NOVA Winner Guest Post 2/2!

Matt's still writing, and John will just let him talk below the jump.

See, it's a Chevy Nova, so.....

And now, without further ado, THE GAMES.

I do apologize folks, I took no pictures on Day 1 (I completely forgot) and only took 2 on Day 2. Any pictures of the matches (other than the one of Game 6, that’s me) from hereon in are courtesy of the excellent NOVA Open TO, Daniel Nowak. (All art preceding this copyright Fantasy Flight Games and/or Disney Corporation/Lucasfilm.)

GAME 1: Josh Swanson (7th place Day 1A)

Like I’ve already alluded to, this was my first defeat before my six game winning streak. Josh, thanks for blasting the complacency off, I really do appreciate it. This was not the only game I made mistakes; I’m pretty sure I made mistakes in every match. What made this one different is that the mistakes made in this one I did not recover from.

Josh was running basically the Euros winning list, which is itself a subtle iteration of the Worlds winning list, though he independently derived the differences from the Worlds version. He hadn’t gotten much Armada in quite a while being overseas, but the list worked pretty well for him. 

Name: Remnant Reborn

Faction: Imperial

Commander: Admiral Sloane

Assault: Opening Salvo

Defense: Fighter Ambush

Navigation: Superior Positions

Raider I (44)

• Admiral Sloane (24)

• Hondo Ohnaka (2)

= 70 Points

Quasar Fire I (54)

• Skilled First Officer (1)

• Flight Controllers (6)

• Boosted Comms (4)

• Squall (3)

= 68 Points

Arquitens Command Cruiser (59)

• Captain Brunson (5)

• Engine Techs (8)

• Centicore (3)

= 75 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

= 25 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

= 25 Points

Squadrons:

• Dengar (20)

• Colonel Jendon (20)

• Maarek Stele (21)

• Saber Squadron (12)

• Valen Rudor (13)

• Ciena Ree (17)

• Mauler Mithel (15)

• Major Rhymer (16)

= 134 Points

Total Points: 397

I met Tokra at Worlds, and I respect the hell out of him. I also know that unlike most Sloane lists, this one is better than most at holding the range open and giving the Sloane squadrons the time they need to actually kill ships. In retrospect and with the perfect information that comes from knowing what the red objective actually was, I should have just taken first player, grabbed Opening Salvo, and bored in. As it was, I was scared, and took second. He chose my Solar Corona, and deployed in a box formation pointing at the middle of the near close edge, which was to my right.. I deployed across from him, with Chimaera in the middle, Demo on her left, and the Arquitens on the right. My intent was to box him in and kill him quickly, trying to just blow up the three real ships and be on my way before the squads could matter.

Spoiler, none of that went according to plan. Chimaera did get fully engaged, and ended up Vadering off Capt. Brunson to blow up Centicore in one salvo, but at that point she was bleeding most of her defense tokens, shields were down, and hull damage had happened between middling defense token management on my part and exactly what rolls Josh wanted on his side. The other absolutely critical mistake was that somehow my Arquitens ended up with a squadron dial on the top of her stack at the beginning of the game. I have no idea how that happened, and rest assured, dear reader, I was compulsive about checking dial stacks, particularly at the start of the game, for the rest of the tournament. The relevant part for this game was that it meant the Arquitens was too close to Chimaera and too far from the board edge without the additional yaw to get into position to intercept Sloane’s Raider, which skittered away from the light cruiser around the board edge and made off for the wild blue yonder. By game end, Squall, Centicore, Chimaera, Hondo’s Gozanti, and Demolisher were all dead, with the Raider and the Arquitens (and the respective surviving Gozantis) all heading for their respective hills. The end result was an 8-3, 152 points in Josh’s favor (143-295).

The wreck of the one and only time during the entire tournament Chimaera would fall (also copyright Lucasfilm)

Alright, I left, I bothered Adam Newton (5th place in the cut, playing Legion that day), he gave me a pep talk, and I went and got the best catfish po’boy I’ve had in a long time from the Louisiana food truck outside before settling in for round 2. Let’s start the comeback hype, guys and gals.

GAME 2: Christopher Bean (12th place Day 1A)

Well, Bean as he introduced himself to me was quite the chipper fellow, and honestly that kind of attitude is infectious, so I was going to end up feeling better after this game no matter what. Bean had a very unconventional Ackbar list, which is here: 

Name: Bean's Fleet

Faction: Rebel

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault: Most Wanted

Defense: Capture the VIP

Navigation: Intel Sweep

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)

• Skilled First Officer (1)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Reinforced Blast Doors (5)

• External Racks (3)

• XX-9 Turbolasers (5)

• Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet (5)

= 86 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)

• Skilled First Officer (1)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Reinforced Blast Doors (5)

• External Racks (3)

• XX-9 Turbolasers (5)

• Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet (5)

= 86 Points

Pelta Assault Ship (56)

• Admiral Ackbar (38)

• Engine Techs (8)

• Intensify Firepower! (6)

= 108 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Comms Net (2)

= 20 Points

GR-75 Medium Transports (18)

• Comms Net (2)

= 20 Points

Squadrons:

• Shara Bey (17)

• Tycho Celchu (16)

• Hera Syndulla (28)

= 61 Points

Total Points: 381

Like I said, unconventional. I don’t hate it, but there are a lot of choices here I don’t understand that came out to bite him during our game. Chris was one of two that outbid me, and took first player. From my own objectives, he took Solar Corona. On deployment is where I think this particular game was decided. The standard response of most players to Solar Corona is to deploy line abreast in a flexible formation so it can wheel to wherever player 2 deploys his/her forces. The problem for Bean’s fleet is that it can’t concentrate its force well, and between second player and Strategic Advisor, two of my ships would always be able to activate after his. Ackbar’s Pelta went in the middle, with the GRs on either side about distance 3 away. The MC30s, which remember are Torpedo Frigates and therefore carry no native red dice for standoff attack, were somewhere between distance 4 and distance 3 away from the GRs, putting the two MC30s something like three feet away from each other. Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet only works at distance 1-4; the two frigates were pushing three times that far apart. 

