Results of Star Fleet Battles Tournament at Council XXVII

Report on the Star Fleet Battles Patrol Tournament
at Council of Five Nations XXVII
October 8-10, 2004






The Star Fleet Battles Patrol tournament was a success once again this year. We had 21 solid participants. We could have easily had six more if it weren't for three unfortunately-timed weddings. And if we had 27, we would have reached 32. SFB Players - tell all your friends that the weekend of October 7-9, 2005 is officially designated as a no-wedding zone!

Here is the breakdown of the participants:

1. Andrew Bailey [SWA] - Hydran
2. David Bostwick [East Hartford, CT] - WYN Aux (HHBB)
3. Gary Brady [Lagrangeville, NY] - Hydran
4. Tos Crawford [Pleasantville, NY] - Kzinti
5. Chris Dixon [New Jersey] - Federation
6. Brian Evans [Syracuse, NY] - Hydran
7. John Fitzpatrick [SWA] - Federation
8. Courtenay Footman [Ithaca] - WYN Black Shark (BB)
9. Marcus Giegerich [New Jersey] - Orion (HH11B / PG11F)
10. Kevin Hidinger [SWA] - Neo-Tholian
11. Nick Klercker [SWA] - Lyran
12. Jason Murphy [SWA] - Orion (1G111 / HGH11)
13. Ben Ossenfort [SWA] - WYN Aux (GDBB)
14. Chris Proper [Ithaca] - Lyran
15. Eric Rocque [SWA] - Klingon
16. Vince Romeo [SWA] - Klingon
17. Mark Russman [SWA] - WYN Black Shark (BB)
18. Tim Sheehy [Richmond, VA] - Hydran
19. Chris Todd [SWA] - ISC
20. Brook Villa [New Jersey] - Gorn
21. Mark Zaslavsky [New Jersey] - Federation

Tournament Judge

David Cheng

Special Prizes

We awarded the following special prizes:

• Iron Man: Person who played the most games in the Patrol round - TIE between Chris Dixon & Marcus Giegerich, who each played five patrol matches. Marcus won the roll-off, and graciously donated the Captains Log #24 back to the convention.

• Mr Perserverance: Person with the most losses - Chris Dixon took home Module TR.

• Nail Biter: Closest victory (fewest boxes left after blowing up the enemy) - Chris Proper's Lyran hung on to defeat Chris Todd's ISC, but it was real close. Mr Proper received Captains Log #23 for the effort.

• Cosmic Hitchhiker: Player who traveled the farthest to attend - Tim Sheehy made the train ride up from Virginia, and received Stellar Shadows #1.

• Chris Dixon also won the Consolation bracket by default, and took home a copy of Star Fleet Missions.
  

Quarter Finals

1. Tos Crawford (3-0) Kzinti, vs
8. Chris Proper (2-2) Lyran

2. Tim Sheehy (3-0) Hydran, vs
7. Marcus Giegerich (3-2) Orion (PG11F)

3. Brian Evans (3-1) Hydran, vs
6. Mark Russman (2-0) WYN Shark (BB)

4. Brook Villa (3-1) Gorn, vs
5. Gary Brady (2-0) Hydran

Semi Finals

Tos Crawford (Kzinti), vs
Mark Russman (WYN Shark BB)

Brook Villa (Gorn), vs
Tim Sheehy (Hydran)

Finals

Tim Sheehy defeats Tos Crawford

Winner's Report
Tim Sheehy posted this report on the Star Fleet Games discussion board.

First off, lets first say this is a very well run con. Dave “The Dictator” Cheng not only runs a mean SFB event, but if you ever participate in any of his auctions, you need to have cat-like, ninja reflexes to get that card down fast if in a bidding war.

Also, as an aside, I tend to be, I guess, somewhat of a rules ‘lawyer’. Since I don’t own the rules, I have at one time or another been burned by some of the most fantastic things I thought imaginable, and so I tend to play pretty by the book. I will obviously let things slide if they don’t matter, but when they have immediate consequences, I can be somewhat of a stickler. (Andy reminds me constantly about close combat maneuvering, for example, laugh) This unfortunately lead to a disagreement in one game, which was bad, as I had a really good time at the con. (Even in that game, up til that point, laugh)

Anyway….here’s my weekend at the con. Doing this all from memory, so anyone who has anything with different perspectives would be cool.

