Space Confiture

So I was hoping to have been writing this on the Eurostar on my way back from the Paris System Open (assuming I'd had a result I was prepared to share...). For obvious reasons, that hasn't happened with the Open currently being put back to the end of August. But there was another round of GSP's Space Jam series this weekend, which I played in.

After last time's escapades in which the TIE v1 demonstrated how squishy it can be, I've changed things up a little bit and swapped in a TIE x1, so my new list becomes:

Imperial 5s

Rexler Brath

 - Juke

 - FCS

Maarek Stele

 - Marksmanship

 - FCS

 - Afterburners

Grand Inquisitor

 - FCS

Having completely forgotten the existence of Foresight for the whole of the last tournament, I've dropped it from the Inquisitor. I've played Maarek a lot in the last 12 months, and Marksmanship let him double-dip his ability. Afterburners - well, 192 points is probably too deep a bid for my taste, and I've just watched this episode of Veteran Instincts so I'm hoping to use it as a get-out-of-jail card.

Game 1 - William Herbert

Lieutenant Bastian
 - Integrated S-foils
Temmin Wexley
 - Heroic

 - Integrated S-foils
Jessika Pava
 - BB Astromech

 - Integrated S-foils
Red Squadron Expert
 - Heroic

 - Integrated S-foils

William set up in a block of four, so I set up with Maarek and the Inquisitor going for a joust with Rexler moving up the middle of the table to turn in and flank. In the first turn of shooting, Maarek was perfectly lined up to get a crit in on Bastian with Marksmanship; however the Inquisitor and Rexler both missed their shots so when Maarek hit, all he was able to do was strip Bastian's shields. A big opportunity missed to get an early kill. Next turn I went for a risky K-turn with Rexler and subsequently got blocked, leaving him both without a shot and slightly closer to the board edge than I like to be, but the Inquisitor and Maarek both made shots on Bastian and he died, however Temmin took the Inquisitor's shields. With Bastian down I picked out Jess as the next target and started directing fire her way, however with pointing the wrong way I only got a couple of hits on Jess and one on the Red Squadron Vet. In the final turn, Temmin ran away, but I finally had all my ships lined up and Jess died.

Win 101-27.

Game 2 - Illy

Anakin Skywalker
 - R2 Astromech

 - Delta-7B

 - Hull Upgrade
Gold Squadron Trooper
Gold Squadron Trooper
Gold Squadron Trooper
Gold Squadron Trooper

As we started this game, I picked out Anakin as the one to kill, then allowing me to PS-kill the Torrents. We got partway through moving ships in turn 2, when disaster struck and Illy lost his internet! I hopped over to speak to the judges and find out what to do, and they advised me to give him ten minutes to get back on. I had a great chat with Dee from the judging team while we waited (and I want to give a big shout out to the judges here after I learned Dee was judging from LA in the middle of his night), and fortunately Illy was able to reconnect about 30 seconds before he would have forfeited the game. And he then proceeded to absolutely school me. My local meta doesn't have many (read: any) Torrents, and it showed, as they ripped me up. As consolation, I got two of them in the end so didn't get completely whitewashed, but I felt comprehensively outplayed and having the extra ten minutes of the game would have made no difference.

Loss 68-200.

Game 3 - Matthew Johnson

Fifth Brother
 - Hate

 - Fire-Control System

 - Homing Missiles
Grand Inquisitor
 - Hate

 - Fire-Control System

 - Homing Missiles
Darth Vader
 - Hate

 - Fire-Control System

 - Afterburners

I prioritised Fifth Brother so as not to face the hit-crit combination from his ability, but it took me longer than it should have to kill him and in the meantime I took a beating from Vader and his Inquisitor. Once I'd killed Fifth Brother, however, I was left with a good position on Vader, and something strange happened; Vader blanked out on his defence dice. Twice. No more Vader, but it proved to be too late and my remaining ships were killed by the Inquisitor.

Loss 127-200.

Game 4 - Chris Warren

Chewbacca
 - Heroic

 - Rose Tico

 - Finn

 - Deadman's Switch

 - Rey's Millennium Falcon
Colossus Station Mechanic
 - Deadman's Switch
Colossus Station Mechanic
 - Deadman's Switch
Colossus Station Mechanic
 - Deadman's Switch
Colossus Station Mechanic
 - Deadman's Switch

