I'll Have You Know (Vader All-Ship Fleet), part 3: the final battle

I'll see you over Scarif, fish-face!

The Vassal World Cup 2018 is over, and Lord Vader was narrowly defeated (6-5, MoV 12, 194-182) by Admiral Raddus. Or maybe I should say that I, Green Knight (aka Greenie Pie), lost to the reigning Vassal Champ, JJ's Juggernaut.

We've been here before. Last year, with different (wave 5) fleets (I had Vader, but JJ had Jerjerrod), but with the same end result. I lost, he won. But next year... we'll reenact the battle of Scarif in the final, and everything will be all right. You hear that Josiah? I'm coming for you in the grudge match of the year, 2019 edition :-D

Ginkapo was nice enough to stream/record the thing on YouTube, so you can watch (there is no sound, we did everything by text chat - on Vassal, and a private channel on Discord) all of it if you want. It's about 2 1/2 hours (mostly JJ's fault - he thinks too much, but maybe that's why he wins?). If not you can read about it here in less time.

THE BATTLE

I'm very pleased with my final game. I would have liked to win - because winning is much more fun than losing - but in this case I can't be salty. First of all it was a very close game indeed, one that I might have won, had I lost ONE GOZANTI LESS. Secondly it actually went FAR BETTER than my simulations: I did a few quick games vs myself in preparation, and I totally whipped my own ass every fucking time. Thirdly you just can't be let down by having such a close, intense game with such a skilled player in the final. Just not possible.

Last year was a bit different: then it was more a slow roll towards a loss. I did what I could, but it was clear that only a miracle could save me. That was much less fun.

Anyway. I had the bid so I took 1st player (obviously). Playing his Fire lanes with him having VCXs and no squads on my part? Not doable, unfortunately. Intel Sweep IS doable, but it's very tricky: you must preferably kill the rebel objective ship top of round 3 to prevent the points skew. This is possible, but not guaranteed. Against any other fleet I would have done this, but against Raddus, no. To get to the objective ship you become very exposed, and then I'd have three combat ships boxing me in. 

So that left me with Most Wanted. MW isn't an ideal choice either, but the 2nd player gets the least from this of the 3 options I had.

We set up like this. JJ exactly as predicted (bc why would he not). I dropped my ISD front and center, aiming for his flagship. He picked Demo as my MW ship and the right side flot for his. That told me he was probably not going to go all-in for the ISD. So I could afford to be more aggressive. It also meant that unless Demo ran like crazy, it WOULD DIE. Running away was not an option, so the key was to get max damage before it died.

So the idea here was to play a fun, offensive game. Show spectators what a game of Armada, even an elimination game, should look like!

Start game

Round 1 I rev the ISD up to speed 3, pointing it at Admo. I do not expect to kill Raddus outright. JJ has kept too far back for blue range. So I will get 6+1 (CF) red dice only, then 1 blue (devastator) for using Intel Officer on my own Contain token.

Against Admonition, this is like 99% not enough. Admo can discard 2 double reds, 1 with evade, the other with the Admo ability. So even with a super-good red dice, it's very unlikely, as I will be left with say 5 red hit and 1 blue hit (remember I have Vader rerolls and Intensify Firepower!).

I need 8 damage to kill Admo. 3 to clear shields, 1 more than can be redirected (XI7), then 4 for the hull. I only need 7 dmg if I full a Structural Damage, but an 8 in 52 chance isn't reliable enough. So to kill Admo at long range, I need FOUR double reds. Or THREE doubles AND a Structural. Sure, I've had even more amazing shots happen, but it's not something you can COUNT ON.

With BLUE range it's entirely doable, even vs Admonition. You get 6+1 (CF) red dice and 2+1 (Devastator) blue dice, with rerolls and IF!. After Evade/Admonition you are left with 8 dice. As long as all of those are hit/crits/doubles Admo dies. Not guaranteed, but a fair chance.

So my aggressive opening move is to try to A) force Raddus to drop early (JJ contemplated for a LONG time, but finally decided not to) and B) put as much damage into Admo as possible, make it NOT want to be part of a MC75/HH/Admo gangbang on my ISD!

Rest of the fleet moves in to support the ISD. Note Demo holding back to avoid a sudden drop from the left GR-75. And my 2 stalwart Gozanti to the lower right making it difficult to place a Hammerhead on my side.

Start r2

I open up with Devastator, a decent volley after rerolls and IF!, but only 1 hull damage and Crew Injured crit. A little under what I hoped for, but good enough to severely weaken Admo. I then slow and turn my ISD to the right. I think maybe in hindsight I should have gone more directly towards Admo - but I was still hoping to kill it, and didn't want to scare it away (speed 4 would put it far way towards the top right). MC30 doesn't have a full double side arc on ISD, but more importantly I cannot target it's shield-less side.

 End r2

Raddus pops in the MC75. He does not try to block my ISD. JJ is being careful and just wants to score points off my Demolisher, then probably run for it. He's being overly cautious though, and doesn't even pop in his Hammerhead (that nearly costs him the game, but in the end he pulls through).

