European Championships Write-up

If I was going to make it to one foreign X-wing tournament, it would be the European Championships. Being more busy than usual, I was unable to make it to the Yavin System Open (where we had 415 players last year), but I was instead able to make it to the Euros, taking place at the same location at roughly the same time as Yavin in 2016!

As a list I took what I was most familiar with, Upsilon with TIE s/f and Striker. I had been flying TIE s/f's with great success before lightweight frame, so I was both confident in their ability and in me flying them. I was also investigating a Tomax + Backdraft + extra list, but in tests it underperformed massively in the initial engagement and it collapsed afterwards. 

When taking an Upsilon Palp and a TIE s/f, you're left with about ~30 points for a 3rd ship, which could very well be Omega Leader (as the Mynocks fly it). Omega Leader is nice, but in this meta you have to be much more aggressive and attack-oriented. Pure sabacc does this by having 4 dice in the beginning of the game. Snap shot came about instead of my previous Ion projector and Trickshot, I think it was an extraordinary addition.

Let's do a quick breakdown of the list: I took Palpatine because he's still super good, I can easily tell when I'll be able to use him effectively. He saves Sabacc sometimes, he can get extend Backdraft's life or just provide extra firepower on the shuttle. In practice I've had one Palpatine miss every 2-3 games, at the Euros I was at 1 per game. Kylo Ren's Shuttle is one of the most important upgrades in the list, it decimates Attanni lists and also impedes jousters. Fire-Control System is mandatory for the shuttle, it's a pity not to get a dice modification for free on 4 dice. It's also at 1-2 uses per game, but I lost a game because I forgot it, so I know it's worth it. Lightweight Frame is a ridiculously good card, although it interferes a bit with Palpatine use. Primed Thrusters, for 1pt, allows you to 1-turn/3-sloop and barrel roll, or barrel-roll with stress via Coordinate.  Adaptability brings Backdraft to PS8, where there's a lot of action currently (mainly Miranda, good against Dash too). Snap Shot is the dark horse in this list, that gives it its name: Potential 8 dice coming from Sabacc in a single round. 3 dice with Palpatine against few modifiers (Attani helps here) and another range 1 shot. The Striker is maneuverable enough to make this work, as it can both cover great distances, do very tight turns, or just go over formations.

A summary of the "bag of tricks" of this list:

• Snapshot with 3 dice and Palpatine, catches everyone by surprise
• Kylo stress
• Coordinate with shuttle
• Coordinate a barrel roll while stressed on the TIE s/f
• Using Palpatine on the lightweight frame extra dice, as a last resort if the rest of the roll went really badly

The plan generally is to tank with the shuttle a couple of shots while Sabacc flanks and Backdraft brings in the rear.  Sabacc hops around, the shuttle exits and comes back for another round, Backdraft turns to point his rear-arc where it needs to be.

One problem I've had with it is that I still don't master Sabacc as well as I should. I've had about 30-40 games with Striker variations, but it still feels like I'm driving with no brakes. I am unable to stall with him, I should have practiced some maneuvers for this. As such, I was forced to never stall with the shuttle in the opening maneuvers, I had to get everything right with minimal information from my opponent. I did mitigate this by deploying in an obvious "I'm going to bump the first round" formation, but I always 2-banked or 3-banked out of it. 

Overall I'm pretty proud of how the list performed. My losses could be attributed entirely to user error (getting Sabacc killed too early), which could have been avoided with more training. I would consider it an A-level list, one of the good things the Empire can offer at the moment.

Round 1 - Alban Trinchero (Switzerland)

"Quickdraw" (29)

Expertise (4)

Fire-Control System (2)

Pattern Analyzer (2)

Lightweight Frame (2)

Special Ops Training (0)

Colonel Vessery (35)

Crack Shot (1)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE/x7 (-2)

"Omega Leader" (21)

Juke (2)

Comm Relay (3)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

My first round opponent was a good player (system opens, nationals goodies), placed very closely to me in the end. He began by slow-rolling Quickdraw and Vessery and drawing me to the obstacles in the center. Sabacc was not only too early but also clipped a debris field (sloppy play on my part, but it's hard to visualize 1-forward then 2-bank at a millimeter level). Sabacc died the following turn, after getting a snap shot on Omega Leader. The rest of my list focused on Vessery and managed to get it off the table. Unfortunately, I spent a focus too aggressively and didn't leave room for defense on Backdraft, losing 3 shields because of this. Backdraft went down quickly, but the shuttle outmaneuvered and bumped everyone. In the end, it was the shuttle against Omega Leader on 1 hull and Quickdraw on 2. Failing to get a FCS, I was tied between a full stop with no modifiers against Quickdraw versus a 1-forward with focus. The shuttle was playing a game of chicken with Quickdraw, with Omega Leader out of sight. I calculated there was no way he could evade my front arc so I did the 1-forward. Quickdraw was barely able to 3-bank and barrel roll out of arc and so ended any chance of my winning this game.

35-100 loss, which I almost avoided using only the shuttle!

Round 2 - Hey that's my fish!

Just kidding - there were significant delays so we played a few games of hey that's my fish!

