When: October 25th, 2025
Where: Common Ground Games, Stirling, Scotland
Host: Steve (and
his dog, whom I totally did not feed scraps at the table)
Intro
I was visiting my brother, Even (not Ewan), in Edinburgh, so
driving over to Stirling wasn’t too much of a stretch. And maybe the tournament
was actually the reason I visited that particular weekend. Only William Wallace
knows for sure.
We got up early for some breakfast and loads of coffee. My brother
complained about not having slept much, but that’s normal when you have two little
rascals, so I figured he’d survive.
The trip was a breeze, sitting on the wrong side of a car
going quite fast down narrow Edinburgh streets and then a stretch of highway.
We narrowly survived a kelpie attack, then arrived in Stirling, where we were
warmly greeted by our host, Steve, at Common Ground Games. It’s an excellent
location for events such as these—no wonder they would rather do it here than
try to find a spot in Edinburgh. Oh, and Steve, on top of all his other merits,
has an actual coffee machine in his snack bar. I had like five or six big Americanos
throughout the tournament (on top of what I drank before leaving Even’s place).
Twelve players showed up, with no last-minute drops or
anyone showing up at the last minute. And all 12 players played all their games—well
done, chaps—so we avoided any byes or other weirdness. I think Ian had hoped
for 16, but in my book, 12 is just as good. A bit less variety to be sure, but
enough players that we can all have a good time without marrying a cousin or
some such.
 |
| Getting ready for the inevitable victory |
 |
| The guy to the right looks a lot like my baby brother |
 |
| Deep pre-game thoughts |
My list
Name: Karren “Krushyall” Agate Alt 2
Faction: Rebel
Commander: Kyrsta
Agate
Assault: Advanced
Gunnery
Defense: Asteroid
Tactics
Navigation:
Infested Fields
MC80 Battle Cruiser
(103)
• Kyrsta Agate (25)
• Intel Officer (7)
• Caitken and
Shollan (6)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Point Defense Ion
Cannons (6)
• Turbolaser
Reroute Circuits (7)
• Spinal Armament
(9)
• Mon Karren (6)
= 177 Points
CR90 Corvette A
(44)
• Ezra Bridger (3)
• Cluster Bombs (5)
• Turbolaser
Reroute Circuits (7)
= 59 Points
CR90 Corvette A
(44)
• Ahsoka Tano (2)
• Cluster Bombs (5)
• Turbolaser
Reroute Circuits (7)
• Tantive IV (3)
= 61 Points
GR-75 Medium
Transports (18)
• Hondo Ohnaka (2)
• Comms Net (2)
• Bright Hope (2)
= 24 Points
GR-75 Medium
Transports (18)
• Leia Organa (3)
• Comms Net (2)
• Quantum Storm (1)
= 24 Points
Squadrons:
• Shara Bey (17)
• Tycho Celchu (16)
• 2 x A-wing
Squadron (22)
= 55 Points
Total Points: 400
List analysis
I didn’t have time
to prep a completely new list properly, so I decided to go with the Liberty as
a basis. I had already done a few rounds with it in the Endor 2025 TTS
tournament, and it was both pretty fun and pretty effective. It had the Lib, and
AF2B, and about a 100 points in squads, but the damage output was mid at best, and
the squadrons, while an effective screen, didn’t do much damage either.
So I ditched the
AF2 and scaled back my squadrons, allowing me to upgrade the SC to a proper BC
with all the bells and whistles AND get 2 TRC90s. The first versions had XI7,
not Spinals, as is customary, and no Cluster Bombs. Instead, there was some
combination of Lando, Ketsu, and Gold. In the end, I settled on just A-wings
for the speed/counter, combined with Cluster Bombs and slug objectives for my
anti-squad component.
Regarding Spinals
specifically: yes, XI7 lets you push as much, or sometimes even more, damage to
the hull, especially when the defender is incentivized to use only Redirtect. But
the increased damage almost makes up for it, or more than makes up for it, in
other scenarios. Plus, it's useful vs Thermals at long range, which I appreciate.
