Having been a part of the community for some time now and getting out to a few regionals already, I've decided to pull from my experiences and track my progress along with the community as Nationals creeps ever closer.

I've been a part of 2 Regionals already this season and I have 2 more I plan on attending. So far my results have been along the lines of "Close, but no cigar!" I started doing the math on the swiss results of Nationals and what it would take to be the top dog, or even pretty close, and the results were very tight. I am uncertain if they are doing 8, 7 or 6 rounds, but the math is pretty similar between them. Suffice it to say, for the sake of simplicity, you need at least 5 wins to make the cut for Day 2.

That screams one thing over and over: Consistency.

Up until now, since the day Scum launched, I've been running a "Wild Card" list, IG-88 with Kath or Fett. The list has evolved a lot over time and won a fair number of tournaments for me and even earned me that sweet Regionals Bye. Now, after months of playing nothing else, I've come to appreciate the nature of a "Wild Card" list. The old saying "Can't Win Them All," has never been more true. Sometimes the list does spectacularly well, and other times it just chugs out and falls flat.

For reference, this is the list I ran at WV Regionals:

IG-88B: Predator, Adv Sensors, HLC, Autothrusters (51)

Kath: Lone Wolf, Ion Cannon, Recon Specialist, Inertial Dampeners, Engine Upgrade (49)

I went 4/2 with this list and I considered the day, overall, fairly successful but not quite the level I wanted. I had a plan for most encounters, particularly 4BZ, previously my most difficult match up. It wasn't too different from my list for the Stele Open, but facing Ron Brannon's 4BZ in the Semi-Finals made it painfully apparent that I did not have a good answer for 4BZ, hence the inclusion of the Ion Cannon, which served me well

In the time between the WV and NJ regionals, I thought a lot about how to go about improving my list and experimenting with a few options without cutting too much or adding a brand new element (such as Expert Handling) without time to practice. That led me to the following list that I ended up running for NJ Regionals:

IG-88B: Predator, Adv Sensors, HLC, Autothrusters, Inertial Dampeners (52)

Boba Fett: Vet Instincts, Ion Cannon, Rec Spec, Inertial Dampeners (47)

I went 2/3 this time. It was, frankly, rather frustrating. I wasn't the only one who experienced similar luck that day, and I wish I could blame some big flub in the list. Unfortunately, it really came down to my overall gameplan against a particular list (that I faced twice in a row) being very bone-headed in hindsight. I am confident that, had I make the correct decision at the start of the match, I would have likely won. More on that later (when I have a bit of time, I will run through all three major events I've attended over the past month or two, Stele, WV and NJ).

I'm writing mostly on my lunch break, but I'll have a lot more to offer up shortly.

What was the list that gave you trouble in NJ?

I've only got one Regional in a 3 hour radius that I can attend. Beyond that is too much for this family guy. How far are you willing to travel? I'm just curious.

I did well in a Spring Tournament this past weekend with Xizor and 5 Z's. It did wonders vs. YT's, but still haven't beaten bro bots with them. I also didn't play any of the Soontir / Deci lists. It's hard to figure out a list that can beat most of them.

I went 2/3 this time. It was, frankly, rather frustrating. I wasn't the only one who experienced similar luck that day, and I wish I could blame some big flub in the list. Unfortunately, it really came down to my overall gameplan against a particular list (that I faced twice in a row) being very bone-headed in hindsight. I am confident that, had I make the correct decision at the start of the match, I would have likely won. More on that later (when I have a bit of time, I will run through all three major events I've attended over the past month or two, Stele, WV and NJ).

I'm writing mostly on my lunch break, but I'll have a lot more to offer up shortly.

Very curious about this part, always feel that the losses are more instructive than the wins.

What was the list that gave you trouble in NJ?

A list that I should have had no trouble against, Whisper/Decimator. The Decimator was Oicunn in one match and Chirpy in the other, both kitted out with Rebel Captive and Vader, plus extras, and then both ran identical Buzzsaw Whispers. Over time, I've learned that you need to focus on one or the other, but which on you go after is dependent on your list. I am not sure what I was thinking, but in the previous round I had blown Whisper off the map in one shot, so I felt good about repeating that glory. So, of course, I make a mad dash towards whisper as she zoomed down the side of the board and basically ignored the Decimator. I've had matches where Fett dies immediately and Iggy successfully solo'd down two full health decimators without issue, so I felt good about having only the decimator to deal with.

