I brought the following list to regionals at Pandemonium.

Garven Dreis w/ Shield Upgrade

'Dutch' Vander w/ Ion Turret

Rookie Pilot

Rookie Pilot

All opponents lists are to the best of my memory, so sorry if I messed something up.

Game 1 - vs. Vader & Swarm

Played against Matt who was running and Imperial Swarm with:

Darth Vader w/ Missles Squad Leader and Stealth, Howlrunner w/ Swarm, Backstabber, Academy x2

He set up with Academies and Vader in center table and Howlrunner off to my right, out of range one of his ships. His loose formation allowed me to focus on killing his Academies very quickly. I set up in a 2x2 sqaure and slowly marched toward the center left of the table towards the bulk of his formation. I made some boneheaded piloting mistakes, but I managed to get off two full rounds of everyone shooting. That left him with Howl, Vader and Backstabber. Backstabber went next, then it was a matter of hunting down the two named pilots. I was lucky that Vader never got to shoot his missles and that Howlrunner didn't provide too many rerolls. Garven and Dutch handing off actions worked incredibly well, especially during the k-turns when they could give out tokens and target locks to the stressed rookies. I think I ended up losing a rookie pilot.

1 - 0

Game 2 - vs. Lando shoots at some point

Played versus Michael (awesome opponent and super knowledgeable btw) who was running:

Lando w/ Swarm Tactics, Garven and Dutch w/ Ion.

This game was an interesting psuedo-mirror that I didn't have a lot of confidence going into. Michael won initiative and we placed asteroids leaving the right flank fairly open. He set up over there, and so did I. We flew slowly towards one another and I broke off a rookie out of my 2 x 2 to flank around an asteroid in the middle of the table. My first round of shooting was incredible, taking his Garven out immediately. My Garven's shield upgrade paid off saving me from having to take a critical on Turn 3. My Dutch flew off into the middle of nowhere, while the battle raged on between my 3 xwings and the rest of his force. After another few rounds of shooting, I took down Dutch and was left with 3 ships (lost a rookie) chasing down Lando. Dutch came back after his mid-fight nap and struck the killing blow with an Ion shot.

2 - 0

Game 3 - vs. Krassis and friends

This match was against Joe running:

Krasiss w/ HLC, Howlrunner, Night Beast, Academy x2

I remember setting up vs. this list and knowing I had to change my tactics. Against other tie swarms I tried to stay at range band 2 or 3 relying on my rerolls of attacks vs no rerolls of defense to take out some ties. This one had a heavy laser cannon with a million rerolls tempting me toward range one. Joe moved toward my 2 x 2 in two groups - Howlrunner stayed behind Krassis to allow double reroll and the others broke off using some pretty slick barrel rolling. Luckily, one of Joe's Academy pilots overlapped an asteroid in the first round of shooting which allowed me to focus on Night Beast and the other Academy. I was able to take out those two relatively quickly by stacking target lock and focus. Joe surpsied me on the next turn by performing a K-turn with Howlrunner. Unfortunately for him though, the only target for Howl and Krassis was Dutch who had yet to take damage. The game stood with me down one rookie and Joe left with just Krassis. Then I flew Garven through an asteroid which blew him up. Great. After a pretty tight chase, the game ended with my rookie with 1 hull point left and Krassis dying to lots of Ion shots.

3 - 0

Game 4 - Soontir Fel & swarm

Luckily my opponent for the finals, Brian, was able to beat a double falcon build in the 3rd round, which meant I got to play against TIEs. I was pretty worried about Brian's list, but Dutch wouldn't have been that useful against double falcons, making them a very scary list for my squad. Brian played:

Soontir Fel w/ Push the Limit and Stelth, Howlrunner, Academy x4

Placed a pretty dense asteroid field this time to try and make his swarm manuever. Brian had initiative and placed his academies in two groups - one center right and one center. I took this opportunity to set up my 2 x 2 on the far right of the map to make his TIEs fly through asteroid to approach. My 2 x 2 slowly advanced turn one and the all banked left on turn 2. During that first round of shooting I managed to kill one academy and ionize another in a position where he would be useless the next turn. Soontir made a great manuever but came up short attacking Dutch. His remaining academies used Howlrunner effectlively to chip away at my rookies, but my defense dice where in proper form, leaving my with shields on all of my ships. The next round I flew both rookies toward his other group of Academies, giving one of them TL/focus from Dutch. Dutch used his lasers to take out the ionized TIE and I manage to kill the other Academy. At this point, things were looking up. The next round I took out Howlrunner (who had K turned back toward the fight) and then I spent about 15 minutes hunting down Soontir (who was flying great). Soontir took out a Rookie before going down.

4 - 0

Awesome people and a great tournament at Pandemonium. Can't wait to play some more against the people I met today.

-Tim

Grats on the win and nice report. The only thing I noticed is Howlrunners ability does not work with a heavy laser cannon as it is a secondary weapon.

Ah, good catch. I'm sure that was my mistake and not my opponent's.

Yes, many congrats on the win! I should have more of a report on the event later on.

This was my 4th Regional (and chief judge this time), finished in the top 8, but not top 3 this time. Lost to Brian in my 2nd match with a very nearly identical mirror match. That game ended with Soontir having 1 HP left when he one-shotted my as yet undamaged final Alpha Squadron Pilot with Stealth at long range. Sometimes, 5 dodge dice can roll all blanks!

That game was crazy. I had finished up my game early so I was able to look on. It was a bit of a cluster in the middle for a while, but it looked like you were going to pull out the win…until that roll! Brian even spent focus…leaving him with 1 hull and no focus for the return attack.