Australian Nationals

By godofcheese, in Star Wars: Armada

I got there in the end! (The dark side will have its revenge in due course).

Had a great time, got a win and two losses, and three great games. Came away with a lot more thinking to do and a new found energy for the game.

I took a VSD 1 with hangers and chirenau, a VSD 2 with Tarkin, flight controllers, XI7s and Defence Liaision, 4 plain Tie bombers and 3 Tie Advanced. Came in at 298 points which was nowhere near enough bid for me to choose who was first player in any match (not that I really expected it, but interesting that no one that I played went right to 300).

I haven't named any of my opponents in case they aren't ok with it, but like I said three great games against three great guys.

Game one was vs Rebels with Paragon and 3? corvette As, with lots of enhanced armament and monmothma. We played his Contested Outpost. I deployed to get to the station asap. He held the station for two turns then hit the speed button to escape my incoming front arcs. My bombers got some solid hits but I made the mistake of trying to bring down paragon which has a great ability to sponge damage. I should have just been happy to bag a corvette. With Tarkins VSD engaged holding the station it fell to chirenau to try to keep his arc on the rebel gunline and support my bombers. Unfortunately this meant he was taking on the entire rebel fleet solo and against that many concentrated fire enhanced armament corvettes he went down hard. All up I held the station for four turns to his two, but losing chirenau for no kills of my own meant an approx. 40 point loss. In hindsight, apart from deploying tarkin to try to head off the rebel gun line, the better thing for me to do would have been to keep chirenau going flat out at the station, directly past the rebel gun line. At their speed they would have taken most of the remaining game to re-engage, and my bombers could have covered my rear, for a rather boring 40 point win, if it had worked....

Game 2 was against three VSD1s led by screed with ACMs and gunnery teams.

We played his dangerous territory, with the objective tokens placed basically straight in front of each of our ships, so he got three, I got two (plus various damage). I placed my two VSDs up one end of his line to try to get around him and turn the game into a 2v2 rather than a 2v3. It mostly worked, heavy fire and lots of damage in the first rounds saw chirenau break through on the left, carrying a few damage cards. He and my bombers/advanced wrecked their opposing VSD in short order. Unfortunately Tarkin couldn't quite escape the second VSD who managed to achieve black dice range. After a ferocious gun battle tarkin went down, but my returning bombers managed to finish off screeds VSD in return.

Game 3 was against a list very similar to mine, except with Rhymer (who by this stage I really wished I'd taken), 6(?) bombers, soontir and tie advanced. We played his precision strike.

The game devolved early into two separate one on one fights between VSDs. Chirenau took the bombers off with him, almost got killed by his VSD (I managed to time the moves so he floated into black dice range and then didn't get to shoot back), and then just managed to NOT kill his target, which was left with only one hull remaining, mainly due to an epic mistake on my part - my bombers were out of command range, but when he moved into them I was silly enough to put them in base to base with his REAR arc, so of course in his ship phase, he flew off at speed 2, denying my bombers the chance to attack in the last turn! Argh.

In the middle, my three advanced took out soontir and his escort relatively easily, and did an ok job keeping rhymers flying circus engaged, unfortunately his Chirenau VSD arrived in time to activate enough of them clear of engagement, and combined with fire from the VSD were able to take out Tarkin again.

In hindsight, I would have been far better served keeping both my VSDs on the one target. More learnings!

So thanks to Good Games and TO, had a great day.

(Edited to fix all my typos!)

Edited by Ophion

I was game 2. Had a blast in all my three games and look forward to more to come.

I am now left with permanent scars and the unwavering beleif that every time I am attacked by bombers they'll do two damage. Made all the more amusing as it was my dice being rolled.

I was game 2. Had a blast in all my three games and look forward to more to come.

I am now left with permanent scars and the unwavering beleif that every time I am attacked by bombers they'll do two damage. Made all the more amusing as it was my dice being rolled.

Brutal. In some ways it would have been good to have a 5 game event. Looking forward to Wave 2 and next year's tournament season.

I came 7th at the event and was Ophion's Game 1.

