Hello everyone! I competed in a Summer Tournament yesterday and this is the list that I brought with me:

Wes Janson (29)
Veteran Instincts (1)
R2-D2 (4)

Wedge Antilles (29)
Opportunist (4)
R2 Astromech (1)

Luke Skywalker (28)
Veteran Instincts (1)
R2 Astromech (1)

Total: 98

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Game 1:

http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v3!s!146:-1,126,136,14,53,-1,-1:-1:7:;27:18:-1:1:;28:18:5:1:M.15

Game one was against a Punisher and two Interceptors. I took out Turr in the first round of combat, and then took out Soontir a few turns later. I lost Wedge pretty early too, but then I was able to take down the Punisher. Since all of the Punisher’s torpedoes and missiles required him to be at range 2-3 I tried to keep myself within range 1.

Points Destroyed: 100
Lost: 34

Lessons Learned: Punishers take a while to die but hate when things are in front of them at range 1. I was fortunate that my opponent wasn’t flying “Redline” though.

Game 2:

http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Rebel%20Alliance&d=v3!s!36:-1,-1,63,62:2:3:;139:135,-1,-1,-1,33,-1,-1:-1:16:

This game was against a Fat Han and Husky Miranda. I lost Wedge but was able to destroy Han Solo because he had SLAM’d Miranda too far away and was unable to assist in the fighting for a few turns. Once Miranda came back in to the fight he alternated his TLT to gain a shield back on the first round of fire and then fired with full effect once my Focus tokens had been spent. Miranda is a really tanky ship but I’m thankful that she was out of the fight for a few rounds due to a miss-calculated SLAM. Wedge died again.

Points Destroyed: 100
Lost: 64

Lessons Learned: Miranda can be used with TLT to keep herself alive for a very long time. Get behind Han Solo at Range 1 with Wedge and Opportunist shreds him to pieces.

Game 3:

http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v3!s!99:57,-1,132,-1,102,-1:-1:3:;22:57,-1:23:-1:U.124

My opponent set up Darth Vader in his left corner and Chiraneau in the middle and I set up opposite from Vader. Once our dials were set I went ahead straight 4 two turns in a row in order to get as many shots off at Vader as possible. On the third round I K-turned and took Vader out. Throughout the course of the match though, Chirpy was able to separate Wes and Luke from each other after Wedge bit the bullet and systematically destroyed them one by one. Predator combined with Emperor Palpatine is truly a force to be reckoned with!

Points Destroyed: 33(?)
Lost: 100

Lessons Learned: Don’t split the group!

Game 4:

http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Rebel%20Alliance&d=v3!s!36:57,-1,63,62:2:3:;64:-1:-1:-1:;64:-1:-1:-1:;64:-1:-1:-1:

Being at 97 points I actually didn’t have choice of initiative this time! My opponent flew his Z-95s directly in to an asteroid field (despite C-3P0 telling them the odds of successfully navigating it!) Once I chewed through Han’s shields he drew the crit that turns his Pilot Skill to 0. Later on he flew Han off of the board (with 3 health left) and chose a red maneuver while stressed with his last Z-95, so I chose a 4 straight which would have made him go off of the board on the next turn, so he conceded. This time Wes was the last remaining X-Wing. R2-D2 really helps out a ton!

Points Destroyed: 100
Lost: 64

Lessons Learned: Do not let Han Solo get to range 3. Offer to buy your opponent a drink when you make his ship fly off of the board.

Game 5:

http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Rebel%20Alliance&d=v3!s!95:-1,110,-1,-1:14:-1:;29:18,72:7:-1:U.11;86:27,72:7:-1:U.18

Luckily I was able to take Jake out very quickly (I can’t remember if he got any shots off or not). Next I took down Tycho, though he’s extremely slippery when combined with PTL and EI. At the end I was able to take out Dash with only Wes remaining! My opponent remarked at the beginning of the match that he wasn’t sure which X-Wing he should go for first. I think that if A-Wings had a native barrel roll then they would be even more difficult to catch!

Points Destroyed: 100
Lost: 64

Lessons Learned: “Mangler” Dash is VERY different than HLC Dash. If you ignore Tycho for too long he will come back to bite you!

Semi-finals:

http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Scum%20and%20Villainy&d=v3!s!126:135,38,128:3:-1:;125:57,135,38,-1:-1:-1:;120:57,135,-1,-1,118:-1:-1:

My opponent set up Kavil and Palob in such a way that they would bump each other if he chose a 1-forward, and placed Torkil in his bottom left corner facing the two bumping ships. I placed my ships in the opposite corner and started the game off with 2 turns of 4-straights after I realized what he was doing. Unfortunately three TLT’s are a pain to deal with, and having Wes dropped down to Pilot Skill 0 with no Focus token each round really messed up my list’s synergy. Eventually he stopped causing his ships to bump and the game was down to Luke and Palob. After a few rounds of chasing his HWK through the asteroid field Luke was unable to get a shot off and was destroyed.

