Oh boy, sounds like fun.

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Friday, February 08, 2008 - 10:35 am: Edit

From World League 2008. Maybe I'm biased because I was a participant, but this was one helluva game.

*****From Peter Thoenen (Eol)*****

Pool B: BanTheFed (Orion) over Eol (Aux) in 6

NOTE: Sorry for the crap English. I am typing as I play and after 6 hours just don't feel like cleaning it up.

Preface: What to say, I think the Orion is the worse possible draw for the Aux .. even worse than the ATC. Zero idea going into this what to do .. hell not sure I have even seen a Aux beat an Orion in my life period.

T1: Not sure what to do here so plot medium and kind of corner dive behind some drones for no good reason other than hopefully we end outside R8 and he burns some engines. We end up closing R8 and he tractors 2 drones, killing 3. We ae doing some odd oblique and near the end of the turn he launches 2 F's, I launch a single F. I eat the 2 F's on 1.32 for zero (fakes) and launches the reals. I eat 4xph1 and 1 HB for near nothing after a 18 pt brick. I don't return fire.

T2: Well we end @ r3 and I have two choices, I can run from his torps and he will HET behind me meaning I can never shake him (prob the smarter move) or I can say •••• it and park w/ no ww and use that 20 to brick guessing that he won't expect it. Sure enough he comes out blazing and I park, tac and eat 22 after reinf on my #2. He HET's to avoid r2 death and I fire 1xPh1, 1 Bolt, 1 OL HB for nothing in on his #4 leaving 3. (Phasers were wasted on the pseudos). On 1.6 @ r8 I do 11 for a drone, 2 power, and fluff. He runs and start circling. I jump up to spd 4. Not sure if this will work.

T3: He circles, I keep moving 4 (I am an Aux for christ sake) ... I take his 2 down w/ ph1's (end w/ 9) he deals w/ my drones and plinks me w/ 2 ph1's in for some power and fluff. His HB does 11 in (no more ph3's for me and fluff). We end T3 @ r3 w/ my HB coming up .. prob is he can double park and neutralize it. I start to ww during T3 ea as both his torps hot on T4. I think I die here on T4 or T5 and he can circle me all day but will see. I fix a drone for full and one on my S2.

T4: Well I basically plot tac to ww his torp (what else am I suppose to do) and pray. I OL the HB and realize after I submit I shouldn't have as he is going to brick so I might as well make him burn warp and fire in the following turn but oh well, its plotted. He is doing well circling (its a slow death on 8 pts a turn) .... not sure my T2 will work but running DEF would not have worked as he would still be on my ass and I wouldn't have any rear shields (and he would have zero internals). Oh well, I didn't expect to make it past T2 and here I am on T4.

WOW (I write this as I play) .. he doubled but only bricked 5. Got 6 in F torp and ph3. He launches both torps for some reason so I ww it dropping trac'ing on 2 drones in the process. He kills ww before it leaves my hex so I take collat on my near full #6. He circle some more. Will be interesting to see how this ends as I am running out of drones and his HB will come up before mine. I am nearly out of fluff and he is slowly whittling me down. I waste 3 of my remaining 4 phasers (all ph1's) killing his annoying shuttle fleet that is circling me. I do better as no SC4 this turn so I just tac with him. He has one shuttle left and one on the map. I have 2 left (1 ww and 1 ss in the bay). Near mid T4 he HET's a second time surprising the hell out of me as I thought he used both (one on T1 I thought but I paused and read back and I was mistaken). Bad juju as it buts him @ r2 on my weak #6. I don't earn a tac for another impulse so I chuck a ww for the shift. He can roll through the shift OR let me tac a fresh rear shield. He kills ww, I tac. He ED's to end R0 on me off my 3 w/ his HB coming online and chucks out a drone. I use my last shuttle (ss) to kill drone.

T5: He shoots, I die ;) .. .actually its pretty close to that. I launch 3 drones, he used last shuttle and ww. On .15 he retro's -4 and fires his phaser whad at me for 5 after reinf. He then moves to r1 and fire OL HB while does 18 in leaving me w/ 1 HB, 3 ph1, 3 drones. I tac and launch F torp thta was just killed and my unlaunched drone launcher from impulse 1 (heavy) .. figured he might do this. He launched a T1 and kills the heavy with his remaining phasers. I fire my remaining phasers into his #1. He HET's (3rd) to stop the F from going on his just raped #1 and breakdowns (wh00t @ the 6), he random orientation is his hurt #2 so after all said and done we both take 12 in. I am stripped of all remaining phasers short of a single LS ph1. Stinks is I have all my drone launchers minus one but am out of drones ! (2 left). He tractors me for some reason on .32 and we auction for 9 (I knew he would win but he is hurtin on power (all his wpns though almost) so basically want to force him to double to recharge). I have lots of power (19) and only a single phaser and a OL HB

T6: We both park, he doubles all and pushes me to r2. He has 4 ph1's in arc and 3 ph3's out of arc w/ a HB and F coming up next turn. I have a those two drones a OL HB and a ph1 (LS). I launch by two remaining to soke up his phasers. No •••• he rolls snake eyes @ r1 on his lab and isn't sure if they are heavies or not (they aren't .. heavies died earlier). He used his 4 ph1's to kill the drones. Now the suspense .........................................................................
bam, I miss my phreaking OL HB @ r2 with a 11. Thats game. I have nothing left and he has a HB and F coming up on 7.1. JI concede.

Note: Just for S&G though we rolled it just to see and it was def game. HB does 17 in leaving the Orion w/ 2 ph3's and 4 pwr after burn (doubling to 8). Thats how •••• falls sometimes but was fuming at nobody in particular .. especially after his failed HET (giving me a chance .. 6 hour game too !!!)

Oh well, it was def a nail biter and fun. Still am pissed as I am for missing that HB he missed a 3rd HET in an Orion which prob pissed him off just as much.

•••• ... I have never seen an Aux beat an Orion and I was actually about to be the first one I have personally seen !! .. Oh well dem da bones.

*****Comments from Marcus Giegerich (BanTheFed)****

Packages where Orion Litterbug (HFFBB), WYN AUX (HF1B). Which made him a better litterbug than me! Lot's of little objects floating around with bad intent in this game.

Turn 1 - we ended at R3 perfect oblique #6 shields facing after he turned that imp, so the 40 pts of plasma I launched would have hit him at full on a flank shield if he ran. During T2 EA I realized that I never put power into WW or SS when I thought I did. Sloppy, sloppy Marcus!

T2 - I was expecting him to either move or tac and WW. I did NOT expect him to tac and try to blow my brains out, which he did. Bricking the F torps heavily in the process. THis was the best thing he could have done and that's why he almost won the game.

T3 - IN EA I finally started arming a WW. He had a speed plot error in mid turn (up to 8, but tacced 1st few imps so max 5) that we didn't catch. Moving at 8 gave me a down shield to fire 2 p1s at and he kept his move when he could have turned. I offered to rewind a few imps for him to fix his plot and he declined, chosing to live with the error. This was very sporting of him as it cost him 7 ints.

