I’m sure that most of us were expecting the TIE/SE to be good when it was first previewed, so long as it wasn’t prohibitively costed, of course. There was ample precedent for its strengths strewn across other craft and effects in the game. Moff Jerjerrod demonstrated the potential that a System Phase boost could have for payload shenanigans–not just on TIE/SA’s but also on the large-based Decimator!–and this craft could boost more often and was more maneuverable in a self-contained package. Other System Phase repositions, such as Sensitive Controls or Intuitive Controls, while neither as cagey nor aggressive as Activation Phase double-repositions at higher initiatives, had proven to be powerfully unpredictable tools for blocking or placing an arc. The defensive profile of such unprecedentedly speedy bomber was that of a T-65. And the ship had a white reload. I stand by my initial assessment that it was the star of the Fury of the First Order expansion. But I was still surprised by just how good it was.
What caught me off guard, exactly? The fact that the thing seemed to work with every payload one could kit it out with, so long as one played smartly. There were the obvious ones inspired by Jerjerrod lists themselves, such as mines or flinging Electro-Chaff Clouds (I, for one, recall fondly watching double Punisher + Shuttle perform at the highest-tier in the Swedish [I think it was] Nationals and catching people off-guard with the Jerjerrod boost + Trajectory Simulator Proton Bomb launch). But additionally, bomblets for cheap area coverage weren’t hampered at all by their seemingly limited number of charges for taking up 2 payload slots: disengaging and reloading on said disengage is trivially easy. By extension, paying 2.5 times the point cost of bomblets for Thermal Detonators proved to be even deadlier and equally valid at that reasonable price. Pairing with Grudge for reroll effects or taking the generic bombers by themselves to lower their price both proved valid strategies. And for reasons obvious, I can’t forget just how good Seismic Charges were for the ease in dropping bombs between obstacles to widen the possible blast radius or Proton Bombs for the ability to block a target in that blast radius (especially when I’ll Show You the Dark Side is in play!). Could this ship work with that ever-fascinating bomb, the one that is allegedly bad except when utilized by a list with Captain Nym or by Chrispy when fielding a Punisher?
Electro-Proton Bombs ready or not, I planned on attending the Crossroads Classic at Family Time Games in Indianapolis. It has been one of the longest-running and best-run community X-Wing events, entering its fifth installment. And it’s been some time due to the pandemic. The last one was in December (hence the low turnout of 60) of 2019, and I didn’t do too well there (3-3). But repeating the October 2018 one would be really neat: it was my first 2.0 tournament and I went 4-2, making the Top 16 cut out of 85 and eventually ending up in the Top 4! I lost again to my Round 1 opponent, the eventual winner of the tournament, Alex Smittle, but I did get to table in the first round of cut the guy who defeated me on stream the day before in Round 6. Reminiscent thoughts concerning the Autumn prior to X-Wing’s best year aside, both from various points of experience and from name recognition in tournament results, I knew from the beginning that an overly-cheeky list that exploits people not paying attention wasn’t going to work for the tournament. Hangar 19, the local playgroup of Indianapolis, was easily one of the most competitive and competent communities across the game’s first two editions. And if that wasn’t enough cause for caution, the event was a must-attend for many a savvy player in the Midwest. My Blackout + Randy + Gideon list that worked for Megasilver’s 2.25 tournament probably wouldn’t get away with as much as it had in such an environment. I needed a new 2.25-legal list. And thus I found further incentive to exploring the Electro-Proton Bomb.
I started off netlisting Nick Tobin, AKA NinjaElf. He had to be on to something if he consistently found success with Kylo + Breach + friend, while his collaborator, Alex Mogensen, won Alderaan itself with Tobin’s brainchild of Kylo + Breach + Tavson. Breach can equip an Electro-Proton Bomb and Nick’s list for his local store championship, Kylo + Breach + Quickdraw, was Black Box-legal. Just downgrade Kylo’s torpedoes (https://raithos.github.io/jt/?f=First%20Order&d=v8ZhZ200Z236X341W415W135WWY243X181WWW182W113WY493XWW134W101WW235W70W&sn=Da%20Bomb&obs=), and it fits! And as an extra bonus that Nick sadly didn’t get to use in his tournament games leading up to Alderaan, Kylo with Extreme Manuevers is very ROAD-exploitative, as he can dial very safely and turn his move into a pursuit, a block, or a disengage depending on the ROAD roll–he gains a lot of benefits of ROAD while dealing with almost none of the numerous drawbacks his opponents have from it! Similarly, Breach was surprisingly consistent with munition launching with the player order chicanery due to his adjustable speed, as well as adapting to blocking, bombing, or disengaging. Quickdraw wasn’t able to capitalize on player order, but she wasn’t as concerned about it as other pieces in the game were.
It looked to be a promising start. The bomb wasn’t too hard to catch things or to herd them with its area denial thanks to the amount of uncertainty of where and when Breach would drop it. That and, unlike other bombers, he had the maneuverability and durability to feign a joust and peel away right as he drops the bomb that the enemy formation now moves upon as they attempt to punish his brazenness. And when it went off, oh how the ion effect synergized with the cruelty of hard-mode obstacles! Not only that, but when something is ionized, forced into a 1-forward with a focus, and Kylo has Extreme Maneuvers, in terms of reacting with absurd mobility, it’s effectively giving that Silencer Supernatural Reflexes even if he’s the first player! And ion can lead to more ion with the munitions to further trivialize the randomness of the player order!
It wasn’t perfect, however, and that is why I spoke of it as a promising start. For starters, Breach was more expensive than Quickdraw, yet trimming his points down, I couldn’t really pin a good reallocation for said points. A Quickdraw without support doesn’t really synergize with Proton Rockets, that Kylo prefers Ion Torpedoes over a 3-dice munition or a point-blank munition, and although Advanced Optics are very good on him in general, in this loadout he really wants Sensor Scramblers to abuse ROAD by engaging when it’s convenient for him and delaying it when it would favor the opponent. I guess Proton Rockets on him would also be good, but shooting them would quite often result in them being only single-modded without Advanced Optics or a coordinate. Quickdraw was great when she was working, but as a trade piece in a list already with a non-negotiable trade piece, if she didn’t do her job soon enough, her TIE/SF would eventually bleed out. And talented players were able to find these weak points and stress-test them to my defeat. I knew there was potential, but I was hitting a wall, so I contacted NinjaElf. To my delight, he more than just responded.
He recommended that I give Daredevil Vonreg a try, as his options and maneuverability worked well as an I6 threat amidst ROAD. I was initially hesitant given how Daredevil got you in fun places but didn’t have the damage output of Outmaneuver, but I was open to his suggestion–I did seek out his advice and Daredevil functions similarly to Extreme Maneuvers. Since Proton Rockets are a band-aid solution to Daredevil Vonreg’s damage output if he doesn’t roll consistently or his target is extra evasive, that also solved the Breach bloat problem, as I now had a place to effectively allocate some trimmed points from downgrading the Proximity Mines to Conner Nets and dropping the Ion Missiles altogether. It turned out that Breach’s payloads and his Advanced Proton Torpedoes as well as Kylo’s Ion Torpedoes more than made up for the damage anemia I’ve experienced prior with Daredevil Vonreg. That and the meta became far less spammy and fraught with 3-agility ships than the last time I gave him a go. And as expected, the Red Baron proved to be rather effective at emulating Kylo in abusing the possibilities threatened and promised by ROAD. It was a list with 3 independent pieces that worked together to be greater than the sum of their parts. Nick was curious about the efficaciousness of the Electro-Proton Bomb, so towards the end I started sending him screenshots of every practice game from then on with the list. The commentary I provided with these screenshots, analyzing what and why worked and pointing out my errors and how I could have done better, functioned as an exercise much like blogging batreps does, and probably made my practice that much more effective for the upcoming tournament. With Nick’s help, but not backing off on the Electro-Proton Bomb and my hypothesis that the TIE/SE can work with almost any payload you attach to it, I had a list that worked with, and not against, the points-heavy bomb:
Kylo Ren (77)
Extreme Maneuvers (5)
Sensor Scramblers (1)
Ion Torpedoes (4)
Ship total: 87 Half Points: 44 Threshold: 3
Major Vonreg (54)
Daredevil (2)
Proton Rockets (5)
Ship total: 61 Half Points: 31 Threshold: 2
“Breach” (36)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes (5)
Conner Nets (3)
Electro-Proton Bomb (8)
Ship total: 52 Half Points: 26 Threshold: 3
Total: 200
View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0: https://raithos.github.io/jt/?f=First%20Order&d=v8ZhZ200Z236X341W415W135WWY381X117WW102WY493XWW134WWW68W235W&sn=LEARN%20TO%20DISENGAGE&obs=
And eventually, the big day starting off with a 2-hour drive after 4 hours of sleep came up. (Even not accounting for the retrospect of the rules changes, it’s a very good thing said changes didn’t come out Friday night as even with subtle changes I would probably have even less sleep when studying and then building a squadron. I deeply respect Hangar 19, but there’s a very, very, very good reason why there’s a time period for implementing even minor tweaks of new rules/points particularly when travel is involved. Being open to changes for an event up to the eleventh hour isn’t exactly….good, so to speak.) IIRC, it was the largest turnout for the Crossroads Classic yet with 91 players! That was much cause for excitement, even if the number of Swiss rounds was slashed from 6 down to 5. It’s also the first time we’ve had Michigan (Scum) Mark, Missouri (Resistance) Mark, Indiana (Empire) Mark, and Indiana/Ohio (First Order) Mark in the same building for a tournament since Gencon 2019!
