B5CCG::Black Omega Squadron::tournament reports

Babylon 5 UK Championship final, Manchester, September 2^rd

It was a great final, the atmosphere hardly possible to put in words, but I tried. But as always, you should have been there.

The final started of with Peter Meredith playing Non-Aligned, Andrew Watson Centauri, Richard Willis Minbari, Steve Gold Narn and James Blagden Human. It was competetive and interactive from the beginning and it would be until the end, which was still far away. OOPF conflicts were stopped by Peter and Andrew from the beginning, but James slipped through, because of a mistake by Andrew, and had the first Legacy out. Now even more opposition was available for Steve's OOPF conflicts and he couldn't win it. In order to have enough influence to sponsor stuff he played ISA. Nobody even thought about saying no and it looked to become a quick game with the four extra influence already. The thought of the bar was already in our heads, but how wrong can you be ? Andrew, knowing that Peter played the same deck as in the BO championship and that it was likely to win if it wasn't stopped early, grabbed an Expelled from his sideboard and targetted Peter with it already the next turn. Steve, as ISA founder gladly supported it and Peter was going to get kicked out. To keep up with the rest Bogged Down hit the table and Andrew had to keep focused on not saying 'pass'. Didn't matter though, Peter eventually got the round to himself, Secret Striked an Affirmation and won it with the Chosen of God Brakiri. At the end of this round Richie, after a won Annex was leading with 15 influence, James had 14, Andrew and Peter 13 and Steve 12. Peter swore revenge on Andrew, threatening with an Expelled. He first played an Impasse, Andrew a Prey, Richie a Carve and Steve an Officer Exchange. Now it was, to everybody's surprise, Richie who played the Bogged Down. Caused some confusion, mostly for Andrew, but only Peter profited from it, winning his Impasse with CoG Brakiri and Zhabar. Getting also the Carve point, he was already at 17 (however needing 28 power to win). James took the Prey from Andrew and got to 15, Andrew still at 13. Richie now on 16, and Steve with Kha'Mak out on 14. Now Andrew thought it was time to stop Richie's military conflicts and played Errand of Mercy. Too bad it was an Impasse round. Steve got one influence from Euphrates Treaty.

Next turn Peter wanted revenge (and of course reduce his power needed to win to 26) and initiated Expelled against Andrew. Again it was Steve who supported it and Andrew would be back to ten influence at the end of the turn. The others tried to gain influence with their conflicts, Richie by Border Raiding Peter, but Be Seeing You was already on the table and would be used. James and Steve both played Aggressive Action, which they both gained an influence from. Thus a really easy round for the conflicts and this was so strange to Richie that he asked Peter 'have you played a Bogged Down?'. Peter did see his homeworld replaced by a Roam the Stars (which he kept reading for the rest of the game wondering how he could use it), of course from Andrew, using Secrets of Success. But Peter got an influence from Commerce Raiding and got to 18, with the others at 15 and Andrew at 10 (and saying for the rest of the game: don't stop me, I'm last!).

Now Andrew again tried an Errand of Mercy. Too bad he wasn't an ISA member anymore. So, Richie's military was safe again, but he had an Officer Exchange this round, as did Steve. James was going to get rid of Peter's Aides by Plagueing them. Andrew annoyed the ISA members by playing Declaration of Principles. Then there it was again, Bogged Down by Peter, forcing Andrew to either stop an Officer Exchange or pass. He chose the latter and both Exchanges succeeded. Peter tried twice to secret strike a Great Machine, but saw it Ja'docced and NMTBed. So, only Richie and James won an influence and got to 16 (and Richie played a Well Publicized). This was the turn where Steve said that the game was going to go on for a long time. If he only knew at the time how right he was….

Andrew was still convinced that Richie was going too quickly and targetted him with I&E, which he easily won and of course Twisted the Knife. Peter tried an Affirmation but without the Aides he couldn't escape Be Seeing You. Still he managed to explore a fleet and got to 19. Steve and Richie both won their Impasse, Richie with another Well Publicized and using a Hidden Treasury for the I&E. It was however James pushing for victory with a Rally and Earth out. Got only two influence, but also played Support of the Mighty with an Impasse round coming up. This got the others confused and after a few times calculating Steve finally dropped the WANI. The pub was not in sight yet. Peter still leading with 19, the others, except Andrew (11), at 17. The impasse round got James an influence from a Prey with Earth still there.

Andrew now targetted James with I&E winning it and Twisting it again. James used a Hidden Treasury for it and had his Aggressive Action make (well, Steve Na'Mel decided this actually) Richie lose one. Richie won an Officer Exchange and Well Publicized again. Steve won an Impasse and Peter, who had almost decked out, but was still looking for a specific card, played War Crimes Trial winning it with CoG. After the impasse round, Peter had decked out and started discarding IC characters. He was still leading with 21 influence, James and Steve had 18, Richie 17 and Andrew 12.

Neil was getting restless and would be even more because now play slowed really down, coming closer to the end. Peter played an Impasse, Andrew a Disruption, Richie a Rally, Steve targetted Peter with But We're Your Allies and James targetted Richie with Is that the whole truth? partnering with Andrew. Richie directly replied 'Are you trying to win the game?' meaning Peter had to be stopped if someone else wanted to win. Then Steve helped Na'Melling it. This was also the moment to start cheesing, but just as Andrew thought of that Kullenbrak popped out. He immediately targetted Peter with Zathras' and played his cheese: 2 STG and The Eye, saying 'I'm last, let me cheese' (or something like that). Now it was time to have interactive play. The crucial line that started it came from Andrew: "Let's not have an Impasse'. This was repeated a few times in the next 10, 20 minutes, sometimes without the 'not'. Somewhere along the line Andrew thought it neccesary to say to Richie 'Back up Welshman' and we were very close to seeing Richie's butt there. In the end the impasse won, but not Chosen of God. In all the confusion Steve killed Peter's Commerce Raiding and played it on his side of the table. With WANI still out at the end of the impasse round, Peter and Steve had 20 influence, Richie 19, James 18 and Andrew already on 16 now.

