Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27029853-20170703223814/@comment-454133-20170709063851

I played Horton Hears A Who (my Wes + Wedge + Horton list) today for a 5-round tournament at the Salt Lake Gaming Con. I won't give a play-by-play, but my results were:

100-66: Jess fleet with Biggs and VI Wes; gave me trouble but I managed to eventually kill all his ships, surviving only barely with Wedge

79-100: daaamnnnn Jumpmasters!!! I killed Dengar and was so close to killing Tel... killed him once, just needed one more tap to finish him for real, but he kept getting into range 1 of the TLT because of the jumpmaster's stupid easy-mode dial + roll, and then I had bad dice luck right at the critical moment gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

100-30: Mindlinked Denger + Asajj + N'dru or Kaa'to Leeachos, I forget which; I killed Asajj as fast as possible, gradually burned through Dengar, and I was surprised I'd survived with only losing Wes; this fleet really worried me

70-100:  Expertise Rey + non-regen Poe; came so close to killing Rey but had bad dice & range luck right at the end

100-0: Jess and 3 basic T-70 buddies; I pretended to charge him, then turned away to lead him through the asteroids and break up his formation; worked pretty well despite some bumps in the road

I got 9th place out of... 18 or 20 players? So not terrible, but I've done better. Also they raffled off a bunch of prizes, and true to my raffle losing streak (going on many years now), I didn't get any. Probably deserved for some past misdeed or other. :)


 * I actually had the option to keep playing in the elimination round (8th place had bowed out so I was next up), but that could go on for a *very* long time and I was so tired.  That last player had actually started to really get on my nerves and wear me down... he took forever not only choosing his maneuvers, but also performing them, and I'm absolutely certain he was deliberately fudging the sloppy angle of his template placement to avoid landing on asteroids (which would have given me the advantage I was looking for when leading him into the asteroids).  After that battle ended, I was just tired and ready to pack up and enjoy the rest of the gaming convention.

Several players told me my list is terrifying, because each pilot ability is equally devastating and they didn't know who to target first, and they hit so hard together. But I counter that they're still just two T-65s and a Y-Wing. Despite cool pilot abilities they're not powerful ships in the current meta, thanks to really lackluster dials and action bars and/or being a bit too delicate. It still frustrates me that FFG shows so little interest in this game's namesake ship, and the new TIE Aggressor's dial puts the Y-Wing to shame (though the Y-Wing can still play the bomber roll pretty well).

That said... that's kind of why I picked this fleet. I'd feel really dirty taking a top meta fleet to a tournament that isn't Worlds... if I won with a net deck (or a jumpmaster), it'd feel like someone else won the game for me. So I went the entirely other direction, picking ships I knew would challenge me and be fun to play. I enjoyed the tournament and it was an interesting challenge, and any bitching from me is kind of just bad sportsmanship. I'm glad I took Wes, Wedge, and Horton out for a ride.

But %$*& jumpmasters, they're just easy mode for baby's first X-Wing game. Yea I said it! FIGHT ME! ;)