Battle for Endor 2025 – POD Round 3

Yesterday I sat down for my third POD game in the Battle for Endor 2025 online tournament, squaring off against Daniel (Smizzy). We logged into TTS and, as always, I was looking forward to seeing how my fleet would hold up. A fun surprise: turns out Daniel will also be at Stirling on October 25th for the Scottish Championship. Small galaxy!

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The Fleets

It’s a lean 400 points, built around an Onager Testbed with Vader, Intel Officer, Varnillian, Veteran Gunners, XI7s and OBPCs. The Cymoon is its running mate, packing Intensify Firepower, Spinals, XI7s and Devastator. Two Gozantis and a pair of TIE Fighters round things out.

Bjørn Blom Sørgjerd (Green Knight)

Somehow, Vader Returned with an Onager – Empire, Darth Vader

• Onager Testbed w/ Vader, Intel Officer, Varnillian, Vet Gunners, XI7s, OBPCs

• ISD Cymoon I w/ Intel Officer, Gunnery Team, IF!, Spinals, XI7s, Devastator

• 2x Gozantis (Hondo + Comms Net)

• 2x TIE Fighters
  = 400 pts

At first glance, it looks harmless: an Assault Frigate, a CR90B, and a Hammerhead. But then you clock the squadron ball – Luke, Lando, Shara, Tycho, Gold, Green, and a couple of Scurrgs – and realize where the real teeth are. Add in Dodonna for extra spice, and it’s a nasty, bomber-centric toolbox.

Daniel (Smizzy)
Endor Fleet – Rebels, General Dodonna

• AFII-B w/ Dodonna, Raymus, Flight Controllers, Expanded Hangar, ECM, XX-9s

• CR90B w/ SW-7s, Dodonna’s Pride

• HH Torp w/ ExRacks, Garel’s Honor

• 2x GR-75s (Ahsoka + Comms Net / BCC + Bright Hope)

• Gold, Green, Luke, Lando, Shara, Tycho, 2x Scurrgs
  = 394 pts

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The Matchup

Daniel had the bid and wisely chose first player. He went with Most Wanted. I marked my Hondo Gozanti and his flagship Assault Frigate. Pretty standard. Last round this exact objective had handed me a comfortable win, so I was quietly optimistic.

That optimism didn’t last long.

This was the third game in a row where I ended up second player. My list can live with that role, but in truth it wants to be first. Two long-range bruisers work best when they can punch something off the board before it answers back. But I’d already accepted that risk by going in at 400 points clean. No bid is part of my Armada philosophy: I’d rather build the exact list I want than play the cut-throat bid game. That choice has consequences, and this game underlined them.

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The Early Game

Setup, stupid Onager pointing straight up lol

Setup, Rebel perspective

The real trouble started in deployment. I had a plan in mind, something like what I’d done in POD round 2, but when I put my ships down, it ended up looking more like round 1 – the game where I’d learned some hard lessons. Instead of angling the Onager to cover the edge of the board, I told myself it would be “fine” pointing it straight. It wasn’t fine. Just like in my game vs Spike, this left a wide path for Daniel to creep around and force me into awkward pivots.

Start r2, fine - for now, but note the angle of the Onager and the rock

By round 2, I’d already spent my pass token. Unlike my previous opponent, Daniel had kept his ships tight to one side while spreading them out enough that I couldn’t meaningfully threaten multiple targets at once. It was really well done – a subtle but very effective deployment. Meanwhile, my Cymoon had nothing to shoot at. That was survivable for now, but it foreshadowed the problems to come.

I felt I had no choice but to push the Onager forward. Hanging back would have ceded too much space, and I needed to force some pressure onto his ships. For a moment it looked like it might pay off: I forked his flagship Assault Frigate and Dodonna’s Pride. The threat was real.

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The Decisive Moment

Start r3, pressure is on by Cymoon is on the back foot

Round 3 was the hinge. The Onager had a shot at the Assault Frigate – extreme range, obstructed behind a rock, but still a solid swing with Vader and all the toys. I landed a structural, but crucially the AF held onto its defense tokens. That single fact changed the whole flow of the game. If the AF had lost its tokens, it would have been doomed. With tokens intact, it could shrug and live to fight another turn.

Start r4, I could keep the Cymoon on target, but it is pointless since AF has all tokens

From that point the script flipped. My plan depended on the Onager punching through and escaping – possible, since Daniel didn’t have long-range squadron control. But “possible” was always a stretch. Once Dodonna’s bombers closed, it became impossible. The crits rolled in, including the brutal “you can’t ready defense tokens.” That was a death sentence.

R5, side is obstructed and AF has all tokens, so it's safe

The follow-up plan had been for the Cymoon to finish off the crippled AF. But of course, it wasn’t crippled. And with the Onager dying and terrain (damn you, space rocks!) complicating the angle, the Cymoon’s shots never lined up. I chose to disengage rather than feed more points into the grinder.

By the time it ended, Daniel had claimed the Onager and my Most Wanted flotilla. 243 plus 23, nothing in return.

We called it here

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Reflections

On paper it looks terrible: I killed nothing, lost big, 9–2, MOV 266. But in practice it didn’t feel that way. This wasn’t a rout, nor a dice-driven disaster. Dice were average to decent both ways. It was about small mistakes compounding into bigger ones, while Daniel played a very clean, disciplined game.

His deployment was excellent. His ships stayed spread but cohesive, avoiding overcommitment. His squadron game was efficient, striking where it hurt but never overextending (extra points for efficiently commanding squads without a single Boosted Comms). And when the moment came to disengage, he did it, pocketing the win without chasing for greedy points. That’s good Armada.

For my part, splitting the Onager and Cymoon was fatal. Those two ships need to act in concert, or else one ends up stranded. That happened here. It’s the sort of game you lose, but walk away thinking “yes, that was earned.” And in its own way, that’s satisfying.

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The Standings

With the win, Daniel climbs to 21 TP and is very much in the hunt for Gold League. I wish him luck – show the galaxy Dodonna still has bite!

I sit at 14 TP after three rounds. That locks me into the bottom half and likely into Chocolate League, which, if I’m honest, is exactly what I predicted (and maybe even wanted). I had a moment’s dream of Silver or even Gold, but reality has a way of reasserting itself.

The next question is what I bring to the table in Chocolate. Do I keep running Somehow, Vader Returned? Do I tweak it, reflecting the lessons learned here? Or do I take advantage of the Chocolate perk and try something wild with Legacy Wave 0?

Stay tuned. We’ll find out together.

Battle for Endor 2025 – Round 3 Pre-battle analysis

Opponent Overview

Daniel (“Smizzy”) brings his unique take on a classic Dodonna bomber fleet — an Assault Frigate carrier, light ship support, and a mean squadron wing. At first glance, the ships don’t look scary: one AFII-B “potato,” a CR90B, a Hammerhead, and two flotillas. But once you look past the hulls, it’s clear the squadrons are the real hammer.

