I have been having a hard time lately thinking about Regionals. I am really looking forward to the Tie Advanced fix and was hoping it would come out soon. So, while I like playing some Scum lists, I don’t think any of them are great enough for Regionals. I’ve not been sure what to play.

I had great fun with my Tie Bomber list and was thinking of running that. Here is my Store Championship report complete with thoughts beforehand and my undefeated games going into Final Four (where 3 Generic Phantoms got me!).

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/135555-4-tie-bombers-store-champion-report/

With the rise of Soontir Fel, IG-88, and AutoThrusters, I’m worried about ordnance. They will smash a big ship all day long. They will smash B-wings, as well. I’ve been concerned about high agility ships and arc dodgers. One arc dodger I can handle, but not several. The problem with high agility is that with 3 dice, there are good enough to usually block enough damage that it doesn’t cripple the ship. If someone rolls well enough, they can neuter the alpha strike that is ordnance.

Here’s an example: I fired a Homing Missile and two Cluster Missiles with Jonus nearby at a Scyk. I only managed to do 2 hits to it. The Homing Missile only managed 2 hits after re-rolling and I did get at least 2 hits with each salvo fire, but the defender just rolled above average. Not crazy, but above average. I shot almost my entire load at one ship that only had 3 hits and it didn’t die. If I’m going to try to get through Soontir Fel, then I’m in trouble.

I played another game last night against the bro-bots (dual IG-88’s). AJ is a good player, but has been trying to figure out a good build. He came up with a good one where B had Sensor Jammer to act as bait while D came up the flank with an HLC. I fired almost everything at B and Sensor Jammer was brutally effective. I managed to fire the same 3 missiles and only did about 3 hits. The high agility and Sensor Jammers was effective enough at taking away the Alpha Strike. While not all Iggy’s will have SJ, it might be Auto-Thrusters, or good rolling, or…..who knows what. What I’ve come to the conclusion is that until Extra Munitions, I am not going to fly my Tie Bomber list competitively. It can’t get through the high agility targets.

One list that I’ve wanted to play for a while was 5 Alpha Squadron Tie Interceptors with AutoThrusters. I only had 2 of them and needed 3 more. I had been running a lot of demo games and multi person games and trench run games and I just haven’t had a chance to borrow the ships to try it out. I did start collecting Tie Interceptors along the way, though. Last night I picked up my 5^th after my Bomber defeat. I realized that I need to try it out, so I went ahead and got it. Now, I have 4 AutoThruster cards and will need to borrow a 5^th for tournaments, but don’t see that as a problem with all the great guys in the local shop.

5 Alpha Autoceptors? That’s pathetic! The Interceptor is all about arc dodging and these guys are PS 1! There’s a 50-50% that I can’t even arc dodge an Academy Pilot! Why on earth would I think this is a good idea? OK….give up everything you know about Tie Interceptors. These are not the ships that everyone else flies. At PS 1 they are terrible for what Tie Interceptors do. I agree. Good thing that’s not how I will fly them. Has anyone played with Tie Fighters? Not Tie Swarms, but bunches of Tie Fighters? I played them a lot back in Wave 1 and was really good at them. What would make Tie Fighters even better? How about a better dial, 3 attack dice, and AutoThrusters? Heck yeah! Suddenly, I have a pack of high attack ships that have great maneuverability and an even better chance of evading damage.

I played my first game last night against a guy who’s pretty new. He’s a gamer, though, and picks things up quickly. It was a fun and casual game where we pulled out templates to see where boosts and such would put him to help him learn the game. I won, but he managed to get a Tie Interceptors down. It was a nice test of the list and to get me a little comfortable with them.

My next game was against a list that my opponent had half-baked. It was Scum w/ N’Dru w/ Cluster Missiles, generic Z-95 w/ Assault Missile and Dead Man’s Switch, Palob w/ Blaster Turrent and Moldy Crow, and Laetin Scyk w/ Manger and hull upgrade.

Asteroids were scattered. I felt confident going into things. I ended up just out of range for shots and then managed to get everyone in to where he was bumping me.

His dice were HOT! I mean, he was rolling hits and crits all day long! I wasn’t rolling below average, but I couldn’t do much against his onslaught! In this round alone, he crited me 4 times with 3 being DIRECT HIT. I lost two ships and another was at 1 hp.

After that, I thought I moved decently, but one hit on an Interceptor that had DIRECT HIT and another DIRECT HIT on a 4^th ship did a one shot on him! I gave up with just one ship left.

