POD#6 Preview

Since BiggsIRL and Co are busy with RL, I’ll do this for them.

POD#6 up next because… there are actual games left to play!

Click here to head to the home page for the tournament!

Here's the POD#6 Lists.

In Their Own My Words:

Tokra: Meet Mr. Gozanti himself. The guy that took Tarkin and (8?) Gozanti to German nationals and won, then did the same with 1+4 Sloane the year after. He clashed with Roquax in the final of the last Vassal tourney, where he drew the short straw. I learned a ton about squad play from this guy.

Ginkapo: Our resident Opinionated Brit. To truly know him is to love him. Always experimenting with corner cases like Sato (he’ll probably stop now that Sato has the MC75) and Konstantine. I learned a LOT of Armada from Gink back in the day, when his Ackbar Star Destroyers and soloing Tycho inspired me to really think about efficiency and activations.

Lord Preyer: He’s been on Vassal for a while, but I don’t know him too well. Our schedules don’t really mesh it seems. We’ve probably played at some point, but I can’t recall any specific games. As such he’s a relative unknown.

GhostofNobodyInParticular (GNIP): Also seen lurking around Vassal for a while. We have played, I think, but details elude me (don’t be offended, I’ve a terrible memory when it comes to names… and faces… and my keys… and mnay other things). Again a player I haven’t interacted all that much with.

Greenie Pie’s Analysis :

Tokra is the most experienced player of this POD. It’s just not the impressive wins he has, but the precision with which he manoeuvres his ships and operates his squads. Because of a technicality he now has a stronger bid than all players, except Lord Preyer. Gink is also very experienced, but his list will fail him. Lord Preyer and GNIP both have lists that can do pretty well with a skilled hand at the rudder. Unfortunately I don’t know then well enough to be sure what the outcome will be.

Tokra is running a variation of his classic ISD+4, with Sloane. He’s swapped the ISD-I, with its Exp Hangars and Boosted Comms, for a Cymmon. While I appreciate the longer reach of the Cymoon, he has no room for Boosted Comms (and only Jendon for Relay), no turbolaser tech or any source of rerolls. He’s gone with DCO, which is an odd choice, I think. If he had ECM in there, maybe, but not on its own like that. Also, seeing less crit effects ATM, and more Ext Racks. His Gozanti rock a pair of comms net and jamming fields (it’s a Tokra staple). For squads he’s dropped the generics, picked up Saber and Dengar (his lack of Intel hurt against Roquax in the final, as he had no way to punch through and flip GH tokens for his Avenger to abuse). The end result is what I call Green Squad – it’s the mix I won Nordics with. But a lot of the credit must go to Tokra, who I had many good discussions with while preparing for this tournament. He’s made an error in his list placing Pryce on a Gozanti, which was stricken by the TO. The end result is no Pryce, but a 9 point bid. 5 activation and 9 drops is solid. You’ll almost always get that ISD down in a good spot.

Ginkapo has conjured up something abominable from the depth of Tartaros. With, you guessed it, Konstantine for his admiral. It’s a 7 activation list, with only 1 point bid, and zero squads. One tricked out VSD2, 3 OE/ER Raider, 2 Slicers, and a Quasar. The Quasar is there purely for Konstantine, and the tractor beam it carries. This is not a strong list. Konstantine sucks to begin with. Lots of restrictions, low benefit (other than forcing ppl to nav spam). Taking multiple raiders in a no-squad build WITHOU any bid is just not good fleet building. The same can be said for seven activations. What’s the point if you can never last-first? And it doesn’t look like a fleet with really powerful objective choices either. I’m sure Gink will run it with great skill and precision, but it’s just horrible. Sorry Gink, but you’ve tried enough with Konstantine. It’s time to try something new.

Lord Preyer is running Thrawn, so a breath of fresh air there. It’s only 3 ships, a tricked out Chimaera ISD-2, with 2 Gozanti running support. He’s got a compact, 6 squad ball, rocking Dengar, Jendon, Strom, Maarek, Morna and Boba. Like I said, only 3 activations, and a mediocre 6 drops. He has a very strong bid, however, at 23 points. Looks like a slight TO errata there – could be one Goz was originally an Assault version? Anyway. Thrawn doesn’t seem all that good of an investment. The flotillas can nav and squad, but do they really need to? And the ISD is just 1 ship, so I’m thinking Thrawn is too many pts for the boost he gives. But maybe I’m wrong. Haven’t run the guy myself, and only played against him a few times.