Round 2 - Mikkel Lars Knudsen (Denmark)

Shara Bey (28)

Adaptability (0)

Jan Ors (2)

R2-D2 (4)

Alliance Overhaul (0)

Norra Wexley (29)

Push the Limit (3)

Kyle Katarn (3)

BB-8 (2)

Alliance Overhaul (0)

Jess Pava (25)

R3-A2 (2)

Primed Thrusters (1)

Integrated Astromech (0)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Round 2 started at about 16:30, people were already tired. This list was played in formation, with Norra supposedly exiting the formation at the last possible moment with BB-8 to flank. I was able to block Norra with my flanking Sabacc and get great shots on Jess Pava. Took out Jess and Norra, barely escaping with the shuttle. Then Shara was somehow activated and turned into a monster. It took a potshot at the shuttle, destroying it. It then entered Sabacc's range 1, received a snap shot and a range 1 shot with very little damage. What followed was two rounds of Sabacc getting snap shot and range 1 shots, but with very little damage, instead taking weapons failure (snapshot down to 1!). With Sabacc dieing horribly, Shara 2 pts more expensive than backdraft, I was on my way to my second loss. Backdraft couldn't do more than one damage per turn because of R2-D2 + Jan evade.  I disengaged, got around, then surprised him with a hard turn that got me 1 rit + 3dice with TL and focus on a 2 shield 1 hull Shara. 

100-68 win, definitely not as well as it should have gone after the initial exchanges, but a win.

Round 3 - Luis  A. Lozano Garcia (Spain)

 Wedge Antilles (29)

Swarm Tactics (2)

BB-8 (2)

Integrated Astromech (0)

Biggs Darklighter (25)

R4-D6 (1)

Integrated Astromech (0)

Captain Rex (14)

Jess Pava (25)

R2-D6 (1)

Crack Shot (1)

Integrated Astromech (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

My opponent set his formation up to joust me, and we engaged with my perfect setup, Sabacc flanking with a good position to snap shot Jess Pava the following round. I was able to kill Biggs in the first round at range 3, which my opponent attributed to incredible dice.  The fact that I was shooting 11 dice with focus at a 6HP ship was not as relevant. 4 dice with focus + Palp, 3 dice focus and 4 dice with focus at range 3 against 3 dice with R4-D6 at range 3 is 5.15 average damage. Add to that a focus for one of the defense rolls, add that Palpatine counters R4-D6 and above average dice and Biggs goes poof. 

The next round I focused on Jess Pava, almost taking her out, while he put a lot of damage on backdraft. What followed was the best snapshot of the tournament. He had stressed captain Rex by 4k-ing into my blocking shuttle, so I thought he might bump Captain Rex again or at least I could get into a favourable position to snap shot Wedge by 2-slooping behind Rex. He 2-banked, which never fits if you're so close to a large base ship. 3 dice snapshot with Palpatine was Hit-Hit-Crit and he came up empty.

In the end it was a 100-21 win, he got half the shuttle. I think my opponent got flustered after his initial loss of Biggs, but I still consider that my list out-jousted his by a fair amount.

Round 4 - Adam Townsend (UK)

Asajj Ventress (37)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Latts Razzi (2)

Black Market Slicer Tools (1)

Concord Dawn Veteran (22)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Autothrusters (2)

Concord Dawn Protector (1)

Fenn Rau (28)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Autothrusters (2)

Concord Dawn Protector (1)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

My first Scum opponent of the tournament, and with an Attanni list at that! He didn't seem worried about the stress that much, but he came in for the joust and was surprised when it became difficult to escape with only green maneuvers! I lost the shuttle, but it fired twice pretty well. Sabacc was a monster and took out Assajj on his own, always flying behind her and getting a 5-dice range 1 shot.

100-42 win

Round 5 - Charlie ter Horst (Netherlands)

Contracted Scout (25)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Extra Munitions (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

Intelligence Agent (1)

R4 Agromech (2)

Guidance Chips (0)

Contracted Scout (25)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Extra Munitions (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

4-LOM (1)

R4 Agromech (2)

Guidance Chips (0)

Contracted Scout (25)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

Intelligence Agent (1)

R4 Agromech (2)

Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

As day 2 began, I was there 2 hours early and my smile dropped as I saw the pairings. Charlie is a friend from the Netherlands, I was there when he started playing, I did video commentary with him on a few dutch games, but recently he's taken it to the next level by going to Worlds 2016 and getting top 16! He's an extremely difficult opponent and he was flying a beast of a list, triple jumpmasters.   

We had already talked about my list, so he knew not to joust. He feigned a joust, but was able to get all the jumpmasters out of arc of the shuttle to get target locks. The last one did a 4 straight and a barrel roll, terribly close to Backdraft and to the edge. Seeing an opportunity, I barrel rolled closer and realised I had him pegged against the board edge!

I was pretty sure that he was going to go off the board, but having no better shots and an asteroid on the other side, I decided to turn the shuttle in its direction. The bump was incredibly close, we called a judge over to be sure (as none of us wanted to perform this delicate operation). It was in by less than 1mm!

Backdraft turned away and got some shots on the jumpmaster, but with little damage. As I was putting down dials, I noticed that the 2-hard turn was very likely to finally get his ship off the board if it cleared Backdraft. I squinted and I squinted and I went for it!

 Success!

With one ship off the board and very little damage taken (the lack of joust meant no torpedoes were fired), I was in a good spot points-wise but in a terrible position. Thankfully I was able to get enough points.

51-47 win, with a crux roll of 0 on 3 dice with TL saving a 1 hull Jumpmaster at the end. We were scrapping for time because of the lengthy bump-off-the-table-situation. A very atypical game, but I was able to squeeze this win!

Round 6 - Juan Riera Arriaga (Spain)

Miranda Doni (29)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

Extra Munitions (2)

Sabine Wren (2)

Thermal Detonators (3)

Cluster Mines (4)

Advanced SLAM (2)

Gold Squadron Pilot (18)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

R3-A2 (2)

BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0)

Biggs Darklighter (25)

R4-D6 (1)

Integrated Astromech (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

My first Miranda matchup! As Bogdan, my sparring partner, mostly played Miranda, I was extremely confident in how to approach this game, especially since Miranda had no Homing missiles, only bombs. After a successful feint, the board looked like this:

Sabacc was out of arc of Biggs and the Stresshog, range 1 of TLT Miranda. Perfect! Biggs took a lot of damage, then died the following round when he 1-forwarded right into snapshot range.

