Nordics 2018 - After action report part 3, CURSE YOU NYM!!!

Over to actual batreps.

My r1 was Christain from Denmark. He ran a list of 134 of aceholes (or 7 aces and a generic HWK), MC75 and 2 flots. The MC75 build is really nice IMO. You get the BC, the FC and the Leading Shots on the MC75! This is a much tanker platform than the AF2, plus it can actually shoot for damage! BH/TF/BCC is in there, and Leia as slicer protection. Rieekan is on a HH lifeboat.

Very strong list, but NO FING YAVARIS!!! Which meant I could actually engage his squads early in the round wo being wiped out before I could activate top of the next round. That gave me hope, AND I decided I would try to lure him into attacking me with his squads, so I could jump them and get a head start.

He was 396 to my 393, so I actually had good use of my increased bid (I used to have 396). He had CO, which is picked, bc I will usually go at least 8-3 as 1st and playing that objective. I lets me set up and plot very good movement paths for my 2 ships.

I set my Quasar parallell to the board, as far forward as possible, then put down my ISD facing the station, and the squads clustered around. He countered with his HH opposite my Q, going the other way. 100% lifeboat! He then set his squads in front of the HH, protecting it from Squall tricks. A good play there, but it put them out of Toryn range (but in BCC range). His MC75 and flots started near the station, rolling slow.

Name: N18 Christian Aceholes
Faction: Rebel
Commander: General Rieekan

Assault:
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation:

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)
• General Rieekan (30)
= 66 Points

MC75 Armored Cruiser (104)
• Toryn Farr (7)
• Flight Controllers (6)
• Boosted Comms (4)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• External Racks (3)
• Leading Shots (4)
• XI7 Turbolasers (6)
= 141 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Bomber Command Center (8)
• Boosted Comms (4)
• Bright Hope (2)
= 32 Points

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

Squadrons:
• Dutch Vander (16)
• Gold Squadron (12)
• Norra Wexley (17)
• Nym (21)
• Shara Bey (17)
• Wedge Antilles (19)
• Luke Skywalker (20)
• HWK-290 (12)
= 134 Points

Total Points: 396

I decided I would rush forward to the station, which I normally don't. But in this case he started out very slow (speed 1) with his flots and MC75, so if I put pressure on him he would have trouble maneuvering without giving up critical squad commands.

The plan was good one, I think, but a little greedy. As I jumped my ISD to speed 3 in r1 and turned hard in, I jumped over my squads, protecting them. But the rebels would get some bombing runs on the ISD. But honestly, there was no avoiding this really, not without striking forward, which would have cost me most of my squads.

Oc Nym rolled a perfect crit. Brace gone. Not ideal, but with Nym+BCC I knew the risk was real enough. Still abit sad. Nym then blanked his black die, despite BCC. Two more black bombers managed to get double blanks, before Luke actually managed to fish for a HIT/CRIT. But if u discount the Nym crit I got off light.

Mega furball of doom. But We're in the shadow of my ISD, and I get to jump the rebels, plus activate 5 squads with FC Quasar top of next round. Even with Rieekan rebels start popping. I lose Mithel, and eventually Dengar, but rebel escorts go down and so does the HWK to Maarek, so it's game set match for the Imps int he squadron game.

I eagerly approcach the station, using my navs - and his lack of navs - to block up the MC75 front, giving me dbl arcs and him not. I'm pretty confident at this point. Squad game is going well, my ISD is well placed and his MC75 not, so despite the lack of a brace I should do OK. I just need to weather 1 front arc salvo with exracks, which should not be a problem.

Except it is... 10 damage, without any rerolls. Ouch. My ISD survives, but XI7 puts a lot through to my hull, and now I can't delay activating next round. I have to repair and shoot, before I die. That wasn't the plan at all :-D

In the end the MC75 finishes my ISD with a ram - and then immediately gets rammed dead by the Quasar after a bombing run. Thrawn Nav -  Squad is so OP! :-D

I lose my ISD and 3 squads. He loses the MC75, BH, and all his squads. He gets 3 tokens, I get 2, one unclaimed. It would be 3 to 2 if my Quasar hadn't been forced to speed up to do the ram, which would have pushed me up to a 7-4, rather than the 6-5 I got. But that wasn't possible, so 6-5 it was.

