X-Wing Regionals Warm-up

This post was intended to publish a couple of weeks ago, but writing it proved more time intensive than I expected.

March 10th a group of us from Dark Star are going to the Regional X-Wing Event at Kirton Games in Crediton. Being stand-up guys, they organized a warmup event February 10th, and a few of us went to that. Nine of us, in fact. We figured it would be great practice against a wider field, and we were right.

There set up is pretty good, and they stream whichever game is at table 1, right the way through to the finals. They do this for most of their events, which makes their Twitch channel worth checking out. Round 1 saw me put on table 1, giving me the first feature match. I figure this is an opportunity to go through the game afterwards and look at what I did, what mistakes I made and where I went right with an observation of my decisions as they happened. I rarely do full reports on here as I never take enough notes nor write the post with the game full enough in my memory.

The List I Took

•  Colonel Vessery, Ruthlessness, TIE/D, Tractor Beam, Twin Ion Engine MK2
• Countess Ryad, Push The Limit, TIE/x7, Twin Ion Engine MK2
• Nu Squadron Pilot, OS-1 Arsenal Loadout, Long Range Scanners, Harpoon Missiles

Vessery double-taps to reduce the defender's agility, pushing damage to other ships with Ruthlessness and messing with their positioning where possible. Ryad is a solid ace, providing target locks for Vessery and being a killer in the late game. The Nu pilot is a flanker/distraction, with Harpoons to help it hit hard.

Greg Jones' List

• Dengar
• Dalan Oberos
• Jakku Gunrunner

Told you I was terrible at taking notes/memory. Which is a shame as his list deserves to be seen. Some nice tricks and heavy hitters. He was also a gentleman to play against.

The Video

The video is here; https://www.twitch.tv/videos/227563585 
I'll be timestamping and making comments from this point on.

