Carrolton, GA Prime Game 1 - Return from Exodus

Luck had me travelling near Atlanta, Georgia during this past weekend and low and behold a Prime Championship!  So of course I brought some ships, pushed them around, threw some dice, and went 'Pew Pew!'

There was a good showing at Quest Comic shop, 21 players so we would go three rounds.  And the store had plenty of room to accommodate us.  They even brought us pizza and drinks mid game for lunch if you chipped in.  Overall, great store and a good place to play if you find yourself in Georgia.

Now to the game.  Luckily, I did not travel across the globe to get a bye and watch Armada be played.  That held true all day so I got all three games in.  

I was brings my Dodanna Exodus fleet whose evolution was detailed here.  

Fret started as a typo but then became what I was doing about the fleet

My first game was against Chris, one of the regulars of the store.  He was bringing an interesting though potentially dangerous for me 2 VSD list base don Heavy Ion Cannons and Disposable capacitors.  I know I'm missing an upgrade or two, but the list of as I can remember (I'm gonna take pictures next time!) is below

Setup

My opponent won the bid and chose to go first.  Ultimately settling on Advanced Gunnery even if it wouldn't really help him.  Here I think a mistake was made as he put in on his Tarkin VSD which ultimately gained him nothing but let me potentially harvest an additional 85 points.  We spread out obstacles and setup.  He turtled in the corner and would make me come through a torrent of Ion Cannons should I choose to engage.  I choose to setup my Exodus fleet to waltz right through the fire hoping my cruisers could simply repair their way out of it.  

Setup

Round 1

His VSD's slow rolled out of the corner and the gozanti ventured forth after Tarkin handed out some nav commands.  My MC75 accelerated to speed two while the MC80 stayed back to provide backup and toss shields eventually.  Transports did their transport thing, gave both cruisers a repair token and bravely moved at speed 1 with Ezra looking to chuck that debris out of the MC75's path. The Y-wings moved into covering positions since they were now screening the ships from the random bomber collection.

Round 2

Start of Round 2 Tarkin handed out some concentrate fire tokens and the gozanti led the way pushing 1 defender to tie up Gold Squad and the other to start beating up on the VCX.  I countered with Ezra who bravely handed out a con fire token to the MC75 and sent that debris spinning away from the MC75.  

The next left most VSD rolled up with his D-Cap HIE gunnery team shot and prompted deleted Ezra and proc'd HIE on the MC75 while dealing an average amount of damage.  I activated Leia next and she handed out a squad token to the MC80.  This would one of my shortcomings all day.  The transports most likely need to push squadrons round 2 or 3 depending since the cruiser have repair tokens and generally haven't been shot or activated yet.  The final VSD went and with nothing in range steadily moved forward.  

Now the MC 75 activated, repaired most of it's shields with MCE and a token, got a insignificant long range side arc shot at a VSD.  and moved up to setup a close range double arc for next turn on the left VSD.  Then the MC80 accelerated, used projection experts to sling 2 shields to the MC75, and moved forward to try to block the other VSD.

Squadrons moved to provide blocks and Shara jumped in to try to slow down the squad ball from entering the fray.  Essentially,  everyone was engaged and no bombing was looking to be happening anytime soon.

Round 3

The left VSD activated first and shot yet another HIE shot into the MC75 with again an average to just above damage roll.  The MC 75 braced and redirected it and lost it's forward and left side shields. It then creeped forward but ended up still in the double arc even after trying to Harrow out of the arc.  Next, I activated Leia and tossed the MC75 a repair token.  The flagship VSD then activated and pummeled the MC75 for 5-6 damage but no HIE crit.  I burned the brace knowing Walex will bring it back.  Then it did manage an HIE shot into the front of the MC80 and started piling up damage on my MC80.  Finally, it trudged forward into the front arc of the MC80 practically touching it.  Except... it was just barely in my right side arc too. And the MC80 had advanced gunnery.  

