Congratulations to Cadet Stimpy, Ren must be so proud.

Moose and Spartan must be salivating as they have learned they will face a large cat in the final round.

Moose and Spartan, I wish both of you good luck in your battle to reach the final round.

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Friday, December 16, 2022 - 08:25 pm: Edit

Moose over Spartan at start of 14.

Nicely played Moose, good luck. Write up to follow.

By Stephen McCann (Moose) on Friday, December 16, 2022 - 08:27 pm: Edit

Moose over Spartan in 14 turns. Geoff evened up the game on turn 10 when my maneuver mistakes set me up to eat 70 from a S, an F, and a fastload. I got 2 manned shuttles out which dogged him the rest of the game, getting multiple close range shots on down shields. On turn 13 I ate an ept for a bunch of internals but was closing in on him. By this pointhe only had 1 p-1 left and 2 plasma S. His batteries died on turn 12 after he launched another fastload at me. On turn 14 he conceded after he launched an ept from the tube he had fastloaded 2 turns earlier. He had messed up his bookkeeping and forgotten that he fastloaded it.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, December 17, 2022 - 07:28 am: Edit

I take it that without the erroneously launched enveloper, the WAX would have cornered and demolished the Romulan?

By Stephen McCann (Moose) on Saturday, December 17, 2022 - 12:24 pm: Edit

Probably, I was closing in on him, but I was down to 2 p1s and my gat. My last shuttle was crippled at the start of the turn by his sole p1 but was going to get a shot on a down shield at close range (0-1). One more phaser volley from my ship would have left him with pretty much no power.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, December 17, 2022 - 01:39 pm: Edit

Like, mostly I'm trying to suss out if the T14 concession was a "I screwed up and can't really fix it" concession, or a "Oops. Without that enveloper till next turn, I'm probably dead" concession :-)

By Stephen McCann (Moose) on Saturday, December 17, 2022 - 02:06 pm: Edit

A little bit of both I think. Don't think he would have the power for an ept next turn, between my p-1s and the range 1 shuttles p-3 I would have removed most, it not all of his remaining power. He didn't have shields powered so I was going to get a shot in a down shield with 2 p-1s and my gat and he only had 21 internal boxes left and only 10 power. We ended turn 13 at range 3 so my fire would likely have killed him even if he had powered his shields and moved a bit.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, December 17, 2022 - 02:09 pm: Edit

Fair. Thanks!

As noted previously--that particular WAX is *rough* on Big Plasma :-)

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Saturday, December 17, 2022 - 07:36 pm: Edit

To be fair - Moose's Aux was pretty ripped up. This was not close to being a slam dunk for the Aux. Moose escaped is how I would classify it.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, December 18, 2022 - 06:28 pm: Edit

Oh, I don't think it is a slam dunk. But I think this particular version of the WAX (11g1) is advantaged over Big Plasma. And, well, results support that idea.

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Sunday, December 18, 2022 - 09:50 pm: Edit

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the discussion. I'm deep into analysis on the game, I've figured out how to get the launch hex from the SFBOL log, and I'm wanting to learn the lessons of the game. This game was by no means a "slam dunk" for the WAX in the WAX vs Big Plasma debate. In the early turns, Moose maneuvered very well, and I did not counter effectively, my plasma launches basically just kept him running, I could not quite pin him against a wall, hence my desire to analyze ...

Moose had the chance on turn 4 to really run me down so that turn 5 would have been close range (I was planning to end the turn at range 1), but he decided to take his shot at Range 3, and did 4 internals, including 2 warp, then turned off to circle around. That gave me another full volley of plasmas. The next turn, there was a drone wave that the RKR was dealing with, but instead of firing the 2 ready and available phasers at the last drone, I fired only one, and rolled a 5 or 6, so that was 12 more internals, as an unforced error. My energy balance and lack of phaser-3s for drone defense were problems for the rest of the game.

