EDIT: Results from the tourney are in, check Page 2!

Hey all,

I'm going to be taking part in my first store championship this month, I just wanted to see if anyone has some basic tips or squad ideas for me since I've never done this.

First off, any advice regarding rules, how to win/survive with the 60-75 minute cap, etc. would be helpful.

And second, I have played a different squad every time I've played thus far, just to try out as much as possible, so I need advice on a decent competitive tournament build. You can see what ships I have in my signature. I sort of like playing Rebel ships more, but I've had a little more luck with Imperials. From my experience, I've had the most success with the following ships on either side:

Rebel:

Definitely strong E-Wing/X-Wing builds. I think finding the right blend of keeping Corran alive and focusing down ships really quick can do wonders.

Something like:

Corran + 2 others (Biggs + Blount w/ missiles or a HWK-290)?

or

Corran + Gemmer Sojan w/ P Rockets + Biggs?

Imperial:

Using RA Chiraneau and loading him up pretty heavily seems to be the way to go. Otherwise, building a semi-durable 4-ship squad of Interceptors and fighters (shield+hull upgrades) has worked alright too.

RAC + Whisper

or

RAC + Interceptor + Fighter

Thanks!

Honestly, sounds like you'd do well with my Updated LBW ideas.

Find the thread here

Basically, the LBW combo worked thusly:

1. Enemies must prioritize Biggs over any allied ship at Range 1
2. R2-D2 + Draw Their Fire can pull any Crits off of Biggs, then regenerate the missing shield.
3. Once Biggs dies, Luke's pilot ability mitigates damage from several attacks, while R2-D2 adds survivability over time
4. And while all this is going on, you've got Wedge assassinating whomever he wishes.

The addition of the E-Wing adds superb replacements for both Luke and Wedge in the above. Try it out!

Fly what you know. Don't play a brand new build at the Store Championship.

Dracon: I only have the 1 core X-Wing, so it would have to be a variation of the Rogue Squadron group. Here's the one I threw together:

Biggs as tank: R2-F2 + Experimental Interface

Roark Garnet as support: Ion Turret + Jan Ors (to change Biggs' Focus to Evade

Corran as bruiser: PtL + Ion Torpedoes (2 actions for attack bonuses early, and defense bonuses after Biggs drops)

The Ion Torps is a question mark, but I figure with the HWK's Ion Turret it can ionize large ships while dealing good damage. Otherwise, I'd take R7-T1 and throw 2 points somewhere else.

Fly what you know. Don't play a brand new build at the Store Championship.

I am going to try and get a few more rounds in with squads I feel comfortable with before the tourney. That means I'll probably be flying against myself a few times, but it does help.

Um, just noticed something odd. This tourney I'm looking into for this weekend is using 150-point squads apparently.

I messaged the store owner, who said that is accurate as far as he knows, although of course he knows far less than the TO.

Has anyone run 150-pointers before?

I thought almost all organized play (outside of epic battles) was 100 points... Well, I guess I'll be having to come up with some interesting and entirely new builds the next couple days. I should probably build a good 100-point squad I know, then just tack on a large 50-point ship or a couple smaller cheaper ones.

I had my first X-Wing tournament last weekend, picked up 19/40, quite happy with that result.

My tips;

- Play a list, at most tweak it a bit, but get used to that one list. You need to know what it can/can't do. Even arrange a mate to play your list so you can try taking it on and see what someone else can do with it.

- Practice remembering your actions. It didn't cost me a game (I think) but I forgot to focus/evade/whatever a few times, and I certainly took extra damage because of it.

- Let the opponent know you are new to tournaments, that way when you make a rules error he will now you are noob, not cheat

Final tip; relax and have fun. Treat it as a great learning experience, see what others run and how they use them against you.

Good luck

RoV

Um, just noticed something odd. This tourney I'm looking into for this weekend is using 150-point squads apparently.

I messaged the store owner, who said that is accurate as far as he knows, although of course he knows far less than the TO.

Has anyone run 150-pointers before?

I thought almost all organized play (outside of epic battles) was 100 points... Well, I guess I'll be having to come up with some interesting and entirely new builds the next couple days. I should probably build a good 100-point squad I know, then just tack on a large 50-point ship or a couple smaller cheaper ones.

