This is not going to be a real battle report from my games during the Europeans (I don't remember enough of the games to do a proper report), nor a thorough analysis of the current meta or anything really interesting like that... Only some quick words about three days in Birmingham for my first participation to the UK Games Expo and FFG Europeans Championship(s).
I'll start by the most important: what this week-end was really about: meeting old and new friends and having a great time together! A big thank you to everyone who bumped into me and had some time for a chat; and a special shout out to the members of the Vagabond Squadron (even the ones who couldn't make it: we missed you!).
Friday: X-Wing Day 1a
Only because the Saturday was full when I tried to book, I ended up with Day 1 on the Friday. (Funnily enough, it seems that it was the other way around later on).I came in with a list I hadn't played before in this form: a fully kitted Kylo Ren in his Silencer, with two Wingmen: a Rho boat with harpoons and deadeye, and a Nu with a mangler, LRS and Linked Battery.
Again, I can't propose a full battle report: it's all a blur now (I should have written this just after the fact, but I spent too much time recently buying and modding hot wheels cars.. but that's another topic/game!).
Still, what I do remember:
I was totally out of the game for the first round. Clearly, I didn't know (yet?) how to fly my list and my opponent outflew me the whole game. He was flying QD, Inq and a shuttle and I didn't even manage to get half points on the shuttle! 0-100 loss...
For the second round, I was hoping for an easy game which would give me some time to get to grips with my list... I got paired with The Jack Mooney and his Ghost / Fenn list. Oh, well! It was actually a very nice game. I think my engagement was quite good, but Jack totally outflew me (again!) on a couple of moves (one from the Ghost, one from Fenn), which I didn't see coming. I still managed to get (just!) half points on the Ghost.
From there on, being already 0-2, I was planning to play for a while, drop early (probably at my next loss) and get some time to visit the expo...
It didn't go to plan as I managed - don't ask me how! - to win the next 5 games.
Those games really are a blur, but I do remember one which was as close and fun a game as you can get in X-Wing. My opponent was flying Vader with cruise, QD with harpoons and a rho (I think). He got some damage early on on Kylo. And I manage to put Kylo just on a debris, getting a stress, rolling a crit - which was a double hit, of course - which put him on 1 hull. And he would have to go through the debris again next round as the stress meant no Advanced Sensors shenanigans. We spent the rest of the game exchanging fire, but he couldn't get another one through on Kylo. One of the latest round, I attacked his QD (who was by then on one hull) with one of my boat. I rolled 3 hits - against a QD with no tokens; only to realise that he had the harpoon condition and my Kylo was in range 1. If I killed QD, Kylo would have been taken by the blast and my opponent clearly would have won on points. A game which I should have lost on a stupid mistake... Only for him to roll 3 natural evades!!! Saving his QD and my Kylo! In the end, we had to go to final salvo (I only had 1 more dice than him), and I won the roll! I've already forgotten most of the specifics of this game, but I will remember the suspense, the fun and both our laughs for a long time!
For my last game, again I wasn't impressed with my pairing; I had to play against one of my very best X-Wing mate: fellow member of Vagabond and famous X-Wing dad: Rich Greenaway. As much as it's always a pleasure to play with him; it meant that one of us was going to kick the other one out of the cut... Rich was flying his beautiful XXXXZ list (no-one knows where he got the inspiration for this list from!). He flew it very well and managed to create a perfect kill box for Kylo. But to do so, had to k-turn most of his ships, meaning he was relying on his natural dice... which failed him.
I was therefore through the cut (with the worst MOV possible). What was really extraordinary is that, apart for the Ghost-Fenn list, I didn't face ANY turret through all the other games! And those games ended up being really close, super fun and what I like the most about X-Wing!
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| Steve: "Look at me: I can win hands down... literally!" |
Saturday: Imperial Assault Day 1
It may seems that I was slightly unprepared for X-Wing (playing a list I hadn't trained on),but it's nothing in comparison with how casual I came in for the IA tournament! Basically, I hadn't had a game for about a year, didn't know the maps (I had only played once on two of the maps - with my daughter, and didn't get the chance to try the last one!).
