Archive through March 29, 2010
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Archive through March 29, 2010
BanTheFed ( Vari ) vs BaldnForty ( Klingon ) game in progress.
Two turns complete so far.
Turn 1:
Vari speed was 16/28/26
Klingon speed was 16/31
Both ships closed, impulse 4, Klingon launched the SP with six drones, 2 fast, 4 medium.
Impulse 13, SP blossumed.
Impulse 25, Klingon fired 2 UIM-OL, 2 standard, and 4 phaser 1 at range 7. On the front shield.
Dice rolling is severely weird this game. One volley is 6, 6, 5, 6, so it was re-rolled as 1, 1, 6, 2.... sigh... so re-rolled again, since this is a playtest game.
Any case, the impulse 25 volley, takes reduces the Vari front shield to about 20 boxes.
Impulse 27, the Vari tractors both the 32 speed scatter pack drones.
Impulse 32, Vari, fires 4 PP-3 at 2 drones, killing them both.
Turn 2:
Vari speed is 26/20 and hits the wall on impulse 26.
Klingon speed is 15/10/9
Impulse 4, Klingon launches 3 drones.
and fires a P1 at the Vari front shield range 3, this brings the klingon front shield down to about 15 points.
Impulse 6 Klingon HETs on a non-movement impulse to bring the offside P1 and 4 disruptors to bear.
Klingon fires 4 UIM-OL and 4 P1 at Vari getting a 26 through the number 1 shield.
Impulse 8 Klingon fires 2 P2 and a P3 at range 1 on Vari #2 shield doing 13 points. Later in the turn that shield took a dogfight drone for 2 points of damage and 5 points from running into the wall.
Impulse 9, the Vari slipped into the hex with the Klingon and fired 5 PP-1 and 3 PP-3 at range 0.
The resulting volley did 39 in through the #3 shield including 11 power, 5 batteries, a disruptor, 3 phasers, and 2 drones... Owie...
Impulse 10 Klingon fired two P2 and one P3 at range 2 on the Vari rear shield for nine points of damage.
Currently, range is 11 with the Vari rear shield facing the Klingon #1. Vari is facing the wall.
Good battle so far, Klingon has taken more damage, but the Vari is missing the #1 and most of the #2 shields. Klingon front shields are pristine.
This one could still go either way. I'm happy with the way the Vari is performing currently. It is putting up a stiff fight against a powerful opponent without being overwhelming.
2.13 bakija (chlorophon) over baldandforty (ATC)
T1: I go 15/30 (only 15 for a few impulses), hold 2 SCs (leaving the third empty), and arm all three of my EHs at 4 power. ATC goes 27, I think all of the turn, and reinforces his shields a bunch, leaving the disruptors empty. We close quickly. I don't turn to avoid getting killed by the web caster, so we get to R5, #1 to #1 soon. I fire my LS EH and phasers, hitting with the EH and doing ok with phasers, knocking off a bunch of shields. Next impulse, I turn F, cutting across his #1 at R3. I blast him with 2 more EHs and 4 more QP1s. He fires back with 8xP1 and his web fist. I hit with both EHs, stripping more shields and do about 15 internals with my QP1s. He hits with his fist, and I take about 15 internals. I lose my 2x FH QP2s (that I fired at some point in there) and my empty SC. He loses a couple points of power and 3x P1 as I'm centerlined on his #1. Next impulse he turns E. I avoid the P3s on my down shield, launch one of my SCs to make his turnging around difficult, and slip behind him. He eventually fires his 4xP3 at my #6, knocking off half of it. I turn A and he eventually turns D to avoid the asteroid hexes. We end the turn at about R15.
T2: I go 30/20 most of the turn, rearm my phasers, rearm my fired SC, and fix 2 boxes on my #2 and my 2xQP2s as QP3s. He goes 18 all turn and rearms phasers, and presumably his WC, and fixes a box on his #1. I turn and run towards the upper right corner, he wheels around. He eventually turns his down #1 at me at about R17, so I fire 4xQP1s at him for 3 damage. He doesn't block any, and loses another phaser and a disruptor. Next impulse, I turn A and fire 4 more QP1s at him at R16, do 3 more in, but hit all hull. I kinda run A and eventually turn F, he comes in behind me, keeping me off his #1. We end the turn at about R12.
