Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27029853-20170703223814/@comment-454133-20170907064038

Woo, I got first place in the tournament! Though today's tournament was strange. A couple people had to leave early because of kids etc, several people were sick and couldn't come, and then several people had to leave to go to some event that was happening this evening (I think a concert or band). The TO actually had to throw together a list and play one of the matches to make sure players weren't stranded by early ditchers (and he wasn't in the mood to play -- he wanted to just hang out and paint ships tonight). And finally, two of my 3 opponents conceded early because things weren't going well, though that was understandable.

We only had ~8 people left at the end, so they didn't give ships to the winners but instead raffled them away (and I have a tough history with raffles -- with one notable exception, I never win anything). So it was a strange night.

That said, Horton Smears A Who did fantastically well. Here's the build I went with:

Wes with Adaptability + R3-A2 + IA

Wedge with Expertise + BB-8 + IA

Horton with TLT + R2 Astromech

98 points total

Funnily enough, Horton never used nor needed R2 Astromech. Red maneuvers just weren't in the cards for him (and usually aren't), and he flew well and never had any problems with obstacles. I'm a little iffy on R3-A2 on Wes. He really needs to be able to K-Turn sometimes (getting an attack in to strip tokens and chip at health every round really matters), and that made me gunshy about stressing him during jousts. And later I forgot to use R3 when I really did want it (to stress Vader), which was unfortunate. Also my initiative bid never came into play (it might have mattered with Howlrunner vs Horton, but Howlrunner died before it mattered). So meh. :)

But the fleet was terrifying today, and above average rolls helped me a good deal too.

First opponent was a Cruise Missile swarm. 2x Gamma Squadron Pilot with Cruise Missiles + Cruise Missiles + Guidance Chips. And 2x Storm Squadron Pilot with Cruise Missiles + Guidance Chips + TIE/x1 + FCS.

He deployed in the NorthEast, I took SouthWest and slow-rolled at first. I needed him to enter the asteroid field where cruise missiles would be awkward, and he decided to turn in to meet me. He later lamented the decision, feeling he should have gone with his gut and continued south. Long story short, he never got off a single cruise missile -- either he didn't have locks when he needed them, or he was at range 1 of the locked ship, or I'd strip the lock with Worldender Wes, or I'd simply kill the ship before it could fire. The match went well for me right from the start... I killed a bomber early on, and just steamrolled from there. This game went to time and one TIE Bomber was left. I'd taken some shield damage and maybe a bit of hull on Wes, but otherwise I was plenty healthy.

76 to 0

Such is too often the fate of low-PS ordnance ships. In retrospect, what he really really needed was thread tracers on his TIE Bombers, which would let him fire first with one bomber to set up the whole fleet to unload on the target. I wish I'd thought to suggest that to him at the time. It's a neat fleet and it probably would have been terrifying if his ordnance had landed; precisely why I needed to deny his locks and range. I actually plowed Wes straight through an asteroid to make sure he'd be at range 1, and able to fire on the ship that had him locked just in case I flubbed the range; better to gamble with relatively friendly asteroids than with cruise missiles!

Second battle was against Darth Vader with Engine Upgrade + TIE/x1 + Advanced Targeting Computer + VI; "Howlrunner" with Crack Shot ; and 3x Black Squadron Pilot + Crack Shot. Vader with Howlrunner and 3 Crack Blacks actually really worried me, but it turns out I did quite well.

I started out in the SouthEast corner, the fighters in the NorthWest, and Vader in the NorthEast corner facing West. I charged forward to try to lure his fighters into the asteroids, but he didn't fall for it, and continued racing south. Next round I turned into the asteroids and lined up to engage the fighters in the following round, and my opponent lamented that this was not what he wanted me to do. I suspect Vader was bait, and by not falling for it I did better than I would have by chasing him.

I was in the middle and south-ish end of the asteroids on first engagement, and I started toasting his TIEs one by one. Vader had turned south and boosted into range to pick on poor, innocent Wes, but Wes survived the abuse. He lost his shields and either this turn or next got, but never took more damage so it was fine. Though I wish I'd thought to ditch my astromech with IA to avoid that crit just in case (foolish me). I continued to push my X-Wings right into smooching distance of his TIE swarm and burned them.

