The Intro…
Welcome to this week’s blog!
It’s a bit of a monster this week so I’m going to keep this intro really, really short.
Since pay day has been I feel that I’m duty bound to mention the Welsh Open again!
Tickets are available from here and the Facebook event is here. It’s set to be an awesome event and we’d love to welcome players from all over to come down to our neck of the woods and roll some dice together! If you already know you’re planning to come, PLEASE can you book you ticket as soon as you’re able. It REALLY helps us with planning prize support!
Right, that’s it for an intro, let’s move on!
Patreon Update…
Last one for now, I promise!
In case there are any Patrons who didn’t see the message, there’s been a delay with the jam tokens and so your stuff hasn’t been sent out to you yet. Once it’s on its way I’ll let you know. Also, if you’re going to be at the Sith Taker Open, it would be great to hand you your things in person so let me know!
The batrep(s)… (Jargon Alert!!)
This week we had a somewhat unique situation in our play group. A few people were unable to come to casual night after having played at Steve Boulton’s tournament in Gloucester. Someone was ill, someone else wasn’t free and when it came down to it, it was really only myself and Steve Boulton who were planning to go.
With Steve living a fair distance away (whilst I’m just over 10 minutes away from the store…), Steve asked how many games I was there for.
Now, since I didn’t think he’d be up for travelling for just one game AND since I was done with work, I suggested that I could head over earlies than usual and we could do two games.
He was up for it and so I picked up by bag and headed over.
Speaking of my bag, what list do I have packed? Well, I’m glad you asked. I’ve actually got all the components (probably) of all three lists that I’ve been flying recently. Han, Luke & Kallus, Wedge, Luke, Corran & Fenn and the Luke, Fenn, Kallus, Cracken list.
There’s enough overlap that it all just about fits!
Now, off the back of last week’s game using the Han, Luke & Kallus list I had some feedback from fellow blogger David Sutcliffe (u/satellite_uplink) on Reddit. That list had the same Luke and Kallus builds that I’d used with Fenn and Cracken and so, it followed (in my brain at least!) that they’d work here too.
What David suggested was:
Luke should be Elusive, Protorps, Shield Upgrade. Kallus should drop Saw (which kills you) to run Magva (attacks mods to free you up to Reinforce), Chopper (to Reinforce after k-turning) and Ion Cannon (because anything you ionise isn’t shooting you next turn).
Interesting. Assuming that I don’t need the crutch of R3 to pick up my locks (i.e. I pick the right target and make good choices), I like this. Extra health is good and Elusive can be clutch. The combo of both makes him defensive enough without sacrificing the Proton torps that make him dangerous in the first place.
Kallus is interesting too and the logic is sound. Live longer, hit hard, ion things for everyone to shoot at.
Both are definitely worth looking at (and I will) but, as tends to be the case, I got tied up with other stuff and didn’t get the time to reprint the list with these changes. Typical.
So, reverting to what I’d taken before, this was my list:
Luke Skywalker (6)
Debris Gambit (6)
Proton Torpedoes (12)
R3 Astromech (4)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (22/22) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3
Fenn Rau (Sheathipede) (4)
Swarm Tactics (5)
R4 Astromech (3)
Targeting Computer (1)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Airen Cracken (3)
Fire-Control System (2)
Plasma Torpedoes (7)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Alexsandr Kallus (7)
Dorsal Turret (2)
Saw Gerrera (9)
Veteran Turret Gunner (5)
Ghost (0)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (16/16) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 7
Total: 20
View in YASB 2: https://yasb.app/?f=Rebel%20Alliance&d=v9ZhZ20Z4XW118W136W4WW142Y69X132WW5W249WY54XW113W234WY392XWWW137W58WWW90W148&sn=Unsaved%20Squadron&obs=
I’ve used it before, I’m pretty happy with it and I’ve got a better idea of how to fly it than either of the other lists I’ve tried recently. Individual ship build outs aside, I think I’m reasonably likely to take this or something very like it to STO.
Steve is prepping to go to Worlds as well as STO and part of that process is, much as I’m doing, whittling down options.
