Carrolton, GA Prime Game 3 - Fighting the Ravager

After a 10-1 and a 3-8 I was square in the middle of our pack of 21 Armada players.  There were 4 of us all at 13 points by this time, so assuming things went average at the top tables we all had some hope.  And for the 3rd and Final Round of Armada I would be facing one of the 5 SSD's that showed up.  What I'd been trying to dodge all day because I haven;t ever actually played against one.  However, that should work out, I bet I can win the damage race with nothing but repair commands!  Kinda what the fleet is built for...right?

Roy had an interesting Jerrjerod Ravager build that had some slight tweaks from the 'standard' that was parading around.  Still the defense token hating Intel, H9, QTC combo, but Defense Liaison would let him spam Concentrate fire until he needed to change and the Raider would keep him from being tabled if it needed to run or things looked bad.

A Super Star Destroyer....how 'Super!'

My opponent had already had an SSD vs SSD match (a brutal blood bath), trounced an Ackbar list in round 2, so why not something completely different in round 3 for him as well.  We were both tied for the bid and Roy won the roll with a solid 'hit' icon showing.  Which gave him a hard choice, again that VCX caused some slight hesitation but eventually he picked first and promptly threw my advanced gunnery objective away.  So it was whale watching or Capture the VIP and eventually Capture the VIP was selected.

Setup

We placed obstacles with me placing the station in the lower right corner in hopes to camp on it.  The VIP was promptly placed there as well at the end of the round.  I setup to snag the VIP and ended up staring into the face of the SSD. 

Setting up for a brawl!

Round 1

This round was pretty standard round 1 by this point. I stashed some engineering and navigate tokens and everyone crept towards the inevitable battle for the station.  We ended up round 1 below.  I had snuck the token out from near the SSD (thank you VCX!) to between the Cruisers.  The plan was to put it on the flagship since if that was lost, it was game over anyway and maybe those 50 points would help!

Let the brawl commence!

Round 2

Round 2 was the initial exchange of dice.  Where we were both testing how how much pain we wanted to inflict on each other.  I started with Ezra and he force tossed an entire space station directly into the path of the MC80 and hopefully, out of wherever the SSD would end up.  Then the remaining flotilla and raider took their turn to dance, and then the MC75 wandered into range after a minimal red dice attack.  The Ravager then completely committed to the brawl and launched a barrage at everything in the front arc, fighters, MC80, and MC75.  The 75 by far took the brunt of the attack. I choose to save the brace (classic Intel Officer target) and just took the mauling on my shields.  It then moved into close range of the MC75, station, my fighters, but still red range of the MC80 flank.  The MC80 then activated, picked up that helpless VIP floating through space, threw some shields back to MC75 and put another ineffective red dice attack in the side of the SSD.  

Finally, the fighter swarm plinked a couple shots and took a shield or two away.

Now the real meat grinder will begin

Round 3

Truly the meat grinder began here.  Roy lead off with a massive Ravager fusillade that stripped my brace from the MC75, removed almost all the shields except the rear arc and left me with several damage cards.  The double arc on the MC80 stripped most of the front and and side shields after the SSD had finally run out of turbolaser fire.  Finally, the SSD hopped the front of the MC75 with a helpful turn by JJ.  

Next, was my conundrum, obviously my MC75 was going to activate.  It did, and repaired/transferred all the remaining shields to the front and mamanged to get the front arc back to full shields.  Then Walex regained the brace and I would probably live to fight another day. The side arc was going to dump everything it had into the SSD, which was only red dice unfortunately, just out of black range.  But the tasty front arc target was the question.  With 2 blue dice, 3 blacks, ordinance experts and Dodanna I could theoretically kill the Raider in one shot.  I would need paint on everything and an accuracy OR paint on everything with a pulling a structural.  Or I could put another 5-6 damage into the SSD and get a faceup for sure.  

I chose the Raider and unfortunately managed to accomplish neither, even with paint on everything  No accuracy and no structural meant the Raider lived on 1 hull.  Then the MC75 and SSD bumped and remained in place.

The Raider fired it's racks with a Con Fire and redrained the shields of the MC75.  Then accelerated to speed 4 with a token and managed to start heading towards dodge.  Next the MC80 activated, shifted shields from the left to the right, and slung a couple more shields to the MC75's front arc.  She'll live!!! I'll make it happen.

A double arc at medium range started to push some damage onto the Ravager.  I rammed the MC75 unfortunately, but landed on the station and remained with one damage card.  Finally, the token generators, I mean Ezra and Leia, threw more tokens onto the Cruisers for their super repairs next turn.

Finally, the bombers and Shara suffered through the counter fire and threw a couple more damage onto the SSD's remaining shields.

Hold the Line!

Round 4

Another round of barrages were about to be exchanged, certainly someone would die this turn.  The Ravager had a tasty double arc on the front of the MC75 and elected to go first.  Defense Liaison shouted across the bridge to maybe do some repair commands.  Walex earned his keep using the brace to stop a massive attack from the Ravager and take it on the remaining shields, and after the double arc still had 3 hull damage left.  Ezra was then the first causality and he very unsurprisingly succumbed to the close range front arc of a Star Dreadnought.  Here was perhaps the deciding moment, Roy chose to ram me to stay in place to use the front arc to kill the MC75 next turn.

