This was my first regional tournament playing X-Wing.
I began playing X-Wing about two and a half months ago, and was in a couple of local spring tournaments, none of which I did particularly well at. I'm not really a total noob, as I have played Star Trek: Attack Wing for about a year and a half before switching over to X-wing, but even though much of the flying and arc dodging is very similar, the maneuver templates are dissimilar enough to cause me to make the sort of flying mistakes you might expect of any noob.
Well, it is enough to say that I've won several tournaments in a similar system, but went 1-2 in both of the spring tournaments I attempted since buying into X-Wing. I wasn't expecting to place in the top 20, and was just looking to have fun, and make friends.
I was agoninzing about what to play right up until last night, when I finally settled on playing a fattened Dash Rendar with 2 naked B-Wings:
Blue Squadron Pilot (22)
Blue Squadron Pilot (22)
Dash Rendar (36)
Push the Limit (3)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Nien Nunb (1)
Engine Upgrade (4)
Outrider (5)
Total: 100
View in Yet Another Squad Builder
I called my list the BB and the King list after the Late Great BB King.
Game:1 I had read about a lot of players being burned out, starved, or dehydrated by the whole process of playing then being hustled off to the next game etc., so I ate a big bowl of porridge this morning with some milk and a protein shake - I figured I be good till the earl afternoon.
My opponent was a great fellow named Gini (pronounced like genie). He was playing an Imperial fleet, with Whisper, Soontir Fel, and a Lambda Shuttle. He had initiative, so we put out our Asteroids. [As an aside, one of the things I learned was that if I was going to play a fattened Dash build, I should have brought all asteroids, rather than a couple of debris tokens - since Dash can land on an Asteroid, and not loose an action, but because he is stressed by the debris field he doesn't get his actions... ] I wanted to split up his forces, so I made, as best I could, a rock pile in the center of the board, and hoped this would split the herd a little, and with any luck thin out the herd a little.
He put his shuttle in the middle, Soontir Fel to my right in the top corner, and Whisper to my left in that top corner. I lined up joust style, as though I was going to go for the shuttle, but I had decided alread to take out Soontir if at all possible. We flew at one another, and I dropped target locks on the shuttle to give the impression that I was committed to taking the bait, so Soontir pulled in to a spot where I could hit him with all thee ships, if I wasn't already "gunning" for the shuttle. When it came time to shoot, I unloaded all three ships into Soontei, and almost took him out in the first round. He was new to playing phantoms, and so forgot to decloak twice in the early rounds, which freed me up to take out Soontir; which I managed in to do by round 2.
His Shuttle went down in one or two rounds thereafter, then a round or two later he took out a B-Wing, but it was too late, and i stripped the shields from Whisper in one round, then finished her off in the next.
It probaby would have been a different game had my opponent remembered to decloak early on in the game, but it was what it was - My first win.
Game 2: My opponent this time was a fellow named Walter, and this ended up being the fastest of my five games, taking less than half an hour. He had a suped up IG-88B with a couple of Y-Wings with titles and Autoblasters. Flying a doughnut, those autoblasters really gave me pause - the idea of getting cut to ribbons while being unable to return fire was kinda stressful. So I decided to take out IG88, and if worse came to worse, try and stay away from the Y-Wings. Surprisingly, I managed to move all my ships out of his arc in the first round we were close enough to shoot. I ended up taking out IG-88 in the first round of fire, without taking a single hit.
Three rounds later, it was all over. His Y-Wings went down without ever getting a shot off - My dice were hot, his dice were ice cold. I think I did a good job flying, but this was one of those times that Dice really swung the bell curve over to my end of the table. No losses and - My second win.
Lunch - the venue ordered pizza for all who were interested, and we ate and drank our fill, before staring on the next round.
Game 3. Joshua. He was playing an Imperial fleet containing two Defenders, one of whom was Colonel Vessery, the other the no-name version, along with Soontir Fel.
I know I played this round and lost, and I know it came down to the last hull or two on my last ship, vs. the last hull or two on his ship - and in the round just before last, I was hit with the crit that reduces your pilots skill to 0 - effectively giving him first shot in the next exchange - the one that defined who would win.
While I am not one to make excuses, but just as this round was beginning, I received several phone calls that I ignored. by the third time in a row, I thought I better answer it in case it was an emergency - and it ended being some really bad new (personal family tragedy) that took my mine off the game, as I contemplated leaving the tournament. I decided to wait for new info, and the rest of the game happened, but I really have no memory of it, so distracted by this news was I.
Game 4: Another loss - but this one went down to the wire. I was playing Jeff, who had soundly trounced me in the most recent store championship, tabling me without so much as having taken a scratch. Jeff was playing a near mirror build - Leebo instead of Dash. but two blues. He had Chewie (crew) on, a Mangler, and a few other odds and ends which made him hard to hit. I Couldn't tell you much more about this game except that at one point, I had taken out both his B-Wings, and had left him with Leebo only - and he came back from that to win it in the last minute when both our last ships were down to their last hull - and I manged to again get the same pilot = 0 skill crit that once again tore the last and winning shot from my hand to put it into the hand of my opponent. This was the hardest game I played, and the most enjoyable even though i lost again.
Game 5: This was another imperial list - all tie interceptors, Soonir Fel, Carnor Jax, and Tetran Cowell - all PTL and the expected shinanegans minus autto thrusters. This was the most laid back of the games. We just sort of threw down our asteroids, and then began playing. I got his Soontir fell out first, then Carnor, and finally Tetran We had over half an hour on the clock when thime was finaly called. I lost both B Wings, but came out a winner.
My first loss.
So I was 3-2.
There were around 30 in tournament so the cut off was 8. I came in 10th Got some nice acrylic shield tokens
Thats my story. Made a few mistakes, learned a lot from some great, great guys, and had a fantastic time. Might try another regional if I feeling like travelling in the future.