Some pictures, not too much to say this time...
Friday, July 10, 2015
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Memories of a Traveller
[Location: Observatory Hall, Orbital Cluster Philip Augustus, right above the Mediterranean.]
[Previously: At a Company reception, several underlings were talking about holiday destinations when a Big Boss arrived and not only interrupted the flow of the conversation but re-routed it into current politic affairs.]
[Big Boss monologuing] - The vote this weekend is critical, not only for the affected country itself but also for the Earth Union. The Union cannot afford to lose a member, any member; otherwise other countries of the Union will also be attacked the same way and they will have also to leave the Union, making the Union weaker not stronger. It is not that the Union can expel a member, but a country can always left. The real problem is the current government. I really hope your country [Big Boss pointing to one of the underlings] is not going to vote for Permane. They are the same and then your country will be the next in the list...
[The pointed-to underling looks to Big Boss with a distant expression on the face]
[Big Boss first confused, then annoyed] What's the matter? you don't think so ?
[underling] It doesn't really matter. It is pointless.
[Big Boss, surprised] Pointless? What do you mean?
[underling] Five years and six and a half month for today, a real First Contact will take place. Two years and three months after that precise date our species will be on the brink of extinction.
[Big Boss, scoffing] You believe so?
[underling] No. I don't believe so. I know. I was there.
[Deathly silence]
[Previously: At a Company reception, several underlings were talking about holiday destinations when a Big Boss arrived and not only interrupted the flow of the conversation but re-routed it into current politic affairs.]
[Big Boss monologuing] - The vote this weekend is critical, not only for the affected country itself but also for the Earth Union. The Union cannot afford to lose a member, any member; otherwise other countries of the Union will also be attacked the same way and they will have also to leave the Union, making the Union weaker not stronger. It is not that the Union can expel a member, but a country can always left. The real problem is the current government. I really hope your country [Big Boss pointing to one of the underlings] is not going to vote for Permane. They are the same and then your country will be the next in the list...
[The pointed-to underling looks to Big Boss with a distant expression on the face]
[Big Boss first confused, then annoyed] What's the matter? you don't think so ?
[underling] It doesn't really matter. It is pointless.
[Big Boss, surprised] Pointless? What do you mean?
[underling] Five years and six and a half month for today, a real First Contact will take place. Two years and three months after that precise date our species will be on the brink of extinction.
[Big Boss, scoffing] You believe so?
[underling] No. I don't believe so. I know. I was there.
[Deathly silence]
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Arrow ? Not really
I got the impression that lately I only talk about x-wing in this blog which actually it is intended as a way for me to talk about anything that catches my attention or I have any interest on.
So, I will try to re-focus on other issues bzw. activities, such as for example archery.
I started with archery some years ago, actually several years ago. However in contrast to Oliver Queen I did not spent five years only shooting my bow in a "desert" island in the middle of the pacific; live has priorities and my time for archery comes and goes according to other things that happen in my life, such as my family :)
Anyway, I was going to my archery club on a more or less regular basis for a while, then I stopped, came back again, stopped and finally, last week, after around 18 to 24 months pause I came back.
It was a nice day, sunny but not too warm and I really enjoyed it; not only because of the weather but also because my body has not forgotten how to use the bow. What I mean is that shooting with a bow is similar to swimming or to use a bike; it involves muscular memory if such a term exist.
I was afraid that the very first arrow was going to go astray and that I will lose it or break it; however it hit the wall where target was not so far away for the target, which is a good thing :)
This is specially true with my bow as I have no aiming means whatsoever.
Originally my bow is a recurve bow, which should have an aiming help, but I found it too distracting and I never use it, as I also never used stabilizers my bow has nothing apart for the drawstring and the arrow support and pusher. It is what usually is called a "bare" bow, which is one of the closest thing to a traditional bow without being a traditional bow.
As you can imaging, a traditional bow is done in wood, shoots wood arrows and has nothing to help aiming and sometimes not even an arrow support; yes, you feel like Robin Hood with such a bow.
A recurve is done in parts; a central piece which in mine is metal and the upper and lower arms which are done with a composite material and usually uses alloy arrows or carbon fibre arrows.
So, here some pictures :)
So, I will try to re-focus on other issues bzw. activities, such as for example archery.
I started with archery some years ago, actually several years ago. However in contrast to Oliver Queen I did not spent five years only shooting my bow in a "desert" island in the middle of the pacific; live has priorities and my time for archery comes and goes according to other things that happen in my life, such as my family :)
Anyway, I was going to my archery club on a more or less regular basis for a while, then I stopped, came back again, stopped and finally, last week, after around 18 to 24 months pause I came back.
It was a nice day, sunny but not too warm and I really enjoyed it; not only because of the weather but also because my body has not forgotten how to use the bow. What I mean is that shooting with a bow is similar to swimming or to use a bike; it involves muscular memory if such a term exist.
I was afraid that the very first arrow was going to go astray and that I will lose it or break it; however it hit the wall where target was not so far away for the target, which is a good thing :)
This is specially true with my bow as I have no aiming means whatsoever.
Originally my bow is a recurve bow, which should have an aiming help, but I found it too distracting and I never use it, as I also never used stabilizers my bow has nothing apart for the drawstring and the arrow support and pusher. It is what usually is called a "bare" bow, which is one of the closest thing to a traditional bow without being a traditional bow.
As you can imaging, a traditional bow is done in wood, shoots wood arrows and has nothing to help aiming and sometimes not even an arrow support; yes, you feel like Robin Hood with such a bow.
A recurve is done in parts; a central piece which in mine is metal and the upper and lower arms which are done with a composite material and usually uses alloy arrows or carbon fibre arrows.
So, here some pictures :)
 |
| First volley |
Fly casually
or why I should stop playing x-wing competitively.
Background
Last weeks I have been reading the meta, tinkering and testing my dual phantom plus Soontir list for the regionals which had been the main focus of the last entries on this blog.
Regionals are gone now and everything seems quiet in the western front (actually there is a second regional at the end of this month, but that is another story).
Also this last week, my local group was considering to play a Epic Game. They wanted to go for 200 points each players, tournament style and four players.
Here, I was the calm voice saying things like: we have never done it before, we have limited experience with the CR90 corvette and all that energy stuff, maybe 120 points per person with a lot of time for the game will be better, we play quite and nicely, relax, checking the rules, discussing the game as it progresses and so on. So, I was the calm down voice.
What happened? Well...
Reality
We prepared the teams, discussed strategies, met for the game, did the set up, took some pictures, set the dials for the first round and I managed to destroy the whole mood of the game and ruin the whole concept.
Rickbane and me we were playing imperials, Rombic and darth messenger were playing rebels. As more experienced player, messenger was in charge of the CR90 corvette and Rombic was playing the normal rebels ships, which included an Prototype A-wing (PS 1) and three other craft with PS 2.
The four ships were deployed in formation and he wanted to move them a 2 turn, all of them and made then focus. However, with all the talking and the fact that he was having another A-wing which was supposed to do a 3 turn, he put the two dials of the A-wings on a 3 turn, which will disrupt his formation.
When he was revealing the dials he was saying aloud his intentions, namely all 2 turns and focus, but the dial was showing a 3 turn. We pointed this to him, he turned the other A-wing dial and surprise it was also a 3 turn, however he just keep doing the intended 2 turn which was fine, we were playing casually and for fun, right ?
The four ships were deployed in formation and he wanted to move them a 2 turn, all of them and made then focus. However, with all the talking and the fact that he was having another A-wing which was supposed to do a 3 turn, he put the two dials of the A-wings on a 3 turn, which will disrupt his formation.
When he was revealing the dials he was saying aloud his intentions, namely all 2 turns and focus, but the dial was showing a 3 turn. We pointed this to him, he turned the other A-wing dial and surprise it was also a 3 turn, however he just keep doing the intended 2 turn which was fine, we were playing casually and for fun, right ?
Not really...
He had moved already other two ships after the "misplaced" A-wing, I was still talking about something else or about this particular movement when something, I don't know what or why just snapped in me. I just turn to him and said something like:
sorry, you need to move back those two other ships and move the A-wing a 3 turn which is what is in the dial, so is the rule (yes, the rule, the tournament rule) and, by the way, I am serious about it.
Death silence for a second.
Mood completely spoiled and the whole idea of the game, learning and having fun gone; just because of me being a [please insert here appropriate insult].
Maybe it was the fact that I played a tournament the weekend before, that I am having some stress in my life at the moment or that I am completely out of my mind, but the truth is that I was completely out of line.
Yes, sure, a few minutes later, during the second round, a little voice in my head said to me what a moron I was and I apologized to him, and he was so nice not to hold a grudge about it and the rest of the game was (more or less) fine and that they win and destroy my two ships before the fourth round (I think this was karma coming back); but that is not the point, those are amendments which needed to be done after my performance.
My point
He had moved already other two ships after the "misplaced" A-wing, I was still talking about something else or about this particular movement when something, I don't know what or why just snapped in me. I just turn to him and said something like:
sorry, you need to move back those two other ships and move the A-wing a 3 turn which is what is in the dial, so is the rule (yes, the rule, the tournament rule) and, by the way, I am serious about it.
Death silence for a second.
Mood completely spoiled and the whole idea of the game, learning and having fun gone; just because of me being a [please insert here appropriate insult].
Maybe it was the fact that I played a tournament the weekend before, that I am having some stress in my life at the moment or that I am completely out of my mind, but the truth is that I was completely out of line.
Yes, sure, a few minutes later, during the second round, a little voice in my head said to me what a moron I was and I apologized to him, and he was so nice not to hold a grudge about it and the rest of the game was (more or less) fine and that they win and destroy my two ships before the fourth round (I think this was karma coming back); but that is not the point, those are amendments which needed to be done after my performance.
My point
I am trying to learn from this and trying to learn to fly casually and no be a moron with/about this game. Hope you never encounter someone displaying out there a behaviour as stupid as the one I did.
Fly casually and see you around.
Fly casually and see you around.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Regionals !
