Signups are supposed to start on July 1st I think.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, June 28, 2013 - 01:05 pm: Edit

Paul Scott won 2012 and will judge 2013. Final details will be posted soon but registration opens 1 July and play begins 1 August.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, June 28, 2013 - 01:12 pm: Edit

Wow, I am out of touch. I didn't even realize that the platinum hat did not extend over Origins. Was there a SFB tourney at all at Origins 2013?

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, August 24, 2013 - 09:49 pm: Edit

So we just had the possibly 13th Annual Ithaca Cup Team Tournament (the trophy goes back to 2004, which makes this 10, but I think we went back a couple years before that too...), which is an annual event where Team Ithaca plays tournament games against Team SWA (SWA drives out to Ithaca from Schenectady) for the possession of the Ithaca Cup and to train for Council of 5 in the fall.

Last year, Team SWA whacked Team Ithaca and took the coveted Ithaca Cup trophy. This year, Team Ithaca rallied and beat down Team SWA to reclaim the Cup!

The teams this year were:

Team Ithaca
-Peter Bakija (GRN) 2-0
-Chris Proper (GBS aa) 2-0
-Ben Kalb (TKR) 1-0
-Courtenay Footman (GBS bb) 1-1
-Andrew Sackett (ORI FFgff/HHPfb) 2-2

Team SWA
-Dave Cheng (LDR) 0-2
-Andy Koch (WAX 11g1) 1-1
-Ken Stewart (HYD) 2-0
-Mike Roginski (KLI) 0-2
-Doug R (GBS bb) 0-2

The matches for record purposes were:
-Peter B (GRN) over Andy K (WAX)
-Peter B (GRN) over Dave C (LDR)

-Chris P (GBS) over Doug R (GBS)
-Chris P (GBS) over Dave C (LDR)

-Ben K (TKR) over Mike R (KLI)

-Courtenay F (GBS) over Doug R (GBS)

-Ken S (HYD) over Courtenay F (GBS)
-Ken S (HYD) over Andrew S (ORI)

-Andrew S (ORI) over Dave C (HYD)
-Andrew S (ORI) over Mike R (KLI)

-Andy K (WAX) over Andrew S (ORI)

A great, fun day of tournament SFB games (as well as some Titan and a bunch of us learned to play Sentinels of the Multiverse). Always a blast.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, October 13, 2013 - 06:02 pm: Edit

No winners yet from Council of 5 Nations tournament, as a couple final games have to be played over SFBOL due to Andy having to leave early on Sunday. But there were 20+ players, and the top 8 were, IIRC:

-Barry Kirk (MAE) vs Andrew Sackett (ORI HPHfd)
-Andy Koch (WAX 11g1) vs Ed Slusarrek (Fed)
-Bill Schoeller (KLI) vs Steve McCann (HYD)
-Ron Pilotte (MAE) vs Brett Johnson (ISC)

Semis are Barry vs Andy and Steve vs Brett. Steve and Brett were playing when I left this morning, but don't know who won yet.

I was playing the Klingon on a lark--I won last year in the Gorn, so was trying out a new ship. I ended up going 1-2:

-I beat Dave Zimdars' ORI HGHbb. He was totally schooling me early on, but I think he was too aggressive mid-late game when he didn't need to be; we ended up knife fighting for the last 2-3 turns of the game after the initial pass (where I also lucked out and he missed with an OL HB at R3), allowing me to just sit, TAC, and blast with overloads, which eventually won the game for me; if he had separated at some point to get reloading time and to take advantage of the Hellbores and my down shields, he probably would have killed me.

-I was killed by Bary's Maesron, which I discussed over in the Omega TC thread. Basically, I worked really hard to give him the best shot he could get, which he took and did well, and then I rolled kinda bad overall, which results in getting killed.

-I was killed by Andy Koch's WAX (11g1). We swapped some serious volleys of internals the first few turns, but then eventually he just got on top of me, and some unlucky drone defense (my ADD crews were fairly mutinous all weekend...) resulted in me getting crushed by some drones, ending my game.

A fun tournament with some wacky new ships mixed in--we had available to use the Maesron (which, as noted elsewhere, did surprisingly well in the hands of 2 players), the Fast Fed (which I think got 1 or 2 games played, but I don't know what happened there), and the Playtest Andro and the FRAX, but I don't think anyone used them.

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Sunday, October 13, 2013 - 07:34 pm: Edit

The Frax was the only ship not played. I can post all the ships used if there is interest.

By Andrew J Koch (Droid) on Monday, October 14, 2013 - 07:47 am: Edit

I learned two things in my game against Peter.

1)You can get your probe hit on 24 internals. 2) The Aux doesn't have a probe.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, October 14, 2013 - 08:46 am: Edit

Ken--please do. I'm interested to see what folks were playing.

Yeah. Hitting the probe on 24 internals is a new one for me. Especially given that the WAX has no probe.

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Monday, October 14, 2013 - 12:34 pm: Edit

Posted in the Council of Nations area.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, August 24, 2014 - 10:55 am: Edit

So we just had the likely 14th Annual Ithaca Cup Team Tournament, where Team Ithaca eked out a win.

The teams were:

Team Ithaca:
-Peter Bakija (GRN) 2-0
-Ben Kalb (ISC): 0-2-1
-Ken Stuart (HYD): 2-1
-Andrew Sackett (ORI HHPfb, FFgff) 1-1

Team SWA:
-Dave Cheng (KLI): 1-1
-Mike Rogzinski (KLI): 0-1-1
-Courtenay Footman (KLI): 1-2
-Chris Proper (LYR) 2-1

The Matches:
-Dave HYD over Sackett ORI (hellbore package)
-Peter GRN over Mike KLI
-Courtenay KLI over Ben ISC
-Chris LYR over Ken HYD

-Ken HYD over Courtenay KLI
-Chris LYR over Ben ISC

-Ken HYD over Dave KLI
-Peter GRN over Chris LYR
-Sackett ORI (plasma F package) over Courtenay KLI
-Ben ISC DRAW vs Mike KLI

My game over Chris was a long, tight game that I mostly won 'cause late in the game, he blasted my #4 with 8xP1 and 2xOL at R4 and missed with both OL Disruptors, saving me significant internals when they would have gone very deep into my ship. Sackett's win over Courtenay saw the Klingon close to R1 on the Orion on T1 when the Orion had no engines doubled, blasting the Orion with 4xOL and all his phasers, and missing with 3 of the 4 OLs. Given Sackett's plan, he might have won anyway, even if the Klingon hit with everything, but it certainly didn't help. The Ben and Mike game was the last game going at the end of the day, and they called it a draw at about 10:15 pm when Dave and Mike had to drive 3 hours home.