Armed with this information, I changed up my deployment. Chimaera went in the middle as she normally did, flanked by her flotilla support. However, this time both the Arquitens and Demolisher deployed on the same side of the ISD, to her left. Together they set up a kill box. The Arquitens lured out the left MC30 with a Speed 3 move turn 1, only to hammer the MC30 after it closed the range, leap over it, and leave Demolisher to swoop in to kill it. If I’m being entirely honest, the kill felt too easy, but I seldom face an MC30 that isn’t Admonition. The rest of the game went downhill for Bean from there. The other MC30 took a long arc trying to catch out Chimaera, but came too wide, leaving Chi plenty of room to dodge range and press her offensive against the Pelta. At the top of 4, Bean made his second serious error; the Pelta, then running along the long axis of the board, made a sharp left turn with both the native maneuver and Engine Techs, right back towards his side of the board. It was immediately clear I could force the issue for the Pelta with Chimaera in pursuit, forcing the impossible choice of being run down by the Star Destroyer at Speed 0 so it wouldn’t fly off the table, or staying at speed and denying Chi her fire in exchange for rocketing off the board. In the end, Bean chose the latter. The Arquitens and Demolisher repeated their stunt with the first MC30 on the second, having spent turns 3 and 4 wheeling behind Chimaera to cut it off. End result was 400-0 for a 10-1, one of my two perfect games in the event.

Game 3: Evan Paul (10th place Day 1A)

Alright, we’re back to someone I outbid. I would like to note that unlike most lists with bids near as high (or higher) than mine, I did not originally intend to bid this much. (For the curious, the record high bid for the event was 31 points by Nick Litrenta.) Don’t get me wrong, first/last is a super powerful tool when you have six activations and two black-dice reliant ships generating the bulk of your combat power. However, this bid is entirely by default. As I built and iterated it originally, I struck upgrades that didn’t do me any good or that I consistently forgot to use. The only other upgrades this list considered were Hand of Justice (I forgot this like it wasn’t even there, and when I did remember it, it was halfway to Kansas usually), Suppressor (meant my Gozantis had to be closer to the action, yeah no), and that’s about it. Thus, 17 points. Here’s Evan’s list: 

Name: Evan Paul's Armada Fleet

Faction: Imperial

Commander: Admiral Motti

Assault: Most Wanted

Defense: Contested Outpost

Navigation: Solar Corona

ISD Cymoon 1 Refit (112)

• Admiral Motti (24)

• Strategic Adviser (4)

• Intensify Firepower! (6)

• Gunnery Team (7)

• Spinal Armament (9)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

= 168 Points

Victory II (85)

• Chart Officer (2)

• Gunnery Team (7)

• Disposable Capacitors (3)

= 97 Points

Gladiator I (56)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Engine Techs (8)

• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)

• Demolisher (10)

= 83 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

= 25 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

= 25 Points

Squadrons:

= 0 Points

Total Points: 398

We have a lot of similarities to my list here, and a fair few critical differences. For one, I know other people do, but a Cymoon without Vader and/or Krennic screams to me “I trust my red dice”. I trust my red dice as far as a fire ant can throw them. IF is not enough. He also has a Victory, partially paid for out of the cheaper Demolisher and the fact that the ISD is a Cymoon, carrying Motti. I don’t hate the build, I just think mine is better. Fundamentally that list says, “I can’t kill you quickly, but you can’t kill me quickly either, so I think I’ll win that trade over time.” My list, as previously discussed, is equipped with exactly enough defenses to get its weapons on target, and not a point more. Shield versus sword, place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.

Evan’s was the only list that could match me in activations, but I was confident in my ability to weather his fire if I managed it properly in order to get kills and starting flipping the tempo in my favor. With that in mind, I took first player to help keep my Smalls alive (this ended up being a very critical thought), and selected his Contested Outpost. Matched on deployments, I knew he was going to get the last drop with something (it ended up being the Cymoon IIRC). What I needed was the information beforehand on where he would be so that my ships could be pre-positioned for their attack patterns as they went down, and minimal adaptation to his arrangement would be necessary in game. Given that requirement, CO it was.

Alright, here’s where things get so very convenient for me: this is the first game of mine that Daniel took a specific picture of. (Being table 3 helped.) Let’s have a look.

So, reverse-engineering the state of the game from what I remember, this appears to be approximately the very beginning of the ship phase in turn 2. I’m pretty sure I’m measuring whether or not the Arquitens has any targets in range already before I begin cycling and activating Chimaera’s Fleet Command and Thrawn’s dial.

The deployments should be fairly obvious for the reader to backtrack from here, but I’ll go over them briefly now. The intent for Demolisher and the obstacles to her left (picture’s right) was to have a lane to run up, pick off anything foolish enough to be that far out on its own, then start rolling up the flank. The Arquitens is there following along as fire support, and Chimaera is teeing off to do what she does best, which is crack Large bases like eggs. From this position, I was able to force both the Vic and the opposing Demo to come into range of my ships, as he tried to force Chimaera to come under the guns of the Cymoon without exposing it to danger. Between my two Smalls, his Demo would have been dead if not for Motti before the end of the turn.

From there, the battle moved quickly. The Arq finished his Demo with an IF-enabled front arc shot, drilled the Victory, and tried to move off, but got hit by DCaps anyway. She escaped the carnage on one hull point remaining. My Demo, by now behind the front arc of the opposing Vic closed in and slowly beat it to death with missiles. Chimaera moved in to contest the station, and easily weathered the Cymoon fire before unleashing death of her own. Vader, lacking any truly good targets, ended up removing Intensify, before the wounded Cymoon managed to just jump out of Chimaera’s front. Having finished the Vic, Demolisher executed a textbook first/last, dumping four arcs (two front, two side, all but one front at close range) into the front of the already battered Cymoon, before moving off into long range of its front, pointing her broadside at the path of the Cymoon. Evan at this point faced an impossible choice; if he cut speed, he was risking staying in close range of Chimaera, but if he was too fast, he ran straight into Demo’s waiting missile tubes. In the end, he chose to accelerate, I think attempting to ram Demo, to bounce back. He missed, and much to everyone’s surprise (including my own), that one hull Arquitens floating around the edge of the battle doing her best to not die had him in range by the very edge of the rule. TRCs put the poor Cymoon out of its misery, leaving Evan with Hondo’s Gozanti and four Contested Outpost tokens, to my tabling and one token. 420-87, 333 MOV for a 10-1.

