Imperial list // Rebel list // VASSAL file
[Note: This match is from Corscuant so Leia Organa and Ruthless cost 0 points!]
Like puzzle 3, today we have another early game problem from Coruscant. In this match we saw on the Gold Squadron stream Nathan Eide put on a masterclass of playing to your win condition. The game played out with an aggressive Tyler Tippet taking the fight to the top board in a vain pursuit of Luke. This turned out to be a problematic approach, playing into Nathan’s win condition. In the last moments of play Nathan was able to fire Proton Torps from Luke into Whisper netting Nathan enough points to grant him victory. For today’s puzzle I ask: How do you open in Turn 1 and set up the game to play to your win condition?
Solution to last puzzle: Fight or Flight Phantoms
Solution
Tyler Tippet himself stopped by to answer this problem. Thanks Tyler!
The actual way you win this game is to fortress the 4 strikers and have whisper cloak and patrol the bottom board next to them, Force one of Nathans ships to engage or lose the final salvo. I didn’t want to Fortress Dion’s stream. I made two mistakes which cost me the game, which was spending an evade on whisper that didn’t allow me to decloak away from Luke and the torp shot that actually half pointed her, the second being not catching Nathan taking a focus after going over a rock (we both missed it, mistakes happen) and its spend caused me to lose my evade again not letting me cloak.
It should be noted that by the fortressing rules as written, this is possible.
Reddit user u/Histidine also provided a nice breakdown of the priorities of each list without having watched the game, so kudos!:
Luke wants to engage sparingly and focus on Whisper when he does [editorial note: right on the money with how the game transpired]. Killing a Striker will turn off SLR for 2 turns and even Luke will struggle to survive an onslaught for that long. Miranda and Sabine want to lure the swarm in and spread damage around so that Miranda can drop bombs in the next couple of turns and let the bombs get the kill shots to avoid Sloan. Turn 1 is probably spent with Luke moving forward 2-3 and Miranda/Sabine stalling with 1 forward/bank. That way Luke can still turn and run if the swarm pursues him or keep advancing if they turn away to outflank them [editorial note: the game didn’t play out with these exact moves, but the result was more or less the same]. […]
Imperials:
They really want Luke to kill a striker in range of Sloan [editorial note: right on the money again], ideally when Leia is still recharging to lock Luke down further. […]
Xwing Puzzle Club 
The actual way you win this game is to fortress the 4 strikers and have whisper cloak and patrol the bottom board next to them, Force one of Nathans ships to engage or lose the final salvo. I didn’t want to Fortress Dion’s stream. I made two mistakes which cost me the game, which was spending an evade on whisper that didn’t allow me to decloak away from Luke and the torp shot that actually half pointed her, the second being not catching Nathan taking a focus after going over a rock (we both missed it, mistakes happen) and its spend caused me to lose my evade again not letting me cloak.
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Hi Tyler, thanks for stopping by! It was a nice game to watch (though the subject seems somewhat controversial), flown well by both sides. I too would have made the choice to pursue Nathan’s list rather than the fortress option you present. Just another way in which X-wing is an incredibly -human- game.
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