The Shark has a lot of phasers; the bb shark (2 drone racks in the limited option mounts; the most common, and probably best, Shark) has 4x disruptors, 6xP1, 5xP3. All the the phasers can hit into the LF/RF spines. It is rough.

My opponent was cagey, and, I'm pretty sure, virtually never armed his disruptors. If ever. I think he only fired one disruptor the whole game, and it was probably off batteries at that point.

On T3, when I was chasing him down, I could have cornered and tried to anchor him. Which I considered. I had 3 or 4 power in tractors, and full batteries, and 70-90 points of plasma to launch. But it wasn't impossible he had his disruptors armed (it was early in the turn when I had to decided to try and anchor him or not, and he was still not moving real fast), even though I'm pretty sure he did not. But even then, if I went in for the anchor, I had to go through 2 drones already on the map, 4 more drones when I got there, possibly 2 suicide shuttles, and maybe even the 4 drones already behind me (if he launched 2 at a time to not overload control channels). And even then, when I got there, even without the disruptors, 6xP1 and 5xP3 is a lot of damage.

The shark is rough. But then, I screwed up on T2 trying to get around his drones (which was the result of me trying something unusual on T1, in terms of my initial approach), so it all just kind of snowballed into failure.

By Norman Dizon (Normandizon) on Monday, September 10, 2018 - 10:28 pm: Edit

Very, Very Intriguing. The choices you could have made during the game. Thanks for the info. The MASTER Speaks!

Yeah, I'm not sure how balanced that Shark is. Without the Disruptors being armed, you are basically fighting a Phaser Boat with a Bunch of Drones. With a lot of Power, he will have the Edge in Maneuverability and Speed.

And Hat's Off to your Opponent. Clearly a Brilliant Captain. Not arming Disruptors is not something everyone else would have done.

Still, you said yourself that you made a few errors in decision making, so, given that the Gorn could have used Perfect Tactics, perhaps it IS possible for the Gorn to beat the Shark ... ? IMO, these considerations are the Heart of SFB.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Tuesday, September 11, 2018 - 08:10 pm: Edit

The Gorn can beat a Shark. I have beaten many Sharks in my day. But it is hard. And if they play cleverly, it is difficult.

As noted, I used an opening plan I don't usually use--enveloper plasma B, reinforce my #2, face my opponent with my #2. Which, in this instance, resulted in my T2 being totally messed up; I couldn't get around his 4 drones and also keep the chase on, so on T2, nothing happened but me running around drones and him running out an enveloper. Which was sub-optimal. On T3, we started close to the edge, and he could plot whatever he wanted; at that point, he could have had overloads and been planning a weasel, or he could have been fast with a preallocated HET (which, IIRC, is what he had). And I had to commit to action before I knew what he had planned. Which results in bad things happening :-)

By Dana Madsen (Dfm330) on Saturday, September 15, 2018 - 02:50 pm: Edit

Game 3.1 Hyd vs Kzin

Two turns in. No internals to either ship yet, but that will likely change early in T3.

T1 we got to range 4 and shot at the end of the turn. I launched fighters on imp 28 and they were just behind me at 5 to him. There were 10 drones between us at range 2. He shot 4 ovlds and missed with 3, doing 22 pts of damage after rein to my 6. I then rolled 4 6's to miss with both hellbores and did 17 pts from ph-1's to his #1.

T2 I weaseled imp 1 taking collateral damage to my #4. I sacrificed the fighters, but did 19 with phasers to his #4 as he flew away.

Start of T3, we are at range 4 again Shield #2 for each of us. He turned in late on T3 to shoot a couple disr and ph at end of turn doing 10 pts.

By Norman Dizon (Normandizon) on Saturday, September 15, 2018 - 04:45 pm: Edit

WOW, 10 Drones on the board! I thought this was too much. Then I pulled out the Kzinti Tournament SSD and it says "Can Control Double Its Sensor Rating"! Plus it can Upgrade Drones and use a Scatterpack. Yikes!!

(good thing you have fighters)

By Norman Dizon (Normandizon) on Saturday, September 15, 2018 - 04:57 pm: Edit

Took another look at the Shark and the Gorn Tournament SSD's.

The Shark has 6 PH-1's that can fire forward, 2 of which are 360 degrees, and 5 PH-3's that are FX/RX. It comes with 4 Disruptors , 2 Drones, and 2 Optional Mounts. Yikes!!

Comparatively, the Gorn has 6 PH-1's that can fire forward, 4 of which are RS/LS. Plus 2 PH-3's that are RS/LS. And, of course, 100 points of Plasma.

Yes, this would be a tough fight. At least the Shark can't control Double Drones!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, September 15, 2018 - 05:08 pm: Edit

Yeah, the Shark is generally regarded as pretty upper tier. Mostly 'cause it has no glaring weaknesses; it is tough with balanced, abundant hull; it's P1s are always protected by P3s (3FX, 2RX); it generally has 4 drone racks, which is always effective (even with only medium drones and only 2 type IVs). The double shuttle bays are mostly overkill--in the game above, on the turn I could have probably gone in for an anchor, I would have had to shoot down 2 drones, then 2 more drones, then 2 more drones (any of which could have been type IVs, as the 2 and 2 would have come from range 1, so no ID potential), and then the 4 drones behind me. And then the dual suicide shuttles. And then the 6xP1 and 5xP3 at R1. Which probably would have killed me, in exchange for 70 total plasma, at best (as all my phasers are sucked up by seeking weapons). Which is why the Shark is scary. Even with empty disruptors.

One could argue that the Shark could probably use a minor downgrade (remove one of the FX P3s or give it a single shuttle bay), but that ship has long since sailed.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Monday, September 17, 2018 - 07:07 pm: Edit

Game 1.14 is a win to AdmiralDZZI (Orion PPHb1) over Zero_G (Lyran).
Thanks for the good game David.

