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By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, October 01, 2017 - 08:15 pm: Edit

I did not win at Council of 5 Nations this year! I didn't even get into the final bracket! But I had 5 good games, going 2-3, losing 2 on kind of coin toss die rolls, and only one 'cause I was dumb, so I feel ok about that:

Game 1: Brett Johnson (HYD) over Peter Bakija (GRN)

I walked in on Friday night, got Brett in a Hydran. I wasn't real concerned, as I usually do ok vs Hydrans, but, well, this one went badly. T1, I launched an enveloper, he fired at R10 with everything on his ship in arc and both his fighters. Both HBs hit, he knocked down most of my #5, he lands his fighters, and runs away from the enveloper. I think I might have probably cost myself the game here, as I turned off after launching the enveloper to avoid R8 (with my reinforced shield...), costing me a lot of time on T2. In any case, T2, I chase him into the corner. Impulse 32, I can get him R5 centerline on his #5, and he sees what's coming, so he hits the wall, stops, and immediately weasels. I do nothing. T3, he is stopped, I figure he has a ton of tractor, so I launch a fake S and real F (to get the weasel and convince him to not void it), hit him with 6xP1 through the -2 shift for about half his #5, and then HET and run before he can HB me, hoping he overloaded one or both. He didn't. T3 and T4 I run and reload, he just speeds up and follows. T5, I decide to go an anchor him with S, S, F. I move 16/31, he goes 15 all turn. He launches his fighters as I close, I cripple them with phasers before I get to him. I get to R1, my #6 to his #6. I tractor him. Things look good! Except I need to turn to get him centerlined to get him with all my plasma. Which, 'cause I got there on the exact wrong impulse, I can't do for 2 impulses. So he shoots me with a lot of guns and a HB on that impulse, doing about 35 internals in 2 volleys, killing one of my tractors. Next impulse, no one moves, I can't turn, he hits me with a few more phasers and a second HB, doing two more volleys of 10+10. My second tractor survives until, like, internals 5 and 6 of the last volley of 10, but then he rolls a 10 and a 10, killing my second tractor. He escapes, game is over. I don't know the exact chances of hitting two tractors on volleys of 24+10+10+10, but I can't imagine they are that high.

Game 2: Peter Bakija (GRN) over David Zimdars (TFH)

Saturday morning, I get a first game at about 9:00 am, but get Dave in a TFH. I hate fighting Romulans in the Gorn. I don't like long plasma ballets. Dave had, the previous day, just played a Gorn vs TFH game that took, like, 7 hours, so he probably wasn't looking for a long game anyway. I decided to go 16/31 for 28 moves, hold two standard S torps, a weasel, and a point in tractor. Dave went similarly fast--I think he was 28 for 8 impulses, 20 for 8, and then 27 for the rest of the turn, and had two rolling delay S torps. We ended up just closing, more or less centerlined. He blinks first, and turns off when we get real close, so I end up centerlined at R5 on his #6. He launches an S torp. I just shoot him with 2xS bolts, 2xF bolts, 6xP1. I hit with S, S, F, and do well on phasers, scoring about 29 internals through his shield and a battery. He bolted back with S+F and 5xP1, doing about 4 internals through my #1 and 5 batteries. I come out way ahead there. I turn off and avoid his S torp till the end of the turn. He can't HET at me or anything, as he had to use 4 batteries to fire his S torps, so he just moves off in the other direction (and his S on the map ended up being real, so he didn't want to chase me anyway). T2, we are both kinda slow as we are reloading stuff. His S torp hits my #4 for a dozen damage (I hit it with 2xP3 on impulse 32), but nothing terrible happens. He comes back around at me (he has an F torp armed still), I run into, and then out of the corner, using some batteries to speed up late in the turn, allowing me to cross his nose and get off his down shield again, firing 4xP1 in the hole for another dozen internals, and Dave surrenders.

Game 3: Peter Bakija (GRN) over Seth Shimansky (TFH)

I immediately get another Romulan. I figure I'll try the same thing. Seth figures the same same thing. I have the same EA--16 till 8, 31 till end of turn, 1 weasel, 1 in tractor, 2 standard S torps. Seth is 27 all turn (I think he probably has a weasel and 2 in tractor), but he held both S torps; he uses batteries to speed up to 31 as soon as I accelerate. We close, but Seth slips away from me as we close, so I can't centerline him. We get to about R6. I launch an S and F (the S is fake) from my left wing and turn at him. He sees I can't run from plasma, so he launches 2xS+F at me. I count hexes and immediately decel. We move another impulse where Seth turns off, so I hit his #5 with S+F bolt, 4xP1, hitting with both, do 16 internals (including F torp and a couple warp), he shoots up some of my #1 with some phasers, but rolls bad, so nothing terrible happens. I skid to a halt, weasel his 80 points of real plasma. Seth analyzes the situation and resigns. He still can make a game of it, but feels he is very far behind.

Game 4: Brian Evans (LYR) over Peter Bakija (GRN)

I also generally feel good about fighting Lyrans, but Brian had my number all game. And then I broke down. T1, I close and launch an enveloper, he zings my #6 with some standards. He turns off, I turn and chase. We both shoot 4xP1 at R8, me on his #5, him on my reinforced #1, but he rolled a lot better and almost did as much damage that stuck as I did. He runs from the enveloper. T2, I chase him into the NE corner, launch 50 plasma at him, and he decels. I feel dumb that the S torp is real. At R5, I take down his #1 with an F bolt and 4 or 5 P1s. He takes down most of my already scuffed #6 with his phasers. I HET away, killing his #1 with my real P1s, doing a couple unimportant internals (I think hull and a control). He blasts my #5 with 2xOL, 2xStd, and his last 2 P1s. He hits with everything and drops my and does a couple also unimportant internals. He weasels my plasma, I leave. Next few turns see me running around at range, throwing an enveloper or two at him, as he zings me with standards. My shields get ragged, at some point we end up close, and he blasts me with 6 points of ESG and most of his guns, doing 25 or so internals ( don't remember why I didn't launch plasma at him, but I might have been reloading them still). We end at R3. I allocate a drastic decelarating speed plot from 22 down to 1, put 12 or so power in tractors, and pay for a second HET. He is stopped. Impulse 2, I second HET at him. If I don't break down, I tractor him at R2 (I had more available tractor power than him, even at R2), and hit him with 70 points of plasma before most of his guns recycle. Instead, I break down. Game over.