Sadly, it was probably also the last. But hey! Don’t be sad that it’s over, but smile because it happened.
Round 1: Bitty Bumbo (The aforementioned Scum Mark who is a local of RStan)
FIRST ORDER (200)
Kylo Ren TIE/vn Silencer (78)
sensorscramblers + Sensitive Controls
grudge tiesebomber (38)
Bomblet Generator
sienarjaemustestpilot tiesebomber (42)
Automated Target Priority + electrochaffmissiles + Proximity Mines
sienarjaemustestpilot tiesebomber (42)
Automated Target Priority + electrochaffmissiles + Proximity Mines
This squad, as its originator of RStan alluded on the podcast prior to the weekend, is a list designed to be very adaptable to ROAD. So that makes two of us at this table! It should be a good game, as the last time we played, Round 1 of Gencon 2019, Mark beat me in a game that could have gone another way perhaps. And the time before that, in a Hyperspace Trial of the same year, I barely eked out a victory in a fantastically close match.
It might appear that the game is starting off with a toilet bowl swirl, and I’m entirely fine with it. Many are quick to remember that if both are jousting, one of the players is wrong (unless they’re forced into objectives and thus have to build better jousting lists), but a good portion forget to apply that level of thinking to the Thonkjoust. For not only is the Thonkjoust a joust that takes a longer time, but positioning hijinks get involved, and invariably, one player can use either numbers or maneuverability to render it advantageous over the other. With the greater distance travelled, fast ships on the tail end of the cyclone can waste the time of ships at the end of the opponent’s cyclone. This buys time for your own inverse of that concept, provided that you have setup such that at each end of the cyclone, you’re moving last with a ship that can match the speed of your opponent’s. Thonkjousting optimally might be boring to view, but there’s a lot of technicality that gets involved in an actual proper Thonkjoust.
But why does my list want a Thonkjoust if possible? Breach can hop into the middle and take advantage of those asteroids to limit how much the I2 Bombers turn in. So a pathway is cleared for him due to Kylo’s pursuit of Vonreg and the bombres currently turning. But more important than attacks will be dropping the Electro-Proton Bomb in a particularly inconvenient place for all those bombers and perhaps even the opposing Kylo. Especially if my decision to do so comes when my opponent’s the starting player, and thus his window for half of his possible repositions across the list (Pursuit Thrusters and Sensitive Controls) has already passed.
One thing that should be mentioned this game is just how many blanks I managed to roll on attack dice. Which actually worked out for me! Thus far, and even ridiculously more so through the rest of the game when it particularly matters more, I was simply moving last almost by default. True, my list has a lot of tech to be ROAD agnostic, but it still performs best when it moves last. I wasn’t generating crits on starting player rolls and some rolls were outright blankouts. So when my Breach arc-dodges with a lock and a roll to launch an unretaliated Advanced Proton Torpedo, an attack unceremoniously generates a grand total of 2 hits, it was understandable. At least I got a shield off and good positioning for the Electro Proton Bomb. Sadly, it might not be enough with the potentially 2 bombs dropped on Breach.
Well, victory through blanks, it seems! One bomber dropped a mine on Breach, but I rolled no natural hits. I rerolled a die into one, but that went surprisingly well, all things considered. Especially after Bitty Bumbo accidentally knocked and then reset my Breach, so my bomber might have been caused to miss the second mine. Or he would have missed it the whole time, we won’t know. At any rate, spared from a nasty bombing.
My Kylo hides out in a corner, still eager to swoop in while using the Electro Proton Bomb as cover. The opposing Kylo, guarding that area, seems to be a bit inconveniently located given the positionings of the obstacles, the mine, and the currently-fused bomb. Vonreg is looking to sweep in on a flank. Breach saves his focus to not get halved.
Breach disengages, dropping his Conner Net for extra damage and control, reloading his Advanced Proton Torpedoes. He also gains a lock for moving through the person he blocked with his boost! Vonreg sweeps in, starting to apply pressure on the enemy Kylo. My Kylo I joust with one of the chaff-wielding bombers. It’s an unfortunate affect of setting the pieces down to trap and render the other Kylo irrelevant while pushing a flank that wasn’t getting that too much damage in up to that point.
The bomb goes off and half of Bitty Bumbo’s list is pointed away from the action with ion tokens and losing a shield apiece. My Kylo tries to ionize the bomber to limit its options. It pops a shield, but doesn’t get the ion token. Again, rolling a lot of blanks in this match is a double-edged sword that is working out for me overall. In return, Kylo loses a shield. Oof.
Vonreg lines up a juicy Proton Rocket on the opposing Kylo, Breach turns around, and Kylo books it. I had expected Bitty Bumbo to anticipate me going slow such that I’d have one turn and a chance to blow up the bomber I’m currently fearing. Or to do a hard 1, remain stressed, but not possibly eat a mine next turn. I had over-thought it and instead booked it, strategizing on what my opponent might have thought I’d do to avoid this very situation. Kylo will eat a Proximity Mine this turn.
Vonreg launches the double-modded rockets and they continue the trend of not fully converting reds. At least they pop a shield off the focused target after he triple natties evades.
Damage is anemic and my Kylo is eating a mine, so things could be a bit hairy right now. But I whiff on the mine roll and Grudge’s reroll doesn’t improve it. My Kylo loses only a single shield and is not halved! Breach is able to squeeze by and also line up a shot on the guy parked on chaff. Vonreg dodges the other Kylo’s attempted shenanigans and is able to double mod, out of arc, against the other generic bomber. Damage starts to trickle in.
And yes, that Mandalorian token with the Lima Open logo on it is being used as the First Player token. And yes, we’ve been keeping it accurate every round. I was second player for a rather long time this whole game.
Bitty Bumbo does an oopsiefuckadoodle and parks one of his bombers on the asteroid. It was bad enough news for him that the launched chaff ended up short of zig-zagging Vonreg, who didn’t dial the bank that would snare him. Now he takes an auto damage, rolls for more damage (and misses for now), and will take minimum an auto damage that will render his odds of survival at 50-50. And that’s the luckier outcome of the asteroid collision. Say what you will about so many aspects of the game, but new asteroid rules rock!
Breach brings up the flank, Kylo eyeballs joining in the fight again, and Vonreg jousts a 2-HP bomber. Live by the red blanks and die by the red blanks, for his dice just aren’t wanting to convert against the target. Panickily, Breach shoots at the same target, but it isn’t enough to kill him. Vonreg’s effectively slain on the spot as he suffers 2 shields and a Panicked Pilot.
One Kylo kills Vonreg, while the other ionizes and halves the doppelgänger in retaliation. Vonreg’s 4 dice modified with a lock might not have been much to the even-then limping Bomber, but straining him with the ability has made it just possible for Breach to barely kill him. Grudge misses his shot on my Kylo.
I dial the Segnor’s Loop on Breach, for I know that Bitty Bumbo’s Kylo is doing the 1-forward. If I’m 2nd player yet again, that’ll be a free unretaliated Advanced Proton Torpedo! However, I’m first player, so there is no overlapping of the ship with my template, and thus no free lock. Kylo and a protective Grudge bump and it’s only a primary from Breach to Kylo. Time was called, and thus the game ended in a 123 – 61 victory. It was a bit closer than the score denotes, I believe. The abundant red blanks might have been unfortunate in certain areas, but they were game-saving in others!
