So firstly, I’m well aware that this article has been slow arriving. In a nutshell:

Plus, you get what you pay for and for the majority of you dear readers that would be nothing. So take what you can get guys.

The Top Cut:

I’ve already discussed each of the top cut fleets in depth. As it happened the top four players from both Day 1A and Day 1B made the cut.

Because I’ve already discussed each of the fleets in isolation, what I intend to do here is discuss the fleets in relation to one another. This analysis is invariably influenced by the fact that I already know the results of the Top Cut (it’s easy to be prescient when you already know the answer!) but I have tried to limit the impact of that as much as possible.

1. Ron Wismer – 45pts

MC80 Command Cruiser

Strategic Adviser, Defiance, Electronic Countermeasures, Engine Techs, Leading Shots, Enhanced Armament

CR90B

Admiral Raddus, Jaina’s Light

GR-75

Quantum Storm, Slicer Tools

GR-75

Bomber Command Centre

Hera Syndulla, Nym, Jan Ors, YT-2400, Lancer, 2x Scurgg H-6

Most Wanted, Fighter Ambush, Superior Positions

394pts

Despite being the highest ranked player heading into the Top Cut, I think Ron’s fleet was the one most likely to struggle. Ron’s fleet, as I discussed previously, really struck me as a skew fleet. It’s looking to absolutely give it to squad-less fleets, but also, I’d argue, a particular kind of squad-less fleet (the Double ISD build).

Five of the remaining seven players (Adam, Scott, Jeremy, Mark, and Jason) were running enough squadrons to either dominate Ron’s squadrons or tie them up long enough that they will not meaningfully contribute to the outcome of the game. The other two remaining fleets, despite being squad-less, present real problems for Ron. Chris’ fleet has enough movement flexibility that he could really kite Ron’s squadrons, plus because Chris is Raddus as well he can simply wait for Ron to drop the MC80 before he drops off his Liberty (and remember Ron is super vulnerable to being tabled if the MC80 isn’t on the board, so he’s incentivised to drop it off). Alexandra’s fleet can completely out-activate Ron even as first player (SA, Gozanti, Raider) which is very, very bad as it allows all of her nightmarish long range guns to track onto the spotters as they move up.

Wouldn’t have high hopes for this build with the field that is stacked up alongside it. Live by the skew, die by the skew.

2. Alexandra “duck_bird” Tornabene – 43pts

ISD-Cymoon

Darth Vader, Strategic Adviser, Entrapment Formation!, Gunnery Team, Spinal Armament, Quad Turbolaser Cannons

Arquitens Light Cruiser

Intel Officer, Enhanced Armament

Arquitens Light Cruiser

Intel Officer, Quad Battery Turrets

Raider-I

Boarding Troopers, External Racks

Gozanti

Hondo Ohnaka, Comms Net

Most Wanted, Contested Outpost, Solar Corona

397pts

I’m normally a huge squadron fan, and I really, really struggle to fly without squads. But if you had to press me for which list I liked the most out of this Top 8 (and who I thought would be most likely to win) it would probably be this list.

There’s just a very elegant brutality about it. Its real strength is that it has such a high activation count (only Chris’ and Jason’s list match or beat it) coupled with extremely potent long range firepower. Normally the problem for squad-less fleets is that they have to fly into the heart of the enemy (which against heavy squad fleets can be disastrous). The successful versions of squad-less fleets we’re seeing now are those that get around that problem (long range fleets like this or the Raddus drop).

It does, however, still flirt with disaster. Flown wrong, this thing gets mulched. Flown right it blows up anything before they can close the gap.

3. Adam “SpaceCowboy17” Newton – 39pts

AF-MkII B

Admiral Ackbar, Raymus Antilles, Caitken and Shollan, Boosted Comms, Electronic Countermeasures, Slaved Turrets

CR90A

Jaina’s Light, Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

CR90A

Hondo Ohnaka, Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

GR-75

Ahsoka Tano, Comms Net

GR-75

Boosted Comms

Shara Bey, Tycho Celchu, 4x A-Wings, 2x VCX-100

Most Wanted, Fire Lanes, Intel Sweep

397pts

Against the squadron heavy fleets, I actually rather like Adam’s chances. He’s got enough squads (and annoying squads at that) to tie them up for longer than they’d like. This allows the AFII and the CR90s to bring their copious amounts of red dice to bear.

