Monday, August 22, 2016

Fun With Wave 3&4 - After Action Report

We had our first local tournament this weekend since Wave 3 & 4 were released.  Summer 2016 kit - XI7s cards for everyone!  In honor of the new tournament I decided to see exactly what the Wave 3 & 4 rebels were truly capable of.

I also had been working nights all week, so the 11 am start time made things a bit confusing.  I woke up the previous day at 3pm, worked 7pm - 7am, then went to the tournament.  By the final round I was awake for 24 hours.  I've since had a nap.




The List


 Total Points - 400 / 400

* - MC80 Star Cruiser (140 pts)
- Gen Dodonna
- Mon Karren
- Lando Calrissian
- Gunnery Team
- SW-7 Ion Cannons

2 - CR90A Corvette (53 pts)
- Jaina's Light
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuit

3 - CR-90A Corvette (51 pts)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuit

7 - GR-75 Combat Refit (38 pts)
- Bright Hope
- Slicer Tools
- Expanded Hangers

8 - GR-75 Transport (34 pts)
- Flight Commander
- Expanded Hangers
- Bomber Command Center

Fighters - (84 pts)
- X-Wing x 5 - (65 pts)
- Jan Ors - (19 pts)

Objectives:
- Most Wanted
- Contested Outpost
- Superior Positions

With 8 deployments and 5 activations, this list looked to utilize the inexpensive cost of the GR-75s, while still putting enough utility on them to make them actually usable.  I decided to go with the idea of making them carriers, each bringing 3 of my 6 squadrons into the fight, with Bright Hope doubling as a repair denial ship - cancelling a planned engineering command while it crashes in could be worth 2 damage in practical terms.

Mon Karren took Lando for a bit of extra survivability, and SW-7s to take advantage of the title since I wouldn't need to care about Blue accuracy rolls.  My strategy for it was to roll up using Navigate commands, and switch to Engineering when I expected the engagement to start - I had heard and seen that the Liberty-Class MC-80 wasn't the most robust ship, but the double braces were pretty good in keeping it flying.  Gunnery Team would then let me spread out the damage as needed.  Dodonna went on to make this his flagship just because it has the most hull.

The other two ships were just standard TRC90s of Wave 2 fame.  Nothing much to say about them, just that they would work well as flankers.

For fighter cover, the list originally had an actual bid and 2 Y-Wings instead of X-Wings.  I decided after playing it against my friend Chris earlier that the Y-Wings having Heavy actually made them not particularly useful compared to having more X-Wings, and that this list could handle either going first or second.  As such, I went without a bid in favor of more fighter cover.  Jan Ors signed on as the perfect accompaniment to X-Wings.

For objectives - Most Wanted was an obvious option.  An extra 18 points for blowing up a GR-75?  Sure, go on and have that.  Contested Outposts always was an Imperial choice, and the Mon Karren works much the same way.  Finally, Superior Positions has always been my go-to choice for getting ridiculous deployment advantage (and no other ones were particularly good).


First Matchup - Alan


My first match would be against Alan, a regular to our tournament games.  His list looked something like this:

MC-80 Star Cruiser
- Dodonna
- Mon Karren
- SW-7s
- Medical Team

Assault Frigate MkII - B
- XI-7s

CR-90B Corvette
- Dodonna's Pride
- Chart Officer

CR-90A Corvette
- Jaina's Light

GR-75 Transport
- Bright Hope
- Repair Crew

YT-2400 x1
Dash Rendar x1

Objectives:
- Advanced Gunnery
- Contested Outpost(?)
- Superior Positions

I may be forgetting some upgrades, but note the lack of TRC on Jaina's Light.  I also forget whether he brought Contested Outpost or Fleet Ambush, but he decided to be Second Player, and I chose Superior Positions - my thought being that I could deploy to one side, and set up defensively, and still score points with my better squadron setup.

I set up just that way, with Bright Hope -> TRC -> Mon Karren -> Bomber Command -> Jaina's Light being my line, behind rocks that I had set up on the Right flank, with 3 X-Wings right, and 2 X-Wings / Jan on the Left.  He set up on the left side of the map, with GR-75 flanking his Mon Karren, then the AFII to come on on the left of the rocks.  His two CR-90s would come in through the rocks at full speed, from a set-up of parallel to board edge next to the AFII.

I was able to catch his Jaina's Light with mine at close range, and shred it between the TRC shots and X-Wing activations.  Dodonna's Pride picked up a few points from rear shots, as I had to speed my Jaina's Light away past his Pride.  His Mon Karren showed up to play with mine, but I was able to dance my TRC90 at long range of Mon Karren, and in the front arc of the AFII, doing good damage to his big ship.  Eventually, the TRC90 fell, but the damage was done, and his Mon Karren followed suite after being unable to repair for 2 turns from Slicer Tools, and my Mon Karren firing into him.  His AFII limped away, and he had more overall tokens (6 - 2).  But it was enough for 153 points and a 8-3 win for me.


Second Matchup - Angelo


Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer
- Motti
- Intel Officer
- Gunnery Team
- Electronic Countermeasures
- XI7 Turbolasers
- Leading Shots

Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer
- Intel Officer
- Gunnery Team
- Electronic Countermeasures
- XI7 Turbolasers
- Leading Shots

Firespray x 4

This would be a serious test of the Mon Karren's survivability.  He chose First Player, not wanting me to be able to first/last him, and selected Contested Outpost.  He deployed across from the outpost with both his ISDs at speed 3, ready to crash in hard and fast.  I set up Mon Karren to play for the outpost on Turn 1, with Bomber Command to follow him in at a distance, while Bright Hope and Jaina's Light swept in from the Right, and the TRC-90 flanked from the left.

