Here's my diary of the amazing ride at the Chicagoland Regionals this weekend. Hope you enjoy!

(also on Team Covenant)

http://teamcovenant.com/kryzak/2015/07/26/chicagoland-regionals-what-a-ride/

Holy crap! It’s still sinking in right now that I just won the Chicagoland Regionals! What a crazy fun day, reconnecting with friends I met at last year’s Worlds, playing at a great store (Pastimes), and having Ron and Andrea run a perfect tournament that was super smooth and with minimal down time. Even with that, it still went from 10am to 1am (15 hours) of nearly non stop playing (besides 30 min for lunch and 30 min for dinner). Quite exhausting, but thanks to some physical conditioning, I didn’t really feel that tired until the middle of the final match (more on that later).

First a brief analysis on how I came to this popular list with a twist (because I could not bring myself to fly 3 Z’s):

As for the list, I played around with various loadouts of Han and the YT2400 over the store champs season and had good success with it. I won a store championship with:

Han (Predator, C3PO, R2D2, MF, Engine)

Eaden (HLC)

After that, I felt that the HLC was a bit wasted on Eaden since he usually is BR for positioning/blocking, or using his focus on defense, so it’s very rare that I can get 4 hits with the HLC. Plus, with the release of Scum, autothrusters becamse a huge thing, a Han without a gunner was just not going to cut it against the Soontir, Jake, and IGs out there. Thus for our local SF Bay Area Elite Eight tournament, I flew:

Han (LW, C3PO, Gunner, MF, Engine)

Eaden (Mangler, Anti pursuit laser, intel agent)

Through some good flying and lucky dice, I was able to win that but felt that LW didn’t trigger enough for Han while Eaden was alive, and it was hard to get the aces to bump enough to make APL worth it (especially since it cost 2 points and is only 50% effective).

Getting ready for Regionals, I played around with my version of the Boba/IG-B list a little bit (with autoblaster cannon). It was effective, but the IG still dies too fast the moment he doesn’t have a focus token. So finally I caved and went back to Fat Han. All this time, going through different combinations of Han and Eaden, my “list whisperer”, Kleintz/Silver suggested I use Chewbacca as crew to solve the issue of Eaden dying early all the time (I am TERRIBLE at rolling agility dice, as the YT2400 might as well have been a 0 agi ship). That idea worked like a MIRACLE when I used it, keeping Eaden alive 1-2 turns longer than he should (sometimes longer), and thus presenting a tough choice for my opponents on whether to shoot a ship with a couple hull left, or deal with the dangerous Han that’s lingering around. I went with Determination since I’ve gotten “Injured Pilot” or “Damaged Cockpit” too many times for my comfort; plus I couldn’t figure out a way to get 1 more point in without dropping MF title (which would be a bad idea).

With that, I took this list to my first ever regionals in Sacramento.

Han (Determination, C3PO, Gunner, MF, Engine)

Eaden (Mangler, Chewbacca)

After a very disappointing showing at the Sacramento Regionals where I finished 3-3, I really looked back at the Han/Eaden list I was flying. I took notes on how many times Determination came into effect, how many times Eaden shot with the Mangler, used his stress ability, how many times I wish I had predator, and how much longer did Chewbacca keep Eaden alive. The result was that determination only came into play 2x in 5 games, so that’s out the door. Chewbacca is a keeper as it saved Eaden from a very bad crit or two every time. Mangler was a must have since that threat scares the heck out of high hull ships. But Eaden’s ability, while amazing and discourages K-turning or PTL, has the problem that he’s usually shooting it at a high agi ship with tokens, thus unless Han was able to strip tokens from the same ship, Eaden’s attacks won’t really get through with that extra dice. I really didn’t want to give up Eaden, but unless I can convince FFG to let me play with a 102 point list, I had to drop him down to WSF so I can take Predator on Han.

After testing out this final list for 2 weeks, I was quite satisfied with it. WSF’s PS2 means that if I win the initiative, I can use him as a blocker for PS2 swarms. It does hurt him more with predator around, but Chewbacca mitigates it somewhat. And now, Han is at full offense power (if I could find 2 more points for Luke instead of gunner, I would) and WSF does strong damage out the front and a good backup as a 2-attack turret.

