REMATCH!!! B/B-Dash vs. Palob/Drea/Latts

JT was kind enough to allow a rematch this past Tuesday. I learned from my mistakes, and was able to end my streak of losery. No Good to Me Dead Reports was there, with pictures this time!

But first, a Haiku.

Blue Squadron Pilot
Set thy thrust on course to joust
T - L - T, snuff out.



We place the asteroids in essentially the inverse of last game, with a lane on the right edge, and more open space on the left. I place the B's together in the right corner. He places all three of his ships in the opposite corner (the far left from me). I think his goal is to swing in wide, and try to make sure that they can head off Dash wherever he goes.

In response to this, I place Dash next to the B's in my corner.



Once again, I want the B's to be the first focus. I set the B's dials for a diagonal move towards his ships. I set Dash for a straight 4. He brings all of his ships straight out. Dash ends up on some Debris. I could boost into range of Drea, but I don't really want to commit dash that hard this early, so I stay put.

I continue wish Dash into the corner, looping around behind, and push forward with the B's on their diagonal course. He begins to swing his ships in towards me, dodging the debris. We've got one little exchange here between Dash and Drea. I take a shield off of Drea. I'm thinking: Great. After last game, all I want to be doing is 1) focus firing, 2) killing Palob, and here I am shooting at Drea again.


The B's continue on. Blue B has to do a little bank in to avoid the debris, then he barrel rolls right. Red B takes a focus. Dash loops around the back. JT orients his ships towards the B's. He sprints forward with Drea into R1 of Blue B. All of my ships have a shot at Drea. Palob has a R3, single dice shot, and Latts is in range of my Red B, but not Blue. I really don't want to shoot at Drea, first, but I've already started on her, and I don't want to pass up the R1. With TL and Focus on Dash, I strip her last shields and squeeze a crit through: Drea has to skip her next attack. Good luck for me. B's shoot last: combined 7 red dice to 2 green. Drea goes down. Meanwhile, Palob whiffs with his single die, and Latts strips a shield or two off of Red B.


Palob and Latts continue forward, Dash 1-banks around behind, TL and Focus on Palob. The B's move up into R1 of Palob. The gang focus fires Palob, multiple crits go through: Palob goes down, but not before finishing off Blue-B.



It's an unwounded Dash and a only slightly wounded B against Latts. We circle each other for a few turns, but Dash is able to get behind Latts. Latts flops around like a wounded manatee for 2-3 turns, but then it's lights out: Rebel redemption!!







Reflection: I think that Drea entering into range of my entire squadron without any backup was really opportune for me. JT noted that Drea is the punch of his list. The dice broke my way getting that crit through on Drea. He also suffered from not getting the chance to focus fire due to range issues. Bottom line, this game underscored what I already knew: focus firing is imperative. I also was able to use my offensive modifiers much more frequently, which, again, underscores what I already knew: you cannot rely on the naked dice to get the job done. You have to have dice modifiers available.

Anyway, It was nice to win one! It had been awhile!

B/B-Dash vs. Latts/Palob/Drea

Squeezed in a Saturday night game vs. my pal JT. 

I was running my B/B-Dash list, comprised of:

YT-2400

-Dash

-Kanan

-Outrider

-Engine Upgrade

-Push the Limit

-Mangler Cannon

B-Wing

-Blue squadron pilot

B-Wing

-Blue Squadron Pilot

----99 pts

JT was running an interesting little manipulator build, comprised of:

YV-666

-Latts

-Weapons Engineer

-K4 Sec. Droid

HWK-290

-Palob

-Blaster Turret

-Recon Spec.

-Moldy Crow

Y-Wing

-Drea Reanthal

-Twin Laser Turret

-BTL A4

-R4-B11

------100 pts

My understanding of his list was that it's really designed to steal evades and focuses and reduce target agility. As I didn't have any evade actions, I thought: this is a favorable match up for me. And really, it was, but I dropped the ball! Here's how.

I've never run a B-wing before, but I'm slowly working towards collecting a BBBZ list. Presently, I have 2, so I did (and do) want  to start getting some practice in with them. Fielding 2 means that I have to reduce the typical 58 point dash down by at least 2 points. I have been wanting to see how Mangler fairs on dash, so this was a good opportunity!

For initial set up, we place the asteroids/debris in a loose cloud in the middle of the board. It leaves a tight alley on my left board edge, and a pretty big open swath on my right.  the B's went down first with PS2. All of his ships are PS5, then Dash goes down last at PS7. I placed them in my left hand corner, angled in at a 45 degree angle. He placed all three of his ships directly across from them in the far left corner. I place Dash towards the center of the board. 

