A long while since i posted here, but real life is hardly compatible with playing x-wing on a regular basis, lately however i found the time to go to two tournaments, this is my report of the first one. Disclaimer, the tourney took place on december 3th, so i you're looking for an action report of the shiny new wave 12 toys, sorry....

The tournament itself was a team challenge organized by the wonderful people of Outpost Brussels, Ego Squadron, at the moment one of the biggest x-wing groups in Belgium, was able to send no less than three teams to the tourney. The group i was part of was aptly named Ego the Third, loosely based on these guys:

For those of you wondering, i was playing Scum, so i'm definitely Baldrick

Our fine group of gentlemen consisted of:

Greg our fearless captain playing imperials : http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/778725/major-backdraw

Jimmy our resident rebel scum: http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/778724/gunboat-kanan

and myself truly scummy : http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/778721/nyms-noobies

a total of 10 teams showed up, which for Belgium is a really good showing, we sadly don't have the immense following, the game has in the UK.

Ten teams also meaning four rounds of play and a top 4 cut

Round 1 vs R2-T3 1

R2-T3 1 are one of the two home teams and some really hard players, so our chances of victory were a bit on the slim side, but hey you never know right?

I got paired against Wouter flying the dreaded Kanan/Lohwrick, Jimmy faced Rafha flying some mean imperial aces, and Greg took on Corentin fielding a very bomby version of Nym/Assaij. Honestly i kinda liked this matchup, as the Ghost is really vulnerable to TLT-attacks, and my ships, while also vulnerable to TLT, do take some time to kill. i setup my Y-wings first dead centre, he put Low and Kanan across the board and i put Nym in a corner ready to creep up the side.

The initial engagement did not go my way however, Nym's harpoon on the ghost got shenanigan'ed, and did nothing, one of my Y-wings ate a frontal blast from the host and some end phase TLT-dessert, while most of my red dice ended up without paint. So i was quickly down one Y-wing and not looking good on the second one, so i decided to change tactics and look for range one and bombs with Nym, this scared my opponent a bit and he did split up his forces with both Nym and Y-wing getting behind Lohwrick, and the Ghost out of range, i was able to quickly dispatch the wookiee in a few turns of shooting, meanwhile my second Y-wing got TLT'ed to his last hull point. The fight was won however as now Nym was now able to mercilessly strafe the Ghost on his sides with his autoblaster. i lost my last Y-wing, but Nym finished the Ghost a turn later, Zeb was ejected in a last ditch effort, but he was also quickly dispatched by Nym. scoring my my first win of the day with 100-50

the picture really shows how Nym seized the advantage in the late game, and also my really shaky hands, problably some tourney stress and caffeine OD.

Later on we found out that i had made a mistake somewhere by releasing a bomb after bumping with genius, this is now apparently FAQ'ed, i honestly thought the FAQ only meant i had to discard the bomb after using Genius, sorry about that.

The rest of the team did not fare so well, Greg's TIE's got literally bombed off the mat by Corentin and Jimmy lost very close on time only giving away half points on his Ghost, and leaving Quickdraw on one hull, so in total we lost this round 1-2.

thank you for readin, i will post the remaining rounds in following posts

Second round had us paired against team xhammer another fine group of players, pairings were as thus:

Me vs Wouter playing palp aces (quickdraw, vessery, Yorr), Greg vs Matti playing Rey/Miranda and Jimmy vs Bjorn with Assaji, Fenn and Jakku gunrunner

I set up my Y-wings in the middle again with Nym on the side, he split up his forces with Quickdraw facing Nym, Vessery facing the Y-wings and shuttle in the opposite corner. Initial engagement went a bit better for me, although my harpoon was a dud again, i managed to trade a Y-wing for Quickdraw, taking away his biggest Threat. A little later i lost my second Y-wing but meanwhile Nym had crept up behind the shuttle and finished it off. Then it was just a matter of mopping up Vessery with my autoblaster for the win. 100-50

My description may not sound like it, but it wasn't an easy game, i was so focused that i paid little attention to what my teammates were doing, so when Greg told me he lost his match and it all rested on me i believed him, turns out he was pulling my leg, and we were sitting on a 2-0 lead halfway through my game, real Blackadder that guy.

anyway we took this one down 3-0 and we were back in the race for top 4

After a short lunchbreak, really short for i was only halfway through my pizza we get pairings for round 3, against the second R2-T3, consisting of Elda, his brother Felix and Steve, pairings are like this: me against Felix flying double harpoon scurgg and Fenn Rau, Jimmy against Steve with imp aces and Greg vs Elda with Kanan/Low, yeah that one list is really a thing in the Lowlands.

Anyway, my plan against the 'poon scurges is simple, spread out, TLT the scurges and use Nym to autoblaster Fenn Rau off the pitch, however i also have pizza on my mind, so i completely eff that one up... My Y-wings manage to bump each other halfway the map in range one of Nym, one Y gets blown away straight up the other one 'pooned, and it quickly becomes a match of Nym vs his list, the outcome is a quick and dry 0-100 loss. I feel i really let the team down here, by flying like stupid d""k, but hey pizza.