00:47:23
 Here is where the footage starts. We are just setting up and he is looking through my list. I've only flown against a Kimogila once before this game, so I'm not sure what to expect.
00:50:10
Here is where Obstacle placement starts. He's brought Debris, so I try and position them down one flank. Asteroids make the Tractor Beam better against small based ships, as if I can move them onto one, it can deny their shot that turn. It's also more likely to do damage. Mostly though, I want the Obstacles to be densely packed enough to allow shenanigans, but loose enough to be an enticing space to dogfight in.
00:51:54
I start deploying my squad. I put the Star Wing at the top as a flanker and the Defenders together at the bottom. He puts the Gunrunner in the centre (using Hyperwave Comm Scanner to set up after me) and the other two ships to joust my Star Wing.
00:53:30
My thought here is to bank the Star Wing in towards the centre of the map, and put the Target Lock on Denger to attempt to push him away. The Quadjumper movement wasn't a concern, as I was moving after it. This meant it's ability to Tractor as an action wouldn't come into play for a couple of rounds yet. Meanwhile I move the Defenders up the flank, intending to turn them in next round.
00:56:10
I hadn't anticipated such an aggressive move from Dengar, especially the Barrell Roll to get into range. I should have moved more cautiously with the Star Wing, and he may have chased it, allowing the Defenders to get behind him.
00:58:15
"I guess". I considered not shooting Denger, because of the retaliation shot he would get. However, if I didn't fire the Harpoons now, I might not get another shot for a few rounds, and I had to get the Star Wing out of trouble to do so. Of course, it doesn't hit. That's been a trend both in my testing and during this event. The Star Wing has done far more damage with its main guns than with the ordnance, even with reloading.
01:01:11
Obviously, my hope here was the Slam clearing Dengar, so I can start to turn around and come back for a fresh pass, once the Defenders have gotten stuck in. What I got was a block. Ryad has a shot on the Quadjumper and so does Vessery. I use these shots to put a hole in the Quadjumper and start pinging off Dengar's Shields. That's why I don't move the Gunrunner.
01:08:53
With the Star Wing stressed from a crit, I figure my best move is to do a 1 straight, which will clear the stress and hopefully leave Dengar bumped again. The Defenders will move into firing positions and hopefully I'll have some good shots this round.
01:10:51
Confession time - I had completely forgotten that the Quadjumper could reverse, so this caught me off-guard. It turned my planned bump into a harmless flyby by tractoring the Star Wing before it could move. Then, the Asteroid kills the Nu Squadron Pilot. This does allow me to now 180 Ryad  though. I Barrel Roll to get a better vector through the Debris next round and have a shot if Dengar comes too fast into the middle.
01:15:11
I wasn't expecting the Sloop from Dengar, but it makes sense given where the Kimogila went. I also wasn't expecting the Kimogila to fire Harpoons at Ryad rather than the Bullseye Arc shot against Vessery.
01:17:00
I hit the Kimogila with the Tractor beam and consider my options. Ruthlessness puts another damage on Dengar, and will so again if I leave the Kimogila where it is. Likewise, I can put it onto the Asteroid. This will give it an extra defense die for the follow-up shot but if that hits, it's another damage on Dengar. That would be 4 Shields stripped without firing a shot. It would also make the Kimogila's next move be through the obstacle, risking more damage and denying it an action.
Instead, I pull it forward, hoping to give Ryad a shot, but failing. This does allow the follow-up shot to pop the Gunrunner with Ruthlessness though.
01:19:15
Well, Ryad goes across the Debris, denying her actions this turn and she's pointing the wrong way. Vessery K-turns over her and I was hoping for the minimal damage this round. The Kimogila K-turns as well though, giving Vessery a shot, and Dengar lands on the Asteroid. Triple Evade saves Ryad from the Kimogila's shot, and Vessery lives it limping with a Major Hull Breach. Ruthlessness deals 2 damage to Ryad, leaving her on 2 Hull
01:24:23
Now the typical K-turn round from both Defenders, tokening up as Dengar should move in between them. Dalan hard turns away from the fight and Dengar, having predicted the obvious move from Ryad, moves in to finish her off.
01:26:29
Dengar shoots Vessery at range 1, which is followed by my second consecutive triple Evade roll. It was a fine idea, as a retaliation shot probably finishes off Ryad, but my dice disagree. Vessery then hits Dengar with both shots, using Ruthlessness to finish off Dalan who is still in range. The primary weapon's Ruthlessness puts Ryad to 1 Hull though.
Ryad finishes Dengar off, and the retaliation looks fatal. Obviously, I roll triple Evade for the third time in a row, giving me a comfortable win.

Takeaways

I need to up my knowledge/retention of what other ships are capable of. Being caught out by the Jakku Gunrunner was inexcusable. I need to catch up on purchases so I can sit down and look at the Kimogila, but the Quadjumper is a ship I have flown a few times and reversing is its unique feature.

I should also have flown the Star Wing more cautiously when Greg deployed to joust it. I didn't expect such aggressive flying and this compounded with the lack of memory of the Quadjumper to cost me a ship. Luckily, the Defenders are solid, especially against ships with low agility, and pulled it back.

Event Result

I went 2-2 and came 15th out of 24. My next two rounds were against two of the Dark Star lads, both of whom made the top 4 cut and my final round was against an interesting list comprised of T-70 X-Wings. A middle of the road result. Meanwhile, Dark Star put 2 players in the top 4, one of whom won the whole event.

Going Forward to Regionals

I'm enjoying the Defenders, but struggling to find a decent third ship. The Star Wing is interesting to fly, but I end up doing more damage with its main gun than I do with the Harpoons, which is frustrating when I'm paying 6 points to have multiple shots in a game. I need to figure out what to fill the remaining 24 points with, and time is running out. I will find something and hopefully perform better than I did at the Warmup.

Thanks go out to James Fox at Kirton Games for running the event and Pete Yarwood for driving us down there. I also found being on stream for a game valuable for analysing how I fly ships and seeing what alternate decisions I could have made.
I can't wait to play in the Regionals. They are currently expecting 105 players, 14 of whom are Dark Star players. Hoping for good results for all the team, placing as many of us as possible in the Top 16 cut. I guess we will see on the day.

Let's Go, Dark Star Marauders!