Trials batrep is second post HERE

First post below is a practice tourney batrep. Enjoy!

If you dont know what TIE Salad is:

Darth Vader (65)
Afterburners (6)

Major Vermeil (49)
Death Troopers (6)

“Countdown” (44)

Gideon Hask (30)
Total: 200

The squad gained popularity in the KraytCup. See match videos HERE , AND HERE to see how the list flies. But basically, the squad works by Vermeil and Countdown out front and jousting, causing damage. Gideon trails and hits the injured ship. Vader cleans up. I love me some Vader and been flying him in my most recent extended tourney so I was eager to put this on the table, as Hyperspace Trials are a week away and Im not sure what to fly.

My LGS had a hyperspace tourney so I figured this would be some good practice. I've never flown this squad, but Im well versed in flying all the ships in it. In 1.0 I was flying triple strikers and lambda shuttle for awhile. And at the Mynock Open, I flew Echo with Triple Reapers . So Im used to ailerons, that is a plus. On to the tourney.

My setup for the squad was this:

This is the setup for left corner. I liked the options it gave me. Dial in a 2 straight with Gideon and a 1 straight with vermeil. Now, Gideon can 2 straight and b-roll backwards to slow vermeil down. Or Vermeil can aileron right and 1 straight, and Gideons 2 straight lands right behind vermeil, to trail for next round. Countdown in the corner has a 3 straight dialed in, he can jet out straight, or aileron right and 3 straight without risk of hitting asteroid. Vader just 3 straights, I want him skirting edge away from early action.

So, two rounds in, it looks something like this:

Round 1 vs Partisan Uwing with Leia / Cavern Zealot Xwing / Cavern Zealot Xwing / Luke with afterburners + r2 astro

Xwings come up through middle, trailed by Uwing, Luke on far edge. I bring Countdown and Vermeil up middle and exchange some range 3 shots with an xwing, taking it to 2 hull, but xwings put 5 dmg on Vermeil both rolling natty 3 hits and I only get 1 evade. Next round Vermeil dies from Luke, Gideon takes out injured Xwing.

Vader still not in combat. I dont feel comfortable yet, but I feel like leia is being popped this turn, as the Cavern Xwing doesnt really have a choice to get a shot other than a 4k. So I hard 1 gideon to where the 4 k would land the Xwing, and hard 1 countdown. Leia does in fact get popped, and the Xwing kturns. Now gideon and countdown have range 1 shots on it, and vader has a range 3. That Xwing dies this round, meanwhile Luke full mods into countdown, and countdown does countdown stuff. But the Uwing rolls all paint and countdown doesnt, and eats it all and is a goner, ouch.

Next round, Gideon 5 straights to safety, I dont want to hard turn him to joust a Uwing, so he just flees, leaving vader to take on Luke and a Uwing. Vader banks towards the Uwing, dodging Luke and takes the shield down on the Uwing. Next round, Uwing 90 degree turn, Luke 4ks, gideon hard 1s and rolls to get Uwing in arc, and Vader lands range 1 of Uwing, rolls out of Uwings arc, and unloads 4 damage. Gideon finishes it off. Luke vs Vader and Gideon. Took some time but Vader eventually gets Luke (like it should have been in Episode IV if not for that Han Solo!!!)

Win: 200-99

Round 2 vs Double Firespray (Emon and Boba with lots of bombs)

This Firespray list is the one from PhilGCs blog about beating Ywings. I wasn't sure how to approach this. All that I knew is I wanted an open middle in the battlefield so I have room to aileron around bombs. I place all three asteroids on opponents end of table, and he places his three near my edge, so we now have an open middle. Woo hoo! Plan A accomplished.

Emon comes blazing hot towards my crew and is range 1 on second round. He gets hurt and I lose a couple shields from Vermeil. Next, Vermeil ailerons, avoids a proxy, and sloops to block Boba. Countdown turns into boba, range 1. Gideon and Vader go for Emon. Vader rolls hit, 3 eyeballs on Emon, but he pops L33t crew and I roll eyball and 3 blanks. Ugh. I didnt know he had L33t. Anyways, Gideon and Vermeil take Emon down to 2 hull left. Boba range 1 into countdown, and countdown does countdown stuff, and plinks Boba shield as well.

Emon proxies Gideon to death, bye bye Gideon! Vader 3 tallons and does another damage to Emon. Boba hops over Vermeil and they both exchange range 1 fire. Vermeil on 3 hull left and Boba now damaged, Countdown is turning around to re-engage with Emon. The next round, 1 hull Emon drops a proton bomb, Vader has to b-roll not get damaged, and ends up with no shot on Emon. Luckily Countdown is range 1. Boba hits Vermeil, and he is down to 1 hull. Countdown finishes off Emon.

