So, I attended Regional number two (for me) and it was a great time! The store was filled with fun players and lots of energy. Had a great turnout (I think 16ish?) and no issues (that I am aware of) like concessions, disputes, etc.

The list I took is similar to one Ive been running now for 10 weeks. I tweak it mildly each tournament for changes and corrections that I notice in my games. Ive kept records(ish) of my games and such and try hard to determine the best list and continue to refine it. (sometimes to the worse!)

List for this weekend:

Vader on a vanilla raider

Raider with APT

Raider with expanded hangar

1x vanilla raider

Demo - IO, OE, ET, APT

2x tie advanced

bossk

IG88

objective: Opening salvo, hyperspace, superior

(always went first)

First game (Ken - GARM 3 x AF carrier types, 4 ywings, 4xwings, hawk) Played: Hyperspace assault

Ken deployed on frigate and 3 ys in hyperspace. The other two were in perpendicular to me sailing to my right.

I deployed the raiders in echelon by the objectives so on turn two he would have to deploy in front of raiders

DEMO was max hard right edge

He immediately turn two brought in the AF and ys. He placed it very well between my raider front and Demo. Close enough to the demo to make me move it first. That meant the Y strike plus side arc wrecked a raider. Not a good start, but at least I knew where it was now and his forces were separate.

I hit the lead (garm) AF in the nose on Turn three and almost killed it outright with rams and heavy damage. The raiders were helping screen his bomber fleet and my fighters were working overtime to create what I call a "Delta Intel Field" Basically being in a delta shape around a mass of bombers so that no matter where the intel ship goes, he only "Heavy's" one of my fighters. Works pretty well and he was usually only freeing up a couple squads for bomber work each turn. HOWEVER, my squads did not survive this battle.

Garm died round three and demo sailed to block the move of the second AF with a ram. Sneaking into the front arc.

The Second AF died next turn and I sailed away from the final untouched AF and reamaing squads.

Final Score: 7-3 win

Second Game (Jeff -ACKBAR Mc80 Fully decked out, Mc30 decked out, 5x generic Dash, Dash, Jan) Played: Hyperspace Assault

Jeff Deployed the Mc80 perpendicular to me and going to my right (must be a thing...) all the squads were on the board. The Mc30 in hyperspace.

I deployed all my raiders in a 45 degree angle front left to right to ostensibly come in to the rear point of the Mc80. My Demo was far right edge.

I flew the raiders into the mix of hyperspace points just figuring one would get aced. And not really putting lots of effort into which one. The Demo was safest and farthest away right.

I rapidly advanced my squads as he was just laterally moving his in front of his mc80 as a screen. I wanted to engage them prior to demo going in attack run.

His mc30 popped out immediately and lit up a raider (as presumed). However, another was in the way of the move and the mc30 rammed a second raider. In addition, it ran over an asteroid. So the 30 was half dead straight away.

I lined up two raiders on the rear of the 80 and the rammed raider prepped to hit the 30 and the demo did its initial attack run. (mind you this 80 had advanced projectors. So, it would be a doozy to finish it in one salvo.)

I got two raiders into the rear arc of the 80 while one raider got perfectly lined up for his apt shot in the 30s front arc at perfect angle so that on the 30s next move it would have to ram. So, all I need to land was the apt crit and the 30 would die next turn. I got the crit and could easily survive the 30s front arc.

The demo last/first attack dropped the 80 heavily but couldn't finish it. It had 4 hull left and 2 shields on the front. He attacked back with it (front arc only) and did 2 damage. I redirected to side. Then his swarm of rogues came in (couldn't pin em down with Jan) and pounded black dice onto the Demo. By a bit of luck it survived with one hull. His mc 30 rammed my apt raider and both died.

Turn 5 I killed the 80 and jetted away from the rogues, then tied them up with my straggling squads. My remaining raiders turned and ran from the rogues as well. No more damge. Game over

Final Score: 8-2 win

Third Game: (Bryan -SCREED ISD carrier style, Demolisher, Insidious, 3x bombers, Rhymer, Vader, Dengar, 2x Ties?) Played: Hyperspace assault.

