I've been inspired to write my own series of battle reports by some of the good people on these forums, and here they are:
The First Battle:
My List:
Red Squadron Veteran (26)
R2-D2 (4)
Autothrusters (2)
Crack shot (1)
2 x Blackmoon Squadron Pilot (27)
R7 Astromech (2)
Fire Control System (2)
This list was developed in 5 minutes after I arrived at my FLGS purely for fun. For those that are unfamiliar, R7 astromech allows you to spend your target lock to force the person you've target locked to reroll their dice. This is vicious against JM5Ks and anything that has anything to modify dice with, but is limited by the "once per round" clause. I added the RSq. Veteran for some tanky endgame points, and you'll see that it payed off. All 3 ships are 33 points, so its hard to get a good MoV against it.
Opponent's List:
Maarek Steele (35)
Veteran Instincts (1)
TIE/x7 (-2)
Glaive Squadron Pilot (35)
Veteran Instincts (1)
TIE/x7 (-2)
Countess Ryad (35)
Veteran Instincts (1)
TIE/x7 (-2)
Some nice high PS, high agility, high action economy ships that can also joust. Owch. My opponent wanted to run 2 glaives w/Maarek, but didn't have the cards for it. This list is just a tank, so I knew from the beginning I was in for trouble. I had played my opponent several times before and knew him to be creative with his dials, so I couldn't just expect 4k after 4k.
Round 1:
I started off in the bottom left (from my point of view, as everything described here is) with my E-wings in front of the T-70. The T-70 was my late-game ship, and both of us knew it. My opponent began in the middle of the board, intending to run between the dense asteroid/debris cluster I had formed in the middle of the board. He gunned it with Ryad and the Glaive with 5 straights, while Maarek banked to the left of the board to begin a flanking run. I executed 4 straight maneuvers with all 3 ships to stay in formation. There were no shots this round.
Round 2:
I realised during the planning phase that 5 straights would leave me in a position where only 1 of his ships could shoot, due to a cunningly placed asteroid. An evade token on my E-wings and a boost from the T-70 ensured I'd get some shots and survive. My opponent moved his ships into position, but only had 2 shots (darn barrel rolls). Fire was exchanged between my foremost E-wing and Ryad with no damage done due to the evade tokens on almost every ship and some nice green dice all round. My E-wings received a nifty free target lock from FCS though.
Round 3:
I believed here that a joust was in my favour, as my ability to reroll my opponent's attack dice was quite powerful at range 1. I proceeded to execute 2 hard rights to force the joust and focused with every ship to maximise my damage output (as I already had FCS target locks). My opponent correctly guessed my maneuvers and brought his ships in for the joust as well, gaining an evade token on every ship except Ryad (she was a little too close for it). He took his actions and we moved onto the first serious combat phase.
Since every one of my opponent's ships were higher pilot skill, I had to weather the storm before my return shots. Solid dice on both sides meant that after the first two defender shots (Maarek + Glaive) my E-wig had lost a shield and its evade token. The Countess rolled: hit, hit, crit, and I forced her to reroll all 3 with my target lock: hit, crit, crit. Crap. That E-wing went down to hull, but no crits were dealt (thankfully). My combined firepower (and crack shot) was enough to reduce Ryad to 2 hull.
Round 4:
Both my E-wings scattered, one with a 3 bank and the other with a 3 turn in an attempt to block one of Ryad's endless K-turns, which failed to work. My T-70 tallon rolled away from the fight to set up for a nice attack run while Maarek K-turned and the other two defenders flowed in for some range 1 punishment. Fortunately, my damage E-wing had successfully escaped their arcs, so the full shield E-wing stepped up to the plate... and promptly got knocked down to only hull. I begin to see a pattern here. I take a two shields off of Maarek in the return fire.
Round 5:
So 2 defenders needed to turn around without gaining stress. Hmm... In anticipation of some K-turn shenanigans I 4k both E-wings to get them out of the death zone. The T-70 re-enters the fight with a 1 bank to clear stress, and target locks Ryad. The defenders all do 1 hards... not. They both ended up K-turning as predicted, leaving Ryad without a shot and the defenders with terrible range 3 ones. Maarek was the odd one out, flying 3 straight to keep the damaged E-wings in sight. Lasers were fired and did absolutely nothing.