Vermeil sloops to get arc on Boba, but more importantly, blocks his left turns with Slave I, forcing him right, and landing him where Vaders arc is gonna be. Vader 3 turns and is now range 1 on Boba. Boba finishes Vermeil, and Vader and Countdown to a damage each to Boba.

Countdown takes some more range 1 shots from Boba, and does Countdown stuff. Vader is hunting Boba, and I fly countdown away from battle with 1 hull left. He is just giving Boba rerolls, and I would like to preserve the points.

Vader gets some range 2 shots on Boba and finally ends the game. Man, that was tougher than the score indicates. Opponent dropped 2 proxies, and all 4 proton bombs that game. Ailerons are fantastic when needing to avoid bombs.

Win: 200-107

Round 3 vs 3 ion ywings with VTG, crackshot, proton bombs (1 with seismic) and Saw with Leia.

I feel good if I can take two ywings out and only have Vader with 20-30 minutes left in the game vs one ywing and uwing, I think I can pulls this off. It's all about first engagement. I fly my squad and position them exactly like the image above, with countdown and vermeil near each other, range 3 of two ywings and thats it. Perfect. I exchange 2 shields on ywing with 2 shields on Vermeil.

Next, I aileron vermeil away from ywings, and sloop. This puts him out of range (was hoping for range 3 though, but out of range good too). Countdown is range 1 of shieldless Y, and Gideon and Vader range 3, and they PS kill the Ywing. Countdown takes 3 damage though. Next round, Vermeil, Countdown, and Gideon are all range 1 of a Ywing. I dial in a 3 bank with Vader to dodge his ships with after burners, but seeing the field, with all my ships range 1, I can ps kill another Ywing, and b-roll vader into range 1 arc of ywing. Vader and Gideon ps kill a ywing (gideon got a direct hit), and then Vermeil and countdown drop the uwings shields. Meanwhile, Uwing kills gideon, and ywing kills countdown.

It is now Vermeil and Vader vs Ywing and Uwing. Better than I had hoped. Vermeil eventually dies, but got half points on Saw. Vader 3 tallons and afterburns and gets half points on Ywing. Last round is called, and I just afterburn and b-roll Vader to safety.

Win: 148-129. Close game.

3-0 and I win the tourney. The squad feels good and looks like a winner for Hyperspace Trials. I faced some tough lists today, and as long as I can keep Vader alive until endgame, I feel solid. Will give it a couple more tests runs this week before Trials to make my final decision.

Hyperspace Trials Time.

A couple days before Trials, I put the squad on the table but swapped Deathtroopers for Sense on Vader and gave it a practice game against Rebel Beef (Wedge,Biggs,Selfless Horton,Uwing) and one of the best players in the area. It was a close game, I lost, sense came in handy once when Wedge did a kturn, so Countdown was able to get range 1 and the kill shot. I kind of suspected the 4k turn (non Leia kturn), but seeing just made it all more reassuring. After that game, I dropped Sense insearch of something else.

Saturday and the Trials arrived and I settled on three crackshots, and seismic bombs on Countdown (encase I come against vulture swarms, etc.). I also took the new Gas Clouds obstacles. They have no effect on ailerons, and Vermeil sloops alot and I dont have to worry about them there either. Vader can hide behind them for evades and setup his lock, then blast over them and just use lock and force. Seemed great.

Round 1: - BYE

I cashed in my bye from last summers store champs win. Woo hoo.

1-0

Round 2 vs Triple T70's (blackone on Poe, Nein, Ello)

The T70s were spread out, not too much, maybe range 2 of each other. I brought my three I4s up the middle and kept vader out of combat for awhile, waiting to pounce. Vermeil did an aileron stop, and only Ello and Poe had shots, Nein out of range. Opponent did not spend his focuses, saving it for defense, and Vermeil took no damage, meanwhile my 4s dropped Ello's shields and put 1 dmg into him. Ello would drop next round for some damage on Vermeil. Poe went after vader, but I played cautiously with Vader and kept him range 2-3 of Poe running away. Vader setup a lock on Nein and eventually turned in and dropped Neins shields. Next round, kturned behind Nein at range 1 and finished him off. Gideon dropped. Vermeil got some damage on Poe, and then Vader and Poe exchanged range 1 shots and Vader won.

Win: 200-80

Round 3 vs UYYY (norra,dutch,selfless Gold, Saw)

Lots of maneuvering by me to open up. Countdown down left edge, Gideon slow roll behind him. Vermeil up the middle, and aileron right and sloop backwards, keeping range. Vader coming up far right edge. The UYYY doing one 1 straights up the middle. I want them to commit. They finally go after countdown and I aileron toward edge. Vermeil and Gideon move in and drop the Ys shields. Next round, the Y gets dropped to two hull remaining, and I lose Countdown. This is where I mess up. The YYY kturns, and I think I can aileron Vermeil to bump the Y, and take no shots and still have room to aileron away from the edge. I didnt calculate the slight tilt angle the bump would put Vermeil. Gideon kills the Y though. Next round, a full health Vermeil ailerons and a corner of his base is barely off the board. OUCH! It was 3 on 3, now 3 on two. Vader starts hurting Norra. Gideon does what he can. I get Norra down to 2 hull. I was really feeling good about this game and my position, and just totally screwed the pooch.

