Regional 2

This Sunday 17^th May was the Regional Championship in Stockton-on-Tees and was my second and final regional this year, having missed out on tickets to all the others. I was reasonably happy with my performance last time so I decided to stick to the same list (also partly determined by having a grand total of zero games between the last regional and this one). A recap for those of you who missed my first post;

Colonel Vessery – HLC, VI (43)

Omicron Group Pilot – Vader, Advanced Sensors (27)

Dark Curse – Targeting Computer (18)

Academy Tie (12)

3 largest asteroids.

In my last post it was cleverly suggested that for my next report I take some photos of deployment and asteroid placement to help get a clearer picture of what was going on. Yeah, I kinda totally forgot about that on the day, so I apologize (again!).

Game 1 – Rebel Scum

Rookie Pilot – 22

Knave Squadron Pilot w/ Accuracy Corrector – 29

Blue Squadron Pilot – 22

Bandit Squadron Pilot – 12

Prototype Pilot w. Chardan Refit - 15

Bit of an odd list, certainly not something I’d faced before. As he was setting up, I decided my kill-order (which I’ve handily listed his list in for you). I figured go for the bigger hitters first, starting with the easiest to kill and work my way to the 2 attack annoyances at the end.

I set up in my normal formation; Shuttle range 2 from my right hand edge point 45 degrees inward, Vess just to his left with the two Ties about range 2 to the left from my center line. He had set up his A and E wings on my right flank, his Z and X wings on my left flank, and the B wing about range two from Z and X. Asteroids were fairly dense and centred mostly in the far-right corner to me, although there were a couple in my left-near corner. He has the initiative.

I figured he was going to cut in with his E and A and regroup with his other fighters in the middle otherwise his X and Z would be stuck out of the fight whilst I had my full list vs the rest of his, but I couldn’t afford count on this and let those nimble fighters behind me too early. Accordingly, I banked towards the right flank with my Ties, move Vess straight up slowly and hard turned the shuttle to the right. As I expected his E and A hard 1’d and boosted/Barrel Rolled towards his other fighters whilst his B, Z and X all advanced as fast as possible towards what was now empty space. The next round saw my ties turn hard to the left and re-position to face the X and Z approaching down my left flank, Whilst Vess banked towards them too. The shuttle banked left, straightening himself up and leaving a nice 2-turn around the closest asteroid next turn which would put him in a threatening position. His B slowed down to navigate past an asteroid and his X and Z went full throttle again to get in a good position to turn around the closest roid to my deployment zone next turn. The A and E continue to advance along his board edge looking for a good spot to cut in through the asteroids.

Turn three final sees some combat. My ties bank towards the X and Z, as does Vess, and the shuttle hard turns between the asteroids on the right edge. Curse throws his TL up on the X-wing. I unload Vess and Dark Curse into the X-wing and reduce it to one health. He throws the B, X and Z into my Academy pilot who manages to emerge unscathed before finishing off the X-wing. The Shuttle takes a pot shot at the A wing at range but does nothing and elects not to trigger Vader.

Next turn I turn towards his board edge to engage the E-wing, who has now turned into the fight with his little A-wing buddy, and managed to block his Headhunter with my Academy. Vess is able to pull out the most daring barrel roll ever to end put squeezing in-between the B and the Headhunter, nicely out of arc of the B-wing and E-wing. The shuttle creeps forward and TL’s the E-wing. Combat see’s the E-wing take a mauling (I think he survives with 1 hull) and the Shuttle looses a few shields as he has very few other viable targets to shoot at. The Headhunter whiffs his unmodified range 1 shot vs Vess, managing only 1 hit which I easily evade.

The next turn see’s the Academy block the B’s K-turn with a tight 1 - barrel roll combo, leaving the B out of the fight, whilst the rest of my ships finish off the E-wing and land a damage or two on the Headhunter. In return I lose a few more shields on the shuttle. Next turn the Headhunter goes down and the B starts losing shields whilst the Tie fighter continues to block him, walking him out of the fight. I finish the B-wing of the next turn and then proceed to play ‘chase the A-wing’ for around 5-6 turns before I finally catch him in arc and hit him hard enough to blast him off the board. The sneaky little bugger did manage to finish off my shuttle on his way out though.

