Went to my third regional event yesterday. There were 9 players with 5 imperial squads and 4 rebel squads. I put together my squad knowing there are typically lots of big ships, but amazingly only two squads had big ships (a Lando and 2 y-wing squad which came in third, and a Han and Chewie squad that came in second). I came in first with a variation of my Kessel Run squad that I decided to play after reading how the event at FFG went in May (so special thanks to those who posted about that event).
I played a seven TIE swarm: Howlrunner + Stealth, Dark Curse, Obsidian Pilot X3, and Academy Pilot X2. I think I am a good but not great player, and often have a hard time setting up conditions for various ships to used their advantages. So, I've never played with Backstabber or Mauler Mithel. The FFG Regional winner went with Backstabber, but I decided to stick with Dark Curse since (1) his ability is automatic, and (2) his ability makes him much harder to kill so I figured I'd get more attack dice overall than I would if I was able to set up Backstabber from time to time for just a few rounds.
First round I was randomly selected to get the buy. Bis are a mixed bag. On the one hand you get an auto win and get to see what others are playing, on the other hand you will automatically be playing someone who won and already has some practice under their belt while you'll be playing your first game cold.
Second round I played against a very good player with Soontir Fel (with some upgrades, but to my surprise not push the limits), Turr Phenir with some upgrades, Mauler Mithel, Dark Curse, and two other low level ties. I flew some nice formations and was able to get his Soontir Fel out by the second or third round. I also lost a low level TIE that round, but it was no where near a fair trade. We went back and forth for a while with me taking more and more of a lead as time when on. In the end I took out all 6 of his ships and had 4 of mine still standing (including Howlrunner and one other at full strength).
Third round I played the guy who ended up coming in second. He had a Han and Chewie squad, both with gunner, Chewie with veteran instants (and there may have been some other upgrades that I am forgetting). My formations were particularly good this game, and while I sometimes bumped into myself, I was always able to keep my ships pointing at his ships. I had 2-3 rounds with 7, 6, or 5 ships with a nice shot at Chewie, who I took out first (I think by the 3rd round, maybe the 4th). Both his ships were shooting at me, but I only lost 2 ships (including Howlrunner, unfortunately) by this time. That left me with 3 full TIEs and a couple of lightly damaged TIEs to go after his Han. To my surprise, he didn’t take the Falcon upgrade on either of his ships (it really would have helped with Han, in particular). I did a nice job of staying at range 2 or 3 so he couldn’t get extra dice (neither could I, but with Han having only 1 agility dice and no evade I figured I’d win that battle sooner or later with this strategy). Had him forced into a corner with 2 full strength ties, 1 TIE with one damage, and 1 TIE (Dark Curse) with 2 damage. I was able to keep the damaged ones further away so they were safer. His Han was down just (though that doesn’t feel like quite the right word) his 8 hull. But, we were both pretty sure I was going to win given his 1 agility and the fact that I was shooting 2 dice X4 at a time, and it was going to be pretty hard for him to take out all 4 of my TIEs since he had only one shot per round and all of my ships had 3 agility and I was regularly using evade. In the end it didn’t matter because I forced him too close to the corner and he flew out of bounds by a little over a quarter of an inch (should have taken a hard 2 instead of a soft 2).
Final round I played a teenager who ended up being my toughest game (he also had a very close game against the Han and Chewie squad earlier in the day). He was playing Wedge + Luke + 2 Green Squadren pilots. He had a couple of upgrades that I don’t remember. Because he was three decades younger than me I reminded him to use some abilities he forgot the first couple of rounds. In spite of this I took out his two A-Wings fairly quickly, but he also took out 2 of my low level TIEs (a noticeable advantage to me, but going up against Wedge and Luke with 5 TIEs felt like and ended up being a daunting task). He was able to set things up so I couldn’t get off a single shot (while he could get off both shots) two times by zigging when I thought he would zag. Later, however, he had some trouble maneuvering and our positions were reversed (I was able to get 2 or 3 shots on his ships from behind, and he was not able to shoot back at all). I eventually took out Wedge, but lost another ship and had 2 ships with just one life left (including Howlrunner). The best and most risky thing I did was to barrel roll Howlrunner within range 1 of his Luke late in the game. He had initiative and I only had one hull left and knew I was going to die (good chance of that even at range 2, though), but since we were both PS8, I would still get my 3 dice shot at him before HR left the board. Howlrunner died as expected, but ended up taking out the rest of Luke’s shields. He took out a fifth TIE fighter (which left me with two… including one that was badly wounded). But, he seemed to panic and had trouble maneuvering again, and I maneuvered particularly well. It was too bad of a combo for him to overcome, and I finally killed Luke for the win.
I was the only undefeated player including the bi. I always wonder how much of a difference the bi makes in this instance and would love to hear what folks think. Have you ever won when you had a bi? Did it feel like less of a victory? The second place player was a bit of a bad sport about it, which got me thinking about it more than I might otherwise have.
In the end, baring some very odd and unlikely circumstances like the second place player and I not playing at all, I would have still won even if I lost the first round since I played and beat the second place player. In this hypothetical, we both would have had 3-1 records with 15 points each. The tiebreaking rules state that if there is a tie bettween the top two players, and the two players have played each other, the player that won that match the ultimate winner of the tournament. But, it wasn’t worth arguing the guy about all this, so I just shifted my attention to the other 7 players who were very nice and sportsmanlike in every way.
EDIT: Here is one of the photos that was taken of me and my winning squad after prizes were given out:
