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Call to Arms Pre-release Report [2E]
August 30, 2003
by Earl S. Prusak
// Editor's Note: Warning, course langauge.
Ah Trek, how have I missed you. Greetings Programs, my name is Earl Prusak and I'm here to tell you about the Edmonton, Alberta pre-release of Call to Arms. First let's get some background.
I am 1/7 of an elite gaming force known as Team Five Iron and at the end of August, the quiet little town of St. Albert comes alive as the Game-A-Lot convention starts up and all the local gaming shops throw some killer tournaments. We decided to partake in the fun and make our mark. So the first tournament on the list was the Call to Arms Pre-release.
As I like to do with most of my articles, is to start it off with a little rant. Today's rant is brought to you by the letters, U N B A L A N C E D. I wish to direct your attention to Decipher lack of play testing when it comes to the starter decks of their products. They are really hit or miss with making the decks competitive against each other. Strangely enough the decks that are the closest was always first expansion of a stand-alone (Battle of Helm Deep and Mines of Moria) and the second one is the most unbalanced (Ents of Fangorn and Realms of the Elf Lords). Now it seems that Trek will also have this Decipher curse. I recommend that Decipher really playtest these deck before they are released to the public. On the other hand Decipher booster drafting is really fun and it is way superior to sealed in every way. I think Decipher should concentrate on designing draft packs for Star Trek.
Now that's out of the way let's get back to the tournament. The night before, Michael (fellow teammate) and I went over the numbers and found out that stasiticly the Dominion is more cheap to play than the Borg and they have easier missions (Strength based? What the?) and had a better skills balance. Sure Borg have access to all the skills in the game, but they don't have multiples of the ones that count. With that knowledge we set out to win us a pre-release.
We get to Mission Fun and Games, a most excellent Mom and Pop gaming store, and sign up for the tournament. We all get called into this side room and we await the arrival of the swag. I look around and take stock of the competition, no one too threatening. I have never played Star Trek 2E before so I was hoping that the competition would be light today. I am mostly a Lord of the Rings player but I played 1E Trek religiously, so I know the fundamentals. While I was resting comfortably in walks the two guys that could put a dampener on my dreams of winning. They were:
Olav Rokne: Fellow Team Five Iron Member and considered the King of Star Trek Sealed. He is the only man to break the 2000 record of 1E Trek sealed and is currently ranked 5th on the planet in 2E sealed. I have never beaten him in sealed match in the 4 years I have known him.
Thomas Solway: 2003 World Finalist, considered the best player east of the Rockies.
Ah, crap.
Today's Judge Allan Gould comes in with the swag and begins to hand the starters out. Michael begins to whisper "Please not the Borg, please not the Borg", but sure enough Michael gets a box with a Queen on it. When my name is called I get slipped a sweet Dominion starter and then we get half an hour to build our decks.
So I rip open my boosters to find out I got nothing of value in them. One Vorta, one uncommon dilemma (heh), and a few common Jem Hadar. The rest were Borg, race specific, or just plain useless (I Don't Like to Lose, The Blight? What the hell). The next task was to cut the crap from the starter deck, namely Cry Havok, Render Assistance and D'Arsay Archive. Always cut those cards out of your deck. It frees up 6 spaces where you can put extra personnel or events. So with that done I ask Michael how was his booster pulls and he proceeds to show me 6 extra dilemmas, a smattering of drones and, oh yes I nearly forgot, Locutus of Borg. It turns out that Michael wasn't so grouchy anymore. Time gets called and the tournament begins.
Round 1
Earl (Dominion) vs. Chris (Borg)
Chris is a great opponent to get first round, he's easy going and the match goes very smoothly. The laid back atmosphere also allows me to break in my deck and see how hard I can push it. I win the coin flip so we both take it and the match progressed nicely. I got to see the pros and cons for each deck and, more importantly, I learn the strength and weaknesses of the deck vs. certain dilemma combos. This knowledge definitely comes in handy later in the day. I try to use I Don't Like to Lose and my earlier fears were confirmed that the card sucks. We were neck and neck for a while, then time gets called and during my last turn I double team my last mission for the win, good thing there isn't Timescapes in these decks. We shook hands and that was that.
