I figure it's about time I started posting on here again, mainly because I have taken what's left of the fleet out of mothball and have blown the dust off of the ships, and I want to chronicle my thoughts.

First things first, in regards to Paul, I have started the conversation, but I am going to keep what gets said between us private. That's all I'm going to say about it. At the end of the day, I have to live with the decisions that I make and deal with the consequences.

**edit: i have my seat for Saturday at Worlds. Hope to see you there.

Since I started playing again, I have received a warm welcome from most people, which is what makes me want to just head up to Roseville and chat with long-time friends.

Now, on to the fun stuff. I took 4 months off after Worlds last year, played in my store championship, then a couple of games at the LGS, then the Campaign Against Cancer tournament in April. I took another 4 months off of playing after that, but I started playing again about a month ago. I picked up the Imperial Veterans pack and was enjoying flying Defenders for a couple of weeks.

But lately I had a goal of doing sonething that to my (admittedly limited) knowledge hadn't been done before. I wanted to see how many 5-dice focus+target lock shots I could get with my TIE Fighters.

My squad:

Youngster with Expose

Backstabber with hull

Mauler with hull and Adaptibility

Scourge with hull and Adaptibility

Scimitar with shuttle title, TIE MK2 mod, Systems officer, Fleet officer

Essentially I've got 3 TIEs rolling extra dice in the given situations, using Youngster's Expose, and a bomber feeding them actions.

I played a couple of vassal games to practice the squad before the Sept 3rd tourney at Sparta Games in Omaha. The lists I played against were bossk/manaroo (2 large ship Scum), Brobots (2 large ship Scum), and a bossk/IGB (2 large ship Scum, sensing a pattern yet?) list. I was never able to pull off the 5 f+tl shot, but i was confident that i could, although i had a few 5+focus shots.

So, then Sept 3rd rolled around, and my first tournament in 5 months, my first opponent is Brant, one of the top players in Omaha, which is one of the top player groups in the US. He is running Boba/Dengar, a 2 large ship Scum list. Round 2 of combat i managed to block his Dengar within range 1 of my TIEs and killed him with out of arc shots, including a 5 dice attack from Backstabber. He did get me down to 2 ships in the end, but i was able to chase down and finish off Boba.

Next round was against Alex flying a Dash Poe list. He brought Poe into the mouth of the beast, and Poe went down turn 2 of combat. Then i had my squad chasing Dash. He killed 2 off, but i managed to catch him for the win.

Round 3 was against Matt from KC. He was flying a Bossk, Ndru, and Talonbane list. Mauler pulled off a 5 with focus shot, and was summarily executed after that. He had Zuckuss on the party bus, so i figured rolling the extra die offensively was worth the lowered agility because he was just going to make me reroll it anyway. I managed to kill Talonbane, but not before he got a few 5 dice shots of his own. It came down to Scourge vs Ndru, and Scourge came out on top.

Then last round against Aaron Bonar running his super tank Ghost and Airen list. The first time he flew this list, he lost to Dustin. Since then, no one has even been able to kill the ghost. Second round of combat Airen did a 3K, but Mauler (ps8) had anticipated the move and fired first, range 1 with focus. Mauler killed Airen and put a Blinded Pilot on him, so no simultaneous fire. Then came the monumental task of killing the ghost. I was able to take it down and finally kill it with the bomber, but not before it put a Blinded Pilot onto Mauler. Next round i set up a beautiful range 1 Mauler shot with focus and target lock, and completely forgot about the Blinded Pilot crit. His phantom killed Mauler, then it was a few rounds later tgat ge finished off the bomber and won.

I ended up making top 4. Alex and Matt made top 4, too (Aaron dropped, store owner and such.) i played against (I don't remember his name. Sorry!) running biggs, wes, corran. I flanked with Stabber to make him make a choice. He turned in on stabber and we exchanged range 3 shots. Next round he banked in towards the main group. That left Stabber with range 1 out of arc focus shot on biggs with no tokens. Stabber rolled 3 blanks in 4 dice, a shot that should have killed biggs. Corran double tapped and killed stabber that round.I flew pretty poorly the entire game, making a lot of mistakes with maneuvers and action choices. I did manage to put a crit onto Corran late, but it wasn't a Direct Hit, so he regened and came back for the win. I was pretty exhausted mentally, so i was happy to have lost that game. I doubt i would have had another game in me against Alex, the eventual winner.

