I played in an epic tournament!

Three rounds of 400pt team-play madness. Each player on a team could bring their own faction, such as Imp-Rebels, Imp-Scum, Rebel Scum, or a pure list. In addition, a player could field all 400 points themselves if they didn't have a partner for the event (which is what I ended up going with). Spoiler alert, I didn't win.

My list was:

Glaive Squadron Pilot (36) x 2
TIE Defender (34), Tractor beam (1), Crack Shot (1), TIE/D (0)

Colonel Vessery (37)
TIE Defender (35), Tractor beam (1), Crack Shot (1), TIE/D (0)

Captain Jonus (27)
TIE Bomber (22), TIE Shuttle (0), Adrenaline Rush (1), Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1), Systems Officer (2), Intelligence Agent (1)

Royal Guard Pilot (27) x 3
TIE Interceptor (22), Push the Limit (3), Targeting Computer (2)

Carnor Jax (33)
TIE Interceptor (26), Push the Limit (3), Royal Guard TIE (0), Autothrusters (2), Targeting Computer (2)

“Whisper” (44)
TIE Phantom (32), Recon Specialist (3), Fire-Control System (2), Push the Limit (3), Advanced Cloaking Device (4)

Captain Kagi (37)
Lambda-Class Shuttle (27), Sensor Jammer (4), Ion Cannon (3), Systems Officer (2), Intelligence Agent (1)

Tomax Bren (37)
TIE Bomber (24), Crack Shot (1), Extra Munitions (2), Homing Missiles (5), Assault Missiles (5)

Major Rhymer (30)
TIE Bomber (26), TIE Shuttle (0), Snap Shot (2), Tactician (2)

Totalling 398 points.

First Game:

I got the bye, so I played the store owner. Unfortunately, he didn't have anything prepared, so he ended up going with a Tantive IV with 2 turbolaser turrets. My interceptors flanked the Tantive virtually unopposed (there were two quad-laser cannon shots that did nothing), and proceeded to cripple the aft section very, very fast. The fore went not long after that, and the escorts (Miranda, Luke, Biggs, Dash, Jan Ors) dropped like flies to the TIE/D defenders.

In total, I lost Vessery and Kagi for an amazing MOV. Side note on the first round - we had tied destroyed points! In an epic game! This lead to a Final Salvo where the full-health Raider still on the board with 3 secondary weapons rolled... 3 dice...

Second Game:

Having been given the bye, I versed the top players during the next round. They both placed well in 2016 Regionals, and definitely thought about their moves carefully. They were sunning an Imperial-Scum list (the only kind of Imperial...) with the Scum side being composed of 3 IG-88s and Bossk with IG-88 D crew. A nasty configuration for sure. The IG-88s were running Heavy Laser Cannon, fire control system, burnout SLAM and Attani mindlink. The Imperial counterpart was three X/7 defenders, two blocking Academy TIEs and a Chiraneau with Hotshot, Predator, Gunner and Vader. This was the best match by far - there were several moments when the whole game could have swung either way.

The first turn went well, with Whisper doing her thing and cloaking up, the interceptors setting up for the following round, and the Defenders entirely out of position for both teams...

Second turn saw two shots - an entirely ineffective Major Rhymer shot, then an IG-88 HLC shot in return that I think did 3 damage with naked dice...

Turn 3 saw me bump Carnor and a Royal Guard TIE (RGT) by the narrowest of margens, leaving me with a significant offensive drop. The entire Scum component slow-played with bumps all round and a focus-factory Attani setup kept them threatening. My defenders had shots this turn. Shooting saw the death of 1 Interceptor (focus tokened) with a single shot, plus I believe Major Rhymer died here. My opponent threw everything he could against Whisper, leading to 2 damage overall. IG-B was taken down to 1 hull by tractor + primary Defenders.

Turn 4 began the center-board ship-crash, where we both inexplicably had many target locks (his from FCS< mine from systems officer.

All Interceptors bar Carnor bit the dust this turn, with IG-B dying and C being not far behind.

Turn 5 led to the death of Carnor via Vader (direct. flipping. hit. then gunner. then another Vader), Whisper losing another shield, Kagi starting to gather a few target locks to himself. I removed Carnor before my other 8s shot, leaving all my opponents' ships with very little additional damage. My opponent's Vessery tried to use Sawrm leader with 6 dice, to only roll 1 hit...

