For my brothers… – Exile Squadron

The intro…

It’s week 6 of the Vagabond Open. After a poor start (3 losses) I have picked up some wins to get to a 2-3 record with 2 games to go. More importantly though, I’ve had a great time. I’ve ‘met’ (as much as you can online!) new people, been able to keep my X-Wing skills up to date and been challenged to play with new factions and ships.

That last one has been very challenging for me. It’s been a particularly interesting feature of this tournament, having to play a different faction in each game. Having to find lists with unfamiliar ships and pilots and their associated abilities was far more difficult than I’d expected and with the list being ‘disposable’ (as in, you play once and then throw away), my usual process of list build, test, tweak, repeat was a no go.

As the weeks have passed I’ve found that, rather than diving in with ‘net-lists‘ (JARGON ALERT!!) or taking advice from friends (neither of which are bad options, by the way), I’ve personally benefited from looking at what available ships work similarly to ships that I know what I’m doing with.

In my Resistance game I ran ships that were very similar to their Rebel counterparts (3 T-70 X-Wings and 2 RZ-2 A-Wings) and it was close. 2 technical mistakes (wrong dial direction, i.e. me not being experienced with Vassal) were very costly.

Next I played CIS. This was hard. I net-listed for this one and ran a mix of Vultures and Hyenas, the list that Duncan Howard won a System Open with earlier this year. I felt that I knew enough from flying against them but I didn’t fully understand how the ships moved and this was my undoing. It was a massacre and it was all my own doing.

The third game was with Scum and I had NO idea what to do. On a whim I took a list that was just a bit of fun and got smashed up.

Then I tried an Imperial list. My son plays Imperial and over the last few months I’ve helped him to develop tactics for playing with TIE’s and a Decimator. With this knowledge to back me up (and a few fortunate dice rolls!) I finally got a win.

Next was First Order and I went with ships that I had accidentally discovered were more similar to what I knew than I had previously recognised. I ran 5 TIE/sf’s (remarkably similar to X-Wings, in my opinion anyway) against a very good player and came out on top.

Why recap all of that? Well, analysing what’s gone before helps to inform future decisions. You see, I’ve decided to leave my beloved Rebel faction until last. Is this a wise choice? Who knows, only hindsight will tell I suppose. What it means is that there’s no longer any meaningful choice to make, it’s the Galactic Republic for me this week.

But what about a list? Well, the purpose behind the recap continues. In previous weeks I’ve asked advice on our squadron group chat but this week there’s a small complication with that. My opponent is in there.

Yes, I’ve been paired with Mr Jonathan Hall. Officially a Vagabond based in Bristol he’s in our group chat at Firestorm in Newport as he has attended events there and in Cardiff and knows a few of the guys. He is actually the person who bought Cai’s First Order stuff a few months back but despite all this we actually only met in person for the first time at the System Open this year. We’ve never played against each other but he is very knowledgeable about the game and I’m expecting a very tough match.

The first issue I face in list building is with ships. There are only 5 to pick from. Two of those are very fast, nible, agile ships with low health (the Aethersprite and the Naboo N-1) and, while I get how they work in principle, my track record with them is….ummm…..patchy.

Torrents I’m also a little hit and miss with. I’ve played games with them where they have lived several turns longer than they should have and been generally annoying to my opponent. I’ve also played games where they die in the first engagement.

That leaves two ships that i’m much more familiar with. The ARC-170 and the Y-Wing. Both these ships are also in the Rebel faction and I’ve used them quite a lot. They are not fast nor agile but they have a lot of health and can put some damage in.

After a little experimentation, looking at points costs and abilities I realise just how cheap the Republic Y-Wing is. It’s 30 points. 30. Points. Is it fantastic? No. It’s got 2 attack and 1 agility but a whole butt-load of health AND the ship ability can convert a crit to a hit when defending (what I wouldn’t give to have that on a YT-2400!!). Throw a Dorsal Turret on to mean you don’t have to turn around so much and it’s not too dissimilar to the First Order list I flew last week of five TIE/s. Point the Dorsal Turret backwards and forget about it, take a focus (or Lock if not shooting that turn) and do what you can. They’re initiative 2 so can be flown like a swarm, except they’ve got 8 health each, not 3 or 4. And there can be 6 of them. That’s 48 health. Will some of them die? Yes, definitely. Enough of them before I’ve done some damage? Hard to say.