That’s 4 red dice with a CF and lots of dice fixing after your brace, and you
cannot use any other defense tokens. You also get an enhanced backshot, which
is nice if you jump over to disengage, but it's not a significant factor. It’s 3
points more, though, which IMO is the real drawback. Since I had TRC on my other
ships and a few A-wings, I finally decided to give the Spinals a shot.
I also had Toryn in
there, which can help a lot with counter and CR90 flak, but can also feel very
constraining. I was also short on points, so I swapped her for Leia, putting
her on QS and moving Honod to BH. Now, some players will say that Leia is a
waste, that a good player will always get their commands right. In an ideal
world, sure. But in a matter of fact, you're playing AGAINST someone that may
be AT LEAST as smart as you, and then having some Leia flexibility is
absolutely valuable. And Slicers too, I guess.
This also freed up
enough points to take Tantive IV on a CR90, which worked out great (I even used
it once to double-token the Hondo tokens onto the Liberty), and I could afford
QS on the second GR-75. Makes it harder to catch and a lot easier to stay in tough
the MK.
And it all came
together at 400 points, which is like my biggest pet peeve in the game. I don’t
want to bid. I absolutely cannot be bothered to do so, and having even a single
point left over will make me very sad.
I talked a bit with
Aresius, the Grand Old MK Man, and he suggested that I go with AG + the slug
objectives, so despite my own preference for scoring objectives, I did so. In
hindsight, this was really smart, as it allowed me freedom of movement and
ensured that whatever objective was chosen would be a slug objective.
So that’s all there
was to it, really. I had a semi-functional list, iterated on it, asked Aresius
for advice, made a few personal changes, and that was it.
My brother ran SSD
Command proto, Gozanti, and Rogue ball. He hadn’t played for 5+ years and
really, really wanted to put his unused SSD on the table, so I helped him make
a list.
Anyway. On to the
tournament itself.
Round 1
My first round opponent was Dan. He turned out to be yet
another altogether pleasant Armada player. He even bought me a coffee. I was
totally going to reciprocate, but I totally forgot. So, Dan, I owe you a
beverage of your choice!
List
Name: Dan
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Admiral
Ozzel
Assault: Surprise
Attack (?)
Defense: Asteroid
Tactics
Navigation:
Infested Fields (?)
ISD Cymoon 1 Refit
(112)
• Commander Vanto
(7)
• Intensify
Firepower! (6)
• Gunnery Chief
Varnillian (6)
• Linked Turbolaser
Towers (7)
• XI7 Turbolasers
(6)
= 144 Points
Raider I (44)
• Iden Versio (6)
• Ordnance Experts
(4)
• Assault Proton
Torpedoes (4)
= 58 Points
Raider I (44)
• Admiral Ozzel
(20)
= 64 Points
Squadrons:
• Gar Saxon (20)
• Mandalorian
Gauntlet Fighter (18)
• Morna Kee (27)
• 3 x VT-49
Decimator (66)
= 131 Points
Total Points: 397
Pre-battle assessment
Morna plus three
generic Decimators bombing my ships to pieces while Gar and the Gauntlet raided
my flagship? Clearly not something I could allow to happen.
Cymoon and two
raiders, one lifeboat, and another flak support for the rogues. That’s only one
long-ranged ship, and only three activations total, further reinforcing the
impression that the squads are the primary damage dealers.
I would have taken
Yularen over Vanto, but both are fine. LTT is not ideal now that it is
bombard-restricted; I would have gone with DTT. DTT + IF! should be enough dice
fixing. Alternatively, QBT could work here with Ozzel providing speed control. That
said, not 100% convinced the Cymoon is the correct ship for the job: IF! doesn’t
do a whole lot for 1 ISD and 2 Raiders.
