Twitch Feed (My matches start around the 1:43:00 Mark) : https://www.twitch.tv/boardgamebarrister/v/100858135
“I’m pretty sure that this place has no heat.”
That was my wife around the 2am mark Saturday morning at our lovely (but cheap) Air-BnB rental that had a non-working furnace. Being that it was so cost efficient and just a few miles north of Board Game Barrister, host of the 2016 X-Wing Wisconsin regional; the decision was easy and we booked with a few clicks. However, a rough morning capped off with cold and grumpy children (2 and 4) was most likely not the best way to start a run for a regional championship.
After a hurried goodbye with a few awkward car seat hugs, I stepped through the door at the Barrister, dropped off my printed squad list at the check in area, and snagged up my range 1-2 rulers. Some the Minnesota crew was already there and seeing some familiar faces was a good way to calm my nerves and get my head in x-wing mode.
My List :
Dash (yt-2400) : PTL, Engine, HLC, Kanan, Outrider
Poe (PS8) : Predator, Autothrusters, Sensor Cluster, R2-D2
Swiss Rounds : Day 1
Round 1 [Zach Bart] Jake/Kyle/Poe
Due to excessive fatigue and lack of caffeine; to say I was barely paying attention at this point would be an understatement. I don’t remember much of the match other than I was flying on auto pilot and missed a number of opportunities. I put my Poe in the middle of the board and coasted in right in to a death trap of prockets and an Autoblaster. My Poe survived; his Kyle died and then his Poe bit it shortly there after. I cleaned up with Dash and shook hands. It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a good place to start for the day.
Winner (100 to 29)
Round 2 [Nick Ruivo] Asajj + 2 TLTs (no astromech)
This was a variant on Heaver’s 2016 worlds list and one that I had played a few matches against on Squadron Benchmark. My plan was to not PTL with dash if I could avoid it so that Lats crew could only snag up one evade if he caught me at 1-2 with his mobile arc; but alas it never played out that way. I got both Poe and Dash in to the fight and Poe promptly fell over dead with all his ships still alive. Taking dash to the middle of the board and dumping in some calculated bumps and Range 1 doughnut’ing on his TLTs I was able to finish off Assaj and then take one TLT out at a time. I think I had just a handful of hull left of dash, but pulled it out with a few mins to spare.
Winner (100 to 71)
Two squeakers to start the day and I’m not really feeling very confident at this point.
Round 3 [bobby Crawley] : Fel / Ryad / Palp Shuttle
I had a tight setup for this one with my Dash middle right and Poe nestled in between Dash and the right corner. Bobby had a split setup with the shuttle in the middle, Ryad and Fel flanking far to either side. My standard plan on the setup is to kill the shuttle and then put hurt or kill the defender with dash before dash dies (and he will die). I was able to take the shuttle out, but due to some horrible green dice I lost dash after only 1 round of combat with Ryad. That left Poe to clean up with a defender and Fel on the board, which is never a good place to be. I chased a bunch and slowly got Ryad down to two hull going in to the last turn; He did a 5 green with Ryad and tokened up with time in the round being called. I chased with a 3 bank and then boosted in to range one for a last ditch effort.
Poe : 3 hits and a focus, Predator’d the focus in to a hit.
Ryad : (with an evade/focus token) Rolled one evade and 3 blanks.
Winner (64 to 58)
Once again squeaking out a win; I felt pretty bad about that one (and doubly so later on as Bobby lost in round 6 to another Minnesota flown Dash/Poe under a very similar last turn situation).
Round 4 [Thomas Mann] Snap/Crack (5 Green Squad A-Wing with Snapshot and Crack Shot)
This was a list that I had mentally prepared for but had no practical experience with. Tom setup on his left side and I did the same on my left side. Ships came in and he took some range 3s at Dash to no effect. The following turn he zipped forward and started trading shots on Poe, but not much incoming damage due to bad dice rolls on Tom’s part. Dash drops one a-wing down before it could use it’s crack shot and we reset for the next turn of combat. Dash goes wide; target lock and Focus on the next a-wing, poe comes in for a regen and takes 3 snap shots to the face. Poe survives and I drop another a-wing to 1 hull. Next round Tom perfectly sets up a kill box and Poe one green banks right in to it for a bump. Poe gets shredded with Snapshot and all the crack shots are all gone. Dash takes out the hurt a-wing and we reset again.
With crackshots down and being a bit out of position, it’s going to be hard for three PS3 a-wings to survive a full health Dash. After another 4-5 rounds of combat, Dash was only a shield or two down and all the a-wings were dead.
Winner (100 to 42)
As an aside, this is a pure murder list and I love it; Tom was a great sport and we talked a bit post-match about the setup.
Round 5 [Johannes Steber] : Ryad+Carnor+Palp Shuttle (100)
My first of two matches against Johnannes; he won the roll and gave me init. My thoughts are the same here as with Bobby’s list; Kill the shuttle, then then defender, then kill or survive Carnor with Poe. The shuttle went down quickly and Ryad soon thereafter, leaving just Carnor against Dash and Poe. Without Palp support, Carnor can’t take the hits and fell to combined fire.