Game 5: Steve McCann (WAX 11g1) over Peter Bakija (GRN)

So I'm 2-2, and figure I have time for one more game before the final bracket is posted, so I throw my hat in for one more game. I get Steve in the phaser pig. We have played this game a lot. He has an edge on wins, but it is still pretty even. I beat him in the finals of Council of 5 a few years back in this same match up. I figure "Huh. We play this a lot. I'm very predictable. Steve knows what is going to happen. I'll be unpredictable this game!". T1 we close in. I launch 2 real S torps, hoping that Steve will say "Those are clearly pseudoes! I will ram them to get a good phaser shot!". Instead, Steve just plays safe and runs away from them. Which basically kills me in the long run. He eats them for 1 each on T2 to see if they were real or fake, discovered they were real, and I'm doomed. The game takes about 7 turns before I'm done, and I do a lot better than I thought I would, even though he tractors me at R3 with a strength 2 tractor near the end of T2 (which doesn't kill me, but makes me shoot his drones instead of him), including hitting him with 4 or 5 F torps, and hitting him with an S+F+F bolt attack. On T7, he has about 30 internals, a few down shields, multiple phasers, and half his drone racks, while I have only about 20 internals, but only, like, a 20 box #1 shield and a 20 box #2 shield, and not much else. I'm trying to avoid him to reload, but I'm not fast, due to repeated weasels against drones. He closes into R0, and even though a weasel shift, does about 20 internals with a gatling and 4 or 5 P1s through my #1. I'm left with 1 shield up on my ship, and not much ability to fight, so I give up.

5 good games against 5 great opponents! It would have been nice if I didn't break down vs Brian's Lyran. Or didn't lose my second tractor vs Brett's Hydran, but, well, sometimes the dice are kind, and other times they are not.

At press time, the final game is Bill Scheoller's KLI vs John Rigley's WAX (HgDb, I think). IIRC, it is Thursday eve on SFBOL.

By Timothy Linden (Timlinden) on Friday, October 05, 2018 - 04:04 pm: Edit

Game 1 probability stab, given I re-read this yesterday:

Assuming both tractors need to be hit by a double 10 in two of the volleys, my somewhat weak calculational ability got 27.7% ish.

It is some amount higher overall, as that is 54 internals - even on a robust ship like the Gorn it is quite possible to reach other tractor hit results, or to eliminate all the facing phasers so that only a single 10 is needed at one point.

Tim Linden

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, October 07, 2018 - 04:56 pm: Edit

I again did not win Council of 5 Nations this year!

We had a solid 17 or so distinct players this year, lower than in previous years, but still solid.

As of press time, the final match is between Dave Zimdars (ORI, probably PPHf1) and Seth Shimansky (HYD), to be played on SFBOL in the next week some time (they both had to leave early on Sunday for long distance travel).

I went 2-0 in preliminaries in my Gorn, getting whacked in the 1st round of finals by Bill Schoeller's KLI (which happens a little more than half the time).

Game 1 vs Carl Herzog's GBS (bb).

T1: I move 17/24 with an enveloper, he moves 20 most of the turn. At about 15 hexes, I pitch the enveloper, he turns in, I turn off, he can't get to R8, so he turns off from the plasma, but miscalculates and ends up adjacent to it on impulse 32, so he blasts with with all of his phasers, reducing the warhead from 44 to about 15 (he rolled pretty hot). He also launched 2 drones.

T2: I move 24 all turn with some in HET and tractor. GBS goes 14 all turn with standard disruptors, and rearms phasers. He turns towards me, launches 4 more drones, and shoots my #6 at about R7, knocking about half of it off. I turn in at him, tractor 2 drones, and then accidentally end up at R1 from his next 4 drones when they move the next impulse and I don't. I don't wanna shoot them all, so I use some batteries to speed up to 26 for the rest of the turn, launch 50 plasma at the GBS, and fire a few phasers at his #6 from R5 or so. I HET away from the drones, get another 4 P1s and an F bolt at his #6, but the bolt misses. I eventually get my last P1 on the same shield and score a couple internals (both p3s that get fixed before it matters again). Carl decels and weasels plasma as I wander off after the 6 drones lose tracking.

T3: GBS moves 10 all turn, I move 12. Nothing much happens other than him slowly following me, and zinging up my #3 for 6 damage with long range disruptors.

T4: We both move middle speeds (IIRC, I was 16 all turn, he was probably some sort of 14/20 split). I pitch out another enveloper, he turns off and runs it out, hitting it with a lot of P3s when it is about to hit, and it gets him for 25 or so damage spread around. I turn in and come after him. IIRC, he doesn't launch drones.

T5: We close in for a close strike, with me faster than him. He launches 4 drones as I come in, which I kill with phasers. At R2, he blasts me in the face with most of his guns, doing about 40 internals through my #1. Next impulse, he turns off, but I get to R1 and tractor him. He hits me with a few more P3s, I get him with 70 plasma and a couple P1s as follow up. I let him go and we separate, and in the final accounting, he is behind about 10 internals, and most of the difference is power, so he surrenders.

Game 2 vs Dave Zimdars (ORI PPHf1). I'm not 100% sure if that is the correct option loadout, as Dave never fired any guns at me.

T1: I move 16 all turn with an enveloper and some weasels held and a brick. ORI doubles nothing, moves 12/15 with passive fire control. I'm instantly sad. He just corner dodges. I tool across the map and on impulse 32, I pitch my enveloper from about R12.

