So we just kicked off our month long league tourney at Gamer's Sanctuary in Flint. I had a good match tonight. Three turret carriers against my Imperial pilots.

Opponent (as best I can remember):

PS 6 K-Wing + TLT

Jan Ors + Moldy Crow + Blaster Turret + some other stuff

Horton Salm + ICT

And my vicious ace pilots:

Rexler Brath + Predator + HLC

Black Squadron TIE + Predator

Black Squadron TIE + Predator

Black Squadron TIE + Predator

My opponent flew in a fairly close formation. I engaged with the three TIEs while Rexler swung far to the right, spending two or three turns maneuvering into position. The TIEs focused a little more on offense than defense, however their dice were quite poor. They did their jobs however, tying up the enemy formation in the asteroid belt, bumping and just generally being a nuisance. I lost a TIE about every two rounds, but they'd managed to take Horton's shields and one hull, as well as a shield from the HWK and 2 from the K-Wing.

Then Rexler showed up, just as he was supposed to.

The opponent's ships were in the middle of the asteroids, or just coming out of them, with no real way to turn around effectively to engage Rex. He fired at Range 3 on Horton, landing all 4 hits without using his focus. Dead Y-Wing. The next turn, he maneuvered for a shot on the K-Wing, landing 4 hits thanks to Predator. The remaining TIE dealt with him. At this point my evade luck shifted, and where previously my TIEs had only been kept alive through action denial and evade tokens, suddenly the HWK couldn't hit my last TIE. He survived for a few rounds more than I expected, despite various Critical effects. By now Rex had gained range and had put some hits on the HWK. Both were PS 8 but I had given my opponent initiative, so twice I was able to barrel roll into range 3. After a few rounds of the HWK making double evades (shirking most or all of the damage I threw at him), it finally came down to a joust. His HWK, hit crit crit. And me? TRIPLE EVADES. Boom. The ensuing range 1 primary obliterated the HWK, landing 4 hits when he only had one hull left. Rexler still had 1 shield, having only ever taken damage from the TLT.

It was an exciting way to kick off the league, to be sure!

I just came up with nearly this exact same list today!!! Rexler seems like a great answer to the current tlt ywing meta!

Was a really fun night.

In my first match against someone who does not share a grandfather with me I had:

Wedge with Swarm Tactics

Biggs with R2 and IA

Green Squadron with PTL, Wired and Chardaan

Blue Squadron

Opponent had

Han with Chewie, Gunner, Marksmanship

2 X Rookies

There was sort of an asteroid corridor to one side of the center where he put all of his ships and I put mine except the Green which I flanked to the other side

We both took it easy with some 2-3 speed moves down the corridor, while I turned on the jets with the Green.

Round 2 we got into range and I took him off guard with how fast those A-Wings can move as the Green turned in hard and boosted in for the block on Han. During the first round of shooting, Han lost all shields and 2 hull (used Chewie to get some back), while Biggs lost his shields.

Next round saw the dice go his way as he took out Biggs ( I forgot to use IA on a double damage leaving me at 1 hull, but the next shot did 3 so would have died either way) and knocked a shield off Wedge while Han managed a couple of key evades to stay on the board with 1 hull left.

Next round saw some crazy stuff. I anticipated his move for Han with my B-Wing and would have been in position to kill him, but neither of us expected that the move would put him on an asteroid by about 2 millimeters and he rolled a hit to take out Han. Meanwhile, my Green and Wedge only were able to take the shields off one rookie while his other rookie put 4 hits on Wedge to take him out.

We had a couple of rounds of poor shooting by both sides but then he managed a block on my Green and without tokens or a stress to kick in Wired he was toast. That left my full health B vs his 2 shieldless Rookies.

I managed to take out one of them and during one round used my barrel roll to get a shot while leaving him none but could only do one damage.

After dancing around for a few more rounds I tried the barrel roll again but this time he banked when I thought he would turn so we ended up face to face by less than a base length. He had 1 hull, I had 2 and I was shooting first. Having used my barrel roll instead of locking, I only rolled 1 hit and he evaded it. His return fire put 3 damage on me to finish me.

Conclusions:

Greens with PTL and Wired are an amazing bargain. Against PS1-2 ships they are basically like an arc dodging ace, you can boost or stack tokens and still kick in Wired for offensive and defensive rerolls. Against PS4 and up their amazing dial makes them very proficient blockers.

I had never tried Swarm Tactics on Wedge before but it did give me some nice opportunities in this matchup. I was shooting first so each round it gave me 2 chances to put crits on Han before he got to shoot back - letting Biggs shoot before dying one round and letting the Green get a shot at Han before he shot back another round.

It was very fun and very intense. Can't wait for next week.

This week I played a guy who has just started playing. He has to borrow ships, cards and tokens to play, but he is catching on fast.