We immediately played again as he spent longer getting his cards ready than we did playing that game. We left everything the same and I set up in the exact same position. He shifted his set up a little different. We did the approach. I stayed further away for the initial approach. I also avoided using Focus on the ships near Palob. My opponents dice were average now and he managed to get a useless crit on one Interceptor with the Mangler Cannon on Laetin. My opponent fired the Assault Missile on the Z-95 and only rolled 2 hits. I did manage to evade it, with Autothrusters. N’Dru fired Cluster Missiles, but only managed to get a single hit through as he was too close to another ship. My return fire on that side of the table put two hits on Laetin (leaving 2 as he had hull upgrade). I focused fire with 3 Interceptors on the Z-95 with Dead Man’s Switch and just barely managed to blast it. It exploded and wounded the HWK. Here’s my set up right after this turn. Notice, those ships in lower left are NOT bumped!

Now, it was my turn and I was feeling good, but I wasn’t sure on the dice. I felt I couldn’t focus or else I would give that to Palob. Since I hadn’t been using Focus, he was a bit starved for the tokens and usually couldn’t get a shot and a Focus off with his Blaster Turret. I figured he was going to slow roll in the center-right and I tried to set up some shots. My middle guy sharp turned around the asteroid and evaded. Guy to the right banked and evaded. Guy on far right went straight and barrel rolled to be set up for next turn (not hitting an asteroid). This worked great as his HWK tried to 3 straight and ended up bumping into my middle Tie. The Scyk tried a 1 bank and bumped. On the other side, one guy did a 3 K-turn and hoped for a shot while the other did a 1 sharp turn with a Focus. The named Z-95 did a K-turn, but could use his special ability.

They had no actions and didn’t get many hits. AutoThrusters worked vs. the Blaster Turret and I believe I took a useless crit on the far right Tie from the Smangler. In return, I was able to kill the Scyk and heavily damage the HWK. I think I left it on 1 hull point.

On the far left, I was able to evade all damage with Autothrusters and managed to do a single hit to the Z-95.

Now, it might be hard to describe what happened next, but I was really pleased with it. I decided to use movement actions instead of just handing Focus to Palob. It ended up really working in my favor. The movement freedom of this list made me really happy. The boost and barrel roll are fantastic.

On the far left, the guy who K-turned did a 2 bank back towards the HWK. The other guy who was covering the Z-95 wasn’t in a good spot. I would go first and I didn’t just want to let him bump me. I wanted to be able to fire at something. I figured he would move hard back towards the HWK for support. I ended up doing a 1 sharp turn and then barrel rolling to get out of the way.

On the other side, the Tie that cleared the asteroid and bumped the HWK just did a 3 K-turn. The one to the right did a bank, but bumped the HWK. I was OK as I figured I had a shot anyways. The next one was in a pickle. Where could he go that wouldn’t bump? I didn’t just want him bumping behind the rest with not much going on. I figured I could probably zip ahead 4-5 and clear everything. I might end up getting a shot at the Z-95.

Turns out the Z-95 did move into range of that guy, and the one that bumped the HWK. The HWK gunned it forward and actually landed right in the firing arc of my 2 other Ties! I hadn’t planned on that exactly, but was hoping. He ended up right at R1. His shots did nothing. The two Interceptors fired at the Z-95 at range and finished him off. I managed to get 4 hits and he evaded one. On the HWK, he only had 1 hp left and I took it from him with enthusiasm.

Overall…I am really happy with the list! I’ll need to play it a lot. I need to play the tournament standards. There is a Spring Tournament in 3 weeks and I’d like to attend. I think I might take this list. There should be 3 more Thursday game nights to prep me. I then have another month after that to prepare for Regionals. I think I’m looking good!

The only other lists I’m looking at are one with Rear Admiral Chirpy and Rexler Brath or Prince Xizor w/ friends. I don’t rate the Xizor one as being highly competitive, but it will be fun. I’ll take it for just a good time if I don’t like the Interceptors. The RAC + Def. list is a possibility, but I think it will suffer from B-wings.

Hope you find it interesting and entertaining enough!

I doubt this build would fare well against a dual IG list including B and a Mangler Cannon, and that's something you should expect to see at the Regionals. Then there is the Bee Swarm that can reposition right after you moved and has a lot of health.

One thing for sure, there is not a lot of room for errors with that kind of build. But it should be fun! Maybe replacing 2 of those Interceptors for an Elite one would fare better.

I'll be testing it against the bro-bots. I think it can be a toss up. The more numerous Interceptors can try to block. They both have autothrusters for R3 shots. The 5 Alphas have a lot of shots going at the IG-88's. That can be 15 dice per turn at one.

I'll have to try it out.

B-swarm might come down to getting those shots at R3. We would both be rolling 3 dice, but the Interceptors have autothrusters and higher agility. It's possible to evade most of the damage, but put the hurt on the B-swarm at the same time. 5 can take down 1 B in a round.

