Had a great time at the Stele Open this weekend. We had 23 players for Armada on Friday.
Defended my title from the first Open over 5 rounds (2 hours each) of swiss. The drop to 2 hours didn't seem to make a difference for any games that I saw, and since we started around 10 am and finished after 11 pm, I think it was appreciated =)
Before the rest of the report, I'd like to thank Aaron for putting the event together and getting the amazing prize support. I'd also like to thank English Pete for being T.O. (and also for demonstrating the proper pronunciation of "git").
Overall, I think there were a few more rebel players than Imps, but I don't have the full numbers. Rebels did end up dominating the top 8 (6 out of the 8 if I remember correctly).
I won the event runnning a 398 point rieekan MC80 squadron fleet. I underbid 4 out of my 5 opponents and chose to go Second every game:
Mc80, rieekan, independence, boosted comms, ECM
Neb B, Yavaris, Raymus
Neb B, Salvation, TRC
7 Squadrons:
3 Bwings
X-wing
Jan Ors
Wedge
Dutch
Objectives:
Advanced Gunnery
Fire lanes
Superior Positions
(My opponents pretty much hated their choices...)
I debated up until I had to start if I wanted to go with Rieekan or Dodonna and if I wanted to drop the independence title for Adar Talon. (Hopefully I didn't annoy anyone too much talking that over aloud to myself...)
I didn't use the title in any of the 5 games (I've now gone 8 games without using it), but since the two point bid was enough to get the option against everyone but the GGGRR demolisher list (16 pt bid), it was the right decision.
Game 1 - Paired off againt Matt running an ISD, demolisher, gladiator and a fireball (3 firesprays, rhymer, 4 (?) bombers).
He was at either 399 or 400, so I decided to go second. He chose Superior Positions (easy choice with a rhymerball).
He deployed his ships in the far left corner (demolisher hugging the board edge). I deployed slightly to the right of his ships with salvation facing down demolisher.
Turn 1, He sent his rhymerball on an alpha strike against my mc80. He took down a few a shields. I moved my squadrons up to engage. Dutch ensured the firesprays went down fast (he killed one singlehandedly thanks to a Yavaris double tap). Wedge handled the bombers and rhymer. The bwings were able to peel off and deal with the isd (and pick up superior positions tokens).
I ended up trading basically salvation for demolisher (fair trade for me...) thanks to rieekan.
Tying up the bombers and killing the firesprays so quickly pretty much sealed the deal. I had enough tokens to push me to a 10-0 with a 423 MoV.
Game 2 was a rematch against Dan on Table 1. We'd played a close game recently in a store championship, and he told me he tweaked his list based on that game. He was running an mc80 defiance and Yavaris and squadrons. I think he had a third ship, but I sadly can't remember.
I had low bid, chose second and he also took superior positions. I don't remember most of the details other than it was a close game. I flew Independence a bit poorly and ended up double arced by defiance (and he was safely in my front arc). Rieekan saved the day once again by letting a dead Yavaris set up some double taps, and I ended up winning 330 to 217. It was a great game, but tense. I went straight from that game to the open bar for a beer... (did I mention how awesome of event Aaron set up?)
Game 3 - matched up against Christian running an mc80 home One with Ackbar, 2 assault frigates, and 5 awings. I underbid again, went second, and he decided to go with Fire Lanes. I set up the rocks to block off the corner as best I could and then placed all three tokens as much in the corner as I could. He'd been initially surprised that I had fire lanes in my list, and was very surprised at the placement (he'd never seen that before). He deployed to send his frigates around the rocks and aimed his mc80 for a gap. I camped Yavaris and salvation behind the tokens waiting for the frigates and sent independence in a circle around them. He sent his awings after independence and started working on the shields. Wedge, jan, and dutch headed over to fend them off. The bwings waited for the mc80...
By the end, I don't think independence fired a shot at anything but the awings. Yavaris, bwings, and salvation were able to take out Home One (and ackbar) and one of the assault frigates before (and after) they died. I ended up with 15 superior positions tokens for a 539 to 179 win earning a 10-0 and 360 MoV.
Game 4 - played Matthew (who drove up from Atlanta! to play). He was running a GGGRR varient with a 16 point bid. He obviously chose to go first (the only game where I didn't get to choose). Looking at my objectives, he debated between adv gunnery and fire lanes, ending up choosing fire lanes.
I deployed rocks and tokens just like previously, and he deployed Demolisher to come down the board edge. He slow rolled it a bit, so I was able to concentrate mainly on one or two ships at a time. Demolisher split down the middle between salvation and independence. He focused more on salvation (who even after death got off only a single side arc shot all game), but that let my fighters and independence take out demolisher. I lost Yavaris to another gladiator, but that was it. I took out everything but screed on a raider (never close enough to shoot). I landed on 1 of the fire lanes tokens, but otherwise picked up 17 out of the 18. 569 to 149 - 420 MoV and my third 10-0.
Game 5 - played Treb. I went into the game with a 5 point advantage and just shy of a 500 point MoV lead, so he needed an 8-2 win to pass me for first.
Treb was running a Garm squadron fleet with an mc80 (independence, Garm, Adv Projectors, boosted comms, and wing commander), Neb B (Yavaris, adar tallon), cr90 (tantive iv) with 8 squadrons (2 yt-1300, yt-2400, jan ors, keyan, 2 bwings, and a scurrg).
He chose Superior Positions, and deployed near the center with all his ships angled towards my right. I deployed a bit to my left of his fleet aimed straight across the table. My plan was to swing salvation wide around at speed 3 to come in from his tail. He sent his cr90 around to do the same thing.
Our squadrons met in the middle - I was able to break a few bwings free with jan for a handful of rear shots on his mc80, but overall, I lost the sq fight. Zombie wedge and jan helped salvage things a bit and keep his fighters tied up to avoid more damage on my ships, and once again, zombie Yavaris was a huge help fending off total defeat. Salvation did manage to swing around and take out his Yavaris, and my mc80 easily dispatched Tantive IV... I believe we actually went to time, but after 10 hours of Armada,I can't remember.
We both netted a few superior positions tokens, and I had just enough left to limit it to a 6-4 loss (67 point MoV - unfortunately I only wrote down the total, not each score)
After 5 rounds, I had a 41 point total (1316 MoV) to hang on to first. Treb took 2nd with 38 points (837 MoV). Daryle took 3rd with 34 points (419 mov), and Raymond 4th with 31 points (479 mov).
I walked away with a $250 gift certificate to Huzzah Hobbies, a KR multicase bag, a token set, an awesome Stele Open playmat (custom Jaku art), and a totally insane Stele Open championship belt. (I have no idea how to post pictures to this...)
It was a great event and I had great opponents. Everyone was fun to play and hopefully I'll get to see everyone when I defend the title belt next year.
