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Lunes, Disyembre 7, 2015
Armada: Vassal Tournament - Game 2

Armada: Vassal Tournament - Game 2

Throwing dice from both sides.

Holiday Vassal Tournament - Game 2
Objective: Contested Outpost

HERO
Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 391/400
Commander: Admiral Ackbar

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points)
-  Home One  ( 7  points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Jaina's Light  ( 2  points)
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points)

1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points)
2 YT-2400s ( 32 points)

Vs.

audere1882
Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 398/400
Commander: Admiral Motti

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
-  Admiral Motti  ( 24  points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)

Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer (110 points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
-  Demolisher  ( 10  points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)

1 "Howlrunner" ( 16 points)
2 TIE Interceptor Squadrons ( 22 points)
1 TIE Fighter Squadron ( 8 points)


Pre-game thoughts:
Going into this, I knew I was probably going to see Contested Outposts as one of the missions.  After all, my opponent is playing double ISD with Motti and there's nothing that says come at me bro more than CO.  That was a risk I was going to take because playing Minefields with Rebel large ships is a nightmare, and there's no way I'm going to let him get Advanced Gunnery.  When it was time to pick missions, surely enough, Contested Outposts was right there and it was instantly chosen by me.  I knew that I had a pretty good chance going in as long as I'm able to keep my guns pointed at the same target and just let all the damage sink in.  My ships are designed for combat and control and that's what I was going to hand out.  Large ships like the ISD are difficult to maneuver if they're too close to each other, my idea was to just dance around the side and let them hamper each other's movement; hopefully messing up their activation order.  If they deploy side by side, at least one of them will be taking the damage while the other one plays keep up.  The game plan going into the game was to bleed out as much shields as possible before going in for the kill.  With significantly less hull than my opponent, I just need to stay in the game long enough for the game plan to play out.

Deployment - Imperial outpost surrounded by rocks.  Shocking.

Then deployment came and everything started to suck.  This is exactly why going second works in your favor sometimes, and that's because they can setup exactly like this.  Three roids blocking any hope I have of contesting quickly and assaulting the outpost more aggressively, so I'm basically forced to find another way in.  Sure, why not, let's try deploying on an angle this way and dance along the edges.  Let's see the ISDs give chase.

End of 1 - Alright, let's try to bait out this Gladiator.

Nope, not very aggressive at all.  My opponent takes it really slow and creeps forward.  His Gladiator moves up aggressively on the left and so does my Raider.  I know we're heading into engagement range next round, but my idea is to lure the Gladiator out so I can hopefully slash him with my MC80 next turn.  If he turns into the MC80, I have enough angle with the MC80 to get him within target site regardless.  The rest of the fleet skits around the edges and plays the long range game, not letting any shots come in.  Meanwhile, Dash and the YTs move up to threaten his main ships with black anti-ship dice.  His fighters say nope and get in the fight.

End of 2 - Ackbar is ready to unleash justice.

Jaina's Light shoots at the Gladiator and moves slightly.  I was able to put a good amount of damage into it, but he takes the bait and is able to get up close with Demolisher and take a shot at the CR90.  I hold my breath because no ACMs or APTs so I'm expecting reduced damage here.  No damage is done even with Ordnance Experts which is fine by me.  The ISD-I plays aggressively and moves up, squadron commands see him roll a billion blue dice, no exaggeration, killing off and severely maiming the YTs.  I return fire with MKII into the front of the ISD-I and Intel his Brace.  He braces through it regardless and I'm happy with the result.  The MC80 burns engines and moves into slash position onto the ISD-II and Gladiator, but he plays it very slow with Motti's flagship.  Dash comes back and kills an Interceptor.

End of 3 - The Demolisher gets wasted and we start circling.

The MC80 activates and annihilates the Gladiator while it moves softly behind the debris.  Tokens are being banked by now and the game slows for a bit because neither MKII or ISD-I is doing too much damage to each other.  Engineering on dials are keeping both ships pretty healthy, so we basically play let's chase each other around the rocks while dodging each other's arcs.  Dash is the only guy left but his ISD-II lands on a couple of them and I put Howlrunner way back on the flagship while Dash goes to town on the other fighters without Howl's bonus.  I promptly kill the TIE Fighter dead.