If it is a store championship and not a game night kit, it is required to be run by FFG standards of 100 point lists. I would recommend contacting the TO.

Um, just noticed something odd. This tourney I'm looking into for this weekend is using 150-point squads apparently.

I messaged the store owner, who said that is accurate as far as he knows, although of course he knows far less than the TO.

Has anyone run 150-pointers before?

I thought almost all organized play (outside of epic battles) was 100 points... Well, I guess I'll be having to come up with some interesting and entirely new builds the next couple days. I should probably build a good 100-point squad I know, then just tack on a large 50-point ship or a couple smaller cheaper ones.

If it is a store championship and not a game night kit, it is required to be run by FFG standards of 100 point lists. I would recommend contacting the TO.

I don't think it's an official FFG championship tourney, as the location isn't listed on FFG's site. I think it's just a casual store tournament but I'll find out more soon I hope.

Um, just noticed something odd. This tourney I'm looking into for this weekend is using 150-point squads apparently.

I messaged the store owner, who said that is accurate as far as he knows, although of course he knows far less than the TO.

Has anyone run 150-pointers before?

I thought almost all organized play (outside of epic battles) was 100 points... Well, I guess I'll be having to come up with some interesting and entirely new builds the next couple days. I should probably build a good 100-point squad I know, then just tack on a large 50-point ship or a couple smaller cheaper ones.

Oh yeah. I love 150 pt tourneys.

3 x Blue Squad Pilots

2 x Rookie Pilots

2 x Bandit Squad Pilots

1 x Gold Squad Pilot

44 hit points, 21 attack dice. Whisper can't escape.

Fly what you know, and know what you fly. If you find yourself forgetting to use upgrade cards frequently during casual play, consider scaling back your list and maybe add a cheap ship instead. I've had opponents with there ships stacked to the gills with upgrades, and heard them murmuring how they forgot to use this or that. Get's tougher in the later rounds when you get tired.

Eat before you go, and try to stick to drinking water. In between rounds, go outside, get some air, and sit down and take a break. Clear your head for the next round.

Win or lose, have fun!

Best advice I can give is enjoy yourself, regardless of win or lose have fun and hope the dice don't fall short on you. Run something your comfortable with flying. Don't just run something because you heard it was good and lastly really think out your maneuvers don't take big risks unless you need too, hitting an asteroid can really effect a close game into a landslide.

A lot of tournament players talk about Fly Casual. (Some of us old-timers even have t-shirts.) The idea is that even when you're part of a serious event, you remember that you're there to have fun. If someone walks past your table, they should think "Those people look like they're playing a really cool game," and when a match is over you and your opponent should both feel like you'd enjoy playing against each other again.

So the best advice I have is, no matter what you bring and what your record is, to fly casual.

Play a list you are familiar with, if you have any questions about how cards interact don't hesitate to call over the T.O.

Great advice from all of you, thanks everyone! I will definitely be treating it as a learning experience, it's probably good that it's not an official tournament so I can get a taste with no real repercussions.

I like the advice of "more, less complicated ships" as the crazy advanced-synergy builds do require a lot of expert maneuvering and remembering everything. I'll see what I can come up with and try it out.

Play to learn, not to win, it will help. I try to tell myself that, but I get caught up in the competition and I can boil a little bit if it goes wrong for me--not so much that I lash out, I just lose perspective that I am there to get better. If I were playing 3-4 days a week and really ramping myself up for a big tournament maybe I could put on the try-hard "play to win" hat. I haven't done that and I can usually calm it down realizing that the game is still fun. Even if I go 2-2 or 3-3, which I feel is really good for someone that plays so infrequently, it was still a good time. Other times I feel like a feeder to the big fish...

I put together a 150-point 6-ship Rebel squad that I think has great potential; please let me know what you guys think.

Etahn A'baht

Predator

Fire Control System

Gemmer Sojan

Test Pilot

PtL

Proton Rockets

Roark Garnet

Blaster Turret

Rookie Pilot

Blue Squadron Pilot

HLC

Bandit Squadron Pilot

Pros:

- Gives the opponent 6 ships to deal with,

- Roark can hand out the first attack each round to any of my ships

- Etahn gives all 6 ships a crit conversion as long as I keep him angled towards most of the enemy squad

- Bandit could be used as a blocker/nuisance

- Gemmer can get close to a target ship and blast it with rockets while maintaining that extra evade from his ability

- B-Wing will put out extra damage with HLC, thus drawing fire away (hopefully) from Roark and Etahn, who I want alive.