If you did go with Red Castle's suggestion, 35 point Soontir means you couldinner do triple Avengers (only 2 with autothrusters). That would give you a huge advantage over stuff like BBBBZ and Panic Attack. It's still a lot of firepower, gets some Predator resistance, gives you an ace, and let's you arc dodge and PS kill PS2 stuff.

I won't add in an elite. Thanks, though.

Plus, I just made these nifty ID tags for Alpha Squadron:

I'll be testing it against the bro-bots. I think it can be a toss up. The more numerous Interceptors can try to block. They both have autothrusters for R3 shots. The 5 Alphas have a lot of shots going at the IG-88's. That can be 15 dice per turn at one.

It will greatly depends on player skills and how those IGs are built. My expectation is that the IGs should be able to down one Alpha in the first turn of combat before it had a chance to fire back, so odds are you're gonna be firing with 4 Alphas: B ability on two ship combined with either Predator or FCS should have no problem to get rid of an Interceptor that could not turtle up, be it with a 4 dice HLC or a Crit-Easy-Mangler. Blocking sounds good, except if they went with Advanced Sensors (what I personally do) so they can still get their action or push on the brakes thanks to Inertial Dampeners. As for range 3, both side have Autothrusters but the IGs will still benefit from the range bonus, while the Interceptors are going against secondary weapon.

It's certainly doable, but (again, player skills notwisthanding) I would bet on the IGs. I don't think it's a toss up.

Not meant to discourage you or anything, just to tell you what to expect from this kind of build. Those droids are sneaky.

Plus, I just made these nifty ID tags for Alpha Squadron:

I understand, you've got to use all five.

UGH.....so, I've dropped Tie Bombers from potential lists and was thinking of my Alpha Squadron or Chiran0saurus Rex. I like the last one, but am not sure about all the B-wings I'll face. It's great against bro-bots, but not sure if the arc dodging for the Decimator is good enough for the B-wings. I need to try it. Also, I kind of hate to join the "meta". Part of my fun for these events is to go against the grain.

Chiran0saurus Rex

Rear Admiral Chiraneau w/ EU, VI, Navigator, Rebel Captive, and Ysanne Isard

Rexler Brath w/ VI

The high PS makes them go after everyone. The EU and Navigator lets the Decimator arc dodge decently. Rexler is there to be more durable than Soontir. Also, I just hate jumping on that band wagon.

With that, I was reading the Starviper thread and think I never did give my Xizor list much time. I have done alright enough with it.

Prince Xizor w/ Predator, Virago, AutoThrusters, and Adv. Sensors

Torkhil Mux w/ Ion Turret

3 x Z-95's

I originally did Torkhil for the Phantoms, but that has gone. I do find that it's actually really helpful against a lot of ships. Just having the ability to have someone shoot last helps keep ships alive to shoot. People hate it, too, which draws more attention away from the rest of the list. That's a good thing. The Ion Turret helps give control, too. I haven't tried it vs. Soontir yet, but I'm sure it will be fun. If I can have him shoot last and can take shots on him, maybe I can force him to use up his Focus before he shoots.

Crap......decisions decisions.... May 16th is a tournament a few hours away that I'll try.

That article on the Tie Advanced does not help my enthusiasm for any other list.

It's game night and I'm looking forward to playing! Hope to take pictures and analyses games tomorrow. Hope there aren't too many new people that want shepherding.

I have picked out a good name for my 5 x Alpha Squadron Tie Interceptors list, and that does go a long way to helping me get interested in it. I thought of:

SUPER AWESOME DIMENSIONAL ALPHA TEAM GO!

if you like playing interceptors, i tryed a list that actually went really well.

4 x royal guard pilots with VI+autotrhusters.

that's 4 interceptos with 8 PS, you can even change the VI and autotrhuster for PTL that depends on you.

i know you can have lots of fun with this squad

if you like playing interceptors, i tryed a list that actually went really well.

4 x royal guard pilots with VI+autotrhusters.

that's 4 interceptos with 8 PS, you can even change the VI and autotrhuster for PTL that depends on you.

i know you can have lots of fun with this squad

I own zero Imperial Aces and just bought 4 new Interceptors for this list. No can do at the moment.

Alright, last night was game night. I pulled out my Super Awesome Dimensional Alpha Team Go! list and was ready to rumble.

First match was against AJ, a very good player who normally flies B-wings. He’s playing Decimator + Soontir build to get the hang of it….to eventually destroy it. That’s good as I need to fly against it.

I spread out my battle line to fit through asteroids and centralize as much as possible. The Decimator faced off on my right vs. one Interceptor. He boosts for the shot and it’s a miss. His Soontir starts on my left, but moves through the middle. I anticipate this and plan to put him in a kill zone. My other Alpha moves forward to hopefully block the Decimator. It doesn’t.

Soontir shoots and flubs it. Rear Admiral fires and I roll amazing. Gunner works and I totally flub my rolls. He one shots an Interceptor!

