Like, for example, off the top of my head:

-One game where I enveloped on T1, the Orion cloaked, the plasma fell off the map. On T2, the Orion doubled everything, came out of cloak, we ended up at R1 centerlined, I tractor him, launch all the plasma, he blasts me, kills a tractor, HETs away due to inconvenient impulse chart, blasts me with all the rear phasers, kills the second tractor. Game is over, it's impulse, like, 11 of T2.

-One game, didn't envelop to avoid that, Orion just doubles everything, gets close by speed 31 HETing around launched plasma, shoots me in the face with HB, OL HB, OL photon at R4 or something. Hits well, does, like, 30 internals in 2 volleys. Runs away. Game is over. It's probably not even impulse 16 of T2.

I mean, I have also played games where I tractored the Orion at R2 on T1 and killed it with 100 plasma. One game where it cloaked on T1, shook an enveloper, but on T2 didn't double anything, tried a tricky uncloaking while too close and got destroyed without firing a single weapon (opponent was trying a specific tactic, counted poorly, and it went to heck). So you can still win as the Gorn, certainly, but the game is just a crazy one where you can't go in with a particular plan, everything needs to be reactive, and the Orion tends to come out ahead more often than not.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 - 05:40 pm: Edit

TOP OF TREE

Federation Seth Shimansky
Kzinti Jack Taylor

GornGraham M. Gridland
WYN Ax Andrew J. Koch (H, B, G, D)


LDR Jason Gray
Orion Dana F, Madsen (HHGBB/11G11

Andro Peter Bakija
Federation Brian J. Evans


BOTTOM OF TREE

Federation Ted Fay
ISC Cadet Stimpy

Kzinti David As Zimdars
WYN BS Ron Brimeyer (B, ph-1)


Andro Paul F. Franz
Hydran Son of Gramham M. Gridland

Lyran Gregg Dieckhaus
Federation Majead Farsi

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 - 06:07 pm: Edit

What option mounts is Droid using?

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 - 06:07 pm: Edit

Double post

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 - 06:43 pm: Edit

Deleted by author

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 - 07:18 pm: Edit

H, B, G, D.

By Gregg Dieckhaus (Gdieck) on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 - 09:42 pm: Edit

Hmm... Lyran vs Fed with a drone rack... this wont end well.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 - 10:01 pm: Edit

I think the Federation Lyran match up is about 50/50 in my mind.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, September 17, 2020 - 09:12 am: Edit

Heh, you thank that's bad, I got a sketchy Andro vs a very good Fed with a drone rack :-)

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, September 17, 2020 - 10:27 am: Edit

Peter, yeah, that's an even worse RPS than the Fed/ISC...

I guess, just pray he misses with the photons!

By Graham Cridland (Grahamcridland) on Thursday, September 17, 2020 - 11:57 am: Edit

The Feds (at least, the Feds in the bottom half of each bracket not faced with a bunch of Kzintis, Sharks, and plasma ships) appear to have nice opportunities. The Andros not so much.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Thursday, September 17, 2020 - 01:13 pm: Edit

They are all worthy Tournament ships, any one may be victorious.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, September 17, 2020 - 01:21 pm: Edit

CHANGE TO TREE:

Majead Farsi (Federation) is being Swapped for Seth Shimansky. Shimansky and Jack Taylor played a first round game against each other in an earlier Sapphire Star.

NOTE: This is not something that will be avoidable in the future. While there have been 96 first round games (counting Sapphire Star VI), there are only 35 players, and 12 of those only played one game.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, September 17, 2020 - 03:01 pm: Edit

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Quote:

They are all worthy Tournament ships, any one may be victorious.

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By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, September 18, 2020 - 09:16 am: Edit

Evans!

I'm not sure which email is yours anymore; one of them got bounced, and the other has not seen a response (which may just be 'cause you haven't gotten around to it yet).

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Friday, September 18, 2020 - 09:34 am: Edit

Played a practice game against the G-rack Fed last night in my Kzinti.

He killed 5 drones with it. It didn't help enough.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, September 18, 2020 - 10:16 am: Edit

The Kzinti is certainly hard for the Fed, but the Fed can totally make a game of it wth judicious weaseling and some slightly above average photon dice.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, September 18, 2020 - 01:42 pm: Edit

Reminder.

I need to be copied on correspondence so that I can see that the games come off, or that there is a problem.

Thanks.

Steven P.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, September 18, 2020 - 01:52 pm: Edit

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Quote:

The Kzinti is certainly hard for the Fed, but the Fed can totally make a game of it wth judicious weaseling and some slightly above average photon dice.

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By Graham Cridland (Grahamcridland) on Friday, September 18, 2020 - 02:40 pm: Edit

Steve:

Did not know that. Will do from now on. As an update, Andrew Koch (Droid) (Wyn Aux HgbD) vs. Graham Cridland (SummaryJudgment) (Gorn) will take place at 9 EST 6 Pacific tomorrow, Saturday.

I have reached out to Paul copying my son - whose email skills are fine but whose email etiquette is awful (so many exclamation points...) - about that game.

G

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, September 18, 2020 - 03:58 pm: Edit

LOVE your nickname, Graham. I'm a lawyer.... (patent law).

By Graham Cridland (Grahamcridland) on Sunday, September 20, 2020 - 02:36 am: Edit

Thank you.

By Graham Cridland (Grahamcridland) on Sunday, September 20, 2020 - 01:12 pm: Edit

Droid v. SJ, through turn two. To be continued...

