Well, the big Store Champ that I was prepping for was cancelled the day before. All for the best, given that it’s better to be safe than sorry and that event was nearing 50 players. DarthDarxide, his nephew Chris, Pyoinator, and I were still aching for some X-Wing this weekend, so we four instead carpooled to Cincinnati’s 513, a neat store covered by Eruletho in his ongoing blog: Tales of the Silver Ace.
I miss missing you now and then
Kylo Ren, or Boba Fenn
I miss missing you now and then
Sometimes before it gets better
The virus gets bigger
The toilet paper outage results from mass hysteria
Oh, we’re fading fast
I miss missing you now and then
-Fallout Boi
All in all, between people being responsible and not pushing plastic spaceships with +1 poison damage and waiting until 513’s Store Champ next week, there was a total of 9 of us. That means that the store’s owner, Michael A., will fill in as the 10th, guaranteeing that nobody will have sit out unpaired during the four rounds! I decided to stick with Kylo (Instinctive Aim, Proton Torpedoes, Advanced Optics) Vonreg (Outmaneuver) Muse (Squad Leader) to get some proper table time with it.
Round 1 was against Mitch, who was fielding 2 bombers with Plasma Torpedoes, 3 vultures with discord missiles and grappling struts, and 3 vultures with grappling struts. After the swarm crawled 2 forward, I thought that Kylo’s initial setup meant that a focus into a red boost coordinated by Muse would have positioned his 5 forward into a torpedo launching position. After executing the maneuver, I was still confident, and decided to lock. I was out of position, which means that in order to fire a torpedo, I would have to barrel roll and end up being stressed! I’ve played enough Supernatural Reflexes Kylo to know that an alpha-joust requires pre-maneuver repositioning on the follow up move, and that rolling after the rock-lock would shut him off to Muse’s coordinate. This would certainly be the biggest blunder of the day.
As it would turn out, with the droids banking in, Kylo’s open dial allowed Muse to coordinate a focus to link into a boost, which in turn permitted him to clear the stress with a 2 turn and lock a bomber at range 1 (triple mods are good: the initial roll of 4 blanks was converted to 4 hits). Vonreg rushed in and traded shots with 2 vultures. The following turn, it all becomes a scrum, where Kylo wished he fired a torp at the beginning.
Vonreg nukes a droid at range 1, and Muse coordinates Kylo to the least bad spot, slotted neatly in a sandwich between 2 range 1 shots. Vonreg nukes another droid, but dies in the process, and Muse gets sniped. It’s Kylo against the world now! In the process of getting half-pointed, Kylo’s primary weapons and 2 torpedo shots (a Zeta strike?) reduce the swarm to 3 droids and half a bomber. The good game resulted in a 146 – 126 (? IIRC) loss.
Round 2 was against James, who just recently won a mutual destruction-triggered final salvo against the other 5X player in the building. The X-wings go slow and keep their foils closed (so the back ones can focus into red boost into formation). Muse coordinates not the escape route, but the engage route to Kylo, seeing this opportunity. Vonreg sneaks up.
Kylo scurries off from the next engagement, and Vonreg Antilles’ Outmaneuver full mod shot deals some significant damage, whilst Muse retreats in case the X-Wings don’t fancy her on the board. The following engagement, Kylo trades a torpedo (which he only conservatively mods) while taking only single-modded at best shots rolling 4 greens with mods. Following that, Vonreg gets crippled by a block, Kylo chases the 1hp Renegade X-wing, and Muse tries to recycle. After Vonreg is killed in the following 2 turns whilst slugging the damage (5-K’s are fun!) half of Kylo and all of Muse clean up until 1 X-wing remains. And if you believe it, dear reader, they did regroup such that coordinate shenanigans and Muse’s shots could matter. 160 – 110 victory. Should I have let up on the aggro so Kylo couldn’t be halved? Probably, but YOLO is more fun and this ain’t a Store Champ!
Round 3 was against Bobby fielding Oicunn (Intimidation and 7th Sister) and 3 X1’s (Fire Control Systems). Shenanigans meant that it soon was against Oicunn and 1 TIE/X1, against which Kylo would go after the Decimator while Vonreg (after popping behind the Decimator) would try to follow the X1, but slow rolling by the X1 meant that he would keep getting blocked. Muse tried to get by Vonreg to coordinate, but either the obstacles meant that a good barrel roll couldn’t be coordinated or she was blocked. That was a tad inconvenient on Vonreg’s 5-K, which meant he would be reduced to 1hp by the advanced. On the other front, Kylo kept going at the Decimator. Should I have stopped chasing once half points were scored? YOLO, Ben! This is my only non-Store Championship tournament this month!
Vonreg went a little too fast to try to finish the Decimator, and ended up at Range 0. That 2 forward is a massive mistake, and it turns out that he should have simply 1 banked and aggro’d up. So now it’s just Kylo and Muse against the two. After a bit of being chased, Kylo spices it up by trading shots with the Decimator. After being coordinated to Muse to barrel roll away from a debris cloud and then 5k’-ing for that aggro, 7th Sister pulls him on a rock. He rotates to trade shots with the last X1, where they mutually halve each other. The Silencer cycles to kill the Decimator and avenge Muse. Instead of running, the final YOLO joust against the 1hp X1 commences! Kylo plays Xcom, and his double modded shot bounces off, while the X1 kills him. A fun game! 200 – 181 loss. And something to be learned, for if I did a 2 bank instead of a 2 straight, I could double mod and then boost into range 1, although the 2 hard and autos would keep him on the run.
Round 4 was against DarthDarxide, the driver of the partybus. I setup for the ultimate YOLO joust against Boba, but both Boba and Eamon ran off to bomb some obstacles. Boba was not long for the world thanks to Outmaneuver and Proton Torpedoes, while Eamon was stranded out of position. As Boba died, Eamon dropped his clusters, scoring half on Kylo! I wasn’t going to alter my entire trajectory just for another 47 pt of MOV in a tourney without a cut! Eamon will burn down! 200 – 79 victory.
Overall, I came 4th out of 10. Turns out YOLO Ren is not a good strategy, but after running for so long in those tourneys of Kylo 2BA to hold on to 3-1, there is a lot of fun and relief flying fast and loose. Fun fact: The real Red Baron (not Major Elrik Vonreg), Captain Manfred Richthofen, was killed when he was suffering from target fixation.
But on to some serious business, that turn 1 engagement of the first game was demonstrably bad range control on my part. I should have barrel rolled instead of locking in that questionable position to surely guarantee that a torpedo would be launching. As for my other 3 games and not letting up on the aggro, I can’t go “hurr durr, I would have won them anyway” because who knows? I’ve run a lot with Kylo and seen a lot of things, although the odds of going 3-1 would be a bit higher (unless I was the guy being paired up to the storerunner. In that case, I assume I would still be 2-2 all the same). Additionally, I can’t be overconfident and assume that I’ll do well at 513’s Store Championship next week by default of try-harding because who is to say that any of the players here were just messing about with lists they had on their minds but didn’t trust for the Store Championship?
That means I’ll fall back on Kylo 2BA, right? It’s gotten me a 75% winrate in 2 kit tourneys and a Store Championship. No, I’ll still fly this featured list, given that I was going to tryhard with it at Indy (where I would probably fall flat to 2-3, haha). Also, Muse doing stupid shenanigans to try to force a game of extended is a lot of fun (and with bid, is worth more than a single X-Wing!). We’ll see how it all goes!
Screaming into the Void 