Penultimate Victory in Orange

In preparation for the Orange Store Championship, I ran my list at a practice session at the local games' club. In my practice games I am running two AF2Bs, with gunnery teams and enhanced armament, a MC30c with some upgrades, and a Corvette A with Leia Organa and Admiral Ackbar.
The Fighter complement is minimal, with two X-Wings and Jan Ors.

My first practice game was against Josh, a great bloke who introduced me and Noah to this game early last year.

Josh brought his ISD and two VSDs with a smattering of fighters. I think Screed was his Admiral. I have a bid of 15 points, and elected to go first. I chose Josh's minefields mission, and he deployed 3 on each side to produce a narrow middle of the board. I deployed in classic Ackbar Conga line, with the Corvette behind to hand out new orders and protect Admiral Fishlips. Josh deployed in the appropriate formation to break up the Conga line.

Start of turn 2, and my Ships have all made a hard turn to port, breaking the Conga line and heading for the "Ackbar Slash". My ships will sail between those Star Destroyers, firing left and right. The Gunnery teams won't come in so much use, but such is life.

Start of turn 3, and I have used my first / last activation to put my Tropedo frigate in prime position on the Victory Star Destroyer on left of photo. I'm still undecided about the MC30 - I think I'd rather another Assault Frigate. I chose the MC30 to go first, which left one of my Assault Frigates taking a very close range beating from the other Victory and ISD, but such is life...

 This is a close up of the central action. There are some fighters floating around, but by and large the "little war" had little impact on the capital ship action.

Start of turn 4, and the Victory on the left is gone, destroyed by a combination of double arcing with the Torpedo Frigate, and long range gunnery from my Assault Frigate(s). One of my Assault Frigates is in very bad condition, having only two hull left, while the other is in pretty good shape - but heading for ignominy! Ackbar and Leia are broadsiding the ISD from the Corvette, but without great effect.

Start of turn 5, and my fleet is through the enemy lines, having blasted the other victory to pieces. The ISD remains in fine fettle, and is chasing my crippled AF2 towards the left. Josh also has "Boba Fett" who can do some damage if he activates within range one of a ship or squadron. I hadn't read the fine print, and chose to ignore the bounty hunter with daddy issues, and so nearly lost the damaged Frigate. I flew some fighters in eventually, but this led directly to the destruction of Jan Ors.

My other Assault Frigate (the original lead ship) turned right instead of left, and as a consequence was travelling too fast and too close to the edge, and proceeded to engage the Mclaughlin Manoeuvre, and fly right off the board. Sad.

That wayward Frigate was the only Capital ship I lost, with an X-Wing and Jan Ors. Josh lost two Victory class Destroyers, and some Tie Fighters. In tournament points, it was a 7/3 in my favour.

Killing Imperial Class Star Destroyers is still something I struggle with, but Victories go "pop" with regular alacrity when confronted by Ackbar Assaults.

*****

I played one more test game at the Club, this time against Noah. Noah plays occasionally, and might one day actually buy some stuff. He played with my Imperials, which is quite a limited collection at this point. I again went first, and chose Noah's mission of "Fleet Ambush." I also cheated.

Due to the lateness of the hour and general gross incompetence, I deployed three ships in the ambush zone rather than the requisite two. I really have no idea how this happened, and Noah didn't pick it up, and it wasn't until the middle of the night that I suddenly woke up with the realisation that I was a no-good-lousy-cheating-jackass. 

I do hereby apologise to Noah for this oversight, and humbly beg his forgiveness.

Noah did a good job of getting stuck into the Ackbar Conga line, causing all sorts of troubles with collisions and ramming.  

I knocked out the twin gladiators in short order (one is already gone in this photo), but the Victories caused all kinds of trouble, blocking the advance and following up behind. My Frigates were too close together to be able to break out of line, and things were pretty bad for a while there. Eventually I knocked out the front Victory to release the blockage, but I'd lost frigate and most of the fighters.

This game was a victory to me, but only because I cheated so thoroughly in the set up. Noah taught me some good lessons about the vulnerability of the Ackbar Conga line, and I will make changes to my tactics heading forward.

*****
The day of the Store Championship arrived! I changed my list! (slightly) There were only two players! Total!

There had been some scheduling issues with the Store Champs, mostly because I objected to playing on a Sunday (again), and the suggested day change clashed with other things that Theo was doing.

