Hey all! It’s been quite some time since my last post, and unfortunately, I believe that the trend may continue as such. I managed to get to an actual tournament last weekend, but I still have a game night from the previous week that is burning away in my memory. The longer I take to write about it, the more the details will slip, so I feel like I need to get this one out before going after my tournament. The match-ups are worth the read, especially game 2, as it’s possibly the most intriguing build I’ve come up against in 2.0. Sorry about the lack of activity!

After my last time flying Fel and his friends, I decided that the Grand Inquisitor, although strong, may not be the right answer for this trio, especially since he plants me firmly at 200 points with 2 ships that REALLY need to stay out of arcs and a third that would prefer to. I looked over a few other Imperial options (Whisper, you’ll get your chance, I promise) and ended up coming back around to the Punisher.

My last foray with Deathrain, I decided that the thing died too quickly to be worth loading up with a ton of bombs and ordnance and other upgrades. I still believe this is true, so I decided to keep the upgrades light and boost the Initiative value up to Redline. His ability begs for at least one ordnance, so the ever-present Proton Torpedoes return. This plants my squad at 195 points, and while it’s still a pathetic bid by Initiative 5 standards, it’s far more than really necessary for Fel. Soontir should be able to help keep the I-5s in check until my forces can get on target.

This was also my first time since Second Edition dropped to make it out to Discordia Games in Bremerton, the final store that I frequent to play games. This location has an excellent gaming space and great prize support for their events, but lacks the food and drink options of Blue Sky or the proximity of Battlegrounds or the Hoard. Still, Discordia holds a place in my heart, and is definitely the place to be for Magic (provided I played that game…)

Anyway, the night was scheduled to be a tournament, but since only 4 people made it down (myself included,) we decided to just play a round of Friday Night Fights instead. My first opponent was Thomas Rupert, the T.O. for Discordia. He was flying Imperials as well, putting Captain Oicuun, Tomax Bren, Lt. Kestal, and Double Edge on the table against my aces. Tom set Oicunn up in the middle of the table and his smaller ships off to my left, so I set up on my right in an attempt to rush the lumbering giant before it could link up with it’s allies.

That plan worked out entirely too well, and the Decimator found itself in all 3 of my firing arcs in the first round of combat on turn 2. By the time my guns had quieted down, he was missing his shields and 3 hull, the last of which had been a Damaged Sensor Array. In exchange, Redline lost a shield or 2.

Oicunn came in hard after that, since his crit meant that he couldn’t rotate his turret or reinforce. Unfortunately, the Decimators larger base and the eagerness of the TIE Bomber caused a bump, with my ships poised perfectly to bring down the big guy. Fel and Rexler proceeded to do so with SO MANY crits, and Redline managed to put a damage card onto Tomax as well, only taking a single other shield in retribution.

With the Decimator gone, I had plenty of room to maneuver, and decided that Redline needed to book it to preserve himself instead of allowing himself to die like Deathrain always did. Meanwhile, Fel and Rex put a whalloping on Kestal while Rexler avoids all but 2 damage, removing a couple of shields. The K-turn from Tomax surprised me a little, but he decided to go after Rexler rather than Redline, which may have been what kept the Punisher above half health the rest of the game.

Both of my ships now flip around, while Kestal moves slightly forward and Double Edge K-Turns. Redline continues his circuit around the corner asteroid as Tomax gives chase. This turn sees Redline take a damage card or 2, bringing him just a single hit above half health, while Rexler finishes Kestal off and Fel puts another card or 2 onto Tomax.

The next turn ends up in such a manner that nearly nobody has shots on anyone else, as Fel banks in to chase the Bomber, but Tomax banks up to dis-engage from the Punisher and they end up facing one another. Rexler turned to the right, expecting his K-turn to be blocked, and the Punisher continued its journey around the rock. Only Double Edge, who simply performed a 1 straight, had any shots, both of which he sent at Fel, who evaded them quite nicely.