End of 4 - Swooty swooty, I'm coming for that booty.

Another slow turn here as we use basic exchanges in damage and I'm peeling through the ISD-II's shields.  The MC80 turns and burns with navigate and sets up closer to Motti's flagship while dash continues to pressure from the rock.  By now, the CR90 wants to get into the action and at least contribute a couple of points of damage with the TRCs and Home One's accuracy.  Too bad I couldn't make any other turns here without blocking Home One's fat ass, so I had to go for a speed-4 all-in.  There was simply no other alternative.

End of 5 - The damage starts to ramp up on Motti's flagship.

The CR90 basically makes a suicide run into the ISD-II by throwing solid dice with TRCs but fails to make it out of harm's way.  Return fire from both ISDs bring it down obviously, but I was able to do enough damage to strip off some more shields from the front.  By this point, I'm happy with the result because it forced enough tokens to go exhausted, so my MKII and MC80 laid into the ship hard this turn for big damage.  Return fire was minimal on the ships that matter, so I can't say I'm completely sad at the loss of Jaina's Light.  She did her job just fine.  I get my first objective token of the game thanks to the range and angle provided to me via Engine Techs from the nav token.  Dash tries to throw a black on Motti's front, I get a hit but get ballsy and re-roll looking for doubles.  I get a blank instead.  Such is the price of greed!

End of 6 - The destruction of the ISD-II is complete.

So on this turn, something big happened..

KABOOM!

Home One activates first and blows away the ISD-II with some massive rolls and Leading Shots to guide a few more hits in.  Accuracies and Intel Officer is completely worthless now as he's looking to throw brace no matter what.  Doesn't matter though, the damage is overwhelming and he even flips a Structural Damage before the MKII gets to shoot.  Motti goes up in flames and the game pretty much ends here.  Return fire from the ISD-I doesn't do anything after the MKII heals it up and runs away, and I get another objective token from the outpost.  Rebels take the game 7-3 with 119 MoV!  GG audere!

Post-game thoughts:
OK, so this game kinda went how I thought it was going to go.  Putting the CR90 out really early was kinda ballsy, and not navigating on that round for CF was a little foolish of me.  However, she did do her job in luring the Gladiator out and allowing Ackbar to smash the ship next round through activation advantage.  The ISD-I chasing the MKII around was pretty funny, but that's what I was trying to do since my opponent was cunning and didn't let me use Gunnery Teams a single time that game.  I never had more than one target to shoot at, but it didn't really matter because 2 ships focusing on the ISD-II was more than enough to take it down, even with Motti providing 3 extra hull points.  My initial strategy of isolate and destroy paid off for sure.  Lastly, I want to say that turns 4-6 of setting up the MC80 to do massive damage without taking any damage and scoring the objective wouldn't be possible without Engine Techs.  Praise the techies.

Hope you liked the battle report!
Ipinaskil ni sa 4:20 PM 0 (mga) komento
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Linggo, Disyembre 6, 2015
Armada: Imperial Raiders are fantastic

Armada: Imperial Raiders are fantastic

The Raider is amazing.

I've only played a couple of games with these now, but damn, are they seriously good for the points.  It goes without saying that I think these guys will be fantastic with guys like Screed or Ozzel because of how they're able to deliver their damage.  They can get in, do some damage, and get out.  Best of all, they're' very flexible in that they can kill squadrons reliably with their black dice and re-rolls, and also have the firepower to put a dent in bigger capital ships.