Game 4: Jeremy Gaudreau (4th place in the cut)

Alright, now we’re playing with fire, ladies and gentlemen. After those two massive performances, I ended up in second, edging out Mike Josselyn (you’ll see that name again) by MOV with 23 tournament points. This brought me up against one of Richmond’s best, Jeremy. The man had taken 15th this past Worlds, over 5 times better than my result. Such a wonderful confidence boost going into the game. Spoilers for those who didn’t follow the cut on Saturday before reading this, this was to be the first of two matches in this tournament between Jeremy and I. Jeremy’s build is very similar to the Sloane two-and-a-half ship used by MandalorianMoose (Sam Simon) but they evolved to my knowledge independently, with Jeremy’s version including significantly more bid and no Pryce. Here’s the list:

Name: Assimilated Empire

Faction: Imperial

Commander: Admiral Sloane

Assault: Most Wanted

Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon

Navigation: Solar Corona

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

= 25 Points

Interdictor Suppression Refit (90)

• Admiral Sloane (24)

• Captain Brunson (5)

• Engine Techs (8)

• Disposable Capacitors (3)

• Targeting Scrambler (5)

• Grav Shift Reroute (2)

• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)

• Interdictor (3)

= 145 Points

Quasar Fire I (54)

• Skilled First Officer (1)

• Flight Controllers (6)

• Boosted Comms (4)

• Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

• Squall (3)

= 73 Points

Squadrons:

• Colonel Jendon (20)

• Valen Rudor (13)

• Maarek Stele (21)

• Howlrunner (16)

• Mauler Mithel (15)

• Saber Squadron (12)

• Ciena Ree (17)

• Major Rhymer (16)

= 130 Points

Total Points: 373

That’s right, readers, that’s a twenty-seven (27) point bid, the second highest I know of at the tournament, and the highest that ended up matched against me. In a discussion after our game, Jeremy said it was entirely due to scrimmages Richmond had been running against the Super to figure out how their usual lists could take one down. By their figuring, most Supers are pretty dependent on first player, which leads to a pretty natural arms race on bidding he wanted to be reasonably sure he would win. He didn’t say what if any changes to the upgrade suite he made to get that monster bid, but I can’t imagine he had to give up much, seeing how heavily loaded his ships still were. 

Shocking no one, Jeremy took first player. He thought about my objectives quite seriously for a minute, before finally deciding on Planetary Ion Cannon. Deployment was pretty straightforward; we put all the obstacles down, both of us trying to predict where the action would be so that our Brunson could be useful to us there. Jeremy had exactly enough squadrons that his Gozanti and all of the squadrons could go down with all of my ships, allowing him last placement for the carrier and the cruiser. 

The below photo displays the game approximately at the end of round 2, but it still demonstrates a lot of the fundamental deployment that is hard to explain in words. The ion cannons were concentrated to my right, as eventually was Demo. This meant that Squall and Interdictor went to the left, where the Arquitens was and somewhere that Chimaera could flex to. The carrier was to the outside, screened by the cruiser, and the squadrons which had originally concentrated around the Gozanti had used their native Imperial speed to cross the board quickly to get into combat positions.  For reference, the Quasar is at speed 2 and was shot this round by the Arquitens, and Interdictor has been making aggressive use of its Engine Techs to keep itself between the carrier and the primary threat axis (Chimaera and to a lesser extent Demolisher). The downside of this is that Jeremy has come forward a lot, meaning Chimaera is now in firing position with a nearly ideal targeting solution.

The observant reader will note that if this is in fact the end of round 2 (a proposition the flurry of flipped command dials in view would support), the squadrons have all activated, but Chimaera is at close range of Interdictor completely undamaged. This is right where I want to be in these sorts of matchups.

The Borg have assimilated Imperial technological and biological distinctiveness into their own

Here’s where things went sideways, then corrected again. I made what could have been a truly key error here, I forgot to Hondo. This left Lord Vader hanging out in Chimaera’s shuttlebay waiting for something to do. This error didn’t change what Jeremy intended to do, only how crucial the failure would be if it went sideways. DCaps came out, hammering my poor light cruiser, but leaving it alive. Interdictor then, with the power of the almighty Engine Techs (after pinging Chi’s forward shields) leaped completely out of the deadly front arc. The reply was immediate; the Arquitens activated and with the power of her free ConFire dial hammered Squall for 7 damage after TRCs. Her Nav dial leapt her away from the heavy cruiser, but into a position where, if left alive, she could continue to hit either of Jeremy’s ships.

For the record, I don’t think this was a mistake here on Jeremy’s part. He hemmed and hawwed for several moments, before finally committing the squadrons from Squall to go finish off the Arquitens. Down went the light cruiser, but there was Chimaera, all of her tokens and hull, and almost all of her shields, sitting pretty as she pleased. Squall was unable to make the same leap away from the Star Destroyer’s front battery, and was immolated in due order. The side arc then rippled off an ACM proc into Interdictor, leaving it almost completely shieldless before moving off to make good her escape. 

So when the game kicked off, I was kicking myself for leaving Demolisher so far out of position. In the end, letting her fall into linebacker/safety position ended up being a critical game-making move instead of trying to race around the front of Chimaera. You see, once Chimaera got out of the way, Demolisher got into position to make the attack run you see below. Believe it or not, she actually got close range on the cruiser’s front from there, slamming yet more missiles into Sloane’s flagship for a total of three hull damage. Hondo, in a show of unusual valor, came off the station and finished the trap, blocking the ship in.

I have been chasing killboxes like this for years.  Remember kids, patience pays off.

Again Jeremy had an impossible choice. If he got the Gozanti out of Chi’s front arc, he might have gotten a token for Interdictor, but that meant Vader would have murdered Targeting Scramblers with a vengeance, and allowed me to unleash both the Star Destroyer’s rear, and the patiently waiting Demo’s side into the battered ship. Demo was also at this point entirely untouched, so trying to kill it with the cruiser and the two squadrons it could summon was out of the question. He went with the only remaining option: MJ dove on Hondo, blasting the scatter token off. SW-7s made good the kill, and the cruiser tried its very best to dodge a Demo double arc.

