I officiated a Store Championship the weekend after Wave 8 was released and witnessed firsthand the beating that was unleashed by triple torpedo-slinging Contracted Scouts on the unprepared. In my preparation for regionals this year, my primary goal was to find a way to play my competition list so as to not fall prey to the dreaded U-Boats. What I finally came up with, and enjoyed a measure of success utilizing, was an opening strategy based on the Rule of 11. I would like to present my methodology in developing this opening as a practical example of how you can use the Rule of 11 to gain an advantage in your matches.

Rule of 11

If two ships line up to face each other from opposite sides of the board, and are placed as far forward in their deployment zones as they can, then the two ships will be at range 3 from one another when the total distance traveled by both ships is 11 base lengths. To determine the distance traveled in a single maneuver (straight maneuvers only), you simply add the speed of the maneuver to the width of the ships base (1 for small based ships, 2 for large based ships). Knowledge of this fact allows for predictive manipulation of your approach to play towards your own strengths or to take advantage of your opponent's weaknesses.

1 - Lists
Before any talk of an opening strategy, you have to know what list you are using at a bare minimum. The list that I prepared to take to regionals this year was:

Darth Vader (29)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Proton Rockets (3)
Advanced Targeting Computer (1)
Engine Upgrade (4)
TIE/x1 (0)

The Inquisitor (25)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Autothrusters (2)
TIE/v1 (1)

Captain Yorr (24)
Enhanced Scopes (1)
Emperor Palpatine (8)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

It is also critical to know the list you are facing to have a complete idea of what you want to accomplish with your opening. So here is the basic triple Scout list that I used to practice against:

Contracted Scout (25) x 3
Deadeye (1)
Plasma Torpedoes (3)
Extra Munitions (2)
R4 Agromech (2)
Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

The main thing to notice in how these two lists interact is that the Contracted Scout is PS 3 and every ship in my list is at least PS 4. So I will get to see where the three scouts are placed on the board before I commit to an opening position. Additionally, because Yorr is sporting Enhanced Scopes, he will get to move before the scouts and potentially block them.

2 - Determine Your Objective
The U-Boats have two weaknesses that I would like to highlight at this point: they must get a focus action to start their Deadeye + R4 torpedo awesomeness, and the torpedoes can only strike opponents at range 2-3 in front of the Scouts. So any target that can jump from beyond range 3 into range 1 is safe from the ordnance. And, if you can manage to pull off a block on the Scouts, then you get a whole turn where they aren't firing their torpedoes at any of your ships.

In light of these weaknesses, and in light of the fact that Captain Yorr will move before the Contracted Scouts, my objective was to design an approach that would allow me to block the Scouts with Yorr and avoid the alpha-strike that the U-Boats love to give. Specifically, Yorr must be able to jump from beyond range 3 into range 1 or closer on the first pass.

3 - Setup
Obstacle placement is a critical part of almost any plan of engagement. In the case of fighting U-Boats, I decided to take the largest asteroids and place them in the middle of the board in a tight wad so as to give my aces cover in the mid to late game. Additionally, I usually try to place one asteroid about halfway between my side of the board and my opponent's side and toward my left to make it difficult for my opponent to come straight down that side of the board and pull off a clean white S-Loop.

The easiest way to control range without post-maneuver re-positioning is to joust straight at each other from across the table. So, because Yorr places at PS 4, I have the luxury of seeing where my opponent places his Scouts and then place my shuttle straight across from them. In the handful of matches I observed, the U-Boat player would typically place two Scouts side-by-side in his right corner (my left), and put the third a little distance away to either flank or come in behind the first two. After I see my opponent set up this way, Yorr can set up straight across from the two Scouts in the corner, placed in such a way as to block both of them if all three ships just go straight.

The starting placement of the aces in this list is key as well, but we'll come back to them.

4 - Approach
I want to end up just outside of range 3 after the first turn of movement. I know that if the combined movement of Yorr and the lead Scouts is 11 or more base lengths, we will be in range to fire. So I need to make sure that the total distance moved is at most 10 base lengths.

The fastest maneuver on the Jumpmaster's dial is a 4-straight. Which, when combined with the width of a large base, moves the Scout 6 base lengths. Therefore, the farthest I can afford to move is 10 - 6 = 4 base lengths. This translates to a 2-straight for the Lambda's large base. After this move, we will have closed the distance between us by at most 10 base lengths (4 from Yorr, 6 from the Scouts) and at least 7 base lengths (4 from Yorr, 3 from the Scouts if they only go 1-straight). So there will be no shooting on the first round.

