With Chirpy at 2 hull and d at 1 hull, he had a chance to Vader D, but wanted to try and finish D off with Fel, and unfortunately he did.

I'm missing a slide here, but B did a 3 right bank sloop, while fel turned left to get behind the rock, then next round I did a 3 right bank and TL, which was another mistake because i should have boosted to get out of Fel's arc

He took B down to 1 hull left, so a vader would have finished me off, so we called it here. It was definitely a lesson of what I should do against this list (which I faced again later, and won against.) this was also my Stay on target version, so my squad is different now.

1. I should have gone after Chirpy to start with. If I can get both guns on him and take him down, Fel will have a hard time killing both of mine in 75 minutes. Plus focusing on Chirpy will draw Fel into the fray where he is more susceptible.

2. There were far too many rounds where I didn't get a shot with B, in fact, most of the game. Yeah, i can't be doing that at all, and I have been better about that vs Interceptors lately.

3. Engine Deci is something to consider, especially when they move after I do.

4. Stay on target was worthless against higher PS ships, so I switched out to Expert handling soon after this game.

All in all, it was a bad game for me, but a good lesson from the master, so i learned.

Game #2 vs Paul. Major Juggler said BBBBZ is a tough match up for me, so I wanted to get some practice in with it. Paul wasn't as familiar flying this squad, although he has flown against it a lot.

He set up up top. I didn't particularly want to joust with him right away, so I set up towards the bottom with mine. i wasn't entirely sure where he was going to go, so I did my usual 1 fwd with B and 3 fwd with D to flank.

He turned all of his guys into the middle. So next round I saw that i could get behind him with B with a 1 turn and boost, while I slow rolled with D and did an AdvS barrel roll with 1 bank.

He banked in at D with all of them, so I brought B around 2 left turn and boost to get a shot. Again D did a AdvS barrel roll to get rid of a TL, and 1 fwd.

I attacked his #2 even though it was obstructed from D because i wanted to strip some shields off and maybe get a crit in on him with the mangler, because I could focus both of my guys on that one ship. As it was, each of my shots got 1 hit through, so i only took 2 shields off of him. He had bad attacks that round, and Autothrusters ensured that D didn't take any damage.

Next round he turned 1,2,and 3 into my B, combined with a barrel roll, so I knew sensor jammer was going to be effective this round. his Z and #4 TL'd my D, and i did another ADVS BR left and 1 fwd so that D wouldn't have to defend this round. This time my D and B combined to finish off his #2. And between Sensor jammer and lone wolf, combined with his unmodified attacks at B, B took no damage.

I knew that my B was in his way for maneuvering his 2 upper-most ships, and that #4 would K-turn, so I Adv TL his #4 with my D and did a 4K, while my B went 3 bank to combine fire on his #4. I took all of his shields off, and he managed to put 2 hits on my D.

Next round I was hoping my D would get a shot on his Z, but it didn't. My B did finish off his B-wing at range 1, though. He put one more damage onto my D.

With his force behind me, I did Sloops with both of mine to try and take out his Z. I think I only did 2 damage to it combined, so he lived. And his shots didn't damage me. i was doing well playing the ranges this game so far.

His Z turned into me while the B's got caught up. I think I tried a range 1 at his Z to finish it off, missed, so had an HLC shot at his #1 and took some shields. Since B couldn't shoot at his Z, I shot at #1 with my B and took the rest of his shields off. He did managed to get D down to 2 hull left, though, but it was costing him ships.

I did a 4K and a 3 right turn sloop with my ships to set up a killzone. I finished off his #1 and got 3 evades against his #3's shot, so again D took no damage.

2 range 1 shots here on his Z, and I only managed 1 damage. The crowd was cheering for the Z to take out my D, but it didn't happen.

Next round I sloop with both and take all of the shields off of #3. This time he did manage to finish off my D. But now my full health B was behind both of his ships.

He K-turned his Z and cleared stress with his #3. My B finished off his Z, so he called it there.

Expert handling was huge early game, and kept D alive longer. I think I played this one pretty well. i was able to focus down his B's without taking much damage in return. And he was having a hard time predicting where I was going to be.

