Jerjerrod Dual ISD vs Sloane Quasar & Demo

For this match, I brought a list run by Viktor Tanek in the Autumn Vassal Tournament. I’ve had little practice with dual ISDs, so this was a learning experience on my end. The list had Jerjerrod on an ISD2 (on right) with Avenger, a Kuat (on left) with Devastator, Slicer Gozanti (far left), and Comms Net Gozanti (on right). On the other side, Andy brought a Sloane Quasar with Montferrat and Squall, Demo (Glad II ) with Brunson, a pair of Gozantis, and a squadron ball consisting of Maarek/Jendon, Jonus, 3 Defenders, a Tie Bomber, and a Firespray.

I had bid, took first, and chose his Station Assault. Being that he had only two combat ships, I decided to rush him for the tabling. I chose to mostly ignore the stations. Thanks to my lack of deployments, I got stuck with my Kuat on the far side, but wasn’t overly concerned thanks to my good Admiral. Here is the setup:

On turn one, I advanced, turning inward very heavily. Here is the close of round 1:

On turn two, I positioned the ISD2 to hit Demo at the top of the following round. I figured he had little chance to withstand firepower of that magnitude. The Kuat moved in to help with the flak. My Gozanti went down. Here is the close of round 2:

On turn three, I hit Demo with the ISD2 and followed it up with a ram. This action left it on a single hull remaining, thanks to Brunson cancelling my sole double hit. My plans ackwardly hinged on destroying Demo in the single shot. It was then able to unload on my flagship and make its escape. It was a Gladiator II variant with Jonus next door and I shifted EWS to the side to protect against fighters so I ended up taking some pretty significant damage. I put out some flak with the Kuat, but wasn’t able to do much more before the squadrons finished off my flagship. Here is the close of round 3:

On turn four, I was stuck ramming the Gozanti. I Darth Vadered the ECM on the Gozanti and then shot the Quasar with Devastator dice at long range. The squadrons applied quite a bit of pain. There is the close of round 4:

On turn five, I took a parting shot at the station and attempted to exit the fight. The squadrons finished me off though for a thorough tabling.

I cannot say that I played this one particularly well. During deployment, I should have kept the ISD2 toward the rear of the deployment zone and then dropped speed a bit on turn 1 in order to let the Kuat catch up. Alternatively, on turn two, I should have maneuvered for the double-arc shot at medium range on the Demo instead of driving right up into close range with only the single arc. Overconfidence was most certainly my downfall there. After failing to kill Demo with the ISD2, which (on hindsight) I had relatively small chance of doing anyway due to Brunson, I knew that the game was lost. Without Jerjerrod, I was also unable to maneuver the Kuat to make an escape, and thanks to solid Gozanti positioning on Andy’s part, I couldn’t even get in closer to the Quasar. If I had shot the closest Gozanti instead of the Quasar, it may have been a superior move, but the final outcome would have been the same.

On the other side, Andy deployed well. Placing Defenders on the left (according to the pictures) early in the deployment phase was a good choice. I had to place my Kuat on one side or the other of the ISD2. He was then able to easily reposition those speed five squadrons on the first turn. He also did a nice job of using the Gozantis to block the approach to the Quasar. At the time, I thought that he was being a bit too aggressive with Demo as second player. It may have been wise to keep it as a finisher after the fighters had softened an ISD, but it’s hard to argue with results. The double arc at the top of round 3 really sealed the fate of my flagship and then removed the possibility of a tabling when he jumped behind my formation. The squadrons were played well and the fact that they were a good number of generics limited the Kallus impact. Well played, solid game!