ACTA Walsall Tournament report

[Da Boss]

First of my thanks to all involved in the a most enjoyable day, Richard and all involved at Walsall for the excellent organisation, my opponents and fellow tourney attendees and of course Ken for driving 

My report on a great day (although sorry forgot my camera!)

Arrived good and early and we had our usual cooked breakfast to set us up for the day:

Games:

Game One against Stewart (Vree), 6pt Skirmish, Victory!
My fleet: Balvarin (4 Razik, 4 Sentri), Elutarin, Maximus, Kutai, 2 Haven

Having had a quick hat and looked at the Vree fleet I was a little worried about the firepower of the Vree, however I was also fairly certain my fleet was set up to dish it out in equal measure but also to defend against it.
This was reinforced in turn one when the Elutarin reduced a torpedo saucer to wreckage. Turn 2 saw the Elutarin become the foccus of the remaining 3 but Hull 6, CDB and interceptors kept it going. The Centauri fleet lunged forward and began carving the Vree to pieces, which took a number of turns. Stewart (at first tourney) freely admitted not seen half of my ships before in his games and so was not prepared for a new style of Centauri play. He was however an excellent sport considering the rather tone sided nature of the game and the tourney was off to a good start which a good fun game.

Game Two against Hiff (Minbari), 3pt Raid, Defeat!
My fleet: Balvarin (4 Razik, 4 Sentri), Elutarin, Vorchan, Kutai, Kutai
I hate bloody Minbari but the first two turns gave me hope – the Elutarin immediately achieved a lock on the lead Ashinta (of three) and battered it. The Minbari closed and again the Centauri lunged forward loosing the Vorchan but dishing out plenty of damage as the Minbari stealth failed, the lead Ashinta becoming crippled and skeleton crewed. Then turn 3 arrived and they switch stealth back on and my ships had not targets as they were steadily whittled away. Although I managed to manoeuvre my Elutarin with the planet back round to a firing position, it never got a chance to fire before a lucky crit knocked out its torps. Although in a last ditch effort I managed to take out the damaged Ashinta but the two remaining Minbari ships cleared space of their opponents! Good fun and in the end surprising close.

Game Three Burger (Minbari), 3 pt Battle, Victory!
My Fleet: Dargan, Balvarin(4 Razik, 4 Sentri), Elutarin, Demos (x3), Corvan
Ah so Minbari again and after I finished moaning and whining about having to fight them again I managed to achieve a decisive victory. In no particular order I was helped by my gallant opponents fleet choice (two Shantavi and two Tigari), my numerical superiority, my good luck vs his average luck and a few good tactical choices. The Minbari advanced to meet my fleet and the lead Tigari was isolated and sent adrift, and quickly shattered, swiftly followed by the Assassination target of a Shantavi. A late 6,6 crit on my Dargan was in the words of Mark – too little and way too late. Sadly Mark had very little chance.

Game Four, Greg (Minbari), 5 pt Battle, Defeat!
My fleet: Neshitan, Veshitan, Ashinta (x2), Tigara (x2)
Ah so now in second place I get to fight the Minbari again but having abandoned my principles and gone to the dark side with a Minbari fleet I guess I deserved what happened next!
So I had chosen to try a “Charge” Minbari fleet and promptly tried that and found that this time I had not switched my stealth systems on. Gregs frist 5 shots saw my ships and carved huge chunks out of them with his Sharlins and Tinaishis beams whilst I could see exactly nothing ;( This continued with my fleet looking increasingly worse for wear and me scratching a Tortha. With the Neshitan crippled, a tigara vapurised and rest of the fleet with varying damage and the game looking lost I reached for a last life line and tired to ram the Sharlin with my Veshitan – which failed. One Ashinta tried the same and smacked straight into the warship vaporising itself and causing vast damage to the Sharlin – Happy days. Form that moment on the game turned from a nightmare to great fun, with a second Ashinta doing the same to a Tinashi -–killling both ships – Huzzah!! The age went down to the end – with my last crippled Tigari narrowly failing to ram the Morshin (Greg rolled a six to avoid the collision) and bring the game close to a draw but no a defeat to the end a most enjoyable day! Good fun (once I started ramming)

I managed fourth place in the end

Thanks to all involved

 

[Stormrider]

Game 1 - Charles (Centari) vs Vree
Fleet: 4 Xixx, Vaarl, Xeel (4 Tzymm)
Result: Failed to tame the Lions (except one!)