In the end, Team Ithaca pulls out a win with 5.5 wins to SWAs 4.5 wins. A fun day as always!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, October 12, 2014 - 07:03 pm: Edit

Council of 5 Update!

We had a solid 20 player tournament. The top 8 single elimination ladder was:

-Chris Proper (Duke) LYR vs Andrew Sackett (PimpDaddySackett) ORI (HPHfb?). Chris wins.

-Seth Shiminsky (Kingzilla) HYD vs Ed Slussarek TFH. Seth wins.

-Ken Lin (Old_School) FED (with G-rack) vs Andy Koch (Droid) WAX (11g1?). Ken wins.

-David Zimdars (AdmiralDZZI) ORI (PHPb1) vs Bill Schoeller (BS) KLI. David wins.

Semi-Finals:

-Seth Shiminsky (Kingzilla) HYD vs Chris Proper (Duke) LYR. Seth wins.

-David Zimdars (AdmiralDZZI) ORI (PHPb1) vs Ken Lin (Old_School) FED (with G-Rack). David wins.

Final:

-David Zimdars (AdmiralDZZI) ORI (PHPb1?) vs Seth Shiminsky (Kingzilla) HYD.

I don't know that the Final was played today? It might have been, but at press time, I don't know.

I kinda sucked it up in my Gorn, going 1-2.

Game 1 vs Zimdars' ORI (PPHb1). I'm generally of the school that this is an incredibly tough match up for the Gorn to begin with, but with the hard hitting Orion (2xPhoton and a HB?), it seems downright brutal. Granted, I played very badly, but I can't even see how to approach it. I was dead in, like, 16 minutes. T1, I didn't load an enveloper, as I was concerned he would cloak out (which has killed me a few times vs the Orion), so rolled a torp. He doubled an engine and charged. I corner dodged. T2, I didn't stop and TAC (was was clearly what I should have done), launched a pseudo which he ignored, he got to R2, blasted me, hit well, did, like, 40 internals in 2 volleys, and HET away. I tried to tractor him at R2 for 10 or 12 power, failed, and conceded.

Game 2 vs Ken Lin's G-Rakc FED. I launch an enveloper, and charges. I let him get R8 my reinforced #6, he takes the shot, only hits with 1xOL, doesn't break the shield, and turns and runs. T2, he runs into the corner, I chase him. Late in the turn, he is against the wall, he slows down to 7 (some sort of 30/15/7 plot to out run the enveloper earlier). I'm concerned he is gonna crash the wall and weasel out the rest of the turn, so at R4, I blast him with S, F, F bolts and 6xP1. I hit with S, F for 50, do 25 some odd internals. Next impulse, I HET, fire 2 more phasers in the hole for another 6 or so and get out of dodge. Ken concedes as he is down 30 internals, stuck at speed 7, and doesn't have many weapons armed anyway (as he was spending a lot of power running and had a bunch in tractor to avoid getting anchored). The G-rack had zero effect on the game other than saving a P1 (by blowing up instead) on the first volley of internals.

Game 3 vs Kingzilla's HYD. T1, he launches fighters and corner dodges. I close in and launch an enveloper on 32. T2 he does a 4/14 weasel, I just turn off and come around to engage on T3. T3, I close in on him while he is stuck 14. I launch 50 plasma which I move dumb, allowing him to gatling it and turn in and take it on his #2 while facing me with his #1 (I could have move the plasma to force him to take it on his #1 if he turned in, but I spaced out). He takes 9 in and loses a fusion beam and 8 hull, and I cripple both is fighters. I get greedy about his down shield, so I HET across his bow and launch 40 plasma at him. I move dumb and allow him to again take the plasma on his #6 while I was facing his #1. I eventually get some phasers in his down shields over a few impulses and manage to kill all his hull, a HB, and a few phasers, but in the mean time, he hits me for about 40 internals in 4 volleys, killing every single possible weapon on my ship with insane DACing. That's it for me.

Proper was out Golden Boy, doing well until Kingzilla got him in the semis. Sackett did well too, till Proper killed him. Courtenay and Ben played a few games and didn't do super hot. But Team Ithaca represented!

I was bombed out of the tournament by 1:00 yesterday, so I played a game of Advanced Civ after that (with Bill and 6 random strangers) and won that, so that's something.

A great weekend!

By Andrew J Koch (Droid) on Monday, October 13, 2014 - 09:02 am: Edit

MY games in the 11g1 Aux:
1)After Ken gutted me with a R1 centerline shot, I had the pure joy of wrecking him a gatt and drones and stuff. I would like to say Good game Ken here, but the was already into the firewater by that time so upon reflection I'm not sure I am such a big deal in this one.

2) Here I experience the pure agony of being underrun by Maurice Jones (AKA Sackett)in a cloaked Orion who then proceeds to uncloak, het, and give me the old photon-hellbore-phaser enema. Thank you doctor Jones.

3) A marathon 6 hour affair against a very tenacious Firehawk flown by Mr. Ed Sluzarek. There were a few Range 0 phaser overruns against cloak, 6 plasma torps bolted, lots of drones launched, lots of Range 6-8 phaser attrition, piddling internals, lots of bad shielding, and a final concession in turn 11 by the firehawk when his bolt/ phaser strike failed to breach a bricked shield. Good game Ed.

