After the Han Solo Classic, I knew Fel can work well when he avoids the angry glare of Wedge Antilles, but also recognized that he probably needed some new wing-men. I was also really impressed with how the generic Defender did. That thing is a monster now, with 7 total health, 5 actions on the bar, a free evade for going speed 3 or greater and not bumping, and a white 4-k. It’s possibly the tanky-est small ship in the game, with 3 green dice, 7 hp, and the free evade action. The only downside of the ship is its incredible point cost. I did some math on it, and figured out that I could upgrade the Onyx to Rexler Brath without losing Juke and still have quite a few points left for the third ship. Wanting to keep my Initiative values high, I had to look at some of the cheaper aces in the game. There were quite a few options, but as anyone who reads regularly knows, I just took an in-depth look at the TIE Advanced Prototype last week, and The Grand Inquisitor fits in the list exactly, with no upgrades. The three of them together make for 200 points, with Juke on Brath and Predator on Fel. I heavily considered running upgrade-free at 194 for a bid, but those 6 points of upgrade REALLY enhance the punching power of their respective ships. Beside that, at Init 6, there’s only a couple of ships who can still outmaneuver Fel even if I move first, and at Init 5, I’m going to lose to the prevalent 9-14 point bids against aces (like Guri or other GInqs,) or their list isn’t going to care much about Initiative bidding anyway (like Chewbacca, Thane, etc.) As an added bonus, if I win Initiative at 5, the TAP (and to a lesser extent, Brath) get to arc-dodge, but if I lose, Brath is harder to bump, making his free evade easier to secure. The basic battle plan is to run Brath and Inqy together, with the Defender in front and the TAP behind and to the side, so that the initial engagement is with Rexler close to or at Range 1 with a Focus and Evade, and Inqy falling behind to Range 3 with either a Focus (if I move first) or a Lock (if I move second.) Fel, meanwhile, as somehow the cheapest ship in this list, will serve as a flanker, aiming to either draw the opponent toward him through rocks and, thus, out of position relative to the anvil of the TAP/Defender combo, or come around said rocks while the opponents list engages his partners. On Sunday, I went out to Battlegrounds Cafe for a friendly game against Bryan McNeil. Bryan and I have played a couple of times in Second Edition now, and as I’ve stated before, he loves X-Wings. He has been working on a list using Wedge, Luke, and Thane, and that trio is what he brought to face my Imperial aces. Both lists were basically counterparts to one another, with an Initiative 5 force user, an Initiative 5 who can flip damage cards, and an Initiative 6 ace. My ships have the maneuverability and action economy edge, but Bryans carry ordnance and, except for the Defender, are much tougher. He also has an Initiative bid, meaning my arc-dodging has to be purely predictive, as I will be moving first.

I set up my squad exactly as intended, with Rexler in front of and lined up with the side of Inquisitor, and Fel off on his own. Bryan set Luke and Thane up to come in on my duo, but placed Wedge to intercept Fel. Moving second, and knowing the full power of Wedge, I knew I wasn’t going to joust him like that, but the first turn I faked it anyway. Turn 2 saw combat, with both Fel and Wedge out, and all other ships engaging one another. An absolutely unfair amount of damage was done to Luke, putting him on 1 hull remaining while Bryan took 1 shield off the Defender. Fel, who was set up well to snare the Initiative 5 Xs, swung in to catch them, while Inquisitor blocked and the Defender went to make Wedges life more difficult. Wedge ended up jousting Rexler while both other Xs bumped Inqy. Fel finished Luke, and Wedge stripped Rexlers shields, who returned the favor in kind. Rexler 4-Kd, and Fel danced around the scrap he was near, putting him up and behind Wedge, while Grand Inq cleared stress with a 1-bank; Thane did a 4-K, and Wedge simply did a 2 straight, not having any clue where I was going to end up with the TAP. This allowed Fel and Rex to bring Wedge to 1 while the TAP lost a single shield to both X-Wings assault. (I also want to point out how nuts an un-stressed Interceptor can be when it comes to maneuvering. From the above image, I hard-1 right, Barrel Roll to the right and down, then Boost to the left, ending where I am below. Insane.) The following turn, Wedge took a 3-hard that ended up bumping Thane, who was trying to re-engage. Fel banked out, not having anywhere to go, while the TAP 2-TRolled and the Defender simply tore in with a 3-straight. Wedge went down, and Bryan called it there, as Fel and the TAP were untouched, and the Defender still had full hull, while he was down to just Thane. We had finished that game in relatively record time, so we decided to re-rack and try the same lists again. There were some really poor rolls on offense from Bryans list, and great defense from mine, so we wanted to see if it was dice or targeting priority.

