Hello! This is my first post on these forums. I've been reading about X-Wing here for the last month or so after finally building a small collection. I put off getting into the game for a long time because I have a large collection of Heroscape and no more space for games. Incidentally, all my X-Wing stuff has been purchased partly with winnings from Heroscape tournaments at the same local store that ran this championship. Anyway, enough intro, here's the report!
X-Wing tournaments are a looooooong day. But I had a lot of fun!
Despite my Rebel leanings, I flew an Imperial list I like to call "Troll Three Times". Special thanks to everyone on these forums developing the "Scarlet Cowgirl" list, as that's what inspired me. I'm crap at flying Shuttles, though, and I really, REALLY like playing Turr, so this is what I came up with.
Kath Scarlet (Firespray, 38) + Ion Cannon (3), Rebel Captive (3), Seismic Charges (2)
Turr Phennir (Interceptor, 25) + Stealth Device (3), Veteran Instincts (1)
2x Academy TIEs (24)
99 points for the Initiative bid.
Troll #1: Kath's ability, Rebel Captive, and Ion Cannon make enemy movement both difficult and predictable. I did have Expert Handling on Kath at one point, which I do like, but I wanted the bomb to discourage Swarms. Only one real Swarm showed up, but I never really missed EH, either.
Troll #2: Turr with Instincts and a 99 point build will hopefully be moving last, shooting first, and dodging out of the way.
Troll #3: Academy TIEs with Initiative can hopefully collide with stuff and deny actions.
My general strategy was to slow-roll Kath and her Academy escorts while Turr zoomed off around behind the enemy. I'd try to have all my ships hit the enemy at once in a pincer move.
For Game 1 I got paired up with none other than the one other Heroscape player (and my GenCon team partner). He doesn't have much of an imagination, so he ran the top Imperial list from Worlds, the dreaded Swarm. Having practiced against it enough to realize that my own poor flying was going to get me killed every time, I took those lessons seriously and played pretty safe. With a couple lucky shots, it payed off, and I took out his two named TIEs leaving him with just Academies, while I had only lost one Academy. There were supposedly only 10 minutes left in the round, and having had his swarm dismantled already, he handed me the win. For some reason the round lasted roughly another 30 minutes, but I was 1-0.
Game 2 I faced a strong Rebel build I didn't want to play against, Wedge and 3 other generic X-Wings. His attacks were hot, as they should be for 4 X-Wings, and my ships were getting beaten up badly. Luckily, Kath's stress/ion strategy was working, making his movements more and more difficult. I lost two of my TIEs and the third was limping, but Kath had a target in her sights and kept Ionizing it until it flew off the board! After that, I only had one X-Wing to chase down. The key plays here were Kath chasing a stressed/ionized X-Wing from just inside an asteroid in the corner roughly Range-2 from either edge, and flipping a Direct Hit on another stressed X-Wing which allowed Kath's Seismic Charge to finish it off next turn. 2-0.
Game 3 was against another Imperial build, 2 Interceptors and 3 TIEs. The worst part of this match was that his 9 Skill Soontir got to shoot before my Turr, meaning my tricks weren't quite as useful. However, my opponent was too leery of getting too much stress from shooting at Kath, and actually left her alone for the most part until the end. It sort of worked for him, as he shot down my other ships, but a healthy Firespray is a wonderful end-game piece. Ultimately, Soontir ended up piling up stress from Kath, and after going to time in the match, I came out on top in points. 3-0.
Game 4 was against another Firespray, a Shuttle, and an Interceptor. I don't like fighting Firesprays, because that rear firing arc is extremely useful. It means you can keep flying away instead of having to turn toward a fight, and also meant my sneaky Turr had to approach from the sides. My opponent got fairly unlucky with everything but the Shuttle (which, despite a complete lack of upgrades managed to evade almost everything thrown at it?!). I think my choice of upgrades and flying were a little bit better, though. Interestingly, unlike my other matches, my bomb was fairly useless, but blocking with my Academies was pretty handy. 4-0.
At this point, I'm feeling pretty good. 4 games has pretty much doubled the number of real X-Wing matches I've played...and I've somehow won all 4?! I make the finals as the top seed (only one modified win). How, I have no idea.
Finals Game 1 I finally get to face another Rebel build. A Y-Wing with an Ion Turret means I want to make sure Turr stays at range 3 of that ship. He also has an A-Wing with Cluster Missiles and Luke and Biggs. However, he only puts Biggs and Luke together, leaving the A and Y unprotected. I do a good job keeping Turr away from the Ion Turret for the most part, but he gets lucky with the Missiles and a couple other shots and nearly takes out Kath early on. This is where firing out the back comes in handy, though, as Kath is able to retreat for a second but still shoot while my other ships do some damage and absorb some. Kath also drops the bomb on her way out to take out a couple shields (of which my opponent has way too many). Kath gets taken out shortly thereafter, but is followed quickly by the A-Wing, Biggs, and the Y-Wing. At the end, it's 1 TIE and Turr against Luke. My superior mobility means he can't escape. Into the final match I go...
Aaaaaaaaand it's a rematch against my friend, the Swarm player. Apparently I didn't beat him savagely enough the first time to ruin his day, and he's fought his way back to 2nd place. To keep a long match short, contrary to the rest of the day I fly pretty poorly. We go to time (as most of his games do; I realize the final round isn't supposed to be timed, but it was past closing time for our store at this point) and he destroys my second TIE at the last second for the win. I only needed one more hit to finish one of his to make it a tie (game) again. One thing to note about this game, despite the loss, is why I love Turr with VI so much: at one point my opponent was pretty smug about having lined up a bunch of shots (i.e. the main Swarm) on Turr as we both hard-turned toward each other. Smugly right back at him I calmly barrel-roll Turr to one side (I wanted to go the other way, but we were too close to the edge), shoot a TIE point-blank, and boost around the side of his formation leaving him with ONE shot where he thought he'd have SIX!
So I end up in second place, with a nifty deck box, range ruler, Ten Numb pilot card, and a consolation meme:
Thanks for reading! Now that I've finally made an account, I hope to spend a little more time being active on these forums. 