My shots on Soontir have me excited. I roll….below average. I don’t land a single hit! What?

OK, next turn. I try to get Soontir in a kill zone. I set things up with a mix of K-turns and slow rolls. One zips off to face the Decimator. It works! Soontir bumps and has an Alpha at R1 with a Focus behind him. Decimator moves up and….one shots my Interceptor!?!? I had a Focus, but rolled all blanks. I was in firing arc. He only rolled 3 hits, but it’s enough. Crap! These things are fragile. I do hit Soontir for a bit of damage as well as the Decimator.

His Soontir bugs out and I go after the Decimator.

He one shots another Interceptor! I roll great on the first evade. Gunner kicks in and I fail to get a single evade die. Ouch!

At this point, we play for a bit more, but he one shots the 4^th Interceptor. Wow…..4 out of 5 Alphas are killed with one shot. My dice were hot…and then cold (for gunner). I talked to AJ afterwards and he stated that I did alright. I had him worried for those 2 rounds with Soontir Fel, but poor rolling saved his bacon. Alright….this looks like a fluke.

Next game…

Results like this is why I can never bring myself to fly mass TIEs other than MAYBE a 7 ship swarm. Even then. I find myself just getting so upset by the one-shot possibility.

One shots happen. I expect that. I was really surprised at how many I got in that game, though! It was pretty brutal.

Next game was vs. a regular who wanted to try out his Outrider that he hasn’t used much at all. He goes for Dash w/ Mangler and Corn Hole w/ R2-D2. Asteroids spread out a bit. He puts Corn Hole on my left and Dash center-right. I slide everything towards Dash. Dash boosts forward to take a R3 shot on my Interceptor. He rolls 3 hits. I’m at R3, so I get AutoThrusters and I have a Focus. I figure averages are 1 evade, 1 focus, and 1 blank. That means I’ll evade them all. I roll…..3 evade. At this point, Robert goes on about how I’m incredibly lucky, but I don’t think I am. It sets the mood for his opinion on his dice all game. My return fire actually put 2 hits on his shields, which was pretty bad on his part.

Now, for next turn, I slow roll everything towards Dash, with the exception of a K-turn on the Alpha that exchanged fire. I figure if he jets forward, I’ll still get a shot. Turns out he went straight to where I wanted him in my kill zone. The E-wing stayed back for another turn, which I think was a mistake.

Dash fired and autothrusters saved me from taking a Mangler crit. I opened fire with everything and I think I reduced him down to 1 hull point? It was brutal. His green dice were terrible at this point. I don’t think he rolled a single evade out of 8 dice.

I knew the E-wing was coming in and had 3 guys turn to face him. Some of them K-turning. Two other ships moved to pursue the Outrider, but couldn’t do much this turn. Those are the two in the bottom right.

Outrider and Interceptor exchanged fire, to no effect. E-wing did roll so so and missed. I took a shield off the E-wing.

I chased the Outrider down and managed to kill it with 2 Interceptors. The other 3 moved on the E-wing. I took a hit on one and think I took another shield off the E-wing. Overall, it was a bit lackluster dice on both our parts.

Corn Hole knew he was dead and decided to K-turn and die in a blaze of glory. I didn’t think he would do quite that, but had enough firing arcs on him. Corn Hole shoots and kills an Alpha. The rest light him up like a Xmas tree.

I think I did a great job of setting up kill zones and my opponent flew right into them. I think he was new to the list and wasn’t sure how it operated. His plan was to zip past with the Outrider and have the E-wing come up behind. It didn’t work as my kill zone tore him up. Then, I just ganged up on the E-wing. His dice were below average, but I think he suffered more from bad planning. This one helps me ease off the last defeat.

Third game was against Soontir, Carnor, and Whisper. Asteroids average. I spread out and he weights one flank.

I don’t want to move my right flank towards his guys at all. I figure I will get smashed if I do so. I have my far right go left and the next guy go right. This is to buy time for the other ships to move up.

First turn goes by with nothing. Next, I expect the Phantom to decloak forward and fit between obstacles. I set up a kill zone. Oh, it’s the one that decloaks funny. She backs off and goes around the far side of the asteroids. The Interceptors come in on the flanks.

Shots were fired. He seriously wounds my Alpha on the bottom right. I do the same for him, since he didn’t have a lot of defense. I think I took him down to a single hull point? I think Soontir wounded another Interceptor with one hit.

I go to the school of K-turns and try to turn back to face where I think the Interceptors will be. Carnor does the same! Soontir actually lands on an asteroid! Lucky me. The Phantom…..does something spooky. Carnor gets 3 hits on my Interceptor. I roll…..lots of eyeballs! I have a Focus, but it’s Carnor at R1. Dang!

