X-Wing French National Championship Top 4 : Defeating the 2013 Champion

 "I got your promise. Not a scratch."

"Would you get going, you pirate?"

After Chewie and Han, time for the last pilot of the Millenium Falcon to show up : Lando Calrissian!

My opponent was none other than Jabba, the 2013 French Champion. He was playing his usual double falcon list:

Lando - 44
Gunner 5
Expert Handling 2

Nien Nub 1

Chewbacca - 42

Gunner 5
Veteran Instincts 1

He deployed his asteroids fairly spread out on my side, while I deployed mine closer together on his side to prevent the falcons from forming up in the middle.

As usual, I deployed my ties in 2 groups on either side of the central asteroid. He deployed side by side close to my right edge (on the side of the obsidians).

Turn 1, I advanced the academies 5 to pass the asteroid, while the obsidians did a 3 forward. He advanced both falcons, and barrel rolled Lando behind Chewie.

Turn 2, my academies turned to right (3) and my obsidians banked to face the advancing falcons.
He kept hugging the edge.

Turn 2 picture before shooting.

Facing Lando+Chewie, I decided to focus fire on Lando as he is more vulnerable to crits and thus easier to destroy. This would be the fastest way to reduce his firepower.

In the 2 following turns, Lando + Chewie destroyed  Jet 2 and the combined fire of the 7  ties dealt 10 damages to Lando.

Turn 5 before maneuvers (you can notice tha Jet1 the lone Tie at the bottom of the previous picture has moved to block Lando):

At this point Lando was pretty much a gonner, so about all  Ties turned to face Chewie and the probable position of Lando.

He destroyed Jet4, loosing Lando in return.

Turn 6 before maneuvers:

I have 6 Ties, to Chewie with almost full health (with no title and no C3P0). Unless I fly really badly, I cannot loose here.

A tail chase is a long chase as they say, and following some curious decisions on my part, it took me about 6 or 7 turns  to finish him off.

I did at least 2 big mistakes that I remember which dragged the game to the 75 minutes mark.
First in one turn, I moved my Ties in the wrong order, turning a perfect kill box using self bumping into a really bad position. Next I decided to round the corner left asteroid with Jet 8 instead of going through. This left him out of position for the rest of the game (you can see it alone at the bottom of the screen on the previous picture).

Due to my bad flying, this game was tense to the end, but once more the list matchup carried the day, Tie Swarm FTW!

Time to reload,
Ica

X-Wing French National Championship Top 8 : The second shortest offensive of all times!

Top 8 :  Francesco Lamas

Francesco was playing a list that I wanted to play : Falcon + Z95:

Chewbacca - 42
Engine Upgrade - 4
Luke Skywalker - 7
C-3P0 - 3
Predator - 3
Millenium Falcon- 1

Tala Z95 - 13
Tala Z95 - 13
Tala Z95 - 13

Chewbacca is a bit more equipped than I'd like, limiting his escort to 3 Z95 instead of 4, but he does have a pilot skill advantage over my swarm.

Asteroids are deployed in a V pattern with one alone on my right flank. I deploy my 2 groups of Ties centrally, He answers by deploying on my left flank, Chewie on the edge and the Tala closer to the center.

First turn, I start by turning both groups toward my left flank to face him. He advances slowly:

Turn 2, the Obsidians turn to face the falcon menace with a hard (1 or 2) while the Academies bank toward him. His Talas bank toward my academies shadowed by Chewie. And then I used my Jedi mind tricks:

Me :  boost?
Francesco Lamas : Yes.

Chewie boosts in front of the Academies to try to escape the firing arc of the Obsidians but fails miserably and lands with no action in front of the firing squad.

Chewie and the Talas (at range 3) fail to destroy Jet 7 and the counter fire is terrible: 21 Attack dice later, Chewie is no more (Average damage is 12.8 with 5 Ties at range 1 and 3 at range 2).

We stop the game here.

Big mistake by Francesco which costs him the game, turning a difficult matchup into an impossible one.

