In anticipation of our Store Championship this weekend, we’ve got a battle report from Kyle Sellner’s run at Arkam Games Store Championship. Enjoy!
Hi everyone!
I don’t know if anyone else may find it interesting, but I wanted to revisit my matches to see what went well and what didn’t and thought this was a good format.
This was my list:
My thoughts were that the Advanced Sensor General Hux would be a great combo to dish out up to three focus tokens and give the ‘Fanatical Devotion’ condition to Countdown (as with his ability, he really doesn’t need the focus for defense). Execute the green maneuver, clear that Hux stress, and give out a Target Lock to one of the ships (likely Pure Sabacc). Each striker would take the Evade action (if a Barrel Roll wasn’t needed for repositioning) thereby giving Omega Ace his extra red dice for the crit-fest.
Match 1: Victor Robles; Bossk & Dengar (both with munitions)
I set up bottom left, and Victor set up top right. My thought was to cruise my Strikers down the board edge and try to get in behind the slow-turning Bossk. I’d use the shuttle and Ace as bait for Dengar. It was apparent that Victor’s target was the shuttle as he unloaded his munitions into it on the initial engagement. While not dead, it had received a few crits including console fire (which made me choose between putting it out and Hux-ing). My strikers and Ace focused on Bossk and were able to bring him down. I lost the shuttle soon thereafter. Dengar took out Ace and an injured Sabacc. It was down to a shieldless Dengar against my Countdown with only 2 hull. I decided to run when time was called. Round 1 loss, but I got the Bossk points while he got the points for the shuttle and 2 of my 3 ships. I should have sent all of my ships after one of his, rather than dividing up the fleet. But I was pleased that I didn’t get tabled by Victor!
Match 2: Matt; Push the Limit Dash Rendar, Lone Wolf Jake Farrell with Proton Rockets, and a Bandit Z-95
Matt ended up with initiative which ended up being a huge factor in this matchup. Two of his ships had Pilot Skill 7 against two of mine with 7 (Sabacc used Adaptability to get up to 7). He set up Dash and the Z top left, and Jake just on the right side of middle. I deployed bottom left to set up a joust with Dash and the Z. I slow rolled up the board edge, as did he. Jake started moving in to join the fight, but it was almost too late. The first engagement, I moved with in all of my tokens. Sabacc stripped a few shields off of Dash, then Ace did what he does…. Five crits, while most of us were in the HLC donut so he could only fire at the shuttle. The shuttle returned fire to finish him off. The Z was in the middle of my ships, and I guessed that he’d do a 2-straight. Turns out he did a K-turn. Ace did a 3 bank and was sitting right in the Z’s arc…. Until I was able to dodge out with a barrel roll. Countdown and the shuttle took care of the Z, but Jake had gotten into range 1 for doing his procket business on the shuttle getting it to half points. Sabacc was easily able to arc dodge and take down Jake for the win. This was exactly what the list was designed to do.
Match 3: Caleb Hamilton; Bossk & Asajj with double Glitterstim
Another Bossk! I deployed my fleet bottom right. He deployed Asajj top right and Bossk more or less middle. I decided to scream my fleet forward in hopes of engaging Asajj before Bossk could get there in support. At the initial engagement, I realized just how powerful Glitterstim can be, especially when receiving shots from four ships. Asajj escaped with maybe half health, when I was hoping for a death. Unfortunately, he was able to toss stress on Sabacc meaning he couldn’t do his Adaptive Aileron boosting. Some of the details in here are a bit lost on me, but at one point, I had a range 1 shot with Countdown on Asajj who had only 1 hull left. Asajj didn’t die….. That ended up costing me the game as he had killed Ace, Sabacc, and the shuttle and I had half points on both Bossk and Asajj . Had I killed Asajj , I might have gotten the victory.
My takeaways were that Glitterstim is really good. Like really good. Two Glitterstims are even more gooder. With Jabba the Hutt crew, four Glitterstims will be downright diabolical. Stacking stress on the Strikers really hamstrings them. Also, I need to find a way to give dice mods to the Strikers if they are out of range of Hux. Having the ability to re-roll that range 1 shot against Asajj would have been huge. I also need to reconsider how I fly the Strikers after the initial engagement. Need to talk to Nick…..
Match 4: Storm Kelly; Norra with R2-D2, Braylen Stramm with C-3PO, Gold Squadron Y-wing with Twin Laser Turret and Cluster Mines
I was scared of the TLT and the mine, so the Y-wing had to die first. He deployed his Y wing in the middle, and his Braylen top left. I set up my fleet bottom right. He put Norra top right dividing the field into thirds. Surprisingly, he ran Braylen up the board edge, and turned the Y away from me. He slow rolled with Norra. I sent my Strikers chasing the Y, knowing he’d have to move first and THEN drop the mine, From there, I could decide where to Aileron AFTER I knew where it was, which was something I was okay with. I took out the Y-wing without too much difficulty and never gave him a chance to drop the mine. The 3rd green dice from Lightweight Frame proved invaluable with the TLT shots.
In the meantime, Norra had focused on the shuttle and Braylen had made his way around from the back. I lost the shuttle. We had nearly circled the battlefield and were back to the bottom right corner with Sabacc and Ace chasing Norra. Here’s where being able to NOT use the ailerons would be nice. I was forced to either bump into Norra so I could keep her in arc (but lose out on modifiers) or zoom past her. I opted for the bump, but her relentless assault of turning eyeballs into crits proved too much for Sabacc. Ace was finally able to finish her off (even with her shields regenerating each turn). In the meantime, Countdown was chasing a one hull Braylen. At one point, Countdown got two hits on Braylen, and Storm had to guess 1 evade with C-3PO and he rolled it to give him the second one and stay alive as time was called. I ended up winning on points, but by a close margin. I’ve flown Norra a few times, and I can say I’ve never had that many eyeball rolls out the back. It seemed like every shot she fired had a hit and an eyeball. UGH! Once the Y went down, I thought I had an easy match, but Norra with R2D2 proved super survivable.
All in all, I had a fun day. Countdown lived in every one of my matches. His ability is just so good. And it worked quite well with the ‘ Fanatical Devotion’ as he doesn’t really need the defensive boost. I finished 2-2 which was “good” enough for 9th place and get me one spot out of a shiny orange range ruler. But honestly, with the level of players we have in Des Moines, I feel pretty solid with my finish.
I need to practice what to do with the strikers after the initial engagement. Do I fly past and K-turn near the board edge? Or do I turn in quick for a fast second shot? Having the shuttle keep up with the strikers is also a bit of a challenge. The crit-fest with Ace is a nice bonus, but I think I was only able to get 3+ crits either 2 or 3 times. It’s a nice bonus, but I can’t rely on that as my source of damage. Even without Swarm Leader, Ace could deal out 2 or 3 on his own, which isn’t bad! I’m toying with the idea of dropping Swarm Leader from Ace and putting those points into Duchess instead of Sabacc (the option of NOT having to Adaptive Aileron would be nice). I’d lose out on the potential for the 5-crit circus, but it might be worth the risk. Or I could then use Omega Leader instead of Ace altogether? The list is definitely fun to fly if nothing else then for the look on your opponent’s face when you start flipping dice to crits.
Thanks for the report Kyle! You can find Kyle at Des Moines Area X-wing game nights, as well as our Des Moines Store Championship taking place this weekend!
Des Moines Area X-wing 