After this 100-0 win, I was 5-1 and looking pretty good!

Round 7 - Harrison Sharp (UK)

Darth Vader (29)

Adaptability (0)

Advanced Targeting Computer (1)

TIE/x1 (0)

"Backdraft" (27)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Fire-Control System (2)

Lightweight Frame (2)

Special Ops Training (0)

Colonel Vessery (35)

Decoy (2)

Tractor Beam (1)

TIE/D (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

After hurrying up with lunch and trying to see the expo in the 1h break, I got to the table a bit drowsy, having had no time to get coffee.

I got the idea of the list, he was flying it in formation, I made the error of believing he would not go for sabacc. He went after sabacc, tractored him into range 1 and killed him.  I then exchanged the shuttle for his Backdraft. With some clever maneuvering, primed thrusters and good dice I was able to destroy Vessery, but when Vader finally got in my back I had no chance to evade him.

70-100 loss clearly brought down by my misuse of Sabacc.

Round 8 - Pierre Buffiene (France)

Contracted Scout (25)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Intelligence Agent (1)

Feedback Array (2)

Anti-Pursuit Lasers (2)

Contracted Scout (25)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Extra Munitions (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

R4 Agromech (2)

Guidance Chips (0)

Contracted Scout (25)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Extra Munitions (2)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

Boba Fett (1)

R4 Agromech (2)

Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

A list similar to Charlie's, one that now I at least had a game against. I set up in a similar fashion and I was surprised to see he came in for the joust. The debris you see in the picture right next to the jumpmasters is mine, it  was meant to prevent him from escaping the shuttle if he came in jousting.

I got a good first engagement, good dice and, most important, the shuttle got a repeat shot on the outside jumpmaster when he was passing by. It was a 1mm in shot that we had to call the judge for, but it spelled disaster for my opponent.

100-21 win.

 Round 9 - Jonathan Kok (Netherlands)

Jan Ors (25)

Wired (1)

Twin Laser Turret (6)

Chewbacca (4)

Rey (45)

Expertise (4)

Finn (5)

Kanan Jarrus (3)

Scavenger Crane (2)

Smuggling Compartment (0)

Countermeasures (3)

Millennium Falcon (TFA) (1)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

This was a matchup I was not particularly worried about, as I had played against Rey before, but not Expertise Rey. 

He slow-rolled it, so Sabacc came in a bit too early. I then thought he would 4-straight over the debris and moved the shuttle in, but he instead did a 1-turn to the left that landed him in range 1 of Backdraft. With Sabacc and Backdraft hurting, I misjudged a Sabacc maneuver and he clipped a debris field. With 2 hull remaining, he took a Direct Hit. 

36-100 loss, this game went south pretty quickly.

 

Hangar Bay

This was a more relaxed environment, and for the 3rd day I was not exactly focused on my game anymore. I had two wins and a spectacular loss to Carlo Tozzi, the Italian who won the Greek nationals last year. I was not only not expecting his list to hit so hard, but again I found myself with Sabacc not being where I needed him to be. I guess the skill ceiling for my list is higher.

 

Conclusion

After 9 rounds, I was 6-3 and 52nd. Not the best score, but not the worst either! Consider how tough the competition was (all the best players from Europe) and how little I was prepared compared to last year at Yavin, it went great!

I had great opponents, from all around Europe (3 UK, 3 Dutch, 2 Spaniards, 1 Swiss, 1 Danish, 1 French and 1 Italian counting the Hangar Bay), this was incredible! Thanks to all of my opponents for great games, looking forward to next year! Sorry to Charlie, the onus was on me to make it further in the tournament after stealing that win from you.

Thanks to all the guys and gals organizing this event,  despite a few bumps it was very well put together and it was a joy to participate!

I was super happy to fly my list, it was super fun to play for 3 days in a row. I'm not the best painter, but I had my dials matching the ships, I was pleased about that too. I got in a spectacular snap shot, a bump off the table and losses that I could easily explain with clear mistakes on my part. Not much more I could ask for.

Obligatory photo of the loot. Left hand side is the won loot: participation coin, Han Solo, Omega Ace and bump tokens, then there's stuff I received from my opponents (Han Solo, swarm tactics in spanish and a Danish bump token), on the right there's stuff I bought: template holder, Armada distance rulers, damage deck holders, 4 fantastic foil cards bought from the Italians.

 

Armada Regionals 2016

I happened to be in London for a week, and I figured I'd stay for the weekend to attend an X-wing or Armada tournament. Lo and behold, there was an X-wing Regional at IQGames the weekend before and an Armada Regional the weekend following my trip. With no tickets left for X-wing, the choice was made for me! The venue was in Stockport, near Manchester, at Element Games North West Gaming Centre.

The list I have had most success with leading up to the Regional was this:

Author: Chilligan
Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 400/400

Commander: General Dodonna
Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

[ flagship ] MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 points)
-  General Dodonna  ( 20  points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
-  XX-9 Turbolasers  ( 5  points)
= 135 total ship cost

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
-  Yavaris  ( 5  points)
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points)
= 69 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
-  Bright Hope  ( 2  points)
-  Expanded Hangar Bay  ( 5  points)
-  Bomber Command Center  ( 8  points)
= 33 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
-  Boosted Comms  ( 4  points)
-  Bomber Command Center  ( 8  points)
= 30 total ship cost

3 B-Wing Squadrons ( 42 points)
3 X-Wing Squadrons ( 39 points)
4 Y-Wing Squadrons ( 40 points)
1 HWK-290 ( 12 points)

http://armadawarlords.hivelabs.solutions/view_list.php?token=47659

It's a very powerful list, but not extremely flexible. Of the hammer and anvil type, you have the blob of fighters and the small ships going steady, while the Liberty swoops and finishes up ships and squadrons.