T2: I move 24 all turn with a couple power in tractors, a couple in HET, and holding my second S. He again doubles nothing, moves 4/10, and immediately cloaks out. My plasma and I close in a bit, and when he is fully cloaked, I have a 1 and a 1-2 chance of keeping lock on with my ship and torp, but both fail. He speeds up to 10. I just close in for a R0 phaser overrun. Late in the turn, I get R0 on his #4 and do 14 damage with 6xP1, and run past him. Dave thinks hard, and decides to uncloak so as to be able to shoot me at the end of the turn. I Immediately HET back at him. Dave realizes his error, and tries to get away, but he can't HET (I think he used all his batteries in EA), and I guess he doesn't wanna decel (maybe he didn't have a weasel?), or possibly there wasn't time for it. Unclear at press time. In any case, I end up R1 off his #3 before he is fully uncloaked, launch 70 plasma at him, Dave thinks and resigns, as he is about to take 46 internals, followed by a couple P3s at R0, before he gets to shoot me back.

Clearly, Dave was experimenting, and the experiment went poorly. It didn't negatively impact him in any way, as he is in the finals :-)

Game 3 vs Bill Schoeller (KLI). We play this game a lot. He probably wins, like, 60/40 over me, but I have won this game numerous times when it was important.

T1: I move 17/24 with an enveloper, a 5 point brick, and a weasel. Bill moves 15/26. He immediately launches the SP, and closes. At about 12, I launch my enveloper, but don't turn off, so he gets a R8 shot on my reinforced #6. He blasts me with 4OL, 5P1 (probably used batteries for 2 of the OLs), hits 4/4 OLs, but rolls terribly on the phasers. I block 10 damage with my brick and 5 batteries (as I'm planning on weaseling anyway), taking about 17 on my #6. He turns off and turns, I slip a little wide to end the turn at R4 from his SP drones.

T2: Bill goes real fast for most of the turn, I move 4/14, fix a couple shield boxes, have some reinforcement. Bill runs from my torp into my NW corner of the map. I weasel the drones, avoid collateral, speed up and come after him. Late in the turn, he turns out of the corner, so I launch 50 plasma at him as I close. He turns away again. We end with me about 12 hexes away.

T3: I plan for an anchor, moving 14/24 with 6 in tractor. Bill moves some sort of 26/15/26 plot, with 4 standards. Bill comes out of the corner, eating the S on his #3 after the F evaporates, and no one is surprised when the S is fake. He slows down, I speed up, I close. Impulse 16, we are close, he speeds up to 26. Impulse 17, I use a couple batteries to speed up to 27, so I have move precedence. Impulse 18, Bill thinks, and slips into me. I slip towards him, so we are R1, my #1 to his #6. I tractor him, which he does not fight. We figure our pseudo speeds, and it ends up that I got him on the exact wrong impulse, as he still moves next impulse, and now can turn as he is slow. Gah. I launch 70 plasma and fire a couple P3s at a nearby shuttle he launches and a P1 at his #6 (which will never be important again). He blasts me in the face with 2OL, 2STD, most of his phasers. I take about 44 internals, losing 4 phasers, a torp, and a tractor. Next impulse, he considers options, and decides his best move is just to turn into the plasma, so he does that, and takes 40 internals, which could have been awesome, but I managed to roll a total of 7 (seven) 2's and 12's in the volley, so I hit, like, 5 extra control and sensor tracks instead of his whole shuttle bay. Gah. I end up killing 4 phasers, a disruptor, and his ADD rack. He launches 2 fast drones, tries some hit and run raids (they fail), and fires another phaser into my ship that he saved, hitting nothing super important. I decide not to gamble on Bill being cagey with the drones, and auto kill them with 4xP3 shots, using all my facing phasers. I launch a shuttle, which he ignores, having correctly surmised I didn't have a SS armed on T1 due to energy math, eventually I turn and finally get a P1 in his ship, roll a 6 for 4 internals, hitting some power and maybe a shuttle box. I let him go, and we move apart. We both have roughly the same number of internals (about 45, give or take), but I took 2 more power hits, and down 4 or 5 phasers and both F tubes; Bill hasn't really lost a significant number of guns. On the upside, Bill has lost, like, 4 redundant control spaces, a sensor, a scanner, and a dam con box! Woot!

T4: I move 12 all turn and reload, Bill moves 10/15 and reloads. I run, he chases, we both have down #1 shields, so I keep looking for a way to use my battery advantage (in so much as I have some, and Bill does not) to maybe get a shot on his down #1, even at long range, but it is not to be. We both fix some stuff.

T5: I move 12/16, Bill moves 10 with a little 15 at the end. I'm running towards the corner, Bill is following, but with no #1, it is an oblique chase. Eventually I have to turn towards him, and he ends up shooting up most of my #2. He turns away, I use some battery power to move 17 for the last chunk of the turn. I get close, having tractored one drone and killed another that got launched, and see that if I launch a fast F, I can follow it in, and probably get some phasers on the same shield. So I launch the fast F. An impulse later, Bill accelerates to 15, which totally bolluxes my torp, and it ends up hitting his #3, which is on the other side of the ship. I just move off a little (to avoid the 6 o'clock phaser hose on impulse 1) and kill the tractored drone.

T6: I'm running out of shields, but my rear 3 are reasonably strong. I get nihilistic, and figure I might be able to tractor him and feed him an enveloper. I plot 0 till 8, then -8, an enveloper, have some in tractor. Bill is 0 most of the turn with TACs, speeding up to 4 late. I back up towards him, he slowly TACs around. We get to R2, he shoots my #5 with all his guns, and even with standard disruptors, he does 12 internals, unsurprisingly killing my second tractor and another phaser. We move once more, I end up facing his 4 box #3 (the F torp pays off!). He launches 2 fast drones. I bolt my enveloped S, it hits, I do 11 internals, almost killing his shuttle bay, but not quite. His two drones come into R1, I ID them both as type IVs, but only have 3 phasers to shoot a them. I kill one with a couple P3 shots, and shoot a P1 at the other, don't roll a 1 or 2, the drone survives, I concede as it is going to hit my, like, 12 box #6, and the internals will end me.

