VASSAL Fleet Exercise Round 2: Dave vs Cyborg Ninja

In the second round of the Vassal tournament, I was paired with CyborgNinja, who was running a solid non-Yavaris Rebel squadron-heavy list. He had an Adar Assault Frigate, Dodonna on a TRC90, an HIE CR90B, and two GR75s with Toryn and BCC. His squadrons consisted of Hera, Dutch, Jan, 3 X-Wings, and 2 Scurrgs. I picked his Fighter Ambush and we got down to the business of deployment. Here is the setup:

In the first round, I advanced at speed two (instead of 3) with the Kuat to delay the squadron contest, which I was fairly certain to lose. I tried to keep my squads close in order to draw the enemy into flak range if he wanted to engage. I ended up losing IG88 to Dutch and Hera. Both were able to procure the requisite accuracies. Here is the opening of round 2:

During the second round, I squeezed the Kuat in between the asteroids to make for the front of the Assault Frigate (this was at the end, thanks to Pryce). This may have been a bad move as I bumped an X-Wing, which was able to reposition to cover the single health Jan and protect her from Boba. I lost one of my Aggressors and one of my Firesprays. Hera and Dutch were quite brutal and my rolls were very subpar. I did manage to finish an X-Wing. Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, I used flak with the Kuat. I fail to bring down Dutch, but managed to finish off Jan. I tried to block the Frigate in, but it was able to increase to speed three and just just barely squeeze past the Kuat. I dropped the BCC flotilla with the Raider and was able to finish off Dutch and Hera, though I did lose Boba. Here is the opening of round 4:

In the fourth round, I activated the Raider first and hit the Frigate before landing directly in its path. I succeeded in preventing it from escaping the double-arc (side and rear) of the Kuat. Ciena and the Aggressor went down while I was able to destroy an X-Wing. The Assault Frigate was destroyed, thanks to the Heavy Ions and ACMs. Here is the opening of round 5:

In the fifth round, my Raider killed the Scurrg and the X-Wing tied down my last Firespray. We called it there and I conceded the loss of the Firespray, assuming that he would kill it in the final round. Here is the final board state:

This was a nail-biter; a really good game. It could have easily gone either way. Had I held back with the Kuat in round 2 instead of jumping forward, I might have done better in the squadron game, but that isn’t a foregone conclusion. CyborgNinja’s squadrons were at a large advantage and I’m pleased that, despite some terrible rolls on my side, I was still able to eliminate a good number of those squadrons. Hera and Dutch did especially good work for him. The real clincher of this game was when my Raider blocked the Assault Frigate. This gave me the points to take the victory.

I believe that I misplayed the Kuat. I went speed two on the first round and speed three on the second. Going speed three from the beginning may have allowed me to close with the Frigate at the top of round three. Alternative, setting Pryce for round three and playing it conservatively would have been a better choice than the one I made.

CyborgNinja played a really good game and he has a solid list.