I started playing about a year ago and have flown Corran lists almost exclusively for that year. My first real competitive events were the store champs. I made the cut three times and was immediately eliminated by the eventual winner of each tourney every time. Since I won the majority of other local tournaments I had attended this was frustrating. In my last store championship in mid-March I flew the same list I ended up bringing for my first-ever regional.

Corran Horn

Advanced Sensors

Push the Limit

R2-D2

Engine Upgrade

Gold Squadron Pilot

BTL-A4

Ion Cannon Turret

R3-A2

Gold Squadron Pilot

BTL-A4

Ion Cannon Turret

Bomb Loadout

Proximity Mines

The list did pretty well in the store champ games, only losing to a whisper mini-swarm in the final Swiss round (We had both made the cut and I probably could have just turtled to a modified win if I wanted to) and a Fel/Whisper/Doom that eliminated me. I had previously beaten this second list the same day. My list also completely dominates dual IG and firespray lists. The amount of stress that y wing with r3a2 generates just wrecks people. And even though it is a 3-ship rebel, it actually fires 6 times in a good turn of shooting.

So 6ish weeks later, having played just a single game of X-wing to prepare for regionals, I drove up to Tulsa and just used the same list again. After the decloak change, I thought I had a decent shot at out-maneuvering even Whisper. I was a little concerned about Panic Attack and very worried about 4BZ, but when I walked around the room there were loads of firesprays, Decimators and IG's on tables. I felt pretty good about my guess on the overall look of the lists. I didn't see a single 4B list of any kind.

I'm going to try and summarize my games. Human memory, however, is quite malleable and unreliable. If anyone remembers a game differently just let me know and I'll add your comments.

Round 1

4BZ

Yikes. I was more than a little unhappy to pull this list first. I was a little relieved when I saw that he brought the 2 large debris and one large rock. So I decided to just make the biggest, most stressful mess I could. The reason 4BZ bothers my list is that they can burn down Corran in two turns or both of my Y's in 2 turns with focused fire. I think I took initiative so that I could get actions on the bumps. Can't really remember.

I put my Y's down facing directly through the mess of debris and asteroids. He puts the B's in a little box across from my Y's, with 2 of them pointing at the very middle debris. The Z was slightly off to the right. I put Corran out on the right, and gun him for a clear slot where his list wouldn't be able to swing into Corran without taking stress on 2-3 B's from rolling over debris.

With his B's racked up I intended to dive into the front row after a range 3 exchange with his front 2 B's and have both Y's and Corran melt one of the back B's. But he turned the back 2 B's and the Z into Corran while the front 2 targeted my prox Y. The Y took quite a bit of damage. Corran took 0. One of his B's took quite a bit of damage and 2 stress and received an ion token with debris directly in front of it. This effectively put this B out of the game for 2-3 turns.

This middle game is a bit muddled, but the stacking stress and ion is really frustrating for my opponent. He's basically always rolling unmodified dice and a one-health Y lives about 2 turns past his expiration date. The game ends up with Corran against a damaged, very-stressed B, a healthy B and a full shield Z, all badly out of position. Corran nukes the damaged B and closes with the healthy BZ, failing to finish either one off before time.

Win

Round 2

Prince Xizor

Veteran Insincts

Virago Title

Fire Control System

Inertial Dampeners

Autothrusters

5X Binayre Pirates

I was pretty happy about my first round and when I first saw this list I wasn't too worried. My warthog's will both fire at ps2, maybe getting a pirate off the board before it shoots each turn. And I thought Corran could easily handle Xizor in the late game. He couldn't be as bad as Fel, right? (Spoiler alert: wrong)

The first couple rounds go pretty well. He runs the Z's down the side and I put my ships through an open left field towards the Prince. The prox Y is out front, with Corran directly behind him and the other Y beside Corran. His setup is meant to bait you into trying to kill Prince. I'm not that dumb, and I get the setup I wanted early on. I nuke a Z and ion at least one more in the first round of shooting. Prox Y just takes a couple points of damage.