After the game, it became apparent that really, my good move on T6 was just move off at whatever speed I could muster and pitch an enveloper, which would have killed a weasel, but I probably could have gotten out of range 8 before the KLI could TAC to face me (he has no impulse engines), at which point I reload for a turn, and then I might start hitting with envelopers after his last shuttle gets killed. I mean, like, it would have been another 4 or 5 turns of playing with virtually no shields left on my ship vs a Klingon, but it was probably a better play than hoping my tractor didn't get blown off *and* that he didn't have a couple type IVs left. A very good game that could have gone the other way if I had better DAC luck on the initial volley.

As always, Council is a great tournament with a lot of great folks.

By Norman Dizon (Normandizon) on Sunday, October 07, 2018 - 05:37 pm: Edit

NIHILISTIC?? Gorns Never Surrender!! (But they can be Bribed with Mice)

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzilla) on Monday, October 08, 2018 - 02:53 pm: Edit

Council of 5 Nations Finals tonight @ 8pm

Dave Zimdars (ORI, probably PPHf1) and Seth Shimansky (HYD)

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzilla) on Thursday, October 11, 2018 - 08:52 pm: Edit

Council of 5 Nations Finals this Friday @ 8pm

Dave Zimdars (ORI, probably PPHf1) and Seth Shimansky (HYD)

By David Cheng (Davec) on Friday, October 12, 2018 - 11:17 am: Edit

I believe Zimdars' Orion has the following package:
PPHb1

We saw on the first battle pass that there was no Fusion in the wing (hit on Torp) to pad the Photons, so the Orion lost a Photon before it was able to fire.

By David Cheng (Davec) on Friday, October 12, 2018 - 11:30 am: Edit

Yes, PPHb1 is confirmed.
I am looking on the tournament registration sheet.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, October 13, 2018 - 09:10 am: Edit

Anything happen last night? I logged on at about 10:15, and no one was there.

By David Cheng (Davec) on Saturday, October 13, 2018 - 02:09 pm: Edit

Yes, Dr Zimdars is the Council Cup champion for 2018.
Let's hope he posts a write-up.

By Kosta Michalopoulos (Kosmic) on Saturday, October 13, 2018 - 03:27 pm: Edit

Congrats David!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, October 13, 2018 - 04:19 pm: Edit

Congrats to David!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, December 16, 2018 - 09:49 am: Edit

And we had the Xth Annual Ithaca Cup (Delayed) yesterday! Usually we hold this event in August, but due to terrible schedule problems, we ended up holding off till December this year, but got it in under the wire!

We had a solid 8 player turn out, with:

Team SWA
-Andy Koch, LYR, 2-0
-Dave Cheng, LDR, 1-1
-Brian Evans, HYD, 1-1
-Ken Burnside, TFH, 0-1

Team Ithaca
-Peter Bakija, GRN, 2-0
-Andrew Sackett, ORI (PPHfb), 1-1
-Chris Proper, GBS (aa), 0-2
-Ben Kalb, GBS (bb), 0-1

So Team SWA squeaks out a victory, winning 4 games to 3 for the day. Congrats to Team SWA got holding the coveted Ithaca Cup for another year!

(Dave C! You have the trophy! How many years are represented on that thing now?)

I played two excellent, wacky games that I'll detail in the next post. Ken and Ben each played a game, and then played a game of Ken's Squadron Strike game. Proper showed up after a long day of work, and played a couple fast games with the very dubious Shark with 2ADD, and immediately faced two Lyrans, which went badly. Sackett discovered that with his particular Orion, if he hits with his guns, he can win, but if he misses, not so much! The mythical Andy Koch showed up, which was pleasing to everyone! Brian wasn't golfing (which makes me think that December might be a good time for this in the future...), and came played a couple good games! A great day was had by all.

The match ups were:
-Koch (LYR) over Kalb (GBS)
-Koch (LYR) over Proper (GBS)

-Evans (HYD) over Sackett ((ORI)

-Cheng (LDR) over Proper (GBS)

-Bakija (GRN) over Burnside (TFH)
-Bakija (GRN) over Evans (HYD)

-Sackett (ORI) over Cheng (LDR)

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, December 16, 2018 - 10:55 am: Edit

So my two wacky games at Ithaca Cup, one notable for being stupidly long (in turns, not time), the other for seeing me haul out a rule that I think I have never used in tournament play ever in, like, 25 years of tournament play.

Game 1 over Ken Burnside in TFH.

I hate playing Romulans. I never have any idea what a good strategy is, and so I'm always playing reactively. Which can certainly work, but it is always unnerving.

T1: I move 17/31 (28 moves) with 2 weasels and standard torps held; Ken goes 14/26 with an enveloper. We close up the map, at about R9, he launches S+F (50) and turns off, I launch S (30), I shoot up his #6 at R8 with 6P1, he shoots my #1 with 4P1. We both take about 10 damage. I turn towards him and fire a few more P1 at his #6, and keep away from his plasma. Impulse 32, at about R10, he turns at me and launches an enveloper.

T2: I move 26 all turn (using some battery at the end to keep at 26 instead of a plotted decel to 13) and rearm things. Ken moves 14/27 (it is possible the 27 was unplotted from some other speed). I move off, he eats my S on a back shield after some phasers for a dozen damage, but it is unsurprisingly fake. I launch 50 real plasma at him (S+F), and keep away from his enveloper. He turns away from the plasma and speeds up to 27, but ends up eating my 50 plasma on his #3 for about 20 damage after running it out some and phasers. I avoid his enveloper. He chases me towards the corner, pitching another enveloper late. We and at R10, me on his 4 box #3.

