Voyager Sealed Deck Warp Speed
5/27/2001
Gamers Guild
Clifton Park, NY

Well, our first Voyager tourney is finally here. As some Star Wars guys scheduled a tournament for the same day it looks like we’ll be short of players for sanctioning. However a couple of them joined us and we made it up to 8! I had planned to bring Voyager episodes including the finale to watch there, but it was too hectic with all those star wars players. We’ve got time for 3 rounds, perhaps 4 if we hurry. We built our decks from a Starter Deck plus 6 boosters. This was my first Voyager purchase and I pulled 5 useful (in sealed deck) rares: B'Elanna Torres, Chakotay, USS Equinox, Astral Eddy, Volcanic Eruption and 3 not so useful (in sealed deck): Barzan Wormhole x2 and Ancestral Vision. By round 2, everyone was seeding (or downloading) The Vidiian Sodality to get the free Medical reports. I didn't receive a Vidiian Outpost so I had to use a precious seed slot for this incident. It was well worth it however, as it seemed I had a Vidiian MEDICAL to play for free at least the first 4 turns of all 3 games. Warp Speed goes even faster with 3 card plays per turn!

Round 1 vs. Martin Terwilliger
Marty is a squadron member who usually plays in our trek tournaments along with his sons. He wasn't using the Sodality, so his first few turns were mostly report 2 cards, draw 1, and even up. I saw things were going slow on his side, so I think I waited until my 4th turn when I had 12 people out to attempt my outpost planet mission. I took some causalities to early dilemmas including the Kazon Bomb and was stopped by Implication. With only 1 Diplomacy personnel in play, I resigned myself to go attempt my space mission in my next few turns. Meanwhile he is also stopped by Implication at his outpost mission. A couple turns later I finally end up at my space mission but run into Implication again. Next turn, same dilemma is encountered at my 2nd planet mission. Marty then moves 3 ships over to the mission and blows up my only ship in play
with my people stranded on the planet. That’s a really cool move and slowed me down a bit but not a killer as I have 2 ships in my hand. Well,  I end up playing Handshake and put Magistrate Drang (with Law) on top to draw. Finally I have a way to pass Implication but my skills required for the mission are stranded on the planet. Time is called before I can get them back to my outpost and game ends as True Tie: 0-0.
Score: 1(0)

Round 2 vs. Art Wright
Art is another squadron member and I've played against him a ton both in tournaments and in casual games. I couldn't remember who I played this round until I looked at the final scoresheet and then the details came back to me. Art lost most of his crew to the Kazon Bomb early in the game and spent a lot of time rebuilding. If I recall correctly, I was stopped at my outpost mission due to Implication. I moved over to my space mission and was stopped by the last dilemma, Twisted (half of Away Team must have CUNNING > 7). I brought a 2nd ship over and attempted from that ship with 2 guys who could clear out that last dilemma and then beamed them on board my first ship and we solved the mission. I headed back to my outpost where Magistrate Drang was waiting for me and solved the mission for the win. Meanwhile (after complaining about Away Team’s not being stopped if they can’t solve the mission. Do we know who made this rule at Decipher?), Art had solved his space mission after being stopped by Implication at his outpost mission. Full win: 60-30
Score: 3(30)

Round 3 vs. Aaron Northrup
Well this is the last round so winner gets to take home a Tournament Foil. Northrup is a really good player and has been playing Voyager Warp Speed online for several weeks so he really knows his stuff. This was a great match and I don't remember all the details, but I didn't get a good opening hand so I played a few expandable personnel and on a whim decided to redshirt. This worked out pretty well and I cleared out all dilemmas at my outpost mission except for Hanonian Land Eel which is a super nasty dilemma requiring SCIENCE, SECURITY, STRENGTH > 50 to get past, not to mention killing a personnel if you don't have the requirements. So I start reporting guys like mad for a few turns, wondering where my SCIENCE personnel are. Finally I have just enough STRENGTH and attempt the mission and Aaron interrupts me by playing The Phage killing a Vidiian and now I can't get by and end up losing a 2nd Vidiian this turn to the dilemma. 2 turns later I end up getting by thanks in part to the Vidiian Harvester equipment card and head towards my space mission. Meanwhile he is stopped at his outpost mission to Implication and solves his space mission. So now it's next mission wins.  I get stopped by that Twisted dilemma and he heads over to his 2nd planet mission. I drop my personnel off on a nearby planet and return with enough to clear Twisted out and solve the mission. I couldn't remember if Twisted rounds up or down so I took a chance that it rounds
down and brought 3 personnel to clear it out and solve the mission. Well Twisted rounds up and I head back to the planet to drop one off. He gets stopped as Civil Unrest snags one of his personnel required to pass through the next wall. I can't figure out how to move my ships right with the range and wasn't really thinking so I just clear out the dilemma this turn and hope there will be a next turn. Northrup solves his 2nd mission this turn after Civil Unrest unstops his people just as time runs out. Full loss: 65-30
Score: 3(-5)

This is good enough for 3rd place.

Final Standings:
Aaron Northrup     6(140) Assign Mission Specialists Foil
Steve Clicquennoi     4(50)
Edward Bartholomew     3(-5)
Chris Talbot     3(-20)
Martin Terwilliger      2(10)
Austin Bates     2(-30)
Arthur Wright     2(-35)
Hailey Moses     0(-110) Plasma Torpedo Foil
 

Thanks for reading,
Ed Bartholomew
jened@geocities.com