So in between rounds I found that Michael smashed his Dominion opponent and both Olav and Thomas won. (of course)
Round 2
Sparky vs. Olav (Borg)
This will be messy, but fun. Out of the two big matches today I was worried about this less because Olav is a good friend and whatever the outcome I would have fun and, more importantly, learn something. So I lose the coin flip and Olav goes first. Nuts. So he drops a bunch of drones and says he would give anything for a ship. I allow myself to hope that he might be screwed. I play some dudes. On Olav's turn he drops a Borg Cube and another drone, an amused little smirk on his face. Sigh, he's playing me. Double Nuts. So he says go. My turn I play a couple more Jem Hadar and call it a day. Olav plays some more drones and flies over to a space mission and attempts. Seeing he has no Queen yet and what I learned last game I throw down an Inside Collaborators and stop him cold. Heh. I play a ship and attempt one of my missions. Get a few dilemmas down. All good. Olav plays some more drones (still no Queen), goes and picks them up and attempts the mission again. I draw my dilemmas, no Inside Collaborators but I did draw a Command Decision, so that's a guaranteed kill and a few other OK dilemmas. So Olav hits the Decision, loses a drone and then proclaims that the Borg deck is inferior because it totally relies on one card too heavily. He mentions that when he gets his Queen these tricks won't work on him, so the rest of my dilemmas hardly phase him and he gets to my last wall, thinks about it and interlinks to get passed it. He reveals the top card in his deck and lo and behold who gets discarded from his deck but the Madonna herself. Heh. The look on his face was priceless.
I attempted my mission, pass it and moved onto my second mission. 35-35 now. Got a few dilemma under it. Olav goes for a second mission and gets some dilemma down. I attempt again on my second attempt and Olav stops me again. I take my left-over people and move to my third mission and beam down and attempt, which again Olav expertly stops. By now Olav gets his Queen and blasts through his second mission and attempts his third mission. 70-35 He calls Diplomacy as her skill and beams down, I use Inside Collaborators to stop someone of my choice and the rest of the dilemmas get enough people stopped. Time is called. So I have one turn to win. I beam a bunch of guys to the third mission and give Olav 5 dilemmas to work with. He throws three my way. Ouch. First one, Pinned Down, randomly grabs a guy. Olav grabs a Podunk. Nice, a wall comes up, I pass it. A second wall, I pass it. I solve then move my ship to the 2nd mission and finish that one. 100-75. Booya. Holy crap, I won! We shook hands and I say "Good game" "Very" he replied. Man I barely beat him if things didn't go my way (no Queen, attempting space first, etc.) Olav would have smoked me. Well that the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.
I let Olav look at my deck and then decide to take one of the Limited Welcomes out of my dilemma pile. Two is too much since you have things like Pinned Down to fall back on.
