Proxy Fight: Romodi Onager vs Agate Starhawk

For these games, Andy and I decided to print out fake Onager and Starhawk bases in order to get a feel for both on the table. In the first game, I took the Onager (Testbed Cataclysm/Ozzel type) with Romodi, an Arquittens, Brunson Dictor, and a pair of DCap Gozantis. On the other side, Andy brought the the Starhawk with Concord and such, a pair of GR75s, one with Adar Tallon, and a squadron ball including Lando, Dash, some Lancers, Gold Squadron, Jan, and a Y-Wing. I had bid, took second, and Andy picked my Solar Corona. Here is the opening of round 1 after obstacle movement:

In the first round, I pushed the Onager up to the station and positioned the Dictor to soften up the Starhawk with HIEs. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round I hit the Starhawk with the Dictor and escaped its front arc. The Arquittens was just out of range to contribute. My Onager was in range to use black dice, but I totally forgot to add them in and ended up using just the red. Here’s a tip: don’t forget to roll all the dice in your armament! Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, I dropped the Onager down to speed 0 to avoid disrupting my Arquittens and Dictor formation. The Dictor was taking some pretty heavy squadron damage at this point. Here is the opening of round 4:

In the fourth round, the Dictor went down and Andy used his special weapon to speed my Onager up to 2. I was able to knock out the BCC flotilla with the Onager. Here is the opening of round 5:

In the fifth round, I destroyed the other flotilla and then began to evacuate as the Onager was taking some fairly substantial damage. Here is the opening of round 6:

In the sixth round, my Onager went down, but not before it took a pair of Lancers with it. Solid win for Andy. I really liked the proxy-Onager and I was also much impressed by Romodi’s performance, despite the loss. The Onager, despite being reputed as a tank-killer of sorts, did solid work on flotillas.

In the second game, I tried upgraded my Test Bed Onager to the OSD with the medium range super weapon and Rakehell, traded the Dictor for a Raider 2 and TIE fighter swarm. Andy swapped out his squadrons for Admonition and a big bid. He took first and selected my Contested Outpost. Here is the opening of round 1:

In the first round, Andy played it safe and I tokened up and secured the station. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, Andy dropped to speed 0 with his Starhawk to keep it out of range of my Raider. I stuck the Raider in a nice double-arc position and prepared a nice kill zone around the station. Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, I shot the Starhawk with the Raider and jumped up to speed 4. Andy surprised me by using his super-tractor-beam to drop the Raider to speed 0. He then positioned Admo to kill it on the following turn. Nice trick. Here is the opening of round 4:

In the fourth round, Andy did indeed destroy the Raider and then tried to block my Arquittens with Admo. I jumped over him and began to put a bit of damage on Admo. Here is the opening of round 5:

In the fifth round, Admo hit the Arquittens and my Onager hit Admo. Thanks to a CF command and the obstruction, I threw 5 reds out the side and managed to nearly wreck Admo. Here is the opening of round 6:

In the sixth round, Andy destroyed my lead Gozanti and my Onager and trailing Gozanti combined to keep the station out of enemy hands. This gave me a solid win thanks to the 100 points of station tokens. Andy played this one very conservatively. His Starhawk was never in much danger and the fighting was mostly done with Admonition. I very much liked the OSD variant, especially with its stronger side arcs. The Orbital Cannons were much preferable to the Composite Beam in my opinion. The effect on the Beam is nice, but the extra range on the Cannons would have been extremely useful in game 2. Going forward, I plan to default to the OSD with Bombardment Cannons. Gunnery Chief Varnillian was fantastic in both games. In game one, I used Veteran Gunners and regretted it. In game two, I used Weapon Battery Techs. That too underperformed for me. I may try Sensor Teams next.

In the third proxy game, I tried the Testbed Onager with a Quasar and a Defender-heavy squadron ball. Andy brought Unity, a Pelta with EST and Projection Experts, and a medium ball with Shara/Tycho, Dash, and Lando. I took first and selected Asteroid Tactics (Huge Mistake). Here is opening of round 1:

In the first round, I got aggressive and sent my fighters in to the attack. My Onager hit the Pelta, but after the Evade, Brace, and Redirect, didn’t manage to score a single damage. Here is the opening of round 2:

In the second round, I continued to hit the Pelta, but couldn’t quite bring the black dice to bear and only scored very light damage. I wasn’t able to score many accuracies and as a result used my entire squadron ball to just kill Tycho. Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, I failed to clear the Onager with my Quasar and ended up ramming. The Pelta finally took a solid hit. Here is the opening of round 4:

In the fourth round, I activated the Quasar with the intent of escaping thanks to a navigate command. I shot the front of the Starhawk, forgetting about Salvo. The Salvo fire as able to finish off my Quasar. Oops. I also missed the opportunity to get a great shot in on the Starhawk with the Onager. Here is the opening of round 5:

In the fifth round I ran, but Dash was able to score a Hit/Crit in both rounds five and six against a token-less Onager. Victory for the Rebels! This one was a solid learning experience on my end. Andy utilized the objective very well with his Starhawk. He was able to burn and regain his Salvo token repeatedly. His squadrons were effective in neutralizing my own with a bit of flak help. I found the Cataclysm title to be a bit of a waste. The Rakehell title may have been more useful. I may spend some more time with that one. Regarding Defenders, I really want to like them, but they seem to underperform against both Scatter Aces and ships. This leaves me with a distinct impression of mediocrity. Lastly, I may consider pairing Sloane with the Onager to help with the squadrons. All in all, food for thought.