Stalwart Space Marine
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I participated in the X-Wing Regional Tournament in Plano, TX at Madness Games and let me just say, the store is named well because the tournament was truly “madness” in a good way.
I have never participated in any type of competitive tournament for any game and I’ve only played about 12 games of X-Wing total, but for some odd reason I was hopeful that I would do well. I’m an eternal optimist.
The setup at Madness was seven 75 minute games with five minute breaks between each game (no lunch breaks and if you weren’t at the table playing your game in that five minutes you received a match loss. See, “madness.”). The top eight would then get to duke it out for the coveted Regional Champion trophy. Top 32 players win a custom X-Wing game mat. Surely I can finish in the top 32, right?
Now I’m a big Z-95 fan from back in my XvT days, so I decided to run a list that included three of them. I just love doing well with the underdog. So my list is as follows:
Etahn with Predator
Biggs with R5 Astromech
Tala Squadron Pilot x3
The idea was to crank out crits to mess up whatever special abilities my opponents were running. However, in order for this list to work, you have to roll hits for Etahn to convert.
Game 1
Whisper with VI, ACD and something else
Echo with VI, Recon Spec, ACD, FCS
Dark Curse
I deployed in the far right corner with 3 Zs in front and Biggs and Etahn behind in formation. My opponent deploys Whisper and Echo in the left corner and Dark Curse in the right corner directly across from my formation. Now a veteran X-Wing player would have blasted forward and taken the free points that was Dark Curse that my opponent had given me, and I even thought about it as my opening move was four straight for my formation, but after opening moves I realized that if I banked 3 left, my entire formation would be going head on with two cloaked Phantoms. I have never played against the Phantom before and I thought what the heck, lets see what these guys are made of. Mistake. My entire formation fired into Echo only to take off two shields. The rest of the game my opponent danced around my formation and picked me apart. I conceded at the 10 minute mark in order to have more time to get to the next game. Lesson learned: Phantoms are evil and if your opponent give you a free 16 points (AKA Dark Curse) you take it and move on.
Game 2
PS 2 TIE Bomber (x2) with proton torpedoes and seismic charge
PS 6 TIE Defender (Can’t remember pilots name)
Backstabber
I set up in the far left corner this time, in formation, and my opponent set up his Bombers in the middle with his Defender and deployed Backstabber on my extreme right flank. He would come back to haunt me. He decided to joust with me and I was OK with that. Since his Bombers moved before me he was not able to get his target locks to use his torpedoes on the first pass, but all my ships put target locks on his closest bomber to make sure it dies this turn. His Defender fires and does nothing to Biggs. Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station! Muwahahahaha! Five target locks later and his bomber is completely unscathed. Thanks Lady Luck. I then make a tactical error and he drops his bombs and my entire formation takes on damage. In the end I take out one bomber and drop the shields on the Defender. I played right into his hands and Backstabber makes me pay dearly. I concede at the 10 minute mark in order to make my next game on time. I really played right into this guys hands. I probably should have broken formation to avoid the bombs. Oh well, 0-2, but if I win out, I can still get that mat…
Game 3
Bounty Hunter
Academy TIE x2
Phantom of some kind, Echo maybe?
I set up in formation in the far right corner. He sets up BH and Academy TIEs directly across from me and Phantom on far left flank. Again, a lesson in target priority. If you have the opportunity to kill a TIE or two, you should probably do it. I, however, got greedy and shot at the BH in the first pass. I blew through its shields and put two crits on it in the first pass, and that was all I would end up doing for the rest of the game. Between my dice and his expert maneuvering, he slowly whittled me down. I conceded in order to pack up and move on to the next table with plenty of time. 0-3. Still, if I win out, I could get that mat.
