Hey!
This will be my first own post here. All this time, I've been lurking around reading most battlereports and strategies that you guys come up with, because the planning part is so much fun in my oppinion.
Now, my thought is that it's my turn to contribute! 
A little info about the tournament.
A friend set up the tables and I kept track of all the scores. 3 of the guys had only played 3-6 games before this day, and me/2 others have played perhaps 30-40 games. But they were very good at games in general so the tournament was much fun!
Nobody knew what others were gonna run with, so I was choosing between 3 lists. A TIE swarm with howl + 4 academies + Epsilon leader + Epsilon squad pilot (because I've just bought the new core set). Another list I've found to be very durable and offencive at the same time was Eaden with IA, a prototype a-wing with refit, Hobbie with the stressbot and a blue squadron B-wing with tactician. But because I'm imperial by heart, and because I've always been in love with the TIE Phantom, especially now when it's even harder to play, I just HAD to play with it!
I feared 1 of the friends the most, because he was the only one with Scum ships, and I just knew he would play with brobots or the houndstooth with 2 TLT y-wings.
The planning...
I've been thinking alot on how to beat the Y-wings or HWKs with TLT, and the sweetspot is to get in range 1. Another thing I knew was important was focus fire, because they just wear you down if they stay alive. Now.. not only the TLT are deadly lists ofcourse, and what I love the most with X-wing (except planning) is to manuver!
With this in mind, I needed a tank or more targets than the TIE Phantom. I've tried out a doomshuttle with vessery + VI (because I would do alot of TL's), but the lambda is too hard to fly!
A firespray is never an option.. wich leaves me with a decimator. I was trying out lists with oicun, because you have more points to spend on upgrades. After some thought, a list with a phantom and a decimator in the current meta needs to get in close, and kill fast! RAC can always modify dice's!
As for the phantom, I love whisper.. but something that would make the game even harder but more fun for me, is to manuver Echo.
So, the list:
Echo with -
VI (to get 8, same as RAC)
Fire Control system, the only option really. (if your not planning to go with caranor jax on the offence and sensor jammer on the sensor slot)
Adv Cloak Device
Recon Specialist, Echo really needs 2 focus, both off and def. The substitutes would be gunner (but it's too expencive, and I get focus and TL pretty fast anyway for Dice modification.)
More substitutes would be Rebel Captive, but it doesn't belong in this list, more to come later. The must have crew is IA, so the cloak gets either in the way of their movement, or gets you in a safer position. But no need for IA on Echo, because...
RAC. Who was equipped with -
Intelligence Agent
Predator (safe rerolls, especially good against the blue squad, swarms and low y-wings)
Engine Upgrade, the mobility!
Mara Jade, my absolute favourite! I want to get in close, and kill targets fast. If they survive, they get stressed. Next turn I almost know where they will be. If I get chased and they get too close, they get stressed. Next turn I can just make the slowest moves and they crash into my rear.
Navigator. RAC with natural high PS, will usually get blocked if played agressively. With navigator I have options even then. And IF i would face squads with higher PS, I have the IA to give me intel, and then I can aim to either outmanuver or to block with RAC.
Onto the games.
Game 1: Vs Oicunn + ysanne / 2 academies / Ecco
Well, so much for feeling unique
Astroids were placed in a cluser on my side. He placed his ships spread out, and I bunched up my guys on 1 side. While he went straight ahead, I aimed for the astroids on my side. When his first ship (echo) reached me, he was into the field, and I had both my ships target fire him. He went down fast without the cloak. Next up the academies reached me, but with some unlucky movements, 1 crashed into the astroid, and the other into him. I kept my 2 ships close together from this point, and took down 1 Academy. RAC lost 1 shield. Next turn the other Academy was spacedust, and Oicunn finally came to the battle. During all this time, he had been moving in a too wide circle, and when he tried to turn, the astroids were blocking a clear path. With 2 ships against 1, and with much more firepower, the first win was secured, but I actually lost Ecco to a stupid cloak turn with made the movement bad. (landed on a astroid) Echo is hard to fly guys!
Game 2: Vs Whisper + VI + ACD + Gunner + FCS / Soontir + AT + SD + PTL / Mauler Mithel + SD
I'm playing against the imperial Dream team. If I could pilot those ships to victory, I would be proud! Whisper and Fel has PS 9, so my ecco is in deep trouble.
Astroids are placed in a cluster on my side again. I try to lure him into them, but he stays in a tight formation and we circle the astroids. Because im on the run to get a good oppertunity, and because I stupidly enough put RAC further away than Echo, I had to try to swap their places. With slower movements on RAC and difficult decloaks on echo, the aces catched up to echo from behind, and started to fire. Every round for 5 rounds I took the cloak as an action, and stayed on the defence, and RAC stood on the brakes to make them crash into him.
Echo was 2 Shields down, and RAC was half dead, when things turned. With Echo on the constant defence, I chose to decloak torwards the aces, but without blocking them. The decloak was a turn to face away from the aces, and the move after was a K-turn. If me opponent would have guessed the move, Echo would die because of pilot skill, but I supriced him.
RAC was on his second run round the astroids, but because I found a hole between 3 astroides, I got into the fight with close range much faster than he anticipated. Mauler Mithel got 1 shotted, and Whisper/Fel got stressed. My Ecco shot his first round, but missed Fel (**** evade).
Now my plans really shined. RAC never used EU, he only did the slightest movements, and the Aces kept crashing into him and eachother. That meant Whisper never got back his cloak, and RAC took shot him on range 1 with 4 die. hit blank blank blank. Target Lock gave hit hit focus blank. Predator gave hit hit focus hit. RAC ability gave hit hit crit hit. Whisper was dead!
