Warning: Wall of Text Incoming!
We just finished up a league at my FLGS, and I decided from the beginning that I would post detailed session reports of all my matches, including both what happened and what I learned from the match. I decided to do this because forcing myself to get my thoughts down on metaphorical paper really helps me learn from my experience more effectively than just thinking about it. Not only that, but it would also let some of the newer guys in the league learn from my mistakes (not that I’m at all experienced – started in April!). Including all of that detail does, however, mean that this will be long! I’m posting a compilation of my session reports from our league forum here in the hopes that others can learn from what went right (and wrong) without having to make all of these mistakes themselves. Enjoy!
League Format
Our league was loosely based on the Escalation tournament format. Each of the three divisions (Light, Dark, and Gray, naturally) had five players, and we would play each opponent twice (with the necessary two byes in there somewhere to make it work). The first round would be 50 points, and each subsequent round would be an additional 10 squad points. (No need to maintain squad continuity between rounds, though you were wedded to the chosen faction for the duration.) Two players from each division would go to a seeded single elimination playoff, with the top two seeds earning first-round byes. Playoff squads would be standard 100 point dogfight.
Round 1: John
Being a 50 point battle, the squads were a little smaller than I’m used to, but I decided to stick with what I’m most comfortable flying: B-wings, big, slow, and heavily armed. I showed up flying:
Blue Squadron Pilot (22) + Fire Control System (2) + Flechette Torpedoes (2)
Blue Squadron Pilot (22) + Fire Control System (2)
John appeared with a 49 point squad composed of an X-wing and an A-wing:
Luke Skywalker (28) + R2-D2 (4)
Prototype Pilot (17)
The board ended up with an odd almost-grid of asteroids slanting from my upper-left to lower-right. John placed his A-wing on my left side, just outside the asteroid field, and I responded by deploying basically head-on with the A-wing, as I figured I held the advantage in a jousting match. John surprised me by deploying Luke a bit inside of the A-wing, meaning that he couldn’t go for the straight joust, as Luke would plow into an asteroid if he went straight.
On the first turn, Jon caught me off guard, having the A-wing charge 5-forward (was he suicidal?), but my B-wings’ 3-forwards left them just outside of Range 3. Luke banked in, trailing slowly. John’s strategy became clear when he managed to apparently predict my next move and k-turn his A-wing such that my B’s finished their movement parked at point blank range in front of him. Crap. In the first combat round, he managed to roll all hits vs no evades on the B with Flechettes, taking him down to 2 hull, while my B-wings managed to land 4 hits on Luke, leaving him with a single hull point.
The next turn was a furball, as the A-wing leapfrogged the B’s, and then all three other ships plowed into the A-wing (with Luke regenerating a shield). Well, at least my FCS meant I had a pair of target locks on Luke at range 1 even without getting actions. Unfortunately, Luke landed the two hits necessary to off the injured B-wing before he could fire. Fortunately, the other B-wing landed the two hits to kill Luke in return, leaving an undamaged B-wing against a lonely prototype pilot. I felt pretty confident here. The next few turns shook that confidence, as the A-wing managed to take a series of hard turns that kept it behind me and taking 2 of my shields, while staying close enough to make the 2 k-turn risky (leaving him out of arc and then behind me again while stressed, or worse, he could maybe have blocked it with his movement, which would leave me stressed and worse out of position). I probably played this overly cautiously, and I paid the price in shields.
Fortunately, our path up the side of the board led inevitably to the corner, at which point I felt I could safely k-turn because John wouldn’t risk running his only ship off the board to maintain position. John opted instead to run, looping around the asteroid field with a 3-turn. This left me with a range 2 shot with TL, which stripped the shields off the A-wing. At this point it became a straight-up chase, and my three consecutive range-3 shots (with target lock and focus!) failed to land a single hit. He finally slipped up after he turned the corner to come down the right side of the board. Seeing the opportunity to cut him off once he reached the bottom edge of the board, I turned down and into the asteroid field rather than going for the straight-up chase. Instead of running for the bottom edge, John’s A-wing also turned into the asteroid field, leaving me with a range 2 shot with TL and focus that (finally!) landed the two damage needed to finish the job.
Result: Win, 49-26 (Destroyed all 49 pts of John’s squad, lost 26 pts of my own.)
When thinking about what went wrong for John, at first blush it seems like it may seem like it had a lot to do with a bit of clumsy flying with the A-wing: he did cause a pile up involving all four of the ships on the table (which ensured Luke’s demise), and then didn’t quite run fast or far enough with the A-wing to ensure he got away for a more controlled pass – boosting could have gotten him out of range much faster. It could even be argued that trying to run with the A-wing was a mistake, as putting distance between us made his maneuverability less of a factor and allowed me to finally get my guns on him. It’s possible he’d have been better served trying to dance around me at range 1 and using boost to stay out of my firing arc; that would have been a bit chancy, but it’s hard to see how an A-wing brings down a pretty healthy B-wing otherwise.
I think the actual mistake was at the point of squad building. He had two good ships, but let’s review their strengths. Luke with R2-D2 is generally acknowledged to be a great late-game ship – if you don’t get him early, you’ll never be able to bring him down. The Prototype Pilot is an excellent, cheap flanker – cheap and weak enough that it’s not a tempting target, but just strong enough to do significant damage if it’s neglected long enough. Now admittedly my summary of their strengths might be incomplete, but if you read it again you’ll see that in the description both ships depend on one thing: a diversion. Without another more immediately dangerous ship on the board, I was free to focus on Luke early and then chase down the A-wing, who would be hard-pressed to match a B-wing punch for punch; eventually the evade dice will turn up blank, and that’s it. The A-wing simply can’t survive more than one solid hit. The list presented an obvious and achievable strategy to bring it down, and I wasn’t forced to deviate from it.
Round 2: Matt
Round 2 increased the squad point total to 60. I wanted to keep my pair of B-wings, and the additional points allowed me to try out one of the (then very new) Z-95s. I flew:
2x Blue Squadron Pilot (22) + Fire Control System (2)
Bandit Squadron Pilot (12) – Sexy alt-art Imdaar Alpha edition!
Matt made it an almost-a-mirror-match:
2x Tala Squadron Pilot (13) + Cluster Missiles (4) + Munitions Failsafe (1)
Blue Squadron Pilot (22) + Fire Control System (2)
The asteroids ended up in an odd pattern that left a shallow pocket toward me and a single asteroid cluttering the upper right and upper left. Matt had won the initiative roll, so he placed his B-wing first. He surprised me by setting it up in the upper left corner angled at about 45 degrees, which would parallel a pair of asteroids and lead straight toward the pocket on my side. I responded by setting up all three of my ships in the opposite corner, pointed straight up the board. Matt’s Z-95s were placed paralleling the B-wing but slightly inside of it.
