tournament was about 15 people, I went 4-0, there was no cut. I'm also reporting 2 casual games with the same list. I'm writing this to help me clarify what I did right and what I could improve, and if anyone is interested.
my list:
lothal rebel, Hera, Chopper, FCS, ABT
Poe, adaptability, r5p9, integrated astr.
Jake, adaptability, lone wolf, AT
note: I did not use lone wolf once due to my ships being close together. AT would have been marginally useful since I was out of arc of turrets only a couple of times. although I prefer AT, the int. astromech did save Poe in one game, who escaped with 1 hull.
game 1:
super dash with kanan and 2 greens with adaptability.
poe and jake went after dash while I pushed the rebel full forward to attack what was available. he pushed his A wings in range 1 of the rebel. I killed the a wings fast and then finished dash off. I think it was 100-0 or he got half the rebel. he wasn't bad (I had lost against him in a different tournament and a different list) but he wasn't moving his ships too well so not much to say.
game 2:
vessery with HLC and a decimator with mara jade and ysard.
he pushed forward jousting, but I was happy to joust. I focused the defender with my 3 ships and killed him fast, then finished off the decimator. I think my list was probably just stronger than his.
game 3:
palpshuttle Yorr, whisper FCS kallus on Poe, and omega leader.
this was the hard match up. he set up Yorr and omega leader in my top right corner, and whisper flanking. I set up the rebel and jake center, and poe to my left. I did a hard 1 with the rebel to fly around an asteroid that was in my right corner, while poe went full forward, and jake banked left to support poe. he went straight with the shuttle as he had asteroids to clear, and omega leader banked to go after jake.
in round 2, I banked left to turn around the asteroid while staying out of range of the shuttle, while he came still forward to push past the 2nd asteroid on his right flank. in round 3 I did a hard 2 which left me pointing diagonally towards the mat center, to keep the shuttle in my sight no matter its maneuver. this worked out and I started putting damage on it with FCS. next turn I did a 5k and then a hard 2 right. I kept the shuttle in my arc while he went forward and then stopped and forward again, always guessing wrong where I was going, and so the lothal remained outside the shuttle arc. This was great as it left the shuttle on a couple of hulls left while denying his shots.
meantime, on the other side of the mat things weren't going too well, poe and jake were not putting much damage into whisper. in this game I wished I had had VI on Poe to move after the phantom. we were both ps9 and he had taken initiative. several times I thought of my best move and decided not to take it because whisper had an obvious counter move that I thought he would take, but he was always taking a different maneuver instead. either he couldn't see what I thought was his best option, or perhaps he thought I could see it and wanted to be unpredictable. I believe he's a strong player because he won a tournament against some strong players. he said he had watched me play before and he thought I was predictable because he knew I was good at analyzing all the different moves. Perhaps here I should have taken the move I thought was my best shot instead of second guessing myself. I did make one mistake with poe, turning him into the asteroid triangle in the center instead of going straight. going straight would have allowed me to take a focus, while turning caused me to bump into omega. I realized my mistake immediately but it was too late.
Poe did however turn out to have a shot at the shuttle, and killed it. the lothal also would have had a shot, but at least Poe prevented the shuttle from firing. I made another mistake with Jake, to bank towards the center to attack the shuttle. this left jake at range 2 of omega leader, who killed jake. since the lothal had a shot, jake should have gone straight to at least be at range 3 of omega, or even out of range by boosting. I should remember to not only focus all my ships at one target, but realize in some situations it's better to miss the shot and remove a ship from danger instead of going for redundancy.
