Two Imperial Victories, yet still looking to improve - requesting feedback

By Valen Reynard, in X-Wing Battle Reports

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I've managed to recently take 1st in two local tournament events using some very different fleet compositions, though still wanted to seek feedback from the community about any improvements or criticisms that people can suggest or make.

In a pre-Veterans Escalation tournament (60/90/120/150) with two rounds played at each level, I went with the following:

  • 60-Point (60/60)
    • Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber), Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips (20 pts)
    • Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber), Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips (20 pts)
    • Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber), Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips (20 pts)
  • 90-Point (90/90)
    • Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber), Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips, Extra Munitions (22 pts)
    • Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber), Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips, Extra Munitions (22 pts)
    • Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber), Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips, Extra Munitions (22 pts)
    • Captain Jonus (TIE Bomber), XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (x2), Guidance Chips (24 pts)
  • 120-Point (114/120)
    • Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber), Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips, Extra Munitions, Proton Bombs (27 pts)
    • Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber), Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips, Extra Munitions, Proton Bombs (27 pts)
    • Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber), Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips, Extra Munitions, Proton Bombs (27 pts)
    • Captain Jonus (TIE Bomber), XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (x2), Guidance Chips, Extra Munitions, Proton Bombs, Squad Leader (33 pts)
  • 150-Point (150/150)
    • Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber), Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips, Extra Munitions, Proton Bombs (27 pts)
    • Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber), Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips, Extra Munitions, Proton Bombs (27 pts)
    • Scimitar Squadron Pilot (TIE Bomber), Concussion Missiles, Guidance Chips, Extra Munitions, Proton Bombs (27 pts)
    • Captain Jonus (TIE Bomber), XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (x2), Guidance Chips, Extra Munitions, Proton Bombs, Squad Leader (33 pts)
    • Colonel Jendon (Lambda-class Shuttle), Accuracy Corrector, Tractor Beam, Fleet Officer, ST-321 (36 pts)

The 60-point round placed me against a Rebel opponent using a b-wing and an x-wing and an Imperial player with a TIE Interceptor and a pair of TIE/Fo. The missiles made extremely short work of the B-wing, as they also did with the Interceptor. Had to dogfight the x-wing for a bit, but came out in the end. The TIE/Fo pair proved to be a bit of a hassle, but I happened to squeak through on sheer hit points by the time it was said and done.

My 90-point matches put me against a pretty oppressive set of 3 jumpmasters and an opponent who was utilizing TIE Prototypes. While I managed to take down one of the jumpmasters fairly quickly, their maneuverability and huge pool of hit points allowed the opponent to disregard debris (which was all my opponent brought) and fly around laissez faire. This kept him frequently at range 1 of the bombers and denied an opportunity to fire missiles after the first two rounds of actual combat. I managed to take down a second jumpmaster through blaster fire, but the last one finished off the already badly-crippled bombers in the end. Between the free target locks, the focuses, and all the other modifications he often received, he was almost constantly modifying dice while never losing an attack given the turret. The match against the TIE Prototypes was particularly one-sided. The Inquisitor died in the first volley, and the second one shortly after. It wasn't hard to 4v1 the last survivor with blaster fire. Not much really to report on that one.

The 120-point matches were met by a Ghost+shuttle, with some x-wing support, and an opponent who fielded two Aggressors, a Z95, and I believe a y-wing as well. The Ghost got nuked off the table in the first combat round before the shuttle was deployed, and remnants didn't have any success against the bombers after that ( http://i.imgur.com/ugOvVWa.jpg - Really... no success at all). The fight with the aggressors was a long, drawn out brawl with a huge amount of bumping, friendly-fire bombs, and an all around cluster. A lucky proton bomb hit removed the turret off the y-wing (which rendered it mostly useless), a blob of bombs killed an aggressor at full shields, and one of the bomb crits reduced the last aggressor to pilot skill 0. The z-95 limped away to die on an asteroid, and when it came down to the final bomber and the aggressor (each at 1 HP), a long-held Target lock and a skill-level 2 TIE bomber shooting before the 0-skill aggressor let that last concussion missile seal the day.

The 150-point matches consisted of another Ghost+shuttle and support wing, and a match against several interceptors with some select TIE/Fo and TIE Fighter buddies (namely Howlrunner and our stress-removing pal). A slow-rolled start allowed the shuttle to give everyone a target lock before having to expend a thread tracer. This allowed each bomber to meet the first firing round with full modifications (Focus, Jonus-rerolls, and Guidance chips). The accuracy corrector on the shuttle ensured 2 damage from the start, and the bombers all dealt max damage with a few direct hits thrown in (even Jonus got two hits with his blaster!). My opponent surrendered there and then. The final match was a fun little dogfight that involved tractor-beaming interceptors onto asteroids before shooting them down with missiles. Between the missiles and the bombs, those fragile ships didn't last very long. Wish there were more glorious things to detail about this match, but when you're popping one or two Imperial ships ever round of combat, it makes for a very short story.

