So I went up to a small 12-man Spring Kit tournament this weekend, just wanting to try out some new wave 8 toys. I was supposed to be having some work done on the car, but that got postponed for a week, which left me free to play some spaceships instead, huzzah! I decided to take a list I’d played all of one game with, and badly at that. Brad Miller put this up on the Mynock Squadron Podcast Facebook page and I really liked it; I played it on the Friday night with a friend and lost to triple jumpmasters, but the loss was more down to my poor k-wing play than anything – I was convinced it had the tools to do a job for me, especially if I faced a lot of aces:

Chopper (51)

Fire Control System + Autoblaster Turret + Proton Torpedo + Extra Munitions + Hera Syndualla + Ezra Bridger + Guidance Chips

Miranda Doni (49)

Twin Laser Turret + Sabine Wren + Proxmity Mines + Proton Bombs + Extra Munitions + Advanced Slam

Round 1 vs. Huw (IG-88B, 4-LOM, Cartel Marauder)

We start this one off with Chopper directly facing IG-88 down my right hand table edge, with his other two ships a little more centrally, which Miranda mirrors on my side. I speed Chopper in as quickly as possible and exchange a little fire with the IG, maybe doing a point of damage or two each. Next turn I get Chopper into a position where he blocks any potential for the IG to k-turn or sloop, so I know he’s not getting a shot. Huw forgets about Chopper’s ability and bumps him, leading to a stress and the inability to turn around on the next turn either. Meanwhile I hammer the Mist Hunter and Miranda skirts around through the obstacles, staying right on the extreme edge of the fight. The Mist Hunter goes down very quickly, and I get some damage on the Khiraxz too, all whilst IG-88 still has to turn and navigate obstacles to get back in the fight. Miranda drops her first proton bomb and combined with Sabine does the last 2 points of damage to the cartel marauder. Chopper is sitting on about 5 hull at this point, but all Huw has left is a damaged IG-88 which I take the shields off over the course of a few rounds. He’s now chasing Miranda, and does a boost to get out in front of her, assuming I’m going to run. Instead I’ve actually done a 2-hard back into him, planning on a bump so I don’t get shot and forcing him to k-turn, but because of the boost he sails clean past and is in perfect position for a Prox Mine! Hit and a crit, which comes up as a direct hit, and then Sabine makes the IG lose all 4 hull in one go. Boom!

Win 100 - 25

Round 2 vs. Gaz (Vader, Chiraneau)

Next up is Gaz who I’ve played a few times before, last time getting the better of him with a Kagi/Carnor/Omega Leader list. After scanning over all my upgrades and trying to make sense of them, Gaz good-naturedly bemoans the fact I always play odd upgrades that force him to learn things about how they all work, it was pretty funny. We start in opposite corners and meet in the middle roughly, the Ghost and Decimator pummelling each other due to the lack of agility. I’m slightly ahead by a point or two of damage but it’s really close. There’s a turn where he really has to kill me or he’s going down first, and thankfully I survive with 2 points of hull left. I kill Chiraneau, but lose Chopper on the next round. Miranda and Vader play merry-go-round for a bit as I take off a shield or two, leaving Vader with just hull. They end up in opposite corners and so it takes 2-3 rounds for the ships to get back in the fight. I 3-bank in, and instead of trying for the shot, slam another 3 bank knowing the Advanced can’t do a 1-turn (Juno aside) and so he’s either going to bump if he’s done the 2-hard, or he’s going to overshoot. Either way it’s fine. He did do the 2-hard, and bumps Miranda, which is ideal. Next turn I move past, and drop the Prox Mine. 2 hits later, and Sabine, and Vader is dead.

Win 100 - 51

Round 3 vs. Adam (Vader, Soontir, Inquisitor)