That was a huge mistake. Chirpy took pot shots, miss, vader'd and started dealing crits to both of my crit-sensitive ships as I just kept trying to lay in damage on whisper. Fett dropped pretty quick. Once Iggy lost his shields, I realized that the decimator never actually had to hit me again to win, just Vader over and over. Frustrated, and with whisper down to 1 hull, I kept firing at whisper, not wanting to take on the stress from Chirpy's rebel captive. Predictably, I lost.

Then, I faced the same match. I thought my problem had been going so aggressively after whisper and getting out of position, so I played more cautiously, but I still went after whisper. This time, things went even worse. Long story short, I dealt one damage to the decimator, and hyperfocused on whisper again, and then recieved the wrath of vader SEVEN times. Yep. I was so tunnel visioned on whisper that he got vader off seven times and survived.

Had I followed my practice and really taken a step back, I may have actually come out on top. I should have focused on the decimator in each game. I know I can take it out in 2-3 turns at most, and either of my ships from that point are more than capable of taking Whisper head on. I went into the match confident, but misguided by my previous success against whisper. I played a few practice games after the fact against the same list, focusing down the decimator instead. It was a pretty easy win when I had my priorities straight. It's definitely unpleasant when you lose and it was entirely your fault. No luck involved there, I straight up made a bad call, twice. But hey, at least I stuck to my plan all the way through. I just need to make sure it's the RIGHT plan next time.

I've only got one Regional in a 3 hour radius that I can attend. Beyond that is too much for this family guy. How far are you willing to travel? I'm just curious.

I did well in a Spring Tournament this past weekend with Xizor and 5 Z's. It did wonders vs. YT's, but still haven't beaten bro bots with them. I also didn't play any of the Soontir / Deci lists. It's hard to figure out a list that can beat most of them.

Traveling to Boston is going to be a 5-6 hour drive for me, and nationals is going to be closer to 9 hours. I've got my plan lined up to get my tickets to worlds, and that's going to be a flight for me! For store championships, I've driven up to 3 hours, hitting 11 SC's this past season, though most of them were within an 1.5 hour drive, and one of them I took a train to attend in Manhattan.

I went 2/3 this time. It was, frankly, rather frustrating. I wasn't the only one who experienced similar luck that day, and I wish I could blame some big flub in the list. Unfortunately, it really came down to my overall gameplan against a particular list (that I faced twice in a row) being very bone-headed in hindsight. I am confident that, had I make the correct decision at the start of the match, I would have likely won. More on that later (when I have a bit of time, I will run through all three major events I've attended over the past month or two, Stele, WV and NJ).

I'm writing mostly on my lunch break, but I'll have a lot more to offer up shortly.

Very curious about this part, always feel that the losses are more instructive than the wins.

I went over it above but yeah, I absolutely agree. In fact, today I told one of my buddies "If I am winning my practice games, I am doing it wrong." Sometimes dice matter, but I find that no amount of dice will save you from a bad call. That's not 100% true though, if you watched my game vs Ron Brannon at Stele, you'll see me land Iggy on a rock range 2 from 4 B-wings and I had forgotten to advanced-sensors. In a fit of perfect dice and sheer defiance, I only lost two shields that round.

I went on to die horribly in the following rounds, however. The amount I learned from losing that match against a top notch 4BZ player was outstanding, and I was thrilled with the match even immediately after losing. I still think fondly of that match.

Why do you think Whisper/Chira is a list you shouldn't have trouble with? You can't guarantee initiative with Boba and the IG doesn't have FCS to guarantee damage on Whisper.

When fighting Deci/Fel/Whisper I always angle my large ships to crash into the Decimator to deny him shots. Since you have actionless mods you should be okay in general ( overall Boba crashing is better since IG has AT to deal with it. ) But take the shots on the Decimator when you can.

I am glad you asked. The thing is, with VI, Boba did have an edge on whisper, but I found it pretty meaningless when rolling just 3 dice with no passive boba rerolls. Iggy, on the other hand, is key. With predator, focus and his gunner ability, it's not hard to roll 4 hits on a majority of shots. It's a big reason I like ADV sensors over FCS, though I'll be the first to admit that FCS does improve the average. 4 hits is still 4 hits. And with gunner, whisper generally gladly takes one hit each time I shoot to avoid the wrath of a second shot.

So let's play by play this. If I decide to go after the decimator first as it meanders into combat, I have to approach smartly. Iggy needs to be on the inside of the field while boba lines up with the decimators likely path, ideally cutting off edge-hugging Whispers access to Iggy. You'll lead in with Iggy by a rangeband closer than Fett and focus on keeping autothrusters active. Three dice against Iggy with focus and thrusters is pretty trivial, but all those shots going into boba , who will be taking damage from Whisper, can blow him off the board in about 2-3 rounds.