I turned up expecting there to be no-one else in attendance, but Theo (pronounced Tay-Oh) from Bathurst was there with his Imperials and we had a game. This Theo had only played a few games in total, and I think all against the same guy from Bathurst, so there were a couple of things that I needed to gently remind / inform him about regards the rules.

My list had dropped the Corvette, and added a bunch of upgrades on my MC30c, and Raymus Antilles on the AF2. Bathurst Theo had an ISD, VSD, and raider, with some fighters. I had initiative, and chose Minefields. He deployed terrain, and set out the mines.

This photo is the start of turn 3, and I'm already missing my activation advantage. Four ships is where I am comfortable as first player - I love going first and last! My Frigates are angling to concentrate on the ISD, and the MC30c is creeping forward, looking for a last/first activation to get some serious hits into an enemy vessel. Bathurst Theo's ISD has landed in range of a mine, but he rolled double Accs, with no damage resulting. My fighters have massed on the station, and Bathurst Theo's have drifted off to the flanks - I think this was an example of his inexperience, since there was little the fighters did for most of the game.

Start of turn 3, and my Frigates have formed a mini-conga line and are preparing to blast the ISD and raider. My MC30c has geared up for a double arc on the VSD, and then the ISD moved towards it. My fighters launched attacks on the ISD, with limited damage.
For my first activation I have a choice of double arcing the VSD (red), or launching an Ackbar backed port-arc on the ISD. I decided that destroying the ISD was probably the main game, and the MC30c let rip with four black dice (cf) and four red. With Ordnance Experts and Xi7s, the little guy did a ton of damage, and then accelerated to get away and behind the VSD. I accidentally landed on a mine, and took a face up card of damage.

My Raymus Frigate Flagship took out the raider at long range, and then both frigates sent broadsides into the ISD. The ISD took a beating, moved forward, and the VSD couldn't move and rammed.

Start of turn 4, and thanks to the ram, my MC30c has close range on the back of the VSD. Another powerful broadside and the victory is down to half strength. There is a little bit of a fighter skirmish in the middle of the board, and I used Jan Ors to get my heavily damaged X-Wing out of the fray and onto the station for a necessary repair.
Unfortunately the ISD has moved out of range of my Frigates, who cannot turn fast enough to get back into range... I have sadly shot myself in the foot here - the ISD is very badly damaged, only being two or three hits off dead, with the VSD in much the same position. Neither of them is in range, and my frigates simply cannot turn fast enough to re-engage.

Start of turn 5, and my ships are turning and chasing, and the fighters are trying to reach the enemy vessels, but it is not going to work.

End of game positions, and I have not managed to take out any of the big imperial ships. On the other hand, my own ships have taken limited damage, with the MC30 still carrying its face-up card from the mine, and not much else.

I won the game, having taking out the raider and a few fighters. I lost an A-wing in response.

This game reminded me that I have not yet worked out how to kill an ISD. Perhaps I should have sent one of my Assault Frigates to ram the beggar for a turn, forcing it to sit in the centre of the board, and trust in my ECMs to keep me alive. As it was, after we flew past each other, Bathurst Theo had no intention of coming back to the fight, and I just could not turn fast enough. Perhaps I should have put some more Nav commands earlier in my stack. Or perhaps I should just decide that ISDs are too tough and focus on killing Victories and smaller. Raiders do not worry me much with Ackbar Frigates - one accuracy and they die pretty quick.

The game was a win to me, and I declared myself store champion of all Orange! Kneel at my feet, lowly peons!

However, with only two players we (that is, me and the shop folks) agreed that it probably shouldn't count as a store championship. They refunded my $15, and I left with my honorary title only. I won't get an 8 point bye at Regionals, but it seems most likely that I won't make it to Regionals at all....

Thus ended my Orange games.

Bathurst Store Championship

Sunday 28th February was store championship at Bathurst Game On. I had cleared with my fabulous wife for her to do the church things to let me attend. 

I had intended to bring a two frigate, two corvette list with Paragon, Dodonna, and five fighters including Jan Ors. But I did not sleep well the night before, and redesigned and redesigned until I ended up with an Ackbar fleet with two frigates, one corvette, and seven fighters, including Hans Olo.

