Since Firesprays have fallen out of the meta a bit and interceptors tend to be ignored in favor of phantoms, there was a good chance I'd surprise at least a few people with what the list can do. The big idea is to present two problems to my opponents - do I engage dual bounty hunters in a joust and ignore Carnor or do I chase after Carnor and ignore two 3-attack, 10 health firesprays?

I've been having success hunting big ships with firesprays since their large bases allow for blocking, their large multi-arcs make it harder to arc-dodge, and their high health makes it very frustrating to shoot, since it doesn't cut down on the number of attacks coming your way. Carnor Jax is of course the games most delightfully obnoxious interceptor and can, if you set it up properly, actually shut down phantoms. Barring some truly bizarre lists, that meant i was going to spend most of the day operating two flanks - one consisting of dual bounty hunters and one of Carnor Jax.

Round 1 - Daniel Socarras

Fat Chewie

-Threepio (3)

-Hull Upgrade (3)

-Millenium Falcon title (1)

-???

Leebo

-Outrider Title

-HLC

-???

I'm missing a few on Daniel's list but it's a solid dual turret beat stick so going into the match I knew I was going to have to be careful with Carnor. While Carnor loves the HLC-donut hole, he loses defense getting there and a loaded up chewie is a tough target. Since the firesprays got to move first, my plan was to use them to keep fat chewie as far away from Carnor as possible while he tangoed with Leebo. In the first round, I rush both up the board and managed to knock a few shields off Chewie while Carnor positioned himself to charge Leebo. The next round was really the game changer since chewie's corner just barely landed on an asteroid, while my firesprays turned towards the center of the board in a neat little line, guaranteeing range 1 shots/seismics for damage and a slow advance to keep chewie stuck. Meanwhile, Leebo's couldn't quite get out of the firesprays' firing arcs with a roll forward and carnor's two forward landed him right in the donut. The firesprays made short work of chewie over the next two rounds both blocking chewie in and preventing Leebo's turn. carnor managed to take Leebo's shields down to 1 and then block his turn the next round. With Chewie gone, everyone piled on Leebo and despite some very fancy maneuvering by Daniel (who managed to get me to fly a firespray off the board), it was downhill from there.

Round 2 - Hothie

Howlrunner

Backstabber

Black Squadron

-Draw Their Fire

Obsidian x 3

Academy Pilot

The next round I of course get pitted against Hothie's Worlds 2014 list. Not only is a Tie Swarm an uphill battle for a 3 ship list, but Hothie is arguably the swarm master and happens to know all of my tricks, since we play often. It's one of the few lists that can effectively answer both of my squad's questions and while I had seismics to help control some of his swarming shenanigans I was sweating bullets going into the start. Hothie utilized his patented "drunken shark" opening, giving me very little hints to his overall plan and since I had grabbed initiative to do some blocking, I was essentially flying blind. The first two rounds saw me land one firespray on a rock with Carnor rocketing up the other side of the board. The swarm had split into two groups, with howl and two others to take on Carnor and the rest to punish the firesprays. I got a luck break with the firespray as a full barrage of shots only took off two shields off one but the other group landed a hit and crit on carnor - Damaged Engine. With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I set my dials for the next round. However, the dice giveth and the dice taketh away - carnor jax proceeded to lead a group of ties on a merry chase, while the firesprays broken formation and began knocking down a tie a turn. Between focus denial, seismics, and some hot dice, those ties only managed to kill carnor after he'd led the group back around to face down my full health firespray. I'd traded the other for two ties and once Howl was off the table it was down to a fully shield firespray versus a damaged backstabber. Definitely a fun and hard fought game and more than once a dice swing one way or the other would have completely changed the equation.

