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Ladies and Gentlemen,
After our pandemic-enforced hiatus Battlegroup Toronto is proud to announce the

FOURTH SFB TORONTO CHAMPIONSHIP!

Previous Winners of this prestigious tournament are:
Kosta Michalopoulos 2016
Tim Linden 2018
Tim Linden 2019

We will be playing for the newly-inaugurated "Art Trotman Memorial Trophy"

Location: Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 10
1083 Pape Avenue, Toronto, ON

Date/Time:
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, May 5th, 6th,and 7th, 2023 9am-6pm
Entry Fee: $10 single day, $20 full tournament

This will be a round-robin tournament format (as far as can be managed) so there will be plenty of SFB for all attendees. We will be playing in the Club Room of the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 10. This is an inner-city location so there are lots of places to eat in the neighbourhood and the location is accessible by public transportation. Some street parking is available.

Please join us and forward any questions to me at sebastian.palozzi@gmail.com

By Sebastian Palozzi (Sebastian) on Saturday, April 22, 2023 - 09:49 am: Edit

Battlegroup Toronto
is proud to announce
The Fourth Star Fleet Battles Toronto Championship!

Contestants will be playing for the newly-inaugurated "Art Trotman Memorial Trophy"
Previous Winners of this prestigious tournament are:

By Sebastian Palozzi (Sebastian) on Saturday, May 13, 2023 - 08:56 am: Edit

Battle Group Toronto SFB Championship After Action Report
I'm writing this tournament summary in the hope it might be of interest to any SFB player group that would want to hold an SFB tournament with a smaller group of players.

Battle Group Toronto has just held our fourth championship tournament (2016, 2018, 2019, 2023) and it was our most successful tournament so far.

Planning:
We began serious planning for the tournament in February of 2023 as the lockdown was being eased. We used our facebook chatgroup and group emails to keep the ball rolling and to keep interest up.
We posted news on the ADB bulletin board and at all of the usual social media places. We held a few video calls with core members to make sure we were all on the same page.

Venue:
The tournament was held at the Royal Canadian Legion Hall, Branch 10.
Thanks to the Royal Canadian Legion for their help with this.

Prizes:
ADB generously provided two free downloads to enrich our prizes for the winner--thank you Jean and thank you ADB; it means a lot to the players to have ADB represented in this way. The coolest prize, of course, was the championship trophy. The prize kitty was enriched by our own members--a set of opera tickets, a Star Trek command shirt and a take-home trophy were all donated by Battle Group Toronto members.

The Admin:
Tournament fees were $20 for the entire weekend and $10 for a single day visit.
We have three members who put forward the seed-money for the venue ($450 dollars) and we've managed to earn a bit of money from the entry fees so that we have a small fund that will help us set up next year's tournament.

The Schedule:
We played on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There was no limit to the number of games that could be played but, because of time constraints, each player could expect to play 2 games per day--a morning game and an afternoon game. We had 8 players and we held a sort of swiss-style competion with the initial pairings being randomly selected.
The results of day-1 determined the pairings for day-2. The results at the end of day-2 determined the playoffs for Sunday morning.
Playoff spots were earned through number of wins and, in cases of tied scores, by quality of wins as rated by performance in the tournament. The tournament format worked out surprisingly well.
The Rules:
We used the official ADB Tournament Rules for the most part.
We used time limits; the time limit for each Energy Allocation Form was 5 minutes and the time limit for each impulse was 30 minutes. A player could ask for an adjudication after 3 hours of play and a game was adjudicated, without option, after 4 hours. All of these time limits could be waived for a match if both players agreed.
As it turned out, the only time limit that was a factor in our tournament was the 4 hour adjudication limit and this was used only once in the three days.
Adjudication of a game was done by the other members of the club who were present.
We've held this tournament four times now and we've come to realize that time limits are important and they certainly need to be established even if they're seldom used. We made sure the rules were announced before anybody began playing.

Members:
One of the goals we had for this tournament was the introduction of the game to new and/or returning players. We introduced the game to two new people and we're happy to announce we have a new player added to Battle Group Toronto. Fifty-percent recruitment is a great success rate but playing a demo game with a new player is difficult in the middle of a competitive tournament so We'll have to find a better way of getting this important part of the tournament looked after.

