Nordics (Denmark) 2019: The Aftermath

The dust has settled, the ships are resting in their foamtrays, but the aftermath of Nordics 2019 still rings (somewhat) clear in the mind. Its time to go over it all again, but with 20/20 hindsight :).

Tuborg has nothing to do with this blog, but its still good beer

 

My only disappointment that I really regret is that I did not indulge in enough beer... 

 

The List

The list I flew was the same as in the previous post. It is here for my own and the readers reference keeping.



Name: Nordics 2019 Madine
Faction: Rebel
Commander: General Madine
 
Assault: Close-Range Intel Scan
Defense: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation: Navigational Hazards


CR90 Corvette B (39)
• General Madine (30)
• MS-1 Ion Cannons (2)
• Jaina's Light (2)
= 73 Points


MC80 Star Cruiser (96)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Gunnery Team (7)
• Engine Techs (8)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
• Mon Karren (8)
= 128 Points


MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• Walex Blissex (5)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Early Warning System (7)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• Admonition (8)
= 92 Points


GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Comms Net (2)
= 20 Points


Squadrons:
• Dash Rendar (24)
• Ketsu Onyo (22)
• 2 x YT-2400 (32)
= 78 Points
 
Total Points: 391

Having flown this list for 3 games during the tournament, I feel very satisfied with the upgrades and see afterwards little to improve as I never felt I lacked anything during the matches that could have changed any outcomes for that particular game. Maybe more Engine Techs is always a good thing to improve Madines lifeboat. What I definitely could  improve was how I flew the list and with choosing the second players objectives, but that is another thing for the long run...

MC30 never went down during any game. It is a tanky, yet fragile ship in a very compact frame. What it lacks in range it makes up in close range threat. I'm torn between the importance of having EWS on it. It mattered one game for one shot, so that hardly makes it a deal breaker. Against squadrons I doubt it would have mattered since it is easy to pic another shield zone that is not Chaffed. What I felt was an Improvement was Walex over Lando. One extra defence token to throw away is very powerful.

Mon Karen went down once. And that was me thinking it would manage a slowroll into a MC75 Ordnance side arc while swarms of squadrons where next to the Liberty. Lets file that under "things to avoid in the future".

As for squadrons, they did what was demanded of them: delay other bombers. But I got severely disappointed in the amount of double accuracies I rolled with Ketsu and that persistent blank side of Dash black anti-ship dice, even with his inbuilt Bomber Command Center and Toryn Far. Remarkable.

BLAAAAAAAANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!!!

 

Game 1

The first game was against a Motti Cymoon Relentless with spinals-Strategic, Dominator Vic2 with QBT-DCaps-Gunnery Team-Tua ECM and 2 Gozantis, one with Comms and the other with Repair Crew. For squadrons there where Saber Squadron, Zertik and Jonus.

A very front arc heavy list that I tried to avoid the front arcs of. I had the higher bid so I choose First player. Solar Corona was my go to as I had earlier practised against Superior positions. Madine mitigates somewhat the disadvantage of deploying first with his ability and with the reach of the Mon Karen it has less impact with deploying a bit off when you can fake speed 4 turn 1 if needed and almost tie a knot on that navigation tool.

Round 1

Round one the surprises started. I hadn't looked so close at what my opponent had brought with his ships. So my MC30 got Titus'd up to speed 3. That was not in the preplanned flightpath. I had stacked an Engineer first round so no crazy Madine turns . All my ships other than the MC30 went speed 2. 

My opponents went speed 2 Vic and Cymoon speed 3.

Round 2

My MC30 now being in both Dominator and Relentless front arcs, I was very much coerced into activating this one just to get the heck out of dodge. Not even speed 4 and Madine turns could get it out of both the ships arcs, and it ended up in the Cymoons front arc. Better one than two at least. I throw in my squads to try to stop possible squadron harassment aimed at Admo. Before it leaves the company of the Cymoon it leaves a close range barrage in the front. The only shot that did not matter the whole game.

Mon Karen goes speed 3+1 and out of Dominators front arc. 

Cymoon unloads a long range shot with 7 dice, but thanks to Admonition, EWS and long range no hull damage gets through. Shield to the side are down to 1 and an evade gets Admo'd.

Vic slows down to speed 1 and does a 1-yaw turn towards the Liberty.

Round 4

Fast forward one turn, because I simply forgot to take a picture, I had made the choice of focusing down the Vic2 with Mon Karen and Ketsu/Dash. Liberty had the previous turns received a front arc from the Cymoon and a side arc from the Vic2, so it was not unhurt but still at good health and morale. It had also manage to do a hard turn into the side of the Vic2 2 and landed a Comms Noise on it with a volley to the rear arc, doing significant damage but not destroying it. During round 4 it goes down. The GR-75 Transport on the other hand, had to take a complete front arc with Dcaps and all the bells and whistles from the Vic2 a previous turn. No explanation needed to what happened to that flotilla.