Squadrons: Luke, Lando, Shara, Tycho, Green, Gold, plus two Scurrgs. That’s a mix of durable aces, nasty anti-ship punch, and enough cover to tie down enemy fighters. Flight Controllers + Expanded Hangar + BCC makes the ball hit hard and accurately.

Ships:

• AFII-B (Dodonna flagship): Carrier build with ECMs and XX-9s. It’s the anchor, and if it survives, his fleet still functions.

• CR90B Dodonna’s Pride: Crit delivery platform, synergizing perfectly with Dodonna.

• HH Garel’s Honor: Suicide ram threat.

• 2x GR-75: Classic support — Comms/Ahsoka for token shenanigans and BCC/Bright Hope for bomber reliability.

Threat Assessment

• Primary Threat: The squadron wing. Left unchecked, it will chew through medium ships by turn 3–4.

• Secondary Threats:

  • Dodonna’s Pride can punish with crits if it sneaks into range. It has SW7s if pure damage is preferable. Cunning.

  • Garel’s Honor is a credible ram that forces positional respect.

  • The potato itself doesn’t kill quickly, but it’s a solid carrier with defensive tech, and if it strips your shields, those XX-9 are nasty af with Dodonna.

Match Context

We both need a big win (9-2 or better) to have a long shot at Gold. Playing safe for a 6-5 or 7-4 almost guarantees Silver/Chocolate. That means both players must gamble, but in different ways:

• Daniel has to press his squadron advantage and get damage rolling early. If his bombers don’t land, he probably won’t table me fast enough.

• I need to crack ships quickly before the bomber ball reaches full efficiency.

Win Conditions

• For him: Use squadrons efficiently, avoid my ships, and let bombers grind me down.

• For me: Push through the squadrons, and either kill the small ships, then collapse on the AFII, or take out the AF directly. Unfortunately, he has three combat ships (again quite cunning), so tabling is quite difficult for me to achieve.

Strategic Dilemma

This game is about risk calibration:

• Too much aggression → I get eaten by squads by turn 3.

• Too much caution → I don’t score enough points for advancement.

• Somewhere in the middle lies the path to an 8-3 or better.

My Takeaway

I stand by my initial impression: the squads are the greater threat. The ships synergize with Dodonna, sure, but if they shoot me, I’m shooting them back. Squadrons don’t play by that rule — they bomb, and they keep scoring while the ships hide.

But — and this is the key — if Daniel relies only on squadrons, he can’t realistically hit the 9-2/10-1 win he needs. This is basically what Spike did in the first match. He expertly disengaged his ships to avoid losses, but in doing so, he let me farm the station AND never threatened more than one of my capital ships. For a very modest 7-4 win.

So this will likely come down to how aggressively each of us pushes ships forward, and whether the squadrons arrive in time to swing it.

Whatever happens, it should be a fun, pew-pew filled game.

Battle of Endor 2025 – Round 2 Report

 

I’ve played my Round 2 game… and I won! Not the 10–1 or even 9–2 of my dreams, but a solid 8–3 win with 180 MoV.

And more importantly, I didn’t get tabled!

Half jesting there, of course—but only half, as we shall see.

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Opponent’s fleet: The Slippery Pigs (Mr Frisky, Rebels, 400 points)

• CR90A (Madine, Draven, HFZ, Jaina’s Light) – 84

• CR90A (Ezra, TRC) – 54

• MC30 Torp (Walex, OE, RR, HTT, Admo) – 90

• MC30 Torp (EST, OE, RR, HTT, Foresight) – 90

• GR-75 (Ahsoka, Parts, QS) – 24

• Squadrons: Rogue, Shara, Tycho, A-wing – 58

My fleet: Somehow, Vader Returned with an Onager (Green Knight, Empire, 400 points)

• Onager SD (Vader, IO, Varnillian, Vet Gunners, XI7, OBPC) – 177

• ISD Cymoon (IO, Gunnery Team, IF!, Spinals, XI7, Devastator) – 157

• Gozanti (Hondo) – 25

• Gozanti (Comms Net) – 25

• 2x TIE Fighters – 16

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Deployment & Opening

We both brought 400, he won the toss and—correctly—chose first player, taking my Most Wanted. I would have done the same (go first, that is). I managed to herd most obstacles off to one side and set up center-right, this time keeping my flotillas active and screening, while the Cymoon pushed speed early to stay relevant. Onager angled to cover the flank (lesson learned from Round 1).

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Early Turns

Start r1

• Round 2: I spent my pass token to force Admonition to play cagey. That worked: it stayed at long, but between MW + Vader + IO/own contain I landed a Structural Damage on its hull—foreshadowing things to come.

Slightly into r2

• Luck favored me in the squad game: two TIEs combined to delete Rogue Squadron early, and my last TIE didn’t die until the very end. This plus pressure on the GR-75 kept the A-wings from swarming unchecked.

• My Hondo Gozanti (red one) stayed well out of harm’s way the entire game.

Start r3

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Midgame

The Onager pulled its weight, pinning both CR90s against the board edge. One limped away, the other was reduced to 1 hull and then ram-killed.

Round 4

Admo tried to sneak wide around my flank but ate a brutal sequence:

• Cymoon side arc (MW + CF)

• Cymoon rear arc (Spinals + MW)

• Onager side shot

Even with Madine’s dancing, that was too much: Admo evaporated.

Round 5

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Rebel Counterplay

It wasn’t all one-way traffic. Admo had earlier put significant hull damage into the Cymoon, and Foresight was in prime position to threaten. But with Admo dead and one CR90 gone, my opponent pivoted smartly: stop the bleeding, avoid losing Foresight or the last CR90, and instead pick off my Comms Net Gozanti and the final TIE. Given how low his ships’ shields were, that was the correct call.

Start of r6

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Key Decisions & Dice

• Turning Point: Spending the pass early and turning the Cymoon away from my fleet to chase Admo. Exactly what I had promised myself not to do after Round 1. Risky, but it worked: constant pressure forced Admo into bad positions. Had it escaped on 1 hull, it would have looked like hubris instead of genius.

• Dice: Mine were generally solid—rerolls and mitigation tech gave me the accs and crits I needed. The highlight was two TIEs erasing Rogue in one activation. His dice were decent too, though maybe a touch light on accuracy from the blues when he needed them most.

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Result

End state

Final score: 8–3 win, 180 MoV (including the MW bonus).

A tense but very enjoyable game. Big thanks to Mr. Frisky for the match—best of luck for the rest of the tournament!

With 1 round of POD play left, I'm currently in the middle of the pack. So this could go a number of ways. I don't think reaching the top 3 (and the Gold League) is realistic, but I could end up in Silver if I win, or down in Chocolate (where I arguably belong) if I lose. We'll see. Stay tuned!

Battle for Endor 2025 – Round 2 Pre-battle analysis

Quick status update as of 3 Sept. 

My POD is already well into round 2, with 2 of 6 games already played (excuse the hand edits, I made it fast and dirty).

Anyway. 

My round 2 opponent is UK-based Mr Frisky. I've appended his list and my previous quick anlysis for your convenience.

