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| I guess nobody plays Armada here... |
The List
By chance I saw one of the finalists from LVO using a very interesting list with Raddus (Original idea by Sam.S). After the Raddus "nerf", he finally became interesting for me, as he was too much of an offset from the rules that the game is built on. The game is sometimes decided during deployment, is probably a concensus that most players of all skill levels can agree on.
Being a man of integrity, I dislike netlisting. It is difficult to take a list from a previous tournament that did good and just put it down on the table and expect 10/1's and 9/2's all tournament. Lots of testing and thought are usually invested in those lists to just plug and play them and expect stellar results. Drawing inspiration from winning lists is another thing ...
On to the list I flew!
Name: Raddus potat v-0.2.2.1 sthlmprim
Faction: Rebel
Commander: Admiral Raddus
Assault: Surprise Attack
Defense: Asteroid Tactics
Navigation: Hyperspace Migration
Assault Frigate Mk2 B (72)
• Admiral Raddus (26)
• Toryn Farr (7)
• Advanced Transponder Net (5)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
• Gallant Haven (8)
= 132 Points
GR-75 Medium Transports (18)
• Bomber Command Center (8)
• Bright Hope (2)
= 28 Points
MC75 Ordnance Cruiser (100)
• Damage Control Officer (5)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• External Racks (3)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
= 124 Points
Squadrons:
• Jan Ors (19)
• 3 x X-wing Squadron (39)
• 3 x Lancer Pursuit Craft (45)
• Gold Squadron (12)
= 115 Points
Total Points: 399
This doesnt look like much and it isnt either. One (Two) capital ship(s) that keep the list on the table is not generally a good thing. Both the MC75 and the Assault Frigate are kind of sensetive to being shot more than once during a round.
Raddus got his nerf and this is a perfect time to try and see what he is capable of now.
The original LVO list had a Mon Karren HIE Liberty. I decided not using that as I simply wanted to put down a brawler and roll black dice. The MC75 can be a more durable and tougher ship than the Liberty that can put more stress on damage tokens, and actually turn without Madine or Nav Commands. The MC75 Ordnance is a run-o-the-mill setup but with DCO sprinkled on top. APT for crits directly to hull and exracks for a nice one time boost. No rocket science there, just rockets!
Assault Frigate MKii has been around a long time, and has proven itself as a reliable generalist that can fit into many lists under different roles. What amazes me is that after the nerf of Gallant Haven, it just dissapeared over night, hardly to be heard of again. At least from the top tables at big tournaments. I can say that it is still good even though expensive. An X-wing under its bubble with Jan nearby is basically impossible to bring down unless all firepower is concentrated on that X-Wing.
The squadron composition is also heavily inspired by the LVO list. 3 Xwings, Jan and 2 Lancers was in the initial list. I added a 3rd lancer instead of Rogue Squadron and Gold Squadron in place of Dutch. I hadn't used Lancers at all before I ran test versions of the list. And I was surprised at how they behaved and their mobility. Grit came in handy more than once. Even though fragile without X-wing buddies, they could still harrass ships or help chip away at opposing scatter aces.
What wasn't in my favour with running this was inexperience with it, the objectives and not having played Raddus muc before. The lack of table time for the list and not having clear ideas for the objectives proved to be a big problem. I did onlt manage to get down 2 games before the tournament where I could test things and change upgrades as needed.
The Matches
Game 1
Game 1 I was paired with a relatively new player, who handled his list well for being the
I had the higher bid so I choose second, thinking that my objectives would be of use. He choose Asteroid Tactics.
Round 1
I set up the obstacles in a cluster in the middle, left MC75 in hyperspace, deployed AFMKii at speed 2, Bright Hope at speed 1 and strew the squadrons around it.
He deployed near the corner with the ISD making the longer turn and the VSD cutting the short turn.
I moved up all my squads into the bubble of Gallant Haven. He slowrolled all his ships forward.
Round 2
Demolisher increased its speed to 3 and landed outside of doublearc from the Assault Frigate. Squads crept forward more, not wanting to engage yet. Both VSD and ISD were outside of range to take shots on anything.
Round 3
Raddus drop comes in into the sides of both the Star Destroyers at speed 1. Demolisher fires up at the Assault frigate making only shield damage but leaving one side damaged. Bright hope then activates closest x-wing and Lancer dealing damage to shields.
Gozanti moves speed 1 forward after dealing 2 damage to the front of the MC75, obstructing the shot.
MC75 opens up a long range shot at Demolisher harrasing the AF, and takes a front shot at short range into the front of the Vic, doing enough damage to take away shields in its left sidearcs, dealing an APT crit. Then proceeding to go speed 2 and ram the poor Gozanti once.
Victory takes side shots at the MC75 and turns into the fight speed 1.
Assault Frigate activates squadrons and sends as many as possible on Demolisher, destroying it. ISD fires a long range shot at the Assault Frigate. Speeds up and cuts across into the side of the Assault Frigate, activating squadrons on the way to harrass Bright Hope.
