http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4309

looks like the winner was a type of swarm.

Yeah, Empire and a TIE swarm to boot! Surprised that the triple X--Wing (Luke, Biggs, and Wedge) finished second - so few ships!

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4309

looks like the winner was a type of swarm.

Yeah, Empire and a TIE swarm to boot! Surprised that the triple X--Wing (Luke, Biggs, and Wedge) finished second - so few ships!

Wedge with Shield Upgrade and veteran Instincts

Luke with Draw their fire, R2D2, and Shield Upgrade

Biggs with Shield Upgrade

...thats 96pts... im guessing he must have used astromechs of some type. vet instincts on wedge is very interesting... 11 pilots skill... im thinking thats to trump Han shoots first lists?

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4309

looks like the winner was a type of swarm.

big props for the winner going with a tie swarm. it takes alot of skill to play well, has a wide margin for error and takes lots of brainpower to keep all your ships is formation/moving in the right sequence. so many times ive screwed up and mixed up planning when using more than 5 ships

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4309

looks like the winner was a type of swarm.

Yeah, Empire and a TIE swarm to boot! Surprised that the triple X--Wing (Luke, Biggs, and Wedge) finished second - so few ships!

Wedge with Shield Upgrade and veteran Instincts

Luke with Draw their fire, R2D2, and Shield Upgrade

Biggs with Shield Upgrade

...thats 96pts... im guessing he must have used astromechs of some type. vet instincts on wedge is very interesting... 11 pilots skill... im thinking thats to trump Han shoots first lists?

Wedge is 34, Luke is 37, Biggs is 29. That comes out to 100 for me? Yeah, I think he wanted to make sure wedge would be getting more shots in.

does anyone have the list of how everyone shook out in the tournament? i'm pretty sure i finished 10th, but i want to see how others did.
yes, jacob flew a swarm of 4 academy pilots, howlrunner, backstabber, and dark curse. i defeated it in round 4 of the swiss pairings, i am proud to say. he's a solid player and i have much respesct for everyone i played this weekend. hope to see everyone at world's

Listing at top 16 cut.

http://s1324.photobucket.com/user/Ronald_Brannan/library/

does anyone have the list of how everyone shook out in the tournament? i'm pretty sure i finished 10th, but i want to see how others did.

yes, jacob flew a swarm of 4 academy pilots, howlrunner, backstabber, and dark curse. i defeated it in round 4 of the swiss pairings, i am proud to say. he's a solid player and i have much respesct for everyone i played this weekend. hope to see everyone at world's

98 points to ensure initiative. I've seen a lot of people do that recently. For a swarm it is VERY important to have initiative if you're going to go against other academies.

Just watched the Day 4 video, and I wanted to say congrats to Jake for flying an outstanding tournament. He was at the May 4th event and ran triple bounty hunters, and I believe he was in the top 8 there as well.

This tournament had an incredible number of amazing players, and it was easily the highest-caliber X-wing tournament to date. There was a wide variety of builds, although to me it seemed like there were a lot of TIE swarms flying about. I was expecting to face triple bounty hunter squads, but there was only 1 person out of 84 who ran them. Honestly, I would have loved to have just watched many of these players fly throughout the day. Lyle (sozin) is poetry in motion with his swarm maneuvers.

Thank you, Doug. Yes I was at the May 4th event and incidentally finished 4th. This tournament was exceptionally fun but I missed out on my primary goal of getting to play against the 2012 World Champion. Oh well, perhaps at the 2013 World Championship. I also was stunned by the lack of triple Bounty Hunters and awed more than once by Lyle's swarm maneuvers.

Great write up as always man from Hoth. That build of James really blew me away when I read it. VI on Wedge! 12 Points in Sheild Upgrades!!?! Unbelievable. Amazing that the finals came down to X-wings vs. Ties! Not a big ship on the board.

