Hi guys! Last weekend I went to my first Regional ever (Madrid Regional, 197 players), and I had a blast! I was aiming for a 3-3 record, and wasn't let down. My love for Attani Mindlink started when I first saw Vic AKA Duraham doing so well with his attani HLsyks at Gencon. It looked so much fun, and not very easy to master, so I decided to give it a try. But I didn't want to use Manaroo, as the JM5k was the most popular ship at that moment (triple U boats, Dengaroo...remember?).

So I decided to go for a not-so-sharp list, including Palob and Kaa'to, while keeping both scyks on the list. I played a few games with Palob, and even switched to Torkil for even more fun shenaningans hehe. You can see a few of my batreps here , where I win my first small tournament ever.

So, into the list:

Palob, Attani, TLT, Dengar, V. Thrusters

Kaa'to, Attani, thread tracers, chips

TPV, Attani, Title, HLC

TPV, Attani, Title, Mangler

So when the faq came out I felt soo excited. That extra hull was going to be awesome!

First Round:

Dengar, LW, Zuckuss, GS, CM, OCk

Manaroo, PTL, Gonk, Unhinged, EU, Seismic Torps, FA

I wasn't too excited about this matchup to start the day, but well, that's what you expect to find in a Regional. He kept the initiative, which I really liked.

I slow rolled to meet Dengar while Manaroo danced around his table edge Gonking. First round of combat Dengar found himself facing all my ships at R2-3, and BRd to try to get out of Kaa'to's arc, but couldn't make it, so he popped CM and, to my surprise, didn't pop glitterstim.

Manaroo passed him a focus, but Palob stole it. He then stressed and recovered it with Overclocked. I told him he couldn't do it because he didn't spend it, in fact, his acrylic focus token now belonged to Palob, so nobody had spent it. He wasn't very sure so we called a judge, and he said I was right, so there we went. Dengar shot Palob at R2 and only stripped a Shield. Then Kaa'to fired the tracers, which hit, and the alpha strike began. 4 shots with TL and Focus with the HLC, 2 fully modified TLT shots, and a TL and focused shot by the Mangler left Dengar on ONE HULL, as the crit was a Direct Hit. Dengar fired back at Palob and did another 2 damage.

Next round I made Dengar bump with Palob so he would be safe, and the Mangler Scyk did a 5k to get on Dengar's tail. Kaa'to and the HLsCyk lined up to finish Dengar off. Dengar shot the HLsCyk at R1 and got a pretty good roll, but thanks to my focus and evade, he survived on 1 hull, but with the stunned pilot crit. I shot Dengar with the mangler and destroyed him, so he couldn't fire back. When Manaroo joined the fight it was too late, but she managed to FA the HLsCyk.

WON 173-27

Pics!

Round 2:

Fenn Rau, Attani, Title, AT

Palob, Attani, TLT, V. Thrusters

Manaroo, Attani, K4, Unhinged, Proton Torps, EM, chips

I feared Fenn, but I thought if I could get him soon with all my ships he could die fast.

I slow rolled too but this time Manaroo joined the fight from the very beginning and I saw an opportunity to alpha strike her like i did with Dengar on my first match. It was not meant to be this time... the tracers got me blank, blank, blank, so I could only modify with the chips, and Manaroo easily evaded them. Then the train ran off the track. From the 8 damage i did to a 3 agility+Lone Wolf Dengar on the first game, to the 3 shields on a 2 agility focused Manaroo... I just couldn't believe it. Palob ate a Proton Torp (2 hits, a focus and a blank, so 3 hits one crit total). Palob went poof, and to make things worse, the final crit was the "receive one stress". That was Palob's good bye present. I guess he just wanted to make sure his friends joined him soon on the other side hehe.

So I lost palob first round of combat, and now all my ships were stressed. This couldn't end well. I ended up getting tabled, as Fenn was getting 5 hits every time. The only time he totally missed (4 blanks and a focus), he rerolled it into 5 hits. It just wasn't meant to be...

Just one pic. It's the turn after Palob was dead and I had to do a bunch of greens.