With no conflicts left in his hand (but that's also what he said before he played the Impasse) Peter targetted Commerce Raiding with a conflict. Richie played a Carve, Steve targetted James with Test Their Mettle and James had a psi conflict against WANI. When Neil heard this he ran to the table hoping for a quick end. But Peter was grinning and it wasn't because of the Taunts & Games with which he was threatening with from the start (because that wasn't in his deck!). He was really breaking his head about how to get to 26 power without conflicts and was begging for the Carve point. All the endgame cards came out now, all but Peter played Support of the Mighty and Steve also played Further Gains and the Narn Homeworld. Then there it was again, this time from Richie: Bogged Down. Then Andrew accidently said 'pass' (so used to it), but denied having said it, so Neil was asked if he heard it. Neil hadn't and I hadn't payed attention either, but the audience had and the others continued with the round. Peter really tried every possible action to 'win' the Bogged Down and most of them were not allowed by Neil who was still able to rule these easy questions (can I play My Good Friend with no deck left?, can use Nug/Ulg and search for a B4 conflict if I have no deck left?), but others worked nicely (using the effect on Peace in Our Time, probably the first time ever!) or strange (Secrets of Succes to get Corporate Connections, with only Richie voting against, not trusting Peter at anything). Finally, Peter got the action round for only his use and played Zero Sum Game (the look on Neil's face cannot be put in words). When he was finished he had 20 influence and 4 extra power (but still needing 26). Steve had 23 influence, Richie had 20+3, James 18 and Andrew with the Carve point 17.

Next round began really silent. Still impressed by the Zero Sum Game, everybody explored their possible ways to victory. Peter targetted Steve's Commerce Raiding again, because last turn the conflict had failed, Andrew played Prey, Richie Impasse, James Aggressive Action on Peter and Steve Call in a Marker. The silence this turn was rudely broken by Peter. While everybody longed for beer and food, Peter took out a sandwich end started eating. This was even more hilarious than his Zero Sum Game. He was offered influence for the second sandwich. The others were so upset that they wanted a toilet break. Peter didn't need it, but used the time to count his characters to see how many turns he could survive. When everybody got back, the game was interactive again and only two conflicts succeeded, The Commerce Raiding one and the AA giving James two influence with Earth out. The Prey was killed by a new Na'Mel and the others just failed. Steve was the one player who had a back-up for Support of the Mighty and that was A Rising Power. At the end of the round Peter had 20 influence and 4 power, Steve 22 and 2, Richie 20 and 3, James had 20 influence and Andrew 17. Game on.

Andrew again played a Prey, James again AA, Richie a Carve and Steve tried to Take Credit from it. Peter had no conflict and proposed to play 'fast and loose'. Guess who directly said no. Now Commerce Raiding turned up at Andrew side of the table. Peter was now again begging for the Carve point, even though a Taking Credit was targetting it. But somehow he got Steve to promise playing Don't You Trust Me on him next. The Carve was lost, the Prey won with Steve losing from it. James again got two influence from AA, now having 22 influence. Andrew already now on 19. Steve down to 20 and 1 power. Peter still 20 plus 4 and Richie 20 plus 3. Midnight was close.

Steve played the promised conflict, James Disruption, Peter again targetted Commerce Raiding and Richie tried Show the Colours. Too bad it was blanked by Declaration of Principles. But the othrs still wanted it to fail. Great interactive play again, what about 'If you do the fleets, I'll do the intrigue' or 'So, <long pause> Disruption has to fail' or Andrew's 'Let's kill it (the conflict against his Commerce Raiding) for safety reasons'. When James played WANI Neil ran to the table again, convinced that there should be an end now. But they wouldn't let James win the Disruption and the only conflict that succeeded was Steve's and Peter got his one influence. With WANI out now James and Steve led with 22 influence, Peter had 21, Richie 20 and Andrew 19.

About midnight now. Andrew played Disruption, Richie Officer Exchange, James a Prey and Peter targetted WANI with a Leadership conflict. When Steve played Taking Credit on the Prey there was a very long discussion about who would get what kind of influence from which conflict. Yes, the game had to go on forever, even though the bar was waiting for us. Finally it was decided that WANI should go, Taking Credit should fail, Richie should win the Prey if he didn't put anything in the Officer Exchange, to which he agreed. Richie played Minbar, but that wasn't a problem, because there would still be a tie. When finally everybody agreed, the resolution round came quickly and yes, it had happened, Richie had slipped through!. All the deals were made after the Taking Credit had been played and when Richie said 'I will leave the Officer Exchange alone' he had already put Legacy in. Steve tried be Seeing You, but quickly found out that was impossible and after seven-and-a-half hours we finally had a UK Champion. Richie with 23 influence and 3 power. Peter and Steve both finished on 25 power, James on 22 and Andrew on 20.

Now, already twenty past twelve, we made a run for the bar to find it still very crowded and the Black Omega wedge (thanks Richie) was needed to get our beer. Nice discussions followed, as always in the presence of beer, and one thing everybody agreed on: Let's keep this the longest final ever.

Ewout