What I wrote before still holds true: These are some really slippery pigs. 

Fleet contains five small speed 4 (the transport has QS) ships, so if he doesn't want to fight, I can TRY to exert pressure, but catching any number of his ships that try to run is effectively pointless. If I'm first player (we're tied for points, so could happen) that'll help a little bit, but not a whole lot.

So what will this match look like? It's largely up to my opponent. Regardless of who is first player, if he wants, he can try to go for a small win by bagging a flotilla or sniping my squadrons. Maybe go for a cautious 6-5 or 7-4.

But for what?

I'm at 4 TP, he's at 3, so if we just split the points, we end up near the bottom of the ladder regardless of who wins!

So ideally, one of us (preferable me) should win 10-1. 

But can the Slippery Pigs table me without losses? It's possible but not likely. 

They can, however, accomplish it with light losses for a 9-2 which would also be good. The MC30s have a lot of firepower and if handled correctly, with CR90s moving into range at the right time, can take down an Onager + ISD combo. But it has to be expertly flow or losses on his side could quickly mount, and then the balance might swing in my favor.

Beyond this general assessment, there isn't too much to say as a lot of the decissions lie with the faster fleet. We could both win, big or small, depending on how Mr Frisky wants to approach the game.

Mr Frisky 

Slippery Pigs... what an apt name. Catching twin CR90s and MC30s under Madine is HARD! Ships are decently hard-hitting, but they will need to maneuver very well, not only to stay alive but to deal concentrated fire upon enemy ships to bring them down. Squads are mostly for screening, but the A-wings do have speed 5 and black dice, so they cannot be discounted in the AS role.

This is a challenging list to catch for anyone, including my own fleet. If, and that's a big if, I can catch a ship, I can kill it, but yeah, that's the trick, isn't it?

Name: The Slippery Pigs

Faction: Rebel

Commander: General Madine (30)

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• General Madine (30)

• General Draven (3)

• Heavy Fire Zone (2)

• Jaina's Light (5)

= 84 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Ezra Bridger (3)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

= 54 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)

• Walex Blissex (5)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Rapid Reload (4)

• Heavy Turbolaser Turrets (4)

• Admonition (10)

= 90 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)

• Expert Shield Tech (5)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Rapid Reload (4)

• Heavy Turbolaser Turrets (4)

• Foresight (10)

= 90 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Ahsoka Tano (2)

• Parts Resupply (3)

• Quantum Storm (1)

= 24 Points

Squadrons:

• Rogue Squadron - X-wing Squadron (14)

• Shara Bey - A-wing Squadron (17)

• Tycho Celchu - A-wing Squadron (16)

• A-wing Squadron (11)

= 58 Points

Total Points: 400

Battle for Endor 2025 – Round 1 Report

The Battle for Endor 2025 campaign is underway! We’re still in the POD phase, sorting twelve players into Swiss groups before the top three advance to Gold, the next three to Silver, and the rest of us tumble into Chocolate (where, wonderfully, you get to rebuild your fleet and even dip into Legacy Wave 0).

I’ve been sorted into the Western Europe POD – or, as I like to call it, the Carolingian Empire. My first match was against my good friend Spike. Since we are both civilized gentlemen, we naturally chose the platform of a more civilized age: VASSAL. Nothing wrong with TTS, of course, but there’s something deeply satisfying about the crisp clarity of top-down Armada.

We logged on Wednesday at 19:00 local time. It’s been over two years since I last played on VASSAL, so I was a bit rusty, but even at 2.5 hours, the game was still faster than TTS would have been!

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The Fleets

My List – “Somehow, Vader Returned with an Onager” (Empire)

• Onager Testbed with Vader, Intel Officer, Varnillian, Veteran Gunners, XI7s, OBPCs

• ISD Cymoon with Intel Officer, Gunnery Team, IF!, Spinals, XI7s, Devastator

• 2x Gozantis (one with Hondo, one with Comms Net)

• 2x TIE Fighters

Spike’s List – “Draven Endor” (Rebels)

• Assault Frigate Mk2B with ECMs, Hondo, Flight Controllers, Expanded Hangar, DTT

• MC30 Torpedo (flagship) with Draven, Foresight, EST, Ordnance Experts, ECMs, H9s, External Racks

• GR-75 with Adar Tallon & Boosted Comms (Bright Hope)

• GR-75 with Slicer Tools (Quantum Storm)

• Squadrons: Luke, Kanan, Jan, Blount, six Z-95s

Spike had the bid and quite sensibly chose to go first. He picked my Contested Outpost, which meant my game plan was straightforward: sit on the station, farm points, and let him come into range.

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The Game

Setup was decent for me, though I made an early misstep by not nesting the Onager behind Hondo’s flotilla. That left it too exposed and too far from the Cymoon, giving Spike’s MC30 an easier flank route than I would have liked. Not a fatal error, but one he definitely exploited.

Start of round 2, Onager should be down and to the left

My first ignition shot was also over-complicated. I fiddled too much with dice mods when I should have just focused on raw damage output to get rid of the brace. Later, I passed on the chance to kill his Slicer GR-75 when I had a double Cymoon arc and Intel Officer lined up. Instead, it limped away alive, costing me the 6th Outpost token in round 6 by slicing away a key Nav on the Comms flotilla.

Those mistakes compounded: I kept the Cymoon sitting on the station longer than I really needed to, which stretched my fleet out and denied me the concentrated fire I needed to actually bag the MC30. The Assault Frigate (the “potato”) also got away, heavily damaged and braceless, but still alive. When the Onager went down, I had nothing left positioned to finish either big ship.

Start r5: Onager is gone, Potto heading for the sunset

Spike, meanwhile, played an excellent game. His squadrons worked overtime with Draven handing out raids, Adar repeatedly refreshing Luke, and Kanan providing just enough disruption. Luke even rolled an early crit that prevented me from having command tokens on the Onager, and later my poor flagship got another crit that limited its ship shots at a key moment – huge swing.

The MC30 mostly loomed as a threat rather than diving in, but that was still effective: it forced me to respect its presence, and later picked up a flotilla kill thanks to an H9 salvo (enabled by that pesky Slicer I had failed to finish earlier). Adar’s flotilla eventually went down once it lost scatter, but only after it had already done plenty of Luke double-taps.

End state

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The Result

• Score: 243–141 in Spike’s favor

• MoV: 102

• Result: 7–4 win to Spike

I farmed five Outpost tokens, which kept the score respectable despite losing the Onager and being too spread out to score the kills I needed.

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Reflections

My overall plan was sound, but execution faltered. The Onager placement mistake was recoverable, but the Cymoon mismanagement and over-focus on station control doomed my chances to capitalize on Spike’s vulnerabilities.

In hindsight, the Assault Frigate should have died, and the MC30 could have been in serious jeopardy as well. But I spread my firepower, let the Slicer slip away, and lost cohesion. Spike capitalized with clean squadron play, timely raids, and careful positioning.