Funny fact: It's funny how "karma" works...I beat this guy last year in the first round of the Spanish Nationals and tabled him. I had some lucky rolls and his dice betrayed him a bit. He got his vengeance this match! He ended up making the cut, and finished in Top 16 this Regionals.

LOSS 0-200

R3: Ghost/Rey

Lothal Rebel, Hera, Ezra, ABT, FCS
Rey, Predator, C3P0, S-Loop title, Finn,

After my last loss, I went down from 36th to the low tables. I faced a young boy (i think he was about 8 years old), with a Lothal Rebel/Ghost list. I felt confident, as my list has a lot of firepower, and his ships get beat up fast.

We jousted, and I barely survived Rey's shots on Kaa'to, who hung on 1 hull. I should have focused with him in order to have a focus for the tracers and another one for defense, but I was so scared of not hitting with the tracers like last game I just wanted to make sure. So I foolishly TLd the Ghost, forgetting you don't get one green die for R3 against secodary weapons.
So, luckily Kaa'to survived and the tracers hit the ghost, which was brought down to 6-7 hull, including a crit I can't remember.
The ghost fired at the mangler scyk as Kaa'to was out of arc, and I lost a shield and received one more damage.

Next round the Ghost tried a 5k but it didn't fit by a hair's width, and I blocked Rey with Kaa'to, who would then survive for at least one more round. The mangler scyk did a 5k behind the ghost, and the HLsCyk lined up on the ghost as well.
Rey shot at Palob and hurt him badly, and I left the ghost on 1 hull. Almost got it! It fired the ABT and got 1 hit 1 eyeball, which Ezra turned to a crit. Luckily I evaded the crit, and the Mangler scyk lived on 1h.
Next round the Ghost finally did the 5k, and I ran away with Kaa'to. Palob tried to block Rey while staying in range of the Ghost, but Rey avoided the bump.

Rey finished the mangler scyk with amazing rolls, and the HLsCyk did 3 damage to her, while Palob finished the ghost.
A couple turns and a couple bumps later, Rey bit the dust, with Kaa'to still on 1 hull, and Palob on 1 hull as well.

Won 176-24

R4: Carnor/Maarek/PalpShuttle

Carnor, PTL, HU, AT, Title

Maarek, Tie/x7, Juke

Omicron, Collision, Palp

After lunch and a 2-1 record I had climbed up a bit on the tables, and was now facing a variant of palpaces/palpdefenders.

He played very safely with Carnor all game, which was fine for me as Carnor was the scariest one as he'd shut down all my focus/evades. I tried to go for the shuttle, but he ran away very soon, so I switched targets and went for Maarek. First shots were fired where Maarek tried a long R3 shot through debris to my Mangler scyk which was the only one in range. I easily evaded it, and I fired back, and he blanked out on his 4 greens, losing 2 shields even with Palp. Not a bad start. Nex turn Carnor played safe and BRd away, while Maarek went through the debris to get in the fray, but ended in a very bad place, as all my ships had him in sights. Palob stole the evade, and even though Maarek fired a R1 shot using palp, he didn't do much. My ships fired back and after the alpha strike, Maarek was gone.

Next turn the shuttle was back In the fight, and Carnor was still playing it safe. I fired at the shuttle stripping all its shields. I suffered little damage in return.

Next turn the shuttle died to a direct hit, and it was all my ships vs Carnor. He took longer than expected, but he went down and I got a huge win.

ROUND 5:

