Last weekend I ventured over to Common Ground Games in Stirling to take part in an Armada tournament with a twist. This would be an escalation tournament, with 3 games with increasing points allowance. So the first game is at 250pts, the second at 350pts and the final game at a whopping 450pts, with the only other caveat, over and above the standard tournament rules, being that you had to keep exactly what you had in your previous lists throughout the others. I was stoked to try out a different format, as so far I’ve only played in tournaments using the standard rules. Let’s take a look at how the day went….

Game 1 – 250pts – Empire vs Empire

My starting force looked like this:

ISD II – Admiral Motti, Electronic Counter Measures, XI7 Turbolasers, Leading Shots

Gladiator I, Demolisher, Ordnance Experts, Engine Techs, Assault Concussion Missiles

and my opponent was running this:

VSD I, Admiral Screed, Wulff Yularen, Flight Controllers, Boosted Comms

Gladiator I, Demolisher, Ordnance Experts, Engine Techs, Assault Proton Torpedoes

Major Rhymer, Mauler Mithil, TIE Bomber, TIE Fighter

I had the initiative so chose to be first player and selected Contested Outpost for our objective. As is usual with a mission like this one, after set up and deployment, we found ourselves only using around a 3rd of the table.

The first turn or two was all about getting into position, with my ISD and my opponents Gladiator zipping forward to try and take the outpost. The VSD also took the opportunity to command the squadrons to head into the fray and splash a little damage across the fore shields of my Demolisher, whilst the ship itself held back to survey the conflict.

It was a this point the enemy Gladiator zipped forward to get that four black side arc blasting away at the ISD. Luckily it came away with only some shields down and a target right in the sights of it’s fore and starboard arcs, cue villainous laugh.

It was time to get my Demolisher stuck in, so it zipped up and activated it’s engine techs to get right into the juicy spot behind the opposing Gladiator and let rip thanks to the Demolisher title. That left one crippled Gladiator that the ISD was more than happy to finish off.

Over he next two turns the ISD began to slow to maintain control of the station and fired a couple of long range shots against the VSD, only really managing to down a few shields. The Demolisher however circled it’s prey, popping off volleys onto the starboard and aft. He didn’t come out unscathed, but did sufficient damage to take down the target. That left the small fighter ball to have one last pop at the ISD but after some incredibly unlucky rolling nothing managed to break through the shields of the flagship.

Result: Win 9 – 1

Game 2 – 350pts – Empire vs Rebels

Here’s what I added to my 250pt list:

Avenger title for the ISD

Gladiator I-class Star Destroyer, Insidious, Ordnance Experts, Engine Techs

1 Firespray

I don’t remember exactly what my opponent was running, sorry I’ll do better next time, but here’s a general idea and the upgrades I can remember:

MC80 Assault, General Dodonna, Defiance, Enhanced Armaments

AF-MKII, Advanced Projectors, Enhanced Armaments

Nebulon B Escort, Enhanced Armaments

Tycho, X-Wing, B-Wing

I had the initiative again on this one, so took first player and chose Most Wanted as the objective. We ended up setting up two fronts. On one my ISD versus the Assault Frigate and the other everything else. My opponent then chose his MC80 and the Demolisher as the objective ships, meaning anyone firing at them got an extra die and they were worth double points when defeated.

On the ISD side both our ships moved forward to start trading blows, the ISD heading straight forward and the Assault Frigate beginning to turn to present it’s flank and banks of turbo lasers. The first few turns each ship was just knocking a few shields off here and there. On the other side of the battlefield the Demolisher zipped forward to block the MC80 managing to stop right in front of her and dishing out enough damage to take down a good amount of shields. The Insidious moved down the far side, looking to get in behind the big ship. In return my opponent threw everything he had at the Demolisher, very nearly reducing her to wreckage with only one hull left.

The next turn over on the other front was a bit more eventful. The ISD turned to try and get the Assault Frigate in that all important double arc, and by god was it a close call…

Just scraping by the ISD was now in the perfect position to unleash a nasty volley and thus the Assault Frigate was blown into space dust. It did however mean the ISD was miles away from the rest of the fight and would not be able to help support the other half of the fleet.

Over on the other half of the battlefield I managed to get one last activation out of the
Demolisher, to unleash a salvo straight into the MC80 bringing most of the shields down and the score a few hull points of damage. The MC80 then proceeded to blow it out of the sky, scoring more than triple the damage necessary. The Insidious continued it’s journey around the to the back of the Rebel line.

