Is there a way to appropriately thank Tos?

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - 10:48 am: Edit

Seth wrote:
>>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.>>

Yeah, I got really stupid in a couple of places with plasma movement. Not to say that I would have won if I had moved my plasma better (especially with those DAC rolls. Jeez.), but still.

When I had the first stack of 50 coming your way right before you turned in, I could have slipped off your #6 shield (instead of moving it straight so it was on the #1/#6 spine), so if you had turned in, you'd have taken it on the #1 (allowing me to get phasers in that hole)--at that point, I just fire 4xP1 in the hole, HET, launch the 40 at you, fire another 4 phasers in the hole, and then just run away the rest of the turn. I mean, I get shot up a lot, but I'm probably better off, and the fighters don't catch me anyway even if I don't cripple them.

Then, when I had that second stack of 40 coming your way, I had the opportunity to slip out to R3 the impulse the plasma hit and be on the same shield as the plasma hit, rather than go forward to R2 right on your #1 (when the plasma was hitting your #6).

Both of those were me being dumb, which, ya know, happens :-)

By David Zimdars (Zimdarsdavid) on Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - 06:41 pm: Edit

Seth you have honored me with the most colorful wargame synopsis I have ever read. That was exactly the reaction I was looking to provoke!

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzilla) on Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - 07:14 pm: Edit

LOL thank you Dave.

What can we do for Tos? Buy him a game or gift card?

By Jim Davies (Mudfoot) on Thursday, October 23, 2014 - 05:38 pm: Edit

Seth - epic writeup. You can go again next year

By Robert W. Schirmer (Rwschirmer) on Sunday, November 02, 2014 - 10:05 am: Edit

Anybody happen to have the complete list of who beat who in what ships at Council? I've captured the results posted to this thread but that doesn't cover everything. Thanks,

Robert

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, August 29, 2015 - 09:38 pm: Edit

Ithaca Cup Tournament, 2015!

Team SWA soundly beats Team Ithaca in what is likely the 15th annual Ithaca Cup Team Tournament (this is the 12th tournament recorded on the trophy; we were playing a few years before we got the trophy), where Team SWA (guys from Schenectady and various mercenaries) battle against home team Team Ithaca for control of the Ithaca Cup, in picturesque Ithaca NY. Team SWA went 6-4, beating Team Ithaca by a sound margin.

The Teams:

Team Ithaca:
-Peter Bakija (GRN) 3-0
-Chris Proper (LYR) 1-2
-Andrew Sackett (ORI HHPbf/HHgbb) 0-2
-Ben Kalb (TKR) 0-2

Team SWA:
-Brian Evans (TKE) 2-1
-Courtenay Footman (GBS bb) 2-1
-Dave Cheng (HYD) 1-1
-John Rigley (FED g-rack) 1-1

The match ups were:

-John (FED) over Andrew (ORI)
-Brian (TKE) over Chris (LYR)
-Dave (HYD) over Ben (TKR)
-Peter (GRN) over Courtenay (GBS)
-Peter (GRN) over Brian (TKE)
-Courtenay (GBS) over Chris (LYR)
-Peter (GRN) over John (FED)
-Courtenay (GBS) over Ben (TKR)
-Brian (TKE) over Andrew (ORI)
-Chris (LYR) over Dave (HYD)

A fun day of face to face SFB tournament games, which is always a good time! See everyone in Schenectady in October for Council of 5!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, August 29, 2015 - 10:09 pm: Edit

My games for the Ithaca Cup started with me playing Dave C in my World League game that we had planned, my Vudar vs his Hydran. I got killed, but that is discussed in the World League Tournament thread.

Game 1: My Gorn vs Courtenay's GBS (bb).

T1, I launch an enveloper, he zings my reinforced #6 with some standards and long range, and runs from the plasma. He launches 4 drones. T2, he is against the map edge, I come in faster than him (I'm like 26 most of the turn, he is 14), I skirt around his drones, and launch 50 plasma at him when he turns to face me. He calls my bluff on my pseudo S torp, phasers the F torp a bit, and eats my plasma on his #1. Except the S torp was real, so he takes 8 or 9 internals, losing a disruptor. I HET and fire 4 more P1s in his down #1 at R7 or so, do 10 internals, and hit a second disruptor. Courtenay resigns as I get to run away the rest of the turn, and he being down 2 overloaded disruptors at R7 or so means he isn't gonna do any internals in return, so it is way to uphill of a fight at this point.

Game 2: My Gorn vs Brian Evans' TKE.

T1 I move fast with an enveloper. He moves fast and does not envelop the R torp. We get to about R11, and both launch torps--I launch an enveloped S, he launches a standard R torp. I fire some P1s when he comes into 8, scuffing up his #6, and then turn off and run, using some batteries to speed up to 31 for the end of the turn (we are both moving 31 for the last 12 impulses or so). He turns in, so I launch 50 plasma at him that he can't avoid. My enveloper hits him for 57 damage after a couple P3s. I flee, he chases, my 50 points of plasma get phasered a bunch and impact his #2. The S is real, and after some reinforcement, he ends up with a down #2 and 3 boxes of armor left. He keeps coming. I launch my last F torp, which causes him to turn off. The F hits his #4 for 15, and I fire more phasers at his #2, leaving it at about 3 or 4 boxes. We end at about 11 hexes, his plasma R behind me about 6 hexes. He is down a #2 shield, most of a #6 shield, most of a #4 shield, and has damage on all the rest.

