Whisper fights a TIE Swarm

Hey everyone,

I am back, and I am here to talk about the Cloak action itself, and not on Echo. To do this, I had to fly quite a few Whisper games to remember how it works. For those of you that don't know, the normal cloak action is using a 2 straight template to barrel roll or boost your ship when it decloaks.

To make sure you can cloak before your enemy fires, Whisper takes advanced cloaking device and veteran instincts. This lets her fire at ps 9 and cloaks right after. The problem this brings is that your movement doesn't function the way other ships do. In order to move, you need to decloak, let lower than ps 9 ships move, then move. So, you must really know where a ship is going in order to not get caught out.

I played a few games, and noticed a common joust that would happen against multiple lower PS skill ships. Here are my tips on surviving such an engagement.

This position doesn't look great for Whisper! But, have no fear. Although I have given up positioning to the TIE fighters, I do so to be able to gain positioning over the next three turns with little they can do to stop me. This is of course assuming the Tie swarm player is at the same skill level as me. 

We can see that Whisper has found herself straight ahead against 4 TIE fighters. Although Whisper is not in the best spot, she has at least stayed out of range 2. Assuming all crack shots aren't up, she should be okay surviving this with 0-1 shields remaining. When it comes to crack and aces, I really try to get my opponent to spend their crack on different ships. That does mean baiting multiple ships to an opponent, and sometimes ends terribly. 

Question time: which ship should Whisper attack? 

Because of FCS on Whisper, it is important to attack a ship that she will be able to attack next turn. Her attacking the same ship twice makes FCS insanely powerful. And, Whisper is rewarded for hitting an enemy with a focus token. Whisper also gets to cloak, so attacking this next turn is paramount. Because of the TIE swarms position, I would assume it will be a 3k or 4k next turn. So, I choose the lower right TIE to attack. My now singular goal is to make sure I attack him again next turn. 

I assume I can blink off one hull and then get a cloak, target lock, and focus to survive the rest of the round.

Now, I have played this set up and decloaked forward, and there is some merit to that. I would say that if I took too much damage, then I would maybe try that to run away. If you go that route, you need to decloak forward and do a 3 hard turn or a 4 straight and cloak.

I decloak up and back because I am assuming I decloaked down recently. With the decloak action, I feel you have to do something different as many times as possible, so that your opponent cannot guess and risk a block. 

If you always decloak toward the edge and 1 hard back in, your opponent will remember and block you forever.

The TIE fighters could have done a 3k instead of 4, but I don't think they would because of the risk of my getting all the way behind them. They also could break formation, but without multiple shots onto whisper, 2 dice primary will never get through by itself. Because they are stressed from the K turn, they cannot barrel roll to block me. They also only get 1 shot on me, 2 if they did something fancy. 

No matter where the Tie Fighter went that I target locked last turn, I should be able to shoot it this turn and most likely blow it up. 

Now, because the TIE fighters are stressed, I know they have to clear it or at least move forward. So, this is a great time for Whisper to become aggressive. I want to decloak right behind where a TIE fighter is. Because TIE fighters cannot stay still, I know that this spot will be open in just a second or two. If the opponent tries to do something like bump himself, you will still be behind him, and his formation will be broken the following turn. 

The opponent goes to clear stress and re-engage with all of its guns. I make my turn in and focus for a shot. 

I choose the bottom TIE fighter because I will have the easiest time chasing it down. Because I have been decloaking up with a 1 hard in, I need to change up my approach. I decloak down first. 

The TIE fighters do a 3k this time to try and finish off a most likely half health Whisper. Assuming that my opponent is setting up for me to turn in, I do a 2 straight and barrel roll away. I now am out of arc for one TIE and still maintain my shot for all the glorious actions that come with. 

When it comes to decloaking in combat with a high PS ship, always remember to:

• Think about where your opponent will be
• Decide where you want to go
• Plan your decloak with all ships still in place
• Plan your movement with your assumption most ships have already moved. 

How to: Echo and Dengaroo 1st engage

Countess Echo fights Dengaroo

Continuing on with this series on how to fly Echo, I want to focus on a simple first engagement with a list that counters Echo. To make it simple, I removed asteroids, and had the enemy's ship move last. For this post, I am going to focus on Dengaroo as he engages the castle. This match up is very hard to win against, but I wanted to show my thought process on taking a calculated risk to try and push the match in my favor. I have beaten Dengaroo a few times with it, but the possibility of him one shotting Echo is always there.