Chris' Fireballs came at me first with the Falcon trailing, and as we went into the first tun of shooting I was conscious that I wanted/needed to take out at least one of them before any of them could fire back. And once again my plans came to nothing, I left one Fireball with one health but not dead. And in return my Inquisitor was reduced to one hull. I ran my Inquisitor away and began putting hits into the Falcon from Rexler and Maarek. Two turns later, I was in a position where I could zoom forward with Rexler to get a great shot on the Falcon, but I had to take range 1 fire from all the Fireballs. I figured with three green dice I'd be OK, and I reduced the Falcon to one hull remaining; and Rexler was also reduced to one hull. The next turn Rexler K-turned, giving him a range 1 shot on Chewbacca, which I took, having completely forgotten about the Deadman's Switch. So Rexler died, and so did the one-health Fireball, which in a chain reaction then took out Maarek. So I was left with a one-health Inquisitor to close out the game. I played cagey for a couple of turns, as I did so I spotted I had a target lock on one of the remaining Fireballs that I'd forgotten about, and it only needed one hit for me to get half points on it. I wasn't sure what the points status was, but I knew that half points was potentially important. I slooped in behind the locked Fireball, and got three hits on it leaving it on one hull. So not only half  points but a good chance at full points. Going into the last turn, the Fireball slooped to point its' guns towards me, and I banked to follow it; I fired and killed it, and I was outside range 1 so avoided the Deadman's Switch damage; I then evaded incoming fire. Which left us on 171 points each and going into Final Salvo, a first for me. And with two Fireballs left on the board, this meant my two dice facing Chris' four dice; Chris rolled a hit and a focus, and I rolled ... two hits to get the win!

Win 171-171.

Game 5 - Jesper Winström

Anakin Skywalker
 - R2 Astromech

 - Delta-7B

 - Spare Parts Canisters
Obi-Wan Kenobi
 - Calibrated Laser Targeting
Ahsoka Tano
 - C1-10P

 - Calibrated Laser Targeting

After my game with Illy earlier, my heart sank a little bit on seeing Anakin again, especially accompanied by two more Jedi as I find them incredibly frustrating to play against. In the absence, frankly, of a better idea I decided to go for Anakin again with the hope of bringing him down and trying to PS-kill the other two. Setting about this, I signally failed to realise what Chopper brings to the list, being the ability to give out jam tokens, which meant Rexler was unable to get his free Evades. So partway through I turned my fire on Ahsoka, and fortunately for me she died fairly quickly. However all through this I was getting chipped away by the other two. In the end I had Anakin down to half points three times and then he regenned back up, and when time was called Ahsoka was the only points I scored. (I did however have some great chat with Jesper all the way through this game, thanks Jesper!)

Loss 171-53.

Learning Points - was I wrong to focus on Anakin in games 2 and 5? Right now, I don't think so, and I think I'd make the same decision again. What I should have done, however, was appreciate what the other ships brought to the table, both the Torrents and Chopper. It comes under the heading of 'know your enemy'... Similarly, forgetting about Deadman's Switch in game 3 was a basic mistake that I kicked myself for, although I doubt I'm the only one that's been suckered that way. Managing to take it to Final Salvo and then winning was luck, pure and simple, but if I'd kept more of an eye on points and victory conditions maybe I'd have made some different and more informed decisions. And with hindsight, dropping after game 5 was a mistake; I should have played on and gone for a 3-3 result. 

All glory to the Emperor!

I Believe I Can Fly!

Like everyone else in these strange times, I'm missing playing XWing at a FLGS with my mates. So when I saw Gold Squadron Podcast's Space Jam Tournament, I thought what the hell, and signed up. And I spent a certain amount of time after that thinking 'I'm going to get my arse kicked'. 

Still, rebellions are built on hope. I'd had two whole practice games to learn TTS (which as it turned out was two more than one of my opponents...). And I have a certain amount of faith in my list; as part of my best-ever showing at the UK Open I won my first two games with it on the Sunday, plus one of my TTS practice games with my friends from the Moldy Crows last week. So it is:

Take The Fifth
Rexler Brath
 - Juke
 - FCS
Grand Inquisitor
 - Foresight
 - FCS
Fifth Brother
 - Mag Pulse Warheads
 - FCS

The Defender is my favourite ship in the whole game and with most of the year to date being focused on Hyperspace lists it hasn't been seen very much (plus, you know, the whole 'massively expensive' thing...), and Rex's ability can be a game winner. The TIE v1 I like because its blue 1-speed turns and banks make it such a great knife fighter, even if it is a bit, um, fragile when it does get hit. The theory of this list, then, is that Rex and Inqy come in and strip the shields off a target, and then Fifth Bro follows up with a crit from the Mag Pulse and a second crit from his ability. So how did it work out...

Game 1 - HumanReason (Chicago)
Fenn Rau
Guri
 - Outmaneuver
 - Advanced Sensors
Black Sun Assassin
 - Crack Shot

I started out really hopefully in this game. I set up on the right-hand side of the board and moved forward, then left-turned to come into the middle to engage. Coming into the first turn of shooting HumanReason had made a mistake with Guri that left her without a shot and facing a rock, and I was able to catch Fenn in the open and halve him; unfortunately for me, Fifth had to use his Force just to secure the hit so I couldn't add an extra crit. In the next turn Fenn died, but those were the only points I was going to score. I spent the rest of the game chasing the two Vipers round the board, but I found them so slippery that I struggled to keep them in my gunsights and in the end I couldn't even make half points on either of them, and in return I lost the Inquisitor and half of Fifth.

