Date: July 21, 2018

This was the first store championship for any of the Sand Brawlers this season. Cobra and I were able to make it. Family Game Store does not have a huge play space, so the tournament was limited to 11 players. I was fortunate enough to squeeze in before it filled, so I got the chance to test my recently named Wombo Combo in open waters. Prior to this, I had only played it at small monthly tournaments which did not feature a ton of optimized lists. It was time to see how the list would perform against a variety of opponents flying all types of lists.

Because of the small size of the event, it was limited to 4 rounds without a cut. My goal going into this event was to play patiently. As powerful as Norra can be, she is still just a 1 agility ship that costs 40 points. Playing her too aggressively will get her eliminated before she can start taking ships off the board. I learned through practice that I needed to allow Shara to soak up some early damage, to keep Norra a little healthier, and try to keep my distance. This allows the list to leverage the front and rear arcs for each of the ships. The only elements of the list I was not completely sure of going into the event was whether to keep R3A2 on Fenn Rau (to negate Expertise) or to swap it for Chopper droid and Inspiring Recruit (to mitigate stress dealing). I decided to go with R3A2, hoping not to have to deal with any Strezra lists.

Brawler One “Skipjack”

Round 1: Win 100-60

This was a solid game. I was facing off against triple Imperial aces of Quizzy, Ryad, and Vermeil. Ryad was given the Optimized Prototype condition at the start of the game. We set up in opposite corners, and once the game started we slowly crawler across the mat, passing one another in the night. Once I was halfway down the mat I began turning toward the center and into the rocks. It was at this point that we both made huge mistakes.

My opponent had brought himself into the corner, but had gone too deeply. Ryad was stressed, and her only approach vector out of the corner was a 3 bank, which would keep her stressed and without tokens. Any of her straight maneuvers would put her on top of (or through) a large asteroid. My opponent opted for the 3 bank.

My mistake was, seeing this and thinking he would try to block me and deny my ships their actions, I banked in at speed 2 with both Norra and Shara. Turns out, the 2 bank was an overshoot and I was unable to get a kill shot on Ryad. Instead, Fenn stressed her (to make sure she wouldn’t have actions for at least one more round). This ended up working out, and two rounds later I was able to wombo Ryad off the board while losing Fenn. Shara and Norra were able to double team Vermeil, but Shara died the next turn from continual “Range 1” shots from Quizzy. Then it was 40 point Norra hunting 31 point Quizzy for 15 minutes trying to secure the 100 point victory. It ended up happening on the final round of the game.

Round 2: Win 100-33

The second round pitted me against a guy who had beaten me at the Games and Stuff Charity Tournament just two weeks ago. He had slightly changed his list, but was running something very similar, with a Scurrg, a Kimogila, and Latts Razzi. Once again we set up in opposite corners of the mat. Once again, I worked my way down my end of the mat making deposited in the Rey bank the whole way. Once again, I turned in partway down the mat where my opponent had crossed into the corner on my side. This time, however, I dangled Shara out too far on her own. Fenn was too far away and out of position, Norra and Shara at range 3 of any targets. I put some damage on the Scurrg, but a combination of two range 3 shots from Latts and the Scurrg and a 4 die Cruise Missile from the Kimogila killed Shara in the first engagement round. So there was that.

The only good thing about my positioning was that I prevented the K turns that would have given him a great position for the Scurrg and the Kimo. I was able to skirt along the side of Latts and kill off the Scurrg. While I was getting turned around, Latts had banked to be parallel to the board edge. As I came back toward the fray, Latts did a 2 hard toward the board edge, which stressed her. The following turn she attempted a 3 hard to stay on the board, a maneuver that did not fit, killing a fairly healthy Latts. Then it was Norra and Fenn going for the kill on the Kimo. I got that about 3 rounds later.

Round 3: Win 100-67

The third round matched me against another opponent from the Charity Tournament, this time running Rey/Lowhhrick. He had beaten me there, and his list was a large part of why I opted to use R3A2 for this tournament. This was a real slug fest. Action got started pretty quickly as Fenn, Norra, and Shara were able to stress and focus strip Rey, while removing the shields and dealing one damage to Lowie. Fenn took some hits, and was able to limp into the second round of firing.

The punching match that followed left Fenn dead, Lowie getting turned about, Rey with a weapons failure (so reduced attack dice). A round or so later Rey brought Norra down to one health, Norra and Shara killed Rey, and Lowie killed Norra. At the end of it all was a 33 point Shara with PTL and BB8 trying to get the kill on a 37 point Lowie and stay behind him. Eventually I did, but reinforce and C-3PO made me really work for it.