T3: I go 14/25/14, rearm my phasers, hold my 2x SCs, and arm my FH and LS EH at 4 power each. He goes 27 (all turn?). As we close, I fire my LS EH at 7, hit, and knock down his #1 and all but 1 box on his #2. I fire an SC to make a wall to avoid pursuit, but he aggressively HETs towards me (keeping me off his down #1), so I end up slipping to his side of the growing asteroid wall. I stay out of his FA and get to R3 of his 1 box #2. I fire my 4 power EH and 4xQP1s, hit with the EH (I'm 5-5 in this game, but 3 of them were in the 1-5 to hit zone), and finish up his front shields and do about 14 more internals from the phasers and one of the EH elements through his down #1. Next impulse I HET B to stay out of his FA and get away. He fires his phasers at my #3, knocking half of it off, and resigns. I have a mostly down #2 and half strength #3 and #6 and about 15 internals. He has a down #1, #2, mostly down #6, and about 30 internals. He'll never be able to get me in his FA again without taking internals, so he throws in the towel.
I suspect that if Barry armed his disruptors on the first turn instead of reinforcing, I would have been much worse off with the R3 exchange on T1, and he wouldn't have been that much worse off (his #1/2/6 each took 24 damage on T1, which he blocked about 13 of total, but if he had 3xOLs to shoot me with at R3, I take 16-24 more internals, and he only takes about 5 more internals).
The current version of the Chlorophon with the 2 extra QP2s FH seems reasonably good--fast, shooty, takes damage really well, but I suspect that it still will have a lot of trouble with heavy seeking weapon ships (big plasma, Kzinti, Aux, Shark). The Tholian, having no seeking weapons and not a really heavy alpha, is probably fighting an uphill battle vs the Chlorophon.
I would agree with Peter's writeup.
I knew that I had to take out the phon quickly or the game would have been over quickly. I also knew that the phon's typical tactic is the fire at range and stay away while running at high speed. Since, given a few turns he will slowly chew away any opponents shields.
The Tholian depends on the fact that most ships will try to close with it, and the Tholian can arrange a firing pass where it can fire to good effect, while denying the opponent the chance to respond.
This just won't work against the phon. The phon's big weakness is that if it gets cornered, it can't concentrate a lot of damage output on a single shield at short range. In other words, get close and mug him.
So, I needed to hobble his running game. My plan for turn 1 was to wait until he turned and then dump a breakdown web in front of him forcing him to HET.
Well, Peter just didn't play along with that strategy. He just came straight at me without turning. By the time he turned, there was no way to plant the web in front of him without turning most of my phasers away from him.
So, I unloaded the web fist and 8 P1 at him hoping to at least blow through a shield and do some internals.
Sadly, the phon is the most damage resistant ship in the game and I did very little to him.
I had not counted on his EH doing that much shield damage to me. They are brutal.
I would have done better if I had armed the disruptors and done more internals, but I don't think it would have been near enough to win the game for me.
As for heavy seekers being dangerous to the phon. I'm not so sure. With his speed he can accumulate a large number of drones and/or plasmas and then run them through SC which is one of the only non-phaser items that can damage plasma!!!
Barry wrote:
>>As for heavy seekers being dangerous to the phon. I'm not so sure. With his speed he can accumulate a large number of drones and/or plasmas and then run them through SC which is one of the only non-phaser items that can damage plasma!!!>>
I think more the point is that the seeking weapon ship will just run it down and anchor/kill the thing. Like, if you were a Kzinti in yesterday's game and put 6 power in tractors on T1, you would have grabbed me and fed me the type IVs, which I can't reliably shoot down.
If I'm just running from drones, yeah, the SC can kill them all. But if the ship is on top of me with tractor power, the Phon is likely breaking in half.
