Thursday, March 25, 2021

Update for Vassal OP Q2 2021 Unconventional Warfare


Here's a little sneak peek of the tournament rules and perk tree for the upcoming Vassal tournament for Q2 2021, "Unconventional Warfare."

Round 1 has the first two perks active. You won't know exactly what the advanced perks are until after each round when they are revealed, but the rules document should give some hints. "Favors this or that."

It's inspired by AMG's Ministravaganza in March 2021. 

As you can see there are 4 perk trees instead of 2, 2 for squad-centric and 2 for ship-centric. Squads are further divided between "normal" and irregular. Ships between light and fast and flexible, and larger and moving in formation.

There will be 4 rounds of Swiss. It will not be a live event this time but there will be a 2 hour 30 mins time limit in effect. The live event proved we don't need more time than that. Dragging your feet doesn't help one bit so get fast, scrub πŸ˜… On a more serious note, if one or both players are inexperienced they can have 30 mins extra (3 hours total).

The event is scheduled to run in May. Exact dates TBA.

Monday, March 22, 2021

Rebellion in the Rim pt. 4 (Round 3)

Let's look at the 3rd campaign turn:

The Fleets

Nothing much has changed. We still have trouble handling the squad-heavy Rebel list and think it's a bit silly but we're not complaining. Much. I've temporarily maxed out my fleet on squads but I've planned to tone it down a bit. Or at least I want to. Not sure I can, given the number of squads in a certain rebel list...

My allies have their defensive aces and now 1 TIE Int each πŸ˜… The Arq+Arq+Raider fleet won a green objective last turn and now comes with Iden and 1 EST. The Arq+VSD+Goz fleet could only afford Vet Captain and SFO.

Team league errata & costing changes explained

 


Talking about the team league changes. 

Warning: long runtime πŸ˜…

Results for Vassal 1-day Swiss Event (Sunday, 21st March)


The 1-day Swiss event has ended. From a TO perspective, it went very well indeed. And it looked like players were having fun as well. That's the most important bit. We want them hooked on the digital plastic crack so they come back for the next one πŸ˜†

I'm happy to say that the majority of games were played to completion within the allotted 2h 15 min. IRL there are games that will not make it through round 6. Not bad, not bad at all. Gives me hope that we can play more "fast" Armada in the future. These 3-round Swiss events are a bit exhausting but they are double and they are fun. I'll run more.

I'm also going to set a time cap on all my tournaments from now - there will be no more 4 hour + games on my watch. It's not going to be 2h 15 min. Maybe 2.5 hours or even 3. Haven't decided quite yet. the point is you don't play better when you overthink and overmeasure. You have to make some judgment calls and try to play the way you would IRL.

But enough about the future. Let's have some key statistics for the tournament:

Winner: unskilledfirstofficer, 27 pts, Empire

Runner-up: pheaver, 25 pts, Seppies

Both went undefeated during the Swiss. Both leveraged second player and their objectives to good effect. UFO had a lot of scoring from his Abandoned Mining Facility and heaver was wrecking face using long-range Kraken-powered Volatile Deposits. UFO also has this in his list - one to watch out for?

The winning list is hardly a standard one. Ozzel and a Dictor? But nuOzzel is really flexible, freeing you from having to navigate much. Combined with Chimaera with TEA! you can pull off from great maneuvers with only a single nav token to feed the fleet command.

Heaver is still addicted to Munis πŸ˜… But heΓ¦s managed to diversify a little bit and put in a bare-bones Recusant and a Hardcell. His ships are all very lean. Gives me a kind of X-wing vibe - the more ships on the table the better. Not sure how well his Hyenas performed?

Name: Wizard of Ozz

Faction: Galactic Empire
Commander: Admiral Ozzel
Points: 393/400

Assault: Advanced Gunnery
Defense: Abandoned Mining Facility
Navigation: Volatile Deposits

Imperial II (120)
• Emperor Palpatine (3)
• Boarding Troopers (3)
• Early Warning System (7)
• Chimaera (4)
• Entrapment Formation! (5)
= 142 Points

Interdictor Suppression Refit (90)
• Admiral Ozzel (20)
• Captain Needa (2)
• Projection Experts (6)
• Disposable Capacitors (3)
• Targeting Scrambler (5)
• Grav Shift Reroute (2)
• Interdictor (3)
= 131 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Darth Vader (1)
• Comms Net (2)
= 26 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Comms Net (2)
= 25 Points

Squadrons:
• Maarek Stele (21)
• Colonel Jendon (20)
• Zertik Strom (15)
• Valen Rudor (13)
= 69 Points

