LTD vs thecactusman17 - Video Vassal killed the Radio Vassal Star

A short account of a recent tournament battle...

ACT Regionals - Like a Bossk! - Part Three

The success of the second game saw me rise through the ranks to the third table - I think I was fifth highest in the standings at this point.

My opponent was a Novocastrian, flying a true Rieekan Corvette Swarm.

Seven Corvette Bs with SW7, and one (with Rieekan) Corvette A with TRCs.

It was a sight to behold.

He said to me, "Well, you are one of the fleets I did not want to face."

I must say that the feeling was entirely mutual.

With thirteen activations between us, it was quite a long game, and we were still playing a good half an hour after the rest of the round had finished.

I had initiative again, and chose to go first - if I was going to be swamped by Zombie Corvettes, then at least I wanted the chance to decide where to shoot first.

The missions to choose from included Most Wanted, Fire Lanes, and Dangerous Territory. I did not want Most Wanted, since I would likely lose the targeted vessel handing over more points, whereas the second players ship would simply hide and run, denying me any recourse. I did not want fire lanes, since 8 ships with 3 front dice each would easily control them, so Dangerous Territory seemed the best choice, especially as I had Jaina's Light, which does not mind smashing into asteroids so much.

Strangely (I thought) he did not deploy the station first, giving me the opportunity to gain an additional victory token at no real cost. I deployed my three terrain to one side, he deployed his to the other side.

If I had my time over, I would set up on more of an angle, and at speed 3. As it was, speed 2 and straight ahead. All of Jason's ships deployed at speed 4, except the two tasked to claim his tokens, including Rieekan.

I should probably have deployed one of the torpedo boats further back and at speed 1 in order to have a second punch. I decided to throw a corvette at a debris field, figuring I could afford to take 2 shields in exchange for 15 points.

Start of turn 2 - I have three tokens, Jason has only one. Victory!

I have also rushed my left-most torpedo boat forward into range of THREE enemy corvettes. The frigate fired both broadsides, badly damaging both ships, but not killing either. Then the frigate ran through the line, arcing to the right.

Yavaris activated next, shooting double B-Wings and an X-Wing at neighbouring vessels, finishing one of the heavily damaged vessels, and damaging another, before shooting away. Yavaris did not have the speed to break the line.

The other vessels shot in turn, and Dodonna was destroyed from a whole host of back and side blue arcs. Perhaps Dodonna should have run further and not turned, but such is life.

Start of turn 3 - my ships are on the other side of the table, Jason's on this side. At the end of turn 2 I moved my unactivated X-Wing into range of the heavily damaged Corvette, and still in Medium range of Yavaris. First activation, and I needed two hits from those fickle red dice to kill the corvette - and got them! One more Zombie flying.

The rest of the turn went without much incident, except Jason made a mistake flying a Corvette into range of an unactivated Torpedo boat (he forgot which one had been activated), and received a sizeable blast to the front.

 Start of turn 4, Yavaris' B-Wings finish off the damaged corvette before running away. Everything else is about avoiding contact, and taking pot-shots with TRCs.

Start of turn 6 - the photo from turn 5 is missing. I managed to take out another Corvette with my TRCs at close range (it had been damaged by B-Wings).
In turn 6 I flew my CR90 away from Rieekan's TRCs, and managed to hide behind my torpedo frigate.

End of the game - we decided nothing else was going to die, and everyone else was waiting for us to finish, so we didn't bother with all the final moves.

Jason had scored 118 points, 73 from from losing Dodonna, and 45 from tokens.

I had 265 points, from killing 5 44 point Corvettes, and 45 points from tokens.

I won by 147 points, which was an 8/2.

This was not a great victory, but I did much better than I thought I would against a Rieekan swarm. It was always going to be impossible for me to table Jason, and on reflection, quite difficult for him to table me. Neither of us were going to walk away with a 10/0, but it wouldn't have won us the tournament anyway - Nick was well ahead on 28 points, compared to my 22 finishing position. Second had 26.

After three victories (even if the first had been quite marginal) I ended up third in the tournament. My goal was complete - my red shirt had interrupted the Parramatta Attack Wing Podium Photo!

It was a great tournament, and tremendous fun. The three and a half hour drive home was filled with listening to election results, so all in all, a great day!

ACT Regionals - Like a Bossk! - Part Two

My draw with Ken left us both in the middle of the pack, facing the other middle results obtainers.

