Nordics (combined Nationals for all Nordic countries) ran on Saturday, 7th October, in Tåstrup, just west of Copenhagen, Denmark.

A total of 25 people had signed up - mostly Danes - but also a few Norwegians, Swedes, and a Finn. All 25 showed up.

There were a couple of relatively INexperienced players, but mostly the skill level was very good indeed - testament to the very active Armada scene in Denmark.

The tournament was 4 rounds Swiss, no cut.

The TO/Marshal, Kevin, did a great job. Everything ran smoothly and people seemed very happy about the event.

As I walked around the room pre-round 1, I was struck by the incredible variety of lists. I have never seen such variety in lists before. Hammerhead swarms, with and without Peltas. Double super-cucumbers. Dual Motti ISDs, no-squad, squad heavy. Every ship was represented. And most of the Admirals too (but not all). No archetype was dominant. That speaks volumes of how varied Armada is.

===

I won the event with my Sloane list:

Special thanks to @Tokra for some great Sloane theory-crafting, and to those of the Vassal crowd that helped me test the list, especially @Darth Veggie and @BrobaFett - and even more especially @rasproteus, who endured more at the hands of Sloane than any other 10 players put together!

Sloane ISD-2 w/SFO+ECM 8-squad (Nordics 2017)
Author: Green Knight

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 399/400

Commander: Admiral Sloane

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Admiral Sloane ( 24 points)
- Avenger ( 5 points)
- Skilled First Officer ( 1 points)
- Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
= 171 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 25 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
= 23 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
= 23 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
= 23 total ship cost

1 Colonel Jendon ( 20 points)
1 Maarek Steele ( 21 points)
1 "Howlrunner" ( 16 points)
1 "Mauler" Mithel ( 15 points)
1 Valen Rudor ( 13 points)
1 Ciena Ree ( 17 points)
1 Saber Squadron ( 12 points)
1 Dengar ( 20 points)

Card view link

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

My first match was vs. Imperial all-ship:

Motti ISD-2, Projection Dictor, Demo, and Gozanti. The usual upgrades. He also had some speed control tech in there.

We rolled for initiative and I won and picked 1st player.

We played his Salvage Run (alternatives were MW and CO), so I basically gave him free nav tokens and 80 pts.

He was badly outdeployed, and my squads set to work on his ISD. He lost several defense tokens, but was able to regen the lost shields with a string of repairs and projection experts.

Demo came in too fast and was taken out by my Avenger before it could fire any shots.

He then came in hard with his ISD - and was able to slow my ISD down (and I managed to lose my comms net flotilla, so no more nav tokens) with tractor and G8, so I was stuck in his sights. The inclusion of the speed control tech was what made his list dangerous - it would mean his chosen target could not easily run away.

I took down the Motti Dictor next, and almost managed to get away with a well-timed SFO Nav command, but luck wasn't on my side and he got just the 3 damage he needed on the parting shot and the flagship went down.

The rest of the game was my squads hunting down his ISD and killing it round 6.

I lost ISD + Gozanti, he lost everyhting but his Gozanti. Tough match, even though he had no squads.

7-4 to me.

Second match was vs. Rebel Y-wing swarm.

Admo with Dodonna and the usual kit, AF with FC and Exp Hangars and Toryn f-ing Farr, the customary 3 flotillas. Norra, 6 Ys, 2 1300s, 2 HWKs.

This is not a good matchup for me. His fighters have too much hull, and too many small attacks that are really dangrous with FC. I also do not outdeploy this fleet.

Fortunately he chose to go 1st and picked my Sup Positions.

He set up conservatively with his carriers and squads, but put Admo too far from the rest of the fleet and at too high speed.

As a result I was able to take out Admo before the main squad brawl began.

I lost 6 of 8 squads, but killed most of his squads, plus 2 flotillas, and scored a couple of tokens.

It was a rough matchup, but picking Sup Positions neutrered any advantage he had over me.

8-3 to me.

Third match was a table 2, vs. Rebel Leia list.

It had a BC + Salvation + 2xHHs OE+ER and 2 Comms flotillas, Tycho/Shara and 2 A-wings.

I was 1st player and picked his Ion Cannon.

He was badly outdeployed, as my flotillas just raced away and my ISD set up far away from his fleet.

By the time ships started shooting, his A-wings were dead and his flagship close to death.

He lost all squads, BC, Salvation, 1 Hammerhead. I lost nothing.

His fleet was a strong one and the player quite skilled, make no mistake about that, but it was apparent he had no real idea how to tackle my fleet.

10-1 to me, which gave me a small lead going into round 4.

Fourth match was vs. Imp Rhymerball wave 6 compatible.

He had Motti ISD-2 with the usual kit (which in Denmark seems to always include DCO), Quasar-I, 2 Goz, mighty ball of Rhymer and friends.

