This event happened over a week ago, on the 25th of January. This is key for 2 reasons: The points have all changed since then, and my memory is extremely foggy as to specific details.

Discordia was set to hold another Extended event, which meant I was breaking back out Soontir and Rexler. Last time around, I included Redline with the group, and while he did a lot of good, he was somewhat underwhelming compared to the Grand Inquisitor. I was (and still am) searching for the perfect third ship to support my Imperial team. There are still plenty of options out there (yes Whisper, you’re still in the queue,) and heading into this event, I wanted to go back to stuff that I was somewhat more familiar with. One of the first squads I used in Second Edition was a call-back to the end of First Edition: Palp Aces, characterized by Emperor Palpatine in a shuttle supporting 2 aces. I even started out testing Lt. Sai with Soontir and a third ace, so it seemed somewhat natural to return her to the table. The coordinate support she can offer really intrigues Soontir, but I thought her talents may be even better used to serve Rexler. This also served to drop my squad cost to 189, which is very comfortable for me for initiative purposes.

The basic plan is to continue to use Soontir Fel as a flanker for Rexler and whatever else I’m flying. This means that this time around, Rexler can have a third action, since Lt. Sai will usually be Coordinating him a Focus action before he even moves, and the Evade action should usually be gained by smart flying. I intend to use this third action to have fully-modified shots on straight engages, or to re-position to chase down enemies after the initial scrum.

Returning to Discordia, we set up for 3 rounds, and before the event could start, a new player walked in with a couple of bags (!) of 1.0 stuff and an Imperial Conversion Kit. He was very interested in the game and wanted to learn, so bought into the event and a couple of the other players (including myself) helped him build a relatively simply Imperial squad. We went with the same Rexler I’m flying, along with a Howlrunner mini-swarm, to get used to the basics of flying ships around the table in formation and using actions and modifier combos.

Game 1: Chuck Jordan

As it normally happens, I am paired immediately with the newest player in the room, which I actually enjoy, as I love to teach X-Wing to new players. Chuck picked up the concepts incredibly quickly, and performed solidly for his first game.

Of note, his target priority was already spot-on, and by the end of the game, he had thrown the shuttle nearly to half health and put a terrifying 2 damage on Fel. Unfortunately, his Rexler managed to whiff 3 separate attacks, which likely would have killed Fel and put the shuttle below half. At the end, it was a win for me 200-27, and although Chuck had to leave afterward, he left itching to play more.

Game 2: Robert Cardwell

I did a rookie mistake against Rob when I saw his list: I immediately dismissed the Silencers, as I considered them arc-dodgers at a lower initiative value than my own. What Rob was using them as, however, were brawlers, and I suffered quite a bit of damage before I figured that out. They are also FAST, faster even than my squint, as Rob was very quick to show me.

The opening round of combat, the Silencers had screamed across the board and caught Fel trying to come in, and forced me to split my opening fire. I was lucky Fel was still pretty far back, so he had to use the bottom guy to catch a 2-hard (I had performed a 5-straight, and Barrel-Boosted into the position above.) Fel took 2 damage here and promptly boogied, choosing not to fire at QD and going instead for the top Silencer, while my other side pinged the bottom Silencer. A couple of turns later, Fel is well clear of the fight, and my shuttle and Defender have arrived in the middle of the board, locking QD and the top Silencer in a corner.

By now, both Silencers are bleeding, QD remains untouched, and the Lambda has a couple of shields taken off. Rexler is in full chase mode and Sai is preparing to use her rear arc to remain relevant. Fel swings around the far corner to come back into the fight as my other guys soften up the Silencers, hoping for a couple PS-kills before I turn my attention on QuickDraw. I get one Silencer down to just hull, and the other guy is on a single hull remaining, so Fel is ready to re-engage.

