Fantasy Flight Games might have cancelled all upcoming events of their games in the foreseeable future, but there are still Organized Play prize support kits shipped out to stores in the wild. For stores that have received their kits before the pandemic broke out uncontained in the United States, FFG has issued a “Do What You Want, Man”: hold on to the kits for later or don’t and host a tournament of any format so long as you follow social distancing procedures. When Darth Darxide (currently under a humorous alternate handle during these times of mass erratic behavior) and I caught wind of an extended format Store Championship just south of Cleveland in a location that required masks upon entry and capped its player count to 16 in a gaming room large enough for a hearty Hyperspace Trial, naturally we went. We thought ourselves desperate for some real–but cautious–X-wing by driving almost 3 hours each way as opposed to the occasional 1 or 2 hour drive, but a Marylander drove 5 hours to fulfill the same craving. I suppose he doesn’t mind long stretches of podcast/audiobook listening.
Now on to the list itself for today. From what the tournament organizer announced online, the community local to Freedom Games in Canton is a casual one. As a result of that and my realtive inability to get pumped flying the list, I was not going to fly my Nantex hard-counter of RAC (DeciVader) + Whisper, whose currently loadout is very much a Negative Play Experience to a great many lists out there. I suppose that the easiest way to kill cancer is to be cancer in the current meta. All the same, I wanted a list that has the potential to dumpster the 6 bugs almost as hard and consistently as RAC Whisper, so I was thinking about Supernatural Kylo. Before anyone types an angry response in the thread hosting the link to this blog on FFG’s forums, I would like to remind them that facing an opposing initiative 6 multiple times in a 4-game tournament is almost guaranteed. But yes, I suppose I am flying an NPE all things considering. But at least its thematic, especially to the Store Champ kit’s theme of unstoppable torpedo Kylo + lock-stealing munition LeHuse + short-lived Wingmate! Not only that, but in the practice game I got in before bringing it, I defeated Spamtex 200 – 77. Although that has to be taken with a grain of salt as my opponent on Vassal was only picking up Spamtex earlier that week to function as an occasional litmus test for listbuilding.
Kylo Ren (76)
Supernatural Reflexes (24)
Advanced Optics (4)
Proton Torpedoes (13)
Ship total: 117 Half Points: 59 Threshold: 3
Lieutenant LeHuse (38)
Cluster Missiles (4)
Munitions Failsafe (1)
Ship total: 43 Half Points: 22 Threshold: 3
“Null” (30)
Targeting Synchronizer (4)
Ship total: 34 Half Points: 17 Threshold: 2
Total: 194
View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0: https://raithos.github.io/?f=First%20Order&d=v8ZsZ200Z236X74W186W136WY397XWW98WWW108Y290X177W&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=
Objectively speaking, this isn’t as good of a list as straight up Super Kylo + Quickdraw + Rivas/Scorch, but Quickdraw’s not the SF depicted in the prize support! And this list isn’t without its unique tricks! When facing most I6’s, Kylo can decide to either start up with Null or regroup with him and just focus. Thanks to the I7-locking Targeting Synchronizer, he now has a fully-modded 4 die attack that will ward off said I6 a la Instinctive Aim, although in most games Kylo’s using his own lock to launch the torps when he can’t generate range 1 shots on his target. LeHuse might want to equip a gunner almost as much as Quickdraw does, but thanks to that Targeting Synchronizer, he can fire fully-modded 3 dice attacks in the range 2 band or even roll and still fire them albeit single modded. As a result of Munitions Failsafe, he can spam the Cluster Missiles’ bonus attacks, and if he can’t generate good results, recover the charge spent. By the same token (literally), if Kylo initiative kills the target Null is locking, because destroyed ships are not removed until that initiative bracket has finished engaging, LeHuse can fire a Cluster Missile at the destroyed ship, recover a charge using Munitions Failsafe, and then use the Cluster Missile ability to fire at a different target. And then of course is the very-thematic trick that sometimes comes up when flying Kylo: he locks a target when disengaging, but is firing at another target when reengaging with his Advanced Optics, so LeHuse, the Unflinching Executioner, uses the Tormented Apprentice’s lock to modify his own dice. The 6 point bid only matters for I5, as my I6+ starts out as an I7, so I should be fine against other I5’s in a 14 player tournament. Against I6’s, Null doesn’t have his name for nothing, as the Null Hypothesis applies to his gameplay: if there’s no real and impactful difference between this I0 and an I7 charging a Targeting Synchronizer and some mods on the opening engagement, then there is no point in treating him as different than an I7 with regards to opening engagements.
Game 1: Darth Darxide
(TTO lists are locked, so here’s a lazy Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V from ListFortress)
Galactic Empire (191):
Darth Vader + Heightened Perception + Mag-Pulse Warheads + Afterburners + Fire-Control System
Seventh Sister + Heightened Perception + Mag-Pulse Warheads + Passive Sensors
Fifth Brother + Heightened Perception + Mag-Pulse Warheads + Passive Sensors
When we were discussing our lists on the way to the store, I knew that this matchup would be a difficult one. Darth Darxide was toying with the idea of using the I4 Inquisitor’s excellent abilities as backup tools while he’d invest primarily into their powerful ability to fire I7 double-modded Mag Pulse Warheads for some hefty area denial. It doesn’t hit that hard all the time, but it is a very defensive list, with its ability to evade on the Inquisitors and the depletes and jams from the missiles addressing Vader’s lack of evade tokens. Not only that, but it is such a cool list for being viable yet filling in every upgrade slot. With half of my list’s tricks being derived from target locks, I am presented with a puzzle. I can’t even pull my Targeting Synchronizer Torpedo “Joust me, I6 Bro!” trick out as a result of these Mag Pulse Warheads. Ouch.
