I don't fly meta lists. Besides not enjoying them, I view them as something inherently wrong with a game like X-wing. Despite this, I'm happy flying some of the stronger ships in the game - Dash is my current favourite. I enjoy flying him and whatever his escort might be against the cream of the crop and prevailing. Tonight I played against a fantastic opponent on Vassal with a Rey/Low list.

Rey was in her Expertise/Kanan/EU form
Low had Expertise/Tactician/Bistan(brutal!)/Vectored Thrusters.

I normally fly Dash with either a Ghost or Corran, but tonight I went a little crazy:

Dash (61) - Yep, eight upgrades on dash. Eight.
HLC
Ourtider
Prockets
Countermeasures
Glitterstim
Lone Wolf
Rey
Smuggling Compartment

Crimson Specialist (38) - Proton Bombs? Seems like they're worse than bomblets, right?
Proton Bombs
Ordnance Silos
Pattern Analyser
Tragedy Simulator
Deflective Plating

Totalling 99 points.

As soon as I saw my opponent's list I knew I was in trouble. I'd flown the list once before against 3NuQD and prevailed, but Rey is Dash's worst nightmare - she can win the damage race at long range, and loves boosting at almost no cost into R1 to not get shot at all, and has the health to laugh off 4-5 HLC attacks. Add Lowhrick's reinforce-evade into the mix and she's nigh impossible to kill without a high-damage wingman, which I was dubious of.

We both brought the largest debris possible, since it basically didn't exist to any of our ships (or so we thought) and placed them in a fairly dense central cluster. I deployed in a classic fortressing position in the bottom right corner with Crimson on a 45 degree angle, and my opponent set up on the top left, doubtless to try a joust.

Turn 1 saw me slow playing with a tactical bump and 1-hard - going nowhere but beginning the Rey Token Stack [tm]. my opponent blasted forwards at max speed, attempting to clear the obstacle screen before my token stack was in the double-digits.

Turn 2 I stalled the bomber (stalled in space?) and 1-banked Dash to hug the bottom board edge, while my opponent made his crucial mistake. Seeing that if he didn't turn through the rocks, Dash would be able to circle for 5-10 turns unobstructed and take a few potshots, my opponent turned into the debris, crying "asteroids and/or debis do not concern me". both Lowhrick and Rey clipped the same debris (that I placed ), leaving Lowhrick stressed and just behind Rey, both facing the bottom of the map. Still out of combat range by a band and a half, we proceeded to dials with my token stack now at a warm 2 focus.

Turn 3 I realised that unless I booked it with Dash, my next few turns would be full of R1 Rey shots. The bomber moved 1-straight ahead, in preparation for doing his single brave act of the game. Lowhrick executed a 3-straight, which unfortunately overlapped a second debris and left him stressed, and without a reinforce token. Dash 3-banked, still mostly hugging the bottom edge, but now turning his pancake into the signature kiting maneuver we all know and love of fat turrets. Rey cunningly moved to just in front of Lowhrick in a display of piloting finesse by my opponent, giving her a R3 shot on Dash.

Rey blasted her signature 4 hits/crits, to which Dash rolled... 3 blanks. And LW rerolled into... a focus. Focus spent, Dash was now at 2s after a single shot. Owch. Dash retaliated with his signature 4 hits and Rey rolled 2 natural evades (1 from Finn), so 2 damage. Both Lowhrick and Crimson were out of range.

Turn 4 I saw problems arising. I realised that if Dash ran, Rey would easily close the distance to R1 with a 3-bank + boost and stay there for the game, forcing me to turn into my opponent and hope I could block her move. I move 1-forward with the bomber again, throwing my first proton bomb of the game at where I expected to block both Rey and Lowhrick to - in between and facing 2 debris. Lowhrick again moves 3-straight, just overlapping another debris and maintaining that crucial 1 stress token. Dash exeutes a 3-hard, leaving him at R2 of Lowhrick and in position to bump Rey's guaranteed 3-bank right. Unexpectedly, Rey instead does a 1-bank left, opting to blast the bomber to bits in a turn or two instead of pushing the advantage on Dash.

The proton bomb explodes, catching both Rey and lowhrick (only just) in R1, and the deflective plating hold on. Rey gets a Direct Hit, and Lowhrick a weapons malfunction. Rey is just at R2 of the bomber, and blasts out anther 4 hits/crits. The bomber's 1 agility reliably produces an evade, so that's a shieldless bomber. Seeing that Rey had to reinforce-evade protection, Dash opts to take an obstructed shot on Rey, peppering her with another 4 hits - against which she happily rolls 2 focuses and spends her token to only take another meagre 2 shields. Lowhrick fires insignificantly on the bomber, but Tactician deals out a crucial stress (the bomber was in position to stall and block both Rey's segnors next turn otherwise). The Bomber throws a water balloon at Rey, who again rolls no blanks on defense.

