Today's tournament brought my X-Wing record to 8-1, with now two second place finishes!
Since I ran Imperials the first time, I switched to Rebels for this one. Only one small problem: I packed for the wrong tournament! There was another one in the area that was 150 points, named pilots only, but the one I went to was standard 100-point faire. Oops. Luckily, someone there let me borrow 3 Hull Upgrades (which I had at the house, only a few minutes away, but I didn't want to drive back and forth and make anyone wait) to round out this list:
Garven Dreis (26)
+ Hull Upgrade (3)
+ Flechette Torpedoes (2)
"Dutch" Vander (23)
+ Ion Cannon Turret (5)
+ Hull Upgrade (3)
+ R7-T1 (3)
Kyle Katarn (21)
+ Ion Cannon Turret (5)
+ Hull Upgrade (3)
+ Moldy Crow (3)
+ Recon Specialist (3)
Classic "Devil Dogs" build (pilot skill 666). For the 150, I had also brought along Jan and Tarn, and my friend who went to that tournament want to try his list against it. Anyway, here's how the games at the tournament I did go to wound up.
Round 1 vs
Wedge + R2-D2 + Swarm Tactics
3x Rookie Pilot (2 with R2s)
Right away Wedge is a giant red flag for me. Not only can he shoot before me with a -1 Agility penalty on already low-Agility ships, he can let a Rookie shoot, too. Not to mention R2-D2 would be bad news if I couldn't focus on him, plus he was worth more points than any single ship on my team. My plan was to take out Rookies unless I could really pile everything on Wedge at once. After Ionizing Wedge and a Rookie in one round, I was able to take advantage of the predictable movement to do just that. Once Ionized, I chased Wedge down without letting him get a single use from R2-D2, including dropping the Flechette on him to leave him action-less and defense-less for a round. All that said, my opponent still could've won with his last shot. Dutch had been his main focus, and he was down to Hull early, and limping quickly thereafter. However, being somewhat new, my opponent made the mistake of spending a Focus before his Target Lock, and the re-rolled Focus symbol, if converted, would've been enough to take out Dutch despite his Hull upgrade. I won by killing Wedge and a Rookie, losing only Garven.
Round 2 vs
Wedge + Predator
Ten Numb + Ion Cannon
Etahn Abat + Wingman
My opponent this round was a great sport, and we had a lot of laughs at the sheer amount if Ionization. His Etahn + Ten + Ion combo against Rebels with no Evade actions meant guaranteed Ion hits, of which he got two. After the first round, he never again got to place all his maneuver dials, and in the last round, with his last ship, he didn't get to place that either! With all my action sharing, all day I got 3 hits with Ion Cannons almost every time. That's what was so good against Ten and his low agility, and why he only got two shots. Wedge was again a big threat, but when my opponent misjudged a maneuver by a millimeter (many moves and shots this game were either good or terrible by the tiniest of margins) and put him on an asteroid, that was my chance. I Ioned him again and again, and despite his best efforts kept him smashing into rocks. Especially when he K-turned to come back at me on the same trajectory! Etahn's Wingman helped mitigate the Flechette Torpedoes, plus the cool opening move of doing a 4 straight with the B-Wing and not having to worry about the stress. Etahn was clearly my opponent's MVP, being his last ship (Evading and having 3 Agility, I left it for last) and landing a critical on Dutch to knock out his Turret! Still, I managed to keep the Y-Wing pointed at enemies thanks to Ions all but one round, and he even survived to the end, with me not losing a single ship.
Round 3 vs
Bounty Hunter + Gunner
2x Sigma Squadron Pilot both with Advanced Cloaking Device + Tactician
In some ways this was the opposite of the previous round. Where my last opponent and I enjoyed ourselves, every maneuver, die roll, and ability made this one groan in frustration. To be completely honest, he did a lot of it to himself. He fired maybe 6 shots the entire game. When his ships weren't out of position or staying cloaked, his action selection could've been better, and then they spent a lot of time Ionized (including the Firespray at least twice). Like the last game, though, my Turrets were hot again rolling 3 hits consistently and his dice were no help. Still, while he correctly blocked by after-K-Turn green maneuver by putting his Phantom in the right spot, he also wasn't aware that he couldn't use ACD after I hit him with the Flechette Torpedo (leading to the early demise of one of his Phantoms). So this was a pretty comfortable win. I did feel a little bad for him, though, because he was apparently told his initial build he made on an online builder was illegal, and had to change to the Tacticians. However, after thinking about it, I think I figured out what happened. Both he and the TD were correct. His build online had used Fire Control Systems ("the one that gives me free Target Locks" he had said). But he must have mistakenly grabbed Targeting Computers, which would be a second Modification and thus illegal.
So I managed 3-0, but with only one total victory, I got second to someone with multiple complete wins. I'm totally OK with that, having only played 9 competitive games now! Also, as I told a couple other players, every time I try Dutch/Garven/Kyle at home it does OK, but ultimately loses. So I was very happy with my and my build's performance!