Northampton Store Championship 21/3/15

So here is a quick run down of the store championship in Northampton yesterday.
I didn't write notes down as usual, so some facts may get missed.

My list
I am looking at lists for nationals so I thought lets bring the Decimators out again

Oicunn, Predator, Rebel Captive, Isard
Patrol Leader, Gunner, Vader

Game 1-
3 Blues with FCS and Manglers
1 Redfitted A-wing

Now this game was a bad match up, but the A-wing went around the board dodging rocks but not really getting into the fight till late, the first B came at the Decimators on his own, so got ripped apart, the other two found themselves out of arc alot, but did manage to get a bead on one of the Decimators, before being taken out themselves
Win 100-48

Game 2-
Fat Han
3 Talas

So the Talas ran off while taking a couple of shots from the Decimators, but Han charged in on his own after this, and got battered by the Decimators and he limped off on 2 Hull left, at this point the Headerhunters joined back in, and starting chewing up the Decimators but were losing ships in return, Han came back around and got Vadered and the last Headhunter fell, not before it took down a Decimator though, the last Decimator only had 2 Hull left
Win 100-52

Game 3-
Duel Decimators

So it was to be a dice off, both of us flew well and no mistakes were made (no rock hits etc) and so my dice were slightly better then his, not much else to say here
Win 100-48

Range 1 shots everywhere

Game 4-
Decimator
Whisper

So up against a good friend of mine, last time we played it was a very close game, sadly this one not so much, Oicunn end up blocking Whisper leaving him with no shot, so the Patrol leader single shoot him (range 1 +vader for the finish) after that it was all about taking his Decimator out, but up against two almost untouched at this point it was only going to go one way.
Win 100-0

Game 5-
Decimator
Whisper

Slightly different version this time, and well I got smashed, I just couldnt make any damage stick and he was able to deal out crits well. Good game, but got completely outflown
Lose 0-100

So at this point I was through to the top 8 as 3rd Seed, last time at MK I made top 8 but then lost, which I was here to get the top 4 tokens, and so I needed to play well now.

Top 8
Dash
Corran

A few of my MK team mates know I hate this list, I seem to have a bad run against it, but this time it was a bit different, first exchange I was able to take all of Dash's shields down and while he flow off, Corran tried to take on both Decimators in one go, a mix of extremely bad dice and a lucky Direct hit from Vader meant he was finished very quickly.
Dash finally got back into the fight, but struggled to make any impact at this stage. The game was won when Corren fell, 1 evade in 8 dice hurts
Win 100-0

Dash coming back into the Fight

So I made it into top 4, my goal was complete, but next game anyway

Top 4
Duel Aggressors

Now a list I didnt want to play against at all, its the perfect match up for him against my ships, but he charged the ships head on, meaning the Decimators hit one hard, leaving it on 2 hull and with no pilot abilities, and then taking it down the turn after with a Vader hit, the other Aggressor turned around as did my Decimators and he went head on again, and again with the same results, the Aggressor taking enough damage to be taken out
Win 100-0

Final
Rematch against the Duel Decimators from round 3

So another dice off, and the top table being completely dominated by Decimators, this time a bit of a different outcome, his dice were a little sharper and that was all it took, he knocked one Decimator out early, and the other one was floating around trying to deal enough damage, intill he changed range 1 of hit Oicunn and as we were both PS4, we killed each other, good game though.
Lose 48-100

So a successful day finishing by getting to the final, which was further then I planned, but all that mattered was I finally got my Acrylic Focus tokens, I was only able to make 2 Store Championships this year (top 8 in mk, final in Northampton) but making the cut in both and the final in one, is a success I reckon, now to prepare for the Regional's and then the Nationals!

Top 4 prize, the one I have been trying to get, Acrylic Focus Tokens

MK Store championship 2015

So here is my run down of the events of the MK store championship.
I believe a total of 35 people played as there was a few drop outs.

After taking weeks to decide what list to bring, I still couldn't choose, so I brought along-
4x Bandits
4x Talas

yep a full blown rebel Headhunter swarm, I wasn't sure how it was going to fare against the amount of Interceptors and Phantoms that showed up, but off I go!

Game 1
vs Soontir, Dark Curse, Patrol Leader
Picking targets was easy, taking down the patrol leader very quickly and then a little while later taking down dark curse. Soontir still with 2 hull left was up against 7 headhunters, and he called the game there, we worked out Soontir was about to be blocked anyway so action less against 5-6 headhunters shooting should of been enough anyway.
Win 100-12

Dark Curse and Soontir surrounded 

Game 2
vs Rexlar, Howlrunner, 3 Academy's
This game went down to time, with Ties dying as well as Headhunters, Rexlar lived only thanks to his Lone Wolf re-rolls, very close game though
Win 54-51

The mini swarm crashes head first into the Rebel swarm

Game 3
vs Whisper, Howlrunner, 3 Academy's
Great a phantom! Lets see how this goes!
Early shots see me go after the mini swarm, taking down Howlrunner and 2 Academy's, at this point I turn my remaining 7 headhunters towards whisper, now whisper had 2 options, decloak left or forward (right was blocked) decloaking left would see Whisper blocked next turn and taking 5-6 headhunter shots for two turns running. He took a decloak forward which with the movement he had chosen took him off the board.
Win 100-12

Game 4
vs Echo, 2 Sigmas
Great 3 Phantoms!
First pass saw a Sigma go down, but after that the headhunters couldnt line up the shots, Echo just picked off a headhunter at will, while the Sigma was keeping out of arcs well, and the odd shot that did come in had little effect against the phantom defence.
Lose 29-100

Game 5
vs WSF, Luke, Rookie
Early on I knocked off 3 shields off Luke (he has shield upgrade), Luke ran off to heal... which was my Goal, leaving the 8 headhunters to hunt down the rookie and the Mangler outrider, I was never able to finish off Luke, but killing the other two ships meant Luke had a lot of work to do on his own.
Win 63-38

Bandits chasing the poor outrider

Game 6
vs Real Admiral, Patrol Leader
Fun game this one, my dice were poor but in the end the weight of dice against these ships was enough, he did pick off 4 headhunters and a couple of others were damaged, but he couldn't finish them off.
Win 100-50


Top 8
vs Rexlar, Howlrunner, 3 Academy's
I repeat of round 2! But with a twist... Green dice! To sum it up all 8 headhunters shot 1 tie, and were unable to kill it! In the last turn of the game it came down to if I could kill his last two ties (1 had 1 Hull and 1 had 2 Hull), I was able to point all my headhunters at them, including at range 1, but not a single shot got through, including 3 natural evades to save one of them.
Lost 30-49

Overall a good day, and a lot of fun
Won some nice goodies, but the FFG dice bags do seem really low quality but the cloak tokens look really good.

The Final was between the players I played in round 3 and 6 and the duel Decimators winning the whole thing.
The biggest surprise for me, was that there wasn't many Scum lists around, a lot of Soontirs and Phantoms and not many turrets!
So looking at that, I am quite happy with my results, as the swarm really struggles vs ships like Phantoms and Soontirs!

Till next time :)