So, my goal was to pull off a 5-dice focus+target lock shot off, but I wasnt able to do that. So later on in the week i changed up the squad. I'll cover that in the next post.

I'm curious, did you Adaptability up against Dash to get a couple ships at PS8?

Yep, and i think that was how i beat him. I was able to see where he was and roll into arc on him. He also had a roubd of bad greens, which didn't help. I was able to block him twice in like 5-6 rounds and damage him then.

The trouble i was having is the bomber was ps2, which means he isn't giving out a tl until second combat round. So i dropped the hull upgrade off of Stabber and i upgraded the Scimitar to a Gamma Veteran with Adaptability.

I liked having the hull upgrades because with Exposed TIE Fighters, that extra hull can go a long way, and it was absolutely essential in my game with Bonar. But i figured if i have stabber flanking anyway, the hull is the easiest place to get the points to upgrade the bomber, a much needed change. I also swapped out Mauler for Zeta Leader, whose ability works at all ranges. (I had hull upgrade on Mauler, so the points were the same.) So here was what i flew last week:

Zeta Leader with Adaptability

Scourge with Adaptability and hull

Backstabber

Youngster with Expose

Gamma veteran with Shuttle, TIE MKII, Systems officer and fleet officer

Gamma can adapt up to 6, Scourge can adapt down to 6, and Zeta can go either way. I would often adapt Zeta down to a 6 so that all of my pilots were a 6 to help me set everything up. Plus it meant that Scourge could shoot last, hopefully using his ability as much as possible.

I played a vassal game against a biggs and 2 arc squad. In that game with my new version i was able to set up a range 1 Zeta to biggs 5-dice with focus and target lock shot. I had done it! Achievement unlocked!

In my next vassal game i managed it again, this time with Stabber i think. So it could be done, and although it wasn't easy to set up, i was able to repeat it.

But if this janky Expose squad is going to stand up to the big boys, it would have to be better. So this week i changed ut up to this:

Exposing Vader's Crack

Zeta Leader with Crack Shot

Mauler Mithel with Crack Shot

Youngster with Expose

Scourge with Adaptability

Gamma Veteran with shuttle, Fleet Officer, and Vader crew.

I found that often times the bomber would just get ignored because it wasn't an offensive threat. And i would often spend many rounds trying to turn it around anyway, especially if i used FO every round. My previous squad would likely have trouble with dengaroo and palp aces, which to be fair, most lists do. My new list now had sone tools to be able to better deal with those tougher squads.

So i played a game on the table Monday against a Moralo and Ventress list (say it with me, a 2 large ship Scum list.) i used the Crack shots early (which i often forget that i have) and even vadered a shield, but it meant that the next round Zeta and Mauler finished off Moralo before he could attack. Ventress killed 2 of my ships, but in the end she went down to concentrated fire from Zeta, Scourge, and Youngster.

So, i like the current version. It's a very "in your face" slugfest squad that can function if 2 ships go down, which is what i expect to happen vs Dengar.

The name is just pure gold.

Had a vassal game vs Mu0n yesterday. He was running 4LOM, Fenn, and teroch. He had really good rock placement, and a good approach. I need to work on that. First combat round he killed youngster and i didnt have any return shots. Next round the bomber died and i only managed to do a shield to 4LOM and a vader crit to fenn. Next round zeta died and i didnt do any damage to him, so we called it.

I might tweak my set up a little. I got mauler in front of the bomber, which limited where i can go with it.

Set up, rocks, and range i need to work on, but i won't get another chance to play until monday, so i'll think about it.

Vassal game yesterday against a dual ghost list. First real combat round i got the range i wanted and threw a ton of dice at 1 of them. I got it down to 1 hull with all of my exposed tie fighters, but at 1 hull it still gets to shoot back. I finished it off in the next round, but the other one had autoblaster turret and accuracy corrector with the ghost title, so that one single-handedly destroyed my squad with the double tap each round killing a tie every round.

I really don't know what i could have done differently. I took a nearly full ghost down to 1 hull in one round with my squad. I suppose i should have tried to get a bomber shot on that one. Or target priority, but i think they both had AB turret with AC, so it would have done the same thing. Although it didn't have the ghost title, so only one shot per round from that one.

