Well, after not thinking I'd get to play in my local store championship (due to space in the store, X-Wing events are capped at 16 players), I got a last minute entry after someone else couldn't make it. So I rocked up this morning to my first ever store championship. And first ever X-Wing tournament for that matter. And, er, first ever game in that meta. And first ever game with the list I was using. And first game in nearly a year.
Oh dear. This was never going to go well...
Okay, the list. First let me say that I just love the Starviper. That's my excuse. I used:
Prince Xisor with Virago, Autothrusters, Advanced Sensors & Predator
Syndicate Thug with Twin Laser Turret
Binayre Pirate
Binayre Pirate
Binayre Pirate
GAME ONE
...was against Kevin. He was flying Miranda Doni, a TLT BTL Y-Wing and Poe. (And maybe something else? My memories of the earlier parts of the day are hazy.) Regardless, we flew rings around one another. A lucky crit discarded his TLT, and the Y-Wing followed, and my green dice were simply on fire, keeping my Z-95s alive for far longer than they should have been. We went to time and he won narrowly, having taken down my Y-Wing – there was just a 10 point difference in kills.
GAME TWO
...pitted me against Tim's A/B Brobots with all the frills. I don't know if I was intimidated by our glorious robotic overlords or just really hungry, but I played like an idiot, spending focus to evade hits that meant they got extra shots on me, flying poorly and basically deserving the loss I received. I did manage to put enough hits on IG 88-B to stop him getting a full win, for which I apologise again, Tim. He ended up second for the day, I believe.
GAME THREE
...came after some food and a rest, and I now felt vaguely human. I'm really not a morning person. David's Rebel list was a bit intimidating, with Poe, Wedge and Blue Ace. Round one, we advanced. Round two saw Wedge in the sights of the 3 Z-95s, who all rolled hits and crits and blew him off the table. Round three saw the same thing happen to Poe... Blue Ace survived long enough to remove a Z-95 (or two, maybe?) and land me a modified win. But a win nonetheless!
GAME FOUR
...put me up against the First Order and friend. Barney's list had Soontir, Zeta Ace, Epsilon Leader and... another TIE-FO of some sort (I really should have taken notes). The initial engagements were inconclusive, but keeping the Z-95s in formation with Xisor and running the Y-Wing as annoyingly as possible took down the TIEs one by one, leaving Soontir. He tried a daring move into a Z-95's arc to get a better hit, and had poor luck on the dice (as he did throughout), and Soontir went down to some red-hot red dice, for a 100-0 win to me.
And that was it! I didn't make the top 4 cut, coming in 7th, which was actually a rather pleasant surprise. I feel that – second game aside – I didn't embarrass myself too badly, and all my opponents seemed to enjoy themselves, which is what I aim for. I learned a lot about flying mini-swarms, which is useful, since I think I want to take a full TIE swarm as one of my two Hangar Bay lists at the Yavin Open in June. We'll see.
I also learned that some opponents find it hard to cope with lists they really didn't expect to see. There were lots of raised eyebrows over my use of a StarViper, and it paid off. None of them really seemed to know how to handle ol' Prince X. Even in the disastrous Brobots game, he survived for ages in the face of both IGs.
And it would be rude not to thank all four of my worthy foes – they were great – and Andy and Leah, the Chimera staff. They create a fantastic atmosphere.
Edited by Graeme Lyon