Steve had brought along a Rebel list that he wanted to get some reps with:
Corran Horn (X-Wing) (5)
Elusive (2)
Proton Torpedoes (12)
R3 Astromech (4)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (18/18) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 3
Ahsoka Tano (A-Wing) (5)
Shattering Shot (3)
Trick Shot (4)
Concussion Missiles (5)
Ship Cost: 5 Loadout: (12/12) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Tycho Celchu (4)
Composure (1)
Trick Shot (4)
Heavy Laser Cannon (4)
Concussion Missiles (5)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (14/14) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Luke Skywalker (6)
Shattering Shot (3)
Trick Shot (4)
Proton Torpedoes (12)
R4 Astromech (3)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (22/22) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3
Total: 20
Interesting. He’s very much leaning in to the Trick/Shattering tactic but also the mix of pilots is interesting. Force in half the ships and it’s actually pretty easy for each ship to be double modded, even in the same turn if it’s played right. When you add in that everyone is i5 and that the concussions work nicely after protons hit then you’ve got a recipe for lots of damage output.
So, things unpacked we got ready to play!
Game 1
With pre-amble done, let’s jump straight to Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Assault at the Satellite Array
Target/Objective Priority – I feel that the equal ship count makes things reasonably even although the large base maybe gives me an edge here but before I go full ‘kill mode active’ I need to make sure I’m tagging some so as not to fall behind.
Obstacles – lanes. I need lanes. Big ones if I can.
Deployment – Together is important and Fenn behind Luke and Cracken is also important. Further than that? I’m not sure yet.
We place objectives, obstacles and ships and are ready to start!
Now, my bad here, I forgot to take a pic before we started but it’s not hard to image where everyone was when you see the end of turn 1.
Turn 1
Ships move and stuff.
There’s no shooting or scoring and so back to planning we go.
Turn 2
Now, what might not be clear in the pic is that while Luke, Corran and Ahsoka are heading down the left flank, Tycho actually turned and is facing to my right. Now normally I’d think ‘meh, just an A-Wing’ but he’s packing a HLC and can pull that trick with Composure where he locks, links to a boost and then fails it. Failing the action gives him a focus and he can take it while stressed because of his pilot ability.
I do NOT fancy taking 4 double modded dice onto the Ghost. Or anyone, actually.
At this point I am also faced with a choice. Continue into the middle lane as I was intending OR hard turn with my small ships? Had the Ghost been on the inside of the formation AND not so far forwards, I’d probably have hard turned in (since negating the obstructed shots is what I want, given the number of Trick/Shattering shots Steve is packing) but I feel that moving into the middle is still the right call. Probably.
ROAD 1st Player – Me
Alright, here we go then. Kallus banks in short (so as not to risk clipping the rock) before Cracken goes slow (so as not to risk clipping Kallus) and Luke goes 2 straight and, after a little deliberation, boosts so that he could turn around the rock next time.
Fenn just shuffles 1 straight.
Tycho has gone straight and rolls out to the board edge (while still range 1 of the objective) while the T-65’s start banking in and Ahsoka remains out on her flank.
Again no shots but this time we do score some objectives
End of turn score: 1(me) – 1 (Steve)
Turn 3
At this point several things become apparent.
- Kallus is going to be in Luke’s way
- Cracken should be ahead of Luke, not behind (to leverage the shield stripping nature of his Plasma torps)
- When Kallus goes over the top of my ships, it’s possible he’s going to be the only ship of mine who has a shot and, therefore, the only target for Steve to shoot.
None of this is ideal.
Luke has to go straight, Cracken has to bank in slowly, Kallus has to 3 bank to pass Luke and Fenn has to go 2 straight to get some cover from the rock in case Steve picks him out.
Blimey.
ROAD 1st Player – Steve
Kallus 3 banks over the top of everyone and, expecting to get hammered, reinforces to the front.
All of Steve’s ships move next. Tycho turns in but keeps his distance from Kallus (but not from the objective). Corran turns in an locks Kallus before Luke (who already locked Corran a turn or two ago) takes a focus.
Ahsoka swings out wide, spends 2 Force to give Corran an action (he takes a focus) before boosting into range of the objective. Sneaky.
My Luke takes a 1 straight and evades (since there’s nothing else to do) before Cracken banks in and focuses. Eesh. Feels like a waste.
Fenn takes his 2 straight and coordinates Kallus a lock which he takes on Corran.
So yes, Kallus is in range of two double modded Proton torps which isn’t great. But. Those are the only shots and he’s reinforced and if they get modded he gets a defence die so maybe it’s not too bad?
Let’s see.
Corran fires first, allowing Luke to transfer his lock over to Kallus. It’s 3 hits/crits after mods and, since it was modded, he rolls a die and gets an evade, dodging one and reinforce taking another. 1 shield. I’m ok with that.
