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Star Fleet Battles Rated Ace Tournament at Council of Five Nations - Adventure Gaming Convention

Star Fleet Battles Tournament

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Council of Five Nations XXXIV


Star Fleet Battles - Rated Ace Sanctioned Tournament



Last Update: Tuesday, Oct 4th, 2011


Council of Five Nations XXXIV is coming this October 7-9.  Once again, we are poised to host the biggest and best Face-to-Face Star Fleet BattlesTournament in the whole world!  We consistently get attendance in the high 20s to 30s.

We pamper our loyal SFB crowd with a nice private SFB room all weekend, the best room in the facility.

The big news this year is that we are once again Rated Ace Sanctioned.  We will definitely be awarding one Ace Card, and two is within reach.

On top of this, Steve Petrick, ADB's Chief of Operations, will attend as our Guest of Honor Tournament Judge (please see below). 

The Council Cup - Star Fleet Battles Trophy

The Council Cup

The Council Cup is a new tradition we began in 2009.   It memorializes the names and ships of all the Council of Five Nations SFB tournament winners going all the way back to 2002, when we held our first full Star Fleet Battles tournament of the new-era Councils.

Here is the list of all the winners that currently appear engraved on the trophy:
  • 2002 - Brian Evans - Romulan TKR
  • 2003 - Paul Scott - Hydran
  • 2004 - Tim Sheehy - Hydran
  • 2005 - Peter Bakija - Gorn
  • 2006 - Stephen McCann - WYN Aux (11g1)
  • 2007 - Kevin Block-Schwenk - Romulan TKR
  • 2008 - Jason Gray - Romulan TKR
  • 2009 - Paul Scott - Federation TCC with G-Rack
  • 2010 - Bill Schoeller - Klingon
John Rigley, our veteran miniatures modeller, has made some improvements to the Council Cup trophy this year.  Here's a recent photo...

Tournament Attendance

As usual, we are compiling a list of the players we know will be coming, and the certainty of their attendance.  You will see below what we've heard so far.  You can also get in on the discussion about the convention at our special Council of Five Nations bulletin board section of the ADB BBS.

If you're thinking about attending, please email us at sfb /at/ swa-gaming.org and tell us your (Committed / Probable / Maybe) status so we can add you to the list.  If you're already on one of these lists, but your status is changing, please let us know that too.


Committed
  1. Marcus Giegerich [New Jersey]
  2. Brook Villa [New Jersey]
  3. Stephen McCann [New Jersey]
  4. Kevin Block-Schwenk [Massachusetts]
  5. Peter Bakija [Ithaca]
  6. Courtenay Footman [Ithaca]
  7. Andrew Sackett [Ithaca]
  8. Ben Kalb [Ithaca]
  9. Brian Evans [Syracuse]
  10. Tos Crawford [Downstate NY]
  11. Ron Pilotte [Maine]
  12. Brett Johnson [New Hampshire]
  13. Tom Compter [Vermont] - Council First-Timer!
  14. Jeannie Compter [Vermont] - Council First-Timer!
  15. Tim Sheehy [Pennsylvania]
  16. Ron Brimeyer [Iowa] - Welcome back to one of our favorite long-distance attendees!
  17. Adam Brimeyer [Iowa] - Special Council Long-Distance First-Timer!
  18. Troy Williams [Reno, NV] - Special Council Long-Distance First-Timer!
  19. John Rigley [SWA]
  20. Michael Scriven [SWA] - Council SFB First-Timer
  21. Bernard Bryant [SWA] - Council SFB First-Timer
  22. Aaron Cordes [SWA] - Council SFB First-Timer
  23. Ben Bunday [SWA]
  24. Nate Whitchurch [SWA]
  25. Eric Paperman [SWA]
  26. Ben Ossenfort [SWA]
  27. Dave Cheng [SWA]

Probable
  1. Jason Murphy [SWA]
  2. Dage McNitt [SWA]

Maybe

  1. Chris Dixon [New Jersey]
  2. Paul Scott [California]
  3. Chuck Davis [Vermont]
  4. Jude Hornborg [Toronto]
  5. Chris Proper [Ithaca]
  6. Howard Sanders [Ithaca]
  7. Ken Stuart [Ithaca]
  8. Shane Bogardus [Syracuse]
  9. Robert Bassett [Rochester]
  10. George Duffy [NYC]
  11. Tom Carroll [New Jersey]
  12. Robin Toll [SWA]


Tournament Judges

Ken Kazinski  [Syracuse, NY] & Steven P. Petrick


Steven P. Petrick - Our Special Guest of Honor Tournament Judge

Steven P. Petrick – Vice President and Chief Operations Officer at Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.Steve Petrick of Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.

Council of Five Nations is the host of the largest face-to-face Star Fleet Battles tournament in the world.  So we think it’s only fitting that we have Steve Petrick, one of the game’s designers, on hand to judge the tournament this year (all the way from Amarillo, Texas!).

Lunch with Steve
The SWA is sponsoring “Lunch with Steve”, 1:00 PM Saturday.  Mr Petrick will answer your questions about the Star Fleet Universe, upcoming products, what it’s like to be a full-time game designer, and whatever else you’d like to ask of him.  Pizza and soda provided.  Location: The Star Fleet Battles room on the upper floor.