T2: I have to rearm and reload everything, and have an R torp behind me. I plot a weird 8/5/4 speed plot to get 2 more hexes from the R torp (dragging it out to 26 hexes, so if it is real, it only hits for 10) and rearm all my stuff, put 7 in tractor, and have 1 weasel held, and start arming 2 more. Brian moves some sort of 26/17/24/17 plot. He HETs at me early. The plasma R hits me on impulse 8 or so, but is unsurprisingly a pseudo (Brian used all 6 batteries on T1 as reinforcement, which convinced me it was a fake, as he probably would have used a battery to launch the R torp). Brian closes in, I emergency decel. He launches an F torp and closes behind it. His F torp hits my #3 for 19 damage after a P3 shot, and he is at R2, his #1 to my #3. We both fire--my 5xP1 roll weak, leaving his #1 at about 2 boxes. His 4xP1 and 2xP3 roll extra weak, doing a dozen internals, hitting a couple phasers and some power, but mostly hull. He turns off and I start TACing. He launches all 4 shuttles at me. I launch a single shuttle. He launches a second F torp, which I don't weasel, which hits my #4 for 20. He just moves off the rest of the turn. Impulse 32, I kill 2 of his shuttles, cripple a 3rd. 2 of them shoot me for 3 or 4 damage on some up shields. Brian resigns at this point--I have a down #3 and a mostly down #4 and a few internals, but nothing horrible, and 3 weasels armed at this point. Brian has lost his #1, #2, #6, and #4 shields, and all of his shuttles (the two on the map get killed on impulse 1). He could probably stretch the game for a whole lot of turns with cloaking and whatever, but it would take some doing to pull victory out at this point.

Game 3: My Gorn vs John's Fed (g-rack style).

T1: I arm an enveloper. John corner dodges, finishing overloading his photons. By the end of the turn, we are at 20+ hexes, him in his corner. I launch an enveloper at him.

T2: John moves 16/8/4. I move 16/26 with tractors armed. I close in a bit, he slows down, but miscounted, and ends up taking the enveloper for about 30 damage, as he gets hit by the plasma right before he can weasel it. I turn off and avoid him the rest of the turn. We end at about 15 hexes, me in the middle of the map, him near the edge.

T3: I know where he is going to be, and I know what speeds he can move. I plot 17/26 to turn around, put 6 in tractor. He moves 14 all turn. He turns at me, I turn around and come at him. We get to R2, on the #1/#6 spine. He shoots me with 4xOL/6xP1. He gets unlucky and only hits with 2xOL (although as it turned out, even if he hit with all 4, it probably would not have made a significant difference). I take about 30 internals through my #6, losing some phasers and power, but nothing real vital. Next impulse, I move and he doesn't, so I slip into R1, #1 to #1. I tractor him (I have 6 allocated, he has none allocated, and figures fighting with his batteries isn't worth it). I launch 90 points of plasma (S, 2xF, fast load F). He fires his remaining 4 phasers into the plasma. Next impulse, plasma hits him, finds about 10 reinforcement (he reinforced his #1 instead of putting power in tractors). He takes about 40 internals, followed by another 20 from my facing phasers. He resigns, as he is mangled, and I still have 2x suicide shuttles to hit him with.

If he hits with 3 of 4 OLs, I lose my batteries, and only hit him with 70 points of plasma, but between that and the two suicide shuttles, he is still likely killed. If he hits with all 4xOLs, I might lose my suicide shuttles as well, which makes it a game, but I still have an S torp to paste him with on the next turn, and a couple more P1s to fire this turn.

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Sunday, August 30, 2015 - 12:56 am: Edit

Congratulations team SWA.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, October 04, 2015 - 05:52 pm: Edit

Not a winner's report, but just got back from Council of 5, and here are my games:

Game 1: My Gorn over Ed Slusarak's Fed.

T1: I move some sort of 17/24 plot with an enveloper. We close some. I launch an enveloper. Ed turns off. I kind of waddle after him, ending sort of on the right side of the center of the map.

T2: Ed runs from the enveloper, but miscounted and ends up eating for 10 spread around his ship (which is mostly irrelevant). I move 24 most of the turn with tractor, hoping to catch and anchor him. He runs off towards the opposite corner, and mid turn, I realize that if I just run for him, I probably won't catch him by the end of the turn, but he'll be able to get a good shot on me, so I turn off and keep the range open. At the end of the turn, He is kind of behind me, indicating I have made an error.

T3: I have to turn away from him to ever have any hope of getting him in arc of my armed S torp, so I turn away and run along my wall, and he closes in. At about R10, I launch 50 plasma at him. He closes in some, and at R8, realizes he can't get a better shot without eating the plasma, so he fires 4xOL, 4xP1, holding some P1s to encourage me to HET. He hits totally average (2xOL, about 9 damage from phasers), and does 11 internals, hitting nothing real important, and turns off. I HET (which I had allocated this turn) and chase him.

T4: He runs all turn, I chase. He lets my S torp hit him for 1 damage, and it is revealed as a fake. He runs, I close in. Ed realizes I'm going to catch him, so he does a 180 degree HET to get past me in the opposite direction. I get s R5 shot on his #5 shield, so I take it, bolting S+F and firing 5xP1. Both bolts hit, and I do about 18 internals, hitting a photon, his P3s, and some power. I turn off and run.

T5: We both move about 16 all turn. I move into the NW corner of the map, he closes in. I keep out of R8. We end at R9, me buried in the corner.

T6: I plot 24/23/12 with tractor, and S torp, an F torp, and a possible fast load. Ed moves 8/4 and has 3xOL. I just close in. We get to R2 centerlined and end fires everything on his ship, but misses with 2 of 3 photons. I take about 20 internals through my #1, get to R1, tractor him, and Ed resigns as I'm about to paste him with 70 plasma and a phaser chaser.

Game 2: My Gorn over Dave Cheng's LDR.

T1: I do a 17/24 plot with some reinforcement on my #6 and an enveloper. Dave moves 21/31. We close, I pitch out the enveloper and turn off. Dave turns in and closes as I slip away. He gets to R8 on my (reinforced) #6, thinks long and hard about firing and turning off or crashing the enveloper, and settles on crashing the enveloper. He closes in, eating 60 around his ship. I launch 50 more plasma at him. He turns south, allowing me to turn north, threatening to fire phasers into whatever hole the plasma makes. At R5, he fires a couple P1s and a standard disruptor at my #6, finding some reinforcement. The plasma catches him, he gatlings the F torp, and maneuvers to take it on his non facing #5 for 22 internals, losing a disruptor and a couple phasers. He the HETs at me to avoid a phaser chaser, and on impulse 32, we are at R4, my #5 to his #6. He announces ESGs, I launch 2 shuttles. He hits me with 2xOL, 4xP1, knocking my #5 to 1 box after a couple batteries. I fire 4xP1 at his #6, roll well, do 21 damage, and the one internal hits an ESG.