I was paired up with Scott, who claimed to be a Canberra local, though under intense interrogation this was revealed to be a false assertion, since 1: he was not born there, and 2: no-one being local to Canberra, as it is an artificial city, and generally a figment of the deranged Australian imagination.
QED.

Scott was playing a Dodonna decked out Home One Mc80 with Yavaris and Corvette CR90. He had Hans Olo, Tycho Celchu!, some A-Wings, X-Wings, and a Y-Wing.

I had initiative and chose to go first - the mission was HyperSpace assault. Scott is only relatively new to the game, and made some interesting decisions with deployment, etc. I did my best to guide his efforts in my finest and most patronising style. Sarcasm aside, after I learned he was quite knew, I toned done my jovial-competitiveness and did the friendly thing of asking questions, reminding about Hans Olo, making suggestions on defence token usage, etc. I hope Scott received these suggestions in the manner intended - I want the game to grow, and for Armada to have the reputation of the best behaved players around.

During deployment I had to decide whether to focus down the Mc80 before the Yavaris came to help, or to take out Yavaris first. I went with the latter, even though it meant dividing my forces.

 Start of turn 2 - Scott launched his fighter wing early into my X-Wings, and they got quickly decimated by my Yavaris activated X-Wings and B-Wing. I realised my Mc30s weren't going to hit Yavaris at the start of turn 2, so maneuvered to force him into my short range during turn 2. My right most torpedo boat got an arc on Yavaris, then ducked past into the path of the Mc80, happily blocking it for the rest of the game.

 Start of turn 3, and the HyperSpacing Corvette and fighters arrived on my Yavaris' side. I activated my now rightmost torpedo boat, and took out Scott's Yavaris, before slowing and wheeling on the Mc80, trying to avoid his left arc (and failing), but hoping to stay at long range (and succeeding).

Hans Olo and Tycho both bought the farm this turn, and my remaining fighters moved on to engage the newly arrived chaps, carefully staying in Yavaris range.

The only mistake I think I made in this game happened in this turn, giving a Concentrate fire order to my Jaina's light instead of a Navigate. As a result, the Corvette could not slow down or maneuver sufficiently to avoid the side arc of the Mc80.

The ramifications of that are shown here - I had to activate Dodonna's ship first to avoid being blasted to Kingdom-come, which allowed the Mc80 to shoot the heavily damaged Corvette in the rear arc.

Yavaris took out Scott's Corvette, and with some tricky use of accuracy results, the torpedo frigate in the Mc80's front did exactly enough damage to destroy it without resorting to ramming, which would have killed my own ship as well.

Oh, that was another mistake I guess - I had slowed the torpedo boat to speed one when ramming the Mc80 - I should have stayed at 2 to help me navigate away without ramming if necessary.

This was the end of the game - Scott's ships gone, only one of my Corvettes lost, and some fighters on both sides.

I think we made an error in point calculations (so that's three mistakes).

I got 400, and Scott earned 91 from the corvette, X-wings, and B-wing.

I thin we reported it as 400 to 51, forgetting my fighter casualties. Hopefully this did not alter the outcome of the tournament dramatically...

It was a good game, and I hope to play Scott again in the future.

ACT Regionals - Like a Bossk! - Part One

The Regionals in Canberra were held at Three D6, an excellent venue and host, on the 2nd of July. The 2nd was also the day of the Federal Election in Australia, so Canberra was definitely the place to be.

I do not expect to make the Sydney Regionals on the 30th of July, so this was my one "at bat."

I planned and practiced and thought and designed, and then threw all of that aside and brought a list I had never used before, including a ship title I have never before included. It was fun!


I took Dodonna, two Mc30 Torpedo Frigates with OE and APT, two CR90s with TRC (one Jaina's Light and Flagship), and a Yavaris Nebulon-B Escort with Veteran Captain. The Squadron component was two X-Wings and two B-Wings.

Yavaris was the ship I had never used before, and came about because of competing ideas. I was firmly of the opinion that I needed five ships and initiative (I like that playstyle), and enough fighter output to seriously hamper or slow a Rhymer ball. Like the Austrian Empire of the late 1740s, I was planning on beating the Prussians and French (DeMSU and Rhymer Ball, respectively). Like the Austrian Empire of the late 1740s, I'm not sure I succeeded in my plan, and never actually encountered the enemies I thought I might.

My first game was against Iro Ken of the Parramatta attack wing. He was flying a decked out Ackbar Mc80 Defiance with two CR90 TRCs, 5 A-Wings and 4 YT2400s. He had no bid, I had a bid of 13. I chose to go first (my bid of 13 was enough to choose first player in all three games).

