We will have more informaton on this once we see how many Sapphire Star events we can start and finish by 31 Dec 2019. We'd like to doing Sapphire Crown in January but we'll see how it goes.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, November 24, 2020 - 05:39 pm: Edit

We will have a formal announcement on this in a few days. We plan to run this during December 2020 with a hope to have it done by New Year's Eve. There will be no entry fee. The prize plan has been sent to the executive financial committee for approval but she left for the day and won't decide until tomorrow or Monday. The winner will become a Fleet Captain.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, November 27, 2020 - 02:16 am: Edit

Details: No entry fee. Winner gets a trophy and $100 cash. 2nd place gets $50 cash. You can swap cash for triple merchandise (not Shapeways or PDF stores). Winner can write a victory article for Captain's Log ($50 payment) but does not have to.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, November 27, 2020 - 09:37 am: Edit

Round 1 is:

-Bill Schoeller (KLI) vs Peter Bakija (GRN) scheduled to play Friday 11/27 (i.e. tomorrow) at 8pm ET

-Andy Koch (LYR) vs Jack Taylor (GBS bb)

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Friday, November 27, 2020 - 10:04 pm: Edit

Current standing link has been added.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, November 28, 2020 - 08:32 am: Edit

Bill and I had to delay the game till Sunday, 11/29, 3:00 pm ET due to technical issues which hopefully will be fixed by Sunday :-)

By Andy Koch (Droid) on Saturday, November 28, 2020 - 09:37 am: Edit

Jack and I are playing in the AM Eastern some day this week .

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, November 29, 2020 - 05:27 pm: Edit

R1: bakija (GRN) over BS (KLI)

Bill and I play this game all the time. He wins a little more than 50% of the time, and he won the last one I'm pretty sure (at Council 2 years back?). This time I played a little different than usual, befuddled myself, but then got lucky and pulled it out.

T1: I plotted speed 15 till impulse 4, 17 till impulse 25, 24 till the end of the turn (missing 2 moves on impulse 4 and 5). Armed enveloper A on my left side as an enveloper, held the rest of the torpedoes as standards, held a suicide shuttle and weasel. Put 5 reinforcement on my #6. I usually arm torp B as the enveloper on T1, but figured if I armed A this time, I could keep him on my reinforced #6, and it was unlikely he was going to turn in after I launched the enveloper anyway. Bill plotted speed 15/16 (changing the same time I did, as I bit this trick of Bill in the first place) then 26 for the last half of the turn or so. He launches his SP on impulse 3, we both just go forward, me slipping out a bit here and there. His SP opens up with 6xIM drones that he spreads out into 3 different hexes. We get to about R14, my #6 to his #6. I use a battery to accelerate to speed 30 till the end of the turn instead of 25 and launch enveloper A at him. He thinks a bit, fires 4 standard disruptors at me, hits with 3 for 9 damage. I use 1 battery to show 5 reinforcement, and take 4 to my #6. Bill turns and runs, I turn in follow, and close on his drones. We end at about R12, his drones close to my ship.

T2: My plan was to weasel the drones anyway, but I ended up too close to avoid collateral, so I put 10 reinforcement on my #5, plot speed 4 till impulse 11, speed up to 14 for the rest of the turn, start a second weasel (holding SS and WW), start rearming plasma A, have a couple in tractors. Bill moves 21/26 with 4 standard disruptors armed. Bill runs towards the West wall, running the enveloper to nothing before it hits him. I weasel the drones, take 7 collateral on my #5 (soaking 7 reinforcement) get the last couple drones with the weasel, speed up to 14 and start closing obliquely. Due to having launched enveloper A on T1, I don't have an armed S torp facing Bill as he loops around to my left, and I don't want to turn in at him to get the other torp in arc, so I just keep slipping to towards the North wall while facing F. Bill gets in to about R7 of my #5 shield, launches 2 medium drones, fires 2xOL, 2xSTD, 5xP1 at my #5. He hits with all the disruptors, rolls well on phasers, does 30 damage. I have 3 reinforcement left over, use 4 more batteries to keep my shield up at 1 box. We end at R7, his #6 facing my #5.