Round 2: JBFancourt
REBEL ALLIANCE (200)
Han Solo Modified YT-1300 Light Freighter (99)
Kanan Jarrus + R2-D2
Luke Skywalker T-65 X-wing (64)
Servomotor S-foils + R5 Astromech
Wedge Antilles RZ-1 A-wing (37)
Predator
Another throwback to 2019 X-Wing! No, I didn’t play against a particularly high number of Falcon + X-Wing + A-Wing matches, but I did play Jason in that year in a Hyperspace Trial. He was already making cut and I was paired up in my bubble match, so there was stuff on the line. He defeated me in a really well-played game, so it’s good to be playing against him again. And he’s not fielding a RAC + Duchess + Soontir that moves after my Kylo + Quickdraw + Rivas, so there might be a chance!
Han seems to be marching down his lane with his friends, so instead of cautiously waiting at the opposite end with all the obstacles between, Kylo’s safe to start zipping up and gaining a flank. Vonreg wants to get out of that corner, but not too quickly. If I make it clear that, even with a directionally noncommittal Vonreg such as this one with Daredevil, that he’s not going to fight, then I could have a Falcon tailing him and gaining ground uncontestably. And that’s scary with Han being I6, and thus able to boost or rotate in response to Vonreg when I’m starting player. Breach I hope to have jousted, but not jousted too hard. That way he can act as a distraction and catch things with the Electro Proton Bomb.
Vonreg shouldn’t have turned here, in retrospect. That was a suboptimal move and me falling to my greed. Yes, if moving last, I could dance around and waste people’s time. Even moving after Luke alone, I can mess with him. But the aforementioned danger of Han alone makes it wrong. True, I needed to feign the possibility of being roughly in this area, but in the balancing act of feigning an attempted “go fast and hope actions can arc-dodge” versus full disengaging, I leaned too hard into the former and succumbed to the greed that comes with it. For if Vonreg just gets out, Luke as the lower initiative and on the outside of Han makes things awkward for his friend. Either they clumsily stumble into the midfield or they’re forced the long way around the corner debris. In either case, they’re bomb bait. But now, I’ve seen their awkwardness and 1-upped it with an outright bad decision.
Yikes. I even forgot to drop the bomb after the Breach boost. I only remembered about it after I announced that I was done with the System Phase, and at that point, it’s far too late. Here’s to hoping things pan out such that the bomb could be somewhat successfully dropped, even after that best window had passed.
Luke patiently banks in, keeping his arc wide enough and far enough back to catch a lot of Vonreg’s possible maneuvers and yet not be zig-zagged around. Breach could lock Luke, but I was really hoping to start landing crits into Han, so I locked him, even with the possibility of causing a bump. Kylo bypasses Wedge and aims his torpedoing arc on Han. Han banks into a bump.
Now with the moving last in retrospect, the bump, and Han’s turret angle, Vonreg’s slightly considered 1-turn portside and disengage seems far better than ever, especially had I remembered to drop the Electro Proton Bomb. Instead, Vonreg zooms up in both Luke’s and Han’s arc, with no way of escaping the latter. Making the best of this poor play of mine, I lock Han and Daredevil in.
To no surprise, Han with the force at his disposal is able to halve the strained Vonreg at Range 1. In retaliation, the Red Baron pulls 3 shields off the Falcon. Kylo’s also able to strip another shield while maintaining his lock and almost fully ionize the smuggler. Unwarrantedly, Breach disgustingly rolls natties while Luke unfortunately blanks out.
Better late than never, as Breach drops his Conner Net! It doesn’t catch anyone, now, but it might later! It’s already too late for the EPB in this position. IDK. Breach Segnor’s Loop’s while Kylo weaves to relative safety. Even discounting the fact that I’m starting player this turn, Kylo always moves before Han, so I don’t want him eating mroe than one shot a turn, if possible. I misgauged, so I’ll still be in Wedge’s arc. Luke K-turns and Vonreg zips away. Displaying impressive maneuvering, Jason’s Han admittedly hits the Debris Cloud (but who cares, because he’s got Kanan and the ability), but lands just beyond resting on top of it.
This means that, admittedly depleted from Vonreg’s System Phase ability, Han still has a shot. He shoots it at Vonreg, who dodges it. Luke chews down Breach. Kylo is out of range and Breach shoots a warning shot to Luke. Wedge takes aim at Kylo, earning him the Dark Side of a Panicked Pilot.
In the absence of knowing who moves first this turn, I just dialed the fastest blue maneuver with Breach and worried about it later. Similarly, I dialed Kylo the 5-straight. Under the contingency that I move first, Kylo zips by, smashes into Luke into a block, and Breach launches the Advanced Proton Torpedo. For even if Luke would have blocked into Breach, he’d back up until he’d be blocked into Kylo and at Range 1 in arc. That is unless Luke does something particularly unexpected. Unfortunately for this strategy, I am moving last! But that isn’t all that bad. Kylo can defensively react to surprising things by Luke. Perhaps I’m too cagey with Kylo thus far in the game, but that’s better than what I did with Vonreg. Speaking of who, rounds the asteroid with a 3-turn starboard and Daredevil boosts after Jake.
Whereas my shenanigans leaned into ROAD, Luke is understandably at loss for what to do. Go the fastest and hope there’s a collision with Breach? Go slow and hope Breach remains at Range 2? Adjust out of the joust and reposition? What about healing with the astromech? And where does Kylo figure into all of this? It is understandably quite the conundrum prior to the ROAD roll. After the game, Jason remarked that the correct decision with Luke was not to K-turn last turn, but to run along with Han, regen the damage from the unfortunate first turn of combat, and then reengage when favorable.
As it turns out, slow was not the way to go. Luke and Breach mutually kill each other at Range 1. And the agonizing bit about this turn was that had Luke regenerated health and not locked his assailant, he would still be alive and in the game.
Knowing well that Han is coming in, Kylo makes aim to block him, which he does successfully when reorienting his arc for more blocking actions. Unfortunately, this puts him in Wedge’s bullseye, which I accepted as being less bad than Range 1 of Han, whether he boosts or rotates. Jason might have been right about regretting his decision with Luke, but his timing on Han had been impeccable. As soon as he noted that his turreted ship was not going to be kiting, instead of failing to the temptation of “gunshipping” with the guns to the side as he gradually comes back in, he Segnor Loop’d with Han. And that straightforward game sense is paying dividends as Han spent only a single turn out of the fight as a result.
Vonreg pushes the Panicked Pilot into the A-Wing, who in turn chips away Kylo’s second shield. Nothing “big” has happened this round, but there have been quite the developments leading up to larger events. Should Kylo eat a single damage more, then Han alone above the half point threshold will win the game. And that’s when attentive Jason can start kiting and “gunshipping” with a disengaging Han. Meanwhile, Jake’s going to have no mods this turn.
Once more, Jason comes super close to the corner asteroid and does not collide with it! As amazing as this move is, for me in the game, in the short run, it’s bad news. Firstly, I had anticipated a bump into Kylo where Vongreg could perhaps be out of arc. Thus, I had cautiously rolled with a deplete, for after Jake moved I thought Kylo would chain block Han. Instead, with Han moving last and revealing his intentions, it now means that Han has his choice of either a Range 2 to Vonreg or a Range 1 to Kylo. But he’s on his way to getting ionized by the late Breach’s Conner Net.
Vonreg plinks away at Jake. Han halves Kylo. The numerical score might be daunting right now, but especially with that Conner Net going off next turn, the game itself is close.
Jake tried to be interesting and turn in towards Kylo while relieving stress, but his corner was sticking off the board, even when trying to save him with the advantage templates. Granted, he was dead to rights, but that makes this whole thing interesting. Especially when Kylo’s K-Turn inteded for the A-Wing now lines up with Han. Said smuggler banks, but can only focus. Jason’s starting player this time around, so Vonreg with perfect information locks and Daredevil boosts after the YT-1300.
