I was able to participate in my second tournament last night over at the Multizone in Gatineau.

My first tournament I didn't do very well, I placed 11 of 11. Dead last. I took that as inspiration to do better this time.

The tournament was 3 rounds, a 60 point, 90 point, and 120 point squads. Your 90 point squad had to have 30 points carried over and the 120 points had to have 50 points carried over.

I chose to fly this series of lists for this game.

58 points " Spinning Rims " Han solo build:

Han Solo, M.F. title, Elusiveness, Chewbacca, Gunner.

90 Points " Best Buds " club:

Han Solo, M.F. title, Elusiveness, Chewbacca.

Luke, D.T.F. , R2-D2, Shield Upgrade.

120 Points " Ole Boys Club ":

Han Solo, M.F. Title, Elusiveness, Merc Co-pilot.

Luke, D.T.F. , R2-D2, Shield Upgrade.

Biggs, R2-F2, Shield Upgrade.

ROUND 1 -45 minutes (60 point):

As luck would have it I faced off against Dany Laberge for round 1. Dany took 4th at Gencon with his dual firespray with HLC and Howl with S.T. so I was expecting the worst from his squad. He fielded B.H. and a Lambda with Vader and ion cannon. He mentioned during setup that he hadn't flown the Lambda yet and I told him that it flies like a garbage truck. He set B.H. on the right side middle and the Lambda on the left side middle. Asteroids in the middle. I chose to put Han on the very left side edge and face off with the Lambda. My choice of actions plan was to take evade and use elusiveness to lower the incoming damage. Gunner would ensure I had no rough rolls with the dice and that my damage would stick from shot to shot.

Rounds 1 and 2 I streaked the Falcon both 4 straights to try and get behind the shuttle and it worked. I got a shot at it as I right turned and flew behind it and crossed the board over the next couple of turns. Dany tried to turn the shuttle to get it back in but it took him 4 turns to do so. Dany navigated the asteroid field most of the game and I joined him there in the middle of the round to get more shots in. At one point he had to move the Lambda over an asteroid to give his B.H. a spot to land for a shot, not caring where the Lambda went. At that point I could tell that he wasn't very happy with the Lambda. I just kept working the falcon's maneuvers and I didn't get hardly any range 1 shots but I whittled the Lambda down and destroyed it, then a few rounds later the B.H. followed. I had 1 hull damage (after chucking Chewie out the airlock to get that shield back) in the end.

1st Round - Win

Round 2 -60 minutes (90 points):

This round I faced off against Michelle. She was flying 2 B-wings with FCS and HLC and Garven with R2. I saw that hit the board and I was shaking. 2 HLC would shred the Falcon if I ever got near them. She setup first and placed her 2 B's in front and Garven just behind in an open box formation on the very left of the board. I set Han and Luke up on the very right. My initial thoughts were that I need to flank these guys or I am done.

The first 4 turns we maneuvered. I went straight up the right with 2 4-straight maneuvers and she went both 1 straight up the left to see what I was going to do. Here's where she made a mistake. She correctly guessed that I was going to flank her so she K turned her squad. The B's went at a 2 K, but Garven was too close and couldn't do his 4 K. He collided and got stuck going straight and stressed. I saw an opportunity. I banked then 4 shot in over two rounds to catch a second time K turning Garven all alone on the left side while the B wings were heading back around the corner posting asteroid. Range 1 shots from Luke and Han and Garven was done. We then went back and forth up the left side of the board, running past that corner post asteroid and I managed to stay out of both the B-wings firing arcs except for one time. I got stripped down to 1 shield in that exchange. I just had Han and Luke work on the B's when I could and I dropped one and then the other.

2nd Round - Win

Round 3 75 minutes (120 Point):

In the final round I took a bathroom break before starting and had to hurry back for my setup and I felt like I never got everything in place when I started. I was facing Eric and he had a Chewie with Wedge and 2 rookies. It looked powerful and I wasn't sure out flanking would be that effective. We were tied for points so we rolled off for initiative and I lost, but my high pilot skill meant I would place mostly last. My plan was to fly in a tight box and hit choice x-wings first to whittle him down to more manageable numbers so that my high pilot skill would allow me to edge him down in firepower.

