Ozzel Dual Gladiators vs Ackbar MC75

For this game, I brought an unusual list. It’s a four activation, Dual Gladiator list with Ozzel. My Gladiators both had Engine Techs, OEs, and ACMs. My flagship had Insidious and Montferrat while the other had Demo, Tua, and ECM. In support, I had a pair of Gozantis: one with Slicers and Suppressor, the other with Vector, Hondo, and Expanded Hangars. My fighter wing consisted of Morna/Jendon, Vader, Zertik, Dengar, and Mauler Mithel.

On the other side, Andy brought an Ackbar MC75 with Strategic Advisor, XI7s, ECM, C&S, Ordnance Pods, and Quad Laser Turrets. This was accompanied by a TRC90 with FCTs and a Nebulon with Draven, FCTs, and Quad Batteries. In support, he had Toryn Farr in her Bright Hope flotilla, Shara/Tycho, and a pair of VCXs.

I had a sizable bid and chose 1st so as to not be out-activated. I knew that the objectives would be bad, but I put myself in a tight spot with my list by having only 4 activations and no ISD to take a pounding. I chose his Salvage Run over Advanced Gunnery and Fire Lanes. I will never choose Fire Lanes and Advanced Gunnery seemed like it could go badly for me with all of his potential blockers. Here is the setup (Left to Right - Demo, Suppressor, Vector, Insidious):

I went full speed ahead on turn one. Thanks to Vector, I jumped Mauler and Vader into the fight against  Shara/Tycho. Vader was destroyed in a very non-thematic, anti-climactic way. The VCXs were not engaged and were able to pull ALL of the tokens away from me due to the FCTs on the CR90 and Nebulon. Here is the close of round 1:

In round two, I knocked out Tycho and lost Mauler. It became obvious that Insidious and Demo were grossly out of place. Had they been reversed, the CR90 would have gone down in this turn. As it was, it was hurting, thanks to some effective bombing from Morna Kee at the top of the round. Here is the close of round 2:

In round three, I finished off the CR90 with a Vector-assisted activation of Morna & Jendon. Insidious took a beating and exited the field. In retrospect, I moved it too far. Had I just jumped the Nebulon and MC75 and not used Engine Techs, I would have had an excellent round 4 first activation to either finish the Nebulon or put some damage into the MC75. Here is the close of round 3:

In round 4, I activated Suppressor first, who pushed Morna/Jendon into the Nebulon to finish it. The MC75 moved away after destroying Vector with Demo in pursuit. Here is the close of round 4:

In round five, Demo hit the MC75 with a grand total of two damage, no critical, pre-brace. I was really missing Screed. Morna/Jendon contributed nicely, but with the whiff from Demo, I was fairly certain that I wouldn’t be able to finish him off. Here is the close of round 5:

In round six, more damage was exchanged with little effect. The result was a very close game. I had a Margin of Victory of 30 some points.

My setup was mediocre. Had I done a complete flip with Insidious, Vector, Suppressor, and Demo, that would have been a far better placement. This would have allowed Suppressor to use its ability more and Insidious and Demo to both capitalize on their particular strengths.

The lack of Screed (my admiral of choice) was very telling in my anti-ship damage. I had multiple rolls with my Gladiators that resulted in no critical hits, making my ACMs underperform. My escort heavy Mithel ball also underperformed, though this was primarily due to the lack of any opposition fighter ball to speak of. Morna/Jendon did wonderful work, as usual, with consistent damage output and great positional flexibility. I was really impressed with the Vector title. Giving Morna speed four on an integral round or two was an amazing benefit. Using Tua and ECM on Demolisher really gave it staying power and the ability to go toe-to-toe with the MC75 for multiple turns.

Lessons Learned:

- Demolisher & Suppressor benefit most from deployment that directs them toward the fore of the opponent’s formation.

- Insidious benefits from deployment to directs it toward the flank of the opponent’s formation.

- Salvage Run is a very difficult objective to score points on against a Stretegic-Heavy fleet.

Jerjerrod Dual ISDs vs Madine Liberty

By request, I built and ran a dual ISD list to go up against the Madine list that my usual opponent, Andy, had been practicing with. In in attempt to just clear out superfluous activations, I made this one a two ship build with Pryce and some rogues for squadron support. Here’s the list: ISD II with Jerjerrod, Gunnery Teams, Quad Battery Turrets, Leading Shots, ECM, and Hondo; ISD-K with Avenger, Boading Troopers, Pryce, Leading Shots, External, Racks, and ECM; and Morna, IG88, Jendon, Aggresor.

