The January 3 "Clash of the Titans" ("Titan" is the name of the shop/gaming club where we play tournaments in Elizabethton, Tennessee) was attended by eight players, one of whom dropped after the first round, leaving seven to finish up after three rounds. Use of Holodeck Adventures cards varied from player to player, as some players had not purchased many cards and others had incorporated significant strategies from the new set.

I was one of the latter, playing a Ferengi deck with a heavy dose of Vic Fontaine downloading (I call it "Lounge Lizards").  Check out the deck.

Here's how my three games went at Titan on Thursday evening, January 3, 2002.
 

Game 1 vs. Joey Oliver

Joey usually gives me stiff competition in our games. In this game, Joey was playing Hirogen in the Delta Quadrant, with a dose of holograms using Noah's Mountain Retreat. I went first. The worst possible scenario for my deck when I go first is that I have no Holodeck Door in hand, and that's just what happened here. (Note: I realize that in the deck list above, 7 Holodeck Doors is really too few for the deck size. But I only had 7 Holodeck Doors to my name at the time of this tournament) I ran through my other downloads, then pitched a Q the Referee to download the Obelisk of Masaka, then to download Masaka Transformations. But … Joey Quinned my Masaka Transformations! I got an extremely lucky break when my end-of-turn card draw was a Holodeck Door. Joey's first turn involved his own jumpstarting of his Hirogen, with downloads of ships, the Hunt, things like that. I believe that he attempted his outpost mission on turn 1, falling prey to an Ankari "Spirits" boosted by my Cyrus Redblock.

On my second turn I was able to use a Holodeck Door to download Vic Fontaine, and then go through my Q's Planet routine and some other mission attempting. I got rid of some dilemmas and ended the turn with the score me 5 Joey -5. I don't really remember too much about Joey's second turn. I think he reported a second ship with crew and tried to attempt, but couldn't get past the Redblock-enhanced dilemmas.

On my third turn I cleared out the remaining dilemmas under my outpost Collect Sample, except that the last one was a Dead End. I managed to complete the next Collect Sample down the line, scoring 30 points for the mission plus 5 for Mordoc with Assign Mission Specialists. During this turn, I tried to use one of my Vic downloads to download Holo-projectors to Deliver Message, only to have Joey Quinn it again! I ended turn 3 with the score me 40, Joey -10. I think it was during Joey's third turn that he tried a mission other than his outpost mission, only to be damaged and stopped by The Cloud due to insufficient MEDICAL in the crew.

Turn four went pretty well for me. I got through the rest of Joey's dilemmas at Deliver Message and solved with Jake and Nog and The Trois in Federation mode with some non-aligned support from Ah-Kel and Ro-Kel to get past a Punishment Box. But Joey had The Higher … the Fewer there, so I lost 6 points in the process. Now I had 64 points and could get past Dead End on the remaining Collect Sample. If I did so, however, and Joey pulled down In the Zone using his Q the Referee (or if it was his remaining unrevealed Hidden Agenda), I would only be able to use 26 of the 35 points I could normally get for it (In the Zone is a pain). So I waited. On Joey's turn, he used Space-Time Portal to return his Clouded ship to hand, then played it out again at Caretaker's Array. He went back to attempting his mission (Ambush Ship) and got stopped by a Redblock-enhanced Implication. When stopped, however, he used his own Vic to download a Kivas Fajo -- Collector, and turned one of those card draws into a download of Rituals of the Hunt, which he played on my Brunt (to give Hajur Brunt's Law skill for later use). Had I been smart, I would've returned Brunt to my hand on a ship with STP. But I didn't think of that at the time. End of turn 4, the score was me 64, Joey -10.

My turn five could've been the end. I claimed the 30 points from the Dead Ended Collect Sample, plus 5 for Mordoc, taking me to 99. I solved the Q's Planet mission also. Needing just one more point to win, I ran a redship into another Collect Sample where I had self-seeded a Mission Fatigue and used the Vic download to drop a Drought Tree on Q's Planet. End of story … except that Joey Quinned the Drought Tree! I cleared out the rest of the dilemmas at that other Collect Sample, but all my Transporter Skill personnel were stopped. Joey's fifth turn worked well for him. Using Brunt's Law shared by Rituals with his Anthropology Hirogen, he cleared out the Implication remaining under Ambush Ship and solved the mission for 30 points. At the end of turn 5, the score was me 99, Joey 15.

