Yesterday we had a small local spring kit tournament. Rounds were 75mins. I really wanted to use Tycho in my list for the tourney as he was the alternate art card you could win.

My list was:

Tycho + Push the Limit + Daredevil + Experimental Interface + Proton Rockets + Title
Han + Predator + Gunner + C3PO + Engine +Title

I brought the biggest asteroid and the 2 biggest debris fields.

Before the tournament my confidence in the list was pretty low…I’ve only flow Psycho Tycho a couple times on Vassal and once on the table. He is also a 38pt ship with 2ATK dice and 4HP…He is probably the most fun ship to fly in the game, but it’s hard to justify the points on him. I knew I would have challenges facing a higher PS arc dodger and some high HP high attack squads.

First Match:

Opponent’s List:
Blue Squadron B-Wing
Blue Squadron B-Wing
Blue Squadron B-Wing
Blue Squadron B-Wing
Bandit Z-95

My opponent actually won a tournament the previous day with this exact list. Also, even though this list seems to be prevalent in the Meta, I have never faced it before. I knew it would be an uphill battle (14atk dice and 36hp vs. 5atk dice and 17hp). Initiative didn’t really matter. I can’t remember who took it. For asteroid placement my goal was to create a dense field somewhere in the middle. We place asteroids closer to my end of the board. He set up his formation in one corner and I choose to set up right across for a joust. I then 1 turned both Tycho and Han along my board edge to tuck them in behind the asteroid field and hope to draw the Bees towards the asteroid field. I had Tycho do 1 turns then daredevil along the boardedge with Han doing 1 forwards, both ready to react if the bees made a commitment to come after a certain ship. This lasted for about 3 turns before we started shooting at each other. The Z-95 went down first. Then one by one the Bees started dropping as they got tangled in the asteroid field. The game finished with one B-wing left and both of my ships still on the board with no hull damage.

Some notes from this game are that Tycho LOVES debris and Daredevil being a maneuver is AMAZING. Tycho can use daredevil to move onto or through a Debris field and can use Daredevil to bump into a ship to deny shots. At one point in the game my opponent made the perfect read on what Tycho was going to do. I 2 Turned Tycho to face three Bees at Range 1, two had Target Locks. I ended up using Daredevil to move onto a debris field and bumping one of the three Bees then turtling up. He only ended up having 1 unmodified shot on Tycho.

100-22

Second Match:

Opponent’s List:
Rexler + HLC + Predator + Stealth?
Soontir + PTL + Shield
Dark Curse

My opponent had initiative. We set up the asteroid field in the center of the board. I tried to get is as densly packed as possible. We deployed in opposite corners. I knew Soontir would be a problem for Tycho so I tried to generally keep Han within close distance to Tycho to act as a deterrent/bodyguard against Soontir. Tycho also has the ability to outmaneuver Soontir even with his lower pilot skill, especially in close quarters due to 1 turns and daredevil. The first shots were fired with most ships in or around the asteroid field. Predator and Gunner on Han was extremely useful to clear tokens from both Rexler and Soontir and get some hits through. Soontir took a damaged engine crit from Han. Rexler was the first ship to get destroyed, and then Tycho finished Soontir off with a Proton Rocket. Dark curse lasted another few rounds before being destroyed. Tycho and Han were still on the board with no damage to hull.

100-0

Third Match:

Opponents List:
Blue Squadron B-Wing
Blue Squadron B-Wing
Blue Squadron B-Wing
Blue Squadron B-Wing
Bandit Z-95

This was a different opponent then from the first round. The set up and opening was similar though. This opponent was much more aggressive so we ended up engaging much quicker. The result was the same dragging the Bees through the asteroids and one by one picking them off. I ended up destroying his whole squad. Han and Tycho were still on the board with no hull damage.

100-0

Some notes:

The squad was really fun to play. It’s a hit and run squad. You run/minimize shots on the ship your opponent is focusing on and hit with the other. If they split their forces then you are in a very good spot as both pilots can handle themselves very well. My opponents got very few shots off. I also saved the Proton Rocket until I had a TL+F shot. I got 14 hits/crits out of 15 dice in the tournament, that’s definitely a good boost to Tycho’s offense…if only he could carry 2...It was a very fun squad and a fun tournament. It’s always good when you don’t have to reach for your damage deck...

