The Deep Comics and Games Store Championship - Huntsville

5 Players - 1 Rebel, 4 Imperial (Three Tarkin!)

My list again:

Grand Moff Token
Author: CaribbeanNinja

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 398/400

Commander: Grand Moff Tarkin

Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)

[ flagship ] Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)
- Grand Moff Tarkin ( 38 points)

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)

1 "Mauler" Mithel ( 15 points)
1 "Howlrunner" ( 16 points)
1 TIE Advanced Squadron ( 12 points)
1 Major Rhymer ( 16 points)
1 Dengar ( 20 points)
1 Soontir Fel ( 18 points)
4 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 36 points)

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

First Round - Tyler - Tarkin, ISD2, VSD2, Sootir, Howlrunner, Vader, Tie Bomber, Rhymer.

Objective: Contested Outpost (I was first player)

Tyler set the outpost pretty much in the middle on the left third of the battlefield. I positioned my three VSDs pointing straight at it. He deployed his VSD on the top left and his ISD on the right. This was going to be a smash up.

I gambled and turned up to speed two to “race” to the station and force the engagement. Tyler sent his ISD fast on the right, and split up his squads into two groups, Fel and Howlrunner on one side, and Vader, Rhymer and the bomber on the other.

I attacked Fel and company and quickly killed them. That allowed my bombers a bit of breathing room to begin the bombing of the ISD. They plinked its shields down little by little.

At the end of turn two, the ISD had already been nose to nose with my rightmost VSD. Tyler was gambling on his ISD crushing that Vic and moving on. I was sure that the VSD would succumb. I had held that VSD to be my last activation and rolled its front arc dice (3 red, 3 black) I rolled an amazing 8 damage plus an accuracy! Tyler couldn’t use his brace and the bombers had stripped a lot of the shields already. A lot of that 8 points (maybe 6-7) went towards the hull.

So at the beginning of turn three I figured I would start with that same VSD and hope to do more damage before it was killed. I rolled the same three red and three black. Amazingly it was another fantastic roll. An accuracy and seven damage. That was enough to finish off the ISD. We were both amazed.

Understandably dejected, Tyler could only bring his VSD in towards the station. My two leftmost VSDs quickly finished it off. I won 400-0 as we didn’t even make it to within one of the station.

Second Round - Wayne - Demolisher, ISD2 (Tarkin), IG88, Mauler, Howlrunner, Rhymer, TIE Bomber

Wayne chose my Precision Strike. He setup on the top right facing the right in flanking position with his ISD and GSD. I was in the middle facing his ships.

The beginning four rounds of this game were a fantastic setup towards battle. I swept right slowly with my VSDs while Wayne slowly rolled on the right edge towards me. He kept his fighters back so that I couldn’t attack them.

in turn four, Wayne finally struck with his squadrons and hit Rhymer hard, killing him. I countered and bogged down his squadrons. Eventually I was able to win that battle.

Wayne finally brought in Demolisher to attack my right most VSD. The VSD was wounded but still able to return fire and send bombers. The Gladiator went down under the concentrated fire of two VSDs and my squadrons.

The ISD was behind and I was worried that it would be able to finish off all my VSDs. I speed up to try to run past it. The ISD did kill one of my VSDs but two survived.

I killed all his squads and his GSD, he had killed Rhymer and a VSD. I won with a 123 MOV (7-3) A fantastic game!

An interesting aside is that Wayne was the first player I’ve ever played that uses the FFG dice app. It’s pretty cool!

Third Round - Justin - Independence, Neb B, Gallant Haven a crap ton of squads. (Maybe four Xwings, two Ywings, two Awings, two Bwings)

I was really worried about the amount of squadrons Justin was bringing. I was first and chose his Precision strike, worried about all of those bombers on his side.

During setup I noticed Justin didn’t have a commander. I asked who his was and he pointed to Adar Tallon. When I said that wasn’t a commander we looked up the rules with the TO and he realized his mistake. I really commend everyone involved. The TOs took ownership at once saying it was their mistake. Justin was new to the game and also owned up to it. And even his previous opponent (who could have had him disqualified negating Justin’s win) let the 2nd round game stand. I also decided that we were there to play Armada and we went ahead with the game.