I start with Kylo in one corner and the TIE fighter-shaped ships in the other corner. If he chases Kylo, perhaps the other ships could advance further down the board and synchronize their attack with Kylo teleporting into an engagement route. If he faces the non-Kylo ships, then perhaps Kylo can have an easier engagement route. If the Inquisition takes pursuit after the non-Kylo and Vader guards against Kylo, perhaps Kylo can charge into a block against his grandfather while he achieves a flank.
On the first turn, we all crawl a noncommittal amount forward, waiting for the other to flinch. The following turn, when all the ships turn in on Kylo, I use Supernatural Reflexes to run behind the obstacles towards the other end of the board. Even with the non-Kylo’s marching towards the end of their flank, that was an error. For I flinched first. I should have faked the camp by rolling before a hard 1 and focusing. Yet, no shots have been traded yet.
We jockey for further positioning, declining engaging for over fifteen minutes as neither can afford a botched first volley. Eventually (depicted above), after meaningless shots through gas clouds, we have generated our attack angles. 5th Brother banks starboard to cover one of Kylo’s potential angles and 7th Sister banks portside to punish anything too fast form LeHuse. The Francophone Lieutenant marches 1 forward to fling an unretaliated shot at the 7th Sister. Kylo boosts forward to dodge 5th Brother, executes a 3-bank starboard towards Vader, and locks 7th Sister and rolls forwards and portside to his idol. Now, only a slow maneuver (1 banks or 1 forward) from Vader will catch Kylo. My opponent read my speed instead of the slow camp with Targeting Synchronizer and 1-banked portside. He can’t dodge Kylo’s arc here, but he doesn’t have to. Instead of risking poor variance in the exchange and letting Kylo either meaningfully Range 1 or Torpedo 7th Sister, he further demonstrated a collected restraint and fired a Mag Pulse Warhead at Range 1, with Null unable to do anything but help LeHuse. With no real chance of doing damage, my Kylo used the force to show Vader the Dark Side of a Panicked Pilot. If I can just sneak that crit in, then I can get Vader out of the picture and start to do some damage. No further damage is inflicted this turn.
The Inquisitors turn in towards Null, while LeHuse runs through the cloud to catch Vader on his 4-K and block the Afterburners boost. Kylo, hoping to bait Vader into spending his force on offense to Mag Pulse him again and render him vulnerable to LeHuse’s 3 die attack, locks 7th Sister again. Vader 4-K’s and Null squeezes past the Inquisitors to safety. Vader Mag Pulses Kylo and LeHuse plinks a shield off Vader.
The following round is uneventful: the Inky’s turn around to catch Kylo, who rolls around to dodge them while using the cloud to obstruct Vader’s approach; with a stress token, this is one of the few moments where Vader is made predictable–and thus dealable a la most I6’s–for the Supernat Kylo. Null turns into the cloud to avoid any chance of getting shot meaningfully. Kylo’s Range 1 attack modified by lock misses 7th Sister, but that’s all part of shooting at an Inquisitor. In fact, thanks to these Mag Pulses in general, it is difficult to generate some hard hitting attacks. At any rate, LeHuse’s single-modded turret missile misses Vader to demonstrate this difficulty. Oh the irony! Earlier that day I was talking about how I prefer Duchess to the Grand Inquisitor in Cromwell Aces simply because Duchess is a true 3 die gun and can sometimes roll 4 red dice. Now, without a gunner to roll 4 dice at Range 1, I feel foolish for trying to force the Null Hypothesis in the list-building department in hoping to consistently generate 3 dice fully modded with LeHuse’s attacks.
LeHuse keeps firing missiles, sometimes double modded, but he’s not hitting either way. Kylo keeps dancing out of arc, but he’s not able to get those Torpedoes off without ending up stressed and thus vulnerable to an Inquisitor killbox. Very well played, Darth Darxide! And as much as Null keeps Vader in arc and throws the 2 hits thanks to focus mods his way, he won’t hit the Dark Lord, let alone panic him. At least it feels good to block Black Leader with LeHuse.
Well, my time away from Vader has run out. Kylo has to opt out of a very tempting engagement just in case Vader goes fast. Thus, the Supreme Leader rolls, 3-speed fast banks, and boosts out of the Inquisitor arcs. As I suspected, the Inquisitors were covering one of Kylo’s escape routes and functioning as bait for Vader to pounce on should he take another escape route. Surprising us both, the escape route that I took was just slow enough for Vader’s 3 forward boost to catch and halve Kylo.
I tried to dance my way to generate favorable shots on the Imperials or to keep plinking with Null’s primaries and LeHuse’s missiles on Vader as he’s the most green-variance susceptible and has the Dark Side assigned to him, but I can’t push the damage. When the Inquisitors start using their abilities to punch in damage on LeHuse and halve him, I have to call it a game and flee with the few minutes remaining to preserve MOV and live to fight another day. 0 – 81 defeat. It wasn’t just the difficult matchup and Vader’s reliable greens holding him up: Darth Darxide simply played a better opening than I did in the poker and chicken matchup. Spending another turn in preparation with Kylo, such as returning behind the obstacle course so he could cut around Vader or at least fake it and roll back and then cut would have certainly helped.
