Geof - no doubt your data is correct. Still, I think Ron or I in the Shark are winning that game 75% of time with average dice, even against all the other great players out here. That's how I described it "average dice". We are specialists and the Shark is very strong. Especially strong against the Firehawk.

The Firehawk has all kinds of problems. It's not a great cloaker. It's drone defense isn't great especially after any internals and the Shark is getting internals. Lots of internals. The arcs on the S torps are really a liability not a strength. It only has 4 bridge. Seth had 1 bridge left after 15 internals the other day. He could have been uncontrolled T3 with 20 internals.

For me, the Firehawk is a bottom third ship. Maybe a really good FireHawk player could convince me somehow differently after whooping on me a bunch of times.

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Wednesday, July 12, 2023 - 12:31 pm: Edit

Hey Jack, the next step in analysis is to add in the player's skill level (number of total games, win %, recency of games, and rated ace status ... ). You will no longer qualify as "Cadet", my friend!

Agree on the disadvantages of the FH, all true. Flown with enough aggressiveness, the FH can be dangerous. It is possible to take 30-40 internals and connect with a form of anchor. I feel like Seth's game this last time ... did not play to the strengths of the FH. I look forward to taking on more Sharks as a Rom, preferably KR, but FH will do!

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Wednesday, July 12, 2023 - 12:39 pm: Edit

Peter said:

1.8 bakija (GRN) vs Jeff_G (GBS 11)

Continues today at 1:30 pm ET.
By Jeff Guthridge (Jeff_Guthridge) on Sunday, July 09, 2023 - 03:26 pm: Edit

Peter got me in turn 5. I'll let him write it up. He's got a good pen for such reports.

And thanks for being gracious Peter. Though, I hope you'll forgive me if I cry Shenanigans if we get matched up in the first round again next time.
By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, July 09, 2023 - 03:43 pm: Edit

1.8 bakija (GRN) over Jeff_G (GBS 11).

We start the turn with me about 19 hexes away, Shark in the NW corner with a 22 point plasma about to hit his #5, 2 WYN shuttles on the map, the Shark has a down #4 and 9 internals (2 warp, P3, disruptor, hull).

T3: Gorn moves 17 all turn, rearm plasma S (second turn), 2xPlasma F (first turn), most of my capacitor, and continue holding a weasel. Shark moves 14/27 (+/-23 moves). Impulse 1, the plasma hits, and it is revealed as a fake. I just run across the map all turn, Shark follows. We end the turn about 13 hexes apart, me facing D near the SE corner of the map, Shark facing C, sort of in the middle of the map. The Shark repairs a box on #4 shield.

T4: Gorn moves 24/12 split (on 16), finishes tube B as an enveloper, puts a couple points in HET and a point in tractor, holds the weasel, keeps arming 2xPlas F (second turn), holds still armed plasma A. Shark moves 27/20 split (also on 16). Shark closes some, I turn to face E, getting my enveloper in arc. At 10 hexes, I pitch it out. Shark keeps coming in. Gets to R8 from my #3 shield, R1 from the plasma. Blasts me with 3xOL disruptors, all hit for 18; and knocks 9 points off the plasma warhead with a bunch of P3s. Next impulse, I HET directly at him (dir A) to get my armed S tube in arc. Enveloper hits for 8 or 9 damage on each shield, doing 6 internals through his #4 (hit 5 hull and a control). He launches a couple drones. We close some. I end up killing both drones (one was IDed as a type IV, I suspect the other one was as well) with 4xP1s at moderate range, as I kept expecting the phasers to get shot off. The Shark turns in to R3, launches another shuttle, I launch my plasma S (obviously real). Shark comes into R1 directly off my 23 box #6. Plasma impacts his non facing #2, scoring 9 internals (a couple warp and hull), I launch 2 shuttles. He blasts my #6 with 4xP1, 3xP3, rolls terribly, still does 3 in (phaser 1, plasma F, warp). I turn and get directly behind him, fire 2xP1, P3 through his down #4 for another 14 internals (I start hitting weapons). We move apart some. My 2 shuttles (which were not suicides, sadly), fire a couple P3s into his down #4 for 1 more internal hit. We end the turn about 10 hexes apart, facing opposite directions. Shark is down about 10 power, some phasers, a couple disruptors, a drone rack.

