I managed to play in my first x-wing event this weekend, having started at the beginning , and I decided before hand I would try write about it after.
I ended up playing a bunch of variants of 3 tie/fos and an ace, eventually settling on:
Soontir Fel
Stealth Device, ptl, title, and autothrusters
Omega Leader
Juke, Comms relay
Zeta Leader
Wired, comms relay
Epsilon squad pilot
Nothing ground breaking, but I had been trying a version with Zeta ace or some variant instead of the pilot skill 1 guy, but I figured I really needed a blocker (although if I am to be honest, I am not the best at that yet)
Round 1:
I played against Poe with BB8, integrated astromech maybe ptl?, Horton Salm with tlt, Ibitsam (?) with ptl, Mangler cannon and some other upgrades I can't recall.
both of us are running some large asteroids but they are really spread out, not creating too many choke points. I set up the tie/fo's on my left corner in a sort of pinwheel, and I decide to put soontir just abit outside of them. He had set up all his B-wing and Y-wing in the middle and his Poe was on the direct opposite corner to all my ships. I turn into the centre of the board, my general plan against lists like this is to take out the TLT, and then try and arc dodge the other ships, Omega leader with his Juke, and zeta leader with all his attacks can really push through quick damage onto a y-wing if it comes to close. Soontir went straight up the side and turned in behind the b-wing and y-wing which he had brought up the centre towards me. Poe was moving up the opposite side, but he was a lot further away. I managed to have some crazy dice and put the TLT down to about 2 hull very quickly. Over the next couple of turns soontir flew by and did a bunch of damage, the y-wing was taken out on about turn 4, but not before it took a primary weapon attack on my Zeta leader at range 1 and smoked him. Poe had to make a number of k-turns and talon rolls to stay in the fight and was not much of a factor. I managed to take out the B-wing, and I ended up with all my remaining ships behind Poe, after he tried to go after Soontir and took him down. To be honest I rolled some of the most crazy dice I have ever seen, and my opponent was throwing a lot of blanks. I ended up with a 100-35 win.
Round 2:
I was playing against Blair, who I know from playing magic, and he helped me out when I was starting with x-wing. He says hes not looking forward to this matchup, but to be honest I was pretty worried to be playing against him...
He was running Kenkirk with Palp, engine upgrade, lone wolf (I think) and Whisper, vi, acd, fcs, and agent Kallus.
We set up in opposite corners, I again have a 3 ship pinwheel of the tie/fo's and soontir to the right. I move up and bank into the center with the ties, while the deci moves up and into the centre, while whisper moves straight up the other side. I move soontir up a bit faster but he also banks intowards the centre. I semi expect the decimator to move after soontir, so I tried to be way too clever and hard turn right towards his side of the table, to try swing back around and rejoin (at a much later date) with the ties. The Decimator didn't move where I thought it would, and his placement meant he was in the perfect place to chase after my weird turn. Whisper ends up moving into the flank of my ties, just behind an asteroid. I made a big decision at this point to 1 turn to face whisper with all my ships, predicting him to declock to the other side of the asteroid to try get behind me. I believe I end up blocking Whisper, and getting a couple of shots in, but he manages to shoot Whisper at my Epsilon pilot and smoke him before he did anything. Over the next few turns Soontir managed to swing back around with a decimator hot on his heels, with a non cloaked up ahead. My ties turn and have a good field of fire over where Whisper can go, and Soontir moves in, and managed to block a 4k from Whisper. Over the next few turns my ships try go after whisper as the decimator goes past. Whisper manages to swing back round for some shots and doesn't do much, but finally gets to cloak. I then shoot it with Zeta leader and manage to get a crit through, direct hit! So I finally took out Whisper with some luck, Palpatine had been really frustrating. In the same turn (I believe) the decimator gets some shots through onto Omega leader and takes him out leaving me with Soontir, out of position on the other side of the map, and Zeta leader, against a no shields and (I think) 1 damage Decimator. I make some horrible manouveres with soontir and it takes longer for him to get back into the fight, but I manage to put through enough damage (just) to get half points. On the last turn I did an s-loop with Zeta leader and ended up facing the wrong way from the Decimator, and he got blown up. Time was called, and I got a very close modified win.
At this point I was very happy, I really wanted the Vader promo to go with a Soontir one I acquired, but I didn't really expect to be winning.
Round 3
I am playing against a list I have never seen the likes of. I think he ended up coming in the top 4 (of 16 players)
3x Lambda Shuttle with fcs
1x Vader, title, and the crit computer.
