Playing another vassal league game. I picked the list with Anakin, Mace and a 104th ARC at 200 points.
Anakin Skywalker (60), R2 Astromech (4), Delta-7B (18)
Mace Windu (46), R4-P17 (5), Delta-7B (16)
104th Battalion Pilot (42), Seventh Fleet Gunner (9)
vs
Anakin, Ahsoka and 2 GoldTorrents (198pts)
Opponent’s determining action and my target priority: He has to bring Anakin to the endgame, and so do I. He gets first player, and that means I will have a hard time (or no chance) in a 1v1 between the two i6s. I consider my Mace to be much better than Ahsoka. This gives me two ways to approach this game: either I try to remove Anakin as early as possible, sacrificing ships of my own and then I catch up in points as I arcdodge like a demigod. Or I try to remove everything except Anakin and enter the late game with more ships than him. I went for the second plan.
Deployment: I set my gas clouds weirdly spread around the map. Does it matter? Maybe, I’m not sure. The two long ones were mine. I set up my ARC in the middle and would adjust the two Jedi based on his setup. He deployed the Golds and Ahsoka in the NE corner. That was great as it allowed me to set Mace next to the ARC and Anakin a bit further west to come through the rocks.
The gameplan for the first turns: Fake to go for his Anakin (telegraph with the ARC) and try to nuke a torrent before anything else happens. I should be able to get that if I can have 2 range 1 shots (or one range 2 but with the 7th fleet gunner).
How it went: I started fast! These deltas crazy.
Turn 1: 1bank the ARC west, and 5 straights and double reposition with Mace and Anakin. He came out slower, setting up the turn in by rolling/boosting into position. That allowed me even a range 3 shot but without any effect.
Turn 2: My position was great to go after Anakin. Naturally I went the other way, because that was exactly why I went up there in the first place. My thought was that he now had to go slow with his Anakin because he does not want to lose the option to react. Taking damage with him would be his worst case scenario. I know that in principle I can erase Ahsoka with 2 range 1 shots with lock+3 force, but it is not all too likely (in fact just 41%). But with the third attack from the ARC I should still get her, so I adjusted plans and tried to take her out – and it worked. I lost 4 HP on Mace for it, but that’s an ok trade.
Turn 3: Sloop and Kturn, and recover the gunner charge. He made an unfortunate last-second mistake with his dials and his Anakin bumped himself. I stuck to my plan and went after the Torrent, almost erasing it. Ani still shot Mace, trying to get some crucial damage in. He got a crit and that was it for Mace – triple stress is too dangerous to keep him in the fight and I had to bail out on following turns.
Turn 4: I expected the 5k from Anakin and thought I might be able to block it with a 1hard to the south west by Mace. Unfortunately that was too far northwards movement. Fortunately he chose the 4k to not land on the gas cloud. This gave me another turn to take on the torrents without having to deal with Anakin. Here I may have made a mistake, even if inconsequential: I planned to shoot the damaged GST1 with both Anakin and ARC to make sure I’d remove him. That gave the other, GST2, a shot on Mace on 1 hull. There is basically no chance to take a damage because of the gas cloud, but still. And removing a ship is usually worth it, so I think it was the right call. The ARC by the way dealt the first damage to GST2.
Turn 5: Mace had to get out, the ARC had to turn around. The only question here was whether I’d try to remove stress already – and I decided for that, taking the 3 straight. A 5straight might have been better in hindsight. The interesting action was with my Anakin: he slooped (2nd red move!) through the cloud and then rolled to the east to get the Torrent. That worked nicely and I managed to put two more damage in, reducing the hull to 2. His Anakin ran away with a 2 bank.
Turn 6: Keep running with Mace, make enough space and cover the retreat with the ARC. Anakin did a 1hard to get the 2 tallon from the GST. It was too obvious a move. And just two hull meant I can (hopefully) easily initiative-kill him with a double modded 4v2 shot. He did and I did. But his Anakin also got a r3 shot against Mace, and he finally took Mace down. That was well overdue. It also meant I got the endgame I wanted from the beginning: ARC+Ani vs Ani! Or at least one version, Mace would have been nicer still. The important point is that all the remaining ships were at full health.
Turn 7: it was obvious that he would either sloop or K-turn. It was also obvious that he would get to remove the stress and then dodge my arc, so I just went 1 forward and locked his Ani. The plan was to setup a 4v2 double modified shot to get as much shock value as possible. I had to pay a bit of a price for that, but unfortunately he got 4damage into my ARC and that was about 1 more than I wanted.