T2: I move 24/23/12 with a HET plotted (hoping to get on his down shields at some point if he moves). He moves 0/10. Impulse 1, he blasts my #5 with an OL disruptor, hits, and does a few internals through 1 box and battery reinforcement. I turn off and run a bit, shooting some phasers at his #1 as I go. Impulse 8, I'm at R8, and he speeds up to 10, so I HET back at him and close. My 2 shuttles took his single R2 ESG down to 5 points. We get to R2. He shoots through my #6 with 5 points of ESG, some P1s, a gat, and a couple disruptors, doing a dozen internals or so. I get another dozen in with some P1s through his down #6 as well. He launches some shuttles, I launch some shuttles. I end up turning into R0 off his down #6, and get a plasma F through it for 20 internals (and 5 feedback to me!). We separate some, and at the end of the turn, we are at about 8 hexes, but I still have most my power and weapons, and the LDR is down to about 10 power total, so Dave resigns.

Game 3" Ed Slusarek's Fed over my Gorn.

The first round of the top 8 single elimination ladder has me against Ed's Fed again. I do things a little different, but it goes worse for me.

T1: I move 31/17/24 to get closer to the middle of the map. Ed moves 17/26. We close, I launch the enveloper, Ed turns off, I chase. I end the turn in the middle of the map. So far, so good.

T2: I move 17 for a few impulses to turn towards the Fed, and then 24 the rest of the turn (which gets me to the corner if needed), with 5 in tractor (and 2 suicides held). Ed goes 31/17/24. I chase him into the corner. He successfully runs my enveloper out this time. He starts turning back towards me. I do some counting and see I need to speed up to catch him, so I accelerate to 31 off batteries (which works badly for me in the long run). Ed does a lot of counting, and sees I'm gonna catch him, so he turns in and declares emergency deceleration. I get to R3 before he is stopped. He fires 3xOL, 4xP1 at my #2. He gets dice revenge, and this time hits with 3 for 3 at R3 (on 1-4), and does about 20 internals, but doesn't hit a tractor. Next impulse, he wants to mizia me, so he slips at me. I slip in (as I'm not turn enabled just yet...) to R1. He comes to a halt. I tractor him, which he doesn't fight. Because I tractor him and it is the exact wrong impulse, I don't move the next impulse at speed 16. He hits me with his 4th OL and 2xP3s, doing 22 internals, hitting a bunch of phasers (which I fired a bunch of at his #1 this impulse as well) and a tractor. Things are looking bad here. Next impulse, he fires his last 4xP1 into the hole, and kills my second tractor, as I have no phasers left in arc when he rolls a 10. I surrender, as he has a couple weasels.

After the game, I realized I had a way to victory (or at least a game) and failed to take it (I'm pretty sure this would have worked)--on his second volley, when hit hits my tractor, I could have blown up the tractor holding him, so I was back up to 31 (and at that point, my turn mode was satisfied). Next impulse, I can turn into R0, tractor him again (as it was an involuntary tractor drop) as I had a bunch of tractor power. He shoots me in the face with 4xP1 at R0, probably taking it down. I hit him in the 10 box #1 with 70 plasma and 3 phasers. I take another 15 or so internals from plasma feed back. We are both gutted, but I probably come out ahead in the end, as I also had 2 suicide shuttles on the map (that get to hit him if I blow up his shuttle bay, which I probably do with about 75 internals), and then as long as I have about 10 power and an S torp, the enveloper kills him in a couple turns. But that is one of those things you always figure out *after* you lose the game :-)

As always, a fun tournament of FTF SFB. Yaa Council of 5!

The final is between Zimdars' Kzinti and Bill Schoeller's Klingon, which will take place on SFBOL in the next couple days.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, May 22, 2016 - 11:07 am: Edit

Played a couple games at the Ed Sluserak Invitational at Dave Cheng's swanky new house in Albany, NY yesterday. Proper and I drove out there, and there were, like, 10 guys all hanging out in Dave's cavernous game room playing SFB all day. it was fantastic.

Game 1: Brian Evans (NEO) over Peter Bakija (GRN)

I know the Tholians are generally rough on plasma. But historically speaking, I'm probably like 2:1 against Tholians, and tend to think the Neo/Gorn match up is 50-50, rather than advantaged for the Tholian (the Archeo is much better against the Gorn, but then, the Archeo is much better against everything). I've beaten Evans's Neo a few times before, but this time, he got the upper hand.

T1: I move 17/24 with an enveloper and some reinforcement on my #2. Neo goes, like, 21/26 maybe with standard disruptors. Early, he turns into his corner, so I turn towards him to keep my enveloper (B) in arc. He turns out and we close some. At about R15 I pitch out the enveloper (a lot of folks will pooh-pooh a T1 enveloper against the Tholian. I like it 'cause it takes guessowork out of the game, and generally compels the Tholian to cast a web, rather than call my bluff and use a R8 fist), he casts a web and fires his disruptors at my non reinforced #1, hitting with all 4 for 12 (yuck). We close a little more, but I'm slipping away to avoid his web shenanagins.

T2: I move 24 all turn with a held standard S, a bit of HET power, and a bit of reinforcement on my #5. Neo is 21 most of the turn with standards again. I turn off from the web, he snaggs up my enveloper, he goes through his web and takes a R10 shot at my #5 with his standards again, but misses with all 4 this time. I turn in, he turns off, but we end up at R8, so he hits my #6 with 5xP1 for a dozen damage. I fire back with 4xP1 for 1 damage on his #6. We kinda tool around his web till it drops, circling each other. I consider HETing at him, but as I fired my P1s early in the turn, it seems like a bad plan, so we just circle a bit, and eventually, he turns off to open the range. I end up behind him.

