Armada League starting next week...

Armada league coming up...

Chappell League 1 

Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 400/400   

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery 
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault 
Navigation Objective: Minefields 

[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points) 
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points) 
-  Redundant Shields  ( 8  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points) 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Jainas Light  ( 2  points) 
-  Leia Organa  ( 3  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

1 Han Solo ( 26 points) 
1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

Looking at playing this to start off...  Not a lot of folks playing the large numbers of fighters yet, so the almost complete lack of fighter cover is not as big a deal...  The Assault Cruiser is the heavy hitter of course.  I have the 400 points exactly kind of assuming I'll be Player 2.  With this list, I doubt anyone would be foolish enough to give me "Advanced Gunnery" as a mission..  So, that is mostly there as a "Molon Labe" sort of challenge...  "Hyperspace Assault" would have my  Assault Frigate and the Fighters trying for the quick close up hit, HOPEFULLY from an arc that is not going to be really bad for me...  Han can of course shoot first per usual, and I can have him move and fire at a different target if needed or just try to open up a hole in the shield facing...  So far it has been Minefields that gets chosen, probably wisely, but it's been quite a good list for me locally at least.  Jaina's Light is a good "safety" (yeah, I played a bit of football in my younger days, not well, but...) so she allows me to change dials and hits shockingly hard when push comes to shove.  

Solid list, just saw Mike's "fighter heavy" list, and with that he was doing fairly well...  Mind, it had only Nebulons and CR-90s as the ships...  I'm fairly convinced that they will not be able to kill off ships quickly and keep moving fast enough not to get bogged down too badly...  Well, that's the plan...  Seeing Hero's blog posting (http://lkhero.blogspot.com/2015/11/armada-imperial-squadron-dream-team.html) about the Imperial one...  So if I see that I guess I start fielding something like this:

Chappell League Mk 6 

Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 400/400   

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery 
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes 
Navigation Objective: Minefields 

[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points) 
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points) 
-  Redundant Shields  ( 8  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points) 

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Gallant Haven  ( 8  points) 
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points) 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 
1 Tycho Celchu ( 16 points) 
1 "Dutch" Vander ( 16 points) 
1 Wedge Antilles ( 19 points) 
2 X-Wing Squadrons ( 26 points) 

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

Essentially, keep a mass of Fighters near the Gallant Haven to screen and stay alive annoyingly long (hopefully) while the main ships present broadsides and hit hard...  The MC-80 behind the AF to bat cleanup...  Have not flown this yet, honestly have not seen the need for much of a defensive screen here yet...  Will I am sure though eventually, so best to be prepared...  Only the 2 ships means I'll be activating WAY too quickly I think, but it is simple...

The League starts Monday it looks like, looking forward to getting in some more games...  We'll see how many folks actually get out and play.  5 games, The Gopher has a few of the kits, so at least everyone should bet some nice alt art cards...  

Armada night Monday and upcoming X-Wing...

Armada Monday…  Have a few builds set up, but It mostly comes down to either a 2 or 3 ship build.  With the 2 ships, it is 2 big heavy ships outfitted with pretty much everything possible to do what they have to.  3 ships, I have the Heavy Cruiser, a Frigate and a Corvette…  More ships to activate, more maneuver and probably a better chance to do most of the missions…  The Heavy Cruiser/Assault Frigate build is very unsubtle…  Move up, shoot like you are voting in Chicago, early, often and hopefully for the same targets… 

So, here’s the 2 ship build:

Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 400/400   

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery 
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault 
Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep 

[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points) 
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points) 
-  Redundant Shields  ( 8  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  Enhanced Armament  ( 10  points) 

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Gallant Haven  ( 8  points) 
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points) 
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 
1 Tycho Celchu ( 16 points) 
2 X-Wing Squadrons ( 26 points) 
1 "Dutch" Vander ( 16 points) 
1 Wedge Antilles ( 19 points) 

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

And here’s the 3 ship build:

Faction: Rebel Alliance 
Points: 400/400   

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery 
Defense Objective: Fire Lanes 
Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep 

[ flagship ] MC80 Assault Cruiser (114 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points) 
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points) 
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points) 
-  Redundant Shields  ( 8  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  Enhanced Armament  ( 10  points) 

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points) 
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points) 

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Jainas Light  ( 2  points) 
-  Leia Organa  ( 3  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points) 

1 Wedge Antilles ( 19 points) 
1 "Dutch" Vander ( 16 points) 
1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points) 
1 YT-2400 ( 16 points) 

Fleet created with Armada Warlords

The 3 ships does provide some more flexability with Jaina’s Light and Leia being a flanker to hide in behind the Heavy Cruiser or terrain and take pot shots…  Though with Ackbar, the side shooting it almost as good as an Assault Frigate…  And being able to set Dice to either the 2 Hits or Critical face at the cost of an Evade…  Might be a gamble, or she might well not be getting shot at in any case…  Guess I’ll choose when I get there per usual…

