Rebel Buying Guide - Waves 1-5

You've bought the Core pack, you like the game and want to delve right into it. But there's so many expansions! Which one to pick? Luckily, there's no such thing as a bad ship (well, except the TIE Advanced, at least until MayJulyAugust 2015 when the Raider Corvette introduces some special cards for it), but some are more efficient than others, and some come with good cards to complement the ship, some don't. Despite that, I'd still recommend buying the ships you like first, since you will be more determined to make them work! Upgrade cards are also important though, and some of them have not stayed relevant. Some have found a niche use, while other are doomed to never see play. More of these types of cards are in the earlier packs, unfortunately. In general, ordnance in waves 1-3 is severely underpowered and some of the earlier Astromechs and Elite Pilot Talents don't affect the game that much. 

I'm going to go through  the Rebel expansion packs and discuss the relevance of the ships and upgrades to the state of the game as it is now (I will avoid discussions about the "meta" and list-building, and stick more to efficiency of ships in the general sense). I'll leave it to you to find out which expansions best fit what you want to play.

Wave 1 - X-wing expansion pack

The expansion pack for this iconic ship comes with two new unique pilots with very good abilities. The ship itself suffers in survivability compared to the B-wing, and is not seen as often because of this, but if you like X-wings, Wedge is the definite pilot for it. In some builds Garven's action economy (pass along a focus after using it) helps a lot, so he is a good pilot.

The cards are pretty disappointing though:

• Marksmanship(niche): good for ships that attack more than once per round (Cluster Missiles, Gunner, Corran Horn)
• Expert handling (subpar): most often used on big ships that can't barrel roll naturally. The stress, spent action and use of an EPT make it a borderline bad card though.
• R5 astromech (niche): Inappropriate on a X-wing, since you are almost dead by the time you get to use it. It has its (limited) uses on Y-wings.
• R5-K6 (bad): It does the same thing as Fire Control System, at the same point cost, but only works 3/8 of the time.
• Proton Torpedoes (bad): There's no way around saying this. You spend the target lock, you get 4 dice with little modifications, expected damage to the defender comes about the same. 

 

Wave 1 - Y-wing expansion pack

 

One of the two ships the Rebels have able to carry turrets, the Y-wing is a good Ion Cannon Turret ship, with decent survivability. It has a modest dial though, so expect to go slower with this ship and K-turn very rarely. Dutch Vander has a good action-economy ability (2 TLs instead of one), but Horton's ability is less useful, since it is designed with range 3 ordnance in mind.  He might see a lot more play if we ever get a range 3 turret (now known to be included in wave 7).

The cards offer the minimum necessary for this crowd control ship:

• 2x Proton Torpedoes (bad)
• Ion Cannon Turret (excellent) : The definite crowd-control weapon. Set up killing blows, fly ships off the table.
• R2 astromech (niche): Still one of the better generic astromechs, especially for its cost. There are plenty of better unique astromechs though. 
• R5-D8 (subpar): A simple focus will save you a hull point 25% of the time (on a Y-wing, more on an X-wing), and can be used for attack if you survive and don't use it. This is slightly worse than that.

Wave 2 - Millenium Falcon expansion pack 

 

The YT-1300 freighter is the first large ship expansion. It contains the ship, 14 (!) upgrades cards (with multiples for the good ones) and a unique scenario to play. This is probably the most successful ship in X-wing, having weathered all the possible meta-games since its debut in wave 2 up to wave 5 and beyond. The 360° firing arc and 3 attack dice give it good firepower. Coupled with a fantastic dial, the ship becomes very good in the hands of an able player, but proves to be very forgiving for the novice as well! The unique pilots all have movie fame, and they don't disappoint!

The cards are also very good:

• Engine Upgrade x2 (excellent): There is no big ship on which Engine Upgrade isn't good, especially if it is an ard-dodging-turret-wielding large ship.
• Shield Upgrade x2 (excellent): While it is quite a waste of points to put this on a Milllenium Falcon, the card is very good, and will often find use on high-agility ships (A-wings, E-wings, TIE Interceptors,TIE Defenders)
• Weapons Engineer (good): This card is great on ships that can pass Target Locks (Colonel Jendon on the Lambda Shuttle), or on ships that fire multiple times (the Epic ships). Its efficiency on the YT-1300 is limited however. 
• Chewbacca crew (good): A crew card that costs as much as a Shield Upgrade, but saves you at least 1 hull and 1 shield, possibly a critical effect as well. This card shines on 2 agility ships, but it's good on the Falcon as well. 
• Nien Numb (good): Nien Numb isn't that necessary on a Falcon unless Lando is piloting (some nice fluff right there) or you're using Push the Limit. It's very good on ships with limited greens, such as the HWK.
• Gunner (excellent): a top notch card, perfect for the Falcon. Han Solo with Gunner rolls dice up to four times, one of those rolls has to be good, right?
• Millenium Falcon title (good): If offense is covered you can spend an action for added survivability.
• Veteran Instincts (excellent): Pilot Skill has increased in importance, and this is one of three cards that can modify it. Good for winning the PS bid (having higher PS than your opponent) on any ship.
• Draw their Fire (good): This card is pivotal in many lists, because of its synergy with pilot Chewbacca or with shield regeneration (Luke + R2-D2)
• Elusiveness (bad): Taking stress is no small matter, and taking stress with 50% (or more) possibility of it being all for nothing is just bad. Taking an Elite Pilot Talent slot and costing 2 points is even worse.
• Assault Missiles (good in Epic): This is included in the bad ordnance of waves 1-3, but does much better against swarms or clumps of ships (of which you see plenty in Epic, not so much at 100 points anymore)
• Concussion Missiles (bad): The equivalent of Proton Torpedoes for missiles

Wave 2 - A-wing expansion pack

Originally designed as a fast and maneuverable missile carrier for the Rebels, the A-wing has suffered because of the lack of good missiles. Upon redesign, the A-wing can lose the missile slot for a 2pt discount (Chaardan Refit, available 3x in the Rebel Aces pack). This makes the PS1 Prototype Pilot an excellent 15 point blocker and brings down the cost of the EPT-capable Green Squadron to 17 points, the cheapest ship with an EPT for the Rebels. The A-wing can still be run effectively as a missile ship if you have some of the newer rockets (Proton Rockets are a good example). Otherwise, I recommend getting this expansion after Rebel Aces, to benefit from those cards. The pilots included are pretty good, Tycho is amazing at doing maneuvers and Arvel can work quite well with some of the newer upgrades.