MC30 was out of the game here and did not contribute to anything.

Round 5

Round 5 we just disengage and I had at this point lost my both generic YT-2400. Round 6 Dash/Ketsu moves in and finishes Saber Squadron and a badly damage Zertik.

This game ended 7-4. A reminder of how little I had flown Admonition previously manifested itself. It is a difficult but incredibly rewarding ship to fly. I was also impressed at my opponents shenanigan with Titus, gambling with the speed on the MC30 and that my first dial would not be a Navigate. If it had been I would have gone up Speed 4 and evaded the front arcs, but good play there.

 

Game 2

Next round, I got a taste of what a Rieekan list could be up to. I had no good answers to that and I also did sub-par choices.

The list worked around 2 Transports pushing non-rogues, one had Bomber Command Center and Adar Talon, the other had Leia and Comms Net. Both had Boosted Comms.

The MC75 Ordnance was tooled specifically to kill things, but did a lot of squadron pushing, which surprised me as it was still effective with only 2 activations.

Rieekan was on a TRC90 Jaina's Light.

The squadrons where as I recall, Ten Numb, Corran, Ketsu, Dutch, Wedge, Gold and Jan Ors.

I had the higher bid here also so I decided to go with something I have never used before, Dust Fields on Jamming Barrier.

Round2

I went into this without a clear strategy and I paid the Iron Price for it. I deployed everything at speed 2 and dialed in the Nav Commands. My opponents ships went speed 1 except the MC75, if I remember correctly. After round 1 the board state looked like on the picture above.


During this round, the MC75 bumped into the Adar Talon Transport and I saw an opening to what I thought was an easy kill. Madine'c CR90B goes speed 3 and bumps it as my last activation.

During Round 3

Madine had his CR90B parked next to the MC75 the previous round and went first, scoring a blue crit and forcing an exhaust on the ECM, using it on a redirect. The front then does another 3 damage to the side. Madine then went up Speed 4 to try to get away from the squadrons. But the previous round, Rieekans TRC90 had landed a double/double hit on it, lowering the shields on the front and the side. The next activations from my opponent sees Madines ship almost go down, leaving it at 1 hull after Gold and Corran does bombing damage to it. Adar Talon tells Gold Squadron to bomb again later and killing Madine. Meanwhile, I hold back Admonition for last, waiting out the MC75 to sail into close range side arc, I activate the MC80. It fires a long range volley into the Leia Transport, rolling almost perfect with 3 dice, doing one hull damage. With Madine dead, the Liberty is not so nimble anymore as I try to find an angle to double-ram it to death. Being one millimetre too short, it lives another turn.


MC75 at last activates, dumping the ExRax into the side of the Liberty, doing 5 hull with a structural damage crit from APT. Squadrons later during that turn picks Mon Karen apart.


Admonition then tries to do some damage. As the ECM is spent there is now potential of big damage to the MC75. A lot of Shields go down and some damage stick to the hull. I recall 3 or 4 hull damage.

Start Round 4

First activation is Admonition. Now having the MC75 double arced again, I'm desperately putting my hopes into this activation redeeming this game for me, as its only Dash/Ketsu and Transport Admonition left on the board for me.

The rear shot had no double crit but still landed 2 into shields. And when the side arc came the roll was cold. Rolled a total of 4 damage and no crits. The reroll with Ordnance Experts came up worse. The MC75 flies away with 4-5 hull damage and made it. This was a reminder that this is still a dice game. No matter how many dice fixes you bring, it can all amount to shit in the end. It is unlikely sure, but the fact that humanity exists on this blue green ball that orbits a star at an optimal distance suitable for life etc etc...

Start Round 5

No reason crying. This game was lost. Ketsu's and Dash attempted murder on Rieekans lifeboat ended up not being worth anything as they either blanked their blacks or double accuracied the blues. Round five Rieekan flew into his squads for a cosy coverage, and I was outside of range from the MC75.

Lost this badly, 3-8. Admonition did all of the damage during this game, but this time I misplaced Mon Karen and flew into a wasp nest. Not even Engine Techs and Madine could help that. I also gambled too much with my admiral. Had great value out of MS-1 Ion Cannons that I recently got my eyes on. Why no one uses it is easy to understand. It falls under the same category of "meh" upgrades similar to Overload pulse (expensive, hard to get to work) and NK-7 (even more expensive and a horribly bad card) but as a first player it can do some annoying things, and on a CR90B it has a prefect spot. And only being a 2 points upgrade it is not hard to fit one in. More than one is unnecessary.

