This is my first written battle report, hopefully it might be interesting. It is REALLY long as I do not have any pictures. The Reader’s Digest version is: I won an escalation tournament with three Hawks and a six Headhunter swarm. Palob gets MVP. The long version:

Background:

I have been running Scum Headhunter swarms with feedback arrays off and on since Wave 6 appeared. My success has been varied. The list that I started to settle on included either Binayre Pirates, but I add Concussion Missiles on 3 of them, and Prockets on 2, and one naked (6 ships total). The reasoning is that the swarm seems to lack the punch needed to chew through both a fat turret AND a second arc dodger. With the concussion missiles, you can get deep into a fat turret hull in one round, or one shot an arc dodger (or at least get them damaged enough to zap them away). Low evade targets are easy, but with 2+ evade ships (YT-2400, Firesprays, IG’s), you really need a focus as well as the TL for the missiles to do reliable 2+ damage. Without Santa Claus (Airen Cracken) handing our Focus cookies in the Scum faction, you need two rounds at range 2-3 to set up a good shot with the concussion missiles. I use the no-ordinance Z and the Proket Z’s to block one round to set up the shot. The first one is chaff, while at least one of the other two blockers can fire off Prockets. It is still a challenging list, that I had started to set aside as success varied.

Then after reading Ghostly Void Bison’s discussion of the Scum Hawks, I added Torkhil Mux into the list, dumping the one of the Prockets and the naked Z. I had a few more points to work with, so instead of Greedo, I went with Recon Specialist and a Hull upgrade. Torkhil is the most-wanted on my list, so the extra focus will leave one for evades, and the extra hull gives him a little more holding power. I did not worry about PS 3 vs PS 1 as I always want to go first because I rely heavily on blocking to make it work. Testing has shown this to work a little better than the pure Z swarm.

One of the local stores set up and escalation tournament. Through some sort of conspiracy that I attest to the large number of IG-88 enthusiasts locally, they changed the point spread to 50/100/150/200 with only one ship required in round 1. As expected, there was one player running all 4 IG-88’s, and many had two. None of the lists I had scaled well, so I came up with a 6-bugzapper/3-Hawk list:

4X Binayre Pirate w/FBA and Concussion Missile

2X Binayre Pirate w/FBA and Prockets

Torkhil Mux w/Hull, Recon Spec, Ion Turret

Palob Godalhi w/Predator, Blaster Turret, Saboteur, Moldy Crow

Dace Bonearm w/Determination, Ion Turret, K4 Droid

The meta in this area is pretty much bring as much brute force as you can. I did not figure I would do all that well, but I was going to be the most annoying person there.

13 people signed up for the tourney, which is not bad by local standards considering three or four of the regulars could not make it.

Round 1: Ty

I have 2X Binayre Pirates with concussion missiles, and one without ordinance, all with FBA (50 pts)

Ty had Captain Jonus and 2x Academy pilots (48 pts).

Ty is new to X-wing, but my list does better with fewer large ships than many little ones. The rocks got set up three in a line along the left side of the board, one in each of the right corners, and the middle one on the right shifted in about and additional range 1. Ty (with initiative) sets his AP’s side-by-side in the middle. I set up the concussion missile Z’s to counter, and the naked one in front. He sets Jonus range 1 from the right side.

I jet out with a straight 4 in formation. He moves forward a bit more cautiously. The next move, I decide to bank 3 to the right to take out Jonus first…a mistake. He moved Jonus forward, but jousted his AP’s way forward leaving me exposed with only one shot on the Academies, but shots too and froe were exchanged through the off-set rock. Just like the A-Team: a lot of fire, no damage.

The next round, Ty had a problem. I was going to move out of arc, and his AP’s were moving fast towards the asteroid. I thought about 3-straight, but changed my mind at the last moment to 2-straight, trying to get Jonus in range 3 for a target lock for the missiles. The problem is I only changed the front Z dial, so the back two with the missiles bumped and got no action. Jonus banked in and was not in range 2. The AP’s banked right (my left) to miss the rock and were going to be busy turning around for a bit.

