It's late and I can't sleep, so I apologize in advanced if things don't quite make sense. Saturday was the local Store Championship at The Game Preserve, West Lafayette, IN. 12 people showed up, with a surprising number of new faces. These guys got into the game recently, and mostly played against each other at home or over lunch breaks. I hope they start coming to game nights.

I was going to bring my Kenkirk, "Dark Curse," "Night Beast," Academy Pilot squad, but those new Autothrusters I had picked up were dying for some table time, so I decided to bring back the TIE interceptors. The two things I were most afraid of were 1) Darth Vader crew, and 2) stress cards like Tactician and Rebel Captive. I was unreasonably afraid of Panic Attack, which wasn't present. I was also still terrified of phantoms.

Soontir Fel (Push the Limit, Autothrusters, Royal Guard TIE, Shield Upgrade)
Carnor Jax (Push the Limit, Autothrusters, Royal Guard TIE, Hull Upgrade)
Captain Yorr (Rebel Captive, Mara Jade)

Soontir and Carnor had the upgrades to protect against Darth Vader. I wish I had room for a shield on Carnor, but I felt the upgrades on Yorr were important. Yorr was there to absorb stress from my TIEs, Rebel Captive to punish phantoms when my TIEs were out of arc (which was the plan, at least). Mara Jade was there so Yorr could dive into a Rebel Swarm and prevent them from K-turning so my elite interceptors could devour them from behind.

Round 1
Han Solo (Assault Missiles, Recon Specialist, Veteran Instincts, Millennium Falcon)
Bandit Squadron Pilot (Concussion Missiles)
Nera Dantels

I scratched my head as I tried to figure this one out. I wanted so badly to tell Derrick to just move the Concussion Missiles to Nera, but she uses torpedoes instead. I asked him about Nera and he simply replied that he ran out of points to give her any ordnance. The clock was about to begin, he had already turned in his squad, so there wasn't much I could do. In hindsight, I wish I had just stopped the tournament and had him write up a modified squad. He was one of those new players, and I think it would have given him a much more fun experience.

Yorr flies from the left corner towards the table middle while Fel goes up the left to get around Han (who is in the middle) and Jax goes up the right to flank the B-wing and Z-95. Jax perfectly dodges their arcs on the next round while Yorr pulls a stop maneuver to block Han onto an asteroid. Fel whittles away at his flank. Next turn Han doesn't clear Yorr, who did a straight 1, but was blocked in place by the Z-95 and B-wing that turned to face him. Han lands on the asteroid again. Soontir overlaps Han because he expected Han to move. To be fair, Mara had stressed Han, so Han went for a green maneuver, expecting the shuttle to leave. Jax killed Nera. The next round sees Han jumping over the shuttle with a straight 4, Jax killing the bandit, and Fel gouging the Millennium Falcon. Final round, Han finishes off the shuttle, and my unhurt TIE interceptors destroy Han.

1W 0L (I don't remember my MOV, and I think I calculated it wrong one round anyway)

Round 2
My friend, Alex, brought A-wings. He loves A-wings.

2x Blue Squadron Pilot
2x Green Squadron Pilot (Proton Rockets, Push the Limit, A-wing Test Pilot, Veteran Instincts)

His B-wings started in the middle while his A-wings started in the upper right. Yorr set up across from the A-wings, Jax a little towards middle, and Fel in the middle. Yorr moves up and gets Proton Rockets in the face, losing 4 shields. Ouch. But hey, the A-wing is now double stressed due to Rebel Captive. Jax and Fel start to dismantle the B-wings, and do a good job at staying alive. We eventually take down both B-wings with mad props to Mara Jade for preventing those Rebels from K-turning, but I am getting ahead of myself. I pulled this great move where Jax pulled a K-turn showing his rear to a B-wing that had just come around the asteroid, Yorr took the stress, and Jax Pushed the Limit for Focus + Evade. Because Jax was at range 1 of the B-wing, it couldn't use its focus token, and didn't land a hit!