 

Game 3

Game 3 Madine was up against the most badass custom painted list I had seen all day. Even the squadrons were painted in a similar theme making this list even more fearsome. Interdictor with the title, HIE, DCO, Engine Techs and Targeting Scrambler (if i recall correctly). Screed was the Admiral.
The Demo was kitted to kill squadrons. 
For squads my opponent had: Boba Fett, Morna, Maarek, Jendon, Firespray and Ciena Ree. A ball of hurt to put it in simple terms.


I won the bid here by a difference of 2, so I chose another objective I almost never play, Most Wanted.

Start Round 1

We deployed like above. Mon Karen was my opponents most wanted and I had the Gozanti. I deployed everything at speed 2. And my opponent did the same I faintly recall. The Interdictor jostled around some rocks to try to block his sides for Karen and Admo.


First activations just saw some token banking and turning. Squads moved forwards pretty aggressive.

Start Round 2

Mon Karen jumped up to speed 3+1 and parked itself at medium range from the Interdictor and long range from the Gozanti. 

Admo rolls up speed 3 and parks outside of double arc from the Interdictor next turn.

Demo positions for Madine and the Transport. Giving a double tap into the transport. It is  good rolls and I have to discard the scatter.

I woke up to the potential threat of the squad ball I faced. It could easily tear apart any ship with focused attention, so I had to try and stop that. Dash went head first into Maarek and closely followed by the 2 YT-2400 generics and Ketsu. Managed to bring him down to 1 hull.
Dash was killed due to focused fire.

Start Round 3

First activation is Madine. Having Demo in double arc, Engine Techs gets shut down with MS-1. Madine then turning hard in towards the middle where all the squadron action is. The Interdictor then Engine Techs hard into the side of Admo, trying to get out of shot from Mon Karen. It stays within long range but not with much.

Demo deletes the Transport and gives Madine a shot to the side. It lacks any crits so no damage goes through to hull. Demo then turns up beside the CR90B.

Admo goes and releases a volley into the Interdictor, doing a moderate amount of damage. No crits goes through thanks to Damage Control Officer. Admo then goes speed 4 and threathens an area next to Madines CR90.

Gozanti activates squadrons and Morna kills one YT-2400 this turn and the next with double tap from Jendon. Ketsu also gets the shaft and is deleted.  

Start Round 5

Fast forward one round and the board state looked like above:
Mon Karen was the first activation and released a front arc to the back of the badly damaged interdictor. I had rolled just enough to kill it without ramming it, and my opponent wanted to force a reroll of a red double, that rerolled into another double. Wow such luck.

Gozanti goes and activates 2 squadrons to mop up the last of mine. The squadron screen did what it could and I was happy for their participation o7.Gozanti then goes as far away from Mon Karen as possible.

Madine sails away speed 4 from anything that can get to him. 

Demo then goes and parks itself into double arc of Admo, which then kills it the following activation.

Won this game 10-1.

 

Game 4

I had to drop :(. A bit of misscommunication made the train tickets not re-bookable so 2/3 of the swedish contingent left after round 3. I realy wished I had stayed but pressing family matters needed my attention.

 

Closing Thoughts

The more I played the list the more it grew on me. The ships are fragile with a capital F but Madine kind of fixes that. I enjoyed the shit out of dodging double arcs and setting up for tough activations the following turns. MS-1 Ion Cannons is a debatable upgrade and very situational. For it to work you either need to set up a kill box for the opposing ships to fly into, or you need to go First. This I found no problems with seeing how parts of the Meta looks like. Highest bid I faced was 7, so Madines 9 was enough to go first all the games. Personally I am a bit unused to first player as I actually dislike the need for it, and seldom makes lists that rely on it. It is too much at stake when a list is built around going first and ot can backfire easily as there is always someone willing to dog deeper for that first player advantage.

Madine has fallen into obscurity, now that Raddus has taken over the spotlight with his hyperspace assault ability. It is true that Raddus does what Madine is doing better: get a favourable position for you and an unfavourable position for your opponent. But he only does that for one turn, and he can't make his ships do sick doughnuts and handbrake-turns, and he only works for one ship.

To sum up the experience, the tournament was awesome and it was a great time spent. Would not hesitate to go back for more in the future. Congratulations to Thomas Hougaard for winning the whole shebang! The last Swede left in the tournament made 4th place. Congratulations to a great tournament, despite not playing since Krakow.

Sadly it was a Sunday so no celebrations for the victor afterwards as the call of regular life beckoned everyone back to their normal routines.