Took place in an extended tournament today and flipped a coin between a Hera/Luke list... and the following:
Miranda Doni (43)
Diamond-Boron Missiles (6)
Han Solo (14)
Sabine Wren (3)
Seismic Charges (3)
Proton Bombs (5)
Shield Upgrade (4)
Esege Tuketu (45)
Barrage Rockets (8)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Proton Bombs (5)
Wedge Antilles (55)
Crack Shot (1)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Total: 200
View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0
I've flown this list a few times before, different versions here and there, but this specific variant I threw together the morning of. With vulture and Sinker swarms becoming more popular locally I decided to do some switching around moving out barrage rockets to get seismic and diamond missiles on Miranda. I was expecting to go 1-3 today... Ended up inverting that.
Round 1: Imperial heavy assault scouts
I haven't played this opponent in a very long time, since the 1.0 days. He used to come out a lot but my usual night he cannot make, so this was something I was looking forward to as he is a smart player and always a challenge. He brought 2 I4 defenders and an I4 Phantom. all naked. I know not to underestimate defenders as they are very, very good. Phantoms are great at the positioning game as well, so I knew it would be tough to lock him down. We setup a very loose and spread out rock formation, 1 at each corner, and 2 in the center, kind of like a >< field. This wasn't going to allow me to do a lot of good seismic runs, but it would give me more room to maneuver around and not get caught in the defender death alleys.
We setup on opposite sides of the board, I started on my lower right. I 2 forward 2 slam up the side while he 3 forward boost on the other side with his TIE's. I slow rolled Wedge 1 forward and rolled away. Next turn I 3 banked both K-wings, but landed Esege right in front of the left center rock... that will be a problem next turn. Wedge went up and hid on the right side center rock. I got a shield off one defender for a shield off Esege. The next turn he decloaks high to flank Miranda (correctly) while Esege went to go setup a block and Wedge 4 K's for position... I did drop a pair of protons. Both hit one of his defenders and I use sabine to give him an Ion. Wedge takes the rest of his shields off. Miranda takes a shield off the Phantom and looses 1 in return.
I start swinging the K-wings around while Wedge herds the Defenders. I'm almost ignoring the phantom at this point. I get both Defenders down to hull only and pincer his Phantom between both K-wings and get it down to 1 hull. Wedge finishes off one Defender then threads the needle through my K-wings with a K-turn while Miranda and Esege take down the other Defender. By this point everyone is at half points, only the Phantom left. he decides to run, but I trap him in the corner with all 3 ships and Miranda gets the kill shot.
Proton bombs dropped: 4
Seismics dropped: 3
Damage via bombs: 4
Barrage Rockets fired: 3
Diamond missiles fired 2
diamond ability hits: 0
Crackshot: 0
WIN: 100-200
Round 2: The Resistance!
Newer player, played on and off in the final year of 1.0 but the last 4 months he started diving in pretty heavily. Not a bad player at all, but still a bit mistake prone at times. Flying Greer, Pava, Bastian, Temmin. He sets up in a box formation and I do my same deployment from the same corner. He comes in 4 straight while I go up 3 forward. He goes 4 straight again, I 2 hard everyone in a conga line of Esege, Miranda, Wedge. He turns on the my lower left corner rock ready to pivot but miss judges and he's facing the rock with all 4 ships. I move my guys up fast and have them on the other side of the same rock. we exchange some fire, I loose all of Esege's shields. Took out all of Pava's shields and one shield off Bastion. The next turn starts setting up the bomb traps. I dial a 2 hard right with Esege, 2 forward with Miranda, 1 forward with Wedge. If I'm wrong Wedge is going to die. He had the same idea to turn North up he bumps his whole squad into my ships landing 2 of them on the rock. Miranda takes shields off Greer, Wedge and Esege take down Bastion. Esege is into hull. I drop a pair of bombs and bank out with the K-wings while Wedge 1 banks to cover their rear. Pava disengages hard. Shocking Greer 5 Ks right into range of one of the bombs and Temmin bugs out shooting past Wedge. Before Pava dies she gets a hull damage into Miranda. and Temmin gets shields off of Wedge. I take down Pava the next turn... then temmin starts dancing. He starts flying him like a god and catching one of my ships at R1 every turn. Luckily I'm rotating them round and round spreading damage. He halfs both K-wings and has Esege down to 1 hull. Miranda finally takes him down for the win.
Proton bombs dropped: 5
Siesmics dropped: 2
Barrage Rockets fired: 2
Diamond missiles fire: 1
Diamond ability hits: 1
Crackshot: 1
win: 72-200
Round 3: RAC is scary
This next opponent is one of my locals heading to worlds. I've faced this list 4 times over the past month and I can't solve it. He has a very strong W/L record with it and has only lost 3 games, 2 on Vassal, 1 local. This is a tough, tough match since I have no idea what my win condition is other than both ships need to die. He knows he needs to burn down Esege first as he is the key for the efficiency of my list. He takes first player and places a rock 2-2 off the top left corner. I start building the rocks tight in the top left using his 3 gas clouds as the center of the rock formation. I set up lower left corner, he sets up Whisper center and RAC top right. My strategy... get RAC into the rocks to prevent him from using Jer Jerrod to setup Prox mine bombing runs on me while I setup bombing runs on him. He won't bring Whisper into the rocks, so I know not to worry about her until after I deal with RAC.