I was both happy and not happy with this game. I felt I had a good plan, but that in a sense dice hadn't been too kind to me. However, I did risk the Nym, and that's on me. Furthermore, the MC75 got lucky, but the rebels bombers sure didn't, so I guess it evens out. In the end I think the score is pretty fair and representative. And taking our 134 pts of aceholes with only light squad losses isn't something you can be unhappy about. Not against a really good player with a really good list. Well played Christian!

Nordics 2018 - After action report part 2, THRAWN 2-SHIP OF DOOM

Before I start with the list, I have to tell a fun story from X-wing. It's Armada-related, I promise!

You know that Armada command dials you place your selected command in the little opening on the wheel? X-wing is completely the opposite. The opening in the wheel is for your thumb, while the actual maneuver is on the top.

Try to guess how hard it's to unlearn what you have learned? That's right, very difficult. So I keep checking and rechecking to make sure I haven't goofed up. 

But then, in my 5th game against a Norwegian called Leif, I DID goof up.

I was going to go 3 ahead, but put that command down in the "gap". So when I revealed the dial i had to do a right 1-bank with Wedge instead, which turned out to be the PERFECT maneuver lol!

---

Enough X-wing.

Here is the list:

It's pretty close to the one I ran at SC in Østersund a few weeks ago.

Changes include swapping Gamma for Valen, bc I felt more anti-squad would be needed, especially against nasty rebelses/generics and counter nonsense. Turned out to be a GREAT swap - Valen did so much good work, while my bombers mostly miss anyway :-P

I took out Expanded Hangars. With more experience, I didn't really need them anymore. If u go back and read my original reasoning for adding them, that still holds true. But they are no longer essential, so out they went.

This had the added benefit of increasing my bid to 7 (from 4). Not a huge difference, but knowing the Nordic meta (whatever that means) I was pretty sure I'd get first at least 3 out of 4. 

For a little while I had DCaps on the Quasar, and it was a great little addition. However, it pushed me back to 396, and wasn't really essential, just nice to have. Also, it made me more aggro with the Quasar, which isn't a good idea. So ditching it was for the better.

Objectives got an overhaul. With 7 pts bid and good idea what list MIGHT outbid me, I went the route of CRIS, PIC and SP. So basically I gave up on scoring for objectives that make me safer and give pts (CRIS) or more firepower (PIC). 

Don't be fooled by CRIS... those dust coulds will make ur life miserable, and I will get points. Not very many maybe 50-60, but its still a nice bonus. And your chance of scoring pts is very small indeed. PIC is deadly when combined with heavy squads and the ISD front arc. It becomes like a 3rd ship u can't get away from or kill.

Finally I did swap out my beloved XI7 for some Quads. I love XI7. They give me the ability to drill through shields, should my bombers be otherwise engaged. It doesn't trigger often, but when it does it can be game changing.

However, so can QBT. And man did they prove handy. Although I don't think I got a single extra blue die, the Quads had an incredible impact on several games, making enemy ships slow down rather than risk the extra dice. One. Blue. Dice. Guys, sometimes you just have to accept that and eat it, rather than slow down and die!

Name: NORDICS Thrawn 2-ship
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Grand Admiral Thrawn

Assault: Close-Range Intel Scan
Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation: Superior Positions

Imperial II (120)
• Grand Admiral Thrawn (32)
• Governor Pryce (7)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Quad Battery Turrets (5)
• Avenger (5)
= 187 Points

Quasar Fire I (54)
• Captain Brunson (5)
• Flight Controllers (6)
• Boosted Comms (4)
• Squall (3)
= 72 Points

Squadrons:
• Colonel Jendon (20)
• Maarek Stele (21)
• TIE Defender Squadron (16)
• Dengar (20)
• Mauler Mithel (15)
• Tempest Squadron (13)
• Captain Jonus (16)
• Valen Rudor (13)
= 134 Points

Total Points: 393

Full credits to Brobafett for giving me the idea to run Thrawn 2-ship. He just showed me the concept a while back and BOOM was I in love.