I chose his Contested Outpost, though did consider taking Advanced Gunnery with thoughts of getting some extra points from killing the Mc80. I played it safe on this occasion.

Start of turn 2, and my force is moving up, with Ken's moving towards the ol' station. My plan is to kill his Corvettes quickly, before using my own Corvettes to bring down the Mc80. My fighters and Yavaris are tasked to fighter mitigation.

Ken (pictured above) is a great chap, fun to play with, generous to a fault, and the backbone of the Parramatta Attack Wing (the Premier Australian Armada group).

End of turn 3, and last activation has allowed my first torpedo boat to move into close range of a Corvette and the Mc80. My X-Wings are already dead, and the B-Wings are engaging the A-Wings within support range of Yavaris, which is nice.

I managed to get an accuracy with the Torpedo boat's ion cannons, and the right amount of damage from the rest to rip it asunder with one blow - it never even got to shoot. I took the opportunity to fire the other broadside at the Defiance. The Torpedo boat then shot into the newly created gap.

Looking back, my own Corvettes did not move quickly or efficiently enough to the battle line - they took too long to move around the Defiance.

Ken activated his Jaina's Light, broadsided the front Torpedo boat, and moved closer. For some REASON that I cannot remember, I moved Yavaris next. Strange things we do when excited / nervous. I could have used the Veteran Captain to slow down, possibly avoiding Ion Cannon range, but instead I decided to move shields to the front and rush at the Mc80.

That didn't work so well. Yavaris was toast in turn 4 - but on that topic, it's why I decided to go with Veteran Captain rather than Raymus Antilles - Raymus costs 7 points and hands out a free token each turn, but I figured in the design stage that if Yavaris makes it past turn 3 then I'm extremely lucky. My plan is thus: round 1, bank a Squadron token. Round 2, use order and token to activate 3 squadrons. Round 3, use order and veteran captain to activate 3 squadrons. Round 4: If not dead, bonus, activate squadrons, fly towards enemy.

This is the end of turn 4, before squadron phase. My plan is to take out the single A-Wing holding the B-Wings in place, and send the other B-Wing to tie up the unactivated rogues to stop them knocking out my front Torpedo boat. Nope. Anti-Squadron fire from the Corvette and BOTH B-Wings fail to take out the A-Wing. It was a slightly above-average shot, and it did not come off. Ken's YT2400s were enough to bust through the torpedo boats remaining hull.

I also forgot to use a banked engineering token to move a shield at the start of turn 3, but it probably wouldn't have made much difference.

The contested outpost was contested this turn, with my Frigate and Corvette both being in range 1, matching the Mc80.

I don't have a start of turn 4 photo, but my second torpedo boat had some nice arcs on Corvette and Mc80 - sadly it took my side and front arc just to take out the Corvette - no accuracy and a general lack of APTs on that occasion.

I decided to ram the Mc80 and stay in place, expecting to survive a single broadside from the Mc80.

Whoops.

Forgot the Mc80 had xi7 turbolasers (which are fairly mandatory, no?).

The Defiance activated and rolled exactly enough to kill the boat - it was a pretty dumb idea anyway, since Ken's YTs would have finished off a mostly dead Mc30 anyway - which they had just proved by doing it the turn earlier. I should have maneuvered to get into the Mc80's front arc, and made him ram me while taking APTs, etc.

Start of turn 6 - my Corvettes are in position to butcher the Defiance, which is hurting bad. My non-Jaina (on the station) did exactly enough damage with a ram to take out the Defiance. On reflection the ram was a mistake - I should have flown away to escape the fighter wrath, who took out the damaged corvette, despite my B-Wings jumping in to distract them.

I could have used my Jaina's TRCs to kill the Mc80, and lived to tell the tale.

End of round 6, and only Dodonna and Jaina's Light are left - in range 1 of the station to claim a token - I ended up with 1 Victory Marker, Ken with 4.

End of the game, I was ahead 420 points to 394. 26 points, and a 5/5 draw.

This was a good game, and gave me some reminders about how to play, particularly with this list.

There were a couple of errors on my part (the Corvettes not moving up faster, the Yavaris activating too early and moving too far forward, not using repair tokens on my Torpedo Frigates to move shields, ramming the Mc80, ramming the Mc80 again... you get the idea).

Ken said something about setting a trap and not quite realising my torpedo boat could move to a place that it did, so he probably wasn't perfectly happy with his game play either, but in his defence he has recently returned from a round-the-world honeymoon, and is probably a little out of practice (at Armada, at least).