Unfortunately for the perennial villains of Star Trek: TNG, that was not to happen. Demo unleashed a wave of fire, bringing down the prototype once and for all. Lord Vader, finally having his shuttle prepared, ripped Comms Net off the remaining Gozanti before Chi blew it to bits, and off into the sunset I rode, now riding my best three game streak ever in my Armada career. 400-90, 10-1.

Game 5: Jonathan Kwak (5th place Day 1A)

Now we come to our last game of Day 1, myself vs Jonathan Kwak. Kwak and I had played once before, in one of the two store tournaments I had attended since moving to DC, where the fleet you will see below bested a Mothma MC30/CR90 swarm. His list had another impressive simplicity of purpose. Motti kept the cruisers alive long enough for fifteen blue dice from five Decimators (and a sixteenth blue from Valen Rudor) to wear down anyone unlucky enough to be caught by the swarm of Evil Millenium Falcons (supposedly the instructions the designers for Star Wars: Galaxies had when they created the original design). Here’s the list:

Name: Decimator

Faction: Imperial

Commander: Admiral Motti

Assault: Close-Range Intel Scan

Defense: Fighter Ambush

Navigation: Superior Positions

Victory II (85)

• Admiral Motti (24)

• Captain Needa (2)

• Gunnery Team (7)

• Disposable Capacitors (3)

• H9 Turbolasers (8)

• Warlord (8)

= 137 Points

Gladiator I (56)

• Skilled First Officer (1)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Engine Techs (8)

• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)

• Demolisher (10)

= 84 Points

Raider I (44)

• Ordnance Experts (4)

• Flechette Torpedoes (3)

= 51 Points

Squadrons:

• Valen Rudor (13)

• 4 x VT-49 Decimator (88)

• Morna Kee (27)

= 128 Points

Total Points: 400

I was back to having initiative (never hurts my feelings), and I decided I wanted to double down on being in the driver’s seat for this game, so I took first player. From his objectives, all of which pretty well suit his fleet, I wasn’t willing to cede positioning for the Rogues with Fighter Ambush, nor the opportunity for dozens of points a round with Superior Positions, so I took Close Range Intel Scan.

What becomes very relevant at this point is that I’m sitting on 33 tournament points at this point. Kwak was closest (obviously, he got matched up with me), but he’s all the way back on 28. For whatever reason, Day 1A was really characterized by the lobster bucket effect, where a lot of good players ended up beating the daylights out of each other on the middle tables and keeping the average score unusually low. Given all of these disparate factors, I have no incentive to fight unless I am absolutely, 100%, bet my farm and my neighbors’ farm too certain that I will win the engagement. If we don’t fight sure I lose the game 5-6, but I am also absolutely guaranteed to make Day 2 regardless of what any other result is.

Given all of these factors, the onus was on Kwak to either lure me in, or come out to fight me more directly, especially if he wanted a sizable enough win to close the gap on me and have a shot at Day 2. His deployment and opening formation was not conducive to that however, and he ended up under the gun for the entire game for that reason. As with Jeremy, the below photo is around round 2 (neither my Demolisher nor the squadrons have moved yet), but it still demonstrates the original positioning.

In a normal game, the bunker Kwak set up would have been very formidable to crack. His Demo was in the very corner, guarding the short board edge, and the Vic could cover most other approaches. The Decimators deployed off the Raider in a forward position, and with the entire group hidden behind a dust field, it would have been almost impossible to get meaningful standoff shots at the ships before close engagement. That is, the entire group except one: the Raider. The Raider had come out first, and as part of being the forward point the Decimators deployed off of, it was significantly closer to me than the other two ships. Crucially, it was also pointing along its own deployment edge, and was at speed 2. Now I have a chance to win outright. Activation superiority meant that I could force the Raider to show its hand before any of my three combatants moved, and it didn’t slow down. That was the cue, and away we went.

Let's keep everything at a safe distance.  Entrapment Formation! came out for the first time all day to ensure that.

Different moves that Kwak made revealed a different level of understanding that I had no intention of fighting head on at different points in the game. For example, neither of his heavier units accelerated out of speed 1 until round 3. While the Raider tried to dodge the Arq by backing up against its own edge, it didn’t slow down either, eventually accelerating to try to ram it. 

This suited me just fine. The Arq’s entire purpose was to pick off the Raider and run as fast as it could. Chimaera followed, on one hand projecting an enormous area threat to his Demo and Vic, and presenting a backstop for the Arq should the Raider try to either crash stop or a sharp turn inside to get behind it and back into the safety of the Decimators. And just like in the game with Jeremy, Demo ended up tailgating Chimaera, but rather than setting up for an attack pass she was just trying to stay as far away as possible from the heavily armed Rogues.

In the end, the Decimators reacted fast enough, and the ships only half did. I’m not entirely sure if they were originally trying to cut off a flanking maneuver, or actually realized I was just going to take advantage of the fact ships at speed 3 are faster than speed 3 squadrons, but the group cut the corner enough for my Demolisher just as the Arquitens and Chimaera’s front arc blew the Raider off the board on turn 5 before both ships accelerated into the wild blue yonder safely away from the Rogues. 

His Demo did end up catching up to mine as tailgating Chimaera put uncomfortable requirements on my activation order. Unfortunately for him, by the time that happened, I was at distance 2 of that far right dust cloud, and Brunson made sure my ship easily survived his one strong attack. As she left the area, Chi pinged it for a few shields, which was all I needed. My Demo had no chance of escaping the Decimator swarm that was now in front of it, so instead she turned, stood her ground, and using her side and rear arcs, annihilated her counterpart before surrendering to the inevitable. Even in her fiery death, she accomplished a tactical good, tying up enough of his Decimators that they were unable to move into the positions they needed to catch either the Arquitens or Chimaera after their J-turns at the end of the board. 135-90, 45 MOV for a 6-5. I went home first place on Day 1, a four game winning streak with three 10s, 39 total tournament points, 1088 MOV, and the best I’ve ever done at a major tournament ever. 