The next couple of turns really want my way with the Insidious pulling up behind the MC80 and pummelling it’s engines until they overloaded and the whole ship disappeared in a fireball. The Neb-B managed to fire off a volley but it just wasn’t enough to slow down the Gladiators furious assault and it too met it’s end at the hands of the Insidious. With all the capital ships just chunks floating in space, the Rebel fighters zipped not hyperspace and another victory was claimed by the Empire.

Result: Win 9-1

Game 3 – 450pts – Empire vs Empire

My additions came in the form of some more fighter support:

4 Firesprays, Major Rhymer and the Punishing One

My opponent was running the following:

Raider I, Admiral Ozzel, Admiral Montferrat

Gladiator I, Ordnance Experts, Assault Concussion Missiles

Raider I, Ordnance Experts, Assault Concussion Missiles

Raider I, Ordnance Experts, Assault Concussion Missiles

Raider I, Ordnance Experts, Assault Concussion Missiles

Slave I, IG-2000, 3 Firesprays, 3 Aggressors

I knew this one would be a challenge. Not just because of the above list but I’ve yet to beat this opponent after several games and I know how skilled he is. I once again had the initiative and saw no reason not to go first again. The options for objective were limiting. I didn’t want Superior Positions as I knew he had the manoeuvrability and fighter superiority to take advantage. I definitely didn’t want Most Wanted, as he would choose my weakest ship and choose his Ozzel Raider which could easily run away. So I was left with Fleet Ambush.

This meant my Gladiators where deployed at distance 5 of my edge and I kept them at a low speed. My ISD was deployed as close to them as possible at speed 3 so I could join the elements of the fleet together as soon as possible.

The enemy lined up to to take everything I had straight on, with one Raider nipping round the side and the Ozzel Raider going for a trip round the table and keeping well away from the fight. We traded a few shots in the initial line up with the only thing of note being my Firesprays eating through the shields of a Raider to do a couple of points of hull damage.

The next few turns it went south fairly quickly. Demolisher did manage to take out the leading Raider, but then it’s back up and the Gladiator swiftly annihilated her. The ISD popped a couple of long range dice into the Raider but did nothing of note. The enemies Raider came in from the side to unleash on y squadrons managing to rack up a fair bit of damage with the combination of two black dice and ordnance experts.

On the squadron front the Aggressors swiftly moved in to engage my squadrons knocking a few more damage points onto them and taking out a Firespray. With the help of Dengar most of my squadrons focussed on the Raider managing to take off the last couple of hull points and send her and her crew into the void. The opponents Firesprays focussed on the Insidious, managing to pummel her down. Not enough to kill her, but she was now in serious danger.

On the next turn I needed to get the Insidious out of danger so went for a manoeuvre that would pull me onto the port flank of the remaining Raider. Unfortunately for me it just clipped it, meaning she was now sitting in-between the Gladiator and the Raider and was swiftly blown away. The ISD meanwhile tried to put some damage through on the Gladiator, but to no avail. The aggressors continued their slaughter of my squadrons leaving only a couple of Firesprays and Dengar left. Knowing they would not do any considerable damage to them, they managed to get into position to fire on the remaining Raider and managed to score just enough damage to blow it away. The opposing Firesprays began to bombard the ISD, emanating to pummel the remaining shields and get through to the hull, but with Motti onboard they still had a lot of work to do.

The ISD and the Gladiator continued to trade blows, with the Gladiator being a lot closer to death, only 2 hull points to go. My last Firespray managed to pop off a shot to knock it down to one hull left, and then got into position o try and get that last hit next turn but out of nowhere comes IG88 to blast it clean out the sky, damn. The other aggressors continue to mop up and obliterate the rest of my squadrons, meaning only the ISD left. An ISD with 4 Firesprays on it’s tail. Led by Boba Fett himself they manage to blast through the hull and send the core critical resulting in an ISD fireball and a loss for Motti and his forces.

Result: Loss 1-9

With the last game out the way we could now have a look at the final standings, and with a good run of games under my belt I had managed to score enough to come in second, with my opponent form the last game coming in on top with a lead of 8 tournament points! I was very happy with the result, but more than that really happy with the day. The format was great, each and every opponent a joy to play and overall a very enjoyable day.

Next up on the tournament schedule is the Scottish regionals! Here’s hoping I can score some of those purty dice and whilst I’m at it I will try to get enough info and pictures to do the same kind of report.

Thanks for reading 🙂