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.

2019 VASSAL Autumn Tourney Round 1 vs ChavoGuerrero

For this tourney, I decided to run an Admiral that I’ve never used before: Ozzel. I stuck him on an ISD2 with HIEs and LTTs among other things. I also brought a Flechette Raider with Corvus and Iden to try that combo out. In support, I had the Comms Net Gozanti and a squadron ball consisting of Tel Trevura, Dengar, Morna, and 3 Decimators. I expected a bunch of SSDs but was sadly disappointed.

In the first round, I was paired with ChavoGuerrero. He brought a pair of Thrawn Dictors that were kitted out to tank. He also had Demo as a closer and a very good reason for me to not choose 2nd player. In support, he had a pair of Slicer Gozantis. I picked first player knowing that I’d be facing an uphill battle against Chavo’s objective suite. Ion Storm was a bit of a surprise as I was expecting Rift Assault. Regardless, the yellow and blue objectives were more painful for sure (I’ll let you guess them), so Ion Storm it was. Here is opening of round 1:

In the first round, I passed a Nav token to the ISD in order to jump up to speed three when combined with the Ozzel effect. This was overly aggressive for sure, but I really wanted to get a nice shot off in the next round. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, I passed another Nav token to the ISD, hoping to use it to drop to speed 1. Unfortunately, the slicer Gozanti scored a critical and used the objective effect to make me discard the Nav token. This was about the worst thing that could happen as I really wanted to stay in front of the Dictors, but without ramming and landing on asteroids. Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, I activated the Raider first and finished off Demo. Chavo’s left Dictor finished off my Raider, and my ISD over-shot the battlefield. Here is the opening of round 4:

In the fourth round, I continued to work away at the Dictors with my Decimators. My ISD contributed as it was able. Thanks to an over abundance critical and accuracy results from my Decimators, both Interdictors were still in the game at the opening of round 5:

In the fifth round, I was able to kill an Interdictor with my Gozanti by activating one of the Decimators first thing. The remaining Interdictor had Wolff on board and was repairing like mad. Here is the opening of round 6:

I was 2 damage shy of sealing the deal in the sixth round. The Interdictor escaped and, while the victory went to me, Chavo managed to hang on to his tournament points in a matchup that was not favorable to him from the outset, so great job there. He deployed the rocks well and managed to keep a nice close formation that really kept me on my toes. Those Dictors can really do damage over time when allowed the double-arc, so I was cognizant of that on my approach. Really good game.

Thoughts on Upgrades:

Linked Turbolaser Towers are fantastic on the ISD2. I used them every shot. Corvus & Iden are also wonderful. Iden allowed the Raider to survive a Demo run and then plant a nice Raid token on the Interdictor to complicate the repairs. Corvus let me deploy the Deci-swarm and then redeploy later. Good stuff.

Thrawn Dual Dictors vs Piett SSD

In this game, I wanted to run a Thrawn list that I’ll be facing in the Autumn Vassal Tournament. It consists of a pair of Interdictors, a Demo, and a pair of Slicer Gozantis. On the other side, Andy brought a Command SSD with Piett, TEA!, Rapid Launch Bays, and an assortment of other upgrades with a Comms Net Gozanti in support. The squadrons in the RLBs consisted of Maarek/Jendon, Rhymer, and a pair of Defenders. Andy had a 1 point bid and chose second. I picked his Abandoned Mining Facility, which was one of my objectives as well and I really wanted to try out with an Interdictor. Here. Is the opening after the Grav Shift:

In the first round, I grabbed a bunch of victory tokens from my mining efforts. I accidentally set Demo to nav instead of repair and missed that token. Oops. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, I scooped up more victory tokens and made the mistake of activating Demo before the SSD. Andy was able to point the thing at Demo and even positioned himself for the double-arc. In the third round, I activated Demo first, but was unable to reposition and the SSD proceeded to kill it with help from the RLB squadrons. My Gozanti also went down. Here is the opening of round 4:

In the fourth round, I lost my flagship Interdictor. In the fifth and sixth, I did more damage to the SSD and he almost finished off my remaining Dictor. Here is the final board state:

This was a narrow defeat with 16 victory tokens earned on my side counterbalancing the loss of most of my fleet. The takeaway point is that Abandoned Mining Facility is a fantastic objective choice for any fleet with a Grav Shift Interdictor.

Ackbar Proximity Mines vs JJ SSD!