I think the two most important upgrades to take with the Raider-Is are Ordnance Experts and Assault Proton Torpedoes.  Some people might look for things like Expanded Launchers, but I think that's a little too rich for my blood.  The 4-point Ordnance Experts is just one of those force multipliers that will give and keep on giving.  If you roll poorly, OE will help turn those crappy blank blanks into double damage triggers.  When shooting at enemy squadrons with black dice, you can re-roll any blanks you might have for almost a guaranteed double hit.  This amount of firepower is just overwhelming coming from such a small ship, and with a command value of 1, you can easily queue up Concentrate Fire when you get in close range to completely surprise your opponents.  Just the other night, I was able to drop in the front arc of an enemy MC80 and put out double-arc shots from the front and side, adding a black to my side dice, scoring TWO crit triggers for my Assault Proton Torpedoes, and since I wanted him to stay in place, I just rammed him.  Boom, front shields gone, a flipped redirect token, 2 face-up crits and a face-down card from the ram.  All from a ship that's literally a third of the points.

For the Raider-II variant, I think we're looking for Screed triggers here.  As most of you know, Screed likes to turn ineffectual dice results into criticals.  Luckily for us, the Raider-II has plenty of blue dice to throw out and the option to take things like Overload Pulse.  While I don't like using Raider-IIs nearly as much as Raider-Is, I still think they will have some use with the right kind of fleet composition.  Having all of your defense tokens exhausted by Overload Pulse is going to invite all kinds of hurt from an ISD carrying the Avenger title.  If that doesn't scream pain I don't know what will.  Screed also allows your APTs or Assault Concussion Missiles to trigger without fail, and you can potentially do massive amounts of damage from a tiny and cheap ship.

When it comes to potential, I think the biggest use for Raiders is not their AA, their annoyance, or their crit results, I think it's their speed.  Having such a fast speed and small imprint, combined with ridiculous speed-1/2 double-clicks, allows the Raider to get into the most opportune locations.  They can avoid firing arcs really easily and once they get in range, they can hold up even the mightiest ships like the MC80.  In fact, I think one of the best uses of the Raiders is their ability to block.  Yes, they only have 4 total hull, but if you can get in the front of a MC80 and hold them there for a turn or and hopefully messing up the movement of his entire congo-line is king.  A lot of Imperial players are not used to the huge surge of damage coming in from Ackbar gunlines, and this is because most they're used to just charging straight forward.  Nay, this is the wrong way to do it in Wave 2 as a dedicated gunline with Ackbar will just shred anything that comes close.  What you want to do is play the game of the patient hunter; having your Raiders prowl the far flanks of your ships and look for opportunities to stop the movement of the guppies.  Once you trap them in place, it becomes a turkey shoot because your ISDs or Gladiators will be able to better focus in on whatever you want to kill.

Overall, I think everyone should take a look at the potential offered by the Imperial Raiders.  They're fast, flexible, and can easily apply critical effects while being a potent threat to squadrons.  This might make them one of the most flexible in the game for their point cost.  I can't wait to play more with them.
Ipinaskil ni sa 4:06 PM 0 (mga) komento
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Sabado, Disyembre 5, 2015
Armada: Vassal Tournament - Game 1

Armada: Vassal Tournament - Game 1

Slashing your ships with my MC80.

Holiday Vassal Tournament - Game 1
Objective: Superior Positions

HERO
Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 391/400 
Commander: Admiral Ackbar

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Home One  ( 7  points) 
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points) 
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points) 

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points) 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Jaina's Light  ( 2  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 
2 YT-2400s ( 32 points)

Vs.

clontroper5
Faction: Galactic Empire 
Points: 390/400 
Commander: Admiral Ozzel

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Admiral Ozzel ( 20 points) 
- Relentless ( 3 points) 
- Captain Needa ( 2 points) 
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points) 
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points) 

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points) 
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points) 

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points) 
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points) 

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points) 
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points) 

4 Firespray-31s ( 72 points) 


Pre-game thoughts:
I've played against clontroper5 a few times in the past but I have never fought against his Ozzel.  I mean, I've seen the list in action so I know how deadly those Raiders can be if they start blocking up my lanes of fire.  For such little ships, they do a lot of damage once they start ramming and putting up APTs for guaranteed damage.  I already knew he had the activation advantage as well as first and last move.  He would probably take Superior Positions since a list like this wants to go first, which works out pretty well for me because I can do a layering deploy and movement phase where I'll be able to layer interlacing firings arcs in support of each other.  Those Raiders don't have a lot of health, so as long as I'm able to fire on them or force them out of the fight, I can concentrate my effort in removing the biggest threat on the table which is the ISD.  I have much more firepower than he does coming from my capital ships, so I'm sure I can do it.

