Saturday was great. 72 players in total and an entire day of X-Wing. The list I took was Han Solo (Predator, Falcon title, C-3P0, Gunner, and Engine Upgrade) and 3 Bandit Z-95s.
Round 1 my opponent was Brian Valentino (played him at a SC earlier this year). He was flying Fel (thrusters & PtL). Turr Phenir (VI & Thrusters) and a Bounty Hunter (HLC). Early on I was able to cleave through the shields and hull of the Bounty Hunter leaving it with 1 hull point, the Zs really came through getting 6 shots in with none of them being evaded. Brian’s BH was just in front of a small asteroid that he was not going to be able to avoid so I took a risk and turned my ships away from the BH to get shots on the two Interceptors hoping that the move over the rock would finish off the 1 hull point BH, a risky call but one that paid off. Brian maneuvered over the asteroid, rolled a hit and removed his BH.
Now it was time to focus on the Fel and Turr. Having played him before I knew this was not going to be an easy task and Brian did not disappoint. Arc dodging like a pro or rolling to just out of range…my early advantage of taking out the BH was dwindling as one then two Zs went down. I was able to get Fel off the table not long after that (Brian conceded that Fel is better with a Stealth Device) leaving Turr, a Z with no shields and a wounded Han left on the table. We maneuvered around, Turr plinking away Han’s hull, the Z working to get Turr in arc and Han firing but failing to land a blow. Time was called and we had one more combat to finish and decide the game.
Turr, at range 1 fires and takes out Han (who had 3 hull if I recall) landing 2 hits and a Blind Pilot crit. Han gets to fire back though due to simultaneous fire…fires and misses to flip Blind Pilot and then triggers gunner, 3 blanks and an eyeball…han reroll 4 hits which is enough to finish off Turr (who was down to 2 hull points), and leaving the lone Z as the only survivor. 100-86 win.
Round 2 was against Jonah Zimmerman (whom I’ve also played before) and his TIE Swarm consisting of 4 Academy TIEs, Black Squadron TIE with Draw Their Fire, Dark Curse, & Howlrunner with Stealth Device. Jonah set up his brick of TIEs in the center with the 4 Academys in row followed by the other three (Howl in the center of the back row to maximize her rerolls), I set up my Zs on my right board edge with Han directly facing the TIEs. Early on Han was able to get the Black Squad TIE in range one and take it out with 4 hits when Jonah rolled 3 blanks. Han went off to the right mat edge to loop around while the Zs cut into the table center. Jonah’s TIEs were about mid board now and turning to engage the Zs and the fleeing Han and ended up getting tangled up with some serious bumping. Howl attempted a K-Turn and due to the TIEs and a Z was not able to move at all…just taking a stress from the red maneuver which set Han up for a kill on Howl and taking away her rerolls.
Soon after the Z’s were gone, Jonah got his TIEs “untied” and was chasing Han who was quickly running out of hull points and space to run. Time was called but not before one more round of combat that saw another TIE go down. Jonah had 2 Academy TIEs and Dark Curse remaining but due to arc and range only was able to get to shoot with one…but that one got 2 crits! I gritted my teeth, Han had three hull points left and drawing a DIRECT HIT would cost me the game (though I pulled at least three out of the deck watching the Zs get blown up). Pick up my Damage Deck and deal the first crit…Injured Pilot…second crit…Injured Pilot. Never been so happy to see that crit card. Win 59-36.
Round 3 was against Ciaran Russell, a younger player whose list was 4 scum Ys each with BTL, Ion Cannon Turret and the R4 Droid. Won’t say much about this game as it was frustrating to deal with the player. After about 40 minutes of flying around and having Ciaran make a few too many mistakes Han was able to fly away with most of his shields remaining…the Zs were not so lucky, all of them went down but so did all the Ys. Win 100-36.