Could he have pressed harder and gone for a tabling? Maybe. If the potato had pushed into my Cymoon and the MC30 had lined up a last/first double arc, he might have pulled it off. But he would have risked being tabled himself if the dice went my way, so his more measured approach was probably the correct call.

Either way, it was a fun, tactical game and a pleasure to be back in the VASSAL cockpit after two years away. Hats off to Spike for the win – and best of luck to him in the next rounds.

2025 LSO by Andy Armbruster (admiralandroid)

Day 1, Round 2: Doty (left), Me (right)

Well here it is. The not so long-awaited recap of my win at LSO… I had two goals for this tournament. The big focus was to win. In my first year of competitive armada, I’ve been generally happy with my results. But still something wasn’t sitting right with me. While I won a fair many tournaments -not including an extremely tight 2nd place finish in the Vassal World Cup- none of these tournaments had officially been qualified as a “major” tournament. When I think of a “major”, I think minimum four round day 1, and minimum three round day 2. So going into LSO it was my priority to check this off my list.

The other goal was just to have fun. I had the opportunity of spending some great quality time with a bunch of awesome dudes who share my love for this game and that memory is anchored deeper than any game I played.

First order of business was to decide what guns I needed to bring with me. I had several lists in mind going into this tourney, and finally settled at 6am the morning of on my Agate MK2A build:

When designing my fleet, I had a very specific objective in mind: Counter Jerjerrod double ISD (I played against 3 of these at worlds) and big ship Raddus (thanks Patrick). Basically trying to counter anything ship-heavy which also has solid squadron defenses. I thought a list that could out-kill/farm either of these archetypes while still putting up a good fight if not winning the 134 matchup would do quite well. And here was the result:

My list

Assault Frigate Mk2 A (77)

• Kyrsta Agate (25)

• Ezra Bridger (3)

• Ruthless Strategists (4)

• Reinforced Blast Doors (5)

• Gallant Haven (8)

= 122 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)

• Sabine Wren (4)

= 43 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)

• Toryn Farr (7)

• Tantive IV (3)

= 49 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Adar Tallon (10)

• Bomber Command Center (8)

• Boosted Comms (4)

= 40 Points

Squadrons:

• Lando Calrissian (24)

• Mart Mattin (22)

• Hera Syndulla (Ghost) (28)

• Dutch Vander (16)

• Scurrg H-6 Bomber (16)

• Gold Squadron (12)

• VCX-100 Freighter (15)

= 133 Points

Total Points: 387

I knew the meta was transitioning to big tanky, killy ships. So I went heavy on the bombing. Between Gallant Haven and double blue flak + Toryn rerolls I knew I would be okay in winning most squadron matchups as well.

The most interesting part about this list I think was the choice of double CR90Bs. Super cheap, but boy do that smack ya. The main reason I took 2 instead of going one CR90A + double flotilla was my fire lanes objective which sadly no one picked :( But the other interesting thing is when my opponent drives up to sock Agate in the face, the 90Bs plink 2 or 3 damage on the enemy’s approach which fits right into how the list actually kills things (defense token overload). As it turns out, ISDs hate being plinked by pockets of 2-3 damage multiple times a turn. The added value of these 2 or 3 blue dice shots is that every additional source of damage becomes more potent than the previous because of token overload. The B’s really helped me push that concept. The other huge bonus of these little ships is they excel at my red objective (precision strike) which some folks made the happy mistake of choosing.

The only real downsides of these guys is the medium range limit unlike their CR90A superiors and that it takes a lot of practice to not let them get vaporized instantly.

Day 1, Round 1:

My first matchup of the tournament was against Ben (aka Downsizeit. Check him out on Youtube) who was flying a tanky Thrawn build with a gunnery team + spinals + SW-7s ISD2 (the CR90s were shivering on their bases at the sight of it) backed up by an interdictor and an annoying screen of Ciana, Vult, Valen, 1x-tie. His list was built around proximity mines and so was mine! This explains the scatter of yellow tokens on the board. I had bid and chose second. Ben picked my intel sweep. He corner deployed and deployed his prox mines right where I planned to claim the objective tokens. His grav well also funneled my deployment towards the edge so Ben did a nice job of controlling the table early on.

Before the ships had engaged, Ben smelled an early opportunity to try and take out Lando. Fortunately my squads were in GH range and my ruthless flak + returning a rogue counter-alpha cleaned up his squads pretty early on which meant it was time to lay into his ISD.

A part of me was worried about Ben steamrolling through my smalls with his ISD, while the other part of me wanted to encourage him to do so as it meant flying right into my bomber ball + layered firing arcs. He jumped to speed 3 in an attempt to gunnery team fork my smalls and pin Agate which isolated his flagship from the interdictor and prevented any meaningful damage on my frigate (big weakness of having only two sources of damage output). I knew without taking multiple shots per turn that Agate would be okay which is why she could nav dial traffic block herself in the grill of the ISD. From there it was a story of dodging the ISD front arc with my Adar flotilla and Toryn CR90, and bombing until I got the table. Mart dropped a prox mine and dealt 2 facedowns to the ISD which -in addition to ram blocking with the frigate- packed the damage cards and ensured the ISD would go down before it could get its power activation.

Ben’s interdictor finished off my Sabine CR after I rerolled a double into a double TWICE which fortunately had no significant impact. But the dictor folded to a solid round of bombing which got me the table and an early 10-1 (475-43).

Day 1, Round 2:

Aaaand here continues the trend of playing Andrew Doty (head of Legacy and programmer of Starforge) in every single tournament we’ve played in together (VWC, 2nd Chance, LSO, and Endor). Having just moved to Texas, Andrew would now be considered a “local” to me and we had an in-person game one week prior with him practicing his Anakin fleet in preparation for this LSO.

Andrews fleet was a 7-activation squadless Anakin with a SPHA-T victory, BT acclamator, and a ton of ex racks consular. My main focuses were not getting the frigate trapped and not allowing his consulars a sneaky last/first one-shotting my CR90s as I was heavily out-activated.

I went second as usual, and he picked my Pstrike almost immediately as if by instinct. I thought this was a questionable choice for a squadless fleet, but hey I’m not asking questions… My understanding is that Doty has flipped this objective before with ship-heavy and between so many activations and dice pools, he was trying to flip it on me as well.

Doty deployed flexibly in the center of the board, as did I. The inward tilt on the CR90s allows me flexibility as they can turn either way via a nav dial while avoiding blocking in the frigate, and to not stick out too far to get hammered by a consular.

I knew if I had gone into this fight head on I’d get demolished, so I began a hard kite to the right side (sometimes opposite side from where he deploys his acclamator to avoid BT and because its a brick that can’t get around the vic too well). My squads were going to be what won me this game so keeping out of double blue layers of flak was a priority early and throughout the game. I waited a couple rounds until his formation became more scattered while pursuing my ships in order to safely start bombing the consulars. This slight delay made it much easier to avoid flak ranges and to keep my squads alive. Mart was a hero as he created some difficult to avoid mine setups, combined with Ezra + Sabine and the cards were stacking fast on Anakin’s ships.

