Game 1 vs. Sable's IG/Boba list:

- Boba + VI + Tactician + Proton bomb + Engine

- IG-88B + VI + HLC + AdvS + Autothrusters

In the early game he initially moves both ships away from me, I think trying to break up my formation by getting me to move through asteroids. After two turns, it looks like I've split up my list, with my three central ships facing towards Boba, and the two flankers towards IG-88. But on the third turn I swing everyone towards IG-88 while Boba drifts out of the fight. The following two turns I burn down IG-88 with the three auto-damaging ships for the cost of only one Z before Boba can really get back in the action. This leaves four ships to fight Boba, and they can get through enough damage while only losing another Z.

Win (100-29).

Game 2 vs.

- Kath + Predator + Mangler + Recon

- Torkil + Recon + Blaster

- Black sun soldier x2

My opponent's comment both at the beginning and end of the game was that he wasn't used to having to move second! Of course Torkil also isn't much help to him here! The early setup is pretty straightforward: we send our ships straight at each other. The initial round of combat is very favourable for me: I get four of my ships with a shot at one of his Z's while he only has return fire from his two Z's. I kill his Z in exchange for a shield on one of my Z's. The next round I block Kath with the feedback Z, get a target lock on Kath with the other Z, and hit her with the IPM. This means the next round of combat all my ships have a good shot on Kath without getting hit by her rear arc. She dies that turn or the next in exchange for my wounded Z. With only small damage to my remaining four ships, it doesn't take too long to finish Torkil and the remaining Z without taking further casualties.

Win (100-15).

Game 3 vs.

- IG-88B + PTL + AdvS + Mangler + Autothrusters

- IG-88C + PTL + AdvS + HLC + Autothrusters

This is actually my first time playing a double IG list with my build. I slow move towards him initially, feeling out where he's planning to go. He keeps the IGs relatively close together. The first round of long-range combat surprisingly sees no damage: I think his HLC IG shot at my Starviper who rolled well on defense. The next round is very big, with his IGs and my ships meeting near a cluster of three asteroids. This works well for me, as he doesn't have many good shots while I hit him with the range 1 auto-damaging abilities. After two rounds of this I've killed IG-88C, taking away the big hitter in his list for the cost of the IPM Z (he was very focused on it, worried about getting Ionized while stressed). I get a bit of damage through on IG-88B, but while trying to get away and get a good shot, he just flies him off the board.

Win (100-15).

Game 4 vs.

- Kenkirk + Predator + Palpatine + Ysanne + Engine

- Vader + Predator + Advanced targeting computer + Engine

My opponent was experimenting with new cards from the Raider, and came up with a (as I found) very effective list. He sets up in the middle. I initially move slowly forward, again feeling out where is going. By the second movement round his plan becomes clear: he is moving Kenkirk and Vader away, forcing me to go through a line of three asteroids in the bottom left of the board. Recognizing this, and guessing that he will take Kenkirk around the asteroid in the bottom left corner, I move my ships to get to this exit point. On the 3rd or 4th round I get some slightly unfortunate luck: the IPM Z has a shot on Kenkirk with the missile. However, the shot is through an asteroid, and even with the re-roll from the target lock I only get one hit through. He uses Palpatine to get an evade with his one evade dice, negating my chance to really rush in on Kenkirk.

I have a good chance the following round, however, as Kenkirk makes the expected turn around the asteroid. I setup my leading Y in a great position to block his turn, hoping to send his turning ship off the edge. Unfortunately, the Decimator stays on the board by mere millimeters. The next two rounds I continually block Kenkirk near the bottom of the board, also getting a bit of damage in to him while doing some auto-damage to Vader. Vader falls the following round, but Kenkirk gets away with 6 hull remaining.

By this time, though, we've had some many rounds of combat that his two guns have burned down everything of mine but the Starviper, who has 3 health remaining. The following rounds are agonizing: I move small amounts, hoping to have him fly past, but he moves slowly to bump me. I probably didn't play this correctly, but I was very worried about S-looping then getting hit while stressed.

By this time, the round is nearly at an end, but I have one chance. We've done a loop around the asteroid again, and I'm in a good position to try and block him off the board in the final round of combat. I move into place and barrel-roll to where I think I have the best chance of blocking him. At this point, at least half the tournament players are watching as we resolve the bump and the tension is palpable. Again, however, he remains on the board by millmeters, and wins on points.

Loss (37-71).

After the four rounds of swiss, my record of 3-1 and MOV of 637 put me in 3rd place. The other three semi-finalists were three of the lists I had already faced - my opponents in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th games. (Meaning I had probably the toughest route to the semi-finals!) My opponent in the semi-finals was the one I had faced in the first game of the day - after losing to me, he had won each of his next three games 100-0.

