On Saturday I had the privilege of attending my first Store Championship event of the season (which I think was my first tournament since the Scum and Villainy release event…it’s been a while). The tournament was held at Game Preserve – Greenwood, and Randy was our kind and knowledgeable TO. I decided to bring my favorite squad that I designed in December of 2014.

Alpha Fleet Officer

4x Alpha Squadron Pilots [18x4=72]

Omicron Group Pilot (Adv. Sensors, Fleet Officer, Intelligence Agent) [28]

TOTAL 100

If you’re familiar with my explanation of this squad, feel free to skip this paragraph. So here’s how it works. My Alphas move up but still at range1-2 of the shuttle, and they evade, the shuttle uses Advanced Sensors to hand Focus tokens to two of them, receives a stress, then performs a green maneuver to get rid of the stress. Intelligence Agent lets me see where higher PS pilots are going, and I can boost or barrel roll into a block, and boost or barrel roll with others to line up a shot on the blocked ship if they need to. Fleet Officer then let’s those ships who used a post-maneuver action to gain a focus token. And that’s about all there is to it. I figured that going for low, low PS would be advantageous in a meta where people are still clawing for PS 9+, meaning they’ve wasted points on initiative bids, and they likely have fewer ships, so we have a numerical advantage.

Typical starting formation

EDIT: One fun thing I did was keep track of how many TIE interceptors I lost throughout the tournament. I started with Alphas 1-4. If one of them gets destroyed, he is replaced by Alpha 5, and so on. It was quite fun.

So without further ado, the games.

Round 1

Sean brought a 4-ship Rebel squad.

Biggs Darklighter (R2-D2)

Bandit Squadron Pilot

Jake Farrell (Proton Rockets)

Keyan Farlander (something, probably Fire-control Systems)

99 points

He took initiative, and we placed asteroids. His headhunter was leading the pack in front of the B-wing, but we destroyed it.

It wasn’t long before we took out the Biggs and Keyan, leaving Jake Farrell to fight off my entire squad.

Undaunted, he took a Focus action, allowing him to boost into range 1 of Alpha 2, who was stressed from a Koiogran turn maneuver. Dead Alpha.

If I had remembered Intelligence Agent, I would have blocked his turn 2, leaving him on the debris field with 3 incoming shots. Bummer. Next round he does a turn 1 to port, and barrel rolls up and away. Although he dodged one of my TIEs, he still had 2 shots coming in, and the barrel roll cost him his own shot. Game over.

1W-0L, 5 tournament points and 182 MOV

Round 2

Brian brought an interesting Imperial squad.

3x Academy Pilot

Maarek Stele (TIE/x1, Advanced Targeting Computer, Crackshot)

Soontir Fel (Push the Limit, Autothrusters, Royal Guard TIE, Targeting Computer)

99 points

Alpha 2 was destroyed last game, so he is replaced by Alpha 5

We spent a LONG time setting up the engagement, and when it finally happened, we were able to destroy Maarek Stele before he did any damage (thanks in part to blocking and poor attack rolls). We lost a TIE. And Soontir came up from behind.

Above is an example of why I love this squad so much. In the photo, Soontir is behind the shuttle, which is likely going to move. If he performs a 2 bank, he’d be able to boost to get shots unless I had some way to block the shuttle in place. I dialed in a right 1 turn for Alpha 4. If I predicted Soontir’s move correctly, I could move Alpha 4 first, to bump into place, blocking Soontir. If I was wrong, I would let Alpha 5 perform his 5-speed Koiogran turn first, then Alpha 4 would be able to take an action. Intelligence Agent lets me see which move he does before I decide which order to move my TIEs. Unfortunately, he did the right play, and when straight 3 with Soontir. Sad face.

At this point it got so intense that I forgot to take pictures the rest of the match. We killed the last TIE fighter, and were all set up to have my TIE interceptors converge on Soontir…but I forgot to actually set one of my dials!!! So he sent that TIE way out of the way, and then I was struggling to line up shots and stay alive. I immediately lost a TIE interceptor, and in the last round, he managed to destroy another. It was a good move, a daring 2 turn towards an asteroid, barrel roll out of arcs, target lock to get a focus and destroy my ship. I really didn’t think he’d make that turn, which is why we went that way to cut him off. If I had known time was almost up, I probably would have shamelessly run for it. When time was called we had 11 points difference, modified win for me. If the rounds were any longer than an hour, I would have certainly lost this one.