Last night i faced another double ghost with AB turret squad, although this one had a gold with AB turret as well. I managed to take down 1 ghost and the Y, but by then i didn't have enough firepower left to take down the other one. So, i think the answer is more ships.

I like the UK national champion squad of howl, 3 Crack blacks, and 3 APs, but I've never been one to copy a squad from someone. So I'm going to change it up a little.

So instead of Howl with Crack Shot, I'm substituting in Youngster with Expose.

I have found in my games that Youngster often goes down first. He buffs the others, so he is usually top priority. How is this any different than howlrunner?

Howlrunner's ability, if she dies first, is now unavailable to the rest of the squad. At least if i use Youngster with expose, if youngster dies first, the rest of the TIEs can still roll the extra die when they attack that round.

Let's look at the usual arguments against Expose,and break them down:

-the cost. Four points is a lot to pay for an EPT. True. But now I'm only paying for it once, and all of my TIEs can make use of it. Plus the Blacks can still have another EPT, which they do with Crack Shot. Plus the APs don't have an EPT slot, so I'm paying 4 points for 7 ships to have an EPT.

Also, if we assume that Youngster dies first, essentially I'm paying 4 (or 19, depending on how you look at it) points for a better alpha strike amongst all of my ships. A lot of squads pay a lot more than that for their alpha strikes.

-the reduced agility. It seems the current meta that we are in is a 2-3 ship meta. I'm running 7 ships. That means at least 4 of them aren't getting shot at, so the reduced agility won't matter as much. Plus on the ships that do get attacked, I'm still rolling 2 dice, which isn't bad. And again, Youngster usually draws the early fire, so he is soaking up a few of those shots, which means the reduced agility on the others isn't as important.

And then after Youngster dies, i can't use Expose anyway, so I'm really only using Expose for the alpha strike.

And say I'm facing any ship with zuckuss crew, I'm going to have to reroll those greens anyway.

-focus is better. Sure, the math will tell you focus with 2 dice has a better chance of getting 2 hits. But focus with 2 dice can never give you 3 hits. I have been moving away from the notion of "average" dice, because average dice don't usually happen to me. In my game vs Brant, Backstabber rolled natural 2crits 3 hits with his 5 dice attack. Last night's game, 3 different defense rolls, all with focus, were (1evade, 3 blanks), (1evade, 4 blanks),(5 blanks). My point is, average dice are great theory, but don't seem to happen all that much in practice. The are often with you or against you. And especially the first round of combat, that's the round where dice matter the most. I'll take a little bit of luck early to help make the rest of the game go smoother. And if i don't have good dice early, then focus vs Expose wouldn't have mattered anyway.

And what about Carnor Jax, Wes Janson, or Palob? Is focus better when i can't use it?

These are just some of my thoughts. I am going to try this squad next and see what i think.

Youngster with Expose

3 Blacks with Crack Shot

3 APs

Or.....maybe.....

Youngster with Expose

Howlrunner with Crack Shot

Wampa

APX4

That way i could get the extra die with a reroll, and my opponent now has a choice of targets.

So I tried out my "Young Howling Wampa" squad on vassal last night against a vessery/Inqy/OL list. I was pretty rusty with 7 TIEs, as about round 3 i was colliding with myself more than i should have been. But he was avoiding my swarm, so it didn't matter too much. Vessery took out Youngster early, but the AP's still were exposed and managed to take 2 shields off of Inqy. Next round i blocked inqy on a rock and finished him off. I put 2 damage onto OL as well. Next round i finished off OL while vessery killed an AP. Next round his greens failed him and i put a lot of damage on vessery. I still had 5 TIEs left, so we called it. The exposed TIEs worked to get the extra rolls with howl providing rerolls while youngster was alive. So I'm happy with that proof of concept. I think it can do some damage, especially early. I just need to get my formation flying eyes back.

Nice reports.

After reading in these forums, i find it amusing your good work with "Youngster"+Expose.

I don't have the skill, nor the free time, but i think a "named" TIE swarm will be one of my favourite things to play.

Keep the good work, and the reports, please.

Thanks. It's nice to get some feedback.