4x Syndicate thugs, TLT, Unhinged

I think I was in the Top 32 when this game started, but I was quite nervous, as I feared the 4TLTs. I had only played against them once, with me using a different scum list, and got beat up pretty badly. The rest of my experience was in the squad benchmark sooo not very much hehe. My goal was to take one Y before it could fire with the aloha strike, and try to stay out of range of most of them to minimize incoming shots.
I set up my alpha strike with Kaa'to 's tracers but I ended up a little short as I couldn't finish the Y wing, leaving it on 1 hull, with the PS0 crit. So close!
The good thing was that Kaa'to was rolling hot on his greens (he had focus/evade) and it took 3 out of 4 Y wings shooting for him to die, and the last Y wing fired at Palob but didn't cause any damage. (Maybe I lost a shield).
The next turn the 1 hull Y-wing tried to escape, but was caught by one of the scyks.
I started chipping the rest of the Y wings little by little playing it very cautiously, even firing HLC and Mangler shots with naked dice to keep my chances of evading their incoming shots, and self bumping to not get to close to them and was able to leave only 2 Y-Wings alive just before time was called. That very last turn I was able to get all my ships out of arc and in their R1 hole except my 1 hull Palob, who could be fired by the damaged thug with its primary. Luckily that same Y wing died before it could fire, leaving the other thug without a shot. Just one Thug remained against 3 of my ships. I ended up just losing Kaa'to, but all my ships were severely damaged. Very tense game and I was very proud I managed to win.

Won 158-42

So here we are in the final round, with a big shot at making the cut. I was 4-1 placed 19th. Another win would get me in trouble (I had promised my wife I wouldn't play on Sunday, and I was starting to like the idea of trying to renegotiate the deal again...). So far I had exceeded my expectations. Before the tournament I was aiming for a 3-3, as I couldn't quite make it in the Nationals, where I ended 2-4 with a Bren/Inq/Vess list.
So I was facing my 2nd Dengaroo of the day, and 3rd time against Manaroo. I jousted Dengar as fast as I could, and when shots were fired, Dengar was too close to Manaroo to take advantage of the LW reroll.

My opponent forgot to pop Countermeasures, so after the HLsCyk barely survived Dengar's shots I pounded him hard, getting him down to 2 hull, with a "Stunned Pilot" crit.

Next turn I tried to block all his moves, but forgot about the 4 straight (I couldn't have blocked it anyway). My plan was to let Palob deal the remaining 2 hull on Dengar. Easy to do with TLT+2 Focus+Dengar re-rolls.

My mistake was to BR Palob in, to try to block the 1 straight and 1 left, which btw was the first time I used Vectored Thrusters the whole day (definately going back to cloaking device).

Dengar ended up passing over all my ships, and at R1 of Palob, so no TLT, and no shots on Dengar this turn. My opponent capitalized over my mistake, as he left Palob on 1 hull. I was so frustrated I fired Manaroo with all my ships, including Palob, who was killed by Manaroo's R5-P8.

So the game was slipping through my fingers, as well as my chances of making the cut. I dropped Manaroo to 2 hull as Dengar was running away, but she Gonked twice. Dengar killed the HLsCyk, and popped Countermeasures when I was going to punch him hard with a TL+Focus Mangler Scyk. Dengar walked away untouched, and both jumpmasters killed the scyk.

I tried to kill Dengar with Kaa'to getting into R1 while Manaroo was running away, but he got amazing attack dice on me and I had to spend my focus to survive on 1 hull. That was the last nail in the coffin, as Kaa'to rolled 3 eyeballs... He was killed next turn. I only got half points on both enemy ships.

Loss: 48-152

So with a 4-2 record it was all about the MOV. 9 players with a 4-2 record made the cut, but I was 40p short. I ended up 40th.

Edited.

You found what I was going to mention. Good report!

15 hours ago, brownj23 said:

Edited.

You found what I was going to mention. Good report!

Thanks! Round 2 is up!

Round 4 is up!

Round 5 is up!

Finished

Nice report. 197 players is rough. Good job making 40th.

Even better though is your list is still strong while the lists you lost too arent even viable anymore, thanks to newest FAQ

Gonna keep flying it?

3 hours ago, wurms said:

Nice report. 197 players is rough. Good job making 40th.

Even better though is your list is still strong while the lists you lost too arent even viable anymore, thanks to newest FAQ

Gonna keep flying it?

Faq felt great hehe. I'll be taking the same list (except I'm taking Cloak on Palob instead of Vectored Thrusters) this weekend in the Tatooine Open. Let's see what the new meta brings!

I made the cut! I'll be playing on Sunday as I was able to turn a bad start (1-2) into an awesome (5-2) finish!

I've taken lots of pics and I'll try my best to make a nice batrep.

fly casual!