So what is this RAC??? Lone Wolf, Grand Inquisitor Crew, Vader Crew, Jer Jerrod, Proximity Mines. Whisper is Juke, Passive Sensors, Fifth Bro. Tons of passive mods and a real pain to nail down!
First turn, 3 forward 3 forward slam from the K-wings, Wedge 2 banks in behind the K-wings. He 2 forwards whisper, cloaks. 1 bank Rac towards me. Next turn he decloaks pilot left towards Rac. I 2 hard my K-wings to start setting up my trap. Whisper lands on the furthest gas cloud, Rac lines up behind Whisper and coordinates a focus to Whisper. Wedge 3 hards and rolls but is just out of R3 of Whisper. Whisper takes a shield off Esege. Esege exchanges a Barrage rocket and takes a shield off Whisper.
Turn 3, Whisper disengages. The K-wings start moving back down to my board edge on soft slow banks to bait Rac into the clouds. he takes the bait. Miranda and Wedge strip shields and land a panicked pilot. He takes shields off Wedge. Esege misses. Whisper is out of combat. Next round I drop some bombs and run Essege down fast while Miranda covers the left side. Wedge is out of position. Bombs go off and the proton gives RAC hull breach. I sabine another stress on for good measure and he takes his own loose stabalizer via the seismic bomb. Whisper engages and between RAC and her they get a loose stabilizer on Esege. My team gets Rac down a few more crits.
Whisper is high up the board and Esege goes in to threaten. Miranda hangs back and Wedge 4 K's right in front of RAC. Miranda fires primary and gets the crit train running... it doesn't matter there are just a ton of cards out and Wedge finishes him off. RAC IS DOWN. I'm missing shields on everyone and Esege is burning.
I misjudge my next turn and make my first major mistake. I bump Wedge into Miranda and Whisper is sitting R2. Esege is way to far away to give Wedge a Focus. Wedge gets destroyed. I get shields off on Whisper.
I start forcing Whsiper into my lower right corner, setting up broadside runs with both K-wings. At this point I only got 1 Boron rocket left and no more bombs. He takes down Essege and Miranda is burning hard with a hull breach and a console fire. Whisper gets stressed trying to get Arc and I get Whisper down to 1 hull. He's stressed and I do not have a way to maximize it without taking too much risk so I bug out hard and fix my crits, recharge a seismic...
I obviously drop my new charge to close off the lane behind me while I circle the top left pivot rock. I feed him right into R1. His arc is the wrong way so he cloaks. I fire 4 dice and get 2 hit 2 crit. Whisper clenches and natties out. I 2 forward and rotate arcs to the side (mistake 2), Whisper bumps me. Next turn I forward and rotate front/back again. he comes up R1 right behind me, I have no shields and 2 hull left, so I regen (mistake 3) and roll 2 hits. He rolls focus evade, uses fifth bro to cancel. He then returns with 4 hits. Jukes my one evade and takes me down.
Super close and well played game by both of us. Really fun!
Loss: 200 - 39
Round 4: 200 point Dash
Dash and Ezra...in a tie fighter... why? Just to get Maul on Dash, with Luke, Outrider, shield upgrade, and trick shot. The rock formation leaves the top left quadrant wide open. I setup on my left he sets up opposite. I burn hard into the open space. He starts working his way down the other board edge. I decide to start turning in. Ezra sets up to flank. I can deal with Ezra later, Dash needs to go down fast! We trade shields on Esege for Dash. I move my K-wings in fast and Wedge stays in behind. I get Dash locked down with him wanting to Roll away to get extra dice and stresses himself. I get some nasty crits in (hull breach, damaged engine, panic pilot). I loose Esege. Miranda parks to block Dash on the board edge, but Wedge finishes him off. Wedge then looses shields due to Ezra. Miranda is down on shields... but because she's been pumping her primary.
Ezra catches Wedge stressed while Miranda starts turning around. I catch Ezra with a seismic, but not before Wedge is down to 1 hull. I lure Ezra into the Miranda's arcs while Wedge 4K's. The two I kill Ezra and thats game
WIN: 94-200
3-1 for a second overall placing. The winner was the RAC list who went 4-0.
So what made this pair of K-wings do so much damage? Teamwork!
Wedge is always hanging out behind the K-wings until I start fanning out. But when I do fan out, Wedge is always within R2 of Esege if not both of them within 2. Esege feeds focuses for offense and defense to the other two as needed and tries to keep one for his Barrage Rockets, but most of his damage comes from the Protons and the Primary attack.
Wedge is just Wedge, and with taking locks and using Esege's focuses will do a lto of damage.
But Miranda... Miranda is the ultimate underestimation in this list. Not only does she control a lot of space, but Han allows her to attack at i7 which, with her ability, makes her a double tapping power house in the early game, an annoyance in the mid game, and super tanky in the late game. It was quite surprising how often I was getting the double tap off, and Diamond Rockets do their work quite well with extra damage. Sabine, who really only was useful on 2 games, is insanely clutch when needed. But Han, that ability to regenerate before being shot makes her really annoying to kill and allows me to create distance to regen, then circle back and attack with 4 dice. She is shooting almost every turn and the only real safe space is at R1 in front when her arcs are side to side.
I really really like this list. I did not expect it to do the damage or be as effective as it really was. That and it's a ton of fun to fly, didn't feel like it was the big NPE of 1.0 Miranda. I highly recommend trying the Miranda/Han combo, it's surprisingly good!
Edited by Wiredin