Eric set up both rookies and Wedge center table in a line formation with Chewie off near the right hand corner. I set Han, Luke, Biggs in a box formation far left. I ran straight up the left flank and turned to face him while his line became angled after his turn to strike at me. I had R2-F2 on Biggs and I had him take it. Wedge TL and fired on biggs. My first mistake here was Wedge's damage was a crit and I forgot about Luke's DTF. Han and Luke salvoed back at Wedge and took him out. Chewie took a longshot at Biggs and damaged him some more. Biggs took a range 1 shot on a rookie. His rooks fired and took Biggs out with 1 last hull shot. If I had used DTF Biggs would have still been in it. So Biggs is out. I move forward in the next few turns and get stopped short by Chew. Eric split his 2 rookies. 1 followed directly behind and harried me for the rest of the game. The other could not K turn so had to turn over a few turns before he could reengage in the battle. Sorta good, sorta bad. Luke couldn't fire at Chew nor get a K turn on him. But Chew couldn't shoot at either so Han took shots at the trailing rookies, who also could take shots on him. Eventually I get Luke and Han worked free but now my movement on Luke is curtailed as I am having to make green maneuvers to keep my shields regenerating. But I keep pulling crits off of Han to keep him alive. Han gets really whittled down and the two rookies are down to 1 and 2 hull each. I get one rook at the same time he gets Han. Its now only Luke versus Chewie with no shields and a rookie with 1 hull left.

I tango with his rookie near my edge of the board while Chewie it hovering in the asteroids at center table. I'm trying to take out that one last rookie when time is called. If I had taken out that rookie, Eric would have had a modified win and probably taken 2nd. But it was a full match win for Eric and he came in 1st. I came in 3rd.

For my efforts I had my choice of blue acrylic focus tokens or alternate art Wedge card. ( I got an alternate art black squadron card for entering the tourney). I chose the tokens, but Jeff from Ottawa asked if he could trade me fore the Wedge card. I was glad just to have made the top 4 so the prize didn't matter to me. I traded for Wedge and got an extra black squadron card tossed in for free.

I found that, as it is always true, it comes down to maneuvering and sometimes the dice. I won Round 1 because I knew the Lambda couldn't turn but I could in the Falcon so I went with that strategy and I also rolled almost every single evade on the Falcon ( I think it was 5-6 times in a row).

In round 2, I flanked and out maneuvered the 2 B-wings after pouncing on an opponents mistake. I had to adjust on the fly for that one and the gamble paid off.

In the last round it came down to small mistakes adding up. The DTF mistake on Biggs. Elusiveness on a single hit causing gunner to trigger on Chewie. The last round saw the dice be equally hot and equally cold. There were many times where Eric would roll 4 dice and come up with 1 hit only. It wasn't a game where one of us had hot dice and the other didn't so it was really tense and enjoyable. I worked that squad the best I could and enjoyed my time spent at Multizone. I would probably concentrate on Chewie the next time I play a build like that.

Shout-outs to Dan, Jeff from Ottawa, Michelle, Eric, Adam. See you guys at the next tourney.

Now now now...

I was enjoying that report.

It's like holding the last page of a book for ransom.

I might go for Expert Handling instead of Elusiveness. You still get stressed every turn, but you're getting the monstrous large-base barrel-rolls out of it. That could easily get you into Range 1 of your victims every turn (to their ruination), or also out of their firing arc, which is better for your defense anyway.

i like ur squad choices. very solid. that 360 firing arc combined with hans rerolling ability is very consistent at dealing damage.

im also thinking that elusiveness might have been something else, push the limit would be very good is u have the points - it really shines when u have flacon title card too but thats more points to squeeze into ur squad. i agree expert handling on the falcon would be awesome but again its taking a bit away from the falcons ability to take actions (iv trialled it on wedge b4 and found that i miss that focus or target lock action quite a bit).

I chose elusiveness for Han more for the starting build. Being only one ship in a 60 points rounds I wanted to make sure I lasted as long as I could. What I didn't want to do was change up many of the abilities because those changing effects could screw me up in later lists when I do something and think I have that ability when I don't. I wanted my strategy to be very similar ship to ship and only have to concentrate on the new ships abilities to remember.

Also, I have never tried elusiveness and I found it to be an effective dice mitigator. I could stop crits on Han. It would also work every round whether I was bumped or not. Taking evade and using Elusiveness made damage mitigation decent for the Falcon and added to my survivability.

Expert Handling would have been another good option. I chose not to take it because I was going to use Biggs in the last round and that big barrel roll with Han would've negated Biggs role.