Tournament Winner Reports Archive 2008

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Sunday, August 26, 2007 - 08:13 am: Edit

I'm glad to see the Bad Attitude Shark is still in use.

By Scott Moellmer (Goofy) on Sunday, August 26, 2007 - 10:20 am: Edit

=== Always, Andy. ;)

By Chris Proper (Duke) on Sunday, August 26, 2007 - 10:48 am: Edit

Quote:

"I'm launching a shuttle. It's not my scatterpack."

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal.

By David Cheng (Davec) on Sunday, August 26, 2007 - 02:17 pm: Edit

All the Team SWA players would like to thank the Ithaca guys for their warm (very warm, and humid) hospitality. Once again, they arranged to have the young coeds of Cornell to be walking around on campus during our visit. It was especially nice that they hired some live bands to be playing in the campus quad right outside the window of the main gaming room.

As per tradition, we will have the 2007 plaque engraved and mounted on the trophy, for presentation at Council of Five Nations (Oct 5-7). Who else is coming?

While Battlefleet Ithaca may have won this time, I am personally proud to proclaim that I finally defeated my Arch-Cubed-Nemesis (TM), Peter Bakija, in an SFB match. This makes my record against him something like 1-12 over time... but I'm showing progress!

We'd also like to give special thanks to Sackett, Footman & Bakija for helping Anne Swartwout, the SWA's newest Secret Weapon, with her first taste of SFB tournament experience. Anne is looking forward to meeting more of you at the Council of Five Nations tournament.

As per Peter's request, here is a photo of the Ithaca Cup trophy: Click here for a photo in JPEG format.

See you in October!

-DC

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, August 26, 2007 - 02:29 pm: Edit

Dave wrote: >>While Battlefleet Ithaca may have won this time, I am personally proud to proclaim that I finally defeated my Arch-Cubed-Nemesis (TM), Peter Bakija, in an SFB match. This makes my record against him something like 1-12 over time... but I'm showing progress!>>

Congrats Dave! Yeah, as noted, I was playing to get lucky and blow off a Hellbore at some point before you killed me with them, and shot off two Fusions but zero HBs before you cornered me. And so, well, the killinating.

I suspect that me squandering my S torp to kill your fighter on T3 as I ran was probably not the best plan either, but I figured as it was on the other side of the ship from where the Enveloper was going to be on T4, I was going to have trouble getting it in arc anyway. I probably, all things being equal, should have gone slow or stopped on T4, instead of moving, like, 25 hexes or so and run and got caught on the wall. Stopping and TACing with the enveloper and rienforcement was probably a better plan, as I knew you were going to catch me anyway.

But in any case, totally fun game, and you didn't even need the tinfoil hat to protect you from the mind rays :-)

-Peter

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, October 07, 2007 - 04:05 pm: Edit

So this is certainly not a tournament winner's report (kind of a tournament losers report :-), but just got back from Council of 5, and boy, did I bat .500

I think we got a total of 28 players, and the top 8 were, as noted over in the Council of 5 thread:

Brian Evans (Fed) #8 over Brook Villa (ISC) #1

Marcus Giegerich (Hydran) #7 over Stephen McCann (Klingon) #2

Kevin Block-Schwenk (Rom TKR) #3 over Tos Crawford (Hydran) #6

John Rigley (WYN Aux HHBB) #4 over

Courtenay Footman (WYN Shark BB) #5

(Dave mistakenly listed game 3 as Kevin vs me, which wasn't actually the case--Kevin killed me, but before the finals).

At press time, in the semi-finals, Kevin Block Schwenk's TKR had killed Brian Evan's Fed and was waiting for the winner of the Marcus (Hydran) vs John Rigley (WAX) game.

On my front, I went 2-2 in my Gorn:

Game 1 vs Marcus Giegerich (HYD): I won--Marcus was in a bad position for our initial exchange and he had to HET into 50 plasma to get a good R2 shot on me. I took, like, 30 internals from the shot, but my return fire mangled him pretty well, killing both of his Hellbores, and he was killed two turns later.

Game 2 vs Brian Evans (FED): I got killed--Brian did average damage (hit with 2 photons at R7), but his internals were pretty brutal in his various volleys--I think I lost a total of 5 torps and 13 phasers over the course of the game. This worked badly for me, unsurprisingly, so I died.

Game 3 vs Kevin Block Schwenk (TKR): A horrible drubbing for Team Gorn. We started out with a standard enveloper ballet, but on the second time around, I launched a psuedo S and he totally called my bluff, ate the S torp for full, got a good phaser/bolt shot as a result, and it all went down hill from there--I HETed into a full enveloper to get a good bolt shot in return, lost a torp before it fired, missed with one of my two bolts, and then decelled in the middle of the map to weasel some F torps. I wisely game up at this point :-)

Game 4 vs Chris Dixon (TFH): I win this one in a really fun, super violent game where neither of us did anything passe like weasel--early on, he ate some plasma and lost another sheild to phasers, and then later on I ate 75 points of plasma on my #4 to shoot a lot of phasers through a down sheild. After the smoke cleared, I had more total internal damage than the TFH, but I successfully blew off every weapon *and* control spaces off the TFH.

As usual, Dave ran a fantastic tournament. Yaa Dave!

-Peter

By David Cheng (Davec) on Monday, October 08, 2007 - 12:41 am: Edit

Council Bulletin #3 - WINNERS REPORT

SEMI-FINALS

Kevin Block-Schwenk (Rom TKR)

over Brian Evans (Fed)

Marcus Giegerich (Hydran) over John Rigley (WYN Aux HHBB)

FINALS

Kevin Block-Schwenk over Marcus Giegerich

Congrats Kevin!

