But now in Wave 4, Angled Deflectors gives the Reaper access to the Reinforce action - can this make the Reaper more viable? Handily, there was a tournament this weekend at Alpha Games for me to try it out, so I put a list together and took it along.
Fear The Reaper
Maarek Steele
- FCS
- Marksmanship
Grand Inquisitor
- FCS
Major Vermeil
- Darth Vader
- Agent Kallus
- Angled Deflectors
Academy Pilot
200 pts
Game 1 - James Ritter
Ric Olie
Sinker
104th Battalion
Gold Squadron Trooper x 2
Yes, you're right - that is a lot of health I need to burn through... And ultimately I didn't manage it, though I did take down both ARC-170s - I wanted to take down Sinker first to stop his re-rolls but James holding him back meant the 104th was the first one in my gunsights. I stripped Ric's shields but couldn't get a hit to get half points on him. Had I realised that the Torrents have no shields, I'd have turned my fire on one of them instead. Lesson learned - what you don't know can hurt you; know what your opponent's ships stats are. I got a lot of good mileage out of Maarek's ability before he died - James told me after the game that I burned through over half his damage deck just on the two ARCs. And the Academy Pilot shone - three times James had three hits on him, and three times I rolled three natural Evades. (Those who've played against me previously will attest that that's more Evades than I've rolled in some whole tournaments...)
Loss 102 - 177
Game 2 - Declan Stephens
Thane Kyrell
- Swarm Tactics
Garven Dreis
Cassian Andor
- Baze Malbus
Arvel Crynyd
Arvel Crynyd
- Intimidation
Thane having Swarm Tactics made him the early target (although I'd put Hunted on Cassian) and a pair of K-turns from Maarek and the Inquisitor dropped them neatly behind him. Scratch one X-wing. However the Reaper was stuck on a debris cloud where I'd misjudged making a bank with the ailerons. With the Reaper moving into position, I was able to take down Garven and Cassian at the cost of Maarek and the Inquisitor. And so it came down to Arvel Crynyd, and I thought I had him cracked when he bumped my Academy Pilot - until I remembered his ability (although as Philip Boyes pointed out, canonically he should only be able to attack at Range 0 once...). And he had Intimidation. But once again, the high-quality flight training of the Imperial Academy paid off and the TIE survived, leaving the Reaper to finish off the A-wing.
Win 200 - 135
Game 3 - Shaun Riley
Han Solo
- Greedo
- Lando's Millennium Falcon
Thane having Swarm Tactics made him the early target (although I'd put Hunted on Cassian) and a pair of K-turns from Maarek and the Inquisitor dropped them neatly behind him. Scratch one X-wing. However the Reaper was stuck on a debris cloud where I'd misjudged making a bank with the ailerons. With the Reaper moving into position, I was able to take down Garven and Cassian at the cost of Maarek and the Inquisitor. And so it came down to Arvel Crynyd, and I thought I had him cracked when he bumped my Academy Pilot - until I remembered his ability (although as Philip Boyes pointed out, canonically he should only be able to attack at Range 0 once...). And he had Intimidation. But once again, the high-quality flight training of the Imperial Academy paid off and the TIE survived, leaving the Reaper to finish off the A-wing.
Win 200 - 135
Game 3 - Shaun Riley
Han Solo
- Greedo
- Lando's Millennium Falcon
- 0-0-0
Old Teroch
Fenn Rau
Academy Pilot FTW! In the first turn of shooting, the TIE Fighter put two hits on Fenn Rau! Maarek set Old Teroch's flight console alight, leaving him to die a fiery death the next turn. Han was coming in on my left flank as I engaged Fenn, ending up trading him for Maarek. I knocked the shields down on the Falcon but this left Academy Pilot out of position. Next turn the Falcon took 2 hits from the Inquisitor and 4 from the Reaper, then did a 3-speed hard right turn which meant the Inquisitor had no shot. But the Reaper finished the game out for me and left me at 2-1 going into the final game.
