Tuesday night was another 800 point game for Task Force Orange.
Again we had three players.
This time we decided to play fleets of 400 - Rory chose a Tarkin fleet, and Hamish a Darth Vader fleet.
I decided to fly my Rieekan Corvettes (see previous posts for the full list) and a Dodonna MC75 and two MC30TFs with a Salvation for flank support.
The intial set up - Hamish is flying 2 ISDs (ISD2 on the right of screen, Cymoon in the middle) with 2 Goz supports.
Rory is flying Arquitens, Raider, 2 Gladiators, and a VicI with Tarkin. The Vic is in Hyperspace, as that is the objective I chose.
Beginning of turn 2 - LEFT. The Vic drops from Hyperspace double arc'ing one of Dodonna's MC30s (no title). I had the option of going first with the frigate and jumping away, but decided to risk it and hold on, in order to save my Jaina's Light which had jumped into medium range of the ISD2.
The MC30 survived (barely). It took 5 damage from the side shot, and then lost all shields but rear and took 3 cards of damage. I came so close to being very foolish.
As it was, the VIC sailed into its side and front arcs, and the various nearby corvettes were able to strip shields, supported by the fighters, until the Frigate activated very late in the turn and was able to destroy the VIC with some vicious rolling.
Beginning of turn 2 - RIGHT. Jaina's Light has jumped forward in order to be the first activation of this turn. In hindsight I ought probably have kept it at a safer distance to give options on the left. It shot, stripped some shields, and got out of the way. I had stupidly deployed Rieekan's Corvette behind Dodonna's Admonition, and I decided to let them ram in order to avoid moving forwards too quickly. Salvation waited until the ISD2 went then let loose with a rip-roaring seven damage from down range. Nice shooting, tex!
Beginning of turn 3 and my heavily damaged Frigate has gone forwards to threaten both the Demolisher (right Gladiator) and the Raider. I fully expected to activate this frigate first and then die horribly, but I had a traffic jam on the right side of the board - my Admonition had been forced to move a little too early in turn 2, and the ISD2 had come up close and put it in blue range. I had to choose to save my Admonition and Dodonna flagship...
This picture is taken just after the first activation of turn 3 - the Admonition is hiding behind the ISD2. The ISD2 had Xi7s, so it would have taken only 7 damage to kill. With Darth Vader rerolls I decided that was too high a risk to take (Lando Calrissian! Where are you!), so the Admonition went first, unloaded into the ISD2, and brought it very close to death (Thanks to some great Dodonna crits). The ISD was suddenly 2 hits away from dead (H9s work wonders when there are no ECMs!). Hamish now had a choice - activate Gladiator on my left and kill the mostly dead Torpedo Frigate, or activate the ISD2 before it was chopped to bits by Salvation.
A close up of the Star Destroyers converging on Salvation and the MC75. Jaina's Light is off screen to the right. A good Dodonna Crit choice meant the ISD had blinded gunners, and with no arc to the Nebulon's side, I thought Salvation was pretty safe. Hamish activated the ISD and moved shields, bringing the Nebulon to partly dead before ramming. But Salvation lived!
Because the ISD was activated on my right, my effectively dead frigate on the left was able to activate and smash Demolisher to smithereens (thanks, H9s!). A clever ram (if I say so myself) finished off both the Demo and my frigate.
Start of turn 4, and the little ships are skirmishing nicely. The Arquitens managed to knock out the Corvette behind him, while the one in the center danced out of range of the non-Demo Glad.
Turn 4 on the right, and Rieekan had skimmed past the Cymoon, stripping shields like crazy. The MC75 has lined up for the killing blow and Salvation will get some more shots in before being blown up by a Gozanti.
Start of Turn 5, and my right flank is on the way to rescue the left flank - but things are going fine, just fine here, how are you?
Rieekan (red corvette, center back) has to activate first to avoid being destroyed by the Gozanti, and the Gladiator botched its roll to kill the corvette on the right (2 damage from 3 black 1 red). The Raider tried desperately to avoid flying into the MC75 but didn't quite make it, letting the 3 red from the flank deliver the 3 damage required to punch through the 1 shield after brace and knocking out the last hull (the squads had chopped it to bits).
All in all, it was a great game. I am very much enjoying the 800 points size. Again, we started setting up (including the Imperials planning their lists) at 7:30pm, and finished the game and pack up by 10:45. Having few to no squadrons certainly helped.
I suggest Hamish put ECMs on his ISDs, and that the Gladiator be the "drop ship" in hyperspace assault.
I was pretty happy with my lists, and was surprised how "survivable" all my corvettes and frigates were even in this much larger game.
Thanks chaps! Same again next week!
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