total of 6 rounds played, 3 rounds of round robin, followed by a cut into the top 8, semi-finals, then finals. Game started just after 2pm, and ended just after 10.30pm, total of 14 participants, with another 3 -4 who showed up but did not play. Removed the names of my opponents due to "privacy over the internet" concerns.
my list:
Darven Vreis Xwing
Gutch Dander Ywing + ion turret + R5K6
Wookie Xwing
Rebel HWK + Recon Spec + blaster turret
1st match (Lost): S
Gold Ywing + ion
Gold Ywing + ion
Dagger Bwing + Adv Sensors
Dagger Bwing + Adv Sensors
S is a very strong opponent in our local scene, and has always consistently finished in the top 4 in the monthly shop tournaments, so I'm definitely in for a tough fight. Moreover, this was a tuned version of his previous favourite list, where he swapped out Blue Bwings + FCS + ions for the daggers.
Asteroid setup was quite alright, nothing fanciful. He setup in the middle, while I setup slightly off center. I placed all 4 ships in a standard square formation with the ships touching, and then split them up by doing forward 4 / forward 3 / forward 3 / forward 2 into a checkerboard formation when viewed sideways. He setup 4 abreast with the Ywings in the middle.
My strategy is simple: wipe away the Bwings first, then take out the Ywings.
on the 1st combat round, I managed to immediately wipe 1 of his Bwings off the board, while he dealt quite some damage to Dutch. 2nd round saw him taking out Dutch, while his other Bwing is down to 1 hp left. I expected him to ionize my Xwings to prevent them from doing U-turns, but he instead went for my HWK, which was very unexpected. On the 3rd round, he managed to ionize my HWK onto a rock, and his Bwing dealt a very painful 2 hit 2 crit revenge fire on my rookie (evaded 1) before being taken out. The situation looks good from my perspective, and he's down to 2 Ywings.
Then perhaps I was going too "business as planned", and when I maneuvered into the best possible firing position against his Ywings, I found myself always facing an asteroid. Hence, Garven got ionized onto an asteroid and took 2 hits from rock damage alone, Rookie got ionized every once in awhile and couldnt take aim at the Ywings, and my HWK was too far away and still trying to turn back. One of his Ywings lost his turret along the way due to munitions failure, Garven and Rookie got taken out by ions, and the HWK got killed by primary weapons fire from both Ywing.
2nd match (won): C
Chewbacca Falcon + MF title
Luke + Shield upgrade + R2F2
Blue Bwing
C was a totally new player, and is a hardcore FFG fan. In fact, he took part / will be taking part in all the FFG store championships for games like star wars LCG, netrunner and etcetc.
Asteroid setup was more random this time with a lot of generous space. I deployed at the extreme left corner while he deployed mostly on the right corner across the asteroid field, although his forces are very spread out. I somewhat hoped that he'd land on asteroids or hit a few along the way, but his flying was pretty accurate, especially after hitting too many rocks during his first match. I did my usual 4332 opening, then a hard turn 2 in, and left my flank completely exposed to the incoming Luke. Chewbacca reached first, and my squad hammered him hard, dishing out 8 damage to him in the 1st round. Luke managed to sink in some hits on the HWK, and the Bwing is slowly reaching the scene. Next round Bwing reached the battlefield, only for my entire team to sink the hits into the Bwing. My rookie got taken out by Luke, and Chewbacca attempted to fly away. Bwing got taken out shortly after, and I went after Chewbacca. Chewbacca died shortly, and its down to Luke vs 1 Xwing 1 Ywing 1 HWK.
After the match, I advised him to maybe try out more aggressive actions, as he was using R2F2 and evade on chewbacca nearly the entire match, which meant that his firepower was really poor. If he had taken TL or F instead, I believe the outcome would be more in his favour.
3rd match (won): E
Soontir PTL
Turr PTL
Howlrunner
Academy TIE
Academy TIE
I setup on the right side, did the usual 4332 opening. E had setup his mini swarm on the left side, and his Turr + Soontir setup directly in front of me. Turr reached first, rushed in, got OHKOed in a show of extreme bad dice luck. Soontir was next, clipped an asteroid by mere millimetres (we used blu tac to secure the asteroids, and we were using plastic templates, so ship movements were extremely accurate), landed on it, and again got OHKOed in a display of bad luck. The game was over pretty much by then, and all 4 of my ships survived after wiping up the remaining forces.
Definitely some bull bad luck on his part, no way could Turr PTL or Soontir PTL be taken out that easily by a single Xwing attack. If it was a casual game, I'd definitely ask to play again.
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So now on to the top 8.
4th round (won): S (again)
What luck! Same opponent again, but this time round things were definitely going to be different. Asteroids setup roughly in the same position, but S had initiative this time. S chose to setup at the right corner facing diagonally inwards, with his Ywings in front. I setup directly in front of him. 4332 opening again, while S funneled his Ywings into the asteroid field and had his Bwings rush me. On the first combat round, S lost 1 Bwing again, while dishing out hits to the HWK. Rookie got ionized and cant do a U-turn. On the next round, I hammered the closest Ywing hard enough for it to be down to 2 hp and lost its ions to a munitions failure, while his Bwing was ionized. Nobody landed on asteroids this time round, which I ensured after the bad experience with him in the first round. Rookie U-turned and came in with a straight 4 while stressed, and had TL + F given to him by Gutch and Darven, and he took out the Bwing. Injured Ywing got taken out next, then afterwards all 4 of my ships hammered the last Ywing very hard, taking it out in 1 turn. The entire game lasted only 15min.
