Genearal SFB
Tournament Tactics
Game 2 – Ben Ossenfort,
WYN AUX (HB + Gat FA, LS Drone, RS disruptor)
I have played Ben before
when he was playing the WYN AUX, but both of those games he had
been playing low power phaser packages. I have little experience
against hellbore armed AUXes, but I think a Fed deals with them
much better than against the low power packages because the
potential for a larger tractor or reinforcement is diminished by
the need to feed the hellbore. I didn’t really have a concrete
plan outside of keeping my speed up and taking the best shot
available while avoiding drones.
Turn 1
I expected him to
construct a drone wave this turn and avoid engagement until either
the very end of this turn or the beginning of the next. I
overloaded all my photons, held 2 weasels, put 1 into tractor, and
plotted a 17/16/24 plot that used only 16 power. Ben started at
speed 20. Ben set up a drone wave by turning to his left and
string launching drones one at a time. He continued to head
towards his left corner, slipping to his left often. I headed
straight up the board and eventually turned after he was a couple
hexes past my hex row. He fired a long rang disruptor at me but
it missed and we finished the turn with him heading into his
corner a couple of hexes from the wall and me about 13 hexes or so
out. I phasered down all 5 of his drones on impulse 32 using a p1
on each after identifying them all as type 1’s
Turn 2
I felt good about my
position here because I knew where Ben was going to be and I could
get at least a range 4 on him and have the entire map to run back
across. I held my Overloads, held both weasels, put 3 into my
phaser caps and plotted a 17/24 (on 18) split. I plotted speed 24
because I wanted to be able to HET but I figured he would be going
faster, so I might as well keep the turn mode of 5.
Ben announced a speed of
17 and I was relieved because I knew he would never leave the
corner without me getting a good shot on him. He immediately
launched 4 drones. I closed steadily as he skirted the map edge
and turned to direction D when he hit the corner. I suspected
that he had a mountain of reinforcement on his #2 and I also saw
that a timely speed change could get me around his drones, so on
impulse 18 I burned a batt to jump up to speed 26. I was able to
juke the drones and close on Ben who was maintaining his moderate
speed. By impulse 2 I had a perfect oblique shot on him #2 to
#2. He was pinned to the wall and with his drone stack was off my
#5. I was not too concerned with a tractor attempt because if he
committed the 10 points of power it would require, he would not
have the reinforcement necessary to prevent me from blowing both
his tractors off (his pseudo speeds wouldn’t move next impulse,
neither did the drones, and I would hammer him with 2 decent sized
volleys on 25 and 26). He did not attempt to tractor me but
launched his 5th drone, so I fired all 4 photons, 6
p1’s, and both p3’s. I hit with 3 photons and 36 internals after
he used 15 reinforcement. He responded with 4 p1’s, 7 p3 shots,
an OL disruptor, and an OL hellbore. I got one of his drone
racks, 2 p3’s, a p1, his disruptor, and 9 power. He did 2 volleys
of 13 internals each after I burned my 4 batts and got 2 p1’s, 2
p3’s, and 5 power. Miraculously, he did not get a photon. I was
thrilled by this at first, but it would prove to be an absolute
non-factor later on in the game. I then turned off to lead his
drones for a merry chase as he turned in to follow me. We
finished the turn about 5 hexes apart.
Turn 3
I felt even better now
that I had hit him hard and given him some power issues. Now I
needed to do something about those drones and commence reloading.
I knew that If I tried to reload. Any significant amount of
weaponry, he may be able to catch me, so I decided to put those
weasels to some use. I filled my remaining phaser caps with 6
points, started all 4 photons refilled my batteries (I still had
all 5, God bless the Fed forward hull!) started a 3rd
weasel, put 2 points into damage control to fix a box on my #2,
and put 5 into movement using a 4/8/4 plot (speed 8 from impulses
8-16). I also used 4 points of CDR to repair both of my p3’s.