T3: I move 17/24, again with some HET power and recharge my phasers. He moves 21 most of the turn. He has standard disruptors again. I chase him into the corner, and he throws up a web and gets behind it. I figure I can get a reasonable bolt shot here, and I have another S coming up next turn, so I pursue. He turns around, and pokes his head through his web to get a R4 shot on my #3 with 4x std disruptors and 4xP1, hitting with all 4 disruptors and doing a dozen internals, hitting a P3, P1, and a tractor (which is significant later). He HETs away, but in a way that I'll get a shot at him anyway if I HET after him, so I do. I get R3 off his #3 on impulse #27, bolt S+F and shoot 4xP1. Both bolts hit, phasers roll lame, but I do about 15 internals. I accelerate to 31 till the end of the turn with a battery and get to R2 on his down shield with a P1 and a P3, again roll lame, and do 6 internals. Overall, I get a handful of phasers, the snare, and a disruptor. He turns at me, and on impulse 32, we end up at R1 centerlined. He launches a shuttle, which I vaporize (it is a SS) with my two unfired P1s, and then notice that all my other phasers aren't cycled till impulse 3 (I totally should have saved those 2xP1s to follow up the plasma on text turn).

T4: I lost a tractor, so I need to tractor him on 1 and launch my plasma, in case he blows off my other tractor. If I still had my second tractor, I could take his shot on 1, wait till my phasers cleared, and then tractor him and plasma/phaser him to death. But with 1 tractor, I can't take the risk. Which I should have considered when I fired those P1s on impulse 32. I put what is likely too much power in tractors (10) and a modest brick on my #1, finishing my standard S torp. Impulse 1 I tractor him, which he doesn't fight. I launch 50 plasma and a couple shuttles, he pastes me in the face with 3 OLs, Fist, and a bunch of phasers, doing like 30 internals. I hit him with 50 plasma on his #2 for 20 in, but with no follow up phasers, he is less damaged than me. We spend the rest of the turn launching and killing shuttles and TACing. I kill all his shuttles, he kills 2 of my 4. One of my shuttles gets a P3 shot in one of his down shields. At the end of the turn, I use a battery to speed up to 1 and move a hex looking for a better spot, but mostly irrelevant (I think this made him TAC, which got my shuttle a shot on a down shield).

T5: We are at R1 again, but I have nothing to hit him with. So I rearm a plasma, and put all my power into a 20 point brick on my full facing #5. Impulse 1, he blasts me with 2 of 3OLs, Fist and some phasers, but 'cause he missed with an OL, he doesn't do internals. We again sit and TAC for the turn, and he tractors my shuttle and avoids too much shuttle abuse.

T6: I'm very behind here, and only have one plasma to launch, as I laid off some tubes last turn for more reinforcement. We both move a little. He blasts me with 4xOL (having fixed one), Fist, and some phasers. He doesn't miss with anything, and ends up leaving me with zero power and a few torps. I hit him with an enveloper for 20 more internals, but when the smoke clears, he is still capable of fighting, while I have zero power and no repairs left.

Things that might have won me that game: Saving those 2xP1s to follow up my T4 plasma (put it might have resulted in me getting hit my a SS on the next turn); not putting 10 power in tractor on T2, as the Tholian couldn't have fought the tractor that hard in any case, and having, like, 5 more reinforcement or moving some (so I didn't end the turn at R1) could have made a difference.

Game 2: Peter Bakija (GRN) over Dave Cheng (LDR)

T1: I got 17/24 with an enveloper and some reinforcement. LDR moves 21/31 with probably 4 standard disruptors. We close some, I launch an enveloper, and gets R8 on my reinforced #6, fires 2xOL (probably batteries) and 2xStd. He hits with both std, misses with both OLs, doing no damage through my reinforcement. He turns off, I turn in. He scratches my #1 for 4 damage with a couple P1s. I do about 7 damage to his #3 with 4xP1. He runs the rest of the turn.

T2: I go 24 all turn and recharge phasers. He moves 31 all turn. He runs the eveloper out out to the wall, taking it for 10 damage. I close in. He announces ESGs, but I'm kind of behind him, and he figures that to get his ESGs to get me, he is gonna have to HET into me, so right before the go up, he cancels them. I end up at R5 off his #5, and hit with 5xP1 and a F bolt for 3 internals, hitting an ESG. I just keep following him. He scratches up my #6 at some point with his FX disruptors and a couple P1s. We end with me behind him some.

T3: I go 24/23/17, he goes 21/28. We kinda spiral around, I launch 50 plasma at him as he turns in my direction, and get a 5xP1 shot on his scuffed up #3 at some point, so I take it, roll well, do 5 internals, and hit is second ESG. He is now down both ESGs and some phasers, and has a down #3 and #5. He HETs at me and my plasma. I HET to get a few more phasers into one of his down flank shields. He gatling up my plasma and takes 5 internals through his #1. I do 8 or 9 more internals through his down #5. At the end of the turn, we are about 8 hexes apart. I have damaged shields but no internals. LDR has 3 down shields, and only, like, 15 internals, but he has lost both ESGs and 3 or 4 P1s. Dave surrenders.

By Sebastian Palozzi (Sebastian) on Monday, July 11, 2016 - 10:53 am: Edit

SFB Is Alive and Well in Toronto!

Sunday, July 10th was the final day of the First Annual Battlegroup Toronto SFB Tournament. Kosta Michalopoulos won the tournament. His name is being engraved on our new tournament trophy.

