This is a quick and dirty report from my first Regionals competition, in Seattle on January 7, 2017. It was only my fifth tournament of any kind, and I made a conscious decision going in to not fly any large base ships. I was not concerned with being competitive, not at my level of experience - I was just looking to have fun, with the recognition that getting hosed is not something I find enjoyable. But as entertaining as the crew combinations can be on large base ships, I really prefer an iconic small base dogfight. And Mindlink shenanigans are awfully fun.
I know that I've forgotten a great many of the details already; what follows is more of a highlight (or lowlight) reel.
My list:
Guri with Virago title/Attanni Mindlink/Advanced Sensors/Autothrusters/"Hot Shot" Blaster
Tansarii Point Vet with "Heavy Scyk" title/"Mangler" Cannon/Attanni Mindlink/Shield Upgrade
Tansarii Point Vet with "Heavy Scyk" title/Heavy Laser Cannon/Attanni MIndlink/Shield Upgrade
99 pts
Three largest rocks.
Round One
Kyle Meidell (sp?) of the Evergreen Squadron Podcast
running a variation on the Heaver World list - Asajj + TLT Y's
I was uncertain how to approach this, and split my forces, Guri on my left and the TPV's on my right. I think I flew too aggressively from the start, and my target prioritization was off. I should have focused down the Y's and mopped up the Shadowcaster after; instead, I sent the M3-A's to hit the Y's and tried to use Guri to birddog Asajj. I did a lot of blank-dice rolling, especially on Guri. I killed one Y and had the other to one hull when the Mangler Scyk went down, having taken maybe one shield(?) off the Lancer. Not very good recall of this battle, except that I *really* botched the initial approaches and deployment, and my dice were generally below average. Kyle was very gentlemanly, and offered some suggestions when asked after the match.
26-100 loss
Round Two
Jim Kelley
Dengar/Asajj (painted in a gorgeous Hello Kitty theme!)
I did a little better with deployment and initial engagement; I managed to draw Dengar through the asteroid field and focused him down fast in return for the HLC Scyk. But then Asajj tractored Guri onto a debris field with a single unevaded hit, and I rolled into a crit which dropped a Major Hull Breach on her (all subsequent damage cards face up). Moved off the debris field - that's two stress on her, and Asajj dropped another unevaded damage one her - Loose Stabilizer (white maneuvers give stress). One more round of damage, and the crit was yet another Loose Stabilizer. So. Every round thereafter, Guri was pulling two stress, because the StarViper doesn't have a lot of green on the dial. In the meantime, the Mangler Scyk was chipping away at the Lancer. Difficulty is that he was stuck with doing only green maneuvers to clear the Mindlinked stress from Guri, and the M3-A's greens aren't very good either. Last round saw a one Hull Scyk jousting a three Hull Shadowcaster, and rolling a whole lot of blanks.
75-100 loss
Round Three
Dave
Zuckuss/Kavil/SynThug Y (bomber)
I centered my forces and slow-rolled the first turn. Dave placed his bomber on my right and sent his two Aces left around the asteroids. Second turn I turned and burned and had all three of my fighters focused on his bomber - it went down to the two Scyks without Guri firing a shot. I turned all three fighters left into the center of the asteroids. A little arc-dodging and k-turning, and Zuckuss was toast. Kavil and Zuckuss managed to kill the Mangler Scyk, but a Y-Wing just can't stave off a 'Viper and a Scyk, and Kavil went down pretty quick. Both Guri and the TPV were hurt - maybe four Hull points between the two of them? But even a four-die TLT is going to have trouble against two ships, one with Autothrusters. Killing the bomber Y before it could shoot or drop any bombs was HUGE. And it also proved to me that my list could work, confirmation I desperately needed after the first two rounds.
100-28 win
Round Four
Paul (Vogel?) (Sons of Ackbar?)
