All change! We had the arrival of wave 4 and a points update since I last wrote. The latter also invalidated the list I’ve been playing for months, as it now totals 205 points. Damn. With an event at Worcester Wargames this weekend, it’d meant the weeks leading up to it had been spent theory-crafting a new list, hampered slightly further by a delay on stock-arrival of the N-1 Starfighter I’d pre-ordered. So that ruled out several of the lists I’d been tinkering with.

I could have stuck with the same list, removing Luminara’s R2 astromech, and run it at 199 points. I wasn’t overly keen on that, mostly due to the reduced bid. In fact, ever since my elimination at the hands of Imperial Aces and their large bid at the Kirton Hyperspace Trial, I’d become a little obsessed with the bidding war. So the challenge became just how large a bid I could manage without taking the 2 Jedi + 2 Torrent list to the point of being just not good enough.

With the points increases to 7B and R2 Astromechs, this was a tough ask. All the Jedi (Anakin and Ahsoka aside) came down in points, but 7B went up. So at this point I started looking at Calibrated Laser Targeting, an upgrade I’d not been too keen on until this point. HOWEVER. On an initiative 5 Jedi, lining up the bullseye was going to be potentially easier. I switched in Obi-Wan with CLT and R2 for Luminara and played a game at 195 points. The game went well, but I wasn’t happy with the bid still; Imperial Aces were still going to get under that easily.

I decided to throw caution to the wind. Enter Plo Koon. With just a CLT he comes to 48 points since the update. For an I5 pilot with 2 force and the ability to double reposition, I’d say that’s decent. This let me run Anakin with the same upgrades as before (7B and R2) and the two Torrents, and come in at a total of 186 points. I tested it at our weekly casual night and everything still seemed okay. I missed the crit protection Luminara gave the Torrents, but that’s more of a luxury than a necessity. Everything else still felt good, but it was just one game. So how would it fare under tournament conditions? Only one way to find out…

So to Worcester Wargames, and a slightly larger-than-usual turnout of 22 players. Plenty of Vagabonds in attendance, and some new faces too. All good! First up I get drawn against Carl and his Sinker Swarm. It’s the exact same list I faced in the Hyperspace part of the System Open, and I was able to get the win on that occasion. I managed to get Sinker pretty quickly, which is huge to deny the re-rolls. And once you thin the herd a little, dodging enough arcs with the Jedi becomes much easier. As usual, my Torrents died, but they did their job. Send in the next batch of clones! Won this one 124-50.

Game 2 and the inevitable Vagabond-on-Vagabond matchup was against Andy Cameron and his 8-ship droid swarm. That’s a lot of guns to try and dodge. I didn’t manage that on the engage, so instead dangled Plo out as bait to try and prevent as many shots going into Anakin who was further out at range 3. It was at this point that Plo decided to go full beast mode and tanked more than half of Andi’s list. Without taking a single point of damage. Whilst not even having to spend a token. It was horseshit green dice of the highest order, like nothing I’ve ever had before. Plo had also stuck a ton of damage into Andy’s Belbullab on the same round with a range 1-with-bullseye shot. Utterly ridiculous, though arguably cinematic for a Jedi. He finished off the ship next turn by slooping behind everyone for good measure. Anakin had been scared off, not willing to face the wrath of Andy’s firepower, and fired a measly two shots in the entire game as he dodged and weaved away from all the droid’s arcs. My Torrents, no longer moving first due to Andy’s list being all I1, found themselves snarled up in blocks every turn and died. But Plo literally decided to win the game pretty much single-handedly, 63-50. Complete nonsense and I found myself apologizing several times for the absurdity of it. Plo will forever be a legend from this point on.

After lunch, it was on to round 3 and a matchup against another list that my bid has helped me get under – 3 Fang Fighters (Fenn, Old T, and Kad) flown by Huw. Having Anakin move last here is exceedingly welcome, and also Plo is moving after both Kad and Old T as well. I managed to block Old T with one of the Torrents in the first round of combat, and keep my other ships at range 2. Since Old T’s ability only triggers at range 1, I lose no tokens. Still in murder mode, Plo finishes off the Fang after Anakin does a couple of damage. Kad doesn’t last too much longer either as he has Anakin on his tail, and suddenly it’s Fenn against my whole list. Fenn runs as best he can, but eventually succumbs to Anakin, with my only loss being 4 health on one of the Torrents, so a 200-13 victory.

Last game of the day was against Gavin, flying Jess Pava and three red Squadron T70s. Neat list, all at I3. The opening didn’t quite go as well as I would have hoped, a sneaky long-range Anakin shot not doing a lot before a bumpfest happened about halfway up the table. Plo tanked some more shots, though did get halved before squirming free. I eventually lost both Torrents again, but by this point, I had Gavin down to Jess and a single damaged Red Squadron. I still have both Jedi, including Anakin on full health, and at this point, it becomes very difficult for Gavin to even get a shot, let alone take them out. The red Squadron got pincered and then it was a case of chasing down Jess just before time expired to get a 200-74 victory.

So, 4-0. Alas, since we had more than 16 players, we ended up with more than a single 4-0 player, and I was pipped to the post by Jordan with a measly 22 MOV more than me across the entire day! Doh! Literally taking one less damage on Plo in the last game would have placed me 1st overall – but then I think back to game 2 where Plo should probably have died. Or at least taken SOME damage. Swings and roundabouts, and all that jazz. I’m more pleased with the fact I went 4-0, didn’t lose a Jedi all day, and Plo worked out pretty decently, so I’d still call that a successful day’s work! Congrats to Jordan for another event win (Super-hero-Jedi-team-up coming soon!) and big thanks to Lian for running another superb event.

So what’s next? Not sure when my next appearance at event is yet, but probably soon enough, and I’ll be sure to come back with the Plo-down (groan). Okay, I’m out of puns now…

Until next time!