Rebellion in the Rim pt. 9 (Round 8/2nd and final pivotal)

 

We finally wrapped up our RitR campaign by making the 2nd pivotal the final battle. People were pretty much fed up playing the same lists over and over against the same lists over and over. 

Observation: if teams don't attack enemy bases, each act has too many rounds. And 3 pivotals are 2 too many. In this regard, the number of battles in CC is much, much better. I think we played 5 rounds and then had the final battle. With RitR we had 6 rounds and 2 pivotals and were still supposed to play 1 more act.

Anyway. Rebels managed to win the base assault (3rd battle of the last round) with a small margin. Something about an allied CR90 and some flotillas that just refused to die. This loss took away our ally source. I'm confident we could have gotten it back next round but since we went directly for the final assault that didn't happen. It brought our scores close, 11-10 Empire-Rebel. And with Rebels guaranteed to do a Demo of Force, we could at best get a small win. Kind of weird that only the assaulting team can score more than 1 point. Another little RitR quirk.

It also so happened that we hadn't really read the rules all that well, so we were a little surprised when the Rebel team triumphantly declared they now could use TWO ally tokens (as if ally tokens aren't OP, to begin with). One to upgrade a large ship. And one for the regular ally effect. That felt a little gamey - and very much like a clever trick to get an advantage.

But whatever. We grumbled a little but went ahead with the battle. We used our Shipyard token to upgrade to larges. Mostly for fun. The VSD turned into an ISD. That was a pretty good conversion. I dumped some squads and both flots to take a near-naked Onager. Without superweapons. The Testbed was the only large I could afford lol.

Rebels went with 2 small-hunting Liberties for their large upgrades. A very good tactic IMO. The battlecruiser in particular was loaded to pick our puny ships to pieces (in the actual battle it would contribute absolutely nothing at all).

EMPIRE R8 (2nd pivotal)

Fleet: Where Did All The Gozanti Go?
Commander: Commodore Drok Lodt (BJØRN)
Abilities (6): Master Navigator I (flagship), Master Coordinator I (flagship), Ion Techs (fleetwide), Ordnance Expert (fleetwide)
XP: 1
Conditions: None
⁠
Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Abandoned Mining Facility
Navigation: Infested Fields
⁠
Gladiator I (56) [FLAGSHIP] [VET]
• Skilled First Officer (1)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• External Racks (4)
• Demolisher (10)
= 75 Points
⁠
Onager Testbed (96)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
= 100 Points
⁠
Raider I (44) [VET]
• Instigator (4)
= 48 Points
⁠
Squadrons:
• Maarek Stele (21) [VET]
• Colonel Jendon (20) [VET]
• TIE Interceptor Squadron (22)
= 52 Points
⁠
Total Points: 275/275

Fleet: Dat New ISD
Commander: Fleet Captain Lex Ander (ALEXANDER)
Abilities (6): Master Gunner I (flagship), Master Navigator I (flagship), Ion Tech (fleetwide), Ordnance Expert (fleetwide)
XP: 1
Conditions: None
⁠
Assault: Most Wanted
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Infested Fields
⁠
Imperial II (120)
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 139 Points
⁠
Arquitens Light Cruiser (54) [VET]
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 66 Points
⁠
Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Comms Net (2)
= 25 Points
⁠
Squadrons:
• Howlrunner (16) [VET]
• Soontir Fel (18) [VET]
• TIE Interceptor Squadron (22)
= 45 Points
⁠
Total Points: 275/275

Fleet: Never Got To Fully Pimp My Ships
Commander: Flotilla Commander So Tham (THOMAS F)
Abilities (6): Ambush Gunner II (fleetwide), Ion Tech (fleetwide), Master Engineer II (fleetwide)
XP: 5
Conditions: None
⁠
Assault: Opening Salvo
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Infested Fields
⁠
Arquitens Command Cruiser (59) [FLAGSHIP] [VET]
• Reinforced Blast Doors (5)
• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5)
= 69 Points
⁠
Arquitens Command Cruiser (59) [VET]
• Expert Shield Tech (5)
• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5)
= 69 Points
⁠
Raider II (48) [VET]
• Iden Versio (6)
• Disposable Capacitors (3)
• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)
= 66 Points
⁠
Squadrons:
• Ciena Ree (17) [VET]
• Valen Rudor (13) [VET]
• Tempest Squadron (13)
• TIE Interceptor Squadron (11)
= 54 Points
⁠
Total Points: 258/275