T5: Gorn moves 17 all turn, finishes arming an F tube, starts rearming both S tubes, puts energy in batteries and phasers, gives up the weasel. Shark moves 12 all turn. I move off a little, Shark comes about some, launches a drone, I turn in and come back at him. I get to R2 from his 2 shuttles launched on T2 with my down #6, but they don't shoot me (as they were SS shuttles the whole time). I come in, tractor his drone at R2. We get to R1, my full #1 to his 21 box #6. I launch my F torp. He blasts me with a standard disruptor, all his phasers (5xP1, 3xP3?), rolls well, does 39 damage, scores 9 in. Next impulse, plasma F hits, I follow up with 5xP1 for another 27 or so internals. We move a few more impulses, I get a couple more phasers in through down shields, and Shark surrenders.

Fun game, Jeff is a great opponent. Now to get mangled by an ISC!

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Wednesday, July 12, 2023 - 12:40 pm: Edit

Crash said:

Game 2.3 Hood vs Crash
Finnish 9 turns on Friday. The Fed has 25 internals #2 shield is gone, #4 is down to 5, the #1 and #6 down around 10 box’s left. He is down a photon and three p1s. The Fed has used one WW and his HET.
The AUX has 23 internals, the #2 shield is gone . Down a disruptor , and 3 x p3s , and a drone rack , which is all most empty.
The end of T9 the AUX has the Fed in a range one tractor.
To be continued Wednesday at 7:00 EST

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Wednesday, July 12, 2023 - 12:41 pm: Edit

I've pasted in the copies of a few messages that I had cached in my browser ...

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, July 12, 2023 - 01:18 pm: Edit

Thanks, Geof!

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Wednesday, July 12, 2023 - 01:34 pm: Edit

Thank you, Geof!!!

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, July 12, 2023 - 01:45 pm: Edit

I AM SORRY ABOUT THE INTERRUPTION, BUT WE HA NO CHOICE IN THE MANNER. AND I AM ALSO SORRY THAT I SEM TO BE STUCK USING ALL CAPITALS. THE CAPS KEY IS NOT PUNCHED, BUT THIIS IS HAPPENING. APPARENTLY SOME PROBLEM WITH MY COMPUTER. IN ANY CASE, THE TOURNAMENT HAS CONTINUED.

By Richard Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Thursday, July 13, 2023 - 03:35 am: Edit

Sometimes shift gets stuck. Try pressing one, then the other, really hard, and sometimes that fixes that.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, July 13, 2023 - 07:41 am: Edit

2.4 Spartan (ISC) vs bakija (GRN)

Starting this morning, 8:00 am ET (which is 21:00/9:00 pm in Japan).

Still need to fix the tree that shows Jeff_G in that game instead of me (I accidentally reported a loss on my R1 game). Thanks!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, July 13, 2023 - 09:23 am: Edit

2.4 Spartan (ISC) over bakija (GRN).

Well that went badly. But at least it was fast.

T1: Gorn moves 15/16/24 for 18 moves, has 2 held standard S torps, 10 reinforcement on #1, 2 suicide shuttles. ISC moves 23/31/26 (26 moves?) with held standard torps, regular PPD, held weasel, 3 in HET.

We both just move up the map, both slipping in a bit. At R12 or so, I launch my off side plasma S (standard). ISC seems undeterred. Gets to R9, fires the PPD, misses with the first pulse. We just keep closing. I take 12 damage to my #1, blocking 10 with reinforcement. ISC keeps not turning off, mostly ignores my plasma (hitting it with a couple P3s and eating it for full on his #5, and it is unsurprisingly a pseudo), launching a couple standard G torps at about 6 hexes. Impulse 25, I turn in and accelerate to 24. ISC is R4 on my #1/#2 spine, but 'cause I'm still speed 17 this impulse, he gets to shoot my #1, so he does with 6xP1, rolls hot, does 25 damage (leaving my #1 at 3 boxes). Impulse 26, I slip north, he turns in, we end up at R2, still on my #1/#6 spine. His 40 plasma is directly in front of me, so I clearly need to HET next impulse (otherwise, I take upwards of 40 in). I launch 80 points of plasma that will hit him in a few impulses, unless he speed changes to 26 next impulse. Next impulse, 27, I HET away from his plasma, ISC slips away, my stack of plasma HETs in the correct direction, but is still at R2. ISC announces speed change to 26. Gorn resigns.

