Hey.

My name is Boardy (sort of). I've been playing wargames for...a long while now, since I was maybe 12? But I have never, til this last weekend, actually entered a real, honest to goodness tournament. I know, years of 40K and some time with Warmachine and never? Well, I was a kid and pre-painted models makes it so much easier to get a fully painted army. Funny how that works. While I personally didn't interact with them much, this is the same tournament the IFF guys posted about recently. Them coming was a total surprise, but certainly great to have more people participating. They came along way after all. Anyway, enough about that, let's talk about the tournament. My list was as follows:

Hootie and the Space Whales

Rebels - 291 Points (300 Point Contest)

Assault Frigate Mark II - A

XI7 Turbolasers

Assault Frigate Mark II - B

XI7 Turbolasers

Gen. Garm Iblis

Nebulon B Escort Frigate

A-Wings x4

Suprisingly I had initiative bid won every game (except for the first one I think). But I had Advanced Gunnery, Dangerous Terroritory, and Fire Lanes.

Normally, I run Imperials, at least as I was starting. Though I am slowly learning that rebels are more fun. They just do more interesting things. Running Star Destroyers is awesome, but it's like Nascar, how fast can I make a left turn? Anyway, a friend of mine, jcopersito here on the boards, asked to borrow my Gladiator for a list he wanted to run, so I borrowed one of his space guppies. I have found in my experience that less upgrades really is more. But that's just me. Neb B was a little hinky for me but I didn't want to risk a Corvette. Probably should have, Neb B's generally do terrible for me. But I figured it could grab objectives if I need it to and it might add some extra firepower in a pinch. Having never played in a tournament before, I really just wanted to win one game and not end up near dead last. That was pretty much the goal.

Upon arrival it became pretty clear that double guppies was pretty popular on the Rebel side. Imperial side was less consistent. As first there was some grumbling about someone running a Gen Con list, but I know for a fact he made it up one night at the LGS way before Gen Con. There was of course the Double Guppy carrier list with 9 Y-Wings. Yes, 9. At the end of registration we had 11 total players. Anyway, with McDonalds in my stomach for breakfast fuel, we got to the gaming.

Match One vs. Imperials

First Opponent was Bryan. Had never met him before, he usually plays at a store a little further from home for me. Nice guy. His list:

Victory SD - Overload Pulse, Admiral Screed

Gladiator - Demolisher, Assault Concussion Missiles

TIE Fighters x4

Howlrunner

Mauler

Soontir Fel

Game Opening

The scenario is Advanced Gunnery. My two guppies were front and relatively center with the A-Wings between - and I finally freakin learned to not put them right in front my ships and immediately get displaced because I'm an idiot. My objective ship was the A because I wanted to force a choice between my flagship and the objective ship. My ships swung forward and right, trying to isolate and take out the Gladiator first before the Victory could close and lay in on me. Unfortunately he did indeed push the Gladiator forward too quickly, I think trying to use the Demolisher. He later said that he knows he shouldn't have done it. I think he was tired and hadn't slept much the night before. It didn't take long to remove the demolisher (while taking a couple hit points of damage) and then start working on the Victory. My A Wings rushed forward on a squadron command turn two to dash in and get rid of Howlrunner, she didn't have an Advanced to shield her so I went for the lynchpin. It took longer than I wanted and they eventually died but they did get rid of her and Soontir Fel through counter attacks. The Victory came in swinging but it just wasn't enough. Eventually both ships were destroyed and I ended up with a big margin. I felt bad because Bryan was a nice guy who had come from a meta with lots of squadrons, he mentioned when we started that he felt like he missed the memo about ships only lists. Turns out, if he had been matched up with the would be 1st place list, he could well have beat it.

So, I got my win. Emotional pressure is off. I can just play. I was still a little insecure but still, at least I had my win.

Round Two vs. Imperials

For the second round I got matched with a local (name here is ravenorjrp I believe). His list was more "optimized" for the current meta (please withold meta debates). As follows:

