Bellevue Store Championship

By KineticOperator, in X-Wing

Very entertaining, very diverse, large field. 42 players total. I don't know everything offhand, but my memory of the top 8.

#1 - Myself

Poe (Juke, Comm Relay, R2D2, Autothrusters), Gold (BTL-A4, R3-A2, TLT), Kyle Katarn (Juke, Jan Ors, TLT). 99 points.

#2 - Richard Hsu

Wedge (R2D2, Draw their Fire, Plasma Torpedo), Biggs, Gold (BTL-A4, R3-A2, TLT), Bandit. 100 points

#3 - Gavin Norman

Brobots B and C (Crack Shot, Glitterstim, Fire Control System, HLC, Autothrusters). 100 points.

other top 8..

Patrick McDonald - Whisper (Agent Kallus, Fire Control System, Advanced Cloaking Device, Vet Instincts), Omega Leader (Comm Relay, Juke, Stealth), Omicron (Emperor)

Treynor Wolfe - Han Solo (Luke, C3P0, Millenium Falcon, Predator, Engine), Bandit x 3

I faced Gavin and Richard both in the Swiss and in the finals, Patrick in the first round of top 8, and Treynor in Swiss, so I didn't get to experience a large sampling of the field. I pretty much played the top 8 both in Swiss and elimination. There were several Sith Lords, a Rebel Convoy variation by Brant Seymore, Y-Wing control, a very, very diverse lineup all the way around. Hopefully some of the guys who were there can help fill out the lists for me.

Great tourney, well run and great play from everyone. Also, someone dubbed by list "Jukebox Hero" and I have to say I like it. :-)

Edited by KineticOperator

Oh, man, I've been wanting to run Kyle with Juke. It just seems brutal.

I'm pleased as punch to see HWKs hitting the top tables. Nice to see that 3 Ship lists can work in this meta, too. Did you see any swarms?

I did not see swarms, but as I mentioned since I repeated twice I didn't see a wide variety of builds. IIRC the vast majority of lists were 3 or 4 ships, but I don't think there were any true swarms.

Nice use of Comms Relays on Poe. I always thought that having Jan Ors crew turn it into a refillable shield upgrade on T-70s could work out well.

I wanted to run that Poe with a nearby Jan, but dual ps9+ aces keeps smashing it. Who is your target priority against palp aces?

Congratulations! I love the list - I've got a store champ coming up this weekend and I just might take something like it!

To think of all the times I visited Bellevue not knowing there was a game store there :(

I wanted to run that Poe with a nearby Jan, but dual ps9+ aces keeps smashing it. Who is your target priority against palp aces?

Whoever makes the mistake of getting double stressed by the Stresshog. :-)

In all seriousness, the control offered by the Stresshog is what let me deal with Sith Lords and Brobots. Coupled with Juke to push the damage through on an actionless target, Juke-Poe and Juke-Kyle could generally deal lethal damage to an actionless Vader/Omega/Soontir in a single round.

Incidentally, having Jan Ors crew on Kyle Katarn was good in so many ways beyond getting a recharge for Poe. Putting the Stresshog front and center to deal stress, and sending him an evade every round really made that Y-Wing tough. Holding an evade on Kyle to make his TLT hit harder as well as provide defense to the otherwise fragile Hawk was also exceptionally useful. Letting me keep Poe focused while flying him into the teeth of formations despite being blocked and/or stressed (Poe being by far the most capable of dealing with focused fire, he was my initial-pass damage sponge) was critical. The fact that Kyle can hand off and/or transform focus out to R3 let me keep the Hawk far enough away to make him an unattractive target.

The list was a real pleasure to fly. It just worked, and didn't require the amount of finesse and/or compromise that many of my quirkier lists need. It liked the finesse and rewarded it, but didn't break down at the first slight miscalculation.

Edited by KineticOperator

Had a blast in Bellevue yesterday. First tournament. Drew Richard Hsu in the first round of swiss who promptly introduced me to competitive x-wing. Ended 2-3 and barely made the top 32 for the 3PO card. Several top players donated their card so that almost everyone was able to walk away with something, great example for the community of players.

Loved seeing the HWK on the top table. Let my daughter pick my first upgrade ship after the core set and that is what she chose after I tried to talk her into something else. Ran it for the first few open play nights to a few jeers.

Never thought I would go up against 3 Wild space fringers. Variety of lists was great. Will be back to the drawing board for me and hopefully some better flying at the next tourney.

I wanted to run that Poe with a nearby Jan, but dual ps9+ aces keeps smashing it. Who is your target priority against palp aces?