Then late on turn 9, given the shield issues on the left side, the WAX was drawn into a "no escape" zone for 70 points of plasma, chose to fire minimal phasers in defense, and thus lost his #1, plus 32 internals. In return, he overran and blasted me at range 0 with remaining phasers, through a WW +2 shift, but did not penetrate the #1 shield due to reinforcement. Moose stated that his turn 9 maneuvering was a mistake, so that is an unforced error the other way. That is what evened up the game.

As I stated to Moose, if I had properly recognized the arming of that plasma tube (I paid the +2 btty to quick load it turn 12, then happily marked it as rolling on turn 13 ... doh!), then instead of being stopped on turn 14, I would have maneuvered to keep the last shield up and toward the WAX. It is a toss up if I would have made it to turn 15 and had enough warp to arm it as EPT or standard, but if I did, given the status of the WAX as uncontrolled with 8 warp, 2 apr, 3 phasers and a tractor beam as the only internals remaining, then maybe even a G torp with 3 power launched under passive at range 5 would be fatal? But it did not matter, since I did not plot turn 14 correctly, given the actual status of my plasma, and I could not reasonably ask my opponent to let me go back and plot again. Thus, the concession.

Moose played a great game, it was as down to the wire as any of my tournament games, and given the balance of errors on both sides, he deserved to win.

More analysis of the early turns to follow.

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Tuesday, December 20, 2022 - 10:06 am: Edit

Kingzzzzilla!

I challenge you to a fight for third place!

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzila) on Tuesday, December 20, 2022 - 01:32 pm: Edit

I am in North Carolina in the mountains and you are more than welcome to come and play me F2F.

PS dont forget to bring the bottle of Rom ale

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzila) on Wednesday, December 21, 2022 - 05:41 pm: Edit

Spartan I am free this weekend

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Friday, December 23, 2022 - 01:03 am: Edit

Hey Seth,

Well, this weekend, I'm on a trip to Atami ... maybe next week?

Best,
Geof

By Daniel Bitseff (Cadet_Stimpy) on Monday, December 26, 2022 - 11:28 pm: Edit

Moose & I played 4 turns of the final. We're both down a lot of shields, but Aux has its right side shielding still pretty pristine. Aux has 15ish ints after repairing a couple ph-3's (down a couple warp, ph-3, ph-1 & drone). Gorn has seen both heavys from the Aux. Gorn has 4 ints (all hull). To be continued Friday or Saturday.

By Daniel Bitseff (Cadet_Stimpy) on Wednesday, December 28, 2022 - 10:43 am: Edit

Final will continue on Friday evening, 7pm PST.

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Saturday, December 31, 2022 - 01:50 am: Edit

Congratulations Cadet Stimpy on your victory in the final!

We wanna know some more details!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, December 31, 2022 - 08:29 am: Edit

Exciting! Yeah, someone describe this game.

By Richard Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Saturday, December 31, 2022 - 11:57 am: Edit

It's a game set in space where two starships duel to the death! Exciting!

By Daniel Bitseff (Cadet_Stimpy) on Saturday, December 31, 2022 - 05:23 pm: Edit

Sapphire Star 12 Final

Turn 1 Aux is speed 31 all turn. Gorn does a 17/31/24 split for 23 moves has 1 wild weasel held, torp A held as an S. Gorn turns left immediately, as does Aux, and then we both turn in & move towards each other nose to nose. Gorn launches an EPT from B tube on imp 19 somewhere in the 12ish? range, then Turns right, and continues to slip out to try to keep out of range 8 & let torp do its work. Imp 22 Aux turns left, and as Gorn slows down to spd 24, is able to get range 5 on impulse 27, Gorn takes 23 on the #6 from 7xph-1. Aux then turns out (dir B) and launches 4 drones. Imp 32, Gorn fires 4xph-3 at the drones & rolls well, killing all. We end the turn both heading dir B towards the corner, EPT still on the board.

