Yesterday, I played in the store championship at Your Friendly Neighborhood Tabletop Shop in Newington, CT.

We had 8 players show up, and the split was 2 rebels (who were awesome, good looking, smart, rich, and famous), and 6 imperial players (all complete losers who are bad players, and should feel bad). I assure you my descriptions of these players are objective, neutral, and completely accurate; they have nothing to do with which side I was playing or any personal bias.

Unrelated, I played rebels.

Mon Mothma is a Bracist

CR90A Corellian Corvette (44), Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7), Mon Mothma (30)

CR90A Corellian Corvette (44), Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

CR90A Corellian Corvette (44), Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63), Assault Proton Torpedoes (5), Ordnance Experts (4), Foresight (8)

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63), Assault Proton Torpedoes (5), Ordnance Experts (4), Admonition (8)

A-Wing (11) x 3

YT-2400 (16)

Total: 392 points

Game 1: Fleet Ambush, the original

My first game was against Dan, who was playing a 2xISD imperial List. Both were ISD 1s, with expanded hangar bays, boosted comms, and weapons liasons. Motti was his admiral, and he had Soontir Fel, Rhymer, Dengar, and a bunch of TIE bombers and TIE advanced.

I chose to go first, and discovered Fleet Ambush among his objectives. This objective is something of a double-edged sword against my list, as the hardest thing to do with the two MC-30s is get them in close enough to face punch without losing them on the way in. With that said, I confess I barely get to play this objective, as nobody I know takes it, and this game demonstrated why.

Our obstacles were scattered pretty evenly across the board, and when setup began, I lead with one corvette in the lower right corner of the ambush zone. He countered with an ISD in the middle of the board in his deployment zone at speed 2, so my second setup was another corvette in my normal deployment zone in the back middle. Then, he placed his other ISD about range 5 away from the first one. Thus, the rest of my ships were laid out such that both MC30s were in the ambush zone pointed diagonally at where the first ISD would be after moving, and the other corvette was in the back. The rhymerball was between my MC30s and the ISD, and my squadrons were placed as a defensive screen to ideally tie up enough of the ball for one turn that I could survive.

Turn 1: I activated a corvette first, and he immediately activated his ISD near my death shrimps. This was a mistake, as it meant that he spammed out a few squadron activations, did minimal damage to one MC30 and two A-Wings, and then was double-arced by one of the MC30s. I activated the rest of my ships, and by the end of turn one, the ISD1 was mostly crippled.

Turn 2: I went first, obliterating the ISD1. That was game, as everything flew away from the Rhymerball.

Turns 3-5 were me rolling up to the flank of the other ISD and then delivering the same treatment to it (I lost one of the shrimp to return fire after the first one delivered a crippling blow to the ISD, only to finish it with the other shrimp), but the reality was that the game was over on turn 2 when deployment allowed me to force the ISD to walk directly into an MC30 ambush. He either needed to kill one of the shrimps on the first turn with the Rhymerball (unlikely), or he was going to lose the ISD given the brute force the ships bring to bear with a double-arc shot. Mon Mothma did virtually nothing here, as the shrimps took one round of attacks from the bombers, but that was it.

Final Score: 9-1 Victory, 400 - 113 (one shrimp, all A-wings)

Game 2: Fleet Ambush, Ambush Harder

Game 2 was against Charlie, who had also won 9-1 by defeating the only other rebel player in the tournament (Versch of IFF fame). We chatted before the game about our experience with wave 2, and the wild swings in his first game. Overall, I was ready for a tough game against a strong opponent.

Charlie was running:

• ISD2 w/Screed, Needa, Electronic Countermeasures, Turbolaser Reroute Circuits, and Avenger
• Glad II w/Montferrat, Ordnance Experts, Engine Techs, Assault Concussion Missiles, and Demolisher
• Raider II w/Overload Pulse
• Dengar, Mithel, Soontir Fel, 2x TIE Advanced

I again went first, and got to pick from Advanced Gunnery (nope!), Minefields (eh), and Fleet Ambush (!!!).

Do you remember the deployment I mentioned above in the first game? That happened again, but even more concentrated. Charlie deployed in a wedge, with the ISD sandwiched between Demolisher and the Raider, which allowed me to have the MC30s coming in at an angle where again, on the first turn, he would drive right into them. Without the threat of the rhymerball to destroy my face, I made sure they wouldn't suffer enough fire on turn one to be seriously harmed. The corvettes were poised to pounce on anything that made it past the death shrimps.

