This past weekend I attended the Mustafar System Open in San Antonio. It was a fun experience and I’ll give a little overview of the event below. But first, here’s what I flew.

All Wings Report In

X-Wing “Biggs Darklighter” (Original Core) (26 pts) (PS 5)

Other friendly ships at Range 1 cannot be targeted by attacks if the attacker could target you instead.

Modification- Integrated Astromech (T-70 X-Wing/Heroes of the Resistance Expansion)- When you are dealt a Damage card, you may discard 1 of your Astromech Upgrade cards to .discard that Damage card.

Integrated Astromech (T-70 X-Wing/Heroes of the Resistance Expansion)- When you are dealt a Damage card, you may discard 1 of your Astromech Upgrade cards to .discard that Damage card. Astromech- R4-D6 (Rebel Transport Expansion): When you are hit by an attack and there are at least 3 uncanceled Hit results, you may choose to cancel those results until there are 2 remaining. For each result canceled this way, receive 1 stress token.

ARC-170 “Thane Kyrell” (ARC-170 Expansion) (31 pts) (PS 4)

After an enemy ship in your firing arc at Range 1-3 attacks another friendly ship, you may perform a free action.

Crew- Jyn Erso (U-wing Expansion): Action: Choose 1 friendly ship at Range 1-2. Assign 1 focus token to that ship for each enemy ship inside your firing arc at Range 1-3. You cannot assign more than 3 focus tokens in this way.

Jyn Erso (U-wing Expansion): Choose 1 friendly ship at Range 1-2. Assign 1 focus token to that ship for each enemy ship inside your firing arc at Range 1-3. You cannot assign more than 3 focus tokens in this way. Astromech- M9-G8 (Heroes of the Resistance Expansion): When a ship you have locked is attacking, you may choose 1 attack die. The attacker must reroll that die. You can acquire target locks on other friendly ships.

M9-G8 (Heroes of the Resistance Expansion): When a ship you have locked is attacking, you may choose 1 attack die. The attacker must reroll that die. You can acquire target locks on other friendly ships. Title- Alliance Overhaul (ARC-170 Expansion): When attacking with a primary weapon from your primary firing arc, you may roll 1 additional attack die. When attacking from your auxiliary firing arc, you may change 1 of your Focus results to a Crit result.

VCX-100 “Lothal Rebel” (Ghost Expansion) (43 pts) (PS 3)

None

Crew- Hera Syndulla (Ghost Expansion): You may reveal and execute red maneuvers even while you are stressed.

Hera Syndulla (Ghost Expansion): You may reveal and execute red maneuvers even while you are stressed. Crew- Rey (Heroes of the Resistance Expansion): At the start of the End phase, you may place 1 of your ship’s focus tokens on this card. At the start of the Combat phase, you may assign 1 of those tokens to your ship.

Rey (Heroes of the Resistance Expansion): At the start of the End phase, you may place 1 of your ship’s focus tokens on this card. At the start of the Combat phase, you may assign 1 of those tokens to your ship. System- Fire Control System (B-Wing/TIE Phantom Expansion)- After you perform an attack, you may acquire a target lock on the defender.

Fire Control System (B-Wing/TIE Phantom Expansion)- After you perform an attack, you may acquire a target lock on the defender. Turret- Dorsal Turret (Ghost Expansion): Attack(Range 1-2, 2 Die): Attack 1 ship (even a ship outside your firing arc). If the target of this attack is at Range 1, roll 1 additional attack die.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

If you’re unfamiliar with the X-wing System Open series the main idea is several large tournaments are held around the world. Each tournament corresponds to a particular planet, in this case Mustafar. The winner of each tournament will get a free trip to Star Wars Celebration to compete in the Coruscant tournament for galactic domination. The format for this tournament was seven rounds on day one and then everyone with five wins participates in another two rounds on day two. Then a cut to top eight. I went 4-3 on day one so missed the cut by one game.

I didn’t get the official number of attendees but it was around 104. There were tables for 112 but the last 2-3 were empty during the first round. We had people come in from all over the country and a few from outside the country. Lot’s of new people to meet and compete against. As has been my usual experience with X-wing players, all were friendly and great to fly against.

List Summary

M9-G8 proved to be a great addition and would be the standout upgrade for the tournament. Forcing the biggest threat to reroll a die every attack helped reduce my incoming damage (especially when it was something like a Ghost with TLT that could make three attack rolls a round). It didn’t always remove a damage but many times it at least turned a Critical into just a regular hit. I never once got to use R4-D6 as I would either roll enough evades to reduce the number of hits to two or there would be a crit.

Thane Kyrell did exactly what I hoped, gaining lots of action economy in the early rounds as your opponent is forced to fire on Biggs. He can give Biggs extra focus tokens thanks to Jyn, get himself a target lock to make use of M9-G8 and of course give himself a focus to use on his attack. He dished out decent damage and even ended up being my end game ship a few times.

The Ghost herself did a great job of dishing out damage and being action independent. Building up a few focus tokens early with Rey helped as the FCS maintained target locks throughout the game, no matter how many stress you gained with back to back k-turns thanks to Hera. The turret didn’t prove that useful most games and only ever got used once or twice. If I few this again I would probably switch out to an autoblaster turret and Tactical Jammer.

My general tactic was to set up on the left side of the board with the Ghost blocking Biggs and Thane from the center of the board. Then I would either joust if someone came right at me or fly up nice and slow waiting for my opponent to come at be from the side or try and sneak behind. Ideally I tried to take a hard turn on turn three. I positioned two obstacles along the edge so I could turn all my ships inbetween them after moving forward twice. This ended up working remarkably well most games. I got into trouble one game when I had misplaced one and ended up stressing Thane in a crucial round.

