Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27029853-20170129150901/@comment-454133-20170216064909

Okay, Squad Leader and Moldy Crow ended up being a good idea. I flew against Dormitz with a Targeting Synchronizer, Tomax Bren with Plasma Torps and Crack Shot (and Guidance Chips, Extra Munitions, etc), and Major Rhymer with Plasma Torps and Snap Shot (plus chips etc). He put his ships forward but I ran away for several turns, drawing his upsilon into the asteroids and debris. His bombers took the long way around and kept being just outside of range to get a shot, and when the Upsilon finally got shots, those were obstructed and Biggs rolled pretty well. Nera, in the meantime, rocked him with a Jan-powered torpedo, and Jan did solid damage too with her TLT.

Then the Upsilon swung wide, out of the asteroids and right in front of everyone to force a bump. I believe Jan managed to fly just past him and was lined up for a deathblow from the shuttle, while Biggs just barely stopped short behind him and got his focus action. Nera hung back and decided to lock Tomax instead; Dormitz was hurting, and I expected to end him that round; Jan handed Nera a focus action to allow her options and power. Jan pinged Tomax with her TLT, and then took a stress to power up Biggs' attack to 5 dice, which landed HARD and blew Dormitz right off the table with damage to spare. Now Nera could fire her torps at Tomax and deal good damage to him. Tomax and Rhymer up till now hadn't managed to do much, and even on this round they were forced to target Biggs at range 3 obstructed, with not much effect (one damage).

Next round Rhymer sent a range 1 torpedo into Nera and stripped most of her shields, but she still wasn't worried. At one point they landed lethal damage on Biggs, but he chaff'd his droid out the back to shed a crit, surviving with 1 HP. Nera's attacks hurt, and over the next couple rounds I wiped the bombers out.

Final score: 100-0. For the draft tournament, I got a point for winning, a point for playing against someone I hadn't fought before in the tournament (which is easy, this was my first game), and 1.5 points for using 3 unique pilots I'd not used yet. Sweet.

Remembering now that the goal is to play lots of people and burn through all my pilots, I built a 2nd fleet for my next game:

Bodhi Rook + Proton Torpedoes + FCS + Guidance Chips + Kanan Jarrus + Inspiring Recruit + Pivot Wing

Airen Cracken + Crack Shot + Homing Missiles + Guidance Chips

Shara Bey + Expert Handling + Proton Torpedoes + R5-P9 + Guidance Chips + Weapons Engineer + Alliance Overhaul

Lots of lock acquisition and sharing going on here, and none of it came into play. Because of my opponent's deployment, we both flew at each other in formation, and I never needed Bodhi's ability, and I flubbed my chance to get two locks on Shara and share them. And when I had locks, I didn't need them, and then later when Shara was all alone and I should have used her locks to reroll, I amazingly forgot. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I fought Kath Scarlet with Engine Upgrade, Old Teroch, and Zuckuss, all lightly equipped (I've forgotten what else they had). First round of engagement went well... I'd avoided focusing (overly wary of Teroch) and instead just locked his firespray, and proceeded to launch a tactical nukes' worth of damage at it. It attempted to boost but was hemmed in by asteroids, so it was very vulnerable. I bumped Teroch and denied it attacks and tokens, and weathred shots well. By the second round of engagement, I killed Kath, and then lost Airen to a really good pair of shots from Zuckus and Teroch. So far, so good... that's a great trade. A small amount of damage on Bodhi (3 shields lost), but I've got this. And then... well...

So I've been watching a lecture series from The Great Courses called The Decisive Battles of World History. It's really good, btw. Quite often in these battles there's a critical turning point where the victory was up in the air, but then after some critical error or missed opportunity, the advantage swings over to one side and the result is all but inevitable. I can tell you the exact moment in this battle where I did that.

Bodhi was touching Teroch, and I chose a maneuver that would fail and hold him in place. I then flipped his title to the non-agility side figuring I'd spin 180 next round, and force Zuckuss to bump this round. Funny thing... Zuckuss did not bump, and Teroch k-turned, pincering Bodhi between two very powerful attackers at range 1. Ohhhh that's not good.

Then Shara K-Turned through a debris cloud, and ended up facing the cloud for next round. I was feeling confident during planning; Bodhi had Kanan and Inspiring Recruit, and she'd shed that stress fast. Instead, Bodhi died instantly without even getting his torps out, and Shara was left stacked with 2 stress, facing debris, at full health but facing a very dangerous duo. That's very very not good.

In retrospect, it was clearly over. But I still thought I could do it! This is the point in the battle though where I realized first, that Expert Handling was a poor choice of Elite. And Second? R2-D2 would have been a much better choice of droid. Much better. Or at least Recon Specialist for the crew! So I lost this fight a bit in the squad building stage too.

Thankfully I picked some very unexpected maneuvers, and managed to wiggle away for several turns, eventually shedding that stress. I'd gotten 2 damage onto Teroch, and if I could just land 2 more... but I had to keep running for my life, putting asteroids between me and them (didn't help, they hit hard anyay) and dodging arcs as best as I could. At one point I barrel rolled to dodge arcs, only to find out I'd have been totally fine if I'd not done that. Instead I'd rolled right into their jaws, but thankfully I still survived and squirmed away again.

We finally hit time (store was closing) and I lost on points. So close, yet so very far away.

But I got a tourney point for a unique opponent and another 1.5 for 3 unique pilots I'd not flown before. Also this was my first time flying the U-Wing and I liked it. I did however forget the extra agility die from the title every single time, so Bodhi died faster than he should have. That said, my flying is what killed him; had I made wiser tactical decisions in that one round, I could have won that game easily. Sorry Bodhi -- You're an excellent pilot, but I'm not. ;)

Also, someone wanted to trade a pilot for Captain Oicunn. I mulled it over, and decided to trade him for Corran Horn. This kinda hurts my Empire lists a lot... so I hope I made the right decision. That said, Corran is fun, and I'm looking forward to putting together a list with him.

Dragoon: I look forward to the results of that TIE War. I also really like your Kir + Deathrain + Echo fleet!