Rules for fighting Dengar:

1. Generally, don't attack Dengar if he has arc on you
2. Split up Echo and Ryad so that he cannot have arc on both in the same turn
3. Take an Evade whenever possible (Dengar has Zuckass, but not 4-Lom

Turn 1: The Dengaroo approaches

I am not going to move Manaroo, but lets just assume she stays out of the fight lol. I think that is fair because that is literally all she ever does. I had Dengar do a combination of 3 banks and barrel rolls to come in at this position. It is pretty close to the three Dengar lists (2 Dengaroos, 1 other) that I have played against with my squad. 

This would be around turn 3, and if you followed my last post about castling, this is where you should end up. The bait is set for Dengar to try and get some damage on a cloaked Echo or a focus/evade Ryad. The hope is that he gets invested enough to attempt to move forward one more time before trying to turn around. 

Turn 2: Dengar takes the bait

Dengar probably was able to take off a shield on Echo or Ryad. But, now he is going to have a hard decision. Echo is going to decloak and move before he moves, and now he has stress from Zuckass. So, turning into Echo has a very low chance of getting an in arc shot on her. He also knows that Ryad is going to do a 4/5 k turn. But, there isn't a lot he could do to chase it without showing his back to Echo and Palp. The best choice would then be to try and take out Palp. 

Echo decloaks to the right and back

1. Palp stops for a stress
2. Ryad does a 4k for evade/focus
3. Echo does a 3 straight for a cloak
1. Echo decided to go straight just in case Dengar turned in or 2 slooped early. Echo then cloaked to set up for next turn. 
2. I think, in hindsight, that it should really be a 4 straight
4. Dengar did a 2 straight to just go for more Palp damage.

Dengar will probably put in some meaningful damage to Palp. Ryad will hopefully blink off a shield or two.

Turn 3: The kill box turns on

Now, Echo has been slowly getting into a much better position. She has potentially lost all her shields right now, though. The goal right now is to turn Palp to block Dengar from turning toward Echo, and using Ryad to block Dengar from totally escaping the box. 

1. Echo decloaks right and in

1. Palp does a 1 slight to clear stress
2. Ryad does a 3 for a evade focus
3. Echo does a 1 hard for an evade
4. Dengar attempts a 1 hard, but bumps

Turn 4: A box that can move!

Dengar bumping Palp means that he had to switch his firing to most likely Ryad. Meanwhile Echo gets to start using her 4 dice primary to some success. 

Now Dengar has probably started to take damage; and, if I have been successful, his damage has been spread out enough to still have all of my ships. 

1. Echo decloaks to the right and back

1. Palp goes 1 straight to clear stress and get a focus
2. Ryad does a 3k for a evade and focus
3. Echo does a 1 hard and a barrel roll
4. Dengar does a 1 hard

Turn 5: Do or die time

We are now on our 5th round of firing. At the end of this turn, I would imagine that Dengar will be critically hurt, and/or one of my ships will be destroyed

Now it is time to commit to killing Dengar

1. Echo decloaks left and back

1. Palp does a 2 hard for the stress
2. Ryad does a 3 straight for a bump and evade
3. Echo does a 1 hard
4. Dengar does a 1 hard
1. I'm not actually sure what Dengar would do here, so I would try to spread out my arcs enough to catch him in at least two

Final Thoughts

Dengar has had 5 shots if he got no ability shots, and I have had 7 with no ability. He has not been able to shoot the same ship every turn, and I have. His shots are still a lot more lethal than mine, so who knows what the outcome would actually be. 

Hopefully, and with some luck, Dengar would be caught in two arcs and die/run away. U boats/Zuckass of any kind are a hard match up for the phantom, but I'm hoping this post has shown how to use your two aces to make an enemy be forced into tough decisions. As for the exact decloak/movement combos, use the 2 bank back if you are flanking/chasing and use the 2 bank in if you are k turning. Every decloak is slightly different because of the obstacles present. 

In my next post I am going to talk about decloaking and moving when an enemy moves before you. It adds a new layer to movement that is very tricky, but very fun. 

Echo opening moves

Hello everyone! 

Today's post will be a step by step guide to castling with Echo, when to do it, and some general decloak tips. Here is a link to the list I have been running.  Recently, I went to a tournament and got 3rd place running this list. I lost one game, and that one was both of us down to just our Ryads, and he was much better than I. I think this list and this strategy has a lot of strength.