For drones launched at a distance, the SC can do wonders, but is not reliable. Unless you arrange things just right, the drones will hit at most one hex of spores. If they are positioned so that they can follow each other through the spores, if the lead drone survives, the spores do no damage. On the other hand, a few bad die rolls and the entire drone wave could implode.
If the Phon can arrange for the drone wave to go through the line of spores the long way, he is in great shape.
With plasma torpedoes, again, you could see a torpedo or even a whole stack go through unscathed, although that is much less likely than with medium drones. And again, if you can get them to go through the spore line the long way, they likely will be obliterated, but that's more difficult to do than with drones because of the higher speed of the plasma and the fact that they tend to be launched at closer range. Still, the SC could be a good counter to an EPT ballet.
Andy wrote:
>>Still, the SC could be a good counter to an EPT ballet.>>
Oh, sure, but why would a big plasma ship try an EPT ballet against a ship that can move speed 30 most of the time, and will do far more shield damage in the long tun than EPTs will? Big Plasma clearly just needs to go for an anchor.
The major counters to the anchor are.
1. Massive crunch like 4 OL photons.
2. Web.
3. Seekers of your own.
The phon has none of these.
I suppose that another possible tactic for the tholian, is to also go for the anchor on turn 1.
Hit with a massive phaser barage on turn 1, and on turn 2, hit with a chaser of phasers, disruptors and fist. Maybe a couple of suicide shuttles.
That might have worked. Hadn't thought of anchoring. For heaven's sake I was Tholian.
Yeah, I was actually concerned about the anchor--when we were at range 2 on the first turn and you shot me in the #6, I saved batteries just to fight a tractor. I *really* didn't want to start turn 2 at range 2 from the Tholian. You just TAC around and blast me with 3xOL, 5xP1, 4xP3. And the fist. That would be bad.
Sadly for me, I didn't think of anchoring in the Tholian until after the game. Need to spend more time thinking of tactics before the game rather than just jumping in.
've created a couple of new Maesron Missile types.
Here are the rules.
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AfB8N-Hr7tCIZGhka214OThfMTBkdzhtdjlmaA&hl=en
They are in place on the new Maesron Tourney cruiser for SFBOL
BanTheFed (Vari) defeats BaldnForty ( Klingon ) in 3 turns.
And my unbroken losing streak continues 
The Vari is now the penultimate knife fighter of the Omega octant.
Any case, I made a serious tactical fault with the Klingon at the end of turn 2 of getting to range 2. Range 2 and under is where the Vari gets really powerful.
Sadly, I don't remember much about turn 1 or turn 2 other than the Vari hit the map edge near the end of turn 2, I think he weaseled at that point.
Either way, somewhere in there, I took out his front shield and he took out my #3 shield.
Turn 3, I followed him at speed 12 and he did a speed 0, 10, 9, 10 plot. On impulse 32, I made the mistake of slipping into range 2, where I was in his FA arc and at range 2.
At that point he took the opportunity to maul me with 3 OL PB and all his bearing phasers.
I conceded at that point because.
a) I was crippled.
b) He had two more PB coming up on impulse 1 of Turn 4.
c) I had a down shield facing him.
d) He had an up but badly damaged shield facing me.
The next turn, he had sufficient power to sit and spin, hit me on impulse 1, and and than cycle his weapons and hit me again. With only about 12 power left and mostly empty phaser caps, I wasn't going to hurt him very much.
In the post game chat, Marcus and I agreed that some minor nerfing of the Vari was in order, even though a large part of the reason I lost was because of the use of inferior tactics.
I'm going to remove two of the PP-3 boxes on the ship.
Barry, see your post from Feb 6 for the description of the first 2 turns.
I agree that the Vari can be a viscious knife fighter, it just has to get there without getting blasted on the way in. I felt that the 10 point phaser capacitor (along with the 13 total phasers!) may have been a bit too much. I only armed my particle beams on turn 3 as my plan was to get as close to him as possible. Turn 1 I had a 10 point brick on my #1 along with some tractor, a SS and a WW. The Vari can do the brick thing well when not arming PBs. The particle probes can be particularly nasty once the opponent has a down shield.
