It's tonight and work is INCREDIBLY slow. I've got nothing to do but troll the X-wing forums. Man, I can't wait for it! It sucks just hitting refresh and looking for new stuff that is interesting.

I do hope I do well tonight, but I've only had a small player pool in the past 6 months or so. I've done well at previous events, but not used to playing against big ships. There will be less than 10 players for sure. Maybe less than 8. Not sure how many will take the big ships. Then again, I did fly this list against a Falcon and blasted it in a few turns. So, it might do alright.

With so few players, I hope that means we get a lot of the prize support. They posted a pic of two boxes of prize support, but am not sure if they are going to offer it all out tonight if there are so few players. I'd love to walk away with a Falcon box, Cloak tokens, and a few Scimitar cards. I don't even have a Phantom, but would trade for something. I would assume they are desired.

Well, tell us how it went tomorrow! I'm always up for reading a good tournament story. I'll also be curious to hear about how the choices you made affected the outcome

Well,

best of luck and no matter the outcome, just have fun.

I got to the game store early and found someone waiting for a game. He had two YT-2400's w/ HLC and a Red Squadron Pilot. He had just gotten them and never played with them before. We racked and stacked and set off. I played way too defensive with the Shuttle and tried to stay out of range. I never got to even engage a Target Lock as I tried a red zero move to avoid the range, but failed to the HLC. I was eventually killed. I blew the X-wing easy, but was getting hurt as I danced around the other ships. I got one down to half before I was killed. It was most disappointing. I played pretty bad.

The official tournament started. There were 7 of us. I was paired with AJ, who is probably the best X-wing player in the greater Charlotte area. He's beaten me more than I've beaten him and he won the last store championship out of 20 players. AJ hadn't played the game since March and was really rusty. He hadn't played against Phantoms and was terrified by them. He usually does 3 X's and a HWK, but went for Fat Han w/ 3 Tala's.

When we started, I tried to cluster the asteroids in the middle. I was happy to see him put his Falcon on the sides. We approached each other and I was able to get a number of things in good places. My Turr was able to wound a Z-95 and then dance out of arcs. Vessery got a free TL and fired on the Falcon...and only get 2 hits....which were dodged. The Shuttle fired at point blank and got 4 hits! That almost took his shields down.

I then tried to use Col V and the Shuttle to block Han while the Interceptor curled on the side, too. I could've used the Int. Agent to see what he did, but totally forgot. I don't think I used it at all the whole night. Well.....he went with a 4 and jumped past all my guys! If he had bumped, he wouldn't have lasted the turn. Instead, he pinged at me and got a few shields.

Next, the Tala's had K-turned and I thought I could boost and then red turn into them. I would block them up and still get a shot on the Falcon. I looked at it and determined I could just green turn and do the same. I tried it...and failed. I ended up missing half the Z-95's and having no shots on the Falcon.

Defender K-turned and Turr moved behind the Falcon. I blasted on Z-95, but that was it. I think my failure to really do what I wanted on that turn was the biggest mistake of the game. Not the only, but the biggest.

Next turn I thought he would try to zip ahead again and moved the Lambda to block it, but he did a 1 sharp turn and avoided me and the asteroids completely! Dang. The Shuttle went down to the Fat Han. I managed to take the last shield off Han and 2 Hull. After that, I had a hard time avoiding the Z-95's and kept getting hit hard by the Fat Han. I ended up getting killed slowly without taking anything else out. I managed a lose with only 13 pts to my name.

The next round had me at the lowest and I got the buy. There were only 7 and I got the free win. I was actually happy with this as I felt if I won the last round, I would finish in the top 4 for prizes.

Just off the top of my head, the other lists were:

two YT-2400 list. None of them had Outrider.

Decimator w/ Phantom list (got the first round buy)

Lambda Shuttle w/ 4 Tie Fighters - Howlrunner, Mithel, and 2 Obsidians

Chewbacca Falcon w/ Luke and Biggs - new player. Very new player.

Imperial list with Tie Fighters and some Tie Interceptors. - also very new player.

The last two had fought and Chewbacca had won.

Two YT's lost to Lambda w/ 4 Tie Fighters

In my last round, I was paired with the Lambda w/ 4 Tie Fighters. I think this was the other experienced player in the group.

