Newcastle Regionals January 2018

After I wrote out the report for the Bathurst Regionals, I decided I had better go back and complete reports for the Newcastle Regionals earlier in January. Who knows, I might even get inspired and go back to Australian National from August 2017.

My list was my fairly standard double mc30 torpedo with H9s, APTs, OE. One is Dodonna’s flagship with Admonition. In this list I had 1 CR90A with TRC and Jaina’s Light, and 3 medium transports. I had a bid of 6 points, and a reasonable fighter wing with 2 VCX, Jan Ors, and a couple of X-Wings.

The plan was to win initiative, out-activate enemies, and smash things before flying away. The Squadron ball is there to frustrate bomber balls and maybe claw some points from squadron heavy lists. One of the transports has Bright Hope and Torryn Far for those lovely blue re-rolls.

My first opponent was Shaun, flying 2 ISD, 2 Goz, 2 Tie Fighters with Motti. I won the bid and chose Dangerous Territory. I outdeployed and out-activated, was reasonable confident of victory. I could easily get a 7/4 by killing the Goz and Tie Fighters and running away. I decided to aim to a 9/2 by killing the Motti ISD as well – there was no way I could kill both.

The ISDs were fitted with Tractor beams, which made the whole thing a little bit tougher – And Shaun knows what he doing with those Dual ISDs. The Motti one slowed to let the other one swing around it, and the next thing I knew I was in big trouble. I managed to escape with the loss of my Toryn Farr transport. I took out two Gozantis and the Tie Fighters, but failed to bring down the Motti ISD. My rolling was awful – I think I got one APT to work from 4 torpedo attacks, and the ISD got away with one point of hull remaining – my fighters scrambled for a last minute attack, but fell short. I could have activated more squadrons, but that would have left a heavily damaged Admonition in medium range of the other ISD – not a good position. So I saved the flag, failed on a 50/50 kill the ISD, and came away with a 6/5 in my favour.

Shaun and his speed 3 ISDs outrun my X-Wings - now and forever!

Admonition and the other warships speed away from a very angry non-Motti flagship ISD...


Round Two: Jeremy

The second game was against Jeremy, flying Sloane, ISD, 2 Goz, 2 Raiders, bunch of Tie Fighters. I won initiative by 1 point, and chose his Minefields. I figured I’d use my VCXs to move the mine enough to let me through – as it was I caught a few mines.

We had a limited squadron war in the middle of the board while other things jockeyed for position. I lost a few X-Wings while things moved into place. On the key turn my Admonition destroyed a Raider, then Jeremy’s raider fell short of killing Jaina’s Light, which unleashed Torryn assisted flak (and no obstructions!) to inflict heavy damage on the Tie Squadrons. My other Torpedo frigate killed two Gozantis (one side arc, one front with CF), and then it was all over bar the shouting. 

In the end I scraped an 8/3, I think by about 3 points.

Round Three - Michael

The third game was against Michael. He was flying an ISD, double Arquitens, 2 Goz, four squadron Jendon / Maarek + friends mini ball.

We were at Table 2, going into the round 3rd and 4th. Table One was next to us, so we were often distracted by the professionals beating each other senseless.

I won initiative again, chose his Capture the VIP, and went to town.

This game did not go quite to plan, as my Torpedo frigates notably failed to kill Arquitens in one go even with CF and CF token. Frustrating in the extreme. I just rolled abominably.

I lost my non-Admo torpedo frigate, before my CR90 managed to pull off the miraculous shot and and take out the heavily damaged Arquitens and destroy a Goz. I lost bright hope, and spent a lot of my Squadron ball to kill Jendon, and then take out the other squadrons. The other Arquitens eventually succumbed to Admonition.

I just had range from Jaina's Light on the damaged Arquitens - I CF'd, and needed to roll at least one hit so I could TRC the other to stop the evade. It worked! I cheered like crazy when that Arq finally went to pieces...

Admonition zones in on the other Arq, while Maarek Steele lies in wait to finish off the flagship...

I took out the Arq, knocked out Sabre squad, and go Jan Ors in place to stop Maarek in time. Whew.

I also stole the VIP token with double strategic on turn 2, so ended up with another 50 points.

All in all, I think it was 8/3, but not enough to take out the tournament. I ended up on 22 tournament points, while the winner was on 28 or something stupid (a bye and two 10s).

I do miss my torpedo list. Perhaps I will come back to it someday.

This list was the heady days before wave 7 finally dropped... ah. Memories!