VASSAL Tournament Round Robin: CommanderDave vs Roquax

This was game two of the round robin among the finalists from the Autumn Vassal Tournament. Roquax brought a high-activation MSU/Yavaris Aces list. He was sporting Yavaris with FC/FCTs, a pair of Hammerheads with ExRacks, plus another lifeboat with Dodonna on board, an Adar flotilla, a Toryn/BCC flotilla, and his squadrons were Luke, Ten, Dutch, Corran, Gold, B-Wing, and a pair of VCXs. The squadrons themselves are something of the gold standard of Rebel-Yavaris builds and can absolutely wreak havoc. The MSU approach dramatically reduces the risk of tabling while allowing Yavaris to wait out the other player. It’s a scary list. Roquax is a very experienced opponent who knows his list well, so I knew not to expect any blunders from the other side. Fortunately, he was running Contested Outpost as an objective, which pairs beautifully with my list. I was able to Grav Shift the station toward my side. Here is the setup:

In round 1, I tokened up with Demo and my flotilla and used Engine Techs to claim the station with the Interdictor. He used Adar and Toryn to double-tap with Corran and drop one of my Firespray to a single hull before return to his lines. IG88 pounced on his generic B-Wing in the squadron phase. Here is the close of round one:

In round 2, I activated Demo first, fed Bossk into the meat-grinder with a token, and was able to flak his entire squadron ball. This allowed me to activate Luke, Dutch (Thanks Screed), and Gold with Flechettes. With my Interdictor, I used Heavy Ions to soften Yavaris with Disposable Capacitors, and to soften the right most Hammerhead. My Gozanti allowed Bossk to tap Corran again and finish him off, IG88 to finish the generic B-Wing, and send Morna over to peck away at Luke. Ten Numb was able to triple tap on Bossk and bring IG and Jendon down to almost nothing. The VCX and flak finished Bossk and Jendon. One of my Firesprays hit Yavaris in the side, dealing an extra hull damage (so important), and the single hull Firespray softened the Hammerhead some more. Here is the close of round two:

In round 3, I activated the Interdictor first and was able to finish off the flanking Hammerhead. I then used HIEs on Yavaris to bring down its last front shield and drop the hull to 2. This let me burn my Nav token to double-ram and finish Yavaris off before it could activate. Demo used flak from the front, double-rammed Toryn, and then used flak from the side to reduce the opposing squadron ball to mostly scraps. Here is the close of round three:

In round 4, I activated Demo, used flak on the squadron remnant to activate both Dutch and Luke, double-rammed the Adar flotilla to finish it off, and put some damage onto the Hammerhead. Roquax then had to activate the Hammerhead so it could deliver its payload. In return, the Interdictor finished off that Hammerhead and rammed the Toryn flotilla to finish that off, leaving his life-boat as the only remaining ship on a trajectory that would put it solidly in the Interdictor kill-zone. Roquax conceded at this stage, giving me a solid victory. Here is the final board state:

In this game, all of my pieces functioned as designed. I was able to choose an objective that was highly advantageous to me and use the Grav Shift. My Demo used Flechettes to mostly neutralize the opposition squadrons. My Heavy Ions did great work softening the opposing ships. The Interdictor, though not as flashy as Demo, was the star - eliminating two Hammerheads, Yavaris, and Toryn in two rounds of fighting. My Firesprays were well-played, remaining in the rear as a flexible presence to add the requisite damage when needed. Bossk and IG88 did their jobs, acting as meat-shields for Demo. I misplaced Jendon in round two, which caused the Interdictor to overlap. This let Roquax place him at range 1 of Bossk for the Ten Numb triple tap. I could also have locked Ten down with Morna instead of playing conservatively with her, but I wanted her to kill Luke and then be available for bombing rather than being so tied down.

On the other side, Roquax misjudged the reach and/or efficacy of the Screed-enhanced Flechettes. This took him by surprise. I suspect that in a re-match, the result would be different.