Hi everyone, I've been following these forums for a while now though I don't tend to post very often, but I thought that you'd be interested in reading about my first regional tournament. To give you some background, I started playing in August and mostly kept to rebels but once I got around to expanding my collection to wave 4 (I didn't resist for long), I realized how fun it was to fly with Echo and particularly enjoyed flying her with sensor jammer as a way to increase my durability against Fat Han and make it so that ships have to k-turn if they want a shot at me so I can cancel hits. After winning a couple of local events with Echo + miniswarm, I wanted to see if I could enhance (abuse?) the effectivity of sensor jammer, and came up with the following list:

99 points

Carnor Jax with PtL, RGT, SU and AT

Sigma with IA, SJ and SPA x2

The problem was that wave 6 wasn't out when I first thought of the list (no autothurstors) and the list suffered against low-PS blockers. Then wave 6 appeared along with the so-called "phantom nerf,” which gave my list a way of blocking even low-PS blockers, and thus Carnor Jam was born =).

I've been practicing the list for a few weeks, mostly against my friend Ivan (that took to flying Chiraneau + Soontir), but also against other friends at my LGS. I managed to get top 4 with it at a small SC, and kept practicing until regionals yesterday in Barcelona (80 people, 6 rounds of swiss + top 8).

I ended up taking the three largest debris fields and figured that I'd increase the chances of my opponent losing actions against my sensor jammer, but also give me the chance to damage my opponent if I decide to go over one and throw 4 unmodified dice at him. In each of my games I tried to set up two large obstacles about half a ship base away from my corners and one approximately in the middle of the map. I would always place my two sigmas nearly touching the table edge in such a way that a 2-bank towards the middle would leave me near the obstacles but keep all three decloak options open, as well as clear lanes to fly through the asteroid field. As I'd always cloak and evade on the first turn, the obstacle would also protect me from Soontir (or Han, Chiraneau, etc.) coming in at full throttle + boost as I'd have the evade token and 6 defense dice if he tried to go for that shot. I would always place Carnor somewhere in between them, depending on my opponent’s placement as well as the asteroids.

Round 1: Victor

100 points

Boba Fett with VI, EU, K4 and ID

Black Sun Soldier x4

My opponent set up on my top right with Boba in the corner and the four Zs in a box formation next to him, and I set up as I explained above. As I chose to keep the initiative, I boldly pushed my sigmas forward to cause a traffic jam with the PS3 Zs but slightly misjudged the range and he didn't bump by less than half a ship base. His two front Zs took TLs as he was afraid of Carnor coming in and the back two focused. Carnor also pushed forward and turtled up, while Boba took a TL on Carnor (he was parallel to the sigmas and Z's) but couldn't focus/evade. In the first exchange I believe that Carnor lost his shield while my sigma and one of his Z's were left at 1 hull. I forced my opponent to spend his focus to survive and sensor jammer prevented 3 hits from going through on the sigma. On the following turn I decided to k-turn my sigmas and try to get Boba Fett to bump into Carnor, who turtled up, but Boba his inertial dampeners. Thankfully my opponent didn't get 4 hits even with all his rerolls and only took 1 hit. I believe that 3 of the BSSs k-turned (it's getting foggy now) and I killed his damaged BSS and took the shields off another. I don't believe my phantoms took any damage that turn; in the k-turn jousting game it's nearly impossible to punch through sensor jammer without advanced sensors unless you get lucky and roll crits. In the end the game went to time and I had all of my ships at 1-2 hull and my opponent had a half-dead BSS and Boba at 4 hull.

Result: Win 139-61

Round 2: Manu

Corran Horn with VI, SU, FCS and R2-D2

Blue Squadron Pilot with Flechette Canon, E2 and Tactician x2

Here my opponent set up at the top-left corner and I set up as usual. We ended up meeting near his corner of the asteroid field, with Carnor and a sigma coming in through the middle and a sigma from the top-right. The sigma that went in head-on got double-stressed (Carnor was just behind it and just barely outside of range two), and the flanking one (still cloaked) evaded a R1 shot through an asteroid. My uncloaked sigma and Carnor took shots at Corran Horn (I think I removed a two of his four shields). On the next turn everyone bumped and it was practically a single line of ships. Corran Horn took a range 1 shot on the previously double-stressed phantom, and I think I only took a single hit thanks to sensor jammer. Carnor shot back at the E-Wing pilot and took off a shield and my sigma managed to roll 3 hits out of 5 and Corran’s dice blanked. At that point it was two B-Wings against my entire list and I killed one of them before time was called. I later learned that Manu went on to win the rest of his games and make top 8.