My MC75 went next and almost took the red range shot on the Raider's rear, until I did the math and figured out there was no chance to kill it.  It would live with 1 hull.  I repaired two hull and threw a shield on the front, with my title and token.  So I took both shots at the Super and managed to draw the face-up that cut his engineering in half. Another ram left me with limping along with no brace and minimal hull. 

The Raider continued to run, then the MC80 activated and threw some more shields on to the MC75.  I had to make Ravager commit to killing the MC75 next turn.  Another double arc into the SSD left it missing all redirect tokens and getting closer to half hull. At least I'd get some points as I prepare to lose the MC75.  Unfortunately, the self ram leaves the MC75 reeling.  Finally, Leia gives the MC80 another token.  

The starfighters now rip into the unshielded sides of the Ravager.  Their attacks force a contain to evaporate and some more hull damage.

Ezra! Oh no! Wait the cruisers are still there though...that's a win

Round 5

Another round with two cruisers, well it'll be the last round with two because my MC75 is on life support.  And so it was.  Ravager used the Defense Liaison with his old engineering token and managed to use that dial and token to get rid of the single engineering crippling face-up card. My plan had worked, so at least it wouldn't be Ravaging this round.  The front arc immediately set about turning the MC75 to a floating pile of scrap, then turned it's attention on the MC80 and squads, with a shot in each from it's side arc.  The front shield were dropped on the MC80, The shield tech removing one damage and Gold Squadron was destroyed.

Next the Ravager got very aggressive and burned it's second to last right aux shield for a JJ turn to try to double arc me.  Unfortunately for the opposing admiral there was no double arc for the SSD but rather a double arc from both sides of the MC80.  We then took polite turns throwing tokens onto the big ships with our flotillas and the Raider continued to run at the end.

But my MC80 got to live the dream!  I moved some rear shields and repaired the rest with an engineering command and then both side arcs unloaded for roughly 5 damage from each broadside.  The end result was an SSD just about half health, and with only a single green brace (thanks accuracy!) and one green contains left.  A bump and a land on the station kept my cruiser setup for the next and final turn pretty darn healthy.

The generic Y-wings at this point had only a single damage each.  Apparently they were much better pilots than Gold Squadron and dodged every flak and counter attack until the this past round.  They followed up with fantastic shots forcing a contain to be burned and getting a structural onto the SSD.  Shara was on a single health from the flak and chose to save her life & points and jump behind the MC80 at red range but obstructed so she would survive.

Can I kill it?!

Round 6

The final round! At this point we were one of the last tables and people were hoping I could get those last 5 or so damage on the SSD to bring one down.  Since most had lived through today and caused excessive pain.

Without further ado, the Ravager activated, repaired damage and unloaded everything against Leia's flotilla and she was vaporized quickly.  The Ravager really had a thing for close range shots on flotillas this game...or was it my unconcern for them and their love of throwing tokens to keep the points bastions alive vs self preservation?

The Ravager then again flaked and unloaded on the MC80, but no squadrons died and only the front shields fell, once again, on the MC80.  Then the Ravager turned out of the double arc with it's final shield fueling the JJ turn to the right and using a nav token to accelerate.  It successfully managed to get out of one of the cruiser's side arcs but not out of a front and side arc shot.

I was left with a side arc, front arc, and two generic Y-wings to do about 6 damage. Definitely doable (especially with a ram) but not a guarantee ether.  I led with my front arc shot and rolled three with a crit, which was braced and contained.  5 hull left.... Then my side arc opened up with a beautiful volley, 2 accuracies and 4 damage.  I could get him with the ram except I drew a structural with the crit and that was game.

Ended up 374-192, 8-3 to me and 182 MOV.  Now it was just a waiting game until the end of the other games to see the final results.

Hero MC80! Also, generic Y-wings (Cobalt and Maroon squadrons!)

Lessons Learned

One I could totally take down an SSD, but it has to help me a bit (aka stay in the fight) or I have to commit a bit more to killing it.  I think I played this game almost exactly as I wanted.  Again, I could've maybe used the flotillas to push some squadrons but they did their job of keeping my shooters alive with their tokens.

I still will have taken that shot at the Raider, even now.  Without that Raider shot, my MC75 probbaly would've held on one more turn but then maybe I wouldn't have gotten an MC80 double arc so perhaps it was for the best.

Overall,  I was very happy with the way Exodus Fleet fought and held up.  Also, the Y-wing screen while not used much did their multi-role job of either bombing if you didn't bring squads or distracting your fighters.  However, I do need to come up with a better way to push them around.

End Result

I ended up with 21 tournament points and a MOV of 582.  3 of us tied at 21 points, Adam my Round 2 opponent and another SSD player.  I was the highest of these 3 by a whopping 2 points of MOV.  That's it.  As a usual upper middle of the pack guy I was elated!  Now if only the prizes had included dice this time I finally would've won some.  

Overall, it was a great tournament, met some awesome Armada players and people, and got to play three very intense rounds of my favorite game with some challenging opponents.  I would gladly do it again, I just need to get some more Prime/Regionals in my area, or at least the dates for them.