Game 2: Jim
Galactic Empire (200):
Academy Pilot
Academy Pilot
Academy Pilot
Academy Pilot
Black Squadron Ace + Ruthless + Hull Upgrade
Darth Vader + Fire-Control System + Hull Upgrade + Brilliant Evasion
With Vader positioned like Howrunner inside his TIE swarm and not equipped with Afterburners, I don’t have to fear him as much with my Kylo. And when Vader remained in formation on the first turn, I knew that I could rush in and fire a fully modded torp without fear of retaliation. When Jim stated that he was fine not taking any actions with his TIE/ln’s, instead of rolling and boosting to fire an unretaliated torpedo at a corner Academy, I reposition and move so that I can fire the torpedo at the 33 pt ace, willing to endure a range 3 obstructed shot. Against my 2 hits and 2 crits, the ace natties, suffering only a Damaged Engine. Kylo suffers a shield damage from the return potshot.
We both laughed and jested on the outside. But deep inside, within a cacophonous whirlwind of emotion trying to even begin the 5 stages of grief coping, I completely snapped.
This is how this day is going to be, is it?! I won’t kill a single ship this entire tournament?! I’ll only see 3 agility ships that only ever max out on evades without even taking actions or having force?! Forget about winning this game now! There is only one objective, and it is to eliminate that sodding TIE Fighter! I don’t care if I lose my entire list in the process! It’s not target fixation if it’s an objective more paramount to me than victory as per the game’s conditions! The bugger will die!
The TIE’s spread their arcs, forcing Kylo to swing in behind them. LeHuse and Null would benefit from rolling out of arcs and Range 1, but that’s besides the point. It’s no longer about proper engaging with a TIE swarm, but about killing that Black Squadron Ace. Besides, how was I to know that Vader would be self-blocked and unable to catch the roll? Null natties 2 hits on his Range 1 shot to Black, who natties 2 evades. Vader scores 2 damage on LeHuse. LeHuse’s first Cluster Missile, fully modded, generates 3 hits but only succeeds in stripping the focus off Black. At least the bonus attack does a damage to an adjacent TIE. Kylo plinks a shield of Vader. Black and his 3 friends with shots max out on hits, while the SF rolls 0 evades, killing LeHuse and halving Null. The dead TIE/SF and I0 TIE/FO don’t matter. The objective must not be abandoned!
Null blocks Vader’s Talon. The TIE’s K-turn, except the Academy who accidentally blocks Black. Kylo says “Consequences be damned” and fires a Targeting Sync Torpedo at Black, saving his force for defense and modding with Optics only to Focus Hit Crit Crit (I accidentally removed Null’s lock from Black when I fired the Torpedo). The 2 natties allow only a Damaged Sensor Array through. Kylo loses another shield. I won’t do the correct ace move and disengage with the blue 5 forward to safety! Every turn that I’m not shooting at the Black Squadron Ace is a turn that the insult to the essence of the game is alive! To the death before dishonor! More. MORE. MOAR!
The following round, Null blocks Vader’s blue, while Kylo flies into the fray and after the Black Squad, not stressing for the boost to free Supernatural Reflexes for the next turn. Unfazed by the 2 unmodded Range 2 TIE shots that do end up with arc on him and their hit and Fuel Leak they inflict, he manages to squeak in a damage against Black who spent his action on fixing his Damaged Sensor Array. The round after that, Null starts his escape route away from all the fighting, Kylo dodges all arcs but one (unmodded), and Vader’s K-turn keeps him out of position. Despite an evade token taken by Black, Kylo’s Range 1 double-modded shot miraculously hits his target and crams that final damage in.
I finally…feel…peace.
I have killed a ship. I have succeeded my objective. I have scored points. I performed an X-Wing feat of legend, which I don’t think I can repeat. I have done an entire 4 damage, losing only 119 points in the process of scoring the 33 points. It only took 6 attacks in the form of 2 fully modded Proton Torpedoes, a 3 dice range 1 modless primary, 3 dice fully modded fired twice, and 4 dice fully modded once. I should retire on top of my game. It may be a losing fight, perhaps an entirely lost one, but in my eyes, I have won. This was a good tournament after all, and a fun day in the end after I would probably drop during Round 2. But it’s not over yet. Not for me.
Supernatural Reflexes Kylo kicks it into overdrive and engages his signature move of dodging arcs while scoring unretaliated range 1 shots. If he’s feeling risky, he’ll trade shots with a 2-die gun, which helps him score points, even if it brings him down to 1HP. He’s not scoring much, but he’s getting in 1 or 2 hits per strafe, all the while keeping out of Vader’s range or arc, especially with the Dark Lord getting blocked by his grandson, blocked into a rock and stressed facing the wrong way, or stuck having to destress and kept far out. Eventually, Kylo kills all but 1 and a half TIE’s and Vader, with a little help from Null so long as it is safe, but my half-killed TIE fighter has to function as a mini points fortress.
