Monday usually means practice night at Blue Sky, and this week is the first in a while I’ve been able to attend. I’ve also been anxious to get Fel back on the table, so it means an imperial list is the order of the day. But, what to pair him with? I liked the HowlFerno mini-swarm, but feel that it may not do enough to really draw aggro away from Soontir. The Palpatine Shuttle was very underwhelming, and while I liked Vader’s silliness, I don’t think any 3rd ship I add there would be enough to stand on its own.

I have been reading a ton of other blogs recently, partially to see what I can improve about my own, but also to improve my 2.0 game, and one that I’ve been popping in on since 1st edition was Deathrains Blog over on Medium. His love for his preferred ship mimics my own for the Baron, and I felt I could learn from his experience by flying Deathrain myself. For my version, I went with both Proton Bombs and Seismic Charges, to have options available for use with the Trajectory Simulator, and Proton Torpedoes to give the opening volley a huge punch. (I also put the Skilled Bombardier on him in the squad builder, since I had the points, but forgot to pull the card out and ended up running a 198 point list at 200.)

As for another wingman, I now had someone who could handle high-init dodgy guys, and someone who could put a hurt on swarms, and on fat, tanky medium and large ships. I needed someone who could survive an alpha strike, but still be able to dish out damage. The best Imperial ship for that has got to be the TIE Defender, but its unique pilots are SUPER expensive. However, the Init 4 generic Onyx Squadron Pilot happens to tie Init with Deathrain (for squad flexibility,) have a Talent slot (to staple Juke to,) and fit in the squad to put it exactly at 200 points (except when I forget bombardier!)

This was the list I was going to run last Friday at Blue Sky’s event, had life not interfered. I figured that with Deathrain, I didn’t need a huge bid for Fel, since the Punisher can likely get off a fully modified Proton Torp shot at any high-init aces before Fel goes in for the kill, as long as I engage carefully and control the approach with tragedy-simulated bombs.

My first game of the night was against Chris Brown, flying Redline, Deathrain, Captain Jonus, and a Scimitar. This list throws a TON of ordnance and quite a few bombs on the table, and coupled with my own Punisher, we were in for an interesting match. I knew if I put Fel in front of that list, he would melt in less than a turn, so my game plan was to joust at an angle through rocks with my Init 4s while the squint swung in from further out, basically coming from his own board edge at him (through more rocks.)

The plan more-or-less worked, with his entire list ending up range 1 from a scrap token with one of my seismics on it, while my ‘Rain was still too far out for it to hit him. Everyone on my list had shots on Jonus, and his list couldn’t see Fel with anyone but the Captain. Jonus took 1 from the seismic, 2 from Fel, 1 from the Defender, and 3 from Deathrain’s first torpedo, turning him to dust before the scimitar fired. Chris (being somewhat an expert at flying Defenders, and rightly so respecting them) put rockets into the Onyx from the two ships who could see it, and rockets into Deathrain from those who couldn’t.

The next turn, all 3 Punishers launched a Proton Bomb, but rather than stopping or taking a modifier, my Deathrain rolled right and backward. Chris must have guessed I wouldn’t have dialed on a stop like both his did, and put the Scimitar facing my left in a position to block my medium ship, but my roll left me clear for the 1 bank I had selected, leaving me with a lock and a shot on his stressed Redline. Fel also came in, but not fast enough to get caught in Bomb-mageddeon, and the Onyx took off to my left, not wanting to hang out shieldless in front of the Punishment.

When the dust settled from the bombs, all 3 punishers were shieldless and the scimitar was on 3 hull, but after a nasty crit chain my ‘Rain was on 2 hull left. The Onyx had no shot, but Fel put a hit and crit onto the Scimitar, which flipped to a Console Fire. Meanwhile, it took both Punishers to finish off my Deathrain (since the stress prevented the focus action required for Barrage Rockets, they were left with only their primaries,) and I dealt a nasty 2-hit, 2-crit torpedo into Redline in the revenge shot, with a direct damage crit dropping him to 1 hull.

The Scimitar, despite having arc on the Defender, never got to shoot, as Chris conceded at this point. Fel was behind both his Punishers, 1 of which was shieldless and the other had 1 hull, the Scimitar may have died from console fire before firing, but we wouldn’t know, and it was a range 2 shot unmodified against a Focused, Evading Defender; who would have been able to 4k the following turn and finish the bomber since I still had 3 hull on him. Even with all that, I feel like Chris wasn’t out of the game yet, but it was his decision.

For my second game, I played against John Kalmen, the winner of Sunday’s Battlegrounds event. Tonight, he was flying Wedge, Biggs, Magva Yarro, and a Red Squadron Vet. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture this game. I set up in a corner, intending to drag him into the rocks and use them to both hide Fel and spread bomb damage. He set up in the opposite corner, so I put Fel closer to the center than my other guys, figuring he’d do the standard Rebel slow engage through the middle.

By turn 2, he was on my side of the board, having completely skipped coming through the rocks. Fel narrowly avoided jousting his ENTIRE list by rolling backward, and Deathrain was useless for bombs with his positioning. The Onyx actually became my flanker, swinging back into my corner from the center of the board. Opening round took some shields from Biggs, then a lucky shot from Onyx brought Biggs to 1 hull. His only shot was Biggs against an Evading, range 3 Fel, which (understandably) missed.

My Punisher threw a Proton Bomb over the rock he was looking at, banked to the right to avoid said rock, then rolled left to end up nearly sitting on the bomb, but with a beautiful R1 shot on the Red. His entire team flew in 1 straight, which planted them all R1 of the bomb, and the Onyx screamed in as well, taking a free evade and a regular focus. Only Fel went wide, swinging around the side of John’s formation and lining up on Wedge. The bomb took 1 shield from all 5 ships who had one, and killed Biggs. I then dumped 5 damage total on Wedge from Fel and Onyx, taking him down, and ‘Rain took the other two shields from the Red. In exchange, Deathrain was neatly obliterated by Wedge and Magva, leaving the Red with no shot.

Fel was in an excellent position to chase his list wherever he went, but my Defender was coming in at an odd angle, I had dialed in a 4k with it, but feared the Red might do the same, and I’d miss a lovely shot from him, so at the last second I switched it to a 3-bank. The Red did K-turn, so the Onyx ended up Evading and Focused at R1 in front of the tokenless, shieldless Red Vet. Fel tossed the first card onto the Vet from afar, and the Defender put the X-wing away, then evaded all damage from Magva’s return fire. John called it there, as I had one ship on either end of the U-wing, both still at full health.

I really liked Deathrain, and LOVED the new Defender. The fact that Fel is the cheapest ship in a 3-ship Imperial list is also somewhat surprising to me, and the trio seems to work well together. I only wish I could squeeze 2 more points into it somewhere, so that I can drop the bombardier and add Ablative Plating to Deathrain (who ate one of his own bombs in both games.) This is a list and a concept I will continue to explore later!

Next time: Another day, another tournament!