Hi every one!

Yesterday I participated in (19/3/16) an Adelaide store championship, hosted by Infinity Games within the CBD. I was super excited coming to this tournament, and more so improving my position from our recent X-wing league, where I was eliminated in the semi finals. But you'll have to read through this report to see if I did or not .

Before we go onto details, I just wanted to say thankyou to Infinity games for holding a fantastic tournament, and also our T.O Jake who kept the event on a timely schedule!

Yesterday we had 28 players participating, which is so huge for our small community! The Adelaide meta is very say, non-typical, because most players are casual and fly what they want to fly. So on the day, they're no Palp + 2 aces, no quad TLT's, no double regen rebels, no large swarms etc! Instead there were 6 brobot players (mostly crackshot brobots).

I was a little disappointed by this, because I was hoping to out PS some pilots such as Fel, VI poe and so on. I have been practicing with a theme of A-wing aces since January, and this is the 8th variation which I love! Also note wave 8 was not legal in the tournament (since it came out 2 days prior). So here is the list:

"AAE that's no moon, it's a scrub"

Prototype Pilot

-Chardaan Refit

-Autothrusters

Tycho Celchu

-Awing test pilot

-VI

-Push the limit

-Prockets

-Autothrusters

Corran Horn

-VI

-FCS

-R2D2

-Engine Upgrade

98 pts

So onto the games!

Round 1 v Tom B (Brobots)

B & C

- Predator

- Mangler cannon

- ID

-AT

-Adv sensors

-Title

Tom is a great player and I think he has less than a years experience playing the game! The asteroid configuration was mostly congested and central. I deployed my ships scattered centrally on my side, whilst tom deploy on my left. I can't remember the intricacies of the opening turns, but I was mainly trying to imbed my position into the asteroid field whilst Tom was skirting the outfield. My dice were good and consistent, plinking a few shields of C. The game started looking bad for me where tycho was blocked, and a mangler cannon shot through a rock at range 2. Tom rolled hit, crit ; whereas I rolled all blanks (Tych was on one shield, crit came through as loose stabiliser). Phew that wa a close one! We kept battling it out But I couldn't seem to kill IG-88 C. The prototype died fairly early on I believe. With 7 mins left on the clock I was in a fantastic position where corran was in a range 1 position (switch TL to C as action) from a 1 hull C, and Tycho was range two from C with focus, evade. Ig B was one 1 shield left. This was my chance to get a great lead! Corran shoots (hit, hit, blank, blank). Rerolls both blanks for more blanks. Tom gets two evades. Tycho uses his focus out of desperation at C for 2 hits. 2 evades. C kills tycho in return. Sigh..... Corran double taps, getting hit, blank, blank, focus. Rerolls for another hit. 2 evades again. Gah! One of my friends watching the game said I was red in the face after that! So we quickly played the rest of the game, and C smartly ran away whilst I was regenerating shields. I still couldn't get any more damage through! IG B shot at corran getting a crit through (I rolled blanks again), and it was console fire! Phew! Time was called

Loss 24 - 52

I was feeling pretting deflated after that loss, and was hoping my dice started to behave! I picked my self up and moved to the bottom most table for round 2

Round 2 v Richard W

Richard was running:

Maralo Eval

-Mangler

- Gunner

-K4

-Hull

Black sun soldier

-Glitterstim

- Cluster missles

Kavil

-VI

-R4 agro

-Blaster turret

Richard has been playing since the release of the game, but considers himself to be a casual player. He popped in to see how he'd go and have fun, which was great! Asteroids deployed very much like Game 1, so was deployment for both players. As usual I approached through the asteroids, whilst richard moved up from my left flank, with a Z-95 in more a central position. On turn 2 I got the jump on the Z-95 at range 3. Tycho dealt 2 damage and corran sealed the deal for another 2! Wow my dice were warming up! Unfortunately not so much for richard. Turn 3 my proto was outflanking on richards table edge. Maralo stopped for firing positions, and Kavil got bumped! Tycho moved in with a range 1 procket shot! And corran positioned himself at range 2 obstructed.

