A middling player’s battle report.

Toronto is a long way from Liberty Squadron’s home base in Philadelphia. Thankfully, Ted and I split the drive and chatted strategy to distract us from the beautiful New York scenery. The Saturday System Open was Extended format, requiring 5-1 in swiss to get that sweet world’s invite. Sunday Hyperspace was secondary on my mind, requiring 6-0. With the points adjustments, there were plenty of Extended boogeyman lists knocked out, yet shadows of their former selves remained. Quad Phantoms, Whisper/Soontir/Redline, and Boba and friends were the pre-balance dominators. But now, there was this new Leia thing to worry about.

The most fun I’ve had in X-wing comes from running highly maneuverable, low-initiative ships. The guessing game that is catching aces with their pants down is so much fun. With that in mind, some of my favorite ships (low-init RZ-1’s and Interceptors) are settling to the bottom of the barrel competitively so I went looking for replacements. Enter my tournament list:

Sloane Strikers (199 points)

Lieutenant Sai (47)

Tractor Beam (2)

Admiral Sloane (10)

ST-321 (4)

Planetary Sentinel (34)

Planetary Sentinel (34)

Planetary Sentinel (34)

Planetary Sentinel (34)

I had flown Strikers a few times previously, and anyone who flies them knows they can be quite squirrelly. Go fast? Check. Crabwalk? Check. Throws 3 dice? Check. Chris from the Liberty Squadron podcast pointed me to this list, and after some practice it clicked. He took a similar list to the 2018 Coruscant Invitational. Let’s get into the matches!

Day 1: Extended

Round 1 vs Mike Croft

Blue Squadron Pilot + Jamming Beam

Blue Squadron Pilot + Jamming Beam

Blue Squadron Pilot + Jamming Beam

Blue Squadron Pilot + Jamming Beam

“Zeb” Orrelios + Leia Organa

Brutal loss on round 1. Plenty of decent blocks, but the B-wings were quite beefy. I knew I’d have to flank to do some damage, but an early self-bump on Sai stalled my engagement. Great opponent, Mike went 4-2 to finish 27th.

0 Wins 1 Loss

Round 2 vs Bohan Li

Wedge Antilles + Servomotor S-foils

Luke Skywalker + Servomotor S-foils

Norra Wexley + Leia Organa

Tala Squadron Pilot + Selfless

Close match. Nailed the engagement I wanted and at the ranges I wanted. Nuked Luke off the board early with all my striker shots, then Wedge got in an unmodded 4-hit kill on Sai that clinched the game for Bohan. A reinforce instead of the focus would have barely saved it, but I was reaching for those free Sai attack mods. I must say, I love Leia in the Norra ARC-170 here, great choice.

0 Wins 2 Losses

Round 3 vs Nicholas Goutermout

Boba Fett + Debris Gambit + 0-0-0 + Slave I

Fenn Rau + Fearless

Ahhav + Trick Shot

First round of combat I (so wrongly) tractored Fenn into Range 1 shots for all the strikers putting through no damage, even with their focus mods. Followed up with range 3 k-turn shots and took him down the proper way. Sai bumped and exploded from Ahhav and Boba shots. Many turns later, two strikers chased down and plinked the last bit of damage from Boba, winning on time. It’s always nerve-wracking chasing Boba to get the last of the points you need, and Nick played it quite well.

1 Win 2 Losses

Round 4 vs Paul Field

Fenn Rau + Fearless

Guri + Outmaneuver + Advanced Sensors

Lok Revenant

Finally, a match-up my strikers were excited for! This game was a perfect learning experience. The tight rocks in the middle forced my swarm to slow down as it approached the asteroids from the right side. If you’ve ever played Strikers, you know that can be difficult. Strikers can leap-frog by activating a rear striker first, bumping your ailerons into the front Striker, then 2 speed over it to clear. Leap-frogging was essential this game, and was really the first game I could take full advantage of it.

Paul brought in Fenn and Guri from the left and flanked high with the Scurrg. Guri aced a Striker early and took 2 stress which shut her down enough to chase and kill her through that center rock. Sai fled and reinforced (and rolled natty hit+crit every attack..) while the strikers cleaned up Fenn and the Lok. Paul graciously tapped out, giving us some reprieve before the next match.

2 Wins 2 Losses

Round 5 vs Jason O’Gorman

Drea Renthal + Dorsal Turret

Crymorah Goon + Dorsal Turret + Veteran Turret Gunner

Crymorah Goon + Dorsal Turret + Veteran Turret Gunner

Crymorah Goon + Dorsal Turret + Veteran Turret Gunner

Torkil Mux

The angles on this engagement were as squirrelly as I could get them. You don’t want to straight joust a double-tap list like this. The lead Striker dropped to 1 hull, and broke off with an Aileron K-turn. The rest put some hurt on the lead Y-Wing. Torkhil was the true hero of the day here, forcing the strikers to Initiative 0, which allowed the Goons to PS-kill without that key return shot. With Sai circling the board and a lone Striker arc-dodging, Jason was up on points and took the game.