Loss 83-68

Game 2 - DukeOfHobbies (Pittsburgh)
Wedge Antilles
 - Crack Shot
 - R4 Astromech
 - Servomotor S-foils
Cassian Andor
 - Crack Shot
 - K-2SO
 - Pivot Wing
Ten Numb
 - Crack Shot
 - Stabilized S-foils
Lieutenant Blount

 - Crack Shot

I set up for a joust in this game, planning to focus on Wedge as the biggest threat, and to give myself some credit I halved him fairly early on. And then I got tunnel-visioned into killing Wedge at the expense of everyone else, and I was duly killed by everyone else. In my defence, Wedge should have died three times, three times I had killing hits on him and he rolled all the evades he needed. C'est la guerre... Remember how I said the TIE v1 can be a bit fragile? I lost Fifth in the first turn of shooting. So in the end half of Wedge and half of Ten was all I scored, but on the plus side we were finished early which meant I was right on time for the dinner my wife had cooked. Small victories...

Loss 55-200

Game 3- Trevor Gait (British Columbia)
Ten Numb
 - Autoblasters
 - Stabilized S-foils
Braylen Stramm
 - Autoblasters
 - Stabilized S-foils
Garven Dreis
 - Selfless
 - R5 Astromech
 - Servomotor S-foils
Jake Farrell

I'm not sure what it says about me that I had my best result once I'd started drinking... I set up to come up the middle and then bank round the rocks, I was fortunate that as I came in to engage Trevor made a mistake and clipped a debris field with Garven leaving him with no tokens; I took both shields and a couple of hull off the X-Wing (Fifth got to use his ability!). Garven went down in the next turn and I set to on the B-Wings. I got some early hits on Braylen, but once again I lost Fifth. We chased down to my end of the board and under fire from both my ships Braylen went down. With limited time left I didn't think I'd be able to take out Ten, so I focused on Jake as we went back up the board. I got one hit through on him with a couple of minutes to go and Trevor told me that left him on one hull - I'd completely missed that someone (Inqy I think) had already stripped his shields. Into the last turn, and lack of a 1-forward left Inqy without a shot, but a K-turning Rex had Jake right in his sights and blew him away.

Win 95-147

Game 4 - Jaime Sinclair (Brazil)
Graz
 - Crack Shot
 - Contraband Cybernetics
 - Afterburners
Sabine Wren
 - 4-LOM 
 - Contraband Cybernetics
 - Shadow Caster
Guri
 - Outmaneuver
 - Virago

I'm not going to lie that my heart sank a bit on seeing another Guri, and this was also the first time in 2.0 I'd faced a Lancer. I'd totally forgotten how fast they are, which meant I got blocked a few times, denying Rex those sweet free evades. I was very conscious of Graz approaching down the flank, and having played him in one of my TTS practice games I kept thinking 'don't let him get behind you'. So there was a point where I made a hard-1 turn with Fifth that left me a hairs breadth from a rock that Graz was on the other side of - I swear if it had been on a real table I'd have caught the rock (Guri made a similar move a couple of turns later). Rex put hits onto Graz, followed by Fifth who used his ability to put a Direct Hit on the Khiraxz leaving him on one hull; I was slightly confused by this until I realised Khiraxzes gained a hull point in 2.0 compared to their 1.0 chassis. I finished off Graz in the next turn and turned my attention to the Shadow Caster. I had it halved at the cost of Fifth, having already lost Inqy, leaving it all for Rex to do, but as time was called it was left on two hull and I just couldn't get the hits I needed on it.

Loss 88-109

At 2315 and 1-3 down I, um, staged a tactical withdrawal. I'd really hoped to make Top 8 in faction to get a Grand Inquisitor alt card, but it wasn't to be.

Learning points - in game 2 I probably shouldn't have got so caught up with taking out Wedge, maybe the B-Wing and Z-95 would have been easier kills. For the TIE v1s, I probably should think more about using their linked actions to arc dodge instead of focusing on getting the target locks to use FCS. I'm a lot more confident with TTS now too, one of my big worries going into this would be that I would be hosting a game and TTS would crash on my laptop, so I was really pleased that didn't happen.

It was, however, great just to be on a table and pushing (virtual) plastic spaceships around again. My thanks go to Dion and everyone at Gold Squadron Podcast for organising the tournament, and I'm looking forward to the next one!

All glory to the Emperor!

Fear The Reaper (Again)

I took my Reaper list to 4tk last week and went 3-1 with it, and then  I took it to Ace today but tweaked it. I swapped out the Inquisitor for Pure Sabaac:

Maarek Steele
 - Fire Control System
 - Marksmanship
Pure Sabaac
 - Shield Upgrade
 - Marksmanship
Major Vermeil
 - Darth Vader
 - Agent Kallus
 - Angled Deflectors
Academy Pilot
197 points

Game 1 - Stephen Cooke
Howlrunner
Mauler Mithel
Iden Versio
Seyn Marana
Wampa
Academy Pilot

I made a number of bad decisions in this game, only the first of which was that in the first round of engagement Maarek didn't have a shot. I then went on to take bad positions with Sabaac and Vermeil that led to me losing them. In the last round Maarek did take out Howlrunner but it was too little, too late.
Loss 70 - 200

