After having to swallow 9th place out of 28 at the previous days Store Championship, it was time for me to utilize what I had learned and redeem myself. Today I would be bringing a list that was much better suited to my play style of map control and misdirection.
Ten Numb was my elite ship hunter, designed to destroy things like Phantoms, Interceptors, Defenders, E-Wings, etc. Ion Cannon + Tactician is a deadly combo that can completely shut down any small ship that it hits. Although I mostly picked Ten Numb for his Pilot Skill and upgrade slots, Ten’s ability synergizes really well with the Ion Cannon, giving him a 1 in 3 chance of a completely unblockable ionization, and about ~50% chance of an unblockable ionization with a Target Lock, all in addition to just getting normal hits through. PS 10 allows him to Barrel Roll as needed to keep those ships in his arc, and shoot before any Phantom has a chance to recloak. Fire-Control System gives him more freedom to use that Barrel Roll action, and synergizes well with Ten’s ability. And to complement Ten, a mini-swarm of 4 A-Wings. If you’re going to run A-Wings, I highly recommend running Prototypes in groups of at least 3. If you’re paying more than 20 points for an A-Wing, you’re overpaying for a 2-dice gun, even for the elite pilots. Their speed and maneuverability allow them to better control the terms of engagement and choose where they want to fight, giving the A-Wing a major edge over the Z-95 for me personally, as well as being more durable than the Zs. But if you’re not utilizing the A-Wings speed and k-turning ability to your advantage, then a swarm of 5 Headhunters is a perfectly adequate replacement for the 4 A-Wings.
There were 13 players in the tournament, much less then yesterday, and although I did see a few large ships, including a Decimator and a few YTs, there was no Han or Chiraneau, and amazingly no Phantoms. The crowd there was markedly more casual than what I saw at Dice Age, although I also think that a lot of people were just burnt out from all of the Fat Hans yesterday and just wanted to play something fun.
To help myself remember these games, I took a picture of the set up for each game and then did my best to record the maneuver of each ship. Since I didn’t want my note taking to affect the time, I had to resort to some short hand so I don’t have perfect recreations of the games, but it’s good enough to help me remember what happened. The doodles on the photos are meant to give you a general idea of how the first few turns of the game played out, but don’t perfectly represent the ship’s positions on the map.
Round 1:
Black Squadron Pilot [Predator] (17) x 3
Rexler Brath [Heavy Laser Cannon, Lone Wolf, Stealth Device] (49)
This was a somewhat strange game, and I’m actually having a hardtime remembering the first few turns exactly even with my notes because my opponent was very fond of doing random Barrel Rolls with his TIEs, which I think really hurt his dice rolls, since he had a lot of green rolls that were focuses and blanks, which made it very easy for me to pick off his TIE Fighters early in the game. He also was too willing to compromise his position just to turn on Lone Wolf. There were several instances in the mid-game where he wouldsend his remaining TIE fighter off and away from the fight just so Rexler couldhave Lone Wolf. My A’s rushed up the top right flank and turned left into hisflank through the 2 middle asteroids on turn 3, while Ten banked into themiddle. His ships came out of the corner slowly together on turn 1, and then onturn 2 his lead TIEs did a fast bank toward the middle with one of them doing abarrel roll, Rexler stayed back with a slower bank, and the third TIE split off to his left with a left Barrel Roll, putting him behind my opponent’s corner asteroid. Ten Numb managed to tag the lead TIE that Barrel Rolled with the Ion Cannon, and on turn 3 the 2 lead TIEs both did Barrel Rolls in opposite directions, effectively switching places but having no action, and Ten Numb banked left to finish off the injured TIE, but ended up 1-shotting the other TIE at range 1 instead, and the A-Wings finished off the injured TIE, while Rexler and the back TIE Fighter took a couple of shields off of one of my A-Wings.
On turn 4 my A-Wings all K-turned, with one of them doing so through a rock and losing a shield, and Rexler banked right into the left side of their firing arcs, and Ten Numb turned right to put Rexler square at range 2 in arc of his Ion Cannon. Unfortunately the Ion Cannon missed, but Rexler did get a stress from Tactician. Rexler then killed one of the stressed A-Wings with his Heavy Laser Cannon, and I believe the other 3 managed to knock off 1 shield and the Stealth Device. Next turn the A-Wings scattered to avoid Rexler’s white K-Turn. Ten Numb was able to keep Rexler in arc by combining 2-sharp turns with Barrel Rolls and Fire Control System, and just started pouring damage into an actionless Rexler with range 1 shots, while dodging his arc on his first k-turn.
After Rexler was dead, Ten Numb and the 3 remaining Prototypes regrouped and hunted down the last TIE Fighter.
