So I went to a tournament this week end. It was very enjoyable. Let me tell you a little about it.

I rose a bit early and preformed all the pregame rituals. Lots of fluids, some idprofen, breakfast, the usual. I listed to the latest episode of Intensify Forward Firepower, and went to a friend as we carpooled to the event. We did the usual list discussions on the way down, and met up. Final count ended up being 9 players.

My list:

Tarkin, Interdictor, (combat Refit), Targeting Scramblers, Interdictor title, Wulf Yularen, Projection Experts.

Victory II, Defense Liason, Leading Shots, Spinal, Dominator Title.

Raider 1. Assault Concussion Missiles.

Gozanti Cruisers, Director Isard, Sliver Tools, Suppressor title.

Bossk, and IG88.

My game was to be simple. The Dominator would lead the charge running with Several tokens and all Concentrated Fire orders. If I needed to maneuver, or Repair Tarkin would token him that could be used to change the order. When in range, it would hand out 10 dice Jousts, while the Interdictor used points and scrambler to keep it in action. The Gozanti would mess with the ships, while the Raider would bat clean up. Bossk and Ig88 would work on keeping fighter packs off.

Meta wise the Split was very even, with 5 Rebel and 4 Imperials. 2 Imperials had double ISD with Indictor and Motti, the 3 ^rd imperial had double ISD with a Gozanti with 4-5 Tie Fighters, and my list above. No Demolishers. No Rhymers.

The Rebels were all over. Had a 3 Guppy 8 Squadron list, A Liberty, Yavaris, 2 Transports, 10 Squadron bomber list, a 2x MC30, Guppy, Transport, 4 Awing, YT2400 list, A Home one list with others I didn’t see or play, and a Liberty/ Neb/CR90/Transport 6?Squadron list.

Game 1 Pimps on Imps.

So the opening bell sounds, and I’m paired against a great guy playing one of the Double ISD, and Interdictor lists. We are both at 397, so we flip he wins and chooses second. I didn’t like several of his options, so I chose Minefield. He builds a wall across my front, but I manage to build on my left side a deployment that lets the Dominator skirt end mine with the Interdictor following. The Raider and Gozanti stick close also, and he deploys in the middle. This causes him to end up turning 90 degree and flying single file down the table into my face, with the ISD 1, then followed by the ISD2, and then last is Motti on the Interdictor.

The Dominator preforms just as expected and dumps all 10 dice into the ISD1’s face taking the front and a side’s shields and causing 3-4 damage as I accuracy his Brace. The Interdictor does some long range fire and I put some shields back on the Dominator, while the Raider and Gozanti maneuver. I’m first player so I go again with my front and side into him killing the ISD1. But this moves me to short on his ISD2, and I’m double arced. He leaves the Dominator with no shields and some damage cards.

This is enough as I’m first player and I hit the ISD2 very hard with the Dominator, Raider, and Interdictor, and even the Gozanti gets a shot in, but it’s still there. His return fire kills the Dominator, and I’m getting worried. But I shouldn’t be as the Interdictor activates first and blows away the ISD2, and the Raider takes all the shields from the Interdictor, and does some damage. The Gozanti does some damage, and Bossk and IG88 who have been bombing all game leave it with 2 damage left saving him from a wipe out.

I don’t recall the numbers, but I win by a hefty margin. I think I go 8-2?

Anyway game 2. This goes downhill as I’m paired against the rebel player with Liberty, Yavaris, Doonda, 2 transports each with Bomber Command, and 10 Squadrons, Like 5 Xwings, 4 Ywings, and Jan Ors.

I’m in Trouble. I decide I’ll try to get some first strikes in with my squadrons, and with my ships. We play Contested Outpost, and I use the Transport to send IG88 and Bossk after a Y wing I thought might be far enough from Jan to have no tokens. But he was, and he was left with 2 damage. Not the beginning I wanted. The Dominator and Interdictor move up, and I bumped my Dominator and casually replaced as I was moving the interdictor.

Next turn Move the interdictor and Dominator in. This is where the inaccuracy of the previous turn kills me and the Dominator brushes a Debris field with a shield overhang and I lost my previous shields. The Interdictor gets bombed off the table, and IG88 and Bossk put fire on Jan Ors, and kill her.

But it is too late. The Dominator blows Yavaris off the table, and dies to bombing. The Gozanti’s dies to some solid shooting off the Liberty, and the Raider races to engage the Transport with Dodonna on it.

The Transport lives due to poor rolls off the raider, I move as far and as fast as I can, but I don’t get distance and the raider eats hot bomber death.

