Ackbar Double Dragon V2(.5) - Ackbar vs Thrawn!

After some playtesting with this setup I did some of the changes in the previous post.



The latest battlereport with this list is also presented.
Now the list concists of the following upgrades:





Name: Double akbar v2.5

Faction: Rebel

Commander: Admiral Ackbar

Assault: Advanced Gunnery

Defense: Fire Lanes

Navigation: Sensor Net

MC75 Armored Cruiser (104)

• Bail Organa (7)

• Caitken and Shollan (6)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• External Racks (3)

• Leading Shots (4)

• XI7 Turbolasers (6)

• Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet (5)

= 142 Points

MC80 Assault Cruiser (114)

• Admiral Ackbar (38)

• Major Derlin (7)

• Engine Techs (8)

• Early Warning System (7)

• Electronic Countermeasures (7)

• Leading Shots (4)

• Quad Battery Turrets (5)

• Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet (5)

= 195 Points

Squadrons:

• Shara Bey (17)

• Tycho Celchu (16)

• 2 x VCX-100 Freighter (30)

= 63 Points

Total Points: 400



I faced off against an intereresting 3-ship thrawn list. Lots of high-damage squadrons and 2 high damage ships.
Mareek, Boskk, Jendon, Mithel, Soontir, and Zertik made life hard for Ackbar.
The ISD was a Kuat Avenger with Boarding, troopers and External Racks, Leading shots, ECM and Pryce. The Demo had standard upgrades minus Engine Techs!

Round 0

Pryce was set to round 3, so Bail goes round 4. Crucial choice it turned out to be. Since my opponent had a bid for 7 points, he elected to go first, Out of the 3 objectives I had he chose Sensor net.

Round 1

My plan was to go along my boardedge as long as possible and milk the Sensor Net for points. The fact that Demolisher wanted to come up in the rear of my MC80 was a fact that I just had to deal with. My plan for the obstacles was that I could place some on my side so I didn't had to collide with them later. Turns out I had placed them too close to me and it prevented me to turn up earlier and broadside Demolisher. Which in hind-sight I should have done anyway since overlapping obstacles happened alot on my part.

Round 1 gave Ackbar 1 sensor net token. 0 for Thrawn.

Round 2

Start of round 2 was as above. My opponents ships turned in for some Sensor Net tokens, I milked the 2 I had thanks to the VCX's. His Squadrons didnt have any reach on anything yet and he did not want to overextend his reach.

Sensor Net totals was now 3 for Ackbar, 2 for Thrawn.

Round 3

This round was the round I realized some errors. The MC75 was going to overlap the rocks dead ahead, and I couldn't drop down to speed 1 either since that would prevent me from getting out of the trouble I was going into round 4. So I just had to bite the bullet and hope for the least worst. The faceup crit was one of the worst, not Comms Noise though, but Projector Misaligned. The front hullzone now had 0 Shield and was about to be swarmed with squadrons and recive a medium range (thankfully) shot from the Kuat. Not a good position to be in still. After the Pryce Kuat had fired and the squadrons swarmed it was down to 4 Hull on the MC75 and some shield on the sides and rear. It still lived and with the positioning I was pretty confidant that it would make it out in one piece.

Sensor Net tokens: 5 For Ackbar, 3 For Thrawn

Round 4

This was it. Bail was timed well. The MC75 would get out alive, but no broadside on the attack this turn. An Engineer with Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet regains 3 shields in the front and things are alot better. Mediocre roll on the attack and what I figure my only chance to use External Racks, but it shaved off some shields. All but one shield remained on the Kuats front (thanks XI7). The MC75 then goes up speed 3 and clears the Kuat and banks as hard as possible to the left to still be of use this match.

His Gozanti parks in the front of the MC80 on the debri field, almost preventing it from moving. I start to fear the worst now as Demolisher closes in on the rear of Ackbar.

Sensor Net Tokens: Ackbar 6, Thrawn, 3

Round 5

I felt my positioning was good for the MC75, Ackbar on the MC80 was in more of a pinch.
The Kuat goes first, Boarding Trooper the Brace and one of the redirects hoping for an accuracy. Roll goes badly, and i have EWS and Major Derlin. He did get the accuracy still and a total of 7 damage. The shields goes down and and Major Derlin takes it down to 6 and the Contain prevents any further obnoxious face up crits. The MC80 will live for now.

The MC80 responds in kind after using the Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet to regain alot of shields (4 in total), Ackbar-ing from both left and right. Roll goes well into the front of the Kuat, stripping both the front and the left side of all shields. Only the Right and Rear has shields left. MC75 also follows up with a medium range broadside, starting to do serious damage to the Kuat. Details about this remains unclear but the Kuat is down to 4 Hull remaining.

Demolisher comes closer and closer to the MC80 and let loose a long range attack which sinks down one more shield.

Sensor Net Tokens: Ackbar 7, Thrawn 4

Round 6

Realization that I will loose the MC80 is now too large to ignore.

The Kuat lets loose another underperforming front arc, this time without External Racks and Boarding Troopers. The MC80 holds down the damage well but this time its a double arc. MC80 burns the Brace and a Redirect token. Kuat then bumps into Ackbar for more hull damage.

MC80 acts after the Kuat, firing both broadsides into the Kuat and Demolisher. Kuat goes down but the damage Demolisher recieves is not enough to take it down. This is where Ackbar should have turned left instead of right. Had I done this the chances of surviving would have been larger since the leftmost side had 3 shields left and the right had 0 but with the EWS token on it, and still a Redirect token to spare. Demolisher then activates and deals APT-damage and enough doubles were rolled to ensure that the MC80 is also destroyed. Only Boskk can be activated when the squadron phase begins and he is unable to deal any significat damage.

Sensor Net Tokens: Ackbar 9, Thrawn 5

Closing Thoughts

A victory for Ackbar, but not a large one. 7-4 at least.

The Ackbar List: Still not sure about some upgrades.

• Bail is a nice officer to have on board the MC75 as it can solve some problems. The problem with him is that he can be easily countered by an opponent with good eye measurement and strategy. Choosing the wrong turn for him can be very disastrous. Bail might have to go in favor of Damage Controll Officer.

• QBT on the MC80 makes sure the speed of enemy ships is at least one, as the MC80 can still go speed 2 thanks to Engine Techs.

• The other problem the list faces is that it wants to do 3 things. Navigate, Engineer and occasionally Squadron activation if the objectives are suitable for the VCX's. And only one of those can be made effectively. Also it is still heavily outactivated.

• Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet is nice but still very niche. Having the ability to effectively turn a token into a dial in efficiency (4 engineering), a dial into a dial and a token (6 engineering) and a dial AND a token into 2 dials in efficiency (8 engineering) is very nice. This makes engineering alot more appealing since the regular dial would bring 2 shields with 4 engineering. It is a bit expensive as 10 points has to be invested into this feature. One thing I can think of is using Projector Team instead of Engine Techs on the MC80 just to help the MC75 get more shields back.

• Leading Shots and Caitken+Shollan feels redundant unless the rolls are BAD. If one should be dropped it is probably Caitken.

• I realize this list wants support. Especially with Engineering tokens. Adding 2 GR-75 with Leia and Ashoka and a Comms Net each is probably the most logical step.

• Tycho and Shara. Unsure if they are needed. They might buy one round of heavy squadron fire but that is it. The VCX's will remain.