In the Final Tree Saturday night:

4) KenTheFed plays a slow game. I stay away for 4 turns, then come in on an exciting attack run loaded for bear with four (4) suicide shuttles. I lost with a very unfortunate speed plot where I skipped a move at the *wrong* time. He easily handled all my stuff and I was forced to concede as I missed the trac and was gutted. Apparently, sober Ken is a better player than I am! I should have poured some whiskey in his drink. Nicely done Ken Ken!

I was enjoying the SFB and there was a nice busy feel to the room. I would have played a bit more, but I got into a couple of 4 hr Titan games.
Even at a Con, there's only so much time in a day!

Was great to see everyone again, great to finally meet legendary Ken Lin and the (Newly) legendary Seth Shimansky (AKA kingzilla). Thanks to Dave and John for all the hard work. See you next year.

By Chris Proper (Duke) on Monday, October 13, 2014 - 11:10 am: Edit

I had been trying to get anyone with any guts to fly Lyran. Apparently they all had more brains than guts. #TournamentofTigers

Friday night I got to avenge my RAT loss against Seth.
Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold
Turn one his Hydran corner dodges. I prowl over to see what is going on. Turn two I lope back to the center of the map giving him the only range eight shot he's going to get. He misses with two overloaded hellbores. I HET back, he HETs away, I shoot his #4. Turn three my ESGs clear up a cloud of shuttles as I overrun the parked Hydran. He accelerates to speed ten and launches the stingers when we're at range one. I launch 2 SS which he shoots down and zap the fighters with an overload each and knock down a shield. He turns away giving me his down #4 again so I launch the other two SS and cripple him.

Saturday I fought Bill Schoeller. He may remember this better than I.
Big Bad Billy is Sweet William Now
Turn one we both came out to fight; him with his vanilla scatterpack. The range four alpha exchange favored me, and my ESGs wiped out his drones. Turn two he HET back at me and I spent a lot of firepower on his shuttles and fast drones while he just shot me. I started turn three nearly crippled. He played sit'n'spin while I crawled up to him. A couple of his overloads missed and he didn't quite hit the SS bay with his last phasers. At mid-turn I hit him with the shuttles followed by a bunch of phasers, crippling him. His second HET failed and he conceded.

At this point I decided 2-0 was good enough for the finals so I went and lost at Titan.

Sackett and I are both from Ithaca.

The Devil You Know
Turn one he doubles one engine and I figure time is on my side. I announce ESGs late in the turn for Hellbore shielding and he shoots my #1 at range five the impulse before they come up. Two internals miss the ESGs. He HETs and does two more internals with aft phasers, still no ESG. I unload on his #4 with an Ubitron Alpha, killing hull, cargo and the drone rack. Turn two I move just enough to poke his down shield at range eight with a couple of p-1s. He circles me and gives me range eight on i32 so I fire the disrupters and damage his shield. Turn three he just circles some more, I starcatle with a mid-turn acceleration to ten. I fire late at his damaged #6 and he turns in. Turn four begins with the cocaine junky at range four bearing down on me at speed 16. I maintain 10. Impulse two he slips out of my FA forgetting that my turn mode is satisfied. Impulse 4 I turn towards him and he can't keep his brick facing me. The range two Alpha exchange favors me by virtue of my up shield.

My quarter-final rematch with Seth did not go as well as the first match. I screwed up a speed change announcement at THE wrong time and should have conceded then and there. I dragged it out waiting for him to screw up but it didn't happen.

Good luck on the finals!

By David Zimdars (Zimdarsdavid) on Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - 04:39 pm: Edit

David Zimdars (AdmiralDZZI, ORI HPPB1) defeats Seth Shimansky (kingzilla, HYD) in the 2014 Council of Five Nations Tournament Final

I chose to fly the Orion with a HPPB1 option package at Council on the theory that this ship would be hard hitting in the range 4-8. I thought it would be quite likely to get at least 2-4 volleys of internals prior to having to knife fight. I figured doing a few volleys of internals before losing would be a pleasant change from herding drones in the Kzinti. Although I had fought with the 11G11 phaser boat quite a bit before, I had never fought with the HPPB1 option package before. I flew the HPPB1 in all of my games. I was quite pleasantly surprised to achieve a record of 8-1 through the Council semi-final Sunday morning. In general, I think most of my opponents erred on the side of trying to outlast the Orion, and in the process losing their front shields and weapon in Hellbore assisted Mizia attacks.

My sole loss at Council was to Tim (Skein ?), who flew a Hydran. In every game up until the Final, I did not double my engines on turn 1 (for the most part players will corner dodge the Orion to let him burn his engines on turn 1 if he doubles). I flew speed 16 into my own corner, overloading the photon torpedoes partially, and setting up my turn 2 battle pass. On turn 2 I double both warp engines and flew at high speed (usually 31 for half of the turn) trying to take a range 4-8 shot, diving into the other corner to rearm. This tactic failed against Tim’s Hydran, who stayed a bit more in the center of the board rather than trying to box me in. He could turn away but still dog me with the fighters, and I had nowhere to run to reload in turn 3.

I figured I couldn’t repeat the same corner dodging strategy vs. Seth’s Hydran, and I would need to employ an opening move that forced him into his own corner, giving me room to retreat in turn 2.

Turn 1: I double both warp engines for 51 power, roll my Hellbore, overload both photon torpedoes to 16 strength, hold 1 suicide shuttle, put 12 reinforcement on the #1 shield, and move speed 31. Seth rolls two standard Hellbores, charges all of his Fusion Beams to standard level, holds 2 suicide shuttles, 2 wild weasels, and moves speed 15. Seeing that I doubled both of my warp engines, Seth turns into his own corner, apparently content to let my Orion lose two engine boxes on turn 1. On impulse 1.32, we reach range 9. I launch 1 type IM drone at the Hydran cruiser. Seth has kept his fighters in the same hex with him. Critically, in order to avoid range 8, both the Hydran cruiser and fighters are facing E, and my Orion lies outside of their FA.