Focusing fire on the decimator with both ships and we are looking at averaging 5-6 damage every round, so you can reasonably table it in 3 rounds while also making vader look much less appealing in the process. This is enough time for them to kill Fett, but with focus fire, the decimator should generally die first, then Fett in the following combat.

So now we have Iggy vs Whisper. This is a match up that really plays into Iggys favor if done carefully. If Iggy can arc dodge whisper, whisker cannot recloaked without spending an action, which means no tokens. Whispers primary weakness is that she has a very hard time turning around, and one thing Iggy is very profient at is getting behind things. A sloop can be heavily adjusted with an adv sensor boost to accomdate just about any decloak that whisper makes , her dial itself is very predictable. You don't need many shots on her to take her out , you just need to find ways to avoid taking return fire.

Take these three options. Whisper is facing you, cloaked, range 2 infront of you. You can't know which way she will decloak before setting in your dial. You punch in a 4k and wait. She can decloak left, right. Straight, or not at all. Once she chooses, you can boost left or right before the K to get behind her. If she goes straight, you can focus then 4k.

Her FCS is only good if she can actually fire at you, and Iggy does not have much problem making that a challenge. By the time she course corrects, you can bug out with any green and be ready to sloop again before she can make another attempt at you. If she ever 3ks, and fails to kill you with that shot , you have basically won. You only need to do 4 damage, so she can only turn off gunner 3 times before it catches up to her. Both ships are throwing 4 dice with different modifiers, you have one less agility, double the health , and a much better dial. In a straight joust, whisper will just blow Iggy up. But Iggy didn't want to joust her anyway.

So long as you drop the decimator while Iggy still had any amount of shield left, you have a really great shot at taking out whisper.

It goes back to a concept that I am working on that works to explain the value of a ships dial over the long term game.

So, after the most recent Regionals, I made a tough call. I've been running Kath or Fett with IG-88 since March 15, where I ran it for the first time and won a Store Championship, going 8 rounds and never losing a ship the entire day. Heck, most matches I barely lost shields. I was in love, my friends. I ran the duo exclusively for months, going to every tournament I could reach. I placed 1st at PhillyGamesCon, 1st at several local tournaments, 6th at Stele Open, and so on. In the WV Regionals, I went 4/2, taking 20th overall. I was on a crazy hot streak for months. Over time I tweaked the list, sometimes Fett, sometimes Kath. I very rarely tweaked Iggy once I settled in on his build pretty early on. Over time, however, I became more and more aware of the weaknesses of the list.

Even as I tried to compensate, trends started to emerge and I realized, slowly, half of the list was lagging behind in many match ups. The Firespray was often the first to die, and it would die early, brutally, and painfully. This was greatly highlighted in one match at the Stele Open, round 4 I believe. I faced off against Kris S. of NOVA Squadron. Hm, hey look, a BATTLE REPORT:

I had Kath-88, Kath bringing some stress dealing goodies to bare. I faced a double decimator list. I forget which two off the top of my head, it may have been Chirpy and Oicunn. Chirpy had rebel captive, at least. Given the power behind putting a stress on Iggy, I decided right away that he Chirpy was going to have to die second.

As Kris brought the decimators in line and started what I still call the "falcon run" along the side of the board, I moved Kath and Iggy up the middle, then turned in to meet the decimators from a position where I could follow them. Iggy and Kath both got a shot off on Oicunn, not quite stripping the shield, but both of the decimators decided to focus on Kath, who had come in a bit too close. Chirpy stripped her shields entirely, and Oicunn landed 4 more hits. The next round, chirpy opened up on Kath and killed her before she ever got a second shot.

It was IG-88 B versus two decimators now; Oicunn had one shield left, Chirpy was completely untouched. I knew I had to play it carefully. It seemed odd to me that I had lost half my list and still felt good about my chances, but I did, I knew exactly what to do.

Moving before Chirpy and after Oicunn was a huge help. I was a bit close for comfort, but I knew I needed shots every turn and had to minimize return fire. I took a hard turn in, ending up where Oicunn had been sitting before he moved and forcing Chirpy to hit me. Oicunn had moved just out of range 1, which meant as far as I was concerned, I was immune to his attacks. He tossed 3 dice my way and I casually evaded them between the autothrusters, natural evades and the focus. I made sure to hold onto my focus for defense, I had to play the long game here. I landed 4 damage on Oicunn and repeated this movement cycle to keep chirpy out of the fight and Oicunn in my sights. Adv S Focus was absolutely key. Iggy B was down to 1 shield left when Oicunn finally dropped. I sighed in relief, but I knew that the hardest part was yet to come.

