I needed a fix, and what with my Luddite tendencies and the lockdown, I decided to make use of the voices in my head to play a game against myself. Just a couple of lists thrown together without regard for anything in particular, and played as if the opponent in either case was a normal, rational being (instead of the kind of madness I ten to actually fly).
2x Blue Squadron Rookies (T-70) with S-Foils, 3x Blue Squadron Recruits with Heroic and AdvOpt (198) vs 3x Black Sun Soldiers (Z95) with Crack Shot, 1x Black Sun Ace (Khiraxz) with Crack Shot, and Guri with Predator/AdvSen/Shield Upgrade (200)
Turn Zero: The Resistance Training Squad kept the initiative, and obstacles went in a loose cluster. The three RZ-2's went in the middle, with the T-70's flanking. I almost forgot - the blue T-70 on the left has a Tractor Beam, but it never came into play. The Black Sun Hit Squad dropped in the corner opposite the Tractor T-70, for no more reason than that corner required the Resistance to come through more obstacles. Z95's in front, with Guri in the far back.
Turn One: The right-hand T-70 moved 2-Straight; the left hand T-70 moved 4-Straight, bank boost. The right-hand RZ-2 moved 3-Straight, focus > bank boost; the other two moved 4-straight, focus > bank boost. The Z's and the K all moved 4-Straight, focus. Guri AdvSen a bank boost into a 4-Straight, and clipped the 'roid by less than a millimeter - and lost her shield upgrade for her trouble. Only one Z had a shot for no damage, and the return fire from two of the RZ's likewise did nothing.
Turn Two: The right-hand RZ moved 4-Straight focus, trying for the block; the center RZ moved 3-Straight focus > bank boost; the left RZ moved 3-Bank focus; the right-hand T-70 moved 2-Straight focus while the left moved 3-Straight focus. Only the right-hand Z completed its maneuver, a 3-Bank focus; the attempted 2-Banks from the other two resulted in bumps, as did the K's 2-Straight. Guri went 3-Straight calculate and received her focus at the start of the Engagement Phase. Her Range One shot with calculate stripped the three shields off the blue T-70, while his return shot was a natural 4 hits, which required Guri's focus to mitigate two of the damage. In the meantime, the Khiraxz stripped all three shields from the orange T-70, but the Z95's ALL blanked on their attacks. Return fire from the T-70 and the three RZ's overkilled the K and knocked a shield off one of the Z's. That's 6 damage from 15 dice for Scum, versus 8 damage from 15 dice from the Resistance; and the Resistance is up 83-0 in the first round of combat. Wow.
Turn Three: The left-hand RZ moved 4-K; the right-hand RZ moved 2-Bank focus > rotate; the center RZ moved 2-Straight focus looking for the block. The orange (right-hand) T-70 moved 1-Bank focus to threaten Guri, while the blue move 3-Hard focus. All three of the Z's attempted a 3-K, of which two landed. Guri moved 1-Hard barrel roll to stay tight in the fight. Her Range 1 focused Predator shot landed two hits on the blue T-70, while all three Z's fired on the orange - and with liberal use of Crack Shot killed it before it could fire. Resistance return fire killed one Z95 and halved another. Once again, that's 6 damage from 13 dice from Scum, vs 6 damage from 12 dice from the Resistance; and after two rounds of combat the Resistance is up 121-65. Dice, man.
Turn Four: Blue T-70 just managed to squeak in the 4-K; the uppermost RZ moved 2-Hard focus > boost; the right-hand RZ moved 2-Straight focus > boost, and the center RZ moved 2-Hard focus. The uppermost Z95 went 2-Straight focus, while the lower one bumped into a 2-Bank. Guri moved 1-Straight roll > caluclate. Her Range One shot with Predator and Focus/Calculate did a single shield to the RZ. The Range One focused shot from the upper Soldier did a single damage to the T-70, and the bumped soldier blanked. Return fire from the Resistance did nothing. At all. But only because Guri had both focus and calculate to spend on defense.
Turn Five: The right-hand RZ moved 3-Bank focus > boost to set up for the next turn; the center RZ likewise moved 3-Bank focus > rotate; the uppermost RZ moved 2-Bank focus. The T-70 moved 1-Straight to try to keep things gummed up in the middle. The white Z95 4-K's out an abundance of caution - a 3 would have been fine and would have avoided the gas cloud, but he got away without any strain. The green Z95 pulled off a magnificent 2-Hard that slotted in right next to the T-70 with a millimeter to spare; he focused. Guri moved 1-Straight to clear her stress from the previous turn, then banked a barrel roll into the far side of her wingmate with again less than a millimeter to spare. Beautiful. However, 8 attack dice split between the T-70 and the center RZ managed to do a total of 2 damage. The Resistance's return fire, consisting of a total of 5 attack attack dice split between two Z95's rolled four hits, and all blank defense dice saw the end of the wounded green Soldier. Resistance up 145-65.