Time to reload,

Ica

X-Wing French National Championship Top 16 : How to train your Phantom

Final Cut Top 16:

Given the recent release of Wave 4, I was expecting 2 list archetypes in the Top 16 :
 - the new hotness: Phantom + mini-swarm
 - the botoxed old timer : YT-1300 + support
plus a smattering of Tie-swarms and double YTs.

I didn't want to play a Falcon (too vulnerable to swarms) or a Phantom (too hard to play perfectly and struggles against Falcons). But I knew that I would need firepower to kill falcons and a way too shut down phantom agility.

Right till the morning of the National, I was still hesitating between 2 swarm lists, either the 8 Tie swarm or a 7 Z-Swarm with 4 missiles. Both have the resilient firepower to kill falcons and the number of bodies necessary to hamper phantom movements. I wanted to play the Z-Swarm as it's really powerful on paper but a few practice games (one on the eve of the tournament) left me wondering whether the Zs list would be as forgiving as the Tie swarm.

Z-Swarm or Tie-Swarm? My dilemma cosplayed at the tournament

It all came down to a dice roll during breakfast, hit the Ties, miss the Zs. I was happy when I rolled a hit, plus my Ties were all repainted, so the Tie swarm it was.

I finished second of the qualifications, so I faced the 15th Mulot with :
Whisper, VI, rebel captive, ACD
Carnor Jax
Howlrunner
Black squadron

The organisers decided to keep the final cut on 1 hour game time for the top 16 and top 8, moving to 75 minutes for top 4 and 90 minutes for the final.

My plan was basically to destroy his support ships which die like 3 tie fighters, then  either deny or destroy Whisper.

He deployed his asteroids in a well spaced line on my side while I placed mine in a triangle closer to the center to hamper Holwrunner formation and to reduce Whisper options.

I deployed my academies in front of the left corridor and the Obsidians to the right. He deployed Holw + Carnor+ Black in front of my academies and Whisper to their right:

On the first turn, I moved 3 forward with the academies and 4 forward with the Obsidians, to globally turn my formation toward Whisper while recentering the Howl group. He advanced 4 and took a shot with Carnor on the lead Obsidian.

Turn 2, I split my formation to decrease Carnor impact but made a small miscalculation. I moved the front academies 4 forward (should have moved 5 to block the black), while the back only moved 2. The lead obsidians moved 3 bank to block and one moved 2 forward. He advanced 2 with hol group, bumping with carnor, Howl and focusing with the Black. Whisper decloacked 2 right and turned toward the fight:

Open FIRE! Due to no actions for Howl and Carnor, he only dealt 1 or 2 damages to Jet 6 and a damage and a crit to Jet 5 the 2 front Academies.
In return the combined fire power of the 8 ties destroyed Carnor.

At that point I started my deny or destroy strategy: 3 academies moved to either block Whisper decloack or his subsequent move, while the rest positioned to finish Howl. Leaving the black for later :

 As planned Whisper decloaked in front of Jet 7 and bumped. The black K-turned behind and Howl bumped into Jet 3. With no actions, I think he only did a damage or 2 but on undamaged Ties (Jet 6 K-turned behind Howl and Whisper wiffed his no action attack roll against Jet 5, this also meant no free token which would prove important for the return fire). In return Jet 4 and 3 stripped 2 shields from Whisper, stressing Jet 3, but the other 4 Ties failed to finish Howlrunner.

Turn 4: At that point my material advantage was so important that I spread my ties everywhere facing likely positions for his ships but more importantly preparing for next turn decloak while denying actions to howl and the black:

After his moves I had 6 Ties facing Holrunner and 3 facing Whisper. He took down 2 ties but I finished Howl and destroyed the black with a lucky shot from Jet 1 and Jet 6. Jet 3 with a range 1 focused shot also did a damage to Whisper.

A that point we had about five minute left to play so I kept denying his decloak moves with my horde of Ties. Some of those moves where K-turns, plus rebel captive, here is what you get:

Probably the record number of stress tokens for a side in a top 16 national game : 7 stress tokens with 6 ships!