The cards included are of the missile variety, with one notable exception:

• Concussion Missiles (bad): The equivalent of Proton Torpedoes for missiles
• Cluster Missiles (situational): Can be good if you have a good setup, TL + Marksmanship for instance to modify both attacks, against a 0 or 1-agility ship will be devastating.
• Homing Missiles (bad): The only ordnance in waves 1-2 that doesn't spend a TL, but costs a fortune.
• Push the Limit (excellent): If you're not getting Imperial Aces, then this is the only expansion where you can get this card, it's worth getting just for this. Action economy proved to be very important in X-wing, and this card was a no-brainer pick for an EPT for a long time. Still auto-include in many lists today.
• Deadeye (bad): Makes ordnance slightly less bad (you still spend the equivalent of an action, but are spared the necessity of getting to TL that ship) with the cost of 1 pt and an EPT slot. Not worth it.

Wave 3 - B-wing expansion pack

A mainstay of the Rebel fleet, the B-wing hits like an X-wing, is very customizable (even more with the Rebel Aces B-wing/E2 that adds a crew slot) and has very good tight maneuvers (although those are red).

• Proton Torpedoes (again!): How can this card keep coming up?
• Advanced Proton Torpedoes (situational): I hesitate to call this bad although it's incredibly expensive and needs range 1 because it modifies 3 blanks to focus symbols, so if you have a TL + focus at range 1 you will have a large number of hits.
• Ion Cannon (good): A good control cannon, perfect for the B-wing firing at range 3.
• Autoblaster (niche): The B-wing isn't a very fast ship, so getting in range 1 will be difficult if your opponent avoids this on purpose.
• Fire-Control System (excellent): The perfect card to increase firepower on a vanilla B-wing, or any other B-wing for that matter.

Wave 3 - HWK-290 expansion pack

A support ship with interesting abilities. Despite its ugly maneuver dial (probably the worst in the game), this ship finds its way into lists because of its turret slot, pilot abilities and crew. The support abilities are varied, Roark gives PS12 to a ship, Kyle gives out a focus, Jan Ors gives an extra attack die (for any type of attack). The range on these abilities is fantastic (1-3), so the support ship can stay out of harm's way while still providing the effect. About as resistant as an X-wing, the ship has greater survivability because of positioning in the squad, crew upgrade options (Chewbacca could give it 2+ HP for instance) and possibly infinite focus token stacks.
The upgrade cards form a pretty good bunch:

• Ion Cannon Turret (excellent)
• Blaster Turret (excellent): 3 dice turrets are expensive, and with this card you pay for those 3 dice with a focus token (to be able to shoot) and with maximum range (2). And it's still worth it.
• Intelligence Agent (good): Although this isn't exactly good on a HWK, it's a useful card. Being able to see another maneuver is good, but you also need a way to react, which a HWK without an Engine Upgrade would not have. One of the best ships for this upgrade is the TIE Phantom, especially with the new Decloak rules, where the Decloak takes place just after Intelligence Agent triggers, giving the TIE Phantom vital information.
• Recon Specialist (excellent): Action economy 101, 2 is better than 1. You can use 1 focus for Blaster Turret, 1 for dice modification, or just 1 for attack modification and 1 for defense. The possibilities are there and it's extremely versatile. Not to mention the synergy with the Moldy Crow or with Jan Ors (crew)...
• Saboteur (bad): A card which echoes wave 1 so much - spend an action to maybe do something that is not always possible. The enemy has to have hull damage, you have to be in range 1(!), you have to spend an action, then roll for 50% chance of it all being for nothing. Then slam fist on table, then never take Saboteur again.
• Moldy Crow (good): The HWK needs focus. Whether to share with others (Kyle), or to shoot its Blaster Turret, or merely for more defense, it needs focus. This allows it to accumulate focus tokens in the first rounds of the game, or otherwise keep those that it doesn't spend.

Epic Wave 1 - Rebel Transport expansion pack

The Rebel transport may not be allowed in 100pts matches, but its escort is! This pack brings 4 more Rebel pilots for the X-wing and some cool upgrade cards. While the pilots are good, the X-wing is still less efficient than the B-wing and sees less play. Tarn has an action economy ability, which due to its timing transforms it into a defensive one (coupled with the R7 astromech). Hobbie has an ability which gets rid of stress easily, pairing him well with R3-A2, Jek gets rid of stress very easily, but with a high risk and Wes strips tokens off the opponent. Of all the abilities, Wes' ability is the most lackluster, since it only strips one token, you have to build your list around that. The rest of the abilities work well in their respective scenarios, but fail to give the X-wing enough of an edge to reenter the battlefield in force.

• R2-D6 (good): There are several X-wing pilots that can use this to great effect (not to mention Y-wings). Biggs and Garven can certainly use an EPT.
• R3-A2(excellent): A very good control card. You take one stress to give one stress, with the single constraint of having the opponent in your firing arc. There are many reasons you would want to do this: you may have an easier time getting rid of stress than the receiving ship, or the ship you're putting stress on is of higher value than yours. This card is made even better with the introduction of the BTL-A4 Y-wing, which shoots twice, stresses twice at range 2.
• R4-D6(subpar): A card that will work very rarely and give you little value. Your ship is being focus fired? You can trade that damage for stress and survive another round. With one stress or two , you may be dead in the water the following round too. May find an use on targets that only need to survive that one extra round (thinking of Biggs here).
• R5-P9(good): What makes R2-D2 great is that it doesn't require an action. This card almost requires an action, but you can obtain a focus token in other ways. Still, you might actually keep the focus token while defending, spending it if it saves you 2hp or more.
• Flechette Torpedoes x3(good): This torpedo is better than others since it automatically gives stress to your opponent, whether it hits or not, which may prove crucial against some ships you may be facing against. It is quite cheap as well.