The TIE’s engage after Kylo, but they’ve run out of their spammable arcs. Kylo bank boosts, Autothrusters rolls to starboard, and 3 banks towards Vader. Due to the TIE blocking a roll his leader wasn’t expecting to need, the geometry is such that Kylo scores an unretaliated range 1 shot on Vader, modded with only 1 force versus Vader’s 3 greens backed by force. He gets Vader to half, with the rock doing additional damage being gravy that helps reduce the Sith Lord’s effectivity. Weaving around the TIE fighters for more shots while taking only gas cloud-obstructed shots, he isn’t getting shot at again in a way that has a higher than 1.1% of hitting. He and Null just squeak it by 9 points. 128 – 119 victory. It was an ugly affair, but it was by a longshot my proudest win of the day. Not only killing a ship, but overcoming such unparalleled impenetrable defenses from a humble 33 pt. craft to come back from a 0 – 119 deficit made me feel unstoppable when it was over. My initial objective after that first torpedo and my internal mental collapse wasn’t even winning the game!
Game 3: Joe
Resistance (200):
Rey + Korr Sella + Rose Tico + Finn + Contraband Cybernetics + Stealth Device + Rey’s Millennium Falcon
Tallissan Lintra + Heroic + Proton Rockets + Advanced Optics
Zizi Tlo + Heroic + Proton Rockets + Advanced Optics
I feel a bit bad for facing Joe with my list. He’s the organizer of the event, a cool guy that loves the community aspect of X-Wing, and he’s purely running this event for the love of the game: the entry fee of $10 USD will go into a store credit pool distributed for prize support (whereas most store champs have an entrance fee minimum of $20 and that’s only for the kit’s prize support) in addition to the prize support and he ordered pizza for us after the first four rounds). I felt even more torn about playing this round as he was commenting on how much he liked the list’s theme around both the prize support’s theme and its corresponding scene from The Last Jedi: a super-maneuverable, highly accurate, torpedo-touting Kylo followed by a munition-bearing LeHuse and a TIE/SF-shaped ship that dies almost as fast as the battle begins! Beneath that surface of fun theme, there is the cancer that is Supernatural Kylo. Whereas Kylo Tavson and Holo present Rey and friends, moving first or last, a difficult matchup, Super Kylo is always moving after this Resistance archetype and wherever he wants.
Both our forces cautiously move up towards the center of the board. I know Joe wants to joust with his list, and I want to joust him back. If LeHuse, a nice chonky TIE/SF, is parked perfectly in Tallie’s bullseye, I can tempt her to fire a Proton Rocket, and between Advanced Optics and the normal focus effect, there’s only a 3% chance that spending that focus won’t be of use to increasing the hit count. With Tallie tokenless, she would be very vulnerable to not only Kylo’s double-modded Proton Torpedo, but also the simultaneously-firing dead Lt. LeHuse’s double-modded Cluster Missiles. The cloud can provide Kylo obstruction against Rey should she be fast enough to engage and his dial in junction with Supernatural Reflexes will guarantee him all the options he needs to score a shot on Tallie without being in Zizi’s arc or not at range 3 obstructed in Rey’s. Rey held back to cover Kylo’s flank, not expecting the torpedo ploy on Tallie. LeHuse 5-forwards towards his baiting sacrifice, while Kylo and Null hold back and watch in gratitude, but still in range so that LeHuse has Null’s Targeting Synchronizer live. Thanks to a lucky guess as to the speed of Tallie’s maneuver + her boost, I don’t even need to spend my action to roll into her bullseye, so I can just focus for offense. Between the 2 A-Wings, to no surprise, LeHuse dies. Tallie was expected to die in the return fire on paper, but it looked like she had a chance: with abysmal card drawing and dice rolling, Kylo generates only 2 hits on his torp and LeHuse’s weapon failure allows his cluster missiles to roll only 2 hits. But Tallie outdoes this bad variance with her own, rolling not a single evade across 7 green dice. F in the chat, bois. It all worked out in the end of this engagement, I suppose.
Rey generates 4 hits through the cloud to try to hit Null. Thanks to that cloud and a focus token, Null only takes a shield. Zizi finishes the task in bringing his initiative down to 0 with her turret shot, but he’s still alive. He moves out to range 3 of Rey’s Segnor’s Loop and focuses for defense, while Kylo focuses and rolls out to range 3 of Rey, intentionally within her arc. I was hoping to bait Joe into shooting at Kylo so I could show Rey the Dark Side of something very inconvenient, such as a Blinded Pilot, to befuddle her action decisions especially after red maneuvers, and then to wallop her with the Proton Torpedo. Joe doesn’t bite the bait and is focused on eliminating one ship at a time. Unfortunately for him, not only does Null score the 4 paint needed to dodge Rey’s 4 hits, but he natties all 4 evades. I need to take a shower after this. Meanwhile, Kylo’s triple-modded torpedo breaks Rey’s Stealth Device.
From then on, it goes as one would expect. Zizi’s out of range to roll anything meaningful against Kylo’s 4 greens, and Null has run off to the other end of the board. Rey’s not getting a shot on Kylo through either his intentional bumping or his engaging at Range 1 wherever her turret arc indicator is not pointed, so long as he’s not taking a modified Range 2 or closer shot from Zizi. I can afford to be patient with Kylo, as with all this time remaining, I only need to lower her to half and not lose half of Kylo to win. Null is just the icing on the cake, as when Rey yet again Segnor Loop’s to attempt to catch Kylo–honestly her best chance of catching him in tandem of hoping that he dialed one of the few moves that couldn’t be wizarded into an escape teleportation–Null pops some more damage into her.
