A Tournament Report from the Norwich X-wing Regionals

2nd July 2016

♘George

I began Playing X-Wing Miniatures towards the end of September 2015 and quickly fell in love. The game involved 2 players competing to see who can best move their plastic spaceships around a 3ftx3ft table. Other than the briefest affair with Warhammer 40k in year 6, I’d never played any sort of collectable miniatures/card game let alone gotten involved with the game’s community. I first started playing at uni, splitting core sets with a friend (rebels4lyf), before going to X-Wing nights at Athena Games in Norwich, becoming passable at the game.

After months of everyone in the Norwich X-wing scene obsessing about Regionals, July arrived and with it, the big day. My only previous tournament experience had been two small store shindigs of about 20 players. It was prophesied that Regionals would see upwards of 100 players though the day saw slightly less at 60 players. Still, this was a wider pool of talent than I had ever faced and I decided I would aim for at least middle of the table.

I chose my list about a month before, having had a very fun game with it, and so began flying it regularly on Tabletop Simulator. For the week leading up to the tourney my life became a shit training montage as I played X wing every day at Athena. Think Rocky but less exercise and more Flat Whites.

My list was two large ship from the Scum and Villainy faction; Bossk and Dengar, each with a healthy spoonful of upgrades.

Dengar (54pts)

Predator

Recon Specialist

Punishing One

R5-P8

Bossk (45pts)

Veteran Instincts

Mangler Cannon

Greedo

Zuckuss

K4 Security Droid

(99pts)

The general strategy was for Bossk to slowly trundle forward to deliver a face melting opening barrage. K4 Security droid provided a target lock to ensure maximum modification, the mangler cannon delivered a crit, Zuckuss ruined the enemy defence so that Bossk’s ability could change the crit to 2 hits where by Greedo could then flip one card face up. Aside from being a very convoluted sentence, this set of abilities could hit like a Rancor. Dengar on the other hand was tasked with flitting round on the flank to try and avoid fire in the first engagement, though it was crucial he was still in range to add his fire power to the damage smoothie, so that the target’s shields might be stripped, allowing crits to hit the hull. Range control was essential as the first engagement needed to happen at range 3 denying lower PS pilots the chance to target lock and give Bossk as many chances for a shot each round as possible. Bossk’s ship is was likely designed to a high standard of ‘Vogon’ beauty and so resembles a small apartment block from the sixties, though is not quite as manoeuvrable. Should the enemy ever get behind Bossk he would effectively be out of the fight so it was crucial that he soaked up as much damage as possible before the foe turned their eyes on Dengar. Ideally Bossk would blow up in spectacular fashion taking enough of the enemy with him, that Dengar could handle what remained by himself.

The list isn’t meta defining (though two ship scum lists seemed to be in vogue that day having had the new FAQ less than 24hrs earlier) and struggles against the infamous Triple Jumpmasters but it is very fun to fly and as the cult-like hive mind of X wing players chant, ‘Fly Casual’.

But enough waffle, at 9am, nearing peak caffienation, and with enough beef jerky and Capri Suns to get a hoard of Carthaginians over the Alps, I arrived at Athena Games.

Game One: The ‘Swarmening’

Sitting across the MDF star field from me were seven Tie Fighters in a configuration dubbed the ‘Pattiswarm’ by 186th Squadron (A group of London based X Wing players with a penchant for matching T-Shirts).

Howlrunner

Black Squadron Tie Fighter w. Crackshot x3

Academy Tie Fighter x3

This list and its creator Andrew Pattison had re-written history and brought the Imperials victory at Yavin (Open), the largest ever X Wing tournament, so seemed like a list to be reckoned with. The opening engagement went in my favour as the Ties all opted to barrel roll leaving them token-less allowing Bossk to smoke Howlrunner with his first shot. Writing almost a month later the games are somewhat of a blur now though I remember feeling confident in the first few rounds. The three crackshot ties went down without using a single crackshot in exchange for Bossk. It was now Dengar against three academy Ties. It would have been in my favour had dengar not lost his shields in part due to his own astromech R5-P8. With 5 hull left and trapped in the corner of the board, my opponent skillfully blocked the avenues in which I could s-loop and bring the Ties into arc. The game came to a nail biting finish as my opponent skilfully blocked me onto and asteroid with his last 2 badly damaged Academy pilots finishing poor Dengar.

