Don't get me wrong; I enjoy HotAC. But as a steady diet? I needs me some variety. I needs me some rational opposition. I needs me some standard play!
First 100/6 game in a month last night, and my first chance to fly 'Vipers since Regionals. Oh, I've been waiting for this. I dropped two Black Sun Assassins with mk.II titles, Autothrusters, and Predator, and two Heavy Cartel Spacers with Manglers. My opponent dropped a Palpmobile with a Jamming Beam, industry-standard Inqy, and Redline with Clusters and Assaults, Chips and Extra Munitions and FCS. It was his first time throwing down with his recently acquired Sith lord. Asteroids went up in a loose cluster in the middle, two each of the largest rocks available. Palp went on my right, Redline center left, Inq far left. I dropped the two Manglers center, with the 'Vipers flanking.
Thomas slow-rolled with everything for a couple turns, slowly bringing Palp and Redline into the asteroids, while I blasted everything forward the first turn, right into the rocks. Second turn had my right-most Assassin tucking in behind the Palpmobile and starting in on the pain, while my lead Mangler rolled incredible greens and sad reds in a very balanced, one-for-one trade with Redline's Assault Missiles. Asteroids? No worries, mate. Just run right through the middle of those buggers. Moving first and barrel rolling makes asteroids easy. Sort of. The Inquisitor was just sort of faffing about on the left flank, trying to get around that first asteroid.
Turn three saw that lead Mangler draw the Inquisitor's omnipresent Range One shot, but he k-turned out of Redline's shot. Palp's shields went down, and Redline went into hull with some forgotten crit from the undamaged Scyk. Now, Palp kept spending his ability on his own defense rolls, insuring that he wasted his ability every time - because the dice gods love irony.
Turn four, and the wounded Scyk ate a Cluster Missile and died. But Palp went down just as hard to a Range One shot from an Assassin and a finishing shot from the remaining Mangler.
Redline followed on turn five to a double crit from the remaining Mangler, featuring two Direct Hits. The Inquisitor kept trying to kill that poor Scyk, and the greens just kept being just good enough. He survived something like four or five Range One fully modified shots, finishing the game at one hull.
And the Inquisitor passed into the night maybe three turns later, by the mercy of those bendy barrel rolls and Predator-enhanced shots. I ended up k-turning and s-looping more than I usually do, and barrel rolling less, but Predator was icing on both unpredictable repositioning and unexpected red maneuvers. At the start of the game, I was half-lamenting not taking PtL over Predator, but the rerolls came up big in this match-up.
I had promised another player a HotAC session last week, and we drew Thomas into that mess - both he and Zack ejected, but we successfully sliced into the Empire's holonet! An excellent evening of X-Wing! Woot!