The New Zealand Nationals for X-wing were held in Auckland on the 16
th
of November 2014 – the first time a national tournament had been held in New Zealand. This was following my local regional even in Christchurch which had taken place two weeks prior. At that event I didn’t have a great showing – 5
th
over all. However with Nationals only two weeks away (and some lucky financial assistance from the family to help pay for flights,) and my list tweaking complete I was super pumped!
Before I get started on a write up of the day I want to thank the people I consider responsible for the result I was able to achieve on the day – however I know you, fellow pilot, have little to know interest in this but I do feel them necessary – so I’ll put a few bold titles in here so you can skip down to the report! Also I’ll take this chance to make a few musings on X-wing in general before getting into the report.
Personal Thanks
I started playing X-Wing in late August/Early September – so as you can imagine my result could not have been obtained without a pretty good group of people around me!
Comics Compulsion, Christchurch.
My local hobby supplier – they set up a local league that plays every Sunday morning. Without this group and constant support and time to practice I doubt I would have made it past the first round. They organized the regional’s here and did a fantastic job.
Wizards Retreat, Christchurch.
Christchurch’s other shop is less focused on selling general hobby supplies and focuses more on typically running Magic the Gathering tournaments. The owner, Chris, started playing a few months back and now hosts games almost every day in his down time. The time I’ve spent in his shop chatting, talking strategy and reminding each other of rules and discussing niche questions were invaluable. Also after searching for three weeks I was able to find my original starting ships [starter Kit, a B-wing and a TIE Defender,] from them.
My friends/flatmates
My main practice partner has been my flat mate Ben, but others have played as well. Being able to talk about the game at home and get in some practice was fantastic. Ben even came second at our regionals and is a really good player, but due to financial issues couldn’t make the nationals. But maybe next year!
X-wing TMG
You can read my heartfelt message to the X-wing Sub reddit here. If you don’t use it I have to highly highly recommend it.
http://www.reddit.com/r/XWingTMG/comments/2mgf07/today_i_won_the_new_zealand_national_tournament/
The X-Wing Community
‘Fly Casual’ has been the unofficial tag line of the X-wing community for quite some time and it isn’t hard to see why. Even in my top four and final matches I have not met a single player who wouldn’t share a joke and laugh during the course of the game. Every person I’ve met during the course of this game has displayed outstanding sportsman ship and enjoyment for the game. I could not imagine a single community to be a better part of. So, if you’re reading this, thank you. X-wing is a fantastic game. The only problem I tell people about when they ask if they should get into the game is that it’s too darn popular and this makes finding particular ships (especially in New Zealand,) difficult at times! But it’s well worth it for an amazing game and great community.
The lead up.
So before moving on, here was the list I ran;
Lando with Nien Numb, C-3P0, Push the Limit and Falcon Title
Chewbacca with Jan Ors, Recon Specialist and Veteran Instinct
You may have seen this list before – it’s the same list that the Canadian National Champion Jeff Dunford ran a few months back. He has a really great write-up from the day that can be found here; http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1260342/canadian-national-championship-report-giant-wall-t
In his write up he speaks of the history of double falcons better than I could. You may also recall the Double Falcons which came second from GenCon. This was a different version run by Jeff Berling who ran the following version;
Lando with Nien Numb, Han Solo and Draw Their Fire
Chewbacca with Falcon Title, C-3P0, R2-D2 and Draw their Fire.
(I suspect had Jan Ors been out at the time Jeff would have run her instead of Han Solo, but this is just a personal suspicion.)
These two versions of Double Falcon, whilst only differing by less than 10 points they are, in my view, two very different lists. Dunford’s version is an ‘Action Heavy’ version and Jeff Berlings version is a defensive version.
People often say X-Wing is a dice game and the best players take lists that do the best they can to mitigate this fact. It was with this thought in mind I chose the ‘Action’ Double Falcon list. With both ships being able on average two actions a turn I felt I was able to mitigate the chance of poor dice roles. [My flat mate Ben has pointed out that with a target lock and a focus there is a 90%+ chance of hitting all three hits.]
I must admit that the results from Worlds worried me – seeing the only Double Falcon to make the top 32 was a Han/Chewie list I thought maybe there was something was missing about the list, a flaw I hadn’t caught. However due to my work schedule I didn’t have time to prepare and practice a second list, so even with some concerns I stuck to my decision and Action Falcon’s were locked in and ready to go, for better or worse.
The Day of Nationals.
I arrived to the event and quickly transcribed my list before starting chatting to folks. This was my first time meeting 99% of the players [only one other Christchurch player made the trip up,] so meeting everyone simply re-affirmed my view of the X-wing community as a fantastic group of people. Caffeine in hand and the first rounds announced I sat down and prepared for my first game. With ~30 players the tournament would be four rounds of swiss and then top four.
Swiss Round 1
My first game was against a four rebel bomber squad, two B’s and two Y’s against a great guy by the name of Brian. Now in the first two moves of the game my opponent made a crucial mistake and made a lazy three left instead of a three forward...which lead one of his Y-wings off the map. Here came my first challenge of the day – do I let him change the move? In any other circumstance ofcourse he can re take it – clearly a mistake after all! But while I was considering it he simply moved the Y-wing along the template and took him off the map. Brian was a stand up guy who wouldn’t have taken the move back even if I had allowed him. I was able to table him, but it was a super enjoyable game and he never once seemed upset by the results. I’d happily play him again any day.
Swiss Round 2.