Result: Win 163-27

Round 3: Juan

Tala x2

BSP with AS

BSP with FCS x2

In this match I was a bit weary as I’ve never faced a list with so much hull before with my list, and I knew that those advanced sensors would make mincemeat out of my sigmas if Carnor wasn’t there to help. My opponent set up in the top-left corner with the Talas next to the edge, while I had my usual setup. He was coming down slowly along the board edge while I went up slowly with Carnor and started to move my sigmas through a wide lane on my left towards his ships. He then did a 2-bank towards the asteroid field (the front BSP barrel-rolled to avoid an asteroid and the rest of his ships focused) whereas my sigmas were just barely in range 3 of his front-most B-Wing. I sent Carnor 5-forward and into the firing arc of 2 BSPs and a Tala, and then boosted and barrel-rolled to get out of their arcs and set myself up to get around a debris field and get behind him on the following turn. I think I took 2-3 shields from a BSP this turn and took no damage. On the following turn my opponent surprised me by k-turning all but one of his ships (which did a hard 2 to be face-to-face with Carnor) to try to fire on Carnor with their backs to the sigmas. Unfortunately I misjudged the movement and barely clipped the debris field with Carnor and lost my actions, but at least my sigmas were right behind his fleet with range 1-2 shots on everyone. Carnor managed to take the shields off of the Tala in front of him and my sigmas cleaned up the previously damaged BSP from the table, but the three unmodified shots and one TL shot from the b-wing with advanced sensors managed to overcome my evade dice (even with the debris blocking) and I lost him. Fortunately all but one of his ships were stressed and I was happy to move forward and focus every turn with my sigmas to keep behind them. On the turn after losing Carnor I heavily damaged the BSP with sensors and on the following turn he k-turned with everything again to face my phantoms. I then killed the damaged B-Wing and started to work on everything else but at this point I was basically taking little-to-no damage thanks to sensor jammer and was rolling 10 focused attack dice each turn. I managed to clear the table with my sigmas mostly intact.

Result: Win 164-35

Round 4: Jose

Omicron with Vader

Soontir with PtL, RGT, AT and SD

Whisper with VI, AS and ACD

While practicing my list I realized that in matches against hyper maneuverable, high-PS ships I have to be very careful to survive first contact in order to catch them in a bump on a later turn to finish them off. In this match my opponent set up to my right with the lambda in the corner and Soontir next to it, while Whisper went along his table edge to turn and come down the middle. In the first combat turn my sigmas were decloaked and in the lower-middle part of the table and Carnor turtled up a few ship lengths in front of them. They were all facing towards a lane where Soontir and the doom shuttle were coming from. Soontir had to boost/BR to get out of R3 of my sigmas and out of R1 (and the firing arc) of Carnor, but also lost his shot. Whisper took an unmodified R3 shot on Carnor through an asteroid (that missed) and cloaked. Carnor took two shields from the shuttle and the shuttle used Vader to get rid of my shield. In the second combat turn I knew that Soontir would have to turn in towards Carnor (either a hard 2 or 2 bank) or risk an asteroid so I placed Carnor in that spot perfectly, while my sigmas banked forwards to cover both Soontir’s bump and Whisper’s incoming position. Unfortunately I bumped a sigma, which left it on an asteroid, but the other had a focus. Soontir bumped into Carnor as expected and Whisper came into R2 of Carnor and focused. Soontir shot at a sigma (who took one hit) and Whisper took a shot at Carnor, who spent his tokens to evade. Carnor managed to get one hit on a cloaked Whisper (as he didn’t get his defensive focus) and my sigma was presented with a quandary, there were two ships at R2 with three hull and four agility dice to choose from and I decided to go for Whisper. I focused to get four hits and Whisper rolled a single evade. With AT Carnor managed to evade the R3 shot from the shuttle but took a crit from Vader. On the following turn I tried to run away from the shuttle with Carnor, and did a hard 1 and 2 with my sigmas to turn towards the direction Soontir was facing. With the intel agent I saw that Soontir had chosen 5 k-turn, so the sigma that did a hard 2 BRed to force a bump and the other came in behind Soontir at R1 with a focus. My five dice overwhelmed Soontir’s four agility + focus. As for Carnor, well, the shuttle turned right at him and finished him off. At that point I had two nearly full sigmas against a doom shuttle with two hull, which I made short work of.