Otherwise, looking like an Escalation tournament coming up at Titan in Jan…  Format is odd, 4 games, but different point values in each game: 60, 90, 120 and 150.  And it is a build up, so you keep everything through the games and cannot swap out cards, etc…  Guessing I’ll run a variant of what I ran in the last event with Vrill’s YT-2400, Poe’s T70, a few Y-Wings and likely a Z-95 to fill in points…  A few weeks out and then that…  Store Championships will be coming up as well…  Supposed to be in the 1 January to 31 March range, no clue when they’ll hit here…    Thinking my current build will get modified when Wave 8 hits…  Wound up with some credit at Titan, so the Ghost will be coming home from there.  NOT playing Imperials, winning the Imperial Raider was about how my luck goes  Get the big prize, but it is not really what I was expecting/wanting J…  But I’m patient and so that win translates to the Rebel ship for me, albeit a few months later…

All in all, the FFG games are looking like they’re here for a longer run and are still quite fun…  Getting in a small bit of painting on my Warmachine stuff, but overall not a lot happening there.

League final AAR

So, had the last part of the League at Titan today…  Did fairly well, went 2-1 and apparently the loss was not so bad of one and I wound up in the top 4 somehow…  Weird, I had my stuff all packed up because I assumed that lacking a 3-0 I would have missed the cut, but apparently Poe living during my one loss kept the MOV low enough to pull a 3^rd place…  The list did really well, flew:

VrillPoeGrey (100)

Eaden Vrill — YT-2400	32
Intelligence Agent	1
Anti-Pursuit Lasers	2
Ship Total: 35
Poe Dameron — T-70 X-Wing	31
Veteran Instincts	1
R5-P9	3
Autothrusters	2
Ship Total: 37
Gray Squadron Pilot — Y-Wing	20
Twin Laser Turret	6
R3-A2	2
BTL-A4 Y-Wing	0
Ship Total: 28

Eaden Vrill was REALLY good…  I forgot how annoyingly maneuverable the YT-2400 really is…  The 1 hard turn and barrel roll or the bumps to put that big base in the way for the APLs to do a bit of damage here and there, especially to the TIE Interceptors I faced…  So, thinking this will likely be the Store Championship list for the next go around…

First game was against 2 B-wings and Poe...  Shot down the B's first then chased down Poe...  

Game two was Joel who played  a Shuttle with Emperor, Vader in TIE advanced and a TIE Phantom...  Killed the shuttle early, he got my 2400 and Y...  I had his ships damaged, but not quite dead...  Loss, but not a complete one...

Game 3 was against 4 TIE Interceptors...  Fel, another Ace and a pair of PS 1 ships... This one is the list mine was the best against...  The 2400 was a rock star and Poe of course was good... Lost the Y, so not a complete victory...  But enough to get me in...

Great tournament, 18 players and fun...  Very laid back.

Armada post game thoughts...

Well, got in a good game of Armada…  Tested a build of the MC-80, MC-30, Assault Frigate and Han Solo in the Falcon…  The MC-80 Assault Cruiser is REALLY good, though I skirted too far to the outside of the field with it.  With Admiral Ackbar and the +2 Red Dice for just shooting broadsides it is pretty easy to get up to an 8 Red attack with re-rolls…  So need to just walk up to the other fleet and dare them to come at me.

Looking at the Assault version of the MC-80 which surprisingly seems to fit my play style quite well…  Raymus Antilles, Engine Techs, Redundant Shields, ECM and Enhanced Armament…  154 points though…  But With Ackbar and firing broadsides?  8 Red Dice WITH a reroll assuming you used the Gunnery command of course…  So, that is just counting the long ranged shots, there are 2 Blues in there on the off chance they get close enough to fire…  Probably round out the Fleet with a Nebulon and Corvette…  Both of which can fire broadsides at 3 Red Dice to a lot of peoples surprise, so not bad for support ships meant to keep fast movers off the Cruiser.  Leaves me up to 6 Squadrons, but with the named ones being expensive and REALLY good…  Looks like there will not be so many…

One thing I noticed in the last game I played, I had essentially NO fighters, and Joe had 6-7 I think…  His lack of the Bomber key word meant that for the most part my ships had nothing to fear from them…  Yes, he did the one critical damage to the MC-30, but frankly it would have died to the second arc firing from the Victory in any case, I should have turned away on turn 6, even if it landed me on a rock…  Would have lived, so lesson learned.  Though the Turbolaser Reroute Circuits were AWESOME changing 2 blank Reds to both with the 2 hit facing…  ALMOST killing the Victory Class…  Certainly something to be WELL aware of…

End of the Titan League Sunday…  My list is set, would like a bit more practice, but time being short…  Have yet to set up Vassal on the new laptop, so even virtual playtesting is out…  Ah well J  I think I have it mostly down, the list is made of things I have been playing since I started playing X-Wing, so just need to remember what each is supposed to do in the list and not just charge in firing away…