Since I have already detailed many of the strategies I used to build this deck in my previous post on the subject, Building a Baldie Challenge Deck, I won't rehash them here, instead diving right into the meat of things. As indicated in the header above, my Baldie will be landing on the Ocean World, primarily for the life support it provides.
Several other origin choices would have worked for this build (with slight adjustments), but I chose the Navy Lieutenant specifically for the +2 synergy bonus he provides to the Military Engineer, boosting him to QL 5. This combo makes him the best all-around Engineer currently available, with a +25 bonus to both Mechanics and Cybernetics. The Nomad Navigator has a better bonus to Mechanics (though I don't have one to deploy) and the Syndicate Hacker has a better bonus to Cybernetics, but both options lack the other skill, and this challenge necessitates being ready for anything.
I picked Alanna Vos for first officer, with a stunning QL rank of 12 after Synergy bonuses. It will be her job to keep everyone in line and provide leadership for the rest of the crew.
Eliza is my Science Officer and medic. She has no Synergy bonus in this build, but at QL 7 already and possessing essential specialties for survival, she had to be included. It'll be her job to help secure food and water from the planet, solve any scientific problems that might arise, and keep everyone healthy and ready to go.
Nora is my Colony Manager and psychologist. It'll be her job to assign tasks and keep everyone happy and of sound mind. With her heavy Planetary bonus, she'll also double as the designated explorer, teaming up with Eliza when necessary. Her QL stays at 7.
The Military Engineer is my Mechanic. If anything needs to be fixed, jury-rigged, or otherwise maintained, he'll be ready for the job. As the only other member of the crew with Military training besides Alanna, he'll double as extra muscle for the group.
And finally, Tyron is the ship's Pilot. He has an amazing QL of 9 with synergy bonuses, nearly guaranteeing a flawless landing and rendezvous with the Columbus should things get that far. He'll also be the group's jack of all trades, filling in wherever there is a need.
Planning for a colony's needs with only four slots available is by far the hardest part of this Challenge. Choosing the Ocean World over the other two landing locations helped some by removing the need to provide breathable air. But this was still a tough call.
A shelter wasn't necessary for this build, especially with everyone equipped with Armor that provides Atmospheric Shielding, but that is only a short-term solution and this challenge is all about planning for the worst. Bringing a Happy Five and a TR100 to power it helps mitigate that threat some, providing a full 83 days of comfortable shelter and protection from the elements. And Nora will take care of planning which days to keep it powered down to conserve energy for times of need.
The planetary scans didn't locate the presence or lack of edible plant or animal life, but given the cargo space limitations it wasn't feasible to load up on Foodie-Moodie's (bringing elite or upgraded versions wasn't allowed either), and a single Foodie-Moodie would reduce the running time of the Happy Five by a full 30 days, in addition to not providing enough food for 5 people.
So instead, I loaded a Soup and Cook (food enough to last for 40 days) and tasked Eliza with locating and acquiring the remaining from the planet. And to help with that task as well as scout for other possible dangers is the Friendly Eyes, the only automated vehicle capable of traversing the scattered islands of the planet.
Finally, in the ship's equipment slot is loaded a set of Eisen Suits. Eliza and Nora will swap into these once planetside to help them with their assigned tasks, as will Alanna on the occasions that she needs mobile Atmospheric Shielding (assuming her pre-equipped armor doesn't already include it).
And that's a wrap! The only section I didn't cover in this post was Passengers and Escorts. I didn't discuss Passengers because I chose not to bring any, giving all my crew a place to sleep and reducing the consumption of resources. As for the Escorts, they are included in the full build (linked below) but didn't deviate much from my standard setup.
The Ocean World Build: https://digitalself.io/api_feed/exode/read_deck_viewer.php?account=%27raudell%27&deck=%27theoceanworld%27
