Web page last updated around 1/20/99

In Corner #1: Weighing 184,000 tons, Representing those wacky methane-breathers in the Guilded cage, those poster children for constitutional monarchy (How many Hydraxians HAVE there been on the throne anyway?) Jason Gingerich (DBA Monty) in the Hydran TLM

In Corner #2: Weighing 182,000 tons, Representing those idealists-in-a-can, rescuing the Galaxy from its own voilence by mowing down everything with a phaser which opposes them, John Trauger (AKA Vorlon) in the ISC TCC

Wow, that WYN game (SFA 4 #107) sure had my head spinning.  Trying to think like a WYN fighting an ISC *and* vice versa has been bizarre.  I needed the full two days to formulate a likely victory plan against a ship which can simply mow down whatever I throw at it and blow my doors off even after losing half its weaponry. 

Jason faced an ISC in HR3 and trashed it.  It was flown by a guy from my FTF SFB group.  With luck, I'll get him some vengeance.  Wonder if Jason will try the winning strategy again... 

Turn 1
Evidently, he's trying something a LITTLE different. He's out of the gun at speed 17, same as me. 

IMP 16:  He's been at it for a full half-turn.  Of course, he could announce a change to 30 on 17 and it would be as if he's switched to 31 on 16... 
IMP 24:  We're closing.  Range 11 now.  I've chucked some torps at him and his fighters are launched and will be on-line on IMP 27.  We briefly FFed to near the end of the turn.  Looks like he had a speed increase planned for late in the turn, but it could have been batteries too.  I also opened up on him with the PPD.  Hit too.  He bounced the part that hit the #6 and #1 shields.  It should get interesting now... 
IMP 28: If it is batteries, he still sprung for the speed increase.  I expect it was a planned increase though.  I tagged him with the PPD on schedule at range 9, but he's still turned to Direction C, not D.  The two torps have almost hit their targets... 
RATS! At range 5 I fired 2 P-1s at each of his fighters.  Average damage is 7 and I DIDN'T CRIPPLE EITHER ONE!  Don't you hate days like that?  To top it off, he BOUNCED MY SECOND PPD PULSE?!? 

Let's do his EA: We'll start with Housekeeping (4), Speed 17 from IMP 1-27 (+14 = 18), Speed 30 to end of turn (+5 = 23) Bouncing the first PPD pulse(+5 = 28) and bouncing second PPD pulse (+5 = 33). 

Assumptions:  He's got his Hellbores AT LEAST standard-loaded (+6, 39) and at least 2 special shuttles (+2 = 41).  He's got 40 power and 5 batteries.  If he's got 2 special shuttles, he's already dug 1 into his batteries.  If no special-mission shuttles, he's got batteries +1 left. 

I'd say he didn't charge any Fusions this round... 

IMP 29: OK, he's turned to D at long last.  Looks like those plasmas will be dogging him until IMP 1. 
Whoops!  I missed the fact the had tractored his fighters!  Yeesh!  Looks like this was my week for wrong assumptions...  Add that to our plot of his EA and he is *definitely* digging into the batteries.  By 1 + the number of special shuttles he's arming. 
RATS!  I shot 2 P-1s at each fighter and crippled NEITHER?!?.  Average for a P-1 at range 5 is still 7...  Where's my weapons officer? 
IMP 30 Naturally, the Hydran let go of the fighters and I zapped them anyway. Killed one and crippled the other.  Of course the little buggers opened up on me, but their rolls sucked.  my shield 6 took 5 points. Will he pick the little nipper up?  That's the question. 
IMP 31  I've gotten as close as terror allows, so it's time to open some distance again.  I tuned away and shot my remaining bearing G and F plasma at the guy, who sideslipped in to follow me. The plasmas chasing him slammed into his rear shield doing nothing.  Then he SHOT HIS PHASER WAD AT ME ?!?.  Backed by a standard and OL Hellbore.  He hadn't *touched* my inbound plasma.  Gutsy move.  Maybe even THE move to pull, but with 60 points of plasma bearing down and all his facing phasers fired, he's gonna have a lot of fried shields.  If he doesn't want internals, he'll pay a HEAVY power cost.  (I figure 16 because of the PPD damage to his #2 Shield 1.  It took one PPD splash and one direct hit)  He got 18 internals: 3 warp, 2 P-3s, 3, maybe 4 Control spaces, a transporter and a mess of hull.  I can live with it. 
IMP 32.  His crippled fighter shot its one remaining P-3 at me...and missed.  hey--what happened to my last G-torp?  I thought it impacted this turn and we're already at weapons fire... 

