I participated in the Madness Games and Comics Imdaar Alpha tournament yesterday in Plano, TX. We had 26 people show up, enough people for 5 rounds of swiss pairings and a cut to top 8.

I'm disappointed with my performance; I went 4-1 and still didn't finish in the top 4 . I finished in 5th and lost in the quarter finals to none other than the infamous SableGryphon.

I don't know the numbers, but it looked like rebels scum outnumbered the Empire. In the top 8, there were at least 3 builds that featured Chewbacca. The top 8 was close to balanced, with 5 rebel scum and 3 Empire players.

I was one of the Empire players:

• Howlrunner + Determination
• Academy Pilot x4
• Soontir Fel + Push The Limit + Targeting Computer

This is a variant of the build I brought to the store champs that had an extra AP and Dark Curse instead of Fel (and Stealth Device on Howl). In that list, Dark Curse was the bait and the TIEs were there to do some wreckage. The strategy with this list is to waste time with the TIEs and do as much damage as possible to get to the end game. If my opponent leaves Fel on the board, I knew that Fel in the end game is a wrecking ball of death.

It was the first time I had flown this list in person. I practiced during the week to reacquaint myself with flying squints. Other players at Madness have told me that while my luck is usually poor and my list building is decent, I really shine in piloting skill. I am also good at predicting my opponent and forcing them to make bad decisions. Most of the time my luck means I have to significantly out-fly and out-think my opponent. Most of the games I played during Imdaar, I was able to impose my will on my opponent, except for the game against Sable.

Round 1: Played a Madness regular, Don, who openly admitted to bringing a troll-ish list. He brought something in the ballpark of:

• Chewbacca + Opportunist
• Garven Dreis
• Biggs Darklighter + R2-F2

I managed to not land any hits on Biggs in the first volley, and he separated Garven from the group to avoid Fel coming in from behind and dishing out some pain. That worked to my advantage because I killed Biggs in the next volley, and was able to take a range 1 shot on Garven with target lock and focus with no return fire coming to Fel. That's a 50% chance of smacking Garven for 3+ damage. The dice gods scorned me again and only 1 hit went through. I lost Howl to Chewbacca and the pain that is Opportunist, turned my TIEs to Garven to try to rid the table of 3 more attack dice, but after 5 attack rounds of something on the order of 15 hits, Don managed to throw enough evades to take no damage. Slowly but surely, Chewbacca picked my guys apart and I lost this match.

Round 2: Another Madness regular, Darian, brought a bomber build I was positive I could beat this time (didn't have much luck last time we played):

• Gamma Squadron Pilot + Proton Bomb + assorted missiles x4

I decided to force him to make a decision and make him play on my terms instead of his. He lined his bombers up against my TIEs and I hung fell out to the side. He came in fast and so did Fel. However, I sent my TIEs to 1 hard right to drag along the back of the map. My plan was to either see if he would chase Fel (bad move, don't ever chase Fel) or continue chasing the TIEs, so I could let Fel do some damage from behind. He took an even worse move and split up his forces; he sent 2 bombers to Fel and 2 in fast to the TIEs. Fel mocked them and danced around them, registering minimal damage on the ship, but the damage in the game had been done. His slow moving bombers were trying to chase the hardest to hit ship in the game. He only dropped 2 of his bombs, not enough to kill any of my units (first game where Determination saved Howl). I spread fire around to 3 of the bombers and brought Fel for the kill on the last one. At that point, Darian conceded.

Darian is a good sport and I enjoy playing him. Unfortunately, he had personal matters to attend and had to leave. That meant I received 0 points towards my strength of schedule. There were apparently a handful of people that did this, which meant there were plenty of us with ruined SoS.