Han pops a shot off at Kylo, who spends a force to show him the Dark Side of a Blinded Pilot. And after Vonreg pushes that crit through, Han’s ability is effectively shut down on the offensive side of things. Kylo plinks a snipe at him. Since Han hasn’t executed an ion maneuver to clear all those tokens from the Net, it’s still a 1-forward, focus, and repairing of the crit. So it’s still time to continue pouncing.
First player or no, I dial the bank with Vonreg. Either I’m safe or I’m safe and at Range 1 with mods. I’m moving first, so it’s the former of those two situations, but beggars can’t be choosers when the tide is turning. Kylo turns in and focuses. Han misses his shot on the Silencer while the pointy ships whittle him down well below half. Kylo attempted to ionize him again, but the shot was still well worth the attempt. I will say that across this game, my reds have been by far more active than in Round 1. There have been a lot of natural hits and few blanks.
I smell blood in the water and I’m far too excited by the development in events that I forget my Vonreg’s bullseye trigger. I was thinking about the ability to deplete Han and assure the outcome of the game, but I somehow hurried past that in activating Kylo, who kept his arc wide. Vonreg banks back, so that he can start pursuing from the inside of the board, and fully mods his dice. Han’s no longer ionized, but he’s caught between both pointy ships. Jason calculates that with this being very close to the end of regulation, that the best course of action is to rotate the arc, hope that the roll is pretty good as it could only be modified with force, and that Kylo rolls abysmally enough such that the Silencer dies. Then, he hopes that Han could weather Vonreg.
About that. Firstly, Vonreg was ever so barely in Proton Rocket range, and thus ended the game on the spot. And secondly, Han’s attack didn’t prove to be enough. What a game, and fantastically played, albeit with errors we both learned from and regretted over. A 200 – 127 victory.
Round 3: Invincible Fish
REBEL ALLIANCE (200)
Wedge Antilles T-65 X-wing (54)
Servomotor S-foils
Ahsoka Tano RZ-1 A-wing (53)
Brilliant Evasion + Ion Missiles
K-2SO UT-60D U-wing (46)
Pivot Wing
Kyle Katarn HWK-290 Light Freighter (47)
Moldy Crow
Rebel beef is an interesting matchup for this list. And by interesting, I mean advantageous if the opponent’s impatient but I’ll need some help from the dice if they are. Matt here is a very patient player, as demonstrated by his slow advancement down the board. And I know it’ll be tough since he defeated me in a store championship game right before lockdowns happened in 2020. Sure, I was unlucky that game, but he positioned well. That game incidentally was part of what pushed me to finally starting the blog so that I could better learn from my losses.
This isn’t so bad right here. It appears that I can generate a 3-pronged approach to try and force a commitment on one end. If Kylo is caught, I suppose stay cloaked and decloak into a flyby after the shooting. If Breach is caught, hope to not die and drop the Electro-Proton Bomb off. And if Vonreg is caught, hopefully that wouldn’t hurt too much with realistically just Wedge and K2SO ready to flip quickly.
Well, so much for that. And that’s entirely on me. I chickened out with Kylo on his flank and correctly adapted. But I didn’t adapt with Breach. So now either Kylo and Breach are coming down the same lane, Kylo has just hurt himself with all those obstacles trying to form his own lane, or my retreat and regrouping leaves Breach caught in the middle. People might cynically say “just wait for your opponent to make a mistake”, but that’s actually solid advice. And props to Matt for doing a far better job than I have of identifying where he wants to be (the open corner where he can better force me to come out over fear of the timer) and not doing my thing of falling to a temptation of turning in. This isn’t being facetious at all. There’s a reason why chill and slower players tend to excel with certain archetypes. Matt’s not engaging in “slow play” in the least, but he is very patient.
Yuck.
If there’s a lot of things I’m good at doing at, it’s doubling down on errors. I held Kylo back correctly, but I just wanted to try getting that torpedo off when Wedge probably wasn’t looking. But the boost prior to the 3-bank didn’t put me in good range. And instead of rolling out or staying put and focusing, I rolled in and locked. I rationalized that Breach was dead anyways, so might as well get the goodies off.
That incidentally is a self-fulfilling prophecy and a further point of opportunity to dissect how much better competency can approach an opening. Conceptually, if I waited a bit, it wouldn’t be a bad engagement. Just hold Breach a bit, then drop the bomb and charge after Kylo and Vonreg have a chance to finish the pincer. I’m not sure how much longer the wait should have been, but even a one turn wait would look pretty good, especially if I dropped the bomb at the start of that additional turn. Well, it is what it is, and instead of area denying, I’ve denied myself some good area.
How did the joust go? The torpedo missed Ahsoka, which isn’t really a shocker given that it was single-modded yet she had force and evade on 3 agility. In return, Breach is lowered to 1HP.
Kyle turns in and cleverly self-blocks K2SO so that the latter can clear his stress and keep his arc wide. What a good play, and some good evidence of practicing the list and stationary shenanigans! Breach clears his stress and focuses, Kylo zips in and arc-dodges, and Ahsoka turns the corner to start getting a flank on Vonreg. Wedge banks in after said bomber and Vonreg cautiously approaches said X-Wing.
Wedge kills Breach, as is expected in the vast majority of cases. Eager for damage, which I haven’t scored yet, I shoot at the U-Wing. Damage is scored!
The lack of Breach hurts Vonreg, as it means that there isn’t any control, crazy blocks, or burst damage on vulnerable targets, let alone the third prong to keep Vonreg’s path clear more or less. So getting both my ships blocked this turn kind of hurts, but it’s further comeuppance and a result of not engaging properly. At least the Electro-Proton Bomb goes off, ionizing things and popping some shields off! That could help.
Vonreg gets some more damage into K2SO and Kylo, hoping for a miracle crit to save Vonreg, shoots at Kyle. Ahsoka’s homing missile doesn’t ionize Vonreg and in tandem with Kyle’s lackluster reds and some absurdly good greens, Vonreg actually loses only a shield from the whole ordeal! It was rude and it was unearned, but it gives me a chance!
Or so it would seem. I knew exactly where the ionized HWK and U-Wing were heading. I also knew that the 1-bank positions Vonreg so that he can get a parting shot on K2 before he’s cornered and killed for real. I also knew that at the very least, he’d have a focus with the 1-bank. But for some reason, I decided to dial the 2-bank that even a fresh player knew had 0 chance of fitting. I’m not sure why.
Well, it looks like despite how the game should go, things turn out differently. Wedge and Ahsoka are only able to drop Vonreg to 1HP. Kylo meanwhile finishes what he attempted last turn and single-modded against bad greens saves Vonreg from Kyle. And it’s not from a Weapons Failure or a Blinded Pilot, but an outright kill. My position didn’t warrant this outcome, but I’ll run with this opportunity to try and get back in.
Assuming Wedge to go fast to put an end to the nonsense, Kylo K-Turns and Vonreg 3-turns. If I’m first, I’ll aim for the block, and if I’m second, I’ll hope to react with some damage. As it turns out, as with the vast majority of the first half of the game and in general with the game overall, I was second player. So Vonreg was able to loop around and hit Wedge for 2 shields. Kylo continues to tickle K2-SO.
I really didn’t know what to do. Kylo was in a good position to not get shot by Wedge last turn, but that isn’t the case dialing in for this turn. I rationalized that unless Wedge was doing a turnaround maneuver, he couldn’t shoot at Kylo were I to dial something to mess with even the 1-forward, say, a 2-bank. And since that would be a waste of a shot while Vonreg could loop around and harass Wedge if he got to move last, especially a Wedge blocked by Kylo, I guessed that Kylo might not be Wedge’s target. And thus I gambled on this conjecture by disregarding Wedge with my Silencer and simply moving 4-forward. From there, I could decide whether I’d want to chase Ahoska or more likely, K2SO depending on board state.
This time I was moving first, so I just locked and repositioned with Kylo. I couldn’t react to Ahoska, but at the same time, her lock was on Vonreg so if she K-Turned, at worse she could shoot with the primary and not ionize. As for Vonreg, upon seeing I was moving first, I hard disengaged in the suspected event that Wedge was after him. As it turns out, Wedge was ultimately after him. Fortunately, my interceptor lives to see another day, and although Kylo is hit, he isn’t ionized. K2SO is limping around on low HP though.
