Inaugural Jankvid Tournament
Hope y’all are
staying as hale and healthy as you can during these difficult times! I know we’ve all been missing Armada something awful, so I thought I’d share this latest endeavor to come out of St. Louis, as we’ve been able to get some very limited Armada happening! First of all, it’s worth noting that we are aware of Covid cases rising in Missouri, but the numbers are still shaking out. At the moment, St. Louis City is still doing a fairly good job of social distancing and masking, and that’s really helped us keep this under control. Additionally, we were never hit as hard as a lot of other places because we’re in “fly-over country.” That said, as a former New Yorker for 2/3rds of my life or so, I’ll say that I shared that perception of St. Louis. But since I “discovered” the city nearly a decade ago, I’ve fallen in love with and that perception has changed. I suggest that if anyone has the opportunity to visit after all of this is said and done, we’d love to have you! The city has quite a lot to offer in terms of entertainment and food, all at Midwest prices
Anyway, the local Armada community had come up with the notion of a “jank” tournament JUST before the lockdown happened. It came about because a lot of folks around here love the game, but just aren’t interested in *really* competitive Armada. But they’d like to get in more than one game at a time. We knew we had some prizes at our FLGS, Game Nite. And we were already running a casual Armada league. But we thought it might be fun to put together an event. It was suggested that we have a banned list of cards that were “no brainer” choices so that we could see some more variation without needing to really justify NOT taking Leading Shots or Demolisher. If the card is banned, you simply need to figure out how to build and fly without it. I’m sure Armada communities in other areas have held such events, but I didn’t know of any before we pieced this first run at it. The following is our banned list:
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Objectives - Advanced Gunnery, Most Wanted, Surprise Attack, Contested Outpost, Fire Lanes, Intel Sweep, Solar Corona, Superior Positions
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Upgrade Cards - Captain Brunson, Governor Pryce, Strategic Adviser, Bail Organa, Darth Vader (officer), Demolisher, Yavaris, Avenger, Admonition, Ravager, Admiral Sloane, Rieekan, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Admiral Ackbar, Electronic Countermeasures, Leading Shots, External Racks, Linked Turbolaser Towers, XI7s, Gunnery Team, and Ordnance Experts
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ADDITIONALLY ! Moff Jerjerrod cannot be used in a fleet with a Super Star Destroyer, H9 Turbolasers and Quad Turbolaser Cannons cannot be used together on the same ship, and Turbolaser Reroute Circuit cannot be used on any ship with two Evade defense tokens!
Then we wanted to encourage some jank builds, so we put together a list of cards that players would be rewarded for fielding. If a player featured the following "jank" cards in their fleet, they were awarded Victory Tokens in each match. Each token was worth 25 points, and each player could max out at 3 Jank Victory Tokens for their list. These couldn’t turn a loss into a win, but they could bump a player up in tournament point brackets!
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Objectives - Blockade Run, Volatile Deposits
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Upgrade Cards - Admiral Konstantine, General Tagge (not to be used on a Super Star Destroyer), Emperor Palpatine, Mon Mothma, Leia Organa, General Cracken, Cluster Bombs (min. 2), Jamming Field (min. 2), NK-7 Ion Cannons (min. 2), Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams (min. 2), Ordnance Pods (min. 2), Heavy Fire Zone (min. 2), Redemption, Dominator
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Ships & Squads** - Combat Interdictor, Mandalorian Gauntlet Fighter (min. 2), Aggressor Assault Fighters (min. 2), TIE Phantoms (min. 2), YV-666 (min. 2), Pelta Class Assault Ship, Malee Hurra, Kanan Jarrus, Lancer-class Pursuit Craft (min. 2), Z-95 Headhunters (min. 4)
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**If a generic squadron is named as "jank" but an accompanying ace of that squadron-type is not, then the ace does not count as "jank" for MOV bonus point purposes. For instance, if you have 2 Mandalorian Gauntlet Fighters, you receive the bonus points. If 1 of those 2 is Gar Saxon, you do not receive the bonus points. If you have 3 Mandalorian Gauntlet Fighters, 1 of them is Gar, and 2 are the generic squadrons, you do receive the bonus points.
