ID Gaming Tournament - A good day :)

[Da Boss]

First thankyou to all involved in organising and coping with us today - very much appreciated it was a GREAT Day 8)

My Day - Fleet Shadows!

the Battles

One (5 pt Skirmish - 2 Scouts) against Happy (2 White star Scouts and 4 WS fighters)
A Win - 44 VP to 0
A very quick game against an opponent who admitted that he was still thinking like an Abbai player. Quickly outmanoeuvred the 2 white Stars and destroyed one whilst mostly ignoring the fighters - we danced around it each for a couple of turns before I charged in - destroying the 2nd White star - and getting a bit battered in the explosion and finishing the game...............short and for me Sweet - although it also spurred Happy on to do very well in the next two games - the Shadows work is done!

Two 5 pt raid - 5 Scouts, Against a unusual and mixed League fleet - (2 Uruk-Hai, 1 Ispha, 1 Lumanti, 1 Vree Scout)
Win 50 VP to 10
I was a little wary of what this new (to me) ships could go and drifted round either side of an asteroid field at one side of the table. I was confident that my stealth and dodge should keep me safe until I close the range. Hmm I was then introduced the plasma web! :lol: After a turns firing by the varied League ships scratch one Scout and mark me worried!!! Lesson learned, I closed rapidly on either side of the league fleet - taking hits from the side plasma web but weathering it well and battered hell out of one Pak ship and shattering the Lumanti transport. Next turn, amongst the League and free to outmanoeuvre them at close range took some fire from the Ispha but finished of the lumanti and further damaged both Pak Ships. The vree saucer died next turn and minor damage to the globe as I stayed in its sides. Moving behind both pak ships as the Globe sped off to try and use range, killed them both and pursued. The Globe made a last stand in the corner of the table but with stealth on my side - it died quickly...........Good game against a fun opponent with new ships - which is always a good experience............

Three 5 pt battle - 6 Scouts and young Shadow against Triggy's (master of tournaments!!) 1 Vorlon LC, 1 Destroyer and 6 transports plus 12 (?) fighters
Loss 12 pts vs 35

A great battle - against a master player! Having previously only played Triggy once (my first tournament!) and beat him through the power of the Maximus (1 st ed) he was eager to put me in my place! :wink:
As the LC and Destroyed rounded the asteroid field in one corner powered my fleet forward to try and get in rnage. The initial exchange of fire saw a transport vaporised by the Ship and a scout pinned by the destroyer. The two fleets moved into close conflict with a multitude of manoeuvres and figherts swarming. The Ship took a shot at the destroyer hoping for a good beam hit to break the Pin. Some damage but paid for its aggressive tendency as the LC blasted a powerful quad damage beam hit through its shields and pinned it!!! Oh dear not good but we fought on.
(nb this is probably my main mistake as Triggy explained after - risking the Ship too early)
The Scouts swarmed round trying to take out Triggy's In sinking transports in a vicious game of cat and mouse as the Shadow Ship screamed and died. Transports and Scouts died whilst the fighters gave the Vorlons the Scout bonus they mostly needed. A lack of criticals and too many bulkheads proved increasingly important as the Scouts were reduced to three. Yet all was not lost as they soon finished off the last Transport!! My second good crit in the game (apparently I only rolled about 7 criticals :roll: in total ) sent the Destroyer adrift with the LC at the other end of the table and unable to help. The dice gods deserted me as 1 rolled 17 hits on the destroyer and NO criticals AHHHHH!!!! and it took about 10 damage due to bulkheads. As the last turn of the game was called, 2 Scouts surrounded the battered destroyer and inflicted enough damage to take it 1 damage left - so close - the other Scout was vainly falling against the LC in the dust cloud!
A great game to finish a superb day - I came third - best ever!!! The game was probably going Trigg's way but the destroyer was def dead next round and my scouts were basically undamaged - the fighter swarms not really causing enough damage. Could I have got the LC on its won - hmm maybe not - but it would have been fun to try!! A great opponent in every way

A Good Day - thank you to all 8) esp Ken for driving!!!![/b]

 

[Triggy]

I want to thank everyone for the great games and awesome organisation of the event (any event with comlementary food has to be a good one). I had a thoroughly enjoyable time and loved meeting up with everyone again. Here is my report of the event:

My fleet was Vorlons and as usual I put this together over the last week or so and hadn't had a chance to play with them (in any type of game) for a long while.

