Yeah, sometimes the bolts hit.

However, sometimes they don't.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Friday, April 17, 2026 - 05:10 pm: Edit

Stimpy and I are rescheduling due to family emergency. Working on it.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Saturday, April 18, 2026 - 01:55 pm: Edit

MadJack (Gorn) over Stimpy (Hydran). I was McBolty to show it can be done.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, April 18, 2026 - 01:59 pm: Edit

Sometimes it works!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, April 18, 2026 - 02:00 pm: Edit

Gregg and I are playing (GRN vs ZIN, where I'm the ZIN) on Monday night, 7:00 pm ET/6:00 pm CT.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Saturday, April 18, 2026 - 02:03 pm: Edit

Tree A Final is almost Set:

MadJack (Gorn) Vs (Gregg Gorn or Peter Kzinti)


Tree B Final is also almost set:

Madman (Orion) vs (MadJack Shark or Stimpy Gorn)

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Saturday, April 18, 2026 - 02:12 pm: Edit

Still doing great with deadlines -- good job everyone.

Tournament Timeline

Phase Dates
Tournament Announcement March 9 2026
Initial Sign-Up Period March 9 – March 16
Recruitment Period (if needed) March 17 – March 19
Final Player List & Brackets Posted March 20
Round 1 (Quarterfinals – Tree A & B) March 20 – April 10
Round 2 (Semifinals – Tree A & B) April 11 – May 1
Round 3 (Tree Finals) May 2 – May 22
Ace of Aces Championship May 23 – June 12

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Tuesday, April 21, 2026 - 07:41 am: Edit

bakija (ZIN) vs Gregg (GRN) is underway.

T1: ZIN moves 16 till 3, 26 most of the turn, speeds up to 31 late. GRN moves 17/31. Ships move up the map, GRN turns across ZIN bow. At about 11 hexes, launches an enveloper from facing tube B. ZIN closes a little, gets R9 off the GRN #3, shoots 4x std disruptors, hits with 3, all 9 stick to the GRN #3. ZIN turns off to evade the plasma. GRN turns back in, sees range 8 for a hot minute, fires a couple P1s at the ZIN #3, rolls weak for 2 damage. ZIN runs, GRN chases. Impulse 32, ZIN launches 4 medium drones. Ships end at about range 9, ZIN facing A with about a dozen hexes to run towards the wall.

T2: ZIN moves 31/26. GRN moves 17 (probably speeding up later, but I don't remember off hand). ZIN runs first enveloper out. GRN follows, ZIN turns F and moves along the North map edge. GRN shoots the 4 medium drones with 4xP1s, killing them all. GRN launches a second enveloper out of tube A and turns off in direction C towards the East map edge. ZIN evades enveloper a bit till it moves 10 times, shoots it up with 4xP3, and eats it at 11 hexes for 37 spread around the ship. ZIN turns South and starts pursuing. GRN turns off and moves towards the SE corner of the map. At some point the ZIN fires 2x std disruptors at GRN #4 at R15, hitting with 1 for 3 damage which sticks. Impulse 32, ZIN launches 4 more medium drones. Ships end 15+ apart, ZIN moving towards middle of the map, GRN moving towards the corner, both ships facing D.

