On Saturday, March 19, 21 players converged on Unique Gifts & Games in Grayslake, my home store, for the first store championship in Chicagoland after wave 8 was released. Registration was capped at 24 due to space constraints, but a few no-shows resulted in the odd number of players, unfortunately.
I’ve been primarily an Imperial player since I started playing at the tail end of Wave 3 always enjoying the high-risk, high-reward play style those arc dodgers afforded, but with so much anti-agility and Fel hate in the meta, I opted to hang up my Imperial dress blues and see what flying for the highest bidder would be like. I decided to try the new triple Contract Scout list I had been hearing about, being drawn to the 27 hit points behind two agility dice, and I previously had flown triple Firesprays for a while so was familiar with flying three large base ships. The list I took was:
- Contract Scout (x3)
o Deadeye
o Plasma Torpedo
o Extra Munitions
o R4 Agromech
o Guidance Chip
o Intelligence Agent (on 1)
Looking around at the competition pre-tourney, I saw two other triple Scout lists, both outfitted slightly differently, two double Scout lists with a Mist Hunter, and shockingly only three Imperial lists. Apparently all the other usual Imperial players in my area came to the same conclusion as I did at the same time.
Game 1
My first match was against Justin, a local player I’ve played a number of times. He was flying four B-Wings all with an Ion Cannon. We had a fairly loose asteroid formation with one in each corner. I set up in my right corner and he did the same, and both turned in toward the center. He unfortunately had some issues making the turn and as a result his back two B-Wings were out of the fight for the first round of combat while all three of my Scouts faced off against his lead two B-Wings. One was destroyed outright and I think I even put a little damage on the other, he returned by putting an ion token on one of my ships. Next turn he was able to get a block in on two of my ships, but the third enjoyed its white S-Loop and got in right behind his B-Wings. I took a good amount of damage that turn, but was able to return almost as much with the agility dice making the difference. Next turn, though, he was boxed in unable to make his 2 K-turns against my big bases putting him well out of position for the rest of the match while my Scouts were pretty easily able to get arcs and unload the rest of their torpedoes for the win. He did splash one of my Scouts and got half points on another, though.
Win 100-50 (1-0)
Game 2
My second game was against Dave, a member of the Imperial remnant flying a TIE swarm of Lt. Colzet with Adv. Targeting Computer and X1, Wampa, Dark Curse, Backstabber, Scourge and an Obsidian. Dave had the bye in the first round, and planted himself at my table then to watch what triple Scouts could do. Apparently his scouting (no pun intended) paid off. He set up in two groups both lined three across, while I set up in my left corner. The asteroids were pretty tight on the right side and I figured I would be turning into the board so then would be able to take advantage of the open dial on the left. Dave came screaming ahead with a 5 straight on all of his TIEs in the opening round and one of my Scouts just caught a range 3 attack on the Obsidian on the far left of his formation. I had initiative and launched my first torp, and he rolled two blanks and a focus, vaping a TIE off the bat. Its return fired did nothing. Next turn Dave pushes forward hard again to get into range 1, but I force a few chain collisions denying most of his actions and leaving a couple TIEs at range 2. Dave opens up with his PS advantage and is able to eat a pretty good chunk of my scout with the Intel Agent in it, but my return fire drops Scourge. I’m feeling pretty good at this point, but then my dice just turn on me and Dave’s light up for him. He’s able to use his PS advantage to start clearing my ships before than can shoot and my dice barely tickle his TIEs. I’m able to destroy Wampa and Backstabber though before he finally finishes my last Scout. One thing I realized after this game was that I didn’t use R4 Agromech on any of my primary attacks like I could have, spending the focus on nothing to get the target lock for the re-rolls I desperately needed. I don’t know how much that would have affected the outcome, but I suspect it would have been an even closer match. Chalk that up to playing a new list without really playtesting it before.
Lose 60-100 (1-1)
My third match was against Travis, another local player I’ve traded matches with many times. He was 2-0 and got the pair down against me. Travis has been having a lot of fun with bombs lately and really took that to the extreme in the list he brought:
- Miranda
o Proximity Mine
o Proximity Mine
o Extra Munitions
o Advanced Slam
- Blue Squad B-Wing
o Advance Sensors
o E/2 Upgrade
o Sabine
o Proximity Mine
o Extra Munitions
- Gold Squad Y-Wing
o Bomb Loadout
o Proximity Mines
o Extra Munitions
o BB-8
There must have been one more upgrade in there somewhere since its only 97 points, but I don’t remember what it was. I set up again in my right corner, he put the Y-Wing in the middle of the board and the B-Wing and Miranda together basically across from me. Rather than jousting, he turned them to start moving down his side of the board while the Y-Wing moved forward. He was able to drop both proximity mines on the table before my scouts caught him with two range 3 torp shots that finished the Y-Wing with no shots in return. About that time Miranda and the B-Wing ran out of board and had to turn up the left side of the map, right to the area my Scouts already were headed. Miranda lasted two rounds taking multiple torpedoes before going down. The B-Wing lasted one more round. I ended up running over just one mine that game, with my highlight being stripping all five of the B-Wings shields with one plasma torp. I took a few shield damage, but no hull.