I can't exactly rememeber the dice rolls from corran, but he did strip 3 shields I believe. Tycho was on fire, dealing 4 hits and a crit. Maralo I believe dealt 1 shield to tycho. The prototype dealt two more damage to Maralo. And Corran double tapped for a hit and 2 crits. 2 of these crits were directs, so In one turn I had dealt 13 damage, killing maralo! Corran flew away to reposition was the prototype and tycho chased down kavil. But kavil like a truck getting a crit through on tycho! (weapons failure, phew). Tycho disengaged, and corran hunted kavil down with plenty of time to spare

Win 100-0

I was feeling better now, but my dice were insanely hot in Round 2. I had jumped from Table 14 to table 7.

Round 3 v Callum J

Callum was running:

Scum Boba

-VI

-Glitter

-EU

Torkil Mux

- TLT

- Tactician

Thug

-Unhinged

-TLT

98 pts

Callum won initiative and chose to keep it. Callum smartly spread out his small rocks, so that most of the obstacles were on my right side. He deployed on my left, and I deployed in the centre-right of my zone. I cautiously came through the rocks in the middle, as his TLT's had open room to move. Boba engaged first, shooting at corran to no avail. I had no shots. I decided to come out of my fielded area and engage the the TLT's after Boba had over committed. Tycho chased after boba. Torkil made Corran PS 0 but focussed on the prototype dealing 3 damage to it I beleive. I dealt 1 shield to torkil. The next turn, my proto blocked the TLT formation, and corran got a range 1 focussed shot on torkil. I missed an opportunity to 2 forward with tycho and engage the thug, but instead I 1turned bumping into Boba. The TLT's did a damage to tycho I think. Corran double tapped to destroy torkil. A couple turns later, the Thug had to run away, but I got tycho into a range 1 shot of Boba (sitting on a rock), and Corran range 2 with his weapons ready to fire. Boba popped glitterstim, as he should. I try to restrain my use of prockets unless I have focus, target lock. But I decided to take a risk. The procket attack came up blank, blank, blank, blank, focus - converting for 1 hit! LOL! No damage. Corran double tapped for 3 shileds I think. After this tycho wasn't in a prime position to chase boba, so instead went after the y-wing. The proto and corran chased boba. In my pursuit of the thug, the TLT got 2 cheeky damage onto tycho (rolling blanks again). But in turn boba took at least 4 more turns to kill the proto type on one health. There was a position where the proto had blocked boba and corran k-turned behind dealing more damage and damage sensor array.

I kept doubting myself with tycho and couldn't get into range 1 of the thug to deny. Corran was chasing boba without actions, and stressed but lucked out going through a roid and a stress field. The second to last turn tycho was killed. Boba at this point was on 1 hull and there was 1 minute left. Corran was ready to fire. Callum was a gentleman and a great sport for not stalling the last minute. Corran chased down boba and killed him on the final round.

If time was called before boba died, I would have lost 50 - 52. But now I had won 73 - 52

You are a legendary sportsman Callum!

From here I had progressed up to table 3!

Round 4 v Juliet (Crackshot B&C but with ID) 98 pts

The asteroids were deployed just how I like em, central and congested. Again I deployed centrally (but tycho on the left flank) whilst Juliet's brobots, were deployed to my right of centre. My prototype flew up the centre with corran guarding behid, and tycho flew up the left flank. Both B&C boosted into firing positions of the prototype (only 1 shot though), and dealt a damage. Turn 2, My prototype 2 banked right around a large asteroid to come into a blocking position next turn. Both B&C banked right but C was very close to the rock. Corran slowly moved up and either took at pot shot / tl action at C for no damage. Tycho was right behind the prototype. Turn 3 was crucial. My proto approached C's top right corner but couldn't boost in the gap between the C and the asteroid. B was out of the fight and out of position. Instead of doing a 1 hard left with C, ID was triggered. This proved costly as corran turned in a boosted into range 1, and tycho had moved in with focus target lock. With the accumulation of of all three ships (plus double tap) C was destroyed. Before C was destroyed Juliet chose to focus on the prototype to no avail (had a TL on it). I was only a matter of time where B was destroyed, but took the prototype with it.

Win 100 -17

For the last round of swiss I had moved to table 4, to see if I had a chance to get into top 4!