T3: I don't have a lot of good options here, so plot speed 4/14 to weasel his plasma. He moves some sort of 27/14 combo. Impulse 1, at R10, I decide to live up to my nature as Bolty McBolterson, and bolt S+F at R10 at his #3. The S scores a hit for 15, doing 6 in after 5 battery reinforcement. I follow up with 4P1 for a few more in the next impulse. I weasel his enveloper, he kills the weasel in my hex at R8 with 3P1 so I take collateral, HET in the opposite direction, speed up to 14. He turns in to attack me. I get another 3 P1s into his down shield at R3. Damage is racking up in the Romulan, a little bit at a time, but not hitting anything particularly important. He gets closer and phasers me up, but doesn't do internals. I have no plasma left to launch, I think he has an F and a potential fast load, but doesn't fire them. We spiral around, ending at R3, him behind me, me on his split #2/#3 (which is down) spine.

T4: I have a potential fast load here, Ken has an S, an F, and a potential fast F. I want to get phasers into his down shield immediately, so I spend 14 power (?!?!) on breaking energy (which I don't think I have ever done before in my life) and start the turn at -4, dropping to 0 with TACs mid turn. Kep moves 14 most of the turn (he is down 5 or 6 power at this point). Impulse 1, I get 4xP1 into his ship for another 15 or so internals, which are becoming significant at this point, he launches S+F (fastload from S tube), which we have to look up the rule and see how breaking energy affects your maneuver rate (turns out that breaking energy counts as speed for maneuver rate, and as such, using a weasel, but only on the impulse where you use it), so on impulse 2 I weasel the plasma, the S is fake. He launches another S at me (the F is on the other side of the ship), which I can't weasel, so I phaser it a bit and take it on my #6, which takes most of it down. Later in the turn, I'm pretty sure his other F eventually hits me in the same shield, doing a few internals, but nothing terrible. Ken surrenders as he is kind of mangled, and I'm still in pretty good shape.

Game 2 over Brian Evans' HYD.

This game was super long at 15 turns, but it only took, like, 3 hours of actual play time, including some breaks.

T1: I move 17/24 with an enveloper; HYD moves 20 most of the turn. We close, I pitch an enveloper, he turns off, I follow.

T2: I move 24 most of the turn, HYD moves 20 most of the turn I saw. He runs from the enveloper which eventually hits for 2 damage as he runs south down my West map edge. I close in and when he turns in at me, I launch 50 plasma (S+F), it closes, I close, he accelerates to 21 (unplotted, I imagine) so we both moved an important impulse. We end up at R5, #6 to #6, he declares decel, fires 5P1, 2 fusion, 2 std HB, I fire 4xP1. He rolls hot on P1s, misses with a HB, leaves my #6 at 2 boxes. I do about 14 damage to his #6, HET, hit is #6 with another 4P1 and miss with an F bolt, leaving his #6 at 26 boxes. He stops, I run off.

T3: He moves 10 most of the turn, I just wander off and reload at 12.

T4: I arm an enveloper, we both move the speeds we can (10/20 for the HYD, 12/24 for me). At some point, he fires a STD HB at R13 which I think hits and I stop internals with 4 batteries, leaving my #6 at 1 box, I think I launch the enveloper early, and he just runs it out.

T5: I finish up standard S and 2F torps, move 24/12, Hydran just comes back around. As I close in while he is near the North wall, I launch S+F which convinces him to decel and weasel again, discovering the F torp is fake. I turn off, hit his #2 with some phasers. He gets a R8 shot, hitting my #3 with some phasers, a couple fusions, and I take a standard HB for a few internals.

T6: HYD is stopped near the edge of the wall, I move 17/24 with S, F, potential fast load armed. I turn back and come at him while he is speed 10. He launches his fighters. I get close to him out of his FA, so he ends up HETing at me; I turn into R1 centerlined. I cripple 1 and kill 1 fighter at R3 with 4P1 (they aren't facing me, so they don't shoot me), launch S+F+F and 2 shuttles at the HYD, and hit his #1 with a couple phasers. He shoots me with 5P1, 2 std fusion, OL HB and kills my shuttles with a gat (1 was a suicide). I take 14+16 internals, which is rough but not devastating. Next impulse I slip an up shield off his #2, he takes 51 in from plasma, killing a HB, a fusion, 4P1, all his hull, a bunch of power. I launch a couple shuttles which he mostly ignores, and hits my 6 box #3 with his last gat as I fly by, doing another 10 in. I kill his crippled fighter with a rear P1. I move off and we end the turn at about R8.

T7: We are both pretty messed up; I have marginally more power (maybe, like, 24 to 23), but haven't lost any plasma tubes. I just wander off and reload, and start fixing things. He follows at low speed, I get out of R8 before he can hit me with his HB. Late in the turn, we both get some P1s in down shields at long range for a few internals, I think he misses with a long range HB.

T8: A mostly "I'm Speed 12, HYD is Speed 10" turn, as I continue to reload. Maybe some long range P1 sniping.

T9: I move 8 and launch an enveloper, HYD moves 10, runs from enveloper, takes it late for probably 1 internal after gatlings.

T10: I stop and launch an enveloper, he runs it out and gats it again, taking maybe 3 internals late in the turn. We are both slowly repairing things and getting shields back up a box at a time. He gets a R14 or so HB shot, hits me, and we discover that if you have 3 down shields at R9-15 and are hit by a HB, you take *more* internals then if you had 4 down shields, as due to rounding, I take 9 internals and 1 shield hit (as 10HB is divided to 2.5, 2.5, 2.5, 2.5, and the 2.5 rounds up to the down shields, resulting in 9 in, 1 shield. So pro tip! If you are about to get hit by a HB at R15 and have 3 down shields? Drop one, and take 8 internals instead of 9!). We are both pretty mangled here. I think we are both crippled at this point. Over the next few turns, I fix 4P3s that mostly get killed; he gets back up to 3P1 through repairs. I put my 3 down shields back up to 1 box.