After Null dies, Rey is brought to half, but Kylo is not done dancing. Through either chaining Supernatural Reflexes upon blue maneuvers to dramatically change their behavior one way or another or even using one reposition before a white move followed by a dice mod or another, he is repeatedly scoring unretaliated shots on Rey. Eventually Rey dies to the inevitability that this innately bad matchup presents her with. Kylo’s not able to half Zizi, but he does land that Blinded Pilot Dark Side he showed her way back during her last shot on him. 148 – 77 victory.
Game 4: Brad
Galactic Empire (194):
Darth Vader + Fire-Control System + Afterburners
Fifth Brother + Hate + Passive Sensors + Homing Missiles
Delta Squadron Pilot
Like Darth Darxide, Brad brought a very effective and standard Vader base, as well as a Passive Sensors Homing Missile 5th Brother. With Hate, he’s not going to lose his force to either modify his missile or use his ability if he takes damage while defending. 67 pt. Delta Squadron Pilots have always been good, and it’s good to see them get some love in a store championship, even if it’s on the opposite end of the table. Of these ships, through a combination of initiative, maneuverability, and HP, 5th Brother is the weakest link, and will be the primary target until a better one provides itself. After all, if he’s using Passive Sensors, he’s not evading, and is thus that much easier to kill.
Hence, on turn 2, Kylo calculates that he has range with his 5 forward from his corner to get a free torpedo shot on the 5th Brother. If Vader dials in a 3 bank, at best he can generate a Range 3 shot to try to weaken the torpedo, but he was too slow, so no boost for him. Kylo’s 4 hits deal a shield to the TIE/V1, and he’s in prime position to discombobulate the Imperials. 5th Brother’s turn radius isn’t good enough to guarantee an arc on Kylo given the current geometry, so he turns and locks Kylo for future use, standing as bait for Vader’s trap. But Kylo repositions, executes a speeding maneuver to his grandfather, and locks him for future violence. Vader bumps, and is made ineffective. The First Order TIEs fail to strip the focus after the evade on the Delta, who scores half points on Null. But the positioning is excellent.
Given Null’s potential to block the Delta’s 5 forward (the 4-K would have been blocked by LeHuse), he surprises the Delta with a 5 forward of his own and a relock. The Defender only moved 2 forward to punish Null’s potentially greedy arc. 5th Brother jumps into the fray, but he’s not going to catch Kylo, who’s repositioning allows him to stay just behind arc. LeHuse’s 2 forward leapfrog the Delta, allowing him a range 1 double modded rear-arc shot on the single-modded Defender. Vader’s 3 hard allows him to boost and roll in order to hit Kylo’s broadside at Range 2, but he does the responsible thing and rolls out of LeHuse’s Range 1, locking Null at range 3, not boosting into Kylo’s torpedo arc.
Null limps on 1 hp from the attack, but that’s all he needs. His lock is still on the board for Kylo’s Proton Torpedo: 1 damage off the Defender and now it’s modless! LeHuse uses his focus and the lock to punch in another 2 damage. Only 1 away from half points!
Null turns in, hoping to block Vader’s 4-K and keep him stressed facing an inconvenient direction. The Delta, fearing Kylo, peels away for now while 5th Brother hopes to block LeHuse. LeHuse’s speed allow him to set up a Cluster Missile and Kylo willingly stays put and charges his Advanced Optics. Vader’s 1 forward bumps Kylo, but he’s only killing off Null this round. Kylo and LeHuse bring the 5th Brother down to 1hp, who has to spend his lock and some force to hit Kylo for a shield, and thus doesn’t get to use his ability.
After this initial 3-turn brawl has finished, some time has been spent regrouping. Kylo has to disengage because he can’t get 5th Brother after said TIE/V1’s 4-K turn. Besides, there’s a Vader to escape. Mindful of this Dark Lord, LeHuse Segnor’s Loops to make his gun relevant in future turns, as kiting forever is a bad SF tactic if there’s only one SF in the game. Vader and the gang start to pile in the damage into LeHuse, who doesn’t stand by idly: through his efforts and Kylo’s maneuverable shenanigans, the Defender is further whittled, eventually to be destroyed on the turn Vader does LeHuse in. A surprise and desperate red maneuver is good on a Defender when you really need time on target or a block, but when your Defender is shooting last, on low health, and lacks coordinate, Advanced Sensors, or Emperor Palpatine, perhaps you should just continue turtling up, even if it is drastically mitigated by Kylo’s high time on target with 4 dice. Another disengage occurs. Kylo, ever greedy for more MOV and fewer arcs lined up on him, blasts to Range 1 against 5th Brother: the geometry of the cloud is such that the 3 bank from Vader can’t roll in and thus can’t get Kylo in arc, and the boost roll is equally useless. After doing in the Inquisitor with triple mods on 4 dice, Kylo shrugs off Vader’s Range 2 gas cloud obstructed shot.
