Battleground Games and Hobbies X-Wing Regional, Plainville, Massachusetts
May 21st
A Report on Matches, Data, and other Details by Louis Galasso
Intro
Greetings folks. You may know me from the Grim Squadron Radio Show as Jediluigi, or you may not know me at all (probably the latter), which is fine in any case. So, today I will talking about my experience at the Battleground Regional in Plainville, MA. First off, it was an absolute blast, the Battleground Games store did a great job with the event, and there were very few hiccups as far as the event went. They were able to get everyone playing and keep playing on schedule, which is a small miracle at these kinds of events. Making it a two day event was a good call, because with how many players there were you really had too. Speaking of players, let’s take a look at some data.
Data
Players: 91
Bye Cards Used: 18
Players Dropped by Round Six: 18
Rounds of Swiss: 6
Cut: Top 16
Factions by Player:
Empire: 37
Scum: 32
Rebels: 22
Archetypes by Faction:
-
Empire:
Palp Aces: 19
Imp Aces: 11 (One included Redline, another included 4 ships)
Doom Deci: 2
Bomber Wing: 2 (Included 2 or more TIE Bombers)
Miniswarm: 1 (Whisper + 4 TIE’s)
TIE Swarm: 1 (No Howlrunner)
Crackswarm: 1
-
Scum:
Double U-Boats + Third Ship: 7
Scum Two Ship: 6
Scum Three Ship: 5 (Some include 1 U-Boat, but they weren’t the main focus of the lists)
Double TLT Thugs + Large Ship: 4
Triple U-Boats: 3
Brobots: 3
Miniswarm: 2 (One included 3 ordnance Bugzappers and Dengar, the other included 4 Bugzappers and Tel Trevura)
Quad TLT Thugs: 1
Scum Control: 1 (Only considered control due to effects of Palob and Torkil, archetype arbitrary)
-
Rebels:
Super Dash: 7
Rebel Aces: 6 (One included 2 ordnance B-Wings, another was 4 ships)
Ghost + Phantom: 3
Double VCX-100: 1 (Winning List)
Crack A’s:1
Quad A’s: 1
Fat Han: 1
Triple K-Wings: 1 (Ordnance based)
Z-95 Missile Swarm: 1
Wow, that’s a lot of Palp Aces! The same amount that the Brothers Grim had, actually. However, unlike on Long Island, only one of the Palp Aces made it to the Top 8 cut out of the five of them in the Top 16 cut. I guess the Massachusetts players can really handle Palp Aces. We saw a lot of interesting builds, including the winner (double VCX and a Y-Wing, all with Autoblasters? Holy cow!), and from observation (and experience) the Palp Aces lists can be handled, but their popularity and reliability makes them more a concern than the vaunted ordnance JumpMaster 5000. So, players built their lists or learned to deal with them. I decided to do both.
My List - Tel Trevura and the Black Sun Soldiers
So, before I start talking about my matches, let me talk about my list.
Tel Trevura: Deadeye, Extra Munitions, Proton Torpedoes, R4 Agromech, 4-LOM, Guidance Chips (40)
Black Sun Soldier: Feedback Array (15)
Black Sun Soldier: Feedback Array (15)
Black Sun Soldier: Feedback Array (15)
Black Sun Soldier: Feedback Array (15)
Total: 100
This little list was created during a conversation as a joke, between myself, Gus, and our buddy Dave. I was playing a game involving Xizor and four Bugzappers, when Dave suggested I just swap Xizor out for a JumpMaster. I paused, looked at him, and had an epiphany. I told them that’s my regional list, and Gus immediately told me to stop for the rest of the night. My first playtest results were very encouraging, a three full wins, but tests against Brobots (IG-88B&C) were very sobering. A few more practice games later, and I was set. I still wasn’t (and currently) sure about a match against Brobots, but I was confident that they should be few and far between.
The list works by combining some of the best of the Scum meta (a guaranteed 4 hits with modifiers against enemy ships, with token denial before Defense Dice are rolled) with the silliest (4 automatic damage, with no chance of defending against it besides not being at Range 1). For me, we realized, my best matchup was against few, high-agility ships that relied on tokens and modifiers. Being able to just deal damage without a care about dice, ignoring Palpatine? Easily the best 2 points I’ve spent. It made many Aces do their best to avoid getting into Range 1 of the Z-95’s, and also have to deal with two fully modified Proton Torpedo shots. As I would learn, my worst matchup (besides Brobots) was Crack A-Wings. The high agility and shields meant my damage would barely scratch one before it used Crack Shot to kill a Z-95, though I didn’t get tabled without dealing a lot of damage.