Matt’s first of only five turns of moving last after the initial engagement is over, and thus it’s back to playing it defensively with Ahsoka. She locks and blocks Kylo so she won’t get hurt too bad this turn and to give her dice an upgrade the next time she shoots at him. As for Kylo, the 2-forward is blocked. Sure, other maneuvers exist and Extreme Maneuvers Kylo has options to abuse ROAD like Vonreg has been doing thus far this game, but I always want the opportunity get a block so as to not get shot at all here should I be moving first. And if I’m moving last, then I can decide on shenanigans to arc-dodge and line up some good shots. So Kylo is still abusing ROAD, just not nearly as flagrantly since the current objective renders the optimal strategy a somewhat subtle one.
Not caring who moves first, Vonreg is just running. He’s got good speed to do so and turning in to knife-fight is far too risky with this wide range and the uncertainty of player order.
Continuing the trend, Vonreg range-dodges Wedge. Kylo bobs and weaves and launches the killing blow of an Ion Torpedo into K2SO. I’m in the lead! I think.
The reason why I guessed that I was in the lead and didn’t ask for a moment with Matt to check was because I play faster when I’m stressed. And I’ve been kicking myself over the bad Breach engagement, the very questionable 2-bank from Vonreg into K2SO, and the fact that variance is quite the factor in me even being in the game at this point. And thus I was dialing rather quickly.
The correct move when ahead is to disengage in this sort of scenario. But “just run, lol” is incredibly reductive. Run where? Besides, if the circumstance arises that I can punch some damage in to extend this lead, some good things can happen. Some pressure can be alleviated by putting it on the ships that need to engage, and thus they can’t be too careless in just running. My ships are less predictable in the knife-fight. And should some damage get pushed through, if my luck continues, I’ll be able to kill a piece and make it easier to run and hold the lead. I firmly believe in defense through offense and my time with Supernatural Reflexes Kylo has taught me that the easiest way of not getting sniped to lose a game through a gas cloud is to keep the option open for a situation that you can transform into a disengage or into a powerful engagement on your terms.
So in other words, I wouldn’t change whether I’m ahead or behind. I have to get damage in. But I can’t let damage in. Leaning predictably into offense or into defense and not riding that delicate balance in the dreadfully tense yet elegant swordfight here is a pathway to a clumsy defeat. So “hur durr, aces only run” not only is a general inaccuracy when describing how I tend to fly in general, but also categorically wrong when describing the subject of this game state. Similarly “hur durr, just joust and shoot” is fatalistically reductive. Being only predictably offensive leaves Ahoska to be caught by both Kylo and Vonreg with decent mods at close range. You can’t do that against knife-fighters. But not being aggressive enough lets them off the hook in how much and where they can run. So both of us, the guy fielding 4-ship rebels and the guy fielding 2 maneuverable aces + maneuverable trade piece, are caught up in an enthralling dance. Props to Matt for not having Extreme Maneuvers, moving first most of the time, and still making it very difficult for me to engage.
All the same, as this dance continues, we both start to get a bit uncertain on our guesses of the score, so we outright discuss what the situation is. As we suspected, it’s currently in my favor. 93 – 83 to be exact. Killing Vonreg or halving Kylo effectively ends the game in Matt’s favor. If I’m able to kill Wedge on the turn I lose another half ship, then I’ll retake the lead so long as Kylo doesn’t die. Points on Ahsoka at this point is out of the question, but we can’t discount her given her ability to launch Ion Missiles. What a game!
At this point, geometry makes it such that Vonreg has to fully disengage again and hope that Kylo isn’t caught. Luckily, the asteroids are coming in handy here.
And time is called. It wasn’t pretty, but I can still take pride in 93 – 83 victory, especially in the dancing after the critical errors. We would later talk about this game among other things in the restaurant after Swiss, taking further interest in the would haves and could haves. Which further cemented Matt as a really cool guy considering how he downplayed the elephant of the room (Vonreg living) out of politeness. But now, it’s time for Round 4!
Round 4: Bryan
GALACTIC EMPIRE (200)
Darth Vader TIE/D Defender (112)
Academy Pilot TIE/ln Fighter (22)
Academy Pilot TIE/ln Fighter (22)
Academy Pilot TIE/ln Fighter (22)
Academy Pilot TIE/ln Fighter (22)
Back when he lived in Washington State, I knew that Bryan was a menace. I think I recall seeing his name rather high in Meta-Wing entries back in the 1st edition days of the game as well as 2nd edition. It was good socializing with him during attendance prior to Round 1 when we checked the legality of our lists and damage decks, when we talked about how good it was to be back on the physical table for a long event again. In his case, he didn’t really get into online play, quite understandably, since it just isn’t the full experience, even if the strategy and gameplay are the same. Although I actively conversed, throughout this Round 0 interaction, I kept thinking how much I didn’t want to face this list. Now I have to think about how to fight the list.
One thing I do know about this list that sports Vader Defender along with a final salvo of 11 red dice: Vonreg doesn’t want to face the TIEs. Not even with his Proton Rockets, which are actually best used on Vader. Not even Kylo wants to face these TIEs. As with cheap 3 agility ships, if they roll bad and die, they die along with their minimal cost. But if they roll hot and live, that’s a lot of material living on the board. And even if they roll to be defensively average, the fact that the health is split between 4 ships that can take their turns trying to block make them something you can’t just ignore, fly past, or try to blast. Although winning a joust on them isn’t at all unlikely for a great many lists provided the right approach and tech, these TIEs don’t constitute even half of the threat. They are but merely a distraction/punishing utility.
So the first order of business is to separate the TIEs from Vader before we can talk about ionizing or blocking Vader while I’m at full strength. Sure, there’s the temptation to jump on him ASAP before I start losing stuff, but that isn’t going to work with the TIEs. Fortunately, there was a mishap with the obstacle so one’s going to be taking some automatic damage. More importantly, they’re trying to establish center control. Perhaps they can be lured into the bomb since they’re already somewhat drawn out to the position they want to help Vader.
Not revealing too much, Kylo holds back with a decloak. Is he engaging? Why is he hanging around the TIEs? He’s going to get caught! The TIEs widen their arc to accost a ship that just threw away its absurdly defensive token presumably to arm the guns. But while Breach and Vonreg rush up to prep their encounter with Vader, Kylo just chills out of range. It might not be 5D Chess with Multiverse and Time Travel, but I’m rather proud of that bamboozle.
Now the TIEs all roll for the bomb. Disarm and shield losses are rather irrelevant, but the Range 2 blast radius that ionizes all but the one TIE out of range is massive. They now have no agency and that center rock is going to be troublesome.
The one TIE with a dial rolls in case Kylo is still charging in. But even if he ended up at Range one of where Kylo wanted to be, I wouldn’t care. The Silencer zooms up, grabs a lock to arm the Ion Torpedoes. Breach boosts and banks to weave wide and quickly to block some Full Throttle. Vonreg, with the bullseye assured should Vader get blocked, locks and focuses for Proton Rockets. The block is scored. An excellent turn from positioning and engagement engineering alone!
Vonreg launches the Proton Rocket, but uses only the lock to modify his dice, as he’s not particularly likely dying this turn. He’s able to pop two shields off Vader. In return, he loses one shield. Kylo’s Ion Torpedoes fully ionized Vader, exactly what I was hoping for. He’s vulnerable!
I was hoping to move first so that I could block Vader with Vonreg and then be in prime position to turn and then Daredevil to mess around with his K-Turn. When I move last so Vonreg’s just getting blocked instead of blocking, it throws a wrench into the plan of kicking Vader down until he’s dead, but it still is a good follow up turn to a fantastic turn. The TIEs are only now able to join the fight and at long range. Kylo is able to get an unretaliated shot at modless Vader at Range 1. Breach is primed to be annoying the next few turns. And if you think he’s in danger, well there’s some special sauce that can help him next turn :).
Vader’s halved, and that’s quite the bounty in points. He also has a Damaged Engine, which really fucks with his ship ability! Kylo loses a shield, but who cares. It was worth it.
Vonreg’s been out since early 2020. People might have been understood for downplaying his ability before he was released. But after a few weeks of him being out, I was downright shocked by how little people could appreciate how potent assigning a strain or deplete during the Systems Phase (heck, it influenced 3 of the 4 games of the first tournament I played with him). Not everything is going to do a blue manuever. Such as a K-turning Defender Vader. So when Vonreg depletes him, he’s a lot less scary for Breach. So although player order last turn meant that Vonreg–and thus Kylo, but in particular Vonreg–has to book it instead of getting cheeky, Breach can still carry on course. Saving his focus for defense he’s safe from being halved.
