Space Confiture

So I was hoping to have been writing this on the Eurostar on my way back from the Paris System Open (assuming I'd had a result I was prepared to share...). For obvious reasons, that hasn't happened with the Open currently being put back to the end of August. But there was another round of GSP's Space Jam series this weekend, which I played in.

After last time's escapades in which the TIE v1 demonstrated how squishy it can be, I've changed things up a little bit and swapped in a TIE x1, so my new list becomes:

Imperial 5s

Rexler Brath

 - Juke

 - FCS

Maarek Stele

 - Marksmanship

 - FCS

 - Afterburners

Grand Inquisitor

 - FCS

Having completely forgotten the existence of Foresight for the whole of the last tournament, I've dropped it from the Inquisitor. I've played Maarek a lot in the last 12 months, and Marksmanship let him double-dip his ability. Afterburners - well, 192 points is probably too deep a bid for my taste, and I've just watched this episode of Veteran Instincts so I'm hoping to use it as a get-out-of-jail card.

Game 1 - William Herbert

Lieutenant Bastian
 - Integrated S-foils
Temmin Wexley
 - Heroic

 - Integrated S-foils
Jessika Pava
 - BB Astromech

 - Integrated S-foils
Red Squadron Expert
 - Heroic

 - Integrated S-foils

William set up in a block of four, so I set up with Maarek and the Inquisitor going for a joust with Rexler moving up the middle of the table to turn in and flank. In the first turn of shooting, Maarek was perfectly lined up to get a crit in on Bastian with Marksmanship; however the Inquisitor and Rexler both missed their shots so when Maarek hit, all he was able to do was strip Bastian's shields. A big opportunity missed to get an early kill. Next turn I went for a risky K-turn with Rexler and subsequently got blocked, leaving him both without a shot and slightly closer to the board edge than I like to be, but the Inquisitor and Maarek both made shots on Bastian and he died, however Temmin took the Inquisitor's shields. With Bastian down I picked out Jess as the next target and started directing fire her way, however with pointing the wrong way I only got a couple of hits on Jess and one on the Red Squadron Vet. In the final turn, Temmin ran away, but I finally had all my ships lined up and Jess died.

Win 101-27.

Game 2 - Illy

Anakin Skywalker
 - R2 Astromech

 - Delta-7B

 - Hull Upgrade
Gold Squadron Trooper
Gold Squadron Trooper
Gold Squadron Trooper
Gold Squadron Trooper

As we started this game, I picked out Anakin as the one to kill, then allowing me to PS-kill the Torrents. We got partway through moving ships in turn 2, when disaster struck and Illy lost his internet! I hopped over to speak to the judges and find out what to do, and they advised me to give him ten minutes to get back on. I had a great chat with Dee from the judging team while we waited (and I want to give a big shout out to the judges here after I learned Dee was judging from LA in the middle of his night), and fortunately Illy was able to reconnect about 30 seconds before he would have forfeited the game. And he then proceeded to absolutely school me. My local meta doesn't have many (read: any) Torrents, and it showed, as they ripped me up. As consolation, I got two of them in the end so didn't get completely whitewashed, but I felt comprehensively outplayed and having the extra ten minutes of the game would have made no difference.

Loss 68-200.

Game 3 - Matthew Johnson

Fifth Brother
 - Hate

 - Fire-Control System

 - Homing Missiles
Grand Inquisitor
 - Hate

 - Fire-Control System

 - Homing Missiles
Darth Vader
 - Hate

 - Fire-Control System

 - Afterburners

I prioritised Fifth Brother so as not to face the hit-crit combination from his ability, but it took me longer than it should have to kill him and in the meantime I took a beating from Vader and his Inquisitor. Once I'd killed Fifth Brother, however, I was left with a good position on Vader, and something strange happened; Vader blanked out on his defence dice. Twice. No more Vader, but it proved to be too late and my remaining ships were killed by the Inquisitor.

Loss 127-200.

Game 4 - Chris Warren

Chewbacca
 - Heroic

 - Rose Tico

 - Finn

 - Deadman's Switch

 - Rey's Millennium Falcon
Colossus Station Mechanic
 - Deadman's Switch
Colossus Station Mechanic
 - Deadman's Switch
Colossus Station Mechanic
 - Deadman's Switch
Colossus Station Mechanic
 - Deadman's Switch

