June 2021 Tournament at Game Nite

 

 Armada Tournament at Game Nite (June 2021)

This won't be your typical sort of tournament report because I'm not writing specifically about how I did (spoiler alert: not particularly well! Again!), but rather talking about the tournament and the fleets we saw as a whole. We had a casual Armada tournament at our Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS), Game Nite, this past Saturday. We had a total of 5 people show up (including myself). I considered sitting out so we had an even number and we'd simply run a 2 round tournament. After a quick poll, we decided to run as much Armada as possible; so I played, we had 5 people, and it was a 3 round tournament. Unfortunately, Ian had to concede a little more than halfway through our match in the second round and drop, but it set up an easier 3rd round in which everyone got to play. I'm basically going to tell you where each player placed, as well as what they were flying. Then I'll talk a little about my matches, but not go into too much detail. I say that because I don't approach local, casual tournaments the same way I approach sanctioned events, like Prime tournaments or Nationals. In looking at the fleet lists other people brought, I know I'm not the only one. People really came to play 3 Armada matches, test out new ideas, and test them in a tournament setting. For the record, I'm choosing not to share anyone's objectives but my own. I think a lot of people prefer not to share objectives simply because if they have a favorite (such as how one of my default choices when I field squadrons is Infested Fields), they'd prefer that not necessarily be public knowledge, and I can respect that.

There actually were Gravity Rifts seen at this event!

First place went to Andy B. with 22 tournament points!

Hackbar (0/395/400)

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MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 + 65: 179)

· Admiral Ackbar (38)

· Hondo Ohnaka (2)

· Reinforced Blast Doors (5)

· Advanced Projectors (6)

· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

· Home One (7)

Assault Frigate Mk.II B (72 + 26: 98)

· Intel Officer (7)

· Gunnery Team (7)

· Reinforced Blast Doors (5)

· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

Assault Frigate Mk.II B (72 + 26: 98)

· Intel Officer (7)

· Gunnery Team (7)

· Reinforced Blast Doors (5)

· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 2: 20)

· Comms Net (2)

Second place went to Kyle H. with 21 tournament points.

What If ISDs But They Can't Die? (21/395/400)

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Interdictor Suppression Refit (90 + 42: 132)

· Admiral Konstantine (23)

· Taskmaster Grint (5)

· Disposable Capacitors (3)

· Targeting Scrambler (5)

· Projection Experts (6)

Kuat Refit (112 + 9: 121)

· Ordnance Experts (4)

· Reinforced Blast Doors (5)

Kuat Refit (112 + 9: 121)

· Ordnance Experts (4)

· Reinforced Blast Doors (5)

IG-88B (21)

Third place went to Jacob D. with 16 tournament points. Congratulations to Andy, Kyle, and Jacob!

TF's Wreckusant of Doom! (0/395/400)

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Recusant-class Light Destroyer (85 + 51: 136)

· TF-1726 (26)

· Wat Tambor (5)

· Flag Bridge (0)

· Assault Proton Torpedoes (4)

· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

· Patriot Fist (6)

· Jedi Hostage (3)

Battle Refit (52 + 14: 66)

· B2 Rocket Troopers (7)

· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

Battle Refit (52 + 14: 66)

· B2 Rocket Troopers (7)

· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

Battle Refit (52 + 14: 66)

· B2 Rocket Troopers (7)

· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

Transport (47 + 14: 61)

· Comms Net (2)

· Projection Experts (6)

· Beast of Burden (6)

Fourth place went to Chris L. (myself) with 16 tournament points.

Uninspired (65/396/400)

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Venator II-class Star Destroyer (100 + 54: 154)

· Luminara Unduli (25)

· Defense Liaison (3)

· Local Fire Control (4)

· SPHA-T (7)

· Thermal Shields (5)

· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

· Tranquility (3)

Charger c70 (45 + 14: 59)

· Clone Navigation Officer (4)

· Reserve Hangar Deck (3)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

Charger c70 (45 + 14: 59)

· Clone Navigation Officer (4)

· Reserve Hangar Deck (3)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

Charger c70 (45 + 14: 59)

· Clone Navigation Officer (4)

· Reserve Hangar Deck (3)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

Plo Koon (24)

Axe (17)

2 x V-19 Torrent Squadron (2 x 12)

Ion Storm

Fleet in Being

Infested Fields

Fifth place went to Ian W. with 8 tournament points.

