Dom actually made the cut. Tyler dropped (turns out he is the national champ of Dust Tactics and had to go defend his title) and so his spot was ceded to the 9th place finisher.

Tyler dropped (turns out he is the national champ of Dust Tactics and had to go defend his title) and so his spot was ceded to the 9th place finisher.

I'm glad Tyler made the top 8. He and I played each other in the 6th round on Thursday and we had a good conversation the entire time. We both lamented in the fact that if we had known the Friday turnout, we would have played then, as Thursday's event was a grind.

Where does nick play out of in Illinois?

Nick was out of Campaign area.

I finished 5th and was flying:

Han + Determination + Luke + MF

Corran + PTL + R2D2 + FCS

Almost everyone I played against thanked me for not using 3P0 on Han.

I finished 5th and was flying:

Han + Determination + Luke + MF

Corran + PTL + R2D2 + FCS

Almost everyone I played against thanked me for not using 3P0 on Han.

Who did you play in your Top 8 match?

Who did you play in your Top 8 match?

Nick. It was an Epic match. He had the Obsidian swarm and he melted Han like he was an ice cube on a frying pan. Then it was Corran vs 7 Ties. I killed 4 of them including Howl before he finally brought me down. Had it gone one more round, I would have won on points, but he expertly predicted my maneuvers and crashed me on the last turn, so his TIE could finally kill me.

Corran is a BEAST!

James Elhardt (note the correction) and I (Matt B) both had:

Han Solo YT-1300

- Vet Instincts

- C3PO

- Mercenary CoPilot

4x Bandit Z-95

We have been working on the list together, it's not a coincidence we both had the same thing.

Now I'm trying to remember which one of you I played. It was a killer game that ended on time with My one Dagger vs. 3Zs.

Who did you play in your Top 8 match?

Nick. It was an Epic match. He had the Obsidian swarm and he melted Han like he was an ice cube on a frying pan. Then it was Corran vs 7 Ties. I killed 4 of them including Howl before he finally brought me down. Had it gone one more round, I would have won on points, but he expertly predicted my maneuvers and crashed me on the last turn, so his TIE could finally kill me.

Corran is a BEAST!

Extremely well done, congrats again!

Did you consider swapping Luke to Gunner to fit in C-3PO? Or more extreme, dropping to Chewie and slotting in Predator and C-3PO? Obviously fits into the whole delicate offense/defense balance, and concern with the phantom menance

I finished 5th and was flying:

Han + Determination + Luke + MF

Corran + PTL + R2D2 + FCS

Almost everyone I played against thanked me for not using 3P0 on Han.

It's interesting to see that going so far. I flew a Han + Corran list that I didn't seriously think was all that great, given the low model count and offensive output(even if the quality of the output is pretty high), at my local store in some pickup games about a month ago. It won but I didn't end up going back to it, maybe I'll revisit...

Who did you play in your Top 8 match?

Nick. It was an Epic match. He had the Obsidian swarm and he melted Han like he was an ice cube on a frying pan. Then it was Corran vs 7 Ties. I killed 4 of them including Howl before he finally brought me down. Had it gone one more round, I would have won on points, but he expertly predicted my maneuvers and crashed me on the last turn, so his TIE could finally kill me.

Corran is a BEAST!

Did Team Covenant only get video of the finals? I'd love to see how this one went down, 1 vs. 7 and Corran still took down 4? ****.

Thanks for the updates all! I updated everything on the first page for what I have so far.

The only thing missing from the Top 8 are the upgrades on Dom's shuttle squad . I assume it was:

Omicron Group Pilot + Fire Control System

Omicron Group Pilot + Fire Control System

Omicron Group

Bounty Hunter

But all I know for sure it it was 3 shuttles and a Bounty Hunter, and that's 96 points. If anyone could confirm that would be great.

Email update, it was 2x FCS, thanks Evil Ed.

Didn't he normally play with either vader crew or yorr for the third one ?

variants are omni+vader, omni+fcs x2, soontir + PTL (galactic cup), and omni + fcs x 2, yorr, soontir + PTL (chicago regionals).

Even though I didnt play in the top eight I was up there in ranking, and I did it with a defender! (its the better phantom, just not as shiny)

Even though I didnt play in the top eight I was up there in ranking, and I did it with a defender! (its the better phantom, just not as shiny)

You tease!

What was your full list and final ranking on Saturday?

