Battle Report from Knoxville (Hobbytown) SC: (33 players)
I decided on my list on the way to the event. My friend Lee had painted up a beautiful "Dr Doom" theme'd StarViper, to go with another custom painted SV I had. I felt like I should show them off. I want to go on record as having said this list is intended to be a Scum version of Poe (and variants) list. My version of Rebel Poe was called "Parisian Special" since it was made the same day as the Paris attacks. This version took it's name from that list, "Black Sun Special". My standard deployment during the event was Palob in the middle, Guri on the right, and Xizor on the left.
My list: Xizor (VI, AT, Virago, FCS), Guri (Predator, AT), Palob (Wired, ID, TLT)
Round 1: Chris P. [Han (Lando, Dash, EI), Poe (Push, R2D2, AT?)]
I started in standard position, and he moved into the middle of the table. All of my ships worked over Han after a block from Palob, who kept stealing whatever tokens he could get. He used Lando well, which is something I wish more people used. He spent most of the game using Push/EI on his ships, which limited his turns somewhat on Poe. Han made it from his corner, to the catty corner on my side, before he was brought down. Then it became Poe vs the rest of my force. Palob was destroyed by Poe, but Guri and Xizor chased him. For the remainder of the time allotted it was a chase, and I could not land solid hits. He even skirted the edge of the map in an effort to escape and had the closest call possible. When time was called, we had to finish the round. I had taken a stress on Guri from a critical hit, and played a red maneuver. He choose to change it to a 4 straight in an effort to run me off the board, which luckily I had just enough space to not do that. Both had dropped Poe's shields, and Xizor needed a full hit, and a full blank on his part to get a 100 pt win. I rolled two crits, two hits, and he rolled two blanks for the last action of the game. 1-0 (100-28)
Round 2: Ben F. [2x Blue Sqd, 2x Blue Sqd (Tactician, E2 title, Ion Cannon)]
I varied my start this time, Palob still in the middle, with Guri to his right, and Xizor to his right about speed 1 away. He set up his in block formation in the diagonal corner. The plan was to divide and conquer. He could focus fire on one ship, but the other two could close and devastate them. or he could split his forces and try to chase down each ship. He chose to split his forces a naked blue and a titled blue each for Guri and Xizor, ignoring Palob. Palob sniped away helping to drop shields, targeting the E2's. Guri and Xizor kept the long range shots up versus the E2's. Their return fire caught Xizor with an Ion, but was at range three so no stress. Guri took a potshot as well, but not from the naked B. Next turn both Guri and Xizor closed on their pairs, and fired at point blank range into the E2s. Both E2s died on that turn before getting to shoot. The following turn I switched tactics and focused on burning the remaining B's down one at a time. My opponent's dice were rather bad at times, and it really hurt him. His red dice really didn't like him. The last B died without getting a clean shot being killed by a TLT shot. 2-0 (100-0)
Round 3: Ryan S. [3x Rookie Xwing Pilots (R2, IA), Z-95 Bandit Sqd, Rookie Pilot (different droid, IA)]
Interesting list, something I'd not even remotely seen before. My decision was to fight him like the last list. He swarmed in the middle of the field for start, and I used my usual deployment. Turn one being cautious to see how he moved. Turn two I shot ahead and banked to see how he'd deploy. He split one R2 Rookie to go after Palob, Two R2 Rookies into Guri, and the off Rookie and the Z into Xizor. Xizor and Guri focused on a Rookie assigned to them, and Palob helped out vs Xizor's Rookie. Palob didn't get to steal any tokens since he was TL instead of using Focus. Next round turned into advantage SVs since they started to outmaneuver the Xwings and got shots unanswered. The lone Z was taken out by Xizor and Palob who saw him as a convenient target after a failed block. Guri finished off a Rookie, and started in on the other. Palob was lost during the fight when a R2 rookie, and the off Rookie decided he was a great and easy target. The off Rookie was the last to go down, as Xizor and Guri finished off the remaining R2, and started to chase down the last one. 3-0 (100-28)
Round 4: Todd C. [Chewy (Gunner, C3P0, Title), 2x TLT Gold sqd.]
The TLTs gave me pause at first. I set up in the usual pattern, but kept Guri to the left, and Xizor to the right (opposite normal). He set up in the left corner with Chewy on the edge, and the two Golds about a half a 1 speed apart toward the middle. I slow walked Guri thru some turns and BRs to keep her in basically the same place. Palob slow moved straight ahead, and Xizor charged down the far side in an effort to get a flanking spot. His Golds and Chewy proceeded straight ahead at speed 3. Eventually, they slowed down, and Guri stared them down at Range 1 and Chewy bumped into his own man. Palob was at a roughly parallel position at R3, and Xizor was flying in from a rear flank position at R2. Guri took shots from all three ships, and lost only a shield and took a hull hit. A Gold squadron was blown up with concentrated fire from all three of my ships. The following turn, the Gold and Chewy moved forward with Chewy again bumping into his own man. Guri S-Loop'd behind Chewy at close R1, Xizor moved up confidently at a medium pace, and Palob just kept making a lazy circle around the fight. This turn Chewy laid into Guri in an effort to bring her down quick. She took another hull, All three ships tore into Chewy and ripped off all the shields and laid on a hull hit. The next turn the Gold moved out the way, Xizor and Guri got into perfect firing position on Chewy (ignoring the Ywing), and Palob kept out of the fight. Xizor fired into Chewy, scored crazy hit on TL re-roll (2c, 2h) and no evade from the YT. Chewy tried again to take our Guri, first rolling nothing, and with Gunner two hits out of four dice. Guri avoided the shot. Returning fire at R1 finished off Chewy. The remaining Gold sqd kept firing at Guri, but could not land a hit. He was taking out two turns later by combined fire. 4-0 (100-0)
At the last Swiss round's tally I was leading the pack with 4-0 (544) ahead of Bobby R by 11 points, followed by Casey at 521, and Darrel at 506. Lee the last member of our group was dropped to 3-1 by Bobby on the last round. The finals were all Asheville guys!
