January 30, 2016 Store Championships

Covenant Store, Tulsa OK

Field: 35 players, 5 rounds of Swiss, Cut to Top 4

My results flying “OZ Quad”:

Record of 3-2

Placed 13 of 35

MOV (didn’t record it)

Quick score summary:

Round 1: W, 100-0

Round 2: W, 65-47 (time called)

Round 3: L, 57-74 (time called)

Round 4: L, 13-100

Round 5: W, 100-49

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The List "OZ Quad"

PS5 Zeta Ace (22)

Long Barrel Roll guy

TIE/fo (18)

Push the Limit (3)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

PS7 Zeta Leader (25)

Self Stress for Extra Attack Die guy

TIE/fo (20)

Wired (1)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

Comm Relay (3)

PS7 Omega Ace (27)

Spend TL+F to Make All Crits guy

TIE/fo (20)

Push the Limit (3)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

Comm Relay (3)

PS8 Omega Leader (26)

Lockdown guy

TIE/fo (21)

Juke (2)

Comm Relay (3)

Typical starting formation: PS 7’s together, PS 5 at a wide flank, PS 8 in a box formation behind the PS 7’s or on a close flank.

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Games Summary (all opponents’ lists are approximate)

Match 1:

Christopher

Han (Kyle, Gunner, PTL, MF)

Poe (R2-D2, Lone Wolf)

This was a fairly straightforward win against a new player. I set up in the middle with his ships approaching my left. Han came straight down the left edge, but Poe aimed for the middle to try to maneuver through the asteroids to serve as a pincer.

I surrounded Han first and successfully whittled him down to a few hull after the second or third round of combat. Poe unfortunately clipped an asteroid on the turn where he could have gotten his first shots in, thus setting my opponent well off-schedule. Omega Leader got the killshot on Han, thanks in part to his lockdown ability (a theme that would emerge during the day), and after a brief chase, Poe was brought down.

I feel like I played it perfectly, but I also got the better end of a number of close maneuvering calls, where overlaps were a matter of microns and prior accidental nudges. We also completely forgot to let Poe activate Lone Wolf in the endgame, which I take as partly my fault, because I really treated the game as a learning experience for my opponent, and I was happy to help him be at his best.

Win: 100-0

Match 2:

Ethan

Palpmobile (Sensor Jammer – I think … I faced too many shuttles to remember well)

Vader (ATC, Engine Upgrade, Predator)

Soontir Fel (standard bells and whistles)

This was one of the most exciting and unbelievable games of X-Wing I’ve ever played that came down to the very last dice roll after time was called.

My main formation came up the right side, aiming for the Palpmobile. My PS5 came up the middle. I thought I had a good shot at tabling him because Soontir started out at my far left, and I didn’t expect him to get into the game soon enough. Debris was weighted to the left side of the board, giving his shuttle plenty of room to maneuver in the middle, except for one debris token in the extreme upper right corner, nearest the shuttle. (The shuttle was lined up to the inside of that token.)

After starting with a stationary maneuver, the shuttle banked left, toward my main formation coming up the right board edge, to begin the first round of major combat. However, the shuttle ended up sitting on that debris token in its near corner, and it would sit there for the next three turns nose-to-nose with one of my ships, and neither of us could get untangled for a while.

Much of the game is a blur, but I successfully killed the shuttle first, while he picked off one of my PS7s. Eventually he killed a second ship of mine, putting him in the points lead. The game featured ridiculous dice rolls (4 blanks on the attack, 3 or 4 natural evades, etc.) and when time was called, Omega Leader was lined up for a shot on a 1-hull Vader with TL and Juke evade at the ready. Since we were in the middle of the action, we completed combat. I rolled 1 crit. Vader rolled one natural evade. I juked it, resulting in Vader down, and a narrow points win for me.

Win: 65-47

Match 3:

Ian (finished Swiss in 5th place)

Howlrunner

Academy x5

Epsilon Ace (PS12 guy)

Believe it or not, I don’t think I’ve ever played a single game against a 7-ship swarm. I guess I got into the game during Wave Dash. Ian was well practiced with his swarm, and I was improvising and unsure.

His swarm started at my far right, with Epsilon Ace dangling out in the far left corner like a piece of bait (which I sort of knowingly took). Debris fields ended up lining my near side of the board, and this turned into a crucial advantage for my opponent.