My fleet was:

AF2B
- Paragon
- X17
- Intel Officer
- Advanced Projectors
- Mon Mothma

Cr90A x3
- Enhanced Armanents
- Jaina's Light (on one)

Objectives
- Most Wanted
- Contested Outpost
- Dangerous Territory

Came to 297 pts. Surprisingly 297 points was enough to get me initiative all 3 games, I guess i could have gotten a Leia or Tantive IV maybe but didnt think of it til now.

Game 1

Pretty much described the same way as Ophion outlines.

Game 2

Up against a rebel list with 3 nebs with salvation and an af2 with 2 a wing support. Contested Outpost is what he chose and i had probably the best deployment of debris and station ever but i messed up my ship deployment and made some silly moves. I lost 2 cr90s and he lost nothing. He ended up coming 3rd at the end.

Game 3

Scaringly I came up against someone with the same fleet as mine except he had an AF2A and a CR90B with 2 xwings and wedge. I chose to go first and decided to gamble on Most Wanted. Oddly enough he chose his AF2A as his objective ship and Jainas Light to be mine. I destroyed everything but a CR90 by turn 5 and he decided to concede.

I think i was pretty lucky that i didnt come up against any GSDs for the whole event!

I wish i could attach an uploaded image but an interesting note is the person who came 6th had an MoV higher than those who came 3rd-5th. But didnt accumulate enough TPs to rank higher.

You can put an image on, let's say Facebook or a image hosting site and then use the img code to make it appear

I came 7th at the event and was Ophion's Game 1.

My fleet was:

AF2B

- Paragon

- X17

- Intel Officer

- Advanced Projectors

- Mon Mothma

Cr90A x3

- Enhanced Armanents

- Jaina's Light (on one)

Objectives

- Most Wanted

- Contested Outpost

- Dangerous Territory

Came to 297 pts. Surprisingly 297 points was enough to get me initiative all 3 games, I guess i could have gotten a Leia or Tantive IV maybe but didnt think of it til now.

Game 1

Pretty much described the same way as Ophion outlines.

Game 2

Up against a rebel list with 3 nebs with salvation and an af2 with 2 a wing support. Contested Outpost is what he chose and i had probably the best deployment of debris and station ever but i messed up my ship deployment and made some silly moves. I lost 2 cr90s and he lost nothing. He ended up coming 3rd at the end.

Game 3

Scaringly I came up against someone with the same fleet as mine except he had an AF2A and a CR90B with 2 xwings and wedge. I chose to go first and decided to gamble on Most Wanted. Oddly enough he chose his AF2A as his objective ship and Jainas Light to be mine. I destroyed everything but a CR90 by turn 5 and he decided to concede.

I think i was pretty lucky that i didnt come up against any GSDs for the whole event!

I wish i could attach an uploaded image but an interesting note is the person who came 6th had an MoV higher than those who came 3rd-5th. But didnt accumulate enough TPs to rank higher.

Has the TO uploaded the full breakdown somewhere?

Has the TO uploaded the full breakdown somewhere?

Not yet, but he was running an X-wing event today so I think he's been busy. But when I see him I'll remind him.

Great to here the AARs from other guys at the event! I'll write one up at some stage.

Hey guys I was the TO for the Australian Nationals, and it's 2:40am I should be fast asleep but I'm over tired was a massive weekend of gaming so thought I'd do some late night reading. I posted on FB about this earlier but to repeat here a big thanks to everyone who attended Aus Armada Nationals was a great event! Apologies on the delay of the standings / fleet lists to social media as I just finally walked in the door of my house now after finishing up a 2nd massive day of events followed by a late night drive back to Newcastle. I'll have them up when I crawl out of bed in the morning for you all to peruse and over analyse the state of the wave 1 300pt meta with soon I promise!

I came 7th at the event and was Ophion's Game 1.

My fleet was:

AF2B

- Paragon

- X17

- Intel Officer

- Advanced Projectors

- Mon Mothma

Cr90A x3

- Enhanced Armanents

- Jaina's Light (on one)

Objectives

- Most Wanted

- Contested Outpost

- Dangerous Territory

Came to 297 pts. Surprisingly 297 points was enough to get me initiative all 3 games, I guess i could have gotten a Leia or Tantive IV maybe but didnt think of it til now.