Then my brain switches off for two rounds.

The first awful decision I make is that I assume I can get the K off on both Y's just because Z's kind of have to move forward. Turns out they can just bump. Not sure how I forgot that for a round. So the ioned Z bumps the z in front of him and my stresshog just crashes on the K attempt, earning himself a stress and a round of no shooting. He also didn't get many shots on me this round, but the prince, still on his straight-line approach and having picked up a target lock, takes him to 1-2 hull without receiving any shots in return. I think Corran double-tapped another Z either this turn or next to kill it.

With the prox mine Y stressed and about to drop I make a solid attempt at dropping the prox mine on Xizor. I originally intended to do a 1-forward, which I think would have dropped it right onto Xizor. The stresshog, pointed the wrong way, could then safely collide with the other Y by pulling a hard 2. Even if the mine missed Xizor it would still land roughly in front of him and the Y-bumps would keep either one from landing on it. For some reason, I changed the dial to a 2, dropped the mine, missed the Prince and drove right over my own proximity mine with my stresshog. I rolled some hits.

Awesome.

In the end game he ran 2 damaged Z's off to opposite ends of the board while Xizor laid into Corran, usually at range 1. Naturally, Corran just wouldn't die. I loop around a bit, K when I can and try for shots on Xizor. I think I got him to 3 hull with a double-tap. But with fcs Xizor is actually a much larger threat than Fel and it's hard to safely end a turn in a position where a K isn't going to get Corran killed. So I sort of limp slowly back towards the Z's, regenerating as much damage as Xizor is doing. I know I managed to kill one of them but I can't recall if I killed both. About three turns after that he manages to get two damage through for 2 turns in a row and I get too close to a debris field. It was a completely unforced error. I was pointing right at it at range 3ish and had just done a 3 forward. I waspretty sure I could clear it with a 2 bank. I think I was down to a shield. The 2-bank bumps the debris, so I take a stress and lose my actions. Then of course I rolled a crit on the debris. Xizor rolls up with fcs focus and finishes off Corran pretty easily.

I should have just 3-straight and hopped the debris for the extra defense dice, but I thought the 2-bank would clear. Don't knock on Xizor lists, he's kind of a monster! Corran regenerated probably 15+ hits, all from Xizor, in this game alone.

Loss, but I don't recall points.

Round 3

Han Solo

Predator

R2-D2

C-3PO

Millennium Falcon Title

Engine Upgrade

2 x Tala

Bandit

I think I've heard about these lists before. Seems good.

If I lose one more game I know I'm out of top 8. I never really expected to make top 8, but it's an incentive that at least makes the games more interesting.

He sets the Z's up about range 1.5 from the left side of the board. I put all 3 ships across from them right up against the board edge(prox Y out front, Corran behind him and stresshog on board edge). To my surprise he puts Han in the gap, right on the board edge. I don't fly HanZ lists, so maybe that's normal, but it surprised me.

We approach and he banks all the Z's into range 1. They are angled towards the edge of the board. I'm more worried about the Tala's, so I try to nuke one of them(don't recall if I succeeded). Then with my last ion I decide to gamble on the bandit, who looks to me like he is very close to the board edge. Then, for no reason at all, I double tap with Corran onto Han. Wasted roll does 0 damage. I was still mad about clipping debris in my previous game and my head wasn't really in this game yet.

The ion works and the bandit goes off the board next turn. I kill the other two pretty quick and his predator makes fairly short work of my warthogs. The stresshog hilariously gets a console fire that he can't ever fix and slowly burns to death. When the stresshog dies I think Han has 1 shield(from R2-D2) and has taken a hit and a direct hit. I know he had that much damage pretty quick in the match.

