Well, that took a while! I went down to BlueSky a few weeks ago to play in a hyperspace event, but ended up only playing 1 game against Jeff due to the weather dumping over a foot of snow on a region that was completely unprepared for it. I tried out the Starfortress build that I came up with back then, which bucks form and runs with absolutely no bombs. It’s pretty much the same thing PhilGC talked about recently. I managed to win that game on time, though I was about to lose it to Fenn Rau, who was already behind my fortress and they were the only 2 ships remaining on the table. Luckily, half of my fortress is more than half of Fenn.

It was a couple of weeks later that I managed to get back to a table, and it’s a lucky thing too, as my first (and probably only) Hyperspace Trial is the following weekend. My list from last time also needed a bit of a tune-up, as the junior guys were solid but not outstanding. I knew I wanted Poe in the list, so that guy is obvious. The Resistance A-Wing is surprising me with its power and versatility, and Tallie is the top ace there, so she’s in. That leaves the other… roughly half of the list to figure out. Rather than stick with the junior T-70 and RZ-A2, I wanted to get something a little tankier in the list.

My thoughts on bombs aren’t particularly well documented, but they are pretty well-known in person – I’m not a fan. I’ve never been great with their placement, and never been impressed when used against me. However, Vennie takes that 12-health platform and uses it in a very different way, which I can appreciate. Throw on Rey and a Veteran Turret Gunner, and the gal is effectively putting out the same attacks as the other ships I’m replacing. With C-3PO, she can have 3 dice mods per turn, or 2 and have coordinated one of the aces, which I figure could be pretty effective as well. Apparently some others have been adding bombs to the above build and calling it inVennicible.

As such, the list is thus:

The basic idea is Vennie is just going to get in the middle of the scrum and mess things up. Tallie can support Vennie by granting her an extra die, and if need be, Vennie can throw Tallie an extra action. Poe, meanwhile, is going to use their distraction to go nuts on the primary enemy threat, hoping to take it down before the tank of the Starfortress goes down.

Game 1: Jeff Raiford

Well. Alright then. Jeff is playing the exact same list as the other week, and all I’ve changed is adding the title to Poe in lieu of Advanced Optics on Tallie. This is pretty much a direct rematch, and we both treat is as such, using what we learned last time to counter the other’s lists. Unfortunately, Jeff forgot to focus on the initial turn of the engagement, so while Teroch took away Vennie’s calculations, he ended up eating fire from my entire list and going down in exchange for some damage on the fortress.

The game basically devolved into Vennie fighting the Bounty Hunter while Poe and Tallie hunted down Fenn. After a narrow turn around a rock that we both thought was going to clip, Vennie was able to lay some serious damage into the Mandalorian, but was taking as good as she gave. Fenn and my aces, meanwhile, were trading ineffective potshots at one another from pretty great range. That changed the turn after Fenn 4k’d. Tallie was in a great position to block, so I went for it, and was rewarded with a great shot on Fenn from Poe.

That blow chunked Fenn to half points but didn’t get the kill, and the punishment kept coming between the larger ships. The better evade dice and attack dice from rear arcs between the two meant Vennie was starting to lose the fight. Fenn needed to go down, soon, or else I was going to be in trouble. Vennie is forced to go around the outside corner of the board, which gives Jeff the opportunity to bring the Hunter back into the fight against Poe and Tallie, as Tallie has to now make her own run through the rocks in the center.

Jeff took the chance and dumped a bunch of damage on Poe, but still didn’t manage to bring him down, and Fenn was back on the dis-engage. The Firespray was also forced out, it’s larger base and position leading it back around the outside of the board. Fenn does another far 4K, which puts him out of range on the next turn, so Vennie shoots at the Firespray, who shoots again at Poe. Unfortunately for Fenn, Tallie is again in a great spot to block all of the Mandalorians best moves, and as she does so, it spells doom for the Fang pilot.

Or would have, if there was any justice against the guy in the world. Instead, Fenn survives this, and starts to tear off again toward the center of the board. The next turn is the last, however, as a ranged shot from Poe downs Fenn, and Vennie manages to finally finish the Bounty Hunter, who isn’t able to do the same to his target. That ends the game in my favor 200-81, with Vennie and Poe on half and Tallie untouched. Tallies ability didn’t do anything at all the entire game, but Heroic saved a couple of damage by triggering twice.

Game 2: Jim Kelly

This squad should look pretty familiar. Jim’s played it against me in at least 1 other event, if not more. As usual, the plan was to destroy L3 before she got to do her thing, then focus on whichever of the 2 I had a better position to engage. That happened pretty much as planned, with L3 going down to combined fire on the first turn, but Jim was exceptional at staying out of my various firing arcs. There were several rounds in the beginning where I had few or no shots that I wanted to take.