Turn 1: I move CR90, Charlie moves the Raider. I move another CR90. Charlie, knowing what is coming, moves Demolisher and tries to put a dent in Admonition. He fails, though forces me to discard one token in the process of keeping the damage only to shields. I move the last CR90. He moves the ISD, after shooting at long range at Admonition (where TRC did nothing because I evade it, and the other reds don't do enough to grind through the shields, though I am left with zero front shields on Admonition at this point). The ISD, however, is now in the front arc of both MC30s and the side arc of one. The glad is in the side arc of the other. I activate the MC30s in order, and the ISD is nearly destroyed while Demolisher is left battered but alive.

Turn 2: Everything went sideways here, as I activate Admonition (directly in front of the ISD and barely alive), blowing off the remainder of Demolisher's shields and leaving it with only a few hull, while destroying the ISD. Charlie activates Demolisher, finishing off Admonition and flying free of the scrum. Foresight then obliterates the raider, and the CR90 trap is activated, with all three taking TRC shots with concentrate fire at the fleeing Demolisher and scrubbing the Imperial filth from the Newington sector for the second time in a single day.

We then sat around for like an hour because our game was over in 2 turns watching everyone else push ships, throw dice, and cry uncontrollably as they flew into asteroids. I also want to say that Charlie was a great guy and good to play against, as despite the brutal and decisive nature of our immediate engagement, he was a good sport and a good opponent (and, I think, will never pick Fleet Ambush again).

Final Score: 9-1 Victory, 400 - 113 (I again lost one shrimp and all the A-Wings)

Game 3: A Different Kind of Ambush?

My final game was against Cordell, who was yet again playing Imperials. Cordell had brought the following to bear:

• ISD2 w/Ozzel, Intel Officer, Electronic Countermeasures
• Raider I
• Glad I w/Montferrat, Demolisher, Engine Techs
• Rhymer, Interceptors, Bombers, Advanced, and Firesprays

His objectives were Advanced Gunnery (nope!), Hyperspace Assault (don't love it with demo, but livable), and Minefields (huh). I went with Minefields, and our deployment here ended up very differently as a result: Cordell spaced the mines across the middle of the board horizontally, dividing my side and his side with a large block of mines.

As a result, knowing that my strong results had me in a position where avoiding a crushing defeat would mean that the rebel alliance would triumph on the day, I made a bit of a gamble with my deployment. I put three corvettes and my squadrons in the lower right while he put his entire force across the board from me and castled up with the Rhymerball, but then, to use his minefields setup against him, I put the MC30s on the far side of the board, moving at speed 3, so they could swing around the end of the minefield and then run down Cordell's side of the board laterally at speed 4.

So how do I survive with the corvettes while I was waiting for that? I didn't intend to, and that was where our gambit began. This is what the board looked like on turn one (note the absolutely sweet action shot of Demolisher moving):

Not pictured: the third corvette (off to the lower left of the frame) or the MC30s (imagine they are in the next post over to the left), and more mines to the left.

On turn one, all of my corvettes took a hard left at speed 4 and started running like hell to the other end of the board. The A-wings and YT-2400 fell back behind them, and what had looked like a straight on long range engagement suddenly turned into a chase. Over the next 3 turns, Cordell's fleet was stretched out along the midline as he gave chase to the corvettes, with Demolisher clipping a mine in the process as the CR90s ran away. The entire time, the MC30s were closing from the opposite side, but at the bottom of turn 4, one of the corvettes finally bit the dust from a combination of bombers that had finally slipped the A-wing screen and Demolisher engine-teching to get close enough to fire.

However, on turn 5, the trap was sprung. The MC30s, which had been out of the game up until this point, finally game into range, with Foresight at medium range and Admonition at close range to the ISD after I again activated corvettes first. This left the ISD suddenly exposed, and a single round of fire stripped off all the shields and all but 3 hull. On turn 6, the ISD desperately turned away to try to survive, and I confess that I could have broken off the engagement, saved one of my remaining corvettes from Demolisher, cleaned up the raider, and called it a day.

Instead of wussing out, I activated Admonition first and again broadsided the ISD, the fire from the ship leaving it with a single hull point remaining after shooting. Then, a ram directly in the unshielded butt finished the flagship off, allowing my rebels (other than the corvette that Demolisher subsequently obliterated) to fly off into the distance, victorious, after springing the trap.

