Good morning gamers,
Round three of our four-round escalation event (the penultimate round) was this past weekend and boy was there excitement! We had our first top-cut/bottom-cut of the event with three players sitting on 2-0, three players sitting on 0-2, and two players snug in the middle with 1-1 records.
This time around, we were playing with 800-point lists, Standard list building constraints, and standard scenarios with the Turn 0 veto system. For the players less familiar with this, I sent a 3500-word write-up about how to think about the veto system and picking a scenario that works well for your army - that'll make its way to the blog at some point in the future (it needs some iterating). Let's look at the lists and then see how we did!
List #1: 14-activation Rebel Alliance
This is my list - and I'll be honest, this list was not my first choice. What I wanted to do was either run my 650 list from last time with the Bad Batch OR drop the Landspeeders from my last list to boost my activation count a little with the Bad Batch. As you'll see in a moment, however, the Bad Batch were swooped up before I submitted my list, so I instead decided to level up my winning 500-point list and add Luke and four more activations:
- Luke Skywalker (Commander) with Burst of Speed, Underworld Connections, Offensive Push, and Recon Intel
- 2x Rebel Veterans
- 1x Rebel Veterans with Smoke Grenades
- 1x Rebel Troopers with SX-21 Trooper and Prepared Supplies
- 3x Mark II Medium Blaster Troopers
- 1x Rebel Sleeper Cell with R4 Astromech
- 2x Ewok Slingers with Forest Dwellers
- 3x Rebel AT-RTs with Laser Cannons
My first list had 1 Vet/Mark II pair and 3 Rebel Troopers, which I've upgraded to 3 Vet/Mark II pairs and 1 Rebel Trooper (the SX-21 squad). I still have 2 Slingers but have added a third AT-RT and upgraded the Rebel Officer to Luke (who gives me a TON of shenanigan power). Like I did in the last game, my plan is to lead off with My Ally is the Force, issue the orders to Luke and the Smoke Grenade Rebel Vet squad (and coordinate with one of the Mark IIs), lead off with the Smoke Grenade guy so he can give/boost the cover of my Vets and trigger Low Profile. Hopefully this keeps us in the game early (with 1-2 dodge tokens supplementing the cover saves) and helps me out-activate my opponent.
The next two turns are probably Son of Skywalker/I Am a Jedi to surge Luke into action (either by shooting things or slashing with a lightsaber, depending on the setup) and then neutralizing a dangerous piece or two on the other side for a turn so my high-activation list doesn't lose as many guys. After that, we have two generic command cards in Push and Assault if Luke dies and You Serve Your Master Well if he's still around.
I did learn from the skirmish game that a high-activation list like mine really wants to force the enemy to secure objectives, so I've taken Close the Pocket, Bunker Assault, and Shifting Priorities. With 14-acts (and Luke/Ewoks to get extra tokens on the enemy bunkers in Bunker Assault), I'm hopeful I can get a leg-up on my opponent early-on and then maintain that lead as the game progresses.
Secondaries are a little murkier, but I've gone for Sweep and Clear (as I should have units that can both shoot from friendly territory AND get into enemy territory to get kills), Bring Them to Heel (lots of activations means a lot of suppression is coming out), and Destroy Enemy Base (mostly because I can tuck my base behind all of my Prepared Positions units and keep my opponent from securing it - and possibly race off with Luke to secure a base on his Son of Skywalker/Burst of Speed turn).
My advantages are the ones I always take - Advanced Intel (because #busted), Fortified Positions (to trigger Low Profile early), and Cunning Deployment (to keep my Vets/Mark IIs alive on the first turn). We'll see how these go (but honestly, I don't really care what I get.