Kylo and Vonreg still run while Vader gets past the mess around him. Breach boosts and turns, grabbing a lock, and ultimately glad that Vader kept the pressure on the possibility of Vonreg coming back for round 2 instead of K-Turning. The torpedo doesn’t kill its target, but it forcefully maims it. In return, the Bomber gets halved.
Breach drops a Conner Net on the TIE K-turning, so that will keep his flank open later on. He yet again gains a lock with his ability and uses his ability now to reload the torpedoes. Vonreg, afraid of Vader closing the gap before he’s able to generate the knife-fight, continues to disengage towards the open spaces of the bottom of the board. Kylo, with a better in to the fight anyway, a lock to launch torpedoes should Vader face off at him, and force/focus for defense, sees the tokenless survivor of the torpedo and points his gun at it. Vader meant to K-Turn, but got self-blocked.
The TIE dies, and that’s the first target off the board!
Not wanting to engage where he doesn’t have to if Vader’s in the region, Kylo disengages, brining him closer to Vonreg. Breach on the other hand, is able to jump into close range for a 1v1 on a TIE, since the one he hit with the net last turn had to execute a 1-forward. The torpedo kills another one of Vader’s underlings.
I was hoping for some funny flanks with Kylo, but moving too cautiously against Vader, I didn’t dial the speed or direction needed to dance around the TIEs. As such, he’s stuck hiding out back at Range 3. Breach knows Vader is coming and focuses, hoping it doesn’t hurt too much. It does, actually, as Vader kills him. Even though overall the trade with Breach was on paper a loss, it was well worth it. For not only were 2 TIEs removed, but his dropping of the Electro-Proton Bomb and the subsequent swerving block into Vader were what scored the half points on the Dark Lord in the first place.
Here I was trying to get cheeky by heading towards an asteroid, ideally unexpected because you try to avoid those, and use Extreme Maneuvers to weave out of shots. It got called and Kylo’s now blocked at Range 1. And Vader is nearby.
Although the Ion Torpedo misses its mark, Kylo is still above half. I’d willingly take that outcome over landing a non-ionizing hit but getting halved. And given positioning, maybe even over landing an ionizing hit at the cost of getting halved.
Now able to bob and weave, Kylo does exactly that and braces against the K-Turn. But Vader turns in with the red hard-1! Seeing this development and moving last with Vonreg, I commit the TIE/BA entirely to the fight. If Vader kills Kylo here and still lives, it’s probably game over. And Vonreg has health and a lock on the Defender. Vader has to shoot him for the I6 status alone, especially since Kylo’s stressed and won’t be a threat to Vader next turn, even with Extreme Maneuvers.
Vader’s shot downtown kills Vonreg. The reciprocating shot misses. But fortunately, Kylo’s Range 1 shot is able to finish the game-long effort and remove the game’s most terrifying piece. Understandably, my opponent concedes given the time remaining, the fact that he only has 2 TIEs against an Extreme Maneuvers Kylo, and he wants to save his energy for Round 5. A 200 – 113 victory.
Round 5: Darth Picard
FIRST ORDER (200)
“Recoil” TIE/vn Silencer (59)
Predator + sensorscramblers
Kylo Ren TIE/vn Silencer (83)
Extreme Maneuvers + sensorscramblers
“Rush” TIE/vn Silencer (58)
Automated Target Priority
I actually like having the Kylo’s “joust”, the I6 and the future I6 “jousting”, and the 3rd ships charging up the middle. I’m not decloaking if I’m moving first and my plan is to weather shots, preferably outright block them, by the other Kylo while arming a lock. Then turn around and launch said torpedoes because Ion Torpedoes are a little too good for 4 points. Breach wants the middle anyways because it’s prime dropping zoning for the Electro-Proton Bomb and keeping the David’s ships either on the run or separated. And Vonreg in particular likes ships being separated when he knife-fights. He might rush fast when he deems fit against Rush, but only so he can get out of arc easily. As such, I welcome the three separate “jousts.”
I don’t know how fast Recoil is going, but I’m assuming pretty fast, so I dial the 4-forward on top of the boost. My ship is cheaper, rolls more dice at Range 1, and can drop a net to complicate things. Well, it looks like there’s fighting over there. Kylo locks, repositions, and blocks the opposing Kylo. Decloaking might have helped Dave if he were able to get a shot, but given the fact that I could block the engagement and was now free to lock the decloaked Kylo, it was paradoxically the wrong decision at this range. Rush and Vonreg hold back, although the range is now such that I can safely dial the 5-forward next turn, especially given Recoil’s positioning with the asteroid and such.
The torpedo launches and natties a full string into the blanking Recoil, with the inflicted crit being a Console Fire. Said fire kills him, effectively one-shotting the Silencer, but in return he natties hot fire into blanking Breach, who lives on 1HP with Structural Damage. In the hilarious exchange of ships that really want to kill but don’t want to live, even if Breach died there, I would have traded up. But since he’s alive, it’s time for the Electro-Proton Bomb.
The bomb effectively makes it impossible for Rush to think about chasing Breach unless he wants to eat an early Proton Rocket and getting ionized when he starts being an I6. Again, I’m moving first, but since I decloaked forward, turned 2 starboard, and double repositioned with Extreme Maneuvers, it’s the other Kylo that has to be very careful to not get shot. As such, he continues disengaging and hopes to regroup with Rush at a later point. This purhcases both my aces time to start pursuing, grants them further safety with the Electro-Proton Bomb and its Range 2 bubble, and offers Breach the opportunity to reload the Advanced Proton Torpedoes.
Breach turns and reloads, hoping to time his reentry in the midfield with Vonreg’s cutting through the bottom asteroids. My Kylo hids behind the rock and widens his arc. Thanks to the positioning of that rock, the other Kylo is caught in arc. The torpedo ionizes him. My Kylo is shown the Dark Side in response, and I thoroughly respect that. The ability has a lot of value particularly against named shielded pilots. My Kylo loses a shield IIRC, but the Dark Side is not inflicted.
My Swolencer is hypothetically safe to engage with the Smolencer, but I decline going after the shot. After the positioning shenanigans, I’d be exposed to Rush and have my options limited by the asteroid. And if the other Kylo moves last, that wouldn’t be particularly fun with him having Extreme Maneuvers and all. And thus I hope I’m convincingly faking an engaging maneuver while planning to zoom off to the bottom.
I can’t say no to a fully modded Proton Rocket. Even if it means Rush is upgraded to initiative 6 and capable of killing Breach before the second torpedo, I can’t turn down this shot. Especially when Rush can’t even use the new I6 status to punish either of my aces due to his current positioning. Breach had already done his work. And thus, I halved Rush, which I believe is the correct decision.
No longer threatened by Rush, my Kylo comes in with a lock on his doppelganger. Breach functions as bait while Vonreg continues to march in. Breach dies, but so does underrolling Rush at Range 1. The Swolencer again ionizes the Smolencer, who in turn deactivates one of Vonreg’s shields.
Knowing exactly where Dave’s remaining ship is heading, I K-turn my Vonreg and push forward my Kylo. The other Kylo isn’t long for the world now.
Even moving after my Kylo, there isn’t much that Darth Picard can do here. And thus the game concludes as a 200 – 52 victory.
End of Swiss:
Our love was so strong
Let’s do it all again and make new scars
We’ll fly into the night like shooting stars
Faster, go faster so we can finally breathe
Turn up the stereo and let us all sing
Our favorite songs, the ones that keep reminding us
That we were the kids of the summer
What a Swiss run! True, I’ve had a more impressive Swiss run in the past, going 6-0 in the first day of the Tri-city Tournament. So 5-0 isn’t as flashy, but undefeated and 2nd overall in Swiss is still really good! The exhilaration of winning 5+ games hasn’t been lost on me the second time around. In fact, it might have been amplified by the in-person setting.
Now’s a good time if any to talk about the event run as a whole. Hangar 19 has always been really good at organizing events to run smoothly. The prize support, as per their norm, was both generous and of high quality, ranging from custom deck holders to acrylic tokens to World’s pilot cards. If there’s a Crossroads Classic 6, even if it turns out to be 2.5, I’ll drop by to play in the side events for the experience. I’m sure there’d be a 2.0 side event given that the number and diversity of side events in the past has always been large, including Hunger Games (fan-made free-for-all before FFG unveiled Aces High), Aces High, Epic, “2.0 ships only” (effectively Black Box). As those who partake in any of Dión’s tournaments might tell you, the best-run events are by players who know what players would like out of an event. The amount of care and dedication is much appreciated.