Often my defense rolls would beat his attacks by just enough that Crack Shot was useless (these lucky defense rolls were really helpful in this fight). Once or twice he forgot to use Crack Shot when he could have though, and looking back, we realized that could have swung the game a lot (e.g. if he'd managed to kill Wes). Not sure what those rolls would have been though, and I still had my astromech.

Once I had killed his final TIE Fighter, Vader was retreating North and his hull was exposed (shields were gone). I had lost Wes' shields and gotten 1 crit, and lost all shields on Horton from Vader unloading at range 1. So basically I was only slightly singed. I had forgotten to stress Vader with R3-A2 last round, but it didn't matter... At this point he called it, which surprised me. I figured he could try to get some points by finishing off Wes, but he'd decided the odds weren't good for him since I had 3 relatively healthy ships against his lone and shieldless TIE Advance.

100 to 0

On the third battle, some of the remaining people were messing around, joking about skipping the fight and just going straight to the roll-off. They even (non-seriously) did so before actually starting battles. A few people had to shuffle around because their opponents had left for an event. This was my first indication that a lot more people had left than I'd been aware of earlier.

My final battle was 3 firesprays. Just bare Bounty Hunters, one of which had Tractor Beam. These are the gorgeously painted firesprays I mentioned on a previous day in this thread (e.g. the Galaxy Firespray, of which I'm immensely envious!).

He started at the NorthEast and I started in the SouthWest, and I curved into the asteroids. He moved in to meet me, but he wasn't quite in the asteroids yet (just at the edge; I figured he'd struggle with arcs once inside though, which would help my joust). I plowed massive damage into one and got him down to 4 life, and stressed it with Wes. Next round I jousted with Wedge and finished it off (Wedge + Horton), and removed shields from another ship with Wes rolling amazingly against a poor defense roll.

The following round that same firespray landed on a debris cloud and rolled a crit, and he called the game. He explained that he'd been rolling horribly all day (and other people in the room could attest to this), and he just couldn't bear to see one more crit land on his ships. It had been a brutal day for him, and he was exhausted anyway. He went off to buy more dice, and I got an easy but unsatisfying win. It sucks when the random rolls just thrash you and undo all your great flying & tactics. I've been there, I have a lot of empathy for him. It was a rotten day and that's not fair.

I was also a bit glad for the battle ending early. I was starting to slow down and really feel how tired I was (earlier I was alert and fine, but now it was catching up with me). I worked a 13 hour day yesterday (writing code for that long really wears me down) and I don't know what the rest of my week will look like, so I sat back and enjoyed the rest of the night, watching the remaining match unfold. Unfortunately, I really wanted to go home and get extra sleep, but to get any prizes I'd have to stay another half hour.

100 to 0

I got first place, though I didn't check the point spread so I don't know how close or far it was. Unfortunately because so many people left, they just raffled off the 2 small ships that would normally have gone to first & second place, which saddened me greatly. Instead the prizes were alt-art Crack Shots for everyone, and 3 alt-art Ketsus and 2 bags of acrylic tractor beam tokens for the winners (it was an old prize kit). First place got a crack shot and a pick of ketsu or tokens. If I'd known that would happen, I might have just gone home right after my 3rd game and let someone else get the prizes; I need the rest, and no prize ships was disappointing. But I did get some acrylic tokens and another fancy Crack Shot, so it's not too bad.... I just would have preferred either the ship or an early return home.

I think to improve the fleet, I might give Wes R3 Astromech since his shots often don't connect anyway (and don't need to for him to serve his role), and he'd enjoy some defense. (funnily enough, everyone left Wedge alone and focused on Wes). Or R2 Astromech for better greens. That said though, R3-A2 really wasn't bad, and there were a few times where I was perfectly safe using it and I wasn't hurt by it. I don't think it's a bad choice, and sometimes it can really mess up an opponent to stress 'em. Plus... the very fact that R3-A2 bothered people enough to take the heat off Wedge... that aggro factor has a lot of value on its own. The fleet may not need any changes. Thanks for your suggestions, everyone! You helped make this fleet really effective, and fun to fly.

I'm entering real crunch time at work, so I don't know how much time I'll have for X-Wing for the next month or month and a half. I might miss out on Wednesdays & Fridays for the next while. I do have an assurance from my boss that I'll probably get to still attend the tournament on the 16th, so I'll be good to go there, assuming I'm not collapsing from exhaustion by that time. ;)

So I should start planning for which fleet I want to bring on the 16th...