If he can snag second player, this equation gets even nicer for Adam, who has a suite of objectives that are all pretty garbage for the squadron heavy lists.

Where I think he comes into trouble is if he matches up against Alex, Chris, or Jason. Generally speaking the idea behind these sorts of fleets is to out gun the bomber fleets, and to out bomb the gunner fleets. As I’ve said, I think this equation holds up when he’s against the bombers, but when he’s up against the gunner fleets I’m very sceptical of the A-Wings being able to bomb fast enough to make up the difference.

4. Chris “Truthiness” Fitz – 39pts

MC80 Star Cruiser

Strategic Adviser, Caitken and Shollan, Engine Techs, Heavy Ion Emplacements, Quad Battery Turrets

CR90A

Admiral Raddus, Engine Techs, Turbolaser Reroute Circuits, Jaina’s Light

CR90A

Engine Techs, Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

CR90A

Engine Techs, Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

GR-75

Slicer Tools, Quantum Storm

GR-75

Slicer Tools, Hondo Ohnaka

Station Assault, Contested Outpost, Intel Sweep

386pts

Chris’ list really seems like it will cause a big win for someone, one way or another. The ability to come in with a scalpel and cut out the heart of your opponent’s fleet is devastating if you execute it right.

For the squadron heavy fleets, all of them bar Ron’s are vulnerable to having the key carrier (flimsy Quasars and Nebulons) knocked out before they can really go to work, and this is especially true when a massive threat can be dropped in their face. Unsurprisingly, this places Chris in a good spot. If he misjudges his drop though, that Liberty will burn up quick to angry swarms of bombers.

For the other squadron light fleets, it’s really hard to understate the power of Chris being able to completely avoid the worst of his opponents’ fleets. Alexandra’s list is the only one I can see making this real difficult for Chris with her exceptional threat range.

Really this list is just as likely to place exceedingly well as it is to come bottom of the heap (and I don’t mean that in a bad way, it’s simply the nature of the beast). If it has a bad game though, it will feel it hard.

5. Jeremy Gaudreau – 38pts

Interdictor Suppression Refit

Grand Admiral Thrawn, Captain Brunson, Engine Techs, Disposable Capacitors, Targeting Scramblers, G7-X Grav Well Projector, Heavy Ion Emplacements, Interdictor

Quasar Fire I

Skilled First Officer, Flight Controllers, Expanded Hangar Bays, Boosted Comms, Squall

Gozanti

Comms Net

Maarek Steele, Colonel Jendon, Howlrunner, Mauler Mithel, Valen Rudor, Saber Squadron, 2x Firespray-31

Targeting Beacons, Planetary Ion Cannon, Solar Corona

388pts

This is a hard fleet to pick against the other contenders. I see this fleet as something of a contrast to Chris’. Where Chris’ fleet feels like it will give a big win to either him or his opponent, Jeremy’s list (in the context of the fleets that made it to the Top Cut) seems prone to having both sides grind each other down for a minor victory.

My suspicion would be that most games involving this fleet would be in the 7-4 range, 6-5 range of results. This stems from the fact that some of the fleet is tough as nails (the Interdictor) and some of it is very vulnerable (the Quasar); a fact which is also true of the squadrons (who I feel are just as likely to dominate as they are to be blown out of the water).

6. Mark “themightyhedgehog” Goddard – 35pts

Pelta Command

Adar Tallon, Fighter Coordination Team, All Fighters, Follow Me!, Boosted Comms

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate

Yavaris, Skilled First Officer

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette

General Rieekan

GR-75

Toryn Farr, Bomber Command Center, Bright Hope

GR-75

Comms Net

Corran Horn, Luke Skywalker, Ten Numb, “Dutch” Vander, Dagger Squadron, Gold Squadron, 2x VCX-100

Most Wanted, Fire Lanes, Superior Positions

400pts

What’s really interesting about Rieekan Aces is that on paper there are a lot of fleets that should beat up on it. That goes double for fleets like Mark’s which are only comprised of squishy ships. They’re very vulnerable these days to having the key players removed from the board too early.

