VWC Pod Game 1 (Geek19)

 Geek19's Plo list vs CadetVW's Bail Bricks

The Vassal World Cup is upon us and I had the privilege of playing the illustrious Geek19 s my first match in POD Leia.  You may know him from such Armada blogs as cannotgetyourshipout and Blissfully Ignorant Gaming.  So you might say he knows a thing or two about Armada.  This would both be our first match so a major win here could set the tone for the rest of our POD games.  

Geek19's Fleet

That's a lot of bombers that can lock down redirects

Nevoota Bee and Plo powered ARC-170s can dish out some mean damage and his Jedi in the squad ball will surely help melt my meager squad ball quickly enough to let those ARCs begin their bombing runs.  The ships themselves are alright at either staying out of the fight (consular), being a little tankier than their points suggest (Peltas), OR just being a major part of the list but somehow still 79 points (Nevoota Bee).  This is very much a combined arms fleet with every ship and squads chipping in some damage to melt a target over a pile of 2-3 dice attacks.  It can also dance out of the way to prevent getting tabled and buy some more time for those ARCS and Anakin to go to work.  The squad war will surely determine the shape of the later half of the game.

CadetVW's fleet

How truly indying is this fleet?

My fleet will eventually have a detailed fleetbuilding/creation story here.  But it's not done yet, as the bones of this fleet were formed with Geek19's tournament over the summer where everything was unique.  So I had a one-of-everything fleet and I started toying with the idea of running IF and a SPHAT, and how to make that work.  Hondo showed up and I wouldn't be able to power everything the entire game but if I could get 2-3 rounds of work out of each, that is usually all you need in a game of Armada.  

So I made a Super battleship Venator I and then the rest of the fleet is built around keeping it alive and providing some chip damage throughout the engagement.  Implacable is there as a damage soak but also with Boarding Troopers can be very scary close range threat one time.  My fighter screen is the cheapest and sturdiest 4 squadron list I could make.  Giving me an extra 2 deployments and purely there to die slowly enough to keep bombers off of my ships.  This will be a decent test of how they work.

The game

We were both tied at 400 points so we left the game to the fate of the blue dice.  Geek won the roll and elected to go second.  I was ok with this as I was planning on going first if I won.  The ability to get the Ven in a good place and then zap something (the Bee) before it could activate was my goal.  After debating between his objectives, I chose to go with Volatile Deposits as I was familiar with it and it didn't allow him to harvest points off of my ships while making them explode as well.  Yes, I'd be losing 15 points or so a round, but I figured I could make that back and perhaps bully him off of his 2 rocks to try to even the score at the end.  

He built a nest of scoring asteroids tucked behind a dust cloud while I put a rock in scoring position for me and moved the rest away from the battlefield.  GAR ships don't turn well so not running over things helps.  Geek had me out-deployed so I built my standard wall of triangles with the Peltas on the outside while Geek had to only put down 2 Peltas and his squads. It let him drop Nevoota Bee and Plo's armed cruiser in a manner to take advantage of positioning and keeping the dust field between our fleets.  

Post Setup

Round 1

Round 1 transpired as most Round 1's tend to.  Geek's small ships crawled forward at speed 1, towing ARCs forward and getting in location to score objectives and Nevoota turned around the far asteroid to place the dust field squarely between my fighting ships and herself.  

I kept my ships at speed 2 and angled towards the dustfield while distributing tokens for everyone to use in the upcoming battle.  I made sure to put my right most Pelta in range of the scoring asteroid and prepare to slow down. Since it can sling shields out to distance 5 it doesn't need to be heavily involved in the fight to contribute in it's primary role.

My squads moved to shield my ships and Geek hustled his to prepare for their attack runs while he scored 2 tokens to my 1.  

Suprise! Suprise! the battle is going to happen on the left side of the board.  

Round 2

Dice will be thrown this round! I started off with activating Intensify Firepower for the round.  If I don't I wind up with an excess of tokens usually, so might as well, even if it only contributes a damage or two.  Hondo's Pelta started by slowing down to stay near the asteroid and passing out some Con Fire tokens to the large ships.  Plo then activated and trudged forward behind the asteroid getting ready to dart forward.

Next, the Parts Man Pelta, the left most, leapt forward at speed 2 and darted towards the cover of the debris field.  It wasn't enough though as Nevotta Bee activated next with a surprising Con Fire command. 4 unobstructed red dice with an accuracy triggered Implacable to be used and shift the damage around.  Then Nevoota slowed to 1 and turned towards the battle. 

Next up my Implacable activated with a squad command and took it as a token rather than toss my brave V-19s into the meat grinder, ate a Bail Repair Dial snack to fix her forward shield, plinked into Nevoota for a single damage after tokens and barreled straight forward at speed 2 into the fray.  The goal being to get Boarding Troopers into range of something next round and position myself to double arc Nevoota if it activated before Implacable.  

