A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…
Sunday the 28th of April, Kryptonie Kolletibles, in Janesville, WI hosted Regionals tountnaments for X-Wing. I drove 75 mins from Milwaukee to join in the games and I was not disappointed. The store was awesome, I've never been there before and the have a nice setup. A wide assortment of sprots collectables, games, minatures and of course X-Wing. They also have excellent staff, expecially our Tournment Organizer. John Paul was great, kept a fair game, ran things smoothly and everyone had a good time. Thank You JP and Kryptonie Kolletibles, well done!
Overview: We had a great turnout, 12 nice people showed up to play. We had plently of space to play, everyone had a good time. I saw a lot of rebel builds, but the empire was there in force as well. About 5 Empire, 7 Rebels is my best guess. Everyone had a Large Ship…well everyone but me. Firesprays and Falcons everywhere! It was pretty awesome. A lot of squads had a single large ship and fighter escorts to back it up. The M.Falcon was paired up with everything imagineable and each squad was completly different from the next* In my battles alone, Total in 5 games, I fought agianst 10 Firesprays, 2 Falcons, 1 Tie Fighter and 1 Tie Advanced, lol, thats a lot of big ships. Everyone there was friendly, having a good time, enjoying the game and really good sports.
My Squad - " TIEs that BITE" 100 points
Mauler Mithel 17 TIE Fighter 7 Pilot Skill
Backstabber 16 TIE Fighter 6
Dark Curse 16 TIE Fighter 6
Night Best 15 TIE Fighter 5
Alpha Squadron Pilot 18 TIE Interceptor 1
Alpha Squadron Pilot 18 TIE Interceptor 1
Whenever you bring 6 ships onto the table your have their attention. I like a balanced squad for tountment play, you never know what your going to face. I get a nice set a pilots with high pilot skill and eveyone can deal out some pain. Mauler Mithel is great for only 17 points, at range one, he is basically a TIE Interceptor, rolling 4 attack dice. Backstabber too, a bargin interceptor, if flown right. And then of course two Alpha Squadron Interceptors, bang bang. Night Beast focusing freely, and Dark Curse….everyone hates Dark Curse. Target Locks, Focus, Han Solo NO Thanks I'm Cursed!
ROUND 1 : Picasso
Bounty Hunter x 3
First round I got setup with my buddy Ryan, aka Picasso. He flying 3 Firesprays, Bounty Hunters x3 33 pst = 99 points. OH Great worse case scenario, I was fearing this list…rightfull so… 3 large ships, 30 hit points, 3 attack dice at front / back fire arc and a nice toolback of actions, such as target lock and evade. Plus Ryan is a veteran flyer and very worthy opponent. I started by using a deployment using a trick I learned playing agianst Hothie last year at worlds. thank you Doug, looking forward to a rematch. I stacked up my fighters 2 by 2 with the final two facing inward. On the first maneuver the inward facing fighters, hard turn and fall into fomation behind the others. Ryan setup his bounty hunters spread out alone his edge. So I setup in my formation, 3 fighters deeps and flew directly at one of them. The first barrage is fierce, my formation focus its fire on a single ship. I rolled some nice dice and so die Ryan, his evade dice were hot in the beginning. Round 1, I took down the shields on the first bounty hunter. I tried to focus fire as best I could but ryan flew well and made me spread out the damge a little. I flew my TIEs in close and took advantage of my special abilities. Finally I took down a ship, Hahzaa! Number 2, shields were already down. Then I Landed some CRITs. and CRITs really hurt the big ships. We exchange fire some more I lose a couple TIE and down another firespray. He has a firespray with little to no shields and I have a wounded interceptor and dark curse. I got dark curse in close and hard turn 1 and barrel rolled into his blideside, and an Interceptor trailing, and my dice burning red hot. I roll some crazy evade to keep my guys alive and some nice attacks when I needed them. I won, with 2 Drak Curse and wounded Aplha. Great game Ryan, well fought, see you soon for a rematch.
ROUND 2: Darth Scarlet
Krath Scarlet, Marksmanship, Merc Co-pilot, Homing Missile 48
Darth Vader, Homing Missile, Expert Handling, Engine Upgrade 40
Academy TIE 12 = 100 points
Game two I played agiants Tristan. I was worried about what he could do with his missiles, so I wanted to get in close quickly. I flew my formation agian and we when staight at each other. First Turn Darth Vader booast forward and fire his Homing Missile boldly at Dark Curse. Despite Dark Curse defensive abilities Tristan roll 3 CRITs and a HIT. I rolled 2 evades to stay alive but had lingering damage effects. I returned fire with full force of my squadron and made short work of Vader. Krath Scarlet fired a nice barrage at Dark Curse trying to finish him, but I out rolled her. Scarlet's abilty did however stress him which prevent him from Buttonhooking (K-Turn) next turn. My other five fighters, all the heavy hitter blasted Karth while I forced her to bump me and therfore loose marksmanship. After I destroyed Scarlet, hunting down the lone TIE wasn't too hard. I lost another ship somewhere before it ended, I had 4 TIEs left. Its nice when the dice cooperate. Good Game Tristan!