I was fairly confident here. Corran is the Han-slayer. We still have like 50 minutes in the round. No problem, right? Wrong. I get a few range 3 double taps in on Han, but they are often unmodified and I just can't do any more than 1 damage. He rolled 2 natural evades twice to fend off my double tap. For 45 minutes he can't kill me and I can't kill him. People are occasionally drifting by after their games are done and commenting that nothing has changed in 30 minutes. He does a great job of staying out of close range and staying out of arc. I think he has a full win if something doesn't change. I get a brief moment of excitement when boosts towards the board edge, but he was confident that he wouldn't go off next turn. It was close, but he was right. When they call 5 minutes I'm fairly certain I've lost the game and am out of top 8 contention.

Before the last round Corran is in the middle of the board and is down 1 shield. He boosts into a range 3 unmodified exchange and does another point of damage to Corran (I had only taken an evade so I could use sensors next turn). His boost points him directly at a debris field. I'm thinking his plan is to bump on the last round, so I save my double tap and do a 1 forward. I already had a target lock on him, so I barrel rolled back away from him, focused and did a 1-forward. He pulls a 4-straight and rolls right into range 1 with no actions. I think he did another damage to Corran, but Corran fires back, stripping his 1 constantly-regenerated shield. I think the roll was hit, hit, focus, blank. He used 3 PO to make it 1 hit.

Then Corran double-taps and manages a hit, hit, crit, crit after spending TL and focus. Han has 5 hull left and blanks on the evade. He pulls the hits, then pulls up a direct hit. Han is dead. I don't even know what the other crit was.

I think I said, "No f***ing way" loud enough that the whole store heard it.

Win!

Round 4

Brobots! Finally a list I'm confident I can beat!

IG-88B

Mangler Cannon

Title

Advanced Sensors

Predator

Autothrusters

IG-88D

Heavy Laser Cannon

Title

Advanced sensors

Predator

Autothrusters

I hugged the right wall and he tried to outflank with D and a sloop. The sloop ended with both my Y's pointing at him at range 2 and Corran at range 1. On the downside, I boosted Corran around before the maneuver and he landed on a rock and couldn't shoot. On the upside, IG-88D, who is carrying his HLC, has no shots on my slow-rolled warthogs or on Corran. Good trade.

I think I ioned and triple-stressed D this round. I know he died shortly without ever taking a shot at anything.

B managed to kill the prox hog while I finished D, then B looped around the board and tried to sloop into a position to get shots on the stresshog without taking any stress or shots in return. He ended up with no shot, just like D had done. The Y was set up to get behind him pretty easy next round. Corran and the Y finished him off in a couple of rounds.

It's a really hard matchup for the IG's because they can't kill Corran with the Y's throwing stress and ions and they can't kill both of the Y's before one of the IG's dies. Corran can easily solo any IG that is left over unless he is badly, badly out of position. I've never seen this list lose to an IG list.

Win

Round 5

Kath Scarlett

VI

K4 Security Droid

Engine Upgrade

Inertial Dampeners

Mandalorian Mercenary

Predator

Tactician

Binayre Pirate

I was pretty happy to see this list across the table. As I've said before my list it pretty hard on firesprays. He we set up a mass of obstacles loosely in the center of the map. He puts the pirate near the right side of the board so I set up my 2 Y's across from the pirate with the prox Y out front as usual. He puts the merc right on the board edge and I tuck Corran into his little hog nest. Kath goes down closer to the middle, leaving a gap for some obstacle I probably put in front of him.

First round he darts forward pretty fast. I think Kath and Merc did a 4 forward. I did a 1 bank towards Kath with all 3 ships.

Round 2 I did a long 3 bank with all 3 ships back towards the mercenary, which is my actual target. I know if I can bring him down then Corran can probably solo the other 2 ships. His pirate does a long straight, his merc does a bank of some kind I think. He k-turns Kath to get her butt cannon onto all ships. It's a pretty good strategy if I was gunning for Kath. Unfortunately I wasn't and my 3 banks put all my ships outside Kath's arcs. I put some hurt on the merc from some range 2 Corran and prox Y shots and the stresshog catches the corner of Kath in his arc. I had not intended to shoot Kath this turn, but it's an opportunity I can't pass up so I give her 2 more stress and land a little bit of damage plus an ion token. In exchange I take 4 damage on the prox Y from the pirate and merc.

