My main opponent for the weekend will be Hubert, who finally got his SSD in yesterday (and god does it look beautiful). He and I will be matching up in a 400 point game on Friday. Followed by him and Fish playing Empire against Daniel and I playing Rebels in a 1200 point sector wars game we have planned for Saturday.
Hubert and I just exchanged fleets for our Friday game, so this gives me a moment to talk about what each one does and our matchup.
My Fleet:
AST-LTT-Iblis
Fleet 2.0, “Liberty Fleet”
Faction: Rebel
Commander: Garm Bel Iblis
Assault:
Most Wanted
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Solar Corona
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Solar Corona
MC80
Battle Cruiser (103)
- Garm
Bel Iblis (25)
- Strategic
Adviser (4)
- Gunnery
Team (7)
- Auxiliary
Shield Techs (3)
- Leading
Shots (4)
- XI7
Turbolasers (6)
- Liberty
(3)
= 155 Points
Nebulon-B
Support Refit (51)
- Auxiliary
Shield Techs (3)
- Linked
Turbolaser Turrets (7)
= 61 Points
Nebulon-B
Support Refit (51)
- Auxiliary
Shield Techs (3)
- Linked
Turbolaser Turrets (7)
= 61 Points
GR-75
Medium Transports (18)
- Ahsoka
Tano (2)
- Expanded
Hangar Bay (5)
= 25 Points
Squadrons:
- Jan
Ors (19)
- Dutch
Vander (16)
- Biggs
Darklighter (19)
- 2
x X-wing Squadron (26)
- Z-95
Headhunter Squadron (7)
= 87 Points
Total
Points: 389
This is an early draft of what I hope will be a tournament fleet I run at the Chicago Charity Tournament in November. I'm testing out Rebellion in the Rim cards, primarily Auxiliary Shield Techs and Linked Turbolaser Turrets, and seeing if they make non-Yavarris Nebulons good.
AST has a natural synergy with Garm (who I was reconsidering before Scmitty's win at Gen Con thank you very much), as Garm's problem has always been that the first round free tokens largely go to waste since you are usually not engaged that turn and can't store what you normally would (Phoenix Home being the sole exception). Now, I get the full suite of Garm tokens, and run engineering commands on the Nebs and Lib to bring the side shields up to 2 and 3 respectively.
The fighter ball is a standard mixed capacity group I've been playing with for quite some time now. The more astute among you will note that this list is not too far off from my Jacksonville or Springfield fleets. Final note: Liberty is not a great title and its not worth retrofitting a LMC80 into a carrier to make it work, but with Garm free tokens and a lack of points (or need) for a second flotilla, it seemed like a good way to command squadrons effectively.
Now, onto Hubert's fleet. The debut of the SSD!
OUR SHIPS CAN'T HANDLE FIREPOWER OF THAT MAGNITUDE
Faction: Empire
Commander: Admiral Piett
Assault: Station Assault
Defense: Contested Outpost
Navigation: Dangerous Territory
Star Dreadnought Assault Prototype (250)
- Admiral Piett (22)
- Director Krennic (8)
- Wulff Yularen (7)
- Damage Control Officer (5)
- Heavy Turbolaser Turrets (6)
- Quad Battery Turrets (5)
- Leading Shots (4)
- Ravager (4)
Gozanti-Class Cruisers (23)
- Comms Net (2)
Squadrons:
Howlrunner (16)
Tie Fighers x 5 (40)
Now that is a thicc boy.
Hubert took an extremely expensive officer suite that allows him to hang on to a single concentrate fire token and do work with it every single turn. In the event he uses Piett on another token, Ravager allows him to still treat Yularen's token like a dial. More importantly, on turns he doesn't use Piett on it Krennic gives him amazing dice control at long range (not to mention rerolling at long range with leading shots + QBTs), and on turns where he does use the full dial effect, Krennic gives him total dice control at long range.
This ship always gets rerolls, if anything it has too much dice control which is not something you will hear me say often. If I were to redo this list I might take off either Ravager or Leading Shots, probably the former.
DCO will unfortunately not be useful against me, but was a solid include given the ship.
Heavy Turbolaser turrets are a big deal for me, with the SSD they finally have a ship they're really good on! At any rate, all of my combat ships have double braces, big oof. If I lose, this upgrade will be a major author of my defeat.
This is likely to be one of the more unfavorable matchups I can encounter with this fleet, so it will be a good test of its combat potential.
Now, I will not be linking Hubert to this page until after our match on Friday, so I will spend a moment pontificating on how to play this.
First up, I have clear activation advantage (5 to 3) and clear deployment advantage (7 to 5). I think it's pretty clear I want to take first player and use my deployment advantage to keep my ships out of the front arc. I ideally want to cram all three of my combat ships into spots where they can hit one of the SSD arcs from long/medium range.
With a well-timed squadron command, Hubert's TIEs will get the jump on my squadrons. Their whole purpose is to tie me down though, and I think I want to mop them up quickly (bypassing is probably not an option) and start hitting the Ravager with bombing runs.
If I take first player, I can first-last with ease, and being able to wait out the SSD should be a huge advantage. There will be an interesting tension in wanting to run my ships at higher speeds to get them out of the front arc and risking proc'ing QBTs in the process.
So, with all that being said, the big question is what objective to take.
Contested Outpost just slaps me with a 100 point deficit to overcome. But, that deficit will be immaterial if I table him by destroying the SSD. Then again, do I want to plan on getting it to that point, or just pray I can get it to half health? I'm unsure what is reasonable at this point having not played against one before. However, if I choose it, I get to remove the station as a concern. I think he's decently likely to sit on it and regen health every turn if I give him the chance.
Station Assault is interesting. I don't think he can set up to defend both. So I just get a net 0 points (unless I somehow find a way to creep past the front arc to destroy the second one), while still removing the station effect? That sounds pretty good honestly.
Dangerous Territory is also interesting. He's not going to be able to pick up more than 1 or two tokens, but it does mean I give him a free pass on the damage he might otherwise just have to suffer in the course of maneuvering the SSD over obstacles. I could potentially grab a couple two on debris on the board, and just regen shields with Garm tokens, turning it all into a net wash.
So....right now leaning towards Station Assault and still considering Dangerous Territory. I'll definitely need to reread the cards before I get there though.
At any rate, should be a fun weekend! Can't wait to see the SSD on the table.
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