Corran, Tycho, Jake squad

vs

Blues + ion cannon x3

Gold + Ion turret + R3-A2 + BTL-B

The setup:

You have a dense asteroid field between your squad and your opponents.

Can you guess what the next movements are for each ship?

What is the A-wing and Corran plans for dealing with the 3 B's and the Y wing?

A-wing and Corran squad breakdown.

The A-wings were cut off from aiding Corran. The opponent took advantage and jumped into the asteroids with his full squad. Corran was shot to pieces by the following round, even though he did a 1 straight and BR back to try and get range 3 behind an asteroid.

What surprised me was B1 didn't barrel roll to the right to get a side shot and pass through the asteroids to also potentially block Corran.

Whoops. Corran has gotten too close relative to his support. The A-wings are 1 turn too far away for Corran to make an effective flank attack. The b-wings are going to turn in towards Corran given his proximity, and also, he has no escape---his position leaves him no good alternatives other than a 1 forward.

B1 will 1 bank right and barrel roll to clear asteroid

B2 & B3 will 2 turn right and focus

Y1 will 2 bank right and focus.

Corran's 'safe' move looks like 1 forward and either focus or evade. He could try 3 hard turn right over the rock and pray that green dice don't fail too badly, but that is not a sound plan. Actually, it might be best to accept the loss of Corran and go aggressive: 5 straight and focus to unload a range 1 attack into one of the b-wings or the y. The advantage of this move is that B1 will have no shot, and although Corran will almost certainly be stressed and ioned next turn, he should survive to at least get his double tap off, so that 1 enemy ship will have very little hull left thanks to FCS.

Edit: ooops, I forgot Jake moves first. So he does a 2 bank right and boosts right to maybe get a shot on something (but it will be unmodified 2 dice....)

Tycho has no good options. All of his banks and turns land on the rock or pass over it, denying actions. I guess he can try 3 hard turn right and bump into the back of Jake, but that will likely leave him on the rock. Alternatively he can go straight 4 or 5 and boost right. Then fly in front of the b-wings, baiting them (if Corran is dead already), hoping Jake can deal some not too terrible damage by himself, and then turn in towards the asteroid field to force the b-wings into bad positions for later...

B2 and B3 hard 2, targeting corran if in range. B1 takes a 1 bank and barrel roll to avoid rock. Y-wing 2 banks and also takes target lock if in range. If corran horn is tagged by ion this turn, he cannot regen shield and is likely to be eaten alive the following turn, sans divine intervention.

Best chance for awings is to get into range before corran is dead. Getting the awings into that triangle of asteroidswould be good to deter the enemy from flying directly at the awings after corran horn gets loving. Tycho can 3 hard and boost (ptl and tl if possible) before a hard turn. Jake could either 2 hard focus + barrel roll or 2 bank boost right. Corran should try to stay alive if possible, but not put a roid in hos 1 forwards as his chance of getting ioned are high. A slow move and evade token would go a long way to giving corran a fighting chance. Save his ability for the second round of combat(if he survives it) for a closer range shot.

This is a terrible situation in the first place. Good question to ask what now. But we should probably focus on how not to get into this problem.

Honestly the rocks block most of the effective moves of the As and the Corran.

The A-wing/Corran squad had a plan that was working up until this rounds movement. This is the critical point where the decision to engage or feint needs to be made.

The A-wings K-turned 1 round too early. They are now blocked by the asteroid and can't turn in to help Corran. By K turning too early Corran is without support. If they were facing the other way and not stressed they could have turned down towards the B's and Y and got in behind them while they went after Corran on the rocks. But they now can't support Corran and he is vulnerable facing the B/Y squad without possible support.

I would have turned Corran up with a 2 Right turn and faced him away from the danger (and ran over the rock). If he got hit and ionned, he would at least be away from the incoming fire the subsequent turn and would be in a position to regen his shields with the chasing squad now having to navigate the rocks to get shots on him.

