Submission deadline for VASSAL OP Q2 2021 "Unconventional Warfare" 16th May

It's time for another tournament!

This time we've been inspired by AMG's Unconventional Warfare event from May.

Short version: build your fleet a certain way and gain access to perks (they are quite potent). For every battle you fight, another perk is unlocked. Catch: you don't know what the future perks are until they are unlocked!

Type: Swiss

Rounds: 4

Time zones: 2 (EURO and NA - if there are enough players)

List building restrictions: Uses standard FFG/AMG fleet building but with an extra set of restrictions.

Errata: Hondo is unaligned (for funises), Moralo is Separatist (nerf).

The full rules are here.

The perk trees for round 1 are here.

Sign up for the torurnament here.

Join the tournament's Discord channel.

Final call for Vassal Team mini-league event (Sunday, 17th April)

Wave 10 is finally here! 

(both Warlords and Vassal have been updated with the full set of cards. Some of the images are a bit grainy but I've already gotten some better scans so will be replaced shortly)

It's time to get the VASSAL OP H1 2021 event "Team mini-league" rolling.

Team leaders must submit fleets by Sunday, 18th April using this form.

If you don't have a team yet, try posting your name using this form and also join our Discord channel.

Warlords clone

You can build your fleets any way you like but to help you along I've created a Warlords clone that has all the errata, costing changes, and upgrade slot tweaks. 

You need to create a new user to save your fleets as I didn't copy user data.

Most things should be coded in but there are a few oddities you'll have to manually check, like the Flagship limitation of Flag Bridge and the Star Destroyer limitation of SPHA-T to name a couple.

Custom Vassal module version

For the team league, we'll use a special version of module 4.4.0 called 4.4.0vop

4.4.0vop replaces standard 1.5 cards with their errataed versions and adds 3 new titles and 2 new squadrons. You can have it installed alongside 4.0.0 so there should be no problems at all.

Get the 4.4.0vop version here.

I haven't moved around existing stuff, so if the Republic wants to manually get Hondo in Slave I, he'll have to look under Empire --> Squads --> Firespray. Jango/Bo-Katan/Phoenix Nest are in a separate custom tab at the end. 

Shrimpbot is compatible with the special module, except for the 5 new cards. You need to remove those before generating the setup file. For everything else, Shrimpbot will generate a setup file that when run will give you errataed (if any) cards. Pretty neat!

Errata

Errata version 1.2.1 can be downloaded here.

Read it carefully and keep it at hand for reference!

Points changes/upgrade slot changes

These documents list out costs and upgrade slots (for ships):

Ships

Squadrons

Upgrades

The future

Lessons learned during this event will be applied to later custom events. So what you do here in terms of fleet building and battles will have a real effect on what comes.

Last, but not least: have fun!

VASSAL Armada module version 4.4.0 is available

Module version 4.4.0 "We will have revenge" is available! 

Download: http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Star_Wars:_Armada

Checksum: a550828d

OVERVIEW

Full wave 10 release. Some images are of poor quality and will be replaced later on.

COMPATIBILITY

Armada 4.4.0 was built using Vassal 3.5.5. It should be compatible with module versions 4.0.0+ and Vassal 3.5.0+ but ALWAYS update to the most recent versions of both!

CRITICAL BUGFIXES

Onager has an additional range overlay that shows the exact ranges for the special arc.

OTHER BUGFIXES

Fixed some nomenclature errors.

MAJOR NEW FEATURES

Added remaining w10 cards.

Added quick-spawn functionality to all w10 cards.

Sounds can now be muted in-module (Preferences --> Sounds).

OTHER NEW FEATURES

Shu Mai can spawn round tokens.

Munitions/Parts Resupply can spawn respective command tokens.

Volume of "SET" sound slightly decreased.

Setup ("L") token added. It can rotate. Gink wanted it - I've forgotten why...

TO-DO

Add better quality card images as they become available.

IDEA BANK

Look at "locking pieces" functionality (to make accidentally nudging stuff not a thing).

Make shield dials toggleable (easier to resolve obstacle overlap corner cases).

Warlords updated: full wave 10 content added

Armada Warlords has been updated with all wave 10 content: http://armadawarlords.hivelabs.solutions/

Enjoy.

Update for Vassal OP Q2 2021 Unconventional Warfare

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rebellion in the Rim pt. 4 (Round 3)

Let's look at the 3rd campaign turn:

The Fleets

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

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

Team league errata & costing changes explained

 

Talking about the team league changes. 

Warning: long runtime 😅

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

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

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

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

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

Winner: unskilledfirstofficer, 27 pts, Empire

Runner-up: pheaver, 25 pts, Seppies

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

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

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

Name: Wizard of Ozz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

###

HaMMeR Tickles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Player	Rank	W/L	TPs	MOV/SOS
unskilledfirstofficer	1	3/0	27	836/6.33
Pheaver	2	3/0	25	650/5.56
Jamesmorgan	3	2/1	21	430/4.89
SpeKre	4	2/1	20	611/5.33
Benk3i	5	2/1	20	359/5.56
BiggsIRL	6	1/2	20	302/5.00
Shyvalry	7	2/1	19	329/6.22
Roald Hansen (Roald/lilrys#8187)	8	2/1	19	315/5.89
Aresius	9	2/1	19	165/5.67
Slendy_Games	10	3/0	19	141/4.89
Veleno111	11	2/1	18	365/6.00
Callum	12	2/1	18	146/6.44
Mrks.	13	2/1	17	334/6.33
ginkapo	14	1/2	17	191/5.56
Gerrit	15	2/1	17	178/5.33
187-Leon	16	2/1	17	131/5.00
paindemic	17	1/2	16	90/5.00
TigerKonigs	18	1/2	15	149/5.11
Jolliegreengiant	19	1/2	15	22/4.67
BackSeatAdmiral	20	1/2	14	42/5.78
CaribbeanNinja	21	0/3	14	0/5.11
Ardaedhel	22	1/2	13	34/5.56
Doktor	23	1/2	12	48/5.44
Karneck	24	1/2	12	31/5.00
Maturin	25	1/2	11	16/5.89
EbonHawk	26	1/2	10	79/5.11
mmusterer	27	0/3	9	0/6.00
Craig Fleming	28	0/3	8	0/5.33
rasproteus	29	0/0	0	0/0.00

Factions:

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

 

Empire - 4

Rebel - 10 (rasp had a rebel list)

Republic - 3

Seppies - 12

Assault:

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

Most Wanted - 41%

Advanced Gunnery - 17%

Marked For Destruction -  13%

Ion Storm - 10%

Defense:

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

Asteroid Tactics: 20%

Contested Outpost: 17%

AMF: 14%

HA: 14%

Rift Ambush: 14%

Navigation:

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

Solar Corona: 24%

Volatile Deposits: 24%

Infested Fields: 21%

Doomed Station: 14%

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