I was really happy that a few new friends I met (in the Indy Tournament) from Pensacola decided to drive up and join in on the fun. We had 9 players in total. I think 4 players were running Imperials and 5 were running Rebels.

Here was my list:

Grand Moff Token (Take II)

Points: 398/400

[ flagship ] Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)

- Grand Moff Tarkin ( 38 points)

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)

- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)

Victory I-Class Star Destroyer (73 points)

- Boosted Comms ( 4 points)

1 "Mauler" Mithel ( 15 points)

1 Soontir Fel ( 18 points)

1 "Howlrunner" ( 16 points)

1 TIE Advanced Squadron ( 12 points)

1 Major Rhymer ( 16 points)

4 TIE Bomber Squadrons ( 36 points)

1 Dengar ( 20 points)

First Game: Kyle - Running Admiral Ackbar

Home One, Foresight and MC30 both with TRCs, 3 Xwings

Kyle had won our last store tournament (by beating me like a drum) with Imperials. This time he chose to side with the Rebel scum. I had initiative and chose Minefields. He smartly placed the line of minefields about a third of the way down toward my side all the way across the map. I chose to deploy closer to the left, where two of the mines were. Kyle had to deploy his entire fleet before I placed my 2nd and 3rd VSDs. He placed them in a Conga line facing right - away from where my VSD was facing.

I decided to just full stop on turn one, realizing that I could delay the impact with the mines for a while and also the impact of Home One.

My squads quickly took out his three X-wings and were then free to bomb ships. He gave me his MC30 first, and I bombed the crap out of it while it came down towards my VSDs. It hit one of the mines but then Kyle smartly turned the other way and got it out of harms way before I could kill it. Opportunity lost…

I turned my attention on Foresight. Foresight actually went down much faster than any other time I’ve play against it. My bombers had apparently warmed up and were getting a lot of hit/crits.

By turn 5 I started bombing Home One but it had also come into range of my rightmost VSD. The VSD went down and at that point I thought the best I could do was a 6-4. I scooted away with my two remaining VSDs only hitting one mine but I left Home One to deal with my Squadron ball.

At the end of turn 6, all that was left was the squadron phases. They shot at Home One but I didn’t really think they could kill it. By the end of the phase however, Home One had no shields and 6 hull damage. I had ONE bomber left. I needed a hit/crit to kill it. I rolled…hit/crit!

Wow I felt great and bad for Kyle at the same time. It ended up being a 9-1 victory for me.

Second Game: Stephanie - Running Screed

Avenger, Demolisher, Heavy squadrons (Boba Fett, Vader, Mauler, 2 Firesprays, Rhymer, Dengar)

I had met Stephanie in the big Indianapolis tournament and it was great to finally play against her and her list that was a lot like mine - Heavy, heavy squadrons.

I had initiative again and we played Precision Strike. I deployed on my right and she placed her two ships at a slight diagonal to mine.

I took a huge risk and sent my squads a bit too far to try to alpha strike Dengar and crew. Luckily it worked. My first round of strikes killed Dengar locking her squads and Mithel down. It was the bloodiest squad battle my guys had ever seen. Most of my anti-squads went down with the exception of Howlrunner and Mauler. It was the first battle I had been in that I actually had to bring in bombers to support my squads. All of Stephanie’s squads eventually died.

While winning the squadron battle, I still had to face an angry Demolisher and Avenger. Demolisher came down on my left flank and severely crippled my leftmost VSD. It then veered left and ended up getting away. Avenger quickly finished off the hurt VSD.

Unfortunately for Stephanie I had been free with my bombers to chip away at the ISDs shields. By the time it got to shoot at the other VSDs they had killed it and Screed.

I won the match 8-2

Third Game: AdmiralYor - Running Screed

ISD2, Demolisher, Gladiator (APT), Instigator, 1 Lonely TIE Fighter.

AdmiralYor (My new nemesis) had beaten me handily (9-1) in Indy and I knew this was going to be tough again. He had replaced a Raider with a Glad with APT and lost a TIE fighter. Of course he still had that damned Demolisher (Engine tech, Expanded Launchers, Ordnance Experts, Intel officer, APTs).

He had another high bid (maybe 381?) so of course he went first and chose Precision Strike. We setup across from each other on the left side of the table. He had all of his ships going at speed 1. That surprised me because I thought he could engage me quickly and end it all very fast.

I knew I had to kill Demolisher and I chose to just focus the squadron ball on him. It worked in that I severely hurt his shields. However, it wasn’t enough and he sped up around turn 3-4, flying in right next to Tarkin (the middle VSD). He managed to get a great roll on all of his shots and Tarkin went down to the triple-tap. Luckily Demo was really hurt and I finished him off soon after.

That left two VSDs against an ISD, glad and Instigator. I was also worried because AdmiralYor was steadily racking up the Victory tokens from the objective while I had to kill ships.

In the end my rightmost VSD, while really crippled, somehow managed to out flank the ISD (I know - I can barely believe it myself). My leftmost VSD was parked right next to the smaller ships. AdmiralYor had to decide which ship to attack first. He chose to activate the ISD and killed my rightmost VSD. I had some good rolls and finished off his smaller ships with my leftmost VSD.

In the end I had killed more stuff, but he had a lot more victory tokens. He won 7-3 and ended up winning the tournament. I ended up with third. I had done better against the demolisher but not good enough to win.

So far two tournaments and two chances to win. Not all that bad for Tarkin and the lowly VSDs…