Unofficial Player Submitted Sample Game
By: Helge Blohmer, aka Wesley Crusher

Note: This sample game has been created with two nearly equal power decks consisting of only common and uncommon cards to allow the beginning player a good chance at having most of the cards used. It utilizes cards from all expansions up to Q-Continuum, but no side decks.

During the write-up the game has actually been laid out (and played as "solitaire") with the Dilemmas being actual secrets so the tactical decisions of the players are as close to real as possible. Only a few tweaks have been made from the randomly determined flow of the game when the limited card selection threatened to make the game uninteresting.

The rule set used is the complete set of core rules with none of the options being active.

The Players are Adrian, using a Federation deck with mostly space missions and Beth, playing a Romulan all-planet deck. Adrian goes first.

Preparation: Both players customize 60 card decks and sort them into five stacks: Missions, Doorways, Dilemma/Artifact cards, starting Outposts and the Draw Deck. The mission deck and the draw deck are then shuffled.

Seed Phase I: Doorways

Adrian seeds an Alternate Universe Door.

Beth also has that card and seeds it.

Both players decline to play more Doorways, so we proceed to the next phase. Adrian goes first.

Seed Phase II : Missionss

Adrian draws "Study Hole in Space" from his mission deck and seeds it in the middle of the table with the name facing himself.

Beth draws "Covert Rescue" and seeds it to her left of Adrian's mission, with the mission name facing her. This later serves to find out which player seeded which mission.

A: draws "Test Mission" and places it next to Study Hole in space.

B: draws "Covert Installation" and seeds it next to Test Mission.

A: draws "Restore Errant Moon", seeded next to Covert Rescue.

B: draws "Relief Mission", seeds it next to Covert Installation.

A: draws "Study Stellar Collision", seeds it beside Restore Errant Moon.

B: draws "Expose Covert Supply", seeded next to Study Stellar Collision.

A: draws Diplomacy Mission, seeds it next to Relief Mission.

B: draws "Extraction", seeds it next to Diplomacy Mission.

A: draws "Repair Mission" which goes next to Expose Covert Supply

B: draws "Strategic Diversion", seeds it next to Repair Mission.

Now the spaceline is complete and seeding proceeds to the next phase. Beth made the last seed during the previous phase, so she gets the first play now.

Seed Phase III: Dilemmas and Artifacts

Now the players seed their Dilemmas. As these cards represent obstacles and plot twists, in this sample game we will preserve the uncertainty by not telling what the seeded cards are. Players alternate seeding one card each until both pass.

A common beginners' mistake here is to shuffle the Dilemmas. This is not required. Rather, players may select what Dilemma to place at which position and also in which order. This allows for the creation of strategic combos.

Adrian selects his first Dilemma, seeds it face down under Covert Rescue.

Beth selects one Dilemma, seeds it face down under Test Mission.

Adrian selects the next Dilemma and seeds this one under Covert Rescue, too. The Dilemma goes under the first one and will be encountered before the other one when the mission is attempted later.

(Both players continue, alternating the seeding of their Dilemmas. As this is pretty straightforward, we will skip this back and forth procedure and jump forward to the point where both players have seeded 17 Dilemmas)

Adrian seeds his last Dilemma under Covert Rescue and declares he's done with Dilemmas and Artifacts

Beth seeds her last under Restore Errant Moon and also declares she is done with the phase.

The spaceline now looks like this when viewed from Adrian's side (left to right):

Extraction - 3 seed cards
Diplomacy Mission - 4 seed cards
Relief Mission - 2 seed cards
Covert Installation - 3 seed cards
Test Mission - 3 seed cards
Study Hole in Space - 2 seed cards
Covert Rescue - 4 seed cards
Restore Errant Moon - 4 seed cards
Study Stellar Collision - 2 seed cards
Expose Covert supply - 3 seed cards
Repair Mission - 3 seed cards
Strategic Diversion - 3 seed cards.

As Beth went last during the phase, she will start the actual game, but first the players need to establish their outposts.

Seed Phase IV: Outposts

Beth seeds a Romulan outpost at Relief Mission, Adrian his Federation Outpost at Study Stellar Collision.

Both players shuffle their draw decks and draw seven cards.