Against the other squad heavy fleets I would give Mark the edge, Yavaris and Adar Tallon are just too great a force multiplier for most squadron lists to overcome (though it’s not unlikely that the squad balls just nuke each other and no ships are really threatened). Against the squad-less fleets it’s really all about how fast Mark can have his squads engage and how well he can block with his flotillas. If he can do that, Yavaris will do Yavaris things. If not, things get pretty dicey.

7. Scott “PwnerTrainee” Cowan – 34pts

Arquitens Light Cruiser

Admiral Sloane, Centicore, Reinforced Blast Doors, Captain Brunson

Quasar Fire II

Boosted Comms, Agent Kallus, Flight Controllers, Ruthless Strategists

Raider-I

Darth Vader (Boarding Team), External Racks

Gozanti

Comms Net

Gozanti

Zertik Strom, ‘Whisper’, Maarek Steele, Major Rhymer, 3x TIE Phantoms, 2x TIE Bombers

Most Wanted, Fighter Ambush, Superior Positions

399pts

Scott, I’m going to go ahead and reiterate, this is such a weird list my dude. Props for making it work.

I think this list would have a tough time against Duck and Truthi (just so damn hard for the bombers to go to work fast enough). Though the list is a lot less prone to tabling than some of the other heavy bomber fleets in the cut (because of the Arq and the Raider who can both burn out of the danger zone if they need to).

Agent Kallus and Ruthless Strategists makes this list potentially strong against the other heavy squadron builds, but it is a very fragile strength. The phantoms will go down very quickly if they get caught out of position (or once Zertik is down). This means that against Mark and Jeremy, Scott has to be really on point with his squadron play.

8. Jason Dedrick – 34pts

MC75 Ordnance Cruiser

Strategic Adviser, Hardened Bulkheads, Ordnance Experts, Electronic Countermeasures, Assault Proton Torpedoes, External Racks

MC30c Torpedo Frigate

General Dodonna, Ordnance Experts, Reinforced Blast Doors, Assault Proton Torpedoes, H9 Turbolasers, Admonition

Hammerhead Torpedo Corvette

Boarding Engineers, Garel’s Honour

GR-75

Slicer Tools, Bright Hope

GR-75

Comms Net

Shara Bey, 3x A-Wings

Most Wanted, Planetary Ion Cannon, Dangerous Territory

380pts

Jason’s list doesn’t like Chris’ lists (and probably Duck’s for that matter – noticing a trend?) because of how difficult it is for Jason to actually come to grips with the main part of those lists. Against the other fleets though man that first / last is very, very strong, especially considering there are no activation altering Bail or Pryce in the rest of the field.

I really don’t have to talk about Jason’s list too much, because really it comes down to whether he can come in and blow the main threat away with Dodonnna APT black dice and then bug out; or whether he can’t, and dies.

I can dig a simple plan.



Round 1

Ron v Adam

Prediction: Adam’s A-Wings tar-pit and destroy most of Ron’s fighters. If he can concentrate fire on the MC80 after it drops in, it should go down. Solid win to Adam.

Result: Adam’s A-Wings tar-pitted and destroyed most of Ron’s fighters. MC80 managed to escape.

7-4 to Adam.



Alexandra v Jeremy

Prediction: Targeting scramblers really hate consistent long range firepower, and everything else in Jeremy’s list hates it as well. Strong win to Alexandra.

Result: Apparently both players flew below their usual standard. Quasar burned, but Interdictor ground down the Arqs and the Raider.

6-5 to Jeremy



Chris v Scott

Prediction: Being able to drop in on a Quasar is bad. Strong win to Chris.

Result: Being able to drop in on a Quasar is bad. Strong win to Chris.

8-3 to Chris



Mark v Jason

Prediction: If Jason can first last onto Yavaris and the Pelta before the Yavaris squads goes to work it will be a strong win to him. Otherwise, Mark solidly.

Result: Jason took out Yavaris in an early exchange. This pretty much sealed the game in my opinion.

8-3 to Jason



Round 2

Chris – 8

Jason – 8

Adam – 7

Jeremy – 6

Alexandra – 5

Ron – 4

Mark – 3

Scott – 3



Chris v Jason

Prediction: Tough call, Jason has the bid, but Chris has the drop. Would expect it to be fairly even. Minor victory one way or another.

