Hey everyone! This ones a bit late, since I played these games Sunday night, and played again Monday, so the details themselves may be a tad fuzzy. I was all primed to go to a tourney at Blue Sky on Friday, when the proverbial poo hit the fan early Friday afternoon, and those plans were shattered. My Fel/Deathrain/Onyx list was shelved, as were my earlier promises to Soontir to get him back on the table, as my 2x (extended) event this weekend was lost. Instead, I had to rush-build a 2e list to compete at Battlegrounds. I had been looking at Han Solo for a couple of days, trying to find something I wanted to do with him, and generally came around to the “standard” version: Trick Shot, Falcon Title, L3-37, and Lando in the Escape Shuttle. Other upgrades get sprinkled on for taste/cost. I like having a Shield Upgrade on Lando, to let Han save an extra bad crit each game, as well as a Hull Upgrade on Han, since it’s cheap and keeps him in the game longer. Rigged Cargo Chute on Han also seems like a good idea, since it can trigger all 3 of his extra dice if placed well on a critical turn (and 3 extra die are usually worth a focus token or lock!) When I finished this list, I had 4 points to spare, so I added Qi’ra to Han for obstacle-locking things, and Tobias Beckett to Lando to help with the Trick-Shotting.

So, I had a ton of points left to spare, and only 4 possible ships to run with this fattest of fat Hans: Firespray, Fang, Falcon, or Escape Shuttle (I tried really hard to find another “F” there…) I still distrust Fangs after my shaky 1.0 experience with them, I didn’t have points to fit 2 ‘Sprays in the list, and the only single Firespray I wanted to use was Boba, who I couldn’t fly in what I considered a good configuration alongside Han in 2e format. That left either the Escape Shuttle (hah) or more Falcons. 2 of them are a total of 92 points, which fit with what I had at the time with 4 points to spare. I figured, hey, why not add another 22 hull/shields of bulk to the list to try to block for Han. (This would prove to be a VERY BAD decision.)

The tournament was the bi-weekly event at Poulsbo’s Battlegrounds Cafe, and since most of their player-base is new as of Second Edition, they decided that the next few events would be 2e format. Ironically enough, only 1 of the 5 players Sunday had no older stuff. We all played 2e regardless, and set up a 3-round event. Interestingly, both Scum lists used Han in the Falcon, and all 3 rebel lists used Wedge, Luke, and something else (1 used Dutch, 1 used Thane, and 1 used Biggs and Garven)



Game 1 – Bryan McNeil

Bryan is a stellar example of the majority Pacific NorthWest X-Wing community, a group who puts having fun above winning (unless something major is on the line!) One of his claims to fame in 1.0 was the T-70 X-wing, taking his Baby Blues to many, many events, and probably becoming the most experienced pilot with the X-Wing chassis in the area. Since the new T-65 is so much like the old T-70, it seemed natural that Bryan would have at least 2 in his list.

Set up ended up going poorly for me, mostly because I didn’t anticipate just how much space the 3 large based ships would take to engage. Bryan set up his list to joust one of my Freighter Captains, and I planned to trap him against my board edge and bring Han in from behind. What actually happened is by the time we engaged, I had potshots on Dutch and he dropped that lead YT to around 2 hull remaining.

The two right-hand YT’s (Han’s on top) pincer toward each other, with the bottom Captain rotating his arc to stay engaged, while the super-screwed Freighter moves slightly forward, looking for a bump. He ends up bumping into Luke (the painted X,) which was good, but then both X’s 4-k’d and Dutch did a 3-bank, which were bad. The block skillfully avoided, Bryan finished off the wounded guy and put damage on the other Captain, as it dented Dutch’s hull and Han took a shield or 2 off Luke at range.

The following turn sees both X’s slowly crawl up to clear stress, Han swing into the mess, and the remaining Captain books it toward the left-hand scrap. He never makes it clear, as both X’s unload on him and drop him, while Dutch plinks a shield off Han and Han brings Dutch to nearly nothing. Unfortunately, it’s now Han against the world, and with him already missing health and only having half-points on Dutch, it looks like a dreary world indeed.