I was delighted to see a 3-ship Rebel build go to the finals. From all the X-Wing discussion I've read, everyone seemed to agree that such a build was simply not viable in the tournament scene. Love to see such an underdog (3 Rebel Starfighters) do so well. Much respect to James for taking the build so far. I'm also very happy that the final was classic X-Wings vs TIE Fighters.

--Jake Pichelmeyer

Jake, you are an amazing Xwing player, and I'm sure you'll get your chance to beat up on me at Worlds this year. Hopefully we won't have to endure 14+ hours of gaming in one day to do so, though. It sounded like they are going to split everyone up into groups of 64 and have some top 8's or so coming out of those into another tourney for the title. I think that would cut down on the amount of rounds, and it would allow the organizers to keep things straight better and maybe flow more smoothly, but I guess we'll see.

I do find it amazing, and an incredible testament to the game designers, that a pure Wave 1 list won against a Wave 1 pilot with some Wave 2 upgrades list. And James flying 3 Xwings into the final is awesome. Great job again, and I'll see you in a few months with some new tricks up my sleeve...

Congrats on the win Jake! I had a blast playing against you on May the 4th, and I am happy to see that you have embraced the 7 ship dark side You must have been a little giddy when you saw three x-wings at the final table.

Although, you could have kept it under wraps for a few more months so we could have taken Worlds by storm (or swarm?) Anyways, looking forward to playing against everyone at Worlds. Also looking for great rematches against Doug and Jake if you guys are willing sometime!

Congrats on the win Jake! Wish I could have made it against you in the final! I played Surri (Is she your girlfriend?), she was very nice and friendly.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4309

looks like the winner was a type of swarm.

Yeah, Empire and a TIE swarm to boot! Surprised that the triple X--Wing (Luke, Biggs, and Wedge) finished second - so few ships!

Wedge with Shield Upgrade and veteran Instincts

Luke with Draw their fire, R2D2, and Shield Upgrade

Biggs with Shield Upgrade

...thats 96pts... im guessing he must have used astromechs of some type. vet instincts on wedge is very interesting... 11 pilots skill... im thinking thats to trump Han shoots first lists?

Wedge is 34, Luke is 37, Biggs is 29. That comes out to 100 for me? Yeah, I think he wanted to make sure wedge would be getting more shots in.

yep. think i missed a shield upgrade in my calculations. Luke + extra shield + R2D2 + Draw Their Fire is very tough. ive flown that mix a few times myself. looks like he wanted to rely on careful manouvres with biggs instead of extra def like stealth device or R2F2 its just that veteran instincts on wedge that jumps out as outside the norm, and it must have worked for him.

My Luke/Wedge/Biggs build has been my most successful list so far, so it's nice to see someone else do really well with the same pilots.

Jake, you are an amazing Xwing player, and I'm sure you'll get your chance to beat up on me at Worlds this year. Hopefully we won't have to endure 14+ hours of gaming in one day to do so, though. It sounded like they are going to split everyone up into groups of 64 and have some top 8's or so coming out of those into another tourney for the title. I think that would cut down on the amount of rounds, and it would allow the organizers to keep things straight better and maybe flow more smoothly, but I guess we'll see.

I do find it amazing, and an incredible testament to the game designers, that a pure Wave 1 list won against a Wave 1 pilot with some Wave 2 upgrades list. And James flying 3 Xwings into the final is awesome. Great job again, and I'll see you in a few months with some new tricks up my sleeve...

Thank you for the kind words. I'll keep my fingers crossed for a match-up or a pick-up game to work out. I agree that the results of this tournament only cement how well-designed I feel this game is.

Congrats on the win Jake! I had a blast playing against you on May the 4th, and I am happy to see that you have embraced the 7 ship dark side You must have been a little giddy when you saw three x-wings at the final table.

Although, you could have kept it under wraps for a few more months so we could have taken Worlds by storm (or swarm?) Anyways, looking forward to playing against everyone at Worlds. Also looking for great rematches against Doug and Jake if you guys are willing sometime!