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Anyway, one day, I’ll have a more concise way of explaining all of that, but it’s not today! So we ran the event this past weekend with the requirements that people social distance as much as feasibly possible and wear masks. Game Nite very generously provided prizes and hand sanitizer for us all, as well as opened an hour early so we could squeeze in 3 rounds! We had 6 people show up, so not bad on short-ish notice, as well as given the state of things! Here are the fleet lists we got to experience!
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Dakota H’s “High on Ion” fleet (87/400/400)
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LMC80 Star Cruiser
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General Dodonna
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Fire Control Team
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Ion Cannon Batteries
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Heavy Turbolaser Towers
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CR90 Corvette B
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Lando Calrissian
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Ion Cannon Batteries
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Jaina’s Light
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CR90 Corvette B
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Major Derlin
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Ion Cannon Batteries
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CR90 Corvette B
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Toryn Farr
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Ion Cannon Batteries
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GR-75 Medium Transports
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Bomber Command Center
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Boosted Comms
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Bright Hope
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Hera Syndulla
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X-Wing Squadron (x2)
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Y-Wing Squadron (x3)
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Blockade Run, Planetary Ion Cannon, Dangerous Territory
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Frank S’s “Attack Brick” fleet (easily the best fleet name we’d see on the day) (0/396/400)
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Starhawk-class Battleship Mark II
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Garm Bel Iblis
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Unity
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Lando Calrissian
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Expert Shield Techs
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Caitken & Shollan
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Quad Laser Turrets
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XX-9 Turbolasers
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High Capacity Ion Turbines
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Starhawk-class Battleship Mark I
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Amity
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Kyrsta Agate (officer)
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Walex Blissex
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Local Fire Control
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Phylon Q7 Tractor Beam
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Turbolaser Reroute Circuits
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Ion Cannon Batteries
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Targeting Beacons, Fleet Ambush, Minefields
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Chris N’s “Indestructible Starhawk” fleet (86/400/400)
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Starhawk-class Battleship Mark I
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Kyrsta Agate (commander)
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Walex Blissex
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Major Derlin
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Local Fire Control
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High Capacity Ion Turbines
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H9 Turbolasers
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Unity
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MC30c Torpedo Frigate
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Lando Calrissian
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Caitken & Shollan
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Advanced Projectors
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Assault Proton Torpedoes
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H9 Turbolasers
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GR-75 Medium Transports
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Comms Net
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Lancer-class Pursuit Craft (x2)
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Z-95 Headhunter Squadron (x8 )
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Targeting Beacons, Hyperspace Assault, Doomed Station
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Ted D’s “Stay!” fleet (68/395/400)
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Onager-class Testbed
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Admiral Konstantine
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Rakehell
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Admiral Ozzel (officer)
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Sensor Team
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Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons
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Interdictor Combat Refit
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Interdictor
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G-8 Experimental Projector
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Victory I-class Star Destroyer
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Harrow
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Admiral Titus
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Assault Proton Torpedoes
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Quad Battery Turrets
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Aggressor Assault Fighter (x2)
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Morna Kee
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Black Squadron
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Opening Salvo, Fleet Ambush, Minefields
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Nathan F’s “Konstantine Jank” fleet (0/397/400)
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Interdictor Suppression Refit
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Admiral Konstantine
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Taskmaster Grint
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Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams
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Grav Shift Reroute
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G7-X Grav Well Projector
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Heavy Ion Emplacements
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Projection Experts
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Interdictor Suppression Refit
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Commandant Aresko
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Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams
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G-8 Experimental Projector
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G7-X Grav Well Projector
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Heavy Ion Emplacements
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Projection Experts
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Interdictor
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Victory II-class Star Destroyer
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Reeva Demesne
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Disposable Capacitors
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H9 Turbolasers
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Fire-Control Team
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Heavy Ion Emplacements
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Dominator
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Close-Range Intel Scan, Abandoned Mining Facility, Volatile Deposits
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Chris L’s “Janktastic!” fleet (97/398/400)
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LMC80 Star Cruiser
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Leia Organa
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Weapons Battery Techs
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NK-7 Ion Cannons
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Projection Experts
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Liberty
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CR90 Corvette B
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NK-7 Ion Cannons
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Liberator
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All Fighters, Follow Me!
