This is a log of my results at the store championship at Meeple Madness in Flowery Branch, GA. I feel I played every match to the best of my ability. Dice performed as they do but I was able to pull out a record of 3-2 with my final placing as 3rd.

Let me start out by saying that the location was awesome. Meeple madness is definitely an excellent location to play a days worth of X-wing. We had a full crowd and there was plenty of room to maneuver between tables, not to mention the players and staff were incredible. I didn't hear anyone complaining about a match up, everybody took the creedo of fly casual seriously.

Without further ado though, here's the list I brought:

Tie-Foo

Carnor jax 26

-push the limit 3

-royal guard tie 0

-autothrusters 2

-hull upgrade 3

Omega Squadron Pilot 17

-comm relay 3

-juke 2

Omega Squadron Pilot 17

-comm relay 3

-juke 2

Omega Squadron Pilot 17

-comm relay 3

-juke 2

I've found the synergy between Carnor jax and juking wingmen to be self evident. It's a simple list that achieved it's goals by flying meat and potatoes. I jousted when I was sure I could come out on top (which trading a couple damage on a single tie for an excessive amount on a large base seemed alright). Carnor in theory, had I flown him more aggressively would have been out of arcs at range 1 for juke to effectively be a crack shot that never ran out. Really in this list carnor is there to support, even when he didn't out put damage, making damage stick for the ties made him worth all 34 points. (do note, he only survived 3 games. even with a hull upgrade and AT interceptors getting focused down for being annoying have the life expectancy of a wet paper bag.)

On to the first round. My opponents list:

IG-88B 36

-heavy laser cannon 7

-IG-2000 0

-Shield Upgrade 4

-Hot shot blaster 3

IG-88C 36

-IG-2000 0

-shield upgrade 4

-hot shot blaster 3

-mangler cannon 4

(Im a little iffy on the upgrades here, but this is close to correct. I know for sure he was at 99/100 points though so I am missing something.)

As a disclaimer, this was my opponents very first game of tournament play and the dice were heavily skewed towards me, none the less it was a fun match up. Brobots knocked me into second place at my first store tourney so I was interested to see how this list would perform in such a match-up. we deployed our rocks, and it ended up with a sparse 2 on my table side and 4 in his half. I knew i wanted to fight him on his half. we deployed I set my three ties up straight in the middle and he set his aggressors up to joust. Carnor was placed on the right hand side of the ties at an angle towards the tie formation. then dials were down, turn one was uneventful, both of us pulled a speculative maneuver, I went a casual 3 forward and carnor banked 2 to slot in behind the ties, were as he moved forward two with one aggressor and turned towards where his previous agrressor had been with the other. round two we dialed in and with another 3 forward with my whole formation (carnor did a five to over take the fo's), we had IG-88C in arc of all of our ships. 88B blundered and colided with c. Suddenly with the first combat round, I knew how this game was going to turn out, between all of my shots on 88c, out of his upgraded 5 shields and 4 hull, the large based beast was left with a pitiable 1 hull after shots were fired. carnor lost two hull to B, and C stripped a single shield from one of my FO's.

the next turn I don't remember as well but there was a k-turn for C which just barely ended on a rock (didn't kill him though, and I believe I maneuvered for a bump with B against an FO, carnor took off to re-engage at a later date. some more fire power was exchanged and the second aggressor was down to hull. I'm foggy on the next two turns, but it ended with a shield off of two FO's and carnor at 2 hull remaining.

Started strong with a 100-0 win for the Empire.

After the game we shook hands and he asked for a few pointers on his list, I offered that Autothrusters and Advanced sensors could work some magic if he could fit them in.

Round two matched me against a long time buddy of mine, we had been able to avoid a round 1 combat because we were ride partners, but as luck would have it, now we had to face off. I felt really confident going into this match, my opponent's list was:

Han solo 46

-falcon

-EU

-C3-p0

-gunner?

-predator

Goldie 18

-stress bot

-tlt

-btl-a4

Bandit squadron pilot 12

(could be wrong, but this is really close.)

this was my first loss of the day, and my only loss in swiss. I felt really confident in my lists ability to destroy fat turrets. (fat ships in general) My opponent said after the tourney that mine was the only list he didn't want to face even. but somewhere between a few poor maneuvers and really terrible green dice, I came out at a loss with my opponent taking all 100 points of my list and all I did was take half of han.

First turn of the game, I underestimated han's forward ability and ended up getting Carnor shot at. dice were not kind and even with autothrusters I took two points of damage before firing a shot. Han shoots first indeed. I retorted nailing a single shield myself. the next rounds movements put me in place to attempt to get away from the PWT with carnor and get all of my FO arcs on that falcon. his other ships were in range to shoot my fo's but we had both banked so I had the option of firing at them as well. This turn after the dice were rolled I was down one Carnor Jax and up one half dead han. the next turn is where the game really fell apart, I predicted him to want to consolidate his forces near the falcon and planned accordingly, when he veered in the opposite direction and/or slowly enough that he was directly behind me, I knew the game was lost. about 15 minutes more and the game was his. Only his second win ever against me, but he earned it and either way one of us had to lose.

A 33-100 loss for the empire.

So, ouch, I ended getting my nose bloodied a little bit there. I suppose riding high off of the shut out game made the defeat sting a bit more. but that was only the second round of swiss. There was still X-wing to be played and I wanted to get some loot. next match I needed a win.

