Game two of today's Task Force tournament prep for my friend's list. Below are the lists.
Name: Task Force Centicore
Assault: Surprise Attack
Defense: Asteroid Tactics
Navigation: Dangerous Territory
Arquitens Light Cruiser (54)
• Skilled First Officer (1)
• Early Warning System (7)
• Slaved Turrets (6)
• Centicore (3)
= 71 Points
Arquitens Light Cruiser (54)
• Captain Needa (2)
• Early Warning System (7)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 70 Points
Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Darth Vader (1)
= 24 Points
Squadrons:
• Ciena Ree (17)
• Valen Rudor (13)
= 30 Points
Total Points: 195
No change in his list.
----------
Name: Task Force Yavaris
Assault: Precision Strike
Defense: Fighter Ambush
Navigation: Superior Positions
Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57)
• Ray Antilles (7)
• Auxiliary Shields Team (3)
• Yavaris (5)
= 72 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Toryn Farr (7)
• Bomber Command Center (8)
• Bright Hope (2)
= 35 Points
Squadrons:
• Ten Numb (19)
• Jan Ors (19)
• 2 x YT-1300 (26)
• 2 x B-wing Squadron (28)
= 92 Points
Total Points: 199
He wanted to see how he handled a carrier list, which is another likely opponent for our Task Force event. He took one look at what I brought and quickly realized he just needed to take out Yavaris .
My opponent had initiative and chose to be second player. I choose his Dangerous Territory for the objective.
Deployment: We ended up placing the obstacles very close to one another near the center of the play area. This worked great for me, as this meant he had to go down the middle to get any victory tokens from the objective, leaving him open to a Yavaris double-tap. I deployed my GR-75 near my right side and then used my squadrons to out-deploy him, setting up Yavaris at the center of his ship line. He placed his ships across from my GR-75, but not in optimal positions to take the objective tokens off his closest obstacles.
Round 1: I slowly creep ahead while he sets up his fields of interlocking fire off his port side. I use a Repair command and Auxiliary Shields Team immediately to get shields on both of Yavaris ' side hull zones. We both get our squadrons ready to jump into the engagement. He desperately wants to kill Jan Ors so he can lock down my B-Wings, so I move her away from the pack to force him to decide where to fling his squadrons.
Round 2: Another relatively bloodless round as we continue to maneuver into position. Yavaris is prepared to attack and unleash squadrons next round while the GR-75 is in prime position to support with Bomber Command Center and Toryn Farr. My opponent's fields of fire are in place to greet Yavaris with a lot of red dice, grabbing two Victory tokens; unfortunately, Centicore rams his Gozanti to give the latter a damage card. Except for Jan, the rest of my squadrons, all Speed 2, cannot get into position to support the double tap that is coming at the top of the next round; his squadrons, for now, stay out of the fray.
Round 3: I start the round by activating Yavaris . After a double-tap with Jan, a single shot by my two generic B-Wings, and my Nebulon-B's front arc, the Gozanti has only one hull remaining with no scatter. Getting the Gozanti out of there, he brings in his two squadrons to tie up my B-Wings (bad, overused pun, I know), but cannot fire on them yet due to the two YT-1300s. His Arquitens together take me down to one shield on the front and a damage card, but Centicore is unable to avoid his Gozanti, ramming it to destroy it. Yavaris and the GR-75 both pick up a Victory token from the objective, with Yavaris losing its rear shields due to the Debris Field.
Round 4: Since no one from our meta uses Yavaris , sometimes we forget exactly what it is capable of (I used it once on him with a Y-Wing swarm, just to get him to stop playing double Vader Cymoons every game... Spoiler: It worked!). With three B-Wings in Centicore's left side arc, the first five attacks destroy it, allowing me to use the next one against Ciena to burn her down. While one of my YT-1300s is destroyed from Ciena's counter, she ends the round with one hull and no scatter.
Round 5: Yavaris double-tap against Ciena and Valen Rudor make short work of them. With that, my opponent calls the game. I win 155-43 (7-4, 112 MoV). (Note: After talking to many others that have run Task Force Tournaments, we decided that for scoring during our event, we will double "combat" points, keeping objective points the same, in order to determine the final match score and MoV. Because we will have many new players at the event, we thought that it would be easier to understand if points gained through victory tokens remained the same as what is printed on the card in lieu of halving the points gained through Victory tokens. Either way, the score come out the same in the end. For example, at our event, this game would be scored as 280-56, for a 9-2 win, 224 MoV [125*2 + 30 against 13*2 + 30]. This brought the objectives more in line with a 400-point game, hoping to limit high bids leading to fortressing during the event.)
Thoughts: My opponent learned a lot from this game, which was the point of all of this. First, he didn't play the objectives as well as he should have. He should have placed objectives in such a way that he maintained distance from my carrier/squadrons, that allowed him to pick up two or three victory tokens on Round 1, and that divided my forces if I hoped to get Victory tokens of my own. Second, he did not engage either Yavaris or my GR-75 soon enough, allowing my squadrons to do their work. His last mistake was maneuver. I didn't kill his Gozanti; he killed his Gozanti by ramming it, twice. But it was a learning experience, which was why we were here. Next week he'll be facing an Onager as well as an Imperial Carrier list.
Hope you enjoyed the BATREP!