Game 3 : Robert Thomas 2Bs and 2Ys
Robert was playing a control list, with :
Dutch, ion turret, R7
Gold squadron with ion turret and R5
Blue squadron with FCS
Blue squadron
Like MrFroggies list, this list was heavy in hitpoints but low on agility. With mostly PS2, they would not arc dodge me so the swarm should do fine.
Robert deployed facing the center and I deployed to meet him in the middle.
I was expecting him to turn between the top leftmost asteroids, because otherwise I would get free shots on his flank but he temporised one turn too many. It left Jet 6 in a bad position (no place to bank because of the asteroid just in front), but gave me a couple of free shots.
He finally turned and my obsidians flanked him while the academies took position to block him on the next turn.
The lead B-Wing was taken down to 2 hulls in the exchange while I lost a hull or two due to the range.
I finished the B-Wings first and after that it was just mopping up as the Ys don't have the necessary firepower to take down Ties.
In the end I lost 2 ( maybe 3) Ties before finishing him.
Game 4 : Jeff and his YT+HWK
Jeff played :
Chewie, concussion missile, R2D2, C3P0, predator, millenium falcon title, hull upgrade
Jan Ors, recon spec, moldy crow, blaster turret, stealth device, squad leader.
On paper it is a very favorable matchup for me but I totally misplayed the first engagement.
Jeff build can really lay down the hurt with his first opening shot of 5 dice concussion missile with predator reroll and focus. but after that its just a falcon with 4 attack dice if Jan Ors is alive.
He played his 2 ships in a queue, with Chewie moving then Jan Ors moving to occupy the space that Chewie jsut left to prevent me from blocking her.
Turn 3 I moved to block Chewie, guessed his move right ( a 2 hard ) then totally forgot to barrel roll my Tie... This meant that Chewie and Jan got actions and that my swarm only target was Jan. With Stealth Device on and her recon spec tokens, it took my whole firepower to remove 1 shield!
I took her down in the next turn, loosing a couple of Ties, then came the boring chase of Chewie with my remaining Ties. He managed to whittle them down to 4 before being destroyed.
Jeff played beautifully in the face of a bad matchup.
4-1! Just one game to go!
Game 6 : Kinetic Operator and his 3 Phantoms list
Aaron played:
Echo, veteran instincts, rebel captive, advanced cloacking device, sensor jammer
2 Sigma squadrons, stygium particule accelerator, intelligence agent, enhanced scopes.
Falcons to the left of them,
Falcons to the right of them,
Phantoms! in front of them,
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Aaron is well known in the X-Wing community for his skills with Echo and his unconventional builds. He did not disappoint for worlds! That list is nasty in the right hands and he flew it perfectly.
As I told you in the part 2, the only ship I really feared was Echo. He is so unpredictable that he is impossible to block with the swarm and can take it on by himself. Well, it's going to be an uphill battle but let's do my best!
Aaron deployed his ships in front of mine:
And advanced straight forward to cloak:
His sigmas move before me due to enhanced scopes but fire before me (he got initiative), so I'm pretty sure his plan his to gun it forward (so with decloak a 7 forward), do as much damage with the sigmas as he can and finish me with Echo. So I devised a pretty devious plan : I'm going to advance as much as possible with the left Ties and turn left with the right ties to deny shots to his right sigma.
I think my tiredness was starting to show (the game was at 3AM Paris time), because even then I made a mistake with the 2 front left Ties : I moved 4 or 5 forward to allow Jet 2 and 3 to get actions. What I should have down was either bank left, or (more risky) K-turn. This took them out of the game for a couple of turns. But my plan worked! right sigma has no target!
Disaster! The dice are not with me and the 2 phantoms with targets proceed to one shot a Fighter each, while my return fire does nothing. One shot odds in this configuration are around 30% dropping to less than 10% for both so its definitely possible. I should have evaded as its the best defense against 5 attack dices.
After that severe blow, the jetlag got the better of me and I played really poorly. Landing on a rock and bumping my own ships. (Look at Jet 2 and Jet 4...)
I think in the whole game I managed to strip 2 shields of his sigmas!
I finished day 1 with a 4-2 record and a 31th place. Not really glorious, with 2 disastrous games but not that bad all considered. The level of play was incredible and I learned a lot!
My list was good considering the rest of the meta, maybe a bit hard to play when tired, but at the time it was the only list I was really confident in.
I did make the supplemental list for day 2, so stay tuned for more swarmy goodness!
Time to reload,
Ica