Andrew lined up a pretty spicy close-range double arc with SPHA-T and ex-racks into the rear of the frigate which poked him pretty hard, but with no sources of follow-up damage the frigate shrugged it off and healed it back with engineer spam.

I knew I wouldn’t table this fleet, so my objective was to score as many victory points as possible, and the kill points would be supplemental. This resulted in me getting 23 tokens for a silly 345 victory points on the objective. I think this game dissuaded most people from taking my pstrike in subsequent games. *most*... Final score was 621-15 (10-1).

Day 1, Round 3:

Round 3 I faced Curtis and his Romodi GT Cymoon (again, not so fun for my little ships but still a rough matchup overall for him) + 2 TRC arqs + 2 goz and a light screen of Tel and Ciana. Hislist was strictly limited to heavy long-range firepower, so I knew my maneuverability and bombing would be what got me the win. I went second and he chose my intel sweep. Boring, but free 75 points ain’t too shabby.

Deployment as seen above outlines my intent of isolating his cymoon and ignoring the arquitens until the ISD was destroyed. The ISD had very little squadron defense so it looked like a real juicy target. This was followed by a hard turn left to focus my firing arcs and bombers on the ISD before assuming a kiting formation on the rest of his fleet mid-late game once the ISD was destroyed. He sent Ciana and Tel a little too early which allowed me to eat them up without much of an issue. I ended up traffic blocking the ISD with the frigate (not pictured) and thankfully I had a nav dial to slip out. I think my first two games made me a bit ballsy on this approach. With no nav dial I would’ve been stuck in the front arc and caught in arquitens CF range and definitely been dead.

My 90Bs didn’t throw a single dice at the cymoon this game as it was my priority to keep them alive and out of that nasty medium range. Once the cymoon jumped forward at speed 3 its only goal at that point was to survive the mass of bombers I threw at its rear. By late turn 4 the cymoon folded to the bombers and it was time for open season on the arquitens. Without Romodi obstruction dice, the arquitens didn’t have enough dice to throw meaningful damage at my 90s. My 90s looped around and plinked the arquitens accompanying the bombers to claim the table with zero casualties on my end. Final score was (475-0) 10-1.

Curtis seemed very frustrated about this game after he himself had come off of two 10-1s in the first two rounds. He was a relatively newer player who was doing very well for himself despite his inexperience, so I tried to turn this into a good learning experience for him. When I gave him feedback, my biggest emphasis for this game (and just about all games of armada) was the idea of granting himself options. Curtis was outdeployed which meant I had 2 small ships to put down after he was on the table. That being said, the most important route to take in this circumstance is that of flexibility.

What you see above in Curtis’ deployment shows the cymoon on one side of the frigate, and the arquitens both wayyy out on the other side. What this deployment fails to take into account is that I don’t actually *have* to fly right in the middle of that mess. That with a nav dial I can choose to ignore half of his entire fleet and firepower. With a more central deployment, perhaps with an arquitens on either side of the cymoon (and more nav dials!), Curtis wouldn’t have granted me the opportunity to isolate his most important ship and make it my 400pts vs his single 180pt ship) Moral of the story, always be thinking of your own plan and try to find the pitfalls in it. If you are your opponent, how are you going to try and exploit the plan you’ve laid out? (I fall victim to the mistake of limiting my options sometimes. More on that later in the article!)

Day 1, Round 4:

Last round of day 1 and definitely my least interesting game was against ATXMike (AcornAdmiral). Mike cleaned up in the first three rounds meaning he was pretty much guaranteed to make day 2 as long as he didn’t get 10-1d. This meant him choosing my intel sweep and flying into a very non-enticing corner bunker that I’d have to fly through if I chose to engage. For reference, this is NOT what my fleet is designed to do. So I briefly toyed with the idea of engaging him in the tiny hope of maybe achieving a perfect 40TP for the day. But Mike’s position and his persistent bunkering caused me to return the favor and disengaged entirely. (75-0) 7-4 to me.

Day 1 Recap:

Finishing the day with 37 tournament points, I was pretty thrilled and hopeful that I could continue the momentum going into the next day. After a fun evening over some drinks with the guys, I was spent from 4 rounds and ready for bed.

Day 2, Round 1:

And here marks the game where I’m still hitting myself on the head. I needed to play well as day 2 was for all the marbles (brand new set of swiss). It was played between the top 4 players from day 1 in a round robin format. Round 1 I played against Mike (ATXMike) for the second time this tournament.

Mike picked my intel sweep and I had already decided that this game was going to be much different than the previous one, as I wanted to fight. I was unsure if this was reciprocated as Mike did the same corner bunker deployment which gave me two choices. The first choice was to take my tokens and fly away with a 7-4 (75MOV) (This would’ve been hella lame and I also wanted more than a 7). The second choice was to fly into Mike’s corner bunker and risk losing some points to potentially trade for an 8 by killing his recusant.

What I did NOT plan for here was for Mike to quickly jump to speed 3 and hard double yaw towards my ships (I thought he would toilet bowl like the previous game). I was silly and had two of my small ships in the perfect position to block my own assault frigate (see photo above) which meant he got to activate his two big boys before my smalls could move and let my frigate get out of dodge. This was okay though I thought. Even in the off chance I lose the frigate I can afford to trade my frigate for his recusant and keep it at a 7-4 win if I lost nothing else. By round 4 his recusant had no defense tokens and lots of damage cards (my squads had yet to bomb that round as well). My frigate was at full health. Just need it to survive 2 shots, which normally isn’t a problem. What followed from Patfist was 11dmg + APT after evade discard, which I brace to 6 and redirect, taking 2 cards due to the faceup from APT. Okay, ouch. Didn’t expect that. I’m still chilling though as he needs a monster roll from the prov to kill the frigate. What follows from the prov is 11dmg which I brace to 6, redirect to shields, take another 3 cards putting me at 5, and he rams and kills the frigate before it got to activate. Not what either of us expected. This meant I didn’t get to activate my frigate to shoot and kill the rec which ended the round on 1 hull and worst of all, had engineering commands dialed up.

My face was hot at this point. His recusant is speed 3, engineering, and it can outrun my squads. I could lose a 4, possibly even 3 if I don’t kill it. The game that followed was putting my squadrons in nasty flak bubbles to chase it down and sacrificing one of my CR90s just for Hera to finally get the kill on round 6. I had to bleed an additional ~40 points of squads and the CR90 to kill the rec just to keep the score to a 5-6 loss. We shook hands good game and I had to take a walk and some deep breaths lol. I was pissed at myself for not keeping my options open by  preparing for him to turn in and engage me which was totally my fault. Even if the dice were a major factor in this game. (227-261) 5-6 loss.

Day 2, Round 2:

After a painful and unexpected round one, I recognized I was still in the running but needed to lock in. My next matchup was against Bryson and his Thrawn ISD + ruthless demo + goz and a bunch of bombers (with Hondo/Mauler/FCT shenanigans). My goal here was to win big so that I didn’t need to fly aggressively into Bodhi’s Invincible prov 134 during round 3.

