So after spending a weekend at la casa d'Ard playing through an entire Correlian Campaign (more or less) with Ard, Brik, and another forum peeper (Logan), we had enough time left for a single game... Ard, Brik, and I thought it would only be fitting to stream the match that would have happened 2 weeks earlier, had our Regional gone to 4 rounds.

There was a twitch stream of it, which I'm sure they'll post later/have posted already, somewhere. So you can go watch it for full context, but I'm going to go ahead and do a comprehensive write up here, to capture my still fresh thoughts. And I feel like it's important, given recent discussions concerning the Rebel Squadron game versus ship dominance. This literally could not be more of a perfect matchup to capture that dichotomy (except, of course, that both are Rebel lists).

The lists: Ards infamous Mothma MC30 swarm versus my flavor of the Pelta/Yavaaris Rieekan Aces. (I promise, it is unique to those other successful Pelta builds, and RLB isn't the only major difference)

The bids: Ard-395; me-396. Ard takes initiative. Chooses most wanted.

Setup: I place the station the same way I always place it, given the chance—right up next to my opponents edge in the middle of the long edge (I'm almost to the point where I could do a write-up on developing engagement areas and planning out the obstacle deployment given objectives and matchups). The other obstacles are relatively scattered about, leaving the middle of the field pretty much barren, except for the station and an asteroid placed exactly across from it. You'll see the importance of the asteroid in Rounds 2/3.

Deployment: I had 8 deployments (Nora+Bs in the bays) to his 7, and he was deploying first. I could easily outdeploy 2 of his 30s before placing down either Yavaaris or PH, so he had to go for as general of deployments as he could. Flotillas went smack dab in the middle of his side, right behind the station at speed 2. His, Admo, a normal Torp, and Lando (in that order, from outside in) went all to my left of the flotilla group in tight formation, while the other went to the right. They were all focused on a central point in that open space I mentioned and going either 3 or 4 speed. My fleet was deployed in order from left to right: BCC, Yavaaris, PH, Toryn, Rieekan (shielded from the 3 MC30 pack). They were fairly well spread out, enough to make an arc somewhat mirroring Ards arc and all focused on the same point. Squads deployed mostly central to the engagement area.

Most Wanted: I agonize over which MC30 to pick. I could easily kill the one by itself, but then he could also veer that one away, still hit me with 3, and I'd lose the objective Ship. The same was true of the other standard 30. I know he's bringing in Admonition for sure, but that'd be the only ship I could take out if I gunned for it. Lando was in the position that I would easily choose, if not for Lando. Because Lando was on the inside and going speed 3, any attempt to veer off would disrupt the other 30s, and possibly give me the edge I needed. So I choose Lando and Bright Hope.

Round 1: he moves his flotillas first, while I move ships with obvious vectors to see where his first MC30s go before I move Rieekan. I pass off a Nav and squad token to Pelta, , and take a con fire token with the Pelta. Use the Nav token to get an ET boost up to try and get the drop on Mothma (the Pelta had been placed far forward and directly opposite of Mothma). He was bating me with her. You might call him a master at that.

All of his 30s jump to speed 4, I believe, the pack on my left staying in tight formationand hogging the center of the mats. Yavaaris is positioned to use the Asteroid as cover for his side on the next round. Rieekan is to the far outside, but set to speed into the lone 30s side arc for the next round (due to activation advantage). Squadrons are positioned to primarily engage the lone 30 within range of both Toryn and the BCC (after I move the BCC next round).

Round 1 thoughts: finally seeing Ard's fleet on the other side of the table from me, I gain a boost of confidence. It's not as impossibly daunting as I thought it would be. And he had somewhat similar comments about mine. Seeing those 30s come roaring across the field I realized that not much of my fleet is getting out of there alive. But that's ok, because I probably won't lose any of my 130+ points invested in squadrons.

The fleets are in gnerally even positions, but I've realized by this time that I wouldn't get to Mothma. Squadrons are placed to be able to engage pretty much anything but the flotillas by the next round. Ard's 30 group is going full steam ahead, but if he isn't careful, he'll land multiple ships in Yavaaris striking range of many of those Bombers, and a first activation would only be able to save him 1 of those. At this point, given Rieekan's proximity to to the lone MC30, I determine that I must either take it out or scar it enough so that he runs away before getting Rieekan.

