Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27029853-20170129150901/@comment-454133-20170615065540

That's a good idea; if I revist the fleet, that'll be a good adjustment.

So turns out, there were more rules to the tournament that I hadn't seen (I needed to dig deeper through the facebook posts to see them, and hadn't done so). It was original trilogy only, so all three of my ships were invalid. Perturbed, I switched to Rebels and did this fleet:

Wedge with Expertise + BB-8 + Integrated Astromech

Wes with Adaptability + R2 Astromech + Integrated Astromech

Horton with TLT and M9-G8

That's right, T-65s FTW!

I kinda expected to lose, but it was only a $5 buy-in so it seemed like a fun plan. I was tempted to bring Luke with PTL + R2-F2 + IA to test that out, but I'm glad I picked Horton for variety; he worked out really well. His blank-rerolling TLT hit hard and often (typically a double hit each round), and after the first game, M9-G8 was amazing at helping Wes land shots. I won all three games today with excellent MOV, but before you conclude I'm some amazing pilot, it turned out each of my opponents was new to the game. So I let them each pick a card from my surplus uniques to encourage them, and help fill out their libraries. They grabbed A Score To Settle (with condition), Lone Wolf, and I think "Gonk". The guy who grabbed A Score To Settle was pretty excited to put it on "Omega Leader". ^_^  All three opponents were great today, and I had a fun time.

BTW a few people arrived late, and also hadn't heard about the original trilogy restriction. Rather than send them home, the organizers let them play. So you'll notice some ships (like scum firesprays) that don't fit the rules. I think there was one other rebel fleet; most everyone was running Empire.

First game was against Tomax Bren with Crack Shot + Extra Munitions + Concussion Missiles + Guidance Chips + probably another munition; Captain Kagi with Collision Detector; Darth Vader with TIE/x1 + PTL + Engine Upgrade + ATC. I was still remembering how to fly my ships and I made a bunch of mistakes, including starting Horton far away where he couldn't lock onto Wes and support his shots. He locked onto Vader instead, who chased him down and got into his donut, but didn't manage to hit with his shot. He shook Vader next turn and made a beeline for his buddies.

Wes and Wedge were facing problems because Kagi was denying the locks I wanted so much to land on Tomax. However, I did to some damage to Tomax on the first pass. Tomax turned away from a rock, and Kagi stayed put with his halt maneuver. I turned away to avoid a bump that would have planted me on a rock, but didn't have anyone in arc for Wes, and Wedge just barely managed a shot on Kagi. All this time I was lucky enough with my defense rolls to not die, but next round Wes was hurting after Tomax planted another couple damage into him with a concussion missile.

Finally I turned into Tomax with my x-wings around the same time that Horton managed to rejoin the group, with Darth some distance behind being troublesome but not lethal. Horton locked on Wes and they all unloaded onto Tomax, and then Kagi. Tomax burned, and Kagi was under half health and ran. Now I figured I would end Vader for the most points... but we were running out of time. After a couple rounds of shots and jousting, Vader was still sitting on 1 or 2 HP when the last round was called. So... I decided to go for broke against Kagi, chasing him to the southeast corner and abandoning Vader to his own devices. I already had half points on Kagi, but I knew I couldn't position myself for another Vader shot. I managed to land the lethal blows and score those points.

I think the score was something like 62-0 but I'm not sure.

Second game was against two firesprays: Scum Boba + Proton Torps + a few other upgrades I've forgotten, & Kath with HLC + Expose + Mercenary Copilot and maybe something else. I like double firespray fleets, and he did reasonably well despite not having a lot of upgrades (and being quite green). I initially flew up the right side of the map and tried to lure his fireprays into the asteroids, which worked, but then they turned south and faced their rears at me before I was quite ready to engage; thankfully I rolled reasonably well on defense.

The fireprays headed south and then west and I followed, putting a few shots into them but not quite getting a foothold. And I was taking a few shots in the process, especially poor Wes. Then he landed Kath a bit too close to the edge, and it was dicey whether she'd get turned back around. She managed it after two rounds, though not without Boba dying right before she could shoot again.

At this point I'd finally gotten my footing and I was putting a lot of damage into his ships; Boba took a ton of damage in one round and went from confident to quite dead. Kath followed shortly after, but not before firing an Exposed 4-dice shot into Wedge and nearly finishing him. Both my T-65s were pretty hurt, down to 1 and 2 life left, and Horton was back there chuckling at these crazy x-wing pilots that like to get close. Integrated Astromech saved the day again.

100-0

Third and final game was against "Backstabber" and "Mauler Mithel"; Carnor Jax with PTL + title + Autothrusters + TIE Mk. II; and Major Rhymer with TIE Shuttle + Snap Shot + Tactician + Operations Specialist. This opponent lamented his dice luck in the last two games, and I soon saw why... First contact at range 3, Wedge rolls Hit Hit Crit and he blanked out on Backstabber. He happened to have an evade token and lived by the skin of his teeth, but then Horton heard a Who and responded with weapons fire, finishing the job. These dice disparities continued throughout most of the game. I felt bad for him, but he was super-good-natured about it and made the game a delight. It's crazy... I don't believe in the supernatural, so it was really funny to watch the dice passionately hate him almost every round. Not just his dice, but mine too. The funny things odds will do! O_o

After that first round where Wedge and Horton were barely in range to murder Backstabber, I decided to take a gamble. A big, crazy gamble. I k-turned both of my T-65s, hoping he'd pull in front of them and I could light him up. Unfortunately he moved conservatively with mithel & rhymer, but carnor shot forward for the kill, boosting and rolling into just the right position to force a bump on the slow maneuver he assumed I'd choose (which would have also landed my ships at range 1, disabling my tokens even if I'd avoided the bump). Instead, Wes managed to just barely clear behind him, by a millimeter, and Wedge landed in perfect position too just to the right of Carnor. Rhymer had let Horton go without a snapshot, saving it for Wes, who he missed but added a 2nd stress token anyway. Never mind the double stress, Wes and Wedge had a target and they rolled amazing. I lit up Carnor easily, and then pinged Rhymer with TLT shots.

After that I 2-turned Wes and banked Wedge, bumping Wedge into Horton, and once again the positions were golden for me, as Rhymer had moved right into the kill box (only Horton was without a clear shot, being too close for TLT and pointed the wrong way for primary). A few shots later and Rhymer was a burning husk.

After that, Mithel did get some solid shots off though, and did decent damage to Wedge. But Horton had stayed in range, and managed to deliver the killing blow... if not for an evade token! Mithel lasted one more round, so I k-turned Wedge behind him and finished it. Had Wedge missed, Horton was waiting on the horizon with a couple shots ready.

100-0

So I got first place by about 5 or 7 MOV, winning a small ship and another premium Tactician. I picked the TIE Striker as my reward, so now I have 3. But the real prize that excited me was a pile of premium C-3POs that were being handed to the lower-ranked players only, and I couldn't have one. That's one of the only cards I don't have! And it's tournament legal! Noooo! I lamented this and wondered aloud if there was any way to acquire one, and then one of the regulars offered to trade me his. We looked over what I had to offer, and it turns out he fancied my 5 old acrylic Evade tokens, which I happily gave him in exchange for his spare C-3PO. We each got something we wanted in exchange for something valuable we weren't as excited about (I'm not as excited over acrylic tokens, and he had multiple copies of C-3PO and never used them).

Now I have C-3PO! Finally I have can field him in tournies, maybe on Norra, and be hated for rebel regen hax. ;)

All in all, a great day!