On Star Wars day (May the 4th), I made the drive to The Geekery in Shawnee Mission, Kansas (the land of my birth) to play in a Hyperspace Trial. Word of mouth from the locals gave an expected turnout of 50-60 people. Turned out it was more like 30, pretty light for a Hyperspace Trial in the U.S. The thing was, most of the 30ish that showed up were the people you expect to be competing for the spot, tournament regulars who have reasonable expectations of positive results. So with that size, we had five rounds of Swiss, five hard rounds.



My squad for the event was Wedge Antilles, Luke Skywalker, Thane Kyrell (all in X-wings), and Jake Farrell (in his A-wing). My only upgrades were Servomotor S-foils for a total of 198 points. Earlier versions of the list included a couple copies of Crack Shot, but they weren't often used, so I went for the bid. Neither are generally too consequential.



The genesis of this squad was an outgrowth of my experience at Adepticon with the 4 Sabers Squadron Aces + Baron of the Empire list. I liked the speed and offensive power of that list, and went 4-2 with a die roll between me and 5-1. It's an incredibly stressful to fly for a long tournament, though. You have to get a lot of moves correct, and there's a lot of hoping defense dice don't come up low and make you lose a ship in a key moment. I looked for ships that could move and hit hard, but wouldn't drop so easily. I was looking for ships that could hang in combat for a turn or two with a reasonable expectation of not getting initiative killed in the first round of heavy combat. T65s fit that description and were reasonably cheap with lots of high Initiative pilots. Wedge, Luke, and Thane left 38 points, which was a great fit for Jake. Altogether, the list had 3 i5+ fast jousters with a little support ship/pocket ace.





Squad Breakdown:

Wedge Antilles: Wedge is a really solid 52 point ship, which I know is not a surprise to most people, but it doesn't have to be. He hits hard and he hits first. He makes sure damage goes through. Half his defense stems from killing things before they get to shoot.



Luke Skywalker: Luke is the best ship in this squad. Force, in huge quantities, is silly good. Of the X-wings, he's the one that most effectively acts like an ace. He can barrel roll and get modded shots and he easily gets double modded offensive shots. He gets mods on red moves, after moving over rocks, and when blocked. He just keeps doing his thing. He's amazing against high numbers of low quality attacks. These things combine to make him terrific in the blocking mess that happens vs swarms.



Thane Kyrell: Thane is an i5 X-wing. That's cool because it means he usually doesn't get dropped right away and he can Initiative Kill those i4s in Rebel Beef and TIE Swarms. His ability is gambling, but it's gambling with house money. It's not needed to make him effective, but it occasionally makes him much better than his 48 points. It's especially nice against high defense ships, where even shots from bad positions can do something useful because he can flip up a card before defense dice are rolled.



Jake Farrell: Jake is part support ship, part blocker, part ace. He can sometimes do all 3 in one game, but usually only does two, which is fine. Because of the threat of the X-wings, he's usually free to go wherever he wants, which is handy.



Servomotor S-foils: These are a key part of how I played the squad. Coming recently from playing a lot of TIE Interceptors, I liked being able to boost. While the Servomotor boost limits offense, it's very useful in those pre-combat turns where you're setting up the engagement you want. You can cover ground with 3-4 speed moves + boost to flank or close with a target. Or you can just use it to adjust angles to make it easier to move around rocks. Every once in a while, it's even useful in combat to boost out of bad situations or bring a target into arc when you wouldn't get a shot otherwise. It's a great set of abilities that makes the X-wing a flexible ship. S-foils with the X-wing dial are the principal reason I used Thane instead of Braylen. Braylen is a combat powerhouse, but he's basically stuck in the same spot. Thane can be more dynamic as needed.





Historical analogy of limited usefulness:

The TIE Interceptors I've been playing for the past several months strike me as being a historical analog to shock cavalry. They can move quickly around the battlefield, and they strike very hard, but have to repeatedly disengage, reform, and strike again. They don't have the ability to sit in one place and fight. Stuff like Y-wings, B-wings, and TIE Bombers are more like heavy infantry. They can occupy a place and fight it out. X-wings are a bit like dragoons (mounted infantry). They chance around the battlefield quickly, but they fight dismounted, so they can occupy an area and control it like infantry. It's an imperfect analogy, but I found the combination of fast flanking movement combined with the ability to just 1-forward for a couple turns once you're in a good position to be terrifically useful.





Usage:

I typically split the squad into two elements, the main line with Luke and Thane and the flank with Wedge and Jake. Typically Wedge would head out at high speed (S Foils closed for a while) with Jake following behind. With closed foils, you can get a few more movement options with Jake's ability. He can grant Wedge a Focus action, then Wedge links that into a boost, then later reveals a green move to clear stress. Luke and Thane would it often move more slowly, approaching the opposing squad through obstacle cover. They would boost or barrel roll as necessary to try and tike their approach correctly. Generally, with squads that moved after my own, I'd keep these two groups relatively close to support each other. Against heavier squads, the flankers would split wider to try and force the opposing squad to pick a direction. I would try to put the flanking group in a position where they could easily break away if engaged. If my initial positioning was good, Luke could absorb a lot of fire. Thane could be seriously damaged, but he also mattered the least. After the opening engagement, at least some of my ships would be flanking, and they could pursue while my ships that had been targeted could try and get out for a turn.