Geek's right most Pelta activated and turned into the fray at speed 1 while shifting more squads into range of Implacable.  Finally, Tranquility activated with a Nav and after dropping 1 damage after tokens into the right most Pelta, darted straight ahead at speed 3, just barely capturing the Pelta in a double arc, close range of the front arc, medium range of the side.  The SPHAT token went down out the side right next to the Pelta who wasn't long for the world.  

Geek's final Pelta Con-Fired into Tranquility, doing 3 damage while taking a salvo back for 1 total then moved forward to block in Tranquility while dragging Anakin and an Arc into attack range of the Ven and so ended the ship phase.

Kickback leapt into the fray to lock down as many fighters as possible while Axe hung back to keep Kickback alive.  A fusillade of fire descended upon Kickback but he emerged from the battle on a single hull, though Axe no longer had any tokens.  Geek again scored 2 tokens to my 1 and we entered the round where we stopped politely taking potshots.  

Next round starts the actual firefight

Round 3

The top of Round 3 saw Hondo giving out goodies to Power IF! another round and a repair token to himself.  Leaving Geek with a Nav and a squad.  Then the most obvious ship activated first in an attempt to start to gain activation advantage.  Tranquility activated with a Con Fire dial, then ate a Bail Repair and Nav Dial buffet and fixed all of her shields.  The SPHAT shot first with Capt Zak in support dealing 5 damage and 2 accuracies with a blue crit.  Not being in range of Ex Racks meant there was no way I could one shot the Pelta so I saved my Con Fire for Clone Gunners on the next attack.  Got a little bit of volatile deposit splash on Geek's squads and then with the use of Clone Gunners and an Implacable token promptly vaporized the Pelta with the front arc.  Tranquility then slowed to 2 and rammed the Pelta, just barely missing the asteroid.  Finally it tossed the SPHAT token out the side but behind the dust field, so I could attempt to catch Nevoota or Plo as they were sure to dart past.  

Plo's armed cruiser activated next and with a squad token and dial flung Anakin and Ahsoka into the gap between Implacable and Tranquility, though between the 2 of them they whiffed on Kickback and failed to kill Axe thanks to Implacable again soaking the damage.  Capt Silver then catapulted the ship forward at speed 3 but just barely clipped a shield dial on Nevoota, sending Plo back to land on an asteroid.  In hindsight, this was the turning point of the game.  As Plo was now effectively trapped and I had first player so could remove his Commander enhancing his squads and remove the ship that would be hardest to kill once it began to run.

Next up, Implacable activated with a squad dial before my screen evaporated and used her repair token to regain a front  shield.  My aces activated and removed a V-19 and took a potshot that combined with flak reduced Ahsoka to half hull.  Thanks to the dust field flak was the only available firing solution and then Implacable dove ahead at speed 2, just inching her nose out of the dust field.

Implacable decides to look menacing

Nevoota then activated and delayed her squadron activation with Flt Commander and unleashed a devastating Ex Rack powered double arc into Implacable leaving her with minimal shields and used defense tokens.  Then the squads activate.  Kickback is evaporated and then 2 Arcs pound into Implacable, with the help of Adi Gallia, Implacable loses all tokens but her unused brace and all her shields, but manages to not take any hull damage.  

Hondo's Pelta provides 2 shields and a con Fire Token to Implacable, gives another token to Tranquility to repower the SPHAT and then does some minor flakking of a V-19 and scoots forward at 1 to score the asteroid at the end of the round. 

Geek's remaining Pelta throws Luminara and the other ARC at Implacable, stripping her shields and scoring 3 points of hull damage before ramming the Tranquility and remaining in place.  Finally, Parts Man Pelta by the debris field activates, passes 2 more shields to Implacable and a repair token and then tosses out minor flak and does another point of shield damage on Nevoota Bee before leaping into the debris field for cover? Silly Clones! It should also leave a gap for either Plo or Nevoota to scoot into though, which would be in range of Tranquility's SPHAT then.

My then 1 unactivated V-19 kills the last of Geek's V-19 escorts and we score tokens again, this time 2 for me and 1 for him.  

There's about to be a lot of explosions

Round 4

At the top of the Round I burn IF! as I used the token to refresh SPHATs in the status phase.  Plus this might be the last major round of shooting that matters.  I start with Implacable and a repair dial.  Fixing some shields and discarding Boarding Troopers on Nevoota Bee.  I figured the Bee was the ideal target since I had Plo relatively trapped and exhausting his tokens wasn't going to save me much damage anyway, since if he leapt forward my SPHAT should swat him down.  An Ex Rack powered front arc did 4 damage and stripped the remaining shields from Plo before a side shot burned Nevoota's Salvo and put a hull damage on her.  The salvo caused Implacable to use her brace and take a single point of damage.  Then through luck, Implacable missed the Pelta at speed 2, but rammed Plo and the speed 1 move missed the asteroid, leaving Plo at a single hull point.  

Next Nevoota Bee activated to get the most out of her and unloaded on my Pelta and Implacable.  Stripping the Pelta of all but her side shields and putting another hull damage on Implacable and hopping forward at speed 2 with  a token but eating some debris field damage on her shields.  Then 3 ARCs hopped forward thanks to Plo granted grit and finished off Implacable.  