Sadly Greg just can't get damage through on Kanan and also loses, luckily Jimmy manages to beat Steve and gets us a point in this match, again we lose 1-2

All X-wing actual advice/commentary aside, I hold you in the highest regard for your Black Adder references.

Hello again,

Back for the next bit of the team tournament, being at 1-2 we really needed to win this final round to have chance at top4, as there were already two teams with 3 wins, fate paired us up against our Ego Squadron brothers however

Ego Squadron I, consisting of Niek, the wonderful chap you might know from his spark of rebellion blog, read all about it here: https://sparkofrebellion.blogspot.be/

Jonas aka "mr U-wing" and Martijn as imperial, pairings were: me vs Martijn (Rac/Kylo, Ryad), Greg vs the U-wings and Jimmy against Niek with quad TLT, i really liked my matchup as TLT can really hurt RAC and Nym's autoblaster makes short work of Ryad, the match was brief, in the end Nym once again remained the sole survivor. Greg's TIE's couldn't really shake the combined firepower of a U-wing and two ARC's and so he lost after a tense dogfight, so it all came down to the result of Jimmy vs Niek. You would expect the Ghost to quickly fall before the TLT onslaught, but it looked like Niek's dice had literally no sign of paint on them! I have never seen so much blanks rolled in my life, so Jimmy pulled off a 100-0 win and we took the round home 2-1.

On prayers and MOV alone, we took fourth place, as the only team with 2 wins in the top four, so we were up for the semi finals against the other Ego Squadron team, Ego Squadron II, they had so far steamrolled any competition and had gone 4-0. Off course they did have a secret weapon, none other than two time worlds finalist Nand Torfs!

lunchbreak's over so please read the rest in a following post :-)

Okay folks time for the last part of the report

as i said before we were paired against ego squadron2 pairings were like this

me vs Nand flying triple scum alphastrike aces (fenn, talonbane and nym), Greg vs Nick with quickdraw/Kenkirk en and Jimmy doing a mirrormatch against Arno(Kanan/Low)

This time i went for a different setup, setting my Y-wings up laterally in one corner Nym in the other hoping to draw his aces in under TLT-fire towards Nym's autoblaster. The plan half succeeded, one of my Y-wings took the brunt of his alphastrike and exploded, but a Natty-roll from Nym and some TLT-fire from the other Y-wing took talonbane out, a good trade. Next my Nym went autoblaster hunting after Fenn and took him out as well, butnot before my second Y exploded.Then it was a mirror duel of Nym vs Nym were Nand's great skill at flying proved the stonger, he doubleguessed my manoever a couple of times and blew my Nym away, close call but no cigars.

On a bright note my team really stepped up this round beating both their opponents, Greg aced Nick and Arno was kind enough to forget his draw their fire on a crucial moment,so we win te semi's and are on to the FINAL-round!

In the final we face our round 1 opponents R2-T3 again, this time the matchups ae a bit different:

Greg gets his rematch against Corentin, i face Rafha's palp aces and Jimmy goes for another mirrormatch against Wouter

My match started off slow, both of us being rather cautious,because final and all, and then this happens....

(picture courtesy of Steve "Troll Mops")

My opponent checks for a target lock from Quickdraw to Nym, who is definitely out of range by a few lightyears, but he measures a bit too much, so i'm like "OOhh you measuring the perfect distance for your cruise missile next turn?" He blushes and mumbles something about "its legal so i can do it" so i know what he's gonna do next turn, spoiling his own surprise, next turn i dial in a 2 hard left on Nym and some banks on the Y-wings, and sure enough he dialled a 4 straight, but with a boost following his hard turn Nym is know out of arc for Quickdraw and he doesn't wants to waste his cruise missile on a Y, so he just focusses and fires primary, without much result foiling his alpha strike, my Y-wings fire in turn at Quickdraw stripping his shields and "wasting "his revenge shot on a Y-wing. a few turns further and both my Y-wings are gone, but Quickdraw iss limping on hull and Nym has crept behind palpshuttle and finishes it off, so its a duel of full health Nym vs wounded Quicky and Full health Inquisitor. A second crucial moment is when he barrel rolls Quickdraw into Range one of Nym an then misses his shot, Quickdraw gets autoblastered and then inquisitor unloads on Nym, putting him one hull, but Nym has a higher PS and manages to get behind inquisitor and autoblasters his shields away. I a last ditch effort the inquisitor zooms away on his biggest straight, my first impulse is to follow and finish, but then i watch the clock, only two minutes remaining, and Nym is worth a lot more points than Quiz. I glance to my left and see Greg losing from a semi unkillable Assaji, i look to my right and see Jimmy winning the mirror, so why risk it?

i hard turn away to the other side, true blackadder style, by the time he can K-turn and follow back in range, time is called and i win, Jimmy almost simultaneously wins his match, and Ego the Third shall forever be known as the 2017 Team champions!

teamblackadder, also known as Ego the Third, me in the middle (photo one again courtesy of Steve)

Great report and congratulations on the win!