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	Archive through December 11, 2020	25		12/18 10:55am
	Archive through December 27, 2020	25		12/27 07:03pm

Sapphire Crown Final

bakija (GRN) over MadJack (GBS bb)

We started T8 10 hexes apart, me near the East wall facing D; the GBS off my #2 shield facing C. My shields are something like 13-21-21-15-21-16 from a lot of disruptor sniping (although Jack's mid turn dice weren't great). The GBS shields are 30-1-24-1-24-30, and he has 12 internals (down 2 power, down a P1 still, already repaired 2P3 and a drone rack).

T8: I plan on coming in for an anchor, with 3 plasmas armed this turn. I plot speed 23 till 13, 11 till 21, 5 till the end of the turn (14 moves); finish arming Plasma tube A as a standard, hold tube B and C (tube D is empty), hold 1 weasel (giving up the 2nd), put one in phasers (up to 8.5), and have 11 in tractor. The GBS starts at 9, drops to 4 by impulse 8, sped up to 14 on impulse 27. I immediately turn E to face him and start closing. He doesn't turn to face me, so I get out of his FA. Nothing exciting happens till I hit R2, my 16 point #6 facing his full #5, as I'm angling to get a shot on his 1 box #4. I don't move the next impulse, so Jack blasts me with 3xP1 and 5xP3, rolls pretty well, does 31 damage for 15 internals. But then on the internal damage, I lost a P3, 1 warp, 11 hull, a control and a transporter. Next impulse, Jack launches a weasel (before I can get to R1), I get on his #4 shield spine, so I launch my facing F torp to kill his weasel and fire 4xP1 on his 1 box #4. I roll ok, even with the -2 shift, see no reinforcement (Jack was presumably saving his batteries for a possible HET or tractors or whatever), and takes 12 internals, losing some power, a couple batteries, and a couple P3s. I start moving around his ship, looking to get more phasers in his down #4. I end up 2 hexes behind the GBS, my #5 facing his #4 when the weasel clears and his AFC comes up. He tries to tractor me, using 10 power for 5 effective, which I stop with 5 (of 11) negative. When that fails, he immediately launches a 2nd weasel. I fire another P1 into his down shield for 4 more internals through the shift, hitting a power and a battery. I use 4 batteries to increase my speed to 17 for the last quarter of the turn (instead of dropping to 5) then use 2 tractor power to grab his weasel and death drag it. I keep trying to get off side phasers on down or weak shields, on impulse 27, we are 4 hexes apart, he speeds up to 14. I launch my facing plasma S (A tube) as a real torp. He slips out, but the plasma catches up to him, so on impulse 32, he can either end with the full plasma S off of his 1 box #2, down #4, or he can turn into it and take it on his full #1, so he does that, and uses a battery to keep the shield at 1 box. I turn away from him at R6 to get my right wing P1s on his 1 box #2, fire them, but roll 6, 6, and miss. We end the turn at R6, my #4 facing his #2. GBS repairs his 360 P1 finally (4th repair).

T9: I plot 17 till impulse 25, 12 till the end of the turn, hold plasma tube B, start rearming plasma A (leaving both F tubes empty), recharge batteries and some phasers (up to 6.5), hold a weasel, put 1 power in HET, 2 in tractors. GBS announces speed 4. Impulse 2, I HET to face A (my 21 box #2 facing his 1 box #2) and get my armed plasma tube facing him. I start moving around his ship, again, trying to get off his down #4. I avoid shooting his 1 box #2, assuming it has some kind of brick on it (at the end of the game, it turned out he had 7 reinforcement on it). I move around, getting shot by a couple P1s on my #2 and then a couple more on my #3. Just as I'm about to finally get off his down #4 around impulse 19, he uses a battery to increase speed to 5, allowing him to move the next impulse and turn. He turns his full #3 towards me. I see I'm not going to get off a down or 1 box shield, so I get to R4, on the spine off my #3 shield, figure I can get away from drones till the end of the turn so I don't need to keep the plasma to force a weasel if he launches a flurry of drones, so I pull the bolt trigger on tube B and fire 5xP1. The bolt hits, the phasers roll fine, I do 35 damage, see 2 reinforcement (2 batteries left), do 9 internals. Nothing terrible happens here, but the GBS ends up down 9 power, 3 batteries, 2 disruptors, a couple P3s, and both tractors. Jack thinks a bit and surrenders here; I'm going to get 2 more P1s through the down shield at R5 before he can turn again, and I'll get away to reload, with only about 15 internals; my shields are a mess, but I only have one down shield (#6); the shark has shields of 1, 1, 0, 0, 24, 30, so it'll be difficult to survive at this point, also being down 2 shuttles.

