It has recently dawned upon me that making this weekend’s upcoming Store Championship my first bat rep might be a very bad idea. There’s a lot of things that can go wrong: I could forget to take photos in the intensity of the matches, I could gloss over important details, or I could well mindlessly drop the whole recording process as I panickedly try to submarine to a sufficient record and MOV. Perhaps then it would be a good idea to bat rep a single game in greater detail. In this practice of sifting through details and focusing on the important matters, I could sort the best opportunity to take a photo, get myself in the consistent ritual of taking photos, and identify the lesser details as such so as to not include them in a succinct description of each game. Then, I could close on some rabbit-hole tangentially related to the game not worth its own in-depth post.
Since I’m playing with 2D sprites of ships in a game that doesn’t matter on its own, why not fly an efficiency list? I don’t need to have any of the materials of such an expensive archetype, I don’t care about getting streamrolled by bad variance or trapped into needing good variance (the best greens are the ones you never roll and the best reds are double modded!), and I could feature a lesser-seen piece with a throwback ability from 2015. As such, in what I would deem heretical for having 0% your daily need of TIE/vn in a First Order list, I played with this:
“Scorch” (33)
Fanatical (2)
Ship total: 35 Half Points: 18 Threshold: 2
“Longshot” (31)
Proud Tradition (2)
Ship total: 33 Half Points: 17 Threshold: 2
“Static” (33)
Proud Tradition (2)
Ship total: 35 Half Points: 18 Threshold: 2
“Muse” (30)
Squad Leader (6)
Ship total: 36 Half Points: 18 Threshold: 2
Omega Squadron Ace (28)
Proud Tradition (2)
Ship total: 30 Half Points: 15 Threshold: 2
Omega Squadron Ace (28)
Proud Tradition (2)
Ship total: 30 Half Points: 15 Threshold: 2
Total: 199
Efficiency TIE/FO-only lists never really did well before Wave 6: they had bad modded shot time on target, their cost relative to the RZ-2 or the TIE/SF was significantly out-classed, and Hyperspace was too overpowered to see them stay on the board for long (no thanks to beef, crackshot, Wedge, Quickdraw, 7B, etc). Proud Tradition in the TIE/ba addresses the first problem, yet another point drop addresses the second, and the great Hyperspace purging remedies the last problem. Let’s give it a go! 5 ships at I3+ should give me a boost against low-initiative efficiency and Muse makes Static’s ability meaningful!
My player for today is a talented one with whom I often end up exchanging wins, “Smikies” by his Vassal callsign. His list is Kylo, Fanatical Blackout, and an Advanced Optic Jaemus engineer + 4pt bid. Not quite the efficiency list I was hoping to be paired up with, but a good game to be had for sure. When I saw Jim in the corner, I placed the entirety of my list ready to engage with him. I know that good efficiency players will try to catch an ace and nuke it, but playing as an ace against efficiency, I get glibly exuberant every occasion my blocker is ignored while the chased ace simply yeets away. If I’m going to stand a chance, Jim has to die.
After the first round resulted in a conservatively-held Jim and the Brolencers ready to 2 bank to port and react accordingly, it became quite apparent that shooting at the Brolencers here was not an option at all. If I floor it towards Jim though, I see only good outcomes. If Jim comes to engage, he takes quite a pounding while the Brolencers can’t focus fire effectively. If Jim absconds, that’s 1 fewer gun pointed in my face, no blocking, and a merry chase to be had.
I did not anticipate the proper engagement to be delayed another turn. Kylo gets a shot that doesn’t matter and Blackout further readies his position. Erstwhile, the big plot twist is Jim zig-zagging away. Static saves his lock for next turn, which opens Muse’s coordinate to Scorch for the next round. Although all guns pointed at Jim’s corner looks tempting, I don’t want to make myself vulnerable without hedging any bets. As such, Zeta Leader will take his trusted Zeta Ace with him and try to scare off Kylo. The proud Omegas will cover the outside of Jim’s cloud while Omega Ace covers the inside. As for Blackout: pray he doesn’t hit too hard.
