Defenders of the Gelron Sector - Encounter at Neg'rett

Defenders of the Gelron Sector

Duke Al-Rek of the planet B’yath has recently declared in favour of the Rebel Alliance, freeing his planet from Imperial control, and starting open warfare in the surrounding systems. An Imperial Armada has been dispatched to regain control of the sector. The battle has begun…

Battle One: Encounter at Neg’rett

The Planet Neg’rett is under attack by Imperial Forces. The defenders have barricaded themselves in the Capital City and are resisting fiercely. An Imperial Battle Group in orbit is bombarding the garrison. Your Task Force has been dispatched to disrupt the Imperial attack...

Mission:

Opening Salvo

Setup: After deploying fleets, assign 1 objective token to each ship.

Special Rule: The first time a ship performs an attack against another ship, discard the attacker’s objective token. If the attacker belongs to the first player, he adds 2 red dice to the attack pool. If the attacker belongs to the second player, he adds 2 dice, each of any colour, to the attack pool.

End of Game: Each player increases his final score by half the fleet point cost of each enemy ship in the play area that has at least 1 damage card, rounded up.

Imperial Forces are first player.

Objective:

Major Victory: Defeat the Imperial Force by a margin of 100 points or more

Victory: Defeat Imperial Force by a margin of 1 point or more.

Any other result is a Rebel defeat.

Imperial Tactics:

The IEF is bombarding Neg’rett, and will therefore attempt to remain in close range of the target beacon (objective marker). Imperial Ships will follow normal target rules, but will also consider the target beacon as an option, but only counting black dice armament (using CF if available). In the event of a tied result, the Imperials will fire on the Rebel ships as priority.

For each roll of CRIT/HIT on the target beacon, the Imperials gain 1 victory token (10 points).

The Imperial Commander is Cautious.

Commander Kerazin: Each friendly ship gains +1 Engineering value.

The Imperial Focus Point is fixed and will not move during this scenario – it is directly opposite the deployment zone, in line with the target beacon.

TF1734 will default to REPAIR commands, passing tokens to the Star Destroyers, first to Valorous,

then to Glorious. If both Star Destroyers have REPAIR tokens, TF1734 will give SQUADRON orders – sending Squadrons in range to attack Rebel forces, or passing tokens if no Squadrons are in range.

Imperial Deployment and Formation is as per the picture below…

(I realised after creating this image that I had put the Imperials on the wrong side of the table - but it looks nicer with the planet there. Put the target beacon about distance 5 1/2 from the table edge. It should be in black range of the Victory Star Destroyers at the start of Round 2.)
(Also, the fighters at the front corners are too close to the Victories - so move them out a bit otherwise they get overlapped automatically)

Imperial Expeditionary Force

Valorous

Victory I (73) - Flagship
- Enhanced Armament (10)

- Commander Kerazin
= 83 Points

Glorious

Victory I (73) - Flagship
• Enhanced Armament (10)
= 83 Points

TF1734

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Comms Net (2)
= 25 Points

Squadrons:
• 2 x TIE Advanced Squadron (24)
• 4 x TIE Fighter Squadron (32)
= 56 Points

Total Points: 247

Rebel Forces may deploy in the setup area as normal.

R’yath Defence Force

Faithful Consort

CR90 Corvette A (44)
= 44 Points

Valiant Choice

CR90 Corvette A (44)
= 44 Points

Purposeful Defender

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57)
Captain Doya

= 57 Points

Squadrons:
• 2 x X-wing Squadron (26)
• 4 x Z-95 Headhunter Squadron (28)
= 54 Points

Total Points: 199

Captain Doya: The Rebel Player may reroll two dice per round.

Surviving Rebel Ships gain a Veteran Captain for the next battle.
One surviving X-Wing gains a Brace token, and one surviving Z-95 gains a Scatter token.




Edit:
I played this through against the AI, and made a number of mistakes, and the Rebels lost.

