Friday, July 5, 2019

VASSAL Fleet Exercise Round 1: Dave vs Outbound Flight

In this VASSAL tournament, we had a number of restrictions on fleet building to encourage unorthodox playing. After some consideration, I settled on another Screed list. I brought a Kuat with Pryce (best upgrade ever), HIEs, ACM, Fire-Control Teams, and ECM; a Raider II with Brunson (second best upgrade), HIEs, and Disposable Capacitors; a Gozanti with Comms Net; and a squadron wing consisting of Ciena, Boba, IG88, 2 Firesprays, and 2 Aggressors.

In the first game, I was paired against Outbound Flight, who definitely outdid me in terms of sheer unorthodoxy. He brought 2 Nebulons with Salvation and Redemption titles (We need some Justification and Sanctification while we get theological), Dual Turbolaser Turrets, and Projection Experts; 3 CR90s with DTTs and Engineering Teams (one with Admiral Leia on board); and a pair of GR75s with Repair Crews.

Going into the round, I knew that I had a strong advantage with my unopposed squadron wing, A slightly higher bid, and Pryce (Turn 2 of course). I picked his Capture the VIP. Here is the deployment:



In the first round, I just missed the VIP token with my Raider. I moved my squadrons forward (into flak range), but otherwise it was an uneventful round. Here is the opening of round 2:



In the second round, I positioned the Kuat for the kill against one of the CR90s. I used my squadrons to destroy the GR75 that had picked up the token. This let me drop it again behind the opposing ships. Here is the opening of round 3:



In the third round, I destroyed the CR90 in front of the Kuat and then moved in front of the Nebulons, hoping to block one of them in. My squadrons dropped the Leia CR90 to a single hull, but failed to get the kill. Unfortunately, I had to restart Vassal, ending my log, and I forgot to grab pictures of the next several rounds. In the fourth round, I managed to procure the exact right roll to one-shot Salvation, thanks to HIEs and ACMs. I also lost my Gozanti to a bunch of ramming. In the fifth round, I was able to finish off Redemption with my squadrons. I lost my first Firespray due to bad placement on my part. In the sixth round, I was able to snatch up the VIP and drop Leia’s CR90 back down to a single hull after it had completely repaired. I also lost a second Firespray, again due to bad placement on my part. Here is the close of the game:



I ended up with a solid win, despite some lapses in my judgment. Outbound Flight played a good game, but was not well equipped to handle squadrons. He deserves great credit for bringing an unconventional fleet with an interesting concept. I like the idea of an MSU list that is geared to tank damage. It worked really well against my squadrons when I wasn’t quite able to finish off the flagship. It did not work as well against the spike damage of the Kuat.

On my side, the Raider underperformed. It is able to put out a fair amount of damage against a larger target, but didn’t manage to contribute much against other small ships. The Kuat really pulled its weight thanks to Pryce. She negated the massive activation disparity. My squadrons did fine work, though I miss Morna and the damage that she can put out.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.