Game 5 v Cameron (Typical Dash and Corran build)

TBH I've never faced dash corran in my life! My 2 point initiative bid proved very useful as I chose to not have it. The asteroids were sort of central, most at range 2 of one another. The prototype had a central position, whilst dash corran were on my left flank. Tycho and corran deplyed nearish to the proto. Turn 1 I zoomed my proto with a left 3 bank and boost, to get into a blocking position. Dash moved up to engage the prototype, with his corran close behind. My aces were also close behind the proto type. Dash got 4 hits at range 2 of the proto, destroying him (blanks again lol). This was a bummer because the proto had a fantastic opportunity to block since Dash had pushed. But next turn I predicted dash wouldn't turn left into my tycho and corran/the asteroid field. So I dialled in mor corran to do a 2 hard left. Which caught dash inside range 1 and at range 3 obstructed from his corran. Tycho wasn't really in the fight at the moment (btw dash didn't push this turn). Corran double tapped for 3-4 damage. The next turn dash moved alongside my deployment edge and shot at tycho to no avail. His corran was still chasing and not doing much damage. My corran was still maintaining range 1 of crran and tycho was getting in postion. Next turn dash smartly moved 2 forward and barrel rolled left to block corran. But this left dash exposed to a proton rocket shot from tycho dealing 3 more damage I think. His corran was chasing my corran and did 1 damage. The turn after dash was trapped in my right corner (I was expecting him to hard 3 left, after not push last turn, instead did a 1 turn right). With this, my tycho overshot, his corran was in a great range 1 position of my corran (but went through debris to do it). My corran did a 1 forward and thankfully for EU, boosted into range 1 of dash and range two of corran. His corran dealt 1-2 damage (blanking out again) and his double tap stripped my shields. Dash died to my corran.

Since his corran double tapped, I was free to run away and reposition. The end game resulted in my tycho dealing shield damage to his corran - getting in a final position where both corran were in range 1 of each other and tych was right behind. Both corran's died!

Win 100 - 63

So after my my swiss rounds I was 4-1 with a decent MOV. There was one 5-0 player (Tom B, great work buddy!) and 4 players at 4-1. I managed to sneak into 4th position, beating the 5th place by 40 or so MOV.

At this point I was pretty chuffed at my performance and got extremely lucky to get here (Game 3 could have ended it for me). This post is getting too long so I'll post the top 4 below.

By the way, the top 4 and top 2 were filmed, and are in the editing process. So when they are done there will be links.

So In the top 4 I was paired off against Tom B from game 1. We were both pretty nervous to face each other! The asteroids were sort of cental in position but more so spread out. My prototype was in the centre as usual and his brobots were on my right flank. I deployed tycho on the far left and corran near the prototype. My proto got into a central position early, with his brobots coming straight down the right flank. My tycho turned left, choosing not to joust, whilst corran made his way up the middle. Now I can't remember if this happened turn 2 or 3, but something deisastrous happened for tom. With one of his brobots he boosted forward (with adv sensors) and then K-turned. But His bottom right corner was a couple of millimeters of my table edge - so he was gone. Tom took it very well, and remained a great sport. With only one bot remaining, The rest of my ships pounced and eventually destroyed it.

Grand final v Tom D (Glitterstim B&C crackshot brobots)

Tom D is a great player, and most likely the best and consistent player in the adelaide meta. So I was pretty tense facing up against him. But I did have a solid list to counter his brobots. If I could conservatively play corran throughout the game without him taking not a lot of damage, I would have a good chance to win. Rock placement was fairly spread out this match. I beleive I deployed centrally whilst tom deployed on my left.

Now I can't remember many of the details, since it was a long drawn out game (close to 2 hours I think....). But I managed to get into a central position with corran and the prototype, with his brobots coming in on a diagonal lane from my left flank. Tycho had k-turned facing left to open his options. Tom used crack shot early on to deal one damage more to the prototype and to tycho. Corran was double tapping and running away. Fortunately for me I got some great damage through on B where Tom risked not popping glitterstim. And whilst I was flying corran with great precision, I was flying tycho sloppily. I had 3 chances to unload a procket shot into a brobot but picked the wrong manuevre. For my failure Tom got rid of tycho without him doing much. Turns went by until C blocked corran but was in a firing position on a 3 hull B (The turn before corran and a the 1 hull prototype had firing solutions on B who had segnored who glitterstimmed). who was still stressed. Corran's double tap finished B off. More turns went by where corran would cheekily arc dodge and deal massive damage or the prototype would block and let corran deal more damage.

At the end of the game, corran was at full health and the prototype was at 1 hull remaining. It was a fantastic game and a fantastic tournament to participate at! Thank you to all my fantastic opponents, and I'll hopefully so you at regionals

Take care everyone!