*ALERT! ALERT! BONUS BLOG INCOMING!*
*Cheesy voiceover voice*
Previously on Dylan’s blog…
Dylan got to game night (again, yawn…) and played 2 games. The first is covered here (read it first to avoid spoilers!). What happened in the second? Well, you’re about to find out!
Queue titles! (wait, do I need a theme song?!)
*THEME SONG MUSIC*
Ok, enough nonsense! If you read the last post then you know that….. Ah, wait, did you read up on the last game yet? Are you sure? Are you REALLY SURE? (Or really don’t care? either is fine I guess!). Last chance!
Ok then, I’ll carry on.
The preamble…
Following a win with Dash & Jake (from, you guessed it, the last blog!) I sort of had time for a second game before we had to leave. Checking who was free I noticed that Gemma had arrived after most people and hadn’t played yet.
Gemma is Matt’s wife and has been coming to game nights at Firestorm off and on for the last 6 or 7 months. She’s a good player, getting a mid-table finish at our 4 game league in the summer and has a preference for Rebels (like I do!). I believe that she gets a few games in each week as there are a few of the guys who meet through the week to play but I realised a little while back that I had yet to play against her at all! Until tonight (well, it’s over a week ago now, but let’s go with it, you know what I mean).
Gemma’s list is low on upgrades but still packs some decent efficiency. Arval wants to bump and Garven wants to hand out focuses while Han dishes out hits with rerolls from his pilot ability.
Here’s the full list:
Garven Dreis (X-Wing) (47)
Servomotor S-Foils (0)
Ship total: 47 Half Points: 24 Threshold: 3
Phoenix Squadron Pilot (30)
Ship total: 30 Half Points: 15 Threshold: 2
Arvel Crynyd (34)
Crack Shot (1)
Ship total: 35 Half Points: 18 Threshold: 2
Han Solo (82)
Leia Organa (6)
Ship total: 88 Half Points: 44 Threshold: 7
Total: 200
View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0: https://raithos.github.io/?f=Rebel%20Alliance&d=v8ZsZ200Z6XWWWW142Y53XWY51X116WWY42XWWWW46WWW&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=
In a complete non-surprise move, my list is EXACTLY the same. I keep the rigged cargo in since I made reasonable use of it last time and this time I’m determined to get some more shots with Jake and hopefully blow something up with Proton Rockets.
Here’s the full list:
Dash Rendar (98)
Lone Wolf (5)
Bistan (14)
Perceptive Copilot (8)
Shield Upgrade (6)
Outrider (14)
Rigged Cargo Chute (4)
Ship total: 149 Half Points: 75 Threshold: 6
Jake Farrell (36)
Crack Shot (1)
Outmaneuver (6)
Proton Rockets (7)
Ship total: 50 Half Points: 25 Threshold: 2
Total: 199
View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0: https://raithos.github.io/?f=Rebel%20Alliance&d=v8ZsZ200Z39X124WW77W54W165W157W96Y50X126W116W102&sn=Dash%20%26%20Jake&obs=
With a 1 point bid over Gemma I decide to go second in order to move Jake after Garven. Other than that it doesn’t really matter.
The batrep…
(JARGON ALERT!! for batrep, I mean. Never used it in a heading before!)
Obstacles go down, followed by ships. With us both ready to set dials, the board looks like this:
I’m reasonably happy with the overall placement. Clustering helps me but I’m also wary that Han will also be hugging the rocks to get his rerolls. I dial in my standard opening – hard turn and see where my opponent is heading. The spread of ships across the board has got me wondering how to approach this. I want to avoid getting Dash in too many arcs at the same time. Let’s see where this goes.
Gemma shuffles everyone forwards a 2 straight while my ships take hard turns.
Now, normally I want to skirt the edge and not put Dash in between too many ships but in this case I also want to try and keep away from being in range of both 3 dice guns at the same time while being careful not to be herded into a corner and blocked to death. With that in mind I plan to turn Dash in towards the middle of the board, keeping his turret side to side.
Gemma pushes everyone forwards, the A-Wings coming in on my left and the rest on my right. However, she makes a mistake with the Phoenix Squad Pilot and he ends up way out of the fight. Garven heads out towards Han but as a result doesn’t have anyone in arc.
Jake goes 2 forwards and rolls out towards the board edge to be able to give Dash a double focus. Dash then takes the hard turn in, at risk of taking multiple shots but equally having the opportunity to take some. Risky but this early in the game I’m hoping it won’t prove to be fatal. Having focus tokens already I take a lock on Arvel
Han banks in and takes a focus. Crucially he’s in range for shooting and also is in Dash’s side arc.
Han takes a shot at Dash and sneaks 1 damage on. Dash fires back in Han and puts 2 damage on before taking a second at Arvel and even with double mods can only get 1 measly hit through onto the slippery A-Wing.
To be fair, Arvel shoots back and gets nothing onto Dash.
First exchange, 3 damage given, 1 taken. Not terrible but it feels like there is a VERY long way to go on that Falcon.
On to the next turn and a slight quandry. What to do with Dash? A 1 forwards will give him decent shots but put him right into the middle of a kill-box. Anything else is at risk of being blocked. Actually a 1 forwards is at risk of that too.
While planning this move I had a total brain-fart. In my head I wanted to do a hard turn with Jake, roll away from Dash to give Dash a barrel roll action then then boost whichever way Arvel went to try and line up a Prockets (JARGON ALERT!!) shot. Then go 1 forwards with Dash to clear the stress and focus.
Did you catch it? Yep, give Dash a barrel roll. Idiot. Since the announcement that the System Open will be Hyperspace only I’ve been looking at alternative lists and Lando in the Falcon has been an option I’ve been trying. Clearly I’ve been testing a little too much. Idiot.