Loss 76 – 100pts

Games 2 & 3:

Further less exciting defeats followed as a result of my poor flying of Dengar (rock magnet), poor target priority and the superior flying of my opponents.

2: Loss 34? -100 pts Vs Manaroo, Zuckuss, Palob.

3: Loss 19 – 100 pts Vs Red Sq Veterans x2 Tala Sq x2 (lots of ordnance)

Thanks to the business end of a well flown Rebel ordnance list I had plenty of time for lunch and retired to the Birdcage for a Pint and some (Mon) Calamari. The Tournament was hosted in the halls above the Athena games shop with the main tables on the 1st floor and the lower tables on the top floor. Thanks to my performance I had been cast out of the main hall into the outer darkness and ascended up the stairs to the lower tables. In actual fact this was an ascent to Nirvana. Where the main hall had been filled with stale air and the smell of nerd funk, the upper level was a breezy paradise. Relaxed and refreshed I began my last three games.

Games 4 & 5:

I can’t remember the order of these two games.

Luke, Dutch Vander (Ion Turret), A-Wing with P’rockets (Tycho or Jake)

Against the Rebel list it came down to Dengar chasing down Dutch who refused to fire back for fear of Dengar’s retaliatory attack.

Win 100 – 49 pts

Darth Vader: Engine Upgrade, Advanced Targeting Computer, Tie/X1, Veteran Instincts. Tempest Squadron Pilot: Tie/X1, Accuracy corrector. Tempest Squadron: Tie/X1, Advance Targeting Computer (x2)

Bossk was unphased facing the Sith Lord whom he quickly dispatched with Dengar’s aid. The crits from the ATC Tempests hurt, but they were unable to withstand my list’s relentless damage output.

Win 100 – 49 pts

Game 6: The Bosskinator

Sadly for my final game, I was called back down into the maelstrom of the lower hall to meet my final opponent, the air staler than before and aromas more pungent by contrast. Flying against me was Dengar and Boba Fett. The Dengar was built to be a bit more nimble with Push the Limit, Unhinged Astromech and Engine Upgrade. Boba Fett was equipped with Wired and Zuckuss. The opening salvos seemed an equal trade as Bossk lost his shields in exchange for heavy damage to Boba Fett. The Dengars traded shots, mine being the first to go down followed by my opponent’s the next round. So this was it Bossk somehow miraculously alive but stressed out of his mind against Boba Fett how was also pretty far from chill. I was now reliant on K4 security droid for any hope at dice accuracy and so I began the slow process of green 1 banks hoping to catch Boba in range for a target lock. The problem was that while I had 4 or 5 hull remaining Boba had rather rudely set Bossk’s cockpit aflame. The face-up damage card ‘Console Fire’ meant that I stood a 3/8 chance of taking a damage. Boba knew this and being in poor shape himself was running away in the hope Bossk would burn to death. But in his ‘Rage’ Bossk slowly lumbered round surviving 4 rounds and a debris field without a single damage to finally catch Boba in range. Likely rather irked by being on fire, Bossk was unforgiving in his attack, Zuckuss unrelenting in his defence re-rolls and with Greedo just happy to be there, Boba Fett’s fate was sealed.

Win 100 – 77pts

Final Position: 30th out of 60 Players

Verdict: Success

Overall I had a great time. My first game though a loss was easily the most fun and I replayed it in my head for days afterwards. I had originally run Outlaw Tech on Bossk but had decided to swap for Zuckuss in the week leading up to the tourney. Though it usually denied the use of the 0 stop manoeuvre, Zuckuss proved invaluable, and the 1pt initiative bid for Dengar was nice too. The guys at Athena Games (A massive thanks to them for all the work they do) and the community there are amazing. I’m gutted that now I’ve graduated uni, Athena will no longer be my local store, as I leave Norwich, Dick Whittington style (though swap the cat for a box of X wing Miniatures) for the Capital. For my efforts, I won myself the alt-art Hera Syndulla pilot card, annoyingly for the Ghost and not the attack shuttle in which I much prefer to fly Hera. I also now have more acrylic Ion tokens than you can shake a gaffi stick, thanks to the raffle.

Over and out.