We’ve got another great article from Paul Olson about his run at the X-wing National Championship this weekend. Paul is a former Des Moines X-wing player who transplanted to Minneapolis to spread the joy of X-wing (or I guess for work, whatever).
Call me Paul “0-1”son
Gen Con 50 is in the books as is the X Wing North American Championships. I somehow made it to the top 16 and had all my goals going in accomplished. I wanted to make day 2, MAYBE get my sweet painted ships on stream, and come home with some hardware. Everything else was just icing.
So what did I fly? As soon as I saw the Scurrg Bomber (specifically Nym as a pilot), I knew I wanted to fly it specifically decked out with the new Bomblet Generator and the “Genius” salvaged astromech. I figured end game, if you could intentionally bump your opponent for the rest of the game if it was the Scurrg v. anything else 1 on 1, you couldn’t lose. David Hintz and I started brainstorming a partner in crime for Nym with the qualifications that it had to be a ship that could be PS10 to match Nym, needed to have a crew slot for Cad Bane (as his ability works great with bomblet generator), and probably needed some type of ordnance for an alpha strike. The only pilot/ship to meet all those qualifications was Boba Fett/Firespray. I could go into more specifics on the other decisions made for the build, but for now, here is a link to the full list: https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Scum%20and%20Villainy&d=v4!s!253:27,135,126,241,-1,237,-1:53:25:U.43,u.117;116:27,-1,28,238,241,-1:1:25:U.126,U.-1&sn=NymFett&obs=
On to the tourney…
Day 1
Round 1 – 24-100 loss – PTL Assaj, Nym (Accuracy Corrector/Autoblaster/Bomblet), Quad
So first off, every single major tournament I have ever played in (regionals on up to worlds), I have started 0-1 (hence the title of this write up). I was hoping to break this cycle this go around, but it was not to be. I find I have a lot of first round jitters to get out and for whatever reason need a game to get “warmed up”. In the future, I think I’m going to try and play a game before the first round or the night before. My opponent flew very well and stressed out Boba with Assaj as soon as possible which made flying Boba difficult as he doesn’t have a lot of greens and he had action bombs. I flew Boba too close to the action in general and he didn’t do enough damage before dying for Nym to finish. It didn’t help Boba didn’t roll a single evade even with rerolls. I had a 2 point bid which turned out to be huge in several of my games, but even though I passed initiative so I could move my ps 10 ships last, it was just too much beef to chew through I think. He hung the Quad back the entire game as it was carrying Cad Bane and as a potential threat to Nym as he could tractor me onto a rock if I got too close. I targeted Nym first, but couldn’t do enough damage. I only got half points on Assaj. Good news is, even though I usually start 0-1, I typically bounce back, so I was still in good spirits. Now 0-1(son).
Round 2 – 100-0 win – Whisper, Juno, Omega Leader
I knew going into this matchup I had the advantage. Juno had Calculation as her EPT so I out PSed all of his ships. He didn’t range control very well and I was able to get a 5 dice Cruise Missile shot off on a tokenless Whisper (he tried barrel rolling to get out of range) and Whisper died before getting a single shot off. He target locked Nym with Omega Leader, so I got in close to Omega Leader with Boba, took a target lock, and then 4Ked the next turn to get another 5 dice cruise missile shot off on OL to kill him. Then it was clean up with Boba running away to make sure he didn’t get half points on him and Nym finishing off Juno. Now 1-1.
Round 3 – 100-0 win – Expertise Ketsu, Expertise Kath
Again, I out PSed both of his ships and knew if I got an alpha strike off, I’d be in good shape. The guy I was playing also looked like he was getting pretty sick and afterwards, he said he was mostly concentrating on not throwing up instead of the game. Very nice guy though and we had a good laugh about both brining Firesprays to this tourney. Again, he didn’t range control well and I got 2 5 dice cruise missile shots on Kath with only Kath shooting back and doing 1 damage to Boba. Next turn he hits a rock with Ketsu and I PS killed Kath. I get another 5 dice cruise missile shot with a 4K from Boba on Ketsu the following turn and he forfeited. This brings me to an important strategy I had going into the tourney though. Boba gets off a cruise missile shot in the initial engagement, slow rolls to get hopefully to range 1 which means his ability triggers and I’m getting a range 1 4 dice shot along with taking a target lock on someone, and then 4K to get another 5 dice shot that’s almost fully modded. For whatever reason, it seemed a pattern of people not seeing that coming. I’ll get into other strategies I had with Boba later. Now 2-1 with excellent MOV after 2 really big wins.
