Finals Match 2
Scenario:  #19: Meteor dodge (BD 16-0924)
Mark McG (Confederation) 21 points
Renaud (Commonwealth) 11 points

If match 1 was the clash of fighters, match 2 was the clash of the heavies. I opened with Scout to control the meteor entry area, placing it on the flank away from my heavy ships. This was wise as it turned out. My opening 1 move was moving up a centre Heavy Battleship which fired off a Proton torpedo at a DD, and got 3 hits out of 5, eliminating the DD. Fantastic (and lucky) opening move.

Next moves were around the planets, with Renaud taking up control. A clash of battleships on the right was short and bloody. Commonwealth BB used Phasers to get 2 hits on 5d, whilst the Confed BB used Super Phasers to get 3 hits on 3d. Ultimately the Confed BB would also be destroyed, for an equal exchange.

The meteors were starting to fly on the left, and I rolled up 2 meteors, on rows 9 & 10, which was directly in line with Renauds right flank. Both were fast moving, so hit before he could react. Lot of Red Alerts, and a few hits on that flank, but he surged onto the planet none the less, and eliminated a meteor shower. Unfortunately he overlooked the greater danger stacked under his ship, which went on to cause further damage. With vulnerability and chaos on that flank, the Confed Heavy BB warp attacked forwards , causing a DD to Warp escape. With the Confed BB amidst the enemy flank, meteors zooming around, Renaud attacked with his strike ships, encircling the BB. Out of 11 dice, he got 1 hit, with the BB ambushing a DD and destroying it. 

Final moves were the BB heading to breakthough, and the coup de grace was a battle on the planet destroying a Heavy Fighter for the final points. 

My 21 points was 14 in kills (1 BB, 2xDD, and a HFTR), plus 7 breakthrough
Renaud scored 2 meteor hits, 3 planet control, and 6 for the BB eliminated.

Much quicker game, 1.5 hours roughly. Some great games, and I hope you all enjoyed the tournament. 
 

Finals Match 1
Scenario: #19: Meteor dodge (BD 16-0924)
Mark McG (Commonwealth) 21 points
Renaud (Confederation) 14 points

This scenario has every VP scoring it seems, plus Meteors, which are enough to make my head swim. There is Planet control, clearing a sector, Breakthrough VP, VP for eliminating units, and VP for eliminating Meteors. The Meteors also eliminate planet control VP as they pass through, and in this game we both lost 6VP in planet control from Meteors.

Meteors tend to move across the middle of the map, though a fair number crossed in Renauds space, which made him dodge, and me relectant to breakthrough. In the beginning we tussled over the planets, but with the meteors flying through we ended up with a planet each, both stripped by meteors.

My big move was to push on my Right, and promptly ran out of cards, but Renauds attacks here were poor, and my battlebacks were better. So he ran himself out here though his attacks.. I wished I could move here. I did get 9 planet control VP here, and 1VP for clearing this sector, thanks to the battlebacks.

Nothing much happened in the centre, and the Commonwealth push on my left was pushed off the planet, and wrote down his capital ships but failed to eliminate. Renaud scored 6 planet control VP here.

End scores were
Commonwealth 11VP eliminations (3 Destroyers, 2 Fighters), 9 planet control VP and 1 clearing sector VP
Confederation 8VP of eliminations (4 Fighters and a Heavy Destroyer), 6 planet control VP, and a Battleship poised to exit on my Left.

Took us about 2.5 to 3 hours (and 3 attempts) to get this game in. I think the re-match will run quicker now we are across the Meteor rules. I need to add d6 rolls to the module.!
   

rjvonline wrote:

Not to take these things too seriously, but I don't think that simply counting VPs is necessarily the way to go to figure out tournament rankings given that some games finish because of the 8 kills rule, others because 21+ VPs are scored. If it were me I would use th exact same system as for the other C&C tournaments: 3 pts for 2 wins, 2 pts for 1 win but more VPs, 1 pt for 1 win but fewer VPs, 1.5 for 1 win with a VP tie.