On the other side, Andy brought a Liberty SC with Spinals, XI7s, GTs, ETs, and Raymus; a pair of TRC90s with IOS and ETs; a pair of flotillas, one with Slicers and Quantum Storm; and four generic A-Wings. He had the bid and chose my Blockade Run because he haven’t really played that one. Here is the setup (The Kuat was on top):

Round one, I moved my Kuat straight forward at speed two. I was concerned that the CR90s would do a Madine and flank to my left. Increasing to speed three and turning inward would have been the better move perhaps. In any case, here is the close of round 1:

Round two was the Pryce round. Andy slowed his Liberty way down and maneuvered his CR90s to keep them from being jumped on by the Kuat. My squadrons were out of range to contribute meaningfully so I kept them close, in reserve for later. Here is the close of round 2:

In round three, I managed to position my ISDs to block in the Liberty. He did manage to make a crazy post-ram speed one turn in order to position for a round four escape from the trap. Here is the close of round 3:

In the fourth round, the Liberty activated first and successfully jumped the Kuat, but couldn’t escape close range on the side arc, even with the Engine Techs. I activated the ISD2 first and destroyed the TRC90 to its front and jumped to speed 3. My Kuat then activated and finished the Liberty with the BT-Avenger-External Rack shot. We called the game at that point with another solid Imperial win.

Pryce wasn’t a strong factor in this match, but she definitely helps the low activation fleet significantly. I would run this fleet again, though a bigger bid for first may be order. Jerjerrod is such a fantastic Admiral. He allowed me to position those ISDs to catch the Liberty and box it in long enough to kill it. Had Andy deployed his Liberty more centrally, he may have been able to prevent himself from being boxed in and would have escaped the trap, though I’m not certain his list has the tools to achieve a big win against Dual ISDs.

Lessons Learned:

- With ISDs, use the large bases to prevent the enemy from escaping, especially as player two.

- Blockade run is a very strong objective for Dual ISDs.

Screed Kuat & HIE Raiders vs Madine Liberty

For this match, I brought a different sort of Screed list: Kuat & Demo with ACMs, and a pair of DCap Raiders with HIEs. I had the light fighter cover of Valen & Ciena. On the other side my usual opponent, Andy, brought his Madine list from the previous week (with light modifications): Liberty, ET TRC90s, Comms Net flotilla, and Shara/Tycho + 2 generic A-Wings. He had a heavy bid and chose 1st. He selected Most Wanted and I made his Liberty the objective ship his side and the left Raider the objective ship on mine. Here is the table at setup:

In the first round, he moved forward rather tentatively. I turned to the left to move up the board and prevent a flanking maneuver by the Liberty. This left his right-most CR90 free to do its thing. Here is the close of round 1:

I unfortunately missed the second round photo, but I sped up and in round three turned inward while he maneuvered around my formation with the TRC90s and turned his Liberty to flee. In the third round, he made a critical error and ended up with the Liberty in range of Demo’s post movement shot thank to his flotilla being right in the path of the Liberty. Had the flotilla been moved first, he could have used Engine Techs to get out of the threat range, but I think he was concerned that I would activate Demo and land some solid hits on him in the meantime. I had foolishly queued up a Concentrate Fire Command on the Kuat for round 3 instead of Navigate and was unable to turn as sharply as I would have liked. I’ve managed to fork him with Demo on the Liberty and the Raider on the CR90 - both have the double arc. Here is the close of round 3:

In round four, the Liberty went first to escape Demo. I destroyed the CR90 with the Raider. The right most CR90 was then out of range to contribute. Demo continued to cling to the Liberty, which had taken pretty significant damage by this point. Here is the close of round 4:

In round five, I managed to snag a DCap/HIE hit with my left Raider and then follow that up with Demo, who landed the killing blow. We called it at that point, a solid victory for the Empire.

This was a quick game and it fairly quickly went against Andy. Choosing Most Wanted really put him on the defensive and prevented him from committing his heavy hitter in a meaningful way. On my side, I knew that I could drop the Liberty very quickly if it made a misstep, so I committed my fleet to its demise. My fork of the Liberty and CR90 at the start of round 4 cut down his firepower significantly and gave me more activation advantage. Also, forcing the Liberty to activate first meant that his Strategic Advisor had no meaningful effect for most of the game.

