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]

December Armada at Bathurst

Some photos from the Star Wars: Armada tournament held at Bathurst on the 12th of December. These are all from my games - there were twelve players participating, including four from the newly dubbed Task Force Orange.

Game One: My Rebels vs Ken from Parramatta Attack Wing's Rebels.

Ken took 3 Assault Frigates and 5 A-Wings including Tycho. My list is "Garm's Alphabet Soup", and consists of one Assault Frigate, 2 Neb-B Support, and 2 Corvette As.

I choose to go second, and Ken chose the bad thing that happened to him: Superior positions. He deployed first, swinging to his right, and I deployed to counter him, swinging to my right.

This is the start of turn 2 - my force is moving rapidly, and turning towards Ken's frigates. He has Akbar, and is looking forward to many red dice...

 

This is the start of turn 3. I cannot work out for the life of me why this photo refuses to rotate to the left. I blame those blasted Imperials. Anyway, I deployed Tucho Celchu to the front of my fighters, and Ken's A-Wings jumped all over him - but from FIVE squadrons of shooting, Tycho lived. My X-Wings then jumped in, and rapidly shot the A-Wings to bits.

 

This must be the start of turn 4. My flankers are rapidly closing on that Assault frigate, and my fighters are victorious against the A-Wings. My bombers are forming up near the frigate, ready to engage Ken's aggressive ship...


*** MISSING PHOTO - START OF TURN 5 - BLASTED IMPERIAL HACKERS ***

This is the start of turn 6. My bombers have not been particularly effective against the Assault Frigate, especially with my own Frigate moving away from the engagement to hide behind some rocks. One of Ken's beasts has been blown to bits, and I have lost a corvette and a Neb-B. Sigh.

This game was concluded with a 70 point margin in my favour, thanks to destroying the A-Wings, and gaining 2 victory tokens.

A good game.

Thanks to Ken!

(Two more battles to come - in time!)



Lessons to learn:

I should have sent all the bombers, etc, at the Assault Frigates in front of me, rather than leaving them behind. Once I had fighter superiority, I should have pressed the advantage.

Russian Military Doctrine: Reinforce Success!