Interesting. I love Psycho Tycho too, but have always struggled to find a good list for him. The nice thing about him costing 38 pts, is that's the same value as Lone Luke (LW, R2-D2 & engine) which I was planning on pairing with Han at some point. So perhaps I'll sub in Tycho and see how the two compare as wingmates for the falcon...

I would hands down pick Tycho over Luke everytime. I would think Luke with the x-wing dial would get focused down a lot more easily, especially vs 4B1Z...this is just speculation on my part as I have never tried Luke with Han...I've flown against it with different lists and found Luke to be somewhat squishy in a 2 ship build.

I brought the biggest asteroid and the 2 biggest debris fields.

Is this okay to do? Or is that considering game abuse/not in the spirit? Just asking as it is like any other wargame; picking advantageous terrain isn't illegal, but it is a massively **** move.

I brought the biggest asteroid and the 2 biggest debris fields.

Is this okay to do? Or is that considering game abuse/not in the spirit? Just asking as it is like any other wargame; picking advantageous terrain isn't illegal, but it is a massively **** move.

Sure its okay. I don't think its a jerk thing to do per se. Against some lists, the biggest asteroid/debris might be a hindrance, for example, swarms won't like it. However, this is part of the game balance---without sizeable obstacles, low ship count lists will really struggle against a swarm. Other types of lists won't care which obstacles the opponent brings, so its a non-issue. Also, all players need to learn how to move around them without letting them negatively impact their list's performance, so in a way, seeing the bigger obstacles on a regular basis is only going to help players learn how to better navigate around obstacles. Well in theory anyway.

This is a fantastic list actually especially for MOV. Tycho is **** near unkillable and Fat Han is, well, Fat Han.

Did you struggle to put damage down on Soontir and Rexler?

I've been trying to convince a friend to run this list, I'm gonna forward him this so he has no choice but to appreciate it's usability! Haha.

I brought the biggest asteroid and the 2 biggest debris fields.

Is this okay to do? Or is that considering game abuse/not in the spirit? Just asking as it is like any other wargame; picking advantageous terrain isn't illegal, but it is a massively **** move.

Sure its okay. I don't think its a jerk thing to do per se. Against some lists, the biggest asteroid/debris might be a hindrance, for example, swarms won't like it. However, this is part of the game balance---without sizeable obstacles, low ship count lists will really struggle against a swarm. Other types of lists won't care which obstacles the opponent brings, so its a non-issue. Also, all players need to learn how to move around them without letting them negatively impact their list's performance, so in a way, seeing the bigger obstacles on a regular basis is only going to help players learn how to better navigate around obstacles. Well in theory anyway.

Yeah, I get that. However what are the tourney rules on that? Can you mix and match terrain, or is it a set, certain amount?

The last FFG update to the tournament rules covered debris use in tournaments. It's on page 2. Everyone picks 3 unique tokens from 6 asteroids and 6 debris fields to use in every match (Obstacle list building). So your 3 tokens and the opponents 3 tokens make up the asteroid/debris "pool" for the match. Your 3 tokens must be unique, but your opponents 3 could actually match yours. So a swarm player would probably bring the 3 smaller asteroids. A Dash player might bring all debris...etc.

Damage on Rexler and Soontir was not really a problem. There were a couple rounds where they negated all my attacks but they can't hold out forever. Han with Predator and Gunner (+ focus sometimes) can usually burn a token or two from Soontir/Rex or get some damage through. Tycho would generally get range 1 shots (about 50% of his shots were range 1) with at least a focus or target lock...Sometimes both. 3 dice with F+TL is pretty close to a 4 dice atk with one modifier. The proton rocket also helps versus high agility targets.

I was more worried about putting damage on the 4B1Z lists as they have so much health. It's also hard to focus down one of them, as you have to play very cautiously (at least with Tycho) until you get them down to 3 ships. If you lose Tycho you are down 38pts...their Z + B is only 34pts so you would lose that match if it went to time.

Most of the time I opted to fly Tycho out of range/arc (possibly giving up any shots) instead of turtling. I don't think he can tank as well as Soontir or a cloaked Whisper. Over the course of the 3 games, Tycho probably took 5 shields damage in total and at least 2 of those times it was because I rolled crits going through debris fields. Han took 12 shields damage over those 3 games as well. I tried to minimize the shots coming my way as much as possible, using Tycho as bait.

Thanks for clarification. Not as open to abuse as first thought. My assumption, incorrectly, was that someone brings the terrain. If it is three per side, that is a **** sight better.