So this game started and Bryan and I knew that we were 3rd and 4th and next to us was the tie for first. Meaning, we were taunting those guys to have a 5-5 draw It was the only way he and I could reach them. Top table was at 17 pts. Bryan was at 16pts and I was at 15pts. He or I could win if we did really well and the top table draw.

That being said, this was a tense and crazy game, but incredibly fun! Bryan is an excellent player that flew the heck out of his ships and did some wily things that threw me off guard.

Deployment was interesting. He sent Insidious into hyperspace alone. Demo and all the squads were far my right and the ISD was far my left. So, thinking it was an error I lined up Demo dead on with ISD and had my raiders in echelon center at 45 degrees aimed left to right (toward his Demo) but ready with navs to do hard left turns into his ISD. My thought was a quick ISD kill and save my ships and maybe sneak a 8,9 win.

Right away it went bizarre. He shut the isd engines off and came to zero between asteroids. Excellent cover. His Demo and squads raced at max speed laterally to join the ISD (and it seemd like they were there ASAP!). I went ahead and sent three raiders on a hard left turn to help with the ISD and oncoming squads. Vader went far right hook to come around behind his Demo. My Demo coasted forward sideslipping left to stay out of range and arc of the isd.

Then, he pops in Insidious right behind my Demo.

Like an idiot (and after like 6 hours of gaming) I instantly forget that its INSIDIOUS and measure that he's in blue range...chuckle...and ignore it and move one of my raiders in a strafe of the ISD and a ram into its side.

Then, he slyly chortles and measures arc and range to my rear of Demo and says hes gonna fire. I instantly began to protest then it dawned on me....heh... I saw the game go up in smoke right there...

But, luck would have it.... a so so shot by insidious...only one arc...and a good use of my evade and redirect and brace and only took two shield damage. THEN, the insidious had no choice (because he loaded it with con fire) but to sail almost perfectly into my front with a double arc. (later he told me it was intentional so I would hit the insidious instead of going in for the ISD kill)

I waited and did the rest of the raiders onto the isd and brought around vader to line up behind his Demo.

Finally, I ended with Demo. Double arced his Insidious and killed it with the two volleys. Then moved so that the following turn Id have the setup for the rear of the ISD.

At this point the ISD plus some bombers and rhymer made my APT raider go POOF!

Then at the start of turn four, Vader unleashed an amazing shot into the rear of his Demo with a con fire and the help of Bossk. Stripped all the shields and dropped it to one hull. I chortled as I was gonna ram it....but Bryan kindly noted that my speed four would shoot me right past.....UGH!

So, I sailed as best I could to make sure that if I survived the shot, he would have to ram me and die. I didn't survive the shot....

My Demo then is in red front arc range of his wounded Demo. I NEED two hits. His evade will get rid of one and the other will kill it. I don't have vader anymore for a reroll. I roll, hit, crit. His demo dies from long range demo fire.

Then my Demo moves up behind his final ship, the ISD and rips into it with the side arc. Dropping all its side and rear shields and putting it at 7 damage. End of turn 5.

Turn six starts. I go with Demo that has a con fire lined up. I need four hits. Period. He has no defense tokens to use. Just four hits. I have no vader so I only get OE reroll. I roll two hits. I add the con fire. nothing. well...hear goes.... three blanks to get two hits with OE. SUCCESS! Dead ISD

Then, I move my rogues as best possible to block rhymer long range shots on my demo at the end of the game. He gets off three black dice shots at the rear and fail to kill my demo. He does finally kill Ig88 with Vader turn six. They had literally been engaged since turn two. IG fires...vader brace for one or so. Vader fires with no accuracy, IG scatters. Finally on turn six vader gets an accuracy and shred IG Game ends.

Final Score: 9-1 win.

