Gerard's Store Championship, February 20, 2016 (Houston, TX)

So I came to a store championship at Gerard's today with a list archetype that I've been playing with some of my friends the past few weeks - a 2-ship list with a fighter points capped Fireball. I wanted to make the Fireball work, but I had to think long and hard about what ships to bring with it. I eventually settled on a kitted out ISD2 and Demolisher. I went into this tournament expecting to be severely punished for both lack of Activation Economy and initiative bid. However, the Fireball can operate independently without Squadron commands and I was hoping to push the limits on what the Fireball could do, out of sheer curiosity. My primary concern was that Ackbar CR-90 swarms were prevalent in my meta, and they love sniping with Ackbar shots from long range - so I had to tech against them somehow. My answer to this was Admiral Montferrat. Having him in my list has paid off very well and has made a significant difference in the games I've tested against this archetype.

Without further ado, the list:

+++ ISD Fireball (397pts) +++

++ Imperial Navy (Standard) (397pts) ++

+ Gladiator Star Destroyer (85pts) +

Gladiator I-Class Star Destroyer (85pts) [Assault Concussion Missiles (7pts), Engine Techs (8pts), Ordnance Experts (4pts), •Demolisher (10pts)]

+ Imperial Star Destroyer (180pts) +

Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer (180pts) [Electronic Countermeasures (7pts), Gunnery Team (7pts), Phylon Q7 Tractor Beams (6pts), XI7 Turbolasers (6pts), •Admiral Montferrat (5pts), •Admiral Motti (24pts), •Avenger (5pts)]

+ Squadrons (132pts) +

Firespray-31 (18pts)

Firespray-31 (18pts)

Firespray-31 (18pts)

Firespray-31 (18pts)

TIE Advanced Squadron (12pts)

TIE Advanced Squadron (12pts)

•Dengar (20pts)

•Major Rhymer (16pts)

+ Objectives +

Assault Objective [Advanced Gunnery]

Defense Objective [Contested Outpost]

Navigation Objective [superior Positions]


We had a field of 8 players for this Store Championship. Battle reports follow:

Round 1: 5x CR-90 Ackbar with 4xB-Wings, Keyan Farlander, and Jan Ors.

My Opponent elected have me go first, and I selected Superior Positions from his objectives. My opponent had Turbolaser Reroute Circuit on all of his CR-90s so his damage output was always very consistent. I deployed my ISD at speed 1 in the corner slightly angled in, and Demolisher alongside at speed 2. My Fireball deployed as far into the board as they could, just offset from Demolisher so that they wouldn't be overlapped when it activated. My opponent deployed centrally at speed 2 in a brick with his B-Wings out front, as expected. On round 3 the shooting started, and I brought Demolisher in and managed to severely damage a CR-90 before it went up in flames under an Ackbar barrage. My ISD finished off the CR-90 and came up to speed 3 with a combination of Navigate dial and token, turning on Admiral Montferrat. Dengar and the two Advanced were making life difficult for his B-Wings while Rhymer and the Fireball were essentially free to fire on the CR-90s. Eventually it came down to two CR-90s vs my ISD and the Fireball, and a few B-Wings struggling to finish off the last Advanced and Dengar. Jan was dead at this point, so I sent one Firespray over to continue holding up the B-Wings. My ISD eventually succumbs but in the aftermath I kill one last CR-90 leaving only Ackbar and 2 B-Wings alive.

Loss, 3-7, 0 MOV Points.

Round 2: ISD, ISD, Demolisher, no squadrons.

At this point, I'm feeling a little uncomfortable because the list I had teched against just beat me pretty soundly. However, I knew I couldn't tilt. My opponent had a bigger bid than me, and elected to go first. He selected Superior Positions. He deployed Demolisher in the far left corner, with his two ISDs closer to the middle. I deployed my ISD at speed 1 and Demolisher at speed 2 in the lower right corner, diagonal from him to draw him into me. My Fireball made contact in round 2 and I started farming victory points off his ISD's rear hull sections. I was able to draw the battle out into what amounted to one-on-one engagements, and killed his ISD, then his Demolisher, and then his last ISD. My Demolisher survived with 1 hull point left, and at the time of his last ship being destroyed, I had 17 objective tokens from attacking the rear hull zones of his ships.