I went home, I crashed, I got up, had a 10 hour workday, watched the results of Day 1B with great interest, and got ready to just chill out and play more Armada on Saturday. I had already shot past my goal of exceeding my Worlds record. Little did I know….

Game 6: Mike Josselyn (7th place in the cut)

So the end result of Friday, otherwise known as Day 1B is that five players from that day got in, while only one from Thursday got in with Jeremy (he bounced all the way after second on the day after I defeated him), and that player was Mike Josselyn. Friday was a much higher scoring day overall, with Paul Tomashevskyi (otherwise known as PT106) scoring a massive 41 points of his own. I only held second in the combined standings by virtue of MOV; Jeremy and Mike were both further down the list. Also, Rebel players, remember to file your complaints with the TOME gods that both Rebel players that made it in (Adam Newton’s Ackbar, and Joseph Schofield’s Sato) got matched up against each other game 1 (game 6, depending on your point of view).

In any case, here we are. This was to be my first rematch of the day, though not from this tournament. Mike and I had squared off already with these exact fleets about two months prior at a store tournament. I was victorious there, but I did not consider that a positive thing. In my experience, when two players match up for the second time, especially with the same or similar lists, repeat wins for the victor of the first match are often quite difficult because while the loser has ample opportunity to learn from mistakes made or analyze the attack patterns of his opponent, the winner has much less information he can acquire and incorporate into his own playstyle. I was deeply concerned that given that Mike had seen how this list plays before he would be much more conservative about his opening deployments and not give me much if any room to work with. Here’s what I was facing off against:

Name: Mike Josselyn NOVA GC 19

Faction: Imperial

Commander: Admiral Sloane

Assault: Most Wanted

Defense: Planetary Ion Cannon

Navigation: Superior Positions

Imperial II (120)

• Admiral Sloane (24)

• Captain Brunson (5)

• Gunnery Team (7)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• Leading Shots (4)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• Avenger (5)

= 178 Points

Raider I (44)

• Darth Vader (3)

= 47 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Comms Net (2)

= 25 Points

Quasar Fire I (54)

• Boosted Comms (4)

• Pursuant (2)

= 60 Points

Squadrons:

• Howlrunner (16)

• Mauler Mithel (15)

• Black Squadron (9)

• 2 x TIE Fighter Squadron (16)

• Valen Rudor (13)

• Dengar (20)

= 89 Points

Total Points: 399

This isn’t that far removed from the normal Sloane ace balls you’ll see running around high tier events, with a few changes. Mike has added a Vaider to his list to give it a secondary threat, and he has primarily paid for it out of the squadron complement (still 7 units but more generics than usual) and the upgrades on the Quasar, in this case Pursuant. I’ve got activation advantage, and the squadrons are not deadly enough to kill anything on their own, so I took first player again, and from his selection I took Most Wanted. Surprising literally no one, his Gozanti and Chimaera were the Most Wanted targets.

Again we find ourselves relying on a picture to tell a lot of story, but again it’s also partway into round 2, so it actually works. As I mentioned already, his fighters aren’t especially effective damage dealers, so I know he has to fight me more or less independent of my deployment. I stick to my usual “I’m outdeployed to high heaven” plan: Chimaera in the middle of the board (almost exactly the middle in this game), the Gozantis flanking her, and Demo and the Arquitens on the wings. His Gozanti was approximately across from Chimaera, to Pursuant’s right (from its point of view). Demo had the Vaider lined up across from her on my left, and the Arquitens had the unenviable job of staring down Avenger until Chimaera arrived.

 

Yeah this is a bit of a Mexican standoff here.  And like most Mexican standoffs, it rapidly devolved into extreme violence from here

So the above image is actually only one activation into round 2, and that activation (pretty obviously) was my Arquitens. Both Avenger and the Vaider came out at speed 3, which meant that when all three of my combatants accelerated, Demolisher pinged the front of the Vaider for one damage through the evades (results on both dice), the Arquitens had a double arc on the front of Avenger, and Chimaera was in position for her slashing attack as the follow up.

Now, as anyone with an elementary understanding of geometry knows, if you’re in range for firing solutions, you are in range of someone else’s firing solutions. This meant, seeing as I prefer my small ships alive over dead, that my Arq was going to go first. Concentrate Fire from the Blue Man himself and TRC meant that the front arc did three damage, and the side arc got four damage. If I recall correctly, neither shot was braced. Now my little ship had to run all the way forward in an attempt to get out of that massive forward battery. She only barely managed it; Avenger’s front had her stern in arc, but could not draw line of sight.

From here, activation advantage was key. I was able to force out all of his activations before responding with either of my meaningful ones remaining. Chimaera’s shields absorbed the pummeling provided by the TIE fighters nobly, and forced Avenger to never fire her weapons in anger at Chimaera, though she did strip two zones of shields off the light cruiser. Between a front arc shot that was Concentrated because it was obstructed, a carefully aimed broadside volley, and an Engine Tech ram, Demolisher eliminated the Vaider that round, removing the threat from the game. 

All Thursday, as you readers may have noticed, Demolisher and the Arquitens did the bulk of the work, and Chimaera mostly pranced around. Sure Game 2 she ran a Pelta off the table, and she killed Squall in Game 4, but neither of those are impressive feats for a ship of her size. Now, here in Game 6, Chimaera really got her first chance to bare her fangs. The front arc volley at the end of round 2 left Avenger battered, but still in possession of her faculties. Unfortunately for Avenger, Chimaera got a textbook double arc as she pulled forward. Vader destroyed the Electronic Countermeasures (no more forgetting Hondo), before a front arc salvo that locked out the brace and did 7 damage and an Assault Concussion Missiles proc. A side arc of more ACMs and four damage, braced to two damage, exactly destroyed the ship, and Chimaera sailed through the wreckage.