Turn 2: I double both warp engines for 47 power, overload my Hellbore, hold my overloaded photon torpedoes, put 13 points of reinforcement on my number 2 shield, plot an HET, and move 1-16:31, 17-32:16. I put 4 points of CDR into my left warp as AWR. Seth overloads one Hellbore and rolls the other, holds all of his Fusion Beams, and moves speed 9. He divides reinforcement between his #1,#2 and #6 shields. At speed 9, Seth will not move until impulse 2.4, but his turn mode will be satisfied, and depending where I move, I may be in his FA arc. On 2.2 I move into range 8. Although neither his fighters or ship moves on 2.2, I ask Seth if he has any moves, thinking that he may choose to HET himself and/or his fighters into so that my ship is in their FA, but Seth declines. I fire my overloaded HB on one of his fighters, and 5 Ph-1 and 1 Ph-3 on the other, destroying both before they could fire [I probably should have fired my overloaded photons and range 8 at Seth’s number 6 shield. I would have a 75% chance of hitting with at least 1, and a 25% chance of hitting with 2. I was concerned he might speed up to 18 immediately, though.] Seth holds his fire. On 2.3 I HET and move back out to range 9. I run to the middle of the board. Seth chases as best he can at speed 9 for the whole turn (he shoots down the lone drone with his Gatling phasers). On 2.32 we end about range 18. Seth has to dump an overload and I burn 2 warp engines.

Turn 3: Because we are at range 8, and Seth can only move 18, I judge I can maintain range 9, rearming my Hellbore, without doubling any engines. On turn 3, I have 23 power. I recharge my phasers for a few points, rearm the Hellbore, hold my photon torpedoes, and move speed 16 for the whole turn. During turn 3 I used passive fire control to save a point of power to use elsewhere. I finish repairing a left warp as AWR and put 2 points into a right warp repair as AWR. Seth rearms his Hellbore, holds his Fusion Beams, puts a point into tractor, puts 5 points to reinforce his #1 shield, and moves 14. During the turn I slowly turn around, and Seth moves to the middle of the map. We end turn 3 about range 12. I launch a type IM at Seth. I restore one left warp as AWR.

Turn 4: I double all engines, for 48 power. I overload the Hellbore, hold both of my overloaded photon torpedoes, put 14 points into general, plot an HET and plotted 1-7:16, 8-16:30, 17-24:29, 25-32:16. Seth rolls two standard Hellbores, holds his Fusion Beams, drops holding his suicide shuttles, plots an HET, and moves speed 24. As soon has Seth sees that I’ve doubled everything, he HETs and runs back into his corner. I had moved too far away to catch him if he ran into the corner, and doubling everything, and overloading he Hellbore, was a costly turn of events. I prefer plotting a Hellbore overload rather than using reserve (so I can use reserve elsewhere) but this turned out to be a mistake. On impulse 6 I use reserve to make my speed plot 30 for the rest of the turn, hoping that he would slow down. We end about range 11, but this time I’m in his FA. I burn 2 warp engines and one impulse engine while restoring one right warp as AWR.

Turn 5: I am beginning to feel hampered by engine loss and judge I must continue my attack as Seth could now pursue me at high speed. I double both my warp engines for 42 power, arm my Hellbore, hold my overloaded photons, top off my phaser capacitor, put 10 reinforcement in my #2 shield, and move 1-5:26, 6-18:25, 19-32:19. Seth rolls two standard Hellbores, holds his Fusion Beams, puts 10 reinforcement in his #1 shield, and moves 1-4:9, 5-17:4, 18-32:9. I partially repair another left warp as AWR for 4 points. Seeing that Seth is moving slowly, I move into range 8, confident that he won’t fire until range 4. His speed change to 4 surprises me, but it allows him to bring his reinforced 1 towards me. I burn my second HET still trying to get a shot on his rear shields, or at least not his #1. Seth declares emergency deceleration. I see that he intends to use tactical maneuvers to make sure I’ll be facing his #1, and run across both the LS and RS to fire all his Fusion Beams. He shoots down my drone, and launches two admin shuttles for fire support. I maneuver to range 5 facing my #2 shield to his #1, front center line. I decide fire my photon torpedoes (hitting with both) and 5 phaser-1s, doing 48 points of damage. Seth only takes 3 points of damage, 2 hull and a warp engine, due to his heavily reinforced #1 shield. The next impulse I turn out to range 6. Seth fires 5 phaser-1s, a Gatling Phaser, 2 standard Fusion Beams, and 2 standard Hellbores. Both Hellbores hit, and with a combination of the direct fire, I take about 9 internal hits through my #3, losing a photon torpedo and some warp engines [I probably should have had reinforced my #3 (not the #2), which would have been only a slight gamble, because if you have the speed advantage and fire outside of range 4, most players will hold fire until after you’ve turned]. The next impulse I move and he makes a Tac to face his other Fusion beams and Gatling phaser at me [I made an error here – I could have slipped to bring my #4 to bear]. Seth fires his remaining Fusion beams and Gatling phaser and I suffer another 6 or so internal damage, where I lose more power, but not any weapons. I launch a drone and my 3 admins which end up killing one of his shuttles. For the remainder of the turn, I turn around preparing for my next turn Hellbore attack. At the end of the turn I lose 2 more warp engines.

