I made a few changes to the list I discussed here, still sticking with the basic idea (Corran and Ten), but waffling constantly on what my third ship should be. Here and elsewhere folks expressed some concern about Ten’s ability to stay in one piece, and I decided to address that issue the craziest way possible: Lando Calrissian, Captain Unreliable himself. Another comment suggested some control, and it hit me that I’d never tried it — in the slightest! — so I figured I’d throw in some shenanigans, there, too. Every time, of course, my third wheel of a ship got smaller and smaller (more on that later):

(45) Corran Horn, FCS, VI, R2-D2, Flechette Torpedoes, Munitions Failsafe
(43) Ten Numb, Advanced Sensors, VI, E2: Lando Calrissian
(12) Bandit Squadron Pilot

My 100 points was up against another Rebel player first, a nice guy named Grant who got into the game after Christmas, much like I did, but the two of us had never managed to run into each other during regular weekly play.

Grant had a pretty fat Han, but certainly not the Fat Han ™:
Han Solo, Millenium Falcon, Marksmanship, Engine Upgrade, Chewbacca, Nien Numb, Homing Missiles

Bandit Squadron (x3)

When the dust settled and the smoke cleared, Lando rolled absurdly well to keep Ten Numb remarkably healthy, Corran’s red dice were on fire (he one-shotted two Bandits in one turn, after we burned down the Falcon), and everything just fell into place pretty well for me. When time was called I had Corran and Ten both lined up to finish off the lost Bandit (which was down to one hull, the two were gonna race for it), but I didn’t quite get to clean the table.

Win: 88 points to 12.

The second game was against a great guy whose real name I haven’t the faintest clue about; his last name as “Stamp” somewhere in it, so we all just call him Stampy and to be honest for all I know he hasn’t even got a first name. He and I have played before several times, but also with me rolling Imperial and him as the no-good, dirty, stinkin’, terrorist Rebel scum; we’d both decided to play something different for this tournament, so he showed up with a bit of a

TIE Swarm.

Darth Vader, Marksmanship
Mauler Mithel, Expert Handling
Academy Pilot (x4)

There was a bit of a disruption elsewhere in the game store during this match (and no one thought to stop the clock), so we were all pretty surprised when we got the five-minute warning; everyone felt like not much had happened by that point. Stampy had some great flying and moved his TIEs like they were a school of piranha, and while a barrel roll got me out-of-arc on a few of them, his incoming dice were red hot and in two attacks (without Howlrunner, mind you!) he stripped away all Ten Numb’s shields, plus got a Direct Hit through. It was pretty nuts.

Ten ended up high-tailing it out of there (made it past the whole furball with a 4-straight, and never got to turn around before time was called), but Corran Horn hit their flank just right, one-shotted Mauler Mithel, then one-shotted an Academy Pilot (figured I might as well double-tap, since time was called), and got me the win.

This hole match was really weird with how little we got done. We were both coming on aggressively early in the game with 3-4-5 forward moves in each others’ general direction, no one was just running rings around the board, no one was stalling or anything, but…yeah. Not much gameplay happened, I guess. The only deaths were Mauler and the Academy kid, for me. My plucky little Headhunter died again, though. Can’t let those Bandits learn too much, or they want to get Tala Squadron pay, y’know?

Win: 31 to 12.

And last but not least, I faced off against Remington/Remy, who I genuinely believe starts every list, ever, with Soontir Fel, who had a shiny new Lambda he wanted to play, and who ran Kir Kanos on some perverse dare or bet or something, I dunno (he’s run every other Interceptor pilot with devastating effect before, and even had a point to spare in this list, but I guess just wanted to try Kanos out). He had pretty mixed results on the day, which I think was down to some amazingly cold agility dice.

