So, conceded to Peter at the end of T2.

Initial pass I shot at rng 4 with 2 ESG up at range 3. I only hit with 2 photons, 16 pts + 12 pts, and then did 23 with phasers for 51 total. Peter had 15 rein up and no disr on T1.

After much hemming, I HET'd and ran away from the Lyran. He shot 6 phasers at my #4 doing 21 pts.

Then he chased me T2 at spd 30 while I was at 31 and I couldn't turn without taking the ESG, I launched some shuttles and reduced the strength by 18 pts. On T8 he shot 2 overloads and 6 ph 1 into the rear shield and I got lucky as he missed an ovld and had really poor phaser rolls. But he still did 28, I had no photons armed and 9 pts plus battery available so I ended up taking 13 internals. Not too bad. After T10 we both slowed down, me to 17 and he was doing 15, later on I slowed down to 8.

Towards the end of T2 I turned back in and took the 12 pt ESG on the #3. He came to range 1 and launched 2 shuttles which were manned. Then came to range 0 and launched 2 more shuttles. I took a risk that they weren't SS and held my fire but they were, so I lost the #2 shield and then he shot a couple more ph-3 for 8 more.

I was done at that point. I'd taken a couple volleys and lost 6 of 10 phasers and 1 photon and 5 power. He was only down 1 disr and 1 power.

Good luck next game Peter.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, July 01, 2019 - 11:26 am: Edit

3.1 bakija (LYR) over Madman (FED)

T1: I move some kind of 15/26 plot, hold 2 suicide shuttles, and put 15 reinforcement on my #2. Dana moves 16/31/26 with 2 full OL photons held, fully overloads a third, and makes the last one a 12 pointer. He has no shuttles held. He just turns towards me, as I keep slipping right. Middle of the turn, he speeds up to 30 and turns at me. I speed up to 26 and turn across his nose. At about R13, I announce my ESGs to come up on impulse 27. Impulse 27, the ESGs come up, he is on my #2, but he's out of my FA, at R8. I consider he is gonna shoot me, but he doesn't. I turn up the map, we close to R4, him on my #2, impulse 31. He launches a shuttle and shoots 4 photons and 6xP1. I hold fire. He hits 1 of 3 with the full overloads, hits with the 12 pointer, and rolls ok on phasers, doing 51 total damage. I take 6 in, losing a power and a disruptor, but no ESG or phasers. He HETs away on 32, I HET to follow him (killing shuttle with ESGs). I fire 6xP1 and 2xP3 at his #4 at R4, don't roll real hot, leave his #4 at 3 boxes.

T2: He could stop and heavily reinforce here. Or he could run to avoid the ESGs. I do 30 till 8, 15 till end (much of which involved batteries to stay speed 15 the latter half of the turn), overload 2 disruptors, put some energy in phasers and batteries. Fed moves 31 till 9, drops to 17 till 17, 8 till end, recharges batteries, puts a couple points in phasers, and had 9 reinforcement allocated to his 3 box #4. Leaves photons empty. He announces speed 31, so I hold fire and chase him. Through impulse 8, he runs into the NE corner, I chase, as we both slip north when we can. Impulse 8, I announce speed change to 15 and shoot him with 2OL+UIM and 6xP1. I hit 1 of 2 OLs, roll mediocre on phasers, do 28 total damage, scoring a dozen in after he uses some batteries to up his reinforcement to 13. I hit a photon and some phasers. He soon slows down. I keep pursing, and I end up plowing over 2 more shuttles (ESGs down to 12!). He drops to speed 8 and turns back at me. I end up hitting his #3 for 12 ESG damage (mostly irrelevant). Late in the turn, I get to R1, launch a couple shuttles, he ID's one of them as a guy, I move into R0, launch 2 more shuttles which are the suicides, which he does not shoot down. The hit him for 36 on his full #2 (6 more in), I follow up with a couple P3s for 8 more in. He does 20 damage to my #1 with the 3 phasers he could fire, but resigns after this.