1W-1M-0L, 8 tournament points, 193 MOV

Round 3

Michael ran a Palp-1-Ace list, which I can only imagine was meant to destroy other Palp Aces squads

Omicron Group Pilot (Emperor Palpatine)

Soontir Fel (Push the Limit, Autothrusters, Royal Guard TIE, Stealth Device)

Tempest Squadron Pilot (TIE/x1, Accuracy Corrector)

“Wampa”

99 points

Wow, what is with all the 99 point squads? It’s like Syndrome says on the Incredibles, “If everyone is super, then no one will be.” Well, they can have their choice of initiative; doesn’t bother me.

This time it's Alphas 5-8; all the originals have been lost in battle.

Combat! My opponent managed to roll a natural [crit] result with “Wampa,” dealing a damage straight past my TIE interceptor’s 3 dice. Knowing he’d do it again next turn with Palpatine’s help, I had to take out either “Wampa” or the shuttle. His shuttle shoots mine, so I choose to focus on the shuttle. It’s slow progress. A couple rounds later the board looks like this.

“Wampa” and Soontir have yet to move in the above photo. “Wampa” attempts a 4 K turn, but he expected my shuttle to move a little further than it did. We carefully see if there’s a bump, and as “Wampa” slides into place, I see that my shuttle has just nudged Alpha 8 – we blocked the Koiogran turn! So “Wampa” and the enemy shuttle die this round. My shuttle is pretty beat up.

Okay, here’s the best part of the match, and maybe the best part of the whole tournament. In the above photo, Soontir performs a 2 straight maneuver (this is before combat, so "Wampa" and enemy shuttle are still alive), and seeing that nobody has shots on him, he just takes a focus so he can Koiogran turn the next round. I knew that it might be a feint, planning instead to 5 straight or something to get out of there. So when it's time to plan maneuvers, I hedged my bets. I planned a 2 left bank for both Alpha 6 & 7 (the stressed ones). I then used Intelligence Agent to see Fel’s move. It was indeed the 5 K-turn. So I moved Alpha 6 first, who overlapped Alpha 5, then Alpha 7, and basically stayed put. This successfully blocked Soontir Fel!

Alpha 8 performed a turn 1 and boost, and Fleet Officer gives him a focus. The shuttle strips Fel’s focus token (which he got from receiving a stress token), and Alpha 8 spends his Focus token for 4 hits. Fel manages only 1 evade, and it’s lights out for the Baron. The Tempest Sq. Pilot was destroyed the following round.

2W-1M-0L, 13 tournament points, 379 MOV (he got half points for the shuttle)

Round 4

Ryan and I tried to get a match on Vassal a couple times before the tournament, but our schedules never lined up. Well, now we finally got a chance to play! I’m not sure I remember all the details of his squad correctly, but I think it went like this.

Darth Vader (TIE/x1, Advanced Targeting Computer, Veteran Instincts, Engine Upgrade, Proton Rockets)

Colonel Vessery (Veteran Instincts)

“Omega Leader” (Juke, Comm Relay)

100 points

We rolled for initiative, and he gave it to me so he could place the last asteroid. They were set in such a way that I couldn’t afford to be on the wrong side of the field, so I set up in the middle, with the left Alphas a little bit farther from the shuttle than usual to better thread through the asteroids.

On approach, I’m pretty sure we’re going to gun for that TIE fighter. I’m sending Alpha 8 to flank, praying that Vessery and “Omega Leader” don’t turn to face him.

Alpha 8 breathes a sigh of relief after successfully passing behind the enemy line, but look what Vader's up to!

His Proton Rockets terrify me after Jake’s little maneuver at the Battle of Round 1. So I decide to switch target priority.

The photo above is blurry, but you can see what happened. It didn’t take a genius to figure that Vader would bank 1, so I boosted for a block, and was rewarded – no Proton Rockets, for you, Vader! We did some serious damage to him.

Above, you can see that Vader revealed a straight 4 maneuver, probably expecting my shuttle to full-stop. Well, you can’t have your Fleet Officer and your full-stop, too. Shuttle blocks Vader, who bumps back to the interceptor. Vader lays into the shuttle, but the shuttle finishes him off.

Alpha 7 is off trying to fix his Structural Damage while my other TIEs move in for the kill…but I forget to set my shuttle’s dial! ARG! What is happening to me today? I had already declared Fleet Officer before noticing my dial was not set, and the shuttle had Shaken Pilot, so he could only do bank maneuvers (did I just cheat?). It didn’t matter anyway because Vessery and “Omega Leader” finished off my Fleet Officer shuttle.