This went fairly to plan. A combination of poor attack rolls on his behalf and good defense rolls from me on the first turn of combat really hampered him for the rest of the game, as my Academy Tie effectively neutralized the Headhunter and then the B-wing whilst I destroyed the rest of his list.

Win – 100-27

Game 2 – Imperials

Soontir Fell w/ PTL, RGT, AT, Stealth – 35

Carnor Jax w/ PTL, RGT, AT, Stealth – 34

Turr Phennir w/ PTL, RGT, AT - 30

A very similar list I narrowly lost my 1^st game to at the last regional, thus I was resolute to swat the Interceptors convincingly this time. Asteroids were remarkably similar to the last game and at 99 points he had the pick of Initiative. For some unbeknownst reason he chose to take it. I won’t complain as that means only Fel is moving after Vess.

I set up exactly the same as in the first game, and he places all his squints on my right flank.

I perform the same starting moves as I did in the first game, except Vess advances 3 instead of 2 this time. I should have stuck to my guns and gone flat out with Vess, as all his Squints come 5-forward towards me. He confesses instantly that he did not see the hard turn from the shuttle (who advanced-sensor’s - Focus prior) and as we check range to the Shuttle he’s visibly concerned that he is in range with Turr. He fires first and does nothing to my shuttle and is unable to use his ability after PTL-ing to turtle up. I fire back, whiff, but put a blinded pilot crit (I think) on him with Vader.

Next turn his options are limited. A 1-Hard turn isn’t possible thanks to the ‘roids so he has no choice but to come into my trap. Turr is destroyed but his other Squints manage to survive intact and the Shuttle looses a fair few health. Next turn the Shuttle full stops to cause further movement issues for Carnor and Soontir this round, grabbing a TL with Sensor’s first. I move my Ties in closer to negate Autothrusters, with Curse TL-ing Carnor too. Carnor hits the air brakes with a hard turn towards the board edge and a boost to get the shuttle back in arc. Due to him taking the initiative, this lets Vess 4-k into the space Carnor was previously occupying and barrel roll in directly behind him, leaving him dead to rights at range 1. Soontir predictably fly’s just past the shuttle, his boost enabling to just keep the corner of shuttles base in his arc. Soontir and Carnor manage to do exactly enough damage to kill the shuttle, but Vess and Dark Curse smash Carnor out of the gene pool with little difficutly.

I’m now in a good position in terms of remaining forces, but I am not in a good position to chase Soontir around. I spend a round or two trying to get guns to bear on him, but only manage a few pot shots which have no effect, whilst Soontir starts chipping away at whoever is unfortunate enough to be in arc. Not wanting to play his silly games, I turn tail with my entire remaining fleet and head for the far right corner. Soontir is expecting me to K-turn here with my ships so his pursuit is overly cautious. This lets me get some good distance between us the next turn before finally K-turning the turn after.

His second mistake this round (after taking initiative which effectively cost him Carnor in round 3) is flying directly after me again with Soontir. We trade some ineffective shots, but he is now in trouble. Directly ahead of him is an asteroid. A 2 or 3 forward will almost certainly land him squarely on it, and a 4 forward would be risky too and certainly involve him moving over the roid. My two tie fighters are either side of this asteroid, and with some gentle banks and barrel rolls, I am able to block Soontir’s escape around either side of the roid. Vess slowly rolls 2 forwards, finally ditching the stress he picked up around round 4 and putting Fel in arc whichever doom-laden route he chooses to take. He banks left, bumps into Curse who has his TL up on Soontir from previous rounds, fires at Vess and whiffs before Vess fires with TL and Focus, getting 4 hits against his 1 evade on 4 dice (stealth device), 1-shotting him and ending things reasonably early (this game lasted about 35 minutes).

A solid victory for me here. I managed to dictate the range bands well to counter Autothrusters and didn’t struggle at all to make damage stick when I got those Squints in arc. Taking initiative really cost him here, as did blindly flying into my trap with Soontir at the end. There was plenty of time on the clock for Fel to break off to the left and circle around, continuing to pick at me when opportunity arose (he only needed to kill Vess for a modified win) instead of simply following me into the corner and ending up with nowhere to run.

