Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27029853-20170129150901/@comment-454133-20170218075826

I practiced with the Wes + Biggs + Corran list today at a different game store. It doesn't count toward the tournament, but it was good to get some practice in with these ships.

The first round went terribly, not because I lost (I actually won), but because I played terribly in the first few rounds, and then there was a disagreement about dice that stained the whole match. I thought he'd rolled 2 blanks and a focus, but he thought he'd rolled a focus, evade, and blank; he scooped up the dice too quickly and we were both at a loss for how to resolve what we thought we saw. The result was very important, and I really thought I was right and argued for it. I feel like I won the match because the other player was magnanimous enough to do it my way, and it felt dirty the whole game.

I killed one of his ships early, and then the 2nd after that dice argument, and at that point it was (I think) Poe running away from my two remaining healthy ships (wes + corran), and he called it. I still feel terrible, even though I'm almost sure I saw 2 blanks and a focus. Lesson learned by both of us: don't scoop up your dice until damage has been assigned. At the end of the day we shook hands, apologized, friendship saved.

The other thing that went wrong was my fault. I used R3-A2 but forgot to assign a stress to myself and neither of us noticed. I then assigned my dial the next round to a k-turn. When I went to do the k-turn, my opponent reminded me about the stress I should have taken, and this utterly ruined what I was doing. I ended up doing a white 2 straight and bumping, and Wes was out of the fight for a couple rounds as a result.

I don't remember what he was using, but I think it was Poe PS 9 and "Snap" Wexley, plus I think Ahsoka (who died very early in the fight, but managed to ion one of my ships). I suspect I could have won even without the dice call in my favor, but it's a tainted victory now and it still bothers me. :(  I really wish I knew what the actual roll was, and whether I saw it correctly; I don't want the mystery to keep gnawing at me.  Hopefully I'll forget all about it by tomorrow.

My second battle I do remember what I fought. Rey with Finn + Kanan Jarrus + Engine Upgrade + PTL + Millennium Falcon (HOR). Jake Farrell with A-Wing Test Pilot + Proton Rockets + PTL + Autothrusters + VI. That leaves 6 points unaccounted for, which I assume was a missile on Rey, but I don't remember it. I think he just never got the chance to use it. He might have left it open for the initiative bid... but that's a wide margin.

This was an untainted victory, though he really made me work for it. I had a better idea of how to fly the formation (and when to break it up) this time and did slightly better. He deployed Jake on his left and Rey on his right. I deployed to hunt down Jake, but he turned and fled, so I decided to turn into the obstacle funhouse and pursue Rey instead. The next few rounds were a jumble through the asteroids, and I kept failing to get Rey in arc save for a few pot-shots. He flew that YT like a pro, really well-done. But I eventually wore him down, then lined him up for a really heavy shot and ended it.

But not before he'd killed Wes and then Biggs. On the turn after Wes died, Corran had to k-turn around Rey onto her left, and lined her up for the most perfect shot (with a lock thanks to FCS), and finally put her out of the fight. Now it was Corran vs Jake, who all battle had been trying to get into procket range with a lock, but had failed every time because of my unexpected maneuvers and sometimes just bad luck. But that little a-wing's dice were HOT. Hit + Crit almost every roll, sometimes hit + crit + crit (range 1 but no lock).

So I really needed to kill his A-Wing before it unloaded those prockets, and planned to do some hit & run with Corran. Unfortunately, Jake turned hard and boosted, and I hadn't accounted properly for where he'd end up (I think I expected a bump?); Corran 2-banked to clear stress and they ended up nearly touching, facing each other nose to nose. Corran unloaded 3 hits and a crit into Jake, who rolled poor defense (no focus token), and was down to 1 hull. Jake fired prockets and rerolled blanks: 5 hits. I rolled a single evade and survived with only 1 hull left, and then Corran did what he does best and ended it.

I want whatever dice Jake was rolling... they were insane. Though he told me my defense dice were just as crazy; Biggs should have died a lot sooner. I figure with that crazy a-wing's damage, it evened out. :D

So my first two opponents were really good at the game and knew their fleets very well. The final match was against a kid who was obviously still learning, and even though I tried to go easy on him, the training weights were off and I was surprised at how powerful I suddenly was. I easily killed his fat Poe in two rounds, and then turned around and killed his fat Cassian Andor just as quickly. I gave him some advice about how to fly his team better (he needed to move Cassian more slowly so he didn't expose his back to foes so soon), and we talked about star wars and ghostbusters etc until the other matches ended.

All in all, a good casual day. I'm glad I practiced with this fleet; I flew like a drunk retard for the first while, and it took me a while to grasp the differences of the E-Wing dial and figure out the best formation techniques. And I needed to space my ships better. Also, I'm reminded of why I dislike the E-Wing's dial; it deserves better. It feels like it needs more green, or a white 1 turn or something. I'll have to get used to it.