AAR: Agate vs Konstantine 600 points (casual)

Yesterday I was finally able to play a big battle: 600 points.

I've been playing a lot of Empire lately, so I moved over to rebel scum for this one. Also, I wanted to play with the Starhawk. Not done that yet outside of Vassal.

OPPOSING FLEET

Behold the might of the Galactic Empire!

I don't have a full list, but my opponent ran Konstantine, 2xISD, Dictor, GSD, Gozanti, and a defensive squad ball of 100 or so points.

This was the first time I had the pleasure of meeting nuKonstantine. He's really much better. With fleets this big, he was triggering on the bulk of my ships for several rounds. Probably not THE best admiral but definitely playable at 600 points. I suppose Agate is considered more competitive but at 600 points she doesn't do much beyond making the SH tanky.

The list:

• Cymoon with GT, Linked, Fleet Command, and Yularen. Flagship. Long-range sniper and support.
• ISD-I with Palp, Boarding Troopers, XI7. Cheap and deadly up close.
• Support Interdoctor with Gav Shift & The Speed Manipulator
• GSD-II, lightly kitted.
• Support Gozanti.
• Squads: Valen, Howl, Mithel, Fel, Saber, and a bunch of Advanced.

MY FLEET

I made some last-minute adjustments to my list. I always do this 😅 Swapped the TRC30 for a more traditional ACM/H9 torpedo frigate. Dropped the Parts Resupply and removed Corran in favor of Nym as I wanted to get more out of Hera + some additional anti-ship. This gave me the points for Ezra and Walex on the Starhawk. In retrospect the torpedo frigate was a good swap, Ezra was really helpful, and the move to Nym was also solid. Walex never got into the action as the SH was largely ignored.

Name: Agate SH2 v2
Faction: Rebel
Commander: Kyrsta Agate

Assault: Advanced Gunnery
Defense: Abandoned Mining Facility
Navigation: Doomed Station

Starhawk Battleship Mark II (150)
• Kyrsta Agate (20)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Walex Blissex (5)
• Local Fire Control (4)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Unity (10)
= 201 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Assault Concussion Missiles (5)
• H9 Turbolasers (8)
• Admonition (6)
= 91 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Ezra Bridger (3)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Jaina's Light (2)
= 56 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)
• Ahsoka Tano (2)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 53 Points

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

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

Squadrons:
• Shara Bey (17)
• Tycho Celchu (16)
• 2 x A-wing Squadron (22)
• Hera Syndulla (28)
• Lando Calrissian (23)
• Ketsu Onyo (22)
• Nym (21)
= 149 Points

Total Points: 600

SETUP

My opponent made me 1st player and I picked Rift Ambush. The other options were Surprise Attack and Infested Fields. I put down BH and 4 squad drops centrally, flanked on either side by a TRC90. MC30 went on the right flank to be able to turn into the battle (this can let the MC30 attack multiple times instead of going ballistic and ending the game far away from the action). SH plopped down right in the center. It's far tankier than anything the Empire has.

Empire spread out a bit too much. Gozanti and squads on one extreme flank, Cymoon in the middle, and ISD-I on the other flank. My opponent had NEVER player Empire before - he's a die-hard rebel - so that probably figured into deployment. He had also never used Rift Ambush so obstacle placement wasn't ideal.

THE BATTLE

Grav Shift rock into the SH... which is then forced to move speed 1 by the objective... didn't plan for that 😅 Fortunately I have Ezra on JL so he starts by pushing the rock away. Otherwise, it could have gotten really ugly!

GSD-II slingshotting around the grav rift with startling prevision.

Leia's flotilla moving to block the Glad. Don't want it up the ass of the SH! Jaina is just to the right of the debris, ready to TRC the poor glad.

Imperial perspective round 3. The ISD-I is on the left. The Cymoon in the middle. Pretty sure it would be better if places were swapped. ISD isn't in a good place, having been TRC-double arced by Ahsoka and then bombed by the rogues.

Rebel perspective after the MC30 activates top of round 3. Double arc, H9+ACM...I can confirm that ACMs are plenty deadly even if they exhaust.

The Empire retaliates: Bight Hope fell to a front-arc shot from the Cymoon. It tried hiding behind a rock and a dust field, but no luck. No obstruction, 2 accs, and lots of damage. Poof!

Brave A-wings pilots shot forward in round2 to lock down parts of the Imperial squad ball. They paid a heavy price. But their sacrifice let the rebel rogues go to town against first the ISD-I and then the Dictor.

Things are going well but Starhawk is badly played all game. I'm much too timid with it, failing to block Konstantine's flagship. It takes 2 shots all game - but fails to do much more than shoot side arcs at long range and flak. About 1/3 of my points not involved in the fight...

In the meantime, Ahsoka TRC90, MC30, and Rogues take down the Dictor in record time. It's a great support ship but dies quickly to massed firepower. Also, my dice are really good. Wish my vassal dice were like this!

In the bottom left, JL hammers the Glad last-first, then can't quite disengage bc of the grav rift and Konstantine. But Glad fails to kill it and the CR90 (and Leia's flotilla) slips away.

Glad gets rammed by ISD (ISD has a crit removing 1 yaw after landing on a rock) then gets bombed by Ketsu. Speed 4 rogue double blue bomber with grit and scatter... her ability may not be that good but the rest of the squad is top tier. Flak from SH, combine with Tycho and Lando finish the last Empire squads. Cymoon runs away speed 3 and I can't quite bring it down. Note the lone Gozanti lurking behind the SH - it survives the battle undamaged 😆

We didn't tally points but Empire lost everything except the Gozer and the Cymoon. Rebels lost BH, 2xAwings and Shara.

ANALYSIS

• 600-point games are FUN! They feel a lot like 400-pointers but with more room for stuff. They don't take too long to play, objectives are relevant, and the table isn't overcrowded.
• Imposing a 25% squad cap was a good idea. 150 points, max 6 aces.
• The 2 flotilla cap works fine at this level too. Increasing it to 3 would also be ok.
• Dust fields can make or break you.
• The grav rift is fun to play with. Rift Ambush made it even more fun.
• Speaking of Rift Ambush: it's not a very good objective on a 6x3 mat. On a 3x3 RitR mat maybe it's better.
• If you take a Starhawk you have to make sure it gets into the fight and stays in the fight. I was too timid with my blocking and the ISD got away. Magnites might have helped as well but I'm not sold on them.
• Starhawk is a lame ship. It's slow and has no ECM capability. It's basically only good with Agate as a points fortress. Meh.
• Agate in a 600-point list. Hopeless if it wasn't for the SH.
• Konstantine is pretty good now, especially with bigger fleets. Probably not top tier, but he works.
• TRC90s still extremely deadly for their points.
• H9/ACM still horribly potent.
• Leia/Ahsoka/Toryn/Ezra/Walex/EST are really good officer options. 
• Rebel rogues are awesome. A-wings too. 
• I want to play more 600-point battles.
• I want my Clone Wars stuff so I can play big CW battles.
• I need to take MORE AND BETTER pictures for my batreps.