Begun the Clone Wars Vassal Tournament has
Clone Wars Round 1
After a bit of a hiatus of playing actual games; thanks in no small part to COVID and the resultant workload it has caused, I've dipped my hand back into the sweet goodness that is Armada. Now improved and changed with 1.5 Rules! Which I'm still getting the hang of and want to give it a couple months before I make any proclamations one way or the other.
Anyway, for those unaware, Green Knight had a busy November. He updated Vassal for Clone Wars, had a race with Ryan Kingston to get all the Clone Wars cards/1.5 errata into a list builder (BTW both are exceptional), and setup a Clone Wars exclusive vassal tourney with list submissions due Clone Wars release day.
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| Obligatory GIF |
As much fun as a swarm of Separatist squadrons would be, I chose to dive into the GAR first. Reason being a tanky squad ball and some cool space triangles. After some waffling and trying out different setups I ended up choosing what's below.
My list
IrishMadCat's list
When I first looked at this I thought to myself, "Self, there is no way I'm ever going to get any damage to stick to the hull of anything." And it did take a while to get any damage to stick, I think I shot off 16 shields from the Munificent before it *spoiler alert* finally died.
*All photos courtesy of IrishMadCat since I forget to create a log file and go back to take pictures. Thanks again for the game!!
Setup
With a 2 point bid, 398 to my full 400, Irish decided to go first and not let a BTClam get the drop on him. I think I would've done the exact same thing. Of the three choices he went with Minefields, so I threw out the obstacles and station in such a way to either make him eat mines coming through the middle of the map. Or pick an alley on the side, where I could concentrate my forward firepower. Ultimately, we ended up on the far left side of the board facing off against each other. Some speed 2 and speed 1 hardcells/Muni and all my 'Clams sitting at speed 1 squared off with fighters scattered between.
Bail grabbed 2 Nav tokens and 3 Engineering tokens to power Nevoota Bee through all the squad pushing.
Round 1
Went as normal round 1 events go. The Seperatists took Nav tokens and danced around the asteroids, and Tide of Progress ate the only mine of the game taking a single damage. My Acclamators inched forward and oriented towards where the battle would commence, all taking a repair token. Since Clone Nav Officer can't pass those around.
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| End of Round 1 |
Round 2
Foreman's Labor kicked things off and danced forward slotting in nicely next to the flagship. Next, Bail went and stayed out of range of all those red dice while stashing a squad token for his BT. Another Hardcell hopped forward to make a perfect flying wall of laser guns. Next, I burned my single pass token to gauge where the frigate and final hardcell would go. In hind sight, this was a waste as it didn't give me any new info and my ships still went exactly where they would've gone if I hadn't spent it. It did stop me from taking an extra two dice attack which would've been braced, redirected, and salvo'd so next time I'll wait next game.
The final hardcell went and strolled up into repair crew range of the Muni. Implacable went next and using the CNO took a nav token and passed one over to Nevoota, then waltzed forward and ended up taking a shot from the Muni when she activated next and slowed to speed 1. She used that red flak to blast 4 damage onto the lead V-19 that was a little too close.
Finally, Nevoota took a Squad token (for BT) and used CNO to pass it over to Implacable (for her BT). Took a decent shot into the Muni and had 2 damage stick and get redirected.
Our fighters then danced around jockeying for position for the next turn.
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| End of Round 2 |
Round 3
Round 3 kicked off with a bang as Foreman's Labor, chucked a Tri fighter at the wounded V-19 and killed it. Bail's RHD brought it back to life with 2 hull. She also used the Parts Resupply to give them to all her friends. Then she threw an accuracy only attack onto Nevoota and didn't get salvo'd. She shimmied forward at speed 2.
Now, here I wanted to use a pass token but alas, woe is me. So Bail activated with a squadron command and hurled forward Luminara to kill the Droid Tri-fighter. Then Anakin activated and put two damage into the Foreman's Labor, who ended up only taking one thanks to the title card. An average red dice attack into Foreman's resulted in some shield damage only. Bail then trundled forward.
Beast of Burden (the far left Hardcell) activated and tossed Vulture Droid at the V-19 in the middle and brought them down to 2 hull. It tossed some shields at Foreman's Labor then it duplicated the maneuver Foreman's Labor did and ended up close to Bail's Acclamator.
Nevoota went and threw a V-19 at the Vulture and did a single damage. Plo got activated and finsihed off the Vulture. The final V-19 activated and I threw him at the Muni for a shield damage. Minimal red dice long range attack happened on the side of Foreman's Labor and I got to burn some more shields off. Another exciting Speed 1 move forward for the Nevoota!
The final hardcell activated and projected some shields onto the Munificent, then strolled forward.
Implacable activated and with a repair command brought her forward shields back to full strength to help her friends out. Again, some red dice were thrown at the Munificent for a point or two of damage. And using a herl Nav token, she accelerated to speed 2 and banked into the Muni to close the range for her Boarding Troopers.
Finally, Tide of Progress went, repaired a bunch of shield damage and with a double arc ripped into the Nevoota with a pair of 4 damage rolls with accuracies on both (Kraken helped with one). Thanks to Implacable and Redirect's she only lost her starboard and front shields. Then a speed 1 hop forward left her in close range of two Acclamators.
The Seperatist fighters hovered around ready to get activated next round.
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| End of Round 3 |
Round 4
Round 4 would be full of all the LAZERS! And as I reread this a lot of text. As second player I knew I would take my licks before the attack of the Clones! I slay me.
