Non-Combatant

When I decided not to enter Scott’s X-wing tournament, I had a few reasons — some well thought out, and others “less well thought out”. I’m busy running a Game of Thrones tournament (which takes up less time than you’d imagine), I didn’t like the idea of having to run a Wave One list in early rounds then switch later, I didn’t have any Wave One lists thought out, and I haven’t been in a tournament-ENTERING mood (I’m not entered in the GoT tournament I’m running). Not sure yet if I regret not joining in.

Since then, I’ve had a question in the back of my head — if I had entered, what Wave One lists would I have run in the opening rounds? To be honest I’ve tried to ignore that question and let it fade away… but it hasn’t, so today I sat down and hammered out something that pleased my eye.

IMPERIAL SQUAD — Mama Said Knock You Out
I like hitting hardest in the open exchange. Against some builds, I could hit both first and hardest. Of all the Wave One ships, the TIE Advanced is the most durable… I wanted to use that, hitting first then not losing anything beyond the TIE Fighter (who is mainly a decoy target).
–100 points–
34 Darth Vader… w/ Determination, Concussion Missile
27 Storm Squadron Pilot… w/ Concussion Missile
27 Storm Squadron Pilot… w/ Concussion Missile
12 Academy Pilot

It’s just a TIE Advanced trio — but instead of x3 Stealth Device and Push the Limit on Vader (12 points), it’s an Academy Pilot and Determination on Vader (13 points). The TIE Advanced should still survive the range 3 exchange and be hard to kill, and hopefully the extra ship provides either decoyed damage or extra offense.

REBEL SQUAD — Name Dropping
This is just another attempt to hit hardest and possibly first. But X-wings aren’t TIE Advanced, and I didn’t want to lose Wedge or Luke early. Biggs and Luke flank Wedge here, instead of having Biggs in the center… that way it’s hard to focus all fire on Biggs and kill him right away. Instead he decoys only some enemy fire.
–100 points–
34 Wedge Antilles… w/ R2 Astromech, Proton Torpedo
33 Luke Skywalker… w/ R2 Astromech, Proton Torpedo
33 Biggs Darklighter… w/ R2-D2, Proton Torpedo

This wasn’t really based on another list, so much as it was me just wanting to fire a lot of PTs. There isn’t really room for x3 Stealth Device here… I’d have to drop to a single PT. And I wouldn’t have Push the Limit on either ace pilot. This list is strictly a Wave One type of list — but I wonder if it could beat a list with Wave Two access. It has the tools.