So far, no internals, we've exchanged some R6-8 phasers and seeking weapons.

My poor battlecruiser Surprise's crew had to spend the second half of turn one staring out the front viewscreen at two approaching drones running their engines against a tractor beam one hex away, which must have been nervy.

Turn Three may well be more violent.

By Dana Madsen (Madman) on Sunday, September 20, 2020 - 02:51 pm: Edit

Dana M (Madman - Orion HHGBB) over Jason G (The Hood - LDR) on T5.

Against the LDR I figured I'm facing 4 disr and 6 ph-1. By and large if I threaten that my HB drop his ESG's then he can't count on them as drone defense so he needs to hold his ph-g for drones and close in shuttles.

T1 - I double nothing, turn right and head to the corner at 19, looking to turn back in late and end somewhere around 9-11 if he chases me. Jason comes out at 16? speeds up later to 28. I time my turn and we are going to end up at rng 9 to each other at EOT. I'm about 6 or so hexes from the right wall. I launch 2 x I-M end of turn. LDR ejects 4 overloads. LDR announced on imp 31 or so to bring up 2 x ESG.

T2 - I want to be ready for an overrun, but I count how far he can go if he turns and runs for the other wall. I spend enough power on movement to guarantee that I'd get a range 8 shot on imp 32 if he turns and runs, then I double everything including impulse, overload a HB and put 18 rein on my #1. My movement plot is 16(6?), 31(16), 19(EOT). I dumped battery to maintain speed.

So I chase, leave my drones behind, and then realize I've miscounted and I'm going to end at range 9 to him, not range 8. End of turn I'm down 3 power, no batts, and one ejected HB. Only upside is he's facing the wrong direction, just turned and is against the wall (about half way on the side) with me on his #5. So if he wants to turn at speed and engage me I think I've got a position advantage. I launch 2 x I-M drones at EOT and have 2 others 8 or 9 hexes behind me.

T3 - I think he might go 0, but I can't be certain he wouldn't try and go fast and run to either wall and get out around the side. I consider that he could HET to go try and get out the other direction. I can't afford to burn more engines without engaging so I count hexes to each side wall and make sure I've got a movement plot that can cut him off, 26(16), 19(26), 16(EOT). Then I count the hexes again to double check. Forces me to have more power in movement than I'd like. I double everything again, put 14 rein on my #1, couple points of tractor, overload the HB and start loading the second.

Jason does go 0 with tacs, raises a single ESG. I turn right and slip a couple times to time getting there at the same time as my T2 drones. Start coming straight down a hex line and at range 2 launch 2 x IV-M drones. Unfortunately all drones will move from 2 to 1 than wait a hex before moving again, didn't line up for a double move that impulse. At range 2 Jason shoots 4 Ovlds and 6 ph-1 at me. I get lucky and he misses with 2 disr, although he rolls great on phasers and gets above average there with 1,1,1,3,4,6. So I take 49 damage on a 44 pt shield. I decide to hold my batts and take 5 internals. Even 1 more disr hit probably wouldn't have hurt me too bad if I used batts. Jason held both ph-g as I now had 6 drones on the board.

I then turn next imp to get a fresh shield, then slip in to range 1 with my drones. I shoot 4 ph-1 and 7ph-3(w/ gat pulse). I got 44 from phasers, then HB hits the ESG dropping it and doing 10 more. So I get a volley of 8 and a volley of 5. Great damage rolls as I get 4 ph-1 and 3 power plus a tractor. Tractor lets a drone hit him on a side shield for 12 (didn't matter in the end other than maybe limiting movement a little).

I then turn off. He weasels a few impulses later to shed the 2 drones that are coming in from the T1 launch. We end then turn with my slowing down and turning around, range 6ish. I'm curious if he had weaseled sooner and shot me with a gat, that might have changed things if I took another dozen internals.

T4 - I double one engine and go speed 12 all turn recharging phasers and loading both HB, Jason starts at 0 and announces an ESG for HB defense on his down #1. After a bit he goes speed 4 in reverse. I circle around inside range 8 with a little reinforcement on my #6. He shoots me with 2 Ovld and hits with 1, I stop all 6 pts with rein including a couple batt. EOT we each fix a front shield box and he fixes 2 ph-3. On imp 31 I slip into range 3 and fire 4 ph-1 doing 19 pts to his #3 shield. On 32 I get back out to range 4 and launch 2 drones which he kills with 2 ph-1 shots.

T5 - Jason goes 10 in reverse, I go 19 with both warp doubled. I'm circling for his #1, around imp 10 he HETs to change shields as I've got his #1 otherwise. He does not have an ESG active this turn. Because he HET'd on a turn he didn't move and his next move back towards me and protect his #1 I can launch 2 x I-M drones that will impact him next impulse. He uses both 4 gat pulses to kill the drones. Then next imp we end up at range 1 and I shoot 6ph-3, 4ph-1 and 2 HB at his #5 shield which ends the game.

I got a little lucky with the 2 disr misses, I was hoping for 1, but once Jason went 0 I knew I could dial in my speed and be guaranteed movement advantage and picking my shots.

Anyways, checks tree, thinks, hmm. Fed/Andro. I've got nothing against Brian, but I'm rooting for you Peter.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, September 21, 2020 - 10:35 am: Edit

Heh, yeah. That. I'm a sketchy Andro. He's a good Fed in a slightly upgraded Fed.

But thanks for the vote of confidence!

:-)