Destroyed: 100 Lost: 15
Round 2:
Jake Farrell [Chardaan Refit, Push the Limit] (25)
Garven Dreis (26)
Airen Cracken [swarm Tactics] (21)
Kyle Katarn [ion Cannon Turret, Jan Ors] (28)
My opponent was running a crazy rebel combo list that allowed him to chain all kinds of different actions around his ships, and could even reposition Jake at the beginning of and even during combat with either Airen Cracken’s, Kyle Katarn’s, or Garven Dreis’ ability, all of which triggered during combat.
Once again my opponent deployed his squad behind a trio of asteroids in the opposite corner from my A-Wings. I used the same strategy again, A-Wings rush up the side to threaten the opponent’s flank to threaten the opponent’s flank while Ten charges up the middle with his cripple gun. Jake charged down the left side of the board and then turned back towards the asteroid trio to meet my A-Wings that were coming from the right side, but finished his movement with an asteroid about 1 ship’s length in front of him. The A-Wings traded range 1 fire in the asteroid trio at the top left with Airen and Garven. Airen and Garven managed to strip the shields off of one A-Wing. Airen Cracken melted under range 1 fire from the first 3 A-Wing shots, and Garven absorbed the last attack with the Evade token he had from Jan Ors. Ten Numb Ionized and stressed Jake Farrell, causing him to land right on the asteroid in front of him next turn and get destroyed by Ten’s follow up attack. Garven and the A-Wings k-turned out of range of each other, although I misjudged one of my k-turns and bumped into Garven, but that allowed that A-Wing to deal 2 lucky damage to Kyle Katarn, and he dodged Garven’s stressed attack. But Ten got Ionized by Kyle’s Ion Turret and was now facing the same asteroid that Jake Farrell had just met his doom on. Then I realized there was a way to keep Ten from flying onto the rock and losing his attack.
Brave A-Wing number 38 jumped on the grenade to protect Ten Numb. Sadly, I couldn’t barrel roll away since Ten lost his action from bumping, and Garven destroyed A-Wing 38 (who was already damaged) with a range 1 attack, and Kyle re-ionized Ten, meaning he was still destined for that rock. But Ten did get to ionize Garven, although sadly Garven missed the asteroid by a millimeter and bumped into Ten, who then flew past Garven onto the asteroid. I realized I was going to need to switch targets and kill Kyle Katarn so I could free Ten Numb from his Ion prison, who could then dispose of Garven with his own Ion Cannon. But I was having a hard time getting Kyle to stay in more than 1 of my A-Wings arcs because my A-Wings were so close to him and I didn’t want to expose them to Garven’s attack by k-turning. Luckily Kyle whiffed his Ion attack, allowing Ten to k-turn and get back into the fight. On the last turn of the game, Ten Numb and an single A-Wing took range 1 shots at Garven and finished him off, but the 2 A-Wings attacking Kyle failed to finish him off, but I still got a full win and only lost a single Prototype, who valiantly gave his life. The fighting never left the top left quadrant of the board where my opponent deployed his ships.
Killed: 79 Lost: 15
Round 3
Dagger Squadron Pilot (33) x 2 B-Wing (24), Fire-Control System (2), Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Etahn A’baht (33) E-Wing (32), Veteran Instincts (1) Cannon , Fire Control System
He deployed in the middle, so this time I deployed Ten in the opposite corner from the A-Wings, forcing him to commit to one direction or the other while my forces converged on his. My A-Wings did their thing, although this time they had to boost straight to clear the asteroid next to them, and Ten also came out strong with a bank left and a barrel roll right. My opponent’s ships all banked in Ten’s direction but all barrel rolled away from Ten to stay in the center of the map.
I now had an interesting conundrum. My opponent’s Barrel Roll towards the center indicated that he was faking towards Ten but was intending to do a sharp turn towards the A-Wings, otherwise he would have created distance between his ships and the A-Wings. If I just banked all my A-Wings towards his ships without boosting, they would be in a good position to joust my opponent’s list, but if my opponent’s formation went forward to attack Ten, the A-Wings would be too far away to help. But if I banked and boosted all my A-Wings to the right, and my opponent turned all his ships to the right to surprise attack the A-Wings, my bottom 2 A-Wings would overshoot and lose their shots, and the top 2 A-Wings would get hammered with no defensive actions. I compromised by having my top 2 A-Wings boost to the right so they could shoot at the opponent’s ships no matter where they went, and the bottom 2 A-Wings stayed where they were and focused just in case the opponent did turn into my A-Wings. Looking back, I think I should have just seen the Barrel Rolls towards the center as an obvious tell that he was going to attack the A-Wings and just had all of them focus. I think because I knew that my opponent should have been focusing on killing Ten Numb instead of the A-Wings, I left open the possibility of him ignoring the A-Wings, but he only realized later in the game just how deadly Ten Numb’s upgrades were to his list.