So I had another go, did slightly better remembering everything from the AI, and the Rebels won (by 5 points). Here is a LINK to the vassal log file so folks who want to play this (or watch the recorded battle).

Or here is a little video report as well...

An Armada AI System - in Development

Star Wars: Armada

AI system for Imperials

v1.02

To promote solo and cooperative play

Overriding Rule – if the AI does something obviously dumb (ie, something no human would ever do) then override and make it do the obvious sensible action.

Obvious Target Rule – AI love rolling dice – to determine valid targets, the AI will always try to roll the maximum number of dice. If choosing between firing 3 red dice at a ship, or 4 dice at squadrons, the squadrons will be chosen. If there is a tied option, roll a die to determine target.

Double Arc Rule – When determining the Obvious Target rule, add all the dice that could be fired at the same target as one result.

For Example:

A Victory II has an enemy ship at long range in the front arc (3 dice), 3 squadrons in blue range to the side (3 dice), and a corvette double at long range in the side and rear (2 dice and 2 dice = 4). The AI will choose to shoot at the corvette with 2 shots of 2 red dice.

Weakest Arc – The AI will always choose to shoot the enemy arc with the fewest shields, as long as it can maximise dice.

Example:

The Victory II will shoot the Corvette with 6 dice (3 red, 3 blue).

It will choose to shoot the Corvette in the front arc even though it has shields, since shooting it in the side arc would mean losing 3 blue dice.

Defence Tokens – The AI will use any defence tokens it can to minimise damage.
It will not BRACE if there is an unactivated enemy in range with more dice to be rolled than the current attack.
AI will only use exhausted defence tokens if it would otherwise take damage cards, or in the case of BRACE, if it would otherwise be destroyed.

Example:

The Victory is being fired upon by the Corvette with 2 red and 1 blue. The Victory will not use its brace, as it is also in range of the MC80 Assault cruiser, which has not yet activated. The MC80 Assault has 4 red dice potentially on the victory. If the MC80 were a Command Variant (only 3 red from the side arc) the Victory would BRACE against the Corvette.

Squadrons –

When activated with an order, Squadrons will move towards and engage the nearest enemy squadron with the closest squadron activating and moving first.

If there are no enemy squadrons in range, squadrons will attack the nearest enemy ship.

In general, squadrons that are unengaged in the Squadron phase will move to maintain their position in the formation.

Engaged squadrons will shoot at enemies in the following order – Escorts, non-counter, Counter. If there are multiple targets, Squadrons will fire on the enemy with the fewest hit points remaining. If there is a tie, roll a die to determine the appropriate target.

Example: Tie Fighter A is engaged with X-Wings, so must shoot them first (Escort).

Tie Fighter B is engaged with the Z-95 and the A-Wing. “B” will shoot at the Z-95, as it does not have COUNTER, even though the A-Wing is only on 1 health.

Playing the Game

Choose Imperial Commander style

Roll a blue – crit = aggressive, accuracy = cautious, hit = normal

Standard mission – deploy all player forces first. Place Imperial marker as Focal Point.

Focal Point (FP) is placed midway between Player’s ships (if two ships, halfway between – if three ships, on the middle ship, etc). Pull the FP back to the edge of the board (use an Imperial Victory Token to indicate FP.

Roll blue for FP adjustment.

Crit – move FP distance 3 to West (left of Player’s side). Roll blue again – if crit, move FP distance 3 West, otherwise ignore result. 

Accuracy – move FP distance 3 to East (right of player’s side). Roll blue again – if accuracy, move FP distance 3 East, otherwise ignore result.

            

Hit – leave FP in place

Roll blue for AI deployment.

Hit – deploy forces in centre of North zone (far side to Player), facing FP.

Crit – deploy forces on Western side of North Zone facing FP

Accuracy – deploy forces on Eastern side of North Zone facing FP.

Standard formations will be developed for different scenarios / commanders, but in general – flagship in the centre – fastest ships on the outside flank – slowest ships on the inside flank.

Cautious deploy at speed 1, Normal at speed 2, Aggressive at speed 3 if possible.