Things got crazy once the shuttle was dead. There were only 14 minutes remaining, and I had only managed to take out one of his B-wings by that point. If I didn't destroy the other, the match would be his. Fel had taken some unlucky damage, and was hanging on by a single hull point. He managed to kill the Blue Sq. Pilot, and dodge the A-wings. One A-wing was hanging on at 1 hull point left. Fel had done a K-turn, and now the final round began. He was facing both A-wings, one at range 3, and one at range 2, so he moved forward 4 straight at the A-wings to clear stress. He hopped over one A-wing, which had decided to cut and run to stay alive, and bumped the damaged one - no shot! That damaged A-wing had pushed the limit for Focus + Evade, but Carnor Jax used a barrel roll to line up a range one shot, and prevented the use of those tokens, sealing the fate of that poor A-wing. In hindsight, I should have breathed easier after the B-wing died, knowing I had the full win, but I didn't want Fel dying, and I wanted better MOV. This was the only match where I really felt time was my enemy. I don't know what took so long, but killing his ships was slow-going.

2W 0L

Round 3
This just might be the most intense match I have ever played. Then again, it might have all just been in my mind. I was up against my friend, Rob, who used to be my sparring partner until he moved out of town. He shows up playing Imperials of all things!

"Whisper" (Veteran Instincts, Advanced Cloaking Device, Rebel Captive)
Captain Oicunn (Ruthlessness, Dauntless, Gunner, Darth Vader, Ysanne Isard)
(EDIT: I know I got his squad wrong somewhere, because we had to roll for initiative, IIRC)

My first match against the dreaded Decivader. Gulp. He takes initiative. We set up on the right straight across from his "Whisper." Oicunn is in the opposite corner. We dash up fast to get "Whisper" before Oicunn can arrive. Things go moderately well against his less than helpful agility dice. Then the trap is set: Fel is at range 1 of "Whisper" who only has a shot at Yorr, because Jax is too far out of range. Or so I thought! When we go to lay the range ruler down, we hold our ships so they don't move. Did he just nudge "Whisper" forward a little? Too hard to tell, and we're good friends so I didn't call him out on it. "Whisper" just manages a shot at Jax. I was immensely frustrated by this, but the shot did no damage, it just managed to allow "Whisper" to cloak. Fortunately, without a focus token she was destroyed by Fel. Phew!

Unfortunately, Oicunn has closed to range, and shoots the shuttle to deal a Ruthlessness damage to Jax. Yikes! Time to move away form the shuttle! We start to move about and get as many shots as we can on Oicunn, but Vader and Gunner continue to lay down the hate. Ruthlessness does another damage, too. Jax is gone pretty soon, and Oicunn still seems to be going strong. With only a few hull left, he decides to Vader Fel again, dealing Damaged Cockpit. Now that Fel is Pilot Skill 0, and only has one hull point left, he can't stay around Oicunn. He gets out of there. Captain Yorr has been trying to line up a shot the whole time. At a critical moment we meet at the edge of the asteroid field, and both have to go into the treacherous space next round. I guess the wrong direction, and don't get a shot! Now I have to come all the way around. He takes some shields off of the shuttle, but is more concerned about getting to Fel to finish the job. Lots more circling, and then the shuttle gets a great shot at Oicunn, dealing some more damage, and Oicunn only has 4 hull left. Oicunn shoots back and deals 2 more damage to the shuttle, and decides to Vader to try for a Direct Hit, but it was not. Yorr lives!

Next round, Oicunn has to turn to avoid the board edge, and Yorr keeps the pressure on. Oicunn blasts Yorr into space dust. The look of relief on my opponent's face was precious, but even more precious was the look of consternation when I announced simultaneous fire rule - they're both PS 4. Yorr just needs 2 hits to win the game. He rolls - he gets the 2 hits! Oicunn is gone, and I collapse to my knees from relief and exhaustion at the same time. My friends try to remind me it's just a game. My head is throbbing and one of them points out that my veins on my temples are popping. I get some water and sit down. Rob has already won a store championship or two, so he's not upset. I don't know if it was the fear of Vader, the revenge I wanted for all the times Rob flew Fat Han against my TIE interceptors, or if it was the sour moment when "Whisper" got that shot on Jax, but I wanted this win so badly.

3W 0L

Round 4
I'm up against Andrew, who is kind of my X-wing hero. He won Chicago Ohio Regionals last year with Fel, two other TIE interceptors and an Academy Pilot, going 9 games undefeated. This time, he brought scum.

