I've been on this forum a while now, but I've never written a battle report. Please enjoy!
First, I want to give a shout out to Gameology for putting on a great store championship. I also wanted to say that there were a lot of quality players who came from all parts of CA (San Diego, San Fernando Valley, Inland Empire, and OC), and I’m very fortunate my dice were hot at the right times otherwise someone else would be writing this battle report. Ok enough butt kissing, and on to my write-up.
I was really torn between two builds the night before the event (1 rebel, 1 imperial). I ultimately decided to go with the rebel build because it was only 3 ships, and would make flying a little less stressful (the imperial build was a 5 ship build). I also tried to anticipate what the meta would be for this tournament (I was guessing B-Wings, and hoping for no Tie Swarms), and in the end rebel build was the right choice.
“Wookie Monster” 100 pts
Chewbacca + Expert Handling + Gunner
Garven Dreis
Biggs Darklighter
For memory’s sake, I’ll only describe the turning points of each round as I thought those really decided the game. I wish I took pictures, but honestly, I didn’t think I would make it very far in the tournament.
Game 1: Jorgen
Biggs
Red Squadron
Dagger + FCS x2
There were 13 people at the event (but a 13th person showed up 40 mins late) so we started the tournament with 12. My first match was against Jorgen. Jorgen and I had played many months before, but it was in a casual setting and he was just starting out. Probably one of the nicest, laid back guys you’ll ever meet. I won initiative, and asteroids were placed in a cluster in the middle of the board. He placed his squad on the top right (his left), and I placed mine opposite his (lower left). My game plan was to make his squad come to me, and hopefully fly through the rocks. It mostly worked, and I was able to take out Biggs within the first couple rounds of action.
Turning Point: Jorgen K-turns a B-Wing and lands in Range 2 in front of Garven (Garven was previously target locked from said B-Wing earlier). Garven goes straight 1 to remove stress, and now is Range 1 of the B-Wing. Garven only has 2 hull left, and the B-Wing has 1 shield. Garven shoots first, and lands a hit, hit, crit. B-Wing rolls 1 evade… Crit card is Blinded Pilot. B-Wing cannot shoot back at Garven, and he’s able to fly away unscathed.
Full win: 1-0
Game 2: Mike
Wedge
Biggs + R2D2
Rookie x2
Asteroids set up in cluster formation in middle, and Mike sets up on top right (his left) with x-wings pointed East to West (instead of typical North to South). I set my squad opposite side of the board with Chewie closest to edge followed by Biggs and Garven. Mike starts his x-wings going straight across his baseline, and I start moving slowly up the side to see where he was going. He ends up banking the Rookies into the rocks, but he can’t get Biggs to follow due to an asteroid, and is forced to turn him into the asteroid field. I turn my x-wings into the roids to take out Biggs first. This strategy backfires, and we both lose our Biggs in the same combat round. Meanwhile, Chewie is flying around the perimeter taking shots into the asteroids trying to steal hits now and then. Garven is stuck in the asteroid field and is taken out by Wedge. So now it’s 3 on 1, and things are not looking good after losing both my x-wings. I kept Chewie on the outside, and tried to get his x-wings to pursue through the asteroids. It worked because they couldn’t focus fire on Chewie at the same time. I was able to pick off 1 Rookie before Wedge could re-enter the battle…
Turning point: Wedge (2 hull left) is in Range 3 of Chewie (Full Hull), and takes a couple hull off Chewie. Chewie returns fire on a focus-less Wedge… Blank, Blank, Focus, and Wedge evades the hit. Now Gunner kicks in… Hit, Hit, Hit, and Wedge rolls Blank, Blank, Focus. Wedge is destroyed with only 1 Rookie remaining before time is called.
Modified Win: 2-0
Game 3: Higgins
Gold Squadron + Ion Cannon x2
Gold Squadron x3
Yes, read that build again… Y-WING SWARM…40 Hit Points!!! At this point, Higgins and I are both undefeated, and he ran over his two opponents. I’d never faced a 5 rebel build yet alone one with 25 Hull and 15 Shields. Asteroids were placed in cluster-style in the middle. Higgins sets up on top left with ships pointing East to West. I set up bottom right with Chewie closest to edge followed by Garven and Biggs. I slow play the first couple of movements to see where he’s going, and Higgins is going full throttle across the baseline. Right before he’s about to clear the asteroid field, he banks right into the rocks trying to catch me off guard. At this point, Chewie banks 3 left and is now behind his Y-Wings, but Garven and Biggs are staring right into the Yellow School Bus (I call it that because they were all in formation and packed closely together). The only way I would have a chance at winning was to focus fire each Y-Wing individually and hopefully fend off the return fire.
Turning Point: After a couple of movement errors by Higgins, his squad is pretty spread out and isn’t able to focus fire on my ships. He had a chance to Ion Chewie off the board, but he was ¼ inch outside range 2 and wasn’t able to use his Ion Turret. Chewie and Garven were able to slowly pick off each Y-wing til the last one fell.