You can see we managed to block “Omega Leader,” finishing him off this round, but we also lost a TIE interceptor. Alpha 7 never fixed his Structural Damage.

White 4 K-turn, earning its points.

Vessery comes in for the kill, but Alpha 8 survives. Time for another white K-turn…

…but this time I’m not so lucky. Vessery rolls only 2 hits, and I rolled 2 [focus] results, but I had chosen the Evade action! Doh! Time is called and we add up points. I have 36 left. He has 36 left. We just tied. I can’t believe it. We both wish we could play one more round. He probably would have had the match based on positioning, but it is what it is. Man. That Focus would have made all the difference. Silly me.

2W-1M-1T-0L, 14 tournament points, 543 MOV

Round 5

Zach said that whomever he was paired with, he hoped it wasn’t me. He was #2 at this point, and he ended up facing me.

2x Omega Squadron Pilot (Juke, Comms Relay)

Lt. Colzet (TIE/x1, Fire-control Systems)

Carnor Jax (Push the Limit, Autothrusters, Royal Guard TIE, Targeting Computer)

100 points

This round, it's Alphas 6, 8, 9 and 10.

Everything was going perfectly fine up until this point. Then I made a horrible mistake. You see Carnor Jax down there? Three things crossed my mind. 1) He is no Soontir Fel, but he must not be underestimated, 2) he can totally neutralize the core tactic of my squad, 3) those are just wimpy TIE fighters, and I can take 2 dice attacks.

That last thought was what really did me in.

We foolishly turn towards Carnor Jax, who dances away…and that’s when I learn about Juke. I had never played against it until now (last round, I’m not even sure Ryan had Juke; it may have been some other upgrade). Well, he dismembers me. We take shots at Colzet, because Carnor dodged us…

…but Colzet dodges us, too! Man, I am getting seriously outplayed.

In a stunning display of...whatever it is Lt. Colzet is doing to his targets, he manages to flip a Direct Hit, destroying Alpha 10. I concede when all I have left is the shuttle. If I were to play this match again, I would not underestimate the TIE/fos. He was scared of my squad, and I think destroying one of the Omegas early would have greatly hurt his tactics because he wouldn’t be able to force me to spend a Focus, and then perform a follow up attack. However, Carnor could still prevent me from spending tokens, so it would have still been tough.

2W-1M-1T-1L, 14 tournament points, 543 MOV

Hey, I caught ‘em all! Win, modified win, loss and even a tie! What a day. I ended up in 8^th place, earning my range ruler. Some other prizes were given away by the TO, including a T-70 expansion pack and TIE Advanced expansion pack to two random players, and two $20 gift cards to the players in 9th and last place. It was a great day.

In summary, I really, really like this squad. Remember the TIE swarm of Wave 1? This hits much like that one did. Only this one is better in today’s game because there are so many ways to shrug off two-dice attacks. I really thought after I’d played in a tournament I’d be ready to hang up this squad, but I pulled it out again tonight at game night, and it’s as fun as ever! Can't wait for the local Store Championship on the 26th!

I LOVE the look of this squad, and I need to fly it

A good example of how having a plan is the most important part of squadbuilding. Well done!

I'd love to play this squad, but seems as FFG didn't give me alpha squadron cards with imperial aces I can't

Nice write up and good pics. Congrats on the result

EDIT: One fun thing I did was keep track of how many TIE interceptors I lost throughout the tournament. I started with Alphas 1-4. If one of them gets destroyed, he is replaced by Alpha 5, and so on. It was quite fun.

This is fantastic! I'm totally stealing this idea the next time I take generics to a tourney!

I now must purchase 3 more regular interceptors. I hope you're proud of yourself. Lol. (nah seriously, thanks I've wanted a list to fly generic interceptors with.)

Thanks for the compliments. Three different people stopped by my table and said something along the lines of, "4 TIE interceptors! What are they equipped with? ...Nothing? What about the shuttle, does it have Palpatine? No?! Very interesting." We would then start talking about how much we love TIE interceptors and how we wish there were more ways to run them. It was good fun.

Another thing I forgot to say in the battle report was what tables I played on. I started on Table 1, then number 2, 3, 2, 2. So I was up at the highest level of competition there and just about held my own. One guy down on table 7 or something ended up in 5th place, and at that moment I felt a little jealous that he was at the lower tables. Oh well. Can't wait to try it again on the 26th. This just may be my squad for the whole season. We'll see what Wave 8 and Imperial Veterans have in store. I shudder to think of how my squad would do against an ordnance squad with Guidance Chips...