Turn six put it bed as I claimed 30 points from another Collect Sample and reached 129. Final score, me 129, Joey 15, giving me 2 (+85) for round 1.
 

Game 2 vs. Nicholas Shell

Nick is usually a pretty tough opponent. He likes Romulans, and he likes Supernovas. As I expected, Nick was playing Alpha Quadrant Romulans. When I saw him lay down Study Lonka Pulsar, I started to drool. Nick went first. His first turn involved the usual downloading, but he didn't have any candidates for free headquarters reporting in his hand, so his start was a little slower than he'd anticipated. On my first turn, I went through my usual jumpstart and Q's Planet routine (scoring 5 points from Odo's "Cousin"), although instead of the third Ferengi Conference I downloaded Beverly and Will. Then, thanks to Dr. Telek R'Mor, I attempted Nick's Study Lonka Pulsar. I had seeded The Cloud + Implication there, and I knew I could pass The Cloud with Beverly, Dr. Telek R'Mor, and Gaila, and with Grand Nagus Zek's Law, Implication was also no problem. At the end of turn 1, the score was me 45, Nick 0.

Nick's second turn was basically just reporting personnel, as I recall. On my second turn I cleared out all the dilemmas under one Collect Sample except for a Radioactive Garbage Scow, and by then all my ships were out of RANGE. No change in score during turn 2.

On his third turn, Nick started attempting. I don't remember precisely which combo he hit, but he couldn't get past it and lost a personnel to Cyrus's enhancements. I towed the Scow away and claimed 30 points from Collect Sample plus 5 for Mordoc. I decided to go ahead and solve Deliver Sample as well, but Nick did flip In the Zone on me. I ended turn 3 with 110 total points but only 95 winning points, to Nick's zero.

I don't remember what happened on Nick's fourth turn. I think he reported some personnel, attempted a mission, and couldn't get through the dilemmas. I ran some personnel into a Nick's dilemmas until one got stopped, and used Vic to download my Drought Tree. The game ended with me at 117 total points, 102 winning points, to Nick's zero. My cumulative score was now 4 (+185).
 

Game 3 vs. Harvey Morrell

Harvey had a full win and a timed win to his credit at this point. As usual, Harvey was playing Alpha Quadrant Klingons. No stealable missions for me this time. I went first.

On turn 1, my jumpstarts fired perfectly, including the 5 Odo's "Cousin" points. Harvey reported several personnel and attempted his outpost mission. I had seeded my second Mission Fatigue there instead of self-seeding it, which stopped him cold. End of turn 1, the score was me 5, Harvey 0.

My second turn involved clearing out dilemmas, though I wasn't able to actually score any mission points. Harvey took another stab at his outpost mission and, to my surprise, managed to pass Ankari "Spirits" despite a Mission Fatigue on that mission and a Cyrus Redblock in play, thanks to the very honorable Sons of Mogh. My Redblock-enhanced Scientific Method stymied him, though. No change in score in turn 2.

Turn 3 saw me complete Deliver Message for 30 points and clear out dilemmas from a Collect Sample, including a Male's Love Interest & Plague Ship that gave me 5 points when Calandra dutifully sacrificed herself to save the Tarellians. Harvey kept pounding away at his outpost mission, but just couldn't get past Scientific Method with Mission Fatigue and Cyrus Redblock enhancing it. The score was me 40, Harvey 0 at the end of turn 3.

On turn 4 I completed a Collect Sample for 35 points (5 from Mordoc) and cleared out most of the dilemmas from another one, but I was careful not to complete it due to In the Zone. Harvey now had no Mission Fatigue to contend with at his outpost mission, and was able to clear away my Scientific Method even though losing a personnel to Redblock's enhancement. He did not have all the skills left to complete the mission, however, so the score stood at me 75, Harvey 0.

The fifth turn clinched it. I completed the last Collect Sample for 30 plus Mordoc's 5 and ended the game with 110 points to Harvey's zero. My final cumulative score was 6 (+285) for the tournament win.