Those are relatively
minor points, however. The core of this fleet is the rogue squadrons. I think I’ve
mentioned that like three times already? lol
Game
Dan had the bid and opted to go second. I’m guessing he didn’t
fancy playing my objectives, which were likely to contain exogorths, and he
didn’t really have the squad command values to move his rogues out of harm’s
way.
I chose his Asteroid Tactics bc then at least I know the
obstacles won’t be moving around, and I was hoping to use Ezra shennanigans
against said rogues.
We set up facing into the board, with me centrally placed
and Dan to one side. His lifeboat is to the far right in the corner, and all my
stuff is going for the core of his fleet. This will become important later, as
I’ve got nothing with which to kill the lifeboat.
My squadrons do a decent amount of damage to his squadrons,
especially Shara, but even the generics deliver. I also manage to use Ezra to
push an exogrth into the middle of his still-pinned squadron ball, doing quite
a bit of damage. More importantly, I’m able to keep his squads away from my
ships for the first 4 turns.
His Iden raider is forced to cut and run or face the full
might of the Liberty. It doesn’t quite make it out. Then the ISD goes down to
the concentrated fire of Liberty and 2 TRC90s. It’s quite brutal.
I can’t catch his flagship as it rushes for safety, but that’s
fine. He ALMOST bags one of the CR90s
using Morna and two surviving generics, but my Cluster Bombs blow up one of
them, and the ship limps to the edge of the board with 1 hull left…
Result
He killed all my squads for 55, I killed his Cymoon,
Iden-Raider, all squads (except Morna and a Decimator) for 284. A 9-2 to me; an
excellent start to the tournament!
The scoreboard says 282, probably a miscalculation on our
part, maybe we counted the Decimators as 21 each or something.
Post-battle assessment
Happy with this one, both at the time and in hindsight. For
a 10-1, I would need to table Dan, which was unlikely to happen since he had a
dedicated speed-4 lifeboat. Maybe if I had been much more aggressive with the
Liberty, me being 1st player and all. BUT I think that would have ended
up ruining my counter-squadron game and caused me no end of harm instead.
Lunch
We had some lunch. It was a burger, and it was filling. I
had a can of Coke and some salt-and-vinegar chips (you Brits have strange taste
in chips, that one is tolerable). We talked a bit while we ate (mostly about
games —can you believe it?) and I got some custom cards from Chris, which was
very nice of him.
 |
| Chris on the right, dealing custom cards at the table |
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| Talking about ultimate victory, no doubt |
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| Eager to get back at it |
Round 2
With 9 TP after r1,
I was on table 2, paired with Ian “Gailarius” and his swarm of Angry Nebulons. If
you’re active online, you probably already know Ian. He’s a prolific organizer
of TTS tournaments. He’s a skilled player – and another pleasant fellow. Why is
the Armada community so overburdened with friendly people?
BUT Ian had just
tabled my brother’s SSD list, so pleasant fellow or not, vengeance was called
for!
List
Name: Gilarius
Faction: Rebel
Commander: Leia
Organa
Assault: ???
Defense: ???
Navigation: ???
CR90 Corvette A
(44)
• Leia Organa (28)
• Ahsoka Tano (2)
• Jaina’s Light (5)
= 79 Points
Pelta Assault Ship [ARC]
(52)
• Ray Antilles (7)
• Auxiliary Shields
Team (3)
• Intensify
Firepower! (6)
= 68 Points
Nebulon-B Support
Refit (51)
• Skilled First
Officer (1)
• Auxiliary Shields
Team (3)
= 55 Points
Nebulon-B Support
Refit (51)
• Skilled First
Officer (1)
• Auxiliary Shields
Team (3)
= 55 Points
Nebulon-B Support
Refit (51)
• Skilled First
Officer (1)
• Auxiliary Shields
Team (3)
= 55 Points
Nebulon-B Support
Refit (51)
• Skilled First
Officer (1)
• Auxiliary Shields
Team (3)
= 55 Points
Squadrons:
• Shara Bey (17)
• Tycho Celchu (16)
= 33 Points
Total Points: 400
Pre-battle assessment
I love me some Leia
Nebs, especially ARC Leia Nebulons. The option to use a token while still
spamming CF or Nav makes the archetype (can you call it an archetype when there
are like 2 people in the world playing it?) a LOT more flexible.