Game 1

Pretty much described the same way as Ophion outlines.

Game 2

Up against a rebel list with 3 nebs with salvation and an af2 with 2 a wing support. Contested Outpost is what he chose and i had probably the best deployment of debris and station ever but i messed up my ship deployment and made some silly moves. I lost 2 cr90s and he lost nothing. He ended up coming 3rd at the end.

Game 3

Scaringly I came up against someone with the same fleet as mine except he had an AF2A and a CR90B with 2 xwings and wedge. I chose to go first and decided to gamble on Most Wanted. Oddly enough he chose his AF2A as his objective ship and Jainas Light to be mine. I destroyed everything but a CR90 by turn 5 and he decided to concede.

I think i was pretty lucky that i didnt come up against any GSDs for the whole event!

I wish i could attach an uploaded image but an interesting note is the person who came 6th had an MoV higher than those who came 3rd-5th. But didnt accumulate enough TPs to rank higher.

Has the TO uploaded the full breakdown somewhere?

Not yet. But i did take photos of the Strength of Schedule print out list

Has the TO uploaded the full breakdown somewhere?

He is from Newcastle, my guess is he got home late last night after a 2+ hours drive and went straight to bed.

@40K Warzone: Brutal indeed but funny brutal.

@Irokenics: I had 295 and was under bid in my last game. I was really hoping to at least learn what would be a reasonable bid to get first player.

BTW: Is there any one place where the various stores or gamers post up tournaments? I wouldn't mind getting to a few store events if I could learn about events there.

Has the TO uploaded the full breakdown somewhere?

BTW: Is there any one place where the various stores or gamers post up tournaments? I wouldn't mind getting to a few store events if I could learn about events there.

The Australian Armada page on Facebook usually has the Sydney one's. Otherwise we post up all the Sydney CBD events on out page.

Morning All,

I suppose I should provide a AAR as I was fortunate enough to place 1st.

First off, it was a great day had by all, 23 Players all up, with 4 Rebels to take on the might of the disparate Imperial Warlords. Big thanks to Shaun from Good Games Newcastle for organising and TOing the first Nationals event for this game, and I cannot wait for next year.

Thanks also goes out to all the players, who epitomised the ‘Fly casual’ nature that FFG Star Wars games are designed for. Everyone was very friendly, encouraging and, most importantly, forgiving.

Now onto my list. After playing rebels at the last tournament held up in Newcastle, where I won a participation award :P, I wanted to give Imperials a spin:

VIC-I

Admiral Screed

Flight Controllers

GSD-I

Demolisher

Engine Techs

GSD-I

Insidious

Engine Techs

Darth vader

Soontir Fel

Mauler Mithel

Total: 300pts

Objectives:

Advanced Gunnery

Fleet Ambush

Superior Positions

My overall strategy was for the Vic-I to act as area denial and a shield, whilst the GSDs flanked hard and fast, isolating individual ships and hammering them with black dice en masse. Meanwhile the Vic-I would pump out squadron commands to the 3 all stars to tie up any and all enemy squadrons for the entire game, if need be.

Game 1 – vs 3 VIC-Is (Motti) 2 TIE/int, 3 Bombers

I won initiative and chose minefields, as I had not played it before. My opponent set up in a spread out line, with Motti in the Middle, and his bombers on my right flank.

I favoured the left VIC, keeping clear of the bombers initially.

Initial push was the GSDs to power ahead, with the VIC in hot pursuit. I targeted Motti hard and destroyed him in 2 turns losing Insidious in the process, whilst my fighters destroyed the INTs. My ships were then past his frontal arcs and free to take on the second VIC to the left, which blew up in turn 4 9helped in part by it running into a mine). Meanwhile my fighters moved onto and massacred the bomber force.

First win to me 9-1.

Game 2 – vs VIC 2 (Screed), GSD-2, 2 TIE/int, 3 TIE fighters (howlrunner), 2 bombers

My opponent won initiative and chose superior positions from my list. He also spread out his forces, allowing me to segregate targets and concentrate my fire. VIC-2 was destroyed by turn 3, and the GSD in turn 5, with no losses to me, plus 60pts worth of VPs thanks to my GSDs stern chasing the GSD. Again my all star fighter wing did their job and successfully tied up all the enemy squadrons.

