Awesome insight, ty!

Why the Gozanti with comms net?

We expect a full battle report!

6 hours ago, Sluice_Goose said:

Why the Gozanti with comms net?

Extra activation, and sendin' tokens over to the ISD

3 hours ago, Green Knight said:

We expect a full battle report!

I'll do my best, coach! No idea how much brain I'll have left if it's really 4 games in a row. We'll see how much I can remember!

With relentless, you are already kinda doing that by running 2 dials. Do you think you would get more benefit from that or like Rhymer and 3 Tie Interceptors? That way you could also run ERacks on both Raiders and still have viable antisquad and antiship for no squad lists.

Certainly possible. But my playtesting has revealed that against some fleets I really really need that 5th activation. I tried running just 4 ships with more upgrades and Jonus+TIEs and it's great vs some fleets and awful vs others. I'm hoping this is enough of a middle ground to work out.

The Comms net can also chuck nav tokens to the ISD so I can start spamming repair if need be.

50 minutes ago, duck_bird said:

Certainly possible. But my playtesting has revealed that against some fleets I really really need that 5th activation. I tried running just 4 ships with more upgrades and Jonus+TIEs and it's great vs some fleets and awful vs others. I'm hoping this is enough of a middle ground to work out.

The Comms net can also chuck nav tokens to the ISD so I can start spamming repair if need be.

This is my experience with ISD fleets as well (I ran ISD/GSD/Raider/Raider/Gozanti + 2 squads at Worlds last wave and the formula is definitely working) I tried to ran 4 activation fleets and found more disadvantages than benefits (deployments, activations). A question - did you consider upgrading one of the TIEs to Valen Rudor just to get that scatter?

Dude thats a solid plan. ISD has good engineering. I figured you were going to feed it engineering tokens so it could concentrate fire like a boss.

8 hours ago, PT106 said:

This is my experience with ISD fleets as well (I ran ISD/GSD/Raider/Raider/Gozanti + 2 squads at Worlds last wave and the formula is definitely working) I tried to ran 4 activation fleets and found more disadvantages than benefits (deployments, activations). A question - did you consider upgrading one of the TIEs to Valen Rudor just to get that scatter?

What place did you get? 4 activations seems like alot to me. How many activations were your opponents throwing out?

Tell us all the batrep I am really interested in your experience! Good luck!

It’s still going on. More people showed up than anyone expected and we had to do 4 rounds. I think she ended up with 29 tourney points though.

On 1/12/2018 at 7:32 PM, Sluice_Goose said:

What place did you get? 4 activations seems like alot to me. How many activations were your opponents throwing out?

I think i was around 19th at the time. (I managed to do 1-10 loss first round so the rest of tourney I tried to recover from that). I think i saw between 4 and 6 activations at the time (but this was before FAQ)

Phew, I took 5th! I'm pretty delighted with that.

Now all that said, I didn't face any heavy bomber or Sloane fleets, so I very luckily dodged what is probably my worst match up. Anyway the whole tournament was a blast. I think 36 people showed up. Nice store to boot. LONG day though, eesh. I think I got home at 1am after getting out of the store by 11:30. Oh well, worth it for a full day of spaceboats!

Anyway, mini-battle reports from my foggy memory. Interestingly enough, my 8 point bid proved enough all day and I had first player every game. My "run it down mid" playstyle meant every game was over in about 30-40 minutes!

Game1: Against an Ackbar gunline with 3 assault frigates, 2 flotillas, and Shara/Tycho. Dangerous Territory.

First match of the day. I hadn't ever played against a full on Ackbar list like this. Each one had ECMs, Intel Officer, and Gunnery Teams. Very hard to approach! I wrongfully assumed this would be a conga-line style fleet, and so I ended up getting juked on deployment when my opponent put his final frigate way off to the other side of the board. This forced me to turn inward but only against 2 of his ships, and meant that Demo really wouldn't get to be part of the battle at all. I did my best to salvage this by racing my whole fleet up to max speed on turn one and trying to pounce on the 2 frigates nearest me.

I flew the ISD down the middle and hard turned towards the center of the board, and made a kinda wall to its left with a raider and gozanti. This forced the 2 frigates in the middle to spend a lot of time in the ISD's front arc at close range. That said, those assault frigates are way tougher than I thought, especially with ECMs. I managed to crack one and take it out, but the other survived with 1hp and I just couldn't catch it! He burst through my flotilla/raider wall, so I lost both of those. I spent the rest of the game chasing his 1hp frigate with my ISD and being unable to finish it off. I picked up 3 objective tokens and he picked up 3 as well. Final score was a MoV of like 8 points to me for a 6-5 win to start things off. I really deployed badly here and my opponent really capitalized on it with his fleet decisions. I thought he'd do a conga line but instead he sped up to 3 and tried to dive through a hole in my fleet. Very effective!

