B5CCG::Black Omega Squadron::tournament reports

Triples 1999 - the first UK team championship

My write-up

The big event for me this year so far was the UK Team Championships at Colours in March.  I really recommend this format.  It was run by Phil Nicholls and featured 7 teams of 5 players each.  At the end of the tourney as well as the normal winner there are prizes for the highest team score.  So I'm pleased to announce that the winners were Team Pump aka The Cardiff Chosen of God.  The  were yours truly (Bruce "trust me, I'm a ranger" Mason), Mike "I'm only here for the promo" Penberthy, Ian "I just curl up into a ball and let them kick me" Richards, Paul "Short Term" Sheward and Ty "That's not cheese" Grover-Jones.  Our mascot, Richie "This Triluminary doesn't work" Willis was in Japan.  I was using a NA Peace Deck and got very lucky. We using the second NA character as a supporting character trial rule and most people were prepared to deal with Chosen of God. I was using Peaceful Unification, which most people had forgotten about and also starting with Consultants in my opening hand with a lot of the "anti characters" to go under (e.g. Hedron, Virini and, my favourite Verano).  My conflicts were nearly all helpful stuff (Alliances, Trade Pacts, Officer Exchanges) and I was usually able to find bribable allies.

The first game was a disaster.  None of my tension lowerers came out, all my characters turned up but I didn't see a conflict in years.  Meanwhile a Minbari military conscription deck was getting a free run and a Centauri Growth in Cheese deck just sat there and got marks.  I managed to scrape 3rd place in the end thanks to the humans playing a trade pact on me and me playing an Alliance with the Narn who came in 5th.  The second game was much better.  There was a Narn Vorlon deck and a Human shadow deck as well as another Minbari military deck and a Centauri military deck.  This time I got tensions low early, though the Centauri went to war with the Narn.  The Shadow player was getting left behind the Vorlons.  I had scraped together enough influence to be within win range and on the fateful last turn started an alliance with the humans.  The first actions ended, I supported my alliance with an aide and the humans ended the round with a Confusion in Chaos giving me a win.  At this point the confusion really started as two of the players claimed they hadn't passed but the Minbari had skipped them.  Phil came over, both "skipped" players stated that they weren't planning on doing anything on that action which would have made any difference until the Narn player suddenly remembered that he was planning on playing Obstacles to Victory on my Peaceful Unification.  We decided on the end to let the result stand, presumably on the basis that you can't NMTB a confusion in chaos :-)

The final game was a 5 player-game.  I was on the second table as James Blagden with Chosen of God Military deck made the top table by 1 (co-op) point I think.  As two of Team Pump were already on the top table it was probably no bad thing that I wasn't there.  I had played 3 of the other players before.  I think it was Paul Manning with his Centauri war deck (played game 2), Andew Whitehouse (I believe from Team Blue Star our biggest threat) with a Minbari military conscription deck (played in game 1), Stephen Gold with his trusty Narn deck.  I don't remember the human player but I think he was the same one I played in the first round: trade pacts, alliances and cheese.

The first notable event happened on turn 2.  Throughout the tourney I had progressively sideboarded in more Taunts and Games.  On turn 1 I drew one.  Andrew Watson, for some reason, decided not to use conscription until he drew a conflict.  On turn 2 he started a Gunboat Dipomacy against the humans and conscripted for a fleet.  Got a big one (no other type in that deck).  Imagine the fun when I T&G'd it.  OK so I had just happened to draw it at the end of the first turn but I wasn't going to tell him that.  With nothing to support the Gunboat Andrew ended up losing influence, rocking him back quite significantly.

The game progressed to the mid-game quite smoothly.  I managed to get tensions down and struck a Non-Agression pact with the Minbari.  Mary-Ann came out quite early and was able to keep the Centauri tension to the Narn around the 3 level.  The Centauri in general seemed to be suffering as there was just too much military on the table for him to push through his conflicts.  In general everyone was inching up their power but no one was able to pull away and the game was getting quite locked.  I hit win range (15 influence with an alliance and all my tensions at 1) and everyone knew it.  The Minbari were beginning to get some conflicts off.  About this time most of the other tables were finishing and I became aware of quite a large crowd building up.  Then there was something of a ruckus from the top table.  The Geordies were getting excited and I could hear one of my players apologising to another.  It seemed as though the Geordies had pulled in front of us.

