My list: 2x Black Sun Assassins with ProTorps/FCS/Elusive; Fenn with Predator

His list: Luke with Foils/R4/ProTorps/Supernatural; Han with Clusters/Title/EU

Obstacles: 5x debris, 1x rock; four in a band at R2 of his edge, the remaining two at R2 of either edge about the midline.

Setup: I won the initiative roll, made Han move before Fenn. I dropped the two BSA’s in the middle; Luke went more or less opposite, a little to my left. Han went far left outside the obstacles; I set Fenn on my far right.

Objective: Use those ProTorps to punish Han and flank with Fenn for targets of opportunity.

Rnd1: The BSA’s left bank 1, roll left to end facing the left board edge a little more than one base-length out from my edge - slow-rolling to see where Han is going. Luke starts with Foils closed, straight 2 rolls ship left for a better angle through the debris. Han starts with turret sideways, straight 2 focus. Fenn straight 5, boost left to either flank or engage Luke.

Rnd2: The BSA’s right hard 1 focus, still waiting to see where Han will commit; now about in line with the left-most asteroid. Luke Supernaturals a boost left with Foils closed, bank left 2 focus, now facing the right board edge very nearly centered. Han straight 1 boost left between the first obstacle and the midline obstacle. Fenn left bank 3, boost left link focus to end R1 of Luke, face-to-face, Predator active. b/f/h/h/c, Predator the blank into a blank, use focus. Luke rolls one evade, drops shields and takes an inconsequential crit - Damaged Engine maybe? Han has no shot, Luke rolls b/f/h (S-Foils still closed), spends Force for two hits; Fenn rolls b/b/e/e, Concords into three evades. Sweet!

Rnd3: BSA’s right bank 2, lock Han. Luke 4k. Han bank right 1, locks the lead BSA. Fenn says it’s time to disengage, straight 5 right boost to start going around the end obstacle - already. Han doesn’t have arc on the BSA’s, Fenn obviously no shot, Luke no shot. The BSA’s pour ProTorps in to Han, who is just outside of R1 of the asteroid. First torp rolls b/h/h/c, FCS the blank into a blank; Han rolls his natty evade, loses two shields. Second torp rolls h/h/h/c; Han rolls his natty evade, loses all shields.

Rnd4: BSA’s bank right 1 focus, now facing right side of board with the rear BSA even with the asteroid. Luke opens foils ship left 2 to clear stress, locks lead BSA. Han s-loops to his left, so as to face almost directly at the BSA’s - with his turret still turned sideways. Fenn right hard 3 around the debris, boost right - now facing directly at Luke at R5 or so, and too **** close to a debris cloud directly ahead. ****. Opponent’s wife calls, leading us to forget that he has the lead BSA locked and can fire his missiles - also, opponent didn’t realize that missiles are front-arc locked and not turret-arc locked - and so Han does not shoot. Luke unloads a torp at the lead BSA, using lock and Force for b/h/h/c; BSA rolls b/b/f, Elusives a blank into a blank, drops shield, hull, takes Panicked Pilot - ouch. Lead BSA throws second torp at Han, which ends up being h/h/c/c - the crits are Direct and the Ion one; second BSA unloads his torp for only hit, Direct hit after all rerolls and defense - Han lives on one hull.

Rnd5: (things start getting hazy here) Panicked BSA right bank 1 to clear one stress, maaaaaybe block Han. Second BSA straight 1, roll right link focus. Luke bank 2 left (?) focus (?). Han straight 1, blocked by the second BSA leaving a clear shot at the Panicked leader. Fenn left hard 1, boost left link focus. Han unloads a Cluster Missile into the lead BSA and smokes him - no evades. Luke fires a torp into the remaining BSA, but only manages to take the shield; Elusive a blank into a blank again. BSA has no shot, and Fenn’s shot on Luke did nothing.

