G’day all – I thought I’d write up a tournament report as Nationals seems to generate a bit of interest and I have appreciated it when others have taken the time to do a write up. I particularly enjoyed Paul Heaver’s GenCon top 4 report on TC and his squad building decision process so I thought I would incorporate a bit of squad design background for those interested. If you want to skip straight to the Batreps then just scroll down a couple of paragraphs. Apologies for the length – but I thought our Nationals deserved a bit of extra effort!
Picking a squad to take to Nationals was tough! Now I’m normally a Rebel player and have played pretty much exclusively Rebs since I started playing late in 2013 but since Wave 4 dropped I have been feeling pretty uncomfortable with the Rebels ability to consistently deal with Whisper or Echo without either taking a Falcon or tailoring your squad specifically with Phantoms/Interceptors in mind. I found I could handle Phantoms ok when I designed my Reb squads to beat them but my squad then suffered against Falcons, 4+ ship Rebs and Swarms. I tried many, many different squads and variations of the Rebel builds but I just couldn’t find something that performed consistently and strongly enough outside of a Falcon. The problem is - I’m not a huge fan of flying the Flacon as I just find it’s play style a little boring. No offence to the Falcon players as it takes a lot of skill to keep that bad boy out of trouble, on good lines and dealing consistent damage to pull its weight and survive for the points win, but it just isn’t really my thing. I enjoy the tactical manoeuvre and arc placement of the small ships.
I’ve been playing regularly against 2 opponents a couple of times a week for a while now (as well as as many Vassal games as I can squeeze in between work and family), one plays various 4-6 ships Rebel builds quite well and the other plays exclusively Interceptors and Phantoms with the occasional Tie filler thrown in. He had been running me ragged with any combo of Soontir/Jax/Turr/Whisper/Echo since Wave 4 dropped and I had actually become quite good at picking his lines and moves and I slowly started to find myself enjoying watching Whisper’s play style...
So with that in mind I decided to turn to the power of the Dark Side!
I have played a few games here and there with Imperials to get a feel for each of the ships, their dials and importantly – how the player feels when he is moving his ultra slippery but fragile Ace around but I haven’t dedicated myself to anything more than the odd weekend fling and I hadn’t taken them into a tournament yet. It was time to lean.
I have always enjoyed playing Tie Fighters and I love how Howlrunner is the Imperial Biggs. Squad basics solved. Whisper + a Howl Minni Swarm. I doubled checked my logic against an FFG news article I remembered Doug Kinney’s wrote a while ago that featured a Phantom + Minni Swarm build and thought that if it’s good enough for the 2012 World Champ then I’m probably on the right track. I played around with different upgrades until I settled on what I think is a great take all comers build with a respectable initiative bid:
42 Whisper, VI, FCS, Reb Cap, ACD
20 Howl, Swarm
36 AP x 3
-98-
Whisper with that loadout is nasty. There is no 2 ways about it – she is Bridzilla on a bad day. Rebel Captive is the real centrepiece upgrade on Whisper for me and I found it gives some opponents a strange sense of helplessness against her. It’s almost like the Rebel Captive tips them over the edge of do I try to shoot at Whisper or do I ignore her for now and go after the minni swarm Instead.. There is (usually) no right option and it makes a tough decision tougher for your opponent.
I slowly grew to love Swarm Tactics on Howl after initially running Hull and found that both the extra point for the initiative bid and extra AP firing at PS8 made a big difference. I think Swarm Tactics alone helped me drop a couple of ships over the course of the Championships before they had a chance to fire back.
I play tested a lot and used this squad exclusively prior to the Nationals so I was feeling pretty good about the squad and very comfortable with Whisper and what role I wanted her to play – especially against Falcons. I think I was around 25-1 with the squad before the Championships began.
Enough waffle – onto the games.
Rnd 1 – Regional bye
Rnd 2
–
43 Echo, Outmanoeuvre, Adv Sen, Reb Cap, ACD
20 Howl, Decoy
36 AP x 3
-99-
Just a note on asteroid placement and my minni swarm setup for the day – I would generally place the asteroids in a way that put the majority on my side yet allowed a couple of access lanes out into the middle. I would do this to make my opponents K-Turning and formation flying a bit thought towards my side as well as giving Whisper some breathing space once she got towards the middle of the map. I would setup the minni swarm in a standard pinwheel towards a corner. Whisper would be placed to best suit my opponent’s squad deployment.
