Dave,
If you played more than once a year you might not make so many mistakes.

By David Cheng (Davec) on Thursday, January 28, 2021 - 11:54 am: Edit

Nah.

You would think the multiple FtF games I play at Council every year would make up for it...

I guess I just make a lot of mistakes.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, January 28, 2021 - 01:45 pm: Edit

There is no mistake that can't be overcome by GATLING ESG RAM!!!!

By Andy Koch (Droid) on Thursday, January 28, 2021 - 01:51 pm: Edit

HET GATLING ESG RAM....

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Thursday, January 28, 2021 - 02:43 pm: Edit

You mean Dave only plays once a year and is giving Seth all kinds of problems? Not surprising.

By Norman Dizon (Ichaborn) on Thursday, January 28, 2021 - 03:01 pm: Edit

Can someone explain WHY these are Mistakes and what is the Better Solution? Anyone could have honestly made these Mistakes. #4 is Clearly Explained already, along with a Better Solution (Thanks!). Or is all of this simply Hindsight is 20/20 (looking back and regretting decisions that were fine for the moment they were made in)...?


Mistake #1. I turn off to run out the plasma.

But instead I make HUGE mistake #2. I announce Emer Decel and shoot him with some flank guns, and hit his #5 for 11.

Big mistake #3. He launches an eveloper early, and then an F. I decide to HET away and run them out. He shoots me with 4ph1 as I run and scratches my #4.

I also realize I made huge mistake #4 this turn. I should not have fired through the weak shield and turned off. I should have kept right on his butt with fully loaded weapons and tried to get closer, perhaps to set up a hack-and-slash for next turn. I see now this would have been much better than the position I'm in now.

By Graham Cridland (Grahamcridland) on Thursday, January 28, 2021 - 03:15 pm: Edit

Well, to some extent #1 is clearly partially a hindsight issue. While in all probability at least one of the S torpedoes was fake, assuming both are fake would be a pretty aggressive assumption to bet the game on (because ramming two standard S torps for full on a facing shield is pretty much game on the spot.)

#2 seems like the kind of weird decision people (including me) inexplicably make all the time in games that look silly in hindsight. It's a fog of war thing. But nothing about the description of the situation screamed "ED" to me, anyway.

#3-4 is another weird decision, but less inexplicable. Still, at that point in the game, getting disruptors (and gatlings!) on top of a plasma ship is really, really good, and you are unlikely to NOT have to run through an S torpedo to do that eventually.

By David Cheng (Davec) on Thursday, January 28, 2021 - 03:32 pm: Edit

Norm,

I might be poking a bit of fun at myself. Yes, some of these are clearly not mistakes, just regrets. But some are huge mistakes.

#1. Fly through the two standard S-Torps
When you see the double-S launch on turn 1, there is always the question in your head...
Both real?
One real, one fake?
Both fake?

Let's say I want to risk it. I can probably line control the impact to take the torps on a non-facing side shield (2 or 6). So, maybe the plan is to fire a Ph1 at each torp before it hits.

Both real: 60-4 = 56 = 26 internals. Good chance I start to lose batteries on 26, so let's say I put 2 batts into reinforcement. Let's say I lose the 2 Ph1s I just shot, a disruptor, and an ESG. But the Rom is down to 2 F-torps, 5 Ph1s and some Ph3s. Can I chase him down and punish him enough to warrant crashing the S-torps?

One real, one fake. I waste a Ph1 on a fake torp, but I take the real one down to 28. This leaves me with 2 points left on my side shield, and no internals. I can chase him, but he has 3 more torps to deter me.

Both fake. I waste 2 Ph1s, but at least I know he is out of pseudo-S torps. And he is still fully-loaded. But at least now, I'm not shooting at range 8 and turning. I'm probably into the 4-5 hex area, and hit him harder than he hits me.


#2. Emergency Decel
This was just a stupid brain fart. 15 seconds after I did it, I regretted it. F-torps are down to only 10 points after 11 hexes, and 5 after 13. The clear better tactic is to use movement to run out the F torp, not stop and weasel. This keeps my speed up, and I can easily chase him down when his torp tubes are empty.