There are no surprises this round. Scorch’s full mod shot with an ability-active Longshot scare Kylo out of an easy flank…to merely a slightly less easy flank. On that front, everyone’s favorite Supreme Leader deals a shield + Direct Hit! damage to Muse, leaving Static’s friend at a fragile 1hp! Well, at least the threaten ploy forced him to not focus fire with Blackout. On the other front, Blackout similarly deals a shield + Fuel Leak to Static. It looks like Static was just going to be a silly experiment then, even if his defense roll lacking eyeballs presents the opportunity for the ability. However, the triple crit from his ability force Jim to spend a focus to avoid taking a crit. I muffed the engagement so that the Omegas are irrelevant this turn. But I am far too lucky with Static living this round. In a proper game, I’d have lost to a blunder this turn. I should have coordinated an evade from Muse to token stack, but my formation forbade it. A turn 0 and turn 1 mistake to be avoided! Speaking of turn 0 mistakes, holding Muse back to safely coordinate requires a cloud, especially if there are no true aces to punish with for chasing her.
Muse was at 1hp, but with coordinating in this archetype, she wasn’t long for this world even at 3 hp. However, I could swing her out of position to coordinate another lock to Static, who would provide the focus for the ability with a Segnor’s Loop and Proud Tradition! The Zeta bois turn their corner from last turn just in case Jim ran off in their direction, which worked nicely. The Omegas, confident that Kylo would kill Muse, sought to block Blackout by jumping into the cloud. Luckily, that worked out, buying Static another turn, even though Blackout’s trajectory meant that Static wasn’t taking any heat after all.
Kylo obliterates Muse in a blaze of glory. Static tries to reduce Jim’s radio signal to static, and once again rolls 2 blanks and a focus. This ability is a pure dopamine rush when it triggers! TRIPLE CRIT TIME, and screw these bad reds! Jim, who was focus-stripped by Scorch’s overclocked shot focuses out. At 1hp, he can’t afford to shut off Proud Trad unless he wishes to punt. Longshot and Yellow finish the job at the structural damaged Jim, with Red plinking at Blackout.
This turn really shows off the strengths of Proud Tradition. Whereas the TIE/FO list would quickly be out of position or mods and just out of hope in general, the focus off the red maneuvers really helps. And in principle, the hard 1 and being stressed but still focusing would help Static, who was hoping for cloud protection + focus. Instead, he clips the cloud and takes a strain, bring Blackout to finish what he started. It is also here at this turn that I begin to see my folly in obstacle placing by ending up with every Blackout shot obstructed. So much for bringing debris clouds if I don’t place them where I should be using them, haha.
The next round, Yellow locks Blackout, hoping for a block. Red focuses to defend against Kylo. Longshot makes good use on that sweet Proud Tradition, but Scorch accidentally bumps! I would later make a lot of tactical bumps in the game, but this was by far not one of them. No lock to mod against the brilliantly eluding Blackout means that the Fanatical against him in the cloud isn’t going to sufficiently mod a mostly-focus roll. I still get very lucky on the engage though, given that the Brolencer’s don’t score too many hits or any debilitating conditions on the swarm.
It’s at this point in the game where the TIE/FO buffs conglomerate into the ability to form a late-game scrum that poses problems for interceptor-class craft, regardless how many angles are flanked in (unless coordinate or Supernat is involved). Dodging with dice or moving out of arcs works for one round, but the quick repositioning of the swarm–be it in a tight Segnor’s loop or in a long 4k–keep the pressure on. Kylo is forced to reposition to avoid getting hit too hard, and Blackout’s actionless state courtesy of the cloud puts him an unfavorable position.
The next round is relatively uneventful, despite both of our mistakes. Yellow did not score the self-block on red with a 2 forward, which in turn does not block Kylo. Blackout tries too hard to shoot at Red, but ends up with no shot in arc. Zeta Squad’s finest don’t crush Kylo yet, and Blackout is mostly fine, along with Red.
Red scores a block off Kylo because that gives Scorch and Longshot guns on Kylo. I evaded with Scorch instead of focusing because with Fanatical and that lock from earlier, he’s essentially de-shielded Quickdraw, where evade is the safest action. That successfully redirects Blackout’s fire to Longshot, since it’s an easier target to hit and will actually strip the mods. It’s also at this point in the game that it’s very apparent that the Silencers will never have the focus to shut off a Proud Tradition. As a more pressing matter, Kylo is halved.
The next round goes as one would expect. That clutch Proud Trad hard 1 from Yellow means Kylo can’t get a good shot on him when running from Scorch, while Yellow gets a shot on Blackout blocked by Longshot. Longshot’s block was an example of a tactical block, since he intentionally performed a hard 1 portside into Scorch, who would move after him. Red plinks at Blackout once more, now halving him.
