Star Wars Academy, Round 2

Some days have passed since I last posted in the blog, but life has been hectic lately. Also, I finally played a full tournament! (I'll write about the experience in my next post).

Before the tournament, Beni and I could play a second training session, although we only played one game:

About the GF9 mat, I'm still extremely happy with it. It's soft to the touch but has the exact amount of friction that makes it difficult to move the minis too much when you nudge them by accident. The quality of the materials is very good and the art beautiful, as you can see in the photos.

The Lists

Beni played the Vader Fist:
Darth Vader with Squad Leader and Stealth Device (34)
Howlrunner with Elusiveness and Stealth Device (23)
Mauler Mithel with Expert Handling and Stealth Device (22)
Night Beast with Stealth Device (18)
Total: 97

JL played Ten's Friends:
Ten Numb with Heavy Laser Cannon and Marksmanship (41)
Garven Dreis
Biggs Darklighter with R2-D2 and Shield Upgrade
Total: 100



In my list, the main focus is in having Biggs survive as long as possible. Ten should be able to kill almost any Imperial just by himself; Garven can help finish off a damaged enemy and with a bit of luck use its Focus token and give it to Biggs.
As for Biggs himself, I decided to make him a bit more durable with an extra shield. R2-D2 on Biggs means that you need to focus a lot of fire on him to kill him. If you don't do it in the first exchanges of fire, the chaos of the dogfight will make it very difficult for just one pilot to finish him off.

Battle Report

This time I had more trouble with the asteroids that Beni played. My conclusion is that you want to have the asteroids in such a position that they will be in the way of the opponent after the first exchange of fire.

Darth Vader starts to one side of the board, ready to flank the Rebel squadron

Darth Vader keeps looking for a flanking position while the Rebels try to position themselves so that the asteroids will be in Darth Vader´s path

Vader speeds through the asteroid field while his escorts advance in compact formation

Vader decides to turn to the Rebel squadron before being able to fllank properly

I managed to keep flying in formation and this is very important in the first exchange of fire: all my ships could focus target on one ship and with Ten's combo, few ships will be able to survive the first fire exchange

The dogfight started, and Darth Vader was not able to flank the B-Wing force

The Rebel pilots focus fire on focused fire of the Rebel squadron

This time it will be Night Beasts turn to lose his TIE

The Rebel squad starts hunting Vader down

Vader maneuvers in close quarters, but even him is no match against 3 experienced ships

We decided to stop the battle here. I am very happy with my list, as I think Biggs is very durable and will take the brunt of the enemies attacks while Ten and Garven may easily kill one guy in a turn.

As for the battle tactics, Darth Vader did not flank the Rebel squadron and this gave me a big advantage because I was always able to keep a tight formation almost until the end. Focusing fire is very important for the Rebel in this configuration: an enemy destroyed is one less attack on Biggs Darklight.