Swarm of B's!

JT and I faced off again this past Tuesday night at our lgs, Titan Games. He was fielding the now-familiar Latts/Drea/Palob list that focuses on stripping focuses and evades, and reducing AGI.

I was fielding:

B-Wing
-Dagger Sq. Pilot
-Fire Control System

x3

B-Wing
-Blue Sq. Pilot

Asteroids go down in a loose cloud in the middle, leaving fairly ample space around the edges. All of his pilots are PS5, while I have 3 PS4 and a PS2. This is my first time running the list, and I went back and forth for a bit debating whether they should be deployed in a block of 4, 2 blocks of 2, or just willy nilly. I opted for 2 blocks of 2, as seen below. He set up all three of his ships in the corner directly across.







First turn. I resolved that I didn't really want to just fly straight at him. Tactically, I think that probably would have been fine, but I just didn't want to fly straight at him and roll dice. I opted to fly left, and TRY to bring him through the asteroid field. He slow rolls straight out, and begins amassing foci on Palob.








Turn 2. We both keep flying straight. It's apparent to me that he will not be taking the bait, and instead will just fly safely around the asteroid field. Touche.












Turn 3. Alright, well this is silly. He has a decent pursuit angle, and I am not confident that I do not want to be trying to double back on him through the asteroid field. So I K-turn with the Dagger/Blue pair, using the B-wing's nifty 2-k. I do a 2-right turn with the other two, barrel rolling with the first to avoid the asteroid, which causes a bump from the second. Not a big deal, but it was the first of a series of bumps. Meanwhile, he starts banking in, and gets a double Target Lock on each of the Dagger/Blue B's. The good news is, those 2 are in range of Latts, and have him in their arc. This is good. 6 red dice on Latts, and only 3 from him in response. The dice go my way, and I hung 4-5 hits on him, and lose only a few shields from the Blue Sq. Pilot. My Dagger Sq. picks up a TL from Fire Control System.

Next turn, everything cruises into range. I TL with one of my left Daggers, and the other bumps again. There was not a single arc-dodging attempt on either side all night. My 2 Daggers on the left bump again. Drea is in range now. Palob is technically in range, but not with his blaster turret, so it's just one red die from him. He focus fires the Blue Sq. Pilot to death, but my right Dagger is in R1 of Latts, so I've got 10 dice back at Latts, with 2 TL's, so Latts goes down. Drea is really quite a beast, though.

We close in awkwardly. The B's have a weird dial. Drea is really pumping out the hurt. I start focus firing her down. Drea pulls up into R1 of a full health Dagger. First shot with primary: Hit-Hit-Crit. Roll evade: nothing. TLT's for 2 more hits. Palob with the blaster turret: hit-hit-crit. Roll evade: nothing. "How many hull does your B have left?" JT asks. I count the number of cards. 1, 2, 3. "Oh. He's dead," I mumble. "What'd you say?" he asks. "HE DIED," I say, louder than I mean to. JT gives me a sympathetic, slightly disappointed, fatherly look that I have seen from him many times. It says, "I'm sorry that your toy died, Austin, and I'm also sorry that you are a MAN-BABY." Only 1 B has a shot on Drea this turn, but it's R1, and it's enough to finish her off.

I have a full health Dagger, and a heavily wounded Dagger, and he has a full health Palob. Despite their clunky flying through the scrum, the B's have come out in good position, right on Palob's tail, but Palob is able to easily dispatch the wounded Dagger. Still, I've got a good pursuit angle, and full health, and the HWK is not going to be doing any fancy flying. There is an opportunity hear to try to slow down, hang in R3, where he can't shoot back. Ultimately though, I think I have the upper hand in a slug fest. Thus, I try to just follow Palob along, replacing her footprint with each move, like I've read to do, and...it works!

JT is looking for a creative solution, but the HWK can't really offer it at this moment. He anticipates that I will anticipate HIM going hard right, which is true. I don't expect him to go left, because there is not much board over there. So he goes hard left, zooming right up to the board edge!  But the B coasts along slowly, implacably, like Michael Myers.






