Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27029853-20170703223814/@comment-454133-20170819073358

On Wednesday I flew 3 TIE Aggressors. By fluke I ended up with 3 (forgot I had one on order) so I decided to put them to use in a fleet. I don't remember my opponents' fleets, but I remember mine pretty well.

"Pure Sabacc" with VI + title + Lightweight Frame

3x Sienar Specialist + Unguided Rockets + Synced Turret + Lightweight Frame

The first battle went pretty well, but I suspect I was just lucky. Focus + Lock on the Sync'd Turret is quite strong and reliable, and I kept being really lucky with my maneuvers and sometimes dice. I didn't use Unguided Rockets basically at all; one shot at range 3 and that was it. It was always better to line up the turrets and stay in the fray, and when the enemy was out of range 2, by chance I just didn't have a focus token.

Second battle I decided to shift things around, and settled on this:

"Pure Sabacc" with VI + title + LWF

"Double Edge" with Unguided Rockets + Synced Turret + LWF + Intensity

2x  Sienar Specialist + Synced Turret + Lightweight Frame

I realized midway in the fight that Double Edge really should have Deadeye instead of Intensity (I wasn't thinking straight when I made the adjustments). Since these were super-causal matches to learn new ships, my opponent encouraged me to just swap out the card. I did so, and it worked a lot better. I lost this match, but not by a lot. Had I flown better I think I could have had much better results.

For future Aggressor fun, I'm considering flying Captain Jonus alongside some TLT aggressors and/or TIE Defenders. Maybe something like this:

Captain Jonus with Trick Shot + Unguided Rockets + LWF

Lieutenant Kestal with Expertise + TLT + LWF

Colonel Vessery + Expertise   + TIE/D + Tractor Beam

TLT and Tractor Beam with Expertise and Jonus' free reroll are pretty powerful, but it occurs to me that Horton can do almost the same thing (or better) without needing support. But I do think this fleet could do pretty well, probably. I may want to downgrade Kestal to Double Edge, just to let Vessery's Tractor Beam soften up the target's defenses before using the TLT.

Today I flew two Auzitucks and Eaden Vrill. You read that right, Eaden. You know, the YT-2400 pilot? Okay just trust me, he's a real pilot in the game. No not Dash Rendar. Yes I'm sure. ;)

2x Wookiee Liberator with Expertise + Tactician + Breach Specialist

Eaden Vrill with Rey

It's a really simple fleet that soaks damage really well, and the stress greatly hampers many enemy ships. It came as a recommendation on the FFG forums where I was asking if anyone had flown 2 or 3 tactician auzitucks, and whether they liked the fleet. I got some fun ideas in there. I played 3 games tonight with this fleet, and won the first two but those were against relatively new players. I only barely lost the third game, and I know what I did wrong.

First game was against a fairly new player. He fielded Captain Oicunn with Dauntless + Proton Bombs + Moff Jerjerrod + Fleet Officer + Ysanne Isard (and I forget what else) and Onyx Squadron Pilot with upgrades I've forgotten (possibly a missile?). I focused a wookie and Eaden on the decimator, while another wookie stressed the TIE Defender. Eaden was the primary target and took a few hits, eventually losing most shields (or all?  I don't remember). But I poured damage into that Decimator and kept it stressed. That stress was a problem for him, since it made two of his crew useless (Ysanne & Fleet Officer), so he used them to flip down two crits (Direct Hit and Damaged Engine). The Decimator soaked a ton of damage, but in the end I had enough firepower to knock it out. My wookies both turned in opposite directions and gracefully passed each other, trading targets, and I think Eaden made the killing blow on the Decimator.

Once it was down to the TIE Defender things slowed down briefly because he was able to shed some hits with 4-dice defense rolls (obstructed or range 3). But once I closed in there was little he could do. We talked after the game and he was open to proxying cards, so I gave him a bunch of advice on what to add to Oicunn, and pointed him to some online Squad Builders. He was a cool opponent and I hope he enjoyed the night, even though he lost a lot. He seemed pretty good natured about it and I think he had fun.

Next round I fought his brother, who fielded two Red Squadron Pilots each with a Proton Torpedo; and Keyan Farlander with Deadeye + Proton Torpedoes + Advanced Proton Torpedoes + Advanced Sensors + Flechette Cannon. I wasn't too worried about the X-Wings, and figured Keyan wouldn't be too terrible. But Keyan turned out to be a real threat and he flew him very well. The only reason I didn't take terrifying, possibly lethal damage is because I barely escaped being in range 1 at a critical moment. But I'm getting ahead of myself. :D

We both lined up our ships covering a wide area of our respective sides. I figured my Auzitucks would do well to swoop in from either side, and I knew Eaden was a big target so I didn't want him absorbing too much damage. On the approach he neglected to target lock and fire his x-wing missiles. I think that hurt him a bit; one x-wing didn't have a chance to fire them (first out of range, then range 1), but the other could have landed some solid damage on me. I quickly destroyed the x-wings with withering fire and stress, while Keyan approached from the northeast and fired a Proton Torpedo into Eaden's flank. An x-wing also got some damage in.

