Hawktel’s Battle Report and Tourney Thread.

I bought a Core set, a Falcon, and a YWing back on release. But at the time I was playing Warmachine competitively, and so I didn’t really pursue the game. My core set was opened, and I swapped the Imperial ships for the Xwing with a friend as I decided in this iteration I was going to be rebels while he was imperial. We never played a game. I read the rules, decided it needed to mature, placed the boxes in another box in the closet, and went back to playing Warmachine where they sat till December 2015.

For various reasons I decided to stop playing Warmachine, but I wanted a new competitive game. Xwing seems like the place I want to be.

So, Feb 9^th I played the first game. My collection now: Short Core, Falcon, YWing, and a Starviper. I got the Star Viper cause Autothrusters.

My squad: Luke With R2D2. Biggs with Shield Upgrade and R2F2. Dutch with Ion Cannon, and R5D8. I wasn’t intending on this list, but it ended up this way due to me not realizing that Wedge isn’t in the main set. Also its shot of 100 points, but I didn’t recall so we rolled off for init and he won.

Dock’s list. Poe with BB8, Red Ace with R2D2, Stresshog.

Overall the game went for 2 hours. Mainly due to a slow setup, and although I re-read the rules, some ideas were not clicking in my head yet. Dock was kind and let me retract a mistake or 2, while his dice betrayed him again and again keeping him from effectively getting many hits. Eventually I called the game on time right after Biggs gunned down the Stress hog. His loses were the stresshog, while I had all ships, Dutch had 1 damage left with Pilot Stunned affecting him, Luke had taken a damage, but was tanking along, and Biggs was down to 1 shield left. While on paper my side looked ahead, he was in a better position to advance than I.

Things I learned. Regen is super powerful. Stresshogs really depend on careful flying. Really they are a skill piece. Putting Stress tokens out means nothing if you can’t capitalize on them later. Same with Ion tokens. R5D8 is a better droid than I expected.

I plan to keep updating this thread with my future games so I can see how I improve. (or fail to improve)

Not enough Mistakes Were Made yet! Don't worry, you'll get there... and Welcome to The Addiction!

So it took a while but I did play my second game.

I took Chewie, Falcon, Nien Numb, Luke, Engine Upgrade, Concussion Missiles. Biggs Integrated Astro mech, Photon Torps, and R2D2.

I was playing against a local player Stu. Stu was running Prince Xixor with his Glitter stim Auto thrusters Star Viper, a pair of Bandit Z95 Head Hunters, and the ace in the Kirghiz that gets to shoot more dice. This game wasn’t close or long. It’s hard to keep the falcon off the rocks I found. As I was on the rocks a lot, Biggs got picked off and destroyed. I did take out the bandits, but by that time, it was Chewie and Luke just getting shot away by the 2 Aces.

My collection expanded by adding a T70 into the bunch, and a Force Awakens box. Also my Battle Foam arrived, so I have lots of space for ships.

So I’ve had a harder time getting games of X-wing in than you would think. But it was mostly my fault as I needed to swap my work schedule around to allow me to make it to a different game night than I was used to. I was able to do that, but it starts this next week, so finally I might start working on flying. In the mean time I’ve been playing Armada (really a great game).

But before all that, tomorrow my FLGS, that is 5 minutes from my house is having a store championship. While it is true it will be my third, fourth, and hopefully a few more games, I intend to go and give it hard attempt at winning games.

My list and reasoning…. (I might change my mind, so feel free to shout out suggestions)

Ello Asty, Veteran Instincts, BB8, Auto-thrusters. The PS9, followed with his maneuverability, and BB8 handing out a free barrel roll with green movement should allow him get some angles to do some shots.

Poe, Cool Hand, R2D2, Auto-thrusters. The basic Poe regen ship, but I added in Cool Hand. I think this is a very useful combo due to I’ll be able to get Poe a Focus, that will fuel his innate defense and attack ability. And its cheap at a single point.

Biggs, R2 Astromech, and Integrated Astromech. Born to Die, he has the same job he always gets, While I added in the R2 Astromech to give him a eject target for the Integrated Astromech, but I think it might work well. Increasing the amount of green in the current Stress Meta seems worthwhile.

And this gives a 1 point bid.

I don’t have illusions of being the winner. I am going cause I can get several games in, and maybe learn how to not fly through rocks as much. I will let people know how it goes Monday.

(My collection so far, 1 core, 1 force awakens, 1 Ywing, 1 Falcon, 1 T70, 1 Star Viper, 1 Kwing)

_{I am enjoying your updates. Good Luck and please keep them coming.}

Okay so here is what happened. This is going to be somewhat long…

I’m going to mention some things, and they might seem like criticisms, but they are not meant to be. They are observations on how a few things could run better.

The FLGS opens at 11:00am, and so Dice were to be rolling at noon. 75 minute round times. 17 people showed up, with 4 rounds, then a cut to the top 4, with them playing another 2 games for determining championship status. We ended up being done at 6:50, and I was out the door by 7:00 (spoiler alert, I didn’t make the cut) The final 4 played till 8:30PM.

In my experience with competitive gaming in the past, that would have meant the TO speaks to the Store owner about opening at 8, Dice roll at 9:00, first dice down at 10:15, Round 2 at 10:30-11:45, Lunch to 12:15, Round 3 12:15 till 1:30, Round 4 starts at 1:45 goes till 3:00. Cut to the top 4, They play at 3:30 till 4:45, Finals at 4:50 till done, Prizes done by 6:00, home by 7, Date night cause its Saturday.

Anyway that completes the whining, let’s talk about what happened.

I kept the same list, and went through my regular Tourney prep. The night before I laid out each ship, checked assembly, made sure all tokens, asteroids, dice, templates, laser, carry tray, Cards, upgrade cards, Printed the latest FAQ, damage deck counted to make sure it was at 33 cards, and bottle of water in the fridge, a pair of Granola bars in the bag, and an early bed time for enough sleep. In the morning got up, stretched, general morning routine, and in the extra time given, reviewed Tallon Rolls as I’d never played a T70 before, watched a episode of Looney toons with the 6 year old, got the wife headed with the kids to pedicures and then they were going to the ballet, got my morning tourney breakfast of a McDonalds #3, and was at the venue by 11:05 ready for the day.

