Hey all,

I'll be using this space to record my thoughts with new lists in this new meta. For background, I'm a huge fan of the B-Wing and typically like 4+ ships in a list, or a Falcon with wing-men.

Here are my starting lists:

EXTENDED:
-Cassian w/ Leia and Pivot Wing (58)
-Braylen (52)
-Blade Squadron Veteran w/ Selfless (45)
-Blade Squadron Veteran w/ Selfless (45)
Notes: Nothing too shocking, here. Discounts to Blade Squadron make them very good Selfless carriers.

HYPERSPACE:
-Lando w/ Nien Numb, Leia, Ion Missiles, and Millenium Falcon Title (98)
-Braylen (52)
-Ten Numb w/ S-Foils (50)
Notes: Pretty simple Rebel efficiency list. Lots of modifiers on this one.

On Wednesday, I was able to get 3 Extended games and 1 Hyperspace:

Game 1 (Extended) - 75 Min - Win:
My opponent took Dengar, Manaroo, and Fenn. Dengar had Punishing One, Autoblasters, Contraband Cybernetics, and Han Solo (Gunner). Manaroo had Autoblasters and Unkar Plutt. Fenn was nakey.

Rocks made a double-arc through the table like: ((

I deployed in my usual way for B-Wings against high initiative opponents: Cassian on a 45* angle in the right corner, both Blade Sqds on Cass' left pointed straight up, and Braylen on the left of the formation and pointed to the left for flank security. Manaroo and Dengar were stacked with each other in the upper-right corner, and Fenn was threatening the flank on the upper-left.

I did my usual wall crawl, while Braylen stayed further to the left just to keep Fenn from getting too adventurous. I didn't commit Cassian to one direction or the other, instead opting to bump him into the rear of one of the Blade Sqds. On my opponent's side, Manaroo and Dengar committed to coming down on the right, while Fenn burned hard down the left side of the board. This prompted me to peel off one of the Blade Sqds to the left to provide more arc coverage on Fenn.

Initial engagement was between the Blade Sqd on the right, Cassian, and Manaroo. My B-Wing took two damage and so did Manaroo. On the left, Braylen and the other Blade pushed forward and cast a wide net for Fenn, but Fenn opted to turn away. This was a good idea on my opponent's part, as he knew I would have to pull Braylen back toward the right to benefit from Cassian.

The main engagement went well for me. I think my opponent committing to the right board edge was a mistake, as I had arcs on and caused multiple bumps to him. Manaroo took a pounding but lived, and Dengar got Panicked Pilot. Fenn took a shield off Braylen with a Range 3 shot. I burned Leia pretty early to keep arcs on Manaroo the Jumpmasters, but it worked well for me.

The rest of the game was basically clean-up. A Range 2 shot on Fenn was a lucky Direct Hit, which halved him. Manaroo popped, and then Dengar. I lost one Blade Squadron pilot. Opponent conceded.

Game 2 (Extended) - 75 Min - Win:
My opponent was a new player and we worked together to make his first 200pt list. This was a very good and fun learning game for both of us, and taking things a bit looser resulted in a 123-100 final score which was a good hook for him. Looking forward to playing him again. Not much to take away from this game for competitive purposes.

Game 3 (Extended) - 75 Min - Win:
Opponent brought Kylo, Scorch w/ Fanatical, and 2x Zeta Sqd w/ SF Gunner.

Rocks made a triangle: /l

I deployed as described before. He put Kylo directly opposite me, Scorch in the center, and the TIE/sfs on the right.

Kylo turned to the right and rolled back, giving him plenty of options. I wall crawled up. Scorch and Zetas came down around/through the rocks. Seeing how my opponent wanted to engage, I slow rolled another turn, before turning in with Braylen and both B-Wings, while Cassian stared up in Kylo's direction. The Zetas engaged in a non-ideal way, as they were in a line instead of abreast. Scorch managed to get arc on Braylen. Kylo surprised me by coming down on the B-Wings' flanks and right into Cassian's sights. He rolled a lot of crits, resulting in damage being spread around my squad. I think I halved both Zetas, or outright destroyed one.

Next turn had more surprises, as Kylo opted to turn into the furball instead of turn out. I had multiple Range 1 modified shots on the surviving Zeta and Scorch, but took this opportunity to try and hurt Kylo. I managed to half Kylo here, but took a lot of damage, again spread around.