Now Luke fires and this shot is technically worse, resulting in only 2 hits/crits after modding. Kallus’ single die does nothing this time but reinforce cancels one and for two double modded Proton Torp shots Steve has only got 2 shields off Kallus to show for it. I’ll take that all day long.
Kallus fires at Corran and, well, even after spending the lock it’s a single eyeball result. I opt not to damage myself to change it with Saw.
End of turn score: 2 – 2
Total score: 3 – 3
Turn 4
Ok, first bullet dodged. What now? I’ve got HLC Tycho coming up on my right flank and three torp carries on my left.
I’ve got to go for a bump here. I set Kallus another 3 bank and hope that they either bump into him or overshoot him. I can maybe turn his turret with Fenn if they go past him.
Cracken and Fenn will turn in after Kallus to try and take advantage if I do get to block anything while Luke will bank out towards Tycho and keep him honest.
ROAD 1st Player – Me
Kallus dives in on the offensive and reinforces to front.
As I’m first player it’s Cracken and my Luke next with Cracken turning and locking Luke while my Luke turns 3 hard out at Tycho and takes an evade (which is white with Debris Gambit).
]My play hasn’t worked though as Steve’s T-65’s and Ahsoka simply all go straight, blasting straight past all my ships. Tycho hard turns in, sitting behind the rock, locks Luke and goes to fail the boost for a tasty double modded Composure/Trick Shot combo but the boost actually fits around the rock. Oops.
Fenn slides in behind Cracken and coordinates Luke (who still has his foils closed) a boost in at Tycho.
Not many shots here then!
My Luke fires first, rolling 3 dice at Tycho but the roll is poor and Tycho evades it. Tycho then fires but pick the tokenless Cracken rather than Luke and plinks a shield off him.
Not a great turn for damage. Not a great turn for objectives either.
End of turn score: 1 – 2
Total score: 4 – 5
Turn 5
Hmmm….. With all of Steve’s ships heading away from me I need to a) turn around and b) score some objectives.
The 4-K (JARGON ALERT!!) is a no-brainer for Kallus. I think about the 3-k with Cracken but being tokenless with Tycho potentially hunting him down doesn’t sound pleasant. He will hard turn to get position options for next turn. Fenn will just go straight to stay out of trouble. But what about Luke?
Where is Tycho going? I can’t be sure but what I do know is that it looks like a talon roll will get me arc on Tycho AND range 1 of the objective. I might hit the rock though.
I decide it’s worth the risk.
ROAD 1st Player – Steve
Kallus takes his rather obvious k-turn, landing right by an objective.
Steve hard turns Luke but banks Corran, leaving neither with a shot.
Tycho goes straight and boosts off towards the top right objective, picking up a focus along the way.
Ahsoka goes bold. She hard turns left and boosts in, looking to shoot at the already damaged Cracken.
Cracken hard turns in and focuses, hoping simply not to die.
My Luke takes his talon roll and does hit the rock, losing a shield but not taking a second damage. He is sitting range 1 of the objective though. Nice.
Fenn goes 2 straight and, unable to coordinate either of the ships at range 2 of him (as Kallus is stressed and Cracken already has a focus and lock), takes a focus.
Riiiiiight. Fenn takes a long range pot shot at Ahsoka out of his rear arc but fails to hit. No surprise there.
Only Ahsoka has a shot for Steve which she takes at Cracken but also fails to land any damage.
My Luke takes a shot at Tycho but even with foils open this time that slippery A-Wing get away without taking damage.
You know who doesn’t fail to land damage though? It’s Kallus. He’s just about got Ahsoka in arc and rolls all paint, allowing me to take a damage to get 2 hits and 2 crits.
Ahsoka dodges two (with the help of her Force charges) but loses both her shields. Not bad.
End of turn score: 3 – 2
Total score: 7 – 7
Turn 6
Wow, this is CLOSE!
Time is running out as I had to set a short timer for this game. I needed to nip home to take my son to work before heading back for the second game so while this will end in just a few minutes, under normal circumstances we’d have a bit longer.
With Kallus’ 1 banks not being blue I set him a 1 straight to clear his stress while also keeping in range of objectives. Fenn will 1 bank to his left to avoid the rock while Cracken will 3-k to turn around. The big question though is Luke.
In the end I decide to bank him in at the top right objective. With any luck I can either take Tycho out (ok, I’d need a lot of luck for that) but even if I just prevent him scoring that objective that might be enough.