Ian had put a new
spin on his list, putting Leia on a CR90 (not quite a lifeboat, but close) and
splitting the IF! Pelta into a separate platform. Exciting change indeed. Might
have to try it myself.
Anyway. The Nebs
had done really well against an SSD. But could they also catch an ET Liberty
and an assortment of fast smalls?
Game
We were both at 400, so rolled off. Ian won and chose to go
1st, citing an unwillingness to let the Liberty go first. I’m not convinced
that was necessarily a good idea. Sure, it meant that, well, the Liberty didn’t
get to go first, but it also meant I got a pass token and he couldn’t really
leverage his six activations. There probably isn’t a correct answer to this: 1st
or 2nd, both come with their own complications in this matchup.
He chose my Infested Fields. Most go for Asteroid Tactics,
but IMO each has its pros and cons. AT certainly shouldn’t be an auto-pick. AT
gives complete placement control of obstacles, slugs, freebie defense tokens
(always lovely with Agate), and the ability to ignore asteroid overlaps. IF
gives some obstacle movement and +15 points for the 2nd player.
Anyway, we had 7 drops each, so I got the final placement
with the Liberty. You can see from the setup that I’m not going to take on his
entire fleet with it, but instead try to stretch him out while threatening his
flank with CR90s.
Things work out as planned. Or even better than planned,
actually. Firstly, he uses his CR90 to pick up a token, keeping it out of the
majority of the game. The Pelta is speed 2, so it gets a delayed entry. But he
also splits his Nebulons, running them into the mass of obstacles and spending
way too many shots to kill a 24-point Bright Hope.
Two of his Nebs are out of position. Then the two that
matter get deleted by the Liberty. The Pelta tries to get away, slipping out of
the Liberty’s front, but eating the side, plus two TRC90s and some squads. It does
not make it.
We only make it to round 5, during which Ezra gets deleted
by a combination of fire from a Neb and Leia. BH is also gone after having tanked
an obscene amount of shots.
Result
I got 55x2+68+45=223 for bagging two Nebs, the Pelta, and
picking up 3 tokens. Ian got 24 for BH, 59 for Ezra, and 2 tokens for 113,
translated to a 7-4 to me.
Post-battle assessment
Pretty happy with the result, actually. Ian was a cunning
opponent, but I think he made a mistake by sending his Leia to pick a token and
by sending one Neb in particular on a wild goose chase. I also made a mistake by
not disengaging Ezra sooner. I should not have tried to soften up Leia when I
already knew we could not possibly make it to round 6. Not losing Ezra would
have given me an 8-3. If we had the time to play r6, Leia would have died, but
Ian was also aware of the time, and I think he’d have moved her away if he knew
there would be a 6th round.
In other news, my brother secured a win against Dan, my
round 1 opponent. Two Sørgjerds in two rounds. Rough.
Round 3
With 16 TP, I was
now in second place, but still a ways after Rhys, who had gone 10 and 10, which
is impressive, even for a Hyena bomber swarm. According to rumors, Rhys was an
outstanding player, and his scores reflected that to be sure. So, an excellent
player, rocking a squad-heavy list against my 4 A-wings… It was going to be an
interesting challenge.