Game 4
Soontir Fel with Stealth Device, PtL
Carnor Jax with Stealth Device, PtL
Winged Gundark
Dark Curse with Stealth Device
This game was against my buddy that I drove to the tournament with. This was an unfortunate matchup, as it meant that after this game, one of us would have four losses and not even my optimism could hope for a chance at a mat at 0-4. I deployed in the left corner and he deployed in the middle. He came straight at me with the intention of getting Jax all up in my business. I took out Jax early, which really hurt him. That, and his dice were terrible. Now my dice weren’t that great this game, but his were just atrocious. He was losing Stealth Devices on range 3 shots. It was bad. Long story short, I walked away the winner on this one, but needless to say it was a bittersweet victory. So, 1-3. Was this the turning point? Was I about to win my next three games and take home a mat? I certainly thought so.
Game 5
Six named TIEs with no upgrades that I remember
I deployed in the far right corner in formation. He split his swarm with Dark Curse, Howlrunner and Winged Gundark directly across from me and deployed Backstabber, Mauler Mithel and the other PS 5 named TIE whose name escapes me as I write this in the far left corner. Having learned from my previous mistakes, I jumped on the three TIEs directly in front of me. After the first pass I had destroyed Dark Curse and put a crit on Howlrunner that dropped her to PS 0. My dice were on fire this game. I could literally do no wrong. My opponent’s dice however were not as kind. I think he took out Biggs and a Z-95. I was able to destroy his last TIE as time was called. 2-3! I was on the comeback trail and my hot dice were a testament to that fact! Oh, yes! That mat was as good as mine!
Game 6
Royal Guard Pilot (x2) with Hull Upgrade and targeting computer
TIE Defender
I don’t really remember the setup for this one, I just remember we ended up duking it out in the middle of the map. Now I know I shouldn’t blame dice for losing a game and I’m not saying that my opponent didn’t play an excellent game, but I was lining up shots on those Interceptors and my dice just weren’t getting it done. Very frustrating game from a dice perspective. I think my opponent, super nice guy by the way, noticed my frustration and even asked if he could buy me a soda after the game. Anyways, I put three damage on each Interceptor, but just couldn’t finish the job. The hull upgrades were genius. I ended up getting tabled chasing those Interceptors around the table. So at 2-4, my optimist balloon popped and I fell back to reality. No mat.
Game 7
ORS with APL and the card that lets you look at maneuver dial
Wedge with R2D2
Ibtisam
I set up in the left corner and he set up in the middle/right. He told me straight up that all his ORS did was bump stuff for APL. At this point I was pretty bummed and just moved my ships around. Ended up taking off the shields on the ORS and putting 4 damage on it. Took two shields off Wedge and took one shield off of Ibtisam. I ended up getting tabled. Looking back I realized I should have ignored the ORS and taken out Wedge first followed by Ibtisam, but I wasn’t really feeling it this game anyway.
So all in all, I went 2-5 at my first X-Wing tournament. I finished 62 out of 66. I learned a lot of lessons and now I know what type of environment to expect at my next X-Wing tournament. Madness Games did a great job with the organization of the tournament. My only complaint was the short 5 minute breaks between games, but I understood why they did that because the championship game did not end until midnight and the day had started at 10AM! That’s a long time to play X-Wing! Even though I got my butt kicked five times, I still love X-Wing and want to play in another regional next year (maybe one that isn’t five hours away though). I must redeem my terrible performance! Hope you enjoyed the read and as always, fly casual.
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FOW Player
Frisco, TX
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It truly was an awesome event. Last year's Regionals I went to had all of 8 people, so 9x as many was a huge shock to the system.
I took
Rexler w/ Predator, Ion
Soontir w/ Push the Limit, Hull
Omicron w/ Vader
I went 5-2, cracking the top 8 thanks to my strength of schedule (only lost to the eventual 3rd and 4th places). Full battle reports will come up in the next episode of The Kessel Run (shameless self promotion).
Really like your set up, Biggs, Etahn and 3 Zs is something I want to try out. Great job on the batreps, sorry to hear you had a rough go of it. But really, 7 games of X-Wing in one day, how can you go wrong?
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