The one thing I found in my pregame was my intentions with Cool Hand weren’t going to work due to the wording. I had some idea of using the focus token early, but worked out that cool hand is really only to be used if I did a red maneuver to give a Focus. So still useful, but not as useful as I had hoped.

Due to the normal events, Dice rolling was delayed till 12:15, and let’s talk about game one…

Game 1

I was playing Tanner a established player. He brought in Vader, Inquisitor, and Whisper. I was at 99, to his 100, so I took initiative, we dropped some rocks, and went at it. Basically, I moved up with Biggs, Por, and Ello, he moved up with Vader Inquisitor, and Whisper, playing shenanigans with Whisper, Vader, Whisper, and Inquisitor blew poor Biggs away, my return fire left the Inquisitor with a single wound. He ran Whisper onto a rock, sidelining her while I finished the inquisitor and stripped shields on Vader, while Vader took shields from Poe. He left the very corner of whisper’s base on the rock (I thought he would clear also) leaving Whisper shield less, so Ello blew her away when she rolled no dodges on a 4 dice roll. Vader cornered by Ello and Poe was finished with less than 2 minutes on the round clock. Game 1, I am a winner, I killed 100, he killed 26.

I’d like to claim I was the reason here, but it was more luck than anything. Although he put whisper on a rock, the real failure was in the final few rounds when my hit dice were exploding, with me getting 3 hits, 2 were crits on my 2 final rolls, compounded with him unable to find any symbol on his dodge dice.

I was feeling cocky after game 1. Poe and Ello had worked, I was flying well I thought, I’d gotten a participation C3PO card, and after the first round the top 4 got Soontir Fel alternative art cards, so I got one of those also! I do love the prizes!

Game 2.

My next matchup with Stu from earlier in this chronical. He was playing Palp Shuttle, Vader and Maarek Steele, both kitted with Missiles. We do the standard deployment, I go in hot with Biggs, he brings in Vader, he fires his homing rockets and gets 5 hits, 2 are crits. Ohh Noes. Biggs ejects poor R2 to save himself and combines fire Ello shooting into Vader taking shields. Poe Shoots Maarek taking a shield, and Maarek shoots at Biggs, failing to finish him. The Shuttle comes into play, turns out he is just into range, and puts a shot into Biggs that ends his career on the table. After that, I decide I’m going to get done with Palpatine and move in for a shot with both Ello and Poe. I strip its shields, just to watch as A K-turning Vader and Maarek combine fire and some magnificent rolls to blow away Poe. Next turn Ello maneuvers hard, gets another 4 dice into the shuttle that let me down with only a single damage, and then Vader finishes him some Palp modified shots.

I lose my 4^th game of Xwing ever, and tell Stu thanks for making ½ my Xwing experience losing at his hands. I am kidding, it was a good game. Pretty exciting. Final score is 15 to 99, and I’m 1 and 1 for the tourney.

Game 3.

So I move next to Landon, who has brought a fleet of Wave 8 Ships. He is running 3 Jump Masters all identical at 33 points, with the third one running Boba Fett the new card. All of them are running Daredevil, and Ordinance of some kind. I go in with a vengeance stripping shields on the first Jump Master, only to watch Biggs again get housed by Missiles. My desultory return fire strips shields , and does a point to one of the ships. Turn 2, he maneuvers, I maneuver, and he shoots poor Poe, and ejects R2D2 with Boba Fett. Poe and Ello combine strip shields, but his turret popguns finish my damaged Poe. His three large bases go over rocks and eventually, Ello goes down, with me getting ½ MOV on 2 ships.

Lose, MOV of 33 to 99.

Game 4.

My last game is Kenny, who is running a Vet Instinct Poe, Sabine in a shuttle with a TLT, an a Stress Hog, The game doesn’t go as normal. Biggs Lived! Sabine Boosts, Barrel rolls, Focuses, Evades all over the field, while handing out in general a pair of damage a turn. I had hopes that my Autothrusters would let me avoid the TLT better but I was wrong. Ello gets pinched by Poe, and the Stresshog. Ello isn’t as fun to fly with Stress, and ends where Bad Poe and the Stresshog send him to the Credits. Good Poe goes terribly wrong and get caught on a Rock, and to compound matters he managed to get the stresshog to the right spot and I’m pinned on the rock as Sabine leisurely pumps TLT shoots into him. Biggs completes his slow turn in the great beyond as he dumps Stree, and comes back to take the finishing shots into the stresshog unpinning Good Poe. Bad Poe fulfills Biggs Destiny, and I’m left with beat up Good Poe, while Bad Poe and Sabine wear him down and end my tournament.

Loss, 26 to 99, and my record is now 1 and 3.

In the final Score I was 15^th out of 16 (one had dropped) So I have a place to improve from. The top 8 had Acrylic Range Rulers given to them, but they graciously handed them to the guys who didn’t get one if they already had one, so I ended the day with a new C3PO card, a Soontir alternative Art card, and a new range ruler! I’m pretty thrilled!

Well that is a lot to think about. I was fairly amped up, but I’m glad I took the Sunday to think about what happened and what I learned…

1. I was complimented on running triple Xwings. Some guys said they didn’t see that much. So that was cool.

2. I felt like I lacked Firepower. It’s hard to imagine a turn when my 3 ships with 3 firepower could drops a ship like Biggs with a single barrage of shots. Several of my opponents were able to do that. I felt relatively under gunned. I felt this most against Game 2 Palp Shuttle, and game 3 against the Triple Jumpmasters.

3. Veteran Instincts on Poe would have helped more than Cool Hand. If I owned a second VI card, I could have made this happen. I understand the next Summer kit might have them in it. So if I don’t end up with one before then, perhaps then.

