So, last Saturday I attended at the Athens regionals, in Greece. The event was organized by Fantasy Shop in Viktoria. You can find its Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/fantasyshopgr/ , along with photos from the event.
The event numbered 13 players (!!!!) which is actually a lot here in Athens, considering that tournaments usually have 8-10 people. This meant that we would play four Swiss rounds, followed by a Top 4 cut.
I decided to bring a Palp Aces list. I wasn't very familiar with the list, as I had just recently started playing it, but I knew it was a solid choice and after all, you can't go wrong with aces, can you?
My list:
Darth Vader , Veteran Instincts, TIE/x1, Advanced Targeting Computer, Engine Upgrade - 35 Pts.
Soontir Fell , Push the Limit, Riyal Guard TIE, Autothrusters, Stealth Device - 35 Pts.
Lambda Shuttle , Emperor Palpatine - 29 Pts.
Round 1 vs Alexandros Oikonomakis w/ 3 U-Boats:
Round 1, I was up against a triple U-Boats list. My opponent's list had three identical Scouts, with Deadeye, Plasma Torps, EMs, Guidance, R2 Agromech and one of them also had Boba Fett on board. Asteroids were set up fairly centrally. I deployed my Shuttle at my right, facing 45 o left. His Scouts were all deployed across my Shuttle, on my right and Vader with Soontir were set up to my far left, in a position to flank. I was hoping that if I could get him to chase the Shuttle down, I would have time for my aces to get in and do their job. And this was exactly what happened. My opponent spent 3 turns chasing down the Shuttle and it took him 2 more to kill it giving me plenty of time to put my aces in a good position, plus this exhausted mist of his torps.. Even the shuttle got in on the action, when it took a right turn and unloaded on a Scout at range one and destroyed it. As you can probably tell, this was its final round on the board, as next turn, it blew up. However, things were easy from there, as my opponent was left with a full health Vader and Soontir to deal with, with no torps left and no shields on any ship. Criticals were coming in fast and furious and three rounds later, the Scouts were no more.
Round 1 Win. MOV: 171 (+ 171).
Round 2 vs Dimitris Kanellopoulos w/ 3 X-Wings and 1 Z-95:
My opponent's list was: Wes Janson w/ VI, R5 Astromech and Integrated Astromech, Wedge w/ Opportunist, R2 Astromech and Integrated Astromech, a Red Squadron Pilot and a Bandit Squadron Pilot. This time, asteroids were a bit scattered towards the edges, with a big one in the middle of the board. I chose to give him the initiative, so that I could arc dodge Wedge with Soontir, if it got down to that. My opponent set up his Bandit on my left flank. I thought that since he flew a swarm kind of list, he would set everything up together. So, again, I set up my Shuttle on my right, facing 45 o to the left. I was right, and he set up his remaining ships along with the bandit, in a square formation. Vader was deployed next to the Shuttle and Soontir directly across his swarm, trying to bait him into chasing him. The plan actually worked, and he opened with a 4 straight, as Vader went 5 straight and boosted to flank, and Soontir 1-turned in, towards Vader. The Shuttle did its mandatory 1-bank to the left. He quickly caught up to the plan though and sharp turned in with everything, towards Vader. Here I had miscalculated my 3-bank with Vader and though that even if he did not take the Soontir bait, I would still be out of all his arcs. I was very wrong. Vader ended up facing every single one of his fighters. Through boost and barrel roll, I was able to clear the arc of two of his ships, but the Red Squadron Pilot and Wedge were looking directly at Vader, at range one. Soontir was no where to be seen too, as I thought that he would go for the bait and I 5-starght him towards the Shuttle. Anyway, Vader does some 3 damage to Wes, but Wedge fires back and, even though he had bumped and had no actions, manages to score 4 hits on Vader and I save two with the help of the Emperor, losing my shields. Then the other X-wing fires and it scores 4 hits too! Thankfully, I roll two evades and Vader survives on one hull. Things are looking hard for the aces. In other news, the Shuttle has 2-turned in to get some action. Next turn, I think that he will go for Vader with everything to try and finish him off. That's why I play the Shuttle aggressively, but I was wrong again! He actually sends two ships for my Shuttle and two for Vader. Vader is Vader though and manages to slip past the arcs of both ships. The Shuttle takes a heavy beating, but survives and scores 3 hits on the Z-95. Next turn, with Soontir in the action, my opponent loses his Wes to Soontir and his Z-95 to Vader, while he destroys the Shuttle in return. However, with only two ships left that both move before mine, it was not very hard to arc dodge them and a few rounds later I manage to pull off a win.
Round 2 Win. MOV: 342 (+ 171).
Round 3 vs Giorgos Durieux w/ Chiraneau and Whisper.
