GenCon 98 FT Tournament Fleets

3 posts ยท Aug 13 1998 to Aug 14 1998

From: Dean Gundberg <dean.gundberg@n...>

Date: Thu, 13 Aug 98 08:27:22 -0600

Subject: GenCon 98 FT Tournament Fleets

I sent this yesterday and it never showed up so here it is again.

These are the fleets the players had to choose from. They are all basically
1500 point fleets using FT 2nd edition rules. Most ships were taken directly
from FT and MT book examples. The first player to destroy half of his
opponents fleet determined by points was declared the winner.

 One player commented that he liked the format of choosing from pre-made

fleets because an Admiral never has exactly the fleet they want, they make due
with what they have.

Next year the tourney will use the Fleet Book rules (FT 2.5) and will either
 have 3-4 fleets created for each of the main powers (9-12 total) for
the players to chose from or the players can define their own fleets, we have
not decided yet.

I will include some comments about each as they are listed. The number in
parentheses is the total points of the fleet.

Enjoy and let me know what you think,
 Dean

 -----------------------

GenCon FT TOURNEY FLEETS

Basic Beam Fleet (1480) Might have been selected once but that is all. 4xDD
 1xCE
 2xCA
 1xBDN

SDN Fleet (1482) Chosen a several times, and used exclusively by Schoon, the
tourney winner. It is the beam fleet but the CE is exchanged to upgrade the
BDN to a SDN.
 4xDD
 2xCA
 1xSDN

Pulse Torp Fleet (1485) Chosen only a couple of times.
 6xTorp DD
 2xCE
1xStrike Cruiser
 1xBC

Carrier Fleet (1501) Chosen by the list's own Mark Siefert in both rounds he
played 3xFG
 2xDD
 1xCE
 1xCA
 1xCVA

2 Capital ship (1484) Chosen only once I think. This fleet also had the
highest average thrust of any fleet.
 3xDD
 2xCL
 1xBC
 1xBB

Light Carrier (1475) No one chose this fleet.
 3xDD
 1xCE
 1xCA
1xSuper Cruiser
 1xCVL

Missile Fleet (1478) No on chose this one either.
 3xDD
 2xSuper DD
3xMissile Cruiser
 1xBDN

We debated on whether to allow the following 2 fleets and decided to include
them since they had disadvantages that balanced their advantages.

Mega Weapon Fleet (1495) (Same support ships as SDN Fleet) The MegaWeapon
fleet was chosen many times and always with the AA Megabattery options. A
couple of times they both burned out on the first turn and at least one burned
out every game. The 2nd place finisher used this fleet for the first 3 rounds.
 4xDD
 2xCA
1xMegaWeapon DN

MegaWeapon DN
 Mass 82
 Cost 593
 Thrust 2
 FTL
 Mega Weapon: 2xAA Mega Batts (F)   OR   1xWaveGun (F) 2xA-batts (FPS)
 1xA-batt (FP)
 1xA-batt (FS)
 4xPDAFs
Level 3 Screens 1xStd Fighter Group

BattleRider Fleet (1486) Special Rules: If the BattleCarrier is destroyed,
then that side automatically looses since the riders it carried will not be
able to go FTL.
 Chosen 4 times with a record of 1-3.  The 2nd place finisher beat this
fleet
 in the semi-finals and chose this fleet in the finals.
 1xDD
 1xCE
2xBattleRider Alpha 1xBattleRider Beta 1xBattleRider Zeta 1xBattleCarrier

BattleRider Alpha
 Mass 16
 Cost 94
 Thrust 6
 NO FTL
 2xA-batts (F)
 2xB-batts (FPS)
 2xPDAFs

BattleRider Beta
 Mass 16
 Cost 98
 Thrust 6
 NO FTL
1xPulse Torpedo (F) 1xSubmunition Pack (F)
 2xB-batts (FPS)
 2xPDAFs

BattleRider Zeta
 Mass 26
 Cost 212
 Thrust 6
 NO FTL
1xPulse Torpedo (F)
 1xA-batt (FPS)
 1xA-batt (FP)
 1xA-batt (FS)
Level 1 Screens
 3xPDAFs

BattleCarrier
 Mass 74
 Cost 691
 Thrust 2
 Tug FTL
 2xA-batts (FPS)
 1xA-batt (FP)
 1xA-batt (FS)
Level 3 Screens
 4xPDAFs
2xStd Fighter Groups

From: Doug Evans <devans@n...>

Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 12:12:20 -0500

Subject: Re: GenCon 98 FT Tournament Fleets

Hi, Dean!

Looked to be a very well-run tourney. I've been kicking meself for not
joining in.

Hobie was very excited afterwards; wants even more to get games going back
at the local shop/club. He did whinge a triffle about the fleets in his
first game, but everybody gets to make some comments, and he admitted it was
still fairly balanced. And, after all, he did get back in to the second
round. ;->=

However, his thoughts brought something to mind. Your pointing to each of the
fleets having strengths and weaknesses is very well taken. However,
there is some 'scissor/paper/rock' tendencies, I think, of fleet A has
some advantage over B, which has some over C....

Short of switching sides for a second battle on the same round, then averaging
the points to declare a winner, anybody have ideas on what could be done to
keep the neat flavor the fleets give, but not be a stumbling block at any
particular round? Seems difficult within a single elim structure.

Oh, and it was a pleasure meeting, if too briefly, face-to-face Dean,
Allan, and Mark. Blushing that I missed so many others. Mark, did you ever
get that after-battle-sitrep with Dean and Allan?

The_Beast

From: Allan Goodall <agoodall@a...>

Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1998 01:35:41 GMT

Subject: Re: GenCon 98 FT Tournament Fleets

Hi, Doug! Good to meet you, finally!

On Thu, 13 Aug 1998 12:12:20 -0500,
Doug_Evans/CSN/UNEBR@UNebMail.UNeb.EDU
wrote:

> Hobie was very excited afterwards; wants even more to get games going

I refereed Hobie's game. He was pretty happy for a guy that lost in the second
round. Good thing to see, that even the people who lost enjoyed themselves.

> However, his thoughts brought something to mind. Your pointing to each

That's probably an issue. We hadn't really thought about it. One way around it
is to have far fewer fleet types. Not all of them were used.

A second way is something I saw three years ago in a DBA (ancients) tournament
at GenCon. DBA has the same rock-paper-scissors issue. What THEY did was
preset the matchups. That is, the armies were already on the table and you
were plopped down in front of an army at random. The tournament was then run
as a round-robin event, with points determining the winner.

I think this second method might be best. We can make the match-ups
fairly
even, but different. We could do two rounds of round-robin to determine
the
semi-finalists.

It's another way to do it, anyway.

> Short of switching sides for a second battle on the same round, then

I agree. Maybe round-robin is the way to go.