Scorch swivels to chase Kylo inwards for a future shot, and evades in case Blackout finds him. Longshot hard 1’s to starboard and focuses to defend against Kylo, who is blocked by Yellow. Yellow’s initiative match with Longshot was clutch, as it allowed him to wait until after Longshot gets his token to perform his own hard 1 to portside, successfully self-blocking to block the Supreme Leader. Not much happens, but that was round 11 out of the Vassal traditional 15! Brolencers have to kick it into overdrive now.
Longshot moves out to cycle for a good s-loop on Blackout next turn and Scorch takes the lock on Kylo. But alas, poor Red! I did a 3 hard to try to block Blackout, but instead ended up at R1 and strained by a mere hair! Blackout may have scored his revenge, but Scorch lands a disabled power regulator! In retrospect, in the chat we both agreed that Blackout should have sniped Scorch and save Kylo, which seemed not too unlikely (just score 3 uncanceled hits by 3 red dice full mods versus 3 green dice no mods or land a good crit).
The next turn sees Kylo dodge a 2 s-loop by Yellow and Scorch’s 2 bank by barrel rolling and boosting. Longshot gets halved by Blackout. I’m fine with this outcome and didn’t bother pushing for the kill on Kylo, because Disabled Power Regulator means that Round 14 looks like this:
5 forward from Longshot is yet another reason why Proud Trad is good. It’s basically a soft-blue maneuver off that segnor’s loop that allows him to focus for the kill shot on Kylo after Scorch didn’t land it. Blackout could only hope to better the score in Round 15 by range 1’ing Yellow on a shot modded by Fanatical, which didn’t work out. 164 – 118 victory. Sure, Kylo living and Yellow getting halved would have meant that I would have lost, but after Kylo died, I didn’t bother with dials and moved all my ships 2 forward. If Kylo lived, I would 1 hard to starboard and evade with Yellow to guarantee that only an exceptional Blackout shot would halve him. Longshot would 5 forward through the cloud to ensure that only a K-turn from Kylo would kill him. Scorch would similarly 2 hard to portside to not be shot.
Overall, I think that 6 TIE/FO might be a decent list to tweak, but nothing really impressive. Even should I have not made blunders with positioning and put Static in a bad spot, his effectiveness was heavier than it should have been given that the target for his 2nd critskrieg was modless and rolled no natty evades. Like the leader of his Omega Squadron, he has a neat lock-based ability concerned with modding dice, but is limited by the number of red dice he has and his single-action. Midnight can address this problem with the I6 and functioning as a paranoia-factor for enemy aces, whereas Omega Ace doesn’t have perfect information and typically doesn’t threaten shields or defensive mods. The disparity intensifies when one considers the extended format: Midnight shooting trickshots through gas clouds laughs in being able to mod greens while the victims cannot, but a trickshot Omega Ace only gains marginal damage shooting through an asteroid or debris cloud. Afterburners and Lone Wolf, especially paired with a coordinating and area-denying Upsilon, make for a decent pocket ace on Midnight–not so for Static. Static’s ability is only going to see real usage if he learns to fly a TIE/ba or if FO gets a 7th fleet gunner effect, much in the way that he saw a lot more casual use in 1st edition once Swarm Leader came out. Sadly, this may never be worth it on the basis of the mere opportunity cost, given that quantity has its own quality and doesn’t need a super-mod (see FOCHO). Or if you don’t trust your red dice, just take TN-3465, as she is a fairer and Hyperspace legal Howlrunner. And if you don’t like actively killing a TIE so as to burn down an ace that you have caught, just take Proud Trad. As evidenced by the Bat Rep, the real workhorses of the list are Scorch, Proud Tradition, and Longshot in that order. Who would’ve guessed that extra red dice, passive mods, and disregarding stress are good pieces?
Static could be decent with Hux coordinating to him and 2 other TIE/FO’s, thereby reducing the inefficiencies of the ability and its demand for an entire coordinate. But that’s currently extended, where Static seems meaningless. If Hux is included in the Xi-class shuttle expansion, that could be a consideration though! I personally think that the best use of Static right now is as a simple I4 with Proud Trad stapled to him (pro tip: if your FO pilot has the word “Omega” in either the title or the subtitle, consider equipping). Just locking while behind a cloud should be a good enough charge for the ability, ready to trigger at r1 on the next turn. Holo could be a fascinating wingmate for him, although Holo as a support craft likes to throw evades at Kylo and Holo as a better TIE/v1 likes to shove debuffs onto TIE/FO’s. All the same, don’t sleep on Static quite yet! Even Talonbane Cobra was worked into a great list by Oldpara!
Screaming into the Void 