An excellent game. My dice weren't terrible, occasionally good, and the one actual important die roll (the last turn S bolt) was successful. Jack's dice were fine for the first few turns, kind of terrible in the middle of the game as I kept at range and he did a lot of standard disruptor sniping, and then in the last couple turns of the game, his dice were fine for his phasers, but he didn't fire any disruptors at all for the last 2 turns (none armed on T8; 2 were overloaded on T9, but they never got fired.

As always, Jack is an excellent opponent and competitor. Thanks everyone!

By Graham Cridland (Grahamcridland) on Sunday, December 27, 2020 - 05:56 pm: Edit

Congratulations Peter.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, December 27, 2020 - 06:26 pm: Edit

All Hail Peter Bakija!

By Brian Evans (Romwe) on Sunday, December 27, 2020 - 07:00 pm: Edit

Congrats Peter!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, December 27, 2020 - 07:03 pm: Edit

Thanks, all!

By Andy Koch (Droid) on Sunday, December 27, 2020 - 07:34 pm: Edit

Nice work Peter.
Nice work Jack.....

By John L Stiff (Tarkin22180) on Sunday, December 27, 2020 - 08:09 pm: Edit

Congrats Peter.
Thank you for the running commentary.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Monday, December 28, 2020 - 02:23 am: Edit

Congratulations Peter Bakija.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, December 28, 2020 - 08:55 am: Edit

Thanks!

By Jim Davies (Mudfoot) on Monday, December 28, 2020 - 06:56 pm: Edit

Congratulations, and (as ever) thanks for the superb reports.

By Gregg Dieckhaus (Gdieck) on Monday, December 28, 2020 - 07:22 pm: Edit

Congrats Peter!

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - 01:01 pm: Edit

I have sent the first and second place to Leanna. She advised me that due to her illness (she did catch Covid which kept her out of the office) she has been playing catch up and getting orders out. She has not (I did not know until today) done the Sapphire Star VI winners. She is going to see about that and the Crown.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - 07:26 pm: Edit

Thanks for the update, SPP!

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - 08:38 pm: Edit

How about we get the next Sapphire tournament signup going?

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - 11:57 pm: Edit

Jack, I am on vacation, but I did send out a note to the people who need to set up the signups.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, December 30, 2020 - 12:55 am: Edit

I told Jean it was okay to start the next Sapphire after New Years.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Wednesday, December 30, 2020 - 10:19 am: Edit

The sign up page is up and active.

Signup Page

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, December 30, 2020 - 04:47 pm: Edit

So far we seem to have three signups.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, December 30, 2020 - 07:16 pm: Edit

Now four.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, January 04, 2021 - 12:20 pm: Edit

Assuming that Graham Gridland, who is signed up twice, signed up the second time for someone else (sign ups were for a Klingon and a Hydran), we have eight entries for Sapphire Star VII.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, January 04, 2021 - 07:07 pm: Edit

Graham and his son use the same account (as his son is young and lives at home. Being a kid :-)

By Andy Koch (Droid) on Wednesday, June 29, 2022 - 02:46 pm: Edit

Looks like we are finishing Sapphire 11 in the coming days.
Do we think it's time to start setting up the 2021 Sapphire Crown?
Inquiring minds want to know!

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzila) on Monday, July 04, 2022 - 01:14 pm: Edit

sounds good with me