I went second (can you see a trend here?) and Bryson picked my precision strike (LFG!). This meant that I didn’t even need to kill ships. I just needed to win the squad war and then farm for dayz. Unfortunately I still was in a clouded head space thinking about my first round and I wasn’t thinking clearly early on in this game. This also explains why I forgot to take photos of this match…

Deployment was looking good for me as Bryson had his ISD deployed too far from the action which made it easy for me to focus sequentially on each layer of his list one by one. I knew my first priority would be to kill his squads so I could free up my bombers to get farming.

Early on I used Sabine to throw a mine on a rock which was directly in front of my frigate. With Ezra on my assault frigate, I can throw the rock distance 2 with the mine on it. This meant that if his demolisher wanted to be relevant the next turn, he would have to land on the mine and potentially a rock to get into any combative positioning. I activate my frigate, declare that I’m spending a command token which from our understanding means that I surpass the “when you reveal a command dial” step that Ezra’s timing falls under. Despite the timing being inconsequential, my opponent was adamant that I couldn’t use Ezra as we were in the “after you reveal a command dial” step. So my frigate landed on a rock AND a mine and I had to RBD all my cards off well before I wanted to. I was already in a heated headspace from round 1 and this definitely didn’t help. My opponent had every right to tell me I couldn’t use the card and I didn’t insist, but now I wanted vengeance.

(rough idea what the frigate did. Probably still my best maneuver of the morning at that point 🙂)

That same round, he sent Mauler to do some splash damage and Hondo pulled him out before I could tie him down. Start of the next round I baited him into bombing my frigate as I knew based on its positioning that it wasn’t going to die. I lost a couple squads as expected from Hondo/Mauler/FCT/Ruthless but now the fight was where I wanted it. His choice to bomb me wasted several of his squad activations so I returned a nasty rogue alpha and face full of double blue flak with my own ruthless. His squads cleared out that same turn which meant I had rounds 4-6 for Hera, Dutch, Mr. Scurgh and Gold (plus Adar) to go prey on his ships. Long story short, demo died and many instances of flipping structurals on his ISD with 90Bs and squads meant it didn’t last very long. Final score with a tabling and a bunch of tokens (595-61) 10-1 win. (This one felt extra good)

Day 2, Round 3:

At 15 TP going into round 3, I was now ahead of the pack. Mike, who I had played against round one endured the pain of his providence eating a 6 hyena alpha + prov double arc from Bodhi’s Grevious list in round 2, which essentially killed it with one activation. This led to Mike’s defeat and set me up for a simple round 3. Looking at the numbers, all I needed to do was win a 6 against Bodhi to guarantee the win for the event.

After seeing my pstrike objective in action, Bodhi wasn’t eager to give me the opportunity to flip structurals and other nasty crits on his prov. So he picked intel sweep.

This photo just about sums up how the game went. I made Bodhi chase me for it and he decided it wasn’t worth it so everything on his side dropped to speed zero and the game ended (75-0) 7-4 win for me which clinched the win for the event. Not too much to say about this game other than sometimes you’re gonna be playing the tournament more so than the game.

Biggest Lesson Learned:

As a relatively newer player in competitive Armada, this tourney was an affirmation for me in the importance of understanding a meta, and then seeking counters. This was something I didn’t consider going into my first world championships at Adepticon, and I definitely paid the price. Fortunately I applied that lesson to this tournament and it paid off.

The second lesson was a reminder for me to maximize my options when I don’t have perfect information. Applying this would’ve prevented my round 1 loss against Mike.

Final Thoughts:

Not too much else to say here other than to keep supporting these amazing events. Despite all the noise and some disarray in the community right now, at the end of the day the best thing to gain from this game is the buddies we share it with. I love this game and I love to win, but the community I share this all with is irreplaceable.

Battle for Endor: Listbuilding pt. 8 - POD lists Carolingian Empire (Western Europe)

Lists have been locked in and revealed. 

I hereby present my POD:

I must admit I don't know all of these players. I've been out of online Armada circulation for some time, and I was never that active on TTS to begin with. 

Faction breakdown:

• Empire: 4 (Vader, Sloane, Jerry, Screed)
• Rebel: 7 (Ackbar x2, Draven, Sato, Leia, Dodonna, Madine)
• CIS: 1 (Kraken)
• GAR: 0

That's right, no Republic fleets. So I guess the GARquitens and the Imperator don't really help the GAR make up for their perceived weaknesses. Can't say I blame people. While I love playing GAR in a campaign framework, I dislike how their ships lack maneuverability and have limited variety in the ship department, so it's not for me.

Good spread of commanders tho - only a single duplicate!

Anyway. Let's review the lists, discussing them briefly and considering how I think a potential matchup would work out for me.

James McCartney 

Ackbar AF with XI7 instead of Slaved with a single CR90 in support. Semi-rogue ball looks solid, with Slicers QS and  Adar BH, Toryn for extra AS. Extra annoyance points for a single VCX/Strategic. Ten-point bid, so betting heavily on playing own objectives, with the occasional first player, maybe?

While I don't feel you get enough from Ackbar here, that AF can deal significant damage to single targets. Still only 5 dice without a CF, which isn't that good. The list looks like it can give my list a run for its money, but how does it tackle Thermal Shields (this is a joke, btw, he's an add and there are NO Thermal in this POD) and Empire/CIS 134?

Name: Frustrated Gungan v2

Faction: Rebel

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)

• Admiral Ackbar (38)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Caitken and Shollan (6)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

= 136 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Ahsoka Tano (2)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

• Jaina's Light (5)

= 58 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Toryn Farr (7)

• Slicer Tools (7)

• Quantum Storm (1)

= 33 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Adar Tallon (10)

• Parts Resupply (3)

• Boosted Comms (4)

• Bright Hope (2)

= 37 Points

Squadrons:

• Lando Calrissian (24)

• Ketsu Onyo (22)

• Luke Skywalker (20)

• YT-2400 (16)

• Gold Squadron (12)

• Shara Bey (17)

• VCX-100 Freighter (15)

= 126 Points

Total Points: 390

Tora Samurai

Another Ackbar potato, but this one is built differently: the usual Slaved but with Gallant Haven. That's pretty interesting! With DCaps this one can output seven dice with CF on that key shot, which is much more impressive. With two TRC90 it has more sources of ship damage as well.

Semi-rogue ball with a slightly different composition. Pretty solid, but no supporting tech like Adar, Toryn, etc. The CR90s really don't like my Cymoon, and the potato likes neither the Onager nor the Cymoon (its nav chart makes it kind of predictable). Still, 3 Ackbar ships AND rogues --> potential trouble for me!