Having played around a bit with the VP scoring system, I think that the above method is a better system, encourages  8 kill wins, and discourages any potential gaming of the VP risk taking, especially in the 2nd matches.
VPs as a tie-breaker when both sides score a victory each seems fine, but as a raw scoring method I think it has problems in a tournament. In particular I think a victor in a low scoring match could miss out vs higher scoring match losers. I think people should play to win, not play for most VP, or conversely, to lose for the cheapest VP. 

Semi-Final 2
Mark McG (Commonwealth) 13 points
Gonzo (Confederation) 14 (21) points

First moves were a fighter battle around the planet, which went most of the game. Both sides deployed out to the other flank, with Joe ultimately getting the better of this section. My major move was using the Light Speed Command card to launch my capital ships into his centre where they eliminated the Transports and some Strike class ships, and if I had more centre cards this could have been decisive, but they had to struggle with the sectionless cards to keep fighting (though Light up the Stars was a good time).

Interesting game in that neither of the planet control or exit victory objectives came into play (for VP).
Game ended with Joe getting 8 kills, worth 14VP, whilst I had 7 kills worth 13VP. Obviously this means the average VP per kill was below 2, and a lot of the kills were Fighter units, around 50% each side. I'll return to this in another post. End of the match, which ever way the scoring went I got 13VP in Match 2, which was 1 better than Joe in Match 1.
 

Semi-Final 1
Gonzo (Commonwealth) 12 points
Mark McG (Confederation) 21 points

Confederation set the  pace for the game pushing to exit the transports on the left. This meant the right flank was quiet, and ergo the planet control was never in jeapardy.
First transport got close to the edge but was destroyed, aalong with 3 CW Fighter units, so a net win. Then a tussle in the centre involved essentially 2 battle line blasting at each other, with the CF getting the  better of the deal, and in particular destroying the CW Flagship. 

Something to note is that when confirming hits on Capital ships, it is ONLY the hits left over after the hits used on CAPs. I got this wrong, but the die favoured me anyway.
There is a BGG FOrum response from Charlie Heckman, who is a in the Borg playtest group, so I take it as official
boardgamegeek.com/thread/2185477/hitting-a-flagship
 

Semi-final scenario - 2ndleg

Renaud v Togan

As the Commonwealth, I got TF #2, adding 1 DD, 4 fighters and 1 star token, while Togan got #3 and added 1 BB and 1 fighter, IIRC. I placed 2 DD on my right, the flagship, 1 BB, 1 CL and 2 fighters in the center, and 1 BB, 1 CL and 2 fighters on my left. Togan had a bunch of CL and his transports in the center, along with 1 BB, and he had positioned his Flagship, 1 DD and 2 fighters forward on his right. We tied on cards for first play, but he got the tie-breaker and aggressively moved his Flagship, fighter and DD on his right. He eventually was able to exit 1 fighter and his Flagship took my weakened BB with a double-hit. It was the first of three capital ships to leave a trail of debris in space. I managed to stem the tide on my left, taking down some small ships and placing 1 hit on the Flagship, but then again the latter was able to double-hit my BB that came from the center to help out, leaving another maelstrom of debris in space. Still, Togan could not make any real progress on his right, so he tried to go left, with one heavy fighter making it to my last row courtesy of a Move-Fight-Move, with 2 other fighters achieving the same on his right, but I was eventually able to kill them all before they existed. My flagship rthen was able rto deliver a double hit to his weakened Flagship, and confirm the last hit, to score 8 VPs, leaving me 4 VPs from 21, while Togan was at 15. His left attac then eliminated one of my DDs to tie me at 18, but then I attacked on my left with 1 fighter (in contact) and--after much hesitation--my 1-hit CL at range 2. Phase Interception disposed of the fighter (1 hit, 2 RA, another hit going thru Asteroids, leaving 1 hit), but my CL got the kill on his CL, bringing me to 21 VPs.

