I have a local league tourney tonight, and I wanted to get thoughts on my fleet before I report on how it all went.

There are 4 of us in it tonight, me and 3 more, codenamed J, M, and N.

I know J is running Roark Garnett, either with Moldy Crow, Recon Specialist and Blaster Turret, or with Ion Cannon and Nien Nunb. He's going to be running 2 B-Wings with Heavy Laser Cannons, Engine Upgrades, and either Fire Control Systems or Advanced Sensors (depending on Roark).

N loves to run fleets with large ships; the more hull the better. He's happy as a clam running 2 bounty hunters and a shuttle, or a YT-1300 with two A-wings (called Norton 360*).

M is going to be a wildcard, as he also switches things up every week. Thing is, he usually comes in dead last at these things, so I'm not too worried.

Me? I'm pulling a rarity at league night, and am running a Swarm.
Specifically, 3x Academy Pilots, Howlrunner (with Stealth Device and Adrenaline Rush) and 2x Scimitar Squadron pilots (with Proton Bombs).


Place your bets. I'll let you know how I do tomorrow

Alright, so it's now officially after-action, being 2:15 am.

Round 1, I went up against M, who said to be quoted as "I was unprepared, and didn't have a fleet ready". He wound up running a Scimitar with Cluster Missiles and Seismic Charges, Captain Jonus with Homing Missiles, Seismic Charges, and Squad Leader, and a Bounty Hunter with HLC, Cluster Missiles, and Seismic Charges (built right in front of me).

Alpha strike went down on one of my bombers. 2 Cluster Missiles later, and it went on to meet its maker. His scimitar then barrel rolled in the middle of my Tie nest, and was summarily shredded.

Over the next several rounds, I lost tie after tie, while missing every single shot I levied at Captain Jonus. I did manage to cause his Bounty Hunter to run into my ships 4 turns in a row, preventing its actions, and its ability to fire at anything useful, while I chased down jonus, but time was called before I managed to kill anything.

Final score: +18 for me (spent missiles didn't count in my favor, but the unspent seismic did), and +45 for him.


Round 2, I was up against N. As predicted, he had 2 large ships: Specifically, Boba Fett with Veteran's Instincts, Slave 1, Ion Cannon, Anti-Pursuit Lasers, Navigator, and Seismic Charges, alongside a Krassis Trelix with a Heavy Laser Cannon, Gunner, and Anti-Pursuit Lasers.

Krassis was able to get 1 damage on one of my bombers for the first round of fire, a pot-shot with the HLC at range 3 that didn't pan out in his favor.

Particularly not in his favor, because the next round, 1 bomber was body-blocking Fett (with the aid of 2 asteroids), while the other 5 ships were all in range 1 of him, and also of Howlrunner. Formation flying at its best, complete with mass focusing. Krassis got another two hits on that bomber, and 5 attacks later, Krassis had melted. "BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE SWARM!!" I cried, and got sushed by the rest of the players, and one of their fiancee from in the next building.

I wound up chasing the Fettigator to a point where he had only one move that didn't fly off the map. He took it, and was sans shield at range 1 of most of my fleet (technically including the tie fighter he ran into). Board-wipes are always nice, even when you don't get credit for the seismic charge that hit two ties. He did manage to take out that wounded bomber in his last turn, so it wasn't a complete victory. This put me at tied for first, as a running total in the tournament listings.

Last round, I went up against J. This was Mark III of his fleet, and I had helped him playtest the previous two. He wound up with Roark Garnett in the Moldy Crow with Nien Nunb and an Ion Turret, a BS Pilot with HLC, Engine Upgrade (from now on referred to as EUp), and an Advanced Sensor, and another BS pilot with HLC, EUp, but with Fire-Control system instead. He surprised me by actually flying in an engagement path, instead of the crab-walking he had shown with his previous 3 games against me. At the first attack, I wound up mis-rotating my dial, so instead of a forward two, fitting neatly into the pocket where she would have benefited everyone, Howlrunner wound up banking into a tie-fighter, and losing her action. One HLC attack later, and she's at 1 hp, and no stealth device left. Knowing that I couldn't let him get the points, I break formation, and go crazy. My bombers are doing 5 koiograns, she's doing a 3 koiogran and discarding Adrenaline Rush to evade, everybody's body-blocking and... somehow I blew up the Fire-Control B-wing, without anyone dying. Then, I forced Roark onto an asteroid, twice, after dealing him a crit... that dealt 1 damage to him at the start of every combat. I wound up body-blocking him to death, preventing the action that would stop the crit's damage, as my Ionized but stressed ships kept running into everything else. He did manage to take out a tie fighter (the same tie fighter call-sign he always 1-shots with this fleet, amusingly), but that wound up giving me 63 points, and the win for the night.

Woo!

Nice report and sorry to hear you got shushed for shouting.

Love it when I hear overzealous commotion from another table.

Curious what, if anything you would change in your squad.?

nice report - thanx for sharing. i was especially intersted in the opponent u faced who used 2 bombers + bounty hunter with HLC. this is similar to a squad im wanting to play as well - the plan is to abuse the two free rerolls with the HLC... in theory at least - but once they come into close range things will be hard for you.