Chris' Fireballs came at me first with the Falcon trailing, and as we went into the first tun of shooting I was conscious that I wanted/needed to take out at least one of them before any of them could fire back. And once again my plans came to nothing, I left one Fireball with one health but not dead. And in return my Inquisitor was reduced to one hull. I ran my Inquisitor away and began putting hits into the Falcon from Rexler and Maarek. Two turns later, I was in a position where I could zoom forward with Rexler to get a great shot on the Falcon, but I had to take range 1 fire from all the Fireballs. I figured with three green dice I'd be OK, and I reduced the Falcon to one hull remaining; and Rexler was also reduced to one hull. The next turn Rexler K-turned, giving him a range 1 shot on Chewbacca, which I took, having completely forgotten about the Deadman's Switch. So Rexler died, and so did the one-health Fireball, which in a chain reaction then took out Maarek. So I was left with a one-health Inquisitor to close out the game. I played cagey for a couple of turns, as I did so I spotted I had a target lock on one of the remaining Fireballs that I'd forgotten about, and it only needed one hit for me to get half points on it. I wasn't sure what the points status was, but I knew that half points was potentially important. I slooped in behind the locked Fireball, and got three hits on it leaving it on one hull. So not only half  points but a good chance at full points. Going into the last turn, the Fireball slooped to point its' guns towards me, and I banked to follow it; I fired and killed it, and I was outside range 1 so avoided the Deadman's Switch damage; I then evaded incoming fire. Which left us on 171 points each and going into Final Salvo, a first for me. And with two Fireballs left on the board, this meant my two dice facing Chris' four dice; Chris rolled a hit and a focus, and I rolled ... two hits to get the win!

Win 171-171.

Game 5 - Jesper Winström

Anakin Skywalker
 - R2 Astromech

 - Delta-7B

 - Spare Parts Canisters
Obi-Wan Kenobi
 - Calibrated Laser Targeting
Ahsoka Tano
 - C1-10P

 - Calibrated Laser Targeting

After my game with Illy earlier, my heart sank a little bit on seeing Anakin again, especially accompanied by two more Jedi as I find them incredibly frustrating to play against. In the absence, frankly, of a better idea I decided to go for Anakin again with the hope of bringing him down and trying to PS-kill the other two. Setting about this, I signally failed to realise what Chopper brings to the list, being the ability to give out jam tokens, which meant Rexler was unable to get his free Evades. So partway through I turned my fire on Ahsoka, and fortunately for me she died fairly quickly. However all through this I was getting chipped away by the other two. In the end I had Anakin down to half points three times and then he regenned back up, and when time was called Ahsoka was the only points I scored. (I did however have some great chat with Jesper all the way through this game, thanks Jesper!)

Loss 171-53.

Learning Points - was I wrong to focus on Anakin in games 2 and 5? Right now, I don't think so, and I think I'd make the same decision again. What I should have done, however, was appreciate what the other ships brought to the table, both the Torrents and Chopper. It comes under the heading of 'know your enemy'... Similarly, forgetting about Deadman's Switch in game 3 was a basic mistake that I kicked myself for, although I doubt I'm the only one that's been suckered that way. Managing to take it to Final Salvo and then winning was luck, pure and simple, but if I'd kept more of an eye on points and victory conditions maybe I'd have made some different and more informed decisions. And with hindsight, dropping after game 5 was a mistake; I should have played on and gone for a 3-3 result. 

All glory to the Emperor!

I Believe I Can Fly!

Like everyone else in these strange times, I'm missing playing XWing at a FLGS with my mates. So when I saw Gold Squadron Podcast's Space Jam Tournament, I thought what the hell, and signed up. And I spent a certain amount of time after that thinking 'I'm going to get my arse kicked'. 

Still, rebellions are built on hope. I'd had two whole practice games to learn TTS (which as it turned out was two more than one of my opponents...). And I have a certain amount of faith in my list; as part of my best-ever showing at the UK Open I won my first two games with it on the Sunday, plus one of my TTS practice games with my friends from the Moldy Crows last week. So it is:

Take The Fifth
Rexler Brath
 - Juke
 - FCS
Grand Inquisitor
 - Foresight
 - FCS
Fifth Brother
 - Mag Pulse Warheads
 - FCS

The Defender is my favourite ship in the whole game and with most of the year to date being focused on Hyperspace lists it hasn't been seen very much (plus, you know, the whole 'massively expensive' thing...), and Rex's ability can be a game winner. The TIE v1 I like because its blue 1-speed turns and banks make it such a great knife fighter, even if it is a bit, um, fragile when it does get hit. The theory of this list, then, is that Rex and Inqy come in and strip the shields off a target, and then Fifth Bro follows up with a crit from the Mag Pulse and a second crit from his ability. So how did it work out...

Game 1 - HumanReason (Chicago)
Fenn Rau
Guri
 - Outmaneuver
 - Advanced Sensors
Black Sun Assassin
 - Crack Shot

I started out really hopefully in this game. I set up on the right-hand side of the board and moved forward, then left-turned to come into the middle to engage. Coming into the first turn of shooting HumanReason had made a mistake with Guri that left her without a shot and facing a rock, and I was able to catch Fenn in the open and halve him; unfortunately for me, Fifth had to use his Force just to secure the hit so I couldn't add an extra crit. In the next turn Fenn died, but those were the only points I was going to score. I spent the rest of the game chasing the two Vipers round the board, but I found them so slippery that I struggled to keep them in my gunsights and in the end I couldn't even make half points on either of them, and in return I lost the Inquisitor and half of Fifth.