Next turn Kath does a hard 2, keeping all stress, and I go after her with the stresshog. The prox Y and Corran roll into close range on the merc and Corran double taps to finish him off. 2 more stress for Kath and she takes an ion. The prox hog refused to die after the actionless merc and Kath fail to generate almost any damage. I think the z got off a range 1 TL/Focus on the prox Y but it wasn't quite enough to kill it.

A few turns later Kath goes down in the corner and the match MVP Binayre Pirate kills off my second warthog( I think the Pirate did the majority of his damage in the game). This was my stress record for the day. The stresshog had at least 12 stress tokens when he died and a couple turns I think we just said let's agree he is stressed. I k-turned behind the actionless Z and double-tapped to finish him off.

Win!

4-1 with a decent MoV landed me in 6th. They gave us an hour for lunch and we met back at 8:30 for top 8. They didn't tell us our match-ups until just before the top 8 started.

I mentioned already that I was knocked out of top 8 at the Team Covenant Store Championship by the eventual winner. In this top 8 I got matched up against the exact same guy with the exact same list. Not good!

His list:

Chiraneau

VI

Vader Crew

Gunner

Whisper

VI

Fire Control System

Gunner

Advanced Cloaking Device

This is a rough matchup, but not completely impossible with the new decloak rule. He runs this Chiraneau as Vadering suicide bomber. I he gets both ships at range 1-2 of Corran he can reliably execute him in two rounds. Even with Corran bumping one of them making it 3 rounds at close range isn't likely.

We build a loose mass of obstacles in the middle of the map and I put up my typical prox-out-front setup on the right edge. He's at ps9 and ps10, so be places both ships near the left corner. I cut across the front edge and he brings Chiraneau into the far side of the obstacles where he can safely turn and run. He brings whisper down the left flank fast.

Details from here are fuzzy. There is a LOT of Vadering, even on the y-wings.

Whisper turns in towards the right once she reaches the edge and gets some shots on the stresshog, receiving 1 stress token in return. Chiraneau might have also Vadered the stresshog this turn to get his last shield off.

My intention the whole time is actually turn and nuke Chiraneau, but I stupidly get overconfident about whisper's single stress token and turn the Y's into her. She lands right in front of my damaged stresshog and he brings Chiraneau into range 3. The two ships easily drop the stresshog before he can fire. I shoot at whisper with cloak, focus and maybe an evade, of course doing no damage. I think Corran double-tapped Chiraneau either this turn or the turn before from range 3.

If I had driven all 3 ships hard for Chiraneau this round I might have killed him. Next round the Gunner Vader FCS machine chews into Corran, taking him to 1 hull. With Corran basically pointing straight at certain death I dial up a 5-straight and try use advanced sensors to barrel roll and boost to point away from all the death. I was hoping the prox Y could take out Chiraneau's last 3 or so hull. Unfortunately the boost doesn't work because it doesn't clear an obstacle that was too close. So I do the only thing I can to possibly live with my 5-straight and boost the other way to force a bump with Chiraneau which blocks his killing Vader on Corran. But that leaves me with no actions and 1 hull against a range 2 whisper. Obviously the odds of him living were astronomically low, but with the Chiraneau bump they aren't 0.

Whisper kills him on the first shot and the remaining Y has no shot and no real chance of getting one unless he just hands it to me. I concede the match.

That list is made to execute Corran/Whisper/Fel. I wasn't really expecting to win, but if I had really believed that he didn't care about losing Chiraneau I could have made some calls that left me with a Corran v Whisper end game. That's winnable, even if I just took him to time.(49-point Corran for the win)

So once again the same guy and list knocked me out of top 8 in Tulsa. Interestingly, the list and player that knocked me out of another store champ in OKC was also in this top 8 and also playing Whisper.

