Sunday 8 November 2015

X-wing, MK 100 point Event 07/11/15

So last Guardians of Tyr X-wing event for the year and so of course I was going!
Here is there webpage, get involved next year! http://www.guardiansoftyr.com/

So its a sell out of 32 players, but 1 player didnt show, means there was a bye going around!

Right so I planned on taking Dash and Corran to see how they role in the current meta, and I do love Corran!
My Original list-
Dash, PTL, Title, HLC, Engine, Kyle
Corran, VI., FCS, R2D2

Now this was the list, but to adapt to the current meta I needed to beat TLTs, and so changes were had!

New list-
Dash, PTL, Title, Mango Cannon, Engine, Nien
Corran, VI, FCS, R2D2, Engine

So this will allow me to move faster and fight in a range 1 of TLT lists, with Engine on Corran and range 1 shots with Dash!

VS high PS aces, I had a PS10 Corran, who should be able to lay down the hurt, vs Whisper/ Soontir.
I was a little bit worried by VI Vader, but as he cant use autothrusters, Dash should be able to deal with him!

Also with the Stress Bots going around, Corran can still use FCS so he wouldnt mind being stressed to much! But Dash had to stay away if I played vs any Stress lists!

Game 1-
Biggs
Poe, VI, Autothrusters, R2D2
Wedge, Pred, BB8, Plasma Torps

Interesting list, but lucky for me I was able to pass him initiative.

Early turns see Dash get a bit closer then he wanted to, but lucky only Wedge could line him up, but that did see three shields come off Dash for only one on Biggs!
But then he swung after Corran, leaving Wedge with no shots, and Biggs in the middle of Corran and Dash.
He did strip a shield of Corran with Poe, as I kept my focus, and I would regain it anyway.
Biggs goes down before he can get a second shot, Corran and Dash making quick work of him.

Next turn saw Wedge K-turn and Poe doing a Talon Roll, leaving both with no shots.
Dash also had no shot this turn. But Corran did a 2 bank and boost right into the back of Wedge at range 1. Double Tapped him and BOOM!

Poe did take a while to kill, but in the end he couldn't do any damage to me, as he couldn't line up many good shots.

Win 100-0

Corran about to shot Wedge down


Game 2-
Dash, PTL, APL, Title, HLC, Kyle
Doni, TLT, Engine, C3P0, Seismic

We both go after each others Dash quite quick, I am able to keep my Dash in his range 1 hole, but couldnt get much damage though, Doni was heavily hurting my Dash, with range 1 and dropping a shield to hurt him. APL also came into play a lot this game. When my Dash went down, I still had a fully shielded Corran, his Dash went of the board due to being stressed and not able to do hard turns, (The Crit that makes then red moves)

So Corran vs Doni....
Long finish, Corran even with FCS was rolling 1 hit, which was going through, (Doni couldnt roll a evade!) But he would re gen it, and then do 1 damage to me, which I re gen.

I did have a good turn and was able to double tap him all the way down to 2 Hull left, but he slowly got his shields back!

Last turn of the Game (On the Timer!), Corran is fully shielded still vs Doni who has 2 Hull and 3 Shields. My first shot is range 3, he guesses 1 with C3P0, but rolls no evades, he shoots back to re gen, and I double tap and get 3 more damage through to take out Doni! Close game, but at just before this I was up 56-53, and I couldnt see a way for Doni to kill Corran.

Win 100-53

Chase his Dash (His was the red one)

Game 3-
Guri, Pred, Sensor Jammer, Autothrusers, Title
3 Cartel Marauders

So not much to say here! Very quick game, 2 mins off the quickest game of the day!
I couldnt punch any damage through onto the Cartel Marauders down to his fantastic evade dice (only rolled 1 Green that wasnt a evade)
He downed Corran in 1 shot with a natural roll of Crit, Crit, Crit, Hit, to my 3 blanks, (It was a direct hit!)
And Dash was just hunted, around the board by chasing ships, not able to do enough damage to take down the chasing crafts.
Lose 0-100

Game 4-
Han, Pred, C3P0, Gunner, Title, Engine
Poe, VI, R5-P9, Autothrusters

Now my goal here was to take out Poe and have Corran left, as Corran vs Han, I fancy Corrans chances.