Full report coming sometime after the Convention Recovery Phase.

-DC

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, October 08, 2007 - 08:38 am: Edit

Congrats to Kevin! I feel much better now that my most humilliating defeat of the event came at the hands of the guy who won :-)

Congrats to Marcus as well for coming in second. I was actually hoping for a Marcus win, mostly 'cause, well, my most humilliating defeat of the event came at the hands of Kevin :-)

In any case, again, a great event and I'm looking forward to the report.

-Peter

By Kevin Block-Schwenk (Starfurry) on Monday, October 08, 2007 - 09:07 am: Edit

I took the TKR and had a very...unusual tournament. Of my 3 opponents, 3 plowed through my first enveloper (plus the 70 real which followed), while the other two ate my second enveloper. So much for long games.

Patrol: I work until 6PM on Friday, and had a 4-hour drive, so arrived Saturday morning. I beat a crazy Seltorian in a long-bloody game after he crashed my first EPT. With his ship almost shieldless (= 5 down shields, 2 3-box shields), and him slow and out of weasels he killed my guarded S-torp with a hit and run raid the turn before it would spit out an enveloper, but even that wasn't enough to save him. I had something like 15 power and 2 p3s at the end of the game, but he would probably have 0-2 power and no weapons left.

My other game was vs. Peter Bakija, described above. One thing Peter didn't mention was that turn 1 he burned batteries and went faster, a great move that resulted in positional advantage going into turn 2, but then things went downhill for him.

Quarterfinals: Tos (Hydran) kept his fighters on board, came in at 31, but went to 5-oblique. He ate my first EPT (out of the RP launcher). Phasered down the S+F stack and took it on a (14-point) rear shield for about a dozen internals, losing a hellbore (He never powered his hellbores) 2 p1s, and some warp. I shot off most of his #1 with my p1s, and was able to launch my last F-torp, which smashed into his #6 before his phasers could cycle early turn 2. We ended with me sort of near the corner, oblique to each other, so I could break free before he could swing around

The next 2 turns involved him pursuing me while I ran like mad (speed 28-30), reloading S-torps only and partially refilling phasers and batteries, putting a few phasers through his down #6 shield (killing a few more power and a third phaser 1), and the other hellbore, plus I shot off the rest of his #1 shield. When it was clear that I'd have a couple of envelopers ready for him on turn 4, he conceded.

Semifinals: Brian's fed did a 26/17 plot, forcing an early EPT launch (Nice move, Brian!) I then plotted 26/17 with another EPT (no special shuttles) turn 2. Pinned him against the edge (range 6 behind his ship) and launched another EPT, which would catch him for 44. So he HET'd at me. I used batteries to go up to 28, allowing me to phasers down his #1 shield, then slip out to range 6 (He didn't want to fire at range 5 as I could turn in and feed him 2 F-torps plus p3s.) I used my last battery to speed up to 31 later on and keep the range at 6. Impulse 25 he fired 6 p1s, 2 full overloaded photons, and one 13-point photon on my #4 shield, missed with all 3 photons, and conceded. Brian maneuvered very well, and put himself in a 50-50 position to win the game. (I think I was advantaged if he landed 1 photon, but would probably be losing if he'd hit with 2. 3 hits and I concede, 0 (as happened) and he concedes.) That's the fed.

Finals: Marcus's Hydran launched fighers turn 1. I launched an EPT and killed one fighter with p-1s before it oculd gat my torp, though the fighters dented my #5 shield with fusions. His ship hit my #5 at range 6-8 with p1s and one std. hellbore (The other HB missed.), dropping it to 1 or 2 boxes. He put 2 gats (one ship, one fighter) in to EPT, which would hit impulse 1 on its 11th move.

Turn 2 I prepared a weasel, and plotted 26/25i6. He announced speed 14. The ept hit (5 on each shield) and he kept coming. I killed his other fighter with 3 p1s at range 5, and w. At range 4 I launched a stack of 70 (S+2F), and hit his #1 with my last 2 p1s (mistake--should've held them). His choices at that point were to A) slip away and declare emer. decel or B) eat it and keep coming. After much thought he went with option B.

I HET'd away (keeping the range at 3), while he fired every phaser on his ship at the plasma stack. The following impulse he HET'd in place to take the torps on his 25-box #6 rather than his damaged #1. 17 internals didn't get a hellbore, but it did kill 2 p1s, 2 warp and 3 implulse. His speed went up to 26 the following impulse and I was really sweating it, as he'd have me cornered and I'd be forced to cloak.

However, to my immense relief, his speed dropped back down to 14 around impulse 20, so I was able to get out to range 5, in a position to keep running.

Turn 3 I ran again at high speed, loading S-torps and partially loading phasers/bats. He fired 2 hellbores (std. missed, overload hit), and I took 9 inconsequential internals (1 warp, 1 p3, 1 control, and hull). I shot his #1 down to 1 box with phasers, and used a battery to start an F-torp. His speed dropped to 9, and I opened the range to 10.

Turn 4 I went 14 with an EPT and more fully loaded phasers and batteries. Marcus announced speed 9, then changed to 11 on impulse 9. I launched my EPT just after his speed change, which convinced him to emer. decel and weasel, while I few off, and fixed a box on my #5.