Bio - Steven Petrick was still in the U.S. Army as a captain when he appeared as a member of the senior staff in Captain's Log #5. By the next issue, he was listed as a candidate for the Committee. By issue #7 in 1989, Petrick was the associate editor. He became the managing editor by Captain's Log #8 and was listed as Chief of Staff. He is currently the department head for SFB and serves as the senior judge as needed for tournaments.
     Every product that ADB, Inc. has produced has felt the touch of Steven Petrick. While SFB remains his primary responsibility, he's also helped with Federation & Empire, Star Fleet Battle Force, Federation Commander, and Prime Directive. As of this writing, he has been busy with the playtesting of Star Fleet Marines. His knowledge of the ships of the Star Fleet Universe is legendary and serves him in good stead when he quality checks the Starline 2400 miniatures.
     While Petrick may consider himself a mechanic for Steve Cole, the idea man, many of us realize that it is his thorough follow through that keeps SFB so internally consistent. He may be affectionately teased for for being so precise in his descriptions, but in actuality, that level of attention to detail is part of what keeps the SFU internally logical. While ADB's policy prevents Petrick from playing Star Fleet Universe games outside of the privacy of company offices, he is an excellent wargamer and those skills strengthen the company's products.
     Military historian, tactician, strategist, wargamer. How appropriate that he should visit Council of Five Nations, a premier gathering of gamers.



Tournament Schedule
The tournament officially starts at 10am on Friday, October 7th. In fact, we're starting the con early just so SFB players can get in as many games as possible.  The rest of the events don't start until 2pm.

A bunch of us locals will be there when the doors open.  However, you do not need to be there that early to participate. We expect another wave of guys on Friday night after dinner, and yet another bunch on Saturday morning when the doors open at 8am.

See below for the details of the open Patrol round and finals bracket.


Experience Level
Most people on the three lists above have at least a solid knowledge of the rules and has played several games (a bunch of folks listed have Ace Cards). However, we know we'll have several players who are more at the novice level. We strongly encourage everyone to attend, whatever your experience level. We will try to pair you with players who can coach as you go along.


Sweeteners
  • Times are tough for a lot of people.  Our rent went up, but we're keeping prices flat to last year, just as we've done for three years in a row.
  • Students get roughly a 50% discount on their registration.
  • Groups of 3+ who pre-register in the same envelope, or together online, get $5 off each one.
  • We'll have over $200 of prizes, courtesy of ADB, waiting to be claimed by tournament gladiators like you.
  • October 7-9 is Columbus Day Weekend.  All our local State workers have Columbus Day Monday off from work. Maybe you do too, making it even easier to justify going to a con?


Questions?  Comments?
Please send an email to sfb /at/ swa-gaming.org and we'll get 'em answered. 




Tournament Format and Rules


Patrol Phase
  • Starts at 10am on Friday
  • Finals will start at 7pm on Saturday evening. 
  • Play as many games as you want
    • You must play at least two patrol games to qualify for the finals bracket.
  • Tournament Judge will assign matches by availability and blind draw.

Finals
Finals participants determined by a three-step process:
  • Net wins
  • Total number of games played
  • Strength of record of opponents (if we have time to calculate this), OR a simple die roll (if we're short on time), as per the Tournament Judge's discretion.

Finals Bracket:
  • Quarterfinals (Top 8) at 7pm Saturday
  • Semi-finals (Top 4) at 9am Sunday
  • Finals at 2pm Sunday


Special Prizes
  • "Iron Man" = most Patrol round games played
  • "Cosmic Hitchhiker" = the player who traveled the farthest to attend.
  • "Nailbiter" = closest victory (fewest boxes left when opponent blows up).

Prizes
  • We'll have over $200 of prizes, courtesy of ADB, waiting to be claimed by tournament gladiators like you.
  • We'll also have extra stuff from the Council prize stash.
  • And, most importantly, the winner will have their name engraved on the Council Cup, to be honored for time immemorial.




Please click for the main Council general info page.

Please click to download the Council Pre-Registration packet in PDF format.

Please click to Pre-Register via the online form (with immediate PayPal or Credit Card payment).

Please click for the pre-registration booklet informational text (the stuff besides the event listings... see below).

Please click for Directions to Council of Five Nations.

Please click for the Council Hotels page.

Please click for the Council Parking page.


Pages highlighting our game events and special event tracks

Please click to go to the Chronological listing of all events.

Please click for the list of Kids games.

Please click for the listing of all the Pathfinder Society RPG games.

Please click for the listing of all the Historical Miniatures events.

Please click for the Star Fleet Battles tournament page.

Please click for the Board Game Geek Top 25 event track page.

Please click for the Train games event track.

Please click for the Horror games event track page.

Please click for the Science Fiction games event track page.

Please click for the Battleground: Fantasy & Historical Warfare event track page.

Please click for the Savage Worlds event track page.

Please click for the Live Action Role-Play event track page.



If you have any questions, please email us at Council /at/ swa-gaming.org

(Please replace the "/at" with the typical "@" sign.  We apologize for this anti-spam measure.)



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