After scrubbing out of the Top 64 of the National Championship, Cobra and I also participated in the Pirate Tournament side event. This was a unique event with a cool and low-key ruleset. The event required that each player’s list have (1) nothing unique, (2) only 1 of any particular ship type, and (3) may be cross faction. Since I play all three factions, I decided to feature one ship from each of the factions:

• Glaive TIE Defender – TIE/x7, Veteran Instincts

• Wookie Liberator Auzituck – Expertise, Tactician, K4 Security Droid

• Black Sun Assassin Starviper – Expertise, Autothrusters, Mk.2 title

The goal was to use the Viper as a knife fighter, the Glaive to out PS and outlast most other generic ships, and then the Auzituck to act as cleanup machine (getting full mods from K4 and Expertise while also handing out Tactician stress and reinforcing). Cobra ran a mixture of VI scum generics.

Round 1: Win

Prior to this round I had never gotten any practice with this list. And frankly, I didn’t want to put much into it. I had already played 7 rounds of X wing in less than 24 hours and wanted to just play something fun, regardless of how things went.

My opponent ran a generic version of Inquisitor-Countdown-Kylo. We met in the middle of the board and the tactician Wookie did work handing out stress to prevent the Silencer from triggering advanced sensors. Seeing a good opportunity, I pursued the Silencer and eliminated it. The TAP was next, again caught in the stress giving arc and then eliminated by the Glaive and Viper. The Striker was only a matter of time being chased by ships getting full mods.

Round 2: Loss

The second round pitted me against the eventual winner of the mini-tournament. He was running a near mirror to my list, except he flipped the Wookie for a VI Kimogila. My opponent won the initiative war, which made things more complicated. Staring at the harpoons loaded on the Kimo, it needed to die first. It did, but the Wookie took a ton of damage in the process. The Wookie died the next round, leaving me out PS’d and outmaneuvered without that wide, stress-giving arc. My opponent flew excellently and eventually picked my Viper and Defender apart.

Round 3: Win

Next I face a swarm list consistent of a Protectorate, an A Wing, a M3-A Interceptor, a Striker, and a Y Wing. This was a true mish-mash swarm with a little bit of everything. He created his formation in the middle of the board and flew straight at me. I split my forces, but was able to focus fire from multiple directions. Turn after turn I eliminated the ships in order, but it was certainly an exercise in flexible flying to not end up bumped and taking 4 shots.

Round 4: Loss

Another mish-mash, but this one was all scum: a Jumpmaster, a Kihraxz, a Z-95, and a Starviper. I lost this game on engagement as I flew my Defender to within Range 1 of the Jumpmaster. Some long range shots managed to plink 2 shields off the Glaive and strip some tokens, when the Jumpmaster dumped 4 hits (with fearlessness) and the Glaive blanked out. With 4 guns on the table against my Viper and Wookie, it was only a matter of time before they both ate it.

Round 5: Win

The actual championship had ended around the time this final round started. So this round would be the last official X Wing 1e premier event tournament round. It would also be my final 1e game ever. And boy was it a game!

My opponent ran a set of Imperials: a Silencer, a Defender, and a Special Forces. The TIE D Defender needed to die since I couldn’t have that tractor beam floating around my Wookie. I was able to kill it, but not before the Viper died to some good concentrated fire. My Wookie was able to throw some damage on the SF, but it died too. Which left my Defender against his Silencer and his SF. I killed the SF while it was trying to reposition for another pass. Which left my Defender against his Silencer, but his Silencer was worth 34 points to my 33.

After about 10 minutes of desperately trying to catch the Silencer in a corner, I realized that I had a 1 point bid! We both had 34 points left on the table. If time ran out while both ships were on the table, we would go to final salvo with 3 dice each. I not want that to happen, since there’s so much that could happen on 3 dice. I decided to pursue the Silencer and see if I could get the kill. After much dancing around one another, we were able to drop one another to just 1 hull each. Still pursuing, I jumped between two asteroids and barrel rolled to exchange range 1 shots. He rolled 4 hits after modifying his dice, so my Defender died. Both being PS8, I got my return shot. AND I ROLLED 4 HITS! So both of our ships died under simultaneous fire.

That left us at final salvo, rolling red dice equal to the printed values of our entire list together: 9 total for me and 8 for my opponent. I rolled 3 dice 3 times, and rolled 2 hits each time. My opponents first roll of 3 dice was all blanks! His remaining 5 dice wouldn’t be enough to beat my 6 hits, so I won!

Conclusion

I went 3-2 in the event, but that wasn’t my point of playing in the Pirate tournament. I saw the event as a send off for 1e, remembering the great things about the game and how much fun it could be. The event certainly lived up to that expectation.

In all the games of X Wing that I’ve played up to this point, I’ve never had a game go to final salvo. How fitting then that my final round of 1e, in the final round of the Pirate tournament, which was also the final premier 1e event, would so end? It was certainly a game to remember for me. I will 100% participate in the same event next year should the Nova Open be hosting it.

For what it’s worth, thanks for reading! I look forward to writing about this transition into 2e, and always feel free to give us feedback or ideas on things that you would like to see going forward.

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