Epic Wave 1 - Tantive IV expansion pack

The Correlian Corvette brings some very nice cards for non-epic play:

• C3PO (excellent): C3PO gives you an evade once per round if you guess correctly. A very fluff-based card ("Never tell me the odds"), this card amounts to a guaranteed evade on a 1-agility ship such as the YT-1300. In a game containing dice, being able to control the outcome of certain engagements is very powerful.
• Han Solo (good): Ever had a TL and then rolled all focus symbols? This is what this is for. A card that makes your TL better than a "normal" TL, but less good than a combination of TL+focus. While this is ok in 100pts, there are better options for 3pt crew. The Epic matches are where this card really shines, since the Corvette has no way of using a focus token. 
• Leia Organa (niche) : I'm marking this as niche since you may be able to craft a scenario in which all of your ships have to K-turn at once and still get their actions, maybe.
• R2-D2 crew (good): I like this card since it's the exact opposite from early astromechs. This will almost always give you something good, and might do something bad. And the best part is, the bad doesn't stack up and might not happen at all. For instance, if you have no damage cards, there is no chance of one getting flipped over. If you have one damage card that's already flipped, again, no chance of it doing further damage. Sure, Minor Explosion becomes your worst enemy, but hey! there's only 2 of those in 33 damage cards.

Wave 4 - E-wing expansion pack

The E-wing can be seen as a more expensive X-wing. The extra point cost goes into added speed (5 forward and green 2-banks), durability (an extra agility die) and versatility (Systems slot). While the non-unique pilots seem to pay too much for those benefits, the named pilots compensate by having amazing abilities: Etahn has an aura ability which applies to every attack on an opponent in his firing arc, much more powerful than a range-1 aura. Corran Horn is a monster, since he can shoot twice in a single round, at the cost of not shooting the following round. FCS, opponents stripped of tokens make this second attack very powerful.
The cards are quite good, Advanced Sensors was only available on the Lambda before, astromechs are very useful:

• Advanced Sensors (excellent): This card might not seem like much at first glance. Surely an action is still an action, whenever you do it? But then you realize you could focus before K-turning, or focus before a bump, or Barrel-roll then do a maneuver. You could even Push the Limit for two actions, get a stress, do a green maneuver, then clear the stress! Turns out Advanced Sensors is an amazing card. 
• Outmaneuver (good): This card gives you Wedge's ability if you are outside your opponent's firing arc. While not exceptional against small fighters, this card is very good against large turreted ships, since it triggers more often and shuts down C3PO use on Falcons.
• R7 astromech (situational): After doing the math I can say that this negates one of their modifiers. You TL, the opponent TLs, they cancel each other out. Unmodified attacks get halved down, which is good. I have yet to see this in play however, apart from the Tarn+R7 combo.
• R7-T1 (good): An action economy droid, giving two actions for one in certain situations. Good for Y-wings that want to get out of arc, or high-PS X-wings closing the distance.
• Flechette torpedoes(good)

Wave 4 - Z-95 Headhunter expansion pack

An inexpensive missile carrier, made to be the equivalent of the TIE Fighter for Rebels. It is quite efficient as 12pt filler, many lists will use 2-3 headhunters to fill up the ranks. It flies similar to the X-wing, but has a 3k turn, for better or worse. Lieutenant Blount is a great one-time delivery boy for Assault missiles (since his missiles always hit) and Airen Cracken gives out a free action in the Combat Phase (which is a very interesting timing for movement actions).
The cards are pretty ok:

• Wingman (situational): A neat little EPT which clears a friendly of a stress. Very good in specific builds.
• Decoy (situational): A similar card to Swarm Tactics, but with a greater leash (range 2) and which switches PS. Requires the entire list to be built around it, suffers greatly when one of two ships dies or gets an Injured Pilot. It can get a Phantom (even Echo) up to PS11, so it can be scary.
• Munitions failsafe (situational): For 1 extra point, you can make sure you never discard a missile that didn't hit. Great for high-cost missiles, though not so often seen.
• Ion Pulse missiles (good): Great against low-agility large ships that have an asteroid in front of them, decent otherwise, since it doesn't require you to spend a TL to use it.
• Assault missiles(good in Epic)

Wave 4.5 - Rebel aces expansion pack

Rebel aces pack brings new paintjobs for the B-wing and the A-wing, together with new pilots and genuine fixes for the A-wing. The A-wing pilots get better defense (Gemmer Sojan), or pure action economy (Jake Farrell, who can also Barrel Roll) . The B-wings get to shoot torpedoes out of arc (Nera Dantels) or a stress-for-focus incredible ability (Keyan Farlander). Keyan is the clear winner of the bunch, and outshines any other B-wing pilot by far.
The upgrade cards tie in to the A-wing fixes and to the addition of the two-seater B-wing:

• Chaardan Refit x3 (excellent): The fix for the A-wing repurposes the ship from the original missile boat to a flanker/annoyer. This card is an auto-include for any A-wing, but also increases the relative cost of any missile that an A-wing carries. 
• A-wing Test Pilot (excellent): As TIE Interceptors have two modifications, the A-wing is allowed to have 2 EPTs. It's so good it makes it easy to get carried away and put too much on a single A-wing. 
• B-wing/E2 (excellent): The B-wing was already versatile, now it can carry an additional slot at the cost of 1pt and the Modification slot (which was not used on the B-wing anyway). Good options include Tactician, Jan Ors, C3PO, Chewbacca etc.
• Proton Rockets (excellent): A good card that is used on A-wings even if it raises their cost by 5pts, the proton rockets have a maximum of 5 dice, do not require a TL, do not require spending a token, they require only that the attacker is in range 1. 5 dice with focus is good damage, and it's quite easy to have a TL+focus when shooting these rockets. 
• Kyle Katarn (excellent): Action economy tied to stress removal, which is very good. Kyle Katarn triggers even if a ship bumps, even if a ship is double-stressed. In combination with PtL, allows ships to potentially do three actions per turn.
• Jan Ors (good): An evade token is worth more than a focus token for many rebel ships. This card synergizes extremely well with many other Rebel pilot abilities or upgrade cards(Garven, Kyle Katarn both pilot and crew, Recon Specialist), since many pass focus tokens among them. Another neat thing is that it can work on any ship in range 3, including the one it is on.
• Enhanced Scopes (niche): If you really want to move before those blocking ships. Vital on a Lambda with Anti-Pursuit Lasers, possibly having other uses.