Rnd6: BSA s-loops right, in case Han rolls slow. Luke 4k’s (?). Han bank right 2, clears stress focus; clears the BSA’s arc, but ends almost on top of a debris cloud. Fenn left hard 2, barely clears Han’s rear end, focus. Han rolls and rerolls hot garbage and does no damage at R1 to the stressed BSA. Fenn unloads five dice at R1 into Han and smokes him with Direct hits. Luke rolls hot garbage into Fenn for no damage. The BSA rolls massive luck and smokes Luke.

Conclusions:

My opponent is relatively new, and had some pretty crap dice there. We talked about set-up and what Han wants to see from the obstacle spread - which in this game I was able to get set pretty optimally. We also talked about the roles his ships wanted to play, and what his target priority should be relative to my ships, particularly Han’s role as a kiting hammer and Luke’s role as closer (advice that he put to good use in the game that followed against a different fellow running triple Jedi, except that his dice remained AWFUL, and he misjudged an asteroid by just enough to get Han bumped and stuck and burned for three straight turns - but that’s another story).

My priority going in was to have the ‘Vipers hit Han with their torpedos - four dice with mods versus a single die is cherry. And it totally worked. I knew it was a risk to rely on Elusive to keep the relatively squishy ‘Vipers in the game long enough to unload their torps - green dice are notorious - and Elusive did absolutely nothing in the game. But my opponent’s dice were just cold enough to not punish me for my risky behavior. I missed the flank with Fenn, but managed through sheer luck to get him into the R1 face-off that he actually prefers. So.

I got lucky with the dice for once, and my opponent got unlucky dice. I flew...adequately, while my opponent flew with just enough inexperience to not punish my lack of brilliance.

I was looking to test the Starviper as a torpedo delivery platform, something akin to the E-Wing or the X-Wing. It has slightly better maneuverability than either of those, but is far easier to kill. Elusive in theory makes up for the lack of shielding, and allows one to take the risk of the target lock instead of a focus - in theory. In practice, if my opponent’s dice had been even average, I would have lost a ‘Viper before he could have shot. There’s also the matter of my 0 point bid - there are a lot of i3’s out there that can swarm up and eat a ‘Viper before it shoots. And Fenn is Fenn - high risk, high(?) reward. So, not a reliable list by any measure, but reasonably entertaining. Provided the dice cooperate. Do they not, and it burns.

Now, if the ‘Viper drops a few more points such that one can run two alongside an Ace of the caliber of Luke or Wedge or any of the Jedi…. Except that Scum doesn’t have any Aces answering that description. Or if all of *those* guys go up in points such that you can’t fit three such heavy hitters in a list all at the same time…. It’s still a high risk, high reward kind of list, with probably a lot of hard counters that I’m not thinking about. Ha ha.

I ran the list last night against the winner of our May the Fourth tournament - as I TO'd and there was an even number of players, I did not play, and this gent was kind enough to stay late and give me a game. He went 3-0 in Hyperspace against Rebel and Resistance beef with Elusive Soontir, Mauler, Seyn, Iden, and Howlrunner. I lost the initiative, and all six of the debris clouds were set in a band/blob in the middle of the mat. I placed my BSA's in the middle with Fenn eventually on my left; the TIEs went down on my right with Soonts outside of them.

My plan was to flank with Fenn and attempt to engage with the BSA's in the middle of the debris field - to try to break up their formation and abuse the power of the bendy barrel roll.

Rnd1: hard right 1, roll left with the BSA's; Fenn straight 5 boost left. The TIEs all move straight 2; Soontir straight 3 boost straight.

Rnd 2: BSA's straight 2, roll left, now just outside the left edge of the debris field facing opponent's board edge; Fenn left bank 3, boost left deep into the debris field. TIE's straight 2; Soontir straight 2, boost left on my side of the debris field. Still no shots.

