B5CCG::Black Omega Squadron::tournament reports

Newcastle 'master of all'

 

 Newcastle Master of All Social Competition

 

(Or ‘Things to do in Kenton when you’re Bored!’ )

 

It’s the day after the day after the biggest party ever and the New Year blues have well and truly settled in - what do you do? Well, if you are some of the most fractious B5 egos in the North East you spend seven and a half hours locked in a small room playing some insanely competitive games of B5 for the unofficial title of ‘Master of All’.

 

The format was simple - Three rounds of six player games, randomly allocated races each round, random allocation of opposing faction status for one race and personal scores counting - not racial. Six points for the winner, down to one point for last place. Each player antes up a *juicy* rare and the winner takes all! Add to that some old rivalries and some hefty league points on offer and it was bound to get a little hairy!!

 

Round One ( League Game)

 

Andrew Watson Minbari ( Neroon) - Military ( doh!)

 

Mark Lancaster Minbari ( Delenn) -

 

James Marwood Human (Bester) - Standard Psi-Corp

 

Craig Johnson Centauri ( Londo) - Intrigue and Diplomacy combo

 

Peter Meredith Non Aligned ( Pakmara) - Intrigue Chosen of Cheese

 

Neil Gow Narn ( G’kar) - Diplomacy and Military

 

A cagey start to the day, this game player out for the full 90 minutes. There was a great deal of concern over some of the decks - it had been a long time since anyone had the audacity to play with Chosen of God in any game and any Minbari military deck can be very fast. Sadly, the Minbari never really got going and the Non-Aligned were ... abused ... by all and sundry, neutering them. At the end of the game, there were three players tied for first place, all on 18 power and influence but the Narn won it on ambassadors stats and the others tied with neutralised Ambassadors. The final turn was an Impasse round with the Narn coming up on the rails with Euphrates Treaty targetting the Centauri.

 

Points?

 

Neil Gow 6

 

Craig Johnson 4.5

 

Peter Meredith 4.5

 

Andrew Watson 3

 

James Marwood 2

 

Mark Lancaster 1

 

 

 

Round Two

 

Andrew Watson Non Aligned ( Pakmara) - Military and Intrigue Chosen of Cheese

 

Mark Lancaster Centauri ( Londo) - Ranger Intrigue

 

James Marwood Narn ( G’kar) - Military

 

Craig Johnson Minbari (Delenn) - Vorlon Ranger theme

 

Peter Meredith Human ( Sheridan) Psi-World Intrigue-Psi

 

Neil Gow Minbari ( Neroon) - Military and more military

 

 

 

Getting just a *little* bit more serious now this was a game where some very hard lessons were learned - one being that appearances can be deceptive ( The Ranger ‘theme’ deck proving suprisingly effective) and the other being that lying, rather than bluffing, for a short term gain can have catastrophic long term consequences! With the Narn just not drawing fleets, the initial headway was made by the Neroon deck with a Conscripted Warleaders fleet and a sucession of Show the Colours and Annex Neutral World. Eventually the charge was slowed and then reversed in time for the Non Aligned to make their move using Aggressive Action. However, they promised - vehemently - to make the Minbari lose ( to avoid Na’Mel..) and then took a huge swathe of influence. It would eventually win him the game but it would have dire consequences. Another signature of the game was the battle for, and then inactivity of, the big Psi Corp neutrals - Wade, Edgars and Abbut. Too intimidated to ever use them, incase they got hammered, they tended to sit there and do ... nothing. A character-based cold war. The endgame was very cryptic, with the Centauri trying to Alliance with the Minbari -it was stopped to stop the Neroon faction jumping ahead, but that inadvertently foiled a wonderful manipulation of the Home Faction rules as the Centauri would have gained from *both* Minbari players. Anyway - in the end, time was called with the Minbari and the Non-Aligned tied on influence, but that Conscription handing the win to the Pakmara.

 

Points?

 

Neil Gow 11

 

Andrew Watson 9

 

Peter Meredith 7.5

 

Craig Johnson 6.5

 

Mark Lancaster 5

 

James Marwood 3

 

 

 

Round Three ( League game)

 

Andrew Watson Centauri ( Lord Refa) - Intrigue-Diplomacy combo

 

Mark Lancaster Non Aligned ( Pakmara) - Zathras Interference with Intrigue

 

James Marwood Minbari ( Neroon) - Lots of Military - stunning!

 

Craig Johnson Narn ( G’Kar) - Babylon 4 deck

 

Peter Meredith Minbari ( Delenn) - Ranger Lennier and lots of neutrals for Intrigue

 

Neil Gow Human ( Clark) - Intrigue-Diplomacy combo

 

The final round turned into an Intrigue-fest, with the Narn invariably playing kingmaker once they were in a position to get their tied lead with Steal B4. However the game was typified by the chorus ‘ But you lied!’ The Centauri player reaped the consequences of his actions in the previous round and was the target of every Limited Strike, Border Raid and character attack that was available for the first half of the game. I have never seen a player torn to shreds so thoroughly, with such cold-blooded calm by some of the players - they did, indeed, have their ‘ Rewengie!’. More seriously there were multiple rounds with double Prey on the Weak, where judicious use of My Hands Are Tied locked out some of the more powerful intrigue decks, allowing seriously slow progress. The win came during an Impasse round, with the humans winning with Support of the Mighty and a Prey on the Weak. ( Admittedly there was some confusion about what power the human player would be on but it was a genuine mistake - honest!) No WANI appeared and the Humans didn’t take their extra point from their homeworld to allow the Narn to have a rare B4 tied win.

 

Final Point Standing

 

Neil Gow 16.5 Winner and ‘Master of All’

 

Craig Johnson 12

 

Peter Meredith 11.5

 

Andrew Watson 10

 

Mark Lancaster 8

 

James Marwood 5