One more game tonight against Simonsays3 and his Xizor Zappers. He managed to take out B, but I finished off all of his Z's when the 75 minute clock ran out, so I won on points. We played it out with his Xizor vs my D and he ended up getting me at the end with Xizor having 2 hull left. There were a couple of things I would have done differently throughout the game, I think, but since I had the win on time, I'm ok with how I flew. I think i would have played the opening engagement different, keeping my B away from his guns and making it less able to be trapped by his swarm. That keeps B alive longer, and gives me more mov for the tourney, so that's what I have to be thinking about for saturday.

Updated with my comments from my games with Paul.

It was definitely a lesson of what I should do against this list (which I faced again later, and won against.) this was also my Stay on target version, so my squad is different now.

1. I should have gone after Chirpy to start with. If I can get both guns on him and take him down, Fel will have a hard time killing both of mine in 75 minutes. Plus focusing on Chirpy will draw Fel into the fray where he is more susceptible.

2. There were far too many rounds where I didn't get a shot with B, in fact, most of the game. Yeah, i can't be doing that at all, and I have been better about that vs Interceptors lately.

3. Engine Deci is something to consider, especially when they move after I do.

4. Stay on target was worthless against higher PS ships, so I switched out to Expert handling soon after this game.

All in all, it was a bad game for me, but a good lesson from the master, so i learned.

Excellent analysis, sir. I appreciate you sharing the screen shots and your thoughts.

One lesson I have taken away from my dual Aggressor games is that low agility, high health targets like Decimators and Doomshuttles are priority targets in most cases. The board control they provide needs to be removed in order to give me the freedom to move my IG's where they want to go, not where my opponent allows them to go. I would probably lump Falcons into this category as well, though the Falcon title and other defensive cards make that a longer fight. Doomshuttles in particular are something I have learned to focus down as quickly as possible in order to avoid getting Vader-ed in the mid-to-late game. Decimators are, frankly, just too easy to chew up with a few rounds of focused fire (I burned down Kenkirk a few weeks back in just 2 rounds of shooting thanks to some timely Direct Hits courtesy of the Mangler).

I gotta say, watching you control the range with Expert Handling/Advanced Sensors on D has me seriously questioning my own devotion to Predator on my ships. I have loved having re-rolls without spending actions to get them, but the superior positional game that EH allows you to play is huge.

I'm surprised that Paul broke off his B's when he could've focus fired on D. I know that would've left his flank exposed, but hopefully he would've destroyed D early on in the fight.

I guessed Doug's moves COMPLETELY wrong there. The key turn of my 4bz vs Brobots fight was when I guessed wrong on round 4.

With D facing a rock, I knew it would AS/EH to roll right or left. The problem was figuring out what he was going to do. He has a staggering number of moves. I decided Doug would either roll left and do a left bank, or a right roll into a right bank, in an attempt to dodge all my arcs. Either way, my B's would be firing into nothing if I guess his final location wrong, and 88B would be shooting at my back. It's like fighting a pre-nerf Phantom!

If he did the left roll, I realized I could block it the followup movement with B4 and get good shots with B1-3 and the Z. So, obviously, that wouldn't be what he would do, right? So I decided his plan was to do the right roll and right bank. Little did I know that Doug chose a move that would be good with either roll! If I went all in on shooting him with the left roll (blocking with 4, and the other ships do right banks to aim at him), he'd have just done a right roll and 1 fwd to dodge me there.

So, I thought he was going into the asteroid field. I realized I could pivot most of my B's into 88B, maybe get the damaged one to block him, and then 1 and 3 look for lucky rolls. In retrospect, I should have moved 4 to join them, but I hedged my bets and wanted to try to mess D's movements up in case I was wrong. The plan was to get Z behind D, who was going into the asteroid field in my mind, and then have the B's on his flank in future rounds. Meanwhile, B4 harrasses 88B and gets in his way later on. Needless to say, none of that worked!

I guessed Doug's moves COMPLETELY wrong there. The key turn of my 4bz vs Brobots fight was when I guessed wrong on round 4.