At this point, the game was basically lost for my opponent. I think I triggered Leia here and cleaned up Scorch and the Zeta, leaving just Kylo. I think I lost one of the Blade Squadrons here.

Kylo ran, and I chased. Eventually he turned in and that was the end of him. Very solid game for me, with little mistakes, good dice, and anticipating my opponent's moves.

Takeaways:
This list is solid. It can really soak some hits and dish it right back out. I'm looking forward to getting more experience with it. Keeping at least one Blade Sqd with Cassian is a must, both for arc coverage and Selfless. Compared to old Beef, the lost of initiative is a hindrance, but spreading damage is very potent. As always, Braylen and Cassian are an incredibly strong combo.

Game 4 (Hyperspace) - 75 Min - Loss:
I played against the FO player again, playing the same list. We didn't have a lot of time for this one, as the store was closing soon.

I had a poor initial engagement due to positioning Lando poorly. I also felt the limitations of Braylen without Cassian, as he becomes much more predictable. We got about 30-35 minutes for this game, and I destroyed one Zeta and halved another, but Lando was on 3HP with Kylo behind him and Ten Numb and Braylen had two shields left, each. I'm pretty sure this is a win for my opponent, as I would be hard pressed to half or finish Kylo.

Takeaways:
I don't like how predictable Braylen is without Cassian. Lando is very, very good with the point reductions to himself and Millenium Falcon (Title). However, I don't think Lando is a good partner to B-Wings. I'm going to put Lando on the back burner while I figure out wing-men for him. Instead, my next Hyperspace list will be:
Luke
Thane
2x Blade Sqd. w/ Selfless
With the idea of delivering Luke to the end-game.

Thanks for reading!

Two more games to report on....

Game 5 (Extended) - 75 Min - Loss:
Played my buddy's Sloane swarm. Initial engagement was outside of obstacles where his dial was much more open and I couldn't leverage the B-Wing's knife-fighting ability. Quickly fell behind the damage race and the game snow-balled. Variance was partly to blame, but the take-aways for me were the importance of engaging in and near the obstacles and the necessity of range control with Braylen.

Game 6 (Extended) - 75 Min - Loss:
Rematch against the Sloane swarm and another loss. Initial engagement was wildly in my favor, as he over-committed with the Sloane carrier and I was able to beat on it with three Range 1 and one Range 2 modified shots. Unfortunately, he nailed all of his Evades and Sloane held on with 1 HP. Then, his attack dice were perfect and I lost a B-Wing. Had to pivot Cassian to keep arc on Sloane and put her out of her misery, but this left Cassian out of position. Braylen and surviving Blade ended up bumping into the his swarm and the Blade Sq. went down in flames. Downed two or three more ships, but Cassian was down to 1 HP with a Console Fire and I called it there. I think I win this game 7 times out of 10, but unfortunately the dice did not reward my flying. This would be frustrating in a tournament setting, but is totally fine in casual or practice games such as this.

I was pretty satisfied with my flying here, as I had a clear avenue of approach. I think improvements could be made to better engage near obstacles, but it can be difficult to accomplish that when facing speedier opponents. Maybe a key takeaway here is to set up obstacles closer to yourself when faced with opposing ships that have speedy dials. Also, ran into an issue where the B-Wing's slower dial is easily stuffed by swarms in the open. This further reinforces the importance of engaging in and near obstacles with B-Wings.

Finally, a nice trick to remember is that if you think Braylen is going to be blocked, you can always just do a Red 2-K to either stress yourself for mods, or to keep your stress from last round. It ends up being a nice White 2-Straight, for all intents and purposes.


Next Up...
Flying the Hyperspace list this Friday. I'll update Saturday

Managed to get six games in with Thane and Luke plus two Selfless Blades: 2 on Friday league, 2 on Saturday, and 2 on Sunday! Bit hungover for the Saturday and Sunday games, but that was due to a going-away party and a long night of drinking for one of my Navy lads and overall I was in high spirits. Short of it is that I went 5-1, but I did have some very interesting match-ups. Please read more below...

FRIDAY :

Game 1: Vader w/ Hate and Afterburners, Soontir w/ Predator and Shield Upgrade, Grand Inquisitor w/ Sense(?) - Win

Garrett is a very experienced Triple Ace player and this list was entirely in his wheelhouse.