I also included a SEVENTEEN point initiative bid, since I became paranoid about one a.m. about facing a CLONISHER fleet. Seventeen was more than enough to get me initiative and first player each time - I think seven would probably have done the same job, but "kay sarah" as we say in the old country.

I have never played an Ackbar list before, and had to borrow the card from my gentleman and scholar associate, Theodore. I also borrowed his Hans Olo, as the rogues and villains are on my "birthday" list.

Three games were played - all against rebel players. I think five of the eight players at the tournament brought the freedom fighters alliance - we had two Mon Mothmas, two Rieekans. I was the only Ackbar.

Game One - vs Nick from Parramatta Attack Wing.

Nick brought a Mon Mothma force with one frigate, torpedo boat, and Nebulon-B. He had seven squadrons, including Jan Ors.

This Photo is the start of turn 3 - I am first player, and the objective is Precision Strike. I was too aggressive with my fighter force, sending them forward too soon, and taking a number of hits from the otherwise unemployed ships. In the end I lost almost all my squadrons, without doing much in return.

The ship battle was quite the opposite. I managed to destroy all three of the enemy ships in succession. The Torpedo boat took some hits on the approach, then ended turn in side arcs of both my Assault Frigates, and was quickly eliminated. The Frigates then took out the Nebulon in quick order. 

I came close to losing the Corvette with the Admiral on board, but escaped. The scurrg bombers also came close to destroying one of the Assault Frigates, but came a bit short.

Nick's Frigate ended up ramming my Frigate, and ended turn on the asteroids. The next round of shooting finished it off.

The field at the end of the battle.

It ended up with a large margin of victory, and ended up as a ten-nil in my favour. The next game would be fought at the top table, a new experience for me!

 Game two was against Alex, also from Parramatta Attack Wing. He was fielding an MC80 battleship, a torpedo boat, and a Nebulon-B. His fighter force was four aces - Luke, Wedge, Dutch, and Keyan.

We deployed on opposite tacks, with me waiting for his ships to approach, and his ships doing their level best to avoid approaching my firing arcs. This was to be a long range episode, with the lion's work done by the fighters.

 

This is about the start of turn 3 or 4. We have avoided contact, but at this point I decide to throw the fighters against the Torpedo frigate. They did limited damage, but brought the aces into play. Ultimately very little shooting occurred, and Alex succeeded in destroying my four X-Wings and two B-Wings. Only Hans Olo survived, and I took out Dutch and Wedge.

The difference at the end of the game was 74 points, which means 7-3 in Alex's favour. Had just one of the B-Wings survived, it would have been 6-4. That one point would have made a big difference at the end of the day.

I should have either been more aggressive with the Assault Frigates, or held the fighter wing back, and made the aces come to me... perhaps next time the aura of the top table will not be so frightening.




The final battle was against my arch-nemesis and good friend, Theo. We have fought any number of battles over the past year since I moved to Orange, and generally he comes out ahead. It is rare that I manage to beat him, and I thought that this time would be no exception.

Theo was flying a half-swarm with 4 Corvette As, a torpedo boat, and an Assault Frigate. The Corvettes were armed with Turbolaser Reroutes, making them punch a bit more weight. I chose first player, and had a choice between Opening Salvo (10 extra black dice for Theo - Yikes!), Intel Sweep (hmmmm...) or Fire Lanes. I went with Fire Lanes, thinking Theo would spread out the obstacles, and I might be able to control one or two. Instead, he put them all together, and I moved them towards me in a bunch. We should have just stacked them on top of each other, since we had at least one interesting turn of working out who exactly had range with what dice to claim which objective. That aspect of Fire Lanes has always put me off... all that paperwork!

We deployed, and I went for the objectives, and so did Theo. At the end of round one he had the most dice on the objectives, and won 45 points. It would be the last time that happened...
The Corvette swarm puts out a lot of hits, and with Mon Mothma in the frame, my own return fire was less than satisfactory. I decided that killing the lady in white was my first task, and I managed to bring her ship down at the start of turn 3. One of my assault frigates was badly mauled, with no shields and only two hits remaining. My B-Wings were tied up by an A-Wing, and my X-Wings were too far away to help. Also, both my Frigates were the in side arc of the Torpedo boat at close range. It was a disconcerting moment.


