On 4/25 I attended my first of hopefully plenty Tournaments. I would like to thank Gerry for running the event and Gamer's Gambit in Danbury CT for hosting the event. It was 180pts. There were 3 Imperial Players and 2 Rebel Players.

My List:

Vic2

*Tarkin

*Wulfy
*Dominator

4x Generic TIEs

Put me at 174pts

My Scenarios Were Most Wanted, Contested Outpost, Minefields.

Plan was to first turn get an engineering and concentrated firepower token and then after that all engineering all the time (especially in the mirror match). For rebels I would just build up various tokens.

Round 1: FIGHT!

I get paired against Steven (or Stephen) playing a Imperial TIEs + Howlrunner Tactic. I am lowest on points and chose to be first player. He also has Contested Outpost and I have Dominator which he does not so I pick that. We deploy all the obstructions and he deploys the outpost very close to his deployment on the far flank. I deploy gunning right for the objective thinking with Initiative and speed 2 I may be able to jam him off with my ship (I was wrong). Instead we joust. Dominator Title and some hot dice proves too much for his shields and in Turn 5 his Star Destroyer becomes a debris field. I had no shields and maybe 3 or 4 hull points left. It was a very close game that I was lucky to get out of alive.

Event Round 2: Imperial Boo-ga-lou

I get paired up against the other Imperial player and my friend Pat. Pat and I just the day before were discussing 180pt Imperial builds and tactics so to say I was nervous was an understatement. Pat's fleet consisted of a Vic1, Tarkin, Wulfy, Gunnery Team, Enhanced Armaments, and some TIEs. His missions were Advanced Gunnery (NOPE), Fleet Ambush, and Minefields. As first player due to undercutting my points, I went with Minefields. I had to eat a mine turn 1 but after that was able to repair and begin the joust. This game came down to my blue dice attacks instead of black dice to get some early attacking in. Also as we started to joust pat banked instead of ramming and that took me out of his Front Firing Zone but kept him in my front and sides. Thanks to initiative on round 6 his Star Destroyer become a debris field and I limped off the table with 1 hull point (that was close).

Round 3: No Pressure, JK here's all the pressure.

Before I start, my goal on the day was to win a dice bag and token set and maybe a VSD card. Having 20 Tournament points going into round 3 was a good start but I was no way in the clear.

I fight Gerry and his Rebels. Gerry has 2 Nebs and a Corvette. His missions were Advanced Gunnery, and that's all I needed to see. Deploy the space station at band 3, and deploy my VSD at spd 1 with the back of my base touching my table edge. Gerry deploys his fleet to my starboard, and i deploy TIEs to the port side, know if he kills my ties and runs away I will lose. This forces him to come after my VSD which is what I wanted. Round 1 I drop to speed 0 and move my TIEs further away but also up the table in case Gerry cuts across the middle. Our fleets engage in round 3, Due to some good dice, I drop his objective ship to 1 hull pointt and no shields, but mismanage my TIEs to try to finish him off. He lowers my shields pretty substantially, making me discard my brace token for the game (ouch). Turn 4 I Dominator my front firing solution into his unharmed Nebula, we are at close range, I get 2 accuracy, get rid of his braced, and one shot the ship. My port broadside kills his objective ship. hes down 2 ships and I have half a Star Destroyer left. His Corvette comes up hammers me, I am able to survive barely due to the constant engineering tokens and dials being spent. Turn 5 I have initiative, I have engineering dial and token, I decide to recover 3 shields instead of 2 damage cards. I have the Corvette in my Front and Side firing zones, both targeting his side zone. I Dominator the Front, no accuracy he braces and loses the shield and takes 2 damage. My side goes, I Dominator my last shield for 2 red and 2 blue, and land an accuracy and 1 damage. Gerry is relieved to have 1 health left when I have no more shields and 3 hullpoints left, horror set in when I started to move my ship as it was impossible to not ram him.

The event ends, and I have scored 30 to, I was more excited than a kid on Christmas to get my VSD card and Medal. I did better than I expected which always feels good.

Some quick Tech:

Command Dials were always Concentrated, Engineering till the end. The only time I broke this was round 2, Turn 4, I went for firepower to try and match the Vic1s damage output. I think this is what eventually saved me, but risk favors the bold.

The 0 Speed strategy works simply because the engagement time of the game is only 3-4 rounds instead of 5. This favors the Imperial player as you can potentially destroy a ship or 2 and then survive long enough to win. Not my original idea but something I put in my playbook if I needed. I suggest everyone try it and try playing against it at least at 180.

Post event thoughts. At 180, the Imperial players biggest weakness is his TIEs. I felt that if Gerry split his fleet and killed my ties their is a chance I get stuck chasing him around the table while he is up 8-32 pts due to my fighters. Gerry and I talked and he agreed that its a potentially good way to counter the Imperial super defense strategy at 180.

I also suggest a fairly good sized D6 for tracking rounds, or if fleet points are the same. I also use privateerpress base hugger wound trackers for my squadrons. It keeps me from touching models, during the game (huge pet peeve) and also lets me mark my squadrons locations accurately to move them for the maneuver tool. As a longtime Warmachine/Hordes player precision is important to me personally although I know its not the emphasis.

Thank you all for reading, I am hoping more people post battle reports so that others can read them and learn new things.

-Bergz (now an Admiral)

Congrats on your win!

One question: were you using your defense tokens at speed 0? I thought you couldn't use tokens at speed 0.

No, but since I was at speed 3, with my rear hull basing the table edge, it takes 3-4 turns just for the rebel player to get you in range. With pre-measuring you know what this will happen and can Tarkin Token a naviagate to increase speed before being shot. A big part of the strat is under spending to make sure you are first player. rebel ships usually will not have enough guns to bear down to kill you in 3 rounds of shooting, and the VSD with Dominator can pretty easily one shot a ship if you get the proper rolls.

What if your opponent decides to just not engage, and take a 5-5 draw?

That build looks familiar....

Congrats on the win. One bit of advice though, consider changing out Most Wanted for Advanced Gunnery. Most Wanted gives an extra dice to ALL attackers, so squadrons get an extra dice too. This makes those scary X-Wings even scarier and TIE fighters something you actually have to pay attention to.

Also, I'd drop Wulf, since with Tarkin he's sort of unneeded. Try the H-9 turbos, then switch to the X-17's once they are released. They've been doing excellent in my 300 proxy games.

That build looks familiar....

Congrats on the win. One bit of advice though, consider changing out Most Wanted for Advanced Gunnery. Most Wanted gives an extra dice to ALL attackers, so squadrons get an extra dice too. This makes those scary X-Wings even scarier and TIE fighters something you actually have to pay attention to.

Also, I'd drop Wulf, since with Tarkin he's sort of unneeded. Try the H-9 turbos, then switch to the X-17's once they are released. They've been doing excellent in my 300 proxy games.

Ya I will swap my scenarios around and I am defiantly dropping Wulfy for the H-9s. that auto accuracy is a big deal when you may only get 1 chance at popping a ship.

What if your opponent decides to just not engage, and take a 5-5 draw?

I don't think it crossed their minds. the imperial vs imperial match ups were so close by the end that I will fully admit it came down to dice most of the time. My round 1 opponent not having dominator helped me gain the initial advantage, and my round 2 opponent banked a bit early and I won that game with 1 HP. if he just rams me, he would probably win.