Dr. Piett and the Goz...or How I Learned to Love the SSD: Part II

...well, I am pretty big.

"Judge me by my size?"
 --Yoda

In the first article, we went through the thought process of building a competitive SSD fleet.  In this article, I will provide a battle report on how this fleet performed during the Huzzah Hobbies' Prime Championship and where we can improve or tweak this Piett build.

Background: I play in the Washington DC area, which is home to a very robust Armada scene.  We host the Armada US Nationals each year in September and have some of the top players in the country living in this area.  Primes tend to be very competitive, particularly with a Worlds invite on the line. I expected at least five SSD fleets, several Sloane, a few Raddus, and a lot of Ackbar.  Surprisingly, I over estimated those taking the SSD.

Looking around the room just before the start of the first round, I only saw 2-3 other SSD builds.  Lots of Imperial squadrons (indicating Sloane was present), some Raddus builds, some Ackbar, and a smattering of Thrawn.

Round 1--

My first round was against Kyle, who brought Vader on an Chimera ISD-II, two Arquitens (one with TRCs and one with Slaved turrets), an expanded hangar bay Gozanti, and a handful of aces (Howl, Dengar, Mithel, and TIEs).  Kyle selected first player and choose Contested Station.  He positioned his ISD to swing wide of the SSD's front arc and back in toward the rear, counting on Entrapment Formation to help him avoid the worst of my arcs.  He wanted to get behind the SSD and close to the station to pick up some tokens.  One Arq was on the ISD flank and the other was on the other flank.  Squadrons were positioned to target my Ints and then help with bombing runs.  I placed the SSD next to the station pointed at his flag, with my Gozantis on either side.

Kyle tried to maneuver the ISD along one side of my SSD, trying to swing into a double arc, but still move past me. His Arquitens stayed at distance, attempting to overwhelm my tokens. After weathering a double arc from his ISD-II, I was able to remove his brace and the navigation token he banked for Entrapment Formation.  His Gozanti, which he broke off from the ISD, crossed in front of me and was vaporized.  From that point, without his brace, being unable to redirect more than one shield, and unable to move past me fast enough, Vader's flagship was quickly destroyed while I stayed close to the station for five victory tokens.

Victory: 9-2

Round 2--

My next opponent was Andy, who had an Ackbar Defiance Command Cruiser, an AF-II, CR-90A, Transports, Ketsu, Shara, Rouge, and Dash.  Andy admitted he hadn't played against an SSD before and was unsure about how to approach it.  He selected first player and chose Contested Station.  He set up with his AF on a far flank and his MC-80, CR-90, transport, and squadrons towards the middle.  Once again, I set up the SSD next to the station in the middle, pointed right at Ackbar.

Andy miscalculated how quickly the SSD could move into blue range, and started taking losses early.  Both his transport and CR-90 got caught in the front arc and were destroyed in one turn.  Intel officer took Ackbar's brace in the second round when he tried to mitigate a huge attack from my front arc.  Andy tried to swing wide to avoid blue range, but I was able to Piett a nav token and angle my port side arc to target him for two rounds.  With no way to brace and redirects being ineffective, the Red Fish went down hard.  His AF stayed alive to end of the game by staying at range, but the destruction of most of his fleet and six tokens from the station gave me a huge MoV.

Victory: 10-1

Round 3--

Round 3 was against Jeff, the overall winner of the event, who was flying an atypical Sloane build with two VSDs, a Quasar, and a complement of Imperial aces.  Jeff wrote up his own battle report (https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/303462-huzzah-hobbies-prime-aar/), so I'll just try to give the account from my point of view.

Since we were both at 400, we rolled off and I won.  With Sloane lists, I have to take out the flag (in this case the Quasar) to prevent the squadrons from picking me apart.  I opted for second player, hoping to get Jeff to pick an objective that would telegraph the position of his flag; he chose Solar Corona and deployed with his VSDs on either side and just ahead of his Quasar.  I deployed across with my front arc pointed at all three ships.

I think the first shot from the SSD to his non-titled VSD shocked us both.  The attack effectively left the ship at one hull point.  In the following two turns, both Victories died, but not before one made a pretty devastating attack on my front hull zone.  Jeff had wisely kept his Quasar back and began swinging it wide to stay at red range.  At this point I was playing catch-up every round, trying to get a blue range shot.  Then the squadrons came...

Once my defense tokens were gone (I may have had one contain left), Jeff left me shield-less and with 14 damage.  He had destroyed one of my Gonzatis and was to my rear arc.  However, he made a mistake with his command dial, and in his frustration forgot to shoot.  He moved his flagship out of range and the game came to an end with 19 total damage (after his squadrons attacked) to the SSD.