Baron Soontir Fel, PtL, Autothrusters, Stealth Device, Royal Guard
Kir Kanos, Autothrusters, Stealth Device, Royal Guard
Omnicon Group Pilot, FCS, Gunner, Darth Vader, Engine Upgrade

This one got ugly, and fast, in large part because it’s the sort of Interceptor-heavy list I like to play (give or take), so it’s what I built my Rebels to play against — being new to Rebels, the thing that got Ten Numb into my list was me sitting down and saying “Man, what would I hate to play against?” — and it certainly did yeoman’s work. Ten Numb snuck a range 3 crit onto Fel first turn (despite Fel’s usual stack of Focus and/or Evade tokens, and having 5 total agility dice PLUS autothrusters, because Ten Numb’s like that), knocking off his Stealth Device and giving him Structural Damage. Insult followed injury the next turn when Corran Horn shot at Fel, then double-tapped (thanks to the FCS target lock) to slap a (miss!) Flechette Torpedo at him, which just left Fel with a pile of stress he wasn’t ever able to get rid of before we burned him down.

The crazy “Doomsaw” Shuttle ended up pouring it on at Corran after that, killing him in one turn; firing (and Vadering into my shields when I dodged), then using Gunner (with a FCS target lock) to do a few points (and then Vadering again, for a Direct Hit). It was ugly, but I guess it was fair game after Fel got torn to pieces.

Ten Numb finished off Kir Kanos while turning to get behind the shuttle, then just after a round or two of Ten shredding/chasing the Lambda, my opponent conceded.

Win: 100 to 57.

Being undefeated, at that point I was the official Spring Tournament Champion of my semi-rural college town. I’m kinda playing double-A ball, here, I know, but it was still a good day, and I’ll take what I can get.

Lessons learned: I should probably double-tap with Corran more. I was pretty conservative with him all day, because I just kept thinking a round a head and going “No, I wanna shoot someone in the face next turn, too.” He did good work for me when I double-tapped every time I heard the TO call time, naturally (getting multiple kills in those last rounds, for me), but…yeah. I can probably afford to be a little more aggressive for him, to try and take an earlier lead.

My Bandit Squadron pilot was an addition by necessity, because this list started with another B-Wing, then it just kept getting smaller as I decided to go nuts and pile more and more crap onto Ten and Corran. While the Flechette Torpedoes did great work for me the one time I felt like using them, that one time was also against Fel, who’s just going to hate double/triple/whatever stress more than maybe anyone else in the game. The stars aligned and the (miss) was magical and glorious and stuff, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. I think I’d rather use those three points to swap out the Bandit for a bare-bones Prototype — better dial, more better actions, one more agility die, just all-around better for blocking, etc — instead, if I keep the skeleton of this list intact.

Lando was as streaky as I thought he’d be, but when he was on, he was on. I kept track of eyeball rolls on Ten’s defense all day, and I never once would’ve been better off just taking a Focus action than making the Lando check. In the first game, in particular, he was crazy good, netting me Focus/Evade, or Evade/Evade, four turns in a row. I shamelessly barrel rolled out of harm’s way whenever I could, but I don’t regret Lando-ing instead of Focusing, the other times. He’s streaky, but he’s kind of just fun, and I think he’s a decent defensive buff, really.

Now, for the bad news: it turns out my local shop never actually received their Spring Kit. I dunno if it was an ordering issue, a mail issue, or what, but alas and alack, no tourney swag for me. I got some store credit (hooray), but no Vader medal (which I actually planned on integrating into a half-assed bit of cosplay someday), no alt-art Tycho, and no sweet, sweet, acrylic range ruler (my ultimate goal is to slowly but surely cobble together an all-acrylic set, earning instead of buying stuff, so that really bummed me out). Awaiting updates from the owner, who wasn’t there today, hopefully they’ll get it cleared up or alternate prizes’ll be chosen or something. I’m two for two at winning tournaments so far…

…and I maintain absolutely no illusions that that streak will continue, when I drive up to Plano to hit Madness Comics for Regionals, next month. *gulp*