Wave 5 - YT-2400 expansion pack

The smaller cousin of the Millenium Falcon, this ship only has a 2-dice primary turret, but compensates by being able to carry a cannon and shoot it out of its arc! It's also the first large ship to feature a native barrel roll action. Along with a dial including most of the existing maneuvers, this ship turns out to be very maneuvrable! The first unique pilot, Eaden Vrill, isn't that great, he allows an extra die for the primary weapon attack if the opponent is stressed, the second pilot, Leebo, has a defensive ability (choose one faceup damage card to take from two options). The third pilot, Dash Rendar, has a very good ability, very well matched with this large ship, it can ignore obstacles in the Activation phase.
The cards included are either new cards (most of them good) or older cards that work really well on the YT-2400. This is one of the more self-sufficient packs, in that a lot of the cards you need are already included:

• Lone Wolf (excellent): A reroll of one die both on defense and offense, triggering as many times as you want per round, with only two conditions. Getting blanks is fairly easy to do and getting out of range 2 from any friendlies is easy in a 2-ship build or towards the end of the game.
• Stay on Target (situational): This card was designed by Paul Heaver, Worlds' champion two years in a row. The idea was to give an extra edge to high PS pilots. While the effect is good, the cost is too great. You receive a stress (and skip "perform action" phase) each time you use it, plus the 2 points and EPT slot. It can definitely see play with ships that don't mind stress (on Keyan for instance it's good), but otherwise there are better options for EPTs. It could also be used as a card that compensates for mistakes, which increases its value for new players.

Video Battle Report #2

A friend from the Netherlands, Charlie, has asked me to join him on some video battle reports.

This is a video from a tournament held in Amsterdam, on the 10th of May 2015.All the participating lists can be found on the corresponding entry in ListJuggler

Video Battle Report #1

A friend from the Netherlands, Charlie, has asked me to join him on some video battle reports.

This is a video from a tournament held in Amsterdam, on the 12th of April 2015.All the participating lists can be found on the corresponding entry in ListJuggler

Krassis Trelix

I never quite liked the initial paintjob on the Firespray, so I decided to spice one of them up. I quite like the color scheme from Krassis' artwork, so I went with something similar, inspired by Voiddragon's Krassis.
While still being quite new to miniature painting, I like how this one turned out. I used two different shades, but did no highlighting, as I'm not sure I would do it properly :).

A different type of swarm

This is a rather long report on the longest running list I've ever had. 50+ games, 6 games lost, 2 of which were outliers (2 Ties one-shotted each turn). These include games at the FLGS, tournaments, Vassal play and Vassal tournaments, playing up to wave 5. I am probably done playing it, just got eliminated from the Vassal tournament (UK Team Covenant Open, top 4), so I think it's time to share :).
This is also an example (for myself included) of how to think about a tournament squad and prepare for every matchup. I intend to add this to a suite of articles that I will include in a small blog separate of TC.

How it all started

 

Back in October 2014 I was trying to come up with a new list for tournament use. As an Imperial player, I had started out with the Tie swarm, then Krassis mini-swarm, more recently doing an Echo mini-swarm. This final list performed rather well and it could stand up against Whisper mini-swarm or Fat Han. Echo could manage beating those, but the meta was about to get more high-PS turret ships, so it was about to become too much of an uphill battle.

The ships I like most are Tie Fighters, Phantoms and Defenders, in that order. At first I thought about winning the PS battle with a PS11 Echo, courtesy of Decoying Vader. Sadly, Vader in his current state has very little offense so the list couldn't make it (With Autothrusters and Tie Advanced x1 there's a lot more to discuss..). Then I came up with an idea: what if you relied on the offense of the phantom, without even attempting to win a PS-bid to use with Advanced Cloaking Device, just rely on those 2 dice with extra modifiers to keep an X-wing with 1less HP for as long as possible?

The idea for this variant was rather simple: Force the enemy to go after Howlrunner, while Sigma keeps a focus and evade token, improvise afterwards. If the opponent goes after the Sigma, he's not likely to kill it one round, and it becomes a 5 TIE Fighter squad with an initial damage boost. It did work, but for the most part it meant that Howlrunner was very vulnerable defensively, didn't do any damage, and Night Beast's ability was only good in the late-game, when not flying in a formation. I also didn't like hanging on 100 points, potentially not being able to block with the Academy Pilots.

So what was the next step? Drop Night beast, enter Black Squadron! Since Black squadron is higher PS then the Sigma, suddenly squad leader can work from the Black to the Sigma, instead of Howlrunner.

So why is this list good? And why is this better than the last?

• There's a heavy hitter, the Sigma, with a reroll from Howlrunner
• Sigma has two actions, which will be focus + evade, focus can be spent for attack after higher-PS ships fire
• Three good blockers, with rerolls on attack
• An action-less ship, which can also block sideways, you can skip an attack with the Black Squadron if it helps your position, it's not much of an attack anyway. 

Interesting choices:

• You can give a barrel roll or a cloak if you bump with the Sigma by mistake
• After the Sigma is gone you can boost your Academies with key Barrel rolls at PS4
• You can choose not to cloak some of time, especially when playing against high-PS ships

 

 How it plays

 

I play this list in a pin-wheel formation modified to work with 6 ships. You can turn or bank and ships will not bump each other. The setup for this formation is quite complicated, but worth it, I will describe it a bit later. The formation should be 2x3 with the wider part towards the opponent. It functions relatively well in vertical mode as well, because TIE Fighters are quite fast and don't have that 1 forward. Howlrunner is in the middle, but Sigma is further to the front than the Black, so the formation can move in the beginning as a "vertical" 2x3. Having the Sigma in the corner also allows the Sigma to break formation very easily.

