OK. It was an escalation tournament at MJ’s Comics and games in Wasilla, AK. Standard 60-90-120-150 format. Eleven people showed up. I have been working on variations of a Mindlinked Scyk list since Wave 8 came out. One of the issues is that there needs to be a ship that is the anchor in passing the focus action. I had been using Serrisu in this place…it is already a Scyk, but she can also carry a tractor beam to further her defensive assistance to the other Mangler Scyks. The issue is she is a big target, and without the evade token of the others, she is vulnerable with the low Hull/Shield values. Further, in many instances it is better to split the Scyk mini-swarm up, but then Serrisu loose her defensive pilot ability. I have messed around with the G-1A, but have been concerned that while the G-1A took some of the focus off the Scyks, the low agility and marginal dial resulted in it getting taken out too frequently. I needed a tank to pass the focus.
Enter Tel Trevura. 9 hit points native, but with the back-from the grave ability that can be made even better with Hull upgrade and Gonk. I tested a 100-point list with two Mangler Scyks w/SD and added Feedback array and R5-P8, the painbot, all mindlinked, with much success. The plan is simple. Put the Scyks in a group in one corner of the board, preferably in the opposite corner from where the opponent sets up, then put Tel directly across from the opponent’s ships, but aimed to the side at the Scyks. At the start of play, the Scyks make a mad dash for the opposite side of the board to flank, peeling off as required, while Tel slow-rolls along the near edge, baiting the opponent for the chase, Gonking all the way to have a stack of shield tokens to draw upon. I have found that I can easily get two or three in reserve before combat starts.
With the Mangler Scyks w/SD coming in at 27 points each, incrementally building a list for escalation seemed like it would work well. This is how it went.
Round 1: Joseph
My base list was Tel w/Gonk, Hull, ML, and a single Manglor Scyk for 60 points.
Joseph brought:
Contracted Scout w/EM, Proton Torps, Deadeye, R4
Ruthless Freelancer w/title, and something else.
I brought the smallest asteroids to give Tel some operating room. The obstacle were set up with three across the far edge, and two in the near corners, and one big one in the middle. Joseph set up in the far left corner (perfect). I put the lone Scyk in my lower right, and Tel in the lower left facing the Scyk. Joseph launches his ships forward quickly. Tel moved slowly, and the Scyk moved forward quickly as well.
I would have preferred to have had the Scyk get about two-thirds of the war across the board before turning in, but Joseph was moving the Torpedo Boat in quickly, so I turned the Scyk early and shot the Jumpmaster forward quickly. Joseph turned in and we both stutter-stepped a bit with the Scyk and his two shops trying to get the range right. I finally brought the Scyk forward to just range 2 of the G-1A, and range 3 of his Scout. I evaded, and was going to pass the focus from Tel as it rounded the rock, BUT I clipped the rock and I left the Scyk hanging in front of both of his ships with nothing but an evade token.
No shot from Tel. the Scyk did take some shields of the Freelancer, but the return fire removed the evade token and took a shield. Then came the Torpedo; hit, hit, crit. I rolled blank, focus, focus. Dead Scyk.
We spend the next several rounds in a fur ball with me constantly running to bump his Scout with tell to deny him hots, or at least a torpedo shot while I was focusing on the Freelancer. Tel was taking a beating. I had gotten the Freelancer down to about 2 Hull with both his ships well out of position. Being on Tel’s second life, I shot across the board to buy some Gonking time. By the time Joseph got his ships in range, I had gotten two shields back on top of my two hull. I turned hard into their path, the Scout with the G-1A bumping in behind, and barrel rolled towards them, just out of arc for the torpedo shot, but range 1 of the Scout. I shot at the freelancer, but it remained standing with only 1 hull. The return fore from the G-1A left me with one shield left. The Scout fired next; hit, hit, crit. I rolled one evade. The shield was gone, and I drew the double damage card and Tel was dead.
0-1, 0 MOV.
I did not lose another ship for the rest of the day.
Round 2: Kyle
I added another Mangler Scyk w/o SD, and FBA and R5-P8 to Tel.
Kyle brought:
Jake Farrell w/PTL, some other things
Nera Dantels w/Predator, Adv. Homing Missiles and something else
Biggs w/R2-D2 and something else
Kyle set up his ships the far left corner. I had put a line of rocks across his side of the board, and the other three were strewn about the middle. Again, I had the two Scyks in the near right, with Tel in the left corner facing them. The start was the usual shoot Tel Gonking across the board, and launch the Scyks forward 4. He sent all of this hips forward 3, but wound up boosting Jake ahead a bit further. Over the next two rounds, I turned the Scyks in just this side of the asteroid line on his side of the board. Tel made the turn on the lower right of the board and was starting to cruise up the right side. Nera and Biggs were slowing tracking across the lower middle. Kyle turned Jake around to intercept the Sycks. He had PTL’ed to try to boost into range, but fell short and was aimed at one of the small rocks in the upper middle of the board. I shot the lead Scyk forward 4 to block what would certainly be a 2-right turn, and held the second Scyk back for the shot. Tel started to turn in behind the second Scyk as Biggs and Nera were crossing the middle of the board between me and the Scyks.
