Last weekend, I took a trip to Newport Pagnell to play in the Mandos Autumn Store Championship. Coming off the back of an enormously eventful summer, I was once again in a bit of a quandary as to what to play (stop me if you’ve heard this before…). Since the points change in august, I’d not really settled on anything – I’d been playing Scum (mainly Fenn AaD) since the start of the year and was ready to move on to Resistance… only for them to be hit by probably more than most in the points update. So really, I was looking for something fun to fly.
In a few of my earlier musings, I was banging on about good ships being “self-contained” – i.e. able to manage themselves to give, for example, multiple actions or reposition without needing any help. Given a whole new world to chose from, I starting mulling this over again and looking at what options are out there. I also had a great experience in Belgium, where (for the first time in a while) my “best” ships were a lower PS than usual (PS 4! The horror!). This went some way to training me (again) to fly lower PS ships with good abilities (Stomeroni!) which reminded me how much fun this can be!
There’s a certain joy about flying with less than perfect knowledge – it means you have to use the environment more to your favour…
- Take big rocks, and fly close to them to stop enemy aces getting out of your arc.
- Fly with a wingman, to ensure someone gets a shot and stop the enemy barrel rolling
- Aggressively try to block key ships to control objectives…
All this is helps your positioning, but you also have a great opportunity with mods – if you can survive the enemy attack, you can use your focus token with confidence. This is better than for high initiative ships, because when they attack, it’s a gamble as to whether or not they should spend a focus (for example), as they might need it for the return shot – lightweight aces particularly!
Anyway, the long and the short of it, I settled on a list that had tested well in the 2 games I had played it prior to the event and had… potential:
Kylo and the Prockettes
Sienar-Jaemus Engineer – TIE/vn Silencer (11)
Proton Rockets (7)
Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3
Sienar-Jaemus Engineer – TIE/vn Silencer (11)
Proton Rockets (7)
Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3
Sienar-Jaemus Engineer – TIE/vn Silencer (11)
Proton Rockets (7)
Ship Cost: 11 Loadout: (7/7) Half Points: 5 Damage Threshold: 3
Kylo Ren (EoD) – TIE/vn Silencer (17)
Determination (EoD) (0)
Malice (0)
Proton Torpedoes (0)
Ship Cost: 17 Loadout: (0) Half Points: 8 Damage Threshold: 3
Total: 50
In essence, 3x 3 dice attack / 3 dice defense Silencers with Prockets, and MuderKylo. It’s good because Silencers are really, really good ships, with great dials and a decent amount of hull. With Prockets, they are basically hilariously strong. Oh yeah, and there’s MurderKylo to contend with. You either have to focus on the one of the most dangerous ships in the game, or you have to deal with the other 3 nasties. It’s a very low subtlety list, but pretty nasty.
So to the event! Once again, we were at the Players Paradice (a very good venue and in a decent location, with nearby free parking and decent food options in the area) and Alan Barlow was the host with the most. 16 players attended and it was a friendly, relaxed atmosphere throughout.
Game 1, vs Solis22 (Tom) – Assault the Satellite Arrray
Tom is a new player from nearby Ely. He was flying a decent rebel list which would be a first obvious test for my squad, mainly because everything he was flying was higher initiative to my ships (except Kylo), so ROAD role would be very important. Fortunately for me, The first engagement went very much in my favour (stripping Thane’s shields to no damage to me) and positioning me well to lay into his ships in the next couple of turns. Garvin was my first target, being low on green dice and having a wider base to allow procketing, which I was able to do from turn 3 onwards. Most of the prockets rolled a decent amount of paint, so Garvin and Thane bit the bullet and Wedge got halved. A couple of my Silencers got halved, but as time was called, I was comfortably ahead.
Result: 43-26 Win
Game 2: vs Marc Rider – Chance Engagement
Aha! The scenario I was spoiling for! Marc’s list was actually very unpleasant looking, and very similar to mine in some respects – lots of prockets and rerolls from Dr Drea… with limited defense options for when the procket arrives… It’s really nasty. Marc set up his main block on the right, I set up a couple of ships (Klyo and a generic) on the left to chase his Tie Fighters with the others in the middle to temp his squad in, and basically got very lucky, trapping them and able to kill them both on turn 2. Meanwhile his main block were getting into position across the middle. I took a stupid risk in flying one of my silencers over a cloud into position to get Drea in Bullseye and another one to block their team coming around the middle, meaning what would have been a bullesye shot from the Kimo ended up being out of alignment. Some unlucky dice from Marc resulted in my guys only getting slightly scraped and being able to go full beans into Drea and taking him off the board on Turn 3.