So in the end, I brought:

Han (Preadtor, C3PO, Gunner, MF, Engine)

Wild Space Fringer (Mangler, Chewbacca)

Waking up around 6am Pacific Time was a bit tough, but I heard many people woke up even earlier to drive from other states, so I got nothing to complain about. It was fun to see and catch up with old friends from Worlds, Pasquale, Howard, James S., Michael M., and of course the TO Ron and Andrea. The store was big, it was air conditioned, and pairings went very smoothly (never did we have to re-pair or have a major score mistake). Off we go to the first round!

Round 1 – Rob Ludwin

2xBlue Squadron

Green Squadron (Chardaan)

Keyan (HLC, PtL)

Ron was a cool guy that set the stage for a fun and casual day. Keyan was enemy number 1 here, but he deployed on the other side of WSF (which I put in the middle) so I put Han on the opposite side, hopeing to flank the trio of B’s. He charged the Green forward at me fast, so I took a few pot shots at it to scare it away. Then I sent the WSF at Keyan when Han got to the flanking position, and Keyan got at most 2 shots off with the HLC before he died. The green died soon after, and the rest were just mop up for my 2 ships due to their low agility and relative easy in outmaneuvering B-Wings. Chewie did his first heroic save of a Damaged Engine and kept the WSF healthy.

Result: Win 100-0, 1-0, 200 MoV

Round 2 – Brandon Prokos

Chiraneau (Vader, Gunner, VI, EU)

Whisper (Tactician, FCS, VI, ACD)

Uh oh, I haven’t seen a Chiraneau Whisper list since the phantom nerf, so I was definitely a little worried about the firepower that can overpower Han’s defense. The best news is that there’s no rebel captive on Chiraneau, but I had to be careful of Whisper’s tactician. My memory of this game is a little fuzzy, but I believe I put WSF in the middle and Han on one side (I chose to have initiative), and he put Whisper on the other side and Chiraneau facing Han. I started off going after Chiraneau, but then had to start dealing with Whisper. Even though I was shooting Whisper with 2 agi, a few bad rolls with attack and the evade token on Whisper kept her alive long enough to do massive damage on Han (including a 5 hit/crit round). Finally, I caught a break with green dice fail on Whisper (from the WSF’s Mangler no less) and killed Whisper. Han was near death at that point and Chiraneau finished him off with a Vader crit. But Chiraneau at that point had 1-2 hull left and WSF sealed the deal with some delicious mangoes.

Result: Win 100-62, 2-0, 338 MoV

Round 3 – Howard Thomas

Airen Cracken (VI)

2xWild Space Fringer (HLC, Recon)

We were lamenting having to play each other so early, as he’s one of the guys I came all the way to Chicago to see. But looking next to us, with Tyler playing James S and a few other good friends playing each other, we decided that it was the round of all friends paired against each other. The other part is I’ve been giving Howard tips on how to fly WSF (it was his first day flying this list that he came up with the night before), so I guess I gave away all my secrets, doh! Since I won the toss, I took initiative so I can try to block his WSF with mine. I placed my WSF on the side, and he put both of his in the middle, so I put Han on the other side of my WSF. The initial approach was cautious on both sides, but then I charged my WSF into the midst to block one of them and be at R1 of another so as to take a regular 3-attack hit rather than the HLC. One HLC hit Han for 3 damage (4 hits and I didn’t take an evade action), but after that Han was able to get out of the HLC arc for a while. Airen was killed by R1 shots by my WSF and Han from afar, and after that, my WSF was just preventing his WSFs from chasing Han and getting both shots on Han. There was another turn where he had both HLC on Han, but luck has it that when he took TL, he rolled mostly eyeballs and rolled blanks when he had double focus. I lucked out there. I was able to kill one WSF after an unsuccessful block which even I thought would have been successful, thus leaving the WSF at them mercy of Han at R1 (read: no mercy at all). The 2 ^nd one fell after a few turns to 2 ships shooting at it.

