Hi Folks, Alan here!
Yesterday I played in my first X-wing Regional Tournament (ever) in my hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (We are called the "Chicago of the north" but we are more like Minneapolis, MN). We had almost 30 people show up and it was a nice but warm venue (A church of all places). I will do my best to recap the matches but it was a long day and I may not remember everything perfectly.
Let's start off with my build. Here is what I came to the tournament with:
Boba Fett (39) w: Assault Missiles (5), K4 (3), VI (1), Seismic Charges (2)
Kath Scarlett (38) w: Assault Missiles (5), K4 (3), VI (1), Seismic Charges (2)
99 point build designed to destroy swarms (Ties) and Fat Turret Ship/Little men meta (Decimators + Soontir, etc.), but weak to multi-tank meta (B/Y wing builds).
Part way through registration (1030 when games start at 11), I decided that I didn't trust the firesprays' evasion (Plus, who plays swarms/decimators in 2015?) and opted for my old friends, the broccoli robots: IG-88s. New build:
IG-88A (36) w: IG-2000 (0), FCS (2), Seismic Charges (2), VI (1), HLC (7), Auto thrusters (2)
IG-88B (36) w: IG-2000 (0), FCS (2), Seismic Charges (2), VI (1), HLC (7), Auto thrusters (2)
100 point build designed to destroy multi-tank meta (B/Y wing builds) and Fat Turret Ship/Little men meta (Decimators + Soontir, etc.), but weak to swarms (Ties) and (apparently) astroids.
Round 1: N/A
I used my Bye card obtained at a previous Store Championship to avoid the first round. Instead, me and another Bye guy (phrasing) decided to grab brunch at a local restaurant (Oakwood Cafe if you're ever in Winnipeg). I ordered the Eggs Benedict and it was worth it. Delicious. Anyway...
Swiss: 1 win
Round 2: Vs. Chris
Of course. From the high of Eggs Benedict to the low of setting up across from the only thing I was worried about, a swarm. A 7 tie swarm with all the favourites (Academy, blacks, Howlrunner, and dark curse). Having never played against Dark curse (I rarely play imperials), I set my ships up against his lone dark curse thinking I could wipe him out and then hunt down the swarm. Nope. I chased him into the astroids and killed a different tie (Howlrunner), injured a few others before IG-88A became trapped on a rock and due to Chris' expert blocking skills, stayed there until death. At time, I had lost one ship and with it the game (18-50). Chris is an exceptional player but we both agreed the MVP was that one astroid that did 3 of the 8 damage required to kill IG-88A.
Swiss: 1 win - 1 loss
Round 3: Vs. Andy
Andy looks like a scary viking but he is incredibly nice and helpful (think any of the characters from How to train your dragon). His team consisted of 3 Royal Guard interceptors (Soontir, Jax, and Tetran) loaded with shield and stealth upgrades. We set up pseudo joust and came at each other fast. He made the mistake of thinking I was a competent/strategic flyer and ended up in accidental range of my HLC 3 times. Each time, it proved disastrous for his ties. As my friend Jay would say, dice game have dice, and for me, this game, they were hot (Karma as I would find out later, is awful). On round two I re-rolled into four hits on Soontir and he rolled all four blanks, wiping him out in a single exchange. Things went downhill for Andy from there and I tabled him with 30 minutes to go. Afterwards, he gave me some great advice on taking advantage of 2 IG-88s maneuver dials to keep them perpetually in place while shooting out in almost all directions (think two bulls locked in combat). Good guy.
