IDK my bff Leia?

[emsgoof 473]

Looks like a good list!  Good luck!

[duck_bird 925]

Phew, lotta fun yesterday!  We had 10 players and I ended up part of a 3 way tie for first.  21 points after 3 7-4's in a row.  Comparing this to my Ozzel list that I took to regionals, it seems to be maybe more reliable?  So far I've found with this list I tend to lose small or win small, whereas with my Ozzel list I'd usually either lose-medium or win by tabling people.  This one just doesn't have the firepower or speed to kill everything on the board.

That said, I definitely need more practice with it.  I'm still making a lot of mistakes in the squadron game and yesterday showed me that I have a lot to learn about squad management.  This whole list is also kind of forced to fly together for safety which makes it somewhat predictable and vulnerable to flanks.

MVPs of the day were Yavaris, Dutch, and Gold squad.  My god they did so much work.  Biggest letdowns were Salvation that rolled like hot garbage all day and Wedge who was public enemy #1 and got gunned down so quickly.

Anyway, brief recaps of each game:  I ended up against 3 squadron heavy imp lists, 2 Sloane and 1 Motti.

Game one against Sloane on Devastator, 4 gozantos, and a mess of aces:

My 1 point bid proved enough for initiative and since this was an ISD2 with Devastator and gunnery teams, I figured I had to pick first.  I couldn't let that thing get a last/first off on me and potentially kill 2 ships per turn.  I chose his Fighter Ambush which gave me total control over the deployment phase.  That said, I still managed to mess up a bit, putting a flotilla and 2 Xwings in the middle of the board.  My opponent ended up putting his ISD in a far corner, and my X wings would spend a few turns trying to catch up to the fight.  All 4 gozantis deployed against the back wall at speed 3 ZZZZZZZZZZZ

My fleet deployed in its typical fashion.  The hammerheads make a wall with Salvation hiding behind, and Yavaris on the side.  My opponent opted not to ambush with his fighters and had them all in a clump next to and in front of the ISD.

I flew my fleet forward slow rolling at speed 2, keeping a tight formation and hiding my fighters in the flak zone.  I gambled a bit and opened up the first combat turn with Yavaris, sending Dutch up to turn Maarek off.  It worked well, and I was able to deactivate Maarek and Saber.  Wedge couldn't finish Maarek off.  Mithel crashed into most of my fighters.  Aces and TIEs swarm over my squads.  Wedge dies quickly and poor Jan follows soon after.  Flak starts pounding the Imperial ace ball.  Devastator moves into long range.  I start plinking at it.

Turn 4 is when things got dicey.  Flak is starting to wear down the enemy fighters but most of my squads have been killed by relentless Sloane aces.  My HHs have rolled poorly so far and the ISD is in far better shape than I was anticipating.  One hammerhead blows its full load and rolls a very disappointing 3 damage.  My opponent seems to underestimate them after that, and doesn't activate the ISD first, going for more squadron commands (from the 4 gozantos 5 feet away ZZZZ)  The next hammerhead decides to show up his friend and rolls a whopping 10 damage, forcing the brace to be discarded and putting a lot of hurt on the ISD.  My other ships pound it and we bring it down to 4 HP.  Time for Salvation to shine!  Leia's concentrating fire Salvation manages to roll 1 damage.  I was terrified at this point. 

Turn 5 opens with Salvation tapping again and rolling the bare minimum 3 damage required to finish off Sloane's  ISD.  From here it was my flak finishing off what few squadrons I could.  I had lost 2 hammerheads and most of my squads, giving away more points than I wanted to.  Ended with a 7-4 victory.

 

Game two against Sloane Quasar/demo+3 and a bunch of aces and few bombers:

This fleet is my nemesis.  Almost identical to a list that tabled me in my first ever tournament.  Opponent had initiative and picked my Corona.  Deployment was predictable.  Quasar and all gozantis sideways against the back wall (ZZZZZZ), Demo and a giant ball of fighters flying at me.  

I deploy in a tight formation to overlap flak and protect myself from Demo.  Leia's Salvation sat on the far side as far from demo as possible.  If he wants to come for her he has to cross the entire fleet.  I advanced most of my fleet at speed 2, but Leia sped up to try to chase the Quasar.  Ended up being a useless gesture but eh, she had nothing else to shoot at with demo flanking on the other side.