ROAD 1st Player – Me
Kallus starts us off with a 1 straight and lock on Ahsoka. Cracken takes his 3-k before Luke clears his stress with a 2 bank to his left and then locks Tycho (not the best choice, more on that in a minute).
Steve swings Corran out wide, hugging the edge while his Luke 3 banks left and picks up a lock on my Luke.
Tycho hard turns and, sitting right in front of my Luke, rolls and boosts and just barely dodges my arc while also sitting range 1 of the objective. Balls.
Ahsoka, desperate to get away from Kallus and, well, not die, hard turns over the debris. She doesn’t take a damage but regains the stress she lost from the turn.
This is going to be interesting!
Fenn uses Swarm Tactics to put Kallus to i6. Kallus fires first and again rolls all paint. He takes a damage for 2 crits and 2 hits.
It’s obstructed but Ahsoka’s roll is poor and she takes the 2 hits needed to finish her off.
Fenn fires next, pinging a shot at Luke but does nothing.
Now it’s my i5’s but Cracken no longer has a target and we confirm that Tycho does in fact fully dodge my Luke’s arc. Cheeky.
With Ahsoka dead, Corran way out and Tycho diving out of the way, Steve’s only shot is a bit of Luke on Luke action.
Sadly (for me), it’s obstructed. So that’s a 4 dice Proton torp plus 1 die for Trick Shot and he can spend a Force to add a focus result.
It’s four hits/crits. After mods.
I roll my 3 green dice and it’s just a single evade. It’s fine, right? Right?!
First hit goes on the shield. Second deals a damage. Now the crit…
Direct Hit.
Ooooooooh.
That leaves Luke on 1 hull. Close one.
Time is up and while we cancel out on objectives in the top right I get two objectives from Fenn and Kallus and Steve doesn’t have any. With points from Ahsoka added in, I’ve clinched it.
End of turn score: 7 – 0
Final score: 14 – 7
Mini Conclusion…
Right, it’s a win but there were a few mistakes in there. My positioning overall was a bit off. Also the whole point of the list is to lean on Kallus for damage output and that clearly wasn’t maximised here.
Could I have predicted Steve just bypassing my list to go wide around the rock instead of coming to face Kallus? Maybe, maybe not. Could Luke have died from that Trick/Shattering shot? Maybe. If he had then Steve would have scored an extra 7 points (1 for the objective and 6 for Luke) and tied the game. With another turn or two my Luke would definitely have died but would I have been able to kill something else? Possibly.
Either way it was very close! After a quick dash out and back we were on to…
Game 2
I checked with Steve but neither of us was looking to change their list. Very interesting. I wonder how the events of game 1 would impact this one.
Time for the Pre-Flight checks:
Scenario – Scramble the Transmission
Target/Objective Priority – Most of Steve’s ships are roughly the same points cost so I’m just trying to avoid getting torped with lots of dice. Claiming objectives will cost us both actions, I guess it’s just a question of who will it cost more.
Obstacles – Open lanes again
Deployment – Some slight changes from last time but I’ll get into that next…
Turn 0
Now, I can’t do a direct comparison because I didn’t get a photo of the deployment in the first game. I’ve still got the Ghost on the outside but now Cracken is next to it with Fenn behind with Luke inside again.
It’s probably worth pointing out here that Steve was first player for turn 0 in BOTH games. With such a big crossover in initiatives I feel that’s been important and that maybe Steve’s had the rough end of it both times.
This time Steve’s gone with Luke in the middle, Tycho directly across from Kallus with the other two way out on the opposite side.
Turn 1
It looks like Steve will be using either Tycho or Luke as bait here. The question is, do I bite?
Either way I think that I still want to engage through the middle although thinking back maybe it might have been better to turn left immediately and avoid the trick/shattering shot nonsense.
I set everyone a 2 straight except Kallus who does a 3. If I can tag the right hand objective early then I think it’ll help.
ROAD 1st Player – Steve
All my ships go straight and focus. Simple.
Tycho (already facing to my left) goes straight and rolls. Corran goes 2 straight while Ahsoka goes 5 straight and locks Corran.
Luke goes 2 straight and boosts to his right.
Interesting.
No shots and no scoring.