ROUND 3: Spray more fire
Bounty Hunter x 3 33 = 99 points
Game three I played Jacob. A nice guy I met yesturday at our local game store. He was flying 3 firesprays, also. After placing asteroid we setup facing each other on the side of the map. He setup two together and one on the side. Formation agiant his two, I blasted one of there shields down in the opening barrage. Focus fire on a single target and over the next few turns had two hurting pretty bad. His 3rd Bounty hunter creeping in pepping my ships from behind. Not having to much room to fly down the edge, the asteroid making a channel, his most wounded BH at 3 hull left…..was doomed to fly of the board. I changed my attention to target 2 and blasted him apart. He fired back damgaging fighters, destorying one perhaps. A couple turns later, one blasted, one flying off the board, its 3 vs 1. Both interceptors and a named pilot vs his final BH. I roll some amazing defense and hurt him with out taking damage. My tie have no trouble keeping up and hunt him down over a few more turns. Jacob flew a bit static this game, his maneuver where a bit predictable, but he gets better, much better. Great game, Amigo.
The Preliminary rounds broke off and the top 4 move on. I was the only 3 full win player at round 3. :-)
ROUND 4: SEMI - FINALS
Han Solo, Marksman, Chewie, Millennium Falcon 54
Lando Calrissian, Veteran Instincts, Nien Nub 46 =100 points
Semi- Finals! I was greeted with a smile from my friend Jeremy. He was flying two yt-1300's and he flew them right at me. I setup formation and face him head on. Opening barrage should have been a bloodbath but it was a slaughter. Sorry Jeremy, lady luck kissed him goodbye. He rolled flat, I rolled well and he maybe did a damge with his opening volley. I had all 6 fighter shoot at Lando, taking down his shields and breching his hull. It was exactly what I needed. Next turn I tried to force a bump, but he hit the gas a flew behind my whole squad! This should hurt, but it didn't. Blanks and some sick defense rolls, Han and Lando missed. I had no shot, as I was facing the wrong way….sigh…that was lucky…. Turnd around and pursued the falcons blasting at Lando. Finally han finshed off the wound TIE but Lando fell the to swarm. Way outnumber Han didn't stand up to well. Manged a couple kills though, chewie keept him in the fight, stopping a major CRIT. Jeremy to his honor stuck it out and fought to the end, Dark Curse with the killing blow on Han Solo. DICE, DICE, DICE. It was nice to have them on my side. Good Game buddy, looking forward to more in the future.
ROUND 5: THANK THE MAKER! I MADE IT TO FINALS!
Bounty Hunter x 3 33 = 99points
Jacob fought his way through the semi-finals, so we would face off agian, winner takes all. I notice a improvement in his flying over his last game. His maneuvers we less static and much harder to predict. Instead of facing off with my squadron head on, he lined up all 3 on the side with the least asteroids. With some clever maneuvering I manged two interceptor shots on him, while remaing out of the line of fire. My "free shots" took away 1 shield, not too bad for range 3 plus evade token, etc… Round two I hooked around and got a great flank on my first target, with 3-4 shots. I hurt my first target badly, but Jacob maneuver him outta danger. I rolled a few flat attackes in the next rounds and could not finish off the wounded BH. 3 or 4th round I made a bad maneuver; I expected Jacob to fly straight forward as he had done last game, but when he didn't I fail 3 buttonhooks and hade fighter stressed facing the wrong way. Easy picking for some bounty hunters. Well done sir. It fell apart after that, one by one my fighters fell. Some Dark Curse was my sole survivor. Alone Dark Curse manged to down the wounded firespray……10 down….20 to go. The other two BH where unhurt. I flew the hell outta Dark Curse for a few more rounds but died none the less. Well done Jacob, well flown and nicly rolled. You defenitly learned from your defeat round 3. So yeah Best of three? :-P
SO CLOSE to the trophy, yet so far. Ah well, bottom line, I had a great time. All the players were great, the event was ran well and we had fun. I am proud of my second place victory! I am also proud that the game was played with enthusiasm, fairness and dignity.
Tom "the" Mann
MantoF18
And that it worked for you. Good luck in the rest of your tourneys.