Cautious commanders deploy squadrons in contact with ships, Aggressive and Normal at out to range 2 of ships.

Activate ships in the following order:

1^st – Ships with the most dice on enemy target – if tie, choose ships with a single enemy double arc’d – if still tie, roll die to determine which ship activates

2^nd – Ships with Squad value and squads in range to be activated

3^rd – Ships that can move without entering enemy range

4^th – All others – roll die to choose if multiples

Command Dials

AI ships do not have a stack of command dials. As each ship activates, roll a blue to determine action.

For each ship as it activates:

1^st – Measure to see if there is an enemy ship in range. If Yes, roll on the “IN” table. Otherwise, roll on the “OUT” table.

2^nd – Roll a blue roll a blue die to determine its order (there is no command dial stack for AI ships)

Place a command dial set to the correct order by the ship to remind you of its order and that it has activated.

3^rd – If the command chosen cannot be used this round (Squadron order taken but no squadrons in range to attack, repair but no shields or damage to repair) then take a token. If the ship already has a token of that kind, reroll blue die until a different result is generated.

4^th – Ships will use Manoeuvre dials and tokens to maintain their position in the formation as much as possible – ships on the inside edge of a wheel will slow, those on the outside will speed up. Otherwise they will simply take the appropriate token.

The exception being if a ship can Manoeuvre in such a way as to bring about a double arc on an enemy ship – in this case it will break formation and make the appropriate manoeuvre.

CAUTIOUS COMMANDER TABLE

OUT – Hit=Repair, Crit=Squadron, ACC = Manoeuvre

IN – Hit = Repair, Crit – Squadron/Concentrate Fire, ACC= Manoeuvre

NORMAL COMMANDER TABLE

OUT – Hit=Manoeuvre, Crit = Squadron, Acc = Concentrate Fire

IN – Hit – Squadron / Concentrate Fire, Crit = Manoeuvre, Acc = Repair

AGGRESSIVE COMMANDER TABLE

OUT – Hit = Manoeuvre, Crit = Squadron, Accuracy = Concentrate Fire

IN – Hit = Concentrate Fire, Crit = Squadron / Repair, Acc = Manoeuvre

If the result is Squadron / Concentrate Fire, the ship will choose Squadron if there are squadrons in range to command – otherwise it will choose Concentrate Fire.

{These are the rules that I have used so far - if you try them, let me know. If you think there are changes that could / should / need to be made, let me know}

{EDIT: Some time ago a forum member made a nicely formatted version of these rules... Thanks Kezzamachine... they can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4jv0dijeg320j83/Star%20Wars%20Armada%20AI.pdf?dl=0}

{EDIT: Here are some additions to these rules for maneuver, etc https://daveswargames.blogspot.com/2019/08/defenders-of-gelron-sector-ai-rules.html}

Rieekan Reluctantly Regrets Repeatedly Ramming Raddus

Friday night (11/5) I had a game with local nemesis (and wine-lover) Theo.

Theo is flying his ongoing Raddus dropping bomb - MC75 with Raddus Profundity, dropping a Flotilla with rapid launch bays, then bringing in a MC80 with rapid launch bays and B-Wings of various kinds.

 On this occasion Theo went first, chose Most Wanted, and deployed the MC75 facing sideways.
I deployed all of my fleet - 4 TRC90s with extra speed card thing - Rieekan on a CR90B, and a squad base - 2 VCX, 1 Wedge Antilles, 1 YT2400, and 2 Lancers - yes, Lancers. I've had them in the box for a while, painted up nice, and decided to put them on the table.
Rieekan's ship is on the right...

 At the end of turn 1, I'm heading towards the MC75 nice and spread out to try and limit the MC80 drop.

 Theo dropped with two corvettes in the medium range of the Cruiser. He then activated the flotilla, dropped 2 squadrons and killed a Lancer straight up.

