Game Empire in Mesa, Arizona hosted their Store Championship on the first Saturday of the new year yesterday, attracting 45 players, nearly doubling last year’s 24-person tournament.

Three of us from my weekly league made the 120-mile drive up from Tucson, though not all in one car. I drove up with Chris Little, the guy who pushed me out of the first-place spot in our Tucson Games and Gadgets league. Tiffer Hill also attended from our league, but he was already in Phoenix the night before.

I brought:

Darth Vader

+Predator

+title

+Advanced Targeting Computer

+Stealth Device

Soontir Fel

+Push the Limit

+title

+Autothrusters

+Stealth Device

Omicron Group Pilot

++Emperor Palpatine

I experimented with Juke on Vader and either Engine Upgrade on him or Sensor Jammer on the shuttle. I thought about VI/Engine Vader. In the end, I really wanted to run Predator on Vader to make his attacks terrifying. I went with Stealth Device to make him nearly as hard to hit as Soontir.

We are right on the edge of doing 5 or 6 rounds (the updated tournament rules suggest 5 rounds for 44 and 6 rounds for 45+). With exactly 44 people registered, the TO announces we will do 5 rounds. One more person registers and the TO announces that we will still be doing 5 rounds.

Round 1 vs Chris Ogino (table 11)

Chris is running double Decimator, which is not something I prepped for at all. Decimators have nearly vanished from our league since TLTs showed up. One of them is Patrol Leader with Vader. The other is Oicunn with Predaor, Gunner, Mara, Ysanne. I misread his list and think he has Gunner on the Vaderboat, so I put Soontir way out on a flank, since Vader+Gunner is two attacks away from just killing Soontir. I put Vader with the Omicron and send them both straight at the Decimators, hoping to kill the Vaderboat and then have Soontir join to kill Oicunn.

Burning down the Vaderboat works great, as neither of us rolls red dice that miss for the first two or three rounds of combat. We trade Vader for Vader and the Emperor and Oicunn separate, each at about half health. Soontir joins the fight and gets immediately critted with Weapons Malfunction. Soontir spends 6 turns trying to fix his weapon, during which time I stubbornly refuse to let the Emperor put it back together with the Force, thinking I’ll need the Emperor to keep 2-hull, no-Stealth Soontir alive. Soontir finally fixes the weapon the turn after the Emperor dies, but it’s too late. 6 rounds of firing 2 unmodified dice into Ysanne Isard keeps the Deci on the table and finally Soontir succumbs to the Gunner/Predator pressure.

Loss 71-100 (0-1, MoV 71)

Round 2 vs Matthew Bucher (table 14)

Matthew has regenerating Poe and Corran with a Tala alongside. Neither of his aces has VI, so I have PS advantage. He sets up across from my Shuttle and goes straight for the Emperor. I try to run with the Shuttle and flank with the fighters, but the Shuttle burns down fast and my aces are left to fight on their own. He pulls off a great block with Poe, causing Fel to bump Poe and Vader to bump Fel, denying me 4 actions. Poe and Corran put three shots into Vader and suddenly it’s Soontir Fel facing 100 points of (mostly) regenerating rebels, and I’m thinking it’s going to be an 0-2 day. Soontir does what he does and I manage to put two damage into Corran, saying “hey, maybe I can stay ahead of R2!”

The next turn, both of his aces turn around. Corran K-turns, so he doesn’t regenerate, and Poe catastrophically Tallon Rolls right off the map. Soontir barrel rolls and evades to get Corran in arc at range 1, but also leaves himself in Corran’s arc. I roll blank, focus, focus, hit. Facing a Corran range-1 FCS double-tap in return, I use my one focus to put three hits on three-hp Corran. He rolls blank, blank, focus and in one turn it goes from Soontir vs the world to Soontir vs a Tala. It takes almost no time for Soontir to finish that work, and I’m back from the brink of death!

Win 100-65 (1-1, MoV 206)

Round 3 vs Gerard Gonzalez (table 11)

Gerry is running Bossk with Calculation, Outlaw Tech, Hounds Tooth, Kavil TLT and Thug TLT. I figure I’ll go straight for Bossk and then deal with the TLTs. On the approach, I manage to accidentally get Soontir into Kavil’s arc at range 3, which is actually the best combination of abilities. No extra die for Kavil, but I still get Autothrusters. Bossk goes down quickly to focus fire, dropping the Nashtah Pup right behind the shuttle. Vader chases down the Thug while Soontir and the shuttle work on Kavil. He manages to get the shuttle down to 2 or 3 hull, but the game is over pretty quickly.

Win 100-14 (2-1, MoV 392)

Round 4 vs Gern Blumstein (table 6)

Another Bossk and two TLT list, but the TLTs have BTL, and Bossk has an Engine and a K4 Sec Droid instead of the title. I again figure Bossk is more dangerous than the TLTs. Worst case, I figure Soontir can probably take care of the BTLs by himself. Bossk boosts straight at the Shuttle and Vader on turn 1. Vader does a hard 3, gets the target lock, and then barrel rolls out of range. Bossk boosts past the shuttle, putting himself parallel to my edge on turn 2, allowing Vader to hard turn toward the side of Bossk, about half a centimeter out of the 180-arc. Next turn, Bossk stops and Vader K-turns over his ship, landing with less than a millimeter to spare. Vader and the Emperor focus on Bossk while Soontir flanks behind the Y-Wings, who are focusing on Vader. Bossk goes down and the TLTs miss 6 times at Vader. Before long, the Y-Wings can only shoot the shuttle. They (and a rock) manage to get its shields down before the end. another 100-14 victory!