Round 3: I don't remember the gentleman's name who I played, but it was another rebel scum build. This time it was something along the lines of:

• Dutch Vander + Ion Cannon Turret
• Blue Squadron Pilot x2
• Hobbie Klivian + R3-A2

That's not exact because he was at 100 points and that's only 99 points. This was a difficult game and I had to climb back from behind to win. This was the second time Howl was killed in a single shot. I stuck Fel with the TIEs because he lined up in a very tight formation off-center. I flew the TIEs in slow, taking 2 1-hard turns to position properly for the asteroids while Fel snaked around the side. He banked to confront Fel but was only allowed a single shot. Fel fired 2 shots on Dutch enough to lay down a crit which stripped him of his Ion Cannon. I rammed his B-Wings and wasted time while Fel dealt out plenty of punishment. In fact, Fel managed to avoid getting shot at for rest of the game. I took out Dutch and then one of the B-Wings. Hobbie flew away from combat and Fel caught him a bad spot and dished out tons of damage with no return fire. It came down to time in this game so we had to finish the combat round where he had one B-Wing left and I had an undamaged TIE and Fel. I guessed wrong on his movement and he got a free range 1 shot on the TIE. If I rolled 1 evade, I would have a full win; dice gods decided I deserved all blanks. So I had to settle on the modified win (just 2 points off).

Round 4: A mirror match against someone I have never played (and I don't recall his name):

• Carnor Jax + Hull + Targeting Computer + Royal Guard + Push the Limit
• Howlrunner + Hull
• Academy Pilot x4

Initiative was the name of the game here. He was sitting at 100 points and I was at 99. For an inexperienced player, he did very well. Unfortunately for him, I forced a big mistake and the dice gods punished him even further. He kept a loose formation and decided to try to fly through the asteroids while I kept a tight formation and was going to fly around the asteroids. Meanwhile, Fel swooped in from behind to score some key damage before Howl's gang came in to clean up. My dice were much better than his but that wasn't the decision factor. Having initiative meant that I was able to strip actions and clean TIEs off the board faster. Jax caused me some heartburn but Fel didn't seem to care. This one came to time because I couldn't kill his last TIE on the run, but I only lost a single TIE fighter (88-12 left on the board).

Round 5: Another Madness regular and a player that I dreaded playing. Justin, JFitz, brought his Jonus bomber squad:

• Captain Jonus + Determination
• Scimitar TIE Bombers + 2 assorted missiles (clusters and assault IIRC) x2
• Academy Pilot x2

I have never beaten Justin in the half-dozen games we've played and I wasn't expecting to here. He's a very good pilot and very comfortable with this squad. I knew the only way I would stand a chance was if 1) I killed those TIEs fast and 2) Fel wrecked the bombers before they could put on the hurt. Unfortunately how he lined up, I had to hang Fel with Howl. However, he did something I wasn't expecting: flew the bombers around the outside trying to get better positioning. I took advantage and killed both TIEs without taking any damage. One of his TIEs was near dead and he thought I was going to make the TIEs finish kill it, but I raced the TIEs to confront the bombers hoping to get too close for the assault missiles. I let Fel kill off the TIE so it couldn't fire again, but the TIEs were hit hard by the missles and 2 went down in 1 round, with the other 3 taking splash damage from the assault missiles. The rest of the game I spent weathering missiles while Fel snaked in for key shots. It looked bad when he had all of his bombers still on the table with only about 2-3 damage each. I brought Fel in for a surprise range 1 attack on Jonus to spoil his remaining missiles and landed a crushing blow. It came down to about 10 minutes left, he had only 1 bomber left and I had Howl, a TIE, and Fel. Justin conceded, citing Fel as his inevitable killer.

At this point, we had been playing for 8 hours. It was about 8:30 PM and Matt announced the top 16 and top 8. Then the TO announced what I knew would be my last opponent: SableGryphon.

