I attended my first regionals in Vancouver today. It was a 2 day event with 5 Round Swiss on Saturday and a top 16 cut on Sunday with 75min rounds. They also held a separate tournament on Sunday for the people that did not make the top 16 cut.

It was a really amazing experience and tournament. Everyone was super friendly, the TO’s were great, the venue was awesome. We had around 33 players in the tournament, with a few coming from south of the border. I had met quite a few of the guys/girls from previous local tournaments.

The venue was a massive meeting room that was part of a new Casino/Hotel. You couldn’t ask for better. Clean, tons of space, airconditioning, access to alcohol/food and washrooms. Other miniatures games were also being played in the same room.

My list was:

Jake with PTL, VI, Test Pilot, Proton Rockets, and Autothrusters
Han with Predator, C3PO, Luke, Engine, MF
For a total of 97pts

Swiss

Round 1

Round 1 was versus Kevin with his Boba (VI + Navigator + EU + ID), Guri (Pred + Advanced Sensors + ID + AT + Title) and Pirate. Awesome paint job on the Firespray! Very intimidating. He set up Guri and the pirate in the middle of the board, while I set my ships in one corner. He then set Boba to Joust with Han and Jake. I went for Boba but he proved hard to kill. Since he was PS10 it would be difficult and risky trying to Procket him. I got him down to 2 hull with time running down (we started the first round a little late due to pairings so the 75min round was closer to 60). At this point, with Boba way out of reach, I knew I needed to kill something so I switched to the Pirate. Killed him and a couple rounds later time was called. Han left with 1 shield and Jake shieldless. Got the win but MOV is not so good.

Round 2

Round 2 was versus Nicholas and his 58 Dash and Jake (Outmaneuver + PTL + Assault Missile + Autothruster + Title). I looked at his list and then spent about 60mins of this game thinking he had Proton Rockets on Jake…I was trying to stay out of Range 1 of his Jake most of the game…until he finally got into Range 1 and threw only 3 red dice. I went for Dash first. I did a pretty good job at denying Dash his shots as much as possible, getting into Range 1 as well as having my opponent land on the asteroids denying him the shot. I ended up killing Jake first. Time was called and Dash was left with 1 hull…needed another round. I had both ships left. Another win but MOV is not improving much.

Round 3

Round 3 was versus Jon and his Soontir (PTL + Stealth + Autothrusters + Title), Turr (VI + Autothrusters), Bounty Hunter (Recon Spec + Tactical Jammer). I gave him initiative. He set up in one corner. I had Han joust and Jake start in the centre of the board. Round 2 looked like in the above picture. He turned and tucked the interceptors right behind the Bounty Hunter wasting actions to reposition. I set Han’s dial to 4F. 4F had me in arc of the BH so I boosted out of it. This put me into a Range 1 of a tokenless soontir (focus used for attack) with activated autothrusters or a focused Turr without autothrusters (due to having arc on him). I decided to go for Soontir. It paid off as I did 2 damage. From this point Soontir was on the Run and the engineless bounty hunter was severely out of position. Turr went down first, then soontir, then the Bounty hunter. I had both ships left. Win with full MOV.

Round 4

Round 4 was versus Jonas with his Tarn (R7 + Hull) and 6 Bandit Swarm. We set up to Joust. He slow rolls the whole formation as I turn Han away. The first few rounds I am only getting shots on Tarn as everyone else is out of range. I ended up getting him to 2 Hull. At that point I switched to the Zs as I needed to start taking ships off the board. It was a slow process with taking a shield here and there. Zs are actually quite durable with a focus. Jake one shotted a Z with a procket. His full concentration was on Han. Slowly and methodically he herded Han into a trap on the other side of the board. At that point I took down 3 Zs and made a key maneuver choice that he guessed wrong and put most of his ships out of position. Time was called. I believe I still had shields on both ships left. Win 136 MOV.