Game ends up 80 to 400 for his favor, and I’m off the pace to win this thing.

Last game turns out to be the guy with Mon Martha, Guppy, Double MC30, Transport, 4 Awing, and Yt2400. I choose first player and Hyperspace Assault. I think it’s clear he drops in a MC30, I use Targeting scramblers, and the Dominator blows it off the table.

Basically he waits a extra turn wisely, and drops from hyperspace to hit the Interdictor. The Interdictor holds up but I’m taking hits too quick as his other MC30 and his Guppy concentrate fire. The Dominator is slightly out of position, but just as the interdictor goes down kills the none Hyper spaced MC30. The Raider and Gozanti’s move to position, and he goes on a terror blowing away the Raider with some excellent shooting, while the Gozanti dies to aft shot from the Guppy, while the Dominator fails to kill his MC30, or do appreciable damage to his Guppy. The only good thing is Bossk and IG88 have cleared most of the Awings, but by this time the course is off and all we can do is shoot aft guns on the final turn with no real chance of any damage happening.

I don’t recall the score, but I lost the Interdictor, Gozanti, and Raider, and he lost a MC30, Yt2400, and 3 Awings.

In all a good tournament. I picked up a few tricks. I needed a much heavier squadron presence to compete against some of the heavier squad presences. I feel I was easily where I wanted to be with absolute firepower, and resilience, but I needed many more games with the Transport to master using the Sliver tools, and I could easily drop the raider, repurpose the Gozanti slightly, and compete on the squadrons game.

Nice report. Thanks for taking the time to write it!

Who won overall?

The guy I played in the second round won overall. His last game was against the 3 Guppy 8 Ywings player, and he got a win after his squadrons beat the YWings I think.

It was a interesting tourney. No Gladiators. No Rhymer's.

So I waited to type this missive till some time had gone by, as I was still considering the lessons I’ve learned.

So I ended up going with this list:

Admiral Tarkin,

IDS1, Flight controller, Boosted Comm, Expanded Hanger, Spinal, Leading Shots, Skilled First Officer, Relentless title.

Gladiator, Admiral Monferrat, OE, ACM, Engine Techs, Demolisher Title.

Gozanti, Director Izard, Slicer Tools, Suppressor Title.

6x Ties, 2 Tie Advanced, Howlrunner.

So I took this list to the tourney with the ideas in my head about both testing this list against some of the more extreme squadron’s I see people showing up with. I also wanted to test it against some builds with no squadrons, as I felt it was going to get its lunch ate.

Game 1, I played against the No Squadron option. My opponent came in with 3 Cr90’s, 1 Nebulon, and a Liberty. I’m not going to try to describe the entire game, but the squadrons went to work. He moved up with his ships, I mostly scrapped a CR90 with my squadrons, The demolisher killed it, he took a left turn that took his Nebulon out of the fight for 3 turns as it tried to turn back, and the squadrons moved up and pounded down his side shields on his Liberty. He damaged my ISD, I decided to try a first in with the Demolisher, it failed and got shot up, but then the Squadrons killed his Liberty. After that the game was a wash, I killed a second CR90, leaving him with a CR90 running, a Nebulon coming back into the fight, and I lost a single tie fighter.

So you read that right, I took the 9 squadrons in, and other than the 3, count them 3 damage from the Demolisher, sunk the Liberty. That was impressive to me. If the game had 1 more turn, they would have destroyed his Nebulon also.

Game 2, I ended up playing against a Pickle, Yavaris, double Transport, 5x Bwings, Jan, Hawk, 2x Yt1300, and a Xwing force. This was the one I prepared for. But basically I bounced off the YT’s. I ended up killing just the YT’s, and the Xwing, and doing some scattered other damage, before he wiped me out.

At that point, I did have the drop the tournament. Date night ya know.

So overall I didn’t solve my problem about dealing with massed squadrons. I still need to keep working on that issue. I’m very interested in playing with some of the new Phantoms and Defenders. But before I get the new stuff, I sure want to get the old stuff working.

Thank you for sharing your reports. I don't have a lot of experience and I play rebels only, but I would be afraid more about combo like Dengar and Soontir Fel with some TIE Advanced for Escort, than Howlrunner. Maybe Mauler if you can squeeze him. Also, why Tarkin? Maybe some cheaper admiral like Motti? That will leave you points for more/better fighters and will give you these few hull points against enemy bombers.

Also, maybe I have missed glossary somewhere, but what are Pickle? Guppy?

Pickle is the mc80, home one type from wave 2.

Guppy is the Assault Frigate MkII.

They are nicknames the armada community gave them because of their shape