Round 4 – 100-25 win – Expertise Rey, Ghost (Fire Control System/Auto Blaster Turret)
I knew with the high MOV that I’d be playing towards the top of the 2-1’s. Now it was time to really buckle down. I flew against Gerry Russel this round (top 4 at Worlds this past year). I was a little intimidated to be flying against such a good player, but I was also excited for the challenge. I range controlled well and while Gerry didn’t let me get 5 dice missile shots off, I did get 2 4 dice cruise missile shots off on Rey. I focused on her first making sure to keep Nym out of her arc so I could TLT her to death. He focused on Boba first but this is where my second strategy with Boba came in. Usually you don’t want to bump with ships as you lose actions (which obviously isn’t good). However, with Boba, that means 1 ship isn’t firing at him that round, and yet, he is getting a defensive and offensive boost from the ship you bumped. My opponent was forced to either split fire or switch targets. Either way, that means I’m getting another round of fire with Boba the next round and hopefully getting to drop a Proximity Mine on whomever I bumped the following round. That’s exactly what I did and killed Rey with said Mine. He went on “Tilt” at that point as he knew the game was pretty much over. I ran Boba away until I needed to come back in for the kill shot and Nym kept TLTing or bumping and dropping a Bomblet to soften the Ghost up. I felt that was some of my best flying of the day. Now 3-1 again with excellent MOV.
Round 5 – 100-50 win – VI Engine Upgrade Rey, Expertise Vectored Thrusters Horton
I was pumped to make it to the “top” tables at this point (table 7 of 8 “top” tables). I knew Horton would be big problems for Nym late game as he was almost going to get 2 damage every round on Nym if he range controlled well so I made Horton my first target. I got 2 4 dice cruise missiles in on him which could have killed him in 1 shot, but my dice weren’t great and his dice were. It took another round to kill him, but I flew Boba in hard and he took the bait to make Boba his first target priority with Rey (Nym is my closer and can bump Rey to death). I got Rey down to 6 hull when Boba died and Nym had taken some damage. Rey got a crit with a bomblet which reduced her agility down 1 which meant my TLT shots were almost guaranteed to hit. I range controlled well with Nym and won with Nym having 2 HP left. Had I blanked out with my TLT shots that last round, I could have lost, but fortunately, I got 1 hit each shot. Now 4-1 and have now had a 4-0 run.
Round 6 – 48-100 loss – Bombing Miranda, TLT Engine Upgrade Nym
So quick backstory. My opponent I had seen earlier at Gen Con. The previous day we had both flown in an X Wing Hunger Games events (12 players and everyone is against everyone). He and I were the last 2 left in the event and I had beaten him. In my head I’m thinking I really hope I didn’t use up all my luck for a side event against this guy (super cool guy though and we had a good laugh that we got paired). But on to the game… We were both coming in at 98 points so the coin flip for initiative was going to be huge. I won the coin flip and passed initiative. Advantage me for sure. However, I made a big mistake early in range control and didn’t set up well so Boba couldn’t get a cruise missile off. I thought he might be bluffing setting up directly across planning on slamming Miranda closer thinking I was going to slow roll so I opened with a 4 straight with Boba but he was out of range and I knew in 2 turns I was going to be in trouble mines wise. I made Miranda my first target but as I knew, she got off a full cluster mine drop on Boba the next round which did a total of 4 damage (average) on Boba. Boba needed to survive one more round and Miranda needed to die 1 round earlier for me to get the advantage back in my favor, but the dice didn’t go my way. I traded Miranda for Boba but Nym had taken too much damage at that point and TLT trades and bomblet trades were not in my favor. He did a great job closing out, and I was kicking myself for my opening which ended up costing me the game. Now 4-2.
My MOV was good enough to make the cut to day 2 as I thought it would be, but because I lost my last game, I knew I’d have to win 3 games the next day to have a shot at the top 16.
