Legion Skirmish Battle Report: Krennick vs Sabine

Got to play my second Legion Skirmish mission this past weekend.  Our group really likes this size of game, just for how quickly it can go and that some units get much more usable.

For this matchup I tossed together a list with my newly painted Shore Troopers and E-Web Blaster

Krennick Skirmish 499/500

Director Orson Krennic (90 + 10 = 100)
--Aggressive Tactics (10)
Shoretroopers (52 + 36 = 88)
--T-21B Trooper (32), Targeting Scopes (4)
DF-90 Mortar Trooper (36 + 5 = 41)
--Comms Relay (5)
Imperial Death Troopers (76 + 30 = 106)
--DT-F16 (22), E-11D Focused Fire Config (8)
Imperial Royal Guards (75 + 29 = 104)
--Electrostaff Guard (25), Tenacity (4)
E-Web Heavy Blaster Team (55 + 5 = 60)
--Linked Targeting Array (5)

I probably should have gone with Linked Targeting Array on the Mortar, but I wanted to make sure I had the option to pass off an order to the Royal Guard or the E-Web if need be easily.

My opponent was running a list with Sabine, 2 Rebel Vets, Vet Guns, and a Sniper team.

Sabine 496/500

Rebel Officer (50 + 5 = 55)
--Strict Orders (5)
Sabine Wren (125 + 39 = 164)
--Tenacity (4), Personal Combat Shield (10), The Darksaber (25)
Rebel Veterans (48 + 12 = 60)
--Rebel Veteran (12)

Rebel Veterans (48 + 38 = 86)
--CM-O93 Trooper (26), Rebel Veteran (12)
Mark II Medium Blaster Trooper (38 + 5 = 43)
--Linked Targeting Array (5)
Mark II Medium Blaster Trooper (38 + 5 = 43)
--Linked Targeting Array (5)
Rebel Commandos (Strike Team) (20 + 28 = 48)
--DH-447 Sniper (28)

His list gets Sabine up early for Explosions and then uses the Vets and their guns to take down targets.  Its straightforward and has been very effective

We set up playing Pivotal Positions, Improvised Defenses and Face Off.  The Pivotal Positions were the center Building,  and the two rock formations to my left hand side of the board. Here's what the board looked like on turn 1.

After Setup

I made a little mistake deploying the mortar so far away.  He had Sabine and the Snipers behind the Barricade near the building and essentially mirrored deployments of his Vets and Guns.  My Death troopers are behind a Barricade next to the large stone pillar.  Turn 1 I played Assault, and he played Standing Orders.  I wanted to make sure I could have full control of which units to go with.  I ended up being a bit bold with my Shoretroopers, and moved them up to fire at the Snipers.  They scored well, and I plucked them off the board.  He moved up his Vets and they fired at the Shores killing 1 trooper.  I moved the Royal Guard up behind the building and he moved Sabine on top of the landing pad area.  I again decided to be a bit bold and moved the Death Troopers up to the wooded area to fire at Sabine, hoping to do some damage and get some good suppression in.  I did one damage on the roll which the Shield absorbed, and it left my DTs in a bad spot.  His Rebel Troopers moved up and fired and I lost 2 of them after rolling mostly blanks.

As we went to turn 2 I knew I needed to try to tie up Sabine and so I played Voracious Ambition to his Explosions.  The Royal Guard clambered up at Sabine, taking one wound to turn on Tenacity and charging in.    They did 3 wounds, which was not bad without an aim, but I had been hoping for more.  Sabine then got off explosions, tossing the two bombs between the Shores and Krennick.  The bombs triggered and killed three more shores and put a wound on Krennick.  I pulled the two remain Death troopers back behind Barrier again to get them out of range and out of LOS of the heavy guns.  My opponent took the opportunity to move his troops up, and the turn essentially ended there.

Turn 3 saw this as the board state

Things have gone poorly

The rest of the game essentially saw the Royal Guard fail to do another wound to Sabine, and the E-Web missed killing the Generic Commander on a bad roll before going down.  At that point I conceded, since I had just too little left to push him off the objectives.

Overall ti was a fun, but frustrating game.  I deployed a bit poorly, and rolled pretty poorly as well.  I should like have had the Shores on the other side and had the Death Troopers on the left.  Their armor is a bit better and it would have let me use the Coordinate ability a bit better with the E-Web.  I also should have anticipated Sabine going up on top of the building earlier and prepared for it by having the E-Web better placed.  Sabine is an absolute monster at this point range, and I likely need some better beef to deal with her going forward. 

Legion Battle Report: Krennic vs Leia and Jyn

This past weekend finally got a chance to break out our Legion stuff again. We decided to play with all the new stuff we have gotten since our last matchup (maybe in January?) which meant running Jyn and pathfinders for my Rebel opponent, while I took Krennic and a set of Death Troopers into the field.  Mine was a super mish-mashed list with just about all the one off units I own.

Director Orson Krennic 90
Improvised Orders, Esteemed Leader
Snowtroopers 48
Flametrooper, Snowtrooper, Fragmentation Grenades,
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper, Fragmentation Grenades,
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper,
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper,
Stormtroopers 44
DLT-19 Stormtrooper, Stormtrooper,
Imperial Royal Guards 75
Electrostaff Guard, Tenacity,
Scout Troopers (Strike Team) 16
DLT-19x Sniper, Hunter, Grappling Hooks,
Imperial Death Troopers 76
DLT-19D Trooper, Overwatch, E-11D Focused Fire Config, Fragmentation Grenades, 

It certainly is not the best list but it provides plenty of activations, some area control and some very hard hitting ranged units.  My opponents list was Jyn and Leia, with three groups of Z6 rebel troopers, a sniper team, the FD turret and two units of pathfinders.

Sadly, my camera decided to eat my photos of the game, but I'll give the text recap here.

Our scenario ended up as Repair the Vaporators, Long March and Clear Conditions. Long March ended up being a real pain point for me because of how the board was set.  When we had set the board up we really set it for the long sides being deployment areas.  This meant a nice big building of blocking terrain In the middle and plenty of it to provide cover to advance In the short direction.  In essence my side for Long March ended up having much less cover going forward. 

Deployment saw me drop just about everyone on a small hill behind the building to give as much line of sight blocking as possible and give the light cover the hill would provide.  My snipers were deployed semi on a hill further from me to give some extra line of sight but also hide them from his Snipers. I place one Vaporator in the middle of the board, behind the building and the other range 2 away and a bit in the open closer to myself. My opponent dropped his on a rock formation and behind a tree in the opposite side. He deployed Leia and a trooper squad near the far Vaporator. Two more Z6 squads were deployed in the middle and the Snipers and FD turret were near the edge closest to me, with the Snipers on a high rock formation. His pathfinders and Jyn both dropped in just on the other side of the building. 

Turn 1 saw him play Coordinated Bombardment and I played Voracious Ambition. I want to try and make sure I could let my own snipers take a shot before potentially getting wiped out right away. I was able to get a shot on and kill a pair of troopers near Leia. Bombardment killed a stormtrooper, the spotter from the Snipers and missed it's last shot. The rest of the turn saw everyone slowly moving forward but I was still trying to keep sniper fire to a minimum and keep the pathfinders from wiping out an activation. Turn 2 he played Rebellious while I just played a generic command 3 card. We cautiously moved around each other as I moved up to the middle Vaporator and he shuffled a pathfinder unit out into the open on the side away from me.  This is what ended up changing the game, as at the start of turn 3 i was able to blast that Pathfinder group out of existence with a bit of luck.  He had full Danger Sense dice from the previous round me getting a small shot off, and Duck and Cover.  But a Stormtrooper unit blew them away with a great Aimed roll causing 6 hits, and my opponent whiffing on all 10 defense dice.  The game wasn't over, since I still needed to move up to my second vaporator and he had fully damaged both of his.  The looming threat though of those pathfinders being relived though allowed for a bit more of an advance from me. 