Edit: Cordell had a strong plan here, and I think if he had backed off instead of chasing the corvettes so hard, he could have forced a different kind of engagement. I probably would have deployed similar to him given what I was facing on the other side, and he played a tactically strong game. Also, yet again, another great opponent - I had some very fun games throughout the day.

Final Score: 6-4 victory, 191 to 151.

As a result, I ended up placing 1st in the tournament by a pretty wide margin, and have a couple of quick thoughts out the back:

• Objectives are still everything. Two of my opponents had Fleet Ambush in their list if they went second, and as a result, I got to go first AND play a favorable scenario where my fleet was ambushing theirs, not the other way around. It's imperative to make sure that objectives work with the fleet being played and that you have a plan for going first, or going second and playing any of your objectives against a fleet no matter how aggressive or how cowardly it might be.
• Rhymerballs are everywhere and are seriously a thing now. People have to plan to deal with them, and you'd better have enough squadrons to stall them, the mobility to run past them, or both.
• Playing a list without a single brace in it is kind of terrifying.
• The two rebel players finished first and third, respectively, proving once again that they are superior to those filthy imperials and vassal is basically an elaborate lie.
• I don't think there is a dominant list. I can think of counters to everything, and a lot of these games came down to either executing a strategic plan correctly or tactical maneuvering (or both). As long as you take any reasonably solid list, and don't pick an objective that accidentally cripples your own list, I think everything is winnable with good play. This game is exceptionally well balanced at the meta-level right now.

So I want to close by again saying I had three great opponents, and that despite the MoV in some games, small tweaks (one objective, bits and pieces of deployment) could have changed everything. Thanks to everyone, and to the venue (which had an awesome amount of playing space and was very good to us).

Best list name ever.

Let me quickly qualify Reinholt's account. I'm his brother, didn't play, wanted to observe him. I'm glad I did, all descriptions are accurate as I read it. The real icing on the cake was... well.. All of game 2 . Fleet ambush alright! Also, Game 3 was my favorite to watch, very technical, very close. Until Reinholt pulled his turn 6 maneuver which was an absolute game changer. This list was brutal. In the first 2 it was merciless, and in game 3 when faced with what started out looking like a tough game the list's adaptability really shined. It stood up to a mean Imperial Fleet in mine field with a great commander behind them. I'll take any list that will mantle 4 ISDs in 3 games. Cheers, brother. Well played.

BTW, that big bad MC30 was the game changer. Also the way you handled the Rhymer balls was very well done.

Great tournament report, thanks. I like Fleet Ambush as an objective when I have a black dice heavy fleet, but even then I find Contested Outpost a better choice as I can force the opponent to come to me while I score objective points.

I am rarely sad to see Fleet Ambush as an objective choice when I get first player!

Great tournament report, thanks. I like Fleet Ambush as an objective when I have a black dice heavy fleet, but even then I find Contested Outpost a better choice as I can force the opponent to come to me while I score objective points.

I am rarely sad to see Fleet Ambush as an objective choice when I get first player!

Exactly.

I can't think of a single situation in which I wouldn't prefer Contested Outpost (come visit my black dice or I score points) or Hyperspace Assault (surprise Demolisher!).

The reason is exactly what you said - the problem with Fleet Ambush is that it's often a good thing to pick as first player compared to almost any other option (I can't think of a single other objective I would rather play other than perhaps Precision Strike, which can be really double-edged sword if someone brings a fleet capable of inflicting large numbers of critical hits as well).

Nice write up and Congratulations. Fleet Ambush is pretty much an insta loss as player 2. I think most people put it in their list with Demolisher and ISD's thinking they will be so close to me and I can engage quickly not realizing that the only lists that are going to pick it are ones that are designed to first with 4-5 activations so yo will never get your big shot on them because they can do what you did which is activate your corvettes before your heavy hitters forcing player 2 into your trap instead of the other way around. Biggs documented the terrible performance it had in the Vassal Tourney.

Like DrunkTarkin said your list name made me laugh. Solid build and very nicely executed!

Nice write up and Congratulations. Fleet Ambush is pretty much an insta loss as player 2. I think most people put it in their list with Demolisher and ISD's thinking they will be so close to me and I can engage quickly not realizing that the only lists that are going to pick it are ones that are designed to first with 4-5 activations so yo will never get your big shot on them because they can do what you did which is activate your corvettes before your heavy hitters forcing player 2 into your trap instead of the other way around. Biggs documented the terrible performance it had in the Vassal Tourney.