Your squad is interesting. I havn't had a ton of success with bombs but keep seeing how useful they are. Are the 2 bombs better than 2 missiles + something else?

Your squad is interesting. I havn't had a ton of success with bombs but keep seeing how useful they are. Are the 2 bombs better than 2 missiles + something else?

I love the two proton bombs, because they slide a face-up damage card under the opponents' shields, long before they would otherwise be a factor. I just wish I had gotten to drop them more often. The crit on the HWK in round 3 was from one of them, and I also landed a Direct Hit under Boba's shields.

In that event, I don't want to see something as simple as "Direct Hit", as i've just shaved 2 hp off of a healthy ship (although I won't say no to seeing two of them on the same ship, or one on an A-wing). My favorite moments are when I get both Munitions Failures from a deck onto, say, a HWK and a B-Wing with HLC (this happened against J in one of our pre-tournament practice matches).

Nice report and sorry to hear you got shushed for shouting.

Love it when I hear overzealous commotion from another table.

Curious what, if anything you would change in your squad.?

I agree with you on the hearing overzealous commotion from other tables. The problem is that I almost woke the kids upstairs, so I completely understand the shushing.

I honestly wouldn't change a thing about the fleet, except to practice with it a lot more. My errors were my fault, not that of my ship selections.

However, that assessment would change if I went up against some autoblasters. Those things EAT ties, particularly when on a hypermobile ship (B-Wings with Adv. Sensors, Fettigator, et c.)

nice report - thanx for sharing. i was especially intersted in the opponent u faced who used 2 bombers + bounty hunter with HLC. this is similar to a squad im wanting to play as well - the plan is to abuse the two free rerolls with the HLC... in theory at least - but once they come into close range things will be hard for you.

Something to note about this build: Jonus makes cluster missiles MONSTROUS. It essentially becomes "Spend your target lock to perform 2 attacks, each with a target lock". The Seismic Charges were in his list because it's often free damage, for only 2 points. Moreover, that's 2 points your opponent doesn't get if you drop the Charges before death. All in all, he had a nasty piece of work there.

Personally, my fooling around used Jonus alongside a Fettigator with Expert Handling + Engine Upgrades + Autoblasters and an Omicron Group Pilot with an Intel Agent and an Ion Cannon. That fleet's still on my back-burner, as that is a LOT of points to put into one ship. In retrospect, I may do better with Krassis with Navigator + Engine Upgrades + Autoblasters, and use those spare points for something else. That has the benefit of always having a target lock available for those Autoblasters, which is INTENSE. Pity no-one else in my local area runs swarm...yet.

~Edit: Hammered out a draft of that theoretical Krassis AutoJonus build. Could be better, but could be a heck of a lot worse, too.

Krassis Trelix

-Navigator

-Engine Upgrade

-Cluster Missiles

-Autoblaster

[52]

Captain Jonus

-Squad Leader

[24]

Scimitar Squadron Pilot

-Cluster Missiles

-Cluster Missiles

[24]

Does Krassis need the engine upgrade and navigator? A few points of munitions on Jonus might spread the points and alpha strike better.

Does Krassis need the engine upgrade and navigator? A few points of munitions on Jonus might spread the points and alpha strike better.

That was just a proof of concept. I've recently had a better idea with it:

Krassis, with HLC and Recon Specialist

Jonus, with Adrenaline Rush

Scimitar, with Homing Missiles, Advanced Proton Torps, and Cluster Missiles.

Yes, Jonus still doesn't have any missiles with that build. However, the 1-2 Megaton Punch of Homing Missiles setting up the target lock for Advanced Proton Torps is as devastating as you can get with a 2-turn alpha strike. Having the Cluster Missiles is also awesome.

Krassis had the Navigator and the Engine Upgrades last time as a proof that Fett's not the only hyper-mobile Firespray option. However, Recon Specialist is probably the best co-pilot he can have. Aiding both offense and defense, instead of choosing one or the other, when you've already got 3/4 of a Target Lock for free is too good to pass up.

That scimitar is just asking to get killed the first round of engagement. 31pts?!

Moreover, that's 2 points your opponent doesn't get if you drop the Charges before death.

Unless It's a house rule, you are playing this wrong. At the end of a match, points destroyed are calculated based on all the upgrades/weapons/skills that are originally equipped, not just those that are left when the game ends. Using a weapon such as charges/missiles/etc. does not exempt it from being counted if the ship is destroyed during combat.

Moreover, that's 2 points your opponent doesn't get if you drop the Charges before death.

Unless It's a house rule, you are playing this wrong. At the end of a match, points destroyed are calculated based on all the upgrades/weapons/skills that are originally equipped, not just those that are left when the game ends. Using a weapon such as charges/missiles/etc. does not exempt it from being counted if the ship is destroyed during combat.

...It's a house rule, because the judge in charge of the League got this rule wrong, and we don't want to correct it mid-streams. I tried to point out that it made no sense when we started, but got voted down.