Victory is mine with 2 ships to spare! As planned I destroyed his support ships, and denied his phantom decloaks or moves which really reduced his firepower. I was helped in that by the 1 hour time limit, but with 6 ships to his one, I'm pretty confident that I would have won in a last man standing match. I think Mulot made 2 mistakes: 

1) joust with the swarm, as I have a firepower advantage at close range even with Carnor. A less aggressive approach might have reduced my numbers more  before I could finish his support ships, helping for the end game.

2) get Whisper close to the swarm. A blocked phantom is a dead phantom and I have enough bodies to block him. A more ranged game might also have played in his favor.

Top 8 here I come!

Time to reload,

Ica

X-Wing French National Championship Part 6 : Now, I am the Master!

Part 6 and last game before the final cut:

In the last round there were 4 of us with no losses and I got to face the man who introduced me to X-Wing, my Master Sepyx.

I've been waiting for you, Sepyx. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master.

He played  a classic HSF list in a counter-phantom bid:
Han, gunner, Veteran Instincts
2 Blue, FCS

In this matchup I have basicly 2 choices:
1) go for the support ships first
2) go for Han first

He had initiative and place his asteroids near the center of the board, while I placed mine on the corners.

I deployed my academies in the middle of the board and he answered with the blues on the right side. I then placed my obsidians on my right flank. He placed Han on my left flank, ready to get behind me.

He started by moving his Bs toward Han, while I went full 5 forward then turned toward Han.

This is the board after the first shooting turn (lost a Tie in exchange for 5 shields on the lead B):

Due to his positioning, I decided to go for the Bs first, reducing his firepower before turning on Han.

I lost 2 ties while destroying the Bs, then attacked Han, retiring damaged Ties to spread the damage. I took him down to hull then did a crit while loosing a third Tie.

We were almost at the time limit, so instead of trying to finish him I unexpectedly broke off the engagement to preserve my lead and the game finished with a modified win for me.

Last turn picture:

In a timed environment this matchup is actually a danger for me as if he can manage to get a point lead he can try to break off the engagement with the falcon and just try to win on time. I actually lost to a similar list in the final of my first tournament because my opponent one-shot 2 ties early on and the game ended with 3 full Ties on my side going after Chewie on 3 hull.

In a non timed environment though, the 1 agility of both the Falcon and the Bs is no match for the swarm firepower.

Time to reload,
Ica

X-Wing French National Championship Part 5 : the shortest offensive of all times!

Part 5:

My opponent Rokkotnik played a beefed up Han with 2 rookies.

I deployed in 2 groupes in the center of the board, with the academies on my left flank. Rokkotnik deploeyd on the edge of the board, with Han hugging the edge.

The table after 2 turns of movement: I split my 2 groups to pass the asteroid and have my academies in a good blocking position.

He destroyed one of my academies while I removed 7 hit points from Han. The obsidians turned 90° to follow the fight while the academies moved to block a short move from Han or the X.

And that's how the shortest offensive of all times finished:

Han tried the hard 1 left, hit Jet 8 and the back of the ship left the table.
With 7 ties against 2 rookies, the game was over fast.

Time to reload,
Ica

X-Wing French National Championship Part 4 : the last stand of Garven Dreiss

Part 4 :
This time I faced my good friend and old 40K opponent (and sometime ally) BloodyTyty. Bloody played a very interesting list if I remember correctly:

Blue, advance sensors
Blue, advance sensors
Roark, ion turret
Garven Dreiss

It's really close to the first lists I tried in X-Wing, using Roark from extreme VP and Garven for action shenanigans, with the 2 blues as the meat of the list.

This time all the action occured in his half of the table, with me still in 2 groups after crossing the asteroid field. Most of my ties focused his blues and he destroyed one of my academies while I was closing the distance taking the shields off of one. Table shot after round 3 moves:

At close range he destroyed another academy (Jet 7) while I destroyed my first blue and damaged the other.

Sadly I stopped taking photos here to concentrate on the game, so you will have to follow my wall of text!

I took down the last Blue in turn 4, but after that I misplayed Jet 5 landing him on the asteroid that you can see at the top right corner. I took 3 turns to destroy Roark while loosing 1 more tie. I then started on Garven, and stripped his shields while loosing my 5th Tie for the game, the most any opponent destroyed in the 10 games.