Second win to me 10-0

Game 3 – vs 2 VIC-1 (Tarkin), GSD (Demolisher) 2 TIE/ints, 3 Fighters

My opponent again won initiative and chose superior positions. He deployed his force in a close line abreast, offset to the right, with the GSD on the far flank. I set up slightly offset to the left with both GSDs in close line either side of the VIC.

I selected the left most VIC as my first target, flanking around with everything, making a few stupid decisions resulting in both GSDs taking damage from either an asteroid or ramming, however, this avoided the bulk of the frontal barrage, and delivered 4 salvos of black dice into the VIC. BOOM, grey mist. My screed then faced off against Tarkin, resulting in mutual destruction. My opponents GSD then came into range and managed to take down Insidious, however, with my Demolisher GSD in the stern and 105 VPs, plus my fighters again clearing all the enemy fighters, the game finished.

Final win to me 8-2

Strategy analysis and conclusion.

I believe, and apparently proved, that my overall plan coming into the tournament was sound. GSDs need to be driven hard and fast to be effective. They have the speed to run rings around any imperials (at this stage) and Demolisher is extremely brutal. Insidious also lends itself beautifully to Superior Positions.

The VIC proved itself admirably as a carrier and decoy. It forced my opponents to split their attention, as they could not ignore it bearing down on them for the sake of my flanking GSDs, nor could they afford to ignore them whilst they focused on the VIC-1 first, as that would result in GSDs in their six.

The all-stars fighter combo worked beautifully, tieing up any and all squadrons they came into contact with, with enough survivability that they quite often moved on to harass enemy ships with death by a thousand cuts. The only thing that could slow these down was other named pilots.

In conclusion, I must repeat my thanks to everyone for such an enjoyable event, only my second ever tournament. Everyone learnt a great deal about the game and the capabilities of their respective and opposing fleets.

In closing, if it feels like you are winning, IT’S A TRAP!

I missed out on top 8, managed to get 9th overall. Warning my memory is fuzzy as I played the Xwing tournament the next day and everything is melding into one memory after a good 12+ hours over two days at the same venue.

I was flying a victory 2 with Motti, Gunnery team and intel officer. Another vic 2 with gunnery team and intel officer and finally a gladiator 1 with demolisher and assault concussion missiles. 295 points, objectives were fire lanes, advanced gunnery and intel sweep

Game 1:

I went up against two victory 1's and a gladiator with 4 tie fighters. He had initiative (I think) and went first, he selected intel sweep as the mission. I completely stuffed up my deployment as this was the first time I was flying this objective. We both selected the gladiators as our objective ships and we both flew towards the centre of the board (instead of inside out as I should have done). Long story short I blocked the final token (we both ended up with 2) but my gunnery teams and extra turn of shooting were more than enough to take out enough of his list for an 8-2 win.

Game 2:

I faced someone who I had flown against plenty of times and we had essentially the same list aside from warlord on his admiral vic 2 instead of demolisher. Leading into nationals we had both tested our lists against each other so we both knew the drill ahead of time. I think I had initiative and selected to go first, I opted to pick minefields as the objective as fire lanes was unselectable and advanced gunnery was going to ouclass me with his warlord title. I made an absolutely collosal mistake in deployment trying to pull off a tricky move to catch him off guard which more or less decided the game and resulted in an 2-8 loss.

Game 3:

I finally faced another bomber list and this was my first rebel list matchup. I had smashed an imperial bomber list leading into the tournament and was weary of the damage bombers could potentially dish out. It was a fairly standard rebel bomber list with 3 bwings, an a wing, luke (and I forget the rest), his two ships where a nebulon and a whale. He had initiative bid and opted to go second which was a solid plan as his objectives were the nasty part of his list, superior positions, precision strike and fire lanes. I knew fire lanes was a trap and that precision strike was just too brutal to give to him so I settled on superior positions. It was a great game and he ended up with four tokens by the end after taking out my gladiator and a victory but in the end my three ships were more than capable of taking out his two and resulting in a 7-3 win.

