I had a few days off of work last week, and my friend just finished grad school, so I asked him if he wanted to play some Armada. This was apparently my friend's first time playing in about a year, which means it's been over a year since I've played Rebels, since the last time I played Rebels was against this same friend. I just bought the Pelta and I've never played with it before, so I wanted to try it out. My friend brought Ackbar on a TRCR90, another TRCR90, a GR-75 Combat Retrofit, a GR-75 Medium transport with Toryn Farr, and a Defiance with ECM, QLT, SAd, ET and maybe more. His squads were Tycho, Shara and 2 VCXs. Here's my list.

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 399/400

Commander: General Dodonna

Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)
= 26 total ship cost

Modified Pelta-class Command Ship (60 points)
- Flight Commander ( 3 points)
- Fighter Coordination Team ( 3 points)
- All Fighters, Follow Me! ( 5 points)
= 71 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
- Bright Hope ( 2 points)
- Toryn Farr ( 7 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
= 29 total ship cost

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
- Yavaris ( 5 points)
- Flight Commander ( 3 points)
- Medical Team ( 1 points)
= 66 total ship cost

[ flagship ] CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- General Dodonna ( 20 points)
- Jainas Light ( 2 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
= 73 total ship cost

1 Gold Squadron ( 12 points) (Couldn't find Gold's model; replaced by Norra's model)
1 Jan Ors ( 19 points)
1 Wedge Antilles ( 19 points)
1 Luke Skywalker ( 20 points)
2 Y-Wing Squadrons ( 20 points)
1 Dutch Vander ( 16 points)
1 Hera Syndulla ( 28 points) (Couldn't find Hera's model; replaced by Han Solo's model)
= 134 total squadron cost

My friend was at 395 points, and actually chose second player (a very unusual choice for him), despite having First/Last opportunity. He really didn't want to face my fighter objectives. His objectives were Advanced Gunnery, Capture the VIP, and Intel Sweep. After thinking about them, I decided to go with Advanced Gunnery, to my friend's surprise. I wanted to go after his MC80 with my fighters anyway, and if I took it down it would increase my point score. I was also concerned that with his VCXs and a flotilla, he could get the token(s) from Capture the VIP or Intel Sweep and run away.

Deployment:

The bases without ships are flotillas. Something very significant happened during deployment. I put down a flotilla, he put down a CR90, I put down fighters, he put down a CR90, I put down more fighters...anyway, I started to think, what if I take aim at his MC80, he double-flaks my fighters, hits each one with a QLT counter, uses his own squads...all of these with his Toryn Farr rerolls? I got scared at the thought of my fighters evaporating before the MC80 went down, and decided to go after the CR90s instead, and keep my important ships out of Defiance's red range.

I am hoping to hit his CR90 in the back with my own CR90.

I didn't maneuver well enough to get in the rear of his CR90. Also I totally forgot about Ackbar on his CR90s, even though my friend has played a similar list against me several times...it was over a year ago. I was already committed to NOT taking down his MC80, so why are Jan and Gold there? Distraction, I think. It didn't do much.

My Dodonna CR90 got killed before Dodonna could do anything. Why, oh why didn't I deploy him on the opposite side of the board? I killed his non-Ackbar CR90, but not a good trade for me. We wind up pitting squadrons against each other. I have superior squads, but I didn't bring bombers just for this. Also, I forgot a lot of flak shots in this game. =(

I must have missed a round somewhere. Yavaris died to his CR90 and Defiance--when I first deployed, I incorrectly believed Yavaris wouldn't be able to get hit in the side by Defiance. I killed all 4 of his squads, but I think he killed more of mine. He won with an 8-3 victory.

Well, this was an embarrassing game. I out-deployed my opponent, and meant to surprise my opponent by going after his CR90s--it was a surprise, but a pleasant surprise that was in his favor. My slow ships, and even my squads, couldn't catch up with Ackbar. Also, my squads got flakked anyway by his CR90s and flotilla. It was just the wrong decision to begin with; I should've taken Capture the VIP, accept the fact that I might lose out on those 50 points, and gone after his MC80 without fear.

I feel like whenever I face my friend's MC80, it flies in a way that I don't expect. Maybe I should try flying one sometime just to figure out how they really work. The problem is, I've grown to hate the ship so much...

Edited June 20, 2019 by Bertie Wooster