Game 2 - John Cooves
Emon Ezzameen
 - Proximity Mines
Guri
 - Advanced Sensors

I managed to distract Guri with the Academy Pilot while my other three ships went to work on Emon. I knocked the Firespray's shields off but left myself in a position where a bomb would have hurt at least one of my ships. But fortunately for me, Emon didn't drop a bomb. And then Maarek put three crits into him. Which with Maarek's ability to pick them meant Emon suffered a Fuel Leak, followed by another Fuel Leak, followed by a Direct Hit. One shot, three crits, six damage cards and one dead Firespray. And then I could just mop up Guri...
Win 200-51

Game 3 - Austen Green
Dutch Vander 
 - Ion Cannon Turret
Garven Dreis
Benthic Two-Tubes
Edrio Two-Tubes

I made a mistake with my approach here that meant that both Maarek and Academy Pilot ended up making their first engagements through a gas cloud and then having to move through it. I was able to take out Garven, but a combination of Maarek getting ionned by Dutch, the U-wing's stop and a limited set of available maneuvers meant we spent two turns in what I can only describe as a massive shamozzle. I should have punched out the U-wing with Sabaac, but the dice let me down... When we broke out of our traffic jam, I was able - eventually - to destroy the U-wing, and get half points on Dutch and Edrio, but I lost Vermeil and the TIE Fighter, and with time called I really wasn't sure I'd done enough. One of the closest results I've ever had.
Win 152 - 149

Game 4 - Paul Dane
Kylo Ren
Lieutenant Tavson
Starkiller Base Pilot

My problem in this game was not appreciating that getting in front of an Upsilon is a massive, massive problem... And maybe I should have picked the Upsilons as the biggest threat and not Kylo. In the first turn of shooting, Kylo not only broke Sabaac's ability but to add insult to injury put a Weapons Failure crit on him too. But I wiped out the Silencer and was able to start on the Upsilons. Paul transferred the Hunted condition from Kylo to the Starkiller Base Pilot, making him my second target. I was, as I mentioned, in front of the Upsilons, and although I killed the Starkiller pilot it was at the cost of all my ships except for the Academy Pilot. As my TIE Fighter ran away from Tavson's guns, he took two hits. So, a one-health TIE Fighter versus a full health Upsilon, with 30 minutes to go. I had to run... for a couple more turns, until I could engineer a way to get behind the shuttle. Once I was behind it, I was able to chip away at the shuttle, chasing it all round the board until it died, appropriately with me putting two crits into it.
Win 200 - 188

So where does this leave me and the Reaper? I've now played three tournaments with these two lists and gone 8-4, or 66%. Not earth-shattering, but in terms of my results since 2.0 came out, it feels like a significant step forward. I do think I'm going to revert to the Grand Inquisitor as I really like him as a knife-fighter (I just wish he had an extra point of hull or Force though...)

All glory to the Emperor!

(Don't) Fear The Reaper?

The TIE Reaper was a mainstay of my game in the late-1.0 timeframe, but Lightweight Frame was an essential upgrade for it. So when Lightweight Frame ceased to be a Thing in 2.0, I tried the Reaper once but found with only 1 Agility it died far too quickly. 
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

 - 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

 - 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.

Win 200 - 88

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!

Tournament Checklist

Something I thought might be a useful resource for new (and not so new!) players is the checklist I use when packing my gear to go to a tournament. You don't want to be the person who turns up without the thing that might enable you to win! So here it is with a few explanatory comments, at the bottom there's a PDF you can print and tick off as you pack.

Ships

Bases and Pegs

Pilot and Upgrade Cards

Movement templates
Range Rulers

Dice

Dials

Damage Deck

 - Sure, these all seem obvious, but people do turn up without them...
Id / Number tokens

Obstacle tokens

Tokens:

• Focus
• Evade
• Target Lock
• Force
• Shields
• Stress
• Strain
• Deplete
• Crit
• Charge
• Ion
• Disarm
• Tractor
• Jam
• Bomb
• Cloak
• Turret Indicators

 - You might need some or all of these depending on your list, but these can also depend on your opponents lists and the crits you pull. My advice: take the lot. NB: Under Bombs I also count other droppable items like Mines, Rigged Cargo Chutes and remotes e.g. Buzz Droids.

2 printed copies of your list

 - One to hand in to the TO, one for your opponents to read.

Pen

 - For writing down your results. Actually, bring two pens because someone will inevitably borrow yours and then walk off with it...

Laser line

 - For checking arcs. Most people seem to use the Army Painter one which you can pick up at any good FLGS.

Tray

 - Just to make it easier to move all your kit between tables. I use one of these.

Other Games Modes
For other game modes, you might need extra tokens.

Aces High:

• Victory tokens
• Hyperspace markers

Optional (but useful)

Printed copy of the Rules Reference and Tournament Regs

Spare Bases and Pegs

Glue / Blu tack / Tape

 - For running repairs on your ships.

Tournament Checklist

All glory to the Emperor!

