So this weekend was UK nationals and the first i have had the pleasure to attend. Unfortunately work and real life have been ruthless in their demand for time recently so my X-wing game count has been low. Since the only regional I entered in July, I've managed a whopping 2 games (both playing around with the new defenders) and one game of epic. Clearly not enough practise to be thinking of anything new so my mini swarm went back in my tourney box. For those of you not familiar the list is;

Omega leader w/ juke/comms

Zeta leader w/ juke/comms.

Howlie w/ crackshot

2 X blacks w/ crackshot

100 points.

I've discussed the list and general tactics a few times before now so I'm not going to rehash any of that. Hopefully that will keep things a bit briefer.

Round 1

Chewie

C3po

Predator

Falcon

Leebo

Outrider

HLC

Recon spec

Determination

Two tanky pancakes but no engine upgrades. Both lower ps than my FO's and one with a doughnut. Should be an ok first round.

I set up standard on the left and he sets up to opposite, facing the left board edge, chewie then leebo. There are two roids this side of the board and one central ish. I rush at him with 5's and he turns in with both, rolling leebo behind chewie again. Next turn I carry on full pelt whilst he edges forwards. I just miss the block on chewie. It doesn't matter as I have a ton of range 1 and the opening round sees a black take one damage and chewie is destroyed. Next round I one turn to stay in tight to leebo and block him. It works, and all ships are at range 1. Only OL has a shot but he puts 3 damage on. Next round I turn back around im facing my board edge now. I miss the block but using my crackshots (I still have 2 of them at this point!) I get leebo down to a couple hull. His attack whiffs. Next turn he's toast.

Win 100 - 0.

A good one for the first round nerves and another reasonably fat ship goes on the single round knockout list for these ruthless ties. Just the decimator left they haven't eaten up in a single round now.

Round 2

IG88 B

Mangler

Crackshot

Glitterstim

Fire control

Autotrusters

IG2000

Tractor beam

IG88 C

as above with HLC

Stupid brobots. Ultimately the question is can I block him enough here to force my damage through. I set up left and he goes on my right. He stalls a bit the first few rounds whilst I wizz up the left and hard turn into the board. I have to split a little for rocks. I speed in across the board and the first engagement is not in my favour, being at range 3 and my back ties not having shots, but it takes a glitterstim, a crackshot and both bots firing to kill a single black. I take one shield off of B. The next round I get the block on b, and c then bumps him. I unload what I can into B putting him to hull and knock a shield off of C to boot. In return I think Zeta leader loses a shield and the other black takes a damage. He next turn he wriggles free but I put damage on B with my FO's whilst The bots have no shots and C is harassed by the remaining ties. Next turn B goes down and I've still got 4 bodies up and running. The rest of the game is me chasing C around and whittling him down whilst keeping my injured fighters alive. All goes well and I finally finish C just as time is called.

Win 100 - 15

I was lucky not to be hurt worse on the opening engagement and was then able to pile on good damage on in the following turn with howlie still intact. It was a hard place for the IG's to come back from and despite the score line it was a pretty close for the most part.

Round 3

Wedge

Push

BB-8

Integrated

Wes

Adaptability

R2 (?)

Integrated

Luke

Predator

R2-D2

Integrated

Triple X-wings!! Win or lose this game will be fun. Classic X-wings vs tie fighters!

I go down on the left and he goes right. He's made a dense cluster of rocks in the middle. I go up past the rocks and turn in, with OL breaking off earlier and staying on my side of the rocks. Eventually we meet on the right side of the board, with me coming at him from his board edge and vice Versa, with OL effectively on his flank and wedge pulled a similar move to OL and is trying to flank. He wins the initial exchange and I think beats Zeta down to a hull or two for just the loss of a shield on wedge. Next round I get a good block on Luke and Wes and put some good hurt on Wes whilst Wedge Bb-8's around the rocks and my ships. I think Zeta is now toast and I have some other bits of damage.

The next round is the decider as Luke attempts to K but is blocked onto a rock by howlrunner, Wes is unable to escape my guns and dies and wedge losses his last shield and maybe a hull. One of the blacks falls. As Luke is now stressed and pointing away from my fleet I can ignore him completely and dedicate everyone to catching Wedge and turning him into spacedust. The end game is howlie and OL hunting down Luke as the other black was Injured, but as he had initiative I was able to push range 1 and bring him down eventually.

Win 100 - 40

Round 4

Fel

Standard

Carnor

Same as Fel

Inquisitor

Push

Title

Autothrusters

I'm happy to see no palp and I'm not too stressed out by carnor but this will be the toughest yet. Luckily I get initiative and pass it to my opponent.