Game2: Against Vader double ISD with 2 ISD2s and a handful of rogues: Jamming Barrier.

So I'd never played Jamming Barrier, but I have a little experience against double ISD lists. I was worried by the presence of double ISD2s with Vader, which I have learned can pop my raiders from long range. I wasn't sure how to approach it, but at the same time it was my 5 activations and first player versus his 2. This proved an insurmountable advantage for me. He deployed both ISDs in a corner at speed 1 with all the terrain making the middle of the board tricky to navigate. So I put my ISD matching across from them at speed 1, demo and gozanti at speed 1, and the raiders tried to flank through the asteroid field. He had I think Boba, IG88, Morna, and one other rogue I can't remember.

So I slow-rolled it forward, using my activation advantage to ensure I would get the first shots and not have to wander into medium range without running by him. His rogue ball moved to intercept my raiders. I let my ISD wander into range first, do some shooting and take the first few hits. And then the dream happened. A nice demolisher-sized hole between both ISDs opened up. So I managed a first/last triple tap on Vader's flagship and annihilated it in 2 activations. Demo is straight up dirty. I misjudged one of my raiders distance from his other ISD and so it got slapped out of the sky. The other died to rogue bombers before I could get my flechettes off. My ISD cleaned up the remaining ISD, (the difference between a fully upgraded ISD2 and a minimally upgraded one is staggering) and I tabled him on turn 4 or 5, but unfortunately I had lost both my raiders. I got a 9-2 for this one, which I was still happy with.

Game3: Against a Madine Liberty/Mc30 list with 2 flotillas and a handful of squads (Shara, VCX, Xwings and Ewings). Planetary Ion Cannon. Versus @Formynder4

This game was wild. It was sooo close to going my way but I made 2 crucial mistakes that cost me the game. And I knew better both times too and should have avoided 'em. My opponent bopped me for each one. So I know how maneuverable Madine ships are and I deploy my standard setup. ISD slightly off center, ready to swing hard towards whichever side has the most ships. Flechette raider flanking it on one side, External racks raider on the other. Demo hanging around the left side where he deployed his ships at speed 1, ready to dissuade any attempts to Madine around my side. Flotilla just cowarded it up and passed out tokens.

Anyway he flies his big ships straight at me. I fly my ships straight at him. I've got a nice wall set up where I don't think his Liberty can evade me. I tank all the damage on the ISD's nose and start spamming repair commands. My activation advantage is really paying off here, allowing Demo to go last every turn, perfectly ready to intercept his MC30 and preventing it from closing too quickly. Big mistake #1: My blocking raider should have dropped down to speed 1 or even 0. I have an aversion to going speed 1 on raiders for some reason, and I really really needed to. As a result, I ended up slightly within medium range of the Liberty instead of long range. This ended up being big.

I send Demo in for a triple on the Liberty. I get astoundingly lucky on the first hit, getting an APT crit which knocks 4 shields off his front arc. BUT then I could not finish it off! Another 2 volleys from demolisher leaves it at 1hp and I just barely cannot ram to finish it because the MC30 is in the way. My opponent smartly identified the most important targets, and shoots my raider and ISD instead of Demo. The raider being in medium range means it gets annihilated, leaving a gap in my wall. He repairs 2 hull, Madines and dodges my ISD's front arc, landing where the raider was, and landing on the station. Then he engine-techs and lands on the station again, going from 1hp to 5! Ahhh!

Then my other major mistake comes up. I had dropped my ISD to speed 1 earlier to force him to approach me and my wall. And I started using the comms net gozanti to squadron command my TIEs and hand out REPAIR tokens to the ISD instead of a nav token. This meant I couldn't get out of the MC30 side arc, and my ISD went down because I didn't have a token to Ozzel up to speed 3! Once the ISD was down I knew I couldn't fight his big ships, so I hunted squadrons to try to get more points. I managed to kill both tricked out flotillas and a good number of expensive rebel squadrons. I ran away from his ships with the remnants of my fleet as quick as I could. Lost my ISD and a raider. Ended up being a 4-7 loss.