The 1-hit remaining Silencer has no shot at all, and the shield-less one is staring down a Range 1 fully modified Rexler shot, and a range 2 Focused Soontir shot. Naturally, he survives the round without taking a single (!) point of damage, and returns fire to eliminate my Interceptor. Sai, for her part, also misses against the nearly-dead Silencer. What should have been 2 dead First Order ships is instead the loss of my Ace. On the back foot now, I take revenge next turn by murdering the nearly dead guy with Sai and taking the other guy down to half with Rexler, but I’m somewhat tilted.

With time ticking down, Rob’s Silencer is too far to make an impact, so QuickDraw goes in for the kill on the shuttle. He doesn’t get it even with 2 attacks to try, and Rexler fails to remove all of the S/F’s shields, so the score at time ends up being 98-78 in my favor. I chose to engage QuickDraw at the very end of the game to prevent the alpha-esque nature he can provide, which is my default approach to his ability. I had a couple turns that game where QD had no shots, but I either failed to do damage, or simply didn’t have a shot either, when those turns came around.

Game 3: Jeremy Wilson

Oh boy, Trip-Upsilons. This may not be the forward deployed monster that is currently causing a commotion, but there is still 36 (38 due to upgrades) health to chew through, with Reinforce, pre-move actions, and a skilled opponent who has already won twice with this tonight. For intimidation factor, his “Batwings” are in the middle of being painted up in the styles of Batman, The Joker, and Harley Quinn. To spread his trap, Jeremy put 1 shuttle in each corner and 1 in the center, trying to trap me against whichever board edge I went for, or to swing in if I deployed center.

I opted for a right-edge deployment, charging one of the shuttles to try to knock it down before the others could join the fight. I manage pretty well, taking a few shields off of it in exchange for 1 of my own from the shuttle. Unfortunately, the following turn he blocks both Sai and Rexler with the guy I was attacking, forcing me to go all-in on a second shuttle. He then boogies with the red shuttle, bumping now with the green and forcing another target switch.

At this point, Sai is hurting, but not as badly as I expected due to the firing arc restrictions and blocking Jeremy is imposing on himself. Meanwhile, I’m continuing to pour fire into whatever is closest in my firing arcs. Trying to kill even 1 of these things is a challenge! Sai and the Joker bump for 4 turns in a row, not entirely intentionally by either of us (I was actually trying to escape so I could use Coordinate; Jeremy tried to escape twice and chose to block twice.) Rexler bumped Sai in the above turn and eats a 5 dice primary from Joker, taking his shields away. Fel has come completely around his rock and is coming back in, and Batman, interestingly, starts to chase him around with his 2-hard turns. The above turn is the 2nd of the block stasis, and is the turn Harley goes down to Soontir.

Rexler and Fel had to completely shift target priority again, as Joker is still sitting off on his own and Batman is coming back in. Fel catches himself in a bad spot, eats 5 red dice, and explodes here, in exchange for all of Batman’s remaining shields and half of his hull. This sets Rexler up for the kill next turn. Meanwhile, Sai FINALLY breaks free of the Joker this turn, and sends 2 damage in from her tail gun out of revenge.

With Batman down, it still takes me several turns to force the kill on Joker even with the return of Coordinate to the match. After 10 intense rounds of combat total, the final Upsilon drops, giving me a 200-122 win. I am really tired of fighting Upsilon shuttles, and I’ve only had to do it twice!

Rexler Brath. The Second Edition Defender is a tank, and Rexler is the most underrated pilot for it. How people prefer Initiative 4 K-turn selection or a free Lock in a faction with a lack of real support for it is beyond me. Add in that he is cheaper than the above options, and that his pilot skill helps to murder the fat ships that are starting to become prevalent (primarily Resistance Bombers and the dreaded Upsilon,) and it’s easy to see why he is my Defender of choice.

22-8 in 2.0 tournament events now, with a 73.3% win rate. There are several major tournament approaching in the next couple months, and I’m looking forward to a long, grueling 7+ game event to really test myself.

Next time: Building Blocks – Wave 2!