2019 VASSAL Autumn Tourney Round 2 vs BrobaFett

I was paired against BrobaFett in round 2. I had never played him before, but I knew him by reputation as a sort of Thrawn 2-Ship expert. He dropped the Quasar in favor of an Arquittens with Needa and TRC. His ISD2 was heavily equipped with Avenger, Pryce, GT, LS, QBC, and Boosted Comms. His squadron ball consisted of Morna, Maarek/Jendon, Hondo, Jonus, and Dengar. We had the same bid and rolled to determine initiative. He won and chose first. He then picked my Fighter Ambush. I deployed my squadrons a ways away from his as I was concerned about him using Hondo to pull one of my squadrons into his MMJ mulching machine early on. We both set Pryce to round 2. Here is the opening of round 1:

In the first round, Broba’s ISD charged in at speed 3. I maintained a comfortable speed 1 with my own ISD while jumping to speed 4 with the Raider. In the squad phase, Morna, Maarek, and Jonus all hit the Raider while Hondo pulled Morna out of Flechette range. Thanks to Iden, I only lost my front shields. My own squadrons began to soften the ISD up. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, the Arquittens scored a critical on the Raider when I chose to cancel the double hit instead of the critical. This resulted in the Raider’s inability to resolve any critical effects. So much for Flechettes. I hit the ISD hard (ExRacks would have been so much better) and jumped out of the front arc to try to catch the Arquittens. Broba’s ISD activated and he used his squads to assassinate my Morna and then did a really great maneuver that landed him at long range of my own ISD. I tied up MMJ with Dengar and Tel on either side. Hondo activated one of my Decimators. The remaining 2 Decimators scored victory tokens on the ISD. Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, Broba’s ISD was hurting and needed to go first. He took down my Gozanti and used Hondo and Jonus to hit my ISD before laying into it with his own front arc. He wasn’t quite able to escape my own ISD front arc. My Raider hit the Arquittens with a double-arc and jumped to long range. The Arquittens softened the rear of the Raider. My ISD fairly easily finished off Broba’s flagship. In the squadron phase, Tel Trevura really earned his pay by keeping MMJ occupied. My Decimators finished off Maarek. Here is the opening of round 4:

In round 4, I forgot to spend my squad token to activate my damaged Decimator. I paid for this by losing it to a near perfect roll from Hondo before it could activate. My ISD chased the Arquittens. I also forgot to flak. I was definitely running out of mental steam at this point. Here is the opening of round 5:

In the fifth round, I forgot to use that squadron token yet again, which allowed a single hull Hondo to activate and roll a perfect four hits to eliminate Tel. I lost another Decimator to Morna, but in the sixth round was able to finish off Jonus. The Arquittens managed to stay at long range thanks to a banked Nav token and escaped with only 2 hull remaining. Here is the final board state:

Going into this one, I really didn’t feel like I had a reliable strategy. I wasn’t sure if I was going to play it conservatively and try to win the squadron fight or go for the ISD. When Broba charged out, he made the decision for me. When I got the critical effect on the Raider in round 2 that neutralized flechettes, it similarly forced me into the position of pinning all my hopes on the destruction of the ISD. I made a number of mistakes in the squadron fight that Broba was able to exploit to obtain superiority in that fight. He is definitely a formidable opponent. Great game, a real bloodbath, which is exactly what I expected.

Here are some thoughts on upgrade choices: my Raider did really decent work, but Flechettes are incredibly underwhelming on this platform. ExRacks would have been significantly more useful. Iden and Corvus are both fantastic upgrades. I will certainly continue to use them. HIEs were of limited value in this fight because of all the shield stripping that the Raider did on the approach. LTTs did good work, but I totally forgot to flak and use them to give me an edge in the squadron fight. They would have helped immensely in round 4 and 5. I was very clearly fatigued and need to print out a flow chart or checklist to mitigate against mistakes like this. I dropped Mauler Mithel to add Tel Trevura to my squadron ball and he was totally worth it. He may be my new favorite squadron (or second favorite after Morna). I effectively tied down Morna and Maarek by using him on one side and Dengar on the other. His escort prevented them from attacking Dengar or any Decimators. On the other side, Hondo worked really well. He is great at pulling vulnerable friendly squads out of compromising positions and shutting down key opponents. I’ve certainly got my eye on him to try it out.

Bottom line: Fantastic game, great learning experience and so tense from round 1 all the way through the end. Thanks Broba.