Result: Win 164-35

Round 5: Ivan (not the Ivan that’s my regular opponent)

Omicron with Vader and IA

Soontir with PtL, RGT, AT and TC

Whisper with VI, FCS, IA and ACD

I thought it was funny to face two similar lists in a row, particularly a list that also had two intelligence agents, which would make it the closest thing to a mirror match that I would get. Similar to my previous opponent, Ivan brought Whisper through the middle of the asteroid field and came in from the side (this time from my left) with Soontir and the doom shuttle. I honestly can’t remember too many of the details of this match, but my prediction for Whisper’s maneuver was off and I nearly lost a sigma for it (it was left with one hull). I sent the sigma through the asteroid field where Whisper couldn’t easily follow (and to try to get behind the shuttle) while Carnor and the other sigma exchanged shots with Soontir and the shuttle. My opponent played conservatively with Soontir and didn’t take the obvious green maneuvers that would get him shots as I would have blocked him. While chasing down Soontir I ended up with the shuttle behind Carnor at R1 near a debris cloud at my side of the table, while Whisper overshot his forward decloak and landed on the cloud. On that turn I managed to damage the uncloaked Whisper with my sigmas, and on the following turn Whisper shot down Carnor before getting finished off by my sigmas. Thankfully the shuttle was stressed and badly positioned near the edge of the board and I was finally able to focus on Soontir, getting him to bump and then take him out with a focused R1 shot. My opponent then conceded.

Result: Win 164-35

Round 6: Jordi

Corran Horn with VI, FCS, R2-D2 and either SU or EU (can’t remember)

Chewie with predator, MF, C-3PO and gunner

At this point I was sure that I would get into the top 8 and was probably more daring than I should have been, so I set up for a joust in an asteroid lane with Carnor leading the charge. Corran was straight in front while Chewie went down the side of the board to get out of arc. I tried to push Carnor forward quickly to get Corran to bump and then unload on him with the phantoms, but my opponent saw through this and did a 5-forward and got in between Carnor and the sigmas, whose double tap destroyed one of my ships far too quickly. I sent Carnor around to catch up with Chewie, trying to focus-evade at R1 and prevent him from spending his evade while my sigma was constantly cloaking/decloaking to block Corran and take the occasional shot at Chewie when possible. In the end I managed to finish off the Falcon without losing any other ships (though my sigma was at one hull), but having a PS10 Corran on the loose wasn’t a pleasant thought. I think that in order to avoid getting blocked and try to finish off the sigma, my opponent k-turned over a debris field in an attempt to double tap it but being cloaked and having sensor jammer saved the day again. Now that Corran was double stressed, I sent Carnor hot on his tail while my sigma was running away from him. I believe he went over two more debris fields while trying to catch my sigma, which I always kept cloaked and with an obstacle between us. In the end with the intel agent I found the perfect moment to stay decloaked and fire on Corran with both of my ships without taking any return fire.

Result: Win 167-32

At this point I was so mentally drained that I just sat, snacked and drank a bunch of water, but moving on...

Quarterfinals: Sergio

IG-88 B&D with FCS, HLC, AT and PtL

This matchup was something that I had been expecting to encounter all day and was curious to see how I would fare against it, particularly as I knew that a friend of mine was also flying the bro bots, and he went down to Sergio in the second-to-last round of swiss (it was funny to see 4 IG-88s on the table next to me, being played by people I knew). I was also interested in having my rematch against Sergio because we had previously met in another tournament and he knocked me out of it in the last round of swiss pairings due to our difference in 1 point in MOV. I think that FCS IG-88s in particular suffer against my list because Carnor repositions after they do and they suffer without the focus/evade actions. Combine that with sensor jammer and their HLCs were usually only hitting my ships one hull/shield at a time. I was able to knock out IG-88D without losing a ship (though they all took damage) but then I made a mistake with a sigma (I changed the maneuver at the last minute and then forgot) and parked it on an asteroid after decloaking, which caused its death. After that it was a very long game of cat and mouse as IG-88B still had three shields and I had a combined total of three hull. I was slowly pecking away at his shields and got him down to three or four hull. On the second to last turn he caught me with a k-turn and I had Carnor at R2 right in front of him, though his target lock was on the sigma that was coming down his side, so I boosted to R1 and focused to try to bring him down with Carnor, and if I failed then least he wouldn’t be able to use his gunner effect and repeat the shot with a target lock. I managed to do a single damage and he rolled two hits with his attack, which I luckily survived without tokens. Unfortunately he was barely out of the arc of my phantom so I couldn’t finish the job on that turn, but with his expected green maneuver I was able to catch him from behind and end it.