The next round, EVERYONE but Double Edge K-turned, with all 3 of my ships pulling a 4-k, the bomber pulling a 5, and the Aggressor banking into a chase position. Fel finishes off Tomax at range 3 before evading both of Double Edges shots again. Rexler, for his credit, takes the Aggressors shield, setting him up for the kill next turn.

The final turn is somewhat anti-climactic, as Fel moves away from the fight to clear stress, Rexler K-turns again and rolls over to have a perfect shot, and Double Edge moves up to engage Redline, who has finally banked back into the fight. I attempt to give the kill to the Punisher, but the Aggressors defense dice are too good for a single attack to finish him, so Rexler gets the honors instead, which brings the game to a close, 200-0.

For my second game, I set down against the opponent I think I have played the most since 2.0 came out: Chris Brown, the T.O. for Blue Sky. Chris has jumped onto the First Order train pretty hard, especially since Hyperspace rules have taken away his Punishers and Bombers, and tonight was flying an extremely interesting list: 3 Batwings, piloted by Lt. Tavson, Lt. Dormitz, and a Starkiller Base Pilot, 2 of whom had (in addition to other things) Hyperspace Tracking Data. I normally don’t post pictures of the set-up phase, but this time I feel like I have to:

2 of his shuttles started out within a base length of Range 3 of my ships, giving me virtually nowhere to go. Setting up at Initiative 6 gave them a huge advantage, as did starting with 2 green tokens (Chris chose 1 Focus, 1 Evade.) The fact that these things would be in my face on Turn 1 was EXCEPTIONALLY intimidating, considering they each had 12 health, 4 attack, and the reinforce action (which would obviously be their choice on turn 1, since they already had all the green tokens ever.) The first turn would most likely be Chris obliterating one of my ships in exchange for MAYBE 1-2 damage on one of his…

His SBP is on the inside, so I focus all of my efforts on it, since I know that attacking Tavson is only going to make him hit even harder. I do better than I predicted, dealing 4 damage total after using all 3 ships and a Proton Torpedo, while Redline only takes a couple of damage in return, thanks to incredibly bad attack rolls from the 2 Upsilons that I allowed to be in range.

With Fel in probably the best position he could possibly be in, I settle in for what is about to become a game of bumper cars. Soontir does a 2 straight to clear his stress and focus, while both the front shuttles stop, causing my guys to plow into their fronts. Dormitz moves up slowly, which is still fast considering he’s on a large base. Luckily, Chris’ attack dice continue to flounder, and my ships bring the SBP to below half, Redline takes a couple of shields off Dormitz, and Rexler and Redline both take a single damage from each shot, only barely putting Redline at half.

The following turn, Fel moves 2 straight again, ending up in range 1 of Dormitz… and NOTHING ELSE MOVES. Both front Upsilons do maneuvers that cause them to overlap, Dortmitz sits still, and my pair both bump the maneuvers that would have cleared if the shuttles had moved. I still don’t put enough damage onto the SBP to kill it, but Dormitz is brought down to a single shield. More damage is done to Redline, but he manages to live on 1-2 hull.

This turn, one of these things finally gets out of the way, as Tavson pulls away to start the long process of coming back around, the SBP bumps into Redline again, and Dormitz bumps into his buddy. This causes Rexler to bump his 1-bank exactly into Range 1 of the SBP, while Redline books it past the mess and escapes all firing arcs and Soontir 3-Sloops behind the shuttles. Somewhat due to the bad attack rolls from the shuttles, I now have all 3 ships in a position where they can not be shot, while 2 of Chris’ shuttles are already bleeding. Rexler finally puts the finishing damage on the Starkiller Base Pilot and Fel takes a couple more shields off of Dormitz, putting him into hull.

On what ends up being the final turn, Fel and Rexler swing in on Dormitz and Tavson, and Dormitz gets dropped to a single hull point remaining. Meanwhile, Tavson blanks out on her shot at Redline, who is now primed to escape and start his own return to the battle. Down to basically just a single shuttle, with my aces about to be in a chase position on Tavson, Chris concedes. If the red dice had been a little meaner in the beginning, I would have certainly lost Redline, but I feel like by then I already would have been in behind his shuttles. The game ended in a 200-27 win for me.

