Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27029853-20170129150901/@comment-454133-20170202063408

Today I flew my TIE Strikers and had a great time.

Duchess + VI + Title + Lightweight Frame

Pure Sabacc + Trick Shot  + Title + Lightweight Frame

Rear Admiral Chiraneau + Draw Their Fire + Fleet Officer

So I got my strikers last week but didn't pull them out, because I was already committed to flying my Firespray Fiesta. I'm glad I pulled them out today, they were a lot of fun. By luck, Trick Shot never got any use, and the only time I had a chance to use Draw Their Fire to help Sabacc, I forgot. Eh. Tactical Jammer was my other choice, though I don't think it would have helped much given how the strikers like to fly. Or Sabacc would have benefitted a lot from VI. I'd considered giving Sabacc Swarm Leader and a couple evade feeders, but I was pretty sure that would put too large a target on his head, and the decimator turned out to be an optimal choice.

The Admiral's ability is awesome, and I think he does well with fleet officer. He can hand a focus token to sabacc, who could have evaded or locked as needed, and either hand the other focus to Duchess or keep it for his shot. If he's ever off on his own, he target locks and hits the enemy very hard.

In both games, Sabacc kept his ability for a long time, and was rolling 4 to 5 dice to great effect. He and Duchess are fun to fly, and I only flew them like blind drunken donkeys a couple of times. Sabacc actually missed out on a round of combat because I picked the wrong bank direction on my dial. I never lost any ships, partly because the Admiral makes such good bait, and partly because those Lightweight Frames are worth their weight in gold-pressed latinum. FIGHT ME! ;)

First match was against Parattaninniiiinii or however that's spelled. The guy was just trying it out for the first time, so we were both green with our lists. He had watched a video to learn how to fly it, but it was weird for him to fly such a lightly equipped lancer (no boost, no PTL) and he never quite got used to that. I ended up doing really well. I didn't take the bait to go chasing down Fenn (who ran away, apparently expecting me to press the attack); instead I wailed on Asajj until she died (despite a lot of help from Latts Razzi (Crew) ), and I was still in excellent shape to take down Fenn and Manny. He had to leave about then anyway, so we called the match. He'd gotten only half points on my Decimator (25). In retrospect, he should have been a *lot* more aggressive with Fenn. The guy is kitted out to nearly auto-win face-to-face fights, and instead he turned his back and contributed almost nothing in the battle. Though that was partly thanks to my dodgy flying, and a few mistakes on his end. Also I didn't realize until we were cleaning up, but he'd been forgetting to give a focus token to manaroo when she passed her focus tokens to an ally (since it absurdly channels back through the mindlink). So, score one for Team Hunter-Striker!

Second match was against an x7 Colonel Vessery, "Omega Ace", Pure Sabacc, and "Epsilon Ace". I knew one thing: that TIE Defender was going DOWN. And it did, first round of contact (2nd round of the game). My whole team just dumped firepower on him; Duchess missed but stripped his tokens, Admiral hit him reasonably hard, and then Sabacc rolled heavy and landed a direct hit as the last crit, wiping him out. It was beautiful. I might have cried a little.

At this point I'd removed the most serious threat from the table. His Sabacc could be dangerous, and I was a touch wary of Omega Ace, but they were nowhere near the threat level of Vessery. Funnily enough Epsilon Ace turned out to be the greatest threat of all, because I kept forgetting his pilot skill, and at one point this resulted in a k-turn bump that could easily have ended Duchess. Thankfully the dice were compassionate, and after surviving rather well, she managed to recover her orientation within a couple rounds. Soon I ended Omega and Sabacc, and he called the match.

I have to say, TIE Strikers are fun. They're not as hard to fly as I expected, but I did find myself making mistakes by forgetting to account for the title's movement. Thankfully they weren't lethal mistakes, and Fleet Officer ended up having a lot of utility for me. And flying my decimator again felt GOOD. ^_^

Sometime soon I'm considering flying a decmiator flanked by two Sigma Squadron Pilots with Lightweight Frame and Collision Detector. Unfortunately Chiraneau barely doesn't fit, but I could include Captain Oicunn or a Patrol Leader with a couple upgrades, and maybe give someone an intelligence agent to help the Phantoms with positioning. The idea to pair cheap phantoms with a decimator came from a guy at this same game store (wasn't there today, sadly), and today demonstrated that a decimator can make a pretty good buddy for delicate ships. The enemy can either focus down the powerful turreted damage sponge, or try to take down the cheaper glass cannons that are consistently rolling 3 defense dice.

Though attack order could prove problematic with sigma squad; they'll go down fast, maybe before they get their shots off. But that's less damage the decimator takes. Maybe it'll work out?