At this point, facing a long drive home, I asked Marcus to concede. He still had a ship, but his #1 and #2 shields were down to 1 box, he had more than twice as many internls, and with his speed gone he wouldn't be able to hurt me enough wiht long range hellbore fire before he ran out of weasels--it would be another 6-8 turns before the inevitable grinding, painful end. Marcus honorably agreed to call it.

Although I don't like to nit-pick other people's play, I do think that one mistake Marcus made was that he loaded his fusion beams turn 1 and held them all game. Had he 4 more points of power turn 2, that would have meant keeping his speed up all turn rather than dropping down to 14. That would have resulted in us ending the turn at range 3 with me pinned against the wall = turn 3 I weasel & cloak, but he has 2 overloaded hellbores ready to go, and would have had an excellent chance to win.

Thanks to Dave for running a great tournament!

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, October 08, 2007 - 12:29 pm: Edit

Kevin wrote: >>My other game was vs. Peter Bakija, described above. One thing Peter didn't mention was that turn 1 he burned batteries and went faster, a great move that resulted in positional advantage going into turn 2, but then things went downhill for him. >>

Heh--yeah, I think T1 worked out well--I launched my enveloper from closer to the middle of the map than you and a few impulses after you, and then burned the 3 batteries to change my impulse 24 sc down to 16 into staying at 26 for the rest of the turn (23 moves to 26 moves). I had a good position and was doing ok.

Then on T2, I decided to finish my rolling delay other torp as a standard rather than an enveloper, 'cause I had to recharge my batteries :-)

So I finish the standard torp, and as we close, I decide to launch the torp. I was close to launching a real one, just to get parity on the torp cycle (as I was sure you had an enveloper armed), but looking at the map, I figured you had exactly zero need to even get close to the plasma, so psuedo it was. Apparently, you were totally sure that I had an enveloper armed, so you called my bluff, slipped into the psuedo to get a R5 shot, hit with an F bolt and rolled real well on 5xP1s, doing 1 internal (warp) and launched an enveloper. Sadly, if the S had been real, I totally win the game there--you lose a sheild, I fire 4xP1 and F bolt through the hole and run from the enveloper. I didn't fire back at that point because:

A) I kinda didn't consider that you would bolt the F. Which is weird, as I bolt F's all the time...

B) I was still considering trying to run you down on T3 for an anchor or overrun and didn't want to have to recharge my phasers.

So we end the turn at R5, my down #6 facing your up #6, with your enveloper on the map. My options are dubious:

A) I could plan on bolting and running from the enveloper. If I get lucky and hit with both the S and F, I do a dozen internals, get away from the enveloper, and have another enveloper ready for next turn. This was probably the best plan. Except. You were down to only a single plasma F (and fast load) and had just scored a big advantage. You could have easily decided to cloak out on T3, at which point, on impulse 1 I'm suddenly at R6, and my phaser/bolt attack ceases to be viable.

B) I could plan on busting through the enveloper and then trying to corner/anchor you. This is the plan I took.

When you announced speed 30 (again, I was very bad on the "consider my opponent's options" scale that day, apparently), I counted everything out, realized that I wasn't going to catch you (even if you slowed down, you could have batteried up--I wasn't actually going as fast as I needed to due to being down a warp and plotting power for HET *and* tractors). And then, instead of defaulting to plan (A) (bolt both torps, fire phasers, hope to get lucky, turn and outrun the enveloper as best as I can), I took the worst possible plan--turn into

the enveloper. Eat it before I bolt you. Lose facing F torp before launching or bolting it. Fire at your #4, hit with S bolt but do 9 total damage with 4xP1s at R5. HET to continue shooting you. Miss with the second F bolt. Do a few irrelevant internals. Decel to avoid getting killed by 2xF torps. Conceed :-)

Man. It is like you are my kryptonite. I think I have beaten you at least once. Maybe?

-Peter

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Monday, October 08, 2007 - 06:30 pm: Edit

Kevin, it was only 2 fusions

By Kevin Block-Schwenk (Starfurry) on Monday, October 08, 2007 - 07:34 pm: Edit

Touche, Marcus. In any case, you really had me sweating there for a while. Well played.

Peter, my memory for games isn't as good as it used to be. I recall my Klingon beating your Kzinti in the Patrol Semifinals in 2001 (written up in a Captains Log--very close, exciting game). The only other game I recall is the one from this past weekend. It feels like we would always be at the same con and somehow not get matched up. Did we play each other any other times?

By Andrew J. Koch (Andyk) on Monday, October 08, 2007 - 07:36 pm: Edit

Guys! It was great to reacquaint with some of you, and meet others for the first time.

Now I can attach faces to my doom when I play online

I enjoyed the company, the venue was cool, and the tournament went very smoothly, thanks to DaveC's hard work. I wish that I could have stayed through the final round. We'll see if I can't change that for next year!

Andy

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, October 08, 2007 - 08:28 pm: Edit

Kevin wrote: >>It feels like we would always be at the same con and somehow not get matched up. Did we play each other any other times?>>

Oh, plenty of times--usually at Totalcon over the last few years. I must have beaten you at least once there (I won the tournament 2 years in a row, so it seems likely you were in there at least once). I think my Kzinti might have killed your Lyran somewhere along the way. But for the most part, I seem to think my lifetime Block-Schwenk record is, like, 1-6 or something :-)

-Peter

By Mark Russman (Cannich) on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 - 10:38 am: Edit

No Peter... If you would check the bottom of your shoes, you will find ME stuck there like discarded gum...