Like DrunkTarkin said your list name made me laugh. Solid build and very nicely executed!

This has been my consistent experience with this objective. The only list I've ever run where I strongly considered taking it was my own CR90A spam list (7x CR90A w/TRC, MM, Jaina's light on the MM Corvette, and 1 sad little A-Wing), and in that one, when you take it and someone picks it, all the CR90s are deploying facing sideways at speed 4 so that on turn one you can get the hell out of the way (the real goal here is to have one ship in range on turn 1 so you can hit it with 7 TRC corvettes and then run like hell).

I don't think anything is a insta-lose. I've done allright with it while playing. The biggest thing is timing the ship(s) sitting in the standard deployment box to arrive on scene before the ambush ships get too into the action. I'd probably suggest not putting anything soft into the ambush either.

I'm also ok with Advanced Gunnery as an objective. Mostly because I'm probably too dumb to know better.

I don't think anything is a insta-lose. I've done allright with it while playing. The biggest thing is timing the ship(s) sitting in the standard deployment box to arrive on scene before the ambush ships get too into the action. I'd probably suggest not putting anything soft into the ambush either.

I'm also ok with Advanced Gunnery as an objective. Mostly because I'm probably too dumb to know better.

I didn't mean its a literal insta lose. I more meant against competent opponents its like 80% a loss for 2nd Player. If the person going 1st selects Fleet Ambush its probably because he wants to be closer to you and has enough ships in his list to activate his ships in the normal deployment first so 2nd player has to move his ships within blue/black dice range of 1st players ships.

I think you are confusing who is 1st and 2nd player in fleet ambush and who I meant it is an insta loss for. It's usually a loss for 2nd player who put the card in their objective list in the first place. It's first player that deploys the odd ships in the ambush zone, 2nd player in the normal deployment zone.

Yes/No.

I agree if you're smart as first player, you can make it nearly a non issue. The 2nd player really needs to have a plan with that objective. I'd play it as a quick 2-3 turns of conflict followed by run like hell.

Don't let this Rebel scum lie to you. It was all underhanded tactics and deception. Exactly what you'd expect from traitors.

I was at the tournament, too. It was a fun day. I faced three Imperials in a row (I was fielding Imps myself) and finished 6th. Made a LOT of mistakes, but learned a lot, so I consider that a wash. Didn't have a chance to test myself against Reinholt's list, but with the way my day went it wouldn't have been pretty. Here's what I brought to the table:

905th Tactical Bomber Wing

Grand Moff Tarkin

Precision Strike

Contested Outpost

Superior Positions

Victory I-class Star Destroyer Lady Tremaine

- Grand Moff Tarkin

- Boosted Comms

- XX-9 Turbolasers

Victory I-class Star Destroyer Madam Mim

- Defense Liaison

- Ruthless Strategists

- XI-7 Turbolasers

Victory I-class Star Destroyer Gaston

- Defense Liaison

- Ruthless Strategists

- XI-7 Turbolasers

4 x TIE Bombers

3 x TIE Advanceds

Major Rhymer

Darth Vader

Round One

I flew against Reinholt's final opponent, Cordell. I had the lower bid and for some reason chose to go first. I also picked Minefields, and he set them up the same way, across the middle. I deployed castled in the corner. He deployed opposite with the GSD and Raider pointed at a right angle and the ISD almost head-on. My first and biggest mistake was shying away from the mines. Only one of my ships had Boosted Comms, so I couldn't effectively control the bombers from my own side, and with only red dice at range, I wasn't much of a threat there either. We mainly skirmished with our squadrons while the GSD and RDR started to go the long way around. After two turns of indecision, I crossed the barrier and took some hits on turn three. The mines actually did very little, but my flagship hit an asteroid twice and suffered two Structural Damage cards. I mismanaged my squadrons something fierce, and ended up with most of them dead and the bombers tied up and ineffective. The ISD fired a few shots around turns four and five, and then turned away, denying me the chance of catching it and doing any real damage. I only lost one VSD, but the combination of that and my dead squadrons, and the fact that I didn't even scratch any of his ships, led to a 7-3 loss.