Wacky luck factor interlude - His phaser fire at my ship was insanely good. T2 and T3 half his rolls where 1s and his worst roll was a 3. However, my p3 fire on his drones was flawless. I was able to take out every type 1 I fired at with 1 p3 each. The only 5s and 6s I rolled on defensive p3 fire where when I was firing more than 1 p3 at a drone. My phaser fire on his ship was blah while his phaser fire on my shuttles was horrid.

T4 - I launched both F torps because I suspected he had a weasel and I wanted to take out a couple of his drones the easy way. Hey, he took 6 collateral after I burned the WW so it wasn't a total loss! The HET was a tad bit greedy of me, but I didn't suspect he had a SS after seeing the 2nd weasel and death dragging a manned shuttle of his earlier. Good for him he did cause the drone I launched at him from range 1 was a biggie aand I ended the turn at R0 off the shield it would have hit. Touche!

T5 - I had my OL HB up but didn't want to take the feedback, so I dealt with his drones and backed up to R1 to burn him with the bore at R1. I rolled an 11, whew! Now that I think of it, I should never had attempted that 3rd HET. If I had taken my lumps like a man, I would only have taken like 9 in as I had a 7 box #1 shield and full batts. But I figured that I could win the game right there as I would not only avoid internals (taking F torp on a 26 box shield) but would be able to fire 2 p3s at R1 through one of his down shields. Alas for the failure. It was upsetting to get the facing on my 2nd worst shield, but it was better than eating the torp through the down #4! BTW - I had 12 allocated to tractor that turn cause I really wanted to use that weasel.

T6 - I was able to do the tractor rotation thing where I push him 1 hex away from my ship on the hex spine to get his hot HB out of arc. I was flabergasted to miss the range 1 lab rolls. FYI - I made 4 lab attempts from R1 all game. 3 of those rolls where 1s. Great for me that his bore missed cause I would be down to like 5 power boxes next turn with only 3 p1s and 1 p3 after we did the post-concession-what-if-he-had-hit HB internals. They would have taken out both my HB and my surviving F torp, both which would have been hot on turn 7.

Really wild game that came down to bad breakdown roll for me on T5 and even worse HB roll for him.

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Friday, February 15, 2008 - 11:56 am: Edit

From NetKill 2007 4th quarter finals:

Netkill After Action Report for Q04 2007 Netkill final.

Sir_Hood in ISC defeats BaldnForty in Rom KRB

This was a long game 9 Turns which showed some very interesting and unusual tactics on both sides. My memory of the exact
order of events and what happened is somewhat fuzzy, so I may have some of this all wrong.
Especially the turns on which events occurred.

Turn 1 & 2

Sir_Hood started off with going slow and staying at long range. BaldnForty was going for the enveloping plasma ballet tactic.

BaldnForty stayed out of range 15 and fired an enveloping S on turn 1 turned off and fired and enveloping S on turn 2.

Sir_Hood weaseled one of the envelopers and phasered and iron jawed the other one.

At the end of Turn 2, Sir_Hood has pristine 1,2, and 6 shields and some damage to the rear shields.

BaldnForty had not taken any damage. BaldnForty stayed out of range 15 on Turn 1

At the end of Turn 2Sir_Hood fired both Plasma G's and the PPD at range 10-15 at the end of Turn 2 and started re-arming it on Turn 3

But BaldnForty ended near the bottom of the map.

Turn 3:

BaldnForty cloaked at speed 0 to break lock on and get rid of the Plasma G's

Turn 4:

Sir_Hood started off at speed 0 and then went to speed 9 reverse.
He fired off a rear plasma F which BaldnForty weaseled off.

BaldnForty fired off another Plasma S EPT and Sir_Hood phasered it and iron jawed it.
Sir_Hood fired the PPD at the end of the turn allowing him to begin re-arming it Turn 5

Turn 5:

This was the turning point of the game.

Sir_Hood started the turn at speed 0 but later started moving forward.

BaldnForty had a 14/18 speed split for this turn.

BaldnForty got to range 10 and fired the LS plasma F, he then followed it an impulse later with an S EPT

Sir_Hood fired 2 Plasma G EPT and then weaseled off the S EPT and the F.

BaldnForty wasn't moving fast enough to outrun the G EPTs but did manage to to fire 11 phasers at them. Then Sir_Hood fired
6 P1 at BaldnForty doing an additional 6 points of damage to the rear shield.

At the end of this turn, nobody had any internal damage. Sir_Hoods 1,2, and 6 shields were unscratched. However, BaldnForty had taken
significant damage to all of his shields.

Turn 6:

BaldnForty tried a desperation tactic which may need to be explored and tested. Started at weasel speed with 1 weasel ready and
1 started warming. When Sir_Hood fired the PPD, BaldnForty weaseled to try to break lock on. It didn't work and Sir_Hood was able
to retain lock-on. But the weasel was undamaged and BaldnForty was able to tractor it and retreive it undamaged a few impulses later.

Turn 7:

BaldnForty took a plasma and some phasers, which did some internals.

Turn 8:

Turns 8 and 9 were both sit and spin turns at range 5.

Sir_Hood fired a PPD full overload at BaldnForty. BaldnForty attempted to weasel to take less pulses, but it didn't break lock on...
Oh well...

Sir_Hood launched a sui shuttle and later in the turn launched a G at the wild weasel. The wild weasel took the plasma strike several
hexes away from BaldnForty. On the impulse the plasma hit the weasel, BaldnForty launched a plasma on passive at Sir_Hood and
fired 2 p3 at the sui range 0 on passive.

Then a few impulses later, BaldnForty launched the other F and a pseudo S.

The first F hit, doing 2 internals against Sir_Hood

Sir_Hood phasered the F and guessed right that the S was fake.

BaldnForty launched the real S, which got phasered and iron jawed.

Turn 9:

BaldnForty managed to phaser and Iron Jaw a plasma. And launched a fast load. At this point everybody was fast loading their
plasmas. Near the middle of the turn, BaldnForty accelerated to speed 4 hoping to get inside the PPD min range.
Near the end of the turn Sir_Hood accelerated to speed 8.

Sir_Hood got to range 2 on a down shield with 4 unfired phasers and opened up. This took out all of BaldnForty's batteries.

BaldnForty condeded at this point.

1) His shields were almost gone.
2) he had no plasmas the next turn
3) Sir_Hood had a fast load plasma the next turn.
4) Sir_Hood had an almost undamaged ship ( 2 internals )
5) BaldnForty had lost all batteries, a couple of phasers, and all hull and significant power.

I would say that the slow speed phaser and iron jaw the plasma is a very dangerous tactic, and I will be looking for a counter tactic to it.
Also, it provides greatly enhanced weasel flexibility.

The weasel the PPD tactic although it didn't work, needs to be examined further. I think it does have some uses. Especially, since the
weasel is unharmed and can be recovered.