Cons:

- Low overall pilot skills (Roark surviving = priority)

- Only 2/6 ships have 3+ agility

- I have little experience flying more than 3-4 ships per squad, on average. Would have to be very careful about collisions.

Thoughts?

Beside all this strategic tips

Sounds funny, but many people forget and sometimes there are no opportunities: Take enough food and water with you! Dont underestimate the length of the day. Maybe some coffee or other snacks too.

Beside all this strategic tips

Sounds funny, but many people forget and sometimes there are no opportunities: Take enough food and water with you! Dont underestimate the length of the day. Maybe some coffee or other snacks too.

You're totally right, great advice! I'll definitely bring some provisions.

I would still like some feedback on my squad idea though!

While my first swing turny is at the end of the month a lot of what if read here is true with other games I've played. Have fun and learn should be the top two priorities. Alo two things that tend to get overlooked get plenty of sleep the night before and personal hygiene. God knowns how many gaming turns if been to and after a couple of hours of play the room starts to get funky

Don't get stressed out and try to have fun.

Don't put too much pressure on yourself it will only make you play worse, remember victory teaches you nothing but defeat offers many lessons.

We also demand pictures!

While my first swing turny is at the end of the month a lot of what if read here is true with other games I've played. Have fun and learn should be the top two priorities. Alo two things that tend to get overlooked get plenty of sleep the night before and personal hygiene. God knowns how many gaming turns if been to and after a couple of hours of play the room starts to get funky

I hear that. Was at a store this past weekend gauging interest in X-Wing, and I swear some of those dudes have never heard of deodorant.

Frankly that's why I'm a little frightened of entering this world of table top miniatures. Sure, I love a good board game as casual fun now and then, but it seems like once you enter the world of miniatures, it seems like there's almost no casual players anymore, just the hardcore board gamers who are entrenched in this world and never learned anything else... like social skills or hygiene.

I hope some of you folks are in the same boat as me - trying to enjoy an awesome game while maintaining basic human dignity

Don't get stressed out and try to have fun.

Don't put too much pressure on yourself it will only make you play worse, remember victory teaches you nothing but defeat offers many lessons.

We also demand pictures!

That's one of my mottos for sure - the lessons in defeat one. And I'll try to remember to snap some pics!

While my first swing turny is at the end of the month a lot of what if read here is true with other games I've played. Have fun and learn should be the top two priorities. Alo two things that tend to get overlooked get plenty of sleep the night before and personal hygiene. God knowns how many gaming turns if been to and after a couple of hours of play the room starts to get funky

I hear that. Was at a store this past weekend gauging interest in X-Wing, and I swear some of those dudes have never heard of deodorant.

Frankly that's why I'm a little frightened of entering this world of table top miniatures. Sure, I love a good board game as casual fun now and then, but it seems like once you enter the world of miniatures, it seems like there's almost no casual players anymore, just the hardcore board gamers who are entrenched in this world and never learned anything else... like social skills or hygiene.

I hope some of you folks are in the same boat as me - trying to enjoy an awesome game while maintaining basic human dignity

Urgh sadly smelly socially malajusted people are a part of gaming, never fails to amuse how they moan about girls ignoring them while running greasy fingers over a filthy t-shirt.

You don't have to give up on bathing, you can keep brushing your hair and teeth and just because your a nerd/geek does not mean self abuse is your only option.

If all else fails there are plenty of girls with daddy issues.

RESULTS!!!

Tournament was today, so I wanted to post a quick recap of how it went down.

First off, I used a totally different list from what I posted earlier. I flew this list against my Rebel one I mentioned, and I blew away my brother, who controlled the Rebel list. He flew it all wrong, but I still felt that this one provided huge advantages.

TIE Advanced: Darth Vader

Squad Leader

Proton Rockets

(34 pts.)

TIE Defender: Rexler Brath

Heavy Laser Cannon

Predator

(47 pts.)

TIE Interceptor: Tetran Cowall

Outmaneuver

(27 pts.)

TIE Interceptor: Royal Guard Pilot

Push the Limit

(25 pts.)

TIE Fighter: Mauler Mithel

(17 pts.)

Total: 150 pts.

