Subject: Wesley's STCCG Card of the day #382 Greetings, all you groovy people. (It's been one of those days.:) Before I kick in the EHW, a notice to those who may not know: I Am Not Wesley Crusher. :) It's amazing, folks - I've only done two issues, and I've already got people asking to become raters, and all sorts of things. I'm just the temp, folks. If you'd like to become a rater, ask Wes. Preferably when he gets back from vacation. :) And now, our daily dose of Wes.. --- Hi, folks, here's the opposite of Warped Space: Internet Expansion IV, 5th place, by Pakled Captain. CHART EXPANSE Mission - Federation/Klingon - Space - Span 7-X "Necrite Expanse: Find shortcut through vast anomaly." Navigation x 2 + Stellar Cartography + Astrophysics [35 Points] If you solve, X=5 [Quick note - on the submission the raters got, the skill requirement was "Navigation x2 + Stellar Cartography - Astrophysics" (note the - sign). Many (including myself) wanted to know if this meant that you had to have *no* Astrophysics present to solve. What it is was a typo in the submission or Wes' retype. But it's a cool idea, for those who care to write it down for IE5. Anyways, some ratings may reflect whatever impression they got from the - sign.] 4 skills including a double Navigation requirement is not too easy a mission with just a 35 score. But then there's the catch with the Span. A 7 span is a hefty spaceline blocker (highly efficient against those notorious Husnock users ;-) ) and you should be able to find uses for that (for example how about slapping a Gaps in Normal Space on it ?) [Actually, the Navigation is the least of your worries. I mean, I can't remember the last time I was stuck for a Navigation skill. (Well OK. Maybe once.) And Cartography and Astrophysics are in enough missions, that this mission could fit very nicely into the scheme of things. So I think 35 points is about right - 40 would be too much.] The only problem with this blocker is you get blocked yourself. While you can eliminate part of this problem by seeding the card in a location where you think it hurts your opponent more than yourself, the better way is to solve the mission and gain a substantial speed advantage (especially if you managed to surround the Expanse with Span 3 cards - you can jump 3-2-3 with any Range 8 ship while your opponent will have to stop twice on a 3-7-3 unless he's using AU ships. Affiliation-wise the mission is a bit better suited for Feds than for Klingons although both have a three person solution available. Nice and balanced card, but it requires some combos to make maximum use of it. Favorite combo(s): - Chart Expanse + Gaps in Normal Space. -[Deck design - go Colony, use Chart Expanse as one of your roadblocks. It's better than two spaces, since it requires most of your RANGE to get over. Add in FGC-47, a lot of Space, and your planet. Could buy you the turn or two you need to win. -Chart Expanse + opponent's Husnock or any damaged ship. Dead stop. :) [Which lends itself to a Klingon assault deck. Catch your opponent on the wrong side of the expanse, damage as many as you can, pick them off at your leisure.] Ratings for : CHART EXPANSE Wesley's rating: 5.0 Allen's rating: 6.0 Cpt. Targ's rating: 6.0 Data's rating: 6.0 Dr. R'Mor's rating: 7.8 EHCCGPP's rating: 5.7 Hal's rating: 6.0 Humuhumunukunukuapua'a's rtg.: 4.5 John's rating: 3.0 Jon Walker's rating: 6.5 Jono's rating: 6.7 Locutus' rating: 7.0 Mot's rating: 7.0 Nanite's rating: 6.0 Picarde's rating: 6.0 Ranger's rating: 7.0 Rothspar's rating: 6.0 Sirna's rating: 8.0 Tebok's rating: 7.0 Tony's rating: 8.5 Worf's rating: 6.0 ---------------------- AVERAGE RATING: Please direct all email concerning card of the day to: crusher@kiss.de Visit the Web Page! http://www.worldonline.nl/~ldp/COTD.html (for best indexing - all cards crosslinked) With all back issues from #1 up to today ! LLAP, Wesley Crusher Temporarily immortal STCCG Lord (on vacation) "A couple of lightyears can't keep good friends apart" and Allen Gould The STCCG Lord's temp :) "The closer you get to Canada, the more things that will eat your horse." ------------------------------------------------------------------------