Round 1 (1-0)

Opponent- Kanan (VCX-100) + Biggs (X-Wing) + Sabine (Attack Shuttle)

Ghost vs Ghost in the opening round. I thought I would be at a big disadvantage here as his Biggs was loaded out and he had the pilot skill advantage on me. His Biggs had R2-F2, Stealth Device, got an Evade token from Jan Ors plus more focus from Jyn Erso, and Ghost had a Tactical Jammer. First pass he rolled six green dice. On an X-wing. Needless to say the first engagement I did no damage.

Fortunately, his list was far more action dependent than mine. Since I moved first, I could make him bump into me. This brought the second round defense dice for Biggs to four (lost range 3 and R2-F2). With Ghost getting a range one shot (now modified by target lock) plus two more attacks I was able to strip the stealth device and really weaken him. My Biggs survived long enough that my Ghost managed get ahead of the damage exchange with his Ghost and come out alive at the end.

Round 2 (2-0)

Opponent- Rear Admiral Chiraneau (Decimator) + Maarek Steele (TIE Defender)

I thought I was in trouble on this one. I had misjudged Thane’s turn and got him stressed early, preventing him from getting his free actions. The Decimator also had Vader and Hotshot Co-Pilot and made me spend some unnecessary focus tokens. Fortunately, the Decimator couldn’t withstand three attacks for more than a few rounds and ended up Vadering himself to kill Biggs. After that Maarek proved less troublesome than Ryad would be in later rounds.

Round 3 (2-1)

Opponent- Vader (TIE Advanced) + Quickdraw (TIE/sf) + Colonel Vessery (TIE Defender)

My first loss. And one I could have won if I had been a jerk. He showed up a little late and took forever to get set up. And then took forever to make decisions each round. Had I rushed him or asked a TO to enforce the five minute to start rule I might not have lost. Now, I can take quite a long time to make decisions sometimes too so I understand that. But if I’m already kind of slow and ended up sitting for minutes doing nothing then you know it’s a little excessive.

Though, in the end, it didn’t come down to time and I got completely tabled so he also knew what he was doing. He ended up making it to day two. He was a nice guy and I don’t really think it was a deliberate delay strategy. He did a really good job of keeping his ships from getting shot by my ships in consecutive rounds. This undermined the effectiveness of FCS on the Ghost and M9-G8. I damaged both Vessery and Vader but couldn’t get the kills on either.

Round 4 (3-1)

Opponent- Rey (YT-1300) + Miranda (K-Wing)

After getting completely tabled I ended up tabling my next opponent. I didn’t even lose Biggs or half points on the Ghost. Very unusual. I managed to get Miranda down before she could do any bomb shenanigans and after that it was just a matter of whittling down the Falcon.

Round 5 (4-1)

Opponent- Dengar (Jumpmaster) + Manaroo (Jumpmaster)

I had tested several lists against Dengaroo and the first list that won was the list I took to the tournament. So it was a relief to actually face one in the tournament, meaning all that practice was not for nothing, and to win, validating the list’s strengths. I managed to lull Dengar into an approach across the center of the board so I could turn my whole force at him at once. Dengar can do damage but he can also melt fast if the dice aren’t with him. He had to burn countermeasures early and didn’t take Biggs out in return as I refused to let Biggs fire on him while he was countermeasured and in arc. After that I got Ghost in behind him with a K-turn and he couldn’t sloop thanks to a rock. That saved Ghost from the retaliatory strike after Biggs dropped so I had plenty of health left to take out Manaroo.

Round 6 (4-2)

Opponent- Kanan (VCX-100) + Biggs (X-Wing) + Zeb (Shuttle)

Another Ghost vs Ghost match. This time the list wasn’t so super geared toward keeping Biggs alive but toward being a threat all the way through. Kanan came equipped with Rey and Recon Specialist so by the time we engaged he got to use three focus tokens a turn. He also employed a clever tactic by maneuvering to keep his main arcs on my Ghost and not Biggs. That way he had done some heavy damage to my Ghost. By the time Biggs died Ghost followed soon after. It was expertly played.

Round 7 (4-3)

Oppponent- Vessery (TIE Defender) + Ryad (TIE Defender) + Lambda

I thought I had this one. I managed to nuke Vessery down to one health before Biggs died. Unfortunately, in order to be able to finish Vessery off I ended up putting Ghost in a bad position. He lost Biggs protection, got beaten down some and then was in a terrible location. I couldn’t K-turn without landing on a rock and I couldn’t make any other maneuvers and still get a shot or not get double teamed by Ryad and the shuttle. It came down to Thane vs Ryad and the shuttle limping along. I couldn’t chase the shuttle to finish it off without being creamed by Ryad and I couldn’t kill Ryad with one attack. That focus + evade + Palpatine is tough.

Hangar Bay

Since I didn’t get five wins but was still in San Antonio I decided to stick around the next day and play in the Hangar Bay tournament. This was an interesting set up. Groups of eight in three rounds. Each person brought two lists and you picked one of yours after seeing your opponents two lists. I brought Parattanni and a Force Order Aces (Quickdraw, Backdraft, Omega Leader). I’ll do write ups about those lists later. Won my second two games but my first was a disaster. I made a boneheaded maneuver in the second round that got Quickdraw nuked early. A fun little side event though.

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