Haunted Game Cafe Summer 16 Tournament
Ft. Collins, Colorado
Decided to do a quick write-up of my tournament experience last weekend. The tournament capped at 16 players, but we only got 9. I don't know why the low turnout, the last tournament here was fully booked and we had to turn away a few players the day of, but it was still a good group of people to play against. Unfortunately I didn't write down my opponents' lists, but will in the future and I remember most of the upgrades they had. I went into the tournament with a list that I hadn't really flown together, even though I had flown with the various pilots quite often.
My List: 99 points
Colonel Vessery- Veteran Instincts, Stealth Device, x7 title
Countess Ryad- Push the Limit, TIE mkII, x7 title
Omega Leader- Juke, Comm Relay
Round 1
Opponent- Lee
List: Dengaroo 100 points
Dengar- Plasma torps, Extra munitions, Lone Wolf, Zuckuss, Glitterstim, Overclocked R4, Punishing One
Manaroo- R5-P8, Feedback Array, Gonk, can't remember the rest
I don't remember all of the list he ran against me, but it was a killer. Instead of a standard Dengaroo, he put the painbot on Manaroo and had FA on her as well, making her a much scarier proposition than normal. Lee is a veteran player, and the last time I played him in a tournament I was vaporised in about 25 minutes after only inflicting 36 points of damage against his TIE-swarm. I knew this was going to be a tough match.
My set-up was Ryad to the left, with OL and Vessery hanging together on the right. His Dengar was placed about mid-way, closer to Ryad than the other two, with Manaroo on the right side facing Dengar. First couple of turns were uneventful, with Vessery and OL racing up the board to try to get near Manaroo, while Ryad swung into the middle of the field to distract Dengar.
The turns after that were a flurry of back and forth damage, as OL and Manaroo wound up destroyed and Ryad wound up only with 2 Hull left. Both Dengar and Vessery were relatively untouched, after Dengar finished off Ryad the two big boys went at each other hammer and tongs. Here was where the x7 title wound up being extremely useful- I was able to consistantly avoid multiple damage from Dengar on both his attacks even with Zuckuss forcing rerolls and his Lone Wolf giving him a lot of help. The downside to the great defense was a lack of modifiers on my Vessery attacks, managing to shave down his shields and hull in one point incriments without a solid finishing blow. My lack of luck with criticals was also disappointing- two crits with only Shaken Pilot and Damaged Sensor Array occuring. The last three turns of the game were extremely tense as both ships were down to their last two hit points. On the final exchange, Vessery managed to knock Dengar down to one hit point but Dengar's return fire ability overcame the valiant Imperial's defense.
Outcome- Loss, 71-100, 65 minutes
Thoughts- So much fun for a first round! Given my previous experience against Lee, I wasn't confident at all going in but I think I pulled off a really good performance. Definitely a top 3 game of my experience so far in X-wing.
Round 2
Opponent- Ricky
List: Echo, Ryad, Baron 100 points
Echo- Agent Kallus, Sensor Jammer, Advanced Cloaking Device
Ryad- Adaptability (+1), Ion Cannon, TIE/d
Baron- Tracers, TIE v1
I know I'm missing something on this list because he was at 100 points, but for the life of me I can't remember. Anyway. Ricky was a young player, around 13 I think, but I know he had been to a few other tournaments and wasn't a bad player.
I set up the same, but switched the sides, so Ryad was on my right and the other two to the left. Ricky had faced his Ryad directly against mine, with his other ships lined up on the left but facing the right board edge.
I raced up the board with all my ships, he choose to have Echo and the Baron bank gently towards the right side of the board while his Ryad charged against mine. Turn two OL managed to blast both shields off a de-cloaked Echo, while Vessery knocked down the TAP's shields and had his own whittled away by both enemy's fire. Ryad vs Ryad turn two was good for me, my Countess negating both attacks from her doppleganger while taking off a shield in return.
