VASSAL Tournament Round Robin: CommanderDave vs Zamalekite

This was the first game of the round robin among the top four of the Autumn Vassal Tournament so I was running my Vassal Tournament fleet with Bossk and IG instead of my regionals fleet with Ciena and Maarek. My list is outlined more completely in previous posts. On the other side of the table, Zamalekite brought a Dodonna Yavaris Aces list with an unusual squadron setup that dropped the nearly ubiquitous Dutch and Ten Numb in favor of the following: Luke, Corran, Tycho, Dagger, Scurrg, Gold, and a pair of VCXs. 

Knowing that he had no Intel, I had a reasonable hope of tying down his squadrons and wearing them down with Demo and Flechettes. My faulty assumption going into the match was that he would have either Fighter Ambush or Contested Outpost to choose from as those objective would get him points as second player. I’m fairly well practiced against those objectives and both give me a strong advantage as first player. Seeing Jamming Field across the board was a bit of a disappointment, but I figured it couldn’t score him any points and wouldn’t completely eliminate my deployment choices, so I chose that one. I deployed across from him. He counter-deployed his Yavaris and Pelta away from the Interdictor. I moved the two right-most obstacles after deployment, but they had little impact. I set the Grav Shift over there thinking that he would potentially hide out in the corner behind that nasty obstacle unless I made that impossible. On a further note, I had some trouble loading the log as a saved game and had to load it up as a new game and replay it that way. As a result, the asteroids are placed based on memory and slightly adjusted in the pictures as he replay progresses. Here is the setup:

In the first round, I moved both Demo and the Interdictor forward at full speed in an effort to reposition. I hid my Firesprays and Morna on the asteroids nearby to prevent them being jumped. Corran was able to Adar-move way over to get a shot on the left-most Firespray. Zamalekite kept most of his squadrons well out of range of the Demo shot. Here is the close of round 1:

In round two, I sent Demo ahead at full speed as well as sending IG into the fray with my Hondo token. Totally forgot about grit on those Scurrgs. They are really quite fantastic. I managed to flak three of his squadrons, but only Luke was unique, so only he was out of the game for the time being. I sent Bossk into the center to protect Demo’s right flank and to attack Tycho. I double-tapped him with Jendon. Dagger later double-tapped Bossk to eliminate him in return. I also sent Morna over to deal with Corran. Unfortunately, I was not aware that snipe prevents counter even at range one as long as part of the squadron is in the range two band. Very costly learning experience there. The result was then predictable: Morna bit the dust and so did my hope of eliminating Yavaris on that front. I evacuated my Firesprays from the area to help cover my ships and to finish off Tycho as it was clear that the battle was lost. Here is the close of round 2:

In round three, I activated Demo first once again to keep Luke tapped and to finish off Toryn with a quick ram. IG88 was finished off by flak and Gold Squadron. I sent a Firespray down to take his place. My other Firespray was destroyed by the Dagger double-tap. Corran softened Jendon up. The Scurrg managed to put some damage into Demo. I neglected to use Targeting Scramblers at one point so Demo took a bit more than he should have. The Jamming Barrier and dust cloud were key in keeping the Pelta intact. I was definitely kicking myself for choosing that objective. Here is the close of round 3:

In round four, I hit Luke again with Flechettes and then wasn’t paying attention to the tokens and stuck Demo just on the wrong side of the Jamming field, so my damage to the Pelta was negligible. I then turned away to cover my depleted front arc and prep for the evacuation. Alas, the Scurrg and some chip damage from the Pelta and CR90 were just enough to drop Demo. My Gozonti and Jendon were on the retreat. Here is the close of round 4:

In round five, I managed to finish Luke off (finally) before my Firespray died. My Gozanti rammed the opposing flotilla before being taken down by squadrons. My Interdictor got just enough damage with Heavy Ions to finish off the GR75 before making its escape. We called it at that time. I gave him Jendon as he had a single health and Corran was close by. Here is the final board state:

In conclusion, I felt grossly underprepared for this match and have few positive things to say about my performance here. I was taken unawares by the Jamming Field objective that I chose over Solar Corona. Deployment was badly done on my part. I had assumed incorrectly that he would place Yavaris and the Pelta to the right of his flotillas. This was the key mistake that, I believe, doomed my efforts from the outset. My long-shot attempt to hit Yavaris with Morna and the Firesprays on turn two ended in disaster thanks to Corran Horn, who I thought I could dispatch fairly easily. I failed to hold those squadrons in reserve and perhaps should have kept them much closer to Demo rather than splitting my forces so early. I also would have been better served in holding Demo back rather than being aggressive and only locking down a single squadron.

On a minor note, I took a shot on Gold Squadron with both IG and a Firespray while they were engaged with Luke, totally forgetting about his escort. It didn’t matter in the end, and probably would have been better for me if I had shot him instead, but my mistake there.

On the other side of the table, Zamalekite performed exceptionally well. He countered my Demolisher threat almost perfectly. His speed boosting from All Fighters Follow Me! coupled with Fighter Coordination Teams gave him unparalleled repositioning. The Adar + Yavaris combo was, of course, deadly as always. Corran was deadly, of course. He was my number one priority for Flechettes, but was never a viable target - great job there. His utilization of a generic Scurrg neutralized the threat of Flechettes and brought grit to the table to prevent him from being locked down by IG88. I was initially skeptical of his choice to not bring Jan Ors, given his strong bombing presence, but it’s clear that he can handle his squadrons well without her. In fact, in this situation, using Jan would promote clustering of his squadrons, which is the exact thing that would weaken his squadron position. His VCXs were well handled and really made his style of play possible. Locking those down would have been a great boon to me, unfortunately, that did not happen.

All in all, great game and a huge learning experience for me!

Lessons Learned:

- When measuring LOS on a squadron, measure from closest point to the arc in question. This isn’t always the center-point of the squadron base. Should have known that one.

- Snipe can only be negated if the entire base of your own squadron lies within the range one band. That one seems counter-intuitive.

- Keep the squadrons in close to Demo for mutual support when practicable if you can’t hit hard with Demo alone.

- Don’t choose Jamming barrier against VCXs if you can help it.

Edit: The TO ruled after the fact that the snipe matter is not correct, meaning I may have put some damage through on Corran Horn with Morna Kee and then finished him off with a Firespray, but it would likely have been with the Firespray that was there to finish off Luke, so the points effect would have been negligible.