Hey guys,

I'll be facing a Biggs' Haven list tomorrow as the defender (3 objectives). It looks like this:

- GR 75 Medium w/ Bomber Command Center

- GR75 Medium w/ Adar Tallon

- Nebulon B Escort w/Yavaris

- Assualt Frigate B w/Gallant Haven, Dodonna

- CR90 A w/ Projection Experts

- Biggs

- 4x X-Wing

- HWK290

- 2x VCX-100

- Nym

Now, against this beast of a list I have:

- Most Wanted, Intel Sweep, Contested Outpost (I guess he'll take Intel Sweep)

- Qasar II w/ Boosted Comms

- VSD II w/ Gunnery Teams, Motti

- Arquitens Light w/ TRC

- Gozanti Cruisers w/ Boosted Comms

- Black Squadron

- 4x TIE Bomber

- Zertik Strom

- 2x TIE Advanced

- Dengar

- Jonus

Now, I know my list isn't exactly ideal, but that's the hand I dealt myself. So if you have advice on how to improve it after this round, it's very welcome, but for this one it can't be changed. I played two mock games against this list and lost badly every time. What always happens is that my ball gets locked in place by X-Wings who chew through the Advanced and kill Dengar (so the locking happens) without taking any real damage. My fleet is too slow and too weak to punish his even weaker capitals before the X-Wings are freed to take on my capitals in their bomber role. I'm unsure if this is an inherent weakness in my list or just me being stupid in setup and tactic. Right now I'm of a mind to simply try and escape until I can jump out in round 4; the battle itself I can lose.

3 minutes ago, Stefan said:

Right now I'm of a mind to simply try and escape until I can jump out in round 4; the battle itself I can lose.

Fortify with your intel sweep gozanti coming towards your fleet within a ball of squads. You might be slow but you also have no reason to go on the offensive, just turtle.

You mean the squads accompany the Intel Sweep?

Oh, and how best to set up the tokens? Have little experience with the objective.

Do you have one of those tokens to swap an objective?

Nope. First round Imperial. No tokens.

6 minutes ago, Stefan said:

You mean the squads accompany the Intel Sweep?

Oh, and how best to set up the tokens? Have little experience with the objective.

Your gozanti needs to go speed 3 but its hard to react at this speed. So fool him by deploying 10 squads and one gozanti on one side of your tokens, and then he should clump his fleet on that side. You dont need to engage it. Wrong foot him and watch him scamper.

I would just focus the enemy ships. Specifically Yavaris and then GH in that order.

1 minute ago, Ginkapo said:

Your gozanti needs to go speed 3 but its hard to react at this speed. So fool him by deploying 10 squads and one gozanti on one side of your tokens, and then he should clump his fleet on that side. You dont need to engage it. Wrong foot him and watch him scamper.

How are the tokens set up in that scenario?

Just now, TallGiraffe said:

I would just focus the enemy ships. Specifically Yavaris and then GH in that order.

And how would I do that, pray? My bombers will not be able to get shots out, and my ships would ram into the mass of the enemy fleet's fighting power. I tried that yesterday, it was a very lopsided bloodbath.

2 minutes ago, TallGiraffe said:

I would just focus the enemy ships. Specifically Yavaris and then GH in that order.

Why? This isnt a tournament. No need to engage.

How fast does he fly the Haven?

I don't know, I haven't played him yet. The training game was with a teammate of mine.

1 minute ago, Stefan said:

I don't know, I haven't played him yet. The training game was with a teammate of mine.

I would try to bait his fighters then. Otherwise avoid engaging then.

Bait how, and to what end? Do you mean tie them down? I have only four squadrons who can do that, and against 4 X-Wing dice...

7 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Why? This isnt a tournament. No need to engage.

This. Unless you are defending a base (you're not, or you'd have base defense objectives) or an outpost, there is no need for you to be desperate in your defense. You have a bad matchup so... pull everything back. Hold out until turn 4, and jump your ships to hyperspace. Lose nothing, and give him only what he was going to take anyway.

If it is an outpost, then you're going to have to decide if it's worth taking a calculated risk to try and save it. There's a few things in your favor. He doesn't have Jan Ors, so no braces on his generics. Gallant Haven is a limiting bubble for him if he wants to engage with those X-Wings. So, turtle up. Move your ships in slow towards him. Set traps for him - give him options to hit some of your squadrons but to do so he'd be leaving Gallant Haven's bubble - then you can hit him with Flak. Gallant Haven is the tough nut to crack - you either have to hit it hard with your VSD / Arquitens, or try to ignore it and focus down on the CR90 / Yavaris. Yavaris in particular should be susceptible to your Arquitens getting flank shots.

He's definitely got an advantage in anti-squadron build vs your heavy squadron build, but you've got a few things in your favor. Nym is his only heavy hitter against ships - so your own ships aren't really threatened. That means you don't need to go on the offensive either. If you can convince your buddies to give you a Skilled Spacer, you can switch out Intel Sweep, but since you didn't say that was an option there, your best bet is let him have that and try and farm points off of his ships. Yavaris / CR90 beats the 75 points he gets for the sweep, and if he's dumb enough to run GH right at your VSD, gladly accept his offering.

Thanks!

Your squadrons have one advantage over his. Speed! Use your speed 4 to stay outside his speed 3 range. Ideally, he will need to spread out his squadrons to force an engagement, or will just move in on your ships. Either way, your targets of opportunity are his 2 VCX. If you can eliminate them, Yavaris is useless unless he moves it in closer. Concentrate on overlapping your anti-squadron fire as much as you can early. Adar Tallon is the only way he can truly out maneuver you with a single squadron.

Turtling is absolutely an option. Just keep those squadrons close, so anything he brings in can be hit by flack as well as squadron fire.

Good luck!

So I basically spread my squadrons into two groups?

10 minutes ago, Stefan said:

So I basically spread my squadrons into two groups?

If you want to go on the offensive, yes. Yavaris is, most likely, going to be in the back making use of the Relay VCXs. If you get him chasing your squadrons, he is only sending a few at your ships. If he comes after your ships your squadrons may have an opportunity to go after his. It is a gamble, because it is entirely possible that Nym and an X-wing Relay activated by Yavaris can wreck a VSD enough for GH to finish the job, but if you can force his squadrons to chase, you at least remove them from the GH bubble.

He has you on activation advantage, so if he gives you an opportunity to nibble a Flotilla to death, jump on it with your squadrons.

Also, even if Dengar doesn’t live long, while he’s making the X-wings heavy, you can order your bombers out of there and/or attack a ship.

Speed 0 is really stron on cc too. You might be able to juke him by pointing your ships at the point you WANT him to be, then dropping to speed 0 first turn and waiting for him to come to you. This is especially effective if you can get him to deploy at a hard slant one way or another, for instance if he assumed he would need to lead you a bit to intercept you, so he has to course correct. When you force your opponent to turn 90 degrees to engage you you often times end up facing his fleet in a single file line, letting you address one threat at time as he marches into yout guns.

I baited my opponent into committing to three of the five Intel Sweep tokens, threw in the Arquitens as a token force and fled with the rest unscathed. The Arquitens will be repaired with the standard refit points, so the game went basically the way I intended.