Allright, So I'll see what I can recall in the next 20 minutes before I go to work (the penance for having Saturday off). Let's start with my fleet:

ISD II w/ Motti, Gunnery Teams, XI7, Intel Officer, Relentless

VSDI w/ Flight Controllers and Expanded Hangars

GSDI w/ Demolisher, Ord. Experts, and ACM's

4x TIE Fighter

TIE Advanced

IG88

Total: 393 pts

My objectives were irrelevant because I had initiative the entire time. And I don't remember them.

11 people at the tournament overall.

Round 1:

I played against Evan. This was his 4th time playing Armada, so I had to remind him how to kick my ass often. And lend him more dice.

He ran a prototypical Ackbar list... MC80 Assault, with Enhanced Arms, Defiance, and 2 or 3 other upgrades (actually I think he may have had Redundant shields illegally), AFmkII with Enhanced, and a CR90B w/ overload pulse. Also a small wave of 4 x wings. I had picked his Advanced Gunnery objective and he put it on his MC80, I chose my VSD. Ultimately, I won... by 4 points. I got his vette and AF, and I more or less ignored his MC80. I paid the price with my ISD going up in flames. I got my fighters teeth knocked in with almost nothing surviving. I figured this was the kind of day I was going to have. Turns out 2 other tables ended up going 5-5 as well.

Round 2:

I played against David, His list was a ISD II w/ ECM and 2 Glads, one nearly naked, one with Demolisher. He also brought 12 fighters, mostly plain Fighters if I recall correctly. I chose Fleet Ambush here for objective. Reeling from the first draw, I figured I was in for more of the same vs his fighters. Turns out, I was wrong. I took the ISD and ran right down the nose of his ISD. My Demolisher in conjunction with the Intel Officered XI7 equipped ISD melted the face off of his. Also as a fun twist, my 6 squads led by Iggy, destroyed EVERY. SINGLE. FIGHTER on his team with loss of only the Advanced if I recall. Turned up destroying his demolisher, and I lost nothing other than one fighter stand. This was a 9-1 victory. And suddenly, I was in the top two.

Round 3:

Final game against Troy. Troy had eaten his first two opponents alive. And he was flying a ISD II w/ XI7, ECM's, Motti, and two gladiators, both naked if I recall. Oh and a Fireball with Dengar. I chose Advanced Gunnery here again. Everybody laughed, impossible scenario to chose and do well. Let me tell you, I was crapping my pants the entire game. I put the mark on my VSD, and he chose his ISD. I again ran right to his face, but he had his GSD's at the corners of deployment. Probably what boned him a bit. I sacrificed my ISD, the GSD got taken out by his ISD as well. But my Victory followed up and black diced him to the afterlife. Meanwhile, my fighters had to cover a lot of ground as he was a full foot wide of my main force with the VSD. IG88 went to town on Dengar, and then Rhymer. And then all of his Firesprays, despite having two free turns of fire on my ISD and GSD, were then locked down and pummeled with anti squadron fire and my squadrons. I lost all but three TIE's but I got all but one Firespray. The VSD was ONE hull point away from death, and an entirely different outcome. A 7-3 Win for me.

I've got to run, but I'll add the conclusion later after work!

Allright! Back to conclude:

Game 1:

This was taken well into the game. Maybe turn 4, right after the ISD went *pop*. Demolisher mid photo annihilated the CR90B, and helped finish off the AF on the 6th turn (honestly at speed 3 and no nav commands, she was scheduled to most likely leave the map). I flew well, but I knew I was going to sacrifice the ISD in hopes of getting the AF and CR90.

Game 2:

This was taken turn 2. The mission was Fleet Ambush so I started the Victory and Demolisher in the kill zone. I then launched the ISD at speed 2 as far forward as I could and proceeded to his ISD. The GSD was speed 2, the Vic was at 1, and both continued to hook to the right. I ended up hitting the Vic the last two turns with the ISD, but it was just a case of not enough room while nearly wiping his entire fleet out.

Game 3:

This was taken during turn 1. What you're not seeing is his other GSD waaaay out to the right. She came in later and did some damage, but fell short of killing my VSD by 1 hull. This one hurt a lot, and I probably should have lost it. His GSD would come up the middle, nearly mirroring mine, and would wreak havoc. Ultimately my VSD went and got his ISD on a collision. Most of the fighters would end up on the left of my ISD (a turn down the road at speed 2), and that's where they mostly stayed. ISD would use it's front arc to hit the ships and gunny team the two blue dice averaging about 50% until it died. Demolisher died before it's activation later on. The fighter game in this one was epic. IG88 is the man. The TO watched our game the entire time. LOL!

Verdict:

Despite beating the leader in game three, I came up one Tournament point short of the win (22 to 21). 3rd place ended up with a large enough victory to beat me, and I sent Troy to 3rd. The store gave some credit out, and since he had one in stock (and clearly he did his job all day), I picked up an IG88 for X Wing! I'd definitely go back for future events. I figured the 5-5 win first game was a sign of the day to come LOL!

Takeaways:

Motti is pretty awesome, I think we all know he's real viable. Can you run an ISD without ECM? Yes. I'd recommend you trying it. That being said, don't you dare build a soft ISD! Take a Turbolaser upgrade. Take Intel Officer. ANYTHING that makes it's shots hurt like hell. Sure, she might die in 3 turns, but make sure the rest of your fleet can take advantage of gimped ships. Fighters are fickle... I do love IG88 for the ability to just clamp down on one prize target. Combine with an T/A to escort him and he becomes a serious threat.

Feel free to pick my brain. I'm really toasted from the full day of travel and play, and I had work today.

Oh, Big shout out to Dragon's Lair accessories. Everybody LOVED the carrying tray. Finally used it for Armada instead of X Wing.