I tried to block by moving the front A ahead 3, and the other two 1- and 2-straight respectively, but Ty pulled a 5K on Jonus, just clearing my rear Z. The rear Z lost his shields. Had he kept one, I would have zapped him back, but I decided to be patient. I had gotten my target locks on Jonus. The AP’s were still turning around in the middle of the board some place.

I 3K’ed all three Z’s. Jonus moved ahead 2 and had a problem. He tried to barrel roll right to get there. He shot at one of the Z’s, and missed. Two Concussion missiles later, Jonus exited the battle field. The other two AP’s had managed to turn around and were closing in from the bottom center of the board quickly.

The next two or three rounds were a fur-ball of three Z’s and two ties. I would shoot if I had a shot, or zap if I did not. The last turn had one Tie without a shot with two Z’s bumped into him, all with 2 hull left each. He rode the lightning and it was over.

1-0, 100 MOV

Round 2: Andrew

I had 4X Binayre Pirates with FBA, 2 with Prockets, 2 with Concussion Missiles, and Torkhil Mux w/Recon Spec, Hull, and Ion Turret (100 pts)

Andrew had Dark Curse, Vader w/X1, Adv. Target Comp, and Cap. Oicunn w/title, engine, and some other stuff I forgot. (100 pts)

Andrew has a bit more experience, but I have never played him before. His claim to fame, for the day anyway, is he is the only one in town who had gotten the new Imperial Raider (mail order) in time for the tournament.

The rocks were set up like a pyramid with three rocks in a line along the left side, then two R1 right of those, and then one kind of in the middle. I set up the four Z’s in the left corner in a box formation, missiles in the back, prockets in the front. Torkhil was set up to the right of the Z swarm, in between the left two asteroid lines. Andrew set up Oicunn across from the Hawk, Vader about R1 right (his left) of the Decimator, and Dark Curse another R1 right of Darth.

I zoomed ahead 4 again, 3 with the Hawk. Andrew too Oicunn forward three, but Vader and Dark Curse only 2 straight. The second round, I 3-banked the swarm to shoot the gap in between the rocks. Torkhil 2-banked to the left, around the rock, and tucked under the arc of the Z-swarm. Andrew brought Oicunn forward again, 3 I think, landing right in front of the swarm. Then he cost himself the match…he tried to turn Vader in behind Oicunn and bumped…no target lock. Dark Curse started to bank in towards the fight, but was still too far away to matter. Curtesy of Mux, Oicunn got to go last. Vader shot, but missed. He then got ion’ed from Mux. Oicunn got two loads of Prockets and two range-1 shots from the back two Z’s, leaving him with only about 6 hull left. He shot at someone, took a shield.

The next round, the two right-hand Z’s turned right to block Oicunn. The other two inched forward 1 and TL’ed Vader. Mux, right banked behind the rock now in front of Vader. Vader moved his 1-forward, now about 1-2 spaces from the rock Mux was hiding behind and TL’ed Mux. Oicunn bumped the blocker Z’s…no action. One of them took a damage. Dark Curse slammed into the other side of Oicunn.

Thanks to Mux, Vader goes last.

Dark Curse shoots at a blocking Z, and misses. Oicunn shoots back at one of the missle Z’s and knocks off the shields. Mux then Ion’s Vader again. The first concussion missile leaves Vader with one hull. The second does him in and Lord Vader is dismissed. Between a FBA and a R1 shot, Oicunn is down to 3-4 hull.

The two blocking Z’s bank to where Oicunn wants to be. The other two 2-turn right towards the fight. Mux 2-turns around the rock, but is too far away to matter. Andrew tries to three-bank left (my right) to get out of the swarm, clears the blockers and lands on the near rock. Dark Curse moves in and bumps one of the missile Z’s. Mux chooses him to go last.

Oicunn cannot shoot, so two of the Z’s take out Dark Curse at R1. The other zaps Oicunn. The Z’s finish Oicunn off the next round.