2 Wins 3 Losses

Round 6 vs Cliff Lindsay

Poe Dameron + Outmaneuver + BB Astromech + Integrated S-foils + Black One + Ion Missiles

Ello Asty + Outmaneuver + R3 Astromech + Integrated S-foils + Jamming Beam

L’ulo L’ampar + Heroic + Crack Shot + Advanced Optics

Some range control and my crazy debris-flying plinked an early damage lead on Ello, but I lost a striker to L’ulo. Fortunately, Sloane’s double stress crippled L’ulo’s options. Poe peaced-out after the first engagement, avoiding the wide arc spread. Poe unfortunately ended up pointing too close to a board edge flying off. Last game of the day, we were all fried.

3 Wins 3 Losses

Day 2: Hyperspace

Hyperspace! The format seemed limiting on paper when it appeared, but it has a unique balance that you won’t find in Extended. Sunday’s Hyperspace Qualifier was a more relaxed event. There were only 56 players compared to the previous day’s 132.

The List. With Leia coming in at 2 points, she’s effectively free if you bring a crew carrier. Having flown the U-Wing quite a bit, I was looking for something that could stand up to the alpha volleys popular in Hyperspace at the moment. Tripsilon, Rebel Beef, and Boba were on my mind and this list should be able to handle it all.

UXXYY Rebel Beef: 199 points

Partisan Renegade (43), Pivot Wing (0)

Leia Organa (2)

Tactical Officer (2)

Blue Squadron Escort (41), Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Blue Squadron Escort (41), Servomotor S-Foils (0)

Gray Squadron Bomber (31), Ion Cannon Turret (4)

Gray Squadron Bomber (31), Ion Cannon Turret (4)

Round 1 vs Jackie Luong

“Quickdraw” + Fanatical + Pattern Analyzer + Special Forces Gunner + Fire-Control System

Epsilon Squadron Cadet

“Longshot” + Fanatical

“Scorch” + Fanatical

“Muse” + Fanatical

Set up in the bottom left corner, and nailed the approach I wanted. The X’s nearly killed the Epsilon, and continued to punish the Tie/FOs with their slow maneuvers and approach angle. Quickdraw put in some good shots, taking down the U-wing after a Y popped to TIE shots. The U’s double-stop helped jam up Scorch on the debris. It’s a powerful move if you don’t anticipate taking shots.

1 Win 0 Losses

Round 2 vs Timothy Michael Duke

Wedge Antilles + Swarm Tactics + Servomotor S-foils

Thane Kyrell + Marksmanship + Servomotor S-foils

Garven Dreis + Marksmanship + Servomotor S-foils

Jek Porkins + Marksmanship + Servomotor S-foils

Tim ended up going 5-1 for 3rd place in Hyperspace that day, truly a great guy. He complimented my approach here, the wide net arcs managing to put some hurt on Wedge and Thane early. Leia shined, enabling some barrel roll blocks and maintained the action economy to pull through the victory. Thanks for the game Tim, and hope you got some sweet swag for 3rd place.

2 Wins 0 Losses

Round 3 vs James Carman

Vennie + Perceptive Copilot + Veteran Turret Gunner + Skilled Bombardier + Seismic Charges

L’ulo L’ampar + Heroic + Trick Shot

Greer Sonnel + Heroic + Trick Shot

Tallissan Lintra + Heroic + Trick Shot

Bummed I forgot the approach pic here, but with the RZ-2’s maneuverability it would have been just a snapshot of how much board distance was covered this game. A cheeky Y-wing pulled the 3-bank barrel roll for an early block on Vennie. Followed up by James rolling about 2 hits on 12 naked attack dice. Between blocks and debris, Vennie melted and then the A-wing squad did it’s thing. James played the papercut A-wings perfectly the rest of the match, taking down an X-wing and half points on the rest of my list.

2 Wins 1 Loss

With one loss on the record, Ted and I grabbed lunch and started the snowy drive home. Thanks to the PTL folks for organizing. They were dealing with app glitches, last-minute Cascade stuff, and a new venue. It turned out to be a fun event. The pressure can get high in official tournaments, but Toronto had the nicest crowd of players I’ve seen yet. Go check out VTTV’s Youtube channel for the streamed games, and congrats to PA local Brett Freeman for taking 15th, getting some Liberty Squadron representation on the board.