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