I would have realized that the A-wings were out of position and moved them in closer to Corran while trying to pull Corran back to his support. Hopefully the B/Y squad breaks formation as it navigates the asteroids and I can then concentrate on smaller pieces of the squad to engage.

The plan was to present 2 flanking targets to the opponent and that was going like textbook. But you have to be able to adapt your plan when necessary. There is nothing wrong with disengaging to reacquire a better position if the engagement looks wrong.

I would have turned Corran up with a 2 Right turn and faced him away from the danger (and ran over the rock). If he got hit and ionned, he would at least be away from the incoming fire the subsequent turn and would be in a position to regen his shields with the chasing squad now having to navigate the rocks to get shots on him.

I would have realized that the A-wings were out of position and moved them in closer to Corran while trying to pull Corran back to his support. Hopefully the B/Y squad breaks formation as it navigates the asteroids and I can then concentrate on smaller pieces of the squad to engage.

The plan was to present 2 flanking targets to the opponent and that was going like textbook. But you have to be able to adapt your plan when necessary. There is nothing wrong with disengaging to reacquire a better position if the engagement looks wrong.

The problem with turning Corran away is that he is still probably going to die. Yes, it might take longer, but it looks like the R3-A2 will be in range which means 1 stress, and despite +1 green from the rock, its extremely unlikely that all the ions miss. So now you are facing the wrong direction with stress + ion (no R2-D2 neither). Next turn, Corran should be dead.

Alternatively, going 5 straight with Corran means 1 b-wing has no shot. The other three will still leave corran stressed + ion, but at least now you've managed to inflict serious damage because at range 1 and corran's ability, that's 2 4 dice attacks (first with focus, second with TL) against 1 green die and you probably will take less damage. Even better, you put the b-wings in a quandary: do they k-turn to finish off Corran (and leave their back ends exposed to two a-wings with outmanoeuvre) or can they afford to ignore him to deal with the a-wings?

I'd go for Horn then.

B1 banks right/BR; all others turn right fast and brace.

I've never played on vassal, so my judgement might be a bit off, but I think Corran might be able to bank 1 left and barrel roll in behind the big asteroid to wait for assistance. That's a close on though, very high risk high reward situation as the last thing you want to do is land on a rock with 4 guns pointed at you.

As for the A-wings I'm not certain there either, Jake might be able to make a 3 hard to the right between the asteroids there, no Boost though since he has the stress. Tycho could then take a 2 straight and bump Jake just to get rid of stress and follow him in the next round or take a 3 or 4 to get past him and Boost right to go for the next opening closer to Corran.

How much time is left? What's the damage on the blues/gold? These would need to be taken into consideration too. Strategy is more than what move I need to make next.

Wow this is a bad position to be in. It doesn't play well for either your squad list or your position on the board. But with that said, let's take a look at your options. First, what can the Bs do? In basic terms, they can either go after the As, go after Corran, or split up. The As are the most straight forward thing they could go for, and it would prevent outmaneuver from triggering, but it would also set Corran up in a trailing position. On the other hand, B2 and B3 can easily do a 2RT to line up some shots on Corran, but B1 would likely need a 1RT, and the 2RT on Y1 would point it at the rock, though as a stressbot, who cares really? Once Corran gets ionized, the other shots are going to be primary weapon shots for damage. I can’t really see doing anything but turning B2, B3, and Y1 towards Corran. He should walk away with at least 1 ion, 1 damage, and 1 stress, setting up the death for the next turn. I actually think B1 would be best doing 1 RB and then a BR right (do this before the Y wing to ensure he doesn’t bump and lose his BR action).