Turn 6: More than anything else, power was now a critical issue for me. I felt that I had no choice but to press the hardest attack I could, hopefully scoring internal damage with both phasers an my Hellbore. My sole hope was that Seth started out at speed 0, and he had only Phaser 1s and Gatling phasers to shoot this turn. With his #1 shield down, he could only use general reinforcement to block damage through it (inefficient), and he had to be very careful not to let me hit his #1 directly, which would make it difficult to bring all 5 of his Phaser-1s to bear.
I double all of my engines for 34 power. I overload my Hellbore and start arming my photon torpedo. I am only able to have 6.5 points of power in my Phaser capacitor, as I’m still holding my suicide shuttle and I want to move fast. I finish the hasty repair on my left warp engine and start repair my right warp as an AWR. I plot 1-5:19, 6-14:30, 15-32:15. Seth starts arming one hellbore, lets his Fusion Beams cool, holds only 1 wild weasel, puts 6 into general reinforcement, and puts 4 into powered repair his #1. He plot 1-3:0 and 4-32:9. As the turn begins, Seth Tacs away and starts to run towards the wall. I close. He decides to slip into the wall, takes 5 damage on his #2, and stops. He launches a wild weasel. I decide to press the attack to range 0, moving in on his #6 shield, knowing that he wouldn’t Tac his down #1 towards me. I reach range 0, and launch a type IV-M drone (no move following impulse) and my suicide shuttle (speed 0). Seth and I call for fire facing #2 to #6. I fire 5 Phaser 1s, and 3 phaser 3s, and my Overloaded Hellbore at range 0. Seth fires his facing Gatling to kill my seeking weapons, and only 3 Phaser 1s at me, perhaps hoping for Mizia damage later. My Hellbore hits. Seth takes two volleys of 13 and 20 internals (his general reinforcement lost to the direct fire before the Hellbore hits, he now had 2 down shields). My volley destroyed one Hellbore, 4 phaser 1s, 4 batteries, and both of his tractors. He scored 23 points from his phasers on my #2 shield, but this was not enough to bring it down. I did suffer 1 internal (a hull) from my Hellbore feedback. The next impulse, I perform my third HET (rolling a 4), and move out of his hex with my #4 facing his down #2. Unfortunately, I had no power left in my Phaser capacitor to score Mizia on him. We end the turn with him facing his #1 to the north wall, and I’m 4 hexes away facing D on his #4-#5 shield spine. I lose two more warp and an impulse engine, while repairing a left warp as an AWR. Seth restores 4 boxes on his #1 shield (2 powered and 2 CDR).

Turn 7: Power was again critical, and I judged I simply didn’t have enough boxes left to take an overloaded Hellbore shot while running away. I once again double all of my engines for 30 power. I recharge my phaser capacitor for 6 points, recharge my batteries, overload my one photon torpedo to 16 points, and then move 1-4:24, 5-12:13,13-20:5, 21-32:3. Seth now only has 34 power. He finishes the Hellbore as standard, arms his 2 fusion beams as standards, puts 4 points to repair 2 boxes on his #6 shield, and puts 7 points into tractor. He has no reserve power. He has 1 warp tac and a speed plot of 1-3:4, 4-32:9. On impulse 2, I make my 4 HET, avoiding breakdown by rolling a 2. I change facing to B and move to range 3. Seth realizes he didn’t plot an impulse Tac and will hit the wall on impulse 4 and stop. Seth conceded at this point.

Had Seth been able to TAC, and then move out his hex, I would have moved to range 1. We would have faced my #1 shield to his #3. I would have launched my remaining type IM drone, which would move into his hex the following impulse. His best bet was to fire his phaser 1 at the drone, and his Gatling Phasers and his two standard fusion beams at me. On average his Gatling Phaser would do 14 points, and his Fusion standards 13 points. Since I had 4 batteries he had a I would likely only suffer a few internal damage points, even with photon feedback. I would have fired a 16 point overloaded Photon Torpedo, 5 phaser 1s, and 2 phaser 3s at him, scoring about 34 internal damage. My volley would likely have knocked out his Hellbore before it could fire, leaving him with only a Gatling and 2 Fusion beams next turn, and about 10 power. I would have been able to turn away the next impulse, bringing a strong shield to bear. At the end of the turn, I would have 13 power, but being able to double (have up to 26). Since all of my weapons but my drone and one photon torpedo would be left, I doubt he would have been able to sufficient harm my Orion to prevent his destruction.

Thank you for the great game, Seth! And thank you to everyone at Council of Five Nations.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - 05:28 pm: Edit

Congrats, Dave!

(You doubled 1 engine against my Gorn on T1 in our game. But then, as the game only lasted 16 minutes or so, seems like you probably forgot it happened :-)

By David Zimdars (Zimdarsdavid) on Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - 06:07 pm: Edit

Thanks Peter. You are correct, I didn't want to corner dodge plasma.

By Chris Proper (Duke) on Thursday, October 16, 2014 - 07:00 am: Edit

Congrats, Dave. I'm sorry we didn't get to play.

By Andrew J Koch (Droid) on Thursday, October 16, 2014 - 10:11 am: Edit

Well done Dave!

By David Zimdars (Zimdarsdavid) on Thursday, October 16, 2014 - 07:02 pm: Edit

Thanks everybody! Winning the 2014 Council Cup is my first championship title in any tournament after 30 years playing SFB (yeah I did take a break). The competition was top level! The victory feels pretty good!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, October 16, 2014 - 07:06 pm: Edit

Right on.

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Saturday, October 18, 2014 - 05:37 pm: Edit

Congratulations Dave. Great game on both your parts and a very nice write up.

By George Duffy (Sentinal) on Saturday, October 18, 2014 - 08:21 pm: Edit

Congrats Dave

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzilla) on Tuesday, October 21, 2014 - 09:11 pm: Edit

I would like to write a little about exciting and great time I had at Council 5 Nations and most importantly about a group of player that gave me memories I will cherish for life. During the weekend I heard or I shared stories of great games that where played many years ago with great detail and with emotion that if they were played just hours ago. I was so lucky this weekend that I got to replay one of those special memories from 23 years ago with ED Slusack aka THE REAL "ED the FED" in the 1/4 finals. During the weekend I play many (10) games with great players. I met some new players to me and got to meet players that I had read about or played on SFBOL. My only regret for the weekend was the players I would of loved to have seen there that had missed the event. I want to thank John Rigley for running the event and David Cheng for what I can tell for putting the event together.

I did the road trip from Asheville NC with a neighbor (Robert) who came along only if we went to a few casinos on the way there & on the way back. Robert as you saw on Sunday at the event looks like a cross between uncles Jessie from the back woods and grandpa from the monsters. Roberts only comment on Sunday was SFB is not a spectators sport but he is a none gamers. I believe he was looking for road kill to eat on the trip because he brought a cooler but never filled it.

