So with 1 month left until my regionals event I've kicked my practice up into high gear, playing 2-3 vassal games a day and Saturday afternoons and evenings at my LGS and I've become much more comfortable with estimating maneuver distance and ship prediction. This is going to be a collection of my best (and maybe worst
) fights from this month all the way up until June 13th. (Raleigh Regional) I'll also include my thoughts on the variation of the list I'm running and what I would have changed.
May 16.
My List:
Corran Horn - Expose, FCS, R2-D2, Shield Upgrade
3x Prototype Pilot - Chardaan Refit, Autothrusters
I'm liking this list a lot. Some of you that I've had PM discussions with know I love my interceptors to death, but expecting to see a lot of crew Vader this event I defected to pick up some shields on my fighters. Now Buzz-Saw Corran...WOW this guy throws out damage. He is tanky enough to joust with, can dodge decently, but that double tap...especially on a turn I expose is absolutely murderous against big ships. Now 49 of my squad points invested in a 6 total HP ship IS risky, I don't deny that, however the 3 Prototypes block extremely well for Corran, and unmodified red dice against 3 agility is a long shot at best.
His List:
Leebo - Ion Cannon, Outrider...hull?
Chewie - HLC, Gunner, Falcon, C-3PO
Alright, new list vs. 2 turrets, bring it.
I know that he's going to want to do laps around the board so I spread my obstacles out evenly, he does the same.
I set 2 A-Wings on my left flank, and 1 offset to the right of center. He responds with Chewie opposite the 2 A's and Leebo opposite the lone A. Corran goes in the middle.
Turn 1. The As on the left shot forward 5 and evaded, the A on the left banked 3 towards my right edge and boosted left to get back on a straight line. Chewie banked 3 to my left (his right) table edge, Leebo moved forward 4 (I think?) Corran moved a little slower, only advancing 2 straight.
Turn 2. The left flank A's both banked towards Chewie, I knew he had to turn to his left to keep from going off the table, so I boosted 1 A forward to block and my second one focused. Anticipating Leebo my right A did a hard 3 towards the middle of the table and focused. Corran did a 1 bank towards the right edge and his front corner landed a millimeter (I kid you not, I measured this crap) on a debris cloud. Chewie bumped the left A, Leebo came forward as expected. Corran didn't have arc on anyone, Leebo Ion'd Corran and took a shield off him, Chewie missed his shots. The left A that wasn't bumping put 3 hits into Chewie but he C-3PO guessed 1 and got it, so only 1 shield off the wookie. The right A took a shield off of Leebo.
Turn 3. The As on the left turned hard 2 towards the middle of the board, and boosted to begin looping around behind Chewie. The right A did a hard 1 left to point to my starting edge, predicting Leebo again. Chewie flew an easy 3 to line up with the left board edge, Leebo moved forward again. Corran was Ion'd over the debris so he got double stressed
Not much combat happened, another shield got taken off of Chewie and Leebo, Corran got Ion'd again over the debris but I could see he would be clear next turn.
Turns 4-6. A lot of positioning happened here, the 2 As on the left navigated the rocks to keep herding Chewie towards my table edge, Autothrusters did work here, he only took 1 shield over 2-3 rounds of shooting with a focus. Corran got off the debris and had to spend 2 turns doing greens to get his stress off. I think I took another shield off Leebo and Chewie during this time.
Turn 7. Leebo had done a K 4 around turn 5 and was moving back towards his board edge, right into Corran who had just shaken his last stress and circled an asteroid to come back at full shields, guns blazing. The A wing that started on the right was also chasing Leebo, who was on just hull at this point. The A wins that started left were the MVPs here, they kept blocking Chewie from turning in to help Leebo kill Corran and herded him around the board edge, pecking at him 1 shield at a time. Corran came around the rock with a vengeance. He used Expose on Leebo and rolled 5 dice at range 1, rolling a crit and 2 hits. 1 hit got dodged but the second and the crit went through, the crit was a direct hit. Leebo shot back but had no tokens, he had spent his focus evading and the poor guy rolled 3 focus on his red dice. The A-Wing behind him took 1 more hull, and Corran double tapped for the kill.
Turn 8. All focus on the wookie now. The As kept forcing him into places he did not want to be, Corran flew an easy 3 towards Chewie and TL'd in preparation. Out of nowhere Chewie caught 1 A in his primary arc at range 2, a rock was in the way but my 4 dice blanked, yikes, dead A wing.
Turn 9-10. More of the same, more denial on Chewie than on Egypt during the flood season. Corran got to range 1 and Exposed, and you can't survive 10 TL'd red dice with 1 agility in 1 turn...boom!
Overall I was extremely happy with how well I flew, the 34 points of A-wing on the left flank kept half of his squad out of the game while the majority of mine could focus down Leebo. I think the game would have been over much quicker had Corran not hit the debris turn 2 and been able to dodge that Ion shot. Autothrusters were also excellent here, I re-read the FAQ to realized that turrets do not have a 360 degree primary arc, even though their primary weapon has a 360 degree fire arc. So I'd been thinking autothrusters were crap because they only worked at range 3. LOL. A free dodge almost every time I defended was great. Although Expose is fun, it might be a little overkill on Corran, I'll play around with other EPTs
I doubt I'll do reports for my vassal games, so more to come next weekend!
// Shirako