Impulse 1 I weaseled his
drones gladly taking the collateral on my #3 which was facing away
from him. He moved medium speed but I was able to turn inside due
to my lower speed. On impulse 16 I decided to burn 2 batteries to
maintain my speed of 8 to keep myself inside of his turn radius,
but Ben turned off to set up his attack run for the next turn..
He launched a couple of drones near the end of the turn. Neither
of us fired upon each other and we finished the turn about 12
hexes apart. I think Ben Repaired his disruptor.
Turn 4
I was going to have to
weather his hellbore shot and wanted to return some significant
damage to him, so I completed 3 of my photons as standards and
fully overloaded the 4th one. I plotted a 14/8/4 split
so I could get a range 8 shot and still turn off to weasel his
drones without emergency decelerating. I also put 2 into tractor,
1 into HET, held 2 weasels, and put 2 points on my 1 box #2
shield. I repaired one of my destroyed RF/R p1’s as a p3 and
started repairs on one of my warp engines as an AWR.
Early in the turn Ben
fired his hellbore from range 10 which hit. I burned 3 batteries
to keep my #2 at 1 box. He then turned off because he thought I
had more photon damage potential than I actually did. Thusly I
was able to turn off myself and managed to shoot down his turn 3
drones. Ben circled around me outside of range 8 at a medium
speed. He launched 4 at turn’s end.
Turn 5
At this point Ben was
close to the wall and would have a hard time avoiding range 8 if
he was going to move at all, but I had a wave of drones to deal
with and didn’t have the speed to go around them. So I planned to
weasel again. I topped off my phaser caps, held 2 photons as
standards, held the overload, and fully overloaded another
photon. I put 2 into tractor and plotted a 9/4/12 plot with the
speed change to 12 coming late in the turn. I had 2 weasels
held. I completed the repair on my AWR.
As expected, I was able to
weasel off Ben’s drone wave mid turn and I was able to turn inside
him once again because he was going about speed 15 or so. He was
unable to get me back in his FA and by impulse 26 I had a range 5
shot on his #5 shield. Now if 2 of my photons hit here, it would
have been game ending as Ben’s AUX would have a hard time staying
in the game with even 12 more internals. But as it turned out, my
photon dice where about to take a nose dive that would remain with
me for most of the tournament. I used batts to pump the 2
standards I had up to 12 pointers and let fly with all 4 photons
(16,16,12,12) and 4 phaser 1’s, holding back 2 for mizia. My
phaser rolls where very good but all 4 photons missed!!!! Next
impulse I fired my 2 remaining p1’s that nearly downed the #5
shield, but I was very discouraged here. Ben then fired 3 p1’s at
me doing average damage. The 1 thing I had going for me was that
Ben was unable to get his hellbore in arc this turn.
It was now about 6:30 and
Ben’s friend Jay wanted him to go to diner with him, but Ben was a
real trooper and decided to wait until the game was over. So Ben
and I took a 15 minute break instead and did what any self
respecting gamer would do. We went back to his room and slammed a
beer each, then headed back to finish our game.
Turn 6
Well, I had to stay away
from that hellbore and reload, but I wanted to stay close to him
because as long as he kept moving, he would have a very hard time
getting that hellbore into arc again. I plotted an 8/12 plot
jumping up to 12 on impulse 6. I put 6 into my phaser caps,
refilled my batts, held 1 weasel, and started 3 photons. I also
put 1 point of reinforcement on my #2.
At this point in the game,
my recollection of the exact movement patterns gets a little
fuzzy. Ben maintained speeds of 12-17 throughout the turn. I did
get a range 8 shot on his hurt #5 again with 3 p1’s downing it
exactly (it was at 3 boxes to begin with) after he showed me 5
reinforcement. He was once again unable to bring his hellbore to
bear, but we separated after my fire and he was able to gradually
loop around to set up an attack run for the next turn. I was able
to phaser down a couple of drones that he had launched on a
previous turn. I also shoveled 2 points of battery into starting
my 4th photon.