Deployment - I go for an aggressive layering strategy.

This is what interlacing firing arcs look like.  By deploying and moving with this method, if a Raider gets in front of one ship, it will be eating broadsides from another ship in return.  The cross deploy from the ISD also means that I'm looking for no quarter and that I'm out for blood.  If I can angle correctly with Engine Techs on the MC80, I will be able to keep his ISD in my starboard arc while my port side will punish any flankers.  However, this would depend on his movement entirely, which when fighting Ozzel, is always a tricky thing.  I know that the speed changes will be tricky, so it's absolutely necessary that I pay extra attention to possible angles of attack and how I can maintain overlapping fields of fire.

End of 1 - The Rebel and Imperial forces dance towards each other.

The first round here I get a little bit too aggressive with my CR90.  I wanted to lure the Raider out of position from the rest of the fleet so I can fire on it with my other ships after it moves. but I misjudged how far he can move and he was able to set up a double-arc on me.  Damn.  No worries though, I have Redirect and shields in the front, I should be fine.  Dash and the boys get into the fight and start throwing dice.  Too bad they rolled like complete garbage.

End of 2 - Jaina's Light is destroyed while the Rebel forces return fire!

Yeah I'm not fine.  He rolls double crits up the ying yang with Concentrate Fire on first activation and erases Jaina's Light from the game after she takes a Structural Damage.  Now I'm down even more activations which is not a good thing.  Home One slashes in this round and puts long-range shots into both the far Raider Dagger and into Ozzel's flagship Relentless.  I do solid shield damage to both ships and was able to angle in a way where I received no return fire from the ISD.  The Raider does a few points of damage to my MC80, but I redirect most of it to the rear.  My fighters continue to throw crits and accuracies but nothing on attack.  We ping away at each other.

End of 3 - Vengeance unleashed.

Some serious dice gets thrown around here and the ISD rips into both ships.  Redirects and Braces come out in a hurry, ECMs get thrown and damage cards get placed.  The Raider managed to put some APTs into the Home One and it zooms away out of return fire.  Home One is hurting, but so is his ISD when I rip huge damage into him from Ackbar's flagship.  Ackbar's slash also catches Dagger in a flurry of dice and he explodes.  Unfortunately, Home One misses the navigate's double-click by just a hair and lands his big fat ass on the front of the MKII's base.  Great, another damage.  The MKII moves and puts more damage into the ISD, Inteling a Contain away and putting in good damage to hull with its XI7s.  One of the Firesprays breaks loose and goes on Home One's rear, putting some damage which gets redirected to starboard shields.

End of 4 - The destruction of Ozzel's Imperial Star Destroyer.

It's a bloodbath and both flagships have their engineering crews working overtime.  On his turn, he fires with the ISD but was only able to deal 6 damage.  I ECM for brace and redirect to the front and return fire.  I leave the ISD with 1 hull point and a crit, which he flips up and reveals a Projector Misaligned.  This forces him to lose all the shields on his port side, which my MKII takes advantage of and rips into.  Ozzel's flagship explodes in spectacular fashion and I smile like a huge nerd squid.  I still have one of his Raiders riding my ass, and my shields are now pretty damn low to do anything super effective.  Meanwhile, all his Firespray needed was to roll 3 hits to kill Dash with his brace up.  He rolls 3 hits and Dash dies.  My remaining YTs scramble to lock down the rest of the Firesprays.

End of 5 - Another Raider vanquished.

