Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27029853-20170129150901/@comment-454133-20170617065313

Today Fenn Rau fired a single shot that dealt 5 hits and 3 crits. Later he made a shot that did 6 hits and 2 crits.

Today we learned why the factions are usually kept separate. :D

The theme for our three casual games was mixed factions: you can have ships from all three factions but their upgrades have to match the ship's own faction (we've played this before, but there was no points division limit etc). I went with this little number:

Fenn Rau with Fearlessness + APT + Title + Guidance Chips (36)

"Omega Leader" with Targeting Synchronizer + Adaptability (up) + Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (25)

Jan Ors with Adaptability (up) + TLT + Operations Specialist + Moldy Crow (37)

So nothing too wickedly munchin-ish. ;)  With all three ships at PS 9 I had some good turn order options, and Omega could feed a lock to Fenn to fire his torps after Omega and Jan had softened up the target.  Fenn would have a focus to maximize damage with APT's blank -> focus -> hit sequence, and Jan could grant +1 dice on that torp.

Turns out, that's ideally 5 torp dice + 1 for Fenn's ability + 1 for Jan + 1 possible free hit with Fearlessness, for a total of 8 dice on a super-accurate APT shot. My opponents generally didn't look over my fleet very carefully, so it was a surprise when it all came together.

First match was against Countess Ryad with Expertise + Adv. Homing Missiles + TIE/D + Autoblaster; and "Deathrain" with Shield Upgrade + FCS + Extra Munitions + Plasma Torps + 2x Adv. Homing Missiles + 2x Cluster Mines. Unfortunately he hadn't noticed the cost limit on TIE/D, so for this first match his Defender didn't benefit from it (next match he switched to an Ion Cannon). We both started in the middle and went straight for each other. I looked at Deathrain and saw a candy shop, since most of his points were tied up in one low-agility ship. However, Deathrain was one step ahead of me, and I should have refreshed myself on his ability. He dropped mines in front of himself and then barrel rolled out of the way. So I wasn't going to get a doomsday shot off on him just yet.

Instead, I went after the Countess. I pinged her with some minor damage, but Omega got blasted out of the sky due to massive roll disparity. This... had me very worried. I actually, genuinely thought that had won the match for him (since his targeing synchonizer is core to the fleet). However, next round I turned my ships and had no problems avoiding the mines (there was enough space to 1-turn to the right), and I ended up in a good spot to start firing on Countess at range 1. She autoblastered Fenn for 2 damage, but positioning favored me on that round and the next, and within a couple of turns I nuked her. Fenn at range 1 and all...

Now to deal with Deathrain, who was having to take a long southern curve around the obstacles and bombs. I remember firing the torpedo and not getting very impressive results, because I wasn't focused (and Jan hit with her shot and thus failed to grant a focus with Ops Specialist... I actually could have done way more damage if she'd missed!). I think the torp did maybe 2 damage. However, Fenn is no pushover without his little torpedo, and he and Jan managed to kill Deathrain a round or two later, before I had to deal with any bombs (stress and positioning kept messing him up). He never got any missiles off.

I was lucky. Next match, that opponent played the guy next to me, who had a massively hard time with all the bombs being laid all over the field. He managed to win still, but it was a tough fight! This player is really good with cluster mines, and I shared the new Scurrg reveal with him because I knew he's be excited about it. ^_^

This wasn't a tournament, but the score would be 100 to 25.

Next round, I fought Jess Pava with Proton Torps + Munitions Failsafe + BB-8; plus Duchess + title + Outmaneuver + LWF; and Norra with title + Vectored Thrusters + Expert Handling + R3 Astromech + Plasma Torps + Tail Gunner. He started his ships spread across the center, and I started in the left corner. Around the midpoint we banked toward each other, and I killed Duchess at range 3 with lucky rolls. Having just experienced that death by dice disparity in my previous game, I felt for him. That hurts. I also managed to ping Jess for 1 shield; I don't remember if I took any damage in return... but I don't think so.

Next round Jess and Fenn came into range 1 of each other, facing arcs, and you know what happens next. Everything locked into place -- Fenn spent Omega's lock, turned blanks to focuses, focused, and used chips. This process churned out a whopping 5 hits and 3 crits! My opponent was kind of exasperated by this, and exclaimed "how am I supposed to deal with that?!". He half-challenged whether I had the cards for the combo (I was using a printed sheet only because I'd gotten off work so late and didn't have time to fetch all the cards), and seemed to question whether the combo worked like that. But I get it -- it's an insane combo and he really had no way of stopping it once it was unleashed. I explained that this is why the factions are kept separate -- the results of mixing are bonkers.

Next round he killed Fenn with Norra's rear arc at range 1 (and Fenn only managed a bit of damage on Norra; missed out on tokens due to having to miss his focus to get her in arc). At this point it was Norra against Omega and Jan, and this is where Expert Handling started to pay off nicely for him. I couldn't keep her locked for more than a round, and I also kept bumping her or obstacles for the next few rounds, missing out on tokens or shots. Norra got a couple damage onto Omega this way, and I wasn't doing a proportional amount of her health back. At this point Norra was a serious threat -- she could turn this fight around if she got the right hits or crits in. But I was getting a bit of damage in, and as we flew around dogfighting on the south of the map, another ship was still lurking.

