Auckland Regionals

I happened to be heading to Christchurch for a conference. I saw on Facebook that the Auckland Regionals were the following Sunday, so I decided to hang around and play. I took the same list as Bathurst Regionals- four CR90As with 3 transports.

I packed my stuff and headed out (about two weeks before the comp - I would be travelling, holidays, etc).

The FAQ updated the next morning. 

My list would be legal, but only just - and I still felt bad using it. But I had no other ships with me, so limited choices. I went with my broken list and a gentle smile of apology.

There were six players total - 3 Rebel (Cracken, Ackbar, Raddus) and 3 Imperial (Vader, Motti, Tagge (yes, Tagge)). I thought I had a list of players names and scores, but lo! it has disappeared.

My first opponent (I think his name was Andrew?) was flying the new classic double ISD, double Goz, two Tie fighter. This list was led by Vader.
My opponent won initiative, and chose to go first. He looked at my missions (most wanted, fire lanes, sensor net). He chose Fire Lanes (Andrew later said that he had never played Fire Lanes before, so perhaps did not understand the full ramifications). I put the Fire Lane tokens left, middle, right.

He was out deployed, 5 to 11. I put down my three Transports, then some fighters, and then put down the warships after seeing where my opponent had gone.

 Start of turn 2. The Transports are running from the ISDs, my flagship is going to claim the left objective, my VCXs are moving the middle token away from the enemy.
My corvettes are moving to engage one of the ISDs - the one without Early Warning Systems (it happened to be the flagship, but that was a secondary concern).

Start of turn 3, and one of my Corvettes has sailed right into the front of the Vader flagship. It does not last long against fire power of that magnitude, but the others are getting in their shots and making a difference.
My now illegal relay activated squads are also ripping holes in the shields of Vader's flag, having seen off the minimal Tie escorts.

Cracken, meanwhile, is busy guarding the left most objective token. The flagship does not fire a shot all game - but brings in a happy 90 points over the course of the six turns.

 Start of turn 4. The squads are ripping into the ISD, while the two corvettes are putting on the hurt. The ISD goes down in turn 5.

 Start of turn 6, and the fighters have started attacking the Gozantis. The other Gozanti succumbed to regular TRC shots from the corvettes. My VCXs secured the objective tokens by putting them under the ISD as it sailed past.

Cracken enjoyed his view of the battlefield from the far side. He was always ready to rush in if needed, but was not needed.

At the end of the game I had lost one careless Corvette for 51 points, and my opponent only had his non-flag ISD remaining (I think it was Avenger, but it never came up).

I had all the tokens but 2, and won the game 10/1 with an MOV of 390-something.

Andrew was a capital chap, but didn't know what he was getting into with Fire Lanes. Experience tells in these matters.

Of course, if he had taken Most Wanted I would have shot the flagship ISD down that much faster and earned 120 points or whatever - but it would have been less than the Fire Lanes tokens. And I would have had Cracken's Corvette to either add dice or get in the way.



Either way, I went into Round 2 at the top of the board, playing player 2 who was on 7 tournament points.

Round 2 was against a chap named Chris (I think? Sorry. I did have it written down). His double ISDs were slightly less kitted out, and he had splurged on 6 Ties including Howlrunner. His Admiral was Motti (stupid Motti).
This time his flagship had Brunson (not early warning systems) so I decided to focus down the easier ISD, the not flag one.

Chris chose to go first, and gave me a choice of Most Wanted, Contested Outpost, or Superior Positions. I thought seriously about going with Superior Positions with the hope of getting the Corvettes behind the ISDs and harvest some tokens - but it has been some time since I chose that objective, so went with Most Wanted.

Chris chose one of his Gozantis (left most in these photos) and my front most Corvette.

Start of turn 2, and my Most Wanted Corvette has sped to 4, planning to shoot its double arc into the target ISD, and then run away. It was a good plan, and nearly flawlessly executed. Sadly I did not wiggle the man tool properly, and ended up in the front arc by about 3mm. So, it died, horribly, horribly.

My fighter wing leapt into the enemy Ties, shooting them up nicely.

 Start of turn 3, and the next corvette has made the next first / last jump to double arc the ISD and then run away. The ISDs have 7th Fleet, but that only helps with the front arc, so side arcs are de rigour (which is French for "the thing").

Sadly, my first / last corvette ends up in three arcs of two unactivated ISDs (two rears and one side) and takes just enough damage to 'splode.