The Road To Yavin

So the dates for Yavin next year have been revealed, even if the 2019 System Open series hasn't been formally announced yet, and it's not too early to start thinking about your list [NOTE: I started writing this last week before Monday's announcements...]. Which for me right now means I'll be taking Imperials. (I'll be interested to see what the First Order conversion kit brings to the table, but based on previous experiences I have little confidence in FFG's ability to get the kits out this side of Christmas, and I'd like my Yavin list pretty much locked in for the start of the new year). And that in turn currently means I'll be taking a named Defender, an ordnance carrier and, um, something else yet to be determined...

So with that in mind I headed off to Alpha Games today for a Season Kit tournament armed with my TIE Interceptor socks and the following list:
Nothing Rymes With Soontir
Soontir Fel
 - Outmaneuver
 - Stealth Device
Countess Ryad
 - Juke
Major Rhymer
 - Marksmanship
 - Cluster Missiles

Ryad's the only named Defender pilot I haven't flown yet, with Juke because I'm more and more coming to the opinion that Juke should be stapled to all the Defender pilots. I played a couple of practice games with Fel in the week (thanks Adam and Steve!) and he seems really strong especially in the endgame; I'm a bit torn right now between Predator and Outmaneuver so I'm trying the latter. I also haven't tried the TIE Bomber yet, and I'm hoping to get some value out of Rhymer's ability allowing him to use Cluster Missiles at any range.

It was good to see another great turnout, with 16 players competing.

Game 1 - Michael Maggs

Deathrain

 - Trajectory simulator

 - Proton torpedoes

 - Ablative plating

 - Proton bombs

 - Seismic charges

Redline

 - Trajectory simulator

 - Proton torpedoes

 - Ablative plating

 - Proton bombs

Echo

 - Juke

 - Darth Vader

Michael set up his Punishers to come down the right-hand side towards me with Echo on the left side. I set up to joust the Punishers with all my ships; with hindsight I should have gone for Echo first, but we'll come to that in a second. 

In the initial engagement I got my cluster missiles off on both the Punishers whilst avoiding proton bombs. And then in came Echo, and Darth Vader started stripping Evade tokens from the Countess. Rhymer got his second load of Cluster Missiles off before he died, but Soontir was in a position where he Slooped - right onto a Proton Bomb which gave him a Loose Stabiliser. Soontir finished off Deathrain but died shortly after, and Ryad put hits on Redline but picked up Panicked Pilot and had to run away. Two turns later I had a great position to knock out Redline, but I still had one stress token, so no greens, and Darth Vader killed me.
(Only after the game did I realise I'd completely forgotten to use Autothrusters the whole game)

Game 2 - James Ritter

Ten Numb

 - Ion cannon

 - Outmaneuver

Luke Skywalker

 - R2 astromech

 - Servomotor S-foils

Norra Wexley

 - Elusive

 - R2 astromech

 - Novice technician

Recalling my winning tactic from last time, I set up with Rhymer on my right and Fel and Ryad on my left, while James set up to joust Rhymer. Which meant while Rhymer was shooting missiles at Luke and Norra I was able to swoop around on my left and come in behind Ten Numb, taking him down quickly. I lost Rhymer but he'd already done his job, however a combination of Norra's ability, Luke's Force-assisted evasion and the shield regen of the R2's meant I ended up chasing Luke all over the bottom of the board before I could get into a position where both Fel and Ryad had regular good shots on him. With time called, Luke died with the last shot of the game.

Game 3 - Chris Neal

Luke Skywalker

 - Supernatural Reflexes

 - Servomotor S-foils

Jan Ors

 - Jyn Erso

 - Moldy Crow

Sabine Wren

Lieutenant Blount

I have a tactic that I'm reasonably happy with, so clearly I'm going to keep doing it. Until I cock it up, of course...

I set out to do the same thing, except Ryad spent the first couple of turns picking her way through a few obstacles. And that meant that while Rhymer got his first load of missiles off, Chris' ships had time to deal with Rhymer and then get turned around to face Fel/Ryad. A couple of turns later, Ryad was head-to-head with Lt Blount, and Chris and I both said 'Well, I'd prefer to be in the Defender in that situation'. Ah, the commentator's kiss of death. Blount at Range 1 and with a friendly ship close by, got to roll 4 dice, 2 hits and 2 crits, and with the timing they've become famous for, my green dice blanked out and Ryad lost all her shields in one shot. To a Z-95. Frankly, I was ashamed for her.

"This isn't going to go the way you think..."

Game 4 - Chris Wilding

Ten Numb

 - Juke

 - Shield upgrade

Thane Kyrell

 - Predator

 - R5 astromech

 - Servomotor S-foils

Cassian Andor

 - Lando Calrissian

 - Pivot wing

AP-5

 - Jyn Erso

I set Ryad and Fel up on the right-hand side this time - after all I don't want to get predictable when I can play this tactic any of two different ways! It did however mean that Fel ended up behind Ryad. I was able to take out AP-5, but a combination of Ten and Thane was too much for my tired dice.

This week's takeaways...

• Remember to use your ship's abilities...
• Norra is a PITA to kill, go for her early in the game
• Crew Vader is also a PITA needing to go down quickly
• When you have a tactic, don't mess it up...