I won the roll and chose 1st player, picking his Capture the VIP.

At that time I was very confident of victory, having 1st player, more activations, and more specialized anti-squad.

He was a very skilled and dilligent squad player, but he did not have any chance in he squad fight. He did his best, and when I also had some good dice, the fight was won by me very quickly.

I traded my ISD for his ISD and Quasar. I again lost my comms net Gozanti, this time to an amazing ISD side arc that did 5 damage and 1 accuracy. I lost 2 squads, he lost his entire ball, except a lone bomber that bailed out.

7-4 to me.

Fun fact:

I had a 1 point bid, but went 1st 3 of 4 games - and the last guy was really considering giving me 1st as well.

So bids are overrated

So you were doing 4 swiss rounds? No cut?

How where the other standings (2nd, 3rd).

But good to see, that ISD + 4 Goza Sloane seems to really work well

9 minutes ago, Tokra said:

But good to see, that ISD + 4 Goza Sloane seems to really work well

Is it? Is it good to see 4 Goz be that strong?

12 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

Is it? Is it good to see 4 Goz be that strong?

The Gozanti are not strong - they are exceptionally weak - and therefore cheap.

What they do enable, is taking a hybrid ISD gunship/carrier, and still be able to keep up, more or less, in the activation race.

There is also the thing called Relay, which is quite strong, since it has unlimited range.

But Gozanti strong? No.

34 minutes ago, Tokra said:

So you were doing 4 swiss rounds? No cut?

How where the other standings (2nd, 3rd).

But good to see, that ISD + 4 Goza Sloane seems to really work well

Yes, it was decided to be 4 rounds Swiss, no cut. I think that was a good format.

2nd place was won by Mats, a Swede from Umeå. He played a Dodonna Pelta AFFM + Yavaris + 4xGR-75 + squadrons, leaning towards a mix of Bees and Xwings.

Despite having 6 activations w/Yavaris, I think his squad mix was too weak: Ten, 2 Bees, Jan, HWK, 2 Xs, Norra IIRC.

The version he played at the Østersund SC (where he also placed 2nd) was more dangerous with Rieekan and an AF and a better squad mix IMO.

3rd place was won by my buddy Rolf from Østersund, Sweden. He ran a 5-activation Jerry BTA with some squads. I have played vs this fleet before, in the SC final round, and it does not really have much chance of winning against my Sloane.

Final scores were published on Facebook.

Both 2nd and 3rd place had 28 points.

The runner up had one loss but better overall MOV than 3rd place who had 4 wins like me, but less points overall.

Congrats GK! I, of course, was supremely confident you would win

On a mechanical level it's just an incredibly well put together fleet. On a non-mechanical level, I knew you would win because every time I saw you play it I saw the consistent plan playing out.

You knew what your fleet could do and how to lay out the peices to accomplish it. It was a beautiful thing and I am happy you have the fruit of all that work sitting on a shelf at home!

Congrats GK! Thanks for your thoughts and the AAR's!

Hello from Gothenburg, I was also at the event and had a great time

I'd also like to thank TO Kevin for a great event and side event (even if just 3 people showed up)!

My fleet:

Quote

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 399/400

Commander: General Madine

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

[ flagship ] MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 points)
- General Madine ( 30 points)
- Mon Karren ( 8 points)
- Walex Blissex ( 5 points)
- Veteran Gunners ( 5 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Spinal Armament ( 9 points)
- SW 7 Ion Batteries ( 5 points)
= 173 total ship cost

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36 points)
- Task Force Antilles ( 3 points)
- Boarding Engineers ( 2 points)
- External Racks ( 3 points)
= 44 total ship cost

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36 points)
- Task Force Antilles ( 3 points)
- Boarding Engineers ( 2 points)
- External Racks ( 3 points)
= 44 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 20 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Jamming Field ( 2 points)
= 20 total ship cost

3 X-Wing Squadrons ( 39 points)
1 Biggs Darklighter ( 19 points)
1 Jan Ors ( 19 points)
3 Z-95 Headhunter Squadrons ( 21 points)

Card view link

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

This is roughly the fleet I've been playing on and off since regionals but before this tournament I played with a fully loaded torpedo admonition instead of the hammerheads. The swap felt very good and I had use of the extra activation in every game.

My final game was a loss against the above mentioned Mats whose squadrons made short work of my smaller ships while the Liberty was slightly out of position. Even if the jamming field kept my squadrons alive for a bit longer it actually felt more like a drawback for me since it also increased the time it took for me to kill his hwks. By the time I was able to actually tie his squadrons up and get the libery into position I had lost too many activations to do any real damage. It was still a great match against a good player.