Day 2
Round 7 – 100-48 win – Vader, Countdown, Academy TIE, Vessery X7
I was a little worried about this matchup as Vader was PS11 and Vessery can be really hard to kill not to mention he had a blocker with the TIE and Countdown can be a really good flanker and late game ship. I had a great range control opening and got 2 4 dice cruise missile shots on Vess. He took a total of 4 damage (including stunned pilot) which I was pleased with. He flanked with Vader, but he flew Countdown onto a rock trying to flank… twice… Countdown took damage both times from said rocks and I TLTed him for the kill. I could tell he was rattled. I killed his TIE the next round so it was almost a full health Nym and full heath Boba against a full health Vader. Easy finish right? Well, turns out, if you accidently fly Nym off the board, it becomes a closer game… I had Nym towards the far right side corner with Vader flanking. I knew he expected me to come back towards me, so I thought I’d be cute and go towards the other side using advanced sensors to barrel roll and hard 2 twice to stay on the board. I didn’t want to get up to check the other side to give away my plan, but I should have as had I done so, I think it would have been obvious there wasn’t enough room. I’m now kicking myself as that’s a big swing in my MOV (which could mean I don’t make top 16 even if I win out) not to mention he now has a chance to win if he gets Boba down to half points and we go to time. I flew Boba very well and I got lucky that he forgot about Boba’s cluster Mines. Vader had 2 health when I dropped a mine on his head predicting where he was going to be when we were in close. He rolled 1 hit, but I used Cad Bane and he rerolled into 2 hits. Even though I won, I was mad at myself for getting cute with Nym. Oh well, needed to shake it off and buckle down to get two more wins. Now 5-2.
Round 8 – 55-50 win – Expertise Dengar (no munitions), Accuracy Corrector Autoblaster Nym
This was a matchup I had practiced for as I figured this would be a popular list. My opening range control was okay (didn’t get a cruise missile off), but I made sure to not shoot at Dengar the opening engagement while I was in his arc while still getting shots on Nym in case I needed to clean him up later. He took the bait and went for Boba first and I knew if I killed Dengar, my Nym was worth more points than his and if I range controlled well end game, I had TLT and he didn’t so advantage me. He didn’t get a single revenge shot with Dengar the entire game and I dropped a Proximity mine on his Dengar to finish him off after TLTing him and getting some really nice range 1 shots with Boba on him. Boba died the round after Dengar died, and I ran Nym away making it really hard for him to chase me as I had bomblets. Not a great MOV win, but I got the win none-the-less. Now 6-2.
Round 9 – 100-75 win – Mindlink Trip Scouts (2 with R4, 2 with Rigged, all with Plasma/EM)
Most people hate seeing Trip Scouts across from them. But thanks to Wayde Stover (in my opinion the best Trip Scout player in the world), I had plenty of practice against them. I also knew he was going to try and use his Rigged Cargo Shutes to try and stress both of my ships out. I decided it really didn’t matter which scout died first, I just needed to make sure one didn’t limp off to feed tokens to the other two. Opening engagement I got off two cruise missiles that left 1 scout down to 3 health. Next round I killed that scout but it meant Boba was going to be stressed from the shute with another stress coming from the second one. I decided to do a white move with Boba for position even though that meant double stress for him, but it meant I got another scout off the board that round. He had focus fired on Nym but only got 1 plasma off on him as I arc dodged well. So I had basically traded Nym for 2 scouts. I knew at that point all I needed to do was get half points on the scout that was left and I’d win and he had to kill Boba completely. Yet again, Boba’s proximity mines came in clutch. I had to run away for a few turns to clear the stress from Boba, but I flew well and although he got half health on Boba, it was pretty easy clean-up for him. I was jacked to go 3-0 day 2 as I knew I’d have a great shot at making the top 16. Now 7-2 with an MOV of 1178.
The final standings list goes up and I got 16th!!! I was on cloud 9. That also meant I was going to be able to play at the top table which meant I’d be on the live stream! Talk about all my goals coming to fruition! We got a 30 min break so I quickly texted everyone I could think of that would care and tried to mentally gear up as I found out the #1 guy was flying Dengar Nym. I was excited for the matchup as I thought I would have the initial advantage.