Round 4
(no picture)
ISD moves in behind the Assault Frigate after activating some squadrons, harrassing Bright Hope, and firing at the Assault Frigate leaving it badly damaged from a somewhat mediocre roll but enough to get some hull damage through.
MC75 opens up all the arcs at close range into the Vic, taking away shields and putting down damage to take it down to 4 hull remaining.
Gozanti activates and moves squadrons.
Assault Frigate takes a long range shot at the victory and rolls Accuracy and 2 double reds. Just enough to take it down. Making an error in navigating, The Assault frigate ends up ramming into the MC75 and stops on the debris field behind it.
Round 5
ISD activates first and destroys the Assault Frigate.
MC75 ends the Gozanti and we decide to call it at that point.
All in all a fun game. I made some errors with moving my squadrons too close to the worms and got Jan locked down one turn. Better need some practice with this one.
Win for Raddus 7/4
Game 2
With the quite even field I was in the lead, and had to face Mikael. A good player and I was about to find out how good in detail. He also wrote a summary of his game here (source in swedish). His list was basically 328 pts of Assault Prototype JJ Ravager with a Darth Vader Gozanti and another Gozanti with comms net that maybe pushed the 2 Interceptors he had brought. Only having played against an SSD once before and that was hardly serious, I had no clear plan how to handle this threat.
Round 1
I had the highest bid and opted to go first. Having dealt with an SSD going first before had made me an inch wiser at least. I choose his Rift Assault, and he made some pretty patterns in space. Three squadrons where withing red range of his flack. Definitley something to remember for next time. My basic plan was to get into the sides where the "guns aren't as dangerous ha ha" and drop the MC there and try to speed away with the Assault Frigate. Assault Frigate went Speed 3 over the debris field and got a boost by the rift. Bright Hope deploys at speed 3 and Squadrons decided it was a good idea to try to get a Gozanti or 2. Gozantis do Gozanti things. The SSD svivels hard to its left and has the Assault frigate in its front.
Round 2
*Chuckles* I'm in danger. JJ is an insane admiral for this ship. I say no more about that.
I misplay my squadrons when I try to get at the Gozantis. I manage to get one damage in but then the Interceptors sweep in and kills one Lancer like nothing. The AF lands just outside of medium range of the SSD and gets 7 red dice to the face, which it handles well, even with an Intel Officer. Bright Hope goes too fast and gets out of command range of the Squads.
Round 3
The MC75 gets called in to try to put some hurt into the hulking behemot. AF gets activated first as it is double arced, with an engineering dial to move and get up some shields. The shooting goes not as planned. From the front, 2 damage. But the side. All blanks. The luck I had in the previous match did not extend to this game. A reroll with LTT makes it one damage at least. I barely manage to not ram the SSD, but have now blocked its movement.
MC75 shoots into the side of the SSD and rolls all blank reds from the sidearc. At least the black dice show some damage. Hit and Hit/Crit. DCO negates APT. The front arc does more damage luckily. I burn the External Racks as I fear the MC75 wont get past turn 4. The beast is starting to bleed. Not wanting to go out and double arc the ship I try to turn in and ram the SSD, but instead rams the AF. In hindsight i should have turned away from the SSD and tailwhipped it, but ha ha. better remember that till next time.
SSD activates and gives the AF the pummeling of a lifetime. But it stands. The brace iswhat keeps it together and it hasn't taken any hull damage yet. The only hull damage that gets in is from the ram from the SSD. SSD sidearcs the MC75 and HOLY SHIT it takes a lot of damage with a follow up from IO that makes the brace go away. Here I wished that the DCO on the MC75 was Walex. Possibly a change for the future
Meanwhile the Interceptors are pulling their own weight in points as they keep my squadrons at bay from the Gozantis. Here I learn how annoying 3 Reserve Hangar Decks can be. One interceptor goes down and another comes back. An X-Wing goes down and a Lancer gets badly damaged.
Round 4
First activation is the AF. Not being able to get both ships out of threat range and also try to conserve points, I activate the AF. Shots fired into the front of the SSD puts more hull damage into it, and its now up to 8 damage. It then moves into the sidearc at medium range from the SSD.
SSD goes and gives the MC75 a sidearc with more than enough to destroy it. Then gets back to put some hurt into the AF. With an IO backed shot, the brace is burned. The AF is still holding togheter but its starting to look bleak.
The Gozantis have wiggled their way out of the threat of the squadrons and into safe comfort of Biggest Ship.
Round 5
I activate the AF, the last couple of turns I spammed Engineer Dials to prolong its life, but it is not enough. It goes down after an auxiliary side arc shot followed with a waiting Gozanti with a con fire that ends it.
Lost this 1/10.
Game 3
After that run-in with an SSD, I realize that it is a hard matchup against anyone that hasn't seen or played it much before. It certainly was a learning experience. And during the next game I was about to learn how much I could misplay Hyperspace Migration.