 I activated a Corvette, used a squadron order to move Wedge into a blocking position, and then navigated using Engine Techs into the front arc.
The Cruiser activated and destroyed the other corvette. I Rieeken'd it, but had made a mistake - I had given it a CF instead of Nav, so it could not maneuver sufficiently to ram the Cruiser - so instead it rammed the MC75.

 Round 3, and Theo activates the Cruiser, sent the bombers after the Corvette in front, and killed it dead. I Rieekan'd it, planning to double ram the Cruiser, but instead I had a brain-fart, and decided to double ram the Flotilla, thinking I could block it in place and have it die.

This was stupid and wrong.

Turn 4, and the Cruiser is still alive, through it will die this turn thanks to some extra ramming. If I'd been able to ram it properly it could have died in turn 3...
Meanwhile, my squadrons rolled terribly, and only managed to kill a single B-Wing all game - but lost almost all of mine.

In turn 5 my Flagship completely failed to kill Bright Hope, and flew away.

In turn 6 the heavily damaged Corvette died to squadrons, Rieekan'd, then rammed the flotilla.

The game ended poorly - I failed to kill the Most Wanted, and lost my fighter wing (except 1 VCX), and 4 Corvettes.

Not the Task Forces finest hour - but lessons were learnt.

Next time!

There's always a next time.

Armada AI test - v1.01, test 3

I had another go at this last night - this time I rolled an "Agressive" Imperial Commander, and they were able to send the fighters in a timely fashion.

(The quality of this video is a lot worse)

The Imperials still lost, but again came very close to destroying the Nebulon B. I think there is a lot of promise here, but this is still for a very simple set up - the complexities of different fighter types and their possible actions may make this a fool's errand.

Armada AI Tests - version 1, tests 1 & 2

I would like a simple to use AI for Armada, allowing solo play, as well as a cooperative campaign like X-Wing has with Heroes of the Aturi Cluster.

I've gone some simple stuff, and these are the short copies of the first battle runs.

In this first one the Imperials win almost by accident - and some poor flying on the part of the Rebel commander. One of the things about playing solo is that you have to remember a whole heap of stuff - normally there is another player there to remind you of things you've missed / overlooked.

This second one was much more inconsequential - the Rebels flew better, and the AI didn't respond well to the tactical situation (I mean, how can it? It's a flowchart on a piece of paper).

I will return to the drawing board to increase the odds of the Imperials activating their fighters effectively.

Auckland Regionals

I happened to be heading to Christchurch for a conference. I saw on Facebook that the Auckland Regionals were the following Sunday, so I decided to hang around and play. I took the same list as Bathurst Regionals- four CR90As with 3 transports.

I packed my stuff and headed out (about two weeks before the comp - I would be travelling, holidays, etc).

The FAQ updated the next morning. 

My list would be legal, but only just - and I still felt bad using it. But I had no other ships with me, so limited choices. I went with my broken list and a gentle smile of apology.

There were six players total - 3 Rebel (Cracken, Ackbar, Raddus) and 3 Imperial (Vader, Motti, Tagge (yes, Tagge)). I thought I had a list of players names and scores, but lo! it has disappeared.

My first opponent (I think his name was Andrew?) was flying the new classic double ISD, double Goz, two Tie fighter. This list was led by Vader.
My opponent won initiative, and chose to go first. He looked at my missions (most wanted, fire lanes, sensor net). He chose Fire Lanes (Andrew later said that he had never played Fire Lanes before, so perhaps did not understand the full ramifications). I put the Fire Lane tokens left, middle, right.

He was out deployed, 5 to 11. I put down my three Transports, then some fighters, and then put down the warships after seeing where my opponent had gone.

 Start of turn 2. The Transports are running from the ISDs, my flagship is going to claim the left objective, my VCXs are moving the middle token away from the enemy.
My corvettes are moving to engage one of the ISDs - the one without Early Warning Systems (it happened to be the flagship, but that was a secondary concern).