Turn 4 gave me that opportunity to get forward, as my opponent turtled up a bit.    It allowed me to get a unit of storm troopers onto the second vaporator, and move my sniper into a spot to kill his sniper's spotter.  Essentially it left those units to be whomever activated first would kill the other one off.  I also was able to refresh my death troopers and nearly wipe out a Z6 squad with the long range weapons, and suppressing them to the point of being stuck.  This was doubly important since that squad was the one that could easily reach the Stormtroopers at the Vaporator.   He had countered though by knocking off almost all of the Snowtrooper unit and rendering them useless for anything besides hiding behind the building for the rest of the game.  Krennick also took several shots, but most of the damage was passed off with Esteemed Leader and the Royal Guards' Guardian.  Turn 5 I played Annihilation Looms, effectively locking down the board from units being able to reposition.  I killed his Sniper luckily, and then eliminated the last of the one trooper squad to secure killing off the most units.  I lost a ROyal Guard mini to guardian on a Krennick shot later on, but the rest of the turn went without me losing too much, and my opponent conceded after that due to not being able to get into position to kill enough units without losing his own to catch up on points. 

The game overall was a bit of a slog.  The terrain set up really hurt my list from being able to get forward at all, and the IRG was effectively just used as a meat shield for Krennick.  The Death Troopers were exceptional in their role as long range deterrent, and the refresh action wasn't necessarily the worst with Overwatch also there to help make sure standby could go off.  I'll likely play this list again on a different ma, where maybe there's a bit of better cover to get some of the units forward.

Gloomhaven Journals: The Raiders Camp

Another weekend another shot at a scenario.  This weekend saw us come the closest to losing a mission we had been at.  It came down to the Mindtheif and my Cragheart finishing off the last few enemies with me having one turn more if we failed with a short rest to get it.



Spring, Time of the Flower, Year of the Courtesan
 We decided it was time to make good on our new patronesses promise of pay if we removed some Inox raiders from the nearby woods.  We should have known something was up from this though when she didn't alert the guards to a potential raider camp a few days from the city, but the first job had come through and she seemed earnest enough.  We made our way to the Inox camp without any real issues.  It was near dark, and so we decided after a brief reconnaissance to perform a surprise strike when the sun went down.  The beginning of the battle went smoothly, and we devastated their perimeter guards and any warriors that made their way out of the huts.  We quickly moved to the main lodge, hoping to kill the leadership and cripple this group.  There though we found to our horror women and children.  This was not a Raider camp, but just a small community of Inox in the woods.  Immediately we withdrew, trying to escape without killing any more members, but having to to save our lives.   We hastily made our way back to town and confronted the woman in red.  She tossed us a payment, and said they were raiders, it didn't matter that there were families there.  I cannot fathom what exactly this woman wants, but I dont think I can bring myself to work with her again. 

We were contacted by a member of the city guard as we left her estate, who let us know they were investigating her and that we could be of some help.  We took her card but have not yet decided if we will assist the guard or not.  While I dislike this woman, so far she has not done anything wrong.

Gloomhaven Journals: The underwater cave

We did another scenario in Gloomhaven this weekend.  This time we did get a rule wrong, because we didn't check the requirements at the top of the mission closely enough.  We needed to have another item before doing this one, but we had already set up and played the first round by the time we realized it.  SO we just went with it, and figured we just need to be more careful next time.  This mission wasn't overly exciting but was a nice test of making sure we are getting better at card management.  We did complete this quest, but only just barely.  Thanks to a miscommunication of what our Spellweaver was doing on their turn, I ended up getting knocked out and the party almost ran out of cards.  But thanks to some lucky card pulls we pulled it out in the end.

Gloomhaven Journals: First Scenarios

My group has finally gotten a chance to get ourselves a Gloomhaven campaign going, and I'd like to keep a bit of a narrative journal of what is going on and follow along with our characters.  We have the Mindthief, Spellweaver, Tinkerer and Cragheart (the Cragheart being played by myself).  We did a pretty good job with the rules, besides initially accidentally setting some of the monsters to a difficulty that was a bit too high. 

I'll be putting these entries beyond the jump in each post to help avoid spoilers.  Also, this first one is going to be pretty long since we did two scenarios.  Hope you all enjoy!

Imperial Assault: Tournament Report

We had our little tournament that I had mentioned in this article previously, with a small turnout of just 4 players.  Its not too uncommon, and especially with Legion sucking all the air out of the room so we at least got to have a fun afternoon of three games.

In my first matchup, I played against Donovan who I think I have played in just about every Star Wars FFG branded game tournament I've participated in.  We drew Jabba's Palace, the map with picking up the crates that slow you down.  Donovan was running a Han and eRangers list that also had Hera, Gideon, 3P0 and Ko Tun.  I didn't get any practice time on this map with my list so I was a little worried, and as it turned out for good reason.  My opponent had initiative, and took the blue deployment zone on the map.  I decided I should try to shimmy down towards the rancor pit and avoid opening the door the first round to avoid unnecessary Ranger shots.  What I should have done however was probably just been more aggressive and move right in to try and do damage and use the Force Lightning from the Emperor.  He picked off a jet at the start of round two, and Han with Return Fire killed a Sentry after rolling two dodges.  I dropped my Riots into the pit to grab those crates there and help to rack up points.  However as the game went on attrition took its toll and I made a mistake with the emperor leavign him in a spot that several Rangers could see.  I had mis counted where he was at and that pretty much ended my comeback chance. 

Next game I played Brad on Nal Hutta, the shield mission.  Brad was running a Heroic Effort list with Leia, Asohka, Gideon, 3P0, Jerrod, Mak, Loku and Hera.  My opponent again had initiative, and took the Red Zone again.  He moved Mak up early to hold the shield on my right, while I moved my Riots to be in position the next turn to get to that SHield Generator.  He also moved Loku up to contest one of the coser center lane shield.  I decided to try some long range shots on Mak, and a Dodge and 2 damage was all I could get out of it.  I normally have moved my Jets in to take the Shield closer to my side on the elft, but I decided to be a little aggressive and have them move to the center to try and engage Loku, Hera and Leia.  I ended up killing Loku with some pot shots as I moved in.  I next used the EMperor to kill Mak with one of the Sentrys, but had to leave the shield to Leia.  Asohka came down and took the sheild near me on the left.  As the game went on I was able to kill Hera, Leia and Gideon with a combination of lightning and fly bys, while the Riots finshed off Jerrod.  I took the game fairly easily thanks largely to that big first round, and despite Brad's command deck just constantly stifling me with Intel leak and Comms Disruption.