The game began with three turns of maneuvering, the first two of which involved everybody going straight – Matt’s B-wing went straight for a gap in the asteroid field, but the Z-95s were fast approaching the large asteroid forming the edge of said gap. My Z-95 moved a bit ahead of my B-wings, but I was ready to turn into the asteroid field. The next turn, his B went straight, and the Z-95s hard turned away from me, as I had the B-wings bank in and the Z-95 made a hard turn. I had a shot on a Z-95 with a B-wing, but landed only a single hit. The next round started the real action.
Matt’s B-wing turned around the asteroid as the Z-95s started to come around (one k-turning, the other taking a hard 2), and all three of my ships finished turning to face the B head-on in a surprisingly tight and intentional-looking formation. I definitely got the better of that exchange, losing only one or two shields from the lead B-wing, while landing four hits on Matt’s.
The next turn I benefited greatly from Matt having initiative, as his B-wing was forced to move first and my lead B-wing managed to k-turn in behind it. My other B-wing bumped, and my Bandit just banked down the board to clear space. The shooting of this round managed to land a crit on the hull of Matt’s B-wing and take the second shield off one of his Z-95s, while Matt’s Z-95s unloaded their ordnance. Thankfully, they were almost duds. The cluster missiles landed one hit on one B-wing, and two on the other. It could have been far worse.
The next round is a bit fuzzy in my mind, as nothing much happened – too much stuff in the way, only a couple of shots were taken, and only a couple of hits were landed. I remember being quite irritated that I wasn’t able (yet) to effectively pursue Matt’s B-wing, as I had depended on barrel-rolling into position behind him only to find I was a millimeter short on room to do so. After this round, we stopped to check time, only to discover we had ten minutes remaining and no ships gone yet!
That was soon remedied, as Matt k-turned his B-wing and mine followed him up the board for a range 1 face off. Meanwhile my other B-wing and Bandit were in hot pursuit of a Tala. Matt’s Z-95s plinked again, and his B-wing managed to finish stripping my B-wing’s shields, but the return fire proved too much. The round ended with Matt losing both his Blue Squadron and a Tala Squadron pilot, meaning he now possessed a single Z-95 to go up against one badly wounded B-wing, one B-wing with 2 shields left, and a Z-95 with one shield remaining. The time expired as Matt’s last Z-95 was facing off with a B-wing. The game did not end with total destruction, but it was never again in doubt.
Result: Win, 42-0 (Destroyed 42 pts of Matt’s squad, lost none of my own.)
I think Matt’s loss can be pretty directly attributed to two things:
1) On his initial approach, his B-wing was forced to engage my whole squad. This allowed me to have one round where I was almost guaranteed to get the better of the exchange. The unconventional deployment didn’t pan out for him, and his Z-95s were forced to disengage just as combat was starting.
2) He had awful offensive dice rolls. He got completely skunked on a point blank shot with a target lock, and his cluster missiles failed to do significant damage. Had either of those gone more his way, the outcome would have been much closer.
I don’t really have much criticism of Matt’s squad to offer, other than the observation that by selecting to go for ordnance on Z-95s rather than something with a bit more consistent offensive power, he really left himself open to the possibility of a few bad die rolls crippling an alpha strike he depended on. But really, that’s just nitpicky hindsight talking. The list was fine – Matt just needs to bring better dice luck next time.
Round 3: Garrett
Round 3 increased the squad point total to 70, and my love affair with B-wings continues. (This may be getting unhealthy; I think I should probably fly something else next round or I’ll be seeing B-wings in my dreams.) I flew three B-wings:
2x Blue Squadron Pilot (22) + Fire Control System (2)
Blue Squadron Pilot (22)
Garrett (being the sole representative of law, order, and black paint jobs in the Dark Side Division as far as I know) was flying:
Howlrunner (18)
Backstabber (16)
2x Alpha Squadron Pilot (18)
The asteroids ended up in an oval oriented with the long axis running from my upper left to lower right, and had a nice large pocket in the middle. Garrett had to set up his Interceptors, and placed them in my upper left, with the inner one straight in line with the outermost asteroid. I responded by deploying my squad in a tight triangle directly across from the Interceptors, as I figured that I could win a joust with them; all three of my skill 2 pilots shooting before the Interceptors had a good chance of taking one off the board before it could even fire. Howlrunner was then deployed a bit inside of the Interceptors, and Backstabber finished the row a bit farther in.
I wasn’t sure if Garrett would try to flee the jousting situation, so I wanted to move slowly until I had a chance to guage his intentions; all my ships did a 1fwd, while his interceptors came screaming 5fwd, and Howlrunner started to bank in behind them, and Backstabber went straight ahead on the inside.
Everybody then set up for the next turn, where my squad went 3fwd, getting the foremost ship just into range one of his charging interceptors. We all picked up target locks on the squints while Howlrunner banked back in to face us squarely behind them. Backstabber surprised me; I had expected him to immediately do a 2 or 3 turn to flank me here, but instead he banked away from the fight, apparently attempting to set up a loop around behind my squad. Howlrunner managed to miss her shot as my B-wing rolled an evade, and then I got to shoot. In what would prove to be a trend I rolled some hot dice, and downed one interceptor in two shots, while laying one hit on the other. He managed in turn to strip two shields from a B-wing. Exchange definitely in my favor.
Given that the remaining interceptor was staring down an asteroid less than two inches ahead, I was pretty sure he would go for a hard 1-turn at me, and I decided to go for some strategic bumping. Sure enough, he turned the squint in, and my B-wings formed a conga line with all three bumping, but only one touching the interceptor (leaving the other two free to blow it away). Howlrunner fell about a half-inch shy of joining the dog pile, and backstabber made a 3-turn to loop around and come at me from behind. Howlrunner again had lousy dice, and I took one hit from the range-one shot. Backstabber managed to lay another hit on a B-wing, but none of them were really feeling the heat yet. My return fire managed to down the other interceptor, and lay a pair of hits on Howlrunner (including a console fire crit!). Things were definitely looking up, and the rest o the game was no different.
Howlrunner lasted another two turns before the console fire immolated her, and Backstabber took a wrong turn into range one of a pair of unexpectedly k-turning B-wings. I conclusively proved that my dice and Garrett’s had a previous agreement that Garrett was going to lose: I consistently rolled three hits using four dice at range one with TL, and while his agility dice weren’t terrible, he couldn’t keep holding them off. (His attack dice never improved – he even managed to roll no hits with three dice multiple times!) All told, I lost eight shields spread across all three ships, while Garrett’s squad died fast and hard. When the dice are against you, there’s not much to be done.
Result: Win, 70-0 (Destroyed 70 pts of Garrett’s squad, lost none of my own.)