Looking at the setup, we both agreed that it was a bad move to choose Most Wanted, but he was sick of playing Contested Outpost, so that’s understandable. With Demo, it just does not work well to turn away from it. The best move is to fly past it, taking a volley along the way. It is maneuverable, but it can’t turn around quickly enough to give chase.

Lessons Learned:

- It is generally best to Navigate with the Kuat on turns 3 and even turn 4, especially against highly maneuverable fleets.

- When going up against Demo, if you can’t eliminate it, flying by is better than turning away.

Mon Mothma Triple MC30s vs Madine Liberty

After taking a bit of a hiatus from triple MC30s, I decided to bring them out again. I’ve primarily run Ackbar with triple MC30s, but wanted to boost survivability without Cracken, who simply works best with CR90s in my opinion. 

I went with a pair of scout type MC30s with SFO, TRC, OEs, and External Racks. One of them also had Foresight, which was my flagship. I also had a torpedo variant with Admonition, Lando, OEs, and APTs. In support, I had a Comms Net flotilla, a slicer tool flotilla, Shara/Tycho, a HWK, and a VCX.

On the other side of the table, my usual opponent, Andy, brought Madine on an MC80BC with a pretty standand build, a pair of ET TRC90s with Intel Officers, Slicer flotilla, Shara/Tycho, and a pair of A-Wings. He had a strong bid and chose first. He picked Navigational Hazards, which we’ve never played. I placed Admonition on the left/front, and the other MC30s on the right, with Foresight in the rear position. Here is the setup:

Here is the close of the first round:

In the second round, Andy tried to circle his CR90 around my left flank after Admonition activated. The MC80 got a long range shot off on my Slicer Flotilla, but failed to get the requisite accuracy. Here is the close of round 2:

In the third round, the MC80 activated first and hit both the flotilla and Admonition. With a really bad roll, he failed to finish the flotilla, leaving it with one hull. Admonition used Lando and took minimal damage. It was actually fortunate for him that the flotilla didn’t pop as he was able to ram it and avoid landing on asteroids that I had placed for that very purpose. He remained outside of close range of my two MC30 Scouts as well. I activated my lead Scout and knocked out the CR90 on the left. I put quite a bit of damage on the MC80 with Admonition, but he was left with two hull remaining at the end of the round. Here is the close of round 3 (AFTER the movement of asteroids at the beginning of round 4):

In round four, Andy moved the Liberty first, but was unable to maneuver in such a way to avoid close range of both MC30 Scouts or not land on an asteroid. He elected to land on the asteroid, drew a Structural Damage, and the MC80 was lost. We called the game at that point.

I was able to maneuver my MC30s quite successfully to get them into the right place at the right time. Navigational Hazards ended up being a very strong objective for me to combat the Liberty and to "incentivize" it to move toward the middle of my formation where I had multiple threats. On the other side, Andy got aggressive with his CR90 on the left, which allowed me to fork it on the same turn that he moved his Liberty in for an aggressive first activation double shot.

Lessons Learned

- When preparing for a round in which you have a strong first activation, make sure to hold your other assets back to prevent an unfavorable "forking".

Store Championship: Screed Interdictor & Rogues vs Thrawn ISD & Quasar

In my third game of the Store Championship at Get Your Fun On in Melbourne, FL, I was paired against Alan, who was running a Thrawn list. He had an ISD2 with Brunson and a good number of other upgrades as his flagship. In support, he had an anti-squadron type Gozanti with Kallus and Ruthless Strategists as well as a Gozanti. His squadrons were Bossk, Jendon/Steele, Tempest, Zertik, and IG88.

Here is my list: The Interdictor with Screed, HIEs, DCaps, Brunson, Targeting Scramblers, Grav Shift and Engine Techs; the Gladiator II with Demolisher, Kallus, Flechettes, OEs, and ETs; a Gozanti with a Comms Net; and my squadrons were Morna, Jendon, IG88, Boba Fett, and a pair of Firesprays.