And that is near enough what happens, I am able to chase Poe down, while staying away from Han (Except the odd range 3 shots).
Taking Down Poe did cause quite a bit of Damage on Dash, and in the end Han is able to take down Dash, but with Corran laying down some serious hurt on Han, it wasnt to mater.
Even when Han, evades and uses C3P0, I would just double tap, and then re gen and repeat.

Win 100-53

Game 5-
Mux, TLT
3 Y-wings, TLT, Unhinged

Here it was, the 4 TLT list (Only 1 at the end)!

So it started by Dash trading shots with just 1 Y-wing, by trying to skip by the sides of his formation.
And then it happened!
Corran and Dash spent 2-3 turns fully engaged with the TLTs (alot of the time at Range 1), and then fled out the other side as we both regrouped.
I had Dash down to 3 Hull remaining at this point, and Corran shield less (Fully regained all shields before next engagement)
I turned Dash back on himself and left Corran charging head on, he turned 1 Y-wing to go for Dash, while Corran got into Range 1 of Mux, and double tapped him to dust!
Corran kept taking fire, but is able to re gen just as quick, Dash plays with Fire dodging out of range or into Range 1 of the remaining Y-wings, as last turn was called I had a 1 Hull Dash and a near enough untouched Corran, but this turn Dash wouldnt be able to dodge (got trapped) a 6 Hull Y-wing, so I got Corran into range 1, to double tap it if needed (I had to kill that Y-wing as he would kill Dash)
But it turned out Dash and Corran took the Y-wing out before it could shot!
Dash lived!

Win 75-26

HERE WE GO!
So a good event, with my finishing 5th due to poor MOV, but I did pick a couple of prizes up



I always need another notepad, as during this events I write everything down! So I go through them quite quick, and a promo card, as I am trying to get 8 of these ones!

Quick run down of what was on show!

There were a lot of Aces lists, 3 Aces or Palp and Aces, not as many TLTs as I thought only about 4-5 in the end, and Poe was around in force to!
Not many two ship builds, I believe there was only 5

As the top 5 lists below show, there isnt a single type of list that is dominating currently (Also the top 16 at worlds showed this!)

Anyway Here was the top 5 lists

1- Vader, Fel, Jax
2 - Whisper, Vader, Palp shuttle
3- Guri, 3 Khraxz 
4-Chewie/Dash
5- Dash/Corran (me)


Hope you enjoyed the read!
Dont forget we are on all sorts of Social Media now!
ANd now have a Youtube Page for Vassal Games!

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/fishysblog/
Twitter https://twitter.com/FishyWargaming
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUpJ6XOBy3kNGHogiIAxJpg

Monday 2 November 2015

X-Wing, Guest Writer James Wilks talks about GamesFest 31/10/2015

So a write up by James Wilks for the X-wing event at Games Fest 31/10/2015
Enjoy!



X-Wing tournament at GamesFest MiniCon, Tring, 31/10/2015

I stumbled upon GamesFest on facebook purely by chance.   It was billed as a mini convention, which included an x-wing tourney.   Several traders were going to be there; including Lost Ark and Calamity Comics, and several other games where being played as well as X-Wing.

There were 3 swiss rounds of 75 minutes followed by a cut of 4.   And an epic prizes on offer - a Tantive IV for first place

Following winning a K-Wing in the Cloud City Radio competition, Pro-Painted by MandalMotors, I put a list together based around Esege Tuketu.

Esege Tuketu (K-Wing); Twin Laser Turret; Recon Specialist
Dutch Vander (Y-Wing); Twin Laser Turret
Poe Dameron (T-70); Veteran Instincts; BB-8

The game-plan was to keep Esege and Dutch within Range 2 of each other in order to share focus and grant free target locks.   I went for VI on Poe as I thought I would come up against Soontir, and I wanted to ensure I was moving last.




Game 1 versus Chris
Poe (Push the limit, Autothursters, BB-8, weapons guidance)
Dash (Outrider, HLC, Kyle, Engine upgrade, Push the limit)

My deployment was poor, forgetting about the Range 2 restriction on Esege’s and Dutch’s abilities.  As Chris’ Dash and Poe veered off to their right, Dutch was left out of the fight for several rounds.