History time, I played SFB about 25 years ago with friends that I lived with and some others in the area, mostly campaigns. We played tournament SFB on every Sunday unless they went to a Tournament. Well we all got hooked on SFB tournament games and one of our group rated ace Dave Weidner from Origins-GC92 had passed away and I thought he could not go anywhere without a Tournament rules book. So I had to do it, I put it in the coffin so he would not be bored. When Dave passed we all dropped SFB for a few years and at that time I had racked up 3 ace cards the Romulan Firehawk, Gorn and Lyran. For some reason it does not show the Lyran for me but I clearly remember the day it happened. The tournament was in a large conference room and the fire alarm went off, very loud. Artie my roommate stood up on top of his table and started screaming at everyone to sit down because it was just the ship he blew up that was burning not the conference hall. About 18 years ago I stopped playing SFB and did not think about at all until last December where I could not get it out of my head. It was haunting me to play, every day I thought about. I started goggling it and found that it was converted to online and I started playing it in January. I want to thank my new friends that took me under their wing to get started again and spent the time helping me play and get back in the swing of things. I played over 200 games this year online with Tartan Army, CrashandBurn, Neonpico, Sir_GaiusFrackingBaltar, Blackwind, thank you.

I got lucky that my first game Friday was against a new comer because playing face 2 face is totally different then playing online and I believe F2F is much harder. Everything you do is seen by your opponent from counting hexes for distance to figuring out where you want to move by where he is starring at the board and mapping out his future moves. The room had maps, counters & rule books everywhere. O Roberts other comment on Sunday was how do you play a game when you need to look at the rule book every other minute and my comment back was get me a &^%$# beer grandpa. I knew this was not going to be a good weekend but one of the best when a gamer/SFB player (I wish I knew his name) brought to the room 5 kegs of home brew beer Friday morning and one slice of pizza for ME. I love beer all beer and the flavors where great from a pumpkin to a IPA. It was high octane.

life one
game 1 AUX vs. Shark John White
I started Friday at 8:30 am looking for my 1st face to face game in 18 or so years and I planned on flying the AUX wyn with 2 drone racks on the sides and F torp and a hellbore in the front. Mr. CrashandBurn aka John Rigley set me up with John White aka (meat) flying the wyn shark with 2 P1. I believe this was a 2 turn game but Mr. white would not concede unless I blew him up like it says on SFBOL so it took a little longer. My tactics with this set up is the phasers are tied up with the drone threat so I get the F torp to hit any shield and the hellbore does the rest.

game 2 AUX vs. Orion AdmiralDZZI HPPB1
My next game was with David Zimdars Orion 11g11 HPPB1 (AdmiralDZZI). I was feeling very confident with this match up because I had played AdmiralDZZI online the few weeks before with my wyn aux & same options and he had the kzinti. He was rusty on that game so it made me believe I was going to be beer drinking very soon, probable before lunch. David used the hell 2x photons, drone & P1 in our game. Turn one I don't believe he doubled anything or maybe 1 warp and he went 16 or so for all of T1 and went to his corner. I went speed 31 the whole turn and made sure he was going to stay in the corner. Right at this moment when I was feeling the strongest and turn 2 is about to start I knew this was going to b3 a quick end to him. I believe I had launch a few drones and a fake F on imp 32 T1. For turn 2 I thought he double everything and come at me fast BUT turn 2 imp 1 he announces speed 9 and everything doubled. The map the feel of the game is so different F2F it's like you can't see straight for 1st couple of games and my perspective was out of focus. Well you knew where this is going, I fly in fast & hard looking for range zero and Mr. Dizzy speed changes down to speed 4 at range 4 and then he alpha strikes me. He hits me with everything and does a bunch of internals. It was like a 60 second mike Tyson fight, I was knocked out but my body did not know it yet. I felt at the time I am going to get my range zero shot in a few impulse from now, there is no way he can get away from me. Next impulse he cloaks and weasels, it was like getting turned down at a strip club, I did not see it coming. I did get the range zero shot with no real shield damage, so at this point Viagra could not get me up. He fool me and played a perfect game and I conceded soon after.

life two
game 1 Hydran vs. Gorn Old School
WOW I went into panic mode, I was 1-1 and thought I needed to renter with my strong ship (Hydran) and pay the $5 for a new start. I enter the bull pen for a new game and was matched up with Kin Lin (old school) in a Gorn. We have never played before but I have watch a few of his games online. I learned a few thing from Old School, he took very details notes of all the activity that happened threw out the game. When you play online it's so easy to go back and look at the history of all the activity but face2face there is nothing but what you log. There are 2 things I remember clearly about this game. This was our last game of the day semi sober for the both of us, and I really enjoyed playing Old School and I had a lot of fun during this game. I don't remember most of the details of this game but I do know I fire 4 overloaded fusions range 2. Three fusions hit for max damage (rolled ones) and I did 27 damage from the 4 fusions. I did the my 1st fusion dance of the weekend and some screaming & yelling with excitement. I know I won the game but I don't remember how. So off to a new 1-0 start.

game 2 Hydran vs. Gorn Brook Villa
Before diner on Friday I played Brook Villa in a Gorn. This game still pisses me off and I will replay it for a long time in my head. Brook said he had not played SFB for a few years and when we were matched up he claimed the Hydran can't beat the Gorn, wait he said that three times during the game. O boy this was not the game to lose. Turn one I did the load everything standard and 4 weasels. I went speed 15 headed to the corner with the fighters out and ready. At the end the turn imp 32 Brook launch 2 S torps at about range 10. During EA I thought about what to do and thought the torps where fake. I really wanted to run thru the torps and run him over BUT I wimped out. I did the speed 9 then to 4 on imp 5 and weaseled the torps. They turned out to be real and I had a speed change to 14 on imp 16 or so. I chased him the next 2 turns. On turn 4 he was coming towards the center of the map from about hex 1701 where one players starts the game. He was 4 hexes from the boarder & I was about 10 hexes from him coming straight at him (shield1 to shield 1). My plan was to go fast at him for the 1st half of the turn & then speed change down to a very slow speed on the 2nd 1/2 of the turn. I was going to get as close as possible take a shot and ED/weasel the plasmas. My plan would have issues if he launches imp 1. Imp 1 of turn 4 he launches 2 std S torps and I see I can't get my plan to work with a range 4 shot. This is where I am pissed at myself, I am thinking there is no way those are both real plasma's and I get greedy and did not play it save. Now thinking about it, I don't believe he know he had fakes. It hurts to much to write about the rest of this game. I will say that the Hydran does not take 30 internals very well when you did not fire a single weapon.

