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by Mark Radford
The day started well, I was up well before the tournment and with Clare left early planning
to get some games in against the TD James Hoskin before we started. As I had to pick him up
on the way I was sure he would be there. Two and a half hours later and we still hadn't got to
the collection point for the TD. I was getting stressed, just because London has the biggest
car park in the world it was very bad form for everyone to park on the M25 that day. At last
we collected James and headed to the venue. We parked close by, having phoned ahead to inform
the other players we would be late.
We wern't the last to arrive, but it had taken three and a half hours to do a one and a
half hour journey. I had two decks with me and still hadn't made up my mind on what to play.
I decided on the Borg mission solver, as my head already hurt and we hadn't started playing.
It is a standard Borg solver with You've Always Been My Favorite for a bit of extra speed,
and Ohhhh! Nothing Happened to get rid of some of the harder to pass dilemmas.
Round 1: Clare Wesbury
I get paired against my girlfriend with a Bajoran
speed deck I built for her. Its fast but has some skill gaps and I used this knowledge to my
advantage. I played YABMF on turn two and got my people faster. Most of hers got shuffled to
the bottom of her deck. I will pay the price for winning later.
100-0 Win
Round 2: Steve Upton
Steve was playing Borg speed, the only question was is he
faster than my Borg. I YABMF on turn two. He attempted first with seven people and I stopped
him. I attempted my next turn with eight. He only played one dilemma and stopped me cold with
Invidium Leak. I soon managed to get two missions and Steve had dilemmas under two but hadn't
completed any. I then got my last mission for the win.
100-0 Win
Round 3: William Hoskin
I had a very good idea what Will would be playing before
we even sat down as he has been playing Dominion speed all year and winning most of our games.
I was worried by this and played YABMF on turn two only to see it got Gloryed to the founders
- OUCH!!
Will attempted his first mission with five as per the norm. I got lucky. I played A Royal
Hunt followed by Biochemical Hyperacceleration and returned three to his hand. His Defiant
was stranded. He had discarded one of his other ships a round or so earlier, and didn't get
another ship he could play all game. He did cancel my second YABMF though.
100-0 Win
At this point we had a break for lunch. I was 3 for 0 and feeling good.
Round 4: Nick Yankovec
Nick is one of our local top rate players and always a
good sport. He was playing a new deck built around the new Defiant with Gamma quadrant missions
and using Captain on the Bridge. I had a strong start with a YABMF on turn one. I gained two
missions before Nick had one. I had also found he had far to much Officer and Leadership, seven
out of nine people, which my Personal Duty's took full advantage of. Nick got his first mission
and was close to his second when I got my third for the win. I decked myself this game as well
and had to use tapestry
100-40 Win
Round 5: Johannes Klarhauser
The final round was against Johannes who came second
in the TOC two weeks before with a Bajoran RATS deck. The luck was with me as he had a Klingon
battle deck and cubes can be a bit big to battle. I got a exellent start with a YABMF on turn
one. When I started attempting, I think I had nine people, he played Tragic Turn which consumed
another Tragic Turn so I adapted to the first. The next two dilemmas only stopped Locutus and
got me twenty bonus points due to good use of Unyielding. I also got a bonus five points for
Distant Exploration as well so after my first mission I had sixty points. Johannes attempted
next turn and had two killed. I attempted my next mission and scored another forty for the win.
100-0 Win
Final Result
I went five for none and was pleasantly happy with how the deck
worked. The journey home was uneventfull and took less than two hours.
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