I had a blast at the excellently run Wet Coast GT event today - three great games of Armada and excellent fellas with whom to hang. I think half the crowd was from Seattle, which was nice to shake up the local meta. 2 of my 3 games were against them - and I had a ton of fun.
Some of you may have played against my list on Vassal - it's a list meant to go second, and have you choose from three unpalatable options. Fire Lanes and Sensor Net really allow me to rack up the points, thanks to the two VCX's and 3 FCT's in the list. Most Wanted is there mostly just to make you avoid it. It's done all right on line, since it can also fight, with Ackbar and TRC90's putting out the hurt. One last minute addition was the Defiance title, which I really appreciated throughout the day. That extra die was often the thing that juuuust allowed me to kill a target in one shot. I hadn't really planned on playing as first player at all - I figured a 2 point bid would be enough against anyone who didn't care or wanted to go second (I mean, who WANTS to go second?). Little did I know....
My list:
Mission Possible
Author:
Maturin
Points:
398/400
Commander:
Admiral Ackbar
Assault Objective:
Most Wanted
Defense Objective:
Fire Lanes
Navigation Objective:
Sensor Net
CR90 Corvette A
(44 points)
-
Jainas Light
( 2 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
=
63
total ship cost
CR90 Corvette A
(44 points)
- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
=
54
total ship cost
[ flagship ]
MC80 Command Cruiser
(106 points)
- Admiral Ackbar ( 38 points)
-
Defiance
( 5 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
=
170
total ship cost
GR-75 Medium Transports
(18 points)
=
18
total ship cost
2
VCX-100 Freighters
( 30 points)
1
Lietenant Blount
( 14 points)
1
Dagger Squadron
( 15 points)
3
Z-95 Headhunter Squadrons
( 21 points)
1
YT-1300
( 13 points)
Card view link
Fleet created with Armada Warlords
Game 1: Against one of my local buddies, who had Mon Karren with Rieekan, Yavaris, Salvation, and a transport, escorted by 4 Awings, Jan, and an Xwing. He outbid me, and chose to go first. We played my Fire Lanes, and despite his A-wings locking down my VCX's early on, I managed to swing around the Nebs' flanks with my two TRC90's and eliminate them, while the Mon Karren struggled to get into a good firing position (I was able to outdeploy him). Hot Z-95 dice (several rolls of 3-5 damage vs squads!!) helped too. In the end I was able to destroy all of his ships, and collected 8 tokens to his 4. All the Z-95's died horribly.
Game 2: I played against Josh, a great guy from the Seattle area. We were both excited for this game, as in many ways he brought my list's evil mirror-universe twin. He specialized in Strategic shenanigans as well, with 2 Shuttles, Imperial Aces, an Interdictor with Grav Well and Grav Shift Reroute, Demo, a Raider, and a Gozanti. However, he had a bid of 393....and CHOSE to go SECOND!! Apparently folks in the Seattle/Lynnwood area are bidding more and more to go second - those crazy guys! I ended up choosing Fire Lanes (from amongst Station Assault and Salvage Run). I knew that he'd be able to move the Station away from me with Salvage Run, while I didn't want to waste my ships' firepower on Stations instead of his ships. I figured that I could grab two fire lane tokens my first activation, with my VCX's, and move them toward me (and safety). It sort of worked, but only for a moment. I had counted on moving my VCX's further back after snagging the tokens through the use of FCT, but hadn't counted on the grav well to stop my deployments and movement on turn 1). His imperial aces then swarmed and killed the VCX's, while HIS shuttles moved the fire lane tokens under my YT-1300. Which was engaged with Valen Rudor and both shuttles....and lived till the end of the game. (Wait, didn't I warn myself about this trick last week? Oh, my kingdom for a HWK!) In the end I killed his Demo, but he collected 14 tokens to my 2 and killed enough for a 9-2 victory over me. All the Z-95's died horribly.
Game 3: This was against Sean, another Seattleite, who brought a very imposing 7x TRC90 Rieekan list. He'd been having trouble with the list all day though - while it usually did well back home in Lynnwood, the list was not doing as hot up here in Canada. Nevertheless, I was seriously worried and not sure how I was going to weather this storm. He underbid my by quite a lot - 387 to my 398. And he chose to go SECOND again! Silly Seattleites! Of his objectives I chose Planetary Ion Cannon, figuring I could just move the objective tokens out of the way with my VCX's - which is exactly what I did, while my fleet swung around to my left. His CR90's followed en masse, swinging the line 90 degrees in a very impressive formation. I think he got his speed and maneuvering a bit muddled though, which resulted in Defiance one-shotting 3 or 4 corvettes who landed within medium range of its side arc. Add to that another kill shared between my own two TRC90's, and I scored enough for an 8-3 victory. All the Z-95's di....oh, wait, no - the Headhunters survived this game because they all ran and hid. There was no way they were equipped to handle CR90's zipping around at speed 3 or 4.
In the end I managed to eke out a fourth place finish, mostly because Josh (game #2) went on to fight the eventual winner of the tournament, and lost badly to an uber-Rhymerball.
Assessment: I was a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to play my own missions in 2 of the 3 games, but this also showed me that my list can fight very well despite (or maybe because of) going first! I do think that the Strategic keyword is one that will come into common use more and more - and everyone's going to have to have a plan in dealing with these types of lists. That, and bidding for second is a THING!
Random comments and suggestions appreciated - thanks for reading!
Edited by Maturin