Round 2: I proc AFFM wth a squad token. He starts with the delaying flotillas. I start with a BCC to send some blue die squads to strip the lone 30 with Toryn's help. I move the BCC to join the asteroid in forming a protective barrier for Yavaaris. Toryn is next, commanding more squads to strip some more (getting to be pretty naked), and then moving up right into the front arc craw of the lone 30, avoiding the double arc.

Then I commit Phoenix Home to taking it out. To avoid the double arc, I slow down to speed one with my token, and unleash hell. Not really, I just set up Yavaaris to kill the sucker, moving the other VCX in so Yavaaris can activate 2 double tappers from a distance, placing Nora, keeping 1 B in storage, and Adaring the other.

Because he wants to get shots off with the lone 30, he activates it and brutally one shots Bright Hope. Blue Acc, 2 hit/crit, 1 hit. The extra die for most wanted helped a lot. He roars out of there, gunning for Yavaaris, aiming to pin it in, getting out of double tapping danger, but also giving me a front arc shot. Then Yavaaaaaris activates, sending Dagger, Green, and Jan(maybe Yellow) to strip it down to no front shields, 1 exhausted redirect left, and a damage on hull. Yavaaris gets a hit/hit with an Acc and bumps it for the kill.

Then Rieekan passes a Nav token to PH and using Toryn as a bump-block to avoid being exposed to the 30 pack setting up a kill shot. Rieekan is safe. But the remaining 30s move to get something like 2 doubles and a side arc on PH. Yikes. However, the objective Ship, Lando, was right in the PH front arc. Not a great position for him either (may have forgotten about my ability to ET double tap). Admo also got Yavaaris' side with his side, but wasn't able to get his front on my side. The asteroid and flotilla placement really helped with protection there. Squadrons have all been activated.

Round 2 Thoughts: phew! Man, this is ridiculously intense. So far, I've dealt the biggest blows, but he's set up to take back all of that and then some. Additionally, I made one mistake with my squadron game in this round, but other then that I think it was flawless, sans RNG. The mistake was placing the B before Nora (who couldn't be placed in range due to Squadron clutter). But I didn't get any bomber crits anyways, thanks to Mothma. Going forward, it's up to Ard to decide the order of operations, but I'm fairly certain I can take out one 30 before it activates.

Having that squadron ball in the middle with a very light flotilla cage to protect my cornerstones helped, and with Rieekan I was set to take revenge on whatever he didn't activate first but he had me in a tight spot.

Round 3: I don't do AFFM this round. He activates Admo and absolutely unloads in Yavaaris. Rolls some terrible damage but with an APT proc, which I brace to 2. You'll never guess what crit I got hit with. It's the same crit I got hit with with while facing yet another Mothma 30 swarm at the Houston Regionals that allowed my opponent to one-shot my perfectly positioned Yavaaris—freaking projector misaligned! 3 shields gone. Just like that. Again. And we knew he had me, following up with a front to front, then GTFOing. Spaceballs.

So I go for Lando, activating PH. move Nora, place the last B, move the last B (or Gold?). Get it down to 2 exhausted defenses and no shields on front. Shot out the front plus MW die yields 2 accs, 3 single hits (one crit). No defenses, so Lando. 2 damage on hull use Nav token to ET ram it off the board before it can fire a single shot. But still in a double arc D:

His last 30 goes, largely to avoid Yavaaris double taps, rolling hot with 7 damage into PH's side, braced to 4 and redirected. And then again with some high damage for a front arc, burning both defense tokens. Crits were inconsequential, so the Pelta barely survived, but then he managed to double arc it yet again after moving. This was going to sting. However, it also landed in an unactivated Yavaaris' double arc. Que the remaining squadron activations from flotillas to start lighting him up, Yavaaris zombie shots and ram. But somehow, he kept all of his defense tokens. Though I did get it pretty much naked as far as shields are concerned.

And his flotillas just continued at their own pace, though he did start to bring them around to attempt a go at ramming Rieekan to death.