I have also been having a lot of fun with this Madine Liberty:

MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 points)
-  Mon Karren  ( 8  points)
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
-  Engine Techs  ( 8  points)
-  H9 Turbolasers  ( 8  points)
-  Spinal Armament  ( 9  points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)
= 154 total ship cost

It can easily take out 2 transport per turn and will get in the most impossible of positions. I just pair it off with anti-squadron fighters and Yavaris for a very fun to play list. I hadn't considered going dual Liberty.

A third, distant option was to play Ackbar with an MC30 and 2 AF MKIIs, with the MC30 as follows:

MC30c Scout Frigate (69 points)
-  Foresight  ( 8  points)
-  Intel Officer  ( 7  points)
-  Veteran Gunners  ( 5  points)
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points)
-  Turbolaser Reroute Circuits  ( 7  points)
= 103 total ship cost

The idea with this one was to have one heavy-hitter that is super-precise and cannot be braced without repercussions.

In the end, I settled on a variant of my initial list. I tossed the commander to a medium transport, dropped a Y-wing (going to only 10 squadrons) and put in Mon Karren and Leading Shots. Both upgrades are gold, of course, but I felt I couldn't fit them in before. The plan with this is to use the hangar transport and Yavaris as spear-heads, with boosted comms transport bringing up the rear. Mon Karren either covers the flank or comes in one round after the fighters hit first to finish off some ships.

The final list was:

BYwangs
Author: Chilligan
Faction: Rebel Alliance
Points: 400/400

Commander: General Dodonna
Assault Objective: Precision Strike
Defense Objective: Contested Outpost
Navigation Objective: Superior Positions

MC80 Battle Cruiser (103 points)
-  Mon Karren  ( 8  points)
-  Gunnery Team  ( 7  points)
-  Leading Shots  ( 4  points)
= 122 total ship cost

Nebulon-B Escort Frigate (57 points)
-  Yavaris  ( 5  points)
-  Raymus Antilles  ( 7  points)
= 69 total ship cost

[ flagship ] GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
-  General Dodonna  ( 20  points)
-  Bright Hope  ( 2  points)
-  Boosted Comms  ( 4  points)
-  Bomber Command Center  ( 8  points)
= 52 total ship cost

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 points)
-  Flight Commander  ( 3  points)
-  Expanded Hangar Bay  ( 5  points)
-  Bomber Command Center  ( 8  points)
= 34 total ship cost

3 B-Wing Squadrons ( 42 points)
1 HWK-290 ( 12 points)
3 X-Wing Squadrons ( 39 points)
3 Y-Wing Squadrons ( 30 points)

Card view link
Fleet created with Armada Warlords

The objectives are fairly obvious for a squadron fleet, the only other difference is that I've chosen to put a flight commander on one of the transports, to enhance actual activation range or to mitigate running over squadrons in tight spaces.

The list has a total of 10 squadrons, 4 activations and 9 deployments, which I am pretty happy with.

Battle report - Round 1

My first round was against Jim Murray. He had Rieekan with 3 transports, Admonition and Yavaris.  He took first player and chose Precision Strike. His Admonition wanted to deploy last, but he had the same number of activations as I did so he wasn't able to. I, on the other hand, put the Liberty on the other side, so it would enter combat almost horizontally while squadrons clashed in the middle.

He charged with Dutch and Wedge on a B-wing that was slightly exposed (seen in the picture) and took it out, but even without Yavaris' ability I was able to focus fire with everything I had to take out Wedge after he had activated. He had Yavaris with flight commander and fighter coordination team, with a trailing transport giving squadron tokens. Unfortunately, by the time his Yavaris was able to use its ability, he was running out of squadrons.

Admonition came in to kill my Nebulon, but my positioning allowed only a shot on the front hull zone, so I was able to tank some of the damage. I escaped with 1 hull, while his Admonition was coralled by transports in the middle of my fighter-bombers. On that same round, the Liberty took out both a transport and his Yavaris at medium range (hurray for leading shots). His Admonition, after making a transport kill, escaped the bombers (but had no tokens) and was only taking one side shot from the liberty at long range. It was a double hit and Admonition died, making the game a 10-1.

Jim was very fun to play with and overall the game was much closer than the outcome showed. A better roll on his Admonition or me not taking out all ships could have lessened the win for sure. It's also funny to note that my bombers didn't get a single Hit+Crit the whole game, despite me having 2 Bomber Command Centers and pushing always for the second reroll.

Battle report - Round 2

My second round opponent was James Stead, with a Motti ISD, Demo, Raider, Gozanti and a sprinkling of TIE Fighters (/w Mauler Mithel). He also took first player and chose Superior positions. I deployed directly in front of his ISD, with the Liberty on the side to protect the transports from Demo.

My plan was to take advantage of his low fighter screen to quickly take down the ISD, while making sure that Demo couldn't just barge in and kill my carriers. I was partially successful in that he kept Demo behind, but the ISD was slow to take damage. Fighters took out most of the shields and the liberty put in a couple of damage cards, but still it was not enough. The ISD was full of repair commands and started discarding damage cards and sprinted away at speed 3. I was able to catch the Raider off-guard and one-shot it due to the small traffic jam that was created by my Liberty deployment, but the Gladiator was still full-HP and coming to kill the Liberty. Yavaris and a transport died in the same round from the ISD and I wasn't able to get the second double-tap.

