First, thanks to everybody who helped me plan out a squad, but it felt wrong to borrow a TIE fighter from somebody (I only own 4) and not play my second TIE advanced. [EDIT: Also, the TO said Wave 2 ships are not allowed. Bummer.] So I fielded:

4 x Academy Pilots
2 x Tempest Squadron Pilots (Cluster Missiles)

We played 60 minute matches, and the TO decided to try kill points instead of match wins. Interesting.

GAME 1

Mirror match. We each had 6 fighters, but he had Vader, which made me a bit nervous. (I'm the Imperial with the white number tokens)

We moved straight up like olden-day troops marching into war. Not the most sound tactic, but it got the job done…sort of. TIE fighters vs. TIE fighters is like trying to kill eachother with pillows.

We inevitably had to Koiogran turn, and after that things got a bit crazy. We each lost a ship.

In the final round he managed to blow up two of my TIEs, and that won him the game: 49 points that he destroyed versus the 24 points I killed.

GAME 2

Bring on the Y-wings! The TO didn't have time to put a squad together, so he had a buddy do it, and this is what they came up with. 4 Gray Squadron Y-wings each with an Ion Cannon Turret. Cruel joke.

On round 2 we finally closed into firing range. One of 'em tagged my Advanced with the Ion cannon, which would send him drifting towards the edge. Danger! The others used their Primary weapons. My TIE advanced's (how do you say that in plural?) used their Cluster Missiles well. One Y-wing lost all shields, another even took a damage to hull.

The fighters finished off one of the Y-wings.

Almost everybody did a Koiogran turn. Another Y-wing bites the dust. My TIE advanced managed to survive the combat phase without getting tagged again, so he high-tailed it out of there. The TIE fighters moved first, so it got pretty crazy trying to avoid colliding. I don't like facing Ion Cannon Turrets without my evade token.

Another round passes and we're coming around for another pass.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take the end game pictures. We destroyed the Y-wing on the right, and the one on the left turned hard to starboard. The following round he had no choice but to fly off the map. I didn't lose a single ship, which probably isn't much to boast about considering my opponent's squad, but it made me feel good after the previous game.

GAME 3

Luke (R2-D2, Swarm Tactics) teamed up with 3 Rookies (R2 Astromech). Yeah, I was terrified. I decided going head-to-head was out of the question. I put my TIEs in pairs along the edge, but decided to maneuver for better positions. The TIEs on the left flirted with the edge, drawing the eyes of all the nearby players, but my ships managed to come back into the playing battle field. I was accused mercilessly of showing off.

I really had no choice but to fly through the asteroid field. Then I wasted some Cluster Missiles on Luke. I hate flying against him. His Swarm Tactics came in handy against my Tempest Squadron pilots because I had initiative. Still, we managed to survive the onslaught.

I knew I wanted to get Luke out early before I lost ships. Already #1 had a Direct Hit on him, and in this round TIE advanced #10 (on the left) got a Weapon Malfunction. Major bummer. But the X-wings flew through some asteroids which helped spread some damage to his other ships. I love free flying as opposed to formations!

After we cleaned up asteroids I remembered to take another picture. Pretend thy're still there. Skywalker did a Koiogran, but crashed into his squad mate! Then my TIEs shot at Luke from all angles and got really lucky with the dice rolls. He had 2 hull left and I dealt a critical hit. This was it! If it was a Direct Hit I would finally destroy a ship! …Damaged Engine or whatever. NOOO!!

So the 60 minutes were up and neither of us destroyed a single ship! I think that's got to say something in my favor. R2-D2 managed to recover 2 shields, but we almost had him, and his other X-wings were losing shields, too. If we had another half hour we might have had a better idea of how things would go.

That last game really ruined me for the tournament because we did kill points. I walked away with 0 points that game. I ended up 5th place out of 8 with 124 kill points. I think 1st had 234 or something. In two weeks when we meet again I am definitely bringing a squad that can bring the hurt faster…which probably means I'm back to Rebels. We'll see.

Thoughts on my squad. It's not bad, but it's not my favorite. I'm glad I took Cluster Missiles because I got to see them actually work. If I try this squad again I'm doing Concussion Missiles. I think "Howlrunner" and some Swarm Tactics makes a bit tighter of a squad than this, but this is pretty much the only 6-ship Imperial squad I can make without my TIE interceptor. Overall, I think planning maneuvers is my absolute favorite part of this game. Way better than squad building.

Thanks for reading!

there's this little voice at the back of my head nagging at the fact that you could have spent the last 2 points to upgrade a Tempest TIEadv to a Storm squad TIEadv. Also, you are abusing the koiograns a little bit too much, so you might wanna work on that in your future games. it could be very easy to catch you when the entire squad does the koiogran, especially if you are up against Ywings

Oh believe me, I try not to Koiogran when Y-wings are around, but I noticed that my opponent was keen on using their primary weapons instead of the ions, so I felt safe. And it worked out.

But thanks for the tips. Yeah, as Storm Sq. Pilot might have done me some good…

Why would you be concerned flipping a U turn with Y-wings? If he nails you with a ion cannon you at least lose your stress… you are still outta luck moving but you would have been in the same position had you done any other maneauver near a Y-wing w/ ion cannons… they fire 360 degrees at 1-2 … I dont see the difference in Uturning or doing any other maneauver… please explain…

GoldCrow18

GoldCrow18 said:

You most certainly do NOT lose your stress token if hit by Ion Cannon after performing a K-turn (or any other red maneuver). The Ion Token card says "Activation Phase: The owner moves the ship as if it were assigned a white [straight 1] maneuver". So, no green maneuver, even if it's a green one on your ship dial. Stress token stays, fixed known movement, no action. Not a pretty combination.

I also don't see why the Y-wings set themselves up to have to do so many K-turns.

Try not to stress them. They need their actions for sure, and with the 360 degree arc, they shouldn't be relying on K-turns to keep firing at someone.

magadizer said:

Totally agree with you. I winced for my opponent when he made that choice. I would have plowed into the TIEs so they couldn't shoot me back. It's a shame that the only time he performed a turn was when he went right up to the edge of the mat. Poor guy. If he had turned the other way he could have avoided all of our firing arcs and still had a shot.

ziggy2000 said:

Ooohhh look at that.. you're most certainly correct… thank you for explaining this to me

GoldCrow18 said:

NP, I played that one wrong a few times myself, before I had it pointed out to me. Sorry if I sounded harsh.