Admiral Yularen versus General Madine
Honestly, Young Jedi was my Star Wars CCG of choice, way back when...
When I haven't been fighting off illness, I've been going to St. Louis Blues games with my wife. Which has been amazing and so much fun! But it's also meant less time for games - Armada in particular. So I decided not to go to the Predators v. Blues game, choosing to play Armada instead. Luckily, there were a decent number of Armada players about when I arrived, so Nathan and I set up for a match. Sadly, I was so excited to play and so intent on following the Devils v. Rangers game that I didn't think to take any pictures. Sorry about that, y'all. Especially because I was happy to finally get my painted squadrons to the table! It took me quite some time to paint them all (particularly the 15 Y-Wing minis I needed), but I'm pretty happy with them overall and it's always nice to see a fully painted fleet on the table. The last time I painted squadrons for a fleet, I was literally running two: IG-88 and Hondo. Which meant I wasn't even painting 6 minis for those two squadrons! Anyway, Nathan and I were even on our bids and he was flying something for the first time - an experiment to learn more about Madine. Most of his fleet is below...
Nathan's fleet (33/391/400)
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MC75 Ordnance Cruiser (100 + 46: 146)
· General Madine (30)
· Ordnance Experts (4)
· External Racks (4)
· Assault Concussion Missiles (5)
· Aspiration (3)
MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 + 24: 127)
· Caitken and Shollan (6)
· Overload Pulse (8)
· Enhanced Armament (10)
MC30c Scout Frigate (69 + 16: 85)
· Ordnance Experts (4)
· Assault Concussion Missiles (5)
· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
Shara Bey (17)
Tycho Celchu (16)
...I say most because our bids were even, but I can't remember what else was in here to get his fleet points up to 397. But that was most of it! Basically, he was messing around with two big ships landing in spots they had no right landing in. I've flown against stuff like this before and it can be real difficult because I can't count on pinning down ships that I normally could. Plus, I really have to be efficient, because I have to expect that he'll be lining up double arc shots each turn. I have no idea what kind of objectives he's likely to be flying with this, but I decide I'd rather eat alpha strikes from him and play the game on my terms than on his. I think that this was ultimately a mistake and too conservative, given that he was boasting so many black dice and my defensive tech isn't defensive so much as it is based on recovery. In order to recover, I need to survive. So yeah, I probably should've gone first.
Wulff Pack (123/397/400)
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Venator I-class Star Destroyer (90 + 24: 114)
· Clone Commander Wolffe (6)
· Ruthless Strategists (4)
· All Fighters, Follow Me! (5)
· Ordnance Pods (3)
· Resolute (6)
Pelta-class Medical Frigate (49 + 40: 89)
· Admiral Yularen (24)
· Clone Navigation Officer (4)
· Parts Resupply (3)
· Reserve Hangar Deck (3)
· Projection Experts (6)
Pelta-class Medical Frigate (49 + 22: 71)
· Bomber Command Center (8)
· Reserve Hangar Deck (3)
· Projection Experts (6)
· TB-73 (5)
Luminara Unduli (23)
Anakin Skywalker [yrep] (19)
Axe (17)
2 x V-19 Torrent Squadron (2 x 12)
4 x BTL-B Y-wing Squadron (4 x 10)
Precision Strike
Jamming Barrier
Superior Positions
Taking a quick look at my objectives, it was easy for Nathan to choose Jamming Barrier. It's the same thing that happened last time I flew this fleet and went second. It's got me reconsidering the objective. Not because it didn't work out well for me, but because I'd rather it not be so easy for my opponents to choose an objective. Originally, the reason I chose Jamming Barrier over the obvious choice of Fighter Ambush is because while I think I could score quite a lot of points off of Fighter Ambush in a vacuum, we don't play the game in a vacuum, right? I often outdeploy my opponent, which is a big deal given that my Venator isn't great at Navigating. Especially because it mostly wants to be issuing Squadron commands. So losing that edge from the jump isn't very appealing to me. I thought Jamming Barrier would give me an edge in that my opponents couldn't afford to stay at long range beyond the barrier and at least one Dust Cloud because I'd just toss my squadrons across the line to do work at my leisure. But if they jumped across that "no-shoot line" in order to get me, they'd be giving my squadrons more shots. And the more time my squadrons spend taking shots, the better my chances of winning the match. But again, it feels like the choice for my opponents is too easy (in which case, I'll almost always be playing Jamming Barrier), plus, the objective isn't one that offers me a way to score points. So, things for me to think about.