###

HaMMeR Tickles

Assault: Ion Storm
Defense: Fire Lanes 
Navigation: Volatile Deposits

Faction: Separatist Alliance
Commander: Kraken
Points: 399/400

Munificent-class Comms Frigate (70 points)
- Linked Turbolaser Towers ( 7 points)
= 77 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Munificent-class Comms Frigate (70 points)
- Kraken ( 30 points)
- Tikkes ( 2 points)
- Engine Techs ( 8 points)
- Linked Turbolaser Towers ( 7 points)
= 117 total ship cost

Hardcell-class Transport (47 points)
- Parts Resupply ( 3 points)
= 50 total ship cost

Recusant Light Destroyer (85 points)
- Wat Tambor ( 5 points)
- Linked Turbolaser Towers ( 7 points)
= 97 total ship cost

2 Hyena-class Droid Bomber Squadrons ( 22 points)
1 Phlac-Arphocc Prototypes ( 19 points)
1 DIS-T81 ( 17 points)
= 58 total squadron cost

All lists can be found here: https://tabletop.to/vassal-1day-swiss-event-q1-2021

Here is the full ladder. Poor rasp took one for the team since there was an odd number of players.

VASSAL 1-DAY SWISS EVENT Q1 2021 - LADDER (29)

Player

Rank

W/L

TPs

MOV/SOS

unskilledfirstofficer

1

3/0

27

836/6.33

Pheaver

2

3/0

25

650/5.56

Jamesmorgan

3

2/1

21

430/4.89

SpeKre

4

2/1

20

611/5.33

Benk3i

5

2/1

20

359/5.56

BiggsIRL

6

1/2

20

302/5.00

Shyvalry

7

2/1

19

329/6.22

Roald Hansen (Roald/lilrys#8187)

8

2/1

19

315/5.89

Aresius

9

2/1

19

165/5.67

Slendy_Games

10

3/0

19

141/4.89

Veleno111

11

2/1

18

365/6.00

Callum

12

2/1

18

146/6.44

Mrks.

13

2/1

17

334/6.33

ginkapo

14

1/2

17

191/5.56

Gerrit

15

2/1

17

178/5.33

187-Leon

16

2/1

17

131/5.00

paindemic

17

1/2

16

90/5.00

TigerKonigs

18

1/2

15

149/5.11

Jolliegreengiant

19

1/2

15

22/4.67

BackSeatAdmiral

20

1/2

14

42/5.78

CaribbeanNinja

21

0/3

14

0/5.11

Ardaedhel

22

1/2

13

34/5.56

Doktor

23

1/2

12

48/5.44

Karneck

24

1/2

12

31/5.00

Maturin

25

1/2

11

16/5.89

EbonHawk

26

1/2

10

79/5.11

mmusterer

27

0/3

9

0/6.00

Craig Fleming

28

0/3

8

0/5.33

rasproteus

29

0/0

0

0/0.00

Factions:

Massive overrepresentation by rebels (Starhawks and Agate very popular) and seppies (roll all the red dice). The winner was Empire, however, same with 3rd place. Seppies on 2nd and 4th. Top rebel on 5th place. Then more imps and seppies. Highest scoring Republic on 9th.

Forms response chart. Question title: Pick a faction. Number of responses: 29 responses. 

Empire - 4

Rebel - 10 (rasp had a rebel list)

Republic - 3

Seppies - 12

Assault:

MW overrepresented of course. Ion Storm had a presence given all the seppie fleets. AG made a showing. Surprised to see Marked for Destruction. And where did Surprise Attack go?

Forms response chart. Question title: Assault (Red) Objective. Number of responses: 29 responses.

Most Wanted - 41%

Advanced Gunnery - 17%

Marked For Destruction -  13%

Ion Storm - 10%

Defense:

The only surprise for me here is Hyperspace Assault. Didn't expect to see multiple fleets with that one. Retro. From what I could see, HA didn't perform too well.

Forms response chart. Question title: Defense (Yellow) Objective. Number of responses: 29 responses.

Asteroid Tactics: 20%

Contested Outpost: 17%

AMF: 14%

HA: 14%

Rift Ambush: 14%

Navigation:

Good to see Doomed Station show up. I think it's a fairly solid objective that is underplayed. Volatile Deposits is linked to the numerous red-die-chucking seppie fleets.

Forms response chart. Question title: Navigate (Blue) Objective. Number of responses: 29 responses.

Solar Corona: 24%

Volatile Deposits: 24%

Infested Fields: 21%

Doomed Station: 14%

Don't forget to join our two upcoming events: the team mini-league and the unconventional warfare Swiss turnament.