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Thursday, March 20, 2008 - 10:48 am: Edit

From World League 2008
BanTheFed(Orion) vs Caillin(Lyran)

I really had no business winning this game. Steve outplayed me on the initial battle pass and it took some stubborness on my part and complete dice failure on his to pull out the win. I'll see what I remember of the game

Orion(HFFBB) in 2530, Lyran in 1701

T1 - Orion doubles LW, plots 16/31 (on 24), Lyran plots 14/25/26. Lyran turns right and makes like he's doing a corner dodge. Orion turns left in anticipation of the dodge. Around imp 20 Lyran turns back to A, Orion turns back to D. Orion launches 2 drones, slips out a little. Lyran turns to F. Orion turns to C. Imp 26 range 15-ish Lyran fires 4 stds. Orion player thought it was on hex spine, but is actually on the #1 (this always happens to me on SFBOL for some reason. Hexes-to-small!!) Since the 14 point brick is on the #2, Orion is upset with self. Only 1 dis hits, so no harm no foul. Imp 28 Lyran announces 1 ESG. Imp 31 Lyran turns to A at about range 6 of Orion. Orion launches 2 F torps right at him. Turn ends with ships 6 hexes apart, Lyran #1 to Orion #6 but out of FA. ESG comes up full strength, R0.

T2 - Orion is looking to anchor here, but expects Lyran to park. Doubles both warp, plots 15->3, 30->20, 19->32. Lyran suprises with speed 22 announcement. Imp 1 Lyran announces 2nd ESG. Lyran fires RS p1s as p3s at T1 drones, killing 1 and doing only 3 to the other. Then Lyran slips right, taking F torps on non-facing #6 shield. His bravery is rewarded with the revelation that they are fake. He announces SC to 14 effective imp 5 and this worries Orion as they are at range 3 and keeping the apparently bricked #2 to him could prove to be a problem. Tension is high...

...then the server dies at about 9:45. We exchange emails for a while and Mr. Franz gets it up and going by 11:00, so we start up again. Swift work there Paul!

So imp 5 Lyran turns to B, takes 1 point of drone damage on ESG and leaves Orion in a bind. Orion decides to suck it up and turns in to D, centerlining Lyran's #6 at range 1. Orion tractors Lyran who fights it til 3. Orion psuedo speed 12 moves next impulse, Lyran's is 8 and no move til imp 8. Orion launches kitchen sink - both F torps, 2 hefty drones, 1 SS all facing D. ESG 2 comes up at R1, full strength. Lyran fires 1 LS P1 at each drone, killing 1 and doing 4 to other one. Also fires 1 p3 at SS, doing only 3. Also fires 4 p1s and 4 OLs at stupid Orion and does 33 internals. Orion responds with 1 OL hellbore, 4 p1s and 2 p3s, taking down Lyran #6 and doing 1 in (aft hull). R1 ESG goes down and R0 ESG is now at 7. Imp 6 Lyran HETs to F. Orion thinks really hard on this. If HET to A, F torps hit full strength #2 and 4 p3 follow up will get about ~24 total in. ESG also will destroy the SS and remaining drone. No good. So Orion decides to do something fancy. Orion slips right, F torps go forward and Orion drops trac. Lyran fires last p3 at F torp, only doing 3 to it. Imp 7 F torps impact Lyran #4 for 15 in. Orion HETs to B and takes 7 points of ESG in the kisser, figuring the impact from the type IV drone through the down #4 next imp would really even things up. Until Lyran tractors drone, of course. Really bright. A few impulses later Orion is able to slipp off Lyran down #6 and spray 4 p3s through the hole at range 1 for 14 in. Rest or turn uneventful as Lyran floats to top of map dir A, then turns to B with drone still tractored. Orion loops around clockwise ending turn at R2 off #6 facing Lyran #5. SS pathetically tags along finishing about R5 from Lyran. Orion has taken 40 in losing 2 p3, 1 p1, 2 drone racks, an F torp, most of the fluff and lots of power. Still has 1 tractor and 1 batt. Lyran has 30 in having lost 2 Dis, 1 ESG, 2 p3s and 2 LS p1s but only 4 power.

T3 - Orion thinks he's done for, but wants to make Lyran work for it. Doubles both warp for 30, plots 23->5, 12->21, 6->32. Lyran wisely at 0 and still tractoring drone. Orion circles to get Lyran down #4 with Lyran doing 2 TACs. Orion then successfully HETs to B (had to roll since crippled) and on imp 5 lines up #3 shield with Lyran's down #6 at R1, fires 2 p1 and 2 p3s for 22 in after hot dice. Lyran responds with 2 OL and 4 p1s. Orion think's he's done for, except disruptor dice are 6,6 and p1's leave the #3 at 2 boxes! Orion player was so elated he ran to the fridge and grabbed a Sam Adams right there. Lyran also launches 2 shuttles here, facing D which Orion player ignores. Imp 6 Orion turns to D (since now speed 12 and TM 2) and fires 1 p3 at Lyran, doing 3 in. Imp 7 Lyran launches WW, but Orion fires last p3 through the shift anyways and rolls a 2, getting 3 more in. Imp 8 drone takes out WW and Lyran raises FC. 1 Lyran Shuttle blows up Orion SS and the other eventually gets range 3 shot through Orion down #1, rolling a 1 (least the cruel dice gods could do for him) but failing to hit any weapons. Orion loops around and finishes turn at R4 facing A looking at Lyran's 1/2 spine , Lyran TACed to face C looking at Orion 6/1 spine. Orion repairs 1 LW as AWR after warp burn. Lyran repairs 2 360 p3s and 1 box on #6. Lyran now down to 24 power, 2 dis, 3p1s and 2 p3s. No ESG left.

T4 - Orion doubles everything, plots 12->5, 6->26, 12->32. Lyran at speed 10. Imp 3 Orion slips out and fires 2 RA/R p3s at shuttle R2 of #2 shield, killing it. Also fires OL HB at Lyran. Lyran holds fire, which is unfortunate as the 11 internals blow both Lyran disruptors off! P3s also destroyed here, but #6 remains at 1 box due to some reinforcement. Imp 6 Orion turns off to B to avoid Lyran getting 3 p1s through down #1. Lyran SC to 9 and eventually centerlines Orion #6 at R1 on imp 11 after Orion turns back to A. Orion tractors Lyran for 1, then releases tractor imp 15. Imp 16 Orion turns to F. Orion fires 2 p1s at last Lyran shuttle (R2 off Orion #6) and 1 p1 and 2 p3s at 1 box Lyran #6, doing 11 in. After this abuse, Lyran is left with 12 power and 2 RS p1s. Steve resigns as I had an F torp coming up next turn.

As I said before, I had no business winning this. I was in a huge hole after turn 2 and if even 1 of Steve's disruptors hit on T3, the extra 7 or so internals would have wrecked me. Tense but fun game.

By Andrew J. Koch (Droid) on Friday, March 21, 2008 - 03:42 pm: Edit

Not a good day for the Droid.

I felt like goofing off today, being Good Friday and all, so I went looking for trouble online.

First, I got a NK against The_Hood,who is often lurking in the wee hrs, (Me Fed, Him LDR) This fight didn't work for me due to allowing myself to be rammed, and centerlined, and gutted at range two. Yes, I gutted him too, but I had less guts left. Being gutless, I conceded.

Just as that was finishing, who shows up? Mr. Bakija, the teacher, who has Good Friday off. I asked him if he wanted to fight, and of course he did. I knew he is the Everlasting Gorn, so I wracked my brains to think of a matchup that would favor me, and came up with a Wyn Aux. A Bubble Pig. So much for brains. Actually, it turned out not to be too bad. Much longer than I expected. Some highlights are that I killed a drone with an esg in a crucial situation, and also I hit the Gorn with two suicides. He had a couple more internals than I did when we quit, but I think he was going to chase me down and kill me if we continued. I had one drone left, both F torps hot, and my ESG(!) was hot. Perhaps we have not seen the last of the Bubblepig?