I was set up in the middle right, looking like I could shoot the gaps in the debris, angle in right and joust with his Howl swarm. I began the game feinting left (away from the swarm) with 1-turns while his swarm shot ahead 5-straight and his Ace lolled in the left corner. Next I 1-turned right on the second round of maneuvers, mostly because I wasn’t confident in my ability to make the feint pay off, since his swarm had just covered half the distance to me. (Uncertainty like this tends to be the great common factor in most of my tournament losses.) His swarm had 3-turned right on the second maneuver, coming across the board in a phalanx of doom and setting up a few initial shots.

But I had also goofed. After that second maneuver, I barrel rolled long with my PS5 trying to be cute and assemble my squad in front of the same gap in the debris, but I set up a bumping conga line for myself, costing actions and pinning Omega Leader behind the line of debris fields, a position from which he would not really recover until late in the game.

Furball ensued, and I believe I was able to knock out an Academy on the first full engagement. Ian’s attack rolls were whiffing, letting me live longer than I had any right to, and it was looking like I might pull it out just through sheer fickleness of the dice. However, my initial bad maneuvering choices left my ships in uncoordinated pairs on opposite ends of the battlespace, while he was doing fairly well at keeping all of his TIEs pointed at mine.

The game was going long, and we developed a bit of an audience, including I think some gawkers outside the window next to us. I did successfully take down Howlrunner, but I don’t believe I ever landed a hit on Epsilon Ace, and his PS12 attacks counted. I was simply outplayed by a good opponent who overcame bad dice through skillful capitalization on my waffling and mistakes. After time was called, with only Omega Leader remaining, I believe I was able to 1-shot another Academy on the final dice roll, making the score a little more respectable.

Loss: 57-74

Match 4:

Dennis (finished Swiss in 2nd place)

Omicron (Vader)

Soontir Fel (bells & whistles)

2x PS4 TIE/fos (Crackshot)

This was a quick tabling, which gave me time to go get some dinner afterwards. Dennis had a great plan for his formation flying, which included inching his shuttle forward with bumps behind his TIEs, and Soontir rocketing past me to harass me from behind.

I set up in the middle, his formation at my far right. The battle ensued along the board diagonal, with all my ships basically jousting his Shuttle/TIEs block. His Crackshots successfully took out one of my PS7 heavy hitters early, I misjudged Soontir’s likely positions resulting in wasted target locks, and it went downhill quick.

Lesson learned is that you don’t joust a large base ship and its clustered support with TIE/fos that are self-stressing, because you can’t get turned around and de-stressed quickly enough to get more shots in.

I was able to strip the shields off the Doomshuttle for some consolation MOV.

Loss: 13-100

Match 5:

Eric

Palpmobile (Sensor Jammer)

Royal Guard Pilot (bells & whistles, including Shield Upgrade)

Soontir Fel (bells & whistles, including Shield Upgrade)

This turned into an entertaining match in the end, but frankly I was tired when we got started, and sick of facing shuttles and Fels.

Again, I prioritized taking down the shuttle first, which again was lined up at my far right, and again I lost one of my PS7s in the process.

There was much guessing and k-turning in the end game, and again Omega Leader got the killshot on his last ship, which was the only time I was able to do so much as ding a Soontir all day.

Win: 100-49

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All told, I like this Quad FO list, and it keeps me mentally engaged with enough variety of decision options that I don’t get bored flying it. My opposition was so monotonous, though, that I don’t know how viable it is, even when I’m not making poor decisions. I still haven’t faced a TLT or stress-dealing spam list, even in practice.

The biggest caution for myself is that when flying self-stressers, I really don’t want to be jousting a tight or wide-abreast formation. Chances are, my enemy will be able to get turned around for more shots faster than I will. So I need to have additional targets available in the background, or I need to choose the right moments not to self-stress.

Positives takeaways are:

Omega Leader is BOSS. And fun, too, because right now a lot of people haven’t really grasped for themselves how he works, and they marvel at his potency.

Comm Relay is good, maybe an auto-include on TIE/fos if you have the budget for it.

TIE Engine Mk II. is worth more than you think on self-stressing TIE/fos, even though its only gain is on the 3-banks. The chance to bug out of a furball with a 3-bank and clear your stress is very useful, and it won’t go to waste.

Did the zetas and omega ace hold there own in the matches? I know 1st hand that omega leader can wreck whoever he wants but I'm on the fence about other FOs

What's the point of Weapons Guidance on Zeta Leader (or anyone else for that matter)? Is it just some extra insurance in case you don't roll any eyes?

