Today I played another member of Cochise Squadron at Orbital Games. My opponent has been meaning to test out some new ships and a different commander (he usually runs double Cymoons with Vader), so this week it was Admiral Motti and the Interdictor. He also ran a fairly large contingent of squads, which was probably due his tabling last week by my Y-Wing swarm. Here are the lists:
Commander: Admiral Motti
Assault: Station Assault
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Solar Corona
Interdictor Suppression Refit (90)
• Admiral Motti (24)
• Projection Experts (6)
• Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams (6)
• G-8 Experimental Projector (8)
• Targeting Scrambler (5)
• Interdictor (3)
= 142 Points
Victory II (85)
= 85 Points
Victory II (85)
= 85 Points
Squadrons:
• Darth Vader (21)
• Soontir Fel (18)
• TIE Advanced Squadron (12)
• Mauler Mithel (15)
• TIE Interceptor Squadron (11)
• TIE Fighter Squadron (8)
= 85 Points
Total Points: 397
While my opponent had Motti, he decided to drop Brunson last minute for a greater bid. He also did not have any Intel in his squads, so Mauler had nothing to help him hop around to splash. The Projection Experts also didn't particularly help because I never shot at his Victories until his flagship was destroyed.
Commander: Grand Admiral Thrawn
Assault: Station Assault
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Superior Positions
Interdictor Suppression Refit (90)
• Captain Brunson (5)
• Projection Experts (6)
• Disposable Capacitors (3)
• Grav Shift Reroute (2)
• Targeting Scrambler (5)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
• Interdictor (3)
= 119 Points
Victory II (85)
• Grand Admiral Thrawn (32)
• Minister Tua (2)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Expanded Hangar Bay (5)
• Quad Battery Turrets (5)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
= 147 Points
Squadrons:
• Morna Kee (27)
• Bossk (23)
• Darth Vader (21)
• IG-88 (21)
• Maarek Stele (21)
• Colonel Jendon (20)
= 133 Points
Total Points: 399
I went with a non-standard Thrawn 2-ship, as I did not include Pryce. With the Grav Shift Reroute, I was aiming for second player and wanting to pull back the stations from my red and yellow objectives. The Interdictor is there to keep the Victory alive and the squads can punish someone who doesn't bring any squads. Unfortunately, going up against an Interdictor and Victories, I didn’t think I was going to get Quad Battery Turrets to trigger at all. Note: I have never seen each player both have a Victory, Interdictor, and Vader (TIE Advanced) in the same list before and I will probably never see it again.
My opponent had initiative and decided to be second player (which was very surprising for him) and, after much deliberation, I chose his Station Assault objective due to having Grav Shift Reroute.
During obstacle deployment, he placed the two stations near the corner of his deployment area. I then placed my Grav Shift Reroute token, which would be able to affect both stations and a debris field. We deployed across from one another, but without Gunnery Teams on his Victories and with obstructed front arcs, I liked my chances for survival. Unfortunately when I activated the Grav Shift Reroute token, I was unable to get the debris field in front of his flagship, but I did get both of the stations close enough to have them in red dice range at the start of Round 2 with both my ships. I chose three engineering dials as my Thrawn dials.
Round 1: We both moved forward at speed 1 with our capital ships. After doing some serious measuring, he made sure that I couldn't reach his squads with mine before he moved them. Unfortunately, he forgot that I was activating first next round (like I said, he usually wants to be first player), so his squads became well within range of me after my squadron moves (but he did avoid a first round alpha strike by my rogues).
Round 2: I turn over my first Thrawn dial, which turned out to be a real waste on Round 2, as I had not taken any shield damage yet. The Victory activated and my squads immediately pounced on his, killing Mauler and another TIE Fighter. My flagship took a long range shot at both stations, ending up in medium range after movement. He activated his flagship and peppered my squads with some flak. I then activated my Interdictor, and with the help of Disposable Capacitors and SW-7s, brought his right station (top in the picture) down to four hull. His Victories both take obstruct and fairly inaccurate long range shots at my flagship (no reroll ability) and continue to slow roll forward. Bossk hops into the fray and seriously damages his other TIE Advanced.
Round 3: This round was brutal for my opponent. After turning over my Thrawn dial, I activated the Interdictor first with a Repair command, projecting two shields over to the Victory while healing itself back to full health. Getting four damage out of the front destroyed the right station, earning me a victory token. The Interdictor rolled forward again, attacking my squads along the way (one of those being Bossk, who was know sitting on six hull). My Victory activated four more squadrons, finishing his generic TIE Advanced and generic TIE Interceptor, and with Bossk, giving Soontir the really bad choices of not countering (so as not to trigger Bossk's ability) and discarding his scatter (after Jendon led to Bossk attacking twice). I also brought the station down to six hull. The Victories roll forward and attack my flagship at medium range, with mixed results, but my side shields begin to slowly dwindle away.
Round 4: I decided to not turn over my Thrawn dial this round, which in hindsight was the wrong answer, but I was saved by some luck later (I know, there's no such thing as that). Activating my Interdictor first, I sent some shields over to the Victory and then sent an obstructed shot at the remaining station. Miscounting, I brought it down to one hull. I sent my front arc directly into my opponent's flagship. Forgetting that I had SW-7s, my blue dice rerolls due to Targeting Scramblers did nothing (and I rerolled my double into another double). His flagship turns in towards my flagship, but unknowingly gets into a double arc with both my Interdictor and my flagship. My Victory activation led to Morna killing Vader, Boss killing Soontir, and then, with Jendon's help, Bossk landed the final damage card on the station. After getting pummeled again by the two Victories and ramming one of them, my flagship is hurting.
Round 5: I turn over my final Thrawn dial. Activating my flagship because I'm sure it is going to get destroyed soon, with my squadrons and a double arc, I am able to take down my opponent's flagship. Before he activates one of his ships, I asked him to remeasure the movement of his left (bottom) Victory the turn before. It turns out he was not even close to ramming my ship (which saves me a damage card). While it put him in a nice position to aim straight at my shield-less left hull, it would come back to bite him later. He activates his left (bottom) Victory and goes after the left hull zone. Although my Interdictor's double arc on the right (top) Victory, which forces him to toss his brace, it initially looks like even with my front shields looking good, a ram is going to put the last needed damage card on my Victory. Moving forward or one click to the left will ultimately ram me, but it will ram his ship as well. Given that his ship is closer to his other ship than mine after the maneuver is completed, his ships both take a damage card and mine lives to see the next round. At this point, my opponent knew that after losing his flagship and the two stations, he was not going to win, so he conceded. This is honestly a little frustrating for me, as even when I lose, I like to finish the game out to see how the game would be scored in a tournament. If I had to guess though, I would have taken out his right (top) Victory and he would have preceded to destroy my flagship. With the two victory tokens, this would have brought the score to 392-168 for a 9-2 win.
Thoughts: While I was very happy with my list and the game, my Thrawn dials were absolutely wasted on Repair dials. I thought that I would use them to outlast my opponent, but I ended up not using most of my repair points most of the time, especially given that I activated the Victory a few times without any shield damage. I was very happy with my squadrons and Bossk did far more than his share of the work. Also, I absolutely loved using Grav Shift Reroute. Just to see your opponent's plan disappear before their eyes was priceless. It was a fun game and I hope you enjoyed reading about it.
Edited by Admiral CalkinsDeleted excess space