Soontir couldn't make the shot, and Echo had made the clear stress move forward, and with Focus/Fire Control System, even Fel couln't roll evades all day
This game was the most fun I've had with X-wing ever I think.
With 2 aces at PS9, every movement was stressful!
My opponent was not feeling well during the second half, he had a dip in bloodsugar, and we agreed on having a rematch another day with thesame lists!
Game 3: Vs Oicunn + palpatine + ysanne + expose + EU / 2 Epsilon squad pilots with weapons guidance.
Why was everyone plaing imperials, and decimators! 
This guy has played as much X-wing as me, and he knows how to play oicunn!
The astroid placement was same as always, close to 1 of my sides, and I planned to take advantage of that again. I moved to lure him into the cluster, but he read me like a book.
The battle came on his terms. The epsilons dived in to block RAC, then Oicunn positioned him for a future ramming. Echo moved next, and landed very close to the edge, facing oicunn. RAC used navigator to move slower than I originally planned, avoiding 1 epsilon and crashing onto the other. I knew that the epsilons were there to distract me from the real target, and I aimed all firepower on Oicunn. He lost 4 Shields and 3 hull. The return fire stripped RAC from Shields.
Next planning phase started with me checking oicunns dial. I couldn't belive it, Oicunn was planning on ramming Echo, but on the position I was before cloak. I cloaked along the edge and facing the spot where I was. The academies both got stress from mara jade, so they had to go straight and bank, facing away from the battle. Now the Oicunn move. He went for the board edge, with 1 cm left to spare, but the next round he would be out of space. Not the way it was supposed to happen, but with oicunn dead next turn, I focused on the epsilons, and the victory came a few rounds later. Actually one of the new TIE's got Echo down to 1 hull, that was sweet to see.
Game 4: Vs Biggs + R2D2 / Rookie + R7 Astromech / 2 x Blue Squad B-Wings with FCS.
Finally some rebels!
Astroids were placed as usual, and I went for them again. But my opponent didn't come after me. He did 1 forward moves every round, wich lead me to get too far in the circleing process. When the fight came, I had no astroids to my advantage as originally planned, and all his ships faced RAC. I shot on Biggs X-wing and he lost all but 1 hull. RAC lost 4 Shields and 4 hull.
Next round I wanted to get real close to him, triggering stress and more attack die, perhaps even managing with a arcdodge or 2. With IA, my cloak was safe, and with navigator, I changed my move to a much faster move than originally planned, getting away from 2 ships. With a boost, I got away from Another ship, and this time only 1 of his ships could shoot me. I think I managed to kill biggs, and the other X-wing this round. With stress, he's B-wings were real predictible, although when he spread out and the stress only affected 1, the other managed to turn around and kill RAC. Time was called when Echo (40 points) was left against a B-wing (24 points) and I was the victor. As the others were having a break, we wanted to finish the game even though I had won. Echo avoiding the B-wing was an uneven fight, and the B went down aswell.
Game 5: Vs 2 x Syndicate Thugs Y-wings + shield upgrade + TLT + Unhinged astromech / Bossk + hounds tooth + manuvering fins
The dreaded matchup! What's good is that all my ships are PS 8 and his ships are 7 and 2's (yay predator).
The astroid placement didn't matter to me this time, I just wanted to get in the fight as fast as possible. He put the Y's on one side and the Tooth on the other. I put both my ships facing the Y's. He quickly turned with the Y's to flee from my charge, and Bossk tried to intercept, but with slow movements. I've never played against the hounds tooth before, I've just looked at what it can do, and it felt fearsome! One thing though that I got wrong, was the firearcs. I thought hounds tooth could fire in all directions, but it turns out it only shoots in the front 180 degrees. My ships dashed past bossk, and quickly stressed the Y-wings. He used his 3 manuvers that always was green (astromech) and I tried to keep close. Because range 1, he almost never got a chanse to fire the TLT, and the Y's got killed. RAC lost all Shields and 2 hull, Echo untouched. Even though the hounds tooth has alot of hitpoints, and can dish out 4 damage, it never got dangerous. I got alot of lucky dicerolls, and he never got lucky. Some movements landed him on astroids, and Echo with double focus could always spend 1 and save one. It's always awesome though to see the Little ship come out from the big ship, but a 2/2/2/2 is not quite strong enough to take on Echo and RAC when they are together,
Conclusion
My first tournament to attend was really fun, and they guys are all friends of mine, and they seemed to have fun aswell, so the evening was an enjoyment. I only heared complains against the Whisper/Fel/Mithel build, because that build crushed some of the opponents. What never happened though was the match between the scum player and the imperial aces guy, I could almost guarantee the win for scum there, as the Y's abit more spread out would get 2 shots every turn to strip stealth devices and Shields every turn. They will have their game on Another date. The Rebel's player enjoyed his list, he got more respect for the B-wings, as they were his biggest asset. The scum player was supriced to lose many games, but he knows what to improve on, and the shieldupgrades beeing Engine upgrades was gonna be his first change.
Now, this is my absolute favourite build, and I don't know if its OP or not, but it actually feels hard to play, because if you:
• land on a astroid
• get blocked with echo
• get stressed with echo
• get hit with proton bomb or adv hom missile or Connor net on echo
• face higher pilot skill pilots
• get focus fired on RAC
• get Connor net on RAC
• don't plan 2 rounds ahead with the cloaking and future movement
then you are screwed!
Thanks for reading, and sorry for the bad Spelling and weird big/small letters in some sentences.