I had bid, chose first, and gladly selected Contested Outpost. After facing various Thrawn lists and even running one myself, I was confident in my ability to go for a tabling and try to claw back up the rankings for decent showing. Here was the setup prior to my Grav Shift obstacle movement:

Round 1, I conservatively moved my Interdictor and Gozanti up and then jumped forward with Demo to try to take the Outpost and set up for the flak attack on the following round. Alan sped his ISD up to take the Outpost back. I was also able to bring up a few squadrons to hit the ISD early and tie up some squadrons with IG88, who went for the Jumpmaster. Here is the close of round 1:

In round two, I hit his squads hard out of both front and side with Demo, activating a good number of them. I was able to use Engine Techs to keep my Interdictor out of the front arc of the ISD. I was also able to keep my squadrons obstructed behind the Gozanti to prevent flak attacks from the Quasar. Here is the close of round 2:

In the third round, I cleared out all of the enemy squadrons minus Jendon and Steele, who I activated and hit with IG88 and Boba, who was low on hull (I should have withdrawn him). My Interdictor hit the ISD, who used Brunson to negate my HIEs and I rammed the Gozanti to finish it off. My bombers latched onto the ISD. Here is the close of round 3:

In round four, I continued to hammer both of Alan’s ships. My ships when for his Quasar - Demo putting in a respectable effort - and my squadrons chased his ISD. Here is the close of round 4:

In round five, I managed to finish the Quasar with my Interdictor and destroy the ISD with Morna and the Firesprays. I lost Boba Fett by unnecessarily engaging him with Steele. In the end, we each received two tokens from the Outpost. The match went very well for me and all the pieces functioned exactly as designed. Demo was able to almost completely neutralize the opposition squadrons and then hit the Quasar in the rear while my bombers dealt handily with the ISD. This one was a strong 10-1 victory that propelled me to third place, just two point shy of the first place player, who was also my second game opponent.

Great games all around and a very fun first Store Championship. Congratulations to the other Dave, who took first place.

Store Championship: Screed Interdictor & Rogues vs Rieekan Yavaris Aces

This was my second game of the store championship. My opponent’s name was also David. He brought the much feared Rieekan Aces with Yavaris, Pelta (With Adar and AFFM), Hammerhead, Toryn Chariot, and BCC Flotilla. His squadrons were Wedge, Dutch, Gold, Ten Numb, Dagger, Jan, and a pair of VCXs.

Here is my list: The Interdictor with Screed, HIEs, DCaps, Brunson, Targeting Scramblers, Grav Shift, and Engine Techs; the Gladiator II with Demolisher, Kallus, Flechettes, OEs, and ETs; a Gozanti with a Comms Net; and my squadrons were Morna, Jendon, IG88, Boba Fett, and a pair of Firesprays.

I had never flown against a Rieeken Yavaris list and was very curious what I could do against it in a stand-up fight. This ended up being a huge learning experience for me. I had bid, chose 1st player and picked his Fighter Ambush as that gave me a slight deployment advantage. I deployed my Interdictor and rogues to use the rocks in the center to my advantage and then set up Demo for a run at his squadron ball. Here is the setup:

In the first round, I tentatively advanced. I faced the Demo forward so as to not broadcast my intentions (or perhaps create some uncertainty), hoping that the squadron ball would remain tightly clustered. My primary error at this stage was to place Jendon a little too far forward to be activated (and relay) by my flotilla next round. This cost me huge as it meant the Demo had to soak way more firepower than necessary. Here is the close of round 1:

In round two, I jumped in with Demo and sprayed with flak, as planned. I was able to use Flechettes to good effect, using Screed to activate Ten Numb, who I considered the greater threat. Despite activating many of his Squadrons, the Adar+Yavaris triple tap really took a toll, despite the Targeting Scrambler support from the Interdictor. Here is the close of round 2:

In round three, I activated Demo first again to get another good volley of Flechettes off on the squadron ball before exiting with only two hull remaining. I made the mistake of Engine Teching, which prevented me from contributing any flak at all on the following round. My squadron really began to suffer badly in this round, Boba went down without being able to activate. I also lost another Firespray and failed to finish off the last hull on Wedge with Morna Kee. I also slowed the Interdictor to keep within Brunson range of the rock, which proved to be a very bad move. Here is the close of round 3:

In round four, the Pelta was able to position directly in front of me to block the Interdictor’s escape. Even with a Nav command dialed up, I couldn’t get around him. My squadrons were handily rolled up without Demo to support them. Here is the close of round 4:

In round five, I eliminated the Pelta, who became a zombie and pinned the Interdictor. It was already limping from the bombers and quickly succumbed to further bomber damage. Here is the close of round 5:

In round 6, my Gozanti escaped and that was the game. It was an 8-3 loss.

