Ever since wave 5 landed last year, I’ve been fooling around with different ways to use experimental interface on Tycho. It wasn’t long before I decided Daredevil was the best use of it, and obviously PTL needed to be the other EPT for him. The only questions remaining were to Procket or not, and who to pair with him. And I’ve answered those in other battle reports I’ve written. Today I’m going to talk about my Gencon match ups, and reflect back on my 7 months playing the same list:
Corran Horn w/ Veteran Instincts, Fire Control System, R2-D2, Engine Upgrade
Tycho Celchu w/ Push the Limit, Daredevil, Experimental Interface, Proton Rockets, A Wing Test Pilot
Prototype Pilot w/ Chardaan Refit
After a disappointing regional season (going 4-1 in Ohio, but finishing 9th, and going 4-2 in PA, Corran NEVER moving last, and finishing 15th), I was sick and tired of playing the list. But with Gencon only 11 days away, I didn’t have the motivation to find another list, and I felt like I needed to see Psycho Tycho through to the end.
Round One:
Chewy w/ Lone Wolf, MF title, Experimental Interface, Lando, C3PO
Corran w/ VI, FCS, R2D2, EU
I’d played against Rinehart running this same exact list awhile back multiple times without ever losing. And it turns out, the guy playing it against me was a fellow local guy of Rinehart, and got the inspiration from him. This list is supposed to be an easy win for me – I give him init due to my 1 point bid, so my Corran can easily take on his Corran, and without Gunner, Chewy doesn’t really concern me. But there are always dice. Chewy was quick to die, but not before putting the hurt in on my Corran, bringing him down to 1 hull. From there, I spent 30 minutes or so chasing down his Corran with my 3 ships, typically blocking with Tycho or the Prototype, before Corran finally died with about 5 minutes left in the round. 1-0, 200 MoV.
Round Two:
Corran w/ PTL, AdvS, R2D2, EU
Dash w/ VI, HLC, Outrider
I might be getting the second ship wrong, it was a pancake is all I remember, and it didn’t last long. He had a 2 point init bid, which he used to give it to me, so Tycho couldn’t readjust to Corran. I quickly burned down his Dash, which even with a higher PS than Tycho, struggles to do damage – he didn’t have predator for the rerolls, and required the action for the barrel roll, therefore he was throwing unmodified 4 dices vs. F+E, or Evade+R2D2. He did manage to kill my prototype though, I believe it was from a 1 shot. He got real close to killing my Corran as well – which resulted in Corran getting a damaged engine crit. But Tycho finished off the pancake. My Corran was stuck in runaway mode attempting to regen shields while his Corran was chasing, preventing that from happening. Meanwhile, Tycho was attempting to do damage, but the F+E+R2D2 is very hard for 2 dice to get through. For some reason though, he never once double tapped. Often he had me down to 2 health (1 hull and 1 shield), with no tokens and a R2 shot, and chose not to go for the kill. I consider that a mistake. But it’s one that I captalized on, and eventually I pulled a (red) hard 2 catching him by surprise for a R2 shot (and acquiring a TL), but only did 2 damage. I cleared stress, and got another shot in, keeping R2D2 from regening back to full. As we were setting the dials for the next round, time was called, and I was right in front of a rock (I had hoped to get the kill shot in the previous turn). I knew I was ahead and the win was mine, but I wanted the MOV of killing him. I chose a 3 right turn, which I was 80% sure it wouldn’t clear the rock, but no other move would clear and get me arc (the 3 bank would clear, but no arc, and anything slower would leave me on the rock). It turns out that I was about 1mm off of it, which lined up the R1 double tap, pushing the kill through. Not quite sure I should have gotten the win in this one, but due to him never double tapping for the kill, I managed to squeak one out. 2-0, 385 MoV
Round Three:
Corran w/ PTL, FCS, R2D2, EU
Another Pancake