THe Last game I played against Matt.  He was playing a janky list with Bantha, double eNexu, eClawdite, Jawa, Gideon and 3P0.  This was a tough list to play against on the Mos Eisley back alleys, because all of my figures get clumped together.  He took the indoor deployment zone, and I took the exterior one.  I moved my Riots up to my easily contestable crate, and then really tried to split forces as best I could.  The Batha moved down the middle, ending on the two center crates.  One of his Nexus made it down the hallway and got in quite a bit of damage onto one Sentry, and was able to cleave the other.  I thought I was in good position, but ater the doors opened he Jundland Terrored my troopers, and I made the mistake of having gone with my Sentrys to start my turn (to eliminate the Nexu and hopefully keep the Sentry alive. It had worked, except that the Bantha then stomped and killed a set of Jets and my officer in one activation!  Things looked pretty grim, but my Riots put some serious damage on the remaining Nexu, and forced it to etreat before I could kill it.  Then with my remaining Jets and the emperor I finsihed off the Bantha.  To start the next round, I tried to take initiative, but he negated it.  I was able to roll well enough though to keep my very wounded Jet alive through a Jawa attack.  I again made a misplay, when I should have left the Jawa alone and just focused on killing the Nexu, since the Emperor was nearby enough to just lightning him to death.  But the Nexu had just a single health, and I had forgotten about the Feeding Frenzy on the Nexu.  That allowed him to pull two wounds off and kill another Jet.  The emperor though finished off the nexu and put a little damage on the Clawdite.  His clawdite then moved over and finished off the last Jet.  The game ended in a tie then, but I had killed just one more point of figures to win the game on tie breaks. 

All in all it was a lot of fun.  The Sentrys were good but seemed a little capped on damage.  The Riots were darn near impossible to push off places that they controlled, and the Jets did Jet things.  Palpatine was solid, but I could never get enough damage on to tempt someone right then to finsih them off.  I think if I had practiced a it more on Jabbas I would have realized the aggressive play was probably better there, and in the last game I just had a couple of mistakes that thinking back on it I should have done differently.  Overall I went 2-1, and three of us all tied for first.  So a good afternoon. 

Armada Battle Report: Cymoon Arqs vs Dual ISD

We finally found some time this morning to get in a game with some of the new goodness from Wave 7.  I have a couple of new lists, but I wanted to try out the Cymoon ISD with a couple of Arquitens.  I love the look of the Arq, and when it was introduced I was very excited to add another cheaper ship to the stable that could also flank effectively.  The issue has always been you really need to take Darth Vader, with those 3 red dice because they are super fickle.  And a lot of the better Imperial offerings had better options than the 36 point Lord of the Sith.  But the latest wave added an ISD platform that has a huge amount of reds and no good way to re-roll them.

Cymoon Stand Off /B (397/400)
============================
Cymoon 1 Refit (112 + 71)
+ Darth Vader (36)
+ Strategic Adviser (4)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
+ Intensify Firepower! (6)
+ Spinal Armament (9)
+ XI7 Turbolasers (6)
+ Relentless (3)
Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 + 10)
+ Enhanced Armament (10)
Arquitens-class Light Cruiser (54 + 10)
+ Enhanced Armament (10)
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 + 7)
+ Taskmaster Grint (5)
+ Comms Net (2)
Howlrunner (16)
5 x Tie Fighter Squadron (5 x 8)
Most Wanted
Contested Outpost
Solar Corona

The Gozanti with Taskmaster Grint is there to feed the ISD tokens for Intensify Firepower!.  The Squadron screen is there just to tie up opposing fighters and attrition them down.  

My opponent today Ran both of the new ISD variants and a handful of ace fighters.  His Cymoon had Motti aboard, with Gunnery Team, DTT, Quad Turbolaser Cannons, Governor Pryce and Intensify Firepower.  His Kuat had Reinforced Blast doors,Hardened Bulkheads, Strategic Advicor and Wide Area Barrage.  His squads consisted of Whisper, Cienna Ree, Morna Kee and Boba Fett.  

I had originally miscalculated my point total because I changed around a few things before we played, and thought I ended up at 400.  If I had calculated it correctly I think I would have taken the first player to keep him from having the option of First last with Pryce and keep that Kuat from being able to dictate the engagement,  But, we ended up with myself going 2nd, and playing my Contested Outpost.  We set up the obstacles in a bit of a diagonal line through the middle, and I placed the Station on my left at just further than distance 5, and about distance 2 in from the edge of the deployment zone.  My two Arquitens ended up on the far left going speed 1, and the Cymoon ended up centered on the station also going speed 1.  The Gozanti was to the right and was going speed 2 heading towards the ISD parallel to the board edge.  His Kuat deployed to my left going speed three, along with all his fighters.  The Cymoon was in the middle of the board going speed 2, angled at the station.  He picked turn 3 for Pryce after we deployed.

The first round saw everyone slide forward, by the Kuat got very close.  We both Strategic Advisored to start turn 2 and the Kuat did a little damage to the lead Arquitens.  Both Arqs went and did around 7 damage total to shields.  My Cymoon then double arced, and with the XI7s I was able to put 11 damage onto the ISDs hull.  The Squads began engaging and the TIEs traded damage with his two non-rogue aces.  At the start of turn 3, he procced his Reinforced Blast Doors to bring his Kuat back to 6 hull, and regenerated some shields.  Then he murdered the Arquitens that was in front of it, and triggered Wide Area Barrage to put Howlrunner down to one health.  The next Arquitens did five more damage to bring the front shields down and put a couple more damage onto the hull.  Because of Pryce activating this round, I had to do my remaining ships.  My ISD then had a side shot to the front, and I needed 4 damage to put the Kuat down.  I rolled one accuracy, and 3 damage.  I decided to chase the big play and concentrated in a red.  It got lucky and rolled a double to pop the Kuat.  I moved forward then onto the station and pointed it at his Cymoon. Things got stupid here, because he rolled 8 damage with 2 accuracies ( one added via QTC).  I burned my redirect and my contain.  He started round four then by rolling another 8 damage with 2 accuracies and rammed my Cymoon to kill it.  From there, it went quickly as my Ties died taking down Cienna and Whisper but barely failing to kill Boba, and his Cymoon killed my Gozanti and controlled the station. It ended as an 8-3 for him.

Overall I had a good time.  The Arqs and Cymoon pumped out a ton of damage, almost taking down a full Motti ISD in one round.  I dont know if Intensify Firepower is needed as much here with Vader.  If I had been running Motti I think its better to ensure damage, but with Vader its 6 points thats maybe adding 3 damage a turn if I'm unlucky.  So possibly Shields to the Max is better here, to just help keep everything a little healthier.  The Squadron Compliment was solid, but it didn't kill a lot.  In a world with a lot scatter aces I feel like maybe I need a bit more firepower.  I could change out to four Interceptors with Howl, and stay at 399.  I also might try the 3 Shuttles and Valen, because I think Contested Outpost is not the objective for me.  It draws enemy ships in too fast, and none of my ships is built to want a close in confrontation.  Fire Lanes might be the better choice.  With a high number of Red Dice, I should be able to control them fairly easily, especially with a couple shuttles for support.  I could also keep my current fighter compliment and do Planetay Ion Cannon to just have a little chance of doing some extra damage. 

Battle Report: Dodonna Liberty vs Dual Glad Squadrons

In likely the last game I'll be able to get in before the launch of Wave 7, I decided it was time to try out some of the new Rebels faction ships I received as gifts n the last portion of the year.  I wanted to try out the Liberty, but I wanted to try something a little different from the typical Madine lists I've seen posted online.  It does however need the extra mobility that Madine can allow, so I decided to toss Nav Techs and Raymus on board.  Its a little bit more expensive than just running ET, but it lets me either jump from 1-3and back again, or gives me some supreme mobility.  I paired that with a Salvation Neb, and a TRC -90.  I also had a pair of Transports, one as the combat retrofit.  I had never run the combat version, but several folks on the FFG forums swear by using them with Torryn Farr on the regular version to provide re0rolls on AA fire.  The plan would typically be to use the MC up front and follow up with the Neb, allowing the transports to shield the flanks from squads and the 90 to flank.