Game 1
vs. Dave (Brakiri)
My Fleet
3 x Vorlon Transpont
4 x Vorlon Fighter wing

Dave's Fleet
1 x Brokados (Pikatos Fighters)
1 x Shakara
2 x Ikorta

I was a bit aprehensive of this fleet due to the Fleet Carrier but once I realised Pikatos flights were being carried I realised the fighter war shouldn't be too tough. Once this was done the Fighters could push on and take out the smaller ships before I moved on finally to the Brokados. Fairly straightforward but if a Transport had gone down sooner I may have lost a few more VPs.

50-2 victory

Game 2
vs. Hiffano (Minbari)
My Fleet
1 x Vorlon Destroyer
5 x Vorlon Transport
2 x Vorlon Fighter wing

Hiffano's Fleet
1 x Tinashi
2 x Ashinta
2 x Torotha

This game was a tough one and I was definitely up for a bit of revenge after he helped kill me (personally) as admiral of the Earth fleet a few months ago. We both thought Stealth rolls would dictate an important part of the game and after I only inflicted a single beam hit in the first two turns, including my Destroyer failing two Stealth rolls (one of 3+ and one of 2+), which combined with me losing most of my Transports for little return made me think the battle was lost.

The game turned when our fleets passed one another and Hiffano reminded me that my Destroyer could use the planet's gravity well to come about on his Tinashi. This generosity proved fatal as the Tinashi was Crippled, losing its Stealth too and a AD on its weapons. The Fighters were a constant thorn in the Minbari side (reducing Stealth and inflicting damage) and with a couple of big beam hits on each Ashinta I managed to mop things up. The last part of the game came down to one Torotha having its turret bear down on the Destroyer when it only had a single Damage point left and failed to hit. The game was mine but this cost him 20 VPs for killing the Destroyer!

50-27 victory

Game 3
vs. Da Boss (Shadows)
My Fleet
1 x Vorlon Light Cruiser
1 x Vorlon Destroyer
6 x Vorlon Transport
4 x Vorlon Fighter wing

Da Boss's Fleet
1 x Shadow Ship (Young)
6 x Shadow Scout

Well, Shadows against Vorlons in a fight for ruling the galaxy in an epic confrontation. I came up through a dust cloud and lost a Transport in the early exchanges in return for pinning and heavily damaging a Scout. The Shadow fleet concentrated mainly on the Transports and the Destroyer but just couldn't put enough damage on the Destroyer as the Shadow Ship hit with an average attack and the rest of the Scouts weren't close enough to hit it. However, the Vorlon Light Cruiser hit back at the Shadow Ship and did enough damage to pin it. This was really bad news and was followed up the subsequent turn with a big beam hit killing it dead.

From here it became a game of cat and mouse as the Scouts took the initiative and ground my smaller ships down. My Fighters were annoying and helped bring down a couple more Scouts but the battle faded out as neither side had the ships to ram home a decisive advantage. Once again the Destroyer came within a single Damage point of being killed but the game was effectively over with no real way to finish off the Light Cruiser and Fighters marauding the board. It wasn't a massacre but the relatively early loss of the Shadow Ship had given the tournament title to me!

35-12 victory

There were a couple of decisive moments in this tournament, particularly in Game 2 where my Destroyer came about to eviscerate Hiffano's Tinashi and in Game 3 where Da Boss chose not to be more cautious with his Shadow Ship in the face of a huge Lightning Cannon - it would have cost him a Scout or two but skirting my fleet would have kept it alive and it would have been a real pain for me to try and take out.

All in all it was a great day and I came home with a Z'Takk to round out my Vree fleet, I just have a whole load more painting to do for the next tournaments in Walsall and the Mongoose Open Day.