Rnd 3: lead BSA bank left 3, just barely clips a debris cloud. Folowing BSA bank left 2, barely misses the same debris cloud for a focus. The TIEs hard left 2 and 3 to preserve formation - Seyn hits debris, Iden focus, Mauler and Howl roll ship right to stagger the formation coming into the debris field. Fenn bank right 3 boost left to get flanking position next turn - or draw the TIEs and give the BSAs flank. Soontir hard left 3 around the outlying debris, roll right. Soontir, Seyn, and Iden all have R3 shots on the stressed lead BSA, some obstructed. Hot dice all around result in a the use of Elusive and Seyn's pilot ability leading to a single hit under shields, while hot dice from the BSA lead to Iden using her charge to keep Seyn alive. I call the round a success for me.

Rnd 4: lead BSA bank left 1, roll left between debris - if the TIEs turn continue on the 'Vipers I can get some blocks, if not I get flanking shots or threaten Soontir. Following BSA bank left 1, locks Soontir. The TIE's all turn hard left 2, taking Fenn's bait. Seyn again doesn't clear the stress and Iden bumps. Mauler and Howl both focus up. Fenn hard left 1 into a millimeters bump on Seyn, at R1 in arc of Mauler and Iden, R2 in arc of Howl. Soontir straight 2, attempts boost straight but fails by millimeters - gets focus anyhow from having Fenn R2 in bullseye. Excellent - both BSA's are now flanking Soontir, one with Torps locked, and Fenn is at R1 where he loves to shine. Soontir fires at Fenn, something like b/f/h spends focus, but is evaded. Fenn rolls five dice at Mauler and strips the focus for two hits into hull. The TIEs all fire into Fenn with a final result of two hits on hull. The BSA's both fire on Soontir for a total one point of hull damage, even with the torpedo - woof. I'm a little worried now.

Rnd 5: Things go a bit hazy here. Again. 'Vipers get all over the place once they're in the scrum. I know Seyn went straight 2 to finally clear her stress. The other TIEs did various straight and bank maneuvers to avoid the debris fields, resulting in one of them bumping Fenn. Fenn 4k right behind that one, mwahahaha! The BSA's went...somewhere, rolling and focusing. Soontir managed to get into R1 of Fenn's flank and slipped a Wounded Pilot(?) crit in. Fenn deleted Mauler, to my opponent's surprise - Fenn had a solid shot on Howlrunner, who is everyone's favorite target; but Mauler is hurt and hits harder. I think one BSA hit Howl for one, and that was it.

Rnd 6: The remaining TIEs k-turn at various speeds, trying to keep guns on Fenn. Soontir turns out to my right, attempting to reset and get some space. Fenn bank right boost right into R1 of Howl, but can't link to focus as the crit gave him a stress off the boost action. Nuts. Soontir I think this round started heading right fr flanking and re-engagement, and the BSA's were going all over the place, trying to get shots without taking any; the one without a lock was in such a position as to safely lock Iden and did so. Soontir had no shot; Fenn deleted Howlrunner in a massive h/h/c/c with only one evade rolled in return. But then Seyn and Iden murdered Fenn - but that's a fair trade, Fenn for the two nastiest TIEs, and Iden's charge is already gone.

Rnd 7 and beyond: the BSA's rolled around unpredictably, never quite managing to get their locked targets in arc - the Imperial player maintained solid awareness of that and flew to minimize the chance. But that also constrained his flying. The undamaged BSA eventually lost his shield, but Seyn blew up quite spectacularly, to be followed by Iden and finally Soontir over something like five rounds of paper cuts. My green dice were just enough to hold the Imperials at bay, and my red dice were juuuuust good enough to overcome his greens. It was a close, close game, in spite of the end score of 200 - 70.

