Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey all,

I've been running the following list pretty consistently for the past month or so in practice for the Connecticut regionals and it's done well, but I really got hammered last night in the FLGS weekly tournament (granted I had to step up as TO at the last minute, so was a bit distracted) :

=========================
Palpatine Defenders (DX)
=========================

510th Imperial Escort Squadron

100 points
------

Maarek Stele (34)
TIE Defender (35), Crack Shot (1), TIE/x7 (-2)

Colonel Vessery (37)
TIE Defender (35), Tractor beam (1), Veteran Instincts (1), TIE/D (0)

Omicron Group Pilot (29)
Lambda-Class Shuttle (21), Emperor Palpatine (8)
--------
I hadn't had many defeats until a XXBB list and a Rey/Miranda list came my way last night (Dengaroo was another notable bugaboo list)... and I can partially blame very cold dice, especially in the xxbb game, but I'm kinda wondering if I shouldn't just switch to the standard "commonwealth Defender" (Vessery (juke x7) ryad (ptl/Mk II/ x7) o.g. (Palpatine /collision) ) list.

My current list is a bit more aggressive and marek's crit ability can be a lot of fun. And I think it gives me an edge against other Palpatine Defender lists.

But it seems to struggle with some of the non-Defender lists in the top tier due to Vessery's relative vulnerability (in both Dengaroo games I've had, I lost him to the return fire ability... most recently because of a cascading major explosion crit )...

So what do you folks think? Does survivability win the game in tournaments? Or should I stick with the aggressive/offensive list and see how it goes?

(And, if the rest of wave 10 drops next week, do I maybe go with "score to settle" on Maarek? The initiative bid could help and it gives me a crit mechanic w/o Palpatine)

If you stick with Maarek and Vessery, I'd be inclined to swap VI on Vessery for adaptability and upgrade crackshot on Maarek to Juke. That way Vessery still gets to shoot first whilst Maarek will get more value out of Juke over the course of a game.

Vargas79 wrote:
If you stick with Maarek and Vessery, I'd be inclined to swap VI on Vessery for adaptability and upgrade crackshot on Maarek to Juke. That way Vessery still gets to shoot first whilst Maarek will get more value out of Juke over the course of a game.

That was my initial build, but I kinda felt too handicapped with my highest ace at ps7. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to go with debt/ score on Maarek with a 1 point initiative bid instead of crack shot if the card is legal for the tournament... if not, I don't know.

Honestly, in the scope of regionals, I doubt the jump from PS7-PS8 is gong to make much odds, unless there's some PS7 monster build everyone will be playing I've not considered.

Juke, however, is giving you a free dodge practically most every turn for zero actions and is going to give you something against every opponent.

 Azreal13 wrote:
Honestly, in the scope of regionals, I doubt the jump from PS7-PS8 is gong to make much odds, unless there's some PS7 monster build everyone will be playing I've not considered.

It's not a ps 7 monster, it's the loads of other ps8s that I wanted to be better on par with. Miranda, non-vi Rey, cheap Poe, etc.

Juke, however, is giving you a free dodge practically most every turn for zero actions and is going to give you something against every opponent.

Assuming you mean cancelling a Dodge every turn... as I said, it's the build I started with, and it looks good on paper. But in practice, I felt like my 2 ps7s were getting outmaneuvered by ps8 aces, and that juke wasn't pulling it's weight... especially after hitting ships with 1 agility with a tractor beam ... but my local meta tends to have either a lot of ps0-1 ships or builds that stack lots of focus so i was hoping the single crack shot at the right time would be more useful/ decisive.

So I went back to the standard Commonwealth Defenders list for my FLGS tournament last night and took 2nd place. And I think that's mostly sealed my decision. I'm going to bring the Commonwealth (of Massachusetts) Defenders to the CT regionals.

My first match was against a triple Defender list, he killed my shuttle and I killed his Delta. I lost by 1 point because the delta/ x7 is only 28 points.

If I'd realized that earlier, I might have focused on his ryad more (knocked out her shields with an early bump but let her go so I could double team his Delta... then went to time). Smart list building by my opponent.

2nd game was vs youngster-rage/ howl/Epsilon Leader/ black crack swarm (3 blacks and 3 aces). Killed them all and lost half points on the shuttle. Key play was a 3-bank from my shuttle to block about half the swarm (including 2 bumping the shuttle itself) that forced him to split formation. Ryad and Vessery were able to clean up and the shuttle turned back in for the final hull on the last tie as we went to time.

3rd game was vs 2 scum y-wing with connor nets & TLT plus Kavil w/ tlt and seismic charges. 100-14 victory. Bombs are a lot less scary w/o sabine on the table...

