FTF Frigate tournament

[IKV Avenger]

My son and I are going to do a series of tournament games, first to win 10 wins the tournament. We'll be using frigates from regular SFB. I listed all the races we use in the Alpha Octant (24) and drew out of a hat for my first game. I'll detail the results here in this thread as we progress.

Game 1: Kzinti (my son) vs. Gorn (me).

Kzinti FF (C-10 and Y175 refit) 75 BPV

Gorn DD+ (plus refit) 74 BPV

The Gorn DD+ is basically an FF. It has 4 more points of power but is a 1/2 mover rather than 1/3 mover like the Kzinti. The Gorn has slightly stronger FH shields but weaker RH shields. It has 3 more shuttles than the Kzinti. The Kzinti has 1 more battery. The Gorn has a TM of C while the Kzinti is an A TM. Gorn has 1 G torp FP and the Kzinti has 1 distruptor in the FA arc. Gorn has 3xph-1 and the Kzinti 2xph-1 and 2xph-3 along with 4 drone racks (2xB and 2xC).

I wanted to do a tournament with him, he likes to use frigates. So this worked out well. Not that I mind tourney ships but let's face it, they're cookie-cutter ships. We wanted more of a challenge one way or the other. And this first line up will definitely be a challenge. One ace-up-my-sleeve is that the Gorn DD+ has 4 shuttles whereas he only has 1 shuttle. So he'll initially be limited to just on SP unless he tractors it in for later use as another SP. I foresee at least a couple of WW in my future. But yeah, that every-turn disrupter and the ability to put up a wave of 6 drones even without the SP (he has 2xB and 2xC racks) will be a challenge. If he holds firing drones from the racks the first turn and only uses the SP he could have three turns of 6 drones each (6 off the SP and two turns from the racks). Sure I can WW them probably but then that leaves me slow and ripe for an overrun.

I can bluff him maybe with a PPT and perhaps he'll not want to mess around with a G-EPT which for frigates can be pretty hard on the shields. But we'll see. I want a not-so-clear-and-cut challenge. Makes you think!

Should be a pretty good battle

Result:

Game 1: Kzinti FF w/C10 and Y175 refits vs. Gorn DD+ with Sabot refit.

Turn 1:

Gorn is S30 out the gate. Kzinti is S15. Around I4 Kzin lauches the SP. He fires 3 drones off of his racks. 8 impulses later the SP blossoms with 3 drones so now I know I'm facing 3xI and 3xIV. He tried to fake me out though as the SP were the type-I's. I managed to get to R12 and launched a type-G EPT at sabot speed. I was able to take out 3 drones with my ships phasers, 1 with a TB (thought I'd get 2 but he knows how to move drones). He whittled the EPT to 33 points when it hit so I got 5 damage on each shield plus a bit. Not bad for me since we have the paper thin FF shields. After launching I ran like a rabbit. He's doing a great job on his drones, every time I kill one he's launching another.

Turn 2:

The Kzin is now S30 and I'm 28. I launch all 4 shuttles an impulse apart. I'm able to kill 2 IV's with them and 2 more with ships phasers. I drop shield #6 and transport a dummy TB 5 hexes from my ship to hopefully influence his movement. He's killed two of my shuttles. We had to stop at I15 and will look to finish tomorrow. So I'm one turn into recharging a plasma (it will likely be a fast charged F I'm thinking).

*Our ships are ten hexes apart at the moment and the east wall is coming up close for me. He's heading to cut me off.
*Four drones on the board at the moment.
*I've got one phaser-1 and one tractor left to use.
*He's got a ph-3 and his disruptor and likely some additional drones to fire.

Okay, we picked it up midway through T2. I had one ph-1 and one tractor left to use with 4 drones honing in on me. One was at R4 and the rest were at around R8-10. The cat was at R10. I had the east wall coming up alarmingly quick. I wasn't 'that' concerned with his ship as he'd already used his two ph-1's on two of my shuttles. But the drones were another matter. After painstakingly looking at the impulse chart I transported my last real TB, using my last transporter to a spot off my port bow. It took some very careful maneuvering but I managed to give him no choice but to lose two of the drones to the explosion. That left only two drones on the board. Okay, a little breathing room...I thought. I turned and flew directly up the east wall. However, I just couldn't shake the closest drone and he did a great job of keeping it out of the FX arc of my last phaser. I made a mistake and forgot to tractor the darn thing on I32 which of course meant it was going to hit on I1 of T3.