Win – 100-27

Game 3 – Imperials

My heart sank when round 3 pairings went up. I’d drawn Keith Wilson, current UK champ and No. 4 in the world, flying his infamous Tie Swarm. To be fair, I think mentally I had resigned myself to a loss before the game had even started which is incredibly poor form and certainly intimidation is something I may need to consider in competitive events moving forward. He ran;

Howlrunner w/ Adrenaline Rush - 19

Dark Curse – 16

Black Squadron Pilot w/ Draw their Fire – 15

2 x Obsidian Squad Pilot – 26

2 x Academy Pilot – 24

I won the roll for initiative and tried to create a dense asteroid field in his half of the table on my left. He predictably tried to spread them out. He set up on the right flank and I used a modified version of my standard deployment on the left flank, putting Vess and the Ties on the left of the shuttle.

I made a huge mistake on turn 1 which would go on to cost me dearly. I sent my Ties and Vess up the left flank whilst he sped down the right, barrel rolling to get into formation with the precision expected from a champ. My Shuttle banked left 1, straightening it up with the board edge. I really should have hard 2’d left and followed my Ties up the left flank as when turn 3 arrived I was stuck; His ties had come up the right hand side and were turning into the empty space in my half of the table. My Ties and Vess had done the same on the opposite side of the board, getting ready to enter the asteroid field I had created down there.

The Shuttle had an asteroid in front of it, it could either 1) bank left around the asteroid, knowing it would have to take a hard right, a right bank and probably another move before he got around the asteroid and had enemy Tie’s back in his sight. 2) Hard turn right, into the swarm, this turn. I deliberated for what felt a long time on this, and decided that if I went left and his Ties came 4 or 5 forward this turn, the Shuttle would die without ever firing a shot. In the end I decided to cut in and try and assassinate Howlrunner with Vader and cause some movement issues for the swarm before I died. His Ties only moved up slowly, and Howl was out of range of the shuttle. I fired on a Tie at range 1 with a TL instead who annoying evaded all damage, meaning Vader’s direct hit did not finish him off. I got peppered back and managed a fantastic zero evades leaving the shuttle on very few hull.

Next turn I tried to bank the shuttle in front of his Ties whilst my forces came through the ‘roids and into range. One of his Academies blocked the shuttle getting in front of the rest who again advanced slowly. I still couldn’t kill the injured Tie and the Shuttle went down. I managed to put a few more damage on 2 ties (1 damage to 1 and 2 to another) but annoyingly couldn’t kill any.

The next round saw the full brunt of the joust. I knew it was coming, and reasoned if I could pick off a couple of the injured Ties before they fired, and survive this round with Vess and Curse, I was in a great position to turn in behind him whilst he was flying directly at the rocks. Alas, it was not to be. Vess and Dark Curse couldn’t even deal a single damage between them to kill one injured Tie, let alone 2. Vess then proceeded to follow the shuttles example and rolled zero evades over 4 range 2 and 3 shots, which resulted in a disappointingly dead Vessery. As a consolation, my Academy did manage to kill one of his injured ties (the Obsidian on 1 health). The rest of the game saw me try to finish off one or both of the injured ties for MoV purposes but Keith is an absolute Pro and ensured I couldn’t manage any more kills before he finished off my Ties.

Wow, that was a real kicking. I mean a real kicking and my biggest competitive loss so far. I’d love to say whiffing on my evade dice with the Shuttle and Vess cost me this, but I really think I was losing this game after messing up with my Shuttle early on. A hard left on the first turn would have ensured my fleet hit his lines en-mass. He would therefore have been unable to concentrate on both Vess and the Shuttle individually, which would hopefully have allowed me to pick out Howl and a couple of Ties before Vess got stuck in doing his thing of dancing around and 1-shotting ties at range 3. Oh well, you live and learn. At least I have now had the pleasure of getting beat by both UK champions! (after losing to Craig Reed, 2013 UK champion in a Store Championship earlier this year) A dubious pleasure, but certainly an honour to have met, played and chatted X-wing with such high calibre players. I really do need to work on a better opening V’s swarms though. Seeing how it took Keith two rounds of manoeuvring to get his Ties into proper positions, I’m wondering If I’d have had better results bum-rushing him early and getting past before leading him round to the rocks. More practice required here.