I think the Phantom kills a wounded Interceptor. I take revenge and kill Soontir Fel! I think it’s about even on points.

Now, it’s close. I need to take out these guys. I am limited with what I can do, but I try to set up a kill zone for the Phantom. I had one guy not K-turn (as everyone expects) and do a sharp turn with a boost. It turns out to be perfect to block the Phantom! I’m sitting at R3 with a Focus and he’s got no actions! I fire…….

…and crap out.

I manage to shift around to get some shots at Carnor. I forget he’s only got 1 hp left. I manage to get one lucky hit through!

Now, it’s 3 Alpha vs. the Phantom. The Phantom runs and K-turns while cloaked. That’s pretty cool. I then guess he goes one way, but he ends up going through the debris field! He’s at R1 and cripples an Interceptor. I’m just glad it’s not one shotted.

I try to circle around. The wounded guy does a hard turn and I consider between boosting or Focus. I figure I want a shot. I Boost and end up the best shot at R3! He takes it and gets the last hit in.

I move up to create a field of fire with my last two. That dang asteroid is in the way. I need to bank instead of go straight. One guy barrel rolls as he’s really close to that asteroid for next turn. Also not sure if I’ll get a shot in. The Phantom ….slow rolls 3 forward! Dang. Bumps one guy and is at R1 of the other. He shoots…..

Amazing dice and luck on both sides. If I weren’t dead, I had a good chance of seriously hurting him, if not killing him. I think he had lost a shield at some point, so there was the chance I could have killed him.

Now, this was a good game overall. It was tough and gritty. I made some bad choices, but I also made some good ones. I got more experience with the latest Autoceptors. I learned some tricks. Still, I am disappointed with the times when my green dice just flat out fail me. It’s possible to just one kill a ship. I’m not sure on this list. It would be fun, but there would be games where my dice just betray me. It wouldn’t matter how well I flew, I would just die. So, that’s disheartening.

I decide I want to try my Xizor list. I've actually changed it based on someone else's experience in the UK. Can't recall the name, but would like to give credi (it was nurglez!)

Xizor w/ VI, Virago, FCS, AutoThrusters, Inertial Dampners

5 x Binayre Pirates

I just bought 2 more Scum Z-95's from someone as we split a Most Wanted pack. So, I had the ships....except for one Rebel Z that I proxied. Dang.....I'll need to get ANOTHER ship. Well, maybe just borrow the pilot card and ship card for a tournament.

I forgot that the other player was new and this was maybe his 4th game? I would've played something less competitive, but he went with a Phantom, Soontir, Dark Curse, and Black Squadron Tie. I needed the experience for moving as I bumped a couple of ships, including Xizor. I swerved in against Soontir and Phantom. Xizor rolled terrible for one defense and lost a shield and splashed the damage. I damaged Soontir and the Phantom with a lot of shots. The Phantom got the crit where he couldn't bump....and I had a lot of Z's. There was another round where he got some good hits on Xizor and knocked him down to 2 hull. My opponent really gunned for Xizor, but I started to get quite careful. I did take one more hit, but shunted off more damage than that. One of my own Z's was blown up either by Xizor or was so hurt by him a 1 pt hit got the Z. I can't recall. It took 2 rounds, but the Phantom bumped and lost his last hull point. The Z's fired and got consistent damage rolls and Soontir didn't. He was already hurt and 1 hit got through here and another there...which took him out! It was quick mop up vs. the 2 Tie Fighters after that. It was a new player, but he came pretty darn close to killing Xizor!

I like this list and will probably run with this. More practice, of course! I will admit that the thread on Xizor in the main room got me interested in playing him again. I got tired of everyone saying he was crap and want to prove wrong.

I got to play again last night. First time at game night in a while. My first game was against a good friend who brought Rear Admiral w/ Krassis list. I thought I played it well and got the approach perfect. I ended up with almost all my Z's at R1 of the Firespray. I ended up shooting that thing with everything....but he evaded it all! I'm talking about 4 times of rolling double evades on 2 green dice! I think I took 2 hits off his shields with everything? After that, he boosted past all my blocking attempts and I tried to turn it all around. He just blasted me to pieces while I tried to catch up. It was a lose.

It was so fast we racked and stacked, but I don't even recall what it was that had me lose. My dice were utter crap in this game. Oh...I recall. He fired at Xizor and I didn't evade anything. He got 2 crits on me. One knocked me to PS 0 and the other made all turns red. Well, there was a traffic jam near me and I did a hard turn towards the board edge to then barrel roll back away from it (and block him). OH...yeah, that crit. I turned and it was red. I couldn't do an action. I flew Xizor off the board. Game over after that.