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 10:01 am: Edit

This was just a Netkill game, but it was an incredible amount of fireworks in an incredibly short amount of time. Scott and I where both jumping blind into our Friday night NK game with our ship selection. It turns out that we where both feeling "Feddy" that night and what follows is a quick and spectacular Fed Civil War

BanTheFed (1701D) vs Sir_Goofy (2530A)

T1 - Both ships fully OL photons. I plot 15/16/24. Goofy 17/24 I think. Both players are holding 1 SS each. Goofy closes, I noodle around on my side of the map by turning to E, slipping along the map edge, turning back to D while slipping out, and then turning to C to show my massively reinforced #2 shield (3 points, woohoo!). Goofy turns to F and slips in a bit. We end turn range 7 perfect oblique #2 to #2. Both ship's turn modes satisfied. He fires full alpha, I nearly do so (hold back both FH p1s for Mizia fun). We both score dead-average with 2 photons hits each, 13 phaser damage to me and 9 to him. I burn batts and take 7 in, losing both p3s a photon and 1 warp. he takes 6 in after some reinforcement and loses a p3 and hull.

T2 - my Fed instinct is to circle and reload. The Orion maniac in me wants to press the issue. The good news is that while both ships are nearly empty, I will have 1 less photon to reload. Always looking at the bright side! I plot 24/12/16 with the SC to 12 coming at imp 6 to turn into him for pursuit, but to also keep him off my #2 if he starts at high speed. I warm up photons, fill batts, hold the SS, fill phaser caps and put 1 into tractor. Scott plots 16/8 expecting to circle off and reload himself. Imp 1 I fire my FH p1s and get 3 in, but it's all fluff (hey, it was only 3 internals!). I turn into him (A) and he turns off (E). He drops to speed 8 mid turn and I'm able to close behind him, but mus be careful to not give him a shot on my Down #2. Imp 27 I burn 1 batt to SC to 24 (speed 16 was plotted for imp 28) and on imp 31 I'm 2 hexes behind him off his 4/5 shield spine. He's off my 1/2 but would fire on my #1 since he moves slower on i32. Both ships facing C. He launches his SS facing F. I'm licking my chops here because no matter what he does I'll get a R2 hack with 4 p1s on imp 32 and an imp 1 slash with 3 photons 2 FH p1s and 2 repaired p3s. Scott doesn't like the idea of taking that kind of shot virtually unreturned so he HETs to F! I turn to D and centerline him on his down #2 at range 0. His SS smacks me on my full #6 and I launch my own SS at him. He ignores it as he fires all bearing phasers, taking down my #1 and getting about 13 in, but no photon this time. I blast him with 6 p1s and do 38 in on him, getting full weapons and completely hulling him.

T3 - I OL my 3 photons to 12 pts each (to only take 6 total feedback) and we both shoot on imp 1 after my SS smacks him for another ugly 18 in. Between my photons, phaser fire and his feedback to himself he takes another 60. His ship blows up after the 47th internal.

The game took a little over an hour. The remarkable thing about the game is that we both rolled flat-average damage for all of our fire. Fed civil wars are usually decided by dice. This was decided by my overwhelming desire to sniff Sir_Goofy's tailpipe on the reload turn ;) As always, it was a fun game as all of my games with Scott are.

And if you think I'm just reporting this just to beat up on Scott's ego, there was the time earlier this year where his Klingon trashed my Orion in 3 turns...

By Scott Moellmer (Goofy) on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 12:16 pm: Edit

===
No ego beating up happening. ;) Marcus outplayed
and outmaneuvered me very nicely... It was short
and painful, my favorite kind of game...

Gets rid of my very RARE 'urge to fly a Fed'
for a while!

By Andrew J. Koch (Droid) on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 12:39 pm: Edit

Scott, you hit with two photons! Awesome

By Scott Moellmer (Goofy) on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 04:26 pm: Edit

===
Yes, and still lost badly. Oh well.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, April 17, 2008 - 05:25 pm: Edit

4.1 bakija (HYD) over pyrogen (WAX)

T1: I go 16/31 with only 1 HB armed, 6 in tractor, and nothing in fusions. He goes 21 all turn. He slips out and I close on the center. As we come in, he launches 5 drones and turns in. I launch my fighters and turn in as well. I gatling 3 of the incoming drones. He fires most of his weapons at my fighters, killing one and crippling the other. Impulse 31, we are at R2, I can slip but not turn, he is compelled forward, so I launch 2 suicides. He shoots them, but only cripples 1 of them. Impulse 32, he goes forward, I slip into R0. 2 of his drones take down my #4 but don't do any in. My suicide hits his rienforced #6, and I fire on it with 5xP1, a fusion, and an OL HB. HB hits, but I roll pretty much all 5's and 6's with my phasers and the fusion. He takes a bunch of internals, but loses nothing vital (a couple P3s, the disruptor, and a drone rack and a tractor maybe?). He also launches a shuttle, which I ignore. I also take an internal from HB feedback, but it is a hull.

T2: He goes zero. I go 16/8/4. I foolishly allocate 13 into tractor, hoping I can not get tractored and avoid drone death, as I have no phasers to shoot on 1, although I do have an off side gat and a weasel to work with. I also suicide overload a fusion, and neglect to arm any HBs, as I am smart. He goes 0 all turn. Impulse 1, he tractors me with 14 power and launches 4 drones. His suicide shuttle hits my shield, which holds due to a bit of rienforcement, and he might fire a couple P3s in the down shield. I fire a suicide overload fusion into his ship. Fate makes up for the earlier crappy dice, I roll a 1 for 26 internals, and manage to blow off his other tractor. Impulse 2, I leave the hex, and the drones have to HET to follow. Impulse 3, I HET and slow down to 8, and get to skunk the drones, which are stuck flying around my ship now. I gatling the two IDed type IVs, and eventually phaser down the other two. Meanwhile, he launches another SS, which impacts my #3, followed by a few more phasers, doing some internals. I launch a shuttle, I kill his shuttles (one of which does 4 internals at some point), he kills my crippled fighter, and we end the turn at R2.

T3: I move speed 4 most of the turn, he stays zero (in fact, he never moves other than TACing for the rest of the game). I arm phasers, start rearming a HB, and arm my last fusion (so far, I've lost 3 fusions but no HBs, although one fusion self destructed). Impulse 1, he fires all his bearing phasers and the OL HB. HB hits, my 16 general reinforcement doesn't so much save me from the HB, but boy, does it soak up the incoming phaser damage. I lose a bunch of stuff, including my 4th fusion. But still, no HB hit. And I keep only arming one of them. He launches 3 drones from his 3 racks, I weasel them. He cuts tracking to the drones, leaving my weasel alive. Happy with this, I wheedle around, and impulse 32, I end up at R0, my #1 to his #2. I fire 2 gatlings (which are still alive) and he fires 1. He cuts my shield in half, I knock his down and do a few in. EOT, we both fix a couple P3s.