At that point I was leading by 11 points, with one tie down to 2 hull and garven on 2 hull also. The clock rang but we got to play a last round (we'd started late due to pairing issues) with him trying to destroy a tie to get the win and me trying to kill Garven for the full win. Garven fluffed his shot, while I destroyed him for the full victory.

Time to reload,

Ica

X-Wing French National Championship Part 3 : Ibbitsam must die

Part 3 :

After 2 wins I faced Riftwar and his 3 ships rebel build:

Ibbitsam, advance proton torpedo, proton torpedo

Wedge, concussion missile

Tarn

+ a couple other amelioration cards.

You can see here the ship positions just before shooting started in turn 2:

Ibbitsam on the right, then wedge and Tarn on the left.

If I remember correctly, Jet 6 died from the combined shooting of wedge and ibbitsam, but I managed to kill Wedge in return.

My opponent tried to joust with the swarm and paid the price.
After that it was mostly mopping up, taking down first Ibbitsam:

Then Tarn:

Time to reload,
Ica

X-Wing French National Championship Part 2 : The end of Chewbacca

Round 2!

After my first round modified win, I encountered my good friend Cornelius40K with a classic wave 3 list:

Chewie + c3po + gunner + faucon

Bwing fcsBwing adv. sensor 

He took the initiative and we deployed the asteroids in a pretty loose formation. I deployed my Ties in my usual 2 squares formation while he split his B-Wings on one side ready to enter the asteroid field and Chewbacca on the other:

I think he kind of panicked a bit a the sight of the full swarm and tried to delay the engagement, turning his B toward his right flank. Chewie advanced to flank me. I went full throttle toward his Bs. This is the board after 2 turns (I think I stripped a few shields from the front B):

Jet 7 and Jet 8 did a hard 3 then a barrel roll to box the B-wings, while Jet 5 and 6 went for a 3 bank. He then did a focus+ koiogran 2 with the Bs to face the swarm and use the protection of the asteroid. Jet 2 and 4 closed the distance while jet 1 and 3 stayed back to keep my options open. Chewie maneuvered to stay on my flank.

I took down the two Bs while loosing one Obsidian. The game was pretty much over at this point, as Chewie cannot take on 7 ties.

This is the final shot of the game: Chewie looses his last hull point, I still had 6 ties left.

The list matchup was really bad for Cornelius, as Ties eat agility 1 ships for breakfast while he didn't have the necessary firepower to whittle down the swarm. This was compounded by his decision to flank large with Chewie, giving me range 3 agility bonuses and the fact that he underestimated the speed of the swarm, giving me some free shots on the lead B-Wing in turn 2.

Time to reload,
Ica

X-Wing French National Championship Part 1 : SWARM HELL!

In the few next days I will try to do a battle report for each of my games in the French National.
This is the Part 1 : SWARM HELL! with my first game.

First game was against Red51 and his 8 academies Tie-Swarm.

First shooting turn shot

Swarm Hell exists, and I've seen it! 16 Ties on the table, 32 attack dices against 64 defense dices:
1 damage!

After that first shooting turn, it became a tense game of maneuvering, with him trying to block me and me trying to get actions. In the end the PS advantage won me the game, as my obsidians could reduce his firepower while any of my academies destroyed still got to shoot.

The game was a bit slower than my usual games with only 5 turns as my opponent was not used to facing a swarm.

Modified win : 4 Academies destroyed to 2 Academies and an Obsidian.

Time to reload!
Ica

X-Wing French National Championship : Wave 1 FTW!

Just came back from the French national X-Wing championship : Minneapolis here I come!

No time for a full debrief now, but you can expect one soon.

Wave 4 was legal, 71 players entered the tournament with 6 Swiss rounds on Sunday then a top 16 on Monday.

In the top 16, there were 6 falcon lists (2 double falcons), and I think 6 phantoms + mini swarm.
I came second in the swiss part (with no loss but 2 modified wins) then won my 4 games on Sunday facing : phantom, single falcon, double falcon and another phantom list in the final game.

Time to reload!
Ica