Result: Win 167-32

Semifnials: Ivan (my weekly X-Wing opponent)

Chiraneau with predator, Isard, gunner, RC and EU

Soontir with PtL, AT, SD and RGT

This was something I slowly started to suspect would happen over the course of the entire day as we saw each other winning our games, particularly as we’ve been practicing our lists against each other and he’s won this particular matchup three games out of four. Funnily enough, neither of us was nearly as daring as we usually are and we spent the first half hour circling the playmat, until we both decided to go for it on the same turn. His decimator parked right in front of a debris field to get a R2 shot at Carnor, while Carnor and a sigma were loaded on tokens and aiming at Soontir, who also has his usual token stack and was facing them. My other sigma was a bit further back and still cloaked. I believe that both Carnor and the sigma each lost a shield and Soontir had a focus+evade to weather two shots from R2 (the sigma) and R3 (Carnor). He spent his evade token to completely evade the first shot from Carnor, and then I rolled four hits with the phantom, to which Soontir rolled an evade and three blanks, causing his death. At that point I figured that I had a good chance of making the final but that focus-to-crit ability is only useful to me if he rolls another eyeball, and even then predator can still help get him 3-4 hits on a regular basis, which probably makes this ship the hardest counter to my list. As the decimator was coming from behind Carnor and my decloaked phantom, I had trouble getting my guns on him and Carnor soon lost his pilot ability and later died in exchange for Chiraneau’s shields and five hull. On the following turn I decided to keep cloaked (I still had a total of three shields on my sigmas) and then try to get both guns on him at the same time and, with some luck, clear him of the rest of his hull. Unfortunately both my agility dice and my brain both utterly failed me as he rolled three hits and a crit and I blanked my evade dice and took three hits (I had an evade token) and died, or so I thought. We didn’t realize it until several turns later, but I thought that he was shooting at the damaged sigma when in fact he shot at the full one, but I had already removed my ship from the table and it *is* possible that the crit might have been a double damage anyway, so we continued the game as was and in the end I lost. During that match we both had a lot of laughs to the point that the organizers couldn’t believe that we were so relaxed and chatty during a regional semifinal, and it was probably my most enjoyable game of the day.

Result: Loss 35-165

In summary: I know I made a few mistakes throughout my games, but fortunately with a bit of luck and a lot of sweat I managed to make it to the semifinals with a list of my own design (which some might consider sub-optimal). I also wanted to say that the X-Wing community, as far as I’ve seen, is full of good sports and people that are pleasant to play against. I fear that I may have annoyed a number of my opponents as I was constantly looking at dials with the intelligence agent, blocking, turning hits to eyeballs and preventing the usage of focus and evade tokens XD. I’m not sure if I chose the best list to take to such a long tournament as trying to read my opponents while simultaneously looking at all of my decloak options was mentally exhausting, but I was more than happy with the result. When I started the day I just kept telling myself to focus on each game one-by-one and not the tournament as a whole, particularly after I had won a few, because when things go well for me I have a tendency to get a little arrogant. Also, hooray for the shiny new dice!

Wow, what a wall of text…. I hope that it wasn’t too boring. I’ll probably find typos and unclear descriptions but I want to get this post out first and I’ll make any necessary edits later.

Oh and in case anyone was wondering, Ivan went on to win the final against a Corran/Han list (VI, gunner, 3PO and MF for Han, and PtL, R2-D2 and FCS for Corran) at 200-0.

*Edit: I changed all the scores to MOV as they were previously stating mine and my opponent's points left on the table.

Loved the play-by-play and the original squad.

Loved the play-by-play and the original squad.

Thanks! I wasn't sure how much detail to put in as it might get confusing but I figured I'd try to comment on the key turns where the game could have gone in either direction.

Great write up and congrats on top 4. Really like the squad, might have to try it out.

Nice report with an interesting squad - I always feel the Sensor Jammer is under-appreciated.

I don't think your score for match 4 is correct?