Sable has a knack for list building and I have only beaten him once (store champs). When he wins, he usually crushes me. When the TO announced I was playing him, I let out a groan and congratulated Matt on his inevitable victory, followed by good-natured wishing of poor luck. Sable brought the one list I stood no chance against:

• Chewbacca + Opportunist + Han Solo
• Blue Squadron Pilot + Sensor Jammer

If you've read this much, you'll see why this is instant death for me. Howl is now neutered by the sensor jammer and Opportunist + Han forces bad decisions on a TIE Interceptor. Fel couldn't spend his actions for maneuvering as freely as he had every game. I decided to see if I could stick Fel with Howl again and let him snake around for some range 1 shots on the B-Wings. If they were going to force a focus, I'd like to at least have a TL, focus, and evade to prevent Opportunist and max damage output. Unfortunately, after almost 9 hours, I made a mistake and Sable punished me for it. Fel took too hard of a turn and bumped a TIE. Chewie made sure to 1-shot him. The dice weren't in my favor, but I was out piloted against a direct counter to my list.

At the end of the day I learned a few lessons:

• The only ship that stands a chance against Fel (currently) is the Falcon, especially the Opportunist Falcon. Fel will out-fly, out-hit, and out-smart his opponents every time.
• Fel was only killed by the Opportunist Falcon and registered countless kills.
• Losing Howl early means I have to claw my way back and that takes time.
• Determination is awesome; it prevents 25% of the crits and saved Howl on 3 occasions.
• Anyone that targets Fel early pays the price, Anyone that ignores Fel pays the price. Most of my opponents wanted to kill Howl first.
• As long as Fel is on the board, the game isn't over. If it comes down to a few partially damaged ships (that aren't the Falcon), then Fel will kill them all.
• If Fel is within range of Howl and range 1 of an opponent, that is most assuredly 4 hits.
• I prefer mixing up my speed early on, depending on my opponent. I have to control the pace of the game with this list, which means I need to dictate when and how combat occurs.

Fel earned his bloodstripes and I hope I did for finally making the finals. I'll have to rethink how I play against these Falcon lists in the future.

To all of my opponents, thank you for the games. I hope the winners enjoy their early releases. I'm glad to know that all of the players in the top 8 were Madness regulars. I fully expect a similar result at Regionals next month. I really think many of the regulars at Madness are of national caliber skill and whomever wins will definitely have earned it.

lol, I show you disappointment: Points destroyed, 0; Points lost, 99. 2 matches (3rd one was a buy because well I was dead last place).

So I bought the CR90, maybe that will help me next time.

Okay so that was a bad battle report (spoiler alert). First time building a list for a tournament. I think I half failed at list set up and half failed at movement.

Okay picking the ships. I was trying to pick an idea to use Kyle Katan as a focus battery but then after looking at my other builds for ships I swapped Katan for a cheaper pilot and adopted an Ion Canon build.

Rebel Ships.

HWK -290, Roark Garnet w/ Ion Cannon Turret

Y-Wing, Horton Salm w/Ion Cannon Turret & Proton Torpedoes

X-Wing, Wedge Antilles w/Adv. Proton Torpedoes & Marksmanship (basically an assassin build)

I had more upgrades but they didn't do much, a one point upgrade was pointed out invalid to me which didn't effect the match (mainly because the ship that had it was destroyed before it was used) so the card was just discarded and the match continued so only 98 points. (Continue the Noobness)

.

First was Rebel on Rebel. It was a small tournament and out of 7 players only one played imperial. I went up against 2 X-wings (Wedge and Biggs) and 2 B-Wings (Generic No Names).

I flew Roark in front of the formation of 2 B-Wings and an X-wing. I was able to use his pilot ability to have Horton Ionize a B-Wing as the first shot, still due to bad maneuvering I placed the most fragile of the 3 fighters in the firing arc of 3 Firepower 3 ships reduced Roark to scrap in the 2nd turn (the first turn nothing happen because no one was in range).