Win, 10-0. 655 MOV Points.

Round 3: Home One, 4xCR-90 with Slaved Turrets, no squadrons.

Heading into the third round, I ended up paired against the top player, who had 17 Tournament Points. He elects to go first, choosing Contested Outpost from my objectives. I placed the station in the lower left corner, and he deployed directly across from the station. I deployed Demolisher at speed 2 to the right and behind the station, and my ISD at speed 1 directly behind the station. I got points from the station while softening up his shields with the Fireball before I sent Demolisher off on a suicide run on turn 2 to destroy a CR-90. The run succeeds in killing one of his CR-90 and Demolisher is immediately crippled by Home One, and finished off by one of its flanking CR-90s. My Fireball continues their work, outright killing one CR-90 and munching at shields on Home One and finally putting some hull damage on it. In Round 3 I bring a CR-90 down to 1 hull with a punishing front arc shot before bringing my ISD up to speed 3 for my defensive shenanigans. He regenerates his shields and uses Home One to ram my ISD, keeping two arcs on my front hull zone. At this point one of his CR-90s can't even attack me with its side arc because it was obstructed at long range (thanks, Montferrat!). The Fireball munched away at his shields and brought Home One down to 3 Hull. On turn 4 I finish off the CR-90 and put some more damage on Home One, finishing with a ram - this turns off Montferrat but I only had 9 damage cards on my ISD and I've been spamming Engineering at this point so I have shields regenerated all around. The Fireball finishes off Home One and then we move into turn 5 with my Fireball at liberty to destroy his last CR-90, tabling him.

Win, 9-1, 328 MOV Points.

Tournament Result: First Place, 22 Tournament Points.

It turns out that my opponent from round 1 ended up getting a 5-5 loss against a 4-assault frigate Ackbar list before scoring a 9-1 in the last round for a total of 21 tournament points. Admiral Montferrat paid off dividends in this tournament and I ended up winning it all and taking it home.

Nice battreps, thanks for sharing.

I run a very similar list, and placed 3rd in my most recent Store Champ (12 players) with 20 points.

2 ships definitely isn't an auto-lose.

Jeff B, the x wing gencon winner just won a store championship in Cincinnati with just an mc80 and mc30 and 6 fighters he had 27 vp's. 2 ship lists can do work!

Well done!

Great testament to the balance of the game....

Good flying daviddo. Nice to see lists scrape back to the top after an early set back.

Nothing wrong with 2 ship lists. Activation advantage is great but it isn't an auto-win like it was in wave 1

Hurray for 2 ship lists!

Congrats on the win !

This proves that having some form of fighter force is now mandatory, because no ship can tank something like a Firespray ball for 5 straight turns

Good work and great write up! Congrats on the win.

Were there a lot of fleets running no squads? I'm perplexed that you drew two of them. In my group the lowest amount of squads taken is maybe four token fighters. This is because EVERY time a no squad list is attempted its 9-1 or 10-0 if there are squads on the opposing side.

Impressive. Most impressive. Congrats on the win, sounds like a great bit of play to turn things around after the first game! Due to the way games are structured, losing your first match up isn't the end of the world.

I think 2 ship lists are risky though, personally. Like any 'min-max' build, you have a lot of strengths but a weakness which can be exposed against the wrong build - in this case, a ship heavy fleet geared to kill all ships and ignore squadrons for a table result.

My final round opponent in the FLGS store champ recently had a very similar list to yours, and had won both his first two games 10-0. My build had 4 ships (IVGG) and a light fighter screen only - but was very much geared to kill the enemy ships for the table. I finished it in round 3 and only lost one GSD (400-61 mov).