One of the folks who had gotten coffee with me was a local who had won many store tournaments and local events by the name of Hen. Hen was running Super Corran [Corran + R2D2 + VI + Fire Control System] along with Fat Han [Han + Chewbacca Crew, Engine Upgrade..and something else I can’t recall.] This was a game I was not looking forward too – he was clearly an excellent player and I simply wasn’t sure how my list would fare against his.
The game was super close, going down to Chewbacca and Corran on one health. However Corran can double tap, and Chewbacca cannot so he was able to take me out. However with me taking out his Han I had a margin of victory that would mean as long as I was able to win my next two games convincingly I still had a chance at top four.
Swiss Round 3.
My third game was against a chap named Victor who was running Soontir, Carnor Jax and a Doom Shuttle. All three of his ships had been painted fantastically and we chatted a bit about that before the game, and with that we started the round. In this round he unfortunately moved his shuttle up quicker than his Interceptors so due to my positioning I was able to get a few rounds of shooting at the shuttle before his Interceptors were in range. With the shuttle out of the picture I was able to down his Interceptors without much trouble. With another table wipe to my name I moved into my final round – top four still within my grasp.
Swiss Round 4.
I’m not sure if this is a New Zealand phenomenon or if it happens internationally but it seems that when children play this game they have luck. I mean incredible luck; their dice seem to defy any type of statistics. It was with this knowledge in my mind I head into round four against Sam – the youngest player of the day who was currently 2-1 and had a MOV higher than mine. He was running Fat Han and Super Corran.
I don’t remember much about this game and I apologize for that. I know that his Corran was down around the time that Chewbacca’s shields were down and Chewbacca went down at around the same time as his Han went down. With Lando against Han I was able to slowly whittle him down by virtue of being able to take two actions a turn. Sam took it in stride.
Prize giving happened and then Top Four was announced and I was Third after the swiss rounds. It was incredible, I had somehow made it to the top four.
The top four lists [to the best of my memory] were as follows.
Paul [From Wellington]
Corran with VI + R2 and Fire Control System
2X Blue Squadrons with Heavy Laser Cannons
William [From Wellington]
Echo with Advance Cloaking Device, VI, Fire Control System and Rebel Captive
Soontir Fel with Push the Limit
Shuttle with Engine Upgrade, Gunner and Advanced Sensors.
Peter [From Auckland]
Corran with VI, R2 and Fire Control Systems
3X naked Bandit
1X Naked Blue Squadron.
And then finally me, from Christchurch with my Action Falcon's
The Top Fair pairings were as follows;
Peter v William
Paul v Myself.
Top Four.
Another game that I was quite simply dreading. Heavy Laser Cannons have a tendency to rip through Falcons and with Corran who had scared me throughout the day I was nervous. I was able to down one of his B-wings at around the same time that Lando lost his shields and then by the time I had done one damage to the second B-wing’s hull Lando went down. There was a clutch moment when I thought I had flown Chewbacca off the map but a one hard bank was able to save me by less than a centimetre. With Chewbacca on mostly full health and his B Wing with two hull left Paul decided to run his B-wing from me. The decision to not K-turn meant that I had to do a full swing around the board while his B-wing ran from me and his Corran took shots at me. With time closing in and his Corran evading and recovering shields every turn I took the unusual decision to forgoing my shooting back for many rounds – I needed to catch the B-wing before time was up!
I closed in on the B-wing and managed to down it but not before his Corran got a double-tapped range one shot at me. Chewbaccas hull a thing of the past it was now over to me to run and try and time out the game.
With three damage to my hull and Corran free to attack time gets called and the last round plays out with the chance of him taking me down. But taking the evade and then being able to roll a evade in the first round of shooting meant that now he couldn’t finish me off – but he gave it his best shot and at the end of the match Chewbacca is left on one health. With one of the most tense matches of my life over and the hand shakes had with Paul I learn that Williams Echo has defeated Peters rebel swarm.
Isn’t it odd that it so often seems that the final rounds of big tournaments end with Rebel v Imperial? I considered this as I moved and set up. This was my first Phantom match of the day and I knew he wasn’t excited to face my list – his only loss in swiss was to another person playing dual falcons.
Finals.
The finals of the first New Zealand nationals – my stress levels were running high and I opened another red bull. But even with what was on the line the jokes came throughout the game. The sportsman ship was beyond reproach – we both moved ships for each other and things like that. In the first few rounds of shooting I focus on his shuttle to get it out of the game and so I could focus on his other ships. His shuttle goes down around the time Chewbacca has ~5 left. I managed to block his Soontir in a turn with a turn inwards and that gets Chewbacca another turn of shooting and I manage to break through Echo’s defences and take him down. Soontir Fel finishes off Chewbacca as he tries to flee into the Asteroid field to reposition and the game comes down to a full health Lando vs full health Soontir Fel.
A few turns of running and shooting and each of us getting a wealth of actions and he manages to strip Lando’s shields and I get the final shot onto Fel. With a handshake to celebrate the end of the match I take the win.
Final Thoughts.
I did not deserve the win in my top four game – if it had not come down to time then Paul would have taken me out without question. However the game as it was I was able to win. I was lucky, I played the best I could and I managed to take out the win. Back at the hotel room I snapped a photo of the trophy and the championship templates and uploaded it to Reddit.
The win could not have been achieved without the amazing people I play with on a regular basis in Christchurch. The tournament could not have happened without the fantastic folks in Auckland who organized the event and got fantastic sponsorship and prize support. The games would have been less exciting if some of the most fantastic players in New Zealand hadn’t made their way up from Wellington.
So, until next and until the next National Championship I guess that’s it.
Thanks for reading! [sorry for all the typos and grammar errors...]
- Fly Casual.
2015 season starts soon however! Fingers crossed we get it this year - I have already started applying!