Anyway! Nathan chooses Jamming Barrier and we deploy obstacles before getting our fleets out there. I've got him completely outdeployed, so it's easy enough for me to deploy TB-73 first and then stall with squadrons until Nathan's completely deployed. His Aspiration is lined up directly across from me at left of center (from my perspective) with the LMC80 and MC30 lined up to take my flank at right of center (again, from my perspective). While the LMC80 and MC30 are definitely fast enough to come in and ensure that the MC75 isn't going it alone, the way he split up his fleet does allow for me to position in a way that forces him to make hard choices. Especially because once we're done deploying, I set up my Jamming Barrier so it boxes out the LMC80 and MC30. The latter wants to get in close anyway in order to unload black dice, but the former very much wants to take its time coming in, throwing dice at me the whole way. And the MC30 is the Scout chassis, featuring Turbolaser Reroute Circuit, which means it can still be a threat from range. Not so much against my Peltas with their Evade tokens, but definitely against my Venator (which I've lined up closer to center while keeping the Peltas outside, so Resolute can take the brunt of the fire while the Peltas support it). So my target prioritization is thus:
- The MC75 before reinforcements can arrive.
- Tycho
- The LMC80. Unless!...
- ...the MC30 arrives before the LMC80 and is a convenient target.
- Shara
My thought process goes something like - Aspiration is alone and has minimal squadron cover from Tycho and Shara. Tycho is the one who can lock down my Y-Wings at will, so Tycho needs to die. Shara doesn't need to die so much as she needs to be kept away from the action. If I get her, great. If not, that's okay, so long as she doesn't interfere with my Y-Wings while they're bombing. So Tycho needs to go as quickly as I can get him and I need to put heavy damage into the MC75 before the rest of Nathan's fleet catches up. That way, I can either kill it or force it to veer off before it really lays into me.
Sure enough, Nathan's fringe ships come flying in at speeds 3 and 4, but Resolute is in good position to meet them, so I'm not too worried about it. It does mean, however, that it's likely I'll be pulling at least a couple of my Y-Wings away from Aspiration to deal with the MC30 before it can do too much damage. Again, I've got the intention of laying some damage on it so it either risks blowing up or it runs from the fight. It takes longer than I'd like to kill Tycho, but I get there. Shara is locked down by Axe and Luminara, so I mostly choose not to shoot her and just deal with her shooting once during the squadron phase. I figure I can lean on her later, but for now, she's simply not a threat and she's not locking down any Y-Wings, so she's mostly irrelevant. I think this is where the game turns, because rather than risk flying into my coordinated fire, Nathan skirts Aspiration around the Dust Cloud I had deployed to protect my left flank (in case he deployed ships on that side of the board). The result is that his port guns (blue and black dice) don't pose much of a threat to me and shuffling my target prioritization becomes a lot easier. I don't need to rush damage onto Aspiration because it's only really at risk of tossing several red dice at my Peltas. My flagship Pelta is aiming to fly either onto the Dust Cloud or just inside of it, meaning that Nathan can't get a clean, meaningful shot on it. And since he is now already committed to skirting outside of the Dust Cloud to give himself cover, my Pelta can box him out even if he changes his mind. So I'm a little disappointed at my own shortsightedness because I hadn't activated All Fighters, Follow Me! But I can still divert enough Y-Wings to meet his MC30 as it approaches the Jamming Barrier just ahead of the LMC80.
Nathan is first, which means I can outlast him on activations. So I wait until his MC30 is as close as I can hope before throwing my Y-Wings at it, as well as some dice from TB-73 and Resolute. Nathan uses his defense tokens effectively, but there's just not a lot he can do against my squadrons. There's a point at which his MC30 crosses the Jamming Barrier, but his LMC80 peels off just enough that he'll remain outside the Jamming Barrier to use its cover just a bit longer and run perpendicular before turning in for an approach that would let him hit my Peltas or Resolute. So at this point, I've got the MC75 on my left flank circling my fleet (as my Peltas and Resolute have basically stayed together in a staggered firing line, with Resolute taking the lead so my Peltas could avoid the worst of the LMC80 and MC30 while throwing shields over to the Resolute to keep it alive). The LMC80 is lurking just ahead of my fleet, looking to turn its scary front arc against us. The MC30 is in my starboard flank with only two choices: plow into the heart of my fleet or veer off and risk disrupting the flight path of Aspiration. I'm confident he'll turn in rather than risk hurting Aspiration and then flying off the board at speed 3 or 4, so rather than have Resolute stick around at speed 1 and eat the MC30's black dice at the top of round 4 so I can throw my maximum number of dice at it, I push my Venator up to speed 2 and land on a rock. It ends up being a Structural, so my Venator now has 2 of 9 damage on its hull. Not great, but better than Projector Misaligned (which would've completely drained my front hull zone of shields just before engaging with the LMC80 head-on) or Life Support Failure (which would've stripped me of my tokens and my ability to use tokens, which would've severely damaged my plans for Resolute). I was definitely gambling, but decided those odds were better than eating a double arc of black dice from the MC30 with its Ordnance Experts, TRC, and ACM. No thanks.