Name: Potat 100

Faction: Rebels

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Version: ARC01

Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)

• Admiral Ackbar (38)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Caitken and Shollan (6)

• Disposable Capacitors (3)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• Slaved Turrets (6)

• Gallant Haven (8)

= 147 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

• Jaina's Light (5)

= 58 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Ezra Bridger (3)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

= 54 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Ahsoka Tano (2)

• Parts Resupply (3)

• Bright Hope (2)

= 25 Points

Squadrons:

• Lando Calrissian (24)

• Wedge Antilles (19)

• Jan Ors (19)

• Ketsu Onyo (22)

• 2 x YT-2400 (32)

= 116 Points

Total Points: 400

Daniel (Smizzy) 

Dodonna on a potato, with a single CR90B and a HH in support. That looks deceptively harmless! But when you look at that ball of bombers, you realize it's the squadrons, not the ships, that are the danger. Ouchy!

My only defense here is to kill all the ships... but to get there, I would have to brave the squadrons, and the 3rd ship makes tabling much harder. So, not that easy after all 😆

Name: Endor Fleet

Faction: Rebel

Commander: General Dodonna (20)

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72)

• General Dodonna (20)

• Raymus Antilles (7)

• Flight Controllers (6)

• Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• XX-9 Turbolasers (2)

= 119 Points

CR90 Corvette B (39)

• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)

• Dodonna's Pride (4)

= 48 Points

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette (36)

• External Racks (4)

• Garel's Honor (4)

= 44 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Ahsoka Tano (2)

• Comms Net (2)

= 22 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Bomber Command Center (8)

• Bright Hope (2)

= 28 Points

Squadrons:

• Gold Squadron - Y-Wing Squadron (12)

• Green Squadron - A-wing Squadron (12)

• Lando Calrissian - Millennium Falcon (24)

• Luke Skywalker - X-wing Squadron (20)

• Shara Bey - A-wing Squadron (17)

• Tycho Celchu - A-wing Squadron (16)

• 2 x Scurrg H-6 Bomber (32)

= 133 Points

Total Points: 394

Nicolas Durand (Elred) 

This is a novel list, spamming Hardcells with Kraken and a Quarren Gunship to soften up the enemy. It has 7 activations, which is a plus. It can do a lot of damage to a single large target if the flying is good, but how does it deal with MSU or rogue balls? Not sure what to make of it.

Against my list, I would have to try to delete some of the small ones quickly to avoid getting swamped. Easier said than done.

RELEASE THE QUARREN

Hardcell Battle Refit (50 + 37: 87)

· Kraken (30)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

Quarren Prototype Gunship (63 + 19: 82)

· Skilled First Officer (1)

· Disposable Capacitors (3)

· Advanced Projectors (6)

· Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)

Hardcell Battle Refit (50 + 7: 57)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

Hardcell Battle Refit (50 + 7: 57)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

Hardcell Battle Refit (50 + 7: 57)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

Gozanti Cruisers (24 + 6: 30)

· High-Capacity Ion Turbines (6)

Gozanti Cruisers (24 + 6: 30)

· High-Capacity Ion Turbines (6) 

DaSWA 

Leia double potato (and flotillas) with the ubiquitous Boarding Troopers. Those guys are EVERYWHERE. The potatoes are solid enough, but not amazingly powerful. The squadron ball is decent, too; it has some good rogues and supporting tech. I think the key to this list is the interplay between ships and quads, because neither component is strong enough on its own.

This list could give me a run for my money unless I'm able to delete some ships early to cripple said ship-squad interplay.

Faction: Rebels

Commander: Leia Organa

Version: ARC01

Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)

• Leia Organa (28)

• Defense Liason (3)

• Boarding Troopers (3)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (4)

= 117 Points

Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)

• Defense Liason (3)

• Boarding Troopers (3)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (4)

• Gallant Haven (8)

= 97 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Toryn Farr (7)

• Munitions Resupply (3)

• Quantum Storm (1)

= 29 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Adar Tallon (10)

• Parts Resupply (3)

• Boosted Comms (4)

• Bright Hope (2)

= 37 Points

Squadrons:

• Corran Horn (22)

• Han Solo (24)

• Mart Mattin (22)

• YT-2400 (16)

• Ketsu Onyo (22)

• Gold Squadron (12)

= 118 Points

Total Points: 398

Mr Frisky 

Slippery Pigs... what an apt name. Catching twin CR90s and MC30s under Madine is HARD! Ships are decently hard-hitting, but they will need to maneuver very well, not only to stay alive but to deal concentrated fire upon enemy ships to bring them down. Squads are mostly for screening, but the A-wings do have speed 5 and black dice, so they cannot be discounted in the AS role.

This is a challenging list to catch for anyone, including my own fleet. If, and that's a big if, I can catch a ship, I can kill it, but yeah, that's the trick, isn't it?

Name: The Slippery Pigs

Faction: Rebel

Commander: General Madine (30)

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• General Madine (30)

• General Draven (3)

• Heavy Fire Zone (2)

• Jaina's Light (5)

= 84 Points

CR90 Corvette A (44)

• Ezra Bridger (3)

• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

= 54 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)

• Walex Blissex (5)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Rapid Reload (4)

• Heavy Turbolaser Turrets (4)

• Admonition (10)

= 90 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)

• Expert Shield Tech (5)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Rapid Reload (4)

• Heavy Turbolaser Turrets (4)

• Foresight (10)

= 90 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Ahsoka Tano (2)

• Parts Resupply (3)

• Quantum Storm (1)

= 24 Points

Squadrons:

• Rogue Squadron - X-wing Squadron (14)

• Shara Bey - A-wing Squadron (17)

• Tycho Celchu - A-wing Squadron (16)

• A-wing Squadron (11)

= 58 Points

Total Points: 400

SkyRraahh Guitariste Figuriniste 

Pew pew. Possibly the best fleet name in the POD. Truly creative and evocative 😅

The list starts out pretty conventional, with an Onager under JJ (fairly rare in my experience, but JJ is never wrong) and ECM Demo. Then it gets more creative, with a Flechette Raider and a DCaps Raider-I (never saw that before). A Gozanti rounds out the list. 

The list has some potential if flown well. The Onager and Demo both hit hard, but that Flechette boat would have liked some squads to help pin down the opposition. In my experience, Instogator truly shines with squads; alone, it is only OK.

The list can surely put the hurt on me if I give it the opportunity. But at least I don't have to worry abotu squadrons or his anti-squad tech 💪

Name: Pew pew

Faction: Empire

Commander: Moff Jerjerrod

Version: ARC01

Onager Star Destroyer (120)

• Governor Pryce (6)

• Veteran Gunners (5)

• Weapons Battery Techs (4)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons (5)

= 146 Points

Gladiator I (56)

• Minister Tua (2)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Expanded Launchers (8)

• Demolisher (10)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

= 87 Points

Raider I (44)

• Iden Versio (6)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Flechette Torpedoes (3)

• Instigator (4)

= 61 Points

Raider I (44)

• Moff Jerjerrod (23)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

• Disposable Capacitors (3)

• External Racks (4)

• Corvus (2)

= 78 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

= 25 Points

Squadrons:

= 0 Points

Total Points: 397

Chris Spencer (Dr Chaitin)  

NuSato arrives with 2 MC30, flotillas, and squadrons. I'm not sure if I approve of only two combat ships that need to close to be truly effective (but they can certainly perform Sato tricks on the way in). ECM on MC30s is rarely seen, but can be effective. 
 