I go on the right and inquisitor and carnor go opposite with fel on the far left. Expecting him to run with carnor and inquisitor being hyper aggressive won't help as I need to fight in the middle here despite most rocks being there. I turn in on the first turn whilst carnor and inquisitor cautiously advance whilst soontir flys up the other flank. Next turn I bank in fast but OL instead 3 hard turns in so he's sat right on the outside of the corner rock (my rock, thus me know this would perfectly fit). Inquisitor and carnor steamroll in, ending up at range 3 of Zeta and OL. soontir pulls a big turn around the rock in my other corner and also has a range 3 shot. We exchange pleasantries and omega leader is able to roll two hits against carnor who is locked and can only pull two evades, of which one is juked turning off his stealth device. In return I lose Zeta's shield.

Carnor will want to head out of the swarm now rather than nose dive in which means he'll probably try to get a bump on OL. With no way to block inquisitor or stop carnor fleeing I decide to ignore them and trap the unsuspecting soontir. My front black it's at a good angle to shoot forward and barrel roll in front of the rock Fel is passing, blocking his 2-3 straight and only available 2 bank. However, I make my first big mistake of the tourney and boy is it a doozy. I look at the black and the rock, and eyeball the base lengths to the where I want to be for my barrel roll. Despite counting 5 base lengths I dial in a 5 forward which obviously takes me past where I want to be and I just clip the stupid rock meaning I cant barrel roll. Everyone else turned in to where they thought the blocked Fel would be other than OL who goes to keep the inquisitor honest, switching his target lock over. Carnor bugs out as expected and the inquisitor slow rolls as best able. soontir 2 forwards (grrrr) but I rolled howlrunner to block any barrel roll - boost escape paths after I messed up with the black so he can only turtle up. The exchange of fire sees Zeta take a bit more damage but I am able to crackshot a crit through on soontir, damaged cockpit. Fantastic result after such a damning mistake.

The next turn OL moves to intercept the injured Fel whilst the rest of my forces reposition to engage carnor and the inquisitor whilst he brings carnor round and back in and soontir flees for his life. The inquisitor is happy in the midst of things for now. We exchange fire again and I am able to stick another crit on soontir with OL, Damaged cockpit again! Fml! I think I loose Zeta this round. Soontir flees right out the fight so OL switches back to the inquisitor and slams three damage through at point blank. Next turn I loose a black but OL switches back to carnor and puts another hull on him leaving all three aces down to 1 hull each. I'm able to finish off soontir as he comes back in and howlie gets right on carnor's six and crackshots the last damage through. My remaining black scarpers and with the initiative in my favour howlie and OL eventually leave inquisitor nowhere to run and get the renaming hit through on him.

Win 100 - 40

This was a very close game indeed, but OL decided to take matters into her own hands, blasting the crap out of everyone. I thought I'd given it away after I dumped my tie on the rock a missed the block on Fel but my opponents dice were mostly unkind, even to the point of taunting him with triple evades when I'd rolled one hit at range 3.

Round 5

Dengar

Title

Painbot

Stims

Countermeasures

Lone wolf

Plasma torp

Zuckus

Manaroo

Recon

Engine

Push

Salvaged astromech

Feedback

Standard dengaroo. Bad times. This game was intense as hell so I'm light on the details. I was so angry at myself in the last game for putting my black on a rock the details of that one had stuck like glue.

The obstacles are central and towards me. I gun up the left and manaroo scarpers far right as expected. I turn in, sending Zeta round the farside of the central rocks to cut off any 1 hard - barrel roll escapes from manaroo when I catch her. Dengar unexpectedly cuts back to face Zeta and uploads a torp in his face. Focus evade is tough even with zuckus and I only take two. I forgo shooting back at range 3 with 2 ships. I block dengar with Zeta to keep him alive and go full pelt at manaroo who slow rolls at first then starts bolting for my corner. I get 4-5 long range shots on her but don't get a single damage. Dengar is chipping away but no losses yet.

I eventually catch manaroo in the corner but it takes waaay too long to put her down despite blocking her constantly and she survives an extra turn on one health thanks to a nifty double evade on the last shot, by this time Zeta is dead as is a black, dengars offence having been severely hampered by having to get too close to manaroo to engage me to get lone wolf and manaroo getting no actions to pass due to blocking. Still, that extra two turns turn of having to stay on manaroo then turn around for Dengar allows Dengar to kill howl off and put 2 damage on a black. The black flees allowing OL to get on dengars six, full Captain Planet powers activated. The dice gods, however are a bunch of jackasses! The black is out of range with Dengar closing, so Dengar can only fire in futility at OL. The painbot however has other plans. First shot I do one and take one. Second shot I do two and take one. Dengar now smells blood and gives up on the black just as he cuts in and barrel rolls for the block, instead slooping to face OL. Dengar shoots for two natural hits. I get 3 focuses, forcing me to spend my focus. I fire, he dodges with double evade (leaving him on no shields full hull) painbot triggers again (!!) and he shoots back with a natural crit crit hit, to which I can only respond with triple blanks. And that, my friends, was that as Dengar finished off the black next turn.

