Rebel Scum Tournament Report [36 Players, North West Gaming Centre]
Me and a group of friends had only been playing the game for a few months. We actually got into it after I picked up the Gears of War boardgame after Christmas and us enjoying it so much that we decided to try some other FFG games.
4 of us went to this event, which I think was the second biggest X-Wing tournament held in the UK so far. We had no idea how we would do as we had literally only played between the 6 of us in our little gaming group and as we play at my place, we actually play on a round table and had only had 1 game each on an actual square table at one of the other guys houses.
With that in mind we went into this event just hoping to pick up a couple of wins each. Id won most of our practice games and one of the guys had actually only won 2 games prior to heading to this so he was just hoping for a win!
Here is what I took:
Krassis; HLC, Recon Spec
Howlrunner;
Academy TIE;
Academy TIE;
Academy TIE;
I settled on this as my Imperial list after a few weeks of playing as I love the Firespray rules but also wanted to get some TIE fighters into my list. I had read some things over on the Team Covenant site about this kind of list not really working but I enjoyed using it and it was doing well for me albeit in our small practice group and on the wrong kind of table!
Pre Tournament Tactics: I obviously run the TIEs in a little square with Howly at the back corner. I try to avoid soft turns as much as possible and rush on my opponent as quickly as possible. I try to tuck Krass in just behind the swarm so that after the initial engagement coupled with me engaging quickly with long moves, I can often K my TIEs in behind the enemy, have my spray blocking K's to PS <5 Pilots and then either soft turn with Krass and still get a re roll from Howly from my back arc or just K him too if he fits.
Andy Robbo took;
Han; Expert Handling, Nien Numb, Chewwy
Wedge;
Y-Wing;
His list went through a lot of changes before the event as we kept tinkering with it after each of his losses until his last 3 games before the event, he pushed me really close twice and then signed off with a big win against my mini swarm.
Dan took;
Dagger B; HLC, FCS
Biggs;
Rookie X;
Rookie X;
Ste took;
Kyle; Mouldy Crow, Recon Spec, Vet Instincts, Blaster Turret
Wedge; Expose, R2D2
Biggs; Stealth, R2F2
::Game 1::
Captain Jonus; Assault Missile
Scimitar Squadron; Cluster Missile
Scimitar Squadron; Concussion Missile
Colonel Jendon; Title, Weapons Specialist
I must admit that I played this one badly, maybe I was a little nervous with it being my first tournament but I didn't play my usual way. I think the Assault Missile really got into my head too and I should have just ignored it and played my own game. I come up the right flank with the TIEs spread more than usual thanks to that Assault Missile.
My opponent took the centre of the table with some soft turns and a few bumps. I really wanted Krassis to deal with Jonus before he could get his missiles away and It was looking good after I took him down to a single hull after the first salvo.
In the next turn I figured Krass should finish him off and another bump had prevented Jonus getting his Assault Missle off this turn as we had a bit of a car crash with Krass and his fleet in the middle of the table. Krass took some heat from the Captain at short range but the Colonel couldn't shoot me as our big ships had crashed. So with 4 attack at short range on an actionless Captain Jonus I figured I should take him down but I only managed one hit which was evaded.
This then let the two bombers unload their missiles into Krassis and nearly kill him.
I still wanted to stop that Assault Missile getting away so next turn I had Howly at range 1 of him and again, I couldn't take that last hull, so the Missile went off and hit EVERYTHING in my fleet and even his Shuttle!.
I figured I was in pretty big trouble at this point but did finally manage to down Jonus and shoot down the shuttle with the TIEs once I was in behind it but coming into the end game I had;
Acad TIE with 2 hull + Acad TIE with 1 hull left against a Bomber on 6 hull + Bomber on 3.
As these were the only ships left on the table though I was finding it quite easy to stay out of arcs and had quite a few turns with my TIEs getting close range shots on the Bombers [actionless though thanks to Barrel Rolls] but I just couldn't do any damage.
Eventually with time running down and us only having the time for one more turn I put myself in a game winning position. I had a stressed Bomber on 3 hull facing away from both my TIEs at close range and with one of my TIEs having a Focus. His other Bomber was also stressed and could only just reach my 2 hull TIE at long range.
So going into the combat phase I figure I have a pretty good chance of killing his last Bomber, I shouldn't lose anything and that would actually grab me a modified win!
Then his bomber opens up at long range on my two hull TIE, 2 hits, 4 blanks for evade dice and I lose the game, haha. My TIE at close range with a Focus doesn't manage to do any damage at close range in the end though either so I would have needed the first to manage all 3 hits anyway!.