While I can see this struggling against some builds, it is strong vs. my fleet, I think. I can't do anything about the squadrons, so max Sato. And a pair of well-flown MC30s can certainly hurt my ships very badly indeed!

Akuma Ma'Sato (102/399/400)

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 + 60: 129)

· Commander Sato [ARC] (25)

· Sabine Wren (4)

· Ordnance Experts (4)

· Electronic Countermeasures (7)

· Assault Proton Torpedoes (4)

· XI7 Turbolasers (6)

· Foresight (10)

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 + 34: 103)

· Ezra Bridger (3)

· Ordnance Experts (4)

· Electronic Countermeasures (7)

· Assault Proton Torpedoes (4)

· XI7 Turbolasers (6)

· Admonition (10)

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 16: 34)

· Adar Tallon (10)

· Comms Net (2)

· Boosted Comms (4)

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 13: 31)

· Toryn Farr (7)

· Comms Net (2)

· Boosted Comms (4)

Lando Calrissian (24)

Luke Skywalker [ARC] (20)

Shara Bey (17)

Tycho Celchu (16)

X-wing Squadron (13)

Gold Squadron (12)

Lewis (Lark)  

ANOTHER list called Pew Pew. This is AMAZING 😆

Jokes aside, I like this list. Pryce + Varnillian is pretty good (but I love Vet Gunners with Varnillian), it's got Cata and Annoying Engine Techs (TM). Twin Dcaps raiders to soften things up (including Corvus for annoying setup). And a Gozanti to push a squadron screen. The only downside here is the Onager being such a centerpiece. It'll draw a lot of attention. Which makes the Annoying Engine Techs (TM) make even more sense.

If I meet this, I'll point my ships at his ships, roll really well (this is my core concept for all games), and go home victorious!

Name: Its Screed Indeed pew pew

Faction: Empire

Commander: Admiral Screed [ARC] (26)

Onager-class Testbed (116)

• Admiral Screed [ARC] (26)

• Governor Pryce (6)

• Gunnery Chief Varnillian (6)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Engine Techs (8)

• Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons (5)

• Cataclysm (5)

= 176 Points

Raider II-class Corvette (48)

• Disposable Capacitors (3)

• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)

• Corvus (2)

= 62 Points

Raider II-class Corvette (48)

• Disposable Capacitors (3)

• Heavy Ion Emplacements (9)

= 60 Points

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

• Comms Net (2)

• Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

= 32 Points

Squadrons:

• Darth Vader - TIE Advanced Squadron [ARC] (20)

• Mauler Mithel - TIE Fighter Squadron (15)

• Valen Rudor - TIE Fighter Squadron (13)

• Vult Skerris - TIE Interceptor Squadron (18)

= 66 Points

Total Points: 396

Spike

Spike, who is my R1 opponent, is running ARC Draven, aka. Draven 3.0 with TONS of Headhunters with Flight Controllers. He also has Luke and Kanan, combined with Adar, so either can go twice. He also has Toryn, for altogether too many rerolls. 

I wonder if my 2 TIEs are up to the task of screening... 

The Z-95s only get the Blount reroll vs squadrons, so only the Draven reroll applies vs ships, which is something. I hope Sike's red dice SUCK, including rerolls. Only ACC, CRIT, and BLANKS as far as the eye can see...

Kanan + Luke are going to be super annoying, too. So let's hope for more blanks!

My only real advantage here is that Spike needs to be close with his Potato to run those squads, and a Potato running squadron commands is predictable and even with ECM it is not tough enough to deal with either of my two capital ships. The MC30 is also his flagship, so he has to balance threat vs survivability. I suggest we pray for him to make a maneuvering mistake!

Anyway. This could end up being a "who tables whom first" type of game. Unless SPike lifeboats with the MC30, but then I'll eat the potato and try to run away. Would be very boring.

Edit: Spike does not, in fact, have Toryn. But he still gets up to 3 rerolls on those Z-95s, so fine.

Name: Draven Endor

Faction: Rebels

Commander: General Draven

Version: ARC01

Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

• Flight Controllers (6)

• Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• Dual Turbolaser Turrets (4)

= 96 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)

• General Draven (22)

• Expert Shield Tech (5)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• External Racks (4)

• H9 Turbolasers (8)

• Foresight (10)

= 123 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Adar Tallon (10)

• Boosted Comms (4)

• Bright Hope (2)

= 34 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Slicer Tools (7)

• Quantum Storm (1)

= 26 Points

Squadrons:

• Luke Skywalker (20)

• Kanan Jarrus (19)

• Jan Ors (19)

• Lieutenant Blount (14)

• 6 x Z-95 Headhunter Squadron (42)

= 114 Points

Total Points: 393

Bjørn Blom Sørgjerd (Green Knight, UTC+2) 

This is me. I've already gone through my list in a previous post so I won't repeat it here.

Name: Somehow, Vader Returned with an Onager

Faction: Empire

Commander: Darth Vader

Version: ARC01

Onager Star Destroyer (120)

• Darth Vader (28)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Gunnery Chief Varnillian (6)

• Veteran Gunners (5)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• Orbital Bombardment Particle Cannons (5)

= 177 Points

ISD Cymoon 1 Refit (112)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Gunnery Team (7)

• Intensify Firepower! (6)

• Spinal Armament (9)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• Devastator (10)

= 157 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

= 25 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

= 25 Points

Squadrons:

• 2 x TIE Fighter Squadron (16)

= 16 Points

Total Points: 400

Goerrit (UTC+2)  

Goerrit brings a good-looking ISD+Quasar Sloane build. I played entirely too much Sloane back in the day, with all the aces and the unlimited relay... why did you ruin my playstyle FFG!???

Anyway. This will certainly strip away my tokens and go to town on my ships. I guess I would have to go straight for the threat and kill him first. Can't see any other way to win this one. Gods, I'm going to get tabled in every matchup...

Endor - Slow Anne (134/399/400)

Imperial II Star Destroyer (120 + 20: 140)

· Captain Needa (2)

· Reserve Hangar Deck (4)

· Electronic Countermeasures (7)

· SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)

· Heavy Fire Zone (2)

Quasar I Cruiser-Carrier (54 + 42: 96)

· Admiral Sloane (24)

· Skilled First Officer (1)

· Flight Controllers (6)

· Boosted Comms (4)

· Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

· Pursuant (2)

Gozanti Cruisers (23 + 6: 29)

· Comms Net (2)

· Reserve Hangar Deck (4)

Colonel Jendon (23)

Maarek Stele (21)

Howlrunner (16)

Valen Rudor (13)

Saber Squadron (12)

3 x Tie Interceptor Squadron (3 x 11)

2 x Tie Fighter Squadron (2 x 8)