Sorry for taking this long on writing this, but I have finally made it to Idaho and found a place to live. This will be my first report on here, so I want to apologize up front since I didn't take any notes but this is all from memory.
I had the hardest time deciding on which build to fly at this tournament and only decided that morning. Here are the three lists I was debating:
Howlrunner, Mauler Mithel, Backstabber, Academy Pilot x 4
Whisper+ACD+VI+ADV Sens, Echo+ACD+VI+ADV Sens+RS, Dark Curse
Whisper+ACD+VI+Adv Sens+RS, Howlrunner, Academy Pilot x 3
I decided to go with the third list since it had both the swarm and Phantom. My 2 Phantom list is fun to fly and I have taken down dual falcons easily but had issues with HSF and would quickly lose Echo even at range 3. I was afraid my typical Swarm list would not fly well against the Phantoms, but I've play tested against the Phantoms once with it and actually won. The key is to prevent the Phantoms from de-cloaking. You must fly the Swarm differently against Phantoms.
Round 1: (Luke) Krassis+HLC, Howlrunner, 3 x Obsidians
Initial thought here was to keep Whisper away from Krasis and attempt to bump the Obsidians to prevent actions while keeping mine. The asteroid set up was ok for both swarms and I setup my TIEs on the right and Luke set his Obsidians right in front of mine to joust. Krassis set up next to the Obsidians and I set Whisper in the middle for flanking duties. I slowly went forward and so did Luke and Whisper cloaked. The next round I believe I went 4 forward which was just enough to cause his Obsidians to bump but not his Howlrunner which evaded. Krassis banked towards my TIEs which was good for Whisper and I was able to keep Whisper out of any arcs. The initial volley took some shields off Krassis and took out an Obsidian and a damaged Howlrunner on both sides. One the next movement phase, I moved forward to engage Krassis and The Obsidians went straight...not K-Turning which surprised me. Krassis surprised me and did a hard left away from my TIEs to put Whisper in his rear firing arc. I think Whisper lost a shield but Krassis could not survive Whisper and multiple range 1 shots from my TIEs. I was able to take out his TIEs with Whisper getting into range 1 and out of arcs.
1-0
Round 2: (Name/Sorry) Corran+FCS, Hobbie+R3-A2, Rookie??
I was a little nervous with this one. My friend back at home flew Corran pretty well and didn't want to lose Whisper early to extra attacks and Hobbie's stress droid. My priority target was Hobbie to help Whisper. I set up to the left and my opponent set up in the middle. I did the now illegal cloak/decloak/7 straight while my TIEs went up 5. My opponent turned in the middle but got Corran out of position and behind his forces and didn't have a firing arc. I was able to knock out Hobbie early and he stressed Howlrunner which wasn't too much of a factor. His Corran was out of position for most of the game and I was able to pick on his other ship which left just Corran with my forces. Corran was able to get into the fight but was facing a Whisper at range 1 which left him limping. My TIEs couldn't score the killing blow but Whisper was able to finish Corran on the next round. 4 attack dice is just evil, even with 3 defense dice.
2-0
Round 3: (I believe was Jason) This is where I started to meet the dreaded YTs:
Han+Gunner, Blue+Adv Sens, 2 x Bandits
I setup to the right this time and clustered the asteroids more than I wanted to try to break up Han's escorts. I was kind of happy not facing a Han+C3PO which are difficult to take down. Jason I believe setup in the middle. I slow played to try to see where Jason wanted to go and try to get a good advantage with asteroid placement. I pushed Whisper forward and kept the TIEs back a little. We engaged in the middle around some asteroids which help cause his ships to bump. I engaged Han ASAP thinking I had to take him down immediately while I still had all my ships. I was able to get Han's shields down and deal some hull damage. I got minimal damage on my side and Jason couldn't focus fire on a single ship. I was able to take Han down on the next turn and used Whisper to fly around and take some good shots into his formation. I was able to use my TIEs to bottle neck his escorts while Whisper did his thing.
