When my wife asked what I wanted to do for Father's Day, I said "play Armada!" So I got on Vassal and found a game with Louis-André. He told me he only had about 2.5 hours to play, so asked if I was an advanced player. I told him I was not an advanced player, but I thought the game could go pretty quick because I had no squads (always what slows me down the most). He told me he had 134 points of squads, so he decided to pick a different, more casual list, so that he wouldn't kill me too quickly (my words). Louis-André recently won a Vassal tournament, and I am a once-in-a-while Vassal player.
He brought a casual list with Rieekan and a Concord Starhawk, 2 HH Scouts, 1 HH Torp, 2 flots and SAd. and I brought a Kuat, Demo, Arq and 2 flots and SAd.
Faction:
Galactic Empire
Points:
395/400
Commander: General Tagge
Assault Objective:
Surprise Attack
Defense Objective:
Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective:
Infested Fields
Gozanti-class Cruisers
(23 points)
- Minister Tua ( 2 points)
- Proximity Mines ( 4 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
=
38
total ship cost
Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer
(56 points)
-
Demolisher
( 10 points)
- Iden Versio ( 6 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)
=
89
total ship cost
[ flagship ]
Imperial Star Destroyer Kuat Refit
(112 points)
- General Tagge ( 25 points)
-
Chimaera
( 4 points)
- Strategic Adviser ( 4 points)
- Local Fire Control ( 4 points)
- Proximity Mines ( 4 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- Leading Shots ( 4 points)
- External Racks ( 3 points)
- Entrapment Formation! ( 5 points)
=
172
total ship cost
Arquitens-class Light Cruiser
(54 points)
- Expert Shield Tech ( 5 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)
=
66
total ship cost
Gozanti-class Cruisers
(23 points)
- Darth Vader (off) ( 1 points)
- Proximity Mines ( 4 points)
- Comms Net ( 2 points)
=
30
total ship cost
= 0 total squadron cost
He had 400 points and I had 395, I decided to go first because I didn't want to get first-lasted (but I overlooked his Bail).
I chose his Contested Outpost.
Turn 1: I placed proximity mines near the station, but he shot two of them with his SH and landed on one, taking 2 damage cards. My ISD makes a bold speed 3 maneuver. My Arq just barely dodges the debris. My Demo likes its angle but doesn't like being in the middle of those HHs, and does a right-left speed 2.
Turn 2: I did IF! this turn but forgot to prepare a CF token for next turn. My Arq is too far from the action. Speed 2 Demo is only able to get in long range of a HH so takes a long range Demo shot. His SH repairs both damage cards and double-arcs the Kuat's front. My wife asks if I'm winning the game. "Uhh...not really!" However, Demo used its evade twice to cancel two red doubles, and the Kuat did use its brace twice for SH's front attack and its salvo. So I got some good use out of Tagge!
Turn 3: I used SAd, and the HH at close range obliges by attacking Demo with a double arc and ramming. Demo kills that same HH with a good roll and APT. Then Demo moves up and kills the next one with its front arc and two rams, but he uses Rieekan to save it (forgot he had Rieekan).
My Arq gets a side arc shot on the SH and the Kuat and SH continue loading damage onto each other. I got a terrible roll with the Kuat (three blank reds) and Vadered the SAd to get a better one. However, I didn't reroll the blues for an accuracy. I kept forgetting that he had Rieekan as his commander, not Agate, so he only had the one brace. His SH's rolls were not the best (he had ICB instead of LS) but he did strip some command tokens with ICB.
Turn 4: He goes first with Bail, killing the ISD with the first shot and attacks ECM Gozanti with the second (scatter). My Arq kills his SH with a side shot. He was wondering why I didn't go with the Goz first (to get it out of long range of his Scout HH)--it was because my Arq was going too fast at speed 2 to claim that station for three rounds, so I intended to ram his flotilla. But anyway, our time was up (due to my slow play and some Vassal lags) and Louis-André had to go (it was also Father's Day in Canada). Most of the game's action was over at this point. I don't think his HH would have killed the ECM Gozanti (it could have just evaded the long range shot). I had destroyed more points than he did, but he had all three CO tokens. Our ships probably would have tied for CO points this round, and maybe I could get the other two. It would've been a 6-5 either way I think.
Thoughts: It's counter intuitive, but I think I should have put the mines closer to me. He was able to flak them easily. Really wish I had deployed that Arq on the other side of the debris; it REALLY wanted to get that turn 2 shot in, ideally double arcing. It's the perfect Tagge scenario: Use TRC for the evade and also evade a hit from the SH. The ISD should have gone speed 2 on turn 1; not sure if he could've double arced it anyway but less likely. Demo on the other hand should have gone faster on turn 1 to get a good shot on turn 2.
This list is fun to play. Definitely got more use out of Tagge than I would have Motti, but for this game I actually wonder if JJ would have been better. I was contemplating a few moves with my ISD and Demo that Louis-André politely reminded me were not allowed. Ship wise, it's also similar to a Thrawn list that GP took to NOVA last year--Use Thrawn for Nav and CF turns 2-4.
Hope you enjoyed this BatRep, thanks for reading!