Start of turn 3, and one of my Corvettes has sailed right into the front of the Vader flagship. It does not last long against fire power of that magnitude, but the others are getting in their shots and making a difference.
My now illegal relay activated squads are also ripping holes in the shields of Vader's flag, having seen off the minimal Tie escorts.

Cracken, meanwhile, is busy guarding the left most objective token. The flagship does not fire a shot all game - but brings in a happy 90 points over the course of the six turns.

 Start of turn 4. The squads are ripping into the ISD, while the two corvettes are putting on the hurt. The ISD goes down in turn 5.

 Start of turn 6, and the fighters have started attacking the Gozantis. The other Gozanti succumbed to regular TRC shots from the corvettes. My VCXs secured the objective tokens by putting them under the ISD as it sailed past.

Cracken enjoyed his view of the battlefield from the far side. He was always ready to rush in if needed, but was not needed.

At the end of the game I had lost one careless Corvette for 51 points, and my opponent only had his non-flag ISD remaining (I think it was Avenger, but it never came up).

I had all the tokens but 2, and won the game 10/1 with an MOV of 390-something.

Andrew was a capital chap, but didn't know what he was getting into with Fire Lanes. Experience tells in these matters.

Of course, if he had taken Most Wanted I would have shot the flagship ISD down that much faster and earned 120 points or whatever - but it would have been less than the Fire Lanes tokens. And I would have had Cracken's Corvette to either add dice or get in the way.



Either way, I went into Round 2 at the top of the board, playing player 2 who was on 7 tournament points.

Round 2 was against a chap named Chris (I think? Sorry. I did have it written down). His double ISDs were slightly less kitted out, and he had splurged on 6 Ties including Howlrunner. His Admiral was Motti (stupid Motti).
This time his flagship had Brunson (not early warning systems) so I decided to focus down the easier ISD, the not flag one.

Chris chose to go first, and gave me a choice of Most Wanted, Contested Outpost, or Superior Positions. I thought seriously about going with Superior Positions with the hope of getting the Corvettes behind the ISDs and harvest some tokens - but it has been some time since I chose that objective, so went with Most Wanted.

Chris chose one of his Gozantis (left most in these photos) and my front most Corvette.

Start of turn 2, and my Most Wanted Corvette has sped to 4, planning to shoot its double arc into the target ISD, and then run away. It was a good plan, and nearly flawlessly executed. Sadly I did not wiggle the man tool properly, and ended up in the front arc by about 3mm. So, it died, horribly, horribly.

My fighter wing leapt into the enemy Ties, shooting them up nicely.

 Start of turn 3, and the next corvette has made the next first / last jump to double arc the ISD and then run away. The ISDs have 7th Fleet, but that only helps with the front arc, so side arcs are de rigour (which is French for "the thing").

Sadly, my first / last corvette ends up in three arcs of two unactivated ISDs (two rears and one side) and takes just enough damage to 'splode.

Start of turn 4 and I am kicking myself because my Flagship did not shoot at the Most Wanted ISD last turn. It gets shot to bits in turn 4.
My fighter wing has split in two, with 3 X-Wings hunting ISDs with one VCX, while the rest finish off the Ties.

 Start of turn 5, and Cracken's Corvette is heading for the target ISD, while my Transports have slowed to avoid ending up in its front arc.
The Ties are finished, as are both Gozanti, and the other Corvette is running away at speed.

The challenge is to get Cracken into range, do enough damage, and avoid flying off the board.

Start of turn 6, and Cracken has the ISD dead to rights. TRCs mean never having to do less than 2 damage.

Plus fighters for support if needed.

But not required. The target ISD pops with the perfect amount of damage, and Cracken slows enough to avoid the board edge.


I lost 2 Corvettes, one of which was most wanted.
Chris lost the non-flag (non-Brunson) ISD, 2 Gozanti (one most wanted) and all the fighters.

I won the game 7/4, falling short of an 8 by only a few points.

Chris was not super Armada experienced, but had played a lot of X-Wing and other FFG games.


I went into the final round on 17 points, with the second player on 15, and third on 14.