Turn 2
Time to turn in. Kallus will take the 3 bank. Everyone else will 3 straight. Someone will claim claim the objective but I’m not quite sure who yet.,
ROAD 1st Player – Me
Kallus banks in and, juuuuust in case Tycho gets brave with that HLC, takes a reinforce to front.
Luke goes next and again, juuuuust in case Steve does something weird with his Luke, boosts left around the rock. I immediately regret it, thinking about positioning the following turn but what’s done is done.
Cracken moves up and he takes the objective.
Steve banks Corran and Ahsoka in while Tycho again goes straight and claims the top objective.
Then…. then Steve banks Luke into the middle and claims the middle objective.
I did NOT see that coming. Did I? I mean, I boosted Luke just in case it did happen, didn’t I? Hmmm….
Fenn moves up behind Cracken and coordinates Luke. He measures for a lock. He’s got it.
The ONLY shot on the board is Luke on Luke, this time though, it’s in my favour, not Steve’s.
I roll the torps and it’s hit, crit and two eyeballs out of hand. Brutal. I spend both Force for a full string, two crits and two hits after dice mods.
Steve rolls….
…..
double…..
….
blanks.
Wow.
The hits strip Luke’s shields, the first crit is…. a Direct Hit. Wow. The second is a Structural Damage. Luke lives but he’s on just 1 hull remaining and down 1 agility. Crazy.
At this point I offer to re-rack the game and start again because it’s very much uphill for Steve from here but he wants to press on and try to recover.
I can respect that.
No other shots so we’re back to dials.
End of turn score: 1 (me) – 2 (Steve)
Turn 3
There’s no doubt in my mind, I CANNOT allow Luke to escape and come back in later. I need to bank those points and take his gun off the board.
I set my Luke a 2 hard turn left. Kallus will 3 bank in again, Cracken will 2 hard turn and Fenn bank in behind him.
ROAD 1st Player – Steve
Kallus banks in and, expecting some incoming fire, reinforces.
Now, I have to say that the ROAD roll screwed Steve here a bit. Corran turns in and needs to take a lock but with my ships moving second, he can only lock Kallus. Ahsoka also turns in, spends 2 Force to give Corran a focus and then takes a focus herself.
Steve’s Luke goes 4 straight, keeping foils closed, and takes a boost into red focus. It puts him dangerously close to a rock but Steve’s in crisis mode here. Desperate measures and all that.
Tycho hard turns in, locks Luke and then fails a boost at Kallus to get a focus and stress.
My Luke goes next and while the 2 hard is fine, it’s a bit closer to the rock than I’d anticipated. I had wanted to boost but the straight is blocked by a rock and the bank loses me arc on Luke so it stay where I am and steal the middle objective. Rude.
Cracken turns in and, with nobody to shoot (probably. Tycho might be in but I can’t be sure) focuses. Fenn banks in behind and coorinates Luke. Since I can see Luke is in HLC arc for Tycho, it’s an evade that he takes with being range 1 of a rock making it white.
Fenn uses Swarm Tactics but with Luke just too far out, makes Kallus i6.
Kallus fires at Corran, trying to make him spend his focus, and succeeds at that (at the cost of a damage from Saw) but fails to force damage through. Fenn doesn’t have a shot so it’s Steve’s i5’s up next.
Tycho fires his HLC at Luke but even with his double mods, Luke spends his evade and some Force to just take 1 damage.
Despite Corran having Kallus locked, Steve shoots with Ahsoka next, also targeting Luke but again, even with Trick and Shattering shots, can only do 1 damage.
Corran takes his shot at Kallus but, with his focus stripped, can only land one hit past Kallus’ die (because the lock was spent) and reinforce.
With Steve’s Luke not having a target, it’s my Luke’s turn.
S-foils are still closed so I have to spend the second Proton Torp to have a decent chance of finishing him off. I have to spend the lock but with that reroll I get 2 hits and the Structural Damage means that there’s no way to avoid it, Luke is gone.
Cracken just about missed Tycho so the turn is over.
End of turn score: 8 – 1
Total score: 9 – 3
Turn 4
Ok, one down and objective advantage. What next?
I don’t like where the Ghost is so with one eye on a future 4-k, I set him yet another 3 bank.
With shields down Luke might be in danger so I have to make some choices about where to send him. Run away or dive in? A 1 straight will land on the rock so that’s not an option. I’m just really not sure where Ahsoka is going to go.
In the end I decide that a 4-k is most likely to get me a shot on something while maybe getting me out of trouble.