Paired with Wired on Zeta Leader, it increase your chance to hit.

-You take a Focus action.

-When declaring the attack, you take a stress to raise your attack to three

-If you roll a blank and no focus, you can use your focus to turn it into a hit; if you roll only hits and focus, you can use your token to change your focus into hit; But where it shines is if you roll both a focus and a blank, you can reroll the Focus with Wired and switch one blank to a hit.

I personally still prefer Comm Relay on Zeta Leader, but there is some value to Weapon Guidance when paired with Wired.

I'm on the fence about Zeta Ace. I'm not a good blocker, but his ability did come in handy to get shots in. I just wish I could boost his attack potential. Maybe Weapons Guidance, but I can't justify the points in the current list.

I like Zeta Leader's ability to make the 4-dice R1 shot. Wired seems a good fit, but I almost think VI would help him more.

Omega Ace rarely procs, but I think he's useful against hull tanks. I treat both PS7s as my heavy hitter workhorses. They are good together when I'm flying them well.

Did the zetas and omega ace hold there own in the matches? I know 1st hand that omega leader can wreck whoever he wants but I'm on the fence about other FOs

Zeta Leader is great. He's basically an Interceptor on a budget.

Wired gives him a possibility to modify every roll he makes as soon as he attack and get stress thanks to his ability. Comme Relay allows him to keep his Evade action if he doesn't spend it. Since you already have Wired to modify your rolls, you should always take an Evade action with him, unless you already have a token. Then it's either Focus (to help defend against higher PS ship) or Barrel Roll. TL only if you have nothing better to do, since Wired already help there.

Quick update...

Last weekend I took the same "OZ Quad" list I used at Covenant to my local store championship at T-Shirt Explosion in Springdale, Arkansas. It had 20 players. The format was a simple 4-round Swiss, no cut to Top 4. I believe the winner had the only 4-0 record at the end of the day.

I went 2-2 on the day, resulting in a total tournament record this year of 5-4 for "OZ Quad." Somehow I finished in 13th place in both events. An omen?? On each of my losses I can look back and see strategic errors I made right from setup, as well as the fact I had not practiced against the key elements of these superior builds (stress dealers, Phantoms).

Overall, I still feel pretty good that this list -- even though it's assembled as a stunt -- is reasonably competitive and continuously fun. However, there's little margin for error, and it's going to suffer in MOV.

Quick glance at the matches:

Round 1: Defeated a twin scum Firespray list, Kath and Boba each with Gunner. I lost both Zetas in the match, but really should have only lost one. I made the mistake of spending an evade token to cancel a single damage point on one of my guys, forgetting that this would trigger Gunner for a 5-dice rear arc attack from Kath. That's how you one-shot yourself!!

Round 2: Lost to the eventual store champ, flying Vader, Echo and a Sigma. Both Phantoms had Stygium and FCS. Very tough nut to crack. I succeeded (as usual) in having Omega Leader juke the last hull point off Vader at Range 3, so at least I got a kill before being wiped off the board. Had the match been untimed, I think I might have had a chance to pull out a win. When I killed Vader, he had only killed one of my FOs, putting me ahead on points. However, that lead lasted only seconds, as his Sigma immediately killed a second FO. Both Phantoms were shields down, but time was about to be called, so I gambled with my last maneuvers for shots, rather than pointlessly fleeing to restock Comm Relays. As a result, each Phantom got a final juicy kill once time was called, resulting in me losing 32-100.

Round 3: Lost to TLT-Tactician Miranda, Poe and Tarn. Since I wasn't around during the early waves of this game, I never had the lesson ingrained into me: a Tie jousting into Range 1 with an X-Wing is going to get chewed up. Bad, bad flying from me. Tabled 100-0.

Round 4: Defeated my buddy's vanity twin-Defender list. I think he went 1-3 on the day. I appreciate the decision to fly something now, which you know is going to be dramatically improved with the next releases; it lets you feel its shortcomings, so that you know in your gut how much (or how little) the vaunted new upgrades will improve the build.

Try playing zeta ace with Juke + Comm relay. I've predicted PS6 Red Ace's maneuver once and caught him by surprise like so:

He tried to boost away but ended up still in R1 of Zeta Ace (the image above was a rough reenactment using vassal). He couldn't boost straight or to the right side because there was another ship there. Red ace started the round with 1 hull and 2 shields. It ended with 0 shields, 1 hull and R2-D2 jettisoned by IA. three hits credited to TL/Juke combo.