Oh, BTW, the moderator got all carried away and forgot about my PPD.  The way movement worked, pulse #3 hit Shield 1 and Pulse #4 hit Shield #2.  Shield #1 had 1 last point of reinforcement left.  That plus the OL Hellbore finishes his batteries.  All Hydran power is accounted for and he's burned his batteries.  No special shuttles.  16 to keep internals at bay... 

Turn 2
His starting speed: 26.  Mine:24 (wish I could go faster too).  Whattaya think, he's gonna HET or what?  I'm expecting HET at 26, then up to speed 30 on IMP 5. 

I thought this out: High speed = no reinforcement = plasma damage unless he's got a fancy plan for dodging my torps while staying on my tail. 

Now the Hydran's on vacation.  Did he at least get his IMP 1 SOP in? Nope.  :( 

IMP 1: IMPACT!  I knew this one would.  Hydran shield #5 down 20 boxes!  (no reinforcement?) 
IMP 4: Hydran goes to speed 30.  NO HET!  He doesn't want his shiny ship scorched, I guess...  Well, fine by me. 
IMP 10: Here it comes.  He maneuvered to get the torps on his shield 4, the shot 6 gatling pulses at them. 
IMP 11: Now he's dropping to 15 
IMP 12: What little survived hit the Hydran shield #4 for 6.  Now I'm dropping to 16 
IMP 16: As we reach the 1/2way point, he's now facing A and I'm now facing D.  Looks like an early Turn 3 exchange if we can ever get going again.  I've heard rumors my opponent has disappeared.  I'll have to ask Mr. Franz about this.  Given Mr. Monty has the upper hand, I'd love to see the Hydran lose some of those excessive and wasteful hull boxes. 

Like all of them. 

Better yet, the game.  :) 

('course it's MY fault for getting that close and I know it.  Won't make that mistake against YOU, Mr. Gondolfi!) 

IMP 19: The game resumes with my opponent slowing to 14.  Wouldn't have anything to do with that nearby crippled Stinger would it? 
IMP 28: Nah, it's all my imagination...hey where'd that Stinger go?
IMP 32: The Hydran finished about where I expected.  Next turn ought to tell who'll win. 
Turn 3
My speed:0 
His speed:14 
This is a HUGE gamble!  Problem is, I simply can't cruise around the board at my leisure while he takes 5-10 internal bites out of me.  I am laying myself open for the overrun and Turn 4 Fusion death if I play this wrong or even get bad internal rolls. 
IMP 8: The Hydran's at range 10 and closing.  Out comes one shuttle.. 
IMP 10: Out comes another shuttle... 
IMP 13: Now a lateral F-torp... 
IMP 14: And now a fast-load F from a G-launcher ...(Hey,  it's Christmas and we're into giving gifts).  We were so overflowing with he Christmas Spirit, we thought we'd break out the Gift That Keeps On Giving.  That's right...The PPD. 
Wavelock assures the timely delivery of plasma to not one, not two but three shields, centering on Shield #1 
IMP 15: Oooo Bad move choice, methane boy.  ISC players live for times when the PPD gets that 3-by-3 going (to Shields 1 and 2 in this case) 
IMP 17:   Well, he's crossing in front of me, so I'll have to tac to keep my last plasma in arc... 
IMP 18:  Speed change to 21, huh?  This calls for more plasma.  The PPD was only a 5-pulse OL, but it managed to sandpaper Shields 1 and 2 pretty good.  1's down to 13 and 2's down to 12.  The Hydran counterpunched with a standard-load Hellbore.  Gosh, can my puny 1-box Shield 5 take it?  Actually, yes.  It all bounces. 
IMP 19:  Turn to D!  This has some advantages and disadvantages for the poor Hydran.  The advantages are that he doesn't take 30 points of plasma on a PPD-abused Shield 1 or 2 and it moves his strong Shield 6 in my direction.  The bad news is that he's turned his 4-box Shield 5 to that aforementioned 30 points of plasma.  Admittedly only 15 can hit it assuredly and even that's open to debate depending on how he moved on IMP 21.  A slip in and the 27-box becomes a 7-box trashed shield.  Since he doesn't move on 22, the rear torps will do the same to shields 3 and 4.  Despite the fact that he'll have a 7-box shield  facing my phasers, he'll probably come away with less internals than if he moves straight or slips away from me.  If he moves straight, one of the plasmas will impact Shield 5.  The 1 gatling and 3 P-1's he can put to his defense might make it a wash when you toss in batteries for reinforcement, but my fresh, new, 20-pt torp will also hit that shield and go through it like tissue paper.  Not fun.  6 P-1s and 5 P-3's can blow down his facing shield and do a second minor internal volley or wait for his Shield 5 to come in arc.  If he slips out, he pretty much confuses my new plasma launch, but pays for it by funneling both of my older torps right onto Shield 5.  At range 3, my phasers probably can't break his Shield 6 either.  But he doesn't want 30 points of plasma on that shield.  Even after phasers and batteries, he's looking at 8 internals with another plasma on the board just itching to follow.  If, for example, he decides to (or already has) overloaded his remaining HB, that damage total climbs to 11, with my phasers still to fire.  He might be able to finesse it so he never points shield 5 my way, but I can phaser whatever shield (4 or 6) that I expect the plasma to impact on.  He could get away with just the 8-11 internals if he times it right, admittedly.   But his HB only hits on a 9 at range 3.  I'd love to see it miss.  That'd about even us up.  Look for a sideslip.  Straight ahead is the bad choice. 
IMP 20: Yup.  A slip inward.  Here's a plasma-cream pie for ya...to the tune of 20 internals.  The inside chasing plasma impacts his shield 4 leaving 4 boxes while the other plasma angles for his shield 3.  Uh Oh.  That's got him.  He shoots everything and I mean EVERYTHING that he can bring to bear at me.  Phaser-1s, all 4 P-G pulses, even a Fusion, probably from reserve power.  18 internals, which blow off my LS P-3s and do a nice tap-dance on my hull and warp.  Not to be outdone, I shot those to-be-destroyed P-3s backed by couple of P-1s back at him.  Got 11 internals for my trouble.  Even bagged a Hellbore (the one he already fired) and a phaser or two.. 