Here's the full list

MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 + 64)
+ General Dodonna (20)
+ Raymus Antilles (7)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
+ Leading Shots (4)
+ Nav Team (4)
+ Spinal Armament (9)
+ XX-9 Turbolasers (5)
+ Mon Karren (8)
Nebulon-B Support Refit (51 + 12)
+ Dual Turbolaser Turrets (5)
+ Salvation (7)
CR90 Corvette A (44 + 9)
+ Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
+ Jaina's Light (2)
GR-75 Combat Retrofits (24 + 5)
+ Leia Organa (3)
+ Comms Net (2)
GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 9)
+ Toryn Farr (7)
+ Bright Hope (2)
Shara Bey (17)
2 x YT-2400 (2 x 16)
A-wing Squadron (11)

My opponent was a good friend of mine who was running a Dual Gladiator, Dual Raider squadron fleet.  I've played against it several times, so I knew off the top that while the Gladiators can be trouble, the Squadrons are how this list wins.  He ran Maarek Steele, Jendon, Rudor, Gamma Squad, Tempest Squadron and a generic Phantom.  This list is great against fighters with a lot of high hull killers, and then they're very good at plinking ships down so they're damaged by the time the Glads close in.   

We played Contested Outpost.  From the outset I positioned things poorly.  He ended up placing his Gozanti and a Raider with the squad compliment on my far right, and Insidious and the other Raider on the far left.  I had the Neb and transports pointed at the station in the middle, and the (0 on the far left running a little off parallel to my edge.  The MC80 ended up on the far right, with Demolisher set a little closer to the middle.  My thought with the 80 had been at speed 3 I could potentially one shot both the Raider and Gozanti and either force Demo to turn hard to deal with it or risk getting caught from behind.  The plan started out poorly, as his gozanti quickly turned hard to stay far away from the MC80, while the Raider withstood a full blast at medium Range on turn 2 with a single Motti hull remaining.  He slow rolled Demolisher and moved the squads in towards the station.  On the far left Jain'as light was in a run for her life from Insidious and the Raider, but luckily with our activations being equal I was able to never allow Insidious to take the medium range black die shot and the Raider couldnt activate at the right tempo to catch it.  My squadrons were able to get in and kill the phantom right away, but I ended up losing Shara Bey in the exchange.  At that point though, the transports were able to start whittling down the remaining squads, with some hyper efficient rolls.  Torryn boosted blues are no joke. 

 The Transports also helped to block Demolisher off from Salvation, but it didn't end up lasting long after it was able to scooch past them a turn later.  In a couple of turns I ended up losing Salvation and the 90, trading in for the Raider and a bit of damage on on Insidious and Demo.  The transports were able to finish off all but Valen Rudor and Jendon for his squadrons, while Mon Karren made the hard turn to start putting shots onto Demo.  Luckily for me, because of Demo's angle to chase down Salvation and the 90, he ended up having to be in range of Mon Karren, who promptly destroyed him, killing Motti as well.  That ended up popping the one hull raider, and the one hull Gozanti as well!.  From there Demolisher ran off and I spent a round sitting on the station picking up some extra points.  

In the end I got a little lucky in a few choices by my opponent, but I did enjoy very much the ability of the Liberty to dance some circles Nav Techs and Raymus.  The transports did their job exactly as well.  The Neb continues to support that it likely is best used as a carrier rather than a combat ship, as long as torpedo boats continue to remain popular. 

Armada Casual Play Battle Report: Gladly Decimating VS Leia's Hammerheads

After a far too long hiatus, we finally were able to work in a weekend to get a nice casual game of Armada in.  Since it showed up in X-Wing, I've loved the look of the Decimator.  In Armada when it showed up I was very excited to get a fighter that would be great at burning down generics and also pressure ships.  All too often Imperial fighters are so specialized that you're forced to go down just one route.  The Decimator solves this, although in a very expensive package.  I've put the report after the jump, since this article is going to be long.

Imperial Assault: The Senate Offices

It has been a long time since I've gotten a chance to play Imperial Assault.  Looking through my stuff, it was all the way back to March when I last got in a few games at a local tournament.  With Wave 10 finally hitting the shelves here in October, my buddy and I decided it was time to break out the new stuff.  We weren't really playing anything overly optimized, mostly trying out as many new cards as we could.

Here's what I ran:

New stuff army (11/15/40)
=======================
[18] Darth Vader
[-5] Driven by Hatred

[8] Emperor Palpatine
[7] Elite Riot Trooper
[7] Elite Jet Trooper
[2] Imperial Officer

[2] Imperial Officer
[1] Zillo Technique
-------------------
[2] Force Surge
[2] Prepared for Battle

[2] Parting Blow
[1] Armed Escort
[1] Deathblow
[1] Deflection
[1] Face to Face

[1] Pummel
[0] Element of Surprise
[0] Force Rush
[0] Officer's Training
[0] Planning
[0] Rally
[0] Ready Weapons
[0] Take Initiative

My basic thought was to just be aggressive and see what happened.  My opponent was running Maul, Onar, Greedo, Shyla, eGammorean Guards, C3P0 and Gideon.  

With both of our lists having a bit of a melee focus, we decided to do the map from the Emperor's new pack, the Senate Chambers.  The map I think is nice and versatile for both lists that want to engage ecah other and for lists that focus on keeping some distance.  We played the Battle at Dawn mission, which provided a lot of extra victory points for controlling token areas.  It also provided the melee units with a bit of extra cover by early on affecting accuracy, so for the first three rounds shooters had to have extra to even have a chance to hit.  

This was how we set up early.  I had most of my units together with the eJets and an officer to the left to contest those VP point areas and the terminal there.  I didn't get any pictures during the game, but it basically went that we both opened the door on the right the first turn.  We both played aggressively, with myself pushing Vader up and him pushing Shyla to contest the two token area.  I was able to force choke Darth Maul and then perform the extra attack on Shyla, doing three damage on both.  On the second turn I decided to Take Initiative.  I probably should have just had the Emperor Force Lightning her, but I instead went up with Vader to try and do max damage.  Shyla then whipped Vader back to Onar and did some good damage.  Vader then hacked up Onar thanks to the emperor handing him an attack, as he also tempted Shyla to bring her to just three health.  Onar then went to attack Vader, but I played Deflection.  Thanks to the negative accuracy from the scenario, and the -2 from Deflection, Onar couldn't surge for any extra damage. Adding insult to injury I rolled well enough with Vader to negate any damage, dealing 2 more to Onar.  Maul was able to pummel Vader however, bringing him down to just a few health.  The next rounds saw Onar, Shyla, Greedo, Vader and a Riot trooper all go down to various attacks.  The best would be Greedo taking down a wounded Vader, with my opponent playing Primary Target and Price on their Head to gain a ton ov VP and just squeak enough damage past to finish him off.  From there it was a little more work to finish off my buddy but it went my way at 40-29.

