My opponent and I played our regular Saturday game at Orbital Games with him attempting to fly Rebels for the first time. I was originally planning to use the Cracken CR90B swarm against him last week, but he had to cancel, so I used it against another opponent. I told him in advance that I would be using it again simply because I knew that I would be helping him all week refine his Raddus list and didn't want to list-build having a general or specific idea what my opponent was going to be running. This was not a fun game (not for the reason you might suspect) and I got a little tilted for the first time playing Armada. Here are the lists.

Commander: General Cracken

Assault: Opening Salvo
Defense: Jamming Barrier
Navigation: Solar Corona

CR90 Corvette B (39)
• General Cracken (26)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
• Jaina's Light (2)
= 72 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
= 44 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
= 44 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
= 44 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
= 44 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
= 44 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
= 44 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Slicer Tools (7)
• Bright Hope (2)
= 27 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Slicer Tools (7)
• Quantum Storm (1)
= 26 Points

Squadrons:
= 0 Points

Total Points: 389

Same list as last week, which I had a lot of fun flying, but I switched out Fleet Ambush for Jamming Barrier (Thanks @Bertie Wooster !).

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Commander: Admiral Raddus

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Solar Corona

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• Admiral Raddus (26)
• Lando Calrissian (4)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Concussion Missiles (7)
• XI7 Turbolasers (6)
• Admonition (8)
= 118 Points

MC75 Armored Cruiser (104)
• Boarding Troopers (3)
• External Racks (3)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Profundity (7)
= 121 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Concussion Missiles (7)
• XI7 Turbolasers (6)
• Foresight (8)
= 88 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)
• Hondo Ohnaka (2)
• Overload Pulse (8)
= 49 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Quantum Storm (1)
= 19 Points

Squadrons:
= 0 Points

Total Points: 395

So my opponent picked the ships and most of the upgrades, then asked how it looked. I recommended some changes and there ( Admonition for his flagship instead of Foresight , adding Lando, needing a reroll upgrade on Profundity , etc.) and this is what he brought to the table. We had a week to discuss how the Raddus and Profundity drops worked, including the inability to have Raddus on the ship dropping in (caught that one really early). The CR90B was going to be the ship to drop out of Profundity . As much as I told him the Overload Pulse trick wasn't going to work (I was right), he wanted to try it anyways.

I had initiative and chose to be second player. He chose my Jamming Barrier as the objective.

Deployment: I deployed the CR90B gunline so that his flagship would run right into it. Either he would have to drop in Round 2 or, being in the center, I would attack/ram his flagship to death. Also had GR-75s on the flanks to slice his ships (especially with his MC30s starting out at speed 4). Jamming Barrier goes down on my right side between his GR-75 and likely drop points.

Round 1: MC30s speed forward and I stay behind the dust clouds or out of close range. The Gunline moves forward, most at speed 2, preparing for either a center drop or a massive salvo against his flagship. My opponent's Quantum Storm gets a little bit into my flank.

Round 2: My opponent brought in his Raddus and Profundity ships this round (above are the before-drop and after-drop pictures). The only surprise was the positioning of the drop ship, which essentially could only make one activation's worth of attacks before being out of the game (less so with his CR90B, but similar positioning). He came just within the Jamming Barrier, which I should place closer to the center of the board by range 1-2 (lesson learned). He started the round by activating his CR90B, putting my flagship down to three hull. I was unable to get my flagship in a good spot (straight would have been in close range of Admonition and turning to the right would have been in close range of Profundity and Admonition . I chose the latter, hoping that he would want a quick kill with Profundity , saving my other CR90B that was in its range. It worked. While he destroyed my already damaged flagship, scatter saved Bright Hope from a massive pool of dice (he hates GR-75s with a passion for some reason and I use them to focus his efforts away from my more valuable ships... it works more often than you'd think). Before he moved his MC75, he tells me, "Killed a ship. Now I am running away." I thought he was kidding at first, but was quick to tell him that a 6-5 win (it was actually a 7-4 at the time, but he flew his CR90B off the board without my interference, which brought it back to a 6-5) is great for a cut game, but not something you should be shooting for in Swiss (we are prepping for a local tournament in July and now for the Grand Championship in January). He told me he was just going for the W. And he proceeded to run away. Profundity goes to the corner (after initially ramming my GR-75), as did his CR90B and GR-75, and his MC30s started heading to the other side of the board without engaging.