T11: I reload and move speed 8, he moves 9/10 something. Not much happens as he closes in, and I can keep him on mostly up shields. I have a little more power and some batteries, so can reinforce long range phaser sniping.

T12: I stop, TAC, reinforce my now 1 box #1 (and I still have a few batteries too!), launch an enveloper. I think we uses his 3rd weasel here.

T13: I move speed 4, launch another enveloper. He has to weasel this one too, with his last weasel. He fires a long range HB, which misses.

T14: I'm stopped again, he closes in, I launch a pair of F torps at him, which hit him for about 20 damage after movement and some phasers, taking down his mostly down #2 for 6 or 7 more internals. His HB has now survived, like, 4 small volleys of internals. I speed up to -5 late to avoid R8.

T15: He closes, I launch an enveloper he can't do anything about, gats it, takes a bunch of internals, loses the HB finally, game over.

Excellent game! Most of the last, like, 8 turns of the game took 10-15 minutes, tops, so while long, played quick.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, December 16, 2018 - 11:54 am: Edit

In game 2 vs Brian, he was lucky on his HB survival--he lost one on the 1st volley of 51 internals as expected, but then when I did, like, 5 more volleys of 3-4 points of damage, it squeaked by, but then missed with probably 3 of 5 long range (9-15) HB shots which is below average; if he had hit with one more late game long range HB shot, he probably pulls it out.

Conversely, I somehow managed to not take a single plasma torp hit in, like, probably 6-7 interal volleys; on T6 alone, I took 16, then 14, then 10 in three volleys, and then over the next 8 or so turns, took numerous small volleys of 2 or 3 points in from long range sniping, and at least one volley of 9 from the HB hitting. So I had crazy luck on the DAC keeping my torps all intact all game. I did lose phasers like crazy, however; for the last 5 or 6 turns of the game, I only had 2xP1 left, and only by virtue of me repairing 4 (and then losing 2 or 3) P3s. Around T11, I realized that I only ever needed to pay for Low Power Fire Control, as I was never going to fire more than 2DF and 2 seeking weapons per turn. Which saved me .5 power, slowly helping refill my anemic capacitor.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, December 16, 2018 - 07:07 pm: Edit

A few edit notes ('cause I just noticed I was sloppy):

Vs Romulan:

>>We close up the map, at about R9, he launches S+F (50) and turns off>>

The S Ken launched on T1 was a fake; the F vanished before it hit me.

>>I get another 3 P1s into his down shield at R3.>>

This was actually range 8, doing 5 or 6 internals.

Vs Hydran:

>>I launch 50 plasma (S+F), it closes, I close, he accelerates to 21 (unplotted, I imagine) so we both moved an important impulse.>>

The plasma I launch on T2 is all real, but it just kills a weasel.

>> I launch S+F which convinces him to decel and weasel again, discovering the F torp is fake.>>

That was clearly "the S torp is fake".

By Norman Dizon (Normandizon) on Sunday, December 16, 2018 - 10:28 pm: Edit

The Spirit of SFB is Strong with Each of You. You guys are the Lifeblood of the Game. Wonderful Reports with Great Details. Bravo!!

By Andrew J Koch (Droid) on Monday, December 17, 2018 - 08:06 am: Edit

In my game against Ben Kalb I took 28 and 15 in and lost nary an ESG. The Lyran becomes pretty good when that happens
I just wanted to point that out..

Was nice seeing everyone. I still love the game face to face....we should have a tourney next Columbus day weekend or something...

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, December 17, 2018 - 09:12 am: Edit

Thanks for checking in with the thread everyone!

So curious, looking at Brian's HB stats from the long game, he hit with 5 of 8 HB shots:

1-0 at R1
2-1 at R5-8
2-2 at R9-15

So it looks like he was only marginally below average on HB shots--he hit with 1 of 1 at R1 (expected), hit with 1 and missed with 1 at R5 (on 8's? What is that, 72%?) which isn't that unlikely, hit with 1 of 1 at R8, hit with 2 of 4 shots in the 9-15 range (with shots hitting on 7's, which is 58%), so about average there.

So the hellbores were about average. In the long run, however, what totally won me that game was the complete inability of Brian to roll 11's on the DAC; I took, like, 60+ internals in 5 or 6 different volleys, and he didn't roll a single 11. Even once. Which is very unlikely.

By David Cheng (Davec) on Tuesday, December 18, 2018 - 09:41 pm: Edit

Peter asks...
"(Dave C! You have the trophy! How many years are represented on that thing now?)"

The first plaque on the trophy says that Team Ithaca won in 2004.

This got me curious, so I searched my email archives. It looks like the very first "SWA SFB road trip to Ithaca" (before we started calling it the Ithaca Cup) happened on August 23, 2003. So, only one year is not represented on the trophy.

Sixteen years of tradition!

By David Cheng (Davec) on Tuesday, December 18, 2018 - 09:45 pm: Edit

Andy Koch...

Council of Five Nations XLII is September 20-22, 2019.

All youse guys should mark your calendars now!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, December 19, 2018 - 08:41 am: Edit

2003! Whoah!

Ok, so Council is earlier September this year. Check. That might be problematic for me...

By David Cheng (Davec) on Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - 10:46 pm: Edit

Update. News on SFB at Council 2019 is posted in the Conventions area of the BBS. Please note we are looking for opinions from the SFB community. Please see the thread and post there.

Hope to see many of you this September 20-22, 2019!

-DC

By David Cheng (Davec) on Sunday, July 21, 2019 - 10:14 pm: Edit

Council update.

I have just updated the SFB at Council web page for this year's tournament.

You can see that here:
http://www.swa-gaming.org/Star-Trek-Star-Fleet-Games-at-Council

Please either contact me directly or post in the

Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board:
>> Company-Conventions-Stores-Ideas:
>> >> Convention News (Multi Games):
>> >> >> Council of Five Nations

... thread with your Committed/Probable/Maybe status.


