X-Wing: Elite Aces Post-game

Looks about right.

I played a game today against a pretty tanky list with my Imperial Aces list.  For those of you who haven't seen it before, the list looks like this:

The Aces of the Empire.

100 points

Soontir Fel
Push the Limit
Stealth Device
Targeting Computer
Royal Guard TIE
 
Carnor Jax
Push the Limit
Stealth Device
Targeting Computer
Royal Guard TIE
 
Turr Phennir
Veteran Instincts
Stealth Device
Targeting Computer
Royal Guard TIE

The list I faced off against tonight was pretty scary: 2x Y-Wings with Ion Cannon Turret, a B-Wing with Ion Cannon and the Rebel ace, Wedge Antilles.  Looking across the table, I immediately knew it was going to suck because of the 360 turrets, the Ion Cannons and the 29 vs. 9 hull points disparity.  I immediately regretted bring the list I did, but I was determined to make it work.

When the game started off, things went in my direction in a hurry.  I 5-advanced up into his Y-Wings because Wedge was taking it really slow and steady in the far left flank.  My opponent, James, played Wedge smart and kept him in the back and waited for my Interceptors to engage.  Because Wedge was so far away, I simply B-lined into his advancing Y-Wings and B-Wing and opened fire with crazy amounts of dice.  Dice were hot for me on the attack and I immediately stripped all the shields on his B-Wing and severely crippled one of his Y-Wings.

Here's when I noticed a problem with this list.  The combination of 360 degree Target Lock, 360 degree Ion Turrets, and asteroids being on the board, made defense miserable.  Despite having my Stealth Device, Wedge was able to sneak in a few shots to disable Stealth on two of my ships as the game dragged.  The 360 TL + Ion Cannons managed to score hits on both Turr and Fel on very important turns.  Although I rolled hot on the attack in the beginning, the brunt of the damage was soaked up by the tanky Rebel ships.  My attempts to kill Wedge was poor because of all the disables coming from the Ion Cannons, and eventually the health disparity was too great for me.  Although I managed to down a Y-Wing and B-Wing, and put Wedge at 1 HP, James came back swinging with hot dice towards the end to seal the deal.

Some things I learned:

• I would like to say I should have ignored the Y-Wings and B-Wing and just went straight for Wedge in the beginning, even if it meant having one round of combat of being shot at.  This doesn't sound appetizing to me at all though.
• 360 Target Lock + Ion Cannons on tanky ships makes my life a living hell on Interceptors.  My ships rely on their maneuverability and ability to get out of firing arcs but against this 360 combo, he simply doesn't care.
• Carnor Jax added nothing to my list except for his shooting prowess.  The Target Locks completely ignored Jax's ability and made him a points sink.
• Getting hit by the Ion Cannon sucks when you're flying an Interceptor.  Just one hit and you're flying straight white 1, completely negating the primary strength of the Interceptor which is unparrelled agility.  Soontir Fel died to Wedge when he was unable to shake off the stress token generated from the previous round because he took an Ion Cannon shot to the face.  That was game changing and caused the death of my beloved team leader.
• I'm determined to make Interceptors work, but maybe not in a list with 3.  The reason why is because in their current state, I see a huge weakness towards double Millennium Falcons and lists like this in general.  How do you mitigate a damage difference of 20 when 360 TL + turrets negate the one thing that Interceptors have going for them?  I think overall, I will be playing with more ships.

A lot to think about.  New list in the works, I'll post it tomorrow.