I made some modifications myself, but the more I play, the close I come to Broba's list lol. ATM the only difference is me having PIC and I have only 1 Defender, Tempest and Valen vs his 2 Defenders and Black.

It's not the "perfect" list or any kind of OP or anything, but its a good, strong list. And in skilled hands it has the potential to be really good. It's also different than the norm and just plain FUN to fly.

---

This was not, however, the list I was really going to fly... that list was this Raddus list. Do you remember Mats from the SC? They guy I almost played (again), until someone called out the correct scoring rules for being tabled and having a higher MoV?

He told me he was running pretty much the same list as in Østersund. So that sealed it. In that hopes we'd meet, i brought pretty much the same list myself!

Without further ado, here is what I almost flew at Nordics:

Name: NORDICS Raddus
Faction: Rebel
Commander: Admiral Raddus

Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon
Navigation: Solar Corona

MC75 Ordnance Cruiser (100)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• External Racks (3)
• Profundity (7)
= 130 Points

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (3)
= 43 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• H9 Turbolasers (8)
• Admonition (8)
= 88 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Admiral Raddus (26)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Jaina's Light (2)
= 79 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Slicer Tools (7)
• Bright Hope (2)
= 27 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Slicer Tools (7)
• Quantum Storm (1)
= 26 Points

Squadrons:
= 0 Points

Total Points: 393

I also had a couple of other lists up for consideration: Ackbar AC + high activation, Rieekan AC + high activation, Rieekan MSU + Rogues, and more. I'll share some of them with you later, because they turned out all right, but I didn't have time to practice enoguh with any of them.

Nordics 2018 - After action report part 1, THE X-WING MENACE

I'm back from Nordics - and it was even better than last year!

I ALMOST managed to become the Armada champ again, but alas, despite going 4-0 there was another guy I didn't play that was ahead in points. I'm surprised I'm not disappointed, but I guess I feel I did as well as I could and that the rest was out of my hands. Plus I did both win my games and have great opponents, so there is no source of salt to be found.

Anyway. Well done Thomas - but I would have totally tabled you if we met :-P Next time!

Before I get down and dirty with the batreps, let's talk about X-wing. I got into X-wing when 2.0 was released, never played it before (except one intro game back in 2012). So I can't really comment on the quality of 1.0, but 2.0 is a BLAST. Really good game. It scratches a very different itch from Armada - one I didn't even know I had.

Nordics 2018 is the reason I wanted to try X-wing. Flying down to Stockholm for just the 4 games of Armada felt a bit empty. I did that last year for Nordics, and this time I just wanted more play time compared to travel time/expenses.

Plus we lack a strong Armada community locally. I basically have to drive for 3 hours to attend tourneys in Østersund, Sweden. For everything else I have to take a plane. But there is a nice group of X-wing here, so if I started with X-wing I could get to play like real games!

So I ordered a Core, 1 X-wing and 1 Y-wing, plus the Rebel Conversion kit (no ships to convert, but I needed some upgrades to start with). That allowed me to field a simple Rebel list of Luke, Wedge and Dutch. I loaded them with some thematic upgrades, torpedoes and droids, shields and talents. Too many really, but I didn't know that then.

Then I went online.

I used to dev the Armada module, so I was familiar with Vassal, but not the X-wing module)

I had 9 games on Vassal, enough to know the rules, make a more reasonable list and not be a total baby seal. My first win came in my 5th game, and although I only won 1 more game after that, I felt I was starting to know what I was doing.

Tweaking. The first thing I noticed was that Dutch was considered a low target priority, so he was left for last - and then he lacked the ability to kill anything on his own. So I ditched him in favor of an ARC, selecting Garven for his focus-passing ability and giving Wedge Swarm. It was a better list.

