So I ended up going to my local store tournament earlier today (it's 5 AM right now, so actually yesterday at the time of this post) and to my surprise I placed 3rd out of 21 participants with 4 wins and 1 loss (it came down to margin of victory/points to decide final placements), which I'm pretty happy about. I decided on running the following list:
https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f...4;19:18,-1:23:17:U.124;56:-1,-1,132,-1:-1:-1:
Going in with 98 points ended up really paying off since two of the five opponents I went up against also had 98 point lists. Luckily, in both instances I won initiative bid (I gave them initiative so that my Vader would be able to move last). I was really worried about going up against at least one 4x Twin Laser Turret Y-Wing squad, but surprisingly no one ran that list. We all joked about how no one wanted to be "that guy."
Game 1:
-Han Solo (Squad Leader, Chewbacca, Gunner, Millennium Falcon)
-Poe Dameron (Push the Limit, R2-D2, Autothrusters, Weapons Guidance)
*100 Points*
My first game went really well for me. From the start, I committed pretty heavily to focusing down Han as soon as possible. My opponent was relatively new to the game, which made me feel guilty about my dice being insanely hot in this match. I also felt like I was wasting all of my luck against a player who was inexperienced, haha. I ended up taking out all 100 points here and losing no ships.
Result: Win (100 points destroyed, 14 points lost)
Game 2:
-Whisper (Veteran Instincts, Advanced Cloaking Device)
-Vader (Engine Upgrade, TIE/x1, Advanced Targeting Computer)
-Omicron Group Pilot (Emperor Palpatine)
*100 points*
As scary as it was to give Whisper initiative, I wanted my Vader to be able to move after his Vader and Whisper, so I gave it up for that reason. This game was really difficult and ended up being very, very close. Both of us having Palpatine created an interesting dynamic each round. He opened strong and very quickly brought Maarek Stele down to 1 Hull while I was setting up my approach to try to catch a good position. I managed to take out Whisper's shields after plinking through her turtled tokens and 4 green die. Then by some miracle, I caught a break the following round when my hero Shuttle got two hits through to finish her off. I knew I was back in the game but with Maarek so close to death, he could still come back, so I decided to use my 1 Hull Maarek to bait his Vader into a chase and set up my Vader to follow after his pursuit. At this point, both of our shuttles were effectively out of range to be of any consequence other than providing Palpatine support.
With Palpatine in constant play and Maarek turtling a focus and evade each round, he survived FAR longer than I expected, giving my Vader the time he needed to plink away at his Vader's HP until I was able to destroy him right after he finally took out Maarek. After match time came to an end his Shuttle remained, as did mine along with my Vader, but since he managed to get Maarek and half of my Shuttle's Health down it lessened the margin of victory.
Result: Win (71 points destroyed, 46 points lost)
Game 3:
-Jake Farrel (Push the Limit, A-Wing Test Pilot, Veteran Instincts, Autothrusters, Chardaan Refit)
-Keyan Farlander (Opportunist, Mangler Cannon)
-Jan Ors (Wired, Twin Laser Turret, Nien Numb)
*98 Points*
This was the first game where I had to deal with another 98 point list, so we had to resolve an important initiative roll to determine if Jake or Vader would move last. Lucky for me, I ended up guessing the roll correctly and gave him initiative so my Vader would be able to react accordingly. From the get go I decided to take down Jan Ors as quickly as possible, and I succeeded in taking her out after about turn 3.
From there, I ended up catching Keyan in a precarious position due to my Shuttle scoring a clutch block. This kept Vader behind him in range 1 for two turns in a row, blowing him up shortly after. Meanwhile, a damaged Maarek Stele got the hell out of dodge to prepare a final box in on Jake with Vader. Since my Shuttle was damaged and the match time was running short, Jake committed to trying to get half scoring on my Shuttle, which he ended up succeeding in just before I took Jake down.