This was where Dodonna came into play, because I was able to sneak a nasty crit on Demo:

Ruptured Engine x2 - Ship - after you execute a manuever, if your speed on your speed dial is >1, suffer 1 damage

This made Demo slow down and not use Engine techs, allowing me to finish it off with a few fighters and back-arc shots from the Liberty. It turned out to be a 50MoV win (6-5), but it was incredibly close. The ISD repaired all the damage cards from what I remember, I don't think I could have taken it down without a second volley of double-tapping B-wings.

James was  a very tactical player and the entire approach took a long time and was pretty tense!

Battle Report - Round 3

After round 2 there were 3 players with 16pts and one with 18pts. I played on table 2 (which ended up being the one streamed). My opponent was Justin Read, playing a brutal twin Liberty twin transport fleet with A-wings. He chose to be second player and I chose his Superior Positions (options were Fleet Ambush and Advanced Gunnery, both No-Nos against his fleet).

I deployed in the corner facing towards the interior of the board with speed 1, while he deployed in the opposite corner at speed 3. I think his plan was to do damage quickly, engage my squadrons, then get out.

He dispersed his A-wings to cover every angle but took a gamble with a couple of them to engage my main force. I was able to kill them and send 3 fighter-bombers to his front Liberty, preparing a double-tap with Yavaris on the following round. I activated first with Yavaris and did massive damage to the liberty (all tokens and shields, with a couple of hull). My Mon Karren took care of the rest. Yavaris did get in a nasty position, took two frontal shots from Liberties, but managed to survive (one was long-range and obstructed). And just in time as well! I had the hwk in a good position in front of the other Liberty, so Yavaris would double-tap again the following round.

A crucial mistake in this game was me not shooting against a transport in the turn where the second Liberty died. I think I chose to do a side-shot to rear and take a victory point instead, forgetting that I had gunnery teams. I guess I was excited about taking out the second liberty that I forgot the rest of his list.

Towards the end of the game I desperately tried to kill the transports but with no success. I couldn't kill one with a front arc short-range shot and the squadrons weren't helping. Justin managed to kill every one of my fighters using the transports and A-wings.

In the end the game was a 9-2. It was a good game, I think I did the right mix of going after big ships while also taking out an A-wing every once in a while. I think I made some mistakes in the late game so I didn't get the full win

Overall this was a very fun tournament. The organization was exquisite, with hot tea and coffee, sandwiches for lunch and muffins! I am glad I was able to participate and happy I came within a few shots of taking first prize! The first table had an incredible match that went from no ships destroyed to a 10-1 in a single round, so the winner of the regional definitely deserved it!

All my opponents were cool to play against, I hope I'll play you again sometime!

Video Battle Report #3

A friend from the Netherlands, Charlie, has asked me to join him on some video battle reports. This time, he's no longer TOing the tournament, but in fact playing in the finals! Subsequently I'm commenting along with Faan, winner from our first video!

This is a video from a tournament held in Amsterdam, on the 6th of June 2015.All the participating lists can be found on the corresponding entry in ListJuggler

Video Battle Report #2

A friend from the Netherlands, Charlie, has asked me to join him on some video battle reports.

This is a video from a tournament held in Amsterdam, on the 10th of May 2015.All the participating lists can be found on the corresponding entry in ListJuggler

Video Battle Report #1

A friend from the Netherlands, Charlie, has asked me to join him on some video battle reports.

This is a video from a tournament held in Amsterdam, on the 12th of April 2015.All the participating lists can be found on the corresponding entry in ListJuggler

The Epic Tournament Experience - Imperial Version

So I got to attend two Epic tournaments while I was in the Netherlands, both were Team events. We had to bring 2 150pts lists for each teammate. My girlfriend was keen to participate in a team event so I went with her. I picked Imperial side, and went for a TIE swarm. Not being specifically well-versed in Epic, I decided to neglect the low PS problem, since it meant I had more ships on the board. Howlrunner + 7 APs, Echo (more maneuvrable than Whisper, can theoretically stay out of high-PS-ships' arc), Captain Kagi to lure away the Assault Missiles and two Assault Missile dispensers of our own with Captain Jonus to make sure they hit.

There were 8 teams at the tournament, 4 Imperial 4 Rebel, with a total of one Rebel Transport.

Our first game was against a similar list, but with Assault Missiles on Bombers. They also had Jendon with Weapons Engineer and STS-321, which meant they could target lock everything! Sure, the first target lock was on Kagi, but the second could be on anything, essentially negating Kagi's use. While we made sure their Assault missiles didn't fire by thinning out target-locked Ties and getting them in range 1 of the Bombers, we failed to hit with our own Assault Missiles because of .. dice. 4 dice with 3 rerolls (2 from Jonus, 1 from Krassis) was not enough to hit a Tie Fighter. Oh well. The game ended up being a slugfest with nothing else interesting happening, with our side losing by a small margin. Lesson learned: Assault Missiles take great work and care to hit and splash on the right targets.

 The second game was against the only team that actually brought an Epic ship. They had no clue how to play it however, and despite me insisting that we check out the rules before we play, we started placing asteroids not according to the rules because they wouldn't have it any other way. Fly casual has its limits, but I let it go and started playing. The Rebel tranport was unequipped, they also had Han Solo, Luke, X-wings, Y-wings, A-wings. It started out pretty ok, but in the first round of engagement 4 Ties were one-shotted. Even with their A-wings out of the fight for 3 turns (they decided to turn around towards their edge of the board, then come back) and with Luke and R2-D2 biting the dust from being hit by the Rebel Transport, we were only barely able to recover and reach point parity. Then the A-wings swooped in and finished off one of the Firesprays, securing them the victory. They lost a Y-wing and 3 X-wings, while we lost 8 TIE Fighters. Lesson learned: PS is much more important than I anticipated.