I have three pieces of criticism about the game to offer about what may have led to Garrett’s defeat (aside from him somehow angering the dice):
1) I think trying to run the Alpha Squadron Pilots with Howlrunner made them too predictable. The strength of the Empire lies in overwhelming numbers or superior maneuverability. In retrospect, he probably would have been better served running some higher-skill Interceptors, Backstabber, and an Academy Pilot (or maybe a pair of Royal Guard Pilots with Push the Limit and Backstabber with some modification). Without Howlrunner, he could disregard formation flying, making himself far less predictable. He would also move well after me and boost and barrel-roll to stay out of the firing arcs of my ships, at the very least making it hard to get too many guns on the same ship. And finally, he would shoot before me, removing my ability to get him off the board before he could shoot.
2) Once he settled on this squad, he elected to joust me rather than turn away immediately and seek a more favorable opportunity to engage. B-wings are so durable (and Interceptors so fragile) that a head-on engagement on even terms would require great luck to come out in his favor, especially as I could shoot before the interceptors and (with only moderate luck) get one off the board before it could return fire.
3) Backstabber banked away as the fight was starting. This meant that not only did he forego shooting for a turn (and limit his target selection on subsequent turns), but he never forced me into the tough decision on whether to engage the flanker or the main squad. The main squad was so heavily damaged by the time the decision faced me that it was no longer relevant.
(I’m sure I made mistakes too, but when the dice go as far in my favor as they did in this one, it’s a lot harder for me to figure out what I did wrong. Good dice can cover a multitude of strategic and tactical blunders.)
Round 4: BYE
No game that week, and any week I don’t get to game has to be considered a loss. Thankfully, I got a casual game in, but I didn’t do a write-up. Sorry to all of my adoring fans. (All zero of them.)
Round 5: Lucas
Round 5 was with 90 point squads, which finally renders unfeasible my typical strategy of MOAR B-WINGS!!1!!!!eleventy!!!1! I decided to do something of a takeoff on my Imdaar Alpha list and ended up flying:
2x Blue Squadron Pilots (22)
Tarn Mison (23) + R7 Astromech (2)
Rebel Operative (16) + Ion Cannon Turret (5)
You didn’t seriously think I’d go cold turkey on the B-wings, did you? Heh.
Lucas had a harder time choosing his squad though – he thought this was supposed to be an 80 point game, and had some last minute revisions in order to field:
Blue Squadron Pilot (22) + Heavy Laser Cannon (7) + Advanced Sensors (3)
Green Squadron Pilot (19)
Wedge Antilles (29) + Shield Upgrade (4) + R2-D2 (4) + Swarm Tactics (2)
The asteroids ended up in a general scatter that started about range three from the right side (more space than usual over there!). I had won the initiative roll, so I had to deploy first. I set up my PS2 pilots about range one outside the asteroid field (my left of the board) in a checkerboard formation, with the HWK on the inside. Lucas deployed his B-wing straight across the table, and I knew the joust was on. Tarn joined the outside of my formation, and his Green Squadron A-wing deployed near the middle of the board to flank me, while Wedge pulled up next to the B-wing.
In the first round, my formation went 3 forward together, while Lucas had Wedge and the B-wing go 2 forward and the A-wing goes 3 forward. (Boring!) Round 2 had my formation going 3 forward in an attempt to close the range (heavy laser cannons are terrifying at range 3!), while Lucas had his B-wing try to hold the range open with a 1 forward, Wedge moved 2 forward to get a bit better shot, and the A-wing banked 3 to flank me. Then combat started, and it did not start well for me. Swarm tactics allowed both Wedge and the Blue to fire at PS9, with the A-wing following at PS3. They focused fire on my foremost B-wing, and landed seven hits with nine dice (ouch!) reducing me to a single remaining hull point. Thankfully, the return fire was withering, with focused fire from all of my ships combining to deal just enough damage to get Wedge off the board in the first combat round – Tarn got two shields, the Blues got him down to a single hull left, and the ion turret finished him off. This was good for me in two ways – it got one of his better ships off the board before it could do any more damage, and it meant that he couldn’t keep handing out the swarm tactics PS boost, putting us on fairly even PS footing moving forward.
I led the next round by having my almost-dead b-wing go two forward, hoping to force his B-wing to bump (and hoping to stay out of arc of the A-wing one more turn). The rest of my formation went one forward in an attempt to keep guns on the B-wing (the HWK would have turned left, but the needed space was already occupied by an A-wing). Lucas then had his B-wing go forward and bump (yay!), he still got an action with Advanced Sensors (boo!), and his A-wing took a hard 1 left, which actually ran him into the side of my newly arrived HWK (double yay!). I managed to take four shields off his B-wing (and ioned it!), while his A-wing finished off my injured B. Then Lucas’s B-wing took a point blank shot on my HWK and landed a hit and a crit. Thankfully, the critical was NOT a munitions failure (which would render him toothless), but rather stunned pilot, which would only affect me if I started running into things.
The next round had formations finally breaking, as my B-wing banked 1 right (toward the board edge) to force Lucas’s ioned B-wing to bump. Tarn took the 4 k-turn, which put him right behind Lucas’s B, and my HWK took a hard 2 left away from the clump (but with a turret, who cares?!). The Green Squadron A-wing went straight, which actually bumped his own B-wing, leaving him at range 1 with a shot on my B – which Lucas managed to totally miss. 3 focus results are no good when you didn’t get an action. Tarn took the a shield and off Lucas’s B, and (if I remember right) the HWK ioned him for a hull point. Neither B-wing had a valid target.
The next turn my B-wing couldn’t k-turn (no space) and so just went 1 forward to clear some room. Tarn voluntarily bumped him (it was really too crowded to operate well here). My HWK took another 2 left and was now back facing me. Lucas had his A-wing take a 2 turn left to “regroup” (you need a group to regroup…) as he headed away from the battle. Very little shooting this round, as Tarn missed and my HWK just managed to ion the A-wing.
Next my HWK took yet another hard 2 left, leaving it facing my right. My B-wing did the same, leaving it pointed up and left after the A-wing (which he failed to hit when shooting). Tarn went 4 forward, which placed him right behind and aside Lucas’s Blue, who had turned 2 right and was facing off with the HWK. Tarn killed the Blue Squadron B-wing before he could return fire, and from here on out it was a mop up job.
It went three or four more turns, but we called it when Lucas’s A-wing was down to a single hull and was in really bad position, with all three of my ships closing in. I finished with a HWK with 2 damage (one crit) and a B-wing missing two shields, and a shiny new Tarn Mison.
Result: Win, 90-22 (Destroyed 90 pts of Lucas’s squad, lost 22 points of my own.)
I think this one was lost for Lucas in the squad-building phase. (Not that I can fault him too strongly, as he had to do some last-minute revisions for the match.) He went with both low ship count and low agility on his two heavy hitters. This meant that my always-underestimated Ion Turret HWK was able to keep a large portion of his firepower pointing the wrong way for much of the match (his B-wing only got to fire twice!).
That said, had he managed to kill my Blue Squadron Pilot before he could shoot back in the first combat round, the game would have been much different (since I couldn’t have mustered the firepower to off Wedge in that case). It would have required good luck (8 hits landed on 9 attack dice), but my B-wing’s low agility makes it possible.