By this time, I was really annoyed with fighting Corran’s. And the rest of the lists kinda roll together. I believe this was a 100pt list, so I gave him init. Tycho danced with Corran at the beginning, and I stupidly shot off my proton rockets (hoping to get a quick kill in), without having Corran there to finish the job. But as it was, it left Corran and the Prototype to deal with the rest of the list by themselves, which means that it quickly died, and Corran shouldn’t have been at a high risk of death. But my greens had other thoughts, and between them, and a disagreement over how many shields Corran should have (I thought he had 2, my opponent swore he had 1, and I lost the roll off), he found himself at 1 hull. But about that time, my greens decided to come back to life, Corran managed to keep the other half busy and kill him off while Tycho kept his Corran from being relevant. And then started yet another 40minute chase of PTL R2D2 Corran Horn. At one point, he forgot to regen his shield from R2D2 (and didn’t remember until he went to remove shields from damage), and asked if I minded if he put it back on. Seeing as this was a national championship, and I had him dead to rights (he was in the runaway mode where he was never going to get another shot), and he took a shield off of my Corran earlier on that I didn’t think should have been removed, I declined to let him add a shield. Call me a d*** if you want. He ended up dying that turn due to the double tap. Had he regened the shield, he would have suffered a blinded pilot crit, and would have continued to run away, ensured that he would never get a shot. 3-0 585 MoV
Round Four:
Corran w/ PTL, FCS, R2D2, EU
Rookie w/ R3A2
Jake w/ VI, PTL, ATP, AT, CR
Look! Another Corran Horn!!! Such a surprise. This game was played out on the second table, which was cool. And this game was over in the first round of combat. I waited for him to commit to a route through the asteroids, feigning commitment with Tycho and the Prototype (Tycho did his DD stuff to actually pull a 180, and the Prototype disengaged with a 5 straight), and then put Tycho and Corran at R1 of his Corran. He won the init bid, so you’d think that would be difficult to do, but since he committed himself, Tycho came in from the bottom, preventing the BR down, and the Rookie was on top, preventing a BR up, as Corran came in from the left, and a Debris was on the right, preventing the boost. My Corran came in with a 3 bank, forcing a collision with his Rookie, but setting up the R1 with his Corran. I felt pretty confident that I could kill his Corran before he got a double tap off, between my TL 4 dice attack, and FTL 5 dice Prockets. Turns out, I only did 4 damage, but a crit got through as a blinded pilot. Meanwhile, Jake did a damage to my Corran, and then my double tap killed him, and his did another 2 damage to Corran. The rookie was left without any shots since Corran forced the collision on him. From there, I completely disengaged Corran and kept the A wings in the fight to prevent the chase, but once Corran got back to full shields, my opponent conceded. At the time, Jake had lost a shield and the Rookie was down to 2 hull while my A wings were at full strength. 4-0 785 MoV.
Round Five:
Jake w/ Prockets, VI, PTL, AT, ATP
Han w/ Predator, Gunner, MF, C3PO, EU
I’m glad to finally play against something besides Corran Horn. But double PS9 is one of my hard counters, especially when they’re as maneuverable as Jake is. It’s also super cool that the top table has 3 A wings on it. It’s also super cool that I’m technically the highest MoV player – something I had no intention of ever achieving with a 3 squishy ship build. Not fearing Jake by himself, I started the generic task of killing Han. I manage to get him down to 7 hull before he kills off Tycho and the Prototype, but Corran is left untouched. Corran is left in the middle of the field chasing Han at R3, when I see the opportunity to do a 1 bank and Barrel roll, to *hopefully* catch Jake off guard. Sure enough, Jake, thinking he’s safe, takes a Focus and a TL, and Corran swoops in for a R1 shot on him (he only has 1 shield at this time). While the first shot was unmodified, it did manage to strip his focus token, 1 <boom> to 1 <evade>. The double tap managed to roll 2 <booms> out of 7 dice, and Jake got 1 evade… 11 dice for 3 <booms>. Sad that my golden opportunity got spoiled due to dice (I was out of position to provide chase too), I disengaged. A few turns later, I setup a similar situation where I caught Jake by surprise, and managed to get yet another R1 shot in on him. This time, my dice don’t disappoint, and Jake is taken off the board. My opponent congratulates me as it’s the first ship he’s lost all day. And now I have a 7 hull Han vs. a full health Corran – that heavily favors me, even though I’m out of position. Corran didn’t have an evade (BR was required to line up the R1), and he took 3 damage right there from a R2 obstructed attack. All of a sudden it’s no longer such an easy fight. The next turn I regen a shield and take an evade, only to roll 3 blanks again, spend the evade, and take a shield and a direct hit. Boom. Corran was just 2 rounded from 6 dice total. All of that said, this was one of the most fun and enjoyable games of X wing I’ve played to date. 4-1 818 MoV.