I entered as the Hydran. Since I hadn’t played one game since Origins, I figured if I actually wanted to win any games at all, I would either have to play it or the TKE. Since I thought Paul was coming, I figured Hydran was my best bet, and went with that. Of course, Paul chickened out when he heard he would have to face my wrath. Bawk Bawk.

Game 1 Klingon. (Eric Rocque)
Turn 1:
Against Direct Fire ships, I generally 6 point brick my number #2, put my fighters out a hex in front of me, and hope I can take his shot, and turn and chase him and maul him turn 2, early turn 3. The Klink is a special problem, because of that dang scatterpack, since wading through 6 drones can be problematical. I did my usual 18 move, 14/26 split, and moved in. The Klink went from moderate speed, to speed 30, so it was pretty obvious he didn’t have 4 OLs. He also launched a shuttle somewhat late. I saw I could get range 8 from the shuttle before it blossomed by speeding up to 26 a few imps early, so I did. He put out another shuttle once he saw I would get to shoot at the first, but I assumed, correctly, it was a decoy to try and stop me from blowing away the first one. I had the ftrs fire their fusions at it, and I tossed in one p1 myself, and blew it up. It was a scatterpack…yoohoo. He fired 4 std disruptors at me, hitting 3, I of course bounced the 6 and chased. I got a good range 4 shot at him and p1’d his #3 down to dust, saving my fusions and gats.

Turn 2:
I had him a real bind. He of course wants to turn in and fire 4 OL disruptors at me, but I got him where he has to het at me to do it. (One can always hope) I started chasing him, and was going to get range 2 centerlined on the #3, so he had to turn away from my wrath. I went ahead and shot up his #4 as well, since I figured I might be chasing him indefinitely here. He headed for wall, and I kept up the chase, but I was moving slower so he was able to start swinging around on me. At the end of the turn, he was able to set up a hack and slash on my #1. He fired 3 OL disruptors, all hit, range 2, on my number 1. I held gats and fusions and didn’t fire. His add rack was firing like mad at my fighters, and was getting it done, but they were both still hanging in there.

Turn 3:
He launched 2 fast drones, which was a problem, since they would go jump from range 2-0 and hit me. I decided I’d have to slip out and get them at range 1 and trac one or both, but also figured I’d be loosing some p1’s from his phaser direct fire that would soon be occurring. I fired 1 p1 at each drone, and an OL bore at him (Bam….rolled two 2’s…both dead) I guess I won’t have to slip after all, chuckle. He fires at range 2, and while he only gets 2 p1’s, he does nail a fusion. (Dangit!!) Ok…So I go to range 1, and he tacs to bring a p1 and p3 he held into arc, I am somewhat concerned, so I wuss out and alpha him right here, 3 fusions, 2 p1’s, 8 gats at him, and blow a good sized chunk of his ship away. He does some mizia to me, hits 2 more phasers and a fusion, but the writing is on the wall now. He has a speed increase, but I trac him so all my manned shuttles can shoot him up on his 3 down shields. He resigns.

Game 2 Wyn Aux (2 drones, 1 disr, 1 gat) (Ben Ossenfort)
Ben is a pretty cool guy, and I ended up hanging out with him Friday night. However, while I generally think the Aux is an even match up for the Hydran, I don’t think these options are optimal.

Turn 1:
I had no idea what to do, so I did the same thing I always do against direct fire ships. It didn’t matter, since Ben went into a total corner dodge, launching 6 drones about 6 hexes away from each other in stacks of 3. I went into the middle of the board, and my fighters killed the first 3 drones. The others were like 6 hexes away at turn end. Ben discharged a std disruptor.

Turn 2:
Ben was still screaming down the wall edge, so I plotted speed 20 all the way, and turned to pursue/chase and avoid the turn 1 drones. (Fighters in pursuit as well, but getting left behind) Ben launched 3 more drones early, and saw he was being cornered, dropped tracking on the last 3 turn 1 drones, and launched 3 more. The problem was, he was flying out from the corner, and the drones were dropping behind. I caught him range 1 centerlined, and he tractored me, which I didn’t fight. (I kept my tracs for grabbing two of those drones, or one if I lost a tractor) I kind of figured I’d be blowing his tractors off his ship anyway, though. We both alpha’d each other, and after he took 70 internals in two volleys, he lost both tractors and resigned. Fighters would have finished him off next turn anyway, even if the drones hit me and he survived….he took just too much damage anyway. (Centerlined range 1 hydran will do that to you I guess)

Game took about 45 minutes total and we went out and drank several 12 packs, laugh. On a sidenote, I gave the bartender a twenty, and she gave me change for a hundred. When I pointed this out, for some reason she gave Ben and Jason free drinks, because I was so honest, laugh.