#3. HET away
I sort-of had a plan, but I was surprised when he launched a 60-pt enveloper. I should not have been surprised. It was poor thinking on my part. So, I used a HET to get away and come back around later. Not the worst mistake I made. But still poor planning.


I had a pretty good RPS advantage coming into this game. Seth is just a better player than me, and I am not making it any harder on him with all my mistakes. Monday Morning Quarterbacking...

-DC

By David Cheng (Davec) on Thursday, January 28, 2021 - 03:41 pm: Edit

The peanut gallery is forgetting...

GATLING ESG RAM + DOUBLE SUICIDE SHUTTLE OVERRUN

This assumes, of course, that I have been holding two SSs all game. Not outside the realm of possibility. But likely?...

And, with the more immediate situation with the upcoming turn 7
* ESG was used turn 6, so it has to cool
* ESGs suck a lot of power, and I am down to 24
* I am down to only one Gatling phaser, with no time to repair before the next battle pass

On the bright side, this wacky 2/3rds movement cost leaves spare power lying around. An ESG capacitor is a great place to stash those .333 and .667s.

It's an uphill fight from here.

We'll see how it goes.

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzila) on Thursday, January 28, 2021 - 05:18 pm: Edit

Jacks's comment is very funny

I guess I cant launch 2 fake S torps T1 this tournament going foward.

LDR vs RFH is a very hard battle for the RFH
It is probable the best match up for the LDR
I cant CLOAK, LDR is fast& has 2 GATS.

If I get real lucky T7 I will launch a fake SS and the LDR WW it.

By Ronald J. Brimeyer (Captainron) on Thursday, January 28, 2021 - 05:40 pm: Edit

D.C. Brain farting seams to be a common factor with us old guys. In my game vs Jack I spent the 2nd half of turn 2 thinking I was maneuvering to get an Imps 32 shot on his 3 point #2 shield with a P-1 and web bolt. Followed by an Imps 1 3 Ols and 6 P-1 into down shield. Only to realize on Imps 32 that it was his #6 that I hit for 27 earlier. Now I am too close with nothing to show for it and franticly looking for the "curse disrupter dice" spell.

By Norman Dizon (Ichaborn) on Thursday, January 28, 2021 - 06:09 pm: Edit

Thanks for the answers, Dave and Everyone Else. I appreciate it very much.

The insight into Why you were doing what you were doing is extremely valuable, as opposed to just listing the facts of what happened.

Yes, mistakes are the human factor that keeps the games exciting and real. After all, it is not one Computer playing another Computer (flawless games with no errors at all).

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, January 28, 2021 - 06:57 pm: Edit

>>I guess I cant launch 2 fake S torps T1 this tournament going foward.>>

Or...CAN YOU?

By David Cheng (Davec) on Thursday, January 28, 2021 - 11:29 pm: Edit

Seth - I agree that the 3 Romulans are favorable RPS matchups for the LDR, but... Others may see it differently, but when I'm flying LDR, the ship I most want to see most is WYN Pig. His turn mode D vs my B, my 2 Gats vs his 4+ drones. I like that matchup.

Ron - total agreement. Old age sucks.

Norm - Happy to help.

Also, I see my old calcified brain forgot huge mistake #5. Forgetting to shoot my 2 gats at the 50-pt stack of plasma was a HUGE brain fart. I took 20 internals when I should have taken only 5. Huge mistake.

Anyway, hope to meet you, and some of you other guys, at Council in 2021 or 2022. More on that soon. Maybe Seth knocking me out of this tournament quickly will give me the time to get that announcement out. I've only been procrastinating on it for 16 months now...

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, January 29, 2021 - 08:17 am: Edit

Dave wrote:
>>Seth - I agree that the 3 Romulans are favorable RPS matchups for the LDR>>

Yeah, I'll agree with this; the LDR does well against the Romulan. It is fast, can shoot some disruptors backwards, and the ESGs make cloaking mostly a terrible idea. I think the Gorn is better than the Romulan in this fight, certainly--3 more P1s, dual shuttle bay (for ESG mitigation), and not having to give up a major advantage (i.e. no cloak to not use).