Following veterans,

Would you consider that replacing the shuttle with a tie bomber w/ tie shuttle title, fleet officer and Intel agent. My my calculation that would get you autotrusters on all the squints. The main loss would be advanced sensors, doesn't seem like no full stop would effect your overall gameplay at all.

Just a thought

That is a good thought. My main concerns are that I'm losing a 3-dice attack and that 6 hull w/ 2 agility is a bit easier to chew through than the shuttle. I think the bomber will be a big target, which is okay with the Alpgas' added survivability, but losing Intelligence Agent early is bad.

The other thing is that I hardly see times where Autothrusters would help because we almost always get in a tight furball. Of course, Autothrusters will be really nice against turrets. I'll definitely try it out, even though the bomber doesn't look as impressive as the shuttle.

I'd have to agree. It's just a total meta call isn't it. Either you play vs turrets and have a better endgame with squints so the early loss of the bomber doesn't matter too much or you play no turrets and wish you bought the shuttle.

I hate this game sometimes haha.

I wonder if losing a squint for a second bomber with Mars jade would help, but then your firepower is dropping faster and faster all the time.

That's a list I never would have thought of, and I like the look of it, both in terms of playing and how it looks on the table.

Nice write-up and pics.

Question for the masses: Would you consider dropping Intelligence Agent on the shuttle to add Tractor Beam? In my area there are a lot of B-wings and low-agility stuff (see batrep here). My PS 1s are pretty good at guessing where they'll end up to get shots. There aren't a lot of wily Soontirs and Vaders, so I'm questioning the value of Intelligence Agent. However, having all of my TIEs launching into a ship with one less agility? That sounds pretty sweet. Moving a stressbot Y-wing onto an asteroid so it can't shoot? Sounds amazing! Is it better than Intelligence Agent? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

It does largely depend on the ships you encounter most, or have the most difficulty against. I would say in general, Intelligence Agent would be a more reliable choice (being able to see the dial of one enemy ship can not only help you block or pin them down, it can also give you insight into what maneuvers his other ships will be doing), while Tractor Beam has the potential to be more conditionally devastating. Keep in mind you are sacrificing your damage from the Lambda to do that shot, and you have to actually hit for it to do anything, unlike Intelligence Agent which just happens if you are in range.

I say give it a shot though, Tractor Beam is new and cool and even if you end up liking your old list better and going back to it, at least you'll have a better understanding of the new mechanic. It could also give you some ideas for either creating new lists, or dealing with lists that use Tractor Beam.

Wow...

Thats truly a great report!

Great pics and really good description. And then a second reason to go and buy the Lambda Class shuttle, and a bit more refined one than putting the Emperor inside.

I really like the Interceptor, and you just gave that fighter new life, Thanks

I guess I have 4 more ships to buy now

It's been a week since my second Store Championship event, so I think I've had enough time to collect my thoughts after a crushing defeat. Only six guys showed up. One of the problems I had was that I had just tried Zuckuss on Monday night, and I was sorely tempted to use that squad for the tournament. But in the end, I decided that I would complete the season with my loyal TIE interceptors.

Game 1

You know the guy that got 5th place at the last tournament? He drove up for our small tournament, and guess who he brought...Zuckuss. Made me wish I brought my own Zuckuss. He was supported by two Binayre Pirates and a Contracted Scout.

There wasn't a whole lot to this game. His Z-95s dodged very well, and survived longer than either of us expected. One great thing was that our approach meant that the Contracted Scout never got its torpedoes off. The only problem was a monumental mistake: my shuttle rolled a hit and two eyes against Zuckuss, but I didn't see my focus token because the map was so busy! Grr! I didn't notice until the end of the round, and I threw my focus token on the ground in frustration.

(Example of the busy mat, the round before the mistake happened)

(This was shot after I noticed the token. Alpha 13 should have shot Zuckuss)

Not very sportsmanlike, but it was an awful mistake. Had I done the two extra damage to Zuckuss, I would have shot him with my TIE interceptor instead of shooting the Contracted Scout, and very likely would have finished him off. I also forgot to use Intelligence Agent the entire game. Sigh. In the end, he wiped out my interceptors, and I destroyed his Z's and got half points on his scout. I was really hoping that with only 6 people I would finally win a Store Championship, but it wasn't looking good.