Ian's Fleet (80/393/400)

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Venator II-class Star Destroyer (100 + 16: 116)

· Clone Captain Zak (5)

· Boosted Comms (4)

· Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)

Pelta-class Medical Frigate (49 + 32: 81)

· Luminara Unduli (25)

· Munitions Resupply (3)

· Boosted Comms (4)

Charger c70 (45 + 13: 58)

· Reserve Hangar Deck (3)

· Enhanced Armament (10)

Charger c70 (45 + 13: 58)

· Reserve Hangar Deck (3)

· Enhanced Armament (10)

Plo Koon (24)

3 x V-19 Torrent Squadron (3 x 12)

2 x BTL-B Y-wing Squadron (2 x 10)

If you read my previous iteration of the "Uninspired" Luminara fleet, you'll see I've made a couple of changes. I swapped out Clone Captain Zak on the Venator for Defense Liaison because I've got so much token generation that some command dial security makes sense to me. I also swapped out the LTTs that were on my Chargers for Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (TRCs). And I replaced Reserve Hangar Deck on the Venator with SPHA-T so that it can pose a bigger threat at range. Possibly act as a deterrent. It's been my experience that even getting an opponent to stall their planned maneuvers for a single turn can often screw up their strategy and buy my own ships a little breathing room to do what they want to do.

As you can see, while we had only a handful of players, we actually had all 4 factions represented, which was cool! In the first round, I was randomly paired up with Jacob, who was flying a Separatist fleet led by TF-1726. Not gonna lie: I hate this commander. I need to get in a lot of practice against it to figure out how best to beat it. I wasn't great about taking pictures consistently throughout, but I did snap a bunch of them.

I'm clearly using the Dust Clouds for cover, which bit me a little bit when my Venator had *too* much cover to vaporize those Hardcells...

Jacob had the bid and chose to go second. At least one of his objectives was a non-starter, and while I entertained notions of the other option, I ended up going with Rift Ambush. I figured this was the objective least likely to hurt my fleet, and I was right. Ultimately, I probably got a little lucky in this match. I had Jacob out-deployed, so I would've deployed my Venator on the opposite side of the Recusant no matter where he deployed it, and then I would've pulled my Consulars across. Keeping the Recusant beyond arm's length was of the utmost importance. It was really touch and go there for a minute (as you can see a couple of pics up where that fun little scrum is happening between the Dust Clouds. I nearly got greedy and spread my fire around with the intention of cleaning up, but I finally got my head together and acknowledged that if those shots didn't go my way, I'd just simply lose on points. I ended up trading two of my Consulars for two of his Hardcells (and I'm pretty sure I lost a V-19, too). It ended up being a two point victory for me, so it was basically as close as it could possibly be! Ultimately, I was a little sloppy with my Consulars, I think. I was definitely sloppy with my token game and forgot to drop my SPHA-T token at one point, despite having the card refreshed. So that was a little frustrating. But it's also only the third or so time I've flown this fleet (and I've made changes since the first time I flew it, with SPHA-T being one of them), so mistakes were going to be made, absolutely. One of the reasons I chose to fly this fleet for the tournament instead of something I know better is so I could learn what works in this fleet and what doesn't under pressure. It's a casual tourney, and the only way I can get a lock on whether or not I like the fleet and play mistake-free ball is if I keep flying the something I want to get good with.

Time for a mirror match!

It wasn't quite a mirror match, as our ships were outfitted differently, and he had a Pelta instead of the third Consular I had. Still, the fleets were pretty similar; we were definitely headed in the same direction when it came to the squadron game! Ian had the bid and chose to go second, forcing me to choose one of his objectives. Given that our fleets were pretty evenly matched and it would be how we played more than anything else that would determine the outcome, I chose to roll with Contested Outpost. At least in this case, I'd know where the action was going to happen so I could use that knowledge during deployment.

I think the match was basically over once my SPHA-T encouraged Ian to pull his Venator out a little wide so my fleet could take care of his Pelta flagship and at least one of his Consulars while sitting on the station. As I was first player, my squadrons were able to get the jump on his, which was big. Unfortunately, my Consulars got in a big ole' traffic jam that forced me to not only activate out of my preferred order, but also caused a collision between two of my Consulars, even though I had a Navigate dial! It was awful. Ultimately, though, it *was* where my Consulars wanted to be, so I ate the damage for positioning. I was able to kill a couple of squadrons, his Pelta, and one of his Consulars before he had to resign the match and leave. Technically, a resignation in a tournament is a 10-0, but given that he was leaving for a good reason and that it might swing the rest of the field, I chose to simply tally up the points such as they were up to this point, which left me with an 8-3 win. Tranquility is just such a great title. I think all of the Venator titles are good, but Tranquility is just absolutely brutal to fight against while the Venator is continuing to just pound away at you. This was another situation in which my token management could've been better. I really, really enjoy puzzling out how to balance my Clone Navigation Officers with SPHA-T and Defense Liaison. But there's a decent amount to ensuring that I have the tokens I need, I don't lose sight of their purpose, and I don't end up spending them just because I have them or some such. I really like where I'm going with this Luminara build, but it'll take a lot more practice so that I don't get brain burn just trying to figure out my order of operations...

