I have an escalation tournament this Sunday.

I consider round 1 to be very important and the one I know the least about, since at this point level you either get a perfect amount of ties or a super-fat-Han. Since it's also a case that the tournament is Swiss-only, every round counts, MoV is important as well.

I have read up on all I could find on this forums and others. The squads I find interesting/dangerous are Fat Han, Phantom, Tie swarm and B+HLC. I find it interesting that some people prefer to underbid by 10pts or more in the first round, just to have a Fat Han with no weak ship beside him, less likely to lose by 12pts if a Bandit gets killed.

I like the B's and the Ties, but I feel that too many things can go wrong, and 5 2-dice ships might not be enough to chase a phantom and deal enough damage to it. I don't play Han. I like the Phantom, but I am an Echo player, not Whisper, and I wouldn't want to face Whisper while fielding only echo. So what I came up with is this:

Boba Fett (39)
Predator (3)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Proximity Mines (3)
Rebel Captive (3)

Total: 55

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Round 2 adds Echo:

Boba Fett (39)
Predator (3)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Proximity Mines (3)

"Echo" (30)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Rebel Captive (3)
Advanced Cloaking Device (4)

Total: 90

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Rounds 3 and 4 are undecided, but right now I'm consider just adding Deltas.

The idea is that Bobba Fett is a beast in round 1 with rebel captive, 1 on 1 against most ships he's fine. Proximity mines are there as opportunity damage, nice to have around, surely I can find a moment to drop them, especially if I use Bobba's ability. I could replace it with a Hull upgrade but I'm thinking he has enough HP. I could also put Recon Specialist instead of Rebel Captive, but that's better for 1v2 to 1v5, not against Phantoms or Hans.

Any thoughts/relevant experience?

no relevant exp. take my words with grain of salt.

you have no plans against a phantom. no pilots at ps 9. no real stress or ionizing things. prox mine isnt going to do the job alone. its a soft counter that requires more other soft counters.

stage 1 seems good. but i think you could use the extra points somehow...

stage 2 okay.

stage 3 id really consider putting something in that can catch phantoms, soontir ptl? (you could even find room for a hull in a previous stage).

then stage 4 add the delta.

I can catch the Phantom in stage 1 with HLC + rebel captive. 4 dice with Predator is fine, and they can't actually shoot me if I have rebel captive , if they can't cloak they're (almost) sitting ducks. I am also quite comfortable with lower PS if I have a big gun, 4 dice /w modifiers is quite enough if I can predict well. If they find my blind spot, I can use Prox mines with a 1-bank to give them a good beating

In round 2 I have Bobba and Echo with Rebel captive, I am also comfortable in dealing with Phantoms with this build. Maybe double Phantom would be a bit harder, but I think I have decent odds.

Falcons are overpowerd in the 60 point tier. Hard counter to a Fat Han is ion pulse missiles+stress him off of the board or a rebel B-wing swarm to kill it down.

Empire has a harder time of things. Rebel Captive to cause stress and stop boosting/positioning as well. 3 scimitars with Clusters would put Han out, but would be hard for other stuff. 5 ties just won't be enough to kill and once 2 ships are down its boosting all over the place and you won't be able to catch it.

Well, against Fat Han I have stress from Rebel Captive, so it trumps any push the limit he has. Limited to just one action, he can either focus, evade, or boost. If he evades and uses C3PO, then I get max 2 shots in, but he's predictable and may have a weak(er) attack.

But I did run the numbers, and against Han + Gunner continuously evading I'm not looking too good, it's very close. Thankfully the chances of me not having to use focus on 2 green dice is 56%, for 3-dice it's 42%. Including all the cases where I don't spend focus to let him do just one damage, I should be able to keep my focus token a decent amount of time, allowing me to give a very good attack in return. I could swap in Recon Specialist to make sure I have a focus on offense, but then he could have Push the Limit and focus+evade on his part puts me in a bad spot.

You won't be able to move Rebel Captive to Echo in round 2 if this is being played by official standard Escalation rules. The current escalation rules from FFG state:

“During each round, each squad must contain all ships and upgrade cards from the previous squad. Ships from the previous round must keep all equipped upgrade cards, and these cards may not be “transferred” to a different ship. However, new upgrade cards may be added to ships from the previous squad.”