Wait a minute.  He fired EVERYTHING?  Hmmmm...  Cue evil grin. 

IMP 21: DOH!  As I put together this SOP for this impulse, I suddenly realized that I could have HETed my last chasing plasma and made IT impact Shield 4 as well...sure it's be about IMP 24, but it's better than uselessly bringing yet another shield into a single-digit magnitude which ISN'T 0.  It would have cut back on my internals because he would have been forced to commit Gatling pulses to defense!  I just HATE this kind of mistake.  <sigh> 

I comfort myself that my opponent has left himself open to a dirty trick.  I launch a shuttle and fire 2 more P-1s down his open shield.  My weapons officer is once again running hot as I get 14 internals.  I'm still sucking hull and getting a little REAL damage around the edges, but nonetheless, IT'S MIZIA TIME!  I think I bagged a Fusion and another phaser. 

The Hydran, on the other hand, fires his last Hellbore at this time.  It is here I am thankful the Hydran was rigged for chasing me down.  It, also, is a standard HB.  I'm also thankful I kept that last point of shield from the first HB shot.  Only 10 internals.  If I'd let the shield go down, it'd  been more like 12 and I need every internal I can keep him from blowing off.  I still lose a Phaser-1 or two, lots of power, both of my F-torps and the last of my batteries.  As I write this, I have to wonder what happened to the the other 3 points of his battery power.  He had NO reinforcement at any Point.  Unless...that speed change to 21 was from battery power!  Aha! 

IMP 22: BLAM!  Eat that you methane-sucking monster!  Who'd have thunk anyone would load a SUICIDE SHUTTLE facing a Hydran?  I did.  Cue evil grin. His IMP 22 movement HAD to take him straight forward (barring a HET which he couldn't do) and he didn't have so much as a pea-shooter to stop my shuttle with.  18 points of much-needed internals go right down his open shield.  Gone are the last of his hull, his batteries, some more power and phasers, and his other hellbore.  So now I have a decision.  All I have left to fire is my 360-degree P-1's (I don't expect him to ever be in arc of the LS P-3s).  After this impulse his down shield goes out of arc.  Do I fire everything or hold something back?  Lesee...I've dug pretty deep into his ship.  A good phaser strike might toast his shuttle bay.  He's still got 2 shuttles and that damned fighter left in there.  To make my decision easier, the Hydran tractors me and finds out what I already know: I have no reserve power left. 

