I had the opportunity to attend my second tournament this past weekend, this time in Waterloo, ON. Playing in my first tournament a couple months ago has only increased my love for this game, and I was very excited to finally be able to play in a second.
Going into it I was very afraid that I’d be facing a barrage of Super Dash’s & Decimators. I figured People would be itching to try out their new ships. So I decided to go with a rebel swarm in order to counter what I thought would be the scariest lists there. I brought:
Biggs
2 Prototypes + Chardaan Refit
2 Blue Squadron B’s
99pts
My idea here was to keep the heat off my Blues with Biggs, and use the A’s to block YT-2400s and generally be nuisance. Someone very helpfully suggested I use my last point to toss R4-D6 on Biggs as insurance against the Outride + HLC combos (or Decimator +Gunner for that matter). I do like this idea, but don’t own the card, so I just stuck at 99 points, and figured it’d be better for using my A’s to block with anyways (since I’d usually get to have initiative).
One last note before I run down the games. I knew that my squad would fall apart pretty quickly if I couldn’t fly in a nice tight formation. Biggs is great on paper, but if He’s even a little too far from your other squad mates, he becomes pretty useless. So the night before I spent 30-40 minutes coming up with a plan for my first 3 turn of each game. I basically put an asteroid right in the lower right hand corner, and then placed my ships just on the north side of the ‘roid, facing west, in the set up that I wanted (2 A’s side by side, followed by two B’s right behind them, and Biggs bringing up the rear).
http://postimg.org/image/j55ksrq2j/ (couldn't figure out how to embed the pic)
I then, by trial and error, worked backwards to see which moves/barrel rolls/boosts I’d need to do in order to get my ships to where I wanted. I knew that if my opponent set up kitty corner to me, that being in this position after the first 3 turns would have me in ideal position. I knew that if he set up directly opposite me, it would be easy enough for me to just keep going straight rather than turn in. Rebel swarms are great in theory, but very difficult to maneuver. A bump here , a mis-position there, and all of a sudden you don’t have all your guns pointed in the direction you want, and a couple ships without actions. Ok onto the games:
Round 1:
OGP + Ion Cannon
Rexler Brath + Outmaneuver
Colonel Vessery + VI
Asteroids were bunched mostly on my side, lower right hand corner. I set up on the lower left hand corner, and he set up in a line roughly in the middle of his side, angled toward my corner. I ploughed straight ahead setting up more or less for a joust. No fancy flying here, A B-wing of mine got Ioned twice but the sheer firepower of my squad just outgunned him. Defenders don't really do anything surprising, just K-turn back and forth so it was just a battle of attrition, and I kept my injured ships out of his way, forcing him to spread his shots around. I ended up only losing 1 a-wing in the exchange. Biggs even survived!. 1-0
Second Round:
Wild Space Fringer + HLC + Outrider + EU
Chewbacca + Gunner + Kyle Katarn + PTL + MF
Ok, so not quite Super-Dash, but still one of the new ships that I hadn't faced much and was a bit afraid of. We set up in opposite corners and 3 turns in I had performed the opening I had practiced, with my ships wrapped perfectly around the first asteroid facing inwards towards his two big boys. The asteroids forced him to fly in single file, which suited me just fine since I was now in perfect position to get all my guns on him. First exchange I managed to chip a couple of shields of Chewie who was leading the way. A couple of shots were easily evaded on Biggs. Chewie then boosted around behind my squad and I concentrated on the WSF. Unfortunately over the next 4 rounds the WSF managed to roll 1 natural hit out of 16 for his HLC. However I will take a bit of credit here, my a-wing managed to block him EVERY SINGLE TURN! An action-less WSF is much less scary. I was able to alternate which ship I blocked him with, alternating which one I would keep safe in the doughnut while allowing my other to take shots at him. After we passed one another I K-turned and we met in my corner for a bloody bump-fest. Neither the WSF nor Chewie got another action the whole game as I slowly whittled him down. I did experience my first 'dial-slip' in this game, but it didn't make much of a difference other than to teach me a lesson about keeping my dials nice and tight! I only lost 1 B-wing. 2-0
Third Round:
Captian Oicunn + Ysanne Isard + Mara Jade + Gunner +Determination
Whisper + VI + FCS + ACD + Gunner
I was feeling good at this point but knew that this would be my stiffest competition. I chatted a bit with my opponent ahead of time, and he mentioned that he finished 16th at Canadian Nationals! He also hadn't lost a single ship in his first two matches, winning 100-0 both times. This would definitely be a chance to test myself against a very good player. Asteroids were set up with three running parallel to my edge of the board (perfect for me!) and the rest erraticly placed towards my opponent's side. I set up in my pre-planned spot, bottom right. My opponent set up kitty corner to me and we were off. I once again played out my planned first 3 maneuvers and was set up beautifully on the inside of the line of 3 asteroids close to my side. I knew right then that I'd have a good shot at winning, with Oicunn closing quickly to try and ram me, I had all 5 of my guns pointed on this agility-less ship. Biggs lost a couple of shields in the first round of shooting, but I peeled Oicunn's shields and dealt him 2 more crits (one a direct hit!). I then moved my squad forward as slowly as possible, pushing one A-wing ahead of the others to take the Oicunn damage. He rammed me, but I still had 4 shots on him that turn. he again peeled a shield and a hull of Biggs but in the return fire I destroyed him! My A-wing that had a shot dealt the final blow rolling 3 hits to perfectly finish off his hull. This was a HUGE turn since both A's and both B's would've received stress tokens from Mara Jade had he survived. 4 Turns in and I had 5 ships against his whisper. He flew Whisper amazingly from then on, arc dodging and only ever allowing me to get one or two long ranged, cloaked shots on him a turn. He took out an A-wing first, then Biggs. I was getting nervous, but still had 2 full health B-wings and a full health A-wing. I finally managed to correctly predict one of his maneuvers and blocked him with a B while my A-wing and other B had a couple range 2 shots at him, and with only 2 green dice, and no focus, he died that turn. 3-0!
At this point time was getting a bit late, and the tournament was called with a general consensus amongst the players. I won!
Lessons's learned:
-I love Biggs! I think the traditional thought with Biggs is to keep him at Range 3 and let him survive as long as possible while drawing fire from your big guns. I actually liked using him slightly differently. I found that if he was actually out of range for the first exchange one of my A-wings or B-wings took some shots. Then second round of shooting if he's in range, my opponent is forced to switch targets and start shooting Biggs. I like going back and forth like this, putting Biggs in and out of range. This worked well for me since I didn't face any opposing swarms, and because I could afford for my b-wings to take a couple of hits before switching to make Biggs more of a target. I plan on experimenting further with Biggs, he really does have one of the most powerful abilities in the game.
-15 pt A-wings are worth their weight in gold! Moving at a pilot skill 1 (especially in a squad of 99pts where I almost always get initiative) is just deadly against large based ships with EU or the ability to barrel roll. Tack on the fact that even when they aren't blocking, most opponents don't target them because they seem like less of a threat than B-wings, and you get a pretty hardy ship. The rebel aces expansion has definitely made them tournament relevant.
- Practice makes perfect! I can definitely say that me practicing for 30 minutes, by myself, the night before probably made all the difference, especially in my most difficult matchup. Maybe it seems lame, or like a try-hard move, but it was nice to see my practice payoff with positive results.
The first tournament I played in wet my appetite, and now I'm fully hooked. I can't wait for the next tournament!