Introduction
On Saturday March 3 I played my first Hanger Bay tournament to warm up for my day 1 participation of the main event.
This weekend I ran:
- Miranda Doni- Twin linked turret, Sabine Wren, Long range scanners, Homing missiles, Ion bombs, Extra munitions.
- 2x Gold Squadron Pilot- Twin linked turret, Bomb loadout, Proximity mines (Shorty and Double A).
After my practice leading up to the tournament, and the hanger bay the day before I feel confident in my rebels (Alliance to restore the republic on my score sheet).
Match 1: Commonwealth Defenders [Brian Allen table 7]
- Colonel Vessery- Tie/x7, Juke;
- Countess Ryad- Tie/x7, Push the limit, Twin ion engine mk 2;
- Omicron group pilot- Collision detector, Emperor Palpatine.
Classic commonwealth defenders, Brian brought the list I was most interested in playing against and had spent the most time practicing against leading up to the system open tournament. I was impressed with how many shots he was able to take with his shuttle while keeping it generally safe. By the time we had twenty minutes left I was down to Miranda and a three hull Y wing, vs Vessery missing one shield and a full (or nearly full) health shuttle. My Miranda is 46 points so I knew that I could beat out Vessery if I had her alive when time was called. Vessery attacked the Y with a three hit attack and I rolled one green with no focus, evade! My Y wing proceeded to retreat for the rest of the game while Miranda arc dodged Vessery and whittled down the shuttle. When time was called his shuttle had managed to catch up to my Y wing and with two hull left after Miranda’s attack finished off Double A! We shook hands reported a loss by two points and proceeded get ready to move to our next tables.
Loss… 52-54
While we chatted I remembered something I learned about discussing the FAQ at supper just the night before, simultaneous fire. ‘Don’t same pilot skill ships still get to shoot if they are destroyed?’ ‘Oh man yeah, take those shots I totally forgot!’ Two dice rolls later and we have what would have been a downed shuttle, a hard lesson. But Brian was so sporting he suggest that we get a TO, pull out our record sheet, and amend it for me to win. Brian was the exact opposite of what kind of player I was led to believe would be attending a bigger tournament like a system open.
Win… wow 66-54
Match 2: Whisper, Ryad, Scarif Defender [Peta Dyken table 4]
- Whisper- Gunner, Advanced cloaking device, Fire control system, Veteran instincts;
- Countess Ryad- Tie/x7, Push the limit, Twin ion engine mk 2;
- Scarif Defender- Adaptive ailerons.
When I see a Whisper at a tournament (not that I’ve really been to tournaments), especially one with such a beautiful paint job, I have to ask “Are you the Whisper guy at your local store?” Peta admitted that he is and seeing that my highest PS was 8 shooting at him would be hard. Additionally I rely on mine damage in the activation phase to damage high agility ships which is difficult considering his decloak, so I strapped myself in for a hard game.
As he had three ships with a respectable damage output I decided to tackle them in the order of vulnerability to try to keep my low agility ships alive longer. The scarif defender didn’t last long in his initial approach due to tlt fire and did little more than scratch some Y wing shields before he went down. On to Ryad, my opponent made a very smart approach that made a bombing run look difficult so I activated my Y wings in an order that put one right next to Ryad and another making a turn and dropping his mine. It was millimetres away from Ryad but smack dab on top of Shorty. Hit, blank, focus, just one damage for me, activate Sabine to take away Ryad’s last shield token.
My opponent, a friend who was watching the game, and the players on the table next to us all started geeking out over that move “I’d never have predicted that in a million years” remarked Peta, to which I replied “You know how in Star Wars Rebels they mention how Hera’s cell is unique in that they try not to kill people, my rebels are the other guys.” After a couple of Miranda empowered tlt shots Ryad found herself in the scrap heap right next to AA, my first Y wing to go down.
Peta changed tack and wanted to kill Miranda before time was called so he could at least win on points if he didn’t also finish Shorty. Fortunately keeping Miranda around obstacles, and SLAMing when I predicted taking a bad hit, I was able to keep her safe while Shorty plinked away eventually doing a damage. When time was called my combined four TLT shots managed to finish off Whisper’s remaining three hit points!
Win 100-27
Match 3: Paritanni [Crowin Marsh table 1]
- Manaroo- Attanni Mindlink;
- Asajj Ventress- Attanni Mindlink, Lattz Razzi;
- Fenn Rau- Attanni Mindlink, Autothrusters, Concord dawn protector.
Table 1, after back to back wins I was starting to feel good about the tournament and I was excited to play against Paritanni. Crowin was a more serious seeming player than my last two so I put my crummy jokes away and focused more intently on the game. In all of my test games flying against Paritanni to practice I learned that three tlts (one with Miranda juice) and mines are generally enough to kill Fenn Rau quickly, and focus whichever ship presents itself next because at time Miranda is worth more than Manaroo, Ventress, or both at half health on her own. I attempted a castling strategy for the first couple of turns to see where he was going so I could point my Y wings at Fenn.