Semi-Final: Darrel [Omicron Pilot (Palp, SJ), Vader (Title, ATC, Predator), Carnor (RGP, AT, SD, Push)]
This fight worried me. Having tested up to this point with Emperor Palp I knew it's power. Carnor also kinda messed with my plan for Guri and Palob. Honestly it was a good move on his part, and I thought it was a solid list. He deployed with the Shuttle on my right, Carnor in the middle, and Vader to his left. I deployed in my standard pattern with Guri on the right, Xizor left. My plan was the use Guri vs the Shuttle, and Xizor vs Vader, and save Carnor for the last. That being said, my plan went to s#it immediately. Dice ran cold and it hurt me early. Carnor opened fire on Guri, and ripped of a shield, and a hull. Guri and Palob returned fired and took off the SD, and between the two managed two hits. Vader TL'd Palob, and managed to really hurt him. Xizor got almost nothing, managing to take off only a shield. Following turn the shuttle blocked Guri, Carnor and Vader lined up on Palob, and Xizor chased Vader. Guri was left with no shot, Vader hurt Palob again, Xizor took off the other shield on Vader, and Palob died when Carnor laid into him. Next round it Guri managed to gummy up the works some as the shuttle all stopped, and Vader bumped into the shuttle. Carnor was clear of the scrum, and lined up on Guri. Xizor continued to chase Vader. Carnor fired on Guri, and scored a Crit and Hit on her. She was at 1hp now. Her return fire ripped 3 shields off the shuttle. Thanks to Carnor being outside R1. Xizor fired on Vader and put him to 1HP. The following turn, things REALLY looked bad. Guri moved to keep pressure on either the Shuttle or Carnor, and Xizor moved to finish off Vader. Guri was straight up brutalized by Carnor without firing again, and Vader was brought down by Xizor. Advantage Darrel. Now here is where things got interesting. The fight was basically between Carnor and Xizor. Carnor and the Shuttle got a few hits in. As the shuttle tried to turn to bear, it was accidentally flown off the back of the board. Suddenly the fight actually looked win-able. Xizor's one HP vs Carnor's one HP. Maneuver central ensued, until Xizor managed to get a flanking position off an S-loop, but Carnor was able to bear. Xizor fired, and took out Carnor with exactly one hit breaking thru to end the match. I can honestly say that game really could of gone either way, and it was as close a game as could be asked for. 5-0 (100-63)
Final match: Casey W. [iG B (Mangler, Adv Sensor, Predator, AT, Title), IG D (Predator, Adv Sensor, AT, HLC)]
Casey and I always seem to have great games, and this one was likely to go the same way. He set up in the left hand corner side by side. I used my usual deployment. I slow walked Xizor, while Palob lined up slowly, and Guri raced around to provide a semi circle around the two aggressors. He slow walked them up and turned them into the middle of the board. Both of us were cautious to start. All three of mine fired at R3 into D, and I walked away from that exchange with 1 shield gone, and a hull hit on Palob, a shield off Guri, and three shields off D. I felt as good as could have been expected. Palob and Guri attempted to cut off the lines of movement for the IGs. A partial success as Guri blocked D, but missed on B. Xizor slow turned into D and Palob was left at R1 of D, and R3 of B. This turn saw the end of Palob as both of Casey's ships unloaded into Palob and he was killed with about 9 damage total on him. He was avenged when both Guri and Xizor manged shots on B, but only ripping off some shields. The real pressure was building. Swirling around in a game of blocks, loops, and K turns. Eventually D was brought down by a great roll from Xizor, and a awful roll by Casey. However more casualties on my side, Guri was brought down by one of the IGs. At that point, it was a race between who could position and shoot best. B's 4hp vs Xizor's 3. Fire was exchanged but no real hits landed at this point. Casey K turned into my left corner, and Xizor in a bid to end it all, went nose on at R2 with the B. I fired with a TL and focus token, scoring two hits, and a crit. He rolled no evades, and had no focus. Dealt the two hits, and the crit flipped: Direct Hit! Disbelief hits me, and we shook hands. 6-0 (100-63)
A fitting end to this event for me to prove that StarVipers are competitive! Hot die carried me some, at one point I was sure they were going to start spontaneous combustion. When the went cold, it was down to not being in arc, and maneuvering as solidly as I could think of.
Final list thoughts: Wired did nothing for me to speak of. I only once rolled into something of value, and I was hoping it would open my dial up some but ultimately didn't. ID was also not really effective, since I took it to help me trigger Wired.