The first of the two regional tournament of The Hague was held this last Saturday at the Tabletop Kingdom.
I was there with my Soontir Fel, two Sigma phantoms list and even if I did not fare so well (22 out of 26) I enjoyed it.
There is a compressive article about the whole tournament, with lists, stats and all that here.
I played my first game against John and his Rear Admiral - Soontir list. It was a very interesting match up as so far I have used my list only against rebel two ships lists, never before against imperial two ships lists. However I did two critical errors in the very first turn that cripple my possibilities of doing anything. I placed my phantoms in the middle. John placed his Decimator also in the middle. Both Soontirs were facing each other on my left side of the board. My idea was to go with all my ships against his Soontir and take him out of the equation and than try not to lose any ship while trying to fight the admiral. I moved my phantoms something like 2 or 3 forward and they cloaked. He moved the admiral and boosted almost in front of my cloaked phantoms who where not able to fire on him. My Soontir went 4 forward and boosted to get a range 3 shoot on the admiral but with the idea of being more free and less obvious on the next round I did not push the limits for the usual evade+focus+stress (aka turtle Soontir). He moved his Soontir a slow 2 forwards and let him there. I fired on the Decimator without any success, John fired on Soontir also without success and then I opened my big, honest mouth and said to him something like: "You still have gunner, right?". He had forgotten about it ! So, he says thanks, pick the dices, rolls all impacts, I take the evil green dices and roll all "eyes". We both look to it, we realize that I have no focus and that my Soontir is just space dust. We stop for a second or two. It was unbelievable. The rest went hill down, down, down to a 100-0 victory for John (well deserved). He finished second of the best eight but unfortunately did not manage to get further.
The second game was against Erik B and his IG-88b and four binayre pirates.
Here I did a bit better. He placed his four pirates on my right facing his center, so rotated 90° with respect to me. His IG was on my left also facing his center. It was clear that he was going to join then and turn towards me, the only doubt was when they were going to turn. I assumed that the pirates were going to turn immediately on round 1 and that the IB will follow the round after. I moved my phantoms again like 3 or 4 forwards towards an asteroid that I have placed there as cover and cloaked. Soontir, this time was able to get undisturbed to the end of the battle field and started firing on the sides and rear of the pirates. There was a bit of clogging in that area as the pirates were blocking the IG and themselves on purpose to try to remain there. Soontir collided once before just doing a K-turn and approaching again from the other side. I managed to take out two pirates but in the fight with the IG, I also managed to get the two phantoms destroyed...
After the lunch break I played against Sjoerd and his Corran Horn - two B-wings list. This I managed to win by destroying the two B-wing even if my initial idea was to concentrate on Corran. He destroyed one of my phantoms, although. The game was very good and very funny. The best moments were on the final two rounds. First I cornered one of his B-wing between a phantom and Soontir and it escaped with only one hull left and in the round after, he cornered one of my phantoms between his Corran and one B-wing, but the phantom also managed to survive (even with Corran double tap). The critical moment came when I rolled only one hit on my 5 dices final attack against the wounded B-wing and he rolled a blank. It was a great game, with tension until the end.
After I played against Kim and his Firespray - IG88b list. This list was nice, well, not the dummy IG but the Firespray. A friend of my who was not able to participate in the tournament, when preparing for it, was talking about taking precisely that Firespray (Emon Azzameen) just to be able to drop bombs all over the place. The game was insane. I managed to "eat" all of his bombs, the three of them. It was funny, alas costly for me.
The final game was against Olivier and his YT-2400 - Han Solo list. The game was a bit weird as both of us were tired. I managed to get his YT-2400 within firing arc of all my three ships and it barely survived the attack. On the next round(s) I was able to finishing it off and I started trying to regroup to look for a way to corner Han Solo. However, he was determined to hunt down Soontir, which he managed at the end. So, it was a modified victory for me, 43 to 32.
It was a nice tournament.
I was there with my Soontir Fel, two Sigma phantoms list and even if I did not fare so well (22 out of 26) I enjoyed it.
There is a compressive article about the whole tournament, with lists, stats and all that here.
I played my first game against John and his Rear Admiral - Soontir list. It was a very interesting match up as so far I have used my list only against rebel two ships lists, never before against imperial two ships lists. However I did two critical errors in the very first turn that cripple my possibilities of doing anything. I placed my phantoms in the middle. John placed his Decimator also in the middle. Both Soontirs were facing each other on my left side of the board. My idea was to go with all my ships against his Soontir and take him out of the equation and than try not to lose any ship while trying to fight the admiral. I moved my phantoms something like 2 or 3 forward and they cloaked. He moved the admiral and boosted almost in front of my cloaked phantoms who where not able to fire on him. My Soontir went 4 forward and boosted to get a range 3 shoot on the admiral but with the idea of being more free and less obvious on the next round I did not push the limits for the usual evade+focus+stress (aka turtle Soontir). He moved his Soontir a slow 2 forwards and let him there. I fired on the Decimator without any success, John fired on Soontir also without success and then I opened my big, honest mouth and said to him something like: "You still have gunner, right?". He had forgotten about it ! So, he says thanks, pick the dices, rolls all impacts, I take the evil green dices and roll all "eyes". We both look to it, we realize that I have no focus and that my Soontir is just space dust. We stop for a second or two. It was unbelievable. The rest went hill down, down, down to a 100-0 victory for John (well deserved). He finished second of the best eight but unfortunately did not manage to get further.
The second game was against Erik B and his IG-88b and four binayre pirates.
Here I did a bit better. He placed his four pirates on my right facing his center, so rotated 90° with respect to me. His IG was on my left also facing his center. It was clear that he was going to join then and turn towards me, the only doubt was when they were going to turn. I assumed that the pirates were going to turn immediately on round 1 and that the IB will follow the round after. I moved my phantoms again like 3 or 4 forwards towards an asteroid that I have placed there as cover and cloaked. Soontir, this time was able to get undisturbed to the end of the battle field and started firing on the sides and rear of the pirates. There was a bit of clogging in that area as the pirates were blocking the IG and themselves on purpose to try to remain there. Soontir collided once before just doing a K-turn and approaching again from the other side. I managed to take out two pirates but in the fight with the IG, I also managed to get the two phantoms destroyed...
After the lunch break I played against Sjoerd and his Corran Horn - two B-wings list. This I managed to win by destroying the two B-wing even if my initial idea was to concentrate on Corran. He destroyed one of my phantoms, although. The game was very good and very funny. The best moments were on the final two rounds. First I cornered one of his B-wing between a phantom and Soontir and it escaped with only one hull left and in the round after, he cornered one of my phantoms between his Corran and one B-wing, but the phantom also managed to survive (even with Corran double tap). The critical moment came when I rolled only one hit on my 5 dices final attack against the wounded B-wing and he rolled a blank. It was a great game, with tension until the end.
After I played against Kim and his Firespray - IG88b list. This list was nice, well, not the dummy IG but the Firespray. A friend of my who was not able to participate in the tournament, when preparing for it, was talking about taking precisely that Firespray (Emon Azzameen) just to be able to drop bombs all over the place. The game was insane. I managed to "eat" all of his bombs, the three of them. It was funny, alas costly for me.
 |
| One moment of the fight against Kim's list |
It was a nice tournament.
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Learning to Fly: Carnor Jax
TIE interceptors, there is no middle ground, either you love them or you hate them. I am in the first group :)
They are nice, quick, deadly and fragile; an interesting combo.
When people think about TIE interceptors, they usually think about almost-all-mighty Soontir Fel. I like him a lot. He is the best; so simple; no further discussions.
However, there are other named TIE interceptors there who are also very good and in the right hands can be even better than Soontir (yes, this is a contradiction of my previous statement, but the universe is a place full of contradictions :D ).
Once of those potential heroes of the Empire is Carnor Jax, a 26 points pilot with a PS of 8 and a nice special ability: "Enemy ships at Range 1 can't perform Evade or Focus Actions, nor spend Evade or Focus tokens" which will potentially cripple the options of his enemies. The key, of course, is to stay alive and at range 1 which being a very fragile interceptor maybe is easier said than done.
I have played with him only two or three times before, so I am still learning to fly with him. Last time it was a bit disappointing, this time was a bit better but still, I think that for the upcoming regionals I will take Soontir Fel. I feel better flying with him :)
Anyway, the lists.
My list was the usual stuff:
My regular opponent list was quite different of the usual two ships list he was flying lately (100 points total):
I was having initiative, so I placed the first big asteroid :)
Set Up
Keyan Farlander, the B-Wing, has the ability to use stress token as focus tokens, so for him, being stressed is very good. My opponent loves Stay on Target to be able to correct his planned movement, so he was equipped with it instead of the more common Push the Limits. To try to put some more stress on the game, he took Debris Clouds, three of them, as obstacles. I continued using the three biggest rocks :)
I deployed my Sigmas behind the asteroid on my left with the idea to move right behind it and decloak left or right depending on my needs.
He placed his A-wing to my left, alone, and the other two ships close to the centre.
So, I decided to place Carnor on my left to try to go for the lonely A-wing to destroy it on round two or three with concentrated fire.
1st round
As planned my sigmas moved 4 forwards behind the rock and cloaked (I did a mistake here as I placed the dial on 3 straight but my opponent let me correct it)
All his ships moved 3 straight and focus, approaching the centre at a slow pace.
I hit the gas with Carnor and he went 5 forwards, boost to his right and focus.
Carnor was able to shred 1 shield from Arvel, who was not able to hit him with his return fire. The special ability of Carnor did not play any roll here due to his range limitation.
2nd round
It was clear to me that his other two ships were terribly close to the centre and that they will join there before Carnor could move there.
I just discovered that I do not have a picture of this round. Maybe the presence of other people talking to us distracted me and I forgot...
Anyway, the phantoms decloaked left (no surprise here) and one moved 3 forwards whereas the other did a 3 right bank, both of them did barrel roll in opposite directions to block the path of the A-wing.