Then I got into my car (or actually a rental as my brakes decided to get shifty) and drove 3 hours to Østersund. This was my first Store Champ. My first time with real minis - I actually unpacked my fleet right before that first RL game :-D

I went 2-3 at that tourney, which was very good by my standards (also won the Armada SC the day after). I learned a LOT, and got some new ideas for tweaking list. The Garven/Swarm thing hadn't really worked much. Either he didn't get to focus or he simply didn't roll any eyes, so the number of times he passed a focus token... very low indeed.

I was going to do more Vassal games in between the SC and Nordics, but it turned out my Armada-fu was... a bit rusty, so I had to prioritize that. Plus Armada was... really fun again. In no small part thanks to Broba's Thrawn 2-ship. But more about that later.

So... for Nordics I ran Wedge w/R3 & Protons, Luke with IA & Protons and ARC-Norra with Intimidation/Zeb & Tail Gunner. A simple, yet flexible list, and not too punishing vs mistakes. 

Nordics 2018 R3 (200)

Wedge Antilles — T-65 X-Wing 52

Proton Torpedoes 9

R3 Astromech 3

Servomotor S-foils 0

Ship Total: 64

 

Luke Skywalker — T-65 X-Wing 62

Instinctive Aim 2

Proton Torpedoes 9

Servomotor S-foils 0

Ship Total: 73

 

Norra Wexley — ARC-170 Starfighter 55

Intimidation 3

“Zeb” Orrelios 1

Veteran Tail Gunner 4

Ship Total: 63

The list has a strong opening, which IMO is important to a newbie with poor dogfighting skills. So basically my list, my setup and my opening moves are aimed at doing a lot more damage to you at long range than u do to me. No bid, bc I don't know what to do with it...

When we get close, I'm ahead and your ships start dying before mine and it snowballs to victory. Also, if u try that clever shit with blocking and bumping that I don't fully master, Norra is in the middle of it, with bonus Evades and the ability to shoot back and front, even at range 0. You die.

I'm not going to claim prodigal status, but this is me after a total of 8 real life X-wing games (plus 9 simulated). I'm in 2nd place after 3 rounds at Nordics. I'm sure luck was involved. Pairings. Dice. Whatever. But I must have done something right...

In my 4th game I met a veteran Polish player (the guy just below me in r3). He went on to win the Swiss, 6-0 with a good MoV, and our game was the closes he came to a loss. I did the same as in the other games, and lo and behold, his Guri and Old Teroch are both dead, and I have 3 ships left.

But that's when the skill disparity kicked in: he was in close, 2nd player and I6, dodging all my good shots. Wedge and Luke went down without me being able to focus Fenn Rau down.

Then we had 1 ship left each, and chased back and forth between the asteroids, but Norra can't really catch Fenn Rau, and my increasingly desperate attempts at scoring half points on Rau came to nothing. And Fenn cost 8 more than Norra, so loss.

The best game of the 6. I was on my toes for 75 minutes straight. Man was my coffee cold after! :-D

Last two games were wins also. So 5-1 for me, and 5th in Swiss of about 100 players. Highest ranking Norwegian, only one to make the cut actually. Not too shabby for a baby seal! 

And yeah, I'm pretty pleased with that achievement. No, I'm totally blown away. I almost can't believe it. Wow!

Tempting as it was to play the Top 16 Cut on Sunday, my hearts is with Armada, so I had to drop. It kind of sucked, but it didn't. Maybe if I didn't have a title to defend I might have done it? But... I think not. Four guaranteed games of Armada over maybe (big maybe) more than 1 game of X-wing?

Fun fact: I know the guy who came 17th, so by dropping he got into the cut. He was very happy with that. He also paired against the Polish buy who beat me... and defeated him. VENGEANCE! :D he went on to reach the top 4 before being knocked out. I'm pretty sure I would have lost a second game against my "nemesis", so everything worked out fine I think.