The Main Game

Turn 1 (Beth)
Beth reports Mirok to her outpost. She then draws a card to end her turn.

Turn 1 (Adrian)
Adrian plays Red Alert! on table, allowing him to play any number of equipment, ships or personnel during a turn instead of just one. He then draws a card to end his turn.

Turn 2 (Beth)
Beth reports Dr. Farek and draws a card.

Turn 2 (Adrian)
Adrian plays Static Warp Bubble, forcing Beth to discard one card before ending each of her turns and draws a card. (He also held several personnel, but he can only play either the cards from Red Alert! or an Event and he chose the Event card.)

Turn 3 (Beth)
Beth reports Taul to her outpost. She discards Metaphasic Shields and then draws a card

Turn 3 (Adrian)
Adrian reports Nikolai Rozhenko, Bok and a Federation PADD. Then he draws a card.

Turn 4 (Beth)
Beth reports Pardek. She beams Pardek down to the planet and attempts the mission. The Mission stack is now turned over and Pardek faces the first Dilemma, Female Love Interest. He is unaffected by this (male). The Dilemma is discarded, Pardek must continue his attempt.

Next is El-Adrel Creature, a Dilemma which attacks the two strongest people in the away team. As Pardek is alone, Beth has no choice as to have him face the creature. He needs a STRENGTH > 16 to pass and cannot match this with only 6. Pardek is killed and the Dilemma is discarded. (This strategy is commonly referred to as Redshirting. Pardek managed to eliminate two Dilemmas before dying and cleared the way for Beth's important characters.)

Beth now beams down Mirok and he attempts the mission. He has the required Physics and scores the mission. Beth now leads 20-0 in points. Mirok beams back up to the outpost. Beth discards Q2 (for the Warp Bubble) and draws a card.

Turn 4 (Adrian)
Adrian reports McKnight and draws a card. (he has a lousy hand, so what shall he do :-( )

Turn 5 (Beth)
Beth reports Tebok, discards Espionage: Romulan on Federation and draws a card, hoping for a ship...

Turn 5 (Adrian)
Adrian reports the U.S:S: Galaxy. Then, he attempts Study Stellar Collision from his outpost even though he does not have the required skills yet, hoping to clear at least a few Dilemmas...Turning over the first Dilemma card, he encounters Empathic Echo, a card that kills a random Empath unless there is a SECURITY and a MEDICAL present. He does not have any Empaths, so nobody is killed, however he was unable to overcome the conditions, so the Dilemma remains in place and his crew is stopped.

With nothing left to do, he draws a card.

Turn 6 (Beth)
Beth reports N'Vek, discards a Medical Kit and draws a card, still in dire need for a ship.

Turn 6 (Adrian)
Adrian plays Klim Dokachim, an Event that denies his opponent his card draw when he plays a unique personnel. Then he draws a card.

Turn 7 (Beth)
Beth reports Tarus (who is universal and does not trigger Klim Dokachim), discards Movar and draws one card (mentally rejoicing because she has just drawn a ship)

Turn 7 (Adrian)
Adrian plays Kivas Fajo - Collector, an Event allowing him to draw 3 cards. He draws those 3 plus one more to end his turn.

Turn 8 (Beth)
Beth reports a Scout Vessel and boards it with her entire crew. Quickly checking all her skills, she finds she can solve Covert Installation, so she flies over, beams down and attempts. The first Dilemma is Worshiper. She could pass it and score 5 points had she more Greed than Honor.

Unfortunately she has one of each, so she does not fulfill that clause. She could now pass without scoring (but continue her attempt) had sh Anthropology or an Edo Vessel. Unfortunately she just discarded her only Anthropologist so she is stopped, but the Worshiper is discarded. Betty's away team remains vulnerable on the planet.

She discards Palor Toff - Alien Trader (her last card) and draws a new card.

Turn 8 (Adrian)
Adrian has drawn well with his Kivas last turn and now reports Taitt, Jenna D'Sora, Simon Tarses and a Runabout. He gathers all his crew and re-attempts the mission.

As he already knows, the first Dilemma is Empathic Echo, which he can now pass using Tarses and D'Sora.

