So, this is the short story of one of those times luck was on my side.
You'll have to bear with the details being a little fuzzy since I'm writing this over a day later, and it was only the second round of the day.
I can't remember my opponent's exact list, Han with marksmanship (can't recall what else; no C-3PO though) and a naked A-Wing and Z-95.
I was running Kath with Tactician, a Syndicate Thug with Unhinged Astromech, and a fully kitted Palob, with Moldy Crow, Blaster Turret, and Recon Specialist.
Anyway, in the first few turns of the game, my usual bad positioning and terrible green dice came into play. Between the Y-Wing and Palob's Blaster Turret, I'd managed to get Han down to one shield, and Kath got a range 1 rear shot on the A-Wing, taking it down to one hit point.
That's when things started going wrong. I parked the Y-Wing and Kath on the same asteroid, at the same time, meaning they had no shots, and Kath was easily taken out. It was also at this point that the greens failed me, and a hit and a crit from the Headhunter got through on Palob. If I say it's the worst possible crit for a HWK you can get, I'm sure you can guess what it was - Munitions Failure. Goodbye Blaster Turret, goodbye any offensive potential.
I can't remember the exact order of things, but the Y-Wing stripped Han's remaining shield, and got a damage card in, as well as taking one of the Z-95's shields down. Then, after getting a Direct Hit on Han, the Y-Wing took Han's shot at range 1, and green dice did not prevent the last point of damage on him.
I very much considered forfeiting at that point, but decided to play on, because, hey, I could still keep that 30 points there for the MOV.
This is where things got interesting. The next turn, the Z-95 ended up facing away from Palob, yet inside his arc at range 2. The A-Wing and Han were out of arc, and both had range 2 shots.
Han shot, two Crits from marksmanship, I rolled two eyes on the greens, thankfully I'd kept adding focus tokens to Palob each turn, so that was evaded. Then Palob took the shot, eye result on the red, and I decided to spend another focus. The Z-95's greens failed, and he lost his remaining shield.
Next turn, through some lucky positioning, I managed to block the A-Wing, meaning one less shot on Palob. Didn't have a shot on the Z-95, but did have a range 1 shot at Han. Han of course shot first, this time getting one hit through. Palob immediately shot back, and got a hit in. Again, green dice failed someone, this time Han.
It was somewhere around here that Palob was touching both Han and the Z-95 during the combat phase, and had a range 1 shot on the A-Wing. Two hits, only one evade (I'd stripped his evade token with Palob's ability), the A-Wing finally died, to a lowly HWK primary.
At this point, Han was down to four hull, and Palob and the Z-95 were both on two hull remaining.
Next turn, Han K-turned, turning back towards the HWK which was now chasing the Z-95. Range 3 shot, he got another hit in on Palob. Palob shot back, with one red die, and gets a crit through - Console Fire.
The next couple of turns, reasonably assuming two ships can take out a one hull HWK-290, my opponent used marksmanship for his action, instead of flipping the Console Fire face down. Anyway, it didn't damage him for the next couple of rounds, but since my green dice are finally hot, and I'm staying as far away as possible, Palob survived, and then Han got unlucky with positioning - K-turned onto an asteroid, and took a damage. Now sitting at two hull remaining (I can't recall which damage he took when exactly), and with no shots, Palob got another hit in on Han, and evaded the Z-95's attack.
Next turn, opponent again used Marksmanship on Han, electing to try for the certain kill. However, at this point, crits proved their game-changing ways, and he finally rolled a hit on the red die for console fire. Han finally died, and the only ships left were Palo at the Z-95, at range 1 of each other and in each others' arcs.
It all came down to the very last roll. Palob rolled an eye and a crit, and of course spent one of his six focus tokens to make that a hit and a crit. The Z-95 evaded one, and pulled the crit...Direct Hit!
Palob, with a primary HWK weapon, had cleared the board!
I think I even apologised to the other player, I never get that lucky, or position myself that well. I'm terrible at blocking, which is why I don't typically run blockers.
I know I've messed up some details with the telling of that, pretty sure Palob had a target lock on Han at some point, helping with my very hot red dice that game, but can't remember when it was taken or spent.
That was my first full win of the day, I ended up with two full wins and one modified win, after a first round loss. Ended up placing about 11th or so, out of 15 or 16.
The moral of the story: Never underestimate a seemingly underpowered ship, and do not trust green dice. They are not your friends.