Council is about two months away
September 20-22, 2019

We hope to see many of you there. We've already got two new-to-Council attendees Committed!

By David Cheng (Davec) on Wednesday, September 28, 2022 - 11:52 pm: Edit

Many congratulations to Dr David Zimdars for winning "Council at Dave's House" SFB Patrol tournament this past weekend. You can see the tournament results in the Council thread.

>> Company-Conventions-Stores-Ideas:
>> >> Convention News (Multi Games):
>> >> >> Council of Five Nations

-DC

By Andy Koch (Droid) on Thursday, September 29, 2022 - 09:43 am: Edit

Huh. I just went down the rabbit hole in the archives on this thread. I am having serious nostalgia about the good times we used to have. Man I took that for granted.
I am pre registering for Council 23 right here and now. If there is such a thing as Council 23.
I will get a room a the Hilton next door. Can use a roommate or two...let's go!

By David Zimdars (Zimdarsdavid) on Thursday, September 29, 2022 - 06:39 pm: Edit

I’d like to thank Dave Cheng for being a wonderful host over the weekend. He has a great gaming space!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, August 05, 2023 - 05:23 pm: Edit

Not really a Tournament Winner report, so much as a game report in general--6 of us got together at Dave Cheng's house in Albany, NY, and are playing real, full on, FtF tournament SFB games.

The games that have played so far:

-Bret's ISC over Fred's LDR.

-Dave's HYD over Proper's Lyran.

-Proper's Lyran over Fred's LDR.

-Peter's GRN (that's me) over Kosta's ZIN.

My game:

T1: Gorn moves 15/17/24 (18 moves), has an enveloper armed (B), a held S torp, a weasel held, 5 reinforcement on #6. ZIN moves 16/26 split with 4 standards armed. We move up the map. The ZIN launches the Scatter Pack early. It blooms on impulse 12 with 6xIM. We otherwise just move up the map, he slips out as I slip in. At about 15 hexes, just as he is about to fall out of my RP plasma arc, I pitch out the enveloper. He turns in across my bow. I turn off. He comes in some, I slip out. At 12 or so hexes, he fires 4x std disruptors at my #6, hits with 1, it bounces off my reinforcement. He launches 2 more medium drones (8 on the map in 3 hexes) and turns to run from the plasma. I turn back up eventually. We end the turn at about R12, both facing A. My enveloper is a couple hexes behind him, he has 8 drones on the map no closer than 6 hexes to the GRN.

T2: GRN moves 4/12, starts rearming plasma B, starts another weasel, has some in tractor, a significan't brick on the #1. ZIN moves 27/19 something. GRN goes forward a bit, weasels, gets the weasel out of the hex, successfully weasels all the drones with no collateral, just in time to speed up to 12 on impulse 14. The ZIN runs the enveloper out to nothing, and turns back in my direction, but is kind of in the NE corner. GRN speeds up to 12 about the same time the ZIN slows down to 19. We get to R9. GRN pitches out 50 plasma that will certainly hit if the ZIN keeps closing. ZIN sees this, shoots the GRN in the face with 4 standards at R9, hits with 2, sees 6 reinforcement. ZIN turns off to avoid the plasma. GRN keeps coming in slowly. GRN gets R8 centerlined off the ZIN #3 shield, fires 6xP1, rolls hot, does 18 damage, which all sticks. ZIN fires back with 3xP1, also rolls hot, does 11 damage, seeing 6 more reinforcement, scoring 5 shield hits. GRN turns off. We end about R10, GRN facing A, ZIN facing C near the E edge of the map, with 50 plasma a couple hexes away.

T3: GRN moves 14/24 for 20 moves, rearms plasma, recharges phasers mostly, has a weasel held, has a couple points in HET and tractor. ZIN moves 4/14 (on impulse 4 or 5) with 4 standards. ZIN weasels the incoming plasma (S torp is real), takes 7 collateral on his #3, but blocks it all with reinforcement. GRN is encouraged, and turns back into towards the ZIN. ZIN moves away towards the E wall. GRN speeds up to 24, and starts closing in behind the ZIN. Right before GRN gets to R5, ZIN launches 4 Fast drones. GRN thinks some, and turns off. ZIN thinks some, and HET's 180 degrees to direction F, gets a R5 shot on the GRN #3 with 4x std disruptors, 4xP1s. All 4x disruptors hit, 4xP1 roll well, he scores 26 damage, doing 2 internals (warp, hull). GRN gets to R1 from the F drones, tractors 2, IDs the other two (IFs), kills them with a P1 each. GRN thinks a little more, and HETS back in direction D. ZIN slips away, GRN kills one of the tractored drones with a couple P3s over 2 impulses, then gets to R4 from the ZIN 6 box #3 on impulse 32. GRN fires 4xP1, bolt F. Bolt hits, phasers are good, 17 damage for 11 internals (a couple P3, a disruptor, a drone rack, 2 warp). We end the turn at R4, GRN facing D, ZIN facing F, GRN has a fast drone in tractor.

T4: GRN moves 0 till 7 then 4, rearms a bunch of stuff, finishes an S torp as a standard torp, has a bunch in tractor just in case, has a weasel, starts a second, and keeps holding the drone in tractor. ZIN moves 14/27. ZIN is surprised when GRN is zero (GRN is surprised that the ZIN is moving 14/27...), but still just turns and runs. GRN uses some batteries to change the speed change up to 4 into a change up to 8 instead and sort of ambles after the ZIN who moves off, turns his down #3 to the GRN at 12+ hexes (GRN declines to shoot). Late in the turn, the ZIN launches 3 medium drones. We end at about R12, GRN facing E, ZIN facing B. ZIN fixes 2xP3.