 Our third game speaks plenty of tiredness. 2h30 for each game is quite long, so both us and the opponents setup in front of each other and played chicken. We lost again, by a few points.  Lesson learned: Bring bigger guns.

 I saw this tournament as a clear list-building error on my part. The errors were made very clear from the first game: PS too low on too many front-line ships. Other ships too well equipped for how much damage they actually do etc. Unfortunately, we had to go in the following matches knowing it will be an uphill battle.

In the end, the guys with the Rebel transport won the whole thing. A nice indicator that everybody had something to learn that day.

Netherlands National X-wing Tournament 2014

On September the 7th 2014 I was lucky enough to participate in the Netherlands Nationals, held in De Tafelridder, Leiden.  It's a small shop on the side of a canal, with just enough room for 20 X-wing games. Turnout was of about 36 people. Start was at 10:30 and we finished at about 22:00.

First of all, I came in as a foreigner, not knowing anybody and never playing anyone from there. I also have played only three other people aside from my friends and relatives (what I can say, we had a small Regional in Romania).

I had two lists prepared for this tournament:

Soontir Fel + TC + PtL, Vessery + HLC, OGP + Vader + FCS

This list is similar to a list I saw in top 8 US nationals (The only one with a defender), and I think I saw a variation of this list in the actual tournament. FCS on OGP is an odd choice, but in most of my games OGP seems to survive and fire a lot (I use Vader sparringly, on shieldless targets), so 3-4 rounds with FCS seems to be worth it. I also keep the target lock even if I stress the shuttle with a hard 2, which is a big plus.
I didn't take this list because I played with it in a small store championship one day before the big tournament and I lost as soon as I got tired. It's not a forgiving list, each pilot must give his very best, you must be a bit lucky to not have Soontir die in one shot, etc.

I also heard in the small store championship that Falcons with C-3PO might not be so popular, so I was encouraged to play a Phantom list. I took an Echo mini-swarm, which is a list I'm very comfortable with and have lots of fun playing. I prefer Echo over Whisper because of the added maneuverability.

Echo + VI + FCS + Gunner + ACD
Howlrunner + Stealth
3 Academy Ties

Echo's load-out is specifically made to deal with high-agility targets and to mitigate any disastrous rolls.  I also use Gunner to make long-range shots possible, shooting with the Phantom from far away, preferably from behind an asteroid as well. I apply this tactic whenever I expect return fire (especially return fire from high PS) and it gives me the additional green dice to survive a lot of the times. Echo doesn't die prematurely this way.


Round 1 was a bye from the Regionals. I thought it would give me time to take some pictures, see the lists, be less tired   when it counted, etc. In the end, I don't think it was such a good idea. A bye is 150 points, which in a tournament with no elimination rounds means you don't make *any* cut or tie-breaker.

1-0

Round 2 was against the player that had to take a bye as well because of me. Sorry man.

Chewbacca + Ptl + Gunner + NN + MF
Gold Squadron Pilot + ICT
Rookie Pilot + R2-D2

The first game was rather bumpy. We set up asteroids on a diagonal of 4, with 2 in opposing corners (think % sign). I take my left corner with my Ties, Phantom middle left, he takes the opposite one. I'm betting for him to go forward, so I turn in with all Ties towards him and try to cross the asteroid belt with the Phantom. He tells me he's a new player, and I immediately start making mistakes (either I relaxed or I instinctively "went easy"). Second round of movement I bank my fighters and the first one bumps a bit on the phantom such that they all bump. His fighters were still away, Chewie going straight and the Rookie with the Y-wing slowly banking. Of course Echo is good with navigating asteroid fields, but she still missed the next turn of shooting. Asteroid placement further delays Echo's voyage. I exchange fire with only my Ties, not taking much damage but slowly chipping away at his ships. After 2-3 rounds of shooting in open space left by the diagonal, he's at 1hull with the Rookie and no shields on the Gold pilot, Chewie untouched. His Rookie is facing away from the battle. I lost no ships until this point so I'm feeling confident and I bring in the Phantom closer (usually it was out of range of the Ion Cannon).

At this point they call 15 minutes and I realize I've been wasting a lot of time, either casually talking to my opponent or taking my time to do my actions. I proceed to go for Chewbacca, because the Rookie was too far away already and the Gold squadron alone wouldn't be enough to win if he destroyed one my damaged Ties. Then the worst thing happened: I bumped the Phantom into his Chewbacca. No shooting, no cloak! He proceeds to take out Howlrunner. Next turn, I bump again (not having the space to K-turn the Phantom). He takes out an Academy. I use Echo to take out the Gold squadron, but I still can't shoot Chewie. I don't even think Chewbacca and Echo ever exchanged fire, but he was on low hp due to constant fire from the Academies. They call again for time, 2 minutes. At this point, I have to give him credit. All he wanted to do was play the game. I did too, but as casually as I had played that game, I still wanted to win if possible. His rookie re-entered the fight, and this time I had a shot on him with Echo. I took him out, it was the last game round.  I won by 15 points. Chewbacca still had 4-5 HP.

