Regionals report from Auckland, NZ.
Upon finalising the dates of the 3 regional event to be held in New Zealand I planned to attend all 3. The first of which was to be held in Auckland. Once dates were confirmed, myself and 4 other hardy souls from New Zealand’s capital Wellington planned for the event. We coined the name ‘Cerberus Squadron” (named after our local store we play at weekly Cerberus Games, Wellington) for the 5 elite pilots travelling up with extremely intricate flight suits manufactured (Plain black t-shirts with an image printed on them that I designed on my computer 
)
As for my list, I had only been playing it for less than a month and only a couple games a week,my previous squad was my my pet list of Wedge, Keyan & Biggs but I could not get it working consistently enough for me so I decided to change it up.
With time against me I looked to the internet for inspiration, however in the end imitation was the best result. A list that Morgan Reid had been playing and performing well with across the ditch, as we say in this part of the world, looked exciting and well, when the world champion elect plays something with good results as the saying goes:
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”
Rear Admiral Chinerau + Darth Vader crew + Engine Upgrade + Ysanne Isaard + Gunner + Predator 65
Soontir Fel + Royal Guard Tie + Push The Limit + Autothrusters + Stealth Device 35
Supplemented with the Largest Asteroid and the 2 largest debris
The ubiquitous Fel build since Auto thrusters became playable, and with a brutally efficient Decimator capable heavily modified attacks even when stressed and/or blocked. Limited testing revealed it was as good as it looked and if Fel’s greens held up it was good enough for a positive record from a mere mortal such as myself.
The Event Weekend arrives
Driving up on the Friday for the event on the Saturday, significant snow storms had affected large parts of the central north Island resulting road closures and a diversion which in turn leads to a 10+ hour total car journey. The day culminating in a quickly organised testing session in the evening with some friendly locals followed by a couple quiet drinks then off to bed in the small hours of Saturday morning.
Gameday begins with an early registration and round 1 kicking off at 9:30.
“Cerberus Squadron reporting for Duty”
Round 1
Paul (Fellow Cerberus Squadron member)
Boba Fett + Veteran Instincts + Inertial Dampeners + Tactician + Engine Upgrade + Slave 1 title (Because why not J) 47
IG-88 B + Heavy Laser Canon + Advanced Sensors + Inertial Dampeners + Predator + Autothrusters 52
1 point initiative Bid
Paul is a good friend and one of my fellow Cerberus Squadron members from Wellington that I drove up with. (Also one of the players featured in several of my YouTube battle reports that can be accessed in my signature) We did discuss this with the TO as FFG allows for some round 1 modifications to be made to prevent out of towners from playing each other in round 1 if they travelled together, however due to the new FFG software we were unable to change opponents and resigned our fates to playing each other, though assuming we would both do well in the event it was likely that we would face each other at some point during the day anyway. A sad coincidence that the exact same thing happed last year with Paul and I.
With a fairly widely spread asteroid/debris field but with one cluster in one corner we were off. Starting in opposing corners we expertly manoeuvred around the field trying to get position on each other, however by turn 4-5 we had simply managed to create a very extravagant joust, though with RAC managing to boost out of what ended up being Boba’s arc in his final position.
At this point, even though I had tested this matchup many, many times, I had pushed too far forward forgetting about Tactician, unfortunately landing mere millimetres within range 2 of Boba’s final position. Obviously I had turtled Fel at this point so I wasn’t going to be taking damage from both of Paul’s ships however the Tactician on Boba was going to ruin my day.
Soontir dodged like a champ (as he is prone to do) taking 0 damage from Boba and IGGY B (including the gunner effect). Sadly for Fel he had acquired a 2nd stress from the tactician and it was looking grim even though the combined fire from Fel and RAC had stripped Boba of all of his shields.
Knowing Fel was constrained to a single move without an action both Boba and IG pop their Dampeners. Fel, unable to get out of dodge with a 5 straight due to an unfortunately placed asteroid (or in Pauls case, expertly placed), decided to turn into Boba’s R1 in an attempt to avoid tactician and take some hull points with him into the afterlife.