The 3rd turn was interesting, I manage to fly my Y-Wing behind the squadron of the other player. Due to the ionized B wing wedge and the other B wing ended up bumping in to each other. instead of taking the advantage and move my move my X-Wing out of the firing Arc because it would have been closer to asteroids I tried a desperation move and went straight for a B-wing and target locked it. It would have worked if it were not for Biggs being right behind them. I wanted to try the Adv. Proton Torpedoes Marksmanship combo but Biggs was at range 2. I had to shoot at him and only took down 1 shield. Horton Ionized the other B-Wing, and his Wedge wasted my Wedge (with the help of his other 2 B-Wings).

Nothing much to say of the other turns. I couldn't land another Ion shot to save Horton's life. He ended up doubling back forcing the other fighters to K-turn then they finally caught up with the lumbering Y-Wing.

Okay now for the second round (did I mention ahem* SPOILER ALERT I got annihilated on this one too?)

Went against the only Imperial player in the tournament who also got whipped (lost all ships, damaged/destroyed none). He was flying a Budget Boba Fet (I forgot which one) with the captive card, Royal Guard Interceptor, Dark Curse and Backstabber.

So trying not to fly my HWK into suicide again I aimed in between his squadron as he split his Fire-spray and Curse on one side and Royal Guard and Backstabber on the other side. Still I flew in the firing arc of backstabber who did not have to barrel roll to get outside of my firing arc (I'm still a noob on the maneuver dial). I managed to Ionized the Boba cough* I mean the Firespray with both my Ion cannons Causing Curse who was right behind him to bump into him. Wedge bumped into the Fire Spray so he couldn't do anything. My Y wing and HWK Went ahead close to asteroids. Backstabber and the Royal Guard blew up Roark. Curse shot at wedge. and I couldn't roll an evade or focus to save my life except for wedge who was all focus for once in the game but had no focus token. I also couldn't roll a hit with my Ion Cannons.

Around turn 4 or 5 Horton and Backstabber tried a one in a million shot to shoot through 2 asteroids at range 3. We both rolled like garbage for evade but did manage to evade enough to avoid the shots. I rolled 3 hits and he rolled 3 evades out of 6. He rolled 1 hit and I rolled 1 evade out of 5. Wedge was space dust by the Firespray and Curse. At on time I thought I had scored a hit at the Firespray as we measured the distance. He was within 1 so I couldn't use Horton's ability to reroll blanks so I target locked it. Fired the Proton Torpedoes and did the damaged cockpit. Then I realized that Proton Torpedoes range is 2-3 so I told him that that damage didn't count and discarded my proton torpedoes anyways. Nothing much to say the 4 ships converged on the surrounded Y-Wing and Horton heard a Why (Okay totally a bad pun).

Well what I learned is probably something other players probably already know. You need more than 3 ships (with the exception of Millennium Falcon & Wedge Antilles). And that means you will need those generic no-name pilots. Sure they will move first and shoot last but they're cheap and you can take more of them. You really want 1 or maybe 2 named Pilots and the rest be the Red Shirts so you have more ships on the board and more points to spend on upgrades. Also balancing my upgrades and abilities would be nice. Roak doesn't work too well with high pilot skill because they usually shoot first anyways. So even if he wasn't the first one to go down his ability wasn't that good to begin with.

I think I'll try imperial next time. I am limiting myself with 1 named pilot. So I am going with the Tie bomber pilot Major Rhymer. Following by Tempest squadron (Tie Advanced) Alpha Squadron (Tie Interceptor) and 2 Imperial Academy Pilots. So 5 ships with a total of 89 Points. I am thinking of the Marksmanship + Adv. Proton combo which will leave me with room for a Seismic Charge or Double Proton Torpedoes which leaves me 3 points for a proximity mine.

Wedge is a good counter to Fel as well. I've killed Fel many time with him. In general I've won against Fel way more times than lost, even though he's often a pain to take down. It's always one bad roll that does him in usually, not death by attrition.

lol, I show you disappointment: Points destroyed, 0; Points lost, 99. 2 matches (3rd one was a buy because well I was dead last place).

