hydchewbaccacon-space-sectors-7-29
Title: hydchewbaccacon-space-sectors-7-29
Author: Michael "rayc" Hawley
Date: Jul 31, 2001
This was the second day of HowyoudoinChewbaccaCon. We had all been up late playing and deck building the day before. I was scheduled to run and play in a space race tournament at 8:00am. A sealed deck tourney was scheduled for the other room. So I figured attendance would be light. I was correct. There was one player beside myself -- Steve Anderson. We had both spent a lot of time building and testing decks for the tournament and I did not want to spend the money for yet another sealed deck box. So we played 2 games with no time limit. Here is the report:
Game 1: My Hidden Base Choke with Our Most Desperate Hour vs. Steve Anderson’s DS2 with Endor Start
Well Steve used Endor as his starting location (to get Death Star 2) I used Strike planning as one of my starting effects -- no generation for him at Endor. So he activated 1 force for his first turn. This was pretty much the way the game went for him. He did deploy the Death Star 2 on turn 1; but that was it for him for a long time. I got out Alderaan, Dantooine, Tatooine (had to make sure I could get off those Our Most Desperate Hour runs), and My Endor for my first 4 systems. Meanwhile I got out Star Fighters and Matching Pilots with Squadron Assignments and got them to Endor and Tattoine in force to ping him for 1 at each system for many turns.
Once he drew some systems and got them deployed, I deployed the last system (Kashyyyk) from my reserve deck and a couple of systems (Kiffex and Corulag) from hand. I could flip anytime then. But I had a few high destiny cards in hand that I wanted to get back into my life force. I had established Wedge and Luke in their matching ships w/X-Wing Laser Cannons, plus Dash and Melas in the Outrider at DS2. I had also deployed Captain Han, General Calrissian and EPP Leia in the Millennium Falcon at Tattooine. He could not challenge me at either location. Once he got some ships deployed to Kiffex and had drained me for a couple of turns, I did an Our Most Desperate Hour and flipped. This retrieved my entire Lost Pile.
Time to Spread and drain. Once I had flipped, I could drain for 5 at the Death Star 2. Steve had Security Precautions out but he never was able to probe my Hidden Base (Dantooine). It was just a matter of time from there on. I ended up drawing a bit to get another Our Most Desperate Hour. But, since my objective stayed in play, I never lost another force. So I had nothing to retrieve. I suppose, if the tournament had been sanctioned, I would have refused to cancel his drains and done the retrieval until I had no hand. On the other hand, if this had been a normal sanctioned tournament, the game would not have lasted an hour and a half - which it did.
Full win +26 ish
Game 2: My Big Blue ISB vs. Steve Anderson’s Hidden Base with matching pilots, B-Wings and weapons
I have to say up front that Steve did a very gracious thing in this game. Since we were the only two players and it was a friendly non-sanctioned competition, I had not bothered to count my deck before the start (something I ALWAYS do in a sanctioned tournament). I realized a couple of turns into it that my piles were looking kind of small. I then remembered that I had switched 5 cards out of this deck for use in another deck the day before. I told Steve of the situation and he said I could get the other cards and shuffle them into my reserve deck. This was very decent of him. He certainly would have been within his rights to tell me I had to go with what I had.
I started ISB, Coruscant system, Mob Points, Oppressive Enforcement to beef up the Capital Ships’ destinies and Secret Plans. Steve started Squadron Assignments, the effect that lets you forfeit weapons to the used pile, and one other effect (may have been the anti-SA combo). This was the deck I had feared. I figured he would be using lots of weapon enhancing interrupts and things like Power Pivot. I could not tolerate getting a lot of ships blown up. My deck used a relatively small number of very big blue ships and depended upon losing ISB agent pilots as forfeit fodder to be retrieved via the objective and Abyssin Ornament. The Destroyers and the Admirals had to stay or I was toast.
Steve deployed a lot of 1/1 systems with drain -1 on the dark side text, so I did not get a lot of force from him and very little drain potential. My systems were mostly for force generation (Coruscant, Death Star, Corulag, Rendili, Fondor, Kessel, etc.) So I did not give myself many drain systems either. Early on I had trouble finding my Imperial Commands and my systems, so I could not deploy much to sneak in early drains before he flipped. He, of course, was deploying starships and weapons at the high end of the parsec scale and pinging me for drains of 1 at Kessel and Kashyyyk.
I did get security precautions out but there were so many systems on the table that it was no threat at all to Steve and he flipped early. We were faced off at a system - my star destroyer vs. his pile of weapon laden star fighters and Liberty. I forget which system it was but I figured I’d probe and then initiate a battle using an imperial command and a couple of tracked destinies to cause maximum attrition. Of course the probe was successful on the first try. Since there were 13 systems on the table he only lost 2 force to Security Precautions. I deployed what I could and spread out.
Fortunately he had lots of ships on the table and very little in hand, so he could not bring the big beatdown. For the rest of the game, I tried to spread out and use Chiraneau to get in some drains. He tried to move to block my drains with formidable forces and left smaller forces to drain me. He got the better of the few battles we did have. Eventually he drained me out.
FL -16 ish
So, since we were the only 2 players, that was the tournament. I am the reigning space champion and Steve Anderson is the runner-up. It was a lot of fun. I appreciate that Steve stayed and played instead of jumping to the sealed tournament. I highly recommend this format. I also recommend playing without the time limit. It’s much more relaxing yet more intense because you really have time to think out your moves.
Thanks for reading.