2-0, MOV 300.

Round 3: Tyler

This is the round I dithered over when pulling the squad lists. I was only going to run six head hunters, which would have only gotten me to only 136 points of 150. So, I was going to add one Z and one Hawk; but which one. I chose Dace Bonearm over Palob because it takes two ion tokens to affect a large based ship. The second damage point is a nice bonus.

Tyler is an experienced pilot, but he was clearly thrown by what he was facing. He came around to look at my cards 3 or 4 times during the match to try to understand what I was doing to him. My anti-meta tactic seemed to be working.

My list: 5X Binayre Pirates with FBA, 3 with Concussion Missiles, 2 with Prockets; Torkhil as before, and Dace w/Determination, Ion Turret, and K4. (150 pts)

Tyler had Oicunn with title, engine, rebel captive I think, and some other stuff: Dark Curse, Howlrunner, Backstabber, Mithel, and Jax with PTL and something else. (150 pts)

The rocks got lined up with four, in a line, along the left side, the big one in the middle, but slightly towards his side, and the other in the same location, but more towards myside, about R2 between them. I put the swarm in the right corner, missiles in the back, prockets in the front, and both Hawks in the middle, to the left of the center rocks. Tyler put Oicunnin the far left corner, lined the 4 ties in a box in the middle, and Jax halfway between my Hawks and the Headhunters.

I launched the swarm ahead 4 as usual. My intention was to 2-bank the Hawks to the right to get some distance from his tie swarm. I messed up Torkhil’s dial though with a 2-right-turn rather than a bank. Being to the left of Dace, I was worried that they would hit (they just missed), never mind they were already out of position. He moved Jax ahead 3 or 4, the ties ahead 3 I think, and the Decimator went ahead 1 or 2. He eased the Ties forward 2 or 3.

I corrected the Hawk snafu with Dace doing a 1-bank to the left, and Mux turning left 2, both landing short of the middle of the board on middle right side. I needed to pull the swarm in to cut off the ties, but was unsure how he was going to engage, so I 3-banked the swarm to the left so I could run in front of the big rock with a second bank the next round if he did not turn to engage. If he did, I was lined up. He chose the former, bringing the Ties forward 3 or 4. Oicunn crawled straight again. Jax had a problem. He dashed forward and got blocked by the front Z on the inside of my turn. He had no shot, I had 4 at R1. Jax did not last long.

The swarm 3-banked again to moved straight towards the left side of the board. The hawks 1-banked, left to try to follow, but were more mid-drift of the swarm. Tyler 2-turned Oricunn onto a rock as he tried to engage, taking one shield in the process. The ties tried to hard-turn to engage but, the front row of Z’s blocked them.

What ensued was a melee what should have been about dice, but it wasn’t. Through a series of blocks, Mux moving the pilots with the most dangerous shots to fire last, ioning with Dace’s ability, and FBA, I was able to neutralize his ships. The decimator tried to engage but kept getting blocked. Three concussion missiles and prockets did it in in the next two rounds, the last damage coming from the other rock which he landed upon. In the end, I had lost a single Headhunter. Tyler was frustrated as he frequently had actions taken away from being blocked, and when he did have a shot, he would get moved to the end of the line and killed before he got the shot off.

3-0, MOV 583

Everyone assumed that I would be playing the winner of the table next to us (also both 2-0 for the day). Josh won the last tournament, and Tim won the one before that. They were both running two IG’s with Y-wings. Josh had a M3 instead of a second Y. Cody, also 3-0 at that point, would play the looser as he had a lower MOV. I went to get some dinner waiting for them to finish.

Round 4: Cody

It did not turn out that way. They went to time, and Tim got a modified win (by either 1 or 3 points). and got bumped to third.

Cody has a lot of experience. He is the only one I know of locally who has traveled to the lower 48 and competed (very well) in some of the regional tournaments. He is also a really up-beat guy and was a lot of fun to play.