I'll have to write more on that tomorrow. I needed a win to get within the top 4 and get a prize.

Here's what I would have recommended after playtesting those 3 ships for a while:

AJ hadn't played the game since March and was really rusty.

He hadn't played against Phantoms and was terrified by them.

He usually does 3 X's and a HWK, but went for Fat Han w/ 3 Tala's

This is a common thing here as well.

It is the go-to crutch list.

Hope you made it to top 4!

Alright…..so I had a loss and a buy. If I can pull out a victory, I should make it into the top 4 for a prize.

In the second round, the Lambda and Ties went against AJ – Fat Han and lost. I didn’t pay as much attention to this game as I did the others, but it looked close. Double YT-2400’s won vs. Tie Interceptor list. That put the Tie Int list at the bottom with double losses. The guy with the first round buy played Echo and a Decimator and ended up against Chewbacca, Biggs, and Luke. The Rebel guy was really new, but managed to kill the Phantom. So, everyone had a win and a loss, except AJ.

I ended up playing the Lambda (Capt. Yorr) w/ Howlrunner, Mauler Mithel, and 2 Obsidians. I forgot about photos as I was using my phone to play music and sound effects. We placed asteroids in a ring in the middle. I figured it would hurt his multiple Ties flying around and prevent him from swarming me without risk of bumping or hitting an asteroid. I put my shuttle down on the right facing the middle. He ended up placing all of his stuff opposite, which means he was outside of the asteroid field, but clumped. He got initiative.

Starting off, I made a bad mistake. Thinking back to my first game of the night where I didn’t even get at TL with the Shuttle, I wanted to get up there. I banked right and then boosted left, which got me way too far forward. It was stupid of me, but my regular opponent usually opens slow. My opponent moved ahead 3 and the first 2 Ties were in range. They took off 2 shields from me with me doing nothing in return. Everything else moved up. Oh, his Shuttle was a bit in the back.

We moved towards each other and my shuttle got off the two TL’s. A Tie and MM bumped me. Another Tie moved past, but Howlrunner was sitting at range 1. My Defender bumped my Shuttle (barely), but I had a TL from the Shuttle on Howlrunner. Howlrunner took a shield. I fired all three ships at Howlrunner with Focus and TL galore and failed to cause a single wound. I rolled bad, even with the re-rolls and he was hot. My Shuttle was pounded and down to 3 hull points. I was getting frustrated. We were all crowded together on the right flank, as well.

I forgot that I can do an action before I move….which is something my opponent forgot a lot that game, as well. I also forgot I can use my Intel Agent and never used him all night. *sigh*

So, my Shuttle tried to bank 2 past the mess and managed to just kind of clip Howlrunner and bump. I was hoping to jump past the mess and cause his Shuttle to bump me, not letting him fire at me. His Tie Fighters all did 3 K Turns. One Tie made it, another bumped. Howlrunner bumped into the Shuttle. His Shuttle banked up to the fight. My Defender moved along the right edge to face off vs. the 2 Ties. Interceptor was still flanking on the left. Mauler Mithel had K turned to the Shuttle’s 5 o’clock at range 1. MM ended up flubbing his rolls. The enemy Shuttle ended up taking out mine. Or was it one of the Tie Fighters? Either or. Turr rolled 3 dice w/ Focus at Howlrunner and only got a single hit, which she evaded. Col. Vessery fired with TL on one Tie Fighter and only managed a single hit (even with re-roll) and he ended up failing to evade it. It was not looking good.

At this point, I was really peeved. I was frustrated. I started to think about going home and how soon this game will end. He had killed my shuttle and all I had managed to do at that point was to wound a single Obsidian Pilot. I was frustrated that all my plans were going down the tubes and I was probably not going to get much lewt. Then…..I realized it’s a game. I forced myself to de-stress and just have fun. It’s a fun game. I’m meeting new people. I’m rolling dice. Enjoy it.

What happened next was really interesting. I can’t recall the nuance to give a blow by blow, but I’ll summarize. The board was really crowded and had stressed pilots and people facing different ways. My Defender went 3 bank to clear all the nonsense and get to a safe spot. I had MM follow me from a distance as Howlrunner and the Shutttle moved closer to me (away from the fight). The two Ties cleared stress in the middle and each faced a different direction. Turr moved across the middle and ended up facing the undamaged Tie Fighter. I put blasted him and was out of firing arcs. MM took a shield off of Col. Vessery and I was left with one. OK…this round was good. I was able to not suffer concentrated fire.