In general this is highly positional play, where the first two-three moves are key to getting a good shot at oncoming ships. In most cases, I prefer having an opening salvo at range 3 with all my ships, then a "hug" at range 1 with the academies and Howlrunner, with the sigma further behind. Against many lists, getting these good engagements with average dice will get me a big advantage.

The Sigma will mostly stay in formation if there isn't a strong incentive to stay behind. If there is, standing just a bit back might still give the Sigma benefits from Howlrunner and the Black squadron, while giving her an extra defence dice. Another option is to maintain a "semi-formation", where the Sigma shadows the TIE Fighters, even being in range 1 of Howlrunner (pink), or just within range 2 of the Black squadron (red).

Opening moves 

 

The setup is complicated, as pictured below. I use one edge of the board, I put the first Tie 3.5 bases away from the side. Academy #2 is 0.25 bases behind and 0.25 to his left. The third Academy is one full base behind and two bases to the left. This is a rather wide pinwheel in the middle, I keep almost half a base between AP#1 and the Sigma. The Black follows the same rule (but mirrored) as AP#3. Howlrunner is also offset from the Sigma with the 0.25 base. This may sound hard to achieve, but in reality I make sure the second Academy is in the middle between AP#1 and the edge, and I just align the Sigma to AP#2 and Howlrunner to the edge.

The movements for the first round are then 4 forward for the core (marked with yellow), and 3 forward or 2 forward for the sides, depending on whether I choose to barrel roll backwards or forwards (marked with red and teal, respectively). Barrelling forward is better because it avoids the corner asteroid every time. Alternatively, a 3 forward with the core also works, coupled with a 2 forward with the side ships, barrel-rolling them backwards to get into position. This makes a nice 2x3 formation, which is usually perfect for turning in towards the middle.

 

What if your opponent sets up opposite of this, and I want to avoid a frontal engagement? What if I want to feign going forward then turning left? Luckily it's quite possible. 

 Not only can it be done, but between going 4 forward then turning 3 or turning 3 from the beginning there's a small gap, big enough for the largest asteroid. As I'll discuss in asteroid placement, you want a normal swarm setup, so setting up the biggest asteroid near your starting position helps a lot. 

So after making a 3-turn left with everyone except the bottom Academy, which did a 1-turn, the formation doesn't look as good. Is this still a formation? Yes, almost. Banking is considerably closer now, and AP#1 might collide with #2 on the table if they aren't maneuvered carefully (haven't done this sequence on a physical table yet), but it works! Black can also catch up by having him do a larger bank (3-bank, while others 2-bank). This can be seen in the image above on the right side.

The left side of the above duo is a sequence of maneuvers perfect for a K-turn. If the opponents baits a frontal engagement, going full forward, then you have one round of him shooting at the rear of your formation, then you can turn to engage him while he's in the corner. The cost is exactly this, spending a turn to reorient the formation so the Academies are behind the other ships, then K-turning. Works great against dual Decimators! Academies to a 2-forward, Sigma and Howlrunner do a 5-forward (well, Sigma does a 2 + 2 = 5 move :) ) Black does a 4 forward and catches up to the Academies, but won't get past them. Having the Black squadron lagging behind is the sacrifice needed for this added versatility. Additionally, against dual Decimators, he is a perfect blocker, he won't get a shot and his action is passed to the sigma. 

Asteroid placement

 

Asteroid placement works similar to placement for normal swarms. I try to keep asteroids away from the middle, or at least leave as few as possible in the middle to make room for navigating 6 ships through. I put asteroids in my corners (the big one near the setup point is an example), or I put asteroids at range 3 from the opposing side and range 2 from the board edges, which makes for difficult turn 2 maneuvering for my opponent. After asteroid setup I'm not fixated on a corner, I pick the corner which gives me some alternative "lanes".

Matchups

 

Not all matchups are easy with list, on the contrary, some are quite difficult. What helps greatly is the fact that the list allows many different choices at each point between choosing maneuvers for 6 ships, choosing actions with  squad leader and playing the phantom. Mid and late-game I can also break formation and start blocking like crazy. The efficiency of the TIE Fighter also helps a lot, a game is never lost until I've lost every single TIE, and I've had many games with below average dice and a disadvantageous position that I was able to turn around with only two Ties and a Sigma or only Ties, etc.

• Against 4-ship rebel builds, ships will most likely meet in the middle, where I usually go for the range 3 then range 1 plan. If the range 3 is substantially disadvantageous from a statistical point of view, it can be skipped, but then I won't be able to block him with the Academies the following turn. 2 of my genuine losses are against this type, specifically Biggs + R2-F2 with Kyle. Coupled with lower than average rolls on the Sigma in the first turn, I don't stand much of a chance to take down Biggs. A feign or two should make him break formation, but I wasn't able to do that with that opponent. 2 losses in a row, oh well.
• Swarms won't give the list much trouble, since it has superior firepower, enough to turn the tides decisively in the first engagement. I just get into range 1 and let the dice work some magic. If there are no high-PS ships the Sigma can be used to attack from a different direction after the first engagement, but always keeping in mind to stay close to the Black squadron.
• Imperial mini-swarms are a bit of a problem in a timed match environment, this is how I got a modified win with this list once and one of the reasons I'm dropping the list. I've discovered it's better to focus on the high-profile ship and take it down quickly, since taking out TIE Fighters is easy in the beginning but gets substantially harder as the list loses ships in return.
• Wave 5 two-ship builds, Fat Han, all except Phantom Decimator: I'm clumping these all up because the objective with these is the same. Maneuvering so I can get good shots on the big ship, ignoring the escort. In the case of Dual Decimator, I go for the weaker one, the one he'll put forward.This matchup requires a lot of anticipation, some feigning direction on my part, but I can usually pull it off. The Dual Decimator with Oicunn Mara Jade is a big problem, though, and one of my losses. The trick is to do a range 3 engagement first, which the opponent will avoid at all costs. At range 1 with 5 ships shooting into Oicunn, there's a big chance he'll survive the round and trigger Mara Jade, which creates huge problems. This is why I researched the possibility of going 3 hard right/left, then K-turning, specifically to catch large ships in the corner.
• Phantom lists, specifically ones with 1 Phantom, are doable. I use the Sigma with all its tokens, hope it survives sufficient rounds to make several attacks on the opposing Phantom. Even cloaked, there's a chance of damage with 4 dice. Using the Academies as blockers, it can be done. I never lost to a 1 Phantom list.
• 2 Phantom lists: Echo + Whisper + 2APs. This is the list from hell, one for which I have not prepared enough and which killed me in the UK Vassal tournament. Blocking can still be done, as long as both Phantoms are not on opposite sides. It's very hard to prepare against this list because the matchup relies heavily on guessing what the Phantoms are doing, training by myself on Vassal doesn't help. I'm also a bit torn on the asteroid placement, as it's easier to block in an open field but it also leaves a lot of options for the Phantom player. 