List
Name: Rhys
Faction: Separatist
Commander: Admiral
Trench
Assault: Precision
Strike
Defense: Fighter
Ambush
Navigation:
Superior Positions
Recusant Support
Destroyer (90)
• Rune Haako (4)
• Flight
Controllers (6)
• Boosted Comms (4)
• Expanded Hangar
Bay (5)
• Patriot Fist (6)
= 115 Points
Hardcell Transport
(47)
• Admiral Trench
(32)
• Tikkes (2)
• Expert Shield
Tech (5)
• Auxiliary Shields
Team (3)
• Bomber Command
Center (8)
• Foreman’s Labor
(5)
= 102 Points
Gozanti Cruisers
(24)
• San Hill (3)
= 27 Points
Gozanti Cruisers
(24)
= 24 Points
Squadrons:
• Jango Fett (22)
• 5 x Hyena Droid
Bomber Squadron (55)
• 6 x Vulture Droid
Fighter Squadron (48)
= 125 Points
Total Points: 393
Pre-battle assessment
I love me some generic squadrons, and I love me some double-dice
bombers with a bit of speed, which is basically what this list is all about.
And it uses Trench. And that HC transport is both impressive and a scary amount
of points for a small. What an absolutely awe-inspiring list.
Some nit-picking: Would having “only” five Hyenas be enough,
seeing as they were all generics? If used well, sure. And they do have Jango there
as well, so that’s six bombers. Fine. I would probably have put TF-99 on the
other Gozanti, put TRC on OF, or something along those lines, but the large bid
is probably there for a reason. It’s just that I don’t bother bidding anymore.
Game
Rhys had the bid. We talked about his options and prospects.
He was afraid of giving me 1st not only bc of the Liberty itself,
but because he had Fighter Ambush. He felt that he would give away his
deployment advantage, and that was a no-go.
His points were all valid (and I would have picked Fighter
Ambush over PS and SP), but to be honest, I think he was overthinking it. He
could still have deployed with the ability to turn both ways and placed his
squadrons in advantageous positions. For my Liberty to get to his ships and
table him, I would need to eat 5 Hyenas (and Jango) as my A-wings struggled
with his Vultures. Not only might he destroy my Lib, he’d score objective points along the way.
Instead, he picked 1st player for himself and my
Asteroid Tactics. He did briefly consider AG, hoping to bag the Liberty and get
+103 for it, for a total of 280. But he decided against it, and that was, I believe,
the right call. IF was completely out of the question.
We set up as shown in the pic, with my transports going left,
and PF setting down last. So you can see the plan here already: to circle my
rocks, then engage late—round 4, more likely than not. My setup would allow me
to stall with the flotillas and completely disengage to take the 6-5 if I
wanted to.
Instead, we wheeled around for the better part of 4 rounds,
looking for an opening or advantage. Very much a thinking man’s game. More fun
than you’d think. Eventually, Rhys decided to engage, but he had been a little
too cautious, and he could only put 3 Hyenas on my Liberty, not nearly enough
to be meaningful, and not much else in round 4.
(There was oc a slug sticking out of the rightmost debris field, making placement tricky, both before and after this image.)
Tycho then held up some of his bombers, while Shara took
care of the rest. The generic A-wings are hiding behind the Lib, in range of a
flotilla for later activation. Sending them in too early just gets them dead.
Over the course of the final 2 rounds, he took out Shara (did
OK counter damage, but nothing like the first game). Tycho, however, just refused
to die, even when Jango came knocking. Eventually, he was at 1 hp with no tokens,
but was STILL holding the line. Between A-wing attacks, counter, flak, and a bit
of exo, ALL CIS squads were wiped, except Daddy J, who limped away with a few
hull left. To add insult to injury: one of my GENERIC A-wings survived lol.
I lost both CR90 to bombing, PF, and eventually, his
backline smalls. But they did enough damage to PF that my Liberty could wipe it
off the table with an, admittedly quite good (but not that amazing given my
dice tech) roll (and ram) in round 6. I also got to use both Cluster Bombs, doing
4 and 3 damage to Hyenas respectively. Amazing!
Result
I bagged his PF and all his squads except Jango. He killed
both my CR90s, Shar, Tychco, and an A-wing. 218 to 164, 6-5 to me. Not great,
but could be a lot worse. For example, a slightly worse final dice roll in
round 6 would have flipped that to 6-5 for Rhys.