As the AAE player, I curse myself for being stupid with committing to this position the previous turn… Heck if Corran had barrel rolled either direction last turn (or if a BR had put him here, not doing it or doing it the other way) would have been a much better map position. Personally, I think the A wings shouldn’t force the engagement this turn. I would have Jake do a 2 RB, and a focus + boost Right to possibly get a shot on B3. Tycho I would have do a 3 RB plus a boost straight. The A wings don’t want to be huddled together to begin with, and attacking from one direction makes it easy for the opponent to prevent outmaneuver from triggering. As for Corran, I would honestly think about a 2 RT. This will land him on the rock, but more than likely he will be out of range of B1 and Y1. Plus, he will have an obstruction to give him a 4^th die on those two ion shots that B2 and B3 are likely to take. He also has lots of empty space to travel before he gets ioned to death, so he doesn’t have to worry about hitting rocks. The potential damage from the rock is mitigated by the fact that he won’t be stressed and can take an evade action next turn (not to mention the obstruction bonus dice).

The following turn, I’m assuming Corran is ionized, but there’s really only a 75% chance of that happening. In case he isn’t, the ideal move would be a 5 straight to disengage and try again another day. But the other 75% of the time, Tycho can come straight down with probably a 2RT, take a F+E, and take a R2 shot on a B. Jake could see about a 2RB followed by a F+boost Left to get behind the Bs. But again, this really isn’t a good way to engage. Thinking this through, I’m wondering if I should change my maneuvers the previous turn to have the As just disengage with 5 straights.

Out of curiosity - what were you thinking that led you into this position? Moving last means that both Tycho and Corran could have reacted and put you in a better position. A boost right if possible, or straight if not by Tycho would open him up to be effective next turn, while Corran could have realized his danger and barrel rolled Right and back, allowing for an escape.

This is a terrible situation in the first place. Good question to ask what now. But we should probably focus on how not to get into this problem.

Honestly the rocks block most of the effective moves of the As and the Corran.

This. I don't even see how this could possibly happen in a real game. There's no way Corran could get that far up the board and be at a perpendicular angle like that and have the A-Wings facing the wrong way and stressed all in the first couple turns.

I would like to know how this particular quagmire arose before I began actually analyzing it. If it's not something that could feasibly happen in a real game, then there's not much point in analyzing it.

This is a terrible situation in the first place. Good question to ask what now. But we should probably focus on how not to get into this problem.

Honestly the rocks block most of the effective moves of the As and the Corran.

This. I don't even see how this could possibly happen in a real game. There's no way Corran could get that far up the board and be at a perpendicular angle like that and have the A-Wings facing the wrong way and stressed all in the first couple turns.

I would like to know how this particular quagmire arose before I began actually analyzing it. If it's not something that could feasibly happen in a real game, then there's not much point in analyzing it.

I'm guessing that the A-Wings and Corran all started out in the top right corner. Coran went down and the A-Wings went left. The A-Wings K-Turned and Corran turned to the left.

I'm not sure why you'd start off like that but that's how you'd get into that mess.

I'm not very good at judging distance in Vassal but I'd guess that Jake will pull a right 2 bank, focus, get his free barrel-roll, then use PTL to boost right. Tycho will 3 bank right, PTL to focus and then boost right. Corran will 1 Forward, Evade and pray he's at range 3.

EDIT: Actually, I think Corran might pull a hard one turn to the right and barrel-roll up and away to try to get out of range and arcs as much as possible.

EDIT: Actually, I think Corran might pull a hard one turn to the right and barrel-roll up and away to try to get out of range and arcs as much as possible.

E-Wings don't have the 1 turn...

EDIT: Actually, I think Corran might pull a hard one turn to the right and barrel-roll up and away to try to get out of range and arcs as much as possible.

E-Wings don't have the 1 turn...

Then Corran is screwed. That must have been an A-Wing dial I set for him. My opponent will be picking a 4 K-Turn for him to do this turn.

I think the A-wings came out of hyperspace in the wrong position.

E-wing to stall as long as possible, A-Wings to make their way around the asteroids potentially with an extra boost....then come down on the b-wings from above? By then the B-wings should be between them four asteroids.

I wouldn't fancy my chances though at all!

The A-wings had just K-turned the previous turn. That's why it looks like Corran is out of position.

The next rounds moves are up.