Semi-finals vs.

- Boba + VI + Tactician + Proton bomb + Engine

- IG-88B + VI + HLC + AdvS + Autothrusters

After our earlier game, I thought my opponent would be very wary of the threat of losing IG-88 quickly, but less concerned about Boba. I moved slowly towards him, looking for an oppourtunity to jump on either ship. He initially moved away from me, putting a screen of two asteroids between myself and him, with Boba closer to my position. The first key moment occured in the third round. I moved the IPM pirate and got a lock on Boba, who did a 4k, no doubt worried about separating his two ships as had happened last time. However, the 4K was perfect for me - no modifiers on his dice means there was a very good chance I could ionize Boba while stressed, a perfect combination. Indeed, this was exactly what happened. The next round all my ships advanced into a good position to hit Boba hard; the close packing of ships also meant that his IG did not have a good chance to shoot at anyone (he tried to do a 4K with IG to get a good shot, but that landed him on a rock). That round I got Boba down to 1 health (in return for the death of a Z) and he was still stressed.

The next round he tried to get Boba as far away as possible by doing a 4 straight; it was probably his best choice to get out of range of the Autoblaster Y's. However, I still had 2 range 2 shots with the Ys and a range 1 shot with the Starviper, while he had no focus or evade tokens. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't get a single damage through to finish him off! Even worse, with Boba still alive, the next round he dropped his proton bomb, hitting my three most valuable ships - the 2 Ys and the Starviper! One damage card knocked out the Viper's flechette torpedo, another did 2 damage to a Y, and the last reduced the other Y's agility to 0. Brutual! On the other hand, the bomb also hit his IG, giving him the card which has a chance of damaging on red maneuvers. During combat, the only ship with a shot on Boba was the Starviper, but fortunately he managed to finish Boba off.

With four ships still on the board for me, he had to give his IG some distance between it and my fleet and try to fight at long range. To do this, he did a boost then a 3 bank, landing just near the edge. But this was the end, unfortunately - the move had taken him too far at too much of an angle, and next round the only move that would give him a chance of staying on the board, a 1 turn, did not quite make it.

Win (100-15).

Finals vs.

Going into the finals, I had a gameplan - focus down Kenkirk as fast as possible. I had seen how useful the Emperor can be from our first game, and how tanky Kenkirk can be if he survives to the end game with Palpatine on board. Unfortunately, I didn't stick to my plan, and it probably cost me the tournament.

The initial setup was almost exactly the same, with the first move seeing us both move slowly towards each other, with my ships angled slightly towards an asteroid screen on the left. I thought for a long time about my second round move. Eventually, I decided that he thought I would continue my ships towards the asteroid screen, thinking that I would think he would go that way as he did in our first game. So I decided his Decimator was going the other way, and setup to move my ships accordingly. I was so happy to see his movement was exactly as I had anticipated. I was in prime position to get a lot of shots on the Decimator next round!

But Vader was also in a very tempting position. He movement had left him at the entrance of a tunnel of 3 asteroids. If I could block him in, there was a good chance I could use my auto-damaging abilities to kill or severely cripple him. And so I made the fatal choice: I moved almost everyone to block Vader's possible moves, for now ignoring Kenkirk, going exactly against my gameplan.

And my opponent anticipated perfectly, doing the one move Vader could do to escape, the one move I had forgotten the Advanced had - a 5 straight. It put him clear of the tunnel of 3 asteroids and clear of all my ships. This was real bad - the Decimator could get a couple of rounds of free shots, and I had to bring around almost my whole fleet before I could get at him again. If I followed my plan, I would have had two solid round of hitting the Decimator while Vader didn't have a shot.

I still had a chance, though, and when I brought my ships around, I brought down the Decimator reasonably. But I made another mistake at this point, barrel-rolling the Viper into a bad position, and losing him to shots from both Vader and Kenkirk. The two Z's died soon after, and Y's, while tanky, didn't have any blockers left to get in their auto-damage, meaning the result after that point was pretty much set.

Loss (0-100).

The mistakes in the final aside, I was very happy with how I played, but also with how well the list had done (again). It pulled out some great wins, including against double IG and IG/Boba lists which I hadn't faced before.

The list's overall record is now 14-2 (7-0 in casual games, 7-2 in tournaments). However, I'll probably retire the list for now - one of the big threats on the horizon, Twin Laser turrets, would probably rip this list to shreds. But if two ship lists start dominating again in the future, I'd be more than happy to return to this wacky scum mini-swarm.