Loss 13 – 100

Game 4 - Imperials

Commander Kenkirk w/ Ysanne Issard, Determination, Rebel Captive.

Captain Oicunn w/ Vader, Determination, Dauntless.

Most notably, there was no engine upgrade on either Deci. I can’t remember who had initiative for this one, but it didn’t really come into play either way. Here I knew if I could get Oicunn off the table early I could slowly plink away at Kenkirk from range without much threat of reprisal as he had no offensive upgrades.

I set up in my standard formation with the Shuttle and Vess on the right, but I put my Ties on the right of the Shuttle, giving me a much tighter cluster than normal (and similar to my set up last game vs Keith but on the right flank instead of the left). He set up both Deci’s on the right, opposite the Shuttle, with Oicunn out front and Kenkirk on the inside of Oicunn facing outwards at 45 degrees, clearly getting ready to bank in behind Oicunn. The ‘roids were reasonably loose cluster around the center.

Turn 1, I risked a 5 forward with Vess to try and get a cheeky round 1 shot on Oicunn. Oicunn only went two forward leaving me just out of range. The Shuttle hard 2’d, catching out the second player of the day and the ties burst forward 5 and 4, Curse keeping a little further back than the Academy.

Round 2, the Academy pulls a 3 forward, the shuttle banks left to clear it’s stress and TL’s Oiccun, who moves 2 straight again. Kenkirk wisely decides he’s not willing to joust me with Oicunn and tries to turn in past a ‘roid but parks right on top of it. Dark Curse moves up 3 and TL’s Oicunn as well, before Vess gently banks right 1, leaving Oicunn in range of all my guns without Kenkirk for support. I unload into Oicunn with TL’s galore and give him a solid kicking. I think Vader’s crit was a damaged sensor array. Oicunn fires close range at the Academy who takes one from the shot and an irrelevant crit from Vader.

Round 3, I debate sacrificing my Academy Tie by 1 hard turning in front of Dark Curse who Oicunn is clearly going to bump. I decide that it’s better to force him to shoot the Academy again to take him off the board and 5 straight over Oicunn instead whilst the shuttle reacquire’s his TL with Sensors then holds. Oicunn predictably rams Curse for one, who then 3-k’s behind him. Vess banks 1-right again and keeps Oicunn in arc whilst Kenkirk moves quickly off the asteroid and TL’s Vess. My entire squad minus the Academy beat down on Oicunn again who survives with 4 hull I believe. Between him and Kenkirk, they manage to bring the Shuttle into hull.

Round 4 and Oiccun moves 4 straight heading for the safety of the corner whilst Kenkirk mills in the middle. I 4-k Vess. Curse gives chase to Oicunn whilst the Academy swings around to start harassing Kenkirk, the Shuttle begins banking into the middle to keep Kenkirk honest. Unsurprisingly, Oicunn goes down and I take no damage back or maybe a shield of Vess. I think I take 1 shield of Kenkirk this round too as the Academy gets back into the fight.

In round 5 Curse and Vess join up with the Academy giving chase to Kenkirk who is still in the ‘roids in the middle, but heading away from me towards my left hand corner. I don’t remember what damage was done this turn, but not a lot happened.

The game then turns into exactly what I wanted; Me chasing Kenkirk and trading range 2-3 shots each turn with my ships, except the shuttle, who headed into his deployment area before turning left. I expected Kenkirk to bail for my left hand corner and turn up the board edge back towards his side. The Shuttle was there to intercept him in the left-corner at his end of the table and finish him off. This is exactly what happened, with Vess and the Ties chasing him and preventing him turning in too early. I lost the 1 hull Academy Pilot in the chase.