The next turn I managed to do a great k-turn with Vessery by smacking right into a rock and losing the ability to attack. Two obstacle damage later he managed to get off the rock and blast Echo into dust. The Baron of the Empire was quickly killed by the twosome of Vessery and OL, and the pair turned towards the Ryad fight which had been fairly lackluster with neither Countess hiting the other. With two more ships in the fray, the enemy Countess did not last long.
Outcome- Win, 100-0, 30 minutes
Thoughts- I was fairly confident going into this match. I had the advantages of PS and the defensive bonus of the x7 title. It was a good game for me, with some hot dice rolls and better maneuvering (aside from Vessery's astroid jaunt) than the last game.
Round 3
Opponent- Garret
List- Dengaroo 100 points
Dengar- R5-P8, plasma torps, extra munitions, Lone Wolf, Zuckuss, Glitterstim, Countermeasures, Punishing One
Manaroo- Recon Spec, Unhinged astromech, Push the Limit, Engine Upgrade
****, another Dengaroo. I really didn't want to fight another Dengaroo list. Garret was another young player, but he did have a good score going into this round with the same 1-1 as me but a better MoV.
Setup was almost identical to the first match, Ryad to the left, Vessery and OL to the right, with Dengar to the left and Manaroo to the right on his side.
This match went fairly quick and I followed the same strategy as my first match- kill Manaroo. Garret had managed to move Dengar over to the right, I guess wrongly anticipating that I would surge Vessery and OL up the board like my previous matches. Instead I cut the two across the board to help out Ryad with Manaroo. OL took the fire from a pissed-off Dengar as Ryad and Vessery destroyed Manaroo, then it came down to Defenders and Dengar. Dengar took down Ryad to 1 Hull point, but the x7 evade tokens mitigated more damage as the Defenders pulled down Dengar.
Outcome- Win, 100-27, 40 minutes
Thoughts- This version of Dengaroo was more the meta norm, and while it was a hard fight I wasn't as worried. Having flown the x7 Defenders I was confident that if I kept them moving fast the extra evades would lend me the defense I needed against Dengar's boosted attacks.
Round 4
Opponent- Asa
List: Vader, Vessery, Omega Leader 99 points
Vader- Adaptability, Prockets, TIE x1, Advanced Targeting Computer, Engine Upgrade
Vessery- Tractor Beam, TIE/d
Omega Leader- Juke, Comm Relay
Going into this round I was number 2 overall with 2 points and a **** good MoV. Too bad I was facing Asa of Back to Dials podcast- the last four tournaments I've been to either Asa or Tyson of BTD has won. A really good player and a **** good TO, Asa was number 1 overall by beating all three of his previous opponents, which included Lee who had beat me in the first round.
Setup for me was the same, Ryad left the other two right. This was a mistake, as Asa had lined up all three of his ships facing Vessery and OL. Turn two set the tone for the match- Range 1 of a Procket Vader. Bad times ahead. Vessery got wiped out by Vader in a glorious blaze of mutual destruction. By the time I managed to get Ryad into the fight, OL was down a shield and hull. Ryad managed to drop the opposite Vessery's shields before she went down. OL lasted a bit longer, dropping the shield of the opposite OL and hitting Vessery with a shot, but the outcome was never in doubt and he was crushed by Vessery's accurate firepower.
Outcome- Loss, 37-100, 50 minutes
Thoughts- Whew, that was a hard game. My setup was bad from the begining, I should have flown all my ships together rather than split them up, or at least I should have turned OL/Vessery away from the nasty alpha of Vader. Once my Vessery was gone I lost my most powerful attacker and still had Ryad out of position to do anything for at least another turn.
Overall Experience- I had a great time. My goal going into the tournament was to win two matches and I accomplished that. My two losses were great learning experiences, and I felt better losing to the guys who took first and second in the tourney. Every opponent I had was awesome to play against and the overall experience was both fun and competitive. I'm looking forward to my next tournament!