From here the game went quickly. Pursuant ended up suffering through two volleys of red dice from my Arquitens before finally pulling out of range on round 4. I wasn’t sure if Demolisher was going to be able to reengage the fleeing carrier, and it had successfully evaded the Gozantis. Unfortunately for Mike, Chimaera is Chimaera, and like all of my games other than games 5 and 8, she was using Intensify Firepower. The final red dice of the game from the Star Destroyer’s stern (one native, one from the last Thrawn dial) would have failed me with two blanks, but IF saved the day and sealed my second and last perfect game of the tournament, 400-0, 10-1.

Game 7: Jeremy Gaudreau (rematch)

For most of the time I was waiting for Game 6 to finish on the other three tables, I was fairly sure I was going to be facing Adam Newton’s Ackbar list in the second game of the day. Only with about thirty minutes left did I look over to discover that Jeremy had finally destroyed Nick Litrenta’s ISD, and this plus a truly horrific squadron battle that had gone Jeremy’s way enabled him to vault to a 9-2 result. The TOME gods therefore demanded rematches of the respective days for the top two tables of Game 7, myself versus Jeremy rematching Game 4, while at table 2 Adam squared off against Paul’s Ravager, a rematch of Day 1B’s table 1 on Game 5 for them.
 

I strategically advised Jeremy to lead off with two activations before I did anything at all

If you’ve suffered through this much of my writing, I’m going to assume you either remember Jeremy’s list, or are smart enough to go back and review it. Just like Game 4, he took first player, and while he thought about it for twice as long as the first time, he took Planetary Ion Cannons again. Unlike Game 4, Jeremy decided that putting his two ships under the ion cannons and into Demolisher’s path would work out better than dealing with the Arquitens again, so he flopped which side of my deployment he put his heavy ships on. The above image shows the result of that, with Squall way over on my left for reasons I never fully understood, and Interdictor again assigned guard duty between the carrier and my ship-killers. 

Now it was Chimaera's turn to tailgate someone

Now in the above image, we are in the squadron phase of round 2. The ion cannon just managed to reach out and tap Squall this round, so the net result of the Demolisher pass you can see the end of here is that the carrier is now completely bereft of defense tokens and has one hull damage on it to boot. Chimaera has also closed the range, and has a close range double arc from her front and starboard (right for you land-lubbers) into Interdictor’s stern. This is one of the places where Jeremy’s possession of first player could only help him so much; Interdictor will be forced to suffer through Vader here regardless of whether it tries to go first because it cannot jink around the carrier in front of it.
 

Press F for Demo

For the record, I expect very few Fs for Demolisher; it’s a reviled ship, and for good reason given how prone it is to just removing ships from ridiculous positions with relative ease. Between the squadron movement at the end of round 2, Squall’s additional movement, and their own activation when Squall activated here, all five of the fighters roughly where Demo used to be (and Jendon hanging out on the other side of Interdictor) caught all the way up, and did a number on my defense tokens and on my shields. I think I did probably mismanage my defense tokens here, but Demo took long enough to die that even after Squall used her own weapons, she was still forced to ram her for the kill.

I don’t know what it is about Jeremy, but this was another game with a pretty big mistake for me, albeit one that didn’t end up mattering in the end. The eagle-eyed reader may remember two ion cannon tokens on this part of the board. At the state shown in the last two photos, Interdictor is right on the edge of distance 3 from the remaining token (one was already used on Squall). We measured it before Chimaera landed on it, and I even made a comment to myself that I would have to remember it for the start of the round. Update, ten minutes and one bathroom break later, I did not remember the ion cannon. Chimaera would have to kill Interdictor by the force of her own arms.

We did remember Hondo this time, so there goes Vader and there goes Scramblers. Side arc fires, rerolls, Intensifies, and ends up with a whopping three damage. Front arc aims, fires, rerolls, gets Brunson’d, and ends up with 7 braced to 4, no ACMs from either arc. Very rarely do Chimaera’s guns fall so very flat. I was not a happy camper. Chimaera continued her headlong lunge, landing on some of the TIE fighters that had moments before killed her smaller companion, and sets up a double arc into Interdictor with the front also covering Squall for the low low cost of landing on the debris field.

Thankfully for me, that was roughly the positioning for the final relevant activations of the game. Interdictor activated, stripping many of Chi’s shields , but was not able to get around Squall even with her Navigate dial. Engine Techs let her get clear of the double arc, but made it even more pressing for Squall to clear off in order for the flagship to escape.

At the top of 4, Squall activated again, unleashing five fighters, and a double arc of five blue dice into Chimaera. By the time it was over, Chi had lost all of her shields, her redirects were gone, and had suffered five hull damage. Squall moved herself, pulling fully into the side arc of the Kuat, but still at close range. Jeremy remarked that I was set up for the double kill to end the game, and I’m afraid he jinxed himself. Chimaera fired a massive front arc salvo into the side of Interdictor, locking out her brace and her redirect before delivering eight damage and an ACM proc, leaving the ship sitting literally in front of Chi’s nose on eight hull damage. For the second time that day, Intensify was crucial, bringing the damage up to exactly where I needed it to be. A side arc volley of five damage and ACM annihilated the defenseless Squall before Chimaera rammed Interdictor for the table. With her brace and her contain left (albeit exhausted), the remaining forces of Rhymer and Valen Rudor were not mathematically able to generate the four damage (engineering token generated a shield) required to finish the ISD. That was game, 400-90, 10-1.

Game 8: Paul Tomashevskyi (3rd place in the cut)

Readers, I know Eric and John try to keep the blog fairly family friendly (and this is definitely getting bleeped out on the forums) so I’ll let them decide what to do with this, but I want to give you insight into my mental state at this point. I’m coming off a Worlds performance of 81st out of 94, almost no practice before this tournament, and I am now sitting on 20 tournament points on Day 2, the closest being 14, 13, and 12. The best approximation of mental state is as follows: “HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT WHAT THE STAR-SPANGLED FUCK IS HAPPENING HOLY SHIT !!!!!1!!!1!11!” I can honestly say I have not ridden an adrenaline high this high since the first time I saw Rogue One in theaters (best Star Wars movie, fite me).

