Living across the pond, in the northern European country of Sweden, makes Worlds a difficult event to attend. Still, the interest in the world event is still high and to satisfy that tournament itch I decided to host an Escalation tournament on November 9th.
This was my first attempt at TOing. Because of this I decided to use the excellent Cryodex program to run it. A few test runs and a few emails back and forth with Chris Brown (Killerardvark) and he ironed out the bugs that I encountered in the Escalation version of the new edition of the software (due to the change to MoV for tie breaking and pairing in the updated Tournament rules).
My local FLGS scavanged together their left over X-Wing kits and we managed to get a pretty decent prize table for the event:
Winner got a Medal as well as first pick of Card Box, Alternate Art Pilot Card (Wedge (2), Jendon, or Luke) and a bag of Acryllic Tokens (Shields or Seismic and Ions).
Runner-up got second pick of Card Box, Alternate Art Pilot Card and a bag of Acryllic Tokens (Shields or Seismic and Ions).
Thrid place got third pick of Alternate Art Pilot Card and a bag of Acryllic Tokens (Shields or Seismic and Ions).
Fourth place got fourth pick of Alternate Art Pilot Card and a bag of Acryllic Tokens (Shields or Seismic and Ions).
Fifth place got fifth pick of a bag of Acryllic Tokens (Shields or Seismic and Ions).
Sixth place got sixth pick of a bag of Acryllic Tokens (Shields or Seismic and Ions).
Everyone who attended got three alternate art cards (Dagger Squadron B-Wing, Gold Squadron Y-Wing, and Black Squadron TIE Fighter).
In addition to this, I wanted the players who found themselves out of the race for first place to still have something to battle for through all four rounds of escalation. To achieve this I decided to give away one small ship (of the winner’s choice) for the single best MoV result in each round, but only if the player had the lone best result.
Now came the set-back. The day before the tournament, SEVEN players dropped out due to ilness, their kids being sick, and so on. **** you real life, why can’t you leave my X-Wing plans alone.
Prepared for the worst and fearing that too few players would force me to drop the extra prizes for best MoV in a turn (the entry fees were supposed to pay for the ships) I sat down and put the final touches to my squad. I’d decided that if an even number of players showed up I wouldn’t play to avoid having people sit out a round with a bye but if an odd number showed up, I’d join their ranks.
Here’s what I decided upon:
60 points
Bounty Hunter
Omnicon Group Pilot (FCS, Engine Upgrade)
90 ponits
Bounty Hunter
Omnicon Group Pilot (FCS, Engine Upgrade)
Delta Squadron TIE Defender
120 points
Bounty Hunter
Omnicon Group Pilot (FCS, Engine Upgrade)
2x Delta Squadron TIE Defender
150 points
Bounty Hunter (Recon Specialist, HLC)
Omnicon Group Pilot (FCS, Engine Upgrade)
2x Delta Squadron TIE Defender (Hull Upgrade, HLC)
Tournament Day
So, the day after the final of the Worlds tournament I show up and set up the gaming area in the store. With expectations low after the drop-outs the day before I set up six tables. If I get ten players (including myself) the budget still holds upp and we can have the MoV prizes as well as the stuff for 1st to 6th place.
To my great relief, nine other people showed up and the final piece needed for an awesome tournament comes through. And as an added benefit, nine players mean I get to play!
Round 1
In the first round I faced:
Blue Squad B-Wing (HLC, FCS)
Blue Squad B-Wing (HLC)
My plan was to move in my Bounty Hunter first with the Omnicron bringing up the rear, getting as many shots in as possible before the B-Wings got past the shuttle. With HLCs on both enemy ships I kind of expected him to keep his distance as well. If I could get the Bounty Hunter in the B-Wings’ faces and then blast past them to shoot out of the auxilliary arc while the shuttle goes head to head with them I would have a good shot at winning.
The strategy worked well as I exchanged my Lambda for the FCS B-Wing and then the Bounty Hunter had no problem getting focused shots on the remaining B-Wing while the enemy needed to K-turn alot in the one-on-one battle.
Result: 1-0
Round 2
My next opponent fielded:
Chewbacca (C-3PO, Millenium Falcon, Engine Upgrade, Gunner)
Y-Wing (Ion Cannon Turret)
My plan was to focus on Chewie while I still had three ships on the table. My opponent, however, offered me the Y-Wing as a much easier target to focus fire on and, as I took the bait, we exchaged my Lambda for his Ywing. After that I had a really hard time bringing both my remaining guns on Chewie to reduce C-3PO’s usefulness. As time was called, it was Chewie vs. my Bounty Hunter and TIE Defender, and a minor victory for my opponent.
Result:1-1
Round 3
Across from me on the table I found:
Jan Ors (Ion Cannon Turret, Kyle Katarn)
2x Green Squadron A-Wings (Chardaan Refit, PTL)
2x Green Squadron A-Wings (Chardaan Refit, Test Pilot, PTL, and Outmaneuver)
As my opponent came at me from all directions, I took shoots at the A-Wings that proved the easiest targets. One of my Defenders came under an insane barrage due to range one shots, the Outmanever abillities of two of the A-Wings, and Jan Ors’ ability but managed to lose only two shields over two turns of shooting in which 24 red attack dice came its way. Following that, I managed to down two A-Wings and Jan Ors, only losing the elusive Defender in return. After that it was clean-up.
Result: 2-1
Round 4
In the final round I faced:
2x Bandit Z-95 (Assault Missile)
Etahn A’ baht (R2-D2)
Biggs Darkligher (R2-F2)
Garven Dreiss
Blue Squadron B-Wing (Advanced Sensors)
I set up in my right hand corner, expecting my opponent not wanting to joust with me since I sported three HLCs. Instead, this was exactly what he did. The ensuing exchange of lasers saw me taking out Biggs with two of the HLCs and crippling Ethan in the first exhange. Then I K-turned my Defenders behind his formation, bumped his front rank with my Bounty Hunter, and kept the Lambda at the back for another turn in which I could focus fire while the only ship my opponent could foucs fire on was the Lambda. As the debri cleared, it was the only ship I had lost.
Final Result:
3-1 and second place overall.
Unfortunately I never got to play the guy who went 4-0 (in the final round he was paired against the player who defeated me in the second round).
All in all we all had an awesome tournament. The player I defeated in the last round had the best MoV in the second round and picked a Phantom as prize. The guy winning the tournament also ended up with the best MoV in both round 3 and 4 (picking a TIE Defender and an E-Wing). No one had the lone best MoV in the first turn (two players had 60-0) and thus no ship was rewarded as a prize in the first round.
And the Cryodex software worked like a charm!