Loss 40 - 100

Great game against a fantastic opponent. I think my strategy overall was sound. I was cautious of manaroo double bluffing me with the one hard barrel roll boost and that cost me getting into her an extra round, so maybe it was a bad choice. I was most annoyed I didn't gat half MoV on Dengar!!

Round six

Miranda

TLT

Conner

Seismic

Extra munitions

Sabine

Advances slam

Homing missiles

Esige (?)

TLT

Conner

Thermal

Extra munitions

Recon spec

Advanced slam

I go down on the right and he goes opposite. Roids are pretty loose. I figure he'll run but 5 forward anyway. He two turns and slams away. He then double threes across the board as I cut in. A few rounds later and I'm able to get an engagement where esige is shooting down my left flank and I'm coming across the board at her. Miranda ends up just out of range coming at me from his board edge. I plink a couple damage on esige for nothing in return. Assuming he'll think I'll carry on putting the pressure on esige I pull a three hard turn toward Miranda with my lead black and barrel roll to block her three forward. Everyone else banks in at where she'll be for the kill. The gambit works and I'm able to remove Miranda in one round and only take one on howlie in return. I'm in some rocks with esige behind me now so it takes a few turns to get back on target and then a few more to wrap it up. I stay aggressive with all my ships so he's able to claim howlie and a black but I'm not worried as I'm guaranteed the cut and the mov may help him in!

Win 100 - 34

And some I managed it and reasonably comfortably too. I was happy with my days performance but equally happy it was time to drive home and get some sleep!

Top 32

Soontir

Standard

Inquisitor

Push

Title

Autotrusters

Omicron

Palp

Engine

I was happy to see palp aces over uboats or dengaroo on the table opposite me. I set up on the left, opposite his shuttle and his aces go on the right. I shoot forward and the shuttle banks in and boosts away whilst the aces fly up the other flank. My swarm goes around the central rocks save for OL who cuts in whilst the shuttle runs for the aces and they mill about for time. The next turn I belt forward with everyone, thinking OL will be in TL range of inquisitor. It's a coupe of mill short. Soontir and inquisitor fire at OL from range 3 and annoyingly both somehow manage to put a crit through. My shield saving me from Fel's but I get a stress token from the inquisitor. I put three shots into the shuttle for zero damage. Sigh.

Thanks to rock placement and both aces being stressed a three forward barrel roll with OL with practically guarantee a block on the inquisitor this round, and fel may go right in the back of him. If not he'll have to break away and be no worry anyway, and I'm frustrated at the stupid 'I roll evades on every dice I get' shuttle already. Everyone else turns in through/around the central roids to shoot the blocked ships. I guessed correctly and both Inquisitor and Fel bump. Annoyingly, I went a bit too far forward on my barrel roll which put one black out of arc and gave Fel arc on OL, to which he roll yet another crit which I can't defend and yep you guessed it, direct hit. I'm frustrated at myself for this, and more frustrated still when we see my black has no arc. As one last throw of salt is the eyes, the completely unmodified inquisitor hits my focused black with get another crit. Let's see, oh what do you know, direct freaking hit!! I managed to delete Fel with no problems however which is a huge boon.

Inquisitor now has to either fly over a rock to flee behind me or flee towards my board. Either is fine with me as he'll be out the fight for a while. I therefore sweep in on the shuttle as it turns the corner, sending one tie to block if he does go for my board edge as my whole fleet will be on his tail. The inquisitor 3 hard behinds me which we both know is over the rock but when the template goes down somehow he misses the freaking thing! This means he can boost right, again missing another rock by a fraction and rather than being out the fight for a few rounds will be straight back in in the next round and I'll have problems. I get three howlrunner focus shots at the shuttle including Zeta's for a total of... One shield. Sigh.

Next turn is critical. The shuttle will block me and the inquisitor will hit my rear and I have zero prospect of engaging the inquisitor for the block or destroying the shuttle off in the next round. All I can do I use a black to throw into the shuttle and crash my remaining ships into the black/each other to pour some hurt on the shuttle and rely on howlie for rerolls. Inquisitor cuts in behind me and fires at howlie who whiffs her evades and takes hit crit. Go on. Guess what it was. You think it was a direct hit don't you. Well you're right. Boom. Dead howlie and as a result I only put two more damage in the shuttle. This stupid thing is invincible!

