Klingons on the Starboard Bow Tournament Report

[MongooseMatt]

Well, the tournament is in full swing, with the second round underway!

There is a good spread of fleets and, thus far, only one table has seen a 'civil war' between two of the same fleets (though there are at least two Romulan fleets that are using nothing but Klingon hulls!).

If I have the forum names right (!), Clanger was one of the top scoring playerts in the first round with his Romulans, but all other participating playtesters are not doing so well!

For those interested, there are 5 Federation fleets, 3 Klingon and 4 Romulans taking part. After the first round, two Romluans were in the top three, with one Federation player. The Klingons are all clustered around the middle, but we should not read too much into that as there are three more games to play and players are now 'seeded' according to score.

Just walked past one table, and the Federation player has pretty much _flooded_ the table with suicide shuttles, forcing his Romulan opponent to withdraw in haste!

 

[MongooseMatt]

Some photos from the second round...

Tiger Klingons get completely outflanked by fast-moving Federation ships.

Romulans take advantage of a dust cloud to enhance their general sneakiness as they close in ono a Klingon fleet.

Romulans take on Klingons in their own ships!

Mongoose staffer Will's 'Black' Federation explains the benefits of ganging up to playtester Greg's (no doubt renegade) Federation.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Okay, second round finished!

Leading the pack (and going head to head in round three) are Stuart Excell's Federation vs. Paul Eyles Romulans.

Interestingly, Federation currently holds both the top and bottom ranks!

 

[logical_proof]

Woot, very cool stuff. Thanks for the reports so far Matthew.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Halfway through the third round, and everyone is playing the Rescue mission...

On Table One, leading players Stuart (Federation) and Paul (Romulan). The Federation seem to have the territory well in hand, cutting the Romulans off from the Rescue objective.

On Table Two, a Romulan strike force rounds a dust cloud to spring a trap on a Klingon dreadnought. We are expecting lots of plasma torpedoes to be launched in the next turn...

This is an interesting one - the final positions of the ships in Sam's (Romulan) and Charles' (Federation) game. The Romulans managed to claim victory (13-7 tournament points) without firing a single shot. They won purely by manoeuvre!

A highly tactical game of move and countermove, spread across much of the table. Will vs. Andy, both fighting to _not_ be last in the tournament.

 

[McKinstry]

Thanks for the update. Any real noteworthy OOB's?

 

[MongooseMatt]

Thanks for the update. Any real noteworthy OOB's?

The all Klingon ship Romulan fleets are quite amusing, as are the two Dreadnought fleets (fleets with two Dreadnoughts in them). I'll leave the players themselves to add their fleet notes here later.

Going into the last round now, everything to play for, and an interesting situation has developed.

The (current) top two players are Romulan, the next two Federation, and the next two Klingons, so we have three 'civil wars' taking place on the top three tables. Just a statistical anomaly, of course, as everything will get shaken up in the last round as 'best' player meets 'best' player, but odd to see.

Anyway, current favourite is Paul Eyles, who has gained a 14 point lead over his two closest rivals, but a pounding from his last opponent could easily mean the tournament gets decided on Sportsmanship points.

I am currently predicting the first place will get taken by a Romulan fleet, second by the Federation, and third by Klingons, which is a nice, healthy mix at the top. On the other hand, I can safely say that, unless something very unusual happens, it will be a Federation player at the bottom. And that player's name will be Will (no, he won't be getting a day off, it seems).

Full tournament stats at the end, I am sure many here will be interested to see what they say about the fleets!

 

[MongooseMatt]

Just a quickie.

On the top table, the two Romulan fleets are approaching one another head on, uncloaked.

I expect both to disappear in a single cloud of plasma at any moment...

 

[MongooseMatt]

Mid-fourth round report.

The Romulan duel on the top table is done, and I believe I know who the winner of the tournament will be. They could, in theory, be beaten, but one of the Federation players would have to get a wipe out victory _and_ score maximum sportsmanship (and those two do not always go together!) to do it...

