Saturday, October 3, 2015

Massing at Dice Age - Final Round

My opponent for the final round was Chris, making this our 3rd game in the past 2 days.  I grabbed the Rebels and he the Imperials.  We both opted for 3 ship builds.  I took:

MC-80 
Home One
Admiral Ackbar
Leading Shots

MC-30
Turbolaser Redirect Curcuits

AF MK IIB
Enhanced Armaments 
Gunnery Team

Han Solo
YT-2400
Tycho
2x A-Wings


He had the ISD, Raider II, and Demolisher.  With Boba, Bossk, and Rhymer for squadrons.   I wasn't sure of his various upgrades.  

He chose to go first and picked Advanced Gunnery.  I setup in a line along my table edge, while he split ISD to one side with the Raider and the Demolisher on the other.  

 
Setup

End of Round 1

 
End of Round 3.  He had rushed up his Demolisher and took a shot at the AF MK IIB.  Long-range shooting from the Rebels had already stripped most of the shields from the ISD.  The Demolisher used the Advanced Gunnery objective to shoot the front and side of the MC-80.  Despite some pretty nice rolling by the GSD, the MC-80 had no trouble soaking it although it took some hull damage.  In return the Ackbar boosted Assault Frigate killed both the GSD and Raider with a single round of fire!

 
End of Round 4 - Han and the YT-2400 were really mopping up the fighters, while the MC-80 pummeled the poor ISD.  It took an 8 dice crack at the MC-30 and nearly one-shotted it, leaving it with just one health remaining.  Ackbar and the MC-80 then easily finished off the ISD. 


Earning the win I opted to take home the MC-80 giving me one of each of the large Wave 2 ships.  Hopefully I can bring home one more ship in tomorrow's tournament.

The MC-80 feels like a bigger, tougher version of the Assault Frigate.  The lack of being able to take Gunnery Teams hurts its potential some, but wow does it make the most of the Advanced Gunnery objective.  Even as first player I would almost always grab that objective if I'm playing with an MC-80.

Home One + Ackbar is amazing.  Being able to turn those blank results into an Accuracy is just so good with all of the extra dice that you get to roll.  I'm curious to see how many ships I can fit into 400 points to take advantage of that.  You really don't need Concentrate Fire commands with all of the dice that you get to throw with Ackbar.

The MC-30 was cool, but is as expensive as an Assault Frigate if you play the Scout version.  I absolutely love Turbolaser Reroute Circuits.  This thing is definitely a glass cannon, which is not usually my favorite style of play.  I am really looking forward to getting more games in with it at some point.

The Rogue-keyword squadrons were really great.  They are probably worth the extra points you pay to bring them.  Han was also really fun.  It was great to be able to get that first shot in, especially as the second player.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you the post and pictures (y)

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  2. Sounds like a great final round, thanks for the write up. I didn't make the final round of my local event, but the last two players had a similar result. The MC80 with Ackbar throws out buckets of dice and tore the Imps to shreds. I think the ISD is really going to have to make the most of Vader and its better manoeuvrability to beat the Mon Calamari!

    How would you approach that match up as the Imperials?

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    Replies
    1. I just don't know yet. Ackbar is really amazing and makes the whole fleet just so deadly. I'm not sure what you can do yet. Some well timed Engineering commands should help. I also think ECM will be important. With Home One + Ackbar there are a ton of dice, plus always the accuracy needed to shut down the Brace token.

      Otherwise the Imperials (or Rebels) will really have to work to get out of those broadsides. I think that much like folks had to learn how to deal with Demilisher Gladiators, Ackbar will really take some getting used to.

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