VIPs of this match were my TIEs who killed Shara without dying. Heroes of the Empire they are!

Game4: Against a Madine double Liberty + MC30 list, Most Wanted:

So this was a double liberty list led by Madine. Both liberties were souped up and the MC30 had the standard landomonition loadout. Since he didn't have any flotillas, I picked Most Wanted because really how much difference will 1 extra die make from 2 ships against my ISD? He chose my ISD and the mc30 as objective ships.

I gotta say this game is where it all kinda "clicked" for me. I understood my timings, dropped to speed 1 or 0 when needed, and avoided the same mistakes I'd been making earlier in the tournament. Basically everything came together and I felt I had really gotten my fleet mechanics down. I was really worried by game 4 I'd be potato-brained, but I actually ended up feeling really in the zone.

Again, activation advantage was crucial here. 5 versus 3 with first player really let me control the battle. I deployed my whole fleet in my standard position. ISD matching his biggest threats, raiders flanking it, gozanti for support, and demo across from the mc30 to prevent him from making his attack run. I dropped everything at max speed. Turn 1 I Ozzel down to speed 1 or 2 with all my ships, forcing him to fly towards me. He deployed both liberties on the right side ready to hard flank, but my ISD dropping to 1 and hard turning to face them forced them to wander towards the middle. Demo at speed 1 meant his mc30 couldn't fly up without eating a last/first tap. Gozanti dropped to 0 to avoid roaming into the murder zone.

Turn 2 I jumped demo forward to prevent the mc30 from doing much, and started trading blows from long range. Again with activation advantage I managed to start plinking shields off both liberties and spamming repair commands with my ISD. Turn 3 I changed my focus to the mc30, and my ISD put a world of hurt on it and continued to batter the closest liberty. Demo positioned to say "if you try to flank at all you get demo'd". ISD took all the Liberty fire on the chin like a champ, and I ran the external racks raider up to the closest liberty for a bombing run. I blew everything and dealt some really solid damage. The MC30 was forced into an awkward position. The damaged liberty got one big shot off on my ISD and ambled into close range, ramming my blocker flotilla. ISD deleted the mc30 and put damage on the other liberty and then hard turned and landed directly infront of it, hard blocking it from flying past. Demo finished off the closest liberty. My whole fleet blew up the 2nd liberty on turn 5. 10-1 to me!

So I took 5th! I had a great time. Got some fancy tokens and dice. I really think I got lucky not facing any heavy bomber or Sloane lists.

Takeaways:

• Demolisher is hilariously strong. Maybe OP?
• My squad defense was perfectly adequate for the fleets I played against. This might not have been the case against Sloane or Heavy bombers
• Flechettes are situationally amazing, but very hard to use against rogues.
• Ozzel continues to be the man.
• I need to not be afraid to drop the raiders to speed 1 or 0. They need to use the shadow of the ISD for cover.
• I wish I had engine techs on demo
• I need more experience with the squad game. There were several occasions where I used my TIEs to engage some bombers, and then landed a ship on top of them splitting them up.

All in all it was a ton of fun. Great crowd, nice store, very fun games. I know @emsgoof, @Formynder4, and @Truthinesswere there, and I'm sure others from the forums were as well. I'm really bad matching names to faces and forum names so I'm sorry if I didn't recognize everyone I'd met before.

Absolutely worth the drive!

5th, and by all accounts that 3rd game should have been a much higher score for you. Congrats, keep it up.

Congrats!! Very interesting matches!

Congrats! It was fun seeing the development of your fleet and getting feedback on how it performed for you at various stages

7 hours ago, duck_bird said:

Phew, I took 5th! I'm pretty delighted with that.

Now all that said, I didn't face any heavy bomber or Sloane fleets, so I very luckily dodged what is probably my worst match up. Anyway the whole tournament was a blast. I think 36 people showed up. Nice store to boot. LONG day though, eesh. I think I got home at 1am after getting out of the store by 11:30. Oh well, worth it for a full day of spaceboats!

Anyway, mini-battle reports from my foggy memory. Interestingly enough, my 8 point bid proved enough all day and I had first player every game. My "run it down mid" playstyle meant every game was over in about 30-40 minutes!

Game1: Against an Ackbar gunline with 3 assault frigates, 2 flotillas, and Shara/Tycho. Dangerous Territory.