Conclusions: When I can get the engagement I want, and even average dice, this list is pretty good. In two games I have used Elusive three times for one positive reroll - I'm still not sold on it. Although my opponent this round used it positively on Soontir twice.... And FCS has similarly been less than scintillating given that most of the time I want to be focus/barrel rolling. Fenn truly is a monster - when he can get that favorable engagement. But my strategy of splitting the ace and the heavies worked - my opponent said he simply couldn't decide until the last moment who to target, and that he didn't feel it made much difference to the final result. We discussed the strategy of the obstacle placement, and he said that he doesn't fear obstacles at all - he'll happily fly straight over them to secure a better shot - and that he was most curious about who was going to turn in to the field first. In the end, I turned in with Fenn first, and I think maybe that gave me the advantage? At any rate, a very tense and entertaining game where dice variance, or rather a curious *lack* of dice variance, was the defining element.

Flew against Anikin with SNR/R4-P17/Delta, 2x 104th ARCs. Elusive triggered four times for one result. Three Protorps netted 9 damage including a Fuel Leak/Direct Hit combo. Fenn rolled 22 dice for nine damage. Dice variance came home to roost, and SNR Jedi are a ^&%^$$^ *&^&%^&& to nail down. I lost with both of my opponent's ships on one hull. I just could not put that last point of damage through onto a *&^%*^&% ARC of all things. And I couldn't get a bead on Ani once I lost my third firing arc. It was frustrating.

Asteroids and debris clouds (no gas clouds!) went in a staggered band across the middle of the board. The ARCs went in the right corner, Ani in the middle. My BSAs went in the middle with Fenn just to their right. All of my ships rolled right while his ARCs moved fast to board center to come through the middle of the rocks with Ani. One Arc got separated from the rest, and I was able to turn all guns on Ani in the first round of combat, biting into hull. But after that, I never again had more than one arc on him for the entire game. He's just too **** squirrely. Truthfully, dice variance did go my way early on. I completely evaded two or three attacks on my BSAs. But. It's the endgame that counts, and SNR Ani was just too much. That dial makes me so **** jealous, with its four ways to turn around, Fine-Tuned Controls, Force, and SNR. And a being a massive points locker. Ugh. The ARCs were never a problem, except for the one that lived on one hull, after three attacks failed to put that final point through. Just. Ugh.

I'm going to kill Elusive. It's just bad, really - only two evades in seven triggers in three games isn't enough to justify those 3(!) points each. If it were 1 point then yes, I'll take that chance. Maybe Composure? But if I fly well I will never use it, so probably no Talent for the BSAs. Besides, Fenn needs his bid against the other Aces - their double-reposition abilities are just too much stronger. (I had a staggering loss with Scum Beef against Silencers on Wednesday to reinforce this point.)

I think.... I think I should have set Fenn on my left. Pushed hard up the board edge while sending the BSAs right up through the middle. Maybe. I tried to draw my opponent's forces through the rocks and he obliged, but it wasn't quite effective enough. I tried to get all arcs on Ani and I did, but it wasn't enough - and I couldn't keep it up once my opponent realized his mistake. Sometimes you can do almost everything right and it's still just not enough.

21 hours ago, Kleeg005 said:

I'm going to kill Elusive. It's just bad, really - only two evades in seven triggers in three games isn't enough to justify those 3(!) points each. If it were 1 point then yes, I'll take that chance. Maybe Composure? But if I fly well I will never use it, so probably no Talent for the BSAs. Besides, Fenn needs his bid against the other Aces - their double-reposition abilities are just too much stronger. (I had a staggering loss with Scum Beef against Silencers on Wednesday to reinforce this point.)

Crack Shot seems worth trying out, because pushing damage for 1 point is good if you can trigger it. But I don't really know how easy that'll be on on Starvipers. I feel like the way the bank-rolls work makes it a bit harder to get bullseye, since there's a spot just past range 1 where the bullseye will converge on the in-pointing barrel rolls. Something about that feels like it has less coverage, or less adjustable coverage.