Game 3 Orion: HB/HB/1/1/drone (Marcus Giegerich)
Turn 1:
Terrible matchup for the Orion. In all fairness, no option mount package is great, so I guess it doesn’t really matter. However, as an aside, Marcus had JUST won against another Hydran, a game in which the Orion missed TWO OL HBs at range 2 in the same volley, and yet he still won the game. So, obviously, not a player to be taken lightly. I did my usual speed of 18 all the way, with the idea I would just corner dodge if he doubled 2 engines. He only doubled one, so I figured what the hay and went up the map, tossing out the fighters early as usual. As he closed on my fighters, he shot them up at range 4, and turned off. He turned off, and I gave him 5 p1’s and 1 OL hellbore. I rolled well, but he had a decent brick on his number #3, so I took the shield down to 1. I fired 4 ftr fusions on same shield….all sixes…grrr, I went ahead then tossed in ship fusions, rolled well, did 5. He took 4 internals….but no power/drones.

Turn 2:
His Orion has almost no overrun threat, but I figured he’d be kind of desperate. So, as usual, I parked, rearmed everything, and overloaded the other bore. He only doubled one, and I commented had I known that, I would have just chased him. (He should have given me the signal, laugh) He used some p1’s to kill off my fighters, and fired 2 std bores at me….I fired the OL bore at him, held the rest of my fire. (Still a little paranoid about getting ran over) He bricked some, but took 6 internals or so, and he lost 2 warp…sweet. He fired the rest of P1’s at my #1, and I used bats to block 5. I fired at his #4 with my 5 p1’s, rolling well, doing 12 to his #4.

Turn 3:
I went speed 10 all the way, and overloaded a bore in EA, since it was inevitable for me to get range 8. He went moderate speed, doubling one engine. He built up his huge two drone wave, and tried to use them to shield him, chuckle. I tractored both of them, labbed them both, shot them both down. End of the turn, I fired 5 p1’s and an OL bore on his #1 I think, shredding another shield, and the 9 internals or whatever did 2 more power hits. Can’t remember what he did to me, but it was nothing. I think he shot my #1 with some p1’s, almost knocking it down.

Turn 4:
We had ended the turn like range 3, so seemed silly to move. I went ahead and parked again, and OL’d the bore. He parked originally, but then started backing up. On the first impulse, he fired a hellbore (std) which he promptly whiffed with. I hit him with the hellbore, and he was at this point completely doomed. However, he played out the turn, wheeled around, and fired at me range 2, so I gave him both gats and the fusions. He did internals to me, and I blew him up. I think he wanted to salvage some dignity and do internals before dying.

I tried to play Tos at this point, but he declined. He seemed to think we would be playing each other at some point in the future and didn’t want to waste time, snicker.

Game 4 Orion Phot/gat/1/1/fusion (Marcus)
Turn 1:
In a huge fluke of luck, the tree came out, and I got to play Marcus again. He didn’t like how the last game went, so he decided to be desperate and went with his other package. On turn 1, I did exactly the same thing I do against normal DF races, the 14/26 thing with the brick on the #2. I was somewhat surprised when he went with no engines doubled, and cloaked out, starting at speed 12. I obviously just went to the middle of the map, and he somewhat corner dodged to keep the range open a little. I think we ended the turn range 8.

Turn 2:
I thought I might have to do some sub hunting here, so I went ahead and Overloaded one hellbore in EA. Also, on the chance he came out of cloak, I wanted to be on him early, so I went 26/14 plot, to close quickly. He did indeed come out of cloak, doubling 1 engine, and I moved in. He was in a real bind, since I was going to get range 2 centerlined on impulse 6, the imp he was completely out. He had to het away from me to avoid this disaster, but I still got a good range 4 shot at him. I went with 5 p1’s and the OL hellbore, erasing the shield after he bricked it a little. My fighters next imp tried their 4 fusions, (remember they total whiffed last time), and they struck gold for 12 points, 11 internals. Scratch the fusion, and 3 power. Excellent. He came loping around, shot up my fighters, but held fire on me.