He didn't have Guidance Chips equipped, so I suggested we pretend he did since that would allow him to turn hit + crit into hit + 2 crits. He accepted, and Eaden rolled blanks on defense. So he was already off to a good start on granting half points. :)

More serious was the threat that Eaden would be at range 1 next round. I pondered the danger for a while, and finally decided to barrel roll away. Turns out it was a good call; Keyan revealed a 1 hard turn, stressing himself but first getting a focus token with Adv. Sensors. He ended up a few millimeters away from being in range 1 with a focus + stress, and that Adv. Proton Torpedo would have been devastating to Eaden. Instead he fired only 3 dice and didn't deal too serious a blow. I continued chipping away at his shields.

Next round I positioned for a bump, but Keyan Adv. Sensored a barrel roll and got to do his k-turn without trouble. However, the only target he had in arc was my unharmed Auzituck, who also had him in arc. Between him and Eaden I finished Keyan off.

This opponent said he is less okay with proxying cards. We discussed what to do with Keyan, and he figured PTL would be more powerful than Deadeye. I'm inclined to agree... several times a barrel roll + lock would have been amazingly potent for Keyan (range 1 + lock + stress for an amazing primary or adv. proton shot). We also felt he should ditch the proton torps on the x-wings and give them astromechs, or field a different ship. Though I still think those torps would have hurt me if used.

My final opponent was a regular who is more experienced. He fielded Crit-free Chewie + Expertise + Dash Rendar (Crew)  + Hull Upgrade; and 2x Gold Squadron Pilot + TLT. That hull upgrade ended up mattering a lot...

We both deployed on the right side of the board (my right). I put my Auzitucks against the right edge, one in front of the other so their rears would face the edge when they eventually turned inward. Chewie was in the center. I decided to be aggressive (even though banking some focuses would have been a good idea), since I wanted to put some damage into those Y-Wings before Chewie got up close. I got one down to 3 or 4 health on the first engagement, and stressed the snot out of it. Unfortunately he put a lot of damage into Eaden, who refused to dodge any shots all game (and he was against TLTs that were rolling amazingly). The Auzitucks stayed out of Y-Wing TLT range pretty well, and turned inward to swoop in behind them.

I killed one Y-Wing, but the trade was losing Eaden shortly after. The Y-Wings had softened him up a lot, and Chewie swooped in and just wrecked him. I put some solid damage into the second Y-Wing but it took me a bit too long to kill. Then I started focusing on Chewie. This took a while, but the real problem was that we kept bumping, which always favored Chewie because he had a shot and I didn't. Eventually I figured out my positioning and started getting shots again, but not before losing one of my wookies. Turns out Chewie kills his own people rather readily... (cue sinister shot of Chewie's face lit from below grinning wickedly)

The good thing about killing that Y-Wing though was that crits stopped being dangerous as long as I got my action; with only one foe, there was no disadvantage to activating Breach Specialist. And that Y-Wing's TLT was no longer a problem, though the damage was done (losing Eaden so early hurt).

So now it was a stressed Auzituck against Chewie, and I had to struggle to get him into arc because of the positions of debris clouds. I had already put a lot of damage into Chewie, and I was so close, but now I blanked out with 4 dice (while taking a lot of damage in return) and rolled poorly in future rounds too. I stayed stressed because of obstacles, and even took a crit from them. But I did get lined up for one final shot. The problem was, Chewie was higher PS.

Chewie fired at range 1 and got 2 hits, exactly enough to kill me. I rolled evade and blanked out... gah! I rolled my attack and he rolled defense just to see, and I would have finished him that round. So close! Chewie lived by the single hull of his Hull Upgrade. Such a narrow victory.

I know what I did wrong too. Instead of constantly bumping chewie for 3 rounds when I had both Auzitucks, I should have swung one or both Auzitucks out wide to get them turned around. But I doggedly kept bumping him hoping to gain an advantage, and that let him pour damage into me with no reprisal. I'm a bit too used to Auzitucks with Vectored Thrusters equipped, and that was messing me up a bit. And I was being a bit too conservative in my movements, when I really should have turned wildly and spread out. I wasn't thinking ahead far enough, and you really have to with those ships. Had I spread out I would haven handily defeated that wookie... and promptly gone on trial for murdering a hero of the rebellion, but ya know.

Overall I really like this fleet. I do think Eaden is the weakpoint though. He's too eager to give the opponent half points, if not all of them, and his shots lack bite without the Tacticians giving him bonus dice. I'm considering getting a third Auzituck, and flying this:

2x Wookie Liberator with Expertise + Tactician + Breach Specialist

Wookie Liberator with Expertise + C-3PO + Breach Specialist

It lacks Eaden's turret, but it's also a lot tankier and less likely to give away points to bad rolls. It's really tempting to pick up that 3rd auzituck just because they're so fun to fly... I'll have to ponder on how often I'll use 3 of them.

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend!