Thrawn Dual Victories vs Raddus Profundity

For this game, I wanted to try something radically different than anything I’d run before. My usual opponent, Andy, and I were talking about the Victory and how weak it is the other day. I decided to do a list using a pair of them as the starting point in order to see what I could do to maximize their effectiveness. Jerjerrod would have been the obvious choice, but I also enjoy the combined arms aspect of the game and wanted to run something other than rogues. I thought Thrawn would be an interesting choice to make use of all that squadron value. I also decided to use a multitude of TIEs in order to boost activations to give me an advantage in placement.

The list I settled on was a pair of Victory IIs, one with Thrawn and Brunson, the other with Needa. Otherwise they were identical: Gunnery Teams, DCaps, Leading Shots, & Quad Batteries. In support, I had a pair of Comms Net Gozantis and for squadrons I had Howlrunner, 7 TIEs, and 2 Lambdas. My objectives were Most Wanted, Salvage Run, and Fire Lanes.

On the other side of the table was a pair of TRC90s...with Raddus on board. In reserve, he had an Ordnance Cruiser with all the bells and whistles including the Profundity title and a Hammerhead with Garel’s Honor. His squadron cover consisted of Shara/Tycho and a generic A-wing. He took first and chose Most Wanted. Here is the setup with all the requisite accessories including single malt Scotch:

In the first round, I dropped my flagship down to speed 0 and attempted to reposition my second VSD to give Thrawn some backup. Here is the close of round 1:

In the second round, I continued my previously adopted course. The CR90s slowed down. Squads prepared to pounce on the following round. Here is the close of round 2:

In round three, my TIEs pounced (Thrawn Squad Command) with Howlrunner sitting on the station and the rest of them being fed into the Shara/Tycho meat-grinder. I lost four of them on the attack, but Shara went down. I also bumped my flagship up to speed 1. Here is the close of round 3:

Raddus dropped at the beginning of round 4:

In round four, I took some damage from the Hammerhead, but Profundity was out of close range and only applied minimal damage. On the squadron side, I used my second Thrawn Squad Command to finish off Tycho and the A-wing. Unfortunately, Profundity was lined up for a double-arc. Here is he close of round 4:

In round five, my flagship went down. The side arc shot was quite benign, but the front arc shot included external racks and a CF command. There was also an accuracy involved, so no brace. My flagship went down. I also lost my Most Wanted Gozanti to a structural damage dealt by the Hammerhead thanks to Garel’s Honor. Here is the close of round 5:

Round six wrapped up the game with no further losses on either side. Profundity was limping toward the end, but I just didn’t have the ability to bring it down with my blue dice non-bombers remaining.

This was a very interesting game because I made a number of clear blunders that, had I done differently would have resulted in a radically different outcome. The most clear example was the placement of my flagship at setup. Had I angled it during deployment so that it was directly facing the closest asteroid, that would have allowed me to go to the left or right of that asteroid based on the movements of the CR90s. I could have turned to the inside and been closer to the board edge, preventing Profundity from sneaking in there. This would have given my other Victory space to move in alongside for support.

My second major mistake was to send the TIE fighters against Shara rather than to hit the lead CR90 or, better yet, to spread out around the obvious Profundity drop zone to prevent it from placing favorably.

In terms of list building, I believe the dual Victories would have done better under Jerjerrod for greater counter-movement. Alternatively, had I run an ISD and Arquittens instead of the Victories, it would have been an improvement under Thrawn. Not having speed three as an option makes repositioning very difficult and it amplifies deployment mistakes.

Lessons Learned:

- The ability to finish a damaged enemy after the heavy-hitters have passed is absolutely invaluable. Bombers, Rogues, and highly maneuverable long-ranged ships (ie CR90s) are indispensable for this purpose.

- In deployment, make sure that you leave multiple directions open for movement, rather than a single, obvious pathway.

- Do not throw your generic TIE fighters against Shara. Better to "tie" her down with a single squadron at a time without actually firing on her.