Small v Big Metagaming

[Horizon Ian]

So, it's obvious that the Scout is currently the outlier ship (well, besides the promo Broadsword).

I am inclined to push the Survey VP strategy to be as fast as possible, gain 5-6 VPs a round. But, meanwhile, another metagame consideration is a SubMerchant that is trying to get 6-7 VPs at a time and win in three rounds. Either deck could run crew control or Engineering Kit or Glitch or whatever to mess with the other maxing out in VPs, but the Scout is burning a lot of EV to do its thing and devotes deck space to a "burn bright" strategy that it doesn't feel like the SubMerchant needs to do to the same level.

So, I've been thinking about how the Scout player plays in a metagame where another deck can just go faster or go as fast with a lower burn rate. What I'm wondering about, as I haven't tried to build a good deck that does this, is not playing the short game but running easy contracts for their lower VPs, more reasonable distances than some of the big score contracts, and devoting far more thought to slowing a fast VP deck down. Focus more on the Defeat Enemy Ships and other complications that are more likely to stall out competitors and use events/heroics/gear more to block an opponent ... while still not going into piracy as a strategy. In other words, not play a game of attrition but of obstruction while gaining around 3 VPs a round with hopefully a lower burn rate for more endurance.

This highlights the nature of customizable card games. The objectively best deck isn't necessarily the best deck for winning as your opponents' plays also matter.

Anyway, I'm curious as to other people's experiences and thoughts.

[Wargfn]

My Scout Deck, Jolly Rogers, utilizes easy to complete contracts for the Scout ship. It does go very heavy into Piracy, but those actions are usually round 4+ activities. the basic ideas, is to take those survey missions that are hard for other ships to complete, while setting up for a Piracy win, but reducing required to win. Flex Ticket, Red Zone Prospecting, and Gravimetric Probe Retrieval are exactly what you are trying to complete quickly in the first few turns. Really just trying to pick up 10-15 in those turns. Then Hoisting the Jolly Roger and fully committing to collecting Infamy tokens.

I do like the idea of building an Adventure deck to support pulling in those harder complete missions. With this list of Contracts with options:
Dwarf Planet Survey, Interspecies Census, Stellar Luminosity Study, TAS Inspection, Universal World Profile Update, X-Boat Route Review, Gravimetric Probe Retrieval, Red Zone Prospecting - only a few are within a round 1 / 2 completion, I still think that the best two options are Red Zone Prospecting, and Gravimetric Probe Retrieval

I never considered building a Captains deck that has the purpose of slowing down an opponent. That is an interesting idea.

Also, currently there are more Scout Ship deck builds on TravellerDB at 4 builds, vs. Beowulf (2), Broadsword (1), or Subsidized Merchant (1). The Poor Empress Marava has only the Starter Deck build out there. So it clearly is a people are building decks around.

[Horizon Jeff]

When I make a Scout deck, I often struggle with how many to include. In order to get optimal value, I need to be using the 's ability every turn, but I'm not sure in practice that I get anywhere near that level of regularity.

[Wargfn]

The ability to drop a Data Mining Consultant for free should not be overlooked. That alone could turn a 3 turn into a 7 turn with the correct subplots . Playing calling in a Marker for 1 :EV, is also a HUGE benefit when trying to stall your opponent. A quick o>2 t:event search over on TravellerDB and we can see that there are only 4 Cards that can truly take full advantage of the Scouts ability, Calling in a Marker, Data Mining Consultant, Ranke's Razor, The Tigress's Wake.

That having been said in a cost economy perspective, in a deck that is just dropping events to slow an opponent's progress, this ship is a royal pain. Every turn I get an Event drop for free. That is an Alien Persecution or an Overextended that you did not have to pony up any for.

Currently though, I think the ability is overrated. 18 event cards cost more than 0 of 40 events. While five-ish cards have a great purpose, they are all specific to a function which you may or may not be trying to exploit. So I can definitely see how that rates the ship for you. High with a baseline . It has lots of other functions.

[Wargfn]

After playing around a bit the last few days, BIG believer in Reliance on Professionals. Grade A stinky eye stuff in that card. Especially if you have a ::psionic+ around as a stopping point. Also becoming a fan of decks that have a away to exert your opponent's crew before they can take an action with that crew.

[Horizon Jeff]

After playing around a bit the last few days, BIG believer in Reliance on Professionals. Grade A stinky eye stuff in that card. Especially if you have a ::psionic+ around as a stopping point. Also becoming a fan of decks that have a away to exert your opponent's crew before they can take an action with that crew.

Just as a clarification on Reliance, the opposing captain can fulfill it with any trained/expert token (depending on the level the was played). I know I've encountered people who believe you get to choose, or that it's the same as the skill from the that played it, but nope. It's just another token.

[Wargfn]

Just as a clarification on Reliance, the opposing captain can fulfill it with any trained/expert token (depending on the level the was played). I know I've encountered people who believe you get to choose, or that it's the same as the skill from the that played it, but nope. It's just another token.

I just got to updating all of the card reviews from the latest Errata and saw this clarification, but having to come up with an extra expert token is still a pain.