Victory II - Admiral Motti, H9 Turbolasers, Gunnery Team

Glad I - nothing

Victory I - Gunnery Team

Darth Vader and Soontir Fel

What the right side of the field looked like with mines

Since I won the initiatve bid, I chose Minefields as the objective, perhaps a bad idea. He covered most of the right side with mines and/or terrain. I semi-countered by deploying totally on the left. I figured I'd just ignore the mines, not risk the damage. My opponent was formidable so I didn't want the added pressure of needless damage. I tried to move the guppies up the left fast so I could take out the Victory 1 before everything else caught up. Not the best plan, but what I could do on short notice. The gladiator was so far right and without Demolisher that it played catch-up most of the game and didn't play a large role aside from keeping me from heading back right. Had a couple terrible rolls. Whole salvos rolled blanks. Terrible. But still, I should have played smarter. In particular, I ran the Neb fast and quick up near the middle and tried to turn to avoid side shots. Haha, funny joke I know. Avoid side shots, on a Neb B, with Victories around. He did a little damage. Then died horribly. Admiral Motti. Oh Motti. This guy just wouldn't let that Victory 1 die. I just couldn't do it. One turn it ended with 9 total damage. It got to shoot again before it died. The worst! Costly kill, which then cost me one of the guppies. The last Guppy was headed for a space wall death but was able to use tokens and careful manuevering to stay in it til turn 6 was over. Turn 7 would have forced me to space wall. Not my best game, but not all things I could control. Though mostly things I could control. At the end, managed only the kill the Vic1 and Soontir Fel. Darth Vader almost bit it too but fled the scene with 1 HP like he got bounced off a TIE Fighter. Loss 3 -7.

Here's what the end game looked like.

Well, that could have been better. But it was an awesome fight. We were both really stretching to do the best we could. Different dice rolls could have produced a closer game or a sweeping defeat for me. Hopefully I won't keep giving up the Nebs as free points like I normally do, or maybe, I just won't bring them. I'm definitely stretching to place at all, I mean, I dreamed of course of being in the top 4 just for fun nifty prizes (I'm a sucker for stupid crap like that). I got moved over to Table 2, so, that was kind of good but I'm not totally clear on all the point stuff and really many others looked like they could take it. By it I mean all the top spots.

I'm pretty tired and getting hungry, but still wanting to make a good show of it.

Round 3 vs Rebels

My last opponent was Steve - WWPDSteven. I do believe he helps make the IFF podcast seen around here. His stuff looked great. Very nice paint jobs. His list was:

Assault Frigate II B - Gunnery Team, Advanced Projectors, XI7 Turbolasers

Assault Frigate II B - Gunnery Team, Advanced Projectors, Enhanced Armament

Corvette B - Nothing

Corvette B - Mon Mothma, Leia Organa, Tantive IV'

Deployment

I believe he was 300 points on the dot, so I picked from his missions. I chose Dangerous Territory thinking it would be costly for his smaller ships. Proof that I need to actually read things before I pick them, as his ships wouldn't be affected by grabbing objectives. Yeah. My ships are on the lower left. Neb B the furthest out to the left, then both guppies. We both spent the first turn jumping forward and grabbing objectives. I grabbed two and he nabbed 3. He got the one up on me when he sped his no upgrade Corvette into my proximity and stole the last objective, I tried to dissuade him with A-wings but he wasn't biting. As our forces clashed in the middle, his corvette sped past me. I got my guppies way too close and couldn't even get off a good shot at the Corvette that stole the last objective. I say stole because clearly it belonged to me and not him. Because of some really bad manuevers, my forward guppy had taken some serious damage to the shielding. At this point I decided that the only way was to stall and hope for a good opportunity or maybe a draw. If I kept drifting right merging our fleets, I'd lose. His guppies were better equipped. He admitted surprise when I broke left with both guppies. The Neb B went right but it was far behind his fleet. Safely doing nothing. My ships circled back around re-building their shields. I also had the A-Wings fall back to safety to not give up points. On turn 6 what little planning I did paid off, the Corvette that shot past me had no choice but to be in range of an A-wing and I believe both Assault Frigates (one long one med range). It was enough to put it down and bring me back up with some points. He had 60 points from objectives and I had 69 with two objectives and the Corvette. Draw 5-5. Steve was a good sport about my cowardly tactics. But hey, we're rebels. We don't exactly fight fair.

A pic from the middle of the match, me starting to break away to preserve the lives of my troops.

So, I figured I was out of any prize support (aside from the participation) and got myself some dinner. The last match was dragging out and Jersey Mikes was calling. I came back and they soon announced the winners.

1st was the 9 Y Wing, Double Guppy list

2nd and 3rd were (I believe) my third and second place opponents

and 4th.....

Yea, that's right....

I'm a boss.

And now I have an excellent Imperial dice bag to make other players question my loyalty to the Rebel cause. Hope you enjoyed the write up. I was really excited to have gotten 4th (and probably didn't deserve it) in my first ever tournament. Hoping to get to another here in about two weeks in a town about an hour from here. We'll see if this becomes a pattern.