Biggs/Chopper (VCX)/stresshog
Deployed my forces in the center again, faced into the astreroids. Paul set his ships on my right, VCX closer to the center, Biggs in back. I managed my range well, and the initial engagement had all three of my ships hitting the VCX with Biggs just out of range. Guri stripped two shields, the HLC stripped two shields, and the Mangler put two crits onto the VCX - Structural Damage (reduced Agility, ha bloody ha) and Damaged Cockpit (PS0). I think the HLC Scyk was targeted, maybe losing a shield or two? And the stresshog dropped some stress onto Guri. The VCX moved one forward and the stresshog bumped behind him. The Mangler Scyk moved right on past, bumped the stresshog, and had a range one shot on Biggs. The HLC Scyk banked in and arc-dodged the VCX, and Guri straight one, range one of the VCX. Biggs was killed right there, even after popping his astromech. But Guri completely blanked her defense dice and was one-shotted. I think the VCX k-turned, and my Scyks turned in, dropping a lot hurt onto Chopper. I think I'm leaving out a few turns, perhaps. At any rate, It was maybe three of four turns before both Scyks popped in the face of five dice from a Finn-equipped VCX with FCS. I had the VCX down to maybe three or four Hull, with four crits (only one of which was a Direct Hit), but never touched the stresshog. I definitely messed up Guri's final move - I should have gone for the bump on the VCX, eaten the stress, and maybe lived another round. Otherwise, I think my piloting in this match was pretty decent - but my dice were icy. Sad.
50-100 loss
Round Five
Chris
Dash/Eaden
Chris set Eaden in front, Dash rolling directly behind him. I rolled my forces to my left and focused Dash down quickly. Eaden had an HLC, but the title had been on Dash, so It took a little while to get him turned around to be really dangerous. The HLC Scyk went down, but Guri and the Mangler took out Eaden pretty easily. Again, I managed my ranges pretty well, and I had some very decent dice. (I was getting pretty tired by this point, so I really don't remember much of this match.)
100-31 win
Round Six
Joel
Dengar/Bossk
Joel put Dengar on my left, Bossk on my right. My ships all went in the center. Second turn had all three of my ships firing on Bossk at range three. He lost four shields and the HLC Scyk took a hit. I managed to move Guri properly, but misjudged the first Scyk and bumped Bossk, and the following Scyk bumped, too. Bossk flew four straight, out of danger, and Dengar hit a debris field. He still managed to put a touch more damage onto the HLC Scyk. Next turn I managed to focus entirely on Dengar and dropped him to PS0. I think he dropped the HLC this turn (with a double tap?). Dengar then just barely missed a rock on an s-loop, but Guri and the Mangler wrecked him before he could shoot. Then it was just two more turns (I think) of chasing Bossk and not taking any return fire.
100-31 win
Of course. Much detail has been forgotten. But these are roughly accurate depictions of my matches. No match lasted longer than 60 minutes. Most were over in about 45. Generally speaking, when Guri survived, I won. Advanced Sensors were fantastically useful, and Hot Shot Blaster was used in four out of six matches, catching my opponents by surprise every time. It took me a couple matches to really figure out how to roll the first engagement, but once I did, I did fairly well. Except when my dice went straight to hell. My opponents were uniformly excellent, pleasant people. My round one match was very unfortunate for me, facing an opponent of that calibre when I was as yet uncertain how to actually use my list, ha ha. I finished 3 and 3, 45th out of 110, which is pretty much right where I wanted to be, and actually a little better than I expected. Especially given my first two losses, ha ha. But you really only learn from your mistakes, right? So big thanks to Kyle and Jim. But I'm not sure about Paul - I still don't know what I learned from that match except that I continue to not know what to do about the VCX. And green dice suck. And hindsight is 20-20. But really, thanks to Paul too, and to all my opponents. The hook is firmly set - FFG has completely reeled me in. And major props to Uncle's Games for running a very well-organized event. It may have been my first big X-Wing event, but I've attended enough other large functions to know what one looks like badly-run.