During the last game, Bryan and I saw the top table end at a 6-4. Meaning, Everett had a total of 23 points. That meant Bryan needed a 7 to come in first and I needed an 8 to come in first. So we were intense at that point. We were also intimately aware (as our game was moving slowly with all the intensity) of all the onlookers, including the top two guys waiting to see if they would be dethroned They were hoping for a 5-5 draw also!

So, it was really exciting to finish out the night (at like 1030!) with a big win and a total of 24 points which put me one point above the top table finisher and enough for the uncontested win

My major excitement and pride so far is that after 36 tournament games with this list, I have lost only one and had a 5-5 draw MOV of exactly zero. So, this list is 34-1-1 If anyone is interested I have fairly detailed numbers on ships killed, ships lost, opponent type, etc..

It was a blast! Lots of great opponents! Lots of fun swag! And a super cool trophy (most important part!) And a National Bye. Thanks to Somethig2DO games for putting on a fine event and thanks to all my opponents for very fun, competitive and sporting games!

Cheers

Mike

Let me be the first to say congratulations on the win, well done.

And I am going to be a gentleman and not rib you on that MC80 surviving with advanced projectors.

Rib away! I didn't have my bomber in position or it would've died!

Loved the game mike. Can't say it enough.

Packed up tho and I think I tossed one of my black dice in with your stuff. Lol oh well. Now I have the good dice too. Not an issue. Lol

Pm me yer address brother. I'll mail ya a pack of dice and more cash for trays .

Looking forward to our next game!

Nice write up and congrats.

Congrats mike!

Good write up... I wonder what your thoughts about Vader as a general are... and possibly why you didn't go screed with your list... also, I really dig bossk, how was he for you? And how was ig88???

Ive run Vader the entire time with this list. He is a fabulous help overall and well worth his points. The ability to have a higher max damage with the Demo and to not have to spend points on upgrades for the raiders to still have solid rerolls is simply awesome. I would never take screed over Vader after running him so long. I don't like losing a die of damage capability AND Vader can be used on EACH attack...so...better overall.

Bossk was MONEY! He setup two of my ship kills with some shield damage and was sneaky with grit to surprise my opponents with a quick move and strike. Plus his four black are powerful...

IG88 has been in almost my lists with this build. His flexibility is just awesome. HIgh speed for engagement lock downs. Scatter for good survivability. Heavy attack dice. Counter. Ignores escort. Ignorest counter. Pretty much awesome sauce. Plus I run him with a tie advanced so he gets to hang around a lot longer. He does a great job against Rhymer usually and can pick out the intel ships fast. Typcially though he is my counter bomber lock down ship. DOes a great job and usually hangs around to lock em down for quite some time.

All in all the four squads I had did what I expected them to. I would have liked a couple more squads for deployment and spread bomber engagement ability. I may downgrade bossk, eliminate the apt and hangar on raiders and add in 4 ties instead. This would give me two deployments. Plus more flexible bomber coverage and a bit more speed.

But I didn't paint any basic TIEs !

hahah! I just flip the disks over..

Don't worry...when things settle, I send you a ton of plastic to paint! Even full price! hehe..

Ive run Vader the entire time with this list. He is a fabulous help overall and well worth his points.

That's high praise! I like running him, and really appreciate his rerolls, especially with reds...

One thing I have been reluctant to try though is putting apts on naked raiders relying only on Vader to get a crit..., was thinking maybe rapid reload better???

With Vader/apt/raider, you have a fairly reliable front arc success. So so on the side arc. But with an apt and Vader, a raider can kill medium ships with a con fire. Pretty reliably.

Not sure I'd do rapid reload. You are enhancing their weak arcs. If any upgrade other than apt, I'd go with the extra two black up front. Rarely will the rapid reload be usable for its points (Imo)

Sorry, meant small ships

Cool, I'll try it with apt... I have a horrible flight record with raiders, but my thoughts were double arcs were fairly easy to achieve off of a nav and therefore 8 points for a black might be worth it?

Double arc are pretty easy. But I don't think 8 for one black is as good as an auto damage card crit. Granted you have to roll a crit, but with Vader it's pretty easy

Good luck!