Played in the A Rey Of Hope event, which was fantastic fun.

Since you were required to have at least one female pilot, I decided to go with all the First Order Ladies (with the exception of Lieutenant Dormitz, since I don't own an Upsilon) - one of my first outings with the First Order in second edition:

• "Quickdraw"
  • Special Forces Gunner
• Commander Malarus
• "Static"
• TN-3465
• "Muse"
  • Squad Leader

Game 1

• "Quickdraw" (Fire Control System, Special Forces Gunner)
• "Midnight" (Fanatical, Stealth Device, Pattern Analyser)
• Lieutenant Tavson

Won - this game went fairly well. Tavson is an imposing monster, but I set up Muse and TN-3465 in my bottom left corner, Tavson set up opposite, and I set up the entire swarm opposite. The enemy Quickdraw nestled in to Tavson on the board edge, whilst Midnight set up mid-board to flank.

I just went for Tavson. On the turn we engaged, he co-ordinated an evade to Quickdraw instead of reinforcing. He got hammered by the swarm, and even using his ability to conjure up a focus, he didn't survive that long.

Game 2

• "Whisper" (Juke, Fifth Brother)
• "Echo" (Juke)
• "Deathrain" (Trajectory Simulator, Proton Bombs, Seismic Charges, Barrage Rockets)

Won - I spread the TIEs out, and went for Deathrain, who set up in the top right corner. Quickdraw went up the right flank and avoided the launched bombs, and Malarus and Muse flanked up the centre and turned right along the top edge.

Frankly the thing which won me the game was not my doing but a badly judged decloak with Echo and a launched proton bomb. Failing the decloak, he started his move in the wrong place and found himself parked on top of a proton bomb, and the proton bomb missed the First Order aces and hit both Deathrain and Echo, and letting the Phantom get surrounded.

Game 3

• Vennie (Rey, Veteran Turret Gunner, C-3PO, Trajectory Simulator, Proton Bombs, Seismic Charges)
• Lu'Lo Lampar (Heroic)
• Lieutenant Bastian (M9-G8)

Lost - the eventual first place in the cut, so I can hardly complain, and it came down to a battered Vennie (4 hits left) versus a battered Static (2 hits left but lock/focus ready), both on half points, when time was called.

I went for Bastian first to try and knock out M9-G8 and because he's the easiest thing to kill - Lu'Lo is elusive and Vennie is nigh-on-bloody-invulnerable. I knew the bomber would be trouble, but the bomber with veteran turret gunner and multi-calculate and rey had terrifying firepower. I got lucky and killed Lu'Lo and put a 'turns are red' critical on the bomber, but it was still so hard to chew through its damage capacity...

Game 4

• Vennie (Rey, Veteran Turret Gunner, Perceptive Copilot, Trajectory Simulator, Pattern Analyser, Proton Bombs, Seismic Charges, Hull Upgrade)
• Lu'Lo Lampar (Heroic, Advanced Optics)
• Tallisan Lintra (Heroic, Advanced Optics)

Won - Oh joy. You know how the previous Vennie is nigh invulnerable? Well, now Tallie make him even tougher with a second turreted small ship and her pilot ability. Despite my better judgement, I went for the bomber because I needed to hammer something. I have the highest respect for Resistance RZ-2 A-wings; I think they're arguably much, much more capable than First Order TIEs.

In the end, the game was won for me by a critical courtesy of TN-3465; being able to turn focus and blank into evades are nice, but once flanked a lot of Vennie's toughness goes away, blocking her took away her focus token(s), and critically one face-up damage card was structural damage; you can't do anything with a die you can't roll.

Game 5

• Rey (Finn, Rose Tico)
• Lu'Lo Lampar (Heroic, Trick Shot, Advanced Optics)
• Tallisan Lintra (Heroic, Trick Shot, Advanced Optics, Proton Rockets)

Lost - I surrounded and killed Rey reasonably well, but TN-3465 and Quickdraw went down to do it, and Malarus shortly after, and inititive 2 TIE/fo versus initiative 5 RZ-2s would always be a big ask.

My verdict on the squad:

1. I missed the manouvrability of strikers. A TIE/fo's dial is awesome but it still feels unwieldy compared to a TIE/sk....
2. 2-dice attacks are surprisingly effective, even against agility 3 targets (the BS/F-17 bombers and RZ-2s proved this too!)
3. 5 TIE fighters - even with one of them being Quickdraw, who's hardly 'just a TIE fighter' - left me feeling short of true firepower
4. Malarus used both her charges in ever game, but it never really felt game-changing. To be fair, the focus/evade/elusive combination feels like it has legs to let her shrug off a lot of damage, but that is 44 points for a TIE fighter.
5. Muse remains awesome - though Squad leader barely got used. I found her ability to do back-to-back segnors amazing, though, and i think Elusive/Pattern Analyser would make her an epic mini-TIE-defender for 40 points.
6. TN-3465 was awesome - her ability didn't get used every time, but a few times it did me proud and once it won the game for me.
7. Static can go die in a fire. Without the ability to get 'on board' focus/lock without outside support, or a reliable way to get extra attack dice, her ability takes a lot of effort to trigger and doesn't actually achieve much.
8. Quickdraw - having a TIE with initiative 6 was refreshing and the double tap was great. I can see the edges of her potential, but she really needed stuff like a shield upgrade, fanatical, fire control, etc that I couldn't afford with all 5 fighters.
9. I think a slightly less awesome squad with 6 ships might do more good. Alternatively, 6 Epsilon Cadets and TN-3465 feels like it has potential - I've used Epsilons with Epsilon Leader, but TN-3465 as a critical-inducing kamikaze is potentially terrifying.

My wonderful wife also played in the event (bringing a pair of Firespray-31s, Boba Fett and Koshka Frost), and brought along all the cake to sell for charity...

Great reports, thanks.

Will your wife also write some batreps as i would love to read about double Firesprays on a tournament.

Or do anybody have a nice link of dual Firespray batreps?

I have to admit I didn't get to see her games much - it was her first 2.0 games and her first time playing in at least 2 years, so she did very well winning one game and getting very bloody close losses in all but one of the others (including one loss, against a good friend of ours using a pair of resistance bombers, of 149-150.....).

I suspect that in a 'normal' format Koshka would probably swap for Emon Azzamen due to her somewhat gleeful obsession with bombs and mines....The squad was kind of thrown together and we didn't really get a chance to discuss it the night before due to us spending it baking - plus I admit to not being especially knowledgable on firesprays in the first place. I'd rather have suggested 3 generic bounty hunters for what was essentially a (re)intro game but the format didn't allow it.

• Boba Fett
  • Slave 1
  • Fearless
  • Seismic Charges
  • Perceptive Copilot
• Koshka Frost
  • Marauder
  • Trick Shot
  • Bossk
  • Seismic Charges
  • Rigged Cargo Chute

Thank for the info. I like playing all the ships you flew AND those you flew against. So I found some great info here. It’s good to see that Resistance Bombers can shoot now!

Suggestion: You CAN get the extra shield on Quickdraw if you trade Static out for someone who costs less like a Zeta Pilot. If you can find a point you are willing to give up elsewhere you can have Rivas. I find his/her (?) ability to be terribly “covenant”!

Finally, hold on to that wife cause, yum! (and she plays X-Wing )