Col Vessery was at the far end of the board near the back, right corner and facing at 10 o’clock. I K-turned with him and was able to TL MM who had followed him. The Tie with one hit was moving up, but out of range. The Shuttle moved further towards my side of the board and Howlrunner K-turned to get back to the action. Turr and the other Tie Fighter both 3 K-turned at each other. Turr fired and managed to blow up a Tie Fighter. Col V and MM got one hit each. We both K-turned at each other, but with the Defender having more dice and a TL, I was able to blow up Mauler Mithel. Now…this is where the timing is odd. I managed to kill the two ships on the same turn, which drastically changed the game. I think Turr jousted for another round before firing and killing the Tie Fighter. Yes….because while my dice were actually getting hits at this point, my opponent was rolling hot and avoiding a lot….until that one turn that I killed two.

After that one round where I didn’t roll bad and he didn’t roll great, I was able to kill things. Also, my opponent had scattered his ships and not concentrated his fire. I’m not really sure how he could’ve done it different as it was just a giant cluster for the first few turns. As it stood, a wounded Tie Fighter was moving up on Col. V with Howlrunner trying to close the distance. It was hard, though, as Vessery had just done another K-turn and ended up on the far side of the table. At this point, he had bounced on that K-turn for 3 turns. Turr moved a 2 straight and managed to get behind the Shuttle with no one else to bother him. There was 20 minutes left in the game at this point. The Defender put the Tie Fighter down to one hull point and Turr managed to get 4 hits on the shields of the shut

Knowing that I was expected to K-turn, Howlrunner moved slightly ahead where she would be able to shoot at me in that spot, but I wouldn’t see her. The other Tie Fighter bugged out and went 3 left behind an asteroid. Col. Vessery didn’t K-turn and 3 banked right and faced Howlrunner at range 2. Howlrunner put a wound on Col. Vessery, but he managed to put 2 on Howlrunner. Meanwhile, the Shuttle had to do a green to remove stress and Turr moved up behind. I fired, but only managed a few hits with my 4 dice due to luck (even with Focus). Still, shields were down!

The wounded Obsidian Squadie banked further to try to go help the Shuttle. The Shuttle surprised me by doing a full stop. I was taken off guard and bumped. On the far side, the two elites faced each other. Each K-turned, but the Defender gets an action. The TL and higher attack dice saw Howlrunner blasted into the void.

We are down to about 3 minutes at this point. Everyone else is done. Lambda Shuttle does a green bank and the last Tie Fighter turns to cover his rear. Turr moves into that spot. Col. Vessery blasts 5 forward and barrel rolls to get a shot off at the Tie Fighter. I get a hit on it, taking it down to one hull. Turr fires and blows up the shuttle. I then bank and barrel roll to get out of the firing arc of the last Tie Fighter. Woot!

Next round the last Tie Fighter is shot by Col. Vessery. Woohoooo! Victory to me! I was very surprised and happy. I had been down in the dumps and ready to throw in the towel. I’m not sure if my opponent could’ve done much different, but after the first pass, he was forced to attack me piecemeal and my superior ships took him out. I think it was mostly the situation than anything else, but I’m happy with it.

Points are tallied up. I’m not sure what the other games were. First place goes to….AJ and the Fat Han. Yep….I wasn’t surprised by that. AJ is a great guy and a good X-wing player. Second place goes to the double YT-2400 list! The young guy had gotten both of them from his Grandmother as an Xmas gift and it was his first night flying them! It was the cheap YT-2400’s with HLC and a Red Squadron with a named droid. I would’ve thought that only having the front arcs for the HLC was not good, but having two of them made it really difficult to approach. Them, they were both so maneuverable that he usually had a shot with them. Even if he didn’t, he was at least throwing dice with the turret. It wasn’t too hard to be within range 1 of an enemy, either, so that’s 3 dice he’s firing. I really underestimated the ships in my game and was surprised they did so well.

