After Action Report - Firestorm GT 2016

[paintedgoblin 90]

Having just painted up my squadron of Destroyers I was 100% certain I wanted to run them in this tournament, so starting with that as a basis, I decided to go for a Precision Strike list taking full advantage of the Systems Sniper TAC card.

I was really pleased with the way it performed. I scored WDWLW

 

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Tier 1

Maelstrom Battleship (255 points)

+2 Shields, +3WC, Precision Strike, Energy Transfer (2), Corrosive Torpedoes

6 Bombers

 

Tier 2

4 x Isonade Cruisers (260 points)

Difficult Target, Energy Transfer (1)

 

3 x Stingray Destroyers (225 points)

Precision Strike

 

Tier 3

4 x Snapper Corvettes (60 points)

 

TAC's - Sniper Systems, Evasive Manouevres, Intel Gathered.

 

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The basic idea was to place the cruisers and snappers in reserve, fly the battleship into the centre, laying mines all the way and trusting in the shields to protect it. The destroyers circle around the perimeter of the battle area, throwing 14AD at anything they can reach (and laying mines if it was felt necessary).

As soon as possible, shunt the cruisers and snappers in behind the enemy Tier 1, and unleash a big salvo. On the second turn after the cruisers shunted in, play the Sniper Systems TAC and spend one huge turn using precision strike on the enemy admirals vessel as much as possible, first focusing on defensive systems, then life support to reduce their CP.

 

It was surprisingly effective. The destroyers in particular were very good for me throughout the weekend, and were causing a critical with almost every attack. The main exception was in the one battle that I lost, where neither of my reserves joined battle until turn 5, during which time my battleship had taken a pounding and was destroyed. My opponent was able to out-activate me and concentrate fire on my few squadrons. That's the gamble with reserves.

(In fact, after this experience I deployed the cruisers normally in the final game and spent two turns sneaking up the opposite side of the table to the destroyers - it was slightly less of a surprise, but the end outcome was the same)

 

The highlight was against a Hawker/Ryushi list, where my precision strikes and critical hits took out the Hawker Battleships PD network, it's shields offline and its security in disarray. If the 6 strong bomber counter I had close by had been assault boats instead, it would have been sooooo sweet

Aquan boarders! Who ever heard of such a thing?

 

It was unfortunate that two of the opponents I faced had Dirty Secrets, otherwise I think I'd have had more precision strike fun. The 3 point retrieval cost was a bit too steep for me to pull it back to hand.

 

Overall it was a great weekend, and thanks to all my opponents.

I finished in second place, and I believe I was the only one who caused a loss to Craig, the eventual winner so I'm pretty pleased overall!

[azrael 155]

Also still can't get over the gorgeous paint job on your aquans painted gobbo 

Just really really awesome ! 

[paintedgoblin 90]

Thanks Azrael - I need to get painting again for the upcoming tournament at Reading Warfare.

Just not yet completely decided on my list! So many choices in 1000 points...

[azrael 155]

I know exactly what you mean ! I have been toying with so many different lists its unbelievable. Due to time limit of each game the basic double patrol fleet box set is very tempting but then I am not using the nice toys a battle fleet size game brings...... Medusa, manta, twin orca , tsunami as tier 2's 

They are all just so pointy options 

[ahmadan 349]

Dual Orca lists... mmm...

 

I've done a similar list, apart from using Frigates instead, and while it didn't perform quite as well as yours seems to have done, it was still a good list (my Stingrays had some very bad luck with their dice...).

 

[paintedgoblin 90]

Sad as I am to say it but I'm not sure I'll be running Stingrays in the upcoming tournament. They're great but take a huge chunk of points up, and I have new models I want to try out. No spoilers here