T3: Again, my armed plasma is on the wrong side of the ship. Yerk. I plot speed 14 till 11, speed up to 24 for the rest of the turn, hold weasel and SS, continue arming plasma A, recharge batteries, put a couple points in HET and a couple points in tractors. Impulse 1, Bill announces speed 15, so I figure he might be sticking around to fire on impulse 8 when his guns clear. Impulse 3 we both move and I use 3 batteries to HET direction D right at him. He turns off. I guess he isn't sticking around. I close a bit, he speeds up to 26 a few impulses before I speed up to 24, and he just starts running to the South East of the map. I chase him, IDing both drones and killing them with a couple P1s. He kind of slips away, but maintaining the ability to turn back at me, eventually turning C, then D, then E by the end of the turn and I again end up without an armed S torp facing him. I just keep following him. He launches a couple more drones, which I tractor and kill both of with P3s by impulse 25 of the turn. I avoid the 6 o'clock phaser hose inside of R5, and we end the turn at about 7 hexes, my #1 facing his #3.

T4: I plot speed 17 all turn, put a couple points of power in the phasers (assuming I won't need all P1s this turn anyway), recharge my batteries, hold the 2 shuttles, finish plasma tube A as a standard torp, and can get 4 power in my tractors. Bill moves 21 till 6, then 26 the rest of the turn, has 2 disruptors overloaded. I close in, he turns towards me, I end up at exactly R4, my #1 centerlined on his #2. He launches a medium drone, blasts me with 3xOL (using 4 batteries) and 5xP1. Bill rolls 6, 6, 5 with the disruptors, missing with 2 of the OLs, and with phasers, does 25 damage to my #1, which holds at 5 boxes. I turn my up #6 to face him (Facing E) as he keeps moving direction F. I ID his incoming drone as a IVM, kill it with a couple P3s. We end up at R2. I launch a couple S torps that will hit him in a few impulses if nothing changes. I expect that they'll make him turn off or possibly change speed. He slips to R1 directly in front of me, his #4 to my #1, discovering that the plasmas were fake. I tractor him with 2 power (he only had 1 remaining battery to use). He launches a drone and a shuttle, I kill the junk on the map with 4 P3 shots, he shoots me in the face with 4xP2, 2xP3 (all his remaining guns). I take 18 in, losing some phasers, a plasma F, and a tractor. Next impulse, he moves us forward a hex; no one moves the next impulse, so I launch 100 plasma and a suicide shuttle which moves the next impulse (and then a second dummy shuttle). Bill tries to ADD one of the shuttle, which misses. Next impulse, everything hits for 118 damage, doing 94 internals, leaving the Klingon with no power and some excess damage hits. Bill surrenders.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, November 29, 2020 - 07:28 pm: Edit

Ooh. Other than a few obvious typos (I had 4 allocated reinforcement on T1; I accelerated to 30 from 24 on T1), on T4, I used 5 batteries to speed to up to 24 from 17 for the rest of the turn around impulse 10 (for 5 total power; i.e. all my batteries) and turned my up #2 to face him, not my #6.

Bill also didn't have a Wild Weasel armed on T4; he didn't start with a weasel, and didn't decide he might need one till the start of T4, so started arming one on T4.

By Andy Koch (Droid) on Monday, November 30, 2020 - 08:43 am: Edit

Note to self: Arm Torp B as enveloper when flying Gorn.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, November 30, 2020 - 09:06 am: Edit

Heh, it turned out ok in the end, but I spent way too much time being all "Man, why did I arm A as the enveloper? I can't fire anything now!"

I probably could have turned my right side to face the Klingon early on T2, and then slipped south instead of north, but I might have ended up way too close like that.

By Graham Cridland (Grahamcridland) on Monday, November 30, 2020 - 12:35 pm: Edit

Having the "wrong" plasma armed is a frequent problem. Probably why so many people fly the Firehawk, even though it is otherwise just a clumsy KR with a couple of p3s missing.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, November 30, 2020 - 03:36 pm: Edit

Heh. I'm befuddled by my LP/RP plasma tubes more often than I care to admit...

