(Cross post from BGG)
Hi Everyone!
On 11-23-13 Gameshire in Everett, WA held a 100 pt tournament. First place prize was a shiny new small-base ship and a medal. Second and Third prize were Wedge+Boba alt art cards. Eight players played so it went 3 rounds, 75 minutes each, swiss style.
My Squad (3-0, 1st place)
Outer Rim Smuggler (34 pts)
-Chewbacca
-Falcon Title
-Anti-Pursuit Lasers
Blue Squadron (33 pts)
-HLC
-Sensor Jammer
Blue Squadron (33 pts)
-HLC
-Sensor Jammer
This list revolves around making use of the Sensor Jammer. By flying the ORS right at your opponent's lines (and hopefully causing them to crash into it) you can deny them the focus tokens they need to overcome the Jammers, and possibly even score a few hits from the APL in the process. Meanwhile, the HLCs are kept at range 3 from the "crash site" as much as possible, and hit hard from afar. This is not the easiest squad to fly, as your opponent can counter act this by finding a line that the ORS has a hard time cutting off and then can set up close range, focused shots on the B-Wings.
Game 1
Chad's Squad (2-1, 3rd place overall)
Howlrunner (18 pts)
Academy Pilot x4 (48)
Soontir Fel + shield upgrade + PTL (34 pts)
Chad admitted that he didn't have much practice flying swarms, but that didn't make me feel better, as I saw the danger of this list winning initiative and taking away my ORS blocking strategy (he could move/focus first, and then ORS would crash into him). Luckily for me, I won the initiative. However, I wasn't out of the woods yet as Tie Swarms are always dangerous, and Soontir can wreck my B-Wings in the end game if my ORS gets destroyed.
Much to my surprise, he clumped a bunch of asteroids center-right on the setup and then set up in two 3-ship groups in the middle and on the left after I had placed everything in the far-right lane, hiding behind the asteroid clump. I chose a very straight, patient line down the right so that if he wanted to get me, he'd have to fly through 3 asteroids. Much to my surprise, he barreled his ships right through them fearlessly, landing on them 2-3 times! One of my B's was out of position due to his gutsy charge, but I got lucky and was able to take out Howlrunner on the second exchange. After that, I "locked" the ORS and the B-wing (running into each other 3 turns in a row and not moving) and was able to take down 1 Tie each round for the rest of the game. He did eventually manage to take out a B, but by then it was much too late. Sensor Jammer really shined here, as he was hitting/flying through asteroids, barrel rolling, and/or crashing into the ORS he was only able to take about 1-2 focused shots at a B-wing each round, and so the Jammers prevented about 5-6 damage over the course of the game.
Game 2
Jake's Squad (2-1, 4th place overall)
Chewbacca + VI + Falcon + Mercenary (46 pts)
Rookie Pilot + Shield Upgrade + R2D2 (29 pts)
Blue Squadron + Ion Cannon (25 pts)
Jake's squad was interesting, kind of a jack-of-all-trades approach between Chewie's Turret, the Ion Cannon, and the healing Rookie. Asteroids were placed near edges, leaving a giant middle open. I set up my ships on the left, with the ORS angled to head down the left lane, and he placed Chewie in the middle with the Rookie and B-Wing to occupy the far left lane. I think I surprised him with the first turn's movement, as I used a planned "trick opening" to hard turn the ORS back into the middle and barrel roll the B's right behind it. His B/Rookie were caught too far on the left, and by Round 2 it was open season with the HLCs and ORS on Chewie. By round 3, Chewie was dead. After that, he got caught up in a K-turn war with my Blue's, where Sensor Jammer shined once again (stressed ships can't focus). The regenerating Rookie was left for last, and took much longer to kill than I thought (he rolled double evades 3 times!) but in the end I won with a perfect score. The Sensor Jammers prevented another 5 damage in this game.
Game 3 - Tournament Finals
Richard's Squad (2-1, 2nd place overall)
Luke + Shield + R2D2 + Draw their Fire (37 pts)
Rookie Pilot x3 (63 pts)
If I'm not mistaken, Richard copied this squad from our friend Jonathan Gomes who placed 4th at World's with it. It's a very strong squad, though Richard played it against me earlier that week at our Wed League night and I beat it using Bounty Hunter+ReconSpec x2 + Turr+PTL so I wasn't too afraid. I know Richard pretty well as we both run the "Greater Seattle X-Wing Players" google group/mailing list together (see: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/seattlexwing ). It was very fitting for us to meet up in the finals.
Asteroids were placed around the edges and then one right in the middle. I set up with my "trick opening" that feigns to go left but actually slides into the center lane...except that I didn't do it correctly and my ships were off, though I didn't realize this until the game had started. Richard hadn't flown against this squad before, but its reputation preceded it and he spread his ships across the center, trying to prevent any possibility of a serious pile-up with the ORS. He moved forward in a staggered formation, and I ended up with the ORS in the middle-left lane and one B training it, and the other B taking the left lane (due to my mishap during setup). He then speed checked a bit, as did I, which he wasn't expecting. This put almost all of our ships at range 3 of each other except for Luke who could only shoot at the ORS. He made a HUGE mistake here by taking TLs instead of focusing, as he aimed at the B's with all of his ships but only did a net 1 damage because of the Sensor Jammer! I was able to return fire at one of his Rookies, and was able to take it out with the HLCs (which rendered his "Draw their fire" useless as I couldn't deal crits) after one round of firing. On the next turn I was able to turn the ORS into a lane that he wasn't expecting, and he ran two more ships into it (taking APL damage both times) and the B's blew up another Rookie. From here on, he gave up on trying to shoot down the B's and just went after the ORS, which he did successfully blow up after 2 more rounds of firing, but it was too late, the HLC blues were able to chase down the last rookie and Luke and blow them up on the same round. After beating Richard, I was awarded my 4th tournament medal and a shiny new TIE Interceptor! :-)
Conclusions
If you can deny your opponent actions (forcing K-turns, running through asteroids, or crashing), Sensor Jammer is AMAZING. Really savvy opponents might be able to think 3-4 rounds in advance and not get tripped up by it, but these Jammers will eat up anyone who isn't at the top of their game. In many cases, these effectively near-doubled the shields of a B-wing. Who wouldn't want 5 more shields for only 4 pts??? Of course, Sensor Jammer is not a card that works in any squad, but I think my squad's ORS works well to deny actions so it really shines here.