This photo was not taken by me, (many Bothans died to bring it back to this blog) but it is the best one to show the battle at its moment of crisis. Truly, this was the dark night of the soul for this particular battle. For those who don't know, I'm the chap in red. If you look carefully at my shirt, you might learn something about my true feelings regarding the Star Wars franchise.

Anyhoo, my nearly dead frigate activated and destroyed Mon Mothma, and nearly took out another Corvette. Theo had a choice to make as to which of his ships to activate next - the torpedo boat which was in a good position to fire on either Frigate, or the nearly dead corvette, which would blow up in stiff breeze (not surprisingly, since it is designed for space travel).

He chose the corvette. It fired its guns, and ended my Frigate, then move rapidly forwards, towards, I assumed, a ramming and glorious death on my other Frigate. Instead, Theo moved it behind my ship, avoiding the ram (presumably to give me an extra target). Unfortunately, his placement ended up with his Corvette overlapping his A-Wing by a smidge (some might say a half-smidge), and I got to relocate his fighter, which I did, by moving it as far from my B-Wings as possible. My next Frigate activated, had a squadron order in the offing, and sent the B-Wings at the Torpedo boat, followed by a nice round of close range Ackbar enhanced armament broadsides fun. The Torpedo boat went pop!

And so did Theo's left ventricle.

This picture shows the outcome of the crisis moment - of Theo's five ships, only two remain (the ones on the left of the picture), while I still have my Frigate (The Communal Liberty), and my Corvette (Observant Facilitator) (on the right). I also have fighter superiority, with only two sets of A-Wings left in action, and I've only lost one X-Wing (if memory serves).

I also had dice on the objectives, and the rest of the game involved me shooting Theo's last corvette at long range and dusting it quite handily, and then gently turning around the objectives with both ships. We had a moment of hilarity when Theo pointed out that the "toggle" on one of my fighter squadrons was overlapping an objective, and it therefore belonged to him. As an act of magnanimity I did not argue the toss, but gave him that one objective. The problem was resolved in the following turn, because although the fighter was engaged and could not move away, the toggle was switched to the other side, and no longer overhung the objective.

I suppose I could have turned my Frigate to pursue Theo's and potentially destroyed it, and in retrospect that might have been the right thing to do. Our game ended as a 9/1 to me, leaving me with 22 tournament points for the day. 22.

22.


The final battle was happening on another table, and Alex (my second round opponent) was dealing with Dan, who had beaten Theo in the first round with some amazingly lucky rolls and critical effects.

I don't think they played all six rounds, but ran out of time. Their game came to a 7/3 in favour of Alex, putting him on 23 tournament points for the day. 23.

23.


Gah!


One alive B-Wing in game two, and we would have tied on tournament points. My MOV (whatever that TLA stands for) was much higher than Alex's (Thanks to Nick beating the living poop out of the poor sods he had to face after I wiped him out in round one), so I would have won the day! Groan!

I've never really thought of myself as being a "contender." I haven't spent a whole heap of money on the game (my brother bought me the starter box as part of his eternal debt to my foresight and wisdom - he knows what I did...) and I've maybe spent $200 of my own on other stuff. I don't have any of the Wave two ships or cards (as stated, I borrowed Hans and Ackbar from Theo for this day). I only just bought the Nebulon-B stand alone set as a result of winning $20 at this tournament - imagine how deadly I'll be now I have an xi7 and an intel officer!

Wiping out Nick in round one was remarkable - he had won the championship in Sydney the day before - and I was not at all prepared mentally for a fighter/player like Alex, who was quite happy to avoid contact at all, and just have a fighter skirmish - this was the first battle of Armada I had ever seen where no-one lost a capital ship. Truly amazing.

And then to face rival/mate/brother/traditionally-better-than-me Theo in the last round I had no confidence at all. When I realized I was going to win I "pulled up stumps" as we say in the old country, and just phoned it in. In retrospect, I should have turned left instead of right, trusted the Corvette to control the objectives by itself, and gunned for Theo's last Frigate - mine was still in pretty good order, I was spamming repair commands, and I had fighters and bombers with no one to shoot at. And I had Ackbar, who is an advantage all on his own. I should have stuck the boot in.

But, such is life.

A great tournament, a successful day all around, and second place ain't bad for an old dog like me.