I flew against another opponent. I don't even remember much about this game. My dice were TERRIBLE. It was 4 B's with Accuracy Corrector. Two shots from B's were killing a Z-95 each time. I couldn't get a single evade....even with Focus all around! I took out one B before I lost it all.

I know that people say that dice got them when it really was bad playing. I just have to shake my head at last night. I set myself up alright in the first game, but his dice were CRAZY GOOD.

My last game was vs. a newish player who had BBAA - with Gemmer and Jake for the A's. I was targeting the B's and took one out early. Then, there was a time I got Gemmer at R1 with no actions. Xizor gets 4 hits on him, but he rolls 4 evade on green dice!!! OK, a Z fires. He gets 3 evade vs 3 hits! This happened a few times. It was nuts! My Z's rarely got an evade in, but they got a few. Still, they died to anything that shot at them, including A wings. Just as the last Z was dying, Xizor got to fire on Jake and knock him down to 1 hull point as his dice fled him. It was Xizor vs. the two A wings. I was behind Jake as he was running. I gunned it and tried to follow. After 2 rounds of R3 fire, I did manage to kill him. After that, Gemmer was untouched, but a lower PS arc dodger. I just chased him around and killed him.

Well, there is always next week...

Thursday night game night. I brought Prince and the New Power Generation out again. I had posted to the locals that I needed to face Bro Bots and Rear Admiral Soontir. I will say that when I walked into the game store, it was crowded. Three months ago and it was just for of us playing X-wing in the back. I get in there and there are already 4 full tables of 8 people playing! We had about 7-8 tables of X-wing tonight! Fantastic.

I played a new guy. He's a vet of other game systems, but still new to X-wing. He had Carnor Jax, Royal Guard, Mauler Mithel, and a shuttle. I zipped forward with my guys to to to hit the shuttle. He shot the interceptors in the side. I don' really know what happened, but in a few turns, most of my Z's were dead and I hadn't killed anything but the shuttle. I think I just fell into his killzone thinking I was fine. I wasn't. I need to be better about that.

There was a 10 year old kid that I played a demo game with. He had a great time and wants to spend all his money on X-wing. It was fun, but I needed some serious practice.

Next list was vs. AJ, who is a fantastic local player who wins a lot of local tournaments. He ran Bro bots B and D with PTL. He delayed one and ran the other behind some rocks. I slow rolled and tried to turn in to the one on the rocks. It was too far and I should've gunned it for the other. He couldn't have gotten through the rocks in time. What did happen was I got caught in his pincer move that I totally knew was coming. I hate that Z's are so slow. Well, what I did do was use my Flechette Torpedo and double stressed Iggy B on the first turn! This really mucked with him as the rest of my fighters came in at him. I knocked him down to 1 hull point as he ran off where I couldn't catch him. I was down 2 Z's. I tried to be smart to turn around, but wasn't the best I could do as the other Iggy killed another Z. With 2 Z's and Xizor, I slow played him and used asteroids to move for the best shot. Both his bots slow rolled and came in together (the weaker behind). I got to S-loop behind him and a number of shots in and knocked the other bro bot down to hull and only lost one more Z. I chased that ship down and got it to one hull point as I lost my last Z. I did a sharp one and turned on the other bro bot that only had 1 hull point left and shot him at R1 in the face to take him out. After that, I was chasing the last down and he went off the board by a smidgen. He was dead soon anyways, but it was a GREAT game. I swear I thought I had lost it in the middle there as I lost too many Z's early. We both played cagey and it was a fantastic game. It was one of the most fun games I've had in a while.

Next played a Rear Admiral Soontir list. Fel had Stealth, while the Admiral had Rebel Captive, Mara Jade, and Yssane. I knew what corner I wanted and placed a bunch of asteroids middle on my side to block flanking. His Deci was opposite my guys (at an angle) and I gunned for him. Deci kept going 4 and boosting to try to draw me to chase him. Soontir came in around those asteroids, but didn't have a great approach. I psyched him out and did sharp turns for Soontir just as Admiral went the other way around the first of many asteroids. This gave me something like 3 turns to maneuver to get shots on Soontir with all my Z's and Xizor. Just as I got a lot of Z's firing, Xizor shoots the Flechette Torpedo. I get 3 hits! Soontir rolls terrible and takes 2 hits! OH, and now he's double stressed! I chased him for a round and took the last hit with Xizor. The Decimator was coming up now, though. I threw the Z's to block, but he expected that. Deci tried to 3 bank past, but hit Xizor and ended up not going far at all. Xizor S-looped R1 behind Rear Admiral and blasted into hull and gave him a crit. All the Z's fired and that round I took 11 hits off the Decimator. With just a couple of hits left it only lasted 1 more turn.

So, great bunch of games and I feel like I am getting the hang of it. I think I still need to worry about an aggressive bro bot. One more week of practice before Regionals.

