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Quote:

I scanned the Netkill data for the Fed. If I am reading it correctly, it won 47% of the time when players were equal (527 games!).

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By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Tuesday, October 20, 2020 - 10:39 am: Edit

Yeah if we can keep the topic and the tree we should be good to keep the historical record.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Tuesday, October 20, 2020 - 10:53 am: Edit

>>On the subject of the G-rack...as the Fed's biggest problem is the Romulans, saddling it with ADD rounds seems a bit silly.>>

It comes with 2xIM and either 4xADD or 4xVIM. Against a Romulan, presumably, you'd take the 4xVIM (which can hit a cloaked Romulan; I'm not 100% sure on the "launch a type VIM and that launch a SS targets on the Type VIM that both hit the Romulan next impulse", which I don't think works 'cause the SS is slower and I'm not by a rulebook, however...). And in all likelihood, the drone rack will probably be dead by the time it is out of type IM drones anyway, and the extra ADDs/Type VIM drones are likely moot most of the time anyway.

Against a Romulan, the G-Rack is generally going to be of marginal utility. But, well, sometimes ships have terrible match ups. And the G-rack isn't going to *hurt* the Fed against the Romulan, and it might help.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Tuesday, October 20, 2020 - 11:27 am: Edit

Note that even against big plasma, the G rack has very nice utility no matter what. At a bare minimum, a drone hit will pad against losing a phaser - which you DO need.

Also, if you time a drone launch carefully, you can force the opponent to use a phaser on the drone instead of on you. While not much a "drone wave" of two or even three drones is possible (three if one is a type VI), which will take up some drone defense resources not used on the TCC.

So, in my opinion, the drone rack is still very useful against *any* opponent.

Obviously it is MORE useful against the Kzinti and Klingon - and marginally better against the Lyran and Hydran, relative to BP.

By Andy Koch (Droid) on Tuesday, October 20, 2020 - 02:27 pm: Edit

I would still like to see:
A) an approved fast cruiser. I think we were on the right track with Brook's version, which really wasn't that radical; it lost a photon and a p-1, gained slightly better arcs, 2 power, 2 p-3s and a G rack

B) a better power curve. 40 points...like the other all energy cruisers

But, if all we can get is the G rack, I suppose its better than a sharp stick in the eye...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, October 20, 2020 - 04:10 pm: Edit

Any Fed TC without four photons is dead on arrival. Please waste no more time on that distraction.

By Ken Rodeghero (Ken_Rodeghero) on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 - 03:48 pm: Edit

I appreciate the good discussion and agree that any tournament ship changes should be baby steps. I will be curious to see how the Fed with G-rack does and what people's assessment of its capabilities are.

By Graham Cridland (Grahamcridland) on Friday, October 23, 2020 - 12:51 pm: Edit

Has the final happened?

By Majead Farsi (Devil) on Friday, October 23, 2020 - 03:48 pm: Edit

As far as I know Droid (Andy) and Romwe (Brian) are yet to play!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, October 23, 2020 - 04:58 pm: Edit

Yeah, 3.1 (Droid WAX vs romwe FED) hasn't happened yet, I think it is this upcoming week; the tree got accidentally advanced, and still needs fixing.

By David Cheng (Davec) on Saturday, October 24, 2020 - 11:40 pm: Edit

Fast Fed tournament history...

Because the Council of Five Nations tournament did not pursue sanction for several years, we had flexibility to try different things.

The Villa-class Fast Fed (Photons x3, Phaser-1 x7) has been available for tournament play, eligible to win, for several years.

Brook Villa himself did not choose to play the ship when he had the chance.

I emailed Ted Fay directly, knowing that he has lobbied for a Fast Fed option in the past. I let him know that he could fly this version of the Fast Fed in a real tournament. He has not yet attended Council, but I'm sure living in Texas and having to travel over 1500 miles might have been a factor.

There will probably be SFB tournaments at Council of Five Nations in 2021 (assuming society and gaming conventions find a way to adjust to life with the COVID virus) and 2022. And that's it; no more SFB at Council. More news on this someday, when I get over procrastinating about writing the notice. It has been on my mind a lot recently, as we just passed what should have been Council weekend for 2020. But I digress (as is normal)...