As per tradition, following Swiss, a decently-sized group went for dinner. I haven’t always partaken in this post-Swiss ritual of X-Wing given times when I wanted to get over with a drive or if I were particularly tired from the day, but it is something that I have enjoyed as part of the overall tournament experience and missed during the days of exclusively online play. In the restaurant, Matt and I worked out that we played before in that aforementioned Fort Wayne Store Championship, as well as started discussing strategies and approaches for potential Top 16 games (we didn’t know if there’d be a play-in or not and who was dropping or not). It was good to socialize for a good portion of time, with most of the conversations among the group not even grounded in X-Wing or even Star Wars.
I know I’ve criticized the community for being self-congratulatory to the the point of embarrassment over how wholesome it is. And I hate stumbling into being correct due to the exorbitant amount of vitriol, bad faith/fallacious/misrepresentative arguments, conflation of criticism with personal attacks, and expressions of seething resentment for enjoying a version of the game they prefer incessantly hurled across the aisle by strangers on the internet after the edition split. It’s no wonder that in addition to *gestures vaguely at everything* everything else, the 2.0 Legacy movement is still in the stage of recovery before building events larger than the monthly leagues and that 2.5 is still recovering from losing just so much of the player base to disinterest (don’t check the current Galaxies registration numbers. I want Dión to succeed after all the innumerable and invaluable work he has done for the game, even though he’s moved on to 2.5 and I haven’t. I hope that he ultimately gets the numbers he’s looking for. He’s the least deserving victim of the needless “generic tabletop wargaming-ification” of the game).
All of this being said, there is still wholesomeness to take enjoyment of, particularly when actually meeting the people is involved and not shrieking on the internet. There was the aforementioned dinner where we hung out and had a good time. There was meeting up with both a local as well as people I’ve seen only at larger events or interacted with online prior. The time between rounds (when not recovering from a tight game) was spent socializing in an atmosphere so excited about the game being played and what initially appeared to be hitting the ground running and so strongly after lockdown. The unique game continued to prove itself a powerful tool for meeting friends of overlapping interests, yet unlikely to have bumped into had it not been for said game. It also proved itself to be a fantastic organization tool for fundraising through directives such as (organized by a local to where I grew up) the Campaign Against Cancer or the Lima Open and its charitable efforts for Perú. Heck, if we want to get properly self-congratulatory, a guy impressively managed to get his SUV propped on top of the only snowpile in the parking lot, so the store owner and bunch of us players worked to free it on the morning of the cut. The overall point is that there are aspects to rightfully be happy with the community and to identify the wholesomeness now formerly associated with it. That stuff had earned it, and the overall reputation assigned to the X-Wing community without further elaboration on that had in contrast completely fallen apart. It is a good place to return and choose to remember things as here at the fragmentation of the playerbase. A happy memory, like this final large IRL event.
Top 16: Gregory
GALACTIC REPUBLIC (200)
“Warthog” LAAT/i Gunship (56)
Clone Commander Cody
Jedi Knight Delta-7 Aethersprite (50)
Delta-7B
Jedi Knight Delta-7 Aethersprite (50)
Delta-7B
104th Battalion Pilot ARC-170 Starfighter (44)
R4-P Astromech
I might have thought it irksome that a domestic dispute broke out in a hotel party the floor beneath me shortly after midnight. But lamentably, Gregory was actually not only on the same floor of that hotel as the disruption that resulted in the authorities showing up. He was actually in the adjacent room. Oof.
What am I hoping to do with this opening? Well, Vonreg not even getting remotely caught, for starters. Thanks to the obstacle placement, that’s not going to happen. Obstacle placement also currently makes it unlikely that Breach is going to get caught. Kylo thus might be the final target, but I’m not going to commit on a particular front quite yet.
Deciding to get cheeky with Kylo, I decloak with him to fake the engagement. In reality, the decloak is to power the 5-forward that pushes me further out of any potential engagement and to get the flank going. It fortunately isn’t blocked and away he zips. Breach hides behind an obstacle while locking Warthog. He shouldn’t get hurt badly and that bomb should give the LAAT caution. Vonreg meanwhile turns in to start chipping away.
Warthog pumps the brakes, although after the game, Gregory stated that he should have turned starboard with him. I agree with that assessment. But it is what it is, and strained by Vonreg’s ability, the LAAT has to contend with 2 double-modded 5-dice attacks, the latter of which bearing a crit mechanic. The squad buff piece is eviscerated. Kylo also gets sniped through an asteroid for some unlucky damage, but that’s all fine considering how well the turn went thus far.
One of the Jedi turns in to where Vonreg will be caught, so I just token up offensively and have Kylo squeeze in to do the same, there might be a chance to save the TIE/BA against the forceless but focused Jedi. Another Jedi catches Breach at Range 1, but there’s the Conner Net to help out.
The aces are able to halve Yellow while each dodges their respective incoming attack. Breach loses his shields, but he’s still more than merely functional.
The ARC lands on the asteroid, which chucks some damage at him, but achieves 2 things. Firstly, Kylo’s 2-bank is blocked. Secondly, Kylo in Vonreg’s way doesn’t offer the latter the space to knife-fight the Jedi he planned on killing. I’m not sure why I strained for the lock on Yellow when I decided to focus in place to shoot at the ARC, but I think it was because I guessed that I didn’t have the space to roll starboard. Or maybe it was flirting with the idea of sparing Kylo getting shot by offering a softer target with the added psychological bait of it being something that had dodged an earlier similar shot. At any rate, Vonreg is able to put the hurt into the ARC, but Yellow is only able to pop a shield off Vonreg. Not the best positioning by a longshot, but I wasn’t considering being surprised with quite the counter-intuitive block by the ARC.
As mentioned, the 2-bank portside by Kylo should have cleared his stress. But the token wasn’t removed. So when I dialed the 3-turn, my opponent reminded me that I couldn’t perform any actions, and thus no reposition shenanigans, as a result of the stress next to Kylo. There was no Malice, as it was purely accidental and upon review of this, clearly the result of some sloppy token management in junction with forgetting to clear it (even if it is a must trigger) upon my request. Again, keep in mind that he was the very room adjacent to the nastiness that was going on in the hotel, so he’s running low on sleep. At any rate, Kylo’s eating a Range 2 shot. Fortunately, he dodges.
Breach was hoping to get into Range 1 for another Advanced Proton Torpedo, but is blocked where he gets halved. Kylo and Vonreg, however, tear apart what’s left of the ARC.
Hoping to score some blocks, I boost in the System Phase. It doesn’t block, but as originally planned, the Segnor’s Loop overlaps a ship, thereby giving Breach the opportunity to lock, and parks just at Range 1 of it. The Advanced Proton Torpedo might have been overkill, but it was a really neat move. Kylo and Vonreg meanwhile range dodge until they’re good to reengage.
There isn’t much the one Jedi Knight can do in a 1v3.
Especially when his K-turn just barely puts him onto a debris cloud and thus unable to shoot.
Or when he’s ionized off the cloud to land me the 200 – 26 victory.
Top 8: Interceptor
GALACTIC REPUBLIC (200)
Anakin Skywalker Eta-2 Actis (58)
Extreme Maneuvers + Predator
Obi-Wan Kenobi Eta-2 Actis (50)
Predator
Shaak Ti Eta-2 Actis (45)
Predator
Dineé Ellberger Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter (47)
Passive Sensors + R2-C4 + Ion Torpedoes
ETA’s can tank, in particular with Shaak Ti. But they can also outright die despite Shaak Ti. Hoping to avoid the former and not rely on similar but opposing variance to achieve the latter, I need to get Kylo’s Ion Torpedoes off to power through all the green dice. And if I have an ETA in a bad spot, maybe Breach can dunk on it for the kill. Vonreg, while having the power to weave and to launch Proton Rockets, feels particularly vulnerable as a ship that bleeds far easier than an ETA.
My first few turns are spent advancing Vonreg up the flank and hopefully baiting Anakin with Kylo. I’m not sure if the bait’s going to work entirely, given that Paul has said that the only other time he faced the Electro-Proton Bomb it was by Chrispy himself, and that he’s since learned his lesson. But my goal here isn’t necessarily to bait Jedi into a bomb. Just to bait them away from the very vulnerable Vonreg.