T4: We both move 0. I get to have reinforcement on my facing #1, as it is up, his facing #2 is down.And again, I fail to start arming my second HB. He launches 2 drones and fires some phasers. I fire back with OL HB and my repaired P3s. My shuttle kills one of the drones, and I do about 20 internals after some general. He knocks my #1 down to a box. He is left, at this point, with, a HB, a P1, a drone rack, a gatling, and at the end of the turn, he gets 2xP3 back. Next impulse, I tac and take his drone on my #2, leaving it at about 14. We just sit and stare at each other for a while, although my armed shuttle flies around a bit. Impulse 25, I gatling his facing #1 for 16 damage. Impulse 32, he gatlings my #2 for 16 and does 2 internals. We both fix a couple P3s. I have both HBs (neither of which are armed, mind you...), 4xP3, and both Gats and about 25 power. He has HB, drone, P1, 2xP3, gat, and 9 power.

T5: I arm my phasers, start arming a HB, and move a little. He goes zero, turns off AFC, and arms his weapons (I figure 2 for shields, 6 for OL HB, 1 for phasers is where his 9 power went). Impulse 1 he shoots me with everything he has, I fire back with a gat, 4xP3s, and my shuttle fires on a down shield too. He make a real mess of me, leaving me with a HB (which is finally arming...), 1 gatling, and maybe 10 power. I successfully blow him up. Which doesn't happen that much.

A totally fun and very bloody game.

-Peter

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Thursday, April 24, 2008 - 11:05 am: Edit

RAT 26 Round 3

BanTheFed (Orion Litterbug - HFFBB) over Lazlo (Hydran) in 4 turns of manly play from both players. Game ended late, so description may have some holes.

Turn 1
Orion facing D doubles Left Warp, plots 19/26/31. Hydran facing A at 14/25/26. Hydran immediately launches Fighters and then turns left to F. Orion turns left to C. Fighters go straight up the map as both players pass each other and then turn in to original facing. Orion eventually turns to E and works to pass in front of Hydran. Imp 26 at about range 8ish Orion makes a mess launching 2 F torps and 2 drones at Hydran ship. Hydran slips hard to right and passes out of Orion FA with fighters a couple hexes behind. At R2 centerline Hydran fires RS gats at F torps rolling poorly. Next imp Hydran moves forward forcing torps to HET. Orion turns in to D. Imp 31 Hydran slips right forcing Orion drones to HET. Both ships now at R3 perfect oblique #6 to #6. Fighters 1 hex behind ship. Hydran fires fighter gats and LS gats at F torps, again rolling poorly. Hydran also fires 5 p1s, 2 std bores and 4 fighter fusions at Orion and the 14 point brick maintains the shield at 2 boxes. Orion hold fire seeking opportunity to be clever. Imp 32 Hydran turns off to B and Orion slips in lining up both fighters at range 3. This is when Hydran player tractor lands both fighters and Orion fires 2 p1s at Hydran #5 shield doing 9 as he's 1 hex out of Orion FA. Orion player bangs head against desk in frustration as the fighters live on and even worse are probably getting reloaded.

Turn 2
Orion doubles right warp plots 15/26, Hydran at 26/20. Hydran shoots off to direction B slipping left occasionally as Orion turns to follow. Hydran also slips into F torps which are now at 2 pts each to discover they are fake, nullifying all his lousy p3 rolls last turn Orion gets turned around and starts pursuing Hydran after SC to 26 kicks in. Hydran turns to A for a bit and then back to B. About imp 18 Hydran is running for his NE corner with Orion 3 hexes off Hydran #3 shield. Hydran announces SC to 28 (batts?) to avoid getting burned by the inevitable F torp launch. Since Hydran cannot HET and is facing away, Orion decides to fire right here giving him 2 f bolts, 4 p1s, 1p3 and an OL hellbore. 1 bolt misses, but bore hits and strong phaser rolls do volleys of 8 and 11. Hydran loses 2 p1s, a hellbore, 1 tractor and a couple warp. Next imp Orion turns to F for clean getaway. Hydran eventually turns to C giving Orion his down #3 at range 7, so Orion fires 4 p3s and spectacular rolls net 3 internals, getting another warp and the RS gat (only phaser in arc since Orion is jut 1 hex outside Hydran FX)! Hydran loops around clockwise for rest of turn and Orion head towards N wall, turning right to B close to turns end. Imp 31 Orion launches 2 drones. HYdran had phasered Orion turn 1 drones at some point, but I can't remember when. Orion repairs 1 box on his #6 at EOT (not at 3).

Turn 3
Orion doubles RW plots 16/26. Hydran plots 14/26 with maybe a late turn decel that I forgot. Hydran get turned around to B while Orion continues to drift 2-3 hexes from map edge towards NE corner. Hydran then turns to A around when sc t 26 kicks in. About imp 12 Orion launches 2 type IV drones that will muss up Hydran maneuver since the RS gat is gone and he's down to 1 tractor. Hydran eventually tractors 1 of these and fires both right side fusions at the other to kill it. Hydran also fires std hellbore at R6 to Orion and misses. Orion turns to D and should get decent shot on Hydran down shield, so out come the fighters to five Orion headaches. 1 imp before Hydran is turn eligible (and can't HET at 26 due to engine damage) Orion fires 2 p1s from range 5 (both ships are #3 to #3) and the 7 internals gets the other hellbore! Hydran turns to B and Orion eventually turns to E lining up Fighters (who cannot fire for a few more impulses) for range 2 shot off #6 shield. 2 p1s kill 1 fighter outright, but the 3 p3s only do 4 damage to the other one. So 2 imps later Orion HETs to D to get 2 RA/R p3 shots on fighter at range 1 for the autokill. Rest of turn unremarkable as Orion lazily loops clockwise and Hydran gets turned around to D. Hydran actually rams tractored type IV drone into wall, doing 5 damage to it. Orion now facing E. Ships about range 15 or so. Hydran repairs a box on his #3 and Orion repairs a left warp as AWR. Note that at some point Hydran phaser 1 fire did about 13-14 damage to Orion #2 but I'll be damned if I can remember when that occurred. At this point Hydran down to 4 fusions, 3 p1s and LS gat.

Turn 4
Orion doubles LW plots 16/26/16. Hydran plots 14/20. Hydran closes and Orion turns to F but keeps slipping out to delay engagement. Hydran kills type IV drone with LS gat pulse. Hydran eventually turns to E and 2 more Orion drones come out which are dealt with by tractor and 1 p1. Mid turn Orion turns to A giving Hydran Range 4 on Orion #2. Orion fires 1 std hellbore which hits but 7 reinforcement prevents internals. Hydran fires 1 p1 for 5 finding a whopping 3 reinforcement on Orion #2. Next imp Hydran moves forward, Orion slips out giving Hydran range 3 centerline. Orion hold fire while Hydran fires another p1 doing 6 as the dice gods are trying to even things out. At this point teh Orion's Sc back down to 16 is scheduled, so Orion burns 2 batts to maintain 26. Next imp neither ship moves. Next imp (23?) Orion moves forward Hydran gets range 2 on Orion's 2/3 shield spine but all his hot weapons are on the wrong side. Orion launches speed 4 shuttle facing B and Hydran launches 2 speed 4 shuttles facing F. Imp 24 Hydran turns to F eating what turns out to be a SS on his nearly full #6 and Orion seriously contemplates HET to E which would give him 6 p3 shots on the hurt shield at range 2. Instead, Orion HETs to C so both ships face #5 to #5. Orion feels this is better because Hydran #5 is more than half down at this point. Hydran fires 3 LS gat bursts and 2 std fusions getting 11 with gats and rolling 1,2 for 5 in on Orion but only gets 1 p3. Orion responds with 5 p3s and 2 p1s which blow down Hydran #5 and do about 20 in. This leaves Hydran with 33 power but only 3 fusions and 1 p1 so out comes the white flag as the F torps are hot again next turn.