Here is where my opponent made a serious error I think.  He decided to CF my Home One but was unable to do too much damage to it.  He was just outside of black range and was unable to kill me by ramming.  His Raider was stuck going high speeds and didn't have the clicks to make the ram connect.  This forced the Raider to overrun into blue range of Ackbar and he promptly got smited down by the fishlord on his activation.  I hit the techies to get a sharp turn behind my MKII.

End of 6 - Victory to the Rebel Alliance!

We run away to save what points we had left and it's a 8-2 victory for the Rebels.  Since the MoV chart hasn't been updated, our tournament is using modified points since the game is now played at 400.

Post-game thoughts:
I knew I was at a severe activation advantage going into the game.  My plan to lure his first Raider out both succeeded and failed on my end due to his better positioning and dice.  Once he killed that CR90, I knew it has to be a damage race.  This is where my ships came out on top because I was able to throw out a lot more concentrated damage than he did, and burned out a good amount of his tokens.  Yeah, the Raiders really hurt, but once they make their bombing run they take a little bit to get back into the fight.  Especially if he wants to survive the massive broadside arcs of the MC80.  Thinking back to the game, if I was playing Ozzel, I would have just rammed the MC80 with the flanking Raiders on the left side of the map; stayed in CF range and kept throwing APTs.  Sure, you will take damage next turn, but the MC80 can only throw the broadside on one target at a time and you can bet that's going on the ISD.  Ramming and black dice throwing APTs every round is a sure way to overload the MC80s defenses and kill it much sooner.  After all, 8 hull means nothing to multiple ships ramming you and handing out crit cards and free damage.  The Raider's 4 hull might as well mean 4 unavoidable damage by ramming if he's not being shot at.

I hope you enjoyed the battle report.
Ipinaskil ni sa 4:19 PM 0 (mga) komento
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Biyernes, Disyembre 4, 2015
Armada: Vassal tournament breakdown

Armada: Vassal tournament breakdown

And away we go!

Just keep in mind that I didn't post this originally.  It was done by a FFG user named Ardaedhel and he went over all the lists and wrote down some cool facts.

Here's what he had to say:

Factions
12 Imperial
15 Rebel

Admirals
There are SEVEN of us playing Ackbar in this tournament:  by far the most-taken admiral.  Next-most popular is Motti, at 5.  Ackbar is obviously the new hotness; I think Motti is just popular right now because STAR DESTROYERS.  The one that really surprises me is the single Vader in the field.  I think he's really good, but maybe that's because I'm a Rebel and he's just good at projecting fear.

Rounding out the list, we have 3 each of Garm, Mon Mothma, and Ozzel; 2 Screeds; and 1 of each of the others.

Fleet point value
 - Mean: 394.7
 - Mode: 390
Pretty even spread throughout the 390's for initiative bids.  Five people swaggered in yelling "come at me, bro" at 400 points, while NebulonB was so confident in his 388 bid that he just posted his objectives for the world to see, since nobody will get to pick initiative over him anyway.  Overall, this is substantially lower than we normally see in my area.  I wonder how much of that is due to the publicly-posted lists... ;)

Activations
Activations run the gamut, with Ceryliae and Green Squadron brazenly pinning their hopes on 2 ships; while Biggs, Brozojoe, and JJs Juggernaut bringing 5 each.  Interestingly, no real Raider swarms, which I really expected to see.  Most people are running 3-ship builds (15), with several 4-ships as well (7).

Deployments
CaptainICT's ten Rebel fighters and stripped-down ships let him out-deploy anybody else, which will give him the advantage he'll need in deploying those B-Wings and completely naked MC80 flagship.  Doobleg and Deadshane went entirely the other direction and sacrificed deployment for a monster gunline and a 183-point ISD2, respectively.  Otherwise, nothing too remarkable on the deployment front, with a pretty even spread between the extremes.  Of note, 12/27 players took an odd number of fighters, foregoing deployment considerations to get the specific fighters they wanted.

