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...

Rebellion in the Rim pt. 5 (Round 4/1st Pivotal)

My name is Hermoine

Due to Covid restrictions (among other things) the was a huge delay between this pivotal and our previous game. Not ideal but we make do!

We met early on a Saturday a couple of weeks ago (that puppy and my new job is the reason I haven't been able to post this before) for our first pivotal: Demonstration of Force, Rebels assaulting. I think it took about 6 hours all told, with the squad game slowing things down by a lot from r3 and out.

The Fleets

Fleets haven't changed that much but Rebels now have Adar to make the squad madness even worse 😅 and both non-squad fleets have Ion Techs (ouch).

Our duo-Arq fleet has EST on both ships and Iden on the Raider. This is VERY useful. It still suffers from a lack of dice mods so Ion Techs (totally OP) is next on the list). The VSD fleet has dice mods but not yet any EST. And both those fleets REALLY need more squad protection. Even 1 more Int would make it better. Preferably some RHD too (that goes from me as well). My only fleet picked up Demo last turn. Demo + Maarekdon...that's a lot of ship-killing ability.

EMPIRE

STRATEGIC TOKENS

Ally: 2

Destiny: 1

Resources: 4

Skilled Spacers: 1

###

Fleet: Why So Many Gozanti?

Commander: Commodore Drok Lodt (BJØRN)

Abilities: Master Navigator I (flagship), Ordnance Expert (fleetwide)

XP: 2

Conditions: None

Assault: Most Wanted

Defense: Abandoned Mining Facility

Navigation: Infested Fields

Gladiator I (56) [FLAGSHIP] [VET]

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Demolisher (10)

= 70 Points

Raider I (44)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

= 48 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

= 23 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

= 23 Points

Squadrons:

• Maarek Stele (21)

• Colonel Jendon (20) [VET]

• 4 x TIE Interceptor Squadron (44)

= 85 Points

Total Points: 249

###

Fleet: Dat Ole VSD

Commander: Fleet Captain Lex Ander (ALEXANDER)

Abilities: Master Navigator I (flagship), Ion Tech (fleetwide)

XP: 2

Conditions: Low Fuel

Assault: Most Wanted

Defense: Contested Outpost

Navigation: Infested Fields

Victory I (73) [FLAGSHIP] [VET]

• Veteran Captain (3)

• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

• Harrow (3)

= 86 Points

Arquitens Light Cruiser (54)

• Skilled First Officer (1)

• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

= 62 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

• Suppressor (4)

= 29 Points

Squadrons:

• Soontir Fel (18) [VET]

• Howlrunner (16)

• TIE Interceptor Squadron (11)

= 45 Points

Total Points: 222

###

Fleet: Pimp My Ships

Commander: Flotilla Commander So Tham (THOMAS F)

Abilities: Master Engineer II (fleetwide)

XP: 2

Conditions: None

Assault: Opening Salvo

Defense: Contested Outpost

Navigation: Infested Fields

Arquitens Command Cruiser (59) [FLAGSHIP]

• Expert Shield Tech (5)

= 64 Points

Arquitens Command Cruiser (59)

• Expert Shield Tech (5)

= 64 Points

Raider II (48) [VET]

• Iden Versio (6)

• Disposable Capacitors (3)

= 57 Points

Squadrons:

• Ciena Ree (17) [VET]

• Valen Rudor (13) [VET]

• TIE Interceptor Squadron (11)

= 41 Points

Total Points: 226

REBELS

Tokens: 2x resource, spynet, ally, 2x skilled spacers, Repair yard.

Eirik (235)

Commander abilities

- Master Gunner I

- Ion Technician

XP: 2

Objectives: Asteroid Tactics, Surprise Attack, Minefields

.

(V) [flagship] Assault Frigate Mark II B (72)

- Skilled First Officer (1)

= 73 total points

(V) CR90 Corvette A (44)

- Jaina's Light (2)

- Intel Officer (7)

- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

= 60 total points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

- Bright Hope (2)

- Comms Net (2)

= 22 total points

Squadrons (80/200):

1x Millennium Falcon - Lando Calrissian (23)

1x Kanan Jarrus (19)

1x HWK-290 (12)

1x VCX-100 Freighter (15)

1x A-Wing Squadron (11)

.

.

Roosh flying circus. 214

Comnander master eng I, Ion technician, Infiltration I

Xp 1

Objectives: Surprise Attack, Abandoned Mining Facility, Solar Corona

.

(V) Nebulon-B Support Refit (51)

- General Draven (3)

- Auxiliary Shields Team (3)

- Spinal Armament (9)

= 66 total points

CR90 Corvette A (44)

- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

- Hondo Ohnaka (2)

= 53 total points

CR90 Corvette B (39)

- SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)

- Reactive Gunnery (4)

= 48 total points

Squadrons (47/200):

(V) Corran Horn E-wing Squadron (22)

1x Rogue Squadron X-wing Squadron (14)

1x A-Wing Squadron (11)

.