GhostofNobodyInParticular is doing Donny 2+3. Nothing truly exceptional here, but he does have more speed 2 squads than normal. 2 Bees, Ten, and no less than 3 YT1300s. That’s one very inflexible squad ball, which I think is this list’s major weakness. The power of double-tapping Bees is not to be underestimated, however, so if he can get that in, he could do really well. Five activations, 9 drops, and a bid of 8. That’s a larger bid than you usually see in these lists, so he clearly wants to go first against squad heavy. A bit unfortunate for him that Tokra now, because of his list error, has a higher bid. And that Lord Preyer has a massive bid with his monster aces.

Greenie Pie’s Bet :

I’m going with Tokra in this pod. He’s a canny player that isn’t easily undone. He’s got the bid, the activations, and the squads to win that part of the game hands down. Despite his new ISD loadout it should be strong enough to wipe up what his squads can’t kill. For runner up I don’t really know, but I’ll go with my gut and say Lord Preyer. His ISd, bid any brutal squads should be able to deal with those slooow Bees. Prove me wrong, Ghost!

Winner: Tokra

Runnerup: Lord Preyer

This list is pure garbage, it NEEDS first player so badly.

Leverages Konstantine excellently mind. His effect really controls games, for zero benefit without firepower in the right place.

I was really hoping to get the commentary track done on one of these before I posted, but busy so by the time I get to it might be old news

This is a screen cap of a Pod 7 matchup, I'll update if/when I get @Admiral Theia (part of our local PDX posse) to join me for some quick VO work.

I also have the Karneck v JJ upset but @Karneck is farther away (extended Oregon posse, he drives in for our tourneys) so hoping for a Zencastr session or catch him at a local event soon to add some context. I forgot to show the dice window the first capture I did so re-doing that one anyway.

23 minutes ago, webv said:

I was really hoping to get the commentary track done on one of these before I posted, but busy so by the time I get to it might be old news

This is a screen cap of a Pod 7 matchup, I'll update if/when I get @Admiral Theia (part of our local PDX posse) to join me for some quick VO work.

I also have the Karneck v JJ upset but @Karneck is farther away (extended Oregon posse, he drives in for our tourneys) so hoping for a Zencastr session or catch him at a local event soon to add some context. I forgot to show the dice window the first capture I did so re-doing that one anyway.

This is awesome. I love being able to see the game happen so fast. Watching while they play is fun but it takes forever.

Thanks!

@webv What a brilliant idea! I'd love to hear the commentary.

6 hours ago, Green Knight said:

* watch out if he has both XI7 and QBT - that's a KILLER combo

And one to get you DQ'd

25 minutes ago, JJs Juggernaut said:

And one to get you DQ'd

You hear that @CaribbeanNinja ?

Dq!

Dq I tell you!

For those who weren't there, me and Ninja had a great game, very fun, in which he clawed a win out of the jaws of defeat - then drily noted he'd taken TWO turbo upgrades. It was just hilarious, as I've been experimenting with dual turbos and never questioned the legality.

Next time take gunnery teams too ?

2 hours ago, Green Knight said:

For runner up I don’t really know, but I’ll go with my gut and say Lord Preyer. His ISd, bid any brutal squads should be able to deal with those slooow Bees. Prove me wrong, Ghost!

We're playing in about 50 minutes, so you'll know soon enough. I can't but try, of course. I'm predicting a heavy defeat, since I only barely beat Gink (lucky dice rolls, for the most part). . .

36 minutes ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

We're playing in about 50 minutes, so you'll know soon enough. I can't but try, of course. I'm predicting a heavy defeat, since I only barely beat Gink (lucky dice rolls, for the most part). . .

I for one am betting on Ghost...

4 hours ago, Maturin said:

I think @Captain Weather and I have a game tonight. 9pm Pacific Standard maybe.