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, January 29, 2021 - 08:23 am: Edit

Norman wrote:
>>The insight into Why you were doing what you were doing is extremely valuable, as opposed to just listing the facts of what happened.>>

While completely true, it is often difficult/inadvisable to explain *why* some things happened in the middle of a game (such as Dave and Seth's game, which is still underway).

A lot of times, folks will do things that seem inadvisable/weird/downright dumb at the time, but in retrospect, they make perfect sense due to some hidden information. For example, in the final game of the Sapphire Crown, right at the end of the game, my opponent did something that seemed inexplicable (i.e. Bill slipped directly into a pair of S torps that he otherwise could have run from for a few impulses, decelled and, weaseled). Which became completely explicable when the game was over, as it turned out he didn't have a fully armed weasel (he was running without one for the first 3 turns and ravaging me, and started arming a weasel at the start of T4, when I ended up killing him), and so the plasma was just going to hit him in a few impulses anyway and there was nothing to be done about it.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Friday, January 29, 2021 - 10:29 am: Edit

Two cents only please no offense intended.

I watched most of the game. I think the only real mistake was the emergency deceleration. Right before that decision I thought Seth was pretty much toast. Seth bolted and rolled bad. He then HET's away but Dave could have just followed and taken the F torp on another shield. The turn would have ended with the 2 ships close together and with Dave on Seth's 4 and Seth without a torp at all for at least 32 impulses. If Dave can get the batteries the next turn, entirely possible, Seth doesn't have torps for 64 impulses. Worst case Dave should get enough internals to even it all up.

By David Cheng (Davec) on Friday, January 29, 2021 - 10:54 am: Edit

Well, I'm not sure it's quite that easy. Me being down 10 or 11 power, vs the 2-3 power that Seth is down, is a big factor.

But we will know soon!

Game is scheduled to continue
Monday, February 1st
7:00 PM EST

Come and watch me make better, new and more exciting mistakes!

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Saturday, January 30, 2021 - 05:44 pm: Edit

MadJack (Shark) over Captain Ron (Archeo) in what felt like millions of turns.

Ron played a great game throughout. In fact, I have never thought the Archeo-Tholian ship was as good as everyone says it is when I am flying Shark. I feel different about that now, especially with Ron flying it.

As usual I missed with almost everything I fired. In fact, I fired 3 standards and 10 overloads at ranges 3-8 and hit with only 3.
Out of 13. I fired 4 others at range 15 and hit with 3. So overall - 6 hits out of 17 shots on a 1-4 with half those 6 only doing 9 points. Epically bad dice, even for me. I think my phasers in the end were close to average.

I think Ron mostly rolled average or a little better. He did a good job of not shooting drones but spent most the game trying to avoid them. He was a maneuver king and was able to use the caster pretty effectively.

For those of you dying to know the specifics of how to beat me or anyone flying the Archeo, it is clear to me it has everything to do with how it handles recharging weapons. Ron did an expert job of that. He consistently was making 20-24 moves a turn, even on the reload turns. Best I could really do is 12-16 moves when reloading so he was always able to pull away and then turn a tight corner, usually with some sort of web in the way. Excellent stuff you would be web makers should emulate.

Ultimately the only reason I prevailed is that Ron after like 7 hours of game finally made a serious mistake and gave me a down shield to shoot on accident. If not for that I am probably losing.

I can remember every tournament game I have lost in Sapphire. Peter beat me twice. First time my dice were terrible and I was really unlucky. Peter played good as usual but my dice really sucked. Second time, Peter just played way better and I deserved to die. I lost to Bill when I was playing Gorn and had no plan. He crushed me. I lost to a Hydran when I was playing Orion, cause I suck at Orion and even if I didn't that is hardly ever winnable. I made a minor allocation error in one tournament when I was Kzinti against a Fed so conceded.

Of all those matches and all the ones I won- this was absolutely the hardest match on me. I felt defeated forever in this one, over and over again. It gives me no pleasure to have succeeded and move onto the next round. Ron played so well that it is a shame it went down like it did for him.

