Australian Nationals - 2019 - Battle Number Seven

Not to be confused with Mambo number five.

In a remarkable turn of events, my final game of 2019 Nationals was eerily similar to 2018. A win and a loss on the day, middle of the pack, no possible way of making it to first - so it's all out for second place!
2018 was a five activation Rieekan Yavaris Bomber list - 2019 a five activation Dodonna Yavaris Bomber list (well, 4+ Strat Adviser, but that's kind of like 5?).

My opponent (Chris) had just lost to Theo in the last round of day one to make the cut by MoV alone - 8th of 8. He'd smashed his day two round one opponent 9/2, then gone in against James' bomber list and lost 8/3 - Chris was our last best chance to take down James' bombers (in my mind anyway). If you want to see that battle, check out the stream at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY-qKQk4PAc and about 2.5 hours in..

Chris' list:

Chris had the bid, chose to go first, and selected my "Most Wanted". Ok.

This report might sound a bit arrogant, but I had a good idea of how this was going to go from the beginning - there were maybe two ways Chris could screw over my plan, and fortunately he didn't do either.

We deployed rocks on one side, and Chris chose to deploy facing into them. I deployed as shown - Rieekan on the far right, Jaina is the second CR from the left. Squads near the various GRs.
The ships facing left are at speed 1 - the flankers on the right are at 3.

I chose Yavaris and my generic GR as Most Wanted. I could have chosen the MC for the more points, but my plan was to ram the MC and shoot Yavaris. I kind of did both?

A few more points from the MC might have gotten me a 10/1 - but this seemed the safer option.

 Start of turn 2, and I'm flying slow on the left, gathering tokens. The flankers are speeding up (but not too much). This is going to take some precision timing. My small fear is that Chris will turn sharp into the center of the board and try to rush me before I'm ready - my big fear is that he will turn the other way and avoid showing his MC's nose to my CRs. Squads avoid contact.
Chris has some traffic problems and rams one his GRs into the other. He is flying pretty tight.

Start of turn 3, and Yavaris has found itself tailgating (drifting?) behind the MC. This is very ideal in my mind. The squads start scrapping this turn, and I definitely come out the worst for it - I don't see Biggs all that often, and I'm always surprised at how stupidly good he is. The X-Wing ball with Jan grinds my X-Wing ball to dust over the next two and a bit turns.

I'm getting worried now that the MC will turn away and that my flankers will be left too far behind...

Start of Turn 4, and now it's time to execute the plan - the MC is forced to ram my CR, which double rams,etc. My memory is hazy on the exact details, but I manage to put a heap of hurt on that MC without shooting it very much. Quantum Storm jumps in at just the right moment to slice the MC to (I think) CF. I didn't want squads or repair or even Nav. But maybe it was Nav. Quantum Storm survives a number of close shots, and ends up with one hull.
Yavaris has to drop to speed 1 to avoid ramming the MC.

 Start of turn 5 and everything is in place. Jaina takes the ram and dies and is Rieekan'd. The Flankers arrive just in time to shoot and ram Yavaris. Quantum Storm jumped out of the MC side arc and ends up facing the very edge of the board - but I promised that crew they would survive and they did.

A picture of mid turn - Christ is trying to ram Quantum Storm I think?

Eventually Chris surprised me by letting the MC die sooner (not bracing some shots, not redirecting) so that Yavaris could move up and hopefully activate some squads. I think he killed another X-wing or Jan Ors?

My flankers finished off Yavaris and got the table.

This was a tough but good game - very reminiscent of last 2018 Nationals. Lots of Ramming, lots of sacrificing squads.
MC80s are great ships, but they can't really get past a determined blocker - and my boys are determined to block.

457 to 165 (I lost 2 CRs and some squads). If I'd picked the MC as MW it would have been a 10/1 (and I don't recall ever really shooting at Yavaris anyway...).

That's a 9/2, and I'd snuck past Ian to be second on the day.

Here we are - the top 3, with Ian crouching comically to simulate us standing on a podium of some kind.

These are five of the top 8 who stayed to see the last bits of the fighting - one had dropped after round 1, and two others had left early to make sure they made their flights.


It was a great event and I enjoyed myself immensely. The Rieekan Six and Half Dozen is perhaps too brain-draining for such a long event - and it has some serious weaknesses (like ISD heavy bomber lists and other MSU). But it is such a joy to fly! And to ram things!






I'm moving in a few weeks to another city, so I might need to rename Task Force Orange to something else - but I look forward to Nationals 2020, and my coveted second place!

If you are a competitive Southern Hemisphere Armada player be aware! Trek Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself.

RIEEKAN AND PROSPER!