I need more practice with Soontir and getting the best out of him, but I think he's strong enough that I'll want him in my Yavin list - I still want more experimentation with Predator vs Outmaneuver though. The other two I'm less convinced by, but there's still more ships to try yet...

All glory to the Emperor!

Redlining it

I came up with this list more or less on my way home from my last tournament, wanting to both a) try Redline and see if everyone is right that the Punisher is now playable, and b) try a different Defender pilot.

Scourging Defender
Redline
 - FCS
 - Cluster Missiles
 - Concussion Missiles
Colonel Vessery
 - Juke
 - FCS
 - HLC
Scourge Skutu
 - Swarm Tactics
 - Stealth Device

The theory of it was that in the Activation phase Redline could go in and take two target locks, while Vessery could get Evade and Focus tokens when he activates, then use Swarm Tactics to get Vessery to fire first, giving him a choice of targets where he could use his ability to get a lock giving him three tokens. Did it work? Kind of...

I arrived at 4TK to the pleasing sight of it being really busy! There were 19 players for X-Wing, the biggest turnout I can remember there since their last Store Champs. Onto the games!

Game 1 - Lyndon Moss-Robbins
Redline
 - Proton Torpedoes
Rexler Brath
 - Juke
Whisper
 - Juke

So, nearly a mirror match to start with, and a poor start for me as I managed to put the Punisher on a rock in turn two. So no target locks and no firings, and my plan started to fall apart with my Redline taking a beating from both his Redline and Rexler. I did however have both Vessery and Scourge on Whisper, and took both his shields and one hull point. In the next turn I was able to get Redline off the rock but rolled a crit for doing so, which was a Fuel Leak. But importantly he was able to fire his Cluster Missiles and I got hits on both his Redline and Rexler. In return he took fire from Rexler, whose ability triggered the fuel leak, and Redline died. Vessery and Scourge forced Whisper to spend his evade, preventing him recloaking, and Whisper died in the next turn, however those were the only points I scored.

Game 2 - Chris Curry
Luke Skywalker
 - Supernatural Reflexes
 - R2-D2
Biggs Darklighter
 - Shield upgrade
 - R2 astromech
Wedge Antilles
 - Predator
 - R4 astromech

I've documented my previous problems in bringing down X-Wings, so I wasn't hugely pleased to see this list across the table. However, I did remember not to joust it this time! Chris set his X-Wings line astern to move across the table right to left, and for the first couple of turns they crept forward. Meanwhile I did something deliberately that I normally hate myself for doing accidentally, and split my force! Redline went swooping to my left and boosted round a rock to come in behind the X-Wings, with Scourge and Redline coming through the asteroids in the middle of the table. And remarkably this worked pretty well.

In the first turn of shooting Vessery and Scourge reduced Biggs to one hull, and Redline's cluster missiles picked shields off Wedge and Luke. Biggs died in the next turn and I could start to focus in on Wedge, Luke being out of my arcs. Over the next two turns I traded Scourge for Wedge, but this left Redline out of position so Vessery chased Luke all round the table, until Redline got back in the fight and the combined fire of both my ships brought Luke down.

Game 3 - Michael Maggs
Wedge Antilles
 - Servomotor S-Foils
 - Elusive
 - Chopper
Lt Blount
Sabine Wren
 - Shield Upgrade
 - Elusive
Arvel Crynyd
AP-5

I found this one a really tough matchup; with five named pilots all having abilities, I struggled to know which was the biggest threat to concentrate on. I went into it aiming to take out Sabine first, because I was mixing up her pilot ability with her crew ability and I didn't want to be under stress/ion control. I had one good move in the whole game, when Crynyd came shooting forward to block Redline, and when Redline moved I'd dialled in a slower move so that Redline stopped a couple of millimetres short of the A-wing. Cue Arvel losing two shields. However, under fire from five ships Redline melted pretty quickly. In the next turn, Vessery was able to take out Lt. Blount before he died, and Scourge took two hits, and was stressed; I wanted to unstress him so I could focus or evade, but misjudged my manoeuvre and went over some debris, and to add insult to injury I then rolled a crit and Scourge exploded. 

Game 4 - Neil Photay
Captain Jonus
 - Crack Shot
 - Barrage Rockets
Rexler Brath
 - Juke
2 x Scimitar Squadron
 - Barrage Rockets

So, onto the last game of the day and time for me to see what all the fuss has been about over barrage rockets. Neil had his bombers in formation with Rexler pulling away to act as a flanker. I jousted it initially and focused on one of the Scimitars, aiming to punch it out before it could return fire, but I could only reduce it down to 2 hull. At the cost of Scourge I took out both Scimitars, but it put me in a position where to get Redline on target I had to barrel roll him - and because for Punishers barrel rolls are red I then forgot to use his ability to take a target lock. If I'd remembered it, I'd have had cluster missile shots on both Jonus and Rexler, as it was I had to settle for a primary weapon shot on Jonus - which blanked out. A turn later, Vessery took a Panicked Pilot crit, which put him in a bad position next turn. And then he blanked out on his evade and died, closely followed by Redline.