...So I give both phasers a whirl and find out how well Hydrans protect their fighters (while on the ship anyway).  13 more internals, 8 of which are power hits.  I also fry the last of his facing phasers, not to mention his last tractor beam.  What a workout for the Hydran ship's inertial stabilizers.   The crew had barely got used to slowing down when Wango!  he's not slowing anymore.  I didn't even get to his shuttle bay.  I forgot to take the Center Warp engine into account.  I knocked it down a couple of points, while overall reducing the Hydran's power by about 8.  Facing a 2-engine TC, I might have gotten to the shuttle bay with favorable rolls.  Not a Hydran.  By the time a Hydran loses shuttles, it's usually lost the game already. 

IMP 23: EMERGENCY DECEL?!?  Yup.  I guess it's a crisis-bond.  He doesn't want to end the turn far away from the only soul in sight, I guess.  Seeing this, I launch my last shuttle. 
IMP 25: HUH?!?  the Hydran slips in behind my ship.  We're butt to butt.  He wastes no time frying my new shuttle and putting a few-well-placed pulses into my #4.  Again I kick myself for not HETing that plasma.  <sigh again>. 
IMP 28: I have been ignoring his inbound shuttles.  I banked on my Turn 1 analysis of his power usage, which concluded that he had no special shuttles.  So I figured they weren't Suicides.  I knew they'd still do anywhere from 6-8 internals as I had 2 open shields and was a totally stationary target.  I chose not spare HIM 12 or more internals in order to spare MYSELF 8.  I hoped that they might be fake Suicide Shuttles, but no luck.  And those 8 internals really hurt.  This one volley blew out both of my 360-degree P-1s *and* my PPD.  Not to mention some more power. 

IMP 32: 

I AM LUCKIER THAN I DESERVE.  I'd like to state that up front. 

All through Impulses 22-24, I was watching him go by.  I'm mentally biting my nails thinking :"It isn't enough.  It isn't enough.  He's got too many toys.  Any impulse now, he'll pop out his fighter and his other two shuttles and I'll be dog meat."  I practically pushed my last shuttle out the shuttle hatch to get it on the board ahead of his fighter.  The fact that it (his fighter) never put in an appearance mystifies me even now.  His fighter and shuttles, even if the fighter had NO Fusions loaded would still do in the neighborhood of 18-24 MORE internals to me.  Fusions would be gravy.  The one thing I clung to was the thought of "He's gonna have to show me.  First, let him do the internals.  I'll bow out before the moderator has to figure what they are." 

Then there's the choice of slipping in behind me.  What's up with that?  My #4 shield has been sand-blasted by hellbores but it was otherwise intact (well, not after his P-G got through with it...but it still has 6 boxes left).  If he'd have just turned to E, he'd have his Gatling staring down my DOWN #5.  A Gatler at range 2 is nothing to sneeze at, especially when added to the damage his absent shuttles and fighter could have done.  The fat lady would have sung.  My theme song would have been "Turn Out the Lights".  I THINK his turn mode was fulfilled by then.  Let's see for ourselves.  He turned(1), slipped in(2), came to range 1(3), went past me(4) before slipping behind me.  Humph.  He couldn't turn.  The speed jump to 21 put him at a turn mode of 5 (speed 20 has a TM of 4).  I guess slipping behind me was probably his best available move. 

So let's do his EA:  If his run at speed 21 went all the way to the end of the turn, his movement would cost him 
20 points.  But then, we're pretty sure that change to 21 is from batteries so we'll call it 21 (19 from power, 2 from batteries), add in housekeeping and we're up to 25, Hellbores make it 31, the Fusion makes it 33 (27 power, 4 from batteries) and the tractor attempt rounds out the batteries (34 total, 27 from power, 5 from batteries).  That still leaves as much as 13 power consumed somewhere inside his ship.  Having hit 5 out of 6 of his shields, it doesn't look like any went to shield reinforcement (unless it went to shore up his weak shield 5, which ironically was never touched) and it doesn't appear to have gone to his tractors (which, I suppose is possible), so we begin to examine our underlying assumptions about his power use last turn.  I assumed I couldn't meaningfully track it so I didn't try.  This teaches me to track it anyway just to get the size of the unknown amount of power.  I figured a leisurely turn for him recharging batteries and phasers.  It appears that he put far more of that off to this turn than I thought. 

