VASSAL Tournament Round 4: CommanderDave vs JJs Juggernaut

Round four of the Vassal Tournament was played to decide the victor of the NA East section. JJ’s list consisted of an MC75 with Bail, Ordnance Pods, and Ruthless Strategists, Yavaris, a Toryn flotilla, and an Adar/BCC flotilla. The squadrons were Corran, Dutch, Gold, Ten Numb, and 6 generic Y-Wings.

On my side, I had a heavily upgraded Interdictor (as they should be), Kallus/Flechette Demolisher, Vector/Hondo Chariot, and a Rogue ball consisting of Morna/Jendon, Bossk, IG88, and two Firesprays. I had bid, chose 1st and his Fighter Ambush (the only viable option), and here is the setup:

Turn one, I aggressively pushed my ships forward, hoping to catch some squadrons in Demo’s front arc for the following turn of flak. I also wanted to position my Interdictor to begin using The HIEs on the 75 starting on the following turn. JJ played it conservatively, pulling his fighters back. Here is the close of round 1:

Turn two, I activated Demo first and maneuvered around to catch most of the fighters in the side arc for flak. I also managed to activate Dutch and Corran. With a token, I placed IG88 in front of Demo. IG managed to tie up the bulk of his squadrons for the round. My Interdictor did it’s thing, using HIEs to chip away at the 75. The Firesprays are held in reserve. Here is the close of turn 2:

Turn three, I again activated Demo first and Flechette-activated Dutch and Corran. I used my Engine Techs, preventing me from pushing Bossk fully into the meat-grinder to soak up those squadron hits. Ouch. Bright Hope blocked my Interdictor in. The 75 rammed my Interdictor and landed on the rock. My Firesprays remained in reserve. Here is the close of round 3:

Turn four, Bail kicked in to let JJ activate the 75 first. It had a squadron command and managed to use it to finish off Demo, earning him 3 tokens in the process. He also shot the Interdictor, but it was relatively ineffectual thanks to Brunson and Scramblers. He was forced to ram and land on the rock a second time. I rammed the Toryn flotilla to death with the Interdictor. I was also able to reposition Morna to cover the Interdictor. I was hoping to finish the 75, but that pesky Gold Squadron is not actually heavy. The Firesprays finally pounced on Yavaris. Here is the close of round 4:

In turn five, I activated the Interdictor first and finished off the 75. Yavaris was able to just barely kill Morna with Gold, a Y-Wing, and a final flak shot. Bossk/Jendon finished off Dutch before Corran killed Bossk. The Firesprays finished out the round and the game by destroying Yavaris. Here is the final board state:

This was a really epic game for me. I practiced against JJs list ahead of time to see how things would go down. Because of that, I was highly confident that he would crush me in the squadron game if I went head to head. I had a rough idea ahead of time on how I would attack his fleet depending on how he deployed - which side of the MC75 that Yavaris was placed and the initial facing. The Fighter Ambush objective really helped me with deployments here. On his side, he mentioned that he hadn’t really looked at my list ahead of time, so I feel like I was going into this one well prepared. The obstacles were a bit of a help to me as well. I was able to Grav Shift them over (primarily that long, narrow one) from the center after deployment in order to guarantee the Brunson effect and to disrupt his formation.

I made a couple of key mistakes. I used Engine Techs on my Demo on turn three, which took me too far from the later squadron support of Bossk and Morna. Also in turn three, I shot the rear flotilla with the Interdictor instead of Bright Hope directly in front of me. It turned out alright, but I may have been able to knock that pesky Toryn out a round earlier than I did.

Strong positive moves included sacrificing Bossk, IG88, and Morna to strategically cover my ships. Those three squadrons did fantastic work occupying the bulk of JJs squadrons during key rounds. I also utilized Demo to solid effect with the flak. This effectively drew squadrons behind JJs formation and away from the Interdictor. Kallus/Flechettes kept Dutch and Corran out of the fight for the most important rounds.