Opening tactics are talked about a lot in a general sense of have a plan, know if you want to joust or flank, etc. But, the only real opening tactic I see people talk about is the rule of 11, and I think it would be beneficial to start looking at specific openings for specific list types/pilots.

For those that don't know, the rule of 11 is how many spaces you and your opponent must travel before you can fire at each other. It is supremely helpful in every game you play.

In this scenario, I want all of my guns to be ready for a joust at round 3, and I want to not sacrifice the Cow's (Palp shuttle) position.

This means that the Cow cannot move too far so it can still chase later, and it means that both of my aces need to be close by.

I have used this exact opening around 20 times, and having such a specific plan has really helped me in improvising when an opponent is unpredictable in their first 3-4 turns. The general rule while improvising is that the palp shuttle stops for the stress, bumps to clear, and repeat until your frenemy dies.

Turn 0: 

Now, there are some crucial steps to making the castle work. 

1. The first is to place an asteroid at 3 and 3 with a range ruler. This ensures enough space to own a corner of the board.
2. Place the space cow at a 45 degree angle turning toward the asteroid. 
3. Place your flanker (I like Ryad and Inq) up against the shuttle 
4. Place Echo at range 3 away from the other side of the board, and facing the shuttle.

Turn 1:

Ryad's dial is going to depend largely on what your opponent is doing. For this attempt, I want to engage with all of my guns on turn 3. So,

1. Cow dials in a 1 straight, forcing a bump
2. Ryad dials in a 2 straight, ensuring she will not be harmed this round
3. Echo dials in a 2 straight and cloaks

Turn 2:

Decloak:

Echo decloaks forward and to the left. 

Movement:

1. Palp dials in a 0 stop for a stress
2. Ryad dials in a 3 straight and uses her ability to flip 
3. Echo does a 1 hard left and cloaks

Turn 3:

Decloak:

Echos next decloak is left and back. This puts him up against the palp shuttle

Movement:

1. The shuttle does a 1 straight for a bump
2. Ryad uses her ability to turn around on a 3 straight again
3. Echo does a 1 hard to the right. He then decides to take a focus or barrel roll for the best position. 

I now enter combat of turn 3 with all of my guns facing the same direction from the corner of the map. I can now engage with a lot more flexibility than if I went chasing and had a lot of debris to worry about.

Let's say that Echo was able to get a shot, what does a normal decloak pattern look like while chasing down an opponent? 

The great thing about Echo is that she can stay on a target in one of the most unique flight patterns, so she becomes hard to predict. The strength of this list is the solid kill box that it can create and maintain. In a meta that is shifting toward firing arcs, it is more important than ever to have specific plans to maintain firing arcs on your opponent while minimizing their firing arcs on you. 

What do you think of this type of blog post? Should I work on more of these tactic breakdowns?

Countess Echo

New List Day

So, now that we have some downtime after regionals, I wanted to start building an original list for casual play and some store tournaments. At regionals I fell in love with Palpatine, and for the last few weeks I have been playing with the Whisper, Yorr, Omega Leader list. I absolutely love flying the phantom, having Yorr to take my stress, and using whisper. I have not been such a fan of Omega Leader. Don't get me wrong, I think he just might have one of the scariest ship abilities in the game, but I'm just not the best with him being my second ace. So, I have been branching out into other territories to use what I do love: Palp shuttle of any kind and the Phantom. What I realized from my play style is that I like to knife fight a lot more than other Palp Ace players on the initial pass. 

Luckily for me, Imperial Veterans was just released. And, with the release, I have been most excited about The Countess. 

specifically, I was interested in this build with The Countess. She is able to be tanky enough to survive an initial joust and has enough repositioning tools to still be able to knife fight well. The problem is that Whisper and The Countess at this build is simply far too many points. So, I need to find cards I can trim off to be able to make this work. 

Sad to see it go, but I took off PTL and Twin Ion Engine off of Ryad. Instead, I will just put Veteran instincts on her for 33 points. I am going Veteran Instincts because of all the Glaives out there, Bro Bots, etc. 

Whisper, stripped of my beloved Agent Kallus, still costs far too much to field with this list. So, I am switching her for Echo. Here comes Echo! here is a solid guide to playing Echo if you haven't

Echo is going to bring lots of potential for knife fighting because of her insane decloaking. 

Here is the new list I'm calling Countess Echo

Major weaknesses of this list: Stress bot or Tactician will wreck Echo without Yorr to bail her out. also, PS 9 and up will destroy any of these ships 1v1. I do have unpredictability on my side, but that doesn't add to much without a wingman. 

