Armada: Vassal Tournament - Game 3

This picture couldn't have been more accurate.

Holiday Vassal Tournament - Game 3
Objective: Dangerous Territory

HERO
Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 391/400
Commander: Admiral Ackbar

[ flagship ] MC80 Command Cruiser (106 points)
-  Admiral Ackbar  ( 38  points)
-  Home One  ( 7  points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)

Assault Frigate Mark II B (72 points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
-  Jaina's Light  ( 2  points)
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points)

1 Dash Rendar ( 24 points)
2 YT-2400s ( 32 points)

Vs.

Qark
Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 393/400
Commander: Darth Vader

[ flagship ] Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
-  Darth Vader  ( 36  points)
-  Relentless  ( 3  points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  XI7 Turbolasers  ( 6  points)
-  SW 7 Ion Batteries  ( 5  points)

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
-  Demolisher  ( 10  points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Assault Concussion Missiles  ( 7  points)

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (56 points)
-  Insidious  ( 3  points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
-  Ordnance Experts  ( 4  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  Assault Concussion Missiles  ( 7  points)

4 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 32 points)


Pre-game thoughts:
Alright, let's see.  His list has an ISD with double GSDs with ACMs and Vader as his commander.  This means that he's probably running an aggressive push list so I'm expecting his strategy to be to run towards me, possibly cut me off, and then slam into me with everything he has.  The biggest weakness on my MC80 is if he's blocked off and he's just taking a constant pounding in the face with no way to maneuver out of there.  Thus, my gameplan was to spam as many navigates as possible and setup angles where I can keep as many of his ships within arc and utilize my wide MC80 arcs and my MKII's Gunnery Teams as much as possible.  I already know he's going to be aggressive in his list, but I also know that I have first player so I'll be able to shoot first which will be critical in a Gladiator-heavy match-up.  If he had first player in this instance, I would have to play the long kiting game and hopefully down a ship before I can risk more aggressive action.  Since he doesn't, I think that as long as I'm able to pepper shots in the Gladiators while keeping my distance out of black range, I should be OK.  GSDs don't have a lot of HP so a solid shot from the MC80 should be enough to drop one if he's already damaged.

Deployment - I deploy pretty aggressively; looking for slash angles.

Deployment looks like this, which to my surprise, he didn't try to overpower one side but instead kept his forces relatively separated.  I think this works in my favor because I think he's eyeing those objective tokens rather hard.  Maybe too hard.  This is the break that I needed because he's giving me more space to maneuver and my ships can easily displace into better firing angles if he's going to try a wide flank.  Let's find out.

End of 1 - Once again, looking for that optimal firing angle.

OK, so my opponent goes for the wider flank from his leftmost GSD while his ISD moves forward very aggressively.  He's definitely looking to block with his ISD-II, but the way I positioned my MC80 puts him into a very aggressive slash position onto his ISD and GSD next turn if he tries to turn in.  At this point, he has to either commit with the GSD towards my MC80 or run away, both of which I find acceptable.  We both move up to claim some tokens, and the MKII moves into an angle to get the side shot next turn.  Dash and the rogues engage and I throw some blacks onto his ships before one-shotting a TIE Fighter.

End of 2 - I'm able to execute multiple slashes with multiple ships from here.

This is a big turn for me because I activate my Home One first and move into slash position of the ISD and his incoming GSD.  Since I'm out of black range and that particular GSD did not have Demolisher, I felt very comfortable in this position I'm in.  I also knew I was going to escape his ISD's forward arc next turn with some fancy flying from my navigates.  The MKII was in a pickle though, he fired off his side shots at both GSDs and had a really bold choice ahead of him:  Slow to 1 and angle hard to avoid the MC80's collision, or just go hard into slash of the ISD-II and hope I survive.  I count my tokens, my ECM was up, and I had a decent amount of shields to take a pounding if the ISD rolls 8-10 damage.  His Demolisher, who already has damage on him from the MKII, rolls up behind my MKII and does solid damage to it, procing the ACMs and putting a card on the MKII.  Jaina's Light activates next, shoots 6 damage into the back of his Demolisher and it goes down after I accuracy the Brace.  Finally, his ISD activates and puts some more damage on the MKII, clearing my right shields after Brace.  Next, his Gunnery Teams shoots at my MC80; putting front shields down to 1 after Brace and Redirects.  Meanwhile, the fighters slap eachother in the face in their side game.

End of 3 - Damage overwhelming, the death of both GSDs.

On this turn, I start with the MC80 and blow away the GSD to my starboard side.  Since he already took damage and Redirected damage, I just went into the starboard hull zone and it was enough to instantly take the ship down.  My port-side shot rakes the ISD-II and I force him to discard his Brace with Intel Officer.  I then cruise out of the front arc of his ISD while angling in a way that he won't be able to run from me next turn.  Sure enough his ISD activates, shoots the MKII again but didn't roll too hot, I Brace and Redirect and pull 3 cards.  His ISD turns, gives me his rear, and I shoot return fire with the Jaina's Light, shooting through my MKII but not caring for obstructions, doing 4 hits with an accuracy to lock down a green Redirect.  He burns one of his remaining ones, gets his shields stripped, just in time for my MKII to activate and go to town on dat ass.  I do solid damage, he takes more cards and we move onto next round.  His one TIE heroically ties up Dash until the end, so he was only able to make his rogue move.

At the start of 4, my MC80 activates and blows away Vader in the ISD, shooting full Ackbar into the rear arc.  GG Qark, 430-30 MoV, 10-0 win for the Rebels.

Post-game thoughts:
I think for this game in particular, my opponent might have lost on his initial deployment and during the first movement.  He went a little too hard for the early game tokens and should have moved directly towards me with everything he had in a more aggressive fashion.  Instead, he swung in wider arcs which played to my MC80's advantage, and I was able to setup multiple slash angles with both the Home One and MKII.  Once I was in position to do threaten multiple arcs, he had to either commit or run away, but either way he would have bled damage or not be in the fight.  We discussed the game afterwards and he agreed that the deployment could have been tighter, his flying could have been more aggressive, and he should have looked to block the MC80's path with the leftmost GSD and rightmost Assault Frigate with the Demolisher.  If they were able to block my escape paths, I don't think my ships would have survived firepower of that magnitude.  At that point, the game becomes a math problem more so than maneuvering.  I also knew that because my MC80 was geared as a battleship, I will be able to force the discard on the Brace in the initial exchange, which will for sure seal the fate of the ISD in subsequent turns.

Thanks for reading!