My initial thoughts on some of the new stuff:

• New Vader is fun and punishing.  My defense rolls were really poor overall, but 16 health he stayed alive enough to deal about 22 damage.  
• The Emperor is a great support piece.  Him and Vader is a bit pricey, but I can easily see him sliding in with the AT-DP or BT-1 for extra attacks.  Force Lightning is also a great bit of damage and Weaken.
• The Riot Troopers I need to play with more, but they did a good job doing a fair bit of damage, as well as being pretty tough overall.  I think they're going to suffer a bit though as the other non-Hero melee characters do though from the size of some of the maps.  
• Troopers might see a slight resurgence as a group with Riots and several of the new command cards that benefit them.  I might look into something with Terro leading a group.

I'm looking forward to playing a bit more Skirmish going forward, hoping some of the local stores hold a few more tournaments soon.  

Armada Store Championship Report

It had been awhile since any store nearby myself had decided to run any events for Armada.  But the Village Geek up in McPherson was holding a store championship, so a friend of mine and I drove up.  I had been prepping by playing around with a pretty standard build out these days, featuring and ISD2 and a tooled up Victory 2.

Motti's angry triangles  (398/400)
============================
Imperial II-class Star Destroyer (120 + 25)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
+ Reinforced Blast Doors (5)
+ Leading Shots (4)
+ XI7 Turbolasers (6)
+ Relentless (3)
Victory II-class Star Destroyer (85 + 50)
+ Admiral Motti (24)
+ Minister Tua (2)
+ Gunnery Team (7)
+ Disposable Capacitors (3)
+ Leading Shots (4)
+ Quad Battery Turrets (5)
+ Reinforced Blast Doors (5)
Raider I-class Corvette (44 + 7)
+ Ordnance Experts (4)
+ External Racks (3)
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 + 2)
+ Comms Net (2)
 

Ciena Ree (17)
Valen Rudor (13)
Saber Squadron (12)
 

Most Wanted
Contested Outpost
Solar Corona

I decided to go with the Reinforced Blast Doors because I had thought there would be a lot of heavy carrier wings.  RBD does a bit better against fighters due to ECM having almost no chance to come into play for most attacks.   It also I think does better against some black dice destroyer builds due to the fact that they typically will be lacking a lot of accuracy generation (as H9s seem to have died down following the Lifeboat flotilla rule change). This would end up being pretty critical though, and making me think I need the ECM still on Vics.  I did think Cienna and Valen provided a good speed bump thanks to Valens ability not to get shot, and Cienna's obstruction, both along with scatters.

There were 5 total players at the store this weekend, which meant someone was getting the bye each round.  I was paired with a guy named Josh for the first round, who was running a similar list to mine but a second Gozanti instead of the Raider, and a few more squads.  He chose first player, and picked my COntested Outpost.  I deployed towards one corner, with Josh deplying similarly with his ISD further towards the middle.  He played his ISD aggressively forward, jumping on my Raider and destroying it early.  My counter fire was lackluster thanks to his ECMs keeping his braces going.  His dice were hot as well, as I think almsot all of his shots that he pulled with Leading shots cranked up the damage to 6 or more.  Josh had said his original list had an extra TIE, but he dropped it to get leading shots on both ships.  I made a mistake at this point, and slowed down my ISD to avoid a double arc shot from his ISD, and sheild my Vic a bit.  What I needed to do was speed up actually, and try to reposition my ISD after the beating it had started to take.  This would have allowed me to kill his Victory and second Gozanti, while keeping the station from scoring points.  Needless to say, the rest of the game continued with him wearing down my ISD and Vic and myself not getting to punch back hard enough.  Josh ended up with a 10-1, and I was sent to the bottom of the pile.

The second round saw me play my friend Rob with whom I had driven up with.  Rob and I had traded games back and forth the previous few weeks as we tweaked our lists and got ready for the tourney.  He was running a dual Glad, dual Raider list with a Gozanti and a variety of squadrons.  He tooled his Demo up a bit differently than I would have, choosing External Racks over APTs, and leaving one of his Raiders without OE to be able to get in Tempest and Gamma squadrons.  I had also convinced him he needed to fit in Maarek Steele to pair with Col. Jendon, which I was unhappy to now be facing.  I chose to be first player, and we played Rob's Planetary Ion Cannons.  I deployed all of my ships tightly, with his Demo and Raiders flanked out to my left, and Insidious to my far right.  I ended up sending my ISD to prevent Insidious from flanking me, and after a previous week where I was unable to get my ISD around quickly enough to counter Demo I decided I would just chase down his flanker.  A few key moments came when I removed Maarek Steele early in turn two, and then Rob jumped Demo up a bit early.  This allowed me to put the hurt on it, and then activate first the next turn and roll the exact amount of damage needed to pull him off.  This though allowed Insidious to escape, and left my Vic hurting a bit.  I then failed to get my Victory out of harms way by just barely clipping my Gozanti, which allowed the Raider with External Racks to strip shields and put on some real damage.  Rob ended up getting my Vic, but not until I had taken out another Raider and used some flak to clear most of his squads.  I ended up with a win by just 39 points, so I sat at just 7 tournament points.

I had a bye the last round due to my low score, but I got to watch both of the other games.  The other lists that were there were Jacob running a triple ISD 1 list, and Donovan who had an MC80 Liberty with an AFMk2 and a bunch of squadrons.  Rob ended up crushing down Donovan's fleet, while Josh made several pretty bad mistakes to take a 5-6 loss.  This meant Josh was still able to walk away as the champ, with Rob following in second, Jacob in third, myself in 4th and Donovan in 5th.  Everyone walked away with the range ruler and a host of other prizes.

Overall it was a really good day of Armada.  Everyone was friendly and looking to chat about the game.  I think despite the low turnout, the game is in a good place in terms of folks being excited about playing and getting better.  The store up in McPherson is also a first rate shop, with a friendly staff and a good clean atmosphere.

My takeaway was a need to be a bit more aggressive with my ISD.  I tend to run my ships a bit too closely together, which in both of my games made sure that I had tough positioning challenges.  I was happy with my Vic's performance, reinforcing my idea that the Vic 1 is dead as a ship but that Quad Batteries and Disposable Capacitors are making the Vic 2 an excellent fire support ship.  An earlier version of this list had Moff J as my Admiral, and I'm wonding if I should go back to him.  I missed the extra flexibility of those two clicks several times. 

Armada Campiagn Narrative Rounds 5 and 6

Task Force Zekkog moved slowly through the Sabhering Asteroid Belt, searching for the Rebel base that existed therein.  Tiaan's ships had been dispatched to try and root out the intrusion, since the ISB had reported an extensive ship works there.  Striking this resource rich area would certainly go a long way to reducing the rebel threat in sector, and allowing the Imperial Navy to drive them out.  Tiaan's ships had spread out to navigate the dense set of asteroids and to try to detect the rebel presence better.  His sensor teams were straining with the amount of metal and background radiation in the belt to find anything that could be a base.

