Østersund Regionals AAR: A Raddus Story, part 2 (the battles)

Anyone play this back in the day?

The Østersund Regionals was a 3 round affair. I had a Store Championship bye, but using it was never an option. Why would I NOT play a game of Armada when I had the chance? Perhaps it's because I get to play IRL so rarely, but I can't imagine ever using a bye in any tournament.

The calm before the storm

My 1st round opponent was Emil from Gothenburg in southern Sweden. He was at Nordics too, but we didn't play. He placed 7th there, so this was no rookie player. He told me he had run variations of his Madine Liberty list for over a year... so unlike me he had actually played his list before! :-D

Viking with glasses!

Name: Emil
Faction: Rebel
Commander: General Madine

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation: Dangerous Territory

MC80 Battle Cruiser (103)
• General Madine (30)
• Bail Organa (7)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Spinal Armament (9)
• Mon Karren (8)
= 176 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• Lando Carissian (4)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Advanced Projectors (6)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• H9 Turbolasers (8)
• Admonition (8)
= 98 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Leia Organa (3)
• Comms Net (2)
= 23 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Ahsoka Tano (2)
• Comms Net (2)
= 22 Points

Squadrons:
• Jan Ors (19)
• Biggs Darklighter (19)
• 3 x X-wing Squadron (39)
= 77 Points

Total Points: 396

Emil chose to make me 1st player and I picked his Dangerous Territory. He had no Strategic to counter my VCXs, and his X-wings are fairly slow, so I figured I'd grab a couple of tokens and drag them off the rocks. I might lose the VCXs, but if I played it right I might come out ahead in points. I think that was the extent of my plan.

Setup, as seen from Emil's side

Apart from some squadrons shooting at each other and some long-range shots, nothing much happened until my MC75 dropped in r3. If you look at the image below you can see Admo has wormed it's way around the far side and just out of my Liberty's front arc. You can also see a very lucky Bright Hope (right in front of my Liberty) that survived a MC30 front arc shot, limping away with 1 hull.

I totally misplaced my MC75. Or rather, I couldn't place it as far "down" as I'd like. So instead of double-arcing his Liberty AND forcing it to either stay put or land in a bad place, I was able to shoot it, then see it do the Madine two-step into my rear (I really wished I had Profundity with a HH inside - such a great blocker). Then his Bail kicked in top of round 4 and his crippled Lib sped off into the sunset.

In the end the Liberty got away with 1 hull after some rather cold dice on my part (or at least it felt that way). His Admo got my Quantum Storm, I got both his flotillas after a mix of ramming and gunnery. I lost both VCXs, but killed all his squadrons, except Jan. Two tokens each. 6-5 to me, 33 MoV. Not exactly an amazing start, but given how uncertain my play was and my opponent's skill level, I was actually kind of happy.

My 2nd round opponent was Krister, who IIRC was the first person I played against when I went to Sweden for a tourney back in 2016 or something. We were playing wave 2, I can remember that much! Anyway, we've met several times again later, but this was the first battle between us for a while. Krister is a local. For once he got to play WITHOUT having worked the night shift before - so he was in a very good mood :-D

He was running his Leia Hammerhead swarm, which I think he'd been working on since wave 6 was released. Since last time he's ditched the STM! Pelta and now has a mix of torpedoes and scouts, plus some dice fixing tech and anti-squad.

It looks pretty good on paper - although I'm a little skeptical of Leia. Krister really knew how to fly it  maneuvering confidently to focus down targets without bumping his own ships. Apparently there were some cascading bumps in his 1st round game, which gave him a lower MoV. I didn't see any of that in my game!

Name: Krister
Faction: Rebel
Commander: Leia Organa

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation: Intel Sweep

Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41)
• Leia Organa (38)
• Lando Carissian (4)
• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5)
• Task Force Antilles (3)
= 91 Points

Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Task Force Antilles (3)
= 51 Points

Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Task Force Antilles (3)
= 51 Points

Hammerhead Scout Corvette (41)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Task Force Antilles (3)
= 51 Points

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
• Task Force Antilles (3)
= 46 Points

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
• Task Force Antilles (3)
= 46 Points

GR-75 Combat Retrofits (24)
• General Draven (3)
• Repair Crews (4)
• Bright Hope (2)
= 33 Points

Squadrons:
• 2 x VCX-100 Freighter (30)
= 30 Points

Total Points: 399

We rolled for it since we were both at 399. He got the choice and after some thinking opted for 1st player. He ended up picking my Ion Cannon. We discussed ti after, and it probably would have been better with either 2nd player - or just Most Wanted.

Bright Hope down in the corner, Quantum Storm on the far flank, Liberty slow rolling in the center with all the Ion Tokens. His HHs swarming to meet my flagship.

MC75 dropped round 3, double arcing Leia and another HH, plus black range on his transport and 1 more HH. A target rich environment. He somehow did not manage to kill Bright Hope between 1 scout and 1 torpedo HH. It limped away with 1 hull (again).

