Australian Armada National Championships - Day Two

I had been in 6th place on day one, made the Top 8 (I was two TP clear of 8th, so could have lost a lot worse to Ken and still made it).

The points reset to 0 on day two, so there was a level playing field. No scrubs in the top 8 (whatever a "scrub" is) so just solid and great games of Armada.


My first game was an absolute disaster - I brain my old blame.

LTD against Dan (the eventual winner of the comp).

Some photos I took of other games while I grat my teeth.

Luke (Captain Weather) vs. Kia - Luke won narrowly - he could have slow played to win by a lot, but Luke is all class.

This is the board state of that game - the Glad in the middle is Demolisher, getting eaten by Y-Wings. The other Glad will finish the MC75 off at the top of the next turn.

Ken (IroKenics) vs Mars (Marazaums). Ken was second player, and Mars chose not to fall into his trap and avoided the full on confrontation. There were attempts at last turn squadron killing, but Ken won 6/5, with 0 MOV.

Scott vs. Kia. Scott is last year's Australian Champion. Scott is flying Rieekan aces, Kia is flying double gladiator, Raider, 2 Goz, Squads. Scott won this game.



Round Two:

LTD vs Ben

Round Two Photos:

Dan vs. Scott - Dan managed to table Scott but only by saving his Demolisher in the last round with some nice Gozanti positioning, stopping the B-Wings taking down the Demo (with help from Brunson, of course!)

 Mars vs. Kia - Mars was flying the only Interdictor I saw all weekend. I think he managed a 6/5 over Kia.

Luke vs Ken - Cool. Cool cool. Cool cool cool. Ken kept the Y-Wings pinned down by sending in the A-Wings one by one. Ken won this game 8/3 I think.

Round Three:

Going into Round Three there was no way for me to win the Tournament - Dan was on 18 points, I was on 9. I had to get 10 points to match the 1 point he was guaranteed by not conceding, and if he ended up getting one point, then Ken would have beaten him by 9 and end up winning. So, there was no conceivable path to victory here - mostly due to my losing to Dan 9/2 in the first round.

LTD vs Scott

I did not take any photos of the other games during round 3 - my game went quite long.

But here is the greatest photo of all! Task Force Orange in second place.

Dan - I demand a rematch!

Thanks all for a great weekend - I had a good time - I need to work on my resilience though - the stupid errors late on the Saturday and foolishness early on the Sunday cost me dearly in the end.

I look forward to 2019 Nationals!

If anyone wants to sponsor me to Worlds in Chicago in March, I will not say no!

2018 Australian Armada National Championships - Day One

Australian Armada National Championships were held in Brisbane on 17/18 November 2018. I always enjoy Nationals, and spent my annual gaming budget on the plane tickets (there is a turbo-prop service from Orange to Brisbane direct).

My list went through several developments before this tournament - but always focusing on MSU, with either six or seven activations.

Eventually I settled on:

4 CR90As with TRCs and Engine Techs (one with Jaina's Light, one with Rieekan)
2 GR75 transports, one with Slicer Tools and Quantum Storm.
3 X-Wings
2 VCXs (for strategic)
and Jan Ors for the Braces and Intel to keep the VCXs doing their thing.

My missions were Most Wanted, Fire Lanes, and Sensor Net.

No-one chose Sensor Net. Fire Lanes and Most Wanted were chosen fairly equally - of seven games I was first player twice (I chose my opponents Station Assault and Planetary Ion Cannons). My Fire Lanes was chosen three times, and Most Wanted Twice.

The "naked" transport is for Most Wanted purposes.

I had a bid of 0.


Here are some video clips of the games - they are short, the sound gets progressively better, but the narration is inherently flawed, but I am not going to re-say all the things I said wrong. I've added captions here and there to make it clearer what I ought to have said, or was trying to say.


Game One against Steve

Game Two against Jeremy

Game Three against Chris

Game Four against Ken

I ended day one in 6th position - so I made the cut of top 8 and got to play again the next day for ULTIMATE GLORY.