Boba Fett (Veteran Instincts, K4 Security Droid, Engine Upgrade)
Prince Xizor (Virago, Advanced Sensors, Push the Limit, Autothrusters)
Black Sun Soldier

Andrew is undefeated so far, and has only lost the Z-95, and only in 2 out of his 3 games. He sets up Boba Fett in the top left, the Black Sun Soldier in the middle, and Xizor a little ways from there. I decided to set up Jax in the middle, Yorr to his right, and Fel to the far right. I decide to gun for Xizor as fast as possible. Fel goes straight 5, boost and barrel roll past an asteroid. Xizor moves like a ballerina right up close to the Z-95. I expected them to stick together to take advantage of Xizor's ability. Fel zooms up with a straight 4, but what I didn't anticipate was that Xizor would advanced sensors to barrel roll, boost towards Fel, and move straight 4, keeping stress, but blocking Fel! I was flustered from last game, and ended up bumping Jax into Yorr, which meant no actions, but I got a shot at Xizor, and took off one shield.

Fel came to the center of the board and destroyed the Black Sun Soldier after Yorr had taken 2 shields off. Soontir was stressed and pointed at an asteroid, but I thought I could make the turn 2 squeezing right in front of Fett to have a shot on Xizor. No good. He bumps and backs up just enough to land on the asteroid. Boba Fett moves past Fel and obliterates him with the rear arc.

Xizor tangos with Jax and Yorr, and we just can't seem to get any shots. I eventually get Jax to K-turn and dump the stress on Yorr, to take a Focussed shot at a triple stressed Xizor (he kept getting Rebel Captive stress) and deal 3 more damage, but he lives. Yorr dies, and Jax tries to finish off the StarViper, but he's a dodgy little thing once his stress is gone, using Advanced Sensors, Barrel Roll, turn 1 maneuver to stay in tight. Jax has to disengage and begins doing some damage on Boba Fett's flank, but it just couldn't last. Jax eventually succumbs to a rear arc shot from Boba Fett. I really wish I could have taken down that StarViper.

3W 1L

With my MOV, that was enough to get me 3rd seed in the Top 4, which is all I was hoping for.

Round 5
Ethan is my new sparring partner. His favorite ship is the phantom, and frankly, I wish it weren't.

"Whisper" (Veteran Instincts, Rebel Captive, Fire-control System, Advanced Cloaking Device)
Rear Admiral Chiraneau (Veteran Instincts, Ysanne Isard, Darth Vader, Engine Upgrade)

He takes initiative and sets up Chiraneau on the right and "Whisper" on the left. I set up Jax in the center, Fel to his right, and Yorr in the right corner. We try to zoom ahead and catch "Whisper" like last time, but it fails miserably. Fel is the only one with a shot, but also receives a Vader shot from the Decimator. Not good. I try to run for it. My idea is to have the shuttle do as much damage to Chiraneau as possible before engaging with my interceptors, but the shuttle can't catch him, and Engine Upgrade quickly sees Chiraneau sniping Fel at range 3. Fel goes down hard to Vader. It wasn't until Fel died that I realized that Chiraneau doesn't have Gunner. I really should have poured all my guns into the Decimator, and then dealt with the phantom later. But it was too late. Chiraneau sacrificed himself to kill Jax, but that left a shuttle to fight "Whisper." I got a brilliant range 3 shot against her when she couldn't recloak due to Rebel Captive, but she rolled triple focus against my triple hit - and her free focus token saved her hide. I moved forward 1 to clear stress, and thought I had her, but I forgot she could barrel roll. She shot again outside of Yorr's arc, and I called it. At that point there was no way to catch the phantom.

3W 2L

Overall, a really good day for me. I usually do about 3W 2L, but usually it's at larger tournaments where I lose early, and start winning at the lower end of the field. This time I made top 4 and got my dice bag - only to realize that it's not the one with the TIE fighter on it. That's Imperial Assault. Oh, and the dice bags are pretty poor quality, so I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

My squad was pretty good, and I think I'll keep tinkering with it. I'd like to try it with Targeting Computer instead of the health upgrades because there were many rounds of blank, blank, focus. I just think that Vader will chew me up and spit me out. Speaking of Vader, I have learned that the best defense is a good offense against him. Also, Andrew suggested I drop Rebel Captive and take Vader instead. I like that idea. The other idea is to take a fast shuttle Omicron Group Pilot and make him a dogfighter, because that's what he was doing most of the time anyway. I'll be weaker against stress lists, but I don't see a whole lot of those here.

There were also some excellent displays of fly casual. Two different people gave away some dice to the newer players who just had a single core set, and another person gave away a copy of Push the Limit. It was good times, lots of smiles, and a well-run tournament.

