We have a Store Championship Battle Report from Kyle Sellner’s run at Sparta Games in Omaha, shortly after the release of Wave 11. He’s got some great insight on all of the new items. Enjoy!
This store championship was going to be interesting. It was a different city with likely a different meta and wave 11 had just released two days prior. So I wanted to fly something familiar. My list was this:
Now, the Veteran Instincts on Tomax is a bit unusual as it doesn’t take advantage of his pilot ability. I really debated on whether to use Crack Shot or VI. If I went the crack shot route, I would have had to put Targeting Synchronizer on Quickdraw in order for Tomax to get his locks on all of the PS 9 ships that I was anticipating encountering (see Rau, Fenn). I decided that Pattern Analyzer was better because once Tomax died, the synchronizer would be useless and I wanted to make sure QD could get his actions after slooping or flying across debris. So I went with a triple PS10, light alpha, late game build. Tomax to hit hard up front with his Homing Missiles, QD to hopefully mess with my opponent’s target priority, and Darth Vader to focus/evade every turn.
I am probably forgetting a few upgrade cards here and there, but I did note the general builds of what I flew against. Enjoy!
Match 1; Quinn.
Major Stridan Upsilon Shuttle with Inspiring Recruit, Systems Officer, Fire Control System. Omega Leader with Juke and Comm Relay. Quickdraw with Rage, Pattern Analyzer, Electronic Baffle.
I gave him initiative as he was at 100 points, although it didn’t really matter (other than his QD had to deploy first before my vader and QD could adapt up to 10). He set up top left, so I set up bottom right. My plan was to have Vader go max speed up the side to flank while QD and Tomax banked in to hopefully alpha a ship off the board.
Unfortunately, this is where my ships at PS 10 actually hurt me. He could move his QD, then rage/baffle the stress and with Stridan would clear both of them and shoot at my ships before I could get any tokens for defense. There were two occasions where he would make maneuvers which didn’t allow for his ships to get shots off on me, but also avoided a QD return fire, so I only got to use QD’s ability one time before his shields were gone. I also didn’t read the FAQ carefully enough because I thought Vader could add the crit against Omega Leader (as it says you’re adding a result) but the FAQ specifically says you can’t ATC against OL which I still struggle with the logic behind it.
Oh well, that was a goof on my part and was only part of the reason I lost. His QD being able to shoot at my ships knowing where I was and before tokens was HUGE.
I got half points on Stridan, for a 100-19 loss.
Match 2; Darrin.
Three Blue T-70s (one with BB8, one with R5-X3, one naked) and Sabine with VI, EMP Device, Captured TIE.
With my PS 10, the captured TIE title was useless and I was licking my chops. This was the kind of list I was hoping to see. If I flew it right, I could get one ship off the board in the opening engagement before any return fire happened.
He set up top left, me bottom right. My plan was to 4-straight before turning in at the middle of the board. He did fast straights and boosted to try and get behind me. Opening engagement took place pretty much in the middle of the board. Tomax’s homing missle along with Vader’s crits did their thing and I was able to get two of the T-70s off the board.
He then decided to cut his losses and ran away. Spent the rest of the match chasing down the remaining two ships but couldn’t get either to zero. He had a key EMP pop that caused my ship to not be able to turn around right as time was called.
I won 52-0 and still had shields left on both QD and Vader.
Match 3; A.J.
Chewbacca (TFA) with Rage, Inspiring Recruit, Countermeasures, Ezra crew. Biggs with Integrated Astromech and R4-D6, and two naked Z-95s.
His list was a real challenge as far as target priority goes—you want to get Chewie off the board quick, but those two Z’s are easy targets. But if you kill the Z’s, chewie gets to shoot when they are removed. Quick side note, for his rage token, he had a really cool mini Chewie statue.
He set up top left, me bottom right. He made the mistake of putting his Biggs and Z’s on the outside of Chewie which ended up hurting him in the opening engagement. When we engaged, his Z’s and Biggs were BEHIND Chewie and I was at range 3. So I could get three shots into Chewie without having to fire at Biggs and without suffering return fire from his supporting ships. I unloaded into Chewie and stripped his shields. He fired back at Tomax, Range 3 obstructed. He had hit/hit/crit and I rolled FOUR BLANKS. The crit resulted in a PS 0 Tomax. Ugh. I was able to get out of arc of his Z’s and my QD fit perfectly inside a small gap between Chewie and Biggs. Range 1 front and back shots on both. It was beautiful. He chose NOT to fire at QD which was smart. He then fired a range 1 obstructed raged shot on Vader and he had four hits. I had performed a K-turn with Vader to keep the damage onto Chewie so I didn’t have any tokens. He has three hits and a crit and I roll two blanks and two eyeballs. Shields gone and the crit was, you guessed it, a Direct Hit. Dead vader. I almost threw my green dice away….