We had a total of 10 players who took part. The Final List of Participants was:

Art Trotman (Klingon D7CT)
Brad Jones (Seltorian TCA)
Erik (Fed TCC)
Fred Werenich(Andromedan Krait)
Gregg Henry (Archeo-Tholean TCC)
Kosta Michalopoulos (Gorn TCC)
Leslie Richardson (ISC T-CA)
Lex (WYN AxBC)
Nick Samaras (Neo-Tholian T-CA)
Sebastian (Sam) Palozzi (WYN TCA)(Organizer)

TOURNAMENT WINNER

Kosta flew the Gorn for three wins over the WYN GBS, Andromedan and Seltorian.
Throughout the tournament Kosta played patient, rock-steady SFB; a merciless, cold-blooded approach worthy of the lizards.

BEST GAME

This is a hard decision to make and I should have consulted with the rest of the group but I forgot to do so (sorry). Nobody walked away from a fight so there were a lot of good games but I think the Neo-Tholian Archeo-Tholean match-up gets the nod. It looked like it would be a fight bogged down with lots of web that would wet-blanket the whole thing but Nick and Gregg fought to the bitter end and after the last die was rolled the SSDs for both ships were two seriously damaged ships. Gregg got the win but both players deserve applause for the effort.

Runner up for this has to go to either of Leslie's two ISC games. I wasn't able to watch closely but with two clear wins in two games played the ISC made a very strong impression on all of us. I wish I had more time to review with Leslie and we look forward to his next visit.

IRON-MAN AWARD

The Iron-man award goes to Brad Jones. If anybody had reason to throw dice across the room in frustration it would be Brad but no dice were thrown and Brad was a gentlemen throughout. His perseverance finally paid off in Sunday's mashup where he won first place with his Seltorian.
Brad was also the most-traveled player coming in from Barrie, Ontario for the event.

QUOTABLE MOMENT #1:

Sam: "Fred , how'd you do so well with that Andromedan? I thought that ship was supposed to suck."
Fred: "I didn't play the ship. I played you."

QUOTABLE MOMENT #2:

Gregg to Any Player on Various Occasions: " I've hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me. Marooned for all eternity in the centre of a dead planet..buried alive (voice drops to a menacing whisper)...buried alive."

HIGHLIGHTS

*Younger players Erik and Lex. Lex, at age 13, has a superb knowledge of SFB and of the ships in the game and is proof positive that SFB has an exciting future.

*We found new friends in the Greater Toronto Area who are interested in playing SFB with Battlegroup Toronto. I can't underestimate the positive impact of bringing new players into a gaming group. Battlegroup Toronto, a group of four players, has been playing together for about 1.5 years and as much fun as that's been the introduction of new players really shook things up.

*Seeing Fred flying the Krait as well as he did shook up our little group and opened up a whole new chapter of SFB for us. Thanks Fred.

*At the end of each day we left the tournament with that buzzing feeling in the head that tells you that you've left it all on the board. It's hard to believe that pushing counters on a map could be this demanding.

THANK YOU

Special thanks to Dueling Grounds and owner Wayne. Thanks to Skye and the rest of the Dueling Grounds staff. Wayne obviously has a passion for games and it shows in the way the business is run. If you're in the Toronto area be sure to visit.

Thank you to ADB, Jean, Leanna and whoever is looking after Starlist--a great tool for finding players.

A special thanks to our good friend Art Trotman who overcomes obstacles that would scare the pants off of most of us to support this group. Art is a true aficionado of the SFU. His knowledge and experience elevate the quality of any event he attends.

Thank you Dave Cheng. The idea for this tournament came to us after attending the Council of Five Nations tournament in Schenectady, NY last year. We had a fantastic time at the C5N thanks in large part to Dave's hospitality and we just couldn't wait a year to have that much fun again.

Thanks to friends who took the time to drop by and say hello.

(Pictures will be posted on the Fed Comm board.)

By Kosta Michalopoulos (Kosmic) on Monday, July 11, 2016 - 01:51 pm: Edit

Thanks Sam for being the driving force behind the tournament, and to everyone from near and far who came to play. Hopefully even more players can make it to next year's tournament. In the mean time, you are all welcome to join us Thursday evenings at the same spot for our weekly ship destruction sessions.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, July 11, 2016 - 03:39 pm: Edit

Yaa! Thanks for running that, thanks for posting, and see you at Council?

By Sebastian Palozzi (Sebastian) on Monday, July 11, 2016 - 06:32 pm: Edit

Thanks Peter. Yes, I will be at Council and I'll bring as many Toronto players as I can.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, August 27, 2016 - 09:03 pm: Edit

The 16th Ithaca Cup team tournament happened today in Ithaca NY. Team Ithaca comes out ahead, 4 games to 3, to secure the trophy for another year.

The games this year were:

-Peter Bakija (ZIN) over Dave Cheng (LDR)
-Peter Bakija (ZIN over Joe Manino (TFH)

-Andrew Sackett (WAX gFbb) over Joe Manino (TFH)

-Courtenay Footman (GBS bb) over Brian Evans (FED)

----------

-Joe Manino (TFH) over Ben Kalb (FED)

-Brian Evans (FED) over Andrew Sackett (WAX gFbb)

-Dave Cheng (HYD) over Chris Proper (GBS aa)

As always, a good time was had by all. Hope to see folks at Council in September!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, August 27, 2016 - 09:35 pm: Edit

I played two games, getting some practice in with the Kzinti, which I am playing in the Platinum Hat tournament this year, and had to shake some rust off of that ship.

Game 1 vs Dave Cheng's LDR.

T1: I move 16/31 late with 4 standards and some reinforcement on my #6. He moves 21 most of the turn, with 4 standards also. I launch my SP and get 10 drones on the map, spread out some with a corner dodge. He just closes in. Late in the turn, I hit his #2 with 3 standards at range 14 or so, doing 7 damage after 2 reinforcement. He hits my #2 with 4 standards, doing 6 after reinforcement. We end the turn at about 12 hexes, with my drones closing on him, he uses a gat at R2 on some of my drones, killing 2 and damaging 2.