Boba squeezes the trigger with 4 dice and a reroll on Soontir and gets a point or 2 before Fel and RAC cut another 3 hull from Boba. IGGY B finishes off a token-less Fel to leave a rapidly shrinking RAC all alone.
Next round a few more hull are stripped from RAC by Boba as IGGY B flies away to de-stress and plan his next attack run. RAC lands another point on Boba leaving him at 2 hull points. Vader uses the force to choke Boba for his disintegration of Fel and lands a direct hit, crushing Boba as Slave 1 explodes into space debris.
Even though RAC won the battle with Boba, , the war was lost with his rapidly shrinking hull value RAC was no match for a full health, HLC carrying IG-88 B and was quickly finished off well before B’s shields were down.
Match result: Loss 47-100
Not a great start for me, but Paul played to his lists strengths and punished my mistakes, expertly closing out the game with plenty of time to spare.
0-1 and on the bubble, this was certainly not the start to the day I was looking for.
Round 2
Unknown (I called his squad “the Flasher”)
Luke Skywalker + Expose 32
Coran Horn + Accuracy Corrector + Expose 42
Jake Farrell + Expose +CR 26
That’s right folks 3 copies of Expose in a single list, my opponent had a particular affinity for it. We began with his 3 ships in formation top right, RAC bottom right, orientated pointing left and Fel bottom centre.
Similar obstacle setup as the previous game spread out with 1 cluster in the bottom left corner. The first 4 turns consisted of RAC performing 4 straights + Boost or 3 banks + boost to fly across the bottom, up the left side and back across the top towards my opponents deployment zone, outpacing Fel most of the way. At every shooting phase from the 3rd turn I was boosting out of arc with RAC and Rolling away with Fel just enough for my opponent to not roll any reds. Jake clipped an asteroid in his pursuit of a shot, robbing him of a shield.
Eventually after flanking his ships enough to come around and get an arc, Fel managed to boost + barrel roll into R1 of Coran getting a stress and a focus for his manoeuvring prowess. Seeing as Coran had finally got RAC in arc he had use his lists signature EPT and Exposed. With Coran dropping to 2 agility dice, Fel pulled the trigger, 4 pictures, and with Fel’s focus spent 4 hit were sent Coran’s way, though even with his reduces agility Coran manages to roll 2 unmodified evades dropping only 2 shields. Having initiative, RAC turned his lasers on Coran, at R3 through a debris, naturally Coran evades the damage even after exposing himself. Vader steps up to the plate and relieves Coran of his final shield. Gunner kicks into action and pulls the trigger for a second time, this time clipping Coran’s wing. With Coran limping on 1 health Vader once again steps up to finish the job. Coran, in a final defiant action lands a couple hits with simultaneous fire before exploding into space dust.
The next turn is eerily similar, RAC slow rolls a 1 forward with Luke flying into R1 of RAC, with Fel falling into line behind Luke at R1. In a hail of laser fire Luke, with R2-D2 noticeably absent, was at 1 hull when his Father ended his miserable existence. Luke in a final defiant act of his father, not unlike Coran, plundered 3 HP from RAC before joining Obi-wan in the afterlife.
Jake who up until this point had been rounding another steroid, staring down the barrel had little choice but to bump into RAC the following turn, and an A-wing without an action is a lonely A-wing indeed. Due to his earlier scrape with an asteroid, Fel and RAC were able to finish him off without the assistance of the Asthmatic force choker required.
Match result: Full win 100-0
1-1 back to parity, my opponent was a fantastic guy but his list was more of a pet project than an efficient killing machine. I wished him well for the day and moved onto the next round.
Round 3
Unknown (I call his squad “Vader Free”)
Commander Kenkirk + Rebel Captive + Seismic Charge + Ysanne Isaard + Gunner + Engine Upgrade + Predator 65
Soontir + Royal Guard Tie + Autothruster + Hull Upgrade + Push The Limit 35
My only match of the day facing the exact same ships, though with subtle but significant differences in the pilots and upgrades. Though I had little experience with the mirror match I had a huge sense of relief when I saw a rebel captive on the opposing decimator and not Vader Crew, because really there can only be one Lord Vader!
