I finally got in a Task Force game with my oldest Armada friend in Arizona. We are about to start our Rebellion in the Rim campaign, so we were testing out list ideas to start out with. Below are the lists:

Name: Task Force Victory Rogues

Victory II (85)
• Gunnery Team (7)
= 92 Points

Squadrons:
• IG-88 (21)
• IG-88B (21)
• 2 x Mandalorian Gauntlet Fighter (40)
• VT-49 Decimator (22)
= 104 Points

Total Points: 196

His plan was to engage ships at long-medium range with his Victory before destroying them with his squadrons (and putting Raid tokens on them, if needed, with his Gauntlet Fighters).

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Name: Task Force Green and Gold

Assault: Surprise Attack
Defense: Asteroid Tactics
Navigation: Doomed Station

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
= 67 Points

Nebulon-B Support Refit (51)
• Auxiliary Shields Team (3)
= 54 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 51 Points

Squadrons:
• Gold Squadron (12)
• Green Squadron (12)
= 24 Points

Total Points: 196

My plan was to wear down an opponent's shields at long range before the MC30 comes in for the kill. Green and Gold squadrons were either there to bomb ships or act as a speed bump (which, while they kind of did, have already been replaced by Shara and a generic A-Wing).

We flipped a coin and I got initiative; I chose to be second player. My opponent chose Doomed Station as the objective.

Deployment: After the Gravity Rift was deployed, I placed my obstacles in the way of where I expected his Victory to deploy, with the station being as close to the right edge as possible. He deployed his Victory where I anticipated, with my CR90 and Nebulon-B directed ahead of it; my MC30 was going to swing around the other side of the Gravity Rift to flank the Victory.

Round 1: We all moved forward. After he moved his Gauntlet Fighters, I threw Green Squadron in to lock them down. I did forget though that IG-88 and IG-88B still had to go, and so Green Squadron was immediately destroyed. After moving the obstacles and the station, I gained one Victory Token.

Round 2: All ships continued to move forward. After forgetting to use Auxiliary Shields Team to increase the side shields on my Nebulon-B, I lost my right side shield and one hull from his rogues before I threw Gold Squadron into the fray to lock them down. After moving the obstacles and the station, I gained another Victory Token.

Round 3 (forgot to take a picture): The Victory activated, bringing my Nebulon-B to one hull remaining... before ramming it; it also attacked my CR90, draining its front and left hull zone shields. The good news is that the Victory landed back on the Asteroid Field, pulling the Shield Failure damage card. My CR90 had the Victory in double arc, taking down most of its remaining shields. Gold Squadron was destroyed, but he was unable to deal significant damage to my MC30 with his Rogues (he deemed it a more dangerous target than the CR90). No one gained any Victory Tokens.

Round 4: After activating his Victory and unable to destroy either of my remaining ships, the combined CR90 and MC30 double-arcs destroyed it to end the game. While this would have been counted as a "Win" in RitR (I think; still trying to understand the rules), using our proposed Task Force Tournament scoring system, this would have be a 440-156 (9-2, 284 MoV).

Thoughts: This was a fun game, but it certainly did not turn out like I expected it to. After seeing Green Squadron, Gold Squadron, and the Nebulon-B disappear in short order, I fully expected the same to happen to my CR90. Thankfully, it stuck around long enough to help finish off the Victory. I need to keep tinkering with this list, but Nebulon-Bs still seem exceptionally fragile (it doesn't help the case when I forget to use AST), so maybe I should consider another CR90 or some more squadrons.

Hope you enjoyed the BATREP!

It's not often that we see Gauntlets in use. My first reaction was 'really'?

Did they do anything? Any raid tokens applied?

I think you might have come on too fast with the Nebulon which left you no choice but to turn your weak side arcs towards him.

15 minutes ago, flatpackhamster said:

It's not often that we see Gauntlets in use. My first reaction was 'really'?

Did they do anything? Any raid tokens applied?

I think you might have come on too fast with the Nebulon which left you no choice but to turn your weak side arcs towards him.

I wanted to give the Gauntlets a try rather than just use the tried and true Decimators. In our upcoming campaign I want to use things that are rarely seen.

I didn't use any raid tokens. My initial plan was to put them on the MC30 to keep it from slowing down and force it to fly off the board, but by the time they were free of Gold Squadron it was too late. They did put some useful damage out though.

My mistake was wounding two ships instead of finishing the CR90 with the squadrons and then facing off against only the Torpedo Frigate. Lessons learned.

The gauntlets aided in destroying Gold Squadron and then putting damage on the MC30 (he chose damage over Raid Tokens here, because he correctly assessed that if he didn't destroy the MC30 at the top of the next round, the game was over).

Definitely came in too fast with the Neb-B. I was worried that I wouldn't get the Victory Token on Round One if I dropped to Speed 2 (I would have).

Can't help but feel that Decimators would have been a better choice for him than gauntlets. The raid function is so unreliable and only circumstantially useful. The anti-squad dice are pretty unreliable too.

When I got mine I tried really hard to use them but for the points investment they never really seemed to do much.

On 6/21/2020 at 6:29 AM, Commodore Gardner said:

I wanted to give the Gauntlets a try rather than just use the tried and true Decimators. In our upcoming campaign I want to use things that are rarely seen.

I didn't use any raid tokens. My initial plan was to put them on the MC30 to keep it from slowing down and force it to fly off the board, but by the time they were free of Gold Squadron it was too late. They did put some useful damage out though.

My mistake was wounding two ships instead of finishing the CR90 with the squadrons and then facing off against only the Torpedo Frigate. Lessons learned.

I admire your willingness to give it a go. I really wanted to like Gauntlets because they fit well with my play style but in the end that double-blue anti-ship is SO unreliable, and RAID tokens are so easily solved, that I gave up.

I think that Gar Saxon is the closest thing the Gauntlets have to 'good', and even he's - ermm... soso.

I've been trying out high-hull rogues with a Quasar Fire II, using Flight Controllers and Ruthless Strategists to hammer enemy squads . It's possible that they might work there, but the question is always "Will they be as good as a Decimator for 2pts less?" Or more accurately - can I afford 2 extra points per Gauntlet squad in order to bring Decimators.

What Gauntlets needed, IMO, is either an extra red anti-squad dice, or an extra blue anti-ship dice, or to have a built-in reroll mechanism, or to be 4pts less.

If im playing in a tourney setting i would likely stick with the Decimators, but in casual games I'm trying to vary things up and see what other unusual stuff I can play. No Cluster Bombs though.