Third place went to….me? Wow! I was happy to get my Falcon cardboard box as my Tie Fighter one was barely able to hold all my cards. Oh, and I got my Phantom tokens. Now, I just need to trade them for something that I want. I don’t own a Phantom, so I don’t need them. Maybe with the popularity of Phantoms that I can make a good trade? Maybe?

Fourth place went to the Echo and Decimator list! I only got to see it played a little, but it looked fun.

AFTER ACTION REPORT:

First off, I felt that Turr Phenir with PTL was a great choice. The number of times I was able to get to a good spot, fire, and then move the heck out of the way was excellent. There were a number of times that I needed both the barrel roll and boost to get out of firing arcs. I think it would’ve been worse if I had gone for VI. Also, it effectively gives him 3 actions in one turn, as opposed to 2. The only ship that was faster than me that would’ve been slower after VI would’ve been Howlrunner. While that could’ve helped me overall, it wouldn’t have helped me as much as PTL. I’m quite happy with my choice there.

Ugh! The shuttle! I need to learn to fly it better. I….thought I did…..but I guess that’s the problem with playing against the same players too often. I’m used to a slow opening and wasn’t used to such nasty firepower coming straight at the Shuttle. I need to dissuade people from shooting at it as much and really missed Rebel Captive. It would’ve made a difference, I think. I need to buy a loose Hull Upgrade. In my practice game I was too timid. In my last game I was too bold. Against the Falcon….I think it would’ve been different if I had done the sharp turn instead of the slight. I think that deserves its own paragraph, though.

So….I’m not used to a Fat Han as no one has really played them in the area (against me at least). Part of what I found frustrating is that it’s such a big base and it moves last. It’s so hard to get to a good spot with it. That was one of the biggest issues. I knew that you need to just pour on the fire from as many sources as possible and if my opponent had done anything other than that 4 straight, he would’ve bumped and been blasted out of the sky in Turn 3. That was a good player move there. Fat Han does a lot of damage, though. With the re-rolls and the Gunner, you just know you will get hurt each turn. I was surprised at how much damage output there was, as I guess I’m used to killing YT-1300’s sooner. I feel that if I had made that one sharp turn, then I would’ve had a good chance. I would’ve bumped all his Z-95’s and only one would’ve fired at my Shuttle. All my ships would’ve been able to fire with TL’s or Focus. I had gotten him down to 6 hull and all it would’ve taken was one more round of concentrated fire to either kill him or make him run (which makes it easier to predict). When I look at how I put everything into blocking the Falcon, I am not sure what else I could’ve done that turn without bumping. There wasn’t really a lot, so I’m OK with that round. It was really that one turn that I felt could’ve done better for me in the game. OH, and I would’ve have gone over an asteroid or taken as many hits as I had from Z-95’s.

There were several times when the Defender just couldn’t put out the damage, even with a few re-rolls. I had never really felt that the HLC was necessary on the Defender, but am starting to think it’s a good thing. It would give more damage output. There were a number of times when one more hit would’ve gotten through, and that attrition is important. I’m leaning towards taking things off the Shuttle to make it happen. What? I’m not sure. I didn’t end up using the Engine Upgrade much at all, as I didn’t last long enough to make it work. Bleh. That’s contrary to most of the other fights I’ve had before. Oh…most of my other fights were against Phantoms. That’s probably it.

THE FUTURE:

So, what does the future hold? I was surprised to see so many large ships, to be honest. There hadn’t been that many before, but with the 3 Rebel builds, I saw 2 Falcons and 2 YT-2400’s. There was the Decimator and someone bought another one while there. That reinforces the list that I’m waiting to get: “My Name is Jonus”. That’s the 4 Tie Bomber list. Unfortunately, I asked for X-wing stuff for Xmas and can’t buy anything until after the holidays. So, after then, I should have stuff, but not before. I had read….SableGriffon’s (?) article on the Tie Bomber Squad and really was interested in it. I think it would’ve done very well against the ships I faced last night.

Capt. Jonus w/ Homing Missile, Assault Missile, Seismic Charges

2 x Scimitar Pilots w/ Concussion Missiles, Seismic Charges

2Scimitar Pilot w/ Proton Torpedo, Seismic Charges

It looks fun and I’m excited about trying it out.

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions! I really appreciate it and think it helped me out.

Interesting read, thanks for sharing!