So, on the sunday just past I was lucky enough to be able to gather a few mates together for a tournament of sorts. There were 4 of us on the day, nothing much at stake bar bragging rights... and it was pretty "fly casual".
We played a round-robin, didn't much matter the order in which the games played out as long as everyone played everyone else.
We had: (specific lists may be subject to errors in my recollection)
Thug Life (100pts)
4x Syndicate thug w/ twin laser turret & unhinged astromech
Podgy Han & Poe (100pts)
Han w/ falcon title & c3p0
Poe w/ Veteran instincts, R2D2, & autothrusters
Bandit Sq pilot
Palp Aces (98 pts)
Omicron group pilot w/ palpatine
Soontir fel w/ royal guard title, push the limit, stealth device, & autothrusters
Carnor Jax w/ royal guard title, push the limit, stealth device, & autothrusters
Fat Ghost & Jake (97 pts)
Kanan Jarrus w/ ghost title, ion cannon turret, reinforced deflector, recon specialist, & Jan Ors
"Zeb" Orellios w/ Phantom title
Jake Farrel w/ test pilot title, veteran instincts, push the limit, autothrusters, & chardaan refit
All the matches were played to a 70 minute timer, I will recount them as best I can.
Match 1
Podgy Han & Poe Vs Thug Life
We can blame this one on being the first match of the day - Rebel player miscalculated by sending Han in ahead of the other two ships. Also tried to chase the y-wings round the table rather than heading them off.
Han took heavy damage whilst giving relatively little in return, the headhunter got caught at range 3 and vanished in a hail of laser fire.
Poe managed to make it into range one thanks to the autothrusters, and with the crippled Han was able to take down 1 y-wing and spread a decent amount of damage around the other 3.
However, Han went down pretty quickly after that, and when the y-wings broke formation Poe didn't have a hope of keeping himself inside all their bubbles. His demise at the hands of mass tlt fire soon followed.
During this match the y-wings were identified as "brown squadron"... Cue many many brown trousers jokes over the rest of the day.
Match 2
Fat Ghost & Jake Vs Palp Aces.
Shuttle set up in the corner, Ghost about 3/4 of the table away from the shuttle. Carnor was put down near to the shuttle, Soontir more or less opposite the ghost, and Jake opposite the shuttle.
Rebel squad moved forward at full speed, but because the imperials had taken a more cautious approach no shots were exchanged. Soontir and Carnor both angled towards Jake, and the ghost angled towards the shuttle.
Turn 2 saw Jake boxed in by Carnor & the shuttle, taking a shield off the shuttle for the same return the other way. Jake was out of Carnor's arc, Soontir had no shot, and the Ghost had no effect firing at soontir, so nothing else of consequence happened that turn.
Turn 3 saw Jake K-turn behind the shuttle, being safe from return fire. Ghost pulled into position to attack the shuttle & traded fire whilst the interceptors took pot shots at it. I remember that the ghost took moderate damage, and the shuttle lost all it's shields + took a stress crit. The ghost may have managed to tag one of the interceptors, but I don't remember...
Turn 4 The shuttle plotted a red maneuver and was piloted by the rebel player for a turn. Ghost zeroed in on the shuttle, and Jake started after the interceptors (which were still buzzing around the ghost). The shuttle died to the ghost this turn without returning fire, I don't recall exactly what happened with Jake & the interceptors, I know they put some more damage on the ghost, but it still had a good few hitpoints yet. I think Jake managed to tag Soontir with a hit.
Over the next couple of turns Soontir bugged out to get some distance, & Jake chased carnor around whilst the Ghost turned itself around. Carnor accidently wandered into the ghost's main arc, and wasn't able to evade nearly enough to survive. Soontir made a tactical retreat at this point.
Match 3
Podgy Han & Poe Vs Palp Aces
I have to admit to not observing all of this match. I know that the Z-95 got picked off early, & that Poe died to some very unfortunate dice rolls.
