Ackbar MC80 & MC75 vs Ackbar MC80 & CR90s

Ackbar v Ackbar death match right here! On my side, I’ve got an MC80, MC75, TRC90, and Comms Net flotilla. On the other side, Andy brought an MC80 or his own along with a pair of TRC90s, Comms Net flotilla, Shara/Tycho, A-Wing, and VCX. We both had 400 points, but Andy gave me second as he wanted to try going first with his fleet. He picked my Volatile Deposits and here is the deployment:

In the first round, I edged forward while he kept his distance. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, I continued to move forward. I was hoping to use my MC75 to displace his MC80 and take control of that asteroid. Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, I blundered with my CR90 and jumped up to speed 4 to get into the rear arc of the MC80. I was playing it far too aggressively for second player. Andy put a bit of damage through. Here is the opening of round 4:

In the fourth round, Andy finished off my CR90 and we both continued to circle around each other, with his CR90s catching up to my MC80. Here is the opening of round 5:

In the fifth round, I managed to secure the other asteroid with my MC75, but Andy was also able to win one with his CR90. Here is the opening of round 6:

In the sixth round, Andy was able to ram-kill my flotilla and secure both asteroids on my side while I retained control of the asteroid on his. Thanks to my amassed tokens, I managed to win with a mere 2 MOV. This may have been our closest game yet! I misplayed the MC80 by moving it up to speed 2 unnecessarily. Had it maintained speed 1 the entire game, I could have better protected my flotilla while maintaining control of the asteroid in turn 5. My CR90 was poorly played. I should have kept it well back in order to preserve it for the activation if nothing else. Good close game.

Thrawn Harrow & Demo vs Raddus Aspiration & Squads

I played against Tyler this game. It was just a casual game. I brought Thrawn on a Victory with Harrow, ETs, Tua/ECM, OE, ExRacks, and LTT; Demo with Kallus, OE, ExRacks, and ETs; Comms Net Gozanti; and my recent favorite squadron ball consisting of Tel, Dengar, Morna, and 3 Decimators. On the other side, Tyler brought a Raddus list consisting of a pair of Hammerheads with ExRacks; an MC75 Ordnance Cruiser with ECM, APTs, OE, and ExRacks; a Toryn Farr GR75; a GR75 with Boosted Comms, Adar, and BCC; and a squadron ball of Lando, Dash, Wedge, Dutch, Gold, and a generic X-Wing. I had the bid, took first, and selected Superior Positions. Here is the opening of round 1:

In the first round, I collected tokens and we started in early on the squadron fight when Tyler put Dutch within my reach. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, I jumped Demo up to throw some flak at the squadrons. I even burned my External Racks to try to knock out Dutch before he could activate. Alas, he survived the shot and was able to activate. He and Wedge teamed up to kill Tel Trevura. I used Engine Techs on both Demo and the Victory not because I needed to, but just because I could this was an error as I pushed Harrow up too far and blocked myself in with Demo’s presence. Tyler dropped Raddus in with a solid double arc on Harrow’s rear. Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, I activated Demo first and cleaned up Lando and Dutch while putting damage on the Hammerhead. Had I saved the ExRacks for said Hammerhead, I likely would have killed it. Aspiration activated and was able to kill Harrow with the double arc. I used ECM on the first shot, hoping that an accuracy would not be forthcoming in the second. Alas, Harrow died without contributing to the fight. I finished Dash in the squadron phase, but not before I finished off one of my Decimators with a perfect 4 damage roll. Here is the opening of round 4:

In the fourth round, I committed two of my Decimators to chasing down the Hammerhead, who only had a single hull remaining. Here is the opening of round 5:

In the fifth round, Demo put more damage on Aspiration and my Decimators at the bottom scored a single hit between the two of them, which Tyler was able to redirect. Here is the opening of round 6:

In the sixth round, my Decimators once again only scored a single hit between the two of them and the Hammerhead escaped giving Tyler the victory. Good game. It really went south on me with the Raddus drop, but I managed to hold on and scape up a good amount of points between the squadrons and the tokens. My Decimators failed me terribly, but that is part of the risk of bringing them. Harrow could have done well, had I played it properly, but I really blundered into that position right behind my other ship. Lesson learned: Don’t block yourself in, especially with an upcoming Raddus drop!