Points Destroyed: 67
Lost: 100

Lessons Learned: Looking back on the match I feel like if I had set up in the opposite corner to take out the ship he was moving as quickly as possible then the outcome could have been different.

My opponent from the Semi-finals went on to face my brother (http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v3!s!56:-1,-1,132,-1:-1:-1:;79:27,36,61:-1:9:;28:18:-1:-1: ) in the finals match and defeated him, winning the tournament!

It was definitely a very fun experience and I would like to congratulate everyone who attended!

Still some life in the old X-Wings eh?

Well done and nice write-up. Thanks for sharing the lessons!

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! X-Wings are my favorite ship and I really wanted to fly them to see exactly how well they would do against Wave 7. ( We weren't allowed to use contents from the new starter set)

I'm very pleased with how they performed! A lot of the other competitors kept telling me things like "I think you're the only one who brought X-Wings to this." After the TO said that I was going in to the top 4 at 4th place I was very shocked considering that I had one loss. One guy even remarked that he couldn't believe that 3 X-Wings made it in to the top 4.

I believe that their biggest obstacle was the lack of post-maneuver re-positioning. Having each of the pilots have a very high pilot skill helped when it came time for combat, but there were a few times I would have much rather boosted/barrel rolled than focused. I think having all green 2 maneuvers threw a few of my opponents off, as I was able to shed stress after K-Turning on the next round.

I'm looking forward to pairing BB-8 with Wedge and PTL, though! And once the Integrated Astromech card releases I'm confident more people will want to pair that with R2 Astro and that we'll be seeing more and more X-Wings!

That last list went undefeated and ended up winning the tournament. The PS 0 and Token stripper is a deadly combo combined with TLT.

More proof that the the old T-65 can still slug it with the best of them (given they were all named pilots, but still). Congrats!!!

Nice and very well done report. The winner squad looks terrifying, can you describe the game in more detail? Which are the weaknesses? How exactly did you perform during the semi-final game. Would be interesting for me. Thank you

Thank you! That last squad I faced was a very tough match-up. I'll try my best to explain the game in greater detail.

I let my opponent have initiative since I would be shooting first each round anyway, and I was curious to see how he would place the first obstacle. He placed it pretty close to the middle and we ended up with a very loose formation in the center of the map. Looking back I wish that I had placed my obstacles closer to each other in order to make maneuvering through the asteroid field more difficult, since he wasn't using very maneuverable ships.

After he set up the two bumping ships in the middle and his last ship in his left corner I set up my ships in my left corner with Luke and Wedge in the front and Wes behind them in an upside-down triangle pattern. I spaced them far enough apart so that I could bank them without worrying about bumping. The first maneuver he chose for his two middle ships were 1-forwards so that they would remain in place, and chose a 1 or 2 forward with his flanking ship in order to generate as many Focus tokens as possible. I went forward with a 4-speed in an attempt to get within range 1 as fast as possible. We did the same thing again during turn 2.

For turn 3 I chose a 3-bank to the right so that I could start firing shots at his two bumping ships. By this time he had stopped causing them to bump and tried to keep me at range 3.

I don't quite remember the order in which my ships died, but I do know that Luke was the last one to go. I believe the game came down to one crucial moment when Luke and Torkil were the only two ships left. (I incorrectly had Torkil with the Moldy Crow Title. It was Kavil and Torkil who were bumping at the beginning of the game.) I had just lost Wes (or Wedge, can't remember) during a round of combat because I had no shots on his last remaining ship. I turned Luke to be directly behind Torkil and was brought down to 1 hull and had brought Torkil down to 2 or 3 hull points. I knew that during the next planning phase if I incorrectly guessed which direction he would turn I would be in trouble. Spoiler Alert: I guessed wrong (with a 1 bank) and had no shots once again.

At this point I managed to evade both of the TLT shots thanks to Luke's pilot ability! Next I performed a 3 hard turn to get back on track, but unfortuneately this put me at range 2 and not range 1 like I had hoped for. Torkil dropped my Pilot Skill down to 0 and was able to finish me off without any return fire and the game was over.

The biggest weakness I was able to exploit was the Range 1 bubble. If you can manage to stay inside of Range 1 most of the time then you may only be getting shot at by one or two ships, rather than all three. X-Wings at range 1 are very deadly, especially Wedge when paired with Wes and Opportunist (5 dice against 0-1 evades!).

I really wish I had set up in the opposite corner. This way I might have been able to get a few shots off at his lone ship without having to cross in front of the two ships that were bumping. This way I would only be losing a Focus token each round, instead of a Focus token AND being at Pilot Skill 0. I also wish I had placed the asteroids closer together in order to make flying through the center more difficult.

All in all it was a fantastic game and I'm very excited for how well my list performed throughout the entire tournament, and with the X-Wing in general! It would have been great if the final match was between my brother and I, but I guess I'll just have to try harder next time!

Thank you for the write up, and for recording the lists you faced. Congratulations on your placement!