He too had a little bit of a different list that wend something like this:

Han Solo w/ title, Kyle Katarn, Expose, EI, and something else

Dash w/title, PTL, Mangler, Jan Ors

Nera Dantels w/ AS, HLC, Adv. Prot. Torps X2, Deadeye, E2 w/Recon Spec.

Dagger Sq. w/AS, HLC, E2 w/Recon Spec.

He brought debris. The set-up had rocks on the two left hand corners with two of the debris in between, the upper most one indented towards the middle slightly. There was a rock R2 right of the indented debris, and another debris R1 right of the upper most rock. I put the six Headhunters in the right corner in two rows of three, and the three Hawks in the middle, with Dace behind Mux and Palob. Cody puts dash across from the Hawks, the two B-wings in the left corner, side-by-side, and Han, in between, lined up at the end of the line of 4 obstacles, but at about a 25-degree angle, aimed down a lane directly at the Hawks.

I start as usual, with the swarm jetting 4-straight, and the Hawks moving forward 3. Han and the B’s inch forward 2, while Dash moves forward I think three, then barrel rolls right (my left) onto some debris.

The next round, I make two of my 4 or so mistakes. I bring the swarm to face the left side of the board with a 3-turn. With Dash sliding that direction, I do the same with the Hawks with a 2-turn. The problem this creates is that the back two Z’s, both with concussion missiles, are too far back to get a target lock on anyone. More critically, I now have my Hawks in between my swarm and all of the targets.

Tyler 2- or 3- banks Dash to the right (my left) way from the hoard of Scum. He pulls Han in behind him. The two B-wings go forward 2 again. Han shoots last thanks to Mux. Palob steals Dash’s focus cookie and adds it to his pile he has been collecting over the past two rounds. Dash takes a shot on Mux and strips his shield. Dace ions Dash and gives him another damage. Han shoots Mux and leaves him hurting with only 2 hull left. The front four Headhunters fire at dash, getting rid of his shields.

The next round I try to block Han by 2-turning Mux to the right, in between Han and Dash, and I try to stop Palob and Dace short of Dash (Dace needs a green to clear the stress). The problem is that I tried to pull the Z swarm forward two to get the missile carriers into range 3 (they both TL on Dash). The front two bumped the Hawks, the middles were in range 3 of Dash, but the rears were not. Dash moved ahead 2, aimed at the lower left corner of the mat, and immediately in front of the big rock. Han bumps Mux as planned. The two B-wings 1-turn into the fight, just before one of the debris. Han shoots last again, so Dash shoots at him. I do not recall if Dash killed him, or one of the B-wings, but he was dead before Han shot. Dace shot at Dash, but missed. Without Mux on the board, there is no way to force a free damage as he will not be receiving an ion token this round. Palob uses the focus token he just stole from Dash to shoot him, pushing only one damage through. The B-wings shoot at range thee to one of the front head hunters, stripping it’s shields between the two of them. One of the Z’s launches a concussion missile at dash and takes him down to 2 hull. I try to finish him off with the front two headhunters, but they cannot get it done, so I launch the second concussion missile at Dash to finish him off. Han shoots at one of the front Z’s, but misses.

This becomes a pivotal moment in the match. I need to focus on either Han or the B-wings. I looked at it like this, 16 HP of B-wing with HLC’s and one of them shooting Adv. Proton Torpedo’s in a 360 degree arc, or 13 HP of Han. Han was going to be harder to catch, so I went for the B-wings. The front two Headhunters 2-banked (right) short of the debris separating them from the B-wings. One of the middle ones 1-banked right to catch them if they jetted forward. The other middle one moved forward two to fill the middle. The two in the back, with missiles went 1-straight to get a TL on Nera. The hope was to block them onto the debris. Palob and Dace also moved short to block Han.