The Federation civil war sees a powerful grouping of dreadnought, heavy cruiser and battlecruiser sift through dust clouds for a lone frigate.

In the Klingon civil war, everyone is trying to maintain range while staying out of an opponent's front arc.

LBH ponders the meaning of all the death that surrounds him...

Will's dreadnought goes head to head with the white hat Federation.

 

[MongooseMatt]

And the tournament ends!

It looks like a good time was had by all, and there were some decent stand up fights! It also seems the prediction I made earlier on was not completely spot on, but that is the nature of war!

Before I get into the results themselves, I first have to make a personal apology to David. I made a tiny, tiny mistake in reading one of the battle report cards (still don't know how as, for years, I have been meticulous over them) that resulted in an error in the placings I read out at the end of the tournament. I have promised David something cool in the near future and, if you have also been affected by this, don't worry, the award is still yours - the mistake was mine, not yours. Never happened before, won't happen again. Mark, drop me a line and we'll sort something out for you too.

Anyway, that aside, the final tally!

David Philips (Romulan) 82 points
Paul Eyles (Romulan) 74 points
Mark Mainwaring (Klingon) 62 points
Andy Don (Federation) 61 points
Alan Buckmaster (Klingon) 60 points
Charles Lister (Federation) 58 points
James Olver (Klingon) 58 points
Greg Smith (Federation) 57 points
Stuart Excell (Federation) 53 points
Sam Davies (Romulan) 43 points
Richard Carr (Romulan) 40 points
Will 'I am not getting a day off' Chapman (Federation) 30 points

 

[McKinstry]

Interesting. The Romulan fleets occupied the top and bottom with a fairly big delta between both the bottom and top two and the crowd of Klingons and Feds in the middle. The gap between the top 2 and the pack was 12 and the gap between the bottom two and the pack was 10 whereas all seven of the Fed and Klingon players finished within 9 points of each other.(note: No offense to Will but draftees can't be factored into the all-volunteer group )

Something about the plasma fleets that they either win big or die ugly?

Any conclusions about specific ships either being really worthwhile or hideously useless?

Looking at LBH. Are JAFO hats and Irn Bru the official tournament gear of ACTASF?

 

[lastbesthope]

LBH ponders the meaning of all the death that surrounds him...

[Yoda]Wars not make one great[/Yoda]

8)

You will notice the all important, highly toxic, LBH fuel in the background. I believe it is called Irn-Bru on this planet

LBH

 

[McKinstry]

You will notice the all important, highly toxic, LBH fuel in the background. I believe it is called Irn-Bru on this planet

LBH

To our lasting regret, nobody makes beverages out of girders on this side of the pond.

The upside is that nobody makes toxic breakfast paste out of yeast excrement on this side of the pond.

Although I'd happily eat all the brewers yeast leavings in Columbus, Ohio if someone would run an ACTASF tournament at Origins. :?: That looks like it was a blast.

 

[Kronos]

I hope to see more reports and hear about the tactics

It's a shame I couldn't make the day

 

[Clanger]

Okay a little report on the Tourney.

Again at Mongoose Towers in a rainy Swindon. After having a good fry up to fuel us up for the day. Enter......Fleet Clanger (Dun Dun Dun).

NovaHawk
3 SparrowHawks
1 SkyHawk
1 Battle Hawk

A nice well balanced fleet I feel. The SparrowHawks are very good all round ships.

Game 1:

Andy's Federation vs Fleet Clanger.

Call to Arms.

As with the previous games (Noble Armada) I had with Andy they become very fun tactical game indeed.

Stay Cloaked for 5 turns before I Decloaked. Then a viscious Phaser, Photon , Plasma battle ensued. Ships blew up and we had a good laugh .

Game 2:

Alan's Klingons vs Fleet Clanger.

Assassination.

Like playing against Alan, we have a blast. Decloaking early on we went at it with big smiles (okay I was a little sneakie by nice usage of Dust Clouds with the SparrowHawks for a turn or 2). Alas Klingons do not react well the Plasma Death very well . There was no way on earth I was going near my assassination target, Big Honking Klingon Dreadnaught. My NovaHawk made sure of that .


