So I've been lurking for a month or so and playing for around three, hence low posts...

As part of prep for my first tournament a friend kindly obliged to fly a few anticipated lists against me to test out my Squadron.

I was running:

Rexler Brath ('cause I like Defenders and expect plenty of large ships where his crit ability is likely to prove handy) with Lone Wolf, HLC and Hull Upgrade.

OGP with FCS, Gunner, Vader and Engine Upgrade

Dark Curse (selected for his survivability noting it will will be a 75min SoS rather than MoV)

The battles:

The first battle was against a BBZZ squadron, the second against a loaded Decimator with Tie support. My list performed ok against both (close run victories) - some good lessons learned on my part re-manoeuvering large ships, among others.

The last game we played I was up against a triple Phantom list.

He ran two Sigmas with Stygium, led by Whisper with the usual VI, FCS, ACD combo, but with the novelty of Rebel Captive. My friend doesn't have the Rebel Captive card (we have absolutely nil issues with proxies - very much Fly Cas = have fun) - so he came up with a brilliant way of proxying it that I had to share:

Seeing the Lego rebel pilot made me laugh well done on creativity haha.

Time to dig through my old Lego bin. Great idea!

Reminds me of what we did one time using Slave 1. Used the newest Jango Fett minifigure(which is awesome) on Boba Fett so we remembered which Firespray was his without having to see the base. Also looked hilarious, with Fett pointing his blasters at everything.

Seen a few three-phantom lists, they seem just as tricky to use as to fly against, how did that game go?

Reminds me of what we did one time using Slave 1. Used the newest Jango Fett minifigure(which is awesome) on Boba Fett so we remembered which Firespray was his without having to see the base. Also looked hilarious, with Fett pointing his blasters at everything.

Seen a few three-phantom lists, they seem just as tricky to use as to fly against, how did that game go?

Yes all humour aside, it was actually a very useful visual cue to remind us both about the stress-inducing Rebel Captive. The previous game we played with the Decimator had a Rebel captive too and we kept forgetting to add the stress. Actually the Defender's white K-turn proved very effective in dealing with Rebel Captive as I could do the 180 while stressed and still get another shot in next turn.

Given the small size of the Phantom the Rebel Captive created an interesting image of some Rebel pilot or VIP bound and gagged, tied up in the co-pilots seat - rather than in a brig on a shuttle or Deci.

Yes I would agree with your experience with triple Phantoms. We had played a game a while back where he ran Whisper, Echo and a Sigma. Asteroid placement and not well considered manoeuvres saw him come at me piecemeal, which allowed my squadron to pick them off one at a time - those four green dice can be very fickle.

He did a great job with them in this game. He came screaming down one side of the board in a nice tight formation. The distance they can cover with a forward de-cloak followed by the four straight is very impressive (in effect a 'forward seven').

This meant my flanking attempt by the Defender left Rexler out of action for a couple of turns while he caught up. The Phantoms kept a good formation until they met the Lambda, Tie and asteroid furball. This led to a few bumps and then a deadly salvo against an uncloaked Sigma. Nevertheless five red dice at range one were devastating against the one green of the Lambda. I managed to regain the initiative briefly by doing a red manoeuvre he didn't anticipate. No action didn't diminish the effectiveness of the Gunner/FCS combo - especially effective against four green dice. So the shuttle took down a Sigma before dying. The battle ensued with Rexler in the mix. The end result was a win with a damaged Rexler and an untouched Dark Curse.

The cutest lil Rebel captive

OMG that is hilarious and amazing!