Result: Win, 100-0, 3-0, 538 MoV

Round 4 – Nate Morris

Dash (LW, Outrider, Mangler, Recon)

Corran (PtL, FCS, R2D2, EU)

Uh oh, Dash/Corran is generally a big counter to any Fat Han list, so I thought my winning streak would end here. I put WSF in the middle and Han on the opposite side of Corran (across from Dash). Initially I took shots on Dash and only did 1 shield on him while he took 2 shields off Han with a good attack (I didn’t take an evade at that point). Then Corran came in and I fired both Han and WSF at him, taking him down to no shields. At that point, I was unfortunately too far with Han and the WSF would overshoot Corran with no way of turning back in time. I even turned my Han onto a debris field to try to shoot at Corran again before he recharged his shields, but with the engine and PTL, he was out of my arc for 3 turns while he recharged. Thus, I turned my focus on Dash again and got him down to a few damage on hull. When Corran turned back, I weathered a double tap on Han and dealt corran a few more shield damage. Once Corran started to run again, I quickly finished off Dash with the combined force of WSF and Han. Those mangoes from my WSF really did a lot of work here with the crits on Dash. After that, it was just my 2 ships chasing Corran around the board for 20 minutes, never able to do any damage to hull since he can move so fast and recharge. We ended on time with Corran still alive. Great game and super fun and friendly guy to play against!

Result: Win, 50-0, 4-0, 688 MoV

Round 5 – Nick Ruivo

Boba (VI, EU, Tactician, Proton Bomb)

IG-88B (VI, HLC, FCS, AT, Dampners)

Wow, I’m not sure how I got to the 4-0 table, as this is already better than my Sacramento showing. Then I see Sable’s list across from me, and a list I *almost* brought to Regionals. So the good news is that I know the list VERY well. The bad news is that I know the power of the list and how much it can hurt. I set my WSF in the middle as usual, and Nick set up his IG on one side and Boba on the other, while my Han is set up facing the IG. IG flies towards the middle between 2 rocks, and Boba tries to flank. I fly my WSF to point at the IG while Han flies into the middle to point at the same time. A few shots happen and I take only a shield or two off the IG. The whole time WSF is blocking either Boba or IG, and I wasn’t letting IG get a shot on Han, even though Boba took a few shields off Han easily. In a key turn, I was able to block Boba between 2 rocks for 3 turns with my WSF, while Han and WSF both had a front arc shot on the IG when he got stressed. Some green dice fail and good red dice and the IG was dead. With that, it was just a matter of time for Han and WSF to finish off Boba. He did drop the proton bomb on a full health WSF, and since the damage wasn’t bad, I chose to not sacrifice Chewie this time. Yay!

Result: Win, 100-0, 888 MoV (lucky 8’s!)

Round 6 – Mike McFarlin

Soontir (PTL, AT, RG Title, Targeting Computer)

Whisper (VI, FCS, Intel, ACD)

OGP (Vader)

WOW! I’m 5-0 at this point and leading the swiss rankings. I had to be careful since if I get tabled, I *could* be one of the 5-1’s who don’t make the top 8 cut due to the 90+ person field. And guess what, since there were 3 undefeated guys and this is the new FFG random pairings within the same tournament score, I got paired down to the 4-1s randomly and have to play another friend from Worlds and a great player that dealt me a loss there last year. I didn’t like the fact that if he beats me, I might be out of top 8, and if I beat him, he’s definitely out of top 8. Plus, this list is brutal with Soontir having a targeting computer instead of stealth device (which is the way I prefer to fly my Soontir). The tough choice for him is that he has to either choose to move first for Whisper’s sake, or move last for Soontir’s. He chose to move first so Whisper can cloak before Han shoots at her. I put myself on the opposite side of the doomshuttle for obvious reasons, hoping to draw it into the asteroid field. WSF took its time in the approach towards Whisper, while Han faked chasing Soontir around the edge (mainly to get out of the doomshuttle’s arc and get behind it). Whisper unloaded some crazy 5 hit/crit shots into the WSF, and even with Chewie’s valiant effort fixing things, WSF died with Soontir full health, Whisper 1 shield off, and Doomshuttle also 1 shield off. At that point, I knew I was in trouble, especially since all my attacks on Whisper or Soontir weren’t doing much. At least the WSF chased Soontir far away before it died, and Han was left to deal with Whisper alone (doomshuttle was pointing the wrong way and had a double stress). After a couple rounds of tussling, I weathered a shot from Whisper at R1 (thank goodness not strong because the TL was on WSF when it died and he had to take an evade), but was able to do 4 hits and he rolled blanks and eyeballs, so 3 damage went through and killed whisper. That was a huge turning point. Han quickly finished off the doomshuttle and then just played the roll dice game with Soontir until time was called. There was just no way I could get damage through to Soontir and vice versa in a timed game.