I ended up with 2 wins and 2 losses at 26 points and 7th place

11 minutes ago, Realmil said:

Hello from Gothenburg, I was also at the event and had a great time

I'd also like to thank TO Kevin for a great event and side event (even if just 3 people showed up)!

My fleet:

This is roughly the fleet I've been playing on and off since regionals but before this tournament I played with a fully loaded torpedo admonition instead of the hammerheads. The swap felt very good and I had use of the extra activation in every game.

My final game was a loss against the above mentioned Mats whose squadrons made short work of my smaller ships while the Liberty was slightly out of position. Even if the jamming field kept my squadrons alive for a bit longer it actually felt more like a drawback for me since it also increased the time it took for me to kill his hwks. By the time I was able to actually tie his squadrons up and get the libery into position I had lost too many activations to do any real damage. It was still a great match against a good player.

I ended up with 2 wins and 2 losses at 26 points and 7th place

Having 5 activations really helps a lot.

Your squad screen + jamming field should keep your squadrons alive, but vs. intel it's hard to keep your smaller ship safe, since your own damage goes down as well. It can be a double-edged sword.

3rd place was @oxymandias, so maybe he wants to post his list.

7 minutes ago, Green Knight said:

Having 5 activations really helps a lot.

Your squad screen + jamming field should keep your squadrons alive, but vs. intel it's hard to keep your smaller ship safe, since your own damage goes down as well. It can be a double-edged sword.

Yeah, up until that game I had managed to avoid big squadron furballs and had met no intel+bomber fleets so thats where I noticed that the most. The z95s suffered a lot since they lost a third of their damage output, I might swap them out for Corran to get past escorts and kill intel faster in the future.

17 hours ago, Green Knight said:

Special thanks to @Tokra for some great Sloane theory-crafting, and to those of the Vassal crowd that helped me test the list, especially @Darth Veggie and @BrobaFett - and even more especially @rasproteus, who endured more at the hands of Sloane than any other 10 players put together!

Why no tnx for me? Very sad monday start

1 minute ago, Aresius said:

Why no tnx for me? Very sad monday start

And thanks to @Aresius who blew up my ISD during one of my early trial games

That event actually made me begin experimenting with the ISD-2 instead of the ISD-1.

Congratulations Sir! It is a potent fleet and you fly it well.

Congrats again, Björn, very well deserved!

I'm totally stoked that our (expanded) northern Scandinavian community of Östersund-Trondheim-Umeå managed to snag the entire top 3!

Short on time before Nordics I hadn't really decided exactly what fleet to build, so in the middle of the night after playing X-Wing Nationals and then going on to drink one too many beers I had to decide on a list way to late at the night before the tournament.

I've played a variation of this fleet at both the Trondheim SC (which I really should have won had it not been for 2 stupid mistakes) and our own SC in Östersund (where I was both sick and TO:ing, so I didn't play really well there either). Both of them had been with Jerjerrod, and before that I had flown Sloane for a while, so I was choosing between those commanders. ISD + 4 Gozantis was going to be the ship set-up, that much was certain. I decided on Jerry + Boarding Troopers, choosing amazing manoeuvrability on my ISD over Sloanes squadron boost. I removed Tua and ECM from my Slicer Supressor, figuring squads and/or Avenger would likely kill it quickly anyway, reduced my bid and strengthened my squads instead. Removed Needa and TRC, going with SFO and H9 instead.

So finally my drunk-made fleet ended up like this:

Admiral Hilleberg's Copenhagen Task Force/B (391/400)
====================================================
Imperial II-class Star Destroyer (120 + 51)
+ Moff Jerjerrod (23)
+ Skilled First Officer (1)
+ Boarding Troopers (3)
+ Electronic Countermeasures (7)
+ Leading Shots (4)
+ H9 Turbolasers (8)
+ Avenger (5)
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 + 11)
+ Slicer Tools (7)
+ Suppressor (4)
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 + 2)
+ Comms Net (2)
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 + 2)
+ Comms Net (2)
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23)

Squadrons:
Maarek Stele (21)
Colonel Jendon (20)
Dengar (20)
"Howlrunner" (16)
"Mauler" Mithel (15)
Tempest Squadron (13)
Tie Fighter Squadron (8)

I might do a match by match report later, but going undefeated I'm obviously very happy with how the fleet worked. Still I'm not sure if Sloane would't have been better - in some games I never used Jerry but in the last he was game winning. The H9 is not guaranteed its spot either.

Probably played some of the games a little too cautious and as usual I did some mistakes, but only taking small wins meant avoiding facing Björn - he's already declared I wouldn't have had a chance against him! <3

The tournament was very smoothly run by Kevin (great guy who's done fantastic work for the Danish Armada community who I've known since we met at Nordics 2015) and all opponents were relaxed gentlemen who were there to have a good time.