By the time he reached the corner he was on about 6 hull, had Curse at range 2, Vess at 3 and the Shuttle in front at range 3. Vess took his token and 3 hull off him, Curse put another damage on him, and Kenkirk went for the Shuttle in hopes of a lucky crit (Shuttle was on 4 hull I believe) He did nothing to the shuttle who then proceeded to blow him out the sky, not even needing Vader, to give me a comprehensive win by about round 11. Incidentally, Vess had around 4 or 5 stress tokens on him by this point from Rebel Captive. He really doesn’t care about actions if he can stay at range 3 and someone has a TL up on his pray.

Without engine on them, I find Deci’s easy to pin down and hammer on with this list, which is exactly what happened here. He shouldn’t have come for the initial joust which really cost him. Once Oicunn was out, Kenkirk with no offensive upgrades had no chance of getting through my high agility ships, as was proven by the ~3 shots it took him just to finish off my 1 hull Academy Tie.

Win – 100-12

So I’m 3-1 now with a respectable 547 MoV. That puts me on Table 7 and certainly still in the running’s for a top 16 finish to grab me some acrylics.

Game 5 - Imperials

RAC w/ VI, Ysanne Issard, Engine

Whisper w/ ACD, VI, Rebel Captive, FCS

A classic list which I’ve had mixed results against in the past (I’m 1-1 competitively against this list with a huge win and a massive loss). I know from my past experiences that I need to quickly eliminate the Phantom whilst I have Vess on the board otherwise I will struggle to produce enough firepower to overpower her defences as she dances around the shuttle.

Asteroids are again a reasonably tight cluster in his half of the board. I go standard deployment with the Shuttle on the right. Whisper goes on the right and RAC goes far left. He has initiative as he’s running 97 points but at PS 9 and 10 it’s completely irrelevant here.

Round 1, I (yet again) catch someone out with a hard 2 right from the Shuttle, as Whisper comes 4 forward and cloaks. My Ties bank to the right and barrel roll to ensure both can go straight 5 towards Whisper next round. Vess cruises forward with a 3 and RAC bombs up the left with a 4 straight followed by a boost, leaving him just out of range of sniping at one of my ties. I was hoping for a more cautious approach from him here to give me some free rounds on Whisper but it did not look like I would be afforded this luxury.

Round 2, Whisper Decloaks left, towards the right board edge, the Shuttle 1 banks left and TL’s Whisper. The Tie’s 5-forward, but unfortunately Dark Curse has to barrel roll out of Vess’ way so he can 1 bank towards Whisper without bumping. RAC two hard turns and boosts giving him a range 3 on my Ties. Whisper then 2 banks to her right and grabs an evade token. RAC and Whisper don’t manage anything this round other than Whisper getting her TL up on the Shuttle, and despite this good luck and Whisper having no focus, Dark Curse, Vess and the Shuttle can only manage to knock her shields down, the Shuttle and Vader claiming this damage after Vess’ TL’d, Focused 4 dice vs Whispers un-focused 4 dice + evade token whiffs completely. Mildly annoying.

Turn 3 and Whisper’s options are limited. She could decloak forward or left, but her actual move is likely to be blocked by my ships from there. If she goes right there’s a chance she might be able to 1 turn behind an asteroid there and barrel roll either far enough away or out of my arcs, but it’s risky as she won’t have a shot from there and could easily end up on the ‘roid. Her only safe move is to decloak right and bank left, which I figure is what he’ll go for. I move accordingly with everything except the Shuttle who trademark Sensor - TL’s and hits the breaks. Whisper moves as suspected and the Admiral is now bearing right down on me from behind. Whisper and RAC plow into the Shuttle and manage to get the 8 damage they needed on 7 dice to destroy it outright, Whisper dealing a direct hit in with her shot and the Shuttle getting no evades despite range bonuses from RAC’s shot. Vessery lands one damage on Whisper, Dark Curse whiffs but heroically the Academy Pilot steps up, rolling 3 hits at range 1 to Whispers 2 evades finishing her off.

Vessery K-turns, but I decide to turn the Ties normally, needing Curses TL up for Vess. Somehow I manage to bump Curse leaving her actionless (Or did I barrel roll to avoid a bump, I don’t recall), RAC turns away towards my board edge, boosting for better positioning next round. He then unloads into Curse at range 2, landing 2 hits and a crit, Curse only manages 1 evade and of course it’s another direct hit to 1-shot him off the board.