I know some might point out that there’s always the option to decloak and lock to arm a torpedo. But there’s also the possibility of a very quick Anakin to sidestep that and arc-dodge, potentially even at Range 1. Or even just stay in arc with a stack of evades, not care, and remove the lock at Range 1. I’m not going to have Kylo bleed to Anakin for nothing.
I drop the bomb, but I think Paul knows what’s going on. Anakin readjusts his trajectory to point towards Breach. He’s no longer after Kylo. Breach is safe from the other Jedi, but they’re picking up the pace so as to not be threatened too much by the bomb. Dineé turns and uses Passive Sensors to assumedly lock Vonreg. Vonreg lands at Range 2 with her in bullseye.
I have two choices here. Either I arm the Proton Rocket and trade shots against the Ion Torpedo, or I disengage. Disengaging doesn’t seem all that great given that I’d be sandwiched between the N-1 and the Jedi immediately the next turn. There would be a lot of options for blocking either the subsequent disengagement route or to outright pour a bunch of dice into Vonreg. I don’t fancy that and want to have the Proton Rockets count for something. Besides, if I can get Dineé to spend her evade, R2-C4 won’t be as threatening on the torpedo. And maybe I can push a crit into the hull. And thus, I shoot.
Vonreg generates his 5 results guaranteed to put the crit into the hull, but the N-1 defensively natties, thus preserving the evade token. The crit was also a non-factor, a Console Fire IIRC that didn’t trigger. The returning torpedo ionizes Vonreg. Meanwhile, Anakin starts to whittle down Breach.
I didn’t take many screenshots of this game. I had assumed that I’d just use screenshots of Gold Squadron’s Twitch stream when writing this bat rep. But after the edition change, and realizing that I wouldn’t be enjoying their content, I canceled my Twitch sub to them. Don’t at me, I just believe that if a producer doesn’t produce content that catches your interest anymore, you aren’t obliged to engage with said content. Even if said producer did so much for the game way back when. Twitch replays were the reason for subbing, and I did study the game on the stream replay to see where I went wrong and how Interceptor outplayed me. But I have no access to the game recording now, especially since it appears that none of the games will be uploaded to Youtube. Good thing I took copious notes, if not for procrastinating on putting out a batrep considering how the loss of IRL X-Wing outside enjoyable pickup games stings!
So what happened the following round? Kylo decloaked and swooped in to lock Shaak Ti. Breach positions behind Dineé, who repairs her Console Fire. Vonreg is blocked into said N-1. Shaak positions to catch Vonreg in her bullseye while Obi boosts into a Conner Net to help focus fire. Vonreg dies and Anakin continues to eat at Breach. Kylo is able to ionize Shaak Ti.
Breach positions to end up Range 1 of Shaak Ti. Sure, Kylo could potentially ionize her off the board, but Breach already got a lock on her with the maneuvering ability earlier in the game. Double mods to guarantee the kill, or at least a focus to not get killed by Anakin, are good. Kylo might be tempted to ionize Obi-Wan if not Shaak, but the correct decision is to weave around Dineé and kill her. If left unchallenged, she’d Talon Roll and launch a torpedo, ending the game.
Anakin drops Breach to 1HP, but he’s still alive, albeit with a Weapons Failure. Kylo finishes off Dineé. Even with the Weapons Failure, Breach has a very good chance of killing the 2-health Shaak with the Advanced Proton Torpedoes. But there was a reroll of a blank into a blank. And Shaak nattied. So no damage was landed.
Inevitably, Breach died. And as the only ship against 3 that are still able to stack up on evades, Kylo’s not going to score any more damage. After he is halved with a Panicked Pilot, I congratulated Paul for achieving the Top 4, thanked him for the good game, and resigned to a 47 – 200 defeat.
So what should I have done differently? I think the cause of my fall in part stems from the positioning of the asteroids. They’re too far over in my end of the field and I should have done a better job in fighting to get a good cluster in Paul’s. That would not only limit, if but a little more, the Jedi’s options and perhaps strengthen the threat of the Electro-Proton Bomb. As it was, once Anakin was warded off Kylo, the latter had to navigate around so much of the field that he didn’t have many choices in terms of the flank’s speed, direction, and target choice. Again, well played to Paul! He sniffed out the Kylo bait and left it for more productive uses of Anakin’s time. That Weapons Failure from the hand of Anakin did play a part in saving Shaak Ti.
What about Vonreg? Was he wrong to launch the Proton Rocket? Maybe if I don’t have the Electro-Proton Bomb timed and positioned to give him better protection instead of Kylo, the cloaked ship running around. Perhaps it was ultimately just a bad flank since there weren’t good options to getting out of it. True, there is a universe where Vonreg blasts Dineé and scurries off while Breach gets to kill Shaak. But it’d be a bit rich to talk about variance considering the dice luck in particular against Matt during Swiss. That and I was certain even immediately following the match that the outcome was based almost exclusively on the decisions of the players.
At any rate, it was quite certainly a good game. And like the other time I went undefeated in Swiss in a 5+ round tournament, I didn’t lose the immediate round of cut! True, I might drop from 2nd to Top 8 as a result of the cut, but as a result of the cut, I’d be highest-placing First Order. As well as the last Kylo on a Gold Squadron 2nd edition (ish) stream.
Concluding thoughts:
Naturally, I’d be inclined to compare the results from the last time I performed well at the Crossroads Classic, that being my Top 4 finish in my first 2.0 tournament. Despite a lesser outcome, I actually take pride more in this run than in that 2018 run. Instead of taking advantage of people sleeping on how good a Lone Wolf Soontir + Juke Rexler + Juke Whisper is at just eviscerating things in a world mostly absent of force and shared defensive mods, I played a list that focused on playing the position game. Instead of submarining, I played through a gauntlet of thoroughly competent players. That and I ultimately ended up with the same number of wins, but 2 fewer losses. Heck, even with the score of my elimination on stream was worse than 2018’s, I take far more pride in that game than in the earlier one. It was quite a good run and quite the way to close IRL X-Wing for myself, or until the Legacy scene picks up some steam at least.
As I transitioned like others from 1.0, the excitement of the rebalancing and polishing of 2.0 started primarily for me on Vassal and kicked off its first tournament in this building and event. And now it continues on Tabletop Simulator, closing its set of IRL tournaments in this building and event. The game that entered the pandemic had radically changed leaving lockdown, not just from how online games are played and its reach, but also in the game itself, the remaining communities, and the content creation surrounding it. It’s strangely and coincidentally poetic, and I don’t know exactly what to make of it. Or the fact that I was the last Kylo on a major 2.0 stream. You want art forms to continue well beyond your retirement from them and witness people build off you and excel at them. It feels sad and wrong when you are the last representative of that dying art. And the irony is that it wasn’t naturally dying. The event was 91 players, the strongest this particular event ever was and ironically larger than the UK Games Expo X-Wing event, which since switching to 2.5, is literally 100 players fewer than the last event in 2019. The game that sturdily survived through a global pandemic was slain in its sleep. Again, don’t check Galaxies registration numbers unless you want to be saddened or plan on actually attending.
True, the 2.0 Legacy project continues. Its steadily growing ranks, now well over 700, are inspiring and perhaps enough to hope for in-person 2.0 once things settle down and the rebuilding project further advances. Nick from 312 Squadron streams some 2.0 and is starting a league, Greg from Nickel City X-Wing runs a Legacy 2.0 night, and Nobbie of the Winged Gundarks has plans for a large online tournament in winter I think. There is an organization to it more than I could dream of, with its own points council and preparations for organized play of sorts. And there’s a monthly league that I play in where you can get some games in against others. The game has survived! But as a shade of its former self, for X-Wing in general seems to be crumbling in engagement. I’m grateful for the continuation of Legacy and take joy in the continuation of the game, but I’m still saddened by the loss of its former status.
All the same, it was amazing to take part in this special game. The experiences were well worth the involvement. I’ll forever remember many events with great fondness. Here’s hoping to a future rebuilt!
I also now stream TTS X-Wing, hoping to get the momentum going for someone available at that time to take the mantle: https://www.twitch.tv/hoarderofgarlicbread
Screaming into the Void 