Hi everyone! So last weekend I went to a tournament running a palp aces list. More specifically my list was:
The inquisitor (25)
Push the limit (3)
Autothrusters (2)
Tie v/1 (1)
Colonel vessery (35)
Veteran instincts (1)
Tractor beam (1)
Twin ion engine MK II (1)
Tie/D (0)
Omicron group pilot (21)
Emperor palpatine (8)
Total (98)
I like flying arc dodging ships like the interceptor so I decided to try the TAP with the best pilot because I know how important pilot skill is for those ships. I also wanted to run a defender so I thought colonel vessery would be the best for me since with VI I can match the inquisitor's pilot skill and secondly his ability just rocks with the TAP's title. I also got the raider at gencon in 2015 and barely even opened it so I wanted to try emperor palpatine from reading about how well he does in lists. Anyways onto the games...
Round 1 Vs. Shane
Shane was a relatively new player to the game I had actually met him at my LGS a couple weeks before when he got his first core set. He was flying darth Vader with swarm tactics, the title, and accuracy corrector, two storm quad ton pilots with the title, accuracy corrector and proton rockets, and a 3rd storm squadron pilot with just the title and accuracy corrector. He started off in a decent formation and I was wondering how well a consistent 2 damage would do against 3 agility, I have little faith in green dice but some when I have at least 3. I figured he would go right for the shuttle but instead he went into a joust with Vessery and the inquisitor nearby. I took out each of his generics one per round of shooting. Vader couldn't really do much on his own especially once he got surrounded by all 3 of my ships, so I clenched a full win. 100-0
Round 2 Vs. Mr. Kain
Forgive me, but I can't quite remember his name. He was flying brobots, B and C with VI, mangler cannon, proximity mines, inertial dampeners, autothrusters, fire control system, and the title. He had mentioned he hadn't played in a couple of weeks but he flew excellently. He gave me the initiative so he could have the reposition advantage but I feel ultimately this worked against him allowing me to shoot first and block if I needed to. He targeted the inquisitor first because he allows me to use Vessery's ability and he denied him his autothrusters. He did a good job at taking out the inquisitor but by the time he did so it was just ig-88B with 1 or 2 shields against full health vessery and the shuttle. He tried going around the map to knock off some shields from my ships but never got the chance to fire back and the shuttle had a lock on him so vessery just trailed him until He took him out another win for me. 100-31
Round 3 Vs. Jason
I don't remember his specific list but it was dengar with the title, plasma torpedoes, r4 agromech, push the limit, and k4 security droid with tel trevura with plasma torpedoes, veteran instincts, extra munitions, k4 security droid, and r4 again, I don't remember the exact list but that's the base of it, he totalled 96 points so lots of initiative. He went right after the shuttle I tried to move it into range 1 to avoid the plasma torpedoes and take less damage from his primary attacks, but it didn't work. He got off toros from dengar and and tel range one taking my shields out and dealing one damage first round of shooting. Meanwhile the defender and vessery were too far as I was trying to lead dengar away thinking he would target them again but this was a huge mistake. Then my defense and attack dice crapped out on me as he took out the inquisitor next round and vessery had no locks to work off of and took him out the round after that. I was a little upset as he rolled maybe one blank on offense the whole time and maybe 1 blank on defense too so I did maybe 3 damage the whole game. Major loss. 0-100
Round 4 Vs. Mark
I've played mark before and last time he flew ties and now he was flying 2 defenders (ryad and myself) with epsilon ace, once again I don't remember his exact list but ryad had VI. He sent me after the emperor and ryad and EA to fight Vessery and the inquisitor. First round of shooting he dealt one damage to the shuttle and I had ryad at one hull so she spent most of the game fleeing since rexlar was at a good spot on my shuttle and EA's 2 didn't bother me I went after rexlar. I took him out in a couple rounds his 3 defense proved a worthy protection he also used an asteroid to cover him but I tractor beamed him so it was in his face instead of protecting him. Then I took out EA and ryad came in for a final shot but didn't quite get to me in time. it was a good way to end the day and lightened my spirits after getting demolished by dengar and tel trevura. He did deal a couple damage to the shuttle so it wasn't a total win but a solid victory. 100-15
I had a lot of fun at this tourney and I still like interceptors better than TAPs but I love their dial and shields, Vessery's ability is very dependent on his squad but when he uses it he can deal a lot of damage each round especially with tractor beam. I also learned don't let the shuttle fly alone or without some sort of cover to protect him. I finished in 3rd place and got some stress tokens and 2 cool predator alt art cards so I was very pleased with how I did over all. Any tips on how I could've flown better? Or maybe a way I could adjust my squad to do better I still have 2 points to play with but any advice would be much appreciated.
For those of which that found this TL/DR then here's a summary:
Round 1 100-0
Round 2 100-31
Round 3 0-100
Round 4 100-15
Finished 3rd got some prizes.