Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Armada World Cup: Elmination Quarter-Finals - Madaghmire vs Caribbean Ninja

Yesterday we talked about Ardaedhel vs Clontroper5 - in our continuing coverage of the Armada World Cup, we are going to be jumping down to the other half of the bracket, and covering Madaghmire vs Caribbean Ninja.






Madaghmire vs Caribbean Ninja


Madaghmire - Corrupted Fireball
Author: Madaghmire
Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 398/400
[ flagship ] Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)
- Admiral Motti ( 24 points)
- Corrupter ( 5 points)
- Wing Commander ( 6 points)
- Flight Controllers ( 6 points)
- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)
Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (120 points)
- Avenger ( 5 points)
- Captain Needa ( 2 points)
- Gunnery Team ( 7 points)
- Electronic Countermeasures ( 7 points)
- XI7 Turbolasers ( 6 points)
2 Firespray-31s ( 36 points)
1 TIE Advanced Squadron ( 12 points)
1 "Howlrunner" ( 16 points)
1 Major Rhymer ( 16 points)
1 Dengar ( 20 points)
1 Soontir Fel ( 18 points)
1 "Mauler" Mithel ( 15 points)

CaribbeanNinja
399/400
Flagship
ISD 2 (Reverence) 120 points
-Motti (24)
-Gunnery Team (7)
-ECM (7)
-XI7 (6)
ISD 2 (Regulation) 120 points
-Gunnery Team (7)
-Expanded Hanger Bay (5)
-ECM (7)
-XI7 (6)
Squadrons (90)
-Howlrunner (16)
-Darth Vader (21)
-Dengar (20)
-"Mauler" Mithel (15)
-Soontir Fel (18)

Madaghmire had a rough path to go through to get into the elimination round - his POD wasn't particularly responsive to games, and after winning his first matchup in a 10-0 blowout, he found himself on top of the list.  But it was the only game he would play until nearly the end of the POD round, when the only other player to have gotten a technical win, Quadro28, squeaked out a 7-3 victory and earned top billing.  Madaghmire found himself with 13 tournament points and stuck in 2nd place.  Still, he managed well for himself in the first round of elimination, upsetting the high scoring Cutter9999 in a game closer than the final score seemed to indicate.

Caribbean Ninja also finds himself on the end of a rough path to get to the elimination rounds, having to contend with a dominating JJs Juggernaut, and managing just a 5-5 tie against AlexW.  His win against Deadshane and utter lack of any success from the others against JJ had him squeeze into elimination with 14 tournament points.  There he managed well, upsetting suspected favorite Green Knight in a tense and low scoring game, in which his anti-squadron shenanigans scored the only points.

But, how do they match up against one another?  Let's look at the numbers:

Madaghmire comes in just under Caribbean Ninja, who seemed to have bid 399 just to keep the 400 crowd honest (or because he couldn't find 1 point to fit in somewhere).  Madaghmire also has deployment advantage on his side, 6-4, though neither side gives the others activation advantage, as both are a pair of big capital ships with fighter support.

Of the two of them, Madaghmire seems the worst in the straight up fight - his anti-ship damage is centered around Avenger and his Fireball, with the Victory I-Class he has in reserve being a mere afterthought.  Caribbean on the other hand has most of his anti-ship in actual ships, with two ISDs on the table, though if one can be outflanked in deployment, Caribbean might be in more trouble than he can deal with.  Both are running Motti however, so all ships involved are going to be that much rougher to eventually kill.

For fighters, both anti-squadron setups look nearly identical, just with Darth Vader in Caribbean's list replacing a TIE Advanced in Madaghmire's.  Madaghmire though has Rhymer and a pair of Firesprays to add anti-ship damage to the mix.  The question though is who will have enough squadrons on hand to deal with the others, and while Caribbean has a choice in the matter, it's not a particularly good one:  Split your forces to engage both Fireprays and Fighters, or just fight a bloody draw with your fighters, and hope your ISDs can carry the day against the enemy ships before the bombers can destroy you.


Biggs' Pre-Match Bet:


Usually it all comes down to deployment and objective choice, and the advantage there is with Madaghmire.  That being said, good maneuvering on the part of Caribbean Ninja could set matchups that Madaghmire cannot hope to win, such as 2 ISDs vs just 1.  For that reason alone, I've got to say Caribbean Ninja is my pick for this matchup.

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