I have lost my #1 shield, my 80 points of launched plasma will hit nothing after the ISC HETs away next impulse, I'm about to lose another shield to the 40 points of plasma behind me (one of them turned out to be a fake, but still, that's a down shield). I could have taken out a shield if my remaining bolted F hits, but I'm too far behind to succeed here.

If the ISC doesn't speed change down to 26, I'm fine. If I have 10 tractor instead of reinforcement, I win here, but 10 tractor on T1 only does anything if your opponent lets it, and your ISC opponent doesn't need to decide to get inside tractor range until after seeing all the reinforcement. This is a game that requires a lot of good guessing, and Geof did all the good guessing.

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Thursday, July 13, 2023 - 11:40 am: Edit

Thanks for the write-up Peter, spot on. This time, the gambit pays off. I decided to go super aggressive T1, since it might be considered unconventional. When you announced speed 15, I knew that I would have the benefit to move last for all of the critical impulses, and I was prepared to eat that S-torp and even take a few internals in order to try to take down your #1, if possible. A Gorn with a strong #1, even after all the other shields are hosed, can still ruin your day. So, that was my plan, and it worked out for me this time. Thanks for the great game, it was certainly a bit frightening to get to R2 with a fully armed and dangerous reptile!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, July 13, 2023 - 12:21 pm: Edit

Usually in this sort of game, I launch an enveloper on T1, but I decided to shake it up and have more reinforcement. If I had launched an enveloper this game, it probably would have worked out a lot better for me.

Unless the Gorn can grab you in a tractor, if you are moving 31-26 and can HET, being R2 from a fully armed Gorn isn't particularly scary, in reality. It is too difficult to hit with launched plasma in that instance. I was looking at different things I could have done in this game, and if I launch 50, and then move, and then launch 50, I *still* probably fail to hit with any of it before the turn ends...

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, July 13, 2023 - 03:00 pm: Edit

Petr Bakija:

Sorry you were beaten, I think Pau Franz will get around to fixing the mistake in round one (Geoff lost and you won) as soon as he has time. Paul Franz still needs to play his round two game versus Moose.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, July 13, 2023 - 04:03 pm: Edit

Heh, it happens :-)

But thanks! I just want to make sure the tree is correct.

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Thursday, July 13, 2023 - 07:01 pm: Edit

SPP - please looks closely.

In round 1, game 1.8, bakija won and Jeff_G lost, this game was entered incorrectly.

In round 2, game 2.4, bakija lost and Spartan won.

Thank you.

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Thursday, July 13, 2023 - 07:31 pm: Edit

Hey Peter,

One scary part of R2 is before you HET, you have reserve and might get to R1 and anchor. I felt that if I HET-ed and still had 3 reserve, I'm probably safe at R2. I was stuck closing with you at 31, until speed change. I nearly turned out, vs in, but I saw you would probably get the center-lined bolt shot. I guess I might have done that if I launched 2xReal, and wanted to tempt you to take them to get the bolt shot.

Also, I was worried you might bolt 50 + ph, HET and bolt 50 + ph ... could you get the same shield?

Launched plasma is tough to land vs high speed opponent, no doubt, I see the need to bolt in those circumstances, or hold and chase. I did not want the hold & chase game, felt that ends with me in a corner, WW, and a pissed off Gorn inside the myopic zone.

I also agree with the enveloper plan, means the PPD is slightly more effective, it says that the bolt shot if it happens later is at lower strength, but it definitely encourages ISC to shoot and scoot.

2xPPT might also work ... I recall disbelieving this kind of thing in the past, but it is tough!

Anyway, you might need a cloak! ;) Sure makes a difference here.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, July 14, 2023 - 07:48 am: Edit

>>One scary part of R2 is before you HET, you have reserve and might get to R1 and anchor. I felt that if I HET-ed and still had 3 reserve, I'm probably safe at R2. I was stuck closing with you at 31, until speed change. I nearly turned out, vs in, but I saw you would probably get the center-lined bolt shot. I guess I might have done that if I launched 2xReal, and wanted to tempt you to take them to get the bolt shot.>>

Yeah, before I HET, I had a potential tractor threat, but in reality, I only had 5 batteries+2 missing power (2xSS I was holding). So as long as you are at R2, even if you have zero plotted tractor, you are fine. With 3 allocated HET (which you had), you can even HET, and still be safe from any potential tractor at R2 available.