The rest of the game is foggy to me. I implement a similar plan to how I dealt with Kenkirk last game, but as well as arc dodging with engine, he’s also trying to set up range 1 shots whilst I am trying for Range 3’s so it’s not the same merry-go-round it was with Kenkirk in round 4. Try as I might, I cannot correctly guess his moves to get a successful block with the Academy, but I have chipped him down to 8 or so health for a shield off Vess and a hull off the Academy.

An incorrect guess sees me miss another block, and RAC gets a range 1 on Vess, doing 3 damage, dropping him to 2 health, and rudely blowing off his HLC to boot! I take some revenge and get him down to 4 hull. The next turn see’s the Academy go boom whilst Vess runs for cover. The last twenty minutes now goes incredibly slowly as we both very carefully plan our moves. I go major defensive, sacrificing shots to keep range 3/obstructed shots where possible and it works, keeping me out of range or having 4+ dice + Focus against his 3 mostly unmodified (boosting). I come in for another pass and take him down to 2 hull whilst he sticks a damaged engine crit on me, leaving me on 1 hull. We dance some more, Range 3 and ‘roids being the only thing keeping Vess alive, but meaning I’m not getting many shots in myself. The final turn see’s Vess at Range 3 through a ‘roid on RAC. He has no Focus, so if I can survive his 3 Dice TL’d shot with my 5 green + focus, there’s a not too farfetched chance I can land 3 hits and hope he blanks out on his 2 greens. If not, there’s no way to avoid a range 2 confrontation next turn which will likely see me dead before I can shoot. He rolls, spends his TL and rerolls for 3 hits. Typical. I take my five dice, and I’m looking for 3 pictures. Easy. Blank, Blank, Blank, Blank, Focus. **** YOU GREEN DICE!!!!

A really close game. I don’t think I played badly, especially in the second half of the game when I was without my Shuttle or Dark Curse. What really hurt me here was a series of unfortunate events; taking 11 damage from 10 dice in 2 turns to lose the Shuttle and Curse. If I’d of had those free TL’s for Vess for an extra turn or two, I’d have easily got those 2 more damage on the Deci before he finished me off. In a similar vain, that **** Phantom dodging everything without a focus token in the opening engagement was equally frustrating if not a little more expected. Thirdly, if RAC hadn’t rudely blown off my HLC, the 4 shots I did get after suffering that crit, mostly at range 3, would have likely accumulated the 2 extra damage needed from the extra 4 dice and less greens for RAC. And finally, that final roll from Vess just topped it all off. If just one of those 4 events would have gone my way I could have pulled this one out of the bag, but unfortunately it was not to be this time. I certainly wouldn’t have played it any differently if I went into it again. That’s not to take anything away from my opponent though; he flew fantastically despite losing Whisper to my trap. If he had even made just one mistake after that, it probably would have been enough to give me the edge I needed, but he was calm, collected and precise in his manoeuvres, always leaving himself two options the following turn and expertly avoiding the route I blocked each time. It certainly gave him an insight into how effective the Defender can be though! A thoroughly enjoyable nail-biter right to the end.

Loss – 42-100

So at 3-2 I’m now out of the running for the top 8, but my MoV is reasonable so the top 16 isn’t out of reach if I can pull another convincing win out the bag.

Game 6 – Imperials

I’m drawn against an opponent I played and lost to at the last regional (game 1). He was flying 3 Interceptors back then, which is what I really hoped to see after my big win earlier against that list. Alas, it was not to be as he pulled out;

RAC – Vader, Rebel Captive or Predator (can’t remember exactly sorry.)

3 x Scimitar Squadron Pilot – 48

First thought; Holy crap that’s a lot’a HP’s! I collect myself and realise this is the third Deci in a row. No engine on this sucker again though so I again fancy my chances. Looking at the amount of hull and shields he has on the table, I don’t fancy my chances of getting a good MoV like I need to ensure a top 16 finish as it’s unlikely I can table him. I win the roll off for initiative and give it to him.