Then my MC75 went bonkers, 1 shotting Leia, despite Lando and TFA, then blowing up another slightly injured HH with the 2nd shot. I think it was 17 damage on 2 shots. That tipped the balance in my favor - up until then it was a close game, afterwards it was not.

Round 4 my Bail kicked in, and between Ion Tokens and Gunnery Teams I blew away most of his stuff. The MC75 finished the rest, and all but 1 Hammerhead died. At game end my Liberty was a 2 hull... if just 1 of those HHs had lived in round 3, the end score would have been close indeed! 

Instead it was a 10-1, 332 MoV to me. Hugely unfair actually, but such is the game sometimes. I spoke to him later, and he got a second win, so barring his loss vs me he would have had a good score overall. He was pleased with the Leia HH swarm's performance, and I have to agree it's a pretty good list if flown right. The downside seems to be that even when it wins, it tends to bleed a good deal of points, so wins aren't that solid.

With 16 points I was suddenly close to the top of the list, 4th place or something. After Cryodex had spoken I was at table 2 for the final round, opposite another old acquaintance, Micke V from Uppsala (which is just north of Stockholm). He has the dubious honor of the being the first person to ever beat me in a tourney. And we haven't met since, so I was keen on some revenge ;-)

Behind us, on table 1 two more Raddus lists were duking it out in an almost perfect mirror match. both with Profundity and nested Hammerhead, TRC90 Jaina as the flagship, CR90B with Reinforced Bast Doors and Engine Techs, two flotillas, and a smattering of squads. One run by Micke A, who also beat me once before (and recently took home a Regionals in Copenhagen) and the other by Andreas, both from Uppsala.

So yeah, going into the 3rd and final round, there were 3 people from Uppsala on the top two tables, and 3 out of 4 lists had Raddus :-D

Name: Micke V
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Admiral Ozzel

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Capture the VIP
Navigation: Solar Corona

Gladiator I (56)
• Captain Brunson (5)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• Demolisher (10)
= 88 Points

Raider I (44)
• Admiral Ozzel (20)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
= 71 Points

Raider I (44)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
= 51 Points

Raider I (44)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Flechette Torpedoes (3)
= 51 Points

Raider I (44)
• Darth Vader (3)
• External Racks (3)
= 50 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Hondo Ohnaka (2)
= 25 Points

Squadrons:
• Colonel Jendon (20)
• Maarek Stele (21)
= 41 Points

Total Points: 377

Micke had a massive 23 pt bid and opted for 1st, picking my Intel Sweep (and thereby pretty much giving me a 75 pt head start). I set up with my flotillas to the right, ready to harvest tokens with VCX aid, with A-wings ready to intercept Maarekdon. My Liberty I brazenly deployed to the far left at speed 1. Sure I'd get flanked by Demo - but then Demo would get an MC75 to the face...

Like many players Micke seemed a little bit uncertain about how to deal with Raddus, bunching up too many raiders in the center, seemingly unwilling to spread out or commit to attack runs.Or maybe he just had a very cunning plan? Both his travelling companions were running Raddus, so maybe he had a counter-play ready?

Round 2 my Liberty jumped from speed 1 to speed 3+ET, forking a mass of raiders (3 in the front arc at close-medium). And also getting away from Demolisher. Round 3 the MC75 dropped to double-arc block Demo.

The Vader Raider (right between my two big ships) activated first, opting to strip my MC75 of External Racks (my BC had the crit that limits it to 1 shot vs ships per round), did some decent damage to my BC and jumped to safety behind it.

BC then activated, repaired the crit, blew away 1 raider, shot up a second raider and ram-killed it, before finally threatening Ozzel's raider. Demo shot at MC75, did a sad 3 damage after brace and Damage Control Officer, failed to jump over, and was blown out of the sky right after. I must add, however, that stripping ER was actually pretty smart, bc between that and Brunson Demo ALMOST lived, and might still have if my dice hadn't been pretty good.

Round 4 my Bail kicked in, nearly got Ozzel, but he slipped away. After that little happened, except I took down his flotilla and 2 squadrons. His final 2 raiders got away. In the end another 10-1, 331 to nil. 

Very surprising, as I know Micke is a good player. And I know how deadly raiders and Demo can be. Plus I was concerned about my ability to pin down and destroy a significant portion of his fleet - I really didn't want the raiders running around all over the place where I could not catch them!

That result was WAY better than I'd hoped for, and sufficient to put me in the top spot with 26. As predicted the Raddus mirror match was a close one, a 6-5 for Micke A. That allowed Mats from Umeå (really far north in Sweden) at table 3 to claim the 2nd place after a solid 9-2.

Fun fact: I've been in 3 tourneys with Mats - Store, Regionals, and Nordics - and we've never battled, and he's come in 2nd behind me every time. Maybe next time Mats!

That's me, receiving my loot!