Conclusion: I liked how my list flew and I was quite happy with being able to take on bomber lists without squadron cover. I think I will keep running this list until we go up to 400 points and hopefully next time I can at least hit top 8 next tournament. I felt the local scene where I normally play at did quite well (2nd, 4th, 7th, 9th) which gives me hope that I can find solid lists based on my local meta without having to travel too far.

Really happy with how the tournament unfolded (It was fairly well run and everyone was really nice to play) and I fully expect 32+ players next year which will drag it out to 5 games over 2 days.

Edited by Death1942

Australian Armada Nationals Results

A big thank you to everyone for your patience regarding results from the weekend, it was an awesome day of gaming and I was very pleased to host 23 friendly players in their attempt at space domination. First of all, congratulations to the Australian Armada Champion Andrew Watts! 3 convincing wins and a strong MOV carried his Imperial fleet to victory over the rest of the field, well done mate.

We saw 14 Imperial and 9 Rebel fleets for the event, and a solid mixture of fleet styles. For ease of reading i'll post the full standings sheet and the top 8 fleet builds from the weekend. If you'd like information regarding any squads outside the top 8 don't hesitate to ask!

Rank - Name - Score - MOV - SOS
1 - Andrew Watts - 27 - 577 - 43
2 - Alex Searle - 23 - 475 - 38
3 - Greg Jones - 23 - 322 - 47
4 - Alasdair McDonald - 23 - 281 - 35
5 - Shannon Rios - 22 - 253 - 46
6 - Dylan Denton - 21 - 451 - 48
7 - Kenny Nguyen - 18 - 344 - 43
8 - Jason Gemmel - 18 - 330 - 54
9 - Chris Hallet - 17 - 159 - 51
10 - Jaren Foss - 16 - 183 - 54
11 - Shannon Skehan - 15 - 347 - 36
12 - Andrew Hart - 15 - 113 - 34
13 - Dean Ison - 13 - 300 - 46
14 - Stephen Lake - 13 - 83 - 45
15 - Adrian Tchen - 13 - 61 - 39
16 - Fayez Moussa - 12 - 117 - 53
17 - Michael Gill - 12 - 55 - 53
18 - Luke Frankcombe - 11 - 175 - 46
19 - Chris Newton - 11 - 61 - 33
20 - Garry Law - 10 - 40 - 48
21 - Glenn Tyler - 8 - 61 - 31
22 - Travis Foss - 8 - 0 - 44
23 - Sean Slocombe - 5 - 0 - 53

_______________________________________
Rank 1 - Andrew Watts - Imperial

* Flagship - Victory-I SD
- Rear Admiral Screed
- Flight Controllers
- 105

* Gladiator-I SD
- Demolisher
- Engine Techs
- 74

* Gladiator-I SD
- Insidious
- Engine Techs
- 67

* Squadrons
- Darth Vader
- Soontir Fel
- Mauler Mithel
- 54

* Total
- 300

* Objectives
- Advanced Gunnery
- Fleet Ambush
- Superior Positions

_______________________________________

Rank 2 - Alex Searle - Rebel

* Flagship - Assault Frigate II B
- Garm Bel Iblis
- Advanced Projectors
- Intel Officer
- Enhanced Armament
- Gunnery Team
- 127

* Assault Frigate II B
- Advanced Projectors
- Intel Officer
- Enhanced Armament
- Gunnery Team
- 102