Next time - oh yes, next time!

David's SpaceCon - Episode Three: Team Rebel! Heck Yeah!

Game three saw me at the last table, facing Dave K, who was also "0" from "2".

He had an interesting list of three ships with every possible upgrade, and one fighter.

I won initiative, chose second, and he chose "Most Wanted." This is the mission I most want my opponent to take, since it means I can get up to ten extra dice at the biggest ship on the field, while only making my corvette (which tends to avoid getting shot much anyway) a little more vulnerable.

Start of Turn 1 - we're both ignoring the right hand side of the space, with my NEBs deployed for slow and steady shooting, and the Assasult Frigate in Conga-Line formation with Corvette for back-up.

 Dave comes rushing out at me, while my ships fire everything they can at the Star Destroyer, ignoring the Gladiators.

 Turn 3, and the Imperials arrive. This looks a lot like the previous battle, except that my Frigates are on a flank and free to maneuver, and the NEBs have done their damage and are know fulfilling their secondary purpose: fodder. Even my fighters have managed to launch a strike on the ISD, while tying down the single imperial fighter/bomber.

I could have let Paragon finish off the ISD at this point, but let that honour go to one of the condemned NEB-Bs. It makes writing the letter to their loved ones so much easier... "I am honoured to inform you that your beloved wife has died in the cause of Galactic Liberty, destroying the Imperial Harbinger of Doom..."

 The Picture from the start of turn 4 is missing - this is the start of turn 5. The ISD is gone (and because of the mission counts as an extra 120 points for victory - nice!) as are the NEB-Bs. The Gladiators are now chasing the Assault Frigates around the loop, hoping for... I'm not sure what.

At this point I don't think there's much chance of the Imperials doing much damage, let alone taking out a Frigate. But, they keep chasing, and I keep shooting them, even slowing down to get better arcs. The fighters have finished off the Bounty Hunter, and have gathered near the Frigate in order to be in range of a squadron command passed on by Leia Organa. In this way, the front Gladiator is wiped out in short order.

 And the other Gladiator keeps on coming - at the start of turn 6, it is the only Imperial vessel remaining. And Zap-Brannigan-like, it charges straight at Paragon's guns...

At the end of turn 6, this is all that remains on the battle space - and its all mine.


This was a very solid victory, 10/0, with me scoring 520 points to the Imperials 102.

As a result of this very one-sided affair, I ended up bang in the middle of the tournament crowd, with 11 players ahead on points, and 11 behind.

On this occasion, I stuck to my game plan, and it worked. I probably only have one regret, which was letting the NEB-B finish the ISD when it could have shot at a Gladiator, but that made no real difference in the end.

David's SpaceCon - Episode Two: The Empire are a bunch of cheesy gits

Battle two at SpaceCon was right in the middle of the pack - it's a tricky place to be, because you're either fighting average players who came close to a draw (like me), or you're facing quite capable players who were beaten in their first game.

That was my opponent, Luke K from Parramatta Attack Wing.

This time I won the bid, elected to go second, and Luke chose "Fleet Ambush" - ie, his force would be the one getting ambushed. As it turned out, however, I was the one getting the rude shock...

Ambush requires the odd-number deployments to start in the centre of the board, and Luke started by putting down his Star Destroyer. I responded by putting down a NEB-B just out of the Destroyer's long range, and planning on having his ISD approach me. He put down a little ship in his normal zone, and I added another NEB-B. Then he put down a Gladiator - Demolisher - right in front of my NEBs, and I panicked. Demolisher is a pain, but I should be used to it by now. Instead of ignoring it and placing my Frigates along my plans of "hit 'em on the ends" I decided to go "box of death" and deployed my Frigates to protect the NEBs. The problem with "box of death" is that it is not clear who is doing the dying. The photo above shows the start of turn 1, with me putting everything right in the path of the Star Destroyer and his friends.

I said to Luke at this point: "One way or another this battle is not going to last long." Truer words hath ne'er been spaked.

Our fighters began the game already engaged, which was a new experience for me. All of my ships spammed "Concentrate Fire" and I did my best to smash that Gladiator to bits on turn 1. Sadly, it endured all of my fire and arrived to shoot up the Paragon with a few hits remaining.