Win 100-14 (3-1, MoV 578)

Round 5 vs David Morgan (table 3!)

It’s the final round and we are both at 3-1. We both know that this is most likely an elimination game. David has IG-88B with Crack Shot, FCS, HLC, and Autothrusters, supported by two Thugs with TLT and Agromechs. I put all of my ships in one corner, sending in both aces to flank, and hoping to draw him toward the shuttle so I can flank IG. He’s not going to fall for the shuttle trap, and on the close he puts 6 shots into Soontir, and Soontir gets exactly what he needs to dodge all of them (an extra evade for each IG shot to cover Crack Shot, and just enough Autothruster and Sith Lord to exactly dodge the TLT barrage). I switch to an anti-TLT strategy, and bring the shuttle in at full speed to get another gun on those tanks. When the shuttle turns in with the hard-2, he ends up facing straight at IG. a 2-straight is enough to block up IG between the space cow and a set of rocks. Darth and Soontir each get a Y kill while the IG frees itself and starts cutting through my ships.

Crack Shot forces a crit onto Soontir: Direct Hit. Soontir hides and Darth gets hammered, going down to one hull as well. We haven’t lost a ship yet, but this thing could turn around quickly, as IG still has all his hull and is rolling evades like he’s Soontir Fel. The shuttle comes around again and tries to get in front of IG. He manages to pull it off when IG is stuck facing the edge and only has one turn direction available. With the block, IG gets no action and then his green dice finally crap out and Soontir and Vader finish him off for the win!

Win 100-0 (4-1, MoV 778)

I have made the cut with the best MoV of the 4-1 players, for the third seed. The turn-around in round 2 was huge. I thought for sure I was going to be 0-2, then didn’t lose a ship for the rest of the day, which will get your MoV back in shape.

There are two players at 25 points and six at 20, so the cut is clean. 9th place has 18, and then the 15s start at 10th. Chris Little (my carpool partner) is 4th, having flown his last ship off the board vs Philip Booth’s IG-88 A and B to prevent a shield regeneration and preserve 25 points of MoV, which makes him the 4 seed instead of the 6. Since I’m the 3 seed, that keeps us from potentially facing each other until the final. Tiffer Hill, another regular from our Tucson league, is in 11th.

Top 8:

1 seed: Philip Booth with IG-88 A and B with AT, Title, HLC, Glitterstim, Crack Shot, FCS

2 seed: Christopher Markham with Darth Vader + VI + Engine + Adv Targeting + Title, Kenkirk + Isard + Engine + Palpatine + Predator

3 seed: Scott Forster (me)

4 seed: Chris Little with Bandit, Gold +R3-A2 +TLT +BTL, Gold TLT, Miranda +TLT +C-3PO

5 seed:Tylon Bias with Poe + VI + R2-D2 + AT, Miranda + TLT + Tactician, 2x Bandit

6 seed: Drew Bishop with Whisper +VI +Sensor Jammer +Agent Kallus +ACD, Howlrunner +Hull Upgrade, 3x Academy Pilot

7 seed: Richard Hsu with Biggs, Bandit, Wedge + R2-D2 + DTF + Integrated Astromech + Plasma Torps, TLT Stresshog

8 seed: Daniel Poppe with Gold + Autoblaster Turret, 2x ICT Rebel Ops, Bandit, Stresshog

Top 8 vs Drew Bishop

Drew’s list is above. It’s Whisper and a Howlrunner mini-swarm. The main wrinkle is Agent Kallus on the Phantom, paired with Sensor Jammer. I win the initiative roll and have to choose between moving before Whisper but getting to shoot vs 2 defense dice, or moving after but having to face 4 dice. I take the initiative, hoping I can turn 2 or 3 shot opportunities into a dead Phantom. At the back of my head is also simultaneous fire and the fact that Initiative wins draws in the elimination round. He calls Vader with Agent Kallus and sets up the swarm in the middle and Whisper very near to them, but facing my shuttle. I set Vader by the shuttle and Soontir on the flank.

Vader closes too quickly and finds himself in heavy traffic. I notice that Whisper is exactly a 4K away and cloaked, so I put in a 4K and think I’m clever. The turn starts and Whisper tries to decloak to the right: off the map. Then forward: a TIE Fighter in the way. Then left: can’t get past the rock. Vader crashes into Whisper and takes a lot of damage from Howlrunner shots, picking up a Damaged Engine. Soontir is cutting up TIE Fighters, starting with a Hit-Hit-Hit-Crit shot against a bumped Howlrunner, who blnks out the defense roll and is gone in one shot. TIE Fighters are dropping like flies and I manage to take a shield off of Whisper.

