This is the second post on this blog written by my good friend, Matt Cary. I wasn’t able to make it up to the Crossroads Classic, so he took over the responsibility of reporting on his experiences there. Here’s what he has to say about the weekend:

This last weekend I had the opportunity to fly some ships in the Crossroads Classic III at Family Time Games in Indianapolis, Indiana. Home of the Hangar 19 gents, this is where I cut my teeth in big boy tournaments at the 2017 Indianapolis Regional and promptly got wrecked, going 1-5. But having quite a bit more experience and a few tourney wins under my belt, I felt my chances this time around were a bit better.

Most of the Arch Alliance crew in attendance that day.

At 10-ish in the morning, the Arch Alliance guys and myself rolled up to the shop. With 84 participants, the 11 of us had good chance of making the top cut just by shear numbers alone.

Having flown against both the Barrage Rocket swarm and the Sloane swarm at the Gold Squadron Classic, I realized Boba/Guri probably wasn’t going to cut it if I came across many of those. I stole some elements of a list from fellow Arch Alliance member Mark Myers, replacing his Fenn Rau with Guri. Going into the tournament, my list had a 9-0 winning record so I was pretty confident. Naturally, I had an INSANE bid of 19 points.

GURI DETOX (181)

Guri – Adv Sensors

Old Teroch – Fearless

Palob Godalhi – Moldy Crow, Debris Gambit

Round 1 – Christopher “Chico” Brown

Fenn Rau – Fearless

Guri – Adv Sensors

Zealous Recruit

My first round opponent was the familiar face of Chico Brown from OCX Radio podcast. Looking at his list, Fenn Rau was target #1 since I outbid his Guri (it turns out being a bit crazy with your bid works). This match was largely a limp-wristed slap fight since neither of could do better than one damage whenever we attacked. The tipping point, however, was when Fenn Rau suffered a critical hit which when flipped was a Panicked Pilot. That left Fenn predictable enough to whittle down. Chico was able to chip Old Teroch down to half points while my Guri and Palob sat safely with all their points intact. Unfortunately, other than that damage done to those fangs, I cannot remember what the MOV spread was. I remembered to record my opponent’s names and their lists, but I forgot to record the MOV specifics or to take pictures even though I was specifically asked by the Midwest Scrub to do so (Sorry, Dan!).

Round 2 – Nathan Morgan

Darth Vader – Supernatural Reflexes, Fire Control Systems

“Redline” – Proton Bombs, Proton Torpedoes, Concussion Missiles, Adv Sensors

Scimitar – Barrage Rockets

My second opponent’s list was a bit disconcerting with Darth Vader looming in at I6 with no need to take green tokens that I could steal. However, the rest of his list would be effectively neutered by Old T’s detokening coupled with Palob’s jam and thievery. I faked towards “Redline” and his little brother with Old T and Palob while dangling Guri in front of Vader, then turned all my guns on the Dark Lord of the Sith, leaving both ordinance carriers facing the wrong direction. “Fortunately” Vader jumped into range one of Guri, face-to-face. He spent a force charge to get there and another for double mods, leaving him less defensive, while giving Guri her Focus token to back up the Calculate action. Vader unloaded hit, hit, crit, crit into Guri to which she rolled blank, blank, evade, landing a direct hit and a disabled power regulator. Sad face. In exchange, Vader took shots from all three of my ships, stripping his shields and giving him a weapons failure crit. The next round, Vader finished off Guri’s ionized behind, and Old T ended the Dark Jedi. I don’t think Nathan’s list did any more damage past that as the both the bomber and the punisher never had mods to help their two-die primaries. A win, 200 – 70.

To be honest Old Teroch was the part of my list that I had the least confidence in, but he proved his worth in this one match.

Round 3 – Andrew Schular

Boba Fett – Marauder, Han Solo, 0-0-0, Debris Gambit, Shield Upgrade, Contraband Cybernetics

Guri – Outmaneuver, Adv Sensors, Afterburners

Andrew Schular was unfortunate. Firstly, because he was flying almost exactly my Boba/Guri list from the Gold Squadron Classic (trading Proton Bombs for Contraband Cybernetics), so I knew its ins and outs. Secondly, because my stupid large bid paid off again, allowing me to move second. And lastly, because he placed his Guri on a rock by a millimeter or less, allowing my Fang and Viper to sink range one shots into her uncontested. She still survived past that, but the Moldy Crow put the final shot in at range two. With zero damage to my list, Andrew ceded the win to me, 200 – 0. We spoke for a little afterward about the match, and he admitted that he would have been too tilted by that round of combat to enjoy the match. There is wisdom in that, because while we are here to win, if we’re not having fun doing it what is the point? Andrew, I hope your day went better after that match.

Round 4 – Nate Moore

“Whisper” – Juke

Captain Jonus – Barrage Rockets

3 x Scimitar Squadron Pilots – Barrage Rockets

I had met Nate Moore at the Gold Squadron Classic and chatted it up a bit there, so at least this match I was soundly beaten by someone I was mildly familiar with. If you’d like to watch the match, it was streamed by Gold Squadron on their YouTube Channel. I had practiced for this list and utterly destroyed it, but Whisper refusing to take damage on the first engagement pretty much sunk my chance at winning the game. When time was called I think I only had Jonus and half of 2 Scimitars down while I lost Teroch and Godalhi. (EDIT: I watched the match, and I lost Guri, too.) Nate flew well and my dice were sub-par, giving me my first loss with my list. That made the list record 11-1 all time and 3-1 at the tourney, so still not too shabby.

