Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27029853-20170703223814/@comment-454133-20170803062347

Today I flew:

Captain Nym + VI + TLT + Bomblet Generator + Sabine Wren (Crew) + Long Range Scanners

Lowhhrick + Expertise + "Chopper"

Biggs + R4-D6 + Integrated Astromech

First battle was terrible. I fought an extremely skilled player who has a reputation for simply decimating everyone he fights. Thankfully he wasn't nasty about it. But it was a brutal takedown, and his list was extremely well-suited to disassemble mine: Vessery + TIE/D + Tractor Beam + Ruthlessness, and "Double Edge" + TLT + Ruthlessness, and I think a Sienar Specialist with TLT? (I forget). The Ruthlessness forced me to split up, and ripped me apart any time I came together. I was flying low-agility ships against TLT and TIE/D and it was just... bad. And I didn't fly well. The whole battle just hurt, and I was so relieved when it was over.

Also my fleet was bad, so after he left I made some adjustments: Trade TLT for Autoblaster Turret, and give Lowhhrick Vectored Thrusters and Tactician. The next battle I fought against a fun opponent, very casual and friendly demeanor, and fun to talk to. I also like his lists: usually quite potent (e.g. double jumpmasters), but I usually manage to do fairly well and only barely lose or win. :)

He flew Lieutenant Kestal + Lone Wolf + TLT, plus "Quickdraw" + Expertise + FCS + (I think) Primed Thrusters ? + title + LWF, and The Inquisitor + PTL + title.

Kestal apparently had a bad day, dying first every time. He thought it was because of the TLT attracting weapons fire, but to be honest, I targeted it first as a target of opportunity. I started with Biggs & Lowhhrick on the left and Nym in the center, and he started with all three ships in the northeast corner (from my perspective). He headed south fast with Kestal, and I turned Nym in to intercept, laying in some lucky hits. Then Kestal turned inward and tried to escape range, but landed on a debris cloud so he couldn't barrel roll out of range. I turned Nym in and got right where I wanted to be, rolling the one damage I needed to finish him with autoblasters. Unfortunately, in return Quickdraw got a good shot into Nym.

All this time, Biggs and Lowhhrick were rushing to join the battle, which had turned East away from them. They were consistently barely out of range to contribute, except for one round where Quickdraw shot twice and did 0 or maybe 1 damage to Biggs. Nym landed a bomb right where he needed it to hit Quickdraw, and autoblastered a vulnerable Inquisitor, but blanked out on both. In fact, out of all his autoblaster and bomb rolls, he only managed to deal one damage from autoblaster and 2 from bombs (and the bomb damage was only ever from Sabine; I consistently blanked out with this fleet against the enemy, but he happily bombed himself for a hit and a crit!). Next round, he bumped Inquisitor and couldn't autoblaster anyone. Quickdraw delivered the final killing blow, and Nym died with a whimper, having killed Kestal but proven impotent against everything else.

Now Biggs and Lowhhrick flew in to try to finish the job, rushing south to make sure the inquisitor was in range. I overshot and Biggs didn't have arc on him, but Lowhhrick did, and soon finished off the inquisition. Biggs died next round, against a withering double blast from Quickdraw.

Now it was an untouched Lowhhrick against a shieldless Quickdraw (he might have had one shield left?  I forget). The problem was, Quickdraw is well-suited to outmaneuvering Lowhhrick. The good news was, I'd equipped Vectored Thrusters, and I started consistently surprising my opponent and getting him in arc about half the time. I was doing really, really well!

And then... well and then he got a single damage through my shields. A crit, actually. Damaged Engine. We both thought it would be Blinded Pilot, but no, it was much worse. Protip: Never draw Damaged Engine on an auzituck... they NEED their turns.

The good news was, I could still take actions if I was willing to take damage, thanks to Chopper. The bad news is, that would kill me pretty fast. But... I had to get my foe in arc! So, I took a damage. And then another. I was down to 1 health, and had him in arc. But Quickdraw got a really good hit in and finished me before I could shoot.

I was really close... I just needed 1 or 2 damage on quickdraw, and chances were I was going to get it before that crit messed me up. As is often the case with this opponent, it was down to the wire in a one-on-one battle that one player or the other should have been able to finish easily, but it was so close! He and I have had several great battles like that.

What I Learned


 * It's quite possible Ruthlessness could make a mild comeback.  Formation flying is pretty common thanks to Biggs and some other aura fleets, not to mention just to focus fire on a target.  And it's brutal on a Tractor Beam TIE/D.  That's an idea I've wanted to fly for a long time, and seeing it played now, it's brutal.  It'd be neat if we saw a sudden restoration of this card, not quite Mindlink's meteoric rise, but rediscovered and dusted off.  Eh... Time will tell.


 * Nym with Autoblasters needs Accuracy Corrector.  Throw Sabine off the ship and equip a sturdy, reliable computer.  Sabine is actually fantastic with bombs, but another ship needs to carry her.  Give Nym his title +Accuracy Corrector + Autoblasters + Bomblets + "Genius" + VI and he's fantastic.


 * I really like Tactician on an Auzituck.  That stress messed up Quickdraw's ability to deal with me properly, and Vectored Thrusters just barely gave me enough maneuvering to keep getting him in arc or getting out of his.  I might try flying two Auzitucks with Tactician and Breach Specialist, maybe Expertise and Vectored Thrusters, alongside Eaden Vrill (thanks to a helpful suggestion on the FFG Forums).  Someone at the game store once said 3 Auzitucks with Tactician had been proven to be obscenely powerful and "mathematically certain to" something something, but I didn't catch the whole conversation.  I doubt the certainty of 3 of them.  But this is a ship I want to play with a lot.  It's challenging but a lot of fun.


 * Don't start Biggs & Lowhhrick too far from Nym.  They spent half the fight not contributing because they were constantly barely out of range; once in the fray they were pretty effective.  I'd have that battle in the bag if I'd kept them closer instead of sweeping wide trying to flank (and trying to avoid being in Nym's bomb zone).


 * Flying low-agility ships that rely on staying close, against a fleet designed to ravage low-agility ships flying close?  Not fun.  That fight, man.  Couldn't end soon enough.  I knew right from the start that I'd lost, and it just got more and more discouraging turn by turn.  Rebels in general really suffer under those conditions, especially since some ships like B-Wings tend to use Biggs as a crutch to stay alive.  I'm going to have to learn some different strategies for dealing with fleets that murder low agility, because I keep encountering them.