Party Bussk vs. TIE Medley

Faithful readers! This last week, I had the pleasure of straight-up ripping off "That's No Moon" Blog's "Party Bus" Kath/Bossk list (which you can find here: http://www.thatsnomoon.info/blog/revenge-of-the-crit). Man is it fun. I may call it the "Party Bussk" list.

This list is comprised of:

YT-666

-Bossk

-Dengar crew

-Zuckuss

-4-LOM

-Mangler Cannon

-Veteran Instincts

-Engine Upgrade

-Inertial Dampeners

Firespray

-Kath

-Push the Limit

-K4 Security Droid

-Glitterstim

-Engine Upgrade

I squared off against my old nemesis, JT. He was running a TIE medley, which was heavily influenced by his recent purchase of the Imperial Veterans box, and his desire to use those models immediately. 

His list was comprised of:
Countess Ryad.

Dark Curse

Omega Leader

TIE Bomber, with 2 different missiles, plus extra munitions for each. I will supplement when I have the full list. 

As usual, my photography leaves much to be desired, as I frequently forget to take pics between rounds. This was my second attempt with the Party Bussk list. The first result was a crushing victory over a TIE swarm...tainted by the after-game realization that I had been firing the Mangler out of Bossk's auxiliary arcs! If you aren't familiar with the Party Bussk, it is designed to force crits through, and then take advantage of Bossk's ability to cancel a single crit result in exchange for 2 hits. 

He has initiative. We place the asteroids in a fairly  tight clump in the middle of the board. Being a tactical imbecile, the grandest strategy I can muster is to set up a little race track, where I plan to circle around the outer board edge. All of his ships went down first, I believe, with Ryad on my far left, the bomber just right of center, and Omega Leader and Dark Curse on the far right. I resolve to try to pick off Ryad first, and discreetly point both of my ships directly at her. 

I ease forward on the left flank. Ryad promptly turns and flies away, and the rest of his medley advances straight out. 

Not quite fast enough, Ryad. Kath and Bossk drift into range. The dice started off extremely hot for me. I soak up some stress on Bossk to force a few hits through. I have multiple crits, but Ryad is still shielded. The end result is that I strip her three shields away. JT returns fire with Omega Leader, and plinks a shield off of Bossk. 

I have a series of pretty lucky maneuvers. Bossk and Kath are extreeeemely close to one another, but my estimates pan out, and I don't bump. Ryad K turns. I believe Ryad was out of range, so Bossk and Kath elect to light up Omega Leader. The bomber drifts around in right field, chasing a butterfly, humming to himself. His comm-link is on mute. Ryad and Dark Curse are screaming into their mics, "BOMBER WHERE THE F--- ARE YOU. WE ARE DYING OUT HERE," the persistent beepbeepbeepbeepbeep of their consoles reminding them that they are not long for this world. 

Ryad and Dark curse are putting some good hits on Bossk. The harrowing-flying continues (missed a pic here). Not only are Bossk and Kath still incredibly close to each other, now they are close to the board edge. "RACE TRACK, remember? Just keep turning right, you idiot!" screams Kath. Bossk holds up his 3 fingered claws in front of his face. He's seen human children discern right and left this way. No thumbs. Crap. Is it...this way? Kath's stream of curse words indicates to him that right probably was the other way. Bossk gurgles apologetically.  Dark curse has taken a few random hits. Bomber is blissfully, ignorantly unscathed, but is finally aware of the firefight. He is now unleashing a barrage of missiles and torpedoes, and Bossk is down to just a few Hull, while Ryad is at 1. Next turn, Bossk and Kath shoot first, killing Ryad before she can shoot. The remaining TIES finish off Bossk.

So it's down to a full health Kath, a full health bomber, and Dark Curse with a single HP left. Kath's main concern at this moment is whether or not she can find her way back to the base alone.

The Bomber waves off in the opposite direction, while Dark Curse coasts in behind. For a turn, the  TIES are safe in Kath's blind spot.

Kath's space phone buzzes in her pocket. she fumbles to get it out for a second. *annoyed sigh*. Boba text.  

BOBA: Where r u? 

KATH: Oh hey, omwb. Just finishing up. 

BOBA: Duuuude. You're not done yet? n00bs. SMH LOL.

KATH: Yeah, The Bussk got pwnd. LOL. Idio--[BAM].

A debris cloud rolls in while Kath is texting-while-flying. She was THIS CLOSE to being smashed by the remnants of a cumin-smelling HWK 290. Her life flashes before her eyes, and she swears, SWEARS, she will never text and fly again. She easily could have cleared the debris with a 2 straight, instead of a 1 straight, but she wasn't paying attention. So now she can't boost, which means she can't get DC in her arc. She takes a round of free fire from Dark Curse. 

Alright, pay attention. Kath pulls out in front, but she can't modify anything on DC, so there's not much she can do, apart from roll the dice. All the luck that I had previously has dried up. She is rolling 1 hit, max, and DC is shrugging it off, no problem. Kath isn't losing much in return, but he's getting some through. I've still got Glitterstim, though.

We drag on like this for awhile. 

I pop the glitterstim, finally, and it just works out that I catch a couple of eyeballs in there, and that finishes him off. DC lasted way too long.

Bomber fires his last fusillade, and it doesn't get the job done. Now it's just a naked bomber, with 2 red dice, chasing Kath, with 4 red dice out of her rear arc. It's pretty ideal for Kath--she can green maneuver around, focus/evade with PTL, while Bomber doesn't have much of a choice other than to follow. There are a few fairly anticlimactic turns, and that's all she wrote.




What are your thoughts? What was the bomber's best move?