* Nebulon-B SUpport
- Salvation
- XI7 Turbolasers
- 64

* Total
- 293

* Objectives
- Advanced Gunnery
- Hyperspace Assault
- Intel Sweep

_______________________________________

Rank 3 - Greg Jones - Rebel

* Flagship - Assault Frigate II B
- Mon Mothma
- Enhanced Armament
- 112

* Nebulon-B Support
- Salvation
- 58

* Nebulon-B Support
- 51

* Nebulon-B Support
- 51

* Squadrons
- Tycho Celchu
- A-Wing
- 27

* Total
- 299

* Objectives
- Advanced Gunnery
- Minefields
- Fleet Ambush

_______________________________________

Rank 4 - Alasdair McDonald - Imperial

* Flagship - Victory-II SD
- Admiral Motti
- Gunnery Team
- 116

* Victory-II SD
- Warlord
- Intel Officer
- Gunnery Team
- 107

* Gladiator-I SD
- Demolisher
- Assault Concussion Missiles
- 73

* Total
- 296

* Objectives
- Advanced Gunnery
- Fire Lanes
- Minefields

_______________________________________

Rank 5 - Shannon Rios - Imperial

* Flagship - Victory-I SD
- Admiral Motti
- Sensor Team
- 102

* Victory-I SD
- Admiral Chiraneau
- Expanded Hanger Bay
- Corrupter
- 93

* Squadrons
- Soontir Fel
- Tie Advanced
- Major Rhymer
- Tie Bomber
- Tie Bomber
- Tie Bomber
- Tie Bomber
- Tie Bomber
- Tie Bomber
- 100

* Total
- 295

* Objectives
- Precision Strike
- Fleet Ambush
- Minefields

_______________________________________

Rank 6 - Dylan Denton - Imperial

* Flagship - Victory-I SD
- Grand Moff Tarkin
- Defense Liason
- 114

* Victory-I SD
- Defense Liason
- 76

* Gladiator-I SD
- Demolisher
- Defense Liason
- Assault COncussion Missiles
- 76

* Squadrons
- Tie Fighter
- Tie Fighter
- Tie Fighter
- Tie Fighter
- 32

* Total
- 298

* Objectives
- Most Wanted
- Fire Lanes
- Minefields

_______________________________________
Rank 7 - Kenny Nguyen - Rebel

* Flagship - Assault Frigate II B
- Mon Mothma
- Intel Officer
- Gunnery Team
- Advanced Projectors
- XI7 Turbolasers
- Paragon
- 133

* Corvette A
- Jaina's Light
- Enhanced Armament
- 56

* Corvette A
- Enhanced Armament
- 54

* Corvette A
- Enhanced Armament
- 54

* Total
- 297

* Objectives
- Most Wanted
- Contested Outpost
- Dangerous Territory

_______________________________________
Rank 8 - Jason Gemmel - Imperial

* Flagship - Victory-I SD
- Admiral Screed
- Director Isard
- 102

* Gladiator-I SD
- Demolisher
- Assault Concussion Missiles
- 73

* Gladiator-I SD
- Assault Concussion Missiles
- 63

* Gladiator-I SD
- 56

* Total
- 294

* Objectives
- Advanced Gunnry
- Fire Lanes
- Intel Sweep

_______________________________________

The TO is cross posting results here from the Aussie FB group, but as he hasn't posted here before the post is still awaiting approval.

:( How did I miss this one?!

****, I would have made the trip to compete. Always next year.

Had a great time on the weekend, I ended up 5th with 22 points playing two Vic 1's with moti and a full 7 man rhymer ball.

My first game was unfortunately against my best friend playing a Vic 2 with screed and two Glads with ACM (one demolisher) and 3 basic ties. Got the win 8-2.

Next game was against 40k Warzone and I'm still kicking myself for that draw, our game was over in about 30 mins with both of us rolling about 4 attack die at each other and no net damage done thanks to Hyperspace assault and my formidable bomber ball sitting on/ near two of the deployment markers. Interestingly we played another causal game back to back to this and I took a much more agressive strategy and went hard for the two whales and ended up whipping the table with me down one Vic.

My last game was against Ophion and his battle report is a fairly good summary for what happened. I was surprised at the efficiency of his tie adv when activated with flight controllers but I believe my tactic of flanking with a slow star destroyer took him off guard and I managed to snake the victory at 8-2.

Thanks to Shaun for a great day and woo Newcastle for taking the win!

Grats on your win Funk-Fu. Glad to see someone from the greater Newcastle area take the prize.

Our local football team may be trying their best to loose horribly this year, but who cares when we can say Newcastle is no. 1 in Armada!!!

Sounds like a great day of Armada and a big win for the Australian scene!

Yay my posts are finally showing! Result and standings are now available for your viewing and analysis on page 2! Great to see some AAR's from the guys and the positive feedback as the event was a pleasure to run.

Thanks again and well done Shaun!

When is the next big event? Anyone know if MOAB will have Armada?