5th round (won): R
Rookie Xwing
Rookie Xwing
Blue Bwing + adv Sensors + engine upgrade
Blue Bwing + adv Sensors + engine upgrade
R is another very strong opponent, and his main sparring partner flies a 7 TIE howlrunner swarm exclusively. His signature is Wedge + PTL, so I was very surprised that he didnt use him this time round. After knowing that he fought 2 TIE swarms earlier and won both by complete wipe (7 TIE howlrunner, 6 TIE howlrunner vader), I know that his list may look weird and a little weak, but his flying definitely will have some tricks involved.
I setup on the left side, he on the right side. He has initiative so his entire team will move first. asteroids were setup nearly in a = shape. again, 4332 opening, then forward 2, then hard turn 2 into the top row of asteroids. He moved his Bwings up, and hard turned in to meet me. Fortunately, I managed to funnel his team to come at me in a nearly file formation, while my formation was still very close and intact. Nearly took out 1 Bwing on the first combat round, but as we were at range 3, his Bwing managed to survive with no shields left. HWK took some heavy hits, and looks like it's not going to live for long.
On the next combat round, he stunned me by having both Bwings do a curved boost upwards into a 2 speed K-turn. I sort of expected that, and countered with forward 1 with my Xwings, and had my Ywing and HWK turn downwards into the asteroid field to try and avoid that. His Xwings followed my HWK into the asteroid field, and deep fried the HWK (HWK had a total of 8 damage cards on it when it died). In exchange, I took out 1 of his Xwings. Afterwards, massed Kturns from my Xwings, and I took out the weakened Bwing. He took out my Ywing's ion turret with a munitions failure, but didnt go after the Ywing after I sent it through the asteroid field, so I could still enjoy the free target locks. His rookie Xwing went down soon, and then it was Garven + Rookie vs his last Bwing.
His 2hp Bwing managed to survive a range 1 TL+F shot from the Rookie after giving him a blinded pilot, then later on escaped to range 3 and survived shots from both garven and the rookie. Next round his luck finally went out, and his Bwing was splashed by Garven.
6th round (won): W
Han + gunner + expert handling + chewbacca + MF title
Rookie Xwing
Rookie Xwing
W is an extremely good player with the falcon, and I know I would be having an extremely hard time. W setup his rookies in the middle, and his falcon facing me on the extreme right. I opened up with my usual 4332 again. we rushed each other straight away, I dished out 4 damage to his falcon, and he dealt enough to nearly kill the HWK. HWK died on the next turn, and I nearly ionized Han off the board but he saved it with a timely barrel roll. I tried hammering his Xwings, but with them always rolling 2 evades naturally, I wasnt doing anything at all.
Han nearly got ionized off the board again, but didnt, and han always consistently dealt out maximum damage. It also helps that W rerolls every time he doesnt get max damage, and with gunner his 2nd attack would usually miss, and he'd try again for max with the 3rd and 4th roll. Very quickly, Rookie got taken out as well, and Ywing has only 4 hp left. I managed to splash 1 of his Rookies through his impenetrable defense of 2 evades natural dice rolls, and got in a few pings on the falcon here and there with the Ywing's main guns. Garven got reduced to 3 hp soon, and Garven managed a random range 3 OHKO on the last rookie that has no shields left after he rolled 3 blanks against my 1 hit 2 crits. Weapon malfunction on Dutch also meant that I couldnt use my main guns anymore unless I decided to go fix it. Afterwards, Han was down to 3 hp, Garven survived a range 1 shot from Han when he decided to reroll a string of 3 into 1 hit which i failed to evade, and Garven smashed into Han a couple of times to prevent him from shooting at me while I pinged the falcon with Dutch from across an asteroid. Soon, chewbacca was used, and han was down to 1 hp. Garven did a U-turn, Han dismembered him with a range 1 string of 4 hits, and dutch pinged Han to death with ions. Dutch had 2 hp left when the game concluded.
Definitely the hardest game I've fought.
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So out of all the participants, Rebels was the most popular, and there were 4 falcon builds. 3 howlrunner swarms, and the rest were mostly rebel 4 ships or unique imperial builds. Awings, non-Vader TIEadv, TIEbombers and shuttles were entirely absent. in the top 8, there were 2 falcon builds, 1 7 TIE howlrunner swarm, 1 6 ship Howlrunner Vader, E's Turr + Soontir + mini howl swarm (his match against W he nearly won, with soontir vs han on 2 hp each), and the rest were all 4 ship rebels.
S, W and R are extremely strong opponents whom consistently performed within the top 4 for whichever monthly shop tournaments that they attended, so there was a lot of pressure when I learned that I am facing against them.
I was supposed to bring:
Academy TIE
Academy TIE
Academy TIE
Academy TIE
Howlrunner + Determination
Soontir PTL Stealth
but I got thrashed 3 times in a row against my sparring opponent. I had a backup list that won me 1st a few times in shop monthlys:
Alpha TIEint
Alpha TIEint
Alpha TIEint
Howlrunner Swarm
Turr Veteran
but since my friend accidentally broke 1 of my TIEint models just the night before, that list cannot be used =A=