A good, quick, fun game. If he hit with one more photon on T1, it would have been a lot closer. He could have shot my 2 suicide shuttles with P3s, auto killing them, which would have helped, but I still probably get a couple P3's or a P1 into his down #4 by the end of the turn anyway, and next turn, he is down 2 or 3 P1s and has zero photons armed, and he can't move fast enough to get away anyway.

So now I got a Fed to fly against something? A Gorn I hear? Ick...

By Norman Dizon (Normandizon) on Monday, July 01, 2019 - 12:07 pm: Edit

Great Game! I want to say it was just bad luck with the Photon's die rolls, but there is much more going on here. Speed Changes, Energy Management, Reinforcement, Maneuvering, and Shuttle Deployment to name a few.

Masterful Flying!

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Monday, July 01, 2019 - 12:33 pm: Edit

Dude. Fed beats Gorn, like 9/1. You've got nothing to worry about!

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Monday, July 01, 2019 - 05:02 pm: Edit

Just ignore his plasmas, they're gonna be fake, right?

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Tuesday, July 02, 2019 - 08:27 am: Edit

I emailed Paul to arrange a final game. Haven't heard back yet, but I'll post when we have a time set.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, July 04, 2019 - 10:21 am: Edit

Paul and I are gonna start the Final on Tuesday 7/9 at 2:00pm ET!

Progress!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Tuesday, July 09, 2019 - 04:24 pm: Edit

Masters Final!

bakija (FED) vs Grim (GRN)

Talk about grim...

T1: I move 17/26, accelerating to 31 near the end of the turn (likely a battery...). Gorn has no AFC, moves 24 till 25, then 31 (25 moves). We close up the map, I turn across his bow, at R13 he launches an enveloper and turns off. I agress until I can't agress any longer and turn off late in the turn. I run from his plasma, he kinda turns back at me late. We end far apart, with his enveloper 2 hexes away.

T2: I move 31/17/26 (also likely battery in there). Gorn moves 17 till 5, then 24 until he accelerates to 31 late in the turn (I suspect batteries). I run his enveloper out to nothing due to a plasma moving gaff (he moved the plasma behind me instead of slipping it at some point, saving me, like, 10 damage). I turn around, he comes back at me. At some point in the middle of the turn, I accelerate to 26, he launches an enveloper. I phaser it some and eat it for 53 damage around my ship and chase him into the corner. We end at about R10.

T3: I move 31/23/16 (also likely some batteries in there). Gorn moves 24/17/16. He just runs for the SE corner, I just chase him. As he gets near the wall, and we are inside R8, he shoots me with a couple wing phasers for a few points before he turns them out of arc, and launches a plasma F at me. I keep coming. The F eventually hits me in the #5 after a couple P3s and me moving clever with the speed change to 16 at the right moment. I take 2 in, both hull, but my down shield is not facing the Gorn. He gets right next to the wall and launches another F torp. I consider if he can ram the wall and weasel real soon, and it is possible (I counted 38 power on T1, but he could have used batteries for speed, and could easily have a couple weasels in there). I need to weasel the plasma, as I can't turn off (my #5 is down, which will point at the Gorn if I turn off) and can't HET (likely used batteries earlier for speed). So I decide I gotta decel, so I shoot him at R7, with 4OL, 6xP1. I luck out and hit with 3/4 full OLs, but roll terrible on P1s for 6 phaser damage. He has 5 reinforcement (batteries likely) and takes 25 in, losing a couple phasers, 4 power, a lot of hull, maybe an F tube? I skid to a halt, weasel the F torp, avoiding collateral. He comes out of the corner, shoots up my #6 with phasers over a few impulses, launches a shuttle. Impulse 32, we end up at R2, on the #1/#2 spine. I shoot a couple P3s at his R2 shuttle, again roll badly, shuttle lives crippled.