Next, Tranquility had to activate to stop Plo from escaping.  Luckily, I had a SPHAT shot out the side at Nevoota, sadly it meant I would have to wait to decide whether to use my con Fire then or wait to try to ensure a Plo kill.  The close range SPHAT with Zak shot did 7 damage but I elected to save my Con Fire to hopefully guarantee a Plo kill.  Nevoota braced to not die but left her at 1 hull and double arc'd by my Parts Man Pelta.  IF would ensure the kill since he could only redirect once thanks to boarding troopers.  The front arc was 3 reds plus a Con Fire and I had no modifiers minus IF!.  Luckily, the Pelta didn't obstruct the shot and it was a solid roll which no amount of defense token usage could've saved Plo from at that point.  Tranquility then rammed the Pelta and stayed in place.  I then placed my final SPHAT token out the front, though again in hindsight the side would've guaranteed 6 dice no matter where the Pelta landed.  I was hoping for the consistency when I fired out the front with the SPHAT though.  

Geek's final Pelta flung some squads at my V-19s and killed the remaining ace and left both generic V-19s at 1 hull. Then the Pelta threw 2 sets of three damage into Tranquility and Tranquility burned her salvo token out doing the same damage back to the Pelta.  Now, some cheeky maneuvering from Geek had the Pelta sneak out into the side of the Venator, not leaving me with many options to kill it next round.

extra cheeky move there Mr. Pelta

Parts Man Pelta activated and with the double arc finished off Nevoota Bee and then casually turned in.  Then Hondo activated and threw the last important con fire token over to Tranquility.  A set of decent red dice attacks stripped the Pelta of everything but 2 hull and an evade token.  Then it inched forward to try to provide fire support next round should the Venator not succeed in it's kill.  The squad phase saw both my 1 hull generics bring Anakin down to 1 hull.  Then it was another round of scoring tokens, only 1 for me as we entered the last round.

The last decision was what to refresh with my con Fire token on the Venator, I elected to refresh Zak since all I had was a single side shot and no mods.  Time to hope that dice quantity has a quality all of its own.

Entering the final round

Round 5

Tranquility activated with a repair command since it had looked in Round 2 like maybe Tranquility would be taking more hits than usual and Bail would have run out by then.  Luckily, this didn't bite me too hard.  A red, blue, and 2 blacks came up with 3 hits and then Zak piled on a 4th to guarantee the kill against the evade.  I had Ex Racks too which we weren't sure if I had used until I went back through the log file.  That was enough to finish off the Pelta and then a speed 2 move put me in range 1 of both the asteroids. 

The final flak shots killed Anakin in a vain hope that the ARC would whiff and both of my 1 hull V-19s would live, but it was not so as they both perished in the squad phase.  And so ended the first POD game for me. I scored the table plus 7 tokens for 505 points for me. While Geek got 5 tokens and 137 points of Implacable and squads leaving him at 212.  293 MOV for me and a 9-2 start.  

End of Game

Conclusion

I feel like the final score doesn't reflect how the game felt especially in the thick of it.  Before Plo rammed and trapped himself I was very concerned he would sneak out past the Pelta and then there would be a round or 2 of ARC attacks on my trailing Pelta that I'd have to weather and I also wouldn't have picked up the points from his squad ball.  Ultimately, that would've brought the score down to an 8 or 7 for me depending on if the Pelta lived.  

As it went down, once I saw fire being shifted onto Implacable I knew that Tranquility would make it through the battle as that ship is nigh impossible to kill with chip attacks when those attacks are not in one massive activation, Projection Expert Peltas help alleviate a lot of that damage.  

I like Geek's list and we discussed how it makes it defense tokens almost moot, because of the large amount of small 2-3 chip attacks or Plo powered bombers.  Unfortunately, without defensive retrofits means that most ships live or die based on dodging arcs or getting out of the way.  With the minimal time I have playing Plo, I'm not an expert on any changes I would recommend. Tha tbeing said I think I might've converted the C70 to a little more of a lifeboat and bulked the Nevoota Bee up as a Clam II and put Thermals on it.  That way it could take a single haymaker attack at least once, but that may just be me wanting to make one thing survivable.  

My fleet did about as well as I could possibly hope for.  Implacable soaked a lot of damage and kept the fighter screen alive long enough to delay any significant bombing runs into late Round 3 and 4. Though to do that it sacrificed itself. But that's ok, it's exactly 80 points and as long as it trades itself for something more expensive it'll have done its job, in this case it traded itself for Nevoota and Plo.  Tranquility proved to yet again be a murder machine, though I wasn't able to get it focused on Nevoota like I wanted.  The SPHAT still provided a long range way to inflict damage.  I am also a firm believer that SPHAT needs to be used in the side arc to create a 12 dice monster battleship.  And that's before you add any dice with Zak, Clone Gunners, or Ex Racks.  

Next up will see my fleet face BackSeatAdmiral against yet another squadron list.  Can my squadball hold the line one more time while my ships wade into the thick of things? Thanks for reading. Join me soon (hopefully) and find out next time!