Can confirm. 9pm Wednesday Pacific Standard time. 4pm Thursday Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time if I’ve done my math right.

Also a good example of why I’m generally not on Vassal @Green Knight .

@Dupy and @themightyhedgehog are starting now!

@Dr alex vs me, will be on Tuesday at 9PM (UTC).

It is the battle of the Corvettes. Are 4 CR90B + 1 HH (his corvettes) or 4 HH + 1 CR90B (mine) better? Soon we wil know.

Oh, and it is the last match of POD5 and therefore the match about the runner up slot!

POD#5 Preview

Since BiggsIRL and Co are busy with RL, I’ll do this for them.

POD#5 up next because… gotta get it out there before the POD is done!

Click here to head to the home page for the tournament!

Here's the POD#5 Lists.

In Their Own My Words:

Darth Veggie: Veteran Armada and Vassal player. We’ve played a few. Great guy. Runs his own blog – in German. So my guess is… he’s German!

RealAdmiralsDoItInSpace (aka RearAdmirals): Been around vassal for quite a bit now. We’ve played a few. Pleasant fellow. UK, I think?

Aresius: Long time Armada player, Vassal veteran. The brainchild behind BC n flot spam – the list he’s running in the WC is one he’s perfected since the Liberty was first released. Italian.

Dr Alex: Another vassal vet. Very pleasant fellow. I think we played a game recently. I may have been “Felix” at that point. Brit.

Greenie Pie’s Analysis :

This is a strange POD. A 7-activation HH Rieekan list, 2 all-ship lists (but very different), plus Aresius and his signature BC n flot spam. It’s a rough POD to be sure, with only experienced players.

Darth Veggie is running a rare 7-activation list. Rieekan in pimped Admo, 4 TFO HHs, a CRAMBO and a naked flot. He managed to get 4 A-wings in there as well. 7 activations, 9 drops, and 8 pt bid is solid. Gotta say I really like the looks of this fleet. It has a lot going for it… and it just looks… GOOD. I did play a few vs. it, with my Sloane build, and Veggie actually came close one time. It is, however, a fleet that requires fine manoeuvring and timing, so there is plenty of room for human error.

RealAdmiralsDoItInSpace (aka RearAdmirals) is running an all-ship list, with Raddus riding Home One (title) and A BC waiting in hyperspace. Three flotillas, one of them QS, round out the list. 5 activations and drops, 4 if you take away the Raddus ship, means he’s not out deploying or out activating anyone. A bid of two points means 2nd player most of the time. With a dual big ship build like this, with Raddus, he probably feels he might as well go second, as he tanks might well. I’ve played against this list, and it can be pretty intimidating. It can, however, be defeated. You just have to accept that BC with HURT YOU when it deploys, and plan accordingly. That’s easier said than done, no?

Aresius is running his signature pimped BC and flot spam, with a decent squad screen. 6 activations and 10 drops means he’s able to put that BC down where it will hurt YOU the most. His bid is small, a mere 3 pts, but enough to get 1st some hvy squad lists. It’s also a list that’s plenty comfortable going second. It all revolves around the BC and its ability to A) pick off small fry in 1 activation and B) burn down a heavy ship with last/first. If you don’t understand the particular loadout of upgrades on the BC, you don’t grasp the power of drilling a hull zone and inflicting damage, preferably faceup, with setting up a double arc with LOTs of faceup damage, and rams for the finishing blow. Generally speaking only ECM Motti ISD can walk away with any regularity. Flotillas run around, commanding his sizeable squad force. I know that many ppl find it a very frustrating list to play against. But it CAN be beaten. You just need the right too and then you must practice to git gud. Also, whether you LIKE his list or not doesn’t take away any of its efficiency. Much kudos for being an early proponent of flotillas and relay. I think Aresius saw that potential much earlier than many, and also used with greater effect than most.

Dr Alex is also running his signature list. Ackbar super-pickle. This version is all-ship, 6 activations, 3 point bid. New is the inclusion of a Garel’s Honor HH. 4xCR90B, all naked, round out the list. It’s a very powerful list. The pickle is hard to take down, and hits HARD back – it’s the same build Ninja is using, but with Raymus, not Lando. The CR90Bs have a lot of firepower, both when double arcing and when doing Ackbar broadsides – the ability to switch around makes them super flexible in terms of position. A bit limited in range department tho. It’s a good list, but it has no reply to squads, and doesn’t play strategic. Combined with the low bid, that gives me reason to doubt the list a bit, as it’s less comfortable going second that is ideal.

