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!
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!