T2: I move 16/26/14 with 3 overloads, 1 in tractor and 1 in HET. He moves 27 all turn (give or take) with 4 standard disruptors. He kinda turns into my SE corner, and I come in behind him. He puts up one ESG at R1 and kills my first 4 drones, leaving a 2 point ESG. He puts up a second ESG at R2 as I close in, kind of behind him. He eventually mows down my second stack of 4 drones after a few rat pulses, leaving a 7 point ESG at R2. Meanwhile, I kinda turn in behind him, and HET into the attack, getting off of his #3. I launch a couple more drones, kind of hoping to dissuade him from HETing at me. I eventually get to R3, and blast his #3 with 3OL (all hit) and 4xP1 doing about 20 in, hitting 2xP1s and the weaker ESG and 3 or 4 power. He doesn't HET back, but shoots me in the face with a couple FX standard disruptors and maybe a couple P3s. I end up behind him, slow down to 14, and he gets a bit of range on me.

T3: He stops, TACs, and speeds up to 10 late in the turn, with a couple overloads and reloads. I move 14/9 with 3 overloads and reload phasers. He TACs around, I just close in. I get to R2, and paste him in the #6 with 4/4 OLs (one off batteries), 4xP1, and 2xP3. The phasers roll low, but I do about 20 more internals, hitting a lot of power, but no weapons at all. I launch a couple drones, which he shoots down. I close into R1, and he tractors me. I launch a couple more drones, which he shoots down, and shoots me through the #2 for about a dozen internals with a couple OLs, some P1s, and a couple gat pulses. We stay tractored for a few more impulse, and he launches a couple suicide shuttles, of which I kill one with a couple P3s, and take the other in the face, leaving my #1 at about 1 box. The LDR drops the tractor and runs off.

Dave surrenders here, as I'm ahead, like, 35 internals. Dave thinks he can still make a fight of it, but he figures he is fighting a very uphill battle, and wants to start a new game.

Game 2 vs Joe Manino's TFH

Joe is an old school SFB player who has been out of the game for a couple decades, but he lives near by and we got him to show up today!

T1: I move 31/20/31 with 4 standards and a weasel. TFH moves 27 all turn with 2 standard S torps. We close. He launches 2 standard S torps and turns off. Shoot up his #6 with 4 standards, which he blocks about 3 of with reinforcement. I turn off and run from the plasmas, he eventually turns back in. I miscount and turn in 1 impulse too soon, so his plasmas will end up hitting for 15 each instead of the 10 I thought they were going to hit for. I fire a couple P3s at each plasma at R2 at the end of the turn, and launch 4 drones. We end at about 20 hexes.

T2: I move 16/26 with 4 standards and recharge phasers. TFH moves 14/27. His plasmas hit my #3 for 23 damage on impulse 2, and they are both real, leaving my #3 at 1 box. I turn about and chase, TFH turns off and runs. I just chase him across the map, and shoot his #4 for 9 damage with standards late in the turn. He just kinda runs into my SE corner. I think I neglect to launch drones this turn.

T3: I move 27/25/14 with 3 standard disruptors and 5 in tractor. He moves 27, slowing down to 14 near the end of the turn. He comes out of the corner, and I chase him. He launches an F torp, which I exactly ram into for 20 after it moves 5 on my #2. He turns in to get me in his FP plasma arc, and launches 2 fast load F torps. I end up in a spot where I'm gonna have to eat them in the face, or on a down shield, so I launch a couple fast drones and fire a few P3s and take them in the face for 36, doing 6 internals, hitting a tractor. He fires 4xP1 at me from R3 or so, doing another 15 or so more internals, hitting a drone rack, some P3s, and my second tractor. Gah. He turns off, and I get to R2 on his damaged #4. I fire 2OL (off batteries), 1std, 4xP1, and 2xP3. I hit with one OL, the std, and do ok on phasers, and do about 21 internals, hitting power, some phasers, a tractor, and a plasma tube. I slow down to 14 and launch 2 more fast drones. The drones catch up. He tractors 1, kills one with a suicide shuttle, kills a third with 2 phasers, but a fast type I catches him after he slows down to 14 late in the turn and does 12 more internals through his down #4, hitting more power and phasers. We end at about 7 hexes.

T3: He moves 0, speeding up to 9 late. I move 9/4, recharging guns and batteries and arming standard disruptors. Impulse 1 he launches his last plasma F and weasels the 4 drones from T1 that are catching up. I move 1 at speed 9, drop to 4, and weasel the F torp, speeding up to 9 when I can with some batteries. He TACs his down #4 away from me and speeds up to 9 as I get close. I use a few more batteries to speed up to 12 when I can. I launch 3 drones, which get shot down by phasers, but about impulse 30, I get behind him at R2, doing another 15 or so internals with phasers, and Joe surrenders.

Two fun games!

By David Cheng (Davec) on Tuesday, August 30, 2016 - 11:33 pm: Edit

Lots of info about SFB at Council of Five Nations, posted in the following ADB forum:

Company-Conventions-Stores-Ideas

>> Convention News (Multi Games)

>> >> Council of Five Nations

This link might get you there directly...
Link

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, September 25, 2016 - 05:58 pm: Edit

Not a winner's report, but the games I played at Council of 5 Nations this last weekend:

Game 1: My Kzinti over Steve McCann's Klingon.

I showed up on Sunday night at about 7:00. Apparently, there had been folks there playing all day (I think a couple guys had 4 games in already...). I drew a random game over Steve. On the upside, he was in a Klingon instead of a WAX.

T1: I move 16/31 with 4 standards and some reinforcement. He moves 15/21 with 3 overloads and some reinforcement (maybe batteries?). I corner dive and come back out, he just slips away from me. Impulse 32, I launch 4 drones at him and fire 4 standards at R16, hitting with 1, and see it soaked with reinforcement. Steve barfs 3OLs.

T2: I move 14/26/14 with 3 overloads. Steve moves 15/21 with 3 overloads. Impulse 1, he launches his SP. It opens. Drones approach, We are kind of slipping apart from each other, and fall out of each other's FA. His SP drones start getting close, so I launch 4 drones at them. Meanwhile, he ADDs 3 of my 4 medium drones down, killing one with a P3. It turns out that I pointed my drones in the wrong direction to catch his SP drones, so I have to turn away from Steve and the drones and do a big U-turn so that I can get his drones with my drones. Eventually, my drones kill 4 of his drones, and I get the other two with a coupe P3s. Late in the turn, I launch my SP. We end near my map edge at about 12 hexes or so.

