Intro
So after starting the game back in Wave III, purchasing multiple copies of most ships, and spending many an hour reading these forums (up until about a year ago), I finally made it to my first local game store event ... which just happened to be a store tournament. I signed up for GenCon Flight 1 this year and figured I should experience a tournament before then.
Squad Discussion
Up until this point, I had only flown against friends, and had never had to face the dreaded Jumpmasters that are so prevalent in the meta. I am an Imperial Pilot at heart (likely due to playing the Tie Fighter PC game as a kid), who loved the Defender even before it was buffed. Rather than fly a double TIE/sf list with which I was having good success in casual games, or my experienced Defender with mini Crackshot Tie Fighter swarm, I decided to ignore the meta and fly an unconventional list I had only flown once before:
Triple Eights
Rexler Brath (37)
Expertise (4)
Tractor Beam (1)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE/D (0)
Tomax Bren (24)
Cool Hand (1)
Systems Officer (2)
Fleet Officer (3)
Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)
TIE Shuttle (0)
"Pure Sabacc" (22)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Lightweight Frame (2)
Adaptive Ailerons (0)
Total: 99
View in Yet Another Squad Builder
I had a few requirements for the list:
- I wanted a list with a Defender.
- I wanted all the pilots to have the same piloting skill (more control of the squad's formation that way).
- I wanted a list with multiple threats.
I had flown Vessery a lot, so I decided to instead try to make Rexler work this time (I wanted to be able to flip those damage cards face up). Expertise would preserve the focus for either defense or his ability (whichever was the better choice for the turn). It also worked well with the TIE/D title allowing modification of both the Tractor Beam and Primary fire (assuming Rexler was stress free). Twin Ion Engines Mk II would help with keeping Expertise active.
With the release of Imperial Veterans, Tomax became my choice of Imperial support. With Twin Ion Engine Mk II, Systems Officer hands out a target lock from most maneuvers (even to ships that do not have the target lock action). Fleet Officer hands out two focus tokens (one of which he can give to himself) at the cost of a stress . Given the nine greens on the dial due to the Twin Ion Engine Mk II modification, it is not hard to clear the stress. In the past, I flew him with Crackshot, but found that he would be focused fired down quicker than I would like. Therefore, I decide to go the defensive route this time and picked Cool Hand instead. With this setup, he would generate four tokens most turns. Two attack dice is weak offensively, but I hoped that Rexler's Tractor Beam would help make up for this.
For my third ship, I went with Pure Sabacc. I had only flown him twice before this. I found the Tie Striker with Adaptive Ailerons to be a fun ship to fly. On Pure Sabacc, it was like flying a discount TIE Phantom. With a target lock from Tomax and an enemy with reduced agility from Rexler's Tractor Beam, Pure Sabacc's four or five red dice are a great cheap threat (at least until he takes a couple damage).
The Complex 2017 Store Championship
There were 22 players at this event. If memory serves, there were six Rebel lists, eight Imperial lists, and eight Scum lists. I only noticed one Wave 11 ship.
Round 1
Luke
Miranda Doni (29)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Extra Munitions (2)
Sabine Wren (2)?
Seismic Charges (2)
Cluster Mines (4)?
Advanced SLAM (2)
"Leebo" (34)
Lone Wolf (2)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Rey (2)
Countermeasures (3)
Outrider (5)
Total: 100
View in Yet Another Squad Builder
I either won or had initiative. I choose to keep it. I thought that I might be able to move Miranda with the Tractor Beam to avoid return fire. I placed my ships on the left hand side. If I remember right, my opponent started in the middle. He headed to my right. I was a little nervous at the start and immediately bumped my ships on the first turn. Not the best start to my first tournament. We spent the first 30 minutes or so flying around the board.
He looped around the edge of the board. Eventually, I went through the middle to cut him off. Leebo barrel rolled closer which gave me the distance needed to charge in and barrel roll into the range one donut hole of the Heavy Laser Cannon with both Pure Sabacc and Rexler. After her maneuver, Miranda was in range three and next to an asteroid. Rather than risk getting pulled into it by the Tractor Beam she SLAMed forward. I think this was the right call as Rexler would have put her on the asteroid anyway, but it meant I did not have to worry about TLT this turn. I removed Miranda's shields in the first volley. Leebo fired at Tomax, but only rolled two hits, which Tomax was able to block due to Cool Hand's evade generation. The next turn, I was able to again keep Pure Sabacc in range one of Leebo. Between my three ships, I was able to finished Miranda off with exactly 5 damage.
For the rest of the game, it was cat and mouse. I did not want to engage Leebo with only one ship. Nor did I want to do so without token advantage. Most turns I barrel rolled just outside of range three while attempting to regroup my ships. Leebo managed to put some damage on Pure Sabacc when I forgot that he had already moved, but the rest of the match resulted in no additional damage. Looking back, I could have pressed the attack on Leebo more, but given it was my first timed match, I was happy with the results.
