Last weekend, there were 2 local store competitions happening on the same date (store organized with miniatures as prizes). I went to the one that happened to be the closest to the restaurant that I was supposed to go to in the evening. Unfortunately, there happened to only be 2 of us at the store, so we did a best 2 out of 3. My opponent’s squad, however, appeared fully designed to obliterate mine.
My squad: double aggressors (100 points)
IG-88B
- IG-2000 title
- Autothrusters
- Hot shot blaster
- Ion cannon
- Advanced sensors
- Predator
IG-88C
- IG-2000 title
- Autothrusters
- Hot shot blaster
- Ion cannon
- Fire Control system
- Opportunist
My opponent’s quad (99 points)
Mini swarm
- 3 x academy pilot
- Howlrunner with push the limit
Whisper
- Rebel captive
- Veteran instinct
- Advanced cloaking device
- Fire control system
I could not think of a worse possible lineup for me. Whisper, with her near limitless maneuvers and a pilot skill rating of 9 would be a nightmare, not to mention the presence of rebel captive which would hamper me greatly. Howlrunner also had a higher pilot skill rating, but that would be less of a problem since she would have to fly in formation.
I wanted some additional experience flying against Whisper while using Aggressors, and it seemed that I would get my wish on that day.
Round 1
Asteroids were placed conservatively, with 3 of them on my edge so that they would have less of an impact and the other 3 moved around. The swarm deployed in the upper left corner (with a hole clearly showing where Howlrunner would be). I opted to deploy IG-88B in the right bottom corner while IG-88C took on the middle. Whisper took a spot opposite of IG-88C.
On the first round, the swarm moved forward while I took a timid step with IG-88C and went all out with IG-88B. Whisper turned and cloaked, getting in range of IG-88B, but not C. 2 waves of ion shots flew forth (IG-88B getting stressed in the process), but failed to connect, my opponent’s four green dice rolling increadibly well. Tie fighters shot at IG-88C, but failed to connect thanks to the autothruster.
The 2nd turn was barely beginning that I knew that I had made a mistake. The mini-swarm was converging on IG-88C’s left flank and turning to face it was not an option, not if I wanted to destroy Whisper early on. Cursing myself mentally, I decided to continue moving towards Whisper, hoping to take him out early in the game. The mini-swarm moved as expected, with some getting in range 1 of IG-88C. Whisper, meanwhile, danced out of arc and fired, taking a shield off IG-88B. Both Aggressors played for broke, unleashing their hotshot blasters. My dice were hot, but my opponent’s dice were incredibly better, rolling 3 or 4 evades per shot (with no modification). One IG-88 ended with a stress while the other ended in a position from which it could not k-turn or s-loop. Things had gone from bad to worse.
With no option left at my disposal, both IG-88 had to flee around an asteroid near the upper left corner, phantom and Ties giving chase and stripping shields one at a time. Evade tokens from boost actions helped my forces endure, but the damage was mounting.
When both IG-88s finished rounding the corner, one turned to face the enemy while the other did a k-turn. IG-88B found itself surrounded and promptly destroyed. Desperate, IG-88C fired an ion salvo and caught a cloaked whisper (getting a 2nd stress). I gasped as I realized that moving one forward would put Whisper off the board the next round. I had a chance!
My opponent pulled off a brilliant move, however, sending a tie fighter moving and barrel rolling to block whisper. The tie fighter would itself move off the board the next turn, but that would buy Whisper the time that she needed. IG-88C tried to ion her again, but failed to connect. The brave academy pilot flew off into the unknown, saving Whisper in the process. The next few turns were filled with IG-88C trying in vain to corner Whisper before it could turn around, unleashing ion shots one after the other and getting stressed in the process.
Had we timed the game then IG-88C might have survived, but as the rounds continued, it was eventually destroyed.
Result: loss, 12 to 100.
Round 2
A change of tactic needed to occur for me to turn the tide. I decided to place the asteroids more towards the center with a corridor shaping up in the middle, trusting that their presence, combined with the swarm, would hamper the phantom more than they would trouble the aggressor. The warm deployed in the middle facing me while IG-88C took the middle and IG-88B took the bottom right side. Whisper took the upper left corner.
The swarm moved forward on the first turn and so did my aggressors, getting in range 3 of each other. Whisper turned and cloaked, but had asteroids in its way, slowing its advance. The exchange of fire damage and ionned a tie fighter while my Aggressors were unscathed (range 3 and autothruster played in my favor).
The 2nd turn had the swarm proceed forward and IG-88B collide with it while IG-88C flanked to the side. Whisper moved, but ended up out of range. Howlrunner had meanwhile used push the limit to turtle up with a focus and a token. The exchange of blaster fire took some shields off of IG-88C and damaged another tie fighter (no Ion this time).
Turn 3 is where it became interesting. The swarm was in disarray with some elements covered in ion tokens, Howlrunner stressed and others simply in a bad position. One academy did a k-turn, the other was forced to bank away from an asteroid, a third had to move forward and howlrunner, afraid for her life, pushed the limit again in order to turtle. Meanwhile, IG-88C did a k-turn while IG-88B hit it on its flank, using advanced sensor to still have an action. Meanwhile, Whisper decloaked in the only spot left because of the mess of asteroids and ties and fired, taking a shield of IG-88C. IG-88B fired back with its ion cannon and caught Whisper head on. Better yet, the phantom was now in a direct course for an asteroid! With no rush to take out Whisper (and no angle of fire), IG-88C fired on the tie which had done a k-turn, leaving it with a stress and an ion token. This was control at its best!