T3: I move 14/26/14 again, with 3 overloads and a couple points in tractor. My SP opens, and those 6 drones kind of come in behind me as I close on the Klingon. He is near the south map edge. We end up at R3, my #6 facing his #6. I launch 1 fast drone. He blasts me with 4xOL, 5xP1, 2xP2. He hits with 3/4 OLs , kicks in my #2 shield, and does about 20 internals, hitting a disruptor, a couple P3s, and a couple batteries. I'm concerned here, as I wanted to HET at him, but didn't think of it till it was too late, and now can't. But then we both realize that he is running headlong into 7 drones. So he runs into the wall, stops, and launches a weasel to clean up my drones. I slow down to 14, turn in behind him, and end up at R1 directly behind him. I tractor him with 2 power. I launch 3 fast (heavy) drones. He launches 2 fast drones and a shuttle that moves the next impulse. I use all my facing phasers to kill all his junk on the map. He kills 2 of my 3 drones with his 4 remaining phasers. Next impulse, a type IV takes down his #4, and I follow up with 3OL disruptors for 30 internals, which he takes pretty well. I bang him into the wall to do 5 damage to his #1, my tractor breaks, and I end the turn at R1, my #2 facing his ##5. I launch a shuttle at some point.

T4: We are both stopped. Impulse 1,we both launch some drones, and we both shoot them down. He TACs and blasts me with 3 OLs (missing with 1) and a few phasers, and my shield doesn't come down. I TAC to face him and hold fire till impulse 32, when I take down his reinforced #6 with 2OL (one hit), a STD, 4xP1, a couple P3s and do a few internals.

Steve surrenders here as I am ahead a lot of damage, and I get to blast him with a repaired Disruptor and a shuttle P3 on impulse 1 through his down shield.

Game 2 my Kzinti over Sebastian Pallozi's GBS (bb).

We start playing Saturday morning by about 9:30. There are a dozen+ people in the room playing at this point. It's nuts.

T1: I move 16/31 with 4 standards and some reinforcement. Sebastian moves 16/26 with 3 overloads. I corner dodge, launch my SP, and get 10 drones on the map in two stacks. I come back around, he closes some, launches 4 drones, gets ahead of them and too close to my SP, and turns off as he isn't going to get to R8 and the SP drones are closing. We end at about 12 hexes.

T2: GBS goes 4/14; I go 14/26/14 with 3OL. He weasels my drones. It turns out he launched his 4 drones at my SP, but then got ahead of them (great minds think alike! :-), so he had to weasel. He avoids drone abuse. I kind of stay wide until he speeds up to 14, so I close in. At R5, he shoots me with 4OL, 6xP1, knocking my #6 down to a few boxes. I turn in. He launches 4 drones. I launch 4 fast drones at his drones. I become momentarily concerned that I'm going to spectacularly explode when I realize that I move when I didn't think I did, and will end up moving, his drones will enter my hex, and my drones will enter the hex all at the same time, but then am relieved 'cause my fast drones get to hit the speed 20 drones first (we check the rules, just to make sure :-), so I'm ok. I close in to R2 on his #5. He shoots me through my #6 with his 5xP3 for a dozen internals. I blast through his #5 with 3xOL, 4xP1, 4xP3 for about 15 internals, and follow up with another OL for another 8 in the next impulse. I turn off, and we end at about 7 hexes, spiraling apart.

T3: I move 16/14/9, arm a couple OLs, rearm phasers and stuff. He moves 14 all turn with a couple OLs. I can shoot at his down shield at R7-8 with my overloads, but don't, as we are closing in. I do fire a couple P1s into his ship for 2 internals at some point. We close more. He shoots me, taking out a shield and doing a few internals at some point, and I HET to face him, close in, and take out another shield and do a few more in. He is down to 2 drone racks, and I have 3. He launches a couple drones, which I tractor. I launch three drones at him, he tractors two and ends up getting hit by a type I for 12 more internals.

We play 1 more turn. I don't super remember what happens. But I end up crippling him at some point, taking more damage along the way, and Sebastian calls it.

I'm 2-0 at this point. There are a lot of folks playing, but I figure 2-0 is likely to get into the Finals, and I wanted to go play some other stuff. So I go do that (including a playest game with an Omega cruiser that Barry brought), and when the final tree is set up at 6, there are numerous people with a +2 record, and I lose out in tie breaking (they played more games than me. Which is fair). So I miss out on the final tree, which I knew was a possibility. Works out fine, as I probably would have had to fight my buddy Proper in the finals anyway, and he's on a tear (the finals are Proper's Lyran vs Bill Schoeller's Klingon; they are playing on SFBOL this week sometime as Bill had to go catch a plane or something).

A great weekend of games!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, April 02, 2017 - 09:07 am: Edit

So 8 of us got together at Dave Cheng's house in Albany, NY on Saturday and played a whole bunch of tournament games!

There were:
-Dave Cheng
-Brian Evans
-Brook Villa
-Rob Estrada
-Ed Slusarek
-John Rigley
-Chris Proper
-Peter Bakija

I played two games as the Gorn:

1) I'm Gorn, Dave is LDR.

T1 he moves fast (21/28?), I move 15/17/24 for 18 moves and have an enveloper, 5 reinforcement on my #6, and a suicide shuttle. At about R12, I launch the enveloper and turn off, he turns in and closes, announcing ESGs. He gats the enveloper and eats it for mostly full, so I launch 50 plasma and use a couple batteries to speed up to 30 instead of 24. I keep slipping away, he sees he can't get closer than 6 without eating the 50 plasma closing, so he cancels the ESGs, shoots my #6 with 2OL, 2Std, 4P1, hitting a little below average, doing a dozen damage after my 5 points of reinforcement. He turns off, I turn in. I end up R5 centerlined on his #3, so he shoots me in the face for 8 more damage with his last 2 P1s, I hit him for 21 with 6xP1, doing 4 or 5 internals, hitting a couple P1s and a power. I slip away, he runs from plasma, we end at about R7 or 8.