The good break between rounds (as it was a short game for me.) Left me refresshed and ready to play at my best for my next match-up. I said my prayers to the dice gods, and squeezed my dice bag for good luck. the pairings were called and... I was paired against a Han shoots first list:

Han 46

-gunner

-EU

-Veteran Instincts

-?

Corran Horn 35

-VI

-Fire control

-?

(sorry, but again I'm groggy on the list.)

This was an extremely entertaining match. I set up my whole squad just to the left of center table. we had a good cluster of rocks around the middle and he set up on his right side flank with both ships. turn one I did my personal favorite, a 3 forward across the board. he surprised me with a 4 straight with corran followed up with a 1 hard left turn with the falcon. at that exact moment I picked my target. Corran Horn had to die! Cue the Benny Hill music, because even though I was able to mostly ignore han it took an entire 55/75 minutes to finally hunt down and kill corran horn (the first combat round had been so promising too, 3 range 3 FO's had juked corran down to 1 hull remaining). after corran went down and some of the tightest maneuvering of my life, Han was easily tacked down, and killed. Not before he finished off a single Tie FO however.

Brought it back home for a happy 100-22 win for the empire.

The next match-up was one that I was really hoping for. Oddly enough out of the 24 players present there were 3 tie swarm players 2 were traditional swarms (1 8 tie, 1 howl & 6), the other was the 6 crack shot tie swarm the internet has been going crazy over lately. (rightfully so, the crack swarm went on to top two, I left after losing my top four game so i missed seeing who won it all.) I ended up matched against a Tie swarm though, me and this list go way back. I know it's in's and out's. I know how ties can fly. now let's see if I can put them down. his list:

Howlrunner 18

-shield upgrade 4

Obsidian Squadron pilot 13 x6

We rolled for initiative and he won and took it. That meant Howlie would move and shoot before carnor. we deployed our rocks and there was a good cluster on his left side. that's where I knew I wanted to engage. he deployed on his right in a barren spot two staggered V's with howlrunner central, I deployed on my right side mostly a pin wheel with carnor pointed at an angle toward his formation directly left of my formation. Our opening moves were a forward 3 for most all of his ties, with the two on his farthest left bumping one another, where as my squadron did a 5 straight and soontir did a speculative 2 straight followed by a 1 straight boost. so now I had an Idea of where he could be on his next turn, and with a little fancy foot work, I ended up with all of my ships correctly vectored for the next round and carnor only in range three through a rock of 3 ties. Of course, statistics wanted to make my head explode as with all of my modifiers and all of his only two dice to attack with on three ships, I still took 2 damage. I set up as best I could for the initial pass and after dials were revealed I had played it right. I didn't bump any of his ships and in return I also had carnor mostly safe with only two ties looking at him through a rock and my evades and focuses were good to go. I traded one shield and one hull on one FO for a smattering of 2 hull and 2 hull from 2 seperate tie fighters. then it was fur ball time, but I had an ace up my sleeve. S-Loops. so after the reveal I had one FO s-loop right behind the ships meant to block him, one FO K-turn 4 right into a ship that had no idea it was blocking him, one FO turn on Carnor's pursuers, and carnor himself maneuver just alongside the ties that K-turned through a rock trying to nail him. this turn I lost no ships, but I did lose my shields on the other two FO's, and my opponent lost a shield on howlrunner, and his first whole tie was brought down. From there I knew I had him. all of my threats were in varied locations but could all focus fire where I needed them to, while he would need to break his formation up to deal with my ships. a few more turns of Fur Ball and one (sadly Fatal) error on a barrel roll for Carnor Jax later, and we went to time with me having three FO's to his 1 hull Howlrunner remaining. the last roll of the game put a crit on a two hull howlie. I was praying for direct hit..

78-34 modified win for the Empire (sorta, we did just lose a bunch of pilots after all.)

After that last match I was sure I was in the top 8, but I was unsure as to wether I would get into top 4, but sure enough as they moved up the list I started getting a little nervous that I hadn't made it till they called my name for 3rd place after swiss. Nice! that meant I was ready for my top four games and got my swanky challenge coin and frosted acrylic range ruler! After a brief dinner break it was time to play and I ended up playing against an interesting scum list:

Transdoshan slaver

-k4

-outlaw tech

-?

Binayre Pirate

Syndicate thug

-tlt

Torkil Mux

-moldy crow

-tlt

-?

Needless to say, I had been lucky to dodge the TLT bullet all day until now. this list chewed me up, and spit me out. I thought I would have a chance between all the jukes, but I lost a tie on the first round of engagement, then carnor was zeroed and killed. then the next pilot, then the next pilot. nothing that I could've done really. I thought Carnor would have some ability to survive against TLT's but they hurt. I've not really got anything else to add here.

That ended my Run at this store championship. However third place was a happy result. I really wanted a regional buy, but I suppose I'll keep trying, and of course I will most certainly keep flying casual.

What do you guys think of the list? Are there any changes I could make to deal with TLT's better? How are my fellow Imperial pilots dealing with the TLT? I know a very large amount of damage that made it through was on account of juke, and when I had my targets at range one of Carnor, they didn't have a prayer. The list really exceeded my expectations and cemented the Tie/FO fighter's place in my collection (as a Ship I have 6 of.)