Everyone should watch out for Ron. All I am saying. Now it is time for a stiff drink. Or 3.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Saturday, January 30, 2021 - 10:40 pm: Edit

I watched most of the Shark v Archeo game, I did not get to see the last turns, it was a good game to learn from.

By Graham Cridland (Grahamcridland) on Sunday, January 31, 2021 - 05:43 pm: Edit

Bakija (Vudar) over Cridland (Klingon).

Peter outplayed me pretty thoroughly, although the game went back and forth pretty signficantly because the dice ran hot, cold, and nothing in in the middle. I fired a total of 9 UIM disruptors inside R8 during the game (3 hits). Peter hit with 1/4 Ions (R3) on his first battle pass, and did about 50 in in something like 6 volleys without hitting a drone rack, ever. I lost all 4 disruptors but still had my ADD by the end...

Anyway, if the dice had been remotely fair to either of us, Peter would have won. This was a fair result, and best to him in the next round.

Is there a page to report losses yet? I don't see it.

G

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, January 31, 2021 - 05:45 pm: Edit

1.2 bakija (VUD) over SummaryJudgement (KLI)

We started T4 about 10 hexes apart, facing different directions and there are 2 Klingon drones on my tail. I had about 28 internals; Graham gad about 35 after we added the dozen extra damage we forgot on T1 (the new damage was surprisingly low impact; he lost 2 more power, his last battery, a couple shuttle boxes, but no other weapons). I had a down #2, and a lightly damaged #6. The KLI had a down #3.

T4: I move 4/14 for 13 moves, finished overloading 3 of my ICs, started arming my 4th IC as a standard (as it didn't get blown up last turn), reloaded my phasers, held a weasel, started a second weasel, put a point in tractor, repaired my 2 dead P1s as P3s. The Klingon moved 21/15/21 and rearmed phasers (didn't see any disruptors). I immediately launched a weasel to get the drones, took 5 collateral on my #3. I sped up to 14, and turned SW to get my good side shields facing him. The Klingon came around, also turning West, then South West. I get near the South wall, he turns directly South. I can't get him in my FA before the end of the turn. He launches a couple drones, of which I tractor 1, ID both as Is', and kill them both my the end of the turn with P1s. As he closes in, he fires 4xP1 at my #6 on impulse 25 from R5, rolls terribly, does 11 more damage. On impulse 32, we end up at R2, my #5 facing his #5. We both launch a shuttle and I blast him with my 2xFX IC as OLs, my 2 rear P2s, and a P3. Both IC's hit, I do 10 in through his full #5, hitting some power and a disruptor.

T5: I wanna move, but I can't go faster than 14, and can't do anything if he launches a couple fast drones, so I go speed 0 with TAC, speed up to 9 on impulse 21, finish my arming IC as an OL, hold the other one as an OL (both FAs), rearm my phasers, hold a weasel, start my last shuttle as a weasel, put a point in tractors, put 10 reinforcement on my 8 box #6. Klingon moves 0 with some Warp TACs (no impulse engines), has 2 OL disruptors, rearms most of his phasers, has a couple in tractor. Impulse 1, he tries to tractor me at R2, but I defeat the attempt with my 1 tractor. He launches a couple fast drones, I launch a weasel. He TACs his full #6 at me, his drones catch up and kill my weasel, doing 6 more collateral to my #3 and killing my other shuttle in the hex. I TAC my 8 box #6 at him, he thinks a lot, and shoot here through the -2 shift. Both overloads miss, his phasers do well, but with the shift and reinforcement, no internals happen. I TAC my full #1 at him. He shuttle closes in, I kill it with a couple P3s when my AFC comes back up. He launches another shuttle, which I also kill with a couple P3s when it gets to R1. On impulse 21, I speed up to 9, and close to R1 off his full #6. I fire 2xOL ICs and 4xP1s, hit with both torps (so for the game, I hit 1/4 at R3 on the first shot, and then 2/2 and 2/2 at R2 and R1), roll fine on phasers, do another dozen in after a little reinforcement. I slip around his ship, get my rear P2s into down shields as I move around him for another 8 or so in by the end of the turn, and end the turn at R1, my #4 off his down #3. Graham resigns here; he has a ton of internal damage, lost most of his guns, I got another couple P3s to shoot in the hole on impulse 1.

