Østersund SC 2018, part 1 (the list)

Me on the left, Mickael (r3) on the right

I'm back from lovely Östersund, Sweden and a great weekend of SC for X-wing 2.0 and Armada! There were also SC events for Destiny and Imp Assault, plus some side events, so a really big event.

I was totally going to do more blog posts about my prepping, but truth be told said prepping (and writing about it) got overshadowed by... X-wing 2.0!

For a while now there has been very little IRL Armada action locally, so I was tempted to jump on the 2.0 bandwagon (there is an active X-wing community here). I finally did, ordering a Core, 1 X-wing, 1 Y-wing, and a Rebel conversion kit (for cards - don't own any old ships - yet) from Rolf Hilleberg at Escapade Gaming And Gear (who also hosted the entire event).

Website: http://escapadegaminggear.com/ 

Then I tried some listbuilding, deciding to run Wedge, Luke, and Dutch. Sicne I didn't even know half the rules I installed the X-wing Vassal module and got some test games in. Man was that a steep learning curve. I had a vague notion of not flying too fast, keep in formation and focus fire on the enemy. In reality it was much harder, as them rocks kept getting in my way. Also, not fully knowing the rules, nor any of the cards and combos outside my own list, made it even harder :-D

But I perservered, and rapidly got better, so that actually won a game and didn't feel like a complete looser after getting 8 games in. My list also improved gradually. I stayed with Luke and Wedge, but Dutch got the boot and was replaced by an ARC. I had two versions of that list in my bag: 1 with Garven and 1 with Norra. I took Garven, which I got to regret all 5 games :-P

I got 2 wins, 3 losses. 1 big win, 1 big loss (to Micael, whom I've played Armada against many times), but the last 3 games were close. Could have been wins, could have been losses. End result was way above my pay grade. But I really like it, and will play more. It's fast and furious, with lots of action, and short play time (big plus there). I like Armada way more, but X-wing ain't bad!

But enough X-wing. Sunday was Armada SC, 3 rounds. I took a Thrawn 2-ship list, ISD+Quasar and a crapload of mean squads. I'd like to thank Broba and Sam on the forums/Discord/Vassal for showing me the archetype. As you might remember I took a long break after regionals, and when I wanted to prepp for SC I had no clue where to begin.

I made some tweaks of my own, changing the squad composition a bit, taking Exp hangars on the Quasar and XI7 on the ISD, but otherwise it's very close to Boba's vision. Without further ado:

Name: Thrawn 2-ship Østersund SC18
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Grand Admiral Thrawn

Assault: Precision Strike
Defense: Fighter Ambush
Navigation: Superior Positions

Imperial II (120)
• Grand Admiral Thrawn (32)
• Governor Pryce (7)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Leading Shots (4)
• XI7 Turbolasers (6)
• Avenger (5)
= 188 Points

Quasar Fire I (54)
• Captain Brunson (5)
• Flight Controllers (6)
• Boosted Comms (4)
• Expanded Hangar Bay (5)
• Squall (3)
= 77 Points

Squadrons:
• Colonel Jendon (20)
• Maarek Stele (21)
• TIE Defender Squadron (16)
• Dengar (20)
• Mauler Mithel (15)
• Tempest Squadron (13)
• Captain Jonus (16)
• Gamma Squadron (10)
= 131 Points

Total Points: 396

Let's look at some of the list's key features:

It's a list that loves going first - and loves going second. I absolutely will not build any list that relies on first player.

I'm aware that Precision Strike can be very dangerous to me. It's high risk, high gain. A flipped Comms Noise... look at my 2nd game below and u see what I mean. Close-Range Intel Sweep (with Jonus you WILL get points, just not as many) is a great replacement, with less risk, slightly fewer points, and the benefit of Dust Clouds.

Fighter Ambush takes away my deployments, but it's OK. If ur squad heavy, it doesn't matter too much, as I can handle your squads. If you're not squad heavy, your first little ship dies in round 1 and then I get 10+ tokens.

Superior Positions makes the Quasar entirely safe, and my ISD nigh unkillable (but see r3 below). it does not, however, usually provide me with that much net gain in tokens. But that's not the point either

The addition of Pryce is a vital component of the list. Not necessarily to go last/first with the ISD (although that IS of course nice), but because setting Pryce to 2 (or VERY RARELY 3 if the board state is passive at setup) delays the enemy's approach. Opponent WILL NOT fly into your front arc so u can bomb and Gunnery Team their ships. This means it's not until round 3 they can actually start their attack runs, and stuff that needs to get into black to setup runs won't be doing much until r4, rather than maybe r2 or 3. If u don't get how this works u should try it out, as it's essential knowledge if you meet Pryce (or Bail).

XI7 over QBT. Both are strong, but I like to have options. And yes, I know bombers and XI7 don't actually mesh that well. But sometimes the bombers aren't available, and you really need the drilling capability of XI7. Besides, I'm usually flying speed 2 or 3, so QBT would not trigger often (but against my r3 opponent QBT would have been great - speed 4 raiders hate them).

Exp Hangars. Is it a waste of points? With it I can command 9 squadrons, more than I have. But I think it's a very good addition. Often my ISD will be out of command range of main squad blob, but between Squall and Jendon the ISD can always reach THREE squads (Jendon + 2 bombers relayed to). So 5+3=8, so perfect. It also gives the Quasar a better Alpha, with 5 (or even 6 if I do a double squad dial). 5 (or 6 with Jendon) is all my anti-squad capability in one strike. 5 (or 6) bombers drilling a flotilla, CR90 or Raider will often kill it, whereas only 4 won't. If I took it out I would have a better bid, 9 pts, but against the really high bidders it won't help at all. 

The rest of the upgrades are pretty self-explanatory. Squall is pure gold in a Thrawn fleet. Usually u want to have Pursuant as slicer protection or extra flexibility, but with Thrawn u can take Squall. Squall lets Defender+Maarekx2 tap on any ship r1, regardless of how they set up. If u want to. And its great for shifting around unengaged shit, to make sure everything is commandable.

Squads are a nice mix of anti-squad and anti-ship. I had several other versions, one in particular where Defender + Tempest were replaced by Vader and Black Squad (at +1 pt), but in the end it was the bomber keyword that was prioritized (the all-ship meta has reached these parts too). I am sure there are squad balls out there than can take my squads, but if I meet something like that I will be more cautious and play really well, and they will lose anyway ;-)

I got in a few test games with this fleet (Vassal), but not very many, and I felt pretty rusty after my break. But like I said X-wing distracted me. Nevertheless I was pretty confident. I know Empire squads well, the ISD-2 is never a wrong pick, and the Quasar is super hard to kill (and nearly worthless in points) in this fleet. Thrawn was fresh and fun - and says a big FUCK YOU to slicers (I think it's a lame upgrade, that really hurts the game, to the point where I won't play squad hvy wo Thrawn at this point).

Next post will have some AAR.