Chirpy was still undamaged and would be moving after me. Worse, he had rebel captive on him, which would go a long way towards making my life very difficult.

Knowing I had one turn of being stress free, I needed to put some space between me and Chirpy. If I did a sloop or k turn, I would just end up double stressed and end up too close to him with no recourse, so I bit the bullet and did a 3 bank away, into the asteroid field, and then boosted to put a bit more distance out. As expected, he was able to fire at me from range 2 while I had no focus and with just auto-thrusters, he landed another hit.

I then focused and slooped, grateful that he didn't have engine upgrade. At range 3 now, I was able to take a shot at him and eat the double stress, but I would be able to close in and clear that stress to get myself behind him while I cleared stress over the next two turns, and I did exactly that. However, he instead barreled towards me, closing the distance fast. I had to clear the stress in a hurry and he took more shots at me, stripping off the last of my shields and dealing a damage card.

This is bad, I thought to myself. Chirpy only had one damage card on him and we were now in close proximity. I had to carefully leverage my shots to make sure I took stress only when I could get away with it. As I cleared the last stress, I intentionally veered in front of him, forcing him to hit me. Knowing I could advance sensors freely now, I took a hard 1 away from him and forced him to hit me a gain, this time with a target lock on him. Then, I advanced sensor focused and slooped away as he turned hard to get away from the bump. He wound up at range 3, perfect! I took my shot and landed 4 more hits, rerolling one of them into a crit with predator, dropping his Pilot Skill to 0. He fired at me, but with my focus and thrusters at range 3, it was easily ignored. He turned hard to try to reengage me, but I moved slow to clear stress and we were out of range.

Then he came in hard again to get closer to me as I cleared stress. I focused and fired, scoring another 4 hits while taking only 1 in return. At PS0, I had free double rerolls with predator. We exchanged fire again, I took another hit, down to two hull, and he was reduced to one as well. The next round sealed the deal as Iggy B landed 4 more hits, destroying Chirpy entirely.

----

I had many matches like this over time, WV and NJ regionals were no exception. Whatever the reason, either Fett wasn't cutting it or I was just plain better with Iggy, I had to make that tough call I mentioned before. I found myself, after the NJ regional, saying to a friend "For all the work Iggy does and how fast the firespray dies, I might as well just play a 51 point Iggy list right from the start"

My buddy said the obvious thing, "Why not just run two of them?"

And, just like that, I knew I had to do it. So, I made the choice to retire the Firespray, ushering in a new era of Brobots. From here on, my focus is on the Brobots, making them better, stronger, more consistent. I see so many Brobots rocking out at tourneys only to fizzle out before the end. I intend to break that cycle. Iggy B will remain as he has been, my tried and true veteran of a thousand battles. At 51 points, I can't simply bring 2 of him, as much as I would love to. But, I have stumbled upon a second brobot build that suits my playstyle quite well... but I'll get to that soon. There were many more lessons learned about IG-88 and the Firespray that I have left to share from my previous events.

Traveling to Boston is going to be a 5-6 hour drive for me, and nationals is going to be closer to 9 hours. I've got my plan lined up to get my tickets to worlds, and that's going to be a flight for me! For store championships, I've driven up to 3 hours, hitting 11 SC's this past season, though most of them were within an 1.5 hour drive, and one of them I took a train to attend in Manhattan.

So, after the most recent Regionals, I made a tough call.

My buddy said the obvious thing, "Why not just run two of them?"

So, I made the choice to retire the Firespray, ushering in a new era of Brobots. From here on, my focus is on the Brobots, making them better, stronger, more consistent.

Lets make it BroBots vs BroBots on the Final Table on June 6th in Boston, and then finally Brobots will have another win.

That's the plan! I've heard that Brobots won at FFG's regionals this past weekend.

I've had to submit my list to the Boston Regionals. I suppose since everyone has to lockdown their list in advance, I can probably reveal it without much issue pretty soon here. I spent a lot of time experimenting with different Bro-bot builds and finally settled on one that suits my playstyle the best and makes the most use out of the points spent. There are some weaknesses, but they aren't the traditional brobot weaknesses, which is highly interesting.

Good or bad, it's locked in now. I did ultimately drop autothrusters on the support bot, however.

I did ultimately drop autothrusters on the support bot, however.

Ballsy move! Looking forward to reading you build.

Dropping AT?! Madness!! I like it. I'm guessing you have some interesting out of the box thinking and plans which I love to hear about! Can't wait to read your list and write up

I've played fett IGB for a while and funnily enough I did the opposite and now run 2 firesprays! I think it may be the playstyle because Fett always more than pulls his weight for me. I'm better with flying sprays I think. I will admit I miss having that sweet sweet ATmitigation. I may try going back to Fett and B. But for me im keeping Fett in as he more than pulls his weight and has been mvp for me

Alright guys, here's the list I submitted the other day.