I used the same list as last week

Wedge with Swarm Tactics

Biggs with R2 and IA

Green Squadron with PTL, Wired and Chardaan

Blue Squadron

While he had

Tycho

Jake

Garvin

Warden

all running naked

Since he was new, I went over everything I had in my list and reminded him how his pilots abilities would work. It was not a long game. After a few rounds he started to get the hang of Jake but the rest of his list without upgrades wasn't much help. He took out Biggs but it came down to my 3 ships vs his K-Wing. The killing shot was unfortunate for him. My green squadron pilot rolled 2 natural hits. The attack was at range 3 through 2 asteroids so he had 4 dice and a focus token. He rolled 4 blanks.

Since we finished so quick we played again. This time I lent him my GSP to replace Garvin and my PTL, Chardaan, Juke, Wired, Crack Shot and Test Pilot cards so he could kit out his A-Wings to go along with the Warden. I took out a scum list I had built but never flown yet.

N'Dru, LW, Clusters, Stims

TLT Thug with unhinged X 2

Black Sun Ace with Crack Shot

Right from the first round I played N'Dru wrong and sent him too far away from the rest of my squad to help. When I finally turned in to where I could do some damage I landed on a rock by about 2 millimeters just as my opponent decided N'Dru was the bigger threat and turned all his A-Wings to engage. I only lost 1 shield but the next round Jake and the Green got on my tail and stayed there. N'Dru never got a shot off in the game.

Meanwhile, the TLT Thugs had about the worst dice I have ever seen. In the first 3 rounds of shooting they did 2 damage to the K-Wing. At one point I rolled 15 blanks in a row (6 of those on TL rerolls). Black Sun Ace took out Tycho with his Crack Shot but it was too little too late. We both had to leave but he had 3 mostly full health ships to my badly damaged single Y when I conceded.

All in all though another fun night.

Week 3

My List:

N'Dru, Clusters, Lone Wolf, Stims

2 X Thugs, TLT, Unhinged

Back Sun Ace, Crack Shot

99pts

Opponent:

Oicunn, Shield upgrade, Mara Jade

Vader, VI, EU

Epsilon Ace

100

Three asteroids in a line along the right side and the other three in a triangle along the left. I put the Thugs with the BSA between them along the corridor of asteroids on the right, he lines up Oicunn and Vader opposite those, I have N'Dru to the left and he faces Epsilon Ace off against him.

First round I slow roll the Thugs and have the BSA burn ahead 4 to fly some air cover for them trying to draw fire. N'Dru moves up his side. Oicunn blasts forward 4 while Vader hangs slightly behind him. Epsilon slow rolls toward N'Dru. BSA at range 3 gets 2 hits on the Deci which rolls an evade the only time he rolls a green die in the game. I intend to make the BSA the most tempting target so I figure he will not get many other opportunities and use Crack Shot then. Oicunn's return fire strips the one shield off BSA.

Second round the Thugs dance in sort of a circle formation with those green speed 3 maneuvers while Oicunn bumps the BSA for a hit. While N'Dru turns in to barely make range 2 on Oicunn, Epsilon moves in to flank him. I grab the lock on Oicunn and pop the stims. Vader moves in on the BSA and one of the Thugs. Epsilon does no damage to N'Dru whose LW reroll and stims come in very handy for both defense and offense - clusters drop 6 hits and a Crit on Oicunn. He draws the crit that says cant attack during next opportunity then flip down. Vader does 2 damage to BSA. BSA and one Thug combine for 3 back on Vader. The other Thug is range 1 but IN ARC of Vader and lands a hit with his primary. Two guys take stress from Mara.

Round 3, the Thugs continue those amazing 3 speeds to shed stress, and avoid asteroids and get Oicunn into a kill box. Oicunn rams BSA taking him to 1 hull but the BSA does a 1 hard, keeping his stress but blocking Vader. N'Dru slow banks to clear the stim stress and stay away from his pals while Epsilon pulls a 3 bank to try to rescue Oicunn but lands right in front of N'Dru. EA at range 3 finishes the BSA but N'Dru at range 1 avenges him with 4 hits after LW reroll and spending a focus token vs 3 eyeballs and no tokens to spend for Epsilon. The Thugs finish the blocked Vader and it takes another 3 rounds of mop up action but Oicunn is no match for the surprisingly agile Thugs and their anti-social leader.

My opponent made some key mistakes. First, he allowed me to draw his fire to the Black Sun Ace. Also, he underestimated that 25 point Z-95 build. Finally, he flew Vader right into the thick of it: being first out of range, then in range 1 and arc of a TLT and finally touching the only ship in his arc. He only got off 1 shot total. If he had let the Decimator engage the 3 lower PS ships and used his Vader and Ace to flank and arc dodge N'Dru, he may have been able to take him out without getting off that crippling cluster shot, or at least he may have forced me to waste it on Epsilon. Then he could have used his superior speed and maneuverability to dance in close to the TLTs to get in the donut hole. Also, the Mara Deci build played right into my hands. The unhinged Thugs laughed at stress as they used those green 3 turns all day long.

All in all, I am happy with the way this list worked. I sent in the Black Sun Ace to distract and harass and that is exactly what he did. My dice were not super hot, but N'Dru, crack shot, target locks and lone wolf all worked for me so that whenever I had a bad roll, the rerolls and modifications came through. I guess that's why you set up a list a certain way.