First off I would like to thank FFG and my opponents for making this tournament one of the best experiences I have had in competitive gaming. I will apologize up front for any details or names I screw up in my report. I am horrible at names and didn't take any notes. After 7 games in less than 24 hours things get a little fuzzy. To any of my opponents please feel free to correct me or just say Hi it was great fun playing against really skilled competition and great sportsmen.
I played Wedge with swarm tactics and R2 astro, Biggs and Chewie with draw their fire. The plan was to have Biggs in the middle to take the hits and Chewie to take the crits from Biggs.
Round 1:
I played against James and he ran a 2 x-wing 2 a-wing squad. I think he had Wedge and either Biggs or Garvin with some upgrades. No assault missles so I was happy ;-). He charged the A-wing in to harass my squad and knock Biggs out quick with the x-wings shooting from range 2. I managed to take out a x-wing in the first round of shooting and the then other fell in round 3. I lost Biggs I think around four and then Wedge and Chewie chase the a-wings down for the win.
1-0
Round 2:
I played a 3 interceptor, Howl with stealth and 2 AP list. I believe my opponents names was Dave and he was a playtester for FFG. He bunched the ties into 2 rows of 3 with the interceptors up front so he could concentrate on Biggs. I managed to kill an inerceptor a round before I lost Biggs with some help from his bad dice and then Wedge and Chewie swarmed the swarm.
2-0
Round 3:
I played against the standard Han shoots first list. I charged in range 1 at his x-wings and took them out after 3 rounds of shooting and Biggs was evading like a mad man. Han finally took out Biggs but half of his shields were gone at that point. So then he had to deal with a fairly healthy Wedge and Chewie and it didn't last long after that.
3-0
Round 4:
I play against I believe Matt? who ran one of the squads I didn't want to see 3 bounty hunters(30 hits is a lot to chew through in a game). He played his squad great and just spent the whole time parking his big base right in the way of my ships. I lost probably a third of my actions in the game. I can't remeber most of the action that hapened since it was just a giant cluster and the only thing that sticks out was how frustrated I was. I remeber after the game I made sure to ask the design team why they couldn't make the bounty hunters cost 34 points. They just laughed at me and said that was one of the most common questions they get asked. And just to clarify I was only frustrated at his squad and my playing, Matt was a great guys and we had lots of fun in our game.
3-1
Round 5:
I faced another Matt who was playing a really unique build. He had Howl with stealth and 3 interceptors. Howl and 2 other interceptors had swarm tactics so he chained the level 8 pilot skill for the whole squad. He started out on tight on the far edge of the board in a very tight 2x2 pattern. I setup on the opposite corner and to see what he was up to and he proceed to shoot straight down the side fast so it looked like he was going to try to turn me around back into my starting positions. I broke across the middle half way and tried to pin him in the corner but he pulled around on me short and I got caught out of formation. He managed to get all of his shoots off on Chewie out of range of Wedge and Biggs so Chewie took 7 hits(really bad dice on my part) I managed to get back in formation next round and Biggs was wiped out in exchange for 1 interceptor. He really wanted to kill Chewie 2 hull left so I played ring around the asteroid just staying out of his firing arc for 2 turns with a healthy Wedge attacking from behind to take out 1 more interceptor and severly hurting another. Chewie finally went down but then it was a healthy Wedge against howl with 2 hull. I was amazed at how well Matt flew that swarm, almost the whole game they stayed within a half a base formation and he didn't collide once with his squad or anything else. It was the best technical flying I have seen in this game yet.
4-1
I finished 4th after the first day and my brain was about numb. Mission acomplished I made the final 8.
Round 6 Quarterfinals:
I played Nathan and my favorite squad the 3 bounty hunters again. I figured I had a good shot at facing one of them since their were 3 of them in the finals but I really wanted one of the 2 double YT lists. I at least had thought a lot about what I would do different if I face one of those squads again. It started out about the same as the last match but I made sure I closed the distance faster so I could k-turn over him each time instead of getting jammed up and it worked really well for me. I still got beat up early and really had to scamble to catch up. He did a godd job of making me spread my damage between 2 of his ships so I didn't get a easy kill. I think the first one went down about the same time as Biggs. The second one was down to one hull and made a desperate 4 straight to clear my ships and take a few shots at wedge. He knocked Wedge's sheild off and then I didn't think he could make the turn without going off the board so I took off after the healthy firespray. He ended up making the turn by about 2cm and everyone cheered, but it took him 4 turn to get back into the action. By that time Chewie and the other bounty hunter had wiped each other out. That left Wedge with 2 hull and Mr. Lucky with 1. We both charged straight at each other and both missed our range 3 shots with both of us pulling off some amazing defense rolls to save our butts. Wedge closed in for the range 1 shot and the win. This was the best game of the tournament for me with so many dramatic moments and giant swings of momentum. The other matches had finished and we had about 20 people standing around the table just hooting and hollering it was really cool.
5-1
Round 7 Semifinals:
I played Doug "Hothie" a good friend of mine and the reigning world champ.(and my playtester) I will paste Doug's report in here since he does a better job of telling the story than I do.(and he takes better notes)
"Semifianls as against Commanderscrappy, my playtester, and I figured if anyone had a chance to beat me, it was him. He ran: Chewbacca with Draw Their Fire, Wedge with R2 astro and Swarm Tactics, and Biggs. It is a squad that he has beaten me in the past with, and he is very familiar with my squad, having faced it numerous times. My first assault missle hit all three of his ships. I managed to kill Biggs with a seismic charge, I think, after he only attacked once. We did a lot of cat and mousing around, and it came down to CHewie vs 1 BH. But I outlasted him in the hit point category, as My BH had 3 or 4 left in the end. But it was a close game nonetheless." Hothie
This game was very close at the end, we both had range 3 shoots at each other with focuses and he evade 2 so he kept his 3 hull. He hit me back wtih 2 hits, I had 2 hull left so I only need 1 focus or evade on 2 dice. Can you guess what happend? Yep blanks, it really sucked because the next shoot I think I would have ended up in his blind spot because of the asteroids he was flying through with a range 1. I figured that I had him since my PS was higher than his. Oh well thats the breaks. Any game I play against Doug is always fun and this one had more on the line that others. Loser had to take over babysitting duty of his son.(Which is really a lot of fun so I might have got the better end of the deal).
Final Total:
5-2 3rd place overall.