For game #3, I complete the T.O trifecta, playing against Jim Kelly of the Dragon’s Hoard. Jim brought 4 Mining Guild Sentries and Boba Fett, and scattered a pretty menacing asteroid field between us. The first couple of turns were spent positioning for the initial engagement, as we had both started in our respective corners. When the pain starts flying, Redline is staring down Jim’s entire list, with my aces positioned to take down the flanking TIEs. Fel attacks the one he has Predator against, while Rexler attacks the one locked by Redline before the Punisher sends a torpedo into it. After that TIE explodes, the others throw ineffective shots at Redline and Boba takes a couple of his shields away.

Bumper Cars, Round 2 is the name of the game this round, as only Fel remains free to act. Due to being blocked onto a rock and my ships bumping, Boba is Jim’s only shot, and he starts throwing damage cards onto Redline while Fel and Rexler both remove a TIE fighter from the board. While it looks bleak from the board state, Boba is still at full, and Redline is close to going down at this point, while my ships are still stuck in the scrum.

Boba swings down and boosts, trying to come back up into the fight, while Redline drives away to clear 1 of the 2 stress tokens his Panicked Pilot crit from the previous round had imparted on him. Rexler flips into a Range 1 shot on the remaining TIE while Fel comes down to engage the Firespray, taking a shield or 2 off of it for his trouble. Rexler, true to form, misses the final TIE before it lands even more damage on the Punisher, bringing it down to its final remaining hull point.

The game devolves into a sort of stand-off, with Redline tearing away, Fel lining up a shot on Boba, who can shoot Rexler, who can shoot the final TIE, who has a range 1 shot on the Interceptor. Fel does another couple of shields worth the damage to Boba, and Rexler pulls through against the TIE, killing it before taking shield or 2 of damage from Fett. Still above half points on Rexler, and with Fel behind Fett, the game has locked itself pretty well in my favor. Still, knowing Fett like I do, he still has the chance to pull some crazy crap off.

However, the crazy crap isn’t meant to be. Instead, Boba makes a run for his board edge, attempting to draw me into a chase where he can use his extra re-roll to ensure more damage against my aces. Fel dodges out of it, but Rexler simply flips around and starts to give chase himself. Over the subsequent 3 rounds, Fett tears off into his corner to swing around a large asteroid amd come back into the fray. Fel and Redline both K-turn to try to give chase, with only the Squint managing it. Due to his position, Redline has to turn away again to set up a more favorable engagement.

To his credit, Jim gives my ships a merry chase, plinking off shots at both small-based aces and bringing them both to just above half health, but it just isn’t enough. On the final turn, Fel misses the killshot, allowing Boba to earn retribution after Rexler puts him down by blowing an unsuspecting Redline out of the sky and resulting in a 200-44 win.



In what were some desperately needed games of X-Wing, Fel performed extremely well, and Rexler definitely proved again how strong he can be, and just how much he is worth those 84 points he costs. Flipping some critical damage against Oicunn, the Starkiller Base Pilot, and Dormitz, and using his ability to kill off the final Mining Guild TIE by flipping one of the 2 damage cards into a critical hit. The Punisher… continues to not really impress me. Maybe I’m just not running it the same way others are to have the most success with him, but I attribute his worth in this list that night to luck more than ability or skill.

Thanks again to my opponents for some truly wonderful games, and if anyone is more of the watching-type wants to get in on some moving replays of the games, Game 2 and Game 3 have been posted by Jim on his YouTube channel. I HEAVILY recommend muting the sound, as his camera isn’t optimized to capture sound in a busy environment and it sounds roughly like a garbled distress signal than any type of game commentary.

As always, if anyone has any ways I can improve the blog or my game-play, please leave a comment either below or on one of the portal sites that I post links on!

Next time: Viva la Resistance!