Good game Barry!
The Vari flows easily when kinfe fighting?
Laszlo (Koligahr) vs. Andromedan (LYR)
Did one turn. (Due to time zone differences, we are doing short sessions.)
Koligahr went 16/24. Lyran went 16/26. We closed. He turned in. He lined up range 4 on 1.29, centerlined on my #1, with me on the oblique off his #2. He fed me 2 OL, 2 std, and 4 p1s, hitting with all disruptors, and doing 5 in (4 hull, 1 warp) after my 5 reinforcement. I fired the left side weapons, ACG, AC, 2p1s, 1p3, hitting with the ACG and 1 p1, for 4 damage on the #2, 8 damage spread around.
The next impulse, I went forward while he slipped into range 2, centerline. He announced ESGs. He fired 2p1s, getting 7 more internals (ACG, AC, p3, 2 warp), while I fired the remaining 3 ACs, 6 p1s, and p3, hitting with all 3 ACs, doing 69 damage. This killed an ESG, disruptor, 2p1s, 2p3s, 9 power, 3 batteries, all hull.
I then turned off, and we ended the turn at range 3, with his remaining ESG set to come up on 2.2.
My approach was not well-timed, but slipping in was a mistake for him, as it doubled my phaser yield. However, his disruptors will be available on 2.5, while my ACs will not be available until 2.30.
Andy,
The Vari can be quite the saucy opponent in close.
Eol (Trobrin) over Eric_The_Silent (Gorn) in 3.
T1: I plot fast->faster to get the middle, he plots medium->faster. I slip towards him centerline and he chucks out a EPT around r15 or so and turns away. I move to r11, realize I can't get any closer without eating the torp for a 40, and fire a single IB (miss) and launch the heavy to keep him away; I then turn away and run out torp. We each phaser each others torps and I eat the EPT for 5 on 2.1 (16 moves, -25 from phasers, reinf the 5). He eats mine around 2.5 or so for 6 (-11 phasers, 15 moves).
T2: We both plot medium and do a circle ending centerline on 2.32 at range 6. Around 2.20 or so I launch a IT-L and he launches another EPT. On 32 he fires 6 ph1's for 8 dmg (ja some atrocious rolling) and I fire 1 IB, 6 ph1, and 2 pr3 for 39 IIRC netting 4 in after SR (3xhull, 1 ph3). Both torps on the board about 4 away from each others ship.
T3: We both expect each other to park and ww so we both plot movement. He goes fast->slow and plans anchor, I go medium->faster with a HET allocated to run out his EPT. On 3.1 I fast charge the T1 IB and do 16 more in (lots of hull, 1xF torp, 3xph1, 1 power). On 3.2 I HET and he concedes as I will get away and run his torp out, he won't be able to anchor me, and he will eat my IT-L for 10 more in with no chance to ww, ED, or avoid it on his down shield. If he pursues will simply launch my other IT-L.
Overall I think it was a fair game, you basically just fly the Trobrin like the ISC; just like you don't EPT ballet the ISC you don't EPT ballet the Trobrin. Tom played a good game just got killed by the rules (he was unaware you could fast-charge a IB in two turns) and made the mistake giving me centerline on 2.32 when he easily could have slipped out avoiding the only hot IB I had and 2 PR1's.
Was fun and short of the mistake that killed him on 2.32 was anybody's game and well played.
Laszlo (Koligahr) over Andromedan (LYR)
Turn 2, I went 28/15, trying to stay away from the ESG, which came up on 2.2. I recharged phasers and batteries, left the ACs empty, as they would not be ready until 2.30, anyway. Paul went 15/26/15, no disruptors armed. He turned right and circled around, showing his down shield at range 10, but I declined the sniping shot. He then turned back left, with me circling in behind. The range stayed open, and we both held fire.
Turn 3, I went 17 and he went 14. We closed, obliquely. Finally, on 3.31, we hit range 3, and both fired. I fired 3 double ACs, 6p1s and a p3 at his #6. One p1 missed but everything else hit, for 57 damage. (I made a mistake in the game and said 61 [sorry, Paul], but I don't think that made a difference in the outcome.) The resultant 29 internals left him with 18 power, 2 disruptors, and 5 p1s.