Fortunately, the score was so close that Mike got top 16 and his shield tokens, yay!

Results: Win, 64-38, 1014 MoV

I was in complete disbelief at this point. Going 6-0 against such a tough crowd and finishing #1 after the swiss? Even now it hasn’t completely sunken in yet. At this point, I got the dice I wanted and everything else was just gravy after this. After a short break, we started our top 8.

Top 8 Match: Zach Mathews

2xBlue Squadron (Tactician, E2)

2xGold Squadron (Ion Turret, BTL-A4), one with bomb loadout and seismic, the other with R3-A2 stressbot

(somehow forgot to take a photo of this match!)

This was a fun cat and mouse chase game. Classic stress control list against Fat Han. I flew Han to let him chase, and the one turn he had 3 R3 shots on Han, he took 4 shields off, ouch! Not a good start. I focused both the WSF (with mangoes) and Han on the stress Y (“Al” – named after some football player I think), and blocked their progress towards Han with the WSF wihle finishing off “Al” with my R1 primary weapon. WSF of course got multiple stressed, pounded on, and double ioned. He fought valiantly and helped Han take out another B while they chased WSF. Han was able to only deal with a B and a Y at the end, with both of them out of position and Predator dealing 2-3 damage per turn on them. It was a cleanup after that.

Result: Win, 100-38, 7-0, 1176 MoV

Top 4 Match: Nick Ruivo

Boba (VI, EU, Tactician, Proton Bomb)

IG-88B (VI, HLC, FCS, AT, Dampners)

I did tell him I wish we would meet again, but in the finals. Too bad it was one round early. Again, the tough list for mine and a list I know very well. He also knows my tricks now, so I had to try something different. This time I set up Han and WSF both in the middle across from his IG, and he was flanking with Boba again. Again I flew WSF to block Boba’s path while focusing both guns in arc on the IG. In one surprised turn, he chose to keep the IG stressed and did a hard turn, and I guessed right with Han, landing the IG at R1 of Han AND WSF. IG went down fast after that. This time though, IG did enough damage on Han that Boba was able to kill him off, but at that point, WSF was still full health and the Mangler cannon easily killed Boba. And again, the Proton bomb was dropped on WSF, but this time Chewie valiantly dove in front of a direct hit while somehow fixing the shields at the same time. That Wookie is amazing!

Result: Win, 100-62, 8-0, 1314 MoV

FINALS! Nathan Eide

Corran (PTL, R2D2, FCS, Hull)

Jake (PTL, VI, Chardaan, Title, AT)

Biggs

Wow! I came here to win some dice, and somehow I’m in the finals, playing against a current regionals champion and one of the top players in the world. It was around 11pm at this point and I was hoping my good stamina will help me a lot, but I guess a teenager probably has as much or more energy than me, so I lost that advantage, haha. Anyway, I knew this list would destroy me if I’m not careful, since I’ve flown something similar at a Store Champs and finished runner-up, destroying double pancake lists on the way. I flew Corran with VI instead of PTL, Engine instead of Hull, and Jake with Hull instead of Autothrusters (it wasn’t out at the time), and Tarn instead of Biggs.

Anyway, Nathan approaches with Corran and Biggs together as expected, with Jake flanking on the side. WSF goes towards them from the middle, and Han next to WSF but away from the host. I fly the WSF towards Biggs hoping to take him out fast with Han’s help, and unexpectedly, Nathan turns all 3 ships at WSF instead of Han. WSF weathers the storm and is down 5 shields, and Biggs is shieldless after both Han and WSF hit him hard. Next turn I turn to block Corran so he wouldn’t shoot me from R1 double tap, leaving Biggs and Jake shooting at WSF at R1, but Han was nearby to shoot at Biggs. Han does 2 damage to Biggs, and WSF survives Jake and Biggs (who used his focus to survive) with the help of the valiant Wookie. The resulting 3 attack primary on biggs kills him.