I played this version on vassal a few nights ago against a chewie/biggs/green squad:

Howl

Youngster expose hull

X5AP.

His plan was to burn down the APs to minimize shots on biggs. First combat round we traded an AP for his A-wing. But then chewie became a wrecking ball. Chewie popped a tie per round after that. I managed to kill biggs, but chewie got me down to 2 APs left at the end. He killed one more and i conceded.

My opponent flew very well, and i don't think I flew that badly, i just couldn't get the damage on biggs early like i needed to.

In response to your named ties comment, ive been pondering this:

Howl Crack shot

Youngster expose

Backstabber

Dark Curse

Night Beast

Black Crack shot

Night beast can roll the extra die with focus and howl, Dark Curse is already defensive. Expose could make him more offensive. Howl and black both have crack shot, and Stabber gives my opponent a choice of who to go after first. It's an interesting take on the Expose thought. I may try it out.

Not gonna lie, this made me giggle.

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/571072/the-exposables

The old, original TIE pilots in a brand new squad with a new "Young" pilot.

Vassal game today against a Ketsu and Dengar squad. It was my first time playing against Ketsu, and man he wrecked me. Blocking him was just not a good idea becuase of his ability.

I played:

Howl Adaptibility

Scourge Adaptibility

Youngster expose

Backstabber

Dark Curse

Wampa

Between Ketsu's ability and the title, he was just throwing my TIEs at rocks left and right. And not getting shots, much less the damage, was game changing. He didn't even need Dengar, who was swatting TIEs as well.

Looking back, i should have tried to slow play it a bit to make him come to me, as the rocks wouldn't have been a factor.

So, tomorrow at the LGS I'm going to try a different approach.

I noticed your allusions to the prevalence of dual large based scum ships in the meta and wonder your thoughts. Nearly half scum's inventory is large based ships, and there are some fairly uninspired small base options (khirax/m3A). It seems like scum is pretty geared to running large based ships, particularly where one of their key strengths is the scum crew upgrades.

Look at top lists around; most are 2-3 ships. Rebel has Dash+other, biggs+2, dual ghost. Scum is very much 2 large ship lists, whether it be brobots, dengaroo, or party bus. Imperials is palp aces or 3 aces, double dedenders are in there, and deci+other. The only top squad that isn't 2-3 ships is a crack swarm. So really, swarms should be quite competitive right now.

Of course, after saying that, I'm moving to a double defender list that I'm trying out tonight.

Gotcha, I'm not great at the meta analysis but I think I get what you're saying is that the more popular two ship builds are, the more success a well-constructed swarm should have.

My problem with swarms (only ever ran rebel and scum varieties) is that they can really fall apart if the early rounds are below-avg on the damage output. Imperials seem to have that covered in a few different ways, and rebels answer that somewhat with the A-crack, but scum seems to struggle to string together a good dice-neutralizing mechanic that can make a swarm really effective. I had hope for a tractor swarm type list (high ps carriers like serissu/zuckuss backed by 3zs) but after struggling to get the tractor to stick even w/sticking crack shot on the high ps guys I moved on.

More an observation, and you definitely don't have mod. issues where you can stick howlie in a squad.

Changing to Defenders, huh?

I can relate to that. I play with another state of mind when my imperials have at least one shield to soak those terrible critics.

My Soontir Fel had an awful tendency to catch a critic as the first and only damage in the first attack recieved. And guess what? Double Damage, most of the times.

It's the squishy factor the only thing that keeps me out of playing 'ceptors every single time.

Keep the good work!

Yeah, i tried an ion defender list against ventress and moralo. That game was a dice anomaly, because i threw around 50 red dice at Ventress, ioned her onto a rock (which hit), and i still never killed her. The bomber, who never had a modified attack, was consistently getting 2 hits every time, and he was the only one that could damage her. The defenders, with their focus and target lock shots, couldn't push damage through.

So, I'm not sure i can take much from that game.

As far as swarms, I really want to run them because they should be able to win agaibst most lists, but Dengar jusy eats them up single-handedly. So i dunno.

Had a vassal game last night vs a biggs +2 ARC squad. I ran jax, ryad x7, and Delta D Ion.