Shortcomings

• The lack of a high-PS pilot hurts sometimes, and overall PS is very low, leading to a possibility of losing many Ties in the first exchange, without them firing back. But then again, that's valid for all swarms.
• PS 3 is quite low, and in the current meta a lot of ships are higher than that (Talas come to mind). This is has its advantages though, mainly the fact the the opposing player might focus too hard on the Sigma thinking he can kill it in one round, which almost never happens. 
• The Black squadron will often completely whiff rolls, even with Howlrunner.  
• Making a wrong move in the beginning with the entire formation may prove disastrous, much like any other swarm. 

Conclusion

 

This was certainly a fun list to play, but at this moment I don't think it has a place in the current meta mainly because of timed matches and MoV. Timed matches limit my ability to make comebacks with TIE Fighters and get the large ships that run away with very little HP. That may change in the future, but for now this limits the build to Vassal play. Even there, MoV is lowest with this list, since I'll always lose a TIE Fighter or two in a game, even if I outplay my opponent by far. I would be reluctant to take this to a tournament with no top cut.

On the flip side I think this proves you can play a phantom + 5 Ties very differently from the Whisper +5 archetype. This is why I call it a swarm, not a mini-swarm, because the Sigma acts as part of the swarm for a long time and doesn't rely on outmaneuvering to stay on the board. This also helped me learn a lot about positioning, even if I was already familiar with swarm play. It's also the first list I participated with in an online tournament, where I had time to prepare for each match, for which I could know what are the odds for each engagement, how the opposing list plays, how to properly counter it.

Blue Squadron Pilots

Thematically I like running pairs of non-uniques, and Blue Squadron Pilots are my favourites among the Rebels. While in the current meta they don't see a lot of play, I painted two of my B-wings to match their squadron.

Even if the shading is pretty heavy, I like the original paintjob, so for this quick one I just added some Blue and did my best to cover it up in equal amounts of shade to hide the difference. I also spruced up the engines a bit, gave them a dark red similar to the one in the movies.

The Epic Tournament Experience - Imperial Version

So I got to attend two Epic tournaments while I was in the Netherlands, both were Team events. We had to bring 2 150pts lists for each teammate. My girlfriend was keen to participate in a team event so I went with her. I picked Imperial side, and went for a TIE swarm. Not being specifically well-versed in Epic, I decided to neglect the low PS problem, since it meant I had more ships on the board. Howlrunner + 7 APs, Echo (more maneuvrable than Whisper, can theoretically stay out of high-PS-ships' arc), Captain Kagi to lure away the Assault Missiles and two Assault Missile dispensers of our own with Captain Jonus to make sure they hit.

There were 8 teams at the tournament, 4 Imperial 4 Rebel, with a total of one Rebel Transport.

Our first game was against a similar list, but with Assault Missiles on Bombers. They also had Jendon with Weapons Engineer and STS-321, which meant they could target lock everything! Sure, the first target lock was on Kagi, but the second could be on anything, essentially negating Kagi's use. While we made sure their Assault missiles didn't fire by thinning out target-locked Ties and getting them in range 1 of the Bombers, we failed to hit with our own Assault Missiles because of .. dice. 4 dice with 3 rerolls (2 from Jonus, 1 from Krassis) was not enough to hit a Tie Fighter. Oh well. The game ended up being a slugfest with nothing else interesting happening, with our side losing by a small margin. Lesson learned: Assault Missiles take great work and care to hit and splash on the right targets.

 The second game was against the only team that actually brought an Epic ship. They had no clue how to play it however, and despite me insisting that we check out the rules before we play, we started placing asteroids not according to the rules because they wouldn't have it any other way. Fly casual has its limits, but I let it go and started playing. The Rebel tranport was unequipped, they also had Han Solo, Luke, X-wings, Y-wings, A-wings. It started out pretty ok, but in the first round of engagement 4 Ties were one-shotted. Even with their A-wings out of the fight for 3 turns (they decided to turn around towards their edge of the board, then come back) and with Luke and R2-D2 biting the dust from being hit by the Rebel Transport, we were only barely able to recover and reach point parity. Then the A-wings swooped in and finished off one of the Firesprays, securing them the victory. They lost a Y-wing and 3 X-wings, while we lost 8 TIE Fighters. Lesson learned: PS is much more important than I anticipated.

 Our third game speaks plenty of tiredness. 2h30 for each game is quite long, so both us and the opponents setup in front of each other and played chicken. We lost again, by a few points.  Lesson learned: Bring bigger guns.

 I saw this tournament as a clear list-building error on my part. The errors were made very clear from the first game: PS too low on too many front-line ships. Other ships too well equipped for how much damage they actually do etc. Unfortunately, we had to go in the following matches knowing it will be an uphill battle.

In the end, the guys with the Rebel transport won the whole thing. A nice indicator that everybody had something to learn that day.

Netherlands National X-wing Tournament 2014

On September the 7th 2014 I was lucky enough to participate in the Netherlands Nationals, held in De Tafelridder, Leiden.  It's a small shop on the side of a canal, with just enough room for 20 X-wing games. Turnout was of about 36 people. Start was at 10:30 and we finished at about 22:00.