Ten Numb did a full speed ahead so he would get shots no matter what. My opponent did turn his ships right to attack my A-Wings, with his left most B-Wing just barely bumping my lead A-Wing and his Heavy Laser Cannons hammered my second lead A-Wing that had no tokens, stripping shields with Etahn’s attack and using Target Locks and Etahn’s ability to get crits with the HLC. Luckily my defense rolls were good, and my lead A-Wing survived the tempest but got a Blinded Pilot crit and would never roll any attack dice that game, and the other 3 A-Wings only managed to strip a couple shields off the lead B-Wing in return. Ten rolled a crit against Etahn at range 3 with his Ion Cannon, instantly Ionizing him.
A fur ball ensued on the next turn, with the injured A-Wing attempted to flee the fight while the other 3 piled in in front of the B-Wings, one which tried to k-turn but was blocked by the tight cluster of A-Wings, the other one banking into Etahn, who then did his ion move and took an evade token. Ten moved forward and rolled out of the way of the asteroid, and thanks to Fire Control System rolled another crit, again instantly ionizing Etahn through his evade token and giving him a stress token with Tactician. Etahn and the B-Wings finished off the fleeing A-Wing, and killed another A-Wing with a direct hit. My A-Wings weren’t able to concentrate their fire on the injured B-Wing, and only were able to take 1 shield off of each B-Wing. Losing two of my A-Wings so early, things did not look good.
On the next turn, one of the remaining A-Wings was able to k-turn behind the b-wings, while the other one had to turn left out of the fur ball to clear the stress he got from his failing his 5-speed k-turn last turn. None of the B-Wings were able to k-turn, so they continued to follow Etahn along his ionized path, which gave my ships a reprieve for the turn from their Heavy Laser Cannon fire. Ten continued to stalk Etahn, and rolled another crit with his Ion Cannon, and put a second stress token on Etahn, stripping off the last shield, to my opponent’s frustration.
My A-Wings got back into the fight with some range 3 shots. My opponent’s left B-Wing tried to k-turn, but his back corner clipped the Asteroid in front of him, leaving him defenseless. Ten pulled up right behind the still double stressed Etahn with 2 hull points, and tried to finish him off with a range 1 primary attack with TL and Focus, which rolled 1 hit and 2 crits. I had to remind my opponent that only 1 of Ten’s crits is unblockable and he should still roll his defense dice, and he got 2 evades, meaning only the crit went through, and it was damaged engine. Even though Etahn was no longer ionized, he was pretty much out of the fight with 2 stress tokens and no way to turn, and he actually died next turn by flying over an asteroid, which was convenient since on that turn I decided to ignore Etahn and have Ten start helping out with the Daggers. Ten turned right and finished off the B-Wing that had k-turned onto the rock the turn before, and then he k-turned towards the same rock without touching it and ionized the last B-Wing until it was dead while the A-Wings kept a safe distance.
Killed: 100 Lost: 30
Result
The tournament was officially over after only 3 rounds of swiss. Before the final standings were announced, I offered the other undefeated player of the day, who was playing a double YT list with Leebo and Chewbacca, the chance to play for 1st place. Since he wasn’t going to Regionals and wasn’t interested in a plaque, he decided he’d rather go home having also played in the previous day’s store championship. Having only lost 60 points total the entire day, I had the day’s best MOV by a wide margin, and 1st place was mine.
With 13 players present, I strongly felt that one more round was appropriate, especially since we had enough time, it was only 4:30 when it ended even after a 45 minute lunch break. Having 4 rounds would have left a definitive winner at the end, and would have also give the 2-1 players a chance to come back and steal 1st place if the two undefeated players can’t defeat each other decisively.
Still, I was very happy with my performance and very happy to take home the trophy. I think even though my opponents were a bit unconventional, the fact that I lost so few ships in each game shows that I played well regardless and that my list was solid. All of my games were interesting, though none of them were particularly close like they were the day before. I did forget to use Fire Control System a couple times in each game, and I also think I got a little too fancy with some of my A-Wing flying, turning and boosting when I should have just k-turned. I also noticed there were several times in the first 2 games where one of my A-Wings had to k-turn through an asteroid, and I know lost several shields to that alone. While I like the offset formation, I think if I’m flying 4 ships I’m going to have to start coming up with tighter formations to help all my A-Wings fit in between those asteroids. And strategically, I need to be more confident in my ability to read my opponent’s tells and act on them correctly, like my round 3 opponent giving away their intentions by barrel rolling.
Still, I’m going to have to really practice hard against the Wave 4 lists for Regionals, like Fat Han and Double Phantoms. I like this list, but I’m not sure it’s strong enough to comfortably defeat a Fat Han list. I will keep this list in rotation, but I will also be taking a serious look at double Phantom lists as a possible choice for Regionals, that seems to be the most successful list out there that fits both my play style and my budget.
Thanks for reading, good luck to you in your future tournaments. If you want to read my tournament report on the 28 player store championship that happened the day before that I got 9th place in, you can check out my X-Wing Strategy blog at xwingtactics.tumblr.com. Make sure to click the like button and follow me on tumblr if you like what you see.
Edited by Tvboy