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - 02:53 pm: Edit

I didn't win this tournament, but here's my report on TotalCon 2005 in a word document. I wrote it over 2 years ago and sort of forgot about it. Enjoy!

http://www.celeritycomm.net/team/marcus/misc/sfb/TotalCon2005.doc

By Andrew J. Koch (Andyk) on Tuesday, December 18, 2007 - 10:50 am: Edit

Someone refresh my memory please, when is TotalCon??

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Tuesday, December 18, 2007 - 11:09 am: Edit

Last weekend of February (21-24) in Mansfield Mass. Highly suggested.

By Andrew J. Koch (Andyk) on Tuesday, December 18, 2007 - 03:50 pm: Edit

Oh poo, that's what I thought. Well, it's out for me this yr. I'll be away that weekend.

By Dave Steele (Blackknight) on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 - 09:23 am: Edit

Weird trivia question; we're trying to see when the first SFB tournament was. We're thinking around 1988 or 89, but they didn't seem to post Con results in Capt's Log that far back in time.

Anybody ever keep this info available?

Thanks, Dave (Blackknight)

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 - 09:48 am: Edit

I think the first Fleet Captain's tournament at Origins was 1984. I don't know when the first actual tournament was, though.

By Dave Steele (Blackknight) on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 - 10:20 am: Edit

Sorry, that was terribly unclear... We're figuring out when the first tournament in Denver was. We're 98% sure it was at Tacticon, but not sure of the year. Anybody keep their old newsletters?

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 - 10:30 am: Edit

I know CL 8 had a bunch of Con results from the late 80's, as did CL 9.

By Dave Steele (Blackknight) on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 - 11:19 pm: Edit

Found um, but Tacticon-Denver wasn't listed in those. Darn.

By Gregg Dieckhaus (Gdieck) on Monday, January 28, 2008 - 11:48 am: Edit

SFB Online Rated Ace Tournement #24 Result Status

1st Place - Tom Carroll - TKE 2nd Place - Ken Rotar - (ORI (FgF11/HgHBB)

3rd Place - Ken Lin - ATC - Steve Tummy - ATC

Both Tom and Ken should get ace cards for this event as we had more than 50 players - which I believe was a direct result of renewed interest in sfbol after the gold hat / sfbol announcement.

By Norman Cruz (Cruiser) on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - 02:10 am: Edit

Hello everyone.

This last week, I started checking out the tactics boards again after 4 years in retirement (had a couple of children). Its great to see that many of the friends I have made online and at Origins over the years are still posting and playing. One of the reasons I stopped playing in the first place was that I would not be able to make it to Origins again any time in the foreseeable future. Then I saw Gregg’s post putting the terms Gold Hat and SFBOL in the same post. A quick word search and wow! Is this still in effect for 2008? If so, I will have to find a way to come out of retirement to play.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - 06:21 am: Edit

Norm, welcome back.

Short answer is yes, you can now compete for the Origins Gold Hat on SFBOL. Check out the Origins threads:

http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus/messages/12032/47.html?1201565736

By Stephen McCann (Moose) on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - 10:09 am: Edit

Norm! Great to see you. Come back to SFBOL. We would love to see you again.

By Ken Lin (Old_School) on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - 10:20 am: Edit

Hey Norm, great to hear from you!

By Scott Moellmer (Goofy) on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - 10:47 am: Edit

=== Better play him now, while as a new parent he's

still rusty and sleep deprived!

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Monday, February 25, 2008 - 10:24 am: Edit

OK, quick and dirty report from Total Confusion in Mansfield Mass.

I'm sad to report that the once dependable Total Con suffered the same fate as Gengis Con did this year. We only had 10 players and we had to settle for a squadron major style tourney. The tree was like this:

Eric Rocque (Kzin) over Marcus Giegerich (Orion HHG1B/HFFBB) in a rematch where Eric got his revenge on Marcus who beat him in the patrol portion Brook Villa (Gorn) Over David Cheng (Hydran) in a rematch where Dave was unable to avenge his loss to Brook in the Patrol portion

Brook over Eric for the Squadron Major.

Players attending

So congrats to Brook for winning his first tourney title, but too bad there was no Ace card. We still had a good time and there where a few seriously intense games that I'll detail later. I believe that this year's turnout was an aberation as every other time we've attended this convention there was usually about 20 players. Word spread that a few key players wouldn't be able to make it this year and I think that hurt our chances. And since there where never more than 3 games going on at once, there was very little buzz going on in and around the SFB room like there normally is. This also was detrimental to the 2-4 players we normally would have gotten who would have dropped in for a game or two.

Players we had (best of my knowledge)

Brook Villa Chris Dixon Marcus Giegerich Dave Cheng Eric Rocque Anne Stoudware (sp?) - Yes kids, a lady captain that played respectably well! Joe Kwiatowski Kevin Bloch-Schwenk 2 Others who's names I can't recall

I'm confident that next year's SFB attendance will be better as Total Con normally always draws well. We did have quite a hoot playing battlegrounds (excellent mini fantasy warfare-based card game) on Sunday where Dave and Eric's armies defeated the Marcus-Brook-Chris collective where we discovered that Dwarven

units move waaaaay too slowly to make a difference

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Thursday, February 28, 2008 - 07:48 am: Edit

G'Quan willing, I won't be in Europe next year. So hopefully, Team Ithaca will make a triumphant showing (the kids around here are no good at doing things like going to conventions unless I organize them...)