Unfortunately, while I did hit Fenn Rau with a proximity mine, and an ion bomb (and Ventress with both ion bombs) I wasn’t able to kill him. This match went almost to time with me only bringing Ventress and Manaroo to half (and Fenn to 1 hull but that isn’t worth MOV)
I learned after the tournament that Crowin was the Vancouver 2017 regional champ (the closest regional to me, but one I couldn’t attend), so in retrospect I feel a little better about my loss.
Loss 38-100
Match 4: Paritanni [John Wilkins table 7]
- Manaroo- Attani Mindlink;
- Asajj Ventress- Attani Mindlink, Lattz Razzi;
- Fenn Rau- Attani Mindlink, Autothrusters, Concord dawn protector.
Oh boy, I suffered my first loss to a squad I felt prepared for and here I am facing the same squad with a different gentleman at the dials. This game started off with me travelling up my left side, and him splitting up with all of his ships, as I turned face Fenn’s approach head on target locking Manaroo so he’d be forced to make Fenn homing missile bait if he wanted to give him extra focus tokens. John mistakenly pulled a 3 right turn with Ventress when he wanted to do a 3 left turn. The picture says most of what happened, a Miranda empowered homing missile rolled two hits and three crits, stripping Ventress’ shields and pounding her with a major hull breach and a direct hit for six overall damage, he landed her on a rock so I suffered no return fire, and the follow up tlt shots did another two and Miranda finished her off before she could shoot in the following turn.
I had thought that this match was in the bag but I encountered the same problem, proximity mines didn’t do enough damage to Fenn, and when Fenn got behind Miranda at low health I rand instead of keeping all tlts together. The game ended as time was called with Miranda going down to Fenn at range 3, Manaroo at 2 hull and Fenn at 1 hull.
Loss 58-100
Match 5: Bossk/Manaroo [Daryl McMillan table 11]
- Manaroo- Predator, Experimental Interface, “Gonk”, Punishing One, R5-P8;
- Bossk- Fearlessness, Cluster Missiles, “Mangler” cannon, Guidance chips, Zuckuss, 4-LOM, Dengar, Inertial Dampeners.
Daryl has a fancy looking squad on the table which I saw the day before, but I only saw the models, not how the squad works. What surprised me was the 50 point Manaroo with the Punishing One title and other goodies, but I fell into the trap of being afraid of Bossk.
This list is a good example of why target selection is so important, I think if I had done everything the same, but focused on Manaroo while I had all of my ships this game would have been turned on its head. At the same time I can’t take away from Daryl’s win, he trashed me and went on to the top 8 in day 2, well played sir.
Loss 50-100
Match 6: Miranda, Jan, Airen [Doug Stone Weaver table 11]
- Miranda Doni- Autoblaster turret, Homing Missiles, Extra munitions, C-3PO, Guidance Chips;
- Jan Ors- Twin laser turret, Veteran instincts, Nien Numb;
- Airen Cracken- Homing Missiles, Guidance chips, Veteran instincts.
No picture for this match, I think I was in shock after losing Miranda so quickly.
Doug set up his stuff opposite me and I could understand the purpose of his squad, fully modified 6 dice homing missiles to put the hurt on high agility and high hit point ships. I mused that playing the Nascar game might help me out, but I decided that letting him chase me at range would let him get his munitions off.
I placed my ships down on my right side with the Y wings out front, and he set up across from me. Observing his approach speed I slow rolled with Miranda and target locked his Jan with long range scanners, and pushed my Ys up quick. On the last turn before engagement I know that he needed at least a 2 speed to get all of his ships in range of my Miranda, so I put in a 4 straight with my Y wings to block it. He dialed in a 1 straight, unblocked and the combo went off. The result of the salvo was devastating, I ended up killing Jan, but lost my whole squad in short order.
Sometimes alpha strike squads fizzle, sometimes this happens.
Loss 33-100
Match 7: Quickdraw and RAC [Mike Nordell table 11]
- Quickdraw- Opportunist, Electronic baffle, Cluster missiles, Special ops training, Guidance chips;
- Rear Admiral Chiraneau- Veteran instincts, Hotshot co-pilot, Operations specialist, Gunner.
If you’ve heard my last tournament report you might remember Mike, and I certainly did too. Honestly after winning two games, and losing four I didn’t expect to meet the guy who won the hanger bay tournament the day before. Knowing we weren’t in contention for any prizes this game ended up being both the silliest and most fun game of the day. I don’t remember much about the game specifically, but it was a very good end of the day, especially because it broke my losing streak leaving me with another win after the second round.
This game was so fun that after 7 rounds of X wing with no breaks (about 10am-8pm or so) I felt like I was ready for 7 more.
Win 100-27
Tournament overall 3 Wins, 4 Losses, 628 MOV, 35th place of 70.
Squarely in the middle of the pack in my first tournament (second if you consider a store championship with only four swiss rounds and ten players), I’m happy with my result. If any of you readers are considering going to a premier level X wing event I would encourage you to make the leap, even if you don’t think you’re very good. I will be posting articles detailing what I think is effective tournament preparations, but the advice I’d leave with you at this time is play all of your games, because you learn a lot playing against better players, and you’ll see yourself getting better at X wing over the course of just one day if you focus and keep a good attitude.
This has been an Other Red Five tournament report, stay tuned for more X wing and other gaming.
The Other Red Five 
Like I said the next day. A win is not worth my soul
LikeLiked by 1 person