So we had our 3rd and last store championship in our area yesterday. Really great turn out. We had thirteen people. An omen? Maybe. But for what? I was running this list:

Rieekan and Lando, BFFS
Author: Caldias

Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 399/400

Commander: General Rieekan

Assault Objective: Most Wanted
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation Objective: Intel Sweep

CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)

[ flagship ] CR90 Corvette A (44 points)
- General Rieekan ( 30 points)
- Jainas Light ( 2 points)
- Turbolaser Reroute Circuits ( 7 points)

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 points)
- Admonition ( 8 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 points)
- Foresight ( 8 points)
- Intel Officer ( 7 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Assault Proton Torpedoes ( 5 points)

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 points)
- Lando Callriassian ( 4 points)
- Ordnance Experts ( 4 points)
- Expanded Launchers ( 13 points)

I won our first store championship with Mon Mothma and 2 MC30s/3 CR90s, so I wanted to see how similar ships fared under good ol' Rieekan. I also wanted practice going 2nd so I could deal with it better if someone bids like 37 points for initiative in a future tournament.

GAME 1:

Anyway, we had 13 show up so I was thankful I didn't get stuck with the bye. First match was against a fairly new player, but a really fast learner. He was running Insidious, Demolisher with ACMs, and a Motti ISDII with 3 Aggressors and Bossk. He chose my Hyperspace Assault objective and I chose the Lando MC30 as my ship, and spaced the tokens out pretty well. The idea here is to use undead Lando as an anvil while Admonition acted as my hammer. And really, undead Lando with expanded launchers is more like a hamnvil.

So Lando hyperspaces in as planned and is spaced where if the ISD is going speed 3 or 2 without a navigate command he will ram Lando. He does a great job of seeing what is coming and is able to block Admonition with Demolisher. I think I could have gone speed 4 and moved passed him, but I took the bait and was like HAHA WHO IS THE DEMOLISHER NOW! The answer is Demolisher is. For sure. He didn't kill Admonition but he came close. The worst part was Foresight was on the other side of the board derping around with Insidious with Rieekan and Admonition slowed down to 2 in order to get his shot at the champ (Demolisher). So the ISD looked like it was going to get away. I WAS able to Lando away 3 damage, which was nice, And he did a great job flying those Gladiators around.

In the end his ISD was 2 hull way from dead and my sole CR90 that was left had 1 hull left on it. He whiffed on his final Aggressor Die that would have killed the CR90, so I was thankful for the 9-1 as it meant I wouldn't get the bye as one person was 10-0ed.

GAME 2:

The second game was against Scott. He and his son went to an earlier tournament and his son got top 4 and was at the highest table at Round 3. Scott was a rebel player so I was pretty excited to get a game in against a rebel list and then I was VERY SURPRISED to see a Victory 1, a Gladiator with, oh you guessed right, Demolisher, and a raider with a Rhymer fire/bomber ball. Squadron heavy lists were what I worried about most with this list and here one was, staring at me. He chose Hyperspace Assault and I again chose Lando.

Lando hyperspaced in front of his Victory and did a ton of damage. And I even got to Lando away 2 damage this time when I fired him off to deep space. I now imagine Billy Dee Williams frozen with a fancy cape pose, shouting, "DISTRACTION," soundlessly as he floats into the void as I discard his card. Admonition and Demolisher squared off again and this time Admonition did better, but still got burned down by a Firespray as he tried to take off. All the MC30s died, but I had both CR90s left as the last ship, his Victory, was destroyed, so I was looking at an 8-2. But his squadrons had other plans. They were able to focus on a limping CR90 and burn it down, which brought me to a 7-3 win since Rieekan stayed alive.

It was a very fun game with many dead Bothans.

GAME 3:

Game 3 was against a guy I've only played one time before, and it was at a tournament, and he 9-1ed me. Really fun opponent to play against. He had an MC80 and two AFmkIIs with Ackbar and some X-wings. The funny thing was we were talking strategy between these rounds and then he was like "watch us get paired hahaha." Then we did. And we were like, "Forget everything I said!" at the same time. He deployed Conga style and this time we played Most Wanted. After deployment I chose his MC80 and my CR90 with Rieekan because he was safest since he was all the way on the other end of the board.

He was racing to not get his MC80 pinned and I was racing Lando in to do some pinnage. And pin he did. But not without getting sidearced. THAT HURT. But I have Lando! I will turn that 5 damage into...6 damage?! WTF, LANDO. Out the airlock for you. I mean, it was going to be out the airlock for you either way, but at least do your job first. So Lando was the first to die yet again, but not before really ripping into the MC80. He had a tough choice to make and I think choosing to try and not get pinned by activating the MC80 first is what saved Foresight, who was sitting in an AFMkII side arc.

The MC80 died first, and then the other two AFMkIIs died too, giving me a 10-0 win since the MC80 netted me an extra 100 some odd points.

GENERAL TAKEAWAYS

- I think 3 intel officers is too many. I found that since I am focusing fire, when I "use" the 2nd or sometimes 3rd intel officer I am like "I will Intel Officer your...spent...token...*sniff*" I was trying to decide between Intel Officers and XI7s, and figured IOs give a benefit to the whole fleet, whereas XI7s only benefit the ship they are on. So I think now XI7s is better for swarms and IOs are great for 2-3 ship fleets with squadrons, especially after r1h4 weighed in on the Twitch stream that he thinks it is XI7s for MC30s as the better choice.

- I found the key to going 2nd is playing your objective hard and setting up where first activation for first player is a hard decision to make.

- Rieekan is definitely a psychological effect. It should be noted that in the game I lost, Rieekan was the 2nd ship to die. Then it was dominoes.

- I really like the expanded launcher/Lando MC30! Probably going to run it some more and see if it is a go for my Mon Mothma fleet. What is nice about it is if he leads there is no safe arc to hide in. And is fairly resilient (at least moreso than an untitled MC30), though I think I will save him for Demolisher insurance on hit/crits for ACMs.

TOP TABLE:

The top two lists were pretty varied. A store champ from our 2nd tourney was in first place with an MC80 and AFMkII. Garm was on the MC80 and both had boosted comms and one had Adar Tallon. He has 9 squadrons. I think like 3 Scurrgs and some X-Wings/Y-Wings and Jan Ors. The other list looked mean. It was 3 Victory Is and 2 Gladiators. He didn't take Demolisher, though. HA, Just kidding! Of course he did! I think all but one had ACMs. I said before he was running Motti but I now remember him saying "Screed" so it was probably Screed.

That game I only saw the end of, but the MC80 was one damage from dying when the last victory finally succumbed to the friction. They played Contested Outpost.

The tournament was a blast and only made my hungry for more tournaments! I am hoping we get at least one more in before the regionals happen.