Round 5 – Dominic Brown

Boba Fett – Marauder, Han Solo, Seismic Charges

4-Lom – Elusive, 0-0-0

Palob Godalhi – Moldy Crow

Remember what I said earlier about having fun while playing the game? I did not have fun this game. Old T rolled six blanks in a row versus seven hits in the first engagement. He wouldn’t have survived the first shot if Concordia Faceoff hadn’t saved him, but the second volley took him. Dominic’s red dice consistently rolled three paint results each shot, and I rolled a total of five evade results the entire game. One of the best and, conversely, worst things about this second edition of X-Wing is that the dice variance is so much more impactful. This game was a prime example of that fact, and the variance did not swing in my favor. I walked away salty, and since even writing about it again is getting me salty once more, that’s all I’ll say about the match and take Andrew’s philosophy of just walking away. Loss, 55-200.

Round 6 – Alex Smittle

Fenn Rau – Fearless

Kavil – R4 Astromech, Han Solo, Expert Handling, Proton Torpedoes, Dorsal Turret

2 x Jakku Gunrunner

My sixth round matched me up against a fellow Arch Alliance member, Alex Smittle. Which, with how many of us there were, I’m surprised that he was the first I had to play. Alex currently lives and plays in Kansas City, but he grew up in St. Louis, so we claim him. With both of us at 3 – 2 and decently high MOV, whoever won would make the cut. Well, in sharp contrast to my game against Dominic, this was the most fun I’ve ever had playing 2nd Edition and maybe even X-Wing.

The game started with Fenn Rau blanking out range 3 to a hit and crit from the HWK’s turret while doing zero damage back. We both just kind of sighed, laughed, and thought that was the end of the game decided on the first engagement. How wrong we were. Next turn Palob was nuked hard by a range one Fenn Rau, followed by Kavil’s Proton Torpedo. This left Guri and Old T to finish the job the HWK started on Fenn. With Fenn gone, both Quads took some beatings, getting to half health. Meanwhile, Kavil dropped down to hull. Guri was melting both of our minds, since neither of us knew where she would be after a tractor beam. (As an aside, that is one of the weirdest rulings by FFG in 2nd Edition. Am I engaging my microthrusters to help the tug? Not necessarily a bad ruling, but… weird… to say the least.)

I’m glad these guys are hitting the spotlight. When I built Scum lists in first edition, they always started with the Jakku Funrunner. And the ship has only gotten better!

Despite the tractoring, I managed to keep Guri on the board, off of rocks, and out of arcs even with all of those things being danger close. It looked like I had the game in hand, but in one turn, a tractor beamed Teroch lost all four hull. Kavil’s dorsal turret is a beast, and if the price of turrets never go down, blame Kavil. And so the game swung back in Alex’s favor. With Guri at one hull, I had to do work. Now his ships could freely focus again, so I had to actually worry about the Tugs’ primaries while dodging both of Kavil’s arcs (Proton Torpedoes would have ended her easily). Guri danced her dance and eliminated both Tugs while getting Kavil down to four hull. I had the game in hand, and all I had to do was run away. Guri running from a clunky Y-wing would be simple. But again, remember what I said about playing to have fun and not just winning? That’s why I’m here, and I was having one hell of a fun game. I dialed in a four forward, Advanced Sensors’d a barrel roll to face Kavil and drove into range 1, face to face. Both our shots would be fully modded with lock and focus. I need four damage, he needed 1. He shot first and got full damage, and I couldn’t avoid it. My best hope now was mutually assured destruction for final salvo. I rolled a natural four damage, and he rolled… 1 evade, winning the match. We laughed and talked about how intense and fun of a game it was. This is what X-wing should be.

So in the end, I broke even at 3-3 along with two of my Arch Alliance squadmates while several did better. But my best opponent, Alex, went on to the top 16 cut, and ***SPOILERS*** he kept on winning until the very end, beating Dominic Brown’s super dice in the final to be the first non-Krayt to win the Crossroads Classic! (EDIT: The match is now up on Gold Squadron’s YouTube channel.) After he won, I gave Alex a hug and told him that I was so happy that I lost to him so that he could go on to take the top spot. I can’t wait to watch the match once Gold Squadron gets it up. Congratulations again, Alex Smittle! (And congratulations to another Arch Alliance member, Mark Myers, for winning the Wave 1 limited format at Crossroads Classic III, as well!)

Zac Matthews, Nathan Eide, and Alex Smittle – Crossroads Classic Champs and Zach Bart, who organized the event.

Back to Dan:

So for those keeping track at home, members of Arch Alliance have made it out to two major second edition tournaments. And in both of those tournaments, an Arch Alliance member took the top spot. Just saying.

If you are in the St. Louis area or coming to visit, reach out to Arch Alliance X-Wing on Facebook to find out where we are playing on any given night.