Blowing my expectations, on round 2 of combat Jim left me with a completely unmodified Range 1 front-arc primary at Fenn, and a range 2 or 3 shot at Boba from Tallie. Not really the best shots, and it showed, as Fenn hurt the Fortress for no damage in exchange. Then, as if to taunt me more, Fenn boogied from the scene and Fett turned back in, chasing Vennie down into the corner while Poe attempted to get into a decent position. My luck turned, however, as Fenn clipped a scrap for a direct hit, and Fett didn’t do a ton of damage on his own shot. Tallies ability finally came into play to help on the one shot he did have.

Just like last game, the fight eventually became Starfortress vs Firespray, Fenn Rau vs Aces. Another block from Tallie meant Poe got a great Range 1, double modified shot and put the other 2 damage on the Fang, allowing both aces to scream down in the subsequent turns to attempt to rescue Vennie. For her part, she was keeping Boba occupied with her resilience, but not really doing a ton of damage while slowly losing her health. To her credit, she was still getting 1-2 damage a turn, but was taking 2-3 in exchange.

Eventually, my aces came back in, and put the finishing touches on Fett. Via simultaneous fire from Tallie getting the killshot, Boba took down the Starfortress, marking the first time in 3 games total it’s died. Heroic didn’t trigger at all this game, but my shots from the aces were usually modified, and they were only shot at a couple of times, so it didn’t really matter. Tallie, for her part, saved Vennie 1 damage that ultimately didn’t matter, as Fett overkilled the crap out of her in the final round. 200-88 victory for me makes me 2-0, and due to pairings and match-ups, I was the only undefeated out of 6 players at this point. Still, the night was young, and although I joked about taking the win there, we all wanted to play another round.

Game 3: Chris Brown

Chris had apparently played this list in an event at Discordia the night before, and it had done well for him. I was pretty intimidated by it, because although Jeff managed to beat it on the previous turn (paired up against him, as Chris won his first game,) I didn’t quite have the experience with my list that Jeff has with his. I set Vennie in a corner, expecting and receiving a jousting set-up, and I set my aces to cross the center on an intercept path. My goal was to eliminate one of the TIEs (hopefully Quickdraw, but probably Backdraft,) then focus on staying behind the shuttle and chipping down the other.

Round 1 of combat saw some pot shots, but round 2 is where the fun really began. Chris began working Vennie down with QD (on the left) and Tavson, while my aces were left in the dust by an Autothruster boost from Backdraft. This put me pretty far out of position, and left me sending long-range shots at QuickDraw instead or powering up Tavson in exchange for more confirmed damage. I ended up going after the Upsilon, breaking my plan apart right away. While I chunked it for quite a bit, it gave better than it got and brought Vennie low too early for my liking.

Rather than stay in with the aces, Tavson turned out and started chasing Vennie up the board. I kept my arc back rather than moving it to the side, which ended up leaving the shuttle too full on health when it came back around. Vennie wasn’t able to do any damage with her shots on the TIEs. This mistake would cost me dearly by the time the scrum on bottom was settled. The TIE/sf, despite not being quite as maneuverable as a traditional TIE, still has an uncanny knack of having a shot on you when you didn’t expect it.

I manage to do nearly nothing to both TIEs as they take apart my aces, and Backdraft moves back up the field to finish my Starfortress. Poe goes down this round to Quickdraw, while Tallie loses a shield to Backdraft’s rear shot and Vennie continues to hemorrhage health. The following turn, the shuttle (which is down to 3 health) starts to turn away from the fight, as Tallie struggles to get her arc facing the right direction and Vennie dies after stripping all of Quickdraws shields.

On the 5th round of “Tallie vs the World,” she finally goes down, despite putting up a good show and putting both Tavson and Quickdraw on really low health. A 200-71 loss for me, bringing my total for the day to 2-1. I still had a ludicrous MOV, and won the event by over 40 points.

That event brings my total record for 2.0 tournaments to 24-9, a total winrate of 72.7%. Next weekend is the Seattle Hyperspace Trial, which will be my first major Second Edition event.

Looking back at the list, I’m happy with the swap to Black One over Advanced Optics. Crack Shot has only triggered twice in 4 games on Tallie, and her ability has also not done a ton of good for me. I’ve also had problems keeping her bullseye arc lined up, and feel somewhat restricted by her ability in that regard. I feel like if I use her rear arc, I miss out on her ability. That feeling, combined with the fact that I used her as a blocker more often than a primary combatant, means I’ll be swapping her out for someone more… versatile.

Next time: The Hyperspace Trials begin!