Chain reaction of crazy in final turn!

except it kinda was

  A Standard Victory!  We almost never have them.  A quick reminder that, for us, standard victories require 30 power, not 20.... but the Shadow War/B5  still triggers at 20 and B5 triggers endgame at 20... so given that ease, the Shadow War is almost always a reality.  We also play a house rule enacted by me (to make a crazy/brazen fight to stop a winner a more regular thing) that to win, someone must successfully be able to claim victory on 2 consecutive turns... and if two players cross the 30 barrier at the same time, it goes to Major Victory conditions.... so Standard Victories almost never happen

 This game started slowly for me... I was playing a G'Kar Narn war deck, we had a Centauri Refa intrigue deck (who after playing conflicts on me, became the convenient target of my ire and War conflicts), a Londo Shadow Centauri deck (played by the same player who I normally mention as such in earlier AARs posted here), Delenn Vorlon Shadow deck (same player typically using this deck here too), and a Non-aligned diplomacy deck (ditto).

 I've not played for a while, but the others have gotten quite a few games in without me in the interim.  So once I was at 9 and they were all in the mid/low teens, they started treating me as more of a source of pity and mockery than a contender... but finally, my war conflicts got up and running (as I finally drew fleets instead of the late game cards I was drowning in) and then when I got an exploited Centauri Prime and a War Footing agenda in, I quickly moved to the front...

this +deep space fleet that got knocked to the floor was my end game

 Ahead of the growing Shadow influence, I broke 30 when I played a Never Again agenda which gave me +8 power and I had ascended to 24 in influence... at the end of that turn I also gained another 3 from a War Conflict (1 from uncontested conflict, 1 from Narn Homeworld, 1 from Centauri Prime... before I was getting 4, but no more War Footing).  So I gain 1 turn of a Standard Victory, Shadow influence was at 18 (yikes, almost Shadow War), and everyone starts talking and plotting among themselves to block my 2nd turn of victory... I'm at 27 influence and 8 or less power from Never Again (but only needing to leave 3 larger fleets untapped to stay at 30 power).

Here's our crazy sequence of events to end the game...

-Non-Aligned player puts in Alliance targeting me as his conflict, I believe no one else puts a conflict in, I then drop in a War conflict targetting the Centauri Home Faction

-The Non-Aligned player then puts in a Taking Credit conflict targetting the Alliance... at this stage, that means that he would gain 9! from it and I would gain nothing

-People starting tapping characters into conflicts, but everyone's staying hedgey as they know I can't be left to gain my 4 from the war conflict... as even if I use most of my fleets (lowering Never Again) that the gain of 4 from my War conflict still puts me above 30

-I play Temporary Aid as my first action

-Support goes into the diplomacy conflicts from various sources (Alliance, Taking Credit)

-I put in a Kha'Mak... +1 Influence to me ;) and drop in another fleet (Deep Space? dunno)

-There's talk of blocking my War Conflict too... so I play Duel to the Death on it... keeping the struggle mano e mano

-On my turn, I play Prolonged Talks on the Taking Credit conflict... there I go.. it will loop around to next turn and I'll meanwhile gain 4 from my side of the Alliance and my War conflict... win!

Talking and talking and talking

-Except here comes Not Meant to Be from the Vorlon player... little iffy if that actually effects Taking Credit, but I'll not dither about it... I'm ready for something blocking that... and I play You Are Not Ready (yes, that's a Vorlon card, but Temporary Aid...).  Whew! crisis averted... killed that near stop to my win

-Nope.  Non-Aligned player roasts his Lhim Dram to bring back the Vorlon player's Not Meant to Be and then my brilliant surprise You Are Not Ready is negated... harumph

-Now I'm in a serious bind.  I play Fleets on the Border and darky allude to aftermaths like Trap is Sprung, Casualty Reports, Wear and Tear, Catastrophic Damage, and events like Gravity Well and Tactical Nuke (all cards I've used in the past and some of which I did have in my hand). Lots of intense guessing and wondering as I move fleets and keep my big assassin Second Battle Fleet ready to punish anything entering my War Conflict.  We play for second typically... so no one wants to get too slagged stopping me and truthfully, looking at cards in play, there wasn't much I think anyone could have done

-Then as the turn winds down I pour almost all my remaining fleets into the Taking Credit conflict as support.  Round ends, and while I didn't roast any participants (would have liked to, but saw no need to be bitter at the end and gut other factions), I did spend 2 influence and via my Temporary Aid, played Stealing Spoils (one of the gluttony of late-game cards I kept drawing early) and swiped all 9 influence the Non-Aligned had gained), giving me a Standard (and technically a Major) Victory and my second turn with such... ending the game... for real this time

for real.... think about it

 To his credit, the Non-Aligned player saw it coming.  I didn't pay 3 influence to pick up Duel to the Death... which of course I should if the game were to continue... because I only had 4 influence left and I needed 2 for Stealing Spoils... which also to his credit, he out loud theorized was the only card that could block his bid to stop me and which he duly noted was a possibility since I had played Temporary Aid earlier.

 In all honesty, I was shocked at how well they had obstructed the win.  I hadn't even thought too far past Prolonged Talks, as I figured that alone would bag the round and therefore the game for me.  Temporary Aid was intended for Stealing Spoils that round... was going to do my own influence grab on the Alliance if my War Conflict was messed with... it just happened to also work out to the same net effect by targetting Taking Credit even though, surprisingly, the Home Faction player never tapped the one fleet he had... if he did, and I attacked it, things could have got interesting if the Non-Aligned player had then dumped everything he could have into maintaining a support lead in Taking Credit. 

 But then I would have put my aftermaths in, removed some of his leadership and hurt some fleets and possibly killed off some of his 2 health aids and agents... leaving him in a super rough spot for playing for second or going another round with me if I hadn't still been the support leader (think I would have, but I don't know what cards he and others had in hand).  I could repair and salvage fleets much faster than people can heal characters, so I liked my chances, but who knows

  The game did continue for a few rounds, but the diplomacy juggernaut of the Non-Aligned Player was sufficient to get him second... here's their end game

Young Bloods join the Veterans

Very nice to have some new players join the game.  We added 5 new recruits to lunch games (which have still been played, I've just taken a break from participating in them myself or blogging about them... Star Wars Destiny and X-Wing have taken up a considerable amount of time... but its been fun to see the game still being played.

The players have asked me to return to the game for the next session, and I think we'll do 2 5 player games at the same time with the lowest 2 at the veteran table heading to the learner table after they all get their second game in and the best 2 learners come up to veteran table.

I dunno.  We'll see.

We let the first learning game be played with the pre-set starter sets.  Then we let them dive into my card stash and improve those starter decks before their next game... then before the veterans move around we'll let learners tweak their decks again... but veterans are stuck... just to try and level the playing field a bit ;)