Cracken will 1 straight and so will Fenn but only because I don’t think the 1 bank fits in behind.
ROAD 1st Player – Me
Off we go and it’s a fairly disastrous first move – Kallus’ 3 banks lands on the rock. Balls.
Luke moves next, taking that 4-K but this time opening his foils. Cracken goes 1 straight and focuses.
Your move Steve.
Corran reveals a bank and bumps into Kallus. Good start.
Ahsoka does a 1 hard turn and barrel rolls right, right behind Luke at range 1. Balls.
Tycho goes 2 straight, locks Luke again (having spent his last one) and then fails a boost into Cracken to get a focus.
Looks like Steve’s going Luke hunting.
Fenn takes his 1 straight and, after a little deliberation, coordinates a red barrel roll to Cracken, putting him right in Tycho’s flank.
Hmmm…. not exactly what I was hoping for but it’ll have to do. Luke is taking 2 shots, one a range 1 and the other an obstructed Trick Shot. Ouch. At least there’s no HLC and Ahsoka’s only got 1 Force. It could be worse.
Fenn swarms Cracken up to i6 and both of them fire at Tycho, stripping his shields and his focus. Not bad.
Luke goes next, also targeting Tycho but failing to do any more damage.
Corran fires first, opting for a long range shot at Cracken over a range 0 at Kallus and chips a shield off. Cheeky.
Tycho rolls 3 reds at Luke but even with a lock Luke manages to dodge it. Ahsoka tries at range 1 but she can’t do anything either as Steve’s red dice leave him high and dry.
End of turn score: 2 – 1
Total score: 11 – 4
Turn 5
Right, Luke surviving that turn is pretty big. I’m now confident I can see this out, especially with Kallus’ big gun coming back in.
I set him a 4-k. Easy. Luke needs to clear his stress. I figure that a 1 bank right clears it but also, since A-Wings can’t go slow, might block Ahsoka or vice versa.
Cracken also needs to clear stress so he will 2 bank and hopefully take a coordinated barrel roll from Fenn who will 2 hard turn to his left.
ROAD 1st Player – Steve
Kallus starts us off with his 4-k.
Steve starts moving ships. Corran goes 3 straight and takes a focus. Ahsoka hard turns, going over the top of Luke and spends 2 Force to give Corran a barrel roll to his left.
Tycho, and I cannot understand why I didn’t see this coming, just goes 2 straight and takes a focus.
I start with Luke who bumps into Ahsoka. Not only does that mean he’s only getting shot once but he’s dodged that HLC again. Nice. I opt not to take the red focus.
Cracken banks in and while I’d have loved him to barrel roll, there’s no space so he just takes a lock on Ahsoka.
Fenn rolls in, looking to give Cracken a focus for the double mod but Tycho is in the way and he bumps.
Not a lot happens this turn in terms of damage. Fenn shoots Tycho but does nothing. Swarmed Cracken shoots Ahsoka but does nothing. Tycho shoots Luke but does nothing. Ahsoka shoots Fenn but does nothing. Corran does nothing at all. Luke shoots Tycho but does nothing.
And then, as if to spoil it all, Kallus shoots Tycho, range 3 obstucted, Saw’s himself a damage and strips Tycho’s shields. Brutal.
End of turn score: 2 – 1
Total score: 13 – 5
Turn 6
There’s a war of attrition going on here and I’m winning it.
I set Kallus a 1 bank right. I know it doesn’t clear stress but he’s now reasonably unlikely to die and doesn’t need a token to mod so he’s just hunting a good shot.
Luke can now go 1 straight and see what’s in front of him. Fenn has to get out of the way so will hard turn right while Cracken, who also needs to get out of the way, gets a 3 straight.
ROAD 1st Player – Me
Right, let’s do this. Kallus 1 banks right, keeping his stress and takes no action.
Cracken takes his 3 straight and focuses and Luke goes 1 straight and locks Corran because, let’s face it, the A-Wings are slippery.
Tycho proves me right by going 5 straight and boosting, dodging Kallus’ arc. Ahsoka goes straight, takes and evade and boosts away before Corran 1 banks right to clear his stress adn takes a focus.
Fenn hard turns and, well, I can’t actually remember what he does for an action. Sorry.
Fenn swarms Luke up to i6 at the start of engagement. What’s interesting here is that Fenn, Luke AND Kallus all have Ahsoka in range and arc. Just about.
The converge fire and take her last shield and put a Loose Stabiliser crit on.
