I've been reading quite a bit about holograms recently, so I put together a
Rommie\Klingon variant. It uses AMS to get K'Tesh and Tomek, and ASP to get
Jera, all on turn one. It backs the holograms up with Klingon and Romulan
mission specialists, and a large number of AU personnel for STP-dropping
with IKC Fek'lhr and the Decius.

Round I: Rethea Detleefs
Rethea is playing her usual Klingon mission solver. Early on, I get stopped
by the last dilemma at my first mission. I move on and attempt another, only
to snag my only ship with a Cytherians. I realise now that I could have
returned the ship to my hand, but instead I let it reach the other side of
the spaceline for the 15 points and then STP-dropped the IKC Fek'lhr, beamed
everyone off my other ship, and proceeded home with the 11 range of the
Fek'lhr. The rest of the game is uneventful as I head my way to a 100-0 full
win.

Score: 2 (+100)
Cumulative: 2 (+100)

Round II: Shawn Kennedy
Shawn and I were the only players to win 100-0 in the first round, so we
face off against each other in the second. He seeds Empok Nor and a Ferengi
Trading Post, then commandeers Empok on the first turn as non-aligned. It
seems that he is playing a predominantly NA deck, with some Ferengi splashed
in. Weird.

Anyhow, without anything beyond the once per turn download from Empok, he
waits around while I get the whole hologram thing going. I'm stopped with
one dilemma to go under two missions, then complete another to put me 35-0
up. I do my STP-drop and complete a second mission to go 70-0 ahead. With
about two minutes to go, I clear out the dilemmas under my last mission -
only to discover that I couldn't attempt the mission because Shawn has
deviled my treaty (twice, in fact). Time is called just before Shawn can
complete his first mission.

Score: 1 (+70)
Cumulative: 3 (+170)

Round III: Warren Cramer
Warren is in second place at this point, and since he's the player who beats
me most often, nothing is guaranteed for this round. Unfortunately for him,
he's playing Cardassians. What's more, he hasn't really ever played them
before, and he keeps forgetting to process ore at the start of his turn.

The game starts quickly for me, and soon I'm lounging away, 65 points in the
lead. Warren keeps playing and downloading cards, slowly and steadily, so my
concentration lapses as I lose interest. A few turns later, his megacrew has
solved two missions for 80 points. With time close to running out I have to
play quickly to solve my last mission to win, 100-80.

Score: 2 (+20)
Cumulative: 5 (+190)

Round IV: Kevin Stein
I end up playing 5th placed Kevin Stein, since I've played everyone above
him already. Kevin is new to the game and was only taught how to play this
morning. He has no extra card draws or plays, and no significant delay
tricks. Despite being stopped once or twice by unexpected dilemma combos, I
solve my missions for an easy, 100-0 win.

Score: 2 (+100)
Cumulative: 7 (+290)

Here are the standings after four rounds:

1. Fritz Meissner	7 (+290)	Romulan\Klingon holo-deck
2. Shawn Kennedy	6 (+170)	Empok-NA
3. Rethea Deetlefs	5 (+145)	Klingon mission solver
4. Warren Cramer	3 (+70)	Cardie Nor
5. Kevin Stein	2 (-100)	Romulan
6. Terri Nicole	1 (-248)	Bajoran\Cardassian
7. Nick Reay	0 (-117)	Fed with TAK and Static Warp Bubbles galore
8. Jamie Francis	0 (-200)	Klingon

Good to see that we're getting this whole tournament thing going. Kevin,
Terri, Nick and Jamie, while not all new to the game are first time
sanctioned tournament players - this means that we now have 12 players on
the Decipher rankings. I'm hoping for more in our next tournament on the 4th
of March.

Fritz Meissner
meissn@mweb.co.za