So I bought the CR90, maybe that will help me next time.

Okay so that was a bad battle report (spoiler alert). First time building a list for a tournament. I think I half failed at list set up and half failed at movement.

Okay picking the ships. I was trying to pick an idea to use Kyle Katan as a focus battery but then after looking at my other builds for ships I swapped Katan for a cheaper pilot and adopted an Ion Canon build.

Rebel Ships.

HWK -290, Roark Garnet w/ Ion Cannon Turret

Y-Wing, Horton Salm w/Ion Cannon Turret & Proton Torpedoes

X-Wing, Wedge Antilles w/Adv. Proton Torpedoes & Marksmanship (basically an assassin build)

I had more upgrades but they didn't do much, a one point upgrade was pointed out invalid to me which didn't effect the match (mainly because the ship that had it was destroyed before it was used) so the card was just discarded and the match continued so only 98 points. (Continue the Noobness)

.

First was Rebel on Rebel. It was a small tournament and out of 7 players only one played imperial. I went up against 2 X-wings (Wedge and Biggs) and 2 B-Wings (Generic No Names).

I flew Roark in front of the formation of 2 B-Wings and an X-wing. I was able to use his pilot ability to have Horton Ionize a B-Wing as the first shot, still due to bad maneuvering I placed the most fragile of the 3 fighters in the firing arc of 3 Firepower 3 ships reduced Roark to scrap in the 2nd turn (the first turn nothing happen because no one was in range).

The 3rd turn was interesting, I manage to fly my Y-Wing behind the squadron of the other player. Due to the ionized B wing wedge and the other B wing ended up bumping in to each other. instead of taking the advantage and move my move my X-Wing out of the firing Arc because it would have been closer to asteroids I tried a desperation move and went straight for a B-wing and target locked it. It would have worked if it were not for Biggs being right behind them. I wanted to try the Adv. Proton Torpedoes Marksmanship combo but Biggs was at range 2. I had to shoot at him and only took down 1 shield. Horton Ionized the other B-Wing, and his Wedge wasted my Wedge (with the help of his other 2 B-Wings).

Nothing much to say of the other turns. I couldn't land another Ion shot to save Horton's life. He ended up doubling back forcing the other fighters to K-turn then they finally caught up with the lumbering Y-Wing.

Okay now for the second round (did I mention ahem* SPOILER ALERT I got annihilated on this one too?)

Went against the only Imperial player in the tournament who also got whipped (lost all ships, damaged/destroyed none). He was flying a Budget Boba Fet (I forgot which one) with the captive card, Royal Guard Interceptor, Dark Curse and Backstabber.

So trying not to fly my HWK into suicide again I aimed in between his squadron as he split his Fire-spray and Curse on one side and Royal Guard and Backstabber on the other side. Still I flew in the firing arc of backstabber who did not have to barrel roll to get outside of my firing arc (I'm still a noob on the maneuver dial). I managed to Ionized the Boba cough* I mean the Firespray with both my Ion cannons Causing Curse who was right behind him to bump into him. Wedge bumped into the Fire Spray so he couldn't do anything. My Y wing and HWK Went ahead close to asteroids. Backstabber and the Royal Guard blew up Roark. Curse shot at wedge. and I couldn't roll an evade or focus to save my life except for wedge who was all focus for once in the game but had no focus token. I also couldn't roll a hit with my Ion Cannons.

Around turn 4 or 5 Horton and Backstabber tried a one in a million shot to shoot through 2 asteroids at range 3. We both rolled like garbage for evade but did manage to evade enough to avoid the shots. I rolled 3 hits and he rolled 3 evades out of 6. He rolled 1 hit and I rolled 1 evade out of 5. Wedge was space dust by the Firespray and Curse. At on time I thought I had scored a hit at the Firespray as we measured the distance. He was within 1 so I couldn't use Horton's ability to reroll blanks so I target locked it. Fired the Proton Torpedoes and did the damaged cockpit. Then I realized that Proton Torpedoes range is 2-3 so I told him that that damage didn't count and discarded my proton torpedoes anyways. Nothing much to say the 4 ships converged on the surrounded Y-Wing and Horton heard a Why (Okay totally a bad pun).

