a good start to my day.
Several towels, and one very worried look by the driver waiting behind me to use my pump,
later and I'm ready to drive to Marks.
Several of us are meeting up before the tournament to go to a local Sci-Fi fair. Due to
a slightly inaccurate map provided by Nick (the TD) Mark and I end up taking a quick detour
around the Basildon one-way system before we find the car park and meet the others. Now the
only fairs of this type that I've been to before are GenCon Indy, Spiel Essen, and GenCon
UK – and they are just a bit larger than this one would turn out to be. There are only
maybe 20 stalls and I keep looking around thinking there must be more than this – but there
wasn't, or they were really well hidden!
After the fair we head to the venue where we are going to play and meet the rest of the
players. Its Nick's birthday so he brings these 3 huge bags with him into the room. They
contain a buffet to go along with the tournament. In my best Homer Simpson impression:
Mmmmmmm … cheesy puffs.
So onto my deck; it's a non-aligned Rogue Borg deck with RATS designed to solve with
only 3 or 4 personnel (depending on the mission). William and I had built something like
this several months ago to try out using the online game, and for some reason I had played
it a couple of days ago. It had obviously stuck in my head and I decided to try it out for
this TOC despite several gaping holes that could cause my downfall. At this point I really
must thank TheNinjaScot for an idea he passed along to me after we played. That idea was
using One-Upsmanships's to take out my opponents important events – and it definitely
helped my deck.
Round 1: (Bye)
I sat around eating the buffet Nick had provided while trying
not to scout the other games – although I did notice Doug was playing Romulan for a
change.
Round 2: (Lucia – DS9 starter)
Lucia is one of our newer players and she is
playing a modified starter deck. I can't remember much about this game other than it seemed
to be over fairly quickly. My deck worked as it should and my dilemma pile held up. I really
must make some notes next time I plan to write a report...
FW: 100-0
Round 3: (Steve – TNG Fed Science)
Steve's been playing a DS9 confessions
deck recently, but it wasn't until half way through this match that he told me he had
switched to TNG instead. It shows how much attention I had been paying...
My first attempt at a planet mission and Steve plays Unexpected. Lore gets picked and
isn't stopped but unfortunately I'm short of skills and Lore goes back on top of my deck
(one of the major holes in my deck was a serious lack of skills). The next turn he plays
just one dilemma against me - a space dilemma. Steve tells me after I point this out that
he drew 4 dilemmas and rejected 2 because they were space dilemmas but for some reason he
then went on to try using the 3rd space dilemma against me!
I head off to my first space mission and with a couple of RATS face just 1 dilemma and
get stopped. Now I need to get Lore back into play because he is my only source of
leadership which I need for my 3rd mission – but Steve had played Patrick and used his
order to bury Lore under my deck.
Next turn I draw looking for Lore or a D'Arsay Archive and after drawing for most of my
turn I finally manage to get one in hand. I solve the space mission easily with the RATS
and notice that Steve has 2 unexpected Difficulties on the table so I decide to try and get
him to burn them. I fly to my 3rd mission and attempt with four personnel. 3 RATS means he
only gets to draw one dilemma. As Steve thinks this will be the game he does indeed burn
both copies but can't find anything to use. He gives me a nasty look when I tell him I
couldn't solve.
Next turn I fly home to pick up Lore, return to that mission and get the victory. We're
all done in about half an hour.
Meanwhile Steve had got caught at one mission. Using my events I managed to keep him
locked out for 4 or 5 turns in a row.
FW 100-0
Round 4: (Johannes - Bajoran Borum)
Johannes is using a Deploy the Fleet / At
What Cost? combo for extra speed combined with Borum to get some high cost personnel into
play on the cheap. This looks like a fast deck, but before the round started Johannes got
deck checked and I think this may have affected him because a couple of turns were spent
drawing cards like mad and discarding at the end of turn.
For his first attempt at IMA with 5 personnel I have to machinate for Assassination
Attempt. One Escape later and he's stopped. The turn after that he moved on to a space
mission and attempted with 5 or 6 minus 2 because of RATS. I have my 2 spare complications
in hand so I burn my one on the table to draw 3 extra dilemmas. I get the ultimate combo –
Tragic Turn, Urgency and Tsiolkovsky Infection. He couldn't pass it but had another Escape
in hand to save them all. Next turn he attempts with 5 so I machinate for A Royal Hunt to
stop 2 (with TT).
Meanwhile I'm busting through the planet mission and head to space. The 1st one is easy
because of RATS. I one-upsmanship his Stir Crazy's and then head for the 2nd mission. With
no dilemma support it's all over quickly.
FW: 100-10
Round 5: (Will - Dominion speed)
At this point Will has lost one game and I'm
undefeated. I think whoever wins this game wins the tournament. We both know a little
about each others decks at this point, because Will plays with my cards so I lent him the
cards to play with, and conversely Will and I had sat down and built a version of my deck
a couple of months back – although to start with he didn't know I was playing it.
First turn I play Morik and Goval and he says "Oh, it's THAT deck..."
The bad draw I had feared all tournament finally appeared, and it had to be in the final
round and against my brother of all people. Will told me later though that he was having a
similar bad draw (possibly due to being deck checked before this game) so things were evened
out.
I was having trouble finding my personnel so I head of to the planet mission and attempt
with 4, including Baran. I normally leave him on the ship to he's safe for the RATS but
needed his attributes this time. Will has to use machinations. He knows I have Baran out
and that Baran can download Shady Resources which would be enough to get me past Biochemical
Hyperacceleration – so he doesn't play it. He plays it safe and gives me Triage. I stop
Baran and then proceed to solve with my other 3 peeps (lore, Crosis (pumped) and Goval
(pumped with 2 events). Will doesn't know this but I don't have Shady Resources in my deck
as I'd cut it. If he had played Biochemical Hyperacceleration then I would have been
stranded – and as I only had one playable ship in the deck that would have been the game
and the tournament for him. The first time Will has thought about a dilemma selection and
it costs him the game ;)
Anyway, eventually we're both attempting missions. I stall him for 2 turns at his planet
mission and then for several turns at his first space mission. It turns out all those
dilemma manipulators I added helped me this game. Meanwhile Will has been destroying my
events like crazy including all my RATS. I figure he must be running out of event
destruction cards so I play my Tampering With Time for free (with 3 Party Atmospheres). Will
destroys that as well – even though I couldn't use it, be he wasn't to know. I am attempting
my space missions without the protection of my RATS so first time he plays a Skeleton Crew
and Gomtuu. It's a disaster as I only have 5 personnel out and I know he has more damage
dilemmas in his pile. I have to waste a turn repairing while I try and draw a 6th personnel.
Thankfully I get it and a one-upsmanship to his remaining machinations helps me to the
victory.
FW: 100-25
Final Result
So that's it, I'm undefeated with five wins and have only one
mission solved against me all day, I've also got my Bye to the Worlds and my rating has
taken a big leap towards that elusive 1900 mark and the master player badge I'm aiming to
get this year.
Johannes finished second, and Will third. All players got to pick something off the prize
table. Johannes picked the snazzy deck protectors that I had my eye on, but was kind enough
to give one of the two packs to me. I picked a minature model of a Jem'Hadar attack ship as
my prize - although I didnt think they were blue? Other prizes included DVD's, books, foils
and boosters so in the end all 13 players received something for their efforts.
Thanks to Nick for getting the TOC arranged, for running it, for the great prizes... oh
and for deck checking two of my opponents just before we were about to play :)
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