2-0

I had two wins, but I felt as if I had lost two games. My next opponent had a Whisper mini-swarm

Whisper + VI + RC + ACD
5x Academy Pilots

He had 100 points. I lost this game before we even placed ships. I chose to give him initiative. I don't know what I was thinking, I never had any swarm vs. swarm games. My motivation was that I could see what his swarm was doing and make small adjustments with barrel roll, but this wasn't the case. Having actions is immensely more important in the first range 1 exchange.

He set up in the middle with the Ties, his Whisper in the left, while I was 1in the middle with my Echo and on the right with my Ties. My plan was to avoid Whisper's firing arc with Echo as much as possible, and taking out Ties. I would also take whatever chance I had at shooting at Whisper, preferrably with Howlrunner before Echo. I would not take stress on Echo no matter what.

We met in the middle and he couldn't engage anything with Whisper for a while. Because my Ties were bumping and his were not, my formation lost coherence and I couldn't get concentrated shots on anything. Howlrunner dropped quickly. Echo was shooting from range 3 (his side basically) at Ties, doing 1 damage every time, not triggering Gunner at all. I only managed to kill one Tie when time was called, he killed enough for a full win in the final minutes (Echo + 2 Ties, previously he had only killed Howlrunner, 21-12 would have been a modified win).


2-1

I was pretty demoralized after this loss, I did my best but my original mistake cost me too much. I was 2-1, but no real victories. So I wasn't looking forward to my next game, which was

Han Solo + PtL + NN + Gunner + EU + MF
3x Tala Squadron Pilot

Every Phantom player's nightmare. Similar asteroid set-up, but not because of me. I set myself up the same, he deploys the Falcon in opposite corner, Talas in the middle. This time I position properly and on the second round the Ties cross paths with the Phantom perfectly, as it goes to shoot the Talas. My plan is to keep the Talas occupied with the Phantom (hopefully out of Han's range, or at least at range 3 behind an asteroid).

I exchange fire Han-Ties and Echo-Talas. Minor damage on the Ties, 3 shields off Han and 2 shields off a Tala. Han's against an asteroid wall and I know he wants to start shooting the phantom, so he's likely to go 3-4 forward to go over my Ties. I 3-bank with one Tie to block that and proceed head-first with the rest. It's not as potent as with a full-swarm, since out of 4 ties, 1 is facing another direction, 1 is bumped into Han, and I'm left with shooting Howlrunner and an Academy (albeit at range 1). Echo was tucked behind an asteroid at range 3, shooting at Talas, so Han decided to go for the range 1 attack. 3 Hits. I roll 1 evade two focus. Should I evade Gunner by taking two damage? Seems abrupt. I use the focus, he kills Howlrunner with the Gunner extra attack. The Tala only takes one critical (so much for using my Gunner): Stunned pilot, he'll be dead on the next round.

The following round I 4k and 3k with my two Ties and go forward with my out-of-formation blocker (blocking the Tala so he dies). Han banks to go for Echo, then boosts. Echo is moving further away, range 3 behind asteroid, Han is starting to take damage. The next round Han manages a range 2 attack through an asteroid, and he strips only one shield (which I could evade, but I didn't want to trigger Gunner, a no-brainer). Return fire is not so great for him, he takes a Damaged Sensor Array (no action bar - including EU and MF). He's also on 2 HP, but his Talas are trying to mop up the ties (the blocker Tie has agility -1) I disengage Echo and end up taking out the Tala which had range 1 shot on my Ties. The third Tala also drops that round and he concedes.

3-1

The previous game gave me confidence and personal satisfaction, I could have gone home that instant and be happy that I won against a Han Solo + 3 Tala, which I wasn't confident that I could do. I was facing

Ibtisam + SW
Roark Garnet + Blaster Turret + Recon Specialist
2x Blue Squadron Pilots

This list was straightforward, but dangerous. Two ships shooting at PS12 is no laughing matter. We deployed in opposite corners with all our ships and met in the center. Roark was further away, but Echo was in formation. I thought I could spare one frontal attack before I starting flanking with Echo.

I lost one shield, but a B-wing dropped that turn. The next turn all his B-wings bumped (no place for K-turning) and I was where I am most comfortable, behind an asteroid shooting Echo at range 3. The next turn his B-wings went after Echo. Two of my Ties turned, the other two (with Howlrunner) went after Roark. Echo disengaged and ended up behind the B-wings, facing away, shooting at Roark at range 3. Roark went down in a single round of shooting from Echo, Howlrunner and a range 1 Academy Pilot, then every ship turned to face the B-wings. One of his B-wings was on an asteroid, but that hardly mattered, because I was at almost full HP on my ships, what followed was a botched mop-up (I forgot not one, but TWO dials in one turn), but I took the full win.

4-1

My next opponent had a double Phantom.

Whisper + VI + FCS + ACD
Echo + VI + IA + ACD
2 Academy Pilots

I had no idea what to expect from a list like this, or what weakness I could exploit with an inferior-PS phantom and Tie Fighters. The asteroids left an open space in the middle, where we met. He had set up in the middle, I on the right side. I avoided his Whisper with my Echo like crazy, but since I had initiative he had to avoid my Echo with his Echo as well.

I started blocking decloak paths for Whisper, so that he couldn't get good shots at Echo. I lost Howlrunner in the round she successfully blocked a decloak path of Whisper. Karma i guess. We continued dancing around, me trying my best to avoid Whisper fire, him trying to get me, all around our academy pilots.