Start of turn 2: My lovely long range Frigates are in a bar-room brawl with a Gladiator and a Star Destroyer. Whoops!
In turn 2 the Paragon was destroyed by Demolisher, before I finally destroyed it with a few well aimed shots from the Corvette.
The other ships remained to do battle with the ISD, as the Imperial Raiders came roaring in.

This is the start of turn 3. My Frigate is copping a pounding from the ISD, and being rammed by the raiders. Tycho Celchu has decided to run away, and the Corvette is gearing up to run as far as possible.

It doesn't look much better at close range...

 Start of turn 4, and the full horror of the situation is revealed. One of the Raiders is gone, but so is a NEB and the last assault frigate. Leia and Garm are running way in the Corvette, while the last NEB is left to buy them some time in a futile confrontation with destiny.

 Start of turn 5, and the Corvette is running, taking occasional pot-shots at distant targets.

The start of turn six is a re-enactment of the first scene of that fairly popular movie franchise - Corvette running a full speed from ISD - fortunately there are no tractor beams here...


The outcome was 8/2 in Luke's favour. I lost everything but the Corvette, Admiral Garm, and Leia.
Luke lost Demolosher and a raider.

Deployment was the killer here. I thought (wrongly) that I could smash the Gladiator in turn 1, then concentrate on the ISD before the raiders arrived.

The Empire aren't really that cheesy - Luke had some things that let him reroll black dice and that kind of thing. I just let myself get suckered into playing his game, rather than playing my game

David's SpaceCon - Episode One - a Close Run Thing...

SpaceCon 2016 was held over the Australia Day Weekend at "Three D6" a great games shop on the south side of Canberra.

I took a fairly plain fleet, with all wave one ships and upgrades. Two AF2Bs with ECM, one with Paragon, the other with enhanced armaments and gunnery teams; two Neb-Bs with no upgrades; and a corvette CR90A as the flagship with Garm El Iblis, and Leia Organa to help with command and control. I fielded 3 fighters only, with Tycho Celchu, a generic X-Wing, and an A-Wing.

Before going away, I set myself some 'rules of thumb' to help me make good choices. 

Rule 1: 

"Don't sacrifice strategic objectives for tactical advantage."

This comes from my earlier games where I often ram things or move foolishly to gain a temporary advantage that ends up losing me the game.

Rule 2:

"Hit 'em on the ends."

Nathan Bedford Forrest's famous restating of simple  military maxim is meant to be my gaming approach - stack a flank, charge in, blast things to bits - and then run away.

Rule 3: 

"Always go second (if you can)."

I like the advantages of going second - you get an advantage in setting the terrain, the opponent has to react to one of your three chosen scenarios, and the opponent has to deploy the first ship. Yes, they get a tactical advantage going first, but remember rule 1.

Rule 4:

"Deploy with the plan in mind."

I think deployment is very important in most wargames - deploy well, and you've got a fighting chance. Deploy poorly, and you're mostly fighting against your own first decisions.

I played three games with quite mixed results.

The first was against Jaren from Canberra. He had a three ship rebel list with two AF2s (Guppies) and a torpedo frigate (Shrimp). He also had six fighters, with three X-Wings, 2 B-Wings, and Jan Ors. His Admiral was Akhbar. He had an initiative bid of 8 to my 6. He had the choice of first or second, and chose second. 

I chose the 'bad thing that happens to me' and picked "Superior Positions." 

This picture shows positions a few moves into turn 1 - there was no opening picture. My ships are those in the foreground, Jaren's on the other side.

I deployed for a clockwise turn, and Jaren deployed for the same. Superior positions means I had to put down all my ships before Jaren put down any of his.

This photo shows the start of turn 2. My Neb-Bs have made a 90 degree turn thanks to speed 3 and a NAV command. My whole fleet is moving at speed 3.
Jaren's flagship is the Guppy at top left of the photo - that's where I'm headed with everything I can - kill Akhbar, and the rest of the fleet loses a lot of potency.

This is part way through turn 3. The fighter battle has been joined in the middle of the board. The B-Wings jumped on my AF2B, and then my fighters jumped back. Jan Ors has also jumped in, allowing the B-Wings to escape to harry more ships.

You can see my forces heading straight for Akhbar, while Jaren's fleet rounds on my right-most Neb-B.