He hit with an OL disruptor that left me with two boxes on my #5. He didn't use the ph-3's as he was too far away to really make it worth while and figured he'd Mizia me through the #5 since I had just turned.

T3

Even though I screwed up on the tractor it really would have only prolonged the inevitable. He would have been able to whack me with two ph-1's and two ph-3's and maybe even the disruptor when it cycled. On top of that he could have launched probably around 3 more drones which would have put 4 on the board that I just couldn't have stopped. Sure, I could have WW'd but he'd have hit R0 on a nearly down shield and then launched drones after the WW. Of course, I didn't arm a WW as I used them earlier as drone fire platforms (which worked at the time).

So end result was the drone that hit was a IV (figures) with a type I about 3-4 hexes away and 3 more ready to launch plus his ships weapons. We rolled the damage up until he hit the torp and a battery which means my fast-fire F was screwed. I resigned.

He played the Kzinti like a champ. He dogged me with his ship every step and used scattered drones to eat away at my ships resources. Having only one G torp was a big disadvantage but I was looking for a real challenge and he provided it.

So IKVAvenger 0 and son-of-IKVAvenger 1

[IKV Avenger]

Game #2

Kzinti FF (C-10 and Y175 refit) 75 BPV

Nicozian FF (50 BPV + 12 points for SW missiles*) 62 BPV

*Nico FF has 2 missile racks of 8 missiles each. 50% can be specialty at 1 point BV each and the other 50% is general at .5 BV each. I split the missiles into a 50/50 split for 12 points.

**As per our discussions and the rules, each missile could be modified. All FF missiles were one-space. Of the 16 available in the racks, 8 were half ASW/half armor. 4 were half explosive/half armor. 4 were full explosive.

T1 (One of the biggest races was defeated by the smallest).

Kzin is S15 and comes head on. I'm SW16 (actual S32) and I dive for the SE corner. He holds the SP till close to the end of the turn. I eventually turn back about mid-turn. At I24 I fire two SW20 (S40) missiles that were half ASW and half armor. We end at maybe 10-12 hexes apart facing each other.

T2

I fire two more SW20 (S40) missiles, all explosive warhead. His SP blossoms with 4 drones (2xI and 2xIV). We close and he labs the missiles and finds out what they are. He has no choice but to fire at R2 with a ph-1 and ph-3 each. He is one point less than what he needed so the missiles still came in the next impulse. I did 16 shield damage. Between a bit of reinforcement and batts he had a three box #1. Next impulse I fire my two FH pulse phasers and knock down his #1 and do one internal (hull). Next impulse he has to move forward (he hadn't fulfilled his TM) and I fire my two SA's at R2 for a total of 36 internals (after we tripled the rolled damage through the down shield). We used the normal SA table to see how it would work. He conceded as 36 points is pretty brutal on an FF and I still had two explosive missiles incoming.

He had planned to do a Kzinti-anchor and let the SP drones hit. Good plan as that was about the only way they would hit. I would have slipped by his drones on the next impulse and probably stayed one hex away the rest of the turn. Had he been able to slap a tractor on me my speed would have been temporarily dropped. I could probably have stopped several of the drones with my RH pulse phasers and one tractor. I would NOT have been able to fight the tractor has he had more power in it than I did. We didn't roll the damage because we figured that we'd have lost the tractor somewhere in the 36 internals (he only had like 10 more total boxes left).

So we are now 1-1.

I found that reducing the ASW warhead and upping the armor helped the missiles actually hit. Having missiles hit are essential for getting the most out of the SA's. I think being able to mix/match the missiles warhead is very necessary. We didn't use any double-spaced missiles because I didn't think an FF would normally carry them. But on a larger vessel it may be beneficial/necessary to have some of them as we've discussed. IIRC, 50% of the specialty missiles could be 2-space heavy missiles? That's 25% of the total compliment and of course the BV is doubled.

[IKV Avenger]

Game #3

Kzinti DF (my son) beats Romulan KF5R (me)

T1:

I came out at S30, the Kzin was S15. He launched 6 ship drones early on. I launched a PPT and a Pl-F around R12. His SP blossomed late in the turn with 6 drones. He fired on the PPT with all his phasers (2xph-1 and 2xph-3). He did a good job of juking the Pl-F so that it ended up hitting his #5 for 15 (3 internals of nothing big). I managed to wipe out his 6 SP drone wave with my two TB's. I phasered 5 of his ship drones and tractored the other. He hit me at the end of the turn with his disruptor but it bounced off my reinforced shield.

