Store Championships: Round 1 FIGHT!

So as previously mentioned, we had our store championships at Fair Game on Saturday.  Here's the first part of the writeup of how my games went, just because these are in my opinion worth talking about.  Before I begin, I of course made sure to have breakfast.  It's the most important meal of the day, and from what I understand, the last several Worlds Champions had breakfast that morning.  Coincidence? I think not!

Dang straight

For a writeup of the fleet I took, go HERE.  After the random assortment and pairings, I ended up paired with.... Eric.  Dammmmmmmmmit.  Eric knows what he's doing with his fleet, having been playing it for at least 6 months, if not 8 or so.  He's been running this list for so long and it's reeeeeally not easy to fight.  I've fought this list in various incarnations for a lot of that time, and I last ran up against it at our local store tournament a month or two ago.  It did not go well; I think I lost 8-3 or 9-2.

Pictured: your two authors being frowny that we had to face each other AGAIN last tournament

Eric had chosen my Intel Sweep in that game before and asked me afterwards why I didn't just run away from him, forcing him to come to me.  I didn't know, and said I would do that more in the future.

The reason I tell THAT story is because that's what led to Eric choosing to go SECOND.  He HATED my objectives, and he knew that no matter what he picked, I'd be running away from him and forcing him to come to me.  I'll post his list below, and then talk a bit about the game with a few pictures.  Slash what I remembered to take.  Spoiler alert: I'm new at this and didn't remember all that many, especially game 2.

Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 384/400

Commander: Admiral Ozzel
Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Fleet Ambush
Navigation Objective: Solar Corona

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
-  Demolisher  ( 10  points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Assault Proton Torpedoes  ( 5  points)
= 90 total ship cost

[ flagship ] Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
-  Admiral Ozzel  ( 20  points)
-  Skilled First Officer  ( 1  points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Assault Proton Torpedoes  ( 5  points)
= 94 total ship cost

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  Flechette Torpedoes  ( 3  points)
= 51 total ship cost

Raider-I Class Corvette (44 points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  Flechette Torpedoes  ( 3  points)
= 51 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
-  Comms Net  ( 2  points)
= 25 total ship cost

Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
-  Comms Net  ( 2  points)
= 25 total ship cost

6 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 48 points)

So Eric runs everything all over and it can get almost ANYWHERE, just throwing black dice and ruining lives.  So hard to predict and hard to determine what's going to be where and HOW.  Specifically, he's trying to ruin MY life.  And with 6 activations?  Ooof.  Eric does so well with this list, and he's been playing it for long enough that he stands a good chance of beating Rieekan AceHoles with it (If that's a concern in your meta, give THIS list a try!)

Pictured: HOW TO FIGHT SQUADRONS

So Eric's 3 objectives were as above.  I had just played Fleet Ambush Thursday, and thank goodness I did, else I might have considered it.  That game ended in a loss, and I realized how much I hate having my deployments messed with.  So, that was out.  I don't DO Superior Positions/Solar Corona (but I'll put them in my list!) because I don't give away my entire deployment to my opponent.  That, in my opinion, is a bad strategy that results in me getting hurt worse than if I had chosen anything.  So yup, Most Wanted.  Eric chose a Gozanti of his and my MC30.  Not the 80, because it's already hard enough to destroy.

We traded deployments (as much as I could when Eric outdeployed me) and then I made sure NOT to charge straight forward into danger (I did this at the store tournament the previous picture was from, it was bad).  I didn't deploy that far forward/on the line (you can do that?) and I didn't just assume that everything was going to be fine.  Eric and I spent a solid 2 turns dancing around VERY SLOWLY, getting closer and trying to NOT move into range.  Eric didn't want to get into red range of anything, and I didn't want to get into a range where I was going to get jumped by a stupid Demolisher coming forwards and wrecking my face.  We were like 2 ancient Chinese masters of martial arts testing the other for weaknesses, both of us not wanting to stray too far forwards lest we overextend ourselves for the other to pounce.

Jackie Chan actually fights Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon, which is a GREAT movie, btw.

And so we got to the top of turn 3, when our martial arts duel became the ending of Reservoir Dogs.

Description below

At the top of 3, the Demolisher and a Raider were on my right there, with Demo facing down the MC30.  The Jaina's Light had the Gozanti and the Raider (in front of the MC80) in its sights, with the Gozanti in the side arc.  The MC30 went and opened up everything I could on Demo, but most of what it did was hit shields and force the use of the Brace.  It then moved 1 to just be in the front of Demo.... who then somehow rolled 2 accuracies on its red dice, preventing me from getting to redirect ANYTHING! The MC30 exploded, and then Demo skirted away.  I opened up with the Light, smacking the Raider somewhat.  I ended up ramming the Raider twice, and then it tried to move down to ram my right flotilla.  Eric got close, but it wasn't close enough.  My left flotilla moved onto the station.

Top of next turn, I had the MC80 go first and open up on the Raider, killing it.  Ozzel's Gladiator ended up unable to get out of the side arc when my left flotilla (that had moved up onto the station) prevented some movement options for him.

Me moving my MC80 before Ozzel's Glad got to go.  Demo on the left there pulled a button hook to hit the flotilla right next to my right wrist.

So turn 5, I opened up on Ozzel and killed him.  My side arc had Demo in red range unobstructed, and I rolled insanely good (I think I had 3 red double hits and all of my other dice had hit or crit on them?  Demo was down to 1 health and had to go 3 forward as Eric didn't have a Navigate command queued up, keeping it in range of my MC80.

Turn 6 I opened up on Demo and killed it, and then ran everything away.  Eric ran his stuff away as much as he could, and then everything ended.  This was a VERY hard fought game, and Eric is a great opponent.  He didn't pull any punches, and some of the maneuvering/blocking on my end helped me somewhat, but I think being able to go first against Demo and Ozzel's Glads was the major contributor to my being able to win (pretty sure when Eric has the opportunity in the future, he's not giving me first again!)  I'm sad that I had to go against Eric (I want my friend to do well! So crazy right?) but it was an amazing game that felt like I played 2 (being in the back of the store under the hot lights didn't help, haha!)

Onwards to Round 2! Or fighting a Death Star, one of the two.