Shatterpoint Batrep: Lando and Ahsoka v. Ahsoka and Luke

 Shatterpoint Batrep: Lando and Ahsoka v. Ahsoka and Luke

This was one of those rarest of nights for me, in which I managed to play two games of Shatterpoint! I decided to stick with the same strike team between both games because I need reps with nearly every unit, given that the only unit here that I've used before is Lando. Before I get into the game overview, a couple of details about the matchup:

• My team consisted of Lando, Ezra, and Zeb, paired with Ahsoka (Fulcrum), Sabine, and Clan Kryze.
• Andy's team consisted of Luke, Bossk, and Rebel Commandos, paired with Ahsoka (Jedi No More), Shaak Ti, and Padawan Learners.
• We played Never Tell Me The Odds (because I set up the game before Andy arrived, and while I have almost zero experience with the mission pack, I think it could be a decent fit for the strike team I assembled, given their in-activation movement and my ability to get Force back with Lando). I was second player, and you can can see how terrain was set up below.

I tried to take pictures throughout, but I found it a bit trickier than Armada. I'm used to taking a picture between rounds in Armada since each ship only gets one activation. I feel like it's fairly easy to break down how a game developed like that. But it feels different with Shatterpoint, given all of the in- and out-of-activation movement that units can receive. Plus, obviously, there's a different game structure at play. Do I take pictures after every unit activation? Do I take pictures when we've each run through our Order deck? Pictures when a Struggle is won? I'm still figuring it out, so bear with me. And if anyone has cracked that particular code, please let me know, won't ya?

Our first mission was Desperate Measures. I think I deployed poorly to start. In Sabotage Showdown and Shifting Priorities, it's not too much to ask to deploy in such a way that you can claim your home objectives right away without over committing to either side of the board. Since I'm used to those mission suites, I deployed too centrally to do much with regards to claiming my home objectives early, which was costly. As you can see below, Luke grabbed an early lead for Andy on the far left objective while his Commandos could sneak up on his home objectives, as well as the center objective nearest him.

It didn't help that I drew my Shatterpoint card first, then after returning it to my Order deck, I drew Ahsoka. Honestly, I hadn't played in awhile, and this inauspicious start made me panic a bit and play recklessly with a character who cannot afford to be bandied about recklessly (as you'll find out a bit later). After Ahsoka, I drew into Ezra. Both of them Advanced to claim my home objectives. So my starting play was too slow, and ceded advantage to Andy too quickly.

This is where I really screwed the pooch. I knew when I did it, too, but I haven't played in a long time, I could feel the first struggle slipping away from me quickly because of my poor deployment and conservative play, and so I made a leap: I reserved Clan Kryze, then had Lando move toward a center position. He wasn't totally forward, but he had a range of threat. I dangled him a little too far, and handed Andy a juicy target that he could take at his leisure. Now, to his credit, Zeb did some serious work in both this match, and my second match of the evening! Zeb ran straight in and punched the Rebel Commandos to take them down on the far left point. That said, it didn't earn me the objective point, as Luke was still sitting on it. Also, since Zeb is a Supporting unit and not a Secondary, his Wounding the Commandos didn't trigger Challenging the Odds. So it was a fun thing to do, but perhaps not a very productive one (you'd think I'd only need one instance like this to learn my lesson, but spoiler alert: that turns out to not be the case...). After Zeb's activation, Shaak-Ti was Andy's fifth activation of the game, Wounded Lando, and took the first struggle.

For the second objective, we drew into It Could Be Worse, which was really advantageous for me. This struggle went really fast just because I was in a good position, and dice broke my way. Sabine jumped up to a vantage point and one-shotted Shaak-Ti, and I got the advantage of the preferred objective point for my first activation. Then my Kryze Mandos moved forward to take the far middle objective, knocked one of the Rebel Commandos off of it, and I took the struggle off of that move. I don't have a lot of notes for this struggle because it went so very quickly. But Andy did a really nice job of prepping for the third struggle, so it felt like he put up less of a struggle on this objective because he was not too concerned with winning it.

This picture above and the two below it are of Noble Sacrifice, oriented in the way that Andy as first player and loser of the second struggle chose to have the objectives lit up. This struggle was all Andy. It was a total uphill battle for me, and that meant I got to make some really huge gambles and do some really cool and impressive stuff to stay alive! But ultimately, Andy was too thoughtfully positioned, and I just couldn't hang on.

His Ahsoka, Jedi No More, finally leapt into the fray and Wounded my Kryze Mandos. They got right back up with a Shatterpoint card and took the middle objective by numbers. However, Shaak-Ti then activated, Wounded the Mandos yet again, and stole the middle objective from underneath me on the very next activation.

