Today was my 4th X-wing tournament played (5th if you count the TCO this fall, but I had to drop out of that at the very end).
My first two were store championships at the beginning of the year. Both had around 20 people. I went 2-1 and got 5th in the first just barely missing the cut to final 4, second I went 3-0 to make the final cut, but lost my first finals match. Also did an imdaar alpha tournament this summer. It was smaller with about 10-12 people I think. I went 2-0 and got 3rd, but the 2nd place player dropped out so I got to make it to the top 2 match, but lost it.
Today was even smaller, only 8 people. Even with low turn out, the TO wanted to still do 3 rounds AND a final 4. We were playing for the summer kit prizes as they had never been used yet. There was also a unique catch to this tourney. The TO ran it so that before each match, one of the players would roll an attack die. On a hit/crit, the players would switch sides and play each other's squads instead. So not only do you need to know your squad well, but also know its weaknesses, along with knowing how the other ships in the game work.
These were the 8 squads as best I remember them.
Me
Boba + HLC + Predator
Kath + HLC + Predator + Rebel Captive
Sam
Keyan + HLC + Opportunist
Wes + VI
Proto + Refit X 2
Jeremy
Oicunn + Dauntless + Daredevil
Rear Admiral + Moff + Vader
Jeff
Sigma + Stygium X 2
Omicron
Academy X 2
Art
Blue + HLC + FCS X 2
ORS + Luke + Chewie
Darren
Soontir + PTL + Stealth + TC
Carnor + PTL + Stealth
Turr + PTL + Stealth + TC
Cory
Oicunn + Dauntless + Navigator + Intelligence Agent + Mara
Rexler + Ion + Proton Rocket + Predator
New Guy (don't remember name)
Echo + VI + ACD + Shield
RGP X 2
Dark Curse]
Round 1 vs Cory
First game I had to switch squads. Having played against Oicunn before, and often getting rammed a lot, I decided that was my best tactic. Only pulled it off twice though I think. I had never flown a decimator before, but the dials for all the big ships other than the shuttle are basically the same so it wasn't that hard. Between Mara and some bumping cost my opponent a lot of actions. Lost Rexler on the last shot of the game otherwise would have been a flawless victory.
Win: 100 - 46
Round 2 vs Sam
Didn't switch squads this game. I knew Keyan was the biggest threat by far so tried to focus on him first. Key moment of the game was during the first round of combat, Keyan got a blinded pilot crit on Kath before she had shot yet since he had initiative. That meant Keyan staying alive a round longer which with his damage output really cost me the game. Although some bad flying on my part didn't help either. Finished off Keyan late to get the points but it wasn't that close a game.
Loss: 40-100
Round 3 vs Darren
Of all the matchups, this one scared me the most since 3 high PS agile ships can really exploit my ship's blind spots. I have won against interceptors before, but it's tough, and often the dice determine the outcome. If my opponent never gets one of those bad defensive rolls, it can go badly. Luckily, we switched squads. I'm not an interceptor expert by any means, but I can handle them well enough. I had to take initiative, but it didn't matter in the end. I made a key mistake early that could have cost me though. I moved one too far with my interceptors even after doing the math in my head several times, which meant both firesprays had shots on me, but luckily they were far enough apart that they couldn't both shoot the same target. I took no damage that round, and only took 1 damage total the whole game, and that was on the very last shot of the game.
Win: 100-0
So now I was at 2-1, so I was automatically in the final 4.
Round 4 - Semi Finals vs Jeff
Didn't switch squads this game. I had several advantages for this game. One being higher pilot skill than all his ships. The other being that predator would get a bonus for 3 out of 5 of his ships. My goal was to take the phantoms down as quick as possible as they were the only real threats. First round of shooting my combined HLC attacks were just enough to kill one phantom before it ever got a shot off. Then second round I did the same to his other one thanks to a direct hit crit. I got more luck another round or two later when one of his ties landed on an asteroid getting a direct hit crit, then when he moved off it the next turn he rolled a hit killing it. Kath died along the way, but at the end it was a almost full health Boba vs a heavily damaged academy and shuttle so it was over at that point basically.
Win: 100 - 51
Round 5 - Finals vs Sam
Second game against Sam, the only loss I had so far today. Once again we played our own squads and once again he had initiative. He deployed the same as first game, so I deployed a bit differently to see if it would help change the outcome from last time. Early on it looked like it might be a repeat of the first game as Keyan was tearing me up and I wasn't killing him fast enough. Caught a break though when I got to give HIM a blinded pilot crit. Due to his position, I knew he wouldn't be able to shoot me for a couple rounds, so I used that time to focus on his other 3 ships. I slowly whittled down and killed his protos but lost Kath along the way. Near the end it was Boba with 7 hits left vs Wes with 3 and Keyan with 1. There were a few shots exchanged between boba and wes before keyan could get back in the fight with but it only resulted in 1 damage to boba. I finally got to kill Keyan once he got back in range again. At that point it was down to Boba at 6 health and Wes with 3. We kept exchanging shots at range 2 while he chased me from behind. I took evade every time since I was going to lose a token no matter what. He kept averaging 2 hits with target locks and I kept getting rolling an evade plus token to take no damage. Meanwhile I still had predator to reroll one die each attack so I whittled him down after a few more rounds and that was game.
Win: 100 - 51
Overall it was a really fun tourney. The idea of switching lists was a neat idea and I'd like to do it again. I think I picked the right kind of list for it. One that I'm very familiar with and do well with, but also that has some weaknesses and isn't too overpowered if I have to play against it. That's why I didn't take a whisper squad for example, as if I got paired against a squad that had little chance against it and we switched, I could be screwing myself over.