In retrospect, if I were dead set on engaging, I should have deployed my Interdictor further to the left and parallel to Demo. This would have allowed me to tentatively engage without fully committing. I could have then used my Engine Techs to disengage without risk of being blocked. My first round blunder of placing Jendon out of range of the Gozanti forced me to disengage with Demo earlier than otherwise necessary, I believe. Had these two mistakes not been made, I would have stood a better chance of coming out ahead in the squadron game. Nevertheless, even had my play been better here, the Toryn-backed squadrons triple-tapping my own would have been highly taxing and it may have at best been a wash. Going forward, I think that my best approach to the Rieekan Yavaris Aces list is to avoid engagement and entanglement. The strongest counter to that list is to quickly eliminate the ships, especially Yavaris, and my Interdictor/Rogue list simply does not have the tools to do this effectively.

Lessons Learned:

- Keep Jendon in range to be activated and utilize relay!

- Position your flagship, during deployment, in such a way as to allow for escape should it be necessary.



- If a quick, decisive victory is not practicable against a Rieekan Yavaris list, do not commit to engagement.

Added Note:

I set it up and ran the first four rounds again as best I could from the photos. The changes on my side were as follows: I deployed the Interdictor further to the left and parallel Demo, I kept Jendon within activation range, I spread my squadron out from round two on to counter Ten Numb, and when I hit with Demo, I reserved the guaranteed Screed crit for Wedge. These changes allowed me to keep IG88 alive far longer, push more squadrons into the edges of the fray with the Gozanti, and prevent Demo from taking as much bombing damage. By round four, I had established definite squadron superiority.

That said, I am not a practiced Rieekan/Yavaris user and perhaps the other David would have had something further up his sleeve, but giving myself the option to disengage would have, I believe, limited my loss to a 6-5 or at worst 7-4.

Store Championship: Screed Interdictor & Rogues vs Ackbar Doom Pickle

This was my first game of my first Store Championship. Random pairing resulted in me playing my usual opponent, Andy, and his Ackbar MC80 list. He had the MC80A kitted out with the very strong Defiance, EWS, ECM, Leading Shots, X17s, Strategic Advisor loadout. He then had a pair of TRC90s, Comms Net flotilla, and a light squadron component consisting of Shara, HWK, X-Wing, and a pair of VCXs.

Here is my list: The Interdictor with Screed, HIEs, DCaps, Brunson, Targeting Scramblers, Grav Shift, and Engine Techs; the Gladiator II with Demolisher, Kallus, Flechettes, OEs, and ETs; a Gozanti with a Comms Net; and my squadrons were Morna, Jendon, IG88, Boba Fett, and a pair of Firesprays.

I had the bid and chose to go second, knowing that Andy was tooled out for second player. Giving him first really threw him off balance. He chose my Superior Positions and deployed in formation away from the rocks. I moved a couple obstacles closer to help with Brunson, but they were otherwise a non-factor. I missed the setup picture, but in the first round, Andy moved in aggressively with his CR90s, hoping I think, to knock out Demo early or to force it into a bad position. Demo hit the lead CR90 and in the squadron phase, the X-Wing was brought up to cover the CR90. I knocked it out along with a VCX but was unable to finish the corvette. Here is the close of round 1:

Next round, the lead CR90 put some damage on Demo, but then I activated Demo and finished it off before jumping out of range of his other two combat ships. I started to hit the remaining CR90 with my bombers and did work on his squadrons, but definitely made a big mistake by not using IG88 to knock out the HWK - hitting the marginally useful VCX instead. This allowed him free reign to tie up my Firesprays with Shara in the following turn. Here is the close of round 2:

Round three saw the destruction of the Gozanti, the CR90, and some heavy damage on the MC80 thanks to HIEs and Morna/Jendon. Shara did work on my Firesprays, which were not able to contribute against the flagship. I also moved Demo away as I didn’t think it would be needed again, which was another big mistake. Here is the close of round 3:

Round four, the MC80 was starting to limp. I’m kicking myself at this point about losing the Firesprays and withdrawing the Demo. Here is the close of round 4:

Round five and Jendon was out of range to contribute against the MC80, which was desperately repairing, dropping my damage output significantly. Here is the close of round 5:

In round six, the MC80 escaped with a single hull point remaining. It ended up being an 8-3 in my favor. Andy most certainly made a mistake in being so aggressive with the CR90s early on. It allowed me to knock out some key firepower early on and rack up some points from Superior Positions. Me giving him first player was a tough break and he calculated that going for an aggressive tabling before my Rogues could swarm his ships was his best chance at victory. Had he played more defensively, the result may have been different, but it was a tough matchup for him.

Lessons Learned:

- Knock out Intel right away! Allowing Shara to move into a prime position leads to terrible results.

- After a first pass with combat ship (Demo, Admonition, etc), consider positioning for a late game follow-up if at all practicable.