Well what I learned is probably something other players probably already know. You need more than 3 ships (with the exception of Millennium Falcon & Wedge Antilles). And that means you will need those generic no-name pilots. Sure they will move first and shoot last but they're cheap and you can take more of them. You really want 1 or maybe 2 named Pilots and the rest be the Red Shirts so you have more ships on the board and more points to spend on upgrades. Also balancing my upgrades and abilities would be nice. Roak doesn't work too well with high pilot skill because they usually shoot first anyways. So even if he wasn't the first one to go down his ability wasn't that good to begin with.

I think I'll try imperial next time. I am limiting myself with 1 named pilot. So I am going with the Tie bomber pilot Major Rhymer. Following by Tempest squadron (Tie Advanced) Alpha Squadron (Tie Interceptor) and 2 Imperial Academy Pilots. So 5 ships with a total of 89 Points. I am thinking of the Marksmanship + Adv. Proton combo which will leave me with room for a Seismic Charge or Double Proton Torpedoes which leaves me 3 points for a proximity mine.

I faced you second. Yeah your list didn't have much synergy besides the double ion cannons for ioning my Firespray. Also, you placed asteroid right to my liking. I put asteroids purposefully on my side and you did as well. My fast ties can quickly get threw them and now I have half a playing area of un-obstructed manuever space. Also, adv. torps look sexy, but they really are a waste of points. You have to get in close and be TL'd and focused. Sometimes that is really hard to do.

Unfortunately my other two games went like yours. I got rolled. Dice were bad, flying was poor, target selection garbage, etc.

Well, it was a nice battle report. Sorry I had to destroy you.

I played 11 games with my list over two tournaments and lost twice (not counting the two finals, which had different lists and I went 1-1 in those). Both times with was a bit of bad luck coupled with skilled opponents. Chewy can be utterly brutal and that opportunist can seriously change how you fly. I'm still thinking about dropping it for Predator and C-3P0. I might try that list out and see what I think.

That said, Han Solo is an incredible crew card. He leaves you open to Opportunist (though it's Chewy so he can take a couple extra damage over the course of the game), but it means that you can target lock something, roll, and you never have to deal with the pain of looking down at 5 eyes with a target lock or 5 blanks with a focus. Several times Han let me obliterate ships I otherwise would have knicked.

You played well in the tournament. The mistake with Fel was brutal and with Interceptors, one mistake is all you get most times. Still, it was an honor to face you and I look forward to our next game.

lol, I show you disappointment: Points destroyed, 0; Points lost, 99. 2 matches (3rd one was a buy because well I was dead last place).

So I bought the CR90, maybe that will help me next time.

Okay so that was a bad battle report (spoiler alert). First time building a list for a tournament. I think I half failed at list set up and half failed at movement.

Okay picking the ships. I was trying to pick an idea to use Kyle Katan as a focus battery but then after looking at my other builds for ships I swapped Katan for a cheaper pilot and adopted an Ion Canon build.

Rebel Ships.

HWK -290, Roark Garnet w/ Ion Cannon Turret

Y-Wing, Horton Salm w/Ion Cannon Turret & Proton Torpedoes

X-Wing, Wedge Antilles w/Adv. Proton Torpedoes & Marksmanship (basically an assassin build)

I had more upgrades but they didn't do much, a one point upgrade was pointed out invalid to me which didn't effect the match (mainly because the ship that had it was destroyed before it was used) so the card was just discarded and the match continued so only 98 points. (Continue the Noobness)

.