Soon it is Soontir, Shuttle, and 1-hull Vader facing 1-shield Whisper and things are looking good. Then Vader falls and Whisper starts to work on the Shuttle while staying away from Soontir. The game is dragging on as the Shuttle runs and there are a lot of no-shot turns. I start to wonder if there’s a timer going. The shuttle manages to block Whisper and Soontir has a shot at a no-token Phantom: blank, blank, blank, hit. I’m facing 5 dice in return, so I don’t Emperor it and he blanks out and i get the shields down. could a crit have won the game? who knows… His return shot is as anemic as mine, so the aces separate and the shuttle plows around for another lap. Whisper finally gets the shuttle down and I ask how much time remains. 2 minutes and 15 seconds. With 2:15 left in the game, the score has just flipped and I’ve got maybe 2 or 3 turns to kill the Phantom. I get another shot and again roll 1 hit, which is evaded. Time is called on the next turn and Whisper rolls out of Soontir’s arc, then takes the formality shot. He rolls 4 damage and I roll evade, focus, focus, focus. I opt not to spend my focus token and just tip over my Soontir.

Drew goes on to win the tournament:

Philip Booth beat Daniel Poppe

Chris Little beat Tylon Bias

Richard Hsu beat Christopher Markham

Drew Bishop beat Richard Hsu

Chris Little beat Philip Booth*

Drew Bishop beat Chris Little in a 2-hour match to win the Regional Bye!

Full List Juggler here

* it is arguable that Philip Booth beat himself when he forgot to put down a dial for IG-88A. Chris flew it off the map for him at full health. The ensuing 50 vs 100 match came down to the wire with Miranda killing B with a range-1 shot in IG’s arc and only 2 Miranda hull remaining.

I'm planning on running a similar list in an upcoming tournament (with the VI + EU variant of Vader) and it's encouraging to see that you did so well!

My biggest fear though, is facing TLTs. I imagine them just ripping right trough both aces. But they somehow didn't seem to be that much of a problem for you. Any idea why that is? Got any tips on how to approach them?

Should I just calm down?

My friend who got second runs a triple TLT list, and that's what finally convinced me to put Stealth Device on Vader. Both aces having 4 dice with Evade and Focus (and the Emperor to cover bad rolls) makes it take a lot longer for the TLTs to break through. Without Stealth, Vader just kept melting too fast (or I'd let him take a hit or two because the Emperor was focused on protecting Soontir's Stealth Device; two Stealth Devices "forced" me to protect them both against any damage).

The VI/EU Vader deals better with Aces, obviously (and I would have loved to have VI in that Top 8 match). Against TLTs with him, you need to aggressively reposition to get into donuts, or turtle up with Focus/Evade if you can't make it into range 1. That's the reason I went with Predator: so I could save my focus for defense.

Hey Scott, nice write-up! I hope you don't mind, but rather than start a second Empire Games Store Championship thread, I'll just post my report here as well. (I'm Garrett from Tucson, by the way, from the former A2Z Games.)

Choosing a list was hard for me. I don't get a lot of opportunities to play and pretty much didn't get a chance to do any real practicing until the night before the tournament. My thoughts were to take one of two lists:

1) Something with Poe Dameon in it so I can show off my repainted Poe's X-wing

2) Something with Scyks just to be "that guy who took Scyks to a store championship."

As a Scum player, I really wasn't feeling Poe. I talked with my friend Tony and he agreed that I didn't seem super comfortable with it. Since he was running Poe, I decided to let him use my repaint. That allowed him to show off my repaint while I flew Scyks. But I played a couple games on Vassal with my brother the night before and my Scyks just weren't doing well. I had the feeling that I could make them work, but I needed a lot more practice flying the HLC Scyks than what I currently had. So my thoughts turned to another list that had been tempting me for a while. All credit for this list goes to VaynMaanen and he posted about it in this thread.

Boba Fett (48)

Firespray-31 (39), Veteran Instincts (1), Tactician (2), Glitterstim (2), Engine Upgrade (4)

Bossk (51)
YV-666 (35), Veteran Instincts (1), “Mangler” Cannon (4), K4 Security Droid (3), Tactician (2), Outlaw Tech (2), Engine Upgrade (4)

TOTAL: 99

The trouble was that I didn't own any TIE Phantoms, but I figured I'd borrow them from my buddies. I tried the list on Vassal against my brother using Dash/Corran and although I lost, I felt good about the list and I had fun. I decided to take that list. I packed up my needed pieces and got ready the night before the tournament. I kept having a bad feeling about not bringing all my stuff, but I ignored it. It turned out, though, that I left my dials at home!!! Fortunately, Phil (who took top seed) let me borrow his YV-666 dial and my friend Cody had a Scum Firespray-31 dial with him. Phew! Those two saved my day! Also, the store was having a sale and had 2 TIE Phantoms and since I hadn't seen any in Tucson lately, I decided to pick them up.

Round 1 - Bryan

He was flying Biggs (R7 and Integrated Astromech) escorting Horton (R3-A2 & Twin Laser Turret) and Poe Dameron (R5-P9, Shield Upgrade, and Veteran Instincts). We were both at 99 so he rolled and got initiative. First round was positioning. Second round I kept Bossk at range 3 while Fett boosted into range 1 and used Glitter Stim. Being at range 1 of all three meant Fett could pretty much reroll all his dice and had focus from Glitterstim! First hit took off Biggs' shields. Next hit would have killed him if it weren't for Integrated Astromech (a recurring theme throughout the tournament for many of the X-wings). Horton stressed Bossk a lot but also stressed himself. He was pretty much out of the game for a while so we attacked Poe. One of my guys was able to take all 4 shields off Poe in one attack. We soon finished Poe off and turned our sights on Horton. I should have thought about MoV and ran Boba Fett away while Bossk finished off Horton. I didn't and Horton was able to kill Fett. There was a bit of hot blood here, because my opponent misunderstood me and though Fett was worth 51 points and Bossk was worth 48. He claimed he would have switched target priority. *shrug* Bossk killed Horton for the win. This game was definitely a good warm up because we each missed some things. For example, he tried to trigger R7 after I had already rerolled with Fett's ability. Then I forgot that Fett had reduced attack value when he fired at Horton for the last time. Fortunately, I dealt no damage with Fett's attack anyway. I realized after that match that I had to get my head in the game.