By Ron Brimeyer (Captainron) on Saturday, September 22, 2018 - 10:39 am: Edit

SkyCaptain has withdrawn from the tournament. I prefer to choice replacements based on getting your game played. The 1st player to lose in round 2 was Old_School. He has declined to p[lay for personnel reason. The 2nd player to lose in round 2 was Romwe. He has excepted the challenge and will be SkyCaptain's replacement. Paul, please put Brian in the tree to face DragoAstro in round 2.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Saturday, September 22, 2018 - 09:42 pm: Edit

Ron,
done

By David Cheng (Davec) on Wednesday, October 03, 2018 - 07:23 pm: Edit

Reminder.
Council of Five Nations is this coming weekend!

Eight members of the SFB community will be starting the weekend off at our annual Star Fleet banquet tomorrow night at 8:00 PM.

Throw caution to the wind, hop in your car, and join us. You can register at the door.

Looking forward to seeing many of youse dudes over the next few days.

-DC

By Ron Brimeyer (Captainron) on Wednesday, November 07, 2018 - 09:33 pm: Edit

Anything happening with those round 3 games? I was hoping I would not have to push this late in the tournament.

By Majead Farsi (Devil) on Thursday, November 08, 2018 - 07:08 am: Edit

I will get in touch with Drago. Sorry

By Dana Madsen (Dfm330) on Friday, November 09, 2018 - 06:53 am: Edit

Sleepcat and myself will try and continue our game Monday night.

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzilla) on Saturday, November 10, 2018 - 02:20 pm: Edit

I'm Starting to forget how to play this game, its is going on so long between matches.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandor) on Sunday, November 11, 2018 - 10:48 am: Edit

so play some netkill hehehehehe

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Monday, December 10, 2018 - 06:07 pm: Edit

Any progress here?

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Thursday, January 10, 2019 - 08:28 pm: Edit

By Brian Evans (Romwe) on Tuesday, January 29, 2019 - 11:17 pm: Edit

Anyone still playing this tournament?

By Ron Brimeyer (Captainron) on Sunday, February 03, 2019 - 12:09 pm: Edit

I don't think so. I am done with this site. I have played my last game. Life is to short to deal with people that sign up and then never play their games, Take 3 1/2 hours to play 27 imps, and a game designer who refuses to allow any changes that may spark more interest.

Bye

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzilla) on Sunday, February 03, 2019 - 12:56 pm: Edit

Ron I agree with 100% - Bye SFB

By Marc Michalik (Kavik_Kang) on Sunday, February 03, 2019 - 05:19 pm: Edit

I have felt for a long time that a modernization of SFBOL would work wonders for the SFB community. I don't think blaming SVC is valid, SFB is the most versatile game that I know of. You can do anything with it that you want... in person, as it was meant to be played.

What the SFU community needs more than anything else is a modern online tool for playing SFB, not a game, a tool like SFBOL, that fully re-creates the in-person experience. This is still a simple thing by today's standards.

Then the same could also be done for F&E. Tools for playing the board games, not computer games. They are separate and different things and I am sure ADB has little trouble getting permission for those "tool" types of software.

By Marc Michalik (Kavik_Kang) on Sunday, February 03, 2019 - 05:25 pm: Edit

For example, to address one of Ron's complaints, in a modern SFBOL that looked and felt like playing at a table with real SFB play aids, you could have a chess-like clock that gave each player 60 minutes per turn during the impulse procedure and each player has 15 minutes for EA, etc. This would be an option, you could set the clock differently or play without it for unlimited time.

Tournament judge capabilities could be built into it, even live ones to run live online tournaments... all of this is simple and can be done by non-programmers with existing engines today. Having even just a decent novice programmer helps a lot. This group of people can definitely do this if they want.

Very easily.

By Marc Michalik (Kavik_Kang) on Sunday, February 03, 2019 - 05:32 pm: Edit

I know this is the wrong topic, but it is where the discussion happened. And certainly, in general SVC knows volumes more about games and the game business than I do, but the keyword here is "accessability". As most of you reading this know I "am a lot more famous than I am important", but still I am an "old school name" in this community and even I find it nearly impossible to find a way to actually play SFB or F&E.

With "modern online tools" for playing, I could easily be playing SFB and F&E every night. It would be "easily accessible" too me, and others too, and there would be plenty of other people wanting to play every night... even if it is only 5 or 10 every night, that is more than enough.

By Marc Michalik (Kavik_Kang) on Sunday, February 03, 2019 - 05:55 pm: Edit

Just to add a few more things you could do with this for SVC & Jean & Leanna & ADB...

Neo-SFBOL would be the "Gateway to the SFU" linked too online PDF versions of SFB products associated with it.

1) Free "Academy Version" is a demo equivalent to current SFB demo.

2) Tournament Only Version. Most people probably buy this, and is serious structured tournament SFB online. This would also include at least a half-dozen of the "Beer & Pretzel" scenarios like Circle of Death and That's MY Freighter!. Original release.

3) Later release. All of SFB with all optional rules like EW, all scenarios, etc. This could be released little by little after an initial big start... or not at all depending on demand for more than the original TC Only release.

But the idea is that this is all directly tied and related to existing PDF format products. The "Neo-SFBOL" software is just "GameTable" software, a "virtual table" that re-creates the in-person experience through the map and other play-aids that come in boxed SFB products.

This moves the entire game into the virtual world where games are played today. And a revival in interest in table top games, which is occurring, is going to eventually land here... where you will already be ahead of time as ADB always was in the 1980's & 90's;-)