I jousted with the Delta, brought ryad on one flank and Jax on the other. First round of combat i managed to ion biggs. So next round the plan was to block biggs with the delta and finish him off with the other 2. That didn't happen cause i still am not very good judging long distances on vassal. I went 4 fwd and landed on a rock with the delta, when i should have done a 3 fwd instead. The game spiraled from there, as i flew Jax behind his squad, forgetting that the ARCs have a rear firing arc.

So that game didnt go well, but it did help me to decide what i want to bring to the tourney tomorrow.

Tomax Bren with Crack Shot, Long Range Scanners, Assault Missile.

Vessery with D title, VI, tractor Beam

Maarek with x7 title, Adaptibility

Maarek adapts up to an 8, so they all move and shoot at ps8. First round Bren takes the TL, to help vessery and for a focused Assault missile.

Yes, i know Homing is good, but i plan on vessery shooting first, twice, so he should burn the evade token if there is one. Plus i have been facing a lot of biggs squads lately, so it might makeca difference.

Vess shoots first with the TB, and he should have a TL from Bren for rerolls. Then Bren fires the Assault missile, hopefully with -1AGI from the tractor beam. Plus Bren has unlimited crack shot. The Maarek fires to hopefully pull a crit. And this all happens at PS8.

So it's a good alpha strike, plus some longetivity with x7.

Can you give us more details on Aaron's list? Is it a Recspec Kanaan as the base?

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/562178/bonars-tank

Interesting. Thanks!

Nuke Con tournament yesterday in Omaha. There were 18 players. I ran:

Tomax Bren with Crack Shot, Assault Missiles, Long Range Scanners

Vessery with VI, TIE D title, Tractor Beam

Maarek Steele with Adaptibility and x7 title.

My thinking was turn 1 bren could grab a tl, so vessery could trigger his ability, and Bren could launch his missile with focus later. First combat round vessery shoots first with tractor, to either strip tokens or reduce AGI, then shoots primary, thn Bren could launch the Assault missile at the same target with Crack Shot. Steele can then work his crit magic and be a good endgame ship.

First round opponent was Brant (again, just like a month ago.) He was flying a Ketsu/Dengar list that is pretty sick. His PS9 Ketsu was really just hammering me and tossing me onto rocks the entire game. I managed to get Ketsu down to half hull, but that was about it. I knocked a few shields off of Dengar, but this game was very lopsided. 0-1. Not a good start to the tourney with my new list.

Round 2 was against Scott flying a Jake/kanaan list. He brought Kanaan down the middle of the board, and brought Jake down my right side. I set up on my left side and slow rolled at him. So when Jake came hard to my side of the board round 2, I banked toward him and managed to hit with the tractor beam, vessery's shot, and then the Assault missile finished him off before he could fire. Then it was just a matter of finishing off Kanaan. He did kill the bomber, but Bren had done his job by then. 100-30 win. 1-1

Round 3 was against Stephen running 3 Onyx with x7 and Stealth. Man, that is an annoying list! His first 2 games went to time because those things are just so hard to kill. I managed to get all of my guns at one of them first combat round. I managed to put 4 hits into it at the cost of a shield on vessery. Next round i finished that one off. Crack shot on Bren and focus firing were the keys in that game, especially since he was burning tokens on the tractor beam shots. He took out Bren, but i managed to get it down to 1 Onyx vs Vessery and Maarek. A few rounds later i finished him off for the win. 100-30. 2-1

Last round of swiss was against Leighton, a top player in the Omaha area. He was flying a Manaroo, Zuckuss, Fenn list. He came down my right side and i slow played along my edge. First combat round zuckuss is just out of range 3 of Bren, so no Assault missiles that round. I did manage to tractor beam fenn rau and put him with a rock directly in front of him so he would hit it next round. Then the next round Bren blocked zuckuss and Vessery blocked Fenn onto the rock. Vessery beamed zuckuss down to 0 AGI and put 3 hits onto him. Then Maarek put hit crit crit on him. Hit took the last shield, so i got to pull 2 crits onto him with Maarek. 2 direct hits later and zuckuss was off the board. Then next round i blocked fenn again to where he didnt have a shot. Vessery beamed fenn and rolled him into Bren's arc at range 1. Vessery shot and bren shot and fenn was toast. But that's when Manaroo went loco. She finished off vessery, then many rounds later finished off Bren. So it came down to Maarek vs Manaroo. Maarek was triple stressed from manaroo's cargo drop, so i disengaged for a few turns to clear stress before getting back into the fight. Maarek with focus and evade every round, Manaroo's 2 dice gun isn't going to touch that, so it was just a matter of time. 100-67 win. 3-1. Made top 4.