In short, I was charged down and torn to pieces. I had trouble putting damage out thanks to the interceptors and the longer it went on, the less I could try. Fighter superiority went to the Centari from the get-go and with a fleet carrier and escort ship I was facing a powerful combo. Despite all this though, I enjoyed every minute of the game and it flowed fast and free. I have to say the details are fairly hazy, it was early morning after all and when you're given such a savage kicking you're prone to some amnesia. I do remember forcing one ship to surrender though, a small victory as I exploded shortly afterwards... The game was a very welcome start to the day and it's good to hear that I'm able to lose without worrying, but lord help you all when I win

Game 2 - Greg (Vree) vs Vree
Fleet: 4 Xixx, Vaarl, Xeel (4 Tzymm) (Sent request to B5 for reinforcements... none came)
Result: I got probed...

Vree vs Vree was a very interesting match up. Greg again had fighter superiority over me having 2 carriers to my 1, and chose Xorr rather than Xixx. I fared better in this match that the last one, largely due to less interceptors and weaker hulls, but conversely the same weapons were pointing back at me and the turns where I had to reload were painful indeed. I did manage to execute the cowardly and craven maneuvre "firing retreat" as I shuffled backwards hurling torpedoes. Saving grace being Greg not claiming the objective as he was too busy killing me to worry about it. Again, another really fun match up and gave me some good insight into how my Vree look coming at my opponent. Learned a lot from Greg in this game and I'm sure there's much more for me to learn yet.

Game 3 - Keith (Narn) vs Vree
Fleet: 4 Xixx, Vaarl, Xeel (4 Tzymm), Xaak (reinforcements arrive, too late)
Result: By G'Quan I was robbed!

Energy mines. (I'm tempted to end the report there...) Blast doors (it's a 5+, how can you suceed on 90% of the rolls???). I admit, it's a flaw of my fleet that most of the ships have the need to run and hide every other turn as they furiously reload, but you can't hide from the energy mines... oh no... I think all things being equal, this match was very close, but got tipped over the edge as every Narn ship kept it's blast doors closed all game and Keith wouldn't let the damage through, those damage control rolls were just too good. In the end the mighty Xaak fell and the assassination was complete. This dice weren't with me and Keith was very gracious in victory

Game 4 - Paul (Drakh) vs Vree
Fleet: 4 Xixx, Vaarl, Xeel (4 Tzymm), 2 Xaak, Xonn (Where were you guys earlier eh?)
Result: Armageddon was upon us!

Never faced the Drakh before... 2 ships... 1 Armageddon and 1 Battle. My brain tells me, I have torpedoes, I can kill single targets quite quickly... all eggs in 2 baskets... Then out pops a War ship, a scout, a Raid ship, a raider (not sure on the exact composition... I've braved the M6/M1/A46 since then!).. at best guess I was facing something like 9 Battle with 5 Battle and had to learn the Drakh weaknesses as I went. We both played a waiting game as I took up position in a dust cloud and the Drakh peeked out from behind an asteroid field. Then the carnage began...

Came down to a very close result though, adding up the VPs I lost everything and left only the armageddon and scout on the table. In hindsight I could have tried to hammer into the light armour of the big fella earlier but with lots of damage points I'm not sure it would have managed much and as Paul pointed out, I could have used the dust cloud to much better effect but if I didn't learn something it wouldn't behalf the fun would it eh? Despite me and Paul starting the day with "are you the one I was arguing with on the forums?" it ended up being one of my favourite battles ever. Paul is a top opponent and I'd welcome more games with him any time!

 

[Greg Smith]

Game 1 vs Shut Up Hippie!