List was:

Soontir Fel - PTL and targeting computer

Vessery - HLC and VI

OGP - Vader

I finished 6th but had to drop the final bracket of 8 due to playing dust at the same time. I think I was the only defender in the top 32! Dom got in with me dropping so I was ok letting a fellow IL buddy make it! My only loss Saturday was to rich so I feel pretty good with my finish.

List was:

Soontir Fel - PTL and targeting computer

Vessery - HLC and VI

OGP - Vader

I finished 6th but had to drop the final bracket of 8 due to playing dust at the same time. I think I was the only defender in the top 32! Dom got in with me dropping so I was ok letting a fellow IL buddy make it! My only loss Saturday was to rich so I feel pretty good with my finish.

Congratulations on the placement! I have been waiting for Vessery to show up somewhere.

Have you considered putting Swarm Tactics on Vessery, and Fire Control System on the shuttle to guarantee that Vessery gets his free Target Lock every round? It seems like it might be worth losing Vader and 2 PS on Vessery. On the other hand, once the Shuttle dies Swarm Tactics is useless.

List was:

Soontir Fel - PTL and targeting computer

Vessery - HLC and VI

OGP - Vader

I finished 6th but had to drop the final bracket of 8 due to playing dust at the same time. I think I was the only defender in the top 32! Dom got in with me dropping so I was ok letting a fellow IL buddy make it! My only loss Saturday was to rich so I feel pretty good with my finish.

Congratulations on the placement! I have been waiting for Vessery to show up somewhere.

Have you considered putting Swarm Tactics on Vessery, and Fire Control System on the shuttle to guarantee that Vessery gets his free Target Lock every round? It seems like it might be worth losing Vader and 2 PS on Vessery. On the other hand, once the Shuttle dies Swarm Tactics is useless.

Vader is really there for dealing with other empire players. He makes squints just not want to play. The VI really helped on vessery as he got to shoot over lando which was really nice all weekend. No one ever killed the shuttle before he got to kill himself and with the TC on fel I always had a spotter for vessery. That was really the big thing that worked wonders for me that I had no anticipated before the tournament. I fly fel a large amount but it sometimes feels like a waste if I have to boost out of the way to protect him but cant get people back in arc. Now he can at least paint the target Vessery is going to light up and be useful in the fight.

This thread is making me want more Lambdas in my box.

Extremely well done, congrats again!

Did you consider swapping Luke to Gunner to fit in C-3PO? Or more extreme, dropping to Chewie and slotting in Predator and C-3PO? Obviously fits into the whole delicate offense/defense balance, and concern with the phantom menance

Yes, I have considered it. I blocked a lot of crits over 2 days with Determination that would have landed and crippled me if I had 3P0. Since fat Falcons evade every time, with gunner, your second attack is naked. Luke did a TON of damage over the course of the 11 games I played. It is hard to say if he did more damage than 3P0 would have prevented, but he was invaluable against the swarms I played.

And . . . of course . . . I haven't bought the Tantive yet, so I don't have a 3P0 card. I could borrow one, but I wanted to be different.

This thread is making me want more Lambdas in my box.

Heh...I've got six rolling around. Was messing around with a quad cow list, but needed something to deal with ships that got behind the shuttles. As fate would have it, my gaming buddies and I worked up to a triple shuttle (2 with FCS) & BH list. I was pleased to see that exact list do well. Now for me to actually learn to fly it well. :-)

Since I was pretty upset with my last match on Saturday when I was on track to make the Top 8 cut until I made major mistake with Whisper that barrel rolled the Phantom behind a rock, uncloaked, just out of range of a shot on a Z95, leading to Wes + VI + R3A2 getting an easy shot next round and causing the demise of Whisper (my only major mistake of the whole day).

I had:

Whisper + VI + ACD + Rebel Captive

Omicron + FCS + Tactician + Gunner

Omicron + FCS + Tactician + Gunner

100pts

I went 5-2 on Thursday and 3-2 on Saturday. Honorable mentions include 8 stress tokens on a Han with console fire and only 1 hp left, only to have my cloaked Whisper get finished off by a Bandit! Various stressed Firesprays regretting not having an action when 2 turning. 2 Z95s and 1 B Wing with 2 or 3 stress tokens each.

First loss of first day was to my friend's Roark anti-phantom tech squad. The next was to Han + Corran ( Corran had 6/7 stress tokens at some point).

