From sunny Waco, Texas, I played in a small 6 man tournament this afternoon. My list for the day:

Bounty Hunter

Whisper w/ Advanced Cloaking Devise and Veteran Instincts.

Soontir Fel w/ Push the limit.

I had a great time today, and met some great people. It was a day filled with Imperial training missions, as there were 5 Imp players and 1 Rebel player. There were also 7 Lambdas. Enough space cows to last a life-time. 3 round swiss, no cut at 70 minute games.

First game of the day was against a 4 Lambda list.It was my opponent's first tournament.

3 OGP's with Anti-pursuit lasers and Fire Control Systems

1 OGP with Darth Vader

The setup:

Clustered Asteroids in the middle. He set up his OGP's in an evenly spaced position across his side of the board. He had the whole board in front of him covered with his arcs. I set up with Soontir middle right, going to try and blast through a gap and with a bit of luck, have him not even get shot at. Whisper was going to take it slow and see how the OGP's reacted to Soontir by going in the Middle. BH was on the left, and ready to joust. I know if i can just get behind them without losing anyone, this game should be in the bag.

Game: On the first turn, the shuttles take it a lot faster than I thought and move forward 3. Soontir moves 5 up, and I, forgetting the rule of 11 for a bit, boost. In the first round of shooting, I also failed to notice I was in range of the DoomShuttle. Luckily I evade the shots, but take a hit from Vader. As much as I was hoping for munitions failure, I draw a Direct hit.

Soontir is down to 1 HP already, and it's only been 1 round. After that though, I manage to get behind his lines with all my ships, and slowly begin the process of whittling down 40 hp of ships. I don't lose a ship, but the BH is down to 2 or 3 hull by the end of game, but I do manage to take down 3 OGP's and leave one seriously wounded.

74 points killed, 0 points lost.

Game 2

I had played my next opponent before, and I knew it was going to be a tough match if i wasn't careful with my flying.He had:

Sigma Squadron pilot with Stygium Particle Accelerator and FCS

Howlrunner with Swarm tactics and Stealth Device

5 Academy TIE's

The Set Up:

He set up his swarm in the middle of the board, aiming for a break in the rocks that were clustered in the middle.His Phantom was on the left side of the board. I set my BH up, ready to provide a distraction for his swarm. Whisper and Soontir set up on the left side, across from his phantom.

The Game:

He plays slow with his swarm, looking to see where I go. BH moves forward, ready to move through the rocks, Soontir blasts forward, and Whisper does a dainty 1 turn to pounce on any openings. Second turn is where I make my first mistake. I think he'll angle for Soontir, so I set my BH to get a good R-1 shot on where Howl would be in my mind. Instead, he moves forward, and BH is range 1 of 4/6 ties, and in arc of the Phantom. after Howl and Sigma shoot at BH, my BH is left shieldless. I manage to one shot an Academy before being destroyed by the swarm.

A few moves later,and a few injured TIE's(I kept doing 1 damage at a time and on different TIE's. I didn't focus my fire well enough), my opponent makes his first mistake. he forgets to decloak his phantom after he had expertly blocked Soontir. Soontier would have probably died. Instead, I manage to strip it's shields. A few turns after that, and another destroyed academy, Soontir is full health, and Whisper has lost a shild. I find myself R1 of his shield-less Phantom. This is where I make my big mistake. I forget to take my action. No big deal, I think. guess what I roll? 3 focus, and 2 blanks. On the return shot, he rolls 3 hits, and I roll 1 focus and 3 blanks. And just like that, it's Soontir vs. a phantom, and 4 TIE's(all of which have at least 1 damage, some have 2). Soontir starts doing Soontir-y things, and slowly whittles down the TIE's. 2-3 turns later, My opponent mis-predicts a move of mine, and Soontir is Range one his Phantom. Pop goes the phantom. All that's left at this point is Howl runner and 2 academies vs my still full health Soontir. It comes down to the wire, and on the last round of shooting that is the difference between a draw, and a full win for either of us, I manage to destroy Howlrunner and walk away with the full win, but it was bloody.

88 points killed, 70 points lost

Final game

My opponent was running:

2 OGP's with HLC and FCS

1 BH with HLC

Setup:

My opponent set up with his shuttles in opposite corners and his BH in the middle, and I set up with my BH ready to draw the attention of a shuttle and his BH while Soontir and Whisper got behind enemy lines.

The game:

Long and short of it, my strategy worked perfectly. I lost all shields on my BH, and one shield off of Whisper while trying to get behind the enemy, but after that opening salvo, my opponent didn't even get a shot on me until the very end of the game.

100 points killed, 0 points lost.

Total:262 points killed, 70 points lost.

I was quite happy with how I played, with exception of the second game. One mistake almost cost me first place. Not to sound arrogant, but I had a feeling that the second game would be a defacto championship game, and boy was it a heart-pounder.

Lessons learned:

-Always take the time to remember your actions!

-The best defense is to not get shot at at all.

-There's a time and a place for being super aggressive, and charging at a swarm in the second turn is not it.

This is my first battle report, so any criticisms or questions are welcome!