Points Ratios
This one I pulled out just cause I was curious.  A couple of the questions I see a lot from new players are how many upgrades and how many fighters they should take.  While obviously there's not a hard-and-fast answer, I'm curious to see the performance of the various ratios.  For now, overall ratios for ships to upgrades to squadrons are roughly 3/1/1:  61% of points were spent on ships, 22% on upgrades (including admirals), and 17% on squadrons.  The ratios in the lists vary widely, though.  I think there will be some more interesting data coming out of this section once we can analyze placing and MoV against it.

Squadrons
Only Doobleg was fool enough to bring no fighter screen at all(edit:  Rekkon, too.  Fffffffffff....).  I was nearly right there with him, before I chickened out a few days ago.  I'm definitely interested to see how you fare, though, because I like to think that all-ship is still viable.

On the other hand, we have about 8 people who are really leaning hard on their squadrons, with 6 lists over 100 points.  The only real Wave 1-style Rhymer ball I see is Reath28, which is a relief to me because I ******* hate them.  There are a couple of Firespray-centered Rhymerballs, though, which will be interesting to see.  I personally don't think Firesprays are as great as everybody else does, which means I'm probably wrong.  :)

Points Pinatas
There are a lot of tasty points pinatas in the field.  The award for biggest, meanest point dump goes to Qark for Darth Vader's ridiculous 184-point ISD2 Relentless of which I am, quite frankly, ******* terrified.  Honorable mentions go to the four-way tie for second place, with 2 ISD2's and 2 Command MC80's clocking in at 183.  You horrible people responsible for these atrocities, you know who you are.  :)

Ships Breakdown
A total of 92 ships of all types are joining the field of battle, 52 Rebel and 38 Imperial.  CR90A's are the most popular (not particularly surprising), with a total of 13 of them in play, followed closely by the Empire's 11 GSD-I's.  Three types are completely unrepresented:  AF2A (unsurprising, they're wasted points), Raider-II (also unsurprising), and the GSD-II.  I'm a little surprised nobody took the GSD-II, as it's been gaining popularity locally ever since the advent of a consistent squadron meta, but maybe it just hasn't caught on elsewhere yet.  The full breakdown:

13 - CR90A
11 - GSD-I
9 - ISD-II
8 - Raider-I
7 - MC80C, AF2B
6 - MC30S, MC30T, Neb-B (E), ISD-I
4 - Neb-B (S)
3 - MC80A
2 - CR90B, VSD-I, VSD-II
0 - AF2A, GSD-II, Raider-II

+++

Overall, very cool stats to have.  Good luck again to everyone in the tournament!  My first game is probably going to be this weekend vs. an Ozzel ISD-II + triple Raider list.
Ipinaskil ni sa 4:05 PM 0 (mga) komento
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Huwebes, Disyembre 3, 2015
Armada: Buy Engine Techs on the MC80

Armada: Buy Engine Techs on the MC80

This Liberty is doing it right.

I've been flying the MC80 exclusively since Wave 2 got released on Vassal and the one upgrade I will never leave home without is Engine Techs.  Out of all the upgrades that you can possibly take on the MC80, if I was to drop everything else, I would still take Engine Techs.  To me, it's probably on the same level of Gunnery Team for the ISD-II.  It's just something so intrensically important to the design of the ship that as soon as I buy the ship, I slap Engine Techs on top of it.

If you really think about it, regardless if the upgrades you take increase your damage or buff up your defenses, Engine Techs has the ability to do both.  The navigate command is arguably the strongest command on a ship like the MC80.  You have tremendous reach and coverage with your side arcs and by spamming Navigate dials, you will always be able to use techies to move you up an additional click.  The reason why the dial is so important is the fact that the MC80 has two 1-click speeds.  Set it to speed-2 and never look back because the navigate command will allow you to double click yaw on either speed-1 or 2.  With Engine Techs on the trigger, the MC80 can do a 90 degree turn which otherwise wouldn't be possible.