At this point, WSF is near death, so it tries to fly away as fast as possible while corran K-turns to chase and Jake keeps his relentless pursuit. Han is back in the game but the combined forces of him and WSF just couldn’t do any damage to Jake. Nathan was not blanking on his dice and the turtling plus AT just wouldn’t let damage through. I tried to shoot at Corran the next turn, but only able to take out 1-2 shields with his turtling too. It seemd pretty hopeless so I K-turned the WSF far away and at least decided to go out shooting mangoes at them. That turn saw Han shooting at Corran R1 taking 1-2 shields off and WSF surviving against the Jake/Corran R1 attack, enough to fire back and take all shields off Corran. Corran’s double tap kills WSF spectacularly (4 hits). Han was right behind Corran at that point, with full health, and it was not looking good. That’s when Nathan chose to K-Turn Corran to face Han, which surprised all of us. I took that chance to boost into R1 of Corran (who is shieldless) and gambled on the ability to kill him with hopefully a 3-4 hit roll. With the help of Han/Predator and gunner, I was able to do a 4 hit attack and he only rolled 1 evade for Corran to die.

That was the turning point and I thought I had the game. But alas, that was not the case. Jake just would not fail on green dice even with multiple 3-4 hit attacks from me. There are then some turns where I don’t do enough damage to remove Jake’s focus, and he powers in 1 or 2 shields off Han. It probably took about 20 turns of the 2 of us flying around each other, me doing no damage and Jake taking 1 off at a time. When it finally got to hull, I was worried I would get the dreaded injured pilot, but I’m glad I just got Stunned Pilot (since I moved first, I was in no danger) and a structural damage. Han flew away to fix that after 3 turns, and continued the fight. It was nearing 1am and both Nathan and I were super tired and just wanted the game to end. If there was any time to ask for a timed game, it was now. At one point we were activiating and I was just staring at Han’s dial thinking what move I should make. It was definitely an endurance test at 15 hours of playing. Finally, the green dice started to fail and I took 2 shields off Jake. 2 more turns later I got a stunned pilot on Jake too, and that made Nathan very careful about how to fly Jake since he would die if he bumped Han or landed on a rock. Because of that, I had a few free shots on him where I could take a focus token, and a few turns later, powered through 1 more damage to take the win.

The last part with the chasing and rolling of dice were so frustrating for both players that we were joking that we wouldn’t want to meet each other again at GenCon in an untimed match. Haha.

Result: Win, 100-38, 9-0, 1482 MoV

I still can’t believe I won, against a top caliber player no less! This has been such a fun and relaxed day for me I think that was the key. I put too much pressure on myself for my first regionals and while I didn’t fly poorly, weird freak accidents killed me (like getting 2 direct hits on the last roll of a game on a 4 hull Han to lose a game that I thought I won). I came into this Regions completely relaxed, didn’t care much about the bad dice or bad luck, and just focused on flying well and casual, an it paid off. I hope I can keep the same attitude at GenCon in a few days. Plus, no major dice fails and dice was pretty average over each game. I usually start the game thinking "I'm in trouble", and then a key moment arrives and my red dice delivers (green ones never really worked except for a few moments). So I'm very happy with that.

It was great to represent the Golden Gate Aces of the San Francisco Bay Area in Chicago, and combined with some good showing at the San Diego Regionals (where 3 GGA’s finished top 4, 13 ^th , and 16 ^th ), it was a good day for the Bay Area folks. A big thanks to all those people who challenged me in our weekly leagues, tournaments, and casual games, helping me refine my list and play better. Another call out to Kleintz/Silver for our amazing list discussions nearly daily. And a final shout out to my buddy Brendan K for being a great player and a great sparring partner, in which our weekly games helped me get this far.

If you read this far, thanks for taking time to read my ramblings. I again have no expectations at Nationals, and will go there just to have fun no matter how I do. If I bomb out so be it. At least I will always have Chicago. =)

Lots of good stuff here, but I just wanted to say it was cool to see a 2400 with fixed cannon. I've thought it was good for a while, but I never see it.

