Archive through April 01, 2023
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Archive through April 01, 2023
Thanks, Paul!
Kingzilla won vs Berkstrom.
Seth:
Steve and I still need to finish. We didn't connect this weekend. Will keep you posted
Let me know if you need a replacement
Gregg
Steve and are going to try and finish up tomorrow 7:30 EST
2.2 Sir_CatWhoEatsPhotons FED v. CrashandBurn WAX (HHBB)
Monday, April 3, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. CDT (7:30 p.m. EDT)
Kingzilla (TKR) over bakija (ZIN)
Well, that was one of the worst games I have played in a really long time. I used to be pretty good at ZIN vs plasma, but then probably haven't played this match up since the 90's. And did everything wrong.
T1: I move 16/26, have 4 standard disruptors, a weasel and a point of tractor. TKR moves, like, 21/26 or something. We close up the map. At R14 or so, he launches 2 standard S torps and turns left. I turn left, get a R9 shot on his #2, hit with 3 of 4 standards for 9 damage which sticks. Plasma closes. I speed up to 31 for the end of the turn, turn off, and end the turn 2 hexes from the plasma. TKR turns back at me late in the turn. I launch 4 medium drones.
T2: I move 26 with some 16 at the end, put some energy into the disruptors on the wrong side of my ship. I make the fatal error of turning back to my left (going towards the SE corner of the map) instead of continuing into the SW corner of the map. TKR moves 26/27, maybe slowing down some late? He gets around my drones, I get near the edge of the map. I slip in front of his 2 plasmas on the map on their 24th move, assuming they are both fake, but if they aren't, I'm happy to take the 10 total damage on my #4. They are both fake, which is bad. TKR gets to about R5. I launch 4 fast drones and HET back in the other direction to avoid instant death. He launches 50 plasma at me, and handles the 4 fast drones with both tractors and a bunch of P3s over a few impulses. I shoot his #2 up with my 3 in arc P3s, roll poorly, do a few more damage. I could decel and weasel the plasma, but that seems like a bad plan at this juncture, so I phaser up the plasma, end up taking it on my #3 for 38, which scores 14 internals, losing a couple P3s and a couple warp. TKR turns off and gets away. I come back around after slowing down to 16. TKR shoots a couple of the existing medium drones with a couple P3s, but they survive a P3 each. We end the turn at about 16 hexes.
T3: I move 26 all turn, hoping he is going to run fast, or pitch an enveloper and cloak or something that will help me. He does neither, moving, like, 21/15/21. I close in, he turns at me and launches another 50 plasma. I speed change to 28, thinking it'll make me miss a move at the correct time, allowing me to take the plasma on my off side, so I can keep closing, but only 'cause I read the chart wrong. I don't miss the move I need to miss, and end up just getting hit in the face for all 50 plasma, minus some P3s. I take another 17 in, take it ok, but am not anywhere good. TKR speeds up to 21 at a helpful moment, gets to get a R5 shot on my down #3 with 5xP1, does another 17 internals, and I surrender.
This game. It was a disaster. I feel bad that I made my opponent play against such a terrible opponent :-)
Peter. We've all been there. Don't be too hard on yourself!
Heh, yeah, it was all terrible :-)
It turns out, overall, what happened was I was playing a game of "Run from the first enveloper, crash the second enveloper, corner the Romulan who cloaks, and then play Sub Hunt", and then, well, the Romulan didn't launch any envelopers. Which I honestly don't think I have ever run into in the Kzinti before.
The draw of Peter in the Kzinti for the 2nd round had me lost on what to do for a plan. I have never seen him play the Kzinti and he is a very aggressive Gorn player. I thought he would come at me hard turn one with the scatter pack and his ships drones. I believed he would go through anything I launched turn one. So, my plan was to avoid him turn one and re-act to his opening game plan turn 2. I believed turn 2 I would need all my power left open as options so I held both S torps turn 1. I allocated 2 ww and 1 SS shuttle for drone defense. I was hoping for turn one when I launch 2 fake S torps that Peter will put a little distance between him and his drones and give me time to deal with the drones turn 2 before we came at each other. Peter never launched a scatter pack and only launched 4 drones on impulse 32 on turn 1 while he ran from the fakes. We end turn one the RKR is center of the map and Kzinti is heading for a corner. The way I thought the turn would end was Peter chasing me after he crashed the Plasmas at range 11 with phaser fire.
Turn 2 I go speed 16 for a few impulses then change to speed 26 for the rest of the turn. I have 2 in trac and still 3 in shuttles. I will make him ww his drones or eat Plasma as I force him toward the wall. I believe I will only need to deal with 8 drones in turn 2 because it will be hard to get the scatter pack on the board as I am chasing him. The RKR deals with 8 drones well. I have no interest in going for a trac on the Kzinti turn 2. I will chase him to a point where there is no way to run from the plasma launches - Peter’s write-up tells the story for turn 2.
Turn 3 I believe he will chase me down and during my allocation, for turn 3 I don’t have the power to run after draining my batts and phasers. I also did not have the power to add to trac but I still have the 3 in shuttles. I plan to go speed 20 for 8 impulses so I have time to deal with the 4 drones on my ass then speed change to 15 for the rest of the turn. I plan to use my 5 batts on 2 in trac and 3 for speed change when needed later in the turn. Peter goes fast turn 3 chasing me and I am hoping to keep the distance until my bats can help me knowing I can’t outrun him. The only way to deal with this is turning in to him somewhere around mid-turn and forcing him to run off. Peter write-up tells the rest.
Well, Peter, if it makes you feel better, here's a true story from my karate days.