4. Autothrusters didn’t help as much as I wanted. I had an idea that they would improve my survivability, and they did have some times they helped, but I think I could have used long Range Scanners and both saved points, and increased my damage. I’m not saying the card is bad, I think that on T70 Xwings, there is others that might help more.

5. I have to work on my flying. I noticed an increase of time on rocks after the 2^nd game. I don’t think it was a tiredness issue, more a concentration-judgement issue.

Metawise, Wave 8 was super popular. You have the triple Jumpmaster fleet I faced, You had a guy running dual VCX100’s, you have a ghost/Phantom Combo that made it to top 4. A couple Inquisitors on the table, No Mist Hunters, but I expect they are coming. Several people had cards of some kind in play, and Ordinance was everywhere.

I think my next project is to get some Awings on the table. I feel fairly versed with Xwings now. I’m going to work on Ywings, but I think for them I’m going to need to buy a bunch of Wave 8 stuff for Ordinance. I’ll have to look around and see what options are there.

I'm pretty sure the Jumpmaster's were running Deadeye, not Daredevil. Deadeye allows you to fire a missle/torp with just a focus token.

From the sound of your write up, you switch targets often. It could be just game flow and what not. Sometimes you can't shoot the same target in convective turns. Your main goal is to remove as much red dice of your opponents as quickly as possible. So its best to concentrate and focus fire on one target and kill it before you switch to another.

I'd actually switch VI to Poe. Poe at PS 10 is better than Etso at PS 9.

I’m sure your right on the Deadeye. I know they were cheap, and effective.

On the Pilot Skill ratings, Poe at 10 would have left me in a better spot versus the Vaders I saw. Also it would have been a tie versus the Poe in the later game. Ello at 9 was helpful I felt. It made him even with many, and with my 1 point bid, I won init on the first, second, and 4^th games.

But the basic premise is sound. I would have been in a better spot with VI on Poe, and a even better spot with VI on both in my opinion.

So I think I better expound some more on what happened.

So played again for game night.

Game 1

My side…Han, C3PO, Nien Numb,engine upgrade, Falcon, PTL,and Assault Missiles.

Poe, VI, integrated astromech, R2D2

Against, Will’s Dash with a heavy laser, and Sabine in the Shuttle, with TLT.

The game started as normal, with Astroids out, and a placement. We ended up placing basically opposite of each other, He moved his lower PS Dash up, while Sabine fooled around in the corner. Hand and Poe moved forwards as quickly as possible, and Pan PTL’ed to boost ahead, and was in range to Mark Target on Dash. Poe also pushed forward with a boost. As I was in range, shot the Assault missiles, and dropped a pair of shields on Dash, and got a shield off Sabine who was in range. Dash replied back with the heavy laser cannon, rolling 4 hits, and my single green came up shot, dropping 4 shields off the falcon. Not cool.

The game basically pushed from that point, with Hand and Dash exchanging shots, till Han with a single health left got a lucky crew stunned crit, putting dash into a spot where he couldn’t fire that turn. Han lived another turn to drop dash enough that even though Dash killed Han, Poe should be able to get him the next turn.

Then it went poorly, Poe couldn’t hit anything and Dash and Sabine combined to drop him from a full Health and shields to a single hull left, and him with a face up damage that made him pilot skill 0. I was facing the wrong way with Dash and Sabine in close pursuit, so we called it as others had arrived to see if we could jump into another game.

Game 2.

Game 1

My side…Han, C3PO, Nien Numb,engine upgrade, Falcon, PTL,and Assault Missiles.

Poe, VI, integrated astromech, R2D2

Kenny’s side…

Ghost with Kanan, Torps, and a Dorsal Blaster. Biggs with Take 2 damage only droid, and Cracken with Assault missiles I think.

I lined up Han for a close pass on his three ships that were moving in a triangle formation up my right side, when we got to missile range. I didn’t try to repeat the same trick, going for Evade and Focus to try to help me live. I dropped a Shield on Biggs, and Poe removed the other. His return fire was all ordinance with the falcon losing all shields and Poe taking a hit also from the assault missiles I think.

Kenny maneuvered hard to try to get the around to follow Han, that resulted in Cracken being out of Biggs range. Poe and Han combined to kill him, although with VI, he had also shot Han some more before he died.

Han died quickly when his Ghost got in range for a 5 dice primary, leaving just Poe. He smoothed out his shooting at that point, and I just couldn’t escape the needing to fire at Biggs, who suddenly became a evasive specialist. Eventually, even with R2, He plinked through and I lose Poe ending the game.

Overall, it was a good game. Fun to try to run the Han around the table. And to get a crash course in what C3PO is good for and not good for. No games this week, as I’m Headed to Vegas, to play some other games…

Anyone find it weird that they don't release the "championship Squadron"? Like the Championship decks in magic?

So just to throw this out there, if you plan on playing the same list again it might serve you better to get Kannan Crew on the Falcon instead of the Nien Crew, as it removes stress from all of your maneuvers and not just makes the straights green. And anytime you can be less predictable with Han the better.

Han with PtL, EU, Title, C-3PO, and Kannan (60)

Poe with VI, Autothrusters, and R2-D2 (38)

It loses the Assault Torps you had on Han, but will make him much harder to bring down for sure. And allows you to really dominate in the positioning game.

My collection is a Short Red box core, Force awakens, Falcon, T70, Star Viper, Kwing, Rebel Aces, Awing.

As I start to get some of the new stuff, I’ll be subbing in things like Kanan. I really wanted to test the C3PO interaction though. It was the main goal.