I again set up with the 3 pin wheel with Soontir on the outside of it after I see his shuttles are spread across the board. I've never played against them, but I've heard its pretty hard for them once you get behind them. I zoom all my ships up and put as much fire into the shuttle on my left side flank, Soontir manages to get in behind. The other shuttles and Vader close in like a pincer. I manage to take out a shuttle before Vader gets into the fight, and manage to put a crap tonne of damage onto another. I manage to use my Epsilon to block shuttles moves and actions while the "aces" fire away. However I get greedy and put down a k turn on Soontir so I can try finish off a shuttle immediatly, but I already had a stress. My opponent sends him to facing the board edge and he ends up flying off.... Vader doesn't roll so well and is not in the best spot to turn the game, the shuttles are basically out of the game, having to slowly turn their ways back into the fight. I spend a couple of turns going after vader with my remaining ships, and take him out. All my ties turn and go after the shuttles, still trying to turn around. I take out the heavily damaged one, and get a block with the epsilon in as my other ships come zooming in for the kill. My opponent calls it at this point, he won't be able to catch my ships. This game my dice were pretty on fire, I didn't take any damage except for losing some comms relay tokens (if that even counts). My opponent says he thinks he should have done what he had done in the previous 2 matches and just bunched up the shuttles together rather than have them spread out. It let me Pick off 1, and get in behind before they could get shots in. He also said he had bad target priority, deciding to put almost all the shots into Zeta Leader, who almost always had a focus token, his evade token, and a stress from attacking before the Shuttles to trigger wired.
So I'm 3-0 with a modified win, so I know I still need a good result to get the vader promo.
Round 4
I'm against another cool list, Scum Boba with VI,Tactician, glitterstim, slave 1 title and engine upgrade, and Bosk, with gunner, tactician, engine upgrade, and maybe something else.
I haven't played much against engine upgrade large ships, but I have played against scum boba a couple of times, and not done very well. I set up the pinwheel on on the right side, and soontir on the left side by himself, facing off against bosk, and Boba, I have a plan to have a "false flank" with Soontir, I plan on turning him to the right back along my deployment, hopefully drawing the big ships into a bad position while my ties sweep in from the right. This turns out to be a pretty bad plan as I see how quickly boba can come after me. I do my little false flank, while Boba zooms up, and boosts. My pinwheel does turn into the middle, and I think that boba might give up chasing Soontir and turn into the middle, since Bosk is heading diagonally into the middle. I Move up straight to try and block any move but I am very wrong, and Boba goes straight after Soontir, leaving my ties with nothing to shoot at. The boost manages to get Boba into range 2 of Soontir and he starts getting stressed. My ties are all facing the left side of the board, in the middle part, while soontir is all alone with boba right behind him moving up to the right bottom side of the table. Soontir gets stressed out, and Boba turns in, piling on stress. My ties do 1 turns to try get some shots on bosk, but he just boosts out of arc. Soontir has a boba behind, and a bosk in front. I decide my only option is to use soontir as a blocker on bosk, and hard turn all my ties again, to try get a bunch of shots into it. I then find out that the ship has a 0 manouvere, and soontir ends up sitting right in the open. Boba closes in behind and shoots soontir down. My ties however all have great shots and put some damage into bosk. Now comes a critical moment, I realise that Bosk can basically only move south, and boba can only move north. I decide that I would rather go after the 1 evade, and no rear arc ship, and send my 3 ships after Bosk. Over the next couple of turns I shoot him down, while boba is forced to spend a bunch of turns swinging back round to the fight. Time is called before Boba can get back into the fight. I manage to get another modified victory
So I manage to win the Vader! I was very happy. I learnt a lot from these games, I made a bunch of mistakes I (hopefully) won't make again, and all my opponents were great. Hopefully the report wasn't too rambly.
Some final thoughts:
Zeta leader was definitely my favourite ship of the 4 I ran, the extra attack, and wired were both really good for me. I think sometimes I made the mistake of focusing where it might have been better to target lock since I get to reroll focus'? But I'm not sure on the maths behind it.
Palpatine is super annoying to play against. Hopefully how Omega leader and him interact gets worked out either way.
Blockers aren't to be underestimated. I don't think I used my blocker very well in most of the matches, but the moments I did it felt like the most integral ship in my list setting up shots for others.
I really liked playing in the event, and I hope we will have more around here soon. I still feel like I have a crazy amount to learn, and try out, but I think I'll keep flying this 4 ship list for now. I have shuttle on the way so I might have to have a go with palpshutte with vader, and soontir just so I can use the 2 swanky promos....