The Swiss Rounds:



Round 1 vs William?(I forgot to make note of names, apologies to those who I've forgotten) using Luminara, Sinker, and 4 V19 Torrents.



This was an interesting squad that a few people brought to the tournament. Sinker supported the Torrents for a big, durable block of re-rolling ships. Luminara was a little further to one side and added another two dice gun and proved defense to the clones by downgrading attack dice at opportune times. Wedge and Jake successfully flanked, attacking from the side at close range, while Luke and Thane attacked from long range from the front of the opposing formation. This generated a big early damage advantage that I was able to lean on by continuing to initiative kill the generics. It took all 75 minutes to get through the squad, though, which is a testament to it's durability, as these X-wings hit hard.

Record: 1-0





Round 2 vs Bryan, Same squad as Game 1



I used the same setup as Game 1, but he had a better formation than my first opponent and it concentrated fire and blocked very effectively. Mid game, I had a chance to try and take Sinker off the board, but played it too defensively and paid for it. It was a situation where I dialed in the aggressive moves with some ships but not others because I didn't think clearly about what I needed to do that turns. Consequently, I failed to drop Sinker and the Torrents put me too far behind in the damage race, due in no small part to the continued re-rolls provided by Sinker.



Record: 1-1



Round 3 vs ? 5As

5As are scary to this squad because the X-wings definitely take damage from 2 hit attacks, and those A-wings put put a lot of 2 hit attacks. My strategy was to try and flank hard with Wedge to get early shots on the AS before they engaged my main guys, while pulling back with Luke and Thane. It worked, getting me a few early points and getting the i1 A-wing off the board early. Once the main body engaged, it was my bigger shots vs his smaller, but more numerous shots. I was able to get half points on all the A-wings but one, and sustained shield damage on my X-wings. I was up on points after he passed over my ships and used rear arcs, so I followed his A's slowly to let them get some distance and get me an extra evade die. The game ended with X-wings in slow pursuit of a bunch of beat up RZ2s. There were at least two X-wings with shields down but no damage, and so close to giving up points. I had to pull Luke out of the fight for most of the game so he wouldn't give up a sizable chunk of MOV at half hit points. Essentially, my strategy was to slowly pursue from a defensive position, hoping to try and jump the A-wings when they had to turn and expose a flank. The game ended before I got the chance.



Record: 2-1



Round 4 vs ? Maul and 4 ESC Droids

This was another game where Jake shined. We both split wide, with Wedge/Jake facing off against Maul and Luke/Thane facing off against the Droids. He turned Maul in to support the Droids and I moved Wedge at top speed to try and damage Maul before he could support the Droids. The droids ended up smashing Thane and took relatively little damage from the X-wings. Likewise, Maul didn't take much from Wedge due to a combo of dice and defensive upgrades. Jake was able to pull off a block of Maul's 5k that took him out of the game for several turns, letting the rest of the squad finish off the Droids while losing Luke. The end game was Jake and Wedge vs a half point Maul. There were 3-4 turns totally on edge, because Maul always had the chance to do huge damage to pull ahead in points. The final key move was Wedge closing S-foils to hard turn and focus linking to a boost to catch Maul's K-turn and fire at range 1 to take the last two HP and end the game. That roll was a clencher. 3 dice should get two symbols more than 80% of the time, but you know how that goes.



I think I tried to get too clever in my engagement. I should have just grouped Wedge with the other X-wings and jousted the droids off the board before turning to Maul. Barely clearing a handful of moves and then blocking Maul's K-turn helped bring the game back, but I don't think it should have been as close.



Record 3-1



Round 5 Vs Ricky, Inferno Swarm

The classic TIE swarm. I s wung wide with Wedge and Jake to try and come at the swarm from two sides. I knew the swarm would dominate in a joust, but if they had to commit to a direction, some part of my squad would be able to pursue. The swarm engaged Thane and Luke at long range, doing a bit of damage, but Wedge and Jake effectively engaged the swarm from the flank, doing a bit of damage and forcing Iden to spend her charge. At that point it became a grind out with Luke and Thane engaging up the middle, leaning on the ability to initiative kill ships before they fired, as well as Luke's constant defense. Dice in the middle of the game favored me, letting Thane live a turn longer than he should have, but it felt like the real advantage was having ships coming from two directions into the swarm. More on this in the next post or two.



Due to the small size, that was the last of the Swiss rounds. Because this was a one day event, we pushed on to the elimination rounds with a minimum of a break.



