Phoebus vs Swarm Station:
Round 1:
The Phoebus immediately jumped on top of the Swarm Station...
getting behind it and taking out its rear armour, even as the Demeters began to dig through its own armour...
Seconds after I took the above picture, the Swarm Station was cored and blew apart... the remaining Demeters then attempted to destroy the Phoebus, and very nearly succeeded...
Round 2:
The Phoebus was a little bit slower to jump in close this round...
The Swarm Station was slower in raising its deflectors too, allowing it to target the rear sections that the Phoebus was attacking with one of its deflectors. The Phoebus survived the Swarm Station's first wave and continued to attack, but was unable to break through the Swarm Station's armour in time, and was destroyed by the second wave...
Round 3: Tiebreaker:
The Virtual Coin Toss came up head... again... But now I was starting to think there was something wrong with it (the VCT can roll a tails, but it never seems to when I first go to the site and ask it to flip), so I rolled a dice instead, evens standing in for heads and odds standing in for tails... it came up evens though, so the Phoebus played as an ally and the Swarm Station played as an enemy...
Like round 2, the Swarm Station was slow in raising its deflectors... however, unlike in round 2, the Swarm Station didn't raise a deflector on the rear armour section that the Phoebus attacked after making its Dieterling jump. The Station's was quickly cored rear armour was torn off, the Phoebus this time surviving the drones well...
Winner: Phoebus
Obfuscation III vs Phoebus:
Round 1:
This is probably the first fight in which the Obfuscation's poor turning rate (0.40) worked against it. Sometimes, when the two ships got close...
The Obfuscation had trouble bringing its guns to bear on the Phoebus. Jumping out to a distance with its Dieterling device, however, gave it sufficient time to turn, claiming the first section kill (accidentally deleted, that picture, sorry) and eventually destroying the ship...
Round 2:
I didn't mention the Obfuscation's use of its Frosch gun on the Phoebus last round, simply because it doesn't last very long (and thus does not have very much effect) on such a large target. This time, however, I managed to take a picture of it...
Anyway, the Obfuscation had fewer turning problems than it did last round,...
...which only served to make combating the Phoebus easier. One of its two main sections did take heavy damage, but ultimately the Obfuscation still soundly defeated the Phoebus...
Winner: Obfuscation III
Phoebus vs Scorpion:
Round 1:
Whilst the Scorpion was fast enough to pull out of the Phoebus' optimal attack range, the Phoebus relentlessly pursued, repeatedly using its Dieterling device to get close, its deflectors easily repulsing any fire from the Scorpion...
The Scorpion's tougher than average hull simply proved no match of an onslaught of ten mining beams...
Round 2:
Round 2 was almost exactly the same as round 1...
With the Phoebus barely taking any damage as it easily cut the Scorpion down to size (not the most convincing picture, unfortunately)...
Winner: Phoebus
Carbon vs SCOTLAND:
Round 1:
Like during its fight vs the Scorpion, the SCOTLAND tried (and failed) to keep the Carbon at extreme range...
The SCOTLAND was cornered, however, and a long battle ensued...
Eventually, thanks mostly to deflector failure, the Carbon was able to begin sniping off the SCOTLAND's weapons. Whilst the Carbon was also taking damage, it had little to fear in the way of system destruction thanks to its weapons being comparatively well protected, and the SCOTLAND only having one railgun... Credit must also be given to the Carbon's flak guns and impeders, which stopped the majority of the SCOTLAND's weaponry from damaging the Carbon...
After losing its deflector, the SCOTLAND began to lose sections...
And went into hullshock... it looked like it was all over...
But now the Carbon found it almost impossible to hit the SCOTLAND anymore, and the SCOTLAND continued to fight back with its three remaining weapons. It didn't have enough firepower left to punch through the sections of the deflector heavy Carbon, but it did manage to destroy the Carbon's two pulse guns and also two of its flak guns. Ultimately though, after some time of running the fight accelerated, the Carbon sniped off the last of SCOTLAND's weapons, securing a victory...
Round 2:
Once again, the SCOTLAND failed to keep the Carbon at range...
and another corner brawl ensued, with the added novelty that the SCOTLAND would occasionally retreat a short way up the left edge of the map, only to settle back into the corner again. The Carbon was once again able to start sniping the SCOTLAND's weapons off, repulsing any incoming fire aside from the weasel guns with its impeders and flak guns...
However, the SCOTLAND proved a stubborn beast, and even losing a section didn't prove fatal, as the SCOTLAND refused to give up its deflector to the Carbon's railguns this time...
I went away to write those last three paragraphs and went I went back, nothing much have changed except the SCOTLAND had almost lost its deflector and was now stuck in the top left rather than bottom left corner. Shortly after that, however, the SCOTLAND lost two more sections, but even that didn't kill it, as it still had its deflector...
I was getting tired of waiting at this point. Obviously the SCOTLAND had no chance of winning... It took a long time, but the Carbon finally finished off the SCOTLAND's deflector and was able to destroy the SCOTLAND's last remaining side section,...
