First off: PLEASE forgive me if I mess up any of the details in the report. I have been much too busy to write it up, but I have some time now. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get things wrong, so if my opponents want to correct me (especially in your squad construction) feel free to.
So, November 3rd was A Few Maneuvers' first VASSAL tournament. We had 6 participants and three 90 minute games. I had a blast!
I don't remember all the squads I faced. I'll put as much as I can remember:
Parakitor (my squad): Wedge Antilles (R5 Astromech, Determination), Rookie Pilot (R2-D2), Horton Salm (R5 Astromech, Ion Cannon Turret, Proton Torpedoes x2)
GAME #1 AidenDouglass: Darth Vader (), Maarek Stele (Marksmanship, Cluster Missiles), Mauler Mithel, some other TIE fighter(s)
I can't remember this one very well. I managed to destroy one of his TIEs early on, but I can't remember who it was. Wait, maybe it was two fighters…oh well. I managed to damage each of his other craft, but just couldn't bring them down. My ships couldn't stay on him long enough to finish any of them off, and kept having to switch targets. And a lot of shots from both sides were from range 3. Wedge went about 4 consecutive rounds without an enemy in his sights. It was pitiful, or maybe Aiden just knows how to use TIEs. But maybe not because one of his TIEs hit an asteroid in round 1 and took a Direct Hit. That helped a lot. I should probably mention that this was the first time he played with asteroids. In the end I had 87 points left on the board (all my ships, minus torpedoes) and he had 76 points. [During this tournament we didn't realize that you still count spent ordnance towards your point total at the end of the time limit].
GAME#2 Darth Malus: Darth Vader (Cluster Missiles), Howlrunner, Winged Gundark, Backstabber, Night Beast
This one was interesting. Once again, my opponent slammed his TIE (Backstabber) into an asteroid early on and pulled a Direct Hit. My lucky day. Horton finished him off with a Torpedo that round. Meanwhile, in the center of the battlefield, Howlrunner led a direct assault on Wedge with two wingmen and Vader right behind her. Wedge survived. I don't know how, but he survived even with their bonus attack dice. We killed her right after that. Horton was selectively ion-blasting ships that had just Koiogran turned, so they kept the stress. In the last round Wedge was roasted by Vader's Cluster Missiles. Wedge wouldn't have died if I had remembered to use the R5 Astromech to turn the "Direct Hit" from the previous round into a normal hit. Horton was just about to launch a torp at Vader to avenge his commrade when time was up. My cursor was literally hovering over the "roll attack dice" button, so Vader was still on the map. But I still came out with more points, so I wasn't complaining (though it would have given me a full 5-point win instead of a modified 3-point win).
GAME# 3 thereisnotry: Wedge Antilles (Determination), Luke Skywalker (Marksmanship), Horton Salm (R5 Astromech, Ion Cannon Turret, Proton Torpedoes x2)
As you can see, the final battle had me nervous because I had done very well, but suddenly I was pitted against a force with the same tactics as mine. In this battle, I set up Horton off in the corner away from the Rookie, and he put all his ships in front of Horton. Woops. So I put Wedge between Rookie and Horton and had my X-wings run interference while Horton took it slow. Horton took it too slow, and was unable to acquire a lock, while his Horton moved second (I had initiative) and locked onto my Horton. My Horton took a torp, and the following turn was destroyed by enemy Horton at range 1 without getting to fire any of his torpedoes. I thought I was sunk.
However, Wedge rolled an excellent Proton Torpedo attack against enemy Horton. It was a tough call after that because Horton was at range 2, but Luke was at Range 1. So do I go for undamaged Luke because I get an extra attack die, or do I try to finish off Horton? I went for the latter because Horton was lined up to Torpedo one of my fighters, and I couldn't have that. Horton just couldn't evade it. Boom. Now it was looking better.
My X-wings teamed up on doppelganger Wedge the following turn, and he just rolled poorly against our awesome attacks. So then it was my shieldless Wedge and unharmed Rookie against his full-strength Luke. He knew that Wedge would tear him apart, so he tried to finish the job, but Wedge dodged. Rookie and Wedge both koiogran turned to scissor Luke and that was the game. I think it was about 70 minutes. It was fast paced and intense -- everything you want a final showdown to be.
This was my first tournament and I just loved it! It's very different playing against other fans than playing against your neighbor that you dragged over even though he's never even heard of the term "table-top gaming." It was fulfilling to be able to discuss our tactics afterwards and rationalize our squad builds. I was just giddy for the rest of the night. It probably helped that I won first place in the tournament, but ranking aside, I really enjoyed playing with each one of my opponents.
Excellent games. Many thanks to drkjedi35 for hosting the tournament!