I'm pretty sure this one went to time with The Falcon, the shuttle, and 1 interceptor still on the table... Giving a points victory to the imperial player.
But I have to stress how fuzzy my recollection of this match is.
The only thing I remember really clearly about this match was Palpatine losing 4 shields just from running over rocks. Which again started a running Joke which lasted the rest of the day
Match 4
Fat Jake & Ghost Vs Thug Life
This one was pretty short & sweet (although maybe shouldn't have been)
Brown squadron (the y-wings) set up sideways with about 3/4 of the table edge in front of them. The ghost likewise set up sideways, just a little bit in front of them, & Jake set up just behind the ghost.
Nothing eventful happened on the first turn; brown squadron and the ghost both ambled forwards a bit, the Ghost turning in slightly. Jake pushed forwards at full speed, pushing the limit for both a boost and roll, but still finished outside of range.
On the second turn brown squadron ambled forwards again, and the ghost continued it's lazy advance. Jake however was able to get right up to the y-wings this turn, and ended up in range 1 of all of them. Brown leader lost his shields that turn & Jake took no return fire.
Turn 3 brown squadron turned in towards the ghost, and the front rank of y-wings ended up trading fire with the ghost. Ghost was able to evade 1 out of 4 tlt shots, and stripped a shield or two off one of the y-wings in return. Meanwhile Jake stuck to the rear of the y-wing formation, taking a couple of shields of one of the other ships.
Reacting to the imminent collision, brown squadron broke formation and went either side of the ghost. Ghost didn't care and just flew straight forwards anyway. Jake Zeroed in on Brown leader.
Brown leader went down this turn (although it took the combined fire of both ships to put enough damage on him), ghost took some more damage (now into hull points), and the ghost was able to ion one of the y-wings that now had to fly onto a rock next turn.
Turn 5 saw Jake & the ghost focus down another y-wing, and ion the other one. (the y-wing on a rock was ignored). The ghost was still alive, although looking pretty ropey at this point.
However, Turn 6 pretty much finished it: The y-wing that had been previously ioned onto a rock was too far away to contribute, and the other y-wing was focussed down and finished off.
With one y-wing facing off against a healthy a-wing and a (albeit pretty crippled) ghost, Brown squadron conceded defeat at this point.
Match 5
Fat Ghost & Jake Vs Podgy Han & Poe
This should have been a pretty balanced matchup, but sadly the Han player did not have the dice with him today. For the 2nd time Poe fudged his evade rolls and died really quickly. The Z-95 got sniped somewhere along the line, and most of the game was The Ghost & Jake chasing Han down.
Han lasted quite some time (mostly because he was pretty good at keeping the ghost off balance and Jake couldn't push much damage through against him on his own. I'm pretty sure Han got half points on the ghost, but got chased down in the end.
Match 6
Thug Life Vs Palp Aces
This went down pretty much how you'd expect, although multiple brown trousers jokes from the "brown squadron" Y-wings combined with the other running Joke about Palpatine's shoddy flying kept it very entertaining to watch nonetheless.
Brown Squadron put up a decent fight, and were almost able to take out Carnor. But in the end they just weren't able to keep the interceptors in favourable firing positions for long enough to make any decent impact. The shuttle only actually entered into the fight on the closing turns, and took more damage from rocks than it did from the y-wings.
Ironically for a fairly cut & dried game, this one actually inspired a little tactical debate. With the general concensus being that brown squadron would have fared better if they'd made an attack run at the shuttle instead of trying to dogfight with the interceptors.
Anyway, Hope this was somewhat of an interesting read: There will definitely be more "Casual Sundays", and I might even write them up properly.... If I have any foresight I might just get a few pictures next time.
Final standings (such as they were) for the day
Fat Ghost & Jake: 3-0
Palp Aces: 2-1
Thug life: 1-2
Podgy Han & Poe: 0-3
Edited by namdoolb