Finally, our 2023 champion is Gregg Henry. Congratulations to Gregg who flew the WYN GBS. Gregg lost his first game and then won every other game on his way to the finals where he beat two-time champ Tim Linden to take the cup.

By Dennis Surdu (Aegis) on Sunday, July 02, 2023 - 11:31 pm: Edit

Will anyone be attending Historicon 2023 in Lancaster PA? I will be attending with a few friends and we plan on bringing some SFB gear for an occasional pickup game or ad hoc engagement. :-)

By Sebastian Palozzi (Sebastian) on Monday, June 03, 2024 - 01:36 pm: Edit

Battlegroup Toronto
is proud to announce our fifth
Star Fleet Battles Toronto Championship!

Contestants will be playing for the "Art Trotman Memorial Trophy"

Previous Winners of this tournament are:

Kosta Michalopoulos 2016
Tim Linden 2018
Tim Linden 2019
Gregg Henry 2023

Where: 
Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 10
1083 Pape Avenue, Toronto, ON
When:
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, July 19th, 20th,and 21st, 2024 9am-6pm
Entry Fee: 
$20 single day, $30 full tournament

We will be playing in the Club Room of the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 10. This is an inner-city location so there are lots of places to eat in the neighbourhood and the location is accessible by public transportation. Some street parking is available.

• The tournament room will open at 9AM on Friday, July 19th
• Module T (2012) Star Fleet Universe Tournament Rules will be in effect.
• Tournament format will be determined based on attendance 
• The semi-final games will be played on Sunday morning, July 21st.
• The final game, championship game, will be played on Sunday afternoon, July 21st.

Players not involved in the playoff games can participate in an SFB group scenario.
• Please join us and forward any questions to me at sebastian.palozzi@gmail.com

By Sebastian Palozzi (Sebastian) on Wednesday, July 31, 2024 - 11:36 am: Edit

The 2024 BG Toronto is in the books. Our tournament and club champion (and repeat champion) is Gregg Henry who flew the WYN GBS to victory. Although the tournament turnout was lower than hoped for, the games were hard-fought and the weekend was a lot of fun.
BG Toronto would like to thank ADB for adding to our prize fund with a free PDF download of an ADB master starship book.
Posted below is Gregg's after-action report covering his road to victory.

Victory at the SFB Toronto Tournament 2024

The 2024 Star Fleet Battles Toronto Championship was hosted July 19th-21st. I was flying the Wyn Great Black Shark with drones as its option mounts for a second year in a row. I was lax in my record keeping, I didn't keep track of what shield's got damaged in each exchange. This leads to some of the battles feeling a tad abstract.

Unfortunately this year we had a rather small turn out. I think 7 max on Saturday but only 4 on Sunday. That is why, despite losing both games before the semi finals, I still made the semi finals. I didn't get to play everyone, due to us being at an odd number of players Friday and Saturday I had to sit out twice. It was still a great time with a lof of great games played!

Game 1, Wyn Great Black Shark vs Kosta in a Klingon D7T

Before the tournament I had been playing around with corner dodging on turn 1 and building up a drone wave. I was planning on staying out of range 8 on turn 1, so on turn 2 I could catch up on drones. I was assuming the Klingon would use his scatter pack, he did but near the end of the turn. I took a range 10 shot with standards on 1.30 but I miscalculated my approach, we were 8 hexes apart at the end of turn 1. The Klingon let me have it with 4 overloads and phasers. After reinforcement, 23 came off my number 6 shield.

My plan for turn 2 was to arm overloads, start fast and slow down so I could get a good shot and still pay for everything. My plan was to take a shot and separate to maintain range. At the beginning of turn 2 the Klingon was beginning to spew shuttles. I think his intent was to fly slow and use his shuttles as additional drone defence. On 2.6 I got my opportunity and managed to land 46 damage, 22 internals at range 4. The Klingon HET'd on the impulse after, and on 2.8 fired his alpha, 3 overloads and 5 phasers getting 18 internals through my number 5.

With most of our firepower spent, I abandoned my initial strategy and moved to get closer. Abandoning a well considered strategy just because you smell blood in the water is a very shark thing to do, but as I was about to find out, it's not a good idea.