I think next play session I’m going to look at C3PO on Miranda’s Kwing. And then Nera d with a Torp loadout. And then Tyco with Rage! I’m close on Tyco with Rage. I just need a Rage and a experimental interface. Tyco done right gives you so many actions. A simple turn is Move, Boost, Evasive, Rage, that gives you a focus, and 3 Weapon attack rerolls. And 3 Stress. But what do you care, that is why you brought him. I’m trying to decide what missiles to roll with him. Proton Rockets for that 5 dice attack? Ion Pulse for that turn of where you know they will be? I’ve discounted Concussion Missiles, but Cluster missiles with 3 rerolls has promise. Assault missiles for that damage on everyone? Might be popular with Biggs guarding the Ghost. Homing Missiles to really get the hits on an Ace?

Well the game has a lot of space doesn’t it? It is what I do like about this game.

Another development is that Battlefoam has the Wave 8 foam out in the size I take for my existing cases. So I guess I have an order to place. Wave 8 Foam, another combo tray, and a squadron tray and a 2^nd imperial tray for armada…

Lots to collect!

So more games played last night.

My list:

Han, Vet Instincts, C3PO, Nien Numb. Falcon 52 points.

Miranda Doni, Plasma Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, Concussion Missiles, TLT, Long Range Scanners, and Weapons Engineer 47 points.

99 points.

As I build this list I decided I want to both get the Kwing on the table, and explore some options. I have always called this process panning for gold. Most of the time you just get muddy and tired, but occasionally, you get that little glimmer of wonderful that makes it all worth it.

Today my Panning for gold was still focused on Han, and Miranda..

The Falcon is one of the most durable ships in the game. 8 Hull and 5 shields was unsurpassed for some time. But for me the issue is that Han doesn’t really do much when it comes to putting out firepower. Now due to his reroll, and his turret it is very consistent firepower, but it nothing like that is quick enough to single round anything but the weakest ship. This is something that makes me want to really move away from the Fat Han, and as you see, I was trying to move towards a “cheap” Han. So I dropped PRL, and Engine upgrade to try to get the cost down. I still am not sure what to think on this yet.

Miranda, really it came down to the Long Range Scanners and getting Ordinance onto the table. The Kwing is one of the few ships that can field the as yet unreleased scanners, and I did have my Guidance Chimps ready if someone objected to playing a unreleased card, but I was able to play both games without this being a problem.

Game one against the esteemed Jacob.

Jake was running 3 Tansarni Point Vets Sycks with Manglers and Atuni Mindlinks, and Serissu equipped the same way. We deployed astroids and he deployed is a square formation and marched up the board, while Han and Miranda hung back and she Target Locked the lead ships, while Han moved closer to cut across their formation.

His formation was Vet, Vet, then in the second row, Vet, Sirissu. The front vets would evade, the back vet would Focus, and Sirissu would either focus to get a second, or Evade. As you can see the weak link is going after the one Vet with just a focus and no evade, but with distance and me not target locking that guy, I wasn’t able to get to him easily.

The first round of combat Han and Miranda concentrated on one of the lead Vets, and Heavy shots, and him using his focus and his evade, No damage was taken, and Miranda only had a single Concussion Missile load left. That was depressing. But also enlightening. If I’d gone with using my Shield for another missile of Miranda, I would have gotten a shield down.

After that, I ended up flying Han past his formation, and it was Miranda’s turn to get a few shots. She was only in 2 arcs but it still took 3 shields. Hand and her combined to drop a shield off a Vet with TLT shots. He wheeled the formation to chase Miranda so I slammed her out of arc, but perilously close to the table edge. We had a turn of just Han shooting some ranged shots through a rock into a vet, that took a shield as Miranda took a sharp 2 that had ½ the template hanging off the table but she made it. She used the turn to require a Target locks, putting one on Sirissu, with the TLT shooting a shield off another one.

His fire put a crit on the Falcon, pushing it to the If I hit a ship or a rock I take damage.

I know it was a pivotal turn, and I wasn’t going to get many more chances, I needed to start putting some ships to bed. Miranda moved into a position to see all his forces as I wasn’t going to be able to arc dodge, and I knew she wasn’t going make it so I spent her last shield and dropped a 5 dice concussion missile into Sirissu blowing her to space. Her return fire was desultory, but the 3 Vets easily combined to remove a shieldless Miranda from the board.

After that it was a stern chase as they flow hot after Han. I first went for a 4 straight to open the distance, but after that went to 1 hards to dodge behind a rock and to let them get to short range. Threpeo and a Evasive every turn till I got hit with a crit that took away actions put it where Han was just critted to oblivion.

A great game. I really enjoyed it. Long range scanners are usefull on a Kwing. I was packing too much ordinance on her. I would have done much better to just run a single instance of Concussion Missiles, and Plasma torps and spent 3 points on something else.

Game 2 was the same list Versus Brobots. I didn’t even look much at his list but he had Fire control and Heavy lasers and Gunners.

I had a plan. I placed the three large asteroids in a triangle as dense as possible on his right close to the edge as possible. I tried to make it so there was no real easy passage through for his large base ships. He took this and put both ships on his left in the very corner, with them next to each other. I deployed Miranda to the center, and Han opposite the Brobots.

I moved slowly and locked them both up with Miranda. Han moved slowly up also. He turned them into each other, essentially just staying still.

Turn 2 he banked 3 forward, and his other moved a 2 bank. Han moved in front of him, while Miranda moved into range. Han put 3 hits into his Brobot, and then Miranda sacrificed a shield to drop a 5 dice concussion missile shot into the same Brobot. I’m not sure, but somehow he just lost all shields. He didn’t roll any evades but he had a focus token, and a evade token.

I hadn’t looked close enough at his cards, so when his first ship put 3 hits from a heavy laser into Han I used 3PO, and my evade token to evade them all. He then used the gunner and got another 3 hits that I rolled 1 evade for so 2 shield gone. He rolled 4 hits on han with the other, leaving the Falcon with no shields. If I had just been smarter, I would have just lost 2 shields.

At this point he maneuvered into a mass blockage with him trying to block Miranda but failing, and his other blocking Han. Han was out of arc of the Miranda blocker and so he put a damage on him, and Miranda messed up and tried to us her TLT, I had rolled when I realized that couldn’t happen, I’d missed with both shots, so he judged that I just wouldn’t regen her shield token.

