Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Vassal Tournament - After Action Report - Interview with doobleg

After the FFG Forums Vassal Tournament ended, I asked each of the top four players to share their thoughts about the tournament.  I asked each one a set of 8 questions:

1:  Describe your list for the tournament.
2:  What was your general strategy going into the tournament with your list?
3:  Did this strategy change during the course of the tournament?
4:  Describe your R1 game: What was your opponent?  Your strategy for dealing with them?  What went right, what went wrong?
5:  Same for R2.
6:  Same for R3.
7:  Anything you would do to alter your strategy going forward?
8:  Speaking of the future, With wave 2 coming out, how will what you know about the spoilers change your play style?

This time, we're talking with doobleg, the winner of the tournament.  Here are his answers in his own words:






1:  Describe your list for the tournament.

I was running two Victory Star Destroyers and a Gladiator (the Demolisher), with Screed as commander. Both Vics had gunnery teams, and the Demolisher had Wullf at the helm.

2:  What was your general strategy going into the tournament with your list?

In line with standard Demolisher tactics, I would always try and take initiative and be first player, which would give the Gladiator the best chance of inflicting maximum damage. Knowing that the Vic's main weakness was their lack of maneuverability, I would pick objectives that allowed them to stay in one spot/on one attack line. Ideally, this would give me a "Hammer and Anvil"-style attack between my Demolisher and the Vics.

3:  Did this strategy change during the course of the tournament?

My strategy was fairly consistent throughout the tournament. I was fortunate in two games to have "Fire Lanes" as the objective, so the Vics could both score victory points while maximizing the effectiveness of their fire arcs.

4:  Describe your R1 game: What was your opponent?  Your strategy for dealing with them?  What went right, what went wrong?

 My first opponent was Lyraeus from Portland, Oregon. We were 15 hours distant, so his Friday night was my Saturday morning. His fleet consisted of two Assault Frigates (one of which was the Paragon) and a Corvette (Jaina's Light). I took first player and chose "Fire Lanes" as the objective - I hoped that with a set objective on the table, the superior speed and maneuverability of the Rebel ships would be less of a factor.

I expected Lyraeus to set his frigates facing me, moving forward either side of the objectives to maximise his coverage. He surprised me by setting his frigates sideways, so that he might flank the objectives in a wide arc. The downside to this tactic meant I knew roughly where this arc would take him, and I set my Vic 1 up for an intercept. I then ran my Vic 2 and Gladiator forward to score on the objective in the first round.

Afraid of losing the objective, Lyraeus sent his Corvette in alone, and at the top of round 2 a Demolisher broadside blasted it to smithereens. The frigates, meanwhile, came around and into range of my Vics. A few rounds of fire saw one of the Frigates go down, my Vic 1 soon to follow, and the Paragon gravely wounded and unable to escape (blocked by my remaining Star Destroyer). We called it there, and I came away with a win.

5:  Describe your R2 game: What was your opponent?  Your strategy for dealing with them?  What went right, what went wrong? 

My second opponent was Chilligan from Romania, also flying two frigates (including Paragon) and the Nebulon B "Salvation". I took first player and chose "Fleet Ambush". My intention was to have the Demolisher charge in from my side of the board, while I placed my flagship Vic1 right in front of my opponent's ships, hopefully allowing his short-range guns an opportunity to fire in the first round. Chilligan set up a really cool field of fire that would see his frigates (both of which had gunnery crew and enhanced armament) fire at one or both of my Vics, while denying me a first round shot. The sequence of activations was tricky, but I didn't take quite as much damage as my opponent had hoped.

It must be said that I got a bit lucky in the second turn. Screed's Vic1 unloaded point-blank on the Paragon, and then Chilligan activated Salvation, expecting Paragon to be able to survive another salvo. I then activated my Vic2 and managed to roll three accuracies and a lot of damage - without defensive tokens, the Paragon barely survived the onslaught, but my Vic steamed in and finished off the frigate with a collision.

Screed somehow survived to the next round, which saw the Demolisher plough through the Salvation. Even after my Admiral's demise, Demolisher charged in and, with help from the Vic2, finished off the last Frigate.

So yeah, a bit of luck, and I perhaps should have placed my Vic2 closer at the start so he would get a shot in the first turn, but overall my plan seemed to work okay.

6:  Describe your R3 game: What was your opponent?  Your strategy for dealing with them?  What went right, what went wrong? 

A top of the table clash between myself and Maturin. Scheduling our match proved to be a problem - despite being only 6 hours apart, our timetables seemed incompatible. We managed to find 2 hours to get our game started, and it's unfortunate that it was all me managed to play.

Maturin was sporting three Gladiators (including his own Demolisher) and Screed in a Vic1. I knew this would be tough for me, so I took first player and chose Fire Lanes, figuring that in order to score points, my opponent would have to bunch up his ships. When Maturin placed the objectives, I managed to move them so that an obstacle lay between them and his ships, thus reducing his objective-scoring attack dice for the first couple of turns. We then essentially set up in two skirmish lines across from each other, with his Demolisher and Vic poised to give my Screed a hard time.

We both charged in with no firing in the first turn, however I positioned my Demolisher such that one of Maturin's Gladiators would have to either land in his broadside range for next turn (necessary if he wanted to score objective points), or run away and be out of the fight for most of the game. Maturin chose option 1 (which wasn't enough for the objectives - turn 1 scored in my favour), and at the top of turn 2 my Demolisher savaged the Gladiator, leaving it to be cleaned up by my approaching Vic2. My Demolisher then tucked in to the side arc of Maturin's Vic - he was out of the fight for a turn, but was looking good to do some rear-arc harm in subsequent rounds.

As predicted, Maturin's Demolisher/Vic combo put Screed in a world of hurt. Maturin expertly positioned his Demolisher so that he got two arcs on my Vic, while staying out of the big guy's front arc. Screed weathered a ton of punishment, and it's likely the Demolisher would finish him off before moving on. Even so, I still managed to eek out the objective points for round 2, so with 90 points on the board already, Screed's imminent demise wasn't a huge concern.

Meanwhile, my Vic2 had stripped the remaining gladiator of a bunch of shields, and might just have been able to destroy it in his next salvo. This was when we had to call the game, mid-way through our third turn, as we weren't able to schedule another session. Despite having two (and likely three) turns of objective points on my side, this game could have gone either way, with our Demolishers likely to be the last ships standing.

7:  Anything you would do to alter your strategy going forward?

For a three hundred point tournament, I think my strategy was pretty solid. I played three opponents who had strong lists and who played well, and things seemed to work out okay.

At 400 points, I'm not that interested in just adding another ship to this list and calling it a day - I'd like to try something new, specifically to see if fighters can be more effective at the new points level.

8:  Speaking of the future, With wave 2 coming out, how will what you know about the spoilers change your play style?

The spoiled cards for Wave 2 demonstrate how the release will open up some interesting possibilities with fleet builds and tactics. Admiral Akbar will likely be a favourite for Assault Frigate players, and a speed three Star Destroyer is just terrifying. Personally I'm looking forward to seeing how the new smuggler and scum fighters (Slave 1, Millennium Falcon) impact the game.

I can't wait for the next wave to drop so we can get stuck in. :)


Thanks very much doobleg - you can read more interviews and other after action reports here.

2 comments:

  1. I was reading this and thinking "gosh, I don't remember playing round 3 at all!" But of course, it wasn't actually me (Maturin) in the R3 game, it was Masseter. ;)

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  2. Teach me not to fact check my interview before posting it!

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