Thanks to the shenanigans offered by Supernatural Reflexes roll into a hard 3 into a boost, as well as the inverse of a boost followed by a hard 3 concluded by a roll, Kylo covers a lot of ground, really fast. Even with the inside of the board and one more Afterburners charge, Vader is having a hard time keeping up. Yet, geometry functions as one would expect it to, so it looks like Vader might finally be able to swoop at some point. That’s when Kylo performs the classic TIE/ph Candy Cane, by rolling out and executing a hard 1 in. Vader, dialing in for a fast move around the circuit of the board edge, is range dodged by default and still can’t line up a shot on Kylo. Even though only one damage is dealt, style points are earned when Kylo’s Supernat boost into a 4-K turn on the final turn result in a free shot on Vader. 109 – 77 victory.
End of Swiss:
What? End of Swiss? Not end of the tournament? Well, it was announced on Tabletop TO and Facebook that there was going to be a cut to 8 after the 4 rounds of Swiss. It’s simply less of a feelsbadman if you lose a cut game for your fancy TIE/vn damage deck than if you missed out by a few MOV. Darth Darxide and I understand: last store championship we attended this year (this year?), we both made Top 8 out of a field of 16 with 3-1 records apiece, but as a result of our MOV’s we missed the decks. I suppose that’s what we had coming to us for flying Kylo + 2TIE/BAces and I7MagPulseVader + 5 Academies, as those are very consistent lists that tend to run low on MOV. We had fun with our respective respectable runs, but my 5th placing was just short of 4th by a few points of MOV! Besides, today with DarthDarxide at 2nd and myself at 3rd, we’d collect the damage decks if this were a standard affair store championship, and if the smallest cut possible were followed, we’d still make the cut to 4. It means a break, even more physical X-Wing for us so starved from it, a chance to win the whole thing, and we can’t be paired first round of cut!
Top 8: Kevin
First Order (196):
Kylo Ren + Pattern Analyzer
Sienar-Jaemus Engineer + Pattern Analyzer
Major Vonreg + Pattern Analyzer
Kevin was the Marylander who outdrove every other party to this event: he was starving for that sweet IRL sensation of X-Wing, complete with the tactile nature of plastic, wooden, and metal tokens, custom paint jobs, alternative alt cards, and fancy templates and dice! Even if he consistently makes cuts at System Opens, it’s a nice break for him not having to face off any of the many dominant X-Wing players in Maryland or the NOrthern VirginiA (and that’s why it’s called “NOVA”, dear German readers who comprise over half this blog’s clicks) area such as Paul Heaver, Tim Hilton, or Duncan Howard. We discussed a lot of interesting theorycrafting for First Order, especially in how underappreciated Lt. LeHuse’s ability currently is, although my list’s implementation of it is not helping its reputation. That and we were conjecturing if Malarus + 3 Sienear-Jameus Engineers would be a viable or even better alternative to the very proven Holo + 3 Engineers. We even talked enthusiastically about what we like or don’t like about Star Wars, which was when I reached for my plastic helmet that I brought as an emergency faceshield over my mask: I overheard some beyond controversial opinions somewhere in the room and I know that loss of taste is a repeated and demonstrable symptom of COVID-19. At any rate, as we were setting up in our conversation, there came the news: the droppening had occurred.
John, who went 4-0 with quad Fearless Skull Pilots (Darth Darxide’s only Swiss loss) and the other Burning River Squadron members out of North Olmsted (just west of Cleveland) had to return home as a result of the ever-increasingly late hour. They were glad to get their cardboard punchouts and felt good about their performance, but simply didn’t have the time and planned only for partaking in 4 rounds and leaving before the cut. Even with Burning River Squadron keeping their Top 8 prizes, that’s such a shame, as according to a standard tournament format John should be the winner out of 14 players, and I know him to be a great player. When he was running Fenn + 2 Skulls + Zealous Recruit at the Pittsburgh Hyperspace Trial last year, he gave me yet another tight game of engaging dilemmas and intense decisions, this one I won using Super Optic Kylo + Fanatical Fire Control Gunner Quickdraw + Rivas. Thanks to his signature high MOV, he also made cut at the trial, despite having 2 losses! John, if you’re reading this, you now know my forum handle. If you like, hit me up and we can setup a game on Vassal or Tabletop Simulator to see how a final between our two lists would look like. Regardless the outcome, I’m sure it would be a fantastic match.
Well, at least it means that with the re-seeding, Darth Darxide and I won’t have a rematch until the final. Furthermore, with the cut rolling to people who haven’t left, it is essentially an 8 player single-elimination tournament for neat prizes including a fancy focus token that functions as a challenge coin. The previous 4 rounds were essentially qualifiers so that the bracket would form as you would expect a bracket to form: lower-ranked players are paired with higher-ranked ones such that if the final isn’t of higher players surviving to the end, at least some epic upsets have been scored.
Cut to 8 Repair: Ron
Scum and Villainy (200):
Krassis Trelix + Cluster Missiles + Proximity Mines + Marauder + Veteran Tail Gunner
Lando Calrissian + Trick Shot + 0-0-0 + Qi’ra + Shield Upgrade + Lando’s Millennium Falcon
Black Sun Ace + Cluster Missiles + Hull Upgrade + Shield Upgrade
Besides nuking Lando off the board and trading pieces for a 200 – 77 victory, with Kylo rolling almost no green dice despite them being boosted by obstructions and only until after Lando is dead, where do I begin?
Ron, you were a fun player and I’m glad that you got to enjoy making cut and we all got our 5th game of X-Wing in the day, something unheard of for the past 6 months in this part of the world infested by people who don’t care about how to properly wear a mask. But let me help you if you’re reading this. I like that your list is built to be against swarms, but Boba is even better at swarms than landing cluster missiles galore. Also, abilities that preserve health points tend to save more health points than equipping those health points as upgrades, thereby increasing your efficiency with the list.