Post-battle assessment
I did some things right, some things wrong, and got a little
bit lucky at the end there, both with Tycho and with my final MK shot. Overall,
it went OK, considering the opposition. Rhys was clearly a skilled player who
knew what he was doing and had a plan.
But IMO he was a bit too careful. I can kind of understand
why he took it slow, given his 4-point lead over me, but it rarely pays to be
too cautious as 1st player. He was looking for an opening, to be
sure, but the opening he got was so tiny as to make the rest of the squad fight
something of a tar-pit for him.
Conversely, I had some catching up to do, point-wise, but I
could not be aggressive as 2nd player against that ball of Hyenas. I
had to keep my squads back to make them last; I couldn’t expose either CR90s or
transports, or they would have popped.
In hindsight, I wonder if I should have cut upward with Ezra
(red CR90) to push an exogroth and allow the Liberty to move forward more
aggressively. Maybe, on a perfect day, I could have gotten both PF and the flagship?
Probably not, as he could leverage 1st player to evade.
In other news, my brother got tabled again, but this time it
was close: he lacked ONE damage to table his opponent before he got tabled
himself. Funny how a single damage can sometimes swing the score so hugely!
Round 4
I was now at 22 points, with Rhys sitting at 25.
My final opponent was Daniel “Smizzy”. Another opportunity for revenge! Smizzy had beaten my Vader list pretty convincingly in the Endor 2025 POD phase, with a very similar list. Now I would crush him IRL, or more likely, die trying!
List
Name: Smizzy
Faction: Rebel
Commander: General
Dodonna
Assault: ???
Defense: ???
Navigation: ???
Assault Frigate Mk2
B (72)
• General Dodonna
(20)
• Ray 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:
• Luke Skywalker
(20)
• Lando Calrissian
(24)
• Shara Bey (17)
• Tycho Celchu (16)
• Gold Squadron
(12)
• Green Squadron
(12)
• 2 x Scurrg H-6
Bomber (32)
= 133 Points
Total Points: 394
Pre-battle assessment
I knew from the
online game we had that Smizzy knows his Armada and his Dodonna bombers in particular.
But I felt kind of confident: I knew what he was capable of, I knew something
of how his list would play, and my own list was a LOT more suited to dealing
with him than my Vader list.
Game
Daniel had the bid and chose to go 1st. He, too, said he didn’t like the thought of the Liberty going first.
He chose Asteroid
Tactics, citing it as the lesser of two evils compared to Infested Fields. I’m
not entirely sure that’s always the case. People are way too quick to pick AT
over IF. But I already covered that stuff in my game 2 analysis, so let’s move
forward.
Daniel was rather
cautious, I would say. Surprisingly so, really. Having picked 1st player, and
having a real shot at a top spot if he got a good score, I kind of expected him
to attempt to force a decisive engagement.
The setup was as
shown in the picture. You can see another swirl developing, with Daniel going
down and me through the center, both rotating clockwise.
I clumped up in the
middle, partially to create distance and delay, partially because I have a kind
of a plan (maximum slug coverage, plus an inside turn on the Liberty, if needed).
I don’t know what Daniel’s
plan was here. Luke, Lando, and the Scurrgs are hanging back with the flotillas
and the CR90B, ready to do what? Tangle with my entire fleet while the potato
and HH do nothing? They can’t go into the middle, or exogorths will happen. So
if I don’t come to them, they are basically out of the battle.
Meanwhile, the
A-wings and the primary carrier are being super cautious, with Gold in a weird
middle position. For a bomber-centric fleet that wants to win big, this isn’t a
great approach. My guess is that it wasn’t planned this way; it just happened.
Many games, especially late in the day, end up like this.
Eventually, there
are two fights going on: the top and the bottom. The top one looks like some
good bomber fun, but actually ends with Scurrgs forced to dogfight (and
eventually grit-running away) and Luke and Lando going down.