The second game, I set up virtually identically to the first, but further to my right. Bryan put all 3 together this time, but used Supernatural Reflexes to engage wildly with Luke. By turn 2, however, Fel was already behind his list, while my anvil was right where I wanted them, and this time it was Wedge who went down to hull, surviving the first engagement on 2 remaining while his list took 3 shields from Rexler. Wedge, importantly, also took a Disabled Power Regulator from Rexler, which will give him an ion token the moment he engages next turn. Another crazy first engagement, and this time Bryan had a worse dis-engage, allowing my Initiative 5 pilots to both flip around. They do so, Grand Inqy in an attempt to block Wedge, and Rexler to try to either finish Wedge or put the hurt on someone else. Luke was stressed from his initial engagement, and Thane wanted to maintain formation, so they simple boogied out of the fight. I didn’t get any shots on Wedge, but nobody in his list had shots, so I went all-in on Thane instead, dropping him to 3 hull remaining, but Rexler whiffed his attack, so no face-up damage cards. Rexler banks in to chase the ionized Wedge while the other aces continue to hunt Wedge, Luke and Thane both book it 3-straight (Luke remaining stressed from the Focus-Boost from last turn,) and Fel and Grand Inqy continue the chase on the bottom of the mat. Rexler does a pitiful 1 damage to Wedge, still not killing him, but luck of the draw flips the same crit back up, making him sure to be ionized again 2 turns later if he continues to survive. The TAP and Interceptor team up to drop Thane, bringing the fight even more securely in my favor. Wedge attempts a 3-TRoll, which unfortunately places him dead in the sights of Rexler, who had 4-Kd and Barrel Rolled backwards and slightly down the mat, in a successful effort to secure a shot. Luke clears his stress and tries to position himself to come back into the fight, while Fel and Inqy close in on their prey. Luke has cleared the TAPs range, but Fel still gets a potshot through an obstacle that deals a single shield. Rexler, meanwhile, finally finishes Wedge. The game continues for several turns, as my virtually undamaged team works to set up a kill-box on Luke. Luke, for his part, manages to put another 2 damage on the Defender, bringing him to half points, and then a turn later drops a damage onto Fel as well. Unfortunately, the game technically ends on a ring-out, as the BAREST sliver of Luke ends a 4-K off the mat. In the spirit of friendly competition, I nudge him back on, and Luke puts another damage on Fel, taking him to half, while the Inquisitor brings Luke to 2 hull remaining. We have to call the game there due to the time of day, but it was all but over for the young Skywalker regardless, as the following turn Rexler would have been back into the fight as well, and 3 ships firing at 1 is a losing proposition. Luke with Supernatural Reflexes is REALLY slippery, especially he wins the first player decision (which is a guarantee in this list.) Even Soontir Fel had trouble keeping up with him, which is saying quite a lot!

On my side, targeting priority is super difficult for my opponent. Both Initiative 5 pilots can close out the game in my favor, and Fel is only barely more than a quarter of my list, despite possibly being the most dangerous one on the field. With the way I set up, I can hopefully either draw aggro away from the bruisers with Fel, who can then just slip away, or else Fel gets in behind them and picks them apart with his highly-accurate 3-dice attack if the opponent guns for Rexler and GInqy. The Interceptor can pretty reliably line up his bullseye arc, landing him a single-die re-roll as well as his free Focus token, especially if the opponent lets him in behind them. I also managed to get out to Blue Sky on Monday, and brought this list with me, playing another 4(!) games. Since this post is already long enough, that is a tale for another day. Until then, leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

Next time: The continuing adventures of Mr. Fel and his Dynamic Duo!