This was the point where I started to get upset because I had two options: Chase my opponent's already speed 4 ships and try to get a game of out it or drop down to speed 3, then 2, and never engage the rest of the game, effectively settling for a 5-6 loss. I chose the former, because I actually wanted to play Armada.

Round 3: Chased his MC30s. Lost a CR90B and a GR-75.

Round 4: Chased his MC30s. Lost a CR90B.

Round 5: Chased his MC30s. Lost a CR90B. He flew his CR90B off the board.

Round 6: Chased his MC30s. He flew his flagship off the board (Slicer Tools for the win!). Game ended with a 4-7 loss for me.

Thoughts: I lost. It happens (and you generally learn more from it than a win). But it was the ways that I lost that made me upset. First, like most people that play only on the weekends, I waited all week to play this game. And it came down to "Raddus drop, kill one ship, run" which was not fun at all. Great strategy for a game that you just need a W, but not fun for a casual game or necessarily a good strategy for swiss. At least if you are going to drop, do it so your ship is going to remain engaged (the interesting thing is that if he would have dropped towards my nearest CR90Bs, he likely would have killed them both and been able to take out the GR-75 in the next round, which would have been a brilliant drop). Second, being a casual game, I played this like a swiss game and my opponent played it like cut game. This is what really irked me (along with him thinking that every CR90B chase kill was somehow showing his skill as an admiral). Maybe this is a communication issue between my opponent and I's expectations for the game, but this is the first time this has come up and we have been playing regularly for more than four months. Essentially, if we were playing this as a cut game (where a one point victory or a draw as second player advances you), I would have deployed and played a lot differently. I guess it would be similar (but not as egregious) as if someone killed a generic TIE, in a casual game, then disengaged, which I'm pretty sure people would be pissed about. This just ended up being a wasted Saturday. Please let me know if you think I am being unreasonable. Hope you enjoyed the BATREP, even if a significant portion of it was me venting.

I think your response was entirely reasonable (internally at least,) and your mistake was playing it out. Calling it immediately:

Prevents you from becoming further invested in the game (and can lower the effect the loss has on you.)

Punishes this play style of disengagement.

Sometimes even gives you time for a rematch, should you want one.

Barring Demolisher and Squall (and perhaps first last ET Liberties against slow prey,) pursuit tactics do not work in this game, especially with fragile, blue dice ships. Cut games are also stacked against MSU to a degree. It sounds like your opponent is newer than you, so you could take it as a form of flattery that he would be contented with any kind of win against you. It’s still a bad way to play a casual game, and a bad way to practice for Swiss. That said, it’s something to think about on your end if you were planning to bring that fleet to the tournament...

@The Jabbawookie This was very nicely said and great advice. Thank you. It honestly never occurred to me that there was an option other than disengage (and quit in my mind) or just play it out (and be further frustrated, which is what happened). I guess that I was so worried about any fracturing of the community that I've built here that I didn't want to be seen as a "sore loser" or somehow being too competitive, so I just took it and kept playing.

And I am certainly not bringing that list to the tournament; just didn't want to pick a different fleet for this game when I full well knew exactly what he was bringing.

I think you have the right to feel frustrated--this doesn't sound like a fun game, or even good practice for the tournament (for either of you).

I can relate to your opponent a little bit. My good friend started the Armada community in my local area, and whenever I play a game with him and win (which has only happened twice) I consider it a victory for me, even if it's only a 6-5 and we're practicing for a tourney. The emotional side of me overrides the logical, I guess. That being said, I've never taken the stategy of "I'll just kill something small on round 2 then run away" or even worse, "I'll take second player and just turtle at speed 0 on the opposite side of the board." It just seems like a rude thing to do when you've both been looking forward to playing the game.