My Regionals Experience

A large group of us went to the Regionals at Kirton Games, 15 in total. It was quite a sight seeing us with team polo shirts on amongst a crowd of 102 players. Credit to James Fox and all the Kirton staff for running a smooth event, with plenty of food available and even a Fish and Chips run for everyone.

My List

• Colonel Vessery, Ruthlessness, TIE/D, Tractor Beam
• Countess Ryad, Push the Limit, TIE/x7, Twin Ion Engine MK 2
• Baron of the Empire, Push the Limit, TIE/v1, Autothrusters

Comes in at 100 points. With Pilot Skills of 4,5 and 6; an initiative bid isn't needed. It took me weeks to find a decent wingman for the Defenders, but the Thursday before the event I settled on the Baron of the Empire in the TIE Adv. Prototype. Mobile, and grants a target lock for Vessery, he ended up being a fantastic addition. Playing the key role of blocker often, I was never disappointed with his performance. I just wish he had 3 attack dice.

My Result

I came 70th. Not great, though the result of going 3-3, as I wanted to at least Top 64 to get a Zuckuss. It is better than my warm-up result though, as although I went 50/50 in both events, none of my games were zero point losses this time around.

Round 1

Palp Aces. I approached this wrong and was unable to K-Turn over the shuttle. My opponent burnt Ryad down in the first couple of turns. I made sure I was able to get half points for the shuttle once it was clear I probably couldn't pull the game back.
Loss - consider the initial approach vector carefully next time. Possibly bank the turn before.

Round 2

Decimator and Rexlar Brath. I burnt the Decimator pretty quick and was able to carefully keep Rexlar from Ioning Ryad.
Win - I made a couple of early mistakes with Ryad but managed to recover.

Round 3

Vader, Vynder, Omega Leader. A long game with lots of positional manoeuvring. Two bumps for Vader helped. The key point was the opponent isolating Omega, allowing me to send my squad after him and then being free of the other two for a couple of turns.
Win - long game though. The important kills were in the final round after time had been called.

Round 4

Miranda and Dash. A long game as well. Managed to trap and burn down Miranda, but struggled to catch Dash.
Win - came down to the final shot of the game giving me half points for Dash, and winning by 9 points.

Round 5

Miranda and Dash. A slightly different build, and the winner of the 2016 Dark Star store championships. He kept Miranda out of as many arcs as possible, so Vessery never got a shot off. Unfortunately, in doing so he flew her too close to the edge, allowing me to bump her off the map. That was my only kill.
Loss - I was completely outflown. My green dice were mostly above average though.

Round 6

Hera and Ezra. For some reason, I struggle against Ghost lists. I think it's because they have a variety of builds with different ways of tackling each.
Loss - A key turn of bad dice (with a target lock) meant I killed Ezra later than I wanted. Killing Ezra may not have turned the game into a win, but may have given me time to get half points on Hera.


My biggest failing was finalizing the list at such a late point, which minimized my practice with it. I'm going to keep the list built for a while and continue to practice with it. Not sure when my next event will be, depends if there is any travelling to Store Championships. I'm Judging at the System Open this week, Euros in June and Marshalling the Plymouth Store Championships.