 

[Wing Commander]

Thanks to all of you who attended and helped make it a great day, I think that we all thoroughly enjoyed the event. Even despite Da Boss' cursed Shadow Scouts.... I just couldn't lock those nuisances... I'll get ya next time tho! :twisted:
I can honestly say that all 3 games that I played were great fun and I had 3 superb opponents - I even felt rather guilty when I blew Burgers' Omega.... uncharacteristic rolling on the Lumatis' beam weapon resulted in 17 hits and 10 crits.... ouch! Exit 1 Omega!
We will not be conducting many more Tournaments for B5 (nothing to sell... ) but have planned several Events for later in the year - both campaign weekends and the occasional Mega battle, we're already thinking of Coriana later in the year, if we can fill a 6ft x 24ft table with Shadows, Vorlons and Sheridans fleet and see if we beat our previous record of 500 or so ships on the table at the 1 time!
Once again, thanks to all of you and well done to Tristan and his Vorlons who obviously had some kind of ineffable plan which bore fruit today!

 

[H]

Many thanks from me also. As ever a Tough but good game Versus Triggy, all down to that one shot with a Torotha!! but think that evens us up again, I'll need to hunt him down sometime in future!
Not to forget my other two games one of which was great fun, the other which was painful, but against a great opponent nonetheless.

PS. I hate Whitestars!

 

[Greg Smith]

I have to say I had a lot of fun. Thanks to the ID guys for a great event (and nosh too!). It is always good to play at an tourney with a bunch of like-minded even-tempered guys.

 

[KennyBoy]

All in all a good day out!

1st game vs John = My ISA (2 WS, 4 Sho'kov) his Narn (2 G'Karith, Sho'Kovs)

My first ever game using ISA and it showed, I used the White Stars too much like any other ship and CHARGED! Unfortunately, the squadron'd ships had decided to not power up their Neutron Lasers (4AD = no hits) and the G'Karith's return fire (non-dodgeable E-Mines) started to peck away at my damage and crew
The rest of the battle was pretty much a melee of Sho'Kovs (though the WS's missing with their 4 AD of beam AGAIN was a bit of a pain :x ). My decision to bring only WS scouts and no WSII's with their Nial was an error, cos' John's use of his 2 Frazi resulted in a dead White Star (6-5 crit = big crew loss) but we had managed to do enough damage to the G'Kariths that the solo WS finished them both off...
Result = Victory for ISA (45pts)

2nd game was against Ben (Diesel) who'd travelled up with the rest of "Greg's Crew" for his 1st Tourney.
5pt Raid: ISA = 4 WS, 1 Ka'Tan, 4 Sho Kov.
Ben's League = 2 Xeel war carriers, 2 Eyehawks, 4 Warbirds, 4 Sunhawks & a Brakiri Halik.

Still wanting to keep the WS's as a squadron, I had the Sho'Kovs and Ka'Tan as init sinks, but Ben still had many ships to spare... 1st turn went well as the WS's had found their Neutron Lasers and the 8AD attack on the poor Halik resulted in 20 hits... oh yes 20!!! :twisted: the resulting explosion finishing off a nearby Eyehawk that had been damaged by the Ka'Tans E-Mine attack on one of the Xeel carriers.
That was pretty much the highlight for me, the rest of the battle became a mish mash of sporadic fire from the WS's that kept trying to avoid the many Boresights of the Drazi (even splitting the squadron didn't help much :roll: ).
However, Ben found out how difficult WS's are to kill, especially on CBD and only managed to kill one (with a 6-6 crit)
Result = Victory for ISA (26pts) though naturally "I was ROBBED!" :wink:

3rd game vs Hiffano's Minbari
5 pt Battle = 4 WS, Tara'Lin, 4 Sho'Kov, Ka'Tan and a Dag'Kar
Minbari = 3 Tinashi, 2 Ashinta, a Leshath and 2 Torotha

Well, what can I say abvout this... Hiffano's Stealth generators didn't work as I managed to see his ships about 80% of the time! Combined with the fact that his Tinashi's Neutron Lasers were as effective as my WS's had been in the first game, everything just went against him (sorry fella)!
The WS's literally killed a Tinashi a turn, and the rest of his fleet was taking a kicking from the Dag'Kar's E-Mines and the Tara'Lin's beams...
It was just one of those game that everything goes right for one side and nothing for the other! I'm sure it comes as scant concillation to Hiff that we've all had them, but he's a good enough sport to take it on the chin...
Result = Victory for ISA (54 pts)

This was enough points to put me in 2nd place, which resulted in some nice shiny Silver dice and another ship to bolster my Pak'Mara fleet.

