I flew at the Atlanta System Open. It's taken a little time to recuperate and gather my thoughts. Now I'm ready to discuss my run. I call the list I used "Five-by-Five": Duchess w/ Crack Shot, Mauler w/ Crack Shot, Scourge w/ Crack Shot, Howlrunner w/ Crack Shot, Maarek Steele w/ Marksmanship and Fire Control System. I can't claim credit for the list, though I wish I could, because it has a lot of characteristics I love. It's a heterogenous list that likes flying in formation, with pocket aces hiding in plain sight. Love it so hard.
I wasn't completely sure how it'd do against the Big Four, as my local meta isn't particularly competitive; I'd only gotten practice against Handbrake Han, so how I'd approach these other matchups was mostly theorycraft.
I always deployed in the same block initially: a front line of Mauler, Scourge, Duchess (from inside to outside), with Maarek behind Mauler and Howl behind Scourge. In these reports, my board edge is "south" and my opponent's is "north".
ROUND ONE
Opponent's list
: Vader, Fel, 2x Barrage Rocket Scimitar Squadron Pilots
Narrative
: Obstacles were in a 'C' shape, opening on the east side. This was the arrangement I preferred and would seek to generate throughout the day, as it allowed me to set up in the corner, execute a five ahead, then do basically any turn or bank in and be in good position. Once in the middle of the board I could move to cover any approach on my squad.
That was what my opponent helped facilitate here. His Scimitars were lined up in the middle, with Vader behind them, and Fel in the far west.
Round one I did a 5-ahead along the east edge while the Scimitars moved towards the middle, Vader slow-rolled behind them, and Fel zoomed straight south along the west edge. Immediately, I saw the opportunity to force an engagement before Fel could join the fight. My next dial was a three-ahead
for the whole formation, bringing one Scimitar into range and destroying it before it could twitch. Fel turned east, but even with a boost was much too far away, and Vader hadn't gone fast enough to draw range. So far, so good.
In round 3 I blew up my formation. Maarek and Mauler 3-turned left to intercept Fel, Duchess used Ailerons and a one-bank to slip north (pointing west) to put arcs on Vader. With a rock to Duchess' north, the Dark Lord would have no chance to barrel roll out of Duchess' arc. Howl and Scourge 2-banked left to punish the living Scimitar and spread Howl's aura.
Bingo: no action combo could get Fel out of Maarek's and Mauler's arcs, while Vader ended up right in front of Duchess. He vaporized Howlrunner in one shot for her trouble (this would become a theme) and Soontir bloodied Mauler, but in return I killed Fel and took nibbles out of Vader and the bomber. It was mop-up from there. Vader scored half-points on Maarek before he exploded.
Analysis
: speed was my weapon, as it would be in all my successful games. Fel and Vader were out of position to support the round 2 engagement I forced on the bombers. This was more important to me than the fact that the Bomber was clearly happier with the range 3 engagement than my TIEs. At the same time, the enemy aces’ position with respect to the rocks limited them to specific attack vectors that I could close. My firepower did the rest. The result was my fastest game of the tournament.
ROUND TWO
Opponent: Quad Phantoms
Narrative: my opponent set up in the northeast corner behind a two-rock cluster. I set up in the middle, hoping to keep my options open. I had the crazy thought in mind that I could split the cluster if I had to.
It didn't come to that. My opponent slid towards the middle along the north edge while I did my customary five-ahead. Understanding that the closer the range the bigger my advantage, I hit the brakes round two with a two-ahead.
Not good enough: as my opponent slid center two of his Phantoms had range on my front line. Luckily I didn't suffer for this.
Now it was time to guess. Where would the Phantoms be? Left? Right? Both? Figuring my best bet was to hedge, I dialed in a 3-straight, trusting that I'd be able to draw arc on *someone*.
It worked better than I could have hoped. Two of his Phantoms went straight, trying to get in my face to crash my formation, while his remaining two Phantoms split east and west. I went right past the crashers-Duchess was even able to close to range 1 on the west Phantom thanks to Ailerons. It was such a good position that I was able to make a luxury pick: Maarek locked the east Phantom even though my plan was to engage the western one.
It was a greedy move, but I didn't regret it, even though Maarek ended up having to shoot the west Phantom to polish it off. It meant I was an action ahead and that Maarek could have an overpowering shot on the west Phantom in the next round. It had all gone as well as it could--even with Howlrunner getting one-shot (yay for TIE Fighters!) by the east Phantom, I could afford to trade one-for-one.
I couldn't afford to do what I did next. One of the virtues of my list is I can easily split off my specialists. I didn't in this case: when I did a 2-bank with my Fighters, I initially dialed in a 1-bank with Maarek, only to swap back to the 2 to hold formation. Stupid, stupid. The east Phantom slipped just south enough that the 2-bank left Maarek with no shot. Duchess put the hurt on that Phantom; if Maarek had shot, it would have splashed the Phantom almost certainly. Instead, the Phantom one-shot Mauler (yay for TIE Fighters!), and suddenly my advantage was gone.
