Round 2 – Rated Ace Peter Bakija (Kzinti)

The Kzinti is generally viewed by most players as being a very tough matchup for the Orion. I have found, however, that the cloak and the f-torp package gives a slight advantage to the Orion. In this matchup, the Kzinti must be extra careful with its drone launches to make sure the Orion cannot use off-side phasers to deal with them.

My general plan was to cloak on turn 1 to minimize the number of drones on the board on the attack turn (turn 2 or 3 depending on the situation). Then uncloak, close, anchor and kill. The Kzinti can always set the pack to blossom as soon as I uncloak, but that in itself is risky since an Orion can fade in and then back out to make the drones disappear. The Kzinti must force the Orion to deal with drones (ideally 8 of them over a turn break) with facing phasers, because the firepower advantage at range 1 heavily favors the Orion if you throw in the f-torps.

Turn 1: I did not double any engines and did a 16/15/16/15 plot while arming cloak and holding 2 suicide shuttles. Peter went 16 most of the turn and failed the lock-on attempt on the first try, so I used battery to stay at 16 all turn. On impulse 32, Peter fired 4 standards at range 10, hitting with 3 and rolling well on the cloak chart doing 8 pts to my #6.

Turn 2: I doubled both warp engines and plotted 19 to impulse 4 (in order to turn to face my #1 and #2) and then a 30/26 split from there. I put 13 points of reinforcement on my #2 shield, 8 points into tractors and continued to hold 2 suicides. Peter announced speed 9 with a decel to speed 4 effective on impulse 8. On impulse 1, Peter launched 4 fast drones. I was happy to see the early launch because it meant that I could deal with the drones before my attack run (eg., using tractor, rear phasers). With Peter at speed 9, I planned on playing turning games with him to the right (so that I could show my #2 the whole time), until I was able to get a close range shot on a rear shield. However, with his timely speed change to 4 on impulse 8, he was able to turn to keep me in front. With his right turn, I saw the opportunity to circle the other direction and took it. Unfortunately my turning games led me to offer up a range 4 oblique shot to my 22 pt. unreinforced #6 shield (which I forgot was already damaged). But in any case, I was not expecting that Peter would fire at this relatively long range. I launched an f-torp (real) in order to either (i) make him weasel away the 4 fasties that were chasing me at range 1 or (ii) damage his #6 shield. Instead, Peter surprised me by firing his alpha (4OLs, 4p1s, but only hitting with 2 OLs), doing 9 internals. He knocked out my fusion and p-3 but no warp. But he did hit two control boxes, leaving me with only 1. Peter decided to fire 4p3s (left) into the plasma instead of weaseling, letting it hit for 13 on his #6 but forcing me to deal with his four drones. As I flew past Peter at range 4, I dealt with the drones (one of which was a Type-IV) with p3s and a tractor. I was planning on hetting back towards Peter after creating enough space so that I would be HET-eligible again by the time I got to him. One of the problems of HETing into battle is that you normally cannot HET back out.

At around range 7, I decided to HET back. Peter kicked up his speed to 9 and ran (crawled) away. When I got to range 2 centerline on his #4, Peter decided to launch a shuttle my direction at a speed scheduled to move next impulse. I decided to slip around it to avoid wasting any firepower. I approached on his left side where he had no phasers ready to fire. As I was about to get to range 1, on impulse 26, Peter HETed to face his #1 to me, bringing 2 RS p3s into arc. I launched my other f-torp on impulse 27, turned into range 0 on impulse 28 (#1 to #1) and fired 4p1s and the gat on the now 10-pt #1 (after plasma hit), netting 31 internals. My plan was to knock out his phaser-3s in two volleys so that he would not have any phasers to stop my suicide shuttle(s). Unfortunately, I was only able to hit 1p3 (already fired) on the first volley (also hitting a disruptor and drone rack). My second volley of 8 internals (using my last p1) knocked out another fired p3. So much for that bright idea. But having done 39 internals to his 9, I was in pretty good shape. On impulse 29, I decided to launch the first suicide shuttle, which he killed with 2p3s (last two available to fire in arc). Then came a tough call. I could hold him at range 0 until impulse 32 at which time I could launch a suicide shuttle to hit on impulse 1 for 18 internals. However, this would leave me vulnerable to Peter’s impulse 32 suicide shuttle as well (if the shuttle that he had launched earlier was not a suicide). I was afraid that at range 0, there was a greater possibility that something bad would happen, even though another 18 internals to him (for a total of 57) before fire really would have crushed him. I got chicken and let go of the tractor on impulse 31 in order to end the turn at range 2 with both ships facing away from each other. Peter launched his scatter pack on impulse 31.

Turn 4: Peter was down a lot of power at this point and lost all of his impulse. I doubled both warp engines again and plotted speed 26 with a quick decel to 19. I put 13 power into tractors (1 for the drone and 12 of anti tractor) to make sure I would not get held at range 2. Peter went speed 0. Without the ability to do an impulse tac, Peter was forced to HET on impulse 2 in order to get his 3 disruptors and 4p1s in arc. When he failed the break down roll, Peter conceded.