He Kturned, and was coming back as Miranda slammed away, but the Store called time and we put away.

I think the game was pretty even when he stopped but I might have had an edge as the player against me had failed a morale check in a previous game and wasn’t really back to equilibrium. Still my first “brobot” experience, and man they are fast, and Dodgey.

So I’ve updated my collection. I now own A Short Red Core (Check the opener for why it’s a short), Force Awakens, Falcon, CR90, Rebel Aces, Bwing, Awing, T70, Ewing and Ywing, I also have a Star Viper and a Jump Master.

So my FLGS has a tradition that on the 3^rd Sunday they do a tourney that has a small entry fee and they use it to clear out some of the accumulated prizes. So this last Sunday the 17^th, I was able to play.

My List:

Horton Salm, TLT, Engine upgrade, R2 Astromech, 36

Jake Farrell, PTL, Chardaan Refit, Autothrusters, Awing Test Pilot, and Wired. 28

Nera Dantels, Deadeye, Proton Torps, Extra Mutions, Fire Control System, Guidance Chips 35

1 Point Bid

So we got there, got right set up, an right into games:

Game 1

I was playing the Dastardly Stu, who has been played several times on this missive. And most likely in the future. He was running:

YV666 Slaver, Zuckuss, Dengar, and Inertial Dampers

HWK, Palob, Adaptability, TLT, Greedo, Stygian Patricle Accelerator, Cloaking Device

Jump master Contracted Scout, Deadeye, Proton Torps, Extra Munitions, Guidance Chips, R4 Agro, and Boba Fett

100 points.

We dropped rocks, I tried to distract the Contracted Slaver with Nera thinking I could dual it down, Jack and Horton tried to tag team the Slaver and Palob. This went wrong when my Green dice enacted their sudden but inevitable betrayal, and left Jake and Horton shield-less in the first combat Round. This was with no return damage. Nera flew onto a nearby rock out of a perverse desire to see space slugs, and so I lost but halved His slaver, and his Contracted Scout.

Game 2.

I ended up playing against Kurt’s Crack Shot Swarm. He was running 3 blacks with Crackshot, Howlrunner, Dork Curse, and Scourge. This went way off the rails quick. When I deployed Nera I spent some time to line of sight down a path on some asteroids that would let her Move 3, then move another 3, and be in a Obstructed position that should could do some long range fire, hopefully weather fire back gain a target lock, and then she could move in on getting the full dice blast into a Tie off Ordinance. Some-how she got bumped, or I blew it to start, and she couldn’t do her move, and I never got my plan back on track. Jake fell to a bunch of Crack shots even with Wired, while Horton managed several times to be about 1/4^th inch out of his TLT range, and Nera did shoot a Torp Shot at a Tie fighter after she got caught trying to flee the scene. But it was all for naught, and I lost, not getting a single kill, and losting all my ships.

So there was 6 players at the tourney, and of the 3 winners, one played down, and lost, where of the 2 undefeated, we had a winner, so at that point, with us having a single undefeated, we handed out prizes. I ended up with a Gunner crew card, and I’m happy about that.

Overall, B wing and A wings are hard to fly at first. I never felt my opponent was in any danger of my getting both of them on the same target at one time.

Horton was amazing in the first game, easily moving around the table and he almost single handedly killed the Slaver. The second game I don’t think he got a single hit through. The issue is that Horton was 36 points. He was able to Arc dodge, a little, and the ability to reroll blanks was useful, but I would have been better going with something cheaper.

Nera was even more of an issue. She never managed to do anything in the game, generally getting focus fired down. I’m sure I could use her if I practice with her more, but her cost is a lot. I think I’d drop the Proton’s to Plasma, the Fire control system completely, to drop her to 32 points, as she is very expensive.

Jake Farrell was a better and more useful ship. I would say I do like him for his movement ability. I was asked about taking Wired over Vet Instincts, but I think it was a right choice. With PTL he was going to be stressed, and wired gave him both a little more survivability, and a little boost to offence.

I also think that the meta is changing quickly on Pilot skills. In my last games, Jake at PS7 would have moved after only 2 of the last 16 ships I’ve faced. And with so many VI Poe, Vader, Inquisitor, Soontier, ectra, I’d end up going last to many of these even with the investment. The Mid tier Pilot skill world seems to have some wide open space for play.

Not exactly a game report, but I did want to warehouse some ideas here for future consideration…

Ewing Corran Horn, Marksmanship, Sensor jammer, R2-F2, Experimental Interface.

This really isn’t a simple build, but it is arse expensive. Marksmanship is a natural with Horn. Anytime you are going to shoot twice, Marksmanship is the card to look at. Essentially a single action that will give you a lot of efficiency. The next issue is that E-wings are pretty fragile, so I’m looking at a way to solve that with a Astromech no one uses, the R2F2. Giving an extra agility is useless on Xwings, and Y wings, but E wings are a good spot for it. Unfortunately the droid is expensive and hogs your action. That is where the Experimental Interface comes in. The idea would be that you would Marksmanship and Agility+1 on shooting turns, and the Evasive or barrel roll on turns where he can’t shoot.

X Wing Wedge, Outmaneuver, R7-T1, Integrated Astromech.

The idea is that Wedge moves in, Target locks and free boosts due to the action of the droid, Hopefully this lets him arc dodge, and with Outmaneuver and his natural Agility reduction, he should do some good damage. Some key points is this is a 35 point build, but he has nothing but the Integrated Astromech to help his survivability. Another option is to drop the R7-T1, and but in BB8 and barrel roll, move see if I get the agility reduction.

Porkins with Rage and R2D2. Porkins Rages, gets 2 Stress kills one with his pilot ability, and takes a green maneuver to both shed the second stress, and let R2 repair a shield. Fairly cheap at 31 points as portly PS7 ships go.