It was a very enjoyable game despite my computer crashing on me in turn 4. Aside from whiffing with an F torp and that ridiculous p3 shot on his fighter, my die rolls where spectacular while over all Andy's where average. Not to mention the hellbore missing which saved my #6 shield and a couple internals (I had 2-3 reinforcement on the shield anyways that turn). Lots of missed opportunities by both players. I was surprised to see that Andy didn't arm any special shuttles but he did tell me that he intended to arm 1 WW, he just forgot to do it.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 - 09:57 pm: Edit

Gold Hat Online Preliminaries
Bakija (GRN) over Lord Goofy (WBS Ba)

T1: I go fast with standard torps held. He goes fast with maybe no disruptors armed and general? We close, and at R12, I launch 2xS torp. He immediately turns off, so I turn in and follow. He turns and takes the plasma on his #5 for 22 (one is real) and stops 8 with reinforcement (some batteries maybe), leaving his shield at 10. I turn in, tractor a drone, and get a R5 shot on the same shield, firing 5xP1 and bolt F. Bolt hits and he takes 17 internals. I slip out a bit to avoid 2 more drones, and we end the turn at about R5.

T2: I go 17/24/16; he goes 20/24. Impulse 2 he HETs at me. I launch an S torp and shoot a couple drones and tractor a third. Next impulse we don't move, but I HET and launch another plasma F and fire a P1 at his #2. He closes, phasers the plasma S some, and eats it for a down shield. I fire another P1 through his down shield for a few in. He accelerates to 24 to take the F torp on a different shield, moves, and eats it for 18 on his #3. I run away, he turns in to chase, allowing me to fire a few more P1s into his ship, knocking off most of his P3s and a disruptors and a few drone racks and eventually both tractors. I also shoot down a drone in tractor. He eventually shoots my #4 with 1xOL and 5 or 6 P1s at R4, but the OL misses and my shield stays up. We wheel around a bit, he launches a drone, and we end the turn at R2, his #1 off my #3.

T3: I go 0/8, he goes 14 all turn. I weasel on impulse 1 to get the drone on the map. The drone kills the weasel, and he comes into R0. I accelerate to speed 8 right before my weasel explosion ends and he is at R8, so he launches a couple shuttles to hit me next impulse, so I whack them with a couple phasers on PFC, and he shoots me with 2xOL and 5xP1 for about 25 internals. I move out to R1, he launches a drone, which I kill, and then when my AFC is up, fire 4 more P1s through his 6 point #3, doing about 18 internals. We separate some, I shoot a drone, and shoot a P1 at R7 into his ship, roll a 1, and blow off his last shuttle boxes. We end the turn at about R6.

T4: I go 8 all turn. He goes zero. Impulse 1, I launch an enveloper and slowly follow it in. At R5, he shoots my #1 with all he has, knocks the shield to a few boxes, and then the enveloper hits for 30 in, pretty much killing him.

A fun, quick game. I had really good dice.

-Peter

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, June 20, 2008 - 08:33 am: Edit

Gold Hat Preliminaries Online
Bakija (GRN) over BS (AND)

A weird and fun game--no one took any damage at all till T6...

T1: I go 16 most of the turn with an enveloper and some rienforcement. Andro goes 21/30. We close and at about R12, I pitch out the enveloper. The Andro immediately turns and runs back to his corner. I kinda waddle after him.

T2: He goes 16/28 or something (24 hexes in total; I was trying to track the Andro's power for a while--it looks like he spent 4 battery power on T1, and then ran at exactly dead even for the next 5 turns). I go 26 all turn. He runs the plasma to nothingness and turns around. I just turn off and run to my corner all turn. He chases after me.

T3: I go 16/26; he goes 16/28 again. He closes in, I fly up the right side of the map. When he starts looking like he is coming in for a shot, I launch 50 points of plasma. He turns and runs away, and I turn in to follow. Eventually he takes the S torp on his rear panels for 1 damage, discovering that it is a fake.

T4: I go 26/16, he again moves 24 hexes. I move towards him till he starts getting close, and I launch my enveloper. He turns and runs. I kinda follow.

T5: He moves 24 hexes, I go 26 all turn. I just turn and run back to my corner. He follows after running the enveloper out to nothing.

T6: I go 16/26, he goes 24 hexes. I again fly up my right hand wall and he closes in. I hold my plasma a little longer this time, and launch 50 real as he looks fairly committed. He gets R4 on my #6 with the plasma right on his nose, so he announces displacement and shoots his TRLs, rolling kinda lame and doing 12 damage to my #6. I hold fire, and he jumps away successfully. I turn in and chase him across the map.

T7: He is reloading his TRLs and displacement, so I go 26/16 to catch him in the corner, and he moves about 24 hexes again. He turns up to avoid getting totally boxed in as I chase and launch all 4 of my shuttles in the middle of the map somewhere. I launch my last pseudo at him as we close and he shoots some P2s at my #2 as he flies by for about 15 damage. I cross onto his rear panels at R3 and fire S and F bolts and 4xP1. Both bolts hit, and I do a handfull of internals, getting a phaser and fluff. I soon HET, and fire more phasers into him ending up doing about 17 internals in total (2xP1, a panel, 2 warp, and the rest hull/cargo). He runs off as I slow down, toggles his panels to get 11 power back in his batteries and making some room in the back. My shuttles fire a bunch of P3's at him from range, but they all miss.

T8: I have zero plasma ready this turn, and he is loaded for bear. I also have to rearm everything on my ship. I go 31/17/12, he goes 15/24 or so. We close, me angling for another phaser strike on his rears, but it doesn't work out. I have the choice of taking his shot of 2xTRL/4xP2 at R1 on my full #1 or 2xTRL/6xP2 at R1 on my 18 box #6, so I give him my #1. He announces displacement, shoots, does 8 in (2 warp, a P3, and hull), and successfully jumps away. I hold fire. He runs off, and I turn around to intercept him. He runs through my shuttles, overrunning two of them and killing one and crippling the other with his last P2s, but the survivor shoots his rear panels for 4 as he flies off.

T9: I have 2 plasmas on line this turn, but no #1 shield. I move 29/17/12 and chase. He moves 21 all turn. I get R5 on his rears by impulse 9, and shoot--S+F bolt and 4xP1. One bolt hits, and I do another handfull of internals, blowing off more warp. I turn, fire another P1 in for a couple more internals (he is now out 4xP2, 2 rear panels, and 6-8 warp). To avoid more of this, he HETs at me and comes in for a close range phaser strike. I wiggle around trying to get on his rear panels again, but fail, and end up eating a T-bomb on my down #1 for 10 in (2 phasers and a couple more warp). He gets to R2, shoots 2xP2 and 2xP3 (indicating he is low on power...) on my #5, knocking about half off. We end the turn at R2, his front facing my damaged #5.