Nice report with an interesting squad - I always feel the Sensor Jammer is under-appreciated.

I don't think your score for match 4 is correct?

After the tournament I think I love sensor jammer even more than before, and the intel agents were key in catching just about every ship I killed. As for the scores, in all of the matches I put my remaining points and my opponent's remaining points... so I guess that you can add 100 points MOV to my scores in matches 3 through 7.

I made the cut at a store champion then lost my second knock out game with six sigma (2 sigmas and echo) before the phantom faq and I can agree that it is great fun to check your opponent's dials and then block them, or end up out of arc. And I've also landed myself on asteroids then lost a phantom for my troubles.

I really like your list and might have to give it a try.

Well played sir!

Sorry, I mean you lost Carnor but have the score as a 64-0 win?

Sorry, I mean you lost Carnor but have the score as a 64-0 win?

I wrote the points that were on the table at the end of each match but I believe that the MOV was 164-35 as my opponent killed Carnor but I destroyed all of his ships.

*Edit: I changed all of the scores to MOV to avoid confusion.

Lurker, I loved this batrep so thank you for providing one so detailed! I especially enjoyed how original your squad is and still making it to top four! The great balance allowing dark horse builds to top is one of my favorite aspects of this game!

I can imagine how exhausting it is to play this all day continually as I used to run triple interceptors back before auto thrusters and like your list they have a tendency to just go up in smoke if even the smallest mistake is made flying them!

Really cool using the sensor jammers. I've been wanting to use them with Jax for the longest time but haven't gotten around to it. I will have to give your list a try at a locals sometime soon

I don't have any experience flying phantoms so I don't have much to contribute unfortunately:(

I also have a batrep up (scum dual firesprays) and if you have the time I would love to hear your thoughts on it

Lurker, I loved this batrep so thank you for providing one so detailed! I especially enjoyed how original your squad is and still making it to top four! The great balance allowing dark horse builds to top is one of my favorite aspects of this game!

I can imagine how exhausting it is to play this all day continually as I used to run triple interceptors back before auto thrusters and like your list they have a tendency to just go up in smoke if even the smallest mistake is made flying them!

Really cool using the sensor jammers. I've been wanting to use them with Jax for the longest time but haven't gotten around to it. I will have to give your list a try at a locals sometime soon

I'm glad that you liked it! Be warned that if you fly this list too much your friends will start to get annoyed at your constantly changing their hits to eyeballs that they can't change back, making for uncloaked phantoms that just don't want to die... more than one person has called my list "disgusting"

Haha that sounds like a lot of fun

I'm the guy that can't wait to try Jax with the Strom guy who makes them lose a red die and will prob put jammer on Strom just to be REALLY annoying xD

impressive. well earned top4. gr8 to see an original list feature and do well vs the field.

Nice report with an interesting squad - I always feel the Sensor Jammer is under-appreciated.

I don't think your score for match 4 is correct?

Yes. Sensor Jammer is under-appreciated a lot. It is expensive at 4 points, but it really is as much of an offensive upgrade as it is a defensive one. It forces your opponent to focus and save that focus for when they attack. Thus leaving them without means to modify their defense dice. Only Soontir Fel doesn't really care about Sensor damage as he gets focuses for days.

Yes. Sensor Jammer is under-appreciated a lot. It is expensive at 4 points, but it really is as much of an offensive upgrade as it is a defensive one. It forces your opponent to focus and save that focus for when they attack. Thus leaving them without means to modify their defense dice. Only Soontir Fel doesn't really care about Sensor damage as he gets focuses for days.

In probably every round but the semifinal (**** that predator-Chiraneau =P) sensor jammer must have saved me from at least a dozen hits, particularly in round 3 which turned into a textbook joust. It forces your opponent to focus if he wants to deal damage and he can't k-turn if he wants effective shots. And Soontir, well, if I can catch Soontir in a bump (not too tough with intel agent, decloak and BR), there's usually not much that unmodified evade dice can do against 5 focused attack dice. Also, putting Carnor where you expect Soontir will go is really good at getting him to boost/BR out of that R1 bubble of death (and into an awkward position for the next round) with only one focus token which he may or may not spend on a shot. The most stressful, difficult and yet enjoyable part of flying this list is getting into R1-2 intact, which usually means not being able to shoot at R3 as you want to be cloaked. Fortunately, once you're in close it's difficult for ships to get away.