My last opponent for the day had a Motti ISD, Demolisher. Ciena Ree, Sontir, Howlrunner, Rhymer, 1 Interceptor and 3 TIE's. Backed up with two Comms Gozantis.
Round 1
(picture mid round)
My opponent had the upper hand in deployment and activations this game, so I had be defensive, and depolyed sideways. He had some squadrons that could be a problem for my bombers but he lacked Intel to move them around should they get tied in.
He went speed 3 with everything he had, trying to close in as fast as possible. His squads moved up as far as they could.
I slowroll speed 1 with my ships and move almost all my squadrons into the Gallant Haven bubble.
Round 2
(picture mid round)
No shots fired this round as he closes in with speed 3 again. I increase to speed 2 on the AF with a token and start to attack the ISD with squadrons. Enemy squadrons engage the X-wings but are not able to put much hurt into them as Jan and Gallant Haven reduces that damage to 1 every attack.
Round 3
(Picture mid round)
This round the drop happens. I place it so it double arcs both the ISD and Demolisher, that is not pictured here due to concentrated fire. He activates demo first and only manages to strip away the front shields from the MC75. I then answer in kind and gives Demo enough to send it down to one remaining hull, thanks to Motti.
Next activation is the ISD, and it tries to take down the MC75 with a double arc and Con Fire. Front attack roll goes in favour of the MC, but the side arc shot makes up for it and it remains, though badly damaged. ISD then goes speed 2
AF has to send over 2 squadrons to take down Demo, as the first lancer misses and is outside of BCC, but the Xwing that follows manages to bring it down. Gold Squadron rolls in 2 damage and strips shield from the ISD. Sidearc from the AF deals some damage and hull damage is starting to go through.
Enemy squadrons tries to take down x-wings but Jan makes it hard for them.
Bright Hope sends in more bombers to ship away at the ISD. Front and side shields are almost gone.
Remaining unactivated rogues follow and puts more damage into the ISD.
Round 4
(picture mid round)
This round the the MC75 is definitley toast. ISD ends it with its front arc, firing its sidearc at Bright Hope doing 2 total damage. Perfect roll. Then proceeds to slow down to speed 1.
Bright Hope makes a badly damaged x-wing and Gold Squadron shot at the ISD. It then bumps into the Gozanti in front of it. The ISD is at this point badly damaged.
Enemy squadrons take down Jan and the damaged X-wing.
AF takes a long shot at the ISD and leaves it on 4 hull.
Round 5
(picture mid round)
ISD activates first and shoots the AF, but to no avail. It then bumps into a Gozanti.
Bright Hope activates Gold and an X-wing to fire into the ISD. Rolls goes well and 2 damage goes in and a burnt brace. BH then rams into the Gozanti in its front.
Enemy squadrons take down the two Lancer that has made life miserable for the ISD and a Gozanti Ram takes out Bright Hope.
AF shoots at the ISD and deals enough to end it.
This game was a blast. Intense slugfest that I feared I would end up being tabled. Had not Demo gone down when it did, bad times for all.
Won 8/3.
Closing Thoughts
This list is really a gamble. A fun gamble. Only having 2 ships that keep your 143 pts investment in squads + Bright Hope forces an defensive playstyle until the drop happens. Dial commands has to be timed well with the AF. I clearly haven't played Raddus enough to get the most out of his drop. Definitley need more practise with him. Did not take into account the massive damage the SSD would deal from its sidearc, and should have not deployed all scattered about, dividing my forces and loosing vital activations that could probably have done more damage to the SSD with squadrons harrasing it, probably taking it below 11 hull.
With every game I had the list grew on me more and more. It certainly has tools for everything, but not much of any of them. This goes down in my book as a keeper. Even though I did place 3rd from the bottom, I still think it went well
Some upgrades that I want to adress the usability with.
LTT - Very usefull. Simply having it made my rolls godlike matches 1 and 3. Match 1 I did not need to use it once. It simply acts as a ward for bad rolling. Im not supersticious.
DCO - Not even once. During the run in with the SSD I thought about Walex. He would have kept it alive one more turn maybe. The fact that I did not encounter any special crits was kind of a lucky streack on the other hand. But I think that more playing needs to be done before I find a replacement.
ATN - ??. Hard to say if this made any difference. But the feeling of an Intel proof ship is nice. This comes down to the philosophy of the opponent. One that focuses on the squadrons cares less for this but the one that wants to ignore your squads and bomb the shit out of your ship is going to get sad.
As an ending to this tournament report I would like to thank the TO that made this great event possible. It was worth going from one end of the country to another and have 3 intense games and meet players that usually are only seen online in the flesh.
Also a big thanks to Sam.S on the Armada Discord that was the original brain behind this list. Had a nice chat about the list and how it behaved somewhat so I didn't have to go in completely blind. Thanks!
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