For Game 2 on Saturday, I hosted a member of Tucson Fleet who came down for a couple games against myself and @Commodore Gardner . I was testing out the second to last of the Commanders that I haven't tried (Rieekan, sadly enough, is the only one I have never used). While using an SSD in a Vassal game with Piett (I will be writing the BATREP for that game after this), I wanted to use something other than an SSD for Emperor Palpatine and Arquitens fit the bill. Here are the lists:

Faction: Rebel
Commander: Mon Mothma

Starhawk Battleship Mark I (140)
• Mon Mothma (30)
• Kyrsta Agate (5)
• Strategic Adviser (4)
• Weapons Battery Techs (5)
• Quad Laser Turrets (5)
• Leading Shots (4)
• Enhanced Armament (10)
• Amity (6)
= 209 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• Walex Blissex (5)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Reinforced Blast Doors (5)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• XI7 Turbolasers (6)
• Admonition (8)
= 96 Points

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63)
• Lando Calrissian (4)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• Reinforced Blast Doors (5)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)
• XI7 Turbolasers (6)
• Foresight (8)
= 95 Points

Squadrons:
= 0 Points

Total Points: 400

My opponent had never used the Starhawk before and wanted to get use to it before trying any speed shenanigans (hence not having a Magnite Crystal Tractor Beam Array equipped). He correctly assessed that fully equipped MC30s would be a great compliment to Mon Mothma and the Amity title on his Starhawk.

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Name: Palpatine's Rogues
Faction: Imperial
Commander: Emperor Palpatine

Assault: Surprise Attack
Defense: Fighter Ambush
Navigation: Superior Positions

Arquitens Light Cruiser (54)
• Skilled First Officer (1)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 62 Points

Arquitens Light Cruiser (54)
• Emperor Palpatine (35)
• Captain Needa (2)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Hand of Justice (4)
= 102 Points

Arquitens Light Cruiser (54)
• Skilled First Officer (1)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 62 Points

Gozanti Cruisers (23)
• Comms Net (2)
= 25 Points

Squadrons:
• Hondo Ohnaka (24)
• Bossk (23)
• Gar Saxon (23)
• VT-49 Decimator (22)
• IG-88 (21)
• IG-88B (21)
= 134 Points

Total Points: 385

I chose Arquitens to get my opponent to spend (and discard with Palpatine) Evades at long range and Redirects at medium range, while getting the Rogues to focus on getting Aces to ditch their Scatter tokens. My list's bid also left an opponent in a tough spot, as Fighter Ambush and Superior Positions are great for a Rogue squadron ball while Surprise Attack... well... just really sucks.

I had initiative and chose to be second player. My opponent picked Superior Positions for the objective.

Deployment: Nothing special about the obstacle deployment, as the station was not going to be in the engagement area and the others were evenly spaced out. My opponent had to deploy all his ships first and he placed his two MC30s in the center of the board and his Starhawk in the center of the left mat's deployment zone. I deployed my Arquitens in the usual conga line facing to the left, with the Comms Net Gozanti to the left-center, in a position to be able to pass tokens to any ship when needed. Unfortunately for my opponent, this deployment meant that his Starhawk was going to be out of the fight for most if not all of the game, being relegated to just being used as two activations (Strategic Advisor).

Round 1: I continued to conga line forward at Speed 3 while he moved in at Speed 3 with his MC30s, remaining out of long range. My Rogues were able to jump on Foresight early, but IG-88B was unable to damage its rear hull zone for an early Victory token (the Decimator was the only squadron that couldn't get in range). Gar Saxon also was able to put a Navigate Raid token on Foresight .

Note: Because I have never used a Gauntlet Fighter, I must have misread how Assault worked when I originally opened up the Chimaera expansion. For some reason, I thought it worked like Dodonna's Pride , in that you used all your hits / dice to give the Raid token, instead of just spending one damage. So I gave up two rounds of damage / Victory tokens until our other friend brought that error to our attention.

Round 2: I forgot to use my Commander at the start of the Ship Phase (due to forgetting the timing window). The MC30s moved forward ( Admonition jumped up to Speed 4) while my conga line continued to chug along, with the last in line getting a Victory token off Foresight for the single damage I was able to put on his rear hull zone at long range. The Rogues then swarmed Foresight , racking up five more Victory tokens and giving it a Navigate Raid token.

Round 3: He started the Ship Phase by discarding Reinforced Blast Doors on Foresight to remove its damage cards. Finally remembering my commander, I chose to discard the Evade token at the start of the Ship Phase. I was able to finish off Foresight with my Arquitens and Rogues before moving over to Admonition . I gained five more Victory tokens this round while placing a Navigate Raid token on Admonition . The latter ended its movement just outside of close range of my Arquitens, which could have been brutal.

Round 4: Palpatine chose to discard his Redirect token at the start of the Ship Phase. After Admonition activated (and Walex got a discarded Evade back), it ended its movement being in double arc of two of my Arquitens, which were able to take it down while earning two more Victory tokens. Given that the Starhawk was not going to make it to the fight, we called the game. The result was 386-0 (10-1, 386 MoV)

Thoughts: First off, I honestly felt bad about my opponent bringing his Starhawk and not being able to use it. Poor deployment or not, that was more than half of his fleet that was not getting to fight, which was unfortunate. Sometimes the best way to engage a Starhawk is to just not, and that's the course of action that I chose for this game, especially given that I planned for Superior Positions to make up any points / MoV difference. So my sincere apologies if that choice bordered on being a Negative Player Experience for my opponent. Aside from deployment, given that he had Mon Mothma, I don't think that the MC30s got into the fight fast enough. If he was able to get them in the side of my Arquitens, he would have likely been able to delete one a turn, maybe even my commander early, which would have really hurt. Palpatine was interesting, but I just kept forgetting the timing window. Just like forgetting Intensify Firepower!, Han, or Hondo, the impact felt greater more because it was my commander. Anyways, he did his job, but it was difficult to remember the timing window. I much prefer the officer version of him.

Hope you enjoyed the BATREP!

Superior Positions is brutal against no-squad. Well done!

42 minutes ago, Bertie Wooster said:

Superior Positions is brutal against no-squad. Well done!

Thanks. It was even more brutal given that they were all Rogues so my Arquitens could just kite. While it wouldn't have been a fun first three rounds, I feel like Surprise Attack may have been the least bad of the three.

Players who regularly or primarily play as rebels don't always appreciate just how slow and dawdly the Starhawk is the first time they take it out. They're used to zippy zooming ships that can go where they want. We Imperial players have suffered with VSDs and know well the pain!