For the next 2 turns, Marc’s luck didn’t get much better, as I was able to take another 2 ships off the board but I did lose a silencer. Net result was that I got to 50 points by the end of turn 6.
Result: 50-26 Win
Game 3: vs Andy Cameron – Ancient Knowledge
Feeling pretty good after lunch, I face off against Andy, who I have played many times before… with mixed results. I think if we’re counting, Andy has beaten me more than I have beaten him, but his list and the scenario put me at a slight advantage! Ancient knowledge favours low initiative ships and I had more ships than his 3!
I spread out my guys aiming to grab knowledge and ideally win from scenario points and initially thought I was doing ok! On turn 2, I was able to grab a few knowledges and hide behind a gas cloud. However, I hadn’t figures on Boba, who was somehow able to get into range 1 of one of my ships and unload from his rear arc, getting a full string. I rolled… nothing, so was forced to use a hard won knowledge charge for nothing. Then Joy was able to follow up with a kill shot where I rolled… nothing. I may have been a little grumpy at this, since it was not part of the plan!
Over the next couple of turns, Andy was able to push Maul extremely hard (even after he picked up 3 stress) and with the benefit of the Nightbrother ability, was able to laugh off nearly every shot I threw at him. Meanwhile, Boba was able to catch up with the pack and grind out shot after shot, most of which my guys couldn’t defend. I lost half points, then a full silencer, then another. Then Kylo took a facefull. Maul limped away on 1 hull, but could not be killed and Andy took a comfortable win.
Result: 31-47 loss
Game 4: vs Sam Webb – Salvage Mission
Sam and I seem to play every time he comes to Milton Keynes, and it’s always great to play him because he brings unusual lists, and this time was no exception! I’ve been expecting Rebels to be strong, and his rebel list looked objectively horrific, especially if we’re playing with crates! Lots of ways to ensure crits are applied… and lots of high initiative ships to seal the deal – yuk.
I set up to tease his ships in but slow roll (which is REALLY HARD to do with Silencers), planning to land Kylo on a gas cloud on turn 2 to get rid of any target locks from Gavin. As it turns out he moved his lock anyway so Kylo just ended up looking like a bit of a muppet on a cloud. Oops! Also, Dirk was able to get R1 of one of my Silencers and unleash the full fury of his APT, halving one of my guys. However, that’s as far as the good news went for Sam, as my guys were able to box in A wing Wedge and take him off the board, and one was able to completely dodge Luke’s Proton Torpedo. Ooff! Over the next turn, I was able to smash a procket into Garvin (taking him to 1 hull) and halving Luke. The next turn, Gavin slooped… right into the bullseye of Kylo, and the other Silencers positioned themselves behind Luke ready to finish the job. Gavin died with 1.5 ships left, the game basically concluded.
Result: 50-14 Win
So overall, I can report Silencers are still pretty good! Apart from a bit of a dice collapse in round 3 (Andy also went on to win the whole day, so it’s wasn’t just dice!), the list performed pretty well. I came 3rd overall, and once again, had a great day out.
What would I change? Well, after the event, I noticed that T-SJ1A targeting computers are 3 points less than Prockets and could actually be better! Yes, they don’t give 5 dice at R2, but they don’t need to have a bullseye attack and at a lower PS, you are more likely to face off vs opponents with no green tokens. However, what to do with the extra 3 points of loadout…? Ion Missiles maybe? Not really worth it… I think Prockets are pretty good in the list, if nothing else, it’s a scary threat! There’s also an option to have their “big brothers” – the test pilots (only 1 squad point more) to allow Predator… but then you lose MurderKylo… 14 points only gets you Whisper Kylo… but that’s OK, because he can jam… hmmm…. maybe worth a try another day!
Speaking of, the next event is only next week – the Tie Blue Army Regional in (checks notes)… Essex. Tickets still available if you’re free!
See you next time for more musing.
Leave a Reply