Record:
Win 1
Loss 0
MoV 147
Round 2
Harrison
Darth Vader (29)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Cruise Missiles (3)
Guidance Chips (0)
TIE/x1 (0)
System Upgrade?
"Quickdraw" (29)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Fire-Control System (2)
Cruise Missiles (3)
Tech Upgrade?
Guidance Chips (0)
Special Ops Training (0)
The Inquisitor (25)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Cruise Missiles (3)
Guidance Chips (0)
TIE/v1 (1)
Total: 98 - I do not recall what System and/or Tech Vadar and Quickdraw had.
View in Yet Another Squad Builder
I had not seen the new missiles before, and was not ready for an alpha strike like this. I knew this was going to be a hard match. My only hope was to time it so I was within range one on the first engagement.
We started opposite each other and went for the joust. Both of us slow rolled at first. We were at roughly range four when we both rushed each other. This was when I made a major mistake. For some reason, I thought I needed to go forward 3 to avoid bumping Rexler into Tomax. Immediately after stating I was ready, I realized I could have set a 5 forward and leapfrogged over Tomax. I managed to get Pure Sabacc in range one of both Vadar and Inquisitor, but Quickdraw approached slightly slower and was at range 2. Rexler (due to my mistake) was at range 2 of them all. Had I gone forward 5, I might have have a chance. Instead, my opponent was able to fire all three Cruise Missiles. Between target locks and Guidance Chips, all 15 dice resulted in either hits or crits. Rexler went down to two Cruise Missiles, Pure Sabacc was left with 1 hull. I knew if I had any chance left at all, I would need to play risky and get lucky. Alas, neither were on my side. Pure Sabacc went down the next turn. Tomax was able to survive several more rounds, but I was not able to damage the enemy.
Harrison flew perfectly and had a dangerous list, I only wish I had been on my game and timed the approach correctly. I was not flying at my ability.
Since the match ended so quickly, I was able to leave and pick up lunch before my next match.
Record:
Win 1
Loss 1
MoV 147
Round 3
Scott
Countess Ryad (34)
Push the Limit (3)
TIE/x7 (-2)
Captain Oicunn (42)
Expertise (4)
Kylo Ren (3)
Rebel Captive (3)
Mara Jade (3)
Anti-Pursuit Lasers (2)
Dauntless (2)
Total: 94 - Not sure where the other 6 points of the list were spent.
View in Yet Another Squad Builder
Oicunn was setup with Rebel Captive, Mara Jade, and Kylo Ren. He also had Anti-pursuit Lasers. The first round of engagement resulted in one mass of bumps. However, thanks to System Officer, Tomax was able to hand out a target lock to Pure Sabacc, and Rexler had Expertise active. Since Ryad had also bumped, she did not have defensive tokens due to the change in the FAQ. As a result, I was able to remove her in the first round of fire. Oicunn managed to put a few more damage on my ships through bumping and hand out a lot of stress, but at this point, I knew it was only a matter of time before I took the Decimator off the board. I ended up flying Pure Sabacc away to maintain MoV and hunted Oicunn down with Rexler and Tomax.
Record:
Win 2
Loss 1
MoV 347
Round 4
Argo
Dengar (33)
Proton Torpedoes (4)
K4 Security Droid (3)
Punishing One (12)
Asajj Ventress (37)
Latts Razzi (2)
Gyroscopic Targeting (2)
Total: 93 - This is the list I remember the least. It was another 100 list.
View in Yet Another Squad Builder
This was my first time flying against Dengar. I decided to ignore Asajj and engage Dengar as quickly as possible. My opponent placed Asajj in the middle. I setup my ships in the left hand corner. Dengar started directly across from them. On the first engagement, I managed to stay out of the mobile firing arc and closed to range one with Dengar. Pure Sabacc managed to escape damage on the first attack. He took a crit on the return fire. Dengar had no shields after the round. The next turn, I kept firing arcs on Dengar and removed him from the board. Pure Sabacc ended the round with two more crits, but was still alive.
Eventually, Pure Sabacc took another crit and three more hits. However, he had served the Empire well. Asajj kept stress on Rexler to prevent Expertise from activating, but despite the extra evade result from Latts could not prevent Rexler and Tomax from pushing damage through. My opponent conceded the round with one hull remaining on Asajj. Both of my remaining ships were able to finish the round with no damage.
Win 3
Loss 1
MoV 522
Final Thoughts
Other than a couple mistakes in the first two rounds (the major one against Harrison), I was pleased with my results. I flew a non-standard list and did well. I would have liked to have made the top 4 and flown against the other top lists, but Harrison edged me out with an MoV of 549. If I had taken out just one of his ships, I would have made the cut. I placed 5th. For my effort, I earned myself this year's official range rulers. I had a great time, and played against friendly opponents.
The two lists that interested me the most were Harrison's Alpha Strike list and Dereck's Rebel Junkyard list. Dereck went on to win the event with a record of 6-0.
Added Enemy Squads