We'll finish this game at some point in the near future, but I got my Saphire Tournament R1 game to finish first, and I'm going on family vacation in a few days. So it might take a while.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - 09:32 am: Edit

So if I end up dead this game (which isn't that unlikely, given where we ended on T3), it will likely be the result of me psyching myself out about the Gorn hitting the wall and pre-emptively weaseling. Which may or may not have been possible or even considered by my opponent (on T1, I counted 38 power in use, so it is possible he doesn't have any special shuttles at all prepared). If I just kept going forward, I would have ended up blasting him at R2 or so (probably taking a few more internals on the way in), which would have possibly made a significant difference.

Man. The "You can just crash into the wall and immediately pitch out a weasel" is *still* one of the worst rules in tournament play. Why is there no delay for launching a shuttle after hitting the wall? You essentially have a 2 impulse delay from using emergency decel; a 4 impulse delay after doing a HET.

Like, I suspect that hitting the wall and stopping was originally envisioned as highly debilitating, and if you were forced into the wall, for example, it would be highly hazardous to not be able to weasel immediately. But in the many, many years of tournament play I have been involved in, the number of times I have seen someone unintentionally hit the wall and stop (being forced in by a tractor, for example, or due to questionable maneuvering) is vastly, vastly outweighed by the number of times I have seen people just ram the wall intentionally to immediately kick out a weasel for advantage. Which just seems like too good of a deal. Especially given that if the tournament barrier worked differently, you could *still* emergency decel and get about the same result, but with a 2 impulse warning for your opponent, and some actual penalties for stopping (i.e. limits on speeding up again and TACing, which you get for emergency decelling, and do *not* get for hitting the wall).

But I digress.

By Andrew J Koch (Droid) on Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - 09:51 am: Edit

Yeah funny though it's usually the FED who is taking advantage of that rule so as not get incinerated... Never seen it happen the other way around.
Well, I mean...I still haven't.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - 12:36 pm: Edit

Heh. All of this is true :-)

I still think there should be, like, a 2 impulse delay on weaseling if you hit the wall or something.

By Paul Graves (Grim) on Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - 05:06 pm: Edit

Peter, if it makes you feel any better about your decision to stop and fire at a distance, I will just say that hitting the wall and weaseling was definitely something I had considered... To be honest though, I'm not sure it wouldn't have been better for you to close with me anyway even if I do that. If you fire under the ECM shift at range 2 you get a better shot than you did at range 7 that you fired at as the phasers will do more. Plus now I'm stopped. And at range 0/1 its better still (but you take feedback from photons). Yes you have to eat the other F but should be able to on a side front shield. And you could have center-lined me to get all 8 p1s.

Alternatively you could not fire this turn and stop and wait the weasels out even into the next turn and then fire as an other possibility but that introduces a lot more problems that may be worse than your current situation.

Probably the mistake you made was that if you were going to fire as you did you should have done so before I hit you with the first F. You had range 8 for a long time. If you were going to worry about me chain WW you you should have fired as soon as I launched the first F, then turned off. If you time it right with movement you probably even prevent me from returning my phaser fire at range 8 as well so your shields are only down by the first EPT.

I do agree with you about it being unfair to be able to WW the same impulse you hit the wall. You should have the same 2 impulse delay that Emer Decel forces you to have.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - 10:37 pm: Edit

>>Probably the mistake you made was that if you were going to fire as you did you should have done so before I hit you with the first F. You had range 8 for a long time. If you were going to worry about me chain WW you you should have fired as soon as I launched the first F, then turned off.>>

A) I wasn't sure you were gonna get that close to the wall.

B) I misremembered when I was slowing down (thinking it was a few hexes later), and I thought I was keeping my speed for a few more impulses, so I thought I was going to get to R5 before you even could hit the wall :-)

By Andrew J Koch (Droid) on Thursday, July 11, 2019 - 09:27 am: Edit

If you're the Fed you best be firing on I32 with some sort of reasonable escape vector.....