Turn 6 the center--board mash was in full tilt, with IG-88 C being the only survivor (three straight, SLAM, segnors to escape death). Whisper, the Shuttle and Defenders Kill Bossk in a single turn (I should have done that at the beginning...). I lose Whisper in Return (vader+gunner, once again. Its a respectable combo) Chiraneau bites the dust later in that turn.

Turn 7 leads to my Vessery dying! from full health to nothing in two shots. My opponent's Vessery takes an unmodified Swarm Leader shot - 4 hits and a crit. I blank out on defense. Dead.

Turn 8 is when time is called, so the final turn sees me destroying my opponent's Ryad, and my opponent removes Jonus in return.

Result: take a loss. I think it was 150 v 250 points remaining. Not a resounding loss, as it was close until the end, but a few key - insane - rolls took the game fair and square.

Round 3:

I versed 8 Falcons. I versed 8 Falcons. 8 of them. Yes, 8. It was 4 Resistance sympathisers with Assault Missiles, guidance chips and Gunner, then the 4 named pilots with some gunner mechanism each and a couple EPTs.

While I normally berate people for blaming dice for losses, my dice were cold this match. The shuttle failed to roll a single evade (for the entire tournament, actually Despite defending at least 20 times). The bombers weren't far behind.

The assault missiles forced me to deploy a bit piece-meal, which would have been fine were it not for the fact that two interceptors died during the first round. The generic was one-shot by Han, and Carnor blanked out.

After that I lost a ship a turn (against about 3 shots, too), despite my high-health ships. The beauty of the YT-1300 was that I couldn't kill a ship a round, and my opponents wore me down through attrition.

Result: A resounding loss. My opponents had more than half their fleet remaining, versus my nearly nothing. I was disappointed in the poor dice more than anything, as it would have been a fantastic game rather than just a great one.

A few notes:

400 pt epic is hard . We had 2 hour rounds, which is a punishing pace when 75 minutes accommodates only 100 pts per side. While I enjoyed it, I would prefer 300 point matches with 150 minute rounds, as it gives you time to play the game to its natural conclusion (for instance, in the final game, I had 2 full health defender versus 5 half-dead Falcons - I could have taken that.).

All in all, a fantastic casual tournament with some great players and lists. I'll definitely recommend this format of play to anyone who has the ships for it.

Wow. A tie in epic? Final salvo with a Raider?! Has this ever happened before?!!

Sounds like you made the right call on the style of list you needed Astech. The meta in your area must be really cut throat. That or you just ended up with the tough matches outside the round one list.

And I'm only just getting to the point of leaving dice behind in my explanations for how a match ends, but sometimes... Yeah, you can't catch a break and dice do make a difference. You hope averages flip your luck before it's too late but it never happens.

Yeah, it was an amazing day. The Fairder's final salvo was pretty sad though, only four dice for 150 points. If they had included its secondary weapons it would have been equal dice on either side for the Salvo.

It's fairly vicious, but that's the kind of competition I like. I'll admit I was outmaneuvered a few times, but I'd chalk that up to it being me versus two other players in every matchup.

I'm certain both my opponents' dice and my own were near-average, but the timing of good results and bad was truly shocking. For instance, my Interceptors rolled perhaps 10 evades throughout the whole game, yet my generic Defenders rolled flawlessly and never died. The crits were brutal (injured pilot on Rhymer, making the stress-shuttle a normal bomber again), or a Direct hit on Carnor, allowing Vader to finish him off. I am often on the other end of the spectrum (4 natural crits, triple evades when I need it), so it was a pleasant change to have to work for MoV.

Wow, I love epic games and my first thought was 'how the heck do you play three epic games in one afternoon?' It takes a half hour just to set up. I just played an epic this past Sunday, a 300 pointer. At a casual pace it took over three hours and we both decided next time to go with a 200-250 point squad to tighten it up. Makes me wonder how a store runs an epic tourney.

I think more people need to play larger and epic matches. The standard game is so tiny and gets old, but that's just my opinion. Game on!

Well, we started the first game at 9 am and had a mere 30 minute lunch break. Despite all being experienced players, it still took us until 5 pm to finish. The MoV and swiss pairings for team epic are the same, with MoV and victories going to the team rather than individual players. If you had more than 8 teams it would take forever with 4 rounds, though.

The standard game has been praised as being the "balanced" point level for the factions, but Scum and Imperials dominate competitive play. I believe the higher point games open the field to many more opportunities for great lists.