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!