Round 3 - Victor Robles

Paul's Fat Han

Han Solo

-Predator

-R2D2

-Threepio

-Engine

-Millenium Falcon Title

Talas x 3

Having already come off a tough match, i steeled myself for another round of close calls and brutal beatings. Victor is a truly skilled pilot and first round he managed to get shots off on Carnor Jax. Fortunately my dice held and I actually managed to knock a shield off the Falcon. With his Talas coming in hot, I knew I needed to get Han shut down if I was to have any chance. I sent my firespray into towards the middle, intending to catch han out in the open, while Carnor maneuvered to make the block. While it actually worked and an actionless Han sat in front of two Firesprays, the Talas just made it into range 2 and unloaded into my rear ship. I was able to dig into the Falcons hull, but I'd dropped a seismic early in anticipation of a tala rush (which was avoided completely) and my remaining firespray was at the wrong angle to catch the other two. Over the next two rounds, I managed to chip away at Han's health but the rear firespray got just hammered and only a lucky seismic managed to land any damage on the Talas. With one Firespray down to 1 hull and the other out of position, I ran Carnor towards the tala swarm just managing to cut between their firing arcs. Han took out my first firespray and evaded Carnor's return fire. A few rounds later found the kturned talas pointed directly at carnor and han weaving in between my interceptor and firespray. A lucky crit brought his pilot skill to zero, but since I'd planted Carnor in front of Han, I could no longer block and it disappeared in a cloud of debris. With the rest of the my squad gone and only a single tala killed, I ran for the edge, hoping for a enough distance to stretch his squad out. It didn't work and two rounds later, time was called and I had my first loss of the day.

Round 4 - Sean M

Etahn

-Predator

-R5-D8

Lt Blount

-Pulse Missiles

-Deadeye

Green Squadron x 2

-Outmanuever

-Chardan Refit

The last round was against a local player I'd never had the pleasure of playing and he brought a very fun list. I've had a soft spot in my heart for A-wings since day one and it was great to see them at the table again. We faced off with a cluster of asteroids in one corner and relatively open space elsewhere. Blount was a bit of a wildcard so I slow rolled my entire squad first round to then bank hard into the center, hopefully closing with the hard-to-hit A-wings. Blount had run just a hair too fast and ended up range 1 of both firesprays while Carnor managed to avoid Etahns arc completely and plant a range one shot. Carnor's attempt failed to do any damage but Blount was down to one hull after doing only doing a single hit. The next round both firesprays dropped their seismics and managed to catch blount and one A-wing with both. etahn had kturned and delivered the damaged cockpit crit to carnor, but having spent last game using him as a blocker, i was oddly okay with that. the firesprays moved to take on Etahn while whittling down the a-wings and after taking etahn and one a-wing off the board, were able to finally crack the last ships defense. After my struggles with the tie swarm, I think A-wing swarms will become the new nightmare for my squad.

Courtesy of my own record as well as Victor and Hothie's I made it into the top 8, which meant that I got to face Hothie's swarm once again. Hothie and I set up nearly the same as last time and while I managed to avoid the rock, he set up a Carnor Killbox at the center of the board. I saw it coming early on and had to make a call - Either I turn away last minute, which puts Carnor out of position but denies the killbox, or I stick the outside and use carnor to disrupt while my Firesprays charge through the middle and start shredding ties. I made the wrong call and tried to skirt the edge of the killbox. Unfortunately, the ties weren't fooled and this time Carnor's dice failed him - one round of shooting and he was gone. After that, some choice kturns brought a fully tie swarm against my two ships and a few rounds later I'd only managed to kill 2 ties before losing my last ship.

I had to duck out early and didn't get to see the final two rounds (KineticOperator's 87 Phantoms beat Paul's Fat Han for the win) but overall felt pretty good about the tournament. Of course, since we hadn't allowed Scum for this event, I wasn't able to use the newest toys but moving forward I'm a bit torn on how best to alter the list. Aside from finding a way to squeeze in autothrusters, most of the problems with the list had to do with pilot error and while I didn't get a chance to run against a single phantom all day, I really dug this type of configuration and it may become my go to imperial list for the foreseeable future. The biggest challenge for it will continue to be swarms and control, since carnor hates stress and my expensive firesprays hate ions.

The new tools to help combat tie interceptors two greatest weaknesses (long range dice fails and turrets) and the sheer amount of expensive loadouts that rely on focus/evade to survive suggests that Carnor may become more and more valuable as the meta grows. I know Auto-Soontir is supposedly the new hotness but I'd take him on with Carnor any day of the week. Even if he gets pounded, it'll be a fun matchup.

If anyone else from the tournament would like to comment, feel free! It was a ton of fun and i look forward to seeing how our midwest meta evolves And of course I'd love to get my opponents thoughts on our matches.