Played another Task Force game against @ArmadaMatt , with this one being more about the game (and him refining his list) than about us learning Vassal. Here are the lists:
Name: Task Force Admonition
Assault: Surprise Attack
Defense: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation: Dangerous Territory
MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• Lando Calrissian (4)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• Admonition (8)
= 84 Points
CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Jaina's Light (2)
= 53 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Comms Net (2)
• Bright Hope (2)
= 22 Points
Squadrons:
• Shara Bey (17)
• Tycho Celchu (16)
= 33 Points
Total Points: 192
He made some big changes to his list that would ultimately pay some dividends. On Admonition , he changed out External Racks for Assault Proton Torpedoes and took Linked Turbolasers Towers in lieu of Turbolaser Reroute Circuits on Jaina's Light . He added the Bright Hope title to his GR-75 and switch out Wedge and Dutch for Shara and Tycho.
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Name: Task Force Centicore
Assault: Surprise Attack
Defense: Asteroid Tactics
Navigation: Volatile Deposits
Arquitens Command Cruiser (59)
• Skilled First Officer (1)
• Reinforced Blast Doors (5)
• Slaved Turrets (6)
• Centicore (3)
= 74 Points
Arquitens Light Cruiser (54)
• Captain Needa (2)
• Reinforced Blast Doors (5)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 68 Points
Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Darth Vader (1)
= 24 Points
Squadrons:
• Ciena Ree (17)
• Valen Rudor (13)
= 30 Points
Total Points: 196
I pretty much ran my weekly opponent's Task Force list, changing out Early Warning System for Reinforced Blast Doors, Skilled First and Slaved Turrets for Captain Needa and Turbolaser Reroute Circuits on the unnamed Arquitens, and the objectives.
He had initiative and chose to be first player. He chose Volatile Deposits as the objective.
Deployment: I placed the two asteroid fields on my side and he did the same with the other (when I initially read the objective, I didn't realize that I could gain points from the asteroids, just that we could do extra damage). Dust Fields were both in the center in the playing area. I placed my Arquitens in a conga line facing left, with my Gozanti and squadrons at the back of the deployment zone. My goal was to nab as many victory tokens as possible before we engaged. He deployed directly across from me, from left to right, CR90, GR-75, and MC30, with squadrons in between.
Round 1: He moved forward, bumping up to Speed 3 with his combat ships, while I slowed down to Speed 2 with my Arquitens to get more victory tokens and to put his ships in a crossfire. I received two victory tokens and he received one at the end of the round.
Round 2: This is where things took an interesting turn (disastrous for me). After he moved his transport, I activated my unnamed Arquitens (see text below), firing at the front hull zone of Jaina's Light . First, we noticed that I never used Captain Needa to switch out for an Evade. Missed opportunity, moving on. Then, not understanding that Volatile Deposits did damage to EVERY ship and squadron at distance 1 of the chosen obstacle, I choose to TRC to a double hit instead of a critical, allowing him to evade my only other critical. Last big mistake of the round for me: I got Centicore and my unnamed Arquitens mixed up (the ships were opposite of their card order/layout, but caught it before there were any game issues between my opponent and I)… meaning that I could not use Skilled First Officer to get an extra yaw from my Navigate command that I thought I was going to use. Captain Needa, adding absolutely nothing to the game, proceeds to fly off the board. The real Centicore then activates and further damages the CR90 (along with it, Shara, and Bright Hope from Volatile Deposits). The CR90 then gets into close range of the Centicore's side arc. I received two victory tokens at the end of the round.
Round 3: Surprisingly, the game was not over. He chose to activate Admonition first, damaging Centicore and giving me a Thruster Fissure faceup; he also dropped Valen by a hull point. I then activated Centicore and destroyed the CR90, further damaging Shara, Tycho, Bright Hope , and Centicore with Volatile Deposits (I really like this objective). It then rams Bright Hope to give it a damage card. When Bright Hope activates, he decides to throw his squadrons into mine. Going after an exposed Valen, Shara and Tycho force him discard his scatter. When my Gozanti activates, I throw in Ciena to aid Valen, destroying Shara. The Gozanti then rams into Centicore, getting a damage card as well. He receives a victory token at the end of the round.
Round 4: Finally, a simple round... kind of. Admonition takes a hard left turn to try to catch my Gozanti. My Gozanti, Ciena, and Valen take Tycho down to one hull and no scatter, but allow him to get away using his ability. Out of habit, I turn Centicore back into the fight. He receives two victory tokens and I receive one at the end of the round.
Round 5: He moves Bright Hope in get some more victory tokens, but not after pushing Tycho out of Ciena's reach. Because of my preparing to pounce of him (with the possibility of activating her using my Gozanti through Centicore) , he takes Admonition on a hard right in a very good maneuver that immediately cuts off that plan. In a really bad move, instead of moving straight to get into his front arc, I try to turn Centicore and end up in double arc. We both receive a victory token at the end of the round.
Round 6: Admonition utterly destroys Centicore to end the game with a tabling, victory to him. Using our proposed Task Force tournament scoring system, the final score would be 475-230 (9-2, 245 MoV).
Thoughts: @ArmadaMatt played a good game, particularly with his amazing MC30 maneuver at the end (and switching for APTs and Shara/Tycho were both brilliant moves as well), but I made a significant number of mistakes to get to this result. First, flying a ship off the board in Round 2 is never a good thing and hindered my ability to put more attacks against Shara and Tycho (directly, or more likely, through Volatile Deposits). Second, I should have never turned in with Centicore . Doing the math, I would have won the game if I would have just kept going straight. It would have been a close win, but I got greedy and really wanted to finish off Tycho. And third, this may be seen as a cop-out, but my spatial awareness is really off when it comes to Vassal (which is really funny given that CGYSO posted about this as a limitation in online games while we were playing). I have trouble visualizing the maneuver distances, as well as the expected endpoint from a completed maneuver. It just means that I need to play more on Vassal to get use to it. Thanks again @ArmadaMatt for a great game and can't wait for the next game in our series.
Hope you enjoyed the BATREP!