With D facing a rock, I knew it would AS/EH to roll right or left. The problem was figuring out what he was going to do. He has a staggering number of moves. I decided Doug would either roll left and do a left bank, or a right roll into a right bank, in an attempt to dodge all my arcs. Either way, my B's would be firing into nothing if I guess his final location wrong, and 88B would be shooting at my back. It's like fighting a pre-nerf Phantom!

If he did the left roll, I realized I could block it the followup movement with B4 and get good shots with B1-3 and the Z. So, obviously, that wouldn't be what he would do, right? So I decided his plan was to do the right roll and right bank. Little did I know that Doug chose a move that would be good with either roll! If I went all in on shooting him with the left roll (blocking with 4, and the other ships do right banks to aim at him), he'd have just done a right roll and 1 fwd to dodge me there.

So, I thought he was going into the asteroid field. I realized I could pivot most of my B's into 88B, maybe get the damaged one to block him, and then 1 and 3 look for lucky rolls. In retrospect, I should have moved 4 to join them, but I hedged my bets and wanted to try to mess D's movements up in case I was wrong. The plan was to get Z behind D, who was going into the asteroid field in my mind, and then have the B's on his flank in future rounds. Meanwhile, B4 harrasses 88B and gets in his way later on. Needless to say, none of that worked!

Yeah adv sensor BR + 1 straight was really huge right there. Obviously hindsight 20/20 and all, but in this case 1 fwd would've been the best counter to D, but if he had done anything else, that would've left you with nothing to shoot at, so risky. Can see why turning into B was safest bet.

Playtested Yin/Yang today, some observations:

Without any reliable method to get re-roll offence seems pretty weak (Fcs/Predator would help immensely) especially those crucial turns when D has no choice but close with B and you lose Lone Wolf.

Sensor Jammer + Autothrusters + LW pretty much makes you invincible to 2 dice attacks and 3 dice turret attacks if flown correctly.

Expert Handling + Adv is amazing for repositioning, but leaves you offensively and defensively weak without a token.

How would you address these pertinent issues? At the moment the inability to land persistent damage and weak defence on D makes the list feel a lot squishier and less dangerous compared to an FCS/PTL or Outmaneuver based list.

Playtested Yin/Yang today, some observations:

Without any reliable method to get re-roll offence seems pretty weak (Fcs/Predator would help immensely) especially those crucial turns when D has no choice but close with B and you lose Lone Wolf.

Sensor Jammer + Autothrusters + LW pretty much makes you invincible to 2 dice attacks and 3 dice turret attacks if flown correctly.

Expert Handling + Adv is amazing for repositioning, but leaves you offensively and defensively weak without a token.

I've had good results choosing the smallest debris field tokens to allow the Aggressors maximum freedom of movement, or would you not recommend this?

How would you address these pertinent issues? At the moment the inability to land persistent damage and weak defence on D makes the list feel a lot squishier and less dangerous compared to an FCS/PTL or Outmaneuver based list.

On the way to the Bellevue Regional to see how well I can do with Yin/Yang. This will be a good test of the list.

Game 1 vs Matthew running:

Whisper with vi, acd, and fcs

Echo with ptl. Spa, fcs

Doomshuttle

An early barrel roll from D made whisper crash into him with no shot, so no cloak. B put 2 hits and a crit on him, then finished her off next round. Echo and D danced for a while, with echo finishing off D, but not before D stripped echos shields. B then finished echo off, then finished off the shuttle for the 100-51 win.

Round 2 vs Daniel running

Corran with ptl, advs, r2d2, engine

Cheque with by, c3po, falcon title.

I believe I rolled less than 5 evades total between my 2 igs combined for the game.He flew well, but I just couldn't focus down chewie quickly enough to make it matter. I put 2 damage on Corran first round of combat, but he regenerated that, so I started working on chewie. B went down quickly without any evades. 1-1.

Round 3 vs Nate Collins running:

Fel with stealth, at, ptl

Chirpy with engine, Vader, users, ptl

I got a stunned pilot on chirpy, and parked D in front of him for 2 rounds to finish him off. Took 1 off of Fel, but Fel didn't miss at all his last 5 attacks, so I lost 100-65. I think I flew well, but injured pilot on B from Vader hurt.

tough, closely fought matches there so far. Lookn fwd to more intel. Go Hothie!