On a ship with two gigantic side arcs, you really need to put those sides to good use, especially if you're running Ackbar.  You don't have Gunnery Teams so this forces you to play smart.  Hell, it forces you to play smarter than smart because if you're not shooting from both sides of your ship, you're basically flying half a ship.  The front shots are abysmal compared to what you can do with 8+ dice flying out from both sides of your ship, so it's absolutely pivotal you can set those shots up.  How can you do this?  The only way you can do this is by being able to move, and being able to move well.  This is why most of the commands I issue to my MC80 are just nav.  Queue up one on the first turn to take a token if you're not planning to move far, or if you're second player, then nav the next turn for a game-changing angle and placement, and then nav again to keep the train moving and grooving if he's closing faster than you would like.  Of course this is just a loose example of the things you can do, but it show cases your ability to set up shots, escape arcs and move out of range of return fire.

Once you go techs, you never go back.

Not taking Engine Techs will result in just outright frustration.  If you're planning to just sit back and roll dice without thinking about positioning in a game like Armada, you're probably going to lose pretty decisively.  Armada is a game that favors those who come to the table with a plan, being able to execute on that plan despite what his opponent is doing, and changing plans if things go awry.  Having techies on ship is one of the many ways you can accomplish the latter since maneuvering means absolutely everything in this game.  Being able to guarantee double broadsides (known as a slash) is a skill.  Being able to shoot and move out of firing arcs is a skill.  Being able to shoot and then move out of range is another skill.  All of these skills require good positioning, and there's less chances you can do that by only going speed-2 max speed.  In fact, being able to shoot your full broadsides at your enemy and then moving 90 degrees out of his arc of fire is impossible without techs.  This can be the difference between an excellent play and a dead ship next activation.

Story time:  Today, I played my friend Adam who had double ISDs; running an ISD-I and ISD-II.  I was able to get a broadside shot with my MC80 into one of his Raider-Is and blew it to hell before burning and turning a full 90 degrees out of front arc of one of his ISD-I.  Next round, I slashed both ISDs with both broadsides and then engine teched again out of the ISD-II's front arc by a hair. Next turn, I shot the ISD-II from the front, and then used my Engine Techs again to move completely out of range of return fire.  I was then able to finish off the ISD-II with my Assault Frigate.  None of the above could have been done without Engine Techs.  Absolutely none, zero parts of that story.  Did my MC80 contribute heavily in taking down 2 ISDs and a Raider?  Absolutely.  It even managed to survive to the end of the game with just 1 HP left.

Do yourself a favor and take Engine Techs as your first upgrade on the MC80.  It will change you.  Before you take XI7s, or Raymus, or Intel, or even ECM, buy the techies so you can move like I can move.  You will never regret it unless you're taking the MC80 specifically as a fleet carrier.  Then you can move speed-2 all you want.  Realistically, if you're just planning to do that, you might as well take a MKII with Raymus with Boosted Coms (3+1 squadron activation from long range).  You'll save yourself a lot of points that way and can still move speed-3.
Ipinaskil ni sa 4:06 PM 0 (mga) komento
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Miyerkules, Disyembre 2, 2015
Armada: ECMs are now meta mandatory

Armada: ECMs are now meta mandatory

Don't get blasted.

This public service announcement doesn't just apply to just Imperial Star Destroyers, but basically anything in that game that needs staying power.  For something as expensive as the new capital ships, both the ISD-II and both MC80 variants can take defensive retrofit upgrades.  This must be Wave 2 creeping up and surprising the newer players on the block, but for some reason I'm still seeing players run around with no ECM on their ships.  You know what happens when a plane doesn't take any sort of countermeasures in real life?  It gets shot down by a missile.  Do you want your big expensive flagship to go up in smoke?  No, so let's continue.

ECM, in short, is insurance for your brace token.  Brace is the strongest defensive action you can take when you're dealing with ships that can throw out 8+ dice on the attack.  With Ackbar MC80s and ISDs running around in the mix, and in a meta where there's all kinds of ways to re-roll dice via Vader, Screed, Leading Shots, and SW-7s, there are going to be a LOT of damage being dealt.  As most of you know by now, XI7s completely neuters the effects of Advanced Projectors.  This makes this particular upgrade extremely unreliable when you're fighting against ships with massive amounts of dice equipped with XI7s.  What about Redundant Shields?  It might be useful for some builds, but it's not going to save you when damage is being rolled.