Result: Chris rammed Admonition to death (Engine Tech Corvettes are nasty), and proceeded to just barely table Jason while keeping the Liberty alive.

8-3 Chris



Alexandra v Ron

Prediction: Alex’s long range guns do what her long range guns do. Her odds decrease the longer the game goes on however.

Result: Alex trapped Ron on Turn 3 and tabled him. Ooo boy those long guns are nasty.

9-2 to Alex



Adam v Jeremy

Prediction: Jeremy’s ships don’t really like long range consistent damage but I think his squads definitely have the edge and from there can bomb the ships into submission.

Result: Adam played keep away and sniped Saber squadron on the final turn for the 12 MoV win. Cheeky, but probably his best way to come out ahead.

6-5 to Adam



Scott v Mark

Prediction: Both squads are probably going to wail on each other pretty hard, and having the Kallus flak should really help Scott but Yavaris squads are just so strong in the heavy squadron match up. Mark, but not by a lot.

Result: The squadron balls gave it to each other and then the carriers shook their fists angrily at each other. Mark got the better of the exchanges though.

7-4 to Mark.



Round 3

Chris – 16

Alexandra – 14

Adam – 13

Jason – 11

Jeremy – 11

Mark – 10 (?)

Scott – 7

Ron – 6



Chris v Alexandra

Prediction: I said I thought Alex’s long guns could give Chris trouble so I’m sticking to that.

Result: They didn’t.

9-2 to Chris



Mark v Adam

Prediction: If the A-Wings can tar-pit for long enough, the rest of the fleet will get the job done.

Result: They did. A CR90 went down early, but the rest of the fleet held on long enough to bring down Yavaris and the Pelta before escaping.

7-4 to Adam



Jeremy v Jason

Prediction: Targeting scramblers and Brunson should help the Interdictor a lot here, but man that is a lot of nasty black dice coming at it first / last. Probably big win to Jason.

Result: Turns out Jeremy and Jason have played several times before, and this list has proven to be a real thorn for Jeremy. Jeremy conceded after getting absolutely obliterated during one particularly lethal round.

10-1 to Jason



Scott v Ron

Prediction: Live by the skew. Die by the skew.

Result:

10-1 to Scott

Final Standings

Chris – 25

Jason – 21

Adam – 20

Scott – 17

Alexandra – 16

Mark – 14

Jeremy – 12

Ron – 7

Congratulations to real boy Truthiness for taking out the whole shebang!

Take Aways –

So whenever I’m writing an article, I always reach a point where you just want the darn thing to end. This goes double for when you do a series of related articles. So what I’m saying is that my take aways will, I hope, be fairly brief.

This time I had three main take aways.

The first is that, overall, I think a Top Cut using an extended Swiss format is a better tournament structure than single elimination. Now don’t get me wrong, it has its own problems (namely the ability for players to catapult themselves up the rankings with a blow out win). But, taken as a whole, I think its benefits drastically out weigh its problems. Single elimination completely warps the way the game is played, and incentivises negative play experiences. I’m very hopeful that the Nationals here in Australia will be done using this model.

The second take away is that squad-less or squad-lite fleets are clearly back with a vengeance. Personally, I think the best builds within that overarching space are those that undercut the traditional strengths of squadron heavy builds (namely the ability to stay at arms length and command squadrons with impunity). This really shines through with Chris’ Raddus build (but I’m also clearly a fan of the long range threat seen in Alexandra’s).

The third is that I think some of the traditional auto-pick objectives may need to be revisited, especially if you’re relying on your objectives to get work done. The best example of this is Most Wanted. Most Wanted has ruled the roost for a very, very long time (and for good reason). Now with the introduction of the blue fish though, its primacy should probably be questioned. In general, I am increasingly of the view that two of your three objectives should allow you to score points without your opponent’s involvement (generally these will be your Yellow and Blue objectives like Fire Lanes, Contested Outpost, Capture the VIP, Sensor Net, Salvage Run, and Intel Sweep).

That’s all from me though! I hope you’ve enjoyed the analysis, and look forward to any discussion it generates. If you have any further questions, consider joining our Discord and reaching out to me there.

Until next time!

– Intel Officer Luke