T3: ZIN moves 26, speeding up to 31 late. GRN moves 17/20 (split, maybe? It seems likely the acceleration to 20 was off batteries, as does the ZIN acceleration to 31). ZIN closes, GRN evades, medium drones lag behind. When the ZIN is R9 to the GRN, it launches a shuttle (ambassadors, clearly). ZIN keeps coming, GRN turns along the South wall in direction E. Ships get to R4. GRN launches Fastload F+F out of tubes B+D. Ships move, plasma it is at R2 to ZIN. ZIN launches a fast drone and fires a couple P3s into the plasma F. Next impulse, GRN slips away adjacent to the map edge, ZIN turns in, taking the plasma on the #6 for a dozen in, losing 3 phaser and a drone rack. ZIN SP opens about 10 hexes away, launching 4 medium drones. GRN is unfortunately on the same shield (which I thought I was avoiding, but nope). ZIN launches another fast drone. GRN fires a P1 in the ZIN for another 4 in (another phaser hit). Next impulse, GRN does not move, ZIN gets R1 centerlined on GRN damaged #3, launches 2 more fast drones in a couple different directions. GRN fires a bunch of phasers at drones, killing an identified heavy, but failing to kill 2 other heavy drones. ZIN fires an overloaded disruptor, 3xP1, 1xP3 (all that is facing and unfired). ZIN does 30 damage, for 15 in (a couple phasers and some power). As it is now impulse 30, the GRN moves both of the last 2 impulses, but unless it can HET (after a fast load and probably an unplotted speed change), it is about to get pasted by a bunch of drones on various shields. Impulse 31, GRN HETs in the opposite direction back to B. Wah wah. ZIN goes forward, now adjacent to the wall facing D. ZIN heavy drones HET, random fast drone turns in behind GRN. ZIN tractors GRN for 1, which may or may not have been optional for the GRN. ZIN launches a shuttle. GRN launches its last F torp (RS arcs come into play yet again!), kills the two loose heavy drones that were about to kill it. Impulse 32, GRN slips towards the wall, pulling the ZIN into the wall. Ships don't move, but ZIN takes 5 in through the down #6 and stops (tractor does not go down). ZIN loses another phaser and drone rack. GRN takes a fast type I on the #4 for 12 more damage. GRN plasma F HETs to face ZIN #5. GRN fires a couple P1s at the ZIN #5 for 9 more damage. At end of turn, the GRN repairs a shield on it's #3.

We pause here.

Ships are at R1, tractored against the South map edge, maybe 5 hexes from the corner. ZIN is stopped, facing D. GRN is off the ZIN #3, facing B. ZIN has about 20 in, but lost 5 or 6 phasers and 2 drone racks, down 4 power. GRN has 15 in, down a couple phasers and a couple power. ZIN shields are something like 24-24-16-18-9-0; GRN shields are 30-30-1-9-24-30. There are 8 medium drones inbound, about 8 hexes away. There is a ZIN shuttle in the GRN hex that would have been super awesome if it was a suicide shuttle, but it was not.

Game to continue in the near future. Still a game!

By Gregg Dieckhaus (Gdieck) on Tuesday, April 21, 2026 - 09:10 am: Edit

Yes this game is quite a bloody mess!

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Tuesday, April 21, 2026 - 10:09 am: Edit

Paying close attention...

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Tuesday, April 21, 2026 - 10:43 am: Edit

Like, I was feeling ahead, right before the GRN HET away (as it was going to get hit by a type I and at least one type IV drones; they were going to be on up shields, but without the HET, I was likely able to follow up the type IV with some P3s that were still available). Then the GRN HET away (which I knew was possible, but was hoping it did not have the power for, as it both launched a fast load and probably sped up off batteries some), but given the moderate speeds and it being a reload turn, it certainly had the power available.

Currently, I'm stopped (but can speed up immediately if I'm so inclined due to crashing the wall), the GRN can move any speed, but is in the corner with 8 drones incoming. I'm gonna get hit on a 9 box shield by a full F torp on impulse 1, so that's another bunch of internals, but I'm pretty sure the GRN doesn't have any available phasers to follow it up with on impulse 1. If I was savaged a little less by the DAC (I lost 5 or 6 phasers and 2 drone racks on, like, 20 internals), I'd be more confident here. But certainly, it is still a game.

By Gregg Dieckhaus (Gdieck) on Tuesday, April 21, 2026 - 12:05 pm: Edit

Yeah its still very tight... not sure how im gonna deal with all those pesky drones!

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Tuesday, April 21, 2026 - 01:15 pm: Edit

I hate to drone on, but....

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Thursday, April 23, 2026 - 12:33 pm: Edit

MadJack vs Stimpy R2 going to begin tonight at 8p.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Friday, April 24, 2026 - 09:30 am: Edit

We got 5 turns in. Light damage so far.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, April 26, 2026 - 05:43 pm: Edit

gregg (GRN) over bakija (ZIN).

