So I managed to make it to worlds this year. I was gearing up for a good tournament experience but I wanted to be sure that I met certain people that I have known only on this forum for the past 3 years that I have been partaking in X-wing.

If you made it to worlds you may have seen this guy around.

This is me.

I wasn't aiming to make it to the top tables but I wanted to have a list that I could fly well and make an impact with. I like swarms and I wanted something to counter BBBBZ and 4 Y's with TLT (which I was expecting would make a showing).

My list was:

Daggar x2

Tala x4

It is all PS 4. It is aimed to challenge those PS 1-3 generics and has numbers to take on large ships. I thought I could do well with it.

My setup was the same during every match. I setup in my left corner with 3 Talas in front facing the right side corner and 2 B's with the 4th Tala in front in a row behind facing the same way. I would fly for 2 rounds and then turn up table and force my opponent to split through the rocks to engage me, at which point I would pick a target and focus it down.

T T T

B B T

I would setup one right side asteroid at range 3 and 3 from the right side corner, one from the left side edge at range 2and 2 and one asteroid at Range 1 and 30 degrees from the 2nd asteroid.

My tactic was to move straight for 2 rounds and draw my opponent into the squeeze between rocks 2 and 3. If I had to move up table fast I had enough room around rock 1 to turn everything up table.

Here were my matchups

ROUND 1 Chad Brown of Nova Squadron

Chad brought a Vader, Fel, Turr list. He came down the left side and Fel had to go around rock 2 while Vader and Turr came between rock 2 and 3. I turned up in anticipation and had both Daggars and all Talas pointing at Turr and Vader with Fel on my rear. I took out Turr and Damaged Vader. Chad and I moved to adjust and Fel took out a Daggar but then finished off Vader. Fel then had 2 Talas at range 1 and I got a HHC roll and Fel didn't survive.

ROUND 2 Ryan Voigt

Ryan was flying Miranda, Vrill, and a Grey.

He was the sole reason I could make the trip to Worlds as he offered up a spare bed for the event so I found the universe to be somewhat unfair when this match up occurred. We both wanted to be matched up during much later rounds but that was not to be.

I decided that I should play well and see what kind of game comes from it. It turned into the best strategic fight I had ever faced off during the whole tournament but I just didn't know it at the time.

Miranda and Grey came down the left with Vrill back barrel rolling to hang out on top (correctly guessing that I was pulling his squad into a squeeze Ryan saw it an pulled Vrill back and used him to feint me instead).

The Grey cut in above rock 2 and 3 and cut across the center. I was aimed to charge up against Vrill but Vrill pulled back and I had to now turn into the stressbot Grey. Miranda had gone wide around rock 2 and was out of position for too long. I took out the Grey and chased Vrill down and cornered him between chasing Talas and my remaining B-wing and Talas.

I killed Vrill and a Grey while loosing a B-wing and a Tala.

Also, during this match my dice rolled almost every evade and many unmodified hits and crits. Luck was a factor in this game.

ROUND 3 Matt Babiash

This was another Rebel list with Miranda, Gold and Poe. Setup was the same. Miranda and Poe came down the left flank and the Gold came down the center. I turned up table on round 3 and focused down the gold. I then turned back to engage Miranda and Poe. I took out Miranda quick but then spent 10 rounds chasing down and cornering Poe to kill him.

I lost a Daggar and 1 Tala while I killed Miranda, Poe, and a gold.

Now I was getting excited and thought this is going really well. I may get higher up than .500.

ROUND 4 Frank Forte

Frank brought 2 Rebel ops with TLT, 2 Blues and a bandit. All PS 2. I told him that I liked his build as it was unconventional and looked fun to fly.

I thought alright, here is a direct matchup I can win. My PS 4 list should be able to remove his in clockwork order. I turned in and engaged like the other matches and then my dice went ice cold. 5 ships fired at a blue and took off 2 shields. I could not roll any hits even with modification. I then got taken apart very quickly as I was not rolling any evades either. This match up hurt. I was down to 2 Talas left and I conceded to Frank, having done 2 shields off his blue and 2-3 damage on a rebel op. It was a sobering defeat but it was the dinner break so I decided to shake it off and do better in the next 4 matchups.