I took initiative. After setup I had my entire squad on the left flank – my opponent had his ties almost opposite mine with Echo nagging out by herself on the right flank. My plan was full steam ahead to reduce the my opponents minni swarm with mine + Whisper before Echo arrived. Turn 2 saw that occur and we traded Howl’s but I did some more damage as well. Turn 3 Echo arrived and I split a solo Tie and sent Whisper after her knowing that whoever’s Phantom went down it was GG. I Decloaked Whisper and threw her straight into range 2 of Echo and went aggressive with a focus as I also had a Tie at Range 1 with a focus. The resulting exchange was that I dropped Echo’s shields with Whisper and removed her focus token as well. Without Focus Echo couldn’t kill the Tie and the lowly Academy converted 3 hits. 4 Dice evade without actions resulted in 1 Evade and 2 eyeballs from memory. GG. Interesting to note I had a dial slip in this game with a Tie and had not come across the rule before – I vaguely remembered reading the new Tourney rules but wasn’t quite sure so we simply asked the TO and then let my opponent choose which move he wanted me to take. He promptly turned me the opposite way! A solid rule by FFG and I think a good and fair way to resolve the issue. I made sure to stand on all my dials to tighten them up after that!
Win 100 – 32.
Rnd3 -
28 Sigma, Intel Agent, Stygium
24 Omicron, Vader
48 AP x 4
-100-
I took initiative and set myself up near a heavy asteroid field on my side of the table on the left flank. I did this because I could see an access lane out for my minni swarm but thought it would make it hard for my opponent to converge his ships and focus fire in the same area. Normally I would leave a space Cow for last but he played it very aggressively and in such a way that he could follow me up if I ignored him – well played. So I went after the Shuttle with Whisper while our minni swarms duelled in an asteroid field and his Phantom hung out at the rear to keep me from getting better table position and keeping Whisper honest. Vader choked Howl and his minni swarm had the better of me. After the dust settled it was down to Whisper vs his Sigma and 2 Ties with 20 minutes to go. I needed to either kill both his Ties or his Sigma for the win. His Sigma was being elusive and I think trying to suck me into chasing him whilst cloaked with a Evade Token so I decided to go for the Ties until I he committed it and I could shoot it whilst Decloaked at close range. Time was running out but Whisper was too strong and I ended up with the win.
Win 100 – 58.
Rnd4 -
51 Chewie, Pred, Gunner, Title
48 Bandit x 4
-99-
Now this was a great game – I would rate it as the closest, most nail biting games I have ever played in.
I took initiative. Ouch! Tough match up for me for a couple of reasons. 1 – He had a solid squad and enough Bandits to get in the way of me going after Chewie early as well as Chewie was packing an efficient Imperial killing loadout. 2. He is regarded as one of the better players in Aus and has used almost the same squad as I have extensively so he knows how it works. My plan was to throw everything at Chewie early then clean up the Bandits. Like all good plans though... He protected Chewie beautifully and I couldn’t avoid the Bandits in my face while Chewie sat fat, dumb and happy at the back behind some rocks at Range 3... I played Whisper poorly in the opening 2 exchanges and she didn’t get a shot – The first round I couldn’t confidently judge if she was in range and I didn’t want to risk it so I cloaked. The second round my opponent surprised me by deliberately bumping all his ships including Chewie to keep them all in place and Whispers position combined with the dial move didn’t allow her to Decloak without significant risk again so I kept her cloaked again. My opponents clever play combined with my failure to predict his deliberate squad stalling had cost me dearly as Howl was gone and my Ties were hurt compared to Chewie being untouched and him still having all 4 Bandits. Whisper had work to do. I decided the time for subtlety was over and Whisper on the attack – I changed plan here as it was clearly going to be Chewie vs Whisper if I was to win and those Bandits would be blocking my Decloak moves if they weren’t killed so I threw whatever remaining shots from my Ties at Chewie to give Whisper a chance and killed some Bandits with Whisper. By the time he dropped my last Tie with the Academy Killing Wookie machine I had a full health Whisper vs a 10 health Chewie and a 1 Hull Bandit. This was going to be interesting. Whisper Decloaked into range 1 of the 1 Hull Bandit and Barrel Rolled out of Range 3 from Chewie but directly in front of the Bandit. Surely I would finish this minnow with 5 attack dice right?... Of course not. And it return I suffered 3 damage.. I now had a 1 health Whisper with the same task. Hmm – I had that sinking feeling you get in X-Wing when you know what’s going to happen but you can’t seem to do anything about it. Oh well – I could still go 4-1 and make the cut so all is not lost!