Greenie Pie’s Bet :

At the time of writing, Aresius has already claimed the top spot. But I would have bet on him anyway. For runnerup I go with Darth Veggie and his pimped pickle. He only needs a 6-5 MoV 1 vs Dr Alex to claim second place. With his 7 activations and 1st player I think he can do that. Not entirely sure tho – he managed to mess up a bit vs Aresius, and Alex has more ship-based firepower than him. He doesn’t have to worry about squads.

Winner: Aresius (duh)

Runnerup: Darth Veggie

POD#4 Preview

Since BiggsIRL and Co are busy with RL, I’ll do this for them.

POD#4 up next because… it’s the last one!

Click here to head to the home page for the tournament!

Here's the POD#4 Lists.

In Their Own My Words:

Roquax: Long time player. He’s been on Vassal too for a long time, but we don’t play often, as out schedules don’t match. Very skilled. Not just with one list or faction, but with the full range.

BMcDonald: I don’t know too much about him, but when he joins us for tourneys he always display impressive skills.

Thrindal: Don’t know much about this guy, unfortunately. Seen him around for a while, but I don’t have a strong impression of his skill or playstyle.

comatose: Vassal veteran. Very skilled. And all around pleasant fellow.

Greenie Pie’s Analysis :

This is a rough pod to be in, no doubt. Thrindal is probably the least experienced player. The other three have a lot of experience. Cruel matchups there Biggs!

Roquax is running the same 2+4 Donny GHY list he had such success with in the last Vassal tourney – and IRL. It’s one of those lists that just goes ‘click’ when you see it. So beautiful. That 6th activation means so much for that all-important double tap. And the inclusion of Corran, coupled with Adar – and again that 6 ^th activation... brilliant. Dutch and Ten gives it just enough anti-squad power. VCXs allow relay for effective squadron control and relay-Yavaris taps. Ten, Bee and Luke a juuust enough heavy firepower to make that Yavaris tap oh so devastating. 6 activations, 10 drops, no bid. Did you notice I like this list?

BMcDonald is running ISD/Demo and flot spam. But it’s unusual in several regards. It has 6 activations, 9 drops, and a 1 pt bid. So it doesn’t bid for 1st. It also has Demo in anti-squad role; GSD2, Kallus, RS and ER. 6 squads in an unusual, but very creative loadout: Mithel (duh), then Valen + 2 Bombers, 1 Lambda and Gamma. That’s an effective meat shield, when coupled with Demo. I must say I find this a very intriguing anti-squad setup. And if he runs into no squads, then they pack quite a bit of anti-ship punch. Good list.

Thrindal is rocking a 4 activation dual ISD build, with a Goz and a flechette raider. 2 squints round of the list. 4 activations, 5 drops and 5 pt bid. It’s not a bad list by any means. No list with 2 ISDs in is bad. It even tries to have an answer to squads. I think, however, that having 2 ISD-Is (with the same loadout as GP) is problematic. Their range is too short; they cannot threaten large enough areas, and cannot effectively focus on the same targets.

Comatose has a Raddus list. Raddus is riding in Admonition, really pimped to the max. MC75 ordance waiting in hyper. ETTRC90 and 2 flots round out the list, with Tycho and Bae for squad cover. 5 (minus 1) activations and 6 (minus 1) drops. Decent 10 point bid. ET corvette and QS flotilla and BH flotilla all provide avenues from which the MC75 can drop. Even the Admo flagship can risk doing in hard and fast, doing a not-quite-last-but-first, followed by the MC75. Can be a pretty potent combo if comatose can pull it off.

Greenie Pie’s Bet :

At the time of writing, all players have completed 2 games, and the scores are fairly even, but with Roquax a bit ahead, and Thrindal a bit behind. For runnerup I’m betting BMCD, but that’s mostly bc I like his list a lot.

Winner: Roquax

Runnerup: BMcDonald

OK, so I did all the remaining pod previews.