First match of the day. I hadn't ever played against a full on Ackbar list like this. Each one had ECMs, Intel Officer, and Gunnery Teams. Very hard to approach! I wrongfully assumed this would be a conga-line style fleet, and so I ended up getting juked on deployment when my opponent put his final frigate way off to the other side of the board. This forced me to turn inward but only against 2 of his ships, and meant that Demo really wouldn't get to be part of the battle at all. I did my best to salvage this by racing my whole fleet up to max speed on turn one and trying to pounce on the 2 frigates nearest me.

I flew the ISD down the middle and hard turned towards the center of the board, and made a kinda wall to its left with a raider and gozanti. This forced the 2 frigates in the middle to spend a lot of time in the ISD's front arc at close range. That said, those assault frigates are way tougher than I thought, especially with ECMs. I managed to crack one and take it out, but the other survived with 1hp and I just couldn't catch it! He burst through my flotilla/raider wall, so I lost both of those. I spent the rest of the game chasing his 1hp frigate with my ISD and being unable to finish it off. I picked up 3 objective tokens and he picked up 3 as well. Final score was a MoV of like 8 points to me for a 6-5 win to start things off. I really deployed badly here and my opponent really capitalized on it with his fleet decisions. I thought he'd do a conga line but instead he sped up to 3 and tried to dive through a hole in my fleet. Very effective!

Game2: Against Vader double ISD with 2 ISD2s and a handful of rogues: Jamming Barrier.

So I'd never played Jamming Barrier, but I have a little experience against double ISD lists. I was worried by the presence of double ISD2s with Vader, which I have learned can pop my raiders from long range. I wasn't sure how to approach it, but at the same time it was my 5 activations and first player versus his 2. This proved an insurmountable advantage for me. He deployed both ISDs in a corner at speed 1 with all the terrain making the middle of the board tricky to navigate. So I put my ISD matching across from them at speed 1, demo and gozanti at speed 1, and the raiders tried to flank through the asteroid field. He had I think Boba, IG88, Morna, and one other rogue I can't remember.

So I slow-rolled it forward, using my activation advantage to ensure I would get the first shots and not have to wander into medium range without running by him. His rogue ball moved to intercept my raiders. I let my ISD wander into range first, do some shooting and take the first few hits. And then the dream happened. A nice demolisher-sized hole between both ISDs opened up. So I managed a first/last triple tap on Vader's flagship and annihilated it in 2 activations. Demo is straight up dirty. I misjudged one of my raiders distance from his other ISD and so it got slapped out of the sky. The other died to rogue bombers before I could get my flechettes off. My ISD cleaned up the remaining ISD, (the difference between a fully upgraded ISD2 and a minimally upgraded one is staggering) and I tabled him on turn 4 or 5, but unfortunately I had lost both my raiders. I got a 9-2 for this one, which I was still happy with.

Game3: Against a Madine Liberty/Mc30 list with 2 flotillas and a handful of squads (Shara, VCX, Xwings and Ewings). Planetary Ion Cannon. Versus @Formynder4

This game was wild. It was sooo close to going my way but I made 2 crucial mistakes that cost me the game. And I knew better both times too and should have avoided 'em. My opponent bopped me for each one. So I know how maneuverable Madine ships are and I deploy my standard setup. ISD slightly off center, ready to swing hard towards whichever side has the most ships. Flechette raider flanking it on one side, External racks raider on the other. Demo hanging around the left side where he deployed his ships at speed 1, ready to dissuade any attempts to Madine around my side. Flotilla just cowarded it up and passed out tokens.

Anyway he flies his big ships straight at me. I fly my ships straight at him. I've got a nice wall set up where I don't think his Liberty can evade me. I tank all the damage on the ISD's nose and start spamming repair commands. My activation advantage is really paying off here, allowing Demo to go last every turn, perfectly ready to intercept his MC30 and preventing it from closing too quickly. Big mistake #1: My blocking raider should have dropped down to speed 1 or even 0. I have an aversion to going speed 1 on raiders for some reason, and I really really needed to. As a result, I ended up slightly within medium range of the Liberty instead of long range. This ended up being big.

I send Demo in for a triple on the Liberty. I get astoundingly lucky on the first hit, getting an APT crit which knocks 4 shields off his front arc. BUT then I could not finish it off! Another 2 volleys from demolisher leaves it at 1hp and I just barely cannot ram to finish it because the MC30 is in the way. My opponent smartly identified the most important targets, and shoots my raider and ISD instead of Demo. The raider being in medium range means it gets annihilated, leaving a gap in my wall. He repairs 2 hull, Madines and dodges my ISD's front arc, landing where the raider was, and landing on the station. Then he engine-techs and lands on the station again, going from 1hp to 5! Ahhh!