Round 4 vs Morgan flying

X3 using with ion and btl

Kavil with ion and R4 agro

He flew really well, and he managed to ion me more than he should have. I killed Kavil first, then it was my B vs his 3 ywings. I ended up winning with B only taking 1 hull.

2-2 now? how many rounds total? 7?

Fifth round against Justin running

X3 blue with fcs

Jake with ptl, vi, at, chardaan

I was arc dodging well, limiting his shots, but I just wasn't getting the rolls I needed. I ended up killing a B, and he burned down D pretty quickly, so I lost 51-24.

Overall it was a frustrating day. I felt like I flew ok. All of my upgrades were worth their points.

Sigh. Finished 2-3. Back to the drawing board.

hmm, mixed results. sound like ur flying wasnt the reason u lost games and those were winnable and not one-sided losses eh?

I am sure people are more practiced against IG-88 lists now and will have a plan ready off the bat. similar to battling a phantom they will be running blockers as interference to limit your movement options, they will also be closing distance to get inside ur autothrsters to focus fire on one of your guys which will be the tipping point if you get taken out early. This is all going to add up to some close wins and close losses. Sounds like ur dice didnt help in those close games either. Id say more tweeking but not a major overhaul is needed is all.

In its current incarnation too many actions are spent repositioning and they are limited to flying in a very specific way (B flanking D at range 3).

You need more offensive upgrades since there's no reliable source of re-rolls.

Also too many vassal games impacts on your ability to fly IRL I find.

How about PTL+ADV on B and Outman FCS on D?

It sounds like you had a bad dice day Hothie and that may not be a true reflection of the provenance of the list. It's the one frustrating part of X-wing. Bad dice = bad day.

I'd say go again with the list. It's solid and with "normal" dice you should see much better results.

Hello guys! I made an account to post here on the forums. I played Mr. Doug the second round in the Nebraska Regionals on Saturday. I have a few things to say regarding his post!

He flew well, but...

Thank you, I think.

Round 2 vs Daniel running

Corran with ptl, advs, r2d2, engine
Cheque with by, c3po, falcon title.

I believe I rolled less than 5 evades total between my 2 igs combined for the game.

This is true, Mr. Doug only rolled about 5 or so evades, however I would not attribute his loss solely to this. I was able to avoid triggering his auto thrusters all but twice the entire game. I would also recommend taking Focus actions. It is very strong when you are rolling three green dice. Boosting and performing Segnor Loops is very risky when your opponent has higher pilot skill ships than yours, since you don't know where they will move, and you could end up in their firing arcs still, but without actions. If Mr. Doug had performed focus actions, most of his rolls would have avoided all of my damage (or most, since he consistently rolled 2-3 focuses per attack) and he could have likely won the game.

I dont mean any disrespect, Daniel. I mean you did exactly what you should have done. I have played against corran players that like to hit and run with him. My 1 turn from B was designed to catch your 3 bank, but you did a 1 fwd instead. I was unable to keep the pressure on corran, so I had to try and focus on chewie, but by then B was dead in 3 attacks, I think, which made the outcome inevitable. You had a good squad and you flew it well, so you deserved the win. And you did play the ranges well, so you effectively negated AT.

It's just that last weekend has shaken me. My confidence in the squad is shot. And it's not just higher ps lists, its Bwings, too. I saw a lot of Bwings there, and I know that I can't joust with them, so I was scrambling in my last game.

So, I played this squad last night:

Backstabber

X4 Obsidian

AP

Avenger

Against simonsays running

Palob, guri, and Kavil

His squad is honestly a good counter to mine. I pointed at guri early, but she ran away. I was able to keep away from Kavil for a while, focusing on palob. It took a long time to take palob down, due in no small part that throughout the game I had 3 complete rounds of attacking that rolled 0 hits or crits. and the greens weren't much better. I did manage to block palob and burn his tokens down to take him out. I got guru down to 1 hull, but couldn't finish her off. Kavil AB turret the avenger ended the game. I think I actually flew pretty well, getting the shots and blocks I wanted, but this is still a dice game.