After losing about 20 or 25 games in a row on Vassal since starting to play there 2 months or so ago, I finally won a match today (pause for applause). I do ok in front of a table, but the computer screen (and the fact that I get totally out-flown a lot) just kept me from making good judgement calls about distance.

So, after taking a victory lap around the neighborhood, waving at all the people and shaking the confetti out of my hair, I promptly set aside that list and became obsessed with the following notion:

Horton. With. Expertise.

Double modified TLT shots from him every round. Nasty. Like, really nasty, right?

Here's the squad:

Horton's Revenge (98)

Y-Wing: •Horton Salm (40)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Bomb Loadout (0)
Extra Munitions (2)
•R2-D6 (1)
Expertise (4)
Ion Bombs (2)

X-Wing: •Biggs Darklighter (26)
Integrated Astromech (0)
•R4-D6 (1)

HWK-290: •Roark Garnet (32)
Vectored Thrusters (2)
•Moldy Crow (3)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
•Jan Ors (2)

Some thoughts: Roark is a bit fat here, and I know it. But, even if I shave things there aren't enough points for another ship, like say, Rex or even a naked Z.

So, I put this on the board and won my second Vassal game ever in the same day as the first. I don't even know what to do with all the bags of fan mail and all the champagne. My strategy with this squad was to turn tail instantly and make the opponent chase me. I TLT'd my way to a strong lead, and when the enemy was finally right on my tail, Horton dropped an ion bomb. Next turn, same thing, and the enemy falcon went off the map.

Any thoughts?

Horton is one of my favorites. His cost and lack of EPT are an insult to the Rebel Alliance.

Congratualtions on breaking your losing streak. Your tenacity is admirable. I feel a little bad for taking the wind out of your sails, but as Han would say, "Great kid! Don't get cocky." Based on your description of what happened with the Falcon, I think you had an easy matchup made easier by your opponent's poor tactics. Your list is as good as it's going to get with the pilots you picked. Practice against more difficult matchups.

Thanks for the feedback. Oh, I know it's not really a special list and I don't think I'd be likely to fly it in a serious competition. I wasn't counting on the bombs actually being dropped, I just thought they'd restrict my opponent's choices, which is good enough for me. Due to the situation in this particular game, even if the Falcon didn't get ionized off the map, it would have been a full health Horton and a full health Roark taking him on - and I'm confident that I would have won. Unmodified TLT is almost 2 auto damage against the Falcon, not to mention Horton rerolls + expertise + Roark plinking with his own TLT + Jan Ors evades to make my HP last longer.

Dude, why do you fly these ships? Are you even trying to win a game?

Did you get much use out of the Ion Bombs?

34 minutes ago, Deadfool said:

Did you get much use out of the Ion Bombs?

Yes indeed. In the one game I've flown with the list I was able to ionize a Falcon two turns in a row - so I used both bombs. At the end of the second turn flying 1 straight the Falcon was left facing the edge of the map with only a few centimeters of space: he had no maneuver options that wouldn't go off the map.