As to Elusive, I love love love it on anything which completes a red move and has focus-type modification at the same time. So basically just Nien Nunb and Kad Solus. I can almost see it on IG-88s or E-Wings or ships with a lot of Coordinate support. But I'm not sure it really makes sense on Starvipers.

//

As I'm thinking about them, a really oddball Starviper build came to me: Trick Shot, Collision Detector, Shield Upgrade. 64 points, so 1 cheaper than your current. Shield Upgrade is like Elusive that always works (and costs 3x as much). Trick Shot is like an unlimited charge Proton Torpedo where you don't need the lock (not really). Collision Detector is wicked spicy. Being able to just fly over obstacles when you're trying to clear stress might be nice, since they've got a not-amazing set of Blue moves. But it's also the kind of build which probably has to be flown in a really different way. I know I always suck when I try to leverage Trick Shot.

1 hour ago, theBitterFig said:

Crack Shot seems worth trying out, because pushing damage for 1 point is good if you can trigger it. But I don't really know how easy that'll be on on Starvipers. I feel like the way the bank-rolls work makes it a bit harder to get bullseye, since there's a spot just past range 1 where the bullseye will converge on the in-pointing barrel rolls. Something about that feels like it has less coverage, or less adjustable coverage.

As I'm thinking about them, a really oddball Starviper build came to me: Trick Shot, Collision Detector, Shield Upgrade. 64 points, so 1 cheaper than your current. Shield Upgrade is like Elusive that always works. Trick Shot is like an unlimited charge Proton Torpedo where you don't need the lock (not really). Collision Detector is wicked spicy. Being able to just fly over obstacles when you're trying to clear stress might be nice, since they've got a not-amazing set of Blue moves. But it's also the kind of build which probably has to be flown in a really different way. I know I always suck when I try to leverage Trick Shot.

Yeah, i've pretty much given up on getting bullseyes with anything not i5+, ha ha. So no more Crack Shot for me.

I have indeed used Trick/Collision before, and it just felt a little anemic. But then, I wasn't running Fenn as the hammer in those trials, so maybe? It's a good thought; I will have to give it another go. I really wanted the ProTorps for the punch, and for the fear factor. But I think more certain longevity and less predictability is better. Thanks for the prompt!

I tried out Trick Shot/Collision on both the Assassins this time around, with Fenn remaining as is. My opponent was trying out some double Resistance Bomber jank: Vennie with Rose/Rey/VTG/FCS/Shield and Finch with Seismic/Proton/Trajectory/VTG/Paige/Abalative. I don't recall a whole lot about this except that it was kind of a slaughter. My dice were reasonably hot, and his were a little light. Vennie burned down in three turns while only doing three total points of damage in return. Finch's bombs only damaged one of my ships, but did affect my flight decisions. But with multiple arcs on target against anemic double taps, it was no big loss to me to switch targets frequently. The difference in maneuverability was laughable, and then you throw some almost-silly dice variance into the mix and it wasn't much of a game.

But there were a few pertinent observations. I never once managed to pull off a Trick Shot - in part because I was avoiding the rocks and the resulting Seismic Charges, which kept removing obstacles as well - but mostly because the maneuverability of the 'Vipers meant I never even had to go close to the rocks. For the same reasons, I used Collision Detector just once. I did note four separate occasions where the 'Vipers could have used Predator - because I faced slow-maneuvering large bases. Whereas Fenn only managed to activate his Predator once. Given that I tend to fly Fenn as a flanker/bait, I think I will give him Outmaneuver and switch the 'Vipers to Predator and no Systems. And a 10 point bid. Now, if Advanced Sensors ever come down in cost....

This remains a reasonably satisfying list to fly. And the strategy it uses effectively changes with every different list I face, which means it kind of feels like a different list each time I fly it, which satisfies my slight ADHD.

Wound up playing against some Starvipers this evening, and the wicked sweet upgrade my friend used were Afterburners. There were two cool tricks in particular.