Strengths: Every ship has at least two shields. For Palp Aces, that is a pretty tanky team. The positioning and arc direction of my aces is unpredictable. Palpatine saves me from blanking out once a round. Every ship has 3 or higher natural attack.

General Strategies: My goal is pretty simple with this list. After a joust, I want my opponent to not 100% know where I am going next turn, and use that knowledge to set up advantageous extended jousts. Remember, these are not arc dodgers, and I will not be getting stressed every turn, so it is not safe to assume I will be doing the Inquisitor 1 hard or Soontir 2 hard. 

Possible variants: Veteran Instincts can be switched for adaptability on Ryad, and then have a 2 point bid or int agent on Echo. I would love for Kallus for Echo, but that would mean making ryad 6 and going up to 100 points.

Anyway, there is still a lot about this list that is uncertain, but I think it has potential.

Soontir of a Thousand Faces: Game Kastle Regional Battle Report

Soontir of a Thousand Faces:

Game Kastle Regional Battle Report

Three red dice fly out carelessly, hit, hit, and Focus. The Emperor cackles as the focus is forced into a crit. The Slaver’s single green die is not enough to prevent its destruction.

“Good game,” I say, already thinking about what I could have done differently to not have lost my stealth device earlier.

“Your in medias res intro feels forced,” he replies.

I am three days until my first tournament. I am also finishing up my first year as a special education teacher. The finishing teaching bit makes the first tournament bit hard to prepare for. But, I read up on x wing when I can find the time, decided on my list early, and tried to play against every type of list I could find before the tournament. I took:

• Palp Quiz
• Omicron Group Pilot
• Sensor Jammer
• Emperor Palpatine
• The Inquisitor
• Push The Limit
• TIE/v1
• Autothrusters
• Soontir Fel
• Push The Limit
• Royal Guard TIE
• Autothrusters
• Stealth Device

The goal of this list is to throw the emperor up the middle toward a debris that will be placed roughly in the middle. I slow play it on the 2nd and 3rd round to maximize shots with the Cow before trying to fly past the joust. Sensor jammer is my hope at making this initial joust safer for the cow. The Inquisitor should be right behind the Cow. This will ensure that it will be a range three shot for the enemy and a range one shot for Quiz. Soontir will fly far off to a side and try to gain a flank around turn 3/4. I have practiced this list and opening 5 times in the two weeks before regionals. Not nearly as many plays as I would like, but it will have to do given how time consuming my job is (not complaining, I love my job, and that is why other interests often go on the back-burner). 

ACT I:

I woke up early, found that no one had burned my apartment down to force my quest, and started my drive. Game Kastle is a nice shop that seemed to attract some very friendly players. I was going to meet up with Jay and Taylor. They will serve as my Obi-wan, since they are the ones who taught me the game a couple months back. Taylor taught me how to play Han and Poe, and Jay showed me Palp Aces about two weeks ago. I hope nothing bad happens to them in the next act, because I have a lot I still have to learn.

ACT I & II: Time to start the trials

My first round was against Randy. I felt like I recognized his name from a podcast or something, and was pretty nervous about his potential fame. I planned for this feeling of being outclassed. I had an opening. In every sport I've ever played, all my games of chess, and everyday teaching, I always had an opening plan. Something that would set me off on the right foot. It was so simple, I would be crazy to deviate away from it at the last minute.

But, like a hero on his first trial, Instead of following my plan, I got nervous and charged in for the initial joust with all of my ships. Randy was flying 4 Scyks with mindlink and mangler canons. I've never played against a Scyk before, so I wasn't sure how to approach them. The joust went terribly, and the Cow exploded before anything substantial happened. Sensor Jammer is effectively useless when mind link gives every Scyk a focus every turn. I fly Soontir and the Inquisitor out of town to try and figure something out.

Randy is an excellent player. The kill boxes that he set up were super interesting and precise. I will try to draw one and link it. He chased down the inquisitor and eventually got him. I took out two Scyks, and time was called with my soontir and two Scyks, one with one hull remaining, on the board.

Lessons I learned: Jay and Taylor watched the end of the round, and he noticed that I'm so focused on arc dodging that I don't always take the optimal actions. Instead of taking a boost/barrel roll to get out of arc, maybe I should have boost/barrel roll a different direction to still give my opponent a shot, but give me better position for the next turn.

Lessons I should have learned: stick to my opening plan.

