Torkhil Mux - TLT, Tactician

Palob - TLT, Bossk, Crackshot

Marauder - Glitterstim

Marauder - Glitterstim

The guy with this list is an excellent player that has played double IGs for a long time but decided to change things up a bit and he went 4-0 in an 18 player tournament, and then won both games in the top 4.

I had to face him twice, 4th game and the final game in the top 4. He finished 1st in Swiss, I finished 2nd after losing to him.

It seems he had the perfect list against mine:

Doomshuttle

Carnor Jax - Hull, AT, PTL, RG

Dark Curse

Omega Leader - Juke, Comm relay

I did have terrible dice luck against him, where both my red and green dice failed to deliver and his green dice were incredibly good but I still can't see how I could've done it differently - arc dodging is extremely hard because he moves everything before my arc dodgers and can easily block me with 4 ships, Torkhil makes it pointless to go in for " kill it before it can fire " because then that ship becomes the one getting killed before firing, palob neutralizes my Juke and his 2 marauders are extremely maneuverable and that one turn with glitterstim it ignores all my tools for denying modifiers - Works against Dark Curse and Jax, and Omega Leader can only lock one ship down.

Anyway, everyone got wrecked that day and I did even worst in the final game where he cleaned me up 100-0.

Devastating.

Imo is more a thing of tactics than squad building. Doomshuttle loves facing hawks (one shield, no repositioning...) and while I'd expect the first couple of rounds to be favourable to him your end game is fantastic. With careful approach (aces get into R1-R2 after removing Palob from the board) I'm confident your squad can beat it, don't lose faith in the empire!

I agree with polmoneys. That particular list doesn't need to be countered, per se. Its just a question of outflying your opponent. Based on your description, if he's a good player, his prediction skills were up to the task of guessing your moves and putting his ships where he needed them to be.

In order to win, if I was using your list, I would focus on two things: killing Palob ASAP. Keeping Jax alive at all costs. Jax is your ringer in this match, so he cannot die. I tend to play a bit cautiously with my interceptors though, so this might not suit your playstyle, but if it were me, I would want initiative so doomshuttle can block his khiraxz and then have my two TIEs move in and do what they can (you'll lose them both, but at least your opponent has to choose between them or the doomshuttle for his opening shots). Jax would come in very slowly on a flank, in no hurry to get in the action. At best, maybe range 3 on one of the turrets (but not in range of both). I would then make a judgment call---if he has some lanes to turn his ships in to get at Jax, I would bug out--- if there is no way for him to do so, I would then rush into range 1 of at least one turret if possible.

Jax is an excellent counter to Palob, but at the same time, Palob can ruin Jax' day with token stealing, so you have to be careful with him. Bug out when in doubt

Once Palob is dead though, breath a sigh of relief and get Jax to work---he can win you the game as long as you don't do anything rash with him!

Well, I did throw everything at Palob but I only took out the shield, my dice were horrible and I had limited modifiers from bumping or from palob taking a token and dropping a ship to PS0 to attack me first and force me to spend defensively.

Definitely wasn't easy with poor dice. Shuttle getting a rank 1 attack, getting a single hit which he evaded, carnor jax throwing 4 dice getting 2 hits and the HWK getting 2 evades.. I mean.. come on dice, what is this.

2nd game Jax got killed when he was at range 3 too.

Well, I did throw everything at Palob but I only took out the shield, my dice were horrible and I had limited modifiers from bumping or from palob taking a token and dropping a ship to PS0 to attack me first and force me to spend defensively.

Definitely wasn't easy with poor dice. Shuttle getting a rank 1 attack, getting a single hit which he evaded, carnor jax throwing 4 dice getting 2 hits and the HWK getting 2 evades.. I mean.. come on dice, what is this.

2nd game Jax got killed when he was at range 3 too.

Ouch!

Yeah, sometimes luck does screw ya. I remember going up against a somewhat similar list a long time ago (2 turrets + 2 jousters, in this case, Kavil and Palob were the turrets). I was using Jax that time and the first turn of shooting, Kavil is the only one with an out-of-arc shot on Jax who had focus + evade + autothrusters + palp if need be. He rolls 2 hits + 2 crits and I roll 3 blanks. Even with the autos, evade token and palping a blank to evade, I still take 1 crit. And of course, its Injured Pilot! I was so happy when the new damage deck was revealed and that particular crit was removed! Jax would have basically auto-won me the game if he didn't lose his ability (because blaster turrets can't fire with Jax around). Instead, I ended up losing on time because of that bloody crit

I think I was probably not careful enough - he deployed spread to converge into formation, he piloted them very well, but I ended up going against him at range 3 in his 2 cartel's front arcs with my 3 ships (shuttle was on the flank), I should've been more patient and spread out on both flanks to avoid such a situation~

but its definitely not easy to do~

If I encounter his list again I'll have to rethink my whole approach.

I guess it took everyone by surprise because of how unconventional his list was compared to the meta - so many omega leaders, whispers, popeshuttles, decimators, rebel regen tanks, etc. He bust through all of 'em.

The guy took his list again, to a SC this time and went 4-0.

Though I'm not sure if both HWKs were still exactly like that or if he swapped anything, probably still the exact same.

It seems this list does magic in his hands, and its quite the counter against all the Palpy +whatever.

Crazy crazy stuff.