Eeyup. It's that time again. The madman is calling!

For those of you who don't know, a Fortress list is one that is designed to start the game without moving for several rounds, so that the enemy is forced to fight you on your terms, or draw. Many people find this frustrating to play against, for obvious reasons.

However, I actually like the idea. It averts Zugzwang: being forced to move into a worse position than you are in now simply because it is your turn to move, and can play havok against lists if you fortress well.

It out-stalls Fat Han, and takes out Whisper irrespective of its decloaking maneuverability, because the blind-spot of my fleet is off of the board.

My current list (once Wave 6 hits)

Captain Jonus

Captain Yorr + Mangler Cannon

Omicron Group Pilot + Mangler Cannon

Omicron Group Pilot + Mangler Cannon

While I'm in the corner, can you flank me? Can you get through my laser-wall for a kill?

Also, I would love to hear from my fellow madmen. What's your fortress lists?

I really hope this fortress thing doesn't catch on.

I really hope this fortress thing doesn't catch on.

Aww, why not?

That's probably about as good as these will get (hopefully). But it can be handled by patient players. Fortress in general is still not a big enough problem.

That's probably about as good as these will get (hopefully). But it can be handled by patient players. Fortress in general is still not a big enough problem.

Every upgrade that is released has a possibility of improving the Fortress.

I'm also looking at 5 Autothruster Interceptors huddled in a corner as well, with the intent of springing out of the fortress to engage on the enemy's flanks when the enemy gets too close.

Rear Admiral Chiraneau — VT-49 Decimator 46
Gunner 5
Mercenary Copilot 2
Ysanne Isard 4

Omicron Group Pilot — Lambda-Class Shuttle 21
Gunner 5
Tactical Jammer 1

Black Squadron Pilot — TIE Fighter 14
Wingman 2

Lambda parks, bsp bumps and clears lambda stress Decimator bumps with 360 arc to keep people from flanking. Set up in a corner. Flip the table.

Not Viable for anything competive. Still better than most fortress lists I've tried.

Rear Admiral Chiraneau — VT-49 Decimator 46

Gunner 5

Mercenary Copilot 2

Ysanne Isard 4

Omicron Group Pilot — Lambda-Class Shuttle 21

Gunner 5

Tactical Jammer 1

Black Squadron Pilot — TIE Fighter 14

Wingman 2

Lambda parks, bsp bumps and clears lambda stress Decimator bumps with 360 arc to keep people from flanking. Set up in a corner. Flip the table.

Not Viable for anything competive. Still better than most fortress lists I've tried.

I like it. The Wingman BSP is a nice touch. Not too hot on Chiraneau, due to his points, but he covers the flanks quite well

Commander Kenkirk

-Isard

-PTL

Rear Admiral

-Predator

Position them flying into to each other. They shoot at Kenkirk first, he'll soon be able to action off the Isard evade with PTL and he'll get his agility die. The 2 straight green will help clear stress, but won't clear that large base. The admiral doesn't need actions as predator and his ability are enough. If they target the Admiral, then they have to face the 3 action behemoth that is Kenkirk. Come at me brah.

Bandit Squadron Pilot (12)

Prototype Pilot (17)

Chardaan Refit (-2)

Helm's Deep (73)

I really hope this fortress thing doesn't catch on.

Aww, why not?

Because it's a fighter combat game based on maneuvering and position.

Well mostly, there are those pesky turrets.

I really hope this fortress thing doesn't catch on.

Aww, why not?

Because it's antithematic to the maximum, and half this game's appeal is thematic.

Biggs r2in a corner behind the fattest Han with a sensor jammer

Or two jaming gr75s with em emmiters around the same bigs. Five dice while you're always stressed

Can't take credit for this but I saw it and it made me scared (don't recall who or where it's posted but shout-out)

Lando with predator and tactical jammer (48)

Han with squad leader, title andEI (52)

K-turn Lando at the beginning and have them each go 1 straight forever and both still get actions.

2 vt-49s with 2 merc copilots and gunner just set them up to run the bored like it is a race track

I'm really glad somebody brought this up in a positive light, I was thinking about making a thread about fortressing to talk about it's potential strategic uses, but was worried about the blowback.

I like the idea of using 4 rebel ships in a fortress to give any Phantom the finger. 4 B-Wings with Advanced Sensors are particularly good at this.

I think fortressing with any kind of turret ship is unnecessary and a waste of the arc-dodging potential of large ships with turrets and engine upgrade.

I'm still waiting for someone to post a picture of a fortress setup that doesn't use turrets that also doesn't have blind spots where enemy ships can slip in and pick away at the fortress while taking minimal return fire.

I'm really glad somebody brought this up in a positive light, I was thinking about making a thread about fortressing to talk about it's potential strategic uses, but was worried about the blowback.