The E-wing did a 3 right bank and focused. The A-wing did a 5 K-turn and the B-wing did a 2 right bank and focus.
Carnor avoided the centre and did a 4 straight with boost right.
There was heavy fired involved as my opponent targeted one of my phantoms with concentrated fire but luckily nothing happened.
3rd round
The phantoms moved to block. Number one did a 1 right turn and barrel roll right; the other one did a 3 right turn and focused.
The blockade was successful as the E-wing tried a 3 K-turn which made him to collide with my phantom. The A-wing went after Carnor with a 2 right bank and focus. The B-wing did a 2 right turn, avoided collision and barrel roll to the left to face the other phantom.
Carnor decided to hide to live another day and did a 1 left turn followed by a barrel roll to his right which left him behind the rock.
The exchange of fire between the phantom and the B-wing went in my favour as the B-wing lost 3 shields and the phantom escaped undamaged.
Here I was able to fire with the phantom either at the B-wing or at the E-wing. I decided to fire at the B-wing even if it has a higher durability due to the regeneration of the E-wing due to R2-D2. I was not going to be able to kill it before it would be able to regenerate for sure one shield, at least two and with bad luck even three :)
4th round
Here I was having no idea what to do. My two phantoms were blocked in the middle of the fight, Carnor was lost behind a rock and without easy way to come back. I played with the idea of disengage totally, have Carnor fly to his right, out of business for a round, try to regroup and come back; but that will let my phantoms without clear flying options.
My opponent was facing similar problems with his forces.
Difficult to see the future was ;)
The phantom which had collided with the E-wing on the previous round did a 3 left turn and cloaked. The other phantom did a 2 right turn and also cloaked. Both of them were just buying time for the crowded fight to dissolve.
The E-wing did a 2 right turn and focused, right behind a phantom and outside his firing arc. The A-wing tried to go again after Carnor but this time went for the block with a 5 forwards. The B-wing did his 2 K-turn and Carnor trying to do a 3 left turn collided with the expecting A-wing.
This was perfectly done by my opponent !
At the beginning of the game, as we were looking to our lists, we were discussing that precisely this situation was the best for Arvel, that is, when he moves and uses his action for whatever (here it was a Target Lock) and then, his opponent collides with him, losing actions and being unable to return fire.
Great move :)
Arvel was able to hit Carnor and caused him 1 damage (luckily).
5th round
The phantom in front of the rock decloaked left, did 2 left turn and a left barrel roll which let him between the initial positions of the E-wing and the B-wing.
The other phantom decloaked to his right, did a 1 right turn and a barrel roll to the right, trying to close the gap so that the E-wing will be not able to fly away.
Here, my opponent revealed a 2 right turn as his idea was to impact with my phantoms but to stay behind them. After looking to the position of the ships he decided to Stay on Target for a 2 right bank. We place the template, look to the final position, blocked by the phantom on the left, start moving the E-wing backwards and, surprise!, it fits in between the phantom and it only overlaps the one on the left, letting the one on his right able to fire at point-blank. Both of us were without words. I took some pictures trying to get a close up of the final position as it will cost my opponent the E-wing.
The A-wing did a 1 right turn and collided with Carnor, whereas the B-wing did a 1 right bank by-passing the phantoms and the E-wing and barrel roll right. Carnor did a 3 left turn and collided with the asteroid also by a millimetre (Karma in action).
You can see the millimetre gap between the phantom on the right and the E-wing.
And here the overlap (now touching) with the other phantom.
The phantom fired 5 attack dice at the E-wing for 3 shields and 1 critical damage, damaged cockpit, reducing his PS to zero.
6th and final round
The E-wing moved first due to his PS 0 and did a 2 left bank, which been green gave him 1 shield back.
I was still with the idea that my phantoms were to move first, so both of them were suppose to try to (pre)follow the E-wing; therefore, the one on the left did a 1 right turn and focus, whereas the other did also a 1 right turn but collided with the E-wing which suddenly was were it was not supposed to be.
The A-wing did a 3 K-turn to get into position for another pass on the next round which will not take place. The B-wing did a 2 K-turn to engage the phantoms and Carnor did a 2 straight over the Debris cloud.
Here I was considering focussing on the B-wing instead of on the E-wing as the K-turn of the B-wing was the more obvious movement and I was afraid of collisions between my own ships on the narrow space behind the E-wing. Also, in case the E-wing collided with my ships under the wrong assumption that he was going to move after my sigmas will have left him behind them and outside of firing arc.
The final exchange of fire was enormous. Carnor removed the shield of the E-wing. The B-wing disabled the shields of the phantom on the left and damaged him once. However, the final fire of the other phantom did 4 damage to the poor E-wing, more than enough to reduce it to atoms.
End of the Game
Aftermath
This time I was more consistent in not forgetting my Sensor Jammer with the phantoms but still not really aware of the ability of Carnor. I have the impression that I lost the possibility to use it a few times during the game. This is very probably not correct but, still, it is my impression and impressions are very difficult to remove :(
As I said previously, for this Saturday regionals I will come back to Soontir I-am-the-best Fel and see how I fare there.
I will try to report afterwards, but being five games, one after each other with a very strict time limit, I am afraid that I will not be able to have such a complete picture overview of the games...
They are nice, quick, deadly and fragile; an interesting combo.
When people think about TIE interceptors, they usually think about almost-all-mighty Soontir Fel. I like him a lot. He is the best; so simple; no further discussions.
However, there are other named TIE interceptors there who are also very good and in the right hands can be even better than Soontir (yes, this is a contradiction of my previous statement, but the universe is a place full of contradictions :D ).
Once of those potential heroes of the Empire is Carnor Jax, a 26 points pilot with a PS of 8 and a nice special ability: "Enemy ships at Range 1 can't perform Evade or Focus Actions, nor spend Evade or Focus tokens" which will potentially cripple the options of his enemies. The key, of course, is to stay alive and at range 1 which being a very fragile interceptor maybe is easier said than done.
I have played with him only two or three times before, so I am still learning to fly with him. Last time it was a bit disappointing, this time was a bit better but still, I think that for the upcoming regionals I will take Soontir Fel. I feel better flying with him :)
Anyway, the lists.
My list was the usual stuff:
- Sigma Squadron Pilot (34) x 2 - TIE Phantom (25), Recon Specialist (3), Sensor Jammer (4), Stygium Particle Accelerator (2)
- Carnor Jax (31) - TIE Interceptor (26), Royal Guard TIE (0), Push the Limit (3), Autothrusters (2)
My regular opponent list was quite different of the usual two ships list he was flying lately (100 points total):
- Keyan Farlander (37) B-Wing (29), Fire-Control System (2), Stay on Target (2), B-Wing/E2 (1), C-3PO (3)
- Etahn A’baht (40) E-Wing (32), R2-D2 (4), Stay on Target (2), Fire-Control System (2)
- Arvel Crynyd (23) A-Wing (23), A-Wing Test Pilot (0), Chardaan Refit (-2), Stay on Target (2)
My main problem with Carnor is that I forget to use his ability and that I am not flying him in an optimal way to be able to use it. Both issue are, of course, heavy related. You can not optimize for something you keep on forgetting :)
I was having initiative, so I placed the first big asteroid :)
 |
| Set Up |
Keyan Farlander, the B-Wing, has the ability to use stress token as focus tokens, so for him, being stressed is very good. My opponent loves Stay on Target to be able to correct his planned movement, so he was equipped with it instead of the more common Push the Limits. To try to put some more stress on the game, he took Debris Clouds, three of them, as obstacles. I continued using the three biggest rocks :)
I deployed my Sigmas behind the asteroid on my left with the idea to move right behind it and decloak left or right depending on my needs.
He placed his A-wing to my left, alone, and the other two ships close to the centre.
So, I decided to place Carnor on my left to try to go for the lonely A-wing to destroy it on round two or three with concentrated fire.
1st round
As planned my sigmas moved 4 forwards behind the rock and cloaked (I did a mistake here as I placed the dial on 3 straight but my opponent let me correct it)
All his ships moved 3 straight and focus, approaching the centre at a slow pace.
I hit the gas with Carnor and he went 5 forwards, boost to his right and focus.
 |
| 1st round end of movement |
2nd round
It was clear to me that his other two ships were terribly close to the centre and that they will join there before Carnor could move there.
I just discovered that I do not have a picture of this round. Maybe the presence of other people talking to us distracted me and I forgot...
Anyway, the phantoms decloaked left (no surprise here) and one moved 3 forwards whereas the other did a 3 right bank, both of them did barrel roll in opposite directions to block the path of the A-wing.
The E-wing did a 3 right bank and focused. The A-wing did a 5 K-turn and the B-wing did a 2 right bank and focus.
Carnor avoided the centre and did a 4 straight with boost right.
There was heavy fired involved as my opponent targeted one of my phantoms with concentrated fire but luckily nothing happened.
3rd round
The phantoms moved to block. Number one did a 1 right turn and barrel roll right; the other one did a 3 right turn and focused.
The blockade was successful as the E-wing tried a 3 K-turn which made him to collide with my phantom. The A-wing went after Carnor with a 2 right bank and focus. The B-wing did a 2 right turn, avoided collision and barrel roll to the left to face the other phantom.
Carnor decided to hide to live another day and did a 1 left turn followed by a barrel roll to his right which left him behind the rock.
 |
| 3rd round end of movement |
Here I was able to fire with the phantom either at the B-wing or at the E-wing. I decided to fire at the B-wing even if it has a higher durability due to the regeneration of the E-wing due to R2-D2. I was not going to be able to kill it before it would be able to regenerate for sure one shield, at least two and with bad luck even three :)
4th round
Here I was having no idea what to do. My two phantoms were blocked in the middle of the fight, Carnor was lost behind a rock and without easy way to come back. I played with the idea of disengage totally, have Carnor fly to his right, out of business for a round, try to regroup and come back; but that will let my phantoms without clear flying options.
My opponent was facing similar problems with his forces.