Han jets away with the left 3-bank (to my right), up and over the Hawk blockade. The Dagger pilot uses AS to BR to the left around the debris and the Z’s, and moves ahead 2. Nera tries to do the same, but can’t as she is blocked by a rock. She moves ahead onto the debris and bumps one of the headhunters. Han and Nera shoot down one of the Z’s with the TL. The other one survives a HLC shot from the Dagger Sq. pilot. Dace ion’s the Dagger Sq. pilot. Palob fires at Han and misses. One of the Z’s lands a concussion missile on Nera. One of the blockers unloads prockets, the other FBA’s and Nera adds to the pile of debris she was sitting in.

The next round the two front-blocking Headhunters go through the debris cloud with a 1-bank to the right. The other blocker moved ahead 1 to catch the Dagger Pilot, the blocker turned right towards the upper edge of the board, between the right edge and the rocks, to turn around. The one that fired the concussion missiles 2-banked right to get a shot on the B-wing. Dace 3-banked right just behind the debris and the B-wing. Palob, facing the wrong direction, did a 2-turn towards the bottom of the board, around the large rock in the lower left corner. Han did another 3-bank to the left to have him face the right side of the board, in the lower center. The B-wing went ahead two. Han shot own the Z in the middle of the board. Dace ioned the B-wing, and the other Z with a shot at him at R1 and left him to hull.

The next round, the Headhunters all tried to turn around. Palob completed his slow turn about the rock to face Han. Han slowed up a bit and took out the Z that just damaged the Dagger Sq. Pilot. Dace missed the B-wing.

The next round Han banked slowly towards the upper right corner. Palob turned towards the B-wing at R1, and Dace and the three Z’s tried to collect themselves in the upper left corner. Han shot Palob, giving him a direct hit…munitions failure…about the worst that could happen. Palob is left with one attack die and only two hull left. Still, R1, two dice, Predator, he pushed two hits through and killed off the B-wing.

The next round Palob turned back to the right towards Han. Han moved slowly to the right side of the board at about a 30 degree angle from the X axis, Dace started racing across the upper middle to cut Han off, the one Z with prockets raced across the top and the other two Z’s were not far behind. Han took a pot shot at Palob with one crit getting through: Weapon Malfunction. His attack value was now 0. He could still steal tokens and use saboteur though. My plan was to try to make him annoying enough that I could focus fire the Z’s. It did not work.

Han rounded the corner, facing the top of the board, about R2 from the right edge. He then EI’ed and Exposed. As the Headhunter with the prockets and three health came in, he one-shotted him (5-dice with Han’s re-role and a focus). Dace gave him an ion token and another damage. The other two Z’s took off his shields and he got one damage card.

I then figured he would had bank to the right to face the Z’s, I brought Palob in right behind him, the two Z’s closed in, I used one to try to block, and I right banked Dace right in front of him. Palob flipped the damage card up and it was a direct hit I think. He was blocked and hit the back of Dace. My green dice were still cold, and he took out another Z. Palob had 0 attack, but at range one, the judge ruled that he could attack with his 1 range-bonus die. Hit. Han was down to 4.

The last Z K-turned near the upper right edge of the mat. Dace 1-banked right trying to either bump or get a good shot if Han tried to flee. Palob ran into the back of Han. Han bumped Dace, but exposed, and then 1-shotted the last Z (5 more freaking read dice). Palob took another hull off Han with his 1-die.

Dace was now near the upper edge of the board at about a 40-degree angle with Han right behind him. My plan was to block him so he was aimed off the board and then hand him his second ion token next turn. Dace 2-turned to the left. Palob did one straight. Han then 1-turned right leaving him 1-inch off the top of the mat, and less than range 2 of the right side and aimed straight at it. He exposed and rolled 5 dice on Dace, only two hits made it through. Dace the ioned him (he had no evade dice left) and added another damage getting him down to one.

At this point, he was going to fly off the board in two more rounds. The ion would move him to the edge of the board, but he would not run off until the round after that. Facing the opposite direction, Dace could run away and it would be done. But Palob has his one shot left as he was barely within range 1.

One die.

Hit.

Han was dead.

4-0, MOV 819