Turn 2 Aux is speed 31 all turn. Gorn plots speed 26 all turn, 2 pts to recharge phasers, 1 pt in tractor. Impulse 1, Aux fires ph-G & 3xph-3 at EPT, doing 26 damage (-13). Aux turns dir A towards the top wall, and eats the EPT for 17 after the phaser damage, blocking 3 on the #4 shield. Gorn turns dir A to follow. Imp 11 Aux turns dir F, starting to get pinned against the wall a bit, and next imp Gorn turns F as well, continuing to close. Imp 17, Aux turns dir E, gorn is now off their #3, still closing with Gorn #1 facing. Imp 21 Gorn uses reserve power to change speed to 31 for remainder of the turn, to avoid losing ground. Imp 25, Gorn is range 2 centerline on Aux's #5 shield, launches 30 pointer from launcher A, and fires 6xph-1 & bolts F torp C at Aux. Aux returns fire with 4xph-1. Gorn takes 19 on the #1, and for Aux, Gorn bolt hits & Aux takes 39, for 18 internals, which net 3xph-3, a ph-1, a drone, lwarp, rwarp. Then Gorn makes a mistake on imp 26 & turns left, thinking he can scooch out & avoid drones while Aux flees from the obvious PPT. Aux does not flee & immediately turns dir D. gorn launches F-torp D, Aux launches 3 drones. Gorn fires a ph-1 & ph-3 at drones, doing 4 pts to each, and only killing one. Two drones left on the board, both Heavy. Aux keeps coming at Gorn, hellbent on vengeance & eats the S & F torps on the #4 & #6. Obvious fake S is fake, so Aux takes just 20 from the F-torp on the #6. Gorn tractors the two type IV drones. Aux is now off the Gorn #4 at range 1 & fires 3xph-1, doing 21 damage. Impulse 31, Aux uses 3 pts power to tractor the Gorn. Imp 31, Gorn turns dir D to bring a new shield (#5) to bear, impulse 32, Aux turns F to centerline Gorn off their #1, and Gorn slips away (unresolved move until imp 1 due to tractor). Gorn launches the real S-torp from launcher A, Aux launches a shuttle. Gorn tries to soften the Aux's #1 shield for the torp with a ph-1 & ph-3 for 12 damage.

Turn 3 Tractor auction is brief, Aux tries to maintain for 1, and Gorn resists for 1. Aux had planned to maintain tractor & rotate Gorn into their suicide shuttle from imp 32, but the impending imp 1 resolution of movement was going to thwart that. Gorn does not maintain tractor on drones. Gorn parks, Aux moves speed 15. Gorn starts charging a 2nd wild weasel, recharges phasers, tacs allocated, 1 pt tractor, 10 pt brick on the #5. Imp 1, Aux eats the S torp for 30, and blocks 14, bringing his #1 shield to zero. Gorn uses his wild weasel to get the heavys off the board, and hopefully get a shift on the fire he's about to take. Gorn takes collateral from Heavys, and also from the SS when it hits the WW (Gorn never labbed the shuttle, and actually pretty much forgot about it, so it was fortuitous that the WW ate it). After some taccing & raising of fire control, Aux launches 2 drones on impulse 7, range 1. Gorn uses 2xph-1 to dispatch the drones & fires a ph-3 that is about to get shot off at the Aux. Aux fires 4xph-1 & ph-G at Gorn, doing 37 to the #2 and missing my brick completely. Gorn blocks 3 & takes 4 hull hits. Aux waddles away, Gorn sits. Aux repairs a couple ph-3's end of turn.

Turn 4 Gorn starts moving again (speed 10), Aux is speed 24. This turn is mostly uneventful as the ships maneuver around, licking their wounds & re-arming. On imp 32, Gorn launches an EPT from near center of map (range 12ish to Aux), and Aux launches 3 drones.

Turn 5 Gorn has a 12/17 split (16 moves) hoping to let the EPT herd the Aux into the corner so Gorn can get a better EPT launch off. Aux is speed 31 and runs from EPT, Gorn follows & cleans up the drone launch along the way. On imp 23 as Aux is trying to get turned back around after running out the EPT, Gorn lets fly another EPT. Gorn turns about to get away for re-arming, Aux turns out to avoid EPT. Imp32 Aux fires 6xph-1, 2xph-3 at torp for 40 pts, taking 20 off the warhead. EOT, Gorn repairs a box on his down shield, Aux repairs a ph-1.