We calculated the scores and I squeaked out a victory with only seven MoV.  Jeff had smartly maneuvered his flagship and went from a potential tabling to an acceptable loss.  It was a good game and I wished Huzzah Hobbies' beer taps were still open at that point, because I needed a drink.

Victory: 6-5

Round 4--

At this point, I was tired, yet excited.  I was undefeated to this point and sitting at Table 1 for a second time that day.  This was the best I had done at a regional event and had a good chance to make the cut.

My final round was against a friend of mine, Jason.  He also brought a Sloane list, but was using an Interdictor as his flag with a Quasar, Gozanti, and Imperial aces in tow.  Jason opted for Contested Station (I was second player all day), and after forgetting about his Grav Well upgrade, I carefully placed the station where I could get maximum coverage of the board no matter where he placed the flagship and still collect tokens.  Then he placed the Grav Well token right in front of the station.  As second player, I didn't want to take several squadron attacks before I could activate without at least redirects.  I had to deploy in a suboptimal way on the starboard side of center mat, slightly pointed toward the station on the port side.  Jason split his fleet, with his carrier and squadrons to my port side and the Interdictor on the far right. In retrospect, I should have deployed at speed zero and taken a few hits the first round.

I decided to try and turn the SSD and go after the Interdictor, hoping my side and auxiliary arc could damage the carrier.  It meant abandoning the station, but I couldn't let Sloane get half points on me again.  I spent the first two rounds turning the SSD to face the Interdictor, wishing I had JJ for just that game.  Jason was able to use Engine techs to keep his flag just ahead of my front arc and stayed at long range.

Meanwhile, Jason's carrier came up behind the SSD, pushing bombing attacks on the SSD and the Gozanti on my port side.  Mareek/Jendon was particularly brutal, but I was able to use Bruson to dull the attacks.  I continued to take long shots at the carrier and Interdictor, and plunked away at the squadrons.

As we moved into round 4 or 5 of the game, Jason's carrier got within range of the station to start collecting tokens and I was starting to take hull damage.  The Interdictor (which had lost shields from earlier pot shots) had wandered into a double arc shot of the starboard auxiliary and the rear arc.  However, Mareek was down to 2-3 hull from SSD flak and Jason didn't want to lose a key bomber.  He activated his Quasar first, (which was safely at long distance in my rear arc) to give Mareek a quick bombing run and then fly him to safety. I activated the SSD with a con fire command.  My first shot from the auxiliary gave me an accuracy to lock down the brace, a blue crit to drop the last shield on the front of the Interdictor with the Ion Cannons, and the rest pure damage.  The second shot finished the job, giving me just enough damage to kill the Interdictor.  In saving Mareek, Jason rolled the dice on weathering a salvo from the SSD and lost.

The game finished after Jason downed my remaining support ship.  Between the two Gonzantis and victory points from the station, Jason kept the game close, preventing me from gaining a 7-4 win.

Victory: 6-5

Bittersweet Victories

At this point, Jeff had the top spot with 35 tournament points, while Jason, Sean, and I were all tied at 31.  Unfortunately for me, the first tiebreaker in Armada is not win-loss record, but MoV.  Despite my two big wins in the early rounds, the 6-5s in the last two rounds were only enough to get me fourth place.  Jason went on to play Jeff in the cut, with Jeff winning in the end.  Although the Armada tournament structure is relatively solid, it hurts to be the only undefeated player, beat the top two players, and only place fourth.

Final Thoughts

This was a solid, anti-ship list for an SSD.  It is able to weather heavy attacks, and with Piett, is forgiving, despite the four command stack.  Not surprisingly, it suffers against heavy squadron attacks (particularly Sloane) which the Ints only offer some protection against.  A better plan against squadrons (QLTs, Kalus, anti-squadron Raider) would fill that hole, but with no additional points to play with there would have to be trade-offs.  For example, dropping Intel Officer for Kalus would help against Sloane matchups, but decrease the SSDs ability to land big shots in the later rounds.

The other weakness is lower amount of attack sources (particularly coming from multiple angles) than fleet with two or more combat ships.  My two big wins came when my opponents got trapped in two of the SSD's arcs.  Players who can avoid taking damage from more than one of the front arcs, had more survivability against my attacks.  JJ would solve this for me, allowing me to angle those arcs effectively.

Good luck during the Prime season and I hope to see you across the mat at some point.  If you are in the DC area and are looking for Armada events, discussions, and thoughts, consider joining us at NOVA Fleet: https://www.facebook.com/groups/novafleet2016/