Hobbie, Targeting Astro mech, Flechette Torps, Integrated Astromech. This build would work better if the X wing had more red. Right now Kturning might be the best issue. Kturning all the time…

Not exactly a game report, but I did want to warehouse some ideas here for future consideration…

Ewing Corran Horn, Marksmanship, Sensor jammer, R2-F2, Experimental Interface.

This really isn’t a simple build, but it is arse expensive. Marksmanship is a natural with Horn. Anytime you are going to shoot twice, Marksmanship is the card to look at. Essentially a single action that will give you a lot of efficiency. The next issue is that E-wings are pretty fragile, so I’m looking at a way to solve that with a Astromech no one uses, the R2F2. Giving an extra agility is useless on Xwings, and Y wings, but E wings are a good spot for it. Unfortunately the droid is expensive and hogs your action. That is where the Experimental Interface comes in. The idea would be that you would Marksmanship and Agility+1 on shooting turns, and the Evasive or barrel roll on turns where he can’t shoot.

X Wing Wedge, Outmaneuver, R7-T1, Integrated Astromech.

The idea is that Wedge moves in, Target locks and free boosts due to the action of the droid, Hopefully this lets him arc dodge, and with Outmaneuver and his natural Agility reduction, he should do some good damage. Some key points is this is a 35 point build, but he has nothing but the Integrated Astromech to help his survivability. Another option is to drop the R7-T1, and but in BB8 and barrel roll, move see if I get the agility reduction.

Porkins with Rage and R2D2. Porkins Rages, gets 2 Stress kills one with his pilot ability, and takes a green maneuver to both shed the second stress, and let R2 repair a shield. Fairly cheap at 31 points as portly PS7 ships go.

Hobbie, Targeting Astro mech, Flechette Torps, Integrated Astromech. This build would work better if the X wing had more red. Right now Kturning might be the best issue. Kturning all the time…

Four naked evade dice is worse than three with focus. Unless you will be shot at by multiple ships, R2-F2 is really not a good investment.

Most ship that Wedge can arc dodge already has less then 3 agility. I think Outmanuever is overkill in most case.

For Porkin, remember if you remove the stress and get damage, you received a damage card "through" shield. R2-D2 would only help you recover shield.

Hobbie is solid.

Not exactly a game report, but I did want to warehouse some ideas here for future consideration…

Ewing Corran Horn, Marksmanship, Sensor jammer, R2-F2, Experimental Interface.

This really isn’t a simple build, but it is arse expensive. Marksmanship is a natural with Horn. Anytime you are going to shoot twice, Marksmanship is the card to look at. Essentially a single action that will give you a lot of efficiency. The next issue is that E-wings are pretty fragile, so I’m looking at a way to solve that with a Astromech no one uses, the R2F2. Giving an extra agility is useless on Xwings, and Y wings, but E wings are a good spot for it. Unfortunately the droid is expensive and hogs your action. That is where the Experimental Interface comes in. The idea would be that you would Marksmanship and Agility+1 on shooting turns, and the Evasive or barrel roll on turns where he can’t shoot.

X Wing Wedge, Outmaneuver, R7-T1, Integrated Astromech.

The idea is that Wedge moves in, Target locks and free boosts due to the action of the droid, Hopefully this lets him arc dodge, and with Outmaneuver and his natural Agility reduction, he should do some good damage. Some key points is this is a 35 point build, but he has nothing but the Integrated Astromech to help his survivability. Another option is to drop the R7-T1, and but in BB8 and barrel roll, move see if I get the agility reduction.

Porkins with Rage and R2D2. Porkins Rages, gets 2 Stress kills one with his pilot ability, and takes a green maneuver to both shed the second stress, and let R2 repair a shield. Fairly cheap at 31 points as portly PS7 ships go.

Hobbie, Targeting Astro mech, Flechette Torps, Integrated Astromech. This build would work better if the X wing had more red. Right now Kturning might be the best issue. Kturning all the time…

You might want to consider a different load out of corran, fire control system works really well with his ability. Push the limit, engine upgrade, and using R2D2 as his astromech to regen shields when he takes greens to recover from PTL work well too. Replacing Porkins with biggs to protect corran might not be a bad idea either.

I won't say I had success, but I had a lot of fun with Porkins, Push the Limit, R5-D8, Hull Upgrade. He hits pretty hard with Focus + Target Lock almost every round. If he starts taking hull damage, he can try to repair with R5-D8, and maybe even focus for defense, depending on the situation.

Good thoughts on some wacky builds.

A little more background is that these builds are all uncompleted thoughts.

I wrote and deleted a big post on how the Meta has changed. But the way I look at this in regard to Corran is that he can’t compete well on the current field that is nothing but Jump Scouts and Palp Aces.

For Corran to be more effective on the field to me, he needs to hit like a Dolph Lungren in Rocky, and retain what survivability he can. Now I’m not saying what I've built is the best way of doing it, but it’s a place I’m starting as I occasionally look into him.

Same with the other options. With the Wedge Idea, he is a 35 point ship that is going to give me some ability on dealing with Aces. You want to make A Whisper Player cry, tell them they are functionally uncloaked at that point. I like him due to the cost, and his potential, but I’m not ready to play him. That is why he is on this list of stuff for me to check in the future.

At this point, as a Rebel player, we are now in a spot where it should be very easy to try new things. Clearly the current options that people “know” isn’t the way forward, or we wouldn’t be looking at days where the top 8 of a major tourney had no Rebel players at all.

I didn’t get a chance to play Thursday, so I made up for it and went in on Sunday and got a pair of games…

My games were against: 3 Tansari Vet’s in Sycks, with Manglers and Atuni Mindlinks and Stealth Devices. And a Z95 with Concussion missiles.

Game 1 Nera, FCS, DeadEye, Ghimps, Proton Torps, Extra Munitions. Luke Skywalker, VI, R2-F2, Integrated Astro. Jake PTL, Prockets, Autothrusters, A-wing Test Pilot, and Wired.