First was Rebel on Rebel. It was a small tournament and out of 7 players only one played imperial. I went up against 2 X-wings (Wedge and Biggs) and 2 B-Wings (Generic No Names).

I flew Roark in front of the formation of 2 B-Wings and an X-wing. I was able to use his pilot ability to have Horton Ionize a B-Wing as the first shot, still due to bad maneuvering I placed the most fragile of the 3 fighters in the firing arc of 3 Firepower 3 ships reduced Roark to scrap in the 2nd turn (the first turn nothing happen because no one was in range).

The 3rd turn was interesting, I manage to fly my Y-Wing behind the squadron of the other player. Due to the ionized B wing wedge and the other B wing ended up bumping in to each other. instead of taking the advantage and move my move my X-Wing out of the firing Arc because it would have been closer to asteroids I tried a desperation move and went straight for a B-wing and target locked it. It would have worked if it were not for Biggs being right behind them. I wanted to try the Adv. Proton Torpedoes Marksmanship combo but Biggs was at range 2. I had to shoot at him and only took down 1 shield. Horton Ionized the other B-Wing, and his Wedge wasted my Wedge (with the help of his other 2 B-Wings).

Nothing much to say of the other turns. I couldn't land another Ion shot to save Horton's life. He ended up doubling back forcing the other fighters to K-turn then they finally caught up with the lumbering Y-Wing.

Okay now for the second round (did I mention ahem* SPOILER ALERT I got annihilated on this one too?)

Went against the only Imperial player in the tournament who also got whipped (lost all ships, damaged/destroyed none). He was flying a Budget Boba Fet (I forgot which one) with the captive card, Royal Guard Interceptor, Dark Curse and Backstabber.

So trying not to fly my HWK into suicide again I aimed in between his squadron as he split his Fire-spray and Curse on one side and Royal Guard and Backstabber on the other side. Still I flew in the firing arc of backstabber who did not have to barrel roll to get outside of my firing arc (I'm still a noob on the maneuver dial). I managed to Ionized the Boba cough* I mean the Firespray with both my Ion cannons Causing Curse who was right behind him to bump into him. Wedge bumped into the Fire Spray so he couldn't do anything. My Y wing and HWK Went ahead close to asteroids. Backstabber and the Royal Guard blew up Roark. Curse shot at wedge. and I couldn't roll an evade or focus to save my life except for wedge who was all focus for once in the game but had no focus token. I also couldn't roll a hit with my Ion Cannons.

Around turn 4 or 5 Horton and Backstabber tried a one in a million shot to shoot through 2 asteroids at range 3. We both rolled like garbage for evade but did manage to evade enough to avoid the shots. I rolled 3 hits and he rolled 3 evades out of 6. He rolled 1 hit and I rolled 1 evade out of 5. Wedge was space dust by the Firespray and Curse. At on time I thought I had scored a hit at the Firespray as we measured the distance. He was within 1 so I couldn't use Horton's ability to reroll blanks so I target locked it. Fired the Proton Torpedoes and did the damaged cockpit. Then I realized that Proton Torpedoes range is 2-3 so I told him that that damage didn't count and discarded my proton torpedoes anyways. Nothing much to say the 4 ships converged on the surrounded Y-Wing and Horton heard a Why (Okay totally a bad pun).

Well what I learned is probably something other players probably already know. You need more than 3 ships (with the exception of Millennium Falcon & Wedge Antilles). And that means you will need those generic no-name pilots. Sure they will move first and shoot last but they're cheap and you can take more of them. You really want 1 or maybe 2 named Pilots and the rest be the Red Shirts so you have more ships on the board and more points to spend on upgrades. Also balancing my upgrades and abilities would be nice. Roak doesn't work too well with high pilot skill because they usually shoot first anyways. So even if he wasn't the first one to go down his ability wasn't that good to begin with.

