Star Fleet's Finest 2013 Tournament - June 15th

Tried a few different fleet out. Got thrashed twice, and only won once using a seriously cheesy fleet I won't bring to the competition....
 
And we are off! All five major fleets are represented, so things should be interesting. In the first round, we have...

Simon Robinson (Romulan) vs. John Wall (Kzinti)
Alan Buckmaster (Klingon) vs. Richard Carr (Romulan)
Andy Don (Federation) vs. Stuart Excell (Gorn)
Andrew McMillan (Kzinti) vs. Tony Garry (Federation)

...All playing the Rescue mission.

On Table 1 we stacked a lot of terrain (planet, moon, multiple asteroids) which is making things 'interesting' for Simon and John. On Table 2, Richard's Romulans took early possession of a planet ringed with a dust cloud, forcing Alan's Klingons to back off and launch shuttles.

Table 3 is witnessing Andy's 'right hook' (two Fast Cruisers) meeting the entire Gorn fleet while his other flank rushes to catch up and on Table 4, the Andrew's static Kzinti are wildly trying to drone the Federation to death before they move into photon range - thus far, some shields have been stripped but no Federation ships have been lost and they are about to move in for the kill...

Results for the first round in about half an hour!
 
First round just finished!

Interesting spread of results. No one managed to get a wipe out (everyone was fairly cautious in the first round), but the two Kzinti fleets managed to sneak a tournament score of 17. The Klingons and Gorns both received 13 points while all Romulan and Federation fleets received a drubbing!

This means the two 'bottom' tables are featuring Federation vs. Romulan duels in the second round, which is a Space Superiority mission. On Table 2, Alan's Klingons are facing Stuart's Gorns, while Table 1 (crowded with terrain, remember!) is the site for a real kitty fight, John's Kzintis against Andrew's
 
Okay, 20 minutes into the first round, and everyone is still trading long-ranged fire.

However, on Table 2, Stuart's Gorn have taken possession of the dust cloud-surrounded planet and flooded the place with shuttles, daring Alan's Klingons to get closer.

On Table 1, the two Kzinti players (John and Andrew) have managed to find the single 'fire lane' that avoids all terrain from one side of the table to the other, and positioned their entire fleets in it. They are thus trading drone fire, hoping one will overwhelm the other. Or, as another player has put it, this looks like 'handbags at dawn,' as the two fleets flail at one another rather ineffectively.

More action on the bottom two tables in the Romulan/Federation fights with battle lines approaching one another as ships desperately try to boost shields.
 
Midway update to round two...

On Table 4, Simon's Romulans and Tony's Federation are really mixing it up - I get the feeling one or both is really going to start hurting in the next couple of turns.

Table 3 is seeing Andy's Federation and Richard's Romulans _still_ in battle line formation and some distance from one another, though it looks like Andy's Fast 'right hook' is skirmishing with a Romulan ship or two.

On Table 2, Stuart's Gorns have still not left the dust cloud (aside from a few shuttles that got shot out of the sky), and Alan does not seem keen to move forward. They are on turn 7 already.

On Table 1, the two Kzinti fleets have NOT MOVED ALL GAME! They are on turn 3, and I am not entirely sure any ship has actually been hit yet...

That game has a serious whiff of a draw about it. That would mean a strong victory from Alan or Stuart could place them in a decent lead - though I would not be confident that this will happen either. My best prediction at this point is that the players on Tables 1 and 2 have fairly stuffed themselves, meaning players on the bottom two tables have a real chance of bringing themselves not just back into the running, but into serious contention for a tournament win...
 
Getting to the point in round 2 where ships are beginning to drop like flies. Except on the first two tables...

The Kzinti fleets have managed to mince forward into Disruptor range, and John has managed to knock out one of Andrew's ships - a massive drone strike penetrated his defences and scored a massive eight critical hits!

On the Klingon vs. Gorn table, the Gorn have still not left the dust cloud, and are now using their plasma barrages on Klingon suicide shuttles...
 
Halfway through the day's tournament, and the standings currently are;

John Wall (Kzinti) 34 points
Andy Don (Federation) 24 points
Alan Buckmaster (Klingon) 23 points
Stuart Excell (Gorn) 23 points
Andrew McMillan (Kzinti) 20 points
Tony Garry (Federation) 16 points
Richard Carr (Romulan) 10 points
Simon Robinson (Romulan) 10 points

So, not looking so good for the Romulans thus far! As predicted, Andy managed to boost himself up from the bottom tables to get on to Table 1 - but will he be able to defeat the current leader, John, and his Kzinti?

John, incidentally, broke through the impasse the two Kzinti fleets faced in round two, and gave Andrew's cats a bit of a savaging to pull off a 17/3 victory. Andrew is now facing Stuart's Gorn on a table that could well favour a short-ranged fleet...

