This is my first battle report. I'm posting about it because it was surprisingly one-sided.
I play one or two casual games a week with friends, 100 point lists, but we usually play until the opposition is wiped out rather than enforcing a time limit.
Since Wave 2 was released there has always been at least one large ship on the field, and usually two (or three, once or twice). and I had been missing a pure star-fighter furball. My opponent said he had an Imperial list he wanted to try and so I put together a Rebel list that concentrated on star fighters Initially I thought I'd go with my tried and trusted Garven and Dutch list, but then I decided I wanted to use each Rebel fighter.
I settled on:
Wedge Antilles with PTL, Engine Upgrade, R2 Astromech (37 points)
Tycho Celchu with PTL and homing missiles (34 points)
Dutch Vander with Ion Cannon and R5 astromech (29 points)
Apparently Joel, my opponent, had been thinking along similar lines, he brought:
Darth Vader with Daredevil and Engine Upgrade (36 points)
Soontir Fell with PTL and Stealth device (33 points)
Turr Phennir with PTL and Stealth device (31 points)
So for the first time in many months, only 6 ships, no swarms and no big ships. I was worried because the imperials had more attack dice, more agility dice, higher average pilot skill, and more actions than I did. However in the end it wasn't even close.
I kept my fighters together in a 3 element squad and advanced up the middle left of the playfield, whith both interceptors making their way towards them, while Vader noodled off around some asteroids to the right.
I turned in towards the left anticipating the Interceptors would try to dash through range 2/3 to get in close where their barrel roll and boost actions make the biggest difference to angle-of-attacks and firing arcs. I was mostly correct. Tycho made good use of boost to keep Turr Phennir within arc, and the ability to both boost, focus, and get a target lock from Dutch meant Wedge was fully cocked and locked. The Interceptors were terrified of a fully armed and actioned Wedge to the point where their gymnastic acrobatics to avoid being inside his firing arc meant they themselves had no-shot on a few key turns. The first shooting phase was a tame affair, Vader was out of reach, range 3, obstructed, vs the A-Wing and he whiffed. Tycho failed to get past the stealth device on Phennir, and Phennir landed a couple of solid hits to strip Tycho's shields. I was slightly concerned.
Next round I wheeled Wedge and Dutch around an Asteroid and K-Turned with Tycho. Dutch gave Tycho a target lock, and he used his pilot ability to Focus even though stressed. Wedge's R2 meant his 2-turn was a green, so he could boost and focus to keep Soontir in arc. The TIEs continued to boost and roll and generally be slippery so-and-sos, but all my ships had a shot in what was to be a decisive round. Soontir took at shot at the A-Wing but without focus to back his attack, only rolled one hit which Tycho evaded. Vader had a pop also, but his 2 attack dice were easily avoided. Wedge then fired at Soontir and stripped his evade token. Tycho unleashed his homing missile at Turr Phennir, and having both target lock and focus, scored 4 hits. Phennir could not use his evade action and only rolled one evade, obliterating him in one attack. To add insult to injury, Dutch then ionised the stressed Soontir Fell, leaving him predictably placed and bereft of actions for the next turn.
After that it was simply a case of Wedge mopping up the stricken Interceptor while Tycho and Dutch ganged up on Vader, first Tycho stripping his shields followed by Dutch Ionising him such that he'd fly into an asteroid (he did hit the Y-Wing for 1 shield damage) and then next turn Wedge delivered the coup-de-grace to the actionless Vader who was parked on an asteroid.
Considering I was worried about my ability to hit such a maneuverable and agile list, I was surprised to have taken out every Imperial ship for just the loss of 3 shields (2 on Tycho, 1 on Dutch).
Things I took away from the match:
Engine Upgrade is a fantastic card. On Wedge it allowed him to take shots on a couple of turns when without it he would not, and Wedge does brutal damage.
Boost is rapidly becoming my favourite action.
Daredevil and Engine Upgrade make Vader preposterously maneuverable.
Dutch has perhaps my favourite pilot skill. His ability meant my guys never fired without both TL and focus.