Chris’s Poe went down in some range 1 Poe-on-Poe action.    Esege and Dutch were whittled down and taken out by long range HLC shots, leaving my Poe to chase down Dash.

So, in the last round with Dash on one health, and Poe on three health and one shield.  At Range 2 through a roid.   Poe rolled 3 hits, Dash rolled 3 evades.  Dash returned fire with 4 hits, while Poe rolled 3 blanks.

Loss 69-100

A close game, on any other day Poe should have caused the final damage or at least survived another round.



Game 2 versus Ian
4x Royal Guard Interceptors, Autothrusters, Crack Shot

I’ve met Ian in MK several times but never played him before.  

On the whole, I was able to stick with the game-plan and keep the Esege and Dutch in proximity, sharing Focus and Target lock.   Poe got caught in a kill-zone between two Inceptors.
The TLT’s seems to have been designed for use against interceptors, as they went “pop” one by one.

Win 100-34



Game 3 versus Rob
K-wing(TLT, Recon, Prox Mines, Extra Munitions)
Y-wing(Ion Cannon, BTL, Stress-Driod)
and 3x Z-95

Rob set up his all-pilot-skill-2 squad facing across the board, at right-angles to the usual convention.
I had seen in Rob’s previous game that his Y handed out stress and Ion tokens, so much so that one ship had five stress token!, so I decided make that the Y priority target, partly because my build relies on actions, but mainly because I only brought 3 stress token along with me.
After trading a few shots, with little damage, Rob’s K-wing dropped proximity mine, only for Rob’s Y-wing to immediately fly in to it.

We entered the end-game with just a K each, mine with full hull, 4 shields, a target lock and a higher pilot skill from a few moves ago and Rob’s the full hull and 3 shields.    Slowly, steadily but surely, we traded TLT shots – the result was inevitable.

Win 100-63



Game 4 (Semi Final) versus Chris (again)
Poe (Push the limit, Autothursters, BB-8, weapons guidance) and Dash (Outrider, HLC, Kyle, Engine upgrade, Push the limit)

After losing by the final role of the dice last time against Chris, I was eager for revenge.   I took a more aggressive approach, setting up closer together and heading more directly in a rough formation.  
This paid off initially, as I focused-fire on Chris’ approaching Poe, with my Poe finishing him with a range 1 pounding in the second round of shooting.
This should have given me the advantage, but my inability to bring all guns to bear coupled with both by red and green dice deserting me, meant I was unable to covert my advantage and instead my K-Wing and Y-Wing got picked off one by one by Dash’s HLC.  Leaving Dash on 2 hull against Poe on 3 hull and one shield.
After a mad dash across the board, I finally got in range… it was like Range 1 plus half a millimetre.  Poe fired blanks, and caught 4 HLC hits in the face back – game over, and near as makes no difference the exact same result.

Lose 69-100



Game 5 (3rd/4th place playoff) versus Rob (again)
K-wing, Y-wing, and 3x Z-95

This was the second time I had come up against Rob, and feeling confident following my win in our previous game, I set up to go head to head directly towards him.
Poe bought-it early on after causing only minor damage to Rob stress-bot Y-wing.    I thought that it by game over at that point, but next turn Rob tried K Turn his stressed Y-wing.   I turn Rob’s Y-wing towards the table edge and in front of his Z-95’s – causing a few collisions.
My K and Y then combined to pick of a Z, then pounded his K with two lots of TLT’s.  
We were left with my Y-wing with 3 hull remaining against 2x Z-95’s, one untouched, and the other with 2 hull and 1 shield remaining.      Rob was unable to give both his Z-95 shots at the same time, but I was able to peck-away at the Z’s turn after turn, eventually taking them both down.

Win 100-71


So 3 wins out of 5 and 3rd place overall.


The combo of Esege and Dutch is amazing – I total understand why Miranda would be picked each time ahead of Esege, and Horton is preferred over Dutch – but Esege and Dutch do so much more to help each other the Miranda and Horton ever will.

Poe is good – but he’s can’t arc dodge quite like Soontir, or hit as hard as Wedge, Corran or Talanbane.

James Wilks