Just finished a 4 swiss round local FLGS tournament. Finished 3-1 and 3rd place due to tie breakers.
A big thanks to all those who helped me brainstorm and critique my tournament list. In the end, I went with:
Echo + VI + ACD + RC + FCS
BH + Tactician
OGP + Vader
99 pts
There were 13 people who played, 3 left after the 3rd round and 10 people finished. Top 2 got the acrylic proton bomb and proximity mine tokens, 3rd and 4th got the deck boxes (B-Wing and Bomber).
I think 5 people brought Falcons (including 1 double falcon), 3 had phantoms, 1 8 TIE swarm, and 4 with various 4-5 ship rebel builds.
The funny thing is, with all this talk about Falcons and Phantoms, the top 4 lists were:
1. Etahn + Tarn + 3 Bandits
2. 8 AP
3. Echo + BH + Doomshuttle
4. 4 X Wings
Round 1:
First round was the dreaded dual Falcon list. Han and Chewie. I think the list was something like this:
Han + Marksmanship + Gunner (54)
Chewie + MF Title + DtF (46)
He set up horizontal along his base on my right, I set up on my left side. I put my shuttle on the far left and my BH just next to it, pointing to the right but blocking the shuttle's first move.
The asteroids formed a wall along our left and was pretty sparse elsewhere.
A few rounds of movement brought the Falcons side by side facing the shuttle and BH, with Echo flanking in the middle area.
A bunch of shots later, Han had no shields left and Chewie was pretty unscalthed. Chewie escapes to my left bottom corner and Han flees to the middle, after a few rounds of getting blocked by my OGP and BH.
Other than trading shots back and forth, Echo kept in R3 in the middle area taking shots at Han with FCS, so I had a TL and Focus almost every turn after the first.
In the end, the shuttle got killed and I had 10 min left to kill Han. Han was chasing the Bounty, bumping into him on purpose to not get shot at, while Echo was chasing and shooting from R3. Finally, he guessed wrong and missed bumping me so Echo and the BH finished Han when time was called. Woohoo, I conquered my worst fear! 
54 - 24 (1-0)
Round 2:
yet another Falcon! This one with:
Chewie + C-3PO + MF + Predator (49)
Biggs (25)
2xTala (26)
100 pts
I made a lot of mistakes in this one. we built a wall on the left side again, and he flew down the left corridor. I started bottom right and flew to the center. Then, for whatever unexplained reason, I decided to loop to his side and then try to come back down. The only problem with that is my shuttle can't move to save its life (literally). I even had to K-turn my Phantom at one point (she was cloaked and no one was around, so it was OK), but that's how far off my ships were from each other.
Anyway, when we engaged in the middle, the shuttle was getting shot at with no chance of shooting back, while the BH and Echo had to split shots between a Tala and Biggs (due to my firing arc misplacement).
I did finally kill Biggs and a Tala when he destroyed my shuttle, but my BH was down to 4 hull. A daring move that surprised him caused me to have to fly through an asteroid to get out, and as usual, my 90%+ rate of hitting myself on asteroids didn't fail. Then Chewie chased the BH for the rest of the turn while Echo tried to kill the remaining Tala.
With time called and the last round, Chewie was able to land 1 more hit than I could evade (with TL and predator), while I forgot to use Echo's FCS on the Tala and let the Tala survive with 1 hull.
It was a fun and crazy stressful game, and I'm glad I understand all the mistakes I've made flying. I probably should have just jousted him in the middle clear area and had Echo come from behind.
38 - 59 (1-1)
Round 3:
Played a lady who had a similar list:
Whisper + Adrenaline + ACD (37)
Soontir + PtL (30)
BH (33)
100 pts
Having Echo go after Whisper was new to me, so I definitely took advantage of it.
She charged me full speed from the middle and side, which suited me well. I just pointed the shuttle and BH at her, and caught all three of her ships in my arc.
I decided to shoot at Soontir, but unfortunately he evaded all of the BH and Shuttle's R2 hits. The good thing is, that double stressed Soontir (Tactician) and the Shuttle did a Vader move to cause a direct hit on Soontir.