I have experience with Escalation in the current meta as I won (4-0) a 26 player Escalation 2 months ago. You are correct that Round 1, given the new format, is the most important round. Honestly you really have to play the meta in what you expect to see in that round and go with it. If you think they'll be a lot of Phantoms then go Fat Han/Chewie. If you run into TIE or Bandit Swarm then it's uphill. If you think it'll be Falcons everywhere then go with swarm and pray you don't pull the Phantom player.

In my event I bet that the possibility of super falcon at the 60pt. level would scare off the Phantom players and I was right, as out of 26 we only had a couple. I flew 5 Bandits and paired up against a Chewie in rd. 1 and I didn't lose a ship. I ended up playing another Falcon in rd. 4 as well.

My list:

Round 1: 5 Bandits

Round 2: added a HLC Blue Sq. B-Wing

Round 3: added another HLC Blue

Round 4: Added Wedge w/Predator

Thanks for the catch! I had carefully read the rules, but somehow I remembered the exact opposite, that you *can* transfer upgrades. Well in that case I stand corrected, and I face two options: Either leave Rebel captive on Bobba in subsequent rounds, or drop Proximity mines in the first round for a Recon Specialist on Echo in the subsequent rounds.

I picked Bobba for round 1 in the idea that he's doing better than Han against swarms and can beat Phantoms as well.

I don't have any expectations with regards to meta, non-escalation is pretty balanced with respect to Phantom vs Han and other builds are actually a lot more common.

My thoughts lie two-fold.

Boba Fett's ability gets its best use when firing out of his rear arc, so I'm not terribly certain you need the HLC.
Boba Fett's ability isn't exactly good, so you might be better off with Kath.

That being said, Round 1, your 55 point fleet is going to be murderous to many 60 point fleets, but I'd be a bit scared of the guy who fields 5 Academies or Bandits. Rebel Captive ONLY deals 1 stress a round.

That being said, Tactician is brilliant on a Firespray, as you can use it out of your rear-arc as well.

ALSO, you may only have 1 Rebel Captive, and it MUST be on the ship that started with it. 'Fraid you can't give it to Echo if you have it on Boba in Round 1.

Throwing down Deltas on rounds 3 and 4 is a bit of a waste. They add strength to where your fleet is already strong (survivability and single-target damage), while doing nothing to assuage the weaknesses of your fleet.

What do you do if you go up against the following Round 4 Archetypes?

11 ship Swarm?

Single-ship Lockdown? (like, one in which they field BlockORS).

Hyper-agile Phantoms/Interceptors?

Alpha-strike?

I appreciate the feedback!

* I prefer Bobba to Kath because the ability is a better combined with HLC

* I need HLC for single targets, as well as raising chances of OHKO-ing Tie Fighters

* Rebel captive is not situational like Tactician, it can even give stress to a target out of my arc!

I haven't thought about round 3 and 4 as much, and I admit I don't have experience. I assume you mean Howl-7AP-3Scimitar when you say a 11-ship swarm, right? I included 2 Defenders because it was an easy choice, comfortable. It seems that 90pts is too late to start a proper swarm, maybe if I started at 60 with adding two ships at a time I could reach Bobba + 6 Elite Ties. With this list I wouldn't know what I could do against a Phantom + good support. Maybe something like:

Boba Fett (39)
Predator (3)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Proximity Mines (3)
Rebel Captive (3)

"Echo" (30)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Advanced Cloaking Device (4)

"Howlrunner" (18)

Academy Pilot (12)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)
Squad Leader (2)

Academy Pilot (12)

Total: 148

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I appreciate the feedback!

* I prefer Bobba to Kath because the ability is a better combined with HLC

* I need HLC for single targets, as well as raising chances of OHKO-ing Tie Fighters

* Rebel captive is not situational like Tactician, it can even give stress to a target out of my arc!

I haven't thought about round 3 and 4 as much, and I admit I don't have experience. I assume you mean Howl-7AP-3Scimitar when you say a 11-ship swarm, right? I included 2 Defenders because it was an easy choice, comfortable. It seems that 90pts is too late to start a proper swarm, maybe if I started at 60 with adding two ships at a time I could reach Bobba + 6 Elite Ties. With this list I wouldn't know what I could do against a Phantom + good support. Maybe something like:

Boba Fett (39)

Predator (3)

Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Proximity Mines (3)

Rebel Captive (3)

"Echo" (30)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Advanced Cloaking Device (4)

"Howlrunner" (18)

Academy Pilot (12)

Black Squadron Pilot (14)

Squad Leader (2)

Academy Pilot (12)

Total: 148

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

I don't really like your TIE builds, i'm afraid.