Round 4 saw Han flying against his nemesis Boba Fett (VI, tactician, Engine Upgrade, Slave 1 title, Proton Bomb) and half of the Brobots (IG-88B with HLC, VI, Advanced Sensors, Autothrusters) flown by Michael Kaufman (one of the NYC crew). This was my favorite match of the day and the one I will remember the most. Michael is a great player and the game was so laid back it never felt like we were at a regional or even at a competitive event. Did my best to focus down Boba which was working for a time until he blasted Slave 1 out of range (right after dropping the Proton Bomb on the Zs giving each of them a crit). So I worked on IG a bit. By the time Boba got back into it the Zs were all but dust and I was able to take out Boba. Then it was time for Han and Iggy to go at it…and that was quite an exchange. The game ended with both Han and IG at 1 hull left and in range 1 of each other. I had chosen to give Han an evade, something I would come to regret. Han fires at PS9 and get 1 hit on 4 dice so I choose to Han-reroll…1 hit again. Michael easily evades this feeble attack and braces himself for the Gunner attack. I roll the dice again…1 hit…ugh…Han-reroll…1 hit…
Needless to say Michael evades again then fires 4 dice from Iggy’s primary and gets 3 hits. 3P0 has to guess 1 so I can stay in the fight (evade on the die, plus one from 3P0 and the token will save the day) but I roll an eyeball and Michael wins. Great game and so close…I don’t like to focus on bad rolls and if I had just focused and used the focus token to flip attack eyeballs I think I would have won. Loss 51-100
Round 5. During all of this I have only seen the sun when I went into the event. My mind had not idea what time it was and I still do not know what time this game started but I knew I was getting tired when I could not find my name on the pairings list. Fortunately my opponent was Tom Bouwman-Wozencraft, one of the great local players to BG, and with his help and Sam’s I was able to snap out of it and get to the table.
Tom was playing Kenkirk with EU, Captive, Isard, Moff, and Predator. Added to that was Brath with Outmaneuver. Tom and I played the previous Thursday with the same lists and I knew I wanted Brath out of the picture as soon as possible…Outmaneuver kills 3P0 and I would have no dice to defend with. Tom set his ships one edge and I placed my Zs in the center with Han on their left and almost directly across from Brath. The Deci and Defender streaked down the edged of the table and by the second turn we were rolling dice…and this is where things started going wrong for poor Tom. He flew well, made good choices for target priority, employed great tactics with both his ships but simply rolled terrible the entire game. There was a Z with no shields and 4 stress that just would not die no matter what (Tom just kept missing) and when it came time to dodge shots with Brath I don’t think Tom rolled a single evade on the green dice. We joked about it later, after the 6th round over a beer, and I know he and I will be getting more games in this summer. Win 100-24.
Round 6 and I had to win to even consider the top 8. My opponent is Joel Calden, another great player,(all my opponents at the event were top notch players) is flying the much dreaded Fel (PtL, Thrusters, Stealth, RGT) and Rear Admiral (Pred, EU, Isard, Captive, Gunner). Joel and I have played before, in fact it was a close game against Joel that got me second and him first at the BG Store Championship. Joel was more aggressive with Fel than I expected and I was able to land a direct hit on the Baron early in the game, then followed it up soon after and was able to take the interceptor down. With 2 Zs down, Han the remaining Z set after the Decimator and despite stress from the Captive was able to take it down several turns later…though Joel certainly made me work for it. Win 100-24.
With the Swiss rounds over there was a short break to give out the Boba Fett card and the shield tokens to the top 16…also to announce the top 8. Going into the day I knew I had to be 6-0 to guarantee a sit in the finals because I did not have the Super-Bye the first round. In the end I was 9th but narrow MOV margin of 16 points…the irony being that Jonathan Perez “JAWS” (another of the stellar NYC crew) got 8th and we were flying the same list. While not making the top 8 was tough I am very happy with how I did and how I flew throughout the day. On top of that met a lot of great people and had a blast watching the finals.
Brian, Sam, Chase, Derek, and Matt put on a great event and I am looking forward to more. Was also great to see so many BG faces at the event. Congrats to all the top 8 and a special congrats to John D. for scoring a perfect 1200 in Swiss and to Julian K. for winning the whole event.
