ManOfMonkey and Captain JacksButts playtest against the Hoth winning Triple Jumpmasters looking for a weakness.

Having both lost out in our last tournament to the Jumpmasters list we decided to sit down and play test it out. This report features our thought processes as we go through the game. This is Game 1 of 2 vs Imperials.

(NB; although the visuals are mostly accurate some of the angles when we tried to recreate them aren’t exact)

ManOfMonkey is in regular type.

Flying: Scum and Villainy 97pts

Jump master 500- Contracted Scout, Plasma Torpedos, extra munitions, Overclocked R4, Deadeye, Guidance chips.

Jump master 500- Contracted Scout, Plasma Torpedos, extra munitions, Overclocked R4, Deadeye, Guidance chips.

Jump master 500- Contracted Scout, Proton Torpedos, R4 Agromech, Bobba Fett, Deadeye, Guidance chips.

Captain Jacks Butt (Cpt JB) is Italicised.

Flying: Imperial 100pts

Tie Phantom- Whisper, Advanced Clocking Device, Veteran instincts, Fire Control system, Rebel Captive.

Tie Interceptor- Soontir Fell, Push The Limit, Royal Guard Title, Targeting computer, Autothrusters.

Tie fighter- academy pilot.

Tie fighter- academy pilot.

Start of game: ManOfMonkey takes initiative.

ManOfMonkey: My plan for the game against two very manoeuvrable aces was to try and cover as many arcs as possible. I was happy that the torpedoes would mince anything they hit and I was looking to hit either Whisper or Soontir hard early on with at least two Torpedo volleys. The Bobba Fett Proton Jumpmaster set up centrally with the two plasma Jumpmasters flanking, this was the most neutral set up I could think of and should cover any shenanigans by whisper.

Having seen Alex Birch use the Barrel rolls to reposition effectively in turn one I spread out looking facing the rocks looking to slow roll early and reposition centrally.

Cpt JB: My plan was to use the Tie Fighters to block and chip away at the scouts whilst I manoeuvre both Whisper and Fel into favourable positions to hit one hard. I set the Ties up facing across my edge from left to right allowing me to either reposition along my edge or turn in and go down the flank.

Monkey’s set up of spreading all three across the board the board foxed and confused me a little although I recognised it would grant him massive board control with the central proton torpedo one. I set up whisper centrally with Fel on the right flank which I planned to move both back l along to my left unless he left the opportunity to scoot down the right.

Turn one

ManOfMonkey: I slow rolled all three Jumpmasters with straight 1’s. The Jumpmaster on the right of the board rolled right and back hoping to prevent the Tie’s from turning into the centre of the board and ambushing the Bobba carrying Jumpmaster. The other two barrel rolled left and forward.

Cpt JB: I hard one turned into the board to face the scouts with the lead tie fighter barrel rolling back so that the other could draw near enough level in its next move. Fel also barrel rolled left backwards to keep some distance. Whisper cloaked up. My plan was to joust the scout with the ties whilst bringing Whisper into the fray and Soontir not long after unless an opportunity to get in behind them arose.

Turn two

ManOfMonkey: Unsure of Soontirs next move and aware just how much ground he could cover if he decided to flank I did a hard 1 left with the left hand side Jumpmaster and then barrel rolled him backwards. The Bobba Jumpmaster pushed forwards and focused for central board control and the Jumpmaster on the right did a 4 straight and focused looking to hit one of the Tie fighters….

Cpt JB: The Ties did a 2 and 3 straight and focussed whilst Whisper de-cloaked left and did a 3 bank. Fel Hard turned left and straight boosted. I had the scout at range three of both Whisper and the Tie fighters. The Scout in the centre I thought might be out of range If I barrel rolled Whisper towards it thus taking me out of the flanking scout’s arc and putting a rock between the two.

Whisper shot and missed but got a target lock and cloaked up. It turned out that I was about 3mm in range of the Boba Fett crew proton scout in the centre and took a proton torpedo to the face and promptly rolled four blanks. This then freed up the other scout to spend a plasma torpedo on a tie fighter. Four hits followed by a better roll of one evade and a focus token. So only two damage.

ManOfMonkey: My initial roll was two crits and two blanks- Being able to use the R4 Agromech to reroll one the a blank dice after I deadeyed the Torp and then guidance chip the final blank to give me two crits and two hits was a pretty clear demo of why the combo is so effective. Whispers roll was unlucky, plain and simple… cue my best evil villain cackle.