I did better that I thought I would. And making top 8 at my first regionals ever was pretty exciting. Team Covenant has this awesome top 8 room where they lock the door and put the game up on a TV in the main room so people can watch and comment without interfering. I assume for big tournaments this is a lot better than having a crowd all gathered around your table.

I probably wouldn't take this list to a friendly tournament. Permanently rolling unmodified dice is insanely frustrating for your opponents. Corran Horn with this loadout is also very frustrating for a lot of lists.

If I was going to another regional I would take the exact same list. I think if I had practiced ahead of time it could have been a lot more effective and both of my losses were completely winnable.

Congratulations on the solid wins. I really like that list. It's a great example of a list that has a ton of tools as well as a lot of raw damage possibilities. It sucks to lose when you've gone that far, but it's nice to know that better decisions could have gotten you further. I hate it when I lose and I don't have a good reason why. Either my play or list was entirely off or I had luck so bad that I couldn't see beyond it (even if there really was a way for me to win). When I see a path to victory that I could have taken and didn't, at lest I know I'm not too far off. It was a very cool write-up. I like when people can give insight into key moments about where they lost. Good luck in your next regional if you go.

Glad to read the report. Thanks for sharing. Glad the Xizor list was tough, as it's what I'm flying.

Prince is as good as Fel in the late game. Better in some ways. In the early game he's like a durable rebel that will just waste all your shots. I think his list options are pretty limited but I won't be caught telling people starvipers suck anymore.

The Starviper in general is a great end-game ship. The Prince however has the tools to reliably get there relatively unscathed almost every game. With FCS they don't need PTL to be effective, and we all know how good PS 9 is when there's only a few ships left on the table. Respecognise!

Did the proximity mine do anything for you? Or was it more of a psych-out for your opponent?

Prox mines did:

2 damage on a B in first round.(from a ship that was basically dead and shouldn't have gotten any more shots)

2 or 3 damage in my other Y in second round.

No damage in third round. (Ugh Predator)

2 damage on Iggy B in fourth round.

No damage in fourth or fifth round. He died with stress in round 5 and I conceded the other with prox Y still alive but terribly out of position.

Really the prox was there to threaten Fel and whisper, but I think it does work to psych them out a bit. Plus I just can't find a better 2-3 points.

I was thinking maybe a generic r2 + flechettes.

Corran is an ***hole. I think in the dozen or so games I've played against Corran, I've only killed him once or twice.

Solid reports. Seems like you get way too emotional when you play and this inhibits your better judgement.

Of course, your Nemesis may just be better at you at X-Wing...

Let's say I'm imbellishing for dramatic effect.

And yes, that guy is significantly better than me.

Good report. I definitely played our 4th round game pretty awfully. I didn't understand why the matchup was so bad for me until yesterday; Sideslip ran the squad against me again last night, and even though I wrecked both Y-Wings pretty quickly - as dual Aggressor usually does - Corran was able to finish off both IG's (each was at 3 hull when the Y-Wings disappeared). PTL/EU/AS Corran moving after IG is the real pain here, but I can't afford to leave the Stresshog on the table and focus down Corran in the early going the way I would prefer to.

I'm very glad to see Y-Wings in competitive lists for a lot of reasons, but Corran Horn needs to die repeatedly and often!

Congrats on your success with the list.

Yea like I was telling you it's rough. I think a double HLC list with FCS might have. Shot at dropping Corran in the first 2 rounds of fire. Otherwise I don't see how anything other than extraordinary evade rolls can get you a win.

Was Sideslip flying his r7t1 version?

Was Sideslip flying his r7t1 version?

No, I asked him to fly your exact list again (though I think he left off the Seismic Charge). He agreed with you that it was a bad matchup and I wanted to practice against it some. In that game, I had one shot to kill Corran after dropping the Y-Wings - one turn that I could have had both sets of guns on him - but I dialed up the wrong move and got D blown up before he could fire as punishment. After that it was all academic. He did tell me he thought he could have flown the Y-Wings better, so there are obviously lots of variables at play, but I understand now why it's a sub-optimal match for dual Aggressor: I have to basically let Corran take free shots at me until the Stresshog is dead. Once that is accomplished, I should probably switch fire to him because the remaining Warthog is not a huge threat as long as I keep my head in the game and don't let him inside of Range 1.