Start of turn 4. One of my Neb-Bs has been destroyed, the other is quite damaged. My AF2b in front (centre top) has lost lots of shields, and is vulnerable. But Akhbar's flagship is also heavily damaged, has lost most shields, and has very few defence tokens left. So far, things are going okay for me - and here's where I make a silly choice.

My AF2B with the white nose is Paragon - she has two arcs on Akhbar, and a concentrate fire order. And I get to choose which ship to activate - so naturally, I activate the Neb-B, thinking to let it shoot before it ceases to exist under the withering fire of Jaren's other ships. Paragon has a good chance of destroying Akhbar, but instead I go for the Neb-B, choosing a slight tactical advantage (I get to shoot before dying) over a strategic objective (destroying Akhbar).

The Neb-B fires, doesn't do enough damage, and Akhbar activates, destroying the Neb-B and again damaging my other AF2B, before running away. Paragon no longer has two arcs, and may even be out of range altogether. SIGH.

Start of turn 5, and the only ship in range of Akhbar (now the Guppy at the centre bottom of this photo) is my flagship - the lowly corvette A. I get the first activation, and fire with two red dice (thanks to Concentrated Fire order). I need two hits, and roll a blank - and a double hit! Akhbar has no shields, and no defence tokens left. Akhbar goes up in space-smoke, and the Corvette runs as fast as possible to get out of the side arc of the other AF2.

The rest of the game is some long range sniping, as the Shrimp frigate chases my AF2Bs across space, while Leia Organa and Garm Bel Imblis shake their heads and grin at some very lucky firing.

Start of turn 6. The Corvette runs away, the fighters dance around each other, and Jaren launches some attacks from his X-Wings and Jan Ors into the rear arc of the AF2Bs. For each successful hit on a rear arc, he gets 15 points thanks to the objective card.

The game ends without much more activity, although the shrimp frigate does take a number of hits and comes close to being destroyed, except for a fancy title that allows him to evade dice at close range by sacrificing defence tokens.

The margin of victory is 65 points - my two Neb-Bs and Tycho Celchu cost about the same as Akbar's ship, but Jaren has 9 victory tokens to my 2.

65 points means a 6/4 points split, putting me in the middle of the pack for the next draw. Jaren goes on to battle Ken, the ultimate victor on the day.



Of my four rules, I couldn't keep number 3 - Jaren chose to go second, forcing me to go first. I kept to my plan, deployed to match the plan, and apart from using the Neb-B before the Paragon, I kept the strategy. There is a small chance that I could have killed Akhbar and kept the Nebulon alive, but that was always going to be a long-shot. Neb-Bs exist to shoot, and then die.

A fun game, and a good way to warm up for the rest of the day... except that things went pear-shaped very quickly in the next episode...

December Bathurst Take Three

This, the third of my Bathurst Battles, was very much a case study in how things occasionally go right for me...

The opponent was Nick, from Parramatta Attack Wing. He played Rebels, and deployed a fleet with two Assault Frigates and one of the new MC80 Big Scary Battleship Things (Naturally, with Admiral Akbar). Nick also made the brave decision not to take any fighters. Six of my eight fighters have the "Bomber" special, and the A-Wings are rolling a black die against ships, so that's pretty one-way traffic.

With only three ships, Nick's whole fleet was deployed after I had only put out 2 Corvette's. I chose to go heavy on my left, as there were fewer obstacles.
Again, I won the initiative bid, and chose to go second. Nick chose the bad thing to happen to him: most wanted. I chose his battleship (top centre), and my Corvette (bottom right) as the target ships.

This is the start of turn 3. Nick has moved his ships into the centre, and my left has swung around. The fighters have not yet engaged the battleship very hard, and my far right Corvette (the Target ship) is off exploring the Death Star.

 

I was able to get both Neb B's, the Corvette, and the Assault Frigate to fire on Nick's single assault Frigate (with some A-Wings as well), and blew it to bits in a single turn of shooting.

At the start of turn 4, I am now in a position to concentrate fire on the Battleship with everything, including a whole heap of fighters. One of my Neb Bs has succumbed to the fire from the Battleship and the Assault Frigate. The other Assault Frigate is just dancing around the edges.