Turn 7
Ben was finally going to
get another hellbore shot in on me, but he would have to expose
his hurt #2 shield to do it unless he plotted tacs which would
allow me to avoid him this turn and pump my photons up to very
high yield on the next. I finished all 4 photons as standards,
refilled my phaser caps, held my weasel, put 2 points in tractor,
topped off my batts, plotted an impulse tac and a warp tac , and
put 8 points into movement on top of that. My plot was speed 0
jumping up to 8 on impulse 4.
Keeping up with his trend
of moving, Ben once again moved at a medium speed. He looped
around and was able to get his range 8 Hellbore shot on impulse
27, but at the expense of giving me range 8 on a 3 box #2 shield.
He hit me with his OL bore and phaser 1’s, almost knocking down my
#6 shield and leaking a few internals into my 1 box #2 after I
used a couple points of battery to keep the damage in the single
digits. He hit a Warp and an AWR, but no weapons. I responded
with a single standard photon, which hit and downed his #2 exactly
after he used 5 points of reinforcement. Next impulse Ben was not
schedules to move, so I fired my other 3 photons as standards and
let fly with 6 p1’s. All 3 of these photons missed, but at least
I got a few internals with my phaser rolls. I hit another drone
rack (already empty), his disruptor, and a couple phaser 3’s he
had repaired. I also got a couple more points of power. Ben
continued to float towards me, slipping to put his full strength
#1 to me. I had been picking on his flank rear shields for the
last few turns, so he would be in trouble if he turned off as his
ship had very little internal integrity left outside of weapons
and power.
Turn 8
I was getting grumpy now
because my photon dice refused to let me finish the game once
again. I had a feeling that Ben was not going to go anywhere
because he could not afford to turn off. He was down to only a
couple of drones, his shuttles, 3p1’s and his gat that he could
use against me this turn. All he could hope to do was limp away
from me in reverse, and he would be stuck at range 5 from me at
turn’s end anyways if I used my batts to follow him (His max
reverse speed would have been 5.) He could have also HETed. So I
sat still myself plotting 2 warp tacs and impulse tac, refilling
my phaser caps and batts, starting 3 photons, put 2 points into
HET, 6 into tractor, 3 points on my #1, and dropping the weasel
because he only had about 3 drones left to begin with.
Ben finally decided it
would be a great time to stop and tac. He launched a couple of
shuttles and a drone which I dealt with easily, and I taced to put
my #1 to him and burned 3 batts a speed change up to 4 on impulse
16. On impulse 32 I achieved range 1 and slapped the tractor on
him after he fought it for 5 few points. I also tagged him with
whatever phasers I did not use to get rid of his expendables,
which was about 3 p1’s. Ben hit me with 3 p1s and his gat, but my
#1 held.
Turn 9
I dropped the tractor and
plotted 1 warp Tac. 3 to phaser Caps and fully overloaded my
photons. I mean, I was at range 1 and they can’t miss from here,
can they?
Impulse 1 Ben launched his
last 2 drones. I ignored them and blew him up.
I think the
game would have gone better for Ben if he had decided to stop and
tac earlier in the game so he could get his hellbore back in arc.
He was also piecemeal launching his drones at me all game after
the initial pass. If he would have built up a respectable drone
wave over a turn break and followed them in, he could have kept me
under weasel restrictions while sitting on me. I would have a
difficult time surviving a knife fight against that ship.
Instead, Ben dribbled out about 2 drones a turn and I was able to
handle them with ease.
Game 1 -
Peter Bakija, Kzinti
Game 2 - Ben Ossenfort, WYN AUX (Hellbore, Dis,
Gat, Drone)
Game 3 - David Cheng, Hydran
Game 4 - Aadil Sulamain - Tholian ATC
Game 5 - Wil Leiserson - Tholian ATC
Game 6 - Kevin Block-Shwenk, Rom TKE
Game 7 - John Malis, Klingon
Game 8 (Round 1 of single elimination) - Ameer
Sulamain
Back to
Total Con
Back to SFB
page
[Home] [News]
[About] [Work] [Music]
[Athletics] [Literature]
[Misc] [Links]
Contact me at
marcusg@celeritycomm.com
