Played my last game in the "10 games without Rhymer or Demolisher" last night.
I was trying to build a 2 ISD list that didn't suffer too much from lack of activations. Here's what I put together.
Fox Force Two
Author: Democratus
Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 387/400
Commander: Admiral Motti
Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Minefields
Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer
(120 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 144 total ship cost
[ flagship ]
Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer
(120 points)
- Admiral Motti ( 24 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- X17 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 168 total ship cost
Gozanti-class Cruisers
(23 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 25 total ship cost
Gozanti-class Cruisers
(23 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 25 total ship cost
Gozanti-class Cruisers
(23 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 25 total ship cost
created with Armada Warlords
My opponent was running an x-wing heavy list centered on a gun-heavy MC80 with Gozanti support.
Points: 399/400
Objectives: Precision Strike, Fleet Ambush, Superior Positions
MC80 Assault Cruiser
(Dodonna, Defiance, Lando Calrissian, Fighter Coordination Team, ECM, Advanced Projectors, Enhanced Armament, Leading shots)
GR-75
(Quantum Storm, Chart Officer, Tractor Beams, Repair Crews)
GR-75
(Bright Hope, Leia Organa, Boosted Coms, Bomber Command Center)
GR-75
(Toryn Farr, Boosted Comms, Bomber Command Center)
Luke Skywalker
Wedge Antilles
Jan Ors
5x X-Wing Squadrons
----------------
I was happy to see that I had 5 ships to the enemy 4 and that I under-bid him. So I was able to take 1st player to get first/last activation. His objectives were all horrible for me, so I took the lesser of 3 evils and went with Superior Positions.
Set-up:
Obstacle set-up ended up placing nearly all of the obstacles in a tight cluster filling the right half of the play area. This suited me fine, as I wanted to come to grips with enemy ships ASAP and hopefully take out some of the carriers.
I had to set up everything first. So I set up in my back left corner. The two ISDs (Motti on the far left) at speed 2 with the Gozantis right next to them at speed 1.
My opponent set up two of his transports (bright hope and torryn farr) and all his fighters in his center, facing toward my fleet and put his MC80 off toward the right so that it would be weaving through the obstacles with a side arc toward me (sniper role). His last transport, Quantum Storm, was on the far side of the MC80 in order to provide healing support.
This was the first time I really started to see that setup is crucial in the game. Slow ships like the MC80 need to set up pointed exactly where they need to go otherwise they have a hard time reacting to changing conditions.
Turn 1:
The first turn had us closing with each other. My left ISD sped up to 3 to be even with the other one. The Gozanti's handed out tokens with their Comms Nets. His fighters clumped in a terrifying ball and advanced toward me. The MC80 plodded forward at speed 1. This created some space between the cruiser and the carriers/fighters.
Turn 2:
The MC80 moved forward again, while the fighter ball (closely supported by the transports) closed the distance to my ISDs with the fighters just outside medium range. This gave me a choice. I could race forward and try to put both my forward arcs into the MC80 - hoping to bring it down. Or I could instead try to take out the two transport flotillas, hope that the fighters don't kill an ISD, and then fly away.
I had set up my ISDs with 2 turns of Navigate commands at the top of their stack so I could react if needed. The tokens coming form my Comms Nets would help compensate. So I decided to go for the carriers, set both ISDs to speed 3, and did a hard turn into the fighters and carriers. This surprised my opponent, who had his MC80 stuck in an obstacle field and unable to turn.
Turn 3:
Piles of bombers attacked my non-flagship ISD. I managed to get shots at the Transports but they managed to escape by burning (Intel Officer) their scatter tokens. By the end of the turn my non-Motti ISD was low on shields and had 7 damage cards on it. All my Anti-Squadron dice missed. All 14 of them. Ugh. My damaged ISD and the MC80 traded long range shots to little effect.
Turn 4:
This is where being 1st player really paid off. My damaged ISD performed an Engineering command (healing 3 shields), killed the Toryn Farr transport and plowed through the cloud of fighters with a speed 3 left-hand turn to move away from the MC80. Bright Hope went next, sending even more fighters at my ISD and trying to get away from the Motti ISD. Here is where my opponent made the most critical mistake of the match. He forgot to use Leia (on the Bright Hope) to give a Squadron command dial to the MC80. The fighters did another 3 damage to my injured ship (total 10 damage) and earned a few victory points from the objective. But several fighters remained unactivated because the MC80 had no command. The Motti ISD then destroyed Bright Hope and moved away with its friend.
Turn 5:
With no squadron commands queued up and no Leia to change a dial, the MC 80 did an engineering command and took a parting shot at my ISD (brace/redirect to take only 1 damage) before moving off. He miss-judged his movement and landed on two asteroid obstacles (taking 2 face-up damage cards). Then my ISDs flew away and that was the end of the shooting portion of the game. As a final move, I managed to park one of my gozanti right in front of the MC80 which would force a bump the next turn and 2 more face-up cards on that ship.
Conclusion:
Imperial: 72 points for destroying two transports
Rebel: 45 points for scoring 3 damage to the rear hull of a ship
Some luck, a crucial mistake (Leia command dial) by my opponent, and a snap decision to ignore the enemy flagship allowed me to pull out a victory despite having no squadrons and facing a pile of enemy bombers.
Lessons Learned:
We are both still learning the game and this was a very educational match. Here's a few things I took away from the match:
- A Motti ISD can take an incredible amount of punishment.
- The "Contain" token is very important when facing Dodonna. It stopped no less than 5 criticals during the battle.
- The initial setup will determine your future options. I had set up my ISDs in a corner, but at an angle so they could either race sideways or turn to face the opposite side. My opponent pointed his MC80 into a field of obstacles and was locked into this path afterward.
- B-wings have gotten lots of hype, but X-Wings are amazing bombers, especially when backed up with Bomber Command x2. They were solely responsible for nearly destroying my ISD (and may have done it if the MC80 had gotten that Squadron command).
- Don't forget your @#$%! upgrade cards! Looking at you, Leia.
- When you go on the attack go "all in". My opponent tried to keep his MC80 safe by skirting the edge of the battle throwing red dice while his transports and fighters got in the mix. This allowed me to create local superiority and destroy the carriers without worrying about a huge cruiser on top of me.