I also need to say that the Ion HWK is always, always, always underestimated. He was my total MVP this game, landing the killing hit on Wedge and keeping the B-wing pointing the wrong way.
I also think Lucas would have been better served by avoiding the joust – he would have done better to try to engage me in the asteroid field. My squad was fairly unmaneuverable, and Lucas could have used his maneuverability advantage from his A-wing and Advanced Sensors B-wing. Lucas also had a bit of a firepower advantage from the HLC and Wedge, who can roll enough dice to land hits even with bad shots. I also would have (if I wanted his three ships) dropped R2-D2 from Wedge (you need to last to make him count, and Wedge is always a high-priority target) to add Outmaneuver to the Green Squadron Pilot, making him a far more effective flanker. As it was, he was a small enough threat that I ignored him until the end, and it didn’t really hurt me to do so.
(I don’t really know where I made big mistakes; one learns far more from a loss than from a win, since losses are often due to the opponent capitalizing on those mistakes and thus forcing you to notice them.)
Round 6: John
Round 6 starts the same cycle of opponents over again, with bigger squads this time. This round got us back up to the standard 100 point dogfighting squad, and I wanted to see how a 5-ship rebel build would work, utilizing (then still new) Z-95 Headhunter to fill the final points:
2x Blue Squadron Pilot (22)
Rookie Pilot (21)
Rebel Operative (16) + Ion Cannon Turret (5) + Tactician (2)
Bandit Squadron Pilot (12) – sexy alternate art Imdaar Alpha version (of course!)
And, of course, when I run a single ion cannon, I go against a suqad built around the Falcon… John was running:
Han Solo (46) + Gunner (5)
Gold Squadron Pilot (18) + Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Green Squadron Pilot (19) + Push the Limit (3) + Cluster Missiles (4)
John won the roll-off for initiative, and the asteroids were placed in a large V-shape opening to my right. John then placed his Y-Wing just outside the asteroids on my right, and I set my entire squad up to joust with the Y (HWK and Bandit in front, X and B-wings behind in a checkerboard formation). Then John placed Han outside the Gold to joust, and the A-wing started near the center of his side to flank through the asteroid field.
On the first turn, I charged 3-forward, while Han and the Gold crept forward and the A-wing darted 5-forward and boosted to set up the flanking maneuver. In the next round, John’s Gold surprised me by 2-turning to my left, but the ion turret would keep my guys in range. I responded by charging my Bandit 4-forward hoping to block Han, while my HWK did a 2-bank left in an attempt to engage the A-wing, and the rest of my squad did 2 forward (and TLed Han). John’s Green then turned at me hard-3, target locked the HWK, and boosted with Push the limit, unfortunately landing with the HWK just outside of his arc after the boost. Han managed to not bump with a 1-forward. Now: shooting! Han and the green squadron each peeled a shield (from the Bandit and a B-wing, respectively), and his Gold ioned my HWK. I responded by managing to land 5 damage on Han as well as ioning and stressing (via Tactician) his Gold.
On the next turn, John’s Gold and my HWK each moved the obligatory 1-forward. My leftmost B-wing did his 2 k-turn, anticipating the A-wing moving behind. My Z-95 did a 3 k-turn right behind Han, and my other two did 1-banks left to get guns on the Y-wing (and since Han was occupying the K-turn zone of the X-wing). John’s A-wing did the anticipated hard 2-turn (to face my upper-right) to clear his stress and get his guns around (though he switched his TL to a B-wing for the cluster missiles). In some smart piloting, Han avoided the dogpile with a 4-forward. Han and the Green squadron each shot at the healthy B-wing, removing four shields (ouch!), but it could have been much worse, as the A-wing totally biffed one of the cluster missile attacks. John’s gold missed his ion shot. In return, I stripped Han’s final shield with a range 3 shot from my Bandit, my k-turned Blue landed 2 hits on the A-wing, the HWK then ioned the A-wing, and everyone else only had shots at the Y-wing, who finished the round with one crit to hull which turned all hard turns into red maneuvers.
On the next turn, things get messy – John forgot that his Gold’s turns were red, and thus accidentally assigned him a red maneuver while stressed, which meant I got to pick the maneuver – a 3-bank angling toward the upper left that took him over an asteroid (landing a hit) and kept him out of the fight. My HWK 2-turned to face the lower left, my two stressed ships (B and Z-95) crept forward to clear stress, and my other two k-turned (just barely missing bumping each other, which would have been disastrous). The Green did his obligatory ion 1-forward, and Han did a 1-turn to my left for great positioning for a shot. Unfortunately, Han landed only a single hit on my nearest B-wing. His A-wing, however, rolled 3 hits with a range-1 attack on my Bandit, killing him before he could fire. I responded by Killing the A-wing with the HWK’s ion turret, and landing a crit on Han that nullified his pilot’s ability (no more free rerolls!) and I think another hit to hull.
The next round had me pursuing a fleeing Han full force and killing him with concentrated fire from four ships, and mopping up the remaining Y-wing took 3 turns only because he’d basically made it to the opposite corner of the board by this time.
Result: Win, 100-12 (Destroyed 100 pts of John’s squad, lost 12 points of my own.)
So, what can we learn from this one? (Note: here’s where I switched to a bullet-point based “lessons learned” section. I have no idea why, but the format will look like this more or less for the rest of the write-up.)
- The Falcon requires adequate fire support. Han has low damage output (for his point cost), but mitigates that by having a shot EVERY turn. Unfortunately, I was rolling almost twice as many red dice per turn as John was, and it showed in the damage outputs of the squad; on a good turn John was landing four damage; on a good turn I was landing six or so. He probably would have been better off swapping into more of a standard Han Shoots First squad with a pair of X- or B-wings as escorts, or maybe a pile of Z-95s. He just needed more offense.
- Stress can make a ship predictable, and so Push the Limit should be used with care. I knew where John’s A-wing was going to land the turn after he stressed himself, and was able to get a B-wing in prime position to deal with it. I should have k-turned with the other as well, but was hoping to keep him in firing position if Han bumped. That didn’t work.
- We should all remember to use our crit marker tokens. It often seems redundant, but if John had remembered his red-turn crit, I wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to essentially banish his Gold from the fight.
Round 7: Matt
Round 7 takes us above the standard 100 point dogfighting squad, and I used the extra flexibility to take some pilots with actual names, rather than my usual assortment of Squadron Pilots. I decided to fly:
Biggs Darklighter (25)
Tarn Mison (23) + R7 Astromech (2)
Blue Squadron Pilot (22)
Gold Squadron Pilot (18) + Ion Cannon Turret (5) + R3-A2 (2)
Bandit Squadron Pilot (12) – sexy alternate art Imdaar Alpha version (of course!)
As usual, it’s not me if there’s not at least one B-wing in there, and I was interested in the possibilities of a Gold with ion and able to hand out stress (one shot leads to two turns of limited options for the target, yay!).