Turn 6 Aux is speed 21, Gorn is speed 17. Aux eats the EPT for 40pts, blocking 15 of it (7 on #1, 7 on #5, and 1 on #6), leaving his shields at 1/20/14/13/1/1. Gorn shields are also trashed at this point 11/1/17/1/24/7.

At this point it became a plasma ballet, Gorn trying to land torps, but keep the range open. Aux outrunning torps & looking for shooting opportunities. A bit of sniping, but nothing notable until Turn 11 when Gorn was down on available plasma (just an F-torp & a possible 2-turn F), but in a bit of a power crunch, Gorn didn't try to run & decided to instead engage against the weak shield side of the Aux, phasers vs. phasers. We closed in & Aux launched 3 drones (I think this was last full wave, only singles after this), Gorn sniped at Aux's weak #1 doing volleys of 7 & 13. Aux return fire does 27 ints to the Gorn, but not enough pain to balance out the Aux's power losses, and Moose concedes. It was a bit tense here, as I didn't hold back fire for drones, thinking I could scoot away or ww them (I had one available), and luckily Aux did not try to tractor me here, I'm not sure how this ends up if I get grabbed. It was a good, fun game, against one of the best in the world (who luckily was a bit rusty, by his own admission). Thank you, Moose!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, December 31, 2022 - 07:23 pm: Edit

Excellent. Thanks for the description!

Congrats!

As noted, I think this particular WAX is advantaged over the Gorn. But not unbeatable, as, well, check it out!

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Sunday, January 01, 2023 - 10:54 am: Edit

Hey Dan,

Thanks for the battle report.

Looks like the battle plan for the Gorn was EPT turn 1, then chase him at high speed.

Turn 2 - Gorn got to range 2, center-lined off his #5, launched a fake, fired 6xph-1s, bolted F (did 18 internals), then turned left and he make an aggressive turn left to try to get you with drones, SS, tractor. You mentioned this was a mistake, I suppose in hindsight you are thinking you might have been better to slip right, or turn right, so you can try to get away, and he can't turn in to hook you?

Anyway, WAX runs through F turn 2, then turn 3 eats the S over the turn break so he can brick most of it, tractor auction, even if successful will not immediately result in hits with drones & SS, since Gorn will get to move on 1, with unresolved movement from 32, and this would at least give reprieve? Does this mean Gorn can bring more phasers to bear on drones? Or, assuming WAX really cranked up the tractor on turn 3, what are the odds that heavies can land imp 2, 3 or 4? Even if his tractor rotation does not result in immediate impact, I guess I was thinking he might fight harder to prevent WW?

So, after double EPTs on Turns 4 & 5, shields are
WAX = 1/20/14/13/1/1
GRN = 11/1/17/1/24/7

... so shields suck, can WAX still run at 31? I assume he can, or close to it, since there are likely EPTs on Turns ~7 & ~8, and they do not seem to do much to WAX. Maybe there are some delays in launches, since the Gorn is down to F & quick-F on Turn 11.

Anyway, Moose's WAX is super tough, he claims to be rusty ... but I think his game was pretty •••• good vs plasma.

Well played to both! Happy New Year!

Looking forward to the next tournament.

By Daniel Bitseff (Cadet_Stimpy) on Monday, January 02, 2023 - 01:32 pm: Edit

Ya Geof, my range 2 shot was imp 25, so most stuff would be cycled. Still would be tough to deal with 2 heavys + 3 more launched drones if I get anchored there, but manageable since 1 of the heavys was damaged already. I think the issue for the Aux would be that it would need to stop in order to have the power to keep tractor, and the aux game plan seemed pretty reliant on speed.

Also, ya, he was still capable of speed 31 during the ballet turns. I wasn't always doing EPTs either, due to power. I sometimes had to launch S+F to avoid another brutal range 5 shot, in hindsight I could've possibly ended things sooner by holding more torps & being more aggressive in trying to corner the Aux, letting the phasers do the work since Gorn was in better shape to take the damage.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, January 03, 2023 - 01:14 pm: Edit

CONGRATULATIONS TO CADET STIMPY.