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, July 11, 2019 - 01:24 pm: Edit

I'm not a good Fed :-)

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Friday, July 12, 2019 - 04:12 pm: Edit

Thanks for keeping this tournament going!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, July 25, 2019 - 08:34 am: Edit

Master Final bakija (FED) vs Grim (GRN)

Continues today at 2:00pm ET. Things look, ahem, grim for the Fed, but we shall see!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, July 25, 2019 - 04:32 pm: Edit

Masters Final

Grim (GRN) over bakija (FED)

It's over!

So we start T4 2 hexes apart. I had just fired all my guns, did like 20 internals, and then had to decel. The Gorn had limited plasma available on T4 (an S and a fast F). There was a shuttle at R2 from my ship that I hit with 2P3 on impulse 32 of turn 3, rolled a 5, 5, and crippled it for 4 damage.

T4: I move zero all turn with TACs, recharge my phasers and batteries, hold one weasel, start 2 more, start arming 3 photons as standard arming (2 each), put 9 power in tractors. The Gorn moves 23/16/13, finished arming a standard S torp. He comes into R0. He launches a standard S and 2 shuttles that will kill me on the next impulse if they are a real torp and 2 suicide shuttles, but I don't think he has suicides armed, and I suspect the plasma is fake, as I can weasel it. I do not weasel it. He shoots me with 6xP1 at R0, does, like, 20 internals through my weak #2, losing my P3s, a P1 and a bunch of hull. I kill a R0 shuttle (it is not a suicide), and had previously killed another shuttle with 2P3 at R1, and had fired another P3 at the 4 damage shuttle at R2, rolling a 6, leaving it alive at 1 damage. Gah. Next impulse, Gorn moves behind me, the plasma is fake, the suicide is not a suicide. I tractor the Gorn so it can't get away until my phasers all recycle. A few impulses pass. Impulse 8, he turns his armed plasma launcher to face me and launches an S torp. I weasel it with my only armed weasel. It kills the weasel, does a little collateral, I immediately hit him with 6xP1 fired directly backwards, rolling middley, 'causing him to use 1 of 3 batteries to have the 24 box shield exactly drop. The Gorn moves off, I start TACing around. His not suicide shuttle shoots me for 4 more in, hitting some good stuff. The Gorn gets a rear P1 that I had forgot hadn't fired yet into a down shield, rolls a 1 at R2, does 6 in, hitting a photon and 2 more P1s (I'm down to 3 photons and 3P1 at this point). I speed up to 8 late in the turn (with some batteries), the Gorn uses 2 batteries to speed up to 17 (instead of hitting me with a 2 turn F, which would have also killed me...). We end the turn at R9.

I surrender here. I have 2 down shields, and no shields stronger than, like, 10 boxes, and moving slow, have 3 photons and 3P1 and am down about 8-10 power. I'm gonna get hit for 3 or 4 more internals on impulse 1 from a shuttle at R1 from one of my down shields. I'm not gonna see R8 any time soon, and the Gorn can just play keep away, launch an enveloper on T5, an enveloper on T7, and the enveloper on T8 kills me as I'm out of weasels at that point.

A good game! Congrats to Paul for winning this undying tournament :-)

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Friday, July 26, 2019 - 07:06 pm: Edit

I learn much from watching the games in the Master Tournament.

Congratulations to Paul Graves (Grim).

By Andrew J Koch (Droid) on Monday, July 29, 2019 - 02:19 pm: Edit

Congrats Paul Graves!
THis fight certainly is a...Grim... proposition for the Fed. Ha

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 - 06:34 pm: Edit

I'm gonna post here, in hopes of drawing Andy's attention, and maybe we can make Masters happen again, now with improved Global Pandemic!

By Brian Evans (Romwe) on Wednesday, April 01, 2020 - 08:58 am: Edit

I would fly masters.

By Andy Koch (Droid) on Wednesday, April 01, 2020 - 10:24 am: Edit

We are up to 3 including me . All you guys who have been lurking on sfbol this is a good one to enter. Totally just for fun rules above

By Mike Johnson (Akira) on Wednesday, April 01, 2020 - 11:47 am: Edit

I would participate in this!

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Wednesday, April 01, 2020 - 02:34 pm: Edit

Sign me up!