I knew that he could drop in there, and that Demo was exposed. But with Raddus it's just too difficult to predict every permutation and possibility. He also has so many options to deploy differently, so if I had done this and that, he could have done this and that to counter it. Overall this was an OK situation - Demo will get to shoot at short range before dying, and ISD won't take many shots.

Downside is I probably won't ever kill Admonition. It can with great certainty get out alive. That means it will be a very tight MoV.

As you can see my Demolisher is double arced. It WILL DIE. The MC75 Ordnance cruiser will just do too much damage. Fortunately for me, JJ has misplaced it slightly, so I get the front arc shot, then do and inner turn with bump to give me a side arc shot as well, then finally a Engine Tech ram (I don't like intentional ramming bc it often comes bac to haunt you, but Demo is 100% dead next activation anyway). I roll very well indeed, putting 2 APT crits into the MC, 2 ram damage, and a total of 8 damage (after a brace). About as good as could be hoped for.

Start r3

MC75 reps some front shields, kills Demolisher, then does a little damage on the ISD with the front arc, but without External Racks and full defense tokens, it's not too bad. JJ then bumps the ISD, bringing the MC75 down to 4 hull and in a double arc at the ISD rear.

ISD shoots 1 red + 3 blue out the side, then 2 red + 2 blue out the back (spinals), bringing the bastard down to ONE FRIKKIN HULL. And to add insult to injury, all of my Gozanti are JUST OUT of blue range, so the Profundity will like to r4 and spew out the Hammerhead. Grrr.

I saw someone comment about why I hadn't more aggressively rerolled with Vader. That's  because at the time I had GOOD TO EXCELLENT rolls - and you don't reroll on those, because only the Emperor's foresight will let you know what will happen a few activations from now...

So I regret nothing regarding my dice manipulation. I just wish 1 or more Gozatni had been in attack range... but wishes and fishes and all that.

Note how JJ sets up Admo to hunt some Gozatni points. Unfortunately my Comms Net Gozanti has a Rep command, not a Nav, so it can't jump over Admo! Meanwhile I use my own flotillas to "slow" my ISD, to prevent it from getting out of range.

  End r3

Round 4 is simple. I start kill killing the MC75 with a rear shot from ISD, but it has already disgorged the HH (next to the station, dbl arcing my Gozanti). Now I regret bringing Gozanti "Nobody" into the fight. At the time I turned it into the fight, I was still sure the HH would pop out earlier. In hindsight I wished it was elsewhere. But the board state is what it is, and I must deal with it.

I then kill JJs MW flotilla, which is stripped of scatter already, then bump another of my flots to keep the ISD in place.

Meanwhile JJ pops a Goz with Admo (H9). Again, if that Gozanti had a nav... it could be relatively safe in Admo's rear arc (but then it would guaranteed have faced the HH instead, so it was always going to die). 

I try to jump over the HH/GR-75 with my Goz, but fail. I was almost sure it would not work. So why did I not turn towards the station? BC of front arc of HH, plus ram from HH, plus 3 full rounds of squads. If I could not jump over it was like 99% sure to die. So a fiddled for a while, then tried anyway.

 Start r4

Final board state. JJs last flotilla drifts into too-many-blue-dice range of my ISD, and is blown up (not shown). And JJ retaliates by taking out my leftmost Goz (not shown). I hear I might have saved that Goz by going first with it. I do not think so. It was already scatter-less and wounded, with 2 more rounds of squadron attacks. And even had it gotten away, it would also mean JJs final GR-75 had dodged away (bc of activation order). So the net result would be the same: win JJ.

 Right before the end 

What a match! It was tense from start to finish, and I really felt I had the ability to win, all the way to the end. That's the kind of games that makes Armada so great.

So could I have won? That is the big question. Sure I could. For example: Had I kept "Nobody" completely ut of the fight, by not turning it into the fight at all, I would have won. In theory, and only if all other things are equal.

But it's irrelevant: I made the decisions I made because they seemed right at the time. At no point during the game did I feel I made the wrong calls or that I was being outsmarted. I did my very best, and it was very nearly enough.

That said, I think JJ has a list of things HE might have done differently, starting with the later Hammerhead drop. And failing to block Demolisher's inner turn. And being double-arced twice by the ISD (from the rear/side, but still), and so forth. I've this feeling if we played this again... it might go WORSE for me, not better ;-)

META STUFF

I'd also like to mention that MY FLEET HAS NO SQUADS. And that it has blown apart both B-wing swarms and no less than FOUR Sloane fleets. It's been balancing on a knife's edge all the way tho... I'm not sure I would recommend trying this at home kids :-P

Current meta: No Squad beats Heavy Squad. Light Squad beats No Squad. And Medium Squad rulez?

I think someone has to rethink the incredible stupid "truth" of the so called rock-paper-scissor thing. Maybe replace it with rock-paper-scissor-lizard-Spock!

Relatedly: I missed having squads the most WHEN FACING RADDUS. I used my Gozanti to screen one flank, but a handful of squads could have kept Raddus out of my most vulnerable areas (which is where JJ's A-wings come in handy, to counter such nonsense).

FINAL THANKS

I'd like to finish by thanking BiggsIRL for managing the Vassal World Cup. Great work, as always. Maybe there be many more!