Round Six:
IG88Bw/ VI, HLC, FCS, AT, ID
IG88Cw/ VI, HLC, FCS, AT, ID
I dropped back to table 4 for this game, but I’m still the highest MoV 4-1 player. This was a relatively short game that can be summed up by 1 single error. He obviously gave me init, which makes Tycho almost useless against these folks – he can’t even block properly as they just use the ID’s and get a nice R1 shot in on him. Though it does come with the risk of eating a Procket to the face. But I digress. The initial engagement I won – putting 2 shields of damage in on B while taking 1 on Tycho. The other Aggressor didn’t have a shot. But the next turn I daredeviled DIRECTLY into Corran’s path. Completely stupid. The boost is what I had in my head when I was planning out moves (which would have given me R1 on C w/ TL+F after he did a Sloop), but I just sat there. And then Corran bumped. So instead of being able to complete his maneuver, and barrel roll out of arc of IG-88B, while lining up a R1 TL double tap on him, I’m stuck at R2 of both B&C, with no tokens. Needless to say, Corran died that round because 8 dice, even unmodified, is always enough to kill a 5 health ship through 6 evades. From there, I nicked a few more shields off of B and C, but never got close to killing either of them before I lost. I loved how one of the rolled 3 <booms> without a TL on the Prototype, who then went to roll 3 <evades>, just to turn around and have the TL HLC shot roll 4 <booms> to 0 <evades>. Go go 1 shot. Stupid Prototype. 4-2 818 MoV.
Round Seven:
Emon w/ HLC, Proximity Mines x2, Andrasta, Recon Spec
N’Dru w/ Assault Missiles, Lone Wolf
Cartel Spacer w/ HLC
Talk about “out there” lists. At this point, I was playing on table 13, and figured no matter what I was out of the cut. No matter, at least I can have a fun last game against a non-meta list. The double HLCs scare me though. Since his ships move before Tycho and Corran, I had the opportunity to set up Tycho against N’Dru. Which worked just fine – he never got a shot in on Tycho. The rest of his folks though were gunning for Corran, and those HLC’s can hurt! I controlled the initial setup to be just out of R3, and then zoomed into R1 of both of them, and I attempted to pop the Cartel’s 3 health with a double tap, but failed to even do a single damage. Sadly, I realized that I had just put myself in bombing range, so the next turn I forced the Prototype into a position right behind Corran (3 turn + boost), hoping to block Emon and prevent the prox mine drop. Sadly he clears by about 2mm. However, when he drops his prox mine, it JUST misses Corran, and JUST hits the spacer, who only takes 1 shield from it. Corran disengages and regens a few shields while Tycho continues to pound N’dru with R1 out of arc shots. But every. Single. Roll. Results in 2 <evades>. Eventually, a 1 hull N’dru turns his attention to Corran, and Tycho panics, but can’t line up the R1 shot. I settle for the R2, and manage 2 <booms>… and 2 natural <evades> (he TL’d as his action and was within R2 of friendlies so no LW). N’dru gets his assault missiles off on Corran, but with no way to modify them, he doesn’t do any damage. The prototype gets the kill in with a R2 shot. By this time, Corran is playing the runaway game, trying to only get shot at by 1 HLC at a time, but this turn he managed to be in range of both of them, with only 1 shield remaining. Tycho comes to the rescue, securing the R1 shot on the Spacer, and fires the Prockets without a target lock for 4 <booms>. The Spacer rolls 2 <evades> and goes boom. Meanwhile, Corran manages to live through Emon’s attack. A few turns later, Corran had regened a few more shields, but found himself in the same situation where Emon could drop a prox on him, so the Prototype went in for the block, and once again, was a few millimeters off target. The Prox managed to only do 1 damage to Corran, and Emon gave up on the win and decided to go for the MoV and take the juicy R1 shot on the Prototype, putting him out of his misery. Shortly thereafter, Emon succumbed to the combined firepower of Corran and Tycho. 5-2 1003 MoV.