Turn 5 I had the choice to either go hard left or hard right with Crimson, trying to anticipate which segnors Rey would execute. I went left towards the bottom board edge, and dropped a bomb using Crimson's ability out her front edge on the way through. I cleared Rey's corner by a zoomed in fraction of an inch, and managed to block lowhrick's 3-bank over a debris to boot. My opponent opts not to use Kanan there, leaving Low with 2 stress tokens and a debilitating crit. Dash 2-banks right and Barrel Rolls to guarantee a shot on Low if nothing else. Rey Segnors left, leaving her in prime position behind Crimson and stressless.

The bomb detonates again hitting both Rey and Low (only just). This time Rey gets a weapons malfunction and Lowhrick gets a damaged engine. Rey blasts 3 hits into the bomber, which reliably rolls its evade, leaving it at 7 hull. Dash strips two shields off of Low with an obstructed shot, where Lowhrick rolls another 2 natural evades. Crimson throws more water balloons at Rey, who rolls no blanks yet again.

Turn 6 Crimson executes a 1-bank right to clear stress, dropping a bomb out the back using her ability on the way and focusing. Low 1-banks right to keep up with Crimson and loses 1 stress. Dash, embracing his prockets, executes a 3-hard right directly towards Rey. Rey embraces in return with a 3-hard right towards Dash, and focuses.

The bomb explodes yet again hitting both Rey and Lowhrick. Rey gets a... something pointless, and Lowhrick gets a Major explosion, which sadly whiffs, leaving her on 3h,1s. Dash triggers both glitterstim and countermeasures, fearing another blank-out. Rey rolls... and whiffs! 1 hit, 3 blanks into 2 hits after rerolls! Dash still manages only 1 paint, and goes down to 1 shield. Dash fires his prockets back and scores crit-hit-hit-hit after glitters. My opponent rolls their her first blank evade die of the game, and Rey takes 1s1h1c, which is a major hull breach. After all the bomb damage - this puts her on 1h remaining! Lowhrick punishes Crimson. Crimson attempts to finish off Rey, who pushes out yet another 2 evades at R3.

Turn 7 was crucial... for my opponent. The bomber dropped its last bomb, intended purely for Lowhrick, and 1-straights to try and get a R2 shot on Rey. Lowhrick paces the bomber, finally losing the last stress token and reinforcing in the hopes of warding off the final few damage necessary to kill her. Dash attempts a 4-straight over Rey... Which is so close to making i that Vassal 'bumps' Dash on the other side of Rey. Nevertheless, He's blocked, and Rey naturally segnors behind him to set up a juicy departing gift, and gets rid of her weapon malfunction to boot!

The final bomb explodes,dealing Lowhrick a direct hit! Hilariously, deflective plating finally gives out. Goo job, deflective plating. Rey blasts 4 hits and a crit into Dash, who thankfully rolls 2 evades with LW assistance. Dash is left on 3 hull with a Damaged Cockpit and Rey behind him. Lowhrick puts another damage into the bomber, leaving it around 4 remaining hit points. The bomber attempts to finish Rey at R2 outside of arc with a focus.. and rolls a single hit, which is matched by Rey's natural evade... again.

Turn 8 the bomber stalls, attempting to keep lowhrick in arc and get a PA powered focused shot on Rey. Lowhrick cunningly moves around crimson, setting up another shot. Dash 1-banks ad BRs in a desperate attempt to block rey, which works!

Rey's left with an inconsequential shot on Crimson, and is in turn removed after crimson rolls a single hit, which gets through Rey's focus-blank green dice. Lowhrick deals another stress with a cit and a few hits into

Turn 9 the bomber tries to block lowhrick, fails, and in the combat phase. Dash begins to move into position behind the slightly more wounded lowhrick, who is massively despising the damaged engine crit.

Turns 10-16 or so Dash slowly and methodically corners the wounded lowhrick until there is no escape, and blasts his final 4-hit attack, barely managing to do the final two damage required to end the game.

End result: Victory - but only just at an MoV of 130 after a brutal and constantly shifting 16 or so rounds of play.

Ruminations:

This ultra-heavy Dash can do some work! He's pretty much solo'd 3NuQD befoe, and now he's come face to face with Rey and won! His ability to not only have a 1 turn immunity to damage, but also to joust on that same turn is amazing.

The bomber ddealt 7 facedown damage cards, dealing 9 total damage and numerous other debilitating crits, in addition to its turreted shots and blocking ability. It'd be even better against swarmy lists, I think.