X-wing: Trondheim HST, Top 8 Cut

Proton torpedoes 4EVER!

On to Sunday and the top 8 cut.

My first opponent of the day was Eirik Munthe, another Norwegian (but not a local). He was running a list I've not seen before. Guri with AS + AB & Outmaneuver... could be real problem for me. The Firespray is tough and hits hard, even when it's not Boba. Koshka can get rerolls too, if enemy is stressed. Fortunately I was running Cassian + Leia, so that should not be my biggest concern. Qi-ra I've used before, and she's quite a good little card. Trick shot + Cargo Chute... could be a problem, but I was counting on my Cassian to coordinate my X-wings out of trouble. Seevor is such an annoying little git. In this iteration with Juke. I wasn't sold initially, but after the match Eirik explained his reasoning, and with the Juke+Evade and the synergy with PS-3 Firespray he might actually have a good little combo there.

Anyway, we were both at 199. So we rolled the dice and... I got the choice, so I made Guri first player. We maneuvered a little bit, Guri got mauled, Seevor got hurt a little bit, then popped. We fenced a little more, then Guri went down, and the rest of the game was me chasing down the Firespray which went down right on time. I took damage in return on all my ships, but I was always able to keep moving and R2ing, with Cass shedding stress and coordinating my X-wings out of trouble.

Would probably have been much harder if I was 1st, but Wedge is still I6, and Luke's Instinctive Aim would maybe have mattered. But yeah, should have just kept my 197 list and not added IA. This wasn't the first time in this tourney that just a 3 point bid would have helped me.

Eirik's NM List (199)
Koshka Frost — Firespray-class Patrol Craft 71
Trick Shot 2
Qi’ra 2
Rigged Cargo Chute 4
Ship Total: 79
Half Points: 40 Threshold: 5
 
Guri — StarViper-class Attack Platform 63
Outmaneuver 6
Advanced Sensors 10
Afterburners 6
Ship Total: 85
Half Points: 43 Threshold: 3
 
Captain Seevor — Mining Guild TIE Fighter 30
Juke 5
Ship Total: 35
Half Points: 18 Threshold: 2

Next game was against Rolf, who beat me in the Swiss. A quick analysis of that game told me that, even had Luke NOT landed on that rock, it might have won - or not. My first impression was that if Luke had gotten that r1 shot on Maul, everything would be fine. But that was just wishful thinking.

I was really lucky with Cassian blocking Maul several times, and Maul only really got 2 shots in the game - that tractor shot + 1 on Cassian in the same round. The rest of the time he was bumping or out of arc. If Maul had gotten more shots off... I would have been wiped out. In theory, I could have claimed a win in the last round out our Swiss game... but there was a MUCH greater chance of Rolf turning it into a BIG WIN. I was actually kind of lucky.

So what to do? Popping droids takes time. It's easy with my list, but it takes time. And during that time I'm probably eating return fire from everyone. And after the initial engagement I'm left with maybe less points that my opponent - half point Luke is worth almost 2 droids...

So I decided to go for Maul this time. Two double-mod torpedoes. 8 double mod reds vs ONE GREEN DIE. So even with Grievous, I expected to put at least 1 crit into him. Then I'd flip around and finish him off. It went down quite nicely. Luke got a bit lucky - he got tractored again, this time in open space mind you, but lived through the hail of enemy fire. Fortunately Rolf had moved 1 calc from his unique droid to Maul, meaning it could not fire energy-shells. That probably saved young Skywalker.

Next round Wedge popped a droid, Luke took a flip and put a torpedo into Maul's ass as a thank you for the tractoring. Grievous was active again and saved Maul - until Cassian shot him in the face. Wedge left the table to the remaining droids, but I had a clear advantage: only 2 Vultures + the Bubble remained. I took out 1 droid, then the other. The Bubble was no match for the Cassian + Luke combo.

