Our first tournament with wave 4 in it was held the other day and that means #newmeta time. No pictures as my new phone decided that blurry is a default setting apparently. After thinking on it for far too long I decided that everyone would be out with some new ships but not many would take the best ship the Headhunter. After play testing the Bigg Crack combo I came up with the following list for the tournament with the goal to murder any wave 4 ship I saw:

Bigg Chewie Crack (because puns win games) 100 points

Chewie (51) with marksmanship, gunner and falcon title (no C-3PO as i don't own him otherwise TAKE THAT CARD). The damage in the list, as no one expects the wookie to win even if he is the best ship and marksman + gunner = murder train with no breaks

Biggs (28) with R2-F2. The tank of the team, if he lives 2 turns drawing fire from Chewie I have it in the bag as the damage out put from the falcon is overwhelming for most lists if they can't drop it down and force it to start evading. Would drop the F2 for C-3PO going forward with lots of PS 9 making the extra agility action a waste of many games. Those he could get it off were amazing as focus and 4 dice at range three kept him going for a long time.

Cracken (21) with swarm tactics. Chewie at PS 8 is really good. worth it with squad leader as well in other meta's but for this list it wanted the 8 to beat up phantoms. Best pilot from wave 4 as this only costs 21 points, the rebel Howlrunner is here.

Pretty much i dropped Han because Chewie is better and at PS8 does everything Han did more or less but i could get the marksman gunner on him.

Anyway 20 players with 10 rebs and 10 imps trying to win some wave 4 goodies (can't remember the exact lists so am going by the best of my memory, names are my own as that's what i was thinking at the time of the round) It was 5 rounds of swiss with the title going to the 5-0 none of this silly top 8 mtg stuff, we are playing premiership rules here so flawless is the only way to go.

1st Blood - Enter the space cows (player came 3rd)

3x Omicron pilots (1 with Vader)

Echo with advanced cloaking device

Well that's a lot of soak. Was lucky as it was the players first time with a phantom and it showed as his first de-cloak landed him on a rock after the dial. Pretty much started with me flanking waiting for the shuttles to get out onto the board, lost Cracken to bad move that put him in front of two shuttles with Biggs out of range but with Chewie finally getting behind the shuttles it was all over as 4 shots with marksman chew's them up. Echo was not a threat as he was out of position for most of the game and was taken down by Biggs and Chewie in a round of forced fire. A very good game with a skilled pilot, would have been a lot harder had I versed him later as echo was destroying people after this match from what I heard but today was to be my day I had decided and nothing was going to stop me.

100 - 21

2nd strike - E-got-it

2x E-wings Corren and Etahn with advanced protons, stealth upgrades I think predator and Corren had R2-D2

Yay wave 4 ships to eat, just as planned. The E wings set up a bit spread out so I could deal with them on at a time, Corren was taken out before he could use his Protons as Biggs was hanging around the back drawing fire for Chewie and making those target locks on the falcons a waste of time after that it was Etahn hunting and the disparity is firepower and hull left on the board saw him off after some good evasive flying from him. Had to remind my opponent on a few things during the game like rolling more than 2 dice for his evade roll (should have had 4) or pointing out that Etahn still has one hull left when he was conceding due to it being blown up. Still a very fun game with a friendly opponent.

100 - 49

3rd round - Falcons a gogo

Han with C3P0, gunner and falcon and something else

Chewie with draw their fire

Well let the wookies kiss (2 rounds or Chewies' bumping each other), my opponent showed now fear from the rocks flying over them to bump and block moment and I had to clip a few myself (about 10 rock hits and 7 damage from them over the course of the game due to the massive furball in the middle and no fear piloting) ended up with My Chewie on 5 hull vs his Han at PS0 1 hull (critical hit him while his wookie was chasing the other ships) and Chewie on 3. Some piloting errors from both of us made it anyone's game but the worst was running Chewie over a rock trying to get out off bumping Han after his Chewie went down left me with one hull. came down to the last death or glory joust but Chewie shoot first and that was the end. might have dropped to the floor after this as it came down to the wire.

