So went to my first tourney on the weekend, which was regional(ish)...

Good to see some ongoing Defender love on the forums, I really like Defenders too. I never played any computer games with them so this game was my introduction to them, I just like the f-you character they bring to the table.

My 100pt list was:

Rexler Brath with Lone Wolf, HLC and Hull Upgrade (couldn't afford the shield).

OGP with FCS, Gunner, Vader and Engine Upgrade

Dark Curse

My thinking was a list to have a bit of fun with - had no delusions about placing high.

​Rexler's ability to do some crits on the anticipated plentiful Decimators, and YTs. Keep him off to a flank to get maximum benefit of Lone Wolf (which I opted for its defensive buff over Predator).

The OGP was to bring something different, but dangerous to force my opponent to choose between focusing on the shuttle or the Defender. Vader for crits on big ships too - I toyed with Rebel Captive, but I wanted to encourage people to go for the Shuttle over my Bad Brath.

Interestingly all of my opponents opted to focus on the Shuttle first, despite the higher points of Rexler.

I went with Dark Curse for survivability, to help try and cover the Shuttle's vulnerable flanks and moderate PS rather than have an Academy Pilot vulnerable to Predator (yes I know all too well the OGP was).

So it was a five round Swiss format. Please forgive the incomplete notes, not all opponents provided a hard copy list to keep and given appropriate etiquette and time constraints I only took brief notes during and after games.

So round 1:

My opponent was running:

a fully loaded Keyan Farlander, two sets of APTs, Adv sensors and something else

a HWK-290 (pilot?) with a Blaster turret, Recce spec so lots of double focus action and Jan Ors

The HWK moved towards the centre of the board and the B-Wing hung back a bit on the right side. I deployed the Shuttle and the Tie on the left and decided to do something unexpected and manoeuvre them aggressively forward down the left flank. Rexler was deployed on the right to try and flank and take advantage of his Lone Wolf status. The HWK was left hanging on its own and a couple of turns of firing from the Shuttle brought it down. (Amusingly I managed to inflict the 'reduce your primary weapon by one red dice' crit on the HWK!)

At some stage Keyan managed to loose off a set of APTs at Rexler, but the four green dice (through an asteroid) negated almost all of the damage. Some good primary shooting from Keyan and bad rolling on my part saw Dark Curse go down (after he'd been soften up by the HWK).

Rexler stripped some shields off Keyan, but in the end it was the shuttle that took him down too - without the need to bring Vader into action (...okay I may also have forgotten about him).

The game finished very early (35 mins?)

Round 2:

My opponent was running a list that really seemed to play well with each other:

Wedge with Predator

Wes with R2 and Expert Handling

Keyan with FCS and Opportunist.

He had initiative and the high PS list proved fairly challenging, a number of times I had good shots lined up only to see my ships go down before they had a chance (familiar story I know!).

My shuttle got hammered early - but gave some back before dying. In hindsight with one hull left each I should've had Vader suicide to finish off the B-Wing - it would've been an even points trade. Instead it got pummelled the next turn before getting a shot off.

Rexler was doing some damage in the wings [proofread: pun not intended!], but inevitably succumbed in a three vs one fight, when the Shuttle could've evened the odds a little.

Arrgh- all my opponents ships were down to one hull in the end too!!

My gracious opponent admitted he was sweating it in this one - and finished 2nd or 3rd(?) in the final wash up.

As a side point it was heartening to see how many X-Wings were being flown at the Tourney - yes there were still plenty of the Deci-Phantom, YT1300+whatever, and YT2400s being flown (even a dual YT2400 list and a triple Firespray list).

Round 3:

Jake Farrell test pilot with PTL and (?) plus assault missiles

Green Sqn with PTL plus assault missiles (I think)

Ethan A'baht with some upgrades I don't recall.

Given the very high manoeuvrability of the list I opted to go very conservative with the Shuttle early and go slow red stop/green 1 until a few engagements and then lurch forward fast which threw him off and circle back around. I'm not afraid to do a red hard turn with the shuttle with the benefit of the Gunner/FCS combo.

The Shuttle and Dark Curse combined took down Ethan fairly early. By that stage Rexler was now circling in from the left flank on the A-Wings. He and his wingmen did some damage on the A-Wings. Notably, the various manoeuvring activity meant that my opponent struggled to follow up a target lock with the assault missiles (either range one or out of arc). When he did finally have a shot his Green Sqn pilot was also in the casualty radius with only one hull left! So he opted to hold fire.

The agile A-Wings saw them keep dodging -- a triple action Jake makes for some impressive manoeuvring and turtling -- and doing little damage with the game going to time and none of my ships killed.

Round 4:

Finally a Decimator! Perhaps I shouldn't have wished for it....

Admiral Chi-Chi - with a nasty load out of Predator, Mara Jade, Ysanne and Rebel Captive

Echo with the usual VI, FCS and ACS.