I will say that twice I used my Flechette Torpedoes and rolled 3 hits each time! Well, 2 hits and a crit, actually. I'm used to causing stress, but they never seemed to roll well for actual damage before. I was pleasantly surprised last night.

Also, the stress they gave was game changing.

OK.....I had Regionals this past weekend. I read that you should be there by 10:30, but figured that was when you should be there as they won't start until 11. I was going to be there before, but my family had a busy morning and I didn't get out the door in time. I made it at 10:42....just as they called my name for table 16! Crap! I hustled over and went to pull out my list. I was frantic.

Game 1 vs Bro Bots

B and C w/ HLC, VI, Adv. Sensors....maybe Inertial Dampeners?

Asteroids clustered more on my side, but I like it. Means I can't be flanked easy. He cuts both down my right. I go down my left. I make it down and K-turn back. He does the same. Neither of us wants to go through the asteroids. We finally approach each other. I don't think I moved Xizor yet on this pic:

He blasted a Z. I knocked out the shields of one Iggy. That one went away and I focused on the other.

He would kill another Z while I took turns hitting one and the other. I had one down to 2 hull points and he really bolted.

I chased the other and got it down to 3 hull points. Time was almost down and I was running up at him. The really wounded one had circled around and was going to give some long range support. I threw a dial down as time was called. My Z's all took tight turns to chase after the 3 hull Iggy. This guy boosted to get out of some arcs and gain an Evade. The seriously wounded Iggy ended up bumping the first one as it was far enough away from the Z's. Xizor cruised up slow and had a R1 on the 3 hull w/ Evade. I ended up putting a TL on the other Iggy that was at R2, but had no actions. People were watching and were really surprised I did that as they thought it would be close to take down that Iggy. They didn't realize how damaged the other one was. I fired and got 3 hits through. He either got 1 or no evades and died. SUPER close game! I just barely won. Very dramatic and turned out to be the most exciting game of the event.

Win: 49-24

Game 2 - Bro Bots

Near identical list as before, but this one had FCS instead of Adv Sensors.

I was a lot more calm for this match than my first. I had some deep breathes and a break for some food. The place offered free hot dogs and burgers. Good stuff! My opponent was a nice guy that I had a great game with. It was a bit of a blur, but I'd love to face him again.

Asteroids set up like before, but I was on my right. I cruised up towards the asteroids while he went down the middle. On the 2nd turn, he ended up boosting one Iggy past my lines to start a flank. I ended up barrel rolling Xizor to get a R1 shot out of his firing arc (but setting me up to go through a debris field). I figure 4 dice, but with no action is good. I roll.....all blanks and eyeballs.

On the next turn, I rush towards the Iggy that had slow rolled in the middle. He ended up S-looping a bit away, which probably saved him from a lot of R1 shots. I did bump a lot, but I've learned to accept the bumpage and hope my Z dice end up well. I'll admit that there were a lot of times I had Focus on my Z's, but never rolled an eyeball.

The rear Iggy took out my rear Z, but everyone else opened fire on the one in front. I believe I got through shields this round, but my dice weren't quite what I was hoping for.

I'm out of pictures for this match, but the Iggy in rear came up as well as the guy in front turned in. We ended up bumping with hardly anyone moving for a few turns as we shot at each other. There was one round where the damaged Iggy fired R1 at one Z who had Focus and facing R1 at the other Iggy. He gets 2 hits through and I get 2 eyeballs. If I use the Focus, he fires again. So, I suck up the 2 damage. The other one fires at R1 of the same guy. He gets 2 hits! I roll one evade and a blank. I'm alive! I end up firing and using my Focus to get 3 hits through on the rear one! It's not too long with Xizor and the other Z's firing at the damaged Iggy and he drops. After that, we clear up the movement. He takes out 3 of my Z's so far and his Iggy is down to 4 hull? We end up facing each other and Xizor rolls 3 crits and a hit! Last Iggy flubs his dice and rolls all blanks. I end up blasting the last one at the end there. My bad luck flipped and I got amazing dice on that last hit.

Win: 100 - 36 (maybe it was 48?)

Game 3 vs Y Dash?

Super Dash

2 x Y-wings w/ Ion Turrets

This was with a guy I met in the burger line. He's from California, but station at Fayetville, NC (that we call Fayet-Nam). We played at the store corner and the heat was really an issue. People said it was the sunlight from the big glass windows, but whatever it was, the AC was not hitting that corner. It was MISERABLY hot. I think we can talk about war crimes here.

Asteroids in the middle, mostly on my side. I set up on the far left with him on the far right. I move up past first asteroids and then turn in. He ended up K-turning with the Y-wings, but going straight with Dash. This made me quite happy as it would mean Dash was split for a few turns.