Second day losses were to Han + VI + C3P0 + Merc Copilot and 4 Z95s and to the Wes + VI + R3A2, Wedge + Predator, 3 Z95s.

I faced a plethora of squads with Phantoms, Ties, Bs, Falcons, Firesprays, Shuttles, Z95s, I think everything except A Wings.

As I expected, not 1 game did it matter that I did not make an initiative bid for the PS 9 Han solos, as they should all have VI on them.

The squad was something I worked on the night before Gencon, and it turned out being more fun than than I thought. It really is a pain for people to pin down and put damage on the Phantom when there are 2 stress pumping cows taking away actions and pinning down the heavy hitters. Just cant ignore the cows when they are built like that.

I had:

Whisper + VI + ACD + Rebel Captive

Omicron + FCS + Tactician + Gunner

Omicron + FCS + Tactician + Gunner

100pts

What was your final placement? I assume you had 15 points, that would put you at something between #11 to #20.

MJ - for your records, I ended up going 5-2* on Thursday putting me in 8th and 2-2 dropping for the final round, putting me in 26th on Saturday with the following list:

Bandit

Blackmoon w/ R3A2 + FCS

Dagger w/ HLC

Roark w/ ICT

*Went 5-1 and then had a SnG game in the 7th round that was meaningless.

My losses were to Paul Heaver on Thursday, the SnG game that I don't count as a loss, StarSlinger in R1 on Saturday, and I forget who in the 4th round, but he was playing Wes, Wedge, Cracken + Rookie.

I put up a fight against Paul, and with even dice he should have walked away with the win 65% of the time. And the dice were relatively even, though he did get a lucky 3hit R3 shot on my E wing to kill it before I could kill Han (I was sitting at 1shield 2 hull). But I was behind by that point anyways - I hadn't touched Biggs or the Tala, and I was down to a 2hull Roark + an untouched Bandit. Doable, but he had the advantage.

I'm not going to talk to the SnG game because I intentionally played poorly since I knew we were both making the cut and I didn't want to give anything away in case we met again on Saturday.

My match against StarSlinger was literally over after the first round. Blame it on the jitters, or early morning, or whatever, but I got outplayed from the very beginning. Kudos to StarSlinger. It ended up being Dagger + Bandit vs. Fel, and there was no way I was going to get the win in... I think I only got 1 shot, got 4 hits, but he got 3 + evade token and didn't take any damage anyways =/.

Then my round 4 I was 100% ahead the entire game. It was down to a untouched Roark + 4 health Dagger vs. untouched Airen + 3 hull Rookie. I dealt 2 damage with the HLC to the Rookie (who had K turned and had no action), Cracken rolled hit crit crit on Roark, who rolled evade focus, spent the token and took the shield. Then he proceeded to whiff on the ion shot on Cracken (that would have taken him out of the game for several rounds). And the rookie rolls a natural hit crit crit against Roark, and I roll evade focus blank, but no token this time... And take direct hit + minor explosion, which exploded, basically 1 shotting him at R3 with no action. And from there the Dagger couldn't close the game out. I'm still a little miffed at that game because I did everything properly and outplayed my opponent, but those two double damage absolutely destroyed any chances of making the cut.

It was a fun list that seemed to work well against everything. I wish Rebel Aces and W5 didn't drop yet, because I would really like to spend some more time in the W4 meta to refine it a bit further.

Since I was pretty upset with my last match on Saturday when I was on track to make the Top 8 cut until I made major mistake with Whisper that barrel rolled the Phantom behind a rock, uncloaked, just out of range of a shot on a Z95, leading to Wes + VI + R3A2 getting an easy shot next round and causing the demise of Whisper (my only major mistake of the whole day).

I had:

Whisper + VI + ACD + Rebel Captive

Omicron + FCS + Tactician + Gunner

Omicron + FCS + Tactician + Gunner

100pts

The squad was something I worked on the night before Gencon, and it turned out being more fun than than I thought. It really is a pain for people to pin down and put damage on the Phantom when there are 2 stress pumping cows taking away actions and pinning down the heavy hitters. Just cant ignore the cows when they are built like that.

lol and I still have to thank/curse you for allowing me to get 9th place yet again. To be so close and still not get the top 8 on tie breakers, gahhhhhh.

Even though I didnt play in the top eight I was up there in ranking, and I did it with a defender! (its the better phantom, just not as shiny)