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, December 01, 2020 - 05:31 pm: Edit

The E-Mail Program is on the fritz. I am not receiving, and apparently (this is guess) cannot transmit messages. The only thing I can do is check this topic

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Tuesday, December 01, 2020 - 09:33 pm: Edit

Andy and I are planning to play this Friday around mid-morning.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Friday, December 04, 2020 - 07:41 pm: Edit

Droid vs MadJack

We got 1 turn in before Andy got called away for a work emergency.

Not much happening so far. We ended the turn at range 6, neither one of us firing. The Lyran has an ESG up at range 3. The Shark has 4 drones in it's hex. Probably fire works early T2.

By Kenneth Lin (Old_School) on Monday, December 07, 2020 - 01:13 am: Edit

"Firehawk, even though it is otherwise just a clumsy KR with a couple of p3s missing"

Not really too active here anymore and no offense to anyone, but this turns out not to be the case - the FH anchors for 80 off the oblique which is a very big deal, can bolt 3 torps off the oblique, and keeps the batteries longer than the KR. The FH was my main ship for half of my 30+ year SFB playing history. The KR also slows to a speed of minus zero while cloaking.

By Graham Cridland (Grahamcridland) on Monday, December 07, 2020 - 12:12 pm: Edit

Ken:

No offense intended either - that was solely intended to represent my internal thoughts as a new player looking at SSDs, not Holy Writ - I'm well aware of the Firehawk, given that my thoughts on how to fly plasma ships were derived (at that time) very much from your reports (and Mr. Bakija's) published online.

"Almost immediate turn left..."

By Kenneth Lin (Old_School) on Monday, December 07, 2020 - 10:45 pm: Edit

Graham: None taken, all good, .

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Thursday, December 10, 2020 - 01:35 pm: Edit

MadJack vs Droid -

Continues tomorrow morning 9a eastern.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Friday, December 11, 2020 - 11:36 am: Edit

MadJack (Shark) over Droid (Lyran) in 2 turns.

Fun quick game. I will write it up later.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Friday, December 11, 2020 - 03:51 pm: Edit

T1-
My plan turn 1 is to move straight up the board looking to get into a shooting battle at range 4 with 4 drones in my hex. I am hoping I will be able to blow off an ESG and then push the attack t2 with drones and suicides.

I load 3 overloads and 1 standard, hold 2 sui’s, and make 18 moves (16 for 27, 26 for the rest). I did use a battery to go 31 instead of 26 towards the end of the turn.

Andy has different plans then me. He tops off the ESG caps, arms standard disruptors, holds 2 sui’s, and goes speed 16 the whole turn. He had 6 power left over for a brick on his shield 6.

I start moving up the map and Andy slips away. Repeat. Do that some more. And then again. We get near the end of the turn and it looks like we are going to get range 6-8 somewhere. Maybe closer if he speeds up and decides to engage. He did not fire his standards earlier so I have no idea what he is doing. From my perspective, he could have a huge brick in shield 6. 4HK+16moves + 2 shuttles is all I am pretty sure of. So he could have an 18 point brick + batteries, maybe, at range 6-8. I am very reluctant to fire late in the turn at a heavily bricked shield. He even moved his ship so that his disruptors were out of arc. I could have had a range 5 shot at that big brick and shot him but would have had to give up my #1 shield for no internals maybe. I decided against firing at all in order to keep all my options open turn 2. I launched 4 drones impulse 30. He put up a single ESG radius 3 and announced the other one on imp 32 up on 2.4. We ended the turn range 6 me facing A and him facing D, outside of each others FA. 4 T-1 drones are in my hex.

T2-
I am not too unhappy about the positioning. I think he has to turn into me to shoot impulse 2 or 3 at range 4 hopefully if I can arrange it. He has to HET away after that turn or else we are going to get pretty close, maybe range 1. HETing away also makes sense to me so that he can put the offside p1’s inside my ship as separate volleys. I am really more worried about that then anything else.

I decide on an anchor strategy after much himming and hawing. I put 4 in HK, 2 Sui’s, 1 in HET, recharge the battery I used t1, 8 in tractor, and make 22 moves (31/3, 26/22, 13/rest). No disrupters.