So here we are: He's got 1 P-G and 3 fusions to his name, 2 shuttles on the board, plus 2 more shuttles in the bays and a shot-up fighter.  I have 2 just-fired plasma-G's 3 P-3's and 2 P-1's (one of my FH phasers and my FA+R made it through the onslaught).  I also have 2 shuttles of my own on the board, looping back toward our little Koffee Klatch.  But I have 26 power to his 22.  That Suicide Shuttle made up for the ground I lost on Turn 1 and I came out slightly ahead in the current exchange of damaging energies.  I came into this turn thinking that I was gonna lose but leave my opponent in such a shape that he KNEW he was in a fight.  Now, I'm back in it. 

Jason, you HAD your chance.  You didn't put me down when you had me at your mercy.  You'd better play this turn well, because the next two after it, I'm gonna blow your doors off...er, sorry, forgot I'm an ISC...heh...pacify you real good if you give me half a chance.  And it'll hurt, too.  So there. 

Sorry 'bout that Bryans-Gingerich thing, Jason.  Really. 

Turn 4
We both start off a speed 0 (no surprise). 

IMP 1: The Hydran *weasels*?!?!?  Why in heaven's name would he weasel?  It's not like I have plasma to toss at him...  this kinda threw me off.  I expected he'd want to drill my shuttles to keep them off his weak shields, not force himself into a passive FC situation.  Seemed very counter-intuitive to me, but...  He needs weasels to deal with my plasmas. 

First order of business: tractoring the Hydran.  I have 4 points of power...and lose. 

Oh well, one more shuttle to kill, and killing shuttles is kinda at a premium at right now.  So we'll hit each one with one of my Phaser-3's...and get sucky rolls.  The only shuttle crippled is the weasel, which is exactly the *reverse* of what I wanted.  I needed to damage the weasel so it would die when it hit the wall (a voided weasel continues to move after being voided) so *it* didn't need to be crippled.  On the other hand, a cripple is as good as a kill as far as his free-standing shuttles were concerned.  Crippling would limit the shuttle P-3 to its FA arc and cut its speed to 3, making it impossible for the thing to turn around and get my ship back into that FA arc ,this turn.  next turn...we'll see.  One thing at a time.  Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. 

IMP 2: If at first, you don't succeed, right?  we both TAC, me to bring my stronger Shield #3 to bear while he's looking to bring some fusions to bear.  I fire my last P-1 as a P-3 and one of the *my* shuttle P-3's to kill his shuttles.  I hold the other shuttle back.  I *don't* want to kill the weasel and give him a free ticket to resumed fire control!  So I burn a P-1 as a P-3 and go on with life. 
IMP 6: Oops! I allowed my shuttles to move to range 1 from the Hydran.  Maybe I shouldn't have. 
IMP 10: 3 pulses of passive P-G fire go into the shuttle with the unfired P-3.  No more shuttle. 
IMP 17: Sproing! Out comes the fighter, speed 11.  Geesh, I don't have any bearing phasers. 
IMP 18: ...so I pivot to bring shield 2 (and Phaser 32) to bear and I fire it (as a P-3).  Doh!  The fighter moved a hex and I rolled a *6*!  The shuttle is uncrippled.  This looks bad.  The fighter drops to speed 10. 
IMP 19: Up comes the Hydran FC.  Here it comes... 
IMP 25: A quick spit of the final P-G burst at my facing shield (3 points) 
IMP 26: Now the Fighter unloads into my Shield #4.  31 damage, 23 internals.  I was right: this IS bad!  This shot took out 1/2 my remaining warp, all my phaser-3's, one of my G-torps and a lot more. 
IMP 27: The fighter goes back to speed 11.  Who cares now? 
IMP 31: The Hydran Tacs to F, bringing his most powerful (12-box) shield #2 to bear. 

OK, I know when I'm beaten, right?  I GUESS I could have gone on, but the Hydran had repaired his 360-degree P-1 as a P-2, he'd pivot again to bring 3 OL fusions to bear plus the P-G, plus the P-2...If I wasn't beaten before, I was then. 

What frustrates me is that I WAS LOSING, MADE MY WAY BACK TO PARITY, EVEN GOT AN ADVANTAGE, THEN LOST IT ALL TO A ROLL OF A SIX!!!  Even worse, my first run at an EAF left me with a 1/2 point I didn't have anything to do with (it went to transporters on the off-chance we'd both have down shields facing each other).  when I went back through to maximize my tractor attempt, I pulled a point out of my phaser capacitor for tractors but *forgot* to reassign that 1/2 point.  Thus, I only had a 1/2 point in the phasers when it came time to fire that fateful phaser.  It just sucks.  It's incredibly frustrating to miss by so little.