Hello all.
Today I had the privilege of competing in (as well as help judge in) a tournament held in Gamer's Paradise in Baton Rouge Louisiana.
Unfortunately I did not take any pictures as I was solely focused on playing well. (I had spent two weeks planning lists to bring and then brought one that I had thought up last minute.)
We didn't have enough players to cut to a top 4 but we managed to squeeze in 4 rounds of fun, hilarity and (for some) frustration!
This is my first battle report, so slam me with criticism.
My list is as follows:
Omicron Group Pilot (Lambda Class Shuttle): Emperor Palpatine
"Whisper" (TIE Phantom): Veteran Instincts, Fire Control System, Advanced Cloaking Device, Rebel Captive
Omega Leader: (TIE/FO Fighter): Juke, Comm Relay, Stealth Device.
1st round:
My opponent for the first round flew Howlrunner with Swarm Tactics, Youngster with Expose, and 5 academy pilots.
My thoughts were this: "Well, shoot, the one list that can potentially floor me through sheer firepower alone." Thankfully, Palpatine, barrel rolls, and Omega Leader being an absolute nuisance managed to squeeze a win in.
Asteroids were place slightly to the left side of the board from my viewpoint, mostly in the center which left a large open area on the right (which is where my opponent set up his TIE fighter swarm). I set up on the left.
First round not much happened, my list screamed forward, engines glowing hot from the stress put into them. Whisper cloaked right away and Omega Leader took his evade token and held onto it for dear life. Palpatine just sat in the back of the shuttle and played cards against a royal guard. Second round was much more interesting, my opponent expected me to come up around the side and try to force him through the asteroids. While that was part of my intention, I did something he didn't anticipate.
I charged Whisper right at him.
Right after going 3 forward in the first round, he K-turned the next to try and come at Omega Leader who was sneaking his way through the asteroids, a fancy decloak and a 3 bank later with Whisper put Youngster right at range 3 and the phantom out of arc of everything else.
First round of firing I managed to get 2 damage through to youngster, forcing him next turn to veer off and try to backstab. Next turn he did 2 banks and 2 forwards to shed stress on his fighters and try to get Omega Leader into arc.
Once Omega Leader got to the party, it turned into a smorgasbord of decloaking away from tie fighters and 1 turning to get them into arc and then barrel rolling to get out of their arc. Palpatine bit the dust about 3/4 of the way through the game, but I honestly didn't expect him to survive at all.
Many turns and many shots later I managed to win with no damage done to Whisper or Omega Leader and 10 minutes left on the clock with my stomach growling like a lion! Yay!
1-0
My next game was against my older sister who had also come to the tournament to compete (she's a scum player, and not a bad one at that).
Her list:
Black Sun Ace (Khiraxz Fighter): Predator, Glitterstim. x2
Latts Razzi (YV-666): Weapons Engineer, K4 Security Droid, Engine Upgrade, Inertial Dampeners.
Oh joy, playing against my sister. This would be interesting.
Almost same asteroid placement as before, more in the middle than in the previous match. My sister set up in the center on her side with the Khiraxz on the YV-666's flank facing my right. I set up in the bottom right.
My approach was through the asteroids, keeping the shuttle slightly away from the fighting (the poor Omicron pilot never got to shoot at any of the Khiraxz fighters). Whisper and Omega Leader managed to dodge some shots from Latts passing by, despite him reducing Omega's agility. (TL + Evade token + Palpatine = AMAZING), after that Whisper and him practically chased the Khiraxz fighters around the top right of the board for a little before my sister popped Glitterstim (she didn't realize Omega Leader cuts through that), thus double stressing her fighter after a K turn.
Whisper hardly ever got shot at, she(he?) managed to dodge almost all arcs, Omega Leader took most of the spotlight, dodging every tomato thrown at him.
2 dead Khiraxz fighters later Omega and Whisper began to make their way to Latts who was currently chewing the Lambda Shuttle apart.
If you want a visual representation, imagine a dog ripping into a cabbage roll and yelling "NOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM".
That being said, lucky dice rolls for me and unlucky dice rolls for my sister managed to keep the shuttle half alive until Whisper and Omega Leader got there. After about two rounds of firing from both my aces Latts went down extremely quickly, thus netting me another win.
2-0
Next game was against the first person I played X wing with at the store. Very nice guy, love to play X wing with him.
His list:
Warden Squadron Pilot (K-wing): TLT, Extra Munitions, Bombardier, Advanced SLAM, Conner Net x2
Warden Squadron Pilot (K-wing): TLT, Extra Munitions, Seismic Charges
Gold Squadron Pilot (Y-wing): TLT
Aw jeez, triple TLTs. This was the first list I was afraid of.
I had played against my opponent once before in a casual game, I ran two defenders and he ran 3 Y wings with TLT. Needless to say I lost.