The bottom fight is the potato trying to stay out of Liberty medium range by ramming the HH, the
Lib killing the HH, and then very nearly killing the potato with a laughably
good roll at the end of round 6. The AF is left at 1 hull (after MK ram), but that’s
far, far less than is reasonable, even for a medium-range shot with MK.
Ahsoka takes out
the CR90B, and all sorts of hilarity happen on the squadron front near the end
of the game: Shara gets 1-shot by Cluster Bombs, an exogorth eats Green
Squadron, and Lando is cut to pieces by flak.
Result
He got my squads for 55, I got his HH, CR90B, Luke, Lando,
Shara, and Green Squadron for 153. Another 7-4 for me. Yes, I technically came
very close to tabling Daniel, but that was a fluke and would not be
representative of the game.
Post-battle assessment
Like I stated, I
was a little bit disappointed when he didn’t want to come and fight. As the 2nd
player, with a light squad screen, I can’t be too aggressive vs max squads, so
a lot depends on how the 1st player wants to approach the game (same happened
in game 3, really). And indeed, I think it was his caution that effectively
split his fleet and kept him from ever really coming close to destroying any of
my ships.
In hindsight, I
might have maneuvered my Liberty more aggressively, gotten shots at the AF
sooner, and maybe gotten the table for real (no flukes), but I was always
expecting the squadrons to come down and play, so maybe I was a bit too cautious
myself!
In other news, my brother
tabled his last opponent, so he went 2-2 (and only barely lost another game),
so he was super happy, not having played Aramda since before the Clone Wars.
ARC impact
I went no ARC, but I saw the odd ARC card here and there. One
combat Dictor. With a Quarren Prototype being the only new ship I noticed. Ian
got a 4-point rebate on his Assault Pelta. Daniel had ARC Luke, but he did
nothing but take damage and die, so I can’t comment on the usefulness of that
card. I suppose Rhys could have taken the Command Muni instead of the Transport
HC, but that would have been a very different list, much less able to maneuver.
Overall, the ARC changes had a negligible impact on this tournament.
Summary & Conclusion
I went 4-0 and placed second with 29 TPO. That’s better than
expected, to be sure. I haven’t played an IRL tournament since the one in
Denmark 3 years ago, so I'm kind of rusty. I’ve gotten 6 games in online with
Vassal and TTS, but only 3 with a Liberty (and not this Liberty list), so I
wouldn’t call myself well-prepared. On the flip side, I’ve been playing this
game since 2015, so I suppose I have a good “feel” for it that doesn’t go away.
I would also say that my dice were pretty agreeable. Yes, I have the dice
fixing, but my ship shots were pretty good overall, even when that is factored
in. Squadrons were pretty mid on the offensive, but between then and the space
slugs, I got a LOT of mileage out of my squadron's screen.
 |
| The Champ, proving that absent Ani, Trench is the GOAT |
Some theorycrafting: Rhys got 31 and a lot better MoV than
me, so to win, I would have needed 32 points or more. I could have gotten 1
more from Ian, I think, but beyond that, it would have required me to play better
and smarter. Basically, I would have had to table either Rhys himself or Daniel.
 |
| Final scores |
All in all, the 4-0 and second place felt representative of
what I accomplished throughout the day. I had a lot of fun with the Liberty,
and the whole list really worked very well, even the Cluster Bombs! I missed
having Toryn occasionally, but at other times it was probably better I didn’t
have her, bc you tend to cluster your squads when you do, and that’s not always
optimal. The pure A-wing screen was terrific—the speed, the counter, just so
much flexibility for 55 points. At no time did I miss a Lando, a Ketsu, or Gold
Squadron. Spinals worked pretty great; can’t say I ever missed XI7 in these
games, and against Ian, they were a godsend. But are they worth +3 points over
XI7? That’s the million-dollar question. And to be honest, I’m not entirely
sure.
Thanks to Ian for making this thing happen, to Steve for
being an excellent host, and to all my opponents and other players.
Until we meet again in Poland!