Difficult to see the future was ;)
The phantom which had collided with the E-wing on the previous round did a 3 left turn and cloaked. The other phantom did a 2 right turn and also cloaked. Both of them were just buying time for the crowded fight to dissolve.
The E-wing did a 2 right turn and focused, right behind a phantom and outside his firing arc. The A-wing tried to go again after Carnor but this time went for the block with a 5 forwards. The B-wing did his 2 K-turn and Carnor trying to do a 3 left turn collided with the expecting A-wing.
This was perfectly done by my opponent !
At the beginning of the game, as we were looking to our lists, we were discussing that precisely this situation was the best for Arvel, that is, when he moves and uses his action for whatever (here it was a Target Lock) and then, his opponent collides with him, losing actions and being unable to return fire.
Great move :)
 |
| 4th round end of movement |
5th round
The phantom in front of the rock decloaked left, did 2 left turn and a left barrel roll which let him between the initial positions of the E-wing and the B-wing.
The other phantom decloaked to his right, did a 1 right turn and a barrel roll to the right, trying to close the gap so that the E-wing will be not able to fly away.
Here, my opponent revealed a 2 right turn as his idea was to impact with my phantoms but to stay behind them. After looking to the position of the ships he decided to Stay on Target for a 2 right bank. We place the template, look to the final position, blocked by the phantom on the left, start moving the E-wing backwards and, surprise!, it fits in between the phantom and it only overlaps the one on the left, letting the one on his right able to fire at point-blank. Both of us were without words. I took some pictures trying to get a close up of the final position as it will cost my opponent the E-wing.
The A-wing did a 1 right turn and collided with Carnor, whereas the B-wing did a 1 right bank by-passing the phantoms and the E-wing and barrel roll right. Carnor did a 3 left turn and collided with the asteroid also by a millimetre (Karma in action).
 |
| 5th round end of movement |
 |
| Close up |
 |
| close up, other angle |
6th and final round
The E-wing moved first due to his PS 0 and did a 2 left bank, which been green gave him 1 shield back.
I was still with the idea that my phantoms were to move first, so both of them were suppose to try to (pre)follow the E-wing; therefore, the one on the left did a 1 right turn and focus, whereas the other did also a 1 right turn but collided with the E-wing which suddenly was were it was not supposed to be.
The A-wing did a 3 K-turn to get into position for another pass on the next round which will not take place. The B-wing did a 2 K-turn to engage the phantoms and Carnor did a 2 straight over the Debris cloud.
Here I was considering focussing on the B-wing instead of on the E-wing as the K-turn of the B-wing was the more obvious movement and I was afraid of collisions between my own ships on the narrow space behind the E-wing. Also, in case the E-wing collided with my ships under the wrong assumption that he was going to move after my sigmas will have left him behind them and outside of firing arc.
 |
| 6th round end of movement |
End of the Game
Aftermath
This time I was more consistent in not forgetting my Sensor Jammer with the phantoms but still not really aware of the ability of Carnor. I have the impression that I lost the possibility to use it a few times during the game. This is very probably not correct but, still, it is my impression and impressions are very difficult to remove :(
As I said previously, for this Saturday regionals I will come back to Soontir I-am-the-best Fel and see how I fare there.
I will try to report afterwards, but being five games, one after each other with a very strict time limit, I am afraid that I will not be able to have such a complete picture overview of the games...
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Carnor Jax, maybe you are in, maybe you are out :)
Following some brain storming about phantom based list on the FFG forum there was the suggestion to use Carnor Jax instead of Soontir Fel in the list I have been running those last weeks.
This time I gave it a try against basically the same Han Solo - Wedge Antilles duo I played last time.
My list:
This time I gave it a try against basically the same Han Solo - Wedge Antilles duo I played last time.
My list:
- Sigma Squadron Pilot (34) x 2 - TIE Phantom (25), Recon Specialist (3), Sensor Jammer (4), Stygium Particle Accelerator (2)
- Carnor Jax (31) - TIE Interceptor (26), Royal Guard TIE (0), Push the Limit (3), Autothrusters (2)
My opponent:
- Wedge Antilles (40) - X-Wing (29), R2-D2 (4),Predator (3), Engine Upgrade (4)
- Han Solo (59) - YT-1300 (46), Stay on Target (2), C-3PO (3), Luke Skywalker (7), Millennium Falcon (1)
Both list are 99 points, so we roll for initiative again, but it only affected to see who was placing the first obstacle as all my ships will move before all the ships of my opponent.
I got it so I placed one of the big asteroids right in front of the centre of the deployment zone of my opponent to try to block his Falcon. After distributing all the obstacles I placed all my ships on my centre; he placed his on my right.
I was afraid of the combination of Han Solo and Luke as it will allow my opponent to potentially roll his attack dices four times in his quest of destroying my ships, so I decided to go to the left to pass between the asteroids and maybe come back to the centre also between the asteroids. However I was not really seeing my flying paths today as I crossed my ships in funny ways all the game.
In the first round, one phantom did a 2 left bank and cloaked, no surprise here, however for no apparent reason with the other one I did a 3 left turn, almost colliding with the previous one, and of course cloak.
Carnor Jax did a 3 left bank and a boost forwards, no push the limits to keep the options open for the next round.
Han moved 3 forward and focused whereas Wedge went 4 forwards and boosted right. He got Carnor in firing range but his attack failed.
For the second round I decided to face Wedge and to try to take him out of the equation as last time.
One phantom decloaked right, did a 2 right turn and focused facing Wedge. The other phantom I was afraid was going to block Carnor so I decided to take him for a walk and decloaked right, turned 3 to the right and cloaked somewhere on my left side of the board.
Carnor did a 1 right turn, forward boost and evade, also facing Wedge.
Han approached by performing a 3 right bank and focused, whereas Wedge moved carefully 1 forward to avoid any potential collision and target lock the phantom.
My opponent had also considered to K-turn with Wedge but this was very dangerous as if a collision would have taken place, then there will be no K-turn, no actions and one stress as outcome of the bargain. However being in front of two of my ships was also not good either.
Han fired on the phantom and removed 1 shield. I have to say that this game I was forgetting all the time that my phantoms have Sensor Jammer and that was very annoying as several times we needed to back track the dice rolls. Also, its use against Han-Luke combo is questionable because if you avoid the damage of the first shoot totally, Luke will allow for a new attack with a soft focus. Along the game we realized that this second attack is very good if your Falcon is stressed (therefore no actions) or has taken other action than focus. In this case, your second attack is actually better than the first one because of the soft focus of Luke.
Wedge removed the second shield of the phantom but then Carnor was able to disable both shields of Wedge and the phantom was able to destroy it. Just like the previous game. For me it was so far, so good.
However, one of my ships was far away of the action and my positioning for hunting down the Falcon was not optimal. As I already say, my flying was erratic today.
On the 3rd round, the wounded phantom did a 3 left bank and landed on an asteroid !
My idea was to disengage the Falcon and regroup for a second pass, but I fail miserably.
The other phantom turned 3 to the right and focused, still cloaked.
Carnor turned 2 left between the asteroids and boosted right.
Han advanced 2 forwards and focused.
Han was having a golden shoot on the phantom on the asteroid which he could not fail. The phantom was vaporized out of existence.
So far I had not been able to fire on the Falcon so I tried to bring my remaining two ships into attack positions.
The phantom turned 1 right and focused, whereas Carnor did a 3 K-turn.
Han performed a 2 right turn to confront the phantom and managed to remove one shield.
On the fifth round, the phantom decloaked right and turned 1 left to block the Falcon. It also focused.
Carnor Jax moved 4 forwards, did a barrel roll to his right and boosted right but was not able to get the Falcon in his firing arc.
Han moved 4 forwards and collided with the phantom.
No shooting this round :(
On the next round, the phantom turned 1 left and focused, whereas Carnor turned 2 right, boosted right and barrel roll left trying to point in the general direction of the Falcon. However, Han "stayed on target" and turned 1 right avoiding the collision with the phantom and moving outside of the firing arc of Carnor.
Han removed the last shield of the phantom and caused him one damage.
 |
| Set Up |
In the first round, one phantom did a 2 left bank and cloaked, no surprise here, however for no apparent reason with the other one I did a 3 left turn, almost colliding with the previous one, and of course cloak.
Carnor Jax did a 3 left bank and a boost forwards, no push the limits to keep the options open for the next round.
Han moved 3 forward and focused whereas Wedge went 4 forwards and boosted right. He got Carnor in firing range but his attack failed.
 |
| 1st round, end of movement |
One phantom decloaked right, did a 2 right turn and focused facing Wedge. The other phantom I was afraid was going to block Carnor so I decided to take him for a walk and decloaked right, turned 3 to the right and cloaked somewhere on my left side of the board.
Carnor did a 1 right turn, forward boost and evade, also facing Wedge.
Han approached by performing a 3 right bank and focused, whereas Wedge moved carefully 1 forward to avoid any potential collision and target lock the phantom.
My opponent had also considered to K-turn with Wedge but this was very dangerous as if a collision would have taken place, then there will be no K-turn, no actions and one stress as outcome of the bargain. However being in front of two of my ships was also not good either.
 |
| 2nd round, end of movement |
Wedge removed the second shield of the phantom but then Carnor was able to disable both shields of Wedge and the phantom was able to destroy it. Just like the previous game. For me it was so far, so good.
However, one of my ships was far away of the action and my positioning for hunting down the Falcon was not optimal. As I already say, my flying was erratic today.
On the 3rd round, the wounded phantom did a 3 left bank and landed on an asteroid !
My idea was to disengage the Falcon and regroup for a second pass, but I fail miserably.
The other phantom turned 3 to the right and focused, still cloaked.
Carnor turned 2 left between the asteroids and boosted right.
Han advanced 2 forwards and focused.
 |
| 3rd round, end of movement |
So far I had not been able to fire on the Falcon so I tried to bring my remaining two ships into attack positions.
The phantom turned 1 right and focused, whereas Carnor did a 3 K-turn.