What I'm thinking now is: I will joust with the B's, slowly advancing up the left board edge. Hopefully, they will strip enough shields and last long enough that I can swing Dash in behind and clean up. I am thinking that I really want the attention to be on the B's at first, and that their dials are too limited to allow me to really do any fancy flying, so let's just get them into range and see what happens.

First turn: B's bank towards his ships, his ships all move straight towards me. Dash sprints out in the middle of the board, and boosts over into R3 of Latts, and they trade fire--some bad rolls and Dash takes two shields. The scrum brewing on my left is not in range yet. He's amassing focuses on Palob. Back to dials.

Second turn: B's move 1 straight ahead. Not in TL range yet, so they focus. His cavalcade advances, coming into range with Palob and Drea. They each target lock a different B wing. Latts brings up the rear, and Dash moves in behind him. So I have a choice here with the B's: Drea or Palob? I look at the TLT, and I look at the 8 total HP/shield, and I think: Drea. Let's get her while we have the firepower on the board. I think this decision, seemingly so innocuous, and so early, was my downfall. I strip Drea's shields--nice. Vulnerable to Mangler crits now! Good start. I plink away at Latts with Dash, making good progress. Drea and Palob elect to focus fire on one of the B's, and they do some good damage. I am already impressed by the B's heartiness, though. 

Third turn: I am thinking that I need to prevent another focus-fired attack on my injured B. Let's charge ahead and block. I set dials for straight ahead red-4's. Dash is going to coast along behind, focusing on Latts. The blocks work! Kind of. I stop Drea and Palob in their tracks. I am able to take some pressure of of my injured B. Unfortunately, Drea still has the unwounded B in her arc, and Palob has a pile of focuses, and is able to shoot the injured B, even though she is out of arc, with the blaster turret. Latts also has a shot on the B's. 

I make another mediocre choice. I am thinking that Latts is my real target priority, for some reason. So I elect not to shoot at Drea and Palob and fire the B's and Dash at Latts. That's working out pretty well, and Latts is low. My injured B now has 1 HP left, and my less-injured B is down 1 shield. Palob is uninjured, Drea still has 5hp, and Latts has maybe 4 HP. 

So now I'm looking at the board. My B's are stressed from the red-4. I'm going to have to push through the blocks, but I can't K-Turn or anything, and Latts is positioned so that I can't even hard turn toward the middle, either. 2-straights it is. They're going to be out of the fight this turn.

Latts turns in towards the middle of the board: he's not going to have a shot. Drea K-turns. Palob makes a hard 1 or 2 towards the middle. Dash coasts along, safely, behind Latts. 

Palob and Drea finish off one of the B's, and reduce the other to 1 HP. He forgot to do something here--I think it was to steal the B's focus. If he'd asked, I probably would have let him "undo" that, but he doesn't, and I don't offer, so, the B lives. The B's shoot at nothing. Dash shoots at Latts: blank-blank-focus. I don't have any focus, I took TL. Re-roll: blank-blank-hit. Latts rolls one die: evade. Shoot. 

So, now it's just a B with 1 HP, and Dash with a couple shields missing. Dash is behind Latts, so I'm not real worried about him. The B is going to die, for sure, from Drea, but Drea is going to have to stick on that side of the board. I'm realizing at this moment that Palob is Dash's only real threat, with that blasted blaster turret. Latts is pointing towards my far right corner already. I think: Well, let's draw Palob away, try to kill him, then I can arc dodge these other bozos. Problem is, Palob is in pretty good position. I'm not going to be able to get out of range of his blaster this turn. I head for my right hand corner. I shoot at Palob, and do a little damage. Drea kills the B. Palob shoots at Dash. Latts reduces my AGI to 1, and Palob has a TL and a focus, or some such. He shreds Dash pretty good: hit and a crit: direct hit. Yikes. 2 HP left with Dash.

Well, I've stepped in it now. Still, my plan could work. I veer down deeper into my corner and boost. I can't tell if I'm out of R2 or not. It's close. I can do the smart thing: barrel roll and make sure in in R3, safe from the blaster, or I can be a cocky idiot, assume I've made it, and take a TL. TL it is.

I shoot first, do solid damage, but Palob still has 1 HP. He survives to shoot back. 3 dice: hit, hit, crit. Dash rolls to evade, 2 dice: blank, blank. Game over. 2nd game in a row with no kills. Ouch. 

Another good learning experience, for sure. I think that if I had focused on Palob first, that actually would have been it. He's pretty easy to kill, he's the only thing that had a 360 arc, AKA: the only thing that could really consistently threaten Dash. If I had it to do over again, I would not have shot at Drea with my B's that first round, I would have shot at Palob, and every opportunity thereafter, and I would have had Dash fire at Palob from behind the turn that they were blocked, rather than Latts. 

Not sure about the decision to Joust with the B's. I actually think that probably was still the right call, had I made better target priority decisions thereafter.

