So this past Saturday was The Portal’s Store Championship. We had 40 people flying, so we had 5 rounds of Swiss and a cut to top 4. Nobody in my area uses any of the /FO’s, and I love them, so the base of my list was Omega Leader and Zeta Leader. The question was really, who would be their wingmen. After much debating, I settled on an HLC Brath. Their meta is strongly rebel, so I expected a heavy stressbot/TLT/regen set up going in.
My list:
Omega Leader with Juke and Comm Relay
Zeta Leader with Predator and Comm relay
Rexlar Brath with Predator, HLC, and TIE MkII engines.
Pretty standard Omega Leader. You want to kill him first because the fewer ships on the board, the more annoying he becomes. Which is why he gets paired with Zeta and Brath. 3-4 Dice with predators and focus means they are serious threats you can’t ignore or be brutally punished. I went with Brath over Vessery mainly because a discussion had here on the forums about how Vessery’s need for another TL to make his pilot skill work makes OL too much of a threat, and ideally, I don’t want to have to move his lock around a lot because it forces his action.
Also, I’m horrible with names, and don’t remember anyone beyond the people I already knew, sorry L
Round 1: eventual champion Nate and his Palp/Fel/Vader list
Joy of joys, all these people and I fly against someone from my local area. Nate and I have practiced a few times so I know the way his list works. I know he’s a strong flier, so I need to be on my game to really have a chance. Our asteroids are reasonably spaced out with the shuttle and Vader to one side, and Soontir on the opposite flank. My plan is to send Zeta/Brath over to harass Vader and the shuttle, while Omega tries to pop Fel’s SD early to make him easier for the others just incase Omega goes down. Flying wise, things go to plan, dice wise, not so much… Soontir’s rolling 3+ natural evades against Omega, so even with a Juke I can’t push anything through, and Zeta and Brath can’t dodge to save their life. I put the hurt on Vader, so he needs to bugger out and that lets me bring down the shuttle pretty fast. Soontir and Vader come in from behind and Brath dies in a total of 3 shots, Zeta in 2. With Range 3/obstructions I must have rolled 17+ greens for the 2 of them. One natural evade. Omega puts up a valiant fight for a few turns, and we talk about how I could try and run away as there is like 15 minutes left. Instead I get all GalaxyQuest and S-loop right into a 4 natural hit shot from Soontir, I blank my evades… again… and Omega disappears.
Loss, 0-1, 33-100
Round 2: Fat Han and Poe
I look over his list and 2 things hit me. I like my chances against a 2 ship list, and his Poe has 2 modifications (Autothrusters and Integrated Astromech) Calling the TO over, there is a brief discussion and we all agree to toss the 0 point mod. He was telling me he was still very new to the game, his buddy had made him the list and he had just tossed it on because it was free. No hard feelings were had and we progress with the game. I set up my squad in the center as it gave me easy access to either flank. He sets up his Hand to swing around the outside, while Poe seems to want to joust my list. We putter forward a bit and then in the second turn engage hard. I use my TIE speed to jump past range 3 from Poe, hoping to put a major hurt on him. Poe, range 2 on Brath, 3 hits, 0 evades, Han range 3 through a rock, 2 hits, 0 evades. The profanities running through my head are too numerous to mention. Dice however, seem to have a sense of humor… I fire back, Omega Leader on Poe, 2 hits, 0 evades, Brath on Poe, 4 hits, 0 evades, Zeta Leader on Poe, 3 hits and only 1 evade. We both just laugh about how this looks like it will be a fast game. And so begins the game of “Chase the Han” I don’t fly Brath away to try and conserve points, cuz that’s not fun, but Han just can’t handle my two TIE Leaders.
Win, 1-1, 100-48
Round 3: Vessery, Wampa, OL, and Colzet
2 Defenders in the whole tournament, and we have to play each other, oy vey! He sets up in a joust, while I have a looser formation to try and get my flank on. My plan is to try and kill off Colzet and OL quickly as without them Vessery becomes a higher PS generic. On the initial pass he fires everything into my Brath, wounding him, while I bring Colzet down to 1 HP. Next round he swerves for my flanking Zeta instead of flipping his list, which is unexpected and we cluster bump. Zeta dies to the concentrated fire, but not before finishing off his OL who had been beaten down by my Omega and Brath. Then Colzet tries to make a hard turn and clips a rock enough to explode. It’s now Vessery/Wampa against Brath/Omega Leader and I like my chances. I drop Vessery’s shields on the next pass, while Brath manages to dodge the weakened return fire. We begin the white K standoff and as it should be, kill each other off with simultaneous fire. Wampa can’t out duel Omega Leader, and it’s over a few turns later.
Win, 2-1, 100-74
Round 4: Boba and IG88B
His own twist on these two, he added flechette cannon to IG instead of the bomb on Boba and had K4 instead of tactician. We set up to joust the IG88 and Boba joins in the fun. First pass severely wounds the IG88 and Brath, the white K finishes the job. Boba does push through enough damage to kill off Brath, but with the two TIEs harassing him, eventually succumbs.
Win, 3-1, 100-48
Round 5: Miranda, Poe, and Ywing
Ugg, I hate regen, and I really hate double regen. I know I need to kill things fast before I die to the constant stream of damage from the TLT’s. I determine Poe is target #1 and doggedly follow him, slowly whittling him down while the TLT’s papercut my Zeta. Zeta dies the same time as Poe does. Some nice flying by Miranda causes me not to have her in arc, and I shoot the Y instead of her. The barrage of TLT causes me to trade Brath for his Ywing and I am pretty bummed at this point. I’ll put Omega Leader up against almost anyone and think I have a decent chance of winning. Miranda is not one of those. Like 30 turns go by, she regenerates I think 11 or 12 shields overall, I have her at 4 HP when he finally manages to put the final shot in.
Loss, 3-2, 62-100
So I finish 14/40, and like 50 MOV away from a ruler. Maybe if I had run away at all, instead of fighting to the death, I might have scored better, but the games were fun and I represented for the Defender crowd. I got lots of remarks about flying them before Vets comes out. I like the list, it kills things pretty well, but as all things TIE, green dice will kill you. I can also say the only two people who beat me finished 1st and 2nd, so if I’m going to lose, might as well be to the top table, right?