All this time, Jan had been ponderously making her way across the north of the map, avoiding asteroids and gathering a healthy nest egg of focus tokens. Concerned by this, Norra zoomed forward to the far east corner, curving northward to eventually meet up with Jan and take her down. Omega was delighted to pursue, locking and attacking, and then taking no damage in return. Norra now had 2 HP left, and Omega was down to I think 1 or 2 HP. Jan had maybe lost a shield, possibly even taken a damage, but was basically healthy and had PS advantage.

On the next round, Jan did a hard 2 turn southwest, burrowing between a couple of asteroids for safety. I expected Norra to rush forward to try to get Jan into arc (and maybe into her donut in a following round), but instead she hard-2-turned west, and expertise-rolled behind an asteroid, clearing the lock. Omega didn't expect this and 3-banked onto the other side of that asteroid, facing north and failing to get Norra anywhere near her arc.

But Jan had Norra in range through an asteroid, and fired. Two shots, two clean hits. Norra down.

100-36

The person organizing the games had disappeared and time was running out, so we all decided to organize our own games. I played against one of my gamestore friends, and he had a doomsday list perhaps on par with mine. Dengar with K4 Security Droid + title + Trick Shot; and Rey with Finn + Hera + Adaptability. Tough choice... who to target? They're both monsters.

I chose to take initiative, and loosely decided on Dengar, but really I'd take whatever attack of opportunity presented itself. We both started out on the left, and just moved straight for each other (though I slow-rolled my first round to line up next round better). For the next round I had an evil plan to move Omega just slightly farther than Fenn, so that if Dengar bumped, Fenn would have him dead to rights, range 1 with no tokens. Instead Dengar landed just an inch away, and we witnessed Dengar in a staring match with Omega Leader and Fenn Rau. That must have been an ominous inch of space...

Jan had bumped Fenn leaving her also at range 1, very uncomfortably staring into the eyes of a very dangerous Dengar. Rey had k-turned and ended up just to the right of Fenn and in his arc... but Fenn wasn't interested. He had a tastier meal right in front of him.

I started combat by firing with Omega Leader, who rolled low and did only one damage. So far so good for Dengar. My opponent agonized over whether to take the counterattack, and decided to take it now in case things got bad later. He didn't know if Jan and Fenn would decide to pick on Rey instead (who didn't have them in arc and so was extra vulnerable). Plus I imagine a Blinded Pilot crit would have ruined his day. He fired the shot, but did little or no damage. That lock saved the day again.

Now... now it was Fenn's turn. You know the drill, and you probably won't be surprised that I ended up with 6 hits and 2 crits, while Dengar rolled 2 evades (after focusing). This burned through the remaining 3 shields and 3 of his hull. Dengar now needed only two damage, but all I had was little Jan. At range 1. With a piddly little one-die primary weapon and one stored focus token.

But Jan is the sort of person who would take a Jumpmaster head-on in a HWK. She took the shot. Two dice, ALL GLORY! And.... she rolled two hits!

And Dengar rolled... nothing. The mighty jumpmaster was felled by a HWK's primary weapon.

We both had a great laugh at this, and my opponent swore revenge on Jan. I reminded him that he could still attack because of the Simultaneous Attack Rule, and he made his shot, doing I think a couple damage to Jan. Rey fired next, doing maybe another damage? I forget; Jan was hurting but alive.

And now began the Great Jousting Battle, for Rey had studied TIE Defenders and conspired with Hera to make her dream a reality. And man was it hard to keep her in arc and avoid bump rounds when both my ships' min move speeds were 2. Jan died fairly quickly, and I was having trouble finishing Rey because Fenn kept failing to get her in arc, and Omega's rolls weren't impressive. But finally I had her touching behind Fenn with everyone facing South, and Omega behind Rey. I figured she'd joust one more time, so I 4 k-turned Fenn and made ready to have her in arc at range 1. Instead she 1-banked east into the debris cloud. Hmm... okay, I can work with this.

But my shots weren't very effective (despite her not having me in arc), and she got some damage on Fenn. I tried to chase her down, and eventually she tagged Fenn with the final damage, leaving me with just Omega Leader against a YT-1300 with soemthing like 4 or 5 life left.

Still could have done her in quickly, if only I could get a lock on her. But my only maneuver options either sent me through debris or bumped me. I chose the bump. Then next round I landed on debris. This went on for a while, but finally I managed a clean shot that finished her off! But our old friend the Simultaneous Attack Rule gave her one last chance to end the game in a draw...

She fired, added Finn, rerolled, and got a couple damage. But Omega rolled raw agility and deftly dodged all of it. Victory!

He and I both agreed that was the closest and funnest match we had played in a good while!

100 to 73, for those counting.

The morale of the story is, beware of writing any fanfiction where the scum, empire, and rebellion factions join forces. They're terrifying together. ^_^   #HWKPrimaryWeaponOP2017