Turn Six: The bottom RZ moved 2-Hard focus; the center RZ moved 3-Bank focus > rotate; the left RZ moved 2-Bank. The T-70 moved 4-K. The remaining Soldier moved 2-Bank to clear his stress, but in doing so clipped the gas cloud *again*. No strain, but no action. Unfortunately, he was blocking Guri's preferred AdvSen roll position, so she had to roll away to complete her 1-Straight without rocking herself. The unmodified Range One shot from the last Black Sun soldier managed to put a crit onto the T-70 - something inconsequential. The RZ's killed the Soldier before the T-70 had a chance at revenge. Resistance up 158-65. Ouch.
Turn Seven: I forgot to take a picture. The left RZ moved 2-Hard to clear stress and boosted. The center RZ did the same. The bottom RZ moved 3-Straight focus > boost to threaten Guri if she turned in. The T-70 moved 2-Straight to clear his stress and locked Guri in what he perceived as relative safety. Guri moved 1-Hard boost > calculate. Her Range One Predator/focus shot took a single shield off the RZ in front of her, while his return shot nattied into a another damage onto her. No looking good.
Turn 8: The upper RZ moved 2-Straight focus > rotate; the lower RZ moved 1-Hard focus > rotate; the left RZ moved 2-Hard focus - setting up a nice little killbox in the middle of the obstacles. The T-70 moved two hard and cleared his crit, whatever it was. Guri moved 3-Straight boost > calculate, and pulled her focus at the start of engagement. Her Range One double-modded shot was just enough to kill the RZ in front of her, and the two shots coming at her whiffed. Resistance still up 158-102.
Turn Nine: A bit of a reset round. The T-70 moved 2-Hard boost-straight; the left RZ moved 2-Hard boost-right, not expecting a shot; and the right RZ moved 2-Hard boost > rotate. Guri moved 2-Bank boost. No shots, although that upper RZ could have had a potshot if he'd just taken the stress to rotate his arc.
Turn Ten: The upper RZ slooped while the T-70 moved 1-Straight to give the Resistance time to regroup and bring all guns to bear on Guri. The right RZ moved 2-Hard boost to clear stress and try to get tucked in. Guri moved 1-Hard banked barrel to come on on the other side of the debris cloud and get some cover from the Resistance ships trying to corral her. Once again, no shots.
Turn 11: The T-70 moved 3-Bank focus, trying to set up for a pursuit of the 'Viper in later rounds. The lower RZ moved 3-Straight to threaten the middle of the board, and the upper RZ moved 2-Hard focus to clear stress and further set up that killbox in the middle of the obstacles. Guri demonstrated her superior flexibility and AdvSen a barrel roll before moving 4-Straight - and bumping by less than a millimeter. Her Predator/focus shot plinked a second shield off the RZ, and she took no return fire. Score is now 158-119 for the Resistance, with two ship at under two hull. Could Guri pull this off???
Turn Twelve: The T-70 moved 4-K, as he already had a lock; the lower RZ moved 2-Hard focus, while the upper RZ moved 2-Hard focus > rotate. Guri moved 3-Straight bank-roll > calculate. Her barely Range 2 attack against the shieldless RZ calculated into three hits - and the RZ-2 nattied out. The T-70 did not have range, but the lower RZ had a nice little Range 3 potshot into two hits after focus. And Guri, on two hull, rolled three blanks and an eyeball. Game over with 12 minutes left on the clock.
Much as I HATE to say it, the RZ-2 is probably a little cheap for as much as it can accomplish. T-70's might be, too, for as beefy as they are. Either that, or Scum is *still* a tad overcosted for as dice-dependent as they are. Scum seemingly has three pilots that are worth anything competitively: Fett, Fenn, and Guri. And everything else is slightly overcosted filler. I hesitate to say that anything in the Resistance is actually too cheap - except perhaps in comparison to Scum; I think the Resistance is okay next to most everybody else. Maybe.
The RZ-2 A-Wing remains a joy to hurl around the mat, and the T-70 is just plain solid. This is a list I could see practicing further for the eventual resumption of the Store Championship season. On the other hand, the Headhunter still just kind of muddles along, dull and uninspiring; and the Khiraxz continues to feel like a waste of time. And the Starviper - so much fun, but so hard to abuse without a solid team to back it up.
Edited by Kleeg005I'm a bad typist.