Loss 83-68

Game 2 - DukeOfHobbies (Pittsburgh)
Wedge Antilles
 - Crack Shot
 - R4 Astromech
 - Servomotor S-foils
Cassian Andor
 - Crack Shot
 - K-2SO
 - Pivot Wing
Ten Numb
 - Crack Shot
 - Stabilized S-foils
Lieutenant Blount

 - Crack Shot

I set up for a joust in this game, planning to focus on Wedge as the biggest threat, and to give myself some credit I halved him fairly early on. And then I got tunnel-visioned into killing Wedge at the expense of everyone else, and I was duly killed by everyone else. In my defence, Wedge should have died three times, three times I had killing hits on him and he rolled all the evades he needed. C'est la guerre... Remember how I said the TIE v1 can be a bit fragile? I lost Fifth in the first turn of shooting. So in the end half of Wedge and half of Ten was all I scored, but on the plus side we were finished early which meant I was right on time for the dinner my wife had cooked. Small victories...

Loss 55-200

Game 3- Trevor Gait (British Columbia)
Ten Numb
 - Autoblasters
 - Stabilized S-foils
Braylen Stramm
 - Autoblasters
 - Stabilized S-foils
Garven Dreis
 - Selfless
 - R5 Astromech
 - Servomotor S-foils
Jake Farrell

I'm not sure what it says about me that I had my best result once I'd started drinking... I set up to come up the middle and then bank round the rocks, I was fortunate that as I came in to engage Trevor made a mistake and clipped a debris field with Garven leaving him with no tokens; I took both shields and a couple of hull off the X-Wing (Fifth got to use his ability!). Garven went down in the next turn and I set to on the B-Wings. I got some early hits on Braylen, but once again I lost Fifth. We chased down to my end of the board and under fire from both my ships Braylen went down. With limited time left I didn't think I'd be able to take out Ten, so I focused on Jake as we went back up the board. I got one hit through on him with a couple of minutes to go and Trevor told me that left him on one hull - I'd completely missed that someone (Inqy I think) had already stripped his shields. Into the last turn, and lack of a 1-forward left Inqy without a shot, but a K-turning Rex had Jake right in his sights and blew him away.

Win 95-147

Game 4 - Jaime Sinclair (Brazil)
Graz
 - Crack Shot
 - Contraband Cybernetics
 - Afterburners
Sabine Wren
 - 4-LOM 
 - Contraband Cybernetics
 - Shadow Caster
Guri
 - Outmaneuver
 - Virago

I'm not going to lie that my heart sank a bit on seeing another Guri, and this was also the first time in 2.0 I'd faced a Lancer. I'd totally forgotten how fast they are, which meant I got blocked a few times, denying Rex those sweet free evades. I was very conscious of Graz approaching down the flank, and having played him in one of my TTS practice games I kept thinking 'don't let him get behind you'. So there was a point where I made a hard-1 turn with Fifth that left me a hairs breadth from a rock that Graz was on the other side of - I swear if it had been on a real table I'd have caught the rock (Guri made a similar move a couple of turns later). Rex put hits onto Graz, followed by Fifth who used his ability to put a Direct Hit on the Khiraxz leaving him on one hull; I was slightly confused by this until I realised Khiraxzes gained a hull point in 2.0 compared to their 1.0 chassis. I finished off Graz in the next turn and turned my attention to the Shadow Caster. I had it halved at the cost of Fifth, having already lost Inqy, leaving it all for Rex to do, but as time was called it was left on two hull and I just couldn't get the hits I needed on it.

Loss 88-109

At 2315 and 1-3 down I, um, staged a tactical withdrawal. I'd really hoped to make Top 8 in faction to get a Grand Inquisitor alt card, but it wasn't to be.

Learning points - in game 2 I probably shouldn't have got so caught up with taking out Wedge, maybe the B-Wing and Z-95 would have been easier kills. For the TIE v1s, I probably should think more about using their linked actions to arc dodge instead of focusing on getting the target locks to use FCS. I'm a lot more confident with TTS now too, one of my big worries going into this would be that I would be hosting a game and TTS would crash on my laptop, so I was really pleased that didn't happen.

It was, however, great just to be on a table and pushing (virtual) plastic spaceships around again. My thanks go to Dion and everyone at Gold Squadron Podcast for organising the tournament, and I'm looking forward to the next one!

All glory to the Emperor!