Okay full disclosure. It wasn't exactly the four Y-Wing team that everyone is dreading, but it was three Y-Wings with an X-Wing flying support. But there were two Gray Squad Y's with Veteran Turret Gunners & Ion Turrets, with Horton Salm in the third Y-Wing with the same load out. The X-Wing was a basic PS2 Pilot and all of my OpFor had R4 Astromechs.
My team was Arvel in the A-Wing with Intimidation, Crack Shot, & Proton Rockets, Wedge with Swarm Tactics, Protorps, R-3, and Extra Shield. Last, I had Ten Numb in his B-Wing with Outmaneuver, Fire Control System, Jamming Beam (still unused), Proton Torpedoes, and the extra shield.
This being the third match of the month and with my score of zero wins for two weeks, this was the pairing of the worst players for the month.
SETUP: We set up a tight cluster of asteroids mainly to the center and upper right (from my perspective) of the board. The opponent with all PS 2 pilots set up in the Upper left corner and in order to avoid the Merge, I started in the lower right corner.
MERGE:
Again, I didn't want to go head to head with the Y-Wings and their double attacks and this week I paired the A-Wing with the X-Wing as a team with Ten bringing up the rear as a support and reserve element.
Arvel and Wedge with his X-Foils closed, raced across the board during the first two turns, and covered the distance completely with preparations to race around the border Asteroid. Ten couldn't keep up and slowly drifted up to follow the other two.
The OpFor progressed slowly in a tight formation along the opposite column and his first three turns his pilots dialed in 1 straight, 1 straight, & 4 K-Turn. The next two turns, he turned in to face the A Wing & X-Wing, but was hampered by rocks, so his formation broke up with Horton landing on an asteroid for the Merge.
Arvel avoided the worst, using Vectored Thrusters to zip out of arc (Arc dodging), while Ten had turned into the asteroids and fell in on the Y-Wing's right flank.
Unfortunately Wedge drifted into the Y-Wing's Kill Box and got beaten soundly in the Merge (but luckily, he survived). Unfortunately (and fatally) Wedge was also Ionized.
At the same time Ten deployed a Torpedo at Horton to good effect (1 asteroid and Outmaneuver FTW). and Wedge also peppered Horton with blasters, with Arvel gettting a flank shot on another Y-Wing.
Arvel survived the Merge this time!
CAULDRON
Yeah, we had an actual honest to goodness cauldon but it was clockwise.
Wedge obviously drifted forward, but got in a final salvo before being wiped out.
Ten got another Torpedo off and got Max Damage for that shot too.
Arvel, being stressed and having a rock off of his starboard side, had to zip forward but used his vectored thrusters to come around. IIRC, I think he got a long distance shot on one of the Y-Wings to little effect.
Horten finally fell but only because he flew through an asteroid and clipped it, inflicting a final hit. (I'll TAKE it)!
WRAP UP
Arvel slewed right and raced in behind the last group of fighters while the OpFor focused on Ten.
The Asteriods favored my team, allowing me to maneuver my slow and stable B-Wing through the tight corridors and to set up attacks in a target rich environment. Outmaneuver was very well utilized in this game and there wasn't any shots that Ten took that he didn't use it. And against a Y-Wing with Agility 1? With Target Lock & Fire Control System? Noice!
During the final turn, Arvel slipped in behind a Y-Wing and Ten bracketed the same Y-Wing. The Proton Rocket did max damage and Ten tore into the Y-Wing to good effect also, but those blasted Y-Wings are durable, and it survived (1 hull point remaining).
And we ran out of time.
Ten had taken several hits but not enough for 1/2 damage and Arvel had avoided any damage. Wedge was obviously lost.
On the other side, I took out Horton and missed taking out two of the other opponents by 1 hull.
I won on points, and if we hadn't had start up delays and other in game delays we probably could have gotten in another 1 or 2 turns.
No telling how this would have wound up, but it would have been close either way. End score was about 100 to 50.
After Action Review AAR.
Pairing Wedge and Arvel seemed natural. The X-Wing is a bit slower, but with the S-Foils closed, both ships are similar enough and can maintain formation very well. I kept Arvel in front with his high agility, hoping to draw initial attacks and to use his high agility to avoid most damage, but keeping close enough to Wedge to use Swarm Tactics.
I did badly misestimated the Merge and getting Wedge caught in the worst of it, didn't help. When fighting the Y-Wing Turret team, you definitely want to avoid a traditional Merge. But once past that, the Y-Wings start having problems with maneuverability and low agility.
Ten was absolutely in his element. The OpFor ignored him at first and that allowed him to tear into two Y-Wings with the Proton Torpedoes. On his first hit, Ten rolled three Crits & one Hit with the opposing player drawing two direct hits. With Wedge having dusted off most of Horten's Shields that pushed Horten down to just one hull. And after the torpedoes were gone, Ten was almost just as effective, attacking with his blasters at range one (four dice).
Arvel avoided arcs all night, and as a result did not use Crackshot nor Intimidation. But he did deliver his rockets with a Target Lock and Focus for five regular hits.
In the end this was a very fun game. Using a maneuver approach vs 4 Y-Wings this team might be able to best the opponents, but it'll take time an patience. Overall, I'm happier with the changes that I made, but this is an expensive team to field. (191 points with the reduction to vie for initiative).
But we'll see how they do next week.