Next is Interphasic Plasma Creatures. He has only one SCIENCE, so the Dilemma goes on the table, lowering all his personnel's STRENGTH by 2. Unable to overcome the Dilemma, Adrian's crew is stopped and he draws a card.

Turn 9 (Beth)
Beth plays The Traveler: Transcendence. This nullifies (destroys) Adrian's Static Warp Bubble and allows her to draw two cards at the end of each turn.

She then reattempts Covert Installation with her crew.

The next Dilemma is Hunter Gangs, which selects two of her crewmembers and kills any of them whose CUNNING is an odd number. The selection targets Tebok (CUNNING 7) and Dr. Farek (CUNNING 8). Tebok is killed by the gangs. The Dilemma does not stop her as it had no conditions to be overcome, only a certain class of targets that get affected (Odd CUNNING). She continues with her decimated crew. The last Dilemma here is Parallel Romance which requires a male/female couple to be present to have any effect. However, Beth's team is males only and the Romance is discarded.

But alas, the death of Tebok was bad news. Without the Leadership skill Tebok provided, Beth cannot solve the mission, so she beams back up and returns to her outpost aboard the Scout Vessel.

She then draws two cards and ends her turn.

Turn 9 (Adrian)
Adrian reports the U.S.S. Nebula and reattempts his mission. With no more Dilemmas in his way, Taitt can solve the requirements and Adrian scores 25 points. Checking through his skills, he finds no other mission he could solve right now, so he draws a card and ends his turn.

Turn 10 (Beth)
Beth plays Yellow Alert, an Event that nullifies Adrian's Red Alert and gives her crew CUNNING +1.

Rechecking her skill complement, Beth finds she can still solve Extraction, so she flies over, beams down and attempts.

The first Dilemma is Royale Casino: Craps. She would have to show a personnel card from her hand for Adrian to match, but she has none and so the 7 points go to Adrian, bringing the score to 32-20.

Beth is now faced with Security Precautions, a Dilemma she could overcome with a disruptor. As she has none, she is stopped and having nothing else to do, she draws two cards and ends her turn.

Turn 10 (Adrian)
Adrian reports Fleet Admiral Shanthi, giving him both needed Diplomacy and Leadership. He distributes his crew over the two capital ships in the hopes of later establishing a daisy-chain of ships and moves both ships to Covert Rescue. He draws one card and ends his turn.

Turn 11 (Beth)
Beth reports a Romulan Disruptor and beams her away team back to the Scout Vessel. Using 5 RANGE, she returns to the outpost, picks up her disruptor and flies back to Diplomacy Mission.

Arriving there, she plays Near-Warp Transport to get her crew back to Extraction, leaving Tarus aboard to bring the ship next turn. Faced with Security Precautions again, she passes using her disruptor. The last Dilemma is Rebel Encounter. As Beth has a STRENGTH of only 34, she cannot pass this way, and not wanting to lose a key personnel, she sacrifices her Disruptor and passes.

Taul, N'Vek and Dr. Farek solve the mission bringing the score to 55-32. Beth draws two cards to end her turn.

Turn 11 (Adrian)
Adrian reports Norah Satie. She boards the Runabout and flies to Covert Rescue. From there, everybody boards the Galaxy and moves over to Study "Hole in Space". Adrian attempts the mission.

The first Dilemma is Edo Probe, forcing him to choose to solve a different mission first or risk ten points in case he cannot solve the mission this turn. Faced with a 21-point lead by Beth he chooses to go for the risk.

The second Dilemma is Conundrum, he passes because he has a total INTEGRITY of 49.

With no more Dilemmas remaining, Adrian can score the mission and wipes his forehead. The score goes to 67-55 in his favor.He moves to Test Mission and plays Distortion of Space/Time Continuum, restoring his ship's RANGE.

He now moves all the way to Diplomacy mission, beams down and attempts. The first Dilemma is Zaldan, requiring Treachery x2, which Nikolai Rozhenko and Bok can overcome.

Second is Matriarchal Society, an easy pass for his two female Admirals. The third Dilemma, Ferengi Attack, is again solved by Bok (Greed), though he could also have done it using the attribute scores - his CUNNING alone is 68 (with the PADD), so the STRENGTH drain from Interphasic Plasma creatures does not hurt him here.

