Saturday was my first store championship for X-wing. I have had some regular tournament play but nothing of this size or importance I guess to up the level of competition. We had 33 players so it was decided that we would have 5 rounds of swiss, leading to a cut to top 4 for elimination. I had been toying around with many list ideas, but ultimately decided to go with a form of rebel regen that I had won an 11 person tournament with a couple weeks ago.
The list:
Poe Dameron
Lone Wolf
R5-P9
Autothrusters
Red Ace
R2-D2
Integrated Astromech
Comm Relay
Gold Squadron Pilot
Twin Laser Turret
R3-A2
BTL-A4
Round 1: Mike
Mike had a 5 tie fighter list that I will do my best to reproduce but a lot of list details I tend to forget, bear with me. I know it had Omega Leader with Juke and Comm Relay, Omega Ace with Push The Limit, Zeta Leader and Howlrunner with Wired I believe, and an Academy Pilot.
I knew I was going to have to prioritize targets and try either kill Omega Leader quickly, or ignore him altogether depending on what presents itself to me. The good thing about when people take an academy with other ties is that they tend to keep them all together and I'll know where the rest of them are going once the Academy is placed.
He sets up on his right of the board, I do similarly in the opposite corner, with Poe a little split and facing right. I know I want to drag him into some asteroids if I can and prevent him focusing fire as much as possible. Things happen quickly as he 5 straights most of his ties and comes at me before I can get to the position that I'd liked but I still had a couple favorable asteroids. So I turn in with Red Ace and Stresshog, while I k-turn with Poe who will approach from the bottom. This next turn is where I should have done a 4 straight with Red Ace that would have caused severe bumping on his part but I chose a 3. Shots fired and ultimately Red Ace doesn't make it through the first pass. Omega Leader was not close enough to be focused down so I went for Omega Ace first and finished him off shortly after. Things were not looking too good for me here but then he k-turned with Howlrunner and Poe came up and focused for a one shot kill on her. So the tide shifted again, now in my favor. My Y-wing was getting some good stress shots on the ties and they had to break formation around the asteroids and get turned around, while I had Poe chase Zeta Leader towards the top of the map. Unfortunately, this is where I made my 2nd big mistake in thinking Zeta Leader was going to continue to run, and I 3 banked my y-wing to get away from the other ties instead of hard 2 turning to try to get arc on Zeta. He ended up k-turning in a spot where I would have had a shot if I turned hard enough and would have been able to double stress him. Instead, the following turn he managed to get in range 1 of my y-wing with a very nice barrel roll and took him out. Poe tried to get some shots in but the ties were difficult to keep in arc and I couldn't finish any more of them before time was called. This was the biggest back and forth game I think I've ever played and a hell of a lot of fun. I really wish I could have seen this play out but Omega Leader would have probably sealed it for him.
Loss (Poe to about 60 points of Ties)
Round 2: Matt
Matt was flying a turreted rebel list featuring Miranda Doni. She was pimped out to the max with TLT, Proton Bombs, Prox Mines, Advanced Slam, and Extra Munitions. Accompanying her were two Gold Squad Y's, one with TLT and the other with Ion Cannon Turret. I knew Miranda was my primary target.
We set up on the same side but they quickly turned and began the kite around the board routine with Miranda in front and Ion Turret in the rear. I weaved through the asteroid field and Miranda was slamming to get even further ahead. Because of this I decided that she is just too fast to chase for my X-wings and I cut across to take some shots at the rear Y. I ended up misjudging an asteroid aad barely caught the edge of it with Poe. It was devastating. He ended up then getting ionized and eventually met his doom before he could really do much work. Miranda slammed in between arcs of my Y and Red Ace in the most miraculous move ever and dropped a Proton Bomb the following turn. It managed to get both my Y and Red Ace and it was all over from there. Red Ace ended up getting ionized also and they both went down pretty quickly to focused fire while I rarely got shots off. I was really hoping to finish off at least one of the Y's but couldn't get it done. I'd say the ion turret was the star of this one as well as some smooth flying with Miranda. I didn't think I had such a bad matchup against turrets but not getting arc for a couple of turns and landing Poe on the rock really did me in.