Oh, and Ethan's "Whisper" and Chiraneau build won the tournament.

Nice report, and it confirms my experience that the decivader must die as quickly as possible when flying squints. Really bugs me that Vader can crit even if the attack misses, but that's the way it goes. I'll be taking an interceptor list to a tourney this Saturday and appreciate your shared experiences.

Nice to see interceptors doing well, keep up the good work!

Two possible Squint list idea's here.

Fel (27) Push the limit (3) autothrusters (2) shield upgrade (4) Title (0) (36points)

Turr (25) Vetern instincts (1) autothrusters (2) shield upgrade (4) Title (0) (32 points)

Tet Cowall (24) V.I. (1) autothrusters (2) shield upgrade (4) title (0) (31 points)

shields eat a crit or first damage you take. autothrusters... well do what they do.pilot skill 9 for all ships, you should be shooting mostly first. Unless you run into V.I.ed up Phantoms.

The second variant is this exact list but dropping v. I. on Turr and tet, and dropping all the shield upgrades and having all three with push the limit, autothrusters, titles and stealth devices.

the first list is 99 pts the second is 100.

Two possible Squint list idea's here.

Fel (27) Push the limit (3) autothrusters (2) shield upgrade (4) Title (0) (36points)

Turr (25) Vetern instincts (1) autothrusters (2) shield upgrade (4) Title (0) (32 points)

Tet Cowall (24) V.I. (1) autothrusters (2) shield upgrade (4) title (0) (31 points)

shields eat a crit or first damage you take. autothrusters... well do what they do.pilot skill 9 for all ships, you should be shooting mostly first. Unless you run into V.I.ed up Phantoms.

The second variant is this exact list but dropping v. I. on Turr and tet, and dropping all the shield upgrades and having all three with push the limit, autothrusters, titles and stealth devices.

the first list is 99 pts the second is 100.

I like the shuttle because it isn't weak to the same things that Elite interceptors are. Also, I enjoy showing off my shuttle now that I got the wings to fold down all the way. But triple squints could be fun.

I have a confession. Even though I am a huge TIE interceptor fan, I have never tried Turr Phennir. I like both lists, but I'd probably try the VI version first. Unfortunately, it doesn't help against phantoms and VI Chiraneau, which are tough matches, unless I can get initiative. I'm thinking of giving one of them Hull instead of Shield, and using the 2 points to get PS 10 Carnor Jax instead of PS 9 Tetran Cowall, to help me fight "Whisper" better.

Two possible Squint list idea's here.

Fel (27) Push the limit (3) autothrusters (2) shield upgrade (4) Title (0) (36points)

Turr (25) Vetern instincts (1) autothrusters (2) shield upgrade (4) Title (0) (32 points)

Tet Cowall (24) V.I. (1) autothrusters (2) shield upgrade (4) title (0) (31 points)

shields eat a crit or first damage you take. autothrusters... well do what they do.pilot skill 9 for all ships, you should be shooting mostly first. Unless you run into V.I.ed up Phantoms.

The second variant is this exact list but dropping v. I. on Turr and tet, and dropping all the shield upgrades and having all three with push the limit, autothrusters, titles and stealth devices.

the first list is 99 pts the second is 100.

I like the shuttle because it isn't weak to the same things that Elite interceptors are. Also, I enjoy showing off my shuttle now that I got the wings to fold down all the way. But triple squints could be fun.

I have a confession. Even though I am a huge TIE interceptor fan, I have never tried Turr Phennir. I like both lists, but I'd probably try the VI version first. Unfortunately, it doesn't help against phantoms and VI Chiraneau, which are tough matches, unless I can get initiative. I'm thinking of giving one of them Hull instead of Shield, and using the 2 points to get PS 10 Carnor Jax instead of PS 9 Tetran Cowall, to help me fight "Whisper" better.

The nice thing about having 3 ships @ PS 9 is that it actually works well against Whisper in particular. If you have initiative, its not hard to ensure that at least one (if not 2) of your ships get a shot on a decloaked whisper, so you can play more aggressively (so long as you aren't bad at predicting where whisper will end up - drawing her into a clump of asteroids really helps with this). Or if your opponent has initiative, then you can play a more patient game, gaining some confidence from the fact that whisper must move first, and therefore allow you greater chances to dodge her arcs with all of your interceptors (hopefully!). In either case, the whisper player seems at more of a disadvantage...