Today i played two of them with HLC + PTL in a very causal game with a new player. I let him chose the Rebel ships he wanted to try and then quickly made two casual lists:

Rebels:

Luke + R2D2

Nera Dantels + 2xFletchette Torpedoes + FCS

X-Wing

A-Wing (Refit)

vs

Scum:

2x Tansarri + PTL + HLC

StarViper

N'Dru

Beeing a new player he could have played a little better in 2-3 Situations but overall he played pretty well for a starter. I won in the end but some rolls were pretty close calls.

He couldnt really focus the two M3s the way he flew so i had some time to see how they fly. I think they do have a nice maneauver selection (only the 1 straight is really missing) and they could make quite some use of PTL getting out of arc of the lesser enemy pilots especially in the late game.

Im aware of the situation that most more experienced players would have put a lot more efford to take them down early. However it was an interesting game and we both had fun.

From what they have done (and seeing how often you can roll only 1 hit with HLC even when you have a target lock) i still think 29 points are just too much for what the bring to the table. Its far too much of a risky bet that they can somehow survive. Especially because the list the Rebels had would never be taken in most game that arent at such a casual level.

Resmue:

The theory of having a squishy ship with cannos is nice but there are jsut too many ways to take them out (turrets, stress, blocking, ordnance weapons, focus fire). Pretty much everything but ignoring them works well vs them.

I still say that without cannons are nice, too.

I wonder if anyone has tried to pull an "A-Wing" swarm with em' and load a bunch of them out with Proton Rockets.

Could load out four Cartel Spacers with Prockets and a TPV with Prockets and your pick of a 1 or 2 point EPT.

I wonder if anyone has tried to pull an "A-Wing" swarm with em' and load a bunch of them out with Proton Rockets.

Could load out four Cartel Spacers with Prockets and a TPV with Prockets and your pick of a 1 or 2 point EPT.

Well, if you're going to Procket with them, you may as well go with A-Wings instead.

You can afford as many A-Wings, and they're more mobile and more survivable to boot.

Of course, that locks you in at PS 1 instead of PS 2, and is 5 points more expensive.

I wonder if anyone has tried to pull an "A-Wing" swarm with em' and load a bunch of them out with Proton Rockets.

Could load out four Cartel Spacers with Prockets and a TPV with Prockets and your pick of a 1 or 2 point EPT.

Well, if you're going to Procket with them, you may as well go with A-Wings instead.

You can afford as many A-Wings, and they're more mobile and more survivable to boot.

Of course, that locks you in at PS 1 instead of PS 2, and is 5 points more expensive.

Aye, I thought about that. I think being able to squeeze in the TPV with Squad Leader or Swarm Tactics could make it a tad more interesting... let you get those Prockets off sooner or throw out some extra actions.

But A-Wings are superior, not gonna argue that one.

I wonder if anyone has tried to pull an "A-Wing" swarm with em' and load a bunch of them out with Proton Rockets.

Could load out four Cartel Spacers with Prockets and a TPV with Prockets and your pick of a 1 or 2 point EPT.

Well, if you're going to Procket with them, you may as well go with A-Wings instead.

You can afford as many A-Wings, and they're more mobile and more survivable to boot.

Of course, that locks you in at PS 1 instead of PS 2, and is 5 points more expensive.

A-Wings with Proton Rockets are only more expensive than Scyks when comparing Prototypes to Cartels. If you are comparing TPVs to Green Squads they are the same price.

FWIW-

Ran three squads at a casual tournament today. For the record, the six M3-A (5 naked 14-pointers and Serrisu w/stealth and ion cannon) squad won 100-28. My opponent was running super-Boba with a bunch of stuff and two Y-Wings with nasty turret weapons. The four-ace A-wing squad got wiped off the table in 40 minutes (doom shuttle w/Vader, decimater ,and a BH).

I made some dumb mistakes with the A-wings, but the dice were cold for the Scum.

Not all bad.

Anyone tried them with Autoblasters?

Serissu w/ VI and Autoblaster Cannon sounds fun.

Well, I said I'd report back after the UK nationals with how I did.

Unfortunately, "not good at all" is the answer to that question. I came 113th. out of 114 that stayed the course.

Do I think that this means the M3-A is a terrible ship? not at all, but it did certainly highlight some of its problems. The calibre of player at nationals was high, and I really felt there were manoeuvres missing from the dial that I'd never really felt the need for before. Surprisingly it wasn't so much the one straights but the 3 sharps that I found myself wanting at times. even as red manoeuvres they would have been appreciated.

Using cartel spacers, the ship is a joust er. With HLC it's a long range glass cannon of a jouster, but given the number of dice it rolls, it needs the dice to roll hot every so often to give you a chance. Also, as a glass cannon you REALLY need those green dice to to let you down spectacularly. being one-shot at range 3 through an asteroid turn 1 really sucks.

Part of the problem was dice, but the biggest problem was match ups. As a jousting list, to do well I need to face some fat turret ships. They can really blow though those ships quickly. Despite the large number of said ships at the event, I somehow managed to avoid facing them in all 6 games.

Against arc dodgers the list really struggled. dice can sometimes help you out, but didn't in the 2 games I played against them. That being said these were games 5 and 6, so I was probably well off my game by then.

Against other jousters it did okay. Most of these games were close. A win by 2, a loss by 17, a loss by about 50, but that was 50 was Boba Fett on 3 hull. The other game I was just comprehensively out played by a much better opponent.

Overall they're a good fun ship for friendly play orcasual event, but I think it will take a better player than me to get them to work at a championship level.

Cheerio,

Ben