So now the excitement of new points and a new expansion has settled down a bit, I can finally tell you what happened in Bromley at the start of the month! Yes, it’s 3 weeks ago now, but it was the first event I went to after the PAPA Points change (for most of those there, it was probably the first as well, given the points update happened less than a week before).
TNX hold regular events in the Troll Trader store about once a quarter, which is one of the home bases for the 186 Squadron, so the standard of play there is automatically quite high – lots of players there are in the “Competitive” bracket. In total, 19 players attended (which is a pretty good turnout) and, as ever, there was a wide variety of lists present.
Given we all have busy lives, I took something I was pretty comfortable with, and basically a re-hash of the list that lead to me winning in Norwich back in January:
Fenn Rau (AaD) – Fang Fighter (17)
Fearless (0)
Adaptable Power Systems (AaD) (0)
Beskar Reinforced Plating (0)
Ship Cost: 17 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 8 Damage Threshold: 2
The Mandalorian (AaD) – Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter (10)
Outmaneuver (0)
The Child (AaD) (0)
Kineso-Switch (AaD) (0)
Calibrated Laser Targeting (0)
Ship Cost: 10 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 2
Kanan Jarrus – HWK-290 Light Freighter (9)
IG-11 (4)
Engine Upgrade (3)
Ship Cost: 9 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 4 Damage Threshold: 2
Han Solo – Customized YT-1300 Light Freighter (14)
Trick Shot (5)
Maul (Mandalore) (10)
BT-1 (1)
Lando’s Millennium Falcon (0)
Ship Cost: 14 Loadout: (16/16) Half Points: 7 Damage Threshold: 5
Total: 50
The only real difference here is that AAD Dengar is now Han Solo, but that’s cool – both are chunky guys at I6, so it’s not a big difference… although the “base damage” of Dengar is a little more consistent than Han’s gamey 2 dice, or 3 if they are stressed, or up to 5 if they are obstructed. However, there’s also a slight change on Kanan – IG11 vs Gamut Key. This was added to give some protection from crits in Salvage… which I then found out in Game 1 doesn’t work (you still suffer the crit, but then get rid of it much like with Impervious Plating on Belballub fighters, or Beskar Reinforced Plating on Fang fighters). But that said, considering Kanan is quite flimsy, it could end up being like an extra 2 hull!
Round 1 vs Chris Warren: Salvage Mission
I’d never plaid vs Chris before, and he had an imposing CIS list. Jango was separated from most of his ships so he could leverage Lone Wolf, but ended up being forced into the mix by Han and Fenn rushing in hard. Most of the vultures got hoovered up and the Tri Fighter was left chasing Kanan around my half of the board without much success. Ultimately, I seem to remember that dice were the enemy in this game, where most of Chris’s clutch attacks rolled more blanks than would have been ideal. He was a great sport, though and a lovely guy to play.
Result: 49 – 15 WIN
Round 2 vs Sam Webb: Assault at the Satellite Array
Sam is from the “Bad Boys of Xwing” that are the Tie Blue Army. We’ve played quite a bit over the years – most recently at our very own Mandos Spring Event in April (which you can see here – a game so tense, we didn’t even know who won until after time ended!). He’s also a top notch painter, so feel free to check out his stuff on Etsy if you want.
Anyway, back to the game. Sam was flying a Resistance efficiency list with 3 Y wings, Chewie and Lulo. Things started quite well for me, with one of his Y-wings (Teza?) picking up some early damage from Fenn and Han in round 2. On round 3, Fenn was able to thread between 2 Y-wings to be in R1, in arc and unstressed. Good for his shot (which finished off the already damaged Y-Wing) but then bad news when Lulo managed to squeak in a hit+crit out of Fenn’s arc at R3 obstructed and for Fenn to blank out, picking up a Weapons Failure. But on the flip, Chewie AND Han both managed to spend turn 3 stuck on a rock. After that R3 engage, Fenn was halved, with a weapons failure, and a need to get out of arc!
The next could of turns, Han and Chewie both managed to get off their rocks and back in the fight and Mando starting doing something. I’m pretty sure Han was destroyed and possibly Kanan too. I’m also pretty sure at least another Y wing was killed off and Chewie started taking damage to half points. But the deciding point came when Fenn, with now 1 hull left, was able to Talon Roll into R1 behind Lulo (with no mods and stressed from doing a barrel roll and boost to get into a better position) to do “Fenn Things” to blow her up. We talked about the move after and Sam didn’t expect the Adaptable Power System sneak attack… which is fair, since it’s the most powerful and forgotten trick in SL’s book.
Result: 52-43 WIN
Round 3 vs Elisha Lee: Scramble the Transmissions
Elisha is a junior player, but has been coached by his dad, the awesome Ben Lee and, up to this point in the day, was at 2-0, so clearly more than capable! His list was very interesting – the first evidence of Seeker Missile Abuse I had seen to this point. However, my list was fine once it got to Range 1 and his list still had Vader!
Unfortunately, Elisha slightly messed up the approach and forget to engage Jendon’s ability, meaning none of his ships had a lock for an initial engagement. Vader took a very early bath and in a pretty brutal turn, Fenn also went to half points. Elisha came back very well, but not well enough to cover the deficit of losing Vader early.
Result: 51-35 WIN
Round 4 vs Ben Lee: Chance Engagement.
After facing Elisha in Round 3, it turns out my Final Boss was… his dad! I entered the final round with one thing on my mind… This is going to be interesting. Ben’s list is, at heart, the same as mine, but with Dengar rather than Han and Gamut Key in the HWK vs Kanan in mine. He’s been flying Fenn and Dengar since at least January (we faced off in Norwich). So really, we’re creatures of habit!
Ben was able to get the best of Round 0, as the rock distribution made it very tough to get Han to deliver much value and I COMPLETELY FORGOT Jumpmasters really want to turn left, so the rocks (that were well set to support a left turn from his side of the board) were very much in his favour. Oh well.
Things progressed well, with my Han and Fenn making early headway into his Fenn – taking him off the board on turn 4. However, my Fenn also started to take a little bit of a pounding to half points. Meanwhile, his Dengar, Gamut and Mando seemed to be immune to damage! Shots just didn’t land and Han ended up out of position, continually blocked by Gamut. Shot were traded, but ultimately the game was decided by my Mando popping on the last turn giving Ben a 1 point lead as time was called.
That’s right, 1 point in it!!!
Result: 32-33 LOSS
So, 2 very similar lists, and only 1 point in it… it feels like Fenn is still very competitive, despite being very expensive and Scum generally are in an extremely strong position.
Well done to Ben for a great win and thanks to Peter Mancktelow for hosting! There are more TNX events in Bromley coming soon if you want to come along, including their first Regional in December – not to be missed!
More next time – probably with an update from the UKGE big event next weekend (50+ people likely to show!!!).
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