March 13, 2016. Fundemonium Store Championship.
List, Brobots B&C with VI, Title, AT, HLC, FCS, and ID.

After picking up X-Wing after a long hiatus, due to having no one to play with, I found out an SC was two weeks a way. In an effort to practice I downloaded Vassal, ran my list, then changed to Brobots after failing to achieve any success with rebels. I instantly started winning online games. Knowing that tabletop would be a different challenge with most likely, tougher opponents, I entered the SC with the sole purpose of getting C3PO, and hopefully winning maybe one game. Which I technically did.

My first opponent was clearly a newer player. He almost scooped before the match even started because he couldn’t find his dials. He was urged to stay, and was lent some dials by other players. I say he was newer because he didn’t know that running your template over an asteroid made you roll for potential damage. However, we didn’t get to that teachable moment for about 15 minutes after the game started...because my opponent began building his list at the tournament table. Long and potentially embarrassing story short, we started play and I began helping him along. I was going to focus down a tie, to start shrinking his numbers, but his erratic flying style, combined with nice defense rolls allowed his ties to actually fly away from me, preventing focus fire, so I simply took whatever shots I did have until the tie came back. Mistake number 1. I didn’t switch my target locks over to new targets right away. This may have cost me severely, no to way to know now.

I found that my shields were dropping kind of fast. I, trying to be a good sportsman, had been pointing out shots that his ties had on me, when he was about to pass to the next phase. This happened several times. Mistake number two.

I should have kept my stupid mouth shut!

I had no obligation to do that, and it ended up letting him get half MOV on each of my brobots. Meanwhile, I finally had picked a Tie Defender as my target, and focused him down. This was not as easy as I had anticipated. That ship was tough! Short story short my opponent had a modified victory over me. That should never have happened in my opinion. My flying was careless, my actions were less than optimal, and I let a win slip away. Part of that embarrassing story involved my opponent trying to run a list that went over on points. Earlier I went to the TO, explained that my opponent didn’t have his list ready, and if he had an extra squad sheet, maybe he could fill one out so as not to cause problems later in the tournament. This person went back and submitted a list that ran over on points to the TO! So I got a win.

Yay me right? Well, in my book, not really. Because I still know how that game played out.

This led to my would be second challenger and I being relocated to other tables before the match started. This kid probably would have sent me home with a loss, but I was a bit concerned about his attitude, and I was honestly happy that I got a new opponent. My new challenger, a bearded gentleman named Michael, was an absolute joy to play with. We synched up and had an incredibly fast paced, yet precise, game of X-Wing. He ran Biggs, Poe, and Katarn. He had some re-rolling shenanigans that reduced my combat effectiveness, but I was able to lay down enough pain to take Biggs down, and do a little damage here and there, I backed off Poe because he was regenerating, but I wasn’t able to stay in the game. I see in hindsight some moves I could have made to optimize my play in that game. That’s good because I learned something. However I’m not saying I would have won. Michael had the skills to out-fly me for sure. Without laying blame on cards or dice, I’d like to point out that I lost my secondary weapon from an unfortunate critical hit on one of my IG’s. This was crippling to my squad, and may well have locked his win down early. That said, I still scraped it out, fought my hardest, and I feel like I played a solid game, and was recognized by my opponent for that.

We broke for lunch, and it took that entire lunch period for my heart to stop racing from how tense that game was. Awesome round of X-Wing.

When we reconvened, my next match was a mirror match against an asymmetrical brobot build running B&C, Advanced Sensors, flachette cannons, ion cannons, with bomb fun to top it off. My rival was Spartacus, another gentleman who was an absolute treat to play X-Wing with. I focused on one of his IG’s, popping Inertial Dampeners immediately during the first engagement. I took the shields off, and then the cluster began. It started by me landing an IG on a rock. An unexpected blocking move caused me to set right back down on that rock during the next activation phase. This greatly hampered my damage output, and hurt a bit. He moved brilliantly and was able to keep me from not only going where I wanted, but from having focused shots on one of his IG’s, if I was even lucky enough to be in arc to begin with. He was worried about loosing an IG so early and he was admittedly in a defensive role from that point on. It worked like a charm, and Ionization kept me from maneuvering as well on top of it all.