1. First was the simple combination of doing both a boost and a barrel roll. Some combos can wind up turning you 90 degrees, which is wicked sweet.
2. The second involved Gas Clouds. The Afterburners is something that you've always been able to use to link into a Focus, but most of the time it never made sense, since you'd be stressed for the Perform Action step. But Gas Clouds cause you to skip the perform action step, so it doesn't matter that you'd be stressed. Being able to plow over a Gas Cloud at 3-speed and still Boost and Focus is pretty sweet. I know this Afterburners/Gas Cloud trick has been discussed in the context of Darth Vader's pilot ability, but it'll work fine on any ship with Afterburners and access to linked actions.

Heh. You know? I use Afterburners on Guri all the time. *All* the time, every time. And I think I know why I haven't yet thought to put them into this list: I only own one copy, and I tend to try to avoid proxying so that if I do ever go nuts and hit up a tournament I'll be practiced with what I have. But that's a stellar idea. Now, the gas clouds trick is sweet, but I have so far resisted getting into those new factions. I already have too little time to play, although I think I have at last managed to play every ship in my collection at least once in 2E. Heh. Afterburners. I like it.

10 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

The second involved Gas Clouds. The Afterburners is something that you've always been able to use to link into a Focus, but most of the time it never made sense, since you'd be stressed for the Perform Action step. But Gas Clouds cause you to skip the perform action step, so it doesn't matter that you'd be stressed. Being able to plow over a Gas Cloud at 3-speed and still Boost and Focus is pretty sweet. I know this Afterburners/Gas Cloud trick has been discussed in the context of Darth Vader's pilot ability, but it'll work fine on any ship with Afterburners and access to linked actions.

It's nice in combination with 'normal' asteroids, too (which you will still see in circulation as Vulture Droids and Mining Guild TIE fighters are likely to take them).

Obviously, deliberately hitting an asteroid is a risky choice compared to doing the same to a gas cloud, but sometimes a 50/50 chance of taking 1 damage is worth it for a " where the **** did he come from!?!?!" range 1 shot.

It's doubly nice since you can use the afterburners boost to push yourself off the asteroid (which would normally prevent you from shooting in the engagement phase) if you end up falling a touch short.

Can I ask why Fenn Rau with Predator and not Fearless, by the way?

42 minutes ago, Kleeg005 said:

Heh. You know? I use Afterburners on Guri all the time. *All* the time, every time. And I think I know why I haven't yet thought to put them into this list: I only own one copy, and I tend to try to avoid proxying so that if I do ever go nuts and hit up a tournament I'll be practiced with what I have. But that's a stellar idea. Now, the gas clouds trick is sweet, but I have so far resisted getting into those new factions. I already have too little time to play, although I think I have at last managed to play every ship in my collection at least once in 2E. Heh. Afterburners. I like it.

One nice coincidence: the same packs which have the Gas Clouds all have a few copies of Afterburners.

24 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

One nice coincidence: the same packs which have the Gas Clouds all have a few copies of Afterburners.

I do need to stock up on some afterburners cards at some point for 'formal' events. Heavy swarms with afterburners aren't exactly "good" but they are fun as heck to play with.

4 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

I do need to stock up on some afterburners cards at some point for 'formal' events. Heavy swarms with afterburners aren't exactly "good" but they are fun as heck to play with.

I did pretty heavy buy-in to the new factions, and went from 2 copies to like 12. Looks like also articulated B-Wing, TIE/sf, and Inquisitor's TIE/v1 will have Afterburners copies in them.

3 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Can I ask why Fenn Rau with Predator and not Fearless, by the way?

I tend to fly him as a flanker who occasionally accidentally jousts. If I have the points, I run him with Outmaneuver. He loves that Range One Outmaneuver against, for example, Falcons....

2 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

One nice coincidence: the same packs which have the Gas Clouds all have a few copies of Afterburners.