I think I'll try imperial next time. I am limiting myself with 1 named pilot. So I am going with the Tie bomber pilot Major Rhymer. Following by Tempest squadron (Tie Advanced) Alpha Squadron (Tie Interceptor) and 2 Imperial Academy Pilots. So 5 ships with a total of 89 Points. I am thinking of the Marksmanship + Adv. Proton combo which will leave me with room for a Seismic Charge or Double Proton Torpedoes which leaves me 3 points for a proximity mine.

I was also at this event, flying the ORS and taking the first-round bye to give my wife her keys back. Some general observations:

1) First off, I got the impression that you're still fairly new to the game, so don't feel too frustrated. You're still building a fleet, figuring out which ships/faction you like, learning how/when to pilot in formation, use asteroids and so on. The only way to get better at that is to play against good players. I spent about three months getting my butt kicked every week by Richard, which is like the X-Wing equivelent of running through swamps with Yoda on your back.

2) Ion Cannons are good, but you need to have an offensive threat to take advantage of the control. 50% of the red dice in your build came from Wedge, who had almost no protection when attacked and had to get into Range 1 to fire that torpedo. That generally meant that he was going to be in Range 1 for the counter-attack, and that's a situation that's going to see him killed.

2) The HWK is a great ship when you have three or four other, more threatening models on the board. It's a terrible ship if you're using it as one of three. When flying a smaller squadron, you really need a way to reliably push out damage to clear enemies off the board. That's not possible when the most you could hope to do is two damage at range 1.

3) I had mentioned it to you yesterday, but reconsider the Recon Specialist as a crew member. For the points, it is possibly the second best generic crew member in the game after Gunner. Even without Kyle, a Blaster Turret or the Moldy Crow title, I think you were underestimating the power of two Focus tokens for one action. It means that you can use one on offense while keeping one for defense. Alternately, on something like an HWK or Slave-1, it means that you can spend two focus tokens on defense. That's the sort of thing that may make an opponent reconsider shooting at him in the first place, because you can mitigate a lot more damage and force them to spend more of an effort to kill you.

Since you bought the Tantive IV, you also have the Han Solo and C3PO crew member cards. There might be some synergy to be found when using Han Solo as a crew member on an HWK, especially paired with someone like Dutch Vander. It's something I would probably play with if I could justify spending money on a Tantive.

Good write up!

It's funny how you say you were dreading facing me, because I was really dreading facing you! I KNEW Fel was going to be a real headache against my bombers! You did well and I'm glad you made top 8 at least. I was 9th.... Over alI I made some serious mistakes that ultimately kept me from the top 8.

Oh and minor correction, I had Gammas not Scimitars.

JFitz, have you considered dropping those Gammas down to Scimitars and adding in Munitions Failsafe? Once you lost Jonus, those remaining missiles weren't very effective. Oh and I was dreading playing you, Sable, and Don, and somehow played all 3 of you (lost to 66% of you too...).

JFitz, have you considered dropping those Gammas down to Scimitars and adding in Munitions Failsafe? Once you lost Jonus, those remaining missiles weren't very effective. Oh and I was dreading playing you, Sable, and Don, and somehow played all 3 of you (lost to 66% of you too...).

I think Gammas are the right choice. It gives him the PS he needs for target locks and allows him to take threats off the board before they can fire.

I am the mysterious 3rd player. I thought I had you when hobbie cleared howl. But losing that ion ruined me in that match. The sole reason I brought that cannon was to punish ptl interceptors. I enjoy our game and am still reflecting on how I should have played it. Taking forever to clear hobbies stress was a mistake. I just kept waiting for fel to turn up the board but he never did. Thank you for the lesson.

Jfitz. I finished 3 and 2 and 10th overall. Guessing we got squeaked out by SOS. My loss in the first and third matches kept me out of the bonus rounds. Next time.

See y'all at regionals.

Yeah the SOS thing is unfortunate. One of the guys I beat had to leave after I beat him. So that hurt my ranking. Oh well! It was very fun (and tiring lol). Can't wait for regionals!