The Galactic Civil War is a Vassal tournament run via the FFG Armada forums. I've watched the recent tournaments (I had my wisdom teeth out during the World Cup, so watched an awful lot of games while high on pain killers), and I really wanted to sign up for this one - but I've been studying, and May is a pretty busy time work-wise, and so I wisely said, "No. Not yet. Soon. Next time."
And then I promptly signed up, but missed out on joining a regular team. So I signed up as a Bounty Hunter (a fill-in if someone can't do their battle). I played in the second round as a fill-in for Lyraeus and his imfamous "Dodonna the Oppressor." It certainly worked for me, and I was able to bring home a 10-0 for Lyraeus and his team - it was a pretty good match up for the list - initiative, activation advantage, no fighters.
(the Oppressor)
Now, in the last round, I'm one of two rebel bounty hunters taking on 2 Imperials. We have to take the Wave 3 Commanders, and are limited to few unique units, but that's to the Rebels' favour - no Demolisher, no Major Rhymer.
Deep in our hidden rebel base we plotted - I decided to take a poor-man's Dodonna the Oppressor, without the intel officers (Tagge restores discarded defence tokens), and with enough deployments and activations to make a lesser man weep.
(actual rebel base not shown)
My list is called "Mutiny on the Bounty." 2 Torpedo Frigates, OE, APT, one with H9s (for the anti-Gozanti accuracy), the other as flagship with Advanced Projectors (useful against fighters).
Two CR90s with TRCs for long range fire support, and two GR75 generics with one as Bright Hope. The GRs are for fighter command, and /I have six A-wing squadrons to slow down enemy bombers, and give a deployment advantage.
(A-Wings head for the Star Destroyer, blasting aside Tie Fighters incidentally along the way...)
One of the great things about The Galactic Civil War (particularly now I have finished my last assignment, and can devote far-too-much-time to thinking about this sort of thing) is that you get told who you are fighting against, sometimes up to two weeks in advance. In my fill-in game for Lyraeus, I had a couple of days to think about the opponent's fleet, his likely missions, strategy, etc.
For this game I've been paired against Sanguinary Dan, and his Admiral Tagge fleet. It's an interesting fleet - two ISDs with Xi7s, Boosted Comms, Ordnance Experts (no Gunnery Teams! Hooray! Well done Biggs, your propaganda machine is working!), a lone raider, and six Tie-Interceptors.
My 10 point bid is enough to guarantee me initiative, I have activation advantage (6 to 3 - which is excessive, but I was planning against Gozantis), and deployment advantage (9 to 6 - my last three ships go down after he has deployed everything). Yes, his ISDs can kill anything of mine in one activation in the front arc, but maybe I won't be in his front arc? Or at least, not often or with much.
To my mind, things are heading the right direction. Initiative, activations, deployment - all in my favour. Now I just need to rig the dice, bribe the umpires, and hide a tyre-iron somewhere about my person...
*******
I managed to get in a practice game today against MattShadowlord (handed in my last assignment today, so able to relax and muck around without feeling overly guilty). It went well. I lost all of my A-Wings being too aggressive early on - I need to hold them back a bit, and use the AFF (anti-fighter-fire) from my GR75s to even the odds a bit more - not really sure how I'm going to do this, when they need to be going speed 3 to benefit from Cracken. Perhaps they should run parallel to the battle? Or just speed up later if necessary?
Bright Hope ended in short range of the rear and side arcs of an ISD-I, and did not take a scratch (even without scattering once).
My torpedo frigates behaved wonderfully, chopping the ISDs down to size very quickly - My first hitter has the H9s, which means no brace for you, Johnny! (ECMs aren't a thing in this battle - more advantage to the Rebels in this Civil War...), and the second torpedo frigate (with the General on board) rammed an ISD to death, before activating in the next round with double arc (side and rear) on the other ISD front. It went down. Hard. Even without the H9s.
H9s are great, in that they guarantee you can turn a dice with a hit to an accuracy, which is great for shutting down scatter on the flottillas (which is why I took them), or shutting down the brace on non-ECM capable vessels. But, with the side arc of Torpedo Frigate, there's a 50% chance you won't need the H9s. But but, Torpedo Frigates are probably going to get one, maybe two broadside shots off in a battle. Making that 50% into 100% is probably worth 8 points (yes, 8! I couldn't believe it either!). H9s are a turbolaser upgrade, but for some reason you can take Turbolasers on the Torpedo Frigate, a ship with no turbolasers. Very strange, and something that I don't think gets commented on enough by the bloggerati or podcasteritti.
I'm confident that this is my game to win or lose - now I just need to hang on for the next week while I wait for my opponent to get his computer repaired, and then fight timezones to make it happen. This game might happen after 11pm for me, so I'll need to be caffeinated and planning a lazy-day to follow.
