I, along with a bunch of NoVa squadron members, made the journey out to Monroeville for the regional last weekend. Here's a short event report!
I ran Biggs, two Blues with Advanced Sensors, and a Gold with an Ion Turret and the stress droid. I call it Cubmaster Biggs, since he's in charge of the blue & gold.
It's good against other 4-ship rebel builds (especially B-Wings!), but not as impressive against large ships - I'd just bring a third Blue if you expected that. Our meta in NoVa was mainly rebels, so that's what I went with.
My plan for asteroids was to put one at just outside of range 5 on a side, and then put the others around where I think they will break up the incoming formations and have trouble with the ion turret. Against swarms, I planned to just lay out a pocket like I did at Worlds. My openings would be to do the standard Worlds opening where I barrel a B-Wing in between the Blue and Gold, and Biggs is off to the side. Then, I either 3 fwd and then 2 turn into the middle, or 1 fwd twice then 2 turn if I need to slow down engagement a turn. My last opening option was to just keep chugging 3 fwd until I hit the other side, then 2 turn the B's and Y, 3 turn Biggs, and have the front line 1-2-3 bank and Biggs 2 bank. It's a lot of manuevering, but against other 4-ship rebel builds, they usually give me the time to do that, and it comes from an angle they weren't prepared to deal with.
Round 1, I had a bye, and defeated the bourbon chicken place in the mall food court. Good game!
Round 2, I faced Luke + 3 Rookies, a squad I remember seeing at Worlds. I talked to Matt, my opponent, a little before the game about how he felt about the variant where you remove Shield Upgrade to boost a Rookie to Biggs, and then we got started. I set up my asteroids and did the three round forward then turn to the center opening. Matt was running his ships in a pinwheel, so he was dodging around the rocks. Round 3, we opened fire. His pinwheel was tight enough that all four X-Wings had shots on a B, but Biggs was out of range. He got the better of me there, and then the following turn (we all 1 fwded), Biggs got shot up some while I kept concentrating fire on a Rookie. I had two beaten up ships, while he had one on its last legs.
This was then our most complex turn, and the turning point for me. My ships were just to the side of the rock I placed at 5 out, and his ships were pinwheeled in front of my rightmost B-Wing and that rock. I figured he'd either K-Turn over the rock, or make the right bank/turn and bump into me (I think I had init, so I'd move first). I decided to have Biggs turn right: if Matt went with the K-Turn, he'd have a range 1 shot on the turners, and if Matt turned right, Matt wouldn't have a shot on Biggs. I also turned one of the B-Wings right and had the other go forward. The right turning one could get a shot on K-turners, or just bump into his ships. The forward mover was pointing right at him, so it couldn't really K-Turn or do much of anything. The Y just nonchalantly flew around trying to ion things. His actual move was to turn left! He thought I would be K-Turning, so his reasoning was that a K-Turn on his part would just leave things similar to the current setup, but with him running over a rock, and the right turn would cost him actions. A left turn, with me K-Turning, would make it so no one had a shot, and then he could K-Turn and reorganize. It was a good plan, but my two ships that made right turns lit him up, and then had actions and closed on him when he turned around. I lost Biggs, but no one else.
From then on, I faced no one but Nova Squadron members. In round 3, I faced Neil, who I rode up with, and was running the same build. I ran the opening where I ran down to his corner and turned 135 degrees, since I had the time. I still was in a decent formation, where one of his B's fell behind a little getting to me. He also rolled, what, one dodge in his first nine dice, so his Biggs fell before mine did. In the mirror, whoever loses Biggs first generally loses, and that's how it played out here.
In round 4, I faced Frank. He had a list that packed a lot of punch in the second firing round: we said if Advanced Sensor B-Wings were knife fighters, he was more of a sword fighter. It was Dutch/Ion, and three Blues with Fire Control. I pulled the same opening of running for the far corner and spinning around, and when we first contacted each other (at round 6, I think), one of his B-Wings couldn't get a shot. My Y stress-ioned Dutch, and kept on him to make sure he'd never get an action again. I lost Biggs first, but then any time Frank concentrated on a ship, it would move to get out of arc so make the FCSes less useful. We blasted Dutch out of the sky, then focused on controlling and killing B-Wings. Time was called with me having two ships (Y and B), both at 1 or 2 hull remaining, and him having a pristine (or close to it) B. I won on points. If we played it out, he would have had to kill the Y on his next turn, or get controlled to death. Meanwhile, I'd be plugging away with range 1 shots from my B. It could have gone either way, depending on the fate of that Y-Wing.
In round 5, I faced Ron. He had Biggs and 3 Blues with Sensors. He came at me pretty aggressively, so I ended up inside a little pocket of asteroids that were set up in the middle left of the map. I couldn't do the corner run this game. We both lost Biggs at about the same time, because anytime I put Biggs at range 3 behind an asteroid I roll nothing but blanks!
I ioned a B-Wing onto an asteroid, and then again so he'd take another damage coming off. Meanwhile, our B's had knife fights and eventually everything died except my Y and his B. When time was called, my Y was outside of his B's arc and ioning it, so he had to depend on an unlucky attack roll. We both had 25 points on the table, so it was a draw. Playing control instead of brute force definitely made my games run longer!
In the top 8, I faced Chris's HSF list, with two B-Wings with FCS. The game went about as I expected: I stress-ioned a B, then ioned it again two turns later when it finally could have made a K-turn to get back in the fight, while killing Han and the other B-Wing. I lost Biggs, of course, but taking a B-Wing out of his list for 4 turns or so with two shots from my Y was just about how the perfect game for this list.
In the top 4, I faced Kris. He was my first imperial player, and he defeated me with 1 hull left on his Kath! It was a bit of an upset, but his greater pilot skill killed ships before they could kill him, so it didn't work out well for me. Also, he had a super-ballsy K turn on my corner with Kath, that made it by millimeters. I didn't think he could do that, so was preparing for 2-turns and getting shots off on Kath's side. He then leapfrogged me the next turn and killed my last B-Wing with his butt laser.
I'd definitely run my list again. It was tons of fun, and great in a rebel-filled metagame. If anyone has any questions, let me know!
Paul
Edited by pheaver