His return fire of 6p1s, 1p3 and 1 standard did 25 damage, taking down most of my #2. He conceded at that point.
In summary, I think these two ships are actually very evenly matched. The lopsided result was more a function of Paul being unfamiliar with Koligahr and uncomfortable in the Lyran. Both ships have the same power and nearly identical phaser suites. The Koligahr ACs have more crunch, but shorter range, a 32-impulse delay, and split arcs. While ESGs are difficult to use, I think they are more useful than the ACGs in this matchup. I think if the Lyran fights at range 4-5, and uses the ESGs to discourage range 3, he does fine.
As an aside, while chatting at the end of the game, I rolled dice to see what would have happened turn 1 if Paul had slipped out to range 4 instead of slipping into range 2. I rolled 6,4,5,6,6,6,6,4 for 8 p1s, which would have been 8 damage. At range 2, the yield would be 40, regardless of how silly the roll.
One remark on the last turn. Andy was running up the middle coming out to the side, while I was running up the side trying to avoid getting in close and getting whacked by the phasers.
Ken (Maghadim) over Peter (Lyran) in three:
No real gripes, Ken out played me and I made some serious tactical errors I wouldn't do again in the first two turns (never flew against the Maghadim before).
One item I did noticed is it does seem to have a bit to many lasers .. would consider dropping -1 ML RX and -1 ML FA (or -1 RS/LS) .. 10 phaser slots is a bit much considering that's 10 ph1 equiv or 6/8, 7/6, 8/4, 9/2 which is far better than pretty much anybody else by far especially give the arc's. Still I am biased as I lost here so take it with a grain of salt 
Also I would recommend making the KSM's fall under the same limits as CPM/AFM. A Lyran is completely immune to MD's in a way that it's not against drone users as 6+6+4+4 > 20 whereas 2xKSM+2xstandard are not.
Peter, the KSMs are limited because they're very hard to stop for anyone who doesn't have ESGs. They are ALMOST more efficient to stop with tractor beams (at 2 each) than they are to shoot down (as it takes a phaser-1/ph-3 pair to stop one reliably). Indeed, if labs came before tractors, they would be tractor magnets every time.
The Lyran should do very well against the MD races. It's a bad matchup for them, but not an overwhelmingly bad one. Mass drivers can still be used to batter down an ESG and prevent an overrun or create opportunities for suicide shuttles.
As to the lasers:
10 laser hits is what the Maghadim has, but it doesn't - quite - have 10 ph-1s.
While I rate the overall performance of a ML as being a ph-1 equivalent, that's factoring in the range 12 bracket and the range 20 bracket on a large map.
In terms of raw one turn firepower, other than range 6, a phaser-1 is at least a sixth of a point to a full point better per weapon than an ML is, and this is markedly so at range 5 on in. (At rage 4, you're doing an almost exactly an extra point of damage per phaser.)
So, assuming the ESG eats the MDs and negates them, and the Maghadim has two MLs in the bearing side option mounts:
Forward oblique, range 6:
Maghadim has 3 weapons that will be fired as 2 OLs and 1 standard on an opening pass, or 3 OLs if the Maghadim ends the prior turn with good odds of hitting range 8.
Lyran has 4 disruptors that will do 12, 18 or 24 reliably. I'd call the heavy weapon damage mildly in favor of the Lyran.
Lasers: Maghadim does 24 for the lasers, Lyran is an idiot to fire at range 6, but does about 14. Laser/phaser exchange - about +9 or +10 for the Maghadim. Lyran takes about 12+24=36 damage on the facing shield, and peaks at taking a whopping 42. Lyran does 18+14=32. Exchange is heavily in favor of the Maghadim, but not game endingly in favor.
Let's step one range in - range 5.
Maghadim: Heavy weapons get to the point where you can expect two facing and better than even odds of 3 facing, and two opposite with about 1 in 3 odds of getting 3 elements on the opposite. Call it 19 on facing damage, and 12 on the opposite.
