The battle of n00bs

Me and Armando having a good time before the game already. On the very left Armando's opponent he beat in the previous round.

Last Saturday I got to meet Armando, a great guy to roll dice with. Both he and I are new to Star Wars Armada, so we're about on the same skill level - and he is a devout Imperial player as much as I would never desert the Rebels, so this promised a good match.

We play the Space Station mission (near the Victroy Class Star Destroyer). My goal is to lure Armando's fleet there and use the front of my Nebulon-B Frigate as the anvil and the Corellian Corvettes swinging in through the center to his right flank as the hammer.

Setting up the trap.

Everything works as planned and the Corvettes move into the Star Destroyers' rear field. The two squadrons of TIEs defending it are effectively dealt with by the A-Wings. So far everything is moving according to plan.

In the meantime, the Nebulon-B is slowly moving in...

...sending in its X-Wing squadrons first. Luke Skywalker gets to make a shot on the VSD right flank with no shields, but his torpedo misses! After that the TIEs move in and tie down the rebel squadrons with their TIE Advanced.

After that, the VSD almost rams the Nebulon-B. This was the point that cost me the game, I should have had the Nebulon-B speed up by having a Maneuver Command on her dial. However, this way she was fully exposed to the VSD's broadsides and was about to die soon.

My last ace was the Corellian Corvette following up the VSD's rear, but although she had effectively speed 5 she just managed to catch up, but couldn't fire her laser banks in this round.

And so the Nebulon-B was gone.

The 2nd Corellian Corvette closed in instead and rammed the VSD. Both took damage, but it wasn't enough to run down the VSD's hull points. While his first five hull points seemed to go off easily, the last three were a major uphill battle.

The Corellian Corvette in the VSD's rear finally fired and wrecked the Victory Star Destroyer. However, the Gladiator was still a major threat, especially since it still had almost full shields.

The white Corvette started to pursue now the Gladiator, which turned out to be a mistake. The Corvette's firepower wasn't enough to bring it down...

...and the Gladiator instead made short work of the black Corvette that previously rammed the VSD and was all but dead.

I collected quite a few points by blowing up the Victory Star Destroyer and all those TIE squadrons, but in the end Armando won with a lead of roughly 30 points. This game perfectly illustrates two lessons every Rebel player should learn - and especially me by now:

1. Don't ever fly close to a Star Destroyer - black dice kill. Consider the Star Destroyers' movements and their attempts to ram you, even when they are slow. The Maneuver Command is your best friend in 80% of all cases. You need to compensate your lacking shields with speed.
2. Always activate the ships first that are almost dead. That way they at least get to fire their laser banks  one last time.