I plan in a 2 hard turn with Jake and 1 forward with Dash.
The Phoenix A-Wing takes a 1 hard turn to avoid the debris, keeping him out of reach. Arvel banks in to block Dash while Garven comes around the rock.
Jake takes the turn and I realise my mistake. The move fits and I can manage a bank boost. I give the focus to Dash who then goes 1 forwards and bumps with Arvel and not Jake. At least it stops one of the incoming shots.
Han then sloops, giving him a nice flanking position next to the rock.
Han shoots at Dash and gets 1 hit on. Dash shoots back and rolls 4 hits. Gemma rolls 1 evade and with that the Falcon’s shields are gone. With no shot on Arvel Dash takes his second shot at Garven (having been careful to shoot him second so Han couldn’t take a spent focus from him). I feel so bad as my dice appear to have come straight out of the oven while Gemma’s have been in the freezer. 3 hits get through and suddenly Garven is at half points.
Garven exacts some revenge by getting 2 hits onto Dash. Then Jake steps up. With bullseye on Arvel but no focus at range 1 he gets 3 hits. Gemma rolls 2 evades but I spend the Crack Shot. Arvel stays in the fight by the skin of his teeth.
Moving on and things are starting to get a little congested. The Phoenix A-Wing takes a bank to go in for the block, Arvel moves out while Garven moves in.
Jake takes a hard turn, barrel roll, free focus and boost to disengage and find another angle to attack. Dash pulls out a 4 forwards to avoid any blocks and focuses up. Han banks away to keep his side arc in the fight while clearing the stress from his previous sloop.
Han takes another shot at Dash and plinks off another shield. Dash is now in his element. Or so you’d think. A shot at the Falcon yields just 1 hit (the first on hull) while a second shot at Arvel misses completely.
Nobody else has any shots available so back to dials we go.
The Phoenix A-Wing goes for a 2 hard turn but clips the debris, avoiding a crit but taking a stress. Arvel goes 3 bank, focus and red boost and Garven takes a 2 hard.
Jake goes hard turn, barrel roll, self focus, stress boost and give a focus to Dash. I still freakin love that move. Dash takes a 2 hard turn and does a very rare rotate arc action.
Han angles in and takes a focus.
Han shoots and gets ANOTHER single damage onto Dash taking him to half points. Bad times.
Dash fires first at Hand and then at the Phoenix A-Wing, getting 2 damage onto each, getting both of them to half. Jake also fires at the Phoenix A-Wing but fluffs it. Garven fires but misses, Arvel and the Phoenix don’t quite have arc on Dash. Still, all of Gemma’s ships are at half but then so is Dash.
So with Dash’s arc at front/back and Jake a bit too far away to pass off a focus my options are a bit limited. Hmmm…
Gemma’s ships all start to arc in on Dash. Dash moves 1 bank right in order to keep options open for shooting while Jake also turns in towards Dash, hoping to get an outmanoeuvre shot on something.
I don’t have a picture of the positions because what happened next was BRUTAL. I apologised most profusely.
Han shoots at Dash and misses.
Dash shoots at Garven. 4 hits. Gemma rolls, 2 blanks. Garven is gone.
Dash shoots at the Phoenix A-Wing. 3 hits. Gemma rolls, 2 blanks. Phoenix is gone.
Jake shoots Prockets at Arvel. 4 hits. It doesn’t matter what Gemma rolls, Arvel is gone.
3 shots, 3 ships wiped out. Just brutal. I felt so bad.
There’s still some time left on the clock but not too much. Back to planning.
Jake takes a 2 hard turn, barrel roll, self focus, boost and gives a focus to Dash. Dash then takes a 1 hard turn and, having the focus banked, takes the opportunity to drop the rigged cargo.
Gemma banks the Falcon around the gas cloud. That debris could be trouble next turn…
With the Falcon’s arc side to side Han shoots at Jake but misses. Dash puts another hit onto Han leaving him with 4 health left.
With still just about enough time left for another round we start planning.
Jake takes a 1 hard turn to the right, barrel rolls (with free self focus) and then boosts towards the debris, hoping for a block on Han.
Dash takes a casual 1 bank and double focus with his turret already facing backwards.
Han reveals a 1 bank and bumps Jake to land on the debris, leaving him with a stress, no action and rolling a crit. Harsh.
Unable to rotate his turret, Han can’t shoot. Dash rolls and gets…2 hits, 2 eyeballs. I spend a focus to make it 4 hits. After the crit from the debris Han has just 3 hull left. Gemma rolls…. 2 blanks. With Han’s ability she rerolls them…into 2 blanks. With the time now over, the game is done.
Looking at the points, Gemma has scored 75 from Dash (who survived with 4 hull remaining in the end) and didn’t get anything ok Jake. I’ve managed to score the full 200.
Conclusions…
Well, this was another new opponent and list faced, someone who hadn’t faced Dash before which put me at a distinct advantage. That said, Gemma correctly identified Dash as her priority target and played accordingly, getting a decent amount of damage onto him be the end of the game but the turn where 3/4’s of the list was deleted meant it was going to be hard for her to catch up in the damage race. Dice variance played it’s part in some turns which always feels harsh, whichever side of it you’re on.
Like I’ve said before, I feel that every game played with the list makes me a little bit better with it. I know that sounds fairly obvious but it does still sort of amaze me that I can keep understanding things a little better each time.
Anyway, with a second blog in a week I’ve clearly said far too much already.
Feels like I need a good ‘signing off’ line here. Hmm. Tricky.
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