Swiss: 2 wins - 1 loss
Round 4: Vs. Steve
Steve is that guy who records all his X-wing and Star Trek matches for Youtube. Great player with a great deal of insight. His team consisted of Whisper and Echo with the regular upgrades (Advanced Cloaking, FCS, VI, etc.) and a Tie to boot. We set up in opposite ends and chased each other around the outskirts of the map (and centrally placed astroids) for the first few rounds. We finally met in the middle and Steve made a critical error after decloaking Whisper where he was facing the wrong direction and in sight of both IG-88s. Evasive or not, you don't survive long against 2 HLCs firing at you, especially if you've been softened up by some seismic charges. Once Whisper died, I easily wasted the seismic-injured tie (regaining shields with each death). At time, Echo was making a rebound and chasing me but he couldn't seal the deal. My only complaint with this match was the length of time it took Steve to choose his maneuvers each turn (at one point I timed it and he was averaging 8 minutes to my 2 minutes). I believe we only had 7 or 8 rounds over 75 minutes. However, after seeing the mistakes you can make due to the decloak "boost," I gave him some slack. Its not easy using Phantoms even for the best pilots and time is required to carefully consider where you end up.
Swiss: 3 wins - 1 loss
Round 5: Vs. Kyle
Kyle was flying Brobots (B and C) with manglers, ions, predator, advanced sensors? We set up opposite and he ran from my ships. I gave chase and and a miscalculation on his part over how willing I was to (aggressively) boost myself into astroids for a shot resulted in his fleeing B suffering significant damage from several HLC rerolled shots over the initial turns. A few more rounds of S-turns and seismic charges, and I was able to finish off the B. His C survived longer but without the B's gunner ability, failed to do any more significant damage to me before I finished him off.
Swiss: 4 wins - 1 loss
End Result: 2nd place overall in Swiss (only my Tie Swarm buddy Chris placed higher), Invite to Top 8, and Shwag: Boba Fett alt card, Shield tokens, and new dice (like the old dice but marbled). Sweet.
Top 8
Round 1: Vs. Kyle
Ugh. I hate this. 30 people in the tourney and I have to play the same person back to back. Oh well. At least he was a nice and cool person. Same set up as before in opposite corners, same first moves of him running. I reacted as before, gave chase, and paid for it. Kyle was able to turn my aggressiveness against me and did a surprise turn about to face me in the middle, at short range, where my HLC and gunner ability would be useless. I managed to strip both his ships of their shields but in return my A died and I lost all my shields on the B. I was then able to kill his B off and facing a range one shot from the C, remembered that I owed Karma something. He predator re rolled into 4 regular hits. I rolled 3 evade dice (knowing I would only need one evade result to live and fire first at him next turn), and got all blanks!!! We are now even, Karma (I hate you until you do something nice for me).
Result: I was out. Single elimination yo.
I left to grab some beer and wings with my Bye buddy but heard that Steve (Phantoms) ended up taking the regional sometime around midnight. He deserved it and I am happy for him (Also, I now get to say that I beat the Regional X-wing champ. LOL).
What did I learn?
- If you're facing the same opponent twice in a tournament, do not use the same tactic. If they've learned from your play style and you haven't learned from theirs, you're the one with the problem.
- If you're not a good pilot, pick obstacles that will help, not kill you. The astroids were the bane of my existence in all 5 games. The one that killed me in round 2? It was mine. Next time, I'm bringing the space debris. I'll take stress over not being able to shoot and a high possibility of self-inflicted damage.
- Sometimes picking the unusual combos in builds gives several advantages. Nobody picks IG-88A (vs. C/D) but his shield regaining ability played a part in all 5 matches. So did VI (vs. Predator) as it let me shoot first on numerous occasions while my re rolls were covered by FCS. Everyone was surprised by my choices at first, but they regretted them later.
- Don't build to counter every meta. A. it can't be done. B. it makes you inefficient (think "Jack of all trades, Master of none"). My IG-88 build would have easily countered all the teams my friends' faced (Multi tanks and turrets) but struggled against the ones I faced (swarms and mirror matches). Build for what you like and can excel at.
- Dice games have dice. All the planning and flying won't save you from bad rolls. If you set yourself up in a vulnerable position and you hope that the dice gods will favour you, you are in trouble.
- X-wing players are great people. It sounds cheesy but having played in other competitive gaming environments, I was expecting attitude and instead encountered laughs and good natured people. I look forward to playing in my next X-wing tournament.