Old Teroch
Fenn Rau
Academy Pilot FTW! In the first turn of shooting, the TIE Fighter put two hits on Fenn Rau! Maarek set Old Teroch's flight console alight, leaving him to die a fiery death the next turn. Han was coming in on my left flank as I engaged Fenn, ending up trading him for Maarek. I knocked the shields down on the Falcon but this left Academy Pilot out of position. Next turn the Falcon took 2 hits from the Inquisitor and 4 from the Reaper, then did a 3-speed hard right turn which meant the Inquisitor had no shot. But the Reaper finished the game out for me and left me at 2-1 going into the final game.
Win 200 - 88
Game 4 - Robin Farndon
Game 4 - Robin Farndon
Poe Dameron
Nien Numb
Cova Nell
- Leia
I've never played against Resistance Leia but I've played against Rebel Leia enough times to know that if you can take her down it limits your opponent a bit, so I put Hunted on Cova. We set up for a joust down the left-hand side of the board with me bringing the Reaper and TIE Fighter in from the centre. After the first turn of shooting in which Cova lost her shields and one hull point and I lost Maarek, I did a neat little sloop with the Reaper which gave it a Range 1 shot on Cova. In one fiery turn of shooting Nien Nunb and the Inquisitor killed each other, and then Vermeil killed Cova, leaving me with the Academy TIE and a slightly-damaged Vermeil to kill Poe. Between them they put one damage on Poe before the Academy Pilot's luck finally ran out and it was down to one ship apiece. What followed was twenty minutes of some of the most intense flying I've ever done, trying to get Poe in arc. One good shot from the Reaper would finish him, but the double-reposition of the T-70 was too much to cope with and ultimately Vermeil got whittled away.
Loss 165 - 200
So 2-2 in the end, which is about my best competitive showing for ages... Academy Pilot was, I think, my MVP, which isn't a sentence I expected to write. I want to try something else in place of the Inquisitor, possibly a Striker, but otherwise I like this list a lot.
What do I think of the Reaper now? With Reinforce it becomes much more survivable into the late game, it's definitely a much more viable ship (Robin told me after our game that when it's Reinforced, that actually has a deterrent effect on whether to attack it or not, which is something I hadn't expected). So much so that I'm now considering getting a second one! Fear the Reaper meta!
All glory to the Emperor!
I've never played against Resistance Leia but I've played against Rebel Leia enough times to know that if you can take her down it limits your opponent a bit, so I put Hunted on Cova. We set up for a joust down the left-hand side of the board with me bringing the Reaper and TIE Fighter in from the centre. After the first turn of shooting in which Cova lost her shields and one hull point and I lost Maarek, I did a neat little sloop with the Reaper which gave it a Range 1 shot on Cova. In one fiery turn of shooting Nien Nunb and the Inquisitor killed each other, and then Vermeil killed Cova, leaving me with the Academy TIE and a slightly-damaged Vermeil to kill Poe. Between them they put one damage on Poe before the Academy Pilot's luck finally ran out and it was down to one ship apiece. What followed was twenty minutes of some of the most intense flying I've ever done, trying to get Poe in arc. One good shot from the Reaper would finish him, but the double-reposition of the T-70 was too much to cope with and ultimately Vermeil got whittled away.
Loss 165 - 200
So 2-2 in the end, which is about my best competitive showing for ages... Academy Pilot was, I think, my MVP, which isn't a sentence I expected to write. I want to try something else in place of the Inquisitor, possibly a Striker, but otherwise I like this list a lot.
What do I think of the Reaper now? With Reinforce it becomes much more survivable into the late game, it's definitely a much more viable ship (Robin told me after our game that when it's Reinforced, that actually has a deterrent effect on whether to attack it or not, which is something I hadn't expected). So much so that I'm now considering getting a second one! Fear the Reaper meta!
All glory to the Emperor!