T10: I go 0/8 with some TACs, finish up an enveloper and an F torp, and rearm everything. He goes 9 all turn. Impulse 1 we just stare at each other. Impulse 2 I TAC my enveloper into arc and launch. He fires his 2xTRL and 4xP2 at my #4, doing about 6 in. The enveloper is about to hit the next impulse, so he successfully displaces away again. I speed up to 8 on impulse 8, and as he is moving 9 all turn, the plasma wheels around and catches him for 44 damage, doing another 12 or so internals, blowing off most of his power. He throws out the white flag before I fire my phasers through his rear panels.

A very wacky game, and I luckily hit with 3 of 4 bolts.

-Peter

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, June 20, 2008 - 09:07 am: Edit

Sometimes luck is kind.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, June 20, 2008 - 09:59 am: Edit

Well, ya know, 3 out of 4 on 1-4's is only, like, slightly above average (and 2 out of 4 is slightly below average. Silly not having an even cut off there...). I'm sure someone smarter can me can point out the exact odds.

But so far I'm 4/5 bolts in the last 2 GH game. I'd better stop bolting :-)

-Peter

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, June 20, 2008 - 10:35 am: Edit

Sometimes you feel like a bolt... sometimes you don't!

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Friday, June 20, 2008 - 03:18 pm: Edit

You can always count on Peter for quality write ups. Good luck the rest of the way and keep em comin!

By William T Wilson (Sheap) on Friday, June 20, 2008 - 09:47 pm: Edit

39.5% chance of hitting 3 out of 4 bolts (and 19.8% chance of hitting all 4).

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 12:45 pm: Edit

More non SFBOL Battle reports, but I figure here is as good a place as any to post them.

Gold Hat Top 8
Peter Bakija (GRN) over Tim Linden (ORI HgHbb)

T1: I go 16/26 with an enveloper, he doubles both engines and goes 31 all turn. At about R12, I launch the enveloper, and he turns out to run the plasma out a bit. I turn in and bank towards him. Near the end of the turn, he turns in, eats the enveloper for about 20 after phasers, and then HETs at me to come in for a R8 shot, launching a couple drones as he goes. I count out the hexes, see the future, and launch 50 plasma at him. He counts out the hexes, says "Huh. That's not good...", and shoots me at R8 with 4xP1, HB, OL HB. Both HB miss and I take some damage on my #5. He slips away from the plasma, and we end the turn at about R8 still, my #5 to his #6, with my 50 points of plasma right off his #6 shield, which will hit on impulse 1.

T2: I go 17/26, he goes 0/10, doubles all engines, and puts a huge brick on the #6. Impulse 1 the plasma hits, the S is fake, and the F vanishes into the reinforcement. He TACs towards me and speeds up to 10, I turn in for an overrun or something, shooting down his drones. I close in, launch my S torp at him, he eats it on his #6 knocking most of it off after the reinforcement left over, but I can't fire my phasers on the same shield do to where we are. I move around behind him outside of R2 (avoiding P3 abuse) and shoot phasers through his #5, hitting a drone rack and some hull. Next impulse, he HETs to avoid me HETing and phasering him to death through his down shield, and so I just fly off. He launches a drone at me, I launch my last F torp at him, which he gatlings and eats for about 7 damage on his #1. We end the turn at about R7.

T3: I go 12/24/17, he goes 10/19 or so and doubles both engines. I shoot down his drone and just run towards his side of the map, and he follows, figuring he'll get a good shot eventually. By the end of the turn, he catches me against the wall, and on i32, fires his 4xP1 and 2xOL HB at R5. Both HBs hit and I take about a dozen damage through my #3, but don't lose anything real vital (a couple phasers, 3 power). He also launches a drone.

T4: I go 17/12/8. He doubles both warp and starts at 19. Impulse 1 I launch a couple shuttles which shoot him for some damage before they get killed by the gatling. Impulse 2, I launch my enveloped B torp, so he declares emergency deceleration. I fire my phasers at his #1 for some damage that sticks, and slip along the wall to stay out of R2. He stops, weasels the torp, and I get away unscathed for the rest of the turn, ending the turn at about R11 by using some batteries to accelerate to 16 for the last half of the turn.

T5: I go 16, he goes 10 or something. I come back around to shoot him, as I have an S and F armed, he only doubled one engine and probably didn't overload his HBs in EA. As I close in, he emergency decels again. I get to R2 off his weak #6, fire a bunch of phasers and bolt my S torp. He blasts me in the #1 with 4xP1, about 6 P3s, HB, OL HB. My S bolt misses, but I still do a few internals anyway. He does about 30 in, killing a couple phasers, an F torp, and a bunch of power. I get myself in a situation where I need to launch my last F torp to force a weasel so he doesn't smack me with a type IV drone, so I do that. He weasels. Next impulse, I move off his down #5 and fire 4xP1 through the hole and the weasel shift, doing another dozen in, hitting some power and some P3s. I move off, he doesn't ever TAC, and I end the turn at about R5 off his down #5, but he gets a box back at the end of the turn.

T6: I go 16/8 with no plasma ready, he goes 0/10 and is kinda low on power (maybe 32-34 with both warp doubled?). I have a ready P1 to try and shoot through his 1 box shield, but figure it is reinforced. Or at least will be with batteries if I roll well, so I hold fire. He TACs around and follows me along as I try and get a good phaser shot on him, firing 3xP1 at his #1 along the way. I launch a couple shuttles at him, which shoot him for a couple internals before he kills them. As he closes in, I slip to get R4 centerlined, my scuffed up #4 to his almost down #1. We fire bearing phasers. I take a few internals through my #4 and bust through his #1, do about 10 internals and blow off his shuttle bay. Tim resigns, as on the next turn, I'll have an enveloper to launch at him from close range while he is at max speed 10, has no weasels and the enveloper will totally demolish him while his return fire would leave me a wreck but not kill me. This thankfully saves us from an adjudication which was coming at the end of the turn.

-Peter

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 01:16 pm: Edit

I took good notes on my Origins battles, and will be typing up battle reports. However, I'm going to wait for the final round against Paul Scott. If I beat him, it will be in Captain's Log, so I'll wait for now. If I lose, then I will print them up here.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 01:17 pm: Edit

Gold Hat Top 4
Paul Scott (LDR) over Peter Bakija (GRN)

T1: I go 26/16 with an enveloper. He goes 15/28. At about R12, I launch the enveloper and turn out, trying to avoid R8. He speeds up to 30, gets R8 off my #5, fires 4xOL, 6xP1, hits with only 2xOL but rolls well on phasers, knocking down my #5 exactly after battery reinforcement. He turns and runs from the enveloper, I turn in to pursue.