I now had to face my boss battle, the Super Star Destroyer. And not just any Super Star Destroyer, Ravager, flown by Paul Tomashevskyi, who took it to 41 tournament points and victory the day before. Both of us were sitting on incredible 6-1 records. And both of us had discussed at breakfast just five(ish) hours earlier how we had accomplished our goals for the tournament (avenge Worlds, prove the Super is competitive) and were just here to play great games and have fun. I gotta deal with this thing?! Get outta here. Here’s exactly what I had to take down:

Name: Paul Tomashevskiy Nova GC 19

Faction: Imperial

Commander: Moff Jerjerrod

Assault: Most Wanted

Defense: Contested Outpost

Navigation: Solar Corona

SSD Assault Prototype (250)

• Moff Jerjerrod (23)

• Agent Kallus (3)

• Captain Brunson (5)

• Intel Officer (7)

• Gunnery Team (7)

• Quad Laser Turrets (5)

• Leading Shots (4)

• H9 Turbolasers (8)

• Quad Turbolaser Cannons (10)

• Ravager (4)

= 326 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)

• Darth Vader (1)

• Comms Net (2)

= 26 Points

Raider I (44)

• External Racks (3)

= 47 Points

Squadrons:

= 0 Points

Total Points: 399

Now, before we get into the game, let’s do some figures. I am sitting on 20 tournament points. Paul, the closest, had 14. In order for him to beat me in the tournament, he needs a 9-2 to jump to 23 to my 22. At the time, I computed that a 4-7 or better meant I could not be caught, as I would be on 24 points, Paul on 21, and the closest Adam Newton could get was 23 on a 10-1. (As it turned out, that game would be an 8-3 for his opponent Nick Litrenta.) If I had been 3-8’d, Adam could match me in TP, but I would have a considerable margin of MOV even if he got a full 400 for the win. This was not clear to me until after the game, but the overall premise stands. Priority 1 was asset preservation, priority 2 points preservation. 

Now, I had actually gotten two practice games against a Super in prior to the tournament, both of them Ravagers, flown by Eric Burtch (4th Day 1A, lost out on the cut by 125ish MOV). His did not have JJ, he preferred Piett, but I was fully aware of the damage a fully armed Super Star Destroyer was capable of inflicting. I had defeated him in both practice matches, always in exchange for one small and significant damage on the other small and on Chimaera. Unlike my test games, Paul’s Ravager was armed with QTC, meaning even at long range my small ships would be denied the use of their damage-reducing defense tokens. I had significant activation advantage, but I would need to manage that very carefully to get “safe” (insofar as attacking a 19km dreadnought could be “safe”) engagements.

Let’s go back to the tournament points. I’ve known Paul for a very long time. My first entry in a Vassal tournament in 2017 involved Imperial-1 class Star Destroyers based on a concept he developed. Throughout those years, he and I kept in touch, but never managed to meet or to play each other, even though both of us had watched the other play on Vassal. I knew him as an expert player of dual ISDs same as I was, and that he had transferred a lot of the aggressive philosophy that had served him well there into this new fleet. Sitting on as many points I was, I had very little incentive to engage unless I was certain I could win the fight, and even that would get very dicey very fast if all of sudden his reds went hot on me. 

Given all of these factors, and the fact that the Super could and would gleefully delete anything of mine that it caught with that front arc, I didn’t feel I had a choice but to go first. I needed to be able to yank a ship out of the fire if/when that became necessary. From his objectives, I had quite the predicament. Most Wanted would elevate Ravager into a superlaser against whatever poor unfortunate souls he fired on. Contested Outpost would force a fight, and as previously discussed I was already not necessarily keen on the idea to begin with. It could also very easily put him up 80+ points, which would make it much much harder for me to control the margin of victory I needed to hold the tournament. Therefore I was left with the only acceptable option: Solar Corona.
 

The Empire expects every man to do his duty. "Or Vader will kill him!"

Upside of being top table, I got like fifty pictures of this game to choose from when I was working through writing this section. Congrats folks, my wall of text will be quite broken up. The above image is after deployment. From hereon in, I’m going to quote what Paul told me after the game liberally, as it will help explain this battle of wills. His Raider is in the corner closest to the camera, while my ships sit opposite at speed 2 for Chimaera and the Arquitens, and speed 1 on the others. His Super is at 1, as is its Gozanti hiding in the shadow of its stern, and the Raider is at speed 2. 
_

 

Yeah, so about that battle we're supposed to have....

Alright, here we are at the end of turn 1. As I came to discover later, he was just as scared of my list actually possessing the damage to take out a Super Star Destroyer as I was of his ability to delete my poor little smalls. For this reason, he was doing his absolute best to force me to reveal what my plan was. Unfortunately for him, that plan could be summarized as: Don’t fight until forced, and under no circumstances whatsoever engage the Super on its own terms. Thus, his drop to speed 0 did little more than reveal I was just as scared of him as he was of me.

You may notice the Raider and the Arquitens teeing off on the lower portion of that photo. I’ll spare you having to keep track of them for the rest of the game, they ran around each other, and the Raider easily escaped. Paul told me afterwards he wanted to try to divide my attention, and to draw off the standoff firepower the Arquitens represented. He correctly predicted that even with activation advantage I would hold the range open enough that the Raider would never be in serious danger, and he was correct. I got one damage card on it, before it shot off deep into the corner and around the back edge.
_

All hands, prepare for close action

End of round 2, now things are starting to line up. Demolisher remains hidden in her little foxhole behind the asteroid, but the Super has accelerated back to speed 2, and used Jerjerrod to whip the bow around. Paul told me the intent here was that he knew he couldn’t prevent the last/first, so he was attempting to misdirect me and draw out a mistake that would leave either Demo or Chimaera vulnerable to a pickoff.

At this point I was reasonably sure I could commit Demo to action without automatically dooming her, and Chimaera is setting up for the follow-on strike once Demo clears out. It is also quite clear that the Arquitens cannot contribute to the battle with the Super, so it’s being allowed to derp around chasing the Raider both Paul and I were already sure was home free at speed 4.
 

Is this what the admiral meant when he said engage the enemy more closely?