After landing on the rock, I ate a pretty big shot from the LMC80, but my squadrons were in pretty good shape, so my Peltas could spend their Engineering helping out Resolute instead of spending those points on keeping my squadrons alive. After activating the MC30 at the top of the next round, Nathan chose to move it closer to my Peltas so that it wouldn't block his MC75. If I'm not mistaken, I chose to activate TB-73 so it could use Projection Experts to send some shields over to my ailing Resolute before taking a pot shot at the MC30. The MC30 went down and I shuffled my target prioritization accordingly: the LMC80 was now the biggest threat and also the ship I could easily tag with all of my guns. I just presumed I wasn't going to kill the MC75, so other than a couple of long range shots and a Y-Wing caught out of position, I decided to put all my effort into killing the LMC80. Both of my Peltas were sitting in the LMC80s front arc, but without Gunnery Team, he could only hit one at a time. So the one he didn't hit was able to throw shields over to the other one. If I remember correctly, he was trying to kill TB-73 because it had BCC and had also taken the most damage. Unfortunately, the task became impossible when one of my V-19s hit the LMC80 with a Raid token (courtesy of Clone Commander Wolffe) and then the LMC80 took a Blinded Gunners crit, thus preventing it from spending Accuracy icons. With guaranteed use of my defense tokens and all of the Engineering support I had in place, it was clear that the LMC80 wasn't going to be able to kill anything before it blew up.
At this point, Nathan had Aspiration with some damage on it (but not much at all other than some shield loss) and Shara was still in play, duking it out with Axe and Luminara. I had lost a generic V-19 to Shara, but used Reserve Hangar Deck to resurrect it. I had gotten my flagship hopped over the Dust Cloud so it could maintain cover from the MC75, which was now turning back into the fight. My Venator was out of the fight at this point and not even able to push squadrons anymore in a meaningful way. But it's chugging along at speed 2 toward the edge of the mat and I'm just hoping it can turn enough to stay on without help from a Navigation dial since it wasn't getting one. And at this point, my flagship didn't have Navigate dialed up, nor did I have an unexhausted Clone Navigation Officer to pass the Navigate token even if I had one to give. My flagship didn't have any shots, but it could pass shields to TB-73 to help keep it alive. So at the end of round 5, I made the mistake of having two generic Y-Wings shoot at Aspiration, despite the fact that I really had no way of landing much meaningful damage or overheating Nathan's Redirect and Brace. So once I made that mistake, I had Anakin and the other squadrons all pile in front of where the MC75 would land, knowing I couldn't command them in round 6. The ships don't do much, though TB-73 is able to toss some dice at the MC75 and do a bit of damage. And at this point, I'll take whatever I can get to see if I can finish it before the end of the game! I use my flagship's Engineering command to regenerate some hull on Axe so I can maybe keep him alive through the squadron phase. Resolute has absolutely nothing to do but turn as hard as it can and pray it doesn't go off the table. Resolute makes it! It's got maybe an inch to spare, but it makes it.
Then the climax of the game: the squadron phase of round 6.
Since Nathan was first player, he used Shara to attack Axe to see if she could kill him. He rolled well, but no Accuracy icons. So Axe was able to use an Evade to force a reroll, then a Brace to survive the attack with 1 hull left. The only squadrons left on the board are all of mine, so I start with the lower stakes by having Luminara attack Shara. Luminara rolls what she needs and kills off Shara. Then I start rolling my V-19s and Y-Wings. Nobody rolls brilliantly, but since everyone is rolling 1 damage, mathematically, I can still kill off Aspiration. So I don't use Bomber Command Center to reroll any of the black dice my Y-Wings are throwing until my second to last squadron. The final generic Y-Wing rolls a blank and then rerolls into a single point of damage. Aspiration has two hull left, no Brace, and no meaningful shields (they're on the far hull zone even if Nathan still had a Redirect token, which I don't think he did at this point). The last squadron to activate is Anakin with his red/blue, Adept 2, and BCC; two damage will kill the MC75 for the table. Luckily, he doesn't need any rerolls to get the job done before the clock runs out on the sixth and final round of the match.
Nathan and I talked through some stuff after the game and I'm still considering whether or not to swap out Jamming Barrier for something else. But honestly, it also did deceptively good things for me in this match and I think it might be a better fit for my fleet than I think, even though it doesn't earn me any points and is the clear choice for my opponents when looking through my objectives. It's something to think about. I will also say I was thinking about swapping out Wolffe at some point for some other upgrades, but honestly, being able to deal out an Engineering raid in a clutch moment was a really great way to spend those 6 points he costs and that otherwise fairly meaningless V-19 attack on the LMC80. I'm not saying it's necessarily the best way to spend those points - I may swap Wolffe out for Silver at some point down the line and figure out a new name for the fleet. But for now, I'm happy with having Raid tokens in my back pocket. It won't always be useful, but that's okay! Ordnance Pods did absolutely nothing for me this game and I'm still happy to have them in there. They're bonkers against heavy squadron fleets, which serves me well when I'm trying to thin the skies and free up my Y-Wings to do the heavy lifting. So for now, I'm reconsidering an objective, but otherwise, I'm happy with the way this fleet has flown and I think it's likely what I'll take to Adepticon in March!
My thanks to Nathan, who was a great and gracious opponent. It's always more fun to play a game we love with people we enjoy!
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