Round 1 - Imperial Aces Incoming!
Opponent's Name: Josh
Opponent’s List: Soontir Fel, Omega Leader, Inquisitor (98)
Outcome: Win, 100-30
If memory serves, this was my longest match simply due to the excellent piloting and positioning by the Imperial player. A good Proton Torpedo shot and 4-LOM tagged Omega Leader, while the Inquisitor and Soontir Fel chased the Z-95’s and Tel from behind. Eventually he got too close and was zapped for his trouble. Tel lost his shields but stayed above half.
Round 2 - Super Dash Really Dashes At You.
Opponent's Name: Eric
Opponent’s List: Dash Rendar, Lothal Rebel (99)
Outcome: Win, 100-60
Both of us hot off a win, we we feeling pretty good. We deployed across from each other, but he surprised me by getting into Range 3 on turn 1. He only managed to remove a shield from a Z-95. Dash ate a Proton Torpedo shot that turn and next. The Ghost aggressively K-Turned for the majority of the game, and was able to kill my Z-95’s before I could down it. Once again Tel lost his shields but stayed above half.
Round 3 - Cracking Under (A-Wing) Pressure
Opponent's Name: Daniel
Opponent’s List: Five Green Squadron Pilots (100)
Outcome: Loss, 60-100
My worst game of Swiss, I just wasn’t able to make any damage stick against the high agility A-Wings. I did manage to block an A-Wing and zap it to death instantly, and another took a Proton Torpedo. There was a minor thing that bugged me, my opponent brought up (when I was taking my second Torpedo shot) that he read on Reddit that Deadeye and R4 Agromech didn’t work together. He called the TO over and the TO reaffirmed that it does in fact work. It was very strange. Another strange thing happened during standings, I guess something happened because the record of win/loss got switched but me and my opponent noticed (obviously) so it all got sorted out.
Round 4 - Doom and Decimators
Opponent's Name: Will
Opponent’s List: Whisper, Cherneau (98)
Outcome: Win, 100-45
I was able to joust the Decimator with my Z-95’s, while Tel and Whisper danced around the table. Eventually, Whisper took a Torpedo and a zap and died, and the Decimator took a lot of damage from the Z-95’s primary attacks. He didn’t proc Vader a lot, as that would meant he died far too quickly.
Round 5 - Palpatine and his Escorts
Opponent's Name: Matt
Opponent’s List: Soontir Fel, Inquisitor, Omicron Group Pilot (98)
Outcome: Win, 100-80
My second hardest match. Matt was an excellent pilot and we danced around the board, trying to block his aces. Eventually, a Proton could track the Inquisitor, and I was able to secure the kill. Chasing Soontir and just throwing damage into the Lambda took a long while, though.
Round 6 - Deja Vu
Opponent's Name: Dave
Opponent’s List: Soontir Fel, Inquisitor, Omicron Group Pilot (98)
Outcome: Win, 100-15
My final round of Swiss, I actually know Dave from the New York City X-Wing group from when they came down to the Brothers Grim Regional. It was a good match, though going into this match from my last one had given me a lot of lessons. I jousted the shuttle this time, blocking with everything I could, managing to catch the Inquisitor at Range 1 with my Z-95’s. Some lucky blocking and predicting later meant Soontir Fel was trapped between two Range 1 Z-95’s and Tel Trevura with Range 1. I lost a Z-95 from zealous use of Feedback Array and shots from chasing the shuttle.
Top 16 Match - Last Hurrah
Opponent's Name: John
Opponent’s List: Tel Trevura, Bossk (100)
Outcome: Loss, 26-100
My bittersweet entry into the Top 16. I was so excited for making it into the Top 16, but when I looked at his Regen Tel and Full Damage Bossk, I psyched myself out. Poor positioning by myself and excellent flying by my opponent meant my Tel died far too early, though I did proc his Tel’s ability and nearly got Bossk to half. With that loss my dream of Top 8 and the Regional Dice had ended.
Final Thoughts
Walking away from the tournament, I was mad at myself first for the final match but I cooled down, and came to feel much better. For my first regional, I was able to get into the Top 16 with a list no one in my group thought had a chance. I am very satisfied with my performance, and still had a good time with the side event that occurred after the Top 16 match. Overall, I’d say it was a great tournament, I would definitely go again next Regional season.
Thanks for reading folks. This is Jediluigi of Grim Squadron Radio, see you next time.
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For more data on the Regional, check out the Head TO's (Brian Frost) breakdown here: http://commanderfrost.tumblr.com/
Edited by Jediluigi