I know that SuperKylo is some crazy positioning that seems like teleportation, but Boba can almost fly like SuperKylo thanks to his ship title and his boosting options and he’s super tanky with that ability–all while firing double-modded shots out whichever arc he prefers! Consider the following alternative to your list:
Lando Calrissian (Scum) (42)
Trick Shot (4)
Qi’ra (2)
BT-1 (2)
Lando’s Millennium Falcon (3)
Ship total: 53 Half Points: 27 Threshold: 6
Boba Fett (86)
Maul (12)
Proximity Mines (6)
Slave I (5)
Ship total: 109 Half Points: 55 Threshold: 5
Cartel Marauder (38)
Ship total: 38 Half Points: 19 Threshold: 3
Total: 200
View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0: https://raithos.github.io/?f=Scum%20and%20Villainy&d=v8ZsZ200Z90X133WW55WW79WWW152Y103XWWW48W70WWW161WY124XWWWW&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=
It’s been January since I last played Scum in a tournament, and I only went 2-2 with Boba, Torani, and Old Teroch (no Slave 1, as I prefered the Snapshot on my Kimogila). Yet, I’m sure that you’d like this list and that it would be more effective at what it seeks to achieve. I’ve tried to keep it to the original 3 ship archetype you had as much as I could, and I don’t know if this is the most effective means of loading this out. I know that it’s a bit ironic that I’m saying this considering how I’m flying LeHuse instead of Quickdraw for the sake of theme and that Supernat Kylo, AKA “Mr. Teleports Behind You at Range 1”, has very diminishing returns for Proton Torpedoes except for Fang Fighters, which had to leave early. All the same, I thank you for your fun game and wish you the best in your future endeavors!
Top 4: Matt
Galactic Republic (200):
Plo Koon + Calibrated Laser Targeting
“Odd Ball”
Blue Squadron Protector + Dedicated
Blue Squadron Protector + Dedicated
“Goji” + R4 Astromech + Proton Bombs + Seventh Fleet Gunner + Delayed Fuses + Dorsal Turret
I have respect for Goji, as proper play of him has always involved never taking a shot with him so that both his squad buff sources stay reloaded. The ARC and the Torrents are almost certainly rolling an additional green die thanks to Delayed Fuses and 7th Fleet Gunner can make any single shot per round that much deadlier by increasing the red dice count. Naturally, he’s the highest priority target for me for these reasons, as well as his Proton Bomb’s area denial of escape lanes be they for Supernatural Reflexes seeking to shoot while escaping or Lt. LeHuse zooming forward and shooting missiles out his rear-pointed turret. Delayed Fuses are pretty good in their own right if your going to drop a bomb every turn anyway, as the actual ships in detonation range are the area denial on the fuse ticking turn and the evacuated area behind said ships are the area denial on the detonation turn.
At any rate, the TIE’s and Kylo split, forcing the Republic to commit. One Torrent and Oddball cover the TIE’s while Kylo’s torpedo fired at Goji (from the slow and non-committing roll back into a hard 1) would addressed by Plo’s range 3 obstructed shot..Range control meant that LeHuse and the Torrent would trade shots for 1 damage apiece, a 7th Fleet Gunner boosted potshot allowed Plo to plink a shield off Kylo, and Kylo deshielded the Y-Wing: the focus toss from Plo saved him from the weapon’s crit! Defense is running low here, but I’m fine with that because I can opt out of engagements on a whim! Time for the scrum!
Oddball isn’t just an I5 ARC for a reasonable price, as he rolls to better cover Kylo’s side of the board and scores a lock on him. The Goji gang swings by, otherwise trapping Kylo if he didn’t have a 24 pt overpowered upgrade equipped. From his position dead center in a killbox, Kylo rolls starboard and forward, links into a boost starboard, and hard 2’s towards Plo and out of arc. The TIE’s, dealing only with a Torrent deal some damage to none in return. Kylo saves his focus for defense (against the only shot coming his way from the Torrent) instead of using it on his average dice Range 1 shot, but Plo very unfortunately blanks out, ending up half pointed. The Torrent misses his range 3 shot on Kylo.
Just so he can eventually set up a shot on the TIEs later on, the lone Torrent turns as hard as he can into a bump LeHuse. The 2 firing arcs free to ward off Kylo only succeed in making him Supernatting a boost, executing his hard 3, and then rolling out of the arcs. Plo sets up the flank for a future turn, and Goji resigns himself to fate. Hammered by 3 dice focus followed by LeHuse’s 3 dice focus modified by Kylo’s lock all the way back from the first engagement, his modless single agility doesn’t score the overall 2 evades he needs. On the brightside, Null is half-pointed by Oddball’s rear-arc shot.