Start of turn 5, and the Battleship is gone. My fighters are redeploying to engage the last Frigate, but to no effect. The Neb B in the centre has a critical damage card forcing it to take a hit every time it moves faster than 1. I have no orders to slow it down, so it explodes in the final turn.

 

The game is a 10-0 to me, with my losses as two Neb B (51 points each), and The Target Battleship counting as double points as destroyed.

 

 

Quote of the Game: Nick: "Fighters are the bane of my existence."

 

 

Lessons learnt: Apart from a small mistake with the movement of my target Corvette in turn one and the orders on my Assault Frigate in turn 2 or 3, everything went pretty much like clockwork. Losses were acceptable, and the devastation was delightful.

 

I'm quite happy with Garm's Alphabet Soup, and apart from buying a Shrimp Frigate, I think it will do me nicely well into the future. Multiple activations, buckets of flexibility with deployment, and a nice mix of fighters and bombers means I can react to almost any circumstance.

 

As usual, the only problem is with the operator, when I confuse Tactical Advantage for Strategic Outcomes.

 

Thanks to all the players - I had lots of fun.

 

I am yet to face an Imperial Star Destroyer, however.

 

Cheers!

 



The December of all our Decembers in Bathurst

Or, how I learnt to stop worrying and love the B-Wing...


This was my second battle at Bathurst on Saturday 12 December.

This time I was against my primary opponent, Theo, the reigning champion of Task Force Orange.



Theo was playing Rebels as well (I played three rebel fleets - though very different in composition).

There was no photo of the start of the battle - we were so keen to get to fisticuffs... This must be the start of turn 2.

Theo had four ships - an Assault Frigate, a Corvette B, and two of the new "Shrimp" frigates, with powerful broadsides. He had some A-Wings and some kind of bounty hunter chap.

My fleet was the same as the last battle (though I should mention I have two As, Bs, Xs, and Ys as the fighters, including Tycho Celchu - hence: Alphabet Soup).


Again I chose to go second, and Theo chose the bad thing to happen to him: Most Wanted. This allows double points for killing a unit chosen by the second player, and bonuses for shooting at the target. I chose to make Theo's target unit the Assault Frigate (a mistake? perhaps?), and for my target unit to be a Corvette A, which you might notice floating out over the death star on the far right.

We both moved forward quite aggressively, and I focused fire on the closest Shrimp Frigate, which had all kinds of special dodging abilities, and took a fair bit to kill.

The fighter battle was much more balanced in this game than the last, with Theo's typical flight command skill limiting my capacities to inflict damage. We both had fighters left at the end of the game.

I think this is the start of turn 4. My right hand frigate has made its flanking maneuver and is heading back into the fray. My left hand frigate is also turning back in from the top left. Theo's frigate has gone through the asteroid belt and is heading in from the bottom left.

In the centre, my Neb-B's have succeeded in wiping out the Shrimp Frigate with a little bit of damage in reply, and are gently brushing off Theo's A-Wings and bounty hunter.

In the centre right, my Assault Frigate is trading broadsides with Theo's frigate, which is taking the worst of it, being the target ships. My bombers are also shooting as often as possible. Things are looking so good at this point that I start to get excited, and ram the second Shrimp Frigate with my Assault Frigate, not once, but twice!

And that's when it all goes wrong.

But fortunately there are no more photos of my disaster.

Theo's Assault frigate escapes with a few more scratches, and manages to finish off one of the Neb B's with some long ranged shooting.

The remaining Shrimp Frigate lets off a devastating broadside (Thanks, Akbar!) which gets through my otherwise intact shields and does exactly enough damage to destroy My Assault frigate. Had I not rammed the blasted thing so often, it would have survived (and I probably won the battle, using it to send bombers against Theo's assault Frigate).

Hubris, thy name is David!


Theo won this game convincingly, but up until turn 4 I was pretty sure I was going to come out on top. Such is the nature of the game.


Lessons learnt:

Same as the last one, really. Concentrate fire on one target. Don't go for the slaughter - work on winning.

On this occasion, I probably went towards the enemy too quickly, as he came towards me very fast. I should have started slower, tried to win the fighter war, and then gone for the kill.

Also, I think I should have chosen a different target ship - that Shrimp Frigate could have died a lot quicker, and then I could have turned on to the other ships.


[William Shatner] THEEEEEOOOOOO!!!!! [/William Shatner]