This game started better than I have before. He was formation flying the Vets, with the Z95 moving Somewhat through the formation. The opening salvo was when he maneuvered to get shots on Nera, who between some poor rolls and a rock only lost shields. Wanting to contribute she put a full Torp load into the Z95 putting 2 hits and a 2 crits into the little ship, no evades were rolled, and the Z was removed from the field.

After that Nera attempted a gracefull excape, but she was followed by a Syck that removed her from the field, but her last Torp load broke his Stealth device.

Luke did well, some rocks and his droid giving him a point of agility really turned on his swap a eye to a evade. What I did miss was his firepower. I had a pair of turns where I was able to target lock and shoot into a Syck and even with the Target Lock I was failing to get through his defenses. In desperation, Jake attempted to come in and made some shots, but he wasn’t getting into the fight either. Eventually, my ineffective firepower didn’t get through to the Sycks, while his manglers mangled my force.

Game 2, Bryan kept the same force, while I went to:

Chewie, PTL, Engine Falcon, C3PO, Kyle Katarn, and Homing Missiles. Nera, same loadout as above with Ion Torps.

This game went pretty well, Chewie and Nera pushed to a more crowded part of the field with him formation flying. Eventually seeing I was losing space, Chewie flew around the corner, and dropped Homing Missile on his firing line of Sycks, killing a one. The Falcon lost shields due to this. Nera attempted to Ion torp the remaining ships, but he evaded. I wished I’d kept Proton Torps on Nera to get some hits through to kill some Stealth Devices.

Eventually Chewie, dies and Nera is facing a pair of sycks. Nera, flies well and is handing out some punishment, but the B’s have a finite life when people more than 1 is shooting at them. Just her with a FCS was doing some excellent work though. She was very much a contributor after her Missiles give out. Luke was what I wanted to see for a cheap ace at 32 points. I’d consider looking at what he does at with a different EPT after I see what he needs versus some of the other aces.

So I played more games….

My force for Thursday night Games:

Horton Salm, Bomb Loadout, Flechette Torpedoes, TLT, R5-X3, Guidance Chimps.

Jake Farrell, PTL, Chardaan refit, Awing Test Pilot, Wired, Autothrusters.

Nera Dantals, Fire Control System, Ghimps, Proton Torps, Extra Munitions, Deadeye

1 point Bid.

So Jake and Nera have stayed the same. My last games with Jake some after game recollection showed I wasn’t using Wired as I should and I wasn’t maneuvering where I could get the best assistance from Autothrusters. In these games I really worked on it. Nera Dantals was really about just polishing my game with her, with the goal that if I can get both Torp loads from her, and spend some time shooting the Cannon, I generally feel I have a won game.

The Wildcard in this mess is Horton. I wanted to use his primary ability on his TLT as much as possible. Horton’s ability to reroll blanks places the TLT in an exceptionally accurate category. I’ve used him this way before and included a him with the idea that TLT’s with his ability are more efficient at breaking Stealth devices than people might suspect. To further open some options I’ve not used before I ended up proxying a Bomb Loadout card to toss a Ion Bomb on him, and I’ve included Guidance Chips and Flechette Torpedoes. The idea on both is that besides his damage output, he could contribute in Crowd Controlling.

Game one. Ten Numb with a Heavy Laser Cannon and FCS and Expose, and Etahn with R2-D2 and Expose. His idea was that he could get to a point where he would put a 5 dice Heavy Laser Cannon shot with TL and Focus into someone and that Etahn would let him make one a crit that couldn’t be diced away.

I gave him initiative so I could see more where he was going. Normal rock placement and we went at it, the first combat round Ten Numb put a 4 dice shot into Nera, taking 3 shields, but Etahn was just out so . Horton took a pair of Ten Numbs shields, and then Nera took 2 more leaving him 1. Next round I used the R5 on Horton to fly onto a rock ending up at short range to Etahn who had used Exposed. Jake also maneuvered into a strong position being short ranged to Etahn, Nera had luckily moved from Ten Numb’s fire arc, but was nearly right infront of Etahn.

Ten numb’s fire stripped Horton’s shields, while Horton’s primary battery and Jake cleared all three of Etahn’s shields. Etahn’s fire killed Nera, but she was able to put the last torp load into Ten Numb with 2 hits, and 2 Crits. Ten Numb rolled an evade, Lost a shield, then used Chewie to Take a damage, then took the last crit on the newly returned shield.

Ten numb makes the move he has too next turn, and Jake ends up at range 1 behind him. Etahn makes the move he needs and regens a shield. Horton and Jake kill Ten Numb and we call the game after another turn when Etahn finds Jake can ride him like a pony while Horton snipes him with repeated TLT strikes, while maneuvering to stress him with the Torps.

Victory!

Game 2 was against Stu, that I have played before, using the same list I played against in the post from April 18^th 2016 in this chronicle. His list through:

YV666 Slaver, Zuckuss, Dengar, and Inertial Dampers

HWK, Palob, Adaptability, TLT, Greedo, Stygian Patricle Accelerator, Cloaking Device

Jump master Contracted Scout, Deadeye, Proton Torps, Extra Munitions, Guidance Chips, R4 Agro, and Boba Fett

We dropped rocks, Stu deployed with his Contracted Scout on his right, The YV on his left in a horizontal position, and the HWK in the middle. Seeing an option, I deployed Nera, Jake and Horton to my right.

Opening movement saw his YV drop a hardleft to push into my forces, Pavlob and the Scout slowly maneuvered forward. Jake on the extreme right Raced forward a 5, barrel rolled forward, and boosted forward. Nera’s Bwing moved a stately 3 Straight, and barrel rolled forward. Horton who I had placed closer to the center now found himself nearly head to head with the oncoming YV, but remained unconcerned as the range was great.

