FSA tournament 2016 after action

[Quickdraw]

I wanted to post a little battle report of the three games I played at Genghis Con. I didn't take notes and I don't have a ton of pictures but it will still be a good little report. I won't go turn by turn but I will highlight the missions and some of the important events of each game.

Before anything I want to provide the list I used for the first two games. It was rather top heavy which could have hurt me, but it went well. The idea was to give my opponent fits in target priority which worked like I planned.
Tier 1
Tyrant Battleship - maneuverability upgrades and 3 interceptors (these were very important)
Apollo Battleship - defensive upgrades
Marshall Battlecruisers x2 - nuclear upgrades
Tier 2
Aegis Shield Cruisers x2
Tier 3
Missionary Frigates x4
Missionary Frigates x4

Game 1 - "control the battle satellites" Opponent - Aquans

This first game was with one of the guys that came down from Wyoming. The mission was to control the battle satellites that housed small gravity weapons. You could control a satellite by sitting within 6" and having no enemies within 6". Deployment was in opposite table quadrants diagonally and the satellites sat in the four other quadrants. Our table included two planetoids on one side of the table and a very large asteroid field dead center.
I deployed my battleship to slingshot towards one satellite and my battlecruisers to do the same towards another. I held the Apollo and frigates in reserve.

Turn one saw very little action due to range and cover from terrain.
Turn two we started to close the distance. My Apollo came on a flank near a third satellite. The Tyrant put the hurt on the Aquan battleship as it rounded the asteroids and my Marshalls leap frogged behind some terrain to rain nuclear torpedoes on the buckets of frigates I was facing.
Turn three my Frigates came in behind the Aquan battlegroup and put some damage on the battleship. By the end of turn three I was able to destroy the battleship and a pile of frigates.
I had some really hot defense dice this game (all three games really) which shut down a lot of attacks, and I also used terrain to my advantage. The battle satellites were neat and had just enough oomph to finish off a couple lone frigates.
Overall I completed the three objectives; primary-highest battle log, secondary-most satellites controlled, and tertiary- most squadrons in enemy deployment zone (by mistake really). Clinching a healthy win.

Next I'll post the second and third games.

[Quickdraw]

Well here's the next two.

Game 2 - "hidden deployment" Opponent - Dindrenzi
I used the same list as before and was facing a pretty nasty list with a battleship, cruisers, destroyers, and a lot of frigates.
The deployment was interesting. Our squadrons were noted on cards which we deployed and then flipped over to reveal each one. I deployed on the far right flank behind a large asteroid field while the Dindrenzi deployed in a standard gunline fashion. This meant I was facing the battleship and frigates while the mediums were going to have to close the distance for a couple turns. I held the same units in reserve as the previous game.
Turn one I carefully moved to keep things in cover and launched some torpedoes. I believe I was able to damage some frigates and I had one nuclear explosion that killed a few. A lot of guns were thrown my way and I think my defense dice were hot again and blocked almost everything. I think my shield cruiser took some damage at this point.
Turn two our battleships went toe to toe and the mediums were able to throw some ineffectual long range shots. I got some more frigates with torps and my shield cruisers took a beating. I lost one to guns and another was boarded by superior Dindrenzi marines.

In the next two turns we circled each other in the same general region. I put some minor and major damage on the battleship, eventually killing it in the final turn. The majority of the frigates are destroyed as well. My Apollo and one squadron of frigates shunted into good positions to cause some havoc. One of my battlecruisers finally went down to guns and a critical from boarding.
Notably one of my frigate squadrons never reached the table.
In the end I was able to secure the primary-battle log, secondary-destroy enemy admiral. My opponent secured tertiary-most surviving squadrons.

Game 3 - "zone of control" Opponent - Relthoza
For this game I switched my lists. Thinking that we would be all converging on the center for the objective I wanted a stronger shunt presence.
I switched the battlecruisers for a squadron of heavy cruisers and changed my frigates to Armsmen for the added torpedo salvos.
Deployment zones were shallow rectangles in each corner with an objective in the center. I deployed my frigates in one zone behind a large asteroid field. And I deployed my battleship and shield cruisers in the other near a planet.
Dale placed a carrier group opposite my battleship and a Dreadnaught opposite my frigates. He also deployed two destroyer squadrons in ambush.
I made a tactical blunder and moved my battleship out first, with Relthoza cloak and stealth he didn't do anything. But he was open to a punishing salvo from both the Dreadnaught and carrier group. My frigates moved out and were able to torpedo a half size squadron of enemy frigates.