Several hours later, Tiaan was awakened by the chirp of his comm system.  "Sir, we've got the Rebel base ahead.  Their defense fleet is moving out to intercept us."  Tiaan replied "On my way.  Order fighters launched, and prepare the grav shift to clear the asteroids for us."  Moments later Tiaan was on Unforgiving's bridge, ordering his forces into some semblance of a firing line.  The Rebel fleet and the asteroids had already prevented him from being able to cross the T and bring his best guns to bear and keep the Rebel broadsides from firing into his ships. So Tiaan decided to try and catch the enemy in the rear, shifting Khopesh and Obedience from their positions to his right into a more trailing position.  He had to be conservative with his fighters here, because the base was able to provide more ample fighter coverage than the opposing fleet could typically. The rebels knew this and their fighters dove in quickly as the broadsides began to hit the spread out Imperials ships. The Imperial fighters got the better of these rebel pilots early on despite some losses. Obedience though was getting battered by successive waves of ship fire. It had been positioned poorly to start the battle and was taking the brunt of fire from an MC 80 cruiser. The firing teams on board Obedience had decided to first destroy a set of support vessels that were coordinating the enemy fighters. Tiaan could see the wisdom but feared that not doing enough damage to the  big flagship.  The rebel transports were obliterated by the carrier's turbolasers.
 

As if on cue though, the big rebel flagship let loose a debilitating line of fire into obedience, as the older carrier tried to also avoid the large asteroids that had ambled into its path. The combination turned deadly as one of the larger asteroids struck shielding conduits. Unforgiving's engineering crews began extending shields to the carrier to help overcome the damage. Due to positioning Obedience was still taking a majority of fire.  Its shield capacitor had become misaligned, so a majority of the ship had become vulnerable to fire.

The CR90 that had been trailing its flag ship had maneuvered into a perfect position to add fire to the now crippled Obedience.  The targeting scramblers onboard Unforgiving weren't going to be able to protect it from that fire at that range.  Tiaan feared he'd lose the carrier and perhaps the tide of battle would turn.  But, in front of him he saw a flash of steel as Khopesh sped across into the teeth of the Corvettes fire, shielding Obedience.  That stroke of brilliance would have to be rewarded Tiaan thought to himself.  Unforgiving was able to add its fire into the corvette and drive it away from the carrier, as the Imperial fighters continued to best their rebel counterparts.  With the extra time, the engineering crews had been able to get the shield capacitor back into working order.  The rebel commander must have suspected the battle was turning against him, because they broke off their engagement and scattered themselves into the Asteroid belt.


Epilogue

The Imperial forces were now firmly in control of the area, and set about decomissiong the Rebel base.  The Rebels had left scant bits of Intel, or usable parts, but the docks there allowed Obedience to get repaired quickly.  The rebel fleet poked around their former base, probing the Imperials for the next few weeks.  But with their fighter losses in the previous battle, and Unforgiving's grav shift throwing debris and rocks into the mix, forced them to withdraw.  Tiaan heard through the holonet news that Motti had won a resounding victory against another rebel fleet above Correlia, and then had pursed them to Corfai where has able to dislodge them.

With these victories, it appeared as if the rebel threat in the sector had been pacified, and that Tiaan would be moving on to a special assignment as a reward for his work here.  A star base command that would potentially change the universe and end this horrid rebellion.

Armada Campaign Narrative Round 4

“They’re firing at Halberd again sir; Captain Klon is taking evasive action,” the tactical officer reported.  Tiaan continued to stare ahead at the independent station at Center Point as it sat ahead of him.  His orders had been to capture the station intact, so that the ISB could make use of the large sensor arrays and well known monitoring equipment.  The fight in the Corellian zone had gone red hot and vicious, and the Empire needed every advantage it could get.  The occupants of the station though, did not see things that way.  Tiaan was preparing to use Obedience and Unforgiving as large shields to force the station to fire upon them, while his Gozanti cruisers would be able to land waves of troops at the docking point.  The beach head along with the ISB agents already aboard would quickly overwhelm the casual defenders, and the station would fall with little effort. 

“Sir, detecting several Rebel ships jumping out of hyperspace in front of us!” the tactical officer called out.  Tiaan snapped his attention to the incoming fleet.  The station must have decided to cast their lot with the Rebels, he thought.  Tiann knew that he couldn’t safely lands his troops while also taking fire from several heavily armed rebel ships.  “New course.  Turn us towards the rebel ships.  Launch fighters and prepare to engage the enemy”.  Unforgiving smoothly turned itself to head towards the new threat, with Khopesh coming up along its right flank.  Obedience, Halberd and the Gozantis were slightly out of position, and were still in danger of coming under fire from the station.  “Prepare for Grav. Shift Re-route, target the station and push it away” Tiaan ordered.  He hoped the push would not damage the equipment, but he couldn’t afford to allow it to fire into his ships flanks while they began to engage the Rebels.  As the station began to drift away, a nearby dust field was also pushed, obscuring the approach of his carrier completely.  The tactical display began to light up with the rebel ships, although a pair of shapes that were on the other side of the dust field were displayed as just hostile targets, with no information about them.  That could be troublesome if the rebels decide to stay on the side of that.  But at least if our scanners are having trouble penetrating them, the rebels won’t be able to target us either, Tiaan thought. 

Out of the dust field came the first wave came the first rebel fighters, looking to try to jump on the separated Imperial forces and delay them from getting into a firing position.  However, the Imperial pilots were positioned perfectly to intercept them, and the Rebel losses became staggering early into the battle.  As Halberd began to take more evasive action to avoid more harassing fire from the station, a CR-90 corvette burst from the dust cloud in front of it, and both ships let loose a volley of fire at close range.  That was where Halberd loved to fight though, to be able to bring to bear its impressive salvos of missiles which tore through the Corvette’s thin armor in quick order.  A great success early in the battle drove Tiaan to take a risk and continue to head straight into the teeth of the enemy.  He needed to win a true victory today, and being able to remove a well outfitted rebel task force would be just that.  His fighters continued to score kill after kill against the rebel pilots, and while it appeared that one squadron of Defenders had been nearly wiped out, the large amount of TIE Fighters were overwhelming the ever shrinking number of X-wings in the battlefield. 

In front of Tiaan a Nebulon B and several transports appeared out of the dust cloud, to stand next to the assault frigate and massive Mon Cal cruiser that he could already see clearly.  “Order Khopesh to coordinate fire on those transports” Tiaan called to the comms officer.  He needed to clear his firing lane to get a shot at the Assault frigate.  He had calculated Obedience’s distance, and it would be able to get into missile range of the frigate very soon, and he wanted to bring it down with coordinated fire quickly.  The transports withered under the fire, but it did give the other rebel ships an opening now to fire on the flagship.  “Reinforcing front shields,” came the Chief of Engineering’s update.  “We’re taking some light structural damage, but we have repair teams in place.”  As the Nebulon-B class Frigate began to fire on Unforgiving, fires sprouted up all across its narrow hull as Obedience’s guns were now clear of the dust field that had screened its approach.  The Victory class star destroyer did not slow down either, ramming through the burning frigate and continuing forward towards its next target.  The Nebulon shattered into two halves and continued to burn in space. The charging star destroyer had now captured the attention of the assault frigate, but both remaining rebel ships continued to maintain a steady barrage of fire at Unforgiving.  The damage had begun to pile up, even as the damage control officers worked magic to keep key systems online. 

“Sir, it looks like the Rebels are going to try to jump away, we’re reading their hyper drives are powering up.”  Tiaan needed to not let both ships get away to complete this victory today.  He ordered Khopesh into the direct path of the Assault Frigate, to make sure it could not make the jump.  The tactic worked, as the frigate had to come to a near stand still, opening it up to the guns of all three Imperial ships in range.  It exploded into a ball of fire.  However, in doing so, Khopesh now had come directly into the gun line of the Mon Cal ship, which fired a crippling shot into its hull before jumping away.  Tiaan surveyed the wreckage of rebel ships and fighters ahead of him.  The comms officer said "Sir, getting a transmission from the station.  They’re wanting to discuss terms of allowing Imperial forces aboard.”  Tiaan smiled, today he had already delivered terms once.  He'd relish doing so again.