Game 2

I played a relatively new player who brought Bossk (complete with the title!), N'dru with Assault Missiles and Glitterstim, and Talon Bane Cobra with Predator and Glitterstim. N'dru was set up directly across from my squad. Knowing that Assault Missiles could wreck face if he targeted my shuttle, I decided to delay with the shuttle, and send my interceptors up on their own. He had a range 3 shot on two of them, but the missiles would only do one additional damage because my TIE interceptors were too spread out. So he shot and did no damage, and we shot and plinked a shield. Next round I kept my shuttle back, and managed to block N'dru with one of my interceptors, while the other 3 were ready to pounce.

He didn't do much damage (if any), and we destroyed him. Next round we turn towards his other two ships, and I get a taste of what Bossk can do when he one-shot one of my interceptors. Talonbane dove for the shuttle, but it wasn't long before we took him out, followed by the Hound's Tooth, followed by the Nashtah Pup. This game was also nice because I got to play on the new Bespin mat I had just purchased for use in the tournament. It's so much better than the mats the store uses.

Game 3 (no pictures)

I was up against Bryan again, whom I faced in Round 2 of the last tournament. This time he brought Dengar, a TLT Y-wing, and N'dru with Cluster Missiles. It was going pretty well with Dengar headed straight for a joust with us, but then I did a boneheaded move and boosted one of my TIE interceptors to block Dengar's escape path. It was foolish because Dengar needs us in arc to get his extra payback attack, and he was dead-set on taking out my shuttle. I was too used to fighting Fat Han, who likes to turn and boost to dodge arcs, which Dengar also lacks. So all I succeeded in doing was denying that interceptor a shot on Dengar, and leaving him open to a TLT attack. Woops. Dengar one-shot a TIE interceptor, the TLT finished one off later, and N'dru did his Cluster Missiles thing and destroyed another. In the end, Dengar survived on 1 hull point for 3 rounds, making it to time. All I got was half points on Dengar. Bummer.

I went 1W-2L for 4th place. I managed to win a medal, but it felt like a cheap "victory" at the time, and I was pretty bummed. Although my mistakes really frustrated me, it helped push me to experiment with some new squads, and I'm enjoying this game as much as ever. I won't be able to attend any tournaments this summer, so I am looking forward to participating in the Vassal league to see all the crazy builds and play styles people come up with.

As an aside, I lost 9 TIE interceptors in three games - almost as many as I lost in 5 games in the previous tournament.

Firstly I never read your original March report and upon reading it I loved the original list you flew and the thought processes behind it, well done! I love to see when someone sticks with a list and makes it work like you did, incredible to read about and your reports all reflected your success with it.

On the latest reports once again I commend your dedication and perseverance to the squad. Despite the poor performance in your eyes I still think turning up with a list as original as yours is bold enough to make you a champion in my books.

Well done.

Played this list last night in a casual game and loved it (and won). You are a scholar and a gentleman, sir.

I did take out Intelligence Agent and put in Tactical Jammer but it wasn't used at all because, as your forethought told you, the Shuttle hangs in the back and rarely blocks shots.

Despite the poor performance in your eyes I still think turning up with a list as original as yours is bold enough to make you a champion in my books.

Well done.

Thanks for the kind words. It's people like you that make this community so wonderful.

Played this list last night in a casual game and loved it (and won). You are a scholar and a gentleman, sir.

I did take out Intelligence Agent and put in Tactical Jammer but it wasn't used at all because, as your forethought told you, the Shuttle hangs in the back and rarely blocks shots.

As I mentioned upthread, I really want to try Tractor Beam on the shuttle. Intelligence Agent is good, but I forget it so often it feels like wasted points. Actually, the big problem is that I have stuck to jousting, where we are predictable, and where Intelligence Agent does nothing on the round in which our squads merge because we're range 3 or beyond. I should start flying this more free form again. It's a lot more fun.

What about Electronic Baffles on the shuttle for that 1 point? It would give you some more maneuver options.

What about Electronic Baffles on the shuttle for that 1 point? It would give you some more maneuver options.

What about Electronic Baffles on the shuttle for that 1 point? It would give you some more maneuver options.

It's a good thought, but it will fly quite differently. Being able to block the shuttle in place and still get the focus tokens from Adv Sensors is a key part of my strategy. I've tried flankingvwith the shuttle to get early access to Intelligence Agent, but it never worked out. In that scenario, there would be less bumping, and Electronic Baffle would be huge in opening up the shuttle's maneuver options. It might be worth trying.

Derp, I forgot you had Advanced Sensors. Baffles could save you 2 points, and then leave enough points to have both Tractor Beam and Intelligence Agent (and another Intel Agent, or no Intel Agents and a Tactician).