9 hours ago, Ardaedhel said:

WOW. This was the one matchup I expected to be a shoo-in for you. Very well-played by Matt, who drives those AF2's better than anybody I've ever seen.

And with that, every other person still in the tourney breathes a collective sigh of relief at not having to face the rammy madness.

Just watched the replay. Great flying Matt. I hope it doesn't come down to a ramming final!

5 hours ago, Fanfan said:

It did not feel that the game was that badly lost in the deployment phase.

For me, the whole game lies in the movement where you place the corvette 1 in front of Ackbar, shielding it for what would have been the following rams after Ackbar dodges this corvette.

You are sort of right, but it goes further back than that.

If i deploy with two packs of 3 at both corners, I can adjust the attack vectors turns 1 and 2 before commiting, and thus not make that error. I had no choice by that point.

Being so closely packed it was to easy for Matt to turn. I basically broke all my own rules.

59 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

You are sort of right, but it goes further back than that.

If i deploy with two packs of 3 at both corners, I can adjust the attack vectors turns 1 and 2 before commiting, and thus not make that error. I had no choice by that point.

Being so closely packed it was to easy for Matt to turn. I basically broke all my own rules.

Exactly this, @Fanfan . Ideally, if you plan to fly your CR90 swarm in "pods", your deployment looks something like this (or inverted, 2 to the front and 1 to the rear):

[  ]            [  ]
 ][              ][
 []              []
 ][     [  ]     ][
<==>     ][     <==>
         []
         ][
        <==>

You want roughly 1/2 a base-width lateral distance between the ships, and 1/4 base length longitudinal overlap, though these are adjustable if you know what you're doing. The idea is that, if you give all three identical navigation commands, they will never overlap, while still lettting you keep them very very close together. To learn to do this, try arranging this formation, then give each one a II maneuver at speed 1. Adjust and try it again til they don't overlap. Then, do a II-II maneuver at speed 2. Adjust again.

Flying like this gives you, in my opinion, the best possible balance between tight positioning and freedom of maneuver. Even if you don't stay in the formation for the whole game, it gives you a great baseline for keeping the ships from stepping on each others toes.

The concept works for other small ships, too, but it's most important with CR90B swarms, because you're dealing with a lot of ships that all want to be in the same place at the same time, and really don't want to be bumping into each other.

At least, I assume that's what Gink was talking about. Because that's the big thing I saw that I'd have done differently.

Exactly that. Though 1 non et at the front, 2 et rbd at the rear. Slightly different because of the inequality of the ships.

JJs (1st Player) vs Aresius

Objective: Precision Strike

Win for JJs 309-107 (MoV 202)

A very intense game. I was outdeployed and activated, I was able to win the squadron fight as well as pop several flotillas with the help of Jonus. Demolisher very nearly died to A-wings and the Liberty, but was able to escape the rest of the game by activating first. Demo also contributed an obcene amount of firepower to the squadron fight. He may have only killed Bright hope, but the AA fire was crucial. Allowing Mauler to kill 4 A-wings in one activation, and then whittle down the YT-2400s. As the game went on I was able to chase down two more of the flotillas and get several VP tokens. The liberty tried to catch up with navs and engine techs, but was unable to reach demo for the kill by the end of the game.

I had 7 VP tokens to Aresius's 0, He should have had a few from killing the raider, but crits weren't to be found in the dice. Good game from a great opponent! Good luck in the future!

Logfile: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2vzl7xt2z1xa0g9/Vassal World Cup 2 JJs vs Aresius.vlog?dl=0

GK vs Matt. Vader vs Ackbar.

Acky is 1st, my Most Wanted (one of his generic Afs and my Goz).

Battle is ongoing. Currently paused early round 5. Will finish tomorrow at 8 AM (GMT +1).

The cowardly rebel scum has opted to flee Imperial justice. Thus far Demo has scored exactly 1 shield damage on his objective ship. Matt has scored exactly 0 hits on my ships.

So it's down to squads. Valen and Ciena are down (got a bit frisky with Valen - in hindsight he should not try to tempt the enemy that much). Rebels are down 1 2400 and 1 Z-95.

I've just activated Instigator in a desperate attempt to pin down Rogue Squad before it can run away. It's currently hiding on a rock, but I think Instigator will lock it down. Then it's a question of how many double arcs (if any) I can get on it - and how well I roll the dice. If I can destroy Rogue I'll be at 37 and Matt at 30. Win me. If not, win him.