So a very wacky game with strange dice, making it difficult to assess how the Vudar actually would do in this fight--I missed 3/4 OL at R3 on my initial shot which, if I hit with 2-3 of them (which is expected), the game was probably over right there. But we both mostly missed on our first shots, so things were wacky.

The IPG was very handy; I managed (mostly through luck) to kill all 6xSP drones with a single IPG pulse for 4, even though Graham spread out the drones into 2 different hexes (I just ended up between them and both stacks closed in and got to R1 at the same time). I used it a second time to hit a pair of drones for 4 damage, killing one, not killing the type IV, which was cleaned up with a P3, but mostly 'cause I didn't take internals on the first exchange. I lost the IPG on, like, internal #3 of my first volley of internals. I suspect that the Vudar couple probably use a second IPG. Or have a slightly hardier IPG (hit on Flag or something) rather than just have a ship with a single drone hit. But then, this particular fight isn't real good evidence for needing a second IPG.

Graham! Excellent opponent! Kept up a good fight till the end, and his dice didn't help him at all.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, January 31, 2021 - 05:47 pm: Edit

Huh, yeah, doesn't seem to be an actual tree and report results yet.

By Norman Dizon (Ichaborn) on Sunday, January 31, 2021 - 09:27 pm: Edit

Great Game!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, February 01, 2021 - 10:36 am: Edit

Probably a big factor in the end game was that on impulse 32 of T4, Graham slipped into R2 right off my #5 shield instead of slipping out to R4, as while he knew I had FX Ion Cannons, he mentioned that he just didn't think about it when he was closing and wanted to end the turn as close as possible. I fired 2xOL IC, 2xP2, and a P3, hitting his #5 for 34 damage and 10 internals. If he was at R4, even if both ICs hit, my phasers are likely to do about 3 damage at that point, instead of 10 (and as such, if he slips out to R4, I probably hold fire anyway).

On the Vudar, the 2xFX Ion Cannons are very handy, but there isn't much to back them up; they only have 1P1 on each side of the ship that can fire in the back FX arc (i.e. 1xFA/L P1, 1xFA/R P1), the two rear P2s (which are, at least, RA/R and RA/L), and a side P3 on each side. Which at close range, is not terrible (2xIC, 1xP1, 2xP2, 1xP3 can fire down the #3 or #5 hex row), but past R3 isn't much against a full shield.

I'm trying to figure out what would be good to do with the IPG on the TC as well. The single IPG is still very good against drones, assuming it can be used before it gets shot off (and as any Lyran or Hydran will tell you, the IPG is going to explode on the 3rd internal); getting a whole scatter pack or a turns drone launch is worth it in and of itself. If you can use it twice, it is great (although reloading it is expensive--4 power to do 4 damage to drones; 4 power to kill, say, 2 drones isn't amazing). Having 2xIPG would be great against drones--possibly too good. The IPG does basically nothing against plasma ships (might get a shuttle once?), and isn't gonna help much against stingers (doing 4 damage to a stinger at R2 isn't saving you, unless the stinger was launched at R2).

So a weird item on the ship, in so much as it is potentially really good against drone ships, and mostly useless against everyone else (much like the Klingon's ADD, but at least the ADD still protects the other drone racks, can launch a type VI drone, and ADDing shuttles and fighters is gonna be more effective than the basically single use IPG pulse for 4). And it is always going to explode on basically any volley of internals. I'd suggest either adding a second one (possibly making the ship *too* drone proof), or making the IPG harder to kill (make it hit on FLAG or something, which isn't unprecedented, see: ISC, THA, WAX); having a survivable IPG that is only killed on a 12 means it will likely see more use, but still, rearming it is expensive (4 power to do 4 damage), and if a drone ship parses out drones so that the IPG only ever gets a couple at a time, it isn't gonna be that helpful for the power cost.