This squad was awesome because it provided a lot of attack damage, which I'll break down below:

- The 2 Interceptors with 3 attack, plus Tetran's outmaneuver making his ability super useful

- Rexler getting 4 dice at any range, plus his ability causing extra crits, and Predator

- Mauler getting 4 dice at close range, which he was able to do fairly effectively

- Vader's Proton Rockets for close range, plus handing out a free action - usually a Target Lock or some such to Rexler or an interceptor.

Along with the 5 ships with generally high attack, they all have great maneuverability and agility (all 3 agility) with the options of using focus or evade if defense was needed. So now, on to the battles:

Battle 1

I played a guy using a 6-ship Rebel squad. If memory serves me, he had Dash Rendar, a 6-skill Y-Wing (I don't have a Y-Wing, so unfamiliar with pilots), Roark Garnet's HWK, Lt. Blount with Ion Pulse Missiles, and 2 Prototype Pilot A-Wings.

This game ended up playing out until time was called, by which point I had destroyed the Y-Wing and Hawk, I believe. He took out my Royal Guard Pilot and Mithel. I ended up winning by a 1-point margin (42-43). I am convinced that I would have lost had we kept playing, because Vader was down to 1 hp, and he had about 4 Ion turrets/missiles in play. I had his Z-95 and 1 A-Wing on the ropes, but I also hadn't even scratched Dash at that point.

I also corrected this guy on quite a few rules he was missing/misinterpreting, which made me also feel more comfortable in knowing that I'm not a total noob on that stuff amidst other regular X-Wing players.

Battle 2

I fought a chap using a 4-Rebel ship build, including Wedge, Etahn, Ibtisam, and the Skill 8 Y-Wing. Long story short, I sent all my ships up the side and focused down his B and Y-Wings really fast, while Wedge and Etahn couldn't punch through my evades enough to turn the tide. His ships got badly boxed in and ran into ships and asteroids quite a bit. I ended up wiping his squad while only losing Mithel at 17 points.

Battle 3

I fought the guy everyone hates at this venue, apparently, because he always wins these tourneys. He's just a great strategist, and this battle showed it. He flew Chewie, Wedge, Biggs, and 2 Blue Squadron Pilots. Going into this fight, on one hand I felt good after decimating the last opponent and because I've never seen B-Wings flown well... but on the other hand, I fare very poorly against big ships when using only small ships. I decided to try and focus down Chewie as fast as possible. This was a poor choice.

(The one picture I took of the play field during this final battle, and it came out super blurry. I circled his Rebel ships in Red, my Imp ships in Green. Mithel had just been killed here; he was right in front of the Falcon before getting burned. The ultra-busy play mat doesn't help, I know.)

He escaped the arcs of my interceptors, who I had flanking around the far side, and Mithel got obliterated before unleashing 4 dice at Range 1. He had Swarm Tactics on Wedge, which was brilliant and gave his otherwise-lame B-Wings a shot really early. Basically, he evaded just enough to keep Chewie alive long enough to wipe out almost my entire squad. The Shield-less Interceptors and TIEs fell fast, Vader got wrecked and rolled awful defense dice, and Rexler was easy to bring down with all those 3 and 4-dice rolls by the end. Not to mention I took 2 double-damage crits to lose both Vader and Rexler. I managed to kill Chewie the same round I was wiped out, so I at least negated a big chunk of points before going down.

Takeaways

So in the end, I got 3rd place in the tournament (of 7 people). No complaints from me, going 2-1, only losing against the undisputed best player at the store, and getting my money back in in-store credit (that's what they are using until they get restocked on official rewards from FF). I also got to actually fly the same squad several times in a row - something I haven't done yet, since I've been constantly trying out new squads and styles. I learned a ton from looking at the other players' squads and play styles, and especially from talking to some of the guys before and afterwards.

I really am proud of the 5-ship 150-point squad I put together. Rexler was my MVP, definitely doing the most damage (naturally, I guess) and staying on the board the longest across all 3 games. I think I would work out a variation of this squad for a 100-point competition if I could (drop Mithel, an Interceptor, and a couple upgrades or pilot skills). It was nice to get that first tourney out of the way and learn the ropes.

Good stuff 3rd is more than respectable for your first event

And I even got my picture, that mat looks a bit busy though did you have eye strain after playing on it?