Win 100-0 (2-1)
Game 4
Last match in Swiss was against Jason, another local player that I talk strategy with quite often and another Imperial turncoat, except he chose to fly dirty Rebels. He was flying Dash with title, HLC, Engine and Kanan, and 3 Talas, one with an Ion Pulse and Guidance Chip. I set up in the right corner again, he put Dash in the middle and his Talas in his right corner on the opposite side of the map. Jason’s strategy became apparent in that he wanted to limit Dash to just 1 vs. 1 matchups as much as possible. In first exchange, he stripped two shields from one Scout, but that Scout stripped two from him as well, so good exchange for me. After that, Dash bugged out and he sent in the Talas fast bringing them all into range 2-3 of all my Scouts. He stripped the shields from the hurt Scout and took a couple shields from another, but my return fire destroyed one Tala and left another limping on one hull. Next turn I was able to move a Scout in to blocking position on those Talas while getting the other two into position to finish them off, while Dash made his way back toward the fight. I took another shield damage from the one Tala that could fire, but then finished both off easily. It was then Dash with 8 hp vs. all three of my mostly healthy Scouts, each with a torpedo still in the tubes. Jason did a good job of keeping the engagement at range 3 to deny my Intel Agent, but I was able to cycle my Scouts out and get two more torps off on him before he finally went down, but he was able to get half points on two of my Scouts.
Win 100-34 (3-1)
My overall MOV was enough to get me third overall after Swiss, making the cut to Top 4. Also making the cut were Nate, Pasqual and Joe. Their lists are below:
Nate
- IG-88 B & C
o Predator
o Advance Sensors
o HLC
o Title
o Autothrusters on B only
Pasquale
- Contract Scouts (x2)
o Deadeye
o Plasma Torpedo
o Extra Munitions
o R4 Agromech
o Guidance Chips
- 4-LOM
o Advance Sensors
o Outlaw Tech
o Mist Hunter Title
o Tractor Beam
Joe
- Poe Dameron
o R5-P9
o Push the Limit
o Autothrusters
- Gold Squad Y-Wing (x2)
o TLT
- Bandit Z-95
For the semi-finals, I was paired up against Pasquale. He was at 99 points and decided to pass me initiative after much thought. We each set up in our own right corners with very loose asteroids mostly in the corners. Our initial exchange was just 1 scout vs. 1 scout where I had the worst roll of the day for my torpedo rolling 3 focus and a blank on both the initial roll and re-roll doing a single damage from guidance chips, Pasquale rolled much better. Next turn I’m able to get a block that chains into his second Scout denying their focus, but 4-LOM comes in faster than he intended. After a single shot, 4-LOM went down to just two torpedoes while most of my ships still have shields. Intel Agent becomes huge in this game as I’m able to consistently block his moves for the rest of the game and it becomes mop up for my three scouts vs. his two scouts that are action denied. I think he would have gotten half points on just one of my Scouts.
Win, advance to final
In the other semi-final, Nate and Joe are having a rematch of their first round match from Swiss, with Nate again coming out on top. Coming to the tourney, I figured brobots was going to be a really tough match-up for me with their PS advantage and reposition abilities, but I knew I likely would survive at least one round of fire given the dual HLC would be able to do 8 damage at most with a very low likelihood of critting on the predator reroll. He brought three big debris fields and I had the three smallest asteroids.
In the final, Nate and I each set-up in our respective right corners. I made the decision to make my Intel Agent ship the lead ship hoping to get it into range to start flipping dials as soon as possible. On the approach, I’m able to get two ships abreast with the third just trailing, while Nate turned his IGs into the board with B right behind C. His opening shot does basically max damage to my Intel ship leaving it limping on 1 hull, meanwhile my return fire is able to strip C’s shields and land 1 hull damage. Next turn, I’m within range 2 of C with my Intel ship and am able to see he has a S-Loop to the left dialed up. I’m able move one Scout to block that with a barrel roll and move my other two to block the suspected K-turn from the other one. C grabs a focus from Advance Sensors before running into my blocker, while B does an Advance Sensor boost to the right before revealing the K-Turn. He was able to complete it, but it put him sitting on top of a debris field that he’d have to go over again next turn. I was able to completely avoid arcs with my Intel ship, parking it next to B. Only B has a shot and does a shield or two to a second Scout before I’m able to remove C from the board with another torpedo. This apparently was the first ship Nate had lost all day. Next turn I’m able to start using Intel Agent on B every round for the rest of the game to box him in, denying his boost ability and controlling his firing arcs. All three of my Scouts again have one more torpedo in the tube, and while it takes a little longer than expected, I’m able to eventually take down B as well without losing a ship. I didn’t keep count, but I’m pretty sure Nate only got to roll red dice 4 maybe 5 times the entire match. Intel Agent easily was the MVP of the match allowing me to play control and get the shots that I wanted.
And with that, I won the only store championship I was able to make it to this year, winning it for the home squadron nonetheless. Some of my key takeaways from the day:
- Scum has finally arrived with the new ships and combinations in Wave 8. About 40% of the lists were scum, with 3 of the top 4 being scum.
- Imperials, at least in my meta, are becoming scarce. We had 1 swarm player, 1 playing double Decimators and 1 playing a triple Aces build. None of the usually dedicated Imperial players brought Imperial lists.
- Triple Scout is a strong list, but it is beatable and very susceptible to user error. Flying 3 large bases in a coordinated fashion is not easy and will trip up newer players. I leaned heavily on my experience flying triple Firesprays in the past. The other two players flying triple Scouts went 2-2 and 1-2 (before dropping).
- Mist Hunter made Top 4! I know a lot of people suspected it wouldn’t have a place in the meta being a Scum B-Wing, but after watching Pasquale fly it, I’m already reconsidering its place.
All in all, it was a great day of X-Wing. I went to the tourney solely to have a good time and was going to be happy if I went 2-2 on the day. That relaxed attitude helped me throughout the day and kept me and my opponents at ease. Overall, it was a great experience and I didn’t hear anybody complain all day. Looking forward to regionals now.