Like I said last time, I took the same Fel/Rexler/Inquisitor list to Blue Sky on Monday for some more practice games. I managed to play 4 more, although 1 of them was an extremely quick match that was decided on turn 2. I wanted to keep using the same set-up and general first engagement plan, as it worked best in theory, and seemed to perform well in practice against a similar Rebel list. For reference, here’s the list again.

The first game I set up was against Scum enthusiast Justin Brown. He was flying a Boba Fett and IG-88A build that he won a local 3-round event last weekend with, so I knew the list had teeth and that he knew how to use them, but felt I was in a good position with my tied or higher initiative. Justin won first player and chose to go first, meaning Fett could block Rexler, but Grand Inqy could outmaneuver if necessary. It also meant I couldn’t block Boba, who can boost and obtain an Evade in Justin’s build. Justin set Iggy up on my far right at the board edge, and Fett toward the center, so I placed my anvil slightly in-board from Iggy (to try to trap him against the board edge) and Fel in the center to counter-flank Boba.

The second turn of the game saw the initial engagement, and the plan worked pretty well. Inqy and Rexler had range 1 shots on Iggy (GInq had to boost to obtain it, but I took the stress token over spending the force, mostly to get out of the Firespray’s arc,) and Fel dodged Boba’s firing arc and managed a Range 1 shot of his own, although he missed the bullseye arc. In exchange for one of The Grand Inquisitors shields, I stripped shields in IG-88A and took a shield from Boba as well.

Boba dropped a bomb (honestly can’t remember if it was actually a Seismic Charge or Proton Bomb) and 4-Kd, hoping to trap Soontir between a literal rock and hard place. Fel, for his part, dodged just about all of that, ending the turn in Range 1 again of Fett. Iggy performed a 3-Sloop to his right, which Rexler 4-Kd to catch, while GInqy did a hard 1-right to catch the 3-Sloop left. Shots were fired again, and Iggy was put on 3 hull remaining with a useless face-up card by the Defender while Fel put another 3 damage on Fett. Fel took a terrifying 2 damage, including a crit, from Fett, but the crit wasn’t anything important.

Having not encountered the card yet, I was totally unprepared for Contraband Cybernetics on both ships, allowing Boba to perform another 4-K, and Iggy to do another 3-Sloop, again to his right. This left my ships not facing the targets they had been at all, but luckily, Rexlers 3-Straight put him in range for a shot at Boba, and Fel’s stress clearing 2-Bank allowed a boost into range on the assassin droid. Shots were fired, and Fel put IG-88 down to 2 hull remaining while Brath landed a single damage card on Fett that flipped to Structural Damage.

IG-88 performs a beautiful block against my list, allowing nobody but the Inquisitor to have a shot at all, and all the TAP pilot had available was the force. Unfortunately for Justin, Fett was also rolling unmodified, and IG-88 only had a shot at the otherwise undamaged Defender. He took a couple of shields off, and Fett whiffed on 3 dice with 2 re-rolls against Inquisitor, while GInqy put a Weapons Failure crit onto Fett. Next turn, however, I’d have to be lucky to keep the TAP alive through some Proximity Mines, courtesy of IG-88A.

Grand Inquisitor rolls the 1 blank he needed to survive the mining, but Iggy didn’t move at all, meaning neither does GInqy. Fel and Rexler both 4-K, while Boba bumps into his teammate. I know that I have to finish IG-88 this turn or else the Inquisitor will die to the auto-damage from a second Proximity Mine, and luckily for me, Fel puts enough into the droid to do it. Meanwhile, between Fett’s Weapons Malfunction and Grand Inquisitors pilot ability, Boba’s 2 dice primary at Range 1 is not enough to finish my TAP, and after both pilots put another damage card on Fett (Rexlers flips to Blinded Pilot,) Justin calls the game.

I was on half points (1 hull left) on the TAP and Fel (on 1 hull as well,) and the Defender had lost a couple of shields, while Fett was on 2 hull remaining, had 1 less agility AND attack, was blinded, and had 2 stress tokens. In other words, Fett was virtually doomed, flying a crippled ship into 3 still functioning aces. I’m not sure what else Justin could have done differently to combat my list, as it felt like the 3 aces were custom designed to cut down 2-ship lists.

If there was a list that could be different from 2 heavily modified Scum medium ships, 4 Phantoms with Juke is probably that list. That is the list set against me in game 2 by Justin’s dad Chris. He set up his guys in what I could only describe as “controlled randomness,” with 1 in each of his corners halfway through a 1-bank toward the center of the board, and 1 each about 1/3 of the board in from the corners. I had no real idea how to counter that, but knew that if I put all 3 ships together, he would win any joust I could try for. I ended up putting Fel on my left and the other 2 on my right, and doing a 5-straight the first round with everyone, boosting toward the center after he committed to Fel and cloaked every ship.

Round 2 of the game, Chris had set up a wonderful kill-box for Fel to fly into. If I had tried to engage, I’d be staring down 3 Phantoms with just my lone Interceptor. He left one guy on the outside to serve as a deterrent to my Initiative 5s, and that was who I dived in toward. Fel had dialed in a 3-bank right, expecting the kill-box, and barrel-boosted out of every arc while also getting the bullseye on the safety. Rexler and Inquisitor also bore down on the outside guy, and before he could even blink, the first Phantom had fallen (before Rexler even shot it!) None of the other guys had shots, so they all re-cloaked and prepared to give chase.

Round 3, and all the Phantoms are again set up to murder Fel if he tries to engage. Instead, he 2-banks into where my other guys were and boosts behind the scrap after Evading, while Rexler and GInqy bank over and boost down, catching another Phantom unaware. They bury it in 2 shots, and Chris pulls the other 2 off the table without having fired a shot.

