Hello all. The following brief overview is match 3 of 3 in my first tournament. There were 6 players, 4 Imperial and 2 Rebel. This took place several weekends ago, so I’ve forgotten some of the finer details. Also I apologize for the lack of pictures, since my phone died on me during the event.
Note: All directions will be from my perspective.
My List: Rebels
Assault Frigate Mark IIA (81) Nicknamed “Blunderer”
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Intel Officer (7)
• XI7 Turbolasers (6)
Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57)
• General Dodonna (20)
CR90 Corvette B (39)
• Dodonna’s Pride (6)
CR90 Corvette B (39)
Squadrons:
X-wing (13)
Luke (20)
Total: 295
Objectives: Fleet Ambush, Advanced Gunnery, Intel Sweep
My goal with this fleet was to have 4 ships to mitigate my disadvantage if I didn’t get initiative. My two squadrons were meant to hold off the enemy until my other ships sped out of range, and maybe Luke would get some shots off on a capital. I was expecting a large number of Imperial players, and definitely Gladiators. I tried to equip my assault frigate to punch through a single side of a Vic or Glad and start doing crits as well as a flanking Dodonna’s Pride. I always deployed my CR90s at speed 4, my Neb-B at speed 2 and Blunderer at speed 3.
My Opponent’s List: Imperials
Victory II Class Star Destroyer (85)
• Warlord (8)
• XX-9 Turbolasers (5)
• Admiral Screed (26)
• ----- (?) }
• ----- (?) } These two upgrades were never used and I can’t remember what they were.
Gladiator I Class Star Destroyer (56)
• Demolisher (10)
• Assault Concussion Missiles (7)
• Intel Officer (7)
Squadrons:
2x Tie Interceptor (22)
2x Tie Fighter (16)
Mauler Mithel (15)
2x Tie Advanced (24)
Total: > 295 (I had the low bid; however I’m missing something in this list sorry)
Objectives: Minefields, Precision Strike, Contested Outpost
Setup: I chose initiative and since I had just had a very successful game where I capitalized on Precision strike, I decided to use it again for this game. My opponent placed the station in the left side of the battlefield closer to my edge, I figured he planned to make a run on the station about turn 4-5, so I placed asteroids as best I could to block his routs to the station, my opponent placed the debris fields in front of my right. Our deployments were focused on the right side of the board due to the asteroid placements. Had Dodonna’s Pride on my right, my Neb-b and then my other corvette. Blunderer made up my right flank. My opponent’s ships where dead across from me, with Demolisher further to the left; both his ships started at max speed.
Turn 1:
Right away on this turn I made a critical mistake. I moved my corvette first and I was trying to move it to my far right flank, however I placed it right in the path of my assault frigate, which promptly ran into the corvette, further cementing its title of “Blunderer” and even worse, giving my opponent damage cards to flip for the objective! My opponent charged dead ahead and I move the rest of my ships forward to engage. Our squadrons moved closer and I tried to hide my squadrons a debris field to give them some staying power against his large force.
Turn 2:
I moved my rammed corvette first even though he had no shot since I didn’t want to move any of my other ships until Demolisher moved in closer. Warlord went next and her squadron command sent the Ties screaming in. Mauler and the interceptors just managed to move to the far side of the debris field and get engaged with Luke, who couldn’t completely fit on the obstacle. Mauler’s free damage and two 3 damage attacks (braced to 2) finished Luke off much quicker than I thought possible. Warlord then took a long range side shot at my corvette. He only rolled a hit, but he just used it to flip my damage card, not only gaining himself 15 points, but revealing a crit that damaged me for moving faster than speed 1! I then moved Blunderer. Demolisher came in and attacked Dodonna’s Pride, Intel Officer chose my redirect, but I chose to discard it to avoid damage. Dodonna’s Pride then retaliated and dealt a crit plus several damage with its attacks. My Nebulon-b then opened up on Demolisher as well. In the squadron phase his remaining squadrons moved forward into combat position, my x-wing took a wild shot, but was too intimidated by the horde of enemies to be effective.
Turn 3:
I used Blunderer to open up on Demolisher and dealt several more damage. Demolisher then went and blew Dodonna’s Pride into dust and then took shields off my Neb-b. I returned fire and finished off Demolisher. During these engagements my opponent had earned several more victory tokens. Warlord then moved in after using a side attack to flip Blunderer’s facedown damage (Crew Panic, great…I really shot myself in the foot this game). And his front hit my Neb at long range and scored a crit. My remaining corvette now had the engineering token and dial to get rid of its crit and did shield damage to Warlord. My opponent’s squadrons finished off my remaining x-wing and the remainder took a few shots at my capitals.
Turn 4:
I avoided using my Neb, since I would be moving right into close range of Warlord, so I used Blunderer instead. Her broadside at medium range came up with a single hit (overall the dice really hated me this game with several capital ships whiffs or 1 hit). At this point I hadn’t even gotten through Warlords shields and she was pumping out engineering for the remainder of the match. Blunderer was now at long range from the rear of the Vic, but with Warlord moving at speed two I was unable to come about and chase down the Vic before the end of the match. Warlord then activated and with a long range shot did exactly enough damage (5 hits I believe) to punch through and finish my Neb. This left my Corvette to go, which like Blunderer would take several turns to come about and reengage.
Turn 5-6:
We both moved coming about the try and get final shots, but we were just out of range after the final moves of the game. I had out distanced my opponent’s squadrons, so they all headed to the station and sat there until the end of the match.
Summary:
I only had 3 objective tokens at the end of this game and my opponent had 8, also having Dodonna on my Neb-b meant it was worth nearly as much as Demolisher. With my 33 squadron points, Dodonna’s pride (45) and the 150 he gained from objectives I was left with a 1-9 MOV defeat. This pushed me to a tie for fourth place at the end of the tournament, but I lost the tiebreaker and slipped to fifth. Most of the tournament games were fairly even MOVs, but two large margins were scored in the final round. My second round opponent scored a 10-0 MOV win (also playing Precision Strike again) and moved into first place for the tournament. My third round opponent took second and the remaining Imperial players took third and fourth. Both the Rebel players were at the bottom with fifth and sixth.
Overall Tournament Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this tournament and a shout out to my opponents if they end up reading this, they all played well and everyone had great sportsmanship! I feel like I performed rather well for my first go, besides a few (though very costly) mistakes. Several comments come to mind after this tournament. First of all, I was able to secure initiative with a 5 point bid every match, there was only one other player who had a lower bid at the tournament (12 points I believe). Also my opponents always chose to place the station as their first obstacle. I also am not sure about a few of my choices when building the fleet. Luke, for one; although he fits well with Dodonna I didn’t have to numbers to make him effective and get ship shots. I’m not even sure if I should have had any fighters, in most matched they were just free points for my opponents. However the main use is against Rhymer and friends as buying a one turn reprieve from 4 bomber shots is nice. Maybe I would just get rid of Luke and add some more upgrades to my ships. Also, placing Dodonna on my Neb-b. I believe I lost the neb in all 3 matches, where I only lost the Assault Frigate in 1 (due to maneuvering error). If I had put Dodonna on a corvette he is really easily killed, so I might try him on the Assault Frigate sometime. Other than these, my list seemed to perform rather well. It had the ability to take down heavy ships in a semi-head on situation, and the speed to avoid the worst of the squadron swarms. I my revisit this list in the future, but for now I have some other lists to try! Thank you all for those who have been following and reading these reports. They take a good deal of time to write so any support is appreciated! I’ll try to get some more AARs up after I find time to play some more games. Until then!
Edited by JJs Juggernaut