Shamelessly, I netlisted the world champion winning list which was quite similar to the merc-hunter list I used to play.
Also, after 7 games of X-Wing on Friday, I was a bit tired before we even started.
Again, I don't remember most of the games, only some anecdotes.
First game, I got paired with Alistair Scott. He was playing a Vader / riot / eJets list. Not really the easy first round I was hoping for! Even if he said so (as the true gentleman Alistair is), I don't think I made it hard for him and I lost by a mile!
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| First round: Alistair |
I don't really remember the other games.
I know I played against a Bossk list. My opponent also had Hired Guns. When he spotted my Greedo, he told me he didn't understand why people liked it so much. Greedo is, for me, the best character of the game: he is so much fun to play and can - sometimes - be so good! I tried to explain this to my opponent before the game started, but didn't really manage to convince him that a miniature that always let you shoot first can be really that good. So... I decided to do my best to make Greedo really work for this game. I played him very aggressively, and managed to put a lot of damage on Bossk with a focused Greedo and some cards (denying him his shot from "slow on the draw" by a nice placement). A bit later, my Greedo got killed (by Vinto I think), and finished his Bossk (who hadn't even activated yet!) with his parting shot. Voilà! My 4 points stupid Greedo had just removed his 8 points central piece before he could use it. A good demonstration of why Greedo is so good and fun to play...
During another games, my opponent and I made so many mistakes it was just ridiculous. It was a crate mission (we had to bring crates back to a spot in our deployment zone). He took 2 crates on his Jedi Luke where a character is only allowed one so could only score one; and I managed to bring Greedo next to a crate, then use Gideon and Opportunistic to bring him back before realising I had forgotten to grab the crate! I think I won this one, but it was really messy!
My last game was against Joshua. The last time we played together was at my first tournament, the Kirton Regionals quite some time ago. I had won this one right from the start with Jedi Luke. Joshua payed me back with my own coin: I parked figures at the bottom of the map, thinking there was no line of sight from the top... And I was wrong: his rangers definitively had line of sight. He managed to kill one pirate and C3po before the game even properly start...
In the end, I managed 3-3, ranking 33 (just about missing the nice prize for Top 32), which was way better than I was hoping for! And I had a great time: fun games and plenty of opportunity to catchup with friends and meet new players.
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| OK, I came a bit unprepared, but Matt was way ahead of me there: I'm not sure he remembered what the dials were for! |
Sunday: X-Wing Day 2 (but so little of it!) / Expo
On Saturday evening, Steve and I were joking about the fact that, having made the cut, I was going to have to face meta lists... And maybe even the one I really hate the most: Nym-Miranda.As a mid-table player, I don't usually make the cut. The only time this year was at Cardiff Regionals (with two defenders and a boat), where I lost my first game post-cut against Nym-Miranda (with the combo vomit-genius still active then). It's a list I don't really enjoy playing against (not only because I usually lose, but also it can't compare in fun with any of the lists I had played against on Friday).
So, what was waiting for me for my first game on Sunday: Nym-Miranda! And, even if I won, what was going to be my second game of the day??? Nym-Miranda...
The only reason I didn't drop right there, was that I didn't feel I could do that after having eliminated Rich on Friday.
I decided I was going to take some risks right from the start and would finish the game quickly either way. And it sort of worked: I lost before the games for the Hyperspace had even started!
Still, there was no way to join in this one, so that gave me the opportunity to visit the Expo and try some new games...
In the end, this week-end was a blast thanks to all the friends I had the chance to spend time with! And the new players I met.
Also, I realised how (at the moment: it may change with X-Wing 2.0), we - the mid-table players - are lucky: we can play fun games with fun lists and plenty of variety... and leave to the top players the bane of Ghost-Fenn, Nym-Miranda and indestructible rebels ships...
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| The reason for my newly passion for hot wheels cars had a stand at the expo! |