2021 will be non-sanctioned. Come and fly the Fast Fed.

I am unsure about Sanction for 2022. I will get input from the community on that decision. If we go with a Sanctioned tournament, then I am going on the assumption that a Fast Fed will not be available for that tournament. But who knows?

Council 2021 and 2022 might very well be the last real face-to-face SFB tournaments ever. Start saving your shekels and vacation time now.

-DC

By Sebastian Palozzi (Sebastian) on Sunday, October 25, 2020 - 10:52 am: Edit

Battlegroup Toronto holds an annual SFB tournament. We haven't got the pedigree yet (3 tournaments so far) and we're working on the attendance (getting better every year) but we have a dedicated group of SFB players.
This year couldn't happen but we'll be back for 2021.
Toronto players have been attending Council for a few years now and I believe I speak for the Toronto group when I say we will keep on supporting your fantastic Council tournament Dave.

By Andy Koch (Droid) on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 09:34 am: Edit

Brian and I played this am. He missed with 3 photons and the results were predictable after that.
The G-rack padded a phaser.
The tree is now correct.

By Brian Evans (Romwe) on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 09:37 am: Edit

Droid(WAX) over Romwe(Fed) in 2 turns.

I fired on turn 1 at r7, but only hit with 1 photon. I almost conceded there, since I knew that meant I was totally dead, but decided to waste another 30 minutes of Andy's time. Turn 2, I stopped and weaseled the first wave of drones. Andy proceeded to r0, where we swapped fire. I did an extremely impressive 64pts with just phasers, but that's just not enough damage to slow the WAX down. My only chance was that his shuttle wasn't a SS. It was, and the internals from it were enough to kill all my shuttles, ending the game. I could have weaseled instead of firing, but that really just delays the inevitable. He'd draw my weasels out and kill them, then run me over. Same result, just more wasted time. Really needed 3 photon hits at r7 to have much chance.

The g-rack did pad a phaser on the first volley, but did nothing else to impact the game.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 09:57 am: Edit

WAX is VERY hard for the Fed to beat. You acquitted yourself with honor.

Ah, the Phickle Photon, both blessing and curse.

By Andy Koch (Droid) on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 10:14 am: Edit

If I manage to beat Seth, this will be the cheesiest cheese to ever cheese the cheese.
If I lose to him, I will be the worst Aux ever to Aux the Aux.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 10:19 am: Edit

You are just as likely to hit with 3 photons at R7 as you are to hit with 1 photon at R7. So in the alternate universe, the Fed won? Or something!

This is indeed the darkest timeline.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 11:05 am: Edit

@Andy: Considering you will have killed 3 Feds to get to victory, you might want to change your nick to some version of "WhoEatsPhotons" as well!

By Majead Farsi (Devil) on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 04:11 pm: Edit

Guys has any Fed won a game in tourney play with only 1 photon hitting ?

By Brian Evans (Romwe) on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 04:35 pm: Edit

It's possible against some opponents. The matches that are somewhat even(ie. Klingon, Hydran, Lyran) are recoverable if only 1 hits.

By Majead Farsi (Devil) on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 - 06:16 pm: Edit

Brian you are a much better player than I am but only hitting with 1 photon and winning against the above 3 empires requires extreme luck!! Like they also miss with their HB and Disruptor. Will not fancy the Fed chances and if the Fed gets lucky he might win 2-3 out of 10 encounters ( and I'm being generous!)

By Brian Evans (Romwe) on Friday, October 30, 2020 - 08:18 am: Edit

It's not likely that you'll win, after hitting with only 1 photon, but it's at least possible against some opponents. A lot of that depends on where/when you take the shot, as that frequently determines how easy/difficult it is to run and rearm.

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzila) on Monday, November 02, 2020 - 05:05 pm: Edit

Final This Tuesday at 7pm EST

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, November 04, 2020 - 10:31 am: Edit

Hmm. There is a noticeable lack of reportage here...

By Graham Cridland (Grahamcridland) on Wednesday, November 04, 2020 - 12:55 pm: Edit

I don't think it went forward? I was on SFBOL around 4:30 pacific to see if it was ongoing and did not see it.

All I got online was coverage of some election that was going on, none of the important SFB results.