Top 16 – 71-100 loss – Expertise Dengar, VI Auto-blaster Advanced Sensor Cruise Nym
So again, I had prepared for this matchup. And as my opponent and I talked about after the game, this was one of his worst matchups. I had the bid coming in, and I had 2 pilots that could PS kill Dengar. He set up in his right hand corner and I set up in mine. I should have placed asteroids on that side to make it more difficult for Dengar to turn in, but I felt good about how it would go. So right out of the gate, my plan was to kill Nym first, and have my Boba as bait and let my Nym finish off his Dengar. I have Boba shoot in close just in case he thought I would slow roll to get an initial cruise missile shot off but I had Nym slow roll behind hoping to have him be able to get a 5 dice shot off on his Nym. He slow rolls so no shots after two rounds. Round 3, he 3 banks Dengar in to get a target lock on Boba to try and get a plasma torp off. I anticipated this an 3 bank Boba into Dengar so Dengar won’t be shooting at Boba and Boba would shoot at his Nym. My Nym 4 straights planning on getting a cruise missile off on his Nym. I missed the target lock by about a millimeter on his Nym (shouldn’t have barrel rolled back quite as much the previous turn) so I have to barrel roll forward to make sure I’m at least getting 2 TLT shots on his Nym so I can focus fire. I get his Nym down to almost all shields gone. Dengar gets a few shields off my Nym and Boba takes a 5 dice cruise missile from his Nym and all 5 shots went through. That was a killer. Even with a reroll, I blanked out. The crit was the one where I can’t dial in a straight which is fine with me. Next round, he drops a bomblet planning on Boba taking it to the face and Dengar peels off for a set up of a plasma torp shot on my nym. I see it coming and intentionally bump his Dengar with my Nym and get a bomblet off on Dengar. Boba takes the bomblet but drops a proximity mine on Nym that does all 3 damage. Boba gets more damage through on Nym but dies after being shot at by Dengar and his Nym. My Nym kills his Nym with my TLT and now I have the end game I was hoping for (my Nym against his Dengar). Next turn I intentionally bump again and get a bomblet off to get him down to 4 health. I now have a perfect place to do an advanced sensors target lock into a talon roll to fire my cruise missile at him and almost guarantee a crit to get through which means if I can get a bomblet to go off after that, I win. I’m already ahead on points as Dengar is down to half. This is where it went downhill. I know that if he intentionally bumps, my talon roll will be blocked, but then he’ll take a bomblet which I didn’t think he’d want to do. I know that if he dials in a 1 hard, he wanted the bump. However, he dials in a 2 hard (meaning he didn’t want to bump). He’s hoping it doesn’t bump and so am I! He bumps and he lets out a groan. I now have to decide to bump and take a stress (still getting bomb damage through), or advanced sensor barrel roll to clear the talon roll, get bomb damage through and shoot him in arc. I am a little flustered that I out flew him and yet, because he couldn’t tell he was going to bump he was rewarded for it. So I decide to pray to the dice gods and clear the talon roll hoping for max damage on the bomb drop and PS kill him to finish the game. The bomb goes off, and it only does 1 damage (a crit that didn’t matter that much). Now he has 3 HP left so I know that I’ll get shot at twice if he survives, but I can end the game right now, and even if I don’t and only get 1 or 2 damage through, I can get in close enough next turn to PS kill him or bomblet kill him. I should have not shot and played the long game in retrospect (NEVER SHOOT DENGAR AT RANGE 1 WHEN YOU’RE IN HIS FRONT ARC). Anyway, I get 1 damage through on my shot and he gets great rolls and clears shields and does 4 damage with me getting stunned pilot (which does 1 damage to me if I bump). So now all he has to do is block me and my only hope is to move in a way that I don’t bump, am able to drop my bomblet and pray for 2 hits. He thinks I’m going to try and fly way past him, so he dials in a 3 bank and barrel rolls back. I dial in a 2 hard keeping the stress but making sure I don’t get blocked. If I dial in a 1 straight, I clear stress and am able to get a range 1 shot on him. Why in the world would he not try and block that? He rolls for the bomb and gets 1 damage leaving him with 1 HP, but I’m JUST inside range 1 so I can’t shoot with my TLT. He gets a range 1 shot and that’s the game. SUCH a close game at the end. Finished top 16.
All things considered, if you’d told me I would be taking Boba freaking Fett to the top 16 at the North American Championships, I would have been thrilled. I learned a lot about range control and I was able to get on a live stream. I had a blast and the silver lining was because the top 16 game finished a little early, I was able to make another event at Gen Con that I really wanted to play in. So Gen Con experience wise, it couldn’t have been better.
Thanks for making it this far, and please let me know if you have any questions about my run. Remember, fly casual and may the force be with you!
Thanks for your insight Paul! You’ll always be a Des Moines X-winger in our hearts so be sure to come back and visit us often!
Des Moines Area X-wing 