1-0

Round 2 - Sean

Sean was flying 3 T-70s: Poe Dameron (R5-P9, Veteran Instincts, Autothrusters), Ello Asty, (Veteran Instincts, Autothrusters), and "Blue Ace" (R2 Astromech, Autothrusters). I commented on how cool of a build it was and how it seemed like it came straight from the movie. He said, "It did," and showed me his squad sheet with the name of the squad:
"As Long As There Is Light." So many cool points right there! I don't remember this match too well. I'm pretty sure we took out Poe, then Ello, and then "Blue Ace." My opponent convinced me that autothrusters triggered in my auxillary arcs and in the heat of the moment I agreed with him. It was only after the tournament that my friend Tony pointed out that was wrong. Oops. But I got the win anyway. Boba Fett was at half health and Bossk was hardly damaged.

2-0

Round 3 - Chris

Another Tucsonian, yay! Chris struck me as a real thinker. Sure, he was friendly and upbeat (one of my favorite opponents for the whole day), but just the way he did things made me feel like he flew with his mind while I'm the kind of guy who flies with his heart. For example, he kept asking to see my dials so he could plot moves according to where he thought I would go. His list was Miranda Doni (Twin Laser Turret, C-3PO), Gold Squadron Pilot (BTL-A4, Twin Laser Turret, R3-A2), Gold Squadron Pilot (Twin Laser Turret), and Bandit Squadron Pilot. Looking at this squad, I decided jousting was the best option. So we did. In the first round of combat we took the TLT Y-wing down to 1 hull. Shame, we couldn't kill it. We would have gone for the stressing one but it was out of Bossk's arc. Next round, Fett went 3-straight, hoping to get behind everyone. He didn't clear the enemy. Had I done a 4, it would have worked and been brilliant. Instead, Fett got dealt Blinded Pilot and Bossk got lit up. Next round, Boba fett couldn't shoot and Bossk got dealt Blinded Pilot. The following round, Bossk died, unable to get one last shot in. Those two crits really turned the tide. I lost having only killed one Y-wing and the other Y-wing was on 1 hull. That game could have gone very differently. Oh well. Like I said, it was a really fun opponent.

2-1

Round 4 - Jullian

He was a very quiet guy and seemed rather irritated at me the whole time. I never could figure out why. He was flying 5 TIEs: Howlrunner, Mauler Mithel (Push the Limit), Omega Leader, Omega Ace (Push the Limit), and Epsilon Leader. It was the first time in forever that I had faced TIEs and had yet to face any TIE/fos. It was a crushing defeat. I made this brilliant move in round 2 where Bossk was at range 3 and Fett went straight instead of banking toward the TIEs and then boosted behind them so only 2/5 had shots. Unfortunately, he could only shoot Omega Leader who had target locked Fett, meaning Fett couldn't get rerolls. Also, I thought Howlrunner was in arc, so I popped the Glitterstim, hoping to take her out. The Glitterstim was useless against Omega Leader. Big mistake. The next round, I thought He would keep going for Fett, but he turned toward Bossk and Bossk's 3-straight couldn't clear the swarm. Bossk got chewed up and died, but at least he took Howlrunner down first. Boba Fett got so many crits from Omega Ace. In the last round, Fett had 2 hull remaining and two Stunned Pilot crits. That meant that if I bumped any ship, Fett would die. I think the TIEs covered every possible maneuver I could take. Fett overlapped Mithel and that was game.

2-2

Round 5 - Gerard (final round)

At last! Another Scum player. Scott also played this man. He had Kavil (TLT, Unhinged Astromech), Bossk (Outlaw Tech, Hound's Tooth, Calculation), and Syndicate Thug (TLT, Unhinged Astromech). Unlike all the other rounds, I decided to split my forces. We started in the right corner with Fett going up the right side and Bossk going along my board edge. The asteroids were all in the lower right, so this let us avoid going through them (although they were far enough apart that I was later able to navigate through them with ease). Some shots were exchanged between Fett and a Y during the first round, butt in round 2, both of my ships had his Bossk in arc. My Bossk had his at range 2 and was able to stress it with Tactician. This was huge because his ship could not stop, so my Bossk new that if he maneuvered into that space, he'd be safe. The next round allowed my Bossk and Boba Fett to get into range-1 of his Bossk and destroy it. We forgot the Nashtah Pup would deploy. We hunted the Syndicate Thug, and then Kavil and then finally finished off the Nashtah Pup. I believe my own Bossk was only 1 hull from being destroyed and Fett had quite a few Hull damage, so it was a decently close game.

3-2

So my day started off okay and then it got rocky. I suppose that happens as you move up the tables in Swiss. I think my list stands a chance against the ones I lost to, but I just didn't have the match-up knowledge to take advantage of their lists. I made some clear mistakes that could have changed the game completely. But my goal was to go have fun and I had a blast! I think I'll definitely be coming back to this squad again. And you know, for this being my second official FFG X-Wing tournament, I'd say it didn't go so badly.

