(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!

Quick! Build!

I went to two Quickbuild Parties last week, and had a great time! I've really liked the format, and it's encouraged me to fly a couple of combinations that I normally wouldn't think of.

Wednesday - Athena Games, Norwich
My first trip to Athena was in February this year for their Regional. Athena's a nice gaming store, they have plenty of space, and for me it has the distinction of being one of the few places that it's easier for me to get to on the train than to drive...

I played all my games against Shaun, one of my semi-regular sparring partners and frequent visitor this side of the border.

Game 1 - TL4
(Phil)
Lt Karsabi
 - HLC
 - Advanced SLAM
 - Outmaneuver
 - Xg-1 Assault configuration
Academy Pilot
vs
(Shaun)
2 x Red Squadron Veteran
 - R5 Astromech
 - Predator
 - Servomotor S-foils

Mostly, I lost this in the second turn. I sent Karsabi down the left flank but SLAMmed him too far which meant in the first turn of engagement he didn't have a shot. He took hits from both the X-Wings, losing his shields, while my Academy Pilot was able to plink a shield off one X-Wing in return. The X-Wings split to chase both my ships, while I tried to focus on one of them, however my appallingly bad dice meant the Starwing exploded soon after. My Academy Pilot chipped a couple more shields off the X-Wings, but their combined firepower and more bad dice for me meant he died quickly.

Game 2 - TL4
(Phil)
Rexler Brath
 - Juke
 - Cluster Missiles
 - Collision Detector
vs
2 x Red Squadron Veteran as above

So after that, I decided to pull out the big gun. Rexler is TL4 on his own, and this game was to demonstrate why...

Rexler set to work immediately, chipping shields off both the X-Wings and generally dodging arcs. I got some value out of the Cluster Missiles, which isn't something I would normally think to put on Rex. Embarrassingly, the first time he got a hit through the shields I forgot to use his ability, but one X-Wing died shortly thereafter, taking it down to one on one. And like a Bruce Lee film, one on one  combat is the hardest. The remaining X-Wing led me a merry dance around the board until I was able to put a Damaged Power Regulator crit onto it. Knowing where it was going to be, I dialled in a 2-speed K-turn, stressing myself in return for a Range 1 shot, where I rolled a mighty one hit. Which was dodged, my stress preventing me from having the Evade token I needed to Juke it. And then I re-learned how hard it is to unstress a Defender - there were two rounds of what the snooker commentators call 'positional play' until I could get round to where I had a shot and I wasn't stressed. A crit and two hits later and it was all over.

Game 3 - TL2
(Phil)
Pure Sabacc
 - Stealth Device
vs
Red Squadron Veteran
 - R5 Astromech
 - Predator
 - Servomotor S-foils

Running slightly short of time, we decided to play a quick TL2 game, so I picked Pure Sabacc. My rule for Stealth Device in 1.0 was not to put it on a ship with less than 3 agility, so I was unconvinced about its' value on the Striker. I set up to come down the right-hand side of the table and then turn in through the obstacles. Turn 3 saw the first shooting, and what do you know, the Stealth Device paid off after all. Next turn I slooped, stressing myself to take a shot through a rock, and chipped a shield away. The turn after that, the X-Wing dialled in a T-roll, putting him in a great spot to blast the Striker at Range 1 - except because the Striker was stressed, the ailerons didn't kick in, meaning I just did a 1-speed bank to put me in front of the X-Wing, clearing my stress and leaving me free to barrel roll and turn the tables. Now I had the Range 1 shot, which with Sabacc's ability meant I was rolling five dice - for a total of one hit... Disappointing, but all hits count, or so I told myself. And from there I was able to keep chasing the X-Wing down until it died.

Friday - Ace Comics, Colchester

Game 1 - TL8
(Phil)
Rexler Brath
 - Juke
 - Cluster Missiles

 - Collision Detector

2 x Planetary Sentinel

 - Conner Net

Academy Pilot

vs
Damien

Turr Phennir

 - Daredevil

 - Electronic Baffle

Whisper

 - Juke

 - Agent Kallus

 - Advanced Sensors

 - Stealth Device

Echo

 - Lone Wolf

 - Collision Detector

 - Perceptive Copilot

 - Stealth Device

Okay, so I didn't really expect to be playing TL8, so I was badly prepared for this. Also I'd planned to Lt Kestal but I forgot to pick up my turret indicators... I did remember to pack my bombs though, whilst I'm not usually a bomber player I did want to try the TIE Strikers with Conner nets.  
Damien came down the right-hand side, while I sent my Academy Pilot to joust and the others to come in from the middle. In Turn 3 I had a Striker in a beautiful position to drop a Conner net in the next System phase and catch Whisper - if the Striker had lived long enough to do it it would have been great... Damien however was a little too aggressive with Turr Phennir and I caught him in a kill box. That was my only kill, however, from there I struggled for the rest of the game - Damien had initiative, and his Juke on Whisper kept taking away my Evade on Rexler and preventing Rexler from both Juking and using his ability, and although I had shields off both the Phantoms I couldn't get any serious hits in. And for the record, both Strikers died without dropping their Conner nets :-(

Game 2 - TL8

As above

vs
Nick

Norra Wexley

 - Expert Handling

 - Seasoned Navigator

 - R3 Astromech

 - Ablative Plating

 - Veteran Tail Gunner

 - Hull Upgrade

Jan Ors

 - Trick Shot

 - Perceptive Copilot

 - Seismic Charges

 - Cloaking Device

 - Engine Upgrade

 - Moldy Crow

Arvel Crynyd

 - Proton Rockets

 - Intimidation

 - Hull Upgrade

So, knowing from last time I faced her that Norra is a PITA, I went in with a plan of hitting her first with all the firepower I could muster. Which, had my dice co-operated and rolled more than two hits at a time, might have worked - as it was, between her ability and her agaility dice, I barely landed a hit on her. I did get to drop a Conner net right in her path - yay! Which her Seasoned Navigator let her dodge - boo! And the next turn I was forced to make a hard turn so that Academy Pilot wasn't caught in it... Two turns later Academy Pilot fell to the turret of the HWK, which weirdly was the only kill of the whole game.

So, a few takeaways from this that can apply to regular games:
 - HLC on the Starwing doesn't work all that well unless you're amazing at predicting your opponent's moves. The lack of repositioning makes it really hard to get the enemy in the bullseye arc.
 - Stealth Device on a 2-dice agility ship might not be the points sink that I'm used to it being from 1.0.
 - When you've had three and a half years of avoiding obstacles, it's hard to change your mindset to think 'Oh, I have a Collision Detector, I can dial in a move that goes across this rock and not worry about it'
 - If you have Juke and your opponent also has Juke, make sure you're the one firing first...

I did really like Quickbuild as a format for X-Wing and I'd like to play more of it especially at some of the lower Threat Levels where you can have a quick punchy game!

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!