Grand Battles versus Darth Veggie

Darth Veggie has come up with a set of rules for GRAND BATTLES. They are certainly very interesting and worth the look.

Read the Sith Carrot's English blog HERE.

Through no fault of my own I have been co-opted to playtest the rules via Vassal. We set up our lists a few days ago, and played our first chunk of the game last night.

Darth Veggie (hereafter DV) is flying 1200 points including an SSD. My list is pretty basic, being an Ackbar list with a Home One and TEN AF2Bs with Enhanced Armament and Gunnery Teams. Ackbar is on a Pelta with Intensify Firepower.

I had a bid of 3 points (I should have taken Hondo Ohnaka! Oh regrets, thy name is LTD!) and chose to be "BLUE" player, which means I get to be first player in odd numbered turns (including turn 7!). I also got to set the first unit.

DV chose my "these are the droids you are looking for" which is a kind of updated Most Wanted / Capture the VIP. I chose DV's "Ambush" which is kind of like "Fleet Ambush" with some changes, where DV got to pick which of my ships had to be ambushed. The combination meant that the droids were on my Flagship in the Ambush Zone as the very first deployment! I faced the Pelta away from the enemy and ran for it as first activation.


Before deployment, both sides place their hyperspace exit points, allowing the mandatory reinforcements to arrive at some point. I put mine in such a way that DV's had to go in less than ideal places (hopefully).

During fleet deployment I was able to put a number of my Assault Frigates in range of two enemy ships, which I was able to destroy in the opening activations. I have a heavy advantage over DV's fleet in terms of activations, an advantage made all the worse by my being able to land an Assault Frigate in such a way that it made dropping ships from Hyperspace onto that point all but impossible. I was able to bring in my three Assault Frigates at the start of turn 2, whereas DV chose not to bring in any reinforcements, instead moving the deployment zone.

I fully expect to lose my Frigate in the SSD's side arc, and may lose the Home One as it is double arc'd and does not have ECMs (regrets! I've had a few!) and Major Jonus is right there. The three frigates on the right of the SSD dropped there at the start of turn 2, and I expect they will put some hurt on that Gozanti and then rip into that SSD.

Things are not over yet, and it is likely that DV's hyperspace jump will include ships dropping in such a way as to trap Ackbar's Pelta... why did I put Ackbar on that Pelta? What was I thinking?

Play resumes in a day or two when our hemispheric timezone differences can be aligned.