Loss 0-100
Round 3: Evan
Evan had 3 YV-666s for his list. All 3 had the K4 Security Droid that allows them to grab a free target lock when performing a green maneuver. And two of them had Tactician. I was very intimidated by this list, as it has 36 hit points, 3 attack dice ships, 180 fire firing arcs, stress, and action efficiency. My plan was to try not to get double stressed by not getting in range 2 of both Tacticians and to keep Poe alive til the end.
We both set up on the right side across from each other, and I split Poe off to the left to either flank or to draw them into the asteroids if he wanted to chase him. He didn't take the bait so I had Poe quickly come down the left side as I slow played Red Ace and the Stresshog. The first few rounds of firing, I was just trying to focus down one of the Tactician YVs, and get in a good chase position for Poe. Red Ace went down pretty quickly to focused fire, but I was also able to burn one of his YVs pretty quickly and apply some stress to prevent the double actions provided by K4 Security Droid. I ended up having really good positioning to chase the other 2 around the mat and traded my Y for another YV. It ended to time as Poe was chasing the last one around but I didn't have the time to bring it down to half hitpoints.
Modified Win 66-62
Round 4: Shawn
Shawn was flying 3 B-wings with Accuracy Corrector and Autoblasters. He also had Hull Upgrades on them. With this list I knew exactly how to proceed... stay the hell out of range one.
He set up all 3 B's together to the right of center and I had Red Ace and Stresshog on the right with Poe split to the left again. I moved Poe straight 4 and slow played with the other two to see who he would go for first. He committed to the right side of the board and I knew Poe was going to have an easy time getting a good position so I continued with that strategy. I managed to stay out of range one for the first round of shooting and got some favorable trades in shots. Poe was able to activate Lone Wolf for at least 2 rounds and I went to work on focusing one of the B's down. I was able to then bump in a favorable way to disrupt his focus fire and this is where Stresshog really shined as I was able to K-turn with Red Ace while his B's were stressed and unable. Though he did get a couple good range one shots in, it just wasn't enough and even though I lost Red Ace, Poe cleaned up.
Win 100-36
Round 5: Nick
Nick had a scum list featuring Bossk. Forgive me for not remembering his entire build as I am really bad with scum ships as I only own a couple and never play them. But he definitely had Mangler Cannon, Mercenary Copilot maybe and some others, Mux with TLT, and a Cartel Marauder. I knew I couldn't let Bossk live for too long with his ability synergizing beautifully with Mangler Cannon so I decided he was my priority.
I again set up very similarly with Red Ace and Stresshog on the right and Poe split to the left. He had Bossk toward his left corner facing right and the other two next to him. I wasn't as quick with Poe round one as I didn't know if he was trying to mislead me into overcomitting and hard turn Bossk right back at Poe. He didn't, however, and I then shot Poe down the side of the mat to get into flanking position. So even though I had decided Bossk needed to die, the marauder presented itself as my first target and I traded shots with it and Red Ace. Poe was able to gun it and with a boost, just managed to get out of Bossk's ridiculous arc. I finished off the marauder in the second round of firing and flew past Bossk with my other two ships, figuring it would take a little bit for him to get turned around. I K-turned with Poe and chose to focus my fire on Mux who quickly fell to the pressure. Bossk had gotten a couple good shots off but it just wasn't enough and I chased him down and finished him off without issue.
Win 100-0
After my early blunders, I definitely improved piloting this list quite a bit as the day went on. When it works, regen is strong. But when my opponent shuts one of them down without it ever really triggering, it can be a lot of wasted points. I definitely got a good dose of different lists though, to test against. I have to say that I didn't know if Lone Wolf would pay off and in some rounds it just doesn't trigger, but when keeping Poe away from the pack and using him as a flanker, it definitely got its two points worth. And also at least 3 of the lists wouldn't have cared about Veteran Instincts so I'm glad I chose Lone Wolf instead. Regen is definitely about the long game though, and timed rounds seem to not work in its favor. Therefore I will probably be flying another list for future championships, but I had a lot of fun with this one. I had painted all 3 of my ships to have them custom and got some nice comments. I also saw an old friend from high school that I hadn't seen in about 10 years which was a wonderful surprise to find that we are enjoying the same obsession... I mean pass time. I'd be interested to hear if any of you flew similar lists and what your outcome was. Thanks for reading. Fly Casual.