Matt decided to go with a Han Shoots First variant, with:
Han Solo (46) + Marksmanship (3) + Gunner (5)
Gold Squadron Pilot (18) + Blaster Turret(4) + R7 Astromech (2)
2x Bandit Squadron Pilot (12) + Cluster Missiles (4)
With my squad coming in at 109 points, I had initiative (this will be important later), and we placed the asteroids running in an oval from my upper left to lower right. I proceeded to deploy in my lower right corner pointing straight up the board, with Tarn just inside the main group and pointed into the asteroid field. Matt deployed in my upper left, with Han to the inside, and we started.
I moved straight up the board, with my main squad forming a vertical line with Biggs offset to the outside, an asteroid inside, and Tarn just creeping up inside that. Matt moved his ships forward some. Everyone’s way out of range. In round 2, I 2-turned my Blue and Gold left around the asteroid and into the open space, with Biggs and the Bandit 2-banking in behind them. Tarn just crept forward again, but now the rest of the squad was almost in front of him. Matt Moved the small ships forward and banked Han to the outside, apparently setting up for Han to turn in behind them on the next turn. We’re all still out of range.
Turn 3 I expected Matt to turn toward me, and so my B-wing moved forward (to my left) and barrel-rolled up the board to an asteroid next turn, while the Gold went straight (to the left) and the Bandit banked in behind him. Tarn banked left, putting him in between the Blue and Gold, but angled to the upper left, and Biggs banked to face left at the back of the formation. All my guns were ready! So of course Matt just goes straight and has Han bank in behind the others, keeping everyone out of range again.
On Turn 4, the action starts (finally)! My gold and Bandit stay in a line just behind/below the asteroid ahead of them, while I misjudged the Blue’s Bank-2 toward my lower left, which came within about a millimeter of landing on the asteroid (oops). Tarn ends up just behing the Blue facing left, and Biggs brings u the rear, at range 1 to everyone. Matt turns his Bandits in with the Gold right behind, and Han ends up bumping the Gold on his turn and losing his action. Then the fun starts, because Biggs is a total jerk (heh). Matt had TLed the B-wing and the Y-wing with his Z-95s, and the one locked on my Gold was out of range for Biggs, so he would soon be unloading his Cluster Missiles on everyone’s least favorite pilot. Without actions, Han managed to biff both his shots on Biggs. My return fire managed to strip 2 shields off of the near Bandit, and totally kill the lower B. Simultaneous fire would have still let the lower Bandit fire clusters at the Gold, but I managed to crit him with the best of all possible crits for the situation: Munitions Failure. No missiles for you! (And thank you, initiative!) Matt’s return fire managed to strip a single shield from my B-wing – he couldn’t use cluster missiles because he had to shoot Biggs with the other Bandit, who missed. Things were definitely looking up.
In the next round my squad uses initiative to inch toward Matt’s and force him to bump, costing all his ships their actions. Biggs fell out of range 1 from the B-wing, but Han’s guns failed him, landing only a single hit on my Blue. Return fire killed Matt’s remaining Bandit before it could fire, got a single ion token on Han, and stripped the shields from his Y-wing before his Gold’s blaster Turret could land another hit on my B-wing.
Now things get a little hairy for me, as Han is taking the room need to k-turn… Instead, my Blue 2-turns down the board, my Gold does a 3 forward past Han, and everyone else ends up muddled in front of Han, denying him the room to move. Han bumps, while Matt’s Gold goes straight and overshoots the mess. Matt manages to concentrate fire and just barely kill off my B-wing (who has no shot this turn), while I can only shoot with three of my five ships. I still managed to strip Han’s shields and give him his second ion token to go with his stress.
Next turn, my Gold turns up the board to clear space, still keeping his stress. My Bandit overshoots han while trying to turn, and gets no shot. Tarn k-turns, while Biggs turns down the board and stupidly gets himself bumped by Han, who can now shoot anyone else he wants. Matt’s Gold turns toward the upper right, apparently content to flee most of the battle. Han takes the shields off my Gold, while I follow by landing another 3 hits on Han, leaving him with 4 hull. His Gold uses the Blaster Turret to finally show Biggs who is boss around here, taking his shields down.
In the next round, Biggs k-turned, and he and Tarn manage to finish off Han, who continued to fail to land multiple hits on anything he shot. From there on it was two rounds of mopping up Matt’s lamed Y-wing (who had something like 3 crits and a stress before he died).
Result: Win, 110-22 (Destroyed 110 pts of Matt’s squad, lost 22 points of my own.)
So, what can we learn from this one?
First, initiative can have a huge impact – my one-point bid for initiative meant that I was consistently able to move first and cost Matt’s squad most of their actions by clogging up the lane during the crucial first few rounds. In those rounds Matt rolled a TON of focus on his attack rolls but couldn’t make use of them without his actions.
Second, we both agreed Matt would have been better served by splitting the Falcon off from the rest of his squad and flanking. This would have reduced the traffic Han had to maneuver around and possibly preserved his actions, as well as forcing me to choose which force to engage.
Third, Biggs is a total jerk. He screwed Matt out of one set of cluster missiles, as well as some pretty good shots he should have had on other ships. Biggs forced Matt to take some really terrible shots (e.g. range 3 through an asteroid with a Z-95!).
Minor points:
- R7 astromech combines poorly with a blaster turret, as they demand different actions (focus vs TL) to actually use
- Han in particular REALLY needs to get his action. Matt was consistently getting low damage output without Marksmanship to convert his focus results.
- The Gold with R3-A2 is not very useful against either big ships or low–cost Z-95s. It takes two turns to ion the big ships and the low-cost ones aren’t worth the trouble of ion-locking, as they die too quickly for it to be very effective.
- Tarn + R7 just went his fourth game without once being shot at. His defensive ability is such a huge deterrent that they go for everyone else first.
Round 8: Garrett
Round 8 went up to 120 points – we’re getting into point totals that I have no idea how to build squads for. I ended up settling on:
2x Blue Squadron Pilot (22) + Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Gold Squadron Pilot (18) + Ion Cannon Turret (5) + R3-A2 (2)
Roark Garnet (19) + Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Bandit Squadron Pilot (12) – sexy alternate art Imdaar Alpha version (of course!)
This list was built with my terror of the TIE Phantom in mind. The plan was that as long as I could get someone’s guns pointed at the phantom, Roark could let them shoot at PS12 before they could re-cloak with Advanced Cloaking Device. If one got too close, it could get ioned, and the HLCs could cut right through the cloak with a decent roll.