What do YOU think?

DASH/POE vs. VESSERY/RUDOR/INQUISITOR

Alright. Time to break the ice with a fairly undetailed, un-photodocumented first report.

Last night I traveled to my LGS for X-Wing league night. While I typically play with my more limited group of friends, an odd-number meant that I was matched up with one of the local players--a quite skilled, quite friendly fellow named Will.

The lists:
I ran a Dash/Poe list, which I refer to as my Po'Das'cita list. ...like pobrecita, get it? No? Well fine.

This was comprised of:
YT-2400
-Dash Rendar
-HLC
-Outrider
-Kanan Jarrus
-Push the Limit
-Engine Upgrade

T-70 X-Wing
-Poe
-PTL
-Autothrusters
-R2-D2
-Weapons Guidance

I'm not sure exactly what his full list was, but it included:

TIE Defender
-Vessery
-tie/x7

TIE Adv. prototype
-Inquisitor
-Autothrusters
-TIE/v1
-proton rockets

TIE Adv. prototype
-Rudor
-Autothrusters
-TIE/v1
-Proton Rockets

I know there was a PTL in there, and some other stuff. Ultimately, how that panned out was that every turn, all of his ships would have an evade, a focus, and a target lock.

We each had 99 pts, and rolled off for initiative, which he took. We placed asteroids in the center of the field, in a little band stretching towards each of our right hand corners. We both set up in our right hand corners, and moved straight out along our respective right board edges, circling one another for 2 turns.

Dash turned in through the asteroid field and exchanged fire with Vessery at R3. No damage. Poe trailed in behind. I maneuvered Dash poorly into his right corner (my far left corner), and he was able to move into R1 with Vessery and the inquisitor. Rudor trailed behind out of range of Dash, and an obstructed R2 with Poe. Proton Rockets went off on Dash, who was unable to return fire. Poe lost a shield, and failed to wound when returning fire. Poe tried to skirt through the middle of the melee and break out the other side, which he more or less did. In the meantime, he R2-D2'd back to full health, but Dash was really already in pretty big trouble.

Dash tried to sprint down his board edge (left to right on the far end of the table from me). Vessery and the Inquisitor followed, while Rudor split off to chase Poe. He read me like a book, and never lost a shot on me. I was burning through my actions, trying to boost and focus, spending my focuses defending, and making unmodified, R3 attacks on autothruster-protected, often-focused defenders with 3 AGI.

Dash continued hemorrhaging wounds as he turned up my right side of the table edge and tried to sprint back towards me. Vessery and the Inq. coasted along behind, casually, and finished Dash off without ever even losing a single shield, or breaking a sweat.

Poe tried to blow past Rudor, but Rudor caught him at R1. Poe fired first, spending his focus to turn to eyeballs into hits, removing a shield from Rudor. Rudor caught him with a 5 dice Proton Rocket, dealing two hits and a crit: direct hit. With one hull point left on Poe, I called it.

Thanks to Will's very strong list building, his ships were always decked out with evade/focus/target lock. Because of that, his ships, at most, would miss with one die. Almost always, he would hit with all of his dice. Again, I don't think that was good luck, I think that was a smart list.

I did not fly very well at all. Will pointed out that I did not make use of the asteroids very well with Dash. I am admittedly gun shy of flying directly into the asteroids, but he was right: I should have tried to drag his ships through the asteroid belt. Instead, I mainly cruised around the far edge of the map, which allowed him to coast along on the inside of the map, in a tighter turn, and keep me in his sights.

I also didn't focus fire at all. I was committed to trying to get Poe behind his squadron to chase. That did not work out for me. I'm sure that Poe would have been annihilated, had he tried to joust, but I obviously needed to be more creative and efficient about getting Poe into the fight sooner, and putting 7-8 dice on any one of his targets, rather than just 3 or 4, which he easily dodged.

I also did not use Poe's ability at all. I frequently would spend the focus to turn 2 eyeballs into hits, rather than hold onto it for the defensive boost. I never used weapons guidance at all, which was a waste. I have seen the r5-p9 build with Poe, and yesterday's game was a convincing illustration to me that it is a more economical use of Poe.

Lastly, it was good illustration of auto-thrusters as a counter to turret based ships. I mean, wow. HLC usually seems pretty reliable to me, but it literally did not deliver a single hit last night. This was, once again, largely attributable to the fact that he always had an evade handy, and I never focus fired, AND I rarely had a TL or focus available. So I was rolling a straight up, unmodified 4 dice. Usually that meant 2-3 hits. With his evade token and auto, that meant he had 2 dice to get one evade. If he held onto his focus, it was all-the-more easily attainable for him.

While it was certainly very humiliating and frustrating, it was a good lesson for me, and Will was a very sportsmanlike competitor.