But too bad there was an overlap at all. It would have been so cool to see if I could make top 8... top 4... top 2... top ;-) Maybe next year? :-P

How does this relate to Armada? Not a lot, but a little. X-wing is guaranteed hard to master, but the rules are simple to learn, and the game itself much less complex than Armada. A LOT less complex. There are usually 3-4 ships to a side (more with swarms, but they are moving as one), no turn limit, no objectives, no command stacks. There are (as of wave 1) not too many ship types or upgrades or OP combos.

For Armada players that's nothing. We juggle so many more variables and our early decisions echo deep into our games. In that regard X-wing is a bit more forgiving. So even if the games are not much alike, I do think my experience with Armada helped me learn very quickly and to juggle variables easily and plan ahead several turns. I also found a good setup and flexible opening gambit, which are so important also in Armada.

I will play more X-wing. It doesn't mean less Armada, it just means more gaming in general :-)

Trials of Konstantine: Round 2

King K brings home another win!

This time a win by tabling, but losing my Dictor flagship in the process, for a 8-3 MoV 147.

My opponent was NairoD, who ran Motti VSD, Quasar, 2xGoz, and a horrible ball of 11 bombers and Dengar!

He was at 400 vs my 396, so I opted for first, potentially giving me last-first with my Strat Adv. I chose his Contested Outpost (other picks were Precicison Strike and Sup Positions). Sure, I'd give away 3-4 tokens, but that's  nothing compared to what PS and SP could give him. Plus CO means I know where he'll be, improving the chances of tabling dramatically.

His fleet is rather unusual: a Vic and a Quasar, both built around Ruthless, and a Rhymerball like u haven't seen in ages. Between Dengar AND Chirraneau tying down those bombers just isn't happening. And there is nothing in Armada that can survive 12 black dice, 11 of them bomber dice with BCC rerolls. 

That doesn't mean his fleet is perfect. Anyone who has played a bit of squads in Armada knows that obstruction kills any flak a 1 die ship might have. So both the Vic and the Quasar are foiled by a single intervening obstacle or ship. Or Ciena, who creates her own obstruction. Also, flak, combined with damage from enemy squads, plus self-harm through RS quickly mounts up in my experience.

Anyway, its not the ship-bombing or anti-squad capabilities that are the problem. The problem is the complete lack of ship-based firepower. Unless someone parks in front of the VSD and you get lucky with the dice, the VSD isn't going to be doing all that mush damage. Not even H9 and Warlord will help all that much. Plus, without ECM, Brunson or whatever, the VSD&Quasar are both pretty soft targets. Lots of hull with Motti to be sure, but ultimately soft.

And with only 2 activations, the enemy has one way to handle this fleet: table it before it eats too many ships.

NairoD

[ flagship ] Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points) -  Admiral Motti ( 24 points)  -  Warlord ( 8 points)  -  Agent Kallus ( 3 points)  -  Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)  -  Quad Laser Turrets ( 5 points)  -  H9 Turbolasers ( 8 points)  -  Ordnance Pods ( 3 points)  = 128 total ship cost   

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points) -  Boosted Comms ( 4 points)  -  Bomber Command Center ( 8 points)  = 35 total ship cost   

Quasar Fire II-class Cruiser-Carrier (61 points) -  Pursuant ( 2 points)  -  Admiral Chiraneau ( 10 points)  -  Ruthless Strategists ( 4 points)  -  Boosted Comms ( 4 points)  = 81 total ship cost   

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points) -  Comms Net ( 2 points)  = 25 total ship cost   

8 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 72 points)  

1 Major Rhymer ( 16 points)  

1 Dengar ( 20 points)  

1 Tempest Squadron ( 13 points)  

1 Gamma Squadron ( 10 points)  = 131 total squadron cost

NairoD spread out his obstacles, like any sane man would vs Grav Shift. It's usually NOT good to castle behind rocks when facing Grav Shift! So the station ended up in a corner, with only 2 obstacles within shift range. 

The rest of the setup was pretty straightforward. I set up with the Dictor as bait/blocker, as it tanks bombers better than the ISD with Brunson. Also, it has way less firepower, so if it dies it doesn't subtract that much from my offensive power. I made sure no massive bomber attacks could hit me r1, so no rushing the station!

