Vagabond Open: Fly Every Faction

By Des Darklighter, in X-Wing Battle Reports

In my latest endeavor into Vassal-Wing, I joined the third Vagabond Open, a seven week online tournament that forces players to fly a different faction each round. It should be a lot of fun.

Round 1: IT’S THE RESISTANCE!

I started with one of my favorite factions to fly: the Resistance. I love the way Cova flies, where you either have to backpedal or zoom ahead. Rey with Finn/Rose is a brawler, and Zizi is too good to not slot in. The list:

Rey (70)

Freelance Slicer (3)

Rose Tico (9)

Finn (10)

Rey's Millennium Falcon (2)

Ship total: 94 Half Points: 47 Threshold: 6

Zizi Tlo (40)

Crack Shot (1)

Heroic (1)

Advanced Optics (4)

Ship total: 46 Half Points: 23 Threshold: 2

Cova Nell (38)

Heroic (1)

Jamming Beam (0)

Leia Organa (Resistance) (17)

R4 Astromech (2)

Ship total: 58 Half Points: 29 Threshold: 4

Total: 198

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0: https://raithos.github.io/?f=Resistance&d=v8ZsZ200Z244XWW30W173W174WWW193Y387X116W172WW186Y351X172WW12WW244WW5W&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=gascloud3,gascloud4,gascloud5

My opponent brought double regen 7B Jedi with Anakin and Ahsoka. I know that preposition Ani will be nearly impossible to pin down, so I want to go for Ahsoka first. These Jedi need to take 6 (!) damage to get to half so I have to pursue early to make sure I push enough damage through. I need to keep arcs wide to catch his Jedi and plink through his shields at range 3.

Anakin Skywalker (62)

Precognitive Reflexes (13)

R2 Astromech (9)

Delta-7B (20)

Shield Upgrade (8)

Ship total: 112 Half Points: 56 Threshold: 4

Ahsoka Tano (44)

Heightened Perception (3)

R2 Astromech (9)

Delta-7B (17)

Shield Upgrade (8)

Ship total: 81 Half Points: 41 Threshold: 4

Total: 193

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0: https://raithos.github.io/?f=Galactic Republic&d=v8ZsZ200Z273X250W2W201W165Y276X72W2W201W165&sn=Unnamed Squadron&obs=

Setup:

I put my opponent’s asteroids in the northeast corner to have a wide open board for Rey and set up my ships in the southeast corner. He places 1 Jedi on each side.

Round 1:

Rey goes fast, dissuading Anakin from turning in. Cova goes 3 straight and Zizi 3 banks into a boost. His ships get some distance.

Round 2:

Leia makes Rey’s 3 bank blue to pick up a target lock. This is mostly defensive, giving Rey the opportunity to jam Anakin before he shoots her. Everybody sets up lanes to turn in smoothly.

Round 3:

Nobody wants to go in yet. Ahsoka and Anakin go around the rocks, and Leia lets Zizi do a white sloop.

Round 4:

Rey goes too fast, and Anakin turns in, dodges, and both of his ships shoot at Zizi. He dodges both shots, and does 1 to Ahsoka in return. Good start, but Rey is out of position and pointing at the one place where I don’t want her to go.

Round 5:

Rey sloops, Cova hard 1s, and Zizi goes 5 straight->rotate to avoid an Ahsoka block. I messed up here, and both of his ships go hard for an isolated Cova, taking 2 shields. Importantly here, Anakin is out of force.

Round 6:

Rey turns in, Cova clips the gas cloud with a hard 1, and Zizi moves to come back in. Anakin sloops and Ahsoka turns in. Rey loses 2 shields, but her attack takes all 4 shields from Anakin in 1 shot. Even with bad rolls, her offense is very consistent.

Round 7:

Anakin is out of force and shields, so I need to keep up the pressure to actually get half points and stop him from escaping and reengaging at ease. Cova backpedals, Rey parks on the gas cloud, and Zizi turns in. His ships dodge and take no damage.

Round 8:

With only a few rounds left on the clock, I need to get points to stop my opponent from just getting half on Cova or Rey as time expires. I go for Anakin. Cova coordinates a boost to Rey, who does a 2 bank to go really fast, and Zizi hard 1s. Ahsoka disengages instead of slooping, which starts several turns of running. He made a huge mistake with Anakin here, using precognitive reflexes to preposition instead of boosting/barrel rolling after his maneuver which would dodge all arcs. In the image, you can see his actual position, forceless and in 2 arcs, and his position after executing the hard 2, boosting left, and barrel rolling right. He takes 2 damage here, guaranteeing half points.

Round 9:

Zizi sloops to keep a wide arc, and Anakin keeps running. Zizi’s shot does 1 more damage to Anakin.

Round 10:

Anakin keeps running, Rey moves around the rocks, and Ahsoka and Zizi trade shots. Zizi (still) takes nothing and strips 2 shields from Ahsoka.

Round 11:

With two rounds left, I really want to get half of Ahsoka to ensure the victory. Cova turns and coordinates to Zizi, who takes a focus, evade, boost, and rotate to dodge Ahsoka’s attack and takes her last two shields. She instead shoots at Rey and takes two damage.

Round 12:

Huh. Interesting that the hour + 2 rounds was exactly 12 rounds. Ahsoka can R2 to get back above half and preserve MOV, so I go for her. Cova stops and jams her focus, and Rey bumps into Zizi to get a shot from her back arc on Ahsoka. Three hits + strain guarantees the last shield for half points.

Takeaways:

I made some mistakes on the opening rounds, keeping Rey out of the fight and letting him get to Cova. My opponent’s repositioning/action choices meant that he didn’t have enough modifiers for his Jedi to push damage through early, and I came out with the early lead instead of him. I don’t think that I would have been able to catch his ships if he could fully run away with a lead, and he never really went aggressive after the initial shots. Only 2 agility on the Jedi means that Zizi can reliably plink damage and a single Rey shot can be devastating. She only shot 3 times all game, but each shot had a large impact and she simply scared Anakin away from ever turning in.

I’m looking forward to the next round, which will bring a new faction and a new list.

Edit: Not sure why photos aren't working

Edited by Des Darklighter