Now that I had my copy of Rebellion in the Rim, I decided to try out an Ackbar fleet that heavily utilized proximity mines. I brought an Assault Frigate with LTT, ECM, Walex, and GT; an MC75 with QBT, LS, GT, ECM, ExRacks, and Strategic Advisor; a pair of Comms Net GR75s (one with Sabine); and a squadron component of Shara/Tycho, Lando, and Mart Mattin. On the other side, Andy brought his new SSD with JJ, Ravager, Intel Officer, Kallus, Ozzel, LS, Spinals, QTC, QLT, and PDR. In support, he had a pair of Gozantis, one with Comms Net, the other with Repair Crews as well as a pair of TIE fighters. We tied on bid (none), he won the roll, and picked my Surprise Attack. Here is the deployment:

The first turn involved a JJ turn to avoid some mines. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second turn, Andy dropped to speed 0 to avoid coming into range of my guns. I moved into range of his instead. I parked Mattin on the station in order to start dropping mines on the SSD. Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, Andy increased speed and hit both of my combat ships at long range. I jumped out of range with my Frigate while staying at long range with the MC75. Here is the opening of round 4:

In the fourth round, Andy was able to do a JJ turn into his own Gozanti in order to ram it and stay in place, out of range of the Assault Frigate. A cheesy but effective move. My MC75 was able to keep pace with damage alright, thanks to the Comms Net tokens and repair dials. Here is the opening of round 5:

In the fifth round, I dropped a Gozanti and a TIE and tried to set up for a final round close range double arc in order to score half points. Here is the opening of round 6:

In the sixth round, Andy performed a JJ turn, which took his SSD out of range of the Frigate and moved it from medium range to long range of the MC75. I destroyed the second Gozanti and TIE fighter, which gave me a 7-4 win.

Proximity Mines: They might be more effective against low-hull targets like MC30s and CR90s, but against the SSD, which also has the double flak dice, they were entirely useless. I used Mattin’s bomb ability a couple time, but ended up forgoing it by the end in order to just throw dice.

JJ on the SSD: I wonder if FFG neglected to fully play test the SSD with Jerjerrod. The movement is just wacky. At speed one, any other ship (even with JJ) would be closer to the enemy after executing a maneuver in the direction of the enemy. Not the SSD. You can actually get much further away because of the major nose rotation. Also, being able to ram ships that are next to you and not remotely in front of you is really strange. JJ ends up feeling a bit "gamey" in the way he maneuvers the SSD. That being said, he is absolutely the best Admiral for this ship, hands down. A solid way to deal with him is to get in nice and close to the side in order to prevent that sort of movement. Large bases with ECM seem to be well suited to this. Having activation superiority (5 is easy to attain) also helps to accomplish this task.

Rieekan Defiance vs JJ Dual ISD

In this match, I brought a Rieekan list with an MC80 Command variant with Defiance Title, ECM, Strategic Advisor, Hardened Bulkheads, ET, HIE, LTT; an MC30 with Expert Shield Tech, OE, ACM, RBD; Quantum Storm with Ezra and Slicer Tools; a Comms Net flotilla; and a squadron ball of Shara, Tycho, Lando, and Dash. On the other side, Andy brought a Cymoon, BT Avenger Kuat, and Comms Net Gozanti. His squadrons consisted of Ciena, Valen, Jonus, and a standard TIE. He had JJ and the new Take Evasive Action, allowing his ISDs to do really crazy turns (2-2-2 at speed three). Andy took first, picked my Solar Corona, and deployed. I set up my fleet to focus on the Cymoon (on right). Here is the start of the first round:

In the first round, I moved up with the MC80 and brought the MC30 in behind to support it. Here is the opening of the round 2:

In the second round, I sliced the Cymoon but had to burn my scatter token. I also positioned my MC30 to try to catch an ISD at close range if Andy tried to close with my flagship. I was able to procure an HIE hit on the Cymoon and to knock out Ciena with my squadrons. Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, I lost Quantum Storm on the left and Andy dropped to speed zero on the Cymoon in an attempt to avoid a close range shot from my MC30. I hit fairly hard with the MC80 and dropped the Cymoon down to something like 5 hull remaining. I then pushed the MC30 up to speed 4 in order to avoid the Cymoon front arc. This proved unnecessary as Dash and Lando were able to score th requisite damage to finish the Cymoon flagship off. We called it just after that as my ships were far out of position to chase Andy’s Kuat and he was disinclined to pursue my ships. 

Link Turbolaser Towers proved to be quite valuable once again. The star of the game was the Lando squadron. Scoring a guaranteed 2-3 damage is immensely valuable as a finisher. He may be my new favorite squadron, perhaps even topping Morna Kee, who fills a similar role.

Thrawn Victory & Demo vs Raddus Profundity

For this match, I brought a list with a number of the new upgrades. I had a Victory 1 with Thrawn, Harrow/ET, Tua/ECM, OE, APT, and Linked Turbolaser Towers; Demo with Brunson, ET, OE, APT; an Arquittens with LTT and Expert Shield Techs; a Comms Net Gozanti; and Soontir, Ciena, Dengar, and Mauler. On the other side, Andy brought a Raddus list with an MC75 Profundity with a Cham/Garels Honor Hammerhead tucked inside. Not only that, but he also had 3 B-Wings stored away in the Rapid Launch Bays. I took first and tried out his Surprise Attack. Here is the opening of round 1:

The first round involved some minor positioning. I spread my squadrons out to cause problems for the turn 2 drop. In the second round, I was able to put some decent damage into the MC75 with red dice from the Victory and Arquittens as well as a Demo strike. The Hammerhead put some damage through on the Arquittens. Here is the opening of round 3:

The third round was a bit of a bloodbath with Demo and the Arquittens both going down as well as the MC75. My squadrons continued to plug away at Andy’s squadrons. I lost Soontir in exchange for a pair of B-Wings. Here is the opening of round 5:

In the fifth and final round, I was able to score just enough damage on the Hammerhead to finish it off with the Victory at long range. We called it at that point. It ended up being a close game with a slight victory to me. I was really hoping that the Surprise Attack objective would be a strong alternative to Most Wanted, but for my particular list, it had a negligible effect. Having the Comms Net Gozanti proved to be highly advantageous in countering the effects of the raid tokens. Harrow at speed 1 on top of the station was really not that vulnerable with Demo and an Arquittens on its flanks.