Start of round 2 had both fleets closing, with NairoD easily controlling the station.

Round 2 I opened up with Suppressor and a squad command, doing some good damage and slicing the Vic (with the added benefit of acting as a speed bump for my ISD). My other ships started forward. Nairo started bombing the Dictor, doing little damage, as his BCC flotilla was out of range for the most part.

Round 3 started with the Dictor mostly OK, and with repairs and Brunson and Scramblers etc I was expecting it to weather the storm. But round 3 saw my Dictor eat a lot of bomber dice. There were so many HIT/CRITS rolled I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before. It's too tough to die ouright, but it took way more damage than expected. Still, it was keeping the enemy from moving away, triggering Konstantine at the end of the round, speeding up the Gozanti to 3 and slowing down the rest. That's the most important part.

Round 4 was intense. I had to do the Dictor first to repair and make sure it got to shoot. But then the black dice madness continued, and it finally crumpled. Goodbye little Dictor (Konstantine boarded a shuttle before this unfortunate incident).

My ISD then activated, blowing away the Quasar who was unable to escape blue range due to speed 1 and reducing the VSD from 10 to 2 hull. Had it not been for a lousy 2 damage over 7 red dice round 2 and 3, the VSD would have died here. But the end result would not have been much different, except for poor Mithel, who got blown away by Warlord/H9/Kallus/RS :-D

Round 5 was the last round. ISD activated, blew away the Vic and the BCC flotilla, leaving him with 1 Gozanti and a bunch of squads tied up by Ciena. Game.

I lost Dictor, which was my flagship, and Suppressor. Plus poor Mithel. NairoD got tabled. Four tokens for him, 1 for me. Mov 147, 8-3.

Stuff that actually worked for me this game: Slicer Tools, Grav Shift, Tractor Beams, Ion Cannons, DCaps, Titus, and ADMIRAL KONSTANTINE. Honorable mention to my two squads that did pretty great vs TWELVE enemy squads lol!

I'm now at 16 points after 2 games, which is pretty good. There is one match still unplayed that could give one player 16 pts with a 10-1, but most likely I'm in the top 4.

Also most likely is I'll play vs Broba and his Thrawn 2-ship. It's an opponent and I fleet I know well, so I guess that's a plus. Unfortunately it's a very good fleet (better than mine) and Broba is a good player. 

I guess I'll just have to table him :-)

The Rules Lawyer: Thrawn dials and clearing raid tokens

UPDATE: DOOM AND GLOOM!

Seems we all missed this little baby from the recent FAQ:

Q: Do abilities or card effects that resolve when a ship reveals its command dial resolve when a command dial placed on an upgrade card equipped to that ship is revealed?

A: No. Effects that resolve when a ship reveals its command dial only resolve when a ship reveals a command dial from the stack assigned to its ship card as part of its activation.

That basically kills my entire line of reasoning. I was too caught up in the FAQ entry for Thrawn --> the surprising ruling you could tokenize the Thrawn dial.

Turns out tokenization is a SPECIFIC EXCEPTION TO THE RULE, rather than a precedent to make further rulings based on it.

So move along, these are not the rulings you're looking for!

---

We had an interesting rules discussion over on the Discord, regarding Thrawn dials and what you can and cannot do with them.

To begin with some people had missed the FAQ ruling that you CAN spend the Thrawn dial for a token. 

"When a friendly ship gains a command dial as part of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s effect, that ship can spend that dial to gain a matching command token."

This ruling is important, since it sets a mild precedence for getting rid of: Raid tokens.

The actual discussion was related to Raid tokens, and whether or not you can discard the Thrawn dial to discard all raid tokens.

It seemed consensus was NO, because of the wording on raid:

"While a ship has a raid token, it cannot resolve the command matching that raid token. When a ship with a raid token reveals a command dial, it may discard that dial to discard all of its raid tokens, or it may discard a command token to discard matching raid token. A ship cannot have more than one raid token of each type."