The above is the ending activations of turn 3. Hondo’s Gozanti has landed on an asteroid in a vain attempt to stay out of range of the Super (he did not), and Demo has begun her firing pass. As I noted earlier in this writeup, a bigger concern for me than winning was not losing, so rather than angling Demo to stay in the battle, the turn is aimed to get her back out of action at the top of next turn. She hasn’t used her Engine Techs yet in this shot, but they’ll give her the three or so inches required that at full speed next turn she can dance away from Ravager’s guns. Unfortunately, Chimaera also has not moved yet in this photo, and in her attempts to get out of the front arc would end up inadvertently giving Ravager a double arc into her bow (albeit long range, and obstructed from the side arc).
 

Yeah let's prep that escape vector please

This is the result of the Engine Techs move, and Chimaera’s move to begin her own attacks. The other limiting factor on Chimaera’s approach was making sure I was leaving an escape lane for Demolisher. Note the Arquitens derping around on the debris field, and the Raider just running around in the back field.
 

Eastern Europeans have such great thinking expressions

This is the end result of Demo’s activation at the top of round 4. She executed the full J turn at the end of her run, having gotten ACM off on the front of the Super Star Destroyer out of her side arc, and used Engine Techs to fully clear out of Ravager’s range. From here, Chimaera and Ravager are in position to exchange front arc volleys, and poor poor Hondo’s white paint has made him such an appealing target.

Some notes about my positioning here, and the direction I turned Demo. I predicted that the Super would continue to accelerate roughly on that vector, eventually turning along that board edge. Demolisher’s wide left turn was planned with that in mind, putting her in position for a final attack pass at the end of the game on Round 6, fishing for crippled or dead as necessary. Similarly, Chimaera is trying to avoid committing to any particular side arc so the Super can’t run around in front of her.
  
 

Now the Super decides it would also like to leave

I’m not 100% sure how much of that Paul directly predicted. What he did do though, was decide that he didn’t want to give Chimaera her front arc shot. He fired out of the front at Hondo first, but ended up being forced to commit both his Ravager dial and token, and Vadering off Agent Kallus (toodles, Mutton Chops) to get the dice results he needed to wipe out the flotilla. This unfortunately (for him, not for me) left the shots at Chimaera underwhelming. He used the Intel Officer on my brace for the front arc shot, but it only generated four damage. The two reds out the side arc did manage two damage, promptly braced to one and redirected.

I’m still surprised how far away that JJ turn let the Super jump. It was not at the edge of red range, I thought I had a comfortable margin. Where that left me though, was with a decision. At that point of the game, the Super had two damage cards on it. I knew from previous experience extended engagement from Chimaera could very reasonably cripple the ship, and in edge cases put it in a damaged state where a little bit extra could kill it. (Too bad both of my “little bit extra”s were pointing the wrong way and a fair distance away to boot.) However, committing to that would mean committing to action for both round 5 and round 6. Paul had rolled cold on those first shots, but at close range, a Super’s side arc is nothing to sneeze at, especially an Intel Officer-equipped Ravager. To commit to that battle, I would need to turn right, trying to fit the ship behind his front arc and out of the auxiliary arc.

The other option was the brave coward’s option. Like I said, the priority going into this game was points preservation. Paul was up, and it was pretty likely he would stay up if I didn’t cripple him, but being first player, I was already going to lose a game I didn’t fight 5-6 anyway. That option is of course turning left, angling to get behind the Super and out to clearer pastures behind it. It is the “brave” coward’s option because in the short run I would have to risk double arcs from either side and aux arcs, or aux and stern after the move again. 

In a casual game, I would have turned right without a second thought. We’re here to play Armada, and that means rolling dice, dealing damage cards, and blowing things up. But this was no ordinary Armada game. This was table 1 of the US Grand Championship, and I had the trophy almost within my grasp. I apologized to Paul as I did it, but in the end I didn’t feel like I had any choice at all. I turned left.

 

Second game in a row my side-mounted missile launchers fail me.  I must have blown through all the good ordnance already

We continued to play, but both of us knew the game was over. Especially when my side arc whiffed like you see in the bottom right of the image there. That’s after Leading shots and Intensify. Two measly damage. Should I complain, knowing that the front arc rolled 11 damage and ACM? I don’t know but I’m going to complain anyway. From here, Chimaera moved again, allowing a double arc from the aux and stern arcs, but giving herself one of her own on the stern. Chimaera’s salvos had gotten six hull damage through onto the Super, and had blasted off all of the shields protecting the rear zones that Demo didn’t interact with. The threat was unmistakable, and Paul obliged by moving Ravager off at speed 2 after removing the ISD’s remaining shields. From here it was game.
 

Discretion is the better part of valor

The above is turn 6, after Chimaera escaped into the rear of the board, now firmly beyond the reach of Ravager’s weapons. The Raider is escaping under the protective bow of her dreadnought charge, and Demolisher will allow it to escape, sweeping a wide right turn out of the battle herself. My remaining Gozanti will somehow survive Ravager’s side arc salvo (Vader ejected IO and still couldn’t get it), and we called it. ENDEX. I had done it. I still don’t know how.

The fleet and its glories. Obligatory glamor shot

Dear reader, you have now sat through fourteen thousand words describing one incredible weekend. I hope you have learned something, I hope you have enjoyed it, and I hope you took my warning at the beginning of this work seriously that it was a good long read. Again, I would like to thank so many people, my wife for putting up with my hobby and painting my beautiful flagship, Daniel Nowak for putting on such an excellent tournament for the Armada community, and most of all, I would like to thank you, the Armada community. I would like to thank Master of the Fleet for keeping me playing the game during a dearth of time for it around Wave 5, I would like to thank the forums and all of the other places I have interacted with in a positive way to share their passion for the game with me, and I would like to thank all of the people who have helped hone this list and me as a player into a person that was able to take to this tournament, play my absolute best, and ultimately emerge victorious. Thank you all.

The fleet's crown princess, as she prepares for a well-earned long overhaul.

And thank you to Eric and John for hosting this dissertation. You guys are great. Feel free to comment, query, and ask away; I’ll do my best to answer as I can, and eventually I may add some more thoughts to this, but for now, this is Giled Pallaeon, signing off. Good luck, good hunting, and Godspeed.