.

2nd Expeditinary Fleet (249/200)

Rebels - Author: CTS

Commander Tomakak

Master coordinator II

Xp: 3

Objectives: Capture the VIP, Precision Strike, Infested Fields

.

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72) (V)

- Adar Tallon (10)

= 82 total points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

- Bomber Command Center (😎

= 26 total points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

- Comms Net (2)

= 20 total points

Squadrons (121/200):

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

1x Y-Wing Squadron (10)

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

3x X-Wing Squadron (39)

1x Moldy Crow - Jan Ors (19)

1x Scurgg H-6 Bomber (16)

Demonstration of Force

Both sides spent 1 ally token. We took our staple 3xYV-666 and Rebels took 3xYT-1300. The 1300s were taken, I think, with Jan Ors in mind. Plus the 2400s die fast to YVs. But they never got anywhere near Jan so it didn't really help much.

We (Empire) didn't have much of a plan going into this pivotal. The only bit that we were going to focus on was not spreading out too much. 

I put my stuff down to one side, but not all the way to the edge. My squadrons, including 3xYV-666 went on the inside so they could move centrally if needed to support the rest of the Empire battle group. Both Gozanti at speed 2 aimed at squadron commands. Raider to support squads with flak. Demo (with Nav I) lurking at speed 1 ready to jump forward. And this time I'd keep Jendon-Maarek in reserve.

The VSD fleet was placed in the middle with the Arq on the left flank. Squads to the left with the Gozanti ready to command them. We still need more squads in that ball. Howl + Int + Soontir is just a minor speed bump - at best.

Our dual-Arq+Raider-II fleet on the far left. But by "far" left I mean just a little bit to the left not all the way left. Deployed to either go wide to the (far) left to lure away some rebel ship or to curl inwards and present a total of 3 Arq broadside to the approaching enemy.

Rebels put their main squad fleet in the middle facing the VSD. Their "mixed" fleet with Neb+2xCR90 facing our duo-Arq, but deployed much further out (even after using Infiltrator + Spynet token). Facing my Demo-group was 1 AF, 1 TRC90 (JL), and BH backed by a squad ball augmented by the 1300s.

Rebels moving their first ship of the day.

My battle group augmented by YVs.

Our center-left. Arqs are angled slightly to the left but being Arqs they can quickly curl right and present their combined broadsides.

Closeup of rebel left flank facing my Demo. For some reason, Bright Hope is heading away and both rebel combat ships are clumped together.

View of rebel center and right flank. They are spread out too much. The same thing happened in CC.

Closeup of rebel chief of staff's hands. A most cunning and sinister plot is afoot!

Early r1. Ships are edging forward.

Left flank perspective. Clearly shows how the rebels are way too spread out.

Forgot to take pics for a little while...Demo & Maarekdon murderer poor Jaina's Light. The tiny corvette should have taken cover behind the AF or gone wide. Instead it was an easy target that popped too soon.

The rebel right flank was doing fine and close to killing the Arq flagship. Then THIS WILD ROLL HAPPENED. 8 dmg on 4 reds...rerolling with Evade...another double. The chance of that happening is...very small. Dead CR90 --> Arq flagship that managed to limp into hyperspace.

This is after the TRC90 died. That potato is heading into red dice hell. Rebel squads waste time killing some Howl/Soontir/Int and make only a half-hearted bombing run on the VSD.

Overview. I think this is start r4. Rebels activate something...

...Maarek setting up Demo.

Poor Ints. We need RHD bad.

Die rebel scum!

Potato gone. Neb in trouble. If not for the 8-damage roll that flank would have developed very differently.

Demo pounces. The AF2 (AF1 model) is nearly dead at this stage. The VSD fleets Arq actually kills two potatoes in this game, both on 1 hull. Talk about being served by your allies 😅

End state. Rebels are hunted down to (almost) the last man. The CR90B makes it out alive. As do Rogue squad and Mr. Jarrus. Both achieve veteran status by running for the hills. Every other rebel squad is destroyed.

The Empire loses 2 flotillas and a handful of squads. Massive 410 MoV victory for us, earning us a ton of extra XP. Go Empire!

In many ways, the Rebels lost at setup. They did exactly the same things as when we played the final assault in CC: spread out too much. We delayed engagement in the center/our left while I used my striking power to hammer the rebel flank. Only after 1/3 of the rebel fleet was out of action did the main battle begin. Rebels squads were too slow to engage and not focused enough (hard when both potatoes die and no other combat ships nearby). The final flank was pretty much decided by a single dice roll. Instead of a tough fight, the rebels lost their TRC90 to bad luck and the Arq limped away into hyper on 1 hull and no shields. But even barring that dice roll Empire would have won by a good margin. But not 410 MoV good.

Next up is act 2!