David Morgan here. I'll post my write up here soon too, but just wanted to comment on our match.

Stealth Device was absolutely crucial for the Dark Lord in this match up. I brought R4s on my TLTs because having a modifier on each TLT shot means that even aces like Soontir and Corran have to be wary, especially after my IG88 removes tokens. Nothing I could do about your hot dice, as you stated you rolled exactly what you needed that first turn to avoid every shot on Soontir, where average dice should have seen at least one go through. I think my mistake was in turning around the asteroid at the end, I should have k turned instead. Would have still had to deal with the shuttle and Soontir, but Vader would have been out of range at least.

I would also like to note, that you were the only person who went TLT hunting instead of trying for IG, and that strategy obviously paid off. In my wins, everyone went for IG88 first (and for good reason) but that gave my TLTs free range to remove health at will.

1/5/16 Update: After thinking more on this, I did make a mistake in target priority. I should have shot Darth Turn 1. Even with Focus, Evade, and Stealth Device, I know I could have popped his Stealth Device without Autothrusters firing. Even 2 damage that turn would have most likely been a dead Dark Lord on Turn 2. Oh well. Next time. Wish I could make it down to Tucson for the next Store Champ.

I placed 3-2 overall with my List of:

IG88B with Crack Shot, HLC, Autothrusters, FCS.

2 X Y-Wing Thugs with TLT and R4 Aggromech.

I went back and forth a lot on this list, because I really miss Glitterstim on my IG for when positioning doesn't go my way, or for that extra modifier on some nice shots, but I just do not see the value in Unhinged. IG88 will be the target for any stress mechanics, and if I am not stressing myself, is gives me a 3 speed green turn...not a big deal. If aces get behind me, I'm only going to shake them if my opponent makes a mistake, green 3 turns will not help. R4s on the other hand mean I can focus every turn and get modifiers on both my TLT shots, which is crucial for getting hits in on Autothruster/High Agi ships. I have found that I can reliably get off at least 2 turns of shots before an Ace closes, which is 8 modified shots of TLT goodness. Also, when chased, I turn each Y a different direction, so to chase one, you have to expose yourself to the other.

Round 1: VS Rex Andersen

Rex was really nice, but his list wasn't well built for a tourney where you would be facing meta lists. He had:

Talonbane with Swarm Tactics and Clusters.

Palob with Bodyguard, TLT, Recon, Moldcrow and Hotshot Blaster.

Torkil Mux with TLT, Recon, and Hotshot Blaster.

My Ys were in the center, with Iggy off to the right a bit. His HWKs were offset a little to my left with Cobra further left. First round of shooting saw Iggy taking a range 2 shot at Mux, putting a few dmg on him and taking nothing for return fire from both HWKs. Next round I slooped behind them, but still in range 2 of Mux, while my Ys circled. IG loses his shields from Cobra and the TLTs, but finishes Mux, and my TLTs (which I had go two different directions) put both Cobra and Palob into hull. Next round sees Palob and Cobra bite the dust, but not before Cobra gets to unleash a 5 dice TL attack into the side of a Ywing.

Win 1-0 MOV 100-24

Round 2: Richard Hsu

I had never met Richard before, but I certainly knew of him. He was great fun to play against. He was flying:

Wedge with Draw Their Fire, R2D2, Integrated Astromech, and Plasma Torpedo

Biggs

God of Stress Y-Wing, Gold with TLT and R3A2

Bandit

He kept his group all together in the upper left corner, while my IG was center with my Ys off to the right a bit. He slow rolled while I powered my ships forward. Next turn he turned in, as did I and some range 3 shots were exchanged between the bandit, Biggs, Wedge, and my IG. Crucially, his stressbot was just out of range 3 and was unable to fire. 1 or 2 dmg on Biggs is all that happened. Next round was the fulcrum, as he moved the Bandit and Biggs forward slightly and K-Turned with Wedge and the Stressbot. If I moved forward I'd be blocked and face a range 1 shot from Biggs and the Bandit and if K-turned or slooped I'l be in the teeth of Wedge and the stressbot. Fortunately, I predicted he might try to block me and I 3 banked away from the whole mess, boosting further to be well out of arc with 3 target locks in tow. Biggs and the bandit could only shoot at my full health Y-Wings, which proceeded to melt Biggs with maybe a point or two dmg in return. Next round saw IG fly down to the board edge and boost around a rock, while the stress bot turned to follow and Wedge cleared his stress. The bandit got a range 1 shot on one Y-wing for a few dmg but lost both his shields to a primary attack as I predicted his K-turn and moved in to fire, and a couple dmg went into the stressbot. Stressbot did no dmg to IG but did put 2 stress on him, but lost his shields in return fire. The last round saw IG move up to intentionally run into the stressbot giving it no shot, while Wedge turned in and unleashed his Torpedo, doing 3 dmg plus the shield to get IG to exactly half health. Return fire took Wedge to 1 hull, with a TLT finishing off Wedge and then the other taking out the Bandit. With only the stress bot remaining and no way to turn around, he conceded.

Richard told me we'd have to meet again in Top 8, but sadly, I made a crucial mistake on my 4th game that cost me that chance. Perhaps we can rematch at Regionals.