Caveat: just hoping Instigator doesn't stray into an AF side arc!

Also just in: elimination games SUCK. This maneuvering and then trying to snipe a squad or weak ship is just rubbish. I hope I never have to play elimination rounds again. End whining.

Elimination rounds do suck.

More specifically Matt couldnt have beat me if I had played speed 5 stay away against him.

Gowtah was very honorable last year and played the next vassal tourney final with valour despite me picking first player superior positions. To his downfall admitedly

6 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Elimination rounds do suck.

This is proof that a win-loss scoring for Armada would be the death of the game. This doesn't resemble Armada in the slightest.

I agree, it's probably the dullest single game of armada I've played

TBH when I saw 3 imperial ships start the game pointing away from the rebels and the ISD start in the farthest corner at speed 1, I had expected the it to be tossed a nav token and then boost up to speed 3 and be all like

and then we'd have a big fight with guns and knives and explosions

Instead the ISD stayed at speed 1 for three turns, and between us we've made it more of a parade than a battle. Never mind, maybe next time.

Well... it might be GKs second most boring, with the first being ours where it was so boring we restarted it. Like in poker, if you give action you tend to receive it which usually makes sitting at a laptop for 3 hours a lot more bearable, and last time I checked it's not like money is involved.

Although the smart money is on JJs Juggernauts!

3 hours ago, mhd said:

Well... it might be GKs second most boring, with the first being ours where it was so boring we restarted it. Like in poker, if you give action you tend to receive it which usually makes sitting at a laptop for 3 hours a lot more bearable, and last time I checked it's not like money is involved.

Although the smart money is on JJs Juggernauts!

We had so muc fun we played twice

But what do you mean no money? Isn't there a pile of Imperial Credits for the winner???

9 hours ago, MattShadowlord said:

I agree, it's probably the dullest single game of armada I've played

TBH when I saw 3 imperial ships start the game pointing away from the rebels and the ISD start in the farthest corner at speed 1, I had expected the it to be tossed a nav token and then boost up to speed 3 and be all like

and then we'd have a big fight with guns and knives and explosions

Instead the ISD stayed at speed 1 for three turns, and between us we've made it more of a parade than a battle. Never mind, maybe next time.

Jumping to speed 3 was definitely an option - but those AFs expertly danced wide, denying any benefit from such a tactic. Basically the ISD didn't feel like tail-chasing 3 Ackbar AFs as 2nd player...and my small ships...well, they didn't feel like getting popped by massed gunnery teams with overlapping fields of fire

---

GK vs Matt ends in a win for GK.

Game ended 53 (16+16+14+7) to 30 (17+13) MoV 23.

Matt picked 1st player and my MW.

I picked my Goz and his most exposed AF as MW ships.

Then we danced. His frigates going fast, my ISD keeping it slow.

His squads moved into the obstacles in the middle, waiting to pounce on my squads - or an exposed raider. I was a bit clumsy, allowing Matt to take down Valen without return fire from the Raider. That was NOT part of the plan. But Ciena Ree stayed alive and dished out lots of counter-damage. Couple with double AS dice from my ships, Matt's squadrons started to rack up quite a bit of damage.

He wisely opted to disengage squads, since he was ahead in points (30 to 23). I nearly managed to pin his Rogue squad ut in the open, but it landed about a pixel or two short. Bummer. Rogue fled to a nearby asteroid, hoping to be safe. Fortunately, due to the position of my ISD and Raider, double-arcing Rogue was pretty easy in round 6 and it died horribly to black CF OE from the Raider and blue + black (Kallus) from the ISD. Between them the ISD and Demo also managed to take down another YT; wasn't really counting on that, so a bit of luck there.

No ships were harmed during filming (except my Raider, which landed on a rock).

Since we ended this quickly and it was kind of anti-climatic, we proceeded to start a game of Sato (me) vs. Jerry. Thus far Sato has been...solid.

Just saying. Playing keep away as first player really has downsides...

On 3/2/2017 at 9:57 PM, Green Knight said:

FINALS date has been set:

March 9th, 6:30 pm (GMT)

That's 12:30 US Central (JJ) and 7:30 pm CET (GK

24 hours left...

And the playoffs for the 3rd and 4th place are now complete.

Aresius managed a win 202-167 after a close, violent game that featured some ridiculously tight moves by both of us. Great game, well played.

World Cup:

Aresius 3rd

Matt-Shadowlord 4th