Turn 2 starts the fighter clash and things immediately go south.  Wedge gets killed in 2 shots, and then Jan goes down in 2 more.  My return fire from my entire fleet does like 1 damage total.  Just rolled like poop.  I was very worried.  Turn 3 Dutch manages to turn off a few bombers, and my squadrons take more of a pounding.  However, this turn my flak is finally on point and I start to really put the hurt on his aces.  Demo takes out a hammerhead, but takes a lot of damage in return.

Turn 4 Demo takes out another HH, but in return is killed by Yavaris double tapping Gold and Dutch.  The rest of the Imp squad ball is really melting due to flak and my repair spam at this point.  The Benny Hill song plays in the background as Salvation chases futilely after the Quasar.  

In the end I've once against lost 2 hammerheads and a decent number of squads.  But I've killed demo and almost every squad, barely leading to another 7-4.

 

Game three against my friend's Motti ISD/Quasar+2 bomber fleet:

My one point bid proved enough here, but I knew my friend's fleet and that he probably had like Precision Strike, Fighter Ambush, and Superior Positions.  Knowing that he had a crapload of bombers and that Motti's Avenger can only blow up one ship per turn, I gave him first.  I am not sure if this was a mistake or not.  Thinking back I probably could have handled the objectives and taken first.

He deployed at speed 1 with the ISD and Quasar pointing right at me and a massive field of bombers and a few aces in front of them.  I deployed as tightly packed as I could, and we started slow-rolling towards each other.  The bombers raced forward.  I abandoned my flak field a little bit, hoping to either tie up the bombers before they could hit my ships, or force them to jump my squads an split up.  Imp aces started putting the hurt on my squads, but I dealt some damage in return.  Yavaris/Dutch was just so good at turning 2 squads off each turn.  Both squad balls are suffering at this point.  The Quasar lurches forward to get another full squadron command off.  Yav double-taps Gold and Dutch on it, and two hammerheads concentrating fire manage to finish it off.  The ISD cranks up to speed 3 and roars up into the fray.  Salvation is protected but only because of two hammerheads body blocking for her.  

Avenger starts the turn, presses the delete key on a hammerhead, and crashes into the next.  My entire fleet reveals concentrate fire commands and pounds away at Motti + RBDs.  The damage really starts to pile up.  Again, Yavaris + Gold/Dutch are doing so much work here.

Turn 5 opens with Motti calculating that he can't oneshot Leia without Boarding Troopers, and so swats the next hammerhead out of the sky and sneakily manages to barely fly over Yav/Salvation and land behind them.  It would all come down to whether or not I could finish Avenger off.  Dengar tied up my squads, forcing me to use Dutch to finish him off before Gold and the Xwing could start bombing again.  It's almost down, and a combined rear/side shot from Salvation barely manages to finish Avenger off.  The game ends due to time, and I find myself with another 7-4.

 

At the end of the day we end up with 3 players with 21 points.  So close!  Very fun games though.  My overall takeaways:

• Yavaris is nuts.  So strong.
• Gold Squadron is beast.
• Rebel aces are super vulnerable to being plinked to death
• Relay still feels boring and frustrating to play against.  My first two games featured 4 ships deployed against the far table edge flying sideways with zero intention of being part of the game.  Zzzzz
• Salvation is really unreliable without more ways to control your dice.
• I wish I had found room for Toryn Farr
• Dutch is a monster.  He ended up doing more damage than Wedge often, just because of his bonus damage, and turning off Vader/Maarek before they can shoot is incredible.
• Hammerheads are... interesting.  Sometimes they roll 2 damage, sometimes they roll 10.  
• I need a lot more practice positioning squadrons carefully.  I still find myself carefully planning a series of engagements and then messing everything up by landing on a key squads and letting it get re positioned.

[Ginkapo 9,321]

11 minutes ago, duck_bird said:

Salvation is really unreliable without more ways to control your dice.

Figure out how to get an MC30 into your list instead. And then you will be able to table people.

[emsgoof 473]

Sounds like you had a great time!  Sorry I missed it, but Relay mass fighter lists tend to annoy me, so it probably was for the best ?  Glad you're having fun with the rebels, @CyborgNinja is one to talk to about placing rebel fighters

[duck_bird 925]

Oh, I forgot the best part!  I got out-Leia'd HARD.

So I show up with 2 Nebulons and 3 Hammerheads.  Someone else shows up with THREE nebulons and FOUR hammerheads!  I looked like a filthy casual by comparison T_T