Asteroids are loosely clustered in his half of the board for the most part. I go standard deployment with the Shuttle on the right. He puts his Deci on my far right and the 3 bombers line up next to it. This isn’t great for me as my Ties will have to fly right across his Bomber line to engage the Deci, but I decide to stick to my normal plan and focus that Deci down as fast as possible.

Turn 1, the Shuttle hard 2’s right to yet another ‘I didn’t see that coming!’ comment. At this stage I’m beginning to wonder why this is catching so many people out. It’s the whole point of deploying the Shuttle this way. I guess the art of Shuttle flying is lost on many nowadays. RAC foolishly 4 forwards, as Vess 3 forwards, leaving them barely out of range but the Deci nowhere to hide next turn. The Ties bank in and barrel roll to avoid asteroids when they 5-straight next round. The Bombers 3-forward in their line.

Round 2, and as normal the shuttle 1-banks and TL’s RAC, Vess 1 Banks and Focuses and the Ties 5 forward. RAC realises the error of his ways and goes 1 forward but it’s too late; everyone is in range. Luckily for me, the Bombers bank left towards the Shuttle, meaning the Ties are out of their arcs for the most part despite being really close. He unloads into the Shuttle, but manages to roll 2 blanks three times with his bombers, and RAC dinks a shield or two off him. I fire everything into RAC and he’s dropping shields and hull faster than a blind, one-armed juggler.

Next turn the Shuttle Sensor TL’s and holds, leaving RAC nowhere to go, the Academy banks left, blocking the bombers who all conga into each other from the block. I stupidly bump Curse (I knew I was going to block him, but simply didn’t consider the implications on Curse’s final move) into a bomber, leaving two of them with R1 shots on him. Vess cruises gently forward. I unload into RAC again who goes down to 2 hull. The Bombers suddenly remember how to aim and waste Curse between them, and he gets the Shuttle into hull with RAC.

Round 4 and RAC is able to 4 straight over the Shuttle with little I can do about it. I 4-k with Vess, but RAC is just out of arc in the end. I sharp turn with my Tie, aiming to cause more problems for the Bombers, and the Shuttle 1 banks in towards the bombers. As he was moving before the Shuttle with his Bombers he couldn’t 5-k so the bomber formation was disrupted and none of them ended up with shots. The Shuttle and Vess manage to stick 4 damage on a Bomber, including a Blinded Pilot crit. RAC continues dishing the pain on the Shuttle, who is on a hull or two left now.

Round 5 and RAC turns around the ‘roid in my bottom right corner, but Vess and the Academy have his number and both move into good positions to destroy him this turn. The Bombers still don’t have K’s available due to the positioning of various ships and ‘roids, and so end up having to fly defensively again, with the damaged one going over a ‘roid but taking no further damage. RAC knows his days are numbered and so decides to trigger Vader after shooting Vess and missing, taking Vess’ first shield with him as he explodes under the uncontrollable power of the Dark Side. The Shuttle, Vess and Academy have to take shots of opportunity at whatever is left in sight, doing another damage to the now severely damaged bomber and a couple to another.

The game descends into a scrappy dogfight where the Defenders superior maneuverability means the Bombers can rarely target him and the Academy keeps blocking his bombers causing more problems. His injured Bomber goes down fairly quickly, as does my Shuttle as it tries to flee the combat zone for the safety of his deployment zone. His two remaining bombers desperately try to pin Vess down, but he’s far too nimble and happily keeps 1-banking as he tries too hard to block my 4-k’s. Utilizing barrel roll to stay out of arc, Vess whittles them away until there is nothing left with just over 15 mins left on the clock.

Wow, 34 hull and shields down in under hour. I’m once again impressed with how much of a beast Vess is at dealing damage. Man of the match is yet again the Academy though who’s blocking antics and fantastic dodging caused the bombers a nightmare in the end-game.