Round 5

Round 5 was at the top table versus Calen and his Corran (PTL + FCS + R2D2 +EU), 2 Autoblaster Golds, Bandit. I knew this would be a hard match up. The only reliable way of taking out Corran Horn would be to have a Range 1 shot with Han and Jake attack with his Procket. Since this was a timed round I thought about trying to take out his Z and Ys to win on points…We set up to Joust and in round 1 his Corran pulls a 5F and boost. Han and Corran are in Range 3 of each other. I ended up taking down 2 of his shields. Meanwhile Jake started near the centre of the board and was in the perfect position to get into range 1 of Corran next round. At this point I decide to deviate from my plan and go for Corran as I knew he would do a green to regen his shield. I get Han within range 1 and did a 3 Turn with Jake towards the outside of the board where all the action is happening. I focus and try to boost forward into range 1 of Corran but the Z blocked the boost by a millimeter. So I had to barrel roll then boost into range…no target lock…During combat Han takes out 1 shield on Corran and Jake rolls 3 hits on the Procket shot taking 1 shield from Corran…Corran left with 2 hull and 2 Range 1 shots on Han after the double tap…not good. In the same round I lost Jake with focus to a range 1 shot from a Z and 2 range 2 shots from the Ys. Han took a structural damage crit and went down pretty fast after that. I only killed the Z in the end. Loss and only got 12 MOV. I made it into the top 16 seeded 6th with the lowest 4-1 MOV.

Top 16!

Top 16 match was against Thomas and his Wedge (Pred), Wes (VI), Ten (Mangler, Advanced Sensors). I gave him initiative. I set up Han to Joust and Jake in the middle. He moved slowly trying to see where Han would go. I ended up getting Jake behind his ships and unloading a TL+F Procket into a 4HP Wedge. He did not survive. The next few rounds he chased Han, while I tried to kill Wes. I got him down to 1 hull at one point. He had no focus token but Han could not finish him off with Pred and Luke rerolls giving him one more round with a key range 1 F+TL shot. At this point Han finally kills Wes but has taken a Sensor Array crit and has ~4 hull left versus a full health Ten. Time is running out and Han was in serious danger of getting killed. Ten was getting some pretty hot green rolls taking no damage one turn (natural double evade, then double evade again versus the luke attack). After picking a key maneuver and my opponent guessing wrong I ended up killing Ten with 1 hull left on Han and a healthy Jake. Win.

Quarterfinals

My quarterfinals match was against Jonas (Tarn + Z Swarm – Round 4 opponent). He set his ships up in a similar formation as the first game, but he placed Tarn on the outside this time. I had Han Joust and Jake on the opposite corner. Jonas changed up his tactic by turning away from Han in the first round. He then turned/K-turned back towards Han. I turned Han away and tried to minimize shots on him as much as possible. But he slowly herded Han into one side of the board. Jake one shotted a Z with a Procket and Han very SLOWLY chipped away at the other Zs. The game ended on time after I destroyed 3 Zs. Han and Jake were still on the board. Win.

Semifinals

My semifinal match was versus Terrance (Alberta Regional Champ) who brought his Whisper (VI, Sensor Jammer, Recon Spec, ACD) and Kath (VI, Engine, Rebel Captive, Mangler, Ion Pulse, Flechette). I gave him initiative. We set up Han and Whisper in the middle while Jake and Kath were in opposite corners. During Round 2 I got Jake into a position to be able to get a TL+F Procket shot on Kath but would be facing a range 1 shot from Kath and range 2 from Whisper. I decide to sacrifice Jake and go for it. Jake is killed in the exchange but I saved my tokens for the Procket shot. Kath is down to 4 hull at this point and also has the blinded pilot crit. Han minimizes the shots coming in from whisper as he hunts down Kath. Kath dies and pretty quickly after that Whisper goes down to a Range 1 shot from Han. This was the quickest game I had this tournament. Win.

Finals!