Deployment was pretty much expected for this one. He took Gas Clouds (surprise!) and I took the largest rocks and debris. Obstacles ended up in a double-belt: ==. I set up in the lower-right corner with my B-Wings set to wall-crawl (1-Bank toward center, B-Roll toward right board edge) and the X-Wings set to slow roll behind the Bs or commit to the center as necessary. He paired Vader and GQ (Grand inQuisitor) on the upper-left, while Soontir took the upper-right with the obvious intention of turning to center and rolling back toward his board edge.

Play progressed as you might expect, as I slowly advanced up the right board edge without committing to one direction or the other (1-Straight and B-Roll is pretty great for wall-crawling). I didn't really agree with his line of advance, as he chose to put Vader and GQ into the obstacle belt, making them very predictable. Soontir did the standard, "Will he or won't he?" tight turns and rolls giving him the option to engage at will.

Initial engagement would occur between the forward-most B-Wing and Soontir, Range 3. I definitely didn't hurt Soontir, and the Blade lost a shield or none. However, to avoid the 2nd B-Wing, Soontir ends up stressed. Next turn I move the Blades to block Soontir's 2-Turn and get a Range 2 shot if the block is successful. Luke and Thane commit to the middle to keep GQ and Vader honest. I miscalculate a 3-Bank on Thane and he goes on a cloud and strains himself. Should have closed Foils, 3-Straight, Boost. Oh well. Blade Sq. block on Soontir is successful, while GQ's 3-Bank is blocked by Luke. Vader clears his maneuver by millimeters and Target Locks Luke (no chance of dodging arc due to being bracketed by obstacles). Luke and Vader trade half-points, while Blade Sq. is able to take Soontir's shield.

This basically leads to the mid-game, where the B-Wings turn into the middle to support the X-Wings. I have no way to block Soontir's 1-Hard and there's no point chasing an ace that can double-reposition in an open corner. Thane's 4-K is barely blocked by Vader, and I regret not 3-Talon Rolling down into the obstacle belt. Luke opts not to stress himself and clear his crit (Wounded Pilot). Soontir 1-Hards to chase my B-Wings, Vader 2-Banks into the obstacle belt, and GQ 1-Banks out to engage the B-Wings. The B-Wings get punched a bit, but are able to spread damage and take a shield off GQ. Next turn, Thane is forced to clear stress and boost up to set himself up to re-engage the following turn. Luke likewise turns into the scrum and sets himself up for a nice shot. The Bs turn around to keep Soontir honest and set myself up for when Vader comes out of the obstacle belt. I forget what my opponent does here, but I plink another shield off GQ to half him and my Bs take some more punishment (pretty sure one is on half and the other is down to 1-2 shields). I do know that I accomplished a number of blocks on GQ in these turns, which really hampered Garrett's ability to focus damage.

End-game, Vader re-engages but is caught in a kill-box and takes another damage. GQ manages to extricate himself from the scrum and set himself up to the right of the furball. Vader dips out, while I focus on keeping arc on GQ and protecting my crippled B-Wings. Garrett continues to get at least double paint on his green dice, much to my frustration, while chipping away at the Bs. However, I was still up on points and it was on Garrett to engage in the final turn if he wants to win. He does so, with the damaged Vader engaging from way out. However, I manage to keep arc on him with Thane, who drops Vader. Then, Luke drops GQ. Now, GQ who had a juicy Range 1 on a crippled B-Wing has to shift targets to Luke to give him a chance of winning. Luke manages to survive and I win the game handily. (Looking back, I'm not sure on the order of this. I think Luke may have shot Vader and Thane shot GQ, but I'm not certain. If Thane shot Vader, I feel like I would have flipped a card looking for the Direct Hit!).

I was pretty happy with my flying here. I was up on points the match, but that's false security when you're going up against aces as they can quickly exploit just one mistake. Garrett's green dice were exceptional throughout the match, which made it very hard to stick damage. I had one chance to half-point Soontir, and once when that opportunity passed I chose to ignore him as chasing him would have likely resulted in no shots and no pressure on GQ. I would have won even if I hadn't popped Vader nor GQ, but it did feel good to see his green dice go cold and watch his ships pop. Selfless was hugely helpful here in preventing him from melting a B-Wing too quickly. Also, the Bs were exceptional blockers here. I think my opponent felt like he had to stay engaged, as he was down on points, but this made GQ very predictable and I was able to bully him. All-in-all, a very close and tense game that I was very happy with my flying in.