Our game was the loss I was most frustrated about because I didn't feel like I flew well enough to learn anything other than what move not to dial up. I just got wrecked. Flying against the list again was a better learning opportunity. As much as I dislike flying against Corran, I was glad to see you make Top 8 because I do like the list and I think it's solid.

Would you who have flown or flown against it say that the Stresshog is a cornerstone of just about any 3/4 Rebel ship list? It seems like it brings so much to the table. Stress, Ion, decent damage, tough, all for 25 points.

Yea I think it's more important than Corran in this list. I could swap Corran for Etahn or regenerator Luke without losing what the list does. Without that double-shot stress it won't work.

I tried Corran/2Y quite a bit before the title. It was not effective in any serious match.

Would you who have flown or flown against it say that the Stresshog is a cornerstone of just about any 3/4 Rebel ship list? It seems like it brings so much to the table. Stress, Ion, decent damage, tough, all for 25 points.

I was the round 5 match, and I don't think it affected me mechanically as much as it did psychologically. I made that bad decision with Kath early on, and that was entirely predicated on "oh crap, I don't want her to end up double-stressed and facing the wrong way."

I was wondering about that turnaround with Kath. I've seen people do it before, and it always seems like trying a little too hard. Forward arc + Focus is always going to be at least as good as rear arc without. I don't know everything about the situation, of course.

She had some obstacles that would have made the bank and boost harder to pull off, and catching her in arc on the stresshog was just dumb luck. Once I had three stress though I kind of had to stick on her. I don't ever want 4-5 dice with TL and focus coming at any of my three ships.

Good report. I definitely played our 4th round game pretty awfully. I didn't understand why the matchup was so bad for me until yesterday; Sideslip ran the squad against me again last night, and even though I wrecked both Y-Wings pretty quickly - as dual Aggressor usually does - Corran was able to finish off both IG's (each was at 3 hull when the Y-Wings disappeared). PTL/EU/AS Corran moving after IG is the real pain here, but I can't afford to leave the Stresshog on the table and focus down Corran in the early going the way I would prefer to.

I'm very glad to see Y-Wings in competitive lists for a lot of reasons, but Corran Horn needs to die repeatedly and often!

Congrats on your success with the list.

That's why I hate Corran so much. If you don't kill him early, you might as well concede or try and run away if you have a point advantage.

That's why I hate Corran so much. If you don't kill him early, you might as well concede or try and run away if you have a point advantage.

​For me this comes down to how Corran is built out. Sideslip runs a lot of Dash/Corran, and his Corran build is easier for me to take down in the late-going if it is required; in that matchup, I actually have to get Dash off the table ASAP because the HLC is a bigger threat to the Aggressors than Corran. This was my first time to play against PTL/AdvS/EU Corran and he's just irritating beyond belief. =)

Being able to end a double-action turn with 0 stress lets him boost and/or barrel roll before his next dial is revealed. Makes him really, really hard to pin down and almost impossible to block. I wouldn't fly fcs Corran in this build. Dies too easily.

I think you're the only person in top 8 I didn't play at some point during the day. I loved your list. Corran is awesome, but really the warthogs have been standouts when I have used them. I'm gonna have to try that list soon.

I was on table 5 in round 5, so I only played one of the top 8 players in Swiss rounds. My SoS was probably lower than anyone else in top 8 unless one of us lost our first game.

What were you flying?

I played Xizor swarm. Jonathan Reinig was the other Xizor swarm. I beat him in the mirror match in top 8 (meaning I won the coin toss for initiative), and then lost to Gavin in top 4. He Vadered Xizor to death (self-destructing Chirpy to do so) and then danced circles around the Zs with Whisper. Brutal game.