Whoever makes the mistake of getting double stressed by the Stresshog. :-)

In all seriousness, the control offered by the Stresshog is what let me deal with Sith Lords and Brobots. Coupled with Juke to push the damage through on an actionless target, Juke-Poe and Juke-Kyle could generally deal lethal damage to an actionless Vader/Omega/Soontir in a single round.

Incidentally, having Jan Ors crew on Kyle Katarn was good in so many ways beyond getting a recharge for Poe. Putting the Stresshog front and center to deal stress, and sending him an evade every round really made that Y-Wing tough. Holding an evade on Kyle to make his TLT hit harder as well as provide defense to the otherwise fragile Hawk was also exceptionally useful. Letting me keep Poe focused while flying him into the teeth of formations despite being blocked and/or stressed (Poe being by far the most capable of dealing with focused fire, he was my initial-pass damage sponge) was critical. The fact that Kyle can hand off and/or transform focus out to R3 let me keep the Hawk far enough away to make him an unattractive target.

The list was a real pleasure to fly. It just worked, and didn't require the amount of finesse and/or compromise that many of my quirkier lists need. It liked the finesse and rewarded it, but didn't break down at the first slight miscalculation.

I wanted to run that Poe with a nearby Jan, but dual ps9+ aces keeps smashing it. Who is your target priority against palp aces?

Whoever makes the mistake of getting double stressed by the Stresshog. :-)

In all seriousness, the control offered by the Stresshog is what let me deal with Sith Lords and Brobots. Coupled with Juke to push the damage through on an actionless target, Juke-Poe and Juke-Kyle could generally deal lethal damage to an actionless Vader/Omega/Soontir in a single round.

Incidentally, having Jan Ors crew on Kyle Katarn was good in so many ways beyond getting a recharge for Poe. Putting the Stresshog front and center to deal stress, and sending him an evade every round really made that Y-Wing tough. Holding an evade on Kyle to make his TLT hit harder as well as provide defense to the otherwise fragile Hawk was also exceptionally useful. Letting me keep Poe focused while flying him into the teeth of formations despite being blocked and/or stressed (Poe being by far the most capable of dealing with focused fire, he was my initial-pass damage sponge) was critical. The fact that Kyle can hand off and/or transform focus out to R3 let me keep the Hawk far enough away to make him an unattractive target.

The list was a real pleasure to fly. It just worked, and didn't require the amount of finesse and/or compromise that many of my quirkier lists need. It liked the finesse and rewarded it, but didn't break down at the first slight miscalculation.

I played a couple of games with Kyle toting around Jan and a TLT. I had him a little fatter (Predator and Moldy Crow) and was flying him with a pair of Red Vets. Being able to toss an evade on whoever the likely target for the round was going to be was great as was being able to pass off a focus token to a ship that had just pulled a red maneuver.

Kyle Katarn (Juke, Jan Ors, TLT)

Oof.

What State is THIS "Bellevue"?

I knew someone was eventually going to find Comm with Poe haha.

Good job!

Adding stressbot is good.

What State is THIS "Bellevue"?

Nebraska.

The list was a real pleasure to fly. It just worked, and didn't require the amount of finesse and/or compromise that many of my quirkier lists need. It liked the finesse and rewarded it, but didn't break down at the first slight miscalculation.

I sort of always feel this way flying a HWK. With the right other pieces in the build they can usually survive til late game, and I think getting the TLT was a big boost to their offensive output at R2-3 letting them sit further back. Great job, awesome list.

#1 - Myself

Poe (Juke, Comm Relay, R2D2, Autothrusters), Gold (BTL-A4, R3-A2, TLT), Kyle Katarn (Juke, Jan Ors, TLT). 99 points.

This list...
It is brilliant.
I must try this. Would you mind?

What State is THIS "Bellevue"?

Nebraska.

Cornhuskers represent!

:D

Am I correct in thinking this was at the Game Shoppe in olde town?

Cornhuskers represent!

:D

Am I correct in thinking this was at the Game Shoppe in olde town?

That's correct. They also now have a second location, out farther west in Omaha.

Two now?

That's good to know. Also good to know that the scene is going here--I may have to get out sometime.

Hi there KineticOperator - a big fan of your work. When people ask for quirky Imperial lists I always mention your 2014 Worlds list.

Enough fan-boying, I have a few questions if you wouldn't mind?

1.) How important did you find Juke to be on Poe? Was lacking the usual PS10 not something you missed?

2.) How much do you feel Moldy Crow would have added to the list? Looking at your list and considering dropping Juke and R2-D2 on Poe for VI and R5-P9? [The alternative place to find the two points would be dropping auto-thrusters in favor of Intergrated Astromech, but I feel if I'm dropping autothrusters I'm doing something wrong,)

3.) A question about one of your competitors list that you may have gleaned an answer to. (Richard Hsu if you're on the fourm I apologize for not asking you this directly, haven't seen you pop up here.) Why does Richard elect to forgo having a droid (and intergrated astromech,) on Biggs? To me it seems an auto-include but Richard has obviously elected to have Plasma Torpedos (to great effect it seems,) but I'm not sure I understand why?

Thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing about your next quirky (and successful list!)

...

I must try this. Would you mind?

Not at all, I would love to have folks run it and hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I look forward to hearing how it works out for you.

...

1.) How important did you find Juke to be on Poe? Was lacking the usual PS10 not something you missed?

2.) How much do you feel Moldy Crow would have added to the list? Looking at your list and considering dropping Juke and R2-D2 on Poe for VI and R5-P9? [The alternative place to find the two points would be dropping auto-thrusters in favor of Intergrated Astromech, but I feel if I'm dropping autothrusters I'm doing something wrong,)

3.) A question about one of your competitors list that you may have gleaned an answer to. (Richard Hsu if you're on the fourm I apologize for not asking you this directly, haven't seen you pop up here.) Why does Richard elect to forgo having a droid (and intergrated astromech,) on Biggs? To me it seems an auto-include but Richard has obviously elected to have Plasma Torpedos (to great effect it seems,) but I'm not sure I understand why?

Thank you both for the kind words.

1 - Juke was critical. It provides a much needed offensive and/or defensive boost (by stripping focus). Without Juke or some other offensive EPT Poe struggles to deal damage on par with his defenses and point cost. Of the 3 ships he is by far the most difficult to destroy, if his offensive output does not equate your opponent can safely push him to the very bottom of the target priority list. Notably, Juke allowed Poe to help defend the other two ships by targeting a ship threatening them and taking their focus. It allowed Poe to consistently hit Brobots rather than miss in both games where I faced them, made double stress from the Stresshog a death sentence for anyone who got caught by it (Vader, Omega Leader, and Whisper were all 3 dismantled by Juke when they would otherwise have been nearly immune), and frequently saved damage on Kyle or the Stresshog by removing focus.

I did not miss the PS 10 because I specifically built to control high-PS Aces by including the Stresshog (and threaten them with Juke/TLT as well). Lacking both PS 10 and a means to limit your opponent's maneuverability would be dangerous. One on one Poe with Juke can use K-Turns and Talon Rolls to trade fire with a single high PS ace, and win through attrition. Just be sure that when Poe is last man standing, there is no more than one high-PS opponent arc-dodger facing him.

2 - Moldy Crow would add a tremendous amount to the list. It is the one upgrade I really wanted to fit in, but in the end I didn't have the points and felt that giving up Juke would be too great a compromise. If you decide to give Moldy Crow a try, your suggestion is the one I would go with. On the other hand, I believe Autothrusters only came into play directly once the whole day. You could try it without AT and see how it goes.

3 - I believe he felt a powerful first strike from Wedge would provide more than the possibility of tanking an additional shot on Biggs. If he can remove a ship one round earlier than he would have otherwise, it has the same net defensive effect (removing one shot) but would allow him to move damage to a new target sooner. I find it very difficult to build Biggs any other way than R4-D6 and Integrated Astromech, but Richard has been playing his list for a while and I'm sure he tried it and found it less effective than the improved first strike from Wedge. I can certainly see the logic.

Edited by KineticOperator

Friend texted me a very similar list the other day.

How does it perform vs stuff like the 6 crackshot swarm, the worlds list, and 4 TLTs?

3.) A question about one of your competitors list that you may have gleaned an answer to. (Richard Hsu if you're on the fourm I apologize for not asking you this directly, haven't seen you pop up here.) Why does Richard elect to forgo having a droid (and intergrated astromech,) on Biggs? To me it seems an auto-include but Richard has obviously elected to have Plasma Torpedos (to great effect it seems,) but I'm not sure I understand why?

3 - I believe he felt a powerful first strike from Wedge would provide more than the possibility of tanking an additional shot on Biggs. If he can remove a ship one round earlier than he would have otherwise, it has the same net defensive effect (removing one shot) but would allow him to move damage to a new target sooner. I find it very difficult to build Biggs any other way than R4-D6 and Integrated Astromech, but Richard has been playing his list for a while and I'm sure he tried it and found it less effective than the improved first strike from Wedge. I can certainly see the logic.

I admit that I was wondering the same thing. With those three points, you could put a droid on Biggs and still have two points left for PS boosts on either the Bandit or Y-Wing.

But that list is also primed to get much scarier once Wedge can put a Guidance Chip in his torpedo. Four dice, one of which is a guaranteed crit, and you have -1 agility and no range bonus? Have fun with that.