100 - 49

4th course - The two amigos

Han with C-3PO, Gunner, falcon, engine upgrade and Veteran instincts because why not the PS11

Wedge with outmaneuver, R2-D2 and engine upgrade

Well so much for shooting first, a fast list flown very well with some of the worst offensive dice i have ever seen, Like Biggs tanking for 3 turns against it bad. Wedge suffered a critical that took off his abilities and suddenly PS9 X-wing was a lot less scary. Han ended up behind on hull to my falcon and had to start pulling evades while i could keep marksman up. Came down to the wire as the second last turn of shooting from Han took 4 hull off Chewie putting him down to 2 but he couldn't finish him next round leaving Chewie and Cracken on one hull each cheering the 3rd bird put down. Seriously worst luck with attack dice I have seen with all 4 of Hans re-rolls resulting in Chewie only taking single hits most of the time, a great flyer who has made it this far with his dice like that all day should tell you how tough he was to beat and with fairer dice I might not have had it but I was running good all day.

100-28

5th round - All or nothing (player came second)

1x defender with Stealth upgrade

Fel and Jax both decked out with all the toys including stealth devices

I won the initiative which made this game a lot easier as my PS 8 shoot before Jax. It should be pointed out that my worthy foe had only lost one ship all day at this point but had avoided all the falcons and my list was designed to eat this sort of list. The fatigue was getting to us both at this point and one turn 3 when we both went to engage it turned into a giant pile with Chewie bumping the defender and Jax running into it as well. Cracken PS8ed Chewie and gave him that lovely marksmanship and at range one with no actions Jax evaporated under the wookies firepower in one turn, good flying with Fel and the defender kept him in with a chance but the damage was done and once Fel dropped it was all over as Chewie was still going strong. This match had the only real negative for the day in it. A poor guess landed Chewie front on a rock but I could get him off it next turn without the maneuver template touching it. He called the TO saying it still needed to take damage and shouldn't get its action due to starting on the rock. The TO agreed and said as its front was on the rock to start with it took the damage and got no action according to his reading off the rule book and I had no FAQ on hand to say other wise. Didn't matter as by that point the game was overwhelmingly in my favor but would have wrapped it up about a turn or to earlier if I had had the marksman that round of shooting.

100-49

So as the last man standing a 5-0 I claimed the best prize ship (the headhunter of course) and trophy and could reflect on the lessons of the day

Lessons:

#newmeta

Falcons are the most forgiving ships to fly and Chewie is flying on easy mode, don't think I will run him again as he requires very little to do so much

C-3PO - all falcons need him

PS9 is really good and was everywhere, my 8 beat up everything it wanted it too (Wave 4) but I might switch to squad leader on Cracken in future if people keep rolling out the Wedge level pilots.

Play testing is important and leads to victory

Best wave 4 ship is the headhunter, release the Cracken meta

X wing is full of great opponents and viable lists; no list was the same and everyone was a blast to play against in this tournament

Carry an FAQ

Running good is a choice, make it every time.

Peace out and remember - The wookie always wins, regardless of what you do

That ruling isn't in the FAQ, it's just a bad reading of the rulebook.Only the template and final position matter for asteroids.

Sounds like a good time. I'm shocked at the lack of Phantoms you faced, and the fact there was a 2 E-Wing list. That has 33 points of upgrades.... Yeesh.

There were 6 phantom lists in the imperials and the at least two more with defenders. Just dodged most of them it seems as I ended up versing 3 rebel lists acutely wanted to versus more as i designed it to eat whisper and echo but what can you do. the two E - wings would have been worrying if they had both shoot the advance protons because combing those with Etahn equals a lot of hits and crits incoming followed by Correns second attack. a poor opening position split them up and with good maneuvering from me Corren died without firing them or getting a chance to double attack due to focused fire with a marksman and my support craft in two rounds

What does your starting formation look like Sandman?

Tried to cluster the asteroids in the middle or spread them out to give myself clear lines across the centre. Chewie would deploy in one of the corners with Biggs and Cracken beside him with Biggs in front of Cracken. After moving up but before the first turn of engaging Chewie would turn in towards the other fleet while Biggs would do a 1 to have Cracken jump him. after that it was moving Chewie and Cracken up to fight while Biggs chilled out in the back. Or that was at least the plan for most games but they don't often survive when playing.

This build is very interesting. I showed it to my X-Wing buddy and he picked up the Z-95 to try it out

thanks for posting