I finally get my rematch against Calen. This time it matters . No time limit final round. My confidence was pretty low going in. My plan was to try and destroy the support as much as possible (and saving Prockets) before going for Corran. I also set up the Target Lock on Corran with Jake early in the game so that it was ready for the Prockets. This time Han turned away from his formation. I was not doing damage fast enough with Han (1 or 2 per round against a Y). Things were starting to look hopeless again. Han took a weapon malfunction and had a few Hull left. I finally had my chance to go for Corran. Han had a range 1 shot (with Weapon Malfunction) and Jake could boost into range 1 and get his F+TL Prockets off. Han rolls 2 hits, Corran rolls a natural 3 evades. Han attacks again with Luke and gets 3 hits, Corran whiffs on the roll, spending his evade for 2 damage. Jake gets his 5 hits with the Procket, Corran does not get the natural 3 evades he needed to survive. Jake took some heavy fire that round to get the Procket off but survived with 1 hull left. This was a big turning point in the game. Now it was Han with 1 hull and weapon malfunction and Jake with 1 Hull left versus a full health Y and Z. At this point I disengaged Han to flip the crit and then slowly and carefully whittled away at the Z and Y with both ships. The Y took a Stunned Pilot Crit and with one hull left suicide into Han as there was no chance for him to do any damage to my ships.

After about a 2 hour final game I was the BC Regional Champion!

Congrats on the win BMF! Interesting that I just started seeing this list this past weekend at a local tournament taken by 2 people independently. Looks like you all are onto something!

Congrats! had a great time flying against you.

Congrats on the win! You handed me my only two losses of the day, but it was an immense pleasure playing against you. I think you can see how perplexed I was by the expression on my face in your quarterfinal pic, lol. I enjoyed our games very much, even though they were very tough for me.

This what happened after I got eliminated: http://i.imgur.com/A8unFcY.jpg

Anyways, the organizers are already trying to work out a deal for the space next year, so we hope to get another regional and have you defend your title.

Congrats again on the win Patryk! I enjoyed Han and Boba dancing around one another in that first game. **** pirates surrendering the easy MoV.... Untrustworthy, treacherous lot.

Congrats on the win! I never faced your list, but I flew against a few of your competition. I had a lot of fun facing Jon's Bounty Hunter / Soontir / Turr in the first match of swiss. I had a range one shot on Soontir, but I didn't manage to crack the stealth device, so our game went to time. I'd killed the bounty hunter, but he killed 11 points more than I.

It was a very good tournament, my first regionals, and I will definitely be coming back next year. Everyone was a lot of fun, and the diversity of lists was incredible. I was dreading a whole bunch of tables with Chiraneau / Fel and Brobots, but there was a huge mix of lists.

That Punisher Boba Fett is killer!

Great report mate and well done!

I was very close to running that exact Han+Jake squad at our last Regional but I found it a terrible match up against Dash+Corran (especially VI Corran) so I decided against it.

It's a highly enjoyable squad to play though with mostly close timed games due to the low damage output but Jake is a lot of fun and Han is just plain nasty!

Nice to see the community is really good. This is one of the reasons I keep coming back to play xwing. Fly casual

Corran is a hard match up. The only reliable way of taking him off the board is to set up the TL+F Procket along with Range 1 Han shot. You only get one chance...better make it count.

VI Corran would be almost impossible to Procket unless he gets blocked or makes a serious maneuver error. You would just have to go for Dash, leave Corran and win on time...and pray that you don't meet them in the untimed finals.

My Swiss Round 5 match and the Finals were REALLY tough matches. Han can't get through the Y-Wings quick enough (High HP, Low Agility) to open up the board, generally doing 1 and sometimes 2 damage. It's risky going after Corran with the Autoblaster Y-Wings around. Calen played a top notch game both times and never gave me any breathing room and kept an extreme pressure on both ships. It's not easy trying to Procket a ship with 2 Autoblaster Y-Wings playing bodyguards.

In both matches I had a Range 1 shot on Corran with Jake and Han. In the Swiss match I couldn't get the TL. The dice went Calen's way the first time with Jake getting wiped off the board after the Procket shot and Corran still at 2 hull. In the Finals I set up the TL way in advance and when I got my chance the dice went my way erasing Corran and Jake survived with 1 hull. In the end I only had 1 hull on both Han and Jake...it was a close and intense Final match.

As far as I'm concerned me and Calen were both tied for first...we were each others only losses.

