Today I played a member of Tucson Fleet at Tucson Games and Gadgets in... you guessed it... Tucson. He is still a newer player, so I used Garm Belk Iblis, a commander that I have never used before. He also wanted to expand his knowledge of Rebel ships, so he borrowed one of my MC30s. We are having our summer tournament in July, so he is trying to test out as many Rebel ships as possible so he can bring a quality fleet that he has practiced with to the event.
Commander: General Dodonna
Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)
• General Dodonna (20)
• Weapons Liaison (3)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Expanded Hangar Bay (5)
• Enhanced Armament (10)
• Gallant Haven (8)
= 125 Points
CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Spinal Armament (9)
• Jaina's Light (2)
= 55 Points
CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Enhanced Armament (10)
= 54 Points
MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• Lando Calrissian (4)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• Admonition (8)
= 84 Points
Squadrons:
• Luke Skywalker (20)
• Wedge Antilles (19)
• 3 x X-wing Squadron (39)
= 78 Points
Total Points: 396
----------
Commander: Garm Bel Iblis
Assault: Precision Strike
Defense: Fighter Ambush
Navigation: Superior Positions
Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)
• Garm Bel Iblis (25)
• Lando Calrissian (4)
• Flight Controllers (6)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
= 114 Points
Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)
• Toryn Farr (7)
• Flight Controllers (6)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
= 92 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Ahsoka Tano (2)
• Bomber Command Center (8)
• Bright Hope (2)
= 30 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Slicer Tools (7)
• Quantum Storm (1)
= 26 Points
Squadrons:
• 10 x X-wing Squadron (130)
= 130 Points
Total Points: 392
The whole goal of my list is to win the squadron fight quickly so that I can get to bombing my opponent's capital ships. My objectives work well to accomplish this while getting victory tokens. If I don't win the squadron fight (or quickly), my ships likely do not have enough firepower to take down large ships.
I had initiative and chose to be second player. He chose my Superior Positions to be the objective.
Deployment: After placing the obstacles, he deployed his ships on the right side of the board (from my perspective), using the obstacles to cover his initial attack run. He placed his squadrons directly in front of his flagship. I placed Quantum Storm on the left side of the board to eventually slice his flagship, with my other ships on the far right side to pass alongside his CR90s. My squadrons were placed on the left side of my fleet to be able to push out at either his squadrons or the first capital ship that came into range.
Round 1: Garm gives out his tokens, everything except a Repair to both the Assault Frigates and a squadron token to both transports. He moves his ships ahead slowly at speed 2. With my ships going at speed 3, it already looks as though his flagship (and maybe even the MC30) are going to be out of the capital ship fight. Quantum Storm remains right out of long range of his flagship and range of the X-Wings, ready to jump in next turn. After he moves Jaina's Light (right), I move my non-flagship Assault Frigate up to get it in a double arc for the next turn. My squadrons get in position to pounce on Jaina's Light when it moves forward.
Round 2: My opponent starts by activating Jaina's Light, trying to get it out of the aforementioned double arc. Unfortunately, this got it far too close to my squadron ball and other ships. I activated Quantum Storm and hid behind the asteroid while I sliced his flagship to Repair (other than the squadron command he had lined up). He shot back with his flagship, but my ship scattered. My other Assault Frigate activates and four X-Wings attack it's rear hull zone, gaining four victory tokens. The side shot from the Assault Frigate finishes it. The MC30 continues at speed 2 and the other CR90 jumps up to speed 3, but gets in range of my squadrons and my flagship. One of his squadrons moves to lock down mine near his CR90 and Luke and Wedge get into position to attack my other Assault Frigate after it moves. During this round, Ashoka starts using her ability to change a token to a squadron command each round on the Assault Frigates (after they uses theirs).
Round 3: He begins the round by activating his CR90, using its attacks to flak my nearby squadrons. I then activated Quantum Storm, slicing his flagship once again. He responded by using Weapons Liaison and regaining a Squadron command, which he used to take one shield off my right side (I scattered his rear attack). Activating Bright Hope, I sent squadrons at his CR90's rear hull zone for more victory tokens. MC30 uses flak to try and thin the squadron ball, to no avail. Activating my non-flagship Assault Frigate, I fling four squadrons into Wedge and Luke, killing Wedge before he can use his unique ability. Because my ship overlaps all my squadrons near Luke (moved to my rear hull zone), he gets a shot at me, which does a crit and a damage directly to my hull (ouch!). My flagship activates, flinging more squadrons at the CR90 for more victory points, finishing it off. Bomber Command Center is really coming in handy.
Round 4: No capital ship on capital ship attacks this round. My squadrons finish off Luke and another X-Wing (but not before it can take out one of mine) while racking up some victory tokens on his MC30, which flaks them back for it. Bright Hope takes a shield and a hull damage for landing on a debris field.
Round 5: Garm gives out the same tokens he did in Round 1. His flagship takes a long range shot at my other Assault Frigate, but rolls mostly blanks. With the MC30 speeding away, I focus what squadrons I can reach on his flagship (for victory points, as there is no way I can take it down in two rounds). Quantum Storm and my other squadrons get ready to jump on the MC30 next turn. Bright Hope and its Bomber Command Center get in position for the last round. His remaining X-Wing puts one damage on the rear hull zone of my other Assault Frigate, gaining him a victory token.
Round 6: After an unsuccessful flak attack, he moves his MC30 right into range of my squadron ball. I launch what squadrons I can at the rear hull zone of his Assault Frigate, getting some more victory tokens. Same with my Flagship against the MC30, but three of my X-Wings rolled blanks.
Thoughts: The final score was 324-28 (ten victory tokens), which comes out to a 9-2. This game came down to it being a really bad objective for my opponent. It was obvious that I was going to be able to win the squadron fight, but Fighter Ambush would have been a much better objective for him. First, it wouldn't have forced him to deploy all of his fleet first, which means he might have been able to get his flagship and MC30 into the fight. Second, if I overextended my squadrons on deployment, he could have conducted an alpha strike on me for two activations of his flagship before I could have responded, which might have made Flight Controllers useless. Lastly, he should have gone speed 3 with his flagship and speed 3 or 4 with his MC30, as the never even got close to really being in the fight. It was a fun game though, and while he lost, my opponent is getting much better and anticipating what commands he is going to need and getting much better at maneuvering in traffic. And maybe this game was an anomaly, but Garm was much better than I expected. He allowed me to boost my squadron activations which all four of my ships (during at least one point in the game for each ship), conduct multiple commands (tokens) when needed, and Ashoka let me change one in range to a squadron command token each round, which was really helpful. Hope you enjoyed the BATREP!