***siiiigh*** I really wasn't going to get into the prequel factions. I keep telling myself that I won't. I won't.

But my MiL insists on (over)paying me for helping out around their house.... God. Is this where I break down? But if I do break down, will I have the strength of will to keep flying my Scum?

Are you the Devil, to tempt me so?

3 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

Looks like also articulated B-Wing, TIE/sf, and Inquisitor's TIE/v1 will have Afterburners copies in them.

The TIE/v1 is annoying. It has no mod slot and currently no quick build using it either. I gave the fang a free pass because it was a scum ship and scum players get very little out of a core set.

It does make the TIE/v1 annoyingly tempting. Inquisitors do look like a satisfying alternative to jedi.

Put in two more games this week. I tried Outmaneuver on all three ships, and slapped a proxy Afterburners onto my 'Vipers. My opponent flew two Sienar Test Pilots (that's the i4 guy, right?) with a bunch of stuff alongside a Starkiller with a bunch of stuff. The first game lasted all of 15 minutes, as my opponent had ridiculously hot dice and mine decided to go to bed early. First round of combat, he rolled four hits and three crits from his two Silencers and i blanked completely on my 'Viper. Return fire from the other 'Viper and Fenn did zero damage. Two rounds later, Fenn was one-shotted, having done two whole points of damage. So we set up again. Second game I did a *lot* better pulling his ships through the obstacles and keeping away from the Starkiller. But the Silencers were just too much faster and too much more maneuverable than Afterburner-equipped, bendy-barrelling, out-initiatived 'Vipers. And his dice were still just a little hot. I managed to kill one of the Silencers and half the Upsilon, though, before time. We played it out, and it only took him two more turns to burn down the last 'Viper.

I think I'm going to go back to the Proton Torpedo version. Maybe with Predator. I did end up snagging the SoS pack and two more Vultures, and had a blast losing to Rey/Nien, but the 'Vipers just keep calling me back. And the spike damage from the Torps just might be the key to making the list work. And I guess maybe Trick Shot? That seems to be the default Talent, even though I seem to rarely get it to trigger. Although maybe I give those Gas Clouds and Afterburners another look, ha ha, now that I have them.

I pulled out Assassins/Fenn last night, because why not? I had swapped in the ProTorps/FCS, and gave Fenn Fearless, just to see if it was as bad as I remembered. My opponent had 2xSaber Squadron Ace Interceptors and Fel, all with Crack, and Kagi with Cienna and Informant. And a bigger bid. Excellent - practice in moving first. Rocks went up loosely strewn across the diagonal. I placed all my ships centrally, to slow roll and see which way my opponent went. All of his ships went down on my right-center.

My memory is a little foggy, but general impressions were that the Shuttle lived three turns longer than it should have. And both Fenn and Fel went to down smooth after delivering one big hit each. My opponent flew suboptimally, but so did I. I got myself bunched up instead of pincering/baiting. But TIE Interceptors are just so much faster than 'Vipers that I'm not sure I could have gotten the engagements that I wanted. And of course, Kagi just counters my list beautifully, especially when his wingmates out-Initiative my list. Uphill battle, check. But thanks to some less than strategic self-bumps by my opponent - whose red dice were almost as hot as my greens - I managed to have one 'Viper at full health and full load-out when the shuttle finally went down. Which meant that I was able finally to get the locks I wanted, get some separation from his remaining two Interceptors and dance through the asteroids, and take the game just before time was called. FCS only contributed two rerolls, because most of the match had me bendy-rolling-link-focus in desperate attempts to lower-Initiative arc-dodge. Fearless only had one chance to activate, because Fenn died to a Range 3/obstructed shot. I think my opponent only used Informant once because Fenn died so quickly, and Cienna Ree only once because he forgot about her?

At any rate, this brings the list, in its many variations, to 5 wins, 5 losses record. And maybe a retirement. Fenn is...fine. But he's not quite my playstyle. I just need to find that third ship of my dreams to be escorted by my favorite 'Vipers.