Game 2: Maarek Steele, 5x Planetary Sentinel - Win

Joel is a very experienced player and he's capable of playing multiple archetypes, but lately he's been keen on 5+ ships, especially Khiraxz.

Deployment... Obstacles ended up in an hour-glass: )(. He split his Strikers up, with Maarek sticking the upper-left group. I deployed in my usual non-committal way in the lower-right, as I was curious as to how he'd manage his swarm. One caveat: B-Wings almost always want to engage near obstacles where they can better leverage their 1-Talon Rolls and knife-fighting ability. Thus, I burned 3-Straight up to the obstacles to ensure that we engaged there.

Joel made a mistake with his Ailerons and managed to land on a rock with one of his Strikers on the far left. No damage on the first go, but he'd have to go through the rock on the following turn and would end up with a Loose Stabilizer. This was a huge advantage to me, as it really restricted where he would go with that Striker and allowed me to first engage the upper-right group of Strikers before turning on the Loose Stabilizer Striker and his wing-man. Initial engagement was wildly in my favor, as I was able to burn down a Striker for the loss of two shields on a B-Wing. Then, I turned down into the other Striker group. My opponent chose to engage with his Loose Stabilizer group, which cost him another hull point. When it came time to engage, that Striker was burnt down to the ground and I believe I halved or destroyed another. He continued to focus on the B-Wings, bringing one down to 3 Hull and the other to 2 Shields. This was pretty much game, but we played on. I continued to beat up his squad while taking some big hits on my B-Wings, but this game was over. One comical note was Maarek getting a Loose Stabilizer while only having 1 Hull remaining and facing the board edge. He fixed it, but was in arc of Thane, who turned it back over which doomed Maarek.

Overall, Friday was fun. Two very different lists, and two very good opponents. I left feeling very confident in this list.

SATURDAY:

Game 1: Ahsoka w/ CLT, Plo w/ CLT, Obi w/ CLT, Ric Olie - Win

Rob is another experienced player, but work and life have prevented him from playing as much recently.

This game can be pretty easily wrapped up, as he chose to joust me. I set up a nice block on Turn 2 (B-Wings having a 3-Blue is really nice and can catch people off guard) and traded half of a B-Wing for Obi and Plo. We played it out, but this was decided on Turn 2. I cleaned house and lost a B-Wing.


Game 2: 7x Scyks w/ Autoblasters - Loss

Tim is a very experienced and aggressive player. He almost always takes lists that win or lose games quickly. Very fun opponent.

Obstacles were set up in a double belt on my side of the board. He split his swarm to take advantage of the Autoblasters unavoidable crits on the flanks. I opted to chase down the four Scyks that had to go through the obstacles while the other three flanked. I was pretty happy with my ability to control the range, focus fire, and force him to come through the rocks, but the dice were not on my side. I halved four of the Scyks, but was unable to actually destroy one which quickly snowballed as he had more arcs and more blocks. Rolling four Hits on 12 dice feels bad, but it happens. Went for the joust and luck wasn't on my side.

One mistake on my part: I chose to boost Thane and Wedge to more closely follow the B-Wings. This was too aggressive as it telegraphed my intentions to Tim and no longer kept his flankers honest -- they were free to turn in and go full speed into my formation. It also made it easier to bump my formation.

SUNDAY:

Sunday I flew back to Colorado, met up with my boy Terry, thought up some lists for Republic in Hyperspace and threw 'em down on the table.

Game 1: Anakin (Naboo) w/ P-Torps and Passive Sensors, Plo w/ CLT, Obi w/ CLT, Luminara - Win

Terry is an awesome player and one of my best buddies in CO. He's a monster with a swarm and a very aggressive player. He's been wanting to switch it up a little and get out of swarms for a bit.

Obstacles were rock in the center and wheel of obstacles around it. I deployed in the lower-left with my usual set-up, while Ahsoka, Lumi, and Obi took the top-middle, and Ani took the right flank.