Given they were both PS 8, when I won the toss for initiative I opted to give it to my opponent so I could move second and see what Echo was doing. It was not an easy choice opting to shoot second, but in the end I think Echo would've just run even more rings around my list if I hadn't.

Adm Chi-Chi's crew made things super-stressful, however, the Defender's white K-turn worked well in still being able to keep it in arc... it was no where near enough though....

The Shuttle died early to the combined fire of the Deci and Phantom, without the chance to use Vader (shields were still up so a waste of my health).

I think the very slippery Echo was down to one hull at the end of the game. The Decimator was had some damage from...

Dark Curse my star of this game. Brushed off Predator and FCS target locks, weathering several potentially devastating salvos with aplomb; and after Rexler had stripped the shields off the Deci (prior to my Bad Brath going away) good 'ole DC inflicted an injured pilot crit on Adm Chi-Chi himself - crit ability and Predator gone!

[special mention to my opponent's beautifully repainted 'in mid-decloak' Echo]

Alas another 100-nil defeat.

Round 5:

Against a surprising combo:

Soontir Fel, PTL and Tgt computer

Turr Phennir and PTL

Sabre Sqn with PTL

Dark Curse [how can there be two???? ]

Again, given the high manoeuvrability I opted to go slow on the shuttle as much as possible.

Turn 2 the shuttle missed a shot on the Baron, and the follow up FCSed Gunner - I opted for a Vader crit, which caused engine damage that made the rest of the Baron's game painful [in hindsight I should've double-Vadered the Baron. The shuttle would've died earlier, but given the threat and relative points investment it would've been worth it].

There was plenty of fur-ball action. The Shuttle died first. I killed his Dark Curse, a bit later he killed mine. It was down to my Bad Brath and three Interceptors....

The dice gods who had been fair all day abandoned Rexler - I rolled a set of three blanks and one eye (no focus that turn due to an arc dodging barrel roll and too close for LW) followed by four blanks the next turn (again too close in for LW to work).

I had good chances of killing some 'bad guys' with these shots but it wasn't too be.

There was some interesting manoeuvring in the end game. Some good work from my opponent to cover the limited options Rexler had to play in. Time was called and we agreed to play out the turn as we were halfway through combat. I narrowly missed killing the Sabre at Range 1 (he dodged a lethal blow). The Baron's earlier fire was ineffective.

Then the Sabre returned fire.... two hits and two crits against a now unshielded Defender, but never to fear three green dice, Lone Wolf, a focus token and a Hull Upgrade - what are the odds! Three blanks and an eyeball.... LW roll... blank. So one evade. Only three damage against four hull a relief... wait... what crits? First draw: phew! no major explosion - weapon malfunction. Second crit? Minor explosion - my opponent declined to make the roll. I did it and... A Hit! Ship destroyed! Table cleared!

Fortunately I was able to laugh about it immediately. Despite being brain fried by the end of a long day, in many ways this was the most enjoyable game and one of those you don't mind losing [okay had a been four-nil up I might've reacted differently to that fickle roll ]

I was overconfident against this list I think. The Interceptors (of which I'm a fan) proved far more agile than expected and PTL 'turtling' was a very effective defensive strategy.

Overall thoughts on my list:

Rexler was able to surprise occasionally - e.g. a hard 3 turn when he was expecting a K, but inevitably that would often have to be followed by a K, so the deception only lasted so long against more manoeuvrable ships (especially Phantoms, A-Wings and Interceptors).

My flanking idea wasn't all that sound and all too often Rexler spent too many turns out of the fight in an attempt to have my opponent divide his forces and me preserve Lone Wolf. I was frustrated more than once by the "re-roll a blank dice" only limitation of LW (e.g. an eyes but not focus) - which is where Predator is more flexible, but only on the offence. The LW Defensive re-roll did come into play a couple of times, but not sure it was definitive on this day.

In future I think the concentrated force and firepower and multiple target dilemma will be a better approach (in list designing I did consider a Pred or VI Rexler with a Yorr Focus Shuttle, but I ruled this out as I though it tied him too closely to the Shuttle and made him even more predictable. Or Vessery with an ST-321 Shuttle with Weapons Engineer, might have to try that one....)

Rexler used his ability only once throughout the entire day... the focus token was usually better spent flipping a couple of eyes in the hope of breaking through a pile of green dice, or reserved for defence when sitting in the arc of a few enemy ships.

Dark Curse - overall very impressive, but with some bad dice combos still able to die in one or two rounds of fire, but that's just like all Tie-fighters though

The Shuttle? A bit of fun for something different. With engine upgrade they can surprise people by just how much distance they can cover. Turning? Problematic yes. It's not that bad in isolation, but once 'in close' against agile enemy ships it is bordering on futile.

Would be awesome in Escalation or Epic games I think where there is more point space and buffing potential.

All up a 2-3 final tally for the day and a good first tournament experience. Plenty of fly casual attitude around.