Round 6:
Maarek was K-turning this turn, in all certainty. I set up a wonderful block for him and the Glaive through a 2 bank off of the previous turns K-turns, and focused with the "bumper" E-wing while evading with the rear one. The T-70 slow played, hoping to catch the damaged Ryad in arc. Sure enough, both defenders bump my "bumper" and were left actionless. Ryad pulled yet another K-turn, leaving her squarely in the sights of all 3 of my ships. We then moved on to a very decisive combat round.
Shooting first, Maarek aimed for the rear E-wing of my bump duet and stripped its evade and target lock on defense (I didn't want to risk a direct hit there). The glaive aims for the same E-wing and rolls hit, hit, hit, crit. Crap. Triple evades, please. Sadly, I rolled blanks, removing my E-wing from the table with 3 damage + direct hit assigned to it. Bummer. My two shots for the round were the remaining E-wing and the T-70. T-70 shoots - hit, hit, hit after spending its target lock. Ryad rolls blank, blank, blank. Even spending her evade token won't save her, so Ryad is off the board. This leaves a damaged E-wing and full health T-70 versus maarek on 3 hull and a glaive with only a shield token or so removed heading into round 7.
Round 7-9:
Some wonderful green dice on both our parts rendered these rounds fairly dull. We ended up in the top middle of the map with a joust about to occur heading into round 10. I did manage to get the Glaive down to not shields, I believe.
Round 10
I set up another of my blocks, executing some nice maneuvers, hoping to dodge arcs with banks and hard turns. However, my opponent anticipated me and pulled up just short of a bump with the Glaive, giving it a wonderful range 1 shot on the E-wing. Maarek did yet another K-turn and landed behind and to the right of my ships. After 2 attacks, one of them at range 1, the E-wing was no more. I didn't even deal any return damage. So with a full health T-70 on the board against 2 half health TIE defenders with superior pilot skill, I knew I was up the creek without a canoe.
Round 11:
Having garnered 2 spectators by this point, I decided to be bold with my maneuvers. At this point there as a debris token to the front-right of my ship, effectively blocking any decent maneuver I could make. Clearly, I had to avoid it. Except I executed a tallong roll right through the debris, suffering 2 stress (although no damage) and leaving me in an unexpected position. Both defenders K-turned, with only 1 of them having a shot on me. I believe that shot dealt 1 damage.
Round 12:
I needed to both recover a shield with R2-D2 and clear stress badly, so both my opponent and I knew exactly what I was going to do. A 2 straight later and both defenders had range 1 shots on my tokenless T-70. They both took target locks, and proceeded to roll exceedingly poorly. By which I mean, did not kill me. They managed to deal 1 hull damage (not a crit, thankfully). I did absolutely nothing in return.
Rounds 13+:
I moved onto the famous Rebel Regeneration end game, where the player who's clearly winning desperately tries to kill one annoying regeneration ship. I pushed hard for range 3 to get the autothrusters bonus, but rarely managed it since the defenders outmatched me in speed. I was pleased with my piloting, making good use of rocks to obstruct attacks every second round and slowly but surely regaining shields while wearing down the Glaive.
On a particularly crucial turn, I gunned 4 forward and acquired a range 1 shot on a 2 hull Glaive that had for some reason executed a 1 hard, leaving it stressed and without any tokens. Some nice rolling wiped the Glaive off the board, and a few turns Later Maarek followed suit.
Result:
Victory. Margin of victory would have been somewhere around 133-135. Not bad, but not good enough to make the cut at tournaments.
I believe there is merit in the R7 astromech, and not just on Tarn. Its a had counter to JM5K lists, as the focus token modifier is far less useful on blanks than focuses. Once the ARC-170 comes out I might swap out the E-wings for R7 equipped ARCs with weapons engineer for even more shenanigans.