The last Dilemma is Hologram Ruse, requiring CUNNING and INTEGRITY to be over 30, an easy requirement for Adrian's large crew (also a bad choice on Beth's side as the mission requirements are nearly identical to the Dilemma requirements).

Adrian solves the mission and is now only 3 points away from winning! (97-55)

He also holds a Particle Fountain which he would like to play for 5 points, but unfortunately he lacks a second ENGINEER, so he has to draw a card and end his turn.

Turn 12 (Beth)
Beth reports Sirol to provide the vital Leadership. She then plays Transwarp Conduit allowing her Science Vessel to move double RANGE. Tarus moves it to Extraction and she picks up her crew (15 RANGE remaining). Moving back to her Outpost (RANGE remaining: 10), she picks up Sirol and moves to Covert Installation (7 RANGE remaining). The crew beams down, solves the mission (no Dilemmas remaining) and back up. The last 7 RANGE get her to Study Hole in Space.

She now plays Kevin Uxbridge to get rid of Adrian's Klim Dokachim so she can draw cards despite reporting Sirol. She draws her two cards and ends her turn.

Turn 12 (Adrian)
Adrian uses Palor Toff - Alien Trader to get back his Distortion of Space/Time Continuum. He moves his USS Galaxy to Test Mission and attempts despite not having the Physics skill in the hope of hitting a Dilemma with a point value or at least cleaning out a few for a later attempt.

The first seed is Microbiotic Colony, but Adrian has SCIENCE, OFFICER and ENGINEER so nothing happens.

Next is Rascals, turning Shanthi, D'Sora, Bok and Rozhenko into kids, also nullifying a few valuable skills in the process. The Dilemma does not stop him, but it severely weakened him.

Last is indeed a point-scoring Dilemma but it is not in Adrian's favor: The Higher... the Fewer makes him pay bitterly for his 9-person crew, putting Beth back into the lead at 90-88.

Being out of RANGE, Adrian plays Distortion of Space/Time Continuum and moves two more places to Covert Rescue. (He would have liked to shoot that puny Scout to stardust, but being Federation he is denied that pleasure.)

He draws a card and ends his turn.

Turn 13 (Beth)
Beth moves her Scout to Covert Rescue. She beams down her crew and attempts the mission.The first seed is Royale Casino: Blackjack. She has Jaron in her hand, thus a total of 7, while Adrian holds no personnel and will have to pay 5 to Beth. The new score is 95-83 in Beth's favor. Next is Q's Vicious Animal Things, Beth passes with a STRENGTH of 40. Alien Abduction is next. As most of her crew have a CUNNING of 8, Beth can choose Tarus, the most expendable crewmember to be abducted. She is not stopped either, so she runs into the last Dilemma: Chalnoth! She does not have the STRENGTH or SECURITY to overcome this and Adrian grinningly chooses Sirol to die. Beth is stopped and draws 2 cards to end her turn.

Turn 13 (Adrian)
Adrian reports Dr. Reyga. The U.S.S. Galaxy flies to Restore Errant Moon. Norah Satie takes the Runabout to pick up Dr. Reyga at the outpost and fly back. All others beam down and attempt the mission.

First is an Impassable Door, solved by Bok's Computer Skill.

Second seed is Firestorm, killing all crew whose INTEGRITY is less than 5, so Bok and Nikolai Rozhenko die.

The third Dilemma is Archer. Taitt and D'Sora pass this.

The last Dilemma is Alien Parasites. Adrian counts his INTEGRITY and finds he has 33, just barely enough to pass by one measly point. At this point the planetbound crew cannot continue, lacking the required skills for the mission.

Adrian brings in his two remaining personnel from the Runabout. Beth tries a last stand and uses Brain Drain on Dr. Reyga, trying to remove all his skills for this turn, but Adrian is prepared and plays Amanda Rogers to nullify the Brain Drain before it can take effect. Norah Satie, luckily unaffected by the Rascals, provides the needed Leadership and Dr. Reyga has the ENGINEER and Astrophysics skills so Adrian can solve Restore Errant Moon.

Adrian scores 30 points, finally winning 113-95.