I like the idea of using 4 rebel ships in a fortress to give any Phantom the finger. 4 B-Wings with Advanced Sensors are particularly good at this.

I think fortressing with any kind of turret ship is unnecessary and a waste of the arc-dodging potential of large ships with turrets and engine upgrade.

4 B-Wings work fairly well as a fortress to.

Its advantages over the list I posited:

• You maintain your actions
• You have small bases, so you have more overlap to your firing arcs
• You can actually start in the fortress formation.
• You have 4 main arcs, instead of 3 and a bit from the bomber.
• You can actually operate outside of the fortress environment

I'm still waiting for someone to post a picture of a fortress setup that doesn't use turrets that also doesn't have blind spots where enemy ships can slip in and pick away at the fortress while taking minimal return fire.

Like this? The bottom right ship could actually be angled more to the right a bit to cover more of the right edge.

Like this? The bottom right ship could actually be angled more to the right a bit to cover more of the right edge.

Not enough I think. As that layout currently stands the right flank us covered by only a single firing arc. Several enemy ships could swoop in on that flank and overwhelm 1-2 of the fortress ships, forcing the fortress to break up which would the result in the enemy being on the tail of the remaining ships.

If you angle that one ship to better then at best I think it might be an even match up, and of course that layout is creating a bit of a hole in the center.

I'm still waiting for someone to post a picture of a fortress setup that doesn't use turrets that also doesn't have blind spots where enemy ships can slip in and pick away at the fortress while taking minimal return fire.

Like this? The bottom right ship could actually be angled more to the right a bit to cover more of the right edge.

And before you point out the obvious hole, the Fortress player'll put an asteroid there.

Like this? The bottom right ship could actually be angled more to the right a bit to cover more of the right edge.

Not enough I think. As that layout currently stands the right flank us covered by only a single firing arc. Several enemy ships could swoop in on that flank and overwhelm 1-2 of the fortress ships, forcing the fortress to break up which would the result in the enemy being on the tail of the remaining ships.

If you angle that one ship to better then at best I think it might be an even match up, and of course that layout is creating a bit of a hole in the center.

There's also the classic fortress from Worlds.

This one is harder to set up and takes a lot of precision, but the "blind spots" on the bottom and side edges are only a tiny bit wider than a small ship base, so your opponent will have to be very good at flying to put their ship that close the edge. The beauty of this fortress is that if you do try to attack that way, it's impossible to get out of the corner without flying through the other arcs. Only a Phantom can do it, and it has to decloack back towards the middle, hard 1-turn, then Barrel Roll, which leaves it decloaked, with no tokens, and facing away from the fortress. That's when you break the fortress, put all your guns on the only spot the Phantom could be, and unload into it's 2/2/2 defenses and hope it dies. And you could put stress droid on one ship and Flachette Torps on the other, and then there's no way a ship that enters into that will escape.

And again, remember that the Fortress is not an automatic "I win" button, it's just a way to make a very lopsided match-up winnable by giving your opponent many opportunities to make a mistake.

And before you point out the obvious hole, the Fortress player'll put an asteroid there.

Hah, I'm a super ninja.

Yeah, I grant you the asteroid to help protect the center, but that doesn't change the situation on the flanks. The enemy's entire list can approach along a flank and only take return fire from half your list, maybe less.

You don't try to get out of the corner. Fly your whole squad in on the flanks, in whatever way minimizes return fire, probably single file, and make your ships part of the fortress. You have a line of ships hammering away at his fortress only half of which can return fire. After a couple ships die he can no longer maintain the fortress and has to fly out of the corner himself, and because of the geometry you should end up on his tail then.

You don't try to get out of the corner. Fly your whole squad in on the flanks, in whatever way minimizes return fire, probably single file, and make your ships part of the fortress. You have a line of ships hammering away at his fortress only half of which can return fire. After a couple ships die he can no longer maintain the fortress and has to fly out of the corner himself, and because of the geometry you should end up on his tail then.

I think you're operating under the misconception that the fortress has to stay stationary the whole time. The great thing about the fortress is that you can break it at the most opportune moment.

If you break the fortress just as the enemy is flying into it, then your ships get to joust and have lots of space for a k-turn, while the opponent's ship will k-turning towards the edge of the board.

Here's a list specifically made for fortressing:

Blue Squadron Pilot (32) x 2 B-Wing (22), Advanced Sensors (3), Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Jan Ors (35) HWK-290 (25), Swarm Tactics (2), Chewbacca (4), Shield Upgrade (4)

No blind spots, anything that comes into range is gonna eat 5 Focus modified attack dice at PS 8. Also impossible to deny the B-Wings shots by bumping into them because of Jan being in the way.

But, yeah, I don't think a pure fortress list is viable, I think it's a tool for jousting lists to use against low ship-count builds with Phantoms and Interceptors.