Then my other major mistake comes up. I had dropped my ISD to speed 1 earlier to force him to approach me and my wall. And I started using the comms net gozanti to squadron command my TIEs and hand out REPAIR tokens to the ISD instead of a nav token. This meant I couldn't get out of the MC30 side arc, and my ISD went down because I didn't have a token to Ozzel up to speed 3! Once the ISD was down I knew I couldn't fight his big ships, so I hunted squadrons to try to get more points. I managed to kill both tricked out flotillas and a good number of expensive rebel squadrons. I ran away from his ships with the remnants of my fleet as quick as I could. Lost my ISD and a raider. Ended up being a 4-7 loss.

VIPs of this match were my TIEs who killed Shara without dying. Heroes of the Empire they are!

Game4: Against a Madine double Liberty + MC30 list, Most Wanted:

So this was a double liberty list led by Madine. Both liberties were souped up and the MC30 had the standard landomonition loadout. Since he didn't have any flotillas, I picked Most Wanted because really how much difference will 1 extra die make from 2 ships against my ISD? He chose my ISD and the mc30 as objective ships.

I gotta say this game is where it all kinda "clicked" for me. I understood my timings, dropped to speed 1 or 0 when needed, and avoided the same mistakes I'd been making earlier in the tournament. Basically everything came together and I felt I had really gotten my fleet mechanics down. I was really worried by game 4 I'd be potato-brained, but I actually ended up feeling really in the zone.

Again, activation advantage was crucial here. 5 versus 3 with first player really let me control the battle. I deployed my whole fleet in my standard position. ISD matching his biggest threats, raiders flanking it, gozanti for support, and demo across from the mc30 to prevent him from making his attack run. I dropped everything at max speed. Turn 1 I Ozzel down to speed 1 or 2 with all my ships, forcing him to fly towards me. He deployed both liberties on the right side ready to hard flank, but my ISD dropping to 1 and hard turning to face them forced them to wander towards the middle. Demo at speed 1 meant his mc30 couldn't fly up without eating a last/first tap. Gozanti dropped to 0 to avoid roaming into the murder zone.

Turn 2 I jumped demo forward to prevent the mc30 from doing much, and started trading blows from long range. Again with activation advantage I managed to start plinking shields off both liberties and spamming repair commands with my ISD. Turn 3 I changed my focus to the mc30, and my ISD put a world of hurt on it and continued to batter the closest liberty. Demo positioned to say "if you try to flank at all you get demo'd". ISD took all the Liberty fire on the chin like a champ, and I ran the external racks raider up to the closest liberty for a bombing run. I blew everything and dealt some really solid damage. The MC30 was forced into an awkward position. The damaged liberty got one big shot off on my ISD and ambled into close range, ramming my blocker flotilla. ISD deleted the mc30 and put damage on the other liberty and then hard turned and landed directly infront of it, hard blocking it from flying past. Demo finished off the closest liberty. My whole fleet blew up the 2nd liberty on turn 5. 10-1 to me!

So I took 5th! I had a great time. Got some fancy tokens and dice. I really think I got lucky not facing any heavy bomber or Sloane lists.

Takeaways:

• Demolisher is hilariously strong. Maybe OP?
• My squad defense was perfectly adequate for the fleets I played against. This might not have been the case against Sloane or Heavy bombers
• Flechettes are situationally amazing, but very hard to use against rogues.
• Ozzel continues to be the man.
• I need to not be afraid to drop the raiders to speed 1 or 0. They need to use the shadow of the ISD for cover.
• I wish I had engine techs on demo
• I need more experience with the squad game. There were several occasions where I used my TIEs to engage some bombers, and then landed a ship on top of them splitting them up.

All in all it was a ton of fun. Great crowd, nice store, very fun games. I know @emsgoof, @Formynder4, and @Truthinesswere there, and I'm sure others from the forums were as well. I'm really bad matching names to faces and forum names so I'm sorry if I didn't recognize everyone I'd met before.

Absolutely worth the drive!

The duckling has become a swan!

Well done!

6 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

5th, and by all accounts that 3rd game should have been a much higher score for you. Congrats, keep it up.

Ahhh, it coulda gone either way. I got very lucky with that crit.

But thanks! I had a lotta fun!