I've already been proven wrong in some of my predictions, so don't let it affect your play

1 hour ago, Green Knight said:

Runnerup: Darth Veggie

Darn, why have you done that? I prefer to be the winning underdog than to be the losing top dog. Now, that I cannot be the first, I have to be the second, right? (and nobody screams "false dilemma")

49 minutes ago, Darth Veggie said:

Darn, why have you done that? I prefer to be the winning underdog than to be the losing top dog. Now, that I cannot be the first, I have to be the second, right? (and nobody screams "false dilemma")

Never tell me the odds.

1 hour ago, Green Knight said:

Never tell me the odds.

This is old, but it's still good information:
http://www.wwpd.net/2015/10/star-wars-armada-stats-101-expected.html

2 hours ago, Green Knight said:

Never tell me the odds.

42 minutes ago, rasproteus said:

This is old, but it's still good information:
http://www.wwpd.net/2015/10/star-wars-armada-stats-101-expected.html

DID YOU NOT HEAR THE MAN!?!?!?

Seriously though, I still have that page bookmarked for the probability. Great info.

5 minutes ago, moodswing5537 said:

DID YOU NOT HEAR THE MAN!?!?!?

Seriously though, I still have that page bookmarked for the probability. Great info.

Me too. Read it way back. Was very illuminating for my noob mind.

20 minutes ago, Green Knight said:

Me too. Read it way back. Was very illuminating for my noob mind.

But did you download a Monte Carlo simulator plugin for Excel and figure out the statistical probability for X damage on Y red dice using leading shots to reroll any blanks or accuracies after the first one?

Complete waste of my time, but enlightening on a certain level, I suppose.

1 minute ago, rasproteus said:

But did you download a Monte Carlo simulator plugin for Excel and figure out the statistical probability for X damage on Y red dice using leading shots to reroll any blanks or accuracies after the first one?

Complete waste of my time, but enlightening on a certain level, I suppose.

My brain is far superior to this 'Excel' you're referring to. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion...

Got a day off today, and slept at night instead of during the day! Finally my 52 hours of work over 5 days madness is at an end.

Let's look at the PODs:

POD#1 - Moodswing has an outside chance of sneaking in with a crushing win against Rikash. All Rikash needs to do is not lose 9-2 to make Runner Up.

POD#2 - Viktor and Tgall can still play one another for funsies, but the POD is settled. Congratulations to JJs and Karneck!

POD#3 - Lots of games left to play, everything is up in the air.

POD#4 - Roquax has the advantage, but nothing is settled with 1 game left to play for everyone.

POD#5 - Darth Veggie and Dr Alex are both alive, with a solid win for Darth Veggie making it in, and Dr Alex needing to not lose 7-4 or worse. RealAdmiral is sadly out of it no matter what the result.

POD#6 - Ghost takes the early lead, with 16 points, but Tokra only has one game played with 9. Still lots of games to play.

POD#7 - All games played but the games with thecactusman17. Captain Weather and Maturin looking strong.

POD#8 - The first POD to finish! Rasproteus slides in with a narrow loss against Irish, but Irish needed more than just a close win to overtake him.

21 hours ago, webv said:

I was really hoping to get the commentary track done on one of these before I posted, but busy so by the time I get to it might be old news

This is a screen cap of a Pod 7 matchup, I'll update if/when I get @Admiral Theia (part of our local PDX posse) to join me for some quick VO work.

I also have the Karneck v JJ upset but @Karneck is farther away (extended Oregon posse, he drives in for our tourneys) so hoping for a Zencastr session or catch him at a local event soon to add some context. I forgot to show the dice window the first capture I did so re-doing that one anyway.

Now my shame is on display for all the world to see :-(

52 minutes ago, Admiral Theia said:

Now my shame is on display for all the world to see :-(

No shame in losing to that crowd! Would love to get you to talk into my Macbook for a few minutes next time you host a local event and add a bit of commentary. Both local boy logfiles I recorded illustrate some good stuff to learn from, Karneck's game shows the scary potential of the MC75 and some clever deployment work, and yours shows importance of activation order and the back-and-forth drama of the squadron battle.