I have been asked repeatedly to write about dilemmas. I do think that dilemmas are a very important part of the game but I have found that dilemmas are a very picky subject for most players. What works for one player seems totally wrong to another player. That is why I have hesitated to write an article on dilemmas. But to be safe and to write on dilemmas I present to you
I have probably won as many games with my dilemmas as I have with my draw deck but I have also been hit hard by dilemmas. At last years world championships I had a pretty good feel for how I was going to red-shirt through my opponent's dilemmas. I had Dathon in my tent to get around Shaka, When The Walls Fell and was pretty confident about getting around that dilemma. That was until I met up with John Dunlap. The first mission I attempted I encountered Shaka. I tented for my Dathon and went right around the Tamarian dilemma only to have Dathon trapped in a Cardassian Trap and Tebok hit up with a Frame of Mind. But it didn't seem like a problem at the time because I had solved that mission. When I found out that all my mission had a Shaka under them and that without Tebok I didn't have enough Diplomacy in my deck to overcome Shaka, the game seemed lost to me. But John had tanked on a Sheliak + Q combination and had lost his outpost with no way to get it back.
The Sheliak Q combination has been very good to me. At one tournament 3 of my 5 opponents lost their outposts early in the game to a Sheliak Q. After the tourney someone stated that I was lucky to guess the outposts that many times I laughed and showed them that I had 3 Sheliak Q combos in my seed deck.
This is why I am gong to talk about the Sheliak Q combination. Not how to beat it but rather how to set it up correctly for the most damage.
Most common thoughts are to put a wall in front of the Sheliak Q so that it kills off the most personnel. There are a lot of good wall dilemmas too. Shaka, Hologram Ruse, Primitive Culture, Lack of Preparation, None Shall Pass, Clan People, etc. But the problem with placing a wall dilemma before the Sheliak Q combination is that it leads to players overcoming Q. Now the Sheliak can be a down right mean dilemma on their own but it has it's most bite when followed by the Q dilemma. As you know the best part about the Sheliak is not that it kills off all the personnel at the planet when it arrives but that is also destroys all the outposts and stations AND makes the mission worth ZERO points. With a wall dilemmas prefacing the Sheliak Q more personnel are needed to get around the wall and with more personnel there is a better chance that there will be enough personnel to get by the Q. The best place for a wall dilemma is between the Sheliak and the Q. That way the Sheliak will be tripped and then a wall [which may stop the away team] and then the Q. If the wall stops the away team it is very likely that the Sheliak will reach the planet before the wall is overcome [especially on a short spaceline -like the Gamma Quadrant].
I like to use Alien parasites as a wall dilemma but it works poorly with The Sheliak Q. Since you gain control of the Away team when you encounter the Q your opponent gets to rearrange the spaceline.
The favorite way that I see a lot of players setting up the Sheliak Q combo is to put a filter/killer dilemma first that will try and take out a personnel with leadership or maybe just take out a personnel so that the Q can not be overcome. Armus - Skin of Evil, Armus - Sticky Situation, Yuta, Cardassian Trap, Flaxian Assassin and Dal'Rok are all Random killers that can thin the heard before they encounter the Sheliak Q. Dilemmas like Blended, Misguided Activist, Punishment Box and Don't Call Me Ahab all pick on personnel that could have Leadership as a skill.
The best way to go when thinning out an away team is to go with dilemmas that give you a choice of who to kill. After all if there is a Mortal Q in the away team you want to kill him off before he encounters the Q. Dilemmas like Framed For Murder, Common Thief, Assassin's Blade and Shot in the Back are good cards to preface the Sheliak Q combination with. Killing off that much needed personnel with leadership before it encounters the Sheliak Q can make the difference between the combo sticking and just being a waist of time.
Other dilemmas that can be used ahead of the Sheliak Q that are kinda fun too are dilemmas like Make Us Go, Dal'Rok and Deunetic Field Generator. Make Us Go is interesting because if the away team is killed by the Sheliak Q the ENGINEER is lost as well. Which makes other Make Us Gos that much harder to get around. Dal'Rok was mentioned above as a random killer but what makes this more interesting is that Dal'Rok keeps on killing. If the Q is passed a Mission Debriefing can hold the away team there on the planet and the Dal'Rok can kill again and maybe the Sheliak can still make it's way to the planet. Speaking of trapping personnel Deunetic Field Generator does a great job of trapping the personnel on the planet while the Sheliak makes it's way to the planet.
Placement of the dilemmas can be key. While I have mentioned these dilemmas as cards that should preface the Sheliak Q dilemma combo they should actually be placed in between them. This allows for the Sheliak to be popped and start making it's way down the spaceline. If one of the dilemmas stops the away team before the Q you will definitely want the Sheliak already out putting on the pressure to try and solve the mission before it gets there.
This brings up a key idea. Place a Dead End or Q Flash between the Sheliak and the Q. Both of these cards fall into ideas discussed above but can be much more. Dead End is the ultimate in wall dilemmas early in the game. It just can not be passed with out 50 points. Q Flash offers much of the same. Not only can a flash trim down an away team but it can also stop an away team while the Sheliak make their way to the planet.
Of course making the Q stick is also dependent on interrupts as well. Amandas to fight off Q2s and Brain Drains to fight off just way to many personnel with Leadership always helps.
What do I do? I don't use and other card with my Sheliak Q. I figure if my opponent has gotten up enough of a crew to get by my Q then I'm already in trouble. I like to try and pressure my opponent's into attempting too early with fast game play and the appearance that I am ready to move early in the game whether my deck is fast enough or not.
-Sirna Kolrami
Famed Strategist