I went into this game with only the barest idea of a plan – Don’t joust, and try to pick one off early. That game-plan worked hideously well, and after adding in below-average evade rolls and above-average attack rolls, as well as Fel’s complete escape from the Round 1 trap, there was no way for Chris to recover after Round 3.

Apparently, my lucky rolling wasn’t done for the night. I set up my list against Jeff Raiford, who has to proxy his Luke, Wedge, and Dutch list until he gets a Rebel conversion kit. Like Sundays games against Bryan, the Rebels win first player with a bid, so I will be moving second across the shared Initiative values. I set up in the now-familiar way, with Fel on my right, while Jeff counters with Luke on his right, and Wedge and Dutch staying together in the center. Fel dodges where he thinks Wedge is going to end up, but Wedge Barrel Rolls into a Range 1 shot. The dice hit the table, and Wedge whiffs completely against Fel (I think I took 1 damage,) Luke doesn’t touch the Grand Inquisitor, and my team blows Dutch away before he can touch his trigger.

Jeff then realizes that he had Swarm Tactics on Wedge, which means Dutch should have shot. Even with that, he was already so far behind, with 2 (maybe 3) of my ships still on full, that he called the game and we immediately re-racked. We didn’t even bother changing the rock set up, as we hadn’t really done anything with them.

The second game, Jeff puts Dutch on my far left, so I put my anvil across from them, expecting Luke or Wedge to try to flank again. Instead, Luke goes down with Dutch, so Fel gets set up to rush in via the middle and catch them on the flank, and Wedge places with his wing-men in the classic V formation. First turn sees Jeff’s list rush forward with 3-straights, while mine takes it a little slower with 2s and Fel rushes in with his 5-straight, Barrel-Boost to try to get range next turn.

On the engagement turn, I do my 3-bank with Rexler and 3-straight with GInqy that I’ve done every game thus far, and it again places me in perfect position to light up someone in front of the Defender. Jeff’s list surges ahead, locking the Defender in the first attempt of any opponent so far to focus it first. Wedge, unfortunately for me, is on the outside and out of arc of Rexler, so I lay everything I have into Dutch again, dropping him to 1 hull remaining. Jeff returns the favor, bringing Rexler down to 2 hull.

Luke does some Supernatural Shenanigans and ends up blocking Fel, while Dutch banks away from the fight, GInqy banks in to try to chase, and Wedge 4-Ks. I had called all of that (except Luke’s final position, stupid Supernatural Reflexes) but had NOWHERE for Rexler to go to stay in the fight and also not immediately die. Fel even more than Luke had blocked the 4-K, the rock and Dutch blocked escape to the right, and escape to the left puts me still in Wedge’s arc. I ended up pulling the 3-hard to the left, and taking the double tokens in hope that Wedge rolls poorly.

My hopes are answered, and Wedge rolls focus-focus-blank-blank, uses the target lock to re-roll into hit-focus-blank-blank. The Defender, who should VERY MUCH be dead, is still alive. Meanwhile, Luke loses a shield to the Grand Inquisitor, who dodges all incoming damage from the opposing force user.

Dutch and Rexler continue to run for their respective lives, while Luke bumps a 4-k onto Wedge due to Inquisitor’s hard 1-right blocking his Supernatural boost. Soontir pretty much had no way to turn into the fight, so he went straight at the board edge, which ended up catching Wedge in a bump with the Defender out of his arc. I am again limited to 1 shot, but this time it’s a fully modified Grand Inquisitor onto a 1-hull Y-wing, which ends exactly as expected for the Rebellion.

The following rounds see the action split, with Wedge continuing to chase Rexler into one corner while Soontir and Grand Inq chase Luke into another. Many shots are taken, but the only hits that connect are Wedge bringing Rexler down one more hull in exchange for his own shields, and Fel slowly taking Luke down 1 hit at a time. By the time the fights are rejoined, 3 of the 5 remaining ships are coasting along on just hull (4 if you count Fel, who didn’t start with any shields anyway.)

The re-engagement round is huge. I know that I have to bring down Wedge now, as all 3 arcs are locked directly on him. Luckily for me, Rexler is out of Wedge’s arc, meaning he gets to continue living when he should have LONG been dead. Wedge hammers into GInqy, brining him to 1 hull as my squad tears the X-Wing ace apart. Luke, out of Rexler’s range, fires into the TAP, bringing it down (and costing me my first ship of the night.)

Fel has an obvious maneuver to stay engaged on the stressed Skywalker, and Rexler does his first speed 1 maneuver of the night, banking in and Evading to try to stay alive. Fel and Rexler bring Luke down to 1 hull remaining and flip a Damaged Power Regulator, meaning Luke will take an Ion token before his attack. Luke’s attack is completely negated by the Defender’s dice and the Evade token, and Jeff calls the game, since Rexler can easily 4-K to stay engaged while Luke drifts lazily away from the fight.

Unbelievably, I am now 6-0 with this list. Flying at 200 points seems to have let all 3 of these ships fly to their strengths without caring that much about losing first player choice due to a lack of a bid. Rexler is downright terrifying when he goes off, flipping cards and pushing damage through with his Juke. The Inquisitor continues to impress; even without upgrades, he is a scary little ship. As usual, I can always count on Fel to get into, and then right back out of, the stickiest situations in X-Wing.

Next weekend is pretty busy for me, but next time I play, it’ll be a return ti the Rebellion. As always, if you’ve got any comments or questions, please leave them down below, or just post and let me know how I’m doing!

Next time: Red Squadron returns!