So what can I take from this week's pasting? Well...

• Redline really is strong - as long as I remember to use his ability even after a red action...
• ... but I'm not convinced by concussion missiles, I only used them once all day
• Redline and Vessery is a good combination, and they both get good value out of FCS...
• ... but I'm on the fence about HLC on Vessery
• I didn't joust X-Wings...
• ... but I probably shouldn't have jousted the bombers either...

Also I must thank Paul Spurgeon for introducing me to LaunchBay Next!

All glory to the Emperor!

Feeling the Force

"The Force is with you... but you are not a Jedi yet"

Darth Vader on seeing my results from today

Because reasons I've had no opportunities to play since my last entry, so it was with a bit of a ring-rusty feeling that I headed to the Ace Gaming Centre in Colchester today. 

Having seen some of the power of the Force last time out, I wanted to try some of that so my list for day was:

Feel The Force
Darth Vader
 - Heightened Perception
Grand Inquisitor
 - Proton Rockets
Pure Sabacc
 - Fifth Brother
 - Outmaneuver

(Aside #1. I went through a couple of iterations of this list this week. Originally Vader and the Inquisitor both had Heightened Perception, and Sabacc had Juke and a shield upgrade. I saw a comment about Prockets in the week that made me think I should try it, and since the TIE Advanced v1 has more opportunities to get the required Focus token to fire them it made sense to put them on the Inquisitor. It would, however, have been even better if the app's ship selection screen showed that the linked-action focuses are red...)
(Aside #2. I have to say I'm finding the Empire very badly served right now by the Gunner slot with so many of the available gunners abilities being turret-based and so few Imperial ships having turrets...)

Game 1 - James Gill
Luke Skywalker
Thane Kyrell
Wedge Antilles
All with Proton Torpedoes and R3 Astromech

So if I wanted to pit Force users against each other, this would be the list to try it against... James gave me Initiative, and, apparently learning nothing at all from last time, I set up to joust. When we engaged, the Inquisitor was just out of range 2 to Luke so couldn't use his prockets - I should have boosted into range 2 and taken the linked focus action. Vader and the Inquisitor took shots at Luke and couldn't hit him, both receiving torpedoes and losing their shields in return. Thane fired a torpedo at Sabacc, with two hits and two crits. Sabacc rolled ... four blanks, and exploded. (James said he'd intended to put two damage on to break his ability. Good job...).  And I must have been thrown by this as I then managed to doublethink myself into both my remaining ships doing T-rolls. The X-wings advanced 1 forwards, and suffice to say the game ended shortly afterwards.

Game 2 - Bye

Game 3 - John Cooves
Sol Sixxa
 - Marksmanship
 - "Genius"
 - Havoc
 - Proximity Mines
Genesis Red
 - Marksmanship
 - Proton Torpedoes
Emon Azzameen
 - Andrasta
 - Marksmanship
 - Seismic Charges
 - Boba Fett
 - Proton Bombs

John had a great initial setup for his Firespray, using Boba Fett's ability to place the ship by an asteroid but facing away from me, enabling him to immediately place a seismic charge in my path. Which I fortunately was able to avoid, and Emon danced away around the rock. 
I was gunning for the Scurrg, and had Vader and the Inquisitor on target (this time I was able to boost-focus the Inquisitor into a perfect position to fire the rockets), though Sabacc had to shoot at Genesis Red. The Inquisitor had the Scurrg just in the bullseye arc, and I rolled my five dice for the rockets - to get two focus results and the rest blank. Vader chipped a couple more hits off the Scurrg, but lost his shields to return fire. Next round I dialed in maneuvers to dodge Sixxa's bombs and take shots on the Firespray, but Vader still hit a proximity mine and died. However Sabacc punched out the Scurrg in return. For the remainder of the game, I managed to avoid mines and seismic charges as I tried to whittle down the Firespray, and I got half-points on it before I lost my other ships.

Game 4 - Adam Snook
2 x Jakku Gunrunner 
 - Proton Bombs
Jakku Gunrunner
Boba Fett
 - Han Solo
 - Marauder
 - Debris Gambit
 - Perceptive Copilot
(Aside #3. Having Han Solo crewing for Boba Fett feels ... wrong)
(Aside #4. I changed all my dice over for this game...)

With 20/20 hindsight, what I should have done here was ignore the Firespray and get rid of the quadjumpers first. But I didn't. I decided that I wanted to take out Fett, and that the best way to do that was to swoop in across the front of all three quadjumpers to get my shots. So, a dumb plan and one I got punished for. (In my limited defence, not having quadjumpers I didn't know they could tractor as an action...). Vader got pushed onto a rock, the Inquisitor got pushed which blocked him and stopped him getting the Focus to fire the rockets. Sabacc blanked out again and died, and a few minutes later it was all over.

All in all, a dreadful day for me that I can only partially pin on my dire dice. But there are plenty of learning points to take away.

Heightened Perception - didn't use it once, and right now I wouldn't take it again, I'd probably look at Supernatural Reflexes instead. But as the meta shakes out, we might see lists with 2 or even 3 pilots at I6 and at that point I'd expect to see HP come in as a counter to that.