game 3 Hydran vs. Lyran Duke
Ed Slusack, Bill Schoeller and I went for diner and it was great to catch up with them after 20 years or so. We where the loudest table in the restaurant and I felt good. Maybe it was it was just me making all the noise. When we came back I was match up with Christopher Proper flying the Lyran (Duke). We had only played one game before this online during RAT and he played a straight vanilla game. Going into the game I thought this was not going to be so challenging and did not feel threaten. I believe the Hydran has a slight upper hand on the Lyran and I thought Duke would play it by the script. As I describe the game Duke played the best game against me that I experienced during the tournament. He was one step ahead of me and I fell into everyone of his traps. I did the corner dodge turn one with the fighters out on top of me and everything loaded standard. He flew in fast we ended the turnaround 11 hexes apart. I was thinking he wanted the overload shot turn two so I overloaded both hellbores went slow. Impulse one duke semi fast and fire everything at the fighters and was closes enough not to have small target modifier and kills both fighters. The rest of the turn he runs away and by some luck I get to range 8 on him fire both overloaded hellbores. I thought Friday my dice where a little below average and then both hellbores miss I knew I needed to visit the "The Dice Witch" down stairs and have her bless my dice. A few turns later we are dancing around range one and we both throw 2 suicide shuttle at each other. Very standard we both don't take the chance and kill the suicide shuttles. A few impulses later & Duke launches 2 more shuttle facing a semi down shield and I don't move next impulse. Big deal he wants a few phaser threes to annoy me. Next impulse the shuttles move and Duke announces 36 points of damage and my jaw dropped and I knew it was over. Duke had a few other nice moves that game but the turn two kill the fighters and run away with the extra suicide shuttle where the icing on the cake. I was 1-2 with the Hydran at the end of Friday night and it being my second entry. I went into drunk panic mode for the night, do I reenter in the morning or play it out. Hmmm lot to think on that night.

It was Saturday morning and the Rocky song started in my head, and I was feeling confident about playing face to face. But I needed to fix one thing. I grab my dice & Old school and we went to visit the Dice Witch. She was a young lady dressed as a witch and attractive but I think she is the only person in the world to pay for a nose job to get it BIGGER. I paid her $5 to bless my dice and she put them in a bowl and asked me what I wanted them to do. I said I need lots of ONES and when I roll them the other players should coward away in fear. She puts different types of rocks in the bowl with the dice and meditated for a few minutes concentrating on the dice. Well I felt good about dice and wanted to play my first victim.

I went back up stairs and paid John Rigley another $5 and entered for the 3rd time as a Hydran. John gave me that look and said if I win the tournament there was going to be a asterisk as big as the trophy next to my name. I laughed and still laughing about that now. Later in the day I felt better when Old School entered a 3rd time too.

life three
game 1 Hydran vs. Orion Andy Sackett
I was matched up with Andy Sackett in a Orion using gFFff and Turn one he doubled everything and he chased me into the corner. I did my standard load everything with 2 suicide shuttles. I did not understand why he doubled everything because his ships weapons did not cost anything except the 2 fusions. On imp 32 he launched 2 F torps at me. Turn 2 I did the 4/14 movement and put 14 to my front shield and weaseled the plasmas. He cloaked out and I fired at range zero a alpha strike on him. The only shield damage I took during the game was done by me from firing the overloaded hellbore at range zero. Turn four he came out of cloak and could not dodge my fighters and then the hellbores finished him off.

life three
game 2 Hydran vs. Gorn Bakija
I met a gamer from another room that pop into the SFB tourney room to check things out. I did not know his name but we spoke for a bit and it turns out he had a ace card from back in the day playing the Wyn Aux. He said that he flew with a ESG and I heard about him from Stephen McCann (Moose) article in the SFB tournament rule book. I knew I had to play him but he was just finishing up another game of candy land or something like that. We agree to play when he was done and I sat around a little bit waiting on him. At this point I was 1-0 and I knew I needed a another win to get into the final 8 and the ESG guy was easy pickens. That is when Peter Bakija flying the Gorn came into the room and called me out and said we have never played before and we are going to play. He insisted and I acted all brave on the outside but inside I was scared. What chance do I have to win against the #1 Gorn player in SFB. I knew my weekend was over and I was going to play candy land with ESG guy in about a hour. Bakija and I sat down to start our game and fill out our EA. Bakija looked so confident and was enjoying himself too much. I was happy for him but me, I knew I was in trouble. I had read Bakija article on winning a online tournament I believe the 1st online P Hat. In the article he had said he plays a very aggressive Gorn with no envelopers. I like to corner dodge big plasma and my tactic does not play well into his style. So I thought about and decided to do the corner dodge thing. Bakija did a great job of describing the battle in detail so I will leave that out and you can scroll up a little see it but I will add a few thoughts. My plan was turn 3 to turn into him get in as close as possible and fire then ED/weasel. I got lucky with using all my fronts shield (6,1 & 2) to defend against him during the turn and to get a nice hit on him. I think I was more shocked then him to do 30 total internals over 4 volleys and wipe out every single weapon, 4x Plasma torps,8 phaser ones & 2 phaser threes. Maybe the Fusions should get their own volley on the DAC too, joking. This game will be hard for both us to forget.

life three
game 3 Hydran vs. Ron Pilotte Tholian (Wyn Aux guy ESG mount)
Ron was very rusty but we had a lot of fun playing. He did a nice maneuver with the web caster.
At the end of turn one he laid 4 hexes of web full strength that was hard to get around then turn 2 impulse 8 he did it again and I had to het away. There was a lot of thought that went into him laying the web for full affect and me avoiding it. Ron had not played in a long time and I thought he picked a very challenging ship to fly out of practice. The rest of the game his timing was way off on the impulse chart and when chose to fire.