Win 2-0 MOV 100-24

Round 3: Julian Horvath

Epsilon Leader

Omega Ace w Push the Limit

Mauler w Crackshot

Omega Leader w Crackshot

Howlrunner

Julian was a great opponent, and I was really worried about this list, as I have always struggled against swarms. The last tournament I went to I faced a very similar list with my IG88B and Boba Fett list and it dismantled me. In fact, I think it was Julian who I faced, and he took first place if I recall correctly. However, R4 TLTs can reliably melt a Tie a round.

Caveat, I may be mis-remembering which Tie is which in this report.

He set up his squad together offset a bit to the left of center, my Ys were center, with IG a bit to the right. First turn he slow rolls, and i have my Ys bank away while my IG turns in. Second turn he creeps forward again, and i push my Ys to the right side of the center asteroid and bring IG up to face them at Range 3. First turn, only Mauler and IG have shots at each other, and IG spends his crackshot to wipe Mauler off the board, taking 1 dmg in return. Next turn sees me move right into their teeth, as Omega Ace flys by IG, but Omega leader and Epislon crash into IG, and Howl crashes into them. Howl is taken to 1 hull, Omega Ace is taken to 1 hull, and 1 Y loses some shields, and Iggy loses some shields. Next turn I Slooped behind the formation, the Y wings turn two different directions away from the group, and he moves his group to shoot at the Ys and save tokens for defense. Both Ys lose their sheilds, and 1 takes a crit, but are able to return fire. Howl and Omega Ace both pop, and Omega Leader is mauled. Next turn or two, the Ties turn in to Iggy to try and kill him, and manage to take him to 2 hull before the rest are destroyed.

Win 3-0, MOV 100-24

Round 4: Chris Markham

Chris was flying:

Darth Vader with ATC, Vx1, EU, VI

Kenkirk with Emperor, Isard, EU, and Predator.

Kenkirk was off to my far right, with Vader in the far left. My IG was a little to the left with my Ywings in the center. I felt like this positioning favored me, as I could shoot at Vader for a round or two without the Decimator shooting at me. I banked my Ys toward Vader, and moved IG up 3, and then second guessed myself with the boost. I always seem to forget just how far Advanced and Interceptors can move that first turn. I boosted straight instead of toward Vader, and he had enough to move 5 straight, boost and barrel roll out of arc. I think only 1 dmg got through, but no return fire was really demoralizing for me since, had gone with my first instinct, Vader should have taken some dmg. Instead it took 3 more turns to finally kill Vader, while his Decimator got into position and started eating away at my squad. Vader went down, but IG went down soon after, and with Predator, it was just a matter of time. I got the Decimator down to 4 hull before he removed my last Y-wing.

Loss 3-1 MOV 67-100

Round 5: Scott Forster

I'm not sure much more needs be said about this match that isn't covered by Scott and my commentary earlier. Unlike most of the prior games, there wasn't really one turn where things just fell apart or went really well. Certainly Scott's excellent rolling that first turn saved Soontir. While Vader would have been a bit easier to hit, I had all my shots plus Crackshot and really felt like if I could just get 1 dmg through and pop the stealth device I'd be able to take it. From there my IG got out of position, taking some dmg and Scott went TLT hunting. Forcing that crit through on Soontir was great, but I just couldn't finish either Ace, ending with Soontir and Vader on 1 hull.

Loss 3-2 MOV 0-100

Overall a really fun day, if a bit disappointing. I feel like this list performed exactly as it should, pilot error not withstanding. If I had boosted toward Darth in game 4, or if 1 die roll had been different in the opening volley in game 5, I feel I would have made Top 8. Luckily there are a few more store tournaments in the area over the next few months.

Lots of awesome information here gents, thanks for sharing.

STORE CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON BEGINS AGAIN!! WOOOHOOOO!!

Nice reports guys. Some interesting stuff popping up there

Hey, writing up battle reports for Empire games store championships seems like fun! I’m the Tony that Budgernaut talked about sometimes.

I went in with a squad that I felt pretty good about.

Poe with BB-8, Push the Limit and Autothrusters (38 points)

2x Gold Squadron with TLT, R2 Astromechs and Btl-A4 (25 each)

Bandit Pilot (The true linchpin of the my squad)

I made the list a week or so before Worlds and ran it a few times with modest success, and was then very happy/annoyed when Paul Heaver won with the same ships and a somewhat different build.

First match was against Dillon, who ran Poe with VI, R2-D2 and Autothrusters (same points as my Poe), and 2 Wardens with TLT and Tactician.

So, coming into this I set up with a formation I had planned ahead of time. Dillon had initiative so he placed his K-wings in the right corner. I set up my ships on left side of the right-most asteroid, so not directly in line with his K-wings and in a box formation (Z on the left, Y-wings stacked on top of each other, so the K-turns can mesh) and then put Poe in the empty space behind the Z, but facing straight towards the right Y-wing rather than towards Dillon’s squad. His Poe went straight behind the K-wings.

The first round I moved all my ships forward 1 and used BB-8 to barrel up and back, PtL for a focus (just cause) and then did a 1-straight into my back Y-wing. It was very confusing for Dillon, but he didn’t care and moved his K-wings up. We repeated for the next round but for the 3^rd I knew we’d be in firing range and I’d have to change things up, so while I had my ships bank around the bottom asteroid as his K-wings did the same, I had my Poe barrel roll down then bank and boost around the other side of the asteroid, pinching his ships between mine (and also staying out of the firing arc of the K-wings).

