This weekend I went to my first nationals event. I had an absolutely great time, the atmosphere was amazing and everyone was really nice. I was aiming to go 3-3 as I knew the competition would be tough. Ended up doing a bit better than that but was very lucky to avoid Jumpmasters until game 6! In the end I went 6-0 and finished second in swiss. Unfortunately because I never thought I would get through to day 2 I had already made plans so could not come back for the top 32. Nevertheless I am extremely pleased with how I did!
My list was:
Whisper w/ Kallus, VI, ACD, FCS
Oicunn w/ Predator, Palpatine, Rebel Captive, Ion Projector
I usually fly scum but I really like Decimators and Whisper is a good hammer to Oicunn's anvil. I had practiced with it a bit and generally my tactic was to get in close with Oicunn and try and kite with Whisper. If I could catch anyone with the Oicunn - Ion trap then even better!
Here is a quick run down of my games, they are more like notes than play by plays as I wrote them when I was tired and was having trouble distinguishing one game from the next! Most importantly all 6 of my opponents were really lovely guys and I would happily play all of them again! Apologies to my game 1 and 5 opponents whose names I can't remember!
Game 1
Whisper, Kallus, ACD, VI, FCS
Omega Leader, Juke, Comms
Yorr, Palp
I won initiative (very important). I chose his Whisper for Kallus, he chose Oicunn.
I set up my right, he set up (my) top left.
He kept shuttle in the corner for a few turns. I went up my side and back around.
Got Whisper down to 1 health but Oicunn took a battering, first crit was where all the next ones are faceup.
His Whisper was stressed from Reb Cap, so I blocked with Oicunn and it was ioned too. My Whisper finished it off for no return damage. Got Omega down to 2H before Oicunn died, Omega ran away because he had no evade, no TL and Console Fire. Whisper went after Palp and killed it with no worries. Whisper and Omega jousted for about 6 turns: Both K turned, both shot, bumped to clear stress, K turned again. I didn't want to just run, and eventually both were down to 1 health but I just got through the final damage to kill.
100-58
Game 2 - Ricardo
Vessery, Tie D, Tractor
2 x Black Squadron w/ Crack + Targeting Comp
1 x Black w/ Crack
1 x Academy Targeting Comp
Asteroids in the middle, I went slowly up my right side, he went slowly up my left side. I got to the top and turned in, and sent Whisper into the asteroids. He turned his formations by doing hard 1s then hard 2s. Vessery 4K then 3 bank to bump. I was able to decloak whisper to the side of them and then barrel roll out of everyone except Vessery's arc. Whisper murdered a Black, Oicunn got another down to 1h. Only 2 Ties in range of Oicunn, lost a few shields. Oicunn bumped and ioned another Black next turn, Whisper stayed behind the swarm and out of arc of Vess. Whisper killed the bumped Tie, Oicunn killed the 4th, then they double teamed Vess.
100 - 0
Game 3 - Dex
OGP, Palp
Vessery, Juke, X7
Steele, Juke, X7
Asteroids spaced out. Oicunn in centre, Whisper on my right. Palp in top left facing right, Vess to right of centre facing right, Steele on right facing left. Oicunn charged up centre, Whisper charged up right. Defenders moved towards each other then 3 hard towards Oicunn. Oicunn 4 forward over debris to catch Vess who just bumped into the front of him, ion, and never moved/shot again. Whisper hurt Steele, my red dice were good. Steele put a crit on Oicunn so if I bumped I took damage too. Shuttle moved in to try and kill Oicunn but couldnt do enough. Whisper got behind and killed it. Last turn, Oicunn bumped Vess to kill him but only had 1h left so killed himself too.
100 - 58
Game 4 - Sam
Brobots, PTL, Adv Sensors, AT, Title
B w/ Mangler
C w/ HLC
Horrible matchup for me, only saving grace is Reb Cap. I put Oicunn on my left, he put both bots opposite. I put Whisper just right of centre. He charged forward with bots, they are really fast! Had to get Whisper over to support Oicunn quickly. Charged Oicunn in, but I played Whisper horribly, got in too close too fast which limited options. B picked up an ion token early on. Lost Whisper in exchange for IG C, Oicunn on 7 health, IG B on full. Not good. He chased me to the top of the board, I 2 hard turned and bumped him. He was stressed from shooting me. Revealed a 1 hard white, couldnt move, got second ion. I bumped again, missed the next ion but then was behind him. He was stressed and had to 1 hard to avoid board edge. Meanwhile Oicunn was R1 shooting him to bring him down to 2h. He cleared stress and boosted to try and get me in arc but didnt work so Oicunn finished then job.
100 - 41
Game 5
Miranda, TLT, Homing Missiles, Adv SLAM, Extra Munitions, Conner Nets, Seismic Charges, Sabine
Esege, TLT, Adv SLAM, Extra Munitions, Conner Nets, Thermal Detonators, Rec Spec
At the start of this game we were on table 5 and I looked to my right at the top 4 tables. 5 of the 8 lists there had 2 or 3 jumpmasters in so I had gotten very lucky to avoid them! I know my opponent felt the same way as he said as much!
Scary bombs! Rocks were in the middle but not too tightly spread. I deployed on the right, he was on the left. I had no intention of going into the rocks to be bombed/ioned over them so went up my side. He went up his side then turned in the the rocks towards the edge of the asteroid field. Oicunn also turned in once the K Wings were past and he wasn't going to get netted. Whisper stayed wide. Unexpected move from Esege almost got Whisper with a net but my 2 bank just avoided it. Brought Esege down to 1h quite fast but had to not decloak with Whisper a few times to try and be unpredictable and not get bombed. Esege went down and I could hunt Miranda with both ships. Took a few turns and Oicunn was down to 1h but I got her.
100 - 29
Game 6 - Tom
Scout, Deadeye, Extra Munitions, Proton Torps, Boba, Overclocked, Chips
Scout, Deadeye, Extra Munitions, Plasma Torps, 4Lom, Overclocked, Chips
Scout, Adaptability, K4 Security Droid, Plasma Torps, Chips, Overclocked
I can't describe how lucky I got in this game. It was the end of a long day and I was super tired so was forgetting things but my dice made up for it! Rocks were mostly to the left. He set up on the left, I went on the right. I Kaluss'd 4Lom. Oicunn slow rolled while Whisper shot forward. He came towards Oicunn. First engagement only 1 Jump in range of Oicunn so just 1 lot of torps. Oicunn and Whisper both shoot at 4Lom and get him down to 3 or 4h. Next few turns are a bit of a blur, Palp got thrown out of the window from a natural crit (not torps) and 4Lom went down. Oicunn eventually died in exchange for the bumpmasters torp. Whisper was shooting at the Boba boat and had him down to 2h but then couldnt get a decent shot on him again for a while. I forgot to cloak at one point but my opponent was still concentrating on Oicunn so Whisper got away with it. Then I forgot to cloak AGAIN but my lucky dice saved me. Whisper also took 2 torps to the face (while cloaked) and managed to shrug off both entirely. As I said I was so lucky. Came down to Whisper v Boba boat, Tom was extremely good at posisitoning so Whisper would just edge past his boat but eventually caught him and finished the job.
100 - 58
So that was 6-0, I was second in swiss, about 45 MoV behind first place. It was a perfect storm for me with good matchups and good luck when it counted to end up doing the best I have ever done! I regret not being able to go on the Sunday but chances are I would have gotten knocked out in game 1 anyway! Looking forward to next year already!
I hope the car you bought was ok!