I went to my first tournament here in Ottawa and it was a great gaming experience for me. 11 players turned up and that put the prize support up to one of each of the new Wave 3 ships for the top 4 places. It was 4 rounds of swiss with rankings. No cut to the top.

Viewing the tables quickly before my first match I noticed many dual firespray squads and I thought I would be able to compete with that with what I had.

My build was:

Krassis with HLC

Bounty Hunter with Gunner

Backstabber

Total points: 97

I had Dark Curse initially in my squad but I switched him out for Backstabber because I felt that I had to put more damage out, and this game favours attacking over defending, so I thought Backstabber was a better choice.

I intended to use the Bounty Hunter as a runner to fly in and bust up any Academy Tie swarms that showed up, with Krassis trailing to get the best use of the HLC. The BH would, therefor, be potentially losing its actions so I thought gunner would be a good choice to keep my damage output up. Backstabber would be used as an opportunity attacker when he flanked any targets. My PS was 6, 5, and 3 so I thought I would be in reasonable good firing position against large swarms.

I went with 97 points to get initiative when setting up but I went back an forth on whether or not to spend 2 points to have a seismic charge and I decided that I wasn’t comfortable using one as I had not been able to playtest this squad before the tournament. Not being able to playtest before the tournament really bothered me as I wasn’t able to gauge how effective my squad would be and I had not enough practice flying 2 large ships together with front/rear arcs.

Slot 1 I faced off against one of only two rebel builds being played by Emily (a guy). He flew 100 points:

Wedge with Marksmanship and and R5 K6

Luke with R2D2, Shield upgrade

Green Squad with Marksmanship and Assault missiles

I had initiative so I was moving and firing first. On the first pass I took out Luke with concentrated fire with shots from all my ships together in a great opening salvo. Then we proceeded to weave through the asteroids and here is where my maneuvering hurt me. I ran into an asteroid and lost my shot twice during the next few rounds and that allowed my opponent time to whittle down my B.H. and Krassis and then taking out Backstabber, while I was only able to get pot shots off on Wedge and his A-wing as we circled an asteroid. He had a target lock on my Bounty Hunter with his A.M. but did not fire. I was able to get Krassis back in line for a shot and I took out his A-wing before he was able to missile, and finish, my B.H. Next round, Wedge then killed the B.H. and broke off and weaved through the asteroids to the far right while I had to maneuver Krassis to the far left and around an asteroid. I could see a joust like situation as we lined up on either side of the board and had to fly straight at one another. Here is where I made a critical mistake. I took a 2 turn around the asteroid for my line up but I didn’t clear the asteroid. I should have made it a 3, as there was lots of room, but my inexperience flying got me here. Wedge gets his shot off and brings down my hull even more. Next round, we close and Wedge now fires first and takes out Krassis.

Ends with a loss. 0-1

Slot 2 I get Jeff from Ottawa (who had been at Gencon and actually brought back the wave 3 ships that were being used for prize support). He had been at the tournament at Gencon and had placed very well. He flew 100 points:

Howlrunner with Swarm tactics and Stealth

Saber squadron with Swarm tactics

Alpha squad

Alpha squad

Alpha squad

He lined up as a swarm on the far right and I lined up Krassis with Backstabber on the far left with the B.H. just to the right (with an asteroid between them). I flew the B.H. straight and in with Krassis and Backstabber going straight and turning to the right to engage the swarm.

Howlrunner with swarm tactics chained with saber squad and chained allowed for 2 interceptors to fire first on my B.H. and they did some damage. I knew I had to take out Howlrunner to get my squad into the shooting first position so I had Krassis line up the HLC on Howl and I roll 4 hits. Jeff rolls and gets 4 evades! I would realize very quickly that Jeff had the hot dice in this matchup as he was rolling crazy defense and evading on all my shots while taking chunks off of my B.H. and Krassis as I rolled not a single evade the whole match! I was down to Krassis with 2 hull and Backstabber with 1 hull and I had not been able to land a single hit! I was in danger of loosing the round and not doing any damage at all and I even offered to concede, when I fired with Krassis and HLC and still got no hits, but Jeff played well and wouldn’t accept my offer and pointed out that I might still get a modified win out of it (which I really seriously doubted). So I continued and the next round backstabber one-shot an alpha and I was dumbfounded and relieved. Now the dice were averaging out but by this point it was too late. I took out two of his ships before the interceptors came back around, boxed me in, and took me out.

Ends with my second loss but at least I didn’t get the “didn’t damage the other squad at all” title for the tournament.

Ends with a loss. 0-2

Slot 3 I played Dany, a Frenchman and observer of my horrendous Slot 2 experience (he had a buy that slot) and we joked about it before the slot and while setting up. He had also been at Gencon and had made it to the top 4! I realized, while writing this up, that my first slot mistake ended up slotting me against the two most experienced players at the tournament. He flew 100 points:

Howlrunner with Swarm tactics

B.H. with HLC

B.H. with HLC

This was the squad he flew at Gencon and I was determined to get a win here. We line up facing off left of center table and I put Backstabber and Krassis on the left most position with the B.H. at center table. 1 ^st round I right turn Krassis and Backstabber to come to center table to follow my B.H. and I slow move B.H. up the center. With B.H. in the lead we make our first pass. Dice are with me and we trade damage and evades. I had to do at least a 4 maneuver to try and clear both his B.H. and Howlrunner so I K turned the B.H. and got hung up by 1/32 on an asteroid so I had not shot! My 2 ^nd mistake that round was trying to barrel roll Backstabber, who was out of arc but had no shot, into firing position but also into arc with no other shots available from anyone except this one. He shoots and one shots Backstabber. Now we are down to trading shots and I manage to get Howlrunner and we trade off B.H.’s a few rounds later. It came down to a B.H. versus Krassis and Krassis was pointed the wrong way and near the edge of the board so I was firing with my rear arc. 3 dice primary at range 3 versus 4 dice secondary and I was out a few rounds later.

Ends with a loss. I’m 0-3.

I get a buy on the last round but I know that I am the bottom of the list. I leave the tournament with only experience, and good contacts gained.

EDIT: added unknown slot 1 wedge upgrade - R5 K6

Was nice to meet you! At the end of the tournament, 5 people ended up at 15 points. Hope you will be able to come over to the other 2 tournaments!

It's always refreshing to read a tournament report from somebody other than 1st place. Recently I've been losing more than I have been winning, but it is just so much fun regardless!

The one lesson I took away from it was it all comes down to positioning and movement. If you can anticipate where your opponent is moving and you can avoid the rocks yourself, you will do well.

Some of my risk taking was because I had judged the distance to be so close. I would hit an asteroid by 1/32 or less during the round but losing your shot is just giving your opponent such a huge advantage. I only had a damper on my enjoyment when playing Jeff, and that was because we went round after round and I was landing not hits at all. He matched me evade for hits the whole slot and it just got to feel useless after a point. I did get some satisfaction when Backstabber one shotted Howlrunner, but by then the slot was pretty much over.

But this game is so much fun, even when you are losing, because it can turn for you at any point! I've seen it happen. I made it happen.