Today you winner

Goodcall not photographing me, I am far to ugly to be on the internet. Grats again on the win man! I'll see you at nationals

I have a photo of your match

Lots of good stuff here, but I just wanted to say it was cool to see a 2400 with fixed cannon. I've thought it was good for a while, but I never see it.

Thanks! Yeah, it adds some fun to the list having to point the YT2400 to get good shots, but still gives me that security blanket of a turret if I point the wrong way or can't turn around. It was funny to hear people say in the finals that "YTs don't K-turn!!!", and then I proceeded t K-turn both YTs multiple times. ;-)

Goodcall not photographing me, I am far to ugly to be on the internet. Grats again on the win man! I'll see you at nationals

Hey dude! haha, I wanted to capture your 4 football guys on camera, but was too busy trying to remember their names. See you in a few days!

Congrats on the results man, glad to see more people doing well with a non title yt2400.

I've had good results in a number of tournaments in Germany (even won 2) with a very similar list (my WSF had HLC instead of Mango/Chewie, 1pt for init). I'm glad Chewie works for you,my experience was that the more people played against this list the more they tend to ignore the WSF and focus on Han at all costs since he's the MVP of that list for sure. I'm not sure the Mangler is scary enough to punish this, with the HLC i could always threaten those 4 dice shots in their back if they go after Han.

Unfortunately the recent rise of Dash/Corran in our local meta put this list at a disadvantage.

When played right by the Dash/Corran player, most of the time Han will go down at the same time either Corran or Dash go down and the Fringer alone can't beat any of those ships, in my experience. Of course Corran can always blank out on those greens and then it's an easy game, but i would say this matchup is definitely not in favor of Han/WSF. I've been pondering whether to go VI/Luke(crew) with Han so he can avoid PS10 Corran's double tap, but that seems weaker against most other lists. Any suggestions?

Also i'm not sure this list will like Wave7, panic attack was already one of the tougher matchups and the twin laser turret and new secondaries like Conner Net will only make this archetype stronger.

Taking this even further, i dont see how Han lives against say 4Ywings with TLT. Even with c3p0/evade this is pretty much 6guaranteed damage a turn unless he hides in range1 behind the ys (much harder to do than avoiding r1-2 turrets). Do you think this build will still be viable?

Thanks Celes!

I flew Eaden+HLC to a store champ win, so it is definitely a strong version of the YT2400. The only issue I had is that with just a focus or TL on the YT2400, I almost NEVER roll 4 hits. It's the same for me on IGs where unless I spend the focus (which I need to survive on an IG), my TL HLC never gets 4 hits. So at that point, I'd rather just save the 3 points and use Mangler. Yes, it's not as painful, but against anything but 3 agi ships those crits are crippling. And even against the 3 agi ships, when one gets through, they're in major trouble.

The key to this list is flying. Yes, I would ignore the WSF too and go for Han, but Han is PS9 with Engine. Yes, the Mangler won't punish as much, but it still hurts to have a focused YT2400 shooting you with a mangler cannon *after* Han has shot you and stripped your tokens (or you spent it shooting Han).

Any Corran list is a hard counter to this list, and requires VERY good planning and flying and a touch of luck. I met Corran twice in the tournament and always though "well, there's goes my winning streak", but my strategy seems to work and I get a tiny bit lucky with dice and can make it into a tough fight. Usually it's Han and Corran left and neither person can kill each other.

VI Corran is scary, but not enough to take VI Han. Remember, he only has 1 action out of his 5 actions on the action bar. even with FCS, if he spends his focus to shoot you, he will die earlier. If he doesn't, he does less damage AND you still get to hurt him since he can't turtle. a focus/evade Corran is the hardest to kill. missing any one of those tokens? It's a lot easier.

I'm relatively comfortable flying against stress lists with this list, since it's pretty easy to stay beyind R2 of B's with Tactician or the double Ion turret stress attack. But yes, I don't think this list will be as strong with TLT and Connor Nets, or the Deathrain cluster mine drop on you

Key to dealing with 4 Y with TLT is to use your blocker effectively and yes, get behind them (which isn't that hard agianst Y wings) Take a few hitsto get behind, and after that, a Y should be dead and you can get into R1 of another 1-2 to finish them off. It'll be riskier and the list will be weaker, but it's still viable with good flying. This game is still about good flying, even with some hard counters and good/bad dice luck.