REBELS

Eirik (261/261)

Commander

- Master Gunner III

- Ion Tech

- Master Navigator I

[flagship] MC80 Liberty Battle Cruiser (103)

- Intel Officer (7)

- Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

- XI7 Turbolasers (6)

- Sensor Team (5)

= 128 total points

CR90 Corvette A (44) (V)

- Jaina's Light (2)

- Ezra Bridger (3)

- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

= 56 total points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

- Bright Hope (2)

- Comms Net (2)

- Ahsoka Tano (2)

= 24 total points

Squadrons (53/263):

1x Millennium Falcon - Lando Calrissian (23) (V)

1x Kanan Jarrus (19) (V)

1x A-Wing Squadron (11)

2nd Expeditinary Fleet (274/200)

Rebels - Author: CTS

- Squadron leader

- ion tech

- squadron group leader II

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72)(V)(Flagship)

- Reinforced Blast Doors (5)

- Adar Tallon (10)

= 87 total points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

- Wedge Antilles (4)

= 22 total points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

- Bomber Command Center (😎

- Ray Antilles (7)

= 33 total points

Squadrons (132/200):

1x Norra Wexley Y-wing Squadron (17)(V)

(S) 2x Y-Wing Squadron (20)

1x Y-Wing Squadron (10)

3x X-Wing Squadron (39)

1x Moldy Crow - Jan Ors (19)

1x Scurgg H-6 Bomber (16)

1x A-Wing Squadron (11)

Name: Roosh flying circus

Faction: Rebel

Commander:

- Master Engineer I

- Ion Tech

- Ambush Gunner II

- Infiltration I

CR90 Corvette A (44) (V)(Flagship)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

= 53 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)

• General Draven (3)

• Reactive Gunnery (4)

• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)

= 51 Points

MC80 Star Cruiser (96)

• Expert Shield Tech (5)

• Auxiliary Shields Team (3)

• Spinal Armament (9)

= 113 Points

Squadrons:

• Corran Horn (22) (V)

• Hera Syndulla (28)

• A-wing Squadron (11)

• Rogue Squadron (14) (V)

• E-wing Squadron (15)

= 90 Points

Total Points: 307 (inkl Ally token for command ship upgrades)

NOTE: The MC80H1 model is a LIBERTY. The AF1 is an AF2.

I don't have a ton of pics for this one. But this image from the start of round 3, before ships start popping says it all. Rebels set up in two separate groups, thinking they could lure the ISD out of the fight and also take down our dual Arq/raider fleet quickly and then sweep into our flank.

We were very happy to see the rebel bomber ball in the corner! The ISD/ARQ/Goz combo, along with most of our squads should be able to deal with them decisively, if supported by my Instigator. It was also pretty obvious the rebels had (again) spread out too much and would be tail-chasing much of the game.

Overall we had the better deployment and the better plan. During the game, we did some things right and some things not right at all. 

Some key points:

1. Our 2 Arqs + Iden-Raider jumped from speed 1 to 3 first round, leaving a big portion of the Rebel fleet out of the fight for the entire game...

2. The Onager used a dust field and its speed to FLANK the Liberties 💪 and do quite a bit of damage before going down. Pleased with that one.

3. Insitgator jumped in at the right moment and did Instigator-things. Some spot-on squad play sealed the rebel bombers' fate. Also real pleased with that one.

4. Demolisher changed its mind. Instead of going right to make sure the potato died, it ended up boxed in by the Onager, forced to stay slow, and eventually getting killed by rogue squads, a TRC90, and the BC in turn 6. I think we need to go back to 2015 to find Demolisher play THAT bad 😅😅😅

5. Wedge officer + Demo being stupid let the AF circle around and live (with 2 hull, no shields, and no defense tokens). Should have put the ISD further to the right, but the obstacle you see in the pic kind of precluded that.

In the end, we lost a bunch of squads, Demo, and the Onager, plus the brave Arq in the right corner. Rebels lost 2 CR90s, the Star Cruiser, and a ton of squads. In all, we won by less than 20 points. But a win is a win. Got us 1 more CP, for a 12-10 total.

And that's it. RitR was fun some of the time, tedious at other times. The strategic rules have a lot of interesting ideas but the overall finish isn't polished. Overall, RitR left me with a bad taste in my mouth and I hope I'll never have to play an unmodified version EVER AGAIN. CC isn't nearly as deep but RitR is so deeply flawed I need a separate blog post to talk about it all...