Going into planning the second round, it is important to realize that just as traveling 11 total base lengths bring two ships into range 3 from one another, traveling 16 total base lengths brings them into range 1, and traveling 18 total base lengths causes a bump. Yorr and the Scouts must travel at least an additional 3 base lengths each (1-straight), which brings the total distance traveled to at least 7 + 3 + 3 = 13 base lengths. This distance puts the ships just into range 2 which favors the Scouts, so I need Yorr to go faster. The fastest Yorr can go is a 3-straight, which adds 2 to the total distance traveled. Unfortunately, 7 + 3 + 5 = 15 is still less than 16, so the distance between ships is still range 2.

So, if the U-Boat player proceeds slowly, performing only 1-straight maneuvers for the first two turns, I cannot get into range 1 with Yorr. However, if he goes even 1 speed faster on one of the two turns, we will be in range 1. And if he goes 3 speed faster, then Yorr will block the Scouts. By itself, this is not enough certainty to bank on as the success or failure of the approach is entirely in the U-Boat player's hands. That's where the aces come in.

Unlike the Lambda shuttle, both Vader and the Inquisitor have extremely flexible dials and post-maneuver re-positioning capabilities. Because of this, the aces can react to the Scouts only performing a 1-straight on the first turn while Yorr cannot. What I decided to do was to place the aces on either side of Yorr with the front edge of their bases being a quarter base length behind the front edge of Yorr's base. When Yorr performs a 2-straight on the first turn, the aces simply perform 3-straight maneuvers to keep pace. Then on the second turn, if the Scouts moved quickly, the aces can just keep pace with Yorr to make sure they will end up in range 1 and be safe from blocking.

The tricky part is still when the opponent decides to only move 1-straight on the first turn. In this case, in order to be assured of getting into range 1, the aces must perform 5-straight maneuvers (7 from the first turn + 3 from the Scouts + 6 from the aces = 16 total for range 1). One of two things will happen at this point, either the U-Boats will take their second 1-straight maneuver and have range 2 on the shuttle and range 1 on both of the aces, or they will go fast enough to slam into the shuttle and block the aces (the spacing makes it possible for the Scouts to be at range 1 of all three of my ships without bumping, but that is unlikely). Neither outcome is really bad for me.

If the U-Boats go slow, they will be able to unload 3 torpedoes into the Lambda, probably killing it. But not before I hit one of them with all three of my ships including Vader's PRocket backed up by a Focus and a Target Lock. I can then do ace-like things with my remaining ships having survived the first pass which I find to be the trickiest part for aces.

If the U-Boats come in fast on the second turn instead, then they will block my aces, but will have to split their fire and will have at most 1 torpedo shot. They are unlikely to kill either of my aces with Palpatine to watch over them. Then, next turn, I can 4-k behind the Scouts with my aces, absorb the stress with Yorr, and still get all my actions. Meanwhile one of the Scouts will be unable to take his white S-Loop because Yorr is in the way, and the other one won't be able to take it because of the asteroid I mentioned earlier, leaving me with the superior position.

I have faced U-Boats once in a Store Championship and once in a Regional Championship with this list since Wave 8 came out. I have used the opening described here both times and have won both games. There are certainly plenty of assumptions built into this strategy and plenty of ways to get around it, but hopefully this example will get you thinking of ways to design your own opening strategies against your dreaded enemies.

Thanks for reading.

So say you are in the first round of a Regionals, Against an opponent you have never met before, staring you down with 3 contracted scouts. You have no idea If he likes to rush in, or knows about the rule of 11 and knows to play it safe. What would you do in that situation? You know the scout has to move at least 1, do you assume the scout is going to only move 1 andso you would move your ships max range, and then adjust during planning of round two?

So say you are in the first round of a Regionals, Against an opponent you have never met before, staring you down with 3 contracted scouts. You have no idea If he likes to rush in, or knows about the rule of 11 and knows to play it safe. What would you do in that situation? You know the scout has to move at least 1, do you assume the scout is going to only move 1 andso you would move your ships max range, and then adjust during planning of round two?

I stuck to only moving the shuttle 2-straight on the first turn no matter what. Changing it up to move 3-straight on the first turn moves the risk from the second firing phase to the first. You would always be able to get the range 1 engagement on the second turn, but that might come at the cost of getting shot with torpedoes on the first turn. Which way is better just depends on which gamble you would prefer to take.

How in hells bells do you handle the sh*tty non modified dice the inquisitor gets when he has to boost or br? I hate it.

Third disadvantage of U-boats: They can run out of ammunition when facing too many ships

How in hells bells do you handle the sh*tty non modified dice the inquisitor gets when he has to boost or br? I hate it.

For the most part, I only reposition with him when it is absolutely necessary. And then I rely on Palpatine to hold things together.