Han performed a 2 right turn to confront the phantom and managed to remove one shield.
 |
| 4th round, end of movement |
Carnor Jax moved 4 forwards, did a barrel roll to his right and boosted right but was not able to get the Falcon in his firing arc.
Han moved 4 forwards and collided with the phantom.
No shooting this round :(
 |
| 5th round, end of movement |
 |
| 6th round |
I do not have a picture of the last round, but basically the phantom turned 1 left trying to go after Han, Carnor did the same by turning 2 right and barrel roll right, and Han just moved 1 forward and fired on the phantom destroying it.
End of the game.
Aftermath
I was not able to fly well with Carnor. Maybe it was just today or maybe it is that I have been flying exclusively Soontir when I fly interceptors, but I was not able to get results out of Carnor. Yes, I destroyed Wedge, but I did that also with Soontir and also in the second round. Yes, Carnor helped with the negation of evades and focus but the thing is that I am not used to have to fly into range one of the enemy and also I was missing the extra focus from Soontir after a push the limits.
As we were playing and discussing the game at the same time, we realized that I was not able to surprise my opponent with the movement of Carnor, or the other way around, he was able to (more or less) predict his movement and this is the pitfall of any player on this game, when your opponent is able to rightly predict where are you going to move.
Was I disappointed with Carnor ? not really, maybe more with myself. I was really unable to deal with the Han - Luke combo and for some reason I was constantly forgetting the Sensor Jammers on the phantom. I think it was not one of my best days even if Wedge died again very soon in the game.
My opponent was thinking of using Wedge with something else, not a Han Solo build, but maybe two other small ships, maybe even another two X-wings. We will see... :) :)
Friday, May 1, 2015
Lack of green
Another game with my phantom list:
This time against another friend who was flying:
The point is, he decided to fly Rebels because he knows that I favoured Imperials and he tried to emulate Col. Vessery based lists by using Wedge with engine upgrade as high mobile ship with a nice attack special ability.
The idea was/is great, however, it was not his day with the green dices. He never rolled evades, any evade, in the whole game. Seriously. It was the more karma deficient game I was in or watched.
I won the game, obviously, but the merit of my victory was his rolling of nothing on the green dices not any extraordinary flying from my side.
Set up
We rolled for initiative as both list were 100 points and I won the roll. Here I decided to get initiative to be able to shoot first with Soontir versus Han, and that was, I think, an error. Thanks to the Simultaneous Fire rule, even if Han manage to "destroy" Soontir, he (Soontir) can return fire before dying, alas with any critical effect from the attack from Han applied to him. Therefore, It should not make so much of a difference in the attack phase who of the two has initiative over the other.
However, in the activation phase, it can be important who moves first. My choice makes that Soontir moves before Han, therefore he can collide with him and lose his actions. This happened in this game :(
On the other hand, I could use Soontir, a PS 9 ship, as blocker! Which I did once in this game :)
Obstacles: we both took the biggest rocks :) and put them more or less symmetrical on the battlefield.
Deployment: having Initiative, I deployed all my ships before him on my right corner, phantoms on the front, Soontir in the centre back.
He angled Wedge towards Han, and both were facing to open lane between the asteroid on the right side.
This time I was writing down our movement and actions and we also timed the game to one hour after Set Up.
- Sigma Squadron Pilot (34) x 2 - TIE Phantom (25), Recon Specialist (3), Sensor Jammer (4), Stygium Particle Accelerator (2)
- Soontir Fel (32) - TIE Interceptor (27), Royal Guard TIE (0), Push the Limit (3), Autothrusters (2)
This time against another friend who was flying:
- Wedge Antilles (44) - X-Wing (29), R2-D2 (4), Advanced Proton Torpedoes (6), Veteran Instincts (1), Engine Upgrade (4)
- Han Solo (56) - YT-1300 (46), Stay on Target (2), C-3PO (3), Chewbacca (4), Millennium Falcon (1)
The point is, he decided to fly Rebels because he knows that I favoured Imperials and he tried to emulate Col. Vessery based lists by using Wedge with engine upgrade as high mobile ship with a nice attack special ability.
The idea was/is great, however, it was not his day with the green dices. He never rolled evades, any evade, in the whole game. Seriously. It was the more karma deficient game I was in or watched.
I won the game, obviously, but the merit of my victory was his rolling of nothing on the green dices not any extraordinary flying from my side.
Set up
We rolled for initiative as both list were 100 points and I won the roll. Here I decided to get initiative to be able to shoot first with Soontir versus Han, and that was, I think, an error. Thanks to the Simultaneous Fire rule, even if Han manage to "destroy" Soontir, he (Soontir) can return fire before dying, alas with any critical effect from the attack from Han applied to him. Therefore, It should not make so much of a difference in the attack phase who of the two has initiative over the other.
However, in the activation phase, it can be important who moves first. My choice makes that Soontir moves before Han, therefore he can collide with him and lose his actions. This happened in this game :(
On the other hand, I could use Soontir, a PS 9 ship, as blocker! Which I did once in this game :)
Obstacles: we both took the biggest rocks :) and put them more or less symmetrical on the battlefield.
Deployment: having Initiative, I deployed all my ships before him on my right corner, phantoms on the front, Soontir in the centre back.
He angled Wedge towards Han, and both were facing to open lane between the asteroid on the right side.
 |
| Set Up |
First round:
All my ship did a 2 bank left, and the phantoms cloaked, Soontir focused just in case. Han moved 4 straight and Wedge 3 straight. This was a minor surprise for me as my opponent used to move always slow on the first round, which is why I moved also slow.
Second round:
The phantoms did a decloak forwards and a 3 bank right going for a blocking position against Han. One of the phantoms recloaked, the one I was expecting to collide with Han; my idea here was that as he was not going to be able to fire on Han, it was maybe better to have him not firing at all but well protected against a possible attack from Wedge. The other one got double focus and readied himself to take fire.
Soontir did also a 3 bank right, followed by a boost and a barrel roll to get in a nice firing position close to the rock (set up picture: the one on the right back from my point of view; the picture for the 2nd round is turned 90°, the rocks you see on the right are actually the ones making the back line).
Han did a 2 bank right to avoid being blocked using Stay on Target and Wedge moved 4 forwards to get into a nice range 1 firing range with focus.
Combat:
Wedge first, he managed to get 1 shield off the uncloaked phantom. Soontir attacked Wedge and removed 2 shields (beginning of the green dices disaster). Han did no damage and the phantom managed to land 1 hit and 1 critical hit on Wedge; the critical hit turned out to be the double damage and Wedge was dead.
Both of us were without words. His whole list concept was Wedge as Rebel counterpart to Col. Vessery. He has put the Fat Han there just to fill up the list and Wedge was gone in the first round of combat!
It was a freaking moment, seriously. We paused for a bit to talk about what just has happen and decided to finish the game anyway. After all, Han should be able to take care of himself, even if he was only "filler" on the list.
Note: Yes, I know that this sounds crazy, a Fat Han as filler, but if you stop a second to think about this, it makes sense. You are going to fly a two ship list, fine. One of those two ships is one that you have already used in the past and which have a more or less fixed configuration, the Fat Han. Then, you can focus all you experiments in the other ship of your list. Therefore, Han is the filler, the guy with the permanent job; Wedge is the new guy on the team, the one you will like to play with and see what he can do. Well, that new guy was gone in the present case; so, maybe stop the game and reset it was not a bad idea, actually with the intention to try Wedge. However, we moved on :)
Third round:
Again the picture is turned 90°.
The cloaked phantom decloaked forward and performed a 3 left turn and cloaked again. The other one did a 3 left bank and no idea why it does not have any tokens on the picture, I am sure it took an action...
Soontir did a 2 left turn and barrel rolled right to get close to the initial position of the Falcon.
Han did a 1 right bank, moving around the rock and clearing the stress from the previous round.
Combat:
Very brief this time, Han did nothing and Soontir removed 2 shields from him. Really, the green dices were cursed.
Fourth round:
Both phantom decloaked forward, one did a 1 left turn and the other did a 3 left turn to close on the Falcon, both did also double focus.
Soontir did a forward 2 and barrel rolled right, again trying to close as much on the Falcon as possible before it moves away.
Han went 2 forwards and evade.
Combat:
Soontir took away another 2 shields from Han, whereas the return fire from Han did nothing. The first Falcon removed the last shiled and did one damage to Han; the second one did four damage to him.
It was terrible to see so many blanks on the green dices, really. We were both of us first stunned than laughing about it as we both were not able to believe. It was ridiculous.
Fifth round:
One phantom did a 3 right turn and took double focus, the other one did a 2 right turn and a barrel roll to the left trying to get back to the fight.
Soontir did a 2 left bank and collided with Han, losing his actions.
Han was not sure what to do and Stayed in Target to do a left 1 turn. This was the first intention of my opponent, he changed his mind to a right turn and in view of the position of my phantoms decided to go back to the idea of turning left but the stress he got from that change of plans was terribly difficult to get rid off as there was an asteroid just in front of him which he was not going to be able to by pass with any green movement.
Combat:
Soontir did nothing to Han (finally!) and Han placed one critical damage on Soontir, the one reducing his Agility in one.
Sixth round:
The phantom closest to the back of the Falcon did a 3 left turn and collided with him. The other Falcon did a 2 left turn and a left barrel roll still trying to go back to the fight.
Soontir did a 1 left turn to avoid collision with Han followed by a boost forward and a barrel roll to the left to get into a nice firing position.
Han did a white 3 right bank as the green 2 will have him on the asteroid or at less flying over it, so he is still stressed from the previous Stay on Target.
Combat:
This round was crazy. Nothing happen ! :)
Seventh and last round:
The phantom on the back of Han did a 3 left bank and double focus, the other one a 3 left turn and barrel roll to cover a possible 1 left turn from Han.
Soontir. Well, this was a moment of craziness for me. I was looking to Han and Soontir on the battlefield and wondering how to manage to get Soontir close to the Falcon without colliding again with it when suddenly I realized that I could use Soontir as a blocker !