Many thanks to all those local and distant who came and helped us build up the community here. Every time we play people stop and get interested. Our group is growing!

Congrats on your first tournament! Good write

Good write up. Always interesting to get tournament AAR's, especially from different perspectives of the same event. How many players were there?

I love the emotion put into this. Great use of context, I can honestly feel like I am right there with you. . . These kinds of articles make me so very happy to read.

XI7's on Guppies vs Advanced Projectors on Guppies. . . Ouch. . . You have to punch the same guppy over and over just to feel like you are getting results in. . .

Great cut and run move vs Steve, I would of possibly tried to duke it out which is tactically the wrong move.

Good write up. Always interesting to get tournament AAR's, especially from different perspectives of the same event. How many players were there?

Thank you sir. I love battle reports! I've been considering making some for Armada (video) but I want to focus on another game right now I think for that. We had 11 players. Which for me was great, we've been growing slower than I was hoping and getting 11 out for the tournament was awesome. Even that few a number helped build our FB group and drew attention to the event such that people walking through became interested.

Nice write up J! I did not expect you to bravely run away, but it did make sense! I didn't mind the 5-5 much, since it still put me at second place! I would've needed a 9-1 in order to take top spot, and that's hard to do against 2 robust Guppies!

Congrats on finally making it to a gaming tournament. Wasn't so bad after all, was it?

It may not be the most graceful tactic, but I am alive to tell the tale. @WWPDSteven

And @DrunkTarkin - It really wasn't. I didn't expect to do that well, but it really was a good time and wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Luckily the folks I played against were fair and pretty transparent about their movement, range, etc. If I encountered a major problem I was prepared to just forfeit/drop as I'm not going for pro-circuit or anything like that. Luckily no such drastic action was needed.

I might be headed for another tourney (this one about an hour out of town) on the 29th. Expect another write-up if I do so.

Very nice wirteup, congrats on taking 4th place.

Never feel bad about running away, a good commander knows when it is time to retreat and regroup

Hopefully I can get into my first tournament (aramada is my first miniture game) soon. The only thing for me is finding one that is close enough and that I can make

Nice write up! Dodged a bullet on not facing your first opponent (9 Y-wing guy here) lol. I got lucky with match up that's for sure. I might have to run an experiment VS that list you played in your first game just to see how it would have gone. I think even your list with just the just the few A-wings would have played havoc with me. Hey this was only my second tournament and the only tournament of anything I have ever won. I came in dead last at my first one. Congrats on surviving your first tournament!

Nice write up! Dodged a bullet on not facing your first opponent (9 Y-wing guy here) lol. I got lucky with match up that's for sure. I might have to run an experiment VS that list you played in your first game just to see how it would have gone. I think even your list with just the just the few A-wings would have played havoc with me. Hey this was only my second tournament and the only tournament of anything I have ever won. I came in dead last at my first one. Congrats on surviving your first tournament!

I also just finished my first tournament. I ran a bomber heavy Rebel list as well. But I used B-wings with x-wing cover because I was worried about enemy ties, but I also wanted to make sure I had good damage if they ran fighter-light lists. It was a good decision all-in-all. The only match I lost was one tailored to beat my list specifically (because we had played a couple nights ago). I ran my fleet straight in to his and smushed all my fighters in to all of his. That was a mistake. I should have held my squads in reserve for a turn so the 2 Neb Bs I was fielding could get in at least 1 salvo each of anti-fighter attacks. Would have made a huge difference.

But ya. Bomber wings are sweet. I could look at their board and tell if I was going to win before we even placed ships, based on their ability to hurt my squadrons.

Seeing my opponents list makes me adjust my probability manipulation of dice through deployment. I can always attempt to mitigate my chances for victory after seeing my opponents list. ..but without making the proper sacrifices to the Dice Gods I am wont to make predictions on the outcome of the game before it's played. Of course, that doesn't mean I can't be 'confident'. Hehe.

Nice write up! Dodged a bullet on not facing your first opponent (9 Y-wing guy here) lol. I got lucky with match up that's for sure. I might have to run an experiment VS that list you played in your first game just to see how it would have gone. I think even your list with just the just the few A-wings would have played havoc with me. Hey this was only my second tournament and the only tournament of anything I have ever won. I came in dead last at my first one. Congrats on surviving your first tournament!

Let me know how it goes. I'd be interested to see how the match turned out. You still have two Space Guppies in your list, it's not an auto-lose match up. But his list would have been a good counter to your counter. Potentially.