T2: I move 17 all turn and reload everything. He moves 31/28. He runs my plasma out, letting the S hit him for 3 points after a gatling to find out it was real. I just turn off and mosey across the board. He turns and follows me. We end at about R10, me closing on my SW corner.

T3: I move 17/24 with some contingent HET and tractor power. He moves pretty fast again (28 most of the turn). He announces ESGs again. His ESGs go up at R2 when we are at R7, so I launch a stack of 40 plasma at him (F and fastload). He keeps coming. The Fs catch a gat and 2 P3s (that used to be P1s) and go through his #6 for 8 or so internals, hitting his repaired P3s and some power. I launch a couple shuttles and HET out of the corner and speed up to 25 with a battery for the last half of the turn (to move on 17). He mows over the shuttles for 12 off the ESGs and keeps coming. When it is apparent he is going to hit me, I slip at him so he has to either HET at me or give me his down #6 when he rams me, so he HETs to R2, his #6 to my #5. He gets my #5 for 22 damage with the ESGs. I blast down his #6 with 4xP1 and a P3, doing 3 or 4 more in (I think I get an ESG here). He does about 20 in with an OL and a few P1s, but he hits, like, 15 hull, some control, and a couple power. Over the next 2 impulses I'm in mizia hell, as he gets me for 8 with 2 gat pulses, and then 8 more with a standard disruptor and 2 gat pulses, but the DAC is kind and I don't lose too much that is important--a few phasers and some power, but nothing brutal. I finally can turn and turn at him, catching him at R1 on an impulse he doesn't move. I tractor him, he doesn't fight it, and I end up landing my suicide shuttle through his down shield. That's game.

2) I'm Gorn, Brian is Hydran.

T1: I have about the same opening as the previous game--15/17/24 with 5 reinforcement, an enveloper, and a suicide held. Hydran moves 20/26. He closes and turns across my bow. I launch the enveloper at about R13 and turn off. He isn't super aggressive, so I stay at 24. He slips away from the plasma, I slip away from him. Impulse 32, we are at R9, the plasma is adjacent to his ship, but gonna move 11 when it hits him. He gats the plasma for 16 damage, and fires a couple fusions at me, but they bounce off my reinforcement.

T2: I move 17/26, contingent pay for a HET, have a bit in tractors. Hydran moves 20 all turn (I think). The enveloper hits him for 36 around on impulse 1, he reinforces 4 on his #1. He keeps closing, so I launch 50 plasma at him (it is like a running theme...). He closes, gats the plasma, and takes it on his #3 for 14 internals, which hits a couple phasers and a hellbore. I HET out of the corner I'm getting closer to, he speeds up to 30 (I think off of batteries) and chases. I use my last batteries to also speed up to 30 and keep him from getting too close. I launch my last F torp, which takes down his facing #2 when he gets into R3. He tries to tractor me, which fails. He shoots up my #4 some, I blast him with 4P1s through his down shield and he resigns.

A fun day of SFB!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, August 27, 2017 - 10:18 am: Edit

Ithaca Cup!

We are going with 17th Ithaca Cup for this year (one of these days, I'll actually count the tags on the trophy). This year, Team Ithaca took a sound beating from Team SWA, who took home the trophy. 9 players showed up, including Ken Burnside, pulling himself out of SFB retirement.

Winner--Team SWA (went 7-3):

-Ken Burnside (TFH): 3-0
-John Rigley (WAX gHbD) 2-0
-Dave Cheng (HYD) 1-2
-Brian Evans (KLI) 1-1

Team Ithaca (went 3-7):

-Peter Bakija (GRN) 2-0
-Chris Proper (GBS aa) 1-1
-Courtenay Footman (GBS bb) 0-1
-Ben Kalb (WAX DDgF) 0-2
-Andrew Sackett (ORI PPHfb) 0-3

Individual Matches:
-Ken Burnside (TFH) over Ben Kalb (WAX)
-Ken Burnside (TFH) over Andrew Sackett (ORI)
-Ken Burnside (TFH) over Chris Proper (GBS)

-John Rigley (WAX) over Andrew Sackett (ORI)
-John Rigley (WAX) over Ben Kalb (WAX)

-Peter Bakija (GRN) over Dave Cheng (HYD)
-Peter Bakija (GRN) over Brian Evans (KLI)

-Dave Cheng (HYD) over Andrew Sackett (ORI)

-Brian Evans (KLI) over Courtenay Footman (GBS)

-Chris Proper (GBS) over Dave Cheng (HYD)

A fun day of FtF SFB tournament play. Sackett kept getting killed as he kept putting himself in situations where all he needed to do was roll slightly below average to do fine, and he kept just totally missing (that'll teach him to use photons...). Burnside showed up and murdered everyone in a TFH, having not played a competitive game of tournament SFB for a decade. Proper, rocking the twin ADD GBS did well against a Hydran and, unsurprisingly, badly against the TFH. My two games doubled as my SFBOL World League matches, which the descriptions of are posted in the SFBOL World League thread for those interested.

As always, a great day of games.

By Andrew J Koch (Droid) on Monday, August 28, 2017 - 07:20 am: Edit

I should come to an Ithaca cup once in a while.

By Brian Evans (Romwe) on Monday, August 28, 2017 - 07:50 am: Edit

Yes you should.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Tuesday, August 29, 2017 - 12:47 pm: Edit

ANDY! You should show up!

By David Cheng (Davec) on Thursday, September 07, 2017 - 10:36 pm: Edit

Registration is now open for the SFB tournament at Council of Five Nations XL.

September 29 - October 1, 2017

Please see info posted in the Conventions thread.

Hope to see many of you there.

-DC