Start of turn 4 and I am kicking myself because my Flagship did not shoot at the Most Wanted ISD last turn. It gets shot to bits in turn 4.
My fighter wing has split in two, with 3 X-Wings hunting ISDs with one VCX, while the rest finish off the Ties.

 Start of turn 5, and Cracken's Corvette is heading for the target ISD, while my Transports have slowed to avoid ending up in its front arc.
The Ties are finished, as are both Gozanti, and the other Corvette is running away at speed.

The challenge is to get Cracken into range, do enough damage, and avoid flying off the board.

Start of turn 6, and Cracken has the ISD dead to rights. TRCs mean never having to do less than 2 damage.

Plus fighters for support if needed.

But not required. The target ISD pops with the perfect amount of damage, and Cracken slows enough to avoid the board edge.


I lost 2 Corvettes, one of which was most wanted.
Chris lost the non-flag (non-Brunson) ISD, 2 Gozanti (one most wanted) and all the fighters.

I won the game 7/4, falling short of an 8 by only a few points.

Chris was not super Armada experienced, but had played a lot of X-Wing and other FFG games.


I went into the final round on 17 points, with the second player on 15, and third on 14.

My third opponent was Jared, whose name I remember as I have played him on Vassal back in the day. His list did not have two ISDs, or even one ISD. Instead it had a Quasar and an Interdictor, backed up by Tagge. He also had an impressive fighter wing.

I deployed in a very different way since there were no ISDs to slaughter my Transports at Red range. I decided to send the Transports in to support the Fighter battle.

Jared chose to go first, and pick my Most Wanted. I chose one of the Transports, and the Quasar. I think I could have taken out the Interdictor with four Corvettes, but it would have taken a long time, and the Quasar would have ripped my squads apart in the mean time.

 Start of Round two, and the Quasar is about to activate and send in the fighter wing. My Corvettes are lined up waiting for the Quasar to wander into Red range.

Start of Round three, and the Quasar is gone. It took three front arcs and a side from the Corvettes, with Most Wanted and TRCs - and I didn't even need to ram it to finish it off. Had it lived, Tagge would have had a field day - but it didn't, so he didn't.

My Corvettes are adding their blue anti-squadron dice to the battle, which makes a little bit of difference when they manage to hit. Perhaps the next list will swap a Transport for Torryn Farr...

Start of turn 4, and my Corvettes are breaking from the melee, with Cracken heading right instead of left with the others. Cracken's ship has lost most shields and taken some hull damage and wouldn't you know it, I've failed to lock down a single Tie Bomber. On of the Gozantis activates it and it just has range to hit and knock out the flag. Sigh. Such is life.

I activate my Most Wanted Transport and get it out of trouble.

Start of turn 5, and things are pretty much wrapped up. My Corvettes are putting repeated shots into the Gozantis, knocking out one and working on the other. Some of the Imperial fighters have run rather than risk destruction, while the Tie Bombers have been left to be cut down by Jan Ors and the VCXs.

Start of turn 6 and only the Interdictor is left. I don't have time to hunt it down, so we call it quits.

This was a good game - it was great to be able to fly the Transports alongside the Squadrons as if the FAQ had already happened and not be blasted to bits by Star Destroyers.


The loss of Cracken and much of the fighter wing was a shame, but I still came through with a comfortable 7/4 win. The tournament would be mine as long as the third place chap didn't get a landslide in the final round... and he didn't!

Huzzah!

24 tournament points and I am Regional Champion of Auckland, with a list that had already been judged broken and was illegal the very next day.

To the victor go the spoils - in this case a nice glass thing to sit on my shelf.



My motto has long been "Best in the West" (ie, I'm the best player West of the Great Dividing Range (in NSW at least, because Matt Shadowlord lives West of me, in the Wild Wild West of Australia).
I had to give up that title (Best in the West) after I failed to win the Bathurst Regional.

I'm now "Best in the East", because, for the time-being, I'm the Regional Champion of the Eastern Most comp in the world (if you go East of New Zealand you end up West of everywhere else).

Thanks

Many thanks to the Players of New Zealand and their gracious overlord Adam. Well done chaps! You never once made fun of my accent or the number of sheep in my homeland. Classy.
I had a good time, would definitely play again (finances and life permitting).

After thoughts

I'm glad relay got nerfed, though I think the hard-flot-cap was a step too far (surely the auto tabling rule would have been sufficient to end 1 + X ?). Of course, Gallant Haven / Yavaris was never a real thing in Australia - I only saw it on a table once, and that was as a kind of a joke, so maybe the problem was worse than I think.

I'm disappointed my Cracken Seven list is no longer legal - back to the drawing board I guess!