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CR90 Corvette B
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NK-7 Ion Cannons
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Jaina’s Light
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GR-75 Medium Transports
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GR-75 Medium Transports
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Malee Hurra
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X-Wing Squadron (x3)
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Gold Squadron
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Y-Wing Squadron (x2)
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Close-Range Intel Scan, Jamming Barrier, Navigational Hazards
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As you can see, it seems that some of us had the same go-to’s when we thought of “jank fleets.” Some builds are more janky than others, but it was really nice to not see a single list I would call meta. Anyway, the first round matchups saw Dodonna’s LMC-80 and CR90s run up against Konstantine’s double Suppression Interdictor fleet, Kyrsta’s double Starhawks slam into Kyrsta’s Starhawk and swarm of Z-95s, and Konstantine’s Onager, Vic, and Combat Interdictor plow into Leia’s Liberty and CR90 NK-7 ball.
Unfortunately, I can’t give much in the way of batreps, as I was flying Leia’s Liberty Janktastic fleet, and I went to time in all 3 rounds. I can talk about my own matchups, but nobody else’s. I was one of the organizers and TOs of the tournament, as was Nathan. First time for both of us, and man, it is hard to run the show while also participating! I’d already decided that I’d drop if we had an odd number so nobody had to miss out on a game with a bye, but we happily had 6. So there it is.
I should note that I’ve never flown this fleet before, nor have I flown anything like it. I had a plan coming in, but sort of threw it to the wind because in the spirit of the jank tournament, I wanted to “see what would happen.” Make no mistake: I was playing to win. But I was trying to see what kind of garbage I could get away with, since I had already built this very fragile machine for fun rather than effectiveness. To that end, I started each match the same way: my GR-75s deployed in the middle as did my squadrons (except for Malee, who was the odd squadron out). That ate up 5 deployments before my real ships. Against Ted’s Onager, Interdictor, and Vic (which were spread out across the table), I decided to line up my Liberty against his capital ship Onager, then sent my two CR90s out wide to the right so they could either flank the Interdictor and Vic when they went after my Liberty or run like **** if they turned out to get my CR90s. Ted went first and chose Navigational Hazards. Basically, my Liberty took his Onager shots and shrugged them off while closing with Malee as quickly as he could. My squadrons moved to intercept his squadrons, but then I foolishly split my fire between the Vic and the Interdictor based on whatever I thought I could maybe kill. My CR90s closed fast on the back end of his Vic and Interdictor, but I got just a little bit greedy and never cued up Engineering commands. I’ll be honest: I basically forgot about his ability to mess with my speeds because how often do you run into that, right? I was a little distracted the whole day, but still...anyway, man, it ends up being FAR closer than I could have anticipated. The squadrons scratch it out amongst themselves, and I end up losing both CR90s. However, my Liberty does JUST enough damage to the Onager as it squeaks by that the Onager lands on a debris field with no shields left, eats two hull damage, and explodes. Meanwhile, my Liberty BARELY turns hard enough on an Engineering dial (instead of a Navigate dial, which, again, I should have anticipated…) to avoid screaming off the back end of the table. I knew it was close, but I didn’t realize it was 5 points close! That said, my MOV actually ended up being zero because I got several objective tokens, he got a couple, but then he had 3 jank tokens (Combat Interdictor, Konstantine, 2 Aggressor Assault Fighters) to my 2 jank tokens (Malee, at least 2 NK-7 Ion Cannons), which meant that I pulled off a 6-5 win with a zero MOV (because the jank tokens could not turn a win into a loss or vice versa).
Chris’ single Starhawk and blob of Z-95s beat out the double Starhawk list with a 7-4 win, and Dakota’s Dodonna Ion list blew by Nathan’s Konstantine double Interdictor list with an 8-3 win.
There was a math mix-up here, as the second round should’ve been Dakota vs Chris’s Starhawk and myself versus Ted, but instead, I played Dakota with Leia, and Ted matched up against the single Starhawk. Against Dakota, I had the bid and chose to go first. I didn’t think I could kill his ships in Blockade Run before they were past me, and my little ships didn’t want to deal with Planetary Ion Cannons, so I settled for Dangerous Territory. I figured that I’d at least collect a couple of tokens with a flotilla and Jaina’s Light. That said, it played out fairly well for me, as I was moving fast and able to snag not 2, but 4 tokens. I took damage, but the crits weren’t nearly as bad as they could’ve been, and Leia was able to heal my ships up in no time. This was a bit of a mirror match, except Leia had more opportunities to do work than Dodonna because of the way dice rolled out. The result was that I was able to steal kills. I got his LMC80 before he could get my Liberty, but then, we were in a position where we figured time would run out before we could finish the fifth round. The result is that some choices were made with the impression that the round would be the end of the match. Instead, we beat the clock to round 6, and I was able to throw one of my CR90s and squadrons at another of Dakota’s CR90s and finish it off for more points. The result was a 9-2 for me.