Lose: 72-165

Round 4 vs Wedge, Luke, Dutch (all with proton torpedos)

Not much to say about this game. I attacked Dutch first cuz I could. Then went for Wedge and opponent rolled evades with naked Wedge and I just plinked 1 dmg for 3 rounds on Wedge, ugh. I went aggressive with Vader (definitely a no-no) and it cost dearly as Wedge and Luke dropped him to 1 hull remaining after a dutch block. I kept Vader alive as long as I could and eventually got Dutch. Wedge eventually got Vader. Plinking away at Wedge is a formula for how to lose. No bueno red dice. I would like to have this match back

Loss: 93-200

Round 5 vs my brother! Flying Tie Salad also. Oh joy!

This sucks. We got paired at last years regionals also. UGH! We play it out, and he loses Vermeil, I lose Gideon. Then my vermeil range 3 lights up his vader who blanks out on green dice. He loses Vader in the game and just calls it.

Win: 200-31

Round 6 vs Poe, Talli, Lulo, Bastian

I'm 3-2 and need a good win with solid MOV. This is gonna be tough.

I set my sites on Bastian, with a possible PS kill in one or two engagements. My opponent flies away from me and around some rocks. My ailerons are faster and he turns in with Bastian. I jam his focus with Vermeil and him and countdown dropped his shields. Vader and Gideon attack Talli and drop her shields. Poe attacks countdown (WOO!) and 4 hits turns into 1 dmg. Win win for me! Next round, Gideon and Vader take out Bastian. Vermeil blocks Lulo, and countdown takes a shield. Gideon gets in Poes way, and Talli bugs out with a 5 straight doing nothing to vader with her buttshot.

Next, Vermeil sloops and countdown blocks Lulo, trying to 2 turn away and Vermeil takes her last shield. Poe and Vader bump each other. Next round is HUGE for me. Vermeil coordinates a b-roll to Vader who locks Lulo. Lulo 3 banks, and Vader kturns behind him range 1 and wipes him off the mat. Vermeil takes Poes shields. Time is winding down and I way up on points. Vader is stressed, but he just 5 straights and afterburners outta there, running to save points. Vermeil jams Poe, and countdown puts 2 more dmg into Poe for half points, and I lose half on countdown.

Win: 144-24

Im now 4-2 and that round went beautifully. All scores are entered and I'm in 10th place after Swiss! The store is doing a top 16 cut instead of top 8, so Im now off to home to get some rest.

Top 16 vs UYYY (dutch, selfless gold, gray, Saw, and lots of bombs!)

This is similar to my third round practice tourney a week before (read post above). I know I can wipe a Ywing in one round and thats what I plan to do. We circle around some rocks for a while, then it all collides. Countdown and Vermeil range 1 of selfless Y, Gideon range 2, and Vader range 3. Perfect! Vader, Gideon, and Countdown take it to 1 hull remaining. A few natty evades saved the Y but I still have Vermeil...and he rolls 1 hit Opponent rolls another natty evade, and the gold lives. WTF! Vermeil takes some damage, and countodnw takes a hit.

Next round, Gideon has to waste his attack on the 1hull Y, instead of Dutch range 1 dutch! Vader flies away, and sets up a lock on dutch. Vermeil takes dutch's shields before he is taken off the board. Next round, Vader talon rolls range 1 of Dutch and Countdown is range 1 of dutch. They take him out, but he still gets to attacks and Gets all hits on Vader and Vader blanks with just one eyeball and takes hit,crit, and then on ion cannon blanks and vader is dropped to 2 hull left and is ion'd. That is pretty much game. If Vader didnt get ioned I win this game with only 1.5 ships left of opponents. His gray gets range 1 of Vader, and countdown and Gideon work on Saw. Gideon dies, then countdown gets plinked at range 3 from a Ywing and green dice go cold yet again.

Loss: 200-127

If that gold selfless Ywing would got killed round 1. And gideon gets range 1 on dutch. This entire game swings my way bigtime. Just the way it goes sometimes though.

I made some mistakes throughout the tourney (like flying Vermeil off the board!) but overall, I feel like I played great. Tie Salad is really fun to fun. Seismics were a waste. Never dropped them. Not sure if it made my opponent think different. I assume they forgot as well. Would have preferred a 3pt bid for Vader, or even FCS and 1pt bid. But most importantly...

I GOT MY DICE!!!

Congrats on the dice, and great write up. Enjoyable read.

Nice reports. Riding some rough luck there, good to see you made the most of it regardless

Lots of good info here, thanks for writing up and sharing!