All this planning, and Garrett doesn’t bring a single Phantom to the battle. Sigh… Instead, he brought:
Rexler Brath (37) + Heavy Laser Cannon (7) + Push the Limit (3)
Captain Jonus (22) + Cluster Missiles (4)
Dark Curse (16)
Captain Yorr (24) + Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
I had initiative, since I came in one point under Garrett, and we proceeded to deploy asteroids. We ended up with the asteroids looking like the six pips on a D6 running up and down the board, except the middle pair was offset to the right, denying a clear lane up the center. My squad had to deploy entirely before Garrett’s, so I set up in my lower right, with Roark and the Bandit up front and the two B-wings in the back row offset right, and the Gold set up about range 1 inside of the rest, pointed into the asteroid field. Garret deployed in my upper left in a row. From outside to inside he had Rexler, Jonus, Yorr, and Dark Curse.
I began the game by charging my main force 3 forward, and the Goldie slow rolling with a 1 forward. Garrett’s went about 4- forward, except Dark Curse, who did a 3-bank toward my forces. The next round had me banking my main force inward to meet him, while Goldie again slow-rolled. Dark Curse went 2-forward to stay at long range, and Yorr, Jonus, and Rexler all banked in at me, though Rexler barrel rolled out and back a bit to stay out of range. Only Roark and Dark Curse were close enough to have shots, and DC’s one hit was enough to strip my HWKs lone shield token (blanked with 3 dice and a focus!).
The next turn started the real action. My Blues and Bandit banked in again to face my left, while Goldie banked in to face upper-left and Roark went straight and bumped facing the upper left. Dark Curse managed to clear a 5-forward over most of my squad and land at range 1 of my rear b-wing, while Yorr parked himself on a rock facing my lower right and Jonus paralleled him. Rexler banked again to face my right. They unloaded on my Y-wing with Jonus’s cluster missiles and Rexler’s HLC, leaving it shieldless and with three hull remaining, and one got through from Dark Curse on the rear B-wing. My fire ioned Yorr twice and maybe landed one or two more damage. I rolled abysmally.
Things did little to improve in the next round, as Goldie banked to go straight up the board, the front B-wing went 1-forward to my left, the rear 1-banked facing my lower left (as did the Bandit), and the Hawk continued straight toward the upper left, trusting his turret. Yorr bumped my B-wing, but just barely missed forcing Rexler to bump him when Rexler banked toward the upper right to pursue my support ships. Jonus did a 5-k turn and dumped his stress on Yorr, then Barrel rolled up the board to face Yorr and the upper left. Dark Curse also k-turned, leaving him farther out to the right and facing the upper left. Brath and Dark Curse unloaded on Roark, killing him, while Jonus knocked Goldie down to a single hull. Ouch! My return fire missed ioning Rexler, but did manage to land two hits on him, while also knocking Yorr down a few more pegs.
The next few turns are composed of much bumping, terrible piloting from me, and a lot more detail than they warrant, so I’ll just give broad strokes. My Y-wing continued to flee toward the upper left corner while pursued by Rexler and Dark Curse. He managed to keep putting asteroids between him and the pursuit, so it took them two more turns to bring him down just outside the asteroid field. In the middle of the board, I spent a few turns mis-predicting the shuttle’ movement, leaving the B-wings with no actions and iffy shots after spending two or three turns bumping Yorr repeatedly, while the Bandit took some hits.
I finally managed to disengage my B-wings one at a time by admitting they’d need to be out of position to bring them back in, and turning them down the board toward myself. We’ll rejoin this action with Yorr having barely moved. He’s bumped a B-wing of mine who is pointed at me, while the other has just k-turned and looks up the board at him. Both B-wings are near full health. My Bandit bumped Jonus, and is facing up the board. Jonus k-turned behind Yorr (again dumping the stress to Yorr), and face my lower right. Rexler and Dark Curse are both a ways up the board and facing my lower left, still coming back around from chasing Goldie. Garrett’s shots saw My Z-95 evade like a boss and live with 1 hull (and a stress token from a crit), while the upper B-wing took a few more hits, leaving him shieldless. My return fire finally cleared Yorr off the board and gave Jonus his first two damage. (At some point before this, Rexler took two more hits, but I can’t figure out where. Sorry. He’s got 2 hull at this point.)
Next round my Bandit Banks left, keeping the stress, but getting in perfect position to force a bump from Rexler, who has just taken a hot from running over an asteroid, and now has no shot. My lower B-wing moves fwd 2 up the board, leaving room for his twin to k-turn behind him to face the same way. Now we’re in business again! Jonus banks down to come after the Blues, and Dark Curse pulls up the rear a bit behind them. Jonus manages to knock two more shields off of my front B-wing, leaving him with one left. Dark Curse whiffed on the almost-dead Z-95. Return fire (finally!) got Rexler and Jonus killed. (Dark Curse has one hull damage from some point earlier, I can’t remember where. Again. Sorry.)
At this point it’s mop-up, and Dark Curse manages to get the Bandit before succumbing to a pair of HLCs.
Result: Win, 120-61 (Destroyed 120 pts of Garrett’s squad, lost 61 points of my own.)
So, what mistakes can we learn from today? There were two main mistakes in this game – one from me, and one from Garrett.
My big mistake was how I piloted the B-wings. Once they had entered the mess in the middle, I spent three turns bumping with them as I thought I could extricate them by guessing Yorr’s movement and moving around it. If it had worked, I would have continued to get shots while I brought them back around (Yorr was blocking their 2 k-turn, which is why I tried to do short turns and banks that, if Yorr ever got out of the way, would keep me with shots and in position to k-turn on the next turn). I wasted at least one HLC shot per turn for three turns, and then still had to extricate them by sacrificing position. I should have bitten the bullet after the first bump and gone for the 3-forward. It would have carried them past Yorr and sacrificed their shots for a turn, but they would have been right back in it on the next turn. Instead I gave Garrett valuable time with my firepower unable to be used effectively.
Garrett’s big mistake was overcommitting in his pursuit of the one-hull-left Y-wing. He sent both Rexler and Dark Curse after it. It would have been sufficient for Dark Curse to chase him, and Rexler could have used his gloriously white 4 k-turn to make it back to the fray two turns earlier – while my B-wings were still dancing with the alabaster space hippo in the middle of the board. Honestly, had he called off the pursuit entirely a turn or two earlier, the battle probably would have been decided by the time Goldie could get back into the thick of things. As it stood, the Y-wing was done for as an effective fighter anyway, and the pursuit split Garrett’s forces just long enough for me to get the Blues turned around, and defeat Garret in detail as they returned. His pursuit prevented him from capitalizing on my mistake.
Minor points:
- Large ships eat up a LOT of table space, which really interferes with my ability to maneuver. I need to work on getting around them.
- Rexler Brath is probably only effective against big ships (with high hull). His ability was never used in this game, but he would be devastating against a Falcon.
- Z-95s are awesome not just because they’re cheap, but because their relative crappiness allows an opponent to rationalize not taking perfect shots on them, because I wouldn’t miss it anyway. My Bandit was very productive, and largely ignored in this game in favor of shots on everyone else. He also made a great blocker, even if I misplayed him.
Round 9: BYE
(I did participate in – and win – a tourney for the Tantive IV at my FLGS, but I didn’t take detailed enough notes to write it up. Sorry.)
