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.