So my first game out of the box with Imperial Veterans went pretty well last night, but first some background:
At the Plano Regionals this year, I had been without much play time for the previous month or two, and so I ended up taking a "stunt" list I had been messing around with most recently. The idea was based on Procket Barons with the V1 title, Chips and Juke, supported by *somebody* carrying Fleet Officer to hand them focus tokens and ensure maximum modifications on the Range 1 alpha-strike (if I could successfully maneuver them there).
I ended up going with a Firespray as the Fleet Officer's ferry, and picked Krassis, loaded with Tractor Beam (to help guarantee a R1 Baron shot) and sundry munitions (Slave-I title, Concussion Missiles, Seismic Charges, Extra Munitions). It was a gimmicky list, I had a pitiful 2-4 tournament day (one of the wins was merely a mod win), and I was desperately wishing Imperial Veterans had come out so I could equip Long Range Scanners on Krassis to allow him at least a chance of launching his Concussion Missiles as part of the alpha strike (since his action economy is atrocious).
Now cometh Imperial Veterans! And what was the first list I put together last night? Nah, I didn't buy a $30 set just to pull one card out of it an re-try the gimmick list I had accumulated maybe a 3-8 record with.
I wanted to go full-on AWACS with my Procket Barons. Better yet, Tomax AWACS. With Cool Hand. And by swapping out Bloated Krassis for Tomax, I had room to add a PS1 /fo.
The action economy here is insane, but it's tricky to make it always work (as I learned in my second game), which we knew going in would be the issue with Systems Officer. You have to do a green, you have to end up at R1 of your supported friendly, and the friendly has to be in R3 of an enemy worth target locking.
Here's the token display after the second activation:
The Baron in the center had barrel rolled for his action, yet via Tomax AWACS, he has Focus, TL and Evade! Tomax himself, with infinite Cool Hand, has stressed himself with the Fleet Officer action, then assigned a focus to himself for the stress, which Wingman Baron removes. Flip up Cool Hand, and do it again next turn.
On the third round, second round of combat, I obliterated 3/4 of my opponent's ships, popping his two Academys and Procketing Vader to death. We called it then, and reset for a second game.
In the second game, things didn't go so well, revealing the amount of flying practice I'm going to need to make Tomax a true Cool Hand with the ladies (Fleet, Systems Officers). Even with TIE Mk. II engine on the bomber, he needed to stay close to his stress-relieving Wingman.
But when ships start to go down, Tomax can assign a focus to himself from Fleet Officer, then add an evade token from Cool Hand, all while still providing TL+Focus to a nearby friendly. And if one of the Barons bumps, the higher-PS AWACS means the Baron can still end up with TL+Focus+Evade!
I know the excitement over Tomax is probably centered more on his infinite Crackshot ability (anybody tried that with Plasma Torpedos yet?), but for my money, action economy is the thrill I can't get enough of.
I think I found the new "gimmick" to get the bad taste out of my mouth after Plano. Now for some more practice...