Epilogue

The station at Centerpoint was now firmly under Imperial control, with all of the previous leadership having found itself a new home aboard some Imperial prison planet.  Tiaan had overseen the refitting of the station, making it more defensible than it had been previously.  The new intelligence that the ISB could pull from the station's equipment would be invaluable going forward.  This was good, because Admiral Motti had been forced to withdraw from his further defense of Corfai. The previously thought to be contained Admiral Sato had slipped past defensive screens at Selonia and had been able to take Corfai in a pitched battle that saw several Raiders defeated but a large blow struck to the rebel pilots. The fight for the Corellian sector was continuing forward in a pitched way, but the Imperial forces were now well positioned to begin digging out the Rebel infestation.

Correlian Conflict Round 3 Narrative

Unforgiving exited hyperspace at the edge of the Selonia system.  Grand Mofff Jerjerrod settled himself as he saw the oceanic world appear before him.  This would not be a repeat of his last failure, he told himself.  This mission was all about stalling the rebel fleet stationed here from being able to aid the raiding fleet at Corfai.  The ISB agents had truly hit on a bit of treasure this time, capturing a rebel sympathizer who just happened to have fleet movement details for the rebels in this sector, including the locations of several rebel encampments.  The information was not complete, but it did state that General Dodonna would be leading an assault against the system of Corfai, and that Commander Sato was holding a fleet at their newly built outpost at Selonia.  That bit of information Tiaan already knew, as he recalled that initial engagement.  The Imperial forces commanded by Admiral Motti had been diverted to set a trap for Dodonna at Corfai, while Tiaan’s Task Force Zekkog was being sent to keep the rebel reinforcements from being able to come to their aid.  

“Sir, the Ion cannon emplacements are just where the intelligence indicated they would be”, the tactical officer informed the bridge staff.  “Also, we have a positive sighting on the rebel forces.  Their fighters are staggered far away from us, with an MC80 liberty variant and two Nebulon B’s in support.  They’re firing engines, and coming around towards us.”

Tiaan was grateful the fighters were far out of their approach path.  Commander Sato was renowned for skillfully using fighters to open up ships to extra fire from his capital ships.  “Prepare for use of the Gravity Shift technology,” Tiaan said.  The device was amazing, and he had been having his crews train with its use extensively since it had been installed on the Interdictor class ship.  

“Fire.”  

The asteroids in front of his fleet suddenly stopped their current slight spin towards his fleet, and instead were moved into the path of the oncoming rebel force, causing them to have to slow and turn to avoid a dangerous collision.  

The flight commanders ushered forth the large squadron force Tiaan had built up especially for this mission.  Quickly, several Lambda class shuttles were ushered forward with elite strike teams of ISB agents to put down the Ion Cannon platforms.  It was essential that these teams carried out their work before the fleet moved into position, and give them a chance to wreak havoc on the ship's defenses.  

“Getting the all clear from all teams sir, they’ve been able to neutralize the crews,” the comm.’s officer informed Tiaan.  “We are clear to head in.”

The enemy fleet had slowed down to a near stand still on the far side of the asteroids.  Tiaan knew for his mission to be a success, he had to force an engagement.  “Order Khopesh and Obedience forward at best possible speeds.  Keep Halberd on our left flank to scare off any of those fighters,” Tiaan said.  Orders went out, and the ships all moved.  The rebel fighters were finally getting close enough to their main fleet that they might have become an issue, if not for the wall of TIE fighters blocking their path.  Khopesh’s movement to the flank of the MC80 must have worried the rebels, as they moved several squadrons of Xwings into range to protect it.  

Khopesh slowed its speed to be able to stay out of range of the bombers, and fired a small broadside into the MC80’s flank.  The tactical readout showed it was an excellent shot, knocking out the shields on that side.  Obedience moved forward to press the advantage on that side, and was able to do damage to the other shield sections.  That fast movement though had allowed a small flight of A-Wings to get close to Obedience, and Liberty took the opening to do severe damage to the shields on the Victory Star destroyer.  “Get the Shield generator going, and maneuver us into position to use the new targeting scramblers on that ship!” Tiaan ordered.  The targeting scramblers were a powerful piece of technology, temporarily blinding automated targeting computers and making so many turbolaser shots go wild.  Unforgiving’s unit though was a massive power drain, so it could only be used after a lengthy recharge period.  It also had a very minimal range effect, so the ship using it had to be close to the action.  As Obedience tried to slug it out with the larger star cruiser, one of the Nebulon Bs began firing as well, although to little effect since the MC80 was between them.  With the rebel fighters largely still out of position, the fighter wings began taking attack runs on the MC80, trying to help overload shield generators.  They were to almost no effect though as the Obedience closed on its quarry.  It was badly damaged, but finally was in range to fire its armament of missiles and torpedoes at its adversary.  The resulting damage could be seen from Unforgiving’s command deck clearly.  “Order all fighters and bombers not currently engaged to fire at that star cruiser,” Tiaan called out.  If he could bring down this star cruiser, possibly even killing Commander Sato, he’d likely be able to route the rebels from the sector.  

The Gozanti carriers that trailed the fleet helped pull the weight of coordinating all of the attack runs from Obedience, which was now suffering from sever damage.  Its engines had taken a severe amount of damage, and the ship was still receiving fire from the damaged Liberty, as well as a small corvette that had appeared.  However, nothing seemed to be getting through the thick armor of the enemy flagship, as nearly every bomb seemed a dud or ineffective.  

Obedience had ground to a halt and was being overtaken by the swarms of enemy fighters.  The captain informed Tiaan that the engines were still functioning enough to jump to hyperspace, and the Moff grudgingly obliged the request.  It would already take weeks in dry dock to get his carrier serviceable again, and letting it go down with all hands in what was supposed to be a diversionary raid would not look good.  

With the Victory now gone, the liberty turned its attention on Halberd, which had been continuing its course along the exposed flank.  The engineers running the targeting scrambler fired the unit again, and the shot that might have destroyed the small Raider went wild, doing some damage to the shields.  The Raider returned fire, and the Liberty sank to a crawl.  The guns from Tiaan’s ship added no effect as he entered into range.  Tiaan ordered one last bombing run at the damaged MC80, to try to put it down.  However, the shots missed the mark as all of the fighters were being recalled.  The enemy squadrons were now beginning to move into position to attack Khopesh and Unforgiving.  The Task Force pulled away as shots from the enemy frigates peppered them.  

“All fighters recovered sir, we’ve got everyone from Obedience aboard.  Even if it’s tight fit,” the wing commander informed Tiaan.  

The task force made a quick jump away to light speed, with Tiaan wishing he had been able to just get one more bombing run in to destroy that MC80.  However, he knew he had done his job holding the enemy fleet there.

Epilogue

The Imperial defense of Corfai had been a brilliant success, in which Admiral Motti was widely praised.  Tiaan’s own efforts at Selonia to aid it had elicited some faint praise, which had allowed the Moff to get Obedience into the shipyards right away and get it back to full strength ahead of schedule.  It had also allowed him to make a chance to recruit a fighter ace, one who was both adept at dogfighting and at strategic bombing runs.   “Ah, Tan Stele, it's good of you to join me.  We have some things to discuss prior to our next mission together” Tiaan said as the pilot walked into his office, and the doors shut behind him.

