Matt Cary breaks down the Denver System Open winning list.

To begin, congratulations to Andrew Nuckols for winning the Denver System Open! I only caught the final match, but that was a helluva a match to watch.

Andrew handily winning the match with several fully modded crit-heavy proton torpedoes (in two different flavors!) was a sight to see. Variance played a role in the match, as one-shotting a TIE Silencer is not an everyday occurrence. But beyond that, Andrew flew it well, and the list is goooooooooooood. Let’s examine the list and find out why.

Colonel Jendon Points: 57

– Emperor Palpatine

Darth Vader Points: 73

– Afterburners

– Fire-Control System

Major Vynder Points: 64

– Os-1 Arsenal Loadout

– Adv. Proton Torpedoes

– Proton Torpedoes

– Fire-Control System

– Advanced SLAM

– Trick Shot

Colonel Jendon

While not the strongest part of the list, Jendon is the enabler, and it’s not just the round 1 target locks either – those are just icing to the action efficiency cake. Without the Jendon locks, Vader could get target lock and focus easily, and with a coordinate, Vynder could do it, too. What the initial lock does is threaten the opponent’s boogeyman; in effect, telling the opponent that if you engage me with your linchpin ship, I’m going to eat its lunch.

Beyond the locks, Jendon will coordinate whatever action to Vynder that he needs, and when the Major has all the actions he wants, Jendon can amp up his own three die attack or give Vader a pre-maneuver barrel roll. Palpatine sitting with a pale buttcheek in each crew slot can either mod Vynder’s offense or defense, let Vader use a force if he has been spending liberally, or mod Jendon’s own attack if he coordinated during activation.

Darth Vader

The Dark Lord of the Sith is a known quantity and is running in his best build (at least since Supernatural went out the window) with FCS and Afterburners. Vader is a bruiser, and with a 6 point bid, he will often be moving last, making this a beautiful end game ship.

Major Vynder

And now for the star of the show: Major Vynder. The Birmingham Barons had labeled Vynder “The Hatchet Man” back in First edition when he was running with Harpoon Missiles, Advanced Proton Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, Push the Limit, and Advanced Slam (maybe Guidance Chips?), if I remember correctly. He was named the Hatchet Man because he was like a horror movie villain breathing down your neck. And now, the Hatchet Man is back. Hatchet Man 2: The Hatchetening.

Let’s start with the configuration: the Os-1 Arsenal Loadout. This config lets Vynder take two different torpedoes (or missiles) and fire them even while he has a weapons disabled token. Os-1 does have the drawback of not allowing Vynder to spend his lock when he attacks, but another upgrade, Fire-Control System, allows him to re-roll one of his attack dice. Proton Torpedoes gives him a range 2-3 danger zone that Trick Shot can amp up to a five dice shot. Adv. Proton Torpedoes removes the safety zone of boosting into range 1 on him – these torpedoes come standard at five dice.

But wait, there’s more! Vynder also has Advanced Slam, which allows him to slam and still get a focus (or lock), all for the cost of a stress token and a weapons disabled token. But the weapons disabled token is not a hindrance to Vynder because of the configuration. In fact, it only makes him stronger: his pilot ability lets him roll an additional green die when he has at least one weapons disabled token.

And there are even more tricks to this pony. Suppose Vynder has already shot an Adv. Proton Torpedo, and you think next round it is safe to be at range one even though he has a lock. Jendon coordinates a focus to Vynder, but you’re thinking, “So what, three dice with lock and focus is sooooo much better than either kind of proton torpedo.” But then Vynder moves forward and reloads the Adv. Proton Torpedo, giving him a weapons disabled token he can ignore, and a shiny new torpedo to ram into your face. It is a thing of beauty.

Target priority in this list is a mess all around. Jendon is the least threatening, but if you ignore him, he still has a three die primary backed with at least a force and a significant amount of health; and he’ll be enabling the others all the while. The Hatchet Man cannot be ignored as he is far too damaging to let run free, but if you target him, you still have frickin’ DARTH VADER laying into you. You don’t want to go against a largely ignored Vader late game. Brilliant.

The Fourth Ship

But there is an unsung party member to this list, one that gives it significantly more leeway: gas clouds. Love them or hate them, gas clouds exist (please, hate them), and they really help this list out. Jendon loves them because if he lands on them he still gets to shoot and doesn’t get stress, diminishing the largest drawback to the Lambda: the dial. Vader doesn’t mind them because he can still trigger his pilot ability off of an Afterburners boost even after driving over a cloud. And our boy Vynder can slam over a gas cloud and still use Advanced Slam to take an action to get a fully modified shot.

The Barons have built a beautiful, brilliant list. And at this point, anything that isn’t Quad Phantoms is a welcome change. Well done, guys, and well done, Andrew.

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