So I played in an Escalation tournament yesterday. I just started playing this summer and this was my third small tournament (and first Escalation) competing in.
The format was 3 rounds. 60, 100, and 150 points. They were supposed to be timed matches, but I think the store owner was just letting them go as needed. She was trying to keep things very casual and relaxed. This was my first time flying Imperial at an event so I was excited/nervous to try things out.
Round One:
My fleet:
2X Academy Pilot
Mauler Mithel
Howlrunner
Opponent:
Academy Pilot
Winged Gundark
Mauler
Backstabber
I had a one point initiative and worked to set up asteroids mostly on his side so he would have to work his way through them. I set up on my left side in a tight formation. He chose to set up a little more spread out across the middle of his side of the board. I’m not sure if there was a tactical decision for this or if he was not as comfortable flying in formation.
I wish I could get to the point where I can remember things more on a turn-by-turn basis, but essentially he chose to send his ships after Howlrunner first and then Mauler. My idea was to keep focused fire on the closest ship to me. With his initial setup, it took him longer to get over
to my formation, so by the time he was able to take out Howl and Mauler, I (along with the help of asteroids) was able to send the two relatively untouched Academies to clean things up. 1-0
Round 2:
My fleet:
2X Academy Pilot
Mauler Mithel
Howlrunner
Whisper
VI
Intelligence Agent
ACD
FCS
Opponent:
Krassis Trellix
Ion Cannon
Gunner
Echo
VI
Tactician
ACD
FCS
Backstabber
This was a very close match, and really one of the best I’ve ever been involved in. I won initiative and asteroid setup was pretty open. He had all three ships spaced out across the board. I kept the swarm and Whisper on the left side, send them cutting across the board while trying to shoot Whisper up the left side to hopefully gain a flanking position. My mistake was taking too long to get Whisper there and the swarm got pretty beat up by Krassis and Echo. I got Backstabber out and managed to whittle down Echo a bit, but next thing I knew it was a fully healthy Krassis and full hull Echo on just Whisper. He was flying very well and things did not look good. The best thing for me was I was in a good defensive position and both would have to catch up a bit. I was able to use an asteroid as a shield and (somehow) stay out of both of the Firespray’s arcs. Then my dice rolls got extremely lucky. After taking down Echo, the dice were very friendly on my attacks on Krassis. He took a direct hit at the end to finish things off. I think he flew better than I did, but I had the advantage of Whisper’s higher pilot skill and some hot dice. 2-0
Round 3:
My fleet:
2X Academy Pilot
Mauler Mithel
Howlrunner
Whisper
VI
Intelligence Agent
ACD
FCS
Captain Oicunn
Ysanne Isard
Mara Jade
Dauntless
Opponent:
Scimitar Squadron Pilot
Assualt Missles
Scimitar Squadron Pilot
Cluster Missles
2X Sigma Squadron
Commander Kenkirk*
Gunner
Ysanne Isard
*I know I’m missing something here. I can’t remember his full list.
I won initiative again (all three matches, which is nuts). Asteroids were set up very open and ended up not being a huge deal in the match. I set up with the swarm on the right, Oicunn in the middle, and Whisper on the left. He put one bomber in front of the swarm, Kenkirk in the middle more to my to my right, and clustered the two sigmas with the other bomber in the left middle.
The plan was to run the swarm at the Decimator, flank with Whisper and just send Oicunn into the middle to muck things up. It worked extremely well. To be fair, my opponent said he doesn’t get to play a ton, and while he flew well, he had a few tactical errors that made my job easier. The biggest thing that helped me was that the bomber that was across from the swarm was the one with the cluster missiles and not the assault missiles. I don’t know if he realized that or not, but I was very glad that the swarm didn’t have to face those, as Whisper took out the other bomber before he fired them.
The swarm was able to take out the bomber and really put Kenkirk on the run while Whisper and Oicunn cleaned up the Sigmas and other bomber. By the end, it was an 1 hull Academy, a full hull Whisper, and a completely healthy Oicunn on Kenkirk with about three hull left. The only bummer of this match was losing Whisper in the second to last round. I was flanking Kenkirk and in between two asteroids. I couldn’t decloak in any direction (I would either land on a ship or asteroid or end up flying through an asteroid), so I decided to play it safe and do my forward 4 movement and regroup. Kenkirk attacked and I promptly rolled four blanks. I can’t complain too much, since the dice were pretty kind to me all day. Oicunn tracked down Kenkirk in the next round for the victory. 3-0
Being the only three game winner of the day, I was the tournament winner, which was very cool given my limited playing time this year. The best part of the day was that we had a lot of good sportsmanship in all the matches. Everyone was competitive, but the “Fly Casual” mantra ruled the day.