3-0
Round 4: (Don) Han+Predator+EU, Blue, 2 x Bandits
Again, I was worried about Han, especially with Predator and EU. I knew I had to try to take Han down early and try to deny him from using EU. I don't believe Don was able to use EU much. I was able to take Han down early again and focused fired the escorts for the win.
4-0
Round 5: (James AKA "Jimmy") Han+VI+EU+MF+Gunner+C3PO, 3 x Tala
I was starting to feel better about fighting YTs at this point, but after seeing what I was up against, I knew this would be an uphill battle. Han at 11 and he had MF and C3PO and Gunner. I made an early mistake in round 1 by Adv Sens/Cloak/De-Cloak. This got me into range 3 from a Tala and I missed but he hit me with no evades. I was shieldless against a PS11 Han. I took some early shots at Han but did little damage and his Talas were hitting well. I quickly lost Whisper against Han, but I thought I was still in it with a mini-swarm, but Jimmy flew his Han well to stay out of Arcs which forced me to shoot at the Talas. I lost this game handedly and I think I only took out 1 Tala. I believe this was Jimmy's 8th game but he played like a pro.
4-1
Round 6: (Jerry) Chewie+EH+Nien Nunb, Lando+C3PO+MF+PTL+Flt Instr
Another YT list, but this time 2. I was again worried. I've never play tested my build against 2 YTs. I setup to my left and Jerry setup to my right. I turned my TIEs early and sent Whisper forward to flank and try to keep Whisper at range 3 for as much as I could. We finally engaged towards the right of the board and Whisper took some early damage. I wanted to try to take Lando out early but I couldn't get into position to focus fire so I had to deal with Chewie. Whisper went down early. The PTL w/ TL & Focus on Whisper was a lot. Even with 4 evade dice and multiple focus tokens. I was consistently having to dodge 4 attacks. I lost Whisper but I was able to take Chewie down. My Swarm's formation was broken at this point and I believe I just had 3 Academies left. We were taking pot shots at each other with some pretty good maneuvering between the two of us. I was happy when I was able to het 3 hits but PTL with an evade, focus, and 3PO negated all the hits. All said and done, I got Lando down to 2 Hull when my last Academy went down. This was a back and forth battle with no clear winner until the end. Very fun match to play.
4-2
Round 7: (Sarah from WeaponsGrade Channel) Kyle Katarn+RS+MC+BT, Wedge+Predator, Luke+R2D2+SU
I was exhausted by this point and sat at 9th before the player's BYE's SOS were inputted. I was worried about Wedge dropping Whisper to just 3 Evades especially with Predator. Luke was also concerning with his regenerative capability. I set up left and Sarah setup in the middle. I blasted forward and Sarah slowly moved forward. I hooked into the middle of the board and she broke Katarn away from the formation and kept Luke and Wedge together. We took some range 3 shots with minimal damage. Next turn I blasted forward towards the X-Wings to try to create bumps which worked out. This is where Adv Sensors played pretty well. I kept Whisper behind my TIEs and forced him to bump into Howlrunner to keep him at range 2 or 3 from his X-Wings. This forced Sarah to shoot at Howlrunner who was very lucky and limped at 1 hull most of the game. I focused fired on Luke to prevent him from regening and took him out with everyone firing at him. The next turn Sarah placed Wedge in a disadvantage and everyone fired into him again. Howlrunner was lost but I still had Whisper and 3 Academies to deal with an untouched Kyle. He ended up limping along but Whisper at range 1 was too much.
5-2
At this point I was just crossing my fingers to make the top 8. The TOs had to manually enter the SOS at the end of the Swiss and it all depended on that. I was fortunate enough to make the cut and faced an almost mirror match in my first game.