Palob is in trouble here though. He didn't shake the B, but worse: now he's up against the board edge. All dressed up in a snazzy brown suit with no where to go. The black hole of oblivion beckons, and Palob vanishes like a little scummy Nancy!

Not with a bang, but with a...Whimsper?

Last night, I returned to one of my old favorites--the decimator. My opponent was once again the scum-loving JT. He was fielding what he called his, "TLT and re-rolls" list, but which I would call the "dregs of scum" list.

But first, a haiku.

Oh sweet victory.
Why art thou so elusive?
Don't cry, Chiraneau.

My list:
Decimator
-Chiraneau
-Predator
-Engine Upgrade
-Rebel Captive
-Ysanne Isard

Phantom
-Whisper
-Lone wolf
-Fire Control Systems
-Advanced Cloaking Device
----------100 pts

His list:
YV-666
-Slaver
-Dengar
-Hot shot blaster

z-95
-N'Dru
-Lone wolf

Y-Wing
-syndicate thug
-Twin Laser Turret

HWK-290
-Spice Runner
-Twin Laser Turret
-------------100 pts.

We roll off for initiative, and I win. There is a tie here between N'Dru and Whisper, so I am glad to take it. We place the asteroids as we more or less always do: basically in lines in front of our opponent's board edges. The only real strategy that I can say I employed here was to add only asteroids, no debris. It seems to me that bumping debris with Whisper is more devastating than bumping an asteroid, so that. Otherwise, I am never quite sure what I should be doing. All of his ships go down first, except for N'Dru. He places them in a loose mob in the far right corner. I place Whisper in my near left corner. He places N'Dru immediately opposite. So I have to decide where the Decimator goes. I don't really want to be cramping Whisper's lone wolf, but I am thinking: I don't really want to wade into the three other fellas, let's pick off N'Dru and clear one side of the board. I orient Chiraneau to fly through a little alley towards N'Dru.

I try to slow pedal for a round. Whisper doesn't have any 1's apart from the hard turns, so I do a 2 bank with him and cloak. (Also: I lost my cloak token, so I used a bomb token instead). Chiraneau I set for a 2 straight. He is also slow pedaling, and sets all of his guys for slow straight maneuvers. When I see that, I boost forward with Chiraneau's engine upgrade. No shots yet.

I am already not liking this. I can see that the scum posse on my right is going to come into range. Two TLTs, and a Dengar-enhanced YV-666, all firing at my AGI 0 Decimator. Perfect. Still, a bad plan is better than no plan: focus fire at N'Dru. I set the decimator dial to bank around behind the posse, and I bank Whisper towards N'Dru to joust. He slow pedals N'Dru straight forward at Whisper. The scummy cavalcade cruises into range. With the Decimator, I check to see if I can boost left to clear the YV-666. I can't, so I TL on N'Dru. Paranoid about jousting with Whisper, I take an evade. Both of my ships fire at N'Dru: nothing. He focus fires on Chiraneau and starts peeling away shields. The YV may or may not be in range--it is super close. I bump the YV when checking. Well, crap. Having impaired the result, I defer to him. All told, he puts 7-8 hits on Chiraneau. All of those re-rolls vs. no agility: Not good.

I honestly have no idea what I'm thinking this turn. NO IDEA. I set both of my dials for 2 straights. I decloak with whisper, and I must have moved forward, though I can't recall. I honestly have NO CLUE what I thought was going to happen. None. The result: the posse forms up on Chiraneau's tail, and I...block N'Dru with Whisper. *Facepalm* No shot=no cloak. Internally, alarms are going off. My blood pressure sky rockets. I am such. an. idiot. 