He made one mistake (1 hard right instead of 1 hard left) with his Echo, and he chose to barrel roll out of range of my Echo, towards the edge of the map. He exchanged a round of fire for another, because the next turn he could only 1 hard right to not get off the map, and I was at range 1 again. He took evade (don't know why not cloak - maybe fearing the green dice?). I rolled 2 eyes, but used Gunner to attack again. 5 hits. He rolled 2 more evades. I took two shields off.  He made another bank maneuver the following round, and tried to escape, but couldn't barrel roll out of my firing arc because of an asteroid, so he evaded again. Time was called, this was the last round. I had a vague notion that time was almost up, so I was going after Echo with persistence, while keeping his Whisper occupied by blocking decloaks with my remaining two Ties. He was apparently not aware of the time limitation, so it caught him off-guard.

I took Echo out, but he still had a range 1 shot on one of my Academy pilots with one of his. He rolled three focus (he had a focus token). I had one damage. I had to roll two natural evades. I got none. The game ended with me getting a modified win by 3 points. This was a list that would have been very difficult for me to kill outright, but I won on time. This is a new notion for me, since this was only my third tournament.

5-1

I ended up with 5th place because of my modified win. My only loss was against the champion, which I can easily disregard . I might even have gone different if I didn't choose initiative, at least I would have killed more than a single Tie Fighter. The biggest prize was getting good games against good opponents (excepting the bye and the first game, where I  played miserably) and holding my own. It was also very interesting to see all these new lists. I had heard of Whisper + 5, but it's a beast to see in person. The OGP + 6 was also very intimidating.

I still think my list is fun to play with Gunner and FCS, but I can understand why some people would choose a different load-out. The phantoms I played against go for the range 1 kill, but they have turns where they don't shoot anything but are shot at. If I stick at range 3 with TL+focus, I will get constant but high enough damage output and I can often risk to use a focus on attack. I am seriously considering giving Howlrunner Swarm Tactics, since I can shoot a damaged Tie that might not make it to shoot that round. Stealth Device is about 50% efficient, sometimes it doesn't really matter that you had one extra die, Howlrunner is still dead.

I'm also glad that I brought along my girlfriend to play. She had fun despite being a very tiring event. She ran:

Etahn A'baht
Blue Squadron Pilot + FCS
2 x Blue Squadron Bilot

She had a few very close games and one full win, which is very good considering this was a premiere event, people who showed up probably play much more than she has (so far :) )

More pictures in a Google+ Album

The loot included an acrylic range ruler, target lock tokens and an Alternate Art Chewbacca pilot card.
 

In the end I had lots of fun and hope to play these guys again. Fly Casual!

Romanian Regionals 2014

On the 20th of July 2014 Wargames Store in Bucharest organized the first X-wing tournament in Romania (Regional tournament). This is a retelling of events as I remember them.

 I was used to only playing 1 friend regularly who also bought in, the other were just people from our gaming group coaxed into playing :). I was excited to be able to test my skills.

One week before the tournament wave 4 arrived and we found out it was legal, so we tried the new ships. My go-to list at the time had Krassis with Heavy Laser Cannon and Howlrunner miniswarm, so I was excited to swap out Krassis with the new Phantom. I still remember flying it off the map in my first game on the second turn, because I missjudged how far a 2-bank decloak takes you. My friend went with Etahn and 3 B-wings, and we proceeded to do some training matches, which went extremely well. Echo seemed like a difficult ship to fly, but rewarding so I also spent quite some time familiarizing myself with the decloak paths. I would just drop some asteroids on the table, and decloak-move all around. Nowadays you can train with Echolocation, just pick a place on the map and try to get the best firing solution on it with a decloak and a maneuver.

The turnout for the tournament was smaller than I expected, only 9 people showed up, and I got a bye in the first round. Oh well, first tournament! The tournament was 4 rounds of swiss with a top 4 cut, so there would be plenty of games to be played. I had plenty of time to see the other lists and take lots of pictures. There was plenty of diversity, no two lists were alike. Unfortunately, I was too focused to take pictures while playing, so most of them are from the first round.

My first opponent had Soontir, Carnor and Turr Phenir. Since I had initiative, only Soontir would shoot before me. I lured him with Echo (shooting from behind an asteroid). As he approached, I moved sideways and charged with my Ties. One interceptor bumped took 3 range 1 shots, another was killed by Echo.

My second opponent was my friend with 3B's and Etahn. Turns out he was the only one who didn't outbid me on PS. We met with Ties charging on him near the edge of the map, Echo flying a bit behind, shooting from behind asteroids. I lost two ties and almost lost Echo to a mistake, but I emerged victorious.

I played my third opponent twice, once in the last swiss round and once in the top4. He had Wedge with Swarm tactics and R2-D2, a Gold squadron Ion and 2 Rookies. My plan was to take out Wedge with the Ties in a frontal assault, while Echo shot from afar or out of arc. In the first game he had a range 3 PS9 shot on Echo, in the other game he didn't. Both games played out fairly similarly, with my Ties getting a good engagement in the first round of combat. In one of the games he managed to Ion the Phantom and bring it down to 1 Hull, but he couldn't kill it.

In the finals I faced a list with Corran Horn + PtL + FCS, 2 Rookies, 1 Gold. For some reason we either rolled for Initiative or i gave him initiative, fact which I can't explain. A regrettable decision, if that was indeed the case. Perhaps I thought moving after Corran would give me a better advantage than shooting before him. I setup on a long winding path to either split his forces or flank, while Echo went in the middle as bait. The two Rookies and the Y (which had no turret) engaged the Fighters, dealing a lot of damage in the first few rounds. Meanwhile, Echo was letting Corran chase her. As the Ties weren't doing well on their own, I decided to help them with Echo. Corran was at least 1 turn away from the fight as the Ties with the help of Echo finally managed to kill the Rookies and the Gold squadron. I remember that at this point my opponent resigned.

More pictures on Google+