Togan's bold move on my left, and his killing my 2 BBs, certainly made me sweat, but I had enough to sop him and then I got the lucky double-hit on his BB and the no less lucky confirmation hit to put him in a hole he could not come back from (as it already gave me the match decision, if not the game).

Awaiting the other finalist!

Semi-final scenario - 1st leg

Renaud v Togan

The dice gods gave me the Confederation and the card gods TF #7 to which I added 1 cruiser, 3 fighters and 2 star tokens, while Togan got TF #12 to which he added a battleship and 2 fighters. I went first with a Probe Center to place my Flagship and a heavy cruiser on the planet. Togan had planned to go after the planet with his Heavy Battleship and battleship plus a heavy cruiser and a fighter on that flank that moved immediately. Poor shooting on my part plus Ambush, Interception and First Strike on Togan's part led to his taking a significant lead in VP. Fortunately, I was able to prevent him from entering the planet (he never scored a VP there), especially as I destroyed his heavy battleship at range. And then a warp charge allowed me to clean up my left flank with my battleship and the 2 transports. Then I was able to use Light Speed to bring these 3 on his rear line, with their flank somewhat protected by an asteroid field. I also brought my flagship forward 1 hex from his rear line. He played a center card to and a warp attack to bring his flagship against my battleship but could only scored 1 hit. Likewise he brought his heavy cruiser and a fighter against my flagship, but could only score 1 hit. The following turn, a Battleline move took my battleship and transports out (10 VP), giving me a 21 (23) to 15 victory. Return match tomorrow (Wednesday).

In the Semi-Final scenario, this special rule is in play

• Support vessels are purchased in this scenario. Both faction players purchase 25 points of support vessels. In addition to its support vessels, the Confederation faction will deploy 2 transport units.

For the purposes of this tournament, the restriction on purchasing basic units (Battleships, Crusiers, Destroyers and Fighters) is still in force. 25 points can be spent on those classes of ships, and the Transports are extras.

With 2 matches left, there is now no possible results that can change the rankings of the top 4, who now progress to the Semi-Final

1. toganalper 190 pts
2. Gonzo 187 pts
3. Mark-McG 169 pts
4. rjvonline 166 pts

Semi-Finals are
1 vs 4
2 vs 3
Scenario is #17: Evacuation (BD 16-0831)

I'll post the draw in a table shortly

My Fault sorry. I tried to get in contact with Justin a month ago but he was leaving town and dont know if he is back. I emailed him a week ago but still Nothing.

Mark, only my games with justin should be left. I played everything else! IF not a winner against me might have not reported the match!

My Fault sorry. I tried to get in contact with Justin a month ago but he was leaving town and dont know if he is back. I emailed him a week ago but still Nothing.

Mark, only my games with justin should be left. I played everything else! IF not a winner against me might have not reported the match!

3 matches left to play, and this has dragged on..  time to get it done gentlemen.

Don’t worry. I was not suggesting to change after the fact, but just opening up a discussion for future tournaments. Good on you if you played to score 21 points in each game. I played to win either way because I didn’t pay too much attention to potential discrepancy created by winning with, or losing to, 8 kills. In fact in most of my games I also focused on helping others get the rules right

Just if we calculate as you suggested :
as per my calcs
gonzo : 10 points
toganalper :9 points
MarkG: 8 points
rjv: 7 points
Mikro 4 + (last games could be 0-3) so max 7 poınts
gotiger 3+ (last games could be 0-3) so max 6

But as you very clearly suggested some peole finished the game with less points. At thet point they should have actualy not gone after thecheap units and hunted bigger ones even better focused morte on objective points. So I belive trying to finish a gae to win with less points was not the correct strategy and should have been avioded based on the scoring system.