Justin setup straight ahead of me with his fighters split in two groups. (Six and four), He rushed his Neb B in at speed three which he later acknowledged was a big mistake. It was way too close to the Rhymer Party of 5 and it was quickly destroyed. I then got very lucky in the Squadron rolls to follow. Having the named anti-squadrons really dispatched his fighters without defense tokens very quickly - even with Gallant Haven. I bogged down his leftmost squads and that let the bombers focus on Gallant Haven. It went down soon after.

In the end I had cleared out his massive squadron wing, a Neb B and Gallant Haven. That along with some Precision strike tokens gave me a 306 MOV (9-1)

I was really happy that I was able to play Armada AND win a Store Championship! Since I had received the Bye in Mobile I passed it down to Wayne who definitely deserved his second place finish. This was a fun and exciting tournament!

Ninja I'm loving how much you are rocking that three VSD fleet. I think I'll put it on a table.

And you know I love that fighter complement.

Great write up.

You finally opponent what Commander did he end up using or did he let it ride?

Ninja I'm loving how much you are rocking that three VSD fleet. I think I'll put it on a table.

And you know I love that fighter complement.

I know it! I am REALLY looking forward to mixing it up after the Tournament season though!

Great write up.

You finally opponent what Commander did he end up using or did he let it ride?

He just let it ride since it was really too late for a fleet change. I told him that while it helped him to have more fleet points, It definitely hurts not having one of the rebel commanders. They are all painfully helpful!

Nice write up and very good sportsmanship letting the game go forward even thought the rebel player didn't have an Admiral. I could see how a new player could make that mistake but it does really go to show that the TO really does need to look closely at the lists provided to make sure they are legal.

Nice write up and very good sportsmanship letting the game go forward even thought the rebel player didn't have an Admiral. I could see how a new player could make that mistake but it does really go to show that the TO really does need to look closely at the lists provided to make sure they are legal.

Yes, very nice write up!

That was me, I was the one that reviewed that list. So, here's what I learned and hopefully you current and future judges can learn from my mistakes.

1. Make a mistake? Own it and then work to resolve the conflicts that arise from it. -- It certainly wasn't the player's fault, he submitted a list for review so he certainly shouldn't be called for cheating. However, anyone who had already played him shouldn't be affected unfairly either. To John's credit, (Justin's first opponent) he let the match result stand after everything was explained though he could have taken that win.

2. Make a thorough checklist for checking fleets -- Armada has a lot of parameters that go into a "legal" build. I knew this and I made a checklist for myself and the other leaders who would be checking fleets but I didn't make it thorough enough. For example, I had a point to check that each fleet had a commander and a flagship. However, I took for granted that Armada lends itself to focusing on one faction and not the other. So, when I checked the list (a handwritten one) and saw Adar Tallon on the flagship, my unfamiliarity with Rebel commanders/officers (I play Empire) reared its head and in the rush to get the tournament started, I missed it. So, the next version of the checklist will list the commanders for both factions as well as the "modifications" so there are no more than one of those per ship. Having them listed should help judges make "no-brainer" decisions on lists.

3. Consider having more than one judge check each list -- This is going to delay getting the tournament started but it should reduce the number of mistakes that get through and therefore reduce the probability that the tournament experience is ruined for one player and tainted for the others.

In spite of that error, the players and organizers made it a fun experience. Like Ninja said, Justin did suffer not having those commanders' abilities to draw on.

Yeah mistakes happen and it isn't easy trying to look over a hand written list. I think tournaments should really recommend players use an online fleet builder like Warlord or FFG's so it checks out. I could see it really easy to miss someone say having ECM's on a ship that isn't equipped with a defensive upgrade spot or maybe XI7's on a ship that doesn't have a Turbolaser upgrade spot and if its hand written unless you remember what each ship's upgrade spots are you could easily miss that. I feel for organizers of large events checking all of those lists.