My MC75 activated, recovered the shields stripped from the front and side arcs, and threw both front and side arc into the VSD.  APT's triggered off both attacks and the VSD was left reeling with 4 hull left, no shields left, and no brace.  Then the MC75 rammed the gozanti to stay in place.  The gozanti activated, had the TIE defenders beat up on some Y-wings, shot the front arc and did a damage.  Then it rammed the MC75.  Finally the MC80 activated, and started repairing itself.  bringing it back to nearly full shields.  The left side arc devastated the limping VSD and removed it from the board.  Then the right arc unloaded into the front of the VSD, got braced and redirected for minimal damage to the side arc.  The MC80 rams the flagship and stays in place.  Squadron scrum ensued, and with the death of Shara the Firespray shot the side of the MC80 before a Y-wing moved to take all future shots.

Round 4

The remaining VSD activated at the top of the turn and unloaded into both the MC75 (long range) and the MC80.  HIE triggered again on the MC80 and some damage leaked onto the hull followed by some minimal damage to the MC75.  

At this point the MC80 had 4 hull left, full rear shields, no fore shields, and about 2 shields per side.  However, I chose to activate the MC75, repaired some more side shields, took my red range shot at the VSD, forced some redirect action but still dealt no hull damage.  Then flakked and Ordinance Podded some squadrons to help the Y-wings out.  It then rammed the gozanti to stay in place and kill it without wasting a shot.

Leia activated next and gave the inevitable repair token to the MC80.  Which then ultimately activated, moved all rear shields to the front, repaired a damage card, and regened the final 4th shield in the front.  Then 2 average right side arc shots crushed the remaining VSD's shields and dealt a meager damage card.  Another ram ensued and now the MC80 had 4 hull left vs the VSD's 5 (after all the ramming)

The squadron scrum continued with the Aggressor being killed as well as Shara.  

No picture this round because I forgot and not much changed in board state.

Round 5

Spoiler alert.  This is the last round of this game.  It naturally started with the sole VSD promptly repairing 3 shields with Tarkin token help and shooting the bulk of the MC80 standing in it's path.  This stripped the remaining shields and the ram left the MC80 at 3 hull.  But left the VSD with full front shields and 5 hull. 

Seeing no further danger I activated Leia for the repiar token on the MC80. Then the MC75, took another long range side arc shot forcing the redirect and removing 2 shields, then flakking and ordinance podding the squadron ball around me yet again.  Finally moving around the flank of the VSD.

Finally, the MC80 activated repaired 1 hull, and ensured I had a shield in each arc, assuming I killed the VSD (even with a ram) I still had to deal with two defenders and a firespray that could attack my MC80 since ATN had gone to far away.  The two side arcs successfully managed to kill the VSD before the move and the MC80 trudged away from the remaining fighter-bombers.  

The squadron scrum died with my VCX jumping to the rear of the MC80 to cover it and died absorbing the last 3 squadron attacks but at least the MC80 lived.  Also, Gold Squadron and the generic Y-wing left to fight it out on the right flank finally managed to kill him.  End of the round was the conclusion of the game.  

Rough beating but the Exodus Fleet rolls on

Final tally was 480 - 65, a 10-1 to me and a challenge for whoever I faced next.

Lessons Learned

I would try to apply this lessons the rest of the day but didn't quite have the matchups to let me apply them.  Though I would learn others.

Lesson 1: The Advanced Transponder Y-wings work great to hold up squadrons, granted I faced an equal number but higher points value and they did their job.  They kept the squadrons from hitting my ships, though many of them died doing it.  This proved my theory that they can hold their own against an equal sized squad ball but will most likely only buy me a turn or two against a dedicated Imp/Rebel aces list. Hopefully, those two turns would be all I need. 

Lesson 2: My transports are great at handing out repair commands but they can also push squads either turn 2 or 3. That way they can ensure the right squad is where it needs to be, probably keeping Shara back to hop into wherever the hornet's nest appears.

Lesson 3: The MC cruisers are sturdy with repair commands, MCE, and tokens but they will get worn down eventually.  The MC80 needs to stay back to enable projection experts use, otherwise, she was very busy making sure she didn't die.

Overall thoughts: I was happy for the win and to see the Exodus fleet work like I thought it should.  I was curious how it would hold up to a real squadron ball or a no-squad burst damage fleet.