Round Two

I didn't write down the exact upgrades, but my opponent had something along these lines:

ISD-II w/Screed, Avenger, SW-7s and XX-9s

VSD-II w/Overload Pulse

RDR

3 x TIE Fighters

2 x Bombers (I think one may have been Rhymer)

1 x Firespray

We had a tied initiative bid, flipped for it, and he ended up as first player. He chose Contested Outpost. The right side of the board ended up as a cluster of obstacles, so I placed the station toward the middle of the table, as close to my ships as possible. I lined my flagship right up against the station with the other two flanking to the left. His RDR deployed in front of the obstacles to maneuver through with his bombers, while the ISD and VSD were set up to the left of the station but pointed right at it. Turn one and two we both maneuvered our ships forward. My TIE Advanceds managed to burn down his bombers and fighters, and the Firespray was circling around behind me, so I left them to go after his ships. His ISD and VSD closed with mine at the end of turn three. His VSD managed to hit one of mine with OLP, and Avenger mauled it something fierce, but it lived. My bombers and VSDs stripped the shields off of his VSD and put some damage on the hull, but I couldn't kill it. Turn four I dropped my flagship to speed zero to prevent it from landing on top of my bomber force, thinking I had my other two ships to protect me.

Wrong.

His VSD activated and hit my undamaged VSD with OLP before I finished it off. Then Avenger activated. Its first shot destroyed my crippled VSD. On the second shot he rolled ten damage. My VSD had two shields to the front. Boom. Then he targeted my flagship, which had not suffered a single shot all game. Eleven damage. Speed zero. No defense tokens. Boom.

8-2 loss, mostly because I had 80 points for the station.

After the game I remembered I had XI-7s on two of my ships, which probably would have meant his Victory would have died a lot faster, but that's on me. Actually, I'm pretty sure it was Reinholt after the game who gave me the very helpful suggestion of having physical checklists in front of you to make sure you don't forget anything. Rest assured I'll be doing that next tournament.

​Round Three

This matchup was against Reinholt's first opponent with the two ISD list. I was pretty tired by this point, so details may be a little fuzzy on this one, but here's what I remember:

I had low bit and made him go first. He chose Precision Strike. Most of the obstacles were deployed on the right. He placed both of his ISDs on the far left. I deployed my formation on the right, with the obstacles covering my flank. His squadrons were divided into two groups, with his fighters toward the middle of the table and his bombers hugging closer to the ISD on the left. I managed to intercept his fighter group and lay down some serious Ruthless Strategist punishment, destroying Soontir Fel and Dengar before they had a chance to make a difference. More RS fire the next turn helped finish off the rest of his fighters, then I swept my remaining Advanceds over to tie up his bombers (I barely had range to do so). We traded a lot of fire from all five ships. His flagship ISD circled all the way around my formation, still getting plenty of front-arc shots before passing out of range in turn five. I lost a VSD in the exchange, but not before laying a lot of hurt on his second ISD. With his fighters gone, my bombers swarmed it, stripping shields and flipping damage cards for objective points. Another of my VSDs took a serious pounding, but managed to limp out of his front arcs and, thanks to Tarkin and Defense Liaison, repaired enough to survive. I did have a moment of panic turn six when he flipped one of my face down damage cards. Had it turned up Structural Damage, the VSD would have died. Thankfully it didn't. I dropped his damaged ISD turn six and won 7-3 thanks to six victory tokens and only losing a single ship.

Thoughts

To be honest, I still like the list. It was more user error and inexperience, but it had a lot of potential. The only match where I was fairly puzzled was the first one, but with a different objective there may have been a different outcome. I say may, because he had more than enough fighters to tie up my bombers, and squadrons are where my skill level is weakest. The second game I should have had. Remembering my upgrades would have knocked out his VSD a full turn or turn-and-a-half earlier, which would have prevented so many Avenger shenanigans and opened up my bombers to start hitting his ISD while I still had two unscratched ships left. I also forgot to spend my Tarkin Bucks at least once in the second game and probably two or three times in the first, which is a big thing to forget after you drop eighteen points on it.

Overall, the three VSDs still have a lot of hull. They definitely lack maneuverability, but with decent deployment and early maneuvering, you can neutralize most builds except, well, something like Reinholt's. No idea what I would do against that list. It might be worth it to drop a few fighters and add more Boosted Comms. While BC doesn't stack well with Ruthless Strategists, it does give you more options.

Oh, and I was incredibly underwhelmed by Vader as a squadron. He draws all the fire, and dies to five shots. Forty points of TIE Fighters are almost guaranteed to kill him in a single turn, and he would destroy one. I think I'll demote him to a regular Advanced, and invest that extra ten or so points somewhere else.