It was around 4pm Saturday and I knew I was in the final 8 with a record of 3-0 on my third life.
John Rigley said the 1/4 will start at 7pm so I went to the hotel to see if Robert (friend that came with me) would have dinner with me. I got there and he said he was having too much fun catching up on Law and Order so I left him there and went back to have dinner with group of SFB players. When we went to dinner we did not know who was playing who but we had a great time and thank you again DROID. When we went back to start the 1/4 I was thinking that ED Slusack was the only one I did not want to play in the 1/4 finals. I knew it would a long game and Droid and ED just played a 6 hour game the night before that carried over to all morning. Also I had memories of playing Ed 20 years ago and him slaughtering me. When we came back from diner the news was out and ED and I where match up. I knew this was going to be a tuff battle, Ed has been playing SFB since the cavemen used honey bee cone's as the map and Woolly mammoth nuts as dice. The next problem I had was I can't believe I won the 3 games on Saturday because my dice sucked, I mean bad. They were so bad after the Dice Witch cursed me in the morning that I would hunt out other players dice for some hope of getting a roll under a 4.

1/4 Final
Hydran vs. Ed Slusack RFH
I did the corner dodge with everything loaded standard and fighters out on top of me. I also had 4 weasels powered and hoped for enveloper. Ed does not play SFBol and I did not know his style. Ed came at me at a fast pace and on impulse 32 launched 100 points of Plasma at range 10 or so. I thought they were real and he planned on cloaking away turn 2, If I thought the S torps where fake I would of went threw them. Turn 2 I did the movement of 9/4/14 with the plan of weaseling the plasma's. We had a little fire at range 8 and he beat up the fighters a little and I dented his # 5 shield. The S torps where fake. I chased him the rest of the turn. Turn 3 he launched the 2 S torps and I weaseled them and I landed the fighters to repair them. Turn 4 I was scared, I had used 2 weasels and had done no real damage to him and it looked like I was not going to catch him before running out of weasels. He was doing a very good job of keeping away from me. Turn 4 is where I started getting lucky, he cloaked for the next 3 turns. Turn 5 I got a range zero shot with a overload hellbore and 5 p1 and did a little more damage to his #5 shield. I also launched the fighters at range zero with them repaired a little and only one round of fusions loaded. Turn 6 Ed still cloaked and he broke away from the fighters by 2 hexes and me by 5 hexes. Turn 7 my gut told me he was coming up for methane gas , Turn 7 was going to be tricky for both of us. During EA I plotted 4 to HET and loaded my bats with 4 warp and 1 impulse power and had all weapons charged to standard. I went speed 20 all turn and had 2 weasels ready and nothing to tractor. Ed started uncloaking and speed 24 trying to run away from the fighters until he can fire. On impulse 6 Ed was uncloaked and with a speed change the fighters were able to keep range 3 on a weak #5 shield on Ed. I do a call for fire and do 33 damage to Ed with the fighters scoring about 15 internals. He lost a F torp and he fired at the fighters. At the end of turn 6 I was facing the wrong way from Ed, he out maneuvered me. On impulse 7 after the fighters banged up Ed I made a HET towards him. I knew this was risky because he had 100 points of plasma loaded this turn and I knew I needed to weasel them when launched. The only thing I had in my advantage was he used the fakes turn 1 so I would know what I was dealing with when he launched. After the Het we where about 5 or 6 hexes away from each other. Impulse 8 Ed hets towards me and no plasma launch yet. Impulse 9 no movement for the both of us and with a ED (stopping) on impulse 10 I know I can weasel on impulse 12. Impulse 10 was the big one, I moved straight and we where 2 hexes apart directly face to face on the same row. I had 4 batteries left and I knew I needed to move on impulse 11 & 12 so I do a unplotted speed change to 22. Ed then launches 100 points of plasma straight ahead. Ed then said he won the game and I believed him for a few seconds because when you see 100 points of plasma aimed at you it's scary. Then I thought about it for a few minutes and if he has 3 energy into tractor I knew I was in trouble. So the plan was to declared ED (stopping) so I would be stopped on impulse 12 to weasel. If Ed had split the plasmas in 3 groups pointed out of his # 1 , 2 & 6 shield one of them would t auto hit me no matter where I moved. I can slip next impulse and they go straight. Impulse 11 I slip to the right and the plasma go straight. Ed conceded because he had no tractor power and new I can weasel the plasmas away. Ed is an incredible player and his eyes where bothering him so he had a hard time seeing. While we played he never looked at the impulse chart, I would announce every pieces movement 3 impulse out and it never affected his play. I could not of done that. I enjoyed this game the most and admired how Ed played. I could not go without giving Ed the business. I texted Ed at 1:30 am saying "3 points in tractor and you would of won".

semi finals
Hydran vs. Christopher Proper Lyran (Duke)
Sunday morning semi finals and Christopher looked exhausted from the long weekend of none stop playing of SFB. This was a rematch from the day before and I feel Duke was at disadvantage because I saw all his tricks yesterday. Duke had the worse luck with the dice that I have ever seen. I warned him about my dice being curse from the Dice Witch but he kept on using them. I believe he hit with 2 disruptors is 6 turns.

Finals
Hydran vs. David Zimdars AdmiralDZZI HPPB1
David did a write up on the game that was on the $. I feel David should win, he never reenter the tourney and out played me our 1st game. I do feel I gave him a good run just on the fact he had to HET 4 times.

By Brian Evans (Romwe) on Tuesday, October 21, 2014 - 09:58 pm: Edit

I'm fairly confident in saying that it was probably Tos Crawford that brought the beer. It's pretty much a Council tradition at this point.

By Ken Lin (Old_School) on Tuesday, October 21, 2014 - 10:35 pm: Edit

"Next impulse he cloaks and weasels, it was like getting turned down at a strip club, I did not see it coming. I did get the range zero shot with no real shield damage, so at this point Viagra could not get me up."

This man needs to give lessons on how to write Victory articles!! I strongly feel that he singlehandedly could double Captains Log sales.

Seriously, Seth it was great to meet you at C5N. The fusion victory dance was priceless.

Ken