First round of shooting caught me off guard, as I had not realized Tactician does trigger twice off TLT, I had for some reason thought it had been errata’d to not do that, so he managed to double stress both of my Y’s. Unfortunately for him, all my ships had a shot on a K-wing and those BTL-A4 Y’s with TLT do tons of damage. I destroyed a K-wing that first turn of shooting.

Following that, I was very happy to have R2’s on my Y’s as it made it much easier to clear that stress and still stay relevant. The next few rounds didn’t have anything too exciting happen, he picked apart my Y-wings with Poe and the K and I tried to focus down his last K, knowing that a Regen Poe would be even harder to eliminate. He didn’t manage to catch a ship in arc at range 2 again before I killed his K-wing, but in the process I ended up losing both my Y’s. Last round, my Z was undamaged and my Poe had only taken 1 hit, while his Poe had 1 shield and 1 hull. I try to catch him with some K-turns and Tallon rolls, but he boosts out of arc and manages to make it to time with his Poe. Since our Poes were the same points, I won by exactly 1 Z-95. Woohoo! Victory 62-50.

Second game was against Chris with Vader+VI+ATC and Kenkirk+Emperor+EU+Isard

I tried to be fancy- box formation with Poe on the outside facing towards it. Barrel-rolled and straighted into the rear Y-wing then on turn 2 I barrel rolled back and away and bank-boosted perfectly in formation behind the Z, making it look like I had planned it. (I had not.) Unfortunately I had screwed up well before that. I tried to again leave an edge open so I could bank in, but unfortunately he pincered me with Vader and Kenkirk- I was forced to guess which way Kenkirk would go- crossing in front of my ships or skirting the side.

I went straight, hedging my bets and he went in front of them and I poured some good damage in, but then I was in a bad spot for the next round, with Kenkirk blocking the area I needed to K-turn, so I simply banked away, hoping to open up some space the next turn. Unfortunately, between Vader and Kenkirk, he made short work of my Y-wings and they didn’t get many more shots off. Additionally, hitting Kenkirk when he had his agility die, the evade from Isard and the Emperor was very challenging if I couldn’t focus fire…and I didn’t.

The end of the game had a 2 health Poe vs Vader only missing 1 shield and Kenkirk at 1 hull OVER half health (arg). Additionally Poe had the crit where overlapping caused damage. I felt demoralized and defeated and made a risky barrel roll with Poe that ended up forcing him to overlap an asteroid, taking a damage and then rolling a damage on the asteroid roll, meaning I faced a 100-0 defeat. Ouch.

Next game was against Trendan with 2 TLT Y wings, Torkil with Ion turret and Palob with Bossk crew and TLT. Yikes.

I was very unprepared for this match-up and I had learned the wrong lessons from the last game. Trendan set up on the right corner, so thinking I could force a joust I set up opposite from him. But my 3-speed maneuvers weren’t fast enough to catch him turning away. I barrel rolled and boosted Poe in ahead of my squad, hoping to scrape out an early range 3 shot on the closest enemy Y-wing. Unfortunately, while I was out of range 3 of any of his ships before the boost, after boosting, I was in range 3 of all of his TLT ones. Poe did 0 damage and lost 3 shields in that first round of firing.

That hurt, but I pressed on. Trendan managed to keep me at range 3 for another turn, picking away at my Y-wings and then when I sent Poe in to try and slip into range 1 of some of his ships, he Torkiled him down to 0, Palobed his token and killed him. He repeated the Torkil murder with my Z and a Y-wing (Torkil is amazing btw) I managed to kill one of his Y-wings, but the end of the game saw me with one damaged Y-wing against 3 nearly full health ships.

I recall that I was stressed, so I did a bank to clear stress and set up for a K-turn. “I think I can do this,” I said. Trendan responded by ioning my Y-wing so it was facing the wrong way. “Ok, that’s going to make winning this a little trickier,” I said. I managed to survive the next turn and then k-turned and then he killed my Y-wing, making it nearly impossible for me to win that game. Loss, 24-100.

Those two games back-back were rough, and I felt like I had lost both early and then had to sit through 45 minutes or so of getting mopped up. Still, I liked my team and didn’t feel cheated- I just made some unwise decisions and was outplayed. My next match though…was against Cody.

Cody is one of my companion gamers from Tucson and we had much experience against each other. Additionally, Cody was running a list I had wanted to try out and had suggested to him (Only for him to say “I already thought of that, but thanks. Also, I will defeat you today, as we are destined to fight the fourth of five matches against each other.” Some of that might just be me paraphrasing.

His squad was Hobbie with Targeting Astro and IA, Tarn with R7 and IA, Gold Squadron with Ion Turret R3-A2 and BTL-A4 and Green Squadron A-wing with Chardaan, PtL, Wired and Autothrusters (an amazing ship.)