Poe took damage from whisper and survived the next 2 rounds while trying to escape, thanks to integrated astromech and a roll with 4 evades. I had just rolled my greens (too early) when he said he wanted to modify his dice. my fault for rolling, so I picked them all up before they all finished rolling. I could see though that at least one of them was a blank. since whisper had 4 hits after modifying, poe would have been dead. however since I had picked them up to let him modify, I rerolled into 4 natural evades.
at this point I was up a few points because his shuttle was worth more than jake, and my rebel still had shields. next round poe run and boosted just a mm out of range, while omega and the lothal didn't do much. I 5k turned into omega to try the range 1 shot, but he bumped. next turn I 5k again and he ended up at range 1, so he barrel rolled away. he had no shot but my range 2 primary didn't do much. here I think I could have just done some small banks after the first 5k, but I was worried omega would slow roll to stay behind me. instead he pushed forward. again, I 2nd guessed my best move thinking he would go for what I thought was his best move, but I guessed wrong. perhaps I should have sent the lothal towards whisper, but the time was almost over and I thought I had a better chance at killing omega.
in the last round, poe would have very likely died to whisper, however my opponent's kid was running around and so he spent 5 minutes going after him, which means the game ended right before my likely loss, and I took a modified win.
game 4:
vader with VI and chiraneu with gunner and EU
this game was for 1st place since we were the only 2 players with 3 wins. he had PS 10 on both, and tried to flank with both his ships. since I had sent the lothal and jake forward, while poe was lagging behind in the center, that meant in the next round, he could concentrate fire on poe if he wanted, since poe was blocked by some asteroids and his moves were restricted. I decided I didn't mind, so I banked Poe towards the flank where he was, while kturning the lothal around, together with jake. I thought that vader would try to get a shot at poe while avoiding jake and rebel, however he aggressively turned into range 1 of poe, which also let him in range of jake and the rebel.
concentrated fire on poe only saw him losing 3 shields. my return fire though killed vader out right (the rebel rolled 4 natural hits).
at this point I thought it was pretty much game. poe flew away to regenerate. the deci tried to damage jake but AT left him with 1 hull before he run away. the lothal missed his shots a couple of rounds chasing the deci around an asteroid, thanks to EU on the deci. however eventually the lothal caught up, and it's a very fast ship, so the deci kept taking damage with FCS shots and eventually died. 100-20.
the next week I played 2 casual games and I was destroyed. granted I was not as focused as in the tournament. first game was against 7 ties and youngster with rage. he set all his ties in formation center, and I made the mistake of jousting instead of having some of my ships flanking. I killed youngster but lost poe in the subsequent round of fire. again, with the lothal, I didn't take my best move thinking that the other player (who's very good) would have guessed it and blocked me, when instead he kept going forward and I bumped the lothal taking even more damage. I think I killed maybe another tie before losing. my ABT turret rolled a blank and a focus rerolled (TL) into a blank and a crit that was evaded. considering that in the tournament I only used it once against and a-wing, when I should have instead used my primary since the a-wing was in arc, I am not entirely sure the ABT is worth it. on the other hand, if I didn't have it, perhaps I would get arc dodged at range 1, something people don't really want to do when there's a chance to get an ABT shot. but in none of my tournament games people really went after the lothal, it seemed everyone was gunning for poe.
the next game was against 2 punishers, redline and deathrain, one with torp/missiles and double TLs, the other with conner net and prox. mines. also 2 ties. I did not move my ships very well. it was 10.30 pm and I was tired. I sort of moved them in the general direction of the opponent, which made the lothal bump. once again I thought my best move was to kturn the lothal behind his ties, to make the punishers bump, which in retrospect would have worked, but instead I thought he would slow roll the tie to prevent that, and instead I went forward and bumped. I got a couple of conner nets and proximity which killed poe. I could have flown much better, however the lothal is very vulnerable to ordnance. the worst is perhaps plasma that always does 4-6 practically guaranteed damage.
I was lucky not to face any ordnance in the tournament and that's also probably why I won. I can't expect the same luck in the next tournament which is probably going to be bigger than 15 people and have a few jumpmasters. I thought to change my list by removing jake for a B with FCS, and give AT to Poe, however I think this list is too vulnerable to ordnance. perhaps I'm wrong, and if I try to joust from out of range 3 into range 1 I might pull it off, but I'm not sure.
so I'm thinking to try 5 crackshot a-wings next time.
Edited by XBear