Well, I haven't actually done any damage to N'Dru yet, and it's become apparent that the TLT's could be a problem, so Chiraneau shoots at the HWK, and strips him down pretty good. The HWK shoots at Whisper, and I lose her two shields. Everything else is out of range of Whisper. PHEW. Oh, but they're in range of Chiraneau. They blast the ever loving crap out of Chiraneau, and he's done. So, I have a half wounded Whisper, and he has N'Dru, Slaver, and Thug at full health, and a half wounded Spice Runner. I should just quit now, maybe we can get a second game in. Sigh.

I set Whisper for a 4 Straight. Let's try to get her out of here. She zips forward and cloaks. Ahh. In addition to being invisible, she's also hiding behind a rock. Not the empire's proudest moment, but she's no good to me dead afterall, and we live another turn. Hooray.

I am 90% sure that the right move here is a 4 straight off the board edge, but I decloak right, and then do a 2 right turn, book it towards the far right corner, and cloak. The sweet solace of oblivion beckons from her left. Just a twitch of the joystick, and it's all over. Sweet relief. Spicy the Spice runner gives chase. This is probably the best day of his life: some no-name, low life criminal, mopping up on high ranking Imperial Pilots in his crappy little HWK 290. He's chasing a phantom right now, and the phantom is fleeing as fast as she can. He's thinking, "If my pops could see me now! Told you I ain't a nobody! WHOOO! YEAH YOU BETTER RUN!" He can't quite finish her off though, and we live another turn.

But the life of a spice runner is brutish and short. Whisper takes a second to gather her senses. We decloak straight 2, and do a 3-K turn. Not today, oblivion. Spicy turns right, right in front of Whisper, and gets T-boned. Lights out, Spicy. No one is in range to return fire, so we live another turn.

N'Dru is inbound.  2 bank left, clear stress, fire at N'Dru, cloak. Lone Wolf is saving my skin. I take no damage from the slaver.

Decloak left, bank 2 right. N'Dru K-turns, and just about catches me, but he doesn't. I just barely have a shot on the Y-wing. I deal no damage, but am able to re-cloak. More fire, but I'm getting 5 dice from range of the slaver, and from the obstruction on the Y-wing. With rerolls, I am good. 

 Decloak straight 2, Hard right turn 1, barrel roll back towards N'dru: Block. Whisper is brawling. She takes R1 shots at the thug, recloaks. She takes fire from the thug, and fire from the slaver, and she takes a hit. Down to 1 hull point, but still alive.

Decloak left, 2 right turn, Focus. A sinister, internal laugh emerges. "No shots on me this turn!" I am thinking. Whisper unloads on the Slaver with 5 dice, lone wolf, and a focus. Awesome. OOPS he's got a hot shot blaster! I take fire, but with 4 AGI and a reroll, proceed unscathed. 

I believe I missed 2 rounds of photography in here, and I unfortunately cannot recall the specifics. I know that the Thug did a k turn, and then a straight 3 back. So there were a few turns of shooting in here. Ultimately, I believe that N'Dru hit that asteroid in front of him and exploded. I begin to say, "But sir, the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are..." JT smiles at me, but I can tell he's thinking about strangling me.  Next turn: Whisper turns right, focuses. R2 shots at the thug: dead. No shots from the slaver, and no more blaster turret.

Whisper follows a long behind the slaver, stripping hull. He's got one HP left.  The Slaver is desperate to get Whisper in his 180 arc. Hard 2 or 3 right turn. A cloud of debris, likely from the riddled corpse of Spicy's HWK rolls in, unexpectedly! "BOSS, LOOK OUT!" says some space-racist low life working for the Trandoshan slaver. The pointed, beaky hull of the HWK smashes through the control bridge window. Roll for damage: Crit. Game over: victory, Whisper. 

Reflections:
I basically wasted the decimator! I love that ship but don't know how to fly it well. I suspect that I probably should have just let whisper deal with N'Dru, and perhaps should have tried to plink away at the posse. I'm still really not sure that would have worked out much better. I have absolutely no idea why I tried to block with Whisper that one turn at the beginning. Goodness.

JT, as always, was gracious in defeat, and did not make me feel like a scumbag. He does inquire: What should he have done to stop Whisper?

Let me have your thoughts!