I moved up the left board edge with Bs, while keeping Thane and Luke back to keep Anakin honest. Ani burned down the right board edge, while the Jedi pushed down mid. He boosted the Jedi here, which essentially committed them to engaging the Bs. First shots were traded between Ahsoka and the forward-most B, resulting in no damage.

Seeing that I could focus on the Jedi while Anakin pushed to engage, I committed my full squad to tackling the Jedi. Anakin boosted in from the right to try and get a shot, while the Jedi came down the middle. He rolled a lot of crits and I spread a lot of damage.Then, I destroyed Obi. Next turn: thanks to a sweet B-Roll from Luke to prevent a 4/5-K behind the Bs, I managed to bump Lumi and Plo, while ensuring I had Selfless coverage for Luke. Ani's P-Torp on Luke resulted in one damage on Luke, and both crits being absorbed by the B-Wings' shields. Then, I ate Plo. I think this is where we called game.

Terry made the mistake of putting Anakin too far out to engage with the rest of his squad, and making the Jedi way too predictable on the initial engagement. I was pretty happy with my flying on this one, especially Luke's B-Roll.


Game 2: Obi w/ CLT, Ahsoka w/ CLT, Ric w/ R2, Ani (Naboo) w/ Adv. Torps and Passive Sensors

This was our next iteration of the list, trading Lumi's defense for Ric's gun and staying power (still a steal, even with a bump to cost) while Plo was sacked to bring in Ahsoka's Coordinate++.

Set-up was mostly the same, with Ani as his flanker and the rest deployed in the middle. Obstacles were double-belt on my side. I deployed in the lower-left again.

Ani again burned down the right flank, while Ric set himself up for a 5-Straight into the initial engagement. I was pretty happy with this, as this would again allow me to focus all of my ships on one target while he would be forced to engage piece-meal. Additionally, Ric wouldn't have the best spots to go after his 5-Straight. Anyways, this all came to fruition and I traded two shields on a B-Wing for one of Ric's shields. Next turn, I banked and Focus/B-Roll my B-Wings down to cover Ric's escape route, while Thane and Wedge casually 1-Straight toward the board center. Ric regens a shield and then, instead of 3-Turning toward the bottom, 4-Straights over a rock into my B-Wings. Certainly unexpected, but even better for me.

I eat Ric and take some incidental damage in return. I don't have the greatest positioning available to me the following turn, but enough to keep arc coverage and set up chases or turn-arounds next turn. Ahsoka gets a mean flank shot on my Bs, while Ani is setup to chase Thane and Luke with his torpedo. Obi comes down between the obstacles and into the X-Wings. I halve Obi here, while taking quite a bit of damage, but spread around (I think Thane has lost one shield, one B-Wing is shieldless, and the other is down to two shields).

The rest is kind of a blur for me, you'll have to forgive my memory. I know my X-Wings turned around to keep arcs on and I dropped Obi while keeping my damaged B-Wing alive (Selfless came in clutch, keeping him alive on 1 Hull). Somewhere in here, Thane ate Anakin's Adv. Torpedo and blew up real good, but I had half points on Ani and Ahsoka at this point and a full health Luke plus two Bs. Called it there.

Again, I was pretty happy with my flying. I think Terry made himself too predictable. However, I do like this second list much more than the first and we spent some time discussing it. I think that Ric should be the flanker here, as he's more independent than Ani. More so, Ahsoka and Anakin seem like a very potent combo and able to deliver some very unexpected blocks or fully modified Adv. Torpedoes into someone. As someone who enjoys catching their opponent off guard and engaging in unexpected ways, I think this Republic list can excel at creating ambushes. Anyways, we remain optimistic on the merits of this list and will practice with it again.

As for Selfless Bs and Thane/Luke... I'm very happy with this list so far. I'm getting to the point where I know how I want to setup obstacles against most other archetypes, I know my win-conditions, and I know how to maximize Selfless coverage and combine my ships' strengths to cover their weaknesses. There are still some lingering questions of squad composition, as the B-Wings low agility is a huge liability against swarms, which I anticipate to see a lot of. Likewise, Thane's ability is highly conditional, but an Initiative 5 gun is nothing to sneeze at. I do wonder if it's worth dropping Thane to a Red Squadron X-Wing so that I can take R2 on Luke, but that changes how this squad behaves quite drastically.

Anyways, more things to think about. Thanks for reading!