5A at Milwaukee

By Micanthropyre, in X-Wing Battle Reports

I took 5A to Milwaukee this last weekend. I did pretty well at the Adepticon Hyperspace the weekend before (5-1, lost the last game) and I made a slight tweak to that list. Here is what I played:

Blue Squadron Recruit + Heroic + Advanced Optics
L'ulo L'ampar + Heroic + Crack Shot
Greer Sonnel + Trick Shot + Crack Shot + Advanced Optics
Zari Bangel + Heroic + Crack Shot + Advanced Optics
Tallissan Lintra + Trick Shot + Crack Shot

At Adepticon Zari also had Trick Shot and the blue didn't have a talent, but I found that mostly Tali and Greer were using it as Zari was busy getting into the fray. The 1 point bid was relevant in half of my Adepticon games, so I stuck with it as well. My typical starting setup is the Blue in the middle, with Greer to one side and Zari to the other and then put Lulo and Tali on opposite flanks. If my opponent sets up in a corner, I'll put Tali and Lulo on the outer flank, with Zari being the closest to their corner. My objective is to build a killbox, using boost liberally in the early turns because the 3 bank is blue for some reason.

Round 1 opponent list:

Darth Maul + Hate + General Grievous
Trade Federation Drone
Trade Federation Drone
Trade Federation Drone
Trade Federation Drone
Captain Sear + Kraken

My headsim strategy against lists like this is to ignore the Infiltrator, pick off the other stuff, and then if things are close as time nears refocus and burn the infiltrator to half. It took far too long this game to kill the Trade Federation Drones who also managed to get a couple of Sear powered crack shots off early. I was able to execute the game plan and get Maul to half points on the final turn of the game, netting me a 23 point victory. In hindsight, I think you can also flex your plan to first burn down the Infiltrator, without the initial cloak you should be able to before you lose two A wings and then clean up from there.

Round 2:

"Dutch" Vander + Ion Cannon Turret + Veteran Turret Gunner
Ten Numb + Fire-Control System + Jamming Beam + Hull Upgrade
Blue Squadron Scout + Leia Organa + Tactical Officer + Pivot Wing
Wedge Antilles + Crack Shot + Servomotor S-foils

He set up in a corner, so I flanked my I5s out to the opposite side. He slow rolled the first turn, then as my I5s collapsed he brought Ten, Dutch, and the U-wing in toward Lulo and Wedge jetted forward. Zari was able to zoom past Wedge, who was out of the fight for a bit. He ended up turning on my blue and Tali, but I was able to burn down his U-wing and then clean up everyone but Wedge before the end of the game for another win.

Round 3:

Kylo Ren + Hate + Pattern Analyzer + Proton Torpedoes
"Quickdraw" + Fanatical + Special Forces Gunner + Fire-Control System
Commander Malarus

This guy had just beaten my friend who was also flying 5A 101-100. He ran Malarus out front as a lead blocker for QD and brought Kylo around for a flank. Malarus is super tanky with those charges! I opted not to shoot QD on the first round of combat with the blue, everyone else had a better target. Second round of combat I bumped Zari into Malarus and used ability to focus and rotate, slow rolled in Greer, and turned Tali and the blue out to get rotated shots in. I made some maneuver choices wrong and Kylo was threatening him, so he didn't shoot either of these turns. I got bumps on Malarus and QD, neither of whom had a shot. I was able to burn off 3 shields 1 hull from QD and take Malarus off the board. Kylo vs the World, he played really aggressively and I was able to take the game for 3-0.

Round 4:

Trade Federation Drone
Trade Federation Drone
Trade Federation Drone
Darth Maul + Hate + Jamming Beam + Kraken
General Grievous + Trick Shot + Soulless One

This round was against another MKE guy and I was sad to face him. I ran with a similar strategy to the first game but the red dice were pretty hot both ways. The end game was Lulo and Zari vs a 1hp Maul. Time had been called with only Maul's dial on the table, so I dialed in the safe block with Zari and won by a 9 point margin. I would have gone for the total victory, but Lulo was facing a board edge with no good way to get a shot which affected my decision. 4-0 after a super close game.

Round 5:

Norra Wexley + Ion Cannon Turret + Veteran Turret Gunner
Han Solo + Trick Shot + R2-D2 + Lando Calrissian + Inertial Dampeners
Wedge Antilles + Predator + Servomotor S-foils

This round was against the eventual champion of this Trial. I diced him pretty bad, I rolled nearly 2 natural evades every time for the first few rounds of combat and he failed 2 R2 rolls even after Han, getting Panicked Pilot'd twice. I played quite well actually, getting a ton of blocks with the Blue. Because the dice variance was so far in my favor I still had 4 A-wings on the board at the end of the game after eliminating all of his ships. It would have been close, but thats what you sign up for when you take 5A to a tournament.

Round 6:

I conceded to my opponent because I was already guaranteed to get into the cut and there was no food break. He was playing 2 Upsilons and Kylo. I got some Culver's Buffalo Chicken strips, and got back to the game store to find out that I sacrificed @catachanninja a chance at sneaking into the top 8 with 4-2 for some chicken. No regrets.

Top 8 Round 1:

Scimitar Squadron Pilot + Barrage Rockets
Scimitar Squadron Pilot + Barrage Rockets
Soontir Fel + Predator
Darth Vader + Afterburners

Nathan Eide was running this monstrosity. He was able to catch Greer at R3 with the barrage bombers before I was able to close the killbox on Vader, and the dice failed me and I lost him on that opening shot. Turns out Vader and Soontir are pretty tough when you only have 4 A-wings despite taking Vader to 1 hull mid-game, and he brought gas clouds which the A wings hate. I got beat pretty handily, ending my day.

In hindsight, I might drop Trick on Tali for Heroic and a 2 point bid. The 1 point bid was relevant again, and a 2 point bid would have bought me another game of advantage where I lost the roll. I got at least 2 Trick Shots a game out of Greer, who loves to 1 turn around rocks and rotate at will. With Gas Clouds everywhere you have fewer rocks to play around, but with Greer able to rotate, focus, and boost all in the same turn he gets that extra die quite frequently. Tali I think only triggered it 3 times, and it's probably better to try and line up bullseye instead. I could see dropping the Crack Shot from Lulo and putting Trick Shot there.