Thoughts; I really enjoyed the game, my opponent was a really nice guy and so a great intro to the x-wing tournament scene for me. I will admit that I didn't play a great game but I think my dice were pretty poor throughout this one, had Jonus gone down when he should have I think id have been able to pick up the win but I think if I would have played my usual game and got my TIEs in close range on that first exchange I would have taken him down despite the dice so its my own fault!
- Mates Progress; All my boys won their first games, 2 of them tabling their opponents pretty quickly!
::Game 2::
This game was against a guy that my mate with the Kyle/Wedge/Biggs list beat in game 1. I cant remember all of the upgrades as he had a lot but it was roughly this;
Shuttle; Vader
Kath; HLC, PTL, Rebel Captive
Mauler Mithel; Shield, PTL
I decided to play my usual aggressive game this time and I rushed my force straight through a gap in the asteroids at his Shuttle, he was actually trying to flank me from my left but because id closed so quickly he still didn't have a bead on me with Kath and Mauler by the time I had engaged the Shuttle. My first salvo so nearly killed the Shuttle, leaving it on 1 hull and it doing no damage back.
Next turn, to make sure I finished the Shuttle before I tried to handle the rest of his list, I blocked it with my first two TIEs and so bumped with Howl and an Acad so I would be shooting him at close range with these two that turn. The Firespray turned to get some shots off at Mithel but still had a back arc on the Shuttle just in case.
Somehow Despite putting 10 shots into it and it having no actions, the Shuttle survived! and then proceeded to flee away from my force. I had to let it go now that his other ships were in on me, my force managed to stay behind Kath at range 2 to avoid any 4 shot turns coming my way and it took her down pretty handily. Once id done this I sent a TIE to go and shoot down the Shuttle which it eventually managed, I was starting to think it was never going to die though as it even went over two asteroids and still wouldn't lose that last hull!. Then it was just a case of trying to pin down Mauler although he did kill a few of my TIEs at close range. I eventually caught him and gunned him down for the full win.
Thoughts: Another really nice opponent and his list seemed a lot of fun to use. I think with his Shuttle essentially out of the game so early it was always going to be an uphill struggle for his two ships to try and pull it back.
- Mates progress; All my mates won again game 2, all with full wins.
::Game 3::
Game 3 was against a guy we are mates with from the Warhammer tournament scene so it was nice to be playing somebody I knew but hadn't played yet. He was running this;
Dagger B; HLC, FCS
Rookie X; Shield
Rookie X; Shield
Rookie X;
This game was pretty short and brutal. He decided to joust at me and because he moved quicker than I expected turn 1 and I moved 5 forward in my first two turns. I was trying to block him as he had deployed his 3 X in a close line with the B just behind so I knew if I could block him I may lose a fire arc on something from 2 TIEs but he would lose actions for his whole force.
With the second 5 straight this achieved just that and still gave all my force a bead on the target I wanted, his B. So I blew away the B after it had put a little damage on Krassis. I still had 1 TIE left to shoot after killing the B thanks to 13 shots with re rolls so the last 3 shots went into the basic X and stripped its 2 Shields. Thanks to his lack of actions and an evade token on Howly it also meant that despite 4 dice each he was only getting two hits from each X on her. The first doing nothing thanks to the evade token and 1 out of 3 evades on the dice and the next two rolls also got 1 out of 3 evades so she survived on a single hull.
Thanks to Krassis' position he couldn't K over me with his X's this turn so he just had to split his force and ended up with only an X with a bead on Krassis whilst my TIEs could K freely. I downed another X this turn and then it was just a case of hunting the others down although he did kill Krassis in the end with an X at close range scoring a direct hit.
Thoughts: This was exactly what I wanted from my list but its hard getting people to joust against it so I usually have to mess about early game and hard turn into their squad to achieve it. I think my opponent was understandably fairly confident in his firepower and those extra shields to get him through the joust but losing those actions cost him massively thanks to the block and Howlys re roll was a real killer. I think he still would have been in the game after that if it hadn't been for Krassis K turn denying. He took the loss in good spirits though and I enjoyed getting a game against him, im sure he will beat me next time we play Fantasy as revenge!
- Mates progress; Ste and Robbo were actually playing on table 1 this game so one of them had to lose and despite a close battle coming down to Kyle and Han having a turret off with 1 hull each, Han just nicked it by shooting first. Dan picked up another win.
::Game 4::
Because of that table 1 game I was now playing Ste.
We had obviously played this match up before the tournament and id won it handily a few times but it had beat some of my other lists. We've been mates for 22 years and always have a laugh so this was always going to be a fun game win or lose. Plus we were quite a few beers in by this point.