The YC moved a 3 bank into a spot that left him with shots on Nera and Horton. Jake moved forward, but boosted into the corner intending to give Pavlob some justice. Horton was in the perfect position to drop his Ion bomb, that would have hit the YV, that would have ended up with him being a rock next turn. Horton reduced 2 shields on the YV, while Nera went into with Torps getting 3 torps through leaving the Slaver with a shield. The slaver stripped 2 shields from Horton.

Jake and Pavlob started the dual as the YV moved into position. Nera arced away from the YC, while Horton started away back towards my table edge. The scout finally seeing the game way on pushed his speed up and got into range of Horton. Horton’s fire stripped the YC’s last shield, and Nera dropped her final torp load into the big ship. 3 crits and a hit ended up being a Direct Hit, a Major Hull Breach, and a Major Explosion. The major explosion flipped another Direct hit killing the Slaver. I felt good about this.

As retaliation, the Scout dropped his last torp load into Horton, and did remove his TLT with Boba Fett, and started a Console Fire.

Another turn of maneuvering and Nera closed to range while Horton K-turned to come back in. I acquired a target lock on the scout, and I wanted to get the Flechette torps onto someone. Nera also reversed course with a Kturn and ended up at close range to the marauding scout. Horton was out of range, but Nera was in a spot to drop shots and removed a few shields from the scout. Her FCS also give her a Target lock. Jake completed a turn and was coming back for another attack run on Pavlob.

Horton moved into range target locked and placed the Flechette torpedoes into the scout removing the last shield while the Scout killed him as I’d taken another 2 damage from the console fire.

Nera, had moved to close range and between the Target lock and her Primary weapon left the scout with a console fire and a single point of damage left.

Next turn Nera killed the scout and was left with a few shields and Jake with 1 damage point left versus Pavlob who had 3 hull left, Another turn or two of maneuvering and Pavlob went down in a hail of B-wing cannon fire.

Another Victory!

So while in the second game I got extremely lucky with the Torpedoes shot from hades on the YV, if I’d played correctly he would have gained a pair of Ion tokens and ran into rocks, where he couldn’t shoot, and with his Stress for using Zuckuss he couldn’t even action. I think I would have still dropped him, but I don’t know if the scout having another “free turn” would have been able to turn the game around. I got lucky whith his damage Deck though, and its well known to better lucky than good.

I feel much more adroit using Jake. I recalled and used Wired, and his AutoThrusters with great effect in both games. I still don’t think I’m a great Awing player, but he sure provides an effect that is perhaps far more than his meagre 2 Red dice should be allowing for.

I am really happy with Nera work. I was pretty thrilled that I managed to get both Torpedo loads out and on target. You might think that is a low bar, and perhaps it is, but its what I’ve set for myself.

Horton continues to perform exceptionally well for me. I’ve had ideas about changing this format to a Nera/Tarn Misson/Poe list for regionals, but I’ve not made that happen, and this list is growing on me so far. Perhaps it could do some Regional work. I’d need to refine Horton’s set up in the list though.

So I have 37 points left from a list and I’m looking for something that can dual with Aces fairly well. I’m looking at 2 options, mainly because they are in my ability to field (I own the cards) or they are just cool…

Option 1: Poe – Autothrusters, R5-P9, VI. He moves, gets a focus, increases his accuracy, increases his defense, regens a shield, and hopefully causes many issues for the enemy. And adds in a 1 point Bid for going first.

Option 2: Horton Salm – TLT, Engine Upgrade, BB8. He moves, and moves some more with Engine upgrade, or Barrel rolls, Moves, and then Boosts, but his main thing is he consistently is getting 2-3 hits from the TLT handing out a point of damage to people who are consistently protected by 3+ dice and a evade token.

The rest of the list is Nera Dantal’s doing all around torps, and Jake the Snake Farrell in a rapid pace tour of being outside your firing arcs.

So I got another 2 games in, but against the redoubtable Will.

Will was running contract Scouts x2, One with Boba Fett, and one with Zuckuss. His third ship was Palob with a TLT and a cloaking device.

First game was fairly strong, I miss deployed, but battled back. Palob was a real issue, and managed to cause me enough issues that I was behind by the end of Turn one when he stole Nera’s focus token leaving her with no targets. He was able to capitalize, but I fought as much as I could, but I think the final game state was Nera attempting to get those last few damage on a scout that managed to get her.

Second game was just a replay. I tightened up by rock placement, causing Will to go with a traditional right hand scout deployment over his preferred left hand deployment followed by a sharp right to open his dial to easy left handers into the field.. I deployed to my right also, so we had a diagonal match. I tried to put Palob down with a few shots from Nera and Horton, but didn’t manage to succeed. This move cost me though as he managed to get Horton with a heavy hit, that left him on few hull.

We played a few more rounds, but it was clear after Horton and Jake had been lost Nera wasn’t going to finish the game, so we called it as his 3 ships were trying to hunt her down to finish her.

So the game lessons I pulled….

1. Nera has the same build as a contract scout, but her having a Primary 3 weapon means she is pumping out crits far quicker. This slight addition in firepower is a big difference in the contract scout game.

2. Horton needs a rethink. He is too much all over the place with the various options. While there are match’s it is nice to have a variety of options, I’d have some better match’s with a little more clarity of purpose. Accordingly I think I’ll be dropping the bomb off, and adding on Plasma Missiles with a reload. This additional firepower should help in the heavy game we are seeing.

3. Jake is coming along. My main issue is with him I don’t get many chances to shoot with him yet. I always seem to be maneuvering to get a spot I don’t know If I can get too. The Wired EPT pays for itself all the time though. I’m already looking for another place to use it.

I stuck with what I’ve been running, Nera with Proton Torps, Jake With no missiles, PTL, and Wired, and Horton with TLT, Flechette Torps, and an Ion Bomb, with R5-X3.

So just fooling around with squadron builder, I did make a Barron, Countess, Emperor list. I’m not sure if I’d call it a Full house? Feudal Empire? All the Lords and Ladies?

I’m still practicing with my Rebels. I’m still working out my squads for the upcoming Salt Lake City regionals.