Harrow is a fantastic title and combined with Tua/ECM, makes the Vic1 truly formidable. Linked Turbolaser Towers is an excellent upgrade on both the Victory and Arquittens. It will be a go-to upgrade in the future. Expert Shield Tech is also a really great upgrade on low-shield ships like he Arquittens. It puts the redirect tokens to great use even after the shields are stripped.

Casual Tournament with Screed Kuat & Decimators

I made it out to a local event for the first time in quite a while, which was great. I had yet to even see the SSD in person and I was hoping to face one on the table. This was a two game tournament, which is a convenient Sunday format. I brought a Kuat with Screed, Pryce, OE, ECM, HIE, ExRacks; Raider 2 with Brunson, HIE, and DCaps; Comms Net Gozanti; and my current favorite squadron ball consisting of Mauler, Dengar, Morna, and three Decimators.

My first game was against Dan, who was running a Dual ISD list. It had a nasty ACM Kuat (on left) and a Rapid Launch Bay ISD1 (on right) with Morna, Maarek, Jendon, and Boba inside. I had the bid and picked first player and his Dangerous Territory. I deployed my Kuat and Raider aggressively at speed three. Here is the opening of round 1:

The first round started with a bang. Both of us moved aggressively to the middle. My Raider lined up for a double arc and my Decimators were able to hit the Kuat. I figured I would attack both of the ISDs head on and try to drop the Kuat fast and win the damage race. Here is the opening of round 2:

The second round saw the destruction of Dan’s Kuat. My Raider stripped the shields, he moved in close to my Kuat, allowing me to hit him with my front arc, and then my Decimators finished the job. He dropped his squadrons with RLBs, but they were too far away to shoot. Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, I had the double arc on the ISD1 and was able to move out of his front arc. He activated and attacked my Kuat with his squadrons, but was unable to do the requisite damage. My Decimators then finished off the limping ISD1. This gave me a solid first game win from a pretty ideal matchup.

In game 2, I was paired with Maxwell, who was running a Jerjerrod SSD with Ravager, DCO, Krennic, Palpatine, QTC, Enhanced Armament, QLT, HIE, Point Defense, and Gunnery Teams. His squadrons were Morna, Decimator, and a pair of TIEs. We tied for bid and rolled for it. I won, took first, and picked his Fire Lanes objective. Normally that’s a really bad choice, but I was hoping to drop the SSD for full points and contest some tokens with the Kuat while doing it. In the first round I jumped the Kuat into a nice double arc position. The squadrons all came together and fought it out. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, I activated the Kuat first and stripped the shields from the front three zones (without the use of HIEs). Maxwell used a Jerry maneuver to ram the Kuat and stay in place to keep control of the objective tokens. I destroyed the two TIEs and a Decimator for the loss of one of my Decimators. In the third round, I continued to inflict significant damage to the side of the SSD with the Kuat while also ramming to stay in place. My squadrons finished off his Morna and began to lay into the SSD. Here is the opening of round 4:

In the fourth round, I activated the Kuat first and finished off the SSD before it could activate. This gave me a strong win, despite the Fire Lane Token disparity, and a win overall for the tournament. 

My list performed well. The first matchup was highly favorable for me as my Raider and Kuat do very well against larges. Dan was certainly prepared for the SSD, but no so much for a Decimator ball. He made the mistake of setting his Pryce for round 3 while mine was set for round 2. We talked about it after and he didn’t anticipate me positioning my Kuat so aggressively. By placing my Kuat so far out on turn one, I was able to force him to close with me on turn two. This gave me very favorable shots and my Heavy Ions made short work of the shields on both ISDs.

Against Maxwell, the SSD flak gave me some trouble, but the Decimators were able to take it and carry on for the most part. Having first as well as deployment advantage let me place the Kuat ideally for a first/last maneuver and avoid his exceedingly nasty front arc altogether. I also wanted to close quickly to minimize the Krennic effect. I had the double arc on turns 2-4. He intentionally rammed the Kuat twice in order to stay in place for those tokens. That may have been a bad move. Had he managed to get a double arc with his two sides, the Kuat would have been in a lot more trouble. Had Maxwell included an Intel Officer, he would have been able to minimize the effectiveness of my brace, which would likely have had an effect. In any case, it was a good game and it was a lot of fun fighting the SSD.