Despite playing at my house this time, I forgot to take pictures during the match (yet again words will have to suffice). This was another casual 100 point match against a friend. We played on the official Starfield Playmat. We followed tournament rules with the addition of one house rule: a debris field must be placed on the mat when a ship is destroyed at the former location of the ship. I decided to field a Rebel squad this time; my friend played Imperial.

I had yet to play a match with an E-Wing. Since the generics are expensive, I decided to build a squad around either Corran or Etahn. I built two squads: Corran paired with a couple named X-Wings (Biggs and Tarn); and Etahn paired with a couple B-Wings. Since I really enjoy flying ships with Advanced Sensors, I chose to use Etahn's squad.

I won the initiative bid, but since none of the ships shared pilot skill, this only determined who placed the first obstacle. Due to the house rule to use debris fields for destroyed ships, we selected the six asteroids from the Core Set as the six unique obstacles. Unfortunately, I have not play enough games or read enough posts on asteroid placement to benefit from placing first. Does anyone know of good articles on this? The asteroids ended up spread out, but leaving few clear vertical lanes between the two opposing sides. As I had Advanced Sensors and could easily avoid them, I hoped to draw my opponent's ships through the asteroids.

I placed the two B-Wings in one corner. He, in turn, placed his Decimator closer to the center on the opposite corner. The ship was angled toward the two B-Wings. Etahn was placed almost directly across from the Decimator in order to create enough distance between allied ships to activate Lone Wolf. The two Tie Fighters started in the opposite corner from the B-Wings.

The first turn, I banked the B-Wings to face the Decimator and barrel rolled (this helped me keep the range 3 requirement to maintain the reroll from Lone Wolf on Etahn). Etahn, meanwhile, moved forward slowly. My opponent moved the Decimator forward and boosted toward Etahn. The Ties rushed forward and barrel rolled narrowly avoiding the edge of the mat.

The next turn I moved the B-Wings three forward hoping to catch Oicunn in their arcs. One barrel rolled to avoid splash damage from Ruthless, the other focused. I knew that the Decimator would be in firing range of Etahn this turn. I did not realize just how close he would be. Oicunn rushed forward and boosted. Even with the one forward I picked, Etahn would crash into him. Here is where I made a costly mistake: I decided to avoid the collision by barrel rolling toward the B-Wings before revealing the maneuver. I am not sure why I thought I had to avoid the collision, and I immediately realized it was the wrong move, but I had already stated I was barrel rolling, and it was too late to change my mind. Dark Curse continued down the edge of the mat. Mauler moved toward Etahn and also barrel rolled.

This placed me in range of both Mauler and Oicunn without focus or evade. I knew the four dice from Oicunn would hurt, but at least the incoming attacks would be unmodified too. I could also regenerate shields with R2D2. Mauler attacked first and rolled one hit and one crit. I rolled two blanks and a focus. In the first attack, Etahn's shields were nearly stripped. Etahn opened fire on Oicunn: one hit and three blanks. Then he returned fire. My opponent rolled five attack dice and got five natural hits. Despite having erroneously rolled an extra attack die, I did not make him reroll as all the dice had the same result (even though my friend offered to do so), and just counted it as four hits. I rolled the defense dice: three blanks. Before the B-Wings could even use Etahn's ability, Etahn was destroyed. "Never trust green dice."

Due to my barrel roll, and Oicunn's boost, one of the B-Wings was out of firing range by a few millimeters. This left me with a range three shot from a B-Wing. With the help of a focus and the Mangler" Cannon, I managed to score a hit and a crit.

The remaining turns are foggy in my memory, so I will have to summarize. Despite feeling defeated on turn two, I kept my head in the game. Over the next three or four turns, I took out both Tie Fighters. However, one of my B-Wings was down to one hull; the other was shieldless. I then managed to force a Damaged Cockpit crit on Oicunn, dropping his pilot skill below mine (he had already discarded Jerjerrod to avoid a Blinded Pilot the turn before). This bought me one more turn of fire from my one hull B-Wing. Unfortunately, at this point my forces were separated and I was not able to focus fire.

The match ended in my corner (where the B-Wings started). Oicunn had four hull remaining. The lone B-Wing had two hull. I was at range one, but the free evade from Ysanne meant that I needed a Direct hit. I scored four hits, leaving Oicunn with one hull. It was down to a final roll. If he destroyed me, victory was his. If he missed, Oicunn was guaranteed to fly off the mat. Two hits and a crit, and the the victory went to the Empire.

This was my first 100 point game loss (my record is 5-1). I could claim that I lost due to the luck of the dice when I lost Etahn; however, the truth is if I had decided to ram Etahn into Oicunn rather than avoid the collision, the dice gods would not have had the chance to turn against me. Since I had Advanced Sensors, I would have still been able to take a defensive action. I also would have had a reroll due to Lone Wolf. This would have reduced if not eliminated the damage taken from Mauler. The collision would have prevented Oicunn from rolling four attack dice. Worst case, I would have taken two damage from Mauler and one damage from Dauntless in the next movement phase. Since I had R2D2 I would have been able to easily recover the shields and maintain the extra crits from Etahn's ability. Yes, the dice gods did not leave me much room for mistakes, but they were not the reason I lost this match.

A large base ship with Engine Upgrade is fast. I knew this in theory, but this was the first time I had faced one with it. Reading about it is not the same has facing it on the other side of the table.

I have mixed feelings about Lone Wolf. I think I need more practice with it to know when to maintain formation and how to use it with a flanker. If anyone has suggestions on how to best use it, please share.

I managed to stay out of Mara Jade's influence for much of the match. Dauntless was never an issue. Likewise, Ruthlessness never activated once. However, this forced me to separate my forces. I wonder if the extra turns of focus fire would have outweighed the potential damage inflicted by Ruthless and/or Dauntless.

Ysanne Isard was clutch in this match, reducing most attacks to only dealing one or two damage.

With so much hull on the opponent's Squad, the "Mangler" Cannons were great. I would like to try this Squad again.

Adding the Debris Fields for destroyed ships was a fun house rule, and I plan to due so in future matches.