I figured moving closer would set me up for a turn 3 exchange I could win. The Klingon almost certainly didn't have the power for a second HET, if I could get on his rear shields he'd have a hard time getting me off them. I also figured the Klingon would be more cautious than he was and fly away. I guessed wrong, late in the turn we closed to range one. The Klingon launched drones and a suicide shuttle which found an opening and caused 35 internals. With the 53 internals I figured that was the game, and I conceded.

Kosta is a very deliberate and calculated player. It is easy to make the mistake that makes him overly cautious, it actually does not. It just means he will take his time to precisely calculate how he will tear your ship apart.

Game 2, Wyn Great Black Shark vs Marc in a Gorn Tournament Cruiser

This was a long game, 9 turns so I will just try and relay the highlights. My plan going in, I wanted to take his #1 shield, this would make it difficult for him to set up a Gorn anchor. I love a good tractor anchor, so this was on my mind. The Gorn obliged me on turn 1, but I did let him centre-line me. Marc also had flown slow and put a brick on his number 1. On impulses 1.25 and 1.26 we did direct fire, I was able to get 3 points through his shield and reinforcement, he was able to get 18 past mine (bolting and hitting with both plasma Fs). He also had fired a 30 point plasma on my approach so I weaseled. On turn 2 the plasma impacted, it was real. The Gorn fired his last torpedo after my fire control as back up, I phasered it down instead of using a second weasel.

On turn 3 the Gorn weaseled and I plinked at it with disruptors. The Gorn had enough phasers he could deal with a single turn's worth of drones from any angle, so he didn't actually need to move fast. Marc realized this, he flew slow through most of the game, usually no more than 17 and kept extra power for reinforcement. By using a weasel, it saved him power but it also covered for the fact that he wanted more power. Turns 4 also saw the Gorn at speed 0, he finally started moving again on turn 5. Turn 6 saw the GBS get to range 4 with standard disruptors and get some internals. The Gorn bolted an F, fired phasers then launched an S to chase me away. It was a fake.

We both used turn 7 as a breather, to fly slow and recharge systems. On turn 8 we began speeding up, the GBS took another disruptor shot past range 10, taking 7 from a shield after reinforcement. We had one last hurrah on turn 9, I was able to either knock down or almost knock down all his forward shields. Even though I had gotten a few extra internals in the 8 turns since our initial exchange I hadn't caught up on internals.

Marc flew patiently and pretty close to perfectly. The game went to adjudication. I made my case, I was behind but I was catching up. On reflection, while I did had a chance to win, the odds would be less that 50%. A very good, very close game. Probably the best game I played of the tournament.

Game 3, Wyn Great Black Shark vs Marc in a Gorn Tournament Cruiser

With 0 wins over 2 games, I made the semi-finals solely on the fact there were only four of us on Sunday. Since Marc had the strongest record and I had the weakest we were paired up again. Marc had put everyone else through the ringer, so I am sure they were glad they didn't have to face him again right away. On the Saturday, between my game 2 and game 3, I called for Kosta vs Marc. I thought it was going to be a long game but Kosta flew a tad too aggressively and by the middle of turn 2 the game was over. It reminded me that Kosta is not overly cautious, and taught me not to get that close to the Gorn unless most of his plasmas were accounted for.

I also learned in our first game that for Marc's style his most important shields are probably his 3 and 5. I would try and take those instead of his forward shields. On turn 1 the GBS started slow and launched drones, near the end of the turn the Gorn launched and S torp. The GBS fired disruptors and phasers beyond range 8, did a small amount of damage then turned to run the plasma out. Turn 2 saw us both flying away as we dealt with each other's seekers, the plasma was a fake. Marc would comment later that he felt he wasted an opportunity by letting me fly away.

Turn 3 saw us exchange long range salvos. Marc liked to get within range 10 before bolting, he bolted an S and with phasers took 15 from my shield. I did a little less with my disruptors and phasers. The Gorn launched the other F and I phasered it down with my phaser 3s. This set me up for a range 8 shot, I plotted speed 0 and on 4.2 I had my firing opportunity. The Gorn had put 10 points of reinforcement on his shield so I netted 13 internals. Most of the Gorn's plasma had been spent so it was fairly safe to go speed 0. On 4.3 the GBS weaseled to deal with the last plasma. Later in the turn I accelerated to speed 4 so I could go speed 14 which would help me keep up with the Gorn.

