Sunday, November 4, 2018

Nordics 2018 - After action report part 6, ARE THOSE NEBULONS!?


My final opponent for Nordics was Kim. I see he's pretty active down in Coopenhagen, but we didn't play last time, so like Christian he was a new opponent.

He brought a rather unorthodox Dodonna list, comprised of 1 Liberty BC, 2 ESCORT (this is important later) Nebs, and a flotilla. He also had a HWK, Wedge, Luke, and... a mighty Z-95!

Jokes aside, those Nebs could have really crippled my squads, and only Bad Blue Diec Without Toryn (TM) saved my bacon. Because I read the list, looked at his fleet, but those Nebs were alt arts and my brain immediately assumed they were SUPPORT Nebs. Ok, I made another joke. My bad.

My point is, that couple with his squads, all that flak could become a real problem. And if you think those are support nebs, you might eagerly jump forward into a kill box of both nebs AND the GR-75. Which I totally did. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

He had made some last minute alterations to the list (with a pen, so I could see the old list as well). The old version had less SAdv and more Intel officer. For me it would have been much more dangerous, so I was happy enough.

So the list is a drill list. The MC80 just cuts through things. But without Intel Officer on the MC80 it needs to have additional firepower coming in to overcome big ships with ECM. Which the 2 Nebs excel at, so that part was OK.

What I didn't like about the list is the lack of engine techs. But that may be just personal preference. If the whole idea is to joust at red, maybe you don't need it. But I'm not convinced.

Overall I think Toryn Farr would be great for this list. Much more than Draven. And Adar is probably very, very nice vs squadless, but it seems paying 10 for him and 4 for boosted is overkill.

Anyway. I opted for 1st and picked his DT. I really like DT, more than most I think. But in this game I could not see how he would score too many points. He might be the two rocks on the right, but if he went for the station he'd score a token and run face first into the ISD. The other three obstacles were to the other side, and if he sent his GR down there, I would just quickly table him and the advantage would be slight.

Faction: Rebel
Commander: General Dodonna

Assault: Advanced Gunnery
Defense: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation: Dangerous Territory

MC80 Battle Cruiser (103)
• General Dodonna (20)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Caitken and Shollan (6)
• Medical Team (1)
• MS-1 Ion Cannons (2)
• Spinal Armament (9)
• XX-9 Turbolasers (5)
• Mon Karren (8)
= 158 Points

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57)
• Intel Officer (7)
• Projection Experts (6)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 77 Points

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57)
• General Draven (3)
• Projection Experts (6)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 73 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Adar Tallon (10)
• Comms Net (2)
• Boosted Comms (4)
= 34 Points

Squadrons:
• Luke Skywalker (20)
• Wedge Antilles (19)
• HWK-290 (12)
• Z-95 Headhunter Squadron (7)
= 58 Points

Total Points: 400

I set up with the Quasar parallell, facing towards my ISD who set up centrally and into the table. The Nebs faced down my ISD, with squads and GR for support. The MC80 was deployed further to the right, behind the objective rocks.

I set Pryce to 2 as in every other game, then we began or little dance. I avoided using Squall on round 1, to maybe get a little bit of surprise on r2. Many players can read the Squall card and think they got it, but the range of Squall +  Defenders is actually hard to imagine without being on the receiving end a few times.

He turned his Nebs and Gr towards the MC80, probably sensing the distance was a bit too large. Then the MC80 dropped to 0, to foul Pryce. This whole move had good intentions, and it really did prevent Pryce form triggering for max benefit.

It also cost Kim the game.

Round 2 my squads jumped forward. They quickly killed everything but Luke in a Squall attack. This is when I realized his Nebs were escorts... he had some really bad flak rolls from 2 Nebs AND 1 GR75 and Luke. He finally killed something, I think it was Valen, but it was much less than average.

He turned back into the fight oc and the Liberty geared up, but only to speed 1. When my ISD finally went, bombers and long rang guns boosted by Jonus took out 1 Neb and the flotilla.

Round 3 Luke went away and so did the final Neb and the ISD was in Mon Karren's face. 

Round 4 MK was still at speed 1, not double arced, but swarmed by angry bombers. With no Intel Officer the MK, despite all the upgrades, hardly made a scratch on the ISD paint job. 

Round 5... bombers and Liberty. We known what happens, right?

I got 1 token, he got 2. I lost 1 squadron. He got tabled. 10-1.

Kim realized his mistakes early on. His eagerness to avoid Pryce meant the Nebs were left to face the squads and ISD long range shots alone. So they were dead by the time with Liberty mattered. And by the time the Liberty was shooting, it was just a matter of time before it died. Just Maarek-Jendon is enough to cripple a Liberty facing down and ISD Avenger. Your redir gets discarded too quickly, and if u brace...well, Avenger gets you.

And that concluded my run.

It started a bit slow, with a 6-5, then a controlled 8-3 against Motti ISD (nearly impossible to get more), before I was able to really punish my opponents for the mistakes they made and go 10-1 twice in a row.

Total pts 34, which is 2 more than I won with last year.

Alas I was never able to catch up with Thomas, the winner, who also scored 10-1s in the two end games, and won with a massive 38! tourney points.

No comments:

Post a Comment