Top 16:
Jake w/ Prockets, VI, PTL, AT, ATP
Han w/ Predator, Gunner, MF, C3PO, EU
When they posted the final standings, I didn’t even bother to get up and go look, that’s how confident I was that I didn’t make the final cut. That or I didn’t want to get my hopes up after they were viciously crushed in Ohio. Phild0 was the one to tell me that I came in 15th, and I had to go confirm because that would be a oh-so-cruel joke if it weren’t true. So, after a short night of bad sleep, I came back for Psycho Tycho’s first meaningful elimination game. It turns out to be a rematch of my 5th round opponent, who ended up as 2nd seed. Actually, both of the opponents I lost to made it into the cut, with my 6th round opponent being the 5th seed. I was feeling confident in the game, even though the matchup favors him, just because of the way it played the previous time. If my dice were anything close to average, I shouldn’t have lost the first go around. But this one played out a bit different. We circled the board a bit, both waiting for an error on the other one’s part. I found one where Han was blocking Jake from engaging at any meaningful distance for the next two turns, so I forced the engagement. Sadly, things did not go according to plan. Corran ended up bumping Tycho oh so very slightly (we had to call a TO over to determine if he cleared or not), which kept him from getting arc on Han. Meanwhile, Han did 3 shields from a R3 attack to Corran, so I was instantly on the defensive. The rest of the game wasn’t too well played out – I had no choice but to run away with Corran, who was slowly dying. Toward the middle of the game, I setup several great blocks with the Prototype and Tycho to keep Han at R3 as Corran attempted to escape, but I overplayed my hand and Jake ended up forcing a R1 shot on Corran, who died to the Prockets.
This game was over before it started due to the round 1 failure on my part. But nothing was going right for me in this game. We called the TO over on 4 separate occasions because we couldn’t decide if something fit/bumped/in arc, and every time it went against me. I had a single round of potential redemption – I had forced a block with the prototype on Jake setting up the Procket shot from Tycho, and Tycho had blocked Han out of range of Corran. This meant that Corran actually got to keep his second shield! Tycho had a TL on Han at the time, but I decided I had to spend the Prockets and go for Jake… 2 booms and 3 blanks for no damage. Jake had lost a shield at that point, so it was plausible to think that I could have done 3damage to him – the expected is 2.64. If I’d been able to get him off the board then, Corran could have engaged Han, and I should once again win the dice battle there. But instead, I whiffed, and two turns later Jake blew Corran up with his Prockets.
So, while I’m glad to finally be retiring this list, I’m also glad that I got to take it to the North American Championships and do so well with it. My ability to handle almost every list out there was due to the flexibility of the ships, and the fact that I could always engage on my terms and conditions. Plus, very few people are used to playing against Daredevil and knowing how it really works. The biggest weakness of arc dodgers is setting up the shot without getting blocked, but with DD, you can worry about the shot second, after dealing with the “where can I go to not get blocked” first. Not once in these eight games did Tycho get blocked, and people attempted to block him several times. It also means that he’s always going to have at least a focus for defense, likely F+E. Actually, come to think of it, the only block that I wasn’t expecting was the one where Tycho blocked Corran in Round 6. All other times that I was blocked was intentional to prevent a shot.
Looking at the Gencon results in general, I hope that all of you are motivated to try something out of the box, because most of the lists that made it to the cut were original. Or at least some part of them was. Clearly half of my list was meta (Corran Horn), but the other half was way out there. Likewise the Han + Jake has a half meta half original list. And Phild0’s Oicunn + Fel plays on meta ideas (Deci+Fel), but plays VERY different than RAC (trust me, I’ve been a victim to it multiple times… You don’t want to be in front because he’ll ram you, and you don’t want to be behind because he’s proximity mine you). So, in conclusion, play what you want how you want, and your skill will shine through regardless.