Turn 3:
I for the life of me can’t remember much of this turn, except the end of it. I know we started at reasonably close range, and I fired the OL hellbore at him early. It hit, and while it did some power/phasers, I didn’t luck out and nail the other torp. I know I was moving like speed 14, (I think I went 14 all the way), and he was going a little faster…like 19. He came in and caught me, and tracced me, and I fired on him on imp 31 at range 1 off of my #5. (I think he actually held fire there) I gave him 2 std fusions, and the gat, (I think I had fired my p1’s early as well) They erased his number #6, and the resulting internals didn’t take out a torp either. I turned on imp #32, and he launched a shuttle. (I had killed a manned one earlier of his) I gave him the gat on his down #6, and he blew a hole in my #4 with his fire. He took 19 internals (4 from phot feedback), and I took like 20, losing all 3 bearing phasers. At the end of the turn, he wanted to keep me in tractor. I couldn’t for the life of me fathom why he wanted to do that, but fought it for awhile, up to 15, and let him have it at 16. (I had way more power than him, even doubled, but I could not see what possible difference any of this would make, laugh)

Turn 4:
Ok, things made a lot more sense on pre-imp1, when I got rotated into the hex and hit with the suicide he launched, laugh. Of course, this was somewhat meaningless, since I was actually mizia proof by this point, since I had no other bearing phasers. He did knock out my 2nd fusion. I broke the tractor, and launched some manned shuttles. (His bay was blown off by this point) I figured they themselves would finish this if necessary. He fired and killed of another fusion/hellbore of mine, but it was kind of meaningless anyway. My shuttles moved around for awhile, but he resigned on like imp #6 before I could get get them to shoot.

I think we played 4 turns in about an hour.

Game #5 Gorn (Brook)
This was the game I mentioned in the Tactics thread. Don’t see a super pressing need to go into a great amount of detail, but I will mention something in particular. I fired 3 OL hellbores at him this game, hitting with 2. This is notable, because it was the ONLY hellbore I fired all tournament that missed. This obviously fits in completely with my plan to roll well and get lucky. I also will mention again the unbelievable DAC that when he did a first volley of 9 internals to me, he hit 3 control, and 6 hull. Hydran is pretty dang easy to play with luck like that.

Game #6 Kzinti (Tos Crawford)
I had played Tos before in a finals match, and he was my roommate this year at this one. I consider the Kzinti to be a lethal opponent, and I had lost against Brian Evans in the same matchup in my last game at Origins. However, I figured I’d be weaseling the drones and firing on him, my usual plan.
Turn 1:
I did my direct fire 14/26 plot. Tos did a 12/24 split…doing the scatterpack retrieval thing. At range 8 from fighters, he fired an OL disr at each. Both whiffed. (Hows that for luck) We closed some more, and he fired an OL and 2 p1’s and each ftr, and rolled awful again. He did 9 damage to one, (crippled), and only 6 to the other. This was a real issue, since my fighter likely had a good shot coming up unless the Kzinti turned away. Tos launched some more drones, and on imp #32 I got range 4 to him and let fly with 5 p1’s and an OL bore. (bats) I of course rolled awesome and ripped down his #2 shield.
Turn 2:
Yeah, ten drones on the map, wonder what I’ll do. I of course parked. On imp #1, I had my crippled ftr fire his p3 at range 4 at Tos, coupled with my OL bore. P3 hit for 1, laugh, and bore hit. Can’t remember internals, not super important. Imp 2 I landed my ftr, and tossed out a weasel. Was thinking me repairing that fighter could be huge later. Imp 3 he turned in, my ftr slipped over to range 2 on his #1, and he used a p3 to destroy my guy, while my guy did ok and basically erased Tos’s front shield. Imp #5 I think the first set of drones impacted my weasel. He announced ED, and entered and stopped in my hex with the 2nd set of drones. (So, he even got to take the collateral of those on a random shield) Imp #8 my p1’s cycled and I let him have it at point blank range. That pretty much summed it up. I think he wanted me to be out of the weasel protection, so he could launch drones/sui’s, and tie up my fire while he gave me the business, but I likely would have ignored anything he launched regardless and just munched it anyway. So, the game ended with his ship mauled to “heck” and back, and my ship with collateral damage.

On a sidenote…..I thought it about it later, that I was greedy to have that ftr fire on imp #1, and trac him in weasel imp #2. He had a crack at a tractor on me range 2, and if he went high enough, I did not completely overrule the possibility. I think I had 4 in trac, and coupled with bats, if he went 20, he had me. I would have had to use my ftr then to shoot down drones, along with my gats, and my alpha would have sucked. However, it would also mean he had pretty no power to do anything else whatsoever, but shooting down 14 drones in a turn, even with a ftr helping, would have completely sucked.