Sensei tells me to spar with a guest who has accepted an invitation to spar with one of Sensei's students. The guest is a practitioner of Tae Kwon Do, and a pretty good one at that.
At first, I hold my own and do OK against all the kicks he's throwing at me. However, when I decide to charge, he throws a round-house kick to my head. I know *exactly* what to do in this circumstance - sidestep, guide the kick away from my head with an upper rotating hand-block, and then use my forward foot to sweep his one planted leg. Follow up with a punch to the face while he is down. This technique will score a full point and win me the match under the rules as they were back then.
But no. I don't block. I don't side-step. I just walk into a full-power round-house kick to my face. Didn't hurt at the time, but jaw hurt for two weeks afterwards.
Of course honorable opponent wins the match right then and there.
Sensei, after declaring honorable opponent the winner, says to me: "Mr. Fay. I do not teach 'block with face' in my style."
Did I mention that the whole class had sat up against the wall and watched the bout with their full attention?
Yeah. The jokes and ribbing I got thereafter were worse than the boot to the head!
So. I get it. 
Personally, just one voice, I think it takes a pretty darn good effort for the Kzinti to beat the KR nowadays. Maybe the Kzinti used to be the best thing since butter- nowadays though everyone knows how to deal with a million drones.
Ted, "Block with face" sounds about right :-)
Yeah, like, I don't think it ever occurred to me (which is weird, given that I have played plasma largely exclusively for the last 15 years) that the Romulan would not launch envelopers. I was playing to run from the first enveloper, crash the second enveloper, and then kill the TKR when it tried to uncloak (which the TKR is very bad at).
It launches 2 standard torps. I'm all "Huh. That is unexpected". I considered calling the plasma bluff and eating it on my #2 or something, and if it was 1+1, I was probably fine, where if they were both real, I lose, and if they are both fake (which they likely were, and they were), I force some other plasma launch, and then I'm about where I need to be after a T1 enveloper anyway.
Once I ran from 2 pseudoes, and then turned the wrong way early on T2, the game was done. I could have weaseled some plasma and kept fighting, but was accomplishing nothing by doing that, and burning up drones, and giving the TKR time to reload, so that wasn't gonna get me anywhere either.
T3 was a complete disaster of a turn, where my assumptions were flawed, and then I looked at the impulse chart, looked for a speed I could accelerate to and miss a move on the next impulse (to control where the plasma hit me), saw one, did that acceleration, and then immediately moved the next impulse just made it all worse.
It's funny that Peter was surprised that a big plasma ship launched plasma. On occasion when Peter's Gorn ship is taken apart for scraps all the other Gorn captains want his launchers because they are new. They won't accept the bolt mechanism.
I know. It is ridiculous.
That being said, I don't think in the history of ever, did I ever play against a Romulan [*] as a Kzinti where it didn't open with an enveloper. I mean, clearly, it is better to not open with an enveloper. But I really don't think I ever saw that happen.
[*] I certainly have played against a TKE that did not open with an enveloper, but that game is a whole other thing.
Moose defeated Droid on turn 6 when the Lyran broke down attempting a second HET.
@Droid. Alas. I now cannot meet you on the field of honor in this tourney. 
If it's any comfort, I'm up against another "Fed Killer" (WAX HHBB).
Perhaps next time!
I think it was the 7th turn Moose...
I played 5 good turns (session 1), and was actually winning. I stayed pretty much behind him, got a drone rack on 3 internals (like a gift from the SFBOL gods!), and ran him low on drones.
Then T6 (session 2)was mediocre. I was caught between trying to stay behind Steve (complicated by a down #6) and running and rearming. I ended up not doing either really. I also did not deactivate my ESG to shorten my activation cycle. Mediocre might be a bit of an overstatement
T7 Was bad for me. I pretty much forwent disruptors, charged my available ESG, and put 10 points in trac, as I was expecting TRACTOR KILL! Steve went 31, I had a 25/14 split. I had to stay on a collision course due to a weak #5 and a down #6. I announced ESGs too late to matter. (I honestly don't know what I was thinking). The result was arriving at R2 in an awful position where I could move to his CL at R0 or slip and eat a drone plus his R0 shot. I chose to HET, and broke down.
In hindsight, Steve had 0 in trac. I could have had him at R2 and avoided the whole "dying immediately" thing. I should have tried it, but to be fair, tractoring a 11g1 at R2 is not something that usually enters the consciousness..
The 11g1 Aux is beatable for the Lyran. But Steve is pretty much the best at flying it. I am, you know, not as good as ol Moose. So there you go. At least we got it done...
GG Steve and good luck
Jack (Hydran) vs Ron (ATH)
Set for Friday at 2pm eastern.
Jack (Hydran) prevails over Ron (ATH).
I hit with every HB I fired and he broke down on his 2nd HET. I also got his caster on a flukey couple internals towards the end of the game. Ron played great - dice helped me today!! Write it down!!
Moose WAX (11g1) vs * The_Hood * FED
Did this game get played - its shows on the tree the Fed won?
Yes, we played this morning. Poor maneuver by me coupled with a range 4 jackpot did me in.
LOL there could be 2 feds the HYD might have 2 deal with. This will fun to watch.
Probably won't need to worry about any KR's.
Jack is new to the HYD and I noticed during his 1st 2 games they attached a fighter to each side of his ship as training wheels so he won't fall down. Now that he learned how to hold himself up this next game will be real fun to watch as he now is driving in traffic.
https://cdn3.volusion.com/xmtxm.vyfbn/v/vspfiles/photos/FW-Adult-4.jpg?v-cache=1672816538
LOL, love it, Seth!