>>Also, I was worried you might bolt 50 + ph, HET and bolt 50 + ph ... could you get the same shield?>>

Nope. I was checking for that, I was never in a situation where I could bolt/HET/bolt and hit the same spot.

>>Launched plasma is tough to land vs high speed opponent, no doubt, I see the need to bolt in those circumstances, or hold and chase. I did not want the hold & chase game, felt that ends with me in a corner, WW, and a pissed off Gorn inside the myopic zone.>>

That is always the hope. I was looking for you to turn off and get a R5 centerlined alpha bolt. You weren't having any of that, so I was basically doomed. I needed to be willing to launch 50 plasma at you earlier on to try and get you to turn off, be willing to let you turn off and run, costing me the plasma, and then have a sub optimal bolt while also getting hit in the face by all your plasma.

>>I also agree with the enveloper plan, means the PPD is slightly more effective, it says that the bolt shot if it happens later is at lower strength, but it definitely encourages ISC to shoot and scoot.>>

As noted, usually I'll launch the enveloper here, and, well, history indicates that is a better play. I can't imagine you would have just eaten the enveloper for full at 8 moves after a couple P3s into it, 'cause at that point, the 50 point bolt+phasers at R5 becomes way more dangerous, so being down the S torp in the bolt shot isn't an issue.

>>2xPPT might also work ... I recall disbelieving this kind of thing in the past, but it is tough!>>

Yeah, it's always a gamble. Launching 2 pseudos never really seems to pan out, unless occasionally you are willing to launch 2 real torps, and that works poorly *way* more than it actually helps.

>>Anyway, you might need a cloak! ;) Sure makes a difference here.>>

Stupid Romulans :-)

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Monday, July 17, 2023 - 11:01 am: Edit

Game 3.2 Spartan's ISC over The_Hood's FED

T1 - FED had a 18/9/4 plot. ISC had a 17/26 plot, accel on 27, standard PPD & torps, 11 point brick on the #2. Fed turns left pretty quick, ISC initially slips in, then out, launches real G from B on 1/27 and ultimately turns left to put the brick on the facing shield, and accels on 1/27. We end the turn at range 7, and ISC fires PPD at FEDS #1, which is absorbed as expected on 1/32. No fire from FED on T1.

T2 - FED plots 3/4 with a big brick on the #1, 16? ISC plots zero/-10 to go into retrograde, with the brick on #2 increased to 14. ISC increases the range to about 9 hexes over the course of the turn. FED uses WW impulse 2, which causes the 3rd pulse of the PPD to miss, but the 4th, 5th and 6th pulses hit home. The ISC launches a pair of shuttles. 2/7 the G torp hits the WW, and FED starts to bring up FC. FED fires phasers at the shuttles and kills both, ISC fires phasers at the FED, sees 5 more reinforcement, and takes the #1 down to 19. On 2/23, the ISC launches 2xPlasma (C&E). FED is undeterred, fires remaining phasers and F torp, takes only 2 damage to #1, since C torp is fake. ISC launches a real G torp on 2/32.

T3 - FED plots 12/10/12, ISC plots -8/-16/-8 with a 10 point brick now on the #1, which faces the FED. 3/6 ISC fires PPD, this time a standard version, which only sees a total reinforcement of 1, so chews up many shields. FED times the speed change to put the G torp on #6 shield, uses some phaser power to soften it up, hits for 6 on the #5, ISC also blasts again with 6xPh-1s for 13 additional, this in total leave FED with shields 10/24/24/25/15/1. It is finally time for the FED's revenge, he sees the ISC will not move next impulse, so fires 3x16-pt-OL, and 3xPh-1, keeping one OL and 1xPh-1 is reserve for mizia. Hits with 2xOL, scores 38 total, sees 10 reinforcement, and drops the ISC's #1 to 2 boxes. Next impulse, the ISC HETs to put the #2 between, and accelerates to -16 reverse. FED tries some tricky maneuver to get back on the #1, but is not successful.