Just as an example, this happened the other night:  I threw out 8 dice at my opponent from the MC80 Command throwing 5 reds and 3 blues.  Keep in mind that my MC80 is geared for combat, so it's running Intel/XI7s/Leading Shots.  I roll the dice and it came out to be a monstrous result.  I have 1 blank in my reds, but I'm staring down at 2 hits, crit, 2 hits, blank, accuracy on my reds and hit, crit, accuracy on my blues.  This is already 7 damage on the volley and with my Leading Shots modification, I pulled out 9 total damage because I only need one accuracy with my setup.  My opponent doesn't have ECMs so I lockdown his Brace entirely and threaten his Contain with my Intel because his Redirects are utter crap with my XI7s.  He goes from a full ISD with four shields to 4 damage cards on his ship.  Needless to say that after everything else has gone, next turn I blow away his ISD with my MC80.

Now, let's say that he was smart and had ECM.  Even with an accuracy on his brace, he would ECM it to activate the the token to turn a 9 hit shot into 5 (if I rolled 8 hits, even better!).  With redirect, he would save 4 hull on the ship which would have given him another activation to shoot with Gunnery Team and two ships in his front arc.  Do you know what kind of impact that might have had over the game?  All because of not having his brace available?  Being able to brace when needed is absolutely needed when there's so many dice floating around the battlefield.  If you can't brace, you're going to die.  If you die, you're not going to activate so any battlefield strategy you have will not come to fruition, period.  Dealing damage to ships is king in this game and dead ships don't do damage in return.  Even with Intel Officer running around, you can bet your ass I will brace firepower of that magnitude.  That one turn might be all you need to turn the game around and save it from certain defeat.

Do yourself a god damn favor and buy ECM on any ship that can take it.  Start with your most important ships and go from there.  If you don't, don't bother playing in the new meta because the damage really is that severe.  Think about your men if nothing else.
Ipinaskil ni sa 4:02 PM 0 (mga) komento
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Martes, Disyembre 1, 2015
Armada: First Wave 2 Vassal tournament!

Armada: First Wave 2 Vassal tournament!

Alright boys, it's time to party.

So like the title says, the first major Vassal tournament is underway and there's 28 participants (I think).  This is important because this is the first big tournament of the new expansion with a good number of participants.  It's also an international tournament so it's like playing pseudo worlds, where everyone has a different meta and you never know who you're playing.  Lastly, everyone who thought they got Wave 2 figured out will be testing out their theories and setups for all to see.  This is truly exciting times in the days to come, and you can bet your ass that I'll be covering all of my games with battle reports.

This is the list that I'll be bringing to the tournament.  We are supposed to keep our objectives secret, so I'll reveal that once the tournament actually starts for me.

Ackbar's Whaling Fleet 
Author: HERO
Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 391/400 
Commander: Admiral Ackbar

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Home One  ( 7  points) 
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points) 
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points) 

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points) 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Jaina's Light  ( 2  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 
2 YT-2400s ( 32 points) 

You can tell right away that this is slightly different the list I had before.  I dropped Leia Organa from the Jaina's Light and I took YT-2400s over the A-Wings because I wanted greater command flexibility.  Overall, this gave me a 4 point higher initiative bid without actually losing much effectiveness.  At one point, I was debating dropping Leia and maybe taking Tycho over a standard A-Wing, but I didn't feel comfortable sitting at 397 with a squadron-heavy meta when I'm running pretty fighter light.  The goal for me in those matchups will be to concentrate heavily on destroying the enemy ships and just hoping that Dash and the boys will be able to deal as much damage to the bombers as possible before they get blown to hell.

I've been playing with relatively the same MC80 in all of my games so I'm very comfortable driving this ship now.  Overall, I'm very happy about how this list has evolved and performed over the last couple of weeks and I'm eager to give it a try in a full-blown competitive environment.  GL HF!
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