I was able to take the outpost on Turn 1, but he had both ISD's in long range to start Turn 2.  The TRC-90 on the left flank was beat up and the Mon Karren damaged.  Mon Karren moved forward with the next activation and repaired, making sure I had something on the station.  His other ISD damaged the Mon Karren's shields.  I was able to tie up his Firesprays with an X-Wing and Jan while the other 4 conducted bombing runs.  He had 6 command to my 3 and took the 2nd token (1-1).

Turn 3 had him pouring fire into Mon Karren, and blowing up the TRC-90 who had continued to try and flank Left.  But in exchange, I picked off the first ISD on the right, leaving just Motti, who had been taking Mon Karren shots.  I picked up this token, having moved up Bomber Command (2-1).

Turn 4 had Motti finish off Mon Karren, and swat Bomber Command out of the sky.  He had already been hurt from 2 rounds on Mon Karren, and one round of double-arc'd TRC-90 though, so he had no shields left.  Bright Hope made it so he couldn't repair, and Jaina's Light poured more fire into him, leaving him at 3 hull after the X-Wings finished their bombing runs (2-2).

He activated first, and failing to destroy either ship, died to a Jaina's Light double arc. Jaina's Light picked up the end of turn token.  (3-2).  Because of all the damage to my fleet (I was slowly feeding X-Wings / Jan to the Firesprays after all) I wound up with a 153 (again) MOV and another 8-3 win.


Final Round - Chris


Chris has been my regular opponent for a long, long time.  Today he was playing a list he had named the Double Dictor.

Victory II-Class Star Destroyer
- Motti
- Overload Pulse
- Expanded Hangers
- XI7 Turbolasers
- Admiral Tidus

Interdictor Suppression Refit
- Grav Shift Reroute
- G7-X Grav Well Projectors
- SW-7 Ion Cannons

Interdictor Suppression Refit
- G7-X Grav Well Projectors
- G-8 Experimental Projectors
- SW-7 Ion Cannons

Major Rhymer
TIE Bomber x3

I think I am missing an upgrade or 2 in there somewhere.  He chose First player again, and picked my Contested Outpost.  I deployed all of my obstacles in his corners and one of mine to prevent him from getting an advantage from Grav Shift, and then put the Outpost in the center of the map.  He put down the Grav Well tokens in front of the Outpost in the middle of the map, preventing me from deploying effectively in front of it.

I chose instead to deploy my fighters and both GR-75s in front of the outpost at speed 0.  This delay got his ships all out, with one Interdictor on the right at the outpost, the Victory in the middleof his line shadded back, and the other Interdictor on the right flank.  All right next to each other in the middle.  I then put out the Mon Karren on the (near) extreme left flank going speed 3, and the TRC-90 and Jaina's Light both left of it, going speed 4, with the intent to turn in and crash his line from the left.  He then Grav Shifted the station towards his ships, and slowed Mon Karren with Admiral Titus.

Mon Karren sped up to 3, and took the brunt of the Rhymer attack initially, before I could get an X-Wing in to engage.  Chris turned his Interdictors and Victory in to try and intercept my flank, but he didn't have the turning radius or speed to do so and get his guns to bear all at once.  Mon Karren came in head on, and both TRC-90 and Jaina's Light were able to get the extreme left flank on both by turn 3 (0-2 on tokens at this point).  By the end of turn 3 though, I had been attacking twice with X-Wings on the lead Interdictor, and Mon Karren and the TRCs punched it to death.  He still had the Victory and the other Interdictor on the station though and took a 0-3 lead on tokens.  Again, Bright Hope did good work, keeping my preferred target from repairing, and Mon Karren and the TRC-90s munched Motti and the other Interdictor in order, losing Bright Hope to ramming damage, the Bomber Command to a VSD II front arc, and the TRC-90 to combined fire.  I also lost 2 X-Wings that I fed to the Bombers to keep them occupied.  That still left enough on the board for a 231 point win and a 9-2 victory.


After Tournament Thoughts


Bomber Command makes X-Wings the legitimate dual threat they always were meant to be.  In total they did good work throughout the tournament putting damage onto capital ships, and holding down fighter cover long enough to make that damage count.  Slicer Tools are also a very nice insurance policy for making sure something that I wanted dead didn't heal up at an inopportune time.  That being said, I don't feel like the Combat Refit really did me anything much that a non-combat GR-75 would do - I did a grand total of 2 damage with it throughout the tournament, and did less damage than I probably would have when shooting AA the few times I got the chance.

Bright Hope though, as a title, is incredible.  For 2 points, it made the transport it was on nearly indestructible.  The one time it died was because I literally couldn't run it anywhere without it being rammed (or ramming) 3 times in 2 turns.  Scatter alone is awesome against ships without a dedicated way of getting an accuracy.

Mon Karren did good work, especially with SW-7s.  The MC-80 Liberty-Class isn't the most survivable ship, but it can take a few shots and give back as good as it gets.

Interdictors can really dictate deployment and mess with obstacles.

I didn't play any large squadron lists or Demolisher.  I didn't see Ackbar or Rieekan.  No Mothma Admonitions.  So this is really more of a case study than a definitive look at the new meta vs the old.

I really like the new scoring system.

I should get more sleep.

4 comments:

  1. Excellent report - thanks for taking the time to write it up. I've just played my second and third games of Armada (having only owned it since last summer!) and have found your blog to be possibly the most useful source of information for a new player.

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  2. I have to study the new scoring.

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  3. Same with the scoring, that's going to be an interesting new mechanic. Great write up, I was wondering at initial impressions with the new ships. The interdictors seem to be a legitimate threat.

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