My opponent's list was: Ciraneau w/ Expose, Rebel Captive, Experimental Interface and Whisper w/ VI, FCS, Gunner, Advanced Cloaking Device. Round three is not something I am proud of in my X-Wing play
. Asteroids were clustered up in the middle. I deploy my Shuttle on my left and Vader with Soontir next to it, while my opponent deploys his ships together on my right. Whisper flies in, while Chiraneau slow rolls and Vader with Soontir do not miss on the opportunity and start closing in for the kill on Whisper, since I has kept the initiative in order for Soontir to fire before Whisper cloaks. However, dice has a different opinion of the matter and after 4 turns of consecutive attacks on Whisper, all I had managed to do was to destroy her two shields. Chiraneu was not doing anything destructive, but Whisper hunted the Shuttle down relentlessly. Here I made my first mistake of the match, when Whisper only rolled a single hit on the Shuttle, which I rolled a focus for defense and chose to use up my focus to save the hit. What I had forgotten was that Whisper had Gunner, and she promptly fired again, scoring 4 hits on the Shuttle. Argh!. Next turn, the Shuttle has down to a single hull and my aces could still not hurt Whisper. At this point, I did a 2-turn left with the Shuttle which my opponent did not expect and got of arc of Whisper, but I was doomed, as I was too close to the end of the board, making me fly off the table next turn. During that turn though, Vader manages to score 4 hits on Whisper and destroyed here. Yay, I though, now I had the match won, because Chiraneau could not take on both Vader and Soontir, who after a while of not being able to damage Whisper was chasing Chiraneau. However, the dice had, again a different opinion on the matter and my opponent scores 5 hits on Vader, and I roll all blanks, getting one-shot off the board. Then my second mistake of the game happens, when I forget that Chiraneau had Rebel Captive. So I have Soontir on the tail of Chiraneau thinking that I am still home free, since it's impossible to shake me off. However, I use Push the Limit getting a stress and then fire, getting another stress from Rebel Captive, who I had forgotten existsed. Argh again! Then my opponent just rolls 3 hits and 2 crits on Soontir. I manage to save three, but the two crits result in a Direct Hit, taking Soontir off the board. I am sure the game could have gone much better, should I had not forgotten the Rebel Captive, as I could had just kept taking evades with Soontir and getting a focus too for defense after firing, never double-stressing myself. Anyway, mistakes make you learn!
Round 3 Loss. MOV: 370 (+ 28).
Round 4 vs Alexandros Dallas w/ TIE swarm and Whisper.
My opponent's list was: 3 Academy Pilots, 1 Epsilon Squadron Pilot, Howlrunner w/ Swarm Tactics and Whisper w/ VI, FCS, Intelligence Agent, Advanced Cloaking Device. Asteroids were again clustered up in the middle,with my opponent having the initiative. My opponent sets up his 4 TIEs on my left and I do the usual set up of Shuttle to my left, trying to bait him into hunting it down. His remaining two fighters are set up along with the rest of the swarm and Vader with Soontir take flanking positions, on my right. This game, my dice were pretty hot, and my opponent's not hot at all. I manage to one-shot Whisper and Howlrunner with Vader and Soontir during round 3. The rest of the rounds were just mopping up the remaining TIEs, while my opponent just could not get damage though, not even on the Shuttle. I think that my dice were so hot that I only had to use Palatine twice during the game, and one of those times were to save a hit on the Shuttle!
Round 4 Win. MOV 570 (+ 200).
So all Swiss rounds were over and it was time for the Top 4 cut. I was 3-1 and actually first place in the Swiss rounds, even though there was someone who had 4 wins, none modified. It must have been my MOV. Anyway, the tournament was not yet over. As you can probably tell, I made the cut along with my opponents from rounds 1 and 3.
Top 4 round vs Lefteris Tsigaridis w/ Poe, Miranda, Y-Wing.
My opponents list was: Poe w/ VI, Autothrusters, R5-P9, Miranda w/ TLT, Tactician and Y-Wing w/ TLT, Stressbot. This game, I was not focused at all. Fatigue had started to kick in and during this time in Greece it is flipping hot (plus there was not AC in the store), so that was a major factor in every game too. I set up my Shuttle on my left with Vader next to it, and Soontir trying to flank. My opponent had deployed his ships centrally. However, my decision making was all wrong this game. Vader got stressed by the Y-Wing, forcing me into greens, while I could not get close to Miranda, as she would double stress me with Tactician. If that was not enough, next turn I bumped Vader by a millimeter on an asteroid, netting my opponent the kill. Soontir was being chased by Poe and after a couple rounds, Soontir fell (see what I did there?
) to a TLT shot from Miranda, after losing his Stealth device to Poe. Anyway, I will not try to make excuses about fatigue and the heat being a factor to me losing this game, as my opponent flew his list masterfully, having me exactly where he wanted me.
Top 4 Loss. Eliminated from the tournament.
On the other Top 4 table, Alexandros Oikonomakis won Giorgios Durieux, going to the finals and eventually winning the Regionals event with his triple U-Boats list, showing you how powerful such a list can be. Big congrats to him!
All in all, the event was well organized but the number of players is, and will always be, a problem here, in Greece. Anyway, props to the organizers for this, actually first, X-Wing Regional event. Now, there will be another Regionals event in Thessalokini, at the North of Greece, but I will not be attending there, as it is pretty far away from Athens. So, the next big X-Wing event I will be attending will be the Greek Nationals, in September!
Also, as this is my first time writing a report from a tournament, all criticism on how to improve is always appreciated. Thank you for reading!