-Peter

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Thursday, February 28, 2008 - 09:46 am: Edit

Dude, I'd be willing to bet that they wandered around all week with their shoes untied while you where gone - LOL

By Kevin Block-Schwenk (Starfurry) on Wednesday, March 05, 2008 - 11:37 pm: Edit

Congratuations Brook!

The lack of players was a blessing for me. With no ace card on the line, nobody was sitting on their record on Saturday, and I got in a couple of fun, tight games in vs. David & Marcus--precision-played and mutually sloppy respectively.

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Thursday, March 06, 2008 - 09:42 am: Edit

The sloppiness was what made it fun! D@mn you and all your 2 rolls on the DAC

By Kevin Block-Schwenk (Starfurry) on Monday, March 10, 2008 - 04:21 pm: Edit

Heh. First game I've ever played in which the sensor track mattered.

I hit the sensor track twice in 2 volleys (29 and 3 in--the 29 internals blew away his Orion's bridge, and made it all the way to left warp on the DAC's 2-track), knocking it down to a 5.

Next turn, his Orion was parked at range 2, and throws a 6 on lock-on, making his gat + 4 more p3s totally useless (effective range 4 on my ship). I finally discoverd the way that a Romulan can out-phaser an Orion. :-)

By Ken Burnside (Ken_Burnside) on Friday, July 04, 2008 - 03:45 am: Edit

Paul Scott (LDR) over Ted Fay (KZI) in an 8 turn game that was positively gory; at the end, between them, they each had one shield. I think combined they had fewer than 40 shield boxes total at the end of the game.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, August 23, 2008 - 08:42 pm: Edit

We had the 6th (?) Annual Ithaca Cup Team Tournament today in sunny Ithaca New York, where Team Schenectady made the trip out for a fun, round robin tournament, where the team with the most wins for the day wins the tournament and possession of the coveted Ithaca Cup trophy. Notable for this year were two new guys!

This year, Team Ithaca defended its title, winning the day with 6 games won to 4 for team Schenectady.

The teams:

Team Ithaca: -Peter Bakija, Gorn (3-0) -Courtenay Footman, Neo (2-0) -Steve Wampler, Klingon (1-1) -Ben Kalb, Shark (bb) (0-1) -Andrew Sackett (HDbG) (0-2)

Team Schenectady: -Dave Cheng, Hyd (2-1) -Robin Toll, Neo (1-1) -Andy Koch, Lyran (1-2) -Chris Proper, TKR (0-1) -Howard Sanders, Zin (0-1)

The Games (for Schirmer purposes):

-Bakija (GRN) over Cheng (HYD) -Toll (NEO) over Kalb (GBS) -Wampler (KLI) over Proper (TKR) -Koch (LYR) over Sackett (WAX) -Footman (NEO) over Sanders (ZIN) -Bakija (GRN) over Koch (LYR) -Cheng (HYD) over Sackett (WAX) -Footman (NEO) over Koch (LYR) -Bakija (GRN) over Toll (NEO) -Cheng (HYD over Wampler (KLI)

See ya'll at Council of 5!

-Peter

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 10:07 am: Edit

We require a write up for every game.

Every

Single

One

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 10:59 am: Edit

Game 1: I launched some plasma. Eventually I hit with some plasma.

Game 2: I launched some plasma. Eventually, I hit with some plasma.

Game 3: I launched some plasma. Web got in the way. Eventually, I hit with some plasma.

Victory is mine!

-Peter

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 11:11 am: Edit

Now for the ones you didn't play...

By Matthew Galer (Idiot) on Tuesday, September 02, 2008 - 01:33 pm: Edit

I won the tournament at Dragon Con this year flying in the Fed. I believe there were 16 sign-ups but dont have the names.

First off, thanks to JP Maier(sp?) for running the show again this year.

I had 4 battles as follows. Note that this is my best recollection as I lost my notes for the 1st two matches:

Fed vs Aux (BBFF) - weasel 6 drones, phaser 4 drones and 1 F, fire (3 of 4 hit at range 8 hitting a drone rack and 1 F), next weasel 6 drones including type IVs, turn of nothing special, Aux turns in and gets to R2, I fire 4 OLs and 6 p1s and gut his ship. He looks confused and asks about 1 turn OL'ed photons. The turn of nothing threw off his mental map of when I fired last (which is why I write everything down..).

Fed vs TKE - run from type R after TKE turns away early. Drops #6 shield to 3 boxes. For the next 2 turns I move into his rear arc - he cloaks and I get a couple hexes behind and plot my speed well to stay there. Eventually he unlcoaks, I hit with 4 OLs and phasers. My available ww causes TKE to concede.

Fed vs Hyd - turn 1 Hyd fires 1 OL, 1 Std HB and 4 p1s at range 8 - OL misses and I take shield damage only (3 aft shields the weakest spreading things out nicely). I turn in late in turn as fighters not yet out and I can get close before they get active. Manage a R1 shot into his #2 (4OLs, 6p1s, 2 p3s vs 2 Fusion, 1pG, 1 P1). 72 internals versus 30 internals - I like this exchange. 1 Fighter blows up in shuttle bay. Hydran has 9 power left. He launches fighter and we continue for another couple of turns, but it really isnt in any doubt, and when I close in and blow off his last phasers before they get fired he concedes (nothing better than a R3 p3 shot from a shuttle that gets 4 internals and gets the last pG)

Fed vs THN - web cast, I turn off and take some minor phaser and disr damage in rear. same on T2. T3 starts the same, but well-timed HET gives me R3 on a rear shield. Hit with 3 of 4 plus 8 p1s. He HETS beginning of next turn and fires.