Turn 4 had IG-88B purposely collided with C to keep its firing position on Whisper while C moved a bit forward. Whisper, meanwhile, flew into the asteroid, taking one damage and denying its action. IG-88B ionned Whisper again While C, not feeling like shooting its hotshot blaster through an asteroid and with Whisper doomed to pass through it “again”, finished off the only tie that could shoot back at it.
Turn 5 had Whisper safely survive its last round through the asteroid, but die to ion fire. Two other tie were promptly destroyed in the following turns without getting a shot back, leaving Howlrunner against two Aggressors with shields still in play. My opponent conceded the game at that point; there was really no reason to continue considering that we had unlimited time.
Result: victory, 100 to 0.
Round 3
Feeling that hampering Whisper’s mobility was a more important goal in the first 3 turns than destroying her, I opted for a similar strategy, deploying the asteroids in the middle and taking the fight to the swarm to force it to break up. The swarm deployed in the upper right corner, while IG-88B deployed in front of it (advanced sensors, I had realized, was better for a frontal assault in this case) and IG-88C in the middle. Whisper was also deployed in the upper middle.
Round 1 had both armies going towards the middle with Whisper cloaking once more. IG-88B ended up moving more than planned, ending up in range 2, but with an evade token. I opted to fire conventional weapons for both IG-88s, hoping to score a kill, but only getting 2 hits on the same Tie. I don’t remember anymore whether the return fire took off a shield or not. Howlrunner had pushed the limit to get a focus and evade, which made her an uninteresting target for the first round.
When round 2 started, my opponent realized that his Ties could not do a k-turn without bumping into me. Either way you looked at it, it appeared as though his front line would not be able to attack. His mini-swarm turned towards the center, hoping to focus fire on IG-88C. Unfortunately, the maneuver proved crippling as he had forgotten that Howlrunner was stressed. IG-88B crashed into a Tie, but had used advanced sensors to get a focus beforehand while IG-88C crashed into a single tie, but still had a shot at the one that he had damaged. Whisper managed to get a shot, knocking off 2 shields, but IG-88B had a range 1 shot on Howlrunner and blew her off with 2 hits and 2 crits. IG-88C finished off a tie as well, leaving only Whisper and 2 academy’s (the latter not even facing the right direction). I was off to a good start.
In the following round, Whisper unleashed a salvo that knocked off IG-88C’s shields and landed a crit (reduced agility by one) with my return fire from hotshot blasters taking out its shields in return. Meanwhile, the Ties were simply not in the correct position. Things were getting dangerous for me, however as the field thinned out, giving Whisper more and more maneuverability.
Determined to keep IG-88C safe, I had him fly through and boost away, getting out of reach of Whisper should she decloak to the left. Meanwhile, IG-88B did a hard turn, forgoing clearing a stress in order to block Whisper’s decloak to the right. With no way to continue its attack, Whisper decloaked forward and did a turn… only to connect with its own Tie fighter by a mere millimeter. While she was not in any firing arc, this left her uncloaked and ultimately predictable for the next turn.
IG-88B gave chase while IG-88C turned around on the next turn. Meanwhile, Whisper pulled off a desperate move… and k-turned. She fired on the B, knocking off its shields and landing a crit (pilot skill zero), but IG-88B fired back, landing an ion and leaving her with 1 hull and stuck with her stress. Meanwhile, the Tie’s fire, now that they had managed to turn around, failed to land any hits.
The next turn proved decisive with Whisper landing 2 hits on IG-88B, but failing to destroy it. IG-88C finished it off having to use both of its shots to finally land the final hit. The next few rounds consisted of IG-88B fleeing for its life, using movements and boosts (+ evade from IG-88C’s ability) to stay ahead of the Tie and avoid damage while IG-88C finished them off.
End result, victory, 100 to 0.
Conclusions
I had wished for some more experience flying against Whisper and after 3 games, I surely got my wish. Here are some of the things that I learned:
- There is no doubt in my mind that the ion cannons were the right choice for this faceoff. While a heavy laser cannon or mangler cannon works wonders against other types of ships (Decimator), it only takes 1 hit to debilitate a phantom or mess up a formation. A phantom can control the use of its evade token to negate the “gunner” effect of its opponent (taking only a single hit to its shields), but it cannot afford to do so vs an ion cannon, which makes it a bigger threat.
- Knowing when to fly aggressively and when the fly defensively is key to the Aggressor. Engaging a mini-swarm of tie fighters at range 3 on the first round is highly recommended. If you have advanced sensors, you can even afford a full round of bumping afterwards. The shields and evade token can take it (and the bumping might force the opponent to divide its firepower or lose a tie before it can fire), leaving you in an advantageous position on the next turn when it’s time to k-turn.
- Knowing which unit to focus one’s control efforts is also critical.
- When facing a phantom, using its own supporting units against itself is valid strategy. Limiting its decloak options while covering the other angles with ion cannons leaves Whisper in an uncomfortable position.
- Opportunist barely ever triggered against Whisper because of its rebel captive or focus from her abilities. In retrospect, I think that IG-88C’s configuration while more closely mirror IG-88B from now on.
- Autothrusters were worth every point (negating several hits per game).
- Hotshot blasters were a constant threat during the game and while they were not involved at any earth shattering moment, their presence did screw things up at different moments (and helped with Whisper’s shields).
- Should I ever play Whisper from this point on, I’ll consider the possibility that an attack could very well come in on the first turn. A move and shoot might be preferable to a move and cloak.
This will have been the third tournament where I’ve used double Aggressors and so far, I’m very pleased with how they handle, enough so that I’ll have no issues taking them to the regionals. I still need some experience against Whisper and Echo, but the more I play Aggressors, the more I become used to flying with a pilot skill rating of 6.
Hope you enjoyed the report!