T4 - ISC plots 0/10/8, switching to forward movement, FED plots 11, accels to 12 on 4.7, and then up to 20 on 4.19 with reserve. ISC tacs around to launch an EPT from B's LP arc, and then accels up to 10 forward to run up against the west wall. FED phasers the EPT a little bit, but eats it for 36 around, takes 5 internals (fluff, maybe 1xph-3?), and ISC follows it up with an F torp from D, which hits for 9 pts on 4/19, and leaves FED with shields 4/18/9/18/9/0. Late in the turn 4/28, FED looks to settle the score, fires 1xSTD (miss) and 4xPh-1s, scoring 15 to the ISC #3. The ISC blasts back with 3xPh-1s, since the FED had to turn the weak #1 in order to pursue, and close the range. FED takes 6 internals, takes 1 more in from ph-3s at range 3, and then slips out to put the relatively strong #2 (18 boxes) between us, this means that the FED gets to range 3, and is off the 24 box ISC #4 on 4/32.

T5 - The decisive turn. ISC plots 0/4/0/-9, finishes F-torp E and arms C as EPT. FED plots 8 until 4, then 4 remainder. Impulse 1, ISC launches F torp on 5/1, and then launches WW to get a shift. FED cannot WW yet at speed 8, so blasts the F with 3xPh-1s and 1xPh-3, the plasma hits for 12, sees 3 reinf on #3, leaving FED with shields 0/18/0/18/9/0. On 5/7, FED decels to 4, ISC accels to 4. Now that ISC cannot tac, even though there is a WW shift, FED opens up with 2x16-pt OL and 2xPh-1s, hits with one photon, does a total of 21 pts and drops the #4 to 3 boxes. On 5/16, the ISC decels back to 0, and voids the WW by raising FC. 5/19, FED launches WW for shift, ISC kills it with phasers over two imps, ISC tacs around thrice, and on the third tac 5/24, announces speed -9. 5/25, FED launches another WW, which the ISC phasers, and FED brings up FC for 5/30. By now, ISC has moved back to R4, and fires PPD on 5/30, which I recall misses initially. 5/31 it hits the strong #2, but does 2 internals with splash. On 5/32, FED turns to put us directly on the spine, ISC's #1/#2, and FED's #1/#6. 5/32, ISC launches the 40 pt EPT, and does 6 internals with PPD. Fed has lost only 1 Photon, and maybe 2xPh-3s at this point, maybe down 4-5 power, the rest is fluff.

T6 - ISC plots -10/-8/-4, fills phasers & btty, puts 6 reinforcement on the 2 box #1, and continues firing PPD (which was OL'ed with btty before firing on 5/30). FED plots speed 1, 5 power to HET, and weapons. FED gets to bear on the weak #1, hits with 16 pt OL and 4xPh-1, does 33, less 11 reinforcement, does 20 internals (first internals for ISC, 4xWarp, 2xPh-3, tractor & trans, 2xControl, 1xImpulse and 9 hull, no HW). ISC returns 6 internals with PPD, and then as a separate volley 16 from 4xPh-1s. This leaves FED with 2xPhot, 3xPh-1s, 2xBtty, 23 warp + 5 more power ... EPT is inbound, but FED has one last WW, PPD has two more pulses, and FED cannot HET to put the #4 between us, since the WW cannot be launched. The WW might break wavelock, but we did not roll, Jason concedes at this point. FED's ending shields are 0/4/0/18/9/0, ISC's are 0/30/9/3/24/30.

FWIW, I do not consider the slow speed approach to be non-aggressive in the slightest, I thought it was rather clever, and the FED aggressively used reserve power to accelerate into the myopic zone Turn 4. This slow speed approach did mean that the FED took 3xPPD blasts, 2 of which were OL'ed. On the first Photon strike, Turn 3, ISC was rather fortunate that FED really wanted a mizia, and so did not blast with 4xOL, keeping one in reserve, and allowing ISC to HET to avoid the secondary follow-up strike.

Great Game, Jason!

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Monday, July 17, 2023 - 08:57 pm: Edit

Any word on Moose and Paul's battle?

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Monday, July 17, 2023 - 11:14 pm: Edit

Oh, and BTW, were is the battle report for Hood's FED vs Crash's WAX? I'm kinda curious, when I saw the first part of that battle, it looks like the FED was hurting more than the WAX ...

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Monday, July 17, 2023 - 11:54 pm: Edit

I saw most of the ISC V Fed battle, was a good one.

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzila) on Wednesday, July 19, 2023 - 08:08 am: Edit

i like to be added to the stand in for round 2

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Wednesday, July 19, 2023 - 01:50 pm: Edit

Works for me, I can beat Seth twice.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Thursday, July 20, 2023 - 08:51 pm: Edit

I am hoping to play Moose tomorrow. Waiting for conformation.