T5: GRN moves 8/4/12, finishes an enveloper in tube A, finishes an F torp in tube C, holds standard S in tube B, recharges batteries, has a bit in tractor, 2 weasels. ZIN moves 20 all turn that I see. GRN pitches out the facing enveloper. ZIN closes, launches 3 more fast drones to follow up the 3 medium drones. GRN moves a hex, slows down to 4, launches a weasel that will take a while to get all the drones. ZIN moves in and just plows into the full enveloper, taking 10 in, losing another disruptor and a fired drone rack. Weasel gets out of GRN hex, gets all the drones eventually, GRN reactivates AFC under the explosion period. ZIN gets to R1 of GRN #6, just as the explosion clears. GRN pitches out an F torp, ZIN fires 2xOL, 4xP1, 4xP3. Both disruptors hit, phasers roll ok, GRN takes 19 internals after a full #6 and a couple points of battery reinforcement. GRN returned fire with 2xP1 and a P3, knocking most of ZIN's #1 down. Next impulse, ZIN turns off, putting ships at R1, #5 to #5, but the F torp was facing that way (If he turned the other direction, that put his down #3 right in front of 5 phasers of mine), it impacts his #5, does 6 more in after the remaining 14 boxes. GRN follows up with 4 more P1, rolls ok, does another 22 in, ZIN surrenders.

A fun game vs a good opponent!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, August 06, 2023 - 01:17 pm: Edit

Game 2 from SFB At Dave's House!

So this game was a humiliating, ignominious defeat, that I promised Dave I would write up for posterity.

In my defense:

1) I'm out of practice.

2) It was late.

3) I had just played a 4 hour game where I *didn't* make any dumb, unforced errors.

4) It was literally only the second FtF, in person SFB game on a table I have played in a number of years.

5) And also whiskey.

In any case, I was flying my Gorn vs Dave Cheng's Hydran. Dave refers to me as his Arch Cubed Nemesis, which is fair.

T1: GRN plots 15/17/24 (18 moves), arms enveloper B, holds standard A, have a suicide shuttle (more than once, I have used a suicide shuttle to take out a stinger before it could fire), 5 reinforcement on my #6. HYD moves 20/26. We come up the map, slipping in and out some. At about 15 hexes, right before the Hydran falls out of my B tube arc, I launch the enveloper. I slip away, he slips in, having sped up, and gets into R8 on my #6. He fires 4xP1, std HB. Does well with P1s, but after reinforcement, the HB is spread over 4 even 24 box shields. HYD turns off, GRN turns to follow. We end at about 10 hexes.

T2: GRN moves 24 all turn, holds standard torps, rearms B tube, holds SS, has a few points each in HET and tractors. HYD moves 31/20. HYD moves towards west wall, turning direction F, then back to E, and then D. Plasma follows closely, but evaporates just as he slows down to 20. HYD is up against the west wall, moving D towards the near SW corner. I'm closing in. HYD launches both stingers when I'm at about R8. I keep closing in some. I get to about R6 from the HYD and his fighters come into R3, popping the clutch to accelerate from 14 to 15 so they move the next impulse. If I don't do something about the fighters, they will get to R2 next impulse. That's bad. [HERE IS WHERE I LOSE THE GAME] I kind of panic, launch 50 plasma at HYD, fire 2xP1 at each fighters, crippling them both, but using 4 of my P1s. The fighters fired back, doing about 5 damage to my #1 and scraping about 4 warhead of the F torp on the map. I'm not really getting anywhere good here, so I just HET away, vaporize the two crippled fighters, and figure I'll run and rearm. HYD uses batteries to speed up enough to avoid the plasma till the end of the turn, gatlings the S torp some, and we end at about 15 hexes, the HYD with a 22 point S torp off his #5.

T3: GRN moves 24/17 and rearms. HYD moves 20 all turn. Impulse 1, the S torp, which was real, hits HYD #5 for 15 damage after the impulse 32 gatling. I just fly across the map to the NE corner. HYD just moseys into the center of the map. We end at about 15 hexes, me up in the NE corner.

T4: I have 70 points of possible plasma (S, F, fast F on other side of the ship). I figure I might be able to get in on him, tractor him at 1, and hit him with 70 plasma, an exchange of which *might* not be completely terrible for me. I move 17/24, finish arming the things I need to arm, put 4 in tractor. HYD moves 20/31/26, accelerating at a point that is very helpful for him. I come out of the corner and and up pointing directly at him as he closes at 31. We get to R3. Next impulse, I slip to try and centerline him. He can come into 1 centerlined, or slip to R2. He slips to R2 on out mutual #1/#2 spine. He slows down to 27 (using a battery to go 27 instead of 26), we still both move the next impulse, but I am slower. He can turn into R0 centerline next impulse, unless I second HET. I launch the 50 plasma I can to prevent this, and hopefully do something if I can tractor him next impulse. He blasts me with 4xP1, Gat, 2x std Fusions, 2x std HB. Everything hits. I take, like, 7+19 internals in two volleys. I lose *SIX* phasers. Next impulse, I'm desperate. I second HET to get him away from my down shield and make sure I can get R1 and a probable tractor. I don't break down. Yaa? He just comes into R0. My plasma has to HET, so doesn't hit him yet. I successfully tractor him. He shoots me with another P1, gat, 2 std Fusions, does another 20 in through my mostly full #6. I lose my second tractor. I surrender.

That was a disaster. I did zero internals. I think I did a total of 15 damage to one shield before I surrendered.

On T2, when I clearly lost the game, what I *should* have done was tractored one of the fighters (for 1 battery, still leaving me enough reserve for a HET or a speed change, or a potential tractor if the HYD HET or something), crippled the other with a couple P1s, and then continued to press the HYD with 5 or 6 P1s and 70 points of plasma (maybe a 2xF+5-6P1 bolt attack and follow up launched S to deter pursuit; maybe a R1 plasma launch). But instead, I blew all my phasers killing the fighters, wasted a HET, wasted a full S torp (which would have been just as effective as a pseudo), and just got myself killed.

Ah, shaking the rust off. Good times :-)


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