Another great game of X-Wing. I don’t mind the losses. We talked about builds, strategy, turn zero, and I took the chance to learn from it.

My last game (before I had to leave one swiss round early), was against a guy who had all the right templates, and a world championship shirt to match. I was sure I’d get stomped, but when he handed me his list, I was shocked to see Torkil Mux, Guri, and Talonbane Cobra. What is this? Three ships that are probably in the top five list for “almost there, but not quite playable”, out of all the ships X-Wing has to offer. I figured if he brought this to an SC, he must know what he’s doing, and he must have some dirty trick up his sleeve. My thought was, “take out his support, then focus down TBC.” I noticed how he positioned across from me, this made me think he wanted a joust. On the fly I tried something new because the last game made me so paranoid of getting into fur-balls. I did hard bank 2’s away from my board edge, and thus, away from him. I boosted one around a rock, and the other forward. The next round the IG that didn’t turn, was able to line up right behind my lead IG, in a conga line. Once in arc, I popped ID with the lead IG, ran the second into the back of him, and was able to get shots with both, at the expense of an action. Worth it. I wanted Talonbane Cobra alone and without support, so I took my opportunity to kill Mux in the first engagement. Next activation I leap frogged my IG’s, the one in the rear moving forward 3, while the one that was in front, did a 1 forward. I activated him second, to deliberately bump. I had shots again. My opponent couldn’t seem to rally his defense dice and I popped Guri with some HLC shots with TL that left her in a shape worse than bad. Direct Hit! perfect crit for killing Guri. Mux also died to a Direct Hit! now that I think about it. This left Talonbane. I shot that poor thing nearly to death. It took one of my IG’s down to 1 hull, but I had him for sure! Or so I thought. This guy took the weakened IG out. The way my opponent was talking I literally thought he was going to pick his ships up off the table and admit defeat. Instead he reached for his dial, so I kept playing, expecting a rage quit any moment. I’ve seen games go bad for a player with a “sure win”, so I was vigilant, I treated the last part of this game like I was the one with one hull left. A combination of stressing myself, getting to close to the board edge, and underestimating Talonbane’s mobility with Engine Upgrade, oh, and bumps, caused me to not be able to shoot at him for several rounds while TCB took range one, five dice, modified, shots at my IG. I didn’t panic, I just needed one shot. I finally got around to face the Cobra, only to find him unloading three hits, two crits on my brobot... I lost. I died. One hull Talonbane proved his might at the table. Thinking back on it... the other IG didn’t take damage from Guri or Torkil... it was all Talonbane Cobra. I was excited to see such an under appreciated ship take such a big win.

I packed up my things. My opponent and I chatted very briefly about the game. Then I went to my car. This is where things changed. I was happy to take losses, I didn’t have high expectations. But for some reason I became very, very salty, in my car. I cursed Talonbane Cobra. I cursed the fact that my one win was due to a technicality. Why do I ‘have to’ lose? I fought hard. I didn’t take any of my matches as an easy victory. I learned from prior mistakes. I get that dice vary, I get that you can’t give anything away for free. But one hull Talon-*******-Bane Cobra!? I deserved that win, didn’t I!?

Long ago I learned to take my licks, and I have been determined to make them into learning experiences. But in doing so, those losses became on my terms, in a funny sort of way. This time I had my heart set on a win. I started in such a strong position that, conservative flying aside, I was expecting the win. I was happy to have had my first ‘legitimate win’ at an SC. I was high up on my pedestal, and I got knocked down, hard. I don’t believe this was because I was sloppy. This was just skill intersecting with luck in such a way that seemingly insurmountable odds were overcome by my opponent.

Could have happened to anyone.

The lesson I learned today was the lesson of what it feels like to take a true loss. What it feels like to have what’s ‘yours’ ripped away from you. Thinking back to how I felt before that match, looking around a room, surrounded by people playing X-Wing, amazing. I can’t wait for my next local SC. I can’t wait to get better at this game. After a quick dip in the bacta tank, I’ll be strong enough to pull the ears off a Winged Gundark.

Great write up.

I love Talonbane Cobra.

I fear Talonbane Cobra.

Thank you for the compliment.