First of all, I came in as a foreigner, not knowing anybody and never playing anyone from there. I also have played only three other people aside from my friends and relatives (what I can say, we had a small Regional in Romania).

I had two lists prepared for this tournament:

Soontir Fel + TC + PtL, Vessery + HLC, OGP + Vader + FCS

This list is similar to a list I saw in top 8 US nationals (The only one with a defender), and I think I saw a variation of this list in the actual tournament. FCS on OGP is an odd choice, but in most of my games OGP seems to survive and fire a lot (I use Vader sparringly, on shieldless targets), so 3-4 rounds with FCS seems to be worth it. I also keep the target lock even if I stress the shuttle with a hard 2, which is a big plus.
I didn't take this list because I played with it in a small store championship one day before the big tournament and I lost as soon as I got tired. It's not a forgiving list, each pilot must give his very best, you must be a bit lucky to not have Soontir die in one shot, etc.

I also heard in the small store championship that Falcons with C-3PO might not be so popular, so I was encouraged to play a Phantom list. I took an Echo mini-swarm, which is a list I'm very comfortable with and have lots of fun playing. I prefer Echo over Whisper because of the added maneuverability.

Echo + VI + FCS + Gunner + ACD
Howlrunner + Stealth
3 Academy Ties

Echo's load-out is specifically made to deal with high-agility targets and to mitigate any disastrous rolls.  I also use Gunner to make long-range shots possible, shooting with the Phantom from far away, preferably from behind an asteroid as well. I apply this tactic whenever I expect return fire (especially return fire from high PS) and it gives me the additional green dice to survive a lot of the times. Echo doesn't die prematurely this way.


Round 1 was a bye from the Regionals. I thought it would give me time to take some pictures, see the lists, be less tired   when it counted, etc. In the end, I don't think it was such a good idea. A bye is 150 points, which in a tournament with no elimination rounds means you don't make *any* cut or tie-breaker.

1-0

Round 2 was against the player that had to take a bye as well because of me. Sorry man.

Chewbacca + Ptl + Gunner + NN + MF
Gold Squadron Pilot + ICT
Rookie Pilot + R2-D2

The first game was rather bumpy. We set up asteroids on a diagonal of 4, with 2 in opposing corners (think % sign). I take my left corner with my Ties, Phantom middle left, he takes the opposite one. I'm betting for him to go forward, so I turn in with all Ties towards him and try to cross the asteroid belt with the Phantom. He tells me he's a new player, and I immediately start making mistakes (either I relaxed or I instinctively "went easy"). Second round of movement I bank my fighters and the first one bumps a bit on the phantom such that they all bump. His fighters were still away, Chewie going straight and the Rookie with the Y-wing slowly banking. Of course Echo is good with navigating asteroid fields, but she still missed the next turn of shooting. Asteroid placement further delays Echo's voyage. I exchange fire with only my Ties, not taking much damage but slowly chipping away at his ships. After 2-3 rounds of shooting in open space left by the diagonal, he's at 1hull with the Rookie and no shields on the Gold pilot, Chewie untouched. His Rookie is facing away from the battle. I lost no ships until this point so I'm feeling confident and I bring in the Phantom closer (usually it was out of range of the Ion Cannon).

At this point they call 15 minutes and I realize I've been wasting a lot of time, either casually talking to my opponent or taking my time to do my actions. I proceed to go for Chewbacca, because the Rookie was too far away already and the Gold squadron alone wouldn't be enough to win if he destroyed one my damaged Ties. Then the worst thing happened: I bumped the Phantom into his Chewbacca. No shooting, no cloak! He proceeds to take out Howlrunner. Next turn, I bump again (not having the space to K-turn the Phantom). He takes out an Academy. I use Echo to take out the Gold squadron, but I still can't shoot Chewie. I don't even think Chewbacca and Echo ever exchanged fire, but he was on low hp due to constant fire from the Academies. They call again for time, 2 minutes. At this point, I have to give him credit. All he wanted to do was play the game. I did too, but as casually as I had played that game, I still wanted to win if possible. His rookie re-entered the fight, and this time I had a shot on him with Echo. I took him out, it was the last game round.  I won by 15 points. Chewbacca still had 4-5 HP.

2-0

I had two wins, but I felt as if I had lost two games. My next opponent had a Whisper mini-swarm

Whisper + VI + RC + ACD
5x Academy Pilots

He had 100 points. I lost this game before we even placed ships. I chose to give him initiative. I don't know what I was thinking, I never had any swarm vs. swarm games. My motivation was that I could see what his swarm was doing and make small adjustments with barrel roll, but this wasn't the case. Having actions is immensely more important in the first range 1 exchange.

He set up in the middle with the Ties, his Whisper in the left, while I was 1in the middle with my Echo and on the right with my Ties. My plan was to avoid Whisper's firing arc with Echo as much as possible, and taking out Ties. I would also take whatever chance I had at shooting at Whisper, preferrably with Howlrunner before Echo. I would not take stress on Echo no matter what.

We met in the middle and he couldn't engage anything with Whisper for a while. Because my Ties were bumping and his were not, my formation lost coherence and I couldn't get concentrated shots on anything. Howlrunner dropped quickly. Echo was shooting from range 3 (his side basically) at Ties, doing 1 damage every time, not triggering Gunner at all. I only managed to kill one Tie when time was called, he killed enough for a full win in the final minutes (Echo + 2 Ties, previously he had only killed Howlrunner, 21-12 would have been a modified win).


2-1

I was pretty demoralized after this loss, I did my best but my original mistake cost me too much. I was 2-1, but no real victories. So I wasn't looking forward to my next game, which was

Han Solo + PtL + NN + Gunner + EU + MF
3x Tala Squadron Pilot

Every Phantom player's nightmare. Similar asteroid set-up, but not because of me. I set myself up the same, he deploys the Falcon in opposite corner, Talas in the middle. This time I position properly and on the second round the Ties cross paths with the Phantom perfectly, as it goes to shoot the Talas. My plan is to keep the Talas occupied with the Phantom (hopefully out of Han's range, or at least at range 3 behind an asteroid).