Rolf's NM list (199)
Feethan Ottraw Autopilot — Belbullab-22 Starfighter 37
Kraken 10
Ship Total: 47
Half Points: 24 Threshold: 3
 
DFS-311 — Vulture-class Droid Fighter 24
Energy-Shell Charges 4
Ship Total: 28
Half Points: 14 Threshold: 2
 
Trade Federation Drone — Vulture-class Droid Fighter 20
Energy-Shell Charges 4
Ship Total: 24
Half Points: 12 Threshold: 2
 
Trade Federation Drone — Vulture-class Droid Fighter 20
Energy-Shell Charges 4
Grappling Struts 3
Ship Total: 27
Half Points: 14 Threshold: 2
 
Darth Maul — Sith Infiltrator 65
Hate 3
Tractor Beam 2
General Grievous 3
Ship Total: 73
Half Points: 37 Threshold: 5
 

In the final match I met Arild, one of our local players, and the reigning champ. He's a really good player. I had met this exact list the week before in a small local tourney, and he had walked all over me. I wasn't running exactly the same list, as my other list had Thane, not Luke, and some other upgrades, but it was 90% the same matchup.

Now, I was hoping NOT to meet Arild AT ALL. Because I knew I was in massive trouble. This time around he even had the bid (I was at 195 last we met). But honestly, I was slightly surprised to see he hadn't taken out Hate from Vader, or maybe even FCS. I mean, both are really good, but a slightly higher bid would have made sense. So I didn't think my 197 or 199 would matter. But turns out it did.

After the game (and before) we had some discussions about bid and first player. We don't really agree, but I think that if I had the bid (I would oc give init to Arild) the game would have played out quite differently. And I'm not at all sure it would be to my advantage.

I feel that Arild was overly aggressive and careless with his Fel, just because I was first player. That gave me an opportunity to try to focus him down, before the rest of the Empire squad could even join the fight. And Arild played right into that plan. He just managed to do a lot more damage to Luke and Wedge before he died than I had counted on. Partly because he played well and I made some not so good calls, and partly dice. But if Fel was 1st player, he would have been much more careful, and played an important role in the end game.

But Ok, my plan kind of worked. I got Fel out before the other Imps even mattered, but I had taken too much damage, and could not come back into the fight. I got Gideon, who I think was overly reckless. He just ran over a rock and got PS-killed by Luke for no reason at all really. But then Vader got Luke (my greens were still all blank), and thanks to initiative (here it really mattered) Vader avoided a torpedo shot from Wedge, who had come around after regenerating.

I tried very had and put damage on both Vader and Gideon, but both Cassain and Wedge were too hurt by now. Arild kept rolling evades, and both Vader and that damn Countdown are hard enough to kill on approach, let alone in the endgame. They just never die.

But apart from one slightly bad move and wildly unfair green dice, I can only be pleased with the result. I had a plan, it worked. It was always a high risk plan, and unfortunately I paid way more than could be expected to pop Fel. But pop him I did. And the middle-to-end game was pretty sharp, I feel, I just couldn't quite make it uphill.

And of course losing to Arild, who is such a strong player... there is nothing to feel down about. I think the better player won, and that even with more average dice between us he'd have come out on top. But he would have had to try a bit harder, and be more diligent in the end game. Also, this result, 2 dead ships and 2 with damage on, was WAY better than last time, when all I did was kill Gideon for 30 points...

Arild's NM list (198)
Darth Vader — TIE Advanced x1 65
Hate 3
Fire-Control System 2
Ship Total: 70
Half Points: 35 Threshold: 3
 
Soontir Fel — TIE Interceptor 52
Predator 2
Ship Total: 54
Half Points: 27 Threshold: 2
 
“Countdown” — TIE/sk Striker 44
Ship Total: 44
Half Points: 22 Threshold: 2
 
Gideon Hask — TIE/ln Fighter 30
Ship Total: 30
Half Points: 15 Threshold: 2

The final was streamed, and will be out on YouTube eventually. So you can watch me get beaten. The same goes for my loss in the Swiss. None of my WINS were recorded? Coincidence or foul conspiracy?

Also, overall I think adding Heightened Perception wasn't really worth it. But that's mostly benefit of hindsight. I did not expect to see so many 5s and 6s with such low bids. 198? 199? I'm sure if I had sat on 197, everyone else would be like 196 or 199 :P