It worked perfectly. Jake was left action-less and the Mangler stripped the shields off. Next I set the blocking Syck for a 3 K-turn (red), with the second Syck 1-banking (green) towards Nera and Biggs and inched Tel forward 1 (green), right-to-left. Moving the red maneuver first, stressing all three ships, then the second Syck, green/Evade, and Tel last, green/focus gave me just what I needed. Jake bumped into the second Scyk with a focused Mangler shot from behind. Nera Biggs shot at the tokened-up Scyk right in front of them, but did not scratch it. Tel and the Scyk took the shields off of Biggs, and Jake lost one hull.
Nera and Biggs both K-turned to get back into position. Kyle tried to get Jake out of the fray, but 2-tunred him to my left, right onto an Asteroid (it did not kill him). Tel moved right-to-left slowly, in front of Biggs, but just outside of Nera’s arc. The K-turned Scyk TL’ed Biggs, the other turned in the same direction as Jake, missing the rock, but with no shot. The other Scyk got Biggs down to one hull. Biggs shot at Tel and took off a couple of shields. R5-P8 kicked in. Crit. Biggs died and Tel took another damage.
Nera was limited in options, having to clear the stress. One Scyk moved in just behind here. The other turned in behind Jake as he tried to get turned around. Tel also closed on Jake. I make it easy by using feedback array on Jake to remove him from play. After that, it was just clean-up on Nera.
1-1, 180 MOV
Round 3: Rory
I added a third Scyk w/SD and added SD to one of the other Scyks
Rory brought:
Wedge w/Predator
Horton Slam w/Dorsal turret
Cracken w/something
Blount w/Concussion Missiles and Deadeye
Bandit Squadron Pilot
I placed my three rocks across the top of the board again in a line, and he placed his generally strewn around the middle of the board. I set up the three Scyks in the lower right again, and Tel across on the left facing them. Rory set up Wedge and the Bandit in the upper left, but Horton, Cracken, and Blount directly across from the Scyks.
I was not sure what to do at this point because I really did not want to joust with Scyks. A simple 2-bank to the left would line me up for a diagonal seam through the asteroids to the opposite corner of the board., so I went with that for the Scyks. Meanwhile, Tel shot across from the left, Gonking. Rory moved all of his ships ahead 3. Again, I was left with a dilemma as to move the Scyks forward would leave them wide open to flanking by Horton, Blount and Cracken as there was another easy gap favorable to them. I decided to bank the back Syck toward Tel to help intercept Wedge and the Bandit, and bank the other two back towards the two Z’s and the Y hoping that my opponent would take the bait and the mis-direction to cut them off in the Asteroids.
He did not take the bait and moved all of his ships straight ahead leaving the two Sycks at Range 2 or 3 (I cannot remember) of all three of his ships, albeit fully turtled up.
Tel continued across to the left. Rather than banking in with both Wedge and the Tala, he turned the Tala in wide (3-turn), but moved Wedge ahead 3-straight again. All three of his ships fired, including a Concussion Missile which did nothing but blow the tokens off the Sycks. The return fire only got the shields off Cracken.
I was anticipating the Z’s and the Y to K-turn behind the Scyks. The Z’s only have a 3-K, so I 1-banked both Scyks towards the edge of the board to block. He tried to K-turn Cracken, which I blocked. He moved both Blount and Horton ahead three. Horton bumped, but Blount slipped by such that I was out of his arc, but he was not out of mine. On the other front, Wedge finally turned towards my ships, and the Tala moved ahead straight. Tel 1-turned left to engage the Bandit and eventually Wedge. I 3-banked the third Scyk to the right in anticipation of where the Bandit would end up. It was a good guess, and between the Scyk and Tel, the Bandit was destroyed. The other two Scyks did some minor damage to the Y-wind, and got into the hull on Blount. His return fire was ineffective again.
The lone Scyk which had taken out the Bandit now 3-K’ed to engage Wedge as he swung around, stressing out the entire squad. Tel 1-forwarded to clear the stress, while the other two Scyks 2-banked left (green) to clear the stress and turtle up once again. Blount K-turned, but Cracken and Horton turned around the rock on the lower right to join Wedge. Wedge started to bank in to engage Tel. Blount did not damage to which ever Scyk he shot at. Wedge fired at Tel and too off some shields. Both the stressed Scyk and Tel returned fire, and took off a shield or two.