I went for it against Dash and managed to kill him super fast. With no one to support him, the many shots from Z's and FCS on Xizor, I was able to blast him. The Y-wings circled in and managed to get an Ion hit on Xizor! While he was out, I did a lot of damage to the Y's, but they took out 2 Z-95's. Beefy little bastards. Eventually Xizor came back and everyone made short work of the Z's.

Win: 100 - 24

So far, I'm having a great time and really enjoying my matches. Yes, I'm winning, but I feel they are fun games with back and forth. The guys are great and we are joking back and forth. More after the jump....

Round 4 - Whisper + RAC

I haven't faced a Phantom in a while. The local guys quit playing them as they just weren't that fun to play against. It's the only ship I don't own (besides the Rebel Transport). So, let's see them after the nerf.

Asteroids the same. Phantom directly opposite me with Decimator in middle. I race towards him. He moves towards me. We are just in range and I fire everything at him. He just barely manages to avoid all the damage that turn by burning his Evade and Focus! Curses. OK....so I can either K-turn with most and block with a few and continue to pour fire in on him. I have a TL for my flechette torpedo and a stressed Phantom can't Cloak. I decide to be unexpected and go for the Decimator. It's a bad choice. I lose the game. I chase the Decimator while the Phantom kills me. In the end, the Decimator flees at half hull and I try to face Phantom with Xizor. It doesn't go well and I die.

This was the worst game of X-wing I've played in months. I made one decision on Turn 3 and had no chance to win the game after that. Any ship that allows that is just @#$#$&%HY#. I did not have fun in this game. There was no back and forth! It was just mechanical boom, boom, boom. Boring and hateful. I'm really in a foul mood.

LOSE: 0 - 100

TURN 5 - Decimator + 3 Tie Fighters

Decimator w/ Engine Upgrade + Mara Jade + Issard + Rebel Captive

3 x Obsidian Tie Fighters

Pat was a nice guy and the top of the 2-2 rankings, which means I'm the bottom of the 3-1 rank. That means there is a chance that even if I win, I won't make Top 8 due to MoV.

Asteroids the same. I set up on left. He sets up in middle. He approaches and I see his Decimator is going to curve in. I send the Z-95 conga line at him and Xizor at a Tie Fighter. Xizor fires and gets 3 hits! Tie Fighter gets 3 evade. One Z-95 gets blown up by Tie and Decimator. The rest fire at Decimator....and do very little damage.

There is a big bump in the middle while Tie Fighters try to K-turn over. The one on right makes it, but others don't. Xizor manages to kill that one Tie this round and the Z's continue to do little damage to the Decimator. I lose another Z. Almost all the Z's are stressed due to Mara Jade or Rebel Captive. I have a hard time turning around, especially stressed. I can't do damage to the Decimator and Xizor can only clip these blasted Tie Fighters! When we are discussing my bad dice, my opponent says he's almost sorry for me....almost. He just kills Z after Z and I can't get enough hits on the Decimator. Both Ties are down to 1 hull. Just before Xizor dies, one Tie Fighter moves wrong and bumps me. He has a crit that causes a damage and that blows one up! I've now killed 2 Tie Fighters! Xizor then dies and my game is over.

Thinking about it now, I really should've just used Xizor against the Decimator. I should've gotten my shots in. The extra damage would've been enough to really hurt him and maybe get some crits in. He would've started to get into defensive mode and I can deal with that. It's better than being stuck in the crit zone. That was my mistake. It was a good list and deceptive.

Lose: 26 - 100

Well....that dashes my hopes for the top tables. I just checked and if I had won my game, I would've been in 13th place at the bottom of 4 wins. The top 3-2 was somewhere around 13th out of 64. I was the lowest level 3-2 and was 33rd. Ouch! My MoV was terrible.

I had a good time and it was fun to see players I've met before, meet new players, and even meet people I've met on the forums. Good stuff! I skipped the socializing and started the long 3 hour drive home.

Always go for the Decimator with everything. Dividing your firepower is never a good strategy. Even with Rebel Captive stressing Xizor, he's got a decent enough dial and boost barrel roll to not care too much about stress.

Decimators or YTs w/ EU are where this list has trouble. Zs are just woefully inadequate with chasing them down and putting decent damage onto them. Unless your opponent makes a mistake and puts his turret in front of your formation, its going to a struggle.

Actually, I've done very well against YT's with EU. You just need to know what they are going to do. I've blocked many an escape route for YT's and just blasted them with Z-95's. I'd much rather face a YT than a stress Decimator or nasty arc dodger. It's also good if the YT separates from the support, like it did in the Dash list.

I agree that I should've gone for the Decimator. The Tie Fighters would've been nasty with 3 dice each turn, but killing the Decimator would've freed up my actions. I could then concentrate and kill the Tie Fighters.