I played in the store championship at Island Games in Centerville, VA this last weekend. I had a blast and took a list I hadn't had time to practice with before.
My list was:
Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 392/400
Commander: Darth Vader
Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions
[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Darth Vader ( 36 points)
- Heavy Turbolaser Turrets (5 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
- Demolisher ( 10 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
- Instigator ( 4 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
Raider-II Class Corvette (48 points)
- Impetuous ( 4 points)
4 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 32 points)
Fleet created with Armada Warlords
My first opponent (Daniel) had Ackbar with an MC80, redundant shields, projection experts, XI7, and 2 AFs, one with XI7, the other with wing commander and one other upgrade, used to toss his A-wings around. He had 3 A-wings and a YT-2400. I don't remember his other objectives but he had Advanced Gunnery, which I immediately took.
This is how it looked after Turn 2 :
I ran my two Raiders out wide trying to stay out of long range side arcs, and pushed forward with the ISD and Demo as he slowly rotated towards the Raiders.
Turn 3 :
My four TIE fighters valiantly killed a single A-wing and delayed them for a single turn. Between the ISD gunnery teaming and some Demo-ramming I took out the wing commandered AF. I also landed a cheap Raider APT hit on his MC80 and lost my other Raider.
Turn 4
:
Gunnery teams from the ISD landed killed off the last AF and put a ton of hurt into the MC80, which was finished off by the Demolisher.
His squadrons didn't play much part at all in the game, I think they landed 2 damage on the ISD's port shields which I just ignored. Since Advanced Gunnery doubled the base points of his MC80 I ended up with a very nice MOV of 506-136 or so.
Game 2 was against Taylor, an opponent I've played against in both a league game and the Gathering at Sullust. He brought along a rather annoying list that consisted of:
Mon Mothma
Jaina's Light
Salvation
Foresight
MC30
4 YT-2400s.
He also had 392 points but I won the coin toss and elected to go first. We used his Intel Sweep Objective.
We both had a fairly straight forward placement, and turn 1 was our objective ships (Jaina's Light and Impetuous) racing towards the first objectives. My gladiator started swinging out wide and the ISD charged straight between his second and third objectives.
My ISD landed exactly where I wanted it to, and put a lot of hurt onto Salvation.
I activated my ISD first and destroyed Salvation, but most importantly managed to jump forward and away from both MC30s. Sadly, this pretty much put the ISD out of the rest of the game. Side arcs from it are just so disappointing compared to bow shots.
We called the game at turn 5 since there was no way I could stop him from getting the last token, and he had no way to kill any of my ships. I think he took out the Demolisher and his remaining MC30 by being unable to avoid ramming it. This gave Taylor a 6-4 win.
My final match was another matchup against the Empire, this time against Motti.
Mike brought:
ISD-1
Demolisher
Insidious
Dengar
4 or 5 TIE Advanceds.
I think his Glads had APTs, but I no longer remember his upgrades.
I chose Fleet Ambush, and deployed the Demolisher up front, with the Raiders back in the normal start area and my ISD as far back as I could get it in the ambush zone. Insidious is his Glad furthest to the right. I activated Demo last and managed to get two solid hits into Motti, as my other ships raced forward.
Turn 2 I activated Demo first and killed Motti. The Raiders managed some pot shots against his Advanceds. Insidious managed to just barely tag the rear of the Demolisher and it was no more. His second shot took out my Impetuous.
Here you can see the setup for turn 3. I activated the ISD and melted his Demolisher in a single hit. (I think I rolled 9 damage without Vader) It took two more turns to race down Insidious and destroy her too, but this gave me my second 10-0 finish of the night.
Vader really payed off. He cost me 12 points more than Motti saved me on Ord Techs for 4 ships, plus let me reroll the non blacks. He was just nasty with the ISD 2. Other than my very first game with Screed, I've always used Motti. This change was quite enjoyable to fly. Going first was definitely key in my two wins. I didn't ever face a large number of squadrons, and though I had initially planned on keeping the Raiders close in as support ships, I used them far more to pad my activations and get the heavy hitters going when the could do the most damage.
All in all, it was a great day and I had a lot of fun. My opponents were great and I'm looking forward to the next games.