Maghadim lasers remain at 24. This is a 43 point alpha strike, with a peak of 50 points.
Lyran does 21 from phasers, and the same 12-18-24 spread for disruptors. Call it a 39 point alpha strike - a 4 point delta on average. It's also got a peak of about 45 points, versus 50 in facing damage. Lyran does lose half a rear shield to this, which is not insignificant.
Advantage - very slightly Maghadim.
Let's look at range 4.
Lyran's phasers do 23 damage to the Maghadim's lasers doing 24. Maghadim weapons remain unchanged - call it 19 facing and 12 opposite. Lyran is probably UIMing it, so will do 24 facing and excellent odds of doing 32. Call 47 on average, for facing damage, and good odds of getting 55.
Advantage - Lyran. Maghadim still does 43.
Range 3: Maghadim heavy weapons go up significantly here, gaining 2 damage per OL and much better accuracy. You can reasonably expect to take 18 on a rear shield and should expect 27 on the facing. Laers remain at 24. Damage gets into the 51 point range for the Maghadim for facing, and it will be removing most of a shield on the other side of the ship.
Lyran's disruptors are at the same 24-32 split (call it 24), lyran phasers are reliably doing 26 points. Facing shield damage is equal, but overall damage favors the Maghadim.
If the Maghadim does not have two bearing MLs, the alpha strikes come out within a point of each other at ranges 6, 5 and 3, and the Lyran blows it away at range 4...and a Maghadim who goes all MLs is going to suffer against drone users and even more than usual against plasma users.
It IS a powerful phaser suite, but it's also a power inefficient one.
For that alpha strike, the Lyran is spending 6 points of phaser capacitor, versus 8 for the Maghadim, and 16 for disruptors versus roughly 16-18 for heavy weapons, and the Lyran has 1 more point of power.
So, I get to spend 3-4 more points of power to do comparable damage to facing shields and anywhere from annoyance to dangerous damage to an opposite shield facing.
If you put that power difference into shield reinforcement, you'd even it out in most cases.
The Lyran and Maghadim both have powerful phaser suites, as does the ArcheoTholian and Seltorian I'd rate all of those ships as top of the heap for phaser suites. The Maghadim cannot get more than 8 medium lasers on a single target, and will likely only have 7. (Twin lasers are critical for dealing with drones and your only saving grace against plasma.)
Guys, this tournament seems to be stalled here...
Any games pending?
2.11 bakija (GRN) over BaldnForty (MAS)
T1: I don't really have any idea what Barry's ship does, but I figure it is kind of like a Fed that can launch a few drones. I also have a wrong SSD on my side, that indicates that he only has 30 warp, instead of 32, which makes me think he can't HET most of the game :-) Thus, I arm an enveloper, rolling delay the other torp, hold a suicide shuttle (for anti-missile duty), and move 26 till 24 then 16. Barry goes some sort of 26/27 plot and holds 4x 4 power TGs. We fly up the map and at about R15, Barry fires his LF/L TG at my #1, which hits for 5. Next impulse I launch my enveloper, and then turn off. Barry turns in and closes, slipping away to keep from getting the plasma too close. He fires 3 more TGs at about R11 at my #5, hitting for 15 more damage. He turns off and runs from the plasma, I turn in to chase. Impulse 32, he launches a TM.