At this point my opponent, to his credit, pointed out that if I just ran the clock down whilst avoiding Chewie I could still try for the modified loss and hope for a 4-1 result.
I just smiled and had a laugh at Whisper’s misfortune then got back to work – If she and I were going down with 1 Hull remaining then we wouldn’t do it without a fight! I dropped the remaining Bandit and set my sights on Chewie, keen to see how tough he really was without his little golden robot to help him. My plan was simple – Control Chewie’s movement through Rebel Captive, Decloak at max range using the asteroids for extra cover, Evade, use her FCS for Damage, Focus, Cloak then – most importantly – pray to our fickle green dice masters..
What resulted over the next 6-8 rounds (bit of a blur now) was the most epic finish to a game I have seen or being part of – Chewie started the high noon showdown by taking a Focus for the easy kill then switched to Evade after a couple of turns then tried to run! I say this with respect to my opponent but from a bystanders view (and I think there were a couple by this stage) it must have been interesting to slowly watch the role reversal that occurred between us over that 15 -30 minutes between Whisper being on 1 Hull to the game finishing. My opponent (and I admit to a few doubtful moments..) assumed it was GG and killing Whisper was a formality – he had the game in the bag as far as he was concerned and by rights he prob did. Whisper refused to lay down though and she would usually chip away 1 health from Cheiwe then use her first token (usually Evade) on the first round of shooting then spend then Focus from the Gunner attack. Chewie was rolling 2-3 hits and I was evading on 4-6 dice with 2 Token over 2 attacks. Time was almost on us and Chewie had 4 Hull remaining. I locked in a straight 2 on my dial expecting to hit Chewies Flank and survive 1 more round of shooting before going for the kill. Chewie surprised me by banking 3 towards Whisper whilst stressed. Hmm. Great play and an Interesting choice I now faced. I couldn’t Decloak fwd (rock) I would prob have to Barrel Roll back if I DC’d right to get a shot but I would be without that precious Evade. I kept starring at the DC left option, trying to gauge if Whisper would fit without bumping Cheiwe – If she didn’t fit and I bumped, I was committed to a K-Turn to guarantee a shot next turn and I couldn’t do 4 damage if he took an Evade. If I went right I would not be in range 1 and I would have to Barrel Roll. Either way I had the feeling the game would be decided by what I did now. It was time to trust the force. Whisper went balls out for the left DC and made it by a good 1-2 millimetres! She took a focus but even then combined with Target lock she only managed 4 hits. That’s it then – it came down to a 3/8 chance of my opponent rolling an Evade. He blanked it and I snatched the win from the most unlikely of positions. I was pretty conflicted now as I was stoked for such an epic win but my opponent was a bit upset and I felt bad for him as it would have been a tough pill for me to swallow if our roles were reversed. To his credit he let it go and regained his composure shortly after and flew his way into the Top 4.
Win 100-58.
Rnd 5-
58 Chewie, PTL, Gunner, C3P0, Engine, Title
42 Ibby, PTL, HLC, Engine
-100-
I took initiative. Final round of Swiss and we were both on 4-0. We joked that we could both surrender – take the equal draw and both get into the Top 8.. But that’s no fun! (and not really fair to everyone else). I had seen Theorist play a similar squad on Vassal in the Galactic Cup so I was aware of what a master could do with this type of squad if you took it lightly. I was very relieved though when I saw he didn’t have Adv Sensors on Ibby and I felt relatively confident against a 2 ship squad (I’m guessing so did the other 4 blokes he beat though!) We setup in opposite corners and I finessed Whisper a bit much on this one – I think my only Whisper mistake for the day. He aggressively Boosted Chewie into my side of the table on turn 2 and I misjudged her Decloak move and landed her on the edge of an asteroid (I had another safe option but I went aggressive) – my opponent was very surprised and looked at me with a bit of shock – almost questioning if I did that deliberately to present a stressed Chewie with an easy Whisper target to draw fire from Howl.. I assured him I was not that cunning! He took the bait and doubled stressed himself on Whisper while Howl and her minions did a job on Ibby – 10 shots from my minni swarm for 8 damage and Ibby was gone before he could even use his HLC (he was range 1 to the ship he fired at before dying). Chewie ended up triple stressed before he learnt his lesson on Whisper and my squad slowly chipped away until Chewie went down.