Obstacles were denser than the previous rounds, all in the centre more than R3 from the board edge.
Opposing corners for setup ones again, I manage to manoeuvre so that his Fel has to turn away without a shot. My fell and RAC can shoot but Commander Kirk can only get a R3 shot at my Fel. My Fel ensured to not PTL to account for Rebel captive and gets a couple shots on Kirk. RAC misses twice so naturally crits opposing Fel twice, both crits being Stunned Pilot (overlap, take a damage) which was particularly interesting as should he overlap at all he would have taken 2 damage total, amusing seeing as he had Hull upgrade on Fel.
Seeing the error in his ways, opposing Fel bugs out as fast as possible with RAC in hot pursuit, while my Fel dukes it out with Commander Kirk. Eventually RAC boxes opposing Fel into a corner creating a kill zone, with nowhere to run opposing Fel desperately tries to boost and roll to get away but to no avail, RAC finally steps up to the plate, landing a damage, with Lord Vader doing the honours once again force choking opposing Fel into the cold vacuum of space. Sadly for opposing Fel he didn’t even get to roll a single red dice the whole game.
Meanwhile My Fel had been bleeding Commander Kirk for the past 3 turns with RAC returning to the middle of the asteroid field to join the battle. A few turns latter a valiant yet futile attempt at a continued existence by Commander Kirk was snuffed out, twice receiving weapons malfunction (reduced primary weapon value) not helping his cause.
Match result: Full win 100-0
2-1 with another win in the bag my confidence was picking up, though my opponent was the youngest at the event (his age in single digits I suspect) I gave him due respect and played to my strengths as he gleefully showed me his hard earned translucent dice at the beginning of the match that he had won the year before. Again wishing my opponent good luck for the remainder of the day I moved on to the next round.
Round 4
Unknown (I call his squad “3,720 to 1”)
Wild Space Friner + Outrider + Heavy Laser Canon + Mercinary Co-Pilot 44
Chewy + C-3P0 + Gunner + Millenium Falcon Title + Engine Upgrade 51
1 point initiative Bid
Needing to win my final 2 matches I knew it was going to be a hard battle to take down Chewy once RAC bit the inevitable space-dust but I was determined to fly the pants of my 2 ships to make it as hard for my opponent as possible to wrench victory from me.
Obstacles were as spread out as much as possible with 3 corners filled and some slightly dense debris in one area of the board.
Chewy and the WSF setup in the top left, tracking to the right, I set up in the bottom left, content to follow at range 4 until he forced an engagement. I followed him around 2 board edges before he turned to face me, luckily for me I managed to boost with RAC and boost + Barrel Roll with Fel into the WSFs R1 bubble denying WSF a shot, Fel and RAC strip all of the WSF’s shields while Chewy chewed on RAC at R2.
Sensing danger the WSF tried to run, but couldn’t run fast enough from Fel and RAC. Once again Fel and RAC pummel the WSF, Vader throwing a crit in for good measure in an attempt to finish him off while on 2HP with a direct hit or a lucky minor explosion, but failed to do so leaving the stricken WSF on a precarious 1 HP but still in the game. The WSF attempts to land a hit on Fel behind an asteroid out of arc where Stealth device and Autothrusters protect Fel. RAC gets gnawed on some more by a persistent full HP Chewy in hot pursuit.
The following round Fel puts the WSF out of its miserable existence allowing RAC to change his target to Chewy, but MF Title and C-3P0 do what they do best and mitigate damage to 1 ensuring RACs gunner remains unemployed. Again Chewy bites several chunks out of RAC, who at this point is bleeding quite badly with only about 7 HP left.
Fel rounds an asteroid and RAC lines up a shot but Chewy dodges like a champ, taking 1 from Fel and again mitigating damage from RAC to 1 with judicious use of his golden robot and Falcon title. With RAC in such a poor state I need to push through more damage so the next turn I boost RAC to R1 and expertly k-turning Fel behind Chewy to land 2-3mm from and asteroid.
