Wesley's STCCG card of the day #339

Hi, folks,

like the first Internet Expansion, this one does again have the ultimate question... Did a certain Wesley make a card that the raters placed higher than all others? Or do the creative forces of the Internet win the struggle and make a card that's even better?
Last time I lost...
This time...

...too !

Author:Wes
2nd place/25.50 points

ACADEMY SIMULATION

Mission, All affiliations, space, uncommon.
Span 2, Points X.
Requirements: Youth. No artifacts allowed here.
X=15 * number of Dilemmas overcome.
"Fleet Academy Simulator Room: Pass the final Academy exam"

This card can easily change the course of an entire game, but it is complex and risky enough to be a lot of fun (and not overpowered, as we will soon see). Also, it provides us with a few opportunities to use some of the other IE cards to a good purpose, but that later...

Of course the person seeding this mission will want to score big here. So she'll use at least 3 Dilemmas, more probably 5 or 6, in the hope of scoring the big 100 in one swipe. Which leaves her opponent with a lot of breathing room under his missions, after all almost a third of the freely usable seed cards (30 minus missions, outpost, doorways) could end up here, thus reducing the average Dilemma number under the opponent's missions from 3 to 2.

And then there's the more than risky situation that the mission can be done by every affiliation. Which basically means if you seed it with too easy Dilemmas, you'll actually give your opponent an advantage. Of course, your opponent will add a Dilemma or two of his own, but he's informed of what he added, while the person using the Simulation obviously isn't. So basically your best bet is using medium power Dilemmas with a theme (like all requiring MEDICAL or ENGINEER) in the hope of keeping your opponent guessing.

Of course, your opponent hopefully doesn't sleep during the seed phase either and now has several cool counterspells...

Very effective: Q. Either it's overcome and all Dilemmas are nullified (thus reducing the score to a measly 15) or you get the benefit of the rearranged spaceline.
Also cool: A powerful Wall Dilemma or one that stops and has hard requirements. Seed that early so that it's encountered last and your opponent has to watch his carefully prepared 90 points drain away - she'll have to make a new attempt next turn, so the Dilemmas are not overcome during the attempt where the mission was solved. 0 points...
Same bottom line: A late-encountered Yuta hopefully getting rid of the last Youth.
Kill the entire crew: Just throw a Quantum Filament (Mot's IE3 contribution) their way! With all these Dilemmas, they'll mostly have to face them one person per card.
Yet better killer: A single Mirror Universe (COTD #100, from "Internet Expansion Zero".) Reverses all Dilemma conditions. So much for the carefully prepared crew...
Oh, speaking of Mirror Universe: Why don't you seed one and attempt the mission yourself with Kell + K'Chiq (choose Youth as skill)? There's no Dilemma these two could do normally, so there's none they can't do in the Mirror Universe situation... (But watch out for a second Mirror Universe in the stack, negative minus equals plus ;-) )
Also a good guess: Outpost Raid. The user of Academy Simulation is going for the quick victory, so where's the most probable Outpost location? Right.

You see, lots of strategic options. A single card drawing lots of attention. And the wisest choice in play might be to leave it alone and go for the (consequently not very heavily seeded) other missions.

Favorite combo(s):

Academy Simulation + (any 5 hard Dilemmas) + Mirror Universe. Might make for a very fast win.
Opponent's Academy Simulation + Quantum Filament. Does not only void the Mirror Universe combo by splitting the crew but also turns them all into poor doomed redshirts...

Ratings for : ACADEMY SIMULATION

Wesley's rating:                Ouch! ;-)
Allen's rating:                 7.9
Cpt. Stasis' rating:            9.0
Cole's rating:                  7.0
Dave's rating:                  8.0
Drew's rating:                  7.6
Greg's rating:                  ---
Hal's rating:                   5.9
Jack's rating:                  8.2
Jonathan's rating:              9.8
Locutus' rating:                8.0
Mot's rating:                  10.0 <--- Cool rating ;-)
Nouwa's rating:                 9.0
Picarde's rating:               6.0
Ranger's rating:                8.2
Tania's rating:                 8.0
Tebok's rating:                 7.0
Tony's rating:                  7.5
----------------------                   
AVERAGE RATING:                 7.9

Author:Marc Saltzberg
10th place/15 points

CH'POK

Personnel, Klingon, rare
Integrity: 5
Cunning: 8
Strength: 5
Diplomacy*2, Once per a turn has a 50/50 chance of capturing a Federation personnel at the same location. If he loses, return him to your hand.
"Klingon prosecutor during Worf's trial on DS9"

Lacks a classification, but otherwise a solid anti-Fed card.

Author:Cpt. Stasis
18th place/3rd round card

ASSIMILATION

Event
Plays on table. Personnel killed by Rogue Borg are assimilated and become Rogue Borg, and each ship destroyed by a Borg Ship raises Borg Ship's WEAPONS +1 and SHIELDS +1.
"The Borg expand and repopulate through assimilation: absorption of culture and conversion of people into their own."

Ah, well, our basic assimilation card. Like I didn't get a few more quite along these lines. At least this one's not horribly overpowered.

Please direct all email concerning card of the day to: crusher@kiss.de

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LLAP,

Wesley Crusher
Rather lordly STCCG Ambassador

"A couple of lightyears can't keep good friends apart"