Round 10: Lucas
Round 10 is the final round in divisional play, and took us to 140 points. With that many points occupying the same real estate as the standard 100 point dogfight squad, I decided my build would be geared to playing in cramped conditions. I flew:
3x Blue Squadron Pilot (22) + Advanced Sensors (3)
3x Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)
Outer Rim Smuggler (27) + Anti-Pursuit Lasers (2)
(In the words of Jason, “Effing B-wings!”)The plan with this squad was to jam up the middle with the ORS, causing bumps to deny actions and deal damage with the APLs, while my B-wings would use Advanced Sensors to take their actions before bumping into things. The Bandits would come in from the side and try to close to range 1 to maximize the firepower applied to the bumping ships.
Lucas appeared to have adopted my usual “bring more ships” approach, and was flying:
Rebel Operative (16) + Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Blue Squadron Pilot (22)
2x Prototype Pilot (17)
3x Rookie Pilot (21)
Lucas won the roll-off for initiative (drat!) and we placed asteroids, which ended up in an offset grid running from left to right, with the center pair offset toward me. Deployment had me setting up my ORS to run up the right lane in the asteroid field, with my B-wings flanking it, and the Z-95s set to run up the left lane of the asteroid field. Lucas was staring down my Zs with a single A-wing, the ORS/Bs with his other A, a B, and an X, and his other three ships on the right edge.
The first turn of movement consisted of literally every ship on the board going its top speed forward, which led to a few shots exchanged, but no damage.
The next turn is when Lucas getting initiative began to bite – his PS1 A-wings were moving before my PS1 ORS, which meant that they could block the ORS and minimize the effectiveness of the Anti-Pursuit Lasers! He proceeded to do just that, and k-turned his other A-wing to fall in behind my Z-95s, which were banking in toward the center.
I’m just going to lay it straight on you here – I’m not going into too much detail over the rest of the match. The ORS succeeded too well in his job blocking the center, and describing each bump in loving detail is a task I’m not willing to perform. It was literally the biggest pileup I’ve ever seen. Suffice it to say that in this next round of combat, my ORS lost its shields and a hull, a B-wing of mine lost a few shields, and I killed the A-wing that was blocking up my smuggler.
From there on out, Lucas bumped frequently enough that he got maybe one action per turn, and it took him two more turns to do in the ORS. My strategy seemed to work well enough, with the B-wings bumping after they got their actions through advanced sensors, and the Zs taking targets of opportunity throughout. The match went to time with me in good position to clean up Lucas’s remaining HWK and Rookie with my two Bs and two Zs. (I killed a rookie with a lucky shot on the final turn, landing two crits on its three hull and getting direct damage, so the match was even closer than the score appears. This was clearly the closest match I’ve had thus far.)
Result: Win, 98-63 (Destroyed 98 pts of Lucas’s squad, lost 63 points of my own.)
As I see it, we each made one big mistake in this game – not making an initiative bid. I assumed (knowing Lucas was running Rebels) that all his ships would be PS2+, allowing my ORS to move first automatically. When he showed up with two Prototype Pilots, my plan was hosed. Lucas having initiative meant that not only did his A-wings get to move first and deny me getting the ORS into the exact right spot, but it meant I had to kill the stupid A-wing first in order to let Lucas’s other ships collide with the ORS and trigger the APL. I wasn’t able to focus on the higher-damage ships first like I wanted to. I definitely should have replaced an Advanced Sensors with Fire Control System on one B-wing to make a one-point initiative bid. It would have helped tremendously.
Lucas’s big mistake was being too cavalier about missing actions. He went into some of the later turns assuming that his actions were already lost, and so didn’t try to avoid bumping (nor did he try to break off and regroup). I can’t shake the feeling that he could have somehow piloted in a way that would have maintained shot on target but allowed him to reposition to start getting to take actions. But I don’t have any specific suggestions, so I could be wrong about this. It’s just my general impression.
Minor lessons learned:
- The ORS with Anti-Pursuit Lasers makes a really good blocker. (He dealt three or so “extra” damage by clogging up the lane and forcing collisions, and the pileup cost Lucas at least a dozen actions over the course of the game.)
- Action Denial is powerful. With no actions, Lucas got skunked on some focus-rich rolls that could have been converted.
- Advanced Sensors is amazing in a congested environment. It allowed my B-wings to get actions, bump the ORS, and then shoot whatever was on the other side. It also allowed pre-k-turn actions.
On to the playoffs! Playoffs? (Cue Jim Mora…)
Playoffs Round 1: BYE
As the top overall seed, I got a first round bye.
Playoffs Round 2: Matt
(Now flying Imperial! – his Rebel persona was actually to fill out the final slot in my original division. This is the “real” Matt.)
Round two saw Matt as the lowest seeded victor, so he was my opponent. Knowing Matt was playing Imperial, I had to come prepared for Phantoms. I thought about flying Fat Han, but honestly, he’s no fun at all. So I went with my old Wave 3 (and Imdaar Alpha) standby:
2x Blue Squadron Pilot (22) + Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
2x Rebel Operative (16) + Ion Cannon Turret (5)
See my Imdaar Alpha report on how it works – or should, anyway. For phantoms, they have a hard time arc dodging the ion turrets, and they hate being ioned since they can’t decloak while ioned. If I can get an ion shot on one, the HLCs should be able to punch through the cloak on the next turn (I hope).
All that planning, and Matt shows up with no Phantom. Honestly, I was relieved. He decided to fly a build that had proven successful vs DJ’s Decimator, OGP, and TIES last round. He flew:
Captain Jonus (22) + Cluster Missiles (4)
Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16) + 2x Cluster Missiles (4 ea.)
Delta Squadron Pilot (30) + Engine Upgrade (4) + Proton Rockets (3)
Academy Pilot (12)
With both of us at 100 points, I won the roll-off and took initiative. Asteroids turned out to be almost irrelevant – they were clustered in my upper left, with one down in the lower right corner. Matt deployed his TIE and Defender on the right, with the TIE poised to cut just inside the asteroid field and the Defender just outside. I deployed in a box formation in the lower right, Bs behind HWKs, with the upper left Hawk split just about a base width inside. His Bombers then deployed along the outside, with Jonus inside and a base length behind the Scimitar. (I should note here that I forgot to take photos/notes of the first few rounds, so I may have some details wrong).
In the first round, Matt charged forward, with the Bombers going 4 forward, and the AP and Defender going 5 forward (and I’m pretty sure the Defender even boosted with a soft 1!). My upper left HWK took a hard 2 left to go behind an asteroid, while the rest went 1 forward. This arrangement unfortunately left Matt’s defender with a free shot on my HWK, albeit through an asteroid. Thankfully, I dodged both of his hits.