Full Win: 3-0
Game 4: Darren
Darth Vader + Concussion Missiles + Engine Upgrade
Soontir Fel + Stealth Device
Night Beast + Stealth Device
Academy Pilot
Feeling lucky at this point, I’m the only undefeated person left going into the last round of Swiss. My next opponent, Darren, won the regional tournament at Gameology last year, and went on to play at Worlds. (Fun Fact: I find out we literally live 5 mins away from each other, but never met each other until that day). Asteroids are clustered in the middle, and he sets his squad top/middle right. For some reason, I didn’t set up like normal, and I totally botch my setup. I placed bottom left, but I set up Biggs closest to the edge followed by Garven and then Chewie. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I tried to compensate my setup error by trying to get Chewie back on the outside during the first 2 rounds. Darren went full speed into the asteroid field, and Vader was within Range 3 after the 2 round (**** double actions!)! His concussion missile takes 2 shields from Garven (Biggs was outside Vader’s range), and it was pretty much all downhill from there… Despite the fact I almost flew Chewie off the board trying to get him back into the fight, I managed to get the stealth off Soontir and Night Beast on the first try (I had 1 hit, and Soontir with 5 evade dice rolled all blanks). Darren really knew how to fly Soontir and Vader so that they were usually outside my x-wing’s firing arc, but they always had shots.
Turning Point: The moment I set up my formation incorrectly…
Loss: 3-1
So Top 4 was announced, and I managed to reach Top 4 with 13 points. All Top 4 players were 3-1, but Darren took the overall #1 with 15 pts (3-1, all full wins).
Semi-Finals: Darren
Seriously, after the butt whooping I just got, we had to turn around and play each other again. Darren sets up the same way, and knowing what not to do, I set up bottom left with Chewie closest to the edge followed by Biggs and Garven. Darren is aggressive with his opening movements, and I don’t slow play my movements this time. I think he got a little too aggressive because his Academy Tie ended up in Range 1 of Biggs, Garven and Chewie, and never got 1 shot off. Vader used Concussion missiles on Garven, and had 4 hits; Garven rolls 2 blanks, and is seriously hurting. Although I’m playing better this round, he’s still got the upper hand with Soontir and Night Beast with Stealth. Chewie is playing a much bigger roll, and I’m consistently get 2-3 hits with Gunner. Soontir and Night Beast lose their Stealth devices rather quickly (I think they only got to roll an extra evade dice once), and Biggs is holding his own for once.
Turning Point: It’s down to Chewie (5 hull remaining) and Biggs (3 hull) vs. Vader (2 hull) and Soontir (2 hull). Biggs is staring straight into the big asteroid, and Vader is right behind him (People were making “just like the movie” comments). I decided to k-turn over the asteroid because I wanted to go down in a blaze of glory rather than being hunted by Vader. K-turn over roid… roll dice… blank, but I’m stressed with no action. Vader does a 2 bank, and takes a right bank action, and focus action. We’re in Range 2 of each other with no obstacles. Vader shoots first: blank, hit; Biggs rolls: blank, evade. Biggs returns fire: hit, hit, crit; Vader rolls: blank, blank, focus. Biggs does not re-enact the trench run, and kills Vader for sweet revenge.
Win: 4-1
Finals: Steve
Prototype A-Wing x2
Blue Squadron B-Wing x2
Rookie X-Wing
After beating Darren, we watched the last round of the other semi-final: Steve vs. Jeff. Their match came down to the last evade dice but Jeff fell short by 1 evade. It was that close. Jeff was running Biggs Walks the Dogs, and I was relieved I didn’t play him in the finals. Jeff won the Game Empire store championship in San Diego 2 weeks prior.
I was most worried about playing against a Tie Swarm, but ironically it was the Rebel Swarm I should’ve been worried about. Another 5 rebel build, but this time with less HP than the Y-Wing swarm. Steve had initiative (99 pts), and asteroids were placed in 3 2-by-2 rows with the middle row off-center of the other 2.
X X
X X
X X
Steve set up on the top right, and I set up on the bottom left (Chewie closest to edge). Steve was aggressive in his opening movements by moving the A-Wings up 5, and I slow played my first round just to see what he was doing (1 straight for everyone), and to bait him into the asteroid field. After seeing the 5 movement from the A-Wings, I then moved faster to combat (Chewie 4 straight, X-Wings 3 straight).
We had combat on the 3rd round, I turned my X-Wings and entered the asteroid field while Chewie banked 3 to stay on the outside of the rocks. I think Steve was a little too aggressive because his X-Wing was face-to-face with mine, his B-Wings were still Range 2, and his A-wings were trying to flank from the bottom up. His Rookie died before getting a shot off, and his B-wings took a couple shields off Biggs. His B-Wings were in a bad position because he was surrounded by rocks with the x-wings facing them, and Chewie flying above them. I focus fired on the B-Wings, while completely ignoring the A-Wings the next few rounds. He was left with 2 A-Wings vs. Garven and Chewie (Full Hull).
After losing his firepower, it was mainly flying around the board until time was called. In the end, he had 1 A-Wing and I still had Garven and Chewie.
Turning Point: Taking out his X-Wing and a B-Wing before I lost a ship really put him at a disadvantage. The higher PS was really my advantage because I got to shot first, and make sure he didn’t have a focus for his return fire.
Final Record: 5-1
It was a long day, but one day I will never forget. I really like the culture of this game. Yes, it is a dice game in the end, but no one ever gets angry or pissed off. All the players at the tournament were pretty casual and joked around in-between matches. Everyone was having a good time no matter what their record was. You can really tell the dedication of this game by how far people travel to play. Gameology is 30 miles from my house, and I was probably the closest person.
Before the tournament, I jokingly asked my wife if she wanted to take a trip up to San Francisco, but I didn’t tell her I wanted to go to Kubla Con and buy-in at Regionals. Now, I guess the joke’s a reality.