Chris’ single Starhawk took out Ted’s Onager/Combat Interdictor/Vic fleet for an 8-3, and Nathan’s double Interdictor took down Frank’s double Starhawk fleet by a margin of 7-4. So the final round saw my Leia fleet against Chris N’s Starhawk at the top table, Nathan’s double Interdictor against Ted’s Onager/Combat Interdictor/ Vic, and Frank’s double Starhawk against Dakota’s Dodonna fleet (as Nathan and Dakota could not play each other a second time this tourney). I had the bid and chose to go first. I knew I couldn’t deal with having an MC30 land behind me, so I skipped Hyperspace Assault. I couldn’t contest Doomed Station, so I rolled with Targeting Beacons. In the end, my deployment doomed me. He had me out-deployed with the 2 Lancers and 8 Z-95s, no problem. So my flotillas and squadrons deployed in the middle, as per usual all day. Then my Liberator went wide right while Jaina’s Light and Liberty went wide left. It was just a dumb deployment, and I’m not sure what I expected to come of it. Nonetheless, into battle we went! My squadrons held their own for a little while, but then I got cute with my Liberator in front of the MC30 and dialed up a Con Fire for the double-arc instead of a Navigate to make sure I could speed up and get out of black range. I was confident I could land out of black range, but Liberator landed JUST inside black range. The result was a one-shot kill for the MC30 before it could plow into both flotillas and kill them both in a single activation, courtesy of H9s. Once that all went down (and I had only killed a handful of Z-95s), the game was over. I couldn’t push my squadrons, so they couldn’t pursue the Starhawk (outside of Gold Squadron and Malee), and most of them died in a fiery blaze as the red dice swung hard between blanks and doubles. Jaina’s Light and Liberty did a great job of stripping literally all 6 of the Starhawk’s defense tokens, as NK-7s went off nearly every turn. So it was flying with minimal shields and no defense tokens. But then my ships were past it, I only had two squadrons on it, and had landed no hull damage. So, you know, that wasn’t great. I mean, it’s the complaint everyone has about NK-7s, right? At the end of the day, did you strip the tokens at the cost of doing damage? And the answer was yes. I stripped the tokens, and if I had more attacks to throw at the Starhawk, then I could kill it. But I’d spent all my attacks stripping the tokens and not doing enough damage. Which, again, I knew walking into this build was the likely outcome. Still: it stung. I only scored something like 21 points off of Z-95s in addition to my jank victory tokens, so it was an 8-3 thrashing for me.
I ended the tourney with 18 points in 3rd place. Chris N and his Starhawk finished in first place, and was awarded a dice bag, some Con Fire tokens, and an alt art Hera card, as well as some store credit. Nathan blew by me after winning 10-1 in the final round and ended the tourney with 20 points. He won the Con Fire tokens, Hera and some store credit. I got an alt art TIE Phantom for coming in third, with which I was thrilled, as I didn’t have one, I love the squadron, and it totally fits with the jank theme, as far as I’m concerned! Frank’s double Starhawk ended in 4th after securing an 8-3 in the final round, and he was awarded an alt art TIE Phantom as well. Dakota’s Dodonna fleet finished in 5th with 13 points, and Ted’s Konstantine fleet finished in 6th with 9 points. Both of them were awarded additional alt art copies of External Racks in addition to the first alt art copies of External Racks that were awarded to everyone for showing up. Everyone also received the double-sided LTT and Skilled First Officer. So overall, it felt like a fairly successful event! People leaned into the spirit of jank pretty hard, and we saw some builds we likely wouldn’t have seen otherwise. What about the rest of y’all? Ever run or play in a jank event before? What did it look like? Any thoughts on our banned and jank lists? I’m looking to refine it further for future events. In the meantime, enjoy your day, and I hope y’all can get back to Armada sooner rather than later!