We knew know how each other play, so after seeing my mini swarm go down he decided to deploy as far from it as he could to build up his focus stack, I had split Krassis away from my Swarm in case he did this and I wanted Krass to deal with that 4 evade+focus Biggs before my TIEs got into range of him as I knew they wouldn't be able to touch him.
My TIEs spent the first few turns going straight 5 and then hitting a hard 3 through a clear channel in the asteroids to leave me another straight 5 to bring me right on top of him turn 3. He was taking it slowly to build his Focus. Krass had a good first salvo and did some damage and so took off that Stealth device. The second salvo killed Biggs which is just what my TIEs needed as they arrived in combat range although Krassis took 5 damage in return over the first few turns.
Once Biggs was down though my mini swarm tore through Wedge and Kyle. They did manage to down Howly and a TIE before they died though and very nearly killed Krassis.
Thoughts: I think this game was mainly about if Krasiss could kill off Biggs before the TIEs arrived and how quickly I could navigate the asteroids to come and support Krass once this was done and it all went pretty perfectly really.
- Mates progress; Dan and Robbo both won their games and so would be playing each other on table 1 in game 5.
::Game 5::
My opponent had;
Proto A;
Proto A;
Wedge; Adrenaline Rush
Ten Numb; Autoblasters
I obviously wanted to avoid close range with Ten and to deal with him and Wedge as early as I could. Again my opponent deployed in the far corner from my swarm but some hard turns see me through the asteroids pretty easily and I bare down on his Wedge and Ten whilst his A's had split off. I got a bit of damage off early through an asteroid with Krass on an A after it had boosted so had no Focus.
I shot Ten up pretty badly at range but he did get close enough to get a range 1 shot away at Krass, getting 3 out of 3 hits for 3 damage. Krass and the TIEs then blew him away. Next turn it was exactly the same for Wedge but he actually managed 4 out of 4 hits on Krass, no evades for me and 1 was actually a crit that got a Direct Hit. But then Wedge also got blown away by Krass and 4 TIEs at close range.
An A did manage to kill Howly this turn though without an action, 3 shots, 3 hits, no evades.
I was pretty surprised at this point as my opponent seemed to be getting really annoyed about his dice but virtually every shot he had, had hit, besides a few speculative long range efforts with the A's. I think he thought that Ten and Wedge shouldn't have died when they did but I don't think much stands up to 16 attack dice with focus and 4 re rolls.
After this it was a case of hunting down the A's which Krass and the TIEs managed after a bit of a chase.
Thoughts: Again it went pretty much to plan, getting in on him early, although this game I had Krass soaking up the close range hits and the TIEs blocking the K turn as I was worried if Krass ended up alive on his own that he would struggle to get a bead on the A wings if they managed to get him in a flank.
- Mates progress; Surprisingly on table 1, Andy Robbo who had only won 2 games ever going into this event [Han list] had beat Dan and so it would be me and him table 1 in the last game of the tournament for first place. Ste who I beat last round picked up his 3rd win of the day.
::Game 6::
This game was against my mate Andy Robinson using the Han list at the start of this thread. As he was actually 5 tournament points ahead of me I needed a full win to take the tournament, We also knew I could get a full win and still come 2nd if he took enough points off me in the game.
Knowing he could still lose so long as he got enough points off me he focussed his fire on Krassis early game. I actually split Krassis after my first few moves this game as he flanks with Wedge. Thanks to this Krass managed to take out Wedge before he could get at close range although Wedge and Han had already done decent damage to Krassis and as it had all tournament his naked Y wing was chipping away and seemed unable to roll misses!
With Wedge down, Krass could help the TIEs with Han. They had him down to 1 hull but Krass himself was down to 2. Han took a shot at range 2 with no action, he managed to sneak a crit through and it was a direct hit!, so Krassis was down!
The TIEs avenged him in the same turn and then it was really a case of making sure the Y couldn't take out any TIEs, they managed it quite effectively and took him out.
Thoughts: The game was pretty one sided but he did manage to take out Krassis but we weren't sure if it was enough to keep him in first place for the final standings!
::Final Results::
I had just nicked it!, he actually needed another 14 pts in that game to remain on top so either Howly or 2 TIEs.
1st ; Andrew Southern
2nd; Andy Robinson
3rd; Marcus Pitt; Vader Shuttle, Howly, 4 other TIEs
4th; Chris Taylor;
5th; Dan Barnes
Ste finished a respectable 13th too.
We were very surprised to be up there as we really didn't know what to expect or if we had even been playing the game right up until this point as we had only played each other and hadn't even really played on square tables! . Andy Robinson who come second was made up with his final standings after only having 2 wins total before the event!.
It was a really well run tournament and lots of fun, almost everybody was super friendly and it had definitely given us the tournament bug!
Edited by Arguleon Veq