My third opponent was Jared, whose name I remember as I have played him on Vassal back in the day. His list did not have two ISDs, or even one ISD. Instead it had a Quasar and an Interdictor, backed up by Tagge. He also had an impressive fighter wing.

I deployed in a very different way since there were no ISDs to slaughter my Transports at Red range. I decided to send the Transports in to support the Fighter battle.

Jared chose to go first, and pick my Most Wanted. I chose one of the Transports, and the Quasar. I think I could have taken out the Interdictor with four Corvettes, but it would have taken a long time, and the Quasar would have ripped my squads apart in the mean time.

 Start of Round two, and the Quasar is about to activate and send in the fighter wing. My Corvettes are lined up waiting for the Quasar to wander into Red range.

Start of Round three, and the Quasar is gone. It took three front arcs and a side from the Corvettes, with Most Wanted and TRCs - and I didn't even need to ram it to finish it off. Had it lived, Tagge would have had a field day - but it didn't, so he didn't.

My Corvettes are adding their blue anti-squadron dice to the battle, which makes a little bit of difference when they manage to hit. Perhaps the next list will swap a Transport for Torryn Farr...

Start of turn 4, and my Corvettes are breaking from the melee, with Cracken heading right instead of left with the others. Cracken's ship has lost most shields and taken some hull damage and wouldn't you know it, I've failed to lock down a single Tie Bomber. On of the Gozantis activates it and it just has range to hit and knock out the flag. Sigh. Such is life.

I activate my Most Wanted Transport and get it out of trouble.

Start of turn 5, and things are pretty much wrapped up. My Corvettes are putting repeated shots into the Gozantis, knocking out one and working on the other. Some of the Imperial fighters have run rather than risk destruction, while the Tie Bombers have been left to be cut down by Jan Ors and the VCXs.

Start of turn 6 and only the Interdictor is left. I don't have time to hunt it down, so we call it quits.

This was a good game - it was great to be able to fly the Transports alongside the Squadrons as if the FAQ had already happened and not be blasted to bits by Star Destroyers.


The loss of Cracken and much of the fighter wing was a shame, but I still came through with a comfortable 7/4 win. The tournament would be mine as long as the third place chap didn't get a landslide in the final round... and he didn't!

Huzzah!

24 tournament points and I am Regional Champion of Auckland, with a list that had already been judged broken and was illegal the very next day.

To the victor go the spoils - in this case a nice glass thing to sit on my shelf.



My motto has long been "Best in the West" (ie, I'm the best player West of the Great Dividing Range (in NSW at least, because Matt Shadowlord lives West of me, in the Wild Wild West of Australia).
I had to give up that title (Best in the West) after I failed to win the Bathurst Regional.

I'm now "Best in the East", because, for the time-being, I'm the Regional Champion of the Eastern Most comp in the world (if you go East of New Zealand you end up West of everywhere else).

Thanks

Many thanks to the Players of New Zealand and their gracious overlord Adam. Well done chaps! You never once made fun of my accent or the number of sheep in my homeland. Classy.
I had a good time, would definitely play again (finances and life permitting).

After thoughts

I'm glad relay got nerfed, though I think the hard-flot-cap was a step too far (surely the auto tabling rule would have been sufficient to end 1 + X ?). Of course, Gallant Haven / Yavaris was never a real thing in Australia - I only saw it on a table once, and that was as a kind of a joke, so maybe the problem was worse than I think.

I'm disappointed my Cracken Seven list is no longer legal - back to the drawing board I guess!

Newcastle Regionals January 2018

After I wrote out the report for the Bathurst Regionals, I decided I had better go back and complete reports for the Newcastle Regionals earlier in January. Who knows, I might even get inspired and go back to Australian National from August 2017.

My list was my fairly standard double mc30 torpedo with H9s, APTs, OE. One is Dodonna’s flagship with Admonition. In this list I had 1 CR90A with TRC and Jaina’s Light, and 3 medium transports. I had a bid of 6 points, and a reasonable fighter wing with 2 VCX, Jan Ors, and a couple of X-Wings.