With Chewy focused on burning down RAC, Fel spends his only focus on the attack and turns up 4 pictures netting 3 more damage finally breaking through into Chewy’s Crit-proof hull points. RAC with 4 dice Pushes through 2 more damage to leave Chewy at 5HP, at this point with RAC staring down chewy at R1 I realise that to my horror I had neglected to take the evade action from Ysanne both this turn and the last, fearing the worst Chewy shoots himself up with stims and rolls 4 unmodified hits onto RAC dropping him to a precarious 3 health.
Sensing that the game could go either way I fly RAC into R1 once again and push Fel through a debris field to once again roll 8 reds. Fel scoring 3 damage from his 4 dice waits in anticipation of C-3P0s call, he announces ‘1’ knowing that if incorrect Chewy’s taking 2…. And up comes a solitary dodge!!! With Fel’s damage deflecting of the premium shine of C-3P0, RAC lobs in 3 more hits of which 1 is defended expertly from another evade rolled on a single green. Chewy returns fire, RAC confident that 4 unmodified dice won't be enough to rob him of his last 3 hull points while hiding behind Ysanne’s evade token, but alas, Chewy’s stims were still in effect and 4 unmodified hits/crits roll up and with it RAC crashes and burns taking lord Vader with him.
With both ships at 3 Hull points and Fel in pursuit it could be anyone’s game. Once again Fel expertly rolls 3 pictures which are focused into hits, yet once again C-3P0 bravely conjures the odds in his favour calling 1 and rolling 1, evading all of Fel’s damage again!
With Frustration setting in and time running out in the round Fel pushes too far forward in haste, ploughing through a debris (collecting a focus on the way) into R1 of Chewy’s flank, 3 blanks and a hit didn’t push any damage through C-3P0. Chewy and his fellow Wookie gunner eye up Fel tucked under the YT-1300. Chewy’s initial attack forced Fel to use his focus, prompting Chewy’s previously ineffective wookie gunner into action, 2 hits and a crit looked bad but not TOO bad, with 4 greens and active auto thrusters what could possibly go wrong? 3 blanks and an eyeball latter and Fel was sweating bullets Autothrusters provided 1 evade, but once the crit that was flipped over was revealed to be a Direct Hit, Chewy, his fellow Wookie gunner and C-3P0 all breathed a sigh of relief as the crippled interceptor splintered into a thousand pieces as it slammed against the underside of the mighty Millennium Falcon.
With Fel dropping like a stone in a single attack (not for the first time in the event) my hopes of top 8 dropped with it.
Match result: Loss 44 - 100
2-2 dropping my second match was a massive blow, especially after my forgetting 2 Ysanne triggers that would have kept RAC alive at least one more turn for concentrated fire, my opponent was humble in victory yet apologetic for C-3P0’s prophetic dice wrangling. I congratulated him on his close but well deserved victory, wished him well on his next “win-and-in match” and moved onto my most likely final match of the day.
Round 5
Stevie
Captain Oicunn + Darth Vader crew + Engine Upgrade + Determination + Ysanne Isaard + Gunner 59
Echo + Advanced Cloaking Device + Recon Specialist + Veteran Instincts + Fire Control Systems 41
This was my fastest match all day, finishing in less than 15 minutes, with both Decimators wielding the mighty Lord Vader Crew it was going to be a duel to the death for the Decimators to determine the victor.
Going into the match I knew one thing, Fel was not going to live past the 2nd or 3rd round of engagement due to opposing Vader crew. The best I could do was to try and get a shot on Echo in the first engagement without Oicunn getting a shot at Fel.
Obstacle setup was irrelevant as we set up for a joust, with Stevie having initiative, having to place Echo before I placed RAC, I could counter deploy in a way that I can get shots on Echo with Fel before Oicunn could get into battle.
Oicunn who had started too far to the centre of the board banked in and boosted, in the end far enough for a pot shot at RAC, Echo flying from the top left corner does a 4 forward and takes a focus, with RAC and fell both going 4 & 5 forward respectively followed by a boosts. Fel pushes for 2 focus just in case Echo is feeling lucky.
