BillHimclaw 213 Posted February 11, 2018 (edited) Ever since @Drasnighta created the concept of the Nose Punch fleet, I wanted to test it. I did. It was fun. So much fun that, when the date for the Zaragoza Regional got close, I didn't know what else I wanted to fly, and Wave7 was not allowed. So I took it, after asking for advice from Dras himself, and tweaking one or two things. Here's the list: "The Konstanthulhu Mythos" Galactic Empire. 399/400 "Gorgon" (132) Suppression Interdictor (90) Konstantine (23) Skilled first officer (1) Ion Cannon Batts (5) DCaps (3) GX-7 (2) Targeting Scrambler (5) "Interdictor" (3) "Medusa" (103) Suppression interdictor (90) Skilled First Officer (1) Ion Cannon Batteries (5) DCaps (3) GX-7 (2) Grav Shift (2) "Hydra" (63) Flight Commander (3) DCaps (3) "Squall" (3) "Hydra's Heads" (101) Maarek Steele (21) Colonel Jendon (20) Dengar (20) Mayor Rymer (16) Zertrik Strom (15) Black Squadron (9) Objectives assigned Station Assault Contested Outpost Salvage run You know how the fleet's supposed to work. On with the batrep! Round 1 - 9-2 WIN The enemy list was a tooled up Mon Karren with Xi7, Intel officer, gunnery teams, with Yavaris and Phoenix Home carrier, plus a full bomber wing of doom, including Norra and the squad killing combo of Dutch and Wedge. No Bwings, tho. A single VCX helped extend command range. I got the bid, so I chose second and he took my Station Assault. He tried to block the stations's deployment on the corners, but I still placed them cobbled together on the far right. Then proceeded to cover that side of his deployment zone with GX-7. I must say, my adversary was able to see through the Nose Punch. He deployed on the free side of the bubble, and placed his fighters protecting his ships. His first command was a Squadron command from the Pelta, sending a cloud of fighters on my direction and blocking my Squall advancement. His only mistake: The pelta had been deployed at speed 2: It moved ahead far enough as to leave the fighter screen protection and be in range of my alpha bombardment. My Quasar was next, using Squall to move Rymer, Jendon and Maarek as close as possible to the intercepting cloud, and then squad-commanded them to assault the Pelta. The poor thing was left cripped, but survived. The rest of the round went on with no issues. He sent the rest of his squadrons to intercept the trio during the squadron phase. Second round made Yavaris command his X-wings to destroy Maarek... But they failed narrowly. Then Dengar came along, and Maarek, with Jendon, finished the pelta at the start of round 2. The rest of the game was a play of Konstantine screwing around with Yavaris' and Mon Karren's speed and formation, while my fighters kept his entertained. Yavaris fell. So did Mon Karren. I lost the Quasar and the Medusa, and most of my squadrons, but the advantage given by keeping both stations unharmed was enough to give me a 9-2. But to be honest, had my adversary brought Intel of his own, things may have gone a bit differently. Round 2 7-4 LOSE This was a very fun match. My enemy came with two TRC90's, one of them Jaina's Light with Mothma, two MC30 with TRCs and APTs, one with Landonition and the other with Foresight. And a single, naked GR75 alongwith Biggs, two X-wings and a YT-1300 that we called "the intern". He had the bid and chose to go first, took my station assault. My greatest mistake was leaving a small, narrow pathway between the GX-7 bubbles, closer to the sations, hoping he would divide his forces and help me pick on a weakened. He did, but that gave him control over the objective, placing both MC30s on the line towards the stations. He deployed the CR90s out of the bubble, at high speeds and sideways, ready to join the rest. And the single, tiny flotilla took the punch, deployed right in the middle of the GX7 section, and between both sides of his forces. My attempt at being cunning backfired: He had more deployments and toyed with me as I was forced to place my ships to take on two fronts. In retrospect, that might have given him the game. That and that all the obstacles, ALL OF THEM were on the side of the board we didn't use. Still, with a Dengar-Rymer-Maarek punch, I managed to destroy his flotilla on round 1, to my relief. We think the bothans were there. Despite the relentless assault from the X-wings, Maarek managed to survive long enough to get to the next round... Where Zertrik Strom and Black Squadron provided much needed escort. Mon Mothma, passing by, took a Maarek-Jendon combo to the side. And another, next round, ending her. And then, both Maarek and Jendon fled the fighter massacre, to hunt together. By now the Mc30s were starting to do serious damage, but Interdictors are tanky and resisted. But heck, are those things hard to kill! Even with Mothma dead, they managed to survive long enough as to destroy one of the stations, the Quasar, Konstantine's interdictor and cripple the other. The game ended at round 5, but had it lasted just a bit more, I would have been tabled. I learned my lesson here: Don't be creative if you haven't tested a thing yet. This list requires the enemy to fly against the current the entire time: If I give him control over anything, I will have a hard time keeping up. But it was FUN. All of it. The guy ended second, just above me. ROUND 3 9-2 WIN This one was short, but we played all 6 rounds. My first mirror match. I faced a 3 activation Sloane non-BT Avenger ISDII with Xi7s and ECMs, with a Flight Controllers Quasar and a single Comms net flotilla. Then came Soontir, Ciena, Howl, Mithel, Dengar, Jendon, a Lambda, Interceptors and whatnot alphastriker fighterforce of doom. Initiative went to a coin flip for him, and he chose to go first, and my Salvage run, because Lambdas and strategic. I was afraid. But then he chose to deploy in the GX.7 bubble. I moved most obstacles off the way, then proceeded to nose-punch his quasar... Wich was completely destroyed by round 2, when Dengar and friends came along (and then died). The flotilla spent most of its time at speed 0, but Dengar's death prevented me from chasing it. Still, the Avenger had little to do: Squadrons were busy and uncommanded, nobody attacked before it did and was unceremoniously destroyed, after claiming one single token and ramming the Quasar to its death. The flotilla had been sending tokens to the ISD (only to have them stripped down with the Ion Cannon Batteries), so it started moving too late. An interdictor crossed its path and with a Concentrate Fire dial-added blue die that rolled an accuracy, it died on round 6. It was over. LESSONS LEARNED Nose punch is FUN. It has the ability to leave the enemy limping from round one, reacting to you. It has its weaknesses, no doubt, and it struggles to keep up on the second half of the battle. But if it works, it is awesome! And if it doesn't, it won't give a clean victory to the enemy. I still have to use it as first player, but that will come some other day. At the end of the day, I got 3rd out of 19, acrylic scatter tokens, distance and range rulers and a bag of sparkly dice (wich I exchanged for the Nationals Gozanti-Gr75 plastic deployment card and some alt-art stuff), and a sense of pride. Edited February 11, 2018 by BillHimclaw 2 noggin and Mad Cat reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