Top 8 Game (Anthony) Whisper+Sensor Jammer+ACD+VI+RS, Howlrunner, 3 x Academies
I sat at 97 points and Anthony sat at 98. I wanted to take initiative to shoot and cloak first but this worried me. This would allow Anthony to move last and potentially get out of Arc while keeping me in Arc and potentially uncloaked. I decided to take initiative. I setup to my left and he setup in front...another jousting situation and hopefully I can cause more bumps. Our Whispers were in the middle of the board and a little offset from one another. I slow played forward and cloaked Whisper. This is when I realized I might not have setup in the best position. I had to choose to turn my Whisper into his TIEs and potentially have his Whisper behind mine or turn into his Whisper and gamble that his Whisper would fly past mine. So I turned right towards his Whisper but his Whisper moved forward into my Arc and barrel rolled out of it and faced my TIEs. Out TIEs engaged each other and my dice weren't that effective. I think I lost Howlrunner early with little damage to his TIEs. I broke my formation after this and turned a TIE right to face Whisper and K-Turned the rest. My Whisper was able to turn back into the fight while his TIEs went forward. We had some jockeying going on and I did my Adv Sens Focus and K-Turned my Phantom to be able to take a shot at his damaged Phantom. I was able to kill his Phantom but couldn't cloak. His Phantom shot back but mine somehow survived, but his TIEs finished off my Whisper. It ended up being 2 on 2 Academies I believe but mine had 1 hull left each. I thought I was done but I was able to slowly widdle away his forces and it ended up being 1 on 1 and again, my TIE had 1 hull to his 2 hull. We literally mirrored each other for some time as we were flying in formation and not able to shoot at one another. Anthony did take a gamble and went through a rock to get some distance. This rock helped me and now we both had 1 Hull Academies left. We jockeyed again and took some shots but no one can do any damage. I don't know how long this game lasted but I talked to the TO and said it would be untimed unless we were doing some shenanigans. We were finally able to line up and get into range 1 of one another. I had to be careful to not get to close to allow him to BR out of my Arc but me staying in his. We ended up mutually killing each other and I thought I had lost since I was the lower seed. After saying congratulations we were informed that I actually won. Again this was a very fun game but it wasn't recorded.
Top 4 Game (Dennis) Han+Marksmanship+gunner+C3PO, Chewie+DTF
I've known Dennis for a little bit and have seen him play but we've never been able to play each other until now. I setup left and Dennis setup to the right. I hard turned my TIE swarm into the board and flew Whisper forward for flanking purposes. Dennis kept his YTs side by side. I wanted to try to take out Han first but on the initial volley I was rolling criticals that Chewie was taking. I was able to keep Whisper from harms way initially. I believe the main turning point was Dennis turning his Han away from Chewie. I believe it was to engage Whisper but I turned Whisper down towards Chewie. With his forces split slightly I was able to take some good hits on Chewie and Dennis was trying to take out TIEs but he was missing or just getting one hit through. I was able to take Chewie out and I tried to use my TIEs to corral his Han to prevent him from escaping. My Whisper was down to 1 hull at this point and I was able to sneak a TIE right next to Han without bumping. I Adv Sensored and Focused and bumped right into Han. He moved his Han but couldn't clear the TIE. We had the TO make the call to see if Whisper could shoot and he was able to. I was able to roll 5 hits with the focus which was too much for Han.
Final (Daniel) 2 x Blue+Adv Sensors, 1 Gold+R3-A2+Ion, 1 Gold+Flechette+Ion
I will save this for Team Covenant's Video. Very fun game to play and this build had a bunch of stress givers that Phantoms don't like.
Lessons Learned:
- YTs are tanky but the old tradition of killing HSF's escorts doesn't work. I think you need to kill Han first especially if he has C3PO + MF. If you wait till the end with less ships, it will be almost impossible.
- TIE swarms aren't dead. Most of day I wish I had my traditional Swarm. Swarms can beat Phantoms if you play them right. You can't fly a Swarm normally. During play test I broke out early to try to prevent Phantoms from decloaking. They're hard to hit, but a Phantom can't evade 14+ attack dice all the time. I've rolled 4 banks once in the tournament.
- Initiative is great to shoot first, but Anthony was able to get out of my way many times.
- This game is still about maneuvering and some luck with the dice. YTs and Phantoms aren't auto wins.
Again, I apologize for not having as many details. I want to give a shout out to Matt and his wife and Matt at Madness for running such a great event. I wish I lived closer to be able to play there regularly. Also to all my Oklahoma gamers Chris, Gene, Ian, and James for all those hours of play testing and to DZ Comics for hosting all those tournaments. And to Team Covenant for getting me addicted to this game.
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