EPISODE ONE Part2 - SOMETIMES YOU ROLL BLANKS

HI everyone. So with round one of the league over lets talk about how the games went and how i feel about the list. First here's a quick reminder of what i was flying.

GAME ONE.In the first game i came up against Maarek Stele, Turr Phennir and Darth Vader. My force started off strong dispatching Turr Phennir on the second turn and then Maarek Stele on the third. Thats about where my good fortune ran out. from then on Darth Vader managed to avoid being hit for a long long time all the while nibbling away at Boba Fetts hull.  In the end, it ended up with Boba on one hull being closely chased down by Vader on one hull. Had vader managed to kill Boba, the dead mans switch would have activated and Boba would have his revenge. luckily Xizor's starviper managed to finally end the dark lords assault with a well places shot across an asteroid field and the game ended in a victory for the Scum.



GAME TWO.
The second game brought the deadly duo against Jake Farrell and Han Solo's Millennium Falcon. This game didn't go quite as well with Boba Fett greatly underestimating the Maneuverability of the falcon.
the Crime lords almost managed to swat away Jake Farrell and Boba's Ion Bombs forced the A-wing right onto an asteroid field but the falcon made sure he couldn't capitalist on this opportunity. I ended up loosing Boba to the combination of a Proton Rocket from the A-wing and Luke Skywalker making sure the Falcon got those hits in every turn. Xizor was left to fend for himself against a fragile a-wing and a barely scratched Falcon. A few laser blasts and a few bad evade rolls later Xizor was destroyed. A Victory for the Rebel Alliance


GAME THREE.
Game three looked eerily familiar. The Falcon was back but this time we wouldn't let him get away and it seems he has a new wingman, Poe Dameron. The game began with Boba and Xizor both streaming up to the falcon Boosting into position and Pushing the Limits to focus on there Target. Tho Dealing 3 damage to the falcon Boba took 4 damage strait away from poe and Hans firepower as he rolled nothing but blanks to evade. With Boba taking a bad initial hit the Duo decided to focus on the falcon. Boba Dropped his ion bombs and both Han and Poe fell for the trap. Sadly Poe Still managed to get a shot on prince Xizor. Evading at range 2, Through an asteroid, With stealth device, And focus.....5 Blanks. Sum one around here is definitely force sensitive and working against my dice. Both Han and Poe Drifted forwards desperately trying to reboot there systems from the ion assault. Han takes a Pot shot on Boba's firespray and somehow kills it. Xizor is left to fight off a damaged Falcon and Poe. Luckily, due to some hidden nefarious scheme Xizor forgot he had even implemented Poe managed to fly directly off of the table and into the far reaches of space. Back in with a chance Xizor swoops in on the falcon. Taking Prime position to blast solo out of the sky, Xizor fires and gets 3 solid hits. the falcon returns fire. 3 hits......3 blank evades.....xizor is gone.


THE REVIEW
In the end i won one game and lost two. Not a great result but i can't expect too much when i roll about 6 natural evades during the entire event including Boba's range one re-rolls. Xizor lost his Stealth device on the first attack every single game and in general just awful defensive rolling i couldn't do much about. With that said lets go over what i liked or would change about the list.

Boba Fett 

Boba seemed too be the focus of everyone's attacks in each game which meant he often got some good solid hits in every turn. The Recon Specialist came in handy in both attacking and defense and push the limit with Engine Upgrade really made Boba more maneuverable. The Mangler cannon rarely came into play with Boba firing at range three twice through out the event and often using his rear firing ark. Tho the Ion bomb hit Every Single game i found it difficult to take advantage of my stunned enemy. Deadman's Switch is mostly a tool to counter swarms in this list (non of wich i got to fight) but twice in the event it ended up hitting Xizor as well. I think were i to fly this list again the changes i would make to Boba are. Remove the Mangler Cannon and swap the Ion bombs out for Proton bombs. Proton Bombs will be a much bigger threat to the enemy. Seeing as i can get good hits with the bombs id rather they did some meaningful damage that just gave me a little control over my opponents movements as well as giving me a bomb that swarms would really fear. With a different approach to taking out swarms i would swap the dead mans switch for a hot shot blaster. Using push the limit makes my moves somewhat predictable and a few times my opponent managed to get right into Boba's blind spot. And the final change/addition i would make is to take some Advanced Homing Missiles, the Slave 1 title and some Extra Munitions. This gives me four chances to Cause Critical hits through my opponents shields. This build of boba is a little more scary to come up against. Tho he has no better defenses he has a lot of ways to cause Meaningful damage.

Prince Xizor

Xizor was very fun to fly and i really do love the starviper. However i feel i didn't get a proper chance to see Xizor in action with him rolling almost exclusively blank evade dice every game. His Stealth Device proved completely useless loosing it by the first attack everytime. Sumone also brought to my attention that if Xizor passes on his damage to Boba he has still been hit by the initial attack and therefor looses his stealth device. Not sure if due to the frustration of bad rolls or the fact i faced two falcons but i can't help but wish i had Autothrusters on him instead. Push the Limit was abit of a mixed bag. It allowed me to get into great positions and sometimes to combine with the advanced sensors and give me two actions and no stress. That said i don't think Push the Limit is the correct choice for the Starviper. With its only Green moves being 1-3 forwards and the 1 banks, it made Xizors movement very limited if i did end the turn with stress and also made the Advanced Sensors redundant. As an alternative to PTL i would consider the following. Predator - Predator would give Xizor a more reliable attack without using up the Systems Upgrade slot for fire control systems. Lone Wolf - Abit of an odd choice given Xizors ability but lone wolf would give him a re-roll for offence and defense once Boba is dead. This also allows Xizor and Boba to set up on opposite sides of the board and just utilize Xizors ability when they cross paths. Veterans Instincts - I know i said the Advantage of Xizor was that he came at Ps7 and i still had the Pilot Talent but in the meta of Ace Pilots Ps7 is just not good enough. with Ps9 Xizor would become a very reliable arc dodger especially if i can give my opponent the initiative. Combine the Advances Sensors to barrel roll or boost before movement and i could modify my flight path after seeing where my opponent has ended up. All of these are good alternatives for Xizor but personally i feel like Veterans Instincts is the way to go.

THE SUMMARY
So here is my altered list.
It should play pretty much the same as before with Xizor and Boba sticking together but perhaps beeing a little less aggressive on the approach so Boba can fire off those Homing Missles. Now enemy's should be more afraid to get into Boba's blind spot, with him able to fire his Hot Shot Blaster as well as the Threat of barreling into a Proton Bomb the next turn. Xizor can now be fully focused on being an arch dodger. With a Ps high enough to outmaneuver most aces and Autothursters to keep him a little safer from bad rolls Xizor should be more survivable. The only real downside i see to this list is Boba comes to 62 points. Thats a hell of alot of points to put into one ship. Because of this the game with Boba will probably be a damage race. Make sure you can fire off those missiles, drop those bombs and cripple your enemy as quickly as possible.

With week one over, the league is just picking up steam and tho the dice may have not been on my side this is only the beginning. After all what villain ever succeeds the first time around.
My commissions page is in the bar to the right if you are interested in having any ships painted and please follow the blog for future posts.  Ill see you all on Wednesday with my next list so until then.

Good bye and Fly Casual.