Florida Prime Report

Here is my Florida Prime write-up. I managed to claw my way to the regional/prime victory for the second year running. This year, I brought a very similar list to the last year, with some notable changes to the squads due to the anti-squad tech on the typical SSD. Here is my list for reference:

Assault Objective: Surprise Attack
Defense Objective: Rift Ambush
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

[ flagship ] Interdictor-class Suppression Refit (90 points)
-  Admiral Screed  ( 26  points)
-  Interdictor  ( 3  points)
-  Captain Brunson  ( 5  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Disposable Capacitors  ( 3  points)
-  Heavy Ion Emplacements  ( 9  points)
-  Targeting Scrambler  ( 5  points)
-  Grav Shift Reroute  ( 2  points) 

Gladiator II-Class Star Destroyer (62 points)
-  Demolisher  ( 10  points)
-  Agent Kallus  ( 3  points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Flechette Torpedoes  ( 3  points) 

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
-  Comms Net  ( 2  points) 

1 Tel Trevura ( 17 points)
1 Morna Kee ( 27 points)
3 VT-49 Decimators ( 66 points)
1 Dengar ( 20 points) 

My changes from the previous year involved going all-in on the Decimators for the benefit of their high resilience as well as adding Dengar and Tel Trevura to keep them going. I also changed up the objectives to provide a modicum of benefit against an SSD. I felt that Most Wanted was a weak choice for me in that match-up as well as against a Raddus fleet.

Game one was against Scott, who brought a TRC90 swarm with significant squadron support including VCXs. We tied for bid, rolled, he won the roll, and he chose second. I picked his Targeting Beacons, deployed centrally, moved some obstacles and the game was afoot. Here is the opening of round 1:

In the first round, I pushed forward, aiming to focus my ships on the left side while my Decimators occupied a central spot. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, my ships played it conservatively while my Decimators softened the first CR90 to come in range. Here is the opening of round 3:

In round three, my Interdictor softened the lead CR90 on the left with HIEs and brought the lead CR90 on the right to a single hull remaining. Scott had to activate one of them. He chose the one on the left as it was threatened with Demo before it could get a shot. My Gozanti used a CF dial to get the requisite damage to kill the lead CR90 on the right. Demo did it’s thing and the Decimators killed the trailing CR90 on the right. This left a single damaged CR90 at the opening of round 4:

In round four, Demo activated first to finish the CR90 for the tabling. Tel Trevura was able to weather the squadrons and that concluded game one with a strong Imperial victory.

Game two was against Austin, who was fresh from his Prime victory in Georgia last month. I had the benefit of knowing his list and practicing against it ahead of time. He had the standard (he sort of set the standard as far as I know) JJ Ravager build with IO, Kallus, Brunson, H9s, QBCs, QLTs, etc. I had a solid plan for second player, but alas, he guessed this and gave me first. I took his Contested Outpost and positioned the Dictor and Demo to go around either side. Here is the opening of round 1:

With Austin’s activation advantage, I really had to play cautiously. I knew that neither of my ships could survive front arc medium range fire and I also knew that his flak would be really painful even against my Decimators, so I played it conservatively. So did he. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, Austin continued to play it safe, even as I turned in aggressively with my Dictor and held the station with Demo. Here is the opening of round 3 without a single shot fired:

In the third round, I was still out of range with the Dictor. Demo drew first blood at long range and promptly exited weapons range. My Dictor was pursuing. My Decimators finally entered the fight. Here is the opening of round 4:

In the fourth round, I moved my Dictor in to start ramming the SSD. My Decimators did their thing. Austin whittled away at them. I didn’t have many obstacles to use for cover so they took a lot of damage and his single dice counter fire almost never missed. Here is the opening of round 5:

In the fifth round, the Dictor continued to double-ram and repair, kind of like a parasite really. Austin kept the SSD in place to prevent giving Demo any opportunity to contribute. Here is the opening of round 6:

In the sixth round, Austin activated his lead Gozanti, which allowed me to ram it to death with Demo before shooting the SSD at long range. I was able to get the SSD down to half points while Austin killed one of the Decimators (he rolled consistently well on the counter-Fire) as well as Tel Trevura. This gave me a 7-4 win. Good, but not great.

For game 3, I was paired against an Orlando regular, Tyler, who I had played before. I knew him to be a very competent Raddus player. Both of us understood that to win the tournament, we had to win this game big. He was running a Raddus list with a pair of Hammerheads, a pair of GR75s, and a fighter ball consisting of Dutch, Wedge, Lando, Dash, Gold, Biggs, and a YT1300. His hyperspace ship was an MC75 Ordnance type kitted out for serious brawling. I took first and selected Superior Positions. Here is the opening of round 1:

In the first round, I positioned Demo out front while keeping the Dictor in reserve. My Decimators were able to put some pressure on his obstructed YT1300. He was set up on the station and definitely had the early advantage in the squadron fight. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, I pushed Demo up to Flechette-activate Dutch and some others. I hit the Hammerhead on the right flank with a DCap HIE shot to soften it up. Dengar freed three of my Decimators to finish off the same Hammerhead, denying the ideal Raddus drop. Interestingly, Morna managed to not roll a single hit, despite rerolls. Tel Trevura went down to the opposing squadrons without getting to use his ability. Here is the opening of round 3 after the Raddus drop:

In the third round, I activated Demo to double-flak the squadrons to keep some of them them out of the fight. The MC75 moved forward fast to block in my Dictor, getting a double-arc position in the process. My Dictor stripped most of his shields and my Decimators went to work, rolling exceedingly poorly once again. I missed the fourth round picture in all the excitement. In the fourth round, I tanked the MC75 shots and continued to wear it down. Demo went after the remaining hammerhead and my Decimators finished off the MC75. Here is the opening of round 5:

At the opening of round 5, I was able to activate Demo and hit the rear of Raddus’ fleeing remnant, sealing the victory for me. Funny note, it wasn’t until this point that I realized that I should have been collecting tokens for the rear shots. I totally forgot about the objective play. Tyler, meanwhile had collected a good number. Nevertheless, it was insufficient to prevent the 10-1 victory to me. Here are the final standings:

All in all, this was a great tournament with a good bunch of guys at a solid venue (Critical Hit Games). The next two in the standings were both JJ Ravager SSD lists. Travis was running an almost identical setup to Austin, who I faced for game 2. Maxwell dropped Gozantis for Bombers and Jonus. The SSD did extremely well in this tournament. I was glad I faced one and thrilled that I was able to pull it down to half hull, especially against someone who is as competent as Austin. It’s a tough matchup for my list. Great games Scott, Austin, and Tyler!