Turn 5 saw us flying slow, far enough apart to be safe as we horded power. Turn 6 saw another exchange, I whiffed a shot with my disruptors, missing both overloads and one standard, dealing a total of 19 damage to a fresh shield. I launched drones and the Gorn weaseled to deal with them. Later in the turn he would fire a pseudo to chase me away. By turn 7 our game had been going on for over 3 hours, so we knew decisive action would be needed soon. On turn 7 we closed near the end of the turn, on 7.32 the Gorn bolted his left side plasmas and fired his bearing phasers, luckily for me both bolts missed.

My initial plan for turn 8 was to arm overloads, start fast and slow down. I had weasels for defence against a big stack but I accepted that I would take damage this turn. I knew it would be the last turn so I wanted things to end decisively and not rely on adjudication. I could turn early in turn 8, before the Gorn could bring his RS plasma F to bear, as long as I side slipped away I would have protection from his right side only weapons. Marc tried to bring his nose around, he got his S torp off as I came in but his F torp didn't bear. He launched close enough that it had to loop around and it would later hit my shield #5. On 8.7 I was 2 hexes from the Gorn on a split shield, I launched my 4 drones. On 8.8 I declared a speed change down to 14 and the Gorn phasered down my drones. On 8.9 the Gorn HET'd to bring his F to bear and launched. Thankfully this torpedo would hit a different shield then the S. I had expected the Gorn to fly away, not get closer. Since the Gorn had HET'd on an impulse he wasn't moving, I knew the hex he'd have to enter on 8.10, so I flew into it, he and his plasma joined me. Between is plasma F, 2 phaser 1s and disruptor feedback from my overloads I ended with 13 internals. An alpha strike from a GBS at range 0 is pretty substantial, the Gorn took 85 on his #1 shield. He had reinforcement there but he ended the game with 61 internals.

This was another really strong game from Marc. It was still any one's game up until the end. If the timing was a little different, I am certain we would have both flown turn 8 very differently.

Game 4, Wyn Great Black Shark vs Kosta in a Klingon D7T

The Great Black Shark and the Klingon are at first glance very similar, but there are enough differences to make a fight interesting. Even though this was a rematch of a previous game, I had the feeling it would play out fairly different.

Before energy allocation I had the idea to deal with his scatter pack with a wild weasel. While this would leave me immobile for a while it would give me a lot of power to play with. I am not sure the right way to deal with someone going really slow. Plasma races can force them to keep weaseling until their shuttles run out. Some other empires may have special tricks but I don't know a universal tactic. I was kind of hoping that Kosta could figure something out. Either I was about to learn a new trick or get a decent advantage.

Turn 1 went according to plan, the Klingon launched his scatter pack, I took a range 13 shot with disruptors and phasers, scored a little bit of shield damage to his number 6 shield. I then turned away and managed to stay out of range 8 and his 2 overloaded disruptors this time. Unfortunately I miscalculated how he would close and we ended turn one at range 9, with me flying into the bottom right corner. The Klingon was facing a rear shield.

Turn 2, I would plot speed 0 and TACs. Having low or no speed means ceding the initiative. I figured the Klingon would come to at least range 8, fire overloads, then he would fly out. I needed to not fire before he did, otherwise he would close in and deliver much more damage. I armed standard disruptors, there was a chance he might have only been inside range 8 for 1 impulse and I didn't want to waste disruptors. I used the extra power for 10 points general reinforcement since I didn't know which shield he would get to shoot at while I TAC'd to bring my weapons to bear. He shot early in the turn and began flying away. I took a shot before he left range 8. I could have held my fire if I wanted him to stay away but I figured it was to my advantage if he spent his power to close. I weaseled right near the end of the turn, on 2.26 with the weasel flying away from the drones. The weasel didn't die until 2.31, so I was protected by the weasel's explosion period until turn 3.3. The Klingon would end the turn at range 1 from the GBS. The Klingon would also launch two fast drones on impulse 32 in a dipsey doodle around my weasel's explosion.

