So, at 8 this morning I put on a ridiculous high viz jumper and pedalled my bicycle through the chill of a Sussex winter morning to a wonderful games shop in Bexhill.

Being billed as something of a casual tournament I didn't want to take anything too hardcore so I settled on my Defender list I started developing at my local wargame club last Thursday.

Vessary (VI, TIE mk.2, HLC)

Omega Squadron Leader (com relay, juke)

Epsilon Sqn Pilot

Epsilon Sqn Pilot

Rather than make the changes I was thinking of for the next round of testing I stuck with the above, having attained an 100% win rate with it at the club (out of two games...)

Game 1 - Andy ( Zeta x2, Omega + com relay, mauler mithel +SU, dark curse +SU)

Felt pretty confident about this one going in. he spread out his ships, I bunched mine up and flew them into the asteroid field strait at mauler and dark curse. The first exchange was between the epsilons and dark curse which knocked a shield off either side, the next turn saw me lose an epsilon in exchange for nearly killing Mauler. Not exactly an even trade! After a k-turn Vessery finished blasting mauler and then he and omega disengaged to make another long range pass, when the rest of the enemy tore after he other epsilon. Got a good block on his Omega which allowed me to pop him quickly, then it was kiss chase round the asteroid until time was called. Lost my epsilon in exchange for two zetas.

Result - win!

Game 2 - Paul

One of the old hands of the 1066 club. He was flying Palpatine in an Omega shuttle, Echo+ACD, whisper +ACD+VI.

Very close game. Lots of lucky red dice on both sides. Echo died fast and hard, but so did Omega Leader and an Epsilon. Vessery blasted Whisper out of the sky but couldn't clear Palpatine's arc before being force lightninged to death. Almost went to time with me frantically trying to kill Palp with an epsilon to avoid a draw.

Win! 100-85.

This really killed my MOV, and it was an upward struggle from here.

Game 3 - Gaz (Wedge+determination+SU, Biggs+r2d2+SU, Dutch Vander+ICT+R7)

Bit of an old style list here. I was pretty confident, right up until Wedge blasted Vessery out of the sky with his second shot of the game! I killed Biggs the same round, but it wasn't looking good. Lost an Epsilon soon after, and both of my survivors were down to one hull each by the time they offed Wedge. Then began the dance. We traded many range three shots as my ties danced around to the best of their ability. He made a few mistakes in the end game which helped me, but time had been called before I killed Dutch in the last round.,of shooting. Way too close !

Game four - Danny (wampa, Jax+VI,+AT+SU, Oicunn+Vader+predator)

Final round. Playing for first or fourth place due to my shocking MOV. Danny is another member of 1066 wargaming. We've crossed paths twice in tournaments and he won both, so I wanted this one! He set up with the decimator in the middle and the fighters on each flank, so I headed toward the decimator. Jax was slightly ahead so I sent in an Epsilon to block him which worked, and the rest of my guys piled on. Spoiled only slightly by Omega Leader being reduced to one hull and blinded by Vader! Followed the decimator with one epsilon and Vessary, and killed it fast with some lucky HLC work, but not before it destroyed OL. Wampa, outnumbered three to one fell quickly to Vessery.

It was all over very quickly, markedly different from my other games and something of an anticlimax for that, but a good game nonetheless.

So yes, my defenders came first! And I won my first X-wing tournament!

Great fun. Very tempted to swap out omega for Zeta leader as I was suffering from a serious lack of firepower in the games Vessery went down. Otherwise I really enjoyed my list and the games. It may not have been the most hardcore of tournament play, but it was damned good fun and the store better run another one soon!