Round 3 thoughts: holy cow, this is intense. I'm definitely ahead right now, and in a good position, but he's about to tie it up with that first activation. The good news is that I'll still get Adars effect and I can continue to push squadrons after that hurting MC30 with my remaining flotillas through Relay from a safe distance. The bad news is that I'll only get AFFM this one last time, and after that he can speed away at speed 4. I don't know what going through his head at this point, but perhaps he'll elaborate on his plan for dealing with my squadron strategy. Squadron game is still on point, but the Bs are now pretty much out of it.

Going forward, this is just going to come down to those Mothma rerolls and defense token management. He's currently got all defense tokens.

Round 4: I burn AFFM to get that final squadron push going. The 30 activates and kills PH, then he starts taking squadron shots, knowing that just a few points can swing this whole thing because we're that close in trade-offs. He jumps up to speed 4, desperately maneuvering to get on the other side of Admo, IOT use it as a body shield/space denier against my squadrons.

PH activates, sending Nora, Green, and Gold his way (outside of BCC), but Gold can't get a shot off. I untap Green. Then he keeps Admo in place with flotilla delaying activations, but I still manage to have Jan and a VCX get shots off, while activating Green to attack again and jump up in front of his path. It use remaining squad command activations to start sending the others to try and pin him in. Both the 30 and Admo are hugging my edge of the mat at speed 4, coming up fast on the right side edge. The 30 has 2 hull remaining and no shields. The tension is palpable, and the background music is epic (LOTR, I think).

Round 4 thoughts: should have untapped Gold instead of Green. I think that was my biggest mistake of the game, but it is rather minor compared to mistakes I've made before. I don't know if Ard feels like he made any mistakes, but for now, it's just a squadron chase. Can I get enough damage through the Mothma rerolls. (The Flotilla warfare tactics of ramming each other to death isn't going to go anywhere)

Rounds 5 and 6: he uses engineering commands to recover a shield and a hull on the 30. His movements wound up being straight forward for the 30, just trying to stay away from my Ys. That 30's nose was hanging over the edge, it was so close to going off, but he made it work. I wind up getting 1 more VCX attack and 2 more attacks each out of Jan and Green. He ends the game with 1 hull left. So close. And squadron shots amounted to Jan at 2 hull, Green at 3.

The end results: by a MOV of 8.... I claimed victory.

Thanks for writing this up. You have a much better memory for those details than I do, so I'm glad you got around to it before I did...

Really good set of posts. I've just now gotten through it. Congrats on that win. I think with your regional performance you're going to have to start including yourself as one of the drivers of the regional meta, because that was an impressive performance.

I do think that Armada is small enough that for each local community, you've typically got a small handful of really good players that end up shaping the outcomes in a local meta. So you're right at looking at regional data with a grain of salt on that point. It may just be that a list won because that is what the strongest player in the area happened to have run and that player was bound to win anyway. For anyone generally reading, I'd highlight the Toronto area as a place where several strong Imperial players reside and a good place to look for solid Imperial ideas. I think there are some great Imperial ideas out there, they just haven't found the right environments in which to bring themselves to prominence.

Let's be honest. Nobody wants to fly to San Antonio.

<3 Dallas

Edit: It just dawned on me that if I still lived in Texas and wanted to drive from Dallas to the San Antonio regional, I would have driven further than from North Carolina to Maryland. Texas represent.

Awesome write up! Wish we could have seen the game replay, sounds like a nail biter for sure.

Quote

(I'm almost to the point where I could do a write-up on developing engagement areas and planning out the obstacle deployment given objectives and matchups)

Maybe you should! Biggs would probably pop it on his blog.

16 hours ago, Ardaedhel said:

Thanks for writing this up. You have a much better memory for those details than I do, so I'm glad you got around to it before I did...

This is probably why Parkdaddy picked up the squadron game so quickly after the game between him and I before regionals. I can tell he learns quickly!

10 minutes ago, Brikhause said:

This is probably why Parkdaddy picked up the squadron game so quickly after the game between him and I before regionals. I can tell he learns quickly!

Ha

it only took 5 Regionals

On 3/1/2017 at 10:57 AM, Brikhause said:

This is probably why Parkdaddy picked up the squadron game so quickly after the game between him and I before regionals. I can tell he learns quickly!

Brikhause trying to take credit.......

3 hours ago, ripper998 said:

Brikhause trying to take credit.......

Hey many people call me an ******* now you know why!?