Commonwealth (of Mass) Defenders went 4-1-1 (yes a draw,other guy won the final salvo, for tournament purposes). Definitely my best showing yet. Wound up ranked 23 out of 93 (top 25 percent) but missed the cut to 16.

Thanks for the advice and serving as a sounding board Dakkaforum!

Extra thanks to my FLGS tournament last Monday for showing me the 3x Defender with swarm leader list that taught me not to gun for the delta Squadron first. In the draw/final salvo game My ryad (36 points) and opponent's Vessery (36) were the last left on the board. A very good, but tough game. Stressful (as an onlooker put it) like PTL stress, not red maneuver stress .

Full recap tk later

Well done mate.

The guy I flew to a Draw wound up winning the whole shebang too. ... I think that makes my 4-1-1 showing pretty respectable!

It's definitely a good list, but as with anything, if the pilot isn't good, it won't go anywhere. 'grats on you, mate!

Tournament recap:

First round was against Dash/Miranda. I don't really remember much about the game, even to the point of whether I went for Dash or Miranda first. I know i lost Ryad and half points on the shuttle by the end but killed both. I think he was running bombs w/o sabine, which is much less scary. Victory. 100/50.

Round 2: Paratanni. Fenn/Asajj/ manaroo. Asajj had latts razi, all had mindlink. Generally pretty sparse on upgrades. Match went to time when he had a shot to kill the shuttle and I had a shot to get half points on Asajj (I think). Neither of us made that critical shot. 36/50. Loss.

I remember that this opponent was very... deliberate (cough, slow, cough) with his maneuvers and action choices all game but especially during the last few rounds. Frustrating as I am pretty sure I was in a better spot for the next round if we'd gotten one. I can't _quite_ accuse my opponent of running out the clock, but it felt a bit like it.

Round 3: Triple Defenders. Delta Squadron all w/ D title. 2 ion cannons, 1 tractor beam. I killed the tractor beam (john deere, he called him) first, which may have been a mistake. The ion cannons, doing the extra point of damage chewed through the shuttle faster than I anticipated. Each of my Defenders got ioned at least once too. Surprisingly annoying. Killed them all and lost all but Ryad. 100/64. Victory.

Round 4: old school Imperial Palpatine aces. Soontir/ Inquisitor/ OG wt sensor jammer. I knew this was going to be hard, going against higher ps arc dodgers. I planned to go for his shuttle early and then work on Soontir or the Inquisitor, but I managed to bump & trap the Inquisitor (almost by accident) and was able to Juke damage through (or strip tokens for Ryad). The quiz is definitely vulnerable to juke because of the short green moves and not being able to both focus and evade if he needs to reposition. Also got half points on his shuttle but I'm pretty sure Soontir was untouched. 47/29. Victory.

Round 5: Swarm Defenders. Vessery with swarm leader. Standard Ryad. Delta. All w/ x7. I knew I couldn't afford to kill the delta first from simple points value (thanks to my FLGS opponent who brought that list last week). So I went for Ryad hard. I was also fairly good at keeping his extra Defender out of arc for his Vessery's target so the swarm didn't get used as often as it might have. I also don't think my opponent (the ultimate regionals champion) was prepared for how aggressively I fly the shuttle. I got some key heavy hits in because of that. 74/74. Draw. 9 dice each on final salvo. I got 4 hits he got 5. Loss.

Round 6. Bossk/ketsu. Standard party bus load. This game started very badly for me. I used Ryad to block ketsu, forcing Bossk to bump also. Then ketsu tractor beamed Ryad out to r1 and she died to concentrated fire. The shuttle went down pretty quickly too and the only reason I won was he moved a hair too fast with Ketsu and the turn to stay on the board was out by millimeters. At that stage I had Vessery behind Bossk. Game over. 100/65. Victory. (And my opponent even said he had thought about going 1 speed slower the previous turn... heartbreaking for him and I felt bad).

Ended up with an official record of 4-2 and my MOV was nowhere near good enough for the cut to top 16. Still 23rd of 93 is still the top 25 percent. And combined with my 4-2 in the Massachusetts regionals in December (placed 17 of 57(?)) For a finish in the top 1/3rd, I think I can say with some confidence that I have gotten pretty good at this game

Interestingly, both of my losses were to giys who play regularly at a store that, while kind of a hike, is a place I can get to. And I think playing more against those guys (and more importantly, more varied lists) will definitely help me bring my game to the next level. Heck, players from that store (including my other loss opponent) made up 4 of the top 16 cut.

I wish I could report how the top 16 matches went, but I was playing (badly) in a side event, where I went 2-3 but still placed 13th (cool swag really started at 12th). Clearly 11 x-wing matches in a weekend was more than I (or my dice) could handle.

Still, you won 6 of your 11 matches. You have to chalk that up as positive.