I exchange fire Han-Ties and Echo-Talas. Minor damage on the Ties, 3 shields off Han and 2 shields off a Tala. Han's against an asteroid wall and I know he wants to start shooting the phantom, so he's likely to go 3-4 forward to go over my Ties. I 3-bank with one Tie to block that and proceed head-first with the rest. It's not as potent as with a full-swarm, since out of 4 ties, 1 is facing another direction, 1 is bumped into Han, and I'm left with shooting Howlrunner and an Academy (albeit at range 1). Echo was tucked behind an asteroid at range 3, shooting at Talas, so Han decided to go for the range 1 attack. 3 Hits. I roll 1 evade two focus. Should I evade Gunner by taking two damage? Seems abrupt. I use the focus, he kills Howlrunner with the Gunner extra attack. The Tala only takes one critical (so much for using my Gunner): Stunned pilot, he'll be dead on the next round.

The following round I 4k and 3k with my two Ties and go forward with my out-of-formation blocker (blocking the Tala so he dies). Han banks to go for Echo, then boosts. Echo is moving further away, range 3 behind asteroid, Han is starting to take damage. The next round Han manages a range 2 attack through an asteroid, and he strips only one shield (which I could evade, but I didn't want to trigger Gunner, a no-brainer). Return fire is not so great for him, he takes a Damaged Sensor Array (no action bar - including EU and MF). He's also on 2 HP, but his Talas are trying to mop up the ties (the blocker Tie has agility -1) I disengage Echo and end up taking out the Tala which had range 1 shot on my Ties. The third Tala also drops that round and he concedes.

3-1

The previous game gave me confidence and personal satisfaction, I could have gone home that instant and be happy that I won against a Han Solo + 3 Tala, which I wasn't confident that I could do. I was facing

Ibtisam + SW
Roark Garnet + Blaster Turret + Recon Specialist
2x Blue Squadron Pilots

This list was straightforward, but dangerous. Two ships shooting at PS12 is no laughing matter. We deployed in opposite corners with all our ships and met in the center. Roark was further away, but Echo was in formation. I thought I could spare one frontal attack before I starting flanking with Echo.

I lost one shield, but a B-wing dropped that turn. The next turn all his B-wings bumped (no place for K-turning) and I was where I am most comfortable, behind an asteroid shooting Echo at range 3. The next turn his B-wings went after Echo. Two of my Ties turned, the other two (with Howlrunner) went after Roark. Echo disengaged and ended up behind the B-wings, facing away, shooting at Roark at range 3. Roark went down in a single round of shooting from Echo, Howlrunner and a range 1 Academy Pilot, then every ship turned to face the B-wings. One of his B-wings was on an asteroid, but that hardly mattered, because I was at almost full HP on my ships, what followed was a botched mop-up (I forgot not one, but TWO dials in one turn), but I took the full win.

4-1

My next opponent had a double Phantom.

Whisper + VI + FCS + ACD
Echo + VI + IA + ACD
2 Academy Pilots

I had no idea what to expect from a list like this, or what weakness I could exploit with an inferior-PS phantom and Tie Fighters. The asteroids left an open space in the middle, where we met. He had set up in the middle, I on the right side. I avoided his Whisper with my Echo like crazy, but since I had initiative he had to avoid my Echo with his Echo as well.

I started blocking decloak paths for Whisper, so that he couldn't get good shots at Echo. I lost Howlrunner in the round she successfully blocked a decloak path of Whisper. Karma i guess. We continued dancing around, me trying my best to avoid Whisper fire, him trying to get me, all around our academy pilots.

He made one mistake (1 hard right instead of 1 hard left) with his Echo, and he chose to barrel roll out of range of my Echo, towards the edge of the map. He exchanged a round of fire for another, because the next turn he could only 1 hard right to not get off the map, and I was at range 1 again. He took evade (don't know why not cloak - maybe fearing the green dice?). I rolled 2 eyes, but used Gunner to attack again. 5 hits. He rolled 2 more evades. I took two shields off.  He made another bank maneuver the following round, and tried to escape, but couldn't barrel roll out of my firing arc because of an asteroid, so he evaded again. Time was called, this was the last round. I had a vague notion that time was almost up, so I was going after Echo with persistence, while keeping his Whisper occupied by blocking decloaks with my remaining two Ties. He was apparently not aware of the time limitation, so it caught him off-guard.

I took Echo out, but he still had a range 1 shot on one of my Academy pilots with one of his. He rolled three focus (he had a focus token). I had one damage. I had to roll two natural evades. I got none. The game ended with me getting a modified win by 3 points. This was a list that would have been very difficult for me to kill outright, but I won on time. This is a new notion for me, since this was only my third tournament.

5-1

I ended up with 5th place because of my modified win. My only loss was against the champion, which I can easily disregard . I might even have gone different if I didn't choose initiative, at least I would have killed more than a single Tie Fighter. The biggest prize was getting good games against good opponents (excepting the bye and the first game, where I  played miserably) and holding my own. It was also very interesting to see all these new lists. I had heard of Whisper + 5, but it's a beast to see in person. The OGP + 6 was also very intimidating.

I still think my list is fun to play with Gunner and FCS, but I can understand why some people would choose a different load-out. The phantoms I played against go for the range 1 kill, but they have turns where they don't shoot anything but are shot at. If I stick at range 3 with TL+focus, I will get constant but high enough damage output and I can often risk to use a focus on attack. I am seriously considering giving Howlrunner Swarm Tactics, since I can shoot a damaged Tie that might not make it to shoot that round. Stealth Device is about 50% efficient, sometimes it doesn't really matter that you had one extra die, Howlrunner is still dead.

I'm also glad that I brought along my girlfriend to play. She had fun despite being a very tiring event. She ran:

Etahn A'baht
Blue Squadron Pilot + FCS
2 x Blue Squadron Bilot

She had a few very close games and one full win, which is very good considering this was a premiere event, people who showed up probably play much more than she has (so far :) )

More pictures in a Google+ Album

The loot included an acrylic range ruler, target lock tokens and an Alternate Art Chewbacca pilot card.
 

In the end I had lots of fun and hope to play these guys again. Fly Casual!