Game 3:

Stuart's Federation vs Fleet Clanger.

Rescue.

First time playing Stuart. It was a good fun game and enjoyble. Stuff Blew Up (Federation) a lot. We agreed that I let his Wolverine Fast Cruiser run around the board while I sat pilliaging the Federation Command Cruiser for all its Technological Goodies.

Game 4:

David's Romulans vs Fleet Clanger.

Space Superiority

First time playing David. A very interesting game, even though mostly my ships blew up a lot . Facing 2 Klingon Hull Romulan Dreadnaughts :shock: This was a nasty game. Started uncloaked and built up a nice little swarm of Suicide Shuttles to crawl towards the errant Romulans (they became nice Phaser practice for their Gunners later on).

Yep you guessed it my mixed fleet got a lot of humpage from these 2 Nasties. Did in his 2 KRs and did damage 1 of his Dreads nicely. David had 2 Dreads left and Fleet Clanger was reduced to a damaged NovaHawk.

Overall another good fun day. Always approach the day with not going out to win just go for the fun of it. As long as stuff blows up...yay . Always shake your opponents hand, wish them luck and get on with the blowning stuff up. I am surprised we did not have the song "Star Trekking" playing at the beginning . (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCARADb9asE&feature=related, okay maybe too cheesy.

Looking forward to the next Tourney at Games Expo in about a momths time. Fleet Clanger will return, Oh Yes .

 

[nekomata fuyu]

Mark: If you get in touch with me too, I believe I have a trophy with your name on it

For this tourny, I had:
1x Battlecruiser
2x Fast Cruiser
1x Battle Frigate
3x Frigate

So, today I learned that plasma is hideously scary, and that I need to start using phaser-1s more defensively (thanks Clanger). Overall though, I had great fun, even whilst having my rear handed back to me, and I'm certainly looking forward to getting my revenge against those sneaky romulans!

 

[MarkM]

I'm very shocked to find that I came third. :shock:

I took the following Klingon fleet:
C7
D7C
D6
4 x F5

I faced many dreadnoughts and found myself a little out-gunned at times, especially when faced with David's pair of KC9Rs. My ships seemed to vaporise every time they ventured near them

Finally I'd like to thank Matt and Mongoose for a great day. I had four fun games and look forward to the next event. I'm also hoping to get to Mongoose HQ on May 12.

 

[Trenchbucket]

Hey sweet games all, though all were closer than I ever thought they would be(clanger lighting up mycruisers like they had no shields! Marks game was close as well with all his cruisers chasing my two dreads round a asteroid field.

Biggest shocker game was when neko's two fast cruisers were behind my fleet and firing in turn two, really thought I was going to lose that one


Good games all round, though I don't think I will do so well next time.

the key to any game is the ability to roll lots of sixes

 

[lastbesthope]

Looking at LBH. Are JAFO hats and Irn Bru the official tournament gear of ACTASF?

Nope, I made the JAFO hat for the SST Alpha Striek tourney I attended but did not enter. Made it clear I wasn't playing, as if back then , the requirement to have painted minis didn't make it obvious

As for the Irn-Bru, it's just what I run on

LBH

 

[Trenchbucket]

Looking at LBH. Are JAFO hats and Irn Bru the official tournament gear of ACTASF?

Nope, I made the JAFO hat for the SST Alpha Striek tourney I attended but did not enter. Made it clear I wasn't playing, as if back then , the requirement to have painted minis didn't make it obvious

As for the Irn-Bru, it's just what I run on

LBH

LBH i do believe i promised you a mini rule book, if you PM your address i will get one in the post to you

Though i really do think the KC9R should be a 0-1 choice partly because of the historical records and partly because they are true beasts on the field (either that or change some phasers to phaser 2's or makle it so the forward shield rule does not apply when firing plasma's)

Even though i am now building a klingon fleet, i am trying to work out how to beat the fleet i took!

"The world is my oster and i hate sea food"