...and eventually its bunker section, leaving the SCOTLAND in the exact same spot it had been in last round. Unlike last round, however, the Carbon was able to destroy the SCOTLAND's last section, securing the final victory...
Winner: Carbon
Obfuscation III vs Scorpion:
Surely the Obfuscation had this fight in the bag, right? The Scorpion lost every single other one of its fights, right? And indeed, the Obfuscation was quick to attempt to show the Scorpion who was boss, disabling the Scorpion with its Frosch gun and unleashing a devastating hail of weasel gun fire...
...this is, devastating for any other ship... the Scorpion, with its strong hull, simply shrugged it off... It soon sniped off the Obfuscation's Frosch gun, ensuring it wouldn't be disabled again...
...and systematically went about destroying the Obfuscation's weapon systems with its railguns and plasma charges one-by-one, leaving the Obfuscation without enough weaponry to effectively break through the Scorpion's flak guns...
until it was lucky enough to destroy two of the guns... Unfortunately for the Obfuscation, it was too late, the ship didn't have enough weasel guns left to punch through the Scorpion's hardened exterior and eventually lost its last weasel gun, putting the Scorpion well on the road to causing a major upset...
Round 2:
After what happened in the last round, the Obfuscation probably wasn't eagar for a repeat performance. It didn't seem to have much choice at first, however, as its entire weasel gun arsenal, when fired all at once, was easily repulsed by the Scorpion's flak guns. It didn't manage to hit with its first Frosch gun discharge either...
...Its second discharge did hit, however, but fortunately for the Scorpion, the Obfuscation's weasels missed. After that, the Scorpion took the Frosch gun out, it being simply too much of a threat for the Scorpion to leave intact...
The Scorpion did come a lot closer to losing sections than it did in the last round, but the Obfuscation just couldn't quite make it over the line. The Scorpion had a lucky break, sniping off the Obfuscation's port deflector (not pictured. The picture is of the Scorpion destroying something after it destroyed the deflector)...
...and soon destroyed the Obfuscation's entire port section...
It wasn't much longer before the Scorpion was able to complete its incredible victory, finishing off the Obfuscation and finally securing a win for its creator....
Winner: Scorpion
Obfuscation III vs Swarm Station:
Round 1:
I was concerned that this fight would end up being a repeat of what happened with the Obfuscation III vs Big Armoured Turd fight. At first, the Obfuscation equipped one of its deflectors to the wrong section, but was able to correct itself inside to save its starboard side...
The Swarm Station's drone didn't blow off the Obfuscation's deflectors like I thought they might, even though I made sure I used the same version of BSF for this fight as with the Obfuscation vs Big Armoured Turd fight...
...and the Obfuscation survived the first wave, losing only some of its small extraneous sections. It then fired a Frosch gun discharge, with proved moderately effective, and used the opportunity to destroy the rest of the Swarm Station's armour, which apparently sent into hull shock, as the stunning effect did not let up...
When the stunning effect finally faded, the Swarm Station's deflectors were gone and its drone pods had lost power, leaving it defenseless against an angry Obfuscation, clearly still smarting from its defeat at the hands of the Scorpion...
Round 2:
This time, the Obfuscation raised both its deflectors onto the right sections immediately upon being attacked...
But like during its fight with the Big Armoured Turd, now that the Obfuscation was playing as the enemy ship, it had its deflectors blown off, even as the Swarm Station's foward armour fell...
However, this did not, in fact, prove fatal (though it almost did). The Obfuscation survived the first wave and was able to use its Frosch gun to disable the Swarm Station and discharge both its deflectors and pod launchers...
By the time the launchers recharged enough to fire, there were only two left. These last few drones came to within inches of destroying the Obfuscation's starboard section, but just couldn't quite get there, and the Obfuscation took out the fight...
Winner: Obfuscation III
Big Armoured Turd vs SCOTLAND:
Round 1:
The SCOTLAND barely got the chance to even dent T.B.A.T. before it was surrounded by drones...
...and destroyed...
Round 2:
Once again, the SCOTLAND could barely make a dent in T.B.A.T. before being surrounded...
...and once again, destroyed...
Winner: Big Armoured Turd
Big Armoured Turd vs Phoebus:
Round 1:
The final fight of the cruiser category proved to be nothing overly special. The Phoebus didn't jump in close enough and was unable to cause enough damage to T.B.A.T. before it was overwhelmed...
...and destroyed...
Round 2:
Once again, the Phoebus didn't jump in close enough, was overwhelmed with drones,...
...and was destroyed...
Winner: Big Armoured Turd
Final Cruiser Standings:
Wins-losses:
1st Place: Obfuscation III: 6-1
Equal 2nd place: Big Armoured Turd and Swarm Station: 5-2 each
Equal 3rd place: Bullete and Phoebus: 4-3 each
4th place: Carbon: 2-5
Equal 5th place: Scorpion and SCOTLAND: 1-6 each
Analysis of cruiser entrants to be held shortly...