...and speaking of brain burn...

I got absolutely dismantled by this Ackbar fleet that Andy was flying. He'd go on to take first place; congrats again, Andy!

I had played against Andy and a different Ackbar fleet earlier in the week, and I used the earlier iteration of my Luminara fleet. Because that iteration only had two ships (two MC-80s, I think?), Luminara was basically useless. I just wasn't eating enough attacks for her power to trigger, and so that was absolutely brutal. I had a little more leeway here, but not enough. I wasn't entirely certain how I wanted to handle this, and when Andy used his bid to force me to go first (just like I had all tournament!), I absolutely could not choose two of his objectives, and so was forced to choose Solar Corona. I didn't love it because I'd have to deploy all of my ships and squadrons (which were, again, totally useless!!) before he deployed his, but it was the only objective that wasn't a huge risk for getting ROFL-stomped.

*You* might love this story, but I did not...

My plan, such as it was, was that my Consulars would cut off the best possible victim, hold them down while blowing them up, and the other Consular(s) would just run free. All this while my Venator ran down the middle, eating enemy fire, but going fast enough to sail by, blow up a ship, maybe two, then fly off into the sunset. Well, it definitely flew off, but not into the sunset. I'll get to that, though if you look at the progression of pictures above, you can probably guess what happened when my Venator kept flying at speed 3...

Basically, as it was round 3 and we were both suffering brain burn, we each forgot A BUNCH of things. Like, you know, Solar Corona, for interest. We couldn't even go back by the time we realized, because my Venator had used Accuracy against his ships when it should've lost the dice, and his ships used Accuracy against my two Consulars on that side of the board (the right, from the POV of the pictures above). So, yeah, rookie mistakes for both of us who were just too tired to notice it. I forgot to place SPHA-T, keep tokens, refresh my Clone Navigation Officers, use them the way I had planned just moments before I pulled the trigger, on and on and on. He used Intel Officer maybe once during the entire match. It was just a weird match. Anyway! Truly, Andy also just flew well and deserved the win. He really deserved to table me, but one of my Consulars would get away. Two of them would blow up in glorious fireballs, but the real tragedy was my Venator. Tranquility was an absolute all-star upgrade. But we were nearing the end of the tournament, and so I was trying to sort through some prize stuff. I was out of activations and somehow thought he only had to activate his GR-75 before the squadron phase. I was so, so wrong. He hadn't activated Home One yet. So I turned my back to the game after saying, "it's all you, man," so I could organize a couple of prizes. I heard him make a noise of surprise, then looked at the table. He had rolled waaaaaayyyyyy more dice than a GR75 has any right to roll. That's because he was using Home One to attack my Venator.

Yep. And he did roll one Accuracy in addition all of the doubles and crits he had rolled against my basically shield-less Venator. I missed the window to use Thermal Shields because I wasn't paying attention before dice were rolled, and I had already said "it's all you" before turning my back to the game. Andy was extraordinarily gracious and offered to go back (because I clearly would've used Thermal Shields to avoid this particular situation), but I declined. He insisted, and I continued to decline. Because his roll was outstanding, and there was no way I was going to make him reroll that (no way he rolls that well again) just because I miscalculated on activations and so stopped paying attention at that moment. So my Venator now has 7 damage on it with no shields left. Now, it's unlikely that I'm going to get away from everyone's red dice anyway, but to even make the attempt, I also needed to keep just ONE token on my Venator so that I could use Defense Liaison to flip one of my dials over to a Navigation dial once I sailed past Ackbar's ships.

You know what I didn't do?

You guessed it! I've got zero tokens on the Venator! So at speed 3, I go zooming off the board at the beginning of the next round. Absolutely pathetic. I don't get tabled because he has no way of turning back to kill my last surviving Consular, and he's not going to flak any of my squadrons enough to kill them. So we call it there. It's a 2-9 loss for me when Andy kills nearly everything I've got, and I don't kill a single one of his ships. BRUTAL. My own fault, for sure, but still brutal. But again, Andy was extremely gracious, I really enjoyed playing against him, just as I did my other opponents, and all I can do is walk away with what I learned.

I really think Luminara can do some work, and I enjoy flying her! Can't wait until the next match against Andy to correct my mistakes!!