Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27029853-20170129150901/@comment-454133-20170427064453

Today I played my super-stress fleet to test it out, since I'm considering taking it to the Campaign Against Cancer tournament on Saturday. It was fun, but... I don't know if I'll want to play it for ~12 hours. I think I may back up to my Biggs+Nera+Jan APT fleet just because it's a kick to play.

Tycho Celchu with A-Wing Test Pilot, Proton Rockets , Daredevil , Experimental Interface , Rage  (36)

Keyan Farlander with Fire-Control System, Plasma Torpedoes , Stay on Target , B-Wing/E2 , Hera Syndulla (38)

Gold Squadron Pilot with Targeting Astromech, Twin Laser Turret (26)

The first battle I probably could have won, or at least done a lot better, but I didn't fly especiallly well and lost my heavy-hitters. It came down to Tycho, who didn't want to die, against Poe, who didn't want to die either. After a long struggle, we decided to call the match and declare him the winner. His Nera had done a lot of damage to my fleet before she went down, so it was a rough fight, and I sincerely doubt Tycho could have done anything to Poe. I took pictures of Tycho's stress pile, though, and it was beautiful. I'll try to remember to post one tomorrow.

Second battle was against a K-Wing and two Y-Wings, all loaded with tons of bombs; his goal was to mine the table with as many bombs as possible. The Y-Wings had ion turrets too. Like me, he was testing out a silly fleet for the CaC tourney. He unloaded bombs as fast as he could but still ended up losing his K-Wing before it was done, as well as his first Y-Wing.

But fate was on his side... I lost Tycho early in the match to terrible rolls. Then my TLT Y-Wing got ioned, and slowly escourted to the edge of the table by his remaining Y-Wing. The 1 agility die wasn't able to avoid the turret, so I stayed ionized, and I couldn't shoot back with him in my donut hole. Off the table I went. Then to kill the K-Wing, I willingly flew Keyan into a Conner net to get her into arc, and finished her off. Not a problem, I figured -- I was a long distance away from the edge, and I'd taken the healthiest ship off the board. All I had to do now was shake the ion token from the net, and deliver another couple damage to his last ship to win. Keyan definitely had this in the bag.

Keyan didn't have it. The Y-Wing got behind me, and patiently escourted me off the table. It felt terrible because I'd made two critical mistakes that each led to losing a ship to ions, but it was also hilarious and kind of a fun way to end the battle.

Reflections on my fleet: I think I need to replace the Y-Wing's mech (Targeting Astromech just didn't help much, and that Y-Wing needs more greens), and maybe give Keyan Extra Munitions. Maybe even switch the Y-WIng for Braylen, though the TLT helps balance out the otherwise firing-arc-heavy fleet.

After this I was getting tired of the stress fleet, so I switched back to the APT version of my Jan+Nera+Biggs fleet. It's silly, not overly powerful (since the range of the APT makes it hard to use), and it's probably the fleet I'll use on Saturday because it's so fun.

My opponent flew Captain Jonus with support crew and Wired + TIE Mk. II, Colonel Vessery with TIE/D and Tractor Beam (and I forget what else), and Zertik Strom with  TIE/x1 &  ATC, plus Cluster Missiles and probably an elite of some sort.

After an inital range 2-3 exchange of pleasantries, I introduced Vessery to the 6-die focused APT and he exploded with excitement. Biggs spend some time getting turned around, having been tractor beamed into a debris cloud (accumulating 2 stress). Jan also spent some time separated after getting turned around and needing to clear stress. Jonus and Zertik were trouble, but couldn't seem to kill anyone. They stripped every shield token I had and put lethal damage on Biggs (forcing him to chaff his astromech out the window) and 2 damage on Jan, so my ships each had one foot in the grave. But then we converged on his ships and just demolished them. Nera got off another torpedo shot, and Biggs and Jan also contributed some damage. I ended up winning without any ships, though Biggs was sure close.

I had a lot of fun with that battle, and I'm thinking I should bring this fleet on Saturday because it's such a delight to fly (while my other fleet was a bit tiresome). It's a little more powerful that maybe it should be for the silly tourney, but it's also one I can stand to fly a lot and still enjoy.

I also liked my opponent, very good natured and cool guy (same guy that flew the ion fleet above). I'm looking forward to seeing him on Saturday; maybe he'll ion a bunch more ships off the table and make a name for himself. ^_^  I have a book on Star Wars ships (including some cardboard ships you assemble yourself) that I'm donating as a prize for the "most fun & silliest fleet", and his will be a great contender. Saturday's gonna be amazing. :D