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9/12 Tournament: Lewis' Take





Pre-Event



With about a week to go until the tourney, as I find myself riding shotgun somewhere south of Albuquerque, NM, it’s time to get a list put together! Turns out, I’m rusty.

In the last 6 months or so, the only lists I’ve constructed have been for playtesting purposes and/or campaigns. Thus, I’m out of practice as far as what is ‘good’. With that said, I’ve never been one to stress/care too much at a tournament - frankly, I’m happy to get several games in, in quick succession.



The List



Commander: Kyrsta Agate



Assault: Precision Strike

Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon

Navigation: Superior Positions



MC80 Battle Cruiser (103)

• Kyrsta Agate (20)

• Walex Blissex (5)

• Gunnery Team (7)

• Auxiliary Shields Team (3)

• Leading Shots (4)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• H9 Turbolasers (8)

= 156 Points













CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Jaina’s Light (3)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

= 51 Points



CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

= 51 Points



GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Toryn Farr (7)

• Bomber Command Center (8)

= 33 Points



Squadrons:

• Rogue Squadron (14)

• 6 x Lancer Pursuit Craft (90)

= 104 Points



Total Points: 397









Thought Process



Going into the process I got hooked on the idea of fielding a bunch of Lancer squadrons. They’re expensive if you ask me but I thought I’d pay the tax for the rogue keyword and ignore the squadron command entirely.

After chatting with Irate Pooka, Krysta became the commander choice. Making a heavy hitting ship ‘tanky’ might allow me to take down an opposing flagship and speed out of trouble afterwards.



As far as support ships, you can’t go wrong with TRC90s. Their damage output is just so consistent. Plus, having Jaina’s Light pairs well with my infested fields objective.



Finally a Bomber Command Center flotilla makes my lancers a sneaky powerful sqUadron ball if I can have them pounce on a hammerhead, arquitens, etc.







Final Pre-Game Thoughts

It’s now 1:28am and I’ve got my stuff all packed up ready to go.

I can’t find two lancers…



So, it’ll be a game time decision if someone has extras or I tweak the list for two YT2400s.



***Update: I was kindly allowed to borrow some Lancers.









Game Day



Round One - Kyrsta vs. Leia



Leia doesn’t see a huge amount of play (due to her mental points cost) and thus I wasn’t feeling too confident going into this match. I just lack experience dueling with the Princess from Alderaan and the idea of playing at a ‘tournament’ seems to add to the stakes of a match.



Ted’s list saw a Pelta, Yavaris, Jaina’s Light and a Transport, push an array of bombers (Biggs Ball + B Wings). I was the 2nd player and we landed on Planetary Ion Cannon as our objective.



After throwing down the standard obstacles I chose to place my Planetary Ion Cannon (PIC) tokens in the obvious gaps between the asteroids and debris fields.



From there I knew my goal would be to isolate one of his ‘expensive’ ships (Yavaris or Flagship Pelta), destroy it and then escape with minimal casualties. The idea of getting into a stationary slogfest with bombers surrounding my LMC80 was not an exciting one!



Thus, I hoped to keep my LMC80 and transport together. If the Lancers can keep his bombers engaged and my CR90s can get in behind his slow-er carrier ships, I ought to be able to put the squeeze on him



I accomplished what I think was a decent deployment and landed on the following (this image is taken mid-turn 1 with my two CR90s activated as well as two of his ships.)







Some key moments/thoughts from this game:


Leia with a fleet of ships performing squadron commands can be quite effective in ensuring that squadrons don’t go unpunished.
My Jaina’s Light was the first casualty of the game. After falling victim to B-Wings rolling (Crit + Hit & Accuracy) on their two-dice bomber attacks.
Jan Ors was left on the edge of a squadron ball and was murdered in a single turn by Rogue Squadron and a Lancer (it required perfect rolls). Jan then could not help keep his B-Wings alive OR provide Intel to his bombers.
Without Intel, a single Lancer moving as a rogue could tie-up a number of his squadrons without much trouble.
I foolishly positioned my transport such that his Jaina’s Light would bump it repeatedly. This only harmed my flotilla and also only obstructed my shots going at his CR90. The nature of his title meant he could sit in the spot and snipe from safety. I didn’t love that!
As the game progressed and squadrons began to get spread out, leveraging the Grit keyword became easier. All of a sudden I was able to silently plot potential rogue bombing strikes should my opponent not notice how many squadrons engage each of my Lancers.

So, what happened: Eventually my other CR90 was able to skirt in behind his Pelta and Yavaris, chipping away at them with consistent TRC damage, before perishing.



As this happened, my LMC80 had slow rolled into a strong Gunnery Team position. From there, it was able to draw LOS to the side arc of his Yavaris - killing it in a single volley. Additionally, that same turn, the LMC80 finished off his CR90, resulting in a tabling (the Pelta was his first casualty as it carried Adar Tallon, Leia, etc.)



End result, 9-2 to my ‘good guys’.





The final position of my LMC80. From this position it finished off the CR90 and Yavaris thus ending the game in a single activation.



Round Two - Kyrsta vs. Kyrsta



The second round of the day pitched my plucky little force against a list that looked very scary. Jacob’s list included:


A nasty Mon Karren outfitted with both offensive tech as well as Lando & Aux Shield Team for survivability.
A fully kitted our Starhawk
A single hammerhead, Garel’s Honor



When I looked at the list my thought was “Where am I going to score points?”. Killing the hammerhead was the obvious target but losing a few squadrons and a CR90 as a trade for that kill, doesn’t go well for me. Furthermore, that would at best result in a game that sees me take a 6-5 tournament ‘win’.



Then we got to discussing objectives and deployment. I outbid Jacob by a single point (he was at 398) and so I opted for 2nd player. I was certain he would have objectives that pulled me into a boxing match, one that I wouldn’t win!



From there, he chose Infested Fields and I jumped for joy albeit internally. I thought ‘this is it’, my chance to leverage Jaina’s Light + Rogues for easy points, just like Irate Pooka theorized.



Obstacle placement saw a mix of rocks spread out to hinder his large base ships and allow me to snag several with my aforementioned objective grabbers as shown below.





The obstacles clumped with their relevant objective tokens.





Then deployment began.



1) Jacob deployed his hammerhead on my right flank, angled in a position to pick up objectives



2) I deployed my flotilla first (as is the flotilla way) in my center as a position to deploy rogue squadrons, such that they could pick up objectives.



3) Then Jacob goes to the other end of the board, my left flank, and deploys one of his two remaining large ships. At this moment, I knew I had a good chance of winning a sort of game I don’t typically ever play, a game that is boring and almost devoid of risk, but I ultimately win.

I was poised to snag the objectives, crush his hammerhead and run for the hills. This would put me 2-0 and give me the overall ‘win’ at our small-er tournament.



There is a problem with that though (and I hope that my friends reading this know where I’m going with this): I always must ensure I pass what I call ‘The Mirror Test’. Meaning canI look myself in the mirror and be pleased with my actions? Have I don’t anything that’s just not in the sport of a fun game.



I NEVER want to be ‘that guy’ who takes a game too serious. Frankly, I would rather know my opponent is having a blast and lose, than win a game in which my opponent is disappointed with themselves or not enjoying their time. Especially at a ‘tournament’ in which the setting sometimes feels more serious and less welcoming to new players that might be prone to making mistakes.



Anyway, I knew when he deployed his biggest ship that I could make it irrelevant to the game and so I did. However my compromise was, rather than get the objectives and run, I would try to get the objectives before looking to flank him and get into a scrap in the final stages of the game.











Above are two snaps showing the end of deployment. My ships are primed to cut off his hammerhead.



The ‘safe’ part of my brain thought it best to see my formation bank to the right and flee from his bigger ships.

That didn’t happen.







I threw a handful of bombers at the Hammerhead that saw its shields chipped away.



My CR90s accelerated to assist in damaging the Hammerhead with their TRCs in later rounds.



I began to fear for my flagship. It also accelerated in an effort to get around the Starhawk and render his Mon Karen targetless.









The above picture was taken following the destruction of the Hammerhead. My formation was poised to escape with the victory token advantage (which was 4-1) and pile into his Starhawk on the way.







At this stage my LMC80 had lost all of its shields but was moving at high speed with plenty of defense tokens. It managed to fly off to safety.



This same turn, the flotilla closed to provide support via Bomber Command Center and the Rogues were able to finish the Starhawk.





Final Thoughts



All in all it was an awesome day. The fleet was fun to fly and didn’t have too many inter-ship synergies to manage.



I’m loving the Lancers! Consistent black dice bombing without having to ‘push’ the squadrons makes them a nasty proposition for any target.



Playing just two games isn’t the standard for most tournaments but it made sense with 4 players and meant nobody felt rushed.



A huge shout out to my opponents!



Ted made me believe in B-Wings and speed-2 squadrons! He also employed Fighter Coordination Team + Yavaris + Adar Tallon in a really cool way.



Jacob brought a terrifying one-two punch in his Starhawk and Mon Karen. Perhaps with a few rogues of his own rather than the Hammerhead, he could’ve tied me up and minced my ships!



Bring on the next event. I’ll take more pictures and do a better job of proofreading any post-battle-waffle like this.









Lewis

2 comments:

  1. It was a pleasure losing to you! Almost all of the games I've played in our Armada community have been squadronless or squadron-minimal, and I took that into consideration when building my list. I knew if I went up against a squadron-heavy list I was in for some serious trouble! I consider myself fortunate that I didn't have to play your's and Ted's fleets!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey!
      I had a blast in that game and if you could hear my internal thoughts you'd know just how terrified I was of timing my dash across the bow of your Starhawk and LMC80 incorrectly.

      We should absolutely make a tweak or two and go again! Maybe if you were to drop the Hammerhead for a few X Wings and Biggs, I would've had a rough day!

      As far as the squadron-less local meta. I think that's less about strategy and more about pace of play. Squadrons sure do slow down games and when trying to play two games in an evening, it can make it tough.

      Delete

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