X-Wing Store Championship

Edit…I wrote this a few weeks ago but did not get to post till now.

This past Sunday, I was able to play in a X-Wing store championship tournament. I had participated in one of these before a few years ago. As I feel I really don’t get enough games of X-Wing in to win, it is fun to enter these tournaments. I actually heard about this tournament from a fellow X-Wing player and was able to get in as the third person on the wait list.

When I showed up, I guess a few people were not able to make it so all the alternates who were there were able to participate. I was really excited. Leading up to the tournament, I didn’t know what I was going to fly. I don’t like to fly the standard meta lists. I’m most familiar with an Asajj, Palob Syndicate Thug Scum list that I usually fly without Attani. I’ve recently tested switching the Syndicate out with N’Dru and missiles that seemed to do well. I also thought about flying a RAC/Ryad list that I usually test my lists out with. The last few days, I was playing around with Hotshot Co-Pilot and really liked it as I thought it would do well against the meta Parattani lists. In the end, I went with Rebel, two ship build with Han Solo and Poe Dameron.

The tournament started at 11 AM and was going to go five rounds with a cut to top four. My first opponent was running a Shuttle, Palp, Whisper and Omega Leader Empire list. I knew I had to take down Whisper or he would just destroy my list. I put Han Straight on with the Shuttle. I made a couple grave mistakes in the beginning. My plan was to bump the shuttle with Han and use Hotshot with Baze to strip Omega and Whisper’s tokens and then get in some hits with Poe. My four straight brought me less then half an inch in front of the shuttle. At this point I was at range one of Whisper as well. Perhaps I should have decided to change targets to the shuttle at this point with it’s low agility and take out the Palpatine ability but went with my original strategy. The second mistake that I made was that I won the initiative bid at 99 point to his 100 but gave him initiative so he would have to move Whisper before my Poe. This was good but in the end, really bad for me as after Han shot at Whisper and removed his tokens, Whisper shot before Poe so she got her focus back. Now my Poe had to shot at a ship with focus. After the first few rounds of shooting I took one shield off of Whisper and Poe went down. At this point it was a lost cause so I switched my target to the shuttle to try and get half points to help my MOV. The final outcome was a lost cause already so I made a daring move to try and get position but flew Han off the board. 0-100. This person went on to take top four in the tournament.

Ok. Game two. My opponent was flying a Scum list with two contracted scouts loaded with torpedoes and Fen all with attani. In this game I was able to get in some range three shots on one of his scouts with no damage on me. I then used the Black One title to strip his target lock and got into range one so no torpedoes could be shot. The next few rounds included a lot of bumping, getting Fen down to one hull and spreading damage on the other scouts. Two range one shots on Fen with Han rolling one hit with Han re-rolling into zero hits. Poe rolling one focus out of seven defensive and offensive rolls. Then his Fen pulled out of engagement and my Poe K-Turned at a range two scout and a range three. Poe went down and I took a crit on Han reducing his pilot skill to zero. In the last round my opponent was finally able to shot off one of the scouts torpedoes and took Han out. 17-100. I don’t feel like I made any major mistakes in this game and felt it could have gone either way. I just took the wrong crit and rolled bad to not take Fen out.

Ohhhkay. Game three. My opponent was flying a Empire infinite crack Tomax, Vessery and I think it was Backdraft. I was able to use engine upgrade on Han to get on the back side of Backdraft and he went down pretty quick. I was then also able to strip the shields off of Vessery. I think I engaged my opponent a little bit earlier then they though I would have due to engine upgrade so Tomax was out of position for most of the game. Vessery was out of position and turned out of combat just when I decided to change targets to Tomax. Tomax went down. Then I went head to head with Han vs. Vessery as Poe was out of position at this point. Han got in no damage and Vessery shot up Han. When Vessery came around again, Poe was able to help Han out with the win. 100-29.

Game four. My opponent was flying a jank scum list. Two jaku gunrunners with tractor array, Moralo with HLC and I think it was a new scyk from the C-Roc. Here I was able to lay the hurt down on one gunrunner getting him down to one hull left and a few crits. Then his list did it’s thing and tractor beamed my Poe. Luckily it wasn’t onto a rock as I was trying to stay as far away from them as possible. The way I was positioned, I was able to BB-8 barrel roll in an unexpected direction and got into range one of Moralo. But of course I forgot that Moralo doesn’t have to use HLC and can use main cannon which is actually more effective at range one. Poe’s shields were stripped but was finally able to get behind Moralo. Just as this was Happening Han got tractor beamed and lost his one agility and got hammered. Then Poe got tractor beamed again. This time, I misjudged my distance and BB-8 barrel rolled the wrong way. My move landed me on a rock at range one of Moralo and two of his other gunrunner. Lucky for me, Han shoots first at his pilot skill of 11 thanks to Veteran Instincts and takes out Moralo. Then Poe double evades his gunrunner. A series of intentional bumps occur on my part as Han’s hull is getting low and taking some shots on the gunrunner. Then, my opponent guesses I am going to K-Turn but I just turned and get into range one of his one hull gunrunner and Poe finishes it. At this point, time is called and I get the win. 82-29.

Game five. Now I am 2-2 and know I can’t get top four but maybe a winning record. My opponent is playing Empire. Shuttle with Palp, Backdraft and Quickdraw. I plan to target the shuttle this time as my opponent is not playing any arc dodgers. The shuttle goes down. But, this is the first time that my opponent has targeted Han first. Han goes down in the next round and there is Veteran Instincts on both Backdraft and Quickdraw so Poe has to move first. Not good. I get in some side shots on Quickdraw as I anticipate his move but Quickdraw is left with one shield. Then I guess wrong and am range two of Quickdraw and in Backdraft’s rear arc.

Though I didn’t win, I had a blast playing this list. The top four ended up being the Empire list I faced first and three forms of paratanni.