I remembered later that I hadn't put rock 3 close enough to rock 2 to force the squeeze which may have helped Frank in the initial engagement.

That was the first 4 rounds.

ROUND 5 Thomas Dadouin

This pics a bit blurry but Thomas brought a Chewie/Corran list and I thought I could do well with this matchup but Thomas had other plans. Instead of chasing my squad down he slow rolled Chewie and Corran until my list had gone the entire length of my edge and had to turn up table. He didn't take the biat.

Corran came through the mid field and engaged my squad on the flank but I turned into him and damaged Corran. I then had a problem. Not all of my list could chase Corran so I split it and went half on Chewie and half to harras Corran and maybe take him out. That did not go so well. I could not get damage to stick on Corran and I was taking hits off of Chewie but then I started to loose ships and one got a crit that forced it to fly straight - straight on past Chewie and out of range. I realised my mistake only too late and that I should have taken everything after Chewie and then fought corran more in the open but by splitting they could work both halves down. I took Chewie to 7 hull and decided to call the game when I had only 1 Tala left.

I had a chance to chat with Thomas and noticed that he had only had cardboard tokens so I asked him if he had any evade tokens and he checked through his stuff and noticed he hadn't brought any at all. I had brought some store champ acrylic evade tokens for trade and I decided to pop 2 over to his side of the table to help cover him in case he ever needed them.

ROUND 6 Ryan Krippendorf (Picasso) with Yoda

Ryan brought brobots B and C with autothrusters and sensor jammers. My Talas would be in trouble.

I knew that to get brobots you have to block them and get in their face but that didn't go so well for me. I swarmed him but couldn't get the damage output from the Talas and Ryan figured out pretty quickly that the Daggars were the bigger threat. Once my Daggars were gone I was stuck trying to punch 2 attack dice through SJ and just could not do it. I got one brobot down to half so I got MOV out of it but it was a matchup that I think taught me a lesson about 2 dice attack ships and their limits.

ROUND 7 Troy Perry (Commander Scrappy)

This round I faced Troy's TIE Advanced list that hit really hard for what it was. He had Vader, Juno, and Marek, Both Juno and Marrek with Opportunist and all with Title and ATC.

He did the same maneuvering as Chad did in my 1st round and I was able to engage with my entire list and take out Vader, then Juno and then Marek. I lost both Daggars in the exchange.

This was the kind of damage I was facing from this list:

I found out that Troy was Doug Kinney's (hothie) practice partner.

ROUND 8 Anthony Backhaus

Anthony brought an interesting list. He brought Vader, Howl, Backstabber, and 2 A.P's

He came down the right side and I engaged him in the middle. Anthony told me that he played Empire a lot and was used to blocking ships while his opponents usually complained about the tactic. I blocked him over half a dozen times and he agreed that it was a rough way to fly now that he was on the receiving end. I was able to take out an A.P. and Howl with some good chances and Vader was forced out of the conflict for a few rounds so I had the advantage. However, I could not close the deal on the remaining A.P. or Backstabber so the match ended with 1 hull left on each. Vader had made a comeback and closed the deal for Anthony. I lost 2 Talas and a Daggar (50 Points) and killed howl and an A.P. (32 points). It was one of the closest matches I had had in awhile.

I noticed that Anthony had the Store Champ focus but his evade tokens were from a secondary source. I had 3 left from my trade pack and I felt like he had earned them.

My take away from Worlds is that it is a great environment with lots of great players and a fun marathon like no other. I placed 4-4 and came in 126th. Not bad for a first venture into the big pond.

My swag from trading and purchasing:

Great write up Bro. Nice pics, I should have taken more.

Great idea to take pics. I'll have to do that next time. We faced one opponent in common, but had very different results.

Looks like a really fun list to play. Ryan has ventured up to Canada a few times and is a blast to play, so I was really glad to see him so well represented.

Great work at worlds dude.

Looks like a really fun list to play. Ryan has ventured up to Canada a few times and is a blast to play, so I was really glad to see him so well represented.

Great work at worlds dude.

Ryan was kind enough to let me crash at his hotel room for the couple of days I was at worlds. I owe him one.