Misses with Web Fist and 1 of 3 Disr (1 OL and 1 std hit at R5). With reinforcement I am left with a badly damaged shield. I still have all phasers to fire this turn with photons on the next. Seeing the writing on the wall, he concedes.

some of my usual nemesis were not there afaik, which helped me out a bit. The level of play was not at Gold Hat standards (I doubt there was a rated ace among the attendees) - but there was still much enthusiasm. Most of the tourney players were repeats of the past few years and I have definitely noticed good progression in several of these players both in games I watched and in games I played.

In addition to the tourney, I helped a couple of young kids (18 and 19) play their second ever game - they seemed to have fun (the gf of one of them was continuously asking them to leave and go do some other stuff but they did not - that is usually a sign of someone enjoying the game). Good to see young blood like that show up. Hope they come back again.

By Marcus J. Giegerich (Marcusg) on Tuesday, September 02, 2008 - 02:22 pm: Edit

Congrats Matthew and thanks for the write up. Well flown!

By "Izzy" Gambliel (Izzboticus) on Tuesday, September 02, 2008 - 04:06 pm: Edit

I flew the Hydran that ended up losing to Matthew in Round 3. It was an interesting matchup, as I don't do well against the Fed and haven't played against it in many years. Throw in the rust of not playing for a while and you get the idea.

I followed my standard plot of loading everything, standard HBs and going in with a 16/26 speed plot going for a range 8 shot to weaken the shields and fire the HBs. I figured I can dance with the Fed much better than he can until he gets frustrated and goes for a range 8 jackpot shot, and if that fails, I can turn in and blow him up in a corner.

Turn 1, I cut around him pretty well, getting the shot I want, OLing one HB with bats. As what happened the entire tournament, the OL HB misses. We end the turn with him with turn mode unfulfilled and me at range 5 just outside his FA arc, with no movement restrictions coming up. The downside is to get that position, I had to delay my fire to impulse 28. Either way, though, I was in a good position to circle around and come back the next time turn 3.

Turn 2, He plots a slow speed to try and get his turn towards me quicker. I plot a fast/slow speed designed to get me away while rearming 1 HB. I figure if one gets blown off due to a lucky jackpot shot, I'm ok, but if I get away, I can start loading it with bats.

As he turns towards me at speed 12, with me ready to barrel away and outrun him, I make my first mistake. I turn in towards him with the intent to skirt his FA

arc, never getting to 4 or less. However, if I changed my mind at this point and go for the overrun, this is where I should have launched fighters. I didn't.

Instead, I start skirting, then change my mind and move in on his weak shield. I set up a point where we would end at range 1, with the choice being oblique on his weak shield or head on centerline on his strong #1. I made my second mistake here and went for the oblique shot, calculating his damage as being enough to get some power, but not the shuttle bays. We lay into each other and he uses reinforcement on his weak shield to absorb a lot of the blow and only take 30, while he blows through more of my ship than I calculated and gets a fighter on the last internal rolled. That exchange pretty much cost me the game right there. I struggled along and ended up parking and using the remaining fighter to bait him while I repaired power, but he had too much of an advantage at that point to really come back.

If I had done things properly, I could have stayed out of range 4 all turn and come back turn 3, like I planned for. Even then, if I had launched fighters at the right point and gone for the centerline, he would have taken another 25-30 internals and he would have had to devote firepower to deal with the fighters coming in for the followup, diverting damage away from me. That would have left me with the internal advantage and in a better mizia situation with the HB ready to fire the next turn.

Oh well, I definitely learned an old lesson there... stick with the plan! If you do change your mind and go for something else, do it right instead of half-heartedly.

All in all, a fun game! Matthew was a fun opponent and I later got to teach him some FC as well. Overall, I was happy with breaking the rust off of my SFB and playing in the tourney. I kept (most) of my mistakes to a minimum and was able to keep the advantage most of the time even when the dice were lousy. (0 for 3 on OL HBs outside of range 1!)

I might post about my other two fights later, killed an LDR and a TFH on my way to this fight. For now, back to work!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, September 02, 2008 - 10:08 pm: Edit

Do a full write up and I'll find a place to print it.

By Randy O. Green (Hollywood750) on Wednesday, September 03, 2008 - 01:08 am: Edit

Good games Matt, Izzy. Hope to see yall next year.

Randy

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, October 12, 2008 - 07:28 pm: Edit

Well, I didn't win Council of 5, but came in second in my Gorn. As I often do, I'm writing up my games here:

Game 1 vs Brian Evans Andro: Brian took the Andro on a lark, and he was my first game. The Andro, even as it currently is (8xP2, 2xTRL) isn't that bad vs Big Plasma. T1 I launch an enveloper and he runs away. T2 he takes 20 damage from the enveloper (which doesn't actually do anything but leave him with 2 deg in the front and the back for most of the game) and comes back around as I run and reload. T3 he comes in, I launch 50, and he runs away. T4 he comes back in, I launch an enveloper, and he displaces over it to get me. I launch an F torp, he takes it on the rear panels, he comes in to R2 or 3 centerline, fires everything, does about 20 internals, hitting a couple phasers and a lot of fluff. He turns off and I shoot a bunch of phasers through his back panels, filling them up a bunch. I HET to get more phasers on his rears, so he HETs back at me and overruns. At R0, I launch an S torp that is sure to hit his rear panels on impulse 1 of the next turn. He moves off, I fire another phaser or two at his rears, maybe doing a couple insignificant internals, and take a T bomb on an up shield. T5, impulse 1, the S (and the now 2 point enveloper) hits his almost full rear panels, doing about 25 internals. I hit the disdev on the second internal, and then hit, like, 24 hull/cargo after that. We separate some, he empties his panels mostly, I do a few more internals at long range with phasers, but don't hit anything important. T6 he comes back for a shot, I launch 40 plasma at him (F and fast load), he takes it in the face, I fire a bunch of phasers doing a few more internals, including a battery and his last control space and we discover that a decontrolled Andro isn't really hurting that much (since his didev is already dead). He fires, does another 15 or so in. He turns off to run, but can't dump his panels. T7 he moves off, shuts off the panels to empty them, I fire phasers, do a few more internals, and he resigns when a shuttle does one internal and finally blows off one of his TRLs.