Hey David! Good to hear from you. I definitely give you credit for inspiring me to take up the 7-TIE mantle. Sorry that I didn't wait, but if it wasn't me, it could very likely have been someone else - maybe Lyle (Sozin), who really is impressive with a swarm and who was in the Top 4.

I would definitely be up for a rematch

Congrats on the win Jake! Wish I could have made it against you in the final! I played Surri (Is she your girlfriend?), she was very nice and friendly.

It's Siri and I'm happy to hear that she was a friendly opponent. Congrats to you on making Top 4. See you at the World Championship Weekend?

great reports hothie I also do enjoy reading them as everyone else has already stated yet just saying ditto doesn't seem legit since you do open my eyes to new combos and all. I would also like to thank you for helping me with my interceptor squad. I still lost all my rounds and I do see potential with them. I really enjoyed gencon and I also had a lot of distractions (megan and my nephew T.J. who had me running so I couldn't stay and watch matches. after the cutoff.) My only win was the bye before lunch and took the opportunity to play T.J. in only his second game. I want to warn you all now that T.J. Is a very quick study and has beaten me twice now once at gencon and then sunday at home . LMAO. and he wants to go to worlds for that tournament if I am able to go. just fair warning to you all he is very good at games and is very smart. ( apparently smarter than I am) so he will be gunning for you all and since I can't even get out of the swiss rounds he is far more likely to be able to have a lot of success with x-wing. not that I am giving up but I am always thinking and trying to make things out of the norm work. yes I coulda flown three slaves, or two yt-1300's or even the swarm ties (although not as well as those who have run them) and maybe might have had more success. yet I try to run something different and well my time at gen con was just like my may fourth debut. three to five and out. So hothie and everyone please do keep giving reports because they are one of the main places I learn since the only other player besides my nephew I can play locally is a casual x-wing gamer and a bit of..... but yet I learn from him also again congrats to the winner sorry doug I was rooting for you. and thanks to everyone who were so nice to me and megan and T.J. and I truly feel that the x-wing community is the best one in the world.

does anyone have the list of how everyone shook out in the tournament? i'm pretty sure i finished 10th, but i want to see how others did.

yes, jacob flew a swarm of 4 academy pilots, howlrunner, backstabber, and dark curse. i defeated it in round 4 of the swiss pairings, i am proud to say. he's a solid player and i have much respesct for everyone i played this weekend. hope to see everyone at world's

Just curious about that winning swarm. The 7 Tie list above comes to 98 points. Any idea what he spent the last two on? Swarm for Howl? or nothing for initiative?

He wanted initiative, so he made his squad 98 points on purpose.

OK, cheers.

Interesting that he goes to 98. People go lower? How many points are worth passing on to get initiative?

In swarm vs swarm matchup, its imperative that his academy pilots move first. He built it to face sozin's 99 point swarm. I don't think you'll see people go below 98 points, but who knows? Maybe someone will surprise me.

I have seen 8 AP swarms go 96, but that's a unique exception. Normally 98 is the lowest I have seen.

Lyle (sozin) is poetry in motion with his swarm maneuvers, and the rest of the Chicago gang keep each other sharp for the big competitions.

I have heard this from more than one person. What does he do? Can you go into more detail?

He takes where he wants to be on turn 3, then deconstructs it back to the set up. So, imagine this:

He sets up all 6-7 of his ties along his edge. Some facing forward, some facing sideways, some at 45 degree angles. Turn 1 this one goes 3 bank, this one goes 1 turn, this one goes 2 forward, etc. After the first turn they start to look like they could come together.

Then turn two, he gets them all into a checkerboard pattern, spread out to minimize the effects of an assault missile.

And then turn 3 they are all at range one if each other, pointing directly at you, ready to rain fire down on you.

Its beautiful to watch.