The plan was to win initiative, out-activate enemies, and smash things before flying away. The Squadron ball is there to frustrate bomber balls and maybe claw some points from squadron heavy lists. One of the transports has Bright Hope and Torryn Far for those lovely blue re-rolls.

My first opponent was Shaun, flying 2 ISD, 2 Goz, 2 Tie Fighters with Motti. I won the bid and chose Dangerous Territory. I outdeployed and out-activated, was reasonable confident of victory. I could easily get a 7/4 by killing the Goz and Tie Fighters and running away. I decided to aim to a 9/2 by killing the Motti ISD as well – there was no way I could kill both.

The ISDs were fitted with Tractor beams, which made the whole thing a little bit tougher – And Shaun knows what he doing with those Dual ISDs. The Motti one slowed to let the other one swing around it, and the next thing I knew I was in big trouble. I managed to escape with the loss of my Toryn Farr transport. I took out two Gozantis and the Tie Fighters, but failed to bring down the Motti ISD. My rolling was awful – I think I got one APT to work from 4 torpedo attacks, and the ISD got away with one point of hull remaining – my fighters scrambled for a last minute attack, but fell short. I could have activated more squadrons, but that would have left a heavily damaged Admonition in medium range of the other ISD – not a good position. So I saved the flag, failed on a 50/50 kill the ISD, and came away with a 6/5 in my favour.

Shaun and his speed 3 ISDs outrun my X-Wings - now and forever!

Admonition and the other warships speed away from a very angry non-Motti flagship ISD...


Round Two: Jeremy

The second game was against Jeremy, flying Sloane, ISD, 2 Goz, 2 Raiders, bunch of Tie Fighters. I won initiative by 1 point, and chose his Minefields. I figured I’d use my VCXs to move the mine enough to let me through – as it was I caught a few mines.

We had a limited squadron war in the middle of the board while other things jockeyed for position. I lost a few X-Wings while things moved into place. On the key turn my Admonition destroyed a Raider, then Jeremy’s raider fell short of killing Jaina’s Light, which unleashed Torryn assisted flak (and no obstructions!) to inflict heavy damage on the Tie Squadrons. My other Torpedo frigate killed two Gozantis (one side arc, one front with CF), and then it was all over bar the shouting. 

In the end I scraped an 8/3, I think by about 3 points.

Round Three - Michael

The third game was against Michael. He was flying an ISD, double Arquitens, 2 Goz, four squadron Jendon / Maarek + friends mini ball.

We were at Table 2, going into the round 3rd and 4th. Table One was next to us, so we were often distracted by the professionals beating each other senseless.

I won initiative again, chose his Capture the VIP, and went to town.

This game did not go quite to plan, as my Torpedo frigates notably failed to kill Arquitens in one go even with CF and CF token. Frustrating in the extreme. I just rolled abominably.

I lost my non-Admo torpedo frigate, before my CR90 managed to pull off the miraculous shot and and take out the heavily damaged Arquitens and destroy a Goz. I lost bright hope, and spent a lot of my Squadron ball to kill Jendon, and then take out the other squadrons. The other Arquitens eventually succumbed to Admonition.

I just had range from Jaina's Light on the damaged Arquitens - I CF'd, and needed to roll at least one hit so I could TRC the other to stop the evade. It worked! I cheered like crazy when that Arq finally went to pieces...

Admonition zones in on the other Arq, while Maarek Steele lies in wait to finish off the flagship...

I took out the Arq, knocked out Sabre squad, and go Jan Ors in place to stop Maarek in time. Whew.

I also stole the VIP token with double strategic on turn 2, so ended up with another 50 points.

All in all, I think it was 8/3, but not enough to take out the tournament. I ended up on 22 tournament points, while the winner was on 28 or something stupid (a bye and two 10s).

I do miss my torpedo list. Perhaps I will come back to it someday.

This list was the heady days before wave 7 finally dropped... ah. Memories!