Vree: 3 Xorr, 2 Xeels, 2 Xaar
vs: 4 Torotha and1 Ashinta

I was a little worried by playing Minbari. I claosed the range as he started in a dustcloud. He ravaged a couple of my ships, but his Torotha's came out to meet me, giving my tzymms chance to ravage the little Minbari ships. Then I get right up close to his Ashinta and it was game over.

Game 2 vs Stewart
He outranged me with his torpedo saucers and he killed one on my Xorrs in the first turn. Using Tzymms as interceptors saved my bacon as a I charged across the table. He backed up but my heavier close range firepower quickly told on his fleet. And a Xaar that could dodge like a whitestar helped too!

Game 3 vs Ken
Minbari: 2 Tinashi, Tigara, 2 Torothas
Ken were in first and second place. His fleet consisted of a mighty Corumai and a haltona with 2 scouts.

We faced off at long range. We approached a planet in the centre and I carefully positioned my small ships behind the planet. I was somewhat suprised when the Corumai came hurtling around the planet using the gravity well. The Corumai fired, and half of its front guns obliterated my Tigara. The other half couldn't get a lock. However my Tinashis ahd spread out and could pound the Brakiri behemoth with impunity from either side. It was quickly made adrift, then given powerfluctuation. The following turn a crew crit stopped damage control long enough for me to finish it off.

Game 4
Sharlin, Tinashi, morshi, tigara, 2 Torotha's.

See Charles' description above. My stealth, beam and crit rolls were awesome. Charles fleet really suffered until he started ramming - which turned a potential walkover (by virtue of dice rather than skill) into a very entertaining game.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable day. Special thanks to Richard for organising it.

 

[Centauri_Admiral]

I have to say, I enjoyed running this for you guys, its always pleasure to have such esteemed company!

I'm pleased to hear that pretty much everyone enjoyed the day, from what I gather, its the first tournament I have personally run . . . and I've picked up a few tips and things that will make the next tournament run better. Plenty of suggestions have been made; and I'm pleased to see that it looks like our core of B5 ACTA gamers seems to be set to stay.

I'd like to thank you all for your continued support, thanks to the turn out, we've not run this event at a loss . . . which means there is a green light for more. Thanks also to our newest addition, Stewart, though you walked away with wooden spoon . . . I have a strong suspicion we'll be seeing more of you in future, coming back hitting harder

Soooooo, I have plans to run a combined B5/Firestorm/Dystopian tournament, possibly as early as late august early september . . . . . what are peoples thoughts?

 

[Stormrider]

I'll be back to defend my title as the Spoon Holder of Walsall!

 

[Shut Up Hippie!]

Great day, great company.

Quote of the day has to be from Paul concerning Shane and his Vree, unfortunately it's to rude to post

looking forwrad to the next one in Aug/Sept - epecially if we make it a random doubles tournie/gamesday as discussed!

Also like the idea of a cmapaign weekend down at Charles' place, Earth Mimbari War part 2 perhaps.................

 

[KennyBoy]

Cheers Richard for running this tourney, great fun fella!

Game 1 was my Early EA vs. Shane's Vree.
This game was so ridiculously skewed in my favour in regards to rolling... Turn one saw our fleets still very far apart, the only thing in range was my lone Saggitarius. However, after hitting one of the "exposed" Vree ships with 6AD of SAP/Precise missiles, the resulting crit fest (including a 6/6) saw the saucer reduced to its component atoms :twisted:
The next turn saw my Saggi take some fire from the twin Xixx Torpedo saucers, but the Interceptors did their job and the EA ship returned fire... only 2AD from the front this time... which resulted in two crits, one of them ALSO being a 6/6 - result, another dead Vree ship!
Shane manouevered in and around an asteroid field as my ships closed in. He did destroy the Saggi after unloading virually all of his firepower at it, but by then, the rest of the EA fleet had gotten in close enough to unleash hell upon the little grey men!