T4 we start at R1 against the map edge, I have the GRN in tractor and 8 drones on the map. During EA, we have a tractor auction. I can't win if he wants to fight it, but figure if use up a lot of his power, I have a fighting chance. I auction up to 26 power and give up there (leaving me with 8 power to spend and him 10). We both spend the turn at speed 0 adjacent. Impulse 1, I'm hit by a F torp for 11 in, losing a phaser and a drone rack. GRN follows up with a P1 that was ready to fire still, does 4 more in, hits another phaser. I'm down to 1xP1, 4xP3, 1 drone rack, all 4 disruptors still. GRN launches a weasel early to get it out of his hex. I launch a second shuttle (I have 2 on the map). He launches a couple shuttles. I get a shuttle 1 hex off his 1 box #3 and fire a P3 through the EW shift, but roll a 6 and do zero damage. He gets a shuttle at R2 on my down #5 along the map edge, does 3 in (hitting power and fluff). I get another shuttle R1 off his 1 box sheild, manage to hit for 3 through the EW shift, do 2 in (a warp). He kills one of my shuttles with one of his shuttles and a P3 off his ship. We both TAC. Impulse 31, I fire my last drone rack and hope he can't reliably shoot it down, but he has power for a P1 and autokills it (he did not arm one of his S torps this turn to save power...). Impulse 32, I fire 4xP3 at his #5, hit for 16, leaving it at 8. We end the turn at R1, my mostly up #2 facing his 8 box #5.

T5: I move 0 with a couple TACs, overload all 4 of my disruptors, rearm phasers that I have, hold a weasel. I figure he has to tractor me to hit me with the coming up enveloper, so I don't need to tractor him. GRN is zpeed 0. Impulse 1, he tractors me and launches an enveloper. I blast him with 4xOL, 1xP1, and a P3 from one of my shuttles. I hit with all 4xOL, do 48 damage, for 34 in after some reinforcement. This puts a big hole in the GRN, leaving him with 3 total phasers on his ship, but still 3 torps. Meanwhile, he shot back with 4 phasers, taking out most of my #2. Next impulse, I TAC my mostly up #1 at him, and eat the enveloper for 24 in, which kills my last drone rack, but still leaves all my disruptors alive. But I'm pretty mangled. The rest of the turn is shuttles flying around and killing or getting killed; I fired a couple P3s at one of his shuttles at R2 before it was going to shoot me, but I rolled a 5, 6, not even crippling it. I take a few more internals from shuttles. Late in the turn, GRN starts moving -4 to back up and get away a few hexes. I surrneder here. I still have all 4 disruptors, but only a single P1, no drone racks, and not enough power to overload everything; meanwhile, the GRN still has 3 full front shields, and a plasma F to hit me with on T6 that I can do nothing about (as my shuttle bay exploded earlier) but get hit in the face.

An excellent game! Gregg played well and had a very important HET available when he needed it (on T3, his weird 17>20 speed change was plotted and not off batteries, had 2 in HET, so could launch the fast F and then HET with 3 batteries). The DAC was particularly brutal to me early on, killing a lot of phasers and drone racks on not many internals, which was bad.

By Gregg Dieckhaus (Gdieck) on Sunday, April 26, 2026 - 10:41 pm: Edit

If I had not gotten drones early I'm sure it would have been a different game because after our t5 volley I only had a couple of phasers and could not have fended off several more drones.
Thanks for the great game Peter!
Gregg

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, April 27, 2026 - 07:20 am: Edit

You too! Yeah, you played very well, and then got some good luck when it mattered. If I had a few more phasers on my first strike (where I had preemptively lost a P1 and a P3 that could have hit you), or a few more drone racks later on, it could have gone in the other direction. But that's why we roll dice!

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Monday, April 27, 2026 - 11:27 am: Edit

MadJack vs Stimpy resuming tonight at 7p eastern.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Monday, April 27, 2026 - 07:50 pm: Edit

MadJack (Shark) over Stimpy (Gorn). I will write this one up over the next couple days.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Monday, April 27, 2026 - 07:54 pm: Edit

Finals are set for both tree A and B.

Tree A MadJack (Gorn) Vs Gregg (Gorn)

Tree B Madman (Orion) vs MadJack (Shark)

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Thursday, April 30, 2026 - 12:52 pm: Edit

Ok here is a sort of summary of the game MadJack (Shark) vs Stimpy (Gorn)

To start the game I was pretty anxious. I have not played Shark much lately and I think the Gorn is rapidly turning out to be maybe the best ship there is out of all of them. Big plasma is winning the majority of tournaments including when I won in it lately. Peter is always kicking it and Captain Stimpy I think has won multiple Sapphires in it. I know he is a patient and very good Gorn player so I am going to need my best game to get through this.