Andy didn’t quite plan his turn the same way I did, very pesky. He has 4 in HK, 3 overloads, 2 sui's, 3 in tractor, and makes 19 moves (26/13, 14/rest).

T2 impulse 1. As soon as I saw his speed I knew I was going to get shot hard and soon. I figured up he could do about 59 if he hit with everything at range 4 and so ran internals on my ship a bunch of times to see if he was going to get the batteries. IF he did that much most of the time he would get to at least some of them. So, impulse 1, I allocated 4 batteries to HET and 1 to tractor to make sure that I could HET if I wanted to. That 1 other point in tractor was a bonus I didn’t think I would need.

He decides to turn on imp 3, not impulse 2. I was able to turn and hit the R3 ESG that is up with my ship and the 4 drones at once. Everything takes 3 points and lives. Andy doesn’t call for fire (darn Andy never cooperates) and I can’t fire much since I ain’t got much. He slips towards me a little and I slip towards him a little. We go to R2 and the 2nd ESG comes up at radius 0. Now he has to fire or move out of FA. I brace myself against the bulkhead thinking this is going to get rough. He fires 3 overloads, 6 p1, 2 p3. He missed with a disruptor, rolled great with p1’s (35!), and average with p3. It all added up to 57 on a 27 point shield. (5 power, 2 p3, disruptor, 4 batteries as expected, other fluff, no drones racks not cool for Andy)

I fired 3 P3 and a P1 here at him figuring they were getting blown off anyway. Rolled pretty good and did 16 to his shield 6).

After the shot I am still concerned Andy is going to HET but decide I need to make sure he does before I do. He decides not to HET here and go straight as he had to at that point. I am able to slip to R1 with him off my 5. My T1 drones hit his radius 0 ESG for 4 points. Ok it’s now or never – I attempt the tractor. I have 9 available thanks to moving that single battery to tractor impulse 1. He has 3+5 batteries, one too few, so I grab him. He gives me an alarmed sounding Scooby “Ruh Roh”. He doesn’t have much left. 2 p1’s, 2 sui’s, and a 16 point ESG. I launch a couple manned shuttles to take 12 off the ESG. I then later launch 4 drones including the t-4s and 2 suicides. He also launches two suicides I presume were targeted on drones. He shoots my shuttles with 1 p1 each to slow them down. I fire 4 phasers as p-3’s to kill his 2 shuttles which he reveals were suicides. My 4 drones hit his shield 3 for 72 and I think “take that for beating my buddy Seth!” I still have some phasers to fire and so he graciously concedes here.

I think Andy played it as well as he really could have. The Shark is a tough hombre for the Lyran. If he had fired at range 4 and het’d away it might have turned out better. Not sure, I was faster so was going to catch up probably. Even if my tractor didn’t work I could still Het and was still faster so still might have been able to get the drones and sui’s on him anyway. Good game Andy!!

By Andy Koch (Droid) on Friday, December 11, 2020 - 04:31 pm: Edit

Could you still HET after the tractor auction? Didn't save the final EAs so not sure

anyway..
I get one get out of Jail free card against drones and I was going to use it on the 1st pass...
I agonized over putting more in trac at the expense of speed or Suis. I could have escaped turn 2 in ok shape... so yeah, if you're going to get close, then have a little more in trac than 3.
Well played Jack. I am sure Peter would rather have played a Lyran....

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Friday, December 11, 2020 - 05:58 pm: Edit

Yeah I had 8 allocated to tractor and added 1 on impulse 1 from batteries. I also had 1 allocated to HET and added the other 4 during imp 1. So HET still = yep.

I would have just started that way rather then dumping batteries impulse 1 but I had some idea you might slow heavily and actually weasel. I wanted to see your initial speed to make sure I wasn't completely wasting energy in HET. I would have just turned off if you were very slow. Good game!

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Friday, December 11, 2020 - 07:04 pm: Edit

A side note- I don't think Andy's Sui's could target my drones as he was tractored up. Didn't think of it at the time. I probably would have ignored 1 of them had I realized that.