The next 2 turns saw the shuttle and BH focus firing on her BH to get it to 1 HP, and Echo killing Whisper after 2 rounds of shooting (Pretty easy to shoot her without her cloak on).
Soontir was blocked by the shuttle for 2 rounds because I surprised her both with a blocking move and then stayed in place. (I love that 0 move)
After Echo went to chase the BH and killed him (while my own 2 HP BH fled the scene (running over and asteroid and hitting myself again for 1 HP), she conceded.
100 - 0 (2-1)
Round 4:
Ended up playing my friend who has been testing lists with me the past few weeks. It was funny because the other guys at our table were also friends that played each other a lot and were not happy playing against each other, while me and my friend were delighted to end the tournament flying our ships battle each other.
He flew the list I put together for him (using my Falcon), yes, MY 3RD falcon opponent.
Chewie + Gunner + C-3PO (50)
2 Blue + AdS (50)
100 pts.
He had his B's on the left edge and chewie to the right protecting them from Echo, and I started my OGP on the far left and BH to the right to joust. Echo started in the middle to flank.
as he flew down, I fired everything at Chewie. rolling well plus using focus, I was able to take 5 shields down in the first round of shooting.
As he tried to get his B-wings around my Shuttle, my BH was able to block Chewie for one turn, and shooting from my Shuttle (at range 1) and Echo at R2 (now with TL+Focus) dealt 2 more damage to Chewie (too bad he can't be crit, there were a lot of crits AND he guessed "1" evade right in 2 rounds of shooting, dodging 2 hits each time). Vader dealt one more damage just for fun (since the shuttle was soon to be out of the game again)
After that, the B-Wings were trying to K-turn back and the BH flew to the other side trying to turn around, after taking 3 shields off a B-Wing.
Finally, 2 more rounds of shooting with TL+F saw my Echo dealing 3 and 5 hits (I went in R1 for the final kill when Chewie only had 3 HP left). He almost conceded, but I said let's just play it out since we had time.
As expected, Echo picked apart the B-wings one by one while the shuttle and BH were just trying to turn around. All in all, I witness the power of FCS!
100 - 0 (3-1)
So I tied for 2nd with 2 other people, and my margin of victory got me 3rd place.
Definitely learned a lot from building this list early on, practicing it many times and tweaking the upgrades and my flying style. One big mistake in Game 2 with flying cost me the game, but even then it was a close one. I really like these three ships together and there are still a lot more flying practice I can get since i often block Echo's decloaking with my own ships, which isn't ideal, or leave them out of the fight for too long. Here are some thoughts:
- Tactician and Rebel Captive were useful, but not tremendously so. Only the game against Soontir Fel did it come in handy (which was as intended). I may switch them out for a Gunner on Echo or on BH. Not sure which yet.
- It's a delicate balance between using Vader and giving the opponent 24 points (especially against Rebels with lots of shields) and not using it enough and then flying around not shooting anyone and getting shot at.
- Falcons without Gunner is safe for Echo to take shots at with FCS+Focus from R3 or even R2. Chewie with Gunner is safe to take a shot or two from R3 once in a while, and Han with Marksmanship + Gunner is STAY AWAY!
- 2 Falcons can be taken down with focus fire and Echo helping (instead of running away). Even with Han + Marksmanship + Gunner, I took a chance once or twice and got enough to kill it. BH is an MVP in helping take down Falcons.
This was a good tournament to let me have fun with Echo and really learn to fly large base ships. It'll be very useful when the Outrider and Decimator come out, which I intend to fly. I think I definitely have an advantage over many others with large base flying now, since most people only fly the Falcon, which doesn't require thinking about pointing the arc when maneuvering to avoid asteroids or ships. Flying the BH and the shuttle is such a challenge, when many times you just won't be shooting at all and wasting time.
Now, it's time to practice some Rebel lists, just in time for Rebel Aces to come out. AABBB or AABE, someone?