Round 2 saw everyone come to grips, as my left HWK took a hard right 2 in order to go around the asteroid and face up the board again and my other HWK took a hard 2 left to try and get out of arcs (which just parked it in front of the Defender, oops). The B-wings went 1 forward. Matt’s defender took a bank to face down the board at me again, his TIE 2-banked toward my right to face most of my squad from the edge of the asteroid field, and his bombers went forward and TLed. Jonus fired his cluster missiles on my right HWK. The first roll showed 2 hits – which I canceled by spending a focus to flip two eyeballs! The second roll whiffed; huzzah! I Then got to return fire, with my HWKs succeeding in ioning both the Defender and the Scimitar, and the B-wings landing 5(?) hits on the Scimitar. Unfortunately without his focus, Matt’s return fire smoked my right HWK (of course the crit was a direct hit!).
The next round saw his ioned ships (and Jonus!) creep 1 forward (with Jonus barrel rolling behind the Scimitar to arc dodge), while the AP went 2 forward to park behind the Defender. Which left it blocking my B-wing’s 3 forward, so I had to back it all the way up and bump the Defender right in front of it. My other B cleared the 3-forward, and my HWK turned right to cut behind everyone. There were few attacks, with my HWK missing the ion shot on the Defender and one B taking a hull from the TIE. The AP managed to take a couple of shields from a B-wing.
Next turn, Matt tried to hard 1 turn his defender through my B-wing and failed to clear, leaving him ointed down the board (the wrong way!) and stressed, while his other ships all performed 3-Ks. My B-wings did their 2 k-turns, and the HWK banked to face the lower right (right in the middle of things). This turn saw the AP and bombers each take another shield or from me, while his Defender was pointed the wrong way and had no shot. I managed to ion the Defender (again!) to keep him looking the wrong way, while one B-wing landed a hit on the defender, stripping he last shield. The B farther up the board killed the Scimitar, who never got a chance to fire either of his Cluster Missiles.
After that, it was all mop-up action.
Result: Win, 100-21 (Destroyed 100 pts of Matt’s squad, lost 21 points of my own.)
I learned two big things from Matt’s misfortune:
- Don’t get carried away with munitions. His Scimitar had 8 points of unfired Cluster Missiles when it died, and the defender had 3. That’s a almost an Academy Pilot in unfired missiles! If you’re going to carry munitions, make sure you have a plan for getting them fired before you die. Also, not having any munitions for range 3 was painful. Matt would have been better served in this match swapping out one of the CMs on the Scimitar for a Flechette or Proton torpedo. That won’t always be the case, but carrying only close range munitions cost him this time (though I suspect it was devastating against the Decimator).
- When the opponent has a lot of control (ion, stress givers, etc) make sure you keep your guns pointed in the right general direction. Avoid the risk of getting ioned while pointed the wrong way! The defender spent basically the whole midgame pointed the wrong way. Matt had an opportunity to take a (white!) k-turn but instead went for the riskier 1-turn, which failed to clear, leaving him with no more shots until his death! Keeping the guns pointed at the other guy minimizes the usefulness of the ion cannons.
On to the championship game!
Championship: Joseph
The Championship! I was facing a fellow Rebel player as Joseph, the #3 seed, clawed his way out of the other half of the bracket. Knowing he had to bring a rebel list (and he favors B-wings as much as I do) I saw myself as having two options. First, I could go for something that could arc dodge and out-PS him, as B-wings tend to be vulnerable to that. Or, I could just bring a bigger hammer and throuw subtlety out the window. I went with The Bigger Hammer:
4x Blue Squadron Pilot (22)
Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)
That’s 36 HP and 14 attack dice. Bigger. Hammer.
All that planning for B-wings, and he shows up flying only one – but it’s a good one:
Keyan Farlander (29) + Opportunist (4)
Wes Janson (29) + R4-D6 (1)
3x Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)
At 99 points, Joseph had initiative and we placed the asteroids, which ended up pretty widely distributed on the right side of the board, with one in the bottom left corner to “balance” it. He deployed his Bandits on the left side with the innermost pointed right at the lone asteroid, and I decided to set up to joust, since I figured I was favored in a head-to-head with my massive HP advantage. I split my squad around the lower left asteroid, with two Bs left and 2 Bs and the Bandit right of the rock. Keyan and Wes deployed right behind the Z-95s, and the joust was clearly on.
We came to grips in round 2 at long range, with Joseph focusing a Blue down to a single hull point remaining. Due to poor piloting on my part, I had to split my fire (my rear B-wings couldn’t quite reach the high-priority targets in his back row), but I was able to lay 2 or 3 damage on Keyan and take out a Bandit. Keyan was definitely a high-priority target, and I knew I had to focus him down quickly or Opportunist + TL + stress-focus would eat me alive. (I knew I was about to lose lots of actions due to bumping in the next few turns…)
In the next round, Joseph’s two remaining Bandits unexpectedly (but fortuitously for me!) went 2-forward, allowing my left B-wings to bank in and barrel-roll out of their arcs. On my right side, my Bandit and front Blue both bumped as they tried to bank in, but the rear blue still cleared his 1-forward and got his focus. Keyan then unexpectedly (though I should have expected it) banked to my left, right at the flanking B-wings, while Wes followed the Z-95s in their charge. Wes landed 2 hits on my Bandit at range one, and Keyan completely overkilled the 1-hull Blue (he landed like 4 more hits on him…). My return fire managed to down Keyan Farlander, and things were looking grim for Joseph, as it was now 2 Z-95s and an X-wing against my 3 B-wings and a Z-95.
Round 4 saw lots of K-turns, as Joseph’s entire squad did so, and I hauled my guns around by having my banked-in Blues do 2-turns inward while my other ships k-turned. Not much damage this round, but I did manage to strip Wes’s shileds and force him to use R4-D6 to cancel a hit, leaving him double-stressed.
Round 5 saw almost everyone bumping again as we cleared our stress, and again very little damage was done, as my unmodified dice were cold, and Wes didn’t even get a shot as he went up the board to clear one of his stress tokens.
Round 6 saw Joseph 3-bank his Bandits to clear the pileup (and Wes go fwd up the board again to clear stress), while I managed to k-turn all the B-wings to get free shots on them from the rear. The concentrated B-wing fire took out Wes, and with two minutes on the clock and two dinged Z-95s against 4 ships (including 2 fully healthy B-wings) , Joseph conceded.
Result: Win, 75-22 (Destroyed 75 points of Joseph’s squad, lost 22 points of my own.)
I learned one big lesson: don’t joust someone with a sizable advantage in both HP and firepower. I think if Joseph had set up in the other corner, he could have forced me to break up the formation to come at him through the rocks, and set up his Keyan and Wes to flank me. I think his odds would have been improved (as long as he coordinated well), as I would have had to choose which force to engage, leaving me with limited target selection once I committed.
It was definitely a fun match, and had he managed to get the Blue totally dead in the first combat round, the game would have been much different.
So, I ended up winning, and will soon claim a bright orange set of Team Covenant templates as my prize. (Huzzah!) I don’t really have anything else to add. Feel free to ask questions in the comments.
Edited by randomscrub