T2: I go 17/26. He goes 28 most of the turn. He turns in, eating the enveloper for about 20. I come in and he announces ESGs. At R5, I launch 50 plasma at him, so he turns off and cancels the ESGs. I fire 4xP1 at his #5, knocking most of it off. Next impulse, I HET to avoid him getting on my down #5 and get the rest of my phasers and plasma F in arc. He considers HETing into the plasma which is right behind him, but instead turns away, giving me his #4 at R5 centerlined. I decide to get lucky, fire the 4xP1 and bolt my F. The bolt hits and I knock his #4 down. He stops a few internals with batteries, and I get to do 2 in, hoping for a phaser hit (as it would have to be a gatling). Or two :-) Instead I get a hull and a control and we fly away from each other, my 50 plasma hot on the LDR's tail. Late in the turn, he HETs around the plasma to start moving back to the center of the map, and we end the turn at about R12 with my S torp right off his down #4, but he gatlinged it down to exactly 1 point.

T3: I move 24/17, he goes 21/21. The plasma hits him for 1 damage, he discovers it is real, and he stops the damage with general. I run towards the opposite corner of the map and he chases me down. As he closes in, I use some batteries to speed up to 24 to delay the inevitable. As I get boxed in the corner, he raises ESGs and prepares to ram. Seeing that I'm about to get totally creamed by an ESG ram and phaser blast, and I can't even get some shuttles in the way, I crash into the wall and stop, launching a couple shuttles to absorb damage. He hits R3, knocks most of my #3 down, but holds fire as he wants to wait to R2 for the gatlings, and I can TAC a new shield the next impulse. Impulse 32, he comes into R2, and I TAC my unscathed #2 to face him. We both fire all bearing phasers. I take 20 internals, he takes about 8. I lose a couple phasers and some power, he loses a couple phasers.

T4: I have a plasma coming on line, but am going to take 4xOL through my down shield on impulse 1. I figure that my only chance is to score an enveloper hit, as he has a down #1, a 1 box (repaired earlier) #4, and a mostly down #5. At R2, I need a lot of tractor power, so I put 20 into tractor, arm the enveloper, pay for a couple TACs. This means I don't get to rearm my phasers (I have a couple power in the capacitor, but not much) and I stop arming my other plasmas. Dubious, but I really wanted to tractor him. We both start at speed zero. I tractor him, which he doesn't fight, and I launch the enveloper. He hits with 4xOL and messes me up good. The enveloper hits for about 20 internals, blowing off a disruptor, ESG, and all his P1s. We both TAC. We stare at each other for most of the turn. Impulse 32, I fire a couple phasers at him, and he gatlings half my #1 off.

T5: I have nothing good armed this turn and figure if I stay sitting at R2 from the LDR, I'm certainly going to be killed. I rearm my phasers, start arming my S torps, pay for a couple TACs and accelerate to speed -8 in the middle of the turn in an attempt to open the range. Impulse 1, he blasts my #1 with 3xOL and a repaired P2. Two overloads hit and I take a few more internals. I TAC my up #6 to him and he launches a couple shuttles at me. I cripple 1 of them as they close, but they both get P3 shots on down shields for a few more internals before I kill them both with P3s. He holds his facing gatling, and when my speed change gets closer, I consider decelling to avoid showing my down #5 to him so I can get away (as I'm against the wall and need to TAC before backing up), but figure I'll be certainly dead in that case. I TAC my down #5 to him, announce speed -8, and he fires his gatling. After the smoke clears, all my weapons have been blown off my ship, so I surrender.

-Peter

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 01:22 pm: Edit

Sounds like a good game, Peter. You think his mistake was on T1 when he felt he had to go 0 on T2? Seems to me that had he been able to keep his speed up the game would have gone very differently (not necessarily win for Tim, just differently). Other comments?

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 01:27 pm: Edit

Peter - request for comment was obviously for game v. Tim. Not really fair to comment on Paul's play till after the final round.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 01:31 pm: Edit

Tim was like "Huh. I should have HETed one impulse later..." which would have made a great deal of difference (as he would have not ended the turn R1 from all that plasma). And both his HBs missing didn't help. But even if 1 of them hit, I wouldn't have taken any internals (although if both hit, the game might have certainly gone the other way). But yeah, that he had to stop on T2 really pushed the game in my direction, as I could avoid his gatling for the most of the game (he only shot me with it once, and that was because I decided to let him by coming into R2) due to my speed advantage.

If my S bolt hit on T5, that was game right there (as the extra 15 internals would have devastated him at that point), but the miss was, at the least, just, and the game was up in the air until the last shot where I lucked into his last shuttle with my last internal, at which point we both agreed that the game was over as there was just nothing he could do to avoid getting demolished by the enveloper, and his R3 return fire, even on my down shield, just wasn't going to do enough damage to kill me.

-Peter

By Chris Proper (Duke) on Sunday, November 16, 2008 - 01:44 pm: Edit

RAT 29 Duke (LYR) vs. Kludge(ISC)

Ken was on some crazy meds last week, so we mixed it up today.

Turn 1
I decide to go with an off-beat opening because BANZAI!!! attacks just seem to get me killed. I hold 2 SS and start a third, plus a ww. Generally, I see g-torps early and want to run them out, so I plot 4 standard disruptors and cap off the ESG capacitors.
First half of the turn zips by, with a g-torp launch on 17. He turns off on 23 and since I'm able to duck out of his FA I keep coming. On 25 I announce both ESGs. I take the g-torp on the #2 for 20 on imp 26, and he launches a second g-torp as a chaser.
On 27 we both change speed to 26 giving me movement precedence for the rest of the turn. He can keep me outside radius 3 but I can make range 4 if I suck up a second g-torp.
On 29 the ESGs come up and he launches a shuttle to blunt them. His DF hits my weakened #2 shield for 3 internals after I use a battery for reinforcement. The third hit is ESG #1 *pop*. That's OK, the third internal is ALWAYS an ESG. On 30 he launches the rear f-torp and I take another p-1 on the down shield for 4 internals. *pop* goes the second ESG. "Oh, that rib always breaks."
On 31 I reach range 4 and dump batteries into overloads. Burning out the UIM is a questionable call that seems validated when both overloads roll "5". Turns out Kludge had an off-beat opening too, and I find 11 reinforcement scoring 6 hull and a warp engine.
On the last impulse he turns in and gives me range 2. The second g-torp is fake and he launches the real one plus a shuttle. I fire my remaining p-1s down the hexspine and hit his #1 for half a dozen.

Turn 2
I stop and overload figuring I'll weasel off 40 plasma and shoot after my weapons clear. He goes 26 giving me the down #6 so I drop my #6 and we swap H&R raids. I figure the f-torps might be unguarded and I want to eliminate his ppd padding. Also I think I can hit a battery and prevent some trouble later. Nothing breaks but a bunch off space marines get killed. I launch a ww, he zaps me through my down shield for some hull. The weasel dies and I take collateral on the #4. He overruns me and shoots the deactivated shield for a few more hull.
I clean up his shuttles and shoot his #4 when my guns cycle, spending the balance of my batteries on a 4th overload. No UIM this time and 3(!) of the 4 miss. No reinforcement and I do 5 more internals. He HETs back and I tac to put him on an up shield. His f-torp kills me since I'm out of tacs and can't turn a new shield.

While writing this report I noticed a problem with the game. More to come.