Assessing our situation on turn 3, I was reminded that I do love a tractor anchor. The GBS can launch 2 shuttles and 4 drones on the same impulse, which is a substantial amount of fire power. If I could land all these seeking weapons on the same impulse I wouldn't need my disruptors, so I put the 16 points of power I would have used for disruptors into tractor. The gallery had some good questions but I felt they were beginning to remind Kosta of options he may not have been thinking of. Later in the turn I may have hushed them a tad rudely, if any of you are reading this part I apologize, I could have requested that better.

On 3.1 The Klingon did fire fire through my weasel's ECM and did put 15 damage through my number 2 shield. Fire control came up on impulse 3 but I wanted to wait until the last minute to set up the tractor auction. I set it up on impulse 5, I should have waited until impulse 6 because on impulse 7 speed 5 shuttles and speed 20 drones both move. The chatter from the gallery helped me notice that my drones wouldn't move on impulse 6, so in a way they did affect the game. On impulse 6 I launched drones, the Klingon and I both launched shuttles, Kosta said his shuttle was targeting an incoming drone. At the end of the impulse I phasered the shuttle the Klingon launched and the two drones Kosta had launched on turn 2. The game ended on impulse 7 as the Klingon took 84 damage from seekers then and additional 16 points from my remaining bearing phasers.

I was perhaps a little too giddy when I declared my tractor auction. For some reason tractor anchors and high energy turns really appeal to my inner child.

Conclusion

Thanks to the tournament organizers, Sam, Kosta, Marc and Fred. I had a lot of fun and it wouldn't have happened without your hard work. Special thanks also goes out to Kent Ing who painted the trophy, a Klingon D7C. I've tried my hand at mini-painting before, looking at Kent's piece is pretty humbling. I am looking forward to all the games in store this year and in 2025!

By Patrick Sledge (Decius) on Sunday, April 27, 2025 - 11:29 am: Edit

Federation and Empire at Origins? What is this, 2012?

Battlegroup Xenia is hosting Federation and Empire games ranging from 4 hour 'Learn to Play' sessions to a full-convention-long scenario for experienced players.

If you're planning on attending Origins, join us for a game (events are listed under the group "Cardboard Addicts Anonymous"). If you want to just come by and say hello, we'll be in room B243.

Apologies for the short notice, some scheduling difficulties had to be sorted out before a post could go up. GAMA's gonna GAMA.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Sunday, April 27, 2025 - 01:35 pm: Edit

Where is battlegroup Xenia located?

By Patrick Sledge (Decius) on Sunday, April 27, 2025 - 02:17 pm: Edit

Xenia, OH. About an hour west of Columbus (which is why we're setting up events at Origins again. Despite the historical difficulties with GAMA, Origins is basically right in our backyard)

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Sunday, April 27, 2025 - 03:23 pm: Edit

I am 2 hours north of Columbus. I will try to come to your game!

By Matthew Lawson (Mglawson) on Monday, April 28, 2025 - 08:11 am: Edit

Oooo, maybe I'll have to come visit you guys since I'm not available to play with you anymore.

Also, if you really want to see and learn this game, these are the guys to learn it from!

By Daniel Glenn Knipfer (Dgknipfer) on Wednesday, May 28, 2025 - 08:47 pm: Edit

Okay; hey everybody. Here's what we're doing at Origins for fun and excitement this year.

I've put together a little scenario called Training Day. It's a one on one scenario using the "North & South" map (Gorn and Rom space). Each player has 97 EP to start; and no exploring the inactive Rom space.

I then pared down each empire to 3 fleets, and trimmed the production for the Fed, Klingon, and ISC to be comperable to the other major powers. Pick your empire and fight it out.

Currently I have the rule set restricted to the Box set and Fighter Ops, with no advanced rules (but we will add the advanced combat chart, advanced EW, and Prime Teams quickly enough if players can handle it). This should let me teach new players the basics without the overwhelming rules load of a full General War, or all the rules from all the expansions. And it can be played for as many turns as you like, or as few as you can manage in an afternoon.

My idea? Give anybody that has ever thought about playing a chance to learn the game with a small enough rule set that they don't run screaming in terror.

And while we do this my local group will be over in the corner running a modified EB scenario for ourselves.

So if you're at Origins this year stop in and say high. Or better yet give Training Day a chance.