I put Sabine in reserve because she just couldn't do enough on her own to keep me alive in this match. I drew into Clan Kryze again. Andy was within two spots of winning on the Struggle Tracker, so I had the Mandos try to divide and conquer. Each one of them successfully attacked and Shoved Shaak-Ti and Ahsoka off of the middle objective in different directions, scoring it before the Mandos were removed from the board permanently. It wasn't long before I was on my back foot again as Andy kept pressuring me. So my next gambit had to be a little more audacious: Ahsoka (Fulcrum) got to the center of the map and managed to wound Ahsoka (Jedi No More). I then got a bonus attack with Ahsoka and used that to wound the Padawan Learners. These moves netted me 3 momentum cubes, as well as moving the Struggle cube to the middle of the Struggle Tracker (I received two cubes for my kills, moved the Struggle cube three spaces for objective scoring, and then moved it one more spot because I paid for Challenging the Odds).

I'm alive!

...But not for long, as Bossk snipes Ezra with Explosive Ordnance to gain a momentum cube, move the Struggle Cub, and secure the win for Andy.

Honestly, this game was a lot of fun to play! I was frustrated with myself to start the game, what with trying to shake off the rust and what-not, as well as learn how to play 5 units that are new to me (again, with Lando being the exception). But the third struggle got really crazy in terms of some of the moves I could pull off. And even though I lost, the desperate moves were fun to engineer, fun to roll out, and ultimately, Andy had earned the win pretty thoroughly. So it would've felt like a ripoff if I had managed to rob Andy. But the first two struggles went so incredibly quickly that the game felt like it was moving at light speed for a minute there.

I really liked learning my squads, though! I'm not locked into the notion that I'm really "onto something here," but it was fun to play these units together, and I was looking forward to continuing my experiments with these units! And especially Ahsoka (Fulcrum) and Zeb, who are just beat sticks.

My second match of the evening was against Rob, who was kind enough to hang around to get in a match a little later in the evening! We thinned out the terrain on the map a bit, returning Andy's terrain to him so he could head on home. We decided to stick with Never Tell Me The Odds because it was already set up, and we both wanted more experience with it.

This time, I rolled into first player.

• My team again consisted of Lando, Ezra, and Zeb, paired with Ahsoka (Fulcrum), Sabine, and Clan Kryze.
• Rob's team consisted of Moff Gideon, Death Trooper Escort, and Dark Troopers, paired with Grand Inquisitor, Third Sister, and Fifth Brother.

I tried deploying wider this time so I could better cover my home objectives, but ultimately, it still felt pretty ineffectual. Our first objective was Daring Gamble. Sabine moved Zeb to my right home objectives while she moved to take the left home objective. But honestly, this first struggle was incredibly timid. The Struggle Cube moved 2 spaces back and forth for a long while, as Rob took the center of the map, and I just didn't make a move to take it back. I put some damage on the Dark Troopers, they put some on Ezra. Again, nothing spectacular. I am certain I played entirely too scared of Gideon. I don't have a lot of experience playing against him, but he strikes me as so effective at exploiting mistakes. Additionally, I hate having to pay additional Force to put units in reserve. As such, my more conservative play meant I didn't mind activating whatever I drew into. Like I said: really timid play.

Finally towards the end of our Order decks, I saw a window and decided to make a move - Zeb took the second to last activation of my deck to hit a Dark Trooper, Shove him, and steal Rob's home objective.

I knew this was something I wanted to attempt after reading the Fifth Trooper website, where Matt does a really thorough job of breaking down objectives. I'm grateful for the content he has shared so far, so go check it out (https://t1q.700.myftpupload.com/i-like-those-odds-breaking-down-the-third-objective/), but I'm also hoping we get more soon! Anyway, that put Rob in a tough position, because he would need to effectively retreat or advance in order to stop the struggle from getting away from him. And while I wouldn't mind losing his home objective (it would only cost me Zeb, after all), I know he didn't want to retreat out of position in order to take it back and resume our effective stalemate on the Struggle Tracker.

Ultimately, he decided to try and press the attack by getting more aggressive. Fifth Brother absolutely brutalized the Mandos, Wounding them with ease. Clan Kryze activated to start the top of my next Order deck shuffle. I knew I would score enough objectives to win the first struggle, so I let them revive, activate, and damage Fifth Brother to end the struggle and move onto the next one with the intention of knocked Fifth Brother down in the second struggle.

The second Struggle card was It's Worse, and Ryan chose the deployment below. Which obviously makes sense, as he's currently sitting on the far right objective, and this orientation takes Ahsoka out of the fight a little bit. We're both aware that she's agile as hell and can get back into the fight, but I'll have to spend Force to do it. Which means less Force I can spend on Challenging the Odds.

Gideon assassinated Ezra (like the monster that I've always known him to be!), then took his free activation of Long Live The Empire to move Rob's Dark Troopers and snag all three objectives in one go. It Wounded his Troopers, but Rob certainly didn't mind, as it was net gain for him. I leapt at the opportunity to punch Gideon in his smug, handsome face as many times as I could! Zeb hit him, then followed up with a 5 dice attack, Wounding Gideon. But here's where I may a really foolish mistake - I Challenged the Odds in order to move the Struggle cube one space toward my Momentum cubes.