Fel manages to strip 1 shield from Echo at R3 even after spending 1 of her focus, Echo in return chooses not to spend focus on attacking RAC and chips a shield off. RAC swings and misses, Vader is called upon to work his magic and relieves Echo of her last shield. RAC swings again and duly misses, with Lord Vader summoned to the deck once more. With all of his force manipulation possible a Direct Hit was again summoned by the bastion of the Dark side. With screams of Horror Echo was obliterated and removed from the field.
Suddenly Oicunn was all alone but well ahead of RAC on the health front being full health to my RAC with 0 shields & 3 damage cards, but needing to deal with Fel diverted his attention from the damaged Decimator of the rear admiral. RAC rolled into R1 knowing that Oicunn would be focusing on Fel, yet aware that Oicunn’s impact damage was clearly incoming next turn. Fel bobbed and weaved into R1 of Oicunn’s flank out of his primary arc to make the most of what would be his short lived existence.
RAC and Fel pummel the defenceless Oicunn, however he would have his revenge, landing a sole damage on Fel with his firsts attack, then opposing Vader, summoning the same force powers of my own dark lord managed to flip a Direct Hit also! Fel, exploded into the void of space leaving the Decimators to duel it out.
At this point I became worried as Oicunn had expended far less health through Vader to be ble to dispense with Fel, leaving him 2-3 health ahead of RAC and so the battle began.
Oicunn duly slams into RAC for another point putting RAC to 8HP, Oicunn 10HP. RAC slow rolls a 1 bank and focuses, after predator and RAC’s ability kick in its hit, crit, crit which is not ideal as one of the crits is a pilot type and consequently discarded to Determination, best 1 point shield upgrade ever! (I suspect at this point we both forgot that Oicunn had an evade token from Ysanne hiding on his base under the decimator as it did not get used)Thankfully the following crit is a direct hit so RAC maintains the damage output. Oicunn can only muster a single hit so I chose not to spend my evade fearing the retribution from Oicunn’s gunner, RAC 7HP, Oicunn 7HP.
Next turn with nowhere else to go and an ability begging to be put to use Oicunn once again crashes into the back of RAC, I had calculated that with Oicunn not having an action every turn from bumping and him running determination over Predator I should win the race with Predator and a higher PS on the final combat. This theory came to fruition. After 1 banking, RACs back corner scrapes into R1 to let fly with 4 dice, with RACs ability on ice due to determination I spend the focus for 4 hits (3 with Ysanne on Oicunn actually getting her token spent). Once again with no dice modifiers Oicunn rolls 2 damage on 4 dice, with my own Ysanne coughing up an evade RAC once again takes only 1 damage, RAC 5, Oicunn 4. The next 2 turns follow suit and RAC takes down Oicunn with about 3 health to spare.
As I get up to watch the other games in progress I see my friend Paul (from my Round 1 match) against the only tie swarm in the room, the only damage that Had been dealt was a single point on Howlrunner as my own game had finished so quickly!
Match result: Full win 100-0
Sitting at 3-2 my spirits lifted but my hopes relatively sunk that only those on 4-1 or better would make top 8, however it seemed one lucky 3-2 would make it and with what I thought to be a high MOV of 656 (compared to the other 3-2 players) I had a glimmer of hope.Sadly once the names were read out, I had fallen to 10th with a couple other players on 3-2 that had been involved close loses with their opponents getting modified wins edging me out by about 20 points.
So in the end I get my Promo Fett and my spiffy shield tokens. Of the 5 of us from Wellington 2 had still made top 8. Both managed to win their quarter finals, but due to pairings had to face each other in the semi. With one moving to the final it was a tense but ultimately bad matchup for the 1 remaining Cerberus Squadron member going down in the final to one of the locals with a deserving win with a techy meta list that I will have to consider for the next regional in 2 weeks’ time.
I did end up recording the final and endeavour to post it to YouTube in the coming weeks so keep an eye out for it.
Thanks for taking the time to read to this point, and look out for reports from me in the coming Wellington & Christchurch region events in the next 3 weeks.
Edited by Mace Windu