Even 3 blanks turns into 3 evades with AT, evade token and Palp. The difficult part is not getting greedy and burning Palp on offense.

It's a nice write up but for the newer players it might be useful to include a brief explanation of the rule of 11 right off the top.

It's a nice write up but for the newer players it might be useful to include a brief explanation of the rule of 11 right off the top.

Thanks for the feedback. I have added a brief summary of the rule.

Giving up Prockets and VI on Vader and replacing VI with Adaptability (which ties his PS with the VI-Inquisitor...handy for a LOT of reasons) would let you put EU on the shuttle...solving the "it can't move fast enough on its own" problem, nicely. If you double-bump both scouts with it, then, that leaves your aces free to maneuver...

Because I need a video to see what is up.

This is beautiful! In this way, you make a triple scout list feel like quad TLT. It all just comes down to maneuvering and planning your asteroid placement. Brilliant. With reinforced deflectors on Yorr, he very well may be able to survive the barrage of 3 torpedoes, too... That would almost guarantee victory, because there wouldn't be enough ammunition left to kill the aces, but it would ruin the enhanced scopes blocks that you can do.

Also don't forget, U-Boat can move 1 straight and do BR back. So he would be moved 2, not 3 forward. That messes up your calculations too. Second move, he can do same if he needs, move 1 straight , do BR back

So 2 straight moves and he travelled just 4 forward

True but if he BRs then he is not focussing which means even if he catches you are Range 2-3, you are safe as he cannot fire his torpedoes.

So say you are in the first round of a Regionals, Against an opponent you have never met before, staring you down with 3 contracted scouts. You have no idea If he likes to rush in, or knows about the rule of 11 and knows to play it safe. What would you do in that situation? You know the scout has to move at least 1, do you assume the scout is going to only move 1 andso you would move your ships max range, and then adjust during planning of round two?

I stuck to only moving the shuttle 2-straight on the first turn no matter what. Changing it up to move 3-straight on the first turn moves the risk from the second firing phase to the first. You would always be able to get the range 1 engagement on the second turn, but that might come at the cost of getting shot with torpedoes on the first turn. Which way is better just depends on which gamble you would prefer to take.

if you have a large base ship, 2 is the safest / best speed to move forward, if they go 4, you will be out of range, then you can zoom into range 1 next turn.

Just have to be mindful of bumpmasters

Good call. The moves are pretty much on a par with what I try to do with a TIE swarm - speed 3 turn 1 and punch it speed 5 turn 2. That puts as many as possible within range 1 where I have the firepower edge, and can (hopefully) ventilate a Jumpmaster with torpedoes still in its tubes.

Generally a sound stratergy but if you set up like that against uboats here they're just going to 1turn self bump The first turn leaving you hanging out in the wind. If you've not witnessed this yet just be prepared for it in your regional!

I love to see strategy posts like this. It really gets you thinking about Turn Zero and helps show the new kids how to really play the game. Good job! Anything that hurts the Potty Patrol is fine by me!

great topic, really useful for noobs. mop the scare away and pewpewpepw!!

I didn't fight any U-boats but I faced some level of ordnance in 4 of my 6 games. In the 2 games where the ordnance carriers lined up to joust my ghost, they never got to fire their payload. In games where they set up across the map, they were able to.

Thank you for this, I recently played in my very first store championship. We only played 4 games, was a small store... but I only lost one game for the day and that was versus a U-Boat, Bump Master and a Slaver with Zuckuss list. I had 0 ideas how to fight this and lost badly, I tried to be all out flanky but that did not work at all for me at all. I later thought I should have set up across from them and did what you said in your article. So this is all great to know and absorb, cheers Jello.

My list was Vader, inquisitor and Jax. Jax was taken to fight against either Soontir or U Boats, I smashed a Palp Aces list, got smashed hard by the above list.

Also don't forget, U-Boat can move 1 straight and do BR back. So he would be moved 2, not 3 forward. That messes up your calculations too. Second move, he can do same if he needs, move 1 straight , do BR back

So 2 straight moves and he travelled just 4 forward

OP stated that this is open to a lot of variances in the game in the opening moves, but by stating what rule of 11 is, how to best get into range 1 on your second move they have opened the door for a lot of new players, myself included, how to fight these things. I previously posted I lost to these things, but I believe I lost before I even set up as they were the Ordnance spamming JM5K that everyone was talking about. If I jousted them, which seems stupid, but jousted into range 1 on my second turn, vader and the Inquisitor would have had a field day, and if Jax was in range 1 there was no spending focuses on attacks or evades.

I thank the OP a lot for putting this into layman's terms to help noobs like me shake the U Boat bugbear.