Game 2 was my Vree vs. Andy's Minbari
Andy had a relatively "Charge" fleet selection - a Veshatan backed up by two Torotha - that he kept in a squadron the entire game... anyone will tell you that usually the player with the most ships will win in ACTA, and this is helped when your opponent speeds recklessly towards you!
Needless to say, the lack of Anti-Fighter dice on the Minbari ships was a bonus for my 6 Tzymms and I only lost one - which meant mant AD of TL goodness to hammer the Veshtan with!
Some creative "All power"ing by my squadron of 2 Xixx and a Xorr and they were in amongst the trio of boneheads who quickly succumbed to the Vree's awesome fireppower (well, it's awesome when you can actually see your foe)
A second win for me and I was feeling good...

Until I found out my turn 3 opponent, that is...

Game 3 was my Brakiri vs. Greg's Minbari :?
I had decided to take Brakiri for this game and opted for a relatively "fun" selection... I had wanted to use my Corumai for a little while, and I thought that this would be the ideal venue - not the smartest thing to try in the end!
Placing all my eggs in the one (pretty big) basket was a risky propsect if I was playing against a "normal" fleet, against Minbari, it becomes an exercse in futility. :shock:
As Greg mentioned in his report, I surprised him by using the planet's gravity well to bring the Tigara and Torotha's under the Corumai's front arc, and, as I had scouted the Tig and one of the Torotha's I thought I might get lucky... but only seeing the one ship meant that the ship count stayed at 4 each and I was always going to be outmanouevered by the Tinashis... adding to this was Greg's beam hits being better than average and getting an adrift crit meant it was pretty much game over by Turn 3...

Final game was my Pak'Mara vs. Hiff's Minbari
Oh joy, more Minbari! However, the Pak'Mara's ability to combine fire into Plasma Webs meant that I could dish out somw hits without having to worry about Stealth.
Hiff had 2 Sharkaans backed up by a Troligan in hyperspace. The latter he was hoping would be able to jump out and create merry hell with it's huge amounts of firepower. Unfortunately, he placed his entry point quite near to my dozen Porfatis and when the resilient Battle ship arrived, they jumped all over it. Needless to say, Hiff was not overly familiar with the Porfatis, and was unpleaseantly surprised by the amount of damage these tough little fighters can deal out - result, one upset Hiff and one dead Troligan :twisted:
Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get close to the boneheads without taking at least one hit from the Sharkaan's, and they combined their Triple damage beams to destroy a Hurr Gunship in my squadron of two Gunships and two Urik'Hals
A couple of fortunate missile hits from the Pak gave Hiff some food for thought and the following turn saw my other Gunship Adrift and crippled
Howerver, the combination of Plasma Webs and the odd missile hit saw one Sharkaan destroyed and the other one headed for the hills...
A win for the carrion eaters, but not enough to see me any highr than second place after Greg's Minbari saw off Charles' charging boneheads!

Greg has retained his crown as King of Walsall, and I must now spend my days in exile... well, until the next tourney

 

[H]

"you sank my Battleship"... WITH BLOODY FIGHTERS!

 

[Burger]

Many thanks for running it!

Game 1 against hiff, my cheese fleet of Ashinta's pretty much walked over his EA, A Hyperion did destroy one by ramming it though!

Game 2 against Keith's Narn, he certainly made me work hard for a win. The Dag'Kar simply would not die and by the end, two of my Ashintas had power fluctuations and the other had lost its stealth.

Game 3 Charles' Centauri, see above....

Game 4 Shane's Narn, he started out well, making short work of both Tigaras But by then his G'Vrahn was adrift and had no damage control so it was just a floating brick. A late kill of a Shantavi wasn't enough and the rest of his fleet was mopped up by some amazingly lucky dice rolls. 9 hits from a 4AD triple damage beam, with 7 crits, 2 of which were vitals... and both 6-6's. Not even worth rolling the damage, really...

 

[axolos]

Great write-up guys! Thanks for sharing those stories! Sounds like you had a fun weekend!

I am currently getting some of my fleets ready to take them to a Czech convention next week to get some practice with some of my friends... I will try to post some write-ups too.

 

[Da Boss]

Good to hear

Look forward to reading your reports