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In another tournament (post-Veterans), we were thrown into 105-point matches. After debating for hours after I decided I would try Defenders for the first time, I went with the following:

  • 105-Point
    • Countess Ryad (TIE Defender), Push the Limit, TIE/x7, Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (36 pts)
    • Maarek Stele (TIE Defender), Calculation, TIE/x7, Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (35 pts)
    • Omicron Group Pilot (Lambda-class Shuttle), Accuracy Corrector, Emperor Palpatine, Ion Projector (34 pts)

Throughout the entirety of the night, the only ship I ever lost was the Lambda shuttle. It was destroyed twice and half-destroyed twice. I can honestly say that I had grossly underestimated how powerful those evade tokens are on a Defender. Their white 4K turn (and Ryad's GREEN 2, 3, 4, and 5K turns...) ensured that once my Defenders got onto the tail of an enemy, they stayed there.

My first match entailed a b-wing with all the tricks and some proton torpedos. His wingmen brought an X-wing with a torpedo and R2, and two Z95s for blocking. While I couldn't stop the first torpedo from the B-wing, the two defenders made extremely short work of it and never allowed it out of range 1. The z95s were largely ignored unless there weren't any other shots (Maarek really loves dealing up Direct hits on those), and the T65 x-wing never had a chance to re-engage.

Second match involved a TIE Defender with TIE/D title (Vessery, the auto-target lock one), The Inquisitor in his Prototype, and a Phantom tricked out to auto-cloak. This match got off to a rough start with me taking a lot more damage than I dealt in the first two rounds. However, in one particular round, my opponent didn't re-cloak his Phantom after firing, then proceeded to fire with both his other ships. Before he was ending his turn, he tried to cloak his TIE ("oh I forgot") and I had to call a judge. His Phantom was pointed directly at an asteroid (with one specific move he could do and not hit it), and given that whether or not he decloaks determines whether he fires or even barrel-rolls before his maneuver, there was a huge difference in the decision to cloak or not. Allowing him to "remember" later would have given him a distinct advantage, especially since his attacks failed to kill any of my ships. Stele managed to squeeze a crit in on the Phantom through cloak and range 3 from Palpatine and Calculation; I picked Direct Hit, and that was that. The Phantom was by far the bulk of his points, and while his Defender and Prototype managed to take out the shuttle, the points invested in that single ship outweighed what I lost once time was called. Didn't help him that I took down The Inquisitor in the last round, either (Stele did it again).

Third round was a match against Connor Jax in his focus and evade-denying Interceptor, Vessery (TIE Defender w/ TIE/D and Tractor beam) and a Glaive Squadron Pilot (also with TIE/D and Tractor), with some silly swarm tactics shenanigans to make them all 8s in combat. This fight was a harrowing one. I knew that I needed to deal with Jax as soon as possible, as the survival of my Defenders depended on that Evade token (and focus). So, I took the aggressive approach, hoping that I'd be able to take down the Interceptor before taking too much damage. My opponent focused everything on Ryad and started with the tractor beam. A bad roll meant that first one was a hit no matter what I did, so that cost me an evade die right off the bat. The weapon fire from the first defender stripped two shields since I couldn't use either the focus or evade tokens. The second defender's tractor beam resulted in a bit of debate on whether I should use Palpatine to prevent the loss of a second Agility in anticipation of two 4-die attacks to follow. It was a gamble, but I spent Palpatine to shrug off the Tractor beam and faced the last two shots with 2-dice apiece. The second defender scored 1 hit to bring down the shields, but Jax, having bumped a defender, rolled 4 with no modifications. I managed to meet the hits with my two agility dice and survived the head-on pass. Jax, however, did not make it through the return fire. From there, it was a match involving a lot of K-turns and barrelrolls. With the evade tokens every round and Palpatine to support, my opponent eventually conceded the game as his shields were whittled away without him dealing any damage in return.

Once we went to a top-four matchup, I faced my original opponent again. It was a repeat of the first round almost exactly. B-wing went down early, x-wing shortly after, and the pouting stare at the Z95s knowing they'll never really stand a chance against a pair of Defenders.

Final opponent was sporting two Jumpmasters with deadeye and plasma torpedoes and a y-wing with a TLT and a torpedo to boot. He fired two torpedoes into the shuttle as quickly as he could, but managed to leave it at 2 hull. The Y-wing crumbled to focused fire from the three given it's 1 agility. Following that, the Defenders remained on the jumpmasters at range one and never allowed that last torpedo to fire. Getting 1 evade every round along with 3 agility dice and consistent focus kept them spotless. On a side note, nothing makes Maarrek happier than seeing a large ship get dealt it's first hull damage as the crit that makes all subsequent damage dealt as crits (starting the round after); he had a field day with that one. Once it was done, my opponent commented that he "thought he was doing pretty good with the Jumpmasters all day," but that I "made it look trivially easy" against him.

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Anyhow, while I feel I had done remarkably well in both sets of matches, I'm curious whether anyone has played similar builds and seen similar or differing results. My hope if that these wins aren't simply flukes or lucky dice. Are there any combinations that I should consider that may squeak out a little more edge or versatility? Does everything appear solid? Any sort of feedback would be greatly appreciated. And also, thank you for reading this far into my probably too-long-winded post!