This was for me an eye opener moment as I would have never considered a PS 9 guy a blocker, but when the other guys fly after you, does not matter which PS you have, if you fly first, you can block; new golden rule for me: first to move, first to block :) :)
So, the baron moved 2 left turn and barrel rolled right, short, and right in front of the Falcon.
Han tried to clear the stress with a 1 left bank and collided with Soontir. Stress was gone but also any possible action.
Combat:
Han fired on the phantom on his seven without success and the return fire destroyed him.
Game over
In retrospective:
My red dices were on fire, as I got several times a lot of impacts and the green dices of my opponent were, well, greener than never. This was a pity as diluted the experience, but after a while it was so incredible that stopped being annoying and started being crazy-funny. I do not take any merit on this victory.
Stay on Target reads "When you reveal a manoeuvre, you may rotate your dial to another manoeuvre with the same speed. Treat that manoeuvre as a red manoeuvre". This card is a very good one but has a few pitfalls. First, the manoeuvre is red, which means that you cannot use it if you have already a stress token as a ship with a stress token cannot perform red manoeuvres (cf. core rules) and of course once performed, gives you a stress token which can be not so easy to remove. I liked the card a lot, it gives you a lot of flexibility (you pay for it, of course, but the flexibility is there). In the past I played a Fettigator (Boba Fett and Navigator) just because the flexibility it offers. There was a theory about this combination being a good way to counter pre-FAQ phantoms (using also Veteran Instincts to push Boba into PS 10). Maybe it could be combined also with him or even in a named phantom for extra options...
Blocking with phantoms is still a thing I will like to consider more as I'm still not so sure about my idea of cloaking when I expect the blocking phantom to be collided with. In this game I lost a shoot on Wedge for this reason. Yes, in this particular game I did not needed it, but that is not the point. From a strategical point of view maybe is better not to recloak and be able to attack.
Cloaking-Decloaking: this is something I still need to work on. I still have times when my phantoms are cloaked and I need them to decloak to be able to fire but doing so will put them in not so optimal positions to attack. This can be annoying and a serious problem.
Soontir: as good as usual, but recently it was suggested to me to replace him with Carnor Jax (Enemy ships at Range 1 cannot perform focus or evade actions and cannot spend focus or evade tokens) with the same upgrades which will make the four/five attack dice of the phantoms even more dangerous. I think this is a great suggestion and I am looking forward to try it, although I have only used him once and I am not so sure how to fly with him. I think I will miss the stress-focus from Soontir...
What if:
I am very curious about a parallel universe where on the second round of this game, Wedge and Han managed to destroy one of my phantoms on that single round, before he was able to fire, letting me with a cloaked phantom and Soontir at the end of round two.
We need to play again with those same lists :) :)
 |
| 1st round after movement |
The phantoms did a decloak forwards and a 3 bank right going for a blocking position against Han. One of the phantoms recloaked, the one I was expecting to collide with Han; my idea here was that as he was not going to be able to fire on Han, it was maybe better to have him not firing at all but well protected against a possible attack from Wedge. The other one got double focus and readied himself to take fire.
Soontir did also a 3 bank right, followed by a boost and a barrel roll to get in a nice firing position close to the rock (set up picture: the one on the right back from my point of view; the picture for the 2nd round is turned 90°, the rocks you see on the right are actually the ones making the back line).
Han did a 2 bank right to avoid being blocked using Stay on Target and Wedge moved 4 forwards to get into a nice range 1 firing range with focus.
 |
| 2nd round after movement |
Wedge first, he managed to get 1 shield off the uncloaked phantom. Soontir attacked Wedge and removed 2 shields (beginning of the green dices disaster). Han did no damage and the phantom managed to land 1 hit and 1 critical hit on Wedge; the critical hit turned out to be the double damage and Wedge was dead.
Both of us were without words. His whole list concept was Wedge as Rebel counterpart to Col. Vessery. He has put the Fat Han there just to fill up the list and Wedge was gone in the first round of combat!
It was a freaking moment, seriously. We paused for a bit to talk about what just has happen and decided to finish the game anyway. After all, Han should be able to take care of himself, even if he was only "filler" on the list.
Note: Yes, I know that this sounds crazy, a Fat Han as filler, but if you stop a second to think about this, it makes sense. You are going to fly a two ship list, fine. One of those two ships is one that you have already used in the past and which have a more or less fixed configuration, the Fat Han. Then, you can focus all you experiments in the other ship of your list. Therefore, Han is the filler, the guy with the permanent job; Wedge is the new guy on the team, the one you will like to play with and see what he can do. Well, that new guy was gone in the present case; so, maybe stop the game and reset it was not a bad idea, actually with the intention to try Wedge. However, we moved on :)
Third round:
Again the picture is turned 90°.
The cloaked phantom decloaked forward and performed a 3 left turn and cloaked again. The other one did a 3 left bank and no idea why it does not have any tokens on the picture, I am sure it took an action...
Soontir did a 2 left turn and barrel rolled right to get close to the initial position of the Falcon.
Han did a 1 right bank, moving around the rock and clearing the stress from the previous round.
 |
| 3rd round after movement |
Very brief this time, Han did nothing and Soontir removed 2 shields from him. Really, the green dices were cursed.
Fourth round:
Both phantom decloaked forward, one did a 1 left turn and the other did a 3 left turn to close on the Falcon, both did also double focus.
Soontir did a forward 2 and barrel rolled right, again trying to close as much on the Falcon as possible before it moves away.
Han went 2 forwards and evade.
 |
| 4th round after movement |
Soontir took away another 2 shields from Han, whereas the return fire from Han did nothing. The first Falcon removed the last shiled and did one damage to Han; the second one did four damage to him.
It was terrible to see so many blanks on the green dices, really. We were both of us first stunned than laughing about it as we both were not able to believe. It was ridiculous.
Fifth round:
One phantom did a 3 right turn and took double focus, the other one did a 2 right turn and a barrel roll to the left trying to get back to the fight.
Soontir did a 2 left bank and collided with Han, losing his actions.
Han was not sure what to do and Stayed in Target to do a left 1 turn. This was the first intention of my opponent, he changed his mind to a right turn and in view of the position of my phantoms decided to go back to the idea of turning left but the stress he got from that change of plans was terribly difficult to get rid off as there was an asteroid just in front of him which he was not going to be able to by pass with any green movement.
 |
| 5th round after movement |
Soontir did nothing to Han (finally!) and Han placed one critical damage on Soontir, the one reducing his Agility in one.
Sixth round:
The phantom closest to the back of the Falcon did a 3 left turn and collided with him. The other Falcon did a 2 left turn and a left barrel roll still trying to go back to the fight.
Soontir did a 1 left turn to avoid collision with Han followed by a boost forward and a barrel roll to the left to get into a nice firing position.
Han did a white 3 right bank as the green 2 will have him on the asteroid or at less flying over it, so he is still stressed from the previous Stay on Target.
 |
| 6th round after movement |
This round was crazy. Nothing happen ! :)
Seventh and last round:
The phantom on the back of Han did a 3 left bank and double focus, the other one a 3 left turn and barrel roll to cover a possible 1 left turn from Han.
Soontir. Well, this was a moment of craziness for me. I was looking to Han and Soontir on the battlefield and wondering how to manage to get Soontir close to the Falcon without colliding again with it when suddenly I realized that I could use Soontir as a blocker !
This was for me an eye opener moment as I would have never considered a PS 9 guy a blocker, but when the other guys fly after you, does not matter which PS you have, if you fly first, you can block; new golden rule for me: first to move, first to block :) :)
So, the baron moved 2 left turn and barrel rolled right, short, and right in front of the Falcon.
Han tried to clear the stress with a 1 left bank and collided with Soontir. Stress was gone but also any possible action.
 |
| 7th and final round after movement |
Han fired on the phantom on his seven without success and the return fire destroyed him.
Game over
In retrospective:
My red dices were on fire, as I got several times a lot of impacts and the green dices of my opponent were, well, greener than never. This was a pity as diluted the experience, but after a while it was so incredible that stopped being annoying and started being crazy-funny. I do not take any merit on this victory.
Stay on Target reads "When you reveal a manoeuvre, you may rotate your dial to another manoeuvre with the same speed. Treat that manoeuvre as a red manoeuvre". This card is a very good one but has a few pitfalls. First, the manoeuvre is red, which means that you cannot use it if you have already a stress token as a ship with a stress token cannot perform red manoeuvres (cf. core rules) and of course once performed, gives you a stress token which can be not so easy to remove. I liked the card a lot, it gives you a lot of flexibility (you pay for it, of course, but the flexibility is there). In the past I played a Fettigator (Boba Fett and Navigator) just because the flexibility it offers. There was a theory about this combination being a good way to counter pre-FAQ phantoms (using also Veteran Instincts to push Boba into PS 10). Maybe it could be combined also with him or even in a named phantom for extra options...
Blocking with phantoms is still a thing I will like to consider more as I'm still not so sure about my idea of cloaking when I expect the blocking phantom to be collided with. In this game I lost a shoot on Wedge for this reason. Yes, in this particular game I did not needed it, but that is not the point. From a strategical point of view maybe is better not to recloak and be able to attack.
Cloaking-Decloaking: this is something I still need to work on. I still have times when my phantoms are cloaked and I need them to decloak to be able to fire but doing so will put them in not so optimal positions to attack. This can be annoying and a serious problem.
Soontir: as good as usual, but recently it was suggested to me to replace him with Carnor Jax (Enemy ships at Range 1 cannot perform focus or evade actions and cannot spend focus or evade tokens) with the same upgrades which will make the four/five attack dice of the phantoms even more dangerous. I think this is a great suggestion and I am looking forward to try it, although I have only used him once and I am not so sure how to fly with him. I think I will miss the stress-focus from Soontir...
What if:
I am very curious about a parallel universe where on the second round of this game, Wedge and Han managed to destroy one of my phantoms on that single round, before he was able to fire, letting me with a cloaked phantom and Soontir at the end of round two.
