Format:
Small-base named pilot + upgrades, max cost 33 points + 2x escorts (Academy Tie for Imperial, Cartel Spacer for Scum, Bandit Squadron for Rebel). 40 minute rounds.
My squad: Echo+Intelligence Agent+Stygian (33) and the 2x Academy Ties, the big asteroid and two largest debris fields were my choices.
While the obvious choice in this format seems to be Soontir because you can put PtL on him plus another 3 point modification, I thought that Echo with the Agent would allow me to gain the upper hand through good blocking with the Ties (or even Echo herself). There were 17 people I think, and the squads sure were not what I expected them to be. A lot of Wedge showed up (at least 4), a Horton, a Kavil, a Guri, two A-wings (at least one was a Jake) one Soontir that I saw, some stuff I didn’t take a look at, and my first opponent, who was playing….
The mirror match.
This was literally the second time I was going to play Echo against another human being, and I don’t currently play Vassal. Going into the mirror I figured I was pretty doomed. Obstacles are pretty spread out. I won initiative roll, so I optioned to move/shoot first. I set up my ties going roughly down the middle of the map, he set his ties to joust, I set up echo directly to my their left, his echo was on his left but nearly on the other side of the board. Knowing his Echo would mostly be out of the fight until round 3, I slow rolled with 2 straights with all three of my ships, he did 3 straights with his ties and a 4 straight with his Echo. Turn two I decloaked forward-left with Echo, screamed in with a 5 straight on one tie and a 3 bank left with the other to avoid a rock and move away from his Echo, then a hard 3 right with Echo to line up on his ties, who had moved another 3 straight I think. His Echo had a range 3 shot through a rock, mine and my two ties blew up one of his tie fighters immediately. From there I used my rearward tie to block his (intelligence agent showed me his 3K) and on that turn and the next I blew up that tie with Echo (who lost both her shields in the process to his Echo). After that it was a blocking game, I constantly blocked his Phantom and was close to killing it when time was called. MOV wasn’t based on points, just number of ships killed so I won 2-0.
Game 2 my opponent was one of the nicest people I’d met at a gaming store. Howard was flying Guri with PtL alongside his Cartel Spacers. I set up the ties a little left of center, he set up in the center angled in towards them with Guri further to his left, and I set up Echo in the middle of the board this time. I moved up behind a rock with the ties, and Echo moved up and cloaked. Turn 2 he flew over a debris field and way too far forward, so I decided to try and joust his other Scyk and a range 3 Guri with Echo. I focused up, rolled hit/hit/hit/focus but optioned to keep the focus for defense, seeing as he had an evade token. He rolled all blanks and focuses, leaving his Scyk at 1. Ties couldn’t finish it, Echo lost her shields to the Guri who had Pushed for target lock and focus. With only one of his ships unstressed, and that one being at 1hp I decided to K-turn with Echo and brought the Ties in to block and shoot. He cleared stress and started a big wide lazy turn with Guri which took him out of the fight completely, blocked Echo with his Scyk that had turned around, and K-turned his other Scyk. I don’t completely remember what all happened from there, I destroyed one of his Scyks over the next couple turns and was starting to regroup when time was called, so I won 1-0. I didn’t fly particularly well this game, but was saved by him taking Guri out of the fight for pretty much the whole game, I may have been able to outfly him with Echo in the long run but who knows.
Round 3 (and the final round before we cut to Top 2) was against the guy running the event who was playing Jake+VI+Prototype Pilot+PtL+Autothrusters+Proton Rockets. I set up my ties down the middle, he set up on his far right with his Zs, I set Echo to the right of the ties, and he set up Jake on his far left. I opted to try and dogfight Jake with all three of my ships, but he correctly zoomed him past my arcs and blew up a Tie as his Z’s came in from behind. I got a shot off at Jake with Echo as he started to come back but because of his higher PS and barrel roll, it was R3 through a rock at autothrusters. He correctly predicted my move and had Jake in the next turn, shooting his Prockets at a cloaked up Echo. He rolled 5 hits, I rolled 3 evades plus the evade token from Stygian. The next turn I got an R1 focused Echo shot off and wiped out a Z in one go, and from there we were trying to maneuver for another shot until time was called.
In the end I was 2-0-1 with 4 ships killed, my last opponent was also 2-0-1 but with 5 ships killed so I took 3rd while he went to the finals. Not a bad result for the first time I ever played outside of my basement, and the AA Scum Boba and AA PtL cards were really nice prizes to get.
The other guy in the Top 2 was flying Horton with Autoblasters and some kind of ordinance, 4th place was a Kavil (flying a strange build with bomb loadout), and at least one x-wing was near the top tables. I really thought the format was going to be 50% Soontir, but it ended up being really diverse. It also turns out that with only 3 ships per side it is quite difficult to finish a game in 40 minutes particularly when you are flying a very defensive list like I was.