Setup was about the same as last game, asteroids were in the middle, he set up in the top right and I set up in the bottom left. First round he slow rolled with 2 forwards and SLAMmed with one K wing to go forward again. I screamed up the side and banked in next turn, as did he. He sent one K wing to flank my shuttle and Omega Leader, but through some fancy flying and some barrel rolls Whisper managed to get out of range of all but one TLT. Both she and Omega Leader unloaded into him, Omega canceled one of his evade results and was all but dead in the first round of firing. K-TLT returned fire at Omega Leader (only one he could shoot) but didn't get any damage through. Next turn Whisper de-barrel-cloaked away from everything and turned in, catching the K wing at range 2 and taking him out, score one for me! Omega Leader was at range one of the Y wing and managed to knock off 2 shields thanks to Juke and TL. At this point the match took an interesting turn, I suppose my opponent figured that shooting at Whisper and Omega was useless, so he went for my shuttle. Some lucky evades and unlucky hits managed to keep the shuttle's shields on for another turn. The last K wing got close to Omega near the bottom and tried to drop a seismic charge but Omega turned away and managed to avoid it, the shuttle was a bit too close and took a damage. Combat phase Whisper and the Shuttle unloaded into the Y wing and took him out (thanks to Palpatine giving Whisper a crit), the K wing turned away from the fight and towards my edge, getting a little too close to the edge. Next turn he couldn't turn quite enough and went off the edge, giving me the win with only 3 damage cards on the shuttle and Whisper and Omega untouched.
3-0
Last round of the day.
Against my brother who also was competing in the tournament.
.........Crap.
My brother and I were the only undefeated players in the tournament, he had gone 100-0 on all of his and I went 100-29, 100-14, and 100-14.
His list:
Jake Farrell: (A-wing): Veteran Instincts, Chardaan Refit, Autothrusters, Push the Limit, and A-wing Test Pilot.
Blue Squadron Pilot: (B-wing)
Tarn Mison: (X-wing): R7 Astromech, Integrated Astromech
Gold Squadron Pilot: (Y-wing): Ion Cannon Turret, R3-A2, BTL-A4 Y-wing
Greeaaat, a stresshog. This was not a list I wanted to fly against. I had hoped he would lose to someone along the way so I wouldn't have to fight his list, but such hopes were shot down when I had discovered he and I were the only undefeated players in the tournament.
Asteroids (and my brother's debris) were placed mostly in the center, a few stragglers got close to the edges but nothing major.
My brother placed in the top right and I placed in the bottom left. First round of movement he banked in with his generic pilots and Jake screamed forward with a 5 forward (surprised he didn't pass out). I slowrolled with all my ships, 2 forwards with Omega and Whisper, and a 1 forward with the shuttle.
next round I decloaked behind the shuttle who performed a two hard to the right while Omega Leader banked to the right. Whisper 1 hard turned and Jake boosted, barrel rolled and 5 forwarded his way into a range 3 confrontation with the shuttle. They exchanged some shots but no damage done.
The shuttle, stressed from the hard turn, screamed forward with a 3 straight while Whisper lagged behind with a 2 forward. Jake slammed into the shuttle and shot at Omega Leader to no avail and Whisper managed to deal no damage to him. The B wing, Tarn and stresshog came through the asteroids and the B wing and Y wing managed to catch Omega and range three, exchanging shots but only Omega managed to plink a shield off the B Wing before the hog stressed him.
Next turn Whisper decloaked away from my edge and went in while the shuttle banked past the a wing to shed stress who hard turned right into the asteroid field. B wing went forward and barrel rolled past Omega to try and catch Whisper in arc. Omega Leader was staring at a debris field and did a 1 hard turn through it, taking the stress but no damage. Due to some fancy flying and barrel rolls Whisper evaded the B wings arc and managed to catch Jake at range 1.
Roll dice.
5 natural hits!
Jake rolls.
3 blanks.
.......Wow.
Brother's ace taken out early in the game due to a whiff and all Whisper got in return was a stress from the y wing.
After that it was a matter of chasing down the different ships. Whisper managed to take out the B wing and Omega chased down Tarn who could not shake him and could not use the droid to force Omega to reroll (due to Omega's target lock). Palpatine almost got ionized off the edge but managed to bank away, and with 1 health left was finally driven off the board due to stress and not being able to turn around. Whisper and Omega took out the Y wing a little later.
And that secured me the win with a record of 4-0!
Looking back on it, I almost took Darth Vader with Lone Wolf, TIE/X1 and Advanced Targeting Computer instead of Omega Leader. I'm quite happy I did not!
Despite Whisper doing most of the damage throughout the matches, Omega Leader, in my eyes, was the MVP. His ability with Juke, Comm Relay, Stealth Device AND Palpatine on standby made him extremely difficult to hit. Only once or twice did I have to burn the evade token in order to dodge damage but other than that he performed amazingly.
During the match against my sister, the shuttle actually didn't fire a single shot, he was there for funsies.
Surprisingly the TLTs weren't as scary as I thought they were going to be, the Y wing lagging behind due to not having SLAM made dealing with each of them that much easier, and Omega Leader canceling out their only evade made it that much sweeter.
Rebel captive during the last match between my brother and I managed to stress Tarn, allowing Omega to get behind him and stay on his tail the whole rest of the game. TIE/FO fighters are hard to shake!
That's three times I've taken a Phantom to a tournament, and I hope that next time I'll be brave enough to run something different.
But, that was my very first tournament win and I have to say that despite going undefeated there were several times that things looked dicey (heh) for my list.