I do not believethat this is the discussion after the end of the tournament. As such all my strategy during gamıng was based on getting most poınts and I was not focused as much for the kıll or win. Hence ıf you look all my scores also for the ones I lost wer quite high. My strategy even from getting support poınts was based on the scorıng system.

Just as an example do you thing ıf in football they change 3 poınts for wın to 2 poınts after the fact people will have played with the same tactic. As an analogy our poınt system as declated was more lıke a 2 poınt for the wın so ıt was ımportant that you dont loose heavy.

I totally dısagree even to look for a different poınt system , after finishing the tournament.ç
But we can also try one lıke you suggest as a different one. I am sure my strategy will drastically change then.

I'll be away for 2 weeks outback, not able to monitor or respond to any messages.
I'll sort out the Finals when I get back, but ideally all the matches will be played by then.

Renaud, I tend to agree, but being the first Red Alert tournament, I thought we should try the VP scores to see how they went.
If someone wants to recast the scores based on the 3 pts for 2 wins, 2 pts for 1 win but more VPs, 1 pt for 1 win but fewer VPs, 1.5 for 1 win with a VP tie system, that would be interesting, but I suspect no different except possible more likely to end up with tie breaker results.

MirkoBruner wrote:

Question. Can a Ship already on a Planet move and Fight? We carried on fighting but it is a critical one.


 

www.commandsandcolors.net/redalert/the-game/faqs/planets.html

Not to take these things too seriously, but I don't think that simply counting VPs is necessarily the way to go to figure out tournament rankings given that some games finish because of the 8 kills rule, others because 21+ VPs are scored. If it were me I would use th exact same system as for the other C&C tournaments: 3 pts for 2 wins, 2 pts for 1 win but more VPs, 1 pt for 1 win but fewer VPs, 1.5 for 1 win with a VP tie.

Yes, a planet is the entire template dropped on the map. Once on one of the hexes you can move and battle. And there is no cover between planet hexes.

"Question. Can a Ship already on a Planet move and Fight? We carried on fighting but it is a critical one."

Eventhoug in our game it was not critical, but I agree that it could be for other games.

It says vey clearly at th start of page 30 a planet is composed of one or more hexes. So for me a four hex planet is a planet. "A planet" being the important word. THen in the descriptpon it say, it does not battle when movıng onto a planet. Again "onto a planet" being the key word. So as a result if I am on a multi hex planet, which is "a planet", I can move within the planet and still battle since I am not "moving onto a planet". Again "moving onto a planet" being the driving words. I am just moving to another part on the planet. So as we need to not read into the rules but just read the rules, that is my outcome based on grammar:))

Question. Can a Ship already on a Planet move and Fight? We carried on fighting but it is a critical one.
Samim obviously forgot to say in his might description that he had the rolls, the cards and everything else, like my cards were shit!
 

seems like with 2 matches left btw Mirko and gotigersc, the stage is set for the finals. If I am not mistaken it will be btw. gonzo 187 points and toganalper 190 points.

Another 2 times 3.5 hour marathons. I am looking forward to play gonzo agian but not very soon. I need to recover from our 2 veeeery long games last weeek which were 21:19 versus 17:21, both long and very very tense matches.

The supply base #3
toganalper(commonwealth) 22 poınts vesus Mirkobruner(confederatıon) 0 points

The commonwealth was sure to get the planet and protect it with all its might. I had a good set of cards and lucky die rolls, to get 14 points from the planet objective and another 8 from killing units.
First a heavyfighter for 2 points. The last blow came when I circled and got a battleship of the ocnfederation for 6 points

.

Thansks to MarkG for this inaugural tournament. Looking forward that this one also picks up in popularity. I believe being able to pick some of your units and having objectives makes this one really unique and fun.

3 matches left to play..

Uncharted Supply Base #2
Gonzo (Confederation green) 21 : toganalper (Commonwealth red) 19
Again close 3 hour marathon game