Top 4 game was a rematch vs Brant. This time he came fast and managed to kill Bren in 2 shots, so Bren never got to fire. Vessery did a little damage to Dengar, but not much. Then vessery went down, and i was feelibg pretty down about my chances, Maarek Steele vs 2 ships. I managed to knock Dengar out, then i knew i had to stay away from Ketsu's arcs, so i disengaged, grabbed a tl, and did a hit and fade form of attacking. I managed to whittle Ketsu down, and he was having a hard time hitting x7 Maarek. I managed to get him down to 2 hull left, got a crit on him, and handed him the Direct Hit for the game. That was a game I had no business winning because he was up so much so early in the game, but x7 maarek proved his value there.

Final match was against Jim, another top player in Omaha (that makes 3 in a row I faced.) he was running chewie and 2 tlt golds. I set up in the middle to joust the golds, but i knew i had to take out chewie if i had any chance of winning. I did a 3 bank and barrel roll with vessery, but apparently that wasnt enough to get out of Bren's way, as the 4 fwd collided. So my round 1 tl gain was ruined. I figured going fast towards the golds would convince him that's who i wanted to attack, and it worked. Next round he brought chewie straight on my flank, and i turned all 3 of my ships at him. Vessery tractor beam hit, so chewie was 0 AGI against vessery's attack, Bren's assault missile, and Maarek's attack. 2 rounds later i finish chewie off. He managed to finish off bren and vessery hit a rock for his last damage, so it came down to 2 tlt golds vs Maarek. I managed to limit shots against, and i always had a focus evade, so i dodged a lot of his fire. We maneuver down into a corner, he tried to get tricky and managed to fly one of them off (The one i was focusing down.) so then it was 1 gold vs maarek. After a few turns i got into range 1 out of arc of him and put a Structural Damage on him, which meant he was 0 AGI. next round i get range 1 again and finish him off for the win.

Was a tough tourney against great players and great people. But i feel better about my tournament stamina now heading into the Regional next month.

Ran the same squad in a small tourney locally today.

First round against Jared running luke, Poe, and stresshog. First round i tl the stresshog with Bren. Next round i pull off the tractor beam, vessery hit, assault missile vs 0 AGI, then maarek finished off the y-wing before it ever fired a shot. Next round my squad all converged on Luke and took him out before he could regen with R2. 2 more rounds later Poe was toast and the game was over. 100-0. The game lasted 5 rounds. It's not supposed to work that well. So he and i chatted about how he could set up and play s little better, squad ideas, etc.

Next round was against Justin running Ryad x7 Juke vessery x7 juke, and Omega Leader.

I did my normal tl ryad. First combat round vessery strips all of her tokens, and Bren launched tge Assault Missile, spending focus for 3 hits and crit. Ryad rolled 1 evade, which i used crack shot on. Next shot Maarek finishes Ryad off before she ever fired. Next round it was range 1 shots at Omega Leader. He died quickly from vessery double shots and Bren, so maarek fired range 1 at his vessery. His x7 vessery lasted a long time, but eventually succumbed to multiple shots every round. Again i didn't lose a ship, and i took one off of the board before it fired. 100-0.

Last round was against Steven running a Dash Norra list. First combat round norra was out of range 3 of Bren, but vessery had the shot. So vessery hits with the tractor beam and rolls norra into range 3 of Bren. Vessery hits norra for 3 damage, then Bren then fires the missile 4v0 for 4 hits. Maarek's shot was range 3 obstructed, so norra had 2 dice and evaded maarek's shot with 2 hull left. Otherwise i could have taken her off the board before firing, too. Next round i finish her off and start chasing after Dash. Dash got Bren down to 1 hull left, but never could kill Bren. Eventually i chased Dash down for my 3rd straight 100-0 win on the day.

There may be something to this squad.

That last game at Nuke con, you guessed every one of my maneuvers. kudos on the win, you played that list superbly.