T2: He is mostly committed to running into the corner at this point, and used his TGs, so I arm my rolling S torp as a standard torp, move 16 for a bit and then 24 the rest of the turn, and put 6 power in tractors, planning on tractoring the missiles that get in my way. Barry goes 27 most of the turn and arms stuff. Impulse 1, he launches a second missile. He keeps running into the corner (he can't get out at this point without a HET) and I close in. His 2 missiles get to range 1, so I tractor them both, and discover that they are the phaser defense missiles by them only having 2 anti-tractor. Barry runs out the enveloper, I speed up to 24, and we start closing in earnest. Barry is against the map edge moving D, I'm closing in facing B--when we get to about R8 with a good plasma trajectory, I launch an S and F torp at him that will hit unless he HETs or decels. He fires 6xPW3s at my F torp off his 2 missiles and we keep closing, but I fall out of his FA quickly. I get R3 on his #3 shield, fire 4xP1 and an F bolt. The bolt hits and I do 2 internals. Next impulse I turn north to get more P1's in play and Barry gambles that the S is a pseudo and turns into my plasmas with his #1. The S is real, and he takes 8 more in. I eventually get 4 more P1's into his down #3 and he fires a few PW1's at me, but he takes 17 in (resulting in him being down a TG, both TMs, and a bunch of his phasers) and I take some damage to my #3. We separate, so I kill one of his tractored TMs with my suicide shuttle, and late in the turn, HET south to avoid getting trapped in the corner. We end the turn at about R4 or 5, me facing D, him facing F.
T3: I have a lot to rearm, so I refill my capacitors and batteries and continue arming 3 of my 4 torps, leaving an F torp empty in case of damage, and move 15 all turn. Barry goes 20 all turn and rearms stuff. We wheel around, Barry centerlines me at R5 from behind and I discover that his TGs fire directly backwards as he pastes my #2 for 20 damage. We keep spinning about as I try to get on his down #3. He gets to shoot my weak #5 with 3x PW1s for a handfull of internals. He then turns his down #3 to me to get a TG into my down #3, but misses (he hit with 6 of 7 at 1-5, so not unreasonable). I fire 4 more P1's into his ship over a couple impulses, and we separate, ending the turn at about R10. Barry resigns at this point, as he is down both TMs, 2x TGs, half his phasers, 10 power, and his #1/#3, where I have a down #3 and about 5 internals.
The Maesron is *really* good at long range sniping, hitting for 5 damage on a 1-5 with the TGs out to R16, but with only the 2xTMs that it can only fire 1 of per turn, it is going to have trouble not getting run down and cornered if it fires at long range and turns off. It has 8x PW1s, but the arcs are a bit rough--4xFA, 2xLS, 2xRS. If the 4xFA were 2xFA/L and 2xFA/R, it would be a bit less toothless as it got chased (although the 2xTGs that can fire directly backwards is pretty good for being pursued).
Wow... Great writeup... To be fair, I modified the Maesron about a month ago, based on a couple of games played and haven't played the latest version since. I completely forgot that I had 32 warp and assumed like Peter that I couldn't HET above speed 26. Oh well.
The Maesron as pointed out is a great long range sniper, even better at it than a disruptor armed ship. The problem is that with a 2 turn arming weapon, you really don't want to snipe with it or your going to get run down before you can re-arm it.
In this particular game, I probably would have been much better off, not firing until you launched the EPT and turned right instead of left.
Turning left from an EPT is always a mistake... Duh... leaves you in the corner.
The major tactical issue I was facing on turn one was created by the following.
The TG is actually a very nice two turn arming weapon, with one glaring defect. The hold cost is huge. In fact, under a lot of circumstances, it's cheaper to arm it than to hold it.
The rules say that I can start holding TG with 4 points of energy per gun. That costs 2 points of power per gun to hold, and really doesn't do enough damage to frighten anyone.
I've been playing it that I can either be holding four point TG, or start turn one with one or more tubes empty and start the turn one arming on turn one of the game for those tubes.
Either way, the tactical problem against the Gorn,
was that I needed to keep my speed up and have a decent punch on my initial firing pass. The only way to do that is to corner dodge turn one, which against a Gorn is exactly what you don't want to do.
There are two ways of playing the Maesron on turn one. You can run down the center, holding your starting loads and maybe even punch them up a bit, or you can start with empty tubes and corner dodge on turn one, pumping a lot of power into them and going slow.
If I'm running down the center on turn one, I'm either fairly fast, but sitting on light loads, or really slow with moderate to heavy loads.
If I corner dodge on turn one, then on turn two, I can be really fast with moderate to heavy loads.
Hence, I ran down the center, with light loads on turn one. Of course that didn't do much. I suppose, that I could have just left the tubes empty and ran down the center, trying to draw out the EPT. But that was gambling that he had indeed started with an EPT.
