So, I’ve made the effort to try and fit in a game every two days on Vassal over the last three weeks and have seen some amazing changes in my own flying. In all honesty I didn’t imagine this happening so fast.

*I understand my first post was a couple of days ago, we’ll get to that*

In an effort to keep this blog on topic I want to talk through everything that got me to this stage.

In The Beginning…

Join me, and I will complete your training.

My collection already consisted of a majority of Imperial ships from first edition so it made sense to dedicate myself early with a conversion kit. The list itself isn’t worth posting or criticising but looking back at it now, especially in the current meta, I can see the poorer choices I made in list building and flying it. I came last in a local tournament, ultimately winning the wooden spoon prize of a full template set from Logic Dump Gaming. Yahoo!

A couple more small tournaments whilst waiting for the First Order conversion kit and no real improvements. Rather than seek to improve my list or gain valuable feedback, I knuckled down and played a sub par list as a sub par player.

Wave 2

All remaining systems will bow to the First Order!

The First Order are back and I decided to be a bit janky. Swarm tactics QD with hot shot gunner Omega Squadron Experts seemed like a good idea, but after a couple games I decided to practice with a less janky list.

Kylo Ren + Instinctive Aim + Proton Torpedoes + Advanced Optics

“Quickdraw” + Special Forces Gunner + Pattern Analyzer + Elusive + Fire-Control System

“Scorch” + Fanatical Total 195

Two weeks and four games later we wound up at the Game On Bathurst Hyperspace Trial. A fair few well known players were about and I had intended to be bottom table yet again. Instinctive Aim + Advanced Optics was surprisingly amazing and worked very well with my sub par flying.

I ended the day on 3/3 at 37th out of 64 players. Not bad. This is the moment where I realised I could probably do better, given time and practice. I decided to re-download Vassal and dig in again, this time with Rebels!

Han Solo + Trickshot + Saw + R2-D2 +Inertial Dampeners

Partisan Renegade + Rigged Cargo Chute + Tactical Officer + Pivot Wing

Partisan Renegade + Rigged Cargo Chute + Leia Organa + Pivot Wing Total 199

I played this list once or twice a week up until Wave 3. I found flying a large base ship with a boost absolutely amazing. The amount of movement blew my mind even without the Engine Upgrade. What I loved even more was the free re-rolls from Han.

I got lucky most games, but a couple of weeks on vassal before Wave 3 I was sitting at 6/4. Above 50/50 win loss! Most of my losses were early on. After consistent play, I found drawing my opponents in towards my U-Wings was a very strong tactic. Starting with my U-wings just off centre I would 3 bank Han towards them from the corner. I’d fly Han fast up my edge to swoop around as my U-Wings slow rolled or capitalised on my opponent chasing Han.

Wave 3 was arriving soon and I really wanted to change it up again. B-Wings were coming and BOY was I excited to incorporate Braylen for more free re-rolls! Imperial Propaganda Radio discussed the strength of Luke Gunner in the current meta. He was unquestionably joining my list, but at a very big cost. Was it worth it? I’ll talk about that next entry

-Jim