Win – 100 – 45

So 4 -2 with a MoV of 744 is an improvement on my last Regional, but I will be honest and say I am disappointed that I have missed out on the cut. I would never have expected to beat Keith’s Tie Swarm, but I feel I should have won out vs the Deci/Phantom list. I feel that the list I’m flying is good enough to make it to the top tables, but my piloting certainly needs to improve if I am to get sufficient efficiency out of the list to reliably qualify at these premier events. I still think big ship builds are what this list enjoys facing and thankfully there are plenty of them knocking about at the moment.

Unfortunately I missed out on Nationals so save a few small spring kit events this looks like the end of my Tournament season for this year. I’m going to regard it as a fairly successful first season on the circuit. Despite my inexperience, and facing many (common) builds for the first time ever on the tourney table against competent players, I’ve managed to get 8 wins out of twelve over my two Regional events and finish 3^rd in a store championship, and all with the humble Defender at the helm. Whilst I know people will still knock the Defender because I haven’t broke the all-important top 8 with it, hopefully those players in a similar position to me who are reasonable new to the game (and competitive gaming in general) will take from this report that you absolutely can fly a Defender in a competitive event and still have a fighting chance in every match up. Providing you have a game plan and you stick to it mind!

I spent a lot of time practicing my opening moves whilst developing this list. This allowed me to know where to place ‘roids vs certain builds, and also allowed me to develop a starting position where it wouldn’t matter where higher PS pilots deployed as I could ensure I could engage them by turn 2/3 with my entire fleet. I would recommend this to anyone preparing for a tournament. Play out the first 3/4 turns vs a variety of different builds. Set your manoeuvres and pick the best manoeuvres for the ‘enemy’ list each time it is their chance to activate. By doing this, you can see where they can get to early on based on their starting position, and you can (like I did) develop a strategy that allows you to counter any deployment via your opening moves rather than through your own deployment, effectively neutering the advantage higher PS pilots get by deploying after you.

So we’re all stood around eagerly awaiting final Swiss standings, 75 through 32 whizz by quickly, with people getting their Boba alt art cards, and 65 – 74 getting a £5 store credit voucher (nice of the store, no one missed out on a prize) and 75^th got a Jar-jar Binks toy. Amazing booby prize haha. I’m guessing I’ve finished about 20^th, but 20^th rolls by and I’ve still not been called, then 19^th and 18^th go by too. Could it be, could I have just snuck into the top sixteen and gotten myself some sexy shield token acrylics? Alas no, as I’m called as 17^th to an audible ‘ooooooohhhh’ from the crowd. Oh well, 17^th is respectable enough for me and I still get a nice £10 store credit voucher which swiftly turns into my first Bomber, in anticipation of Wave 7. As it turns out I was a measly six MoV off 16^th and eleven MoV off 15^th. Half a ruddy Tie fighter off of my goal of hitting the acrylics. I blame you Keith Wilson, you should have just let me have that limping Tie!!!

All in all a great day of X-wing. Every opponent was graceful, polite and enjoyable to play against meaning I’m still yet to encounter ‘that guy’ in competitive X-wing, which is a better feeling than having placed reasonably. I had an absolute blast flying the crap out of my Defender, and would have loved to have seen another one on the tables (A Defender-off match was what I was hoping for) but I was the only one representing the Defender, yet again. I struggle to understand why when every opponent (except Keith who rolled over him with the ease of a steamroller crushing a grape) was thoroughly impressed with the destruction Vess wrought against them and how tricky he was to destroy. If nothing else, hopefully one of my opponents will be inspired to dust off their Defender models and realise the expansion came with something other than a Predator card.

Anyway, thanks for reading & I hope you enjoyed the report. A big thanks to all my opponents for making such an enjoyable day, and a huge shout out to BeanieGames in Stockton for running the event smoothly and efficiently, and getting his Darkness Lord Vader on board to hand the prizes at the end was the perfect ending to a great day!

Next time Gadget, next time...

Thanks guys for reading, and I apologise for the epic length of the write-up!

Nice write-up. The Jar-Jar Binks toy for last should be standard for FFG regionals going forward.

Nice write-up. The Jar-Jar Binks toy for last should be standard for FFG regionals going forward.

Agreed, Jar-Jar should be part of all regional prize kits from this day forth!

Glad you enjoyed the write up, cheers for sticking with it!