This Week in Des Moines:
Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics – Monday 9/11 at 6pm
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday 9/15 at 5:30pm
Upcoming Events:
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (SE 14 Location) – Sunday TBD at 12pm
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday TBD at 5:30pm
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!
This Week in Des Moines:
Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics – Monday 8/21 at 6pm
Upcoming Events:
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday TBD at 5pm
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (SE 14 Location) – Sunday TBD at 12pm
This Week in Des Moines:
Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics – Monday 8/14 at 6pm
Des Moines Store Championship (Jay’s CD and Hobby) – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (SE 14 Location) – Saturday 8/19 at 12pm
Upcoming Events:
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday TBD at 5pm
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (SE 14 Location) – Sunday TBD at 12pm
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!
This Week in Des Moines:
Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics – Monday 7/24 at 6pm
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday 7/28 at 5pm
Omaha Store Championship – The Game Shoppe – Saturday 7/29 at 930am
Upcoming Events:
Iowa City Store Championship – Critical Hit Games – Saturday 8/5 at 930am
Ames Store Championship – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Saturday 8/5 at 10am
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (SE 14 Location) – Sunday 8/6 at 12pm
Des Moines Store Championship (Jay’s CD and Hobby) – Mayhem Comics – Saturday 8/19 at 12pm
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday TBD at 5pm
This Week in Des Moines:
Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics – Monday 7/17 at 6pm
Dyersville Store Championship – Dyersville Comics and Games – Saturday 7/22 at 1pm
Upcoming Events:
Omaha Store Championship – The Game Shoppe – Saturday 7/29 at 930am
Iowa City Store Championship – Critical Hit Games – Saturday 8/5 at 930am
Ames Store Championship – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Saturday 8/5 at 10am
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (SE 14 Location) – Sunday 8/6 at 12pm
Des Moines Store Championship (Jay’s CD and Hobby) – Mayhem Comics – Saturday TBD
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday TBD at 5:30pm
In anticipation of our Store Championship this weekend, we’ve got a battle report from Kyle Sellner’s run at Arkam Games Store Championship. Enjoy!
Hi everyone!
I don’t know if anyone else may find it interesting, but I wanted to revisit my matches to see what went well and what didn’t and thought this was a good format.
This was my list:
My thoughts were that the Advanced Sensor General Hux would be a great combo to dish out up to three focus tokens and give the ‘Fanatical Devotion’ condition to Countdown (as with his ability, he really doesn’t need the focus for defense). Execute the green maneuver, clear that Hux stress, and give out a Target Lock to one of the ships (likely Pure Sabacc). Each striker would take the Evade action (if a Barrel Roll wasn’t needed for repositioning) thereby giving Omega Ace his extra red dice for the crit-fest.
Match 1: Victor Robles; Bossk & Dengar (both with munitions)
I set up bottom left, and Victor set up top right. My thought was to cruise my Strikers down the board edge and try to get in behind the slow-turning Bossk. I’d use the shuttle and Ace as bait for Dengar. It was apparent that Victor’s target was the shuttle as he unloaded his munitions into it on the initial engagement. While not dead, it had received a few crits including console fire (which made me choose between putting it out and Hux-ing). My strikers and Ace focused on Bossk and were able to bring him down. I lost the shuttle soon thereafter. Dengar took out Ace and an injured Sabacc. It was down to a shieldless Dengar against my Countdown with only 2 hull. I decided to run when time was called. Round 1 loss, but I got the Bossk points while he got the points for the shuttle and 2 of my 3 ships. I should have sent all of my ships after one of his, rather than dividing up the fleet. But I was pleased that I didn’t get tabled by Victor!
Match 2: Matt; Push the Limit Dash Rendar, Lone Wolf Jake Farrell with Proton Rockets, and a Bandit Z-95
Matt ended up with initiative which ended up being a huge factor in this matchup. Two of his ships had Pilot Skill 7 against two of mine with 7 (Sabacc used Adaptability to get up to 7). He set up Dash and the Z top left, and Jake just on the right side of middle. I deployed bottom left to set up a joust with Dash and the Z. I slow rolled up the board edge, as did he. Jake started moving in to join the fight, but it was almost too late. The first engagement, I moved with in all of my tokens. Sabacc stripped a few shields off of Dash, then Ace did what he does…. Five crits, while most of us were in the HLC donut so he could only fire at the shuttle. The shuttle returned fire to finish him off. The Z was in the middle of my ships, and I guessed that he’d do a 2-straight. Turns out he did a K-turn. Ace did a 3 bank and was sitting right in the Z’s arc…. Until I was able to dodge out with a barrel roll. Countdown and the shuttle took care of the Z, but Jake had gotten into range 1 for doing his procket business on the shuttle getting it to half points. Sabacc was easily able to arc dodge and take down Jake for the win. This was exactly what the list was designed to do.
Match 3: Caleb Hamilton; Bossk & Asajj with double Glitterstim
Another Bossk! I deployed my fleet bottom right. He deployed Asajj top right and Bossk more or less middle. I decided to scream my fleet forward in hopes of engaging Asajj before Bossk could get there in support. At the initial engagement, I realized just how powerful Glitterstim can be, especially when receiving shots from four ships. Asajj escaped with maybe half health, when I was hoping for a death. Unfortunately, he was able to toss stress on Sabacc meaning he couldn’t do his Adaptive Aileron boosting. Some of the details in here are a bit lost on me, but at one point, I had a range 1 shot with Countdown on Asajj who had only 1 hull left. Asajj didn’t die….. That ended up costing me the game as he had killed Ace, Sabacc, and the shuttle and I had half points on both Bossk and Asajj . Had I killed Asajj , I might have gotten the victory.