Round 3
The Man vs. Thomas (Dominion)
Well if I beat Olav I was bound to run into him. Unlike Olav's game where it was fast and friendly, Thomas tends to take things a little more seriously. OK, a lot more seriously, like his life depended on it or something. This will be a tense match. Dominion vs. Dominion, it should be interesting. I know from my own deck that Dominion is short on Science and Medical, so dilemmas requiring those will always hit. With that in mind, I faced off against the 2003 World Finalist. I lose the flip again, sigh. Thomas knows he's better than me so he takes it easy and plays it safe, where I go on the super-offensive and push my deck hard as I attempt on the third turn with 5 people. So Thomas casually builds up an impressive skills base, Security, Medical, Leadership, you name it. He gets his crew together and moves to his 1st mission and sits for a second and says "why not" and beams down 10 people. Heh, you remember the one uncommon dilemma I pulled earlier? Well, that dilemma was Restricted Area and I happen to draw it. So I get to capture two people! That's better than killing them! I get one of the two Medical personnel in his deck (Kilana) and his only Exobiology. Booya! Triage come next, aww no Medical, get to kill someone; and finally Pinned Down for good measure. Thomas was kind of floored. Next turn, still on my aggressive streak, I play more guys and finish my first mission. 35-0. Thomas moves back to his headquarters and stays there a turn. Meanwhile, on my turn I'm using my own Kilana to stack my deck (she is so good!). I attempt my second mission and I get it the first attempt. Nice. 70-0. Thomas moves to his mission and attempts, I kill a few people with my dilemmas (Triages and whatnot), but he is able to have enough people left to solve. Ya Thomas, you got points! 70-35. On my turn I have a load of guys so I move to my 3rd mission and double team it. Thank God there isn't any Timescapes. Well, first attempt was a bust (naturally) but the second I was able to break through. I just beat a World Finalist a whopping 100-35! I was ecstatic. I said "Good Game Thomas," held my hand out for the shake and he just sat there staring at my hand. The dude left me hanging. I glance over to Allan who shrugged. I guess he doesn't lose very well. I'm afraid he'll have to get used to it because I'm totally coming for the 20th.
Round 4
Me vs. Kim (Dominion)
Ah Kim, always a pleasure. I knew this would be a laid back match. If I win here then I won the tournament and get myself half a box of CTA. If I lose then there is a clusterfuck for 2 second place. I was farely confident that I would be on top unless something crazy happens. I lose the flip (again!) and I go to cut Kim's deck and she asks if I would cut her into something good. I told her I'd try, when I asked to do the same she said she could because she needed all the luck she could muster. So she draws her hand and she gasps, it seems that I gave 3 unique founders, a Vorta and 2 Jem Hadar and a ship. Yikes. Well I draw and I get 5 Jem Hadars without Leadership, and 2 Founder Councilers. I couldn't complete any missions and no ship. Um, the train just left for crazy town. So I play 4 points worth of guys and draw three cards a turn until I get a ship, which I didn't until the 5th turn. Ouch. Meanwhile Kim is just cruising along by turn 5 she's already completed her first mission. 30-0. So on the fifth turn I draw into the most busted-ass ship in my deck, the puny attack ship. Sigh, better than nothing. I was really worried that I would not be able to catch up to Kim. So I flew to my 4th mission (which, by the way, I have never attempted before) and attempted. Pinned Down caught someone, I passed the wall and a Command Decision stopped another one. Damn I said, and out of habit I counted my stats 5+5+6+6+6+7 = 35 Cunning, Holy Crap! I just passed Survey Star System on the first try! 35-30. Kim moves onto her second mission and I stop her. I still have no Leadership, but I draw Kilana (so good) so I'm stacking 3 cards a turn finding a Leadership. I attempt a Leadership mission hoping to draw some dilemmas, which I did. Kim attempts hers again and I stop her. I draw my Leadership (Finally!) and fly back to get him, switch ships and attempt the mission. Kim throws a Pinned my way but it misses my leader so I solve for another 35 points. 70-30. Kim attempts her mission for a third time and gets it, but doesn't move onto another mission. 70-65. I draw 4 more leaders (nice of them to show up now), play most of them, stack my deck and then I move to my next mission. Double teamed it like usual, get through it and solve for the win. 100-65.
So I won the tournament and got myself half a box of cards. Not bad for a day's works. Well next tournament I'm doing will be the Black Rider(s). See you then.
Props
Olav- For always giving me a great game
Mino- You were a blast, always good to meet new Trek players.
Me- Way to win big guy!
Slops
Thomas- If you don't take it easy you'll have a stroke by the time you're 25
Decipher- Playtest your starters, please.
Peace.
Earl S. Prusak
Team Five Iron
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