Good work and great write up! Congrats on the win.

Were there a lot of fleets running no squads? I'm perplexed that you drew two of them. In my group the lowest amount of squads taken is maybe four token fighters. This is because EVERY time a no squad list is attempted its 9-1 or 10-0 if there are squads on the opposing side.

My list...

The WhalePack

Assault Frigate II (B) x4

#1 with Ackbar, Lando, EC and X17

#2 with Paragon, Intel Agent, EC and X17

#3 with EC and X17

#4 with EC and X17

Ended up going 3-0 for 18 points on the day, in retrospect I feel I would drop Paragon in favor of another Intel Agent. Regardless I had a blast dancing the big uglies around the field yesterday and anytime I get to play with my toys with others is a good day!

Congrats to Dave on his first FFG Store Championship, way to go!

Good work and great write up! Congrats on the win.

Were there a lot of fleets running no squads? I'm perplexed that you drew two of them. In my group the lowest amount of squads taken is maybe four token fighters. This is because EVERY time a no squad list is attempted its 9-1 or 10-0 if there are squads on the opposing side.

As Darph Nader said, there were 3 players with zero squadrons. One didn't do so well to start (my second opponent, which is why I drew him in the second round), and one was doing very well (my final opponent). Darph Nader himself had no squadrons and cruised into 4th place overall.

Man, nothing feels as good as dissecting a three ship imperial list with a supported fireball.

Congrats on the win !

This proves that having some form of fighter force is now mandatory, because no ship can tank something like a Firespray ball for 5 straight turns

Actually I took second at my store championship with only 5 neb escorts and the first match I burned down a fire ball with anti fighter dice

Good work and great write up! Congrats on the win.

Were there a lot of fleets running no squads? I'm perplexed that you drew two of them. In my group the lowest amount of squads taken is maybe four token fighters. This is because EVERY time a no squad list is attempted its 9-1 or 10-0 if there are squads on the opposing side.

Three out the field of eight were unencumbered by squadrons, I elected to run the Whalepack and had a lot of fun with them yesterday. As Dave indicates there is a lot of the Vette/TLR in the local meta down here so I thought the four Frigate list would fare pretty well after some discussion with a number of my Rebel agents.

My list...

The WhalePack

Assault Frigate II (B) x4

#1 with Ackbar, Lando, EC and X17

#2 with Paragon, Intel Agent, EC and X17

#3 with EC and X17

#4 with EC and X17

Ended up going 3-0 for 18 points on the day, in retrospect I feel I would drop Paragon in favor of another Intel Agent. Regardless I had a blast dancing the big uglies around the field yesterday and anytime I get to play with my toys with others is a good day!

Congrats to Dave on his first FFG Store Championship, way to go!

How did Lando pay off for ya?

I tried something very similar today in a friendly game. It was a lot of fun and a very close game.

I think 2 ship lists are risky though, personally. Like any 'min-max' build, you have a lot of strengths but a weakness which can be exposed against the wrong build - in this case, a ship heavy fleet geared to kill all ships and ignore squadrons for a table result.

My final round opponent in the FLGS store champ recently had a very similar list to yours, and had won both his first two games 10-0. My build had 4 ships (IVGG) and a light fighter screen only - but was very much geared to kill the enemy ships for the table. I finished it in round 3 and only lost one GSD (400-61 mov).

This sounds a lot more like an example of you playing a better game than your opponent, rather than a universally sound strategy necessarily.

A turn 3 win is inoperative, and I think the biggest thing it shows that you significantly outplayed your opponent more than that your list was a little better.

I think 2 ship lists are risky though, personally. Like any 'min-max' build, you have a lot of strengths but a weakness which can be exposed against the wrong build - in this case, a ship heavy fleet geared to kill all ships and ignore squadrons for a table result.

My final round opponent in the FLGS store champ recently had a very similar list to yours, and had won both his first two games 10-0. My build had 4 ships (IVGG) and a light fighter screen only - but was very much geared to kill the enemy ships for the table. I finished it in round 3 and only lost one GSD (400-61 mov).

