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.