Game 2 vs Marcus Giegerich's Orion (HHgB1). T1, I launch an enveloper, he fires 5xP1 and 2xHB at R5 knocking most of my #2 down. I fire some phasers at his #5, but find reinforcement. He turns and runs from the plasma. T2 the enveloper hits him for 44 minus phasers and he runs. I chase him, getting a R5 centerline phaser shot on a flank, roll well, and do 5 or 6 internals, hitting mostly hull. I launch 50 plasma and peel off. He runs out the plasma, probably taking some damage later in the turn from the plasma. T3 I run across the map at high speed into the opposite corner, he chases, hitting me with 2 more standard HBs near the end of the turn for a dozen internals. T4 I stop/tac and arm an enveloper, he comes it at speed 9/4. He comes around, drops to 4, phasers are fired. I speed up to 10 to get away, he speeds up to 12, so I launch the enveloper, which he eats for a few more internals. He gets to R1 by the end of the turn, blasting down a shield and doing a bunch of internals with his phasers on impulse 32. T5 we both are stopped, I launch an F torp and fire a few phasers, he hits me with 2xOL HB, doing 40 more internals, leaving me with 2 torps, 2 phasers, 1 power, and 9 total internal boxes. Impulse 2, I TAC, he eats the F torp in the face for a few internals, and launches a drone. I consider shooting down the drone (as well as conceding), but fire the phasers through his down shield, do about a dozen in, and blow off his shuttle bay. The crops are saved! Impulse 3 I TAC again, take the type 1 drone on a mostly up shield and launch an F and an enveloper. Next

impulse, Marcus explodes (as he has about 6 total shield boxes on his ship) and I'm saved.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, October 12, 2008 - 07:54 pm: Edit

Game 3 (round of 8) vs Andy Koch's Lyran. Andy was top seed (4-0) and I was bottom seed (2-0), so we ended up matched up. We have played this particular match up a dozen times by now (mostly online), so it was grim that we ended up here again. Andy decided to try something new. T1 I come out and launch an enveloper, and turn off. He comes in at 16/31. He eats the enveloper (showing 10 reinforcement on his #2) and keeps coming. I launch 50 more plasma at him, and he seems undeterred. Seeing the future, I use batteries to change my last quarter turn speed from 17 to 31. He announces ESGs and aims to ram. The plasma hits his pristine #2, doing 18 in after a couple P3s, hitting a disruptor but nothing else real important. At R4, I launch a couple shuttles and fire a bunch of phasers at his #1, knocking it down to 1 box. The ESGs hit my #6, doing 18 after the shuttles, and he fires a bunch of phasers, doing about 20 in. He is clearly angling to get an OL disruptor shot through my down shield on impulse 1, so I maneuver to avoid that successfully, but end at R2 in his FA. T2, we both move surprisingly fast-ish. He saves his impulse 1 disruptor shot on my up #5 and we wheel around. I consider HETing in to paste him with my F, but fear his likely suicide shuttles, so decline, and launch my last F. He HETs at me, eats the F on his 20 box #2, and we shoot. I get 4xP1 in his down shield, he gets his phasers and OLs on my #3. We both take about 15-20 in, but now his front 3 shields are down, and I still have 4 of mine. We move around some. T3, I we shoot each other from R4, I do another 15 or so in, he does no internals through my reinforced #4 and resigns.

Game 4 (round of 4) vs Steve McCann's Klingon. T1 I go fast, launch 2x standard S torps and turn off. He hits my #5 for 12 damage with standard disruptors and turns off to run from the plasma, launching his SP near the end of the turn as I come back around to chase. T2 he goes fast to run out the plasma, I go 9/4/14 to weasel the SP. He avoids the plasma, accidentally running them out to 0 so he doesn't know if they were fake or not. I weasel the drones and speed up to chase. He fires standard disruptors and his P1s at R8 on my #6 finding a dozen reinforcement. I launch 50 plasma and he turns and runs off along the south wall, launching a couple drones which I shoot down, along with doing a dozen damage to his #5. T3 I go as fast as I can, he runs from the plasma, eventually taking the real S for a few points somewhere after a lot of defensive phaser fire. I catch him in the opposite corner, get a R5 shot on his weak #5, hit with an F bolt and 5xP1 for about 10 internals (hitting nothing real important, maybe a P3 and a warp) and turn off. He turns to avoid mizia abuse and ends the turn at R4 from my #3 and launches a few drones. T4 he goes 9/4, I go 16/12, arm an enveloper, and reinforce my #3. I launch the enveloper, he fires, misses with 1 overload, and does 2 internals through my reinforced shield. He weasels the enveloper, and I run off. T5 he chases as best he can, but I launch another enveloper and he has to decel and weasel it, shooting up my #4 at long range a bit with standard

disruptors and speeds back up to 10 late in the turn. T6 he chases, I run, getting caught by the map edge near the end of the turn, and shoot down a couple drones. T7 I'm cornered but have 70 plasma armed this turn. He comes in at 20, I turn in at 24. He gets R4 centerline on my 20 box #6, shoots, does about 25 internals. I HET at him, get to R2, launch 70 plasma. He launches 2 fast drones, kill one, and eat the other type IV on my #1. He can't get away from the plasma, and I don't need to tractor him to get the hits, so they hit for about 40 in after some phasers, followed up by another dozen from a few phasers. We separate, and Steve resigns as he is down to 20 power and has no shuttles, and I have another enveloper coming up on T8.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, October 12, 2008 - 08:25 pm: Edit