Thouroughly enjoyed the day, and would definitely be up for another long drive to take part in the proposed campaign weekend in future, nice work ID 8)

 

[Burger]

Well I took my EA fleet just because I'd won one, and wanted to get some use out of it. A completely non-competitive fleet, "Team Omega", has an Omega in every game - I didn't expect to win, but hey my Omegas rotating section really rotates, and my Artemis has a spoiler and n A-team paint job

Game 1: I had an Omega and 2 Hermes, the Omega was ganked by 17 hits from a 6AD beam from the Lumati Sex Toy Transport, of which 10 were crits. Not a lot I could do about that one except come to the forums and whine about the beam mechanic...

Game 2: Centauri gorgonzola fleet (6 Demos, 4x Haven plus some more bits and pieces) plus camenbert tactics - 4 Havens sitting on the back line meant I didn't get a single beam shot from my pair of Omegas. I didn't have a chance. Probably the least interesting and most unbalanced game game I've ever played, if it weren't for the fact Dan is a decent bloke and we had a good laugh.

Game 3: EA vs EA, the most fun game by far, very close and lots of explosions. I just about managed to gain victory with a last-minute Omega kill.

Joint last - doh!

 

[H]

your last battle looked really good from what I saw, as it should be, close and brutal

 

[Clanger]

Had a great day and enjoyed it very very much. A tourney where the organisers put on nibbles and pizza delivery rates in my books (hint hint Mongoose when you do one).

Enjoyed my games with my Drakh. Won against the Centauri. Lost to the Narn (bloody e-mines) and the ISA.

Win or loose had a great time

Roll on the next one guys

 

[Diesel]

Having played photojournalist at the tourny, I felt obliged to have a go at a tournament report. Accordingly, I present Diesel's take on events...

I took my Drazi-led League of Non-Aligned Worlds fleet (or 'League of Associated Bit-Part Players' as I referred to them on several occasions) along, not really expecting to do much other than have some fun! The painting was not exactly exemplary as I'd had about 3 weeks to do it and spent most of that time battling with flash and mould lines, not to mention the fact that my Xeels were still en-route from Mongoose Towers and had to be represented by counters.

Before piling in the car in Kettering with Greg's Crew I'd played a total of 3 games of ACTA - one introductory game, one convoy run where I destroyed all the convoy ships but still got pasted, and then another stuffing courtesy of Da Boss and his Shadow scout armada the Wednesday before. Hopes, as they say, were not high...

Game 1 vs Greg Smith, Psi-Corps

The first all-Kettering tie of the tournament pitted the most recent member of Greg's Crew against our mighty leader himself!

LoNAW: 1 Drazi Eyehawk, 3 Drazi Sunhawks, 2 Drazi Warbirds, 1 Vree Xeel Carrier

Psi Corps: 2 Shadowcloaks, 2 Artemis frigates, 1 Psi Corps Mothership

Starting something of a trend, the Vree Xeel was battered early and often. It didn't really have much of a chance of surviving the Mothership's 'attentions' and true enough it was destroyed in fairly short order.

In the meantime, the Sunhawks and Warbirds engaged the Shadowcloaks and Artemis frigates, with a little help from the Tzymms launched from the Xeel. With no help at all from my alleged scout, they managed to take out both Artemis and one of the Shadowcloaks whilst the other headed for the hills, at the cost of two Sunhawks.

The Eyehawk, attempting to bump down stealth, achieved precisely nothing and was put out of its misery by flights of Black Omegas. Given it had been about as effective as a pair of boxer shorts in the North Pole, it went unlamented...