The Force generally - is good as long as you can get dice results with paint on them... The Inquisitor's ability is useful, but we had a couple of queries about it that might need to go in the FAQ: i) if he makes a Range 3 attack Range 1, he gets the bonus, but does the defender also get the bonus dice? and ii) if he makes an attack a Range 1 attack, can he use a Range 1 weapon e.g. Advanced proton torpedoes?

Outmaneuver - again, I didn't use it, but unlike HP I want to look at it again as I do think it has potential. I want to try it on another Striker (possibly Duchess), but I think the ship it could really work on is the TIE Advanced Prototype with its Boost and Barrel Roll reposition shenanigans. Maybe Baron of the Empire will be a playable pilot in 2.0?

Fifth Brother - should be the go-to gunner for Imperial lists.

All glory to the Emperor!

Facing Up to 2.0

So, XWing 2.0 is here! I had my first chance to play on Sunday at 4TK in Colchester and although it didn't go so well for me it was a useful start to learning what works and what's different from 1.0.

The Imperial conversion kit is the only one I've had time to sort out so far, and I've been playing the Empire all year (with the regular addition of Omega Leader) so that's the faction I stuck with. The list I took was:

Face Up!
Rexler Brath (Optimised Prototype)
 - Juke
 - FCS
Major Vermeil
 - ISB Slicer
 - Director Krennic
 - Elusive
Zertik Strom
 - FCS

It's all about being able to flip damage cards face-up - Rexler should get two chances to do this, once from OP and once from his own ability, and Zertik gets to do it in the end phase. On paper, this should work pretty well; on the table, not so much...

(I was bad at noting down what upgrades people had on their ships...)

Game 1
I had a bye for this round so played a friendly against TO Steve, who had:
Duchess
Whisper
Soontir Fel

Zertik blanked out two turns in a row and died without firing a shot, and was closely followed by Major Vermeil. Which left Rex with it all to do - and he proceeded to clean up, killing everything.

Game 2
Fenn Rau
Old Teroch
Guri

Early on in this game I was feeling fairly good - I punched Fenn out in the first two turns of shooting, and then went after Guri. Vermeil went down, but Rex put the Disabled Power Regulator crit on Guri with her facing to fly off the board. But I couldn't leave her to fly off on her own, so I had to keep the pressure on to keep flipping the crit, until the turn before she'd have gone off she died. Which left Rex and Zertik to take down Old Teroch, which should be straightforward, no? Well... Rex was down to one shield, and two turns later Teroch got a crit and three hits on him - and Rex blanked out. Which left me a lot less confident that Zertik could pull it off given he was firing second, and he didn't, Teroch killing him fairly quickly.

Game 3
Luke Skywalker
Wedge Antilles
Dutch Vander

At some point I will learn not to try jousting X-Wings any more, but for this game I stuck to my broken-ass plan... I intended to try and focus fire on Luke first and overwhelm him, but his ability fended off nearly all my attacks, taking just his shields. Vermeil went down (do you see a pattern emerging here?) while I tried to put a bit more damage on Luke to no avail. So I gave up on Luke and started in on Wedge, who doesn't have the Force to aid him and subsequently went down, however by this time I only had Rex left. It was somewhat amusing though to see my Defender doing 4-speed K-turns and the Y-wing doing the same thing! Rex managed to get the Y-wing down to 2 hull left before he died...

Game 4
Guri
Sunny Bounder
Boba Fett

It was only in this game that I started to realise the Defender dial and action bar isn't quite the same as the First Edition Defender - it also has a 2-speed K-turn (though it's red and you don't get the Full Throttle benefit), and it has Boost. Wish I'd spotted those earlier in the day.
I set out to kill off Sunny Bounder, Shaun having boasted that she hadn't been killed all day. And I did get a couple of good licks in before she started to use her Ion cannon on me, she had lost her shield and taken a crit plus a damage. Which meant in the End Phase, Zertik got to use his ability! The only opportunity he had all day! All he needed was for his ability to reveal a Direct Hit and Sunny would be gone! He detonated his target lock to reveal... Panicked Pilot. So Sunny went off stressing, and I was left a bit out of position but with a shot on Guri, which went nowhere. The game ended up with Rex on his own facing all three opposing ships, Sunny having come back into it, which went the way you'd expect and the only points I scored was half of Sunny.

What Did I Learn From All This?
So what can I take from these first 2.0 games? Well, Rexler Brath with Juke is a bit of a beast, he was by far my MVP across all four games. But I do need to understand the changes to the dial and action bar. Zertik Strom I think was a bit unlucky with dice so I might try him again. The TIE Reaper, even with Elusive which only worked for me once, with only one green die goes down far too quickly and with Lightweight Frame not being a thing anymore right now I'm unlikely to play it again for the foreseeable future. And tied into that I didn't get the mileage out of Optimised Prototype that I wanted - I may stick with Krennic but put him on a different ship. I'm also unsure about the value of Fire Control System at the moment, but I think I need to get more used to it taking an action to kick in.

All Glory To The Emperor!