So I played two games this last night- first game I ran:

Wampa

Zertik Strom with title, Juke and AC

Pure Sabacc with title, Lightweight Frame, and Adaptability

Scourge with Trick Shot

Mauler Mithel with Adaptability

It would have been Adapt on Scourge as well, but I only had 2. I figured this way I could get Mauler and Sabacc to shoot before Scourge and increase the likelihood of triggering Scourge's ability. I also thought Wampa might help with that, although he was more for filler than anything else. Strom was to help protect my guys at range 1 since they all wanted to get there.

My opponent ran:

Ahsoka with Sabine's Masterpiece, Recon and VI

Kanan with Dorsal Turret, Sensor Jammer, Recon and Rey

Ezra (Docked) with TLT, Rage and Inspiring Recruit

I set my guys in a loose line along my left half of the board, with Pure Sabacc in the left corner, Wampa on the other side of the asteroid and the other three in a formation on the other side of the next asteroid, while he put Ahsoka in his right corner and Kanan along the left corner. The first couple rounds he moved in slow, moving Ahsoka down towards me, and Kanan hugging the top corner. I moved all my guys three forward the first 2 rounds (Sabacc technically just a 1 forward but with Ailerons he still covered the same distance.)

First round of shooting was Ahsoka vs Pure Sabacc at range 2- I rolled 2 evades and didn't take any damage, while he got punched with 2 hits. Not a great start for him. Next round I turned Sabacc in, as I didn't have a great way to pin Ahsoka down and all 5 of my ships had range 2-3 shots on Kanan. He had turned Kanan in, but deployed Ezra who stayed hugging the top. He pulled a token off Rey, so Kanan started combat with 3 tokens. Ahsoka got a solid shot on the back of Sabacc, doing 2 damage right there and removing his extra dice. He spent a token to remove a dice from Mauler Mithel, who at range 2 only rolled 1 dice then. Not the mighty rolls I was hoping. Between the other tokens and Sensor Jammer, he really limited my damage, so I was only able to punch off a few shields.

Kanan and Ezra managed to get Wampa and Pure Sabacc down to 1 health apiece, and both were blown up the next round before they got to shoot. Following that, I tried my best but I wasn't able to force any fire down and Ahsoka was impossible to snag. I managed to get Kanan down to 5 hullth, but once I only had a full health Strom I called it- he's a solid ship, but there was no way he'd be able to kill those 3 ships.

The sleeper hit here was Ezra actually- with Rage modifying his TLT, he didn't miss a shot- every one was 3 hits. Seriously, a very solid build. If you can work him in a list with Crew Kanan, (Not on him, he has to have inspiring recruit to clear those nasty stresses) that opens up his whites, giving him more flexibility. If you see a ship like this, pin him down fast, cause he will whittle you down.

Second game I switched things up- I ran:

Omega Specialist with FCS, Title, Lightweight Frame and Expertisex3

My opponent ran the same Ezra, a similar Ahsoka, swapping out VI for Juke, Luke with R2-D2, IA and Expertise, and Zeb. Just Zeb.

I did another loose line on the left half on the board during placement, while he put Ahsoka in his right corner, Ezra in the left and Luke and Zeb in the middle.

First few rounds I played it slow with my guys, only going 1 straight, while he went a bit faster, Ezra doing 4 straights. First round of shooting my left one had a shot on Ahsoka and the right two had one on Zeb, Luke and Ezra were just a hair too far away to be involved. We just stripped each other's tokens this first round, no actual damage went through. Second round I went straight with my right two ships, and a hard 2 with my left one. He went two straight, I think hoping to catch me going straight, with the expectation that he could barrel out of arc. Instead I caught Ahsoka at range 1 with the auxiliary arc and blocked her barrel roll.

Ahsoka suffered the crit that makes all damage face up that round and Zeb exploded from the other two, which had target locks on him from the previous turn. Next round some fancy S-loops caught Luke at a few range one's, although Ahsoka managed to thread the needle. Luke took a bunch of damage, including the crit that lowers his agility (he never got a good opportunity to remove that the rest of the game) and Ezra lost a shield from a long-range potshot, but the continuous perfect shot TLT's combined with some other potshots to clear out one of my Specialists.

Ahsoka fell to a rear-arc shot shortly after, leaving just Ezra and a damaged Luke vs two Specialists, one with full health and the other having only lost 2 shields. I managed to catch him off guard with 1 bank, slipping one of my guys into range 1 of Ezra and then used the target lock from FCS and Expertise to get 4 hits. He rolled blanks. Ezra died. Very sad.

Luke got on the tail of the other one, the damaged one, but had a hard time of it. We had similar dials, so I was able to force 2 bumps- a one straight early on and a hard 1 that caught his bank, when we turned away from the edge of the map. This gave the other Tie a chance to swing back in (that green 3-straight is solid on these guys) and I was able to continuously knock off that regening shield, so he never felt safe. I took an early risky play- going 1 straight and taking a target lock when I thought for sure we'd bump. We did not and I feared my ship would explode right there- he rolled 3 hits and a crit. Without a focus, this was probably going to hurt. Instead, I rolled 3 natural evades and only lost a shield. Following that, I predicted a k-turn and caught him at range 1, surviving his unmodified attack and hitting him with 4 hits, ending the match.

I always liked the Tie S/f (pretty much a better B-wing and T-70, it's got a similar but better dial than the B-wing, similar durability and the systems slot, while it has essentially the same statline as the T-70, but with an auxiliary arc. It's such a weirdly good ship) but this build was awesome. With Expertise and FCS, I constantly had fully modified shots, letting me barrel roll to block or reposition, or using my focus purely for defense. Combined with the extra dice from Lightweight frames (which triggers in unusual situations, like at range 3 from a TLT) and they are very hard to kill too. Awesome ship, can't wait to run it forever.

That Ezra build is slick though, if you see that on the board don't let him chug around the edges, gun for him hard.

On 11/6/2017 at 4:47 AM, GameError said:

That Ezra build is slick though, if you see that on the board don't let him chug around the edges, gun for him hard.

Thanks for the heads-up. Inspiring Recruit, TLT, Rage is a nasty combination.

Of course, as long as he's stressed, he's got permanent defensive focus, so actually killing him is irritatingly hard.

It's a nice list - and very nice to see Strom get some use (I think his ability can be really powerful if you get your head round how to fly him).

If you really want to get Scourge and Mauler Mithel to deliver some impressive unpleasantness, try them with Snap Shot. It changes the dynamic of TIE fighters quite a lot, especially when hunting higher PS aces.