I had super-hot dice in this match up with Dash backed up with a target lock and focus each turn, I only had one HLC shot that was less than 4 hits.
Winner (100 to 29)
Round 6 [Riley Denu] : Nora / Biggs / Braylen [Gunner/r3-a2]
Riley came in at 99 and correctly gave me Init; I setup across from his Braylen / Biggs placement and jumped out to get the hurt on. I got a shot or two in to Biggs and then started skirting back to my side of the board. I left focusless dash open for a Range 3 from Nora, but I figured at worst he’d dump 2 damage in and I’d be back safe out of range.
Range 3…
Nora (w/ Expose): Hit Hit Crit Focus, Added a focus result from the target lock and spends focus for 4 hits and a cit.
Dash : Focus, Focus, Focus.
5 shields down on the opening exchange is bad news. Dash danced a bit and Poe got in the mix to be equally murdered. I ended up killing Biggs, but Braylen and Nora are a bit much for Crippled dash to take down on his own when Dash has initiative.
Loss (26-100)
Riley was a great opponent and this match actually prepped me for the finals with engagement strategy for a Braylen/Biggs combo.
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So I made the cut to Top 16 and returned to our still mostly freezing Air BnB. We didn’t find the space heater until the following day, but the kids and my wife were buried in blankets for most of the night and stayed warm. Thankfully it only dropped in to the 40s so we were up in the 5am timeframe to a much happier crew and started the day correctly with some Dunk’in doughnuts and coffee.
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Top 16: Day 2
Top 16 [Johannes Steber] : Ryad / Carnor / Palp (100)
My second of two matches against Johannes; this time I won the roll and gave away init. We had a nice belt of asteroids diagonal across the middle and we setup in the open corners. Plan is still the same, kill the shuttle and then the defender. Johannes came in super-fast with 3 straights with the shuttle and nearly caught Poe in rage one of all three ships. I was able to boost out of arc with Poe due to Carnor moving first and I just took one shot from Ryad at range one losing a single shield which I regen’d on the following turn.
Because the shuttle was moving so fast I was able to sneak in Dash behind and take it out. A double team from Poe and Dash took out Ryad, and Carnor soon followed.
Huge kudos to Johannes, he was a great sport. Loosing init likely saved my Poe from death and ended up swinging the game in my favor.
Winner (100 to 0)
Top 8 [Anthony Anderson] : Dash [Kyle] + Lothal with Han/ABT/FCS/Hera
This one is on the twitch feed, so I won’t bother to give the full recap [1:43:00-2:42:00]
Plan here was to pressure his Dash away from Poe and My Dash so I could line shots up on the Lothal. The exchange was costly on Dash, but a 1 hull dash is still very deadly. This game again reinforced why I like R2-D2 over R5-P9; you can do green maneuver, bump, and still regen that shield.
Winner (100 to 29)
Top 4 [Aaron Firnstahl] : 4x TLT Thugs
This one is also on the twitch feed, so I won’t bother to give the full recap [3:11:00-4:21:00]
The plan here is to string out the TLTs; if dash takes more than one TLT at a time (which I did at least once) he'll die. Lots of “Target Lock Abuse” here; I will measure for the target lock and then use that to guess if I’m in range of anything else. If I am, I’ll barrel out or boost to secure the single range 3 exchange. In this match up time in on my side and I’m more than happy to pick up a TL and barrel or boost out of range to setup the shot again next turn.
Winner (100-58)
Top 2: Andrew Burgoni : Miranda, Braylen, Biggs
This one is also on the twitch feed, so I won’t bother to give the full recap [4:30:00-End]
Plan here was to keep just Braylen at Range 3 and Biggs skirting out to Range 4. First turn I boosted in for a Range 3 of Braylen and Hoped that while I was in his Arc, it would be out of range 3 (Which it ended up being).
The big mistake in this one was forgetting that I had a PS0 crit on Dash and not taking a focus against the shot from Biggs. Having just Poe against Miranda is ok, but combining that with taking out Biggs as well made me nervous.
Not to give away the final turn (You should watch it), but we were both heavily fatigued and our banter after two hours and 9 previous games was rather comical. The previous turn he mentioned that a particular slam move wouldn’t have gotten him out of Poe’s Arc. When I was setting my dial I remembered that and figured that if he did that move, I could catch him with a Range 1 shot. So I dialed it in and hoped.
Winner (100-58)
Huge thanks to Andrew for playing a hell of a match. I’ve said this a few times, but he was by far the best sport I played against all weekend; we traded forgotten shield regens and action misses for most of the two hours.
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It was an awesome weekend and with only one major judging mistake for the event, I think it was a good trip out to Milwaukee. Gordon from Board Game Barrister organized a great tournament and the swag combined with pairings being posted online made for a wonderful tournament experience.
Please post pairings online if you are TO'ing a premier tournament, its awesome and we'll love you for it.
Edited by Royoken