2019 VASSAL Autumn Tourney Round 4 vs Rikash

In game four of the Autumn Tourney, I was paired with Rikash, who was running a very interesting list: a Command-Type SSD with Jerjerrod, DCO, Woldar, Wing Commander, Flight Controllers, LS, QBT, and the Reserve Hangar Deck. His squadrons were Valen, Rhymer, an Interceptor, a Jumpmaster, and 4 Firesprays. Looking at the overall concept, the lists are quite similar: a big, heavy activation with a bunch of Rogue bombers. I like his style. I had bid and took first and picked fighter ambush. This meant it was my game to lose. Here is the opening of round 1:

In the first round, I saved the Raider for last. I then jumped up to speed 4 in order to double-arc the SSD while threatening any squadrons that elect to stick around in the vicinity. This let me do some bombing with the Decimators to start softening the SSD. It is also my key mistake in this game as it forced me to activate the Raider first, come what may. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, my Raider managed a total of two damage to the front of the SSD and then flew off. I was just inside medium range after the maneuver. Rikash was then free to alpha-strike my squadrons. He rolled nearly perfectly, even before the Woldar rerolls and cleared out Tel, Dengar, and a Decimator. The Raider was also hurting and he JJ-turned to ram it and remain on the station. My ISD then activated with a now useless squadron command. Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, I did what should have been done in the second. I activated my ISD and cleared out all of the Firesprays with my remaining Decimators. I lost another Decimator and Morna was hurting by the end of the round. Also, the Raider went down. Here is the opening of round 4:

In the fourth round, I was hoping for a Nav command, but had set a repair. I was unable to clear the SSD without an extra click along the way. This meant we were nose to nose. I had ECM and had removed the SSD Leading Shots with my Vader boarding team, but without a double-arc, I just wasn’t making much progress. Here is the opening of round 5:

In the fifth round, I yet again did not have that Nav command and was still stuck nose to nose. Rikash was only too happy to remain on the station and ram me. The sixth round brought the same and I was just shy of dropping the SSD to half health. Neither of us scored any victory tokens. Rikash was able to walk away with a very respectable 8-3 win.

I’m convinced that had I played the Raider conservatively on turn 1, I would have been able to gain supremacy in the bloody squadron fight. I had the right commands dialed in on my ISD for the first three rounds. This would have kept the Raider in reserve instead of wasting it on a marginal-value attack run. Rikash rolled extremely well on his alpha-strike, but had I hit first, it would have made a big difference in the results.

A final thought on Ozzel: had I taken Jerjerrod instead of Ozzel, three of my four games would have had more favorable results. I really wanted to like Ozzel, but I will be retiring him as a highly inferior admiral. For 3 more points, Jerjerrod is real steal.

On the other side, Rikash played it perfectly. He sat on the station and let his squadrons do their thing. He also rightly avoided my Raider on turn 1, letting the SSD take some Decimator hits and not taking the bait. Great game!

Ozzel LMSU vs Ackbar MC80

I brought an Ozzel ISD2, TRC Arquittens, HIE Raider (on left), Corvus/Iden Vader-Raider, and a Comms Net Gozanti. On the other side, Andy brought an Ackbar MC80 with Home One title, a pair of TRC90s with Intel Officers, Comms Net GR75, and a squadron ball consisting of a pair of YT2400s, Green Squadron, and a VCX. He had no bid, so I took first and selected his Intel Sweep. Here is the setup:

In the first round, I positioned my Arquittens to collect a token and move for a second. I probably should have seen the futility of that. I waited until the last to move the HIE Raider in for a long-range double-arc on the MC80. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, I stripped a bunch of shields from the MC80 with my HIE Raider, but didn’t have a great place to fly after that to avoid shots, so ended up losing it to the combined fire of Andy’s whole list. I pushed Corvus up to act as a blocker. Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, I had to activate Corvus first to avoid getting popped by the Home One side arc. Everything clustered in around the MC80, which was down to just a few hull and a couple shields remaining. Here is the opening of round 4:

In the fourth round, I activated Corvus first, totally forgot about my external racks (that’s what I get for not using cards), and failed to score the requisite two hull damage on the MC80 to finish it off. I lost both the Raider and the Arquittens. I made the mistake of activating the ISD (finishing off both the MC80 and the left CR90) before my Gozanti, which let Andy position his last CR90 in my side arc. Here is the opening of round 5:

In the end, the CR90 escaped with a single hull and Andy obtained a close victory. It was a bloody game with some pretty significant mistakes on my part. I made a poor call on activation order in the fourth round. I also was so eager to get an early HIE shot on the MC80, that I failed to provision and plan for follow up shots. I essentially fed my small ships in one per turn. My concern for picking up tokens with the Arquittens made me place it in a highly vulnerable spot. I should have turn to the right in the first turn and planned to move to the front of the line, staying out of range of both CR90s when possible. This was a really great trial of a fleet archetype that I rarely utilize.