Congratulations and thank you for the well written report.

Congratulations!

I have one question,

My semifinal match was versus Terrance (Alberta Regional Champ) who brought his Whisper (VI, Sensor Jammer, Recon Spec, ACD) and Kath (VI, Engine, Rebel Captive, Mangler, Ion Pulse, Flechette). I gave him initiative.

Why not take initiative (when your primary target was Kath) and simply dice Whisper off the board with Han over 2-3 rounds - before it could cloak?

Congratulations!

I have one question,

My semifinal match was versus Terrance (Alberta Regional Champ) who brought his Whisper (VI, Sensor Jammer, Recon Spec, ACD) and Kath (VI, Engine, Rebel Captive, Mangler, Ion Pulse, Flechette). I gave him initiative.

Why not take initiative (when your primary target was Kath) and simply dice Whisper off the board with Han over 2-3 rounds - before it could cloak?

Prior to the match I did debate whether to give or take initiative. It wasn't an easy decision, there is pros and cons for both sides. I gave it away for a couple reasons:

1) I was confident Han (Pred + Luke) could get through Whisper's Greens. It only took me 2-3 shots to take him down.

2) Prockets would be risky and hard to get off if Jake moved first VS engine Kath and Whisper.

3) I didn't want engine Kath chasing and stressing me.

4) I was confident I could arc dodge. Whisper would have to guess where I was going and might be left with no shot and no cloak.

In a rematch I would give initiative away again.

Great report and congrats to your great perfomance

Did you test the list earlier? Would be interesting how it came together and the thought process behind it. E.g. why taking Jake instead of the usual 3 Z-95 for example.

Also, how does this list play against double Agressor and Stress? Looks like it could get a bit of trouble there, would be great if you could share your thoughts here. The RAC & Soontir Match looks favourable though ... I guess?

Great report and congrats to your great perfomance

Did you test the list earlier? Would be interesting how it came together and the thought process behind it. E.g. why taking Jake instead of the usual 3 Z-95 for example.

Also, how does this list play against double Agressor and Stress? Looks like it could get a bit of trouble there, would be great if you could share your thoughts here. The RAC & Soontir Match looks favourable though ... I guess?

A couple weeks ago I participated in a small Spring Kit Tourney. I thought it was fitting to take Tycho (PTL, DD, EI, Prockets). I ended up pairing him with Han (Pred, Gunner, EU, MF, C3PO). I faced R1-4BZ, R2-Soontir/Brath/Curse, R3-4BZ and ended up winning the tournament going 3-0 and not taking a single damage card. Going in I wasn't to confident in the A-Wing/YT pairing but I was convinced afterward. One thing I noticed was that Tycho's PS8 and lack of autothrusters might be a problem in the current meta. I decided to try out Jake instead. He was much cheaper, freed up an EPT/Mod slot but still capable of 3 actions and had the barrel roll. I could use VI instead of DD and Autothrusters instead of EI. This let me beef up Han even more and gave me a 97pt bid (I always get the choice of initiative) so I could go PS9 hunting. This made Prockets on Jake much more reliable. Overall, Jake moves very similar to Soontir but I feel is much harder to play because you are constantly trying to get within Range 1 to get your damage up, can't turtle as well, and have to choose between Stealth/Autothrusters. Much more risk playing the A-wing. The reason why I didn't take 3Zs is because I have already won a tournament with that list and the A-Wings are much more fun to play.

Prior to the Regional I tested the list about 5 times on Vassal. I knew the hardest match ups would be against a Corran list and a Brobot list but I knew I could still win if I played well (good asteroid cluster) and the dice were average. A TL+F Procket can really swing the game in your direction pretty fast. Stress lists didn't worry me too much. I had two fast maneuverable ships that could stay out of range 2 well. Han could also take the rebel captive stress instead of Jake since both are the same PS.

Checking List Juggler, there was an exact Han+Jake squad that won the 23 person Swiss Regional about a month ago. They beat a Brobot list and a Dash + VI Corran list. It would be nice to have a report of that regional.