It started off with Foreman's Labor and a squadron command. She activated and tossed the Phlac-Arphocc (however you type that) Prototypes into the middle of the GAR fighter swarm. While obstructed (due to Luminara), they still rolled the two damage needed to kill the V-19. Implacable's RHD saved the V-19 and set it over by the Muni. The second squadron she flung forward was the other Vulture and she hopped over the Muni and shot at that same V-19 and killed it. Then Nevoota's RHD saved it and placed it off it's port side. The Hardcell then tried to flak said V-19 but missed. The side shot with the help of Kraken landed a crit onto the Nevoota. Which Implacable took on her front shields. Then Foreman's Labor stayed at speed two and rammed Bail's Acclamator after a speed 1 move.
Nevoota activated next and revealed a squadron command. Bail handed out an Engineering Dial as well. Boarding Troopers used the squad token to board the Muni and exhausted every defense token. The Engineering Dial and token let me regen 2 shields and move the 2 rear shields to the front. The other 2 hull V-19 (that hadn't been saved twice this turn) jumped forward and shot at the Tri-fighter Ace. A hit and a accuracy put a damage onto the ace, the resultant counter and reverse-Mauler damage finally killed the V-19 (first actual dead one). Then Plo (my hero in any game I've had so far) activated and rolled 3 damage and an accuracy (after his adept 2), removing that annoying ace from existence before taking the auto-damage. He did take a damage from the counter (that included an accuracy). Then the final V-19 threw another damage into the side shield of the Muni. Then the front arc of the Nevoota unloaded into the Tide of Progress for 8 damage after a LTT reroll and the external racks. The Muni burned her redirect and salvo. The Muni lost all it's side and front shields and took two damage. I elected to not trigger the crit since I didn't want to risk Tide negating a damage. The salvo took the front shields down to 1. Finally, Nevoota's side arc got a single damage onto Foreman's Labor thanks to an evade. She then continued forward at speed 1 and rammed the Muni for another damage. Leaving the the Muni with only 2 hull left and a single red brace.
Next, the Muni activated, before it died, and activated Grievous and the Tri-fighter who destroyed the other damaged V-19 and put a damage into Luminara. The double arc from the Muni ripped into the Nevoota forcing her to burn her Redirect and take a crit (Thruster Fissure) and left her with with 5 hull. Then it moved forward at speed one ending up placing her nose between Bail's 'Clam and Nevoota and leaving her fully shielded hull staring at Implacable. She did overlap both CIS squads so they got relocated away from the front hull zone, hoping maybe Anakin could get enough damage past to not waste full Acclamator shot killing this studier than it deserved to be Munificent.
Bail activated next and discarded the squad token to trigger BT on the Foreman's Labor. Discarded the evade and exhausted the Brace and Redirect. Then with the dial, activated Anakin who got two damage into the unshielded front of the Muni. She burned her brace to stay alive on a single hull. I thought about rerolling (with Adept) the red but preferred leaving her with a single hull point at a minimum knowing that Implacable might need all the hope she could get. Leaving the Muni for Implacable, Bail dumped his external racks and rolled just enough damage to leave the Foreman's Labor at a single hull point. With no side arc's, the ram damage finished it off.
The rearmost Hardcell activated and projected some shields onto the side of the Muni to bring it up to 3 shields there. Then it trundled forward with no combat impact yet.
Finally, Implacable activated with a repair command and fixed her remaining forward shields. So she could use them to absorb more damage next round. It also gained a Bail Nav Command, just in case. With the external racks and the front arc and no accuracies, the dice rolled enough damage to slip 4 damage past the brace on the Muni, just barely killing it. Then she accelerated to speed 3 to ram the rear Hardcell and setup her Boarding Team for next round.
It was here we called the game as it was obvious what the next 30-45 minutes would end like. Beast of Burden had yet to activate and would skirt around the side of Bail's arc for the next several turns, where I wouldn't have enough dice to kill it, even if Nevoota threw some squadrons that way. We figured Grievous and the remaining Tri-fighter would kill the V-19 with a squadron command before the Jedi and flak killed them in return. And finally the completely healthy Implacable was going to kill the final Hardcell it was staring down.
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| End of Game |
Final outcome & my thoughts
The final score would end up being 329-36. This actually wound up working out better for me than I thought it would work, staring at all that repair capability. Nevoota was limping along at the very end and with a slightly different deployment of the Hardcells (healing enough Muni hull through the game) Nevoota was probably 1 activation away from dying, though I think the Tide of Progress was probably a goner even if it had killed Nevoota.
Things I liked/worked well: The Clone Nav Officers worked exceptionally well to equip everyone with a full docket of tokens and the Boarding Troopers did their job. While CNO is mainly my anti-Raid/Dooku insurance it's nice getting a Garm like effect rolling into combat on round 2/3. And my squadron ball, though I left parts hanging out at times, did it's job of not dying and giving away points quickly while eating through the other 79 points of squads and managing to let some squads (Anakin who had 3 good bombing runs) bomb occasionally.
Things I hadn't figured out: pass tokens, think I'll need some more time to figure out when is the best time to use it. Also, keeping my fighter ball actually covering all my ships. I think 1 ship will always be hung out to dry, at least for 1 round, if I want the super ball of V-19/Luminara/Plo to devour enemy squads but luckily I faced no bombers.
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| 'Clam BAM! |