First off, Howlrunner will only be adding her bonus to 3 ships in this formation (Predator renders it moot, and your Phantom will NOT be running in formation, so she's only boosting her fellow TIEs). As such, I don't think she's a good investment.

Secondly, Black + Squad Leader is only benefiting the two APs. As they'd be focusing anyway for damage, he's trading his action (and damage) in favor of giving them a barrel-roll, as no opponent will be attacking them.

If you push both of them down to Academy Pilots, you get 12 points to play around with, without adjusting your upgrades elsewhere.

A 5th Academy Pilot would be lovely, but that implies floating 6 points between round 3 and 4, unless you're willing to re-adjust your round 1 and 2. Therefore, I'd look to spending it on upgrades.

Considering you haven't yet given Echo a Crew Member OR a Sensor yet, you have loads of options for that.

FCS + Gunner is nasty (If you Fire and Miss, the 2nd attack comes with a free Target Lock).

Recon Specialist goes great with your Advanced Cloak, as you can Focus offensively AND defensively, or just defensively twice, to become nigh-immortal

Tactician gets better and better as your mobility improves. On the Phantom, you'll almost always be able to find a Range 2 shot.

Intelligence Agent gives you maneuverability against level 8+ ships, but also helps your TIEs intercept that particular enemy.

Spend the remaining points smoothing things out, so you curve properly between rounds.

Also, don't discount the use of Interceptors or Bombers instead of Fighters. The former brings greater flanking and damage, and the latter brings greater survivabilty and upgradability.

I don't really like your TIE builds, i'm afraid.

First off, Howlrunner will only be adding her bonus to 3 ships in this formation (Predator renders it moot, and your Phantom will NOT be running in formation, so she's only boosting her fellow TIEs). As such, I don't think she's a good investment.

Secondly, Black + Squad Leader is only benefiting the two APs. As they'd be focusing anyway for damage, he's trading his action (and damage) in favor of giving them a barrel-roll, as no opponent will be attacking them.

Howlrunner with 3 ships is just fine and is meant to be an independent to the Firespray and the Phantom.

The black squadron is meant to give an extra evade to Howlrunner, to better protect this core of 4 ships. It's 4 points (+an action) worth of protection for Howlrunner, and it's better than either Shield Upgrade or Stealth Device. Bonus points, you can use it to bolster anything else if Howlrunner is gone or not in danger (range 2 isn't that small of a leash).

I'm a bit iffy with having 4 ships at 120 with two TIE Fighters, I said it myself. My problem is that I'm starting with 60 points spent in a ship I'm not very sure will do that well against many others. I just tested it against Fat Han and I'm not happy with the results.

The only way to have a reasonable TIE swarm is to start with one, you can't build it 2 TIEs at a time. 30points is bad for Imperials, so you have to start with 5 academies. I am a swarm player, but I still wouldn't bet I can take Fat Han with 5 academies with high certainty. I need one for blocking, then I need very good shots on the other 4, of which one could just be OHKO before it even gets to fire.. I would have probably better odds than I see I have now with Bobba though...

Howlrunner with 3 ships is just fine and is meant to be an independent to the Firespray and the Phantom.

I get that. It's meant to be an independent cell. However, Howlrunner's damage increase (spread over only 3 squadmates) isn't worth the 6 points it takes to play her.

The black squadron is meant to give an extra evade to Howlrunner, to better protect this core of 4 ships.

Squad Leader only passes actions to ships with a lower Pilot Skill.

The only way to have a reasonable TIE swarm is to start with one, you can't build it 2 TIEs at a time.

Although it is more potent to start with a Swarm, then Tie + Howlrunner in round 2, you CAN add 2 at a time meaninfully; particularly if you have other ships to upgrade at the time.

Twinned TIEs as an addition give you a screen to keep your enemy's ships at bay (simply by being in the way as blockers). They also have pretty good DPS for their cost. If the enemy scoots past them to target your more valuable ships, they're shooting at Range 1.

I love rebel captive so much. =)

so flavorful, so useful. so well designed.