Casual Tournament with Agate Mon Karren

I went to another casual tournament in Orlando over the weekend and brought an experimental Agate list. I had an alternate list in case there were any objections to me running a proxied Admiral. Here is the list that I ended up using:

MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 points)
-  Kyrsta Agate (com)  ( 20  points) 
-  Mon Karren  ( 8  points) 
-  Walex Blissex  ( 5  points) 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points) 
-  Linked Turbolaser Towers  ( 7  points) 
-  Spinal Armament  ( 9  points) 
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points) 
= 171 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
-  Comms Net  ( 2  points) 
= 20 total ship cost

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Jainas Light  ( 2  points) 
-  Ezra Bridger  ( 3  points) 
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 
= 64 total ship cost

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 
= 59 total ship cost

1 Shara Bey ( 17 points) 
1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 
1 Tycho Celchu ( 16 points) 
1 Lando Calrissian ( 23 points) 
= 80 total squadron cost

For the first game, I was paired with Bernie. I don’t think I had ever played a game against Bernie, but he is a regular in these parts and a frequent Interdictor user. He had a Piett list with the Dictor, Demolisher, and a BCC Gozanti. His squadrons were bomber-heavy with Maarek/Jendon, a pair of Firesprays, Rhymer, and a few others. I took first and selected his Salvage Run. Here is the opening of round 1 after the Grav Shift:

In the first round, I slowly pushed my flotilla and non-Jaina TRC90 forward to wait for Bernie’s combat ship activations. Then I pounced with Mon Karren to deliver a fast flanking movement while Jaina’s Light took to the center in order to apply some pressure on the Dictor and prepare to grab a sweet objective token. Maarek/Jendon softened Jaina up a bit while the Firesprays hit Mon Karren. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, I activated Jaina’s Light, took the token and flew out to relative safety. Bernie activated his Dictor next and hit both of my TRC90s. Next, I blundered a bit in activation order. Instead of activating my 90 that was threatened by Demo, I went with Mon Karren in order to get a shot in on Demo before it flew off. I was able to destroy the Gozanti, but did minor damage to Demo.  Demo was then able to activate and destroy my TRC90 thanks to the prior HIE shot from the Dictor.  In the squadron phase, I kept Maarek firmly occupied with Dash. The Firesprays chipped away at Mon Karen, but it was slow work against three braces. Here is the opening of round 3:

The remainder of the game involved the destruction of the Dictor by Mon Karren and the wrecking of Bernie’s squadrons by my own for the loss of Tycho. I was able to grab a second Salvage token to tie up the objective points and ended the game with a solid victory. Here is the final game state:

With a solid win on my first game I was paired next with Cameron who was running a Dodonna list with an MC80, Assault Frigate, and BCC flotilla. His squadrons consisted of Dutch, Wedge, Jan, and three generic B-Wings. He had the bid, took second, and I picked his Surprise Attack. Here is the opening of round 1:

In the first round, I used Ezra to move one of the rocks out of the way so that I could maneuver Mon Karren through safely, which I intended to use to intercept the MC80. I pushed Shara and Tycho up to engage some of his fighters in the squadron phase. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, I pushed Mon Karren up to put some damage on both the MC80 as well as the Assault Frigate. It was a bad idea to place Mon Karren in such an exposed spot, but with Agate and three braces, I figured I was basically invincible. Or something. Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, I hit both the Assault Frigate and the MC80 before jumping forward at speed three.     Jaina’s Light (On left) survived a long-ranged shot from the MC80. The other TRC90 applied some pressure on the Assault Frigate, but I was loosing the damage race at this point. Mon Karren’s shields were depleted and things were looking ugly. Turn four, I nearly escaped with Mon Karren, but Cameron scored just what he needed to finish it off at long range. Jaina’s Light also went down before it could activate. My remaining TRC90 was able to apply some damage, but it was insufficient to bring down either of Cameron’s heavy hitters and I pulled it out of the fight. Cameron was able to attain a solid win. Well done to him!

Lessons To Be Learned:

- Delay engagement when doing Surprise Attack. Thanks to my tokens, I was able to do some work in round two, but the raid was very painful in round 3 especially. Had I delayed, the raid effect may have been mitigated.

- Agate is fantastic, but still highly susceptible to a lot of small hits over time. Don’t be overly aggressive with Agate.

- Focus Fire. I had a shot on the Assault Frigate in round three with me front arc, but I should have forgone that shot to either flak the squadrons or deliver a side arc shot on the MC80.

- Be careful with CR90s. They are so incredibly flimsy. Not really news here, but I overestimated their survivability in the first game for some reason.