Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27029853-20170129150901/@comment-454133-20170129190854

Good luck, Dragoon!

(sorry in advance for the length of this battle description)

Last Friday I played an 8 player free for all that spanned 3 mats (and mats were removed from the side once all ships were off of it). As expected this was slow, but I built a chart of PS and ship/player names that really sped things along.

We had 50 points per player, and I'd learned from 2 weeks ago (where we did something similar but without buy-in) that I needed a ship that could discourage players from attacking it. The problem with Free For All is factions develop, people get focus-fired and unfairly taken out of the match very quickly, and then it's a long slog watching the survivors fight it out. I knew from experience that I needed to make myself into an unappetizing target that could still deal damage, even if that meant picking a hated ship that would put a target on my head.

So this time I brought Dengar, a top-meta ship. To a casual tournament with only a $5 buy-in. And yes, that makes me a wicked, meta-exploiting villain. But I assure you, I paid for it later in spectacular fashion. :D

Dengar (50): JumpMaster 5000 (33), Trick Shot (0), Outlaw Tech (2), R5-P8 (3), Punishing One (12)

I kid about being a bad person for using a jumpmaster. I'm a monster for other reasons that are off-topic to this thread  ;)

Funnily enough, Outlaw Tech never came into play (I only needed red maneuvers when I couldn't make a shot anyway). I used trick shot several times, and rolled terribly every time (0, 1 or 2 hits with 4 or 5 dice every time, never did damage with it!). I made a couple counter-attacks too, but never did more than 1 damage. So the dice gods did not favor me this day.

And then there's R5-P8. Glorious R5-P8. My strategy worked to a degree... Despite having a bounty on my head, people on my side of the table were somewhat hesitant to attack me, and the ones that wanted to actively target me to knock out a threat had randomly rolled the far side of the table as their starting location, so it would be a whlie before I encountered them (so maybe I could make it to the top 3 by then for a prize). All was going according to plan. ( * deviously rubbing hands together * )

Unfortunately thanks to bad defense rolls (despite range 3 and obstruction; again, die gods) I took a couple heavy hits that stripped all my shields, and then gave me the crit Major Hull Breach (all damage cards will be dealt to me face up). Oh joy. After this I kept forgetting to turn it face-down, as I had to keep barrel-rolling into position to dodge arcs and stay in range of my victims. In the end it didn't matter that I didn't flip it over, but it points out a problem with my strategy. Big mistake #1 was getting cocky and staying in the fight, when a free for all favors those who run away and avoid damage. Clearly I was itching for a loss.

Big Mistake #2 was innocent enough; someone shot me and missed, and I sought petty revenge. I activated R5-P8, and rolled a crit: Major Explosion. Rolled a hit, and got another Major Explosion. I rolled a hit, and got Direct Hit. And thus in a single use of my droid, I dealt 4 damage to myself in an instant and died in the cold vacuum of space. Oh cruel, cruel justice! Deserved but unwanted!

So... after that things really dragged on. Despite allying, it had taken the other side of the table a very long time to kill Ryad, surprisingly the only TIE Defender on the table. Only now were they finally, slowly making their way to us. It was down to shield-recharging fat Poes & Mirandas & Corran, and a couple A-Wings, all of which were good at avoiding damage and (except for the a-wings) even healing it. Again, free for all favors a certain play style.

It took a long time for these ships to die. Eventualy it came down to three undying ships: a shield-recharging Corran Horn, a shield-recharging Poe, and shield-recharging Miranda, none of whom could land any lasting damage to each other because of hit & run tactics, and terrible attack rolls matched to amazig defense rolls. Eventually one poe finally died... When the store was closing around midnight (an hour past its normal close time), Poe and Corran were still going at it, and Poe (at 1 Hull) had managed to get all his shields back while Corran had simply avoided most hits and was at full as well. I was expecting Corran to eventually win (he was a very skilled player and was playing the smarter game overall, while the Poe player was still kinda green), but there was no end in sight.

Finally the store manager made them roll 3 dice against each other and the most hits would get first place. They rolled the same amount, because of course they did. Good way to end a stalemate shield-fest. :D  He made them roll again, and Poe won top prize ($20 in store credit) while Corran and the other Poe each got $10.

Lacking any physical reward, instead I got the amazing honor of the most fantastic suicide anyone there had ever seen, and honestly I think I got the best prize of anyone. ^_^