Result: Win (100 points destroyed, 14 points lost)
Game 4:
-Chewbacca (Predator, C-3P0, Lando, Millenium Falcon, Experimental Interface)
-Blue Squadron Pilot
-Blue Squadron Pilot
*99 Points*
This build was obviously a nightmare to go up against, and since we were both undefeated at this point, I knew shit was about to get real. I wasn't quite sure if it made more sense for me to focus down his B-Wings first to try to get rid of some red dice as quickly as possible or to commit to Chewbacca to try to deal with C-3P0 while I still had all my ships alive, but I decided on the latter and went for Chewbacca the entire game. After placing my Shuttle in the left corner, he set up all three ships straight across from it in formation with his B-Wings leading the charge. I set up the asteroids in such a way that the entire left side of the board was clustered with obstacles, so instead of clashing into him head on in the cleared lane and surely losing the joust against that kind of firepower, I hard turned right off the bat and had him chase me through the asteroid field, breaking his formation. Meanwhile, I had Vader and Maarek start positioning a flanking maneuver.
He actually got a little upset at me at turn 3, muttering something like "Are we going to actually attack in this game or what?" after I committed to re-positioning on the other side of the asteroids, which I found slightly amusing. It ended up being close for a while with me almost taking out Chewbacca, but his damn pilot ability prevented Maarek's pilot ability from doing anything, which especially sucked because he was consistently getting critical hits through. His Lando combined with C-3P0 and Millennium Falcon title made getting enough damage through completely futile. In the end, Chewie had about 2 Hull left and I lost with Vader still alive.
This guy ended up placing first place, so I felt pretty satisfied about my only loss of the day being up against the player who went undefeated. Plus it wasn't a complete blowout for me after halfing his Falcon and keeping Vader alive.
Result: Loss (27 points destroyed, 61 points lost)
Game 5:
-Commander Kenkirk (Push the Limit, Emperor Palpatine, Ysanne Isard, Engine Upgrade)
-Soontier Fel (Push the Limit, Autothrusters, Royal Guard TIE, Stealth Device)
*98 Points*
Yet another 98 point build which justified my decision of going with a 98 point list myself and I again lucked out and won the initiative bid roll.
I
completely botched my approach in this match and it was demoralizing to say the least. I tried to stay positive since my ships were still in okay shape and I knew it was still early in the game, so I just told myself that I could still turn it around. Of course, this is easier said than done after playing 4 consecutive games and not having eaten or even sitting down in 5 hours, but I did my best to stay focused.
Since it was going to be an exercise in futility trying to get Soontir into arc, let alone getting shots through his Autothrusters, Stealth Device, and turtled tokens, I decided to put my glorious Advanced Targeting Computers and Palpatine to work up against Kenkirk for some guaranteed hits. Shortly after my crappy opening, I was able to draw Soontir away with my damaged shuttle which he committed to finishing off. This took a couple of turns which bought me time to effectively set up a tail on his Decimator with Vader and Maarek.
Finally Maarek's ability was put to some great use here, when in a key moment I was able to select the Blinded Pilot crit, denying him a range 1 attack that round. At one point Kenkirk was literally stacked with three actionable crit effects, but him being able to Push the Limit off of Ysanne Isard gave him some great action economy. Once again, us both having Palpatine at our disposal was interesting, but after his Decimator and my Shuttle went down we both had to live without him.
After I finally took down Kenkirk, it was a race against the match timer for me to try to finish his Soontir off while trying to keep my damaged Vader alive. In the end, the time ran out and I was left with a destroyed Shuttle, but since all he had left was Soontir Fel I ended up winning. It was a close and stressful match, and had the game played out longer it's possible that his Fel may have been able to get a good shot on my Vader before I was able to chew through his Stealth Device, leaving a 7 pilot skill Maarek to likely never stand a chance against Fel, but it could have gone either way.
Result: Win (63 points destroyed, 29 points lost)
TL;DR - TIE Advanced (Especially Vader) with Advanced Targeting Computer paired with Palpatine is fun and quite effective when flown right.
D) list, and I'm very, very, confused with the T-70. For now has been pretty difficult to get a good performance from them, but I'm not sure if I don't know how to fly them or it's just the gods fucking with me. 
