So, I had the privilege to go to Liverpool for UK Nationals this past weekend; three days of pushing toy plastic space ships around and making pew-pew-pew noises with the most wretched hive of scum and villainy best tabletop gaming community I've ever been lucky enough to be a part of. Fun was had, nerves were shattered, mistakes were made...
...and speaking of mistakes, let's talk briefly about my list selection. As an X-Wing player, I'm constantly fighting a losing battle against myself when it comes to competitive gaming – I don't like to fly acknowledged "meta lists", or if I do, I want to put my own unique spin on them. It's a tactic which has served me... poorly, but let's face it, I'm going to try and do things my way and I'm never going to change. I pay more attention to my list name than I do the list itself.
This Is Spinal Tap
Dengar – Veteran Instincts, Punishing One, K4 Security Droog, Unhinged Astromech, Advanced Proton Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, Glitterstim, Countermeasures – 63
Fenn Rau – Veteran Instincts, Concord Dawn Protector, Autothrusters, Plasma Torpedoes – 35
98 points
...so, yeah. The idea's fairly simple in principle - pick a priority target, reduce the range then rush to range one with Dengar and hang back with Fenn. Dengar can use his barrel roll to get closer if necessary, using the free target lock from his trusty Droog and Glitterstim to set up the APT, while Countermeasures combined with the drugs should help protect him during the initial engagement. Fenn fires first, hopefully stripping shields, then Dengar goes for the mega shot, with the revenge shot and increased defence hopefully dissuading return fire if the target hasn't been blown to space dust.
I've had a fair amount of games flying JM5K's and Protectorates, and my practice games earlier in the week and in the side event pods on the Friday went pretty well - I got the double salvo off consistently, and in quite a few cases deleted ships like the TIE/sf, K-Wing and even Nym before they could fire. Even so, during registration he devil on my shoulder was nagging me to switch out Fenn Rau and the APTs for Nym. "Nym, Nym, Nym, you know it makes sense" it whispered. I did my best to ignore it, handed in my list and awaited the first round pairings.
Round 1: Chopper/Miranda
My opponent had both ships loaded for bear with TLTs and bombs. I managed to get the double salvo off in the first round of combat on the Ghost, almost immediately taking it below half health. A second Advanced Proton Torpedo did a huge amount of damage to Miranda as well. My opponent fought back, with a set of Cluster Mines and Ion Bomb combo on Dengar helping to create some distance between our lists and let the TLTs start chipping away. I managed to finish off the Ghost and then Fenn hunted Miranda down to win the match for me. The final score didn't do my opponent justice though, as it was a really tough game and Dengar survived with just one hull remaining.
Win 100-32
Round 2: Miranda/Nym
The victory in the previous round victory sent me flying high into the rarefied air of the top ten tables... unfortunately, it also left me facing more TLTs, and more bombs, in the form of Paul Heaver's 2017 Nationals list. My opponent knew exactly how to fly it, controlling the range so he could use the TLTs and cutting off my approach with bombs and mines. I managed to cause some damage, but nowhere near enough, and couldn't focus fire on one ship. A badly-positioned Fenn succumbed to the power of Bomblet and Sabine, while Dengar ate an Ion Bomb into Clusters and the TLTs kept on plink-plink-plinking away. It was a slaughter, but I took it as a learning experience.
Loss 0-100
Round 3: Vader/Rear Admiral Chiraneau
Look out, it's Kylo Ren! My opponent was pretty stunned when he saw the PS11 on both my ships, but I knew this would be a really tough match up if and when Kylo's ability came into play. And so it proved - Dengar found himself being blocked in a bad position in the asteroid field, before being shown the Dark Side with a Damaged Cockpit waiting for him. The other Dark Lord in his TIE Advanced shrugged off Dengar's shooting, and Fenn Rau managed to strip most of the Decimator's shields with his Plasma Torpedo before both Imperial ships combined to take him down. Dengar was left on his own, and it didn't take long for Darth and RAC to score the crit, reduce him to PS0 and then it was only a matter of time. I might have managed to secure half points on RAC, but I couldn't say for sure so
Loss 0-100
Round 4: Vader/Rear Admiral Chiraneau
Almost a carbon copy of my previous opponent's list awaited me in round 4, with a slight crew change on the Decimator. The question was, had I learned my lessons from the previous game? I played it a little bit more cagey this time around, flying to the edge of the asteroid field and was rewarded for the patience when I managed to isolate the Decimator and catch it with a double torpedo salvo from Fenn and Dengar, landing two critical hits onto it's hull, one being a Damaged Sensor Array! Unable to use Kylo, the Decimator took more fire while clearing the crit before finally managing to get I'll Show You The Dark Side off on Fenn Rau. Luckily I managed to finish the Decimator off before it could make the most of it, and the ghost of Kylo followed Fenn around the board while I chased down Darth.
Win 100-0
Round 5: Miranda/Nym
What a game this one was. Paul Heaver's list made it's return, and with the earlier loss fresh in my mind I was determined not to make the same mistakes twice. This was an extremely cagey, tactical game - my opponent dropped two sets of Clusters, two Ion Bombs, two Thermal Detonators and countless Bomblets, and not one of them was triggered by my ships. I managed to get the Plasmas off on Miranda to take her shields down and give her a Shaken Pilot crit from Dengar, before disengaging to avoid the minefields and TLTs. A well-timed SLAM protected Miranda from Dengar who was then engaged by Nym, before Fenn started chasing the SLAM-ing Miranda around the edge of the board for a second time. The game went to time, with Miranda surviving on one health (having rolled an evade on Fenn's last attack), Nym and Fenn both on three hull and the final TLT shot of the game causing Dengar's first point of hull damage and finally taking him below half health. I don't think I could have flown any better here; the only real missed opportunity was Dengar's bump on Miranda.
Loss 0-32
Round 6: Vader/Quickdraw/Countdown
The final game of the day was probably the most enjoyable game of the day, for pure dogfighting fun. My opponent split his forces across the board with Vader - Quickdraw - Countdown from left to right; I deployed both ships on the right to free up Dengar's moves and try to alpha strike one ship off the bat as per my initial strategy. It worked – my opponent set up a kill box for Dengar, but ended up facing the Fenn Plasma/Dengar APT combo. Quickdraw melted immediately, but did a point of damage to Fenn with his return shot, and despite Countermeasures and stims Dengar's shields went down to both Vader and Countdown. Vader himself lost his shields to Dengar's revenge shot. A brutal first round of combat!
What followed was some excellent dogfighting from my opponent, as Countdown and the Intensity-powered Vader led Fenn and Dengar a merry old dance around the board. I managed to finish off Countdown, but not before Dengar had eaten a critical hit – Damaged Cockpit no less! Dengar became a very expensive PS0 blocker, and Vader quickly finished him off. Vader was left on one health, Fenn on three, and as the clock ticked down the pair jostled for position back down the board. As time was called, Vader and Fenn lined up for one, final range two joust, but neither could deliver a finishing blow. I lost the game by the price of Vader's Engine Upgrade; pretty appropriate all things considered.
Loss 59-63
So, a final tournament record of 2 wins, 4 losses left me nowhere near the cut, but a great time was had and a lot of experience gained in a very competitive field. I also picked up some sweet, sweet swag including the much-coveted (...er) Nerf Herder Open Expose alt art card. Maybe next time I'll pay more attention to that meta-loving devil on my shoulder. But probably not.
I'm loving the positivity from Nationals. I've often come away from Regionals feeling downhearted but I haven't heard a single bad experience coming out of Liverpool last weekend!
