Who comes up with these monsters!?
My first ever 800 vs 800 battle is over!
Man was it a challenging and chaotic affair. We both were at 800, looks like most folks wanted to cram the max amount of stuff into their lists, which is very thematic. So we rolled for it, and I got the choice, so I picked 1st player.
His objectives included Station Assault (no surprise since he's got 2 Dictors and all 3 of his ISD have Gunnery Teams), Solar Corona (again not very surprising), and finally Fleet Ambush. That was more of a surprise, since that objective is considered one of the worst objectives (maybe THE worst) for 2nd player.
BUT in this case you have 800 points of heavy ships that can't easily be killed facing you, so the amount of sneakiness you can pull as 1st player is limited. Plus Bantha has two Grav Wells in there, and thus can force everything in the ambush zone to start at speed 0.
Station Assault was the obvious choice: I would get to use my deployment advantage (5 ships + 6 squadron drops vs 5 ships + 3 squadron drops) to put my combat ships where they needed to be (on a flank, concentrating their firepower while maximizing defense). My squadrons would have time to clear his squads and start picking on exposed ships, without too much flak in return. Killing one station to even the points is easy. Killing two is entirely doable. And as 1st play I could use my grav shift to better effect than he could.
Solar Corona is not good for me: the setup disadvantage vs 3 ISDs + 2 Dictors is massive, especially vs 2 grav wells and 1 grav shift. Plus it eats accs, and those ECM-less Cymoons are vulnerable to accs, so I didn't want to give away that advantage.
But instead I selected his FLEET AMBUSH! I figured deploying my squadrons forward, and being able to use Tarkin --> Entrapment Formation! would offset my disadvantages. I would have full speed control and my Quasars could relay from the back.
And indeed all of that is true. However, I was thinking at 400 points, with a tried and tested fleet. At 800 points, with an untried fleets, and lots of stuff I don't normal use? My brain began melting even as we set up, and it got worse when the game began. I don't think I've ever played that slow... or at least I haven't in a VERY long time.
We both managed NOT to get logfiles (I often turn of the PC, without ending the logfile, so it doesn't get recorded), so this setup is approximate, and taken from my memory. I have real screen captures from start of round 5 (we had to save and resume) and from the final board state.
No matter how I do this, my ships will glide into range and get shot up. So I do the only sensible thing, I activate the Quasars first. This will expose my squads to flak, but I can take some of that. So Gar Saxon dies outright, while Vader+Maarek+Jendon+Defender go to work on Motti: I'm hoping to kill the flagship in a pincer, so the sooner I can get started, the better.
After the Quasars I just let my Sovereign and Dictor sit at speed 0, while Chimaera actually drops to speed 0 too! Anything to delay engagement, as my mind desperately tries to plan a few rounds ahead: and fails!
Setup complete, after all grav effects
Round 2 is mostly maneuvering and some squadron action. On round 3 and 4 a LOT happens. Bantha is too canny to let me focus down Motti, so my initial shots on the flagship are wasted as Motti just blasts through my fleet and escapes to the other side. My own flagship dies to a combination of canny play - and very hot dice on Bantha's part (and Intensify Firepower! is awesome at 800 points - I alrready knew it was good, but this is much better). I do get to use my DCO to counter MS-1 crits that would have exhausted my ECM, which is cool :-D
My own dice are overall rotten. Defensers roll mostly accs. My reds are mostly blank, even with rerolls. Plus Bantha has good control of his ships, giving away no freebie medium range shots. I really struggle for a while. Dice can be... frustrating... have I use up my good karma in the World Cup?
Good news is that with Motti clearly going to escape, I go for his centrally located Dictor instead, and it dies to a double arc from Sovereign before it's blown up. At this point my dice are a little warmer, with bombers scoring some hits and crits and my rerolls coming up ok.
I use my 1st player advantage and bombers to drill down his IF! Cymoon (top right). Without ECM these babies are fragile at medium or closer. And definitely no match for a double-arcing ISD-2 with squadron support.
My own Dictor tanks a lot of shots with Brunson and repairs. Brunson + Interdictor title is REALLY good. Even with my brace accuracied, she brings damage down to manageable levels. Twice a round!
Start of round 5
Pic above shows start of round 5 when we picked up in our 2nd session. I activate my Dictor first, putting 7 dice into the side of the last Cymoon, expecting to really weaken it. Again the dice are horrible. 3 accs and 1 damge from 1 red and 3 blue. Next shot is average.
Motti shoots up my Quasar next. It just survives, but dies to a ram. This activation order lets my Chimaera do some critical repair (I've completely forgotten about the title - and the Fleet Command at this point) and move to a better position. So when Bantha finally shoots with his Cymoon, he must go through several shields, making a kill VERY unlikely. I wonder if he had just let the Quasar go, he might have had a better chance of downing the ISD.
I'm finally able to wear down the Cymoon with squads. Two rounds of shooting is more than the shield-less ISD can handle. But it is very close, as the Dictor failed to do the expected damage in round 5. Had the Cymoon NOT died - or had my own Chimaera gotten blown up - the score would have been very different.
I hope to be better prepared next game, now that I've tried 800 pts and my fleet. I'll try to do stuff like remember my own cards, and maybe I will actually be able to plan forward, beyond the immediate action.
Thank's to Bantha for being a very good and courteous opponent!
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