Round 4: Loss 50-60

This final round would determine who would be the tournament victor. We were both 3-0 and wanting to win this match. My opponent was pushing 3 Rookie X wings and 2 Partisan U wings. That’s exactly 15 attack dice, 10 defense dice, and 34 hit points. I knew there was almost no way that I could kill all of that in a standard 75 minute match, so I needed to kill just enough of his list to survive with more points.

After dancing up the edges of the mat, the scrum started. I lost Fenn and he lost an X wing and half a U wing. Some bumping against those infernal U wings kept me from straight up killing another X, but I did get some damage on it. He focused on chipping at Shara, since she couldn’t regenerate any of her health. I managed to pull past the blocking and started firing out of my rear arcs. I had 5 hull left on Shara (and a full health Norra) against a 1hp U wing, a 1 shield U wing, a 1hp X wing, and a fully health X wing.

The damaged X got a fantastic roll against a hit-hit-crit attack from Norra to stay alive, evading everything. The damaged X and U then went to hide in a corner away from the action while the healthy X and shielded U pursued Shara. Norra and Shara combined for a kill on the U wing before it fired, but Shara got knocked down to just 2 hull. The next round that full health X wing was dropped to just 2 hull, but it was not enough to do him in before he killed Shara.

And then time ran out.

Had that game been one round longer, Norra would have surely killed that X wing, leaving me with a 70-60 victory. Had the game ended one sooner, Shara would still have been alive, and I would have won 50-27. But my opponent managed his clock better, and walked away with a championship win under his belt.

Conclusion:

I don’t have too much to complain about. This list is definitely not meant to succeed through MOV, so I knew that I would have to win games outright. I flew the list about as well as I possibly could, but that late mistake with the clock hurt me. Patience is definitely a virtue flying the double ARCs, and the mistakes I made were all from being too aggressive. I’ll have to make it a mantra in my head next time I use the list: “Be patient.” But lessons learned to stay patient, let my opponent come to me, play on and BE PATIENT. 4th place (because of MOV) still netted me a fair amount of swag, and its always a good day when you’re playing X wing.

Brawler 3 “Cobra”

I was flying this list featuring double generic Shadowcasters.

Round 1: Win

This was the only win I got out of the day. My opponent was flying Control Brobots. He started the match by castleling his two ships in the corner across from me. In response, I flew my Jakku Gunner in front of my Shadowcasters and castled as well. We did this for about 8 turns until my opponent finally broke and started advancing. I then cloaked my Quadjumper and flanked the IGs with it. The Dengar Shadowcaster approached them both head on, while K-4 flew by sideways, broadsiding the IGs. The Quadjumper put a tractor beam token on Brobot C, reducing its agility. After a turn or two of exchanging fire, the Dengar Shadowcaster was bumped in a line with Brobot C and B. The next turn, the Dengar Shadowcaster pulled a 3 turn and dropped the rigged cargo chute on both of the IGs. My opponent didn’t see this coming and it forced him to do a 2 straight, since he had a red maneuver assigned to both of his IGs.

After this the game shifted heavily in my favor. Brobot C lost all of its shields and had taken the Structural Damage and Damaged Sensor crits. This forced him to run and try to clear the crits. I then focused all my attention to B. I destroyed it, but he Ionized one of the Shadowcasters off the field. In the end, I was able to destroy one IG and get half points on the other. He walked destroyed one shadowcasters and got half point on the other.

Round 2: Loss

My opponent, who went on to win the championship, was flying 3 T-65 X-wings and 2 U-wings. I was able to kill one of the Xs by throwing him onto a rock with the Quadjumper. This coming the turn after the Shadowcasters had given it 5 damage. And the shadowcasters took out one of the U wings, but I wasn’t able to cut through all that health. I ended up losing both of my Shadowcasters.

Round 3: Loss

My opponent was flying Countess Ryad, with RAC. RAC was loaded up with Palpatine and Director Krennic. Unfortunately, my Quadjumper pulled the Damaged Sensor crit and it took him a total of 4 turns to clear the crit. I was able to get half on RAC, but otherwise was unable to bring down the pesky Imperials.

Round 4: Bye

Over all it was a very fun tournament. I lost 2 rounds, but somehow ended up in 6th and got some cool acrylic range rulers.

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