To finish things off, the Warbirds managed to get into position to launch attack runs on the Mothership. Two turns of 4AD beams and 12AD TL batteries from both ships did the job, leaving the Black Omegas as the final Shadowcloak fled.

Final Score: LoNAW 46.25 VPs, Psi Corps 25

Game 2 vs KennyBoy, ISA

The second all-Kettering tie gave me a shot at Ken's latest toys. This promised to be good fun, as two of the more maneouvrable fleets at the tournament went up against each other.

LoNAW: 1 Brakiri Halik, 3 Drazi Warbirds, 2 Vree Xeel Carriers, 4 Drazi Sunhawks, 2 Drazi Eyehawks

ISA: 4 White Stars, 4 Narn Sho'Kovs, 1 Narn Ka'Tan

The first turn was reasonably quiet, with the Ka'Tan's e-mine smoking some Tzymms and giving a Xeel an early battering. The League simply rolled forward and awaited the expected White Star-related carnage, which duly arrived turn 2!

A full volley from the White Stars inflicted a total of 40 damage (should have been 60, but trust me, the extra dice were NOT needed...) on the hapless Halik, which even with Blast Doors left it on -16 damage. Unsurprisingly it went up like a Mercedes in a socialist riot, and destroyed a nearby Eyehawk in the blast.

The rest of the game became a mad scramble for position as Warbirds and White Stars tried to get shots on each other. Both Xeels went down early (a common theme!) whilst the Sunhawks battered the Sho'Kovs and Ka'Tan.

Just when things were about to turn the League's way, an abrupt halt was called to proceedings with two White Stars 3 points of damage away from destruction between them, one White Star down, and the Ka'Tan feeling rather sorry for itself! One more turn and the final result would have been very different indeed. I was robbed! Next time, Ken. Next time...

Final Score: LoNAW 13, ISA 26

Game 3 vs Nomad, Centauri

To say I was worried by this game would be a chronic understatement! Given that I'd picked my fleet half-expecting to be given some serious ribbing for initiative sinkery, it became quite clear I was a rank amateur...

LoNAW: 1 Abaai Juyaca, 2 Brakiri Haliks, 2 Vree Xeel Carriers, 3 Drazi Warbirds, 4 Drazi Sunhawks, 2 Drazi Eyehawks

Centauri: 2 Liati, 6 Demos, 2 Darkeners, 2 Kutai, 4 Havens

Having lost the initiative (I won it once in 3 games. Not that I'm bitter or anything!) I set up a fairly compact fleet in one corner of the board, only for the Centauri to set up equally compact in the other corner. The fleets moved in on each other, but the longer range on the Centauri guns meant the League ships took a real pounding. The Sunhawks went down faster than redshirts on an away team, with the Liatis in particular dishing out beatings like they were going out of fashion. The Xeels suffered an acute case of Demos poisoning after having the audacity to kill one, whilst the first Halik took fire from most of the Centauri fleet before finally succumbing.

The noble sacrifice of a good chunk of my fleet gave the Juyaca and the Warbirds time to get into position, and then things turned around rather sharply! After a very heated couple of salvos, a Liati had been destroyed along with another couple of Demos, whilst the other Liati and a couple more of the Demos were now the owners of a few more battle scars than they'd had at the start...

When the smoke cleared, there were grins all round and an honourable draw was declared.

Final Score: LoNAW 19, Centauri 20

One win, one draw and one loss was good enough for 7th overall, and I was pretty pleased with that! It was great fun all day, with three great opponents and a really relaxed atmosphere. As a veteran of six years' worth of 40K tournaments I loved the fact that I could have a laugh and a joke with people as the games progressed, and kudos to the team at ID Gaming for putting on the show. Bravo to the lads and lady! :lol:

Props to Triggy for his win (and also for putting Charles back in his box for all of 30 seconds :wink: ), and kudos to Ken for his 2nd overall and Mr Boss for his 3rd. Good show from the Crew, and I can't wait for the next tourny!

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Sorry I missed that party...