The other Phantoms had been merrily K-turning while I missed my quarry. On the next turn, they moved up to rejoin their fellow. Maarek's K-turn thwarted Duchess' Sloop, while the east Phantom slipped away from a 1-turning Scourge. It was time for my next mistake. Maarek, due to his stress, was bought into fighting the reengaging Phantoms. I could have turned Scourge in to join the fight with Maarek, but I knew that if I did he would die. I did a 4-K to regain position with him, passing up what turned out to be a probable killshot. The next turn he ended up 2-banking towards the Phantoms anyway and got exploded that turn.
Eventually it was half-points Duchess and half-points Maarek against a half and whole Phantom. I had a final chance to press my advantage with Duchess by Slooping, but my uncertainty about where the Phantoms would go caused me to chicken out. Maarek disengaged, but I got a little greedy and grabbed a lock on a Phantom with Maarek. Turns out the other one had range after all, and Maarek took two hits to explode and give up the winning margin.
Analysis
: this was my only game to go to time, and also easily the one in which I made the most mistakes. It's particularly galling that I was able to get a very good opening and then surrender it by a succession of blunders. I had so many opportunities to win the game, and never managed it.
It is fair to wonder if my approach would have worked without my opponent surrendering two of his shots in the first round.
Failing to turn in with Scourge was a really gruesome mistake when I consider target priority. I'd rather my opponent shoot Scourge than Maarek; that's a good deal for me! Protecting Scourge at Maarek's expense is a mistake even without considering the firepower loss. I should have been delighted at the chance to trade Scourge for a Phantom. I blew it.
ROUND THREE
Opponent: Beef Wedgington (Wedge, Cassian w/ Leia and TacO, Ten Nunb, Braylen Stramm)
Narrative:
smarting from my loss, I went into a game with another one of the Big Four meta lists. As before, we had a C-shape to the east. My opponent set up Cassian center-east, with the B-Wings spaced out to the West. I set up in the southeast corner and planned to pounce Cassian at the earliest
opportunity. Even if the B-Wings moved quickly, they'd be hard pressed to get decent shots in the first round.
That left Wedge, who deployed to the east of Cassian. After my customary five-ahead, my opponent made clear what his plan was: Wedge would use coordinating barrel rolls to sweep around the rock to the east and catch me from the side. Unfortunately, he misjudged it, and Wedge lost his shot in the opening engagement, even as I three-banked to engage Cassian. By popping Leia he was able to bring the B-Wings in quickly, but they still had bad shots. Howlrunner managed not to explode, but took Structural Damage. At least I was able to bring Cassian low. (Maarek could have finished the job, but whiffed even with double rerolls.)
I feared the block from Cassian on the following turn, so I played around it: I selected 3-banks for my front line to zoom over the U-Wing, and slower maneuvers for Maarek and Howl to come underneath (and shoot B-Wings). I had no expectation a wounded Howl would survive Wedge's shot, honestly. I was
counting on Duchess to finish Cassian: I selected a Sloop for her, trusting her four dice and Crack Shot to finish the job.
The B-Wings intercepted me, with Mauler smacking into Ten (with Scourge just behind) and Maarek hitting Braylen. Cassian, as it turned out, didn't go for the block, playing more conservatively. It didn't matter: Duchess got behind him anyway and made him go away. Howlrunner was obliterated, but Maarek and Scourge collaborated to bring Ten to two... before Ten went right back and one-shot Scourge! (Yay for TIE Fighters.)
But now the three surviving Rebel ships were all pointed at the same location: Braylen and wounded Ten pointing east, at Wedge, who was pointing west. The space was so constricted that, as Mauler and Maarek K-turned, Duchess was able to run into Braylen in such a way that she chained a block on Wedge. This kept her safe while denying Wedge "Murder Machine" Antilles his shot. Without support, Ten died, leaving me ahead.
Braylen turned to engage Mauler; Wedge K-turned to draw a bead on Duchess. Happily, although Duchess had done a Sloop, she survived Wedge's shot. Maarek was now behind Wedge and took a lock. Braylen roasted Mauler (yay for TIE Fighters!) but was now stressed and behind the action.
Duchess used her Ailerons and a 2-bank to blow past Wedge and get behind Braylen heading west. Wedge, who'd slow-rolled towards the east hoping to catch Duchess, was flat-footed by this, and now Maarek was behind him and lighting him up. (Public service announcement: Duchess can Ailerons while stressed! She's pretty darn good for 42 points!) Ultimately Wedge couldn't get away from Maarek, and Duchess slid in behind Braylen. That was pretty much that: although I spent a good amount of time blundering in to Braylen's backside with Duchess and playing coy with Maarek, ultimately both ships got arc on Braylen and sent him to join his squad.
Analysis
: Duchess was my heroine in this game. She killed Cassian, scored a multi-block, went toe-to-toe with Wedge and lived to tell about it, and hunted down Braylen. As disappointing as it was in the moment to watch TIEs just evaporate, the fact that those ships died while Maarek and Duchess lived was hugely significant in the end. It speaks, I think, to the target priority issues this list can cause.
Once again, forcing an early engagement before my opponent's guns were all in-line and pointed at good targets paid big dividends. Removing Cassian had the side-effect of hamstringing Braylen: without the stress removal, and with his desire to stay stressed himself, he wound up quite limited in his positioning options. And sure, he ate Mauler, but on the whole I was fine with that if it meant I killed Wedge. Wedge can close games. Braylen can't.
Next time: Rounds 4-6!