I'd like to propose yet another change to the Maesron... sigh...
Instead of starting the game, holding four points in each TG, I'd rather give the Maesron player the following options.
The Maesron starts the game having put between zero to 12 points of power into the TG guns on Turn zero.
That means on turn one you could possibly be able to fire all four tubes, or not be capable of firing any of them.
The reason for this bizarre rule for starting energy is the unique fact that TG are very often much more expensive to hold than to arm.
This is not the weapon you want to hold while your running and trying to get into position to shoot.
Hm, what does the tourney rules say about T:1 arming in general? The old rules I've got (-92) effectively set a cap, but not a floor, if you see what I mean.
Barry wrote:
>>In this particular game, I probably would have been much better off, not firing until you launched the EPT and turned right instead of left.>>
Yeah, if you, as soon as you can, turn (from my perspective at from the bottom of the map) turn north, then west, you have a lot more room to run--you probably have to take the enveloper on impulse 1 for a handfull of damage (likely 30 minus P3's), but then you have the whole map to run west on, rather than get boxed in to the east.
>>The rules say that I can start holding TG with 4 points of energy per gun. That costs 2 points of power per gun to hold, and really doesn't do enough damage to frighten anyone.>>
If you play like a Fed, you start the game with 4x 4 point TGs held for 2 power each (8). If you buff your FA TGs up to, say, 5 or 6 power each (whatever shoots to R8), that'll be another, say, 4 power, for a total of 12. Hold them till you get a good shot (i.e. 8 or closer), use batteries (or T2 EA if you can see what is going to happen) to buff up whichever 3rd TG is in arc. That seems not unreasonably power hungry.
>>I've been playing it that I can either be holding four point TG, or start turn one with one or more tubes empty and start the turn one arming on turn one of the game for those tubes.>>
I'm not seeing how that saves you any power, unless you arm the empty ones on T1 with only 1 power. Otherwise, you can hold for 2 and maybe add power, or arm for 2+.
>>Either way, the tactical problem against the Gorn,
was that I needed to keep my speed up and have a decent punch on my initial firing pass. The only way to do that is to corner dodge turn one, which against a Gorn is exactly what you don't want to do.>>
With 40 power, if you dump 12 into the TGs on the first turn (8 to hold all 4, 4 more to up-arm the FAs), you still have 24 power for movement and weasels. Which is enough speed on T1, even holding 2 weasels. Play it like a Fed (which isn't a great match up for the Fed, mind you, but at least there is a game plan)--pull out plasmas, threaten a close range strike, and bide your time. You have less crunch than a Fed, but having 2xTMs in the way if the Gorn comes in for an anchor is very significant.
>>The Maesron starts the game having put between zero to 12 points of power into the TG guns on Turn zero.>>
I guess I'm not really seeing what the issue is with arming the TGs--you start with 4 power in each (2 to hold each). You can leave any of them empty if you want, but I'm not seeing the advantage to doing that. You can up-arm them during EA on top of holding them, like a Fed. 12 power into the guns on T1 (to make the FAs into 6 pointers and leaving the LF/RF ones held at 4) doesn't seem at all of an unreasonable plan in most instances.
>>The reason for this bizarre rule for starting energy is the unique fact that TG are very often much more expensive to hold than to arm.>>
I guess I'm not seeing what you are seeing--if you have a 4 point TG held for 2, you can uparm with 2 power to turn it into a 6 pointer (which is about the maximum reasonable size to hold--if you end up at a closer range, use reserve power to beef it up), that is 4 total power on T1 to the gun. If you are arming, assuming that T1 is the second turn of arming, from 2 power on T0, you also put in 4 power for a 6 point TG. If you are arming from T1 as the first turn, you can drop 1 power in to save energy, I guess, but then you are putting 5.5 in on T2 (.5 to hold, 5 to arm up to 6 points).
>>This is not the weapon you want to hold while your running and trying to get into position to shoot.>>
Sure, but in most cases, arming is going to be more expensive anyway. Am I misunderstanding something?