So, I wound up winning the third Month of the Titan League… It was a LONG day, and I was helped along by
a great deal of luck… I went with Biggs
and a pair of ARC-170s. When I saw the
previews I thought it was going to be “meh” in play but an amazing model. It IS an amazing model, but I was so wrong in
my initial estimation. It is VERY
strong, and quite survivable… Nora with
R2-D2 is a tank. With PTL she usually
has the TL and Focus when she gets to Range 1…
With her Pilot Ability I actually got 4 Hits/Criticals out the Rear Arc
and at least one instance of 5 Hit/Critical results in the front… NOT bad for an ancient, obsolete ship. Since my “go to” personal weapons are all
WWII issue (M1 Garand, M1911, M1 Carbine) I do have a thing for obsolete but at
least in my hands still effective things.
I’d always liked the Y-Wings from the original series, and the ARC-170
was far and away my favorite fighter from that era… Well, Fighter/Bomber really. Like I said, SOLID ship and it actually flies
surprisingly well. I went with Nein Numb
as the copilot for Nora giving her more Green maneuvers including the 4
Straight to really move quickly while regenerating and shedding the Stress from
the PTL fun and games. Tail Gunner was
the other obvious build, but I thought that there would be fewer opportunities
to actually use that, and Nein was there FAR more often. Worked out, so I guess I made the right
call. The one game I lost I REALLY
should have simply broken off pursuit and regenerated, but by then I had his
ships down to a few Hull and it just worked out that HIS Nora with Tail Gunner
was the right choice as long as I was silly and just tried to chase it
down. Lesson learned and I did a LOT
better in my next two games. Against
Rebel Aces, the Stress took out the Aces, or at least took them from the fight
and allowed me to focus on and destroy them in detail. I DID lose 2 of my ships, but Nora was a TANK
again and ended the game with full health destroying the last of the enemy
ships. Game 3 was against a Whisper (VI,
Recon, Adv Cloak, Adv Sensor), Admiral Decimator (Emperor, not sure what else)… I sent the Stresshog and Biggs off to deal
with the Decimator while Nora was just jousting and Regenerating with Whisper
for a bit. He got a bit greedy and
landed at Range 1 of the X-Wing and the ARC…
His attack at Biggs failed, I think I took a single Shield, allowing
Thane to get the TL to go with the Focus he had… Biggs shot for 4 Damage followed by Thane’s 4
Damage (both had a few Criticals, nothing that REALLY mattered much though). I had already done a few, so we were DEEP
into the hull at that point. Whisper had
likewise learned that Nora had teeth after a flubbed Agility roll left her
without Shields. From there it was
mostly cleanup with Biggs getting shot out of the sky protecting Thane and
allowing us to take down the Emperor.
Whisper lasted another few rounds, but Stress is an absolute KILLER for
the TIE Phantoms in general and Whisper never really stood a chance there. Never getting to re-cloak kills the one big
trick that allows them to survive…
Made the final four as one of the ACTUAL top four had to
drop… So, slid in, but liked my
chances. Faced Kanji’s nice Rebel Ace
build, and knowing that Stress would kill Poe, did that. His Jake with the passed Focus from the HWK was
a hard one to catch, but eventually it did die.
It’s Proton Rockets were brutal, but Thane’s ARC was able to take it and
still live. For a while at least, Poe
ended up getting him eventually, but not before we chased down his HWK and
A-Wing. Finally getting Poe with Nora’s
fully modified Range 1 Attack… Since he
was always Stressed, he could not Regenerate as well as he needed to… LONG game, but finally got him. Faced Tony in the final, he brought his
YV-666 (Party Bus) and an Aggressor (B for the Gunner effect). Rough one, but having seen it before I knew
that the Aggressor HATES Stress and the Bus is easy enough IF you can get
behind it. Nora did thanks to the 4
Straight being Green. The Bus is immune
to the Stress Hog, so I split my forces like that. The Bus died quick(er)… I took a fair bit of Damage as it is pretty
much unavoidable with Zucuss making me re-roll ALL of my successful Evades, but
Regeneration for the win there. Take the
hit and get behind it. Assuming you HAVE
a ship that can of course. I understand
Whisper TRIED and failed, as I expected…
The Aggressor was a PITa to hunt down, but Stress kills those better
than heavy lasers and eventually I ran it down.
Knowing the dial well and knowing where all of the MANY greens are allowed
me to anticipate where he’d likely go, but he still surprised me a bit choosing
the 1 hard which is a White maneuver…
Would have worked if Nora was not a higher PS and I could use Boost to
reposition and still get in the Range 1 shot…
Bought another turn as I could not get the fully Focus/TL shot in… The next turn though… Well, still took both my ships in close I
think, but at that point… So, he got a
Small Based ship and I took one as well, giving my second one to one of the new
guys figuring that more players is better to have at this point…
Still need to distribute the rest of the loot for the League
itself… Some Acrylic Stress tokens, some
more Alt Art cards… Neat stuff really…
The Tournament did highlight that as I suspected the time of
Whisper and Company is over. We simply
have too many ways to deal with her these days.
Even the Palp/Ace builds I think are mostly… Well, not DEAD, but certainly easier to deal
with. I built my ARC list to deal with
them specifically, it just works REALLY well against a lot of other
things. I suspect that there are now
enough counters for the Aces that things will mix up again from the somewhat
stagnant state we were in prior to Wave 9 being legal…
Looking ahead:
Unnamed Squadron (100)
|
Fenn Rau — Protectorate
Starfighter
|
28
|
|
Push the Limit
|
3
|
|
Autothrusters
|
2
|
|
Ship Total: 33
|
|
|
|
|
Asajj Ventress — Lancer-class
Pursuit Craft
|
37
|
|
Adaptability
|
0
|
|
Zuckuss
|
1
|
|
Black Market Slicer Tools
|
1
|
|
Gyroscopic Targeting
|
2
|
|
Shadow Caster
|
3
|
|
Ship Total: 44
|
|
|
|
|
Zealous Recruit — Protectorate
Starfighter
|
20
|
|
Autothrusters
|
2
|
|
Concord Dawn Protector
|
1
|
|
Ship Total: 23
|
|
|
|
Pretty simple build, I’ll test it, and I suspect tweak it
before the next event… I have to say, I’m
pretty impressed with the ships in Wave 9 so far. The only one I have not seen an obvious great
build for is the TIE/sf, but even that goes well with a pair of TIE Defenders
for a fairly decent little build. Might
drop the Autothrusters from Fenn Rau and the CDP from the Recruit to get PTL on
Asajj… A LOT of Green on that Dial and
PTL is just SO strong. Mind, I AM
bringing BMST for the stress punishment that I’ll have to be aware of myself of
course… So, a Blocker, an Ace and the
Lancer with several tricks there… SHOULD
be interesting, I think the Lancer is a very strong ship…