Tomax was still alive through some miracle so I had a full health QD and a 1 health Tomax. Tomax got his second Homing Missile off which finished Chewie. One of his Z’s finally finished off Tomax. I had a full health QD against two naked Z’s. My green dice finally decided to start rolling evades when I didn’t want them to. I got exactly ZERO QD return shots the rest of the match but with PA and FCS, was able to get the last two ships.
Won 100-64.
Match 4; David Hintz
Dengar with Prox Mines, some torpedoes, expertise, Cad Bane, Guidance Chips. Captain Nym with VI, Cruise Missiles, Bomblet Generator, Advanced Sensors, Guidance Chips, Twin Laser Turret, Havoc.
As always happens, two Des Moines guys were paired up. David’s list was less than my 99 points (I think it was 97?) so he gave me initiative. That would mean his Nym could do all kinds of bad stuff knowing where my ships would be). I was nervous about this match. All of those bombs. But his Dengar was moving first and shooting last (that’s what you get when Alpha Wing is a thing!). I set up bottom left, he top right but set to move along the bottom horizontal board edge. I moved up along the vertical edge and he turned to meet me.
Opening engagement, he moved Dengar and did a barrel roll to hopefully stay out of range. Tomax did a 2 straight and was JUUUUST in range 3 so I could get a homing missile off. I wasn’t nervous about the return fire because he didn’t have the title on Dengar. I set up a kill box on my next turn—Tomax and QD had range 1 shots on Dengar and only QD was in Dengar’s arc. Vader tossed a couple shots at Nym and Tomax/QD blasted into Dengar. David decided not to return fire with Dengar at QD. But he shot QD with Nym and he admitted that he forget that QD could shoot ANYONE with his return shot. QD lost a shield and then took Dengar off the board.
I had a mostly full health squad against his mostly full Nym. The combination of TLT, cruise missiles, and bombs did a lot of damage against my squad. Vader was off the board. With Nym, being able to drop a bomb, then Advanced Sensor for a Target Lock to do a 3-Talon Roll and fire off a cruise missile is NASTY. He can just pump out SO MUCH DAMAGE. The threat of bombs meant I had to stay at range 3.
The penultimate moment happened when I had Nym cornered with QD and Tomax. In desperation, he flew Nym right between QD and Tomax who would both have range 1 shots on him, and dropped a bomb. I rolled FOUR BLANKS on the red dice. QD and Tomax took their range 1 shots and finished off Nym. Won 100-30. This was the one match where having Tomax at PS 10 was HUGE. Being able to see where Dengar was really made the difference. Scum Nym is an absolute beast and will just eat up imperial ace lists.
Won 100-30.
Match 5; Leighton
Dash Rendar with the usual kit of Heavy Laser Cannon, Outrider, Engine Upgrade, Kanan crew. Rebel Nym with Adaptability, Bomblet Generator, TLT, Advanced Sensors, Havoc.
If I win this match, I have a prayer of making the top 8 cut. I was at 12th position, but my MOV with the other people at 3-1 wasn’t great. I even said to my opponent (who had the regional cut orange templates and a full set of store championship range rulers) that I was hoping to make the cut to grab a ruler. However, the list he had was about the worst possible list I could imagine. Dash can just move SO FAST and Nym with his TLT and bombs was going to prove a challenge. Even though I had PS advantage, it wasn’t going to matter. Turns out I was right. This match went about as badly as it could have. Even with repositioning, I just couldn’t get Dash pinned down and Nym’s TLT proved too much.
Big time loss at 0-100.
I finished the day at 18 or 19 (I can’t remember) out of 45. Not too shabby. Obviously I wanted to get a range ruler, but I was also tired and hot (we were in the basement of the shop and it did not have AC. But thankfully they sell beer). I was fine heading home after a long day.
I saw exactly zero Fenn Rau’s but a truckload of Nym’s were on the tables. I saw ZERO TIE aggressors. The PS 10 Tomax was only helpful in one match and only against a single Dengar. As awesome as guidance chips are, the LWF is just SO useful. I’d consider going crack shot on Tomax and instead of homing missiles, going cruise missiles and a bomb. But the list was tough. My opponent’s target priority was a bit of a challenge and it could really pump out some damage when it needed to.
Overall it was fun. And I didn’t come away empty handed. I won in the raffle a nice set of Sparta (where we game) templates which are bad ass looking. The range rulers are Spartan spears 🙂
Thanks for the report Kyle! You can find Kyle at Des Moines Area X-wing game nights testing out his latest list or just painting up some amazing looking ships!
Des Moines Area X-wing 