Final 8 Round – Rated Ace Tim Sheehy (Hydran)

Turn 1: I doubled both engines to herd Tim into his corner. Tim had fighters out 1 hex in front of him and we finished the turn at range 10 of each other. I launched 2 psuedos on impulse 32.

Turn 2: I doubled both engines and planned on taking out the fighters with phasers if he parked, saving his ship for next turn. I allocated 8 pts of reinforcement to my #4 and another 2 pts to the facing #6 and had 6pts in tractors. I plotted a 19/31/26 plot with the change to 31 on impulse 6. I wanted to go slow early in order to let the fake torps get out in front so that I could see what Tim did with them before deciding on what my plans would be. I started the turn slipping out to delay closing range. On impulse 6, Tim fired an overloaded hellbore at range 8 in order to detect shield reinforcement, revealing a brick on my facing #6 and my non-facing #4. On impulse 7, Tim launched a weasel at speed 4 towards the plasma. On impulse 9, I got to range 5 of the fighters on the oblique and the fake plasma whiffed on the weasel. Tim began raising active fire control. I really wanted range 4 on the fighters, but at speed 13, the fighters were scheduled to move next impulse to get them to range 3 of my ship where they do decent damage with fusions and gats. So I decided to settle for the range 5 shot and fired 4p1s at one fighter to kill it and fired another p1 at fighter 2 rolling a 1 and doing 5 pts. I realized 4p1s were overkill, but I wanted to make sure that I killed at least 1 fighter before Tim had a chance to suck it back into the ship and repair it. Next impulse, I slipped out and fired 3p3s at the last fighter doing 2 pts at range 5, crippling it. I then turned away (to the right) and fired two more p3s and did yet another lucky pt, leaving the fighter with only 2pts from being destroyed. My ship was at range 10 by the time Tim’s active fire control came up. He tractored the voided weasel back into bay. Tim sped up to speed 9 on impulse 14, and I proceeded to swing back around to the right to set up a possible attack run next turn. When I got my fusion in arc of his fighter at range 8, I did 2 more pts to the fighter killing it. I turned to the right on impulse 32 to show my #2 to his #2 just out of each other’s front arc. The turn went better than I expected, especially when Tim announced that he was discharging an OL hellbore.

Tim commented that he was thinking of firing the hellbore on passive fire control before I left range 8 but decided against it since I still had my f-torps plus what he called “those little thingies” (AKA, gatling phaser and fusion beam) on board.

Turn 3: I felt that Turn 3 would be a huge opportunity for me with my ship fully armed and the fighters dead, and no fear from range 2 hellbores. So I decided to double both engines yet again in order to put up a moderate brick up on my #6 (10 pts). Regrettably, I put only a measly 3 pts into tractors. I plotted 26 to impulse 4, 15 to impulse 12, and 26 the rest of the way in order to swing around my #6 shield very quickly and circle the Hydran. Tim announced speed 9 with a later decel to speed 4 as I got closer. I figured that he might have a sizeable brick on his #1 or #2 given the starting positions, so I decided to do a backwards “S” around to his #6 (showing my own bricked #6). I held back launching the plasmas and decided to nail him at range 2 on his #6 with phasers in two volleys as Tim would not likely HET to avoid mizia since I still had two f-torps that he would not be able weasel if he were to HET. I got to range 2 on the oblique (#6 to #6) on impulse 21. Then Tim announced the beam at range 2, and I went to my allocated 3 negative, but he went to 8. At this point, I had to decide whether or not I wanted to use batteries to continue to fight the tractor, but ultimately decided that (i) he probably had a huge tractor ready (which he did) that I would not be able to beat and (ii) I needed the batteries in case I needed to HET. I also reasoned that the range 2 tractor was not so bad since he would drop down to speed 2 while I would be at speed 11. That would mean that Tim would not be scheduled to move anyway, which meant that I could still get my mizia shot on him. I took the gamble that he was not using impulse (going speed 4) which would get him to speed 3 which would move next impulse. Of course, it turned out that he was using impulse, so the opportunity for mizia was gone. I knew that I had to get out of this tractor or bad things could happen so I launched my 2 real f-torps to get Tim to weasel and set me free. He chose on that impulse not to weasel, but instead launched a shuttle at speed 6 towards my ship. I fired my 5p1s, gat and 3p3s doing 15 internals through his #6 (knocking out a hellbore). He returned fire with a gat, 2 standard fusions and 3p1s doing 5 internals after reinforcement. On impulse 22, Tim turned to the right, away from my ship and the torps. My torps prevented Tim from turning in instead to bring the other 2p1s, gat and fusions into arc. On impulse 23, Tim launched a weasel to take out my torps and set me free. I death dragged the shuttle he had launched previously and headed towards the top of the map to make what I hope would appear to be a getaway.

Turn 4: I decided yet again to double engines, but this time ALL of them including impulse. I planned on HETing back towards the Hydran and take advantage of its inferior turn mode and speed in order to get behind it. I gambled that he would think I was running that turn to rearm my torps and prayed that he would not park. When he announced speed 14, I was extremely relieved. I plotted a 30/26 plot with a speed change down to 16 late in the turn and hetted at him on impulse 2. At speed 14, it was impossible for Tim to keep me from getting behind him unless he HETed. However, with a down #6, it made it difficult for him to find an opportunity to HET that would not result in me getting on his down shield. At range 2 oblique showing my #2 to his #3, I fired 4p1s and 7p3s rolling extremely well with p3s and did some 20+ internals knocking out the second hellbore and 2 phasers. Tim fired his facing 3p1s, 2 standard fusions and gat. He rolled poorly on p3s and ended up doing only another 7 internals. The next impulse I hetted away to fire another p1 and 3p3s knocking out his last p1 and a few more power. At the end of the turn, he had only 2 gats and 3 fusions and a repaired p3. I still had all of my weapons minus a fusion, f-torp and a p3. He had 31 power at this point to my 17. Not a slam dunk and anything still could happen, but I felt I was winning. The game was adjudicated at this point and I was awarded the win.