Corellian Conflict Campaign Narrative: Round 1

My local Armada group has started playing through the campaign box, and so I'll be keeping a narrative of our group's play through.  We've got four players for this play through, and no extra fleets (although we had discussed it.  To set a little background, we've house ruled a few things for the campaign since the FAQ has yet to be updated for Wave 5.

• Rapid Launch Bays are #TeamOrange
• Snipe is not affected by Flight Controllers, and is limited by engagement
• We have a 500 point cap for whats on the table, but you can buy as much stuff as you want
• Squads are limited to 1/3 of your total available points, not your fleet cost
• Nebula Outskirts leaves 1 command ships with a dial

Here is an image of our Conflict Map at the start of the game

And now without further ado, the narrative of the battle

Grand Moff Tiaan Jerjerrod stood upon the command bridge of the Unforgiving, a newly commissioned Interdictor class Star Destroyer, and his flagship of the newly formed task force Zekkog of the 69th fleet. His first mission within the new group was to patrol Selonia, a small system within the Corellian sector. There had been word of a rebel incursion and command thought it appropriate to let Unforgiving run through a shake down cruise while inspecting. Such a dubious claim, he thought, rebels hiding in the sector. All this mynock chasing was putting him out from the real fight and allowing Admiral Motti a chance to seize glory. He thought to himself, At least I'm getting this ship.  A wonder of design, something I might have come up with had I not been able to secure a position higher up. Although he had been told it was yet to have its truly experimental upgrades installed, the Unforgiving had been outfitted with enhanced shielding that allowed it to extend to nearby ships. And he had been given two new wings of TIE Defenders. Perhaps the Emperor's favor was upon him already.

"Sir, our advanced probes have spotted rebel ships ahead!"  Jerjerrod woke from his musings with a start. "Where!??!"  "On the far side of this asteroid outcropping. We couldn't pick them up before because of the Solar Corona thats on going" the head of the sensor team said. "They appear to be setting up some sort of presence. Lots of construction going on. "

A whole construction operation?  This close to Corellia?  How had the ISB missed such a large presence?  We're not truly prepared for this size of an an engagement, but I can't just turn and run, the Emperor will assuredly be displeased, the Moff thought. "Prepare to engage he said. Move along near the Corona, and use it to our advantage. Launch fighter wings."

To his left, the Obedience moved into position and began launching it's fighter groups. An older Victory I design. Dependable carriers, but poor engine design made them a liability these days. Luckily, Tiaan himself had overseen some engine modifications to make sure all the ships under him were more agile to deal with smaller, faster rebel ships. He also knew that trying to get into position would be the light cruiser Khopesh, returning to a firing position from its picket duty nearest the Corona. He ordered his small flotilla of Gozanti class carers to launch their TIE fighters and move behind the fleet, out of range of the rebel guns. A small Raider class vessel, Halberd, was positioned behind Unforgiving, ready to jump upon any enemy squadrons with the flechette Torpedoes it was stocked with. 

"Enemy profiles coming in sir: One MC80 liberty class attack cruiser, and two Nebulon-B support frigates. A small handful of Gr75 transports are amongst them as well, and they have a lot of fighters with them" the tactical officer reported.

They do have quite a few fighters Tiaan thought.  And an MC80?  This is a much larger incursion than he could have imagined.  None of his ships were in true fighting shape, all having been in dry dock refitting or newly off the line, ready only for a slight engagement with a small rebel scout force.  We need to close quickly if we're to have a chance at getting out of this.  

"Order the fighters forward to counter those A-Wings, and tell Halberd to get forward to engage any survivors" the Moff called to his subordinates.  Remain calm he told himself. 

The asteroids in this system had forced him to slow Unforgiving to a crawl, and he'd have to stay there to get around them.  He could only watch as his fighters began to engage the forward elements of the Rebel forces.  It was not going well, despite the extra flight controllers he'd been able to requisition prior to leaving Corellia.  The Defenders were picking A Wings out quickly, but taking some staggering losses.  The new design just wasn't holding up to some the more veteran Rebel Pilots.  And with the Defenders getting beaten back, it had allowed a rogue group of XWings to jump into the fray as well.  The fight lasted as more TIE Fighters spilled forward from Obedience, but just as many XWings it seemed moved in to devour them.

"Is Obedience in firing range yet of that MC80?  What the hell is taking it so long" he asked the Captain of the Obedience.  Just as he finished speaking, Obedience's turbolasers opened fire.  The fire had some effect, but the Liberty class was just too far out to take the full brunt of the Victories guns, and far out of range of any of the missiles it carried.

"The MC80 has stopped to try to stay out of range of Obedience and us.  We're not going to get a firing solution it seems" the Gunnery captain reported.  Tiaan moved towards the tactical output, to watch  the battle unfolding.  His squadrons were melting under the Rebel air superiority, and all of his ships had been out of place to move and engage a rebel force that had clearly been prepared for an Imperial counterstrike.  As he watched the holographic display, the Unforgiving was given a jolt, as Halberd took a strike from the MC80 that sent the forward shields crashing down, and Unforgiving took peppering of fire from the nearest Nebulon B steaming towards it.  "Reinforce Halberd now with those Shields, and return fire on that damn ship" he ordered.  Unforgving's shield generators hummed  with life, and the advanced shield experts had stabilized the shields to both ships.  These generators are amazing, Jerjerrod thought.  He was not so impressed by his gunners though, who missed widely against the Frigate charging at them.

A moment later, Khopesh entered the battle field, and fired its dual turbolasers into the side of the MC80, bringing the shields down.  His own ion cannons were able to also hit the Friagte that had turned hard to avoid a collision.  Things are finally turning our way, Tiaan saw.  We just need to keep their fighters off of us.  But that hope vanished a moment later, as the battle indicators showed the last remnants of his fighter wings hurrying back, completely routed from the field.  A few flechette torpedoes from Halberd helped cover their retreat, but the Moff knew he needed to get back to Correlia now.  Without fighters and Halberd in range of the MC80, he'd soon lose any real fighter cover.  He ordered Khopesh to open fire hard into the rear of the MC80, to cover a retreat.  He did not want to face the Emperor back on Corellia, but he wanted even less to have to slink back after having his whole task force obliterated. 

Epilogue

Having returned to Corellia, Tiaan had taken a stern rebuke from his superiors, but was quietly told that the true blame had fallen on the ISB for missing such a large group.  His spirits were lightened a bit, but not so much, as Admiral Motti had been able to win a huge victory at Polanis against a rebel fleet, destroying several ships and squadrons.  The Empire had quickly established a base there, to guard against further incursion.  The Moff brooded for several days, before he began overseeing the work to finish installing the other retrofits to Unforgiving, and making sure that the Obedience was further outfitted with more powerful turbolasers to help it do damage at range.  His fighters were repaired, and re-staffed.  He'd be prepared for the next engagement, ready to strike back at the Rebels and win himself some accolades.

The last battle

“We've got radar contact!  Three Bogeys dead ahead.” The call came over the comm link, snapping the pilot of the TIE interceptor back to reality.  He had been drifting through a patrol of a far off grid on the edge of the empire, looking for rebel raiders.  He had pulled enough of these routine patrols that he didn’t need to focus on piloting the ship; it was just second nature now, avoiding minor debris and running scans.  He could easily let his mind wander to thoughts of life after this tour of duty, back to the core worlds and a nice retirement to spend with all his back pay from the empire.