The two jousting Scyks made a break for the top of the board, one with a 4-straight, the other with a three bank between some asteroids, turtling up again as Blount would be moving in behind. Blount only went 2-Straight to clear the stress and had only a range three shot on one of the turtled up Scyks. It went as expected. Tel 1-turned to try to cut off wedge while the stress Scyk 1-banked behind to clear the stress and keep Wedge in range. Wedge 4-K’ed just shy of an asteroid, clearing Tel and facing back at him, albeit at range 1. Cracken and Horton had made it around the rock and were also now a threat to Tel. Tel took a lot of damage from the Y, Z and Wedge, well into hull. Tel died once, either this round or the net, but I do not recall which. The Range-1 return fire plus the Syck’s Mangler got Wedge down to 2 hull.
The next round, Tel did a 1-forward to block a certain green move from Wedge and started Gonking shields back. The Scyk that was now behind Tel, banked to engage Cracken and the Y-wing. The Scyk that had banked into the asteroids turned around the one that Wedge was on the other side of to pull in behind him. The other Scyk was way off in the upper right corner trying to turn around, but supplying focus tokens to everyone. Wedge banked towards Tel and bumped. Cranken and the Horton continued towards Tel, and Blount rounded the corner behind Wedge to also face Tel.
Wedge had no shot, but Craken and Horton again put some damage on Tel. Tel feedbacked Wedge to get him to one hull, and the Scyk behind Tel destroyed him. The Scyk that was behind wedge also had a shot at Blount, and took him out as well. Cracken went down in the next round from focus fire of Two Scyks and Tel, and the Y-wing did not last much longer. Although a full win, Tel was down to less than half health (20 points)
2-1, MOV 400
Round 4: Steve
For the last round, I added a fourth Scyk, and they all had Stealth Devices at this point.
Steve brought:
Omicron Group Pilot with Palpatine and Sensor Jammer
Vessery with Tractor Beam and other things
2x Baron of the Empire with title, Concussion Missiles and Guidance Chips
Storm Squadron Pilot with title and FCS
Steve was the only remaining undefeated player at this point. This match would likely decide the outcome of the tournament. I think I was 3rd or 4th based upon MOV leading into this round.
Steve brought the large debris (not good for me). I lined the small rocks evenly-spaced across the top edge of the board, and he put the Debris in a similar patterned on my end, though they were more towards the middle with the minimum distance between them. Steve put his shuttle to my right of the small rock in the middle, and the other four ships in formation on the other side; the TAP’s in the front, Vessery on my left in the back, and the Tie Advanced to my right, in the back. I put all four Scyks in a box formation in the lower right of the board. As Steve’s ships were in the middle, I turned Tel facing the opposite edge of the board (towards Steve), just to the left of the right-most debris.
Steve is a very good player, but when Steve moved the shuttle first, he lost the game. It took two more rounds for him to realize it.
He 3-banked (red maneuver) to my left towards Tel. His tie formation all moved forward two or three to bring themselves roughly even with it. Tel creeped forward 1 and Gonked. The Scyks all rocketed ahead four. I knew at this point there was no way easy way for Steve to get the Shuttle turned around in time and all of his other ships were stuck behind it. With the asteroid between them, even a 1-turn towards the Scyks would be a mess. Steve banked the shuttle 2-Banked back to my right, but the other ships all 3-Banked towards Tel. My Scyks all 3-banked in towards the Shuttle, the front-two target locking and focused as they were too far a flank for any return fire. Tel again creeped forward 1-Straight, but barrel-rolled left to the edge of the board to get out of range of all of the ties except one TAP and Vessery. The Shuttle lost all of its shields and Tel lost some shields as well from the TAP launching his missile after Vessery reduced his agility with the tractor beam.
At this point, the Shuttle was going to be dead soon, but Tel was too if I did not figure something out. I figured Steve would try to bank-in and block, which he did, but I was able to squeeze between his formation and the edge of the board with a 4-Straight, leaving me in Range 1 of only Vessery and the Tie Advanced. The Shuttle tried to bank away from the Scyks through the debris on the near side. The Scyks 3-banked towards the Shuttle, with the front two just catching target locks on Vessery while the back two target locked the Shuttle. The rear two Scyks dispensed with the Shuttle, while the front two shot at Vessery and may have taken a shield or two. Vessery and the Tie advanced got two hits into Tel’s hull. Tel returned fire without much effect.
All of Steve’s momentum was forcing him to the lower left edge of the board, and all of mine, except for Tel’s was dropping in behind him. Tel squirted towards the top of the board to start a long slow clockwise ring around the outside of the board to recover all the shields. Steve brought the TAP’s around the debris in the lower left corner, and Vessery and the Tie Advanced took a slower ring around. I sent two Scyks squeezing through the debris to cut off the TAP’s and the other two around the outside to corral Vessery and the Tie Advanced.
What ensued was a giant fur ball in the lower left corner of the board. Steve got one of the Scyks down to one hull, but in the end, the Tie Advanced shot towards the right side of the board to run away as Tel was rounding the corner in the lower right. The tie banked and K-turned to the middle-right of the board, but Tel fired the last shot.
3-1, 700 MOV. First overall.