My squad:
Manaroo - Unhinged - Recon Specialist - PtL - Feedback Array 36
Fenn Rau - PtL - title - Autothrusters - 34
Old Teroch - VI - title - AT - 30
Opponent's:
Standard Soontir, standard Jax, Turr with VI, Stealth, AT
This was my first time trying out Fangs, but I've got a long history with Interceptors and a longer one with A-Wings. It's immediately clear that the lack of an initiative bid may be an error on my part. My opponent's also at 100, though. We roll off, he gets to pick, and wisely chooses to give it to me so Soontir can do his thing. I realize mid-game, though, that this makes Turr less effective as I'll have already shot by the time his ability triggers.
We set up; I place Manaroo in the middle, he puts Jax in the (my) left corner, and I put my Fangs straight across from him. He puts Turr in the middle, and the Baron on my right.
I immediately gun for Jax. He does a 2 turn and a boost forward (no Push) towards the middle, but with a 5 straight and a boost right, Teroch is just barely w/in range. Fenn's on the outside, so no shot. I roll hit crit and he rolls 4 blanks and an eye. Owch. AT stops one, but a Thrust Control Fire goes through. Later, he tells me in all his practice games he did a one speed turn (not 2) and doesn't know why he chose differently this time. Soontir screams down the flank, and Turr and Manny exchange fire with no damage to either.
The stress from the crit give me a better chance at guessing where Jax is going, and I quickly chase him down and blow him up with the Fangs. Turr zips past Manny and Soontir continues his wide circle around the mat.
At this point the dance really begins. I turn my Fangs in tight circles trying to keep these squirrelly fuckers in arc, and don't have the confidence to try repositioning to Range 1 as I know it would be too easy for him to get out of that narrow a band.
He's pretty good at outguessing me, but I know both our dials well. I had to play X-Wings against Interceptors back in the day and know I can't close in too fast. I'm willing to take the Range 3 shot if it means I still have a shot. Pretty consistently when he arc-dodges out of my fire it makes it so he can't shoot back, so I'm mostly okay with it.
I get enough pot-shots off to cripple Turr (especially with Manny passing actions) and clip Soontir. The exchange really highlighted the difference between the ships. I know the math is the same on TL v. Focus, but being able to keep the lock between turns (as well as Manaroo taking a lock then passing it to the ship who can use it, versus taking a lock and hoping the ace is still in arc come shootin' time) ALSO pairing the lock with Focus allowed the Fangs to hit harder and be much more aggressive. So did the 4th hull point. If you're still wondering about the Fang's niche or if it's just a Scum Interceptor/A-Wing, that 4th hull point really makes a difference. Not just in significantly decreasing the likelihood of the ship getting one-shotted, but also psychologically I worried a lot less. I never thought "oh no! My shields are gone! I'm vulnerable!" or "****! 2 damage! I'm one away from dead!"
Eventually Turr goes down, Teroch has 2 damage, Fenn has 1, and the Jumpmaster has no shields. Soontir makes a break for it and gets up to 'top' of the mat. I put both my Fangs at 45 degrees facing him and he turns into me. He boosts past Fenn and tries to barrel roll between him and The Rock, but there's not enough room. He tokens up, but has forgotten about Terry's ability. I strip him of his tokens and fire 4 dice with a TL + Focus to win the game.
This game was weird because I actually never got to trigger Fenn's ability and it wasn't until the end that Teroch's triggered. Though it certainly was clutch. Soontir unchecked is a wrecking ball and there were decent odds he could have come back from that deficit. I think the lack of Range 1 engagements was in part because my opponent was very cautious to not get too close, but I also couldn't afford to try for Range 1 with as much repositioning as he could do.
On a sidenote, this game really highlighted the necessity of Palpatine for lists like his. The Emperor would have left Jax unscathed in the opening round, and there were multiple times when just one more evade would have kept his Interceptor damage-free. They're just such fragile ships.
I know it's only one game, but the more I think about it, the more I like the Fang. I've been obsessed with A-Wings, and when they came out I tried to fly them like faster X-Wings. They couldn't stand up to concentrated fire and totally lacked the punch to joust. I tried to fly Interceptors like jousters too and they got blown to pieces. And I never knew whether to save my focus for defense or use it to hit harder.
Now I can fly the Fangs exactly like I want. I've seen a lot of misgivings about its dissociative identity, but I'm thinking it's a jouster with just enough shimmy to keep it out of too much fire, and an arc-dodger with enough punch to be kind of scary to roll up on too close.
Holy crap, are you still reading?! Congratulations. Help me pick a name for this list. Since it's Manaroo and a pair of Fangs, I was thinking Sabertooth or Vampire Manaroo. And the last round of the above-described game inspired me to "Teroch and a Hard Place."