More news as it comes in!
 
Well, the last round has just started...

In the last round, Andy's Federation gave John's Kzinti a right trouncing as they threaded their way through asteroids, wondering when their reinforcements were going to turn up, and it was a similar situation on Table 2 as Andrew's Kzinti chewed up Stuart's Gorn.

On Table 3, we saw the first 20/0 victory (a wipeout) of the tournament, as Alan's Klingons endured an incredible amount of damage to just plain out last Tony's Federation. During the Romulan civil war on Table 4, Richard managed to pull off a convincing lead over Simon.

So, how does that leave us for the last round, a straight Call to Arms match-up?

Alan's Klingons are meeting Andy's Federation on Table 1, a battle made all the more amusing as these two know each other from the local club. However, the top four players (Alan, Andy, John, and Andrew) are all within 6 points of one another, and the fifth placed player (Richard) could still (mathematically) win, so there is everything to play for!
 
Richard's Romulans have just earned themselves the second 20/0 victory of the day! Enaging Andrew's Kzinti, the fight ended up in a very close range fireball around a planet, surrounded by a dust field. The entire cloud lit up like a star as Andrew's Dreadnought exploded under a vicious weight of plasma fire, leaving few ships completely intact. The remaining Romulan ships swept round the planet to enage the remaining Kzinti ship, and it too disappeared under heavy plasma fire...
 
And the results are in! All results out of 100.

1. Alan Buckmaster (Klingon) 76 points
2. John Wall (Kzinti) 70 points
3. Andy Don (Federation) 68 points
4. Richard Carr (Romulan) 67 points
5. Stuart Excell (Gorn) 63 points
6. Andrew McMillan (Kzinti) 57 points
7. Tony Garry (Federation) 43 points
8. Simon Robinson (Romulan) 36 points

Well done to all, and we hope to see you all foer the next event!
 
Thanks Matt,

It was a great event and I really enjoyed all my games. I will definitely be at future events if I can make it.

Cheers

Tony
 
Having lulled you all into a false sense of security by coming last I plan to return and be revenged!

It was a great day - so thanks to the organisers
 
First off thanks to Matt for organising a fun tournament.

I thought I'd add a battle report. At last years event, I placed second and picked up a Kzinti boxed set, so I thought it would be fun to use them in this years game.

Originally I planned to use the following list:

2 drone dreadnoughts
2 medium scout cruisers
2 War destroyers

However, I discovered going into the second game that new points had been released for the drone dreadnoughts, which I'd missed - so I quickly rejigged the fleet, which I used for the rest of the competition:

2 drone dreadnoughts
1 medium cruiser
1 light cruiser
2 war destroyers



Game 1: Tiger, Tiger, burning bright...

Up against the Romulans on the top table and theres too much kitty litter on the table for the kzinti's liking...

The game revolved around the Romulans hiding behind planets and asteroid fields, trying to set up a flanking attack. unfortunately I managed to get in behind two ships and pump enough drones into one to badly batter it. On the last turn, I orbited the planet to destroy the vessel I'd been picking on when a romulan decloaked behind both dreadnoughts and in front of the rest of the fleet. Cue a pair of explosions as both Romulans went up in smoke for only a little shield damage in return.


Game two: Furball

Top table again, but this time a kzinti on kzinti battle. Clearly this was a training exercise, to see who would become Top Cat. Avoiding the kitty litter we lined up and exchanged drones. I honestly thought I'd loose this one, having lighter ships in my fleet and on turn two my worst fears seemed to be confirmed as one of my war destroyer was hit by 14 out of a possible 28 drones... Somehow though it survived and promptly ran and hid in the kitty litter.

The drone fire went on, an odd one or two getting past the defences, which ultimately forced my opponent (I forget his name - call him admiral Dibble...) to advance into disrupter range. This proved to be a decisive error, as on the last turn he destroyed my damaged war destroyer but lost both his battle cruisers to massed disrupters on the shields, clearing the way for overwhelming drone barrages....

So two games won at the halfway point and I was feeling pretty happy....
 
One good thing on the results is that with 5 different races none dominated the placings, all got one spot in top 5, this should be more down to the players, but it would have been worrying if (for example) Kzin came 1st and 2nd with Kingons 3rd and Feds 4th and 5th, which would have definitely caused some comments about Drone users!
 
I took along

1no Royal Hawk
1no SpH-C "Owl" Scout
1no Sph-A
1no Fast Hawk
1no KRC
1no KR

and then had a combination of bad luck and foolish mistakes (Don't decloak behind a Kzinti DN just because you can).

Still I had a great time and learned a lot :D
 
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