If I had not barrel rolled Whisper and done the usual of an evade action I might have still had Whisper there as the dice roll for the attack would have been three hits and a crit. So unless a double damage turned up Whisper would still be around, just. I may also have scored a hit due to the rock not obstructing the shot and got my free focus. It would not have made any difference in this case but a more average dice roll would have at least seen me perhaps only dropping the shields.

The tie fighters dropped a shield apiece off the scout.

Turn 3

ManOfMonkey: With Whisper now toast I turned the left hand Jumpmaster toward the centre of the board covering the flank of Bobbas’ Jumpmaster incase Soontir turned in for a range one attack against him and providing some back up firepower if in range. I tried to pull a Left Segnors Loop with the Jumpmaster on the rightflank but bumped into one of the Academy pilots denying me my action. I had hoped to get a torpedo into Soontir with the right Jumpmaster as my end game plan was to be using primary weapons on the Academy pilots. I took the opportunity to take a range one Primary weapon attack at Fell with Bobba’s taxi (not depicted well in the image above). To add insult to injury I got a more then favourable range one primary attack roll against the damaged Tie and nuked it. Fell decided that evading was for the weak….

Cpt JB: I two banked the Ties towards the middle in an effort to block the scout and maybe pot shot the other scouts. Fel did a straight five followed by a boost in towards the now blocked damaged scout and target locked for a focus token. Fel shot the damaged scout at range three and spent the focus to get three hits and dropped two shields. The Boba crew scout fired its primary weapon and fel took a single crit which didn’t amount to much. The other two scouts combined to blitz the undamaged tie Fighter with a range one shot and a plasma torpedo.

Turn 4

ManOfMonkey: “Great Kid! Don’t get cocky”….I totally misjudged my manoeuvre with the Bobba Jumpmaster and parked him on a rock, not a great start as I’d been hoping to roll him in behind Soontir. The left hand Jumpmaster slow rolled towards the centre of the board and focused up looking to take down the Tie fighter as it I didn’t want it blocking for Fell. The right hand Jumpmaster pulled a right Segnors and managed to block Soontir, happy days. And then I dialled up another round of Torps with the left hand Jumpmaster and watched the remaining Tie fighter fireball.

Cpt JB: Things are not going well but in Soontir I trust to bail me out. The damaged tie fighter did a two bank towards the middle giving space for Fel to do a green 4 straight to shed stress. I did not figure that there was enough space for the damaged scout to S-loop towards the edge to block which Monkey did. Fel bumped into it but this was mitigated by him parking the Boba scout onto a rock denying any pot shots. The damaged Tie went down in flames though to the combined primary shots of the other two scouts and we called it there.

Conclusion

Cpt JB: My first mistake was in rock placement. I allowed a central channel for a scout to come down thus giving them board control and forcing me to effectively joust at least one. Jousting is never a great tactical decision for most ships, let alone arc dodgers. It allowed the scouts to get in my face early without being able to leverage the blocking ability of the Ties and strip the scouts of their best offensive options.

My set up with Whisper and Soontir were poor and the failure of my carpenter’s eye for distance judging cost me early. Even if on reflection my plan was not the greatest, the execution could have been better. If I had steamed one or both of the Tie fighters straight forwards to potentially block the upcoming scout it would have left Whisper to sit at a happy place out of range of the central scout with only a two dice primary to deal with at range three and an evade token. So probably only the loss of one shield, judging by the dice rolls.

Rock placement is crucial in any game and against the scouts more so. In games I have seen and now played the recurring theme seems to be for the scout player to take three small rocks and then corner three rocks in placement. This will start with the largest ones they can get. They also seem to favour placing two down the opponent’s end with only one at theirs so that they can easily form up in formation with the space provided. I would opt to not block that space as allowing an easy central channel affords them more board control and to be able to split up. A congested central area gives them decisions to make which hopefully can turn into wrong decisions.

ManOfMonkey: As this was a game designed to allow us to explore any weaknesses in the Wolfpack list I tried to set up and fly it in a way that would maximise my board control and keep the Torpedos flying.

With the imperial aces having the upper hand for dancing out of arc I opted not go for the obvious ‘Lawn mower’ deployment and instead try to have all my arcs covered throughout the game. I could definitely fly this list better with practice but the sheer firepower efficiency of the torpedo boats got me out of trouble early on. Cpt JB’s green dice were sub par most of the game, I on the other hand could pretty much guarantee at least three hits with the Torps.

A more centralised asteroid placement denying me the centre of the board and running the Academy pilots in to block me faster would have cut my firepower down early on, as it was I got the opportunity to isolate and kill off Whisper before the asteroids or blocking Tie’s could be a factor.

To see if the Empire can strike back, click HERE