My overall game plan here is: Objective #1, do not let the Gorn get behind me T1. Or like ever. Objective #2, get the Gorn using phasers on drones and not on me. Objective #3, close on him to force him to launch torps on my terms, not his, and if he over commits HET away and come back later. Objective #4 kill him with seeking weapons eventually (2 suicides).

T1 - he had a enveloper. I had 4 armed shuttles, 2 weasels, 2 suis and 4 stds. I side slipped right the whole turn. I did 12 with disruptors to his 6, took no phaser damage, and ended at range 6 from the enveloper so no collateral damage T2.

T2. I weaseled and put up a 10 point brick with 15 in tractor. He stayed away and launched an F torp that I took on my brick. I launched 4 drones spread out all over the place so he couldn't juke them all. Again, I don't want to get shot by Gorn phasers. He did not launch an S.

T3. I am chasing, he is running. He launched a fake that I took. He then launches the real S and it hits my #3 for like 19. I launched a couple more drones, they are everywhere. I shot him for minor shield damage probably. He repaired some shields. Stuff like that.

T4. He is running and now getting near the bottom right side of the map and my drones are coming. He Hets to get his armed S and F in arc. He is near the bottom row of the map with 6 drones coming in.

T5. I have 4 stds and like 23 moves and start the turn 10-12 hexes from him. My drones are pretty close. He chooses to weasel. The drones hit the weasel for I think 12 collateral before he can get out of the hex. I have to decide what to do here as I don't really want to get hit with that much torp damage only having standards and he has all his phasers. I get to I think range 6-7 and he launches and enveloper. He still has an F on board. I move to range 5 and fire 4 stds and 6 p1s. I rolled great here and did several internals after firing through reinforcement (batteries too) on the same shield that the torp collateral hit. I got a couple power and an F torp (yay). So he isn't going far, I saw he used his batteries, so I decide to het away from the F torp and enveloper chasing me late in the turn (objective #3). I heted to range 6 giving him a poor phaser shot which he did not take. Read objective #2. At the end of the turn he has one torp available next turn and is limited to speed 14 at the bottom of the map with his shield 5 down. I have not been shot by a Gorn phaser yet.

T6- I can run the enveloper and F out or I can weasel and turn around and probably get a shot on that down 5 or end up real close if not. Either way is good. I will though take some collateral. I arm standards again and move as much as I can. He doesn't expect me to weasel. I turn the ship around and the Gorn is coming at me. Probably the only answer to avoid my shooting his #5 again is another HET which would have been fine (and maybe fatal). He did not envelop the S torp which I was glad about. He ended up closing with me and got the other S torp on my #1. My only mistake this game was plotting speed 14 this turn instead of 12 or 13 instead. The worst part is I thought about it too. I was unable to keep that torp off my #1 which sucked. It did not matter though as he got into a bind with all my seeking weapons (objective #4). He got stuck where he would have to move into 4 drones and two suicides unless he het again. First he tractored my T4 drones. He then ended up shooting 2 t1 and 2 suicides with 6 phasers (objective #2 saved me 30 internals). He shot me with 2 phasers for 8 internals. I shot him with what I had for 19 internals through his #1. I got a tractor beam which gave him 24 more internals the next impulse. Those 24 internals got another tractor beam so another t4 hit his hurt 6 for another 4 internals. I tractored him with 1 point of power and the game ended there.

It was a fun tense game where everything worked out for me and I played about a well as I could for once. I had luck with a great phaser roll and hitting that first tractor beam on 19 internals. I outguessed Stimpy a time or two that helped. Stimpy is a very skilled captain, I am glad to have made it through.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, April 30, 2026 - 01:41 pm: Edit

Excellent--thanks for the write up!

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, April 30, 2026 - 03:07 pm: Edit

I much appreciate the two write-ups involving the Gorn and D&D ships (Zin and Shark). I've never beaten Bakija's Gorn with a Zin, and I'd like to someday.

Overall, seems to be a tough match with a bunch of guesses no matter how you hack it, though I think the Gorn gets a slight edge on account of the lower reliance on dice generally.

Which is good for the game!

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Friday, May 01, 2026 - 08:56 am: Edit

MadJack and Madman (both MAD) are scheduling for early next week. Details to follow.