This trigger is super cool, and often worth the one Force you spend! But just like when you're considering whether or not to Wound an enemy unit, or when you're examining your positioning, you need to be aware of the game state. In this case, I was fighting uphill when I didn't need to. I got greedy, and it bit me. Rob drew his Shatterpoint card and activated his Dark Troopers. The Troopers activated and Wounded Zeb. I used Lasan Honor Guard, but the Troopers Shoved Zeb off of the objective, winning Rob the struggle. So I had taken an extra Injured token in order to contest an objective from which I was out of control range. I had spent 1 Force to move the Struggle Cube toward me, and lost the struggle on the very next activation.

On top of that? I drew Zeb's card at the beginning of the third struggle (No Such Luck; orientation seen in the picture below). I can't afford to spend the Force to put him into reserve (courtesy of Gideon), so he revives and activates, thus instantly negating the usefulness of his having used Lasan Honor Guard. It was just really poor play on my part. Admittedly, it was my first time with Zeb on the table (either by my playing him, or seeing an opponent fielding him), but the board state is what it is. Regardless of abilities or whatever else, I should've seen the end of the Struggle coming and not invested in trying to somehow claw this one away from Rob, who was firmly in control.

This is where Ahsoka really put in work, as she Wouned Third Sister with two attacks to take back the far left objective after Grand Inquisitor had cleared my control marker with Rob's previous activation. I never played with Anakin, so I've never previously used a unit that could use two attacks in one turn the way that Anakin or Ahsoka (Fulcrum) can, and man, is it an absolute luxury! I was confident I could grab that kill just by the numbers on two attacks, and she came through. At this point, I'm one Struggle cube move away from victory. Rob's Death Trooper Escort activates and shoots down Ahsoka. Not ideal, but I knew she'd go down at some point. She can do a lot of work, but she's got to really get her hands dirty, and that makes her a target.

Luckily for me, though, my deck luck holds out: I reshuffle my Order deck and draw immediately into my Shatterpoint card. I double and triple-check my math on my machinations while Rob patiently waits to see what the hell I'm trying to figure out. I use my Shatterpoint card to activate Ahsoka. She revives, switches over to Jar Kai, and leaps over to Fifth Brother. Ahsoka rolls into 4 crits (which I hadn't done across two matches I played tonight), which allows me to Wound Fifth Brother, gain a Momentum cube, reclaim my left home objectives (which just so happens to be the featured objective for the turn), winning me the third struggle and the game.

I had so much fun playing these games tonight! I'm still so unfamiliar with Shatterpoint in a lot of ways because even though I've gotten in more than a handful of games, I really haven't been able to play consistently. It's been frustrating, but the same things that kept me away from writing this blog are the same things that prevented me from playing Shatterpoint more consistently. These games, though, really did get me excited to dive back in, do more exploring, and do more learning. I'm writing these batreps a little over a week after they took place. Also, like I said at the top of this blog post, I'm still figuring out how I want to take notes on these matches. Now that I've written up these two matches, I have a better idea of what pictures and what notes are useful, and which ones are just kind of...well, present. So I'm hopeful I'll get better at these as I go, because I feel like I had a good handle on how to write a good Star Wars Armada batrep. And not only did I think they were entertaining to read, but I also appreciated how much I could learn from analysis and reflection of my own matches. So, again, I'm hoping to apply that here to Shatterpoint.

I do think that, moving forward, I'm going to try and take notes right after a match with some bullet points about things I learned. These games happened awhile ago, so I don't know how exactly I would distill the exact things I learned that can be useful going forward. But I guess there are a couple I'd include after these two matches:

1. I already know I need to be paying attention to the game state so I'm not wasting Wounds on enemy units, or moving out of position while we're inevitably moving into the next struggle. But the way I wasted Force on Challenging the Odds, and unnecessarily took an Injured token on Zeb, in that second match against Rob. It didn't cost me the game, but it was absolutely wasteful, and could have bitten me if I had not already been ahead (and then gotten excellent Order deck and dice luck). So I need to anticipate moments like that better so I'm not a) making the mistake, and b) spending a lot of time matching it out in the moment when I should be able to recognize the scenario on sight, and react accordingly.
2. Deployment, deployment, deployment. I really need to have deployment memorized for all four objective suites.
3. It can often feel like a waste to use a Shatterpoint card to activate a Supporting unit, and I've agonized over this a whole bunch in the past. But I think in all three matches, all three of us players had opportunities to activate our Supporting units with a Shatterpoint card that would have been far better than activating Secondary units, or even Primary units! I don't know that Andy ended up pulling the trigger on that because he was positioned very well, and his Supporting units did plenty without needing a Shatterpoint card. But I know Rob and I each used a Shatterpoint activation on Supporting units at least once, and to great effect.

There are other little things I learned specific to units, I think. But I'm not convinced on them yet, so I'm going to hold off on saying anything about them for now. In the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed these batreps, and if you've got any feedback, feel free to leave a comment!