Early set up put his 3 jousting ships in the left corner, with my squad on the right of the left-most asteroid. His A-wing was right of an asteroid on my right. My Poe is on my back right corner. First turn he slowly comes in his guys, I do a straight 3 with mine. Seeing I won’t be able to shoot him with my formation maneuver, Cody does a fast straight with his A-wing and boosts in, hoping to either catch someone at range 3 or get good positioning for next turn. I had tricked him however-

Poe also did a straight 3, but he barrel-rolled right and forward first, then boosted and focused, catching the A-wing dead center in his arcs. Poe’s ability to break formations was a lot of fun and did well for catching people off guard- I know Regen Poe is preferred, but BB-8 Poe is so cool. Our range 3 shots at each other didn’t amount to anything, but his A-wing was in a bad spot- he tried to loop in on my squad’s flank, but Poe barrel-rolled back and banked forward, catching the A-wing from behind at range 1 and stripping off 2 shields, while my squad laid into his stress Y-wing.

He tore into my Y-wings though and the next turn something terrible happened- Poe fired at his Y-wing, hoping to kill it, but I was 1 hit short and it got to shoot at Poe, double stressing him. After that, between Cody’s clever blocks, I wasn’t able to get Poe back in the fight, and despite clearing out the stress-wing and Hobbie (who would have died the turn BEFORE he killed one of my Y-wings if Integrated didn’t exist- very good buff to X-wings), Cody managed to finish off the rest of my stressed and battered team.

Loss, 52-100.

My last match saw me entering with better spirits. Food had arrived earlier, but now my body had processed it and my match with Cody felt close and exciting, so my loss did not sting as badly as the 2 before it. Still, I went into my last game hoping to end up on top (and hopefully winning so awesomely that everyone decided I should just be crowned the King of X-wing and hand me all the trophies.)

I am a bad, forgetful person though, and I do not confidently recall my last opponents name, although I think it was Sean. He had a Cartel marauder with Glitterstim, Talonbane with Glitterstim, Predator and EU and Laats with K4 security droid, Intelligence Agent and Weapons Engineer. The actual synergy of his list was pretty good- Laatis could acquire 2 target locks a turn with a green maneuver and still focus if she didn’t bump. Then the cartel or Talonbane could target lock and pop glitterstim when they had a good shot and Lettuce would be able to spend a target lock to take out an agility. Meaning my poor Y-wings often didn’t get to roll against some of his incoming 4 or 5 dice shots.

Intelligence Agent wasn’t very helpful to him though, only Talonbane could maneuver after seeing my dial and with BB-8 and Boost, knowing Poe’s maneuver was often not helpful in determining where he would go.

We jousted down the right corner, but his solid defensive rolls and my mediocre offensive ones meant I only did half damage to Lettuce even with all my ships concentrating fire. Following that I was forced into a bump with Lettuce with my Poe- I could have barrel rolled away, but then I’d be eating a range one shot from Lettuce and possibly from Talonbane, and I didn’t want that. He popped Glitterstim after K-turning and did some good damage and dodged some fire, but then was double stressed for a while.

He carefully picked apart my Y’s and did some potshots to Poe. My Z was undamaged until a range 1 shot from Lettuce killed him in one blow, while my damage had been reduced to a shield off both the Marauder and Talonbane and Laaaaaaats still at 6 hullth. It was down to my 1 shield, 3 health Poe vs all of his ships, with most of his health still on the board. Talonbane and Poe engaged in some deadly face-offs (we both kind of wanted Range 3 but I definitely didn’t want range 1) while his Marauder and Laaatus tried to get back in the game. 2 rounds of shooting later and my Poe had lost a shield and took a crit (the one where you can’t execute straight maneuvers) but I had killed Talonbane.

I Tallon-rolled, skirting the right side of the board and took a long range shot on the Marauder, doing no damage. Laater hit Poe with another Crit- blinded pilot! Not what I wanted to see. Stressed and unable to attack, I banked towards his YV-666 who had done the same, thinking I was going to try and slip past his arc. Instead I forced a bump near the edge of the board. Next turn, Laast tried to do a 2-hard, the only maneuver he had to not fly off the edge, but my Poe was angled in a way to force a bump again, meaning he only slid forward a small amount and was stressed. My Poe meanwhile managed to slip in to range 1 of his Marauder and deal 4 unevaded hits, killing his ship and giving my Z-95 sweet revenge.

Then he realized that he couldn’t do a maneuver to avoid the edge with Laats and conceded to my 1-health, double critted Poe. And that’s how I used Poe to kill a 4 health ship in 2 shots, a 4 health ship in 1 shot and a 6 health ship in 0 shots. Victory for me, 100-38.

That last game felt good, and I’m glad that Poe rocked so hard. I learned a lot from these matches and I was glad that I was able to keep my cool and get through my last 2 matches with a positive attitude. I am surprised at how much work that Z-95 did, I often rolled perfect evades with it, and with the exception of the last game, it always took a while to go down, and did a great job screwing up other formations or taking range 1 shots on ships. Conversely, I was disappointed by how fast my Y-wings died and how little they got to let loose with all 3 attacks on the same ship. Usually I got 1 good volley in the first pass and then 1 would die and the other would get one last full volley after K-turning and then explode. That had not been my experience with them at the local scene, but the Empire guys seemed to have more practice Y-wing hunting.

Good games and awesome squads!

EDIT: I had a chance to play against Budgernaut and his list last night- guy is an absolute monster who made me fear for my dice. Glad I didn't have to play him in the championships- I would have been wrecked.

I just realized that Tony's round 2 and 3 matches were against the opponents I had just lost to in extremely close games in rounds 1 and 2 respectively. This means that I not only beat Tony in round 4, but also set up his two other loses. Sorry Tony