We need to play again with those same lists :) :)
Friday, April 24, 2015
The Phantom always calls twice
Second game with my phantom based list:
In the first round I went very slow with the phantoms, they did a 1 turn to the right, keeping the distance and letting my opponent come towards the centre.
Horton and Ten moved 2 forwards, whereas Corran approached the centre with a bank.
Soontir speed up toward the enemy and boosted towards the centre also.
Round two saw a what-if moment. From my point of view, Ten Numb and Horton were having two options: either moving forwards towards the centre and the flank of my phantoms or turning to face Soontir. My doubt was what to do with my phantoms.
- Sigma Squadron Pilot (34) x 2 - TIE Phantom (25), Recon Specialist (3), Sensor Jammer (4), Stygium Particle Accelerator (2)
- Soontir Fel (32) - TIE Interceptor (27), Royal Guard TIE (0), Push the Limit (3), Autothrusters (2)
- Ten Numb (33) - B-Wing (31), Fire-Control System (2)
- Corran Horn (37) - E-Wing (35), Fire-Control System (2)
- Horton Salm (30) - Y-Wing (25), Ion Cannon Turret (5)
Set Up
I got initiative so I started with the placement of obstacles. As my three obstacles, again I took the bigger asteroids as I think that my list needs as much hard obstacles as possible. My opponent also was of the same opinion about his list, so we ended up with pretty a lot of big rocks :)
My phantoms deployed first looking towards the open lane in the middle of the battlefield.
All my opponent ships were PS 8, he deployed Ten Numb and Horton Salm on the centre and Corran Horn on my left side, so I deployed Soontir I-am-awasome Fel on my right with the idea to made him run towards the back and approach the centre from an angle.
I got initiative so I started with the placement of obstacles. As my three obstacles, again I took the bigger asteroids as I think that my list needs as much hard obstacles as possible. My opponent also was of the same opinion about his list, so we ended up with pretty a lot of big rocks :)
My phantoms deployed first looking towards the open lane in the middle of the battlefield.
All my opponent ships were PS 8, he deployed Ten Numb and Horton Salm on the centre and Corran Horn on my left side, so I deployed Soontir I-am-awasome Fel on my right with the idea to made him run towards the back and approach the centre from an angle.
 |
| Set Up |
Horton and Ten moved 2 forwards, whereas Corran approached the centre with a bank.
Soontir speed up toward the enemy and boosted towards the centre also.
 |
| End of movement on round 1 |
If the enemy moved forwards I was wondering about making a K-turn and wait for the next round to decloak and attack. In this scenario Soontir will bank to his right and boost behind the asteroid at the end of the battlefield to get cover against the two enemy vessels and try to approach them from behind.
If they turned to face Soontir, then he will need to go towards then to get maximum attack power and the phantoms should try to face the centre of the battlefield and be ready to fire, that mean, decloak.
During the game I usually found myself confronted with this problem, the need to decloak to be able to attack and the apparent bad positioning which this decloak was forcing me to.
However, in this case, I was lucky. I choose to decloak to the side and to turn, so that both phantoms were facing the centre. During the time that I took to think what to do, my opponent changed his mind about what he was going to do from moving towards the centre to chasing Soontir. So, his change of mind suited my final movement.
Corran Horn moved further towards the centre and Soontir closed on the enemy.
The attack round was furious as I concentrated all my fire on Ten Numb who lost several shields. Only Horton Salm was able to fire back against Soontir to no effect.
For round three I was able again to predict the movement of my opponent, this time the obvious move of Corran Horn (except for the barrel roll) who moved towards the centre. So Soontir turned I thin 2 and placed himself right behind Corran.
 |
| End of movement on round 2 |
My phantoms moved to try to block the wounded B-Wing, which collided with one of them. However in the picture the Y-wing seems to be were it was at the end of the previous round of movement, this is due to the fact that when it tried to moved, both the B-wing of Ten Numb and the Interceptor of Soontir were in the way, so it barely moved this round. No actions for them also.
The uncloaked phantom killed Ten Numb and Soontir started chipping down Corran :)
Corran, however, double tapped the phantom on the back, which lost its shields.
On round four, there was no Ten Numb any more, so my phantoms tried to block the Y-wing. The clocked one (with the number 1) decloaked right and turned 1 to try to get arc on the Y-wing whereas the other did a 2 bank and finished cloaked more or less where Ten Numb was the previous round to try to block Horton. The Y-wing turned 2 and avoided the collision with the cloaked phantom but not to be in arc of the uncloaked one and in range 1.
Corran did a 2 turn to his right and Soontir just did a 2 bank to his left and barrel roll to get Corran in arc at range 1.
I don't remember the outcome of the attacks but I think that Corran was lucky and was either undamaged or lost one shield, not more. Horton was able to ionize the phantom with the number 1, the one on the right.
Sorry about the blurry picture for round 5.
Corran, however, double tapped the phantom on the back, which lost its shields.
 |
| End of movement on round 3 |
Corran did a 2 turn to his right and Soontir just did a 2 bank to his left and barrel roll to get Corran in arc at range 1.
I don't remember the outcome of the attacks but I think that Corran was lucky and was either undamaged or lost one shield, not more. Horton was able to ionize the phantom with the number 1, the one on the right.
 |
| End of movement on round 4 |
The cloaked phantom decloaked left and did a K-turn whereas the ionized one collided with the Y-wing and barely moved forwards.
Horton ran for cover behind the asteroid and Corran did a K-turn which I was not really expecting, however Soontir is so manoeuvrable that it didn't really matter and none of then was in arc of each other that suited me well enough.
Horton managed to ionize again the phantom which finished the round lossing its last shield. Now, both of then were shieldless.
Round six saw the forced movement of the ionized phantom which cloaked to increase survivability as no target was in range, the other one did a bank to approach the cneter and wait for Soontir to turn around and join and also cloaked.
Horton managed to ionize again the phantom which finished the round lossing its last shield. Now, both of then were shieldless.
 |
| End of movement on round 5 |
Horton decided to try to get after Soontir with the idea of placing an ion token on it whereas Corran went after the phantoms.
Soontir turned away from the incoming Y-wing and boosted to turn around towards the phantoms.
The cloak and the asteroid helped the phantom on the right to survive undamaged to attack of Corran who double tapped him.
Round seven. The phantom on the left, without number, did a turn towards Corran without decloaking and landed on the asteroid, the other did a K-turn also to try to look for Corran, who being stressed opted to go straight forwards to clear off the stress.
Horton turned towards Soontir who said "ciao bella" to him by speeding and turning to his right.
This was the moment I was referring before. From a tactical point of view I needed the phantoms uncloaked to be able to attack Corran but decloaking will have placed then somewhere else without proper way to chase Corran. So I was having a nice position to fire but no possibility to do so...
On round 8, the phanotm on the right, the one without number, decloaked to its left and did a 1 turn and cloaked to block Corran. The other one decloaked forwards and did a 1 turn to try to cover a left turn for Corran.
Horton was turning to follow Soontir and Corran surprised me again by K-turning. I seem no to be able to predict those K-turns which now appears so obvious when reviewing the game...
Soontir speeded to help the phantoms.
Corran double tapped the phantom to no effect and Soontir attacked him but don't remember the outcome.
On the final round, the phanotm and Soontir closed into Corran who moved just forward, the second phantom tried to turn around the rock and Horton was still trying to get to Soontir.
The initial attack of Soontir destroyed Corran and we finished the round and the game.
It was a very nice game. I was very lucky being able to take out Ten Numb so quickly at the beginning of the game. I think that this really pushed the balance in my favour. Also, this time I did not forget to use the sensor jammer and the autothrusters. Those two upgrades are great imho, Soontir was free to fly and to attack the Y-wing at range 3 without risk of being ionized and with nice chances of not being damaged by the responding fire.
I also liked the list of my opponent and he really lamented his change of plans on round two; this was for sure a key moment of the game for both of us.
I am looking forward to fly my list a few more times :) :)
 |
| End of movement on round 6 |
Horton turned towards Soontir who said "ciao bella" to him by speeding and turning to his right.
This was the moment I was referring before. From a tactical point of view I needed the phantoms uncloaked to be able to attack Corran but decloaking will have placed then somewhere else without proper way to chase Corran. So I was having a nice position to fire but no possibility to do so...
 |
| End of movement on round 7 |
Horton was turning to follow Soontir and Corran surprised me again by K-turning. I seem no to be able to predict those K-turns which now appears so obvious when reviewing the game...
Soontir speeded to help the phantoms.
Corran double tapped the phantom to no effect and Soontir attacked him but don't remember the outcome.
 |
| End of movement on round 8 |
 |
| End of movement on round 9 |
I also liked the list of my opponent and he really lamented his change of plans on round two; this was for sure a key moment of the game for both of us.
I am looking forward to fly my list a few more times :) :)
Saturday, April 18, 2015
First flight of the Phantom - a X-Wing battle report
When I started with X-wing upon it release I was a bit frustrated with the game and I did not liked it too much, however some months later with more ships than the few ones coming with the core game on the table, I loved it.
However, for some unfathomable reason, I decided to buy only the ships that were part of the movies, so no HWK. Then wave 4 arrived and they were only ships not from the movies, so I passed. Shortly after I changed again my mind and got them but after reading on the web and watching videos of the way phantoms were played and taking into consideration that I was still learning to fly TIE interceptors I decided to let them rest in their storage box.
Actually, a friend of mine used one of my phantoms before I even considered trying it :)
Now, there is the new FAQ with new rules for the decloak and here I am trying my phantoms for the first time, maybe a little bit to late for the great decloak party but anyway...
For my first flight with phantoms I took two generic, low PS ones, which should be great blockers now and this little fellow called Awesome Fel.
My list:
I you can see we were using the new tournament obstacle placement rules, so each one of us took three from the two core sets and the YT-2400 and Decimator expansions and made the obstacle pool and place them following initiative order.