Win 100 – 20.
Top 8-
29 Wedge
21 Rookie
25 Blue, Ion Cannon
25 Blue, Ion Cannon
-100-
I gave him the initiative. I was surprised this squad had done so well and made it to the Top 8. It’s not that it’s a bad squad – it’s solid but the lack of repositioning and turrets made me cautious of my opponent as he must be a skilled player to make this work in the Wave 4 era. I deployed the minni swarm on a flank and Whisper on the other to give him some options. He deployed centrally and we all made for the middle. I wasn’t sure if he would go for the swarm or risk it all and turn them all to face Whispers oblivious flanking tactics on that crucial opening Exchange. He ignored Whisper and went for the surety of the swarm. I managed to drop a B-Wing in short order for the loss of a Tie and a damage or 2 on Howl. Things went downhill pretty quickly for my opponent from there as the Ties superior movement dial did a number on the slow moving Rebels.
Win 100 – 12.
Top 4-
51 Chewie, Pred, Gunner, Title
48 Bandit x 4
-99-
Rematch! I was pretty happy about now as my goal was Top 4 and getting my hands on those sweet Nationals movement templates and Range Ruler. Mission accomplished!
I took the initiative. This time I definitely wanted to avoid the bandit shield in front of Chewie and used the better speed of the Tie dial to run a bigger loop to get a better position on the opening exchange. I threw Whisper out on a far flank to encourage Chewie to stay near the minni swarm and the plan paid off. The minni swarm did some nice work on Chewie and it wasn’t long before Whisper was free of the 360 turret and finished the Bandits.
Final-
58 Chewie, PTL, Gunner, C3P0, Engine, Title
42 Ibby, PTL, HLC, Engine
-100-
So this was it! A fully paid for one way flight to the World Championships in the US was on offer, an opportunity to meet, play against and hopefully have a couple of beers with not only the best players in the World but a bunch of like minded X-Wing enthusiasts from around the world. It doesn’t get any more awesome than that.
I’ve got to say that it is an amazingly generous offer from FFG and for people who play and love this game outside of the US, it is greatly appreciated that they would consider us worthy of that kind of prize and consideration.
Back to the game: I was surprised this squad had done so well and mine was the only squad that had managed to beat it all day. It’s obviously a decent squad to make a 50+ player tournament final but I'm not yet sold on the 2 ship concept. I think it speaks volumes about the skill of the man flying it to do so well with 2 ships.
I setup in the corner and was a little surprised when he deployed directly opposite me for the (apparent) joust. So far no one had setup for a direct joust against the minni swarm all day. With that in Mind I threw Whisper in the middle to dominate the centre and keep him honest if he played any Boosting shenanigans. But in a somewhat ironic move my opponent decided a straight joust was the way to do it! I say ironic as we had just spent the last 15 hours trying to out-move, out-position and out-guess our opponents thorough arc dodging and all other related X-Wing awesomeness and now – in the final – we both decide that a straight shootout is the best way to resolve this! I put the pedal to the metal and threw my Ties 5 fwd to finish Ibby as soon as possible – he obliged but setting Ibby to ramming speed and bumped into the fwd element of the minni swarm. Chewie flew past the minni swarm and squeezed between them and the board edge to grab a Tgt Lock/Focus combo on Howl. Howl decided she was going down at Range 1 to Chewie this round so she took a Focus to help out with Ibby before her demise. Whisper decided to join the Ibby party and Decloaked centre board in Ibby’s flank. Shooting saw some nice red dice go my way and Ibby dropped without having the chance to return fire (thank you Swarm Tactics!) From here C3P0 predicted doom and it was really just a matter of chasing Chewie down and chipping away at him until he ran out of Hull.
Win 100 – 12.
So that’s my Australian Nationals recap – It was great to meet a bunch of our country’s best players, throw down some dice and have a laugh between rounds. The TO did a cracking job, the players were top quality people and opponents all day and the squad diversity was a real highlight for everyone. My wife is pretty excited at the prospect of a trip to the US and taking our boy to Disneyland and we are planning on making a holiday out of it once a few games of X-Wing are out of the way!
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the report and please come and say hello to the random Aussie if you see me at Worlds!
Cheers,
Morgan Reid
Edited by MorganR