Turn 8: He was unstressed, but I didn’t see an option for him to completely dodge my arcs. But I saw for the first time that my ARC has a 4k (huh!), and that’s what I was going for. I figured that a 3bank would in principle give me the best shot at opening up my arc to get that 4th die. But a 4k would allow me to profit doubly – I already had the lock. And I was right! He chose the 1bank, and there was no way to evade my arcs. Unfortunately I only got 3 hits despite double mod, and he got 3 evades as he rolled into range 3 and took a focus. His choices were correct. But in the end he lost his last two shields. I was hoping for one more damage on that turn, but it was very ok. Half points on Ani, current score was 116 – 72. Mistake: I didn’t realize yet that his Anakin is more expensive with the bid, and regenerating a single shield would soon put him ahead – that ARC was going to die.
Turn 9: Here he could either run, or he could try to get behind the Arc and finish him off – which is what I expected from him. So my ARC was going to bank left to get that 5k position into the arc for the gunner, and my Anakin was going to 1hard, roll and lock his Anakin. Another 4 dice attack, I hoped. Mistake: So I recharged the gunner of course. And when he revealed his dial it hit me! Of course, if Anakin was going to get his shot then that would be range 1, which meant the gunner was pointless. Which in turn meant the disarm was a very sad alternative to a modified 3v2 shot! He arc-dodged my Anakin and didn’t have to care about my arc.
Turn 10: Mistake: I was too eager with Ani, boosted and lost my double modified range 1 shot.
Turn 11: Mistake: I was too eager, wanted to get my 4dice shot and bumped myself. I was so sure that the sloop fits (3rd time!), but the corner of the ARC was turned after the bank and I misjudged that.
Turn 12: Time to disengage and get back to him later.
Turn 13: Setting up the next turn. Unfortunately, my ARC was in range (should have done the straight instead of bank) and died.
The rest of the game was still very enjoyable, but I think there is not too much to be learned from it. It was an i6 vs i6 battle, and the only reason I had a chance was because I was ahead on points/still had regen, so he had to fight me. That made him more predictable and allowed me to get good shots.
Turn 14: I did not clip the rock, could roll over, and got another r1 shot with double mods. That dealt damage 5+6, but after regen meant I got him back to half points!
Turn 15: This was a coinflip: If I sloop left and he sloops left, I’m dandy. If he sloops right, I’m lost. If I 1hard left and he sloops right, I win. If he sloops left, I lose. But I can sloop right and roll by paying 2 force! That covers his left sloop and blocks the right one! Turns out he did neither and took the 4k. Gave us both a range 1 shot – and we both evaded. That was red move nr4!
Turn 16: I felt I was too close. Of course the correct choice would be to go 5 straight and run for just 3 turns. I did red move nr5 and K-turned. Nothing happened though.
Turn 17: I blocked him, got a lock, and regenerated my force a bit more. It also set me up for the – hopefully – last turn.
Turn 18: Now sloop one last time and bla… nope. Red move nr6.
Turn 19: How about K-turn and blast him away? Yes! Red move nr7.
Lessons/Conclusion:
- Delta-7s are so much fun to play! The i6 double repositioning is very enjoyable because easy, and full information means that I constantly get the feeling of being right – even though all the information is just there and I could simply not mess up. I still did, but… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- I still can’t grasp Ahsoka. Every game I had her on the table (with or against me) she died very quickly;
- The correct move would have been to run away from turn 15 on. Force and double repo and two R2 charges remaining mean that I won’t lose that game. But it was way too casual (as in friendly, not lack of stakes. It’s still a league) to do that;
- The ARC did much more work this time. He got the kill on Ahsoka, damaged GST2, gave the 4th die twice, and was a looming threat. That gunner is a great threat and makes the initial engagement more flexible. Wolffe would be an alternative, but for now I’ll keep this one;
- The Astromechs… I used R4P17 once. The lock was important but ultimately pointless. Still a great card. The alternatives are R2 for Mace, R4 or R4-P. R2 would have been amazing and saved me the ship. So in this game clearly the better choice. R4 or R4-P is interesting because I did 7 (!!!) red maneuvers with Anakin. That is basically every other turn and only worked because of his ability. But I wanted to have R4 just once, to recover from my mistake in turn 11, and R2 on Anakin is not at all in question. I would have loved R4-P or R4 on Mace in turns 4-6! Making that 1 hard blue allows me to roll or evade. Making the 3bank or even 5straight blue on turn 5 and 6 would have saved the entire ship. So would R2, but both or even all three would have been better in this game. I think I will try R4-P next, but I strongly suspect R2 to be the better choice. Changing the mech also gives me a point bid, which is nice;
Overall I’m very, very happy with the list. Having a high-HP anchor, an ace and a strong brawler reminds me of my best 1.0 list. The principle is very similar and the points are almost identical, even if the ARC here is neither such a strong damage dealer nor can he take as much of a beating or is as maneuverable. But hey, 1.0 vs 2.0 is also not a fair comparison.
Images: the rest
X-Wing Analytica 