Today was the first time in more than three months that I had a chance to get a few competitive games of X-wing under my belt, and boy, did I have fun. There are three stores in the Harrisburg area that run competitive X-wing events, and today’s event was at Save Point in Lemoyne.
We had 8 pilots flying, and played 60 minute rounds.
I was flying a list of 2 K-Wings and 2 Z-95’s. The Z’s were Bandits with no upgrades. Both K’s were Warden Squadron Pilots, with a number of upgrades. K-1 had a Twin Laser Turret, Advanced Slam, Advanced Homing Missiles and Conner Net, plus Extra Munitions to keep it interesting. K-2 carried an Ion Turret, Plasma Torpedoes, Proximity Mines and extra munitions.
My first round opponent happened to be my friend, Jim. Hewas flying an Omicron Shuttle with Emperor Palpatine and Anti-Pursuit Lasers, a fully kitted out Soontir Fel with Push the Limit, Royal Guard Title, Stealth Device and Authotrusters, and Zertik Strom with the X-1 title, Advanced Targeting Computer, Predator and Engine Upgrade.
Flying against Jim is always a pleasure. He’s a consummate sportsman, and has on several occasions gone out of his way to make sure that I have time to fly little plastic ships. It was a good match, but the tide was showing when I managed to take down the alabaster space cow and Emperor Palpatine. Due to some ion effects, Fel and Strom were out of position. Before Fel could reengage, I managed to take him out as well. Jim had done some serious damage as well, and it came down to Zertik Strom and K-1 when time ran out. I managed to eke out a win, but just barely at that point.
My second Round opponent was Jordan, who was bringing his Brobots. He flew IG-88B with Autothrusters, Hot Shot Blaster, Mangler Cannon, IG-2000 Title. He also flew IG-88C with a few differences from 88B that I can unfortunately not remember.
Jordan has been flying Brobots for a while now, and it shows. I couldn’t land a single solid hit with my mines, and in fact managed to hit each and every one of them with my own ships. Meanwhile, the IG-88’s systematically tore apart the rebels, leaving me at the end of the game with only one ship functional. I managed to get half points for one of the IG’s because of the new rules, but time was up before I could finish him off.
Third round I flew against Stephen, who was leading off with Captain Jonus with Conner Net, Flechette Torpedoes, and extra munitions, Krassix Trelix with Seismic Charge, Mangler Cannon and Extra Munitions, and a Scimitar Squadron Bomber carrying Cluster Bombs and Plasma Torpedoes and extra munitions.
My game with Stephen was, as one might expect, a real munitions fest. The K-wings went down the right hand side of the board, straight at Stephen’s squadron. However, the just inched forward the first round, while the Z’s accelerated to attack speed down the middle. The second round was interesting. I realized if I did it by half measures, I was doomed to take Missile and Torpedo fire, not to mention the Mangler. So I followed up the K’s movements with SLAM actions and hoped they could clog up the fight. They did, and the Z’s got some snap shots in from the side. Jonus managed to hit one of the K’s with a Flechette Torpedo, but failed to land the hit.
From there, the K’s leap frogged the Imperial line and dropped munitions on top of them. They landed both the Conner net and the Prox mine, but while the Net disabled Jonus, Krassis managed to avoid taking any damage at all from the Prox Mine by rolling three eyeballs.
From there, it devolved into a furball that saw both sides tossing munitions as often as possible. I managed to drop my other Conner Net, but K-2 was destroyed before getting to deploy its 2nd Prox mine. K-1 did manage to fire off his advanced homing missile at Krassis, but missed like a champ.
At the end, the TIE Bombers were eliminated, and I once again had only K-1 left on the board. In the last round, K-1 fired off his TLT’s, missing with the first shot, but landing a solid hit with the second. That 2nd shot brought the win, as it took Krassis to exactly ½ damage. After consulting the Tournament rules, I managed to squeak by with another victory, although this one was very close.
In the end, Jordan took first place, a player I didn’t play took 2nd, Jim took 3rd, and I took 4th. Not bad for day of knocking the rust off.
It was a fun list to fly, and it was good to come up against another player who was using ordnance as well. Overall, I think ordnance is still a LOT more useful than it used to be, but I just don’t think it’s quite “there” yet. Making it worth two shots was a big improvement with extra munitions, but the inability, in most situations, to influence the attack dice still hampers them pretty solidly.
Hopefully, it won’t be another three months until I get to fly again!