2018 Spring Tournament Final Swiss Round

I'm playing in the Vassal Spring Tournament (also known as the "Autumn" tournament. Phhhbt. Whatever).

There are three separate pools, for Europe, North America West, and North America East. The top players from each pool after four rounds go into the finals, along with a fourth player - the one with the next highest tournament points values.

The match-ups for round four were just announced, and here is my hot take the top lists:

NA West

Top of NAW with 29 TPs and 1002 MOV is PT106, who is flying a 5/6 Motti with ISD and Demo, Ciena Ree (17 squadron points).

PT aka Paul has been flying squadronless (or almost in this case) for as long as I have followed him on Vassal. He knows what he is doing, and managed to wipe a 2 ship Thrawn list in round 2 of this tournament, sending the Mandalorian Moose flying.

Second of NAW with 22 TPS, is Clontroper5, back from darkest Africa after a two year hiatus. Clon is flying a 4/5 Moff JJ with ISD, Demo, 4 squads (91).
This list of Clon's is the only one under consideration here with a "medium" fighter complement. The rest are at 129+ or 33 or less.
Clon is lined up against PT106 in round 4, and I think that means PT is coming out on top.

Third of NAW is Rikash, also with 22 TPs, flying a 6 Rieekan with MC80A, Tycho and Shara (33).
Rikash needs to thump his opponent solidly and for Clon to overcome PT to break out of the pools.

Fourth of NAW is thecactusman17 with 20 TPs, flying a 5/6 Raddus with MC75, no squads.



No full / heavy squad lists made it to the top of NA West. East is a different story.


NA East
Top of NA East is JJs Juggernaut with 28 TPs, flying a 4 Dodonna with Bail MC75 and Yavaris, and 10 Y-wing squads of various kinds (129). The MC75 is set up with Ruthless strategists, so the Ys take a lot of friendly fire in order to win any squadron war. A fascinating list from one of the great players. If he comes up against a squadless list, the Ys just go to town. If he comes up against a squadron ball, presumably they fight it out at black range of the MC75.

NA East is lot more crowded at the top levels, with 2 players only one point behind JJ.

CommanderDave has a very interesting 3 Screed with Interdictor and Demo, 6 squads (Rogues, 127).
This round 4 face off with JJs Juggernaut will be interesting, but I think JJ has the edge here, although the Ys won't hold the Rogues in place. I don't know, but surely JJ is the safe bet at this point?


Roquax has a 6 Dodonna with Yavaris and HammerHeads, 8 squads (Aces, 133).

Fourth player with 22 TPs is Viktor Tanek with a 4/5 Moff JJ with ISD and Kuat, no squads.



Europe

Zamalekite tops Europe with 26 points, 3 clear of the next player. He is flying a 5 Dodonna with Yavaris and Pelta, 8 Squads (VCXs, 131).

He is up against Bobafetts on 23 TPs, flying his eponymous 2 Thrawn with Pryce ISD and Quasar, 8 squads (Maarket/Jendon/Friends 133).

I think Broba has the advantage here - the Fighting Thrawn Two Step with Pryce is vicious and will likely eat the Dodonna fighters leaving a Pelta and Nebulon to take down a very angry ISD.

Number three is Darth Veggie on 22 points, who needs a big win to top over Zam and Broba. He is flying a 6/7 Raddus with MC75 and Admonition, no squads.

Number four (well, there are a whole bunch of other people on 20 TPs) RapidReload is flying a 6 Rieekan list with Yavaris and Pelta, 8 squads (114). RapidReload was my round 2 opponent (I lost 7/4). I don't see how Darth Veggie gets a good Raddus drop on this list and survives the Rieekan Zombies chopping down his MC75 - unless he drops early, goes for the 7 acitvations, and tries to dart in and out with Admonition - but even then I don't really see it.

There are four Europe players on 20 points, and 3 more (including me) on 19. RikkiP, the UK National Champ and World's finalist 2018 is one point behind on 18.
The Four on 20 need to score 10/1s, and have Broba vs. Zam end 7/4 Broba's way, and then end up with a higher MOV (seems unlikely), and only if Darth Veggie scores an 8 or less.