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).