The shuttle has his full stop on so I have to assume he'll take it. I K my injured black which should put him out of inquisitors range. I one hard my black who acted as a human shield so Zeta can bump him again and keep shots on, but the shuttle flees landing on a rock (no damage) so Zeta is left without a shot but in a good position to pursue the shuttle. The inquisitor is, annoyingly, barely in range of the injured black and he dies. I do two more to the shuttle finally stripping its shields. Next turn the shuttle full stops, taking a damage from the rock. The inquisitor fires at my blocked black. Hit hit crit again natural. One evade. And the crit. Go on. Have another guess. You know you know it. Direct. freaking. hit. Arrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!??!?!!!! Zeta hits the shuttle with 4 focus target locked dice and finally explodes the stupid thing but it's nothing but a consolation. With 13 mins on the clock he now does the sensible thing and flees and times out the game for the win.

Loss 68 - 75

Now let me preface this by saying my opponent was an absolute pleasure to play against, and an incredibly skilled player. Not having been in the game long this was his first ever cut and he was visibly excited and having a great time and that kind of enthusiasm is almost always contagious. Therefore know it is no reflection on my opponent when I say that was the most frustratingly unenjoyable game of X-wing I have ever played. Every roll of the dice brought new disappointment and the damage deck had suddenly decided to nail me to the cross. Don't get me wrong, I made my share of mistakes. My OL barrel roll being one of them, but to put so many dice into the shuttle and see if still cruising around with the windows down and the radio blasting without a care in the world was doing my head in. 7 shots he fired at me in that game, 22 dice, and two shots (7 dice) were without any modifiers. With that he did 13 damage to my 3 agility fleet. I don't the odds of that, but it feels like in should be minuscule. 4 direct hits! Grumble grumble grumble

And that was the end of my day. Unfortunately I new I was too annoyed at myself to get any enjoyment from the side events and the early exit meant I had a fleeting possibility to spend a bit of time with the Mrs and start racking up some brownie points for the next event!

Overall a great weekend and once again seven fantastic opponents of tremendous skill. I think I've probably had enough of the mini swarm now. I think it does have the tools to take a major tourney, but right now I need to work on back if it up with a higher level of play. I have fallen in love with the FO this season like I did wth the Defender last year. Looking forward, I can see a list with both these ships in being my mainstay for store champs. Stay tuned for more!

Once again, thanks for reading and listening to the ramblings of xwing nut. These reports are as much of a log for me to refer back to as they are for your entertainment, so the more I feel I need to remember from the game, the longer the report generally is! Please feel free to correct any errors in my memory if you recognise the game.

Cheers guys!

Nice report!

I like the list. The biggest problem for OL (or anyone packing Juke) is getting enough offensive mods that you actually have some damage worth juking. Howlrunner helps with that and at the same time, provides an additional high priority threat that your opponent doesn't want to ignore (along with the juking FO's).

I'm not surprised you lost to Dengaroo though. Even with everything going your way, it would be very difficult for this list to destroy both of those ships. Definitely an uphill battle for this kind of list, but the meta has reached a point where its extremely difficult to 'counter' everything you might possibly expect to face, so c'est la vie!

Yeah Dengaroo was aways going to be a tough nut to crack but I was more than happy with my performance in the game and deffinately could have gotten something from it on another day. Manaroo was just busting the double evades like the it wasn't even a thing!!

Glad you enjoyed the rep. The list is definitely strong enough to compete at the top end and doesn't really have an obvious target. OL is a worry but he's so hard to hit people usually don't bother. Howlie and Zeta are both threats in their own right, and one 4 dice focus reroll juking shot from Zeta is usually enough to bump him up the target priority list, but people also want to try kill the blacks before they shoot so it creates an interesting dynamic. Mostly though I like that the FOs have a chance on their own one howlie is dead so the list doesn't suffer as much as a standard howlrunner swarm.

Hi, I was you opponent in game six!

It was a cool game, I'm still gutted I went for the three straight instead of the 2 turn to the right. You played really well and your manoeuvring was amazing. It was a shame to lose but I can't argue with result although it would have been interesting to have seen what would have happened if Miranda survived the turn.

I manage to catch the end of your top 32 game, it looked quite frustrating trying to chase down the inquisitor.

Glad to be able to say that the 2 players that beat me made the cut and were 2nd and 5th.

Hey dude!! Yeah it was a good game of that was decided on that one move. Certainly would have been out of position and ripe for a bombing of Miranda had escaped the block!

Yeah that game was well over by that point. My frustrations were more at how I'd arived at that position than position itself. Can't win 'em all thigh can ya!

I look forward to playing you again, same time next year? Haha

Awesome report. I certainly admire the mental fortitude you guys have for running Swarms like that. Hats off to you sir.