Hi All,

I am going to be running this event at GenCon 2020 (have to plan so early) and I have been having fun playing this mission a few times. I would love to have people discuss the ins and outs of this mission.

It is interesting as it's a 300 point per side mission. That usually means the CR-90 and Raider are too expensive, but the GR-75, C-ROC (Yo-yo), and Gozanti could be useful in this mission.

You need to split your points between defending your own Shuttles and attacking the enemy's. I have found that it can be a real balancing act to do right. I have seen one side usually is too light.

Some notes:

- the Shuttles are not considered FRIENDLY for special abilities.

- you cannot bump with the Shuttles. You land on top of them with no effect.

I want to try something with a GR-75 in a list with Adaptive Shielding to help protect the Shuttles. By using Energy to block a few hits, it might work. GR-75's do obstruct shots against anything that shoots through them. All the other buff stuff works against FRIENDLY ships, though.

I would think you would have to keep a GR-75 cheap to make it worth not spending the points on smaller ships. I wouldn't even give it a Hardpoint if you can spend it elsewhere.

What about the other huge ships?

I have used the Batwing (epsilon shuttle) in this scenario really well as it has 4 red dice. Lt. Dormitz and Hyperspace Tracking Data can get a bunch of ships in range to fire the first round with double Mods or Focus/Evade.

I found First Order Tie Fighters work well as that extra Shield helps them hold in longer and make a difference. Advanced Optics also helps make these Tie Fighters push damage through. There are some good named pilots that won't break the bank and get extra dice.

13 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

I want to try something with a GR-75 in a list with Adaptive Shielding to help protect the Shuttles. By using Energy to block a few hits, it might work. GR-75's do obstruct shots against anything that shoots through them. All the other buff stuff works against FRIENDLY ships, though.

Doesn't Adaptive Shields stipulate friendly ships as well? At least that's how it reads on YASB.

16 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

Doesn't Adaptive Shields stipulate friendly ships as well? At least that's how it reads on YASB.

Fudge! You are right. I was thinking of all sorts of ways to protect a Shuttle, but the whole Friendly bit shuts it all down. Probably for the beat, tbh. Can still work for Atmospheric Re-entey, though.

Thinking about the C-ROC....is Combat Retrofit worth it? You can always just go cheap. Merchant One seems a better use of points for a Turret shot.

Part of the problem with any Huge ship is turning around. If you go for their Shuttles, you have to come at them from an angle or it will be really hard to turn around. Maybe turreted Hardpoints and an actual Turret might be worth it?

I can see Point Defense Battery being worth it to really hit a Shuttle. Still, they get a free Evade for another ship in arc. For 2 red dice, that might not work. Can always boost Energy for these ships. Is it worth it?

Would the Gozanti be worth it? It is a hardy ship that has 3 red dice without upgrades. The deploy action might make your opponent guess or you can take a title for bonus deployment tokens. Suppressor title also seems good when working on defense.

I'm not sure if Huge ships have a place in this mission. They might and it might be very worthwhile. I'm exploring.

Passing Engagement is fun. And a little odd. I think my favorite scenario so far is the Atmospheric Entry. Anyhow, here's my write-up:

I have found the Corsair Refitted C-ROCs to be a deadly trap. I mean, maybe I'll toy with it again someday, but Ion Cannon Battery and Bombardment Specialists really seem to be the way to go. For me. I did find having the C-ROC (yo, yo!) very handy in this scenario, and my opponent's Gozanti kept my other ships honest. I think that's the key - Wings to kill the Shuttle Remotes, Huge ships to punish the Wings. Maybe.

You can't ionize a Remote, can you? If not, why was the Ion Battery so good?

1 hour ago, heychadwick said:

Would the Gozanti be worth it? It is a hardy ship that has 3 red dice without upgrades. The deploy action might make your opponent guess or you can take a title for bonus deployment tokens. Suppressor title also seems good when working on defense.

Blood Crow with Point-Defense Battery was really effective in Passing Engagement. One shuttle landed at range 1 and got eviscerated. 4-dice primary plus a focus result, followed up with a couple of 3-dice shots plus focus result from the Point-Defense Battery (yay for range 1 bonus!). It was great.

But the other shuttle came straight for my Gozanti, landing underneath it so I couldn't shoot it. That was a brilliant play by my opponent. Can't remember if I got it with my Point-Defense Battery when it came out the back. I think it just barely escaped with a few hull left.

I also launched Alpha Sq. Pilots from the Gozanti to get early shots at the shuttles. Can't remember what I used to defend my own shuttles. I love launching interceptors from the Gozanti.

1 hour ago, heychadwick said:

You can't ionize a Remote, can you? If not, why was the Ion Battery so good?

Can't ionize a remote, no, but an ionized Interceptor has a **** hard time shooting a remote. And that auto-crit is MONEY.

I keep thinking about Hyenas lobbing Proton Bombs with Trajectory Simulators at shuttles and their defenders. Might clear away some defenders to stop the bonus Evade action.

I also think Tie Aggressors could be very useful in a mission like this as the attention isn't on them. They can give those Evades to the Shuttle by being close when defending. Might be able to help block people. Aggressors issue is it melts when you shoot at it, but if people are going for shuttles or bigger targets, they might shine.

Ion Cannon Turrets could work when defending or attacking the shuttles. Ionizing the attackers to allow the shuttles to blaze past and delay someone for a crucial turn. On offense, they can ionize defenders to get them out of arc and prevent the free Evade.

Turrets will be tricky as a precious action to turn that is hard and the Agile Gunner is expensive. Still, the ship has been priced cheaply and maybe even cheaper with new points. Maybe worth it on one of the named people. They are actually pretty good. Double Edge is useful and Kestal can push those Ion hits through, even on Soontir Fel.

Has anybody played this against an opponent who doesn't care about protecting the shuttles? This came up in one of my groups, where one player went full offensive on enemy ships that were lined up to attack his shuttles. This meant it was 300 points vs. about 200 points, and the 200 points were shooting at very defensive targets. Wasn't long before the 200 points were gone, and the shuttles survived. The opposing player's remaining 100 points of ships were defending his own shuttles ... from nothing.

In the end, both players had both shuttles flee, but Mr. Offensive was up 200 points because of his onslaught. Even if he had lost one shuttle he would have won the match (if my calculations are correct).

Is this strategy generally successful? It's basically ignoring objectives, but hoping your opponent doesn't so you can smash face like it's a death match. How do you prevent that? All I've got so far is obstacle placement, but you only get to place three to screen your shuttles.

When was it obvious what the 300 pt guy was doing a full offense move? Deployment is odd in that it sticks you out there and facing his shuttles primarily. You can kind of tell what people are going for based on where they deploy. You can always change your deployment of higher Init ships/wings. Also, your defensive ships can swing to face the other guys force. Depends on what you have and how quick it is.

I have always had my defensive guys face the middle of board to intercept his attackers before they get to shuttles. Should not be too hard to swing over to the other side.

This is an example of how Tie Interceptors can make a big impact in a game like this as they can redeploy to a new portion of the battlefield pretty quickly.