My takeaways were that Glitterstim is really good. Like really good. Two Glitterstims are even more gooder. With Jabba the Hutt crew, four Glitterstims will be downright diabolical. Stacking stress on the Strikers really hamstrings them. Also, I need to find a way to give dice mods to the Strikers if they are out of range of Hux. Having the ability to re-roll that range 1 shot against Asajj would have been huge. I also need to reconsider how I fly the Strikers after the initial engagement. Need to talk to Nick…..
Match 4: Storm Kelly; Norra with R2-D2, Braylen Stramm with C-3PO, Gold Squadron Y-wing with Twin Laser Turret and Cluster Mines
I was scared of the TLT and the mine, so the Y-wing had to die first. He deployed his Y wing in the middle, and his Braylen top left. I set up my fleet bottom right. He put Norra top right dividing the field into thirds. Surprisingly, he ran Braylen up the board edge, and turned the Y away from me. He slow rolled with Norra. I sent my Strikers chasing the Y, knowing he’d have to move first and THEN drop the mine, From there, I could decide where to Aileron AFTER I knew where it was, which was something I was okay with. I took out the Y-wing without too much difficulty and never gave him a chance to drop the mine. The 3rd green dice from Lightweight Frame proved invaluable with the TLT shots.
In the meantime, Norra had focused on the shuttle and Braylen had made his way around from the back. I lost the shuttle. We had nearly circled the battlefield and were back to the bottom right corner with Sabacc and Ace chasing Norra. Here’s where being able to NOT use the ailerons would be nice. I was forced to either bump into Norra so I could keep her in arc (but lose out on modifiers) or zoom past her. I opted for the bump, but her relentless assault of turning eyeballs into crits proved too much for Sabacc. Ace was finally able to finish her off (even with her shields regenerating each turn). In the meantime, Countdown was chasing a one hull Braylen. At one point, Countdown got two hits on Braylen, and Storm had to guess 1 evade with C-3PO and he rolled it to give him the second one and stay alive as time was called. I ended up winning on points, but by a close margin. I’ve flown Norra a few times, and I can say I’ve never had that many eyeball rolls out the back. It seemed like every shot she fired had a hit and an eyeball. UGH! Once the Y went down, I thought I had an easy match, but Norra with R2D2 proved super survivable.
All in all, I had a fun day. Countdown lived in every one of my matches. His ability is just so good. And it worked quite well with the ‘ Fanatical Devotion’ as he doesn’t really need the defensive boost. I finished 2-2 which was “good” enough for 9th place and get me one spot out of a shiny orange range ruler. But honestly, with the level of players we have in Des Moines, I feel pretty solid with my finish.
I need to practice what to do with the strikers after the initial engagement. Do I fly past and K-turn near the board edge? Or do I turn in quick for a fast second shot? Having the shuttle keep up with the strikers is also a bit of a challenge. The crit-fest with Ace is a nice bonus, but I think I was only able to get 3+ crits either 2 or 3 times. It’s a nice bonus, but I can’t rely on that as my source of damage. Even without Swarm Leader, Ace could deal out 2 or 3 on his own, which isn’t bad! I’m toying with the idea of dropping Swarm Leader from Ace and putting those points into Duchess instead of Sabacc (the option of NOT having to Adaptive Aileron would be nice). I’d lose out on the potential for the 5-crit circus, but it might be worth the risk. Or I could then use Omega Leader instead of Ace altogether? The list is definitely fun to fly if nothing else then for the look on your opponent’s face when you start flipping dice to crits.
Thanks for the report Kyle! You can find Kyle at Des Moines Area X-wing game nights, as well as our Des Moines Store Championship taking place this weekend!
Good afternoon X-wing players!
Monday is here and after some exciting reveals in the last few weeks (Wookie Gunship and Scum Bomber), we’re excited for some great X-wing play.
We’ll of course be gathering tonight for Monday night X-wing at Mayhem Comics in Clive, with another group meeting in Ames this Thursday. If you’re in the area and looking for games, you’ve got options!
Of course that all leads up to our DSM Store Championship taking place this weekend. We’ve got a limited number of spots (24 to be exact) so let us know if you’re planning to come and be sure to get there at 9am when registration starts.
We’ll plan to start the clock at 10am for the first round and depending on attendance will have up to 4 rounds with a cut to Top 4 (assuming we have 17-24 attendees). Each round will be the full hour and 15 minutes, with 15 minutes in between for setup. We’ll take a break for lunch after Round 2, with another break between the end of Round 4 and the Top Cut.
If you have questions about the event or are curious about sign-ups, don’t hesitate to email or post to Facebook.
It should be an exciting day with some stellar competition so we hope to see you there. And if we do, as always, good luck and fly casual 🙂
This Week in Des Moines:
Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics – Monday 6/19 at 6pm
Bettendorf Store Championship – In This Issue Comics – Saturday 6/24
Des Moines Store Championship (Mayhem) – Mayhem Comics – Saturday 6/24
Upcoming Events:
Monthly Ames Open Play Night – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Thursday 6/29 at 5:30pm
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (SE 14 Location) – Sunday 7/2 at 12pm
Original Trilogy Tournament – Mayhem Comics – Saturday 7/8 at TBD
Ames Store Championship – Mayhem Comics (Ames location) – Saturday 8/5 at 10am
Des Moines Store Championship (Jay’s CD and Hobby) – Mayhem Comics – Saturday TBD
Monthly X-wing Tournament – Jay’s Cd and Hobby (SE 14 Location) – Sunday 8/6 at 12pm
Des Moines Area X-wing 