Having highly manoeuvrable ships I went for the biggest rocks, also Dash laughs about the debris clouds as he ignores then during the activation phase, therefore no roll of dice and no stress and as you can land on them and still shooting, he will have a lot of fun doing so and flying carelessly all around if you only put debris clouds or too many of them.
I placed my phantoms on the central lane to keep my options open and let Soontir la-mano-de-dios on the right with an open acceleration lane to the far end of the battle field.
Dash Rendar with engine upgrade is able to cover 9 units of forward movement on the first round (36 cm) and he will be able to fire at range 3 if you try to move towards him which is disturbing if you happen to have lower PS as my phantoms do. Therefore they turn 3 to the right, to keep the distance with the enemy and cloaked (free evasion due to the Stygium Acc.).
My opponent went soft with his ships and moved forward on a straight line.
The Baron went also forwards and boosted left to go into the back of the enemy.
There was no exchange of fire this round.
Here I had a "what if" moment. My phantoms could turn to their left again keeping the cloak to seek cover behind the debris cloud and try to decloak next round to attack the approaching Dash or to follow Soontir to the back of the battlefield or could do a K-turn, still cloaked, to be prepared to confront the approaching Dash face to face also on the next round.
I was afraid of the jousting face to face which with Dash maybe was an error to be afraid of, so I decided to turn left.
He bank with the two ships and I think that Dash boosted forwards.
Soontir went forwards, boosted left and barrel roll to stay away from Dash, outside of arc of the Y-wing but keeping it within his own arc. This was the part when my brain was happy about the being outside of enemy firing arcs, however:
I decided to decloak the phantoms to the left and made them turn 1 to the left. One managed to avoid the debris cloud and was able to focus (2 tokens because Recon Spec. and evade because Stygium Acc.), the other one only got the evade from Stygium Acc.
Dash was blocked by this second phantom, so no actions for him :)
And universal Karma made Dutch to collide with the asteroid, so no actions and no shooting for him which overcompensate the forgotten autothrusters :)
Soontir was forced to go 1 straight and to keep the stress.
Dash fired on the other phantom and here, again, I forgot something, the phantoms have Sensor Jammer, I designed then to be as tanky as possible and then I forget about it...
Anyway, that was end of round three.
On round four I made another miscalculation. I moved one phantom forwards over Dash and into cloak but for no reason I let the other one, which was flying behind, to fly onto Dash instead of over him. So no actions, therefore no cloak, ouch!
Dutch cleared the asteroid and approached the phantoms; Dash moved a bit away.
Soontir turned left just right on the border of the battlefield to approach Dutch from behind :)
There was some heavy shooting here, an one of the phantoms was ionized, the one closer to Dash. I forgot again to use the sensor jammer :(
The phantom closest to Dash moved the forced 1 straight of the ionization, the other one I cannot remember.
The Y-wing moved towards the phantoms and Dash started to turn around.
Soontir approached Dutch.
And it seems to me that I do not have a picture of the fifth round...
On the round six, one of the phantoms made a K-turn and the other one somehow managed to move close to the asteroid to block Dash who was turning. Soontir also managed to get there. Both phantoms have a evade, so both decloaked somehow and got no further actions, one because of the stress of the K-turn and the other one I have no idea, sorry.
The mixing picture of round 5 makes it difficult for me to recall the details.
Obviously there was some heavy shooting here, Dash fired against Soontir and both, Soontir and the left most phantom fired against the Y-wing, which was destroyed.
Next round, obviously the phantom closed on the centre of the battlefield. The other one tried to use a rock for cover and Soontir just flyed pass Dash. This round finished with the death of the phantom closest to Dash.
And we called it. We did not count victory points, but my phantom was 34 points and his Dutch was 39 points, so it would have been a modified victory for me. Not so bad taking into account all the thing we forgot concerning not only my ships but also his, for example, both of his ships were having ordnance which was not used (yes, we are aware about all the discussion concerning the uselessness of ordnance, and it can also be that he did not find a moment to use it, but I think, honestly, that he forgot about it).
A special comment about his list. Dutch Vander allows another friendly ship at range 1-2 to acquire a target lock after himself acquires one. So, he was moving Dutch (PS 6), making him to do another action apart from target lock (for example, focus) and then moving Dash (PS 7) and using his action to activate squad leader and ordering Dutch to acquire a target lock. This allowed him to give target lock-focus to either Dutch or to Dash according to the circumstances. I found it very nice.
However, for some unfathomable reason, I decided to buy only the ships that were part of the movies, so no HWK. Then wave 4 arrived and they were only ships not from the movies, so I passed. Shortly after I changed again my mind and got them but after reading on the web and watching videos of the way phantoms were played and taking into consideration that I was still learning to fly TIE interceptors I decided to let them rest in their storage box.
Actually, a friend of mine used one of my phantoms before I even considered trying it :)
Now, there is the new FAQ with new rules for the decloak and here I am trying my phantoms for the first time, maybe a little bit to late for the great decloak party but anyway...
For my first flight with phantoms I took two generic, low PS ones, which should be great blockers now and this little fellow called Awesome Fel.
My list:
- Sigma Squadron Pilot (34) x 2 - TIE Phantom (25), Recon Specialist (3), Sensor Jammer (4), Stygium Particle Accelerator (2)
- Soontir Fel (32) - TIE Interceptor (27), Royal Guard TIE (0), Push the Limit (3), Autothrusters (2)
- Dutch Vander (39) - Y-Wing (23), R2-D6 (1), Proton Torpedoes (4), Ion Cannon turret (5), Shield Upgrade (4), Wingman (2)
- Dash Rendar (60) - YT-2400 (36), Squad Leader (2), Heavy Laser Cannon (7), Proton Rockets (3), C3P0 (3), Outrider (5), Engine Upgrade (4)
A very heavy two ship list, with a Dash on steroids.
When I saw that, something in my brain started yelling to me "stay outside of arc, stay outside of arc", which is one of the mantras of the TIE Interceptor although at that time I was having the impression that I was missing something and of course, try to get into range 1 of Dash because of the famous "donut hole".
For the Set Up, my phantoms were first, then his two ships and then Mr. Baron.
 |
| Set Up |
Having highly manoeuvrable ships I went for the biggest rocks, also Dash laughs about the debris clouds as he ignores then during the activation phase, therefore no roll of dice and no stress and as you can land on them and still shooting, he will have a lot of fun doing so and flying carelessly all around if you only put debris clouds or too many of them.
I placed my phantoms on the central lane to keep my options open and let Soontir la-mano-de-dios on the right with an open acceleration lane to the far end of the battle field.
Dash Rendar with engine upgrade is able to cover 9 units of forward movement on the first round (36 cm) and he will be able to fire at range 3 if you try to move towards him which is disturbing if you happen to have lower PS as my phantoms do. Therefore they turn 3 to the right, to keep the distance with the enemy and cloaked (free evasion due to the Stygium Acc.).
My opponent went soft with his ships and moved forward on a straight line.
The Baron went also forwards and boosted left to go into the back of the enemy.
There was no exchange of fire this round.
 |
| End of the First round |
I was afraid of the jousting face to face which with Dash maybe was an error to be afraid of, so I decided to turn left.
He bank with the two ships and I think that Dash boosted forwards.
Soontir went forwards, boosted left and barrel roll to stay away from Dash, outside of arc of the Y-wing but keeping it within his own arc. This was the part when my brain was happy about the being outside of enemy firing arcs, however:
- Dash has turret weapon and was in range, so Soontir was attacked by a Heavy Laser Cannon which rolled three impacts; Lady Fortuna gave Soontir three pure evades on the defence roll. So far so good.
- Dutch Vander also has a turret weapon (surprise!!!) which I have forgotten about and he also attacked Soontir.
- Soontir was equipped with autothrusters but maybe concerned as I was with the movement and options for the phantoms I totally forgot about it.
- Relevance of it: I cannot tell because I cannot remember if Dutch rolled two or three impacts. Soontir rolled one evade and two blanks; therefore if Dutch rolled two impacts with the forgotten autothrusters there will be no damage to him; if Dutch rolled three impacts there was no difference.
Any way, Soontir finished the round stressed (Push the Limits) and ionized due to the attack from Dutch. Just the dream of every Tie interceptor's opponent.
 |
| End of the second round. |
Dash was blocked by this second phantom, so no actions for him :)
And universal Karma made Dutch to collide with the asteroid, so no actions and no shooting for him which overcompensate the forgotten autothrusters :)
Soontir was forced to go 1 straight and to keep the stress.
Dash fired on the other phantom and here, again, I forgot something, the phantoms have Sensor Jammer, I designed then to be as tanky as possible and then I forget about it...
Anyway, that was end of round three.
 |
| End of round three. |
Dutch cleared the asteroid and approached the phantoms; Dash moved a bit away.
Soontir turned left just right on the border of the battlefield to approach Dutch from behind :)
There was some heavy shooting here, an one of the phantoms was ionized, the one closer to Dash. I forgot again to use the sensor jammer :(
 |
| End of round four. |
The Y-wing moved towards the phantoms and Dash started to turn around.
Soontir approached Dutch.
And it seems to me that I do not have a picture of the fifth round...
On the round six, one of the phantoms made a K-turn and the other one somehow managed to move close to the asteroid to block Dash who was turning. Soontir also managed to get there. Both phantoms have a evade, so both decloaked somehow and got no further actions, one because of the stress of the K-turn and the other one I have no idea, sorry.
The mixing picture of round 5 makes it difficult for me to recall the details.
Obviously there was some heavy shooting here, Dash fired against Soontir and both, Soontir and the left most phantom fired against the Y-wing, which was destroyed.
 |
| Anyway, end of round six. |
 |
| Round seven at the end of movement |
A special comment about his list. Dutch Vander allows another friendly ship at range 1-2 to acquire a target lock after himself acquires one. So, he was moving Dutch (PS 6), making him to do another action apart from target lock (for example, focus) and then moving Dash (PS 7) and using his action to activate squad leader and ordering Dutch to acquire a target lock. This allowed him to give target lock-focus to either Dutch or to Dash according to the circumstances. I found it very nice.
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