We score up points and at that point, Steve concedes.
End of turn score: 2 – 1
Final score: 15 – 6
Mini Conclusion…
Interesting. This game swung early on Steve’s positioning with Luke and on the variance of dice and damage cards. Overall I think I made mostly right calls (except putting Kallus on a rock of course!) and, had we taken another turn, it’s likely Ahsoka dies whether Steve claims the objective with her or not. With Tycho bleeding too I think it was a bridge too far.
Now, what I didn’t really go into was just how much damage Luke managed to mitigate in this game because of Fenn. For the first time I managed to reliably remember the trigger and utilise his pilot ability to prevent attacks being modded. Afterwards I actually found myself thinking ‘why have I not done that more?!?’.
The conclusion…
So, overall I suppose that went pretty well!
It’s always tempting as a player to take the wins as skill and the losses as bad luck and part of the reason for doing the blog is to push past that and try to objectively see what I did right and what I did wrong.
The first game certainly had some issues. When I pushed past the bottom right rock I committed myself to going in through the middle which allowed Steve to flank with Tycho and torp with the X-Wings. While that in itself was not a huge problem, the order of the ships meant I had to abandon formation to avoid self bumping which isn’t great.
My positioning was off, based off my turn 0, and so my ships got into a muddle in the middle before that first engagement. After that the Ghost was out of the fight but thankfully was still able to contribute by scoring objectives.
My Luke taking 5 damage from that Trick/Shattering proton torp meant that he almost certainly would have died next turn. Initiative would have meant that he could still fire though and knowing where Steve’s ships would be to take that finishing shot meant I could maybe have got someone else. Maybe. All in all with another turn it could have been pretty tight and likely could have gone either way.
The second game turned entirely on Steve’s positioning of Luke in turn 2. I fully wasn’t expecting him to be in range but I took a punt with the boost from my Luke and coordinating the lock from Fenn enabled the somewhat fortunate Proton Torp. If Steve is more conservative with his Luke in terms of the actual manoeuvre or if he bugs out and boosts just outside range 3 then he doesn’t need to make the slightly riskier choices he makes later on in the game with his other ships and it’s probably much more even.
So, what can I conclude here? I guess the main thing is that turn 0 is important.
I’ve got to be sure that Fenn can stay close to the other ships for the coordinate and swarm tactics and I can mess that up with poor turn 0 deployment.
The same goes for Cracken and Luke. Kallus needs space to move and I did mess that up once or twice.
Also the obstacle deployment is important since Kallus needs nice wide lanes to play in otherwise e can land on rocks.
And lastly, using Fenn’s pilot ability is recommended. I definitely should have been remembering more often that WELL before now.
Something to bear in mind is that’s with an untweaked version of the list. I didn’t get a chance to try out David Sutcliffe’s Luke and Kallus suggestions and I’m interested to see how they change things next time (provided I remember to re-print my Infinite Arenas sheet!). Overall I do like how this list feels and at the moment I feel pretty happy going into the Sith Taker Open with it as my main option.
With the changes made, this is what next week’s list should look like (provided I don’t get my head turned by something else first!)
Luke Skywalker (6)
Elusive (2)
Proton Torpedoes (12)
Shield Upgrade (8)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Ship Cost: 6 Loadout: (22/22) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 3
Fenn Rau (Sheathipede) (4)
K-2SO (6)
R4 Astromech (3)
Ship Cost: 4 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 2 Damage Threshold: 2
Airen Cracken (3)
Fire-Control System (2)
Plasma Torpedoes (7)
Ship Cost: 3 Loadout: (9/9) Half Points: 1 Damage Threshold: 2
Alexsandr Kallus (7)
Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Magva Yarro (5)
“Chopper” (Crew) (1)
Veteran Turret Gunner (5)
Ghost (0)
Ship Cost: 7 Loadout: (16/16) Half Points: 3 Damage Threshold: 7
Total: 20
View in YASB 2: https://yasb.app/?f=Rebel%20Alliance&d=v9ZhZ20Z4XW119W136WW165W142Y69XW314W5WWY54XW113W234WY392XWWW138W51W23WW90W148&sn=Unsaved%20Squadron&obs=
Luke is tankier, Fenn can effectively double coordinate and Kallus can mod dice without hurting himself. It makes sense on paper for sure. I’m excited to try it out and see how it compares. The big question though is will I remember all the triggers…?
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading, I’ll catch you next time!
The outro…
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