Vassal Corellian Conflict: Campaign blog, part 8 (round 3 battle)

Battle was joined between Vader and Sato over Tralus... and I lost. What!? I don't lose... or actually I do. Less often than before, but I still lose on a regular basis, especially when trying out new stuff, so nothing new there. 

But in this case I felt it was an awkward matchup for me before the game, second player and out-activated, plus weaker squadrons --> lots of black Sato dice incoming. Then I became fairly certain of victory from the start bc Veggie seemed a little timid and unfocused. But that feeling evaporated in round 3 when the tables firmly turned due to an insane string of dice rolls on his part, and generally meh dice him my part.

But ok, these things happen. It's not fun when it happens oc, but it's part of the game. Last game I had it was Torka that couldn't hit anything.

My own losses included my ISD and my Gozanti, and at the very end also Demolisher. I think I could have gone to hyper with it if I had wanted to, but then Salvation would have escaped. And vengeance had to be served, so I guess I traded my Demo for his Salvation. Not a good trade mind you, but one I can afford. Plus it felt good. 

Also lost all my squadrons. They are mostly a delaying force, but in this game they proved impossible to effectively control. Plus the dice. Ending with only 1 enemy YT-2400 downed... that's below expectations. The only silver lining is I got my Raider-2 to veteran status, so now all my ships are vets, except the Gozanti (I'll have a try at that next battle).

I think I counted 140 refit if I want to repair everything. That means I have to take 6 points from the bank. It's not ideal, but I don't have to grow, and out income will be good next round as well.

Veggie got off lightly. I murdered all 3 Hammerheads, and Salvation, but these guys are CHEAP. 36/2=18 for a HH! And A Support Neb is just 51/2=26. And 8 for the YT. I think that's 88 total. So even with Rebels having lower income, Veggie can repair everything AND put money in the bank. Plus his MC75 became a veteran!

Let's have a quick look at the game, from setup until finish:

Veggie picked my DT, and we set up as shown. He had the last two deployments, so was always going to be able to put MC75+Neb in a good spot. That said, given the placement of his HHs and squads, their final position was more or less given. 

Rather than put Demo in ca central location, I COULD have place it over to the side, as shown by the red arrow. I left room so it would fit to the left of the ISD. I figured, however, that under normal circumstances, and with the starting speeds, my raiders and Demo would sweep in and roll up the flank, while the ISD kept Veggie's fleet pinned. I was even willing to trade my ISD for the rest of his fleet.

A bit of overconfidence right there - already I have forgotten about 2nd player and out-activated. I'm looking for a real fight now, not the fencing of the previous two games. This will turn out badly later on, when "normal circumstances" don't happen.

Alternative setup

Round 1 is good for me. My cauldron plan is developing, and Veggies doesn't seem to know what he wants to do. Indeed, I feel so confident that I keep my Raider-1 out of the fight: it will spend the game picking up tokens and commanding squadrons, to minimal effect. The original plan was to turn hard left (red arrow) and join the fight after picking up the token - now I decide to use it mostly as activation padding. 

But really, the R-1 should be in the spot of the Gozanti. The Gozani could have harvested tokens and relayed to squads all game. Really bad on my part. The end result is my squads lack the flak support they sorely need. Another mistake. At the very least I should have sped up to speed 3 on r1 (the other red arrow) and speed 4 on r2 and circled wide, instead the Raider does more or less nothing all game!

Round 2

Start of r3 I'm, still VERY confident of a crushing victory. One HH is dead, my Raider-2 is a veteran, I've put the hurt on both remaining Hammerheads, I've got heavy hitters in Veggie's flank, and I've masterfully parked the ISD to prevent a double arc by the MC75. And the forsting? Salvation is obstructed! Doesn't get any better, right?

But there are some problems hidden here. To get that block, I had to close to black range. And the MC75 got a truly MASSIVE External Rack volley on the ISD. And damage from a few other shots and squads is mounting. Speaking of squads... with the ISD busy shooting at ships, lacking good squadron command platforms, and the Raider-1 badly placed, my squadrons just die to little effect. Against Sato that is not good.

At the same time Veggie starts to roll HOT, I go cold. The first ISD shot to the MC75 was hopeless, even after rerolls (and being a friendly campaign, I don't do Intel Officer).

Round 3

Fast forward and Salvation unleashes HELL on the ISD top of r3. Even obstructed it rolls and obscene amount of HIT/CRITs. The ISD gets off a good couple of shots too, but it will die with its goal unaccomplished: the MC75 will get away. My Raiders fleet the scene, Demo kills Salvation just because, and gets shot up by squads in return.

End game.

So yeah, dice played a major part in my demise, and both me and Veggie flet sorry for me for a bit, but dice are not the whole story. I did what I could to make those dice rolls really MATTER. I put the ISD in harms way, expecting only average damage. I kept the Raider out of the fight, when it should have supported squadrons. Had I been more careful and focused my fire more, that MC75 should have died anyway, shifting the game entirely the other way. Plus I feel that while Veggie started rather poorly, he did his very best to claw himself out of the hole he had dug - and succeeded. So he's definitely due some credit for that.

In the end it was a good game overall. It was too slow though. This took four hours. That's waaay too long. I may have been a little frustrated with the dice for a bit, but the slowness nearly killed me. My best tip for faster play is to take your time when it matters, I do that myself, but don't fret over every little thing. A two hour game can be as well played - and much more exiting - than a 4 hour marathon.

Some lessons were learned. And I think I need to tweak the list some, or rethink my command dials a bit. Those squadrons need to be commanded a little more to be effective. And the Raider really needs to support them better.

Vassal logfile.

Anyway... Vader will be back!