Game 5 (final) vs Jason Gray's TKR. When I had the final tree posted, I looked at it and said "Man. I'm totally good with all of these match ups, except for Jason's TKR. Man. I hope I don't get that match up ever..." The TKR is a ship that I think has a not insignificant advantage over the Gorn, and Jason is a very patient player, and my greatest flaw in Plasma vs Plasma games is becoming impatient. And with the Gorn vs the TKR, I find the only way for the Gorn to do well is for there to be some sort of asymetry in strategies (if the Rom launches envelopers and the Gorn launches standards, or vice versa, the Gorn can do ok. If both ships do the same thing, the Gorn is, for my money, disadvantaged). Figuring that most TKRs launch envelopers, I decided to go faster with standards and hope for some advantageous asymetry. Sadly, Jason didn't use envelopers, so things didn't go so well for me.

T1 I go 26 all turn, he goes 16/26 with reinforcement assuming I'll launch an enveloper too :-) At about R12, I launch an S torp. We kind of fly past each other, and he turns away from the plasma in time to not get hit by it. I come in behind him. Late in the turn, he fires a lot of P3s at the plasma, leaving it at 2 points, and I fire 2xP1 at the plasma, killing it, before it hits him (so he doesn't find out it was real...). Advantage: Me.

T2: I go 17/24, he goes 26 most of the turn. I come in behind him, chasing him against the wall. He launches a standard S torp at me. I launch a standard S torp at him. I turn off (sealing my eventual doom) and we run apart. He takes the S for 5 or so after phasering it a bunch, and discovers it was fake. and comes back around to get the center of the map. I run his out, phaser it some, and take it for 1 point near the end of the turn, discovering it was fake. We end the turn with me against the map edge, him in the middle of the map. He launches an S torp on impulse 32. Advantage: Not Me.

T3: I figure if the S he launched was real, I can take it on a flank, and come in for an advantageous exchange anchor, plotting 17/26 and some tractor. He plots 9/4. I'm sad. I stretch his plasma out to 11 hexes and eat it on my #3, discovering it was real, losing most of my #3. I come in, he launches 50 plasma. I get to R5 centerline on his #1 with a few hexes to spare on his plasma, so I fire 6xP1, 2xF

bolt, 1xS bolt as I suspect I'm unlikely to anchor him at this point. I miss with the S bolt, roll down with the phasers, and find 13 reinforcement on his #1 (8 allocated and 5 batteries), leaving his #1 at exactly 1 box. I'm sad. I HET away, speed up to 27, and run from the plasma. He shoots my #5 at R8 with 5xP1 for 17 (!?!) damage. It becomes apparent that I have to decel and weasel the plasma, or I'll get creamed. So I do, ending at R10 from the TKR, so he launches an F torp.

T4: I go 0/8 with some TACs. He goes 4/3/4. The F comes in as I'm incapable of moving, so I phaser it a bit, and reinforce it a bit, and take it for 9 on my #2. I TAC around and speed up and we close. I end up getting to R5 off his 1 box #1 and shoot it with 4xP1s, finding 5 reinforcement (which turned out to be 8 general and 1 specific), but do 5 internals, hitting 2xPhasers, 1 torp, and a warp. A small consolation to my bad position :-). He fires his phasers at my #1 and turns off to keep me from getting more phasers in his down #1. I close on him, figure he probably will premeptively weasel soon to protect him from an anchor if I can get to R1, so I try and tractor him at R2, but fail (my 4 batteries at R2 vs 2 of his batteries). He hits me in the face with a fastload F for 10 internals. Impulse 31, he launches a suicide shuttle at me, which I kill. Impulse 32, he moves so I can get to R1 and hit him with an S torp on impulse 1 which he can't weasel, but it will cost me getting hit in the face by a few more phasers on impulse 32 and then a lot more on impulse 1. So I slip away instead.

T5: I go 8/7/3/0 and put 13 in tractors, hoping I can get to R1, tractor him and feed him an S and phasers. He goes 13/9. I'm sad. Seeing the writing on the wall, I try and tractor him at R2 again, spending 18 power and failing. I launch my S torp. He declares emergency deceleration. He gets in front of me anyway, fires 5 or 6 phasers in my down #1, and gets to move twice due to his 13/9 plot before the plasma hits. I get mangled, he gets to weasel my plasma, and I resign.

A good game (although more so for Jason than for me...). I got myself killed on T2 when I ran myself into the corner to run from a psuedo. Man. I hate fighting Romulans :-)

-Peter

By Kevin Block-Schwenk (Starfurry) on Sunday, October 12, 2008 - 08:44 pm: Edit

Thanks for the report, Peter! Congrats to Jason!

Sorry I couldn't make it. How many people were there? And do you recall what the finals tree looked like?