Elimination rounds:



Round 1 Vs Aaron, Vader, Howlrunner, Iden, 2 Academy Pilots



During obstacle placement, my opponent put the long cloud in the middle of the board, aligned east-west to form a wall. This ended up being important. We basically jousted each other, slightly offset. He moved TIEs up behind the cloud wall, I moved up in a gap. Vader took a chunk out of Jake, and dodged all the return fire. However, based on positions, Vader had to turn away to avoid getting lit up at range 1 next turn, and the TIE Fighters had to go through the cloud, leaving them with no actions. Combined with subsequent K-turns from the TIE fighters, this gave the X-wings a couple of turns to engage TIE Fighters that had no actions. A 2-3 TIE fighters were down by the time Vader got back in the fight, and all 3 X-wings could put guns into him. On to Round 2 of elimination.



Round 2 vs Bryan, Luminara, Sinker, 4 Torrents.



By this point it's getting late, and I don't have strong recollections of the game, but it's a rematch of Round 2 of Swiss, my only loss. Bryan had gone on to go 5-0 in Swiss and (obviously) win his first Elimination match. I do remember that my dice were better than the first time I faced Bryan, and I made Sinker my number one target. This made his Torrents much less effective and let the X-wings survive more easily.



Round 3 vs Justin, Cassian with Leia, Braylen, Wedge, Biggs



It's about 11:00 pm by this point, 12 hours or so after we started. I fall back to my standard opening against heavier jouster lists. You've heard it before, but it keeps working. Wedge and Jake flank wide to try and engage from the rear or the flank as Thane and Luke slowly approach from the front to try and keep him from turning the squad to face Wedge, but not going so fast that they engage before Wedge flanks. He has a train coming through the asteroids from the middle-west of the board, Thane and Luke come in from the south east, slowly moving through the asteroid field. Wedge and Jake are going over the top in the north, around the field to try and engage from the rear. Cassian and Biggs are leading his train, Braylen and Wedge are in the rear. My Wedge successfully gets around the flank, having a big rock in the way of the opposing squad and the moves they need to engage Wedge. The turn of the first engagement, I bank Luke in to engage the front of his formation. T hane is too close to 1-bank in next turn, though, so he 4-straights diagonally across Cassian's and Biggs' arcs and closes foils to boost out of their arcs. This move actually gives Thane shots on Braylen, who banked northeast to shoot my Wedge. Along with Wedge's shots, Braylen's shields get dropped, and Luke and Jake trade shots with Biggs and Cassian, as the opposing Wedge is too far back.



The following turn, Thane and Wedge perform classic rebel 1-speed maneuvers to keep guns on Braylen, Jake moves in, and Luke boosts past Biggs and Cassian to block Wedge (and save himself from getting shot). Jake takes fire from Biggs and Cassian and blanks out on defense twice, and is gone. Sadly, Thane and Wedge at range 1 of Braylen can't take his last 4 hit points. Not only does he survive, he then puts 4 damage into Thane. Due to earlier damage, both Thane and Luke are in the "danger zone" of getting initiative killed by the opposing Wedge. On the subsequent turn, everybody turns around. Wedge kills Thane, and it takes both Luke's and Wedge's shots to finish off Braylen. Now it's just Wedge vs Biggs/Wedge/Cassian (all with minor damage). He's a bit spread out by this point, though, so through a series of maneuvers, taking shots where able, I get the opposing Wedge down to 1 hp, Biggs down to 2 or 3, and Cassian down to 1 hp. My Wedge has shields down.



At the end state of the game, Biggs is up in the northwest corner, recovering from a K-turn and without a shot. Cassian is in the center of the board, pointing northeast, his Wedge is in the center of the board pointing southwest, and my Wedge is toward the midwest of the board pointing toward the northeast. Our Wedges are facing off. My plan at this point is to sell out on offense to try and take the last hp off his Wedge, then next turn flee away from Biggs and toward Cassian to finish him off, then try to get a safe approach on Biggs to finish him off in a turn or two. Alas, the opposing Wedge rolled hit/hit/crit, my Wedge rolled a blank, and the crit was Console Fire, which triggered, doing 4 damage to my Wedge. Game Over.



If I'm being honest, this was a tough game to get over. I'm not all the way there yet. I feel as though most of my moves were correct, with a couple of sub-optimal, but not critical decisions. I felt like my ships were in the right place to get the job done, but variance kept working hard against me. At the same time, I understand that it was the last game in a long day of X-wing, on my 20th hour awake, and my understanding of the game might not be as close to reality as I would hope. Nevertheless, my opponent did what he needed to do and got his ticket punched to Worlds, so congratulations to Justin.



Thanks to all my opponents for being classy guys and keeping the game fun, even in a competitive setting. I try to do the same.





It's looking like this tournament will be the only Hyperspace Trial I'll get a chance to attend for this round of trials, so the next big event is probably Gencon. That's almost 3 months away, though, so it's probably experimental stuff for a while.



Thanks for reading.