What had happened was that the one of our players on the top table had miscounted and screwed over the other.  I think we ended up getting 2nd and 4th while the Geordies got 1st and 3rd which was enough to put them very close.  It turned out that unless I managed to finish ahead of Andrew then the Geordies would sneak a win.

It was at this point that things were starting to get sticky.  A commerce raiding was in play which knocked my influence down and Andrew was starting to get enough military domination to gain influence even though I was keeping his tensions below 3 to prevent limited strikes.  Then the inevitable WANI hit the table putting me (effectively) in last place.  I had my one back-up plan which was a Psi conflict with the Hyach matriach and Lethke and an IO somewhere in my deck.  However there had been very few events played so far so it seemed likely that people had been hording their Levels and NMTBs.  So the next couple of rounds I focussed on pumping my influence as I just didn't have enough to force a victory in a WANI conflict.  Here was where consultants really shone for me in an unexpected way.  At one point I needed 4 diplomacy to win a conflict and Kalika in my hand.  I only had 4 influence left and no way to sponsor her.  I could win the conflict if only I could get her into play without rotating anyone.  The answer, consultants.  I was so happy.  Next round I tried a Psi conflict against the WANI.  I didn't expect to win and, unsurprisingly, it failed but some Levels got burned. 

Things were getting grim now.  Andrew was slightly ahead of me.  I knew Stephen had a Ja'Doc and at least one liberating resources in his hand.  Stephen likes to play with the influence stealers and had quite a spat with Paul and a Short Term Goals on the previous round.  The human player was by no means out of it.  I still hadn't changed to PU because of WANI and wanting to keep the extra influence from Fulcrum.  Phil was also making hints that the hall was about to close and we needed to finish asap.  I had a Glitch, a Trade Windfall and PU in hand.  I was also wary of Paul because he had enough destiny marks to get about +6 power out of the turn if he dropped a Rise.  I didn't have an influence gaining conflict in my hand so I started a Psi conflict against the WANI.  I wasn't going to win with a WANI in play but might have a chance without it. My main hope was killing the commerce raiding and getting a trade windfall which would put me on 18 influence, dead level with Andrew I think.  I wasn't sure if that would be enough for Team Pump to win.

My first action was to rotate Ja'Doc with the matriach.  Stephen fumed and cursed me all over the table.  I just wanted Ja'Doc out of the way.  Then the round got really messy.  I supported the Psi conflict and suddenly realised I had an ally in Paul.  With WANI gone he was close to first place.  I made a bash against the Commerce Raiding with Glitch.  The Glitch was NMTB'd by Andrew then Paul NMTBd back and Andrew burnt a second.  Paul was the recipient of a trade pact from the humans I believe.  There was a fair old fight but it got glitched eventually after a couple of rounds of NMTBing.  I switched to a second Fulcrum to recover some influence.  Andrew levelled a fleet in against the WANI conflict.  It was NMTBd.  He then levelled another fleet in.  Then the Centauri attacked it.  I don't think Andrew had made the same calculation Paul had. Paul could see victory in his eyes when the WANI went. Suddenly Andrew was going horribly backwards.  I needed my trade windfall but couldn't play it until Stephen didn't have enough influence to liberate resources.  Other conflicts were on-going. I watched Stephen get closer and closer to the magic number he needed and I waited and waited.  I played PU which was 90% certain to get me the win if the WANI went away depending on what Paul had in hand.  I figured that the trade windfall would guarantee me the game.  Andrew hadn't given up and he levelled another huge fleet into the WANI conflict.  The NA and Centauri had just enough firepower to take it down but it was messy.  I was actually winning the WANI conflict.  Stephen finally spent down to 3 influence and I trade windfalled, no one had enough to NMTB it.  Andrew cursed, Paul looked disappointed.  Phil asked if anyone had any more actions.  They didn't.  It was over.  Paul aftermathed himself another 2 influence with Rise to Power to get into 2nd place.  I think Andrew ended in 3rd or 4th.  Somehow I had won and as it turned out so had Team Pump.  It was a superb game played against very good opponents where right down to the last couple of actions it was uncertain who would win.