T2:

He launches another wave of 6 drones from the ship while coming in at S30. I'm tac'ing at S0. I fire the other Pl-F and cloak. He fails to retain lock-on so the drones are removed. My plasma hits again on his #5 (he forgot it was down) so I whack him for another 15 - 8 for phaser damage and 1 for the one box he repaired so I get 6 inside. That netted the Disruptor, ph-3, drone and a couple of power!! Feeling pretty good since he is now down his HW, a couple of power (which hurts on a frigate and of course a drone rack).

T3:

I'm back uncloaked and chasing at S10 and he's at S15. He launches 5 ship drones while he's licking his wounds and running. I have a WW but figure I'll phaser the drones so I can maintain speed. Yeah, bad idea. I forego tractoring a couple of them (another mistake on my part) and figure my 2xph-1's and 3xph-2's will take them out. Well he faked my out and all 5 were type-IV! I kill two of them but the other hit my #2 so after shields and reinforcement he's netted 30 and I concede. I should have either just weaseled or tractored a couple and I would have been fine. But I didn't so I turned a comfortable lead into a defeat. Good for him. That's why he's our resident Kzinti player.

So it's 1-2 his favor

[IKV Avenger]

Game #4:

Kzinti FF vs. Paravian FF.

Just a quick note on this game. My son of course was the Kzin and he did his usual excellent job with his drones. I managed to destroy his SP before it blossomed and tractor a couple of his drones. I also killed a couple of his other drones I managed to hit him him with two standard and two overloaded QWT (on different shields. I got him for 10 internals total.

He managed to knock a couple of shields down with disruptor, phasers and a drone. The clincher was him being able to send a couple of drones in through a down shield...one was a ship wrecker. I conceded.

1-3 his favor.

[IKV Avenger]

Game #5:

Hydran SAR Frigate Leader w/one Stinger 2 (son)

Paravian FFL Frigate Leader (me)

Synopsis: I was able to hit him with 3 standard and one overloaded QWT but it wasn't enough to stop him from hunting me down and mugging me. I transported a couple of dummy T-bombs out to influence his movement and it looked like it was going to work. But when I pulled an HET to get into position he called my bluff and crashed through one of the fakes and caught me flat-footed. He opened up a shield with his phasers and managed to get his St-2 into the same hex. He rolled better than average damage and I conceded before even looking at the DAC. Good game!

1-4 his favor.

I've got some catching up to do

[IKV Avenger]

Game #6:

This was a double FF game.

Kzinti FFx2 with all refits (son)

Carnivon FF w/refits
Maesron FF upgraded to Alpha standards

This was a fun match and we decided to have two Frigates each. He tried a new strategy where he maintained S0 each turn and tried to wear me down with drones. As always, he did a great job with the drones but the S0 went against him in the end. I started out at S15 on T1 and with the Carn I was able to fire two Death Bolts on I6 and I30. The Maesron fired one Tachyon Missile on I32 and T2/I1. He was able to deal with three of those missiles with either drones or phaser fire. I did sneak one to R1 that was focused burst (DB) and hit him for 12 points of damage. But he had so much reinforcement that it didn't matter. He had shot two SP's and rack drones throughout the turn. I managed to zap 4 out of 6 drones with a Death Bolt armed with 6 Spitfire ADD's. I tractored 3 of his drones and shot the others down. I had launched my three shuttles that assisted with drone defense.

T2 I circled and reloaded and set up for more DB's and TM's. I took care of the tractored drones.

T3 I had turned on T2 and closed the distance. I send out a couple of TB's to create a wall to hide behind for drone defense. I closed to R3 (Carn) and R4 (Maesron) and unloaded with two OL disruptor cannons and a 6pt Tachyon Gun. I missed with one DC but between the rest and phasers I managed 41 damage with 17 internals after his shields and reinforcement. Knocked out the sole disruptor (which missed in return fire), a couple of phasers, a drone rack, couple of power, all three batts and most of the hull. He was able to take care of the DB I had sent his way but his phaser fire on the TM fell just short so it sailed though the down shield for another 16 points of internals. I then HET'd and dropped a TB to take care of the drones he had launched. He conceded at this point.

It's been quite a long time since the last game and I really enjoyed the match up and I'm glad to finally double my wins

First time using the Maesrons and maybe second or third time with the Carnivons. Really liked them both.

2-4 his favor.