IG-88 B: Predator, Advanced Sensors, HLC, Inertial Dampeners, Autothrusters

IG-88 C: Wingman, Advanced Sensors, HLC

Yep. That second Iggy is extremely bare-bones. At a glance, the list looks horrifying to fly with, and to be honest, it's really flying be the seat of its pants. Obviously, this duo won't be flying like your normal brobots by any means, but this list does bring a heck of a lot of pure "murder" to the table. By the same note, the opponent won't be sure what to expect, even if they know what brobots are usually capable of.

I weighed back and forth between Wingman with ID on the other, or using the 3 points on Predator for C. When I played Predator on C, the list flew fairly similarly to a normal ol' brobot build and had normal brobot problems, so I went with Wingman and ID.

If my theory on ships having a degree of "steam" that goes to determine their ability to maintain effectiveness in a long-term engagement has any merit, then this list should break the back many lists that rely on freedom of movement. After all, most ships have the ability to K-turn, but they are absolutely screwed if they have to K-turn, only for you to K-turn a second time. This list should be capable of putting out a huge amount of damage and it encourages shooting at C instead of B as soon as people realize there are no auto-thrusters.

However, the psychological effect of Autothrusters on players has been so strong that, even removing them, a majority (read: all so far) players have assumed that C still DOES have autothrusters and treat it like it does. Getting that free evade does help compensate somewhat for autothrusters, but obviously autothrusters is an excellent card.

Wingman does a metric crap-load for this list, and while it doesn't help C as much, C is the support iggy, the sacrificial lamb, the designated blocker, and a stress sink. It will gladly take rebel captive shots, block mara jades and generally throw itself in the line of fire to keep B pumping it's guns at full power and without remorse. It helps that C is also throwing 4 dice with focus, though without the reroll, he'll be using gunner more often or taking the odd target lock if he is in his 'fly away' turn with no shots one way or the other.

Whats more, Iggy B can sloop, stress free, boost then sloop, still likely stress free, or Dampeners, stress free, then boost-sloop after that, still stress free. Iggy C is, mean while, just boosting about staying in range 1 of iggy, doing formation sloops whenever he can. Keeping the two in range 1 of each other is surprisingly easy, actually, and is a big part of what makes this list so potent. And there is something horrifically daunting about two Iggies doing a formation sloop or k-turn and then see that one of them doesn't have stress.

You have to make choices about which Iggy you need to go for before you even set your dial or I set mine, and I can just... not sloop. Or sloop. Or ID and not move. No matter what I do, I have focus, a reroll (or 2), and 4 dice aimed at you. And maybe even 8 dice.

I went 4/2 at Boston. I'll go over my findings in detail when I get home. I stayed for the whole event and watched the brobot v brobot semi finals and the brobot vs RAC Fel finals closely. I did not get to play against MJ, though he beat up on some of my buddies. Out of the 3 Regionals I have been to this year, Boston has been the best experience.

Quick update, I have been practicing pretty non-stop since Boston. My standing record with brobots since day 1 is 58/6. I was 56/3 for quite a while, but I've resolved to seek out the best players I can find to up my game. I find myself scheduling playtime with the top players in our region and driving out 2 to 2.5 hours to get a game in with them. That successfully broke my win streak, which I am thankful for.

We tend to learn more and improve more from losses, so stepping up my sparring partners has been huge. I improved far more over those most recent 3 losses than I did across 20 wins.

I still use vassal mostly for fun games rather than competition. I can't think the same way when starting from the sides or top, it really throws off my flow. Vassal is still very good for practicing decision making, target priority, visualizing arcs and getting experience against a wider variety of lists. However, I am far more comfortable on the table.

I have a small tournament this weekend. Boston feels like it was a million years ago now. I've logged about 35 games with brobots since then (I was 22/1 just before going to Boston).

I've started running this list, it's pretty similar to before:

IG B: Predator, Adv S, Mangler, AT

IG C: Predator, Adv S, HLC, AT

Comes out to 99 points for the bid.

This list has still been successful, but my playtime with PTL resulted in some pretty sweet action economy, but it was much more devastating to me after taking on any other type of stress.

If I get any games in tonight, I'll try swapping both Predators for PTL. My tight-knit bump-friendly playstyle might serve PTL over predator. I tend to be quite aggressive, but I found myself saying "I miss predator" quite often. When I had shots without a TL, I really felt the pain of average dice.