Bryan makes good on his re-engagement, bringing Han down to minimal hull as Han whiffs badly against Dutch. To make matters worse, I have nowhere to deploy Lando to try to help out with an additional attack. Han is down to 1-2 hull and has a range 2 shot at either Luke or Dutch, while they both have range 2 shots back and Wedge has a range 3. Half of Luke is worth more than the rest of Dutch, so I take a shot at Luke and manage to do enough to half-point him before Wedge puts the capstone in on Han. Lando ejects, takes a blinded pilot crit, and lands right in front of Luke, who ends the game in Bryans favor, 62-200.

Game 2 – BYE

I actually played a practice game this round against the stores owner, Josh Lee, which I’m not going to go into a ton of detail about, since I used a different list for that game and it was more of an introduction to advanced X-wing for Josh anyway. It was my Vader with FCS, Howlrunner, Iden, and 2 Academies against Josh’s Super Boba (Marauder, Han, Perceptive, Composure, Proton Bombs, Shield Upgrade, Inertial Dampeners) and Fenn Rau (Daredevil.) I lost that game pretty badly too; After Fenn and Vader traded for each other, the TIEs couldn’t put damage on Fett fast enough to take him down before he tore them apart. I got Fenn and half of Fett for my whole list. Anyway, now back to the Falcon disaster.

Game 3 – John Kalmen

I believe I’ve seen John around at different events before, but until this event, I do not believe we have ever thrown dice together. After the disaster of the first round, seeing so many Proton Torpedoes had me nervous. At first, I figured the extra bulk would help buy Han time to do his thing, but really, they seemed like they were basically 46-point gifts to my opponents.

John (unsurprisingly) set up to joust one of my Captains, and I set Han up to come in through rocks, circle around, and get behind his list, hoping to have Han chase his list as his list chased my other Freighters through the rocks. Naturally, that isn’t at all what happened. The opening of this game was such a frenzy, that I forgot to take a picture until WAY late into it (AKA, like turn 5.)

The opening engagement saw one Captain go for a fast maneuver into a boost to try to block his team to prevent double locking and just wasting one of my ships. That failed completely, and left me stressed in range 1 of all 3 X-wings. The other Captain sort-of banked in to use its side arc to get a shot, to set up better for follow on turns. Han managed to swoop in and get a trick-shot pot-shot off on whoever he wanted, and I decided Wedge would be the best target.

Wedge and the fail-bump captain BOTH ended up going down that turn, due to terrible dice defensively from Wedge and amazing rolls from both Han and the surviving Captain. I was again amazed at how fast 11 health melts when protected by 1 dice and no modifications. The other Captain survived another 2 rounds, as the X’s K-turned and launched their torpedoes, but having no focus left him alive with 1 hull on the first volley. Han, meanwhile, circled around the rock that was the plan from the start, and didn’t get a shot for a couple turns.

Again, it was Han against the World, but this time the World was a full health Luke AND a full health Thane, who both still had a Proton Torpedo, and had a lock on Han. I survived FAR longer than I should have, mostly by a good bump on the pass-by turn allowing only Luke to shoot, then zipping away toward a corner to try to set up a good re-engagement as they K-turned (didn’t work.) Then, Han went angling back into the center with a hard move to try to out-fly the X’s (didn’t work.) Finally, I locked the center rock and then flew through it the following turn, hoping to use the extra dice purely in my advantage (guess what? Didn’t work.)

Han popped, and Lando ejected. After I set the dial and placed the template, I remembered that he also has to take a crit from the death of his carrier, and wouldn’t you know it, my luck for the night holds true: Stunned Pilot. Lando explodes on the eject, and John takes the game (and the Tournament; Weird pairings early and the 5 player event left him 3-0.) 65-200.



So, with the Baron laughing all the way back to the Death Star, my tournament margin shifts to 8-3 (never count byes!) I learned a few valuable lessons this time around:

(1) Never trust 11 hit points with no cool tricks to keep them alive

(2) Just because Han CAN roll 6 attack dice, it doesn’t mean he ever will roll more than 2

(3) Never again

Next time: SOONTIR FREAKING FEL!

No, seriously, I promise!