As any hero will encounter as you start your quest, your father figure or mentor will die to Darth Vader. In my case, I watched my friend, Jay, who taught me to Palp Aces, died while flying Vader. His match was really good, and I got to watch two Palp Aces fly at a much higher caliber than I can manage.

Taylor also went down. His loss came as a result not feeling well.

Now I need to just go down to hell to gain the tools required to defeat that which killed my teachers.

ACT IV: Time to go to hell

The next match was against a man named Daryl. He flew two jump masters with a Hwk support. U boat are the only lists I haven't been able to practice against, so I knew I was going to get beat pretty soundly. After watching the U boats line up, I got nervous and moved my Inquisitor and Soontir both onto an open lane with little cover. They were also placed very close to each other. I have never practiced this opening, and I got absolutely wrecked on the opening joust.

Because of the low variance of the U boat lists, and my lack of playing against them, I do not see a way I could have won without a major user error from my opponent. I will also say that U boat list is the only game I have played where I did not enjoy any aspect of the match. But, that is a personal thing I will have to get over.

Lessons learned: follow my opening plan!

I cannot for the life of me remember the name of my next opponent. He was flying Space Cow with Palp, Whisper with something weird like sensor jammer, Rebel Captive, the rest of her standard build, and a juke/comm relay Omega Leader.

I stuck to my opening, and it worked out! The slow roll Cow was able draw positions from his cow and omega leader in such a way that the Inquisitor and Soontir could flank. The rolls weren't going totally in my favor, but I was so comfortable with where my ships were at, that I was able to have consistently good position. I took out his Cow and Omega leader without losing a ship. I did have a fair amount of damage on all my ships. The game was mine to lose. And, well, I lost. Whisper did whisper things and killed Inquisitor and my cow. 

The dueling between Soontir and Whisper was a little sketchy, though. My opponent and I were not paying close enough attention, so he definitely cloaked while stressed, and I definitely didn't stress Soontir after a shot against him. He wasn't being malicious, and neither was I. More likely, we were both not used to playing so many matches in a row.

Lessons learned: know your opponents list as well as you know your own. There is no point realizing that someone didn't do something they were supposed to after the round is over. It was my responsibility to fix the problem when it happened.

The force ghosts of my dead mentors: I heard their ghosts speak to me as if they were sitting in the chair right next to me, “stop flying like a scrub.” Their words, as well as the lessons I learned from the belly of the whale, gave me the tools I needed to leave elo hell (we are talking about LoL right?).

ACT V: Return of the Palp Quiz

My next opponent was Kristen. She told me she was new and that last game she flew off the board. She was flying a weird Deci/Vader and a standard Soontir. I stuck to my opening, and started on the Deci. Deci got a Crit off against Soontir, but was too low health to ever really want to do that again. I took out Deci and Soontir soon after. It was a fun game, and it reminded me how much fun it is to stick to my opening moves.

Lessons learned: Having a bid for your aces cannot be understated. Because her Soontir moved first, I was able to fly mine right behind him the entire match. I also learned that you can fly casually and consistently. I never did anything but the best moves I could think of, but I made sure to offer help or assistance with any questions she had about the game and what was happening.

My next opponent was Jonathan Liu? I can't quite remember exactly. He was flying a Major Rhymer loaded out with fun things like adv homing missile, standard Soontir, and a standard Carnor. I knew that I had an advantage because his list looked a lot like a potential counter to the jumpmaster. I stuck to my standard opening, got a great flank with Soontir on the 3rd turn, and got Carnor off the board really quickly with a lucky roll and good positioning. We traded Inquisitors with some really intense fighting/really lucky rolls on my end. I ended up getting the win with some consistent flying. I had a lot of fun this round.

Lessons learned: Jonathan was super nice, and he seemed to hold the same belief as me about playing. I shamelessly asked a couple questions about best ways to barrel roll/boost to get a shot. I was expecting him to laugh it off, but instead he talked me through how he would approach it.

My last opponent had to bow out because his friend locked his pieces in his car or something. But, the guy next to me had a similar situation, so we had a fun match to end the day. He was flying a Lothal rebel, Biggs, and two prototype a wings. I flew my standard opening, blinked down the ghost and Biggs. I won the match, and I would go into more detail, but this post is already getting long. I will say that my opponent was super nice, and we spent part of the match showing a kid who sat down at our table how the game worked.

I ended up getting 35th place at 3-3. My matches were fun, and I learned the importance of getting points ever match. I know some other people had the same record, but got more in the 50-60s place.

Also, 

for the love of God,

Stick to your openings!

Thanks for reading!