My battleship went down in the second turn and I started to lose frigates one by one. My Apollo shunted in behind the carrier and got a triple critical essentially making it ineffective. This was my biggest shot of the day and it was really the only big damage from the Apollo.
As Dales destroyers came into play my frigates began to tear them apart and were able to kill one from each squadron. My heavy cruisers never showed up and at the end of turn three neither of us controlled the objective.
I don't remember the objectives I claimed but my battlelog was a little bit above Dale from all of the small battlelog adjustments and that big carrier kill. One of my favorite things from this game was that I had a situation to roll my battleship belly-up.

[Quickdraw]

Here's some thoughts on the event.
The lists included a lot of Tier 1 ships. In total we had four dreadnaughts and plenty of battleships.
It was really great to see a bunch of painted ships and it was also nice to play some new guys. The scenarios were interesting but I thought it was interesting that the primary objectives all focused on the battlelog.
The reserves were great because it really caused some quandaries for my opponents. However, in tournament style we only played 3 turns each game so it was a definite risk that things would not make it to the table as in the second and third games I played.
Thanks for everyone that came out to play.

[DonWade]

The 2.5 hour timetable per round really was detrimental to my usual max reserves Terran list.  I like bringing Marshals and Artemis in from the flanks to initiate some serious nuclear destruction on turns 3 and 4 and I like to shunt my Missionaries in turn 2 on tier 2 and tier 3 ship's rear fire arc.  Those little guys put out hurt well above their tier but you have got to have them in RB 1 or 2 and you need at least 3 of to be alive to do it.

 In rounds one and two things didn't go according to plan as even the Perfect Timing TAC wasn't getting everybody on the table.  By round three I'd given up on reserves and opted for Drives to Maximum to get the Missionaries where they needed to be and it worked swimmingly.  It also turns out that cruising Artemis aren't that bad even if you're giving up on Hidden Killer's benefits.

I did find the round 1 satellite objective frustrating with objectives only counting at the end of the game.  My slow moving, low activation count fleet (again, due to all dem reserves) had great difficulty getting to or contesting the objectives.  I much prefer the End Phase checking and Battle Log changes from Capture The Station, even if Terran aren't usually too good at that mission.

Round 1 satellites throwing 4 dice was really not  that useful against anything but a tier 3.  It was in interesting mechanic but maybe if they had the Tarakian  push/pull mechanic added it would have been more useful.

Round 2 was, sadly, not that dramatic.  Rick and I only got to finish turn 2 and I was soooo looking forward to taking over his two cruisers that had benefited from me rolling an inordinate amount of Hull Breach crits on his tier 2s.  Those Terran assault cruisers can be pretty surprising to an opponent not expecting boarding actions from da humies.  Pure BL the game would have been a minor victory to Rick at 3 to -3.  I think turn 3 would have seen some impressive BL swings throughout the turn.

Round 3 I found the single objective in the middle of the table to be a wash.  Both sides just had to get as many units as possible within contest range (12" was pretty forgiving) and go to all stop.  By the time you got there you were probably only looking at one more round of play.  So, it was kind of a rush to the center then just a slug fest to see if Matt or I could explode enough ships out of contest range.  Turns out it was just a BL game.

I'm also not sure how well the tertiary objective in turn 3 works in the tourney setting.  Plus one point to the opponent of the first player to shunt a squadron out.  I normally try to begin shunting out squadrons when they reach half hull points to keep from losing the full BL change.  It works in full length games but I didn't expect to see a shunt actually go off in 3 or maybe 4 turns so I didn't bother. 

Critiques aside I had an exceptionally good time.  Thanks for organizing this, Dale.  You put together a fine event.

[Ruckdog]

Thanks for the event report guys! Sounds like it was a lot of fun. Only getting to turn 2 or 3 definitely shakes up how to approach certain scenarios...that has me thinking about the mission pack for Adepticon.