IIRC, Null turns in with the hard 2 portside and locks Plo for LeHuse’s benefit. Plo and the lone Torrent engage with their tightest white turns, while LeHuse hard 3’s to starboard to focus his shot into Plo. The ARC and the other Torrent begin their cycling as Kylo zooms down the board and locks something. Plo deals 1 more damage to Null and suffers 1 more damage from LeHuse. The following turn, Null’s Hard 1 portside into a roll, in junction with the Torrent’s own positioning affecting Plo’s dial, end up blocking the Jedi. LeHuse’s slow move forward lands him with arc on both the Torrent he locked from ages ago and Plo. The other torrent tries to rush in, and Kylo swings in with another live torpedo, looking with menace at the Torrent in the scrum. Null dies, a Cluster Missile with Targeting Synchronizer + LeHuse’s ability + Focus kills Plo, and the bonus attack from the Cluster Missile modded by the native lock allows Kylo to finish the shot and kill that torrent. In the 4 ship scrum, only 1 remained.
From then on, it’s standard TIE/SF without gunner affair and Super Kylo breathing easier with only 2 ships on the board. LeHuse is brought down to half points, the Torrent is killed, and Oddball is half-pointed. At this point, Matt accepts the inevitable and resigns, a 200 – 56 victory, although score doesn’t matter in cut. It’s just fun and funny that I’m now scoring total destruction victories when it doesn’t matter.
Final: Kevin…perhaps for sure this time
Even after tabling Darth Darxide in the Top 4, Kevin’s long day of a 5 hour drive followed by 6 rounds of X-Wing is catching up to him. He proposes that–since we both got what we came for in the form of TIE/vn damage decks and high quality plastic Kylo gang alt arts–we simply roll off for the final salvo…a negotiation made while Matt and I are still playing Supernatural Reflexes Kylo’s dance of unretaliated shots against a single ship, lol. Even losing to World-class players is a fun experience that enlightens one’s X-Wing game and expands it to new horizons, so I really want to get that game in with him. I think it’s a fair fight considering my Torpedoes and that my list, at least initially, moves after his. I don’t like the idea of final salvos *insert Watto line about letting fate decide* and I point out that I have only 7 dice to his 9. Kevin improves the offer by stating that we can both roll 9 dice to make it even. But I turn that down, as that would leave the fancy challenge coin focus token to random chance and I legitimately believe that there won’t be another opportunity like this to get one anytime soon. Kevin counters with the promise that if he wins, he’ll give me the focus token. Now there is no reason for me to turn down the salvo, and I find the terms appealing as I am also hoping to go home to a certain degree even if it means not playing against Kevin.
Thus, for only the pure technicality of determining who “wins” the event and a higher amount of store credit than the runner up, we roll 9 dice apiece. I was luckier by 1 result, although an even stronger source of luck was Kevin’s guarantee of me collecting the focus coin. Victory?
Well, there was no Spamtex, so I can’t play the hero. In fact, I suppose that all lists considering, I’m really the villain. It took Darth Darxide’s unflinching play and his hard counter triple Mag Pulse Warheads to give me my loss for the day. That’s not to imply that my list has potential for a large tournament, as larger player rosters inevitably include stronger list diversity and thus more potential counters to me. I was just teching against an apparently imaginary boogeyman. And if this Store Championship were Hangar 19’s where I know for a fact there would be at least 2 Spamtex lists, I would be better off flying Super Optic Kylo + Quickdraw/Vonreg + Rivas/Epsilon if I wanted specifically to fly the Kylo that eats up the remaining Nanteces, even if Quickdraw has died and Vonreg is limping away in the process. But muh theme! And it’s so much fun to say, “je prendrai un jeton de concentration, hon hon hon!” or “J’ai synchronisé mes serrures pour je pouvoir lancer un groupe de missiles, oui, mon ami tres bien!” in a horrible accent. Considering how basic and limited my French is, that’s also probably hilariously wrong! Good fun, Lt. French! Now to have Terrex give him a Cloaking Device so he decloaks, Afterburners after a move, and focuses to fire a Proton Rocket fully modded thanks to the Sensor Buoys, and then to have him recloak by Tavson baffling his lock on him off at the end of the round and Biohexacrypt Codes coordinating a recloak. It will be an expensive and inefficient party trick, but you get an invisible Frenchman who appears from nowhere to stab someone to death and disappears with a snorting laugh! Top shesh!
That will do it for now before I go further down tangents. Today I’ll probably write a quick post as to why Supernatural Kylo should be played against just so that you can stand a better chance against the Eta-2 Jedi Interceptor in Wave 8. Sure, they’re not 100 pt base point fortress Jedi slayers like Supernat Kylo is, but…they’ve got their own tricks that make them a challenge to face. The TL;DR of that will be that if applying the Null Hypothesis when facing them in a 1v1 and moving last, you’re going to have just as hard a time catching them as even Vader (Kylo’s least favorite I6 to deal with) has of catching Kylo. Dialing in your I6, even with an open dial and repositions, against Kylo’s Supernat reposition + fast move + reposition afterwards is a chore that will be repeated when facing Eta-2’s. What’s a System Phase reposition if not an Activation Phase reposition that late in the game and in that common endgame state if you’re moving last? But I digress. Complaining about SuperKylo will continue to be useful in helping FFG determine which abilities and piece behaviors constitute a negative play experience, but it won’t help in the least against the Eta 2 endgame. For just as egregious as First Order’s receiving of L’ulo’s ability as a ship chassis and as overpowered First Order’s talent + tech combo that effectively gives you Nien Numb with a lower skill floor, Republic is going to spawn some SuperKylos. The future is soon. Besides, if we played out game 7, over half my games would have been against I6. Let’s face these Eta-2’s prepared and have some great matches!
Screaming into the Void 