This sounds a lot more like an example of you playing a better game than your opponent, rather than a universally sound strategy necessarily.

A turn 3 win is inoperative, and I think the biggest thing it shows that you significantly outplayed your opponent more than that your list was a little better.

LOL, I guess I managed to pull it out of the hat in that game. There were also other factors in play: my choice of admiral (Vader) amping my anti-ship damage output every turn by +20% or so and b) the choice of objectives. My opponent chose first so I gave him no good objective choices - in this case he went for Intel Sweep allowing me to predict movement and bring the black dice to bear.

But activation advantage was definitely a big help.

well 2 ships seems bad until you factor in the heavy fighters, the activation advantage will only last 2 turns as your upgraded ships blow away 1-2 of his ships evening the playing field for late game

I think 2 ship lists are risky though, personally. Like any 'min-max' build, you have a lot of strengths but a weakness which can be exposed against the wrong build - in this case, a ship heavy fleet geared to kill all ships and ignore squadrons for a table result.

My final round opponent in the FLGS store champ recently had a very similar list to yours, and had won both his first two games 10-0. My build had 4 ships (IVGG) and a light fighter screen only - but was very much geared to kill the enemy ships for the table. I finished it in round 3 and only lost one GSD (400-61 mov).

This sounds a lot more like an example of you playing a better game than your opponent, rather than a universally sound strategy necessarily.

A turn 3 win is inoperative, and I think the biggest thing it shows that you significantly outplayed your opponent more than that your list was a little better.

LOL, I guess I managed to pull it out of the hat in that game. There were also other factors in play: my choice of admiral (Vader) amping my anti-ship damage output every turn by +20% or so and b) the choice of objectives. My opponent chose first so I gave him no good objective choices - in this case he went for Intel Sweep allowing me to predict movement and bring the black dice to bear.

But activation advantage was definitely a big help.

I think your opponent may have played right into your hands in that game, especially if you won on turn 3. Against such a list, delaying ship engagement is paramount to everything else - every round of free firing from the squadrons on your ships is a good round for the 2-ship list. This was a big reason why I deployed at lower speeds in the corner.

Good work and great write up! Congrats on the win.

Were there a lot of fleets running no squads? I'm perplexed that you drew two of them. In my group the lowest amount of squads taken is maybe four token fighters. This is because EVERY time a no squad list is attempted its 9-1 or 10-0 if there are squads on the opposing side.

Three out the field of eight were unencumbered by squadrons, I elected to run the Whalepack and had a lot of fun with them yesterday. As Dave indicates there is a lot of the Vette/TLR in the local meta down here so I thought the four Frigate list would fare pretty well after some discussion with a number of my Rebel agents.

My list...

The WhalePack

Assault Frigate II (B) x4

#1 with Ackbar, Lando, EC and X17

#2 with Paragon, Intel Agent, EC and X17

#3 with EC and X17

#4 with EC and X17

Ended up going 3-0 for 18 points on the day, in retrospect I feel I would drop Paragon in favor of another Intel Agent. Regardless I had a blast dancing the big uglies around the field yesterday and anytime I get to play with my toys with others is a good day!

Congrats to Dave on his first FFG Store Championship, way to go!

How did Lando pay off for ya?

Lando didn't trigger in any of my matches but nonetheless served as CPO Snackbar's bodyguard. For the 4 points he's worth his weight if and when called upon, IMO.

In retrospect, I think a big part of that last match was the fact that once the shooting started, I was able to destroy more or less one ship per turn. Being able to reduce incoming firepower by that much, plus the reduction of one die per attack incoming on the ISD from Montferratt was huge.

2 ship lists have the capacity to trap a list with more activations. Unless you are splitting your forces, you should be able to watch your speed and trap several of the enemy ships in a kill range.

At least that is how I do it. It does expose yourself to sustained fire for a turn possibly but of you watch the threat range you can handle it.