This makes it all three opponents that I’ve played before, and I know Adam is a good aces player from our previous game which I barely snuck a win. This is going to be tough. He guess Chopper’s moves perfectly for the most part, making sure not to bump and giving himself good shots, though I do get a hit on Soontir somehow and cost him the Stealth Device. And then I get an Autoblaster shot and promptly roll two crits. Ugh! 1 goes through though, but sadly it’s not direct hit so he still has 1 health. Soontir turns to flee, and Chopper is not going to catch him anytime soon. Fortunately, Miranda is coming around from the other side. She blocks Vader’s turn in on her and Soontir moves in and takes the last of her shields, which annoyingly denies me the chance to drop a shield for a 4 dice attack. However, I look at how the two ships are positioned, with Miranda facing straight down the board and Soontir at a right angle to her. I have an idea that /might/ just work. Next round I 2-hard left, and then slam a 2-hard right, and use Advanced Slam to drop a Prox mine and it /just/ catches the corner of Soontir’s base by the smallest of margins. I know I’ve got him, since even if he rolls no damage, Sabine will take the last point of health. He rolls 3 damage though, and I instead use Sabine to deal a point of damage to the nearby Vader. I had to get Soontir that turn or he was going to run and I’d never catch him again, so that was a pretty fine margin. 1 Ace down, but two to go, and the Inquisitor has just finished off Chopper, using the green 1-turn to great effect. Vader loops around whilst the Inquisitor turns his attention to Miranda, and it’s as this point Adam forgets my Proton Bombs and banks and boosts right up behind the K-wing. I drop the Proton Bomb and it’s the crit that reduces agility, and naturally Sabine adds a damage too, dropping half his health in one go. I can’t do any damage with my guns though and the Inquisitor flees to the opposite corner to get away and try to fix the crit. I have to loop around some obstacles, using Slam to do it quicker, but there is only 6 minutes left in the round and as things stand I’m going to lose on time. I’m desperately doing 3-move-Slam to try and get range, whilst the Inquisitor stalls in the far corner, trying to fix his crit and stay away. Adam apologised for doing the running away thing, but I have no problem with that, it’s a perfectly valid tactic; you do what you’ve got to do. As time is called I’m moving another 3 straight and this time it’ll get me a shot. It’s range 3 though which means he gets autothrusters. Luckily Miranda has regenned a few shields, so I can drop one to make one of my shots 4 dice, which I do and push the first hit through. So it all comes down to the last shot of the game. I luck out, and Adam rolls up 1 evade short of what he needs, and no blanks for autothrusters to trigger and the Inquisitor bites the dust. Having to fix the crit as an action stopped him having a focus token, and so effectively that earlier proton bomb won me the game. Whew! So close, and an awesomely good game, though not so good for my nerves!

Win 66-51

I didn’t know the results of the other games at this point, but there had to be one other person going into the last game 2-0 so I don’t know if I’ve finished first or second. As it turns out the other guy lost, making me the only 3-0 player and so I took the win. So the tournament was literally decided on the very last dice roll! Spring Kit booty abound, not a bad day’s work!

The list performed beautifully, Chopper dealing some big damage whilst soaking up a lot of fire, and then Miranda doing her thing in the endgame against low numbers. Having bombs that could be dropped both before and after moving (though obviously not on the same round) gave me a lot of flexibility and with Sabine on top these accounted for a huge chunk of my damage throughout the day, and gave me a big advantage against aces. It’s a really effective list, so big thanks must go to Brad for sharing it in the first place. With more practice, I think it could be even more potent; I really haven’t played much of the K-wing at all, and this is the first time I think I’ve ever used bombs in a list aside from 1 game messing around casually with Death Rain. Who says Rebels can’t win now? J

Good write up and congrats on the win! Did you ever get to use Chopper's torps and was Ezra crew effective? It looks like Miranda is a beast with Sabine and bombs!

I think I fired the torpedoes twice, they're more of a deterrent than anything else for ships that try and get behind you. Same with the Autoblaster, I think I fired it twice all day - it's why I'd rather take FCS over Accuracy Corrector in this set up. Ezra is very nice too, and was especially good in round 2 where firing on a Decimator is going to rack up a lot of crits in a hurry!

And yes, Miranda and Sabine were the stars of the show. I never got into hull damage on her all day, the closest being the last game when I was out of shields for one round, but then got several back. The bombs combined with the Slam and Sabine are really, really good. The Prox Mine especially is death to Imperial aces if you can line them up (which you usually can with Slam).

I like this list a lot, especially if aces continue to dominate the meta.

Great report, and congrats on the win. I think bombs are a great equalizer for slow ships to handle arc dodgers, and I love the versatility of having both a reveal bomb and an action bomb. I should try Sabine on a K-wing. I loved her on the Ghost piloted by Hera, so I think I'll like her on Miranda, too.

As I mentioned previously, I had no real prior experience with bombs before this (I think I dropped a Connor Net once with Death Rain) but this has definitely made a believer out of me. The Miranda build has so many tools, you can adapt her play to suit whatever your opponent is bringing. Lower PS? Arc dodge them and TLT them, or Proton Bomb if they move in close. Higher PS? You're eating a Prox Mine at some point. Sabine is the icing on the cake, and actually had the 'kill shot' on 3 ships of the 7 I destroyed across the 3 games.

And the best thing - not only is the ship effective, it's also a lot of fun at the same time. I have been totally converted now.