It was argued that since you don't REVEAL the Thrawn dial, but GAIN it, there is no trigger for clearing tokens:

"After deploying fleets, place 3 facedown command dials on this card. At the start of each Ship Phase, you may reveal and discard 1 of those dials. If you do, until the end of the round, before each friendly ship activates, it gains 1 additional dial matching that discarded dial."

This seemed very odd to me, as the timing for gaining a command token from a dial is EXACTLY THE SAME:

"When a ship’s command dial is revealed, that dial can be spent to assign the corresponding command token to that ship. Command tokens can be spent at the appropriate time to resolve the lesser effect of that command."

My conclusion is that we cannot 100% KNOW that you can discard the Thrawn dial to clear raid tokens, but it would be DAMN ODD if you can't, based on the OK to tokenize Thrawn dials in the FAQ.

The question is mostly academic: you can tokenize the Thrawn and clear a matching raid token, or spend the ship's dial to clear all raid tokens. But it COULD come up, and then I would strongly suggest TOs allow a Thrawn dial to be spent to clear raid.

Preppring for Nordics 2018 - With a little help from your friends...

Short update:

I now have way more good ideas for lists than I could possibly test. So I've taken a few of them and done some theorycrafting of my own, then actually tested a couple of them. With mixed results I might add - although that was more due to lack of skill on my part than flaws in the lists.

Haven't quite decided what to bring yet, but the search is narrowing down. There are a couple of Rebel candidates and a couple of Empire candidates still in the running. It's a mix of tried and true and "dark horse" builds. There is especially one dark horse I'm quite fond of, but I question my ability to fly it properly.

I love to try new and experimental stuff, but I also like to go to tourneys knowing that A) the fleet is good in and of itself, B) that I've played it enough times to know it - which is about 5 times, and C) used past experience to make those final little tweaks.

In the end I'll probably bring 1 Rebel and 1 Imp with me to Stockholm, then decide at the very last moment which list to actually run. That's what I did in Østersund. Nothing like beating yourself up over what to run until the morning of the tourney :D

Trials of Konstantine: Round 1

Who has the manlier facial hair?

My first game is done, and it was a solid win for King K! 

8-3, MoV 213, so just 7 pts shy of a 9-2. Not quite the 10-1 King K demands, but it'll do for now :P

---

My opponent was West Coast US-based emfrank. His list is 5 activations of pure long-range killing power: 1 MC30 scout and 4 TRC vettes, with 2 YTs and Dash for good measure. MM commanding. Haven't seen her in a while, but she's always hard to kill. It's a pretty good list, but I think 1 less vette and some flotillas (sad to say this really) would make it even better: 5 activations just isn't enough. U need 6, at least.

Autumn Rebel Fleet option 
Author: emfrank72

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 390/400 
Commander: Mon Mothma

[ flagship ] MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points) -  Mon Mothma  ( 30  points)  -  Major Derlin  ( 7  points)  -  Caitken and Shollan  ( 6  points)  -  Advanced Projectors  ( 6  points)  -  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points)  -  Assault Proton Torpedoes  ( 5  points)  = 130 total ship cost 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points) -  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points)  = 51 total ship cost 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points) -  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points)  = 51 total ship cost 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points) -  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points)  = 51 total ship cost 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points) -  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points)  = 51 total ship cost

1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points)

2 YT-2400s ( 32 points)  = 56 total squadron cost

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Report:

He went 1st and took my Dangerous Territory. I know most players consider DT a pretty weak objective for 2nd player. I could not disagree more. You get all the obstacles in the middle section of the board (min distance 5 from edge), you get points AND you can use obstacles jaina style to hide on/behind AND you can use them to hurt enemy movement. With Grav Shift it becomes a LOT stronger: you can make a barrier of obstacles, touching even. And points: either u come to me and kill my fleet, or you lose. Do you take some damage to grab tokens? Fine with me. Do you, like emfrank, detach a ship to gather points? Also fine. So yeah, it's not Superior Positions strong, but I like it more than say Solar Corona.

I did some grav shift trickery and started with 5 obstacles in front of my fleet, screening it and offering me good token grabs. He set up opposite me,  coming in hot, with 1 CR90 on the flank, intended to pick up the 6th token before flanking me.

I maneuvered aggressively, and looking at this image from start round 2 you see I managed to block his movement with all my ships, the obstacles and ISD front arc. Corvettes end up in bad places.

My 1st activation r2 my Gozanti activates my squads, taking down 1 YT-2400 and doing Mithel damage to the rest. The Gozanti moves forward, taking 2 tokens in 1 move (thanks Grav Shift) and using the rocks for cover. I then slice one of the CRs to squad, and is perfectly poised for Suppressor shenanigans. All in just 1 flotilla activation. You may now applaud my excellence!

From top of r3. His flanking CR90 can't make it to the fight in time, and the MC30 is also late to the party. I'm a little careless with the Dictor, plus emfrank rolls really well (single reds from side arcs always get a dbl, even wo TRC), so at this point I'm afraid he might charge and kill the Dictor. But if he does, I'll have a good chance to table.

Round 4. If my Dictor hadn't taken an insane amount of double arcs and HIT/HITs, I might have been able to turn hard into the approaching flankers, but as it were my Admiral had to disengage. The ISD got a late game CR90 kill, but 1 CR90 and Mothma escaped since I couldn't use Konstantine's ability.

Round 5. My fleet is disengaging, except the ISD who turns hard and speeds up. The light rebel ships are clustered, and cannot all get away. The ISD is undamaged at this point, having repaired the little dmg it took, and can't die over so few rounds.

Start of r6. Only one CR90 can posisbly get away. I blow up the other, swinging points for a 9-2 to me. But Dash got the acc he needed to kill 1 Hp Ciena, swinging the MoV out of 9-2 and back into 8-3. Bummer :D

End state was 3 CR90s dead, 2 YTs, and 5 tokens for me. He got both my squads and 1 token.

Logfile dl

My fleet worked pretty well. Titus and Grav shift created small advantages at start. Ion batteries shed tokens and did shld dmg. ET was useful. DCaps too. Brunson+Dictor ate so many double reds. Dictor would be dead without her. ISD did ISD things. I tractored and used King Ks ability.

I'm looking forward to my next game, vs VSD+Quasar+Goz+GOz and no less than 11 bombers and Dengar. I'll be sure to take some pics!

Preppring for Nordics 2018

Nordics 2018 are held in Stockholm, Sweden on Sunday 28th October. That's just under 4 weeks to make a list, preferably a good one, and practice a little bit. That's not a lot of time. 

Last year at this time, I had already settled on a concept and had already run numerous test games, slowly honing the list itself and perfecting my technique with it.

This year will be different. I have returned to play Armada again, that is true, but I've had a long break and skills are still a bit rusty. I also struggle with listbuilding. I want to do NEW and EXITING, but still GOOD. But the truth is there isn't anything new under the sun, so I'm getting frustrated.

Frustrated to the point where taking my Vassal tourney list with KONSTANTINE is starting to look like a good option. Well, maybe not that bad. But I don't want to just repeat what I've already done. 

I could do Thrawn again, I suppose, he feels new and exiting still, but it would have to be a different list. I already ran the 2-ship in Østersund, and its a good one, and different, but I can't really see how I can improve upon it, so it feels a bit dead ATM.

Raddus is a strong admiral right now, so I could perhaps do a Raddus list. But it would have to be different from my Raddus Regionals list. But different how? Everybody and their